Samantha, our FIVE-year-old

Hard to believe, our sweet Samantha turned five yesterday! She has been soooo excited about her birthday this year, and had an official countdown -- telling everyone there were only 11 more days, then 9 more days, then 6, etc.

Sadly, we forgot the camera for ALL of our birthday festivities, and didn't get a single picture of our Birthday Girl right on her actual birthday. But here are some recent fun pictures of her that I love...

Some things about Samantha that we love:

-- She really IS our big helper girl. She sets the table every night -- often without being asked. She also helps unload the dishwasher, and keeps her room clean(er). When I need something from another room, she loves to bring it to me, or loves to calm Natalie while I'm doing other things.

-- She loves learning new things, especially reading. She is starting to spell things out and sound things out on her own. When her friend Brielle (and family) was here visiting last month, she made a sign to put on their door to keep Spencer and Zachary out. It said, Keep Out Boys, as follows...

-- Samantha is really creative, and loves to draw, color, paint, and "make" things with paper, glue, and scissors. She can go through a ream of paper a week, easily, if we let her. Markers are a favorite, and coloring books too, but she also loves to make her own original artwork. (She has taped as many as 30 different drawings to her special wall in our hall, and changes them out regularly.)

-- She loves to make a plan, and stick to a schedule. She'll often ask me in the morning, what's the plan for today? If I've suggested an idea of something fun we might do, it automatically becomes part of the "plan" and cannot be forgotten.

-- She also really enjoys spending time with friends and family. Her cousins are by far her favorite friends around. She gets soooo excited when we go to visit any of the cousins, here or far away. Here she is, being very silly with her cousin Seth...

--Samantha loves to read the scriptures as a family. In fact, we have some scripture videos that go along with our animated scripture story books for kids, and she LOVES to watch the videos while she colors or draws. If she asks to watch a movie, most of the time she prefers the scripture stories, and can recite them back almost verbatim.

-- She also loves to go to church. She has the most wonderful primary teachers and she adores them. I've never seen her be so eager to please as she is when she's at church with her teachers. She soaks up their positive attention and is the angel child when they're around. (We should start trying to sit by them during Sacrament meeting, ha!)

-- Samantha has an optimistic attitude most of the time. She can be a bit of a drama queen, but usually tries to make the best of any situation. She stays cheerful and forgets the "wrongs" of her bad days very easily.

-- Her best friend is Spencer, and she loves to be his big sister AND his boss. I have to remind her frequently that she is not the mom. But other than that, they love to play together and entertain each other all day long.

-- She has recently decided that she does not want to be called Sam. (It's too boyish). Or Sam-Sam. Or Sammie-Kabammie (it's an inside thing with her grandpa). But Sammie or Samantha is still okay.

-- She loves all things princess and strawberry shortcake, and got a Polly Princess set for her birthday. She still loves playing dress-up, and some days will still change 4-6 times a day. But I can see that phase starting to fade, as she prefers to spend more time reading books or coloring.

And now, for some less recent pictures of our girl, just for fun...

Natalie's Blessing day

Natalie was blessed in our church on November 7. It was such a fun weekend, with so much family around to make it quite the occasion. I want to write a post about the whole weekend, but in case I don't, for now, here are some cute pictures of the star of the show on her special day...

Her dress was made by my Aunt Lar, who makes them as a hobby and sells them in boutiques for $$$. Aunt Lar made it when Samantha was born as a special surprise for her/me. I LOVE it, and am so glad Natalie was able to wear it, too.

And, a few more, that I just took today, because she was in such a good mood...

Some random pictures

I haven't posted in awhile, and now is not the time (midnight). But here are some fun picts of some of our fun times, in no specific order, and with very little commentary this time.

At the Farmstead -- a fun little Halloween outing we had with some of the Bishop family that live around here, corn maze and all!

The whole "farmstead" gang, in the giant rocker...

Goofy kids. I think it's funny that Samantha has finally started pulling silly faces for the camera. Well, sometimes funny, anyway (as long as I'm not hoping for a less silly girl).

And, another cute Samantha picture. Isn't she gorgeous? We think so!!

Walking by the river on a lovely, warm fall day.

Natalie has some adoring fans, for sure!

I just love the spikey red hair. She's so cute.

Spencer at the park... Not sure what he's doing, but he was too busy doing it to look for a picture.

Our family has an obsession with the Idaho State Capitol building. Our kids love to go there, and ask if we can go for an outing to the capitol about once a week.

Camel's Back Park, at the top of the hill overlooking Boise. Not too interested in posing, but they loved climbing the big hill with Brian. Natalie and I were in the car waaaay down at the bottom in the parking lot (pictured in the middle on the right.)

Bath time for Natalie. She really likes the bath, and the kids REALLY like to watch her get her bath.

I love restaurants with crayons. They don't know how much entertainment they provide for our little colorer girl!

Sammie had a stuffed animal party on her bed. Everyone was very well-behaved and sat very orderly and still for the group photo...

Spencer's new pastime is sleeping ANYWHERE during nap time... on the floor in front of the door, on the big queen bed (John's bed, he calls it), or, in this case, in the chair...

If you have a second, blow this one up and look at how detailed Samantha got with her coloring. That's a new trick she has, and I think it's so cute! She loves making sure ALL the colors are used just right.

More to come some other time. I hope!

My trick-or-treaters...

