The Growing Belly

19 Weeks

22 Weeks

24 Weeks

25 weeks

27 Weeks

29 Weeks

30 Weeks

Almost 33 Weeks

34 Weeks

37 weeks

38 weeks 2 days (the day before he arrived)

Sami at the Christmas Tea

Tanner at the Christmas Tea

A Few Pictures

Chrismas Tea at School
Showing some dance moves

Baby Girl sings too.

Before School

Silly Sami

Wow, I need to update more.

Well it has been a very long time since I have posted. I am going to start doing so again on a regular basis, I promise. Things around here have been crazy. I am not going to try and catch up on the past almost year but I will hit some highlights.........

Summer was great. Spent most of our time at the lake. Kids swam like fish and can both swim without floatation, but of course we only allow this in pools. Life jackets are still, and will be for quite some time, a must at the lake.

We found out in July we are expecting another baby......now due in about two and a half months. We are thrilled and looking forward to her/his arrival. Yes we decided to make this one a surprise:) Kids are happy and looking forward to the new addition. They each have some very interesting ideas for names. Tanner would like Gilbert for a boy and Sami would like the baby to be name Coconut, regardless of the sex. Good thing they are not in charge of coming up with the real name.

Fall came way too quickly but both kids started school. Tanner is loving every minute of it and I am sooooooo happy we opted to keep him home from Kindergarten one more year. His self confidence and self esteem has improved so much. He is reading and writing like a champ. Sami had a rough start but has finally adjusted. She is starting to actually say that she like school which is a good thing. She does tell me that she would prefer to stay with me all the time, which is nice to hear.

Sami got her tonsils and adnoids out the beginning of Oct. It was discovered that she was having sleep apnea spells which was why she was awake for hours and hours each night for almost an entire year. She healed very quickly and has finally started to sleep. I am more thankful for this this anyone, I think. I didn't realize how tired I was until I finally got to sleep for more than 4 hours a night.

And that pretty much brings us up to the present. Tanner broke his arm this past Monday. I am so very sad that he has to have a cast on his arm for Christmas. We opened a few presents this evening and he had to have help. Breaks my heart. Luckily he will only have the cast on for about a month.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May 2011 be good to you all!!

Tanner off the High Dive

So proud of my little man!

Sami Dives

Sami and Tanner Swimming

We have been to the pool just about every day. Tanner is swimming by himself without a life jacket and to my surprise, so is Sami. It is absolutly amazing to watch them both.

Red Sox/Royals Game

We went to the Red Sox/Royals game last night and had a blast. They whole family was decked out in our Red Sox gear. Before we left Tanner was in the back yard with his bat hitting the crap out of a tree. When I asked him what he was doing he replied with "I am a Red Sox and this tree is a Yankee and I am beating them." It was a proud moment for Daddy to say the least.

Not Much New to Report

Baby Girl Gets DIRTY


Fun in the Mud



My Little Stinker

Sleepy boy

I have not updated in awhile because there is just not much to report. Tanner is doing great as always. He is learning so much and seems like such a big kid all of the sudden. He is starting to read, his handwriting is improving, and you can actually tell what he is drawing when he draws pictures. How did my baby get so big? Sam is her usual wonderfully, sassy self. She is so entertaining these days. The things that come out of her mouth absolutly amaze me. She is so sassy, stubborn and independent but she is very entertaining and I would't change her for the world. We have had complete potty training regression which stinks but I am hoping once the weather gets warm and stays warm we can start potty training session number 2. Hope you enjoyed the new photos.

Fiona's Birthday

Waiting for their Frosty Paw.


Fiona enjoys her Frosty Paw at the table with the kids.



Sam helps her eat her treat.

