More super stuff from Mike's phone

Hi, this is Mike posting. Robyn and Esther are in Ohio with Chris, Joyelle, Christopher, and Mom & Papa Sampson, so I have a little more time than I am used to, so I'm putting it to good use. Here are a few pictures and videos mostly of Esther with small explanations.

Enjoy!

We were trying to get a cool picture like the Ekstrom's did of their girl...

Esther really doesn't like the feel of grass though.

Poor Esther!

Here is Robyn and Esther on Mother's Day. What a cute pair!

Robyn made me this awesome bow-tie, and I got 50 compliments on it at church today:)

I love it--it is so ME.

And more Esther...

Esther knows when she is tired and she knows how to let us know. It is great she'll communicate a little with us now.

Esther and chocolate

Esther is definitely our daughter! Here is her first taste of dark chocolate mousse dessert (she has had other chocolate before).

I've done some updating

Hey Ya'll, yes I've finally updated the blog. There's a ton of stuff, so be sure to click on "older posts" on the bottom to see them all. I've got some videos back there if you do look at the "older posts" even though they're all from yesterday and today. :) So enjoy and be sure to leave lots of comments because it makes me happy. :)

Jump

I've learned that if I want to get people interested in a post, I need to include pictures of Esther. :) So here they are. This post is actually about me and how I did a Newsies song with the ward choir for our ward talent show. But here's the cutest little Newsie around!

So as I mentioned above our ward choir did the song "Seize the Day" from Newsies for our ward talent show. If you want to watch the video of us doing it, click here.

I meant to get a picture of all of us in our Newsies gear with paps and all, but I forgot. So when we got home, I decided I was going to get a picture of me doing the classic Newsie jump that's on the cover of the DVD, music book, soundtrack and just about everything Newsie. I figured it'd take a couple shots to get it...I was wrong. It took like 20 shots to get anything remotely close to the Newsie jump. I did however get pictures of me in just about every point along the way... :)

Prepping to jump (just ignore my facial expressions in these...)

This one is a fun jump pose, but not the Newsie one I was going for...

I think I look scary in this one and the one below... but my dance teachers would be proud of those pointed toes. :)

After all that jumping I decided to get a few pictures of me just posing. :)

And here's a picture of the jump I was trying to get...

yeah... I was way off...

Happy Birthday to Me

Last Thursday was my birthday, and can I just tell you it was awesome?! Mike let me sleep in (util 7:30, which felt glorious) and made me breakfast in bed. I got a ton of phone calls and texts and emails and well wishes for my birthday. Since Mike had his last final on Friday morning, we didn't do a ton of celebrating together on my actual birthday, although we did go out to eat at Applebees (which is just around the corner). So since Mike was busy studying, I threw a girls night. I decided I wanted to have a tea party girls night. Except without the tea; we had lemonade instead. :) A bunch of my friends came over and we had yummy finger foods, lemonade and some great conversation. I decided that I wanted to dress up for the tea party (I was thinking something between My Fair Lady and Alice in Wonderland). So Esther and I dressed up for the tea party. :)

Esther was so cute in her froofy dress and hat, I kept taking pictures! These are just a few of my favorites. :)

Blowing raspberries...

Ha ha! I'm so funny!

Say What?!

Waiting for the food at Applebees. The people in the booths next to us seemed quite entertained by her antics. There was music playing and she was dancing around, but I couldn't get a good picture of that.

Don't worry mom, I'll get the bill for you.

Esther and I all dolled up for the tea party. I found this dress at Goodwill for only $5! It fit wonderfully and all I did was pull the huge bow off the bust and stuck it on a hat that I already had.

Here we all are right after I had blown out all the candles on the cake. I could literally feel the heat coming from the all the candles... Maybe I'm getting too old for the candles...

Thanks again for coming everyone! It was a really fun night! It made a wonderful day even better!

Kjirstin, Me, Jana, Jenna, Danielle, Chelsey, Kim, and Melanie

Faith, Meghan, Sarah, Jessica, Necia (with Sarah's baby, Elizabeth), Jenny with her chubber boy Jude, Christin, Me, and Mary

Jenny and I posing with our tea cups. "How kind of you to let me come!"

Here's the cake I made for my birthday. I actually made a bunch of really cute cupcakes, but somehow managed to not get a picture of those. Instead I got a picture of the cakes that didn't turn out so great. I got bored with decorating them and since it was my birthday and I didn't have to finish them off wonderfully, I didn't. Please do not judge my cake decorating skills from these little cakes. I'm much better than that, I promise. I just got lazy...

