The babes

Lark had her official two month appointment. She weighed in at a whopping 10 pounds 8 ounces and we couldn't be happier. It is so nice to have a baby that likes to eat for a change! She is such a good baby and we are enjoying every minute of her. Finn had his first official hair cut, which was very exciting. Lindy usually attempts to cut his hair but it is quite the ordeal, so Lindy decided to take him to Cookie Cutters. Finn loved it until she started to cut his hair and then he got really quiet. Finn was very brave and held very still while the nice lady finished. He got his balloon and candy and got all teary eyed as soon as we got to the car and said that he had pokies all over. It broke Lindy's heart. As soon as we got home we changed Finn's shirt to get rid of the pokies and all was well. Other than that nothing new to report.

I love sleeping babies

Bathing beauties. Finn loves to take a tub with his baby sister. he is so sweet to her and will help me wash her. It is very cute.

Finn getting his hair cut. He is being so brave.

Watching the "Grinch"

He would stare at himself in the mirror, he was probably thinking what in the heck is this lady doing to me

This year's Harvest

Well our little Lark is almost eight weeks and she is as cute as ever. She is such a good baby other than the first week of her life, which we will remind her later how very naughty she was! She is a complete joy. She is starting to smile all the time and do her cute little noises. It is still a miracle to Lindy every time she poops and is a momentous occasion. Finn is the sweetest big brother ever. He kisses her all day long and tries to be so helpful (tries is the key word). Sometimes he rocks her a little to rough and when he gives her her pacifier I don't know if it is helping or making her cry worse. But he loves her and it is so sweet to see. We also celebrated Finn's 3rd birthday. It is crazy that our little boy is growing up. He is spoiled rotten and is getting cuter and more fun by the day. Life is good. It is still a total adjustment trying to balance and take care of two kids, but all in all life is great.

Our sweet little pumpkin. These are the pumpkins that we grew out of our very own garden. Hence the title of this post!

Finn giving Lark kisses.

Grandma Kris came up to see the kids in their Halloween costumes.

Finn

Finn trick or treating at our house!

Finn on the morning of his birthday.

We celebrated Finn's birthday dinner with our dear Anderson friends.
(Ann is holding baby Lark)

Finn blowing out his candle.

Opening presents from his cousins.

Finn and his cute cousin Tate.

More birthday fun and Grandma Kris's house.

Finn's new favorite thing is Spider-man if you can't tell!

My very cute Grandpa and baby Lark.

Finn got this Handy Manny workbench for his birthday and it was a big hit. He saw it on the Disney channel and would ask for it for his birthday every time he saw it. Lindy thinks it was worth every penny. Jesse would beg to differ!

Our sweet little girl.

Two kids, too many...

Little Lark is five weeks old today. It has been a little crazy getting used to life as four. For all of you out there with five+ in the family, find comfort in knowing that we have been praying lots for you. This seems like it would be mission impossible.

The long and skinny about Lark and the NICU: She didn't ever need surgery and we spent only a few days at Primary's. Since coming home, the "holy crap" factor has hit and we are struggling with a newborn, just the normal stuff. Turns out, we are probably not as good at newborns as many of you. We are learning to live with that fact. We are happy just to be home and that we have a healthy little squirt- so blessed.

She has been a joy and a delight. Finn is slowly getting over his jealousy. He has always been nice to "baby sister and Lark", but has given his 'rents some heartburn.

Would write more but things are crazy. Will let the pics do the talking:

Taken a couple weeks ago.

Lots-o-pink.

Halloween teaser.

Finn's first fishing trip-- this pond is a mile from our house and it was the first time we had gone. Totally awesome.

We caught two fishies.

Taken this morning.

Just wanna eat her!

Also taken this morning-- Frosty is a little scary.

The best part of snow-- eating it.

Had to take some inside. Mmm...

Hark, our Lark.

Many of you know, many probably don't, but baby girl Lark Carolin made her grand appearance on Sept 22. Essentially, we went to the doc and he told us that we could walk across the hall and have the baby right then if we wanted. Lindy jumped all over it and a few hours later she was here. Lindy did totally awesome and is the unofficial spokewoman for epidurals. At any rate, our girls were perfect.

Lark weighed in at 5.13, was 20 inches long, and we fell hard quickly for her.

Finn Diego holding the little package for the first time. He was totally loving it and was so good at trying to keep her little bobbing head up.

Here she is sporting the "U" hat, content as ever.

