A Whirlwind Year End!  

It has been a whirlwind few months for the Scamehorn crew. We got to experience a family trip to North Carolina to see the Jones clan for Thanksgiving. There were so many special moments including introducing Wesley to Great Grandma Lois and the entire family. Natalie loved the airplane ride and it was Wesley's first one! He slept all the way, which was a great blessing for mom!



Wesley was spoiled plenty by our resident Baby Whisperer, cousin Alice.



Natalie was really surprised to see all of our family at Downtown Pizza. 

Our cousin Melanie made these fantastic blankets for all of the "little" cousins.
 Natalie uses her every night - they are super warm and fuzzy just like Melanie.

Mom's 90 year-old grandmother ("Great Grandma Lois") got to meet Wesley for the first time on this trip. 
Their eyes are exactly the same color!

One of the best moment's of 2011.  Happy Thanksgiving, indeed!
Over 220 years of life experience in this picture!

The 2 most handsome men around - in one place nonetheless! 
Wesley is Daddy's little turkey to be sure!

 Natalie turns 5!- No sooner had we returned from North Carolina than we were hit with another big milestone:  Natalie's 5th birthday!  She had a Special Agent Oso party with lots of friends, family, cake and presents.  It was the year for Build-A-Bear, too.  She and Daddy Ron took a special trip to Build-A-Bear to spend some birthday bucks on some new outfits for her stuffed cat. 

Here's the cake before it was covered with spittle. :)

Singing Happy Birthday with friends and family around.

Aunt Janet got to come up for my birthday, too!



Moatise and Wesley had a grand time introducing Wesley to the whimsical world of balloons! That's what's got him all smiles in this picture. He's 8 and a half months old here.



Dad and Wesley celebrated Natalie's birthday with lots of giggles and smiles!

Christmas 2011As we waved the birthday crew goodbye, we packed up our bags - well, really our entire minivan and headed south for Wesley's first Christmas.  It was a truly special one. Before we headed south, though, we made a few December memories just the 4 of us.  Wesley took his first outing to pick out a Christmas tree at Lucas Nursery and we headed out for a field trip with Natalie's classmates to Santa's Christmas Tree Farm in Eustis.

At the Funny Farm - oops! I mean the Christmas Tree Farm.

Natalie taking a hayride around the farm with her school friends.



The weather has been so mild that Wesley and mom spend a lot of time just hanging out in the sun on a blanket together.   He's creepin' up on 9-months here!



Here he is at his first story time at the library. He enjoyed it a lot more than the picture truly shows.

Here's Wesley on his first trip to select a Christmas tree.  He really enjoyed it a lot!  He loved feeling the branches and riding in the Bjorn.  He's almost getting too big for that thing!



Here's Moatsie and me enjoying our own story time together. 
She's reading "Too Many Daves" by Dr. Suess, which is one of my favorites.
 It was one of mom's favorites as a kid, too. 
I mostly like it because it has a line that reads, "Oliver, Boliver Butt."



6 Months!

Here's a quick progressive look at my little "Wes Mess" over the past 6 months. He's hit some big milestones already and there are many more to come!

Just a week old!

First time I held Wesley on my own!

2 months old!

3 Months!

4 months

5 months

almost 6 months!

Big baby blues!

Super smiley guy!

Beach Day!

All summer long I have been really wanting to go to the beach.  However, with a new baby around (I'm not naming any names), it has been very difficult to make getting to the beach a priority.  Finally, with the help and the invitation from Moatsie and Daddy Ron my parents made my summer dream a reality!  It took the entire day and most of the night to pack the car, get there, play on the beach, eat dinner and drive home, but I was happy and so were my parents (mostly).  Mom said it was one of those days that reminded her why having more than 2 kids was probably not part of God's plan for our family.

Moatise and Daddy Ron got some great deal on a hotel room in Daytona Beach, so we packed up early in the morning and headed out.  The mini van looked like a pack mule on wheels filled with beach umbrellas, baby beds, diaper bags, towels, snacks/drinks, sand toys and my little brother, Wesley who would be making his first trip to the beach today.  We went to eat at a great little outdoor seafood shack right near the lighthouse in Ponce Inlet.

