Merry Christmas

This was our family Christmas card this year. Merry Christmas from Our family to yours!

Austin has a green thumb!

Austin is our little scientist who always wonders who? what? why? when? where? and how? and often does his own little experiments, to answer those questions. Well at the beginning of summer, he was outside eating sunflower seeds with Alyssa, and he decided he would try to plant some of those seeds in our garden. He had been learning about seeds and the life cycle at the end of his first grade year, so he knew how it all worked, and what the seeds would need to grow. So he put those BBQ flavored sunflower seeds in the ground, where it got lots of sun and water, I just don't think any of us expected to see this monster of a sunflower come out of those seeds! Now Austin and Alyssa are wondering if it will produce BBQ Sunflower Seeds :)
Isn't she a beauty?

It's taller than Austin

My husband is 5'10" and it is just about his size! Kinda crazy!!
There are even some bees living inside of this monster!
If this is what kind of produce Austin grows. Maybe we should put him in charge of our garden next year :)

Saint George Day 2

Today was our second full day here and our first full day with everyone!

My morning hair...it rocks!

We had a day of shopping (Costco shopping, not the good kind), hanging out at the pool, taking more underwater pictures and just having lots of fun with each other!




Alyssa and Haylie are almost swimming completely without floaties!!! Austin is a complete Spencer Boy and dominates the pool, and just might be half fish or um, shark, that's more manly :) Chad was the master griller and made some seriously yummy BBQ grub! We took the family down to the Splash Park down in the "city center" I don't know what else to call it, the kids just have so much fun and run all over the place and have a blast!!! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!!!

A PRESCHOOL GRADUATE

She did it!!!

( Alyssa posing with Miss Michelle, on her last day of preschool,

they got to celebrate with a circus party!!)

My baby girl is a 5 year old preschool graduate! Kind of strange to think that, that whole stage of life, is over for our family. We now officially have 2 school aged kids! The year after that will be CRAZY when they are both in school all day, I can't think about that now, because I am SOOOOO not ready for that!!!

Alyssa is incredibly intelligent and loves to learn!

She is reading easy reader books she knows letters, sounds, vowels

adding and subtracting

knows proper names for shapes (ie: Diamond/Rhombus)

knows all of her colors

She is writing short stories, spelling out words on her own, (phonetically)

knows colors, and knows what colors are made when mixing colors (blue + yellow = green)

She can memorize poems, songs, and short passages.

She amazes me everyday, by the things she learns and knows! I love my children more than anything in the world, and I am glad I was blessed to be there mother!!!

I ran a marathon....of a day of pictures!!!

HAHAHA some day I might be able to say I ACTUALLY RAN a marathon....

Yesterday was a great day for pictures!!! Me and my assistant Ashley (my niece, who I love and adore) started my back to back sessions at 10:00AM going every 15 minutes until 5pm, we had a few breaks, but the breaks were just enough to give us time to get back on schedule! This time we were smart and brought a cooler so our water stayed cold, and we brought treats for the kids (I am not against bribery) and brought mentos for us! All of the sessions went great, couldn't have wished for a smoother running day of pictures!! THEN came my last session, it was just a few quick pictures of a couple (this is a story for another time), so we took all the props and equipment to the car, and then as we were walking back to our spot, I slipped and fell HARD down the hill, landed flat on my butt, I heard a snap, from my shin, and my wrists and back hurt instantly, I couldn't stop the laughter and the tears, they were coming before I realized what happened. UNFORTUNATELY, the couple saw me fall!! Luckily I don't embarrass easily, I stood up and besides being swollen and bruised my wrists were fine, they ached a little but I could move them just fine, my shine was swollen but was fine even to the touch (weird! what was the snap sound?) I am glad Ashley was with me, she was laughing, which made me laugh, and then I pictured what it would have looked like to everyone else, which made me laugh harder, good times! I was able to finish their pictures, and felt fine, but then the drive home was excruciating and the tears came again :( my back never hurt so bad, so I went inside, when I dropped off Ashley, took some ibuprofen, laid down on the floor on my back, and did some of the spine massages I have learned in yoga and pilates, which felt good, and then when I tried to get up, something happened and it was the worst pain in all my life, it took my breath away, as this unspeakable pain radiated in my upper back, I rolled around in pain on the floor, and thought this was how the rest of my life would be. My mom has suffered with back pain throughout her life, and has had back surgery, and lives with pain everyday. I said a little prayer, and almost instantly, the pain started to relieve itself, not completely but, definitely not the pass out kind of pain! I went to bed early last night because it still hurt to sit in a chair, and after about 10 1/2 hours of sleep, I just feel like I had a great workout! Sore but, not painful sore, I am so thankful for whatever reason Heavenly Father had to relieve me from that pain, I know that is not always in the plan. AND I am thankful my camera didn't get destroyed in the fall!!!

I can ride my bike with no handle bars, no handle bars, no handle bars. . .

well actually, without training wheels!!! Alyssa wanted nothing to do with learning how to ride last summer without training wheels. So I was incredibly surprised when her cousin Abby, which is a great teacher, taught her how to ride her bike in less than an hour!!! Abby was so cute running along side her, telling her "I am not going to let you fall, trust me!" and giving her encouragement, "you can do this!" "your doing great" "Way to go!" I was bummed I didn't have my camera with me, to get the actual FIRST time, but we recreated this and showed dad, for the first time! She was so proud of herself, and we are all proud of her too!!!








Austin was so excited for her, he said, "Now when we go on our family bike rides, we can explore the world even more, where her training wheels couldn't go before!" I just love my kids!!!