Can't Believe It!

I know you can hardly believe that our blog has just been updated. Here’s why I have a hard time updating it:

• After spending about an hour on the computer, watching TV, being on the iphone or ipad, or looking at some kind of screen, I get a headache and so updating the blog is painful-literally. (If you want more updates, convince Bryan to do it. He has no problem staring at a screen for an extended period of time).
• The best time for me to do it is at nap time. Nap time is me time and spending it on the computer just isn’t my ideal. Sorry. Besides, I fall asleep every time I sit on the couch anyway.
• I also have a lot of other things going on (my calling and being key spouse) that nap time is the only time I have to take care of them and before I know it, nap time is over.

Ok so on to the good stuff. As some of you know and for those of you who don’t know, we are expecting our 3^rd child! Yes I said 3^rd child! Here are some things with the pregnancy:

• I am currently 32 weeks making my due date Nov 29-Dec 3^rd
• I have no memory
• I won’t be pregnant during Christmas or my birthday! Yae!!
• I took the glucose test and am actually on the low side towards hypoglycemia. I don’t have it but boy when I found that out, a lot of things made sense. I have to eat all the time otherwise my body starts to feel REALLY weird.
• I got really big really fast but then I kinda caught up to myself. I don’t know how to explain it.
• Instead of getting my care on base here and delivering at the nearby civilian hospital, I’m going to Ft. Belvoir, an army base in Virginia. They just moved into their new hospital (on base) and holy moly it is nice! I can’t wait! The nearby hospital I just mentioned is losing a lot of patients to Ft. Belvoir. They also have midwives. Love it!
• Brayden was born in Idaho, Spencer was born in Maryland, and this baby will be born in Virginia! And hopefully not in the car.

This pregnancy has been the hardest one so far (Spencer was the easiest). Here’s why:

• I had morning sickness every single day and it lasted all day long. I felt incredibly nauseous. I’d wake up and feel like I needed to lie back down again. Not possible with little kids who aren’t old enough to take care of themselves yet. Our house was a complete disaster and I had a hard time cooking-especially meat. Ugh. It was awful. Luckily it’s gotten better.
• My hips and pelvic bones hurt since I took the prego test, and they hurt all the time. I walk around. They hurt. I sit. They hurt. I lie down. They hurt. I get back up. They hurt. There’s no escaping it. My midwife gave me this thing to wear and it helps quite a bit. It doesn’t take the pain way but it does lessen it.
• Keeping up with the boys is no easy task when the world around you is spinning, or when you have a basketball under your shirt that makes it extremely difficult to run after them when they are headed right for the street.
• Dealing with everything has been mentally and emotionally taxing as well as physically taxing. I have NO energy. EVER.

My calling in the ward is Young Women president. I never thought I would be called to be president. Luckily, I’ve been in YW since we moved here so it’s not completely off the wall. You might be thinking how crazy that is for me to be president, have 2 little kids at home and be pregnant but going to activities is a really nice break for me.

I am also the key spouse for Bryan’s squadron. I’m still figuring out what that means exactly. It’s a good way for the spouses to get together or have a person to go to if they have questions regarding how the military, the squadron, the base and surrounding areas work. When a family moves in and the mom needs advice on who a good dentist is... (things that maybe the military member can’t help with as well), they have the key spouse to turn to. We have a new commander and I’m the new key spouse so we’re figuring things out together. For the end of the fiscal year, everybody had to work until midnight and the commander asked if I could get the spouses to provide dinner for everyone and I made it happen. (All within 5 days too!)

Ok so now for the really good stuff. THE BOYS!

• They LOVE watching the garbage truck. The guys wave and say hi to them and smile every time they see the boys (which is almost every time they come).
• They love walking around with their backpacks on.
• They love being outside. They could live out there.
• They love bugs
• They copy each other
• The sign for saying sorry is making a fist and rubbing circles on you chest, and when one of them has to say sorry to the other, they rub the circles on the other person, whether it’s their head, their back, their leg… it’s pretty cute.
• They love brushing their teeth but hate it when their teeth is brushed for them.
• They keep me burning my calories
• They love "playing" with play-doh 
• They love looking out the kitchen window when dad leaves or when the garbage truck comes 

Bryan and the boys!

