Holiday Parade.

     November 22, our friends asked Nate and I to run Thanksgiving turkey relay with them. It was 2 miles each and you had to guesstimate your total time when you signed up for the race. The winner was whichever team came closest to their estimated time and each member of the team won a frozen turkey! It was a super fun race but we ended up running too fast and beat our time by 2 minutes and 47 seconds which was enough to take us out of the running for 1st place.

     I also made us all embarrassing headbands of turkey legs to wear, and then promptly lost mine so we are one short in all the pics ;)

     The race happened to be the same morning as the Boise holiday parade so my dad was nice enough to take Spencer to the parade with his cousins!

Dream Catcher

     Nate and my dad decided they wanted to try their hands at tanning a hide starting with the hide from Nate's elk. They've put a lot of time and work into it, and I'm not sure what its supposed to look like but I don't think I'm going to want it hanging on my wall any time soon...

    One of the first things they had to do was stretch it (at least I think that was the purpose?). They took the trampoline apart and tied it to that. It looked like a giant spiderweb or a giant dream catcher. Thus, the perfect photo op was born!

(these are the deer antlers, Spencer's trying to look like a jackalope.)

1st birthday party.

     We had a cute little party for Spencer on his birthday. His cousins came over to celebrate and were nice enough to help him open all his presents! Spencer wasn't so sure about the flame on the candle but loved getting to eat a whole cake by himself. And we were lucky enough to facetime with Nate's sisters on Oregon, and skype with his parents in Arizona so they didn't miss out on the festivities!

birthday dinner.

he got some great trucks!

not so sure about that candle, or all the singing.

the boy loves frosting!

cupcakes.

he ate the whole thing!

birthday money!

Going private.

     The time has come, next week I'll be changing our privacy settings so if you want to keep up with our goings on let me have your email address!

1 year!

     We made it a full year! What a crazy, fun, adventurous, sometimes long, amazing year it has been! In his first year Spencer made it to Niagra Falls, Palmyra, and Nauvoo. He had his first experiences camping in a tent and in a yurt, swimming, and road tripping. He has already been to 12 states Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho. He has done a lot in his first year so I thought a little celebration was rightfully in order!

     I started planning and creating in August because I knew it would take 3 months to do everything I wanted, and I was right. I made him a "1" onesie to wear on his actual birthday, a pennant banner, a cut out number 1 with pictures from his first year, a table runner, and of course the cake!

     We had his cousins over and sang happy birthday and ate cake and I'd say it was a good birthday! However, since then his 5 days of being 1 have been really hard. At his 12 month check up they had to prick his toe, he got 4 shots, and the doctor ripped some tender skin apart. The next day while at a friends he touched the fireplace and burned the pads of all 4 fingers. He also got knocked over by the dog a few times and slipped in the shower. It's been a rough start but here's hoping for a great 2nd year! We love our one year old! (it's still weird to say that, I can't believe I have a 1 year old!)

12 months.

     On Sunday the 16 our baby turned 12 months old. I guess he's not really a baby anymore, more of a toddler with all the walking and "talking" he's doing!

     Spencer is getting to be so much fun to interact with! He likes to play alternative pee-a-boo and will jabber at you for hours if you'll listen. He likes to pretend talk on the phone (anything with buttons is a phone), he will eat anything and everything he can get his hands on (including chicken poop, unfortunately) the kid is a bottomless pit and I just can't keep him full!!

     He is STILL a terrible sleeper. He goes to bed between 8-9pm and is almost always awake by midnight. On rare occasion that he's not, he is for sure awake by 3am. We've tried everything the get him to sleep longer increments but to no avail. Sometimes we can go pat his back to get him back to sleep but usually not. Then he ends up in bed with me and can sleep until 8am! You'd think I'd be somewhat well rested but I am still exhausted! Maybe by his 2nd birthday he'll learn to sleep.

     Spencer really loves to play with shoes, he is always dragging someones shoe through the house. The boy LOVES LOVES LOVES to be outside and doesn't care one bit how cold it is, if he is naked, if its snowing, etc. If a door opens, he makes a break for it every time and then cries when it gets shut before he gets there. He likes to look out the window and I'm sure daydream about being out there! I look forward to the day when he doesn't want to put everything in his mouth so that I can enjoy taking him outside. ;)

     Opa is his favorite person. We can all stand in a circle around him and call him to try to get him to come to us and he will pick Opa every time, even if he stands far away and doesn't even call for Spence. They also like to go get the eggs together every day at lunch time. Spencer loves wearing his boots out there and carrying in an egg, he hasn't dropped one yet!

     He is definitely a momma's boy and I don't mind one bit! He is FINALLY starting to let me cuddle him from time to time. He still loves going for walks and I think he misses going for runs as much as I do! We love this boy and can't imagine life without him! We can't wait till we have our own space for him to destroy (hint: we made an offer on a house!) and to fill with pictures of him!

      And just for fun, guess who dressed the baby this day?!

The Elk Slayer.

     After getting lucky enough to shoot his first deer, Nate got double lucky and shot his first elk this year too! Again, I would mess up the stories and the details but here are the pictures and maybe on day I can convince him to write how it all went down...

     It took 2 days to get the elk off the mountain and Nate did tell me he was glad to be done hunting for the year!