Wanna pway Cousins pweas!

 

This my friends is a phrase that I am growing quite weary of hearing these days. I typed this in Sammy language but it translates to “I want to play with my cousins please”. We were so excited that my cousin Karen and her kids Cole & Shelby came down from TN to celebrate Shelby’s birthday and as an added bonus they brought Julie down with them too! Sammy hadn’t seen them since last summer but he looks at their pictures a lot and was a very eager beaver on our way up to Aunt Sandra’s house.

I was so very impressed with how well behaved both Cole and Shelby were, they were so sweet with Sammy and really doted on him. Both had grown and matured so much since I last saw them. Cole showed Sammy many magic tricks that wowed Sammy each and every time and Shelby was a little mama helping with every aspect of Sammy’s day. They read to him, encouraged him to eat all his food, played cars (a must if you are to be buddies with this kid), swam, and even taught him how to run races with them. Unfortunately our visit with them came to an end much too quickly and ever since, literally EVERY day, he asks about his cousins. He really grabbed hold of that word and loves to use it.

Julie or Julz as I call her also came down and I just can’t believe how grown up she is! It is so weird to see my little baby cousin as a little lady. We used to live a few streets away from them so I would pick her up all the time and hang out with her. She was just the sweetest little girl and even when she was just toddling around I would have a blast with her each time we had our girl time. She is just too cool for me these days that I can’t keep up but I sure wish we had more time together. She is such a stand up girl, strong in her faith with a kind sweet heart for others, and she can sure crack me up!! She has always been like that,  so it is cool to see her evolve into this beautiful young lady. I know she will leave a big mark on this world in one way or another. You keep on shining Julz, I love you so much!

Their trip down here totally sealed the deal on us taking a trip up to TN at some point this summer. I miss my family too much and it isn’t right for Sammy to barely see his cousins. So.. all you TN folks, get ready, the planning of a trip is in the works!!!

Oh and as a side note.. the other phrase we are hearing often and a little too much of is Sammy’s replacement of the tried and true phrase “thank you”. Our child has chosen to say “gracias, porfavor, AMEN!” each and every time he would typically say thank you. It was cute at first but now, not so much. We’re working on it though and hope to have it phased out soon.

Here they were teaching Sammy how to do a “cool” pose, he clearly embraced it

 

He “wuvs” his “Shwewlby”

She lost a tooth while we were there which blew Sammy’s mind, he couldn’t believe it and still retells the story to anyone who will listen to him

Happy birthday Shelby! We love you!

I love this pic b/c I have several pictures of me sitting in that very chair with a cake all lit up with candles and a toothless grin. Warms my heart!

Here Cole was teaching Sammy how “men” pose… Sammy was instructed to stand with his arms crossed and look tough, ha ha

He would literally do everything they said which was a little worrisome. Here Cole was teaching him to do a trick and on Cole’s cue Sammy was to fall over which he did about 7 times in a row until I cut Cole off b/c I was scared Sammy would have a bruise, silly boys!

Blown away by the good ol’ penny out of your ear magic trick

Shelby with my mom, so sweet!

Nicole and Julz the coolest teens in the whole world!

Sammy followed Jamie Lynn and Shelby around like a little puppy it was so funny

 

She not only changed his diapers but also brushed his teeth and helped bathe him!

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The Bonfire

Our awesome friends Micah and Amy invited us out to their place for a super fun bonfire a few weekends ago. Let me just brag on this amazing family. Sam and I have LOVED getting to know them. We are just so thankful for them and their family. Not only do Sam and I love hanging with them but they happen to have two little boys, Nicolae and Gabriel who are Sammy’s good buddies. He and Nicolae are only a few months apart and it is so great to meet up with Amy at the park and let the boys run wild while we chat it up. Now let me tell you why I think they are extra super cool… they love our Flores kiddos!!! Most reading the blog prob know by now that Sam and I have a 4 kids that we have fallen in love with and have in our home every few weekends. They are great bunch of kids but they have had some rough spots along the way and although they are quite resillient they can be challenging at times. Needless to say, we don’t get many offers to hang out when inviting us includes 5 children that in rowdiness and decibel level seem more like 9 or 10 kids. Micah and Amy have really taken the time to get to know them and they kids ask almost every time they are here if we are going to see Micah and Amy.

