Spencer's on the Move

Madison's First High School Drill Team performance

2011-08-19T21:50:00.005-06:00

Madison performed for her first high school football game tonight...here is the video-Sorry it is so bouncy-I promise to take a tripod to the next game :)

Madison & Michaela's Spring Dance Recital

2011-05-23T11:14:00.022-06:00

Here are some videos of the girls dance recital on May 21, 2011...I hope that Youtube doesn't take away some of the sound :-)

This was part of the Drill Down Competition they had for all the older girls...I didn't start recording until there were only three girls left...

On this dance...Michaela has a green skirt and Madison has a pink/purple skirt-they are in the middle when they do the kick line:

Weird Science Dance...Michaela is on the left in the back and Madison is the third from the left on the front...

2010-12-23T13:28:00.003-07:00

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!!!

Trying to catch up with life!!!

2010-05-27T10:17:00.019-06:00

Looking at my latest blog posts...or lack thereof...shows just how busy life has been lately. I'm feeling very guilty about all of the events that have happened in my kids lives over the past few months that I haven't had time to record.....

First of all....this is what PERFECT looks like....Madison's final 8th grade report card!

She got a new beach cruiser bike for her hard work!!!

Anna had her end of year program for Preschool.......

She got an award for the best Handwriting :)

The girls had their final dance performance and did great!!!

Stephen got his bear award in Scouts and had to give mom a pin and get a bear claw painted on his face.

Mike, Madison, Michaela and I got to go with our ward to do baptism's for the dead at the Manti Temple

And Kesley got baptized in her Grandma's pool on the same day!

And Sam started taking piano lessons and LOVES it!!! He wants to practice all of the time-hopefully that continues! (now I just have to figure out how to have enough time for four kids to practice piano in the mornings!)

This and That.....

2010-05-23T10:56:00.005-06:00

*I keep trying to upload video from the girls dance recital but having difficulties...I'll keep trying :)

All about Cars.....

2010-03-15T22:22:00.006-06:00

Well...we have had a interesting week that revolved around cars! Not really normal for our household.
The week started by my getting in my first (and hopefully-knock on wood-last) car accident. To make a long story short...I lost control of the Expedition during a snow storm in Spanish Fork Canyon and it spun out and went off the side of the road (thankfully it was the opposite side of the road from where I was) and then rolled over. Somehow I didn't get hurt at all...some very nice good samaritans who stopped got me out the the car through the sunroof. I'm also very grateful I was alone because as the car spun off the road it hit into a road sign and the sign went through the back side window where the boys are always sitting...that is what haunts me-but again thankfully all is well. We didn't know if the car would be totaled or not but I think it is going to get fixed.
Sorry...I said that I would keep it short...there is much more to the story than that but I just want to forget the whole experience. I am so grateful for all of the good people who have helped us out though this past week :)

Anyway, On to better news. It was also the week of the the big Pinewood Derby! I don't know who had more fun doing the Pinewood Derby car...Mike or Stephen. They were both very proud of the car. I don't know that I've ever seen Stephen so excited about something. I think that Mike can't wait until he has to make both of the boy's Pinewood derby cars!

And then the week ended with Mike surprising me by buying us a new (well-its not "new" but its new to us) car. It's probably not exactly a car that most people would get excited over...but to me it's perfect. It is a Ford Freestyle (or Taurus X), which is a crossover or "glorified" station wagon as Mike says. But it drives like a car and it's AWD for that dang canyon and it seats all of us and it gets good gas milage...so it's perfect. It also has some new fangled stuff that our 10 year old cars don't have like....dual temperature control! Mike can have his side of the car freezing cold and I can have mine nice and toasty!!! I love that.

Ahhh.....Back to Reality

2010-02-11T19:11:00.002-07:00

Well, I guess that we are back to reality. We really wish we weren't. We really had so much fun on our family vacation, that the kids already are asking us when we are going back. I guess it's time to start saving up again. Anna continually talks about "Snisneyland" and how much fun it is and everything she loves. She remembers the most random things. We apparently went on Haunted Mansion too many times though. It was Anna's favorite ride but she now has a huge fear of Mirrors and hunches down everytime she has to walk by one-like to go to the bathroom. She is afraid if she looks in a mirror a ghost will be next to her! Anyway, here is a few more pics of the trip! I promise this is the last :)

Zippidy Do-Dah.....

2010-01-31T19:31:00.006-07:00

Wow...I've had a hard time keeping up with this blog lately. Life has been keeping us very busy! We survived Christmas! The kids were once again very spoiled. We even survived Mom (Calleen) ending up having to have surgery two days before Christmas! All of the kids pitched in to help Mike with everything for a few days...Mom was just a little out of it for Christmas :)
The Start of the year has also kept us busy. Mom has started going back to school this semester. That is just one more thing to keep us so busy.
We did just get back from a much needed vacation to Disneyland! I don't think we knew how much we needed a break from all of the craziness of life until we got there. It was SOOOOOOO nice to just be able to spend time as a family and not worry about any of the outside pressures of the world! It was a great vacation! Hopefully I'll post some pics soon! (here is the first set of some pics...)

Don't worry...there is more pics...I add as soon as I have some more time :)

Merry Christmas!!!

2009-12-22T08:50:00.014-07:00

Well...Once again I have been too busy to post anything...but I wanted to wish anyone everyone (or anyone who might still read this blog :) a very Merry Christmas!
Here are a few pics of things we have been doing this past month:
(Mike celebrated his 35th birthday!!!)

The girls and I got to go with Grandma to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert with Natalie Cole. It was a great, great concert! We also got to see the lights on Temple Square while we were there. It was the first time the girls have ever seen the lights there!

The kids (well the ones who want presents) got to see Santa.....

Anna had her first little Preschool Christmas Program...she did great!
We went to the Murdock Christmas party and the kids did the annual nativity scene... (I love Anna's face in the picture!)
Anna celebrated her 4th Birthday!!! We can't believe that she is 4. She was very proud of her Sponge Bob cake! Her cousin Aurora celebrated her 5th Birthday too!

Mike and I celebrated our 15th Anniversary!!! We spent the weekend going to 3 family parties...we did manage to break away for a few hours and go to lunch and make a trip to the Home Depot. So romantic I know. Definately not the trip to Hawaii I always wish for or the trip to the Las Vegas Bowl that Mike always hopes for. Oh well...maybe one of these years. Not really counting on it though :) The kids did get a good laugh out of the fact that we both gave each other the same card. I guess that shows that we have been married for a long time...we think alike!

This year has been crazy, very busy and full of challenges but we do realize that we have so much to be thankful for. Merry Christmas!

The Spencer's life...according to mom's phone:

2009-11-29T14:30:00.008-07:00

Life has been so, so busy lately and obiviously my blog is one of the casualities of me not having enough time for everything....but I thought I would just do a little update of what we have been doing this past month...according to the one thing that goes everywhere with me...my phone.

Madison was thrilled to have me take a picture of her when she was inducted into the National Jr. Honor Society. That's what she gets for having a 4.0 GPA :)

Mike's Post Office has just finished undergoing a $1 million dollar renovation. Most of the things that were fixed or upgraded in the building aren't noticable to most (Like a new heating and air conditioning system in the whole building-no more boiler), but the new windows throughout the building that replaced the 1930's original's but still look authentic are awesome!

Anna is becoming quite the artist. She is great at coloring in the lines and even writing her own name! I think that between her going to preschool now and also going to work with mom everyday at the daycare she is really learning a ton.

Of course the girls had to wait outside for 4 hours to make sure that they got into the movie theatre to see New Moon. Thankfully mom just had to go the last 1/2 hour to wait with them.

Stephen officially became a big BYU fan. I think that he has finally realized that he can give his Grandpa and Uncles and Aunt a hard time by being a BYU fan...he loves it!

Our Halloween Fun....

2009-11-08T14:41:00.002-07:00

Ok...it's a little late. We have had a crazy couple of weeks filled with lots of sickness...new jobs and a million other things-I feel like I'm lucky if I can find the time to even brush my teeth lately-let alone update my blog...but here are some pics from our halloween fun!

Milo & Otis.....

2009-11-08T13:46:00.005-07:00

When Mike and the kids brought a funny looking Pug home from the Animal Shelter...his name was Otis. They decided to rename him Rocky. We knew that the name Otis came from a movie about a Pug named Otis but for some reason we had never seen the movie-or even a picture of it-until this last week.

Needless to say...we never knew what Milo looked like....and had to laugh at the similarities that Milo has to our little abandoned kitten Tigger. Little did we know that we had the NEW Milo and Otis at our HOUSE!

The Annual Family Picture Fun....

2009-10-25T16:44:00.012-06:00

I like to have this crazy tradition every year...sometimes even twice a year where I drag all of my little family together...make them wear matching outfits and attempt to get just one good family picture. We can't really afford to go to a "real" photographer and get a professional picture...so I take on the quest myself....which adds another element of fun to the adventure...again all I want is ONE good picture-really can it be that hard? Last year we headed for the hills (of Huntington) for our family picture, although we did find a great place to take the pics...it was a 45 minute drive which about had the kids going whacko before we even started the pictures. So this year...I decided I would take advantage of the beautiful little trail that runs along the canal that is directly across the street from our house. I was hoping that the fact that my kids didn't have to drive anywhere would leave them in better spirits about getting family pictures. Well not really...All I want is ONE picture-Please! (I'm sorry to all of my neighbors who might have heard us yelling at our kids from the canal :)

Well this is what we came up with:
This was the best pic we had...Sam is jumping or something and Michaela...well she had the same overly enthusiastic look in all of the pics...

Oh well...I'm sure that once I've forgotten about all of the torture of these family pictures...I'll be dragging my family out and trying yet again for that perfect allusive family picture! Wish me luck!!!

A "Tigger" update....

2009-10-18T15:08:00.011-06:00

About 6 weeks ago I found a very newborn kitten by the side of the road-it didn't even have it's eyes open...it was barely alive and looked like a small rat...not a kitten. Anyway, long story short...we ended up bringing the little kitten home, not thinking it would survive but we started to feed the kitten-every two hours day and night with a little dropper. The kitten amazingly did ok and is now about 7 weeks old and has started eating out of it's bowl on it's own (thank goodness) and is also pretty much litter box trained and LOVES to play. The kids named it Tigger. We are still not exactly sure if it is a boy or girl, the only time it has been to the Vet-he couldn't tell. We kindof think it is a girl but not being cat experts..we will find out when we take Tigger for shots.

(Video of Tigger playing)

Stephen's Baptism...

