AROUND THE BRIM

Thanksgiving Fun!

2011-12-08T11:55:00.008-07:00

Any Twilight fan would know that Breaking Dawn came out the weekend before Thanksgiving and yes, I was one of those that bought tickets early, made a shirt and went with a group of my fun friends! Below is my friend that made a shirt with me! Maybe it's silly but it sure is fun! Spencer thought he was so funny, grabbing my old Twilight shirt and wearing it around making fun of me! He even went so far as to get in the car with us! After we finally got him out of the car we could be on our way to dinner!

Here we all are at dinner before the show! As mother's we thought it might be best to skip the midnight showing this year and go the following night at at reasonable hour. I'm so glad we did!

My cute sister came down from school to go with us. I'm so glad she did, it was so fun to have her!
We got a little bit of snow before Thanksgiving. Just enough to make a snowman!
We set up our Christmas tree the night before Thanksgiving and the rest of our Christmas stuff on Thanksgiving. Bailey was willing to get her picture taken in front of the Christmas tree, but as you can see, SWBy was NOT having his picture taken!

Here we are before our Thanksgiving dinner!

My cute niece came down from school to spend Thanksgiving with us. It was so fun to have her!

This is cheesy Maddy. It's hard to get a picture of Maddy with her eyes open because this is what she does when we take her picture!

Here she is again, cheesy as ever!

Ahhhh, getting ready to feast! If you can see Maddy she has the same cheesy smile as the pictures above. We had such a nice Thanksgiving week. My mom also came down to spend some time with us and it's always so nice to have her here.

Here we are after dinner playing rousing game of Clue! This is Bailey's favorite game! SWBy wanted to play too and we kept losing Professor Plum because he was SWBy's character. When we'd try to use him in our accusations SWBy wouldn't allow us to!

Here Lissa and Bay are playing Wii Just Dance for Kids. Bay has gotten pretty good but Lissa was a challenge for Bay!

We had such a fun and nice Thanksgiving!

2 birthdays, Halloween, and lots of FUN!!!

2011-11-16T15:11:00.013-07:00

Another month is gone and my baby is now 12 months old! I can't believe how quickly her first year has gone! Maddy began walking about 11 months and has been my baby that gets into anything and everything and if there is something minuscule to be found on the floor and put in her mouth she'll find it and do it! She is such a cheesy little baby. She always squints her eyes, scrunches her nose and just laughs and smiles, even if no one is looking at her! She sure finds humor in everything! It is so funny that she's like this now because as a baby she was just completely mellow and I would have to work to get her to smile or laugh!

Well here is what we've been up to!

We started our month out with pumpkin decorating. Lucky for us the kids didn't want to carve pumpkins, they just wanted to paint them! Easy enough!!!

This little Halloween outfit was Bailey's! I think it's so cute and just loved little Maddy wearing it. I love seeing Maddy in clothes that Bay used to wear!

This is Bailey's Barbie RV and little Maddy kept trying to get inside of it. She was so funny she kept opening it up and putting herself inside. It cracks me up when babies don't compute their size relative to the size of other things. I once watched my friends little girl take a chair from Bailey's doll house and try to have a seat on it. It was the funniest thing! Here Maddy is just making herself at home in the Barbie RV!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy to Spencer! He loves Texas Sheet Cake so that is what we made him this year. Half with pecans and the other half I let the kids decorate with candy corns and candy pumpkins, and 3 plastic ants. Spence opted for the nut side. No candy side for him! They were so cute decorating the cake though and quite proud of their work! I love it!

Since Bailey has started kindergarten I've had the opportunity to volunteer in her classroom and go on a field trip! I love it and I love that Bailey gets so excited when I volunteer. Above is when we went to one of our local farms here where we got a tour through the farm, got to pick a pumpkin, play on toys, feed the animals (which Bay took no part in), and ride the train! We've been previous years and we love it!

After the kids got their pumpkins from the farm field trip they took them back to school and decorated them. Here is Bailey's. She made an Angel! I'm not sure why it's painted black but a cute angel nonetheless!

This is the cute little pumpkin SWBy got to decorate in nursery. Their nursery leader is so cute with the kids and SWBy loves her. He calls her his nursery grandma. SWBy LOVES nursery. Every time we go to the church on a Sunday or not, SWBy's first question is, "Can I go to nursery?!" I don't know how he's going to react next year when he can't go to nursery anymore!

Here we are at the church for our Halloween Carnival, and yes SWBY asked if he could go to nursery when we got to the church! Maddy is a watermelon, SWBy is Spiderman, Bailey is Ariel, I was Marry Poppins and Spencer was Bert! It was a fun carnival and a fun night!

Bailey got to go to a couple of Birthday parties in October and both were costume parties. This one was a pirate party. This cute costume she is wearing was her dance recital costume that she didn't get wear because she didn't attend her recital. I thought she could be a pirate with flare! She looked so cute!

Here is Ariel again, going to school for her Halloween party and parade. All the kindergarten classes put on a parade for the school kids and kindergarten parents where they walk around the school in their costumes and the kids and parents watch them. It was cute!

Here is Spiderman! He was so excited when he first got his costume, he wanted to wear it all the time! He even wanted to sleep in it and tried to sleep with his mask on! Funny kid! However, come Halloween time he didn't want to wear the mask or gloves. Go figure.

Here is our cute little birthday girl! My step mom got Maddy this shirt that says "My First Birthday." She also got her a cute shirt with 3 pom poms on it and before I had the onesie buttoned Maddy had pulled off one pom pom and then a minute later she had pulled off the other 2. She is so funny!

My sister Sami came down for Maddy's birthday! It's always so fun to have her and the kids always love and get so excited when she comes!

We had a little birthday party for Maddy on her birthday with Sam and the following day we were supposed to have a birthday party for Maddy with my sister-in-law and her family. That is why I made so many cupcakes. However, Spencer got strep throat and was down at urgent care the morning of so we had to cancel her birthday party. We were eating cupcakes all week and SWBy and Bay wouldn't even eat the cake part, they just licked the frosting off and threw the rest away! Maddy liked the entire cupcake though. A girl after my own heart!

Yea! HaPpY BiRtHdAy to Maddy!!!

After her little birthday party we went down to the pumpkin walk. There were some really neat pumpkins there! Bay's and SWBy's favorites were the Smurf pumpkins!

I love Halloween and dressing up! I always have! And I love when I find couple costumes for Spencer and I to dress up as. I had no idea what Spencer and I could be this year until we went to Disneyland and I saw Mary Poppins and Bert. I thought that was perfect especially since Spencer loves singing show tunes! Thanks to thrift stores I was able to find us inexpensive costumes! The carpet bag had me stumped though. I couldn't find one at the thrift stores and when I looked online they were really expensive and then I read that other women who were Mary Poppins sewed their carpet bags from scratch. There was no way I was going to sew a carpet bag so I went to the thrift store one last time in hopes of finding one and what I found was a bag the right size and a scarf! So I cut handles off of one of my other purses and hot glued and stapled them on the bag then I hot glued the scarf onto the bag I found and got my carpet bag! I think I used about 50 glue sticks! It worked though!

Here we are right before trick or treating. This time Bailey wanted to be Cinderella! Lucky for Bailey her Cinderella costume still fit!

One of our neighbors goes all out for Halloween and puts on a Haunted House in her garage! They do a really good job! Bailey wanted nothing to do with the Haunted House but SWBy didn't object to going through so I took him. He was a little nervous and relieved to get out of the Haunted House but did really well inside! Here the kids are in front of the Haunted House.

Because Spencer was sick the day we were supposed to celebrate Maddy's birthday we didn't open her presents until Halloween after trick or treating. Here, Maddy couldn't care less about her presents but her brother and sister were quite excited to open her presents for her!

Here is cheesy Maddy, SWBy, Bailey and Spencer. Bailey and Spencer thought it would be a great idea for us to wear our ASU gear one Saturday, because they had a game. No we didn't watch it but apparently we were showing our support!

A couple of years ago a friend of mine and I took our girls to Princesses on Ice and they loved it. Disney on Ice was here this year and we decided to go again with a couple more! She took her two girls and I took SWBy and Bay since it was Disney on Ice and not just Princesses! We got to ride the train downtown which is always exciting and we had a great time. I think SWBy was tired because he kept asking if it was over and if we could go home! From watching him watch the show he really enjoyed it though! Simba, Mickey, and Goofy were SWBy's favorites and Bailey's favorites were the princesses. Before the show started Bailey made sure the characters would not be coming up to where we were seated! She doesn't like that! Above are SWBY and Bay before the show.

Here is the 3 of us before the show!

Here is SWBy and Bay and our cute friends that we went with!

Swim Lessons, A Birthday, Disneyland & September!!!

2011-10-04T15:11:00.024-07:00

Again, time has gone by too quickly! I can't believe we are already in October and that Maddy is almost 1! When Bailey was a baby my sister in law told me to cherish that time with her because it goes by so quickly, but to me time was dragging on. Probably because I was a nervous first time mother who was so anxious for Bailey to hit all of her milestones. Now I understand what she meant. Where has the time gone? My sweet Bailey is already in Kindergarten, SWBy is no longer a baby but a little boy and the Maddy is almost one! I long for that time that seemed to drag on before!The last 2 weeks in July and first 2 weeks in August SWBy and Bay took swim lessons. They LOVED it! It was SWBy's first year and Bay's 3rd. I was nervous for SWBy because in May when we were in AZ he wanted nothing to do with swimming or getting wet. Finally, one day in AZ he gave in after 2 hours at the pool and thought he might try it. I was nervous that, that one incident was a fluke but he's loved it ever since!
Bay did awesome in her swim lessons and is swimming independently now. I asked her if she'd like to try swim team, trying to prod her in my footsteps, and she wasn't real crazy about the idea. We'll see though! Maybe I can talk her into it!
Spencer and I hit our 9 year anniversary this year! Again, where has the time gone? My mom noticed that Josh Groban was coming to SLC and before I could get online to see if I could get tickets for his concert my mom called me and told me that she already got us tickets to see him! It was so fun! His voice is amazing! He's a fun performer and pretty funny. I never would have thought!

Here he is! Entertaining as can be! We missed his encore performance where he sang "You Raise Me Up" which I was waiting for all night! We were so bummed! We rode the front runner into SLC and the last train was to leave before his encore. So trying to be responsible we left which meant missing his encore. We made the train in plenty of time and so did everyone else who stayed for the encore! The train waited like 20 minutes. If we knew that we could have stayed! We were so bummed!!!

For Bailey's birthday party this year we rode the train to SLC, had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen (one of our favorites) and then went to Discovery Gateway! It was so fun, but a long birthday party! We had the kids for 6 hours! Above, they are waiting to get board the train.

Here we are at lunch! They were so cute and it was so fun!

Here we are at our family party on her actual birthday!

Instead of a cake Bailey wanted donuts. I thought Krispy Kream still gave out a free dozen on your birthday, but apparently they don't! We got donuts for SWBy's birthday and I didn't know about the free dozen then and now that I know of course they don't do that anymore! We didn't even get a free sample! We did get yummy donuts though and we all enjoyed them!

Here is Bailey on her 3rd birthday celebration. Spencer's family came down to celebrate with us the Sunday after her birthday! We always love when they come! (There are only 5 candles because I only had 5. What kind of mom and I?)

Here is Bailey on the day she could not wait for! Her first day of Kindergarten. She's been anticipating this day for a while now. She has been so excited to start school and she LOVES it! Her teacher is so cute. I was there today for a parents meeting and we got to see their calendar time and it was so fun! Bailey is learning so much and her teacher is wonderful! Bay is in the Spanish Immersion program so half her day is taught in Spanish and half in English. It's so cute to listen to Bailey speak in Spanish with her little accent! I love it!

Here is SWBy all dressed up like a cowboy for his first birthday party! One of his little friends had a birthday and SWBy was so excited and had so much fun!

The day we got to CA for our fun Disneyland trip we had dinner at Knott's Berry Farm! It was so good! Maddy was very noisy though and some people next to us requested to be moved because of her! What can you do though? The other people around us were so great and kind about her.

Here we are at Disneyland!!! All the years I've been to Disneyland I don't know that I've ever taken a picture here at the front entrance. It was about time I got a picture here! We had such a fun time and it was extra fun becasue Grandma got to come with us! It was a great family vacation! I loved seeing my kids excitement and loved watching them enjoy all that Disneyland has to offer!I thought this picture of Spence with the kids was too cute not to capture!

When we walked into the park we got a couple of maps and SWBy took one as his own. Before we were able to go to any of the attractions SWBy had to figure out where we were and where we needed to go! Above he is showing Spencer where we were on the map.

He was so cute studying his map so intently!

Here SWBy and Bailey are with 2 of SWBy's favorites. He loves Lightning McQueen and Mater!

SWBy loves anything driving so Autopia was a favorite! He was thrilled he got to be the driver of the car. I got to be his passenger and I must say it was a bit of a bumpy ride!

Here we are waiting for the parade to begin! Yes, all 3 children were in strollers! During this parade Peter Pan came up to SWBy and tried to give him a high 5, but SWBy looked at him like he was nuts and left him hanging! There was no way he was going to give Peter Pan a high 5. The Genie also tried to give Bay and SWBy a high 5 and Bay started crying and SWBy treated him the same as he did Peter Pan. Poor Bay gets so scared of the live characters. She loves the princesses but Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Genie, etc scare her so badly. SWBy just feeds off of Bailey's reaction, so I don't think he's scared but if his sister doesn't like them then he doesn't!

Eating lunch at Ariel's Grotto was one of our favorite things we did at Disneyland! The princesses were so cute with Bay and with SWBy, although SWBy wanted absolutely nothing to do with the princesses. You get to meet Ariel and get a picture with her before they seat you and once you sit down and get settled they sound the trump and announce each princess individually. It was really exciting for Bailey and the princesses were so cute. They are a lot more personable then the princesses you wait in line for hours to meet! The food was great and we really had a fun time!

Cinderella was so cute with Bailey!

Bay had such a fun and exciting time meeting the princesses! Poor Belle kept trying to get SWBy to talk to her and he was not having it. So she took one of his crayons and drew a heart for him on his menu. After she left SWBy took his crayon and stomped on the heart and then scribbled it out angrily. There was no convincing SWBy that the princesses were fun!

After we left Ariel's Grotto we ran in to Woody and Buzz Lightyear! This made the trip for SWBy! We got in line at the perfect time. Right when we got up to see Woody, Buzz arrived to take his place so we got to see both of them which was so exciting for SWBy! I think he was a little star struck!

Cute Maddy just sat back, relaxed, and enjoyed her stroller ride every day! She was so good and so content! She's such a sweet baby!

Here's Bay trying to get the sword out of the stone!

SWBy also had to try to get the sword out of the stone!

Above is our Magic Morning where we got to enter the park earlier than everyone else.We did this the last day we were there, which was really nice because Bailey wanted to wait in line to see if we could meet the princesses we didn't get to meet at Ariel's Grotto. I remember from our last time there that the line moves incredibly slow. So lucky for us we were one of the first ones in line and our wait was still a half an hour but better than the 2 hours we waited last time. We did get to meet Mulan but she was the only one we didn't see at Ariel's Grotto. Bay of course loved meeting the princesses so, as always, it was well worth the wait!

We went to lunch in Frontierland at Big Thunder. The food was great. We had BBQed chicken and ribs. And for dessert the best fruit cobbler ever! It was so fun! Here Bay is entertaining Maddy as usual! They are so cute together! Bailey really is the best big sister ever!

We had some entertainment at lunch and Bailey was invited to go up and dance with them! She was a little timid at first but then got into it and enjoyed herself!

After lunch Woody was walking by and SWBy was so excited and ran up to him but the Disneyland worker wanted everyone to form a line to meet him, so of course all the teenagers and adults were first in line and SWBy got shoved to the back. I was so sad because by the time SWBy got up to meet him his nerves set in and he wouldn't talk to him or get a picture with him.

Rapunzel has her own tower for people to wait and meet her. Lucky for us the line was only 20 minutes. I heard from someone else they waited and hour and a half the day before. Bay was so excited to meet Rapunzel but when we got inside to meet her Flyn Ryder was there and Bay got really scared and said, "Nevermind, I don't want to do this mom. I want to leave." Luckily one of the Disneyland workers noticed her freaking out and asked if she wanted Flyn to leave while she met Rapunzel. We very thankfully said yes and after a lot of coaxing she calmed down and happily met Rapunzel.

