Cookie Decorating

Sam was helping me decorate sugar cookies the other day. We were putting mini chocolate chips for the snowmen buttons and gingerbread man's eyes. Sam liked lots of "eyes" on his gingerbread man and even more in his mouth and on his face. And then to tip it off I asked him to smile and he did this thing with his arms that Brandon and my sisters do all the time in pictures. I just had to laugh. What a copycat.

Sam and Laura

Here are some pictures of Sam and his little cousin Laura. She had come over for a pajama party (we were babysitting while Bekah was volunteering in the boys' classes and since we were all still in our pjs we made a party out of it.) Sam loves Laura and even though they both had "boofoo" hair Sam kept on telling her, "Laura, you so cute!" Such good friends.

PS: Sam looks irritated because he is. They were just so cute, but I was interrupting his show.

Finding the Christmas Tree

Apparently cutting down a Christmas tree is going out of style and no one let us know. As long as I can remember, my family has always gone out together and cut down our Christmas trees and Brandon and I plan on keeping this as one of our traditions. After asking several friends and neighbors where a good Christmas tree lot was nearby, I received only one response, "I don't know. We have a fake tree."

We decided to go to Enumclaw and meet up with my family, who are the only other people I know cutting down a tree this year, and get our tree. It only took about an hour to find the perfect tree, which is pretty good for us. Try getting nine people to all agree on the same tree, it can take a while.

While we walked around Sam was excited by all of the baby trees that were just his size. He also liked carrying around the saw, which in its case looked a lot like a gun.



In the end, this is what we came up with. Ours looks tiny compared to my family's, but they have a slightly taller ceiling than ours. I think it looked a lot bigger when they cut it down. Our looks bigger in the house than it does in the pictures here.

A Quick Review

It has been a long time since I have posted anything. Here is a quick recap of the last month and a half...

...We have all been sick at one point of another at least once in the past two months. This is strange for us because we have never been ones to get sick a lot. First it was Sam, throwing up in his sleep three times one night. Then he gave it to me. Brandon, Sam and I all had a cough/runny nose, which caused me to do some more throwing up. And then after playing in the snow, Sam got a runny nose again.

... We hosted Thanksgiving this year. It was a packed house with Grandpa Dorman, Roger and Mary (Brandon's parents), our cousins Michael and Bekah and their three kids, some friends from our ward and their two kids (Tony, Kristie, Jaxson and Kaisa) and then Brandon's uncle Cory, Aunt Lisa, cousin Kaitlyn and two of her cousins. We just barely found enough folding chairs and tables to accommodate everyone. That morning consisted of cooking and Turkey ball. After dinner (which was so good and a combination of everyone) the kids ran around and played, the boys all had a game of Axis and Allies and the girls all wanted to take naps. We were so excited we have such good family and friends here and we were able to host our first Thanksgiving.

...In our old stake (Maple Valley) they have an annual Christmas Creche. My mom was on the committee and in charge of a lot. We went and saw all the nativities and Jordan singing and playing her violin in the Children's Choir. This is a picture of Sam and some friends from our old ward, Livvy and Abby, dressed up as shepherds. Notice the chocolate around Sam's mouth from the cookies that all his aunts were giving him...

...I took a quick day trip down to Portland with Mary for Brandon's sister, Haley's, baby shower. She is having a boy in February and we are excited for Sam to have a cousin.We did a little bit of Christmas shopping and came back in the beginning of the big storm that just came through Washington. Snow and lots and lots of rain.

...All of the holiday preparations and activities are still keeping us busy. We have put up our lights and decorations around the house. Today I will finish putting the lights on the Christmas tree and Sam is going to help with the ornaments. When we are finished I will try and post some pictures. We still have yet to get our Christmas cards together or start any baking.

Halloween

I know this is way overdue, but better late than never. With inspiration from a birthday gift (a play chainsaw) from Sam's girlfriend Taiya, we decided Sam would be a lumberjack this year. We were excited to have our own house to pass out candy and met some of the neighbors (they aren't very friendly and we have only had two neighbors even say hi to us.) Brandon really wanted to dress up and sit out on the front porch and scare the kids as they came up to the door. He was trying to decide between a scarecrow and a ghost. Unfortunately we just weren't on top of things very well and couldn't pull something together in time.

We went over to Brandon's cousins, Micheal and Bekah, who live just down the street from us, and had pizza before heading out to trick or treat. Our friends the Campbells also came trick or treating with us. Sam was so excited to go trick or treating with all his friends and cousins. Dale and Andrew are the ninjas, Jaxson the knight, Kasa the White witch and Laura was the monkey.


