Keeping the faith.

Tonight I have had a few moments to reflect on the past month - especially since it is new years eve tomorrow. December has been one of the most trying times in Spencer and my 2.5 years of marriage. We have had family members very ill (yes, we count Allie our puppy, as a family member), a job lay off, car problems, and constant stresses this month. Today was an especially tough day, where we just couldn't wait for the day to end.

But as I think about it, my marriage is the strongest its ever been, as is our bond, our friendship, and our respect for one another. With each new challenge, Spencer and I rise to the occasion and take it on together.  I am grateful for my father in heaven, who knows that without trials, we do not learn. But with love, patience and understanding, we can over come whatever trials come our way. As I knelt with Spencer to say a prayer before going to bed tonight, it was all I could do to keep from crying. But as we finished, I felt such a peace in my heart, and I knew that everything will be okay. I KNEW it - which is such a comfort. I am so grateful for my husband and son, and for our very supportive family members. You all are very near and dear to our hearts.

When I looked up at Spencer today, and told him I was scared, he smiled, kissed me on my head and told me to look at our little boy who was sitting in his high chair. He smiled such a smile as to melt my heart. Almost like he was letting me know "its okay mom, everything is going to work out right"

My heart is very full tonight, and I feel very humble, grateful and blessed. I know tomorrow will be an even better day.

My favorite Christmas song

Today was our ward christmas program in church. During the program, one of the brothers got up and sang a solo of "O Holy Night". It was gorgeous. This song is my very favorite christmas song. I just wanted to take the time to put the lyrics here - even the words give me goose bumps... "

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,

It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

'Til He appear'd and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees! O, hear the angels' voices!

O night divine, O night when Christ was born;

O night divine, O night, O night Divine.

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming,

With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.

So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,

Here come the wise men from Orient land.

The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger;

In all our trials born to be our friend.

He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger,

Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend!

Behold your King, Behold your King.

Truly He taught us to love one another;

His law is love and His gospel is peace.

Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;

And in His name all oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,

Let all within us praise His holy name.

Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,

His power and glory evermore proclaim.

His power and glory evermore proclaim.

Our puppy, Allie

Allie has been sick for the past week :( Over this past weekend, she vomited all over the house about a dozen times, and we ended up hospitalizing her where I work - with IV fluids and everything. I brought her home on Monday night and she seemed to be back to her old self. But yesterday, she had diarrhea all over our living room carpet. (sigh) So after cleaning that up, we kept her in her crate, but then during the night, she woke up three times, howling in her crate and pawing at it to get out. So each time I took her outside, she got sick. Finally at 3:50am, I called work and they told me I needed to bring her in and rehospitalize her since  she was getting worse. So I took her to work at 4am and shegot hooked back up to IV fluids and antibiotics. She will be staying there through the weekend now.  Hopefully they will figure out what is wrong with our puppy...

My christmas present :)

This is my Christmas present from Spencer - the star sapphire pendant with a diamond on top. The star from the light is absolutely brilliant. My hubby has such good taste :)

Our Family

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Christmas Cards

I'm pretty proud of myself - with all that is going on, I have actually just about finished doing all of our christmas cards!

The past couple weeks have been hectic - I've been sick for two weeks, and poor little James has been sick. Feels like so much running around, and so much to do. I'm haven't been to the gym in two weeks, and I'm hoping to get there next week now that I am feeling better!

Over the weekend Spencer and I are going to decorate for christmas - I am VERY excited about that :) For the first time ever, we are going to get a real wreath and garland complete with the wonderful spell of pine - yummy!! I am excited to put up our tree, but I am wondering what little James will do to it. The living room is his domain - we have surrendered it to him. But how do we keep him away from the shiny lights and colorful things that is a christmas tree? hmmm...suggestions are welcome!

Christmas is my all time favorite holiday - so many smells and memories. I still think of my mom's christmas potoppurri (I know I didn't spell that right!!) that would fill my childhood home with an amazing scent. So far the only thing that I feel comes close to that scent is Yankee candles "Mistletoe". I love cold days and evenings being with my family - cuddled up on our couch. I love how we all fit on it - Spencer, me, James and Allie, all snuggled together watching TV. I love picking up my little boy, because he is always so warm - especially after naps. Those rosey cheeks are wonderful! That sleepy little face makes me melt every time. I love the soft glow of christmas lights from our tree - I am determined to put up lots of christmas lights this year :) *sigh* ahhhh Christmas :)

