Surprise Trip to Indiana!

This last weekend, we made a surprise trip to Indiana. My dad was the only one who knew we were coming-just to make sure it was a good weekend to come. We left on Wednesday and at 10:30 p.m. we put Spencer on the doorstep (sitting in his car seat), rang the doorbell, and hid in the bushes (with Bryan holding Brayden). My mom and brother opened the door and boy were they surprised! My mom wasn't expecting anyone that late on a school night and wondered who in the world it could be. They opened the door and "What?! There's a baby on our doorstep!" My sister Jamie heard Trevor say that it looked like Spencer and thought that Karri's (my other sister) boyfriend (named Spencer from Idaho) was here. Needless to say they found us in the bushes and were excited to have such a great surprise! Kaitlyn was in the shower so when she went in her room, Karri and Jamie were playing with Spencer and she said, "What's with the random baby?" They told her they found him on the doorstep.... and Kaitlyn thought it looked like Spencer but didn't understand how he could be there so she asked "Am I hallucinating?" It was pretty awesome. Our surprise was the talk of the next day at seminary, school, and work....

Well here we are at a quaint little town called Nashville.

No, not Tennessee, it's in Indiana. 

We just got done visiting the fudge shop! Yum!

Here we are at Marengo Caves. It was so cool!

We LOVE caves and we had an enjoyable time

even if Brayden wasn't being so enjoyable himself.

Note: If you're in the military, ALWAYS ask 

if people do military discounts. Bryan got in free

and I got $2 off!

Here's Jamie trying to take a nap with a little curious 

Brayden looking at her, who will soon poke her in the eye.

Brayden and Spencer playing with the radio.

We had tinfoil dinners that night and boy

were they good! Brayden just could not 

stay away from the fire. I don't know how

it happened, but I looked at his cute little face and 

saw that somehow his eyelashes got burned! 

Retrieving the food. 

REWIND!

This is in August when my family came to visit us!

If Spencer is in that car, Brayden has to be too.

Trevor baptized Chase while EVERYONE was here

so that we could all be a part of Chase's baptism!

Trevor finished up an internship in Hawaii and had to 

do a presentation on it in Silverspring, MD. Here is a 

family photo after Trevor gave us some leis from Hawaii!

Also while they were here, we went to the Chesapeake Bay

and enjoyed the beach there. The water was so warm!

Chase got buried in the sand and Brayden

is going to dig him out!

Cute little Spencer baby!

Jamie and Karri holding their favorite nephews.

Here's a cute picture of Spencer 

and a cute picture of Brayden!

Brayden 19 mo old in photo

Spencer almost 8 mo old in photo. 

Here It Is-Our Announcement!

Well I hate to say this but all of your guesses are WRONG. Our announcement isn't quite that exciting. We are not moving and we are not expecting another baby. BUT we do have a new addition to our family. We adopted a wonderful five year old named Odyssey.  I never thought that I would be so excited to have a minivan. It is a nice ride if I do say so myself. I LOVE how it drives and so does Brayden as you can tell by the pictures. Well here are a few quick pictures.

Announcement!!

We have a very exciting announcement to make! We'll make a new post within a few days to say what it is. If you want to guess tell us what your guess is, if you already know don't say anything!

In A Nutshell

As you all know, it has been awhile since I last updated the blog so there are A LOT of pictures, which I suppose is easier to look at than a bunch of words. :)

A lot of people ask me what it's like to raise 2 kids at the same time that are SO close in age. Well the best answer I can give is, I had to adjust to having one kid and now I have to adjust to having 2. I have been told by other people that having 2 kids is easier than 1 because they have each other to play with (regardless of age difference). Spencer is not old enough to play yet so I can't agree or disagree with that statement yet but within the next year I'll be able to. There are some awesome things about it and there are some things that make it difficult. Brayden absolutely loves Spencer-sometimes a little too hard. Every time Brayden sees Spencer his face lights up and he smiles and when Spence is sleeping, Bray will scream in excitement and of course it wakes him up... Brayden loves to get on top of Spencer and just sit on him (I have pictures but they need to be downloaded). Spencer will just sit and watch Brayden play. Because he has someone (a child) to watch, I imagine he will walk earlier and speak earlier than Brayden did-that's how it was with my brother and I (who are 1 year and 22 days apart) according to my mom. Anyway. The pictures are in order from most recent to least recent. Enjoy!

Here is Spencer at 4 months of age.

Brayden at 4 months of age.

Brayden in his toddler bed.

 
Brayden at the park at the base lake.

 
Spencer at the beach for the first time! Bryan took
the day off and we went to Ocean City, Maryland
and had a lot of fun even though it was a little chilly
and windy on the beach while it was nice and warm
inland.

 
Brayden's first time at the beach. He loved playing
in the sand and was a little afraid of the water. We
buried him in the sand and surprisingly liked it-it
was warmer underneath all that sand.

 
At Mount Vernon. Bryan is George Washington and
Brayden is Patty Custer.

