Weekly Review: January 24 - 30

You never know where Spencer will be when the muse strikes him and he needs to create some new artwork. Mommy keeps the crayons close at hand because the boys request them often!

If you recall, we recently posted a picture of Spencer opening a Christmas gift that contained some play vegetables. What fun can you have playing with plastic food? A whole BUNCH of fun if you live at our house! The boys spend a lot of time playing "grocery store". Spencer started out as the cashier, ringing up all of his customers items.

The boys are getting a little better at sharing and taking turns so, soon Spencer was the customer!

If imitation is the best form of flattery, that Mommy and Daddy are indeed flattered! He was either doing what he sees his parents do or........looking for an apartment of his own!

Weekly Review: January 17 - 23

Since Christmas, the gift of a simple little plastic bowling pin game sure has brought a great deal of joy into the lives of one Brian and one Spencer! Initially, Spencer's bowling technique was less of rolling the ball and more of THROWING the ball towards the pins. He tended to prefer the overhand throw so we are thankful that the bowling balls are hollow little plastic things or we would have some serious dents in our floors! This also explains why Mommy and Daddy decided that Spencer wasn't quite ready to attend Haley's birthday bowling party on Sunday.

Spencer was happy to hang out watching football at home with Grandpa. Actually, Grandpa did most of the game watching while Spencer did a little more bowling of his own!

When Brian returned from the birthday party, he had lots of exciting stories to tell but frankly, I think Spencer was more interested in looking into the grab bags that Haley sent home for them!

Last December we talked about how Spencer was no longer interested in sleeping in his crib anymore. Daddy immediately converted his crib into the toddler bed. Spencer isn't completely sold on the idea of the toddler bed yet but he has no problem crawling into Brian's big boy bed!

Since Spencer isn't a big fan of sleeping in his toddler bed but he loves sleeping on his Big Bird bed, a few weeks ago Daddy came up with a win-win solution! Put the Big Bird bed IN the toddler bed and call it a day! Spencer crawls right into it for his afternoon nap each day as well as at bedtime. Case Closed!!!

Weekly Review: January 10 - 16

What is it about kids and water? Put a couple inches of water in the kitchen dish pan, throw in a couple measuring cups, teaspoons and a small glass to fill and Spencer will be occupied for hours!

There were a few additional Thomas the Train accessories under the Christmas tree so the boys have been enjoying some extra time in the land of Sodor with Thomas, Percy, Flora, Stanley and Bill. (If you know anything about Thomas then you understood what I just said.)

We may have mentioned that Daddy has been hard at work remodeling a kitchen. What does that mean if you are 2 or 3 years old? It mean that when Daddy starts installing the cabinets you are about to score some amazing new forts to play in!!!!!!

Weekly Review: January 3 - 9

This week is starting out with another birthday and it belongs to Aunt Ann! Happy Birthday Aunt Ann, we hope you had a wonderful day!

Now that we are back home, the boys their Christmas gifts from our Illinois family to open! Some of the photo's Mommy was able to snap include looking inside their Christmas stockings,

showing excitement over some new books (which we LOVE!),

and some additional vegetables to add to our groceries store/kitchen in the playroom!

We always hate to see it end, but once the calenders tell us it's January, it's time to take down the tree and box up our decorations until next year. Before we take everything down though, heres one more shot of the boys in front of the tree!

We end our week with one more birthday......this time it's the boys cousin Haley who turned 5 years old on Saturday the 9th! Happy Birthday to you.......Happy Birthday to you.......Happy Birthday to Haaaaaaa-leyyyyyyyy......Happy Birthday to you!!!!!!!!!!

FYI: Mommy's 2010 New Years Resolution. She resolves to get a better handle on this blog and stay on top of it remaining current. To ensure that can happen, she will no longer be posting daily entries. Instead, she will continue doing these weekly reviews. This should allow us to keep you up to date on the day to day doings of Spencer and his brother Brian while allowing Mommy to also do everything else she needs to do!

Weekly Review: December 27 - January 2, 2010

If you were holed up in the house while a snowstorm raged away outside......what would you do? I don't know about you but we decided to make home made ice cream! Spencer assisted Grandma in measuring all the ingredients and then Brian helped Grandpa get the salt poured into the ice cream machine.

The results were........delicious!!!!!


If life give you snow: then just ask your Daddy to dig you out a nice snow fort to play in!



There was no way Daddy could spend that much time digging and shoveling snow without leaving his trademark "dude stuck upside down in a snowbank" fella behind! As we were getting ready to leave, we ran into the mail carrier. She said seeing "dude" made her laugh all the way down the block! Grandma informed us that they received a few other calls from people who passed by who got a chuckle out of "dude" too. Hey, if a big ol' snow storm is going to cause you to loose your sense of humor.......chances are, you are in for a LONG winter!


We promised some pictures of the remodeling project Grandma and Grandpa have done so here ya go! This photo was taken while standing in the sun room looking towards the dining room which is at the front of the house. Going to your left would take you into the kitchen and the original part of the house. Going to the right would take you out into the attached garage.

Here's another shot of the sun room. Space, space and more space! Fabulous!!!!!!!


The road reports said that they weren't great, but that they were do-able so we decided that we needed to start for home today (Monday the 28th). HUGE thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for everything. We had a great time and are looking forward to doing it again soon! Maybe not the blizzard part, but definitely everything else!!! Love you both lots!


The first hour or so was a little intense but once we got onto the Interstate the roads improved greatly. So much so that we decided that we would try to make our drive home in one day instead of splitting it into two. Mommy and Daddy decided that if it got to be too much for the boys we would stop, but if we could, we would drive straight though. We stopped for lunch in Sioux Falls where we met up with Mommy's dear friend Jannelle and didn't stop again until dinner. Fortunately we made it to LaCrosse Wisconsin by then and they have an incredible McDonalds playland at their location right outside of LaCrosse so the boys got to run around and stretch their legs for awhile. Being strapped into a car seat for 12 plus hours is a lot to ask of anyone but the boys were troopers and handled the long trip like true professionals! I'm sure eventually Mommy and Daddy won't get all silly the moment we drive Spencer by the exit which leads to the town of Spencer South Dakota. However, as of this trip........the humor hadn't worn off yet!

We got home with just enough time to finish planning our New Years Eve party! The group of friends/family that we make our annual December group outing with just so happen to be the same group of friends/family that we spend New Years Eve with! Kids from age 2 to 17 (although the 17 yr old wasn't able to make it since she had her own thing going on this year - we missed you Beth!), their parents, food, fun and games are all a part of the evening. At the stroke of midnight, Brian hung with the older kids out in the yard, throwing streamers and blowing noise makers. Even though Spencer was still wide awake, he chose to watch the festivities with Aunt Karen from inside the house. Both boys stayed up until midnight but faded fast from that moment on. By 12:20am they were both in bed and fast asleep!


Happy New Year everyone - we hope your 2010 will be filled with good health and happiness!

AND.......as of today, January 1st, 2010 - Happy Birthday to the boys cousin, the lovely Lauren who turnes 2 years old today! Happy Birthday Lauren!!!!!!!!