Our comings and goings...

I recently found out that at least one person reads our blog...
So this is for you Grandpa.



I love that Spencer has a brother.
I love that these boys love to play together.
I love that they adore their dad and playing with him.

Money is tight this year, so not too much skiing for us.
This is my 4th grade ski day.
Cameron came up to help "chaperone" and ski with us.
Camille, Katelyn, and Spence (I don't know why he is not pictured)
skipped school to come too.
Fun Day.
Next year is Emmy's turn.

The Holidays are birthday time around our house.
This is Spence's family dinner birthday party.
We had a few extra kids with us.
It's a good thing he's still ok with McDonalds for his birthday dinner.

My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this past December.
All the kids got together for a fancy dinner (sans little ones).
It was awesome.
My parents were very happy, and it was great spending a night with my siblings and their spouses hanging out and celebrating with my parents.
They really did an amazing job with all of us.
I hope I do ok with my own kids.

This is Cameron and I at the Roof Restaurant in SLC.



Just a few weeks after Spence's birthday, my baby officially became a toddler.
Owen turned 2, and has definitely hit the terrible two's. I can't believe we're moving out of the baby phase at our house. I will definitely miss some things about that, but I am also excited to move on and watch my children as they go on to the next phase.
The other kids convinced us that Owen wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese for his family birthday dinner, so off we went.

Speaking of no more babies...
Owen, who was one of my best sleepers, figured out how to escape the confines of his crib (much to my dismay). It became so much of a struggle to keep him in there, and I was worried that he would hurt himself jumping and climbing in and out of his crib, that we moved him into the toddler bed, and are (for the first time in about 12 years) crib-free at our house. This was one of the last days in his crib. I just got too tired of fighting him, but his sibling were feeling bad for him, so they just joined him in his crib one day. I found them like this in the morning.

Right after the break was my girls big dance recital. I didn't get any pictures of Kate for some reason (on my phone at least). Cameron did on his, so maybe I'll put some up later of her.
This is Camille right before going on for her first pointe dance. She is giving Emmy some encouragement backstage before Em's first dance.

Emmy's cute dance buddies.
Best Friend Kenzie
and
Cousin Gabby.

Spence has had an ear that has given his trouble since birth.
After many doctor's visits and even 1 surgery, we finally discovered last year that Spencer would have a surgery done around the age 5-6 to see what could be done. We suspected that he was missing a bone (like his dad) that was limiting his ability to hear well. After confirming through tests that his hearing was for sure lacking (and for an unknown reason) we decided to go ahead with the exploratory surgery. This is Spence just after checking in showing off our matching bracelets. He did great during the surgery (he made me promise not to post the post-op pictures). We were so proud of him. The dr. did make an amazing discovering. Rather than missing a bone, he actually had an extra bone that was causing his other 3 to not be able to vibrate. He carefully removed the bone (avoiding some very important nerves) and he suspects Spence will be hearing just fine soon. We have the hearing test in just a few weeks to find out. I'm so grateful for a careful dr. and modern medicine.

This kid just cracks me up.
Ang's family gave him this for his birthday, and he adores it.
He carried his cars all over the place and always has one or two in bed with him.
The gift was such a blessing to me (seeing as he only sits still for a few minutes at a time and is known to trash everything and anything in his path. He will sit for hours and play with this thing).

We went on a road trip last weekend to do some research for Kate's school report. The kids had fun and it was a bonus to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa for the day.
My kids love seeing them, and they are so good to my kids.

This kid is so smart, and loves to learn. He earned this cookie for joining the Cookie Club. In order to get in, he had to pass off his letters (upper and lower) and sounds, sight words, and decoding words. He kept telling me the cookie was bigger than his face. He even held it up to me to measure with my face. Too funny.

And, to wrap up our winter birthday season.
Kate turned 9.
She is such a fun girl.
She loves to be involved in anything, and is quite the athlete.
This is Kate's favorite dessert.

Oh, I love this boy, and he loves cupcakes.
This is O enjoying a cupcake and pizza at Kate's birthday party.

We've been trying to figure out why Kate is so small for a few years now.
She's been to Primary Children's Hospital a few times,
and so far, no answers.
The doctors decided that they wanted to do some genetic testing to rule some things out before deciding what to do. This is Kate post-blood draw. She is great. She did not cry at all.