2009-10-11T13:59:00.020-06:00

Stephen was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints yesterday. He was so excited about the baptism. I (mom) felt like I was forgetting something as we prepared for the baptism but Mike reminded me that boys are easier than girls at these occasions. Girls have to have the special dress, and hairdo and everything and boys (or at least Stephen) are just ready to go...all they needed was a towel. Just easier-I wonder if that is how weddings are too. Probably. Anyway, Stephen's baptism went great. He let out a sign of relief when he got into the baptismal font and the water was warm. Whew... His dad also gave him a great confirmation blessing. Stephen was also so happy that his friend Zack was able to come. We then had a little family party after the baptism at our house. Not alot of family was able to come but we were so thankful for those that were able too. We really appreciated it :) Our Family after the baptism

Grandma and Grandpa Child with Stephen

Grandma and Grandpa Spencer with Stephen

Great Grandma Spencer with Stephen
Great Grandma and Grandpa Murdock with Stephen...It was also Grandpa Murdock's Birthday!

St. George Marathon....

2009-10-05T11:53:00.025-06:00

I grew up knowing when it was St. George Marathon weekend. My dad would run it, then come home and we would all think he was a little crazy when he would slide down the stairs at our house on his backside for a few days because he was too sore to walk down them. So of course, we would never be so crazy to do such a thing.

Later my sister caught the marathon running bug and fell in love with the St. George Marathon...of course she was crazy too..and I wasn't going to join them.

Or so I thought....This weekend I ran my first St. George Marathon (my 2nd full marathon). Despite getting a not so fun injury only a week before the race, and getting a cortizone shot in my hip two days before the race...it was such a fun experience! Even as the bus was driving us up to the start line early the morning of the race, I had no idea if I would be able to run on my leg or what would happen but I just decided that I had worked way to hard to not be there and I was going to have fun-no matter what! After a few miles of running, I decided that even though there was pain in my leg and knee...I could somehow put it out of my mind and just keep going...so that is what I did. I ran a little slower than I had trained for but I knew I just needed to be comfortable as possible. At about Mile 25 my Dad, the long time marathoner, met me to run in the rest of the way with me. He told me that pain is just a figment of my imagination. I'm not so sure about that.... I was SOOO happy when I made it to the finish line! 4 hours and 17 minutes. Not exactly what I was hoping for a month ago...but just the fact that I finished was more than I had dared hope for 24 hours before. My dad also ran in with my sister...much earlier than me...as she finally accomplished her goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon! She was so excited and now she is following in my dad's footsteps there.....

Here is a video my dad made while he was running in with both my sister and I....He kindof takes you along for the ride....

St. George Marathon Video

A week of celebrations....

2009-09-30T10:14:00.014-06:00

This past week was our Stephen boy's 8th birthday! He is growing up so fast... Our (Great) Grandpa Norman Spencer also passed away on Stephen's birthday. The week turned into a week of celebrating Stephen's birthday and celebrating the life of

Grandpa Spencer.

A friend of mine summed up the passing of Stephen's Great Grandpa on his birthday perfectly :
"How poignant to know that Stephen is old enough to be baptized into a gospel organized by a loving Father in Heaven who blesses families to be together forever."

That is how we want to remember that day...and we are looking forward to Stephen's baptism coming up next week.

Stephen wanted to go to the Brick Oven for his birthday dinner.....

Dad and the other pallbearer's bringing Grandpa's casket to the cemetary......

Great Grandma Spencer placing a rose on Grandpa's casket....

Everyone getting white balloons to send heavenward to Grandpa!

The First Bus Ride....

2009-09-22T14:15:00.009-06:00

Anna took her first ride on the bus today...She goes to preschool at the elementary school that the kids go to so we asked the bus driver (who is our neighbor) if she could try out the bus and he said yes....I don't know who was more excited, Anna or her older siblings.

The girls walking her down the street.

Anna was so proud to hang out in line with them....

Not too sure but she went through with it...and had alot of fun!

*and they apparently had a bus evacuation drill that she had to do too!

And this is where I found her a hour after she got home from preschool...apparently that 7:30am bus was a little early for her.

Runnin' in Castle Country Part 2.....

2009-09-21T10:20:00.009-06:00

I had the chance to run my favorite race again last week. It turned out to be a tough race for me...thanks to being sick throughout the week before and really sick the night before but I still went...survived....improved my time from last year by 13 minutes...and took 4th place in my age division (with the girl taking 3rd place only a few seconds in front of me-bummer). Even though I wasn't feeling well...I still love this race...it is a great course that is beautiful and well organized (except I wished it was chipped). Definately can't wait to do it again next year-and I'll be in that "older" age category-so who knows :)

I didn't take any pictures from the race but this is my post from last year...

Anna starts preschool...and other things...

2009-09-08T13:52:00.010-06:00

Today was our little Anna's first day of Preschool. She has had her outfit picked out for the past week and has been telling everyone that she was going to go to school on "tember 8". She was a little hesitant when we went in the room...but she was distracted by some other kids and I made my escape. I'm not sure how the next two hours of her life were...but she seemed to have fun-so I think it was a success.

We have also had a busy week taking care of a motherless newborn kitten that I just had to come by on my way home from a meeting last week. I thought I would take it to the animal shelter but was then informed that they would not take it...so I guess it ended up at our house and I'm now it's full time nurse. It is pretty new and has just barely started opening it's eyes the last couple of days. We (well, I) have to feed it every two hours day and night. We are doing our best to help it out...we're still not sure whether it will make it or not but the kids are all in love with it. They have named it Tigger. Rocky does his best to avoid it.

And I had the chance to go and run my 3rd (out of 4) Half Marathon's in the past 4 weeks (the 4th is this weekend). I had been sick the past week before this race and had finally broke down and went to the doctor the day before the race where I found out I had a nice sinus infection. Anyway....I wasn't too sure about this race since I wasn't feeling that great, but decided to go and just have fun and not worry about times, PR's, anything...just have fun with my friends. It turned out to be a hard course-so I was extra glad I wasn't worried about time...but I got to run the entire race with one of my long time best friends and it was so much fun...we just talked the whole time. Kindof sad that it takes us running 13 miles together to find the time to just talk...but it was nice anyway. Thanks Girls! (sorry the pic is so small...I stole if off of FB :)

A Little to Close for Comfort....

2009-08-25T09:13:00.008-06:00

We had a little storm here yesterday. I opened up the windows to enjoy the smell and sound of the rain that was falling. We had just sat down at the table for lunch when there was an instantanous huge flash of light and the loudest crack of thunder I have ever heard. You could seriously feel the electricity in the air. I hurried all of the little kids away from the windows and closed them. I knew that the lightning had hit close... Thankfully it wasn't our house but some new people that just moved in the neighborhood weren't so lucky....

At least it was just their tree hit by lightning and not their house.

Hobble Creek 1/2 Marathon....

2009-08-24T13:17:00.000-06:00

This past weekend was the Hobble Creek 1/2 marathon. This race is fun for me because it is in my hometown and kindof like a High School reunion. I love to see so many good friends there. It is also a popular race that sold out in one day. There were a few glitches to the race this year. It started 45 minutes late because two of the busses going up the canyon got lost-they went up left hand fork when they were supposed to go up right hand fork. The day was also hot and it got hotter as it went-with no thanks to the late start...but I somehow was able to get a new PR time anyway. I came in at 1:54. I had decided it was either a PR or the ER. (I think I came pretty close to the ER option). Anyway, my parents were on their bikes on the final stretch of the race taking pictures and video of my sister and I...it's kindof funny...I guess it shows that your never too old to have your parents taking video of you.

Hobble Creek Half Video

Cash for my clunkers??? No thanks.

2009-08-24T09:29:00.003-06:00

I had a strange, horrible dream last night. One of those dreams, where when you wake up-you really thought that everything in the dream happened and it seems kindof surreal when you realize that it didn't. I think my dream had something to do with my watching the news last night and they were talking about how today is the last day for the cash for clunkers program and people are rushing to dealers to get rid of their old clunkers and get such a deal on brand new cars. I was thinking (again) how my 10 year old, 14 mile per gallon, gas guzzling SUV with about a billion miles on it and not worth much perfectly fits into the bill. Maybe it was also the little trip Mike and I took through the new car lot and had some SERIOUS sticker shock. One car was $50,000...the next was $60,000 and then the one next to it was $78,000! These are cars that I freely see driving all around town-all the time. Anyway, all of this must have had some effect on my mind because I had this very life like dream that I came home from somewhere and Mike had gone off and traded my clunker in for one of these cars. I was so mad that I ran down to the dealership to try to get it back just in time to see it getting smashed by the big car cruncher that they have at the junk yard (this might come from the fact that this really did happen to my very first car-getting smashed anyway). I was mortified that I had to have this new car and its subsequent enormous car payment. When I woke up this morning, I ran to look out in the garage where I really thought that this new evil huge-car-payment car was sitting. I was so grateful when I saw my trusty old clunker out there with its no car payment waiting for me. Cash for my clunkers-No Thanks. I'll take my paid for clunker any time over going and trading it in for a $500 or $600 car payment.

Back to School....

2009-08-20T16:26:00.000-06:00

Four of the kids went back to school this week...

Madison had her first day of 8th Grade...This is getting scarry! Michaela is in 6th grade this year...the "big kids" in the elementary school.
Stephen probably is the biggest 2nd grader....

Sam is in 1st grade this year. Rocky also wanted to join in some of the pictures :)

Anna isn't being left out either... she will start Preschool in a couple of weeks....

Robinson Family Reunion...

2009-08-18T13:09:00.001-06:00

We just got back from the annual Robinson family reunion at Palisade State Park near Manti. We always have alot of fun!

The "Redneck" Half marathon...

2009-08-10T14:12:00.013-06:00

Mike tells me that no one wants to hear about my running stories...which is probably true...but since this blog is the closest thing to me keeping a journal right now and I want to record some of my interesting life experiences...you'll just have to bear with me (or move on to the next blog).

I went up to my hometown(s) of Springville/Mapleton to run in a Moonlight Half Marathon. It was interesting to say the least.....
We started up Hobble Creek Canyon at the Gravel pit/shooting range. I never knew this area was a shooting range...but I DO NOW!!! We were waiting for the race to start while there were guns going off every couple of seconds right next to us...very strange.

One of the girls I was running with (obviously not from Springville) proclaimed that this was the Redneck half marathon (it might also have been the fact that they told us that there were bushes available on the left and right sides of the road for restrooms).

