Catching Up!

We're long overdue for a catch-up post! To kick it off, here are a few adorable pics of Sam from the last couple of weekends, playing at his favorite park and relaxing at home...

Now, time to catch up on what we've missed!

The past couple of months have been SO BUSY! We've been terrible bloggers! Clay and I have both been pretty slammed at work, and my pregnant self sure doesn't have much energy when I get home. Still, that's no excuse for waiting a month and a half to post this ADORABLE Halloween picture of Sam:

We missed posting about Thanksgiving, too! We all went up to Eastern North Carolina for a nice long weekend. Sam had a great time playing with Nana and Papa, Uncle David, and Nana's doggies, Rusty and Gracie. It was nice and chilly for Thanksgiving, as it should be!

We spent Thanksgiving day at the Cabin with all the Strickland clan. Sam got to play with Hallie, Clark, Kelli, and Wesley (we missed Landon and Tyler this year!), and he had fun playing outside! Here he is kicking his ball down the path...

While some of our cousins went fishing, I took some time to write about the day in the Cabin's log book.

Sam LOVES rocks ("woks!")! And when I say love, I mean LOVE. At home, he likes picking them up and rolling them around in his wagon. At the Cabin, he had a great time picking up rocks from Papa's gravel path and carrying them around with him like prized possessions!

"A wok!!!"
Back at home, we set to work decorating for Christmas! I love, love, love getting ready for Christmas, and I think Sam is catching the spirit too! While Clay and I hung our outdoor decorations, Sam enjoyed climbing on the step stool...and eating his apples from his snack trap. :)
While Sam napped, I got started on the tree. Sam woke up and discovered a living room full of LIGHTS! He is fascinated with lights right now. He loves turning the light switch on (and saying "light!") and off (and saying "daaak!" - that would be "dark"). He hadn't really seen Christmas lights before, so you can only imagine how AWESOME this was for him!

Now, the house is all decorated...and the Touseys are ready to CELEBRATE! We hope that all of you are enjoying the beginning of the holiday season, too. :)

Tractors and Pumpkins

Yay for fall! It is finally cooling down around here (a little bit), and we're soaking up every bit of fall fun we can. Last weekend, we went with some friends to Conner's A-Maze-Ing Acres, a farm that transforms into a corn maze, petting zoo, and pumpkin patch in October. We had a blast! It made us all very excited to be back at the Cabin for Thanksgiving in just a few weeks.

Sam had a great time playing on the tractors. His Papa Hal would be so proud to see him up there!

Sam, Kailyn, and Connor enjoying some tractor time...

Sam and Kailyn having fun in the corn maze...

Lots of fun to be had in the Pumpkin Patch... Sam is in this phase where he likes to point out and name everything he sees. This means that when he's surrounded by 1,000 pumpkins, he just walks around saying, "Pun-ka!" "Pun-ka!" "Pun-ka!!!" He could do this for hours :)

For lunch, Sam had his first hamburger. He loved it! It was hilarious watching him play with it and try to eat it.
Unsurprisingly, it took about 10 seconds for Sam to fall asleep on the way home. He was WORN OUT!

The Adventures of Sam!

Well, kids, FALL is officially here... even in Jacksonville! But we're a couple months behind on our posts, so before we get into Fall, let's recap the end of our adventurous summer... (and be sure to read all the way to the end for our BIG NEWS!)

For starters, back in July, Mom & Dad took a trip to California for Nick & Angie's gorgeous wedding amongst the redwoods, while Sam hung out with Chip and Phy at the beach.

Then Mom took a solo trip to PUERTO RICO for Dimitri and Viviana's amazing wedding. Puerto Rico was pretty awesome, the wedding was stunning, and it was fabulous to spend a weekend with some of my oldest and dearest amigos. I sure missed my Snuggleman, though!

Then, we jump ahead to late August/early September and our trip up to the River for Labor Day weekend. Sam was barely taking steps last time we went to the River, but this time he was all over the place! He took plenty of nature walks, and he loved spotting all the boats from the pier (and saying "boat - vroom! vroom!"), but then he slept through his first boat ride!

Sam had a big time playing in the water and sand along the shore...

...and playing with his sweet buddy Frazier! It was so nice to be up in NC for the weekend and to spend time with the Joneses, who are always gracious about sharing so many holiday weekends with us hooligans.

Then Sam and Mom trekked back up to the Carolinas the next weekend for another weekend of fun in the sun with Ashley and Brady and Ashley's family. Little Brady is growing so fast, and Sam really had fun playing with him (and dropping Cheerios all over the beach house).

After a day of playing too hard, Sam found some R & R in the hammock.

Sam's VERY favorite discovery of this trip was the joy of playing in the water from the waterhose. His happiest moment of the day was when we came up from the beach to rinse off and he got to sling the waterhose around and soak himself...and mom. :)

We're not done yet, folks! The NEXT weekend we were up in Boston to see Uncle David in his new environs. While we were there, Sam took in a few sights, starting with his Dad's old stomping grounds at Harvard.

