Tuesday, January 18, 2011

What's been goin' on

Last weekend, we thought we would take advantage of Rich still not being in school, so we got Sam out of school a little early, and headed out to Oklahoma City for the night. We drove straight to the temple so that Rich could do a session, while the kids and I went and got dinner while we waited. We spent the night in a hotel for fun and then I had the opportunity to go to the temple Saturday morning. We haven't had the opportunity to go to the temple very often, so this trip was much needed. Saturday afternoon we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and we went to the zoo. This Rino was huge! It was so nice to get outside and not freeze!


Spencer is getting so big! He is now 4 months (or will be on the 20th) and weighs 16.6 lbs and is 26 1/2 inches long! He loves to talk and it is so much fun to listen to him laugh!! He is very strong and holds himself up really well. He still loves to see his big sister and have her sing to him. As soon as she walks into view he gives her the biggest smile. Unfortunately, as soon as Spencer sees his big brother most of the time, he braces himself for impact with his arms up and eyes closed! We are still waiting for this stage that Ryan is in to pass. He just loves his brother so much!
I love that drool!
He is getting two little dimples on each cheek when he smiles too...so cute!!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Christmas in Nashville

This picture isn't from Nashville, it is in our apartment. I knew I would take a Christmas picture in front of a real tree in Nashville, but I still had to document our sorry looking thing....this little fake tree was all we had room for, sandwiched in between our little tv and the baby swing! It was also tied to the swing so it wouldn't tip over, so then we couldn't even use the swing all month! This year we were able to go to Rich's sisters house in Nashville for Christmas. Rich's two other sisters came as well (one from Tucson!) and his parents were there as well. We all had a great time together and I loved having so many other people willing to hold Spencer and take care of him for me! ;-) I love this picture....this shows how much sleep we all got each night!

This is at the nativity at Opryland...it was beautiful and these girls are beautiful too.
Christmas Eve, watching Santa on the Santa radar.
These are the awesome PJs my mom made for all the grandkids! One of my favorite things about Christmas every year! We got the kids to bed probably around 11:30 Christmas Eve after having a wonderful program at the house, with everyone contributing a little part, whether it was playing beautiful piano music, the kids singing primary songs, reading The Night Before Christmas, singing O Holy Night, and of course, the kids acted out the nativity story. This rendition of the Christmas story I don't think we will ever forget, nor has anyone else heard of before, because Baby Jesus was not played by one of the actual babies, but by my three year old Ryan. Who crawled in talking in baby talk, and then stood up on the bench, annouced baby Jesus was a statue and stood there with his arm in the arm like the statue of liberty. Then the statue crashed down to the floor "and broke in pieces, and out came baby Jesus". I was dying by both embarrassment and laughter. Allen who was reading the scriptures couldn't read because he was laughing too much. Luckily, Nate got in ALL on video and I am sure we will use to embarrass Ryan when he is older! ;-) But yes, we will never forget this Christmas Eve.
Then once the children were finally asleep, the adults then got to work on putting the final touches on everything for Christmas Day, and only stayed up until 3 am! We all had a great time though and even though we were all tired the next day, it was great to just spend time together with the excitement of Christmas.
The kids lined up (youngest to oldest) in the back room Christmas morning, before they are allowed out to see their stockings and presents!
These boys are going to be best buddies later...Spencer is going to love me when he is older, looking back at all the pictures I forced him to do! ;-) Leo is the other cute baby, Rich's sisters baby, born in November.
Grandma even made a matching nightgown for the doll Sam got for Christmas!
Here is the picture in front of the real Christmas tree. Church was cancelled due to a little bit of snow and ice, but we still had to take a picture all dressed up. We just did the kids though because I was too lazy to put my own skirt on! :-)

Cute babies!
Proud Grandma and Grandpa
playing Knights was a large part of this Christmas...I love Ryans placement of his sword
This was at the Childrens Science museum...they all had a great time
We were able to go out on a double date with Nate and Julee. We went out to dinner and then down to the Honky Tonk. We only saw one drunken arrest! It was fun though to be out with such great company! And yes, we looked like AWESOME parents walking around bars with an infant strapped to Rich's chest! He got so many looks like "What the heck is in that guys jacket?!?" or "THAT'S A BABY!!".

So much fun! Thank you Nate and Julee for a great evening, and Christmas vacation. You were great hosts and we all had a great time!!