Here I am with some of my birthday presents. For my mothers day/ birthday present Mike got me a GPS. Esther and I are going down to visit my brother and his family in Cincinnati for Memorial Day weekend and I think Mike is worried about my ability to get there without his help as co-pilot. :)

I got myself a power sander for my birthday. I did a lot of research and finally decided on this beauty. You'd better believe I was strutting my stuff walking out of Lowes with this tool box in hand. Oh yeah! :)

On Friday (the day after my birthday) we went down to Chicago to see a play. It took us 3 hours to get down there (usually it's about 1 hr 45 mins). We got a little loopy in the car, as the following pictures attest.

Here's Chicago and all the traffic...

The play ended up being a total bust. Instead of just doing Shakespeare's play "Taming of the Shrew" they portrayed a cast doing the play, so much of the story was the cast's drama and stuff, which was tasteless, so we walked out. Luckily for us (and probably unluckily for them) our friends were with us, so we walked down Navy Pier, got some ice cream and checked out a stained glass museum, all the while enjoying some great conversation. :)

Mike, Robyn, Faith and Tyce

Navy Pier with some Chicago buildings in the background.

So although the play ended up being a bust, the night still turned out great and I think we had a really fun time despite the traffic. :) We're just not planning on doing anything in Chicago unless we have all day to get there... :)

Thanks everyone for making my birthday wonderful!

More catching up

My cell phone is water proof and shock resistant and so I frequently lock the keypad and pass it over to little miss to play with. :) So if I miss your call, it's because little miss had the phone. :)

I LOVE this picture of Esther! She won't wear hats, but she'll wear scarfs on her head, so here she is with a little bandana I made for her. Isn't she so adorable?!

Cute family pic!

Esther loves bath time. Seriously LOVES it. She would stay in the bath for hours if we let her. :)

Esther doesn't mind having water poured on her and I think this pic is just too cool. :)

Still catching up on pictures

Back in April (I know, I'm so behind!) we went to a friend's house for some food and an Easter Egg hunt. The food was great and although Esther didn't quite understand the whole hunting for eggs thing, she still had fun. :) I could not get her to look at the camera!

At least in this last one you can see her face. :)
There was an Easter egg hunt at the school across the street from our house. It was a little drizly, but that didn't stop us! They had eggs in plain view for the little kiddos and Esther seemed to catch on the second time around. :)
She does this nose scrunch thing when she's outside. It's so funny to me! :)

We had a bunch of friends over for a picnic one Sunday afternoon. :)
Nathan helping Esther (although she looks like she's not too sure about that).
My cuties. :)

I found this great little set of chairs and the little table at a rummage sale around the corner. We'll probably repaint them eventually, but for now Esther's having fun coloring on them any chance she gets. :)
Esther loves brushing her teeth, particularly with daddy. (ok, so she loves to do anything with daddy. She's such a daddy's girl!)

We got a new camera a while back (we'd only had Mike's old camera that was... well... lacking) and we had fun testing it out one afternoon as we went for a walk.
I loved it when many of the trees in our neighborhood were full of beautiful blossoms! :)
Our baby can fly!
Esther making her scrunchy outside face. :) So funny. :)

Esther looking cute in a neighbor's yard (don't worry we asked if we could take the pic).
No, I'm the center of attention mommy! Me!
I LOVE THESE TWO! :)
Esther loves to fly, and it just seemed so fitting with her fairy wings. :)

Esther loves to yell!
And more yelling...
And running away as fast as she can. :)

Kissy face and scrunchy face in one. It makes her look a bit mad... :) he he he...

One, Two, Three, Swing!

Just some cute pictures of Esther...Ignore the mess in the background...

Flexible kid!

A couple of weeks ago we went to the zoo with some of our friends. Here we have Katie and Nathan hanging out with Mufasa (that's not really the lion's name, but I relate all lion stuff to Lion King). :)

This was Esther's response when I tried to get a picture of her. "Hang on a sec mom!"

Hmm... what's everyone looking at?

Turn me back around mom, I want to see the elephants again!

Esther loves looking through magazines, particularly the old Ensigns that have pictures of Jesus. She's so cute and looks through them page by page; careful not to tear any. Then when she's looked through everything she'll start tearing them all up.