I was trying to prepare Sam for Halloween night by telling him what was going to happen when he went up to the doors. So all day he went around knocking on the doors saying, "Trick or treat, now give me candy." I guess my message got a little distorted in the process. When it actually came time to go door to door, Sam was a little more hesitant than I thought. A lot of the houses were decorated with large ghosts or over sized spiders which scared Sam to death and he didn't want to have anything to do with it. We were hoping that he would just stick with all the boys and we could supervise from the sidewalk. But he wouldn't go up to the doors without Brandon or I to help him. He didn't really enjoy carrying his chainsaw either, so in between each house he would throw his chainsaw and candy bag into the stroller and then about thirty seconds later we would have to load him all up again and carry him up to the door. He was more interested in the candy in his bag than getting anymore, so eventually we only went to every second or third house. After going around Micheal and Bekah's neighborhood (we were also planning on walking the Campbell's neighborhood)we were all tired so we headed back to their house and watched some magic and illusion show. As you can see, Sam didn't get a ton of candy, though I am sure that he probably had half of it while we were trick or treating. I had just bought five bags of candy for all the kids we expected to stop by our house and we were not there at all Halloween night. So we had plenty to compensate.

The Wizard

The end of October we had the opportunity to meet Jack Prelutsky at a book signing for The Wizard in Seattle. It was at a little children's book store and in a room where children's book authors and illustrators got to draw a little message on the wall. You can kind of see that behind us. The bookstore also had a giant fort for reading with stuffed animals and trucks, so that is where Sam spent the majority of the night.

Jack (because we are on a first name bases now) was very funny and goofy. He couldn't get over the fact that Brandon was so young, remarking that, "I have zits older than you!" They did a reading of the book, Brandon drew some pictures for the kids and then they did the signing. It was fun to met him and his wife. We stayed and chatted after everyone had left until I couldn't take it anymore. I was so hungry since we hadn't eaten dinner yet and it was getting close to 9:00 at night.

We drove around the one way streets of the University District of Seattle and tried to find something that was still open. I didn't think it was that late, but apparently Quizno's isn't open past 8:00. In the college area...weird. Finally we settled on Dick's, which totally satisfied all of our hunger. The final event of the night was stopping by my parents' on the way home to pick up a very beloved blanket, which was missed the night before.

Jumping Leaves and Frog

The other day was so nice we went out into the yard and raked up leaves to jump in. Sam quickly got the hang of it and was diving in almost as fast as he came out. He also caught his first pet frog. Inside the new home were placed a rock, a stick and some water; all the essentials for making a glass jar homey for a frog. We took a lot of pictures and then I downloaded them to the computer and erased them off the camera to find out they weren't on the computer in the first place. These are what were salvaged...


P.S. Amy the frog is now relaxing at her vacation home in the yard.

Sunny Day!

I have always been spoiled with a kid who doesn’t wake up extremely early in the morning. Our day usually starts around 8:00 am. And usually Brandon takes him in the morning and I get to sleep for another half hour or so. I can’t complain, but sometimes it comes too fast. Since we have moved into the house Sam has gotten to sleep in his “big boy bed,” Brandon’s bunk beds when he was growing up. I think he is still used to the crib and having someone get him, so he also doesn’t get out of the bed on his own. Silly kid, sometimes he just quietly lies in bed and waits for someone to get him. Well, he is lying so quietly we don’t even know he is awake. We have also been working on times of the day, wake up time, breakfast time, morning time, lunchtime, naptime, daytime, dinnertime, bed time. We know the essentials, sleep and food. But since Sam hates taking his nap he insists that all day is morning time.

Ok, I think that is enough background info, so on with my story… you couldn’t ask for a kid to wake up any happier than this…

Sam: Mom, Dad it is wake up time!
Dad: Sam, climb out of bed and come see us.
Sam: [pitter patter coming down the hall, in our room and to the window] It’s wake up time! It’s wake up time! See it is morning time! It’s a sunny day! [As he proceeds to try and lift up the blinds as high as his arms can lift them, which is just high enough to blind us by the sun.]
Mom and Dad: Arg!
Sam: Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. Sunny day. [This is repeated in song and dance around the room.]
Mom: Sam come lay down and cuddle with me.
Sam: Ok, but it is wake up time, so we don’t have to close our eyes. [After a couple of … seconds.] Ok, Wake up! It is a sunny day! Sunny day. Sunny day. [As he continues with his song out of the room]

Brandon got up so I rolled over and went back to sleep for a little while longer. Thanks Brandon! I am so lucky that Sam is such a happy kid. He always makes me smile and laugh. I love my family!

