All Work & No Play???? NO WAY!

Spencer has a good work ethic, but he also believes that all work and no play makes for very unhappy little boys! As long as it's not raining, we take every opportunity to play in the back yard. Both boys love riding the roller coaster but it seems to be about the first thing Spencer heads for when he is in the yard. As soon as his ride gets to the end of the track, he pushes the car right back to the top so that he can ride it again!

The Apprentice

Every professional carpenter likes to have an apprentice working with him and Spencer was happy to step into that role! He handed Brian each tool as he asked for them. First he needed a wrench.......

....then he needed a flat head screwdriver........

......and then Spencer started loosing his focus as the screwdriver quickly turned into a microphone!

Mr. Fix-it

Before you put your house on the market, you find all kinds of little things that need to be fixed or painted or whatever. Normally Daddy and Brian take care of all the repair work but Spencer wanted to help out too! With some pointers from his big brother, Spencer got right to work!

For Sale!

Some of you may have noticed that Mommy has gotten a little behind on the boy's blogs. There is an explanation for the delay.....we are going to be moving soon! We say "soon" because our move out date will be some what determined by how long it takes to sell our current home. The boys were helping us get the back yard cleaned up today. With his shovel in hand......

....Spencer and Brian got busy leveling out the mulch in their play area.

Kendall Faith!

Mommy and the boys left poor under the weather Daddy at home this morning while we went to church. We went to see Kendall Faith be baptized this morning. She is the beautiful daughter of Daddy's cousin Bill and we were very honored to be able to witness this wonderful event. It was a long morning for the boys so they caught a ride home with Grandma and Grandpa while Mommy stayed behind to spend a little more time with Kendall and her family.

Kids must just be born with some sort of a built in feature that makes them want to play with their food. Kendall took a nice swipe of her cake this morning and Spencer tried to build a hot dog tower with his lunch!

Fun Run!

Krista and Erika's school had a fun run today and we went to lend some moral support. Aunt June was busy since she was one of the planning committee members. Erika ran the 1 mile race - and in a great time too might we add! Spencer enjoyed a little banana snack while he watched the runners come up the final stretch of the race.

We all cheered on Uncle Kevin and Krista an they rounded the last turn to head for the finish line. Congratulations to all of them for doing a great job and running excellent races!

Temper Temper!

A couple of Mommy and Daddy's friends have joked to us that; "If we had our second child first, we NEVER would have had a second one!" Brian gets angry but he can usually be distracted with a game or a book or a toy that help him to forget what he was mad about. Spencer, on the other hand, is going to be our stubborn strong willed child with a temper! When he gets mad - that's it and nobody is going to change his mind! Here's an example.

This is "happy boy playing".

And this is "boy growing frustrated with his toy".

And, here is "ticked off boy!"

Read To Me!

This morning the boys were playing in Brian's room. Even though they play together very well, when things suddenly get very quiet, it's time to peek in to see what they are up to. This is what Mommy saw when she looked in on them this morning. They were laying on the floor together as Brian "read" to his little brother from this book. Adorable!

Shape Sorter

It's absolutely amazing to watch a child learn and master new things. For the past week or so, Spencer's favorite toy has been this shape sorter. For the first few days, he needed some help pointing him in the right direction in order for him to slide the shapes into the correct holes. However, in just a few days time, he now has completely mastered it!

All Aboard!

We had so much fun yesterday, it is taking two day's worth of blog postings to tell you about it! When we left the museum yesterday it was time for lunch and we decided to try a new place. We went to the All Aboard Diner in Downers Grove. It's a very kid friendly place with a model train theme. A long train chugs its way around the track that runs throughout the restaurant. Thomas the Train movies are playing on the television screens. There are arcade games and rides like this to go on.

There is also a big interactive train set by the front door. The boys were busy pushing all of the buttons to light up lights and make things move. To top it off, the food was very yummy and Mommy promised the boys that we would come back again some day soon!

