Garden #1

I'm hoping to have several garden posts this season. This is our first step to a bountiful harvest, well, at least a few tomatoes. After we cleared out all of the weeds, Brant built this awesome garden box. My dad says to put down some newspaper or cardboard and then cover with 2 parts potting soil to 1 part manure. That's our project this weekend. We can't actually plant anything outside until mid-May (after the last frost) so we'll just enjoy our dirt for now. After
Before

Easter celebration

It was great that General Conference ended up on Easter Sunday this year. We spent Easter weekend at Brant's parent's house enjoying listening to the prophet and apostles and eating lots of delicious food. Spencer wasn't a big fan of Conference, but he did like his Easter basket and especially loved the Easter egg hunt. In his basket he got a few Curious George things (movie, notebook, stickers), Sally and The King from Cars, and fruit snacks.

Even though Spencer had an Easter basket he much preferred using a sewing basket that he found at home. I guess he likes lifting up the lid and closing it. He usually uses it to store his cars, but since this was a special occasion, he moved out all the cars so he could fill it with eggs.

Grandma and Grandpa were there to help Spencer open the eggs. They were full of little plastic bugs and fruit snacks. We ended up doing the Easter egg hunt a few times and I think Spencer was a little disappointed that there weren't treats in the eggs each time.

Big boy bed!

Spencer was so excited to get his big boy bed! He knows the crib is for the baby and this bed is just for Spencer. He's done a really good job sleeping in it and hardly ever gets out. He has fallen out a few times (that tells you how much he moves around when he sleeps).

It was good to have Spencer around to help build the bed. He made sure all of the screws were tight just in case Brant missed one.

It's crazy that Spencer is getting so big. The first night in his new bed we tried to read books next to him while he laid in bed, but Brant and I decided we weren't ready to give up cuddling Spencer in the rocking chair. Now we always read and cuddle and then he gets in his bed. I don't think I'll ever be ready to give that up.

Zoo

We will be going to the zoo a lot this spring/summer thanks to the zoo pass that Brant's parents got us. Spencer loves it, of course. As soon as we see an animal he says, "Let's go see more animals". He can't get enough of the animals, but luckily the Columbus Zoo has plenty of animals to go around. I love the picture of the kangaroo just lounging around.
Spencer's favorite mode of travel (well, besides running).

Birthday and projects

Brant celebrated the big 2-7 on St. Patrick's Day. I'm not allowed to do green anything so he got some pink frosting on his cake instead. I ordered his favorite pizza for dinner (Donatos' thin crust with pepperoni) and his Mom got him some Guarana (Brazilian soda, his favorite). I made a carrot cake for him and I think Spencer liked it even more than Brant did. Happy Birthday, Honey!

Spencer loves to do anything that his daddy does, even shine shoes! As soon as Brant got his shoe shine kit out, Spencer ran and grabbed his shoes too. We gave him a paper towel and he rubbed away. Both pairs of shoes are looking as good as new.

Now that I have a big chest freezer (thank you, Craigslist!), I have been trying to fill it up with things. My friend, Nicole, showed me how to make 5 loaves of bread at one time-with no kneading! It's a fairly quick recipe and just requires me to be home for a few hours to wait for rising. We generally eat one loaf on the first day since fresh bread is so good and then we freeze the other loaves. I also made some strawberry freezer jam to top our fresh bread.

Springtime weather

Now that the snow has finally stopped we've had great weather! It seems to rain for a few days and then be sunny for a few days. We, of course, love sunny days the best, but don't mind the rain because at least it's not snow! I got a little umbrella for Spencer at a yard sale last fall so I was excited to let him use it. I didn't realize that you have to teach a little guy how to use an umbrella. Spencer kept holding it out to the side instead of over his head. He had a fun time holding it, but was probably wondering why he was still getting wet. He hasn't quite mastered the art of umbrella holding so we'll have to keep practicing.

We've had a few days of absolute perfect weather (i.e. able to play on the lawn without shoes on). We're really looking forward to summer!

Before and After

Spencer's room needed to show a little more of his personality so we changed it up a little bit. Here are some before and after pictures.

I painted the walls a fun shade of green and made the letters for Spencer's name. Spencer loves to spell his name every morning and thought that every word spelled Spencer. He's just now starting to realize that letters can spell different things.

I love having these shelves up so I have to get the toys for Spencer. We just get one or two down at a time and then it doesn't make as big of a mess.

Brant's parents found this train table that someone was just throwing away so we added it to Spencer's room. At first, we tried giving him trains to play with, but he much prefers to play with his cars.

We'll replace the train table with a big boy bed as soon as Spencer is ready. It'll be so fun to have two little boys in this room pretty soon.