1 Year

Our baby girl is ONE!! ( Plus a month, I'm super slow at posting) It's so Crazy! I can't believe it! I have loved Sammie at this age. She's definitely starting to have her own little personality, which I love. She is still our sweet, easy going happy baby. But, she has started to get a little attitude.

  She is a very busy baby. Not so much a naughty busy, just busy. She is always doing something. Lately she likes to: play with toys, play in any cupboard or drawer she can open, "clean", dance, or follow Seth and I around.  She likes to play with her princes castle she got for Christmas and also her babies. She loves to sit in her chair.  I think it makes her feel big. She still LOVES to read books. If we go in her room with her, we usually end up having to read books. She especially love "Llama Llama Hippity Hop".

Samantha started really walking around the beginning of December. She is a pro now. She looks so funny when she walks because she is still pretty little. She loves to walk around the house holding our hands. It's pretty adorable when she takes her daddy for a walk.

She is a good little "talker". I'm worried for when she can really talk, I don't think we will ever get her to stop. She can say: ma ma, da da, dog, hi, what's that, uh oh,  hot, wow, shh, and ruff ruff. She loves to "talk".

 She likes most food. She's not very picky but we never know what she will actually eat. If you give her eggs one day she will love them, the next day not so much. But for the most part she's good at eating. Lately she loves: grapes, bananas, baby oranges, green beans, carrots, cheese, yogurt,  and anything with pasta. She will not touch milk!!! This has been the most frustrating thing to figure out with her. We have tried chocolate milk, strawberry milk, almond milk, anything we could think of. The last few days I have been able to mix milk and yogurt together and she will drink it!! Cross my fingers it stays that way!    

 Sweet little Samantha is a horrible sleeper. She went a few months sleeping through the night. Now at 13 months she wakes up at least twice. I feed her once, but honestly I don't think she is really hungry. I'm not very good with letting her "cry it out". I know this is so bad but I'm kind of use to getting up and it's our time together.  It's so hard to work and not see her all day. So when my baby wants me I kind of want her too. It would be nice to get a full 8 hours of sleep again. Hopefully one day it will happen. That is my goal while I'm off track; getting her to sleep through the night and be done breastfeeding. I've been off for almost a week and haven't been very successful with either.

 I still can not believe it has been a year already. Everyone tells you it goes by so fast and you never believe them until it happens to you. I love being a mom. I can't imagine life any other way. Learning to be a "working mom" hasn't been easy. I have had many morning where I cry on my way to work. But, I am so lucky to have my mom, sister, and sister in law watch my sweet girl for me.That honestly has made this way easier. I love spending every minute with Sammie when I get home from work. I live for the weekends more than I ever have. Seth and I don't go on dates alone very often. We hate taking Sammie to a babysitter after she has been with one all week. It's really just us being selfish. :)  It's hard to explain how much you can love your kid. It's crazy to me that I can love someone so much. Happy one year baby girl!!!

11 months

I really dropped the ball the last few months.  Sammie Gwen is 11 months old! Where did the time go?!? Samantha is still our sweet happy girl. She laughs and smiles all the time. She is still pretty easy going but she can have a little attitude once in a while.  She still loves to play peek-a-boo with anything. She is also a tease and will hide from us or play games. She loves the bath and would stay in there forever if we would let her.
She "talks" a lot.  She will say Oh, wow, uh ho, and dada. She also says something that sounds like "what's that?" all the time. She is still working on saying mama.:) I love to hear her little voice.

 She is so close to walking. She will stand up by everything and walk. We can't wait for her to walk. She can also climb up stairs but not come back down. She loves to read books, which makes her mommy happy. She still has her obsession with hair. She now has to sleep with her doll so she can play with its hair.

She will eat anything and everything we give her. I think the only thing we have found that she really doesn't like are peas.  She still won't drink milk while I'm at work. We have tried regular cows milk, putting chocolate, and even putting strawberry in the milk. She is a little stinker and will take a few sips and then refuse to drink anything.  She still seems to be growing and gaining weight so that's good. It might be because my 11 month old still wakes up once a night to eat and some nights even twice! The doctor told me I should continue to feed her at night because she will not eat during the day and because she's kind of a tiny thing anyways. Most nights I really don't mind. It's kind of our time to be together.

 She has 4 cute little teeth. She was not very fun when she was teething. Once we figured out what was going on it made sense why she was acting so different.  

 On another note, not Samantha related, we bought our first house. We love it! There is a lot of work to do but we couldn't be more happy. It is so nice to be back on the west side. The house behind us is actually the ward I grew up in, my parent live like 2 minutes away. My work is now 5 minutes away and babysitters are way closer too. It's fun to be home owners and I think Seth loves having projects to do all the time and a yard to take care of. Yeah, he's kind of weird like that.

 I can't believe it's all ready the holiday season. Hopefully I will be better about posting our fun holiday happenings this year.

 

8 months (ish)

Sammie is 8 months and counting. I can't believe she is that old already. I think I say that every time, but seriously it goes by so fast.
Samantha started really crawling about a month ago. She is the cutest little crawler. Some days she will drag one leg and pull the other one up behind her when going across the hardwood floor. It's the silliest thing to see.  She is a fast crawler and has started pulling herself up on things. She is definitely a little explorer.   

She got her first tooth about a week ago. She has been pretty grumpy while teething. She has also decided to stop sleeping though the night, which is really fun.  We are hoping she goes back to sleeping through the night, soon.