Dupage Children's Museum

Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy, Brian and Spencer headed off on a new adventure this morning! We went to a museum we have never been to before, the Dupage Children's Museum in Naperville Illinois. There was so much to do an see that there was no way we could have done it all in just one day so it is safe to say.......we will be back! Here are a couple of Spencer's highlights from our outing. (This was a big tank in the music room that he could bang on to make different sounds and tones.)

Both boys were absolutely fascinated with putting the wooden balls on these tracks and watching them roll down to the bottom!

Let's Ride!

With springs arrival here, Daddy got his bike gear out so that he will be ready to hit the bike trails soon. Spencer isn't big enough to ride his own bike, but he can at least look like he is! Daddy (and Spencer) slip a skull cap on first........

..........before topping it off with the bicycle helmet. Bicycle time #1: Safety first!

Backyard Playground

It was say too nice of a day to be inside the house so we headed out to the back yard. The boys were chasing bubbles as fast as Grandma and Grandpa could make them!

Today was the first time the boys tried out sidewalk chalk. It was fun, but as you can see......exhausting work which required Spencer to have to take a little break!

Read Another One Please!

When it was time for bedtime tonight, Mommy and Daddy brought in the professionals. Grandma and Grandpa arrived from South Dakota this evening and the boys were thrilled! Not only are they looking forward to playing with Grandma and Grandpa for the next few days, tonight they got to have their bedtime stories read by Grandpa!

Welcome Home!

Spencer tried to be patient while he was waiting for his brother Brian to finish up with his home repair but it was really hard! He was very anxious to go see Great Grandma! Her flight from Arizona got in this afternoon so she was at Grandma and Grandpa's house anxiously waiting the arrival of some great grand kids! We were happy to deliver but disappointed our visit was a short one since she will head for home tomorrow.

Let It Roll!

Some folks may have had their taxes on their mind today, but Spencer was much more interested in "having a ball"! The Easter bunny tucked some balls in the boy's Easter baskets and they have been finding lots of clever ways to play with them. Spencer's idea of catch right now is rolling the ball across the ottoman and then having it rolled back to him!

Did You Say Cheese?

The boys are still pretty good about constantly having their pictures taken, but they have a clear understanding on how a digital camera works. The second a picture is taken, one or both of them immediately say "I see it!" Once they have been able to see the picture that was just taken, they are much more willing to have additional pictures taken. This picture was snapped at the exact moment they both said "cheese"!

Danger Boys!

At some point each morning, the boys go into Brian's room for some "confined playtime". With the safety gate in the doorway and the two boys busy playing, Mommy is able to finish her coffee and get a shower in. After hearing a variety of bumps, bangs and giggles - Brian said "Mommy, watch!" They were taking turns jumping off the recliner onto the Big Bird bed! Sometimes you just gotta make your own fun and these two never seem to run out of ways to make that happen!

Happy Easter!

Since Mommy sings in the church choir, she had to leave extra early this morning. But, Daddy did an outstanding job getting the boys up, fed, dressed and to the sunrise church service by 6:30 am this morning! Rising a little earlier than normal this morning allowed for the boys to take their naps a little earlier too. Since we were hosting Easter dinner, this worked out very well because the boys were well rested and ready to go by the time their cousins arrived! How adorable is this crew?!?!?!

After dinner the kids headed outside into the back yard for the egg hunt. Beautiful weather, yummy food and great company all made for a wonderful day!

Egg-celent!

It wouldn't be Easter if we didn't go over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to die eggs! Spencer was tempted to sample the vinegar but he took the suggestions from his parents NOT to drink it and put the cup down.








Spencer was very interested in the whole process. He dropped eggs into the cups of water and watched with great interest as they came out a different shade of color!

In addition to the stampers and mugs filled with various colors of die, we also had some paint sticks. They looked like Q-tips but were easy to hold and paint with. Spencer had an amazingly long attention span at this as he sat quietly just painting away at his egg!

Let Them Eat Cake.....(or at least Ice Cream!)

Grandma came over to do some book work down in Daddy's office today. We always love it when we get to see Grandma but when she brings Haley with her like she did today - it's even better! We had one extra person in the house today since Daddy is home sick. To keep things a little more quiet so that resting and office work could get done - Mommy and the kids went out for lunch. We had a very yummy lunch at Culver's and in honor of Uncle Colin's birthday today - we had ice cream afterwords! Okay, we probably would have had the ice cream anyway, but Happy Birthday Uncle Colin!!!!!!

