These kids pull at my heart strings...

Hangin' with my boy...

Oh Christmas Tree...

Kaitlin

Spencer

This is how Kaitlin felt about having a picture together...

Faces

I love the faces this kids makes!

She has some good ones too!

Spencer was so excited to put up the Christmas tree and decorations!

Now if I could just get him to stay still for a picture...

Can you see the lights reflected in her eyes?

She has the sweetest face that melts me!

This is what Spencer's face looked like when

 he was done with dinner the other night.

I sure love these faces.

I am so grateful to be able to take pictures of these

daring little faces as they grow so I can remember them!

BIG BROTHER little sister

I make these shirts for the kids

Poor thing...she lost most of her hair on top...

She will be 6 weeks tomorrow!

One Month old

Kaitlin is one month old today.

LOVE this girls so much!

We are all doing better with the adjustment.

Our days are crazy and our nights are sometimes long

but we are happy and healthy and glad to be a family :)

Kaitlin's first bath

A Few Birthday Pictures

On Labor Day we had a joint Birthday party with my family

 for Spencer and his cousin Dalin.

This is the little cake that I made for them.

Spencer was crazy about the tractors on top and didn't

care too much about the cake.

Cousin Dalin...what a cuttie!!

\

We also had a little party for Spencer with Nate's family.

He was really excited about this cake!

I love that little face!



Happy Birthday Spencer

Guess who turned 2 today?!
I can't believe that my little baby is not my little baby anymore.
He can be the cutest, most adorable little guy one minute
 and the most grumpy, crazy little boy the next.

Couldn't love him more.

 Happy Birthday Buddy!

Here are some pictures from a few recent photo shoots we did :)

Here are some things that Spencer really likes right now.

(I totally stole this idea from a friend...thanks Jannelle!)

Spencer is a very strong willed little guy who know what he wants!

He can say a pray for the food all by himself!

He can count to 10 (but usually skips 5 and 6:)

He knows most of his shapes and colors.

He can sing most of the alphabet and can recognize quite a few letters.

He knows quite a few songs and loves to sing!

He is starting to really crack us up and surprise us with the funny things he says and does. Watching him learn and grow has been the most rewarding experience of my life so far. I sure love to be this little boy's Mommy. I am thank for for all he teaches me and for all he is helping me to become. He has showed me how to love like I didn't know I could.

My Child the Hitter (and not with a bat)

My sweet little, darling, innocent, wonderful child is a hitter! Yep, every time we get together with friends, he hits them (oh and pushes and takes toys out of kid's hands too)...I know, he is only 22 months, this is a stage, he doesn't mean to do anything wrong...I know. I know. But still...he is hitting other kids...sometimes me and Nate. What do I do? How do I teach him that is not okay? Soon kids everywhere will run and hide when they see him coming...The child will have no more friends. I just want my kids to be perfect and that's all. Now, really, is that asking too much...sigh...

My little smarty

So the other day I was changing Spencer's diaper as I was getting him ready to take a nap. I always sing him 2-3 songs as I am putting him down for a nap. I have done this for a long time now. As I started singing a primary song to him, "I love to read the Holy Scriptures" he started to sing a long with me and fill in words if I stopped singing for a minute. I was shocked and amazed! This is something he had never done before. I had no idea that he had actually been listening to the words of these songs and remembering them! So we tried "I am a Child of God". Again I was amazed that he knew many of the words to the song!! We tied song after song and I was so touched to hear my sweet little boy sing the words to these precious primary songs that I have been singing him since he was born. I have underestimated his abilities. Now we sing the songs together each day. I love to hear him say "one more song" or sing...sing!! What a sweet boy I have been blessed with. He brings so much joy into my life, more that I have ever felt before. I love to see him grow and learn. I love to be his mommy!

Easter "eggies" hunt

On Saturday we went to an Easter Egg hunt at Nate's work. Spencer likes to call them "eggies". It wasn't much of a hunt. They had great big boxes of candy and they would just throw it all out on the lawn and the kids would run out and get as much as they could as fast as they could. Spencer was in the 1-3 age group. Nate went out with him and helped him get some candy for us.

Spencer was pretty mad he could just eat the candy as he picked it up.

He couldn't understand why we wanted

him to put it in his basket and try to get more.

This candy wasn't just little suckers and bubble gum either.

Well they did have little things but lots of it was full size and king size candy

bars, bags of skittles, etc. This was good stuff. 

We Spencer got a lot of candy!!

(We are finally starting to see the pay offs for having kids.

Tomorrow we are teaching him to mow the lawn ;)

He was so sweet to share his king size candy

 bars with this 6 month old stranger.

What a good sharer!

Say cheese...I mean tootsie roll.

(not sure why the picture quality looks so poor??)