This race was also not typical because you picked your starting time with the idea that you had to finish at midnight 13.1 miles down the canyon at the Ira Allen Park in Mapleton. So we waited and waited...it got dark up the canyon (at least then the shooters left). We had fun taking pictures of us and our glowing things...(my kids had gotten out of control putting glow in the dark stars on me) Anyway I finally started at 10:00. It was really dark...alot darker than I thought for some reason and I was really wishing I had a headlamp....It was fun to run down the canyon but you also just had to be careful that you didn't trip over something in the dark. Even as we made our way into Mapleton I still was a little worried about tripping but it was fun to take in atmosphere...there was a full moon...I had just put Michael Jackson's thriller on my Ipod and it just happened to come on during an especially dark part of the race with the full moon above me...a little weird. Part of the race actually ran through the front of someone's garage and out the back (or was it the other way around?). Anyway, we weren't allowed to have watches or anything that we could tell what time it was, so I had no idea what time it was or how close it was to midnight as I passed the 12 mile mark. As I was getting closer to the 13 mile mark I heard a ton of cheering...great... I guess that was Midnight! I tried to run in as fast as I could and as soon as I crossed the finish line (they also had the clock backward so you couldn't see it until you went past it and looked back), the clock turned over to 12:01. Dang! My sister and her friend finished a couple of minutes ahead of me and our other friends were a few minutes behind me...I guess I was the closest in our group to the midnight goal (even though I would have loved to have been a few minutes early). They had a awesome party at the park afterward with a TON of food, ice cream..everything...it was alot of fun but we then headed back up the canyon in one car to get the other's girls car and then drove back to my parents house where I successfully did not sleep the rest of the night! Oh well.....it was a interesting and hilarious night, actually one of the funnest races I have seen! Can't wait 'til next year...with a headlamp of course :)

More from Girls Camp.....

2009-08-09T19:17:00.003-06:00

Madison's awesome Young Women Leaders put together this video from their Girls camp and youth conference...I hope they don't mind me sharing it :)

What is there to do in Helper anyway?

2009-08-02T08:12:00.005-06:00

Grandma, Wendy, Crystal, Kesley, Hannah and Andy just came down (or up?) to go swimming with us at the exciting Helper pool. Here are some of the Highlights...

Mike trying to teach the girls how to do a flip off the diving board....

Michaela just opted for a simple dive....

Kesley wins the award for her "back" flip!

Oh...what do you do in the Summer Time???

2009-07-28T12:32:00.020-06:00

This summer is going by quickly (which I'm mostly thankful for)...here is an update of what some of us have been doing this summer......

The boys played their first year of coach pitch baseball....Stephen umm... tolerated it. It's not his favorite sport. Sam loved it and even had one of the parents tell him that he was the most improved player of the team.

Madison and her friend Annika went to a BYU dance camp for a few days...they had alot of fun and can't wait until next year to do it again (and other camps & EFY?...she needs to start saving)

The kids all had a great time at our AWESOME ward summer party!

Stephen has been taking swimming lessons all summer...he's on his 3rd round of Level 4....he just needs to perfect the art of diving head first into the water without doing a belly flop to move on....it might be a while :)

Michaela has also been swimming alot on the Barracuda swim team...she has also apparently been successfull in her plight to avoid my camera at all costs....but I will get her eventually.

Mike has been golfing alot this summer (probably ALOT more than I even know). He has enlisted the girls a few times to be his caddy. They think that driving the golf cart is the most fun ever.

Mike has also apparently decided that he needs to have his own blog....I had once told him that he should get one so that he could have a forum for his very strong political views-whereas I have no political views (the last time I voted...it was to save the Springville Red Devil). I think he also wants to dispute everything that I put on our family blog...which I really just have as my own family scrapbook...not a place to put my own opinions, so I hope that my encouraging him to have a blog, doesn't come around to haunt me-we'll see.

(*and the "real" story of the family picture has already been told right here on this blog-except for the part of the DS game, which the kids weren't that upset about-just mom was-it was brand new and never was found...)

The Spencer Post

2009-07-27T22:58:00.002-06:00

He now has his own blog to tell the other side of the story:

http://spencerpost.blogspot.com/

We Love to See the Temple.....Part 2

2009-07-19T13:02:00.020-06:00

We just had the opportunity to go to the Open House of the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple. The kids weren't exactly excited about this event, probably because of the experience they had at the Draper Temple open house. Although we loved getting to see the Draper Temple...it did amount to a long day of waiting in order to see it. Luckily (for mom) this trip to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house was better in the following ways......

1) We only had to park about a block away from the temple and when we got out of the car there was a guy with a cool golf cart waiting to take us over to the temple...we really could have walked but the golf cart was a plus to the kids so we took advantage of it!

2) We then went into a large (air conditioned-it was over 100 degrees outside) tent to watch a short video...thankfully there was also water available in the tent....plus #2 for the kids!
3) We then walked staight into the temple!!! The kids really couldn't believe this because at the Draper Open House we went through long tunnels of tents until we somehow ended up inside the temple. So far...so good.

4) The kids (well except for Michaela...but that's another story) really loved walking through the temple and it was such a great teaching experience for our family. I think that the fact that they has just walked through the Draper Temple a few months ago and then this one, helped solidify their memories of what the inside of the temple was like. When Anna saw the baptismal font...she said "hey, I saw one of "dese" before". The boys loved the celestrial room and remembered what it was for. When they took us into the sealing room, they had us sit down while a couple explained the purpose of the room and sealings....it was so neat. This temple had the most beautiful chandeliers everywhere... some of them were star shaped and different sizes...with a huge one in the Celestrial room. There were also the same star shapes in the windows. As we left the temple... we were able to point out the Jordan River Temple and Draper Temple that aren't far away...Sam said "they are both just like this one mom". I was a little confused and was trying to tell him that they were each different but then he said "but mom-they all have the same kind of rooms inside"...he had me there...Smart kid. Plus #4 to this trip...my kids are learning!

5)We then got to walk over to the "hospitality" Tent. Which was another huge air-conditioned tent full of nice furniture, a "ghost" piano (player piano), and of course...treats. This is what the boys came for!!!

After the treats...we walked around to the front of the temple so that we could take a few pictures....
They had nice volunteers that their job was taking pictures of families in front of the temple....

I was glad that we survived this open house!!! The whole thing took less than one hour!!! Yay!!!

2009 Wasatch Back Video

2009-07-06T21:37:00.004-06:00

Yay....I finally was able to put together the little video I started a while ago about the Wasatch Back Relay I just ran....

Summer Time Fun!!!

2009-07-05T13:29:00.017-06:00

It seems like summer has finally arrived around here! Madison only had a few short hours in between the time we got home from our trip to Washington and when she had to leave for girls camp. She had alot of fun though at girls camp (at least...we think she did:) Here is a few pics from her adventures....

Some of the girls waiting to leave for camp...

Kaibree, Madison, Kimmie and Bailey having fun

Strong Girls...hopefully they put their tent up themselves :-)

Mad and Bailey

Madison has some great leaders and I'm grateful for everything they do for all the girls...even letting the girls put whip cream in their hair? (Your a good sport...Karra)

As soon as Madison got home from camp she took a quick shower and we then headed down to at Huntington Resevoir near Price, where my parents were camping for the weekend. We were only able to go there Friday night and most of Saturday but the kids still had alot of fun (and got very worn out) in that short amount of time....

Sam and Anna love hanging out in the tent...but then Anna was smart and stayed in Grandma's trailer with her that night. Playing at the Lake I went running in the morning but kept being distracted by the sunrise...it was beautiful...I finally snapped a few pics with my cell phone.

We then went to the big parade in Huntington...

At least there was alot of candy being thrown to the kids...they were ready!

We then took my parents out to see one of Utah's weird wonders... at the Wedge overlook of the Little Grand Canyon in the San Rafael Swell. Pretty cool.

After that drive...and some really tired fussy kids...we took them all home, gave them baths, put on PJ's and then went out to our front yard to enjoy what is my most favorite part of the 4th of July since we moved to Price....

We took this video while we were sitting in our own front yard :)

'Twilight' World Comes To Life In Forks, Washington - Movie News Story | MTV Movie News

2009-07-02T08:34:00.011-06:00

**This is a article from MTV News...that was about the Symposium that we helped my sister with in Washington...they even mention one of her shirts...she just wishes they would have added a picture :)

'Twilight' World Comes To Life In Forks, Washington - Movie News Story MTV Movie News

**Also check out my slide show from the trip in the previous post

Temples & Twilight.....

2009-07-01T10:51:00.008-06:00

***Before I start this post, I want to first clarify that I have read all of the Twilight books (but only once) and I have seen the movie (again, only once)...I like them, but I don't really consider myself a huge Twilight Fanatic-yet I'm sure that by the end of this post one might think otherwise-oh well****

The girls and I just got back from a LONG road trip to help my sister with a Twilight Conference in Forks, Washington that she was a vendor at. I have never been to the Pacific Northwest and thought it would be fun to tag along. I absolutely loved the drive...well most of it anyway-once we got out of Idaho. Washington and Oregon are so beautiful. Seattle is the coolest city I have ever seen and the coastline is just amazing. I have seen the ocean before...but this was just incredible! At one point, I texted Mike and asked if we could move there and he said maybe...I'll hold out for that! We also got to see some of the temples that were along the way as well...I love to see temples!

Here is my slideshow of the trip...there is also a couple of videos in there :)

Run, Drive, Sleep?, Repeat.....

2009-06-22T09:21:00.009-06:00

I'm not sure why spending two long days (with really no night), crammed in a minivan with 5 other team mates trying to make it from Logan to Park City is so much fun....but it just is!

Way to go Running Angels....It was a blast!!!

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-22T07:00:00.005-06:00

Yesterday was Father's Day....We spent the day busy with chuch, going to Salt Lake to move some furniture and going to a family party...not exactly watching golf all day long as our dad had wanted but we love him anyway!

The kids had fun making dad a candy bar card!

And Madison and the Young Women "heart-attacked" Mike's office door this week :)

True Colors....

2009-06-09T05:44:00.009-06:00

The girls just had their Spring Dance Recital....

Madison has been on the Drill Team at her Dance Studio this past year....

Here is a video of her performances at the recital....(it is long & kindof hard to see-the grandmas will appreciate it ! :)

Michaela has been on the Elites Team...

The video of her performances at the recital....

Good Job Girls!!!

Grandma's Birthday Service....

