Sam’s smiles

| November 27, 2009

Sam is smiling and talking so much now — it is just hard to capture on film or video because her smiles are so quick that they are gone before you know it.  Today she was in her bouncer chair talking and cooing up a storm.  I have decided that right now, her favorite thing to say is, “aahhoooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!”   Whatever that means : )  But she very definitely says it a lot.  Here are a few pics of her smiles.  She can smile a lot bigger and her whole face lights up and her eyes crinkle, but I wasn’t able to get that on film today.  But she is adorable, nonetheless.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

| November 27, 2009

Sam celebrated her first Thanksgiving yesterday.  Wow.  Do we ever have things to be thankful for this year!  Mark and I can’t believe how different this holiday was.  We always enjoy getting together with our families for the big meal, but there was just something different about this year.  Having Sam, and Maddox, and everyone we love around us made this year so special.  I was sitting at the table holding her in my arms, and never felt so happy in all my life.  I will always be so incredibly grateful for what I have been given, even if it took forever for me to receive it.  Mark always says that in life, he always seems to get what he wants, eventually.  It just is a long, hard road there. I know exactly what he means. It took forever it seems for me to find Mark, and forever for us to have Samantha, but everything we have is so wonderful.  An incredible, supportive, loving family, a beautiful home, good friends, good jobs, you name it.  We are the luckiest people in the world.

Here are some pictures from the big day.  Here are Sam and Maddox, posing for a formal picture.  Sam’s dress is courtesy of my good friend Debbi, who brought it to her recently when she came to meet Sam.  Krista’s husband, Adam, thought with the green dress and red hair she looked very Irish — and he approved heartily!  The little ones were actually holding hands while sitting there, which you would be able to see if Maddox wasn’t kicking his foot.  So, so cute : )

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Here are Mark and I with our little one out front in our yard.

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The proud grandmas……

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And the proud grandpas….

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Dinner was delicious!  Everyone chipped in and brought one thing, as usual.  We all stuffed our faces until we were ready to pop!  Well, Sam didn’t…but Maddox had sweet potatoes!

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Here are some other pics from the day.  I hope everyone had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as we did!

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