i ABSOLUTELY LOVE LOVE LOVE these pictures!!!

Jessica, I couldn't resist sharing this picture...

I was lucky enough to take pictures of my friend, Jessica, newest addition to her family... Miss Shayne Elizabeth Lynch...
She is beautiful and did amazing!!! I know this picture is of her crying, but wouldn't you? No, I got some way cute ones of her just sleeping in there, but this one was so cute, I couldn't NOT share it...

We won the lottery!!!!

well not the actually money winning lottery, but a lottery nonetheless. I have been on every list trying to get Austin and his cousin, Abby into a Charter school, most of the schools use a lottery system, where all the names go into a pool and are drawn out randomly,  and yesterday I got the call saying they got accepted.  HOORAY!!!! We never "win" anything!!! 

Inspired...

I just got through watching President Obama's address to Congress (click here for his speech)  I was very inspired by his speech, with the stimulus package, cure for cancer, health care reform, and education plans...I am excited about the hope he has put in America's economy recovery, and I liked seeing him with a personality and not like most politicians that are just "suits" I find politics very boring, but I am captivated by his speeches...lets hope we can all pull together and not let this horrible recession turn into another 'Great Depression'

Mommy's "Specials"

Alyssa is starting to feel better. I really knew she was sick, when she didn't want to have any of Mommy's "Specials" that is what I call my Dove chocolates with carmel...yummy! I will share with the kids, but they know the right way to eat them, it is so cute...I choose someone to pass them out, and they all light up when they get a shiny gold wrapped chocolate in their hands. They carefully unwrap it, bring the wrapper to me to read, the "Dove Promise", everyone gathers around to hear everyones promise, and then they place it carefully in their mouth. I have told them they can't just quickly chew it up they need to let it melt in their mouth for as long as possible, and they ALL do it!!! Even the little 2 year old girls....it is so cute!!! So on Valentines Day my nephews who are usually at school when we have our "specials" got to have a chocolate too, the best was when the little kids were telling them the special way to eat these Special Chocolates...and they listened.

Dr. Valentine...

Alyssa was up ALL night, and when I say all night, I mean ALL night!!! She did not feel well at all. This is the worst she has even been including when she was an infant. She would maybe sleep for 15-45 minutes at a time, but it wasn't a peaceful sleep, she was breathing hard and fast, she was hot, hot, HOT!!! Her temperature was 102.5 in her armpit which means it was more like 103.5 and with Tylenol it only dropped to 103 she would cough and then say ouch and grab her sides, thats when I thought, oh great she has pneumonia. I get pneumonia once a year at least it seems and I know that pain, when you have to cough but you don't want to because it hurts so bad. I felt so helpless, I couldn't do anything to make her feel better, that's the worst part of being a parent, seeing your children, hurt, uncomfortable,sick and being completely helpless in the whole situation. Well, I was debating about going in to the urgent care or waiting the 6 hours til 8am when we could go to the doctor. She ended up falling into a good sleep at about 6am and woke up about 11am and we went in then, to the kidscare. We watched all of Toy Story 2 and watched the first part again, all while waiting to be seen. She didn't try to get down off my lap once, she just lay there in my arms. Then we were called back to be seen by none other than Dr. Valentine on Valentines Day. I didn't notice until we were leaving and I read her name on the prescription. Then they ran a strep test...negative....ear infection...negative, after an otterpop for her red/non-strep throat, an XRAY and 2 princess stickers later the results were pneumonia!! With Pinky Bear, princess blanket, and Alyssa in my arms we went home to get well...now the next obstacle...getting a substitute for our class tomorrow on Valentines Day night...

side note:
A "fun" Spencer family fact. In the last 5 years that Chad and I have had children we have spent 3 of them in the Dr. Office/Instacare on Valentines Day....

Happy Valentines Day!!!!

We celebrated Valentines Day on Thursday 02/12. Austin and his cousin Abby both had parties at their pre schools that day, and I didn't want to leave the little girls out, so we made a whole day. We were feeling the love, love was all around us, hugs and kisses were aplenty, luckily in our house that is an everyday occurance!!

