Happy Birthday Bryce!

Friday was Bryce's birthday. It was a pretty good day. I got up early, at like 6am, to make him breakfast. And believe me, that is early for me. I like my sleep. :) And Spencer usually sleeps until 8 most mornings...so that's when I wake up too. I know, I'm spoiled. He's a great baby. Aaanyway, I tried a recipe from My Kitchen Cafe for holiday morning buns. Bryce enjoyed them, so it was worth it. We went out to lunch with my family which was nice. I unfortunately had to work that night, so Bryce and Spencer got to hang out at home by themselves.

But on Saturday night we got to go out on a date in celebration of the big day. Bryce got to "choose" the restaraunt. There isn't a lot of selection here though. And we went to like 4 different places before we found one that we figured was worth the money and the wait. And it was pretty good. Then we got ice cream from Braums and watched "Get Smart". We have watched it before, but it's been a while so we decided to watch it again (since we couldn't get Amelia from any of the redboxes in town). It is a good one. Bryce was quoting it for like an hour after we watched it. It's right up his alley. What would we even do without Bryce in our lives?! Laugh a lot less...that's for sure. :) So it was a great week-end and we are definitely glad Bryce was born 27 years ago.

I didn't take any pictures of anything...but don't worry. I will be adding a few random pictures and maybe even a video of Spencer later.

Valentines!

A little update on the status of our lives. Bryce heard back from all of the PA schools he applied to. He didn't get into two of them and is on the alternate list for one. It may be June before we hear back for sure (hopefully it would be sooner than that!) but we are back to trying to decide what to do and not really having a definite plan. Which I hate...but I'll get over it. And we will eventually figure it out.

So other than getting our final letter from PA schools, this week has been a great week for us as far as mail goes. Spencer got two packages this week! And it was so exciting. The first was from Grandma Barbara (Bryce's mom)! She sent us a card and some candy...which obviously Spencer absolutely loved!


Spencer enjoying the candy from Grandma Barbara. I had to limit him to eating only one piece a day. Otherwise he would've eaten it all in one sitting. He must get that from his mom...

And then today he got another package from his cousins Ben, Grace, Breeny, and Jillian!


Opening his package from the Richards.


He loved the whistle! It was such a cute idea and Spencer really loved it. Thanks Aunt Jessica! (and Ben, Grace, Breeny, and Jilly!)

We also made some Valentines Day sugar cookies this week. I made a cookie for Bryce and Spencer with their names on it. Spencer has been loving all the sugar he's been getting!


He mostly enjoyed the frosting. When that was all gone, he just smashed the cookie and threw it on the floor.

And Bryce obviously thought it was a little weird I put his name on a cookie...but secretly he really loved it.

I have a ton of cute videos that I could upload here, but I'm limiting it to only two. I have a lot more videos of Spencer than I have pictures. It's just easier to video him than chase him around trying to take a good picture...and taking like 50 bad ones and getting only 1 good one!

Enjoying his whistle from his cousins:

Giving kisses to the camera: (you'll probably want to skip the first few seconds, he was a little fussy and no one wants to hear that!)

(the video isn't working...will upload later)

Spencer is such a sweet baby! And I can't believe it but I don't really think I can call him a baby anymore. He is getting so big so fast! One thing that he has been doing lately is that he says "yeah" to everything...even if you ask him if he smells like poop or if he wants a spanking. He still says "yeah!"

Marshmallows

How many marshallows can Spencer stuff in his mouth? I think I counted eight. But...Bryce said he went crazy stuffing them in his mouth when he first dumped them out and then he had to run upstairs and grab the camera...so my guess is it was a lot more than eight!

Keep on Keeping On

It is almost the end of January. And 2010 has been a pretty good year for us so far. Bryce has had three interviews for PA school and we should be hearing back from them within the next few weeks! He keeps busy otherwise with work and watching Spencer when he gets home from work. I got a job in the evenings at a hotel in town and so Bryce is usually all alone at night with Spence. I think they both enjoy their male bonding time together. =) And they usually come visit me and bring me dinner which is nice. My work is pretty slow and so I've been working on filling my recipe box with new recipes! I have a lot of time to look at blogs and food blogs are probably my favorite.
At least right now. As soon as my recipe box is full I'll have to find another project to keep me busy.

Spencer is almost 16 months old now! He is getting so big and has such a great little personality. He "talks" all the time. We of course can't understand him, but he acts like he's really got something important to say. He gets a kind of serious/mean look on his face. We were at the store the other day and he was talking to some lady and she said "He looks like he's telling me off!" And it does...but he's really very sweet.


This was after Christmas when we had a ton of snow. Spencer wasn't too happy about it at the time. And we are actually getting more snow today! School is closed and Bryce is coming home from work early...snow is a big deal around here.


Spencer has always been a little wheezy, sometimes it's not so bad and sometimes it's a little worse. Well, after Christmas it got really bad. We took him in to see Uncle Ryan and he said he thought it was RSV. So we got some medicine and a machine to do breathing treatments to take home. His first few experiences with getting a breathing treatment were fairly traumatic. But he got used to it and he would sit pretty still as long as the TV was on. Here is Aunt Jenny helping him. He is doing much better now though and is breathing even better than he was before he got sick! He's hardly every wheezy.


