The bruiser turns 2!

Awwwe Spencer! I can't believe that my youngest is 2! If you would have told me that I'd get pregnant with a 3 month old, I wouldn't have even laughed. why?..that's not funny to someone with a 3 month old. Well, God apparently had a surprise for us and could see the bigger and better picture....Spencer. What a blessing this little boy has been in our lives! He loves to make people laugh. Even at such a young age, he loves to be funny and make his brother & sister and mom & dad laugh! He is such a sweetheart, but has a quick temper..aka (the hot dog story). Spencer is proof that athletic ability is born with you. He can throw a baseball with speed and accuracy, he catches a football and he can hit a ball that is pitched to him! It's a little creepy. I love this little scaredy cat of mine and his complex personality!...he really is scared of everything!

Chris and Spencer

Spencer in the hospital during a 2 a.m. feeding.

He's always had the most kissable cheeks!

He has ALWAYS slept like this. When he's relaxing, watching a movie or asleep in the car or crib he has his arms up like this.

Spencer is totally a Grandpa's boy. He loves his Grandma and mom, but if Grandpa or dad are around, it's all about them.......and did I mention Spencer can swing a bat like a pro?! He usually hits balls on his tee or on the ground, but every once in a while he catches an unsuspecting victim. Case in point............

me.

Who could get mad at that little face? I love this kid to death!

Procrastination= one big blog!

Our family funnies/updates:

Halle has had quite the last month. First, she graduated from preschool and is so excited that she finally gets to go to "Cody's school". The last week of school her class went on a field trip to one of the local fish ponds and Halle caught a fish. As we were walking into the house I heard the following statement:

"Fish, you used to be alive, but I went and caught you and killed you....I'm so sorry about that. But, I really like to eat fish". It made me laugh!

Second, Halle came into the house one day and told me that she wanted to show me something. We went outside and she went to get on her bike. She told me that she knew how to ride her bike and I said that her dad needed to take the training wheels off, because they had broken, and teach her how to ride it. She insisted that she knew how, so I let her prove me wrong. Well, she got on her bike and took off. She had taught herself how to ride her bike! I was so proud of her! Chris came out and took the training wheels off and she rode up and down the street all night, turning, standing up and pumping to go up the hill. It was pretty impressive. And Halle's final milestone, one that I'm most proud of, is that Halle has learned to receive emails in her head. What?!, you might say. Halle informed me the other day that she received an email that Lydia had gotten home so she was ready to play with Halle...(we had just called Lydia 3 minutes before that.) You know I should have seen it coming, with her dad being a wizard and all!

Memorial Day:

Memorial Day weekend we were pretty busy. On Saturday we went to Chris's softball tournament and the kids had a blast running around while their dad played. I thought it was time I put some pictures/posts of Chris doing "manly" things, because I wasn't portraying his "manliness".

Ryan was frustrated about the hit he had just done....so sad.
On memorial day we went to a park, where they had a pond. We had a big bbq and did some fishing. It was a lot of fun, but I loved this picture of Halle and Chris!

This little kid was so cute. He came over and showed Spence his fish, since we couldn't catch our own. Spence eventually built up some courage and touched the fish. That is a milestone for him, seriously he scared of EVERYTHING!

After the bbq we went over to the cemetery so we could put some flowers on my dad's, grandma and grandpa's graves. When I was getting the flowers ready earlier in the day Halle came up to me holding a small rose plant that my mom had given her a couple of weeks earlier. Honestly, it had seen better days. She told me that she wanted to give this to Grandpa Loveridge because he would love it! She was right, he would love it. So, she drew a heart on it and then signed her name. In between all of those sassy moments, there is one of the sweetest little girls I've ever seen! Oh how I love her!

The zoo:

This Saturday (for my birthday) kind of...I own it because it was the day before my birthday, and lets be honest that the older you get the more anticlimactic your birthdays get so I need some excitement. So we'll just pretend that we went to the zoo to celebrate me and not the fact that my kids were stoked to see "real" animals. Anyways, we went to the zoo and it was so much fun! This is me and my cute sister in law, Lindsey.

This is Ethan's reaction at seeing the elephants for the first time...priceless...and this is Spencer's reaction to the elephants................can you just see the excitement on that face?!

This was more up Spencer's ally. Nice mellow...monkeys. There was this baby orangutan, playing with this sheet. Spence was glued to this thing. The monkey would dip it's "blanket" into the river below, pull it up and then drink it. It was fascinating! Spence loved it up until the monkey dropped it's "blanket". He literally gasped and said, "monkey dopped it's dankut". For 5 minutes he said this. The monkey had moved on, oh but not Spence. This child of mine has a connection with his thumb and blanket and he was so sad for this little monkey..it was so cute.My cute family and our day of fun, ( I'm the one in the subtle yellow cardigan). I told you this was a long post!

'I'm Eee-fan, I'm fee!"

This is what Ethan said all day long on his birthday. He just celebrated his 3rd birthday last week on May 9th...I know, I know, way to be on top of things Carrie! I'm pretty sure at the age of 3 Ethan had my dream birthday day...he lounged in my bed all morning demanding drinks, goldfish and movies. While he lounged I made the beloved "volcano" birthday cake, he wanted a cake like Luke's. How do I explain that I'm not as artistic, creative and talented as my older sister, better known to Ethan as Luke's mom, so I just went with it and it turned out how it turned out....he LOVED it! He would come into the kitchen ask me to take off the foil so he could see it and then he would knock one of the dinosaurs on the head with his dinosaur he had in his hand and growl. He honestly did that at least 10 times through out the day...and that's Ethan. Ethan is such a funny, affectionate, impatient little kid. I think when they made the saying, "wrapped around their finger", they were talking about Ethan. He has a way of sucking everyone in that's around him. He will cause you pain or frustration one minute and then is immediately kissing you and telling you that he loves you. In fact tonight I had put him to bed in HIS bed, he's notorious for getting into Spencer's crib once the door is shut, well sure enough I heard them talking and laughing and hitting the wall with something. So, I got him out of the crib and carried him over to his bed. As I'm walking to his bed he's yelling, "help me dencer (that's spencer)! help me dencer!. I ove (love) you mommy!"...that's Ethan. I love this picture! He has the same profile as his dad.

