Random Pictures From This Summer

These aren't necessarily in order of events... but they were sitting on my phone and I wanted more space to take more pictures. I love the camera phone. What a wonderful invention. Unless you use it in my gym class... then you will get a detention. I love detentions too.

This was taken at West Park on the North Side of Pittsburgh, at a Pittsburgh Project picnic. Negs and her dad.

I went to Surf City a good 10 days before Jayson arrived and everyday had to send him pictures of Negley. This picture reminded Jayson of a Cure album cover. I love The Cure too.

One of the highlights of Surf City is the creamery. A dairy farm about 15 minutes from camp that makes their own Milk, Cheese, and Ice Cream. This was one of the first nights at camp, I posed Negley Anne under the cow. She's hard to see... but I think it's cute. Negley Anne and Ice Cream, it doesn't get better than that!

 

Negley and Charlie Joe at the race.

Some shots from the zoo.

Beach

Bath Duck

Negley Loves Her Rocking Chair

Surf City on the Boat

Cutting Off The Hair

As you can tell from the pictures, or if you have seen me since last Sunday... I got my hair cut. Not usually something that is blog worthy, but I had 10 inches cut off this time. A big change for me. I haven't had my hair this short since I was 18 and a freshman in college. It was a huge mistake that time around (never cut your hair for a boy unless you are married to them), but this time feels pretty good. I miss my hair being long, but I was able to give it to Locks of Love so some kid out there is going to have a pretty awsome wig (if I do say so myself).


My good friend Courtney had the honor.


Right when she made the first cut I could hear Jayson saying, "Oh no, this was a huge mistake." What a way to support your wife.


This picture frightens me. Mom if you happen to see this blog, doesn't my hair style remind you of preschool at Shadyside? Crazy. If you want to see another picture of me with short hair... feel free to go over to the Pauli's blog... a nice picture of me and Greta Polo when we were in 7th grade. I have to find those shorts somewhere...

Super Doula's Wedding!

Like always, it's been pretty busy around the Samuels' house... Jayson managed to get Mark and Courtney married! The wedding was a blast, everyone had so much fun! Negley got a chance to hang out with some of her favorite people that night, even though they were the busiest. Our entire family cried during the service... Courtney, then Mark, Negley seemed to cry all day, then me... then Jayson, while he was trying to marry them. Good thing the service only lasted about ten minutes. They should be coming home sometime this week from their honeymoon - and as happy as we are that they are married, it's hard to get used to the fact that Mark doesn't live with us anymore. Good thing they didn't go far!

Super Doula & The Negs


Uncle Mark & The Negs


I had to get Brad Yodder on my blog somehow... We've tried to get Negley Anne to say Yodder as her first word with no luck... sorry Brad.

 

Life in Pawleys

So sorry about the lack of new stuff on the blog. It doesn't make much sense, but things are actually a little busier now that I'm out of school for the summer. I'm going a little bit back in time with these pictures, but I never got to show any from our trip down south. Jayson, Negley Anne, Tillie and I were able to spend 5 wonderful days in South Carolina with our friends Matt, Sayward, Spencer, and Hagrid. We had a blast... I just wish it wasn't so far away so we could visit more often. Jayson was awsome on the way down, spending a good chunk of time sitting in the back with Negley. She did a great job though... and did her best to look like a rock star!
This picture is a little frightning on many levels.
Certainly the highlight of the weekend was the time spent with Spencer. I felt like I had already known her from all the pictures on Sayward's blog... but there's nothing like the real thing. She was so happy and content, all the time. Both Sayward and I lucked out with our easy babies! I'm not sure when we will actually "see" each other again though... their next trip to Pittsburgh the Samuels will be in Michigan livin' it up on the beach. We'll figure something out though, I'm sure of it.

 

Willie's Home!

Okay, so I know what you're thinking. Katy & Jayson are crazy. Jayson would be quick to correct you - it's Katy that is the crazy one. I have managed to convince my husband to get another dog. Not that our life needs to be any more hectic or out of control, but I thought another dog - especially a puppie would be perfect for us. Anyway, here he is: Wilbur Samuels, otherwise known as Willie or Weep. This picture was taken the day that Negley Anne and I picked him up from Jerry's house. It was an emotional goodbye.
We'll say that this is Tillie embracing her younger half-brother, but we all know the truth. Tillile had to make sure that Willie knew who was boss in the house pretty quickly. You could feel the love in the air. Actually, the two have been getting along great, and I can't wait until Willie is a little bigger so he can play around with Tillie more. For now, Tillie is just dropping huge sticks on his little head. They'll figure it out.
Negley Anne is having a hard time figuring Willie out so far. She either thinks that he is funny and is laughing out of control, or is crying because her heels are fun to nip at. This is just the first of many Negley and Willie pictures to come I'm sure. If you haven't seen it yet, you should watch the video below... You'll notice that I'm the greatest mother ever who continues to tape her daughter while she's crying instead of helping her. I'm an idiot. It helps build Negley's character, right? Don't answer...

