What Christmas Looked Like At Our House

 

Merry Christmas to yours from ours!

Whoopie I'm Three

When Spencer was born I knew he would grow up. I studied all the milestones and checked them off as he passed them. I knew by the time he turned one he would coo, smile, eat solid food and crawl. Check. In Spencer's second year I knew he'd walk, talk and fine tune his already learned skills. Check. But for some reason my mind never wrapped itself around the idea of Spencer turning three.

Before I felt like I knew what to expect and was confident in my abilities as a parent. Now, I have no idea. What do I do with a three year old?!?! I guess I'll find out.

Here are a few pictures highlighting Spencer's past year:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to my Big Boy!

Family Fitness

We ran our first 5K, as a family. I'm so proud of us.

The weather was pretty standard, it was raining. By the end of the 3.1 miles my shoes and socks were soaked. Adam's feet were completely unscathed. When I asked him how he managed to keep his feet dry he replied "I didn't step in any puddles." Clever man. I'll have to remember that trick next time.

My goal was to run the entire way while pushing our double stroller...I did not accomplish this goal. I stopped once to take off my rain jacket and when I reached the big hill near the end I did in fact walk.

BUT (I like big conjunctions and I cannot lie) I am extremely proud of my accomplishment. I was the only person pushing a stroller. I finished 87th out of about 200 participants with a time of 33 minutes 53 seconds. Adam was close behind finishing 34 minutes 2 seconds. Not bad for a couple of first timers.

Family of Four

Back in August we got family portraits taken at Sears. Shortly after we moved. It took three months and a bazillion phone calls but our pictures have finally arrived!

 

 

Now we just have to frame 'em and hang 'em, which will probably take an additional three months but significantly less phone calls.

Indenpendent Almost Three Year Old

What? A blog update? Yes I know, I'm sorry. Moving on.

Spencer is very much in the "No, I do it!" phase. If I put all the wet laundry in the dryer and Spencer decides he wanted to do it I have to take all the clothes back out and let him put them back in. Trust me, it is faster and easier to start over and let him redo the work than to have him throw an endless tantrum.

Another task of tension we face nearly every day is getting dressed. I say nearly because some days we just don't get dressed. When we are pressed for time Spencer will let me dress him if I can catch him. When we don't have a schedule or somewhere to be Spencer wants to dress himself.

As long as he is happy, I'm happy.

Halloween The Triology

Our Halloween fun started with the Base Trick-or-Treat back on the 26th. Spencer dressed up as a Pirate.

Me: "Hey Spencer, make a pirate face."

Have you ever seen a fiercer scallywag? 

We met up with some friends, this is Elena

They were friends back in Maryland and we followed them over here. Sadly they are on the way back to Maryland in a few weeks. I think once they leave Spencer will lose all motivation to do anything. Before leaving the house Spencer will often ask "Will Elena be there?" If I say 'yes' he'll quickly comply, if I say 'probably not' then he'll drag his feet. I've learned though not to say 'yes' unless I'm absolutely sure we'll be seeing her otherwise Spencer just can't handle life and he falls apart.

We only lasted 40 minutes trick-or-treating on base. It was freezing outside, literally 32 degrees.

Halloween day two we had our ward Trunk-or-Treat at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Games and festivities started at 6:30 with the Trunk-or-Treat following at 7. We pretty much missed all the games because halfway to church we realized we forgot our candy and had to turn around.

We caught the Scarecrow parade though. Spencer happily paraded around showing off his newly found facial hair.

After the parade we headed outside to the cars. It was much warmer this time at 47 degrees. We almost didn't need jackets...almost. I didn't get any pictures of the decorated cars because I was taking BOTH Spencer and Natalie around Trunk-or-Treating. I had to take Natalie because she decided she only wanted her mom. After making our rounds Spencer went back to our car to help daddy pass out candy.

He enjoyed passing out candy just as much if not more than trick or treating. (You can consider this picture an update on my face as well. As you can see the scabs are all cleared up and gone. I still have a few red marks but they are fading quickly.)

AND FINALLY, Day 3, the real Halloween. We stayed in and let Spencer pass out candy. We probably had about 30 trick-or-treaters. He had a blast!

Whoa, What Happened to Your Face?

Even my kids can't help but stare.

Don't worry, it's not contagious. For a very long time, as in I can remember being teased back in Jr High, I have had a milia problem.

 

Milia isn't harmful in any way, just annoying. I had never considered having them removed. They never really bothered me until recently. Somehow they became agitated and started itching. I finally decided to take care of business.

I went to a dermatologist and they put a numbing cream on my face.

I felt pretty cute sitting in the waiting room like this. Spencer kept telling me I had white stuff on my face. Thanks buddy.

Once numb I was taken back to surgery where they hyfrecated my face. What is hyfrecation? It is "to rapidly and selectively destroy tissue by the passage of an electric current through the tip of the hyfrecator as it touches the skin."

It looks like this:

Essentially a hot needle burns away the targeted tissue. What does it feel like? Bee stings. Lots and lots of bee stings. And when the procedure was over it felt like my face was on fire.

A day later the redness is gone but the burn marks are more pronounced

And there you have it. That is what happened to my face. Good timing with it being Halloween and all. I don't have to spend hours uglying up with fake blood or anything. This year I'll be going as the "pre-eight cow Mahana."