G' Day Mate!

You know that feeling when you have are looking for that one specific thing and you can't find it anywhere? You have looked every place you could imagine it being and you STILL can't find it? That has been the frustration Daddy has been going through for the past couple weeks as he has been trying to figure out what happened to his favorite summer time hat.

He FINALLY found it (how it ended up in a cabinet in his office no one knows) and the boys were busy taking turns wearing it around the house. Spencer looks like he's ready to go hunt some croc's!

I Do It!!!

Remember the song "Anything you can do, I can do better"? This could be Spencer's theme song because if Brian can do it.........Spencer wants to do it too! After watching his brother "swim" yesterday, (and with the help of some muscles and a floaty), no one was going to tell Spencer that he couldn't swim too!

Sunday at the Pool!

It was a beautiful sunny day today and we need to be out of our house for most of the day because our realtor has scheduled an open house at our house. After church and a bite of breakfast, we enjoyed our afternoon hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa at their house. Spencer is NEVER one to turn down a dip in the pool!

Spot And Smell The.....Clover!

With all of the fun we had at the park the other day, Spencer still had time to stop and pick some flowers (aka: clover).

More Splashin'

We had so much fun at the park yesterday that I couldn't fit in all in with just one blog post. So, here are a couple more pictures of two soggy brothers......

......and Mr "Bring it on because I have no fear of anything"!

Park It Here!

The park that Spencer is putting in the spotlight this week is Soehrman Park. It's part of the Pleasant Dale Park District and located a few blocks south of the Willow Springs and Joliet Road intersection. The park is made up of three parts. There is a huge sandbox area, there is a playground area and, our favorite part on this hot sticky day.......there is a splash pad! A splash pad is kind of like a swimming pool but without the actual "pool". Since Spencer and his brother could go from play area to play area at a moments notice, this park got a high rating of 3 1/2! Spencer was standing next to Mommy when she took this picture so he isn't in it - but it was the best picture of the whole splash pad we ended up with.

Here is a shot of the playground area. We had a good time at this park and I have no doubt that we will be back sometime soon!

No More Bandaids!

Unlike his big brother, Spencer was anxious for his boo boo to heal enough for him to NOT have to wear a band aid anymore! He will probably end up with a little scar - but he's a boy, he's suppose to have bumps, bruises and scars!

Heat Wave!

For the past several weeks, the weather here has been rainy and cool so today came as a bit of a surprise! Summer hit and it hit BIG time! It was hot, sticky and.....did I mention that it was hot???? Because it was so miserable outside, we spent a good portion of the day in the air conditioned house. Who says playing inside has to be boring though! After they had dumped the toys out of the storage bins, the bins were able to be magically converted into these great hats!

Do I Smell Cake????

We are missing out on lots of South Dakota celebrations this month! Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary was last Friday and today is Grandma's birthday! Spencer still isn't into long phone conversations but he is usually willing to at least say a few things. His conversation went a little like this.

Spencer: "Hi Gra-ma!"

**I couldn't hear Grandma's response

Spencer: "Happy bir-a Gra-ma!"

**I couldn't hear Grandma's response but whatever it was, Spencer just stood there smiling at the phone. At this point he decided he had said everything he wanted to say so he walked away and back to the front deck where he had been playing.

We hope you had a wonderful day Grandma and did something fun to celebrate!

Happy Fathers Day Daddy!

The boy's didn't make Daddy breakfast in bed this morning, but they did take him out for breakfast after church! Once everyone had gotten a good nap in we loaded up and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house. In addition to being able to spend the day with a few other Daddy's (like Grandpa, Uncle Kevin and Uncle Colin), it was a perfect day to be in the pool!

Even though Spencer loved gliding through the water with Daddy, once he saw how the slide worked......

.......there was NO stopping him!

We hope all of you Daddy's out there were able to have an enjoyable and relaxing Fathers Day today.

Clean Up Needed In the Kitchen Please!

When your house is on the market, you need to try to maintain it in a "show ready" condition (or at least be able to get it into that condition at a moments notice.) How is that possible when two adults and two little boys are still living in that house? The only way to make it happen is to have EVERYONE pitch in - from the oldest to the youngest!

