Christmas

Merry Christmas!!! It's been a long time since we've done one (and it's Gregg writing this so it's been a VERY long time since i've done one), but what better time to do it then now! The last couple of days have been great!!! This is Sammy's first Christmas that he can piece everything together and the excitement he has is contagious! Below is a train set that was his big gift this Christmas - and he has played with it about 3-4 hours each day! The same can not be said for Papa as Sammy was very protective on who could play with his trains - but after 2 days he finally gave in and let Papa play.

The next 3 pictures are from Christmas Eve with the Gauldins. A nice little family picture, a portion of the gifts that Sammy was spoiled with (he had that grin on his face all week!), and when Sammy went to bad, Rock Band - Beatles style kept us up to the wee hours.

Mama and Papa stayed all day on Christmas Day and they celebrated the Jost Christmas with us. Beatles songs continued throughout the day and i was the star! Okay, i was the butt of jokes as Sammy and William (my 3 yr old nephew) scored higher than me singing a few songs (i'm not joking). (pictrues to follow in another post)

Christmas is in the rear view mirror now, and right after we celebrate New Years Rikki and I jump on a plane and spend 5 days in Puerta Vallarta while Sammy spends time on the farm with Mama and Papa. We will miss him tremendously as neither of us have been away from him for more than 3 days, but we are looking forward to 5 days poolside at an all-inclusive resort in 80 degree weather.

Happy New Year everybody!

School pic

I thought these pics were really, really good for his preschool pics. Maybe Gregg and I should listen to everyones advice and get him into modeling, he is pretty darn cute!

A beautiful fall day

The gardener

Our yard has stayed in tip-top shape this year, thanks to our personal gardener:

I like to ride my bicycle

Sam has really gotten the hang of riding his big wheel. Once he was finally able to reach the pedals he just took off on it. He got the bike for his birthday in Feb, and has just been scooting along on it with his feet until the last few weeks. By the way, he usually does wear a helmet, I was a bad Mom tonight (we forgot).

Another prayer

I am sensing a theme to this night time prayer routine. Sam's prayer tonight was:

"Thank you God, for hotdogs. Amen."

I starting to wonder if we need to start pushing a healthier diet with this kid.

What do you say?

Well, I wasn't going to tell this story but Gregg thought it was hilarious and needed to be posted on the blog. We were just home from work the other day and our dog, Buzzy, must have been a little excited over something. I can't really come up with a way to say it in a nice way but , the dog had a red rocket sticking out. Sam turned to me and says, "Mommy, is Buzzy pooping". I didn't even know how to explain that one, all I could say was "No, Sam, that is not poop" A topic for later date.

Thank you God....

We have been trying to get Sam to say a prayer with us every night before bed. Tonight he finally contributed to the prayer. He says....

"Thank you God, for pizza."

I think he finally understands and we can now definitely say that he is his father's son.

Potty time!

One of the good things that came out of July was that Sammy suddenly became potty trained. He totally amazed us. Sam asked about wearing underwear so we let him try it a few evening at home and he did great. He than begged to wear underwear to school one day so we gave it a shot. I pick him up that evening and find out he has used the potty all day without one accident. Ever since he has done awesome with only a handful of accidents (and most of them have been pretty understandable). I guess he was just ready and I am sooo thankful he was this easy.

He even did great using the potty on our camping trip. Like a bear in the woods:

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Hello August!

Hello everyone! Did you think I had totally given up on the blog? Well, I kind did during the month of July. It was a bad month and we are glad to have moved onto August. Now back to blogging too.

Here is a quick little catch up from the month of July.

4th of July Party in our court:

Camping in Columbia:

Botantical Gardens with Mama and Papa:

Happy Birthday Papa!:




Leaving Grant's Farm with Sam's buddy, Ben:

Gregg and I had a great anniversary yesterday! It is hard to believe it has been 4 years. We actually got a night out to dinner with Sam at home with a babysitter and all. It was nice to catch up and talk without having to tend to Sam's every need (not that we didn't miss him a little too).

I am proud of all that we have done in our 4 years of marriage: traveled and had some fun before we decided to have kids, had a beautiful son, live in a great house and wonderful neighborhood for Sam to grow up in, while both holding down demanding jobs. Most importantly we still love being together especially with our family and friends. Here is to another fun filled year and lots more adventures in the coming year.

