Aerobics with Esther

Of Late

Spencer discovered how hard our kitchen floor is after falling off a chair while eating dinner. Unfortunately the goose egg hasn't kept him from wiggling around in his chair and the next day he fell again and bit his tongue. Makes me want to eat on the floor!


Esther discovered that she could get into the cupboard all by herself. I turned around and didn't see her at first and then saw the very proud look on her face. She can also open all the drawers and keeps finding new treasures. She is getting too big much too fast!

Halloween Greetings

Our Little Sweetheart

Look Below

For those who scan blogs to see if anything is new, you may miss the new post that is tucked after the last one because I started it on the same day and it automatically goes there. That's blogger for you. It's full of juicy news, though, so you won't want to miss it.

Look Who's 3!

Full Week for the Birthday Boy

Spencer had a lot going on last week as a new 3-year-old. My mom came to visit and was here for his birthday on Monday. We let him open our presents but we waited to have his party on Saturday when more guests arrived. I love his happy expression!



Tuesday, we had an intensive day of potty training, using a method recommended by a friend (thanks, Emily!) and it went very well. I could only do it with someone else there to watch Esther, and with Daniel so swamped with school, the only chance I had was while my mom was here. (Thanks again, Mom!!) Spencer caught on and appears to "get it" so no more diapers for my big boy! In the picture he's using an old phone to call everyone to tell them he goes pee pee in the potty now, not in his underwear, and that he's a big boy. His list of contacts ranged from Grandpa to uncles and aunts, Bob the Builder, our home teachers, friends back in Utah, friends in his Joy School, the Wiggles and Daddy. We are sure proud of him!


For the next few days we skipped the pants and just let him get used to one layer at a time. He absolutely loved these new birthday toys and kept asking me to take pictures of them. Thank you Aunt Kristy and family!


Friday, my dad and sister Megan arrived and Spencer was happy to have more attention. He latched himself to grandpa pretty quickly but started calling him "Jim" because he kept hearing my mom call him that. We tried to correct him and tell him to say grandpa, but he just got confused and started calling him "Jim Grandma"


Grandpa, "Jim", made a train cake and Spencer was super interested in helping and watching each step.



Aunt Megan is helping him with his new spiffy computer keyboard. It was so spiffy, in fact, that she was tempted to get one for herself to bring to college.




Saturday Daniel's parents joined the party. Here's Spencer with both sets of grandparents. He may not always have the right names for them but he sure loves their attention and is a lucky to boy to have them in his life. Thank you again for coming everyone!

On the Go

Esther is no longer content to stay still and is all over the place as she scoots and climbs here, there and everywhere. Just a few pictures of our little go-getter of late.

"How did I end up on this thing?"

Esther can crawl!

Miss Esther is definitely mobile and we've been busy baby-proofing the house these last two weeks. She is rapidly improving and is even pretty good at dealing with Spencer's 'love taps' that usually knock her flat on her face.

Chicago

We were able to go to the temple last weekend with the double bonus of getting to see Daniel's sister and her family, who volunteered to watch Spencer and Esther for us. Thanks Kristy! We even got to go to the zoo together on Saturday before heading back. It was so good to see the cousins play together and we all enjoyed the unexpected cooler weather (notice the sweatshirts).

Esther slept most of the time at the zoo in our new nifty double stroller


The three of them held hands all on their own while looking at the statue--I just love the sweet innocence of children.


This looked so comfy to me. Who needs pillows or a bed when you have a gorilla to sleep on?

