4!

 Tomorrow Samuel will be officially a four year old.

Sam is a mama's boy through and through! We spend most days together playing outside, planting seeds in the garden, trips to the zoo, adventures to museums and fun movies. 

 Sam is a great student at school and his teacher told me that she is impressed with how nice he is to everyone. He can identify all of the letters, numbers, colors and shapes. I am so proud of him. He loves to learn and asks so many great questions. His curiosity keeps us very busy!

 Sam is so passionate about the things that he loves. Animals, super heroes, pretend, swimming, puzzles, his friends, family and his pets. We are lucky to have such a loving little boy in our family!

 Sam and Daddy love to wrestle, play hide and seek, watch funny animal videos on youtube and play games.

We couldn't be more amazed by our 4 year old! Matty and I are constantly talking about how well behaved and sweet he is for a kid his age. We are so excited to see where his life takes him, but are in no hurry to get there ;)

Super Sam's Birthday Party

This weekend we celebrated Sam turning 4 with an awesome super hero party. 

Sam picked 7 of his best friends to attend, and they all had a blast!

Every morning for the last 2 weeks, Sam has asked me "Is today my party day?"

This morning, he was so thrilled when the answer was, "Yes!"

 Sam has yet to have a birthday without a Simply Desserts Cake because in our opinion, their's is the ONLY cake.

Soooo good!

When the boys arrived we decorated Super Hero masks and snacked.

 Then we took some great pictures with our capes, masks and comic book props.

 Super Heroes!!!

 I loved making capes for all the boys and Sam picked out the colors for each of his friends.

 Sam was most excited about his presents, and luckily his friends knew him well enough to get him Action figures!

Next up, the pinata! Sam and I spent days making this so I was so happy when it worked out perfectly. 

 Ouch. Sam walked into the line of a swinging bat. "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!"

 I forgot rope so the Swiffer Sweeper held up the "bomb" for all the boys.

 It was quickly detonated ;)

Sam deserved a great party, and he enjoyed himself thoroughly! Thank you to all of his friends and family members for making yesterday such an AWESOME day!!!

The start of Spring

I apologize for the lack of posts, but the truth is, not a lot is going on. 

Most days are spent cleaning, running errands and getting things ready for a hopefully exciting summer. 

But, these memories are those of normal life. And I want to remember them no matter how unimportant. 

Sam and I. Sometimes he looks like me. A little. 

 Rain is expected in the NW during the spring. We have had plenty of it.

 I got to escape the weather last weekend and shoot my Cousin's wedding in Arizona. It was so fun to see family and get some sun. 

 Sam comes to Courtney's with me every Thursday for about an hour. These two are such a hoot. Court loves to teach him new signs and Sammy loves to play games. 

 My little brother joined my band! I am very excited, our first show together is tomorrow night. 

 Sam is still head over heels in love with Hippo, and I don't blame him. She is such a sweet little guinea pig!

 Sam and Brimley are BFF's. Seriously. They wrestle and play for hours every day. 

 Sammy loves to cook with Daddy. 

 Brisbane. She's starting to show signs of aging and its so sad! Luckily she still loves to cuddle :)

 Matching dimples! Gosh, they're cute!

 While the rain is tiring, it sure makes the sunny days more fun and we have had some wonderfully beautiful days. I can not wait for more consistent weather!

Pretty, pretty, Princess

Yesterday morning, our "clockwork kitty" wasn't at the door asking for food. This was very out of the ordinary for her, and I knew that something was wrong.  

I started to get ready for the day, expecting her to start crying for breakfast. When it didn't happen after a few hours, I walked outside to try and find her.

I stood at the side yard and called her name. Immediately I heard her cry out from under a tree. I climbed under to her, and noticed that she was too weak and in pain to move.

I checked her over, found no injuries and started to fear the worst. I packed her up and took her into the Emergency vet.

Right away the Doctor knew it was critical that we do something. We started with X-Rays that only showed that there was something "off" with her intestines. The Vet wanted to run more tests, but informed me that even after spending thousands to find out why my kitty was dying, she was still going to be dying.

I made the extremely hard decision, to put her down, and help her get out of her painful body. 

 Not knowing what was wrong was really hard, but by the time they brought her into the room to sit a while with me, she was too weak and sick to even lift her head. It was heartbreaking.

 She will be so missed. Although we cursed her every day for waking us up too early, scratching the carpet, peeing on the laundry or asking to go outside just as we got comfortable on the couch, we will miss her presence.

 She loved food. Mac and Cheese, chicken, french fries and mashed potatoes. She sat next to me at every meal waiting for a little scrap of food.

 She was such a lazy lady and had a few favorite spots in the house, most of them being over the heating vents.

 Princess loved being out in the yard but preferred to be indoors where it is warm and quiet.

 I hate that I had to make the decision, but I am thankful for the little memories I have of her. She had a great life, and lived 12 years with warm blankets, sunny spots, balls to chase and lots of attention.