Gingerbread Houses

This was our second annual Cousins' Gingerbread House Decorating Party. It was a blast. Wright decorated a little more this year than last, but still ate his fair share. His favorite part of the whole night was playing guns with his big cousins though.

All nice and neat before the mess began.

Luke's house took the prize - he did not leave one tiny hole uncovered by candy!

Wright's finished product.

Playing funs with Stewart.

Posing with his house - this was seconds before the roof caved in :)

Sweet brothers in their Christmas PJs with their Little People nativity.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year in Midland. Our family and Megan headed there from Dallas on Wednesday and stayed through Saturday. We all pitched in a cooked a few dishes for the big feast. The boys had a great time and Wright kept saying he did not want to go back to Dallas the whole way home.

Megan, Gigi and the boys.

Papoo reading books to Wright was a huge hit! He was intrigued by Papoo's beard :)

Aunt Meggy and Spencer.

Wright did not eat much of the Thanksgiving meal.

Attempt at a pic of the two of them - this one looks like choking but its supposed to be hugging.

A little bit better.

Oh Wright...

Everyday Wright cracks me up with all the hysterical things he says and melts my heart with his sweet nature. He just sounds so grown up, and we are learning more and more that he listens to EVERYTHING we say and will repeat it! A few examples...

After a car honked at me in a parking lot, he said "You have got to be KIDDING me!"

Brendan was messing with him before Lanie came over the other day and asked him who Lanie was. And he said "Dad! Lanie is my girlfriend."

Today in the car, he was talking silly and saying "poo poo" a lot. I was getting on to him about it and how that word is for the bathroom only. He responded, "But I REALLY like that word."

He was singing to Spencer in the car the other day to get him to stop crying. After Spencer finally calmed down, I was thanking him and he said "I really love my brother. I love my brother always."

The other night he overheard Brendan making a joke about my pj pants being my cookie pants. That night in his prayers, he thanked God for "Jesus and Mommy's cookie pants."

Wright Quote of the Day

After he brought me a flower he found outside... "I picked you a beautiful flower. Mommy, I love you always."

Spencer's 10 months

Spencer is 10 months old! Here is what he is up to these days.

- Talks very little, but has started saying "Hi!" when I come pick him up from school.
- Crawls fast all over the place. Pulls up and walks around things.
- Still a mama's boy, but has started pushing me away because he wants to get down and crawl around.
- Loves his big brother, will chase him throughout the house and only wants to play with Wright's toys - this of course can be a little difficult sometimes since Wright does not like all his toys in Spencer's mouth!
- Very picky eater. He has finally started eating real food but doesn't like very much. The only things he will inhale are bananas and tortillas with queso :) Sometimes he will eat veggies and other fruits if they are soft, yogurt and turkey hot dog. Pretty much everything else, he spits out. Not excited about the road ahead on this.
- Smiles ALL the time, he is still generally the happiest little boy.
- Great sleeper. He will take a morning nap anytime he can get it and then sleeps 3 hours in the afternoon. He has finally dropped the evening nap and tends to get super fussy in the evenings.

Comparison pics to come...

Halloween

We had a wonderful Halloween this year. The Beales and Croffords came over for trick or treating and dinner and it was blast. Wright has been asking for candy and treats non-stop since.

Our neighbor down the street was sitting in his yard in this Burger King mask - hysterical.

Spencer and Wesley.

Trick or treat!

The four kiddos getting ready to head out. How cute is Minnie Mouse?

Pumpkin Wesley.

These are our Jack o lanterns we carved. Brendan's witch doctor took about 3 hours. Wright chose to do the "batman" one.

FINALLY - eating table food

I am posting this because I want to remember how big of a deal it was trying to get Spencer to eat table food. He is 9.5 months old and is really just now eating most food that we offer him. Wright did this at 7.5 months! Baby food is way easier because he eats it at least 5 times faster than he eats table food, and he still cannot really feed himself. But at least he is making major progress. Here he is at dinner tonight - and yes he ate almost all of this! BTW, he is cutting his 8th tooth, so a lack of means to chew is not the problem :)

My favorite thing Spencer does these days is everytime he sees me (even if I just walked out of the room for 2 seconds) he laughs and smiles so big and comes crawling fast to me to pick him up. It's like he hasnt seen me all day. Pretty adorable.

Sunday School Walk of Shame

Today as I was walking up the nursery hallway at church with Spencer in my arms, I saw Wright standing next to Brendan in the middle of the crowded hallway in nothing but his shirt, shoes and some loaner underwear! I was like "Oh my gosh, what happened?!?" Apparently he told his teacher he had to go pee pee but when he sat down on the small potty he sprayed all over his pants and underwear. He did not seemed to be phased at all, but Brendan and I felt like we were walking the ultimate walk of shame...we could not get to our car fast enough.

By the way, funny side story. The other day Wright said to me "My name is Wright mommy!" and I asked "Why do you say that? I know your name." He answered "You keep calling me Buddy." LOL

Wright Quote of the Day

To the pizza delivery woman:

"This is my friend, Mommy."

