Jared in Spencer's Clothes

Jared every now and then shows signs of jealousy of Spencer. His most frequent show is when Chris holds Spencer. Jared does not like Chris to hold Spencer and he lets us know it. He tells Chris to put him down and immediately asks Chris to hold him instead. Just today he tried something new. He wanted to put Spencer's clothes on. I knew they wouldn't fit but I decided he needed to try them on to come to the same realization.

Thumbs Taste Good

At least to my boys! Spencer will be three months old tomorrow and about 2 weeks ago he found his thumb. I love how he's able to pacify himself at night allowing him to sleep longer but I don't know if I should be happy because I have a two-year-old who still sucks his thumb. Chris wants me to pull Spencer's thumb out everytime I hear/see it. I do pull it out quite often, except at night or naps, but I feel like our efforts are futile. Maybe I should try harder but I think I might like it, at least in the early stages. I just hope I don't have to pay for it too much later in braces:)

Like Father Like Son

If you know Chris you'll know that he likes his sugar. I often try to send chocolate with him to school so he won't go spend twice as much at the vending machine. Well, for Jared's first year of life we tried really hard to keep sugar away from him. People would often laugh or ask if we thought that'd do any good. Chris' response would be something like, "I hope, but if he's like me then probably not." Two years later we are finding out Jared is more like his father than in just looks. Many mornings Jared wakes up and one of the first things he says is, "I want candy!" And he has a nose for where candy is! He'll find candy in places I didn't even know it was. Or I hide it in a place I'm sure he'll never find and some how he'll see just a little bit of wrapper. That kid really has a gene in him that is geared towards sugar. The pictures are Jared eating the cookie batter. I turned around for a bit and his mouth was full of cookie dough. What a character!

Track & Mardy

So Mardy, Trent's wife, came down and stayed the night with us on Friday. Jared really liked Mardy and as the above picture shows, so did Spencer. She's going to be a great mom and we can't wait for her baby in April or sooner!

On Saturday morning I went with her and the boys to go watch her brother run in the indoor high school invitational track meet at the Smith Field House at BYU. The boys and I stayed for around three hours and I loved it. It reminded me so much of my high school meets and the feeling of getting ready for the race and almost hating it during the middle and loving it at the end of the race! It made me want to get out and run with them but I would be very embarrassed by my current shape and times that I would produce. I don't think I'll ever be in that great of shape again but I have memories...

A New Year

After a wonderful Christmas break it's back to the real world again; and today felt like it! We came back last Thursday from Idaho but today was when Chris started back up with school with just me and the boys at home. I loved being with family over the holiday and toward the end of my two week visit I was getting ready to have a schedule again and be productive. But today has felt anything but productive.

At the end of my day I have come up with my cons of my Christmas vacation:

• At home I was always cleaning and cooking with someone so it was always enjoyable and never overwhelming. Now I am in an apartment too small that has clutter all over and I'm constantly doing dishes by hand and cleaning up after two boys (it didn't help that Jared wet his pants today throwing in a load of laundry I wasn't planning on doing)


• Over the holiday I ate, and ate, and ate!!! I am now trying to break the bad habit of eating constantly and trying to eat things other than sugar and chocolate! I wanted to start running today and Chris was going to go to the Smith Field House with me and run with me and the boys on the indoor track before classes but he forgot and showered first thing and didn't want to go. So I used that as an excuse and didn't go either, pathetic! Maybe tomorrow.
  
• Now I don't believe in a thing as too much love but Jared definitely got lots of it over the break from family and Chris. Jared LOVES his dad and I love their cute little relationship but after Jared has had a constant taste of his dad for a long period of time he goins through withdrawls when he's gone for long periods of time. (Today I made the mistake of having Jared pray for his dad in our lunch prayer and immediately he started wanting him and I ended up finishing the prayer because Jared was too distracted) (To the contrary of my earlier statement Jared can sometimes get too much of mom and dad as he informed us after being home a day with only mom and dad (no grammys or aunts and uncles) he asked for Nursery!)

