Introductions

Will met his Uncle Cam for the first time this trip. Cam is a great uncle and Will loved his Uncle Cam. We miss Uncle Cam!

Will and Cody. Will learned quite quickly on this trip what it meant to be the younger cousin.

Cody (Ryan and Angela's youngest) and Will again.

Will met his great Grandma and Grandpa Spear! He also met his great Granny and Great Aunt Marsha and Uncle Jim, but of course, there are no photos of this--sadly enough.

We got to meet sweet baby Nixon, Jon and Michelle's new baby boy. So sweet.

Reunions

Megan, me and Toni
While in Spokane, my long-lost junior high buddy Cookie came to visit, as well as her baby girl Olivia, her mom Toni and sister Roxanna. It was beyond good to see them. Hadn't seen Cookie and her family since Cookie's wedding 5 years ago!

The gals: Roxanna, Taraka, Cookie, me and Megan.

Then we had a 10th ward reunion with our old gang from the 10th ward. It was so fun to see everyone, meet their cute kids and spouses.

THEN, my friend from the BY Megan and her CUTE daughter Laynie came all the way from Portland to see us. Though, I have no pictures of Megan, I do, however, have plenty of photos of cute Laynie and Will. (Can they PLEASE get married one day. Look how cute she is. Of course, she is a good five months older than Will, though you'd never guess because she is so tiny).

Will and Laynie at Riverfront Park.

And Will and Laynie in the bathtub. So using this for their wedding video!

And Will was reunited with his Grammy and Pompa again, too (though I didn't get any pictures with Pompa on my camera). He loves his Grammy and Pompa and wishes we could see way more of them!

Grammy and Will again. So stinkin' cute!

Activities

This crazy children's singer/magician/comedian came to my parents' house and put on a show for us. It was great fun. How could it not be when we had good music, good magic and good jokes?

The Hiawatha bike trail. Beautiful scenery, great (and easy) bike ride with TWO completely dark tunnels to pass through. (Will and I sat this one out since it was a four hour car ride round trip).

We hosted the Spear Family Olympics. And Josh and I won the most events (not to brag, but then again all our other competitors were 8 and under).

Helping Katie with the shot-put.

And what would Spokane be without the Lake? Love that Lake Roosevelt. Don't love the fact that all my parents' stuff got stolen. Terrible and sad. Will wasn't crazy about the life jacket; thus, he wasn't thrilled with the boat or the jet ski.

Chicken wars. Three months later, I can't recall who won, but I am sure it was Josh and me!

And pool time at my sister's pool. That's Brandon way up in the air getting thrown into the pool!

Cute Will Pics

Here are just a few cute pictures of our little guy from the trip:

9 Months: Sooooo Big!

Yes, another William update. Again, I know that these aren't too exciting but I like to record them for both ancestors' and descendants' sake.

Yup, he's nine months and he is getting soooooooo big! This stage is my FAVORITE--I'm loving it. I always think the current stage he's in is the best (well, maybe not that newborn stage, with all that crying and lack of sleeping). He really is so much fun!

His stats (50% for both):
20 lbs. 4 oz.
28.5 inches long

Fun things the peanut has been up to:

• crawling EVERYWHERE--his favorite place to crawl is up the stairs (he is obsessed with those darn stairs)
• making it known what he wants: when he wants anything he crawls up to your legs, stands up and whines.
• eating EVERYTHING in sight except baby food. He will literally push baby food away. One of his favorite treats right now is toast with homemade raspberry jam. Yum, yum! Plus, when you are eating, WATCH out because he is right there in two seconds, begging for food.
• feeding himself while eating. Boy, does this make like easier. I just sit him in his highchair, give him some food and voila: two free hands for me.
• wrestling his stuffed bear. He will just try to eat his nose and tail and roll around on the floor with that bear. It is so darn cute.
• teething. Finally. He is getting his two bottom teeth as we speak, but they are taking their sweet time.
• sleeping through the night. Finally. As in 12 hours--7 to 7. None of this getting up to nurse at 5:30 stuff. I am in heaven. I get 8 hours of sleep IN A ROW every night.
• saying sooooooo big when we ask how big he is (lifting up his arms to the sky. See all pictures).
• furniture cruising, though I don't encourage this because I don't want him to walk. Ever.
• sneaking into small spaces. He loves to crawl under his crib. Sometimes he can't get out, though and that makes him mad.
• laughing and giggling at his dad.
• never sitting still. Constantly moving. I told Josh the other day I was worried he might have ADHD because even when he is nursing he is moving (sort of makes it difficult, but that makes life interesting).
  

Saying soooo big with Dada.

Posing with Mama.

Eating, eating, eating!

Making his little "piggy" noises.