I've always called him monkey. Do I really need to explain?

Ethan and his volcano birthday cake. I'd like to give a shout out to Amy for inspiring me and setting my kids up for disappointment. Thanks sis!

Ethan on his birthday. You thought I was kidding! Nope, he really did lounge in my bed watching movies.

Anyone that knows Ethan has made the same comment about how this is a perfect representation of him. What a stubborn cutie! I love him so much and I'm so grateful to be his mom. Who knew frustration could be so endearing?!

Business in the front and a PARTY in the back!!!

So my boys' have needed a haircut for a good 2-3 months now and I finally decided to do it. You don't understand why I have to mentally prepare myself for it....it's because Spence screams the ENTIRE time. Not cries, not whines, but screams and shakes the whole time. This adorable son of mine is scared of EVERYTHING. You'd think he'd be used to the clippers by now. He had 6 haircuts before his first birthday. I'm not kidding, my boys are half monkey. I tried to get before and afters of Ethan and Spencer but I didn't even want to deal w/ Spencer and the camera....I think you can get how bad they both needed it by this picture of them with Halle.

I really thought of leaving it like this and not saying anything to my mother-in-law when I dropped him off at her house the next morning. I wanted to see if she would have said something to me.

5 Funny things...

So, I don't want to forget some of the funny things that my kids say and my friend, Micah, had a good idea and writes 5 funny things a week that her kids do or say.....

1. So everytime Ethan is away from me...whether it's a nap, me going to work, him going to nursery for a couple hours...whatever it is, as soon as I see him again he says, "oh I missed you today! Did you miss me?"
2. Ethan will give me HUGE kisses and pull away and say, "Oh HONNNEEEEY".
3. Halle told Chris that she was sorry that she just hit him in the "peanuts".
4. After watching Jurassic Park and hearing what "real" dinosaurs sound like. Ethan has started doing an awful gasping coughing noise, because he's obviously one of the veloceraptors. Chris didn't know what he was doing and asked him if he was ok and needed some water and he said, "Dad, I just playing dinosaurs!"
5. Spencer doesn't say too many funny things yet, but he is a funny kid. He takes it upon himself to discipline Chris when he teases him and he plays the annoying little brother role perfectly. He grabs one of Ethan's toys and takes off, because apparently when you stick your neck out, that means that you're running...I'll have to try it!

9 Long Years

It has been 9 LONG years since my dad passed away. He died on February 29, 2000. That's right he died on a leap year so everyone, every year could be confused as to what day his death anniversary is....Feb 28th or March 1. It doesn't matter anyways because I think about him everyday. Every time my kids do something funny I think of how much my dad would have enjoyed that or days that I want his advice on something. I think of him daily and I miss him more and more. I guess he's been on my mind a little more than usual lately because of the time of year and the older my children get I want them to know him, so I find myself telling stories about him. Anyone that knew my dad, loved him. He was one funny and loving man! The sad thing is I don't think I ever fully appreciated him or understood him until I became a parent myself. I always thought I was so much like my mom, which I am. But, the older I get I realize that I'm so much like him too. I love picnics, I love going on drives with my husband and kids, I love openness (is that a word?), I love my privacy, I love being outdoors, I love Don Williams and most of all I love being with my family above anything else but I will never love Cherry Cordials or Maple Nut Ice cream...there, we will never be the same. I was going through some pictures tonight and found these. I suck at scanning...first time, but I wanted to show these pictures. The picture below was taken at Strawberry Reservoir about 13 years ago. It was my dad, mom, Joe, Dolly, Neil, me and Jer (he was taking the picture). All 7 of us crammed into this tiny tin boat and headed out to the middle of the lake. I kid you not the water was only 1-2 inches from coming into the boat. It was such a memorable fishing trip and I think the smile on all of our faces shows how much we loved it!...

This family picture just made me laugh! I love the look on Matt's face. Classic mormon, 1980's family picture.....

and I LOVE this picture of my mom and dad! I love that my mom's glasses take up 3/4 ths of her face and she still looks adorable. They were such a good example of what a marriage should be and what is of the most importance in your life...family. I love them both. I miss my dad so much, but have been lucky to have some very special experiences since his passing. I know he is doing more important work somewhere else but that he cares about what is happening in his family's lives. I don't think it ever gets easier having him gone, I just get used to feeling that void in my life...I do have an amazing father in law though! I just pray that I can help my children get to know this wonderful Grandfather of theirs through stories.

"I'm eating cow?"

On Sunday I made a roast. I'm getting some cups to put on the table when I hear the following conversation between Chris and Halle....

Halle: That looks like some good chicken!
Chris: That's not chicken Halle, that's beef.
Halle: What's beef?
Chris: Beef comes from cow.
Halle: Why would we eat a cow?
Chris: Because it's good.
So later that night I'm sitting on the couch and I hear Halle say, "mom, blah blah blah blah?" So I asked her to repeat herself and she said, "do you mind if I set my cow on the chair?" I look over and Halle had gone into the kitchen and got herself a huge chunk of roasst out of the fridge and was getting ready to put it on my nice chair. Since sunday I have heard Halle ask me at least 3 or 4 times if she can have some more cow or when I'm going to make some more cow. I have never in my life been disgusted by the thought of meat....until now.