The Holidays in lllinois

Every year since I can remember, my mom and I fly to St. Louis, rent a car, drive 3 hours to southern Illinois (specifically the booming metropolis of Eldorado), goof around with family, eat lots of carbs, eat lots of sugar, eat lots of butter, gain 5 pounds, fly a UFO, drive 3 hours back to St. Louis, and fly home...all in 3 days! We look forward to it every year! Well, for the second year in a row, Mike joined us (I think it was either the UFO or Aunt Donna Mae's desserts) for the madness.

Mike and I with my Grandma Opal...


Four generations (Grandma Opal, mom, me, and baby)...

Mom and I after overindulging ourselves on a combination of Aunt Donna Mae's 15 desserts...

Sometime after that, me - post nap...

Uncle Bill, me, and Baby Spruiell...

Mike and I cheating on Jerry with another border collie (Uncle Bill and Aunt Teresa's baby Chico)...

Does this picture look familiar to ANYONE else? Just substitute Mike for Uncle Bill and Jerry for Chico.

As for the highlight of the weekend, the UFO! So the story goes, when my Uncle Bill was younger, he built this UFO and let it fly around town. Well, some of the townspeople saw it, really thought it was a UFO, and it made the paper the next morning! There was even a quote in the paper by one man who swears he saw tiny aliens inside. Every year since, we have re-created the UFO. We spend the entire weekend analyzing the probability of the thing flying - between wind trajectories, temperature, materials, and other factors we cannot discuss (top secret family business) - it all comes down to the last night! Will it fly or not? Let me tell you, we've had some pretty good years! We've seen this thing fly so far we cannot see it anymore. On the flip side, we've had some really bad years - think burning UFO landing on top of Uncle Bill's roof. Either way, come hell or high water, we try to fly.

The UFO team members include Uncle Bill - founder and president, my cousin Clint, myself, and the newest member Mike! Mike was voted in this year after my family confirmed he is not a Russian spy selling our secrets - in fact his engineering background has proven to be a great asset! Other helpers include Clint's daughter Faith. The next generation of UFOers will include Faith, her now 9 month old brother Jaxson, and Baby Spruiell so we have been putting them through some pretty rigorous training.

Here are some pictures - there are no close-ups due to the preserving the family secrets in UFO building... :)

Turkey Day in Seattle

This year the Janets hosted most of the family for Thanksgiving...and what a time we had! We ate lots, (some of us) drank lots, shopped, watched football, went bowling, received a personal tour of the firestation, and played a TON of Sequence. It was the perfect weekend with family. The only complaint I have is that we didn't have more time together.

The girls...

The bros (minus Tod who was keeping Seattle safe at the time - aka he was at work)...

The sisters...

The fam bugging Tod at work...

Some crazy pregnant lady thinking she can drive a firetruck...

Tod humoring us by showing us one of the beds at the fire station...

Bowling! My team one both games with no help from yours truly.

And Porter....the entertainment for the weekend...

It's just another manic Monday

I took these pictures on the Monday after Christmas when I was home for the break.

These animals really have a "ruff" life don't they?

The result of too many cookies

Here's a blurry picture of me and Baby Boy Spruiell at 28 weeks and 4 days (today).

Since I'm your typical Type A personality I've been keeping close watch on all of mine and my baby's stats: blood pressure, heart rate, glucose levels, and of course....weight. My doctor is at the point where she chuckles when I bring out my stats book to record all of the numbers at each appointment.

I had a doctor's appointment today (which I now refer to as "Weigh-in Day") and was getting pretty nervous considering I've made two trips to Texas this month (airline food coupled with Tex Mex does not a pretty figure make) and I recently have acquired a craving for chocolate chip cookies. To top it all off, Mike brought home a package of Mike and Ike's candies, as well as, a chocolate marshmellow heart for me last night. What a nice man, I know. I not so politely informed him that although the gesture was sweet (no pun intended), it was before my Weigh-in Day. Then he watched me throw all logic out the door and devour all of it in a matter of minutes.

So I get to my appointment this morning and guess what??? 1.25 pounds gained in one month. YES! That's like record-setting for me. Seriously, my monthly average weight gain is usually way above that so logic would say either 1) the scale was off or 2) next month will not be very good but whatever! My "pregnancy brain" tells me that eating bad worked. So when I got back to the office I marched right across the street and bought myself a chocolate chip cookie to celebrate.

Lesson learned.

Hunter's Cousin

You asked for it....a picture of Baby Spruiell (aka Hunter's cousin) and I taken TODAY in the women's bathroom at work. :)

We are 27 weeks and 4 days along....that's right about the beginning of our 7th month and 3rd trimester.

Someone made a comment to me this morning that sorta took me aback: "So....wow...when are you due? You MUST be ready to have it NOW right?" What??? I'm really not THAT large at all. I informed him that I feel great and still have 3 months to go. It is really too early for comments such as these.

That being said, I do feel great! I have minor complaints but nothing I cannot easily remedy. All in all, I think Mike is a pretty lucky guy b/c I'm not one of those crazy, insane, pregnant women you see and hear about...........yet.

And how's the baby? He's doing well too! We haven't had a doctor's appointment in about 3 weeks but if I were to judge by kicks alone, I'd say he's a regular David Beckham. The other night we were laying in bed - I was staring at my belly moving (a regular nightime ritual of mine) while Mike was reading his blackberry (a regular nightime ritual of his) when my belly moved so much that Mike could see it out of the corner of his eye! I REALLY wish I had a little camera inside there to see what in the world the little guy is up to. I'm convinced he's playing some sort of game inside there. What's a boy game? Like cowboys and indians or something of that nature.....

Hunter Joseph is here!

Yeah, yeah...I know this is late but "better late than never" right??


The most exciting thing that happened over our holiday break was that our baby's older and very first boy cousin arrived just in time to close out 2008.


Mike's brother (Erik) and his fiance (Kate) delivered their healthy and beautiful baby boy on December 29th, 2009.

There were a lot of talks about 'does he have the Spruiell nose?' 'what about the Spruiell head?' Well, y'all can judge for yourself. All I know is he is a cutie!

This is actually a picture from this week...he's already a whopping 11 pounds!

Welcome to the world Hunter. Baby S cannot WAIT to play with you!

Where oh where have I been?

If you guessed 'on an airplane' then you are probably right. Holy moley it has been a while! I have so many updates but between the holidays and other personal travel, I haven't had much time to update the blog. I greatly apologize for that but promise that when I get the chance it will be a big update! I need to update y'all on Thanksgiving in Seattle, Christmas in Houston, my baby shower in Houston, and Rosemont Reunion 2009 ("RR09") in San Antonio...not to mention this cute little thang growing inside of me. I've had numerous requests for some good old fashioned belly pics so those are a comin' as well! If I don't get the blog updated this week then I will this weekend.

Stay tuned....