Pumpkin Patch

We made our trip to the pumpkin patch this week for family night. There is a place nearby call the Pumpkin Place. I wish we had arrived a little earlier; we got there about 15 minutes before it closed. This made deciding on the perfect pumpkin a little easier because time to examine every pumpkin was on an option. We had told Sam he could get his own pumpkin and we would get another pumpkin for mom and dad. Sam decided he wanted a small “Sam size” pumpkin. As we walked through the field he would see a small pumpkin and then as we got closer it would become bigger. This happened several times and then he got distracted and forgot about the pumpkins all together. Go figure, the attention span of a two year old.

There were a lot of fun activities for kids including farm animals to see, a corn maze, pumpkin putt-putt golf, bowling and toys, a tractor to sit on and lots of places to take pictures. From the pictures you will see that we tried to take advantage of as much as we could in the twenty minutes or so that we were there. We were the last ones to leave.

We have yet to carve the pumpkin, so we will post pictures of that fun later.

Repeat

This is becoming an all too common occurrence at our house. But also so cute.

National Alpaca Day

How many people knew September 29th is National Alpaca Day? Well, now you do.

To celebrate the holiday we visited a local alpaca farm just down the road from my parent's house. We learned a lot about alpacas, which Sam still insists on calling "llama alpacas." After a little coaxing Sam decided it was safe to pet the alpaca named Tuko. This little baby alpaca was so busy eating some grass he didn't notice the farmer coming up and all his other fellow alpacas taking off. I consider it lucky the grass was so distracting.

Sam liked petting the alpaca, but was more interested in talking to the ones on the other side of the fence. He said, "It's soft, like a dog." You can tell that he isn't around a lot of animals.

I was also able to convince my mom to sign up for a drawing to win a pair of free alpacas. We think chances are good since she was the only one to sign up. If so next September there will be an alpaca farm tour at the Koontz house.

Jordan and Sam trying to get close without scaring the alpacas away.

Sam's Songs

Sam and I were singing songs this morning. He is still learning the songs, but I think his versions are sometimes more interesting:

"I looked out the window and what did I see? My eye popped out."

"Jesus wants me for a sunbeep."

" A, B, C. Now I know my A, B, C. Next time you sing with me."

Palace of Laughter and Tiger's Egg

In the middle of September, Brandon had his first elementary presentation and book signing with Jon Berkley the author for the books Palace of Laughter and Tiger's Egg.

The morning started bright and early at 5:00 am to get ready and drop Sam off at our cousins' to spend the day. After driving in the peak of the morning traffic we are so glad Brandon's commute consists of walking down the hall. We were able to meet Jon over breakfast of a delicious crescent sandwich. Then off to the school. The kids were all really interested in the drawing part of Brandon's presentation. Jon is from Spain and born in Ireland so it was fun to listen to his accent. After the school presentation it was back to the bookstore to sign books.

While we were there a lady sitting next to us told Brandon she loved his art so much she would love to have him design a tattoo for her. Talk about the ultimate compliment. To have someone permanently plaster your art on their body. We will keep you posted on that one...

Koontz Family Photos

Do the Puyallup!

This last weekend Tim and Haley came up from Portland to visit. The weekend was full of dinners, games, laughing and fun. Friday night we decided to go the Puyallup Fair. We enjoyed seeing the animals and exhibits, riding the (overpriced) rides and having fair food. Sam was a little hesitant to go on the rides by himself and though his facial expressions didn't show it he did love it. The first thing he said the next morning was, "the motorcycle goes fast!"


Thanks for coming Tim and Haley! Can't wait to see you soon...maybe next week.

School Bus

Today was Sam's first school bus ride. Grandma Mary rides the school bus to sign for some deaf students and picked Sam up at the end of the route to the school. He was so excited the bus would stop "just for Sam!" I hope he is still this excited when he "has to" ride the bus.

Too Quiet

Sam is always into something when it is TOO quiet. I dread turning the corner for fear of what Sam has gotten into and is keeping him so entertained...sneaking out of his bed to play in the toy room during nap time (literally tip toeing), shutting himself in the pantry to have a snack, smearing chap stick all over his face, playing basketball with all the folded clothes from the closet and his crib, seeing how high he could stack canned food, or falling asleep while eating his lunch. No matter what he always makes me laugh.

More photos I took at the wedding...