The Spencer Sphere

Healthier Food Options

2012-01-24T15:45:00.000-08:00

After Christmas left my kitchen and body in shambles (mentioned in my last post), I'm trying some new food choices. My inspiration for these changes comes from a blog I ran across 100daysofrealfood.com. On her blog she makes a pledge to eat real food for 100 days. I'm not making that same pledge, there are some areas where I can't budge, but I am trying to be as close to her pledge as possible.

I have been super successful in implementing her pledge otherwise. We have doubled our fruit and vegetable intake, cut our meat intake in half, and focused on eating mostly whole grains. This isn't a timed pledge for me, for me it's a new lifestyle choice so my family can live a healthier and happier life.

Here are some reasons I'm not making the complete pledge:

My husband doesn't believe in organic. I am indifferent.
I have spent the last year collecting a surplus of food in case of an emergency. I can't throw away or overlook my months worth of spaghetti noodles and justify buying whole wheat spaghetti noodles. Although I have made the pledge to buy whole food items for my food storage in the future.
I think white and brown sugar are a necessary evil when I have cravings and we already use honey for a majority of our food preparation, so I'm blurring the lines.
Lastly, my husband uses Yoplait yogurt to treat his chronic canker sores, which breaks most of her pledge.

Check out her blog and see if there are any improvements you can make in your diet, but be cautious on her advice to watch Food, Inc. That's one movie I wish I hadn't watched! and I still would have made the changes.

Pregnancy Cravings

2012-01-24T15:27:00.000-08:00

I've had an especially hard time being 7 months along during Christmas. I almost have my decorations cleaned up (it's almost a month later). I also put on twice as much weight in four weeks as I had between my other Dr visits -- thank you Christmas fudge, candied popcorn, and other delicious sweets. I've nearly finished purging my house, and my body, from Christmas junk foods.
Last time I was this far along it was the middle of summer and I could have as many fresh fruits as I wanted. So, Sunday night I started craving berries. I made a berry cobbler to fill that craving. But, on Monday, "BERRIES" my body screamed. This time I decided to try something healthier -- smoothies. I didn't find a recipe I liked, so I made up my own:

Berry Banana Smoothies

5 strawberries
3/4 cup mixed berries
3/4 cup milk
1 banana
6 to 8 ice cubes
1 strawberry yogurt
All of my fruits were frozen because it's December, but fresh ones would be better.

Directions:

Blend berries and banana with milk until smooth. Add yogurt and blend. Lastly blend in ice and serve.
Makes 2 or 3 servings and took about 5 minutes to throw together.

My daughter enjoyed her cup enough to get her first head-freeze.

What's For Dinner?

2012-01-24T15:06:00.000-08:00

When my husband and I first got married I knew how to make 3 or 4 dinners. Spaghetti, taco salad, breakfast, and stew. The first three seem incredibly easy as I look back, but where did I learn to make stew? I have no idea. But, as daunting as it may seem, it's actually incredibly easy. It has three main ingredients: meat, potatoes, and carrots. Since we've been married for a while my recipe has changed and developed into a delicious recipe and here it is:

Stew

1/2 lb meat (I use turkey or beef to make this stew)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 white onion, chopped

1/4 cup red cooking wine

4 - 5 medium potatoes

5 whole carrots

canned or frozen corn and green beans

2-3 cups Chicken (for turkey meat) or Beef broth

Directions:

Brown meat in the bottom of pot. Add garlic and onion and saute with meat. When bottom of pan starts to brown add the cooking wine and reduce by half (boil half of it out, I understand this also removes the alcohol).
Wash and chop the potatoes into 1 inch cubes (sometimes I leave the skin on and sometimes I remove it, you can do it either way depending on your preference), throw potatoes into pot and add broth until the potatoes are covered (about 2 or 3 cups).
Peel and chop the carrots and add them to the pot. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low. Allow to stew for 1 to 3 hours, you know it's stewed long enough when the potatoes fall apart as you're mixing it and the stew is thick.
About 20 minutes before serving add 1 1/2 cups each of corn and green beans (or one drained can each). Sometimes I add extra seasoning like savory, but that's optional.
Makes 4 to 5 servings

Using the wine when browning the meat makes regular stew meat fall apart when you eat it, it's the best change I've made to the recipe. This stew also goes great with a loaf of homemade bread.