Sam was working so he had to miss out but the kids and I piled in the car and headed over to their house and what a fun night we had! Many have asked me how I get them all plus Sammy & his car seat in my little car. The answer is VERY CAREFULLY. To be honest they aren’t able to wear seatbelts and one and half of them always end up on the floor board but we just say a prayer together before we head off to our many destinations and so far so good. Once at Micah & Amy’s the kids played and we roasted hotdogs and made smores. Mark especially had a great time helping Micah throw things in the fire and he had never made smores before! They all got along wonderfully the entire time (no small feat with this bunch!) and we all had a blast and really enjoyed ourselves. The little boys, Sammy, Nicolae, and Gabriel ran around pant-less in an attempt to speed up the potty training and I really think it helped! He has had a complete turn around and has kicked his potty training in high gear since that night but please excuse his nakedness below. We were in the country in my defense, so nobody saw (Mom, I put that just for you).

The car ride home was really sweet. One thing that always surprised me with this bunch is how much they want the baby experiences for themselves. When I first had Sammy and they watched me interact with him they wanted me to rock and sing to them, read them stories in my lap rather than all piled on the couch or bed, tickle their feet and talk in baby voices, even wanted to drink of out bottles and sippy cups! Given that they are so old and so big and there are so many of them, and some of these things would just be weird most of these haven’t been possible. One thing I do indulge them in is listening to Sammy’s baby praise and lullaby cd. They begged for it on the way home and so we cranked it up. They asked me to pray with them some more and we just had a very sweet car ride home. My poor Sammy passed out before we got on the main road so he missed it all but I really enjoyed those sweet moments with them. I try to always remember I never know just how much time I will have with them so I am very thankful when we can have extra special fun memories like this night as opposed to the not so great visits where they are fighting and misbehaving.

Thank you Johnson family for showing us a great evening!

 

Samantha had fun entertaining Sammy in the baby pool, they sang several silly songs together

My Banana is so big now, check her out! This picture just makes me really see just how LONG she is, and she is getting so skinny, I need to fatten her up!

Krista was a great little mamma that night, she really tried to help a lot with the 3 little guys. I got her reading the babysitter club series for a reason, but shhhh.. don’t tell her that

Here is the gang minus Amy and me

gathering sticks with Micah

They loved picking Mulberries off the tree and eating them, I did NOT love working for several washes on getting the stains out of their clothes, Amy.. maybe try an apple tree next.. just a thought

Its smores time!

Me and my girl

Can’t see it but right at this moment Krista’s marshmellow burst into flames, so funny

The little boys had a blast running around the yard all night but they sure were filthy and sticky so we piled them in the tub. I had envisioned a cute pic of all three smiling with spiky soaped up hair covered in bubbles.. yea, not so much. This was my best attempt when will I learn?

Technorati Tags: Hannah,Sammy,BBBS,bonfire

A little humor to brighten your day

Had to post this! Sam and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary last month, that’s right, we’ve been together for a total of 13 years now and are thankfully more in love than ever (say awwww here). More on that to come soon. The funny part occurred when Sammy and I were in Target shopping for the perfect card to give Sam. I was engrossed in reading my umpteenth card in search of just the right wording and my little one had decided to “help” me by reaching out of the cart and picking out cards himself. The first was of an obnoxious dog with bug eyes, the second was of a strange frog with a long tongue. He loves frogs and dogs so it made sense that he chose these. I explained why we had to put them back and asked him to please not touch the cards again. I had returned to the card I was reading when I suddenly heard his shriek of excitement…. “OOOOHHH MOMMY!!!” I turned and saw his big “o” mouth and raised eyebrows and he held the below card up and exclaimed “I want DIS ONE fo daddy, pweas mommy. Dis my favor-wit one! I weally wike it!!” I burst out laughing.. check it out !

I explained that this wasn’t the right kind of card, it wasn’t the card to give for a wedding anniversary and poor thing started to cry. He pleaded again on how his daddy would “be sad if not got card”. So, I couldn’t resist, yes I reinforced his behavior and totally bought it. It was just too funny that this of all cards this is what my sweet innocent little boy picked out for his daddy and declared was his favorite. To top it off, inside it read “we’ve reached the age where we just can’t function without our glasses, especially if they are empty, Happy Birthday!”.

He colored a picture of a cow and an elephant on the inside for Sam and he even asked if he could buy daddy some flowers. We headed up to the nursery and Sammy picked out marigolds, that were so stinky! He was just so proud of himself as we got the gifts arranged nicely on the table. He looked at me and said “daddy weally gone wike beauful card mommy” and he grinned. Sam was a little shocked when he opened it and then couldn’t stop laughing.

Sammy just beamed when Sam opened it and he told him all about the elephant and cow he drew inside. They were apparently eating a popsicle together, can’t you tell? Sam on the other hand cracked up and did a great job telling Sammy how he picked out a perfect card.