Happy Anniversary!!!!

There was a very special celebration going on in South Dakota today. Today is Grandma and Grandpa's 49th anniversary! Since we aren't able to be there in person, we had to phone in our well wishes. Spencer had his own thoughts on the best way to celebrate the occasion. He thought trying to break open a wooden box using nothing but his head would be a great idea. Once he had done it though - he decided maybe it wasn't the best idea he has ever had. After some blood, tears and cuddles........Spencer survived, he needed no stitches andhe was even able to score this wicked Sesame Street band aid!

Park It Here!

Spencer is starting a weekly segment of his own this week! We may not be able to do this segment year round, but we will hope to bring you as many of Spencer's "Park Reviews" as the weather will permit us to.

There are countless parks in the Chicagoland area. Thanks to your GPS system, we are able to pick a neighborhood, enter "parks" into the GPS and enjoy the surprise of what we will find when we arrive! Some parks don't have playground equipment and some parks do. Some parks have very toddler friendly equipment and some parks don't. We never know what we are going to get when we pull up so Spencer has decided to rate a park that we go to each week so that you will know if you need to schedule in a play date there.

This week's park is Scott Dale park in Wheaton Illinois! On a scale of 1 - 5 swings (5 being the best), Spencer is rating this playground as a 3 1/2 swings!

As you can see, it has a castle theme which was a lot of fun to play on. This playground is not fenced in but it is sunken into the ground about a foot. This provides brick ledge/seating area for parents and also works to somewhat keep the kids confined in the area.

Thanks to the Wheaton Park District, we had fun playing at your park today!

I Do It!!!

Spencer was playing with his brother in Brian's room this morning. Since Brian was busy being naughty - I guess it goes without saying that Spencer wanted a piece of the naughty action too! Being part mountain goat, Spencer had no problem climbing up onto the dresser. Based on the expression of pride on his face, you would have thought he had just reached the summit of Mt Everest!

This little piggy......

I think this is the one that goes to market!!!

YEAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Caillou remains one of the boy's favorite programs on PBS. They know when the show is on in the evening and moments before it starts........they get into position.

The moment the theme song starts.......the shouts of joy erupt!

Our Handsome Long Haired BOY!

From time to time, someone has come up to Mommy or Daddy and pointed out "what a cute little girl" Spencer is. Okay, we know that our little "mullet man's" hair is getting long in the back but we just can't bring ourselves to have it cut!

Spencer has had to wait very patiently for each and every strand of his soft baby hair to grow in so we are reluctant to just hack it off! If you have forgotten, here's a reminder picture from Spencer's not so distance minimal hair past. Granted, he is completely adorable no matter what but once he has that first hair cut - he goes from being our baby to our little boy. Since Mommy and Daddy aren't quite ready to accept that yet, don't look for any radical hair style changes any time soon!

Climb Every Mountain!

This may LOOK like the face of an innocent young man, but.........

.....this is what Spencer and his brother were up to while playing in Brian's room today!

That's My Brother!

Spencer's vocabulary continues to grow. Words that were once a little hard to identify have become much more clear. One word that we are hearing a lot of now is "Bi-an". Every once in a while we think we can here him get the "r" in too. Even when it's just "Bi-an" though, there is no doubt as to who he is talking to!

S.....P.....E.....N......C

I know it's more memorization skill than anything, but Spencer can say his ABC's with the best of them! When he sings the song, it used to sound like this:

.....e-f-g, h-i-j-k-mnmnmmn-p, q-r-s.......




He has made huge improvements in this area and you can now recognize all of his letters! He is also making huge strides in his numbers. He can count all the way up into his mid teens now!

Nappin'

Spencer was in the middle of a good book when Mommy made the announcement that it was nap time. He was willing to lay down for him nap but not without:

1) A sippy cup of water

2) Goober

3) A good book!

A Bad Day!

