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!!

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!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

(I had to include this one because of Spencers facial expression. Too bad Ryan moved or it would have been a perfect picture!)

One Fall Day

A couple weeks ago we went out onto campus and took some pictures of the kids. The autumn leaves were beautiful and the kids loved getting out to see more of daddy's school.

This was also the day of the last Razorback home football game, so we of course had to go check out the craziness and get a picture with the huge hog!

Spencer's Blessing Day

While we were in Indiana for Thanksgiving we decided to bless Spencer while we were with family. I am so thankful for family and it was a GREAT blessing to be together. I love my family so much! This is Spencer's cousin, Delaney who is 2 weeks younger. They are going to have a lot of fun together when they get older! I can't wait! I just hope we live close enough for them to actually get to know each other!

I am so thankful for these wonderful men in my life who hold the priesthood and bless our family so much!

Random cuteness!

Spencer adores Samantha! Just about everytime she starts singing to him, he stops crying immediately and just watches her with a big smile. She loves it and I love it because it helps me to get some things done every once in a while. They are going to be such good buddies

This picture show what Spencers life is like the majority of the time...he is getting pretty good at sensing when his big brother is coming and braces himself. Ryan isn't trying to be mean at all (most of the time), but just really loves Spencer...maybe a little too much! He kisses him about 100 times a day always accompanied by a large (usually much too rough) hug. He is not always so innocent though...the other day I was in the other room while Spencer was laying on my bed. All of the sudden I hear him start crying loudly, and Ryan running out of the room saying, "I didn't do anything! I didn't do anything!" I responded by saying, "I have a feeling you aren't telling me the truth. Are you?" "No" "What did you do?". Ryans response: "Um..(shoulder shrug), I just head butted him (another shoulder shrug)"....Spencer is going to be pretty tough little guy!

Photo Shoot

This is our make-shift studio in our apartment...it involves a white bed sheet taped to open cupboards on one side, and hooked onto the open freezer door (secured down with a bag of frozen corn) on the other side. Man I miss living closer to my brother (who is an amazing photographer!). But even though the quality of pictures isn't great, the kids are adorable!

I will try to get some of Sam sometime too!