I want it to be noted that I am posting about our Halloween the VERY week it happened. This is real blog progress, people. I mean, we're very lucky not to be seeing this post go up after New Years, right?

Unfortunately, there's not too much to show and tell. I didn't take many pictures at all, and we didn't do very much for Halloween. But it was fun. Here are my little trick-or-treaters...

Samantha was a cheerleader. I started to make the letters in orange, and was going to put BSU, but Brian and Sammie both wanted it to say BYU (underneath, it really said Seattle Seahawks, sorry, Randi, if you care.) Turns out, I shoulda put BSU. Everyone at our church's trunk-or-treat thing turned their nose up at BYU, can you believe?!? Oh well. Football snobs. For their information, BYU offers a FAR superior education.

Spencer was a bumble bee. We didn't really tell him about his costume until it was time to put it on. I was afraid he wouldn't want to wear it or something. I worried in vain. As soon as I mentioned "candy" he was all over the idea of putting on this funky suit. He actually called it his "candy suit" all night.

Here are some of the cousins, at grandma and grandpa's house. The three girlies were all dressed as cheerleaders, so they got their pictures taken together. So cute. Unfortunately, Samantha banged her knee on the table just minutes before the picture shoot. So she bawled all the way through them (played it up for the audience, I think). But she still looked cute...

And back at home with their loot, here's our little group. Natalie was in a little pink catsuit, and was oblivious. I never got a good picture of her, other than on Sam's lap. Maybe I'll put her back in it and at least get it up here for posterity's sake, huh? I mean, the kid will probably want to know what she was for her first Halloween. (And no, we didn't carry around a candy bucket for her, though I was sure tempted!)

One more, with Spencer begging to be done so he could dig into his "gween punkin" for more goodies...

Happy Halloween, everybody! If my kids' candy doesn't keep me sugared up, I might have to make more pumpkin bread. yum!

Other peoples' shoes

Last summer, a friend in our neighborhood had a c-section with her second baby. I rememeber I called her a few times to check in while she was recovering. And now we're better friends, and occasionally get together, or talk at church, etc. Well, I've been thinking about all the sweet things she's done for me while I've been recovering from this c-section:

She's called several times, brought over dinner, stopped by to visit, watched my kids, delivered homemade chocolate chip cookies, and just been sort of "on call" -- reminding me that she's happy to help whenever I need her. I've sooo appreciated her help, and it's started me thinking about some "deeper" things...

Now that I've been through a c-section, I think I'd be much more likely to really try to lend a hand if I knew someone else who has to have one. It's not that the recovery is so terribly awful -- it's not, it's just slow-going and a little more taxing than a regular birth. The real point is that I can sympathize a lot more easily, now that I've had this experience.

I've been thinking about that idea a lot lately, as applies to so many different areas of my life. See, when I'm reflecting on my strengths and weaknesses, I like to think I'm generally thoughtful and helpful to others. But then, I look at how much more sympathetic and helpful I am when I've been through something similar to what others may be experiencing. And I wonder, how come I don't do better at giving everyone the benefit of a little extra sympathy?

Some experiences to illustrate...

-- While we're on the subject of c-sections.... When I was barely 21, my best friend from high school had her first baby -- after 20 hours of labor and an emergency c-section. I visited her in the hospital, and probably brought the baby a little gift. But I had no idea what my friend was going through. Fifteen years later, here I sit remembering that experience. And now that I know what it's like, I do wish I could have been a little more helpful to her, somehow. But how was I to know?

-- Two months after our first baby was born, a friend from our church had a baby girl. At her baby shower, I remember my gift to her was all the necessary "stuff" for breastfeeding. It sounds silly, but I was sooo excited to give her the best creams and pads and sanitizer, since I'd just tried ALL the available varieties, and was confident about what works and what doesn't. It was one of those gifts that I would have LOVED to receive, myself.

Ha! How many times have I done that? -- bought a gift and felt so good about it because it's something I'd like for me? Is that being selfish? Or is that following the golden rule of "do as you would have others do unto you?" I guess I sometimes wish I was a little more perceptive to what other people really need, what would be most helpful and meaningful to them.

-- When Brian and I were dating, (or "non"dating, as we did for lots of our "courtship") one Christmas he gave me a guitar book of Peter Breinholt songs, since I was trying to learn to play guitar, and I had a thing for Breinholt music at the time. How thoughtful! He also bought me a Wallace Stegner book, knowing how much I had enjoyed the Stegner novel I'd just finished.

Hmmmm.... I kissed him for his thoughfulness, lucky him. And seriously, I loved those gifts, because he was really trying to think of things that would mean a lot to me. And they do, still. (Even though the guitar book is in a box because the guitar got lost in our move. sigh.)

Where am I going with all this? I'm not sure. I've just been thinking a lot lately about how to be more sensitive to other people's needs. It's something that's on my mind, and now on my blog. Someday, when I've got a lot more "experience" in a lot of different areas of life, I bet I'll be a very sympathetic, perceptive, helpful person. At least, that's the direction I'm trying to head. ;)

Isn't she cute?

A picture of our girl from this morning...

And one from yesterday, too...

She sleeps a lot. And eats. She growls and makes funny newborn noises in her sleep. She stays in our bed a lot, because we love to kiss her and look at her while she sleeps. What a sweetie. We love her sooo much!