Playing or eating play-doh?

Brayden:

• Loves the iPad
• Never ceases to amaze us at what he says and understands. The other day he wanted to go outside (right after breakfast) and I told him that Spencer needed clothes on first. He runs upstairs and grabs clothes for Spencer. They were even his clothes (they share drawers)!
• Can unlock the deadbolt to the front door
• Is adventurous
• Says "Percer" for Spencer

Brayden boy!

Spencer:

• Is starting to tease Brayden
• Can say a lot of words like elephant, shoes, all done, outside... and even sentences like “dada wo” for dada work, "Landon's house," "baby sad/happy" and some others.
• Can open the front door
• Is observant
• Calls Brayden "mmm hmmm" because he can't say his name. He'll say, "mmm hmm seep" (Brayden sleep).

Spencer baby!

  

Here's Spencer looking out the window. Both boys love doing it but for some reason I only have a picture of just Spencer.

Here he is from another perspective.

P.S. These picture are not the most current, they're from a couple months back. I didn't want to spend 23 hours downloading the camera, and some of our other pictures are on the iphone. I'll have to figure that out later. I just wanted to get this posted.

November through January

Well since it has been months since I've updated, there will be LOTS of pictures! I have to say that my 2 boys keep me extremely busy as you will see, which makes it difficult to spend time updating the blog. I get so tired and exasperated that updating the blog is not my top priority, but today it is! 

November.

Brayden and Spencer playing in baking cocoa. This is not the first (or last) time they have done this. 

Trip to Idaho! It's been 2 years since we were in Idaho and boy do I miss it! 

Brayden giving Great Grandma Winston a kiss.

Great Grandpa Winston eating Spencer's ear.

While in Boise we met up with my uncle and aunt. Bri and I are closer in age than her and my uncle. And Bryan and Bri are the same age. Kinda funny.

Also while in Boise we met up with Bryan's cousin and her family.

We had a lot of people to see. 

Also while in Boise we visited Aunt Linda. (It was also our anniversary-just thought I'd throw that in there). 

On our way to Rexburg, we met up with my former roommate Megan!  

Also, on our way to Rexburg, we met up with Bryan's friends Ben and Katey. We had a lot of people to see.

Our very dear friends Dustin and Cassie. They dated while we dated. Cassie and I would stay up til 2 in the morning on a regular basis talking about our guys. We have so many memories with them and so it was sooooo good to see them! Oh and Brayden and Kenzie are 2 weeks apart. :)

Also while in Rexburg, I met up with some of my Porters comrades, Jessica and Nancy. Again, there were a lot of people to see.

My dad's parents. Just about everything they eat is homemade. They even grind their own wheat!

We met up with Bryan's former construction boss Juan, and his 2 boys. 

We were able to see my aunt and her kids. Her kids are my cousins but they're closer in age to my kids. Kinda funny. 

My mom's side! (well some people are missing).

Spencer trying to play the piano.

Thanksgiving at Bryan's brother's house (Jared and Amanda). They were able to accommodate 14 people!

Grandpa Winston teaching Spencer the mac way.

Spencer and Brayden enjoying Ella's dollhouse. If you look closely you can see Brayden's face through the green door, which is how he got in there-through that green door!

While we were in UT, we met up with an "Andrews AFB" friend. Charla's husband is currently deployed and she is living with family. It was so good to see them!

Also while we were in UT, I met up with my dear friend from Indiana, Lauralee! We have LOTS of memories!

Also while we were in UT, we met up with my uncle Joseph! Again, we had a lot of people to see. 

Also while we were in UT, I got to see my favorite 2 cuz Haylee and her husband!

Also while were were in UT we saw Bryan's Uncle Scott's family. We enjoyed eating pizza and watching old family videos. 

Did I mention that we had A LOT of people to see?

Our trip out West was a ton of fun. We had SO many people to see that it was hard to fit everyone in and be able to spend quality time with them as well. But I'm so glad that we were able to do it! The snow made that very thing even more difficult and caused some heartache for others. But it was a very nice trip and I could have spent more time there. 

