Halloween!!

Our first Halloween for true Trick-or-Treating! They got the hang of it pretty well and had candy for the first time. Sam definately prefers the chocolate and Dani liked the suckers. Then the Halloween fairy made the candy all disappear after an hour of playing with it?? Sam says, maybe it will be Halloween another day Mommy. Nope, I'm pretty sure it's only one day a year Sambo, sorry!

Dani enjoyed sharing a bite of each piece of candy with her brother. Taste this Sam. I believe she had about three suckers going at one time as well!

"I like fruit chews Mommy. Luke at school brings these for snack."

Here Dani is with two at once. She ended up choosing a multicolor one and actually stayed with it for 10 minutes until it was gone!

We managed to see all three sets of Grandparents on Halloween again this year! Thanks for everything!

Our Trip to Wild Dunes at Isle of Palms

Here's how we tooled around during our stay at Wild Dunes in Isle of Palms. Dani and Sam did most of the driving if you ask them. We went out several evenings and drove around on the golf course. They now want to drive mommy and daddy's cars back in Eville! It really is nice just hopping in the cart and going!

Here we are on the beach at the main Wild Dunes beach. Grandma Kathy got the kids floaties and they were wonderful!

Dani really didn't love the sand, but she got more and more used to it. If Dani got too much sand on her hands or in her toes she had to go rinse them off in the ocean. "It's dirty mommy I go wash it off." Sam LOVED the beach and they actually both had fun in the ocean and waves. Below is Sam on our first beach day-it was too cold to be in suits but he had a blast with the buckets and shovels. He kept carrying this bucket back to the ocean to get water!

Well, I had to put this one in because it was the kids first official dancing to a band. We were at the restaurant below eating dinner and Sam was all done and restless. I took him outside and we heard music coming from upstairs. We walked up the stairs and there was a rooftop bar with a one man band playing some pretty good music actually. Sam couldn't help himself and started dancing (i.e. jumping) to the music. He was getting a pretty good laugh from everyone that was up there so that fueled the fire! Next comes Dani in the picture and she wanted in the action as well.

Dani's cooling off with a drink poolside. She's wearing her headband to keep her earplugs in her ears! She did go under water several times while we were there and also really jumped into my arms in the pool!
Below are my superstars! The last day we were there we went swimming in the pool and then back up to the general store to eat lunch. After we finished, the kids were running around the open common area being cute of course. Around the corner comes a man with a BIG professional video camera. He and his entourage spy the kiddos and ask us if we mind if they film them for a promotional video for the resort. We agreed, and they started discussing amongst themselves where to shoot. One of the crew asked if they liked ice cream. (really, you have to ask that question?) I said yes and the lady said, "I'll go inside and see what kind they have." Since we had ice cream at the same place a few days earlier, I made them all laugh when I said, "Oh we know, they like the cookies and cream!"

They ended up shooting video of them eating their ice cream cones for at least 15 minutes! They were absolutely a mess and were diving into it. We only had one minor problem: the crew seated them on this brick wall, but the brick was hot on their legs. So Dani complained after five minutes and we put blankie down. Sam didn't really say anything until the very end, but when I go look at the pictures, he was slouching his back way down so he could lift his legs up and not burn them! His little legs had red spots that evening that were gone the next day, but I felt terrible! Poor guy! That ice cream was worth it though I guess!!

Here the kids are with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Steve. This is in Charleston outside the Aquarium. It was pretty nice there, but not the best I've been to. Dani did not like the scuba diver-we think it was because he had a microphone and you could hear him breathing, etc. Jim was holding her and he had to hightail it out of the room pretty quickly. Sam gave the scuba diver 5 at the window and was very intrigued by him.

January 2010

Ok, I'm catching up here! Blogging January in April! This was our first big snow of the season so we bundled up and got outside. Mostly Sam and Dani's favorite part was watching Daddy throw snowballs against the house! They also managed to throw a few themselves!! We only stayed out about 15 minutes because it was REALLY cold too!!

Below are my little Colts fans. We had a good year and only lost in the Superbowl. We trained the kiddos to say "Go Colts!" and it was adorable.

Sam just could not stay awake this evening-note Stinky Dog's tail in his mouth. I just love this picture of my big guy and little guy!

Here is Aunt Corrie reading to her favorite babies! She loves to read to them and they LOVE to sit with her. Dani and Corrie have a special relationship too-Dani somehow knows Aunt Corrie is special and adores her! She talks about her a lot when she's not there.

Ok, here are my little wrestlers! Dani usually starts it and the giggling ensues! This particular round began because Sam didn't want to hold Dani's hand.

