Paci Picts

Spencer has cracked me up the last few days with his pacifier. He only takes it when he falls asleep, but sometimes he will play with it. While playing, he'll put it in his mouth upside-down; but then I caught him asleep with it upside-down! I don't know how that put him asleep! And while unpacking, I found this Billy Bob pacifier that my father-in-law got for Melanie. I threw it in Spencer's crib so that he could play with it and to see if he liked it. I guess that he liked it enough to fall asleep with it too! It's so funny to see him sucking on it!

Hair Cuts

I took both girls in for a trim. They loved having their hair cut and styled. When I got home, I wished that I had gotten Melanie's hair a tad shorter, but she's still cute! Savannah's hair looks adorable on her. Now, if I could just get her to stop sucking on the ends of it! It's just the right length, that it seems to find it's way into her mouth!

Civil Rights Day

Savannah didn't have school last Monday, so we decided to have a little fun. The girls were lucky enough to have my youngest sister, Natalie, spend the night on Sunday. So they got to play with her in the morning. We all got ready and then went to the park. It was fun; I got to visit with some friends from our old old ward. Spencer loved the swings. Melanie is always fond of anything bouncy; this day it was the teeter-totter. Afterwards, we went and visited my grandmother for a little while and then went over to my parents' house. The girls all had fun jumping in the pile of leaves out front. While we were there, Savannah found a nickel on the ground. She tried to give it back to my mom, but my mom told her that she could keep it. So on the way home, Savannah wanted to stop at the store and buy something. I told her that she would have to have some more money to be able to buy anything. I also told her that she could do a few chores at home and that I'd give her some money for working. (Bribery is always a great tool, right?) When we got home, Savannah cleaned her room, helped rearrange the dresser drawers (now Melanie can reach her clothes!), put some laundry away, and folded the kitchen towels and bibs. She was awfully busy and I paid her for her various jobs. She ended up earning 25 cents. She thought it was great and I loved the cheap labor! Here's how great their room looked when she got done. Later that night, Spencer was being so cute and was sitting in the toy cupboard looking at a book and playing with some toys. Of course the moment that I moved to get the camera, he thought that he had to follow me. But he sure was cute!

Was it Nephi or Joseph?

After church today, I asked Savannah what she talked about in Primary. Here's how it went:

Me: What did you talk about in Primary today?
Savannah: Nephi
Me: Oh, did you tell them that you know about Nephi?
Sav: Yeah. My teacher said that Nephi almost got his leg cut off.
Me: Um, were you talking about Nephi or Joseph Smith?
Sav: Oh yeah, Joseph Smith.
I'm thinking: Yeah, those two are real similar...could be easily confused, right?
Me: Yeah, his leg got really sick and the doctors thought they might have to cut it off.
Sav: Yeah, he was crying and he told his mom to go outside and they tried to get him to drink... (Pause)
Me: Alcohol?
Sav: Yeah, alcohol. (Pause) Um, is licorice alcohol?
I totally start laughing.
Me: Go ask your dad.
Sav: Dad, is licorice alcohol?
Jon: No, licorice isn't alcohol. Liquor is alcohol. Do you know what liquor is?
Sav: No
Jon: Do you know what beer is?
Sav: No
Jon: Do you know what wine is?
Sav: No
Jon: Do you know what whiskey is?
Sav: No
I'm thinking: Of course she doesn't know what any of this stuff is! She's only 4 and we don't have any in our home and we don't talk about it. How in the world would she know what it is?

Long story short: No one tried to give licorice to Nephi (or Joseph Smith). And licorice is not alcohol!

Love Babies Laughing!

Jon got on the floor the other night and started playing with Spencer. Spencer loves it when someone will sit down and play with him. Well, Jon decided to juggle for him and Spencer absolutely loved it! He thought that it was hilarious! Sorry that the lighting is bad, but here is Spencer getting a kick out of Jon's juggling.

I love my Melli!

Melanie has some of the funniest expressions. I bought her a new dress on Saturday and she wanted to wear it to church on Sunday. I told her that I'd take her picture in her new polka-dot dress too, but she wouldn't ever hold still and smile. Here are a few of the faces that I got from her! And I couldn't help but add in the face that she randomly made when I pulled the camera out today. It kind of reminds me of some of the faces she'd make for the camera when she was a baby. She would always squint her eyes and open her mouth soooo big! It was so funny!

I promise that she was happy in all of those pictures! I actually posted about this when I first started blogging; you can see the original post here.

(Ahh, they grow up too fast!)

Snaggle Tooth

Here you go - just a picture of Spencer's one little tooth! Sorry it's not the best, but it's hard to get a shot of that kid holding still, let alone with his mouth open so you can see his tooth.

