HIATUS

Dear Family and Friends,

We're going on HIATUS- until we can wrap our minds around school.....So to all you faithful readers we apologize (so really to no one because we know we're just musing to empty space anyway) school must take precedence and Blogging- unless it becomes part of a course requirement

must cease for the time being.

Love you all ~M and EM

Tutu Grand Opening

Field Day

Field Day for Aurora was lots of fun! They did 9 events and got wet too! We got to eat lunch with her too!

Taking Strollers from Babies

It all started this morning at 5:30am- I was sleeping soundly when my husband woke me up and said "Em, did you give away our double stroller?"

I said groggily "No" he said "well it's gone." I replied "what? the one on the top or the bottom" "Top " "That's so sad" I said Matt left for work. I couldn't go back to sleep. I got up went outside to the car port where we keep the stroller, I had to see for myself if it was really gone, it really was. There was another one there though, it's not ours, a family in the ward gave it to the church to give if anyone needed it, I was just storing it. I walked around the front yard looking in the grass for stroller marks, doing a little "CSI" no such luck. I went back in and tried to sleep. I don't know when I finally dosed off- I woke up to the alarm. I was getting the kids ready for school, still brewing over the theft, I told Aurora someone took the stroller- she wanted to go see (she's like her mother). This was about 8am. When we went outside lo and behold the other stroller was gone!! While we were out there a car pulled up to our house saw me and drove away- I thought I bet that's who stole our strollers-Now I was really freaked! I moved the tire, furniture blanket and large broom into the backyard, they left some stroller parts, I left them up front and wrote a note on them "Dear Stroller Thief, You forgot some of the stroller parts. Love Our Sad Children P.S. The other stroller belonged to our church so you stole from them too!" I admit when I wrote the first part I was thinking about Les Miserables where Jean Valjean steals from Bishop Myriel. "the benevolent Bishop Myriel, the Bishop of Digne, takes him in and gives him shelter. In the middle of the night, he steals the bishop’s silverware and runs. He is caught, but the bishop rescues him by claiming that the silverware was a gift and at that point gives him his two silver candlesticks as well, chastising him to the police for leaving in such a rush that he forgot these most valuable pieces. The bishop then "reminds" him of the promise, which Valjean has no recollection of making, to use the silver to make an honest man of himself."

But in the end I wrote the P.S. on the note because I was so angry! I'm not as Christ like as the Bishop in the story. I asked Aurora "What lesson is Heavenly Father trying to teach us?" she said " Maybe we need to pray." she then disappeared while I was making breakfast. She returned and said "Mom, I went in my room and prayed for us" she then gave me a hug. She is so sweet. I told her "We are all children of God. Even the people who stole the strollers are children of God, they just made a bad choice" "She said "I know" I asked "How do we forgive them for taking our strollers?" She said "I'm not sad, as long as we have our house, I'm not sad." I said " Your teaching me a lot." I'm still stewing over this violation, I made a police report, and scoped my neighborhood, I even alerted my next door neighbor, I called the power company and the gas company to alert them to the fact that I'm now going to be locking the back gate against intruders so we'll have to make arrangements to read the meter, other safety precautions are going to be made as well. I just know that if I go yard sale-ing this weekend I'm going to see my stroller in front of someones house and then what? I realise I really need to work on forgiveness! What would Jesus do? I can't let this anger and fear affect me so. I'm only doing myself harm. They were just strollers, sure they made my life easier, but in the end they are replaceable. What if it was worse...

TuTu

My newest project making tutu's to sell on the 4th of July in Alamo. Place your orders today only $8.00 a tutu! One down 29 to go!

Date Night- what's That?

Yep here it is again Friday Night ~Woo Hoo Date Night!!!
NOT!

