I Love Coming Home and Seeing...

...Spencer using his best babysitting tactic (see picture below).

It's a scene that is most likely to happen on a Saturday afternoon while I am out running errands. I won't be surprised if Madelyn is a daddy's girl.

Spreading The Love

This Valentines we spread the love by doing a few crafts. Christina and I made a few Valentine cards that I thought turned out cute.

Madelyn helped out with a card for her daddy by offering her hand print. If you want to see your husband get a tear in his eye, just give him a card with a hand print from the baby (It worked for Spence).


I purchased the below heart containers from Roberts as plain, brown cardboard boxes. I painted them red and then Mod Podged a scrap paper that I liked to the front. I really like the way they turned out. They are a fun decoration, cheap and easy. All things I like.

And last, but definately not least we made sour cream, sugar cookies with a recipe that I got from Linds. They always turn out really good.

Hope you all had a good Valentines day.

Loving Motherhood...

...and it just got better.

This past week of taking care of Madelyn has been better than ever. I am in love with the little angel.

For those of you who are just having your first baby, you may think that it is fun at the beginning, but just wait. Friends told me that motherhood would get easier and more fun as Madelyn got older; turns out they were right.

The most recent development is that Madelyn is now sleeping for 12 hours at night. At least she has for the last 5 nights. Hopefully we can keep this up.

As Madelyn moved into her 4th month she started sleeping 7 hour stretches by herself. That didn't last long because soon after that, she developed a cold, then another, then the holidays came, and then another cold. Obviously she wasn't sleeping through the night and when the colds were gone she would still wake up every two or three hours wanting be nursed back to sleep. I avoided letting her "cry it out" because I kept thinking that she would start to sleep on her own. The whole sleeping thing became an incredible stress in my life. As you can understand, I was tired.

After much encouragement from multiple people (thank you to everyone who listened to my sleep stories over and over), we finally let her "cry it out". I was determined to at least see if letting Madelyn cry would work. About a week ago we put Madelyn to bed, she fell right asleep and woke up crying two hours later. We didn't go get her. Listening to her cry was hard. She cried for an hour and fifteen minutes before she fell asleep. I was sure she would wake up in two hours and give us another hour long cry. I was dreading listening to her crying for the rest of the night, but I was shocked when I woke up the next morning and found she had slept until morning. A similar scenario happened for the next two nights with a little less crying each night. On the fourth night, she went to bed and didn't make a peep for 12 hours. Wahoo!! As I said, she has slept for 12 hours through the night for the past 5 nights and her mommy and daddy are elated.

This past week has been fabulous. Madelyn has been happier while she is awake. Her personality has become more cheerful and dynamic, and when it is time for her nap she goes down without crying (for the most part). She sat on my lap through most of sacrament this past week. Normally we had to walk around with her because she was squirmy 15 minutes into sacrament. It has just been a ton of fun to take care of her this week!

Here is a picture of the little angel sleeping.

Back To The Routine

And we're back! As I told you previously our computer broke. We just bought a new one last Saturday. We settled on a PC. A Mac was tempting, but we have heard that they often have issues, and we have had experience with Macs breaking down. I just couldn't risk it. One day I will get my long awaited Mac computer.

The holidays are over. I am sad that I didn't get a chance to post pictures. (Posting Christmas pictures now is tempting, but I think it is a little late.) The holidays were fantastic to say the least.

We are back in our routine. Spencer goes to work, I feed "M", change her diaper, put her down for naps and try hard to get her to laugh. When Spence gets home from work he also tries hard to get her to laugh. We succeed if she is not tired. (I will have to post some of the footage of her laughing. It really is one of my favorite things in the world. We have gone to extreme lengths to get a good hearty laugh out of our little girl. I would tell you our tricks, but it is just too embarrassing.)

I took the following picture of her the other morning. I wanted a picture of her in these cow PJs. You know how you just have favorite outfits that your kids wear? These cow jammies are my favorite jammies so far. Take a look.

Now tell me those aren't cute.

Yes, our little girls is still the squishiest squisher, and very proportionate. She was in the mid 90th percentile on all her measurements at her 2 month appointment and hasn't disappointed us yet.

As you can see, she is sitting up. She rolls over and can rock on her knees. She has started eating solid foods, which is going really well.

For some reason I find tremendous joy in feeding my daughter her vegetables. I guess it makes me feel like I am helping her to be "strong and healthy". I get so proud every time she finishes a jar of green beans or sweet potatoes. Oh the simple joys of motherhood.

Now, if we could just get her to sleep through the night.

A Broken Computer

So, our computer is broken and we are trying to decide whether or not to buy a new one. I am currently working from Spencer's old computer. It is quite temperamental and I have been avoiding using it because it is incredibly slow and apt to multiple pop ups, surprise crashes and other such annoying habits.

But, I was tired of looking at the "Happy Holidays" blog header (yeah, it wasn't the cutest). I found a beautiful picture from one of about twenty five pictures on Spencer's computer to replace that holiday header mistake. This picture is over looking Montreal where Spencer served his mission (too bad it doesn't quite fit).

