Father’s Day 2017

I don’t have too many pictures for Father’s day, but I definitely had some I wanted to share ;)

It was so nice to have John home for most of the day – he had canceled his extra meetings before church so we got to have him home in the morning AND he didn’t have interviews in the afternoon, so we got him for most of the afternoon too!

In my opinion, John is really hard to shop for (he’ll tell you he’s really easy, he says wants a truck and a racing bike and he’s good ;) ) but I managed to find some fun things for me and the boys to give him. My favorite though, was this really awesome car track massage shirt – it has a little car track on the back of the shirt, so John puts it on, lays on his stomach and the boys play cars on his back, giving him a massage. Brilliant, right?!

It worked great until - Spencer decided to sit on John’s head…

I think they all still had fun, I think John’s used to being a human jungle gym by now. ;)

We are sooooo lucky to have John, he is seriously such a wonderful husband and Daddy to our boys. We love you!!

Airplane Themed Baby Shower Cookies

The same week I was helping put together the surprise Harry Potter baby shower, I was also making cookies for ANOTHER baby shower! It was a busy week ;)

This one was for a coming baby boy and the theme chosen for the cookies was “Precious Cargo” or airplanes :)

(Sorry my picture is a little wonky – I was trying to take pictures as we were packing up to go down to my parents for a couple of days and my kids were trying to get up close and personal with the cookies)

These were so fun to make!! I think baby shower cookies are some of my favorite to put together :)

A Surprise Harry Potter Baby Shower

I helped put together a surprise baby shower for a friend of mine last weekend and I was so excited when we decided on the theme of Harry Potter – because, as you probably know by now, I’ll take any excuse to through a Harry Potter party ;)

I worked with two other girls to put this together and they had some great ideas and I think we put together a great party! It was SO fun to put together such a fun surprise!

This was at the front door when our Mom-to-be got home


They really had the perfect house for all my decorations from our surprise party for my sister-in-law last year – they had the perfect doorway for the train platform brick wall :)


You stepped through the platform and found yourself at Hogwarts, just in time for the feast!
And what a feast we had!


I took the opportunity to make more Harry Potter cookies :)


My cupcakes were rather ill-fated…we were given a temporary passcode to get into the house to decorate and I was the first one to get there. But I couldn’t get the keypad to work! As I attempted to get it to work, I ended up putting down my carrier full of cupcakes onto the ground to try again, but bumped something on the way down, and spilled half my cupcakes over themselves!! :( I was able to salvage most of them, but then later when we were all set up and waiting for the shower to start, one of our floating candles fell off the ceiling…right onto the cupcakes!! Oh well, they still tasted good!




One of the girls got a copy of the first Harry Potter book to use as the guest book – isn’t that such a fun idea?!
And some fun favors for our guests!

I think everyone had a great time chatting and eating and showering our cute mom-to-be with gifts. Yay for baby girls!! :)

23 Months!

I am sooooo late this month – it’s been a little crazy since last week but I’ve only got one more monthly update for Spencer after this so I really wanted to get this one in before his birthday!!

*His vocabulary has EXPLODED in the last month! I want to say that by age 2 kids are supposed to know about 50 words. I’m pretty sure Spencer’s in the 75-100 word range. He also parrots a lot of what we say so even though he might not know what the word means, he tries to say a lot of new things. He is also stringing words together even more. He can say “I don’t know” and “I did it!” and “I got it!”. And Nathan taught him “Movie today?”. ;)

*Has become decidedly possessive of things, whether or not they are really his. This causes a lot of arguing between him and Nathan – like when Spencer sits on Nathan’s chair at the dinner table and tells Nathan “MY chair”. This happens with a lot of toys too.

*As most of you know, he broke his first bones last month (the 2 bones in his right forearm). He was in a cast for 3 weeks, and it didn’t slow him down one bit! When he got it taken off, the doctor said he wasn’t quite 100% better, but that it could also take a year for x-rays to show up normal again. As the doctor watched Spencer climb/crawl all over every surface in the exam room, he said he was sending us home with a little arm brace for him, to prevent further injury. He’s supposed to wear it for 4 weeks. We thought that was a really good idea. But it’s velcro, so we only managed to keep it on him for about two days before he realized he could take it right off and now it doesn’t stay on longer that about 2 seconds. ;) But his arm doesn’t seem to bother him and he’s taken quite a few tumbles since then and so far he’s fine. (Let’s hope it stays that way!!!)

*Has started making really awesome faces. Like his older brother, he is very expressive.

*As adventurous and crazy as he is, he is surprisingly timid in the water, apart from the bathtub. While he is crazy splash boy in the tub, he doesn’t really like getting in the water at the beach or at the pool.

*Still doesn’t have any canine teeth, but has several molars now. I’m really ready to be done with the teething.

 

*Has become quite the instigator of scuffles between him and Nathan. It’s about 50-50 now on who starts the problems – and he definitely fights back when Nathan tries to throw his weight around.

*But while they certainly get after each other, Spencer absolutely loves his big brother and can finally (sort of) say Nathan’s name and it’s really sweet to hear them talking to each other and to hear Spencer saying “Hi Nay Nen!”.

*This kid is SUCH a character. He is always cracking us up and keeps us on our toes ALL THE TIME. We just love you little man!