Things were going really well for the first little bit and we were so excited to move this party home and get on with life as a foursome. Life threw a nasty curve. Lark was acting a little weird, not eating, no poopy, had a weird little gag. Lots of little things led to an admission to the NICU and a couple quick studies had the team thinking that she needed bowel surgery because her piping was connected right. This is a gigantic kick in the face, then in the gut, then a ninja-jab to the heart. Really, it was chilling news and we, for all intensive purposes, completely lost it. Lark was taken to Primary Childrens' for emergency surgery to put her piping together. The next couple hours were completely numbing, we had to wait to talk to the surgeons at Primary to find out more. Life threw another curve. We took our time getting down to Salt Lake, picked up Finn, made tons of phone calls, freaked and fretted about what was going to happen. We were about in Bountiful when we got a call from a nurse at Primary's who told us that Lark was being assessed by the doctors there when she let out a big poop. There has never been better news given, ever. As I write now, we are on day two in the NICU at Primary. Lark is by far the healthiest babe on the floor and we really couldn't feel more blessed that things worked out this way. She continues to poop like crazy and as soon as long as she starts eating a little better, we should be out of here soon. She does not need any surgery and has evaded any invasive testing. She is a sweet, peaceful, and happy little bird. The thought is that she had a little memrane blocking things and she pushed past it after an IV gave her the juice she needed to do so. Life's curves teach many things and we discovered a lot about ourselves, our family, and our friends. Things happen so fast and we would have totally crumbled if it weren't for our good friends and family. "Thanks" doesn't do it justice.

Bows replaced by an IV but still serene.

Turns out, when you don't eat and don't poop, your bilirubin goes up to and you get to do some baking.

Again, we are totally tickled with the new one. The roller coaster seems to be slowing and we feel that Lark's poop was more than luck. Thanks again for all the kindness and love that you have all shown. She scared a lot of you and for that, Lark is sorry. We will hopefully be home soon and we would love for you all to meet our pooping Lark shortly.

Summer days, and the living's easy

Not a whole lot to update, just a three-pack of pictures because we have been blog-stalking much but not adding to the blogging world ourselves.

We spend most our days trying to figure out what we are going to do that day. A lot of times we go for walks around the neighborhood and toss rocks of all sizes in the creek. Other times we play Wii bowling, Finn's new favorite thing, and finish up with a beat-down on boxing. We often turn on the Fugees "Best-Of" album and practice sweet dance moves. We've hit up O-town's kid-friendly places like the Dinosaur Park, Treehouse Museum, Costa Vida, free movies at the Egyptian, gang-training, and the splash park. We apparently do not spend a lot of time taking pictures.

Lindy is still pregnant. She is 34 weeks. She is confident that baby sister will be here in three weeks and certainly before 6 weeks. She loves standing on her feet for long amounts of time in the dry Utah heat, especially when Finn is doing his whining-almost-three-year-old-act.

Jesse is still working- in the ICU this month. He encourages you all to not get sick.

Finn at the Dinosaur Park, the one and only day of his life he was willing to wear a hat.

Lindy, Finn, baby sister, and the wooley rhino beast.

This is Finn's new favorite trick. Goofy bugger. We estimate that today he spent about 45% of the day trying to do the crossed-eyes.

Happenings

I am getting older and larger by the day! I am going to be thirty next year which is a scary thought, and I just celebrated my ten year High School reunion. It was very entertaining to say the least, but I am very glad that I went. It was so fun to play catch up with people I haven’t talked to since High School and to see how some have changed! Life is going pretty good. I am now officially 29 weeks pregnant and I'm counting down. We have had a busy week. Jesse had a conference down in Salt Lake so we stayed the night at my mom’s on Wednesday and then the Grand America hotel on Thursday night. It was pretty dang fancy. But it was so nice to get away for a few days. It was like a mini vacation. I was able to have lunch with my mom and Grandpa and then we meet up with our friends Mark and Jenny for dinner and then a dip in the pool at the hotel. It was lovely. We came back Friday, my reunion was Saturday and then we met our friends the Anderson’s for some Weber State fireworks. So things have been very busy, but sometimes that is a good thing, it is making time go by fast. I also have some very exciting news…..are you ready…..Finn had to go to the doctors on Monday for a weight check and he weighs a whopping 25.2 pounds fully dressed. The kicker is that he is finally on the chart. He is in the less than 3^rd percent but on the chart. This is miraculous because this hasn’t happened since he was 3 months old, and now Finn is no longer a failure to thrive baby. Halleluiah!!! So we celebrated by going to McDonalds and the park!! Other than that, that is all that is going on in the Spencer household.

Finn and Josh at the Pool at the Grand America Hotel. It was so lovely, but I have to say the company was the best part. It is always so nice to see the Mawhinney's.

Finn loves the water.

Cheesing it up for the camera.

I love this picture. Checkout that hair. I swear he really does belong to me and Jesse!

My sweet friend Jenny and Finn's wife Anna!

Finn getting ready to jump in the pool.

The cutest kids ever!

Mark and the silly boys.

Isn't she the cutest thing you have ever seen?

Finn riding the deer in the Gardens at the Hotel.

A nice little belly shot for you!

Debbie and I at our High School reunion.

The only ones that showed up!

This is Finn's new favorite thing. Every time Jesse needs to mow the lawn Finn will follow him around where ever he goes with his little mower. It is pretty sweet. Although it takes Jesse twice as long to mow and it drives him crazy!

I just think it is cutest thing to watch. Finn loves his daddy.

Us with the Anderson fam at the Fireworks.