A Very Batman Birthday!

turned 4! He still has a love for Spiderman, but he has recently taken a liking to Batman, and all other superheros. JJ was with me when I ordered his balloons, he chose Batman. Spencer and I decided to get him a Batman costume for his present, he is always in and out of some disguise, so we knew he would love it! Grandma Shauna picked out a set of Batman figures and a Batmobile that can turn into a Batjet. He loved it! I also got him Batman and Spiderman cake toppers.

We found JJ in his room making his Bat shadow. Cool!

For his Birthday we went to the park and went sledding, we had a lot of fun! That was the first time Eva had been. Later Spencer and JJ went to Alvin and the Chipmunks, he really enjoys one on one time with his Dad! Later we went to the Golden Corral for our annual Spry family dinner. We all sang to JJ, and the kids sat at the Birthday table, he had a good time! Thanks to everyone for helping us celebrate his birthday!

Christmas

Christmas was really exciting this year. JJ loved everything about Christmas. He enjoyed helping put up the decorations (and has aready complained about taking them down). He loved eating a chocolate everyday from the advent calendar. JJ has learned lots of Christmas songs, and now sings along. We read and re-read all of our Christmas books throughout the season. We are really going to miss Christmas.

Christmas Eve was a lot of fun. During the day we got our Thomas the tank engine, and set it up around the Christmas tree. JJ was delighted, he had so much fun. It nearly drove me crazy. Listening to it sqeak all day. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen, we had both sets of Grandparents over for dinner. I made ham, potatoes, rolls, the works. Yum! It was really special to have them over. As with many families, we always got pj's on Christmas Eve, keeping with tradition we all got pj's. I also made blankets for the kids, JJ got a Spiderman one, he was so excited. He asked me, "Mom, will you never throw my blanket away?" I thought that was cute! After presents both Grandma's, Mom, and Dad read JJ a story. Then Grandpa John told us the story of Jesus, and Grandpa Del resighted a poem. It filled our home with the Christmas spirit, and we are grateful they could be a part of it! JJ was so eager for Santa Clause to come that after the Grandparents left he ran staight to bed. Spencer and I got in trouble for not getting to bed quickly.

JJ got Spike from Santa Clause, and at first was a little scared. We had him "bite" himself with "Dini", and was no linger scared. Eva is still scared, but will pet "Dini" when he is turned off. Eva got a stroller and a doll. We borrowed Grandma's stoller a long time ago, and has loved it, now we can give it back. We have had a doll in the toy box, one that she's never cared for, but the doll that she got for Christmas she has taken a liking to.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Random

JJ has a very particular way of drawing, he draws long lines in intersting patterns. One day I noticed that he also walks that way in the snow. After the last snow storm JJ and I went over to the park and went tubing. When he had enough of tubing he started making his designs, I think it's cool, I'd love to see how his little mind works!

I love the view from our park!

Eva is talking talking talking! I just wanted to share a few Eva-isms.

Shee=Blankie

Tee=Teeth

Sho=Help

Eva loves to read books, but she does not like you to read them to her. She simply wants to sit on your lap and look at a book. She also really likes to play "Go" thats what she says when you put a blanket over her head, because I'll ask, "Where did she go?" She is such a cutie!

Let the party begin...

I turned 30 last Saturday. Reason to celebrerate? Well we did. Spencer decided to throw me a big surprise party. Wow! I still can't get over it. It was a great party! Thanks for everyone that came, and I want to especially thank those that helped out. Spencer was very good at delegating the responcibilities, from what I hear, and I know you guys worked very hard to pull this off. The food was great! Spencer hired a dj and we sang karioki (that was a great touch)! My sister made a beautiful (huge) bouquet of flowers, and another sister picked up a massive ammount of balloons. Thanks again for all the hard work!

December is full of Birthdays, just in our families are myself (obviously), Jason, Grandpa John, Grandpa Del, Avery, and JJ. Yesturday was JJ's last preschool day for the year, so we celebrated his Birthday. JJ was so excited and he felt really special, he got a Birthday crown and birthday sticker, he got to pick out a surprise, and most importantly he got to be the line leader all day! It was a great day! We also celerbrated Christmas yesturday, they played bingo, decorated sugar cookies, and made some ornaments. JJ loves preschool so much, and we are grateful that he has such a good teacher, and he loves his classmates!

Sunday Spencer was out shoveling snow and JJ had been out with him. JJ comes upstairs and asks me to help him bring up Dad's present. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I went downstairs with him, and there was a gingerbread house kit sitting there with the unwrapped paper. I peeked my head out to ask Spencer about it, and he was just as surprised to see that it had been unwrapped. Needless to say I will not be putting any Christmas presents out this year until Christmas. Our neighboors had given us the gingerbread house, that was very nice. So we ended up putting that together Sunday night, it was a lot of fun. The little kids and the not so little kids all enjoyed snitching the candy! JJ was by far the most dedicated decorator, he also ate a ton of frosting, he had a serious melt down that night after the sugar high.

