Mia's Birthday

On Saturday, our niece MIA had her 3rd birthday party! She and her family came in from Gallatin to visit and celebrate her birthday... and we are so glad they did! Everyone had a wonderful time! We went bowling. How fun! I think it was the first time bowling for several of the kids. Mia had her turn at bowling, but preferred the other games. Maddox and Hudson split their time pretty evenly between bowling and the games. Cade bowled most of the time, but discovered the basketball game toward the end of the party. Even babies Eli and Wesley had a good time! (They are such sweet, growing boys!) We had pizza, and cake, and presents... who could ask for more?! I wish I had pictures to show from the party, but, unfortunately, my brain was not working that morning and I forgot my camera! Yikes! I did go back and find some older pictures of the birthday-girl to share, though...

Baby Mia (5/06)


Mia's 1st birthday (3/07)


Mia's birthday #2 (3/08)


Mia at Christmas '08... And she was actually wearing this raincoat on her 3rd birthday in 3/09!

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY, MIA!!! We are so glad we got to celebrate with you!

Brooks' Birthday

On Saturday, we celebrated our nephew's birthday. Brooks turned two-years-old this weekend, and hosted an awesome birthday party! One of those inflatable places came & set up a jumping area with a slide for the kids. They had a blast! It was the perfect birthday party for Brooks. He loved jumping! They really didn't want to stop to eat, but they were ready for cake & ice cream!

Here's the birthday boy checking out his cake. He just wanted the train off the top!

Yuuuummmy!

Mmmm, mmmm... that's good stuff!

Dig in, everybody!

Thanks Uncle Ru-Ru and Aunt Sa-Sa for such a good time!

May all your birthday wishes come true, Brooks! We love you!

Double Birthday Wishes

This weekend, Howie and I BOTH celebrated our birthdays! Yes, I said both. We share a birthday. How cool is that?! Hudson went to one set of grandparents, and Cade went to the other, so Howie and I had some quality time to ourselves. (Thanks, grandparents!) Ahhh... It was very nice. We spent the day out Saturday... shopping around (can't "browse" with the boys!), grabbed some ice cream (and didn't have to share! ha!), went to a movie, had a peaceful dinner... very nice. We were happy to see the boys again on Sunday, though. :)

I had to go back to October to find a picture of just the two of us. I was surprised when I found this one! Funny how after you have kids, the pictures of the two of you seem to disappear. I'll have to get Hudson to take a few... ha!

Thanks, everyone, for all the birthday wishes!!!

Weekend Report

What a super-nice weather weekend! Makes you wish spring was already here! A few more days of nice weather, though, and then the temperatures are supposed to fall again. Oh, well... we plan to enjoy it while it lasts! The boys have loved being outside in the warm weather - riding bikes, playing ball, you name it. Howie & I have enjoyed being outside, and watching them, too.

A rare picture of me & the boys taken in Feb. at a show.

Hudson had a playdate on Saturday with his friend, Cam. They seemed to have an awesome time together! I hope they can get together to play more. (For pictures, visit "The Sampson Den" blog.)

Cade had a wild weekend. ha! After a successful surgery last week, we were hoping he was on the road to health. After only a short week, though, we hit a roadblock. A runny & stuffy nose has led to breathing treatments, AND he's had STREP! That medicine threw him for a loop - literally! He's feeling better, though, and we're hoping all those crazy meds will be out of his system very soon!

Our sweet, little nephew, Wesley, has been very sick this weekend. Unfortunately, he had to be hospitalized on Saturday with a nasty staph infection. He's being well taken care of, though, and we hope they are able to come home very, very soon.

Wesley back in Dec. with the boys.

Uncle Grumpy, Aunt Sweetie, Mia, and Eli were in town for a quick visit. Unfortunately, though, we never actually got to see them - planned to, but just didn't all work out... too much sickness and too much going on. We'll have to spend extra time with them next time!

So... parts of the weekend were great, and parts not so great. We'll take the good with the bad, though, and keep trudging on. :)

"Snow" much fun!!!

Saturday & Sunday - the last day of February and the first day of March - we had a super-duper snow!!! It's the most snow I can remember seeing in Tennessee for a very long time. We all had lots of fun playing the pretty, white snow. Take a look!

Hudson absolutely loves the snow! He could play in it all day.

