December Update....

Okay, so I've been slacking lately on keeping my blog updated. I figure this is just as good a time as any to update it, now that things have started to slow down around the house. I expect to do a separate blog later about Christmas since I got most of Christmas morning on tape and we have some good footage of the boys I want to post. I just thought I'd mention right now about what's been happening with our family over the last couple of weeks during the holidays.


(Just a random picture of Noah building his first Gingerbread house with Aunt Megan.)

Noah is now 2 years and 3 months old. 9 more months in counting until he turns 3. 9 months too long!!! He is definitely engaged in his terrible two's. Over the last couple of weeks he has learned how to climb, turn on lights, open doors, flush toilets, and he abuses the word "NO" too often now. He's also learned so many new words over the last two or three weeks, I can't even begin to list off what they are, cuz there's just too many to mention, but with his new expansive vocabulary he sounds like such an adult! I definitely don't like that he's picked up the word "NO"-and I especially don't like the way he uses it. When he says "No" he makes it a point to stand with his hands placed on his hips at the same time as he says "No". I'm not sure where he picked the gesture up from, but my guess is Nursery- since he just started saying "No" Monday morning.

Noah's spent a lot of his time in "time out" over the last couple of weeks. I don't mind that he's learned how to climb, but he's in "time out" usually because he likes to climb on top of our computer desk and stand on the keyboard (he poured a bottle of drinking water all over our computer desk and keyboard), or climb on book shelves, or on top of table tops. He'll also climb on top of his table in his room to turn the lights on at 1 in the morning after I've put both he and Ian to bed hours before. Last night I walked past their room at 2 a.m. and found the boys both asleep in a lit room. Obviously Noah had spent a few hours after I put him to bed, coyingly playing with his toys while the lights were "on"!!! He managed to do so pretty quietly without catching my attention.

Noah sleeps in his big boy bed now, and has been sleeping there since this last September; but apparently he misses his crib a little, since recently I've been finding him in the crib along side Ian. I'm not sure how Noah gets into the crib since I've removed all the chairs from his room, but he manages. My guess is he climbs up somehow onto the dresser and then leaps the distance from the dresser into the crib, which is a good foot or so, usually landing on his brother Ian. I've heard on a couple of occasions a good scream coming from Ian in their room- my guess is Noah must had just landed on top of him and rudely awakened him. No broken bones yet, thank goodness!

A few weeks ago, Noah finally learned how to open doors. I knew the day would come at one point, but I wasn't quite prepared for this new found skill. For a couple of days, before I had time to head to the store and buy the door handle "thingies", he managed to skip all together his naps, since I couldn't keep him contained in his room. He gluttoned himself with candy and snacks over the course of those days, since he would help himself to treats by opening the pantry door without my knowing it. He opened the front door a few times on his own, letting heat escape and the cold air in. I also couldn't keep him out of the bathroom! He's fascinated with the toilet and he likes to flush things "bye, bye". Trash; unused, entire rolls of toilet paper; toys- he likes to flush pretty much anything he thinks is worthy of a "good flush". It's all a game to him. On two separate occasions I caught him emptying cans of Ian's baby formula into the toilet- both cans were practically full and the formula isn't cheap- $30 a can. He likes to waste Ian's baby formula. I haven't kept an exact toll on how many cans he's ridden us of, but I'm thinking now he's at least had to have emptied maybe 10. Nearly $300 worth!

Among flushing things down the toilet, Noah has also recently acquired an unusual taste for toilet water!!! Yes, toilet water! I've caught him a couple of times scooping toilet water from the bowl using a cup to quench his thirst. It's "mommy occasions" like these where I want to puke, but I have to swallow and act quickly to get him to stop and wash up. Surprisingly, he hasn't gotten sick- I suppose it's a good thing I'm a clean freak and I like to keep a clean bathroom.

Noah still enjoys dancing and playing musical instruments. He really LOVES playing on Spencer's Rock band drums.

In the last week, he's developed a passion for SINGING. He's never sung before, but now he's all about singing- and like a true musician, he composes his own songs- lyrics and all. It's such a hoot listening to him make up songs.