Matt and I did have a date planned for tonight

The Plan: 1st) get babysitter 2nd)go clean Dr's office 3rd) go out to eat at a real resturant, Lone Star Steak House to be exact (we have a cupon) 4th) have grown-up conversation 5th) go home recharged

What really happened:

Tried to call and hire a babysitter- no luck, didn't try to long, I wasn't feeling good after trumatic tooth fillings at dentist today. Decided to go buy something soft for dinner and stop at Red Box at about 6:30 with girls in tow (hubby was still at work)-Hubby calls at 7:30 says he's on his way home I cry to him about sore mouth he offers to bring me something if I needed anyhting I decline but ask him If its ok if we skip our date,and opt for a good lazy night, he sounds happy on the other end. So here we are it's 10pm the little girls dropped at about 9:00 except for Gracie who is our night owl, I'm blogging and he's doing bills- the red box movie still in it's case. This is a typical Friday Night here.

So I have to say Date Night? What's That?

Closer to 40!

Happy Birthday Old Man! Matt has turned 36! He is now closer to 40 than to 30! HA HA HA!

You know your getting old when you ask for socks for your birthday! He also wanted Reloading book - this is his toy I guess. Anyway he's lookin good for 36 and super HOT! I Love You Matt!!!

E-I-E-I-O

Here a chick,

There a Chick,

Everywhere a Chick, Chick

Old McSpencer had a farm

E-I-E-I-O!!!!

We have two new baby chicks at our house. Big Mama our chicken hatched these chicks this last weekend. We got eggs from Uncle Phillip and put them under Big Mama on the 10th of April and were expecting them on or around Mother's Day, but they arrived a little early. We lost 2 chicks to our other hens but two surrvied and we're happy to have them. One chick looks like a penguin to me so I think we're going to name it Pablo- like the penguin on the disney story, you know the one who wanted to live in the sun not the artic. The other one should be named something like Darth Vador in honor of Issacs love for Star Wars and he's a dark feathered chick. We hope they are Hens or they will have to goto Uncle Phillips. We won't know for sometime so for now -We Love Our Chicks!

Light at the end of the Tunnel........

It's been a year since I posted that Gracie was potty training; It has been a tumultuous one. After 8 months of little to no success, Gracie finally showed some huge progress in December after her cousin Kaylynn's 3rd birthday party. While in the bathroom she observed Kaylynns fully stickered Potty chart, (although we had used potty charts they didn't seem to interest her) and when we got home she had initiative to produce in her potty. This was a huge step because it wasn't just this once she continued to go, although we still had many accidents (Oh did I say Many I meant Many Many Many Many Many Many Many............ accidents) There were times when I was going to give up completely, but kept pressing forward!! We had potty seat changes, chart changes, we borrowed books from the library on going potty (for mommy and for Gracie), we played going potty games online and watched over 7+ movies on going potty, learned songs about going potty, set the timer for going potty, posted signs in the house to remind me to be patient and to keep trying, cried to grandma about potty training(that was me not Gracie), gave rewards for going potty, read article after article about potty training and listened to lots of well meaning advice from friends and family, used pull-ups then transitioned into Gerber cloth training pants with vinyl cover sewn-on then finally into training panties and then now into regular girly cute panties. I was resolved to the fact that I would have to remind her and physically escort her to the potty for the rest of her natural life, and never rest from the constant observance of body language and the clock.

But just in the last couple of weeks we've had a major break through: Gracie has been vocalizing the need to go and going potty!!!!! Also she has been observed taking herself potty!!!!!!!

This is wonderful and then today (the day of miracles) Gracie my sweet little Gracie went potty,without a parent, pulled down her own pants (which we have vigorously been working on) sat on the potty without assitence of stool or potty seat insert and went potty and not just # 1 but the infamous never to have been seen in the toliet ~ #2!!!!!!!!!!!!! (This all secretly observed by me, because Gracie is a netoriously private girl) She then flushed by herself and ran out of the bathroom to procalim "I DID IT!!! I WENT PEE AND POOP IN THE POTTY!!! I WANT 3 CHOCOLATES!!!!!!" (she usually only gets one for a #1 ) So after quietly praising her (although I wanted to scream "YES!!!!YOU WONDERFUL GIRL ! YOUR AMAZING AND SMART AND SO BIG AND GREAT AND YES!!!!!!!", but Gracie is embarrassed easily and crys with too much loud praise) and reminding her to wipe and wash hands -I got down her 3 chocolates and we called Grandma and Aunt Tammie and did a happy dance.