2009-06-05T08:58:00.015-06:00

Today is Grandma Trish's Birthday!!! Happy Birthday Grandma!!! For her birthday, she asked that we do an act of service for someone instead of getting her a gift. Really I think the gift would have been easier, but we took on the challenge and this is what we did.... We started out by having the kids clean out their rooms and closets and dejunk the whole house to have a Garage Sale. We held the Garage Sale last Saturday, and suprisingly it went fairly well. We then took our "earnings" from the Garage Sale to a local fundraiser for a little five year old girl in our community who is fighting Cancer. We didn't really have any idea what to expect at the fundraiser and the kids were complaining about going...but in the end...they wondered what the service was they were doing...they were having alot of fun!

All of these pictures came from our phone camera's so they aren't great...But here is Stephen with the clown..getting a balloon gun!

Anna got her nails done.....

Sam got to visit the clown....

Anna got a Tattoo :)

And we had lots of treats...

I'm not sure if this was the kind of service Grandma wanted us to do...but the kids did have fun and we "donated" our garage sale earnings to a good cause.

(ya-there are a few extra kids...) Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

Front Page News...

2009-05-26T14:18:00.004-06:00

Ok..Well I don't really know if this IS front page news...but it was what was on the front page of our little town paper the other day...At first it looks like a bunch of kids blowing bubbles (it is) but if you look in the back...the tall kid in the middle...That's our Sam.

Way to make it in the paper Sam!

Schools Out.....

2009-05-22T07:58:00.006-06:00

Yesterday was the last day of school here in these parts...

The boys started out the summer by going to the Father's and Son's Campout!

Sam graduated from Kindergarten!!!!

The boys showing off their cool portfolios their teachers made!!!

Madison and friends hanging out on the trampoline...after they did the "cool" Jr. High thing of walking all around town on the last day of school!?!... (I think they are bored already :)

Reunion!

2009-05-17T16:23:00.006-06:00

I (Calleen) grew up in a huge Young Women's group. Most of us, grew up together from about the time we were 4 or 5 until we graduated from High School. I had a great group of friends with in this group that were all my same age. We had great leaders who did everything for us. We were all so lucky!

This is a camp picture of all of us way back then....

Anyway, I have only had been in contact with a few of the girls over the years, but recently, through Facebook, we have found most of the girls and leaders and decided to have a reunion this past weekend. It was so neat to get to see so many of my dear friends and leaders....I started crying when I saw them all there!

I had six great friends that were my same age...almost all of us have been friends since we were 5 years old! Five of those friends were able to come to the reunion...one of them came from Seattle and one came from Arizona...the rest of us are scattered around Utah. It has been about 17 years since we have all been together...yet we all just sat around and talked, even after everyone else left, and it seemed like nothing had ever changed. It was so awesome! I'm not sure when we will all be able to get together again, but I hope we don't wait as long as last time!

The Best Kind of Family Picture...

2009-05-11T11:17:00.006-06:00

My sister's sister-in-law (if that makes sense) and my fellow running pal Jackie does these awesome watercolored family pictures. She did one of these pictures for us back in 2001-right after Stephen was born...

And then we had Sam soon after that so she did another one....

A few years after that we had Anna but life got busy and it has taken me until now to ask Jackie to do another picture for our family......

So she just finished this one for us...Right in time for Mother's Day...We even added our pug Rocky. I Love it!!! And they are the best family pictures...because I don't have to try to get five kids to all look at the camera at the same time! Awesome!!!

***if you want to see more of Jackie's awesome work-click on our new picture in the sidebar, or go to www.jackieaaronimpressions.blogspot.com ***

Washington D.C. Video

2009-05-10T13:21:00.010-06:00

Mike put together a fun video of our vacation...it is mostly for the Grandma's to see..but we will share it here for anyone else that might want to see it as well...be warned...it is kindof long (and in two parts).

The best thing about going on vacation.....

2009-05-06T20:08:00.015-06:00

Is coming home!!!!

I have never felt that way before...but I have never went on a long vacation before without some of my kids...until this past week.

We took the older girls (Madison and Michaela) to Washington D.C. for a "field trip". Madison actually went to DC two years ago, when she was in fifth grade, for a school field trip. Mike went with her for that trip but they loved it so much that we decided that when the other kids were in fifth grade we would take them on the same trip. So anyway, Michaela is in fifth grade and we held true to our promise and took her on the trip and Mom got to go along too for her first trip back East. (Madison got to tag along for a second time). We were actually able to do so much more on this field trip than the school group was able to do when they went-so Mike and Madison saw alot of new things that they didn't see last time. We found out that if you contact your Congressman's office, they can schedule cool tours of places that you can't do any other way...but you have to do it way in advance. So we contacted them back in January and got scheduled staff tours of almost everything. The only thing that we didn't get scheduled was the White House tour...which was what I wanted to see the most. We got put on a waiting list though and found out right before we left on the trip that we would be able to get in.

All of the tours were so cool and we saw so much...I could write a novel..but here are just a few of the highlights.

The biggest one-was when we were on the White House Tour, we were walking down a long hallway with glass windows that look out into the lawn of the White House. The President's Helicopter (Marine 1) was out there, (and Madison noticed some sniper's in the bushes ) but we didn't think too much of it until they stopped our tour and told us we would have to wait where we were because the President was going to cross past the hall (not where we could see) and go out to the helicopter to leave. We were looking out at the helicopter and just got to stay there and watch the Marine standing at attention by the door of the helicopter and see it start up and then see the President come out and turn and wave as he got on the helicopter. We probably only saw the President for a few seconds but it was really surreal. I was dying because we weren't allowed to take camera's in the White House...I wanted to take a picture!!!! I just kept telling the girls that they had better remember it. (We later found out that Michaela doesn't even know which one was the President-I guess she thought he would have a crown or something?)

I think that Mike even thought it was cool...even though he isn't a Obama fan-and he liked the 5 big Swat Team men that walked right by us...loaded with who knows what.

(I didn't take this picture...but it looked just like this.)
Anyway, after the President got on the Helicopter we finished our tour of the White House which was pretty cool. (Can you tell that it was raining off and on all week?)

Another highlight was having Congressman Matheson's office give us a tour of the Capital. We got to go to the House Gallery (what you see on C-span) and watch them debate a hate crime bill. I thought this would be kindof boring..but it was really cool. We even saw Congressman Chaffitz from Utah debate the bill. They showed us other cool things about the capital. We also got to meet Matheson in his office...kindof on accident..but still neat. We also got to visit the Washington DC temple...I thought that was awesome. It is a beautiful Temple.

We went on a tour of the Pentagon. It was interesting...and strangely enough, Miss USA walked right past us when we were there...Mike didn't even see her...too bad for him. They also have a neat September 11th memorial outside of the Pentagon.

Anyway, I apparently took over 600 pictures. (Yikes!) I'll just post a couple. I think Mike will make a video or something with the others..we'll see.

Even though it was really a awesome trip and we learned so much...and walked so much...I missed my other three kids so badly. I have never left any of the kids for more than a night before..so I really had a hard time leaving them. They were spoiled by the Grandma's and were fine but I was just so happy to come home and have all of my little family together...even the dog.

***And we celebrated Michaela's 11th birthday while we were gone too! (A little in Washington D.C., a little in Cincinnati Ohio, and a little in Utah)

Happy Birthday Michaela!!!

Dance Competition....

2009-04-26T18:38:00.014-06:00

The girls just had a dance competition this weekend....they did great! It was the first time Madison had really danced on her leg since she tore her hamstring six weeks ago....thanks to some physical therapy and patience!
(

26.2

2009-04-19T15:24:00.012-06:00

Well...I posted about Sam's birthday weekend...Now about mine...it's a little crazier!
I decided quite a while ago that I wanted to try a marathon (I blame this all on my dad and sister). I wasn't ready to take on the training of a full marathon last fall but knew that if I was going to do it (before I came up with a good sane reason not too) I needed to do it soon-so I signed up for the Salt Lake Marathon and started training for it last December. I knew that it was right after my birthday and I'm not getting any younger-so I just needed to go for it!
I set up a training schedule for myself-which looked really scary as a whole-but I just took it one day at a time. I was so happy last Thursday when I crossed of the last day of the schedule and realized that I had not missed one day in over four months! (usually having to do it at 4:00 in the morning)
My sister (who has run many marathons) decided that she would help me train for this marathon and then decided that she would run it with me-At first I thought she probably just wanted to see her big sister suffer, but she was such a good coach and we did our really long training runs together. I also threw in some other half marathon's (St. George and Moab) during this time to help me in my training.
There are so many things I could say about this experience, I have learned SO much about myself and what I am capable of. Really the closest thing I can relate the whole experience of training and then running this too-is having my five children. It takes many, many months to get your body and mind ready to do something that is very hard and painful for several hours but so worth it in the end!
I decided that I wanted to run the marathon in 4:30. I had trained to run it a little faster...but I wanted to enjoy the experience and make sure that I made it to the end...so we stuck with a 4:30 pace. We ended up with a chip time of 4:32..a little off-thanks to a nice hill at mile 25 (The only point where I wanted to die-but I was too close to finishing) but still I was happy!

Birthday Madness!!!

2009-04-19T14:45:00.004-06:00

This past week we celebrated Mom's (???) birthday and Sam's 6th birthday. We spent the weekend fulfilling both of our birthday wishes...It was crazy.....

Sam wanted to go to the Zoo for his birthday. We already had to go to Salt Lake (for Mom's birthday wish) so we got the kids out of school a little early on Friday and headed for the Zoo. It was a little chilly but we found that it was the perfect weather for the animals at the Zoo. Almost all of the animals were really active and moving around. I guess that the other times that we usually go to the Zoo (in July when it is 105) the animals are hiding and asleep. All of the kids had a fun afternoon and they even got to ride the new carousel at the Zoo.
Sam also had fun with the new presents that he got for his birthday that are Legos, Legos...and more Legos. I'm starting to see Legos when my eyes are closed!

*And Sam also lost his first tooth!

All the Easter Fun...

2009-04-13T14:35:00.003-06:00

Well...Easter has come and gone and once again the kids were totally spoiled. Despite the fact that the Easter Bunny didn't actually make it to our house until we were gone to church (at mom's request) the kids got tons of candy and then also made our way to the Grandma's where they got alot more! Always fun!

*Plus I thought all of the kids looked so cute in their Easter attire!

The "Fixed" arm...

2009-04-03T08:46:00.005-06:00

Anna just got her little cast off and is sporting a new "fixed" arm...as she calls it!

(We let the kids sign the cast before she got it off)
(and the fixed arm...she is still holding it like it is in a cast though!-You can also catch a glimpse of her new "unfortunate" haircut...mom is heartbroken about it )

I guess the cast can be a keepsake...we can always remember how little her arm was :)

Tumbleweeds Anyone???

2009-03-30T07:40:00.003-06:00

We had a CRAZY wind storm here yesterday...I actually missed half of it (because after a crazy day at church and a even more crazier Saturday-I took a long nap) but anyway, once I woke up, the kids informed me that the power had been out for quite a while and that it was "windy" outside. They (the kids) were making due-this time-with the power outage (probably because it was still light outside) and were actually entertaining themselves with board games (well, except for Stephen who was out in the garage, sitting in the car-so he could charge his DS). We also found entertainment in watching the random things fly past our windows-and in our neighbors sad fortune of having their trampoline fly over their fence and hit the house next door-and then not being able to get out their front door because it was covered in tumbleweeds....I feel kindof bad that this was somewhat entertaining to us....but I have had more than my fair share of turns with the dang tumbleweeds!

Canyonlands...

2009-03-22T16:54:00.009-06:00

Mike and I just got to go down to Moab so that I could run in the Canyonlands Half Marathon. (I'm sure that Mike wished it were to Golf) It was really weird for us to be able to go to Moab by ourselves (Thanks Grandma!) and nice to be able to spend time together. On Friday night (since our hotel was right in the middle of town) we walked down to get my race packet and then walked to get some dinner and just take in the interesting atmosphere of Moab. It was a very busy little town that night!
The next morning, we walked down to where I had to load a school bus to go to the start line of the race. Once I got to the start line, I realized that I was probably pretty stupid to get on the first bus up the canyon....I had to wait for two hours for the race to start and it was cold!!! Over the two hours, the canyon went from just a hundred or so people to five thousand people. It was crazy. Finally we were able to walk up to where the start line was and find a place...this is interesting when there is that many people...I decided that since the race was chipped, I would stay towards the back and try not to get trampled at the start. Once the race started it took a while (three minutes-I later found out) for me to even cross the start line and be on my way. It was a beautiful run, going right along the Colorado River, the coldness of the morning soon left and it did get hot-I was grateful for any time we were running in the shade. At Mile 10 there were some cool drummers who were just going wild. I bet that they were tired too. Once the race came out of the canyon and into the streets of Moab...it got a little harder and hotter but I somehow made it to the end! I had really wanted to try to get my time under 2 hours...but that last little bit hurt me and my chip time was 2:02. Oh well, still my best time-and despite a nasty blister on my big toe-I was feeling great! So great in fact, that I decided that the best way to end a good day would be to hike up to one of my favorite places...Delicate Arch.

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming...

2009-03-20T07:36:00.005-06:00

Michaela just had a swim-a-thon for her swim team. They had to swim as many laps as they could in one hour.....

(This was the last-well second to last lap-that she did-Madison was on the side counting laps, and sorry about Sam's commentaries)

Michaela did a great job. She did 66 lengths of the pool! She was tired!!!

The "Hot" Pink Cast...

2009-03-13T08:54:00.005-06:00

If you have to have a cast.......

It might as well be cute :)

The Wheels on the Bus...

2009-03-11T12:24:00.011-06:00

Normally our little Sam is a pretty shy guy....he has made it through the first half of his kindergarten year and he is finally opening up to his teachers and apparently... the bus driver. He loves to ride the bus and to tease (yes, our Sam) the bus driver. The bus driver (Randy) lives in our neighborhood and has told us some funny stories of things that Sam has done on the bus...we can hardly believe that he is talking about our kid (at least that kid).

I guess that one time the bus driver had to get out of his seat for something (hopefully, the bus wasn't running) but when he got back to his seat-Sam was sitting in it and he told him (the bus driver) that he would drive the bus. There are other strange stories as well...and then yesterday he came home with this picture he made at school. I just had to laugh at the picture and Sam's teachers commentary on the picture....

(The top says...I like to go to the bus...my personal favorite is the bus dragging bottom because the wheels are all in the front...)

*And as a sidenote...I got this text from Madison this morning while she was riding the bus to school..."I don't like Randy (who is also in our Bishopric) as our bus driver anymore...He asked me if I can talk in church on Sunday!" Ha, Ha!

(I shouldn't laugh-I'm sure I'll be the one writing the talk)

She had a bad day....

2009-03-04T13:17:00.010-07:00

Neither Mike or I have ever had a broken bone (knock on wood) and none of our kids have either (knock on wood-again) until now....
Our little Anna somehow fell off of the couch (the whole 2 feet off of the ground) and broke her elbow....painful!

*(The long story...if you want to know) The girls were watching Anna while I picked Stephen up from swimming when she got hurt...I hadn't even made it to the pool before they started calling me in a panic that she was crying, when I asked what happened...they said she fell off the couch and I didn't think she could really be hurt-just maybe a bruise, but I hurried and got Stephen and went back home. When I got there, I realized that she was really hurt and that I couldn't even move her without her freaking out, so I started calling Mike to come home. Once he got home, we drove over to the hospital (which is seriously one minute from our house). I was glad that it was close... (or so I thought)
She was brave at the hospital and did what they asked...even though she was hurting. At one point when the doctor came back in-she told him that she didn't want him to move her arm again. When the nurses were cutting off her shirt sleeve..she told them that your not supposed to cut clothes...only paper!
Well anyway, they found that she had broke her elbow...it wasn't a bad break...but it was in a bad place...so they then told us that we had to drive her to Primary Children's that night because they wanted to see it and see if it needed surgery(so much for the hospital being really close). It was already 8:00 pm at that point -so we hurried home and gathered the kids and a few things in the car (even the dog had to go-because I didn't know how long we would be). We thankfully dropped the other kids and the dog off at Grandma's in Mapleton and gave Anna a blessing and went on our way.
It was a long night...they were thankfully waiting for us when we got to Primary's and took us right back. We talked to a few doctors and a specialist looked at her x-rays and it was decided that it hopefully woundn't need surgery to pin it...they would just put a temporary cast on and we would have to bring her back next week for their orthopedic people to cast it.
Well we finally left the hospital after a long night and went back to Grandma's to crash for a few hours before driving back home...

Anna is doing much better today (as are the rest of us-after we got some sleep). She is figuring out how to do everything in her new circumstances and is being spoiled by everyone!

(Mike took a few pictures with his phone...so handy)

(And to think that my biggest worry that day-before Anna got hurt-had been that the car had broken down that morning at the gas station and had to be towed to the mechanic...what a day!)

The Dancer's....

2009-03-01T12:19:00.004-07:00

Yesterday the girls both danced at a college basketball game....

(Michaela is on the the back right side of video....remember to pause playlist)

(Madison is the one with the "Spencer" legs...)

More from the big day....

2009-02-27T08:22:00.003-07:00

Some pics of Madison's big 13th birthday...we have been celebrating all week (and still are)!

We have a teenager in our midst....

2009-02-24T07:56:00.009-07:00

Thirteen years ago today, we welcomed our first baby into the world...

Madison Ashley Spencer

Born February 24, 1996

9 lbs 4 oz

21 inches

Not only was she our first baby, she was the first grandchild and great grandchild on every side of the family...talk about spoiled...

(Madison with all of her grandma's and great grandma's)

And also a very cute little girl with curly hair......

But time goes by so fast, kids grow up so fast and now we

have a......

TEENAGER!!!!!

Happy Birthday Madison!!! We love you!!!!

We love to see the Temple...

2009-02-17T09:11:00.006-07:00

Our family just made the "journey" to the open house of the new Draper Temple. I have been so excited for a long time to show the kids what the inside of the temple looks like. The last open house that we were able to take our kids (well just one) to, was the Mt. Timpanogos Temple when Madison was six months old.
We did find out very fast that we were not alone in our quest to see the Temple on President's day (ok-not the smartest idea). They told us as we were waiting for over two hours just to get on a bus to go to the temple, that they had 14,000 people go through the temple in one hour that morning and were still doing close to that all day long...umm crazy. While were waiting at the church we did end up in the same little primary room as one of Michaela's very good friends from Springville-so that was neat that they could talk to each other while we waited...
The kids thought the bus ride to the temple was great...and once we got there we caught a quick glimpse of the temple before we were shuffled into a endless tent...full of the thousands of people...luckily even though it was slow...the line kept moving and we finally did make it into the temple and got to see everything-it was kindof even a blessing that the line was so slow at that point-because we could tell the kids about the rooms. Anna's favorite was the "cows" or Oxen on the baptismal font. Madison and Michaela really wanted to see the "wedding" rooms and were a little surprised about the layout of the rooms but the mirrors were a hit, Sam loved the celestrial room and wanted to know if the Angel Moroni (atop the temple) was just above the big chandelier in the room. Stephen's favorite was the cookies at the end of the tour-he had earned them.
We then again went into another tent to wait for yet another bus to take us back to the church..
It was a long day...way longer than we thought it would be...but it was so neat to get to see the new temple!

The Draper Temple

(click on the picture to see more pic's of our trip)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

2009-02-14T06:41:00.002-07:00

We have had a crazy week...sickness seems to be everywhere in our family...so this is about as good as it gets:

Make a Smilebox greeting

Happy Valentine's Day!

Darkness

2009-02-10T10:39:00.006-07:00

We had a little experience with emergency preparedness the other night. We were having a little snow storm-mixed with lightning (something I have never seen before) and the power got knocked out. At first we thought it would just come right back on...but it didn't. We were right in the middle of making dinner-so that got put on hold-and we went to get the flashlights-which were all apparently dead-so then we went to look for candles-or anything to give light...
We did eventually find a few candles and found some batteries for some of the flashlights and we all gathered in the same room to share the light and toss around ideas of what we might do....

(Mom was bored...so she took a video...remember to pause the playlist to hear)

Well, just about when the kids started making big plans for if there was no school the next day, and I started to wonder exactly how long it would take for the house to get cold without heat and Mike broke out the cereal for dinner...the power came back on and everyone went back to what they were doing...

Maybe the power should go out more often

The Diva's...

2009-02-01T15:47:00.011-07:00

Madison got in a mood this past week to dress up her little sister as a Diva...

(Rocky's not sure about Anna's Diva look)

Then Madison decided to try out the Diva look for herself...
(Rocky wasn't impressed...)

Then she had to try it on Sam....

And then Michaela....

And then she "innocently" gets mom to put on the Diva and make a pose....then she quickly takes this picture and RUNS to the computer...snickering Facebook...Ughh......

Our New Commander and Chief.....

2009-01-29T07:46:00.004-07:00

Ok-so I (Calleen---don't confuse me with political junkie Mike) am not overly interested in politics, I guess I wish our new President well (really what else can I do for the next four.... or probably eight years) But I thought this was funny and probably true...