About three weeks ago, we had an unpleasant surprise. The water heater broke while the boys were taking their naps. Their bedroom is right next to the room where the water heater is. When I went in to get them up, I noticed the carpet next to Ian's crib was a bit wet, but I thought Noah had spilt water from his sippy cup there. I hadn't gone back into their room again that evening until it was bedtime for the boys. That's when I noticed that the carpet was even more wet. Completely soaked in some areas. I told Spencer, thinking that a pipe had frozen and burst, so he turned off the water to the house all together. We walked into the water closet and after seeing the pipes were fine, figured out that it was the water heater that had broken! Unfortunately, it was a Friday night so we could only get someone out to stop the water from flooding the basement, but we had to wait until Tuesday evening before the water heater could be replaced by a new one. I can't believe how incredibly inconvenient it is not having HOT water. I've gone without hot water before at times during my mission- but that was in Portugal, where it never snowed. The weekend our water heater broke happened to also be the same weekend we got slammed with a snow storm! Spencer said I should just tough it out and not shower for a day or two, but since I'm preggers, my sense of smell is extra strong and I can't stomach the smell of body odor or unwashed hair! I let the boys go a day without showering them, but after that, they started getting stinky so I boiled some water I could use to bathe them with. I don't envy my ancestors who had to do without hot water and electricity. I completely appreciate all of the modern conveniences we have today.

Since the boys room was partially flooded, we had to move them into our bedroom while the carpet was being dried and cleaned for a week. We squeezed Ian into the bassinet he barely fit comfortably in, and Noah slept in the playpen. It was sort of nice having all of our little family bunking together in the same quarters, but I wouldn't have had it that way for long- I don't understand parents who insist or like to have their kids sleep with them! I guess Spencer and I just like our space. Oh funny story, the first night the boys slept with us, maybe only an hour or two after we found the flood, Noah was in our room, we'd just put him to bed, and somehow or other, he managed to climb out of his playpen, and thus proceeded mischievously over to my nightstand where I'd set out a new can of Ian's baby formula. Noah delighted himself by pouring the entire contents of the can out onto our down comforter! 3 cans of baby formula, at $30 each can, wasted in just the matter of a week!!! I can't believe this kid!!!

Ian's still growing like a weed!!!

I finally started feeding him baby food- he eats pretty much anything- anything but the baby cereal. He's a porker and a chunk!!! He's a cute chunk though. A solid chunk actually- the kids really all muscle- no joke! Well, except his legs aren't all muscle. I love his chubby legs and he is sooooo stinking cute when he's in the buff. He hasn't been into the doctors for a while now, he has to wait until his 9 month appointment in February, but I'm sure he's probably only a pound or two lighter than Noah. They both wear the same size diapers and now Ian's wearing the same size pants as Noah- 18 months. They fit him just perfectly- while the pants are still a little big and loose on Noah. My guess is that in another 6 months or a year, people will be mistaking the two boys for twins. I've had a few people ask me already if they were when both were wearing beanies.

Who knows, if this next baby's another boy, maybe people will be asking me in two or three years if the boys are triplets! One of our friends couldn't believe that I was preggers again. Most everyone we've told can't believe I'm expecting again ALREADY, but anyhow, that's not what I was going to write about. Our friend told me that Ian and the new baby we're expecting in June will be IRISH TWINS. I'd never heard of the term before, so later I decided to Google the term. Turns out the new baby and Ian WILL NOT be IRISH TWINS. They'll be 13 months apart, one month older than Irish Twins are. (Apparently the term Irish Twins is one that was used for siblings who were born a year or less apart from one another.)

Noah has finally started to play along with Ian. It's so cute to watch the two of them interact with one another.
(Below is a picture of the boys playing together in their house we made out a big cardboard box.)

Ian thinks the world of his brother Noah already. He always squeals with joy when Noah sits down to play with him. On occasion they've already had their own squabbles-usually over a toy they both want to play with. Ian puts up a pretty good fight, but Noah has a temporary advantage over Ian for now, the fact that Noah's mobile and Ian's not. Shouldn't be much longer though before Ian's crawling around- he's more than anxious to move on his own right now! He's a wiggly guy!

(Noah & Ian just started sharing a bath together- they love it- Ian's all giggles the entire time!)

About two weeks ago, Spencer's dad celebrated his last day as an Orem City Council Man. He served on the Orem City Council for 8 years. The mayor and the board put together a nice little get together Farewell thingy for his dad that we all went too. Noah absolutely LOVES Grandpa Campbell but it didn't stop him from trying to steal Grandpa's spotlight a couple of times during the event. Noah LOVES having all the attention on him during socials!

Spencer's been so stinking busy this last month with work! He's also been busy preparing for the GRE and getting applications together for grad school. He was going to take the GRE on the 20Th, but when he tried to register, the test wasn't available to take until January, so now he's waiting to take the GRE on the 3rd or maybe it's the 4Th of January, it's one of those days. I think he said he has to have two of his applications turned in January and then the other applications for the other colleges aren't due until the end of February. We won't know probably until APRIL which school's he's been accepted to and it will probably take him a couple of weeks after that to decide.

I think I may already be wishing it was April. I'm totally impatient and I'm just READY to know where we'll be moving to and in what part of the country for the next couple of years. Apparently, we could be going anywhere from Bowling Green, OHIO, to Little Rock, ARKANSAS; ALABAMA; Boise, IDAHO or Missoula, MONTANA. (I may have missed another school). I wouldn't mind moving to any of those places, Montana would probably be the last place I'd choose to move, but whatever- I'm looking forward to the future- where ever it will be. It might just be fun being far from most of our family and friends in a new place where we'll have to meet new people. And if we move to Arkansas or Alabama, I'm sure we'll be busy getting acquainted with southern hospitality.

Spencer did find some time about a week ago to get into the Christmas spirit, when he dressed up as Santa Claus for his little sister Megan's Kindergarden Class- actually it was for all of the Windsor Elementary School Kindergardeners. He said he had a good time. I guess there was one chubby kid that kept escaping from the teachers to chase after Spencer as he left down the hallway- the kid wanted more one on one time with Santa I guess.



(Notice to the left, one of the Kindergarders in the front has a skeptical look on her face-she's not sure whether to believe or not if Spencer's the real deal "Santa")

I managed to stay insanely busy during December getting our place decorated and gifts ready for Christmas. It took me two weeks to finally finish decorating our Christmas Tree- I had all the lights on it, and ofcourse, just as I was getting ready to put the finishing touches on the tree, Spencer managed to break a strand of lights (he was playing ball in the living room with Noah and accidentally hit the tree- all the lights went out); so I had to take a strand of lights off the tree, throw them away, buy some new lights and restring them. It was also quite the chore getting the bubbling lights to stand up straight on the tree- I finally had to wire them on separately- I love bubbling lights though- they really remind me of my Christmas' as a child- and Noah got a big kick out of having "bubbles" on the tree!


(This picture makes our Christmas Tree look crooked at the top- I promise you it wasn't- it must just be the angle the picture was taken at.)

I apologize now to those of you we didn't send Christmas cards off to- I made 25 cards thinking that would be enough, but I never did an accurate count and there were quite a bit a people I forgot to mail cards too. Sorry. Thanks to everyone who sent us cards- we enjoyed getting them and reading your news and seeing your family pictures.

I've seen a few movies in the last few weeks I've enjoyed. Spencer and I watched "The Golden Compass" a few weeks back- I really liked it- I didn't think people and the media needed to get all hyped up about it being about the Anti Christ. Ridiculous. I need to get the set of books now cuz I'd really like to read them. We went and watched "Alvin and the Chipmunks" Christmas Day with Spencer's family. It was a cute movie. Slow in some parts. Noah liked dancing to their songs they sang. At home I watched "Reign Over Me"- that's a great movie, and I also watched "Star Dust"- I loved this movie! I'm recommending it to everyone. We also watched the new "National Treasurer" movie that's out in theaters- WOW!!!! This movie is so much fun!!! I wish there really was treasure like there is in the movie! Last night we went out to watch "Juno". I loved this movie- the storyline was really clever and it was a really funny movie. The theater was packed full of people; two or three people got up and walked out- the movie is PG-13 and there is a little bit of language and crude humor in it so I wouldn't recommend it if you're completely turned off by that. Mind you, the movie is about a teenage girl who gets pregnant and she's a total tomboy. I loved it and the whole audience was busting up laughing most of the movie. If it was edited in parts, it would definately be a favorite of mine. The soundtrack to the movie is GREAT!!!

