Merry Christmas!

We had a fun Christmas with our little family. Here are some pictures we wanted to share.

The day before Christmas we went snowshoeing and sledding.

Spencer loved his little sled!

The Saturday before Christmas we went a special concert by the Utah Symphony that was for children. Spencer loved dancing to the music.

Brant's parents were in town and so they posed with seven of their ten grandkids. After the symphony we went to Temple Square to look at the lights. Spencer was all bundled up and cute!

Spencer loves the Christmas tree.

Spencer and Brant setting up the train he got from Grandma Bonnie...

...Spencer EATING the train he got from Grandma Bonnie! (This is fairly typical behavior)

Spencer's favorite toy-- a Little Person farmhouse that makes animal sounds.

Spencer couldn't resist playing with the train.

Christmas Time!

We went to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point and got a picture in front of a "reindeer" (or does Brant have antlers?).

Spencer loved seeing all the lights.

He was not so thrilled about seeing Santa Claus. Our friend, Jeremy, dressed up as Santa at a Christmas party we went to.

He was fine with Santa without the beard.

Our little family at a Christmas party.

Spencer is obsessed with our Christmas tree (which is why it is on the bookshelf and not on the floor). He'll stand in the living room and point to it until I turn the lights on. Then he says, "Oh!" and gets really excited.
Two of Spencer's favorite things to do are to play the piano and read. Every time Spencer finds a book he'll bring it to me and say, "Da", which loosely translated means, "Please read this book to me, Mommy."

Sacramento Trip

Spencer and I got to spend a week with my family in Sacramento. Brant had work and school so he couldn't come with us. We went for my brother Ross' wedding. The ceremony was so beautiful and Ross and Kimberly seem so happy. We're really excited for them. I also added a picture of my parents because I think they're so cute.

My brother, Brent, ran a half marathon the day after the wedding. Good job!

Go Cougars!

We got to go to the BYU game yesterday thanks to some free tickets. They played San Diego State and the score was 41 to 12 (BYU). Spencer seemed pretty happy the second half of the game except he was confused by all the screaming. There are some pretty intense fans out there. The weather was absoultely gorgeous!

The week before Halloween we had some friends over for pumpkin carving. We did the BYU one, well, Brant did. Spencer was a giraffe for Halloween, but I didn't get a picture. I'll think I'll have to dress him up again so I can document how cute he is in it.

It's official...we're headed to Ohio

Brant got his official offer from PricewaterhouseCoopers in Columbus, Ohio starting next fall! We're really excited that we're finally seeing the light at the end of the school tunnel. Brant's parents live in Columbus so that will be nice to be close to them. Also, I'm excited to live so close to the east coast where there are so many exciting places to visit.

We got Spencer a new car seat and his favorite thing to play with was the big box it came in.

He's just so cute!

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Spencer turned one on Monday! We had a little party and Spence got a big piece of cake. He usually doesn't get sweets so he kept looking at us like, "Can I really eat this?" It was so fun watching him stuff his face and the next day he didn't even have a tummy ache.

We love Saturdays!

Brant doesn't work on Saturdays anymore so we have time to do some more family things. This Saturday we did our first family 5K. Brant says it will be our last. Spencer did a great job and seemed really happy in the running stroller.

Saturday afternoon we drove up to Salt Lake to go to the circus! We went with our friends Jeremy and Amanda. None of us had been in a long time (or at all) and we were surprised at how cool it was. Brant's favorite part was the acrobats and mine was an elephant doing a headstand. Spencer loved the lights and was wide eyed during most of the show. He was also dancing to the music which was pretty cute.

Birthday card rock out

Spencer got an early birthday card from Uncle Brent and Aunt Danielle. He loves rocking out to it. We think it's adorable.

How we spent the end of the summer...

This summer we got season passes to Seven Peaks, a water park close to our house. We probably went about a dozen times. Spencer loves the water and Brant and I had a lot of fun too. Our favorite spots were the wave pool and the lazy river. We went on a few of the waterslides (the not so scary ones) and Brant even took Spencer down a few. He was not amused, but didn't seem to mind them.


A couple of weeks ago, Brant's sister, Danille, stayed with us. We don't get to see her too often so it was good to catch up. Brant even took a day off of work so we could go on a tour at the Humanitarian Center in Salt Lake and hiking up Big Cotton Wood Canyon.

Spencer also helped me with some chores (sweeping and the laundry) and had lots of fun playing with his toys.

Camping!

Spencer tried his first s'more while we were camping Friday and Saturday with Brant's brother's family and his sister's family at Cedar Breaks. That was probably his favorite part of the trip. He did like the hike we took, but wasn't very fond of the canoe trip. He's cut off in the picture with his cousin holding him in the canoe, but he wasn't smiling until we got further from shore. It was a really fun trip.

A Day of Firsts!

Today Spencer tried out a lot of new things. He crawled for the first time! He's been working on that for a few months, but kept falling on his belly. He also figured out how to put the blocks in his giraffe toy to make the music play. It was exciting to see him using his cognitive decision making abilities. That's what Brant said at least. :)

Another first we experienced today was not so happy. While sitting next to me on the couch, he tried to crawl off of the couch resulting in his lip smashing against the corner of the coffee table. Though Spencer was screaming, Brant and I were almost more freaked out than he was because this was our first experience with a baby injury. I guess it's appropriate that it's the first day he's mobile. He stopped bleeding after a couple of minutes and now just has a fat lip to show for it. It's really sad to see, but he's a good sport.