Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas! We were blessed to be able to spend lots of time with both of our families both here in Jacksonville and back in North Carolina. Christmas was so much fun this year, since Sam was big enough to understand that Santa was coming and was able to tear open all his own gifts. We've come a long way from just eating wrapping paper last year!

As much fun as he had with the presents, I think Sam's favorite part of the holidays has been having so much family around to play with all the time. Sam and I have had almost two and a half full weeks together, which has been so awesome, and he got to spend extra time with Nana and Papa, Chip and Phy, Auntie Meredith, Uncle David, and lots of extended family too. He's relished all the company and all the extra playmates and attention!

Our celebration kicked off the weekend before Christmas at Chip and Phy's house, where we spent the night and woke up to have a "Christmas morning" complete with stockings, gifts, and a TRACTOR! Unfortunately I couldn't upload any tractor photos for this post, but I'll see if I can get some and post them later. Sam's tractor roots run very deep. Not only was a tractor his Chip's favorite Christmas present ever, but both his great-grandPapas, Papa Ray and Papa Hal, would be proud to see him driving a tractor just like they did!

Sam got a stocking full of "choo-choos" and he has not stopped playing with them since!

"CHOO-CHOO!"
After our first Christmas celebration, all the McCullys arrived at Chip and Phy's house for a big family celebration. Sam had a great time eating at the kids' table and eating his weight in pulled pork (I was so proud!).

Then Sam and Annie and I left straight from McCully Christmas to drive to North Carolina. One pregnant lady, one toddler, one dog, and an 8-hour drive in rainy weather... it all went well, but let's just say I probably won't do that alone again anytime soon!

Sam and I got to spend a FULL WEEK at Nana and Papa's house, which was really special to us. Despite the freezing cold and the strong winds, Sam wanted to spend every morning and afternoon walking around outside, especially in the fields behind Nana and Papa's house. He had the best time! He would just run and run and run, laughing the whole time. We picked up rocks, watched some big trucks, helped Papa pick up pinecones, and had a blast. Sam wore himself out doing this, and one morning he literally collapsed and fell asleep in the front foyer as soon as he walked in the door. How cute is this?

But he had fun!!!!

And in a rare moment of Tousey Family Blog history, we are actually including some pictures of people other than Sam! Now that David is in Boston and we are in Jacksonville, it's not as easy as it used to be to get all the Stricklands together in one place...but it's very special when we do! It was so great to be together and have so much time to catch up.

And look - it's unprecedented since Sam's birth, but we have a photo with BOTH mom and dad in it at the same time :)

On Christmas Eve morning, my mom's family all came over. Sam had fun playing with his second cousins, Chloe and Cameron.

And on Christmas Eve night, he left some graham crackers (rather than cookies, since graham crackers are Sam's favorite!) for Santa. Sam really loves Santa. He had fun helping Nana place all of her Santa figurines all over the house in the week before Christmas, and every time he saw one, he would say, "Saan-ta! Saan-ta!" I think he's going to be very sad when everyone takes down their decorations and stops talking about Santa during the next 11 months.

And then it was CHRISTMAS MORNING! Sam slept a little later than usual for the occasion (all the way to 6:45!) so he'd have plenty of energy to open presents and play with his toys!

Uncle David helped put together Sam's new golf bag while Sam used his club to hit a ball off his new teeball tee :) He was not a big fan of the baseball bat, but he loves those golf clubs!

Usually we save stockings for last, but when Sam spotted his stocking, he really wanted to dig right in!

Sam loves his new basketball net, golf clubs, and teeball set. He seems to have the games a little confused (the baseball usually goes through the basketball hoop, and he keeps swinging that golf club at the tee), but he's having so much fun with them!

Sam got lots of new books, and he wanted to stop and read each one before we moved on to another present. Here he is with Papa, reading about Lightning and the other Cars...

He also liked it when OTHER PEOPLE received new books, and he tried to read all of those, too. :) He sat right down with Papa's new political theory book and started flipping pages!

And then there was the awesome Charlie Brown's Christmas book, which plays lots of music. Sam LOVES books that play music. He stands up and starts dancing around the room (which usually means spinning in a circle and stomping his feet) :)
Uncle David gave him a Red Sox hat, which he tried on while he played with all his new vehicles - helicopters, trucks, trains, and fire trucks!

Papa got a rooster weathervane for his yard, to remind him of the weathervane on the roof of the boathouse at the Cabin, and Sam loved playing with it too!

This room is getting a little FULL!

Nana and Papa waited until a little later (once it had warmed up a LITTLE BIT!) to give Sam his big present from them...a TRICYCLE! Sam had so much fun on this thing - we had a very hard time getting him to come back inside for lunch. Initially he just loved getting pushed and riding along, but Nana and Clay taught him to put his feet on the pedals, so he was sort of figuring out how to ride it by the time we went inside. Once his legs are just a little bit longer, he'll be able to do it all by himself. We won't be able to keep him off of this!

We finally got him inside by letting him bring the tricycle back inside with him :)

One of Sam's gifts was a new backpack with trucks and trains and planes on it. He loved wearing it around the house. With his new crayons, doesn't he look ready to go back to school?

And here he is posing in his new Red Sox cap :)

The snow came on Christmas night, and by the time we were ready to get together with the whole Strickland clan on Sunday morning, Eastern NC was a winter wonderland! About 8 or s0 inches fell in Greenville, and we had a bit of a treacherous drive to get to Smithfield that morning to see the rest of the family. It was really gorgeous, though, and Sam just loved the snow. I'm so glad we were there for the snowstorm!

We drove home that night and have been spending the past week unpacking and playing with ALL THOSE TOYS! It was an incredible Christmas, and it just reminded us how grateful we are to be blessed with such wonderful families and friends. We are so lucky.

As we look ahead to what we know will be a very exciting year for our family, we wish each of you a 2011 full of love, joy, hope, and peace. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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 :)