Samantha's first blog

markmyers | December 29, 2016

Sam has been really enjoying her electronics experiments with me so I thought I would start to show her how we could use electronics and computers together to make interesting projects. In this project, I started showing Sam how to use an Arduino micro controller and a little bit of programming code to write some text to an LCD screen. Of course, the first thing she did was touch the screen and get her little grimy fingerprints all over it,  so I  had to explain to her several times that it is not a touch screen (thanks a lot, Apple). Once I showed her how to change the code and upload it to the Arduino though she had a lot of fun with it. Of course, she had to change the text over and over again to make the screen say all sorts of funny and sweet things. She learned some good skills though, like how to type capital letters, how to type text between quotes, and the processing of compiling and uploading.

Here is her first program. Well the first program she modified anyway. We didn’t write it from scratch (no pun intended). For you non-coders out there, the first thing she wanted to do was make it print the alphabet. I made her add a comment too with her name to show that it was her first program!

Here are some of her messages. She spelled Zach’s name wrong, but we were proud of her. I don’t think Zach minded. 🙂

Hard at work…

Pam got her own very special “I love you” message. Not sure what the glasses were about. Sometimes she calls them her librarian glasses though, so maybe she thinks that makes her smart.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments �
Tags:

pamelamyers | December 26, 2016

Onward to the Myers house for more gift opening! Analiece loved her Joker sneakers.

And now Adam can whip us up some good drinks at their house!

Sam got a set of dominoes, hand made by her Pop Pop…

…and her very own jewelry box! Pop Pop must have been busy!

Sam likes helping Ryder open his gifts. Now he has one of these cool pin games, just like Sam’s.

Later that night at home, Mark and Sam worked on a project. Mark bought Sam a bunch of merit badges that we are going to let her earn for learning about electronics and other things. She wanted the LED badge so badly! Mark told her she had to wire an entire LED circuit by herself to earn the badge, and she did!

We are so proud of her!

What a crazy, busy day! It was a very Merry Christmas, as usual. We are so lucky to have the family we have, and to be able to buy each other so many amazing gifts. Happy days. 🙂

Category: Christmas | 1 Comment �
Tags:

pamelamyers | December 26, 2016

Christmas morning! It finally arrived, and for once, we were able to keep Sam in bed until a somewhat decent hour…well, decent hour in our house means there was a 6 on the front of the clock! But, she’s seven and seven year olds can’t wait very long to see what Santa brought them! We always make Sam wait until Mark goes down the stairs to turn the tree lights on and get his camera ready, but this year, she snuck a peek! From that smile, I think Santa did a good job. Before she came down, she did check under her bedroom tree (Santa always leaves a small gift) and it was a Shopkins DVD!

Sam was thrilled to see that Santa brought her Puppy Surprise, and Mommy and Daddy brought her Kitty Surprise!

Before she went to bed, Sam left her camera on the coffee table to see if he would maybe take any more pictures this year. She and her new baby quickly checked it out. Guess what? Santa did!

Santa always comes through! He brought her some new electronics kits, just like she asked for.

I was a very lucky Mommy this Christmas. Sam and her Dad worked hard on making this beautiful light up heart for me. I just love it!

Sam thought it was time for the kitties to have some presents since they were wandering around wondering what the heck was going on. Penny got lots of new tinsel toys on sticks and a nice catnip toy.

Actually, she got a few and Zach quickly ran off with one! I guess his fuzzy mice weren’t good enough. 😉

Grandmom came over super early to see Sam open her gifts this year. It was nice having here there to see all the hubbub.

Mark got Sam a few special plush toys this year – an LED and a resistor!  It’s funny, when he first saw them online, he emailed them to me and said, “I know Sam has a lot of stuffed animals, but these are super cute.” My reply was that, yeah, she does, but it never stops me from buying more! She loves them!

And the present opening continues….

The kitties always buy nice gifts. This year, Zach gave Sam a special Shutterfly photo book of photos comprising Zach and Penny’s first year with us.

All cats love Christmas! Or should I say, the paper. I love seeing them playing and jumping around in it. Zephyr used to do that when she was younger but then the thrill wore off or she just got too old to care. Either way, it was fun to have spunky young cats being crazy on Christmas morning.