Technorati Tags: Sammy,anniversary,card

Catching up with the Ashburns

Let me first say it is so nice to blog again! I am happy to report my horrible semester is over and I made it through. I even took a few days to just relax and hang out with my Sams and it has been fabulous. We kept Sammy home from school and I didn’t even glance at the computer and it was just fabulous! We had a blast! I have really missed having time to blog. I would think of things I wanted to blog about almost each day but never had the time to get my thoughts down and now I can’t even remember what they are. Sigh.

I wanted to share some pics from our time with the Ashburn family! They were down from TN on a Florida vacation and Sammy and I headed over to spend the day with them. Laurie is Leslie’s younger sister and I hadn’t seen her in YEARS and had never met her kids, so this reunion of sorts was great. Lexi was a such a sweetheart and so mature for her age! I was so impressed with this girl and Sammy adored her. Sammy & Zander were instant buds and played so well together. Sammy wanted to do everything that Zander did and was sure to remind me throughout the day that Zander “is big kid”. It was so surreal to back on the beach with Laurie since we spent all of our childhood vacations together on that same beach and this time we were with our own children.

One quick note.. Sammy LOVED the beach this time! For those who don’t know, Sam and I used to live on the beach so we were devastated when our little one showed us on many occasions just how displeased he was to be at the beach. He has a real sensitivity to things being on his feet so all the sand at the beach was a big turn off for him. We worked to prepare him for this trip, talking a lot about sand and what it would be like and thankfully when he saw Zander run onto the beach laughing and having the time of his life viola…. Sammy decided to give it a go and he loved it!

Check it out… they had a jellyfish they caught and were taking it back to TN with them, ewwwwww….

Zander taught Sammy how to make silly faces, yay.

I was so happy to see him take these first few hesitant steps out on the sand!!! The whole time he kept repeating..”mira mommy. I in sand! I wike it! You see me?”

He even got it on his hands and just wiped it right off, we are FINALLLY there, yay!

Above he is digging in the sand and ENJOYING it and below running free on the beach squealing and chasing birds, it made my heart happy to see him that happy on the beach

 

The best I could get of all three of them =)

This was going to be a super cute pic,I asked them both to put their hands up, Zander did great but we lost Sammy with the wrist band

 

His new cheese face, I’m hoping this isn’t here to stay

Marineland!

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Sweet little bundle of joy.. Isaac Scott!(and……No I DID NOT FAINT!)

Technorati Tags: Birth,Andrea,Isaac,Jesus

Most of you reading this probably know that my friend Andrea had her baby, Isaac Scott and I just had to share a few pics of him and a little about the experience. I was in the delivery room with her!!! Yep, that’s right.. you are on the correct blog and this is not a typo.. I helped her through the birth process! I am still so honored that she asked me to be there and help and that I was able to be a part of it all. Isaac’s birth was just one of the most amazing things I have ever been a part of, seriously. There is no way I could write the details better than Andrea did herself on her blog, so please click and read here (click on the red word here) for a “he said she said” account where she and her husband Scott told the birth experience from their sides of the story. Scott is hilarious by the way, too funny.

 

Andrea, God bless her, had both of her boys naturally with no meds and she was so strong through the entire process and I don’t just mean physically. Yes I was amazed by her physical and mental strength to overcome the pain and exhaustion but what amazed me most was her dependence on her Savior to see her through. When she asked me to come & and help her she said she wanted me to be there to encourage her and keep her focused on God during the delivery, to pray with her and read her scriptures. Well I wasn’t too sure if I could keep from fainting through it all but I KNEW I could pray with her and keep her focused on God, that would be a job I could handle! Let me just say, what an experience it was! We could without a doubt feel His presence in the room with us, it was amazing. We began with a prayer and boy did my Jesus answer our prayers! He outdid himself. I remember one thing I asked for when the prayer was that she would not have to push for very long and later I told Andrea I bet Jesus laughed when I prayed and said.. “let me just show you what I can do”.  Andrea never pushed once! Isaac basically jumped out of her! He answered every single one of our prayers that day. Andrea was so very strong and brave. She was just shining like a star that day for all the world to see her faith. We had a flip book of scriptures that she and I collected before hand and we would recite them together through each contraction and when she got past the point of being able to say them I would read them to her. I know the nurses were either encouraged in their faith as they saw her totally dependent on God through it all OR they thought we were nut jobs and in a cult, but I strongly believe it was the former rather than the latter. It was so amazing to see that in her time of greatest pain and distress she turned to her Savior. There is no doubt for any of us that were in that room, the nurses included that HE was her strength. The entire process was indescribable. I feel like I am doing a terrible job even trying to put it into words because I feel there are not really words that are adequate to describe it. Cheezy you say? Yes, I know, but its the truth.

