Easter Weekend in Pictures

We spent Easter weekend in Charleston with our families, and it sure was fun! We also celebrated Charley's birthday and D's and my 6th year anniversary while we were there. Here are lots of pics from the weekend!

Mema made cupcakes for the kids to decorate (and then smear all over their faces). So fun!

Our weekend was full of eggs and egg hunts.

Hi, I'm Eli. And I throw EVERYTHING.

This little piggy...

Charley getting her hair fixed by Donald's sister, Metrie.

Yard work. He just haaaad to help.

The finished product.

Getting ready for the egg hunt!

This is serious business to Eli.

The kids with Zachary, their cousin who is Eli's age.

Auntie Evelyn made Charley a super yummy birthday cake!

Eli and Mema were looking at birds. I tried capturing the picture through a window.

An egg hunt at Mema and Granddaddy's with cousin Mairin.

Easter Sunday family pic

Charley's first Chocolate Bunny. I didn't realize its name was "Hippy" until after I got it home. There are no flowers in its hair. Strange.

Eli got a football and is in love with it.

My sister Robin's family. Grant, Ryan, Lexie, Robin, Mairin, Ricky, and Brooke
oops...didn't mean to upload the one with Lexie's hand on her head. Sorry Lex.

Charley and three of her girl cousins. Brooke, Lexie and Mairin

Eli busted his lip on a wooden arm chair yesterday. Playing with his football. First of many busted lips, says Donald.

Bun in the Oven

In September of 2007 we announced to the blog world that we were expecting a baby, who ended up being our daughter Charley. In February of 2009, we announced the beginning of another life, which is/who is now Eli. And now blog world, we are announcing, with great anticipation, the arrival of baby three in October. We are very excited! Today was our first appointment and ultrasound, and so far Spicken 3 is healthy and growing well.
We found out when I was four weeks, which is what I consider SUPER early (compared to the other two), and so it feels like I've already been pregnant for FORever. I'm 12 weeks. Not exactly forever.
As you can read about in this post, I wanted to tell Donald in a creative way that I was pregnant with Charley...and it didn't work. With Eli, D was the one who read the test results, so there was no creativity involved in that either. This go around, I was like, "This is it!! (probably) It's now or never..." So... I took the test after he left for work. I had a dentist appointment that afternoon, so he met me at the dentist to take the kids home. The dentist's parking lot isn't exactly a great place to share the news, so I had to wait until I got home from my appointment. The kids were napping and D was on the couch on his computer. D's family had been in town the previous weekend, so we had hamburger and hot dog buns galore leftover from a cookout. I manged to grab a hot dog bun and sneak it in the oven without D hearing me. Phew! I totally can't lie, so I was stressed about how to get him over to the oven, but God spared me and all I had to do is say, "Hey Honey..." and point at the oven. D was like, "Oh yeah!!! I left some of that stuff from Saturday in the oven!" Sweet. I ran with that, and was like, "Can you please come get it out??" He was a tad confused as to why I couldn't just get it out, but thankfully, after only a little persuasion, he came over. He saw the bun and was like, "Oh that???! I didn't know we left a hot dog in there." He didn't get it. I was like, "Yeah, it's a bun." He still didn't get it. "There's a BUN in our oven." ...Oven door shuts. He says, "NOT-ahhh. NOT-ahhh. Are you for real??" NOT-ahhh." He had the biggest smile on his face. It was great. Totally worth it. Success.
And no, it wasn't an accident, and yes, Charley is 2 and Eli is 1. But in October, they will be 3 and 2. Yes, I won't be going anywhere with the kids for a long while. Please come visit us. :)

So here's the first pics of baby three! Praising God for another precious gift!

P.S. My due date is October 31st. Trick or Treat.