How to have a FABULOUS Halloween:

Exhibit A: (not pictured)
Acquire a free clown costume from some family friends.

Exhibit B:
Locate an adorable, squishy little baby boy. (This may be the trickiest part. It took us four years, an entire team of doctors and--well, let's face it--generations of good genes).

Exhibit C:
Dress said darling baby in acquired clown costume and add some lipstick for rosy cheeks. (Good luck getting baby to smile for the camera, though).

Exhibit D:

Scrounge some not-so-clever costumes for parents of darling little boy.

Exhibit E:

Attend a fun Ward party and a nice neighborhood block party, eat all the candy given to small baby (hey--he couldn't eat it anyway), watch a classic scary thriller (Wait Until Dark) while snuggling by the fire and VOILA: a fabulous Halloween.

Ward Party fun!

If I let go of my dad's hair, I just may fall.

He was pretty confused the whole time we were at the Ward shin-dig. Usually he is in bed at this hour, so he wasn't sure what to make of the fact that not only was he awake and out of the house, he was surrounded by strange looking people in strange looking outfits.

And some more photos for your viewing pleasure:

Oh, Happy, Happy Halloween!

When Did I Become THAT Mom??

Since it took a while for our little boy to join our family, I had a lot of time to determine what kind of parent I wanted to become. Of course, I had much inspiration from moms surrounding me, helping me decide how I would raise my future children (or sometimes, how NOT to raise them). As the years passed and still no baby came, the list only grew longer and longer.

Well, here I am now: a full-fledged mom. And suddenly I've realized that I've become that mom, the mom I swore I'd never become, the mom who is violating those rules she'd made on her precious "list". Yes, I'm the mom who lets her child wear their pajamas all day long (sometimes it's just easier) and I'm the mom who just wears her own pajamas all day long (most days it's just necessary). I'm the mom who doesn't wear make-up, whose house is a mess, whose child has a constant runny nose, whose child screams uncontrollably and for no reason at times. Yes, I've become that mom and for the most part, I've, welcomed her, loved her, even embraced her. However, there is one thing that I swore whole-heartedly I would never become: the flaky mom. But alas, I've found that I am even her in all her constantly-running-late, full-fledged glory. As the months have passed since Will's birth, I've gotten better at gauging my time and arriving at appointments on time (two weeks in a row I was even EARLY for church and since I'm always flying solo and we have 9:00 church, that is no small feat). But today was just one of those days where I was at my worst.

I had a function at 10:00 that I'd already promised to attend and I REALLY wanted to go. Yet this is how the morning went:

• 5:50--Will wakes up. Not unusual b/c sometimes he will wake up early, nurse and go back to sleep for an hour or two. I thought for sure he would go back to bed since he was up late the night before for the Ward Trunk-or-Treat (pictures to come on that).


• 6:50--Will still not asleep, just playing in his crib. I finally drag myself out of bed and then get him out of his crib.


• 7:30--Will tired and whiny. Put him to sleep even though he hadn't eaten breakfast yet.


• 7:35--I'm tired and whiny. Put me back to sleep even though I hadn't eaten breakfast yet AND I had tons to do.


• 9:10--Woke up in a shock that I slept so long.


• 9:35--Showered, hair done, make-up on.


• 9:45--Salad made, dressing made (from scratch, mind you), thumb sliced real good when slicing apples for said salad, kitchen a mess, but can clean that up later. Salad in car along with Will's diaper bag full of toys and the breakfast he will for sure want to eat.


• 9:50--Woke Will up from nap, changed his messy diaper and his clothes, put his coat on, strapped him in car.


• 9:51--Look up address of house on mapquest, shriek in horror when realize it's so FAR (as in I should have left a good half an hour ago far) and try to print off directions.


• 9:52--Printer out of paper.


• 9:53--Put paper in printer. Printer still won't print, Will screaming in car b/c he is HUNGRY (and b/c he hates the car).


• 9:54--Printer still won't print and I can't find my keys.


• 9:55--No keys, no printing, lots of crying coming from the direction of the garage.


• 10:00--Still no keys.


• 10:10--Get Will OUT of the car, look for Ward directory to call the hostess, find it and learn that Will has eaten half the directory, including the page with the phone number I need.


• 10:15--Finally find hostess' number, call her with the lame but true excuse that I cannot find my car keys and apologize profusely for my flakiness all the while Will screaming in the background because at this point he is starving.


• 10:20--Printer prints.


• 10:21--Retrieve food out of diaper bag to feed my crying baby and locate my keys: hidden in a crevice in the deep recesses of my diaper bag. Argh.


• 10:30--Will fed and calmed.


• 10:31--Realized I have become that mom. Eat some Halloween candy, go on a walk with Will and get over it. We all have our days.
• 12:30--Can't find my keys. Again.