Andrew is cruising and moving all around the house now. Unfortunately he has bad parents who have not prepared the house for him. He took a tumble down the stairs while I was changing Ryan's diaper. He only made it halfway down before I rescued him. It was so sad! Then, probably not an hour longer, he pulled the Christmas tree down and on top of him. Luckily, our tree is puny, but still, it scratched his face! We have since put up our baby gate and tried to put other dangerous objects away. But he is still our happy baby who smiles all day long!
I also need to mention what he has been doing recently. When Spencer comes home, Ryan has learned to recognize the sound of the key in the door and runs to give him a hug. Now Andrew gets excited when Ryan goes running and I tell him that Daddy is home. He crawls as fast as he can and is smiling and laughing, but then about halfway to the door he stops, puts his head down, and cries! It is a sad cry too, so I feel bad saying that it is cute, but it is! We think that he sees how far he has to go and gets discouraged, and thinks he will never get there! So Spencer comes to him and picks him up and then he is all better. He loves his daddy!

Mommy's Job

When Dixie (Spencer's Mom) came to visit a couple weeks ago, we were asking Ryan a bunch of questions, trying to show off his verbal skills and new words he has learned for Grammy. Our conversation went a little like this:

Erin: "What does Daddy do for work?"

Ryan: "He's an engineer".

Erin: "What does Gramps do for work?"

Ryan: "He's an actuary (I probably spelled that wrong).

Then Dixie asked him her own question, something we haven't talked about before.

Dixie: "What does Mommy do for work?"

Ryan thought about this and then answered, "She cooks ninner (dinner)".

Is that really all he thinks I do??

K is for Kite!

I wanted to post a picture of Ryan's cute preschool group. I take turns teaching preschool to Ryan and 3 of his friends that are in our ward and apartment complex. It's just 2 days a week for 2 hours. We go over a letter each day, and each week focus on a color and shape. The boys love it and I think the Mom's love it even more (especially when they don't have to teach!). I actually don't mind teaching...I like finding ideas (www.preschoolexpress.com, it's great) and coming up with fun things for the boys to do. But even better is when I get to bring Ryan to someone else's house and know that he is going to have a ton of fun, and then I get to go home, put Andrew down for his morning nap, and get 2 hours of peace and quiet...all to myself. You wouldn't believe what I get done in that 2 hours :)

'Tis the Season?

Every year around this time, Spencer and I get into a debate of when to turn the Christmas music on. In my family, we liked to turn it on right after Halloween. Spencer thinks that is, "spitting in the face of Thanksgiving". I like Thanksgiving as much as the next guy, but it's just one day. There isn't much celebration or traditions besides eating the turkey dinner. I wait all year to pull out the Celine Dion Christmas CD and I need to give it as much time as possible. In fact, it is playing right now (spencer is at school). So Spencer and I usually compromise on the music. I listen to it in the car and at home when he is gone, and then I can listen to it openly after Thanksgiving. Is Spencer a Scrooge or am I really, "spitting on the face of Thanksgiving"?

A Good Find

We love where we live for many reasons. One great thing about living here is we have accumulated a lot of free stuff. When people are moving, or just don't want something anymore, they can put it out by the dumpsters and UW will come move it for you. But if it's something good, usually it's gone fast, claimed by a resident. We always look when there is stuff out and usually it is only garbage worthy, but we have come acrossed some good stuff: a chair, bedside table, doormat, card table, VCR (with remote and batteries), and our neighbors gave us their portable dishwasher. Yesterday we got our best find yet. We have been in need of a better stand for our TV, seeing as Ryan knocked ours over the other day and it landed on him! I was pulling into the parking lot and I saw an armoire. It looked great, but sometimes from far away stuff can trick you. So I examined it closer and it was in almost perfect condition. We love it! We are very unsure of why anyone would throw it out! Spencer reattached the doors and it is like brand new.

I also have to mention that my going through the "garbage" is in keeping with family tradition. My Grandpa is known for his walks in which he would go out, usually on garbage day, and save anything good that people had gotten rid of. He would clean it up and either keep it, give it away, or sell it at a big garage sale. My mom has also started collecting things. She got my sister a table and chairs, some toys, and a stroller. Who needs Craigslist when you have garbage day!

Daylight Savings

Daylight savings is no fun anymore. Our kids don't get how awesome it is to turn the clocks back and sleep in an extra hour. They wake up at the same time. Daylight savings is even less fun when you forget about it and show up to church at 9:00 a.m. (which is really 8:00 a.m.) and nobody is there. I would feel really sorry for someone if that happened to them.

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year. It was really fun since Ryan understood it better and was excited to light our pumpkin, decorate Halloween cookies, go trick or treating, dressing up, and all that other good stuff. Spencer has admitted that he doesn't really like Halloween so I have been trying to show him how fun it can be. We made a scary scarecrow which we used at Trunk or Treat and outside of our house on Halloween. I felt a little bad because there were some kids afraid of it. We dressed up as Tweddle Dee and Tweddle Dum for a friends Halloween Party. We look awesome don't we? My mom made those costumes for her and my Dad about 20 years ago and they have gotten very good use over the years. I also dressed up a little when I took Ryan out trick or treating. I just did my hair funny. My old roommates know the secret of that look....I hope that Staci, Sarah, Marcy and Jenny appreciate my hair! Ryan had fun going out trick or treating. He knocked on all the doors and said "trick or treat" and was very polite and would only take 1 piece of candy. We even let him have one piece. But I think that's all he's had. We're not being mean or denying him...he just doesn't ask for it so we don't give it to him! I think Spencer and I finished off his trunk or treating candy in about one night. We were watching the Rockies play and we needed some comfort food!