Sam takes the wheel

Yep, Sophie loves Santa.



Hi, it’s Sam! Welcome to my inaugural posting. This week was the best week of my entire year. My birthday and Christmas literally rolled up into one week. Our family had a very good Christmas this year, John got a BreadMaster which to my extreme surprise he didn’t guess, Mom got a garlic press and a clock made by none other than moi (using dangerous tools in Woodshop, nonetheless), Sophie got some new toys however she proved to be more interested in the wrapping paper than the actual gift, and truth be told she liked the dog’s new yellow bone more than anything, and I got a Wii! A word of warning concerning Wii games, if you are inept at playing racing games with a classic controller then do not attempt to try it with the motion sensitive controller… After we had lazed around for the rest of the day Mom made a delicious meal. The ham alone is enough to feed an army.

The day after Christmas we went to brave the flood of reckless shoppers at Target in an attempt to buy another controller so we could play against each other. We have as of yet been unsuccessful in that quest but we will prevail in the end. On my birthday we went Red Robin for Bonzai burgers…YUM…then to the doctor’s office to check on Jack (my soon to be little brother), he is doing very well and is very cute. I had a slumber party with Talia, Aseneth, Noelle, and Hillary and we stayed up till past one in the morning. We all had a very good week. TTYL!

Side notes from Mom: To our friends in Maine, I can’t tell you how great it is to have a Target 10 minutes away! I remember when it used to be a special quarterly pilgrimage! A big congratulations to the Maroneys on the birth of David…wish I could have been there for this one too! And finally, we are still working on holiday cards this year, just bear with me, noone has been forgotten! Here is a great 4D Ultrasound of little Jack that gives us a sneak peek......

December to remember

Merry almost Christmas everyone! I know it's been ages since our last post, and I apologize. Kind of negates the whole keeping in touch with everyone thing the blog was supposed to solve! We've had a lot on our plates lately...John's been doing a bit of travelling and working hard (that's him in the Santa suit by the way), Sam has been crazy busy with school, piano, babysitting and basketball and last but not least I've been down with pneumonia for the better part of a month! But alas, things are on the upswing and I now have the stamina to live an almost normal life. We're looking forward to Christmas, though our cards will be late (sorry, all) and the house won't be decorated as much as we'd like but everyone gets to be home all week so it will be great just to spend time together. The tree and all the lights are up so we'll call that good anyway.

Sam turns 13 next week.....I can't believe we'll have a teenager. Or...judging from the eye rolling and slammed door I just got from the other room, maybe it's not such a stretch after all.
There will be a big slumber party here next week...makeovers and nail polish, pizza and air hockey..... so if anyone wants to join 8 giggling, junk food laden girls, come on over and I'll trade you places! They only stay up until 4am or so :) I barely remember when that time of day was the end of the day...now it's the beginning! Oh, I feel sooooo old!


I'll have Sam post her own entry next week so check back. Sweet Sophie just woke up so I'll have to cut this a little short. By the way, Happy Birthday to Lorrie, my little sister and to Grandma! We love you!


Here's Sophie's first birthday picture, too.

Brrrr and Birthdays

So it's been a couple of weeks. Right now John is setting the programmable thermostat and trying to get me to agree to cooler temperatures as I'm distracted with the blog. Apparently 68 degrees is darn hot in his book. Little does he know that women have the ability to listen, respond and write at the same time. Nevertheless, 68 degrees it is. At least for an hour or two when we're lucky.

Anyway, Sophie turned one a little over a week ago and we thought we'd better get some pictures up. I got older, too but we don't need to discuss that. John is about to get older, much older than me, and we'll get into that next week.

We had a little party for Sophie with a couple of friends of the family. Grandma Connie came all the way from California to help us celebrate and it was a lot of fun. The whole world is more fun with Connie around! Sophie, being her mother's daughter, didn't hesitate at all before diving into her raspberry buttercream cupcake and she ate the whole thing. The balloons, wrapping paper and boxes were big hits, the presents were enjoyed and our family room now resembles a preschool. And in the end, Sophie's favorite thing is chasing the dog around and around the sofa trying to get her (the dog's) battered old pink frisbee. Sometimes Sophie succeeds and that sweet yellow dog then very gently "chases" the baby who squeals in delight and runs as fast as her short little legs can carry her. So cute.

And last but not least, here's Sam who was a female vampire for Halloween. Since she doesn't like chocolate but spent hours trick or treating with the neighborhood 12 year olds, we have quite the supply here. Thanks for taking one for the team Sam! By the way, Sam won a contest at school and is going to have a great story published in the school paper. Maybe I'll let her write our next blog entry!

Welcome everyone!

Welcome to the inaugural posting from the Adams Family! The Yellow Dog Blog is named for our sweet- and incredibly hairy- Sadie, who is the only member of the family neutral enough to carry the moniker. I'm typing in BLUE today because we just found out that we are having a baby boy on March 6th. Needless to say, we are ecstatic and John can't wait to have some more testosterone in the house...I suppose he's earned it after all these years, regardless of how great he is with all the girls in his life. It should be said, however that in a democracy the boys will never stand a chance. Jana, Sam and Sophie like it that way.

A quick update on Illinois- we are still getting used to the climate after a year and a half. Recently the temperature has fluctuated between 35-90 degrees in any given 36 hour period. Humidity and wind are pretty popular here, but things could be worse. The people here are great and we finally feel settled and blessed to have good friends.

Sophie turns 1 in two days...we can hardly believe time has gone by so quickly. She is such a great baby. Really, we're not just proud parents, and those of you who know us well know we'd tell you if things were less than ideal! She walks like Frankenstein, but very fast. She is so sweet and funny and cute...always smiling and saying dada, baba, tickle tickle tickle, good good good, sissy or almost anything besides mama. Okay, I guess there's the fault. I have faith that one day she'll come out with it though. Sophie loves her daddy more than anything on the planet, besides Sadie anyway. We are all gaga over her, in case you couldn't tell.

Sam is doing great in 7th grade. She's taking piano and babysitting and staying very busy. She's finally slowing down growing at 5'8", we'll see if she can look mom in the eye in the near future but she's still a few inches away much to her chagrin. Sam is a great help with Sophie, I love watching them interact. It's amazing to watch her grow into a teenager...the other day I realized I'd be sending Sam to college and Sophie to kindergarten at the same time....funny how things turn out like that.

That's all for now, we'll keep updating with more posts and pictures so check this out every now and again!