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.

And Daniel wonders why I wanted a little girl ...

Yet, of course, I couldn't trade Spencer for the world. I don't know how many times I told him today that I loved him, but that love just keeps growing no matter how much trouble he causes. Besides, he's bound to teach Esther all of his ingenious tricks anyway. (And yes, he came up with this one on his own, and it has kept him entertained for up to a half an hour at a time, so I guess I shouldn't complain.)

March Madness

No, I'm not a huge basketball fan, but our month has been absolutely full and crazy. We've enjoyed lots of visitors, including my sister Amy who came out alone for a weekend just to see all of us siblings in Utah. She did such a great job blogging about her visit that those who are interested can read about it here. (And I concur with all she said about the good book she read, having read it first myself.) The very next weekend Daniel flew out to West Lafayette, Indiana to check out the Purdue campus. He found out he was accepted there last month, on his birthday--the best gift ever. It was his number one choice so we were super excited. The Physics Graduate program held an open house for the newly admitted students and he was able to find out more about the research being done there, which appears to be right up his alley, as well as find out more about the community and search for some housing. Spencer was sick that whole weekend and now has an ear infection and has passed his cold on to me. Daniel is also fighting a nasty cold and feeling pretty swamped with schooling. Esther continues to be our one constant, as Daniel puts it, and is as calm and sweet as ever, though she was sneezing a bit this afternoon. Even though I got a 3 hour nap today--thank you Spencer and Esther--I'm still very ready for bed and don't even know if what I've written makes sense. Here are a few photos from the month:

Spencer feeling sick

My sweet niece Maddy's first birthday

Esther is now 2 months old!

Spencer taking a nap when he was sick--I tried moving him twice but he just went back to the chair and continued sleeping.


He took a second nap later that day on my bedroom floor:

Grandparents

Esther got a lot of love and attention from her visiting grandma and grandpas the weekend of her blessing. We look forward to being closer soon so she and the rest of us can see them a bit more often. Thanks again for coming!!!

Some beautiful flowers from Daniel's parents:



Spencer got a bit of attention too, and especially loved these magnets from Grandma.

Esther's Blessing

We were so glad to have family with us for Esther's blessing--thank you Grandma and Grandpa Jensen, Grandpa DeVocht, Neil and Emily for coming! Esther continues to be a content, happy baby and we are just so glad to have her in our home. (We'd of course love her just as much if she were more fussy, but it's awfully nice of her to be so good).

We are a happy family!

This is the same dress that I and all my sisters were blessed in.




"And what do you have to say about all of this, Esther?"

(For those who can't read lips, her response was simply "oh," meaning "Oh my, there are so many people who want to hold me and see me and I don't even have to do anything special. I think I like being a baby.")

Big Brother

Spencer has now switched from saying "baby sister" to "Esther" and is always very happy to play with her. It is fun to see him taking on this new role as a big brother, but when we try to call him that, he corrects us and says he's a small brother and Daddy is a big brother. He has started asking me to take a picture of them after he sits down with her in this chair and I can usually get one or two photos before he tries handing her back to me.

Here's Spencer at 1 week:

Esther at 1 month:
(that's about the ratio of how much faster time seems to be going with the second child)

Going in for a kiss.