Pictures of my Kids (sort of)

So I have managed to continue to neglect my blog. Fortunately my sisters are much better at keeping up theirs. Catherine was so wonderful and came down about 3 weeks ago to my house one afternoon to take pictures of Gwen and Lanie. They turned out really well. I'm so grateful to have talented family members, I benefit so much!

Catherine put up several of the pictures on Homehinges.com for anyone who is interested in seeing them. Here are direct links...

http://homehinges.com/2011/12/14/photoshoot-baby-sprite/
http://homehinges.com/2011/12/15/photoshoot-set-up-and-sparrow/ As a disclaimer for this second set of pictures, don't judge me too harshly for the fact that Lanie's face and hair were messy and she didn't get dressed until 2:30 in the afternoon. Sometimes you have to pick your battles and with a child so strong-willed as Lanie you learn to embrace the "savageness."
http://homehinges.com/2011/12/16/photoshoot-group-shots/

I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Gwenli Speirs is Here!

I of course am very late in posting pictures and getting the new out, but last Monday, Nov 28, 2011 Gwen was born at 1:39 pm. She weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and was 18.5 inches long. Everything went so smoothly, we had a great experience. I’ll have to write the whole story later, but here are some pics of the last week.

Me, just before having Gwen. I was getting pretty big!

Lanie’s 2nd birthday was the day before Gwen was born. She had a pink princess cake and Loved it! She was so spoiled by her grandparents and aunts and uncles on both sides of the family.

Gwen right after she was born, or at least right after the bath. I decided to spare you the messy pics before.

Lanie’s first time meeting Gwen. Lanie has adjusted so well. Thus far she is generally just concerned for Gwen and always wants to help out.

Close up!

Tummy Time!

Big News

I know I have completely neglected the blog for way too long. I have put it off because it takes so long to post pictures and then everything piles up and i feel like I will never be caught up with blogging again. So I just don't do it.

I was going to wait to post on the blog in December to let the world know that we are having our second baby! But I decided some people might want to know before then. So here's the news; we are having baby #2 and we just found out that it's another girl!

This little one is due December 1, 2011 which puts her exactly 2 years apart from Lanie. I feel so relaxed about this baby because I don't have to worry about getting any clothes or supplies. We already have everything we need from Lanie. The only thing that we do need to worry about is getting Lanie a bed. We're thinking bunk-beds that can come apart and just be a twin bed until #2 is old enough to be in a big bed. So keep your eyes peeled for any good deals everyone! So far ksl.com has had decent but still somewhat pricey beds, or maybe i am just being cheap.

Well, as for what else we have been up to, life has been great. This summer has really been fun and relaxing. We got a season pass to the water park and Lanie is finally becoming a little more brave in the water. We have taken her on a few of the slides and while i feel horrible doing it - she can get a little scared once we are up at the top (on one occasion she said 'no mama, no mama, no mama' the whole way down) she is a GREAT sport and will even say "yay" (with minimal enthusiasm) at the bottom. In fact, I think she is just saying it because she is glad she didn't die on the way down. :)

We went to Lake Powell with James' family two weeks ago and had a great time. I was worried what it would be like having a 19 month old on a house boat and near the water for a week, but it actually turned out fairly well. By the end I was glad to be home though and let her wander away from me in the house without me having to freak out.

Here are a few pictures while we were there.

 

Over the last month Lanie has suddenly become such a talker. She is less hesitant to try out new words and I am starting to loose track of how many she can say. Several of them we didn't even intentionally teach her but she just picked them up herself such as 'yellow" and "I'm hungry (hunry)" She can say cup, wa-wa (water), hot, cold brrr, I want, purple, owie, oh no (one of her favorites), bebe (baby), dolly, weee (when she wants to swing) mama, dadda, bye-bye yu you (bye bye love you) and many more that i just can't think of right now. Some of her favorite animal noises are pig (she really snorts), elephant (she puts her hand to her nose and everything), horse, snake, monkey, etc.

One funnything is that Lanie loves loves loves her dollies and blankies. She is usually carrying around one or the other. (see pictures above and below)She also loves accessories (as you can tell she wore her sunglasses a lot during Lake Powell). We had to run to the mall to make a return and she insisted on wearing her sunglasses, carrying her purse (an old one of mine) and having a little stuffed dog in the purse with the head poking out. She looked like such a diva I wish i had gotten a picture! Everyone at the mall commented on how cute she was.

A few things we have been up to…

A friend of mine brought it to my attention that I haven’t posted in a very long time so I thought I would just share a few pictures to catch you all up to date seeing as I haven’t posted any pictures since our trip to D.C. in September.

James had his 30th b-day with an awesome cake I decorated to look like an old school nintendo controller.

Lanie was as cute as ever.

Lanie went trick or treating with her cousins and she was a sheep.

 Lanie turned 1 and ate her cupcake very daintily.

