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We’re having a good time celebrating Valentine’s this year.  I do the same thing my mom used to do, and leave little goodies on the breakfast table for the kids to wake up to.  And we’ll have our 4th annual Valentine’s meal for dinner:

Strawberry Soup

Chicken Parmesan with Angel Hair pasta

House Salad with Cherry Tomatoes

Candlelight and all.

I already received a dozen and a half red roses!  He’s good…real good.

I also got a garnet birthstone to represent Samuel on my Lori Bonn birthstone necklace. (Derek can’t get ALL the credit for this one…I sent him an e-mail with all of the order information.  We have to be BOLD, girls, and state exactly what we want!).

Here are some pictures…

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Zoo paid $4,500 to an expert in the ancient Chinese art of feng shui to ensure three endangered golden monkeys on loan from China can have a strong life force.

"It’s very experimental," Mainini said. "We don’t have any books on feng shui for monkeys. We just have to assume that Darwin is correct and that there is a connection and what is good for humans is good for monkeys."

I don’t know why, but it struck me funny this morning.

More later…

Samuel is 6 weeks old today.  On Saturday he gave me 5 big grins.  They say that smiles at this age are imitative in nature, rather than emotional.  But isn’t imitation the best form of flattery?  I’m flattered, indeed.  We’ve caught him smiling at lights and shiny objects…hmm, what does that mean?  He has to be in just the right mood (case in point, last night was not a smiley-happy night).  But this morning he’s at it again (several diaper changes later).  A baby’s smile makes a momma’s heart happy…fake, or not!

So glad it’s Friday!  Felt like I should share some pictures…sadly, I haven’t taken as many this week.  Samuel is growing so much and is filling out all over.  He’s such a good baby…very consolable and easy to please.  If only he’d sleep longer. I guess I can’t have it all!

He was on my lap last night trying to give me little grins.  And I was the only one around…so I grabbed the camera, but all I caught were these looks of "whoa, mother, you’re way too close with that thing"!

Early morning with Daddy (he’ll love me for posting this picture).  I have a shot of all three of our babies in bed with Derek.  Sam was awake at 5:30 this morning and Derek was trying to keep him asleep for a while longer to give me a break from having to nurse again (I had fed him at 3).

Bald is beautiful.

"Caleb, does your tongue match your shirt or your eyes?"

Did you know…

…that re-runs of the Cosby Show are on at 2:00 and 2:30 am?

…that Family Ties is on at 3:00 am?

…that absolutely NOTHING good is on at 3:30 am?

…that Dawson’s Creek is on at 4:00 am?  I had never seen it before now. 

…that the national ABC early morning news show is VERY relaxed?

…that there are major traffic tie-ups sometimes before 6 am…what are people doing out that early on the highways?!

…that QVC and HSN do live shows all…night…long…?

…that Samuel is really cute even in the middle of the night?

NOW YOU KNOW! 🙂

I saw the most beautiful hawk perched on a wire yesterday…he was huge and had a white and brown belly.  I LOVE looking for hawks and my boys do too.  Luckily, we live in an area where we see lots of them.  It’s so funny, because I remember my mom coming home from work telling us about the hawks she had spotted.  I was a teenager and was not that impressed!  But now I love it!  One of those "I have become my mother!" moments.

I read this little book this week, thanks to my Aunt Lisa.  It’s a true story about a swimmer who helps a baby gray whale find its mother.  I learned so much about the ocean and enjoyed this quick read.  Thanks, Lisa!

This little angel is one month old today…unbelievable.

If only one month of my pregnancy would have gone this fast.

It’s been a month of "mother" help, recovery, lots of feedings, sleepless nights, staring and smiling at a baby, quiet times, crazy boys and pure bliss.  There’s nothing like having a newborn in the house.  I’m sad that his first month of life is behind us.  But I feel good and am looking forward to our life ahead…post-pregnancy and recovery.

He is a great eater…a grunter (so noisy!)…content most of the day…difficult at night (9 – midnight)…but sleeps good from 2 am on.  He loves…Daddy’s shoulder, Mommy’s arms to hold him (oh and those other things too!), warm baths, when his brothers fetch his binky…and did I mention he LOVES the binky.  In fact, FedEx brought extra binkies today!

And to celebrate his one-month birthday, we got snow!!

I’m addicted to Golden Oreo’s.  I can eat 5 at a time.  Love those things.

Ok, so this post is not really about Golden Oreos, but I am running out of good names for post titles…Samuel 1, Samuel 2, etc, etc. 🙂

Here are some new pictures that I love:

Caleb will be so thrilled when he sees this picture.

Loves to sleep on Daddy’s shoulder.

Sweet shot of my baby.

My silly boys.  They begged me to "get your camera, mom, and put this on your blog!"  They thought they were so clever!

My friend Shelley came back to take some more shots of our little "poser".  She is so patient and good to us.  We waited and waited for him to fall into a deep, binky-less sleep.  Sadly, he never did, but I’m excited to see what she captured, nevertheless…he sure enjoyed being naked on that backdrop!

And, lastly, one of Jacob’s art projects was chosen by his art teacher to hang in the FISD Administration Bldg.  I love that he is so artistic.

you guessed it…Baby Samuel.

It’s too hard to e-mail these to family, so I feel obligated to put a bunch here on the blog for all to see!  The story of our life right now (as you can plainly see)…

Hold the baby, Love the baby, Feed the baby, Change the baby…Repeat.

(yes, we realize it looks like he’s giving Caleb a good sock in the eye in this picture!)

We call him our little monkey…

(cracks me up!)

(oh, so sweet!)

I’ve determined that I need Rosie.

Remember her? The maid from the Jetson’s.  Yep, that’s what I need…a Rosie.  Or at least an extra pair of hands…one to hold the baby while the other pair is chasing after the boys, cleaning the house, etc.

Derek goes back to work tomorrow.  I’m so sad about that.  Two weeks is a long time to have him home…I know he’s sad to go back too.  We’ve gotten accustomed to having him around full-time.  Tomorrow will be interesting. 🙂  Thankfully, Derek’s mom is flying in to help.

I got a call yesterday about a PTA assignment that I have been putting off for months…yep, it’s time to get back in the action, I’m afraid.  I’ve enjoyed the "time off" a little too much. 

Samuel’s umbilical cord fell off today…I’m always a little sad to see that go (crazy mom thing, I think).

I have two favorite quotes from the last 2 weeks that I don’t want to forget.

Caleb: "I can’t believe we get to keep him!"

Jacob: "I love our baby more than anything in the whole world, Mom."

Derek and I watched the 10 o’clock news last night and there was no mention of any wintry precip. in our area…only south of here.  So when I was up at 3 am and 6 am I didn’t bother looking out the window.  And when D. got up to get Jacob ready for school, he didn’t bother looking out the window.  So they get in the car, open the garage door and back out in to the driveway and find the streets empty because of ice and snow!  Derek fish-tailed to the school and found it deserted!  I was asleep in bed…woke up at 9 am thinking that Derek was late to Caleb’s parent/teacher conference.  That’s when he told me to look out the window.  We’re usually so on the ball when it comes to wintry weather…usually out of excitement.  But it cracks me up that we were clueless this morning.  Such is life right now with a new baby.  We’ve enjoyed a nice quiet day, free from the booked schedule we had planned. 

Baby woke up…time to go feed!