I'm sure there could be more things that are negatives towards a holiday break but these are the ones I witnessed because I felt like today was so ineffective for me. But I hate being so negative so I'll end it with a list of the positive things I LOVED about this holiday season:

• Being with family. All of Chris' family was there for Christmas and it was so much fun being together and we did their annual Chinese dinner which is absolutely fabulous (even if Brandon doesn't think so;). And I got to see everyone in my family except for Angela (missed you!) My family borrowed the Meservy's Wii to see if my dad could do some of the games and for New Years we almost missed the New Year but luckily my dad interrupted our game playing to warn us we had five minutes till 12:00. The next day I invited my sisters to come over and play and it was really fun watching non-skilled video game players contest in different games (the next day I heard complaints of sore arms, backs, and even one admitted to a sore bum! he, he, he!)
• This one is on my cons list as well but I enjoyed the food. The whole time I kept saying to myself that I would regret having little self control over my eating but I decided then that I wouldn't care and take care of it later. So I did thoroughly enjoy eating over the break and now I'm trying to take care of it!


• Spencer became less clingy to me. I love how he loves me but when we first got there he would hardly let anyone hold him and it made me sad because everyone wanted to love on him but it's not very fun holding a fussy baby. But by the end he would let people hold them for extended periods of time! And people started to enjoy him more (not that he was never not loved or enjoyed it's just more fun to hold a happy cooing baby if you know what I mean)


• It's fun to give and get. I was excited to give my sister-in-laws their gift of jellies and a shirt. I bought the jellies I think the end of September or beginning of October and couldn't wait to give them. I almost bought me a pair but reminded myself I was shopping for others not me. During the vacation Bailey excitedly showed her jellies to some friends making me feel good! And now we are enjoying the gifts we received, most recently the basketball hoop that is really a family gift that we are all enjoying. Chris taunts me and tells me I'm not athletic which I respond to by taking him down! (literally, he doesn't last in my pin very long though:(


• And this isn't a holiday pro necessarilly but a pro: Spencer gave us his first little chuckle yesterday and a few today. I have to tickle him to get it out of him but it's the warmest, most happiest feeling to hear your child laugh for the first time.

I know there are additional items I could include in my pros list as well but I'll take in consideration of your time and spare you, plus Chris is calling for me to come to FHE. Yeah we're having FHE! Maybe we'll get our new years resolutions written down. (Another con to being away for the holiday, you're having way too much fun with everyone you don't want to set aside time to write down resolutions but hey who said you had to start January 1st!)

Jared, Spencer, and me sporting some of our Christmas attire

So to all those we spent the Holiday with we love you and miss you and really the cons are because we just had way too much fun and now face reality!

I had to add this real quick: I just got off the phone with my sister-in-law Mardy (Trent's wife) and we get to have her stay with us next Friday while she's down for her brother's indoor track meet at BYU. Yeah! My day just got better!

Trent and Mardy

Blessing Day

We blessed Spencer on December 30th in Jerome. It was nice since most of our family was there. All of Chris' family was able to be there and all of mine but my sister Angela and her family so we had a good turn out. Our sacrament meeting was last of the meetings and Spencer was due for a feeding soon after sacrament meeting was to start. So I hurried and fed him ten minutes before so when he was being blessed we were told by one in the circle that he was full of smiles. Spencer, if you know him, is already much of a mama's boy so I was a little nervous he might cry throughout the blessing. The above picture is those who stood in the circle from left to right: Kent Lee, Andy Lewis, Tyson Cook, Papa, Chris, Grandpa, Brandon Minert, Paul Lloyd, and Trent Bingham
After wards we went to Chris' house and had dinner. Jared enjoyed his cousins and I enjoyed having everyone there and visiting.
As I look back now when Spencer is 2 1/2 months old I am already amazed at how fast the time has gone. I knew it would go fast but I am saddened as I am putting away many of his clothes and advancing him into 3-6 month pajamas and clothes. But as I put away his newborn clothes I am gaining a little boy who smiles and coos back to me. So as hard as it is to have my boys grow older and pack away their things I gain joy in watching them progress and learn new things. I'm not sure how they say it but it's something to the effect that when you have children it's like having a piece of your heart in each of them and watching from the outside but experiencing joy and saddness along side them. How rewarding and challenging it is as a parent but how worth it! I love my boys!!!