Catch Up

So we didn't have such a great week last week around here, but the bright side was that Jake got to come home for a few days. It happened to be good timing since Jake and I have birthdays next week, we got to celebrate a little this weekend. It was nice to see him close to his birthday since we didn't think we would-he's entering his 20's this year just as I'm about to exit them! He's having a tough time adjusting to his new life. Training isn't turning out to be what he thought and he's trying to find his way. It's harder to say goodbye to him knowing that he's heading back to something that isn't making him the happiest right now. Honestly, we're all still trying to adjust to Jake's new life in the Army. No one said it would be a walk in the park for any of us. I just hope he can find the confidence that he needs to believe he's doing the right thing soon.

Jake's visit

My dad and sister came over yesterday to celebrate our birthdays and my dad brought Jake's dog-Lucky-that he hadn't seen in many months. Spencer was quite intrigued with the huge, black dog!

Avery and Spencer showing everyone how neat their new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is:)

Her shirt seriously says it all!

Avery took a break to cuddle with Aunt Cimmy:)

Grandpa lending Spencer a relaxing spot to have a bit of a bottle-he's finally holding his own bottle!!

Jake and his dog:)

The Easter Bunny visited a bit early at our house!

A visit with Uncle Jake wouldn't be complete without playing some Rock Band or Guitar Hero!! Avery is getting really good at singing to the Taylor Swift songs!

Indy...

Last weekend we headed down to Indianapolis to visit Chad, Jamie and Garrett. Artie and I had our first night away from the kids. I had not spent a night without a child since before Avery was born! A big thank you to my in-laws for taking on 3 kids under 3:) And Avery and Spencer had a blast playing with their cousin Garrett:) On Sunday, before we headed back home, we took the kids to the Children's Museum.

So stinkin' cute! Avery was very excited for her first trip to the museum.

This is how the guys and Avery and Garrett got to exit the museum! They had this slide up for their spring break exhibit. For the record, Chad and Garrett won the race-though Artie claimed he didn't know they were racing (yeah right!).

Spencer Space
Spencer loved the area for kids under 2. He had a blast getting out of the stroller and getting to climb around and play with other little kids!

He even busted out his flirting skills:)

Hey, who is that handsome man in the mirror?!

Pulling himself up to look out at the bigger kids playing.

Enjoying some toys to himself and not having to share with Avery!

Big Kid Play
Garrett and Avery spending some time at the sand table.

Blurry because of all of the sunlight, but such a cute thing:)

Brothers and their kids.

Artie liked trying to show Avery all about Star Wars, but I think he's really holding out hope that Spencer will be more excited!

They have a pretty cool little collection of stuff like this and I'm not even a fan of Star Wars-at all.

Now this exhibit was really neat for Avery and I to look at together.

The black and white dress at the end was designed by Nicole Miller...I forget who the other ones were designed by.

Of course we had to try out Avery's makeup artistry skills. She shows promise!

For all my friends who love a great pair of shoes:)

These shoes were pretty great, maybe one day I'll have some Louboutins...

Water table fun...Avery was completely soaked despite wearing an apron-this girl loves water! Her brother wished he could have gotten in on the action too. Spencer has discovered the dog's water bowl and loves to splash in water too!

We had such a wonderful time! Can't wait to go back and check out all that we didn't have time for!

A Loss

Today, we are hurting over the loss of someone that was really special. He considered my siblings and I his grandkids, even though we were technically step-grandchildren. I am so thankful he was healthy enough to make the trip to Indiana from Florida this past Christmas.

I'm so glad he finally got to meet his great-grandchildren while he was home at Christmas. We are so heartbroken and saddened that cancer has taken yet another great person. Grand Dad down south, we will miss you always.

Artie and I with Grand Dad at our wedding. I wanted to share a picture of him how I will remember him looking before he was sick.

Table Food

This girl LOVES chocolate! She self-proclaimed herself last week as a "chocolate-holic"!!

I absolutely love watching these two play together:)

This little guy has mad crawling skills these days, paired with his new ability to pull himself up on anything, I'm constantly chasing him!!

We got Avery a Tinkerbell toy box on clearance last week and the kids had a blast helping daddy put it together...here's Avery contribution:)

...and here's Spencer's-he's more into supervising right now:)!

Did I say how much I love watching my kids play together??!! Spencer has discovered he can crawl all over the house and the place he heads to most is his big sister's room. As Spencer is heading to Avery's room, Avery runs after him telling him to wait for her, then they go and play very peacefully, so far, in her room:)!

TABLE FOOD...This past Saturday, while out for Artie's birthday lunch, Spencer turned down his baby food. He had been starting to want less baby food the last few weeks, but Saturday he really wanted nothing to do with it. Instead he eyed his sister's chicken strips. Well, we decided to try to see if he would eat some if we tore it in small pieces and took the breading off...he not only loved it, he ate a whole one by himself! I can't believe how fast it happened but all of a sudden, Spencer wants table food and is doing pretty well with it. However, I did have a scary moment with him this morning. It involved a clump of cheerios and me giving Spencer the heimlich. I think it will take awhile for me to give Spencer any cheerios when I'm with him by myself, every mother's nightmare. After the both of us being pretty scared for about an hour, Spencer bounced back...mommy, on the other hand, is still trying to recover!

