Happy Birthday to Popie & GiGi

We had a weekend of birthday celebrations!  We celebrated GiGi's "HaPPy 50th" Saturday night at a fun filled party at Ms. C's party barn.  Then we celebrated Popie's birthday Sunday by having a delicious Italian lunch after church.  

We hope both of these very special people had a fabulous birthday and an even better year!  We love you!

Birthday GiGi with the grand-girls 

Daddy & Emma - pool sharks!

Birthday GiGi

Mama & Daughter :) (I tried a special effect on this one...in hopes it would be slimming!  I do not think it worked, but I like the look!)  

Some Gag gifts for the birthday girl!

A special gift from Ma.  A beautiful ring Mama had admired when Ma received it 40 years ago.  This was a precious and teary moment!  :) 

Emma & Maylee playing Shuffle Board 

Donnie and Rachel 

Popie opening his cards!

Time to sing and eat cake!  We love the numbers on the cake.  No, Popie is not 9,229!  

Patiently waiting 

Becca with her great great grandmama 

The GrandGirls with Grandmama

The GrandGirls with Granny 

Weekend in the City....NYC!

After an unexpected snow storm caused our trip to Seattle to be canceled, we decided to take the opportunity and visit New York City!  I still cannot believe we did it because it is never like me to do something this spontaneous without taking weeks to plan and plan again!  I must admit - it felt great!  We had a fabulous time!  


It was cold and snowed our first day in the city.  The weather did not slow us down at all.  You will notice how bundled we are in the pictures.  We did all of the tourist things to do and enjoyed every minute.  We saw the Broadway show, "Rock of Ages"!  It was so entertaining and fun to watch.  


At the end of the trip, we decided that a few days in the city was enough.  We were ready to be back in the South!  :) 


P.S.  You will see that I am starting to look very "preggo" in these pics!  17 weeks!  :) 

View from our hotel room.  

Parking!  I would really be in trouble! :)

Central Park 

Our tour of Central Park.  It was so cold and snow covered the paths, so we took the bike tour.  We learned a lot of interesting facts about the park.  

Standing in front of one of the beautiful fountains in Central Park.  

Inside the Empire State Building 

86th Observation Deck at the Empire State Building 

View of The Statue of Liberty from the Empire State Building 

Dan checking out the view.

Central Park from the Empire State Building 

View of the Citi Ice Skating Rink from the Empire State Building.  We zoomed the camera, but this was amazing!

Awesome view of NYC!

Times Square

911 Memorial Welcome Center

It is hard to see, but this is a very neat water fall/fountain that we saw walking down the street.  

Rockefeller Center

New York Public Library - It is gorgeous!

Inside the library.  Dan would not let me take his picture.  He said no one would believe he was in the library.  Well I promise he was there!  :)

Getting ready to leave the hotel for dinner and a Broadway show!

Dinner was delicious at the Bourbon Street Restaurant on Restaurant Row (46th Street)

The show was unbelievable!!!  We loved it!

Our last day!  We made one more visit to Central Park.  This time it was warmer and sunny!

Not buying Blue.....Yet!

At my last doctor's visit, I had a surprise ultrasound.  I had no idea I would get to see our sweet baby this visit.  While doing the ultrasound, I simply asked the tech as sweet as I could if there was any way to tell the gender?  She said it was too early and then we started chatting.  All of sudden she smiled and said...."well, look at this...".  Then she kept looking around and took the following pictures.  She said for us not to run out and buy blue just yet, but she was going to go ahead and call baby Samples - baby BOY!!!!  I could not wait to tell Dan, so I had to stop by his work on my way back to work!  We thought it would be best not to say anything until we get confirmation next month.  Well that lasted about as long as it took me to walk in the doors at school!!!!  For now, we are thinking BLUE.  We go back February 3rd to see if we can start actually buying blue! 

Baby Jack McCay Samples-possibly :)

Happy Birthday, Emma!

Emma turns SIX today!  We celebrated with a fun party at JUMP!  The children and adults had a great time jumping in the many inflatables JUMP has setup. After enjoying pizza and some yummy chocolate Hello Kitty cake, Emma sat in a very cool inflatable throne to open her presents.  


Here are a few pictures.  Our official family event photographer was there taking pics, so I will post the good pics when I get them from Lynsey.  Thank you, Lynsey!  :) 

Dan and Grandmama in the bounce house!

Getting ready for some cake!

New Year's Day at the Zoo

New Year's Day 2012 was a gorgeous day!  We took advantage of the beautiful weather and warmer temperature and headed to the Memphis Zoo.  We had a great afternoon looking at the grizzly bear exhibit, the polar bears, & cat country.  We even caught a sea lion show.  It was a great way to spend January 1, 2012.

On January 2nd, we celebrated Grandpa's birthday (January 1st)  by having a delicious lunch at Chili's.  He was surprised when he was serenaded by the wait staff!  

The girls and Grandpa!  (It was freezing....much different than the day before!)

New Year's Eve Celebration

We had a fabulous time ringing in 2012 (or a few hours before the actual new year) at Aunt Sabrina and Uncle Dustin's.  The children had a great time with their sparklers and watching the pretty fireworks that Dan and Dustin shot off for all of us.  We were so happy to get to spend the evening with great friends.  Before we left to make the drive to Mississippi, we changed the girls into their pjs because we knew after all the hard play and excitement that they would not last long!  

Bundled up and ready to see some fireworks!

Sparkling Dan!  :) 

Becca waving her Sparkler

Noah sparkling!

Maylee sparkling!

Out like lights with their Teddy Bears!