Just over a week ago, Spencer and I were able to go to Washington D.C. together. (I tried to post this a lot sooner and after about an hour of getting it together, I deleted it some how....Ughhh) Anyways, Spencer was chosen for an award and he needed to go and pick it up and the army decided to pay for me to tag along. I had never been back east anywhere and I was really excited to go. We had a blast and I really would like to visit there again, but maybe in the spring time when it is not so cold. It was FREEZING!

I wanted to tell you a little bit about Spencer's award too. The award is called the BG William C. Bilo Support Forward Award. I know, it's a mouthful! Anyways, every year the field artillery chooses one NCO in the nation that has shown exceptional leadership skills, and has just went above and beyond. Spencer was their man this year. I am very proud of him, and even though his job makes me CRAZY sometimes, he is really good at what he does and he really enjoys it.

So here are some pictures from the trip, beware there are a ton :)

Arlington National Cemetery

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Iwo Jima Memorial

My first subway experience

The back view of the White House

The front gates of the White House

This was a very BRAVE squirrel that would take food right out of your hand. He was hanging out at my foot when all of the sudden, he mounted my leg and started cruising up. I had a small heart attack and kicked and screamed, but the squirrel came right back.

We are in the WWII monument, but the Washington is in the background

Inside the Lincoln Monument

Receiving his award (the pictures suck because it was so dark in there)

The Jefferson Memorial

Spencer with FDR

Again, with FDR. I think this memorial was my favorite. You walk through it and it follows the river, and there are lots of trees and vines. I bet it is beautiful in the springtime.

The National Cathedral. This was GORGEOUS!

Another view...

Spencer was pretty annoyed at me because, even though I did enjoy walking to all the monuments, I really, really enjoyed driving around Georgetown. He told me I was crazy that my favorite part of the trip was seeing all the "cute" old houses. Oh well, he should have known :)

Gingerbread Train

Wow. Gingerbread things are not as easy as they look. I bought a gingerbread train kit for Kam this year and we put it together the other night. I really didn't think it would be a big deal, but it was so hard to get it to look good. I was just glad that Kam is too young to care or notice that it was falling over, or all the frosting was dripping down the sides :) Even though it looks pretty bad, Kam loves it and every day there are more and more chunks of the train missing....I wonder how that happens?!

This is basically all the help that Kam was the entire time.

Just sucking on the frosting sack. Yum.

This is the face he gave me when I caught him

and I asked him what he was doing :)

The finished project. Not too bad in the picture, in real life it is a different story!

Our Little Lima Bean

Alright, so you probably guessed it... we are finally expecting!!!! I can't even tell you how excited we are. Kam has been telling us he wants a baby FOREVER, so he is pretty happy that he will be a big brother soon. The whole pregnancy business totally confuses him though. When we told him that I had a baby in my tummy he ripped my shirt up to see it, and when all he saw was my gut he was not impressed. I have been to a couple of doctor appointments and each time he wants to know why we are not taking home his baby. Hopefully when I start to show he will understand a little better.

I am seven weeks along and I feel much different than I did with Kam. I have learned that I was really lucky with Kam :) I have been having "all day" sickness (who ever named it morning sickness anyways?) so I basically carry saltines with me at all times. My mom told me that I just need a saltine IV drip. Even though I don't feel great-I don't mind because it just reassures me that I am pregnant and everything is good (I tend to worry A LOT).

Today we went for an ultrasound and we got to hear a heart beat. How crazy is that? Our little bean has a heart already?!? I know it is pretty early to be sharing the news, but I am too excited to keep it in any longer!

Our attempt at some family pictures...

I have been meaning to get a professional to take our picture for months now, but I just never got around to it. I think partly because I didn't want to hear about the cost of them from my husband :) So the other day my mom offered to take a few. Kam is at such a hard age for pictures. He smiles but he does this goofy fake smile and looks at the ground. It proved to be quite a task and I think that out of the 100 pictures we took, only a couple of them actually have all three of us looking at the camera and smiling. Thanks for the effort mom!

Kangaroo Zoo

For Tanner's birthday this year we went to Kangaroo Zoo. The kids had a BLAST, I was a little freaked out by the mass amounts of germs that the kids were rolling in. Not the best place to take the kids during cold and flu season :) Kam was a little annoyed at me making him stop every ten minutes or so and lube up with some hand sanitizer (I know, I am just a teeny bit of a freak). We really did have tons of fun and I even went down a few slides too.

Handsome dudes.

I can't believe I got a picture with all three of these little studs

looking at the camera and smiling. Wow :)

Ann was one of the first to head down the slides :)


The Birthday Boy.

Cute girlies.

Lovely self-portrait.

Martha and Graham.

P.S. Sarah was injured on the first slide she went down so she is actually at the emergency room having her foot stitched up during all the picture taking. Her toe got stuck in a hole on the side of the slide and ripped the webbing between two of her toes. YUCK. It was nasty and she was so brave :) I would have been balling like a baby.

Old and Mushy...

Some of the stuff Kam says cracks me up. I really need to be better about writing it down so I never forget any of it. Here is a conversation we had last night:

Me "You are going to be four soon, you are getting pretty old"

Kam (looking quite distraught) "I don't want to be old"

Me "Why?"

Kam "I don't want to get mushy"

Me (what is he talking about?!?!) "Mushy?"

Kam "You know, like when old people get mushy chins"

I guess this is his explanation for wrinkles and saggy skin. Apparently, I better start using a face lotion with a little firming action so Kam doesn't talk to people about his mom's "mushy chin".

Halloween Night

For Halloween we went to Levan. My mom and Grandma always dress up as witches so I decided to join in this year. Spencer asked me why any of us even needed a costume-we were witches every day of the year (ha ha ha, isn't he hilarious). Anyways, we had tons of fun and I think we looked pretty dang cute.

Love this kid

Kam's cake from the cake walk

Annie, Ryan and I

Such a good Daddy

Spencer always does such cute things for Kam. On Halloween for lunch he made Kam a jack-o-lantern quesadilla. Kam was so excited. Spencer always makes him pancakes that look like mickey mouse or whatever Kam wants that day. Kam is so lucky to have such a good daddy! We love him :)

Preschool Parade

Kam decided to do the power ranger thing one more time for his preschool Halloween party. He told me that one boy was going to be spiderman, so he needed to be something like that too. I was relieved because it is so much easier to get on than the whole Toby thing.

Peaking at me during the parade...cute little mug

Stopped trick or treating for a quick pic

The whole class