SWBy's favorite rides were Astro Orbitor (the rockets), Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Golden Zephyr (more rockets), and Toy Story Mania. We did these multiple times except for Golden Zephyr. We took SWBy on Roger Rabbits ride, Ariel's Undersea Adventure, the Matterhorn and the roller coaster in Toon Town and he hated all of them. He could not get off of these rides fast enough and kept telling us "I have to get out of here!" Bailey enjoyed most rides except for Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Tower of Terror. When we were getting ready to drop on the Tower of Terror Bailey shouted to me, "I don't want to die!" She and I held onto each other the entire ride and she cired through the whole thing. Poor girl. Why we thought it would be a good idea to take her on this ride, I'll never know! Everyone told her she did a great job when the ride was over. When we went on Splash Mountain, we got really wet on one of the little drops which threw Bailey into full panic mode and she kept screaming, "My undies are wet!" She was freaking out long before we got to the big drop and after the big drop she couldn't relax and enjoy Zipadeedoodah! My nice mom bought her a new shirt and shorts so she wouldn't be wet.

My stepmom came for a visit after we got home from Disneyland. We loved having her and the kids sure enjoyed her visit.

7 months to catch up on!!!

2011-08-05T10:46:00.064-07:00

Since I have not been good about keeping my journal up to date, I try to record
on our blog. It has been a crazy 7 months. I CAN NOT believe it's already August! I'm going to recap month by month!

JANUARY- We went to Arizona for a week at the end of January for my mom's surprise party. I began planning this with much help from friends and family last August. It was perfect!!! We had it at a close family friend's home and had such a great turn out! It was so great, so many of my mom's family and friends traveled some distance to be there! I thought either my mom would LOVE it or hate it. Luckily she LOVED it! I think everyone should have a big surprise party at least once in their life and mom hit a milestone birthday this year (although I'm not aloud to mention what year it is) so I thought it was a perfect time to give her a big surprise party. She knew something was up when I made "dinner reservations" for 7:30 and kept stalling to leave the house. I was on the phone with Spencer (who was already at the party house) and waiting for him to give me the okay or for all those to arrive for the surprise before we left my mom's house. I told her we were going to pick up her friend,who was hosting the party, to go to dinner with us. When we got there her daughter and my best friend told us to come on in and wait until her mom got home because "she was running late." Mom was so annoyed that I made us late and that her friend "wasn't home" because she wanted to stop at a fabric store before dinner. Luckily I had already been to the fabric store and purchased the fabric mom wanted. So when we came in the house to "wait" for Debbie to get home everyone yelled SURPRISE! I was so relieved that I could finally stop all the lying and secrets to mom. I felt horrible on the way to the party house because I knew she was annoyed at me but I kept telling myself that she would understand and not be mad in a matter of minutes.

We had a Betty Boop themed birthday party! My friends and I were rummaging through my mom's closet and found this Betty Boop jacket so we thought she must wear it at the party. Mom used to have lots of Betty Boop paraphernalia so we took all that we could find to help decorate for her party and had the jacket waiting for her to wear once she arrived.

Mom was a little emotional and overwhelmed when she saw all those who were there to celebrate her birthday with her.This is Cindy and me. She is like an older sister to me and I just love her! She was a huge help with the party!
Here we are watching the video my friend help me put together for my mom!

Here is most of my mom's family that flew in for her party. We missed getting the picture before a few of them left the party. It was so fun! Such a great party!
Thank you Debbie for hosting!!!
During this same trip to Arizona in January my friend offered to take some pictures of Maddy because she had her camera stuff set up and I LOVE how the pictures turned out! Maddy is so CUTE! Thanks Jess!

My dad and Jo and Sam traveled to Arizona for my mom's surprise party as well! It was so great that they could make it and give their love and support.

Since we hadn't had a family picture taken with them since Bay was Maddy's age we figured we were due for a family picture! I think they turned out great!

This is one of my favorite pics!

Spencer's mom's birthday is 2 days before my mom's birthday so while we were in Arizona we were able to go visit her grave sight and decorate it. My sister in law gets balloons for the grand kids to let go and gives them paper to write notes on and glitter to decorate the headstone. My kids really enjoy doing this. I love that we were able to be a part of it this year.

February- Here is Maddy! Just documenting how she is growing!

Maddy and SWBy both suck their middle finger and ring finger together. I had never seen anyone do that until I had SWBy and I think it's so funny that Maddy does it too!

March-HAPPY BIRTHDAY to SWBy!!! He turned 3 this year! He is growing so fast! He is definitely our comic relief! He keeps me laughing. He is either really excited or really not. We are working on his diet. This week he has tried new things like cantaloupe, apple, ground beef (which was painful to get him to eat) and chicken nuggets. His diet literally consists of yogurt, pink milk, chocolate milk, any variation of crackers, and all things dessert. At the time of his birthday he wasn't crazy about cake, so we got him donuts instead, which he loved!

For SWBy's birthday "the cousins" (Spencer's sister and her family) came down from Perry and celebrated with us at our family fun center! The kids bowled and then went to jump on the bouncy houses and trampolines. I think they all enjoyed themselves.

Again, just documenting Maddy's growth! Isn't she cute!?

April-My aunt planned a family reunion and birthday party for my Grandma Crabtree's birthday this year! It was so fun! We had it in Brian Head at my aunt's cabins and most everyone was able to make it! It was so fun to see all my cousins that I think I've met once before and spend time with them and play games with them. Spencer had never met any of them, so that tells you how often we get together. I wish we'd do it more. It sure was a fun weekend! I was introduced to the game of spoons and became a little bit addicted!

There was still quite a bit of snow when we were there in April. Above, Spencer jumped off the balcony of our cabin and got stuck in the snow. He had to be shoveled out! It was great to play in though!

It was great! All we had to do for the kids to go sledding was to go out back behind the cabin. There was so much snow and all on a slope!

Here is my cute grandma and Bailey.
Grandma, Mom & Maddy!

Maddy is wearing many of Bay's old clothes and it is uncanny how much they look alike when I dress them in the same clothing. Maddy definitely has her own look but there are times when she is an imprint of Bay. I have a picture of Bay in this same outfit and Maddy looks so much like her!

Mom came to visit for Easter and she brought her i-pad which my kids think is the coolest thing EVER! Here they are playing angry bird!

Sam and her cute friend came to visit from BYUI for Easter as well. It was a fun Easter!

HAPPY EASTER morning! Everyone is enjoying their Easter baskets!

Here the kids are in their new Easter Sunday clothes all ready for church!

We went to "the cousins" for Easter dinner! It's always so fun to get together with Spencer's sister and her family. Maddy must be enjoying some Easter treat!

All the Easter Egg hunters are waiting for the eggs to be hidden so they can go find them! They were all very excited!

Here are our Easter Egg hunters! The eggs were hidden twice because the kids wanted to hunt them again. As you can tell in this picture SWBy lost interest in hunting eggs after his first hunt and wanted to play baseball instead!

Here is Maddy at 6 months!

One Sunday during Stake Conference SWBy told me he wanted to go to the Temple and since Spencer didn't have any meetings that day we were able to take them to Temple Square. It was fun and we got a lot of cute pictures of the kids. I wish this was something we could do more often!

May-I think May was our busiest month!

Here is Maddy in this cute outfit my mom got for her! I LOVE this outfit! She's such an easy going, nice, sweet baby! She has such a nice temperament and I just love her!

Bay LOVES her baby sister! She loves to play with her! Bay is the second mother around our house and SWBy and Maddy both adore her! I thought this was so funny when I walked in and Maddy was surrounded by the stuffed animals and Bay had put bunny ears on her!

Thrity, Flirty, and Thriving! I turned 30 this year and everytime I thought of 30 I kept thinking of the movie 13 going on 30 where the girl says she wants to be thrity, flirty, and thriving. Spence rolls his eyes everytime I say it! I had such an AWESOME birthday this year. I wish I could turn 30 every year!!!

Spencer had a work conference in Las Vegas again this year so he wanted the kids and me to come with him. The last day of the conference was on my birthday. He said we should come with him and we'll be half way to AZ and then could go the rest of the way and spend some time in AZ after his conference. So we left the Saturday before his conference and went to St. George to see and stay with my Aunt and Grandma. Spence went to Vegas with his boss the following day on Sunday and I stayed in St. George with the kids until Tuesday. Little did I know this was more than just a trip to Arizona. I told Spencer I didn't need a party or anything big but I wanted him to plan something fun and special for us to do together. That he did! He and my mom went above and beyond anything I could have dreamed of for my birthday. Spencer's conference didn't end until Tuesday evening so I knew I was going to meet him in Las Vegas that evening and I orignally thought we'd get up the next morning on my birthday and head to Arizona. However, he did spill the beans the Sunday he left for his conference that we'd be staying in Vegas for my birthday and not drive to AZ until Thrusday. So this much I knew but had no idea what he had planned. Tuesday, before we left for Vegas my aunt gave me a piece of mail that had come to her house for me, from Spencer. It was an invitation to my birthday in Vegas. He wrote a poem about where to meet him (at MGM) and we were going to dinner. I was so confused. I kept thinking that dinner probably would be a handful with all of our kids. So then I thought I wonder if my mom flew up because she would totally do that! So I called my mom just to chat while I was driving from St. George to Vegas and while I was talking with her she had said "so when will you be here...I mean to Vegas?" Then I thought for sure she was there. So I wasn't surprised when we got to the hotel room and my mom was there. It was so fun to see her and I was so excited that she was there. She watched the kids while Spencer took me to Ruth's Chris Steak House (our first time there and the food was sooooo good) and then Spence took me to the Venetian and we went on a Gondolla Ride. It was such a fun night with Spencer! Mom and SWBy and Bay stayed at the MGM that night and Spence and Maddy and I stayed at the Marriot, where Spence was staying for his conference.

Mom told me that the next day for my birthday she had rented a cabana by the pool and we'd just hang out at the pool. One of my favorite things to do! We began our morning by having breakfast at Paris. I LOVE the crepes!!! Then we went to our cabana by the pool! It was so nice and so fun. The MGM has some fun pools. Bay liked the lazy river the best. SWBy didn't want anything to do with the water, Maddy slept, poor Spencer came down with Strep Throat so he felt horrible, and mom was hanging out with us until she left to run some errands for an evening I had no clue about. It was so fun to just relax, swim, eat, and be with family. I felt so bad for Spencer though. We did get him a prescription called in, too bad it didn't work instantly.

Spence and mom told me that we were going to Tournament of the Kings for dinner that night, which I was excited about! I love the show and the food! When mom left to run her errands she said she had to pick up a cake and check in at NY NY where she would be staying that eveing so that Spence and I could stay at the MGM with our kids. I didn't think anything of it.

I kept wondering if my friend Tangi was coming up. She loves Vegas and this would totally be something she would do. But then I thought no she isn't coming. For dinner mom had gotten to the Excalibur early to check in and get our tickets. Spence and I were going to meet mom at the Excalibur for Tournament of the Kings. As we were walking to the Excalibur Spence said "where are we meeting them?" And I asked who them was and that I thought it was just mom. Spence very cooly told me that he meant to say mom and he didn't want me to read into that because there is nothing to read in to. So I said okay and didn't expect anything. We got to Excalibur and met mom and headed to our seats. As we walked down to our seats I saw my best friends Jessica and Tangi. They had come up for my birthday! I thought it odd that I hadn't heard from them all day and this was why. It was such a fun surprise!!! My mom and Spencer really went above and beyond. As if that wasn't enough, my mom had Tangi bring up my favorite cake from AZ. So her errand when we were at the pool was meeting Tangi and getting the cake. After the Tournament of the Kings we went back to the MGM and had my cake and mom still had yet another surprise. She had tickets for she, Jess, Tang and I to see Cirque du Soleil's Ka! It was fantastic! It was such a good show! And after the show Jess and Tang and I went to get something to eat because it's tradition to eat at midnight when we're together! It was such a FUN, FUN, FUN birthday!

So as if this wasn't all enough, Spence and Mom had a Surprise party for me at her house the following Saturday. Mom told me she was having a primary party at her house and I totally bought it. I kept asking Spencer where my birthday video was because he asked me for 5 of my favorite songs and Bay told me one day that they had stopped at my friends house who makes these dvd's. (She did one for my mom's birthday party.) Spence told me he did and said that just to throw me off so I'd have no idea about Vegas and I totally believed him. In order to get me to my surprise party at my mom's house, my friend Jess planned a birthday party for her daughter (who's birthday is 2 days before mine) where Bay and I would come. Jess picked Bay and me up and took us to her house where we did the girls hair and makeup and then we took them to Red Robin to eat. We were then supposed to meet Tangi and Karen at my mom's because I thought the 4 of us were going to do something. But when we got to my mom's I noticed way down the street were all of Spencer's family's cars and I knew it was a surprise party for me. I felt kind of silly with all these birthday celebrations. But it was such a fun birthday and so fun to celebrate with family and friends!

My Grandpa Crabtree's birthday is the day before mine and since we were in St. George on his birthday we were able to visit his gravesight and help my aunt replace the silk floweres she had decorating his grave.

Maddy and Bay haging out in the cabana.

Mom and Bay at Tournament of the Kings.

Maddy at Tournament of the Kings. She was a trooper!

Here is our Tournament of the Kings party! Jess and Tang got me the cute princess crown to wear on my head, so that's what that is!

Mom, Tang and I with the guy who's section we sat in for the show. He was the bad guy!

Spence and I with my yummy cake!

Mom, me, Jess, and Tang about to leave for Ka!

Bay and Jessica's daughter, Hannah doing their makeup to go to dinner. I love it!!!

Bay and I at Red Robin for Hannah's birthday!

When I got home from Arizona this was hanging on my house. My friend Jenny hung it for me! It was so fun to come home to. The next morning we were supposed to go running, or so I thought but she asked me if we could first go to Mimi's to pick up muffins for her Laurels (she's YW president) who just graduated. I totally didn't think anything of it and said sure. So when we got to Mimi's I was looking for the glass case with the muffins and a waitress asked me if we were with this table of women, I automatically said no and Jenny said yes so I looked at the table and realized it was my friends. They had a surprise birthday breakfast planned for me! This birthday I felt so special and so loved! I have such wonderful family and friends!

June Although, Spencer had a fun birthday planned for me as part of our trip to AZ we most importantly we wanted to get to AZ to see and spend some time with Spencer's oldest sister Lanae. She was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer in Feburary and her body began to fail quite quickly. I'm so, so grateful for the opportunity we had to see her and spend some time with her because she passed away the Sunday we got back to UT from AZ. Spence and I were both able to spend some time sitting and chatting with her and and I can't express enough how grateful I am for that. I'm grateful I got to express my gratitude to her, for her before she passed. She was such an amazing woman. My children loved her and she sure loved them and all her nieces and nephews as if they were her own. She was incredibly thoughtful of them. Even at Easter when she was so sick, she sent them cute coloring packets. Every Christmas she made all the cousins matching PJ's. Those are my kids favorite PJ's. She was always thinking of others.

The Tuesday after we got back from AZ we left again for AZ. Spencer's sister that lives up here and her 3 youngest and my kids and I drove down Tuesday and Spencer left with the rest of Kristen's family Wednesday after work. Above is Spencer's family at the viewing. It was such a nice funeral. Everyone speaking did such a nice job and the musical numbers were great. It was so evident how much she touched others lives and how loved she was.

Our city doesn't do a 4th of July parade, instead we have a parade the Saturday before the 4th for our Heritage Days. We love to go and this year we got to sit with our neighbors. The kids love it and get lots of candy!!!

JULYHere are the kids in their 4th of July shirts! Cute kids!

I love this! This was too cute not to get a picture of!

Spencer's other sister from AZ came for a visit and we sure enjoyed seeing them!
Bay and her cousin Anna. Anna was here on her birthday so we got to celebrate her birthday with her! We sure love when our family comes to visit!

Maddy at Anna's birthday party! Too cute!!!

Do you think SWBy likes Buzz Lightyear? He LOVES Toy Story and especially Buzz. When SWBy first started liking Toy Story he called Buzz his "infinity and beyond" and then because he has a hard time saying his "Z's" he called Buzz his "butt year" but now he says Buzz Lighyear.

Ocassionally Bailey let's me practice my french braids on her and I love when she does because her hair looks so cute! This is what it looked like for church last Sunday! It was too cute not to get a picture of!

