December

What a whirl wind of a month! December is full of Christmas parties, dinners with friends and mad dashes to the stores. This time I also added new eyes to an already busy month. Loren surprised me with Lasik surgery for my birthday. I absolutely love it! There were a few uncomfortable days but it has been so nice to just wake up and see.

Christmas day we went up to the mountains to go sledding. My eye sight still wasn't the best and everything was extremely bright with my sensitive eyes and all of the blinding white snow. We were driving around in the truck to find a place to sled. It seemed that everywhere we looked we saw dead animal carcasses. All of the meat had been devoured and nothing but and empty skull remained. I was feeling extremely nervous having my kids run up and down a mountain, fear that they might become some beasts next meal. I was afraid that I couldn't see well enough to protect them, that's a moms job! I nervously hung out at the top of the hill while Loren stood guard at the bottom with his hand resting on his gun. I relaxed a little knowing that my sweet hub was taking care of our family. 

Sometimes I have to step back and realize that he can to things too. His way might be different than mine but it is just as important.

Here is my sweet Jaxon. Gently helping his sister up the hill. He is going to be great at taking care of his own family one day.

November

Such a good month! To start if off we did Loren's absolute favorite thing, family pictures! I was so happy with how they turned out, each kids personality came shining thru in all of my favorites.

We hiked down to the water fall just below the tunnel. It is pretty steep and so Loren and I took turns holding Cali and making sure she did not just slide right to the bottom. The boys had fun throwing rocks and racing leaves in the little stream at the bottom. Cali hiked out of this thing on her own. She is so determined and wants to be able to do everything her big brothers are doing.

I turned 34 and celebrated all day long with friends and my  sweet family. 

We spent Thanksgiving week in Mesa with the Spencer's. We mini golfed, went to the butterfly museum, fed the new ducks, watched Frozen with the cousins, and took all the kids to As You Wish pottery. The boys ran the Renegades run again and Jaxon beat his big brothers! Tyden also beat his big brother!

October

October...

Our niece on the Spencer side was in a terrible car crash. She shattered her pelvis but thankfully it was nothing more than that. If you look at a picture of her car and see where all the damage was, you would be amazed that she is alive!!! We went to Mesa as soon as we could to visit her in the hospital. While we were there she amazed the doctors so much that they let her come home. Here are all of the Spencer grandkids.

Another weekend we ventured over to the cabin. We went out to eat, played games, went on walks and Loren and I went on a bike ride. When we go off rode I am pretty slow, I will do it but I am going to take my time. Loren was ahead of me but trying to go slow so he didn't leave me in his dust. I came around a corner and found Loren laying on the ground with his bike on top of him. Going slow doesn't work for everyone... Thankfully he was fine and there was no damage.We took the kids shooting to one of the dirtiest places I have ever shot!!!

I ran a 5k with some friends. It was fun to set a goal and do it even if it involved running. I'd love to find a bike race, now that really would be fun!

We did caramel apples with some friends before Halloween. For Halloween the kids had fun choosing what they wanted to be. I was thinking Cali would want to  be a princess or a little fairy or something cutsie, but she chose the pirate costume and could not be swayed. 

Loren gave me permission to get costumes for us this year. He is not usually one for dressing up. I followed Cali's lead and we became pirates too.

For days after Halloween Cali wore her costume as much as I would let her.

double digits

Well our first born is 10 years old. Holy cow!



 

2nd birthday for the little Sis.

It seems like just yesterday that I was checking and double checking when the ultrasound tech told me it was a girl. With tears in my eyes I asked him if he had ever been wrong. He said no one had ever told him he was wrong. I looked him square in the eye and told him that I would be the first person to come back and tell him if indeed this baby was NOT a girl! 

I have never felt more complete than after Cali joined our family.

She is such a brave little girl who never wants to be left out.

She is my little side kick, every where I go she is right there too. 

She got this scooter for her birthday and couldn't have been more excited! She drug it around for a while and would ride it if someone would push her but with in about and hour she had the thing mastered!

If she could she would wear her purple shoes with everything.

She loves to help! It doesn't matter the chore, she will jump right in and help. She got upset the other day when I asked the boys to get me their laundry baskets. She didn't have one to bring to me and that wasn't cool! 

 It is always fun to see the world thru a child's eyes. She loves all the birds in the Walmart parking lot. She loves to go 4 wheeling in daddies truck. She loves her buddy Caleb. She loves to read and color. She knows that she can have whatever she wants at church because I don't want her throwing a fit. She knows when she wakes up from a nap we go get the boys from school. She has a super high, screeching voice when Loren gets home from work, yelling "daddy, daddy" until He opens the front door.

Happy birthday my little sugar bee.

Squeals of delight!

I love my kiddos, but I love it when they go back to school too! No matter how hard I try, I am not good at giving them the structure and routine that they need. I always hear "I'm bored" and "there's nothing to do" all summer long. Plus they enjoy school. They like seeing there friends and learning new things. My favorite thing is when they come home and say "mom , guess what I learned at school?" 

My stars in stripes...

Brigg 5th grade, big man on campus. Next year is middle school, eek!

Tyden 3rd grade

Jaxon 1st

Cali wanted a lunch too. She carried it all around while we were walking the boys to their classrooms.

 

Summer time

I can not believe how quickly the summer time flew by. I don't know where the time went or what we did to fill up all that time, but we must have done something cause it is gone!

You know what they say, "a family who works together, stays together"

The kids had fun "boating" in the pool this summer. Despite this picture, Cali really did like it.

The boys caught a frog in the backyard one rainy day.

Jumping on the tramp in the rain is always more fun than regular weather.

 We drove over to the cabin last minute one weekend to see the Spencer's. There were beautiful flowers all around and Tyden just can't help himself around flowers. I'm not sure there were any left after we were gone.

 This is Cindy, one of my favorites!

All of the Spencer grandkids, minus baby Jacob. Shortly after this weekend we learned that Greg and Amy will be adding another kid to next years picture!!!

We made the trip up to Idaho and went camping at the greatest place on earth! I will always hold Red Fish Lake and the Sawtooth Mountains in a special place in my heart! I love my family to pieces and I am so glad that we were all there together.

Speaking of love...

My parents are amazing. Thanks for being so cool, Love and free agency.

Loren surprised the pants off of me when he rearranged his schedule at work so he could spend the rest of our trip in ID with us. It is always more fun when Dad is around. We managed to visit the water park in Boise and also go white water rafting. We took my parents and my grandma out to eat at Cheesecake Factory. 

Cali had a great time with cousin Wade in Chloe park in my parents backyard.

Grandpa and I taking the kids out to ice cream.

The typical good bye picture of me and my mom.

We left Boise and drove all night to Mesa so we could spend some time with the Spencer's before school started again.

The last week before school started we packed it in with friends, playing and enjoying time together. Some of the other moms and I had a few cannon ball contests while all of our kids watched. We just had to remind them that we are pretty cool still! I won, yah me!