Last night, Spencer gave me an early christmas present. Its a star sapphire pendant with a diamond on top, set in white gold. Its gorgeous! He is determined to give me something sparkly each year. :) As has been our strange custom with jewelry purchases, both of us were there to design the piece.  The jeweler called last night while I was napping to let Specner know the pendant was done and he couldn't wait another month to show it to me so we just called it a Thanksgiving present. The sapphire came from a ring that he had bought on a trip with his Dad - it has lots of sentimental value and he has always loved the stone. Last year he melted down the gold from the ring to be able to buy me earrings, but the stone was saved. Since I have always admired the stone, he had it made into a pendant so I could wear it. If you aren't familiar with a star sapphire, its a dark blue stone, that when it catches the light, a bright star beams off it. Its so pretty :) I love my hubby. He is so thoughtful and I am so grateful for such a beautiful present :)

Well thats all for now :) Sorry I haven't updated the blog in so long - I don't know how time escapes me these days!

Busy little boy!

Here is a video of our little boy trying to climb out of his pack n play. Here comes trouble!!

More mobile than we thought...

Hold the phone...our son is standing.

Tonight Spencer called me at work and told me that when he went to get James from his crib after a nap, he saw quite a sight. James, bless his heart, was STANDING in his crib in the corner.
Then, while he was downstairs in the living room (we have had to baby gate off the kitchen - he races towards Allie's food bowl) he pulled himself to his kness, and then to his feet and stood and played with his exersaucer.

Oh boy....Here comes trouble....

Updated

I finally got around to updating our blog - it looks so cheerfully fall! Its fabulous :)

Pumpkin carving!!

Today we decided that we would have a fun BBQ kabob dinner, followed by pumpkin carving! It was brisk and chilly outside - but the sun was warm and we had a blast :)

How I love this man!!

Little James enjoying the fresh air :)

Getting ready...

We modeled the pumpkin after James and his two teeth!

Mmm....digging out the pumpking guts

Hehehe :) I was a little too into it :-P

James having a blast watching mom and dad - next year maybe he can help!

Let the carving begin!

Looking cooler every second!

Done! Aren't the two teeth adorable?? It looks just like James when he is giggling!

All lit up!! Happy Halloween!!!

Quote

As Spencer and I were watching TV tonight, there was a quote we both enjoyed from a movie.

"Your life is an occasion. Rise to it."

Well put in our opinion :)

Trunk or treat!

Last night Spencer, my brother William and I went to our ward's Trunk or Treat! It was a blast! Spencer and William turned the nursery room into a spooky haunted room and handed out candy - complete with dry ice and everything! There was also a cake walk, two moonbounces in the gym, hanging donut games, hot dogs and french fries to feed hundreds, LOTS of candy, and wonderful friends :) 

I found some AWESOME tights from target - paired them with a huge black dress (from the maternity wardrobe!) and a hat from party city, plus an explosion of eye shadow :-P

Enjoy the pictures!

The "haunted" room :)

A fun fall day!

Today Spencer. James and I went to The Maize at Temple Hall Farm Regional Park. Its a 14 acre corn stalk maze in Leesburg, VA! It was the PERFECT day for a corn maze! 58 degrees, windy, sunny with perfect blue skies. Gorgeous fall day! Here is an aerial picture of it...

Its HUGE!! Apparently, there are 10 makers in the maze. We made it to the first 6!! And then we came back to marker 6.....four times. We decided then that we would leave the maze. As we were looking for the emergency exit (there are many throughout the maze), we overheard a woman and her daughter having a conversation... It went like this... "Mom, why are there emergency exits?" And the wise mom answered, "Its for people who don't know their bible verses." Hahahaha :) So random. After the maze, we went to the pumpkin patch and looked through hundreds of pumpkins. Then we walked back to pay for our pumpkin and get some funnel cake. Which they were out of!! grr... We did end up going to Baja Fresh though, and had a fun early dinner :)

Here are some fun pictures from the day :)

At the pumpkin patch :)

James, our little mashmellow, on Daddy's back bundled up.
Getting ready to go to the maze
The family :)
That's all for now!

New pictures!

Waking up from a nap...If you look closely, you can see his little white tooth peaking up over his bottom lip on the left.

Looking very cute and cozy :) "Hi Mommy!! I'm sleepy, but I'm awake!!"
The determined face he has when hes crawling...
Action shot...
And he goes for it!!!
Standing with the help of his exersaucer...
Don't get too excited - he topples after about a minute of this...
He loves his exersaucer!
Thats all for now!!! 