 

Attack of the Puppies

This past Sunday Negley Anne and I took a trip out to Grandpa Jerry's Farm to get the newest addition to the Samuels family, Willie. Fun was had by all in the short visit, but sadly it didn't last all that long for Negley. There were three puppies left that afternoon when we got there (poor Alta... loosing all her puppies in one day), and they seemed to have their way with my little girl. All was okay though, Negley has been having fun with Willie ever since. She'll figure out how to get her revenge on him, i'm sure of it. Here's a cute little video.

Changes

As many of you know, for the past two years our friend Mark Williams has lived with us in our home. He and his girlfriend and their two dogs have become part of our family and we are excited that they are getting married three weeks from today! Sadly though, their dog Charlie (Charles Linwood III) died last week. This is video that I took of Negley that sums up her love for that dog. Well, either it's her love for him, or she just thinks that she's a dog. Either way, we miss you Charlie! (just click on the word video)

A visit with the Belgies

Two weekends ago Jayson, Negley, and I got the chance to go down to West Virginia and spend some time with our friends the Belgies. They live pretty much in the middle of nowhere, which was perfect for us. Things have been busy here in Pittsburgh, sometimes too busy, so a couple of days away from everything was perfect. They live right next to a creek where Tillie and Indie got to play for hours together. Tillie isn't much of a swimmer, but she still loved the water. Jayson was ready to dive in after her if he had to. Luckily, she made it back to Pittsburgh with us. It was as much of a vacation for her as it was for us.The wondeful thing about friends like the Belgies is that distance and time don't make a big difference in our relationship. They've lived down in WV for a year now, but it didn't seem like it when we were down there. We've been able to see them a few times over the year, not as much as we would like, but still - it was like we started right where we left off. It was neat to see the work that they are doing down there... I just wish that it wasn't that far away. I have yet to find pictures of Negley's birthday, but they are out there somewhere... soon they will be up - promise!

 

Nelgley Anne's First Haircut

Well, today was big time in the history of our one-year old. Negley Anne received her first haircut today, and I didn't cry. Our friend Michelle Mancini from Orchard Hill had the honors and she did a great job! We only trimmed around so that it was all one length, but it look so great! She's so awesome, she sat in the seat on her own and enjoyed a cookie when she was done.
Yeah Negley!


In case you were wondering, the blog skipped over some pretty big events lately in the Samuels family - big trip to Haiti, Negley Anne turned one... I promise that more pictures will come, I just don't know how soon. I'm hoping that we will be able to get our lives together before the summer begins and we both start working at the Pittsburgh Project, but where would be the fun in that?!

 

Love me, never shake me

So sorry that it's taken so long to post since Jayson's been back from Haiti. Things are good but pretty busy. Here is just a taste of our life... this is a PSA that Mark and Negley Anne did for us the other night. They need to show it to all the parents leaving the hospital with their newborns. We are going to miss having Mark around here!

The Snuggly

Hello all. This will probably be the last post for a while. Jayson comes home tomorrow night - 34 hours and counting. When he gets back I'm sure that there will be many pictures of haiti to put on here as well as some new ones of Negley Anne. This is a cute one from back in the day when I used to carry her in her snuggly. We now have a very nice back-pack for her (thanks to the Bishops) that we love to carry her around in. Happy Easter everyone!

The Sneeze

If you know Jayson, you know that he has terrible allergies. He has to take a Clariton everyday or he is misserable. There is a chance that Negley has allergies too. She sneezes like no baby i've ever seen before. Every day I am amazed at this little girl when she sneezes two, three, and even four times in row. While searching through some old pictures to post I found this sequence of pictures that I never noticed before. I wish that I had video of it because she usually cracks herself up afterward. For some reason she thinks they are hilarious. Someday I will post all of our mess-up pictures. We have a ton... Love you jayson...

 

Looking back over the past year

As I wrote before, the next few blogs are going to be showcasing old pictures of Negley Anne because Jayson has the camera with him on his trip. We've also decided that it was time to take the pictures off of our computer and put them on cds for back up. This is a picture that my mom took in the hospital and I just looked at it for the first time today. I guess cleaning your room is a good thing. Anyway, it's funny looking at it and seeing what huge cheeks she had right when she was born. Within four days of this picture they were gone, as she dropped about a pound and a half. All is good now on the weight front. Look at all that hair! Go Negley...

 

Blast from the past

This is an old picture, it was taken on October 8th... Tillie's first birthday at Jerry's house. Since Jayson is gone, he asked me to update the blog everyday so that he could see pictures of Negley Anne while he gone. What we didn't think through is that he took our camera to Haiti with him. So, for the next week you will all have to live through all pictures of our little girl. If you saw Negley when she was 4 months or younger than you will get this picture. Her hair stuck up straight all the time and we loved it. The longer it has gotten though, the more tame it has become. Her first haircut will happen on her first birthday in a few weeks. How sad. Jayson if you're reading this... happy Haiti! Negley and I miss you!

 

The sweet sweet mullet that lasted for less than five minutes - Go Jagr! My personal favorite, the mohawk. We tried to get it to stand up with some gel, but there's just too much curl in that hair to tame! The back of the mohawk - what a piece of art!
Sadly, it was time to take it all off... except for the side burns of course.