Wright's 3rd Birthday Party

Super Spidey had his super hero birthday party today. All in all it was great, minus a few breakdowns by the birthday boy. Is that just inevitable for the guest of honor at a 3 year old party? Must be... The kids played on the playground and bounce house and made super hero masks and power bands. It was a big day for Wright and he is still reeling over all the excitement.

Spiderman before the guests arrived.

Spiderman and his web.

Mimi and Spencer.

This might be the most action this playset has ever seen!

The kids LOVED the bounce house.

At this point, Wright was still really happy.

Here we are minutes from a huge breakdown over spilled juice and a missing napkin?

Wright loved the big boy toys he got from Stewart and James - especially the Nerf gun.

And as always, he wanted to spend most of his time with Max and Luke.

Baby Wesley "Superman" Crofford could not have been cuter.

Growing Up

Wright seems so much older to me recently. A couple examples:

- He will ask about our days/activities. "Daddy, how was your workout?", "Mommy did you have fun at your bible study?", "How was your day Daddy?" - guess the world is not all about him anymore :)

- He is always talking about time-related things. "When I wake up?", "Look Mommy, we went there last day two days (ie two days ago)"

Wright the Web Slinger

Wright has been into super heroes ever since we started potty training and he picked out super hero underwear. When his cousins from Atlanta were in town and he spent a lot of time with all the older boys, his obcession grew. For whatever reason, Spiderman has always been his favorite although he knows who they all are. The funniest part is that he insists that super heros are "bad guys", no matter what everyone tells him.

Today my mom took Wright on a date to Purple Cow and gave him his birthday present early because she will be out of town for the actual day. She got him his Spiderman Halloween costume. To say it was a big hit is a gross understatement. He loves it so much and does not want to take it off. He has been going around the house pretending to be Spidey the "web slinger" all day and night. Tonight I asked him, "Wright do you know what a super hero is?" and he answered "No." So I told him that they have super powers and use them for good like to save people falling from burning buildings. I said, "Superman would fly and save them and Spiderman would use his web to catch them." He seemed to finally get it.

Here are some funny Spidey quotes:

"I can't wear my glasses, I want to be the real guy."

"Spiderman picks up all the girls." - showing me with his arms how he would hold someone falling from a building

To Spencer "I am going to catch you in my web slinger when you fall."

State Fair

What is October in Dallas without a trip to the fair? We went last Sunday and had a blast. By far the biggest hit was the dog show. I have never seen Wright get so excited about a performance - WAY more than the Wiggles. We also went to the animal petting zoo. Last year Wright was too scared to feed them, but not anymore - that part was a highlight of the day. Other favorites were the car show and of course all the food. Wright kept saying he was still hungry even after he ate more than any good parents should allow. Spencer did well considering he had virtually no nap and the sun was blaring in his eyes almost the whole time. I think his favorites were people watching, the bright colors and sitting by his brother in the stroller.

"That's one tall emu!"

Wright said that feeding the goats was his favorite part of the petting zoo.

Spencer wanted to try driving the cars too!

Wright chose this bling-bling gold motorcycle!

This ride went around in circles so fast - I kept thinking if he doesn't throw up, I will!

Like any smart parents, we let Wright finish the day with a giant ice cream bar. He was literally high for 5 hours after that.

Braggin' on my Baby

Ok, so every now and then a mom has gotta brag. :) Spencer is just such a sweet baby. He goes to CBS every week with me and literally everytime I pick him up, the helpers (who are always different people) go on and on about how he is "the sweetest, happiest and most content baby they have ever seen." Today the lady said she wanted to take him home and I thought "No way!" I feel bad a lot about putting him in childcare while I teach and for bible study, but he is obviously very well adjusted and happy as can be.

On another note, I cannot believe he is 9 months old. He seems to be growing up way faster than Wright did. I want to hold on to him being a baby so much. Sometimes I baby him like he is 3 months old and rock him and squeeze him and just think, please don't grow up any faster! He is talking more this week and doing better at eating table food, especially if it is pseudo mashed. We still have a road ahead of us with that, but it has improved.

Today I needed to do laundry badly and Spencer had gone through 2 outfits, so I threw him in this tee shirt and Wright's old baby jeans. It's so funny, because I would totally put Wright in more big boy clothes like this but I like to dress Spencer more like a baby - he almost looks silly in anything else (at least to me). Here's some pics...

Cute little tooshie - btw, does his hair look like a mullet?

Happy boy!

Wright Quotes

"Daddy is my favorite boy. Daddy is a man. Daddy is my favorite man-boy."

"The Susans are the bad guys." (Susans = Sooners)

Everytime a sporting event is on tv - "Hook 'em horns! Go Rangers!"

Identifies everyone by their shirt color - "Today I played with the white girl. And I saw the red boy."

Wright - "What are you singing Mommy?"
Me - "A song from one of my favorite movies, White Christmas called Sisters."
Wright - (pause) "Um, that's not a very good song."