Where to start....

Much has happened since last post....


Went to Jerra & Landon's beautiful wedding...

Had friends over for a little picnic in our back yard....

Josh traded cars....anyone surprised? ;)

also got a dunebuggy, which Zaden refers to with wide eyes as the "loud purple car"

Zaden & Austin have enjoyed the pool. They also enjoyed seeing how long it would take mom to figure out they had snuck back out in their dry clothes to swim some more.

We went to Colorado for a little over a week. This should be it's own blog but I'm limited on time. Anyway, we got to be with Great Gma Cole, Josh's parents, Neil & Margaret, Devon, Wendy, Emery and Renee.

Zaden's favorite part of CO was the "coc-o-DIE-dolls" at the Denver zoo.

Josh's favorite part was when the tranny went out of the van in the middle of Kansas.

Aunt Linda & her kids were up to visit so we went to the pool with them and then made pizzas at our house.

Zaden also got to see the Forsberg cousins. He stayed the night at great gma spinar's with them and apparently didn't miss mommy as much as I missed him!

Aunt Tasha "babysat" Xander

We went to Katy Widel's 4th of july picnic.

After some frustration,

Xander learned to crawl

....and pull to a stand

Daddy made ZayZay a new sandbox which has been SO worth the time and money. I'm still trying to decide if it's worth all the vaccuming and laundry;)

Zaden figured out that if mom's in the other room with Xander, he can pull the chair over to the sink real quietly and play in the water...not so quietly.

Xander finally decided that real food isn't so bad after all. He won't touch baby food but he's starting to get the hang of mashed-up table food.

Aside from all this, Zaden took 2 weeks of swimming lessons (most of which he just wanted to pour water out of a cup over and over). I finally finished my MT school and am waiting on the final reports to be graded. Then all I have to do is find clients who need me! I've also been playing basketball every thursday night with some other ladies in the area. Good exercise and lots of humiliation all at the same time! Josh has been doing lots of work to our vehicles. Funny how a mechanic has the worst-running cars of them all ;) He's also been fishing & golfing quite a bit and is planning on going camping this weekend with a man from work. We also got to have "Aunt Day & Uncle Rynan" spend the night with us. Now we're just waiting for the phone call to say they are adopting a baby. Our "high-speed" internet crashed on us for a month. I thought I wasn't going to make it using dial-up. But somehow, I survived and we just got it back today. Something's wrong with Xander....he's been on allergy meds since he was tiny...we're not for sure but he always has bags under his eyes, runny nose, wheezy chest, is very fussy and only sleeps in 3 hr increments, even through the night. Wait....maybe THAT's where those bags under the eyes come from. So I took him to the chiro and his neck was out. That night he slept 9 hours. But since then it's been the same ol thing. Notice I'm not posting any close-ups of myself ;) I'm going to be working at the clinic this Thurs, Fri and Mon because the lab tech's going on vacation. I don't mind working there when I get to draw blood all day. Zaden has definitely hit the terrible 2's. Some days I feel like the only things I say to him are "NOSE IN THE CORNER" and "APOLIGIZE TO HIM!" Hopefully we'll see the results of all that scolding someday. The beautiful thing about kids is they are so forgiving and at the end of those days, they still have a bearhug & a kiss that melts your heart. Whew. That took a long time in between potty breaks and diaper changes and folding clothes and shooting tigers and lunch and naptime. That's all for now.

First try at video blogging

If anyone knows how I can edit my videos to make them shorter and quicker to upload I'd love the advice. We have tons of videos but I sometimes get a little lengthy and then they take 2 hours to upload.

April Showers

Well since it's about over, I am just going to try to recap our month in pictures for ya.

Celebrated Gpa & Gma Spinar's 50th wedding anniversary

Had wonderful visits with special meeting workers.

Went to Booneville special meeting.

Josh fired up the grill for the 1st time in 2008, and spent lots of time with his boys.

Xander & Brayden had their first picnic in the park

Zaden learned how to push his buddy Austin in baby bro's stoller

Xander slept his first full night in the crib.