Christmas/New Year

2011-01-19T12:21:00.007-07:00

We had such a nice December, Christmas, and New Year's! Our December began with a few Christmas Demonstrations for Bay's gymnastics and dance classes. She LOVES these classes and has really made improvements in her gymnastics and dance skills. We had such a fun time watching Bay in her demonstrations. It cracks me up how much like me she is! During her gymnastics demonstration a boy was sitting by her and she kept scooting away from him as he'd get closer to her and if looks could kill this boy would be in trouble. Finally, her cute friend that's in this class with her agreed to switch places with her so she didn't have to sit by this boy. However, as they moved to different stations throughout the demonstration the boy would end up by her again and again and boy was she annoyed! Spencer and I couldn't help laughing as we watched this! Her dancing skills have really come a long way and Bay did such a good job performing her little dance routine to "Up on the House Top!" I will try to upload the video but I've been having problems getting videos to upload!
My mom came up for a visit and took Bay and I to the Nutcracker. This is something we've done every December for as long as I can remember and I'm so glad that Bay enjoys this as much we do!

Grandma spoils Bay! Here she is with the Nutcracker Grandma bought for her!

Here Bay and I are waiting for the ballet to start!

Before grandma went home we exchanged gifts with one another and above grandma is showing off her new watch!

Bay was on Cloud 9 with all of the new Barbie clothes she got!

SWBy loved his power tools and now helps Spence around the house! It's pretty cute!

For Christmas Eve we had a nice dinner! We got a Honeybaked Ham! It was great, we had leftover ham for days!

After our dinner we read the Christmas Story and the kids acted it out, sort of! We couldn't keep Joseph out of the manger and we couldn't get him to dress up! I think this was my favorite part of Christmas! I loved watching my kids as we read the Christmas Story. We have video that I've tried to upload 2 or 3 times with no success. I will try again!

The kids got to open their new pajamas from Aunt Lan! She used fabric that Spencer's mom had and it brought back some memories for Spencer. We love getting PJ's from Aunt Lan!

Maddy got a Munchichi from Santa and I can't help but laugh at the resemblance between Maddy and her Munchichi! Maddy our little Munchichi!

Spencer and I also got our kids pj's for Christmas and here they are in their Christmas pj's!

Bay the best big sister EVER!

For New Year's we went to St. George to visit my Aunt Allie and Grandma! We had such a nice visit with them and look forward to seeing them again! They are so cute with my kids and my kids absolutely loved being there and can't wait to see them all again! SWBy was going strong on New Year's Eve and almost made it to midnight but at 11:50 this is what he looked like!

Bay decided to call it a night quite a bit earlier than SWBy!

Here is my cute Grandma and my cute kids!

Where did November go?!

2010-12-04T15:38:00.008-07:00

November came and went so quickly! Our month began with us bringing Maddy home from the hospital and a visit from my mom. My mom came and stayed for a week to help me with Bay, SWBy, Maddy, keeping up my house and with meals. It was so nice to have her here. My kids got to do lots of things that week, which was nice so they didn't have to be shut in with me since it is now 30 degrees outside! They got to go shopping, to movies, a museum, and of course McDonald's (which they think is the greatest place ever). We got quite a few freezer meals thanks to mom! The week after mom left we had meals brought in every night that week. We really have a great ward here and lots of awesome friends, so much support! So lucky me, I didn't have to cook for about 3 weeks. We ate quite well!

Maddy and Spence! Spence always gets a nice nap when I ask him to hold our babies!
Sweet Maddy seems to change and get cuter everyday. She is such a nice baby. She sleeps and eats and is quite content. Couldn't miss this photo opp!
Bailey LOVES having a baby sister. She holds her any chance she can get!

My dad, stepmom and sister came to our house for Thanksgiving this year! It was so nice to have them and boy did we feast! Not a good time to try to lose the baby weight! We had so much good food! All I had to make were the green beans and sweet potatoes. They did everything else, it was great!

This year Dad and Jo got everyone a present for Thanksgiving. SWBy and Bay got light up Rudolph noses. SWBy wouldn't wear his so Spence did. Doesn't he look so handsome!

Crazy Grandma Jo and Bay took a walk around our block after dinner! It was freezing outside but they had a nice time!

My stepmom, Jo, has a tradition of making sugar cookies around this time every year. Bay got to be part of her tradition this year! She loved cutting out the cookies and frosting them with both grandmas. It was fun for me to see her have such a nice time!

Spencer's family was also up here for Thanksgiving with his sister. So we figured while we had everyone up here we would bless our sweet little Maddy. Here she is after the blessing. She had a bonnet on, but that didn't last long! Mom and Bay got her dress for her and I think they did a great job picking it out~she looked darling! The blessing was really nice, Spencer did a nice job and it was so nice to have so much family here for her blessing. I'm sad I didn't get a picture with everyone who was here and those that participated in her blessing. We had everyone but my brothers and Spencer's oldest sister and older brother and their families.

Jo helped me decorate for Christmas this year. It was really nice to have her here helping me! These 2 wreaths she totally re-did. I should have taken before pictures. She was a bit disturbed by the condition they were in before she gave them a makeover! Jo, my sister and I went to Tai Pan to get all the cute decorations to makeover my wreaths. It was fun spending some time with the 2 of them and who doesn't enjoy shopping at Tai Pan. I love how my wreaths turned out! They look awesome!

My mom and Jo actually did this one together. I'm kind of nerdy but I love to look at it!

So here are a few of our pathetic attempts to get a picture for our Christmas card. We couldn't keep Maddy awake and we couldn't keep SWBy smiling and in a good mood! Bay was a trooper! She was awesome! Our Christmas card picture attempts ended with Maddy finally waking up and SWBy throwing a tantrum. SWBy got sent to his room for a nap and woke up much happier.

Here in time for Halloween!!!

2010-11-05T09:21:00.009-07:00

October has been another busy and fun, fun month. Mid October my friend Jessica and her kids and my friend Tangi came to visit us. It was so fun to have them here and visit with them. We always love to have visitors. We did lots of things while they were here, pictures are at the very bottom, but apparently I only took pictures for one day. Ooops! Then of course we got to celebrate Spencer's birthday. We went to Bucca di Beppo's with some friends, which was really fun and Sunday we celebrated his birthday with family. It was a really fun weekend! The following week my mom came up to take Bailey to AZ to see Beauty and the Beast at Gammage! Bailey LOVED it and had such a nice time. My mom got her a Belle dress to wear to the show which was perfect because that's what she was for Halloween as well! She was one cute Belle! She then spent about 10 days in AZ visiting between my mom and Spencer's sister. She had so much fun and didn't get homesick at all! She sure loved being in AZ! We then of course celebrated Halloween and the BEST part of October was the birth of our newest addition, Madalyn Marin! She is such a sweet baby and we are extremely excited to have her here.

My induction date was all set for November 2nd because I was pretty sure I wouldn't go into labor or dilate on my own. My last doctors appointment was October 28th and I told Spence I would still be at a 2, which is what I was the previous 2 weeks. That's how it was with Bay and SWB, I made no progress on my own. I asked Spence what he thought I would be dilated to and he said a 3 1/2, which I quickly refuted! Well when my doctor checked me he told me I was almost to a 4 and didn't think I'd make it to the 2nd. I was really shocked! So I jokingly asked if I could go to the hospital then and have Maddy because going into labor on my own freaks me out. It's kind of silly but I really like to have an epidural before my contractions start so I feel no pain! My doctor asked if I wanted to move my induction date up and I told him only if I could go in on the 29th (the following day). He called the hospital checked with them and my induction was rescheduled for the 29th. It was so great! We got to the hospital about 7 am and they started my antibiotics at about 8. At 9 when they started the pitocin I had dilated to a 5 on my own, which really surprised me. I asked for my epidural and then she was born at 12:37. I was very aware during this labor and delivery. I was quite out of it with Bay and SWB. Maddy's head popped out on the first set of pushes and she was out on the second set of pushes. It was so awesome! Maddy was 8 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long.

After I got my epidural my blood pressure dropped significantly so I got an oxygen mask. So fun!
A few minutes after she was born.

Bay was so excited to see her and to hold her! She is an awesome big sister. She loves to watch her and read to her and talk to her. SWBy is pretty excited too, but I'm still not sure he understands what's going on. We've told him her name is Maddy, which he has a hard time saying so to SWBy she is Manny.
Bay, SWB, and Spence came to visit me at the hospital after their trick or treating adventures got rained out. They ended up staying the night with me in the hospital because SWB and Bay fell asleep and Spence didn't want to have to pack them up and take them home. I don't blame him!

Here she is with her eyes open, a rare occassion this week! She reminds me so much of Bailey that it's hard for me not to call her Bailey.Here she is after a bath and Bay has just combed her hair and but a bow in.

Here is Belle and our pirate. SWBy wouldn't wear his hat and wasn't crazy about make up on his face, but he did love his sword. Spence took our kids trick or treating with some friends in our ward. Apparently Bay was kind of in melt down mode the whole time becuase some of the houses had cats and/or dogs which terrify her to no end!

Here we are at our wards Halloween carnival. This was when Bay was in AZ so she missed it. The Young Women and Young Men in our ward put it on and it's always fun. Spencer was Frankenstein (the bolts we borrowed wouldn't stick to his neck so he's a boltless Frankenstein) and I was a big, pregnant witch! And SWBy is our little pirate!

Spencer's family came down to celebrate his birthday with us. Here they are singing Happy Birthday to him. It's always so fun to have them over and it's nice to have some family so close to us!

This is my friend Jessica and me right before she left to go home! It was so fun to have her!

Bay and Jessica's little girl Hannah. They are only 9 months apart and really seemed to enjoy each others company.

SWBy and Hannah riding the train at Black Island Farms. (A farm we took the kids to. We took a hay ride to pick some pumpkins and then the kids got to go play on all the fun stuff they have there. I think they enjoyed the slides the most.)

On the hay ride!

Bay turns 5 & other fun stuff!!!

2010-10-11T11:40:00.007-07:00

Well, I figured with Halloween and new baby coming I better get Bay's birthday posted, since I like things done chronologically. Bay turned 5 in August and instead of doing a birthday party at our house this year we told Bailey she could choose a couple friends and we could go to the family fun center, which is one of Bay's favorite places to go! It was perfect! The kids had a really fun time and it was fun to watch them together. Here is SWBy, Ford, Lauren and Bay.

We first bowled a couple of games which was fun but I think 1 game would have been sufficient. Half way through the 2nd game the kids were pretty much done, which was great for SWBy because he got to have 4 turns. SWBy LOVED bowling!!!

The following day we had a family birthday party for Bailey and Spencer's sister and her family came down to our house to celebrate with us. Bay decided she wanted a large cookie instead of a cake this year. That worked out great for me, the cookie was much easier to make!

Bay and her cousin Talmage getting ready to open her presents.

SWBy with Bay's birthday hat.

Here Bay is playing mother to SWBy. They are so cute. If SWBy is in trouble or can't find me he'll seek comfort from Bailey. I'm not sure what I was doing but in the above picture I found SWBy laying on Bay's lap and she was just scratching his back for him.

Bailey, our drama queen, has allergies we found out this year and in the above picture apparently her eyes were hurting and she told us she needed ice on them. She fell asleep like this.

We signed Bay up for soccer this year and she seems to be enjoying it. She either loves it or is indifferent to it. She is just like me, very timid at sports. We're proud of her, she tries. I'm hoping she'll become more aggressive. Her last game I bribed her with donuts. I told her that if she kicked the ball, we could go get donuts. It worked. She played a little more aggressive and had more contact with the ball!

Bay loves throwing the ball back in after it's been kicked out of bounds!

SWBy is already a little soccer star! He wants to play so badly. I'm surprised how coordinated he is already.The stairs are one of our favorite places to sit in our house and the kids love to lay on them as well.

Poor SWBy fell off the roof of his little toy car and landed face first on the concrete. I couldn't even look at him at first, luckily Spencer was home to clean him up. I struggle with all things bloody!

My rocking, recliner is also a favorite place to sit. SWBy loves it!!! He gets so mad when I move him! Here he set up his bed in my chair!

Recap of Summer 2010!

2010-08-23T10:53:00.011-07:00

This is a long post but we've been busy and have done lots of things this summer! We started our summer off with fun swim lessons! Bay loved her swim lessons and is a little fish! Her swimming skills have improved so much this summer! One of her favorite things to do was to jump into the pool from the side or from the diving board!
SWBy quite enjoyed watching Bay swim! But he himself wanted nothing to do with swimming! As the summer progressed he eventually warmed up to swimming but it depends what mood he's in because sometimes he loves swimming and sometimes he hates it!

This was dress rehearsal for Bay's dance recital! She did great!

Grandma came up to see Bay's performances and we always enjoy a visit from Grandma!

Here is our cute little dancer. She sure can strike a pose!

Everyone after the recital!

Bay and her friends from dance! She sure enjoyed dance class with these girls.

Some friends and I went to the 1 am showing of Eclipse! It was so fun! We were all dragging the next day though! The best part: we didn't have to wait in line because we had assigned seating! It was awesome!

Over the 4th of July weekend Spencer played in a few softball games with our brother-in-law. I really enjoyed watching him play! Since we've moved here he hasn't had the opportunity to play as much as he'd like so it was fun for all of us that he got to play. He made some pretty (well in my opinion) awesome plays! One of the ones I especially liked was when he slid into 2nd! Unfortunately, he had on shorts and got this nice raspberry that tormented him for the following 2 weeks!

The start of my vacations this summer was Girls Camp! I was gone for 3 weeks in a row! It was fun but I did miss sleeping in my own bed! We had a great time at Girls camp! This year was ward camp and our camp director was awesome! The food, company, and activities were great!

Spencer got to come up to Girls Camp this year for Bishopric night! It was fun to have him up there with me and after missing him for the first 2 days I was excited to see him the 3rd! Lucky for us I have a nice mom who came up to watch SWBy and Bay for us while we were away!

We literally left for our next vacation the day we got home from Girls Camp! We came home, did laundry, packed and left for CA. Poor SWBy was so exhausted that while we were trying to get ready to leave for CA he fell asleep on the couch! He must have had a fun, full week with grandma!

My Aunt and Grandma live in St. George, so lucky for us we were able to break up our drive to CA and spend a little time with Grandma! It's always so nice to see her and spend time with her!

We finally made it to CA and enjoyed a week on the beach with Spencer's family! We had a nice time and enjoyed our time together. Bay & SWBy certainly enjoyed their time with their cousins! In the picture above, we are on our way to church, the little kids all got matching Easter clothes this year. What a good looking group!!!

SWBy loved being on the beach. He wasn't so crazy about the water but love the beach and the sand! Above he has a little chocolate goatee. That's one of the few foods he'll actually eat! I thought he looked too cute not to get a picture!

SWBy loved playing this game!

Bay loves to get our camera and take pictures of herself! This is one of the great pictures she took of herself! It cracks me up!

We saw a seal in the ocean right outside our beach house! It was pretty cool, but I was really glad I wasn't in the water!

Bay sure enjoyed beach time with her cousins!

After our week on the beach in CA with Spencer's family I left from CA to Alaska. My mom invited me to go on this fishing trip with her and I thought a peaceful week with my mom to read and relax sounded great! I must say that enticed me a bit more than the fishing part. My mom took my brothers and Spencer on this trip in 2008 and Spencer loved it! He had so many good things to say about it so I thought it sounded fun! I had never been to Alaska before and I always enjoy going new places so that was another perk to this trip!

We caught lots of fish but mom only caught one that we could keep! We were fishing for salmon but the majority of the salmon were spawning so their meat wouldn't have been good to eat. Monday-Wednesday we fished all day but Thursday and Friday we were a bit tired and only fished half days! I was so glad we were only out half day Thursday and Friday because it was cold and I was freezing! Above is the first fish I caught and no I wouldn't hold any of the fish I caught! I just couldn't bring myself to hold them! Especially the sockeye and pike! Those fish have some nasty mouths and teeth!

Mom of course held her fish! However, a few of them slipped right out of her hands!

The only downside to this trip was the bathroom situation! There are no bathrooms while you are out on the lake fishing so you have to go in the woods where there are lots of bears! I have never been so scared to go to the bathroom and of course I had to go because I'm pregnant! The first day I had to go to the bathroom the guide pointed out bear tracks to me as we were looking for a place to go to the bathroom. That was not comforting! However, it was really neat seeing quite a few bears, so long as we were in a boat that could quickly get away!

Mom won the award for catching the biggest Char! Hers was one inch bigger than mine!

Here we are right before leaving to go home! This was the little Island Lodge that we stayed at! It was a really fun, relaxing trip! We were fed really well, always good food, we had good company, and a fun time fishing!

