Sammy B

That is what Carter has started calling her. I love that he came up with his own nickname for her. If you have spent any time with me and my kids, you know that I have about a million nicknames for them. Samantha has Sammers, Sweet Pea, Little Missy Moo, Samarama, Sammy Poo, Stinky (it's really a term of endearment for a lot of people in my life), Princess, Baby Girl, and anything else that happens to pop into my head at the time.
Anyways, whatever you call her, she is so much fun right now. If I could bottle her as she is right now I totally would.

I went in to get her up the other morning and found this:

We just happened to get 2 packages in one day and Carter had the idea of making a robot out of the boxes. Samantha took over and walked around in it for a good half hour.

This, though, I could do without. I don't think Carter even knew what time out was at this age. Samantha not only knows, she knows to stay there until the timer goes off. I guess I am doing better at some things. At this rate, our 9th child should be perfect.

I'm leaving on a jet plane

I just booked our flight to Utah! It was totally last minute, but Northwest has some great prices on their tickets, so me and the kids are going out to Utah the 1st-9th of next month. So all my Utah friends let me know when we can get together!

This made my day

Free Shirt

Click here for a free swedish fish tee shirt.

Could be good...

I just found out about Freepeats. It's a website where you can go and post gently used baby/kids stuff and others do as well. The great thing about it is that it is all free. It just started here in Milwaukee, and if you sign up by the 15th, you get free lifetime membership. After that, I think it's somewhere between $5-$15 to sign up. Like I said, it just started, so there isn't much posted yet, but eventually there could be some good stuff. I think it's worth checking out. They do have them in other cities if anyone else is interested. Go free!

Quick Question

Does it make me a bad mom if both of my kids have ear infections (Carter in both ears) and I didn't know about it, or does it just mean I have really tough kids? I think the latter. I only found out because Samantha had a well-child visit today and Carter asked the doctor to look in his ears. Otherwise I would have been oblivious. Tough kids, right???

Catch up.

It has been a while since I have posted. Somehow I manage to keep caught up on everyone else's blogs but mine. Anyways, here's a recap of what we have been up to:

Carter got his school pictures taken. He came home and informed me he didn't smile at all. "The guy said we just had to sit there." Fabulous. What more did I expect?

I have been taking a less than informative photography class. There are about 10 of us in the class. 4 of us have more than point and shoot cameras. One woman actually opened her brand new camera the first night of class. Do you really need an 8 week class for a point and shoot? Really? Maybe. Last time one lady asked if she needed to turn the camera on to get to the menu. Next week we start taking pictures. Luckily I am taking it with a friend. Otherwise I would be licking my camera batteries just for the entertainment factor. I am hoping that when we actually turn the cameras on things will get better. I'm not counting on it though.

Mike's mom isn't doing well at all. She is in a nursing home full time now and they have started hospice care. It is sad, especially when the doctors out here had filled us so full of hope for her recovery. We have an appointment on Monday with the hepatologist just to ensure that we have exhausted all options. We are trying to get loose ends tied up and make sure that she is comfortable.

I would say that winter is about 75% here. We are wearing socks around the house to keep our feet from freezing, the kids are wearing their footsie pajamas, and I busted out the down comforter. Just last week we were wearing shorts. We must have offended the weather Gods.

Carter started soccer. He was totally pumped up about it and was talking up how fast he was, passing everyone else. Mike told me that he passed 2 kids-both of them had just turned 3. Apparently Carter got my physical prowess. Sucker. The coach is tough. After this week, if anyone touches the ball they have to do laps. I love it.

My sister is coming out for Thanksgiving! I am so excited. It has been almost a year since I have seen her, too long. I am still trying to convince her to move out here. Something about the winters...

Anyways, nothing really exciting. Just life. I am looking forward to General Conference this weekend. Between my kids and the nursery calling I get very little adult spiritual interaction. Here's hoping the kids behave...