We have a Deal!!

Yes, we have a house!!! Well, at least we are very close to it. We will sign papers this week and are set to close by the middle of January! The funny thing is that it is not either one of the houses I blogged about before. After we looked at both of those, this house came up on the market. It is two years old, but has never been lived in, so everything is like brand new! The kitchen is fabulous (see pictures below). It has four bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. There is also a "bonus" room right off the family room that we will use for a playroom or maybe an office. There is a living/dining room right as you come in the front door. (So you don't get a view straight into the kitchen) This house is also even closer to Mike and Melissa than the others we have looked at.....which is great because we will want them to come over next summer and help us break in the great big swimming POOL!!

No Biting Zone

I have had a lot of comments about the "biting incident." (Mostly over the phone or email) I'm happy to report that it has not happened again, and Spencer seems to have made a full and speedy recovery. Now, I'm not saying that biting is okay, but this incident has just proven once again what a tough guy Spencer is. He takes resilient to the next level.

Closure!

I can't believe it's over! Our house has officially closed and money is in the bank! Whoo Hooooo! We just continue to count our blessings! We are grateful that we actually sold our home in this crazy housing market and even came out ahead, when so many people are not. We have been searching for a new home like crazy. We are looking to buy in the Queen Creek area and of the twenty some odd homes we have looked at, almost all of them are foreclosure homes! I feel sad for those people, but also very happy that we are now on the buying side of this market!



I think we finally have narrowed the choice down to two homes. One with a great layout and a pool or one way less expensive home with tons of potential in a great location. I do love them both. Pool or no pool, really. (I never thought I'd say that!!)

House with pool and great birch cabinets!

House with granite counters! on a cul de sac! Close to Mike & Melissa!

Leaving a Mark!

Andrew and Spencer were wrestling...again. This time we had real war wounds for the first time. Check out these bite marks that were made through a shirt.

Just now, as I added this picture, Andrew walked into the room and saw it for the first time. He said, "It has ouwee?" I said, "Yeah, what happened?" He replied, "I eat it!" Yikes, boys are gross. I think I handle it remarkably well for being raised in a house full of girly girls!

Dino sized fun!

My sis-in-law, Lindsay, and I took all the kiddos to the Arizona Museum of Natural History (the dinosaur museum) yesterday. It was a lot of fun!! Andrew got a little freaked out by the anama-tronic dinosaurs, though. lol

Andrew, Brooklyn and Blake w/ a Mammoth

Puzzles in the Activity Center

Andrew doing a "rubbing"

The kids stand behind the big screen against a blue screen and join the western! They had a great time making silly faces.

This is a waterfall several stories high. These are the dinos that scared Andrew! ;)

One more cool one. (Andrew wouldn't get close enough to stand in the picture) ;)

This is a cool water feature in the courtyard were the kids (and Moms) can Pan for gold. Andrew might as well have jumped in for a swim...he was soaked!
Andrew dumping water and sand. Fun.

Jumping Bean!

Andrew loves to jump...off of things! Anything!! In these pictures you can see Grandma Palmers favorite game. *dripping with sarcasm* It gets even more interesting when Spencer climbs up to join the fun.

Center of Attention

Spencer loves to make people laugh and to be in the middle of everything. Here he is climbing in and on Grandma's toy drawer that doubles as a barrier to the video cabinets.

Look at me!

Button Pusher!

New Pictures

I love my Target Portrait Studio!! I could spend way tooooo much money on pictures just because I love them so much!!! Here are a few of my favs from Spencer's 1 yr sitting. Just sit back and enjoy the pictures!!!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year with the LeBaron side of the family. The beauty of living in AZ really comes to life this time of the year. We enjoyed an outside dinner! I know that seems perfectly normal to all of the natives, but I'm still getting used to the idea. Grandma and Grandpa LeBaron really know how to put on a great party and we had a ton of family there to enjoy it all. They provided a gingerbread house to decorate for every child! All of the Aunties brought enough candy (for decorating) to last through Christmas! Andrew had fun helping me decorate, but mostly he wanted to eat the candy. Spencer just tried to eat the ping pong balls all day long.

Lots of cars...lots of family!

My masterpiece

Spencer, with a mouthful of ping pong ball. Nice.

Slacker

I realized just how long it has been since I posted a blog when I went to upload my pictures from my camera last night. I had 100 pictures! So, I promised my mom I would load up the blog today with lots of pictures....here goes...

Happy Birthday Spencer

Spencer turns one this week, so we decided to celebrate a little early with the family on Sunday. We had, of course, a Halloween theme. Derek and I made spider cupcakes that were so much fun and sort of silly looking. I think the pictures say it all so here you go...

Spaghetti Squash...

...Yum! Spencer enjoyed his dinner and then he enjoyed wearing it! I think his Uncle Dan taught him how to wear food so well. Here are some pictures of his squash "hair." (I guess the pictures didn't turn out perfectly, look at the squash above his right eye.)

What a Wonderful Toy

"Don't tie up your brother!" Andrew had too much fun with this slinky. Spencer started playing with it and then Andrew took over....Spencer is one tough cookie!! (Yes, I do realize the obvious choking hazards involved here, and the slinky is now in the trash.)

A Trophy

Spencer squeezed past the barricade through the kitchen, and into the laundry room. He tossed the box of garbage bags to the floor and pulled a prize from a second box. Then I watched from across the room as he toddled back, holding his prize up high in the air. He squeezed back through the barricade and went straight to the hall to play with toys and enjoy his special treat. Yes, a dog biscuit.

(Hope you enjoy these pictures, Uncle Matt!) :)

Potty Time

This "Cars" mat and every car that is on it represent one pee in the potty. I was pretty sure that this was gonna work....it didn't. He gets how works and he is really good at stripping naked and climbing up on the potty himself with out a potty chair or stool (This is good), but beyond that, he feels no need to use the potty. Diapers work just fine, thanks. Urggh.
PS I think Derek has just as much fun as Andrew playing with the cars...maybe even more.

Little Walker

Finally, I took the time take video of this major milestone. "Spencer walkin'!!!" as Andrew says. This clip was taken with our digital camera, so it's not great quality, and there is no audio, but I really wanted all of you that live far away to share in this fun time.

Mom's Work Never Done

My Sister sent me this very funny clip about what moms say. I hope you laugh like I did!

Spencer at Grandma's

Spencer most definitely feels at home here at Grandma's house. He feels free to explore every nook and cranny that exists. He loves to empty the lower kitchen cabinets. Especially the one with tupperware and the one with cookie cutters, they both make a good mess. He also has discovered that if he can make it all the way to the laundry room, there is a box of dog treats as a prize! yum. Here is a picture of him inside of Grandma's toy cupboard. Just looking for all the best toys.

Playhouse Disney LIVE!

I realize this is not the best picture but you can see that it is the stage and that they had cool lighting, ;) I forgot to take extra batteries for the camera, so I wasted precious battery time on this picture before the show even started. shucks.
I have to say that the entire arena was transformed into Disney "land." From the moment we entered the main door we were bombarded with various Disney merchandise. We went to find a restroom and our seats and look at all the fun stuff they were selling so we were walking around for about 15 minutes before we ever entered the arena. Andrew was in heaven! They had a booth were you could take a picture with Handy Manny in front of "Sheetrock Hills" and lots of other booths to buy souvenir drinks, popcorn and toys. I knew I wasn't going to get out of buying a special toy so I let Andrew pick one. He chose a guitar from Little Einsteins! He loves it. He was "strumming" and singing though the entire show! Now he calls it his Disney.
Now, for my two sense about the show...
It was cute. I had just as much fun watching Andrew watch the show as the show itself. He was amazed with it all along the way. I have to say they did a great job with Handy Manny and the tools. The guy playing Manny was perfect. Of course Tigger and Pooh were a hit, and the girl doing Darby was so good too. You can't really go wrong with the original Disney characters for MMClubhouse. Now we come to Little Einsteins. I was really not impressed at all with them. It is such a cute show, but they had grown adults dressed in kids clothes and that was about it. I guess when it comes to Disney, they have a pretty big reputation and this just didn't seem to match up to the rest of the show.
I'm still really happy we went and that Andrew was feeling better. It was a great date!

Sick Days & Disney

A couple weeks ago I heard an ad on the radio for Playhouse Disney Live on tour. That is all of Andrew's favorite TV shows (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, My Friends Tigger & Pooh and of course the Little Einstiens) and I thought he would love it! Then I looked at the ticket prices! eek. In true Disney fashion they were way too much money for a kids show. Since I really wanted Andrew to go we decided to just get 2 tickets for a mommy & me "date." Grandma agreed to watch Spencer and since the US airways Arena is right my Derek's office I knew how to get that far. We bought tickets for an 11AM show on Wednesday.
Then Andrew woke up Monday morning with a fever and he was cranky! I joked that I would still take him to the show unless he got "really bad." When he woke up Tuesday morning it was really bad. He was barking like a seal and could hardly breathe in between the barks. I took him right in to the pediatrician that morning and sure enough it was a nasty case of croup. I thought for sure we were gonna have to pass on the Disney show, but decided not to give the tickets away just yet, I would make the decision Wed morning.
Well, Wed Andrew slept in extra long and woke up happy. We went to the Show!! Yeah! He did so good! he didn't even cough once the entire time. He loved the show..more about that in the next entry.

ladders, tv, and wrestling

Finally, life is settling back down. We are finally all moved in @ Derek's parent's house. I have just a few more pictures of the scene as we packed up the house. Andrew was in front of the tv or wrestling with Spencer most of the time. Of course there was usually a ladder set up somewhere in the house. The last picture is the result of Andrew jumping off a ladder with his "crocs" on the wrong feet. I made him wait to pry them off until I found the camera and snapped the picture. I have to send out a huge thank you to all those that helped us pack up or move out!

Spencer is usually surprisingly tolerant of Andrew's wrestling moves. Poor Andrew and his purple toes! Mean Mom!