Clear The Tracks!

Every few days the boys want to play with Thomas and the other train friends. Since Brian can get frustrated with Spencer idea of "playing train" - Mommy tries to set the track up in a figure eight so they each have a loop to play with. Brian likes to watch the train go around the track but Spencer is happier just sitting ON the track and holding the train cars!

Goober!

When Mommy and the boys got home from running some errands today, it was nap time. When Spencer gets into bed, he wants his comfort item which means, he wants his Goober. "Goober" is to Spencer what a pacifier is to his brother Brian. The second he was in his crib, Goober was in his mouth, he closed his eyes and was out like a light! It may look like he is being gagged but as long as he can shove the corner of this little blanket bear into his mouth, he is a content little boy!

Chatty-Spencer

Spencer's words continue to come fast and furious! Today he was walking around the house holding a stuffed turkey saying "Turkey.....gobble gobble"!

Needless to say, this picture has nothing to do with Spencer's growing vocabulary - it's just a cute picture!

Kids Say The Darndest Things!

Spencer's amount of baby babble steadily decreases as he continues to learn more actual words. It still catches Mommy and Daddy a little off guard when he springs a new word on us but we are adjusting. In order to share with you some of these new things Spencer is saying - we are starting this new segment on his blog. We hope you enjoy hearing what Spencer has to say as much as we do!






Spencer doesn't have much interest in playing with the computer yet (other than pushing the power button whenever he can get near it). He does like watching his big brother play computer games though. There is a picture of Uncle Corey on the desktop screen of this computer and Spencer has started having conversations with it.


Spencer: (while waving at the computer screen) "Hi Unc-l Co-ee, hi!"


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Spencer is at the stage now that when he gets something on his hands, he gets a little more anxious about wanting it cleaned off - now! Here's and example. Spencer was finished eating his dinner tonight and had moved onto the "playing with it" stage. The conversation he had with his Daddy went something like this:


Spencer: (sticking his finger in the the applesauce) "Uh-oh!"
Daddy: "That's okay Spenc, just lick it off."
Spencer: (holding his finger out to Daddy) "Hands!"
Daddy: (wiping his hand off with the washcloth)
Spencer: "Thank you Daddy." (then sticking his finger right back into the apple sauce and showing it to Daddy) "Uh-oh!"


........and so on and so on until Daddy decided tonight's little game was over.

Attack of the Giants!

MOMMY!!! I WANT A COOKIE NOW!!!!!!

Ahhhhhhh!

Another random cute picture of Spencer......I know, we have a lot of them but hey - he's a cute kid!!!!

Just A Little Off The Top!

When big brother Brian went for his haircut yesterday, Spencer went along for the ride. Spencer always gets to come along but he never gets to be the one up in the chair. Although he still has the mad scientist hair thing going on in the back - his hair growth up front is still coming in kind of slow. Mommy and Daddy are worried that if we cut his hair in the back....he will look like he has none left! Spencer knows that the whole hair thing is overrated and he is absolutely adorable with OR without it!

Dirty Laundry

Mommy and Daddy split the laundry duties. Daddy takes care of getting everything washed and dry then Mommy folds and puts it all away. The boys have their duties too - they get to accompany Daddy to the laundry room (also known as going on a mission). Once in the laundry room though, Spencer has his own agenda. He heads straight to Jem's food and water - grabs a handful of kibble and splashes her water all over the place! Once that's been taken care of, its time to get back to the task at hand......laundry! Getting a ride back upstairs in the hamper is an added bonus!

Your Car or Mine

Spencer pulled Mommy and Daddy aside so that he could have a little discussion with them today. He voiced his opinion on always having to ride in the back when we go on car rides. He feels that he should be able to ride up front. As far as that goes, he feels that he should be able to drive! Spencer is no dummy, he knows that you can't drive without having a license so - he went out and got one today. Okay so he didn't but Happy April Fools Day everyone!