(Sara!! Lissy!!! hope you like the new pictures!!! Love you both!!)

Oh the tush!!

For the past 2 weeks, we have found that James has his OWN ideas about how he would like to sleep in his crib. I can't think of anything cuter than his little butt sticking up in the air each morning with his head burrowed into the crib bumper. Then, when he wakes up, his cheeks are all rosey and he has such a sleepy face. SO cute it just about kills me! Last night he slept from 10pm to 8:30am. The longest unbroken stretch ever, and when I went to check on him, I had to take a picture....low and behold..the little tush was in the air yet again.


He had his 6 month check up yesterday - he's almost 18 pounds!! Amazing!! He also has a 2nd tooth coming in! He is crawling, sitting up by himself and just as busy as can be. I guess the upside of that is he wear himself out faster and sleeps better!

Cake Wrecks

My sister, Sara got me hooked on this blog site called "Cake Wrecks." Honestly, if you are ever in need of a good laugh, this site is hysterical! I can't help but laugh at the humor of some of the weirdest looking cake decorations, along with their stories!

Here is the link to this awesome blog. Enjoy!!

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

He's mobile!...well almost.

Today James took his first steps toward a much larger world for him and a much crazier world for us. Well they may not have literally been steps, more like a crawling-lunges, but James had his heart set on reaching our TV remote that was 5 feet in front of him. We couldn't get James to crawl for anything else but once the remote was placed on the floor there was no stopping him.

Now we are not sure where James’ love for electronics started but we believe that Grandpa Boulter is to blame. As seen from this incriminating photo taken back in July, we believe that it was this first experience with grandpa’s fancy remote that corrupted him forever. In order to keep James from changing the channel while Spencer is watching Smallville we have provided James with his very own baby controller.

Over the past few weeks we have enjoyed watching James roll across the living room till he hits an object bigger then him. This movement has cause us little concern, as he whole body is still in direct contact with the floor at all times. However, within the past week James must have gotten bored in his crib during the night and has learned to pull himself up onto the crib rail. Imagine our shockwaking up one morning to a child who is no longer in the position in which we left him, but is smiling up at us from a kneeling position with an expression of “look what I can do now.” We thought this new surprise (which required us to lower the crib last week) would be the only excitement this month, it looks like its almost time to bring out the old baby gates.

Hey everybody!

Just wanted to let everyone know that there shouldn't be any more sad posts :) Its just been a difficult few days :)

I am looking forward to a FOUR DAY weekend :) Unheard of for me!! Spencer has a conference this weekend, so I don't work, friday through monday, and I am very excited about that!! Hopefully I'll be able to see some friends of mine that I have totally neglected for the past two months due to busy schedules! Very very exciting.

Hopefully in the next 20 minutes James and I will be off to the gym!

Frustration....

While I am excited about my little boy getting his first tooth, with each day I become more and more frustrated (and sore) when nursing. He has nursed like a champ for the most part, but a few weeks before his tooth started coming in, he would "gum me"( Bite me with no teeth) pretty consistantly. We got over that hump, and now he is full out biting me with his new tooth. It hurts so bad. I have tried scolding him, tapping him firmly on his nose, setting him down, walking away even when hes still hungry, coming back to it after 15 minutes, etc etc etc... The only times he will nurse really well is when he is sleepy, or just waking up. So we have gone from nuring 8 to 10 times a day, to 6 to 7 times a day. I really, really wanted to nurse him until december - its such a wonderful bond, and i have truly enjoyed the experience of the closeness of it. I am hoping that I can still reach that goal, but if I can't get the biting under control, I dont know. I hope the situation improves soon...

It bothers me when people say its my fault because I introduced the bottle so early (3 weeks), and James knows he can bite the bottle and not have the same response as he gets from me. But I HAD to give him the bottle. I had to go back to work people!!! Give me a break. Its so frustrating when people put in their two cents and make me feel like the bad guy at the same time. And people definitely seem to put in their two cents frequently these days.

Just thought I would vent my frustration...

Teeth

Little James is cutting his first tooth. Right up front on the bottom. He is just a little distressed about it, hes been such a good little boy! As soon as it completely comes in, you KNOW i'll have a picture posted :)

Sunday Pictures

Its been a little bit of a joke for awhile, that we really have no pictures of the three of us (aside from the day after James was born, and then one about a month and a half later with me in scrubs...) Today we changed that! Our neighbor Colleen took some pictures of us sitting outiside our home. They turned out so good! Enjoy!!

