Another Birthday Party

We went over to my Dad's house this past weekend to celebrate Samantha's birthday with that part of the family. That part of the family hadn't seen her since last summer, so it was fun to see all their reactions at how much she had changed. Here are a few picture from the party.
She liked having everyone sing Happy Birthday to her.She was ready to have cake again. The whole time we were singing she was leaning trying to reach the cake.Her cake at our house was white with white frosting. The cake at this party was chocolate cake with white frosting.I think she liked the chocolate cake. ;)She decided she didn't need a plate for her cake. ;)And then of course she got a bath when she was done eating. She enjoyed playing with the water coming out of the faucet.

12-month Well Baby Check-up

We had Samantha's 12 Month Well Baby Check-up on Friday. Our doctor told us that she was a healthy, happy little girl. We are enjoying watching her grow and develop. Last week I discovered that her 7th tooth came in. She never acted like she was teething! It is the bottom to the right of the center tooth. She now has 4 on top and 3 on bottom. She is loving eating "people food". She has tried so many new foods over the last 2 weeks. :) She is talking up a storm. She says, to name a few, Mama, Dada, "Diddy" (kitty), hi, bye bye, night night. It is so fun to hear her trying to have a conversation with Marc. She beginning to become more stable on her feet. I don't think it will be long before she is chasing her brother around!
We finally turned her car seat to face forward. I think she is enjoying being able to see where she is going, not where she has been. ;)

70 Degress and Sunny!!!!!

Yea!!!!! We finally had some nice weather. :) We were going to go to the zoo for a picnic and the to watch some animals. When we got there, there were parking attendants and a TON of cars, so we changed our plans. We went to the playground part of Millennium Park. We had a picnic first and then went to play.Part of Millennium Park is a man-made lake. It looked really pretty in the bright sun, so we took advantage of the photo-op.The first thing we did at the park (after the photo-op) was to go swinging. We put Samantha in a baby swing last summer, but she was only 1 month-old. So we tried it again. She loved it. She swung her feet, smiled, giggled, and talked away. :)Marc practiced pumping his legs on the swing.The park had a really cool teeter-totter that the kids can stand on and bounce. Marc went on one side and either daddy or I bounced him from the other side. Marc loved it when we bounced him high.The weekend before I had Samantha Marc and I went down a side-by-side slide holding hands. He said he wanted to that again, but with Samantha on my lap this time. I think both kids enjoyed it.We decided to end our trip to the park the same way we began it, with a photo-op.After we left the park, we went to AJ's Family Fun Park to play a round of miniature golf. (we didn't take any pictures here, it was too hard). While we were there a worked took a picture of Marc playing mini-golf. He asked us if we cared if our picture was on the Internet. We said no. So we will have to keep our eyes open to see if it makes it on their web site. After we left mini-golf we came home and had dinner then walked to the local ice cream parlor and ended our fun day by eating some yummy ice cream.
I believe a fun time was had by all! :)

Big Girl!!

We finally got the straps untwisted, the car seat installed, and a picture taken of Samantha in her new big girl car seat.

Happy Easter!!

I hope you all had a fabulous Easter! Our fun day began with Marc following a path of filled, plastic Easter eggs that lead him to his Easter basket.After we got done with Marc's basket, we gave Samantha her very first Easter basket.After church we went over to my Mom's house for lunch. She had an egg hunt for Marc that led to his and Samantha's Easter bags that she did for them.After the egg hunt and bag opening, we had lunch. Samantha enjoyed her first ham Easter lunch.
..My mom has a bunch of the Hallmark singing Easter "toys". Samantha LOVED them. She sat and watched the chicken do the chicken dance for a long time.My Mom bought Marc's Easter outfit and my Grandma bought Samantha's Easter dress. They both looked very cute! We tried to take some pictures but Marc was not in the mood to get his picture taken, so these are the best of the bunch.

