Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas Countdown

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Family Pictures

We got our family pictures done with Chelton's family and I thought I would post the pictures and how cute they turned out. It has been a very long time since we got our family pictures done so we were in desparate need of an update. Thanks Annette (my mother-in-law) for arranging for it to be done.

Here is one of my cute kids who are growing up much too fast!!!

Photobucket

Here is one of just me and Chelton. She took one of us where we look like we actually like each other and we were actually touching and hugging but we didn't get a copy of that one :) I don't like this picture so much but it is all we got.

Photobucket

Here is one of the whole Spendlove clan (minus one niece who was in Las Vegas for a dance competition who was greatly missed) but what a clan it is. And about two weeks after we took the picture we found out one of my brother in laws is getting married so now we are missing two people from the picture. Doesn't that always happen. You take a family picture and suddenly you find out someone is pregnant or getting married or something and it is out of date?

Photobucket

And last but not least family picture #1

Photobucket

And family picture #2

Photobucket

Can't believe how fast our family is growing and changing. What will the next 5 years bring?

Friday, December 9, 2011

Pickles and Beans

"Pickles and Beans" by Connor Spendlove

Being different is what diversity means.
Some people like pickles, some people like beans.
Some people have black hair, some people have brown.
Some people have smiles, some people have frowns.
We should all get along though we're not the same.
We can all be friends and play a game.

This is the poem that Connor entered in the Reflections contest this year. The theme this year was "Diversity Means." We sat down and wrote this poem and he wrote it pretty quickly actually. We had the assembly two days ago and he found out that he took second place and he got a medal and a dollar for writing his poem. Connor LOVES medals. He was sooo excited!!! Here is a picture of him and his medal for his poem.

Photobucket

Photobucket

The next day at karate Connor was chosen as the athlete of the day and received the karate medal (which he has done once when he first started karate so he had one other karate medal) so he had to take a picture with both of his karate medals. Now he gets really proud of his medals and keeps them in his special medal box and is proud of them. He is a very flexible kid and can do the splits very well and when he earned his medal they took a picture of him doing the splits in front with the whole class behind him. He loves the attention and being in the spotlight so he LOVED this!!! When he got home he had to run and get his other karate medal and take a picture with both of his karate medals on.

Photobucket

Also Connor lost a tooth recently (which he hasn't done in a long time). He hasn't been one of those kids that has been missing all his teeth. When he lost his bottom teeth his others were already grown in behind so he never had a hole like a normal kid should. He was so proud when he lost this tooth to actually have a real hole in his mouth. He put the tooth under his pillow and could you believe it that the tooth fairy didn't come? She must have been real tired or forgetful and the next night didn't come again? Darn that tooth fairy. Mom went upstairs and showed Connor that he just doesn't look very good and showed Connor that the money was there the whole time and that it was just hidden really good inside his pillow case and he got $5 because the tooth fairy didn't come the first night :)

Photobucket

Photobucket

Also I know it is going way back but we did have a good Thanksgiving. My mom and dad came down to Fillmore as it was their off year and we couldn't come up to my in-laws as Chelton had to work. We had a low key Thanksgiving with just my kids and my mom and dad. We watched some football and made these cute little felt turkeys with the kids. My mom and I stayed up until 1:00 in the morning after doing our version of black Friday getting the Walmart deals online. It was pretty hectic but so much better than going to any stores in the cold and dealing with people and lines. We actually got pretty much what we wanted to get too. It was great. On Saturday in Fillmore they have a light parade (pretty small but fun) and then they light up the town square and have hot chocolate and doughnuts with Santa. It was cold but fun. Plus Santa gives you a whole bag full of candy rather than a little candy cane so the kids liked that. Here is my kid's homemade felt turkey puppets we made on Thanksgiving.

Photobucket

So Garrett has been playing junior Jazz lately and has been doing pretty good with that. His team is the Pacers. He plays with a combined 3rd, 4th and 5th grade team and there is a big difference between 3rd, 4th and 5th graders but down here they don't have enough kids to have their own league so they have to combine. They basically have two teams. They put in the 3rd and 4th graders to play against the other team's 3rd an 4th graders for a quarter and then switch. It works out pretty good. Garrett has really improved quite a bit. Basketball is his favorite sport and you can really tell.

Photobucket

Photobucket

And last but not least on my super long blog post we had our ward party recently. We had a fun night where we had soup and salad and cookies and the kids sang songs and then Santa came. We had just seen Santa from the light parade and got pictures there but Kylie wasn't so sure about Santa but I got here to sit and smile pretty for me so I thought I would post how cute they were with Santa. I haven't got Santa pictures I think ever because we never went to any place were there was a Santa but we have them now.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Well that is the end of my really long blog post. If you made it this far thanks for hanging in there. Only 30 more days until my Caribbean cruise!!!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Look who turned 4

Photobucket

So my baby girl finally turned four. I can't believe how fast time flies. It seems like just yesterday she was born. She had a good birthday. The picture above is Kylie in her new dress my mom gave her that she wore to church on Sunday. Her birthday was really on Sunday but we did her party for her on Saturday. Mostly because she wanted to have a sleepover watching movies and we didn't want to do that on Sunday when the kids had school the next day. She wanted a princess themed birthday (suprise suprise if you know Kylie). We kept it low key (i.e. no friends and just family). So I made up some princess bingo cards. My mom and dad came down for a ride (what else do you have to do when you are retired?) and my in-laws sent their present down and texted us as they are having a wonderful vacation in Japan right now (lucky them and I soooo wish I was with them right now).

So we had an exciting game of Princess bingo (well actually it turned out to be girl bingo because I ran out of princesses and had to add in a few extras like barbie and dora and lady and the tramp to fill in the rest. Every body (adults included) each got a chance to win a candybar. After that we played Don't Eat Pete but changed the name to Don't Eat Princess. The kids had a ball with this game. We had some homemade chicken noodle soup and rolls (per Kylie's request---I know a shock it wasn't hot dogs---her favorite thing) and then we had cake. Chelton always makes the cakes and she wanted an Aurora cake. He did a good job on it. He wasn't as thrilled. She didn't get a face but Kylie was thrilled with it and it tasted amazing. Cake is my weakness and I am tempted to throw the rest away as it has been calling my name (I know my sisters reading this know what I mean--ha ha ha). Here is a picture of Kylie with her cake.

Photobucket

After my parents left we watched Cars 2 with the kids. We have been saving it to watch until Kylie's birthday.

She also got this princess table you can kind of see over the birthday mess that she is obsessed with (thanks Brenna and Halley). She has been sitting and playing with it 24/7.

Photobucket

She got a lot of other presents too like this necklace kit.

Photobucket

She also got a Littlest Pet shop set that she has been obsessed with too and some Dora fingernail polish and chapstick that she LOVES and the Pinkie Pie learns to walk doll that she loves and makes me doll sit (instead of baby sit). She got a mermaid barbie and some seriously cute clothes. She also got $5 from her great grandma and she used it to pick out a Cinderalla phone at the store. I think she doesn't need Christmas to come because she is all set :)

She keeps asking me over and over again if she is 4. I don't think she quite believes me. She got to give a talk at church yesterday plus they sang happy birthday to her and they chose her to dismiss the classes so she was like the star of primary and she loved it. It was like her special weekend. She really loved it.

I don't know what we would do without our sweet, crazy tempered, extremely girly, pink Kylie. She sure makes it interesting around here. Now if I could just make it so she would stop growing.

Photobucket