Things I don't want to forget about Christmas 2011

**The Christmas (party) season usually starts with the Spencer Christmas Party.  Ty was so excited to show Santa his Christmas socks that he whipped off his shoes and stuck his stinky feet in the air!

 
**After a couple of days of pouring over the Toys R Us big toy book, Ty announced that he wanted the bat cave. He then told me that I didn't need to worry about it because he was going to get it. He prayed about (translation: FOR) it and he was going to get it.  Just for the record....he forgot by the time Christmas came and hasn't said a word about it since.

I just love this picture :)

For Christmas Eve we went to Nate's parents home and did a wide variety of activities.

**At the Jones' on Christmas Eve the boys learned how to quilt and enjoyed it!

**Also on Christmas Eve we had a production of the birth of Christ.  Ty was Joseph and Kace was a wise man.

**We can never get together with the cousins without an all out wrestling match.




**We opened presents from Ryan and Donene.  All of the kids were absolutely thrilled with their new PJ's and monster slippers.  They were hilarious to watch.

 

**We then came home and did our own thing.  We thought of our "gifts to Christ", read scriptures, put our presents into our piles and then read a children's Christmas story.

 

**Both boys were so excited!  It makes for a fun time for mom and dad as well :)

**Kace asking if it was okay if he came in and jumped on us (Nate and I) in our beds in the morning (Christmas morning). I said, yes. At approximately 2:10 I hear a MOOOOOooooM in a loud whisper. I open my eyes and there is Kace two inches from my face. I have him go back to bed and promptly lock the door. He woke up again at 6:30 and then I let him in :)

 I love this picture as well!

**For as long as I can remember growing up dad said the LOOOONGEST family prayer EVER before we got to go into the front room to look at our stuff.  We carry on that tradition :).  I don't think it is as long as dad's prayers were though.  I always take a photo of them right before the run downstairs and for some reason they think it is great to pull a mad, sour face.

**The week before Christmas Kace had decided that he wanted to just peek into the front room, get ready for church, go to church and then we would open our presents.  A great thought, but we knew it wouldn't happen that way.  As a family we got a 4-wheeler.  The idea was to have a tube and the kids could ride behind the 4-wheeler.  We also got a plow to go with it.  For those who know where we live, you know that this was something we really needed (well maybe not NEEDED, but it took FOREVER to shovel snow, and we had to wait for a kind neighbor with a tractor to plow out our road).  Kace got some legos, games and Ty got some transformers and super heroes.  He is all about the super heroes right now.  

**At preschool Ty made Nate a tie.  He was SO EXCITED to give it to him because he knew his dad, "was going to love it SO MUCH."  He was right.  Ty is always so proud when his dad wears it.  It is cute.

 

**After church we came back home and played.  The boys rode on the 4-wheeler, ate garbage, built legos, watched a movie, built bionicle super hero guys and just had fun.  In the afternoon we packed up and went to Grandma and Grandpa Andrew's home.

**Kace got an awesome Justin Bieber poster from Heidi and Clayton.  As a side note......he HATES Justin Bieber.  He was so mad when his music teacher made them learn and sing "Never Say Never."  HAHA  They also got him a spy gear set, which he loves.

**On Christmas Kace learned how to blow bubbles.

**Ty was SO excited to give Brandon a saw.  He thought of the gift all by himself and bought it by himself as well.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of Cort and Kace and the gift Kace gave to him.  Kace also thought it up and purchased it himself.  It was a steering wheel and rear view mirror cover.

**Ty was so excited to get some paper money from G-Grandma Andrew.  He was so excited that he promptly ripped it.  As a side note, Ty has been wanting paper money for a long time.  I have tried to tell him that he has to do JOBS for it, and not just one dinky job, he has to really earn it.  Therefore, he hasn't done anything to earn it, so he hasn't gotten any.  This is why he was so excited to get paper money.  He bought an iron man :)

 **I wish I would have taken a picture of what Kace bought with his........it was a pet bird.  A finch to be exact.  He bought it from Pet Smart on Monday after Christmas and on Wednesday it was dead.  We now have credit to Pet Smart. 

**I designed these awesome shirts and had them made.  Pretty awesome if you ask me!  Nate did not approve.  He doesn't think hatred is healthy for my celestial soul.  I, however, would like to say that for the record......I DO NOT HATE.  I DO NOT WANT ANYTHING BAD TO HAPPEN TO THEM, I JUST WANT THEM TO LOSE EVERY GAME THEY PLAY.  There is NOTHING wrong with that. Right?!

**Also, it is a rule for me that on Christmas I do NOT do my hair and do NOT put on make-up.  Others didn't see it that way.

Well, that was our Christmas in a nut shell.  I absolutely LOVE this time of year and am always so sad to see it go. 

Two or three weeks late.............A thanksgiving post!