Eating some avocado chunks...he wasn't too thrilled with these.

Making himself very comfortable while enjoying some formula:)

Eating chicken and green beans for dinner the other night! He is going to take after Avery and love chicken!

Check this out! Tonight, we gave Spencer his sippy and he just started drinking the diluted juice like he had been doing it forever (this was his first time actually drinking anything from one!). Artie and I could not believe it! Spencer has just turned a switch in the last few days and has really found table food and his sippy to be more interesting than ever!

In Avery news, she continues to be a great big sister and is loving that her little brother can actually interact with her more. Avery is also counting and singing her ABC's (I'll really have to try and get some video of it)! She also likes to talk on the phone. She loves talking to Uncle Jake about him taking her to the PX-she went to the PX once in Oklahoma and now talks about it constantly!-and playing Rock Band with her:) I know I can't slow down how fast my babies are growing, so I'm just trying to take everything in and enjoy every second with them!

Happy 3-1!

Happy 31st to my husband today! This is the 14th birthday I've gotten to celebrate with him, yes, if you do the math that means we've been together since he was 17:)

This is from his 30th, but this year it was the same restaurant and a sombrero (though today it was a blue hat)...

So, happy birthday to the father of our little princess

And our little miracle man (look at all that dark hair Spencer was born with!!)...

This birthday was much different than the first one I celebrated with you when you were just 18. I can't wait to spend many more birthdays and life changes with you. Here's to another year older to my best friend. I love you:)

Can you stay my little man?

Spencer turned 9 months a week and a half ago; I can't believe we are getting to the point of thinking about his 1st birthday! It seems like he is growing by leaps and bounds every single day. I keep having talks with him that mommy wants him to stay her little man as long as possible since he's my last baby, but he has other plans:) He had his 9 mo. check up last week. Things went okay. It seemed like more of the appointment was discussing the negatives rather than positives, but I guess that's what you go to the doctor for! Spencer is now weighing in at just over 19 1/2 lbs and is 27 1/2 inches long. His head circ went from the 50th percentile to the 90th since his 6 mo. check up. She was slightly concerned about the jump, but hopefully it will stable by his next appointment. I think he's just going to have a big head:)

We also had to have a chat about his heart valve that still hasn't closed, but it went from 2-3 mm to 1-2 mm (at his last echo in Nov.) so we're hoping that it's on its way to closing on its own (it was also his 3rd appointment that she hadn't heard his murmur, so that's an excellent sign!)-we have the option of having a cardiologist monitor it until-or if- it closes, but I think we're just going to wait until he's maybe 18 months old and have a repeat echo. The last concern was he had an infection on his belly right on his incision scar. It is most likely from a stitch from his surgery that didn't dissolve and is trying to come through. He's been on an antibiotic for the last week and it's seemed to clear up a bit. His doctor said if it comes back or doesn't completely clear we have to go back to the surgeon-fingers crossed we don't have to!!

The funny thing about this check up was all the stuff he wasn't doing before that he started doing literally the second we got home! He must have heard the doctor and I talking about him not doing things like pulling himself up to stand (at that point he was only to his knees) or saying things like mamama or dadada and decided he could do those things! The second we got home from the appointment, I put him down on the floor and he pulled himself up to a standing position for the first time! Then the next day he started saying dadada, followed by mamama a few days later! I didn't think he'd try to walk as soon as Avery (10 mo.), but now I'm starting to wonder if he won't be close behind. He has even started scooting his feet when he's pulled himself up. Slow down Spencer!!

One thing about Spencer that's very different from Avery is eating. Avery was exclusively on a sippy by 9 months and completely on table food at 10 months. Spencer is not even close. He won't even hold his own bottle yet-forget about a sippy! Food wise, he's plenty happy with his oatmeal, baby food (no chunks) and formula. However, I have been trying to replace his beloved puffs with soft veggies and fruits every now and then so he gets some texture. He may take a few bites for now, so it's progress! Here he had baked potato and kraft singles for the first time:)

His absolute favorite thing right now, and he is so proud of himself! He's trying so hard to keep up with his big sister that he's wearing himself out fast during the day, still taking a morning and afternoon nap!

He even tries to pull himself up on the dog!

Bath time! I've been sad that Spencer's getting so big he can actually hold his own in the tub with Avery without the ducky tub! I sure loved that tub, but seeing my two babies splash and laugh together during bath time is even better!

And just because I thought they were really pretty...we had an open house this weekend and I love to have fresh flowers in our kitchen for some color and a fresh smell. We got these at Sam's Club and they are just beautiful! Maybe they'll bring us some luck in selling the house??!!

Enjoy the week:)