Random Family Pics

Big Smiles!

He is now smiling all the time. He loves to interact with people. When we get in his face and talk to him and tickle his cheeks or tummy he gives a huge smile with his whole body--his cheeks get big, his eyes squint, he rolls his head around, and his arms and legs just start moving all around. It is soooo cute!

Ready for Church

I just love little boys in sweater vests. Although he is a bit sad in this picture (Sunday mornings aren't the best time of the week for us), I think his outfit is adorable.

Spencer loves his daddy and his daddy loves him!

Princess Aliyah
She loves to dress up. She is constantly changing her clothes, probably at least 10 times a day, really.

Spencer is always holding his hands together like this...its cute!

My 27th Birthday!

It was a good day. Thanks to my fam for the great gifts--an awesome new skillet, a weekend of Aliyah babysitting (from my sister...thanks Ash!), a new magazine, and a new camera. Wow! Am I in my late 20's now???

Aliyah and Spence

Looking at Balloons from our beautiful Arizona backyard. :)

Bill and Spencer

The Kids

Thumb Sucker

We have a thumbsucker!!! Although I think it is sooo adorable and it is very convenient (he can calm himself down and no searching for missing binkys or having to keep putting it back in when it comes out) I just see us a year or two down the road struggling to lose the habit. Although ditching the binky is hard, at least I can control that. I would just hate to have him sucking his thumb in school. So we are trying to prevent it, by pulling his hand out and replacing with a binky, but he just won't take the binky. We've tried a few different styles still with no luck. Hopefully one day it will take, or at least he'll get over the thumb sucking.

Aliyahs Photography

Aliyah loves to take pcitures. Think she has any talent as a photographer?

Halloween Time

Aliyah has been excited for Halloween for a long time because it meant she could wear her Cinderella dress again. I had been saving it for the Princess Ball and Halloween.

However, last weekend she went to a birthday party where as part of a treasure hunt, the birthday girl's 11-year-old uncle jumped out at the kids with a scary mask. Most of the kids were pretty scared. Aliyah cried and was shaking for the next 30 minutes. Luckily she got over it and was fine.

Then that afternoon we went to Bill's work's Halloween Family Picnic. She saw a boy dressed up in a pretty scary outfit complete with scary mask. He just walked past her and she started screaming hysterically and was so upset and again her whole body was shaking for quite a while. The rest of the day she was so on edge and would freak out for no reason. (It probably didn't help that all she had eaten that day was sugar--fruity pebbles, a cupcake with LOTS of sprinkles, and cotton candy--I couldn't get her to eat anything else with all these treats around.)

After that she was not excited about anything to do with Halloween. She did not want to get even close to her friend's house that had scary decorations.

On Monday, we were carving our pumpkin and she didn't want to do it. She was convinced that there were scary things in it. Luckily we had our neighbors over to carve with us and she saw that their pumpkin wasn't scary and eventually joined in.

Tuesday we had our ward's trunk or treat and she didn't want to go. She sat on our laps or made us hold her during dinner and we barely convinced her to do the trick or treating. She loves treats so much, I was shocked that getting a whole bucket full of treats wasn't making her excited about it. She was so excited to go home.

Then Halloween came around and all day she said she didn't want to go trick-or-treating. I thought maybe she would change her mind towards the evening and especially when she saw people coming to our house collecting candy. But it didn't. So we didn't go trick-or-treating this year. Bill passed out candy, I did laundry, and Aliyah moped around the house whining and being clinging.

Better luck next year, I hope!

Fun With Grandpa Willman

When my sisters and I were little, we loved to "do" my dad's hair putting millions of clips and rubberbands in his hair. One evening a few weeks ago, my parents came over while Aliyah was doing my hair. This reminded my dad of when we were little and he confessed that we were pretty rough when doing his hair and it usually hurt pretty bad, but he would just smile and say he loved it. What a good dad!!! So Aliyah and I did Grandpa's hair and then he in turn did Aliyah's. I am sad I didn't take a picture with his hair all done up, but I did get this cute one with Aliyah and Grandpa.

Spencer is growing...

Spencer is 8 weeks and about 15 pounds. He is definately a growing boy!!! The fun thing now is that he is starting to smile. It takes a lot of work and patience, but he'll give us a smile every once in a while.--and it is such a cute smile. I got a picture of one. It is so hard to catch the full smile in the picture because his smiles are so fast. But soon enough we will have him smiling and giggling all the time.

FIRST SMILES!!!!

Family Update

Spencer is doing well. He is definately a "growing boy." Everyone at church commented on how big he was and was surprised that he is only 6 weeks old. He is getting better with his sleeping schedule--it is still a bit random, but he is at least taking long naps and sleeps for one long stretch (6-8 hours) at night. Now if I only went to bed at the same time he did, I could almost get a full night of uninterrupted sleep--but that rarely happens.

He was so good the first few weeks then started to get to be a big fusser, almost all day. I think the problem was that he was tired and needed to be put down for a true nap, whereas I was still thinking that he would just fall asleep wherever he was when he needed it. Then last week (while I was homebound--our car was in the body shop becuase it had been backed into) I started swaddling him and putting him in his crib and he started taking 2-4 hour naps. It is pretty great, because as a newborn and infant she would only take 2 twenty minute naps a day. The only hard thing is, it puts a little damper on our schedule. Aliyah and I love to be out doing things, running errands and visiting friends, and we could just go whenever we wanted, but now I am limited by his naps and feedings. But I won't complain--becuase at least he is napping!

Now that he is napping and sleeping better at night, he is much happier. I was thinking that maybe it was something I was eating and tried taking all sorts of things out of my diet. I was thinking that dairy and chocolate (my two favorite food group) might be the culprit, but I think it was the tiredness.

Although he is happier, he still wants to be held all the time--he gets fussy if I put him down for too long and the swing and bouncy seat don't keep him occupied very long. But at least I can keep him generally happy--I just don't get much done around the house.

Aliyah is doing well. She loves her brother and expresses it way too dangerously. She is always, smashing or pulling or hitting him. It is all because she wants to help him or love him or play with him, but it is still scary and frustrating. She is 3 and definately acts like it. She has a big attitude all the time, but can still be sweet and caring. She is a social butterfly and assumes that every child is her friend. Any time we go to the park or a store or just walking down the street, and she sees another child her age she shouts "Theres my friend mom." And wants to play with him or her. A few days ago we met our neighbors a few houses down that have a 3 year old boy and 3 month old girl. Cody is now her new best friend.

Spencer and Aliyah

Here pictures of Aliyah and Spencer both at similar angles. I think their features look very similar, but somehow have a pretty different overall look. (It could be the age difference...)

Aliyah 2 weeks

Spencer 4 weeks

One Month Old!

Spencer was one month on Thursday! Wow, times flies by. It makes me a bit sad knowing that he won't be little forever. Here are some pics from the last few days!