Bay's Summer Activities!!!

2010-08-09T12:08:00.003-07:00

For my birthday this year my dad and Step-mom got me a Bloggie. It's pretty great! So I've been shooting more video lately. Above are some of the things Bay has been involved in this summer.

The first video is of Bay's swim lessons. She had a boy teacher the first 2 weeks and she really didn't want to go to swim lessons the first day because she doesn't like men. She's just like I was! With a bit of prodding, bribing, and threatening she finally went to class and actually enjoyed her boy teacher. She really liked him and loved going to swim lessons. However, I was extremely relieved when she got a girl teacher for her 2ND session of swim lessons!

This last year Bay took a tap/ballet class and a tumbling class. She really enjoyed them and the next 2 videos are her performances from her end of year recital! I think she did so great! She didn't have an ounce of stage fright!

The last video is of Bay jumping off the diving board her 2ND session of swim lessons. I was really surprised that she wanted to jump off and actually did. She is usually pretty cautious and gets nervous so I thought she might change her mind at the last minute, but she didn't! She jumped and I was really proud of her! We've had a fun and busy summer. I still have lots of pictures to upload from our vacations this summer but that will have to wait!

WE'RE HAVING ANOTHER...

2010-06-16T14:51:00.003-07:00

GIRL!!!

We are really excited another little girl will be joining our family! We had my doctor's appointment this morning and I must say I was relieved when I found out the baby was a girl! I absolutely didn't want to tell Bay we were having a boy when she's had her heart set on a baby sister for probably the last year or so, before we even got pregnant! I think there was no surprise for her at all because she's been saying we're having a girl for so long that in her mind there was no other option! Spencer and I both felt like we we're having a girl but I put no stock into what I think because I thought Bay was a boy and SWBy was a girl!

Birthday, Graduation, Graduation, and a Regatta!

2010-06-10T16:05:00.004-07:00

We've started our summer with lots of activities already! I got to celebrate my 29th birthday, yes still in my 20's despite what others may think I'm not yet in my 30's and I'm holding to the 20's for as long as I can! UT apparently has not been kind to my aging process because I used to get mistaken for younger than my age, now I get mistaken for older than my age!!! Spencer had to leave on a business trip a few days before my birthday so we celebrated early. Yes here I am again at my best self in the morning opening presents! Bay loves to take pictures and actually it's kind of nice so Spencer and I can be in pictures together!
Maybe a little boring but I wanted a magic bullet express and a double boiler for my birthday so I was a happy girl when I received my gifts!

Spencer's business trip was at the convention center in Las Vegas which worked out perfectly because Bay, SWB, and I were on our way to my sister's high school graduation and got to stay the night at Spencer's hotel and break our 12 hour drive up and this way I got to see him on my birthday too. We learned on this trip that SWBy can climb out of the pack and play and will not sleep in it so he ended up in bed with Bay, which is where he wanted to be in the first place! She really is like a little mother to him and he loves to be with her! Today SWBy wasn't feeling very well and was laying on the couch when Bay walked over kissed him on the forehead and tucked him in his blanket! I love watching things like that!!!

On my birthday Bay, SWBy, and I drove the rest of the way to CA for my sister's graduation! I got lost and that was really exciting, tacked 100 miles onto my trip but lucky for me I've got great little travelers that did just fine! Thanks to my dad I was able to get back on the right track again! My mom met me in CA and I got to spend the rest of my birthday with her! We went to lunch and did lots of shopping. It was such a fun day! Thanks mom for making my birthday so special!!!

Mom brought me a Cathy's Rum Cake for my birthday! For those of you wondering, no there's no actual rum in it! I seem to get funny looks when I announce that my favorite cake is a rum cake! This is by far the most delicious cake EVER! My husband will disagree with me but he's missing out! I had lots of cake left over and you can bet I ate every last piece, not in one sitting but I sure enjoyed my after dinner or lunch desserts for about a week! After mom, Bay, SWB, and I went to lunch and shopping we went back to my dad's where they made a most delicious birthday dinner for me! Thanks dad and Jo dinner was great, a great meal to end a great day!

Here is my sister, the high school graduate!

If you have to go to a graduation, the only way to do it is to sit in a box. My dad and step mom bid on box for graduation and got it! It was great! My kids could run around and we got chairs with cushions instead of nasty bleachers! It was perfect for my kids! The box was even catered so we could eat during the graduation as well! It was pretty nice! Above is my dad with Bay!

On our way home from CA my awesome friend Tangi flew into CA and drove with me back to Las Vegas. We broke our trip up again so we didn't have to do 12 hours in one day. I love road trips with her, the time flies by and it was nice to have some company. Spencer met us in Vegas to drive the rest of the way home with me. Tangi also stayed overnight in Vegas but thankfully at a different hotel because her pool was better then ours! It was a fun day! We took the kids swimming and then enjoyed a delicious buffet for dinner! The next morning was short lived. We had breakfast at Paris and then my family left for home and Tang lingered a while until her flight left back to AZ! Thanks Tang for driving with me and spending some time with me!

Above is SWBy's make shift hotel bed of 2 chairs pushed together! He loved it!

Bay's preschool graduation was a couple of days after we got home from our trip! It was a cute little program!

SWBy and Bay are not camera shy at all! SWBy loves to be in and pose for pictures! He is looking way too cool for us in the above picture!

CHEESE!

All the cute little graduates!

Me and my cute graduate!

Since Spencer was put in the Bishopric he's had the opportunity to go to and attend a few pack meetings. The last pack meeting we attended was the Rain gutter Regatta! Spencer even got to race a boat. He got it last minute & didn't put it together until the day of and it showed. His boat was not the fastest! It probably didn't help that I accidentally broke off the fin while it was drying, I did put it back on but who knows how well! His boat was of course a tribute to the Cubbies! I asked Spencer if he could spend a little more time and pride making these when SWBy is of age to do this! :o)

Here he is racing his boat! All the racers had to blow through a straw to move their boats! I was standing by to give mouth to mouth if necessary! :o)

BIG NEWS, Easter and more fun!

2010-05-22T08:10:00.007-07:00

Some of you already know but Spencer and I are expecting again! We are really excited and I'm sure hoping it's a girl for sweet Bailey's sake! She has been talking about wanting a sister for the past year and a half! Spencer will tease her about having another brother and she sure doesn't think his joke is funny! Our new little addition is expected to arrive October 30! That puts me at 17 weeks incase you were curious!

My Dad, Jo, and sister came for a visit this Easter! My sister will be attending BYU Idaho in the fall and came to tour the campus. It will be fun having her 8 & 1/2 hours closer to us! They brought some fun Easter Eggs for the kids to hunt and because UT weather is awesome we got to hunt Easter Eggs inside the house! Oh..........I've been missing AZ weather this Spring! I know come summer, UT weather will seem wonderful, but it's now May 22 and we are still wearing sweaters and jeans!!! Spencer and I had a big yard day planned today of planting flowers, tilling our garden and cleaning up the side of our house that was the "catch all" when we put our yard in! But thanks to rainy, chilly weather our yard day has been canceled and we won't be able to work in our yard! Don't get me wrong we love living here, but there have been many times where the 80 degree spring AZ weather has sounded REALLY good!

But enough of that! We had a really nice Easter and had a great time with my family. I'm sad I didn't get more pictures! I think I've stopped taking so many lately because it's overwhelming knowing how behind I am in my scrap-booking! Ugh! My family took Bailey snow skiing for her 2nd time ever and she did great!!! She had a lesson and then skied on the bunny hill with them! I wish I could have been there to see, but I was nervous to go because we are expecting again! I saw the pictures they took of Bay and she looked so cute skiing; this tiny person on a big hill in her all pink snow clothes!
Above, SWBy & Bay with their many Easter eggs!

Ah, isn't this a beautiful sight! Me in the morning! We got the kids ready before letting them come down to find what the Easter Bunny had left them!

Bay and SWBy were very excited to see what the Easter Bunny had left them! Way too much candy, that's for sure! Apparently, the Easter Bunny didn't realize how much candy she put into her shopping cart!

GIRLS TRIP!!!
This year Jess, Tangi, Karen (my bff's from childhood and HS) and I decided it would be fun to take a girls trip! Unfortunately our schedules didn't work well with Karen's schedule so she was unable to come!

It was a lot of fun! Jess and Tang flew up 3 weeks ago to SLC and we stayed the weekend there! Lots of late nights and too little sleep! I had a really hard time catching up on my sleep after they went home! It's always fun to spend time with them. Lots of memories and lots of things to laugh about. I feel like they are my sisters!

They flew in Thursday night, got in about 11 and we went straight to Denny's! Maybe a little ridiculous, but it's tradition! As always Denny's doesn't disappoint! It's impossible not to have a great time when your among the kind of people that go to Denny's at midnight! We were stared down by a woman sitting across from us and apparently Jess couldn't control her laughter while drinking a soda, as soda came shooting out of her nose! Then we came and stayed the night at my house, of course went to Jeremiah's for breakfast (I'm always looking for an excuse to eat there!) and left for SLC on Friday when Spencer got home from work! We met my mom and Jess's mom for dinner before they headed home from Women's Conference and dinner didn't disappoint! It was delicious!

On Saturday we took our time getting ready and then headed to Deseret Book and lunch! It was so nice to sit and chat at lunch without being rushed! We then walked around Temple Square amongst all the brides and their families!

After Temple Square it was time to get ready for dinner! We had dinner at The Roof and dinner was awesome! I love eating there, especially dessert! Such great food! And of course Jessica was trying to work her match-making magic between Tang and the waiter!

There were lots of HS kids there with their prom dates and it was fun to see all of their dresses! The new trend must be Vans shoes with your prom dress because I saw a couple of girls with them on.

After dinner it was off to Desert Star, a little theater, to see Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a spoof of the movie and it was great! Spencer and I have been there a few times and we've never been disappointed! Their shows are all funny and enjoyable! The actors are always witty, quick thinking and hilarious!

Finally, our fun trip had to end! We got one last picture before leaving the hotel!

Happy Birthday to SWBy!!!

2010-04-12T11:41:00.005-07:00

SWBy turned 2 last month!!! The time has gone by so quickly! He is such a fun little boy! It amazes me how fast little ones learn! They are like little sponges, absorbing everything. SWBy has already learned the art of teasing his sister and he does it well. He loves to tease her and yet he wants to be doing whatever she is doing. He just follows her around and then in the right moment will take her toy and wait, with a huge grin on his face, for her reaction and for her to start chasing him. We're still trying to teach Bailey how to react to someone teasing her. My mom came up for SWBy's birthday this year and apparently I didn't capture all the birthday memories I should have because I don't have pictures of my mom and SWBy. Above, SWBy is opening a few presents on his actual birthday. Spencer's dad and sister happened to be up here to celebrate SWBy's birthday with us as well. Above is SWBy with his cousins at his birthday party, very excited to open presents. I'm not sure who was more excited SWBy or the cousins.
It may be a bit premature, but we got SWBy a bike for his birthday. He is always climbing on Bay's and really wants to ride it so we got him his own and are hoping this summer he'll be able to start riding it. Of course we need to wait until it warms up and we stop getting snow and rain storms. This is the time of year I really miss Arizona!!!

I thought SWBy's cake turned out pretty cute. Of course it would; there's a picture of SWBy on it!!!

On SWBy's birthday weekend we took Bay snow skiing for the first time!!! She loved it!!! We didn't have the best weather or the day I had hoped to have but it turned out to be a pretty fun day for Bay. She was put in a private lesson and my poor mom sat in the car with SWBy because the weather was bothering him. Spencer and I skied a little bit while Bay was in her lesson. She did great! Spencer and I were a little rusty on the skiing, it had been 10 years since I last skied and 15 or so for Spencer. Above: Bay and dad sleeping after a full day of skiing. Thanks mom for a fun weekend! (Of course I didn't get any pictures of Bay skiing because I didn't bring my camera. I was not very good at taking pictures this weekend!)

The picture above cracks me up! I was trying to get a picture of the 2 of them together and Bay, the nice sister she is, was trying to help keep SWBy in the picture! This was St. Patrick's Day! We went to Bay's preschool party and it was fantastic! We had Reuben Sandwiches! They were so good! (Apparently it was all about the food for me! :o))The kids has a great time! Lots of games and finding treasures!

Here the kids are in their Easter clothes. I love Children's Place! I thought the kids looked so cute in their matching clothing!

Apparently Bailey came up with a few poses for dad to take pictures of them. This is the sitting pose!

My dad, and Step-mom, and sister came up the week before Easter! We had a fantastic time with them and it was so good to see them! Apparently March wasn't a great month for me to take pictures because I didn't get any pictures with them! They took Bay skiing and said she did great! I decided to stay home with SWBy that day so we didn't have to have another episode of someone sitting in the car with him! Thanks guys for taking Bay skiing and for a fun week!!!

Where does the time go???

2010-03-06T15:18:00.005-07:00

February has come and gone and so quickly! We've had another fun and busy month. I just barely hung my "HOME" blocks last month and I think they turned out really cute. My friend Nikki made them and my mom bought them for me at my friend Jessica's boutique when we were home last Thanksgiving. I just added the ribbon, Spencer hung my knobs and there hang the blocks! It completes the wall for me~every time I looked at it before it just felt like something was missing!

This was Valentine's Day morning right before Church. I took this picture as they all came down the stairs and Bailey, as you can tell, was really excited to get her new Sleeping Beauty Polly Pocket!
After Church on Valentine's Day we flew to AZ and then drove to Mexico on Monday with my mom. My mom has been itching to get us down to her new condo in Mexico so we decided February, while SWBy still flew for free, was the month to do it! She has a beautiful place there and what's so great is that the beach her condo is on is all private beach. The kids had so much fun playing in the sand and in the ocean. SWBy didn't care for the ocean water at first but eventually enjoyed sitting in it! SWBy sure enjoyed playing in the sand. He was so funny he kept taking shovels full of sand and throwing the sand at us but he mostly just kept hitting himself with the sand!

Grandma took Bay to look for sea shells on the beach and Bay absolutely loved doing that. There were so many big, full shells on the beach. She collected quite a few! Bay sure enjoys playing in the water. She was so excited to get to the beach. There's nothing better, after being stuck in a cold place, than spending time on a warm beach in February!!!

This was a highlight for the kids! They sure loved being in this tub on mom's balcony! Poor SWBy got sunblock in his eyes so he was having a hard time opening them!

SWBy really enjoyed Bay's sunglasses, but only if he could wear them upside down! The kids were such good travelers!

Bay and SWBy got to spend some time with their cousins when we were home and they sure had a good time! My mom has recently redone one of the bedrooms in her house just for all the grandsons. She had one room in her house that was no question all for Bailey. It's as girly as they come! So she did a room for the boys. Above is the bedroom. (The picture doesn't do the room justice!) There is a cute table and 4 matching chairs and that's what the kids are sitting in while watching the TV.

This is my best friend Jessica's little girl Hannah! She and Bay are 9 months apart and will be the same school year! They sure enjoyed spending time together. It's fun to see them be friends when Jess and I are such good friends!

Saturday night is the time to fly if you want a flight that's not full! I loved it! Our flight on the way to AZ was full which was less comfortable! On the way home we got our own row, which was so nice for SWBy! He got the window and LOVED to look outside!

My mom bought Spencer a new beanie from Mexico so now Spencer can stop wearing SWBy's and he and the kids can match!

SWBy LOVES this hat! He has been wearing it all the time. One night he wanted it at bedtime so Spencer gave it to him and when I came to check on him this is what I found!

No reason for this picture other than I love it! This is one of the family pictures Jess took at Thanksgiving.

We love our movie time and popcorn!

Spencer is such a great dad! The kids get so excited for him to come home from work. They love to play with dad!

Bring on the New Year!

2010-02-06T15:13:00.006-07:00

So far 2010 is shaping up to be a really fun year! January 15th-18th I got to go to New York with my mom! It was just the 2 of us and we had a really nice time! It's been about 10 years since I've been there and I think it's always a fun place to visit. Below is a picture of the Empire State Building. When we went to visit it, it was raining and cloudy so there was no visibility on top. So instead of going up for pictures we stayed down below, looked up, and snapped a picture. You can see how cloudy it was, you can't even see the top of the Building. Something my mom and I always enjoy doing together is visiting museums. Below we are at the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts standing in front of what they believe to be an early Michelangelo sculpture.

