Samantha signs "more"!

For those unaware, I took America Sign Language in college as my "foreign language" credit. I don't remember too much from it but the basics. We heard that signing to infants can lead to early communication between the baby and the parent and even had a session with our parenting group devoted to sign language. Well, we have been signing "more" since Samantha was born and I think she has finally caught on! We also do the sign for "bottle" and "all done" and "father" and "mother". Those are still in the works:) Enjoy her signing "more" for "more yogurt" :)

Samantha's friend Macy - First Birthday Party!

We attended the First Birthday Party of one of Samantha's friends Macy from our Beaumont Parenting program over the weekend and had a ball! The party was at the Troy Community Pool where Samantha had been taking her swimming lessons. After the naming ceremony (which was beautiful) she had a blast at the party eating goldfish crackers, swedish fish, pizza and of course frosting from the birthday cupcakes (not so much the cake though!). We then got to go swimming! Rob went in the pool with Samantha and she was loving every minute of being back in the water! What a wonderful place for a first birthday party! Here are some photos from the party:

 Traditional Jewish Naming Ceremony - was just lovely!

 Samantha loved the fare at the party!

 Macy and her first birthday cake!

 My little fish!

 Weeeeee! Going down the slide with Daddy!

Ed, Sofia, Rob, Samantha, Paul and Jack - all the Dad's with thier cute munchkins!

High Five (Said like Borat :) )

Samantha is learning something new daily - check out this video of her skills at high fiving:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg9khjASeDA

First Birthday Party and Second Christmas!

We had a wonderful Holiday Season - kicking off with Samantha's First Birthday!

The birthday girl was not feeling the best at her party - just getting over being sick - but we had a ton of fun at her 2 birthday parties. We had one with Family during the day and one with Friends in the evening.

Samantha's First Birthday invites!  (Front and Back)

 The Birthday Girl all dolled up!

 Samantha with her cousins

 Opening up presents - Samantha loves Elmo!

The Christmas weekend was busy celebrating with the Karalis', Kelley's and LaVoie's.

Our Christmas Card 2010 (front and back)

Opening up gift from Aunt Angie - she LOVES her new bike!

With cousins at the Karalis Christmas

Christmas morning - beautiful, serious and tired girl!

Opening up gifts!

National Shrine Christmas Mass with Mommy

Christmas at the Kelley's

Christmas at the LaVoie's

1 year portraits!

It is really hard for me to believe that my baby will be one year old in less than week. I have known for quite some time that Samantha isn't a baby anymore. She walks, talks eats real food. But becoming a toddler - it is just insane for me to wrap my head around it. This year has gone by so fast (not if i look back to my pumping days - i thought those were never going to end!). We took Samantha to get her Christmas photos and One year photos over at Portrait Innovations. She was in the best mood until they called us to take the Christmas Photos! But by the time we changed her outfit and took some one year shots - she was in a much better mood. Here are a few of the unedited shots...

Traditions

We have been trying to start some family traditions, especially around the upcoming Holidays. This weekend we went to Greenfield Village to their Holiday Nights and had such a fun time! We hope to make this a family tradition and every year it will become more fun because Samantha will actually understand what is going on! They really put on a nice display and you really do feel like you go back in time! We missed the fireworks but hopefully we can see those next year! Here are a few shots:)

New Camera!

Well, since the old Cannon was lost or stolen we decided to get a new D-SLR. It came in the mail today and Rob charged up the battery so it would be good to go when I got home from work. I played with a few settings but am going to need to read the book and look online to really understand all the fun settings. Here are a few shots I took tonight - so happy to have a camera back - I missed taking photos of my little munchkin!

Samantha and Daddy all smiles when Mommy gets home from work!

Talking to Aunt Laura on the phone!

We would never ship you away Samantha! She loved the clothes we got her online and pulled them out one by one and wanted to play in the box