Penny’s gift to Sam was a special book starring…Penny! It is a whole story about Penny leaving home in Springfield to go seek fame and fortune. I had never heard of this website before called Petlandia, but I was glad I found it. The book is adorable, and the cat actually looks a lot like Penny!

Sam had been asking me for a neck pillow (why I have no idea) so I got her one. She quickly had to test it out.

Sam bought me some new charms for my Pandora bracelet, all Christmas themed. I love them!

As usual, Mommy got lots of pajamas!

Sam had a few crackers left, so she and Grandmom paused from the present opening to crack one.

Mark and Daddy got a special present – a robot! MBot is going to be so much fun!

Sam had been wanting to make Mark a special necklace ever since he commented on her Make It and Bake It charm bracelet, so she made him two – a heart and a dolphin.

The cats got Daddy a funny hanger…

…and Sam got new slippers, just like Mommy’s, which is exactly what she wanted.

Thanks Aunt Barbara for this beautiful purse! Sam said, “I love how it can hold a ton of stuff without it getting smushed and you can still snap it closed!”

Grandmom has a Flash Pad at home that Sam just loves. Now she has one of her own! I need to learn all the games on it so we can play, but I am sure Sam will enlighten me quickly. She is a pro, after all.

Gymnastics Barbie!

I just love the kitty outfits Grandmom got Sam. She is going to look adorable! The cat on the dress is actually furry and Sam got tights and knee socks to match!

Grandmom got the same beautiful heart as me. Spread the love, Sam!

Mom’s got her new snow boots she asked for (but let’s hope she doesn’t actually need them this year…)

She just loved the Shutterfly calendar. I tried to include a ton of photos, both new and old. It is fun to see pictures of Sam when she was little when you haven’t seen them for a while. And I made sure there were lots of pictures of Sam and her Poppy.

I love Sam’s face – she had just opened a silly card I got her that has dogs on it. When you open it, they bark a Christmas carol.

The last gift, Sam’s special one. A BRAND NEW KINDLE! She has been using my original one, which was pretty old at this point, technology-wise. Some of the games she wants to play can’t be loaded on it and I didn’t want her to keep taking mine. We thought it was time. And she’s a good kid, she earned it!

Daddy’s special socks, a present from Sam “to show all the stuff he is good at making” – pancakes and pretzels!

More electronics! Sam and Mark will be busy, that’s for sure.

Family photo! Do you love our matching pajamas? Even the cats got dressed up. Merry Christmas!

Category: Christmas | 2 Comments �
Tags:

pamelamyers | December 26, 2016

This Christmas Eve we went to Grandmom’s house instead of her coming to our house. We needed to switch things up a bit since it is the first year that Poppy is not with us. Doing the same old routine just seemed, well…wrong. Sam had a great time, mostly because Grandmom had told her that she was going to be allowed to open all of the things in her stocking, and…dum dum dum! One present of her choosing.

First things first – the stockings! Sam really has always loved her stocking, almost more than the actual gifts.

We all opened ours and Sam was quite pleased with her haul.

When it was gift time, Grandmom told Sam to choose wisely, because if it turned out to be clothes, that was too bad. She was only allowed one gift on Christmas Eve. Sam told us she knew what boxes were clothing shaped, so we didn’t need to worry! I thought she would shake every single thing, but she picked fairly quickly. It turned out to be her globe. Sam likes globes and maps and Grandmom thought she’d like a small one of her own.

Next we gave Grandmom one of the gifts from Sam because it was an ornament for her tree and a picture she drew. Sam also made Grandmom a card with lots of snowmen. We didn’t even know she had stashed it in Grandmom’s stocking.

Here is the picture she drew. She is quite the artist!

When we got home, it was time to get the house ready for Santa. Sam left Santa some milk and carrots and the reindeer food she made at school for the reindeer. Surprisingly, she forgot Santa’s snack! Oh well. I am sure he gets lots to eat at other houses. She did leave Santa one of her Christmas crackers. She always shares. She also left her camera on the coffee table, hoping Santa would take some more photos this year. We’ll see!

It was soon lights out for Sam. It is always hard for her to fall asleep but she managed to pretty quickly. Morning would be coming soon, and a busy, busy day!

Category: Christmas | No Comments �
Tags:

pamelamyers | December 25, 2016

Merry Christmas from the entire Myers Family! I hope you feel as happy and blessed as we do this season. Our beautiful family means more to us than we can say.

Category: Christmas | 1 Comment �
Tags: