We are closed

Hey all. So the time has finally come to shut this sucker down and head for...uh... another pasture. For quite awhile we were pondering what to name the new blog, and you, our viewers, made yourselves heard loud and clear in our online poll. As you probably saw, thesneakypetes won by a clear and decisive majority.

So.

Please join me as we bid farewell to the center of Spencer's universe and move on to thesneakypetes.blogspot.com. If you have us bookmarked or there's a link to us on your blog or anything of that nature, probably you're going to want to update that. Don't be strangers!

Santa came to town

And wouldn't you know it, he brought presents for two good little boys. Spencer was so excited, he woke up at 3 a.m. searching for his apple and insisting he needed daddy to wait for Santa with him. (This boy LOVES apples, apparently so much that he dreams about them.) When it was time to get up much later, Spencer tore right into all the loot he found under the tree.

Ironically, the present he saved to open last was the also the one he wanted the very most (or so we thought), and by then he insisted he was done opening presents and just wanted to play with his cars. We managed to coax him into tearing it open.... and of course he immediately remembered that oh yes, he DID ask Santa for a basketball hoop!




Jack did not get more fingers. Instead, Santa brought him a fun busy station for his crib. As you can see, he was enthralled.



We braved the impending storm and headed north to the Cache Valley for family visits and still more presents. Spencer had double-duty opening for himself and Jack, so by the time we reached the end, he was totally burned out. He just wanted to play with his cars. Man, if I'd known that was coming, I could have saved us a lot of money.

As promised by the weatherman, we got dumped on by snow, snow, and still more snow. So we made the proverbial lemonade and went sledding. The hill next to my parents' house is perfect for little boys about the size of a Spencer, so we started out there. Day 2 took us down the road to the big hills. Spencer insisted he wanted to go to the top; we did not let him. After several runs from about 1/4 of the way up the hill, we convinced him to stay at the bottom and make snow angels.

This picture was taken about 2 seconds before he realized that it was, um, COLD.










Jack stayed behind in the warm house to look at the Christmas tree lights and get loved on by sweet Mckenzie. Later he decided to take a snoozer with his daddy. You can see it took a lot of convincing on Jack's part to get Ryan to settle down.





We're looking forward to a great new year with a great new blog... stay tuned for the big reveal. And we send out a big CONGRATULATIONS to Ammon, Kristen, and Campbell on the arrival of their lovely little Isla Belle. We can't wait to meet her!

SANTA!! I know him!!!

We had two (count 'em, TWO) opportunities to see Santa this week. Spencer was pretty much the luckiest kid ever, mostly because he was thisclose to not getting a darn thing for Christmas just before our first trip to visit Santa. But he managed to pull out his mighty 3-yr-old charm just in the nick of time.

Santa came to Ryan's office on Friday for their big holiday bash. After our visit with him a few days prior, where he was a total champ and climbed right up onto that knee, he surprised us the second time around by turning on the tears. He clung to daddy with all his might but we finally coaxed him onto Santa's lap. Then he rattled off the list.....

"I want a basketball hoop, and lots and lots of race cars,
and a monster truck, and a ROCKET!"

In return, he received a candy cane and a little gift bag full of chocolate candy, another candy cane, and .... wait for it.... a monster truck!! Wow, that Santa is one smart cookie.

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of how he organized his treats. Spencer is WAAAAY into sorting and organizing these days. Maybe I should put him in charge of our closets, hmmm.




Jack missed out on the first Santa opportunity, as he decided it was more important to sleep. Can't argue with that logic. But we managed to snap a photo with Santa #2. And he didn't even cry.... what a tough kid.








I expect if he could talk, he would have asked for more fingers to suck and chew on, since that seems to be his favorite thing to do these days. See for yourself:

Spencer's engaged....?

I know what you're thinking.... "Isn't he a little young? Is this an arranged marriage?" Yes, it is an arranged marriage - orchestrated by Spencer and Lily.

Our dear friends, the Richardsons, were rolling through town yesterday so we met up with them for some dinner. They lived across from us in Tulsa, so Brooke and I were law school widows together and their daughter Lily was Spencer's first little friend. He was so, so excited to see her. At some point during our meal, Lily turned to Spencer and said "I'm going to get married in the temple. Do you want to marry me?" Spencer immediately responded "Okay!"

Spencer and his "fiancee", Miss Lily

Here you can see the adoration in his eyes.
Don't they make a lovely couple?

They even sealed the deal with a kiss! We caught them hugging, then they lined up their little faces to plant a wet one on each other. How sad was I that I didn't get the camera out in time. Spencer turned to us and said "we gived kisses!" Ah, the sweet innocence of youth.