Stoufer Family Saturday Out

We have been really busy lately so we decided to have a fun day out. We started out by going to the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum. My husband gave Marc a quick lesson on the Oval Office.After we went through the whole museum, we went out to lunch. Samantha had her first hot dog.After we had lunch we went to the Meijer Gardens to hang out with some butterflies.Samantha sported her cute sunglasses for all of about 5 seconds, but we were able to snap a quick picture before she took them off and started chewing on them.In the log cabin at the Gardens, they had a checkers set so Daddy taught Marc how to play.Marc had fun playing in the sandbox.We tried to do one of those pictures where you lay the camera on the ground and everyone looks down at it. When you do it you can have a "landmark" behind you. It is supposed to be the big horse at the Meijer Gardens behind us.After we left the Meijer Gardens we drove past Robinette's Apple Orchard. Marc had been asking what that place was so we decided to stop and show him. There wasn't a whole lot to see since it is not apple season, but at least he knows what it is now.We ended our day of fun by having dinner at Logan's. We discovered Samantha has become another Stoufer fan of Logan's. Yummy!
..

Hanging out with the Tell's

Me and the kids went over to a friend of mine from high school's house on Friday. It has been about a year since we have seen each other so we had lots of catching up to do.....and so did the kids! :)
Marc and gabby had fun playing "husband and wife". They fed their babies lunch.
That made them tired, so they took a nap. ;)
We tried to get a picture of the 5 kids together, but that is easier said than done.All in all, I think a good time was had by all. Thanks for having us over Chrissy!! :)

And so it begins!

The other day my Mom was talking to Marc and she said "Some day when you have a girlfriend....". Marc's response was "I already do." She asked him who it was and he said, with a shy look on his face and an awe-struck tone of voice, "Kylie". Kylie is a friend from his preschool class. During speing break she invited us to her house to go swimming, play, and have lunch.
This was Marc's first "play date". He had a great time and I enjoyed watching him with his "girlfriend". :)

Growing Girl!

Samantha has been getting "people food" off and on for awhile now. We discovered the other day that she is now refusing to eat baby food. I tried to give her some and she stuck her tongue out and let it all fall off. We were just going to use up what was in the cupboard and then bot buy anymore. Now I have to see if I can find someone I can give our left-overs to. If we are eating something she can eat, we cut it up small enough for her. If we are eating something that she can't have (like tacos or something) we have been giving her Little Graduates Pasta Pick-up ravioli. We sometimes give her some cut-up fruit and cheese for dinner. Her birthday dinner consisted of watermelon and cheese. She loved it! :)
On her birthday we gave her her first taste of real cow's milk. It took a little time, but she began drinking her milk from a straw cup.
We have changed her schedule around now that she is eating differently. For breakfast she gets a fruit bar (baby Nutri-grain) and a bottle with formula. For lunch and dinner she gets table food and milk. And for her bed-time snack she gets a bottle. We will continue with bottles until we are out of formula and then she will be strictly on cow's milk (as long as the doctor approves).
So much is changing so fast.......and Mommy is getting weepy. ;)

It's the Easter Bunny!

While at the mall on Monday I decided to take the kids to see the Easter Bunny.The Easter Bunny even gave Marc his own set of bunny ears.

Family Pictures

We got pictures taken this past weekend for Samantha's first birthday. Here is one of the family....
and one of Marc......
and one of Samantha.
The studio suggested we bring in a piece of birthday cake and we cold strip Samantha down to her diaper and let her go at it and snap some pictures of it. They all turned out so cute that we got a collage of them all.
You can look at all of our pictures on our picture website. pictures.stoufer.com

Big Girl!!

We have started gradually giving Samantha "people food". If what we are eating is something she can eat, we cut it up small enough for her to eat. For lunch today, we went to Red Robin. We always get a burger there. We didn't think she was ready for a burger yet, so she got her very first kid's meal. She had a grilled cheese sandwich. She loved it!!!!!

Birthday Girl!!

Well, believe it or not, our little baby girl had her 1st birthday party on Saturday. Time has flown by so fast! It seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital. It has been as lot of fun watching her grow, change, and develop over the year.
We hot her a horse that she can sit on and schooch across the floor.
We gave her a piece of cake. When we put it on her high chair tray, she wasn't sure what to do at first. Daddy put a taste of it in her mouth and then she "dug in". We enjoyed playing with it more than eating it. It was soooo cute. Here is a video and a couple of pictures.

Of course, once she was done making a mess by putting the frosting all over her face and in her hair, Marc took her upstairs and gave her a bath.By the end of the day, Samantha was exhausted! It didn't take her long to fall asleep.On Sunday Samantha had a chance to play with all of the awesome presents she got at her party.