Cade enjoyed the snow a lot at first, but on Sunday, the depth of the snow proved a little challenging for him!

Here are my 3 favorite fellas in the snow. You can see how much it was snowing on Saturday evening.

Here's our front yard flag. The L picture is Saturday evening, the R is Sunday morning!

Our house Sunday morning.

Howie measuring the snow. We had 13" in the front yard!

Sledding with our neighbors, C & S.

They built 2 snowmen - one in C & S's yard, and an extra large one in our yard!

Daisy-girl loved romping around in the snow, but she was a "pooped puppy dog" that night!

Nothing like a warm bath to end a day playing in snow! We made some snow cream after supper, too, and it was delicious! Cade ate 2 bowls! We sure hope we get a nice snow like this next winter! :)

The Cat

I'm sure most of you know the story of how we acquired our cat, but, just in case, here's the story again. (It's too good NOT to tell!)... The boys & I were finally getting set to move from Georgia to Tennessee in early May. Several weeks prior to our move, we'd been noticing a cat wandering around our part of the neighborhood. It looked well taken care of, and was a friendly cat, but didn't know of any of our neighbors having cats. Fast forward to the first week of May as Howie is unloading our "crates" of belongings... We get through most of the big inside furniture and start unloading the pods of mainly outdoor stuff. Howie starts noticing a lot of "fuzz" on the boxes coming out along with a strange smell. He says, "Cherri, that cat is in here." I, of course, said, "No way!" and was a little grossed out at the thought of what we might find. NOTE: We packed up on a Friday & Saturday in GA and did not receive our furniture until the following Thursday or Friday - almost a full week later!!! Sure enough, after a few more boxes were removed, and with a little prodding, out came the cat - YES! - alive and well... hungry and very skiddish, but OK. So, long story short, we kept the cat (felt slightly responsible for it! ha!) and called it "Georgia" (very original, I know!). Georgia stays close to home and has claimed the garage as its domain, while Daisy (our lab) claims the backyard. (They don't really get along.) Georgia is a sweet cat, still skiddish, particularly around the boys, but sweet nonetheless. In November, I decided Georgia was definitely going to stick around so we needed to be responsible pet owners and take it to the vet. There we discovered that Georgia would officially have to have a name change - to George. Ha! HE would like to come in the house (as long as Daisy and the boys aren't around) sometimes, and occassionally Howie and I comply. Here are a couple of pictures of our George...

May '08 - a few weeks after moving in... one of the few times he's been in backyard

Feb 09 - After a brief look around the house, he decided to settle in Howie's sink!

Cade, Cade, Cade...

Heard the cliche' "When it rains, it pours"? I should have known when we woke up on New Year's Day with a high fever what early 2009 had in store for our little Cade-man. That turned out to be an ear infection. (His tubes put in Jan. '08 are almost all the way out.) Ten days of antibiotics for that one. By the third week of January, what started as a little nap-time cough on Thursday, had turned into a fever, and a very restless & unhappy child by Saturday night, that became a diagnosis of pneumonia on Sunday at the pediatrician's office. What?! A double-shot (1/2 in each leg), plus ten more days of antibiotics and breathing treatments for that. Before we could completely recooperate, we had, as Cade would say, a "hursey" accident. His beloved Molly, before she even took her first step with him in the saddle, somehow became spooked, I guess, rared up and rolled him off the back. If only the fall, I think we would have come out better, but then she lost her balance and fell back on him - yes, GASP - pushing him over onto some pavement. He escaped with only some ugly scrapes and hand-swelling, but the entire event certainly took a few years off the three adults' lives who were standing there helpless, trying to prevent something that was already in motion. And we're not sure yet what the consequences will be for poor, old Molly. Anyway... while recovering from those nasty wounds (and finishing up pneumonia treatments I might add), Cade had an annual check-up with the ENT. Yep, tubes are coming out, we knew that, and... wait a minute... What?!... another ear infection! Huh? He's currently taking an antibiotic!!! So they x-ray the adenoids (his 3rd x-ray in 10 days... poor child is glowing in the dark!) and see that they are quite enlarged. Know what comes next? You got it! Surgery is scheduled for the end of February. He'll come out with no adenoids and a new set of tubes. (And we have to stay on an antibiotic until then.) Whew...

Some good news, though! Our baby boy is sleeping in his big boy bed & loves it!
... sweet, angel boy...