It has actually been fun to get on my husband's computer and look through old documents from his college days. I found pictures of biking trips in Moab, pictures of our early dating days, old lessons that he had prepared for the MTC (I like reading these because I have always been inspired by Spencer's testimony and knowledge of the gospel) and the best was reading old letters that he had written to me while I was on my mission. (I had all the letters that he had written to me in a binder, but I lost them the semester I got home from my mission during a move from one apartment to another. I still pray for a miracle and that someone will call me one day and tell me they found these letters with my name on them. At least we have a couple of the letters that he wrote.)

I am pretty sure we are going to get a new computer. I think we agree that it is about time. The question is do we get a PC or a MAC. There is one vote for a PC and one vote for a MAC (I want the MAC). If you do have any strong feelings about what computer we get, please let me know. In the mean time, give me a break if my blog looks like it is under construction.

Stephenson's Snowshoeing

Snowshoeing is a Stephenson favorite past time. The first time that Spencer and I went Snowshoeing was in High School, pre-Stephenson establishment. We went up past the Alta Ski resort with Mark, John, Tyler, I think Scotty and some other "Draper Boys". Most (if not all) of my time was spent hiking and talking with Spence. I didn't know it, but Spence had a little crush on me, and all his friends were watching to see if he was going to "try something." He didn't. (although he told me he spent most of the afternoon trying to work up the courage) It is one of my fondest memories of the "early" days with my husband. We laugh when we talk about it now.

After we got married we bought an incredibly "tough" tent and had to try it out in the dead of winter. Spence, Russ (Spence's younger brother) and I, snowshoed with packs up Bell's Canyon where we spent the night and enjoyed the best dehydrated dinner we have ever had. It was a lasagna meal from REI. We still talk about how good it was. I slept between Spence and Russ so that I would stay warm and had the worst night's sleep I have ever had. We have a two man tent, not a "two man, one small woman and a ton of winter gear" tent. Needless to say, I was a little squished, but very warm. When we woke up the next morning we were toasty warm, in spite of the layer of ice that had formed on our sleeping bags and on the inside of the tent. This is one of the fondest memories I have of the married days with my husband.

The winter season is upon us once again, and we are looking forward to spending time in the mountains.

We even have a pack to carry Madelyn (Thanks mom) and she has a pink little snow suit that makes her look like a baby pink "Stay Puff Marshmallow Man." Though we don't know if snowshoeing is really a great activity for a 5 month old, we might just try it once she can sit up in her child carrier. Until then we will be relying on the charitable service of Grandma and Grandpa to spend some one on one time with little Madelyn while mom and dad spend some one and one time with the mountains.

And speaking of snowshoeing, Didn't JC and Katrina go snowshoeing together on their first date? I know JC proposed to Katrina one night when they were out snowshoeing, and I know that Mallery was impressed with Greg Carling because he took her snowshoeing for one of their first dates. That has to be a good sign, right?

So here's to you winter. We're ready for ya. Thanks for all the fond memories.

My Quirky Husband Spencer

I can thank Dani for this great opportunity to reveal some of the quirky habits of my husband. Thanks for the tag Dani.

I am supposed to name five quirks and then tag five people. Here we go.

1. Spence says that he detests any kind of dancing. He would avoid dancing at high school dances and would NEVER take a dance class in college. I can't find the words to describe his serious dislike of dancing. (Don't get me wrong, he likes to watch other people dance, but he would rather die than have to dance himself. Of course he made an exception for dancing at our wedding). But get this, in the privacy of our home, Spencer is starting to break out of his shell. Every once in a while he will do a little dance. (I have been working with him. I love to dance. Mostly just "busting a move" type of dancing. He seems to be making good progress.) I have caught him dancing while doing the dishes, and the other day he danced Madelyn around the living room.

2. Spencer really likes a good drink. His favorite drinks probably come from Jamba Juice, but Sonic can put out a really good slush. And then there is the Roxberry that was just put in by our house. They make a good drink too. We have taste tested every raspberry lemonade at every resturant we have been to. Spencer's favorite can be found at the Pizza Factory. At home I like to keep gatorade or other sports drinks on hand because he likes those. If he is drinking water he really likes is to be icy cold, and I kid you not, last night he pulled out his water filter and filtered some tap water to see if he could get it to taste better (We don't have spring water, but it doesn't taste bad). Thats my husband, "the drink lover".

3. He doesn't like to wear shoes. He likes sandals. He says that shoes are foot prison. He owns a couple pairs of flips and a couple pairs of Chacos. Too bad he has to wear shoes to work.

4. Spence and I will read in bed before we fall asleep and sometimes without noticing he will shake his foot in a continuous motion. This causes the entire bed to shake. He doesn't notice he is doing it until I tell him. He has even done it in his sleep.

5. Last but certainly not least, Spencer has an amazing ability to become the favorite of any child that he comes in contact with. I watch and listen to him when he is playing with our nieces and nephews and am continuously amazed that he has endless energy and an endless supply of jokes and creativity to make them giggle.

Let's see, I would love to know what quirky things Ty, Cort, Kerry, Adam, Nathan and my dad are doing these days. So I tag Meghan, Shannon, Bryn, Jessica, Christina and my mom. Have fun!!