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.

Spencer's car caddy

One of my first projects in my attempt to learn how to sew was this little car caddy for Spencer. He loves cars and so I thought this would be perfect to bring to church. He was super excited when I showed it to him and he knew it was for his cars. He keeps putting them in and taking them out. I think he likes that more than driving them on the little road. Spencer's favorite thing to do: play with cars.

Baby number two...

... is a boy!! We are so excited that Spencer will have a little brother. We love all things little boy and I think it's perfect that now we'll have two of them. He was happily moving around when we got to take a peek at him. The doctor said he has really long legs so it's good that he's taking after his dad in that area. We're grateful that all seems well with him and are excited to welcome him to our family in July!

Construction

Spencer got to help Grandpa who's finishing our basement. He loves to help Grandpa and his daddy "make noise" downstairs. We're really excited to have the basement finished and will use it as a big playroom/guest room. We are starting to need a playroom because of all the toys Spencer has been collecting over the last 2 1/2 years. This is his new favorite toy, a Little Tikes shopping cart. I finally found one at a second-hand children's store and he absolutely loves it. He puts his toy cars in it and pushes it around the living room.

Fort

I've heard of taking cushions off of couches to make forts, but Brant just flipped over the couches to make one big, awesome fort. He and Spencer spent hours playing in it.

Here they are watching a movie in the fort. Complete with Froot Loops as a snack.

No girls allowed!