Monday, December 13, 2010

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

The Christmas season is in full swing in the Long household...we have advent calendars on the countdown, Elves watching our every move, a tree picked out and decorated....Christmas play at school, graham cracker and ginger bread houses made, cookie exchanges, and a visit with the big guy...the one, the only...Santa! Bobby has really embraced the Christmas season and all of the activities this year. It has been so much fun to watch him get excited about all of the activities. And Samantha is just as much fun to watch, even if she doesn't really have a clue as to what is going on:)





Excuse some of the "editing"...I was having some fun with an editing site that I found!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Christening

While everyone was home for the holiday weekend, we had Samantha christened. She was christened at 5th Avenue Methodist Church in Wilmington, which is Sam's family church. All of his family have been christened there and Bobby was also christened there. She did great, and it meant so much to have family and friends a part of the day.

The dress that she wore was one of her GG's (Sam's mom) when she was a little girl. As I was ironing the dress, I was just praying that I didn't burn it:) And the gown that she wore was made by my mummu (my mother's mother) and my Aunt Kaarina. Both my sister and I were christened in it and so was Bobby.



Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving in Wilmington...as usual. Unfortunately, Samantha had a double ear infection, so she was a bit out of sorts for the week....which means little sleep for mommy....which means very few pictures were taken, but we still had a wonderful time. And I am truly grateful for my wonderful family and extended family. You all mean the world to me and I consider myself very lucky to have the family that I do...both my own and Sam's family.

We were able to also squeeze in a Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning, which I hope will become an annual event!



Thursday, November 18, 2010

Crafting

I have been a busy bee making barrettes of all types for my first craft show a couple of weeks ago, and another one coming up this weekend. So today I took the kids to a random hay barn up the street from us to get some pictures of Samantha wearing some of the barrettes. I am SO pleased with how the pictures turned out. I couldn't get one of the two of them together....but several cute ones of them individually....enjoy!





Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Halloween

We had a lot of Halloween activities this year. Trick or Treating in the mountains while we were on vacation, trick or treating and a party at school, a party at a friend's house, pumpkin carving, and the big day itself. Bobby has really enjoyed it this year, and Samantha tolerated the costume that I made and put her in:) We had a great time....enjoy the pictures.

And since this post is so late due to technical difficulties, here are just a couple of pictures






Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Mountains...

Last week, my parents invited us to all spend a week in the mountains at Wintergreen Resort. We had a wonderful time. We hiked, hot tubbed, ate, danced, and had a lot of quality family time. It was wonderful to watch Carson and Bobby spend so much time together...hours were spent playing outside, inside and in the hot tub. Thank you mom and dad for such a great week.

The house


The view from the deck


Samantha enjoying the leaves


Hiking










Thank you for a wonderful week, mom and dad!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Pumpkin time....

Last weekend we went to the pumpkin patch with the Parks family. This is an annual event and we had a great time. It was unusually hot, so in my mind, I just tried to pretend that it was a nice cool fall day. All of this while sweating it out in the almost 90 degree weather!!! Unfortunately, I didn't get a ton of pics, but here are a few....hopefully I will have some more fall pictures in the weeks to come.

There were pumpkins

Tractors to climb on



Diggers to play on


And hay to play on

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Their relationship grows and grows....

I absolutely LOVE watching the relationship between brother and sister grow more and more. Each day they play together more and interact more. Samantha is so in love with her big brother. Whatever he is doing or where ever he happens to be, she wants to be a part of it. And one of my favorite things is to listen while we are in the car, and they just make each other giggle back and forth...it is so precious. I can't wait to see as their bond grows and grows.








On the move!

Samantha is officially on the move....and once she started, she has not slowed down! It is amazing to see how quickly she has mastered crawling. She was a little rocky in the beginning, but now there is NO stopping her. And if she really wants something or to get to somewhere (like any open door) she kicks it into turbo drive. She is such a cutie these days. Her personality is really beginning to shine through. Her little giggles and shrieks of joy just bring smiles to all of our faces.







Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Preschool!

It's hard for me to believe that my little man has started pre-school. Yesterday was his first official day, and it was a huge success!! He was so excited. He picked out his clothes, got his back pack ready, and requested "pikey (mohawk) hair." I dropped Samantha off at my cousin Karen's house so that we could have a special morning. We talked the entire way to school, and he went right in like a big boy. When I said that I was leaving, Bobby's response was "okay mommy!" I was so proud of my little man. Can't wait to see how the rest of the week goes.
Ready to go

So excited he was running to the front door

I think it's this way



Putting his name in the basket

Making himself right at home

Hugh Taft Island

As a child we used to go to Hugh Taft Island to play, enjoy the beach, and we always had a wonderful time. It makes me so happy to be able to take my own kids now to the same place to enjoy the same things. And I love that other than the changes that mother nature has made to the island....it is exactly the same. Bobby loved being able to run around, on "an adventure", hunting for crocodiles and swimming in the "hot baths" (tide pools). I can't wait for next summer when I can take both the little ones!


Last Days of Summer

We have thoroughly enjoyed this summer. So much of our time has been spent in Wilmington, and I feel so fortunate to have such a wonderful place to visit and stay whenever we want to. We have enjoyed numerous trips to the beach and last time we even went to the park. On our most recent visit to my parents, Bobby told me that "This is our home too", referring to my parents house. It makes me so happy to think that he is as comfortable there as he is in his own house.