We started the day with heart shaped pancakes (or at least, my attempt at heart shaped) then everyone got dressed in their lovey dovey garb, and everyone looked fabulous!!! Then while Austin and Abby were at school (I was supposed to go and help, but all the moms that were needed were there, which was good, because I would have just added to the chaos with my 2 others) me and the baby girls, made some valentine goody bags, and love notes. They had a lot of fun!!! 

Chad and I are starting a "new thing" this year. We are going to pick two random days out of the year to surprise each other with some special way to say I LOVE YOU, rather than Valentines Day. That way we are totally not expecting anything, and we won't ever be disappointed by anything we did or did not do or get...(hasn't happened yet, but this way sounds a lot more fun to me) And this way on Valentines Day itself we are going to bake some Valentine Cookies and write some more "love notes" and deliver them to, in the words of Austin, "strangers" and surprise them, with some goodies!!! Austin had so much fun with me this last Halloween and Christmas leaving "surprises" on peoples doorsteps and running, that pretty soon, he will forget that you don't ALWAYS have to run away after knocking at someones door. 

 

We wish you all a very Happy LOVE-FILLED Day with your precious loved ones!!! Lets all be reminded how blessed we are to have them in our lives. And as my Aunt Lori said, after just losing her son,  said to me, referring to my children,  " hold them and hug them a lot and as often as possible, because you never know when it will be the last time." 

Lost and....FOUND!!!!

I washed all of Alyssa's bedding today for the second day in a row, but luckily today I had Chad put on the sheets, (sad I know, because IT IS his birthday) I say luckily because he noticed that the mattress looked a little odd shaped, he lifted the mattress and VOILA!!!! There was PINKY!!! He came to the family room where Alyssa, Austin and I were eating some yummy chocolate covered strawberry's  (yum-yum) and just peeked Pinky's head around the wall...The look on Alyssa's face will be in my brain forever...at least I hope!!! She was soooo happy!!!! Even Austin was in a thrill, I wish I could describe the happiness he showed for Alyssa and how happy he was for her that she had her Pinky back....

Thank you daddy, for finding Pinky!!! Now we don't have to go to Build A Bear and get one of Pinky's sisters :) And she was so content with having her back, she didn't even wait to get into bed, she fell fast asleep on the couch, and Austin snuggled Pinky right up to her....what a good BIG brother!!

Happy Birthday Chad/Daddy!!!

Chad is celebrating his 29th birthday today!!! His celebration started on Saturday when I actually surprised him with a murder mystery dinner party!!! I can NEVER surprise him with ANYTHING. for example. Tonight it's late, Chad is usually in bed for the night, so I put Happy Birthday vinyl clings on our bathroom mirror, he just so happens to get up and see it, and for our 5 year anniversary I went through this big charade of taking Chad's wedding ring that he never goes without and getting it engraved, he was so frantic looking all over for it, but I stuck to my guns, and pretended to know nothing. Well, when dropping our kids off, on our way to go out to dinner, where I was to give him his newly engraved ring, I ran in my sisters house, he got ansie went through the glove compartment and found the receipt!!!! But this Saturday, I got him...FINALLY!!! I arranged with my sister in law, Kim to have it at her house. I pretended we were just going over to a friends house for dinner and games, and then at the last minute his Grandma came into town and wanted everyone over for a quick visit at Kim's house, I told him we should stop by for a minute then we would go to our friends, when we got there, we walked in they were so great they had the lights off, then they jumped out flipped on the lights and yelled SURPRISE!!! I went to the extreme, I dropped off food, to my other sister in law for her to take up, made food during the day while he was at work, oh it was brilliant!!! (I'll post pictures from the party, that's a whole other post) Then tonight we went to Olive Garden for his birthday dinner with his Mom, Rich, Me and the kids. Rich's daughter Lindsay came too!!! She's great, even though our kiddos, especially, very under the weather, Alyssa were embarassed and shy around her. He got a few birthday cards in the mail...he has already had quite the celebration!!! Well, Chad doesn't like birthday cake, so I have something planned, that might make him a little surprised, I will post that tomorrow, just in case he happens to read this today.... Happy Birthday Chad, you are an AMAZING husband a WONDERFUL father...we are so HAPPY you are OURS!!!! Enjoy the last year of your 20's (insert evil laugh here)...

