Spencer Unsupervised!

I was nursing Russell in the living room and couldn't see around the wall from the couch to the table to notice that Spencer had filled up his paper and had moved on to coloring himself. This has been a problem before and he has been off limits from markers for about 6 months. I thought he was old enough to color the right way and he assured me he wouldn't color on himself. Don't believe the promises of a three year old boy--he might end up with a beard and double sleeve tattoos!

I am sure it doesn't help kids learn when you are smiling and taking pictures of their "naughty" act. I just had to capture this little moment! :)

Giants/Diamondbacks Baseball Game

We left Russell with Grandma and Grandpa Willman, and took Aliyah and Spencer to the Diamondbacks game when they were playing the San Francisco Giants. It was quite an adventure, but we had fun. The kids had a hard time sitting for the whole game, so we did lots of walking around, ate A LOT of treats, and went to the stadiums really cool kids section. They have a playground where they got to play and a mini baseball diamond where kids can practice batting. Both had long lines but it was fun for them to do. Aliyah is actually pretty good at hitting a ball--she loves playing ball at home and plays catch and does "batting practice" often with Bill. Bill enjoyed seeing his Giants win and seeing Hunter Pence hit a grand slam. We lucked out and went on fireworks night. We weren't sure if the kids would be able to make it that long or if the fireworks would scare Spencer, but they loved it.

Aliyah Turned 6!!!

Aliyah turned 6 on September 10th. She got to bring treats into her classmates at school. Then we had Aftin's parents come over for cinnamon rolls (Aliyah's choice). She got a new bike and loves it. She asks to ride bikes most nights after dinner. (We took video and no pics of the bike riding--we'll post pics of the bike soon.) She wanted to have a birthday party for her friends at the park, so we planned one for October when it would be a bit cooler.

More Baby Russ

Russell at 5 Weeks

 Russell at 6 Weeks

Spencer's First Day of Joyschool

I have joined up with three other moms of newly turned three year olds to have a little Joyschool Class. Luckily for Spencer two of the three other kids are Spencer's "best friends". I taught the first week, and it actually went ok--thanks to my sister Amber who was my assistant. Of course I didn't have their full attention most of the time, but we made it through and they had fun. Spencer had a bit of a hard time listening and following directions, but I am assuming that is since it was at his house with his mom teaching. 

Below are a bunch of pics I took before the first day of school. It just shows off some of Spencer's personality--always being silly and trying to be funny.

Also, Spencer is under the impression that boys don't comb their hair and resists, often violently, me combing his hair. (I have to admit that this is probably because I have never really done his hair. It is wavy and so it usually has that "controlled messy look" that is "cool" these days just on its own.) I try to spray it down and comb it for church and big events. It was looking beyond a cool messy look on this morning and I wanted it to look nice for his first day picture. It took about 10 minutes of him running away from me and me trying to convince him to let me comb his hair. I got it combed a few times in there, but he would just mess it up a second later. I told him that he could mess it up right after the pictures but he had to have his hair combed. He finally agreed. And even after 5 minutes of pictures....he remembered! And messed his hair up as we walked back in the front door!

Spencer's Third Birthday

For about the last month Spencer has been talking about his birthday. He has had it all planned out: a batman birthday party with Canon (his cousin), Nathan, and "la-la-la" (aka Gabriella) and Grandma Willman was going to make the cake. (We go to Aftin's parents often on Sunday's and Grandma usually makes a cake if anyone had a birthday that week.There were a lot of summer birthdays, and so now Spencer was under the impression that Grandma is the one who makes birthday cakes.) He would talk about his party "plan" multiple times a day. He was so excited about his birthday party--it was adorable. So I made sure we planned the party when this three invitees could make it and Bill and I hunted down Batman party decor.

On Spencer's actual birthday (September 1st), we went to Costco for dinner, Chick-Fil-A for ice cream sundaes and to play on the playground (its still way too hot to go to a park), and came home and watched The Muppet Movie. We reserved the cake and presents for the next day when we invited Aftin's family over for a birthday celebration.

Here are pictures of the family party. Spencer loved all his Batman decorations, and loved getting his presents even more. We got him a Cars lunchbox and some superhero t-shirts. We also got him a Cars bike which he is excited about. Now we just need good weather so we can go for bike rides.

On Monday, we invited his friends over for yet another party. (Spencer got spoiled this year!) The kids had fun playing in the water and licking frosting off cupcakes. I am pretty sure Spencer's birthday dreams were fulfilled this year.

4 Weeks Old