2011 Catch up

I was determined to not end the year with an outdated blog. So I combined 8 months into 3 posts, one for every season. Warning: the posts are long, and the pictures are in a slideshow. But what do you expect when I cram 3 months into one post? Plus these were all written at 2 am during one of my insomnia episodes.

Blog cheats:
Spring Recap
Our Summer
The Fall

You are officially up to date on the Gomez family. I know, your life is complete :)

The Fall

I have discovered Sam likes to be busy. I think I probably trained him that way. To avoid the stay-at-home mom insanity we almost always do one thing outside every day, even it it's just a trip to Target. So Sam started classes at our local rec center in September. He had a weekly music/movement class and art class the first quarter and is in a new art class and gymnastics type class the second quarter. He LOVES it! I would highly recommend Tots in Tow to anyone in the Portland area. And my fridge is covered in original artwork from Sam and is of course the best looking fridge in town as a result.

Other exciting fall events:

- An exciting date night to see the Art of Flight premier with Adam's brother. It was AMAZING! If you haven't seen it, check it out on iTunes. Adam's brother works for Red Bull and was in charge of marketing for the movie. I hope I have that right, his name was even in the credits, and of course we shamefully took a picture of it :) Adam wanted to get on a snowboard the next day. Thanks Andrew for letting us share this amazing event with you. And thank you Nate and Jen for watching Sam so Adam and I could pretend to be cool childless people for a night.

- We joined the Portland Children's Museum and have enjoyed many rain-filled days playing there. I even discovered a back road route and timed it as a 14 minute drive. I love where we live!

- Sam was the CUTEST owl for halloween. We went to two pumpkin patches in, a ward halloween party, and had a halloween potluck and trick or treat with friends. I think you can say I officially like Halloween, all because of my cute little Sam-man.

- Thanksgiving with the Pickell's. I am pretty sure it was the first time in 4 years I didn't cook Thanksgiving dinner. All I had to do was make potatoes. I LOVED it! We went to our good friends house for dinner. Everything was yummy and of course every time we get together with Nate, Jen, and Presley we always have tons of fun. Thanks again for having us!

- Sam's first movie. This is technically part of thanksgiving, but it deserves it's own bullet point. After dinner we went and saw the new Muppet movie. Growing up we'd always go see a movie on Thanksgiving. We had to change it up a bit and saw it after dinner this year. And I don't know if the 7pm show time had anything to do with it, but Sam only lasted the first half. And not because he was cranky. The boy just wanted to dance!! At first I let him dance by the doorway to the side of the screen, but then he wanted to start singing along, so we had to make a quick exit. He spent the next half of the movie running around the hallways making friends with larger than life Alvin and the Chipmunk statues. We even found an empty theater that still had the credits rolling for a Twilight showing and made a great dance soundtrack for Sam. This boy loves music!

Fall 2011 Pictures:

Our Summer

The summer started off on kind of a sad note. Some of our favorite people in the world moved. They will be our forever neighbors in our heart. I am still not sure who misses them more, me or Mushu. It took her the entire summer to stop going to their door looking for her "other" family. If given the choice I am sure she would have moved to California with them. We love you Monahan's! And then to add to the abandonment my sister moved to Utah! I see fun trips in our family's future.

But having to go more than 20 steps for friends has been good for us all. Our summer was filled with lots of play dates, park trips, and grilling (which reminds me I need to find the 4th of July pics, they must be on Adam's side or we didn't take any which would be sad). We even had a visit from Grandma  and Grandpa Gomez when they came to town for Adam's youngest brother's college graduation.

Sam also discovered his love for Costco samples. Seriously, if it comes in a white paper cup Sam will eat it. I quickly learned just because he eats it at Costco does not mean he will eat it at home. The curry-spiced falafel balls in my freezer proves it!

Other summer events:

- Adam and I celebrated birthdays (we will leave the ages out thank you very much) and our 5th wedding anniversary.

- In August I saw an idea for a bubble party on One Charming Party and decided to throw my own version of it. It was tons of fun and may just become a summer tradition.

- We also spent a week at the coast. My family was supposed to have a reunion in August, but as we all know life gets a little crazy at times so my siblings had to cancel. But we lucked out because Grandma invited Sam and I to still come. Adam and my Dad came later in the week for a long weekend. We were really lucky and just outside our place there were a group of sea lions every day and even a few whales came to visit one day (on the other side of the rocks from the sea lions thankfully). And of course Sam loved playing in the sand and swimming in the pool. He is such a crazy fearless child and kept dunking himself in the water. He is a total aqua-boy.

Summer 2011 Pictures:

Spring Recap

The big event of course was Sam turned 1. His favorite books have been the Duck and Goose series. He just loves the board book editions. So we had a Duck &Goose themed birthday party.

I love an excuse for a party, and Sam's 1st birthday had to be special! If I could hire the ladies OCP that would have been a dream. But Sam was stuck with his mom's attempt at party planning. For memory sake, I decorated the house with copies of the books then took some of the pages as inspiration for other items. The walls were covered in primary colored-butterflies. I even found Pottery Barn sold plush characters which became the center piece with Gerbara daisies. I even tried my hand at tissue poms. We had a spread of finger foods and I attempted to make a Duck shaped cake for Sam. Attempt is the key word. The cake fell apart when I frosted it and the fondant was a disaster. But I did discover that you can buy plain, undecorated cakes from Fred Meyer for just a few dollars, the price of a mix pretty much. They are frozen and are perfect for decorating.

