Happy Birthday Poo!!

It hasn't happened yet, but I am waiting for the day Spencer says, " Mom, stop calling me Pencer-Poo!!"

Well my little "Poo" turned 5 today. He has been so excited to turn 5. We have been counting down since Christmas and he was not disappointed at all. The day was all Spencer and he played and played. The gifts were perfect--a couple of games, a General Grevious Sword and a Beyblade Battle Arena, and other odds and ends that will get his attention once the Beyblades are dead from overuse.

We went to Wingers for lunch and Grandma made him the perfect Birthday Cake---A "cake" made of stacks of Oreos. It was a huge hit!!

All day today Spencer would say, "Remember when I was 4...." or "When I was 4...." It absolutely cracked Chad and me up on the way to lunch.

A few things about my little Spencer at age 5:

loves to wrestle with Daddy, snuggle with Mommy, play with Cameron and talk sweetly to Abby.

working SO hard on his speech!! he is doing great with his /s//p//l/ and once we get started on his /g/and /k/ he will be a new boy.

still loves weapons of all sorts and loves to play, play, play

as headstrong as ever

he is opening up more in social situations--thanks to pre-school, church, speech class (he seems to be favored in all 3, probably because he is so kind and sweet and obedient and nobody can resist his shy smile.)

I love you Spence---I am grateful to Heavenly Father everyday that you are mine!!!!

He is driving me nuts lately in pictures!! All the pictures I have of his Birthday, he is doing this goofy smile with crossed eyes. Makes him look kind of "special".

If Wishes Were Fishes....

Boy, I wish we lived closer to Cam's school so he could walk home.

School gets out at 2:45

This was Abby at 2:44

This was Spencer at 2:43

And neither was all too happy to get in the car. I am lucky to be in a carpool, so I don't have to do this everyday, but it seems naptime falls right at pick-up time on my driving days.

Tell me how you REALLY feel

Abby, tell me how you feel about having your picture taken...

No, tell me how you REALLY feel....

Absolutely priceless!! perfect timing on the shot Shell-bell

Now she's just plain mad!


My Favorite


All the grandkids have had a Yankees picture taken between 7 and 10 months of age.

Cameron

Samantha

Alex

Spencer

Nicole

Caleb

Abby

Milestones!

Abby took her first steps tonight!!! AND She had her first true tantrum. All within 30 minutes of each other. Yah Abby!!!

I also discovered that Spencer likes nice toilet paper.

Spencer-"Mommy, Mommy!!"
Me-"What?"
Spencer-"This toilet paper is AWESOME!"
Me-"What???"
Spencer-"This toilet paper is so nice and soft, I love it!!"

I think I will be fitting some extra $$$ into the bathroom budget. And as a joke I'm going to wrap a package of Charmin for Spencer's birthday party. I think he will actually get it.

Ten Month Terror!!

Wow, Abby is older than a pregnancy. The 40 weeks of pregnancy (ok, like 36 or 37 for me--love early babies), seems to take forever. The 40 weeks since her birth have flown by.

She's turning into such a little lady. We all just eat her up all day, every day.
She is such a busy-butt, and in constant motion. She love to open and empty every drawer and cupboard she can reach. She is done with nursing and the binky, and has discovered the corners of her blankie (gerber cloth diapers). She loves to play with and snuggle her blankie and sucks on the corners. Kind of gross. Luckily I have 30 of them, so if I discover a wet one, into the hamper it goes. She waves bye-bye and follows her brothers and is starting to wrestle with Daddy. If she ever sees Daddy on the floor, she is there. I can imagine her little mind, "ooh, my junglegym!!" She has started to test the waters of standing alone. It used to be when she was distracted she would stand unsupported, now she does it on purpose (and is getting mighty good). I don't even want to mention sleep right now! Let's just say we are in a difficult stage--she cried from 2:20-4:10 two nights ago. I detest "crying it out", but it does work. The positive side of her sleeping---she still takes 2 naps a day, and she will sleep until 8 or 8:30. I was LUCKY to get a 7am wake-up call from the boys (mostly 6:15), so I really am enjoying that extra hour or so.

Abby loves her "mush"--rice cereal mixed with a veggie and fruit baby food. She is so funny when she is finished though--there is no closed mouth and head turning, or swatting the spoon away with her hand. No she just takes the bite and spits it right back into my face. And of course follows it up with the darling you-can't-get-mad-at-me smile. We are suckers, because we will do it again and again until we are bother covered in mush splatters. I need to post video of it. It's one of our favorite things around here. Although I know it won't be so cute when she is 2 years old spewing her unwanted food.