Josephine's Butterfly Quilt

2011-12-23T13:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry that I haven't updated my blog because I've been so busy getting everything ready for Christmas. I thought I'd post a picture of one Christmas project. I'm making Josephine a quilt for her toddler bed.

Here it is. We've themed her room with butterflies. I just need to quilt it and it'll be all ready for Christmas morning - but I'm not sure when I'll have time to do that. Hmm....

Merry Christmas to everyone!!

Sick Again?

2011-12-16T14:17:00.000-08:00

Just when I thought we'd recovered from the cold, Josie caught the stomach flu. Thank heavens it was only a 24 hour bug. My favorite thing when Josie gets sick is how much she loves to cuddle. I could cuddle all day, and in fact, that's what we did all yesterday. Nothing reminds me of how much I love my sweet little toddler than when she lets me rock her. It's a lot like the book I'll Love You Forever. As long as I can hold you in my arms, you'll be my little baby.

Seat Cushion Cover Tutorial

2011-12-16T14:12:00.000-08:00

Buy foam and cut into desired size. I'll be using this for a window seat, so mine is 2 feet by 5 feet.

Lay foam on the fabric and draw around the foam, you'll add extra size when you cut.

Using my rotary cutter I measured half the width + seam allowance away from the foam line and cut. My foam is two inches thick and I'm giving myself 1/2 inch seam allowance. So I cut 1.5 inches from the yellow foam line.

Then I mitered the corners. I folded each corner into a 45 degree angle and sewed a line 90 degrees from the yellow foam line.

I hate zippers, and every time I put one in I have to re-learn how to. So this is how I do zippers, but if you have a better way -- use it. I laid down my zipper and pinned the fabric where the zipper began and ended.

Then I sewed along this line using a basting stitch. I then picked every third stitch so it would come undone easily.

I opened my zipper and laid it along the wrong side of the fabric from where I'd stitched.

I pinned it in place and used my sewing machine's zipper foot to sew it in place. I back-stitched at the beginning and end.

Then I closed the zipper. Flipped the fabric right side up and started sewing the other zipper side in place. I had to unzip the zipper to sew at the very top of the zipper tape.

I then pulled the seam apart (because I'd undone some of the stitches) and zipped up the zipper so I could finish sewing along the zipper. After I finished the length of the zipper and completely pulled the seam apart. Now I have an invisible zipper.

Finally, I pinned the whole thing together, working from the corners while pinning, and sewed it together. Remember to open the zipper a little before sewing, so you can easily turn it inside out. And TA-DA a seat cover.

Here is Josie laying on her finished window seat cushion.

Then I used Steam-a-Seam and ironed on some cute butterflies.

Giving Some Joy at Christmas

2011-12-13T12:40:00.001-08:00

This year for Christmas Russell and I decided to give some joy to people who might be a little lonely. That joy took the form of sugar cookies. I love sugar cookies! They are one of my three favorite cookies. Our list had thirty two families on it and that translated into 124ish cookies. It helps that I have the World's Best Sugar Cookie recipe, which makes 80ish cookies with one batch. Here it is:

World's Best Sugar Cookies

2 c butter or margarine, softened

2c granulated sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon extract

6c flour

1 tsp baking soda

Cream together butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and lemon extract. Add flour and baking soda. Mix until all the flour has been mixed into the dough. Refrigerate for 2 or 24 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookies sheet. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut out desired shapes. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes (I baked mine for 12 minutes because my oven runs a little cold) or until edges start to brown. Freezes well for up to 6 months.

Two batches later I had about 180ish cookies. Then I like to make homemade butter cream frosting - it's also super easy.

Butter Cream Frosting

4 c powdered sugar

1 cup butter, softened

2 TBS milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

Blend with hand mixer on medium speed until well blended. One recipe of this will cover one batch of the cookies.

Then we had three awesome families come over and help decorate cookies, put together plates, and play with Josie's toys. It was such a great evening. After we'd decorated them all, we divided the 32 families and everyone went out sharing joy. This might become a new Christmas tradition, it was that good.

Easy Fish Recipe

2011-12-10T18:43:00.001-08:00

As a girl from Washington State, with a father who used to be an avid fisher, I'm practically required to love fish. But in the words of Jim Gaffigin, "I love fish, when it doesn't taste like fish. So, you don't like fish."

Unfortunately, my husband does like fish. So it's my job to make fish that doesn't taste like fish and this is how.

Ingredients:
-1 fish fillet
-Lemon juice
-Clove Garlic
-Thyme
-Basil
-Olive oil
Drizzle the fillet with lemon juice, mince your garlic and put it on top, sprinkle with thyme and basic, and lastly drizzle with olive oil. I cover the fish and let it sit in the refrigerator for a couple hours. The secret to this recipe (which took me years to figure out) is to put the ingredients on the fish in the order listed. It looks like this:

I used to wrap it in a foil packet and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, but I recently started pan frying it. I take the fish and cook it on one side on a medium heat. Then flip it when the thickest part of the fish is halfway done. I allow it to brown a little. To make certain it's done you flake it with a fork. This only takes 15 - 20 minutes, which is so much faster than baking.

For a complete meal I throw some rice into the rice maker and cook up some vegetables. Nice and healthy!

Stringing Beads

2011-12-10T17:54:00.001-08:00

This year I hit a jackpot for Josephine at the Quilt Group Christmas party. During the gift exchange I chose the present with beads, bells, wire, and thread. This is for creating embellishments on a quilt (in case you were scratching your head). However, as soon as Josephine saw what was in the bag she wanted access.

We took out one of the bags of beads and I showed her how to put the wire through the hole in the bead. Then how to let it slide down the wire, so she could then put on another bead.

If you decide to buy some beads, a shoe string is a good option for beading. Especially since Josephine complains about poking her finger sometimes. Also, make sure that the beads you buy aren't a choking hazard. This is a concern I have because when the next baby comes, these beads will be a choking hazard.

After posting this I realized that a great (and inexpensive) alternative to this would be macaroni noodles -- All circular noodles really. Then your kids can string noodles instead of beads.

Plastic Grocery Bag Holder Tutorial

2011-12-09T12:13:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to make one of these for myself for a long time. So I ended up making one to give away instead (not very helpful). Here's how I did it. Please excuse my sewing jargon; I'm definitely not a master sewer.
I took a scrap of fabric and cut it in half. Its width is about 17 inches and its length can be as long as you need it to be. For my next bag I'll probably make it a bit longer, I think its length is about 24 inches.From a coordinating fabric I cut a circle using a cottage cheese lid. I picked my circle size by finding the largest circle my 17 inch wide scraps of fabric would fit around with a little space for seam allowances and some gathering.
I also cut a coordinating rectangle. My rectangle is about 2 inches by 5 inches.
I took the fabric for the body of the holder and sewed them together into a tube along both 24 inch sides, not sewing the 17 inch side. On one side I stopped sewing two inches up from the bottom, skipped one inch, and then continued sewing to the bottom. I skipped the space between the pins, back-stitching before the pin and then after the pin. This is the place the ribbon goes through.

Take the small rectangle and fold it over itself and pin. Then sew where the fabric end lies. For this one the fabric is right in the middle. If you don’t want the sewing to show you can fold it in half with right sides together and sew it together, then turn it inside out. I didn’t really care about being able to see the sewing – I just wanted to avoid the hassle of turning it inside out afterwards.Then I folded my circle in half and pinned the middle for both sides.

I lined up the side seams of the rectangle and pinned them to my middle points. Make sure you're pinning the circle to the side of the body that doesn't have the hole for the ribbon. I then pinned all the way around the circle, creating a fold where there was extra fabric. This will make it look ruffled when it’s complete.
After pinning all around you’ll need to place the rectangle for hanging. Do this by removing one of the pins (I put mine along the seam opposite from the ribbon opening), folding the rectangle in half (preferably with the raw edge on the inside), and then line the raw edges of the rectangle with the raw edge of the circle. The rectangle will be inside; it’s present in the above picture. Then you can sew it all together and turn the whole bag inside out. Next I took care of the bottom hem. First I pinned and sewed around the hole for the ribbon like it was a button hole, except I just used a straight stitch. I laid the seam allowance flat while doing this to reinforce the hole.Then I folded up my hem an inch, pinned it in place, and (using a zig-zag stitch) sewed along the top of it. This makes the case for the ribbon to go through.
Afterwards I cut my ribbon to 32 inches and, using a big safety pin, threaded the ribbon into the hole. Then I synched it slightly and tied a beautiful bow. TA DA! I felt a little silly bringing this to the gift exchange, but the lady who drew my name was super excited about freeing up her cabinet and I got an offer to buy one. So in the end I was pretty happy.

Favorite Things

2011-12-08T16:12:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about Christmas is all the gift exchanges. Not only is it an opportunity for me to be creative and make things, but I also get to receive the fun things other people bring.

So, this week I had two exchanges and I made a plastic grocery bag holder for the kitchen and some coasters (from my pinterest).

I made six coasters for the set. The two close ups were my favorite. I decided to add vinyl quilting phrases to the coasters. Here are my two favorite.

Playdough

2011-12-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

My day-care experience with Playdough has always been very messy. But, I have discovered this week that it's not so bad when there's only one kid playing with it. Not only that but Josephine was entertained for hours! That's awesome.

I also gave her four cookie cutters to use, that expended the play.

Recipe
2 cups white flour (I tried wheat and it was super gross)
1 cup salt
1 Tablespoon oil
3/4 cups water (add 4 drops food coloring to water)

Down and Out

2011-12-06T12:26:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving was great! The house was clean, the company was warm and welcoming, and the food was delicious. The shopping was also pretty good.

Perhaps it was all the people, but we've been sick in bed for the last two weeks (recovering from Thanksgiving). We all caught some nasty cold and Russell's has turned into a major sinus infection - gross. To put it simply, we had a good time with family and wish they hadn't shared their sickness.

We were all ready to jump into Christmas with both feet, but have halted all future plans of cookie making or visiting with people. Too bad. I feel like I'm missing out on Christmas this year, but I just need to remember that it's only the second week of the month and not to be melodramatic. Now that Russell is on anti-biotics he should get better and the festivities can continue.

That's what I'm waiting for!

Cleaning for the Holidays

2011-11-30T14:18:00.000-08:00

Josie loves water play, but the cold weather makes it impossible. So, I see mopping as a chance for Josie to get some water play. I wouldn't normally write about it, but this time was more exciting than the last. I like to give Josie a bucket with water in it and a rag. I've worked on teaching her how to wring out the rag, but she usually only gets the top half. This led to many puddles on the kitchen floor. After Josie slipped twice, I put some socks on her for traction and kissed her all better. Then, as I was walking around the table, I slipped on one of her puddles and fell down. Being 6 months pregnant I was really worried about landing on Josie and maneuvered myself away, but ended up landing on my knees. Ouch! What surprised me was Josie's reaction. Toddler and mom switched roles.
"Are you okay? You okay?" Josie asks.
"Yeah, I just hurt my knees. Ouch!" I respond.
"Oh. Kiss them." And Josie kissed both my knees to make me feel better.

I'll be honest, the kisses didn't stop the bruises from forming. But the kisses did make me feel pretty special. I guess that's why a mom's kiss works better than a band-aid for my little Josie.

Vinyl Phrases

2011-11-30T14:04:00.001-08:00

For Christmas this year I made some special vinyl phrases for my sister's family. Here they are:

For my brother-in-law who served two tours in Iraq. He's a real hero.
The words above are white vinyl, the picture is just low quality.

For my nephew Slade, who's a boy scout.

For Sofya, who's growing up way too fast.

Now, to make those into something like my Family blocks you follow these steps.
1. Cut wood to size of paper.
2. Sand wood
3. Paint back, sides, and a little of the front with black paint (you can use any color you want)
4. Modge-podge paper onto wood
5. When it's dry, modge-podge over the top of the whole thing

As for my other adorable nieces and nephews, they're getting homemade quilts.

This quilt is quilted with the nursery rhyme "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

Advent Calendar

2011-11-30T12:41:00.000-08:00

I've been looking for a neat Advent Calendar that I could make for Josephine this year. She can already count to 12, so I thought a calendar would help her practice. While at Thai Pan Trading with my awesome mother-in-law I saw something that sparked the idea for my Christmas Countdown calendar.

It took us a little while to throw the whole thing together (we were making 4), but I thought I'd give some simple directions on how to make it.

Supplies:
1 cookie sheet
Green paper for Christmas tree
Decoration for bottom of tree
25 large clear glass rocks (see last picture, may also be known as vase gems)
25 1-inch circles
Numbers 1 through 25
25 magnets
Hot glue gun
Modge-podge

1. Buy a cookie sheet. We bought the largest silver cookie sheet that Wal-Mart sold, we were a little concerned about 25 large rocks fitting.

2. Cut out a tree. We took parchment paper and drew a stencil for the tree, then we used 1 1/2 sheets of 12 x 12 paper to make the tree. If you're not sure whether your tree is big enough try putting all 25 rocks on.

3. Decide what you'd like at the bottom of your tree. We were originally going to put presents under the tree, but found this snowman paper at JoAnns.

4. Then modge-podge your tree and snowman to the cookie sheet. Allow the bottom glue to dry before modge-podging over the top, otherwise your paper will bubble. Also, we didn't modge-podge where their was no paper because it peeled off easily and didn't look the best.

5. Cut out 25 1-inch circles. We used several different sheets of paper. Some we cut out by tracing the rocks, and some we had the Cricut cut out. As you can see, in the end we had way more than we needed, but this allowed us to pick and choose which circles we liked best to go on our rocks. For fun we made a gold glitter star to go under the number 25, that way we'd have a star at the top of our calendar.

6. Cut out the numbers 1 through 25. I also had my Cricut do this. However, if you don't have a Cricut you could use number stickers or have your printer print the numbers directly on the paper you'll be using for your circles.

7. Modge-podge over the circles, place your number (unless you're using stickers, and then you should reverse these steps), and place the rock on top. Allow to dry. Pay attention to your numbers, we had someone end up with two 16 rocks because they weren't paying attention.

8. Hot glue magnet to the back of the rock. We bought a 52 magnet pack at Wal-Mart for about $3.

9. To hang the cookie sheet we drilled (using my husband's titanium bits) holes in the top lip and ran a ribbon scrap through it. Another option could be using a picture stand.

I wish you success with your own Christmas Countdown calendar.

p.s. It doesn't have a title on the cookie sheet because we couldn't agree on what it should say, or how to do it. But, I have future plans of placing "Countdown to Christmas " at the top of my cookie sheet.

Cultivating Genius

2011-11-23T12:26:00.001-08:00

We have a family here in Boise whom we really enjoy getting together with. It helps that they have a child exactly Josephine's age. A month ago we were over at their house and I found some flash cards in their book drawer and Josie, her friend, and myself started going through the pictures. Josephine really enjoyed this, so we decided to get her some flash cards to look at. I was a bit disappointed with what I found, and started to make my own. I took my handy-dandy cricut and cut out shapes in different colors so we could practice learning them.

Josephine has really enjoyed the focused one-on-one time this brings. She likes the discussion, the sorting, the quizzing, and the new words she's learning. It's funny to hear a two-year old say "rectangle". Over the last month she has learned her colors and can identify them about 90% of the time. As for her shapes, she knows how to say about three of them, but can match two of the same shape. This is the rewarding side of parenting.

As for the not rewarding side of parenting: four hours of sleep Monday night. I wondered why I couldn't stop crying and when I counted my hours of sleep I realized the answer. It doesn't help that I'm six months along and can hardly sleep anyways. Throw in a toddler who got enough REM during nap time and welcome to the dark side.

We also managed to get pink eye the week of Thanksgiving. Not only do I have three people staying here for a week, but tomorrow we'll be surrounded by family of all ages. Awesome!

Now that I'm writing about it, it all puts a smile on my face, even the bad stuff. Funny what makes the heart grow fonder. Or perhaps I'm just impressed that I'm still standing to tell the tale.

Water Painting

2011-11-16T12:13:00.000-08:00

When there are small breaks between events (like lunch and nap time) it's helpful to have small activities easily available. We have a random/art drawer and today she decided to do some water painting.

After she finishes her art we hang it on the bottom half of the fridge so she can remember, talk about, and share her art with the whole family.

I really enjoy using all my daycare experience and my Elementary Education degree in my mothering. It helps me feel purposeful. When Russell and I bought our home I felt unhappy staying at home with Josephine. About the same time I picked up the book Contentment by Maria Covey Cole. What a heart changing and eye opening read; it was what I needed at that moment. My copy is all marked up, here's one quote:

"She is truly happy who can see and appreciate the beauty with which God has ordained the commonplace things of life" Joseph F. Smith.

My new goal is to appreciate the small moments, like when Josie tries to feed Elmo her baby's bottle through the T.V. It's enjoying the small moments that fill my lamp.