Lost a Tooth

Spencer has turned into a little explorer/daredevil. He is crawling all over the place and can't sit still for 2 seconds. The worst part is that he pulls himself up to everything. He can't be content with just crawling around, he thinks that he should be walking. So about 2 weeks ago, January 2nd to be exact, my brother came over to see the house before heading back up to BYU. I was giving him a tour and Spencer was crawling along behind us. I wasn't watching him very closely. He crawled into our laundry room and stood up to a 3-step step ladder that was folded up and leaning against some boxes. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but he and the step ladder fell. I found him laying on his back crying. There was something that looked like a wad of chewed up paper laying on his tongue. So I scooped that out and picked him up. When I did that, then he started bleeding everywhere. I thought that he might have bit his tongue or cut his mouth somehow. But on further inspection, I realized that his little tooth was missing! I had picked it up off of his tongue, thinking that it was paper, and I wasn't even sure where it ended up. We searched the floor and eventually found it in a fold on his shirt. Spencer seemed to be fine as soon as his mouth stopped bleeding. But it really made me quite upset! We made a number of phone calls, but there was nothing we could do for his poor little tooth. So now my little boy just has one little tooth! And he hadn't even had that tooth for 2 months! Jon tried to reassure me that Spencer was not the first baby in the world to lose a tooth, but I asked him if he knew of any other kids loosing a tooth that young. I also took Spencer to the pediatrician Monday morning and the doctor said, "I've never seen a child this young lose a tooth. What happened?" And then, "Let me go and call a pediatric dentist." He will probably need to have a spacer put in when he's about 15 months so that his other little teeth will grow in properly. It still makes me sick to my stomach to think that he knocked his tooth out. And I haven't been able to bring myself to part with the tooth yet. I'm just not sure what to do with it. Sorry I don't have any pictures of him with only his one tooth, but I'll post one if I can ever manage to get one.

A Glimpse of December

Life has been crazy! Here are a few pictures from December!

The day after Thanksgiving we put up Jon's Nutcracker collection. The girls love it and have their favorite nutcrackers. I really wanted to get them up right away, so it would feel like Christmas (especially since we decided to move the weekend after Christmas and had to pack up all of our decorations the day after). We had lots of fun decorating and getting into the holiday spirit!The girls also helped put up our window stickers. They each enjoyed decorating their own window. And Savannah helped Jon put up our tree. I think that next year we'll have a real tree! Yay! Jon and the girls made a Gingerbread House a few days later. The girls love their "Ginger Man House!" Spencer has been getting dressed up for church in his white shirt and tie. Got to start that habit young right? I just think he looks totally cute. Savannah got to go to a Primary Activity Day. We did a Drive-In movie; where we showed a slide show of the pictures of the kids through-out the year. Savannah made her little car that she got to sit in during the "movie." We also went caroling with some friends. We made little goody bags for the people that we sang to. The girls loved it! Savannah loved going to sing to her primary teachers and giving them a treat! The girls also had fun eating their "Ginger Man" peeps. They (or maybe just Savannah) loved them, but they both enjoyed biting their heads off first! Savannah's preschool had their annual Christmas concert. I dressed all the kiddos in red just for the occasion and managed to get one good shot of them. I thought that Savannah looked beautiful in her red "Santa" dress that she picked out herself. We were so proud of her too for sitting on Santa's lap. Too bad she couldn't remember what to tell him. I guess that it's a good thing that she wrote him a letter. The weekend before Christmas was hectic. Jon and I (and Spencer) started out by going to Wickenburg for his company Christmas party (and staff meeting). We also celebrated our 6th anniversary here. We stayed at Ranchos de los Caballeros again (just like last year). We had a great time!Our girls went with Jon's family to Pine to stay in a cabin and play in the snow. We stopped back in Mesa on a few errands before joining them and found this on our doorstep! Yes, thank you Justin & Robin for the beautiful Peeps tree! Our girls honestly loved it! Jon and I got a kick out of it. And Jon has now declared war on you! We did manage to make it to Pine to join in the cabin fun. The girls got to play in the snow before we got there, so I only got a few shots of Spencer and Uncle Rob! But we had a good time there too. Here's my dad with Spencer. My dad loves to get the kids to stand up in his hands and Spencer was doing it so well! On Christmas Eve we went over to Jon's parents' home. We enjoyed a great dinner, even Spencer, who was styling his "Who needs Santa when I have Grandma" bib. Totally true! The kids got to open a present from Grandma and Grandpa - New Jammies! They all looked so great in their nice new jammies. Christmas morning was wonderful! I just loved the look of surprise on the girls' faces as they opened their presents! Here's Savannah opening a new "My Little Pony." She was so excited. Melanie is in love with her "Peter Man" movie. (I love it that she calls it that...too cute!) The girls made out like bandits! One of their favorite gifts was the Barbie & The Diamond Castle movie, along with the matching Barbie dolls. (Laurie- I figured that since your girls loved the movie so much, then mine would too!) Spencer just loved eating all of the bows and paper! He did get a few toys that he really likes to play with though. Savannah made a little present for Jon and I at school. I just love the little gifts that they make at school and I love that this one has her picture on it! Both Melanie and Savannah got new babies and they also got this baby bed that Melanie just loves! We then went over to my parent's house for breakfast and to talk to my sister, Andrea, who is serving in the Washington Tacoma mission. It really was so nice to get to talk to her on the phone. Savannah asked if Andrea gets to come home now. I told her that she wouldn't be back until after next Christmas! We also opened a few gifts from my family. Jon got 2 more nutcrackers...surprise, surprise. I really liked the baseball one that my sister, Sarah, gave him. I just wish it said Diamondbacks on it! Savannah loved getting this poodle that Uncle Tyler let her pick out for herself. The hard part was waiting that 1 day to open it before he'd let her play with it. We also made our way over to Jon's parents again for a few more gifts. All in all, we had a great Christmas. Spencer loved all of the hustle and bustle and especially the bows and ribbons! Congratulations if you made it to the end of this extremely long post! There you have all of our Holiday festivities! The day after Christmas we packed up and moved that weekend. The camera got packed away and I didn't dig it out until last week. We've had a lot go on since we moved and hopefully I'll get around to posting that soon!