puddles are so much fun

funny how when it's lance's turn everyone's happy. sharing is so hard sometimes.

by the way, lance learned how to ride a 2-wheeled bike this week--meaning a bike with no training wheels! yahoo! (thanks brian).

lance graduated preschool

lance has enjoyed preschool these past few months (just started in march). it was a great experience for all of us. hope he does this well when he starts kindergarten in the fall--it's sure going to be an adjustment! i love this boy.

memory lane

i know, we're coming back next january, but have i told you how attached we are to this playground and all of our friends here? can you see why we're going to miss this place? love it. that's all i can say.

who needs a $90 baby bjorn anyway? ikea sells these for just $1.50. . . yeah, we're bargin shoppers.

39 weeks--mixed emotions

it's blurry, i know. this is the longest i've ever held onto a baby. lance was 5 weeks early, spencer 10 days. can you feel the urgency? with the move just 10 days away i'm feeling the stress. i am excited to go to florida, but i hate that i'm leaving my home and my friends behind--won't you all come with me? it's been great to be here. talk about emotional.

For those who are wondering . . .

No, we haven't had our baby yet. Still anxiously waiting. :) Getting a little nervous as far as the move is concerned, but the baby's bound to come any day now. At least it's not getting farther away right? :)

When do I get to go outside?

"Now, mom? Yes or no?"

As of late, this is his favorite question. Always followed by "yes or no?" :)

Spencer likes to watch the tractors

I'm not a "big machinery" buff. Every big machine is called a tractor in my book.

What do you do when a sprinkler breaks?

nothin like a good time with some good friends!

Do you remember when?

When I was growing up my parents had a few "Mormonad" posters hanging in our hallway. I always appreciated the one that said, "It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice." Can't say I practiced this back then, but it's a phrase that's more meaningful to me now more than ever before.

There have been times when a select group of older kids at the playground have "picked" on Spencer. At first I didn't think anything of it. Kids are kids and sometimes they're ruthless--no big deal. (I remember having favorite friends and I also remember hating when my siblings tagged along with me. I wanted my friends all to myself).

You know how it goes though, the usual taking of toys just because they're bigger and outnumber him. Then, "Hey Spencer, chase us!" only to run away and laugh at him. Then, "Hey Spencer, come play with us . . . and you get to be the bad guy!" None of these "games" are really that big of a deal, except that he feels excluded. He's just too young to understand them. So, he just hangs his head down, walks away and plays by himself. Sometimes he cries, sometimes he yells at them and sometimes he just wants to sit on my lap or have me push him in the swing--which I'm more than happy to do. It just makes me sad when people pick on each other.

I've come down pretty hard on Lance when I witness his involvement, which is almost every time. Aside from long, agonizing talks, what can be worse than watching everyone play, but not be allowed to play with them?! So, his consequence is to sit in a long time-out, listen to me ramble about acceptable vs. unacceptable and watch Spencer and the other kids play.

I've told all the kids that they need to be nice to each other and include everyone in play. If they can't do that, then Lance doesn't get to play with them.

I know I'm partial to my own children, but I really do want everyone to treat each other kindly. I try to make sure they're all being nice to each other, but I don't hesitate to remind them how awful they feel when they're being picked on. I don't like anyone to feel hurt, so I give them the "remember this feeling when others want to play with you" speech. Will it sink in? I don't know, maybe not until they're parents and have kids of their own.

So, on a more positive note, I just want to say I was thrilled when I saw this.


This is one of Lance's main attractions--Damlah (sp?). They play together all the time, sometimes exclusively. It just made me so happy that she was playing with Spencer this day. It reaffirmed to me that ALL of these kids are great kids--they just need some good parental guidance every once in a while.

Hey, even I'm in need of guidance, I hardly claim to have the best behaved boys on the block!
(4-16-08)

no, they're not too big!

It's definitely time to get a bigger bike for Lance. He's so scrunched his knees nearly hit the handle bars as he cruises around the playground. Spencer on the other hand, fits the bike perfectly. But since it's still technically Lances, he has to find other means of transportation. He's grown a lot since last summer and this little car just doesn't fit the bill anymore! (4-16-08)

we got new sand

and I don't think Spencer knew what to do about it. I know, you can't tell by the pictures, but he was beside himself with excitement. At first the men thought he was cute and funny, they were encouraging me to take pictures. By then end they were begging me to get him out of the way. Unlike me and Spencer, these guys have a deadline! (4-16-08)

While Lance is away . . .

Spencer will play.


It's nice to have a little alone time with Spencer while Lance is in Preschool. And sometimes it's nice to have the playground to ourselves. I don't know who's umbrella that is, but Spencer sure had fun with it that day. :) (4-16-08)

One of Those Good Days

You know. . . when everything important matters and everything insignificant takes a back seat. I love those days. (Week of April 13-19/08)

Consoling Mom

When I found out our computer had crashed and we likely lost all our pictures and my journal I called Brian and started crying. Lance said, "are you crying for real mom?" "Yes, Lance," and then I explained why I was so sad. Then Spencer ran up immediately and said, "Don't cry mom, don't cry . . . I turn it on for you, I show you how!" He ran over to the computer, pushed the monitor button and nothing happened (yes the monitor, not the computer), and said, "It's not working mom." Then he came up to me (I was off the phone at this point), reached his arms up for me to hold him and he grabbed my face in his hands, put his face up to mine and started smiling. It was hilarious. He kept bending his head from side to side with his huge smile, didn't say a word. It made me realize that these guys are the most important thing to me--Brian too!--family and friends. It reminds me of the scripture (not looking at them...) that says, "lay up your treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt. . . " I just realized that if I did indeed lose my journal and pictures the most important thing for me to do was to continue to make great memories with my family. Yes, it's nice to have the past--it hurts to lose parts of it, but the present and future are really what I should focus on. I was just so grateful at that moment for my sweet Spencer. I would much rather lose pictures and journal than my boys. I'll take a computer crash any day!

