Sam's Santa Saga

We went to a Christmas party at my mom's ward, and Sam got to meet Santa! This is his second year sitting on Santa's lap, and I don't think it was as fun for him this year as it was last year. Last year, he giggled and laughed, and we were able to take some really cute pictures. This year...I think Sam was wondering why I put him on the lap of a large and hairy stranger. Instead of the magical, happy memory we were hoping to create, it was pretty traumatic. Lots of screaming and crying.

Christmas Party!

We are in Spokane visiting with my family! It has been so fun spending time with all of Sam's little cousins! We got everyone together and had a little Christmas party for all of the kids (Thanks for hosting it Melissa, you did a wonderful job!). Christmas PJ's, gingerbread houses, and peppermint milkshakes! It was a lot of fun! On the bottom row: Sam, Teagan, Kobe, and Abby - on the top row: Hayden, Dylan, and Molly.

I've loved being in Spokane...even though the weather has been frightful! Sam didn't know what to do with a 75 degree drop in temperature overnight! Nor did I, for that matter! Unfortunately, our trip started out on a sad note when we had a football game party at Aunt Shelly's for the big Florida/Alabama game last week...but I suppose for us Florida fans, the details are better left unsaid... Despite the setback, we had a wonderful time - good food and good company!

Thanksgiving

What an adventure this Thanksgiving has been! We have had so much fun with Kimball and Shelley visiting with us! We spent three days at Disney World, and then went to the Florida vs Florida State game on Saturday. Sam wasn't able to nap much at all, but he did really well all week! He takes the cake on being super busy and active, but for as busy as he is, he is also very happy and loving. He was hugging every little kid he could find at Disney! (Whether they wanted one or not, they got a Sam hug!) Disney was a lot of fun. Aaron really likes to do as much that is humanly possible at theme parks, so we were there until 9pm at night every night! Luckily, on Thanksgiving, we were able to find a Cracker Barrel that was still open, so we were able to still have a Thanksgiving dinner!

The game on Saturday was A LOT of fun! A lot of people laugh when they see us wearing Florida gear when we come visit, but here, you get laughed at if you are not wearing orange and blue! Floridians are crazy about their Gator Football! During the game, the jumbotron screen showed Sam 4 TIMES! After the game, we were walking out and people that were in a section above us were yelling at us to get our attention, and asked if they could take a picture of our little guy, since he was practically famous! Then, more and more people would walk by us and say, "Hey! Its the boy that was always on the jumbtron! We saw you!" We thought it was so strange that all of those people remembered Sam! After we had left the game, I thought that no one else would recognize him, but I was wrong! Later that night we went to the store, and a lady in the produce section said that she saw him at the game on the jumbotron! I think its time I get this boy an agent! :)

Sam, Aaron and Bethany at the game

At football games, usually someone in the crowd will bring a beach ball and toss it around the stadium. As soon as Sam saw it bouncing around the crowd, he got so excited and said "ball!" over and over, so we knew it wouldn't be long until he got the ball :) Here is Aaron, Sam and his game ball, and Shelley and Bethany

Here is a picture of all of us at the game, Kimball, Sam, Aaron, Shelley, and Bethany

Tim Tebow running a touchdown

We had a great Thanksgiving, and are so glad that Kimball and Shelley came to visit!

Puddles and Rain Boots

Sam LOVES playing in puddles. We took him for a walk this afternoon, and he had a blast splashing around in his dinosaur rain boots.



We had a busy weekend! Aaron took Sam to his first Florida basketball game on Friday night, and Sam had so much fun! He danced and clapped and said "ball" all night! On Saturday, we all went to the Florida football game. Sam did really well, clapping along with everyone else. Of course, Florida creamed the competition. Sam is learning new things all the time. I've been teaching him to say nose, and when I ask him where his nose is, he takes both index fingers and sticks them up his nose, and proudly says, 'nose!' It was pretty funny, until he started showing ME where MY nose was :) In other news, Aaron is doing really well in his rotations. He is given an exam after every rotation, and he scored really high on his test on Friday. We are so proud of him and how well he is doing in school! With the upcoming holidays, we are so looking forward to seeing all of our family!

We entered Sam into the Gap-Disney baby photo contest. To vote for him, go to the following link:
http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/happyclamsam5/

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Thanks for voting!

Trip to Utah

We came out to Utah for the weekend to attend Aaron's Grandfather's funeral. It has been really nice to visit with his family and to have Sam play with his cousins. Here is a family picture of us at the funeral - Thanks for the picture, Kimball!
We attempted to get a picture with all four grandchildren with their grandparents, it is pretty tricky trying to get four wiggly boys to sit still for a picture! From left to right, Sam (13 months), Trent (5 years old), Cannon (3 months), and Owen (2 years old) with their grandparents, Kimball and Shelley.

We took the boys to Gardner Village to ride the ponies and visit the petting zoo. They had a blast! Here is my sweet baby with a sweet baby lamb.

Here are all four boys dressed in their Halloween costumes. Sam is a pirate, Owen is a monkey, Trent is a race car driver, and Cannon is a giraffe. Cute!

Sam the Man

Sam is such a cutie! He is always so much fun, and has endless energy! We took some fun pictures with my friend Gretchen and her girls in Micanopy. He is growing up so fast! He has officially transitioned from my baby to my toddler!

Pumpkin Patch!

We took Sam to a pumpkin patch with our friends Heath, Gretchen, and their cute little girls. It was a blast! Sam loved it! Sam recently mastered the word "ball" and uses it when referring to anything that is round - so, he of course thought he was in a room full of orange balls! He kept saying ball over and over as he pointed to every pumpkin he saw. It was pretty cute :) Then he started picking up the little pumpkins and throwing them on the ground, fully expecting them to bounce like a real ball. That was when we realized that we had to clear up the confusion, and explain the difference between a pumpkin and ball, or else we'd be paying for lots of smashed pumpkins!

