Well my friend Michelle said I really needed to post on my blog so here is some proof that we are still alive over here! Drew is on a "business trip" in Hawaii (can you tell I'm a little jealous!) so I'm doing what I usually do when he is out of town and somehow filling up my evenings and going to bed late. In the last couple months we have: Celebrated Halloween! Here is my cowardly lion and crazy monkey. Spence loved his pumpkin full of candy and tried to carry it around for days afterwards.

We also celebrated Thanksgiving, unfortunately Spence got to the pumpkin pie before we did...
We got our Christmas tree which is a fun tradition in our family. My parents have some property that backs in to a Christmas Tree farm. We get a ladder, hop the fence, cut down a tree, go pay for it, and haul it back across the fence. Of course we do know these neighbors and as far as I know nobody has reported us! (Max was crying almost this whole time so I will skip those pictures.)

We started solids but I made an executive decision that we are going to hold off for a couple more weeks before trying again becuase I don't think he swallowed any (but he was cute!).

Spencer joined in the feeding fun.

We also caught him asleep like this. He loves this book and there is a picture in it of a bunch of people eating ice cream. He just couldn't put it down :)

And here are just some cute pictures of my little guy. Max has gigantic eyes!

My sweet boys

Well, sometimes they are sweet...

Fenced Backyard + Toddler = Heaven!

We have been busy this summer! I would never advise closing on a house (that you plan to do some work to) 13 days after having a baby. After some stressful complications at closing, lots of painting, sheetrocking, carpeting, repairing, packing, unpacking, and nursing, burping, and diaper changing, we find ourselves at the end of a crazy summer, happily moved into and enjoying our home with two growing boys! Whew. Here is what we have been up to:

Lots of playing in the backyard. Spencer ends up soaking wet on an almost daily basis and Max and I enjoy laying on a blanket watching from a safe distance!

Lots of smiling and cooing. Max has been a very easy baby. He is happy and sleeps and eats well. Plus, he's so darn cute! He started rolling from his tummy to his back - I guess he doesn't like tummy time much.

Lots of adjusting to having two, which has actually been easier than I had anticipated. Spence has been really good with Max. I have had to save Max from eating the carpet fuzz that was being offered but other than that we have made it relatively incident free so far.

Lots of rock throwing. This was Max's first hike and Spencer's first where he actually walked.

Being blessed and turning two! Max did great and Drew gave him a beautiful blessing. We were happy to have so much family there. Spencer had a fun birthday. We went to the Zoo and then had lunch with Daddy in downtown Portland. He struggled opening so many presents though because he wanted to play with each one right away. I love Max sleeping on the couch in the background.And of course, lots of home improvement. This is a before and after of the same room, taken from different angles. For now, this side of this room is done. There is still at least something that needs to be done in every other room. We don't have pictures up yet, we are still missing a mirror in our bathroom, the kitchen needs to be painted... My to do list has become huge. But for now, this is a taste of what we have been up to and I'll post more pictures as we finish more rooms. This is our living room. We redid the ceilings (you can't tell but they were popcorn before and it really makes the house feel a lot newer to get rid of those), painted the walls and all the dark woodwork in the house (that is a horrible project by the way), removed a pole, got curtains and curtain rods and filled up the space. We have been happy with it and Spencer loves to hide in the little nook by the plant!

It has been a great summer and we are looking forward to a fun filled fall!

Happy Father's Day

I think I got Drew a pretty sweet Father's Day Present! We are all doing well and planning on going home from the hospital today. I can't handle being in a hospital room too long! Max is doing well. He loves showing off his big eyes - I think they look a lot like his Grandma Lori's.

Here is Spence playing with the trains that Max gave him. He has been pretty good with Max so far. He keeps saying "baby's sad" whenever Max cries. I'm a pretty lucky girl to get to live with all these cute boys!

Max has arrived!!!

This is Drew making this post and I have no idea what I am doing. I will therefore make it short. Max was born yesterday at 3:14 pm. He was 7 lbs 15 oz and 20 in long. He ended up being another c-section (poor Kacey) so we will be in the hospital for a couple more days, but he and Kacey are both doing very well. We think he looks a lot like Spencer did when he was a newborn. Spencer came to visit him yesterday and got to "hold" him and seemed to like him. He kept saying "Baby so little" over and over again. Now all of the sudden Spencer looks huge. I am going to post a couple pictures here, and I am sure we will add many more over the next few weeks.

Lots of Milestones!

It has been an exciting few months at the Ableman house. Spencer is sleeping in a toddler bed (although he often ends up on the floor, the chair, his ball pit etc.), he is done with his pacifier, we are expecting the arrival of Max very soon (hopefully in the next week or two), and we bought a house! Here are some pictures of all the excitement:
Spencer likes to sleep all over his room - we have to be careful when we open the door because half the time he is snuggled up right next to it.

Spencer still loves the zoo!

Spencer is a little crazy and definitely turning into a little two-year-old. He is about to become a big brother so hopefully we will have updates soon. We have decided to name our next little boy Max. My due date is June 25th but we are hoping for anytime at this point...!

Like I said we also bought a house. We will put some pictures up next month after we actually close. We are still waiting on a couple things but we are really excited. It is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath ranch. I am most excited about a fenced backyard (the boys will love it) and a garage so I don't have to carry groceries up to a third floor apartment anymore! Our timing has made things interesting - we bought a house and are having a baby the same month. It might be a little insane for a while...luckily we have a lot of family willing to help!

Some Spencer Updates

We are still alive over here in Oregon! Life has just been busy. We've been to California and Idaho to visit family and Drew has been in the middle of his busy season. Things are calming down a bit now as everyone is home again! We are excited to announce that baby number two is a boy so we are pretty much set and ready for this one!

We really enjoyed the warmish weather in California and seeing my Grandparents!Spencer gets along great with his uncle Cameron in Boise. Spencer calls him "Cam" and they both have an innate love for throwing balls around. It is a good thing Spencer is having a brother!

Christmas!

I thought I'd post a few pictures of our fun Christmas in Boise. Spencer's favorite toy shoots out balls! He loved it, and still plays with it all the time. He especially likes if I aim it at him and the balls shoot towards him.

We went to Dad's house, Mom's house, and Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas and Spencer was very tired by the end of the day. He fell asleep on Drew's lap - our Spencer is not much of a snuggler, he never does that.
When we got back to Portland we had another Christmas and by this time Spencer was getting pretty good at opening presents (with some help).
He also liked his "cell phone," which he obviously knows how to use.
Another favorite toy was the "ball pit" - notice a theme...
Finally, we were back at our apartment cleaning up. Spencer was a big help. He enjoyed sitting nice and snug in a box with his ball toy.

Thanks to everyone who made it such a fun Christmas! We can't wait until next year when we have two...

A White Christmas

We spent time in Boise and Portland this year for Christmas and both looked like this. This is before the real storm hit in Portland but we caught a little bit. Spencer wasn't the biggest fan of the snow! It's a little hard to walk in when it covers your legs!