Happy 6th Birthday Spencer!

 

 

Spencer is getting so big, it is hard to believe he is 6 years old.  He is the age that Zach was when Brian and I were married.  He is a fantastic older brother, and a great helper. 

 

For his birthday we all went bowling.  We went with Brian's family (that is Brian's younger bro Steve with Kaden) and Andrea.  Spencer loved it! 
I realized that I haven't taken too many pictures of me this pregnancy.  The baby is due to come in a week, so hopefully I can get some preg. pictures up before then. 

Nana and Bampa

 

 

 

My parents came to visit at the end of January into the beginning of February.  The kids loved it!  We love having them visit us. 

Catch up...

 

 

 

So I have been very behind this year.  I do have a good excuse though...I'm making a baby.  5 more weeks to go, and it can't come soon enough.  So these pictures are from January.  The first picture is of Three Kings day.  This is our second year celebrating it.  Some people do presents on this day, but we do a "cake"  (it was banana bread baked in a bunt pan) with a coin hidden in it and then whoever finds the coin gets to wear the crown.  And then we read about the wise men coming to Jesus. 
It is very simple, but the kids like it.  So we will continue to do it until they grow out of it... :( 
Addy got a tea set from Grandma for Christmas and it is so fun to see all the kids playing together.  Spencer usually takes charge and loves to direct...boss...everyone in their play.  They go through spirts, for a week or so they played tea party, then it morphed into restaurant, now it has moved on to fort building.  So right now our living room is a mess of blankets, pillows, baskets and chairs...everyday this week so far.  I try to keep my eyes on above the mess whenever I walk through the living room.  This is hard especially when I have to look down all the time so that I don't trip...my big belly has affected my graceful ability to walk. 
Near the middle of the month we had a fun visit from Brian sister, Michelle and her husband Jared...and the "new" (to us) baby, Ezra.  He is so cute and smiley.  We love him! The kids enjoyed him too, especially Addy.  She loves babies.  We miss our cousins when they are away from us.  Hopefully someday we will be able to have cousins closer.  There are still more January pictures to come.   Hopefully I can get all caught up before the baby comes.   

Construction workers

For Christmas Spencer and Kaden both got tool belts and a hammer...a real hammer. 

They LOVE them.  On Christmas morning Kaden built a truck and Spencer built a bird house.  They were able to do this with very little help from us. 

A few weeks ago Spencer started dragging scrap wood from the garage and carrying it into the back yard to "build a house."  He had them all lined up and then nailed the pieces together.   It was very stable but he loved doing it.

I also bought them some scrap wood at a hobby store.  With these pieces they made a box (which I don't have a picture of).  With the left over pieces they practiced their hammering skills.  The above picture is Spencer's piece.  He did these completely on his own.   And then Kaden practiced as well.  He doesn't quite have the strength to hammer the nails all the way in yet.  But he loves it still. 

I can't wait to do more stuff with them and have them learn how to use more tools. 

Christmas Craft

 

 

 

 

For a yummy Christmasy craft we made ice cream snowmen.  The only down thing is that you have to build it really fast because otherwise you have snowman soup.  We had fun making and eating our creations. 

Snowy Afternoon

We had our first "big" snow storm today.  We probably got a couple inches.  Here is how crazy Colorado weather is:  This week it has been in the 50's, today it was in the low 20's, and the rest of this week will be in the 40's and 50's. 








I am excited for the snow, it hasn't felt like Christmas without it.  And hopefully there will be snow on Christmas Eve.  (If the weather people are right, which they rarely are.) 











So today we have stayed inside and done fun cozy winter fun things.  Like...potty training. I keep resisting, but Addy keeps asking. 















Fort building.  They do this pretty much everyday, but it also makes a good snow day activity.










Marshmallow fights.  Spencer was Samuel the Lamanite and Kaden was stoning him.  :)













Rice Crispie Treat making.  We will be experimenting with rice crispie treat houses this year instead of Graham Cracker houses.


And the best part is, after I cut the shapes we get to eat the scrapes!

Our Christmas Tree

I sometimes wish I was a better photographer then I am...I would have loved to put a picture of our tree all decorated up, I still might, but the pictures are not good at all.  We went to a small tree farm to get our tree this year.  The kids loved it.  Although Spencer was not okay with the hayride.  We carried him on crying.  The ride lasted about 5 minutes at most, they were just driving everyone down to the far end of the farm.  I'm glad we made him get on because then he realized that it was fun.