Christmas!

Spencer loved hanging up the ornaments on our Christmas tree and could do it over and over again...

... that's why he got his own Christmas tree he could decorate over and over again.

Cute Gav-man

After Christmas zone

Thanksgiving in Bloomington

We spent Thanksgiving weekend at Brant's sister's, Danille's, new house in Bloomington, Indiana. Thanks, Danille, for letting us take over your house for a few days!

Two beautiful cooks standing by our beautiful Thanksgiving feast!

Ready to eat!

You can see in the background what Spencer was doing during dinner, watching Finding Nemo. Enjoying dinner is a lot easier when you're not trying to coerce a 3 year old to eat yams.

He preferred watching the movie, too.

Spencer got lots of one-on-one time with his favorite aunt.

Gavin and Grandma Pam cuddles

Enjoying some delicious kettle corn with Aunt Danille.

A challening game of checkers

We went to a fun children's museum in Bloomington. Spencer (and Grandma) loved it!

Brothers

Since Gavin loves watching everything Spencer does, Spencer is always excited to do things for him because he knows Gavin will love it. Here he decided to draw a picture for Gavin. It was so sweet.

Spencer had to show Gavin how to use his toy.

This is my kind of camping: inside where there's a heater and a dvd player.
Gavin already has 2 teeth and seems to be working on a 3rd so he's always got something in his mouth. He's still a super happy baby, though.

Spencer's best (pretend) friend is Puppy. He does almost everything with Spencer around the house. Here he is helping out with the sweeping. Puppy needed some refreshment after all that work so Spence shared his drink with him.

Spencer Being Spencer

We just discovered how to upload and embed our YouTube videos, so here's our first attempt...

Spencer was crying (he got hurt somehow), so Brant quickly thought of a "new game" Spencer could play to calm him down.

This one below was just Spencer being a goofball. He made up his own "Pirate Ship Song" that I guess Pirates sing when they can't find their ship...

Happy Halloween!

Arrgh! Spencer the pirate ready for trick-or-treating. Thanks Pam for making the shirt and to Katie and Nicole for letting us borrow the pirate accessories. Spencer was a pirate for 3 days, but now has returned back to his normal self.

Gavin wasn't a big fan of his giraffe costume, but I think he looks super cute.

Out trick-or-treating. Spencer had just been crying because he fell down for the 3rd time. It's hard walking around with a peg leg. Well, he didn't actually have a peg leg, but maybe he was trying to really act the part. It was freezing outside so all of the costumes were covered up by coats. Gavin stayed nice and toasty in the stroller.

Things around the house

Who needs a Mr. Potato Head when you have your own head?
Helping Mommy do the dishes. I actually really do look forward to the day when Spencer's old enough to do my least favorite chore.

We made this fun car garage that Spencer loved playing with. We got the idea from last month's Family Fun magazine. We did a simpler version because Spencer was so excited to play with it.

Fall fun

Brant's parents are almost done with their time as temple president and matron so they are moving down to their permanent home. This is the pond by the temple president's house so we went there a last time with Grandma to feed the ducks. The few ducks in the pond are wary of people so most didn't come close to us. Spencer didn't mind, he just likes to throw the bread in the water. Hopefully the ducks got a good snack after we left.
Friday night we went to a football game at Brant's old high school just for fun. We taught Spencer to say, "Go Bears!" instead of his usual, "Go Buckeyes!" Our cheering wasn't enough for a victory, though.
Spencer came up with his own cheer when someone would get tackled. He would say, "Yes! Good crash!" That was an accurate description.
Spencer loved watching the football players and especially the band. He thought it was awesome that people were walking around playing the drums.
We drove to Kuhlwein's Pumpkin Patch on Saturday with our good friends, the Buskens. We went on a tractor ride, through a corn maze, and then got to pick out pumpkins in the field.
Spencer and two of his best friends, Riley and Lucy.

Spencer did a really good job carrying his pumpkin...

... until he decided it was easier to kick it.

We made a stop at the Bouncy House before leaving the pumpkin patch. Why don't they have those for grown ups?

Gavin in his pumpkin shirt (he wore this approx. 4 minutes before a blow-out occured.)

Spencer likes to get really close to Gavin's face. He really is a great big brother.

The Trejos came over to carve pumpkins. The best one is the one I carved. I'm kidding because I only had about 10 minutes total to clean out and carve mine between feeding Gavin and putting him to bed. I think they all look great. You can see Spencer and Seattle in this picture. They love to play together. Spencer also loves to wear his pumpkin boy costume from last year whenever he gets a chance.

Our little Buckeye turns 3!

Our theme for Spencer's 3rd birthday party was Buckeye football. He was so excited for his birthday. He kept wanting me to sing the happy birthday song to him and he would sing it to himself. Here is a picture of Spencer 'helping' me make cookies for the party.
Brant was the decorations committee and I think he did a great job!
We played a couple of games and this game was called "throw the football through the goal posts". There was no organization to it, but I think the kids had a good time.
Pin the hat on Brutus!
Spencer really got the hang of opening presents and was sad when that came to an end. He loved everything he got so thanks everyone who came!
Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting! Spencer was so happy. I think it was even cooler since it was in the shape of a football.
Our Buckeye family. :)
One of Spencer's favorite presents was a giant puzzle from the Buskens. He loves doing all kinds of puzzles so it was fun to have one as big as he is!
He also loved his food cutting set. I've been wanting to get him this for a long time.

Kite flying

I found a cheapy kite on clearance at the grocery store and Spencer has gotten really good at flying it. I don't think he could ever get tired of it.