Everyone is entitled to a bad day from time to time and apparently, today was Spencer's day. Mommy and the boys went on an adventure to delivery some paperwork for Daddy today. On our way home, we stopped off for some lunch. Within a few minutes of our ordering, Spencer had a meltdown. He wanted nothing that Mommy tried to offer him. He didn't want any toys, he didn't want anything to drink, he didn't want anything to eat, he didn't even want Goober - yep, it was a SERIOUS meltdown! Mommy was just about to ask the waitress to pack up our lunch to go when it arrived at our table. Apparently Brian was starved because he nearly pushed her over to get to his sandwich! The thought of trying to explain to a 2 yr old that he could have his lunch - just not until we got home would have undoubtedly resulted in TWO crying boys so we just toughed it out while Brian ate.

Since Spencer had no lunch, he was the first one to the dinner table tonight and we are very pleased to report that he is back to his happy go lucky self!

Hand Me The Chalk Please!

A few days ago when the boys and Mommy were out for a wagon ride in our neighborhood, we came across a garage sale. We didn't stop but one thing did catch Mommy's eye. The next day we went back thinking "if it's still there, it was meant for us to have". Needless to say......I guess it was meant to be because we are the proud new owners of this children's drawing easel!

Do we need more toys? No. Do we need more stuff to move to the new house? No. Did we get this easel anyway? Yup! Hey - it was dirt cheap, don't judge me!

Mommy and Daddy are pretty sure that Brian will be a lefty but the verdict is still out on Spencer. He starts out using one hand........and after a while, switch's to the other. If I were going to guess, I would say he will probably be right handed but you never know!

Like Father Like Son!

You have probably heard how important it is to be careful with what you do or say around your kids because they are watching and listening. Wow - ain't that the truth!!! This picture was taken a month or so ago but it gives you an idea of what we are talking about. If Spencer sees you do something - anything - he wants to do it too! It's most noticeable when you watch him study everything his brother does but he imitates Mommy and Daddy too. In this picture, he was "helping" Daddy with a home repair project.

Making MORE Fun With......Anything!

Not only are spindles good for shoving through a mail slot, they also make for perfect candles! One of the boy's favorite songs at the moment is Happy Birthday. Tonight, Spencer was walking around the room with his candles (aka: spindles) singing "appy earth-ay.....appy earth-ay......appy earth-ay". Eventually he would bring his candles to Mommy and hold them up waiting for her to blow them out!

How To Have Fun With........ANYTHING!

We have a set of doors in the living room with decorative spindles. Occasionally Mommy and Daddy have to remove these spindles because two young boys like to take them out for their own amusement. Today's source of entertainment was feeding the spindles back and forth to each other through the mail slot of the front door. This process produced non stop laughter from Spencer and Brian for a good half hour while Mommy was making dinner!

Random Cute Picture!

Uncle Corey snapped this picture on Mothers Day........is this kid adorable or what?!?!?!?!?!

Let's Play!

Our house hasn't sold yet but we are having quite a few showings - which we are taking as a good sign. Each time we are notified of a showing, we need to leave for about an hour. For today's showing, Daddy took the boy's to the park. Initially, Spencer was a little apprehensive going down the big slides - especially the covered ones. I'm not sure if his confidence is growing or if it's just due to watching his brother go down them. Whatever the reason, he is much more comfortable with the big slides now!

Here is yet another example of "I can do anything my big brother does!"

Laundry Fun

Daddy does about 99.9% of all the laundry in our house. Sometimes when he is taking it down to the laundry room, or bringing it back upstairs, he has some assistants. When Daddy brought this load upstairs, the boys were getting a chuckle out of playing peek-a-boo with Mommy!

You Have A Little Something On Your Face.......Right There!

I know we post lots of pictures of Spencer with Goober but hey......he loves his little Goober so there ya go! This picture was taken one morning as we were wrestling him out of him jammies and into clothes. As you can see, being half awake, Spencer was not ready to give Goober up yet so we put his clothes on him - over Goober and all!

Goober is the perfect sized companion. Spencer can just chomp down on him and continue to go about his business hands free. Mommy and Daddy have to put serious planning into how and when we can get him into the washing machine. Goober HAS to be available for all naps, bedtime and if we go on an outing, we sneak him into the diaper bag as a "just in case".