We were sitting at breakfast one morning and Sam started doing his "scowl." So I had to grab the camera and snap it. I got a good one. He just started doing this look if he was a bit unhappy about something. Then he gets a few laughs out of it so he will keep doing it. So I snapped a pic of Dani too and I just LOVE this picture of her. What's interesting is that it almost doesn't even look like her. But it's her "sleepy" look. She wakes up in the morning and doesn't look like her normal self for a while. So I captured it!

Last but not least, this is a trip to Gattitown. Sam and Dani really like to go there and play the games. The cars are a favorite and the bowling is fun too! This was one of their very first visits.

Ok, I was working on calanders for Christmas gifts tonight and I found these pictures of my babies. I was a bit busy and didn't get to go through my pics for June, July, Aug or Sept. So I hadn't even seen these until tonight!! What a find-the look on Dani's face is so precious. She looks so old!! It makes me tear up even thinking about how big they are getting!

Our First Outer Banks Vacation

Here are Sam and Dani on the beach in front of our condo-it took them a bit to warm up to the beach. As we spent more and more time there they really started to enjoy it.

I LOVE this picture of my sweet Sam!

And LOVE this picture of my babe and my baby girl!

Sam and Dani were both hilarious when the waves came up to them and you lifted them up in the air to avoid getting soaked by the waves. At first, Dani just wouldn't even get her feet wet and was scared of the waves. Then, the first day we were there she just up and started walking back the way we came because she was done. She did NOT like the sand in her toes and wanted it wiped off as soon as possible that first day.

See ya later I'm walking back to the condo-seriously she was walking away from us and headed back up towards the path. We all were laughing so hard because she was DONE. I really do think it was the sand and she really wanted to get her feet cleaned off. The last day she was fine and had sand in her feet for hours without worrying about it. But that first day she did not know what was going on. She even talked about the sand in her toes for weeks after our vacation. We would say, remember Dani we went on an airplane to the beach. And she would point to her toes and say a sentence that I know was saying how she got sand in her toes!! My hilarious little girl!

Now I'm having fun in the waves!! It only took a day!

I don't know who had more fun-the kids or the grown ups!! Pop really liked taking the kids out on the beach.

Sam really liked the waves. Even on the first day he was actually running into them to get wet on purpose. Pop was really laughing at him! And Sam also really liked feeling the sand rush out from his feet as the wave went back into the ocean. Daddy was having fun lifting Sam up by one arm when the waves came!


Here we are playing with cousin Maddie on the couch-they look a little devious in this picture. They would never get into trouble-never!! Ha!

Reading with Aunt Lucy-somehow I never got a picture of Brian on this trip?!!

Here we are playing with our horse purses!

This is a picture from our jeep ride to go see the wild dune horses. Dani fell asleep in the car! Sam actually fell asleep shortly after this pic was taken and Mommy and Daddy had a fun jeep ride! It was a beautiful day. After going to the OBX four times, this was the first time I had ever seen the horses.

We had such a great trip-can't wait to go back in two years!!

I had to post this ADORABLE picture of my babies in their sunglasses. We were just horsing around in the house and Dani found a pair. So then Sam wanted some too. They haven't had any on since summer so they thought they were new toys. This picture of them looking at eachother and smiling is just priceless.



We got our winter coats and boots! Here we are trying them on and parading around on the porch. I may have to get a size smaller though-I went up a size and apparently they accomodate them to be a bit bigger when they size them-lesson learned!

The kids weren't walking last year during boot season so they were pretty funny walking in them for the first time. Dani mastered the word "boots" right away-she kept saying it over and over.

Today we went to the pumkin patch on Heckel and Oak Hill. It was our second year to go there so we are making it an official tradition! The kids had a ball riding in the wagon and picking out our pumpkin. Sam especially loved running in the big empty field next to the patch!

After the pumpkin patch we headed on over to our favorite playground behind the church. We go there one to two times a week and love it! Dani likes the swings the best and today she made mommy swing next to her. Then she wanted to swing in my lap and was a little sweetheart giving me hugs while we were swinging. Daddy said she was smiling the whole time when he peeked at her.

Sammy boy likes the slides the best. On this slide is where Sam first showed us he was going to be a rough-and-tumble boy. It was probably four months ago we all went to the playground for the second time. We still had to help the kids up the steps a bit. So Sam is at the top of this slide, Daddy is standing next to him and Mommy is at the bottom waiting for him. Sam stands there and proceeds to DIVE HEAD FIRST down this slide. It was the first time we saw him jump or anything!! We were shocked and it scared us to death but of course Sam was laughing!!

This is the big corkscrew slide and today was the first time Sam climbed up all the way on his own to the top of the corkscrew slide. It's a bit dangerous though because there is a platform without rails on one level. We didn't even know he could get up there-it's not steps it's more like a ladder to get up to it. So apparently Sam can climb a ladder!! Sam didn't want to go down himself but he wanted Daddy to take him down.