Celebration of Spencer!

Since I'm waaaaaaaay behind on blogging, I'm not going to overwhelm myself by trying to recap ALL the fun events I haven't written about. I'll just touch on a couple highlights of winter, the first of which happened shortly after Christmas. On January 3, Spencer turned 7!! We had a fun family party, going to Chuck-E-Cheese and eating a lemon-berry baseball cake (his choice!). I want to make this post a "Celebration of Spencer". These are some of the things that make Spencer such an outstanding boy:

1. He is, and always has been, sensitive to others' needs. He is aware of when others are hurting or sad, and tries his hardest to help them.

2. He is a great example to his younger brothers. He loves teaching them and helping them. He loves making them laugh. Spencer has an amazing ability to motivate Mikey to clean a room or get a chore done (a HUGE accomplishment!) by making a game out of it.

3. Spencer is a good student. He loves to learn, works hard at school, and takes pride in doing good work. He has become an excellent reader. He has also been taking piano lessons (from a not-so-skilled-or-patient mother!), and even though he doesn't love it, he is consistent with practicing and has moments of enjoyment...like playing the "Harry Potter" theme song at a ward talent show recently!

4. Spencer is an inventor! He is constantly building things with legos, blocks, K'nex, Tinker Toys, or scrapwood from the garage. He likes to create little worlds, cars and planes, and "robots". He also loves building forts out of couch cushions and blankets. He seems most fulfilled when he's creating things. He likes to hum to himself while he works, and I love hearing his happy-creating tunes!

5. Spencer is an artist. When he's not building something, he's usually drawing. He mostly draws things that he makes up himself--little characters--and will tell a story about them.

6. Spencer loves to play sports and romp around outside. He loves to ride his bike, play football, baseball, and skateboard.

7. Spencer loves people. He loves to talk and express himself, and he also loves knowing what's going on in others' lives. I've loved this past year of his life because I feel like he's become more of a friend--someone who is fun to talk to and joke with. It is so nice to have him around, especially since Jaron is gone so much. I sure love my buddy Spencer!

8. Spencer continues to develop a love for God. He has a sense of God's love for him, and he has moments of desiring closeness with the Divine.

9. Jaron and I feel SO incredibly blessed to have