happy birthday to you,

happy birthday to you,
happy birthday dear spencer!
happy birthday to you!!!

spencer turned 25 last thursday. for his birthday this year he got to graduate. we're both really excited about that. commencement was on thursday and his college convocation was friday. the boys and i went to both. we are very grateful to have had eden come with us to commencement with us. she was great and took care of andy for me. benny was really good and stayed in his chair looking at books and eating vanilla wafers. it was nice. THANK YOU, EDEN!!!

friday was a nice graduation - even for life sciences! i was there are the beginning by myself and it didn't go too badly until andy had a blowout... i thought of leaving benny in his chair while i went to change andy (there was someone from our ward in front of us, so he wouldn't have been alone). i decided to take him with me because he doesn't really know this girl, and i didn't want him freaking out with me gone. i got to the top of the stairs holding andy in my left arm and benny on my left hip. luckily when i got to the top lilly ann (spencer's mom) was there and was able to take benny from me while i went to change andy. really wasn't so bad.

some pictures from the big day:

benny during the processional. he kept his coat on the whole time - and his hood. i asked a couple of times if he wanted to take it off and he'd answer, "no!"

my three boys.

our newest family picture taken by eden.
she was a big help in so many ways! thanks, again, eden!

our graduate.
the boys and i left before spencer did and i didn't see his osu tie until after commencement. very appropriate for the start of our next journey.

our future graduates.

an extra picture of andy because this is the only shot that eden let us get of her.
i know we would have survived without her, but i'm not sure how.

we had a great couple of days last week. we're so excited for spencer to be graduated. he worked really hard and we're really happy for him. now we just have to get ready for more school in a completely different place. we're really excited for our next journey as a family.

time outside

the weather was absolutely beautiful today. we went outside to let benny play around for a little while; unfortunately it didn't last too long because benny has been suffering from a lack of sleep lately. we did get a couple of cute pictures, though.

benny loves cheesing it for the camera.

this is one of my all time favorite pictures of andy (i know that's not saying too much because he's only two months old). i think everything about it is cute - especially the bare feet.

benny was holding the camera for this one and i pressed the button. again the cheese.

andy's blessing

yesterday anderson clark cotterell became official. spencer gave a beautiful blessing in our ward. it was great to have all of our local family able to join us. all four of our parents, my three living grandparents, dominic & jen (and kids), eden, graydon, clark & susy (and kids), taylor & courtnie, (and kids), and grant. all the melchizedek priesthood holders participated in the circle. if you'd like to know more about the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, click here.

the whole day was wonderful. the weather was great. i planned well on saturday and got everything ready (i even thought of the primary song "saturday is a special day") for the next morning. we planned what time we needed to leave and how much space we needed to save (three rows). sunday morning went really smoothly and we got ready early enough to walk to church.

we weren't planning on leaving church early, but with benny as tired as he was and lots of tortillas waiting to be fried, we left after sunday school. we had a luncheon with our families at my parents house. my dad did his specialty - tacos. they were delicious as usual. lilly ann did her specialty for dessert - brownies (i never knew there were that many kinds of brownies). there were several different kinds. again, thank you to everyone for your help! it was a great time.

with the weather so good we had some tables set up outside and all the kids played outside. eden was great and spent a lot of time outside watching the kids play. i'm grateful i was outside to see benny climb the ladder to the top of the fort all by himself - he used his elbows and knees, but he did it!

unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the family (my mom got a few after sacrament with those that didn't have to leave right away, so i'll post those later), but we did get some of andy last night before he went to bed. he is such a cutie.

even as late as 9p he's full of smiles! as long as his tummy's full!

we set up a make-shift photo shoot. the lighting wasn't the greatest, but andy did great.

a couple of shots with the parents:

conference weekend

we had an enjoyable conference weekend up at my parents. since spencer's parents were up in idaho visiting dallin and season, our decision on where to spend the weekend was easy. i must say that it's quite nice when our decisions are made for us. we were able to go to cotterell's after the sunday afternoon session for scones. it was nice to spend time with both our parents for our last conference before we go to tulsa.

andy watching conference with papa
(i saw the hawaiian outfit at walmart and couldn't resist)

benny enjoying some yogurt

i really like this one. spencer's wearing one of his new shirts from steve & barry's (everything's $8.98 or less - check for one in your area).

paternal instincts

we have noticed the past couple of months benny's innate paternal instincts and it has been so fun to watch. benny sees what i do with andy all day and he wants to do the same things: lifting him from the floor (grabbing him around the waist and pulling), feeding him (i always use a blanket, so feeding andy consists of holding him on your lap and covering him with a blanket), etc. benny's been pretty good about not trying to do tons of things with andy. what i think is so cute is that he'll take various stuffed animals and parent them.

these are some of my favorite moments:

you can see andy poking out the left side of the blanket. i love how happy benny looks to be "feeding" his brother. as long as he's not lifting up his shirt, i'm happy too!

for the record, benny did put the bar with toys in by himself (it's detachable). i did the buckles, though.

i really like these two pictures. spencer took these when i was at a meeting a couple of weeks ago. whenever benny sees me taking the baby bjorn out, he knows that it means we're going on a walk (i need a picture of the circus that we are - pushing benny in the stroller while carrying andy in the baby bjorn - it's quite the sight). so one evening benny wanted to take his dog for a walk. spencer got him all set up with the baby bjorn and benny loved it!

major outie

i just couldn't resist taking andy's picture after his feeding (probably around 3a on 3 april).
seeing his round belly and his belly button poking out just made me smile.

blogs 2 books

if you'll take a moment, you'll notice that i added a link to our sidebar for 'blogs 2 books.' i figure it's about time to tell people about my cool friend heidi. heidi is a friend of mine from church. i became her visiting teacher almost two years ago and we have been friends since. benny and her son austin are two weeks apart (their due dates were a day apart) and they enjoy playing with each other too.

heidi is a computer programmer. some time last year she made a program to convert blogs into a printer friendly format. i think blogging is a fun way to keep a record of life, but there's something to be said for something you can touch. take a look here at how you can turn your blog into a book to keep forever (unfortunately for the mac users out there it's only set up for windows xp). one thing i think is great about heidi is that she wanted to do this for herself and she's offering it to anyone who's interested.