The Last Few Months

We were without a camera for several weeks because Spencer took it to school, so we had to make do with capturing cute/funny moments on his phone. The quality of these pictures aren't the best, but they're better than nothing.

One evening when we went to Chipotle for dinner, Spencer and I were talking while Sydney was digging through my purse. The next thing we knew, she had shoved like 3 pieces of gum in her mouth. She's obviously not allowed to have gum, but we thought it was funny enough to take a picture.

Showing off her loot.

Family picture on the couch- I think Spencer was trying to show off his crazy hair.

Sydney is slightly obsessed with the missionaries (who she refers to as the "mishamerries"). When the Sisters came over one night for dinner, we snapped a quick picture of her with them.

Another day, Spencer was napping on the couch and Sydney was playing with her toys. Apparently she decided Spencer needed to play with her, and she started giving him some of her toys.

I thought that was kind of hilarious.

On March 12, I celebrated my 28th birthday. Yikes!

I got another lovely serenade from Spencer, and Sydney helped me blow out the candles.

I think we maybe even lit them a second time so she could do it twice.

Thanks to Spencer, I had these pretty purple roses in my kitchen for the next few weeks.

Sydney's hair continues to grow like a weed! She usually doesn't want me to do it, and I usually comply because she tends to rip her ponytails out these days. There have been a few Sundays that I've managed to keep her busy enough so I could braid her hair, and it makes her look like such a big kid!

Sometimes she prefers to wear headbands, and of course she insists on putting them on herself.

She is quite the independent girl, this one.

Thankfully, we have had quite a few sunny days lately. That means we get to play outside with our neighbors, which is one of Sydney's favorite things to do. Usually the first thing she says to me when we get out is, "Mom, I need my car."

And so she can ride in style, she'll also request her phone and sunglasses.

When Addie and Jakie get out their cars, it's pretty entertaining to watch their little brigade drive up and down the street.

Dental Formal

Last Saturday we went to a Dental Formal at the Galleria in downtown Cleveland. Spencer originally wasn't too keen on going, but I felt like it would be a fun way to celebrate the end of our 4th year of dental school. Once I told him lots of our friends were going, it wasn't hard to sway him.

Spencer & me

We got to take silly pictures in a photo booth, eat a yummy dinner, laugh with friends- especially about Adam's upside down smiles, and shake our booties on the dance floor. I felt a little silly about the dancing part (nothing like seeing a pregnant girl dancing to rap music), but it was fun to be at a dance where I wasn't a chaperon (read: Stake Dances).

Justin & Stacey (with Peterson & Aster posing in the background...nice.)

Pete & Brittany

Hollie & Adam

The girls.

Here we are right before we all left to pick up our kids from our various babysitters. It seemed like 10:40 pm snuck up on us really quickly. We had a great time!

Holy Cannoli!

We are having a baby boy!

I can hardly believe it, but the evidence on the screen during the ultrasound was pretty clear. I was mentally, emotionally, and physically prepared for another girl, so I feel like a boy is such a surprise! Spencer is so excited to have a son, and I'm so excited that we'll have one of each. Hooray!!

Temple Trip

Last weekend, we tried to take advantage of the ward temple trip, but the session we wanted to get in was full. Luckily, there was room in the Friday night session, and thanks to the kindness of Nonnie and Dan we had a place nearby to spend the night.

My Mom was nice enough to come over to help watch Sydney, then spent the night too since she had to work the next day. She said Sydney was good (especially since she was occupied for a full 20 minutes eating cake and ice cream), and she laughed when Sydney tattled that James was "on his feet on the couch!!" since the rule at our house is to sit on her knees or bum. It was nice to stay up late talking and not having to worry about waking up early on Saturday morning.

We had fun playing with cousins, chatting, and, as can always be expected

with Dan around, went to a yummy place for lunch. Before we left on Saturday afternoon, I really wanted to take Sydney over to the temple so she could see it first hand. She's seen tons of pictures, including our wedding pictures, and frequently says, "I see the temple!" when we drive by some of the larger churches around town. So even though she was ready for a nap, we made the effort to let her see a temple in real life.

When we got into the parking lot and told her we were at the temple, she said, "You gonna get married Mommy?" I thought that was really cute.

Not the best picture of us since the sun was in our faces, but check out that blue sky!

This picture makes me smile. I sure love this little girl.

Spencer was trying to be all artsy fartsy with the camera, and I thought this picture came out really nice.

I didn't have to work on Monday since it was President's day, so we slept in and drove Spencer to school. When we walked outside, everything was totally covered in ice.

Thank goodness we parked our car in the garage. Our poor neighbor Trent was scraping his car for like 30 minutes that morning!

Thank Goodness for Spray 'N Wash!

