Christmas Morning

At the park

On Saturday we went to Disney World and watched the Christmas parade and attended the Candlelight Processional with Whoopi Goldberg. Here are some pictures!

Christmas Rambling

The speaker at church yesterday read the above scripture and then asked each of us to ponder the meaning of each of the titles of Christ and the significance each of these titles/roles has in our lives. I am humbled to know that I have a Savior who has done so much for me. He is Wonderful! Because of Him, I have peace. My words seem to trivialize the great role that He has played for all mankind, and that is weakness in me. I cannot write words well enough to express myself and the gratitude that I have for my Savior.
I am thankful to be celebrating His birth and hope that during the coming year I can continue to grow in my love and appreciation for what he has done. Through the trials and blessings that I have had, I have come to know that He loves me and is anxious to help me to develop into the person that He knows I can become. I have also learned, and continue to learn, that He is caring for me and my family.
He has cared for Samuel before I was blessed to be Samuel's mom. During those first months after having Samuel I begged for Samuel to be spared. I said in so many prayers, "Please heal him! I want him here with me!" Those prayers were answered, and Samuel continues to grow and be so strong. During my prayers, however, I also received the reminder and assurance that He wants us there with Him. He wants us to be close to Him; He wants us to be like Him. If we rely upon Him, He will counsel us so that we can more fully receive His peace.

Home Today

Well, yesterday Samuel did have some difficulty breathing after surgery. They gave him a breathing treatment before we left the hospital and then we gave him his treatment before he went to bed last night. Poor little guy - lately he has been holding the mask himself, but last night he wanted nothing to do with it and he screamed the entire time. The screaming got so bad that we had to stop and start again 3 different times.
Anyway, Samuel had a good night and then this morning he was not breathing well again so we gave him a treatment and decided that David would go to work while Samuel and I would spend the day at home resting.

No Driving or Operating Heavy Machinery

Samuel is home and all is well. The discharge instructions include that we shouldn't allow Samuel to drive or operate heavy machinery. So, I guess we will have to find other things to fill our time :)
Seriously though, Samuel did very well in surgery. He was taken in just before 7:30 AM and we were leaving the hospital just before 9 AM. He was a little loopy coming off of the anesthesia and just jabbered and giggled. This afternoon we just relaxed and let him have a quiet day. Best news is that likely there will not be any other surgery until possibly after Samuel is around 3 years old! A whole year without a surgery - Yahoo!!!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween this year was lots of fun! We went to two 'trunk or treat' parties and Samuel had a great time. He loved carrying his bag because he really likes putting things in bags...however, he didn't know what to think of other people putting things in his bag!

He also had fun at the 'fishing pond'.
On Halloween we went to the Sea World Spooktacular and Samuel got his piture taken with the "Pumpkin Fish". We went late in the day because we were having record breaking heat so the only show we watched was "Shamu Rocks". Samuel loved it. I enjoyed the show, but even more then then show, I enjoyed listing to Samuel cheer and get so excited with the different tricks that were done.

We also went to the pumpkin patch again this year. We went right before going to Sea World - Next year we will have to remember to go earlier because going on Halloween the patch was pretty much closing down. Still got cute pictuers though!

Adventures with Visitors

So here are the pictures that you have all been waiting for: (warning: There are lots of pictures, I had a hard time narrowing them down!)
As you know, we moved. Samuel LOVES his room, and it's not even completely organized yet. It was the first room that we got started on because we wanted to make sure and have it mostly put together when Samuel got home from "school".

We went to Sea World with Connie's family while they were here and Kaylynn got picked to meet Seamore! Kaylynn is so adorable.

Samuel really liked feeling the ice in the wild Arctic exhibit.

The next weekend we went to Magic Kingdom. Samuel's favorite "attraction" was climbing about on the fence while waiting at Splash Mountain.

He also enjoyed riding with Auntie Connie and Richard on Pirates.

And splashing in Toontown.

It was cold (which means it dropped below 70!) so Samuel bundled up in this Halloween tiger costume.

It was a long day for the little tiger and he fell asleep in his car seat immediately...

Then Connie and family came over for dinner which was so much fun! All of the kids got to eat on beach blankets in the living room. Samuel had already eaten because he eats better when there isn't other excitement. Well, he still wanted to be with the cousins while they were eating so he got his chair and sat right at the end of the line!






Then this weekend we went to Busch Gardens with Bob! Here is a tiger from Busch Gardens....he's almost as cute as my Samuel tiger!

Samuel loved the carousel.

and the sky ride

Well, that wraps out our adventures of the last month or so. After finishing with Busch Gardens we did head over and close out Magic Kingdom. I meant to get a picture with Samuel and Bob. Samuel really loved Bob - he especially loved that Bob sat in the back seat next to him in the car.

It was so great to have parts of our families come visit us!