Off to the beach!!

The suitcases packed, beach gear ready, food in the car, and all it needs is a family to fill it up!!

Despite Landon's runny nose and extreme crankiness, we are headed down the Outer Banks for a week tomorrow!! We can't wait to play in sand, chase the surf, swim in water, swim in the pool, visit a lighthouse, visit an aqurium, play with friends, eat good food....

anyone want to come? Hope you all have a good week and we'll sure let you know how our adventure was!!

Spencer is 3 years old!!!

On Sunday August 24th, Spencer will be 3 years old!! Man has time flown by. It goes fast with having just one child, but when you add another, it is really crazy.

When it came time to have Spencer, it was much less complicated than his big sister. Since she was a c-section, they would only let me go a week late with him. Well, the week came and he still didn't want to come out. Having a scheduled c-section is much easier than hours of labor before hand. We arrived at the hospital around 10:00 am and had Spencer around 2 and a half hours later. The surgery was fast and the doctor after told me that she could hardly find any scar from Jordan. We again did not know the gender of the baby, so were excited to have a little boy!!

Here we are Wednesday August 24th 1003 on our way to the hospital. Here is proud big sister meeting her little brother for the first time. She was so excited and fell in love with him right away.
My doctor immediately noticed the cleft on his chin and asked who of Darin or I had a cleft chin. She looked at me and said it is only passed directly from a parent. Apparently she saw an episode of the show House where they could not find the problem with a patient. He noticed the patient had a chin cleft but neither of the parents did. So they deduced that the problem was genetic since the patient had been adopted. Funny...Darin immediately wanted to pinch it out but I think it is cute:)

Darin's job has been to get all the "going home" outfits the day we take the baby home. This is what he picked for Spencer. Soo cuteHere are some favorite pics.
Christmas 2--5

Two weeks old, being held by Daddy.

3 months old at Halloween time
One year old

Two years old You can scroll down for his 3 year old picture.

Spencer is a bundle of energy and curiosity. I tell people he is a cross between Dennis the Menace and Curious George. I have never had a dull moment with him, and can't wait to see what the years bring!!

Happy Birthday Spencer!! We love you and are blessed you are in our family!!

A really fun week!!

We had so much fun last week, I just have to share. One day we had a fort in the living room. We played underneath so the dragons wouldn't get us. Then we made friends with some nice dragons. Landon especially had fun with the first fort experience he could be involved in.

Another day we had fun playing with the hose when Landon was sleeping. The kids wanted their bathing suits on and proceeded to have lots of fun. One easy way for the flowers to get watered.

I needed to clean out the refridgerator and for most of the time the children were playing in the living room. They spotted an empty fridge, and thought it was a fun little cave. Landon closed the door once and it was a little scarry, but I was right there. The fridge is more fun with no food:)

Darin and I went on a lunch date on Saturday and had a really nice time. We went to a restaurant in Shirlington called Carlyle. It was delicious-I recommend it. We walked around the newly built area where there used to be a parking lot behind the movie theatre-crazy how they can build anywhere.

We then decided to see the Air Force Memorial without kids!! It was really amazing. When you are standing under the spires, it seems so unbelievable-how on earth did they build that thing? Reminds me a lot of the St. Louis arch. Very cool place-another recommendation. Fun to photograph as well.

I wanted to be a social worker today....

And why you ask? I was sitting in MCDonalds at Wal-Mart today (yes, taking the easy way out for lunch-but the Southewest Salad is really good) and there was a lady talking really loudly on her cell phone, and was quite emotional. First I wanted to yell at her for using profanity repeatedly and words such as stupid, idiot, etc in the earshot of my children. As she made multiple phone calls, I soon realized that what she needed more was a counselor-she was in tears for the duration of the phone calls.

Here is what I learned about her from my table trying not to listen but to eat my lunch:
1. Her son accused her boyfriend of hurting him.
2. The bruises were accidents and if he (the boyfriend)had not grabbed him, (the son) he would have been hit by a bus. Another time he was playing with kids and tripped over something.
3. She wants nothing to do with her son because he is a liar and everyone believes him, who is a kid, over her who is an adult. (She kept saying her son's name, but I will keep it out-I feel sorry for the kid even though I have never met him.)
4. She is not going to try to get him back if he keeps "getting her in trouble."
5. She has a new boyfriend-the one who supposedly hurt her son-but her mom hates him and never wants her to be happy.
6.She will do anything to get her boyfriend out of jail and clear his name, even if she doesn't get her son back.

I really wanted to first tell her that she should not be talking like this in earshot of children, not to mention a room full of compete strangers, but then I realized that she is probably really hurting inside and needs lot of help. So then I wanted to talk to her about her life in general. Why has her son been taken away, what is the root of the problem with her mother, does she have lots of relationships that fail or are abusive? Does all this contribute to the fact that (not to put her down in any way because I share her problem there) she is morbidly obese? So many questions...... Why did I worry so about this lady? Do you ever see someone in public and just wish you could help them? I hope she can get the help she needs.

