Batman!

Merry Christmas!

I hope your Christmas morning was as lovely as ours. Bright and early, Sam sat straight up in his race-car bed (Yes, this was his 2nd night in his toddler bed! Merry Christmas to ME!) and shouted "I want to open Santa's presents!" Then he ran to our room, jumped on Aaron, and begged us to come downstairs to the tree. It is so fun to see Christmas through the eyes of a 2- year-old!

Here is our very first Christmas tree!

Recently, Sam has had a new fascination with Batman. We're not sure how he even knows who he is, but Sam is always talking about Batman. So, his sweet daddy picked up a Bat Cave for his adoring son - and Sam was thrilled!

This perfect little cape completed a wonderful Christmas morning.

We love our little superhero :)

Merry Christmas!

Cousins

We've been so lucky to have my sister Brittany, her husband Jeremy, and their cute kiddo, Kobe, visiting with us. Sam has LOVED having a friend to play with every day! Even though we've had some cold weather here, we've had so much fun! We took the kiddos to Disney where they met their hero, Buzz Lightyear. On warmer days, we went to the beach a few times and saw dolphins swimming close to the beach. We've had such a great time with family visiting, thank you for coming guys! We love you!

Soccer

We traveled to Utah to spend Thanksgiving with the Rasmussen's, and we had a wonderful time. Sam loved spending time with his grandparents, cousins, and aunts and uncles.

When we came back to Florida, Sam started playing on a soccer team for 2-4 year olds. He loves it! The coach separated him to practice with the 4 year olds, and I couldn't be more proud! :)

Last Saturday, the coach told me that Sam has athletic skills that can't be taught, that he is naturally athletic. Of course I smiled from ear to ear when he told me that! We love our little soccer stud!

Beach

This morning we went to the beach and had a blast. This weekend is the annual Sand Sculpture contest at our beach. It was so fun to see these people work on their amazing sand art!

After we walked down the beach, Sam was sad he didn't see any sharks, so we stopped by our favorite aquarium on our way home to check out some of Sam's favorite sharks.

Miami!

We spent the weekend in Miami and had a fantastic time! We've been planning this trip all year because the Blue Angels came for an air show over the weekend. While we were there, we visited the Art Deco district in Miami, South Beach, the Keys, and the Everglades. We had a great time!

Sam on some funky chairs by South Beach.

Cute boy! (But crazy hair day!)

This is a cool building in the Art Deco District. It was so fun to walk around this part of town!

Here are lots of pictures from the Blue Angels Air Show. Sam LOVED it! He is crazy about airplanes, so he was super excited all day. Here he is showing me his toy airplane :)

This last airplane picture is one airplane flying in tight swirls straight down while another one flies in circles around it. They did a LOT of daring stunts.

We also went to the Everglades and saw some gators. These particular gators will be sporting some sweet sunglasses thanks to yours truly. After I snapped this picture, my favorite pair of aviators fell right on them!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Get ready, we've got LOTS of pictures!

Our ward Trunk or Treat was last night, and our little Buzz Lightyear had a blast!

After a long night of saving planet Earth, Buzz took a break to refuel with his friend.

This was taken right after he saw a Frankenstein costume that was a little too scary for him. He started to sob and hopped into my arms. Poor little guy!

These are some Mummy cupcakes I made for the party.

This picture is a little random, but earlier in the day Aaron was installing some ceiling fans, and Sam kept climbing the ladder to "help" daddy fix it. He loves being daddy's little helper!

And last but not least is a picture from the pumpkin festival last weekend. I tried and tried to get some cute pictures of him posing by a pumpkin, but I think he was tired of taking pictures, and this is the best one I could get. I think it captured his emotions pretty well, don't you?

Happy Halloween!

Farm Animals

We visited a farm today and had fun feeding the animals. He is standing by a chicken coop in this photo, exclaiming "I like chicken!" (He was referring to his lunch)

Sam is such a happy and bright little boy. It is so much fun being his mom!

HOME SWEET HOME

Welcome to our home!

Many people have been asking to see pictures of our first home, so here they are!

This is the lovely lake view from our backyard. Sam loves to see the ducks and cranes that make their home here. (We are planning on putting up a fence soon)

This weekend Aaron went fishing with some friends, and he caught a flounder and a mackerel! We had a fish-fry yesterday, and Aaron made a delicious coconut batter for our fresh fish. YUM! Way to bring home the bacon, I mean fish, honey!

Birthday Extravaganza!

Our wonderful child turned two on September 5th! Happy birthday Sam! We love him and are so blessed to be his parents.

Sam loves every kind of sport under the sun, so I thought I'd try my hand at a sports themed cake. Ta-Dah!

Included are his favorite sports, with the top tier dedicated to his most favorite: golf. It is my first try at fondant, so if you squint your eyes when you look at it, it looks much better. :)

Sam was pretty excited about the real golf ball, he kept grabbing it off the tee - making it very difficult to get a picture with the ball and tee intact.

Birthday boy blowing out candle

Sam also really loves all kinds of boats: sailboats, pirate ships, etc. To celebrate his birthday, we took him on a boat out to a remote island. Several dolphins escorted us on our trip!

They liked to play in the wake.

We were so lucky to have this island all to ourselves most of the time we were there. It was a beautiful day at the beach!

We swam, snorkeled, and built sandcastles.

Perfection.

Happy Birthday Sam! We love you!