Zay came this close to poking his eye out...first of many scares from what i'm told.

Xander got to try out the walker...and loves it.

Josh got a mohawk. But it only lasted a few minutes.

Zaden finally graduated to "big boy underpants".

(look how baggy they are!)

And yesterday was his first full day with NO ACCIDENTS!

Yesterday Xander learned to roll from his tummy to his back.

My boys are growing up! Besides all this, we had a big garage sale this past weekend at Brent & Julie's house, Xander has been teething up a storm and I got one tiny little chapter completed on my schooling this month.

So now we're off to the store and buy a "cool toy" for having dry underpants all day. First I have to convince Zaden to stop sweeping the floor with the dirt devil. Of course...I'm trying to NOT discourage this sort of behavior. ;) Thanks for stopping by and I apoligize for the delay in my updates. You should expect it by now though! :)

OH MY.

It has been a long time, my old bloggers. Much has occurred since the last post. Xander got RSV, Pneumonia and an ear infection all in the same swoop. Then he got better. Then Zaden got sick. Then he got better. Then I Lysoled (is that a word?) the house like crazy and SOO FAR.....we are all ok. I have been doing alot of studying and only have one more course to go...hopefully in a month or so I'll be done with school and on to being a work-at-home mom. Personally, I'm enjoying the Stay-at-home-mom thing just fine. Becoming quite Betty Crocker-ish. Zaden is potty training now for the past 3-4 weeks. He's doing pretty well, but I don't want to talk too soon. We do all kinds of fun things, including sticker charts, potty dances, potty movies and even potty songs! Xander is getting chubbier every day. He is such a sweet-natured baby. Until you put him in his car seat. Then you will understand what I mean when I say his lungs are definately back in healthy working condition. He's smiling and cooing now, and learning to sit in his bumbo seat. Well I will let this be all. It's getting way past my bedtime! Hope everyone is doing great.

Fun with Kingston

Kingston came to our house one afternoon last week. He was not feeling good but he was pretty sweet anyway. As long as we didn't get too far out of his reach! ;)

Like Zaden, he also enjoys playing with Xander's toys. He and Xander are only 9 months apart so they will have lots of fun growing up together.

Big cousin Zaden showing him how the fun swing works

Zaden has taken great interest in drawing lately.

After a few mishaps with the couch, kitchen floor and computer desk, we are working hard at enforcing the "stay at the table when you draw" rule.

Baby brother is still trying to kick the respiratory virus he's had for a week. Not that it's slowing his appetite down any-

- he weighed 10.11 lbs at the Dr on thursday! That's 11 ounces more than he was a week ago thursday!!

Zaden was in awe when he first watched his "potty movie". I got it off ebay in hopes he'd discover another use for his potty chair besides a step stool. So far, no such luck. Just lots of requests to watch the potty movie.

My little chubby cheeks.

My little heart melter. (even though at the moment, he's in his bed crying mommmmy, mommmmy......trying to get out of naptime. Mommy's heart's not melting.)

Just living our little lives.....

Well not much new is happening here. Still enjoying being at home with my babies. Last week we had our friends Brent & Julie over for pizza.














Austin & Zaden had a blast as usual, and Braden & Xander got acquainted in between screams.

Zaden is getting more used to being at home every day and I think he's starting to like it. I had a Dr's appointment today and before I left, asked if he wanted to go to Becky's today. He quickly replied "No! Mommy's!" Makes ya feel good when your kid likes being with you despite the fact you feel like all you do is correct him and overuse the word no!
Tonight Josh reminded me we'll love ourselves later for doing it now.
He still loves his baby brother, "Ander".

He's also enjoying baby brother's cool new furniture.

As for Xander, he's still hanging in there. He just goes with the flow...unless it's meal time, then he definately makes himself known! Thanks to his Spinar genes for his healthy appetite! He was 10lbs when I weighed him at home yesterday! He's already outgrown outfits that Zaden was still wearing at 3 months. He's still very confused about when he should go to sleep. He wakes up around 11pm and wants to socialize. So I socialize. There's your explanation for why I never get my blogs posted in the mornings>>