Well this little lady has had a BIG six months and today she is TWO!! What a year it’s been. Vivi is such a little light on our house. I call her a hambone. Her smile makes you smile and her laugh is contagious. She has the best sense of humor and she actively tries to make you laugh–usually by wearing something on her face or head. She puts anything and everything on her face and head. Seriously. Goggles. Snorkeling…
At the end of August, Mike and I were thinking we were crazy. Life in NoVA was so simple. Predictable. We knew all the parks, playgrounds, restaurants, and neighbors. We loved our life–truly. The only thing missing was close family. We said “are we sure we really should do this??” a thousand times. Each time, we’d come back around to yes, yes, and yes. Now is the time, or it will never happen. Time is something you can’t make more…
We started out August back in Virginia, settling back into our life there except now trying to pack up our entire house and put in place lots of other details that arise when you’ve decided to move your entire family 900 miles. Good thing I was still on maternity leave because otherwise, this would have been impossible. While this was a hectic time, it was still really sweet, and in many ways, felt like the final chapter in our ‘Life…
Still committed to making lemonade out of COVID by deciding to uproot and move to Florida, we continued from June into July at the Betancourt Resort. Among all of the adults, we planned out for the month who did Kiddie Dinner Prep, Adult Dinner Prep, Kiddie Bedtime Detail, Dish Duty (always Pa) and Happy Hour/Bar Service, hoping to spread out the responsibilities so everyone got a turn doing something delightful and dreadful. Matt was almost always on Drink Duty but…
Well. This summer was one FOR THE BOOKS. Neither Mike nor I would have ever guessed in one million years the crazy twisty turning road this year has been. I know the entire globe is feeling that way. What I can also say is that the Spead family decided to ‘lean into’ the crazy and do what Mike says best: made COVID lemonade. We saw a window of opportunity and pushed ourselves through it. After losing Mike’s mom this year,…
Vivi Girl turned 1.5 years old right before Memorial Day Weekend. She is cuddly, loving, and smiley…until she gets mad and turns stubborn, screechy, and a bit whiny! She loves drinking out of big kid cups, eating whatever you are eating, wearing sunglasses, snuggling her baby dolls, and reading books in your lap. She loves riding her scooter (until she is DONE with it and then insists on being carried), brushing her teeth, buckling anything she can buckle (her high…
I took zero pictures over Mother’s Day weekend this year. It was a beautiful weekend and we all really enjoyed it–we were too busy enjoying it to take pictures! Anyway, here’s a quick recap, since I will want to remember this time pre-baby… Friday Night: Mike and I cut out of work around 5 pm and I came downstairs to Mike making homemade meatball subs. Talk about starting the weekend off right! This is one of my favorites. They were…
This is such a bizarre and scary time now for the world. Everywhere you turn, there is bad news and startling information emerging, and more uncertainty than anything else. We are 8 weeks in to this ‘new normal’ of being socially distant/quarantined and it still feels surreal. Add in the rough times we’ve had, losing Mike’s mom, trying to support his dad from afar, and preparing for Baby #3, and it could be just too stressful all around and not…
Vivi Girl turned 17 months old right after we celebrated our Quarantine Easter and our Five Year Wedding Anniversary. Mike and I are loving the fact that we get to spend so much more time with both of our little ones during this bizarre and scary time. We have more leisurely mornings, we can pop in around lunchtime to see what they are up to, and if I hear a little one fussing at naptime, I can sneak into the…
“We’re going on a bear hunt! We’re going on a bear hunt! I’m not afraid! I’m not afraid! We’re coming to a wheat field…can’t go over it, can’t go under it, got to go around it! Uh-oh…I see two little eyes and a big furry body…let’s take a picture…it’s a BEAR!” So I have no idea if these are the actual words to the Bear Hunt book/song, but that is the version Caroline (who learned it in preschool) shouts for our…