It's my party...

...on the evening of my 26th birthday we congregated at Brad and Debbie's for yummy food, some interesting cake (usually I love Costco cake, however after this experience I will not be buying another mid-week from the Pocatello Costco), and great conversation.

The Stud lighting my candles.


The singing.
Make a wish...Let them eat cake.
The old man look.The football hold

Who me?

For Deborah

I got old

March, in my opinion, is the best month ever. Spring starts, flowers start blooming, Easter is around the corner...and it is my birthday month. Who doesn't love March? Seriously.

On the 9th, I turned 26. For the celebration we spent the weekend in Rexburg. My sister Stephanie was involved in the BYU-Idaho Wedding Floral Show. (Very Cool!) Lowell has a few cousins in Rexburg. Together it was the perfect recipe for a long weekend.

We stayed with Lowell's cousin Eric and his wonderful family. Lowell roped a few of their kids into singing Happy Birthday to me before they headed off to school.

Annie, Stephanie, and I braved taking 3 kids under 2 to Costa Vida for a fun birthday lunch, while Lowell met-up with friends from Pennsylvania.
Annie and her daughter, cute Miss Emery. (And yes, Spencer is bigger than Emery despite Emery being 3 months older).
Stephanie and Tanner
That evening Lowell's cousin Debbie made a Cafe Rio type meal and we celebrated with Costco birthday cake...however I am still waiting for the pictures from that...hint hint. :)

I dropped off cake to Stephanie who was setting up flowers for the show the next day and her group was way behind. So I roped Annie into joining me and heading up to try to speed things along so Stephanie's group might get some sleep that night. When I told Annie about it she said "You can't keep me away from the flowers" - fitting for her degree in floral design. Fun sisterly bonding.

Saturday morning, Eric's wife Heather made delicious muffins with raspberries and white chocolate chips.

Then we were off to meet up with my family and to go to the floral show. The theme this year was "For the Beauty of the Earth" and Stephanie's group created a room based on the Polynesian Islands with tons of exotic flowers - I may be biased but I liked their room the most. :)

One of Steph's arrangements...I need to get the better pictures from my mom. (hint...hint)
How Tanner went through the flower show...
My whole family...

After the show ended and my family helped with take down - we had a terrible dinner experience at JB's (hey, Rexburg does not have a ton of options for sit down restaurants).

Lowell surprised me with all the balloons marking the door for the entrance to the floral show and Elizabeth made me a beautiful bouquet with leftover flowers.

Sunday we packed up and headed home. Tanner fought sleep the whole way home and finally caved in the last ten minutes - he even stayed asleep when placed on the floor in hopes he would wake-up.


It was a great weekend. Thank you again Eric & Heather for being such great hosts!

And to spread my birthday fun...on Monday I finally received my gift - a new TV. :) Our old one died a few days before my birthday so I said that a new one could be my gift to help so it fit in the budget better. The old one was nice and trusty though - it was a hand-me-down when given to me 8 years ago and survived 2 cross country moves with us!

Toastmasters

So, the other day Lowell was reading the blog and told me I have become one of "those" people who only write about their kids and nothing else. I retorted we just don't do much these days - having a newborn in the winter keeps you inside A LOT - even with a mild winter there are lots of germs.

In an effort to appease him, I will share a little about Lowell. When we moved here last summer, one of Lowell's coworkers convinced him to join Toastmasters International. It is a public speaking club that meets once a week for people to give and evaluate speeches given by other members. In addition to planned speeches, each week there are impromptu speeches called "Table Topics" where someone asks a question and people have to respond. In the spring, the organization begins its round of competitions. Knowing my husband, he had to take part in the competitions. A few weeks ago he won his club's contest and participated in the area contest this past weekend.

He won. Both for his planned speech and the impromptu table topics. He is an amazing speaker and I am so proud of him.
He has one more local competition in April and if he wins that he goes to a contest in Salt Lake in May. After Salt Lake is the international contest in Orlando at the end of the summer. We shall see how far this goes. And, the club appears to be paying off - a few weeks ago he spoke in Sacrament meeting and several people asked if he was involved in public speaking as a career and one even asked if he had heard of Toastmasters because if he hadn't - he definitely needed to join. :)

2 Months

Spencer was 2 months old on March 3rd. We celebrated by participating in a 5k as a family...however more on that in another post.

His 2 month stats (on March 12th):
15lbs 13oz. - >98%
23 1/4 inches long - 60%
43 1/2 cm head - >98% please note he is following after Tanner with a huge head that is off the charts

Spencer has mastered the art of smiling and cooing. It is so fun to get him up in the morning and be greeted with smiles. He also loves sticking out his tongue. He is a very easy going baby and pretty much only cries when hungry or tired. The swing is probably his favorite place other than my arms. He nurses like a champ - I just wish he would take a pacifier. I think we have tried about 5 different types and each one is a no.
Spencer is growing so quickly and adds such joy to our family. It is hard to remember what things were like without him. We love our little (or not so little) Spencer!

Random February

Aunt Stephanie came to meet Spencer. She lived with us right after Tanner was born and felt quite deprived that she had to wait so long to see Spencer.
Tanner learned where the spices were kept and decided to fine tune his cooking skills. (Please note, after several incidents, I no longer have a spice drawer, instead it is a spice counter.)

This time I was asking for it and voluntarily gave him a tub of flour to play with...it was everywhere. :) He has developed quite the love of helping in the kitchen and I can't do anything in the kitchen without him trying to pull up a dining room chair to help. He gets very upset if he can't help and some days when our activity list is short we bake just to keep him occupied.
Tanner also found a new love with the broom. At least he cleans up his messes. :)
Spencer kept growing like a weed and spent time in his bouncer and on the couch.
Some quality time was spent reading.And for once, Tanner actually stayed asleep being taken out of the car. It was a miracle. He ALWAYS wakes up, however we have had sleep issues lately - either not wanting to go to sleep or waking up screaming in the middle of the night. I think he was finally so exhausted that he had no choice but to konk out.