Madison

This is my newest niece, Madison. Isn't she beautiful! I think being an Aunt is one of my favorite things.
She is very lucky to have Peter and Stacey for parents and they are very excited to finally have her here. She was born weighing 9 pounds 2 ounces! (Go, Stacey!) So even though this picture was taken when she was only 7 days old she has already filled in those adorable cheeks.
She has two brothers who are anxious to teach her how to wrestle so it won't be long until she can hold her own. I hope she survives. They are going to have so much fun!
Welcome Madison!

Did I mention he is a poser!

Have I ever mentioned that Spencer will pretty much do what ever I say when I am holding a camera?
(mmm.....I wonder if it would work for other things?)
I had just figured out some pretty cool tricks with the flash and had to go try them out. Of course I hired the best models in town (my own) and we were off. The kids did such a great job, but Rachel didn't last long. So then it was just me and Spencer.
I asked him to not smile on this shot in attempts to get a really fun smile out of him but instead I got this adorable GQ look out of him! (that works to)
I love my little man!

Sometimes it is OK to eat the homework

What better way to learn about mixing color than with frosting!
We had so much fun learning about all the different colors and how they are made. As you can tell we have been doing a lot of things that have to do with color. This was a ton of fun! We started with the basic primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and frosted the cupcakes and placed them in the primary triangle(alas, it is hard to get true colors from frosting). then we made a bunch of hypotheses of what would come out of mixing two of the primary colors and placed them in between those primary colors. Then just for fun we mixed them all together and placed it in the middle.


Not only is this the cutest color circle ever! It was also the yummiest.

Does a flower of another color smell as sweet?

It does if they are the same flower!
We had fun coloring some carnations last week. I have distinct memories of doing this in elementary school (which is strange considering how many childhood memories I have) and made just as many memories doing it with Spencer.
Spencer just loves the word Hypothesis and searches for ways to use it everyday. So we hypothesized about a bunch of stuff. Would they really change?
We made some red, blue and yellow carnations from white ones by feeding them food coloring in there water. If you haven't done this in a while I recommend it! It only takes about 6 hours to get a noticeable change which is very rewarding!
Spencer couldn't wait to give these flowers to Grandma, he is so sweet! I hope you are enjoying your flowers!

My Sister Ate My Homework!

This is, unfortunately, a valid excuse at our house.
Rachel has eaten many a homework assignments this past year. First she drank our experiment with evaporation. Then the drinking of our freezing and thawing water experiment. She has even eaten a few Swedish Fish from our guessing jar (who could blame her on that one, yummy!). And so it was for the graph of colored goldfish crackers.

Gold Medal Winner!

Spencer wins the GOLD!
You may ask what he did to deserve such an honor. Well, it was no small feat.

For the new year I wanted to come up with a way to make the chores more exciting. Chores are always excited and the start of the school year when he gets a new chore chart and new bigger boy chores but about half way through they get to be the same old chores and they start to drag on all morning. So for the new year we set up a race between Spencer and Dad. Could Spencer get his chores done before Dad showered and got dressed?
Spencer has been getting his chores done amazingly fast these days. He wins Dad almost everyday. And yes, we take a picture of the winner everyday.

2 Years Old!

Yes! Rachel is 2!
And it could probably use one more ! point!
Rachel has always wanted to be as big as brother so in her rush she has been in the terrible two's for some time now. She always has good intentions and is VERY curious. Spencer gets to do so many things she hasn't discovered yet, but don't worry it is her personal mission to.
Things like:
The microwave.
We have let Spencer make most of his own breakfast and lunches for a long time, much of which has to do with the microwave. He can make oatmeal all by himself! Rachel doesn't really understand what it does but she does know that Daddy wasn't very happy when she microwaved the ihome remote. By the way, did you know that most microwaves come with a lock feature? I do now.
The toothpaste.
Is it lotion? Is it candy? Is it paint? Some things must be learned by trial and error.
The toilet.
A little while ago Rachel was throwing a fit as I tried to put a new diaper on her, she kept kicking and screaming "Poopy, Poopy!" and pointing to the bathroom down the hall. I tried to convince her that I had taken care of the poopy and was putting on a clean diaper with no success. Out of frustration I let her run to the bathroom and sure enough she lifted the lid and leaned in and pee-ed all over the floor (which was strange because that's all brother has to do and it goes in the potty?). Since then she has been diligently trying to figure this out.
The other day she refused clothes to a ridiculous point and sometimes I just give up (4 outfits later). So I told Rachel that I wasn't ready to potty train her and that she would have to do it herself. And lo and behold, it did work. Now the only problem was I wasn't able to make an easy transition to underwear. Rachel really preferred walking around naked all of the time, and who can blame her. So the search started for some fantastic, better than naked, underwear.
After more than one store I had found them.....doggy underwear. YEAH! Wait...only in a size 4T ....... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! It just wouldn't work I know because I opened and compared them to another style of 2T (her size) and it just wouldn't work. I seached all over the girly underwear to no avail. At this point I said the kind of prayer only a Mom can say "Please, help me find some doggy underwear!"
This is the point when I know that my Heavenly Father knows and understands Moms. I had this distinct impression to look on the base shelf underneath all of the underwear.
Just to put this into perspective: the shelf was full of underwear. Girl underwear on the top 3 rows and boy underwear on the bottom 3 rows.
Sure maybe someone dropped a package or something and it is just sitting right there on the bottom shelf. So I bent down to look under all of the boy underwear when I saw something pink on the bottom row behind 2 packages of boy underwear.
( I wish I could insert angels singing here)
There is was.....LADY and the TRAMP & 101 Dalmations underwear - size 2T!!!!
Rachel has had so much fun with her doggy underwear. She even went to Walmart today in underwear, went potty in the stores potty (that's big!) and stayed dry!
She is doing a great job of potty training herself!

She brighten up our home with her beautiful smile and girl-y personality. She loves her brother and her Mom & Dad and shows that love so freely. She amazes me with how much she learns everyday. I love my little angel!