Getaway

Last weekend we decided to leave all this:

in exchange for this:

We also go to see these people:

You know those trips where everything kinda goes all wrong?  It was one of those trips.  Multiple flights were delayed/canceled.  My littlest sister broker her arm.  It rained pretty much the whole time we were there (dang, and we were soooooooooo excited for the nice weather too).  I’m honestly not going to go into all of the stuff that went wrong because there was a lot.   

But it was really fun to see family.  We had lots of fun just visiting and playing games.  We went out to eat a couple of times, and that was a real treat.  We went to Barnes and Noble to play a really fun game (that works really well for date night too).  The babies got their picture taken together at a photo studio.  

And there was time for some of this:

and this:

and this:

I miss my family terribly already.  Perhaps we’ll have to escape to California again soon. 

I Hope He Loves Reading

Last weekend we went to a few used bookstores.  I have a project in mind and the boys were good enough to tag along on my scavenger hunt.  Of course we took pictures.  Lots and lots of pictures. 

One of my favorite parts of the day is story time.  I live for those minutes when M sits all cozied up on my lap and we read every book on the shelf three or four times.  He likes to turn the pages.  And he is learning to identify certain pictures when I ask him to point to them.  He is such a smart boy! 

He still doesn’t have much patience for books without a lot of noises.  But luckily for M, I’m pretty talented at sound effects.  I like that he has favorite books.  Right now, his favorites are all about puppies, “Where’s the Bone?” and his doggie pop up book. 

I have always loved reading.  My parents always encouraged us to read and provided us with lots of books.  Books were often birthday or Christmas presents.  We also often went to the library, especially during the summer.  Before we would go on road trips, we would go to the library and check out a huge stack of books.  We would then read through the entire stack over the eight to ten hours we were on the road.  And we LOVED it.  I honestly was never the least bit bothered by long car rides.  I was more than content to have an excuse to read ALL DAY LONG.  I don’t think there are many things more luxurious as having a few hours to yourself to get lost in a good book. 

Growing up, I almost always finished a book in one sitting.  I would get to sucked into the story that I would not be able to put the book down until I had read the entire thing.  I can’t even begin to count the number of times I ended up reading pretty much all night long.  I don’t have such extended amounts of time to read now, but I still read for fun pretty much every night before bed.  And there are still, to this day, lots of times that I stay up reading WAY past my bedtime. 

It’s fun to share something that has brought me so much joy over the years with my little guy.  I love that reading is something we have been able to do together for his whole life.  It’s not an experience that has to wait for him to get bigger (like sports, for example).  

It will be exciting to see what kinds of hobbies and interests M will develop as he gets older.  And if he doesn’t love reading like I do, that’s okay.  We will work hard to help him learn to be very good at it, because education is important.  However, if there are other things that he likes more, that’s fine too.  

But I am excited to share all of my favorite books with him.  I’m excited to stay up way past our bedtimes because we’re reading a good book together that we can’t bear to put down.  I’m excited to let him pick out a brand new book when he brings a book order form home from school.  I’m excited to go to the library and let him pick out 20 books at a time.  Because I have a feeling he’s going to love reading too. 

Favorite Sight

One of my favorite sights in the whole world is from the passenger seat of our car.  I LOVE peeking back and seeing the top of his Teddy Bear head.  Sometimes all I can see is a little curl.  Sometimes it’s the top of his wee hat.  Sometimes, if he’s sleeping with his head resting on his shoulder I can’t really see him at all!  But I love knowing he’s there.  I tell Spencer all the time, “Hey guess what?  There’s a BABY back there!” 

I love hearing his little disembodied voice say “Mamama,” as we travel along.  I have probably said this a thousand times, but it is just one of my favorite things in the world to listen to my sweetheart jabber in the backseat.  I could listen to his sweet little voice all day.  Often, Spence and I will stop talking mid-conversation just to listen to the Cutie in the backseat.  I love when I turn on the radio and M and I both sing out loud as we drive to pick up daddy from work.  M Bug loves country (much to his Grandpa’s horror); It’s his favorite. 

I have the best sidekick in the whole world! 

Making a Mess

I know this may sound like the corniest thing ever, but this is one of my favorite sights in the world:

I LOVE the messes he makes. This photo SO perfectly represents M. His beloved giraffe rattle on the floor next to a little bin of overturned socks. M is OBSESSED with socks. He lives for pulling them off his cute piggy's. Seriously, I can’t keep socks on him to save my life. Especially at nap time. He goes down with socks on and when I got to check on him he’s always barefoot. One of his favorite things to do is dump them out all over the floor. I love that he pulled a few books off the shelf to “read” as well… and then decided to play with his green ball for a while.