So Yes there is a Santa Claus Virgina, and now after a year+ of potty training I see it...the Light at the End of this long, dark smelly tunnel...it's still a little ways away but its there we won't be in the dark much longer...I see the Light!

College Here I Come!.......Again

School Days, School Days.........

It's Offical~ I will be attending the College of Southern Nevada Fall 2010! I will be starting an Associate of Arts Program with a major in Secondary Education. We have yet to hear if I've been granted a Pell Grant, the college will start reviewing applications for Fall in the middle of April. So please add us to your prayers; but grant or not school will start for me this fall. I'm super excited and nervous! Gracie wlll also be starting a new school: Beckley Elementry in their Pre-K Speech Preschool, she'll be riding the bus and be gone for 2 1/2 hrs. This will give me time to do school online with only Ehlana as company. Rory will be going into first grade and hopefully will be granted a zone variance so she can continue going to Diaz where she'll be attending gender seperated classes. So Fall 2010 is the start of a new era here in the Spencer Lodge~ so pull out your number 2 pencils-We're going back to School!!!!!!

FABLEHAVEN BOOK SIGNING~MEETING BRANDON MULL

Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison
After centuries of plotting, the Sphinx—leader of the Society of the Evening Star—is after the final artifacts needed to open the great demon prison, Zzyxx. If the legendary prison is opened, a tide of evil is certain to usurp control of the world.

Pingo
What happens when your imaginary friend becomes your imaginary enemy? New York Times bestselling author Brandon Mull and No.1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Brandon Dorman team up in this new children’s picture book that explores the meaning of friendship and imagination.

We were so excited to see Brandon Mull; author of the Fablehaven series, Pingo and The Candy Shop War. He came to the Deseret Book here in Las Vegas! We took the whole family and waited in line for about 45min. by our good friends and had a blast eating bread made by the "Brownies" and drinking "Magic Milk" so we could see the fairies when we went into meet Mr. Mull. He signed all four of our Fablehaven books and we purchased a copy of Pingo and he signed that as well, we also pre-ordered a copy of the final Fablehaven book (it comes to stores on March 23rd) which will arrive signed! We've read all his books as a family so it was a treat to go see him. The children behaved so well and were truly angels! The woman standing right behind us even bought the girls more milk and bread because they were behaving so well. She gave us a huge compliment, she said that she could tell we were good parents because our kids were so well behaved! This outing was my birthday celebration, even though my b-day's not until the 15th, we ended the night by stopping at Pizza hut and enjoyed eating salad and pizza with the kids and my sweet hubby. It was so fun and we can't wait until Book 5 arrives!

A New Look

80's style~Our Stake had a 70's /80's dinner dance for valentines Day and this is our 80's Style!

Valentines Day Kiss!

Our Amazing Reading Room!

Ehlana's favorite past time- talking to her chickens!

It's a New Year and it's time for a new look! I'm excited about changing the style and look of our blog. I also hope to do more writing this year than just photo blogging.

We've stepped into a New Era here in our home~ Infant Freedom!!! Ehlana has grown out of her infant carrier/carseat and we've finally stopped nursing. Baby toys and clothing are just sitting and ready to be passed on to future nieces. We haven't passed anything on over these past 5 yrs+ because our family was still growing but now we've reached the end of our family train with Ehlana as the caboose. We're ready to take on new challenges and excitement and free our storage of everything Infant! We've moved the girls all in the same room and made the baby room into a play room and the family room is now just that a family room not a toy disaster every visiter trips over! So on to the future.......