March Happiness

We sure do love March Madness in our house, but, thank you very much Morehead St for seriously wrecking my bracket. And Vandy, seriously, why did you lose?? You also messed up my chances. Chances of what?? I don't know...my bracket counts for nothing, but it would be nice to get it right.
I may have told you before that Eli loves basketball. He will just sit there and watch it, while any other kid show entertains him for like 4 minutes. But, as we were watching yesterday, I realized, oh great, the commercials during the games are awful. You may not think so until you watch with your one and two-year-old. The Axe commercial where the angels drop out of the sky b/c they can't resist the hunky Axe guy and then smash their halos on the ground... Charley asked to see the "angels" the rest of the day. Ugh.

I realized that I we have zero green articles of clothing for our children yesterday, but fortunately have been loaned some summer clothes that did contain a little bit of green. Charley had a party at school, and Eli and I got to party with friends where there was green punch, green wraps, green apples, green cookies, green guacamole (yes green haha) etc etc etc. So yummy. I made a cake for a dinner guest we were having, and it's official, I would never be hired as a cake decorator. It was still fun though!

The weather is starting to get soooo nice! We love being outdoors, and after Tuesday's cold and wintery day, the sun has been shining and we've spent some much needed time playing in the driveway.

Bye-Bye.

Fill 'er up!

In other news, one of my best friends from college is getting married tomorrow, so we have all of the wedding festivities this weekend. D and I are going to take Charley to the wedding, which will be her first! So fun!! My parents will be there, which is an added bonus, getting to see them. I am in the wedding, and I just found (in my closet) some shoes that fit the criteria for the bridesmaids, and now I am working on directions to the rehearsal. That is in Charlotte. In just a few hours. Wow, I'm a procrastinator.

Happy Spring!

Big-Boy Haircut

Eli had his official "first haircut" back in December, and has had 2-3 "at home" haircuts since. His hair grows super fast, and we have decided to keep it short for now. I love, love, love his curls, so we don't want it to be tooooo short, though!
As cutting his curls with scissors is quite the challenge for the non-professional, D bought some clippers with several different length guards so that we could "clip" his hair without completely buzzing it. And... it worked! Yay! D used the longest guard last night on the top, and then the second longest on the back and sides. It's almost "too" short, but that probably will only be the case for a week or so until it grows back in some. After about three months, the clippers will be paid for with the money we saved on haircuts!
oh and p.s., Eli turned 18 months today!! Whoa!!

Before pics...

 

why are you making me wear this?? ahhh!

After pics...

Valentine's Day

Nothing special to post really, but had a few pictures to share! We've had the 24-hour stomach bug going around our house, so Eli and I are waiting to see if we are going to get it! Family is coming this weekend, so we best be gettin it if we're gonna get it! :)

I would love this pic even more if I hadn't cut her head off.

Daddy brought cupcakes home on Valentines Day! Eli was a big fan.

Cute as a Cupcake.

For some reason she was saying she looked like an elephant.

She looks like a big girl in this picture! A surfing big girl.

Here are the jigglers! Yum! The middle ones are purple but they look black bc they're stacked on top of pink ones, and the pink ones look dark red bc they're stacked on top of purple ones.

I'm ready for school!

Kid Updates

It's been forever since I've posted, especially with updates on the kids! Here we go!

Charley...

• She is getting closer and closer to being a 3-year-old, which is so hard to believe! It seems like she turned from "toddler" to "little girl" over night, right around 2.5. Which means we only have a year or so until Eli turns into "little boy"!!! They are growing up so fast! (cliche usage number 1)
• So far two-years-old has been "easier" than one as far as her self-control and tantrums issue go. Or maybe we just got used to it? Hmmm. For the most part, she can gather herself quicker than she used to, but we are still teaching (and teaching and teaching and teaching) her to put others first, obey the first time (and with a happy heart), etc. etc. etc.
• Charley loves helping around the house and will often ask, "May I help you, Mommy??" It is very sweet, and I hope it will stick. :/ She especially loves to help with cooking and baking (despite the mixer accident in December!). Other things she helps with are setting the table, putting clothes away, and picking up toys (never-ending battle).
• She loves laughing and if anything is different from our normal routine or if something funny happens, she will laugh and say, "That's SILLY!!" For instance if I were to put Eli's socks on her by accident, she would say, "Mommy, THAT's SILLY! hehehehee." Everything is silly.
• She loves being outside, but since this has been the coldest/longest winter EVER (with the exception of this gloriously beautiful day), we don't get out as much as we'd like.
• Her first dentist appointment was last month, and it went well! Thanks Allison, and Betsy, and Karoline, and Rob, and Trecy, for recommending Upstate Pediatric Denistry. Add me to the list of people who love that place! Charley did really well and got a good report.
• Charley is still in school two days a week and loves it. Tomorrow is her Valentines party, and I think I get more excited about the parties than she does. I signed up to send in Jell-O Jigglers, which of course will be pink and purple and heart-shaped!
• Speaking of parties, Charley is minorly obsessed with Birthdays. She talks about Birthdays and Birthday Cake pretty much EVERY day. 

