Miscellaneous

1. I've been pondering lately about hope.  All of the sudden it dawned on me that the reason we should have hope in any situation isn't because is will change the outcome--but because it will improve our quality of life in the present.  Duh, right?  I'm not quite sure why this just dawned on me all of the sudden--it's not like there's anything I'm hopeless about right now, but I'll just tuck away that little nugget for when I need it next.

2.  I'm sort of done feeling guilty for "slacking" in some areas of my life.  This just dawned on me last night.  We've sort of had a rough past couple of weeks, with reasons including, but not limited to: Spencer cutting four teeth, Landon pushing every single button I have, BK having some busy work days because co-workers were out of town, me not feeling 100% since my children have been waking up several times a night each night for the past two weeks and then deciding to wake up for the day at 5:45am, Spencer throwing up, Landon having a cough--I could go on, but I'll stop.  I've been a little flaky in some other areas of life, and I was sort of beating myself up about it, and then I said to myself  "Amy, knock it off.  Your family is your very first priority, and that's where your focus needs to be right now."  Again, DUH, right?  Most of the time our life is pretty chill, and I have plenty of time to get plenty of other things done, but the past two weeks have just been survival mode for us, and that's okay.  It would be different if I was sitting around doing nothing all day, but I don't.  It has literally taken every ounce of energy and patience to deal with my children this past couple of weeks, and that's exactly where it should be spent.

3. In related news, my children actually slept in this morning, and so things are looking up for us.  Hooray for this.

4.  Recently BK and I have set up a little babysitting exchange with our friends Melanie and Dean.  Mel and I take turns each weekend babysitting each other's children.  But we go out after the kids are in bed, so it's a win-win situation.  One couple gets to go out, and the other wife gets to have a completely quiet evening at the other person's house, and the other husband gets to sit at home playing videogames until she returns.  Like I said, WIN-WIN, right??

5. I'm not quite sure why no one has told me how hilarious Parks and Recreation is, but I've discovered it lately and have been watching episodes here and there, and even though my abs still hurt from the church volleyball tournament, I've been laughing outloud uncontrollably.  Ron is my favorite.

6. I think that is all the miscellaneous information I have to share at this time.  Tonight we're having Melanie and Dean over for trick-or-treating and goodie-baking, so pictures will follow soon, I'm certain.  Happy Halloween, everyone!

Dearest Spencer Neal,

A few days ago we celebrated your half-birthday.  Upon both your and your brother's births, I asked your great-grandfather to pick a bundt cake recipe in your honor.  Yours is a yummy pound cake, and since it was your half-birthday, I made it for you.

You seemed pleased with the arrangement.

Your brother was not having his best day.

But you didn't care.

Your father pretended to be grumpy, too.  But he really wasn't.

Oh, good.  Your happy brother finally joined the family again.

In our family we allow members who are above the age of 18 months to participate in family prayer and scripture study.  Here's what you did during your first scripture study:

Yyyyeah.  So we have some work to do.

But anyway, I'm glad you're in our family.  You're turning into such a little man instead of a baby lately.  Your little (big) personality shines through more and more each day.  You're quite a spunky, spirited little thing.  So yes, you fit in quite perfectly with the rest of us.  

You took your first nursery-day a lot better than other members of our family have. *cough, cough, landon, cough, cough*  And while you still cried a little, I think you're going to adjust just fine.  Which is such a huge blessing for us, so thanks for that.  

You have brought so much joy to our lives.  Watching you and Landon interact as brothers has been one of  the highlights of my life so far.  You make Landon laugh more and harder than anyone else can.  And you can't even talk yet.  Ohhhhh, boy.  What are we in for?

You and your brother still share a room, and I hope you always will.  Even though we have bedrooms to spare, I want your friendship to grow.  Every night when we put you guys to bed, you lay in there and "talk" to each other.  Sometimes Landon sings you songs.  Mostly you just bounce around your crib pretending to bonk your head because it makes Landon laugh. And I am left mopping up my heart-puddle on the floor.  I know you won't always get along so well, but I just love it when you do.  Awwww,  BROTHERS!

You look just like your dad, and I like that about you.  

You only liked me for the first 13 months of your life.  And on Mother's day this past year, you decided you only liked your father.  And I was fine with that.  But lately I've been wishing you liked me a little bit more.  And wouldn't ya know, magically when you turned 18 months, you've turned into my little cuddlebug again!  Yayyyyy!

Thank you for being you.  I love you with all my heart, and I can't wait to see what the next 6 months brings us!

Love,

Mama

More trunk or treat pics/ have i ever shown you our playroom?

Glow in the dark battle.  Koopa vs. Dennis the Menace.

Now this is creepy:

Also, have I ever showed you pictures of my playroom?  I can't remember.  And I actually cleaned and organized it the other day, so I took some pictures.

