Merry Christmas.....From the Spencer Clan!!!
We are still alive!!! I knew I hadn't been able to update my blog for a long time...but I was surprised to see that my last post was in May!!! I guess that just shows how crazy busy of a year we have had. I thought I would just take a minute though to write a little christmas update of what each of us have been up to and a little about our crazy year :-)

Our little Anna just turned 5 this week. I can't believe how old she is getting. It is really fun to see her grow up and become an independent little person but it is also sad to watch our "baby" grow up and become independent and not need us as much. She is in preschool right now (even though we think she is ready for first grade :-) She is one smart little kid who loves to write things-her favorite new hobby is writing letters to everyone. She is learning how to read and count (one day she just counted to 100 for me out of the blue) and loves art as well. We have nicknamed her the bag lady because she is always going around the house with a wal-mart bag looking for little knicknacks or odd things to put in the bag so she can use them in her art projects. One day she made an entire purse out of paper towels and staples :-)

Sam is our sweet little guy. He is very mild mannered (well most of the time) and shy around those he doesn't know. It ususally takes him a while to get used to people and open up to them-but once he does-he is a little comedian and has a quick sense of humor. He is in the second grade this year and is doing really well. He is doing well in reading and is very good at math. He is also a good little swimmer and is wanting to start swimming on the little city swim team soon.

Stephen is our funny guy. He is one big kid. At his recent school christmas program, I could not believe that he was seriously one head bigger than any other kid in his grade. It was funny to see him stand out like that. He is also very bright and is always amazing us at the things he knows and his uncanny ability to memorize everything. He has also been doing alot of swimming this year and has passed off all of the swimming levels as well. He is a regular fish in the water. He has also been taking piano lessons for the past couple of years and lately there have been a few times when he has been practicing and I thought it was one of the older girls and was surprised to find him in there practicing.

Michaela is our 12 year old. She started young womens this year and went to her first girls camp. She also started Jr. High and has been doing well. We were really happy when she got straight A's on her first terms report card. She also started dancing on the drill team at her dance studio with Madison and is also taking piano lessons as well. We like to tease her because she has a couple of boy "friends" that she is always seeming to talk too or text. She just says they are her friends but its fun to tease her.

Madison is our 14 year old. She will be 15 in February and be able to get her learners permit. That is scary. She is also doing well in school and she even got a straight 4.0 report card for all of her 8th grade year of school and has already gotten another 4.0 so far this year. She also plays the piano beautifully and is involved in dance. She was able to go to EFY at BYU this summer and had alot of fun there as well. She hasn't seemed to be as in to boys as her younger sister yet-but we are grateful for that. Hopefully she doesn't notice any boys until she is done with school :-)

Mike and I are trucking along. We just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. We have had a really crazy year. Mike is still working hard to make sure that the people of Price get there mail everyday and he has also been refereeing football and basketball games in the evenings. He also likes to try to sneak in a golf game whenever he can.
I have been going to school full time in the Elementary Education program at USU that is here in Price. I have also been teaching some part time child development classes through CEU and have also been working as a coordinator for a mentor program through USU. I still like to run and have run and look forward to any little run I can get as a stress reliever for that day. All of this, along with everything the kids are doing-just keeps us very,very busy.
We also had a crazy bout of bacterial pneumonia hit our family in August and it turned into a three month long ordeal. Three of the kids ended up getting it. Madison got it first and was extremely sick for three weeks and just when she was getting over it-Stephen ended up in the hospital with it and then had to have a IV pic line put in his arm so that he could have IV's at home for a few weeks after that. Once he was starting to do a little better, Sam got sick. He was also really, really sick and ended up missing over two weeks of school. Uhggg... the whole thing was a nightmare to us. Thankfully, Michaela and Anna didn't get sick for some reason, and the other three are doing better now. Madison has had a hard time staying healthy this fall and has had one thing after another but Stephen has done well and Sam is doing well too. We are trying to unearth ourselves from the mound of hospital, doctor, home health etc...bills that we got over those months. That hasn't been fun :( We are very thankful for our kids health though at this Christmas season. I think we appreciate it more than ever now.

We are very grateful for this Christmas season and for the little break in our hectic schedules that it is giving us!!! We hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!