Sydney went through six pairs of pants today. SIX!! That's totally a record for us (thank goodness- I feel like she goes through clothes super fast as it is!). Here's how it happened:

Pair #1: With freakishly warm temperatures for February, we spent quite a bit of time outside today. After an early prenatal appointment, we took Spencer to school, came home and fished Sydney's bike out of the deep recesses of our garage, then went to see if Addie and Macie wanted to play. I, unfortunately, didn't think to change her footwear from her favorite black dress shoes into her rain boots. The result was mud all over the back of her jeans and her knees.

Pair #2: I put a new pair of pants on her when the girls got too cold and we went into the Barnum's house to play. When Sydney was riding her bike home, she ran over some dog poo. Then she got off of her bike and got it all over her pant leg. Sick.

Pair #3: After we ate lunch, we went upstairs to play. She was sitting on her princess chair, then told me she had to go potty. Turns out she had already peed her pants.

Pair #4: Shortly after Sydney woke up from her nap, we went outside to play some more (cause how can you stay inside when it's 60 degrees outside in the middle of winter?). This time I put on her boots and tried to tuck her pants into them, but she was still all muddy when we came in to make dinner.

Pair #5: She had to go to time out during dinner because she kept standing up in her chair after about 8,239,482 warnings to sit on her knees or bum. This is a big rule for us since she's fallen out of her chair several times in the past few days because she was standing up. After 1 minute in time out, she told me she needed to go potty. I was busy cleaning up the table and told her to wait just a second. Then she peed her pants again.

Pair #6: Lasted the rest of the night until it was time to put on pj's!! Wohoo!!

Happy Valentine's Day (and more)...

Our Valentine's Day this year consisted of work/school (blah), dinner at home, Family Home Evening about the Creation, getting treats in Valentine's mailboxes, and delivering Valentine's to our neighbors.

Sydney was really excited about her treats. I asked her to hold up her treats for the picture, but instead she held up her arm. She has been cracking us up lately with her singing, funny comments, and occasionally using our first names (e.g. "Spence, stop kicking the ball!").

Since I've been a terrible blogger lately, I thought I'd throw in this picture to show Syd all ready to go out in the snow to help Daddy shovel.

We've had quite a bit of snow in the past few months- I've had 4 snow days off from school so far! Luckily, this week has been a bit warmer and some of the snow is melting. I'm sure another storm will come along to replace it, but it's nice to have a break from the really, really, ridiculously cold weather.

Something else we're looking forward to:

Finding out if baby #2 is a boy or girl. Our families have known since around Christmastime, and I recently announced it at church, work, and on Facebook. I'm 16 weeks along and have an appointment this week, so I'm expecting to schedule the "big" ultrasound sometime in the next few weeks!

Merry Christmas

Since we went to California for Christmas, we did some pre-Christmas festivities at our house before we flew out.

First we were just going to open our big presents that we wouldn't be able to take on the plane, but opening them was so much fun that we decided to keep going.

Sydney's main loot: a princess sleeping bag, a cash register, and a tent with a tunnel.

The cash register was a huge hit. She even asked if she could take her "present" to bed with her.

Our flight to Cali was full of mishaps, including:

• almost missing our flight because the line to check baggage was SOOOO long.
• having our connecting flight to Sacramento cancelled. Since Barbara just picked us up in San Francisco, our luggage was sort of "lost" for 3 days until the located it and flew it to the Modesto airport.
• borrowing clothes and unmentionables from family members.
• me tearing one of my contact the morning after we got there. Since my glasses were in my suitcase, I went for 2 days just wearing 1 contact.

Some of our favorite things were:

Enjoying all of the yummy treats that Grandma B. made!

Licking the batter from the mixer after I made a birthday cake for Grandma B.

Spending lots of time with cousins!

Helping Grandma blow out the candles on her cake.

(Note: The cake was transported to Sarah's house in the car with foil on it, and some of the frosting stuck to it. Not much I could do to save it...)

Christmas Eve in the barn at Uncle Ron and Aunt Stephanie's house.

Left to Right: Becky, Porter, Mason, Maren, Ally, Taylor, McKay, Jacob, & Spencer.

Sydney referred to Porter as "Port," and every time we saw him she asked me if she could hold him (which is how she says she wants someone to hold her). So funny, especially because Porter kept claiming that he didn't really know how to hold kids. I just handed her to him one time, and he put out his arms and held her like a baby. She didn't let him hold her for long :)

Playing Christmas songs with chimes.

Having Sydney carry song folders back and forth from me to Uncle Ron- that entertained her for a good 15 minutes.

Christmas morning!!

Sydney was so excited to open presents!

This was one of the best prizes in her stocking- a sucker from Santa Clause. I think she associates Santa with suckers because she met him at a ward party and was completely terrified of him until he gave her a sucker.

Ashley & Ally. All the girls got the same pj set, and the boys got the same pajama pants.

Lookin' good, even at 8am.

It always goes so fast! We had a great time visiting our family and enjoyed escaping the snow for a few weeks.