The start of a bad habit

Sam has over the past week been a little more difficult to put to bed. He tries to extend how many books we read, doesn't want to get out of the bath tub, wants to go say goodnight to everyone again. In other words, he tries to find ways to push back his bedtime. On top of that over the past few days, he keeps calling out "Mommy, Daddy" after we put him to bed. I know I probably should just ignore it and let him just to get to sleep. The last few times he has done this have been when Gregg is not here, and I am just not very strong on my own. I need Gregg to give me the moral support to ignore Sam and let him go to sleep on his own. So, anyway I have been going in there to check on him. As soon as I get in there, Sam says "Mommy I need to cuddle you". How do you turn that down? Than of course I end up rocking him and cuddling for way too long. It is so cute, but I know I am probably starting a very bad routine. I just look at him cuddling with me and know he won't want to do that forever so it is sure hard to put him back to bed. Oh well, I am sure this will also pass but I think I might enjoy for a little while I can.

Happy Birthday Mama!

Memorial Day weekend fun

Despite the fact that I had to work the entire weekend and Gregg had a monster sized honey do list, we managed to have a little fun this Memorial Day weekend.

The neighbors invited Sam over to play on their water slide/pool. He had a blast. This kid is definitely all boy and fearless. I wish I would have gotten video of him on the slide, b/c his giggle after going down each time was priceless.

Suffolk Court is newsworthy

Sorry no pics yet of the wedding from this past weekend. Everything was perfect and Clay and Suzy are enjoying their honeymoon in Jamaica now. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera this weekend so I am waiting on others for pics. Hopefully I can post some soon.


In the meantime, here is an article from the St. Louis paper today. It is actually all occured on the court we live on. Read on, pretty interesting. We are so proud of the kids in our court for speaking up and allowing us to keep our basketball hoops!

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stcharles/story/3BA97ED104F2C5DB862575BB007907B3?OpenDocument

9 days until the wedding!

Suzy and Clayton are getting married in 9 days! Wow, the time has gone by so quick. I can't believe it is almost upon us.

This past weekend, we made a trip out of Mount Pleasant Winery (the site of the ceremony)

to do some last minute planning/preparations. Everything seems to be in good order. While we there we of course had to also enjoy some of their wine. Doesn't everyone look totally stressed?

We're back!!!

I apologize as I have not been on to blog in a very long time. I am going to try to get back on track.

Things have been a little crazy lately, Gregg got laid off from Charter, I went back to working fulltime, then Gregg found a job (very quickly I might add).. He will be selling advertising for ESPN radio (101.1), the same line of work he was in a Charter. We feel very lucky to be out of work for such a short period of time and that I was able to go back to fulltime work without any difficulty. This just goes to show what a great leader Gregg is in his field of work, he was talking with companies about job possibilities days after he was laid off. We do believe things happen for a reason, Gregg is very excited about his new job opportunity and he would not have attempted looking for a job in this economy if he wasn't forced into it like he was.

So now we are adjusting to both of us working fulltime again. It just requires a little more teamwork and running more errands in the evening. It has not been a difficult adjustment for Sam, he loves going to "school" (daycare). Gregg and I are also adjusting fairly well, we are just very tired.

Well here is a little recap in pictures of the month of April:

A trip to the Magic House

Looking at the giraffes at the St Louis zoo

Visiting the Easter Bunny

Hunting for Easter eggs at Grandma and Grandpas
Watching a concert in Newtown

Eating dinner in the backyard

Our swingset Flying a kite in the backyard

Halftime show

Hey Mom and Dad, recognize the shirt. I am pretty sure I have had it since jr. high. Sorry I do look a little sloppy, I was doing yard work earlier.

Doctor

Sam had his 2 year old checkup with his doctor last week. We talked a lot about the doctor leading up to the appointment because he is much more skeptical about everything these days. I thought that it might save a meltdown if he was prepared. On the car ride to the appointment we were talking some more about the doctor and he kept saying something over and over. I couldn't figure out what it was at first. Here it is:

If you couldn't understand, he is saying "no more monkeys jumping on the bed", well more like "no monkeys on bed". I think my parents have a book that goes through the whole monkeys jumping on the bed story/song. Somehow he had remembered that and I guess thought that was what the Doctor was going to tell him. And by the way, that story never came up during all of our talks about going to the doctor. I just never know what this kid is going to say.