 
Well we finally decided to cut Brayden's hair.
Before.

 
After (sorry if it's a little blurry).

 
Brayden likes to play with the toys that Spencer plays with.

 
Spencer baby!

 
Spencer's blessing!

 

I was inside the house when Bryan told me to hurry
and come outside. This is what I found:

 

Brayden then decided to eat a ball of mud/dirt after
he tasted it.

 

This is what he thought of what he did. (And then
he did it again). We were laughing so hard.

 

A picture at the White House.

 

Spencer at 3 months of age.

 
Brayden at 3 months of age.

 
Easter. Brayden giving Spencer kisses, which he
loves to do. We will tell Bray to give Spence a kiss
and since he knows what that means, he gives it
to him!

 

Family Picture.

 

This was back in March. We went to the 316th
Wing Awards Banquet. Good food. Good company.
Good to get out.

 
Brayden and Spencer in the same bed. (Don't worry
they really didn't sleep like that).

 
That's all for now...until the next couple of months!
Hopefully it will be sooner than that (depending on
how many comments we get.)  :)

Old Update

So I tried to post this awhile ago but Brayden wouldn't stop touching the computer so I'm now getting to it, which means I still need post the most recent pictures but here are these ones anyways.

Happy Birthday Brayden!

Well it's time for another update I suppose. Brayden absolutely loves his little brother. He gets excited every time he sees him. He just doesn't know how to treat him: he likes to grab at him.

Spencer and Brayden playing. Brayden didn't want

Bryan to take Spencer off him-he wanted to keep

holding him-it was pretty funny.

Spencer is just a couple weeks old here.

Brayden wearing 3D glasses that we brought home

from watching Avatar.

We're not used to living in/near the city. Things

we've learned from this movie outing: always keep

cash on hand/in the car if you don't have an ATM

card because you ALWAYS have to pay for parking

and it will ALWAYS feel like highway robbery. We

didn't have cash on hand or anything (didn't take credit)

so I thought we weren't going to make it back home...

but we did... I guess the guy took pity on us poor non-city

folk unaccustomed to being prepared to pay for parking.

We really got lucky!

One of Brayden's favorite things to do: pull clothes

out or off of something and throw them behind him.

I was trying to go through clothes we got from a friend

and it was near impossible.

Brayden's 1st birthday cake! He loved it! We

gave him his own cupcake and he loved eating

the frosting off it. After awhile though, he threw

the cupcake on the floor.

12 month picture. He weighs 18 lbs

and I can't remember how tall he is

(I have to look it up).

Here's little Spencer chillaxin. So cute.

Spencer Bryan Winston

So here is the story all about how....

My due date January 4th came and went. I went to my Dr. appointment on the 7th and I was dilated to a 5. The doctor was really surprised at how far I was dilated especially since I hadn't had any contractions. He had me take a stress test and everything was fine. We were talking about a date to be induced and since my mom was already here and would be leaving in a week, we wanted it to be sooner than later (I couldn't stand to go that much longer anyways). The doctor was talking with a nurse or someone about a date to induce me and were talking about Tuesday or Wednesday (this was taking place on a Thursday of the previous week) and my mom was leaving on Thursday. Bryan stressed to them the sooner the better and the doctor asked "do you want to have him today?" We said yes and asked if we could go home and get our stuff which we did, and then we came back. Before we got back I was starting to have some contractions but nothing like the ones I had after they broke my water. But before we get to that part of the story, we had to wait in a waiting area because they were cleaning up one of the delivery rooms. Then, the fire alarm went off and we had to go back downstairs and outside! Luckily they let us stay in the lobby (because Bryan told them it was ridiculous to send a pregnant women in the beginning stages of labor out in the cold). Luckily we didn't have to wait long and we were able to go back up to labor and delivery. The doctor broke my water at 5:30 and shortly after I had HARD contractions. I had never felt so much pain before in my life. In fact, my life passed before my eyes. A few minutes later I had to have an epidural. All of those women out there who have natural birth...there's a higher place in heaven for them. Once that kicked in, I could still feel the contractions but only a little but I was still really uncomfortable because Spencer was seriously burrowing in my sternum and my ribs and that really hurt. Shortly after the epidural, I felt the need to push and so we called the nurse in. She checked my dilation and I was at a 10. This baby was coming. They called the Dr. (he had just left to get something to eat) and when he came the nurse asked if she should start pushing with me and he said no because this baby was coming. The nurse said I would have a baby before 8. After getting things ready, I pushed and 4 minutes later he was born-all before 7:30! (He was born at 7:28). So I was in labor for only 2 hours and all it took was to break my water. This time around was a lot easier than the last time even though I had a bigger baby. He was 8 lbs 14.7 oz and 21.1 in long-that explains the hibernating in my ribs.

This was after the epidural.

Proud father!

Proud mom.

Cute "little" baby

Future heartthrob lady-killer.

On our way home!

Brayden holding Spencer.

All ready for bed!