This is the boys' playroom.  It's the "loft" room at the top of the stairs.

We had Lowe's install that ceiling fan when it was getting pretty toasty this summer.

Shelves, tables, chairs, and tent from Ikea. Of course.

Someday I hope to buy cute little colorful drawers to use instead of the white baskets. 

The boys love having a big open space to drive their toy cars around and run in circles. 

 I love having a room for all of the toys so they don't ever end up in my living room.

At some point I think I'm going to paint the room green and buy a different, more fun rug for the middle of the room.  But for now, it's great the way it is!

A strollerless Saturday trip to the zoo.

Trunk-or-Treat

Tonight was the ward trunk-or-treat, and so we got our Mario on.

Mario and a goomba.

Mario, Goomba, and, look, a Koopa has joined us!

Wait.  Luigi's here, too?!  How handsome is he?!

I made Spence's costume from an idea off Pinterest. (Of course.)

I also made Landon's.  But it was my own idea.

And yes, those are girl's tights.  But anyway.  I used Rit to dye the tights, turtleneck, and visor the same color.

SO CUTE:

SO TIRED.

Then Landon and Roman had a lights saber battle in the parking lot.

And we get to do this again in ten days?

GREAT.

Last minute amazing vacation, Part 2: UTAH

Since  BK had to go back to the "real world" and work for a living, the boys and I decided to take our little rental car up north.

On our way out of town we stopped in to see my good friend Emily, and had a quick, fun little playdate, in which my boys mostly terrorized her daughter (mostly Spencer)--but it seemed they all had a good time, nonetheless.  I loved catching up with Emily!

We stopped in St. George on the way up, and had a picnic at the St. George Temple, where BK and I got married.

We went to the Farmer's Market the next morning with Grandpa Stanger.  There was a park nearby, and so we let the boys play for awhile to get some wiggles out.

My ragamuffin children:

Landon also had the "best day ever" playing "mud-guys" with cousins Natalie and Noah:

It took about 3 showers at least to get the dirt-smell out of his hair.

Again, IMALOSER for not taking pictures of anything else in the Utah portion of the trip.

BUT

We had a good sleepover with Megan.
We had a lovely visit with Misty and my three DARLING nieces.
And on our way out of town we had a quick visit with Uncle Gary and Aunt Sandra, and cousins Stacey and Shelby.

The boys slept in the car on the way back to Vegas, and I listened to conference on the radio. (I love Zion.)  It was heavenly.   I also discovered that Cafe Rio has a drive-thru in Cedar City, and so I ate a pork salad while driving from there to Vegas.

We spent one more day with Tara and her kiddos and then took the red-eye back to Texas.

I always love when complete strangers are kind to me in airports.
Because of a handful of kind people, I was somehow able to get my double stroller, two children, two backpacks, two carseats, two pillows, and two blankies on and off the plane (without checking any of it.  We're cheap!!).  Of course it turned out that at least one of those people were also Mormon.  But that's not surprising to me.

One older couple helped me carry the backpacks to my seat on the plane.
And another man helped me carry the backpacks off the plane, and then went back and got Landon's carseat for me.  He then insisted on carrying it all the way to the curb for me.

On the plane, luck was on our side, and the only extra seat on the plane was given to the poor person assigned to sit on our row, thus leaving us the extra seat on OUR row.  I immediately moved Spencer to Landon's car seat:

 And Landon got to be a "big boy" with a real seat-belt for the trip.

Both boys slept and were amazing on the flight.
It took me about three days to recover from the lack of sleep, but the cheap price was so worth it, I would do it again in a heart beat.

I came away from our vacation realizing how blessed BOTH BK and I are to come from such amazing families.  I loved how willing everyone was at the last minute to accommodate us and entertain us.  My boys were amazing travelers, and I left the vacation feeling completely uplifted and loved.

Thank you to all of you!
Come to Texas soon!!

Last minute amazing vacation, Part 1: VEGAS

At the very last minute we decided to check plane ticket prices to see about going to little Avianna's baby blessing in Vegas.  BK's missionary parents were going to be in Vegas for it, on their way up to see BK's grandma, who recently had had a heart attack.  And we actually found an AMAZING deal on tickets!  So we went!

We flew out of Dallas at about 11pm.

Eventually, both of the boys slept, and we didn't have any problems at all on the plane.

We went to the park the next evening for a cousin playdate and a pizza picnic!

Here's Landon and Grandpa Don:

Here's Spencer and Grandpa Don:

Why am I so horrible at taking a good quantity of pictures?  Oh well.  I was enjoying myself.

Later that evening, we had the baby blessing at Tara and Nate's house.  At the last minute, Caden was able to arrange for baby Amora to be blessed that night, too!  It was an awesome family get together for sure!

Here's Landon at cousin Connor's pool  the following evening.

We had an awesome BBQ, and then BK flew back to Texas that night.