Samuel's tricks

Dancing Sam... This morning, he stopped in the middle of the aisle at Walmart to do a little dance :)

This is why we watch Baby Einstein...

Polar Express

The whole gang...

We went on a Polar Express train ride yesterday with a bunch of our friends. We had a great time! It took a long time to get going, but once we were on and settled, our accomodations were so comfy and the kids had a blast. It was only a one hour ride from Springdale to Rogers and back again. They were supposed to read the Polar Express over the loud speaker, but since we got the comfy train car without the elementary school field trip kids, they didn't read it. Which was fine because our kids wouldn't have listened anyway :). They served us hot chocolate and the kids played with their train themed toys and ate a lot of snacks. Another Christmas activity that will likely become tradition for the Lutz family!

Samuel and "papa" just after departure...

Samuel laughing at himself in the mirror on the train car...

Hanging out with the conductor before departing...

Holding hands with Kellen while waiting... :)

He actually cuddled with me!! For a whole 3 minutes!!! If you know Samuel, you know what a feat this was!! We left at nap time, so he was sleepy and sat on my lap for a little while when we first left. I LOVED it!! But, he was up and about not much after this picture was taken.

Fascinated with the train toys...

The fam...

Ho Ho Man

Waiting in line to see Santa... could barely take his eyes off of Santa for a second while I clicked this pic.
No smile, but a pic none the less...

We went to see Santa Clause today at Bud's work. We really had no idea how Samuel would react. He has been really clingy lately, but he loved seeing Truman the Tiger in his costume (we thought Santa might appear similar to a 1 year old). So, it could have gone either way. Well, he loved him, at first. Santa stuck his head in the door where we were waiting and Samuel wanted to follow him out. He laughed at him and kept pointing at him. Then, it was almost his turn and we had to physically hold him back from inturupting the boy in front of us. But, once he got up there, he sat on Santa's lap and jumped right back down, more interested in the "ba" on the Christmas tree, than the jolly old man. He sat there long enough for me to get this one smileless picture. I was impressed with the system they had at the WM home office. They had the parents fill out a sheet about the child's interests before hand, so "Santa" already knew who was coming and a little about their interests. The little boy in front of us was a little hesitant about sitting on Santa's lap, but as soon as Santa started talking about Thomas the Train with him, he didn't want to leave! :)

Toddler Christmas Party

Samuel hosted his first Christmas party yesterday. He was a great host... he sharred all his toys (whether his friends wanted them or not) and he giggled and he thought the big kids had hung the moon! He laughed with them and followed them around the entire time (even without a morning nap!). The kids made snowman ornaments, colored a picture, ate lunch, watched Veggie Tales Christmas (well, it was on, I don't think anyone really watched it), posed for our second ever play group picture, and decorated cookies. It was so fun, I think we will make it an annual event!!

The Kids... Kellen (23 months), Chaucer (2), Sawyer (2 months), Xander (3), Sam, Owen (9 months, Ethan (almost 3), Davy (3), Luke (9 months), Lillian (on top, 2 months), Ellie (1.5), Drew (1.5), Addie (3)... I think that's right (sorry, if I messed up)

This is a horrible pic of me, but the kids loved the bubbles!
And, the sand table was a hit... Yes, Ellie is climbing on top of it :)

The Crawford Boys decorating cookies

The Harris Twins decorating cookies...

Don't eat any with green icing...

Ethan's finished product...

And then, there's Sam... eating his cookie :) He didn't quite understand the decorating part.

Here's the only pic of the snowmen the kids made (on the table)...

Thanks everyone for coming!!

Christmas Tree

We got a real Christmas tree this year. It's time to put our old, cheap, Charlie Brown tree in the garage sale pile! This is the first time either of us have had a real tree since we were little, so we kind of guessed on how to put the lights on and all, but I think it turned out okay. Sam has been fascinated with all the "ba" (balls) on the tree, but has been really good about not messing with it. Just in case he gets more curious about it, all the fragile ornaments are out of his reach. He's really getting into the Christmas spirit! He loves to wear his Santa hat and every morning he asks to open the advent calendar (because he realized there was candy in there and now asks to open it several times a day, but I'm pretending it is because he's so excited about celebrating the coming of Christ Jesus!).