The usual.....

2009-01-25T17:46:00.008-07:00

There isn't much to post about this past week.....

We did enjoy beautiful "inversion-less" skies...(If Price has a plus...this is it)

Madison got an "A" in Science and apparently wanted to make sure we knew.....(it was the only subject last report card that she had a A- on-so she was bugged)

Michaela went to her first "Tea-Party" (I had to be fast to get this picture)

Stephen managed to smuggle his DS to school...don't worry Mom figured it out..and had to go get it and now the DS is taking a little break!

Rocky just slept (except for when he was being bugged by kids)

And I just cooked, cleaned, took care of kids (way to many), cleaned (did I already say that) and wished that I was on a tropical island..... ya know....the usual!!!

Oh, The Palm Trees....

2009-01-18T13:14:00.018-07:00

We just got back from a very, very quick little trip down south to the wonderful land where there are Palm Trees and Cactus..... (oh...and no Jackets!)

I think it is so awesome that such a place (St. George) exists only 4 hours away from our cold and snow.

We mainly went to St. George so that I (Calleen) could run in the St. George Half Marathon...which sounded like a great idea a couple of months ago...but lately I had my doubts.... I even asked Mike if we could just turn around once we got to St. George. He didn't let me...

(I guess an encouraging picture...before I left)

(and Mike annoying me with another picture before race)

The kids were again bored waiting for mom...will she ever come...but hey the race did start late-and they didn't know that!

Here mom finally comes waving at the kids

Mom with some of the kids after the race

and Mike and Calleen after the race...I survived-again!
In the end it was a fun race-mostly because I ran into some great friends from my old neighborhood in Springville and we ended up running the entire race together-talking and encouraging each other (there were some not fun hills) to the end. I improved my time (a little bit) which was also nice! If only we could have stayed in the warm sunshine a little longer....

(here I am with my friends Jennifer and Michelle)

Almost done....Still smiling :)

The Mom Song....

2009-01-15T07:39:00.004-07:00

My mom sent this to me this morning.....

(Remember to pause playlist on side to hear video)
I've never heard my life summarized so perfectly!!!

(Seriously...Right down to the piano lessons, orthodontist appointments and texting at the dinner table!)

The Gamers.....

2009-01-14T08:32:00.003-07:00

Our house has looked like this since Christmas....

At least they are spending "quality" time together...I'm only freaked out by the fact that my baby 3 year old thinks she is a DS expert!

Right Here Waiting....

2009-01-08T12:38:00.003-07:00

Madison found this "really old" song to learn to play on the piano...

(you can pause playlist on the sidebar to listen to video)
I like this song...I'm glad that she is learning the "classic's".

Happy New Year????

2009-01-04T17:14:00.007-07:00

We really had a blast on New Year's Eve at our house.....

Well...not really a "blast"! We didn't really have anything planned and nowhere to go so we had a little pizza party...this was about as good as it got...and the end of my picture taking...

This was what I felt like after having WAY to many kids in my house over the christmas break...yah, I was asleep by 8:00 pm...Mike and the kids played video games the rest of the night... I guess that Stephen and Madison were the only ones to make it to midnight-we are party animals!
On New Year's Day we did our annual New Year's video (we do a video interview of each of the kids every year-the ones of Madison and Michaela when they were really little are so funny-I need to get them on a DVD so that I can share them.)

Even though I did a video of each of the kids...I think I will only post Sam and Anna's. They seem to still think this is a fun thing to do and are therefore cute in the video's. The other kids just sat there with awnry looks on their faces...not to cute..but I'll still save it for future use :)

(**Remember you can pause playlist to listen to video's**)
And today was the first Sunday of the New Year...that means new classes for the kids in church... Madison officially no longer goes to any part of primary, Michaela is in the 11 year old class, Stephen is now in Senior primary and getting ready to be baptized this year, Sam is in CTR 6 and Anna is a Sunbeam!!! We don't have anyone in nursery for the first time I can remember!

A Very Merry (& a little scary) Christmas...

2008-12-26T14:45:00.014-07:00

Well Christmas 2008 has come and gone...all to quickly!!! Since I am snowed in today
I made a little slideshow of our Christmas!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We did have a great holiday...the scary part only came in during the drive to Utah County and especially back...what is normally a one hour drive took over two and we were so grateful to finally get to Price-especially since we almost missed the exit-we couldn't see it!

An "Eventful" Day....

2008-12-22T09:15:00.014-07:00

December 20th is a important day in our house...not just because it is a day on the countdown to Christmas, it is important to us in it's own ways....

Maybe it started with this...Mike made me some nightstands for christmas when we were dating-he wrote his name and the date on the bottom of them (I didn't even know it was there until years later-he now tell's me he did this incase we broke up-he could take them back!)

On December 20th 1994, we were married....

December 20th 1995 was an even more important event for Mike and I-we were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. Yes, we took the long road to that day-but I was so grateful!
(I hesitate to show that picture-I was very pregnant with Madison-scary!)

Well another 10 years later...this was December 20th, 2005. Our 5th beautiful baby was born. (I wasn't even due until January but I guess she knew this was a special day to be born!) I could never think of a better way to celebrate our marriage than having a new baby on our Anniversary.

Not that it's nearly as important as other events we mark on December 20th-but this was December 20th 2006. Not only was it Anna's first birthday-but it was the day we moved into our house. We didn't aim for that day by a longshot-it just happened to be the day that the house was finally done and the moving truck actually came! We spent that anniversary unpacking our treasures.....

This year our Anniversary was relatively uneventful. We spent the day celebrating Anna's 3rd birthday and going to two family christmas parties.
We took Anna to build a bear for her birthday-she got a turtle dressed in cute girl clothes!

Anna and Aurora's (her cousin who's birthday is the 22nd) cake at Grandma Child's.

And another cute cake (or Pup-cake, as Anna calls it) at the Murdock Christmas Party.

And Mike and I on our Anniversary....No big date, trip to Vegas (as Mike would have liked-for a football game) or even a moment alone-but still it was great-I'm glad that we have made it 14 years!

Anna's Christmas Wishes....

2008-12-19T13:16:00.003-07:00

Anna has a new favorite song that she has been singing around the house...

Santa Stage Fright.....

2008-12-15T13:46:00.010-07:00

This past weekend we took the kids (some of them anyway) to see Santa Claus while he was visiting here in Price. We patiently waited in line for about a hour to see him. We rehearsed with Anna what she was going to tell him...she wants PRINCESS stuff-anything princess. Sam was excited to see Santa and tell him what he wanted. Stephen really didn't want to see Santa-in fact he didn't even come at first-but since we ended up waiting so long, I went back and got him. He is really pretty skeptical of Santa this year-still can't figure out how those dang reindeer can fly....

Well anyway this is how the visit went....

Sam telling Santa that he wants a DS.....

Sam with Mr and Mrs Claus
Take the candy and run....

Stephen actually did sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he wanted...better cover all his bases!

And apparently Anna didn't realize that Santa was a real person! She wanted out of there!

Santa tried to ask her what she wanted.....

She finally did accept a candy cane from him (and mom told Santa what she wanted). Santa even told Anna to have a Happy Birthday too! (how did he know that it is almost her birthday?)

Oh well, the visit with Santa wasn't a huge success but it was still cute! The older girls (who think they are way to old to see Santa) missed out...maybe Santa will forget the expensive "toys" that are on their lists! We'll see.....

Merry Christmas from the Spencer Clan.....

2008-12-09T13:43:00.029-07:00

I just sent out our family christmas cards. I decided not to send out a "letter" this year of what is going on with our family....I just got lazy and put the address to this blog instead! This is where I have been documenting our lives over this past year so I thought that if people REALLY wanted to know what we have been up to-they can look here.

The only problem is that now I'm thinking that you probably don't want to spend hours looking at my silly blog to see what we have been up to-so if you really want to know; I will summarize a few things below (if you don't want to know-that's ok!)

Anna: Anna is our almost 3 year old "baby" (she will be three on Dec. 20). She is the little princess in our house and pretty much whatever she says goes! She is so cute and funny though that we really don't mind. She say's funny things like the trampoline is the "jumpoline" or things aren't beautiful-they are "prettyful". Anyway she is cute-and her biggest accomplishment this year is potty-training herself right after she turned 2!

Sam is our 5 year old Kindergarten Boy! He is always imaginative in everything he does. He is shy until you get to know him and then he never stops talking. His most favorite place to go is Arches (seriously, probably more than Disneyland!) so we went there to celebrate his birthday this year and we accomplished his main goal-hiking to Delicate Arch and touching it!

Stephen is our whiz-kid 1st Grader. He amazed us (and his teacher) this past school year by passing off 1000 sight words-that was as many as they had! He also finally learned how to ride a bike this summer (thanks to dad's threat that the he couldn't play the playstation until he learned-then it only took him one afternoon!). Stephen also lost his first tooth and was very proud of that. He is learning to play the piano-which is so cute because he sings the words as he plays. Right now he is trying to figure out exactly how Santa's reindeer can really fly?

Michaela is in 5th Grade this year! She loves to hang out with her friends. She is a great reader and inhales books. She also continues to take piano lessons and is taking dance lessons this year. One of her favorite memories this year was winning a giant basket of "Webkin's" at a city fair. She was so excited! Michaela also traded in her glasses for contacts this year!

Madison is our "almost" teenager! She will be 13 in February! Eeek! She has been in Young Women's this year and is the Beehive class president. She got to go to girl's camp this year for the first time-I think she liked it-but we are still not sure what she ate. She also started Jr. High this year! Eeek-again! She loves to hang out with her friends too. She is still playing the piano and is on the drill team in her dance. She also somehow talked us into getting her a cell phone-at least we can sometimes know where she is.

Calleen seems to be running all the time...trying to keep up with our kids (and the other kids that take over our house each day), Mike and everything else. Then my little sister somehow managed to turn my longtime "hobby" of running into more of a obsession this year, but I have had fun running in some crazy races this year and it keeps me going everyday.

Mike has been busy this year with lots of things...His job keeps him always busy, church seems to keep him busy and he also put in our yard this year! Yeah! We were all sooooo glad to have grass to walk on. He even found time to try to teach mom how to golf!

And we have a new member of our family this year...Rocky. He is a 5-ish year old pug that Mike and the kids brought home from the animal shelter while Mom was gone one weekend (I guess mom can never leave them unattended again). Even though I wasn't home when they got Rocky he has somehow become my little shadow and follows me everywhere I go! He did make a great "Frank" from Men in Black at Halloween though! I guess we'll keep him.