Samantha loves to eat solid foods. She loves them so much she has stopped drinking milk while being babysat. We are a little worried about her but she seems to still be growing and is happy. The second I walk in the door she is ready to eat though, little stinker! She loves fruits and veggies. We found out she loves tomatoes! She also really likes cheese, must be her momma's girl. We haven't really found anything that she doesn't like to eat. We did tried to give her juice the other day and she did not like it. She still loves her water.
    She has the cutest little personality. Around some people she is very shy and serious. I've had multiple people ask me if my baby ever smiles. That always makes me laugh because at home she smiles and laughs all the time. She loves to play games with Seth and crawl away from him to hide. She also likes to play peek-a-boo. It's so cute. She loves to "talk" and has learned to wave bye bye.  She will give hugs to Seth and I when we get home or in the morning when we take her out of the crib.
 She has a bad habit with/obsession with hair. She can not fall asleep with out pulling/holding/playing with hair.  It's kind of annoying. But, it's my own fault. I will remember not to let that happen with the next little one we have. (not that we are having another one anytime soon) We even bought a doll to put in her crib so she can play with its hair at nigh.  We were hoping it would help her sleep through the night but it didn't work.
  She has been a stinker when it comes to changing her diaper and putting on clothes lately. I hope she grows out of this phase soon. Please tell me she will grow out of it?!?! She also does not love getting in her car seat. 

We went on a trip to Montana about a month ago and I was really nervous about the 10 hour drive. She actually did really well. I sat in back with her most of the time. We had so much fun visiting Seth's brother and his family. We swam almost everyday in their pool, went for a fun hike, and just hung out. It was a great little vacation.
       This has been a very long post. I could write about little Smantha for ever but I think this is enough for now.

6 months

Holy Cow! Where did the time go?! I can't believe my little lady is already 6 months! She is sitting up all the time now. She will grab at everything and anything she can get her little hands on. She loves to play with toys, hair, her toes and hands, and really anything she can grab. I think she will be crawling soon. She keeps pushing up on those little knees.
 She is so funny when she sleeps now. She doesn't really like the swaddling thing anymore. She totally sleeps on her side! She must be her momma's girl. She has started sleeping through the night, most of the time. Every once in a while she will wake up at night. I honestly don't mind. I think it's because she misses me. He He
She totally knows who we are. I love picking her up after work because she has the biggest smile on her face when I walk in. She does this little shake thing with her body, like she is so excited to tell me about her day. She will do the same thing when Seth comes home. She will follow him around the room until he comes over to her.
She is amazed by people eating. She will sit and stare at them the whole time they are eating. We have been giving her solid for the past month or so. She likes to eat but will only eat for a few minutes and then she is done. We gave her green beans yesterday and she wasn't really a fan of them. She didn't really like bananas either. She loves rice cereal though. She also loves to drink water out of a sippy cup. It's so funny to watch. She gets so excited to drink. Lately, when she is drinking out of a sippy cup she has to be able to see Seth. I think it's so funny. It's like she wants to make sure her dad knows she is drinking like a big girl.
Samantha is still the easiest baby. She is always so happy. She smiles all the time. We can get her to laugh but we really have to work at it.  I can't believe how fast the time has gone by.
I'm really looking forward to the summer and spending 6 weeks with my baby girl! I only have 9 days left of school!!!

Out to lunch with Mom and Dad

So cute and happy in her little skinny jeans

Playing outside at grandma and grandpa's house

Sitting in the Bumbo at Aunt Jennie's. 

In her cute Easter dress

Sleepy Baby

Oh Hello!

3 months

I can't believe our sweet little Samantha is 3 months old! Time has gone by so fast. She is still the best baby ever. She smiles all the time now. She is even "talking".  We love all the little sounds she makes.

She is the happiest baby, she hardly ever cries and is so easy going. Both my sister and sister in law that watch her say she is the best baby. I'm so glad she is good for everyone that watches her. It makes having to leave her to go to work a little easier. I would feel horrible if I knew they were dealing with a little  stinker all day.

She is so good about going to sleep at night. We can lay her in the crib and she will go to sleep or lay their until she is ready to fall asleep. She is so funny about sleeping. She usually does not like to be cuddled or held when she is sleepy. The other night I knew she was getting sleepy so I thought I would go rock her and cuddle until she fell a sleep. She wanted nothing to do with me. So, I just put her in the crib and she fell right asleep. Little stinker! :) 

We blessed her a few weeks ago and she was a good baby during it. Seth did such a good job.  We were so happy to have so many family and friends come enjoy the night with us. She looked so cute in her blessing dress.

I really can't explain how much we love her. We could spend all day looking at her. She pretty much is the most adorable baby ever.:)

1 month old

    My baby girl is one month old. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. I have loved my time at home with her. I'm going to be so sad when I have to go back to work in a week and a half.

    Sweet little Samantha has changed so much since she was born! She has her eyes open a lot more now. She gets the hiccups all the time. I feel so bad but it doesn't seem to bother her. She will stare at Seth and I, and I think she actually knows who we are. She will try to find me if she hears my voice when someone else is holding her, which I love. She still has her cute chubby cheeks and tiny mouth. She has a lot of her hair still but it's starting to fall out. :( She is finally growing out of some of her newborn clothes because she is getting too long. 0-3 months clothes don't fit though because they fall off her little body. I hate being between sizes:) She has gone 5 1/2 hours the last few nights before needing to eat. It has been heaven. I never thought I would be so excited about getting 5 hours of sleep.

    We have been so lucky to have such a good and easy baby. I sit and stare at her all day, thinking how crazy it is that she is part of our family. I can't believe we waited this long to have her:)