These are the times that I really miss my old job. I enjoy helping people come up with ways to solve the problems in their lives. Maybe someday, but I guess I should focus on my own issues right now:):)

Playing catch up: Riding horses in Utah

While we were in Utah, yes-it has been a few weeks, but I really wanted to put this in my blog, we went to a cousin's house to ride horses. We called it a "pony party." Jordan went around for weeks before telling everyone she was going to ride horses and that she had a cousin who was a "real cowgirl." We felt a little like the city mice going to meet the country mice. When we got to the house, which has lots of fun stuff to do, Spencer said "I want to go see the farm animals." All they had was horses, but I guess because we were so far out in the country he felt we were on a farm.

The pictures aren't in the best order, but here goes.

After Jordan took her one turn, she wanted to lead her brother. We were in a bad spot because the sun was in the kids eyes when they were walking back toward the barn.

Spencer immediately fell in love. He couldn't get enough riding and actually surprised us with his lack of fear. He also rode the big horses and loved it. He kept saying "I want to go again." Jordan took one ride, then had enough and went to play with all the cousins.Landon was amazing....he absolutely loved the horses and had NO FEAR!! He was going right up to them and was laughing and had a great time.
When we put him on the little pony, which incidentally has been putting up with this madness so sweetly for 20 years, Landon laughed and had huge smiles. He had multiple rides.

Here's when Darin's cousin got the horse out and had all the kids brush her out. They really liked that part as well.

This is Casey, Darin's cousin's husband, whose parents home we were at. He was so nice and go all the horses ready and took kid for rides. Spencer absolutely loved it!!

They had a trampoline and my kids were so excited. They had never been on one before and loved it so much. Lanny, of course was laughing and having a great time. Jordan was on a minute, then had enough. There is sure a difference between her and the boys.

Darin and I even had a turn on the horses. I was very nervous at first, but did ok. I even got the horse galloping and surprised Darin because his horse followed mine and did whatever mine did. It was really fun. Makes me want to find horseback riding somewhere around here.
One more shot I love of Aiden bouncing my boys. I had to laugh because at one point Casey-see above-was playing with all the kids. Jordan wanted his attention and said "hey Farmer." He said "I'm a contractor not a farmer." Poor little city mouse has to learn the difference between a cowboy and a farmer!!

We had so much fun that day and left with 3 very tired, dirty kids and Spencer literally kicking and screaming. I had to carry him over my shoulder and he was holding his arms out crying "I want to go back, I want to go back."

Maybe next summer the city mice can return for more.

Our Baby Girl is 5!!!!

Happy Happy Birthday Jordan!!
Wow!!! Where has the last 5 years gone? Well I will tell you-it has been full of blood, sweat and tears taking care of one awesome little girl!!!
Here are Darin and I August 14th 2003-heading to the hospital a week late. I went in the night before to get things started. After 12 hours of cervadil and 15 hours of labor-most of which was back labor there was no progression so we made an agonizing decision, in the middle of nausia and other things, to do a c-section. At 10:58, we met our little girl. We did not find out the sex of the baby, so we were most surprised to see a little girl!! I was convinced she was a boy and the nurse was calling her Spencer all night-that was our boy name.

Here we are on the day we got to take her home.
Jordan a few days old.

First Christmas!! Look at the chubs-man was she cute!!
4 months old

We went to Hawaii with Darin when Jordan was 4 weeks old-pretty much a free trip because of work- and I found this dress I saved for her first birthday.

One year old.
This picture is about 21 months old-the only copy of her 2 yr. pic is still on the wall.
Three years old. Four Years old.
You can scroll down to see her 5 year old picture.

We love you Jordan and are so happy you are in our lives!!

Happy Birthday Ryann!!

Happy Birthday Ryann!!

I tried all afternoon to get a video to load, but seriously, after waiting from like 1:00 or so, until this evening and it had not loaded, I gave up:( I must be doing something wrong!! So I am sorry you are not reading this on your actual birthday!!

Have an awsome day in London and be sure to put up lots of pics:)

My Cuties!!

I took my cuties to get pictures taken yesterday. It wasn't too bad for individual pictures, but getting the group one proved quite challenging. Landon wanted to walk all over the place and Spencer wanted to get into everything. The good thing is that they can stand on the floor and The Picture People now has hand held cameras so they can follow the child.

Here is the best group photo. Jordan is in the fake smile stage... but still so cute!! She will actually pose now! Jordan loves her new dress and wants to wear it all the time.
For some reason Spencer wasn't too into his usual big smiles.
Landon did the best one because she just followed him with the camera.

Dinosaur Park, Ogden Utah

Ogden has a really fun Dinosaur Park. It is hard to describe, so I will let the pictures do the talking. The first set is in the museum they have. There is a room of rocks and gems, which was really cool. Notice the kids looking in the display case on the one picture. We had lots of fun this day, even though it was extremely hot....drank lots of water!!
Jordan saw the bones and said "hey you guys, I found the coolest part." We really enjoye it-especially the part when Spencer tried to pick up a piece of a meteor that was on display. There was an educational building that was really fun.

If you are ever close to Ogden, Dinosaur park is highly recommened.!!