Sam is 5

This little stud turned 5 today. He amazes me with his intelligence, his love and his kindness towards others. He still drives me nuts at times, but I'm so thankful for all that he teaches me. He is so tender-hearted and often nervous to try new things. But he then surprises me by hopping on a big bike with no training wheels the first time, enjoying rides at Lagoon and making friends at Chick fil a. He's a little social butterfly. Every day he's asking to go play with a friend and makes the rounds on our street to see if anyone can play. :)
I love watching him grown and learn and be a big brother. He and Tyler are the best of friends, most of the time, and watching them play together is such a joy. So happy he's ours.
Happy Birthday Little Man!!!

While Sam was less than thrilled to start taking photos, Tyler flashed his smile effortlessly. :)

All Sam wanted to do for his birthday was have lunch at McDonald's with some friends. He had a blast and we're so lucky to live where so many kids are around!

Lagoon & Thanksgiving Point

I feel like we've already accomplished half of our bucket list items for the summer and it's only been a week!

We got to go to Lagoon for Travis' Centeva work party! We weren't sure how it would go with Sam since he just watched Tyler on the rides at Sea World last summer. But we started him on some real basic rides and he ended up loving it. :) Tyler rode the biggest little kid roller coaster that he could and did great. Baby even had some fun on the rides, until she was too tired, then she was just cranky.

We got to hang out with friends there too, so that made it even more fun.

Sam didn't want to ride this roller coaster, but we were already in line and Travis had gone somewhere with baby so he reluctantly decided it would be fine. A few seconds into the video he gets a little nervous, but by the end he seems to be enjoying himself. (While still holding on for dear life.)

Bumper cars were probably their favorite.

We also got to go to Thanksgiving point with my parents and my niece. I loved the butterfly exhibit and watching the kids (especially Sam conquering his fears) ride the ponies a couple of times.

Sam even fed some animals for the first time.

The boys are on a little t-ball team this month and it's pretty cute. After 5 minutes of standing in the infield both boys came and sat down next to us for a "little break." And they're probably the only kids running the bases in crocs...

We went to a little bit of Travis' mom's work party up on campus and got rained out so we ate our food in the van and then went to Aggie Ice Cream since we didn't get our free ice cream at the party, ha ha! Baby loved it. 

Dinosaur Park

Went to the dinosaur park as per our usual this time of year. I love seeing the excitement of the boys. They ran around so excited to see all of the dinosaurs.

And below is an example of how many shots it can take to get a decent photo with this crew. :)

Sam graduated from preschool! He loved it, had a great teacher and learned so so much.

Dinner with my parents for Travis' birthday, sleepy boys and our walkway that Travis made!

Cutest little helpers, and baby always trying to get in Tyler's space, ha ha!

Best dad building forts to read stories in.

Love this little girl.