Happy Birthday Chad!!!

Chad is celebrating his 29th birthday today!!! His celebration started on Saturday when I actually surprised him with a murder mystery dinner party!!! I can NEVER surprise him with ANYTHING. for example. Tonight it's late, Chad is usually in bed for the night, so I put Happy Birthday vinyl clings on our bathroom mirror, he just so happens to get up and see it, and for our 5 year anniversary I went through this big charade of taking Chad's wedding ring that he never goes without and getting it engraved, he was so frantic looking all over for it, but I stuck to my guns, and pretended to know nothing. Well, when dropping our kids off, on our way to go out to dinner, where I was to give him his newly engraved ring, I ran in my sisters house, he got ansie went through the glove compartment and found the receipt!!!! But this Saturday, I got him...FINALLY!!! I arranged with my sister in law, Kim to have it at her house. I pretended we were just going over to a friends house for dinner and games, and then at the last minute his Grandma came into town and wanted everyone over for a quick visit at Kim's house, I told him we should stop by for a minute then we would go to our friends, when we got there, we walked in they were so great they had the lights off, then they jumped out flipped on the lights and yelled SURPRISE!!! I went to the extreme, I dropped off food, to my other sister in law for her to take up, made food during the day while he was at work, oh it was brilliant!!! (I'll post pictures from the party, that's a whole other post) Then tonight we went to Olive Garden for his birthday dinner with his mom, Rich and Lindsay was there too!!! She's great, even though my kiddos, especially very under the weather Alyssa was shooting her quite the scowl. He got a few birthday cards in the mail...he has already had quite the celebration!!! Well, Chad doesn't like birthday cake, so I have something planned, that might make him a little surprised, I will post that tomorrow, just in case he happens to read this today.... Happy Birthday Chad, you are an AMAZING husband a WONDERFUL father...we are so HAPPY  you are OURS!!!! Enjoy the last year of your 20's (insert evil laugh here)... 

Draper Temple Open House

I have been lucky enough to be able to go through the new Draper Temple twice. Once was with my mom and my niece Ashley, I thought that was awesome, because I have never been in the temple with my mom before. And the second time was with my MIL, Casey, D , Preston and of course, my Chaddy.   Preston isn't quite 1 and he did AWESOME!!! Chad and I opted to leave our kiddos at home. I would have liked to have them there with us, but at the same time I am glad we didn't have to worry about them breaking anything, and they would have been miserable, having to be quiet and sit still.  They were both amazing experiences. If you are a member of the LDS church and especially if you are not, and have wondered what Our Temple is all about, there are still tickets available Free of Charge...just click on the link below. I promise there aren't missionaries going to pounce on you, and try to baptize you right then and there. No one would even know if you were a member or not, so please take the opportunity to go and check it out!! 

Open House Dates: Thursday, 15 January, 2009 - Saturday, 14 March, 2009 (except Sundays)

The general public is invited to tour the new Draper Utah Temple during the open house. Reservations are required and are available free of charge.

The Oquirrh Mountain  Temple which is just down the street from us (isn't that amazing) and seriously probably a 5-7 walking distance from our old house. Announced in our sacrament meeting today, would be having the open house in June.  So if you are unable to make it to the Draper Temple, the Oquirrh Mountain Temple will be done soon!!!

A little help please!!

(I wish this pictures was taken, by me. I would love to be next to the ocean, right now, this picture was found on google)

I have a client who is wanting some fun creative family pictures. They are all going to be wearing lt. blue Utah Jazz jerseys...I thought it would be fun to have them taken high on some bleachers so we could get the Basketball hoop and score board in the background. Unfortunately Basketball season is in full swing and schools aren't willing to let me take any time away to get my shot....SO do any of you have any ideas or know anyone or have a basketball court in mind that I can try...The photo shoot is tomorrow, so any help would be greatly, GREATLY appreciated!!! Thank you!!!