101 Free Genealogy Websites

2010-08-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

I have recently, over the last 7 months, started working on my genealogy. I just posted a google doc online that is a list of over 100 great free websites to search for records and information. Awesome. I can't wait to get started on these ones.

101 Best Free Genealogy Websites - check out the link.

Updates

2010-06-02T12:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a while and Josephine is now crawling and got her first tooth about two weeks ago. She loves babbling and we're trying to teach her sign language and to say please. It's so fun to watch her grow.

Russell is still looking for a job in the law. We've widened our search and he's applying to jobs in half the United States. We're praying that something takes. That's all that's new.

Getting Closer

2010-03-13T15:23:00.000-08:00

This is from this morning, she's trying to get her book while going over a toy. To me it's proof that she'll be crawling in no time!

Josephine's First Christmas

2010-01-09T15:08:00.001-08:00

For Christmas Josephine got her first mode of transportation - a cherry red convertible walker. Boy she was excited.

Later she played on her new baby gym. It's been helping her reach and grab items. It's a lot of fun to see her developments. This Christmas she made out like a bandit.

Genealogy

2010-01-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

This week I had the excellent opportunity of going to Oregon and doing some genealogy work with my Grandma Atkinson. I'd heard from my dad that she had a family tree. Boy was he wrong. At first we couldn't figure out what it was. Then we realized it was an estate claim made back in the 1800s. One of my ancestors wrote down every name he knew to prove his relationship with Andew House's estate. It's kinda weird, and needs to be untangled, but it's also so cool! This is going to be my project for the next several months - untangle the estate claim to create my family tree. If I succeed I could be a Daughter of the Revolution, which is also pretty neat.

I'll also be scrapbooking for Josephine.

Chatty Kathy

2009-12-23T07:50:00.000-08:00

Josephine is a very social child. We're at Grandma and Grandpa Spencer's house and the last two nights during dinner she's stolen the show. She has discovered, and perfected, how to take out her binky and put it back in. This allows her to talk, or coo, while still enjoying her binky. She has such a strong personality already. She loves people and smiling at them, she's very social. It's amazing to me that her spirit is alfready showing through at just 4 months old.

Josephine Lifting Her Head

2009-12-12T06:40:00.000-08:00

On Thursday Russell and I went shopping for Christmas. While at the mall I stopped to change Josephine. At one point I turned her onto her stomach and she popped her head right up. This was the first time she'd lifted her head like this while on her stomach. Here's a video catching her in the act.

Also, I finished my last day of college yesterday. I'm a bit sad, I miss Dr. Leukel and the 5th grade class.

Saturday

2009-11-29T15:55:00.000-08:00

For starters we had a babysitter, or rather two because Russell's parents were in town for Thanksgiving. So, yesterday we won our football game against Utah in overtime. Afterwards we totally rushed the field, which included jumping over the railing that lines the field.

Above is Russell and the score board, below is the crowd with Max Hall crowd surfing.

Sunday

2009-11-29T13:56:00.000-08:00

Russell and I are family history consultants. We had decided that one of us would go home because Josephine is so young and it's RSV season. But we got called and so we are teaching a Sunday school class - so neither of us are going home. Today right at the end of Sunday school she had a blow out all over herself and the car seat...I was able to change her and get her home. I laid her down in her crib, she reached up, pulled down her sheep, and cuddled right up to it. I thought it was so sweet that I snapped a couple pictures, which woke her up, but it was worth it.

Independent Study

2009-11-23T18:55:00.000-08:00

Throughout the course of my education I have completed a whole semester via independent study. Tomorrow I am scheduled to take my very last independent study final, my final final for the rest of my undergrad. I couldn't be more excited! To celebrate here's Josephine experiencing the same peace and joy I will have once I'm done.

It's Nearly Over

2009-11-20T08:07:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update. Josephine is growing like a bean sprout. She chats all the time with Russell and I. I have some videos to upload, just have to find time.

I only have three weeks of teaching left before I graduate! YAY! I'm really enjoying teaching though, fifth grade is a blast.

Here are some recent pictures.

Josephine's Baby Blessing

2009-09-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we blessed Josephine at her grandparents house in Boise. I didn't know that you could do baby blessings at home, but you can. Also, she did a great job traveling the 6 hours to Boise - much bettter than her mother did.

Four generations of Spencers.