I had it all planned. I was going to do this post at the beginning of Thanksgiving week. Everyone always says all the things they are thankful for, but I had decided to do it backwards. I found this list of.........a lot......of nice things Heidi wrote to me when we were in elementary. I am pretty sure we were contending one with another and this was mom's idea of a punishment.



It is now in my scrapbook because it is SO FUNNY. You may have to click on the images to make them big to actually read them.


Some of my favorites are (and I quote):
*She does not take long on the toylet.
*She is going to be a pritty angle.
*I lick her to be ahead of me in peano
*When she learns how to ice skate she will be good.

Pretty much they are all funny.

As a side note this Sunday we were sitting down after church for lunch and we were talking about what the kids had learned in primary. I don't really remember what the topic was, but Kace said, "Well you can just get divorced and then remarried again." I didn't want to joke around with that topic so I said, "Oh, your dad and I, will NEVER get divorced. We may not agree all the time, but we love each other and will never get divorced."
Right after that Ty chimed in with, "YA, WE DON'T EVER WANT TO GET A DANG HORSE!" hahaha I should probably have his hearing checked.

Our trip to Oregon

I am about a month late, but better late than NEVER right?! My entire family took a trip to Oregon for the BYU/Oregon State game in October.

Kami and I surprised each other by wearing the same jacket. Heidi gave us these jackets a couple of years ago, so we both had one.

We flew into Portland and then drove to Newport where we stayed for a couple of days before going to Corvallis and the game.

The house we stayed at was right on the beach so we spent a lot of time there. My boys (all three of them) of course, loved it. I think both Nate and Kace could spend hours on end searching through the tide pools for whatever moves.

Except for at this moment when somebody (Cort) let Ty fall into a hole in the cold cold ocean and he got drenched.

I really like this picture of my brothers (both still single), Cortney and Brandon. Brandon always says how "tight" they are. I guess this picture proves it.

I am really blessed to have my best friends (other than Nate of course) be my mom and sisters.

On the second day we decided that we should go on a bike ride. I usually love doing this on every trip we go on, but I really should have thought it through. There wasn't a bike for Ty (and I wouldn't have wanted him to ride by himself if there was one) so he was cramped in this tiny trailer. He didn't last very long and I felt bad for him in that blasted thing. I had fun though. Believe it or not this is the first time in my entire life I have ever put on a bike helmet.

Heidi took a picture of Kace and then I found another one of her copying him. I am pretty sure she is making fun of him. I am posting it as proof! haha

We then we to Mo's to have some of there famous clam chowder and everything else they served (well everything else if your name is Nate......I swear he ordered one of everything on the menu. He was very hungry)

We then went to some lighthouse. It cost $21 for us all to get in, it was freezing and the actual lighthouse was closed. We probably should have thought it through and just Photoshopped ourselves into a picture of a lighthouse. Could have saved $20.

The last thing we did that day was go get some Tillamook ice cream. Usually before one orders a parent is consulted to see what is okay to order. Not so for Kace. He just orders. When they handed it to him he said he didn't know a triple scoop was so big!

Ever since Heidi introduced us to Yogurtland a couple of years ago my family LOVES self serve frozen yogurt. It wouldn't have been a family outing if we didn't go have some. This place was SO GOOD (I can't even remember the name of it now), but the toppings were big chunks and they even had little mini cupcakes as toppings. In this picture please notice Nate in the background devouring his sample!!

Nate didn't go to the game because he decided to come last minute, so when he decided to come we decided Ty should come too. He is Nate's flying "companion" so he can fly for free. We didn't think Ty would do super great at the game and it would probably be a waste of two (his and whoever was watching him) tickets, so Nate took Ty and they went to Portland to watch the game at our hotel.

Kace and I had a great time though. All the OSU fans sitting by us got a kick out of Kace. He kept trying to do their cheers. Towards the end he finally got it and they all cheered. Too bad that is all the had to cheer about. GO COUGS!

Brandon is a geek

Like mother like son

I still need to get our Oregon trip posted, but I wanted to get this done first. Sometimes your kid does something that reminds you of yourself. I was always a fanatical BYU fan. It was something that was in my DNA when I was born. I would stay awake with Heidi and we would memorize every players number from the media guide. We stayed after games for autographs. We had a BYU Christmas one year Santa only brought BYU things. I think you get the picture.

Well, this year's red ribbon week Kace wanted to do something that totally reminded me of something I would do as a kid. Crazy hair day is always his most favorite day of that week. He woke up and told me that he wanted BYU hair. He at first wanted blue.......but we didn't have blue paint, so we agreed on this (he really wanted Jimmer to be memorialized!)

