Big news!

Just seeing if I can get Gatfly going...
Sam took his first steps alone today!!! He was standing by his daddy who was in the recliner and I was sitting on the floor and we were tossing the footbal back kand forth...I held out the football and Sam took three shaky steps towards me!!! No repeat since, but he's been working on his standing balance without hanging on. Hoping you're all enjoying the gorgeous weather today!

ONE!

We're still not sure where the time went, but Sam turned one on July 5th! We had a wonderful time with family- siblings (and nephew!) and cousins and their kids...lots of kids! And we are looking forward to celebrating soon with the Aho/Palmberg side of the family as well. Sam "survived" his first birthday...note in some of the pictures the marks on his face- he reacts to bug bites and had several on his face including one right by his eye. Poor guy looked pretty rough- and was on Benedryl for swelling, so he was a bit intoxicated as well. He also had a few tumbles on his Birthday including a fall (fell about three inches) from the hammock, a croquet ball up the side of the head (courtesy of little cousin Erik), and a bump on his noggen from a lawn chair. There was one point at Aunt Mary's house that we put him in the play pen outside with the mosquito netting and he looked relieved- "finally somewhere I'm safe!" Oh, and he went swimming for the first time and LOVED it!!! He splashed and giggled and drank half the lake!
A big thank you to everyone who celebrated with us and gave Sam all sorts of fun toys- and a potty seat- for his First Birthday!! We got to spend some quality time with first cousin Thomas- boy is he ever changing and growing!!! And I'm going to be an Auntie again- my sister Mara is due in February!!!!!!! We are SO thrilled for her and can't wait to compare notes!


**Narrowing down the pictures was tough- there were a lot of precious moments! Will add captions later when there's more energy/time!

:-)

You didn't want those clothes IN the box, did you?!


This is the face he makes when he grabs at the phone too...picture that when you hear the him press the buttons...





Perfecting the "How YOU doin'?" look...

We keep forgetting to take the camera with us...went to Jayvid's Birthday party today- we met his parents in birthing class and Jayvid happened to be born the day before Sam so we've kept track of progress and compared notes over the last year. Sorry no pictures, but they're pretty similar in size and development with two major differences: Sam has WAY more hair and Jayvid has WAY more teeth (6 to Sam's 2). Sam has evidetly spent more energy growing hair than teeth... :-)
After Sam's midday post party bath I set him on the floor in the batroom for a moment before getting him dressed. I stood up and heard "water" running...yeah, he was peeing on the floor. He looked up at me and giggled, so I threw the towel down in front of him while he finished. Two thoughts on that: #1 he saved us a diaper, #2 he was doing that right next to the toilet, so that means he wants to be potty trained, right? Ha ha ha. We'll work on the walking first...

Summer Fun!

Can you balace a car on YOUR head?


Why?!


Aha! This will do just fine!


Arr...


Aw gee Grandpa!


A new contender for "Uncle Stinky"...watch outUncle Josh...check out those pipes too!


Going for a stroll...


Fell asleep in the car with his remote in his hand...typical male...


Which was more amusing...Cosmo or her leash...



Grandma Diane and her "babies"


Busy couple of weeks! Diane was kind enough to take a day off and watch Sam so we wouldn't have to take our time off when our Day Care gal had an appointment (the down side of home daycare- there's not always back-up...). And it sounds like they had a blast- except for not wanting to sleep- too much fun to be had with Grandma!
Sam also had his first taste of corn-on-the-cob and LOVED it! And he did very well over at the campgroud in Algoma. He especially loved the camper, as everything is close enough together that he can "walk" wherever he wants to. Ah yes, the question of the hour- is he walking yet?! Short answer...no. He is making progress on that front though and will take a few steps with only holding on to one hand. Thanks to day care he has mastered stairs- an art he doesn't get to practice at our house as our living area is all on one level. Watch out grandparents! He's fast!! And it sounds as though cousin Thomas may catch and surpass Sam in the tooth-growing area. Have fun with that Debora!!! We are so looking forward to spending time with cousin Thomas over the Fourth! TROUBLE!!!

Happy Father's Day!

Sam and his Daddy got lots of quality time together this weekend at Baldwin's "June Bug Days." It was Daddy's choice this weekend, so we went to the tractor pulls (Sat and Sun). Saturday they had the lawn tractors and ATV's and today was the Big Boys. Sam seemed to enjoy it though did not like our attempts at protecting his ears. We hope all you fathers out there had an awesome Father's Day as well!

Oh the joys...

My new seat!


Kicked back enjoying an ice cube for those aching gums...


This is harder work than it looks like...so tired!


Hunter being "good" (he held still for five whole seconds for this picture!)

Teething. Growing. Not sleeping well. Take your pick as to why we had a cranky little man on our hands today! He really wasn't too bad, but when he's usually so good natured, we get a little spoiled... We took a car ride thinking that he'd sleep then we would go shopping in Maplewood, MN. When he still wasn't asleep by the time we hit the state line (~20 minutes) we figured we'd save ourselves the gas money and go shopping in Woodbury. Momma got some new summer tops and Sam got a new car seat. His is rated to 35 lbs, but he's getting too heavy to lug around in it. He made it through the whole day with only a 45 minute nap this noon- church kinda threw off the ol' sleeping pattern...so we are hoping he'll sleep like a rockstar tonight- wait, not a rockstar, I don't think they sleep at night...can you tell I'M tired?!
Hoping you all had a nice weekend- we had a lovely bonfire last night and enjoyed some of the muggy weather.
Well Scott informs me I must go to bed now (so I can get him up in the morning...)

Weekend fun!

On Saturday we worked on our front side garden- weeding and mulching. In the evening Andrea Bert and Wyatt came over for a visit- we were going to do a bonfire but got rain/severe weathered out. Nice to see the boys together- though Sam was too interested in grabbing and tasting Wyatt...Then on Sunday Scott's brother Eric called and invited us to go to Willow-River State Park with him. I had no idea there was such a pretty park in the area! Thanks Eric!!


Odie found a stick right away- Hunter was a bit confused...



Odie also found a root to pull at...



The waterfall at Willow River State Park





Odie and Eric exploring at the waterfall



Hunter and his leash...


Smile Uncle Eric!