Sweet baby smiles

Jack started smiling a couple weeks ago and ever since, he's been sharing his sweet little toothless grin with everyone he meets.



This was my first attempt to capture his first little smiles on camera.... and yes, I'm fully aware there's a bat in the cave (that was especially for you, Ben).

Just add a little wink and he's sure to get all the ladies.

Then Spencer realized I had the camera out and insisted I take a picture of him dancing in his diaper. So here you go. I believe he's exhibiting his "rock star moves".

I'm ready for preschool!

A subsequent inspection of his backpack revealed all the essentials:
his shoes and his precious blankie.

We are thankful

After many years of absence, we were finally able to spend Thanksgiving with the Madsen/Reese crew again. The table was beautifully laid out with the traditional paper plates and cups, but Spencer's eye caught a little blue lawn chair hiding in the corner. Although it was decidedly too small for him to sit in it at the big table, he insisted that he needed it. So we set him up at his very own kid's table.And there he enjoyed his vegetarian Thanksgiving feast. I say vegetarian because although I loaded him up with ham and turkey, all he ate were the olives, celery, carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes. Oh, and more olives.

The real fun came when we broke out the games..... I'm telling you, you haven't lived until you've played Curses. I thought I was going to die laughing. By the way Ben, are you satisfied with your long distance service?

On Friday night we made our way to the Jazz game with my folks, Ben, Beth, and Beth's BFF Brittany. Jack stayed behind with Auntie Christy and boy were we glad, especially when the fireworks started. We were up in the bleeders but hey, we got free hot dogs and had a fantastic bird's eye view of the game. Thanks for a very fun time, Grandpa!













How can you possibly stop to smile for the camera when there is a game going on, not to mention popcorn.








Spencer was so, so excited for the game that we made a countdown calendar so he would know when it was time to go. Of course it backfired when he tore the rest of the chains down with 2 days to go.

We do actually take pictures of Jack too

Poor Jack has been totally neglected on the blog. So, in an effort to rectify that situation, here are a bunch of pictures of our new little guy. He's already changed so much in the last 7 weeks, and his 2-month-old photo shoot is right around the corner. It goes way too fast, I tell you. I've tried to put the photos in chronological order, so you can see how much he's grown.




At the ready with his fists, just in case Spencer pulls a fast one.









Not much can compare with the bouncy chair and a mouth full of binky.





There seems to be a puppy on my head.









Brand new be-bo! And check out that bicep... "I will punch you in the face!"






Tummy time progress: on the left, he's almost 1 month old; the one on the right was taken 1 1/2 weeks later.








And just a few days after that, he's trying to roll over. Impressively, he's managed to shoot himself over to his back several times already, and he's not even screaming as he does it.


In our Petersen family tradition, I snapped Jack's one month old picture with his designated stuffed animal. I actually chose Pooh, but Spencer insisted he needed Wilbur. "Look pig, it's baby Jack!" (Props to Grandma Madsen for the quilt... the reverse side is zebra stripes, which Jack loooooves to stare at.)



Hanging out at Spencer's birthday party, baffled as to why his brother seems to have stolen the spotlight AGAIN.





We're pretty sure he sneaks outside to stuff his cheeks full of acorns for the winter, though we haven't yet caught him in the act.


Ah bathtime, when you can pee completely unrestrained. (At least until someone slaps a washcloth right over you.)





I do believe that is a hint of a smile. He must have been dreaming about puppies... or maybe barfing all over me again.



Brace yourself for shock: Spencer snapped this one. I know, not only is it in focus, but he somehow managed to actually get Jack IN the picture.



So there you have it. An ode to our sweet little baby who eats like a horse and sleeps like a dream! I was watching John McCain on Leno recently and he said he's sleeping like a baby.... he wakes up every 2 hours to cry. I can't even tell you how relieved and ecstatic I am that Jack has been consistently sleeping for 6-7 hours straight at night already - which, I guess, is one of the benefits to having a HUGE baby. The problem is that he goes down around 8, which means he's waking up at 3 am. Yes, we need to work on that.

Spencer vs. the hippity hop

Spencer got a ton of fantastic presents for his birthday, one of which was a hippity hop ball from Uncle Heath, Auntie Teri, and Mckenzie. Once he figured out how to mount it, he was nearly unstoppable. The ball eventually got the better of him and bucked him right off. Forgive the grainy quality of this video....and the lack of sound. But if there was sound, you would be hearing Spencer say "hippity hop, hippity hop" as he bounces all over.



At first we overinflated the ball a bit, which caused a little difficulty for Spencer in mounting it. That hilarity is on the video camera and unfortunately, not post-able on the blog. :(