Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Baby Dedication

This last Sunday was our Parent/ Baby dedication at church. It was an opportunity for Greg and I to commit before our church family to do our best to raise Scott in the "fear and admonition of the Lord." (and yes, it also happens to be a great chance to show off all the cute new babies) But seriously, it was a privilege to participate because we take our responsibility seriously- to teach Scott who God is, what He expects, and the grace and forgiveness available to us through faith in Jesus Christ. We have a big job ahead of us, and this was a chance to publicly declare this and have our church family pray for us.
Our Pastor, Scott, commenting on what a great name our son has.

If you look closely, you can see our little Scott checking out the congregation. Big Scott was pointing this out and everyone was chuckling.
Addie watched from the back, hanging out with Mrs. Robinson (the bride of the wedding in which she was the flower girl).

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Lately

Lately we've been enjoying our new little Spangler so much!

Lately, it seems that the colic may be fading away (though we're still battling sleep issues).
He does a lot of cooing and laughing now. Greg was using this pig puppet the other day to really make him laugh.

Lately, Addie has turned into a little mommy. She adores her brother and can even get him to stop crying a lot of the time! When Scott was crying in the living room the other day, Addie laid down next to him and began singing a song to him (she always sings the same made-up song that goes "I really love you though" over and over). I had to take a picture.


Lately, we're enjoying that it finally feels like fall and the cool air outside makes us all extra cuddly inside. I love cuddling with my sweeties in their jammies!

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Sunday, November 08, 2009

Courtyard Harvest Party

Yes, we know it's November, but Sautrday night we had our 2nd annual Courtyard Harvest Party. It was delayed this year, due to the swine flu knocking many families out of life for a week or so. Better late than never! We had a great evening of family fun.

So this year, I decided to dress up as...


the swine flu.
HEY! I'm having a good time! Can you tell?

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Costumes!

Eden, the little flower
The Ballard spider family- watch out for that black widow!
Grant the train conductor
Baby Glory- also known as Pebbles

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More Harvest Party

Tim & Lisa Starr dole out candy
The kids loved going to the neighbors for goodies, candy, and toys.
Like a magnifying glass...
and cool glasses!

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Donut Eating Contest

Both last year and this year, the Spangler donut eating contest was our favorite part of the evening. For such a simple game, it sure does give a lot of laughs.

Hre are some of the older kids going at it.
Ceana gets the whole thing in her mouth and wins!
Four more donut eaters go at it and try not to use their hands.

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More Donut Eating

Here is Addie taking a turn, with neighbors Savannah, Tori, & Grant


Last year we had the Daddies compete, this year we decided to have a Mommies round! The kids loved cheering on their mommy, and we loved eating the donuts.

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Thursday, November 05, 2009

Moody Cowgirl

Happy cowgirl
don't-mess-with-me cowgirl











We took the kids for a little trick-or-treting on Halloween, but plan on having more fun Saturday, when we have our Courtyard Harvest Party. We had to postpone it because almost every family here got the Swine Flu over Halloween (yeah! Not us!). More dressing up and games to come!

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An Exciting End to a Long Ordeal

OK people, I'm about to share a secret with you- a secret that we've been keeping from most people for quite some time now...
Addie is almost four years old and up until last week was still wearing diapers!!!

A few of you knew- grandparents, Sunday School teachers, and neighbors. But mostly we kept it quiet so as not to incur any unsolicited advice. You see, we had tried EVERYTHING to get this girl to use the potty, and to no avail.

We began this endeavor a YEAR ago, and quickly realized that Addie didn't "get it" at all. After a few weeks of getting nowhere, we decided to go back to diapers and try again a few months later, just after her third birthday. Unfortunately, that is just the time we found out I was pregnant and I was sick, so the potty training got put off indefinitely. Spring rolled around, and I started feeling just a little better. As soon as I was taking care of Addie again, potty training was job one. She picked it up pretty well, and was on a roll. Then came a busy week with my parents visiting and no regular schedule and that's when Addie decided she just didn't want to use the potty anymore.

Now, we already knew that Addie had inherited her mommy's stubborn streak, but this potty training business gave us an opportunity to see it in all it's glory. She simply was not interested in going to the toilet, and she simply would not do it. We tried every kind of bribe/ reward you can think of. We tried charts, toys, candy, you name it. We nagged. We tried shame. We even made up a ridiculous song and dance that we would do if she'd just USE THE TOILET! We knew she was able to control it, she just didn't want to. So we disciplined her for it (we were desperate!). Nope. Wasn't gonna do it. Finally, with me 8 months pregnant and unable to get down on the floor and clean up the messes, we gave up, put her back in diapers, and waited.

At this point I have to tell you about one of the episodes when we really wanted to strangle her. We were eating dinner and Addie announced "I have to go potty!" Thrilled, Greg got her out of her highchair and told her "go in the bathroom and go!" (She was able to get herself up and all that no problem). She got down, went into the bathroom, stood in front of the toilet, and peed in her pull-up. She didn't run out of time, she just purposefully stood in the bathroom and peed while looking at the toilet. There were many, many of those moments. That is why we thought Addie might be the only child that would never use the toilet.

Here is our daughter, showing off her diaper.

A while after Scott had made his appearance on the scene and things had begun to settle down, we decided to try yet again. Here we are with more attempts at the brainwashing.

Then came "The Stool Day."
In another attempt at training, we had declared nakedness at our house and made Addie run around with no bottoms. After the first few days, she had been doing pretty well at going pee, but had been holding in the poop. For days.
Addie has a favorite step stool that she loves to play on. She moves it around with her to where she's playing all the time. Loves it. Well, one evening we were all playing together and Addie took her stool and announced, "I'm gonna hide from you guys, don't come over here." She then went over to the corner near our front door, which is a common spot she goes to for privacy when she's going to poop in her pull-up. Yes, I know, disturbing. Well Greg figured out pretty quickly what was up and followed her. He asked "you're not going to pee are you?" She looked right at him and said "no." "You're not going to poop are you?" he asked. And as he was saying the words, he sees our precious daughter bend over and poop. Right onto the stool. In the living room.
And yes, we took a picture.

Not exactly a parent's proudest moment, but memorable nonetheless.

Happily though, this opportunity ended up being a turning point, a little "aha!" moment if you will, and Addie is now
USING THE TOILET!!!!
She is wearing big girl underwear, keeping it dry, taking herself to the toilet when she needs to go, and making her parents very happy.
If you don't have kids, you are probably reading this and thinking we are nuts. Or that you never want to have kids. But if you've been down the potty-training road before, you know how exciting it is when you finally can stop being personally involved in your child's excrement! I can't tell you how happy I am to see that poop in the toilet instead of having to clean it up!
We are celebrating at our house!

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