We went to visit Ground Zero and this is the best picture I could snap of it. What they are building in it's place is going to be really pretty. They are leaving in place the foundations of the Twin Towers and building 5 buildings around it. (At least this is the information we were told.)
Below snapping a picture in the MET.

Mom took me to a fantastic Lobster place. Here mom is with her lobster bib on, getting ready to dig in!

Here is our food! It was way too pretty not to snap a photo! I ordered scallops and I shouldn't have! They were good but it was way too much food! I should have just split the lobster with mom because I really enjoyed it! We probably ordered too much because we were starving when we got there!

The next 2 pictures are from a fun girls night out! We went to see Twi-lite at Desert Star Theater in Murray! It was so great! At least I really enjoyed it! 8 of us from my ward went. It was such a fun night, apart from waiting over an hour at Cheesecake Factory just to leave and eat somewhere else because if we stayed we wouldn't have made our show! If you've never been to Desert Star you need to go! I've seen a few things there now and they always have me laughing and laughing. Twi-lite was a spoof and had me laughing all night!

The rest of our fun group.

I just thought this was a photo opp not to be missed! I don't care if you read my blog or not, but this is too funny not to read!!! Bailey has been begging to go outside and use her sidewalk chalk, so a couple of weeks ago it was dry enough for her to do so! She loves to practice her letters and as she was finishing Spencer was outside with her and she said, "Hey dad, come see my f n' b's." Spencer was taken back for a minute when he realized she had written "F B F B F B."

It may have been dry out that day but it was still chilly! Bay's poor hands were so red and cold, but she didn't seem to mind!

One of the few things SWBy eats is Peanut Butter! The kid loves it and I'm glad he does because we're able to get some fat, protein, and calories in him that way! This is dinner one night after enjoying some peanut butter! He had peanut butter every where!

This cute wooden rocking horse was mine when I was little and SWBy loves it! He gets on and and says nothing but "weeee."

Christmas!!!

2010-01-04T13:01:00.002-07:00

I loaded my pictures backwards again! So we'll go from newest to oldest! For Christmas from my Dad and Step-Mom I got a ton of vinyl to put on my walls! I love it! And for Christmas from Spencer I got the wall below painted red, my rod, and cute knobs which aren't yet hung because I don't yet have frames for them. They'll go beneath the pictures of SWB and Bay. This project sure gave Spencer a run for his money! The texture in our corners is awful to paint on! The red kept bleeding through to the side walls and then the side wall color kept bleeding through to the red when we would try to fix it! It was a pain. I finally bought fine tipped paint brushes and Spencer fixed our bleeding paint problem with those! It was time consuming! Spencer knew I wanted this done before Christmas so he spent all of Tuesday, December 22 working on it for me! THANK YOU SPENCE! After we got this wall all done I kept walking back and forth just starring at it. It has been plain and blank since we moved in and I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with it. I got this idea from the Rod Works blog and I love it! Below is some more of the vinyl that I got and hung. It sure makes a difference making my walls less plain! I love it!
During December I put out a Christmas candy dish on our kitchen table! That was one of SWby's favorite things this year! He was constantly eating the candy. We went through quite a few Hershey's kisses. Below SWBy has helped himself to some Kisses. He peeled them open and threw the wrappings on the floor. I was upstairs doing something otherwise I think I would have put a stop to this sooner!

Below Bay and SWBy are getting ready to have a movie night!

SWBy got this truck from Unlce Ev for Christmas! The kids love it!

Christmas morning after opening all of our fun stuff!

Bay had a Christmas dance and tumbling demonstration this year! It was so cute! All of the girls in her classes did such a nice job and we really, really enjoyed watching Bay. She is learning so much and such a cute little dancer and tumbler!

I hosted our preschool Christmas party this year and we decided to put on a little program this year. It was really cute! It was only about 3 minutes long but it was cute and the kids did a great job! Bailey was Mary. That's her holding the star.

Fun stuff in November!

2009-12-10T15:39:00.010-07:00

We've had a fun November! Bailey and I had the opportunity to go to Disney's Princesses on Ice! It was so much fun and Bailey absolutely LOVED it! She keeps asking when we can go again! I really enjoyed the time I had to spend with my sweet and sassy little girl! I hope to do more things like this with Bay! We went with her friend Lauren and her mom, my friend Jenny. Before we went to Princesses on Ice we went to dinner at the Garden Room on top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It was so much fun! Below is Bay and me and Lauren and Jenny.

I'm sure you all know New Moon came out this month and my friends and I went to the midnight showing again! It was so fun! I thought the movie was so good and way better than the first! Below my friend Melanie and I are waiting in line to get into the movie theater. It was pretty chilly and her husband was nice enough to bring us a pizza! We were in line by 5:45. Some were in line as early as 9 or 10 am. They showed Twilight first at 9 before New Moon which is why we were there so early!
Below, finally in the movie theater, (L-R) Natasha, Melanie and me! Yes we made shirts! We got free iron on prints! The backs were all different but the fronts were the same - "Team Edward!" After New Moon I came home, finished packing our van, got about an hour of sleep and then Spencer woke me up to drive to AZ for a week of Thanksgiving fun! Below is just part of our Thanksgiving party. This was my table and the family members lucky enough to sit with me! Or maybe they were unfortunate to sit with me, either way this was my table. (My mom, my brother, my dad, and of course Spencer.) Thanksgiving dinner and dessert was so good!

Below, we are off to the park for a marshmallow gun war! Bay and SWBy really liked their cousin Presley's wagon! It was fun to be home and see everyone. My dad, sister, and stepmom came down from CA to spend Thanksgiving with us! So everyone in my family was there.

This is the very first year I've done Black Friday shopping! There were some deals going on that I couldn't resist! So of course I roped by best friends into going with me! Our malls in AZ opened at midnight so we were there at 10:30 waiting to get in. I'm so glad because they let us into the mall at 11:30 and we could line up outside the store we wanted to go in. Thankfully we were there early because the line to the Disney Store was really long and we were among the first in line! I was done shopping for SWB and Bay by 12:15! I saved 50% on the princess castle Bay wanted which I thought was well worth the 12 am shopping time!

Here Jessica, Tangi, and I are in the Children's Place capturing our 12 am shopping spree. Thanks so much for going with me guys, it was so fun!

After leaving the insanity at the mall we grabbed some food at Denny's for old times sake! We were a little slap happy by this point and found quite a few people staring at us!

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Spencer's aunt Jeanine had us all over to her house for dinner and games. It was a lot of fun and I found that we must get some of these little cars that she has. My kids loved them! Above is Bay and her cute cousin Anna! They are such good little friends.

Here SWBy is! He loved this little car! Luckily there were 4 of them because he absolutely did not want to give his up!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving Spencer had the opportunity to go to the ASU game with his brothers & brother-in-law! He had a great time! Thanks BJ and Ev!

One of my friends thought it would be fun this year to make PJ pants together. So last Friday a few of us got together and made PJ pants. I made some for our entire family! Spencer's and mine were way too big and we had to rip out the seems and cut them down a bit! SWBy's I didn't use a pattern for and had to rip out his "seat" seam to give him a little more room in the bum. Bay's were the only pants I didn't have to do over! I was thankful for that! Oh, well! Live and learn! Hopefully next time will go smoother!

So Much to Catch up On!!!

2009-11-05T13:47:00.012-07:00

Wow! Sooooooooooooo much to catch up on! I didn't realize how behind I was until I actually started looking at all my pictures! And I of course forgot the order the pictures load so I loaded the pictures backwards! So we'll start at Halloween and work our way backwards! Below is sweet little SWBy all tuckered out after a full day of trick-or-treating! Our neighborhood is a fun neighborhood to trick-or-treat in and I'm so glad we were in town for it this year! I think a lot of the excitement and fun is because one of our neighbors does a haunted house in her garage! She is the neatest lady and has such fun kids. 2 of her daughters are in Mia Maids with me and I absolutely love them and think they are the nicest, cutest girls! Below is our neighbor and me in front of her haunted garage! Spencer and I convinced Bay to go through it and to say the least she was a little freaked out at the end! I held SWBy and Spencer held Bay when we went through. SWBy wasn't really diggin' the haunted house either but Spencer and I thought it was so fun! A lot of the youth from our ward, mostly YW were the ones in the haunted house and I thought they'd take it easy on me since I was holding SWBy but they kept jumping out and scaring me! I scare easily so that probably didn't help SWBy to be any less frightened!

Below is Bay with her "pixie dust" makeup on! She was so cute, throughout the night she kept asking me if her makeup was still on! This was Bay's 3rd Halloween costume! She kept changing her mind on what she wanted to be!She began as Cinderella at my mom's Halloween party, then Sleeping Beauty at our ward's Halloween Carnival, and ended as Tinker Belle on Halloween! They were all cute costumes! Little SWBy was a turtle at all of our Halloween festivities, luckily he didn't care! But he sure was a cute turtle. He didn't really care for the turtle head (hood) of the costume to be on his head though!
Spencer and I were Cleopatra and Caesar! We were invited to a murder mystery dinner party again this year and these were our characters for the party. I thought I'd save money by going to a fabric store and making our costumes but I actually spent quite a bit more because I didn't realize what I was buying! Oh well, they turned out so cute. These are the first costumes I've ever made! Because they cost so much I made sure we wore them at all of our costume festivities! Spencer wore his Caesar costume to work last Friday and actually won 2 awards! Below is our Ward's Halloween Carnival! It was pretty fun! The YM & YW put the carnival on and it turned out well! The game below that Bay is playing is called "Whack a Deacon" and you do just that! I thought that was pretty clever! Bay sure enjoyed it, I think it was the most popular game!
SWBy did not want to be put down at the Carnival and my arm was hurting so we finally got the backpack and Spencer carried him!
Here is our cute little turtle just wanting to be held the whole carnival!
I'm glad to find out that Spencer likes my hair better long and blond! He's always wondered what I'd look like with short dark hair, so here you go!
Below is Bay and her cute little friend Lauren! They got their faces painted and looked pretty cute! Lauren and her family were a Cave Family!

This is Bay's second costume, Sleeping beauty!

On their way to our Ward's Halloween Carnival!

The weekend before Halloween I went home for my 10 year High School Reunion! I really didn't want to but am so glad Jess and my mom talked me into coming down for it! Thanks mom for flying us down! It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and it was nice to see old friends and catch up with them! Below are my BFF's and me right before we went into our reunion!

The night before our reunion Karen, Jess, Tang and I got together at my mom's and had tons of fun! I'll forever be grateful that I've always had good friends! (Above) While catching up at my mom's Jess thought we needed a few pictures and this was one of them! From left to right is Karen, Me in the back, Tangi, and Jess!

Above is SWBy in the bouncer! My mom had a fun Halloween party for the kids at her house Saturday afternoon before the reunion! She borrowed her friends bouncer that all the kids including SWBy loved! We had games, crafts, great food, and a treasure hunt for candy!

Bay got to spend the whole day with Anna and Liza! They came to my mom's Halloween Party and Bay got to spend the night at their house! (Above) Anna and Liza were cute fairies and Bay was Cinderella!

Friday night, before our High School reunion, Jessica organized a dinner with our High School Cheer Coach and some girls that we cheered with! It was so fun to see all of them again and see how they are doing! Above is everyone that came! We had dinner at my favorite pizza place! Nello's in good ol' Tempe, AZ!

(Above) I had so much fun in cheer with these girls! The one to the right of me was my flyer and she was so awesome, except for when she gave me bloody noses!

Above is my awesome cheer coach, Mrs. Zinke and me! I just love her! She is so fun and I had so much fun cheering for her! This same night we gave her a quilt that my mom made for her our graduating year but didn't finish it until our 10 year reunion. So for 10 years my mom had the quilt top in her closet! The quilt had all the 1999 seniors pictures on it! It was pretty stinkin' cute and Mrs. Zinke loved it!

Before leaving for AZ we took a field trip with Bay's fun little preschool to Black Island Farms! We got to ride through the farm and learn about what they do, all the kids got to pick pumpkins, and then they got to go play games and see the farm's animals.Above are some of the kids from Bay's preschool (2 were sick and not there)! Here, we're getting ready to ride through the farm!

Spencer turned 30 on October 16th this year so I threw him a surprise birthday party! Spencer was sort of surprised! 2 days before the party Spencer came home from work sick and didn't know if he would go into work on Friday, the day of his party! This really caused me a lot of anxiety! Friday was a busy day for me, I had to get my mom from the airport, get the food for the party, and get our house ready for the party! Originally I told Spencer that I'd come pick him up from work in SLC at 3:30 and we could go to dinner and a movie but we had to be home by 7:30 to get our babysitter home because I thought 4 hours was long enough for her, when in reality my mom was our babysitter and that's when the surprise was to take place. So my plans were dependent upon him being out of the house and at work! Well when he didn't know if he was going into work I kept wondering how I was going to get him out of the house! Spencer jokingly mentioned playing golf if he did stay home and I thought that would be the perfect way to get him out of the house! (We have a course right by our house.) Now I just needed an excuse for why I wouldn't be home in the morning so I told him I had Young Women's stuff to do at the Church so I'd be gone all morning but really I was picking my mom up from the airport and shopping for food! Luckily he ended up going to work on Friday and I picked him up in SLC and then we went to dinner and a movie. My mom, his dad, his brothers & sister flew in from AZ for the party. On our way to dinner Spencer called his sister's house to thank them for their birthday phone call (Jan called in the morning and then left for UT that afternoon) and Spencer talked to our sweet little niece Anna who told Spencer that Jana was in UT. So Spencer was perplexed as to why Jana was in UT without telling us. I told him "oh she probably doesn't know what she is saying" but he said "yeah but she's usually in the know!" I tried to make that comment seem like nothing and luckily I had him convinced that Anna was just being silly! After the movie I was so nervous and we were running a little late! When we pulled into the garage I kept thinking "oh Spencer just go into the house first" because he usually leads me into the house first. So I was trying to stall so he'd go into the house first and I guess that's what tipped him off that something was going on! So when he walked into our house he had his surprise face all ready because he knew something was up! However, he was really surprised to see my mom and his family at his party! His family waited upstairs and didn't come down until after the initial surprise! In the picture above Spencer is really surprised to see them! The party was fun, I'm so glad for those who could make it and am so glad that our family could make it up for his party! Keeping his party a secret was so hard for me because I tell Spencer everything and not only did I have to keep this from him but I had to keep fibbing to him in order to keep it a secret! I even had to keep it a secret from Bailey because I knew she'd tell him. And actually Bay did tell Spencer we were throwing him a birthday party. She had just had a birthday party with one of her preschool friends so I'm sure that's where she got the idea to tell Spencer we were throwing him a birthday party. When Spencer asked who was coming to the party she said all of her preschool friends and their mom's! I was panicking inside when she told Spencer we were having a birthday party for him! Luckily Spencer didn't think too much of her comment! At his party we watched a video of his life that my friend put together after I got her the music and pictures and we had a little questionnaire about Spencer and we had TONS of food! It was a really fun night!

SURPRISE!!!

One day when I was running SWBy came into my room looking like this! I thought this was too cute not to capture!

Our Young Women in Excellence theme this year was, "There's No Place Like Home." It was pretty cute and we all dressed up as characters from The Wizard of Oz and put on a little skit for our program! It was a cute YW in Excellence night!

Bay starts another year of Preschool!

2009-09-09T08:29:00.003-07:00

Yesterday was Bailey's first day back to school. She was so excited and has been waiting for school to start all summer! She had a great first day and was annoyed when it was time to come home! She's a feisty one! Apparently SWBy wanted to be part of Bay's back to school pictures and I'm so glad he did because I think it's such a cute picture of the 2 of them! Bay and SWBy are quite the pals! It's so fun to see them play together. Granted it's not all fun, SWBy loves to shove his sister and she has started giving it right back to him but for the most part they are cute together and it's fun to see them interact. This morning when I was dropping Bay off for school she went up to the door by herself and SWBy started crying because he wanted to get out of the stroller, and our sweet big sister turned around and said, "It's alright SWBy don't be scared!"

SWBy has a favorite pair of shoes! They are my red flats! Everyday he goes in my closet and puts those shoes on! I've given up on putting them away during the day because somehow they always manage to find themselves back out of my closet!

Bay turns 4!!!

2009-09-02T12:38:00.005-07:00

Bailey had her 4Th birthday on August 23rd! I can't believe it! Time has flown by! She is so cute, she keeps asking me if she is still four. This year we did a friends birthday party on the 22ND and then our family party on her actual birthday. Her theme for her party was High School Musical! It was so fun! In the picture above SWBy is enjoying some of Bay's HSM birthday cake!