I know that someday I will get tired or even frustrated with picking up messes left by my little boy.  Someday I’ll have to teach him to clean up his own messes (and I know that will sometimes be hard/annoying).  And when the day comes that I get sick of messes/nagging M to clean up, you can remind me of this rosy little post.  But for now, I can’t help but love it when I walk past his room and see evidence that he was having a fun time.  I can tell what he’s passionate about right now just from looking at what he’s left behind. 

(How cute is that little monster beanie? Thanks Aunt Deb and Caitlyn! You guys are the sweetest!

The day has finally come that I have been dreading for a while now.  M figured out that he can take off his own hat.  We put him in hats VERY often, and he’s always left them alone… until now.  Luckily, he seems to leave them on when we’re outside and it’s cold out.  I think he doesn’t REFUSE to wear them, he just thinks it’s pretty fun to yank them off.)

I think I’ve mentioned before that one of M’s favorite pastimes is unpacking his bibs and burp cloths.  He’s pretty good at pulling the clean laundry out faster than I can put it away.  The funny thing is, he is so focused while he is doing it.  He whispers “da da da da” under his breath as he concentrates on removing each item.  It’s like he thinks he’s doing a very important job, “Well guys, someone has to unpack all these clothes that Mom just meticulously put away.  Clearly you two aren’t going to do it, so I guess I’m the man for the job”  It is so cute that I always let him do it.  Pretty much every day.       

I adore my little mess maker.  And for now, I just keep enjoying the messes.  Because all too soon he’ll be all grown up, living on his own, and leaving socks on the floor in a house I don’t live in.         

Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na FAT MAN!

M has lots of cute clothes.  And one of my favorite things to do is to pick out his outfit for the day.  But sometimes, I think he is at his absolute cutest in just a diaper.  He is just so perfectly chubby! 

I love his little pot belly.  I love that his little fingers are so pudgy they have dimples in the knuckles.  I adore his fat little thighs.  I could nibble those round little toes all day.   

This little boy makes me so very happy.

Lucky Me

That Spencer of mine is one of those people that just has really amazing luck.  He is always winning drawings and raffles.  I mean always. I often tell him to enter stuff because I feel like his name is picked far more often than is probably typical. 

In fact, just yesterday we cashed in on a big prize that he won at a drawing back in December.

When we were students at BYU, the bookstore held a big drawing for a kayak.  Spencer entered, and won.  We aren’t big kayakers per se, but it was still a kinda cool, albeit super random thing to win.  Even though it was a bit inconvenient to store as we lived in a TINY one bedroom apartment at the time. 

The next year, the bookstore held another big drawing for a mountain bike.  Spencer entered, and won.  AGAIN.  Crazy huh?  We then owned two very large and awkward to store items while living in a TINY one bedroom apartment. 

As lucky as that Spencer Boy is, I feel pretty lucky too.  After all, he IS mine to keep forever. 

Happy Birthday Spence! 

Snow Day!

We have gotten a lot of snow lately.  It can be very cozy to sit inside and watch the snow fall, but we have all been going a little stir crazy.  M especially.  He loves to go.  The destination doesn’t matter, he just likes to be out and about.  When the weather was nice, we went for walks nearly every afternoon and it was M’s favorite part of the entire day.  Poor little guy, winter has been a little hard on both of us.  We need to move to California I think. 

Anyway, today, we decided that we had had enough and we were going outside to play!   I had this grand idea that we were going to make a snowman.  I was so excited to take M’s picture next to it.  We bundled the Teddy Bear up and out we went. 

We plopped M in the snow to let him slap at it and he was in heaven!  He prefers being outdoors to inside any day, even when it’s cold out. 

I realize that he looks maybe a little mad in those above pictures.  He wasn’t.  He was happy as a clam.  He’s actually doing his “Natalie smile.”  It’s the one where he smiles so big that he crinkles up his eyes and wrinkles his little nose.  It is super cute, my very favorite one.  But for some reason, it doesn’t necessarily come off as looking happy in pictures. 

But he was joyful.  See?:

Joyful!

Meanwhile, Lizzy zipped around the yard like a crazy thing!…

… and photo bombed a few pictures.

I have to admit that even though I hate winter and tell it pretty much daily that it should die, I had a pretty fun time playing in the snow with my Spencie, Lizzy, and little boy.

We didn’t end up making a snowman this time.  We were all too cold after just a few minutes!  Maybe next time.