Well-that's my "little" update. I think I just spent more time on that than I would have a little letter with the card-maybe I'll go back to that next year! In the meantime, I really do hope that everyone has a great Christmas and Holiday Season! We love you!

Runnin' in the Winter Sun

2008-12-07T16:35:00.008-07:00

This past weekend, I got to go and run a 10k in Moab (thanks to Grandma and Crystal who came to babysit while I went). Moab was actually colder than I thought it would be but overall it was a fun race! (these pics were taken with my phone-so they aren't too great)

Me (somewhere in the shadows) at the start of the race

Me in my nice outfit?!?-I was just trying to stay warm at that point!

A picture of the finish line at the High School sometime after I finished (53:54-My only goal was sometime under 1 hour so I was happy!)

Oh yeah, who knew that Moab was the Red Devil's too?

Tale of Two Gingerbread Houses...

2008-12-05T09:47:00.012-07:00

For family home evening this week, we decorated gingerbread houses. We divided up into to "teams". Madison and Michaela being one and the boys, Anna and mom being the other. Our goal was to see who could decorate their Gingerbread house the best....

The girls working on theirs...

Anna working on the little kids house....

The girls being perfectionistic on their house.....
Mom and little kids having fun with our "messy" house...

Madison putting the finishing touches on her house....

Anna and the boys put the finishing touches on their house-gotta use every last piece of candy!

The kids with their finished houses!
The girls were happy with their Gingerbread house! It was very cute!

But Mom, Anna and the boys thought ours was the best!!! (dripping icing and all!)

Only a few grey hairs so far.....

2008-11-30T19:09:00.007-07:00

Today is our dad's birthday! He is um....thirty something and only has a few grey hairs! That will probably be changing pretty soon when we officially have a teenager in our house.
We (Mike and I) got to spend the afternoon together on Saturday and do some shopping and go out to dinner at one of Mike's favorite restaurants Los Hermanos.

Nice picture phone pic of Mike with his fried ice-cream at Los Hermanos

We then picked up the kiddos and went to see the festival of lights in Spanish Fork on the way home....
The kids all loved the castle...it's pretty much the same every year but they love it anyway!

The kids yelled their christmas wishes out the window to the Santa...Maybe we should take them to see a "real" Santa!
Today we had a little party for dad! Happy Birthday Dad-we hope you had a great day!

Over the river and through the woods...

2008-11-30T08:57:00.011-07:00

Well....This is a little late post about Thanksgiving...

We drove up north to the Ogden area for Thanksgiving dinner at Mike's uncle's house.

(Timp through the clouds-it looked so big-I guess we are getting used to the Price cliffs)

Michaela, Kesley and Madison having fun at dinner
The boys at their feast-Sam (who LOVES lunch meat) was leary of the turkey...
Anna and Hannah

The Spencer family at Thanksgiving-gotta love Michaela's nerdy shirt!?!

And of course, Anna had to find a dog to make friends with...This was her best friend for the day!

Then the fun was all over and since Mike had to go to work the next morning we turned around and made the three hour trip back home-glad that gas was $1.75 a gallon up there!

Vampire's, Dancing and Football.....

2008-11-23T16:15:00.012-07:00

A few highlights from this weekend.....

Vampires

Of course, the girls and I had to go see Twilight on Friday Night (with several of their friends). Madison and her friend Lexi stood outside in line for over two hours to make sure we got in (ya, in Price there is no such thing as getting your tickets online).

Madison and Lexi Waiting

The girls and their friends waiting for the movie...

It was a noisy little theatre filled with tons of screaming girls...but it was alot of fun!

Dancing

The girls had a dance performance on Saturday in the beautiful town of Helper.

Michaela, Alyssa (who I babysit), and Madison

Lexi, Annika and Madison waiting for their drill team number

Madison's Drill Team Performance (she is the second to left in the kickline)
***You can pause the playlist to the right to hear the video***

Michaela's Tap Dance (she is on the far right side)

Football

Well..........(enough said)

What goes up must come down....But not this way!

2008-11-20T20:31:00.003-07:00

Tree Vs. 2 yr olds.....

This is what I get for putting up the tree before Thanksgiving....Hopefully what is left of it will make it to Christmas!

Let there be LIGHT.......

2008-11-19T13:30:00.008-07:00

We (well I) decided that the warm weather last weekend was perfect to hang christmas lights on our house. Mike has somehow gotten out of this job the past two years since we moved into this house (ok-the first year we moved in 5 days before christmas so it was a little to late-I'm not sure what happened last year) but THIS year I had Anna beg her daddy to put them up-she even offered her help.

Anna coming out to help dad!
She was a good helper!
Mike scowling at my picture taking!

Anna LOVES the lights!

We also got in the festive mood and put up one of our christmas tree's for family home evening!

At least I learned a few lessons......

2008-11-10T12:26:00.007-07:00

This past Saturday Mike and Madison went with the youth from our ward to the Manti Temple to do Baptisms. This was Madison's first time and they had a nice, spiritual day......

So anyway, I had to run to Salt Lake and thought that I would have it so easy with only four of the kids.....Little did I know that my little Sam had a storm brewing in his body.....I learned some important lesssons that day.....

1. Salt Lake is a long way from home when your kid starts puking.

2. You should really drop all of your "important" errands and go home when with a puking child.

3. You should always know where the bathrooms are in all stores.

4. You should never try to drive from Salt Lake to Provo 45 minutes before a BYU Game.

5. You should never feed a sick child Arby's.

6. You should always have a puke bowl (and bags, and towels) in your car.

(Sam's in the back with his bowl)

7. Online shopping is the best invention ever.

Trick-or-Treating is alive and well.....

2008-11-01T21:39:00.013-06:00

Stephen, Michaela and Sam ready to head to school....

It seems that the last several years that we lived at our old house, Trick-or-Treating became a thing of the past. The neighborhoods all had trunk-or-treat at the church and not many then went out and trick-or-treated. Well apparently that new tradition has not hit Price. Trick-or-treating is alive and well here!!! In fact it is pretty crazy. Our neighborhood is pretty much the only "real" neighborhood in the town and it draws the crowds for trick or treat. The streets are lined with cars (people that don't live in the neighborhood) and there are kids everywhere-alot of people just sit at their doors and don't even bother to close them-there are so many kids....Just crazy. We ran out of candy-I need to learn to have more...I guess.
Madison and her friends went out for about four hours! They said that it was the best Trick-or-treating ever.

Anna-Trick-or-Treating
Michaela and her friends

Some of the houses also get out of control. Anna named one of them the Monster house and we had to drive slow by it every day.... I took a picture of it for her...(sad, I know).

Michaela and her friends wanted to go to the Monster house at to trick or treat.....here is some video of the house.....

A Little video of the Michaela and her friends freaking out at the Monsters that were following them all over the house-to try to get to the front door.

They had alot of fun-and were completely tired when they got back home.

On Another Note (Kindof).......

On Saturday we took Rocky (and the boys) to a pet costume contest.....

Rocky (and his "handlers" at the contest)

Anna was just making friends with all the animals...

Rocky won 1st place in the contest! (how could he not?) He won a $50.00 gift certificate-I guess he gets to go shopping!

Early Halloween Fun!

2008-10-28T13:37:00.017-06:00

We made the trip "over the mountain" (nice Carbon County lingo) on Sunday afternoon to go to Grandma Spencer's annual Halloween party. We also stopped by Grandma Child's too to show off our costumes. The kids were so excited to go and have all of the fun!

Anna the Princess

Madison-as the "Stylish" bat girl!

Stephen, Sam and Rocky as "Men in Black"

Stephen with Susie in her pumpkin costume.

Princess Anna at Grandma Child's

Anna was excited for the big Tigger at Grandma Spencer's

Michaela was the Zombie Bride

The annual picture of all the Spencer Grandkids in their costumes
Stephen having fun with one of the games....
And Madison too!

All of the kids in their new pj's. (They are never all happy for this picture-that we take every year)

Anna trying the Pinata...she was so cute!

Sam taking his turn.....

Video of the kids and the pinata....

The kids had alot of fun...Thanks Grandma's (and Grandpa's) for all that you do. We are loaded up on sugar already and the week is just starting!

Basketball anyone???

2008-10-27T10:36:00.008-06:00

We finally finished the last of our backyard projects this past week. My parents inherited a nice "basketball court" at the house they bought a couple of years ago. The court has (or had-now) two nice basketball stands on each side-but no one really used the court at my parents, so they asked us if we wanted one of the stands. Of Course! We finally got some cement poured and footings for the stand. Mike even painted the court! It is so nice because it is in the backyard and away from the street. Now my parents have half a court and we have the other half..Maybe they will get used more that way!

The cement being poured

working on the cement

Michaela testing it out!

Michaela and friends playing
Michaela and her friends playing again....
She and Sam have been having the most fun with it!

(oh yeah, don't look at the ugly fence in the background-that will hopefully be next years project!)

We've finally entered the 21st Century.....

2008-10-18T12:43:00.010-06:00

Our family has recently entered the 21st century (yes, a little late) by getting new cell phones (yes, three of them! the girls have somehow talked us into having one for them to share-I'm sure they will think we need #4 soon). The new phones can actually take pictures and text (a new invention for us!) so we have been having fun taking pictures of random things and sending them to each other... I thought I would just share a few of them....

Mike at work

Mike watching the grass grow???

Madison freeeeeeezing at a BYU Game!

Anna at the Grocery Store-Dad was wondering where we were...

Calleen (bored while in a traffic jam in Orem) taking a pic of a Lotus up in front of me for Mike.

And of course, Anna showing us her "rare" talent (that she shares with Madison) while we are waiting at the doctors office!

Yeah....More Disney Memories!!!

2008-10-13T07:41:00.005-06:00

We (well Mike) was finally able to fix our infamous (well-at least in our family) Disneyland video-so that we could post it on the blog...The original video was too big to load to youtube...so we had to split it into three parts....but if you have the time...and a good internet connection...check it out. It's on the sidebar under "Our Favorite Videos".

Only in Utah......

2008-10-12T07:29:00.003-06:00

(I was sent this little story in a email....Maybe we are teaching our children at least one life saving skill at church...)