Here are Bay and her friends about to have some birthday cake! She has fun friends and we were so glad they could come to her birthday party!
So, I loaded the pictures backwards again! Oops! We had a pinata and the kids all got full bags of candy! I'm sure their parents were loving that!
Her pinata was the only non HSM thing at her party! She wanted the princess crown. Good form Bay!

The kids watched HSM2 while they ate, got their party bags, and while Bay opened presents. It was a treat to watch them help Bay open her presents. A few were so excited for her to open the present they got her that they told Bay what her present was before she even got it opened! Bay got lots of presents she absolutely loves!

These pictures above and below are from one of the games we played. We placed bubble gum on a plate and poured some baking flour over it. The kids had to get into 2 teams and without using their hands see which team could blow off the flour and get to their bubble gum the fastest and then chew it up! That was fun to watch!

The first thing we did at the birthday party was an obstacle course. We set it up in our back yard. They first had to crawl through the green tube, then go down the slide, then crawl through the yellow tube, then slip and slide, then jumping jacks in the baby pool, then make a basket, then putt into the whole! That was lots of fun! I hope the kids had fun because we sure did!

Here is Bay with her cake and her microphone! We got Bay a little head microphone to wear at the party. Well happy birthday, Bay! She had a fun birthday and everyone was extremely thoughtful of her! So thank you to our friends and family for making her day(s) so special!

July Happenings!!!

2009-08-10T09:17:00.005-07:00

In my last post I forgot to post pictures from Bay's dance/tumbling recital on June 24! It was so cute! Their routine was to "I've got no strings" from Pinocchio! I loved their costumes I thought they were so cute! Bailey really enjoyed tumbling and always looked forward to going. She didn't start until February or March where as the actual class she was in began in September so she was a little behind but loved every minute of it. Their routine was so cute and all the girls did great! At one point their was a traffic jam caused by Bay. Bay couldn't get herself to roll over from a sitting spread position to do a somersault and all the girls were waiting for her to move so they could do theirs! It was pretty funny!

These are Bay's tumbling friends: Alivia, Lauren, and then Bay. Bay got to go to Alivia's birthday party last week and she got to dress up as Tinker Bell so she was way excited! She was looking forward to the party all week! She had so much fun!

Our little fish that Bay got during a preschool lesson on pets has died! I think ours was one of the last fish still alive. All of the other kid's fish died months ago! Lucky us that we got one that kept on living! This fish went through several names. First it was Foofy, then Madagascar, then Goldie, then Giraffe, then Zebra, then Sami, and there could have been more. The name changed so frequently that it was hard to keep track.
This is our happy little SWBy enjoying a treat! He really is the happiest baby. Always smiling and laughing. However, I think he is a bit spoiled. I watched him play fetch with his sister one day. He grunts to get what he wants and he was sitting on the couch grunting at Bay for things he wanted. Bay being such a nice sister would go and get him toys that he would point to and grunt and when she brought them to him he would shove it away and grunt for something else.

Spencer's family came for a visit in July, so one night we got to have most of the cousins spend the night at our house! It was so fun! Bay had such a fun time with them.

The Monday after the 4Th we got to go to Lagoon with Spencer's family! It was so fun! I had never been before and now that I have I think we will have to go a lot more! The kids had a great time! SWBy loves his cars and he got to go on this car ride with Bay (above). The poor kid was beside himself when the ride was over and he had to get out of the car!

This is Bay and her cousins on a rocket ride!

Anna, Bay, and Liza-Bay's cousins We were so glad we got to see them!

The weekend of the 4Th we got to go to Island Park Idaho and spend it with my family. My mom, dad, step mom, sister, and one of my brother's and his family were all there! It was a fun weekend but the mosquito's were horrible. I couldn't stand being outside because I kept getting bites. SWBy and Bay got quite a few too. Every time we go to Idaho we always go to Yellowstone! The picture above is in Yellowstone! It was so fun! It's always amazing seeing all those animals close up!

Sami, SWBy, Jo and Zane.

Here we are at the geysers in Yellowstone. Always a smelly good time!

Here is Grandma Jo, Bay and Grandma or as Bay calls her my "tall grandma."

Bay wasn't afraid to pose for the camera! I love it!

Busy, busy, busy!

2009-06-28T06:36:00.008-07:00

This is a long post so bear with me! Since the beginning of May I feel like we've been going non-stop. We started May with our trip to the Grand Canyon, the following week I ran the Ogden marathon, the last 2 weeks of May we spent between AZ and Boston, we've had swim lessons, a dance recital and I just got back from girls camp. I think all the crazy is over and things will slow down for us for a little while. The last 2 months have been crazy and busy, but so much fun! Last August...ish I thought it would be a great idea for Spencer and I to take a trip together. I knew our children would be old enough to be left with family and I wouldn't be nursing so I really wanted to take advantage of that. I'm so glad we did. We decided to go to Boston for about a week. I've really been itching to get back there and see all the history it has to offer. And of course go to a Red Sox game. I don't know what Spencer has done to me but I really enjoy going to baseball games now, especially East Coast baseball games. East coast fans are great and they make the games so much more enjoyable.

I think our brains were on overload from all of the history we learned while we were in Boston. We rented the HBO series "John Adams" a few months ago and really enjoyed it. After seeing that, it was really neat to be in some of the historical places that were in the "John Adams" series. I will never understand how some can claim to have a respect and admiration for our founding fathers without having a belief in God. Our founding fathers were God fearing men and really tried to do right by Him. I will never understand how Boston, MA can have so much of our Revolutionary history and yet they are one of the most liberal states there is. I would think being surrounded by the legacy of our founding fathers would make them want to be more like them. Anyway, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, John Hancock, etc. were amazing men and I have a great appreciation for the sacrifices they made so that we may have the freedoms we have.

Our first night in Boston we went to a Red Sox game. They were playing the New York Mets and lost but it was an exciting game. It was pretty close until the 8th inning. There was an obnoxious Mets fan that everyone was annoyed with and lucky us the 2 guys sitting right next to us were taunting him the most!

Neither Spencer nor I brought jackets or sweaters! We thought it would be warm weather but we froze at the game and it was a really cool week! Before the game we headed directly to the Red Sox team store and bought ourselves Red Sox sweaters. So in most pictures it looks like we are wearing the same thing everyday because everyday we were wearing our sweaters!
Spencer and I spent 2 days along the Freedom Trail in Boston. The above picture is Paul Revere's grave and is located in Granary Burial Ground. Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin's parents, and 5 victims of the Boston Massacre are also buried here.

There were quite a few old churches and this is King's Chapel. It dates back to the Revolution era, although it's been through some renovations. The pews were set up as boxes with a door. Only those who could afford to pay the fee got them but I'm thinking we need to put these in our Chapel's! How great would that be to get in your little box, shut the door, and not have to worry about your children escaping during Sacrament Meeting!

Above is where the Boston Massacre took place. Spencer is standing in the spot.

This is the Old State House Museum. There is a lot that happened within the walls of this building. I think I was awe struck when inside and we spent a good deal of our time in this building. This is where talk of our Revolution began, where debates of American self-government took place, where the Declaration of Independence was read to Boston citizens, and about 50 feet from the building is where the Boston Massacre took place.

Above is Quincy Market! We love Quincy Market! Once we found it we were there everyday! It was built between 1824-1826 as an indoor market for vendors. Now it is a large, long food court. It has every type of food you can possibly imagine.

Above is Paul Rever's home.

Above is The Old North Church where Paul Revere rode to hang the lanterns in the steeple to warn the country of the march of the British troops to Lexington and Concord.

This is the Monument at Bunker Hill and the last stop on the Freedom Trail.

Spencer and I stumbled upon this restaurant our first day in Boston and loved it so we went back our last day. I had my first corned beef sandwich here! It was delicious!

While we were in Boston SWBy and Bay were with my mom and Spencer's family in AZ. We really appreciate them watching our kids so that we could have a little vacation! Thank you! Here is SWBy his first time swimming!

CUTE KID!

For some reason I couldn't write in between the above picture and the one above that! But the one above SWBy in the truck is our new play set! Bay loves it! I drove the kids down to AZ a few days before our trip to Boston and Spencer set up our play set while we were away! The kids love it and are so excited to have it! In the picture Bay is playing with a couple of her friends and you can tell we were gone for a couple of weeks because our grass looks like a jungle! The picture of SWBy in this little truck was taken at Bay's preschool graduation. This is what he did the whole time! He didn't want to do anything else! He loves these little cars. Fortunatley for us we found him one at D.I. So now he can ride in one whenever he wants!!!

This is Bay's little preschool class! She had so much fun and really enjoyed this little preschool. Good thing because we are doing it again this year!

Here is Bay our little graduate!

Bay is in swim lessons and loves it! She just passed her preschool level one and is now taking preschool level two! I'm so glad she loves it! The first day I noticed she was crying in swim lessons and thought "oh great! she hates it!" but apparently she just hit her head on the bar on the steps. She has gotten so comfortable in the water and loves to blow bubbles and dunk herself which is real progress!

CUTE KID!

I did it!!!

2009-05-17T07:45:00.009-07:00

I RAN A MARATHON!!! Yes we need the caps for that because this is kind of a big deal for me! This was such a great experience and I'm so glad I did it and relieved it's done! I've wanted to run a marathon for a couple of years now. I wanted to run one in 2007 but opted to do the Sedona Half instead. That also was a great accomplishment for me!

In January I decided I was going to run the Ogden Marathon, registered, and payed so there was no backing out! I then found and printed off a training schedule and followed it pretty religiously! It was an 18 week schedule. However, I had 20 weeks so I just repeated the last 2 weeks training. The training was intense and I'm pretty burned out! My last really long training run was 23 miles and after I ran that I got into bed and told Spencer I think one marathon is enough! All my training was done on a treadmill, not one day was run outside. To compensate I ran on an incline of 1 or 2, towards the end of my training I just ran on an incline of 1. I always tried to average 6 miles per hour, which didn't always happen during my long runs! So I'm certainly not a fast runner, just persistent! I added up my mileage for the last 20 weeks and I've run 661.2 miles. The most I ran in a week was 43 miles.

The last week I've been pretty nervous! Friday night I asked Spencer if he would give me a blessing and that seemed to calm my nerves. I woke up at 3:50 am on Saturday (yesterday) morning to catch a shuttle to the starting line at 4:45. My mom flew in for this and was the lucky one who got to wake up early and drive me to the shuttles. (Thanks mom!) It was really chilly at the top of Ogden Canyon. Luckily they had fires going up there for us to warm up by. My hands were frozen and didn't start warming up probably until about mile 7 or 8. Mile 14 was the "hill" of the race and I was dreading it! It actually was not that bad! Maybe it was better than I expected because I was expecting the worse! I just made up my mind to run up the entire hill and I did and I felt great when it was over! Mile 18 was beautiful! It was a nice long down hill! I met some really nice people and everyone seemed to be very kind, courteous, and grateful to and for all the police and volunteers that helped this event take place. I ran with a man for a while who was running his 10Th and he set a nice pace for me! I felt great up until about mile 18 when my body started hurting pretty badly and I couldn't keep up with him anymore! My heart felt great but body was so sore! I forgot to take IB Profen before the marathon. They had water and food stops about every mile after mile 14 and from mile 17 on I was stopping at every one of them! Each time it was a struggle to get my body running again. At mile 25 I didn't stop to get water because I knew if I did I wouldn't be able to start running again! The last 3/4 mile of the marathon seemed to take FOREVER! There was a sign up that showed when we were only 1/2 mile from finishing and and then a 1/4 of a mile from finishing. I think those signs made it worse! I finally finished and was thrilled to see I did it in 4 hours 39 minutes, which is a minute faster than I wanted to run it in. And actually my time may be more like 4:37 because I was at the back of the line when we began the race. The times from our timing chips aren't posted yet, so I don't know my exact time. Like I said, I'm not fast but this time was great for me!

Overall the marathon seemed to go by really quickly! It was a beautiful course and the weather was nice so it was a great day to run a marathon! After the marathon I could barely walk! I'm so sore and can't feel some of my toes! I'm having a really hard time walking up and down our stairs and Bay keeps asking me if I'm okay! I'm great! I ran a marathon, I'm better than great!

Grand Canyon

2009-05-17T06:37:00.006-07:00

Well, I loaded this post wrong! I always forget that I have to load the pictures first and then type if I want our pictures to come after our writing! So our explanation is after all of the pictures! A scenic point during our day hike at Hermits Rest-South Rim. We are hiking down to Dripping Springs.
Spencer and I and the friends that we went with. I'm not sure they were thrilled about the pose I chose for the picture! Oh well, look how fun and cute the picture is!

This is Dripping Springs and it is just that! A drip! This is the day hike we did on Saturday at the South Rim. It was a beautiful hike! We sure enjoyed it. When we reached the Dripping Spring we met some people down there who were pretty nice. Very welcoming and generous!

SWBy and Bay with Grandpa and Grandma Crabtree! We sure missed the kids and we were all excited to see each other after our trip. SWBy was especially excited to see Spencer! He kept snuggling up to him and couldn't wait for me to hand him off to Spencer!

May 7-12, Spencer and I and some of our friends took a trip to the Grand Canyon. We originally planned to hike Havasupai for 2 nights and then spend 2 nights at the South Rim. Well, a week before we left, Spencer got an e-mail saying Havasupai was closed due to the Swine Flu and wouldn't be opening until June. LAME! That really messed our plans up! We were able to reschedule our non-refundable hotel stay at the South Rim to the first 2 nights in hopes to get a back country permit to backpack down into the South Rim for the last 2 nights. Of course no permits were available for any of the campgrounds and the hotels were booked and really expensive per night, so we went back to Las Vegas for the last 2 nights. Vegas really was our only other option because that's where we were picking SWBy and Bay up and that's where our friends were flying out of to go back to SLC. I'm not sure anyone but me was real thrilled about going back to Las Vegas. I always have a good time there, probably because I'm oblivious to some things that really go on there. However, I think I was more aware this time because everyone kept drawing my attention to what a dirty place Las Vegas is. I still had fun, not that I'd want to spend more than a couple of days there though! I enjoy the food and shopping and I like walking through and seeing the different hotels. And they have In-n-Out Burger there, and it doesn't get any better than In-n-Out! Spencer and I took advantage of not having Bay and SWBy with us and went to see Star Trek and Wolverine. I really enjoyed both, but Spencer was expecting more from Wolverine. When Spencer and I checked into the Luxor they upgraded our room because they didn't have record of our reservation. That was kind of cool. Our room was a little bigger and the bathroom was pretty nice. It's all about the bathroom and bathtub!

My dad and step mom (or as Bay says my "step mother") watched the kids for us. They met us in Vegas to pick up the kids and then met us in Vegas to drop them off. Wasn't that so great of them?! It was so nice that they drove the 5 hours from CA so I didn't have to drive the entire way to them. Thank you Dad and Jo! Bay and SWBy had such a fun time. They got to go to the river, swim, grandma Jo got Bay a tea set so they had tea parties (which she just loved), and SWBy got a little car which he would play on all day if we let him! SWBy LOVES cars!

Easter!!!

2009-04-21T10:53:00.005-07:00

So this is a LONG entry with lots of pictures!!! We had the opportunity to go back "home" to AZ for Easter. Spencer always corrects me and asks me if I live in AZ when I say going to AZ is going back "home." And although I love living here in UT and have no desire to move ever again- what can I say we grew up in AZ, we love it, and AZ will always be "home" no matter where we live! We always enjoy going back and visiting with family and friends. We had a very busy very fun Easter week. I loaded these pictures backwards, so the pictures will go from the end of our trip to the beginning of our trip! I always forget how the pictures load! Above was on Easter Sunday after Church at my mom's house. This was our 3rd and final Easter Egg Hunt of the week! Bay loved hunting for Easter eggs but more than that she loved the money, toys, and candy that was inside of them. Here she is with her cousins Presley, Zane, and Bryson. SWBy was napping during this Easter Egg Hunt!

These next 4 pictures were taken by my friend Jessica. We needed some new pictures and I think they turned out so cute. I must say I think she does a great job and most importantly she was extremely patient with my kids. I love this first picture (above) of the dramatic head turn! Bailey was so good and so patient while her brother started out all fun and cute and then quickly grew sick of pictures!

You'll notice that Bailey has a lollipop and SWBy has an Easter egg. We were trying everything to get SWBy to smile. He had goldfish, a lollipop (so Bay had to have one too), and finally the wonderful Easter Eggs that really seemed to please him! Prior to the Easter Eggs he was crying and was not wanting his picture taken.