And just because I'm writing this post in December, here's a list of just a few of our other Spring adventures. 

- Sam and I took our first trip alone to Covington (Seattle area) in March to spend a few days with my sister and her family. It was an adventure getting there, our train ride became a bus ride up, thanks to weather issues with Amtrak, but it was actually a lot of fun and made the train ride home an extra special event. And of course we had a fabulous time once we got there. We had a mini rock concert, went shopping, played at the children's museum and ate yummy food. The best part of course was cousin-time. Sam was in heaven with all his cousins. He and Evelyn are 3 months to the day apart. And she graciously shared her toys and even her pink bibs. And of course Gavin and Brandon were fabulous entertainment every second. Thanks again for letting us come visit Covington Cahoon's! We can't wait for a Utah visit soon.

- Sam's first Easter - he found a new love for plastic eggs. We filled them with cotton balls and marshmallows and had a little treasure hunt before church.

- At the end of April Adam's grandfather passed away. He was a very loved father and grandfather and it was such a sweet opportunity to get together and pay tribute to him. I have never been to a sweeter service than his. There wasn't a shortage of stories to be shared. Adam's mom and siblings flew in for the weekend, which actually was the first time we'd seen them all at once in our 5 years of marriage. What you would think might be a sad weekend ended up being a great weekend with the Gomez clan (can I say that? Well I am I guess, and it's a tribute to the legacy of Grandpa Woolf I think). We were even extra lucky cause Grandma came to Portland and drove with us to Spokane. She was a trooper during all the required toddler-demanded stops.

Pictures from all our spring adventures:

Happy Birthday Sam!

My little baby boy is 1 today! I guess I shouldn't say baby, he's a toddler now! Oh how I love this sweet little man. This has been the best year of my life, and I know it is only going to get better each year. I am seriously the luckiest girl in the world to have such a sweet boy. Between him and his Dad I am absolutely spoiled! Party pics and the official one year post to come. But for now here's a little teaser of the birthday boy from today:

Oh and did I mention he's walking? Life just got really exciting (and crazy!) at the Gomez house. I better get my running shoes out :)

Winter escape

One weekend last month Adam asked if we could get out of town for the day. He didn't have to ask me twice! I am always up for an adventure/trip of any kind. So we packed lunch and headed to our favorite coastal retreat, Cannon Beach, for the day. I love that we live so close we can just escape there on a whim for a day like that.

It was Sam's first visit to the coast and the ocean. It turned out to be a gorgeous sunny day on the coast. We were so lucky! We even brought Mushu along. I had hopes that we could let Sam feel the sand on his feet. But it was just too windy on the beach to unbundle him. So instead we explored and perused the shops. We had so so much fun just hanging out as a family. It was a much needed day I hope to repeat often this summer!

And here's my first attempt at putting the pictures in a slideshow for the blog. I like to consider myself fairly tech savvy. But I'm still working on the in's and out's of social media.

Quick notes on the pictures:

Sam was so cute when we took him to lunch. I packed PB&J's for us, but couldn't think of what to pack him last minute. So he had to suffer through his first fish and chips. Poor kid, right? Then Adam gave him his first driving lesson. Don't worry the car wasn't even on. But he was very into it, even going for Dad's driving companion (Dr. Pepper).

Next up: Our trip to Seattle where we took a car, a bus, and a train. Let's just say the getting there was half the adventure, but totally worth it :)

11 months

Can this really be my last month post for my baby? :( I seriously can't believe it. I am determined to do a special post for Sam on his birthday. So I am taking a break from party planning to remember my baby at 11 months.

Some fun Sam-facts:
- He is getting into toys more. He especially loves cars, trains, and balls. Seriously we didn't even have any toy  cars and he would always go straight to them at friend's houses. So of course now he has his own little truck and fire engine.
- Can stand on his own, but only when he wants to.
- Loves his walker (thank you craigslist...$5!). And is quite the pro at pushing it around the house.
- His favorite foods are yogurt, fruit of any kind, sweet potato fries (baked and plain), and cheeseburgers.
- Is probably allergic to pears. I am very grateful for our pediatrician and benadryl
- Loves balloons and bubbles
- Has the biggest smile ever! His whole face lights up, and scrunches his little nose when he is really smiling.
- Is a big flirt and everybody's friend (see above comment on smile). But who wouldn't fall in love with that face?

 My cute valentine dressed in red

 Did I mention he likes fruit?

Daddy's little helper

 Sam loved playing in the snow

 Sam's first trip to the coast

 He was always on the move...so this is the one non-blurry picture I got. "Thanks Aunt Aletha for my awesome Hawaiian shirt! I was the hit of the luau" -Sam :D

 Best friends and begging partners :)

So Sam...loving life!

This boy has me laughing and smiling all day. How did I get so lucky?!