September 11 2001

In remembrance...My sister Sara was in downtown NYC when the terrorist attack struck. She met up as soon as she could with her husband, Sam, and together they walked across the 59th street bridge out of the city to get home, along with hundreds of thousands of people.

My brother, William, was a short distance away from the Pentagon when the terrorist attack struck there.

My thoughts are with the families of those who lost thier lives that day, as well as those who had to observe the horror of that day first-hand.

Drop-in child care

Yesterday I decided to stop by the recreation center where I work out to see about their child care. They take care of children starting at 6 months old. So I brought James in and he met Ms. Sharon and Ms. Josephine, and they decided to take him on a few weeks before he turned 6 months. I can't tell you how excited I was! I told them that I would be back tomorrow (today) to drop him off while I work out.

This morning at 11am, I presented James' foot to the front desk to be stamped with a happy little star stamp, and he was all signed in.
This was the first time I had left him with a someone besides a family member outside of our home, and it made me worry. But I took a deep breath and handed him over to Ms Sharon. He fussed a little bit, but they told me to "take care of myself and have a good time and not worry." Okay okay...so I left, and he screamed, and like the worry wort mother I am, I ran back into the day care center all worried, and Ms. Sharon just smiled (she has been doing daycare for over 20 years) and once again told me to relax and go have a good time.

I resigned myself to it, and had a GREAT workout. I mean sweating buckets - know i'm going to be sore tomorrow- great workout. 50 solid minutes of cardio and weights. I felt like a new woman! This is going to be a regular thing. Thanks to my brother William, who bought a 25 use child care pass for James for my birthday, and a 50 use pass from William and Spencer for me, I plan to go as much as I possibly can.

On another note, Homecoming at SVU is just a couple weeks away. I have a FABULOUS dress that I wore 3 years ago. Black satin, subtle sparkles and just gorgeous. Amazingly, I fit into it, and with some help we got it zipped up. I am DETERMINED to fit into that dress by October 11th, which is the day of the dance. Not just fit in it, but look stunning in it, and I'm almost there, especially now that I can go to the gym during the day!! I don't think I can begin to express how excited I am about this arrangement :)

Thank you wonderful Rec Center!!!!

Hurricane Hanna

I thought hurricanes only hit florida...well, apparently they hit virginia too. Welcome to Virginia Hannah!

Ahhhh September... Thus starts my favorite time of year. Autumn brings with it crisp, cool mornings, the smell of apples and cinnamon, beautiful colors on the trees, and a feeling of slowing down. I really began to have an appreciation for the fall when I was living in Buena Vista, VA going to school at SVU. The town is located pretty much in the middle of nowhere virginia, in the valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I remember waking up every morning in the fall to the sound of the train, and the smell of wood burning fires, and crisp mountain air. I loved it. It was so peaceful.

This October, Spencer, James and I will be going down to SVU for homecoming weekend, for 3 days of camping, some alumni fun, a little football and major fun had by all. It will be little James' first camping trip! We will be joining 3 other couples who we went to school with too. It is going to be a blast! It will be so nice to experience the slower pace and beautiful outdoors down there again.

James is now 5 1/2 months old. Can you believe it? He is SUCH a fun little boy. He rolls all over the floor now, and is starting to discover how to crawl. Its more like his strong little legs catapult him forward and his arms can't keep up yet. He has lots of different sounds too. He has just about mastered the sounds for "Mama". He sits really well with a little support, although he is WAY to busy to sit still for any period of time. He is eating solid food now twice a day. I think among his favorites are peaches, sweet potatoes and carrots. But the kid will eat just about anything. We can't believe how much he eats. A boy with a hollow leg already :)

My brother, William, had his 30th birthday this past sunday, the 31st. We all went to sacrament at the Oakton Ward (where my parents had been going almost since they joined the church in 1981!) and then a few hours later went to Lightfoot restraunt in Leesburg. The food was fabulous and so was the company. We all had a really good time, and William was grateful to have family there. Even James was a perfect little boy during the nice dinner. Granpie had him sitting on his lap the whole time teaching him bad habits - thats what grandparents are for :) James was fascinated by the glasses on the table, and constantly reached out for the one granpie was using.

My parents took Spencer and my picture at dinner, and we were shocked at how different we look compared to a year ago. More tired than anything else I guess!

Well the little boy just woke up, and I know he's hungry, so I best run along. I will update more as soon as I get a chance :)