Our Jesus was also there for me that day, He was also my strength. For those who know me and my fear of needles/blood.. hospital anxiety… know that the word hesitant does not even begin to describe how I felt the day Andrea asked me to be with her during her delivery. Please don’t misinterpret that, I wanted to be there to support my dear friend more than anything in the world and I felt so honored &  humbled that she would ask me but I also had equally strong feelings of not wanting to ruin their special day! I do not have a good track record with blood & needles. The usual pattern is as follows.. I am exposed to OR JUST HEAR A STORY OF blood or needles and BAM! I am on the floor. Yep, that’s right. I am a bonna fide wimp. Heck I am president of the wimp club. I fainted my first time when I was two years old and I have many many stories of fainting ever since. A few highlights were when I fainted in the mall parking lot after getting my ears pierced, fainting as a little girl while my mom was putting my hair in pig tails (she was telling me about her surgery she was going to have and thankfully she held tightly to my right pig tail as I went down), I fainted in the ophthalmologist office during my routine eye exam (I started thinking about what he was really seeing when looking in my eye), oh I could go on and on.

Lots of stories there. Some I don’t care to relive. How did I deliver my own baby you ask? Well, the IV was the worst part! ha ha! No joke, I was more scared of my IV and I freaked out more with the IV than the actual delivery. My nurses got a good laugh out of that one. They actually had to cut one of the newborn baby hats and cover my IV on my arm so I couldn’t see it anymore and viola! My strength came back and I was a ok. My queezy feelings subsided. Smooth sailing from there! I did have drugs though, so didn’t feel the pain of child birth which probably had something to do with it.

So.. you can see why I was a little hesitant. All I could envision before hand was my sweet friend struggling and pushing and needing some encouragement and me lying on the floor, out cold, maybe even drooling. I thought about it before I gave her an answer and prayed long and hard and Philippians 4:13 kept coming to mind and I decided, its not about me, its about HIM so lets do this! I did give her a disclaimer that I am NOT responsible for what happens and advised she couldn’t say I didn’t warn her if I did. Her response was.. “you’ll be fine. I am not even worried.” This let me say, is VERY TYPICAL of my friend Andrea. She has always believed I can do anything I put my mind to and has total faith in me and is one of my “Hur & Aaron”s in life, lifting me up and encouraging me through EVERY trial. We have prayed each other through just about everything and have shared tears of joy, sorrow, and laughed so hard until we almost pee together (was that TMI? probably huh? oh well, sorry). How could I NOT go and help her??

So, I am proud to say I made it through. I did leave the room when they gave her the IV, just in case and I think it was good b/c I avoided any queezy feelings and honestly I was fine through it all. Never even felt a hint of uneasiness and when I saw Isaac’s little head it was just amazing. The blood didn’t matter, the doctors in all their doctor garb, didn’t matter. The medical equipment and fact I was in a hospital room, didn’t matter. What DID matter was that I was meeting face to face this little one whom I had prayed for since the moment he was a thought in his mommy’s head. Months of praying and begging, pleading with God to give him to her, to them, to his amazing family. I remembered getting the call she was in fact pregnant and then my prayers changed to prayers of thankfulness and gratitude and then, more pleading and begging for this to be a healthy & strong pregnancy and then my prayers for Isaac’s life began. Prayers that he would grow up healthy and happy and know he is loved more than words can say. Prayers for his relationship with is mommy & daddy, and his amazing big brother Connor. Prayers that God would put dreams in his heart and give him a kind, soft heart and selfless spirit. Prayers that he will one day accept Jesus Christ as his own savior and grow to be a strong man of God, one who will reach many and touch lives of others. Yes, seeing him and then holding him for that first time, I was just speechless. What a miracle!

Thank you Scott and Andrea for letting me be a part of this amazing day!

 

Andrea saying goodbye to Connor right before we left to head to the hospital. They had a sweet conversation about how Isaac was going to be born that day.

My amazingly strong friend!

Scott and I were keeping the FB world updated on her progress. I was using his fancy Iphone and he was using my el cheapo phone and needed to wash the cheapness off afterwards, he was not happy I have a picture to document him holding it, ha ha!

So sweet! Meeting their new little one, everyone say… awwwwwwww!!!!

He was NOT happy about being taken out of his warm comfy home to this cold bright room!

We did it!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Isaac!!!

The new family of FOUR! Look how proud the big bro is.. isn’t he adorable?? I could just eat him up! I love you Connor man!

Ok, so totally not related to Isaac’s birth at all BUT I had to post this one. Connor turned 4 about a week after Isaac was born and check out his new big boy bike!!! He is so big now!