Go Tigers!

In honor of Mizzou's basketball team making an appearance in the top 10, here are some pics of Sam's first Mizzou basketball game. We took Sam to his first game on Valentine's Day (also Gregg's birthday). Sam was totally enthralled by the whole experience. He was content for a majority of the game sitting on our laps and just watching everything (sitting still is very unusualy for this kid). He loved Truman, the cheerleads, the band, and of course the basketball game.

birthday pics

Sam blew out the candle before we even finished singing Happy Birthday.

Elmo arrives at the party.....Sam is a little freaked out by Elmo

but he will take a present from him.....
after Sam opens the presents, he keep repeating "Elmo go bye-bye"



Sam telling Logan, it will be OK, "Elmo is bye-bye"

Logan is a little smitten over Eli

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sam!

Sam turned two today:( sniff, sniff. I still do have a few hours of him officially being one, as he was actually not born until 11:12 p.m. I really don't need to get upset about until tomorrow, right?
Sam had a great birthday weekend. We had lots of family and friends here to celebrate. He was even lucky enough for "Elmo" to make an appearance at his party. I think Elmo become much too real for Sam when he showed up to his party. I don't think he really envisioned Elmo being adult sized in real life (I don't know if any of us really do, but hey that is the only costume they had for rent). Sam now talks like he enjoyed Elmo being there but he was definitely not too keen on him at the time. When he showed up to the party Sam clung tightly to me, would not hug him but he did not take his eyes off him the entire time he was there. It was like he did not trust that crazy red monster for a second. Finally, he started telling Elmo, "Elmo, go bye-bye" over and over until Elmo finally decided it was best to leave. Oh well, we got some funny video that I am sure he will enjoy watching in a few years.
Here is a little clip of Sam from today. I will post more party pics in the next few days.

Smile?

I was a little nervous this morning when I asked Sam how he was going to smile for his pictures today. As you will see on the video, he gave me the cheesiest smile ever. This was by far the most challenging photography session with Sam, but they did still get some great shots. His 2 year old pictures are now complete, how did he grow up so quick?

M-I-Z

Z-O-U

Go Tigers! Boy was that fun last night. I have to admit I gave up on the Tigers several times but did thankfully watch the game to the end. I was really dragging today but definitely worth it. Gregg and I are heading to Columbia for the game on Saturday- it will be our Valentine/Gregg's birthday celebration. They better pull out another W for us!

Mr. Manners

Sam has made us so proud lately (not that he doesn't everyday), he has become very polite. Now he is saying "thank you" and "please" unprompted. The person he is thanking does not even have to be with him at the time.
For example, the other morning, we were getting dressed and he insisted on picking out his clothes. He picks out a shirt that my parents gave him and somehow remembers who gave it to him (this kid remembers everything!) Sam than proceeds to say, "Momma, Papa! Thank you, Mama. Thank you Papa". I guess he is very thankful to may parents for giving him that shirt, it is definitely one of his favorites.

Mamas night out

This past weekend I met up with some my friends from college in Columbia. We don't get together as much as we used to, as we are all are married and most of us have kids. It used to be several times a year we would get together for weddings, showers, etc but now even the baby showers are dwindling down.

We had a fun night out. The night started by going to the Mizzou-Baylor basketball game. That game has now invigorated my love for Mizzou basketball. After watching the win last weekend I was on the edge of my bed watching the Mizzou-Texas game last night! It was pretty late before I could get to sleep last night.

After the basketball game we hit some of our old drinking establishments. We made it to Harpo's, Black and Gold, Shiloh and even ended the night at the Diner with the ever famous "stretch" (all of you Mizzou alumni will be familar with all of those fine establishments). We acted like we were in college for another night but we all did not quite recover the same the next day. Thankfully, Gregg understood when I had to take a nap as soon as I got home.

It was a fun night, lots of laughs with some of my favorite people. I hope we can get together again very soon!