I knew that I wanted to get a nice family picture at the pumpkin patch, and when I think about pumpkin patches, I think of the fall, the crisp air, and leaves turning colors. But its a different story here in Florida. It was 92 degrees and SUPER humid, but I didn't feel like it was a real pumpkin patch experience if we weren't dressed like it was cold outside...so we faked it and wore long pants and somewhat long sleeved shirts. I just wanted to feel like it really was the fall, despite the super hot weather outside. So we were sweating like crazy, but we have a great pumpkin patch family picture!

We are all doing great! Sam's measles are long gone, and he is as happy as a clam! Hope all is well with everyone!

Game Day in the Rasmussen Home

Almost every Saturday is Game Day in the Rasmussen home! We love our Florida Gators! Aaron and Sam dress from head to toe in Gator Gear on Game days, and we pull out the Florida camping chairs. Sam and Aaron having matching Gator chairs to watch the game in, and Sam actually sits still to watch the game! They are pretty cute boys! As you can tell from the third picture, Sam makes it known when he disagrees with a referee!

These pictures are from our trip to Disney and Universal. Sam loved the Cat in the Hat! He is also quite the fan of Mickey Mouse :)

Mild Case of the Measles!

Hello! It has been awhile since we've updated our blog - our computer broke! We finally got a new one, so we will be posting pictures shortly. In other news...our poor little Sam has the measles! I started noticing spots a couple days ago, and they started to spread all over his body! So I took him to the doctor yesterday [ coincidentally, he picked out 101 dalmations to read while we were in the waiting room...I think he saw some similiarities between him and the puppies :) ] Anyway, the doctor said it was most likely the measles. Oddly enough, Sam was vaccinated for it a week or two ago, and so the Doc said that since it was so recent, he was still vulnerable to it, but protected enough that it wouldn't be painful for him. So, in the meantime, he said to keep him out of public - which, to be honest, won't be hard for me to do since my child is covered head to toe in red spots!
Last weekend we went to Disney, and we had a blast! Sam's favorite rides were "It's a small world" and "Pirates of the Carribean." My favorite was the "Haunted Mansion" but I think Sam found it boring because he fell asleep in the middle of the ride! Aaron loved Winnie the Pooh when he was a kid, so he made sure we took Sam on the Winnie the Pooh ride. Afterwards, as we were walking through the gift shop, Sam went straight to the huge stuffed Winnie the Pooh bears, and grabbed one under each arm. They were bigger than him, so they were both dragging on the ground, but that didn't matter to Sam, he made a beeline out of the store and ran down the road! People that were standing by yelled "Run, kid! Run!" It was hilarious! After we chased him down and returned to the gift shop to give back the stuffed bears, he would only let go of one, he had a death grip on the other one that no one could break, so we ended up buying him his Winnie the Pooh bear.
Sam is one wonderful little kid. We are crazy about him! I think he is going to be an early talker, he is constantly jabbering away. The word he is currently working on is ball. He says 'bah' when he points to a ball. Its a work in progress...someday he'll attach the "L' sound to it! He has turned into a little bird when it comes to eating, most days I can't get him to eat hardly anything! At his doctor's visit, he was measured to be in the 80th percentile for height, but only the 39th percentile for weight. I know its normal for kids to not eat much sometimes, but i would feel better about it if he had some extra cushion. Lately, the only way I can get him to eat is if I give him a standing ovation after every bite! If cheering him on is what it takes for him to get some meat on his bones, then so be it!
I promise we will post some pictures soon!

Sam loves playing with his cousin Kobe - and we love matching their outfits! They have been having a blast together!


Sam constantly runs everywhere, and so we are working on teaching him to hold our hands before he runs off. Its a work in progress :)

My sister Brittany took this picture, I love it!

This was funny - we took the kids to LegoLand at Downtown Disney, and Sam quickly found a box of Legos that he wanted. He took it off the shelf and pushed it around the store until he found the stroller, and then he tried to push it up onto the stroller. I told him that we have to buy it first, and, I'm not kidding, he pushed it right to the check out stand without any directions from me! He is one smart cookie! Or he just knows what he wants!

One Year Old!

Sam turned ONE on September 5th! I can't believe how fast time has gone by! He had a super fun birthday party with his friends at a splash park, played in the water, and ate too much frosting. :) Our family is in town, too - so he has had a blast with his cousin Kobe!
Sam had tons of fun with his friends at the Splash Park, but this one of him and Kapri was too cute so I had to post it!

Daddy and Sam eating way too much!

Frosting overload! This picture was taken right before we sang Happy Birthday to him, and during the song, he threw up all of his frosting! It was pretty funny, but sad for his little tummy!

This is the birthday cake that I labored over extensively! It is a train cake, and Sam loved it!

Carrots

We went with my friend Gretchen and her two twin girls to a farm to feed the horses. The kids had a great time, and this time Sam did a lot better around the animals. We gave them each a carrot to feed the horses, but instead they thought it would be more fun to run around with their cool new toy!



Hayden, Sam, and Kapri




He's got the right idea...just the wrong animal :)



Sam had a great time playing with his two cute little friends!

Birthday Boy!

It was Aaron's birthday yesterday! He turned 28 years old! We celebrated by going down to Disney World - you get in for free on your birthday! We had a blast! Sam loved every second of it! When we met Mickey, Sam was so intrigued by him! He stared at him for a bit, and then timidly reached out and squeezed Mickey's nose! It was so cute, and then Mickey squeezed Sam's nose right back. Aaron's birthday celebration was a success!