Calvert Cliffs

We planned a day trip for this past weekend to Calvert Cliffs National Park to hike and look for fossils on the beach along the Chesapeake Bay. We invited some friends along and spent the day there and we had a really good time!

The day didn’t get off to a super great start though, both boys were up waaaay earlier than usual and so the morning getting ready was a little crazy. We finally got everything packed up in the car, met up with our friends and made the drive down. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. After we parked we started off down the trail that would take us to the beach. The trail was 1.8 miles, and the boys actually walked/ran the whole way down, they were great! It was hot, but most of the trail was shaded by lots of trees, and it was fairly low humidity that day (my pregnant self was very grateful). The trail was very well marked and would have been fine with a jogging stroller (though we didn’t bring any strollers, not knowing how the trail would be). The boys loved running down the trail, picking up rocks and sticks, and resting on the benches that showed up periodically as we hiked.

I don’t remember how long it took us to get to the beach, but I think it was probably longer than we had planned for ;) When we finally got to the beach, the boys were so excited to get into the water! The water itself felt soooo nice, it wasn’t too cold and was so refreshing after our long walk. Nathan jumped right in and had a blast. Spencer, surprisingly, was a little more hesitant about the water. I don’t think he liked the waves pushing at him. They weren’t very big waves, but then, he isn’t very big either, so they were still pretty forceful to him. He did eventually get in and throw rocks, but he really enjoyed playing in the sand – also, Spencer got his cast off last Friday, just in time for our trip to the beach! :) As you walk onto the beach, they have a big box of communal sand toys for everyone to share – so awesome!!

 

We could have spent much longer there, but we needed to get back – the goal had been to be back in time for John to go the a stake leadership meeting for stake conference (spoiler: we didn’t make it home in time…). So we packed back up and made the hike back to the car. We knew that on the way back the boys would have a harder time with all the walking. John had Nathan on his shoulders most of the hike back. Spencer actually would have been happy to walk the whole way back (seriously, where does this kid get all his energy?!), but he was slow (short legs, you know) and kept veering off the path to explore and throw rocks in the water, so I carried him about half the time, which he did not appreciate.

We had packed snacks for the hike, but our lunch stuff was in a cooler in the car, so we had a picnic lunch at the playground over by the parking lot – by this point, we knew we weren’t going to make it home in time for John’s meeting. Funnily enough, Nathan couldn’t walk the trail back, but had plenty of energy for the playground. ;) We had some lunch and the kids played and then we finally got everyone back into the car to head home well after 3pm (John’s meeting had been at 4). We got home around 5:15. On the way home Nathan totally fell asleep, but Spencer was wide awake the whole time, eating a steady stream of goldfish crackers (it kept him quiet and happy – he does NOT like being in the car).  I still can’t believe he managed to stay awake after being up early, not getting a nap and being outside in the heat running around ALL DAY. We finally got everyone inside, fed, and bathed, and into bed.

Although I wasn’t expecting the worst on this trip, I was happily surprised at how well the boys did the whole day, and very grateful that the weather wasn’t as hot as I had anticipated. We really had a great day and highly recommend Calvert Cliffs!

Preschool Graduation

So you may remember that we were doing a preschool co-op with some other moms and their kids for Nathan’s preschool this year. Well, that year has flown by and last week we had preschool graduation! I still can’t quite believe it’s over and summer is already here. Nathan has loved going to preschool!

The kids put on a little program of nursery rhymes and songs. This picture sums up pretty much how Nathan felt about doing it while I was watching…

Awesome, right? I know. ;)

After the program they got their graduation caps and certificates.

This is his camera smile, ha ha

Afterwards, the kids made rockets to launch out in a field where we had a picnic lunch and I think everyone had a really good time. In the folder with his certificate, there was a little questionnaire they he had supplied answers to before graduation. I wanted to write down what he had said :)

Nathan - June 2017

My Favorite…

Color: pink
Food: Lightning McQueen Mac and Cheese
Thing to do: play with my Jackson Storm bath toy that Jason gave me
Book: about princesses
Animal: dinosaurs
TV Show: Hot Wheels and Bob the Builder
Thing I did in Preschool: playing

I don’t like dinosaurs to eat me

I’m really good at playing with garbage trucks

When I grow up I want to watch Dino Trux and Hot Wheels movie

I love it when my Mom hugs me.

I love it when my Dad go to work.

We were cracking up at the last two because Nathan is not a hugger, and that he likes when Dad leaves…? ;)

We are already looking forward to next year!

Strawberry Picking 2017

Alright, so I have a little bit of bloggy catch up to do.

On Memorial day we took the boys strawberry picking at one of our most favorite places here in Maryland. I didn’t get too many pictures, but we came home with about 8 pounds of strawberries. And it was AWESOME.

It was a little wet out, but there were still lots of berries to pick and I think it helped keep the crowds away. It warmed up by the time we left, but that’s when all the people started driving in, so I’m glad we went when we did.

We found lots of yummy ones! I was pleasantly surprised and impressed that Spencer didn’t eat every single berry he picked. Both boys were pretty good about getting them into the box ;)

I then spent the rest of the week eating strawberry spinach salad and making strawberry popsicles. I love berry picking season!! :)