SWBy started out great! We did his individuals first and he just hammed it up! Jess got a lot of great pictures of just SWBy. But by the time it was his turn to change vests and get pictures with Bailey he was grouchy, grouchy!

I should have loaded this picture last because it has absolutely nothing to do with our Easter, but I wasn't thinking!Here is our yard this year! I was going to post it next to a picture from last year but didn't want to find the the disc it was stored on. Just imagine mounds of dirt that remind you of the movie "Holes" and that's what our yard looked like. So although we still have a few bare spots, I'm thinking it's looking pretty great! It's nice to walk outside and not walk in dirt and not come back in the house filthy! Bay loves being outside and it's so nice that she can be outside without getting dirty and muddy! Spencer has been very excited for Spring to come and start working on our yard. He spent all day Saturday outside working on the yard. I think he does a very nice job and I love to just stare at our yard after he's done working outside!

The above picture was taken Easter Sunday. We had Easter dinner with Grandpa Brimley. The food and company were great and so was the weather! (It was still chilly and stormy here when we were in AZ.) After dinner Spencer and his brothers thought this tree in the backyard had passed it's prime and decided they should try to take it down. The end result was the same as the beginning! The tree still stands as it does in the picture above. They tried everything from pushing it back and forth, to jumping on it, to a rope and pulley system and the tree stayed put. It was not coming out! So although they weren't successful in their objective it sure was fun entertainment!

SWBy was real excited about his Easter Basket! I didn't expect him to be though. He's still too little!

This was one of the highlights of our trip home to AZ. We got to go see CATS! That was the entire purpose of our trip! My mom got the tickets last year and Easter just happened to fall on the Sunday we were there! Thank you Mom! We loved CATS! Bay especially enjoyed it and was so excited to see it. We started watching CATS on "YouTube" before we went home and everyday Bay would ask if we could watch CATS. I was really relieved that after seeing it on "YouTube" she loved it because she HATES cats and prior to watching it on the computer she told me she didn't "want to go see any cats!" She loves the music and still sings the songs, what she knows of the songs at least! She was captivated through the entire show!

This is the 2nd Easter Egg Hunt of the week! We had an Easter Extravaganza with Spencer's entire family! It was so fun! It was nice to see and visit with everyone and the food was so delicious! Above is Bailey and her cousin Anna after collecting Easter Eggs. They just sat together and ate their candy! They are such cute little friends!

SWBy had a good time being outside and playing with the eggs that were found for him!

The above picture was taken during our 1st Easter Egg Hunt at my mom's house! Every year for the past 15 years or so my mom has tried to do an Easter pot luck and she always has an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids! We really enjoy these pot lucks! There is always good food and company to be enjoyed! Above is my step mom, Bay, and me. My dad, step mom, and sister decided to come into town for Easter as well! It was fun to see everyone! Behind the 3 of us is our cute friend Bailee, where Spencer and I got the name for our Bailey. She is so cute and good to our little Bailey! We just love her!

These last 2 pictures were taken at The Easter Pageant that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints puts on every year at the Mesa, AZ Temple. The last time we saw it was when I was pregnant with Bailey, so I was excited to be able to see it again this year! Bay enjoyed it and SWBy actually watched parts of it as well. He really liked the Angels. It was a fun trip and fun to be home for a bit.

SWBy turns 1 & other fun stuff!!!

2009-03-18T11:35:00.004-07:00

Spencer decided to have a daddy/daughter date with Bay. He told her they could do anything she wanted, so she chose "campfiring." We are not sure where she came up with the wording for it but basically she wanted to go camping and roast hot dogs. We tried to find our 2 man tent but can't find it anywhere so they slept in a little kids tent given to SWBy for Christmas. Half of Spencer's body fit in the tent. His legs are up and bent in the picture above. They slept in our family room because it was way too chilly to sleep outside! Spencer didn't sleep well but they had a great time, Bay especially. Apparently, when they were shopping for the hot dogs Bay couldn't wait or help herself and bit into the package of hot dogs in the store.
They tried to roast the hot dogs on the grill but it was too windy and the wind kept blowing out the flame so they ended up cooking the hot dogs stove-top. They also bought marshmallows and chocolate bars but ended up eating them plain instead of making s'mores.

This last weekend we were able to go to Brian Head to my Aunt's cabin. The cabin is really nice and we had such a fun time. Thanks to my aunt and her husband we went tubing at a little tubing park by their cabin. It was a lot of fun. I have to say I was not as daring as the rest in our party, but had a good time.

Bay went down the hill once and then was a little nervous to go again, but after tubing down a very small hill she decided she wanted to try the big hill again. And she went again, and again, and again. The picture above was taken after her last run. She was all tuckered out!

You can barely see Bailey but she is the one in the lane farthest left (obviously she's not the big person next to her lane!) where her tube is touching the other black tubes. This is the bottom of the tubing hill and you are supposed to slow yourself before your tube bumps up against the black tubes. Obviously Bay couldn't slow her tube and ended up going so fast she went straight up the hill and bumped into the black tubes a couple of times.

Here she is-what a trooper! She was so fun to take tubing and I'm so glad she got over her bit of nervousness!

Above is Bay and her cousin Bryson. He along with my mom and brothers got to the cabin a few days before us and I think he was so glad to have a little friend to play with when we finally arrived. Bay had a fun time with him too.

We got to the cabin a day after SWBy's first birthday and had a little celebration for him at the cabin. Bay was enjoying his presents for him! He just walked around while she opened his presents! But I didn't expect any different!

We had a little birthday party for SWBy at our house on his actual birthday and he wasn't too sure about the cupcake until he tasted the frosting and then he couldn't get enough! He thoroughly enjoyed it!!!

Like I said, he wasn't real sure about the cupcake at first!

Fun Times!

2009-03-03T18:36:00.004-07:00

The last couple of weeks have been fun! SWBy is walking everywhere now! I must say I enjoy the walking so much more than the crawling! When he walks I don't have to worry about his hands being all over dirty floors and then in his mouth!

Bailey has joined a tumbling class and loves it! She is having so much fun! I found out about this class through a friend in our ward who has her little girl in the class and another little girl from our preschool is in her class. She gets so excited to go with her friends every week! I think she is really enjoying the tumbling clothes as well. Below Bailey is in her tumbling clothes, leotards and leggings!

Sassy Bailey! Boy does this picture describe her personality to a T! I told her to put her hands on her hips but she came up with the pose all by herself!

Spencer and I have been working on acquiring our years supply of food and other necessities and to begin we've started with our 3 month storage. I just thought all the diapers, wipes, and pull- ups were too funny not get a picture of!

Here were Saturday's purchases from Costco to add to our 3 month supply! I couldn't believe what we walked out with! We had to put down the seats in the back of our van and we had 3 grocery carts full of food and other stuff.

Spencer was having a little fun with SWBy when we began to unload and put away groceries! (SWBy has a cucumber in his mouth!)

Grandma Winchell sent Bailey a scarf because Bailey told her she needed one! Spoiled Bailey!

About a week ago some friends along with Bay, SWBy and I went to The Tree House Museum! I love that place. It is so fun for the kids! The kids all really enjoyed their time there and of course Bay didn't want to leave! A museum worker gave the kids a high 5 and told them thanks for coming on our way out and the other kids gave him a high 5 back except for Bay, of course! She was having a bit of a tantrum and didn't want to leave! Thankfully it was short lived!

This is Ford, Lauren, and Bailey-she goes to preschool with them.

Enjoying some snacks.

Big Kids!!!

2009-02-11T16:43:00.005-07:00

The last few days at our house have been exciting! SWBy started taking steps on Sunday and is so determined to learn how to walk! I really didn't think he would start walking this quickly because he crawls so fast! I thought he would be annoyed with walking because it takes him longer to get places. It sure is fun to watch him! Here are a couple videos of him walking.

Today was our preschool Valentine's Party at our house! Below is video of Bailey talking about it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2009-01-08T15:29:00.005-07:00

I've been meaning to update our blog for a while now, I know it is time to have something other than Twilight posted!!! We had such a great Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year!!! I was going to post about our Thanksgiving but I didn't take any pictures!!! We were in AZ for Thanksgiving and New Year's. It's always nice to go back home to AZ and visit with family and friends. We had such a nice time when we were in AZ. We spent Christmas at our house in UT and my dad, step mom and sister came to spend Christmas with us. We had a great few days with them!!! It was so fun to have them here and kind of exciting to actually be in our own house for Christmas!!! I think we've always been at family's homes for Christmas so it was different for us to be in our own home, but nice!!! We had a few snow storms the week of Christmas so we definitely had a white Christmas. Spencer's sister and her family came over for dinner the Sunday before Christmas and the kids put on a little Nativity. Below are our nieces and nephews and Bailey and SWBy. Bailey was so excited she got to be Mary!!! She was a good Mary too, very protective of Baby Jesus (which was a doll). SWBy was a Shepard and he kept trying pull baby Jesus out of the manger, which drove Bailey crazy!!!

Grandpa Crabtree and SWBy.

Grandma Jo and SWBy. SWBy was getting ready to go outside with us.

Bailey finally got to make a real snow angel. She's been practicing for months on our carpet!!!

Bailey and Aunt Sami sledding. Grandpa bought a sled for Bailey. It was so fun!!!

SWBy. He gets into everything now!!! So much different than his sister was. Every time he finds something new to get into and drag around the house he just smiles!!!

Spencer's sister Lanae makes Christmas PJ's for the nieces and nephews every year and here are this year's. So cute!!! The kids love them!!!

(I know I am looking so attractive in this picture!!! ;o)) Spencer's brothers Brian and Evan bought SWBy and Bailey ASU outfits and boy do we love them. Okay so SWBy wasn't as excited as Bailey was! Bailey would wear her outfit every day if I let her. She wore her cheer outfit to the movies with my mom!!!

After Bailey put her outfit on she kept saying, "Go ASU Cheerleaders, woo!"

Spencer got to go to the ASU basketball game with his family. Here they all are!!!

Twilight!!!

2008-11-21T11:16:00.004-07:00

Spencer is probably going to be so embarrassed that I am posting about going to the midnight showing of Twilight, but oh well!!! I went with my friends Jackie and Natasha! I had such a fun time!!! Natasha loaned me the book about a month ago and after starting the first book I couldn't put the rest down. I finally finished Breaking Dawn this past Monday and I think Spencer is so relieved! The movie was quite a bit different than the book, but I still thought it was great! I am easily entertained though and possibly still 14 at heart!

Excitement from October!!!

2008-11-08T11:32:00.007-07:00

Well, since I accidentally loaded the pictures backwards I'll start from the end our trip to the beginning. October 22-November 1 we took a trip to AZ. My mom came up to drive us to AZ and then she drove us back to UT. It was really nice to have someone else driving! I didn't realize until this trip that I'd much rather be a passenger than a driver! Plus this way I got to read "Twilight" while my mom drove. One of my friends loaned me the book and I didn't realize how much I would love it!!! I am addicted!!! Thanks to the reading of that book the hours in the car seemed to fly by and made our drive much more pleasant!!! My nieces Eliza and Anna rode back to UT with us and stayed with us for a couple of days. They were fun to have!!! Below is a picture of them playing dress up!!! What cute little girls!!!! On our way back to UT we stopped at my Aunt's house to visit with her and my grandma. It's always so nice to see them. Below is my mom, SWBy, me, and my grandma. At this point I think SWBy's patience was wearing thin!!!

The 29th we went trunk or treating with my sister-in-law and her girls. Bailey got lots of candy and SWBy was patiently amusing me by wearing this cute, cute penguin costume in weather that I thought was a little warm! He was a cute little penguin though!

Here is Sleeping Beauty!!! Bailey loves Sleeping Beauty and my mom got her this cute costume, with all the accessories, for Halloween!!! She is spoiled!!!

Here is Bailey with her cousins Anna, and Eliza. She was so excited to see them and go trick-or-treating with them!!!

This is just a random picture at my mom's house! I was getting ready and SWBy woke up from a nap so Bailey took the liberty to go entertain him until I got him out of his pack and play. When I went to get him this is what I found!!! Bailey is such a nut!!! Actually, after she did this she climbed out, turned off the light, told Spence good night and shut the door with the balls still in the pack and play. Sometimes I wonder what she is thinking!!!

While we were visiting I went to a little park with my sister-in-laws! Little SWBy is always so smiley. I think it's hard to get a bad picture of him!!!

Spencer flew down for the weekend of the 24-26th for my mom's Halloween party! She rented Sumo suits and a bouncer for the kids. Of course Spencer and I didn't use the Sumo suits until everyone had left! I didn't particularly want an audience. It was so fun though!!!

This is Jess and me, one of my very best friends!!! It was so fun to see her and my other friends!!!
I just thought this was such a cute picture of Spence and SWBy. What cute guys!!!

Here she is!!!

2008-10-20T16:02:00.003-07:00

Here are pictures of our yard!!! Finally!!! It has come in pretty well so far, but we have crab grass and a few bare spots. Our water has been shut off so we can no longer water until next year! Our front yard is quite a bit thinner and has more bare spots because we had to wait to plant until our fence was entirely moved. So next year we get to work on filling in the bare spots. I have to say it is so nice to have grass! It's so much nicer to look at and the best part is Bailey has a yard to play in now!!! Bailey is in a little co-op preschool and today was my day to teach. It was so nice to be able to send the kids outside for "recess"!!! We are loving our yard so far!!! We still have work to do, but the main part is done!!! Hallelujah!!!

Good Times!

2008-10-13T20:17:00.002-07:00

This past Saturday, friends of ours hosted a Murder Mystery Dinner Party and these were our costumes! It was really fun! I had never been to one before. Bailey told me, "Mom, you look kinda like a witch!" I was a Mexican lady thrice widowed and in mourning. Spence was an orphaned, dishonest, cowboy! That night we had a babysitter coming to watch the kids, who Bailey loves and she was so excited to get us out the door! She always asks me if it's night time and when it is and I have to say yes she usually gets upset because she knows it closer to bedtime. So the evening we were getting ready for the Murder Mystery Dinner Party she asked if it was night time and I told her no it's evening time (so she wouldn't get upset) and she came back with, "Mom yes it is night time! You and Dad are going to dinner and Kendall (the babysitter) is coming to play with me!" I couldn't believe how anxious she was to see the babysitter and get us out the door! Funny girl! Bailey wanted to wear my hideous black wig! She was loving it!
Saturday night it started snowing and this is what we woke up to Sunday morning! What the heck! It's October 11 and already snowing! Having been born and raised in Arizona, sometimes I feel like we've entered the Twilight Zone with this weather! I know in AZ during October it's still pretty warm! In fact this week in AZ I hear it's supposed to cool down to 90! I was going to take pictures of our grass that has grown in, but I'll have to wait until the snow is done melting!
Above is our backyard and below is our front yard.

"Do Not Fear"

2008-09-19T14:02:00.004-07:00

During this election year and as we draw nearer to choosing our next President my mind has been caught up to much worry and fear! What lies ahead for not only us but more specifically our children? I love my children with all my heart, which I think is obvious as the majority of our blog consists of pictures of our children. For all of you that know me, you know that I tend to worry about EVERYTHING! So it is probably not hard to believe that my mind is troubled yet again. This time I think it is justifiably worried! The world continues to grow more and more wicked and Godless! I don't know how people make it through life without acknowledging their Creator! Nevertheless the world is filled with those who forget their God and try so incredibly hard to convince themselves that wickedness is happiness! Because of this I worry what lies ahead for my sweet children. What are they going to have to face and encounter? With these thoughts I remembered a talk given by Elder Boyd K. Packer in General Conference in 2004, entitled "Do Not Fear." Today I finally sat down to read this talk. I am so glad I did! It is wonderful and gives so much encouragement. For all of you with the same types of worry or even if you don't worry, read this talk! The link is below, you might have to copy and paste.

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=54b88fbe352fe010VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1

Slowly but Surely!