So, right after I put him down he ran away and a few minutes later he came back with tape over his eyes, "I'm a super hero mom!" He just kept smiling for me. It was touching that he didn't need to say anything; he just needed to be there, be himself. That was all I needed. (First week of May).



And this was Brian's suggestion. When I knew Dell would be calling to help me get the computer running again I was concerned I wouldn't be able to hear the representative--and I wanted to be able to use my hands without hurting my neck. Great idea Brian! I was able to hear everything perfectly, no background noise and best of all I was hands free! (By the way, this was just after the first computer crash. 5-4-08)


P.S.--Spencer was sick the Friday night before (5-2-08 -- vomiting), hence the shampooer in the background.

35 Weeks

I've decided to make a few posts while I can, so here's to back-tracking. 35 Weeks pregnant here. :) (Taken 5-4-08)

Not Again!

Alright, I think we're just going to have to get a new computer. Ours was all repaired, everything was in fantastic working order. However, I just tried to turn on the computer and it had the same blue screen of death as before. So, I'm out of commission once again.

I just wanted to let you all know that if you need to reach me go ahead and email, but I won't be able to check or respond until late each night. Hope to get this all figured out soon! Oh well.

We're back!

Yay! Everything is up and running again--thanks again Dan and Dell for getting us back on track!

A quick update:

I thought my due date was June 9 but found out it's actually June 2. Hmmm, doesn't really matter since the baby will come when she's ready anyway. You want to know why this is relevant? O.K. We're leaving Boston June 10th (it's our last day in the apartment) and we have to be to Florida by the 14th to move into our apartment and the 16th for Brian to start work. That means we're taking 4 days to get there in order to break up the driving and do some sight seeing along the way.

Back to my point. My midwife wants me to have more recovery time before traveling (so do I...), which means she's going to strip my membranes at 38 weeks. (TMI? haha). So, I was looking at my calendar to find out when my 38 week appointment would be. According to the Dr. visit schedule I am currently on, 38 weeks would fall on the 29th of May. Doesn't make since if my due date is the 2nd of June. So, either they haven't updated my weekly appointments to coincide with my due date, or . . . well, if they have always believed my due date was the 2nd of June then nothing else really makes sense. SO . . . the moral of the story is, stripping the membranes doesn't guarantee anything, but if it does happen to induce labor, I could be having this baby in 2 weeks! Aaaah! Ask me if I'm ready. Nope. I still have so much packing to do. So much to figure out before we leave. So many more play dates to have before we ship out! :)

I'm telling you all of this because it means that with everything we have to do before we leave and before the arrival of our baby I won't have a lot of time to blog. There are so many things I want to blog about, so I'll probably be doing some really short entries with just a few pictures in order to spur memories later on when I have time to journal about everything!

Until then . . . . Keep smiling! :)

Thank goodness for Miracles . . .

And good friends! A huge thank you to Dan S. for helping us retrieve our documents! We're still hoping we can salvage our computer, but as of now all our documents are safely tucked away in our external hard drive. Hopefully everything will be squared away with our computer soon, but until then, what a blessing!

Crash!

Well, it happened to us. Our computer bit the dust. Kaput. Just today in fact. This means no more blogging for a while. (I'm on Brian's computer right now, it's 12:19am--awe, the life of a student . . . and his wife!) We have a friend who is going to see if he can open it one last time to retrieve some unsaved data for us (mostly journal and pictures that are so precious to us), so pray that it turns on one last time! That's not too big of a miracle is it? I mean, HE is the creator of all technology after all . . . right!? You know, the miracle maker . . . Anyway, I guess I'll "see" you all around sometime in the near future! :)

32 Weeks Pregnant

I didn't crop this one . . . oh well.
(I'm 33 weeks today 4/21/08, just so you know.)

Sweet Friends During a Thunderstorm

They had just finished their bath when we started to hear thunder. Didn't bother them one bit to be in just their underwear!

4/11/08

Museum of Science

We just bought a national membership to Science and Children's Museums around the U.S. Lots of fun, entertaining and educational times ahead.
(First week of April 08)

When you chance to meet a frown . . .

or a tantrum . . . or a fight . . . or just a grumpy day!

Many thanks to the Stake Relief Society!

(First week of April 08)

P.S. I just barely showed this picture to Spencer (4-24-08) and I said, "who's this?" He responded, "Spencer! Nose red." And then pointing to the mustache he scrunched up his nose and said, "Snot! Hairy!" And he started laughing hysterically. He's so hilarious. :)

Muddy puddles

I'm sure this was in early March. As you can see, it was warm enough to be out without winter clothes. However, not warm enough to play in the mud puddles. What kind of mother am I! A mother of young, active boys, that's what kind.



I nearly forgot about Spencer's flowing locks. Oh the days....
(March 08)

Silly Putty

This is what happened when we let Spencer go to bed with his silly putty.

(Just so you know, it stains. March 08)