What Now?

I love to have a winter project every year. Just to help keep my sanity and make the weeks until spring bearable. Last year I gestated (a very worthwhile winter project). This year I wanted to redecorate the kitchen/living room. I fully expected it to take until the end of February, but just 15 days into January I was done. Hmmm.

One trip to the fabric store and one trip to Hobby Lobby, pretty much everything was purchased. A night of sewing, a day of prep, and a 13 hour day of painting, moving and arranging and ta-da the project is complete. I was so worn out after the 13 hour day I even got an Ambien night (poor Chad was up with kids 5 times).

I think I just wanted to get it all done so fast because I really can't stand my house being in disarray and because Abby was such a "big help"---I would put on the green painting tape and Abby would quickly take off the tape. When the glaze was finally done she was expecting the "no no Abby". Instead she got "yah Abby". Oh she went to town tearing that tape off. She wasn't as big a fan when it got stuck to her clothes and her arms and her fingers. Mommy loved that part. Too bad I didn't get a picture--I was too busy laughing.

As a side note: next time you paint--go with the green frog tape, not the blue stuff.

Before

After

I painted the table purple and covered it with the bronze metallic glaze I used on the walls. Love it!!!

Before

After
I painted below the chair rail a Caramel color and rubbed the metallic glaze on with a shopping bad. It seriously looks cool. The bedroom will be the next change and I will probably be doing a silver metallic glaze. Love the metallic.

Before

After

I loved the fabric I found for the valance and table runner. I didn't really think of using purple as a main color, but mom and I both fell in love with the fabric.

I will probably always put a fun vinyl something left of the TV. I went from birdcages to birds on a branch---tweet tweet. Spencer said, "hey one bird for each of our family!!"

I am a lighting FREAK (just ask Chad). So I was thrilled to add these 2 lamps to the corner.
And the find of the project was this awesome No Tool Corner Desk from Pier One Imports (It took Chad just 10 minutes to put it together-so he's a fan too).

Before

After

It's fun to have a new rug too. I wasn't sure about it at first, but it's perfect. Abby loves to feel the sculpted lines with her little fingers. She noticed all the changes on Saturday morning when she woke up. She pointed and "ooh-ed" at things, especially the birds on the branch, but when Chad took her to get a closer look she was afraid of the birds. So funny.

CHRISTMAS "VOMIT" 2010

This is a Christmas "vomit" post because I put off downloading pictures until I have so many, it's just too overwhelming. So I just "vomit" a bunch of pictures in no particular order. Ah-hah maybe that could be a New Years resolution--hmmm, there has got to be a more worthwhile resolution. But really, once the living room/kitchen are redecorated and the new jewelry is created and listed on Etsy,,,,then I will do better about blogging. Priorities, priorities.

SO, in no particular order, this is how the rest of December shaped-up for my little family.

Richele making cookies with the kiddos for Santa on Christmas Eve. She always has great ideas to make things fun for the kids.

G-ma and G-pa and the grands on Christmas Eve.
Last summer we promised Andrew that we would have a Settler's night at our house. We ordered food and played till late. It was a great time. Spencer was thrilled to be able to play the Wii the entire time.

A good friend gave Abby this track suit---and boy I love it. I call her my little Abby-Sue Sylvester. (reference to Glee)

Our Christmas Eve tradition of dinner at Tepanyaki needed to be modified this year. We decided to try breakfast/early lunch at Village Inn, then back to Grammy's for games. It was a hit. I'm all about a new tradition.

The kids enjoy being together--can you tell?

Ready to open the loot at Grammy's.

3 video cameras and 2 still cameras capturing Cam's song.

Abby was having a rough night and needed some snuggles at 11:45 pm.

Centerpieces for Nat and Brett's wedding dinner.

Temple Square.

Eat her up!!!!!!! 9 month doll picture.

Cam with his Santa present and stocking.

Spence with his Santa and stocking.

Anything and Everything--in the mouth.

Lots of estrogen here.

Brett and Nat's reception.

There always has to be one uncooperative child.

Ayla did NOT want her picture taken. Abby and Alyssa were darling-they kept checking each other out.

Matt was so good with the boys. He let them play games on his phone.

yummy beads.

Notice the ornament she's looking at---it's a favorite.

Christmas was wonderful this year. The boys spent a ton of time with their Hall cousins. Lots of video games and sleep overs. Chad and I got a little too used to just one child at home. (why didn't we enjoy it more when we really only had one child?)