We drove down to AZ on Christmas morning (I had to work on Christmas Eve). While we were there my Sis-in-Law took some great pics.

 

 

  This kid has cute curly hair, but when she wakes up from a nap it tends to go a little crazy!

Lanie’s first pony tail

This little girl loves to “help with dishes”

 

Though sometimes she can get herself into tight spots.Here she was supposed to be drying this bowl.I am also surprised at how much she LOVES to accessorize. She loves purses, phones, and wallets! 

Helping dad fix the computer.

My Dad has been helping us open up our porch. If you knew what it looked like before you would say even these pictures are an improvement. :)

Home Hinges Giveaway!

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to let you know that at our blog homehinges.com there is a giveaway going on for a professionally painted picture of SANTA! No, really, this is beautiful and you have to come enter to win this gorgeous piece. I want it so bad, but I can't enter, so all of you had better. Just click here and follow the directions at the bottom of the post.

There are 4 ways to win and the giveaway ends Wednesday, December 15 at midnight! So hurry, hurry, hurry.

Washington DC

In September we took a trip out to Washington DC. It was such a blast and I feel bad that I am just now blogging about it. James had a work conference out there. Work paid for his ticket and hotel for the first few days and with that I had to go. So it ended up being the cost of my ticket, the second hotel (because we decided to stay about 4 extra days) and food. All in all it was still somewhat expensive but totally worth it.

The first two days Lanie and I were on our own while James was at his work conference. We spent the days getting lost, finding the Woodrow Wilson house (beautiful), visiting the textile museum (not very exciting - they were under construction) then we got lost again (turns out we were walking in a huge circle for about an hour and a half), and then we went to down town DC where we visited the Botanical Gardens (Beautiful).

As you can see, Lanie was thrilled. Actually it was very interesting and the history is even more interesting. I would suggest to everyone reading or listening to the book Sea of Glory by Nathaniel Philbrick.
One room was dedicated completely to orchids. They were gorgeous and these pictures don't do them any justice. Some of them were huge!

Cute baby! She was so good.

Then we visited the American Indian Smithsonian (I loved how pretty much ALL of the attractions and museums were free - pretty awesome).


The next day Lanie and I went to old town Georgetown. It was quaint and had lots of shopping. We enjoyed a little of that and also visited "The Old Stone House" built in 1765 which is the oldest standing house in Washington DC (according to Wikipedia). It had a great garden and was a cute little building but the upstairs were somewhat dark. The downstairs used to be a shop and the upstairs were the living quarters.


After this Lanie and I went to Arlington National Cemetery. This is such a humbling place. We had to hurry and only got to see a small portion of it, but I am amazed at all the people who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

Lanie was such a good trooper. She spent so much time in the stroller and hardly complained, until the last two days. Every once in a while we could find a nice spot that she could crawl around at. She loved getting out of the stroller.

She was had a hard time staying awake at the cemetery. But at least she was there. And to think this is a teeny tiny portion of the cemetery. It is pretty awe inspiring to see the rows and rows of white headstones.

Here Lanie is at JFK and Jackie Kennedy's graves. She was thrilled.

Next we hurried up to Robert E. Lee's house which is at the top of a gorgeous hill at Arlington. Interesting fact is that Arlington Cemetery used to be land owned by General Lee of the South. It was so surprising to me that from his house you got a perfect view of Washington D.C. His house looks so impressive from the outside, but I was surprised at how small it was on the inside comparatively. The porch seems very disproportionate. The house was being completely renovated so there was no furniture and was very dirty and Lanie and I couldn't go upstairs because I wasn't allowed to leave the stroller. Oh well. I guess I probably didn't miss too much up there.

There were some very pretty roses in the garden and one plus for having been the South's General was that everyday that he could, Lee would go out to the garden and pick roses and then at dinner would give the smallest to his youngest, the next smallest to his second-to-youngest and so on until his wife who got the largest rose.

After that visit Lanie and I hurried back to the hotel to get James, grab dinner and then pick up some cupcakes from "Georgetown Cupcake" the home of the TLC show "DC Cupcakes." I had read that it is best to order the cupcakes early and then pick them up rather than waiting outside in line. What I had heard was right. The cupcakes were good but not worth waiting in line for. But it was fun to get to see the shop that the show takes place in. Too bad I really don't watch the show. Oh well, it was an excuse for cupcakes. (I don't know why I didn't get a picture - except that it might have been because I accidentally dropped the box and squished the cupcakes - I wish I wasn't a ditz. They were still tasty).


Niel joined us coming all the way down from Philadelphia. He and I toured our hotel (where Ronald Regan was shot in 1981).

Don't worry- he lived. ;)

Then Niel, Lanie, and I got to walk around and explore the area of Dupont Circle. It was a fun and popular place for a Friday evening. Sadly, James had some work to do. I'll have to update you on the rest of the trip soon.