It's the holiday season...

hanksgiving has come and gone. Ryan and Jessica came for Thanksgiving, we really enjoyed spending lots of time with them! It was so much fun to see their little guy, Payton. Adorable!!! JJ and Eva really loved to see hime too! We had family pictures taken while they were here:

JJ and I put up decorations last Sunday. He loved playing with everything, but especially the "Cracker Nut", that's what he said. I kept correcting him though, so he says Nut Cracker now, I kinda wished I hadn't done that, it was so cute! I was trying to find a problem with the lights and wham I got shocked. Pre-lite Christmas trees are great, but it sucks when one of the strands goes out, I was feeling from light bulb to light bulb to see if one was loose, that's when my thumb got zapped. The glass was broken the insides of the bulb was what did it. :(

Last week was the Festival of Trees. I think this is the 8th year my family has participated. This years tree was "Once there was a snowman". JJ really loved to see all the trees and we even got to visit with Santa Clause, Eva wasn't so thrilled about that!

The cute things they say...

JJ is good at memorization. I can read a book to him twice and he'll have memorized several lines. His latest and greatest is from a Spider man book (of course), but the funny part is that he recites it in his prayers. It goes: "Dear Heavenly Father thank you for this day. Please bless our family. Bless that with great power comes great responsiblity, being Spiderman is an important job, and nothing can get in his way. Please bless our food. In the name... Grandma and Grandpa got to hear it last Saturday, they got a real kick out of it! Sunday was the primary program. He said, "All of you are children of the most high." He did it all by himself, he said it loud and clear, we were really proud of him!
We recently started doing reading lessons with him. The other day I was stopped in traffic and he said to me, "Mom, I just read east." Wow, I was amazed, it's paying off. He is by no means reading all his story books, but he is learning to sound words out. We are using the book Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons by: Siegfried Engelmann. I would totally reccomend it! My sister did it with her kids, and they were all reading before Kindergarten.

Eva has become quite the busy body, and chatter box. She is a hand full! Sometimes she drives me crazy, lucky for her she is so charming! One cheesy smile an all is well. Everyday she'll run to the cubard get a cup and then runs to the fridge saying wa wa (water). I was thinking today when she did that how big she is getting. I've been trying to keep a list of the words she says right now, there are over 30 words, and counting. I swear she picks up on a new word every day.

I love my kiddos! They make life so much fun!!!

It's been a while...

Spencer has commondeered my computer. I use his computer, but I don't like to download pictures onto it. I've managed to get my hands on my computer, so here are some new pics:

This was from our first snow storm. Spencer suggested that we buy JJ his own snow shovel. Genius! JJ loved it! It's perfect for clearing the stairs too- bonus!

JJ got to go the bounce house as a reward. Check out Spidey, always using his web shooter!

Halloween was great. A lot of the adults dressed up this year, so it was a lot of fun. I have never seen Grandma Shauna dress up, so that was a treat! But the best part of all was that Spencer dressed up as the black Spiderman, that made JJ's day. Oh, and the gun Uncle Jeff gave him.

No!

Lately Eva's vocabulary has increased a lot. But for the last few days she's taken a liking to NO. Oh no!!! We were at the park today and I asked her is she wanted to slide, she said, "No". Boy was I surprised, she's been saying no, but not really in response to a question. Eva still uses sign language, so we can usually figure out what she wants. The cutest thing is when she wants water, she giggles the whole time it takes to get it to her, I think because she is so happy we figured out what she was communicating.

This week I took down the gates on the stairs, they had become useless. She could get them open, and she has learned to navigate the stairs pretty well, so the gates came down. My baby is turning into a toddler. Aaaahhhhhhhhh!!!

Watch out Firefighter, Spiderman cometh.

JJ used to be obsessed with Firefighters, but recently he's all about Superhero's especially Spiderman. JJ want's to read Spiderman books, play Spiderman, wear his Spiderman costume, and he frequently asks if he can go to Grandma Shauna's to watch Spiderman. JJ says to me, "No body knows I'm really Spiderman, except you, Dad, and Eva." I think it's so cute, I would love to get a look into his mind, he has an incredible imagination!

Everyday Moments

JJ has been into Spider Man for sometime now, he's always pretending to be Spider Man. Yesterday told me that he would be Spider man and Eva would be Batman. My Mom made JJ a cape, which he insisted Eva wear, because Spider man doesn't wear a cape. Turns out that Eva loved the cape. They were so cute running all over the house, JJ capturing all the bad guys, and Eva having fun casing after JJ. BTW- we picked up a Spider man costume for Halloween today. JJ's loving it!

Here Dad got in on the action.

Kris Kross 'll make ya Jump Jump!

and finally, Spencer will put the kids on top of the fridge, and we'll say, "I thought I told you not to get on the fridge." JJ loves it. When Spencer put Eva up there she thought it was great, but didn't get giggly until he tickled her toes.