Josephine Lynn Spencer

2009-08-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

We planned our induction for Tuesday the 25th, then I went into labor on Monday morning the 24. So we have a beautiful little girl whose stats are: 6 lbs 9 oz, 20.5 inches long, was purple in color, she's in the 11th percentile for weight and 72nd percentile for height. So she's skinny and tall, but fits into her newborn clothes rather well. Something that's been shocking and suprising is that she smiles in her sleep.

outfit going home.

proud dad

Inducing Labor

2009-08-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

I've decided that the reason there's no homeopathic way to induce labor is to protect our babies from one crazy mother who was just so done with being pregnant that she took nature into her own hands. I know I'm not due for another week (we're inducing on Monday), but I really want to be not pregnant!

Getting ready

2009-08-07T14:36:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I'm 37 weeks along which is full term, so Russell and I decided we needed to be ready. I packed the hospital bags for me and the baby and Russell built the bassinet.

Here are some pictures.

Baby Shower

2009-07-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

I had a baby shower on Thursday, and it was a bunch of fun. Got some super cute little girl clothes, I'm so excited! I only have five weeks to go.

Getting too big!

2009-06-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

So last week, the baby got bigger than the oven. I could tell this from three things.
1. I can feel all of the baby's movements.
2. My stomach no longer feels like there's room for digestion.
3. I have trouble breathing at night.

The worst part of it all is that I'm waking up twice a night to use the bathroom. However, it's very sweet when you're baby is doing the mamba and you can feel all the dance steps. I count my blessings every day though because I'm a heavy sleeper! Which means that when the baby is moving in the night I don't feel it and it doesn't wake me up.

Only two and a half months to go....I'm so excited.

Baby Profile

2009-05-17T21:11:00.001-07:00

This last Monday I got my third ultrasound. I got this one because the baby had it's face burrowed into my spine during the last one. So, during this ultrasound the technician showed me the baby's nose and it's little mouth. I was exicted because I thought the ultrasound might tell us whose features she'd be inheriting. However, I couldn't really tell. Here's the picture she gave us - what do you think?

Cute Crafts

2009-05-02T22:32:00.000-07:00

This week I was invited to a baby shower and wasn't sure what to give...so I found the cutest crochet pattern and whipped this up:

The hat has a little flower. The booties have rolled down top with some really cute laces (to keep them on baby's feet). I can't get over how cute they are.

Quilting

2009-04-27T15:42:00.001-07:00

I have been working on this quilt since last summer, and I'm proud to announce I have finished the whole top.

Russell's Graduation

2009-04-27T15:34:00.000-07:00

On Thursday Russell was one of 6,000 students at commencement, and on Friday he was one of 150ish students graduating from Law School. Couldn't be prouder!

Pink

2009-04-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

I finished her baby blanket. It's amazing what you can get done with motivation! It's sitting on Grandma Spencer's rocking chair, kinda neat.

It's A Girl!!

2009-04-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

So, we planned to find out on Wednesday what we are having, but I was too impatient. I moved the appointment up a week. Thus, we're having a girl! Here's her showing us she has five fingers. Here's her five toes. The techincian wanted a picture of her face, but she was curled against my spine.

P.S. Russell got to feel her kicking Saturday night, pretty exciting.

Little Kicks

2009-04-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, while I was bored out of my mind in one of my classes, and trying not to fall asleep, I focused on my tummy. I'd been asked that day by my mother-in-law if I'd ever felt the baby kick, which I hadn't. But, while sitting in my class I felt the baby squirming around inside, it kicked four times.

I'm writing now because its doing it again...it's kicking!

Before and in the middle

2009-03-29T21:43:00.001-07:00

My baby bump just started showing, and many people have made requests for a picture. So, here's a before the bump and after the bump. Also, we'll be finding out on April 15th what the baby is. We're pretty excited. I also started my girl baby blanket.

Baby Blanket

2009-03-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

I've been working on this blanket since my birthday (the yarn was one of my presents). So I'm nearly done, about one row to go. I know it's for a boy, but we wont know what we're having for another month. Now I'm gonna start on a girls blanket.

The Baby's First Picture

2009-03-03T09:36:00.000-08:00

Here's baby Spencer #1. It was two inches long in the photo and its heart beat was 140 beats per minute. It's waving.

Our delivery date is somewhere between August 27th and August 29th. Pretty exciting.

As of now, the baby's three - four inches long.