Then, it was off to The Shores Resort to get ready for the beach!  I built a sand castle with mom and Moatsie, went swimming with Daddy and Daddy Ron, and Wesley, well, he mostly hung around with Moatsie.  I even got to eat ice cream from an ice cream truck that drove right up on the beach.  My mom says that cars driving on the beach is the most ridiculous idea she has ever heard, but that didn't stop her from running after that ice cream truck in the sand just so I could eat half of an ice cream bar.  (The other half melted down the front of my arm and all over my face - nothing a little saltwater bath couldn't fix.) All in all, it was a great day and we all survived.  At least we could say that we DID make it to the beach during the summer.  Now my summer was complete and I was ready for school to start!

A Scamehorn Summer

Hi Friends!  This summer has been quite different.  Having expanded the Scamehorn family, we had to get creative (and be flexible) about keeping Natalie entertained while simultaneously keeping Wesely on some asseblance of a routine and protected from the sun.  We've had lots of playdates at the house and we joined the Kid's Gym for the summer to get some indoor exercise. 

Hey! Hey! We're the monkees . . . people say we monkey around.  We did a lot of that this summer.

Here I am "monkey-ing" around again with my dad and my cousin.  I spent so much time in the water this summer that my mom thinks I grew gills. 

My Aunt Janet came up to celebrate Grandma's birthday.  We built a flamingo with tinker toys.  Aunt Janet is a lot of fun! She even had a sleepover in my room while she was here!

Chillaxin with Aunt Kimmie in her pool.

It's great living close to Daddy Ron.  We got to meet him for lunch one day at Long Horn's steakhouse - that's no bull! (Nope, it'sa bison)

Rub a dub dub, 2 cousins in a tub!

I love having Backyardigan time on the couch with dad.  He's my cartoon buddy . . .

. . . and my coloring buddy.

 . . . and my finger puppet friend. We are playing with finger puppets that I got from "big girl" Sunday School, which I got to start in July.  They have Praise Time (kids worship), dancing, Bible stories, crafts and (my favorite)  - snack!

When Dad isn't busy coloring or goofing off with me he likes to catch up with Wesley.

Wesley got  to spend time with his friends this suumer, too.

For Grandma's birthday we ordered had pasties and watched "Tangled".  In case you're wondering, a "pasty" is kind of like an empanada - it's a pastry filled with meat and potatoes.  Grandma's grandma used to make them when my Grandma was a little girl.

Aunt Jan and Grandpa enjoying pasties for Grandma's birthday dinner.

I will be starting art lessons in the fall.  Here I am meeting Laura Bird Miller ( a local artist), who will be my teacher in the fall.  We drew toucans together and I got to use pastels for the first time.

One of the most exciting milestones for me this summer was going tubing for the first time.  My parents' friends Becky and Steve invited us over for the 4th of July to go tubing and play with their daughters.  It was great fun! I loved it immediately.

I didn't want to get off of the tube, even when it was going very fast. I loved it!

Of course, we had lots of pool playdates this summer.  Here we are with the Waterston clan (and part of the Lattimer clan) enjoying some fun in the pool.

My dad joined his family in Satellite Beach to watch the final space shuttle launch.  I stayed home with mom and grandma, who was visiting for the week.

Wesley (or "Wes the Mess" as we like to call him) took his first swim in Aunt Kimmie and Uncle Kenny's pool.  He seemed to like it for a little bit, but not for long.  Next summer it will be a different story, I'm sure!

I love being a big sister and I think we make a great pair!

"What is this crazy girl doing in the place where I sleep, Mom? She wasn't here when you put me to bed!"             Hey! Party in my crib!



Another big milestone of the summer - Wesley finally turned 4 months old.  He looks pretty excited about that in this tummy time picture!



Wesley has decided that his favorite position is to hang "monkey-style" over mom's shoulder.  Not exactly convenient for Mommy, but she doesn't seem to mind too much.

I enjoyed quite a bit of time just playing inside.  I am a great independent player.  This summer brought a lot of arts and crafts time on my own (or with mommy).  Stickers, paper plate crafts, lots of coloring sheets and, of course, my favorite - the dry erase board.

We had lots of playdates with my friends from Northland Early Learning Center.  Here I am with my friend Maddie playing doll house.

Yawn . . . . it's a pajama playdate with 2 of my favorite girlfriends!

There were lots of other exciting things this summer.  Later on, I will post some pictures of our first family trip to the beach.  We also took a fun trip to Ikea, spent time at the farmer's market, and dad even took me to Disney a couple of times.  In the fall, I will start a new school closer to home so Wesley can have a more regular daily routine (among other reasons).  I loved my old school and my friends at Northland Early Learning Center, but I will still get to see some of them at church on Sundays. I hope everyone enjoys these last few days of summer and we'll post again when fall arrives.