Anyway Kace's BYU desire reminded me of one year, I think I was in fifth grade, I decided that I wanted to dress up for Halloween like a BYU ????. I am not for sure what I was, just a BYU thing. Please don't judge me by my former looks. It was a really trying time for my parents, when I really thought I knew how to do my hair. I actually looked in the mirror and thought it was cute. On the plus side I did have nice legs though :) I really don't have much else to say.

Halloween festivities

We started our Halloween festivities by going to our neighbor, Brian Pali's to pick out our pumpkins. He is a guy in our ward that really enjoys growing (a ton) of pumpkins every year and then calling all the ward kids to come and pick a pumpkin. The kids like it too. Kace picked a pumpkin that was shaped like a peanut, because his classes theme for their pumpkin walk was outer space so he thought he would be able to make it a pretty cool alien.

The boys wanted to paint their pumpkins this year. I was perfectly fine with that.

Ty is learning how to write his letters and numbers so his pumpkin consisted of his favorite colors blue and green and a variety of "letters". You may see some E's, Y's, X's, T's and other letters. He is getting quite good at his letters and only doesn't recognize about five of them. I was getting worried because he had shown NO INTEREST in learning them, but in the past month he has been writing them, saying them, and wanting to do flash cards with me. I don't know what the change has been, but I like it!

Ty wanted the biggest pumpkin there was. Brian had to load it in a trailer and bring it over on a four wheeler. I love the look of pure excitement on his face!

After our ward carnival (which I was in charge of this year along with the YW...and am sooooo glad it is over :) ) Kace had the grand idea that he should set up a booth at Kent's in the parking lot and try to sell his face painting skills. He got a little bit worried when I told him that he would have to get a business license to do it, but he thought he could make the money back pretty quickly. He practiced his skills on Ty! At first Ty didn't want to have his face painted and Kace was devastated, but quickly gave in (by quickly I mean, 2 or 3 hours later). I think he did pretty good!

For Jessica's birthday we went to Calloway's in full costume and had a dinner. People were giving us crazy looks, but it was fun! I couldn't get enough of Mac's costume. Jess had warned me and said that when I saw Mac I would pee my pants and sure enough it was HILARIOUS! Kace now wants this costume for next year. Probably not going to happen though.

For my costume I just got a wig and sunglasses. I am not much of a dresser upper. I told everyone that I was dressing up as my sister. I think I look kind of like her. I have absolutely NO IDEA what Nate is. He just started putting things on. On the way to the restaurant he kept looking at himself in the rear view mirror to see what he looked like with hair. We almost got into an accident more than once!

Kace's school always does a costume parade on the Friday before Halloween. The kids always get so excited to parade around in their costumes. Kace was in perfect character. He is pretty proud of his costume. He wanted to be something that would bring lots of laughs. I picked it out all by himself. I was ordering the carnival prizes on Oriental Trading he started looking for costumes and found this one. He wanted it as soon as he saw it. I was worried that it might be inappropriate (because of the nipples, they are really life-like!). Nate didn't think it was that bad and Kace couldn't stop talking about it, so we got it. As soon as his friend Easton saw it he wanted it too!

Every year at the costume parade Ty and his friends have had a great time playing in the leaves. This year was no different.



All year Ty has wanted to be black spiderman for Halloween. We went to WalMart as soon as the costumes were put on the shelf and he wore it all over. By the end of the month he no longer wanted to be black spiderman, he wanted to be Optimus Prime. Good think we already had that costume. So he went as a Transformer. Good thing I bought the black spiderman costume :)

Ty was pretty proud of his pumpkin on head trick!

My boys :) I sure do love them!


Kace is ALWAYS in character.

The Sunday before Halloween we celebrated Erik's bday at my parents house. The boys came in their costumes to go trick-or-treating to grandma and great grandma's. When we went over to MY grandma's she was probably flabbergasted because she thought Kace was a pregnant lady. I had to (gently) explain that he was a SUMO WRESTLER (two very different things). I found out later that the younger kids at the costume parade thought he was a baby with a big diaper! Whatever he was he got lots of laughs.

Notice Ty's pumpkin trick!

My whole point in doing the ward carnival was so that no one would do a trunk or treat. I do not like trunk or treat at all. I think it is parents being lazy. We have always taken our kids trick or treating, but are sometimes the only kids that go out. The older people in our ward don't go to the trunk or treat and always look forward to kids coming to their home in costume and then are always disappointed when hardly anyone comes. It makes me feel bad. SO it was decided to ban trunk or treat. That meant there were a TON of kids out trick or treating this year. I loved it!

Even though it was bed time when we got home we still had to sort our candy into piles (i.e. candy bars, tootsie rolls, fruity things, suckers, etc). They then put all their candy in different baggies and they are perfectly organized. I used to do this as a kid. After we would sort our candy the bartering would begin. We would trade the things we didn't like as much for things we did.

Ty is pretty proud of his loot. He didn't want to put it all together this year. He wanted to keep his separate. I think he is going to be sick!