Eli...

• Eli is almost 1.5. He is still a super happy boy and pretty laid back (until you tell him "No." hmmmm, sounds like Charley).
• He has leveled off in his crazy growing patterns and is still pretty tall but is average in weight. He has been wearing the same clothes since, hmmm, October? So, it's been nice not having to buy new clothes all the time (not to mention we have been super blessed with hand-me-downs).
• Eli is still our curious child (curious is a positive replacement for "destructive"). :) He makes messes, rips books, takes things apart, and would rather see how something works than play with it.
• He is a sweet sweet cuddle bug! He loves snuggling and giving kisses. Such a sweet boy!!
• Eli has been crying when we drop him off at nursery for the past, hmm, four - five months? He usually gets over it pretty quickly and is fine, but it's just one more way how he and Charley are different. Charley is like, "Peace. I've got things to do!" when we drop her off.
• I think he's going to be the family ham. He loves make himself laugh, and will often start cracking up in the middle of a fit if I just look at him like he's being ridiculous. And the other day, he didn't know I was watching him, and he was playing with a toy, got mad at it, threw it down, stared at it for a few seconds, and then started laughing at it. Not in mean way, but in a, "that's so silly" kinda way. 
• Speaking of throwing things, he does throw things that he is mad at or if we give him something he doesn't want, he will chunk it. We are working on this.
• Eli is majorly obsessed with basketball. He has a small one that he carries around all the time and would sleep with if we let him. I took him to a Grace girls' basketball game last week and he just sat there, still, and watched pretty much the entire game.
• He definitely has picked up things quicker b/c of having an older sister. Charley wasn't eating with utensils until she was at least two (mainly my fault b/c I didn't want the mess), and Eli has been eating with them for awhile. Everything Charley does, he wants to do. This is both helpful and not-so-helpful (ie. him trying to climb in his car seat (which is physically impossible) and results in a fit).
• Oh!! And he is walking!! Now there's a biggie! He started walking during Snow Week, and hasn't looked back. It sure is nice having two walkers!! It will be so nice going to the park and other such outdoor activities!! I realized that this will be first summer since 2007 that I haven't had an infant or crawler. I'm excited about getting outside!
• Eli has had three hair cuts already! We took him to Jelly Beans for his first "penny" hair cut in December. They did a great job! Then I cut it in January, and lemme tell you, the professionals make it look easy! It wasn't easy...at all. Yeah, I somewhat butchered it, but no one could really tell b/c of the curls. D cut it again a couple weeks ago and did a good job.

Here are some of my favorite pics from Jan and Feb (in majorly random order b/c Blogger makes rearranging pictures super challenging).

Here's Charley smiling at the Smile (which later slipped out of her lap and broke in two). I felt sooo bad and apologized to the dentist like fifty times. WHOOPS. They were very gracious.

Eli and his buddy Emma.

Such a big girl!

I heart basketball.

The kids with one of their newest friends, Harper!

Four kids on the piano=music to my ears... and Sadie was about to lose it.

Eli's expression is priceless. Mema and Granddaddy sent Eli a ball in the mail, and he was thrilled!

The two sweeties.

Playin Piano

Here's to you, Corn.

A before shot. Before his second cut.

The after shot!