Beautiful Morning

This morning was gorgeous outside, so we spent some time playing in the snow, throwing snowballs at Leroy and making mini snowmen.

The Artist

Samantha got a blank canvas, paint and paint brushes for Christmas from the Hodny family. She created this masterpiece on New Years Day (except I added the 'S').

Snohawk

Look Out Our Window

and this is what you will see staring back at you. Joe was sitting on the floor when he took this picture, so you don't get to experience the piercing stare of My Boy Leroy. He thinks that we have another dog that we keep secret from him and play with whenever he isn't around.

Now I Know Why They Call It UPPERCASE LIVING...

...because when you try to hang these things up, everything that you say is in UPPERCASE! I am aware that I should have probably asked another person to assist me with this big and awkward piece, but I thought "how hard could it really be? the instructions say '6 Simple Steps'." I felt like I was on Candid Camera. Anyway, this is the end result. I don't think it will be long before my bloom starts to wither. I suppose I should take that top arrow off the door!

Santa Claus!

Last Saturday we went to the Air Guard Kids Christmas Party, where Santa Claus was making a pre-Christmas appearance. He was flown in on one of the jets, and we were told that was because he couldn't risk injury to his reindeer before the Big Night. Sami had fun and sat so good with all of the other kids, watching Santa as he handed out 'sneak peek' early Christmas gifts.

Watching the clown do a little pre-show (sorry, no pictures of the clown).

The jet carrying Santa has landed!

Santa getting off the jet.

Working his way through the crowd of kids out of the hanger and over to the club where he will hand out gifts.

Santa Claus getting ready to hand out an early gift to each of the guard kids.

She was uneasy about getting too close to Santa, so she grabbed her presents and ran!

Still wanting to keep a safe distance from the big scary man in the red suit that's handing out gifts to all of the children, even when she's safe in Grandma Pam's arms.

Diva

This is my favorite picture of Samantha! It was taken August 24th with my cell phone after I had put my sunglasses on Sami and she was totally diggin' it. It was only two days ago that I finally put a little effort into figuring out how to get pictures from my phone to my computer so that I can share it. Too bad you can't see the pigtails she had in her hair that day!

Road Trip

As we do every year, we took a road trip to Kansas for Thanksgiving this year. The way there went okay. As well as it could go with a toddler, I suppose. This was taken on the way back, which was a little bit more challenging. At this point, she was humoring us with a fake smile. Really, it could have been a lot worse - she did very well for a two-year-old restrained in one seat and one position for almost the entire day.
We had lots of fun in Kansas. Filled up on turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, cranberries, sweet potato casserole and more. I always look forward to Thanksgiving - not so much for the traveling, but for the time we get to spend with my dad, Angela, Nick, Leah and the rest of our family. Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving as well.