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.

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Happy Birthday Spencer! We spent the holidays in California this year, so we got to do a little early morning celebration with Spencer's mom.

He had a little help from Sydney opening his presents :)

Spencer had some fun building that giant Lego tower the night before while the rest of us were watching How To Train Your Dragon.

Happy #28 honey! We love you!

Changes...Big Ones

This past week has been a doozy. I have been sick for what feels like 382,347,293 years.... it morphed from a sore throat, to losing my voice, to coughing/runny nose/upset stomach, then to a massive headache last night. I took my first ever sick day last Friday, and luckily have had snow days both yesterday and today. This is Spencer's first week of break, so he's been a champion at taking care of Sydney so I can sleep. And now here we are on Tuesday, and I finally feel like I'm on the up and up.

Last Tuesday when I lost my voice, I still went to work even though I probably shouldn't have. Almost all of my kids (even the 1st and 2nd graders) gave me some sort of tip like, "You should try to cough," or, "You should get a drink of water," or, "Maybe you should try to clear your throat." Totally cracked me up. During my lunch break, I talked to Spencer and he told me he'd forwarded me an email he's gotten from his detailer telling us possible billets that were available for when we go on active duty. We had a list of 5 to choose from (we didn't really even expect to get a choice), and we were freaking out that Okinawa, Japan was an option!

We felt like it was an opportunity that we didn't want to pass up, even though it's brutally far away. It only took a day between us telling the detailer we wanted Japan and him saying that we were a "go." We'll be moving out there sometime in the early summer, and we'll be there for 3 years. At this point, it all very surreal.

Several people that I've told have already sent me links to other friend's blogs who were stationed out there, or have told me about other people who lived there and loved it. Being able to read about other people's positive experiences has been so nice. We are grateful, excited, and nervous to see what life will be like on the other side of the world! I'm sure it will help that Okinawa just so happens to be a tropical paradise :)

Holy Snow!

Ironically, we had a lake effect snow advisory from Saturday until Tuesday night at 7pm. I thought that might mean a snow day for me, but no such luck. Then today (Wednesday) came and WHAM! it snowed nonstop all day. I've been sick with a sore throat/generally crappy feeling since the weekend, then lost my voice on Tuesday, and now have a cough, so I felt like those were all good reasons to not go outside to shovel the driveway. So before dinner, Spencer and Sydney suited up to go clear the snow (in the dark, no less!).

Sydney was happy to show off her monkey gloves for the camera. I was happy her snow pants from last year still fit!

Spencer was trying to help her hold her own "shovel," which was difficult because she doesn't quite know how to get her thumbs into her mittens.

About 10 minutes after they went outside, I went into the basement and Spencer opened the garage door and yelled, "Sydney needs to go potty!" Of course, she had to pee after I put like 30 layers of clothes on her. Needless to say, we didn't make it.