One of those weekends!

Yep, it's been one of those weekends! It started on Friday- which was definitely the nicest day of the entire MONTH. I'm pretty sure it broke 50 degrees!! I can't tell you for sure though because we never did get outside to enjoy it. The day can pretty much be summed up with Madi having a fever, a trip to the doctor's office, another ear infection, and then running to CVS to pick up more antibiotics. After a cranky Saturday, Madi was finally feeling better this morning. Thank goodness!! Lately, it has seemed as if Madi just waits for Sunday to roll around to get sick or just be cranky! Needless to say, I was relieved to have a happy child at church!

It was lucky that we got to church a little early this morning because as soon as we sat down, one of the bishopric members approached Spencer, asking if he'd be sitting on the stand today!! The confusion on Spencer's face said it all and right away the 2nd counselor knew that Spencer hadn't been informed of his speaking assignment. Oops! Luckily, Spencer's a great "winger". He accepted the speaking assignment, and gave a GREAT talk 30 minutes later!

The whole incident ended up being a blessing because Spencer didn't have to stress about a talk all week. Instead, he spent his weekend putting together his new fly fishing rod (which he's become completely obsessed about). He was up until 1:30am trying knots! According to Spencer, rigging up a fly rod is a complicated process requiring several, complex knots that they don't teach you in Boy Scouts, which have to be learned staring at an illustrated how-to manual. Actually, his knot tying experience made for a good intro to his talk (about overcoming adversity) and now Spencer's got a whole gang of friends at church who want to go fishing with him. Lovely!

First SNOW!!

This morning while I was on my elliptical and Madi was being entertained by Charlotte's Web, I glanced out the window and saw it SNOWING!! That's right, after months of dealing with the bitter cold, we finally got something to get excited about! I know those of you that have plenty of snow probably think I'm crazy for wanting it, but I have been so sick of this cold weather and needing something to make it a little more enjoyable! What better than the first real snowfall of the season! Luckily Madi was a good sport about it and let me shove her into her snowsuit to go stomp around outside!


While the above picture was taken just as the snow started to fall, we got plenty more this afternoon! This picture was taken from our front door while I tried waiting very patiently for Madi to wake up from her nap as I excitedly watched the snow come down!


Unfortunately, Madi wasn't as excited about the snow in the afternoon as she was in the morning. I made her help me make a little snowman before we went back inside though!

Weekend with Papa

This weekend Spencer, Madi and I had the privilege of having my dad here for a visit. He'd been in Florida on business all week and then flew in on Thursday to join us for the weekend. While we wish that we'd been able to fly to Florida to stay with him, we braved the cold weather here in DC and ended up having a GREAT time! Dad put his handy-man skills to use and helped Spencer put up some new curtains in our dining room bay window (energy efficient to keep out those cold drafts), change the the furnace air filter, fix the bathtub faucet, and sand down Spencer's office down so it would close!! For those of you have stayed at our place, you can now open and close the guest room door PERFECTLY! Thanks Dad! Aside from all the projects Spencer and Dad had going on, we had lots of fun relaxing, watching movies, and going on outings like to the Air and Space Museum in Virginia! Madi had a blast checking out all the airplanes!







Thanks Dad for the AWESOME weekend! Come back SOON! We love you!

I DID IT!

I finally finished my first blog book! This was a project I started back in September when I got home from California and I'd just never got around to finishing. When I heard from my sister that Blurb no longer supports blogger, and that she was having trouble uploading her blog, I freaked out and got my book finished that weekend. Luckily it worked for me since I had started my book months ago. Madi's super excited to have her "First Year Book" finished! Now I gotta started working on our family book for 2008. We'll see how long it takes me to do that one!

Back to School

Back to school. . . back to school. . . to prove to Anie that he's no fool!! Just kidding- we already know that Spencer's no dummy! Today was Spencer's first day of classes (or should I say, just one class this afternoon- ya, we're going to like Mondays)! While it's going to be good to get back to our regular schedule and actually feeling productive during the day, I have to say that I'm definitely going to miss lazy afternoons hanging out with Spencer. I'm going to miss our daily naps, game playing in the evenings, and staying up late just because we can!! Best of Luck this semester babe!

13 Weeks

One thing I wish I would have been better at while pregnant with Madi is taking belly pictures each month and noting how I was feeling at each stage. Several times I've found myself wondering, "What did I look like when I was this far along with Madi?" or "How did I feel at this stage with Madi?" So, my monthly posts of belly pictures begin today!! For me this is the stage that I dislike the most. While it's still a little too early to tell that I'm really pregnant, my belly is definitely bigger. My pants are feeling snug around the waist. Standing up is fine, but when I sit down I feel like I've eaten too much and need to unbutton the top button. My shirts are getting pretty snug and when I sit down it just looks like I have a big gut! It's the stage that you don't look pregnant- everyone just thinks you've put on some weight. Plus, my stomach isn't the cute, hard, round belly- it's just pudgy!


Biggest complaints: Being tired and having achy legs. You should see my varicose veins (ya, not the most attractive things)! They've gotten progressively worse each week. I'm going to have to buy compression stockings this time around. My doctor gave me a prescription and when I went to buy them they were $86! Wow! I decided to wait a bit!

She's BACK!!!

After a week of being on Amoxicillin, Madi is officially back to her old self again! Makes me feel a little bad for getting after her about being so cranky! She really had been in a lot of pain! She is now back to eating in her high chair (and actually eating a decent amount of food). We haven't experienced any tantrums since starting on the antibiotics, and she's super sweet and pleasant during the day! YAY!! Welcome Back Madi!!

Happy New Year!

To ring in the New Year, we got together with some friends to PARTY! Thanks Stacie and Scott for providing the venue! We had a great time! After Madi was fast asleep, we kicked off the party playing Scott's new "Guitar Hero" game on his Nintendo Wii. Carl showed off his well-honed rocker skills, Scott demonstrated his huge rocker potential, and Spencer...well he's not quite "Guitar Hero material" (but there is always hope!). Afterwards, we played some intense games (Catch Phrase and Pictionary Man)- pitting the girls against the guys. According to Spencer, "While the girls had their moments where victory was within their grasp, the guys delivered decisive victories in both games!" I'm not so sure about that, but he insists I must have been drinking too much bubbly (Martinelli's Apple Cider) to remember things clearly. Whatever! To top the night off, we joined the always clever and comedic Anderson Cooper on CNN to watch the apple drop in Times Square!! What a whirlwind night it was! Well, maybe not whirlwind, but we sure had a good time just hanging out with our friends. Here's to 2009!!