As you all know Fiona is our giant Mastiff. She turned one year old on Feb. 26th and we had a little doggie party for her with our friends Boxers Olive and Bluto. They are great buddies and play really well together. The Boxers are much faster than Fiona but her size intimidates them. It is really fun to watch them play. I have never had a birthday party for a dog but Fiona is a very different dog. I don't think I have ever been so crazy about a dog before. I have always loved my pets and have been nuts for them but never like Fiona. I absolutly adore her and she is a great fit for our family. Although she is GIANT, weighing about 130 pounds and still growing, she is so kind and gentle with the kids, is a great protector, and is wonderful with other animals. You will see how big she is in some of the photos I have posted. You have to remember that a Boxer is a large breed dog; however, in the photos you will see how Fiona towers over them and makes them look tiny. Enjoy the photos of Fiona's 1st Birthday.

Where do you teach a 130 pound dog to sleep?

We have been having an issue with sleep in our house. This has always been an issue for us but it has gotten much worse in the past few months. In the morning I wake up to find Xan, Tanner, Sami and me all in one bed. Here is the kicker. We all have about a foot of room to lay and usually we are hanging off the bed. Tanner and Xan are usually huddled together on one side of the bed while Sami and I are huddled together hanging of the other side. Why does this happen you might ask. The answer to this question is simple. Our kids sneak in our bed in the middle of the night. Why is everyone hanging off the bed with no room? THERE IS A HUGE 130 pound DOG that is lying smack in the middle of the bed with her head on the pillow while the rest of us are uncomfortable. She is so big that you cannot pull the covers up because she is lying on them, cannot move her over and you for sure cannot get her loud booming snore to stop . It has created a big problem so Xan and I came up with a solution.........teach her to sleep with Tanner. Now Tanner is happy in his bed all night long because he has her to cuddle with and Xan and I get a good night sleep without hanging off the edge to make our Fiona dog comfy. Now if we could just get Sami to stay in her bed all night. Perhaps another Mastiff? Just kidding. One horse is enough for this family.

Ice Skating, Sami, and Papa Geo

Update

There is not much to report from the Spiecker Household. We enjoyed a quick visit from Xan's dad and he was lucky enough to be here the night of Tanner's Dads Night at school. The three boys had a lot of fun. Tanner continues to like school, at least most days, and Sam is begging to go too. I enrolled them for next year last week and when you ask Sami when she gets to go to school she quickly says "Next year but I too little now." She is happy that she now gets to go to a gym class once a week. Tanner will go everyday except Thursday and Sami will go Monday and Wednesday.

The BIG news we have is that Sam is pretty much POTTY TRAINED!!!! Yeah Sami. She still has an accident here and there, usually when I am not paying enough attention to her, but most days she stays dry all day and sometimes all night. She usually wakes me up once a night to go potty which I am hoping will pass in time. She does her business and then goes back to sleep so I guess it is OK.

That is all I have to report at the moment.

A Few Cute Stories

The other day I asked Tanner if he had remembered to put his clothes in the dirty basket. He looked at me and said "I did not Mommy. My mind is slippery." What he ment to say was "It slipped my mind."

On Friday I talked to Sami all day about how she was going to sleep in her own bed in her own room all night. She sleeps with us most nights and since we are going to start trying for baby #3 I decided that I want her to start sleeping in her own room so she will be nice and used to it if we do have another baby and so there will not be two in our room when said baby arrives. Anyways, we were driving in the car and I was talking to her about it. I said, "You are going to go to bed and you are going to sleep in your own room." She said "No Mommy, I want to sleep in YOUR own room." I told her no that she was sleeping in her bed. She looked at Xan and who was driving and said "I guess I will be the one upstairs crying."

Stitches are Out

So I took Sami to get her stitches out on Wednesday. The whole way there we talked about how she had to hold still just like she did when she got them and she kept saying she was going to. Tanner went along with us because he wanted to see the action. When the doctor went to remove them Sam was NOT the statue that she was when they were put in. I said to her "Sami, you said you were going to hold still" and then Tanner pipes up with "Hmmm, why am I not surprised." The doctor started laughing and asked Tanner "What are you 4 or 14?" Tanner then said that he could help her relax and started singing "You Are My Sunshine" and continued to sing to her until all were out. SOO CUTE.

