Top Reasons Why Christmas With Sam & Ben Rocks

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-Having Sam point to a new toy each day in December saying, “I want this for Christmas”
-Sam shouting, “I love it, I love it, I love it” while opening presents
-Spending 6 hours building a gingerbread house…enough said
-Riding the Santa train and almost missing Santa
-“Catching” Santa leaving presents by the tree (thanks Pop!)
-Watching a true believer open presents Christmas morning
-It’s actually cold outside so we get to see Ben in his cute hats
-Explaining on December 26th that we have to wait another year to do this againcc

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Moving Thomas

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Sam loves playing with his “moving Thomas”. Thanks Grandma & Paw Paw!

Playtime!

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We’re having the best time watching Ben grow. He’s starting to put everything in his mouth and loves to squeal all day long. But his favorite activity is watching the ceiling fans go round and round.

Christmas with the Lindsey's

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We always have the best time in Palestine. This year we decided to celebrate Christmas early with the Lindsey side so we could all be together. There was lots of smiling and laughing while presents were being opened. But the best was when Sam opened his gift from Lindsey & Daniel (a tool belt and hard hat). I’ve never seen such excitement from Sam. He was jumping up and down, screaming with delight and clapping his hands. It was truly the reaction everyone hopes for during the holiday season. Thanks to all the Lindsey gang (and Rogillio’s…and Lewis’s) for making this holiday truly memorable!

Let it snow, let it snow, let is snow!

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This has been the year of extreme weather in Houston. First a major hurricane and now snow! It was beautiful to see huge snowflakes falling in December.

Sam ran around trying to catch them while Ben watched in amazement. We got enough that it actually covered the ground, but our winter wonderland melted by morning.

I tried to get some good pictures but I’m not used to photographing snow!

Brotherly Love

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Take my picture

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As many of you know, I love to photograph my children, friends, family, etc. Sam has become increasingly interested in taking pictures over the past few months. Here are a few of his photographs from this past weekend. So artistic!

Running!

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One of Sam’s classmates had a party at Little Gym this past weekend. The kids honestly ran nonstop for 45 minutes & then shoved cake/ice cream down their throat. It was such fun!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

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Christmas has always been one of my most favorite times of the year. The decorations, lights, songs, shopping for loved ones… But it’s especially great this year because Sam actually understands what’s going on.

This past weekend, we definitely got into the Christmas spirit.

One of the museums created a snow playground on the front lawn of their property. Since this was the first time Sam has seen snow he didn’t know what to think of it. But 2 of his good friends were there, Kate & Sean, so they encouraged him to make his first real snow ball. He ended up having a great time.

The next day we purchased our Christmas tree. It’s great to run through all the trees to find your favorite. This year Scott and Sam found their favorite tree only 2 minutes after we arrived. It took longer to get Ben in the Baby Bjorn than to find our tree! When we arrived home, Sam helped Scott position the tree in the stand and carry it into our living room. As we were decorating, Sam wanted to know who gave us each of the ornaments on our tree. Most have actually been handmade by my mom over the years. Some were given to us before we got married…some from when Sam was born. There’s a lot of memories on our tree.

I love this time of year!

Eeyore...our new best friend

Ben has become so expressive in the past few weeks. He’s almost 3 ½ months, and we’re truly loving this time in his life.

Before Ben was born, we let Sam pick any toy he wanted for his little brother. He was really into Winnie the Pooh at the time and chose a stuffed Eeyore. Sam was determined to make it Ben’s favorite toy, and became very persistent in giving it to him each and every day. Over the past week Ben has fallen in love with the toy. We never leave home without Eeyore…not that Sam would allow us to!

Grandparent's Night

Mimi and Pop came to Houston last night for Grandparent’s Night at Sam’s school. The school puts on a massive book fair each year and they always invite the grandparents for the opening night.

They got to meet Sam’s most beloved teacher, Ms. Faruolo and some of his favorite classmates. They were such troopers by playing on the playground outside prior to the beginning of the book fair, and for looking at every single book that Sam picked up. Of course, he ended up choosing one of the only books at the fair that made noise. I was hoping it would accidently leave in the Sheehan’s car but alas Sam pulled it out to read at 7am.

Thanks to Mimi & Pop for making the long drive on a school night! I hope you had an extra cup of coffee and tea this morning.