Priorities

Like Kip, I love technology, but not as much as I love my family, and I love blogs, but recently that has not been my top priority, as if you couldn't tell. For anyone who's wondering, we do love our new home and the community is very welcoming and we're very happy to be here, but it will be some time before we really feel settled, naturally. Daniel has been swamped with school stuff and I'm currently thinking what a miracle it was that my mother raised 8 children when I'm feeling overwhelmed with 2. The move has been harder on Spencer than we anticipated and we are fully aware of the reason behind the phrase "terrible twos." I am just praying for more patience and love, patience and love, PATIENCE and love. It is amazing how much the Lord will give us strength, change our perspective, or fill us with more of that patience and love if we will only ask. Thank you to everyone who has continued to be a support to us--we miss you all and hope you're doing well in your part of the world. (For those who read the fine print, this is Becky typing even though Daniel's name appears at the bottom--I was too lazy to log out of his account.)

Rice Cereal

After weeks of having Esther try to pull the food off of our plates (and our plates off of the table) she finally got to try some rice cereal. Bland rice flakes mixed in lukewarm water, a magical floating green spoon, and a beautiful pink bowl to boot - doesn't it just sound so yummy? Here was Esther's first take on it:

Reunion in Michigan

Well, last week we were out of town and this morning Daniel was sick so I have not kept up with our new plan, but here is a quick post before I head to bed. We enjoyed our visit to Michigan where we got to see all of Daniel's siblings who came for a family reunion on their mother's side. It was great to see all of the cousins play together and to share our children with each other while having fun as aunts and uncles. It was 3 1/2 years ago that we were all together and sadly it might be that long before it happens again, seeing how spread out we are now.

The toddler table was a real hit.

Olivia and Charlotte absolutely loved holding the babies, Esther and Sam.

Spencer didn't even care about going into the water after finding out how fun the sand was.

Bedtime.

Who needs toys when there's a screwdriver available?

The two newest grandchildren, who got to meet lots of relatives for the first time.


Esther is just beginning to sit up! It's like magic, one week she can't and the next she can! I feel like we brought a different baby home with us.

More Catch Up

Daniel suggested a Sunday morning routine which included time to make a blog post, taking turns from week to week who makes the post. We'll see how this goes!

We enjoyed two special visitors within our first two weeks here, Daniel's mom coming down the first weekend and my sister Amy the second. Thank you both for all of your much appreciated help!! I'm sorry I didn't get a single picture of grandma's visit (I was fighting an icky cold at the time) but I did remember to snap one with auntie. Can't wait for your next visits!



Spencer was absolutely fascinated the first time Daniel mowed the lawn, running from window to window to watch his daddy hard at work.



Spencer insisted that Esther sit with him while watching a show one of our first days here. Perhaps he was feeling a bit lonely in our new place and needed something, or someone, familiar close by.



Daniel was a real trooper building all of our furniture again. Will we ever get the kind that doesn't come in a box? Spencer was very eager to help, though it might not be until our next move that his help makes the work go faster.






We were so spoiled in Utah by not having to drive to a park, but we're finding it's very much worth the effort to hop in the car and go let Spencer release some of his energy at the end of the day.

Esther's five month picture--what a cutie!!

For the Birthday Girl, Jenny

We wish we could be with you to celebrate, but here's sending you our greatest wishes for a FANTASTIC year of being 21!!

Happy 4th of July!

We celebrated the 4th with a few families from our ward on Saturday and had a really good time.  I forgot our camera but someone else took this cute picture of Esther, I just love it!  Spencer was running around without any clothes for half of the time because he fell into the small swimming pool, and cried for about 10 minutes because it surprised him so much, so it's probably a good thing we didn't snap a picture of him.   Hooray for America!!

The Big Move

I started this post almost a week ago, if you happened to notice the date, and I am just now getting back to it! I will have to be satisfied with small snippets since I obviously can't get to the computer as much as I'd like. Maybe that's a good thing. I just wanted to mention our move and to say how much we liked not driving a truck and using these moving pods instead. It was super smooth to have them dropped off in our parking lot and have three days to load them up and then to drive all together in our car across the country. It took a week for the pods to make it to Indiana so we just hung out at my parents' for a few days, seeing as they live right on the way. I would like to put up some of those pictures but I'm on the wrong computer, so that will have to wait.