The Little Lost Girl:

A little girl and her mother went shopping in a very large mall one afternoon. After being in a major store for some time the little girl grew tired and sat down on the floor to wait for her mother to finish the shopping. While she watched the people moving around her, the little girl's mother moved on to another department not knowing that the little girl didn't follow her. Soon the little girl realized that her mother was nowhere to be seen and she started to cry. One of the clerks soon heard her and came to ask her why she was crying. The little girl sobbingly told her that she had lost her mommy. The clerk took her by the hand and then set out to find the lost mommy. After a few minutes had gone by the clerk had an idea. She asked the little girl if she thought that her Mommy would recognize her voice, and the little girl nodded her head. The store clerk took her to the counter and lifted her up so that she could reach the microphone to the store's PA system. The clerk told her to talk into the microphone and her mother would hear her voice and come to her. The sweet little girl held the microphone close to her mouth and with tears running down her cheeks and a sob in her voice she said: 'I would like to bear my testimony. I know this Church is true. . . .'

Saturday Nights Revived???

2008-10-06T11:12:00.004-06:00

Back When Mike and I were dating...we always stayed up late on Saturday nights to watch Saturday Night Live together...it was probably in the "glory" days of the show and it was sooo funny....

Well since then (like the past 12 1/2 years) our Saturday Nights have kindof dwindled... we're usually passed out by 10pm...

But lately Saturday Night Live has made our saturday nights interesting again...I even stay up for the first part of the show...The parodys on the election are just so funny..... (I think I'll just vote for Tina Fey-she's the multi-tasking American woman!)

And there off....for a while anyway

2008-10-01T12:38:00.005-06:00

It was a big day at our house yesterday, Madison got her braces off after the almost three years she has had them on...She is so excited to have them off...but it's only temporary. The orthodontist is waiting for more of her incredibly slow (imagine that) teeth to come in and then they will put the braces back on ALL of her teeth...so she better enjoy it for now....and hopefully not loose her retainer! (like I'm sure both of her parents NEVER did)

(At the ortho's office ready for them to come off!)

(and showing off her new smile...the ortho's office gave her the balloons and candy-they make a big deal of "D-Banding".)

Fall fun....(well maybe)

2008-09-28T16:39:00.018-06:00

I have been wanting to try to do some more family pictures for a while and long ago decided that this past weekend would be perfect to try to get the great fall leave pictures....so I prepared...decided what colors I wanted, got everyone new shirts, tried to keep the day open of everything else and even bought "bribery" snacks for the adventure to keep the kids from going crazy.
We decided to go to Huntington Canyon for our adventure...we knew that there would be great leaves there...(there isn't much in Price).

As you can tell...It was beautiful...the perfect weekend to go for a drive (well, if the kids weren't in the back freaking out about being in the car for "sooo" long)

(More views of the leaves....)

We (Mike and I) had fun looking at the foliage...but we had to accomplish what we had really set out to do...get a good family picture (with 5 kids-that seems impossible-ok it is...)

Mike was trying to get the kids to laugh behind the scenes....

Well...first picture is ok...but what is Stephen doing???

This one's ok-but Anna was moving or something....

Well-at least everyone is looking at the camera in this picture...Oh well...there's always photoshop!

A picture of me and Mike...Kindof weird to just be the two of us....

As I said, we were in Huntington Canyon and they have a new memorial to the Crandall Canyon Miners near the base of the canyon, it is pretty cool...

The detail in the monument is really neat...
Anna was happy with the "bribery" candy on the way home!

And Alas...Thanks to the magic of photoshop (and my sister) I have a decent picture!

Happy, Happy Birthday Stephen Dude....

2008-09-25T14:15:00.007-06:00

Yesterday was our "big dude" Stephen's Birthday. He is now a big 7 years old!!! I can believe that time has gone by so fast...

(mom and girls awaiting Stephens arrival-we thought he would be a girl!)

Dad was so happy he was a boy!!!

Now he's growing bigger and bigger everyday, I'm sure that he will soon be bigger than his older sisters!

His birthday didn't start off that great and then we had to wait the entire day and into the night (thanks to soccer games, YM/YW and dad's now 24 hr day job) to have our party...but alas at 9:30 we finally did. Stephen's day got alot better! He even said it was his best birthday ever!

He got the DS that he has been wanting and new games to go with it. He was so happy, he even woke up extra early this morning to get his piano and everything done-so he could play the DS! (I let him do that for today...but I don't think we'll do that again)

Wow! A DS and Games!!!

Happy 7th Birthday Stephen!!!

Games, Games and more Games!!!

2008-09-21T17:39:00.010-06:00

Well-I'm officially a soccer mom again....we started our crazy fall schedule of soccer games, dance, gymnastics, and piano...hopefully I don't loose my mind keeping track of it all....

Michaela and Sam are the kiddos playing soccer-of course in different leagues..but sometimes playing at the same time-just to keep me hopping. (Stephen didn't want to play soccer this fall).

They seem to be having a fun time though. Michaela really runs after the ball...

Sam getting ready to play...

Michaela playing...

Michaela and her friend Morgan after the game....

Anna hanging out with mom during the game....

And then mom finally got to go to a BYU Game this weekend!!! I was just glad to get out of the house!

(Video of the Start of the game...) Cosmo came up in the stands by us...

Proof that I was actually at the game...

A view of the field...Yah, the game was pretty much a yawner...(44-0)...but it was nice to get out with my hubby...

**The kids all had a fun afternoon at Grandma's house. They played with their cousins and had a birthday party for Stephen's upcoming birthday...Thanks Grandma!

Runnin' in Castle Country.....

2008-09-14T15:45:00.018-06:00

I have to admit that when we first moved to Price I thought that it was one of the ugliest places I had ever seen. I was used to the green mountains and trees and lake views of my other house. Over time though, I am learning to appreciate the beauty of "castle country". One of those experiences came this weekend when I ran in the Little Grand Canyon (half) marathon. It was in the Buckhorn Wash area of the San Rafael swell (just outside of Huntington-not too far from Price). I wasn't really sure what to expect from this race and I didn't really know what the area looked like (I found out that I had been there before). Even where the bus dropped us off for the half marathon-I was a little concerned about what I had signed up for...

The first couple of miles in the race was just pretty much the desert I'm used to, but then we ran through the "Little Grand Canyon" and it was so beautiful that time of the morning! The race was in a area where they had to bus us there and bus us back afterward-so family couldn't really be at the finish line-so I armed myself with a cheap disposable camera for my run. I thought that maybe I was crazy for doing this at first-but then I saw ALOT of people doing the same thing...

I wish that the pictures (from disposable camera) did justice to how beautiful the area is...they don't but I guess you get an idea...

(the sunrise out the bus window on the way to the starting point)

(waiting at the start line---we were freezing!)

(more at the start line-they were telling us to not worry about the ugly part we were at-it would get better.)

Part of the course (I really wish the camera would do this justice!)

7 more miles to go-almost halfway!

The buckhorn Panel (or what you can see from the great camera)

(this is a better picture of the ancient drawings when we went there last year)

The home stretch....

Right after I finished...(the camera was doing great now...)

another blurry pic at the finish (notice all the cool food on the left!!! and the cliffs in the back)
One of the "official" race pics...(that's why it looks better) Mile 12 and still smiling!!!

Another "official" pic-coming into the finish line!

They then bused us back to a park in Huntington where they had a huge catered lunch...I didn't stay there long though because Mike was waiting for me to get home so he could go to the BYU game...

Back at home...glad I finished...9 seconds better than my last time...at least I'm consistant!

(well-for the record, this was a harder race than the last one-so I'm just glad I didn't get a worse time!)

*As for the game, Mike took Madison and he was happy with the 59-0 score!
*Michaela was also happy because she spent the day at Lagoon with her friends!
*I spent the rest of the day trying to get the other kids to take a nap-so I could...it didn't happen.

Well, At least it was a memory.....

2008-09-11T15:17:00.004-06:00

Stephen came home from school the other day with a picture. I didn't pay that much attention to it (I couldn't really tell what it was) but later I asked him what it was. He said that it was a picture of his favorite summer memory-which I guess was our new tent blowing over in the wind and getting ruined! So now I see that in the picture...The tent and even the wind!!! Well at least that one night tent was worth a little boys favorite summer memory......

(I'm sure that if the day ever comes that I can get the trailer that I am eternally saving for...It won't blow over in the wind....but then what would be the fun???)

Happy Everything Day!!!

2008-09-07T14:32:00.006-06:00

Wow...we have alot of special days this week...I thought I would combine them all into one blog...

First-it is my parents and Mike's parents wedding anniversaries this weekend. We hope that they have a great weekend and congratuations for being married soooo long!!! (I hope that Mike and I can make it that long!!!)
Second-it's Grandparents day!!! We want to wish all of the Grandparents in our kids lives a great day!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

And lastly...
It is my sister and brother's birthday on the 9th! (I not sure how my mom managed to have them on the same day but a year apart)

So Happy Birthday to my little sister who pushes me to new lengths....

And my little brother who is my yard expert....

Mike's long awaited day is almost here....

2008-08-29T15:27:00.009-06:00

Tomarrow is the first BYU game of the season!!! This is Mike's favorite time of the year...He's ready....We have our season tickets, t-shirts and flag flying (I'm sure our neighborhood loves it!). Mike is ready for more of this....
(**you might have to pause my playlist to hear this video)

(Video Calleen took last year of the crowd rushing the field after the BYU-Utah Game)

Here we are...ready for the game (well, we only have two tickets-so Mike and Michaela were going....Michaela looks happy to go???)

Maybe these lessons will pay off......(Someday)

2008-08-27T18:48:00.003-06:00

Stephen started taking piano lessons this summer. He has actually really liked them and can sometimes be found "practicing" even when he already has for the day. The funny thing is that he always sings when he is playing..it is cute-so one day I videotaped him without him knowing it...

Hopefully Stephen (and I) will survive through years and years of practicing every morning and going to lessons so he can play like his big sister.....

(note from Madison: She hadn't played this song for a while and was mad at me for asking her to play it because it wasn't perfect-hmmm perfectionist child)

Sammy's First Day of Kindergarten!!!

2008-08-26T19:08:00.009-06:00

Sam had his first day of kindergarten yesterday!!! He was a little nervous in the morning and mom decided to take him to school instead of letting him ride the bus. At the school, we settled him in and let him work on some puzzles. He seemed happier (even though mom was way sad at this point). When we left, Anna started to cry because she wanted to stay with Sam...

Sam at the school....

Not quite sure about going in the door to the classroom...
With his name tag....

Doing puzzles...thinking mom is getting a little annoying taking pictures...

Here comes the school bus after school.....

And here comes Sam...He had a good day....I kept asking him how things were and he finally said "Mom everything was good!". I then told him that I was sad that he was gone during the day and he said, "People at home shouldn't be sad when kids are at school". I guess he's right....