Our Little Bruiser

We had an eventful evening on Friday night. I was running the vacuum in our bedroom and the kids were running around the room. All of the sudden I see Sam trip face first into our bed. By the sound of it I knew that when she looked up at me I would see gushing blood. She had hit the metal bed frame (the part of the bed that holds the box springs) with her forehead. I mean what are the chances of her falling and hitting that tiny ledge just perfectly? I have always known that we would at some point be taking her to the hospital for stitches because she is such a monkey. With everything she climbs on that she is not suppose to; everything she jumps on that she is not suppose to, and how adventurous she is, it amazes me that she got hurt just running, not even doing anything dangerous.

She was such a trooper with Boo Boo. She cried for a few minutes when she first did it but then just kept saying “Oh no. I am beedin (bleeding)” and “I trip mama. Have to go to hospital.” We drove to the emergency room with me in the back seat holding a cool rag on her forehead and trying to hold the gash together (I could see bone.) We pulled in and I took her inside and saw all the people with masks and puke buckets sitting next to them and quickly decided that Tanner needed to be taken back home to stay with Tia. My worst nightmare awaited me in that ER……. GERMS!

Sam did great. She entertained everyone by talking up a storm and told anyone who even glanced her way “I trip on bed and I beedin. Oh no” They took her back to the room and got her gash cleaned out. They had tried to cover it several times in the waiting room but she kept pulling the bandage off. I finally asked if she really needed it to be covered and the nurse told me that she had been trying to cover it because Mommy was looking a little faint. Anyways, they got it cleaned out and numbed up and then told us that they would have to wrap her up and restrain her while they did the stitches. I knew that this would terrify her and I asked the doctor if we could please try to do it first without restraining her. The doctor looked at me like I was nuts and said we could try but that she had never had a little one hold still. I talked to Sami and told her that she needed to hold really still or that the doctor would have to hold her really tight and guess what? My little peanut sat perfectly still. A nurse was up by her head and sort of held her head steady and Daddy held one hand while I held the other to comfort her. She did cry but she did not move through 5 stitches. She kept saying “I want to see” so I think the fact that they had a cover over her face was what was bothering her the most. She did jerk a bit on the last one so I think that one hurt her. Now if it had been Tanner I would have told the doctor to skip the restraining and move right to sedation because there would be no restraints that would keep him still considering it took 4 nurses, a doctor and me to hold him down for a throat culture last time he was sick. Aww my little Sam Sam, I am sure this will not be the last time we go to the ER with you. Good thing you are so tough and brave.

Mommy and Daddy had to have bandages too.

A Few Pics

The Milk Monster

Samantha has developed a new habit that is about to be the end of me. She has decided that at about one o'clock every morning that she MUST HAVE SOME MILK. I do not want her drinking milk in the middle of the night, not only because it is disturbing to her sleep but also bad for her teeth. She wakes up and cries for milk. I tell her no and she continues to cry....and cry.....and cry and get up and down, up and down up, and down until, well, it is about 5 in the morning and I am so tired I finally give up. I mean 4 hours is a long time for her to be so persistent right? I talked to her pediatrician about it when we were there for her two year check up and she said just to keep being persistent and she will stop. Well it has now been almost 2 weeks and there is no end in sight. Last night when I finally gave up after 3 hours of crying at 4:30 in the morning, I handed her some milk and she took a drink. She sighed with relief, looked at me and declared "Mommy, Sami is feeling much better now." I was so frustrated and tired that I was almost in tears but her simple statement made me laugh out loud and made my frustration disappear. With that proclamation she rolled over and went right to sleep. Maybe I should just give her the milk when she first wakes up and save us both a few hours of anguish. I guess this stage too shall pass.