December

Back in MD

Brayden joined Spencer in his high chair. Spencer wasn't a very big fan. 

I don't think I need to say anything here.

My "old" roommate Amber came to visit her parents who happen to live in our stake! They invited us over for Christmas dinner. It was so good to see her and her family.

January

Since we couldn't make it to my house for Christmas we went there for New Years. On my birthday we opened up the gifts we had for each other. My little brother called it a second Christmas. Everyone got sick at some point in time from that visit. It was still fun though. Wii brought our we (haha) and some of us stayed up until I don't know how late playing Mario. 

Back to MD. Brayden sitting on the toilet and even using the toilet paper. We have a video of him doing this but I don't know how to download it. It's pretty funny though. He'll say "pee pee" and want to sit on the pot but he's only peed in the pot once. He still just uses his diaper. It doesn't really phase him when he pees through his underwear. 

I hope you enjoyed. It was a lot of catching up I know!

Surprise Trip to Indiana!

This last weekend, we made a surprise trip to Indiana. My dad was the only one who knew we were coming-just to make sure it was a good weekend to come. We left on Wednesday and at 10:30 p.m. we put Spencer on the doorstep (sitting in his car seat), rang the doorbell, and hid in the bushes (with Bryan holding Brayden). My mom and brother opened the door and boy were they surprised! My mom wasn't expecting anyone that late on a school night and wondered who in the world it could be. They opened the door and "What?! There's a baby on our doorstep!" My sister Jamie heard Trevor say that it looked like Spencer and thought that Karri's (my other sister) boyfriend (named Spencer from Idaho) was here. Needless to say they found us in the bushes and were excited to have such a great surprise! Kaitlyn was in the shower so when she went in her room, Karri and Jamie were playing with Spencer and she said, "What's with the random baby?" They told her they found him on the doorstep.... and Kaitlyn thought it looked like Spencer but didn't understand how he could be there so she asked "Am I hallucinating?" It was pretty awesome. Our surprise was the talk of the next day at seminary, school, and work....

Well here we are at a quaint little town called Nashville.

No, not Tennessee, it's in Indiana. 

We just got done visiting the fudge shop! Yum!

Here we are at Marengo Caves. It was so cool!

We LOVE caves and we had an enjoyable time

even if Brayden wasn't being so enjoyable himself.

Note: If you're in the military, ALWAYS ask 

if people do military discounts. Bryan got in free

and I got $2 off!

Here's Jamie trying to take a nap with a little curious 

Brayden looking at her, who will soon poke her in the eye.

Brayden and Spencer playing with the radio.

We had tinfoil dinners that night and boy

were they good! Brayden just could not 

stay away from the fire. I don't know how

it happened, but I looked at his cute little face and 

saw that somehow his eyelashes got burned! 

Retrieving the food. 

REWIND!

This is in August when my family came to visit us!

If Spencer is in that car, Brayden has to be too.

Trevor baptized Chase while EVERYONE was here

so that we could all be a part of Chase's baptism!

Trevor finished up an internship in Hawaii and had to 

do a presentation on it in Silverspring, MD. Here is a 

family photo after Trevor gave us some leis from Hawaii!

Also while they were here, we went to the Chesapeake Bay

and enjoyed the beach there. The water was so warm!

Chase got buried in the sand and Brayden

is going to dig him out!

Cute little Spencer baby!

Jamie and Karri holding their favorite nephews.

Here's a cute picture of Spencer 

and a cute picture of Brayden!

Brayden 19 mo old in photo

Spencer almost 8 mo old in photo. 

Here It Is-Our Announcement!

Well I hate to say this but all of your guesses are WRONG. Our announcement isn't quite that exciting. We are not moving and we are not expecting another baby. BUT we do have a new addition to our family. We adopted a wonderful five year old named Odyssey.  I never thought that I would be so excited to have a minivan. It is a nice ride if I do say so myself. I LOVE how it drives and so does Brayden as you can tell by the pictures. Well here are a few quick pictures.