Keeping up with The Joneses!: Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

I'm pretty sure I started writing this entry a few months ago but never finished because time just got away from me! Gosh, has it really been a year since my little bun was born?! I can't believe Sam has already had a First Birthday! So many exciting things have filled the past year...too many to count. First smiles, first bites, first words, first steps...and I've been lucky enough to be there for each one of them!

I realize I haven't posted an update in a while, so I should cover a few things that happened over the past few months. Hmmm....Thanksgiving was uneventful. We were all sick and stayed home. No fun. However, Christmas was fantastic. We started the holiday season with a ginormous Christmas tree. When you're outside in the middle of a tree farm, the trees just don't look as big. However, once you get it in the house it's always way larger than you thought. It was almost cartoony-comical how enormous it was, so we had to trim a foot (or two!) off the bottom. After many trips up and down a ladder, it turned out perfect...really!

We attempted to visit Santa one evening, but the line was so long that we gave up. Luckily, when we went back the next day to get Sam some new sneakers, there were no other kiddies in line, so he had lots of one-on-one time with the jolly man himself!

The weekend before Christmas we went to Pittsburgh to celebrate with my family. Always a great time! We had Jackson on Christmas Eve so that was really special for us since it was Sam's first Christmas. The boys left cookies and milk for Santa, slept like little angels, woke up bright and early and had an action packed morning. We went to Brian's sister's house in the afternoon so the partying continued. It was so nice to see both of our families and spend some quality time with them. That's what it's all about!

After our never-ending busy Christmas holiday, we finally winded down and celebrated New Years Eve with Shawnie and Kevin at home. We made a lovely dinner (filet mignon topped with crab and bearnaise, seared scallops with a white wine shallot sauce, brussel sprouts with onion and bacon & greuyere potatoes) and watched the ball drop with Dick Clark (R.I.P). Sam was a party animal and didn't sleep until 1am. He really hates to miss a good time. Eventually he fell asleep, but not without putting up a valiant effort to hang with the grown-ups.

Sam had a super fun Birthday Party with our families and some of his little pint-sized buddies. I prepared the decorations and we had some easy finger foods, which everyone gobbled up. He got tons of really fun gifts, which he loved opening! He got plenty of practice unwrapping things at Christmas, so he is a pro now! We got him a few sets of really cool artistic blocks. I plan to get more block sets over time because they're just so neat. They're called HABA Blocks and I found them on Moolka.com. This website has loads of really cool stuff for kids, which is where I plan to do my shopping for the boys from now on!