New Toys

Sam got all kinds of new toys for Christmas. And, luckily enough, she really started to play with toys just a few days later. She LOVES her toys now. It's amazing to see how much she enjoys playing with things. And by playing, I mean trying to put them in her mouth.

Here's her new Johnny Jump-Up. She isn't great at staying quite upright in it yet but she's working on it!She also can't quite jump yet but she loves to swing around. It's actually really funny because she'll get frustrated (usually because she can't get one of the toys in her mouth) and try to throw herself around. Well she just ends up spinning in circles - which just makes her more mad. It's really quite entertaining!

Christmas in KC

The Hubbard family went to Kansas City for Christmas. I drove home with my sister and our two dogs while Kirk and Sam flew. We spent a great 5 days there visiting with family and friends. It was definitely a memorable first Christmas! Here are a ton of great pics from our visit:


Grandma got Sam this adorable outfit for her to wear Christmas morning - notice the feet!

Sam wasn't very interested in much to do with Christmas. She isn't really into playing with paper or anything like that yet. Luckily, she went down for a nap halfway through present opening and slept for 4 hours (and she NEVER does that!) She was well-rested for our Christmas evening outing to see the extended family.

This is a picture of Sam's stocking from Grandma and Grandpa.


She wasn't happy about something. This must have been just before the nap.

Sam with all the presents - most of them were for her but not quite all!

I don't think this picture is actually from Christmas but it is a great shot of Sam with her two wonderful aunts!

Chilling in the Tub

Just a cute picture of Sam in the bathtub. Kirk gives her a bath every night as part of her bedtime routine. She just loves it!


We're saving these to show to her first date sixteen years or so from now...

Tummy Time

Samantha has never been a big fan of tummy time. Kirk decided to take a video to show off her mood (and she's getting close to rolling over!):

The Sam Witch Project

Kirk has been getting a little more creative with his home videos. I've dubbed this one the "Sam Witch Project".

Pictures with Santa

We took Sam to the local mall to get her picture taken with Santa. While we did get a nice picture out of it, what a cash cow! At least I would have felt better if they would have pretended that a portion of the $25 we paid for a CD with one picture on it was going to charity. Nope, our Santa was sponsored by Gymboree. Oh well, Merry Christmas right?

Here's us waiting in line:
Another pic while waiting:
And a close-up:

And, finally, with Santa:
It's tough to get a great picture when there's no real way to ensure that the baby will even look at the camera, much less smile! The teenage girl taking the picture kept calling her name over and over and over again - I told her that Samantha didn't respond to her name yet but that advice went ignored. We tried everything we could just to get her to look at the camera, we failed utterly at our attempts to get her to smile. She wasn't in a bad mood - she was just chilling with Santa. She liked his vibe...

Four Months Old!

Sam had her four month birthday the other day. To celebrate, she went for a check-up and more shots! She is now 25 inches long and weighs 15 pounds, 14 ounces (I think, am writing this 4 days later...) The doctor said that everything is great and was impressed by her strength. She is a little "behind" in some aspects; she doesn't roll over or seem to consciously reach for things yet. But she is ahead in other ways - supports her own weight on her legs and balances her torso and head really well. We think at this point, she's all brawn, no brains. Must take after her father :)

Here is her four month picture:


As you can see, she's bright-eyed and alert. She is the happiest baby and smiles all the time. We feel incredibly lucky because she is SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT! She goes to bed about 9 and sleeps through until 7 or so in the morning. That makes for a much happier mom and dad (mom especially) and also for a happy Sam. She's getting better about taking more regular naps but still doesn't go down for very long during the day.

Here's her four month video:



We chose this video because this is how she spends most of her day - chewing on her hand. Her new favorite party trick is to get a couple of fingers way into her mouth, stick them down her throat, gag herself, and promptly puke on whoever is holding her. It's really great fun!

Here's another video. Warning, you may think we're completely cruel for videotaping this but it's a video of Sam getting her shots:

Chatty Kathy

In the last week, Samantha has become quite a talker. She makes all kinds of new sounds and then laughs at herself. Here's a small sample:



One more:




And here is Kirk's favorite video (she's going to love us when she's a teenager):

New Favorite Picture

Love this one!

Bounce Bounce Baby!

Grandma Hughes got us this Bounce Bounce Baby at a garage sale before Sam was born but we've been holding back on using it until we thought she was strong enough. You're technically not supposed to use it until the baby can sit up on their own. But Sam is one strong lady (plus we used a pillow to help prop her up)!

We tried it out today and she loved it. Here are a few pictures!

Wooooaaa - look at that toy!

Hey mom - What happened to my arm???

The Border War!

While in Ohio, we watched the Border War. We loved getting random drunken phone calls from all of our friends who were at the game. Definite jealousy :)

Sam sported her official KU gear to cheer on the Hawks! Unfortunately, it was a little too cold for her cheerleader outfit. We'll save that for basketball season (and wait until after we buy some tights).

Rosco got in on the action too. Unfortunately, he left his KU Jersey here in Tennessee (that will have to make its debut during b-ball season too I guess). But he was still cheering for the Hawks.

Things didn't look so good there for a while. Sam didn't like when MU scored...

But all worked out in the end. The Jayhawks pulled off the big victory! Who cares that KU lost 5 games this year - we beat MU!!!