My Aunt Julie has a train that she left at our house for Spencer to play with. And he loves it! It is a little frustrating for me though. We go down to set up a train track and as soon as I get a few tracks together he is pulling them apart, stepping on them, or picking up/blocking the trains. I am pretty sure I am more excited to set up a track and watch the train than he is...or maybe it just drives me crazy spending all that time figuring out how to set up the best track and then watching it get destroyed before I finish? I usually have to sit him on the couch, then set up the track really fast, watch it go around at least once, and then I'll let him down to play/destroy it. It keeps us both entertained for a while. =)


Spencer finally got to go out and see the horses at my aunt and uncles land. I wasn't there to see his reaction, but I hear he really enjoyed it. Doesn't he look so small next to that gigantic horse's head? He seems to love animals. It will be fun to take him to the zoo once the weather warms up.

New Year

The holidays are over and we are home and getting back into our regular routine again. For Christmas this year we drove to Utah to spend time with Bryce's family. And yes, we drove! All 17 hours there and back. I was really afraid of how Spencer would handle it but he did really well, much better than we expected. My parents got us a DVD player for the car for Christmas which we received before our drive. I don't think it would have gone as well without it, so we were really grateful for their present! Spencer watched way to much TV during out visit because not only did we drive all the way out there, but we were always in the car for 20-30 minutes to drive somewhere else.

While we were in Utah we were able to go to a few of the family parties Bryce's family always has. In the nativity at one of the parties Spencer was a shepherd? Or some kind of animal? I'm still not really sure what he was...Bryce told me he was one of the shepherds but he looked more like an animal. Not that he really participated though. He was too busy going up and down, and up and down, and up and down the stairs!

Spencer during the nativity.

We were also able to eat dinner and then see the lights on temple square with Bryce's dad and Suzette which was really nice. It was an extremely cold and busy night on temple square so we didn't walk around for too long. And Spencer was exhausted. He was pretty exhausted the entire trip. We were always up a little later and he didn't get as many naps because we were busy going places and doing things. He fell asleep in the stroller almost as soon as we put him in. And here is the proof:

All bundled up in his warm coat.

On Christmas Eve we spent the night with Sharayne (Bryce's sister) and her family. They were so nice to invite us to stay. Spencer had fun opening presents and playing with everyone's toys. He had to play with everyone else's because I didn't want to actually open his toy because I knew we'd end up losing a piece. I know, what a mean mom right?!

Here we are Christmas morning!

Spencer has a serious obsession with getting into boxes.

Example #1: and this box was from Kylee's present...not Spencer's. We did not get him a Hello Kitty gumball machine.


Example #2

We were really glad we were able to spend the holiday in Utah with family. And we made it back to Oklahoma safely even with all the blizzards in the midwest.

We still got to spend some time with my family that came to visit in Oklahoma. My brothers, John and Paul, were home and my older sister Jessica and her family stayed for a few days. We basically traded places with my little sister Chelsea and so only got to see them for a few hours before we left for Utah. But Spencer had a lot of fun playing with all of his cousins. I took too many pictures of Spencer playing with Olivia and Aislee. I just thought they were so cute together! haha.

Sunday dinner. This is the easiest and most efficient way to feed/clean the children.

Bath time!

It was so fun to see everyone. We tried to take a picture of all the grandkids since this is the first time they have all been together. It was quite an experience. Thanks to photoshop we ended up with a pretty decent picture of them.

And this is the last picture I promise. This is how I found Spencer one morning. We finally figured out that Bryce must have had a pen in his shirt pocket when he put Spencer down for bed and it somehow ended up in the crib with Spencer. He drew all over his face and his sheets. Thankfully he didn't poke his eye out, although judging from the pen marks on his face he came pretty close.

Holidays

It's been a little while since we've posted...long enough that I was reprimanded by my little sister Jenny for not updating the blog enough. It is getting more difficult to take pictures of Spencer which is probably why our posts are fewer and farther between. He is either walking all over and won't stop long enough for a picture or if he sees the camera he wants it and comes to attack me until I give it to him or put it away.

But we have been doing well and staying pretty busy lately. We stayed in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. My parents went to Arizona to see my brothers new baby Ewen over the holiday, so we had a Thanksgiving dinner by ourselves. I had a lot of fun cooking everything and we all had fun eating it! Bryce helped "cook" by entertaining Spencer which was very helpful.

Spencer enjoying our Thanksgiving feast.

Spencer is growing and getting into everything! He is walking all over the place and learning lots of new tricks. Here is his latest:

He loves to put his finger in things...his nose, my nose, his binky, any little hole he can find. He also really likes to poke his eyes and hit himself in the face. I don't like when he does this and so usually try to stop him but apparently that just makes it even funnier.

He also loves to throw his hands up and walk around in circles.

He does lots of funny things. He is a great baby. He is a great sleeper too! He sleeps all night these days and usually just plays in his crib until we come get him in the morning. And he loves to go outside. It has been getting pretty cold here lately. We went on a little walk this afternoon and I bundled him up in his big coat.


Spencer all bundled up and ready to explore!

Tonight we went to a Christmas party for Bryce's work. It was a lot of fun and Santa even came to celebrate with everyone! Spencer was not too fond of Santa though...he hated him in fact.


I'm sure Spencer will like Santa once he figures out that is who brings him his presents on Christmas!

First Steps!

Spencer took his first steps tonight!



We are pretty excited for him right now, but I'm sure as he gets better and is harder to chase after and can get into more trouble we won't be as excited. =)