Spencer was very interested in the big truck dropping off the pods.

Here are the pods in our driveway, with everything still intact:

For those who were asking, we came to Indiana for more school, Daniel just can't seem to get enough of it :) He will be doing his PhD in Physics at Purdue, which we expect to take 4 to 5 years. He was super excited to be accepted here and it was an easy choice to come, especially with family not far away. In fact, we only applied to schools in the Midwest because we were done with the long trips to visit our families, but Purdue had the best research opportunities for his specific field so he's eager to continue in that direction. Because Daniel already graduated from BYU with his bachelor's, he didn't feel the need to stay for a graduation ceremony (and was more concerned with finishing his thesis than getting pictures in a cap and gown) so we've kind of brushed over this big step for him. But I wanted to take the chance to say how amazing he is and how hard he has worked to finish this second degree, while still managing to keep his wife happy and give lots of attention and time to Spencer and Esther. Now he's bracing himself for his third, and last, degree and we are content to stay poor a little longer while we're still used to it. We are happy in our new home and the ward and community has been very welcoming already. It's hard to believe we're really here, that our time at BYU really is over and that we made it all here in one piece. Hooray!!

That was more than a snippet, and I still feel like I left a lot out, but this is a blog and not my journal so that will have to do. Thanks to everyone for your greetings and support--it's great to still feel connected even though we're far apart. Please keep in touch!!

New Home in Indiana

Here are a few pictures of our new home. We definitely have more room to wiggle, we get to park in a garage, and we have the best landlords ever!! We have the Internet in our home now but we have to arrange a few things to get my computer connected, so I may be a bit delayed still with posting. I look forward to the day when we are done unpacking and all settled in (will it ever come?)

Front door and entry way:

Living room, right after the entry way:

Kitchen, taken from the living room (excuse the mess!):

Fun with abc's

Spencer and I have fun whenever we can...



...and yes we did sing the song another three or four times before the dishes were done.

Exersaucer

A friend from our ward lent us her exersaucer this week (thanks Tarmy!) and Esther appears to like it. Daniel caught this video of her, thinking at first it had to be Spencer making the noise and then discovering that he wasn't in the room and that she had figured it out herself.

Happy Mother's Day!

Where did April go?

I know it's so cliche to say time flies, but holy cow does it ever!! Here are a few highlights from the month:

Spencer was sick when the Primary had an Easter Egg hunt and then we had bad weather and some other delays, but we did finally give him his own hunt in our lowly little apartment and he had a blast. He made us hide the eggs again and then he did it himself and then again the next morning. I love it how the simple things mean so much to children.


We celebrated my sister-in-law Stephanie's birthday with a picnic in the park. We were loving the sunshine and just soaked it all in.



Esther is now three months old! I can't believe I can't say I have a newborn anymore. She is acting more like a normal baby with a few more fussy spells, though her drooling makes me wonder if teething is to blame for that. She has been sleeping through the night for at least a month now and I am just as happy as can be, especially with our continual struggle with Spencer's sleeping habits. It just isn't fair that he's a night owl AND an early bird!!


It's fun to see her vision improve and to watch her discover new things around her, such as this cute lion mobile that she especially likes staring at.


My mom came out for my cousin's wedding last week, but do you think I remembered to snap any pictures? I can hardly believe I didn't, but we enjoyed her visit all the same, as well as the wedding. Daniel and I were able to attend the sealing in the temple, which is the first time being in the temple together since Esther was born, so that was a real treat.


Can you see the Y on the mountain? Daniel is officially finished with his TA work for the semester, and forever at BYU, and can now spend all of his time on his research and thesis, which he plans to finish next month. We are finally coming to the end of our BYU chapter, after starting here as freshmen 10 years ago in 2000, and are getting mighty excited. I told Daniel that I am curious to see if I will miss the mountains after living so close to them for so many years. I already know I'll miss the dry summers, but I'm sure my skin will enjoy the humidity once again.