Brian went to the AAD Conference in Florida the first week of March and the kids and I also hit the road. While he was in Florida we went to visit my family then flew to see Nikki in Indiana. Brian met us out there are we drove with him to Ohio to visit his mission. Then we drove back to Indiana and spend the rest of the week at Nikki's. It was a lot of traveling but so fun to get to see so many people! We did end up in urgent care for ear infections for both kids, but they were big time troopers.
It was so fun to see my parents. Spencer and my dad have gotten to be good friends and this visit they really got into puzzles. Flying with the two kids alone was not as bad as I had imagined. It was hard to carry our big suitcase, two car seats and the kids, but I used the carrier and umbrella stroller and it was for about 100 yards till the ticket counter where I checked as much as possible. And as for the flying, we are used to 6 hour flights across the country, so this 2 hour one flew by!
Spending time with Nikki and her kids was so fun! I just love being with her and feel so much love. But something else was so so good this visit. We are best friends, but fairly different people and I learned so much about how she manages her life as a stay at home mom with a husband who is also gone long hours. Things like how she manages to shower and dress, keep her house clean and organized, run errands and make food ... all with her two kids and no husband around. It was so good for me!
Brian's mission. It was great to meet some of the people he taught and worked with and especially to see how much he cares about them (even now, ten years later!). I felt like I got a mini peek into what his mission was like.
We have started an "errand swap" with our dear neighboors two houses down from us. It has been so fun! The kids play great, for the most part and both of us moms love having some alone time we can count on. Their dad is also a resident so we love spending time together during the odd hours when most other husbands are around.
I hope it is always thrilling to wake up and look out the window at a fresh blanket of snow! We had two or three snow storms this month.
St Patricks day green dinner!! Spencer's favorite color is green so he was loving it!
Spencer has had a hard time going to sleep at night. This particular night (pictured below) Brian was finishing notes on his laptop while I was on the computer behind him. Spencer had been whinning but it had stopped and I figured he had fallen asleep. When I got up to use the bathroom I came back and this is what I saw!!! haha Spencer loves his dad so much! He always ask when Brian is going to stay home in the morning. Usually we only see Brian in the morning on the weekends since he leaves pretty early on the week days. It is Spencer's favorite thing to get to see Brian in the morning!! (It's fun for me too! The other day he was home until 7:30am and I was having so much fun with our whole family together!)
We had a Hoyt family video chat and Spencer has been talking about going to Tree Farm ever since. And wearing his tractor PJs as much as possible. He wore then three straight days after the video chat. Here he emerged from quiet time "all packed for Tree Farm". He loves the green tractors there and talks about their pedals. I told him we will go there after we plant our garden and now he asks to plant our garden just about every day :)
Callie's eardrum ruptured! It is so strange because she was on amoxicilin for a week because of her ear infection from traveling and it wasn't even a full week since we finished the course of antibiotics and then BAM! I went to get her up from a super long nap (4 hours...) and this is what I saw!
Sometimes I exercise at home... and I think it inspires Spencer. He calls this his "balancing" and will do something and say it's super hard and ask if I can do it. Then he'll coach me by saying "no, turn your head like this"... he is so cute!
We signed up for the last session of Romp N Stomp this year. It's like a preschool class for 30 mins each week where the moms just sit in the back and the kids go in front. It's been good for him to be in a little bit of a classroom setting.
Callie turned 1!! My parents came up for the day and went to church with us then hung out with us all afternoon. It was wonderful and sweet. Aunt Heidi sent Callie a couple little bows for her birthday and I told her what they were and that they go in your hair. She said "BO" and will wear her bow much longer than before! She likes things like that. If I brush her hair after bath time she is in heaven! She will even pick up things and pretend to brush her hair.
Snowy days...
Dress-up! Spencer loves dressing up and if we ever go in the basement and he sees his old clothes he begs me to bring them upstairs and let him try them on. I'm just remembering that he did go through a phase where he would try to fit into Callie's clothes... haha I was pretty impressed he got into any! Here he is with Tate and Ben, some preschool friends.
My brave little EKG boy :) Spencer often has vertigo spells and has had them since he could walk. They seem to come in spells (he will have them every other day for a week then not at all for a month). Anyways, we aren't super worried but our pediatrician wanted to rule out a couple things. Spencer was so BRAVE during his EKG. *also, not the baseball pajamas! He brought them to show the dr... and after his exam he promoptly put them on :)
Walking around the neighboorhood. I LOVE our neighboor hood and how family friendly it is!!! Its really nice to be outside and not on a busy street.
Snuggles!!! Spencer has not been a snuggly boy. When he was a baby he would never fall asleep in our arms, he always wanted to be put down. (I actually wonder if it's because he runs hot and maybe he was over heating in our arms since he is always hot now and takes his coat off when I would never dream of it.) And for the last couple weeks he has wanted to sit on the bed next to me instead of on my lap while I read books. But recently he has said "you can snuggle me", and I just about scream with excitement and promptly snuggle him onto my lap before he can change his mind! He has asked me to snuggle him during meal time to, and randomly when I am on the floor playing. I love it so much! and as I look at this last picture... I'm starting to wonder how Spencer feels about it... :)
Spencer recently:
-Suddenly really into fine motor skills. Loves cutting things out with his scissors
(past couple months) and now colors in coloring books (since during april
general conference) and stickers have resurged into our lives (I think he did every
sticker in our house during general conference, no joke!). When we colors a picture he often will say
who it is for. We’ve mailed some and
given some to neighborhood kids.
He can write a couple of letters too! H and O and I
-Says Micheal is his best friend and they fight. He loves rough-housing with Micheal our
neighbor. He is turning two in August
but loves a good tumble J
Spencer will also say Ben and Tate from preschool are his best friends
periodically.
-Brian let Spencer do some Ipad time and when Spencer told
me about it he called it “studying”. I
think because Brian studies on the ipad, but it’s pretty cute.
-He is getting more independent and confident leaving
me.
-We’ve been swimming once a week and he is getting much more
comfortable in the water. He will swim
with a floaty on a bit away from me.
-Very in to dinosaurs!
We have gotten lots of dinosaur books from the library the last two
times.
-Spencer loves pajamas! He tries to wear them every day,
especially his baseball pajamas. First
thing in the morning, he changes into new pajamas! I’ve been trying to crack down on this and
this past week he’s made it until nap time most days… then he will always
emerge from nap in his pjs!
-He does quiet time after lunch for an hour. He reads books and sometimes falls asleep. He will usually poke his head out and say something like "this is taking a long time for my clock to turn green".
Callie recently:
-loves slides and will say her version of "wee" when she goes down. She even loves going head first!
-loves looking out the window
-falls asleep in her carseat on the way home from our morning outing most days and then I'll just transfer her inside in her carseat to finish her nap. If this happens she'll usually sleep around 2 hours and it's her only nap for the day
-only nurses in the early morning or middle of the night
-loves spencer and interacting with him
-loves butternut squash, bananas, citrus, bread
-loves books! especially the foot book by Dr. Suess, that is easily her favorite! If shes ever quiet she has usually found a book to look through. Though she does loves pulling the books off our bookshelf. I've learned she is generally the one responsible for lots of messes. She will start pulling books off the shelf then Spencer will want to join in the fun and then poof, all the books are on the ground...
-says dada, mama, and bo; is very good at communicating what she wants through pointing, "ba", and screaming/crying until she gets it :)
-She is such a sweet girl and I think we are getting to be pretty good friends now.