Then Uncle David took Sam to the Boston Aquarium. Words cannot really describe how much Sam LOVED this experience. He had just learned to say "fishie" and make fishie sounds (imagine the little fish face kids make and then a sort of kissing/smacking sound that accompanies this face... Somehow Sam decided this is the sound that a fish makes... SO adorable). We spent hours looking at all the fish in the enormous tanks, the seals, the penguins, EVERYTHING. A highlight was the starfish, which Sam actually got to TOUCH!

Then we journeyed over to Charlestown to meet Sam's newest buddy, Evan Brennan. Evan was napping while we were there, but Sam got to meet Aspen, the Brennans' first-born :) In case you were wondering, doggies say "woof, woof!"

Before we left, Sam made a visit to the Boston Commons, where he explored the gardens and said hi to the ducks and swans (and make lots of quacking sounds!).

After Boston, we went down to St. Augustine for Megan and Trey's beautiful outdoor wedding, but we forgot our camera, so we'll have to wait for some friends to share some pics! The wedding was really special and a lot of fun! THEN we all traveled North the next weekend, where Sam stopped in NC to spend a weekend with Nana and Papa while Mom & Dad journeyed on to Charlottesville for Steve and Kelly's fantastic fall wedding. It was a great weekend, and I definitely got my fall fix!

WHEW. I'm tired just recounting the traveling tales, but there were still some adventures ahead of us when we got back to Florida...

Last Monday, Sam got tubes put into his ears. He's had approximately one thousand ear infections, and although we kept hoping he would grow out of it, it just never happened. So, we got the tubes before cold season starts again.

Sam was a trooper and enjoyed the wagon ride through the hospital (though, to be honest, he did NOT enjoy waking up from the anesthesia...). A couple hours later, he was back to his old self!

In the hospital, Sam had to wear one of those hospital bracelets, and Mom and Dad got matching stickers to show that we belong to Sam. The only thing possibly half as cute as Sam in that hospital gown is the cute sticker his teddy bear got, to show that he belongs with Sam, too...

Our traveling adventures over, we finally got to enjoy a weekend in Jacksonville this past weekend! We made a trip to the pumpkin patch to pick out some gourds. Sam had a blast. I think he loves Fall just like his Mama.

And, as promised, we have some NEWS to share. We're expecting another snuggler in April! I'm 12 weeks along, and our due date is April 23rd. No word yet, of course, about whether it's a boy or girl, but we do plan to find out - so we'll keep you posted. Ultrasound pics and belly pics will be posted soon (yes, there are already belly pics because I am definitely already showing...I think I already look about as big as I did at 18 or 20 weeks last time). We can't wait to welcome another member to our family!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Fall. We are grateful to have had a chance to see so many friends and family this summer, and we already miss you all. Come see us in Jacksonville soon :)

Nana and Papa

Nana and Papa came to visit Sam two weeks ago. Nana was so sweet to come down early and play with Sam all week while his daycare was closed. They had a great time going to the park, taking walks, and learning the sounds that animals make! Then Papa joined us for the weekend. Of course, we forgot to take pictures until the end of the week, but we got a few cute ones the day that Nana and Papa were leaving.

Here's Sam, experimenting eating his Cheerios with a big-boy spoon from a BIG-boy bowl!
Sam is all about animal noises these days. His favorite books the last couple weeks have been Old MacDonald and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? - because he can point at all the animals and say "Neigh!" or "Baaaa!" or "Ooof! Ooof!" (that last one is a doggie sound, by the way...) :) Here he is playing with our neighbor's "Meee-owww!"

Never one to sit still long -- he's outta here!

Homeward Bound and Homebound

Sam was sick last week...a nasty stomach bug that lasted about 5 or 6 days. When Sam has been sick before he's always rolled with the punches pretty well, but this one really hit him hard, and he was pretty miserable. Poor little guy. He made a big recovery this weekend and is back to his old self this week!

Even when he wasn't feeling well, he was still sweet enough to share his Cheerios with Annie...

While Sam was convalescing at home with Dad this weekend, I took a quick solo trip to Puerto Rico (!) for my friend Dimitri's wedding. It was so great to catch up with the Greenville crew, and the wedding was pretty amazing, but I sure missed my Snuggleman. I'll post some pics soon of the incredible hotel in San Juan (infiniti pools!).

We are loving life these days. It's pretty oppressively hot, which makes it hard for us to get outside with Sam (much to his chagrin), but he's growing so fast and doing so many cute things we don't mind being cooped up inside. Sam continues to do hilarious and adorable things every day. Right now he is a big fan of copying Mom & Dad. He likes to sit in chairs, talk on the phone, put Annie's leash on her, and even try on Mom's hats and jewelry (he thinks it's hilarious to take my bracelets off and put them on his wrist). Here are a few cute pics from the last couple of weeks.