I also watched at home "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation". LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this movie- what's Christmas with out it?!?

I finally finished reading "Eclipse" the third book to the "Twilight" book series written by Stefanie Meyers. I still have to say, I wasn't impressed. This book was probably better than either of the first two books, but still, it's not my favorite.

I've been feeling pretty good lately. Well, correction, last week every day I took Benedryl-I was craving "Panda Express" every day last week, and I think that my wheat allergy is a bit more sensitive now that I'm preggers, so every time I ate Chinese I felt just a bit congested and wheezy. Fortunately I'm over my Chinese food cravings, and now all I want are some of my wheat free pretzels or turkey sandwiches on wheat free toasted bread. This pregnancy has been weird like that where I've had all sorts of weird cravings! It's unexplainable. I think Christmas Eve and Christmas I must had had the flu or something like it, cuz my stomach hurt and my head was congested and my body ached and oh my gosh- I had a migraine like nothing else!
I haven't had to rely so often though on my Zofran- which is promising that maybe in a month or two I'll be completely over my pregnancy sickness. At my last doctors appointment I asked my doctor if he was going to let me find out the sex of this baby at 16 weeks like he's done for me in my past pregnancies but he said no, so guys, it looks like I'll have to wait and be patient until 20 weeks (the first week in February) to find out whether we're having a girl or a boy. ( I can't really complain, my doctors already done two separate ultrasounds of the baby for me, while most women never get an ultrasound until they're 20 weeks). I honestly don't mind either way if we have a boy or a girl. I'd love another boy, and I'd love a little girl I could dress up- I'd also love to have a girl cuz I already have such a cute girl name in mind.

Last Friday, just before Christmas we went up visit some friends of ours in Salt Lake we hadn't seen for a long time. They live just a block or two north of Temple Square so we bundled the kids up nice and warm and strapped them into their strollers and then we took a walk over to Temple Square to see the lights. Noah had a good time throwing ice chunks into the reflection pond- although I made him stop after a family glared at me in disapproval. Ian barely noticed the temple lights, he was more content and focused on drinking his bottle while in the stroller; but still it was nice to get out and see the beautiful nativities and walk around temple square with our friends.


My mom was just up here visiting two or maybe it was already three weeks ago. My older sister Tricia just had her 8Th baby!!!! Yes that's right- 8Th! Israel David Huhem was born on the 10Th. My mom flew up the following day on the 11Th and stayed through the weekend. Israel's a cutie, he's got quite a bit of dark hair. Tricia looks great. I saw her just three days after she had the baby; she went out to lunch with me and my mom and my other sister Celeste at P.F. Changs. She didn't even look like she'd just had a baby!!! In fact, I don't think people would believe her if she told them she'd ever even had one kid, let alone 8- she's soooo tiny meeny. It's at times like this, where I start to question our genetics. I mean- here we are sisters- same genetic makeup, but yet I'm half a foot taller than she is, and she's the teeniest skinniest, most petite person you've ever seen! Anyhow, it's impressive how well she manages her household of 8 kids- adding this last baby hasn't seemed to set her off tract at all!

It was nice seeing my mom, although I didn't get to see her much since she was up at Tricia's helping her out.

Well, I think in a nutshell I've managed to debrief the last few weeks. I've probably forgotten a bit... I have to admit I'm a bit relieved that Christmas is over- maybe now people in Utah County will be courteous and not pushy or rude in stores and on the street. I'm serious- it's been a nightmare in stores and on the roads here over the holidays! Our decorations and Christmas tree will stay up till New Years- and maybe then I'll think about taking things down....
I promise to post later about Christmas.

P.S. Did I forget to mention it's been snowing A LOT here lately!!! I love it! Too bad I'm not in any condition to go snow boarding. Below is a picture of Noah playing in the snow- he loves it! He especially loves to eat it- I've been tempted to pour snow cone flavoring over some of the fresh new snow that falls and eat it myself. This morning Noah wondered out back into the snow in only his pajamas and socks- I had no clue he'd gone outside until Spencer came up and found the back door open and Noah trudging through the snow. Luckily he'd only been outside for maybe a minute or two.