2008-09-11T09:22:00.004-07:00

After five months of work here is our yard! I didn't realize what a process putting in a yard was! We were really making progress until about mid-July when our neighbors informed us our fence was 18 inches on their property and we needed to move it! My heart sank when we found that out! As if putting a yard in wasn't expensive enough we then had to pay to get our fence moved, which was no cheap expense! It's our fault. We should have done more research as to where our exact property lines were. That doesn't make it any less frustrating though! So we could have planted a while ago but we needed to get our fence moved and the sprinkler line that ran next to the fence needed to be moved as well! It took no time at all to get our sprinkler line moved but it took about a month to get the fence moved. To say the least it hasn't been a pleasant experience. You can see in the pictures holes in our fence. The fence guy moved the our fence posts and then we had a hard time getting a hold of him to finish putting the fence together. We got tired of waiting and wanted to get our seed down so Spencer and our brother-in-law Ben began to put the fence back together. In the pictures you will see holes in the fence because we didn't have a table saw to cut the other slats and place them in the fence and the front corner post needed a special cut so they couldn't put the fence back together there. However, they got the fence put back together enough that we could finally plant in our back yard! Happy Day! Labor Day the fence guy was able to make it out and finish putting our fence back together. The sad thing about that is that it was rainy and extremely muddy when he was putting the fence back together so our nicely graded front yard has foot prints and tracks ALL OVER! So now we get to re-grade our front yard before we can plant. We also need to have the curbing guy come and patch our curbing that we had to cut out so our fence could be moved! We should have waited to put our curbing in after the fence was moved! What were we thinking! I guess, we just like to do things multiple times! Our curbing guy is supposed to come this Saturday so hopefully we will be able to re-grade and plant by Monday! Cross your fingers!

We are getting green "peach fuzz" in our back and side yards! It's exciting to see our grass coming in! It will be even more exciting when we see that in our front yard!

In one of the pictures below, you will see a big pile of rock, cement, asphalt, re bar, and other fun treasures, which we found our yard. We are yet to get rid of it! That area next to our gravel where all the junk from our yard is, we are eventually going to pave and make a sport court!

Brithday/First Day of School!

2008-09-02T13:32:00.002-07:00

Last Saturday, the 23rd was Bailey's 3rd birthday! I can't believe she is 3 already! Time flies! She is getting to be such a big girl and so independent. She constantly tells me she can do things on her own! I have been dreading potty training for months so between Bailey having no interest in it and me dreading it we just barely started potty training! She is a quick learner though! I kept praying she would take an interest in it and have some success and she has. We checked out "Potty Power" (a DVD) from the library and she was ready to go after watching that! I think she finally realized she wanted to be a big kid! Yea! She loves wearing her princess panties and I am not sure who is more excited when she goes potty on her potty chair, her or me! My prayers have been answered! Below are some pictures of Bailey's birthday party. I know the cake and cupcakes are a bit boring, but that is the extent of my creativity! I should enroll myself in a cake decorating class! Most of Bailey's cake is frosting! It kind of crumbled so I fixed it with frosting. I knew Bailey wouldn't mind because she couldn't care less about the cake all she wants is frosting!

Bailey and cousin Emma!
Today was the first day of preschool for Bailey! She has been wanting to go to school since last year so this was a very exciting day for us! She loved it!

Six Years and Counting!

2008-08-29T12:45:00.002-07:00

Six years ago today, Spence and I were married in the Mesa, Arizona Temple! Time has gone by so quickly! I am a little biased but I think I married the greatest most patient man ever! His mom referred to him as Spencer Wonderful and I couldn't agree more!

Aleknagik Island, Alaska

2008-08-28T13:05:00.004-07:00

Here are some pictures from the fishing trip Spencer was lucky enough to go on. I think I mentioned this before, but my mom took my brothers and Spencer to Alaska to go fishing. Spencer had a great, great time! They all flew into Anchorage and then took a plane to a little Island named Aleknagik, Island. It is a private Island exclusively for fishing excursions. They were there for a full week and went fishing all day everyday. They caught various fish, but the only kind they were allowed to bring home was Salmon! It is delicious!

I think Spencer got a little spoiled on this trip because he was fed incredible breakfasts and dinners every day. Breakfasts included things like Sour-dough blueberry pancakes and biscuits and gravy and dinners included things like prime rib, stake, and of course fish.

Spencer said the Island was absolutely beautiful and from the pictures it sure looks like it!

Here is a picture of my mom in action!

Update!

2008-08-22T08:14:00.005-07:00

All last week Spencer was in Alaska fishing with my mom and my brothers! He was gone for 8 days! To say the least we were very excited to have him back home! We sure missed him! I will post pics of his trip soon. He brought back quite a bit of Salmon and that's what we had for dinner last Sunday! It was delicious! I didn't think I really liked Salmon, but it sure was good!

Yesterday was an exciting day in little SWBy's life! He started to crawl. I had a feeling this was coming because he has been up on his hands and knees trying to move for about a month now. Of course when I pulled out the video camera he wouldn't crawl, he just cried and fell on his face! I need to buy a baby gate so he doesn't go tumbling down our stairs! He is such a sweet little baby! Bailey loves her little brother and loves to play with him. Sometimes, as I think all older siblings do, she smothers him a bit too much. She is so cute with her little brother and enjoys sharing her toys with him, so long as the sharing is on her terms!

A few weekends ago my "older sister" Cindy, her mom, and her little girl Bailee came for a visit! It was fun to see them and of course we took advantage of the situation and had Cindy color and cut my hair and cut Bailey's hair. (Cindy's Bailee is holding my Bailey while she gets her hair cut!) My Bailey sure likes and enjoys Cindy's Bailee. Can anyone guess where Spencer and I got the name Bailey?

This is so funny! Bailey's new thing is "fixing" her toy car! She found this plastic wrench and turned her car over so she could "repair" it properly!
Bailey loves to sit and be with Spence! She often will play mother to him and have her arm around him.

Newport Vacation!

2008-07-29T09:06:00.003-07:00

Much to our dismay we are back from our vacation! We had such a fun time! We have been going to Newport for one week every year since I have been in the family and it is a week that we all look forward to! Bailey absolutely loved the beach! She played all day every day on the beach and never took a rest. The girl was so worn out from playing on the beach and lack of sleep! She got to share a room with her cousins, which I think was just as exciting as the beach! She got pummeled by waves a couple of times, but that didn't bother her one bit! She got right back up and was ready to keep playing! Her Aunt Lanae took her for walks on the beach to find sea shells, which she really enjoyed. On one of those walks they found a crab and much to my suprise Bailey thought it was kinda cool. She didn't want to touch it, but she sure liked to look!

The last day we were in Newport, the girls all went to get pedicures and the little girls just got their nails painted. This is the color Bailey chose! Bright green! She went right for this color and then wouldn't change her mind. I kept trying to talk her into pink or red, but she had her little heart and mind set on bright green! She got floweres put on her big toes, but they got a little smudged because she had a hard time sitting still!

For some reason Spencer is always able to get our children to fall asleep with him. I must be too anxious all the time because I can't ever get them to fall asleep unless I am bouncing them! I just thought that was such a cute picture of SWBy and Spence.

Above is a picture of SWBy with Grandpa and Grandma Crabtree. Friday after our Newport vacation we drove down to Escondido to see my family before driving back to Utah! Lucky for us they babysat Bailey and SWBy so Spence and I could go see "The Dark Knight!" We loved the movie!

We had such a fun week! Above is a picture of SWBy with his cousin Emma! She is such a nice cousin, always wanting to hold SWBy. Below is a picture of Bailey with her cousin Eliza! Bailey sure enjoyed seeing her cousins and loved spending the week with them!

4th of July!

2008-07-16T16:37:00.002-07:00

So our 4th of July pictures are a little delayed! My mom got Bailey this cute outfit a while ago and it just barely fit her. Perfect for the 4th. We had a fun 4th. Spencer's oldest sister came for a visit so we went up to Perry to celebrate with them. We BBQed and then watched fireworks put on by neighbors. At first Bailey was a little scared, but not for long! After she got over the loud noises she really liked to watch the fireworks! I think SWBy enjoyed watching them as well!

Tomorrow we leave for Newport for a week of FUN with Spencer's family! Hope you all have a great week!

Little Spence!

2008-07-03T14:32:00.002-07:00

I took these pictures today and I thought they were so cute! Little Spence is such a happy baby! He is such a joy and a blessing! These pictures show his typical mood! He never really fusses or gets mad, except for when he has to ride for long periods of time in his car seat!

Arizona/Houston

2008-07-02T10:26:00.003-07:00

Spencer, his dad and brothers at Minute Maid Park to see the Astro's!

Unlce Ev, Spence, and Bailey!

Last week Bailey, little SWB, and I took a little vacation to Arizona and Spencer went to Houston with his dad and brothers. My mom flew into SLC and drove with us to Arizona. It was a really nice week. On the way to Arizona we stopped in St. George to see my Grandma Crabtree and I missed a great photo opp because I left the camera with Spencer to take to Houston. It was so nice to visit and catch up with my Grandma. Last Friday my mom took Bailey to see High School Musical at Gammage and the poor girl was so tired that she asked to leave shortly after intermission. By Friday Bailey was so exhausted from a full week of visiting, playing, and a lot of nights where we missed our bedtime that I think for once going to bed sounded so good to her! It was so nice to see family and friends and catch up with them. So thank you everyone for making time to spend with us.

Spencer was lucky enough to join his dad and brothers for a baseball trip to Houston. The purpose of the trip was to visit stadiums and catch a few baseball games. His dad and brothers started in Chicago to see a Cubbies game at Wrigley Field. The Cubs are Spencer's favorite team and due to work Spencer couldn't go to Chicago. Had Spencer not been there before he would have been really, really disappointed to miss that part of the trip, instead he was just disappointed to miss that part of the trip. Spencer was able to meet them in Houston to see Minute Maid Park and go to a couple Astro games. They had a fun time and Spencer really enjoyed himself. Spencer's dad and brothers brought Spencer a lot of Cubbies souvenirs. He is now equipped with four foam fingers, a Cubbies duffle bag, a Cubbies blanket, souvenir cups, and Cubbies flip flops! They also brought all the grand kids Cubbies shirts. Spencer has Bailey trained to yell "Go Cubs" and that is exactley what she said when she received her shirt! Thank you grandpa, Uncle Ev, and Uncle BJ!

Last Saturday Spence flew into AZ with his dad and brothers and met up with Bailey, little SWB, and I. That night we got together with Spencer's family for a BBQ and swimming. Bailey is a little fish. She sure didn't want to get out of the pool. After she put floaties on she thought she was invincible. She tried to jump into the deep end after we took the floaties off!

Almost ready for grass!

2008-06-13T11:09:00.003-07:00

After months of prep work, our backyard was ready to be trenched and Wednesday we got it trenched! Tuesday we bought all of our sprinkler supplies and this Saturday we get to start puting our sprinklers in! We are so excited! We are that much closer to having a yard and grass! Eventually we would like to be in our yard without getting dusty, dirty, or muddy! Bailey especially would like that. We have found some priceless treasures in our yard, such as rebar, asphalt, lots of garbage, large chunks of concrete, and many, many rocks!

Our weather has been really nice lately so we like to get out for family walks in the evenings. This is a picture of little SWB after one of our walks!
Lately if Bailey is tired she will go upstairs and put herself to bed. This is an example. Saturday morning we did lots of running around and by the afternoon she was exhausted!

So the other day I was running on our treadmill and after I was done running I heard Bailey saying, "Mom, I am ready to get out!" I couldn't figure out where she was. I was hoping she was on the potty as we have been trying to encourage her to go potty in the toilet, but she wasn't on the potty. So I said, "Bailey you are ready to get of where?" To which she replied, "I'm ready to get out of Spency's bed." The funny girl had climbed into her brother's bed and couldn't get herself out!
I just thought this picture was priceless. It might be a little more if they weren't in their pajamas, but nonetheless this was such a cute photo opp!

Memorial Day!

2008-05-30T18:12:00.006-07:00

Our Family had a fun weekend! Sunday was my birthday and it was a great day! At first Bailey refused to say Happy Birthday to me. She is so funny! For some reason she hates the Happy Birthday song and screams and cries whenever we sing it! She is making progress though. By the end of the day she was singing Happy Birthday! Spencer was so great! He got the children ready for church and prepared and cooked dinner! We had dinner at and spent the night at Spencer's sister's house which is about 45 minutes away from our house. She made a delicious spinach salad and the strawberry cake you see above. I love Strawberry cake! The next morning we went with Spener's sister and her family to Jeremiah's. Jeremiah's is a restaurant in Ogden. They have great breakfasts. We were all going to go hiking after breakfast but we had lots and lots of rain, which prevented us from hiking. We sure enjoyed our weekend with family. Bailey sure gets excited to see and spend time with her cousins and Aunt Kris and Uncle Ben. Thank you Ashcrofts for a fun weekend!

Sunday night the kids did sparklers. Bailey was a little unsure at first, but seemed to enjoy it.

I think this was an exhausting weekend for little SWB!

Big weekend!

2008-05-20T11:39:00.006-07:00

Little SWB in his first Ned's Krazy Sub shirt. Cute kid!

This is our back yard! Isn't it a pretty sight! We just had cement poured so we could have somewhat of a patio. When we bought our house the only "patio" it had was the little cement slab you see under the stairs. It was 4 feet wide and 11 feet long. So we had two 10 x 11 slabs poured. We are enjoying it!
We were finally able to get Spencer's trailer with all of his lawn equipment up here, with help from my mom, and he is so glad to have it here. We had to borrow tools to work in our yard before we got his stuff here and it was driving him crazy. Bailey was having a good time riding on the lawn mower with her dad! I just thought this was a cute picture of little SWB!
This is the day of his blessing! My mom got this cute little Amish outfit for Spence to be blessed in! It was perfect and a perfect fit!
This was Sunday evening after little SWB's blessing. Bailey had a full weekend of family, cousins soccer games, working in the yard and church. She was so exhausted that she fell asleep right on the kitchen floor! She is still catching up on sleep!
Before Church/SWB's blessing.

This last Sunday we blessed little Spence. It was a great weekend. Spencer's dad and brothers came from AZ and so did my mom. It was great to have them all here and spend some time with them. We are grateful for their love and support and their willingness to come up for little SWB's blessing! Saturday everyone was kind enough to help us prep our yard to be trenched for sprinklers. We raked, picked weeds, and picked up lots of rocks! We can't wait until our yard is in and we have grass! I am so tired of dirt, rocks, and weeds!

Cute Kids!

2008-05-09T14:04:00.004-07:00

Bailey is really enjoying her role as big sister. She is always so helpful. She always wants to hug, kiss, and hold her brother.

This morning Bailey wanted 3 pony tails and this is what her hair looked like today! Little Spence has started to coo and can be quite chatty. I had forgotten how fun it is to hear little babies coo.

Little Spence is the spitting image of his father!

2008-05-03T18:12:00.004-07:00

I was looking at Spencer's baby pictures and little Spence looks quite a bit like his father! At least I think so. However, little Spence has quite a bit more hair than his father!
I just thought this was such a cute picture of Bailey! I can't believe how fast she is growing!
Bailey really wanted to hold her brother and he was very excited to have her hold him!

Yard Work and updates of baby SWB!

2008-04-14T12:54:00.004-07:00

Spencer and I are very envious of anyone who gets to mow a lawn instead of putting one in. In the pictures these are the rock piles that I have raked so that we can then sift out the dirt and get rid of the rock. What a process this is! Unfortunately I need Spencer's help to shovel the rocks onto the sifter, the rocks are way too heavy for me! However, I am trying to be helpful so that Spence doesn't have to do it all by himself! Our yard reminds me of the movie "Holes." Thanks a bunch to the Ashcrofts for letting us borrow their rake, shovel, sifter, and wheel barrow until Spencer's yard stuff makes it up here!

Little Spencer is growing so fast. We went to the doctor on Thursday and he is already 10 pounds 15 ounces at 4 weeks. A drastic difference from Bailey. He is such a sweet baby and a great sleeper! Bailey has been in Arizona the last two weeks with my sister-in-law (thanks Jan) and with my mom (thanks mom). She has been having a great time with her aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, but we are quite anxious to have her home. Our days have been a little lonely. She comes home this Thursday! Yea!

Bailey loves her role as big sister!

2008-03-27T08:33:00.003-07:00

Baiely is enjoying her new role as big sister. Monday I was getting some house-work done so Bailey took it upon herself to entertain Spence. She pulled her guitar over and was playing it for Spence. She also loves to help him with his pacifier. She puts it in his mouth and once he starts sucking on it she pulls it out. What a helpful sister. She sure loves to look at him and kiss him and the minute he starts crying she tells me I need to help him. (On a side note, as far as her clothing choice is concerned in this picture, we were going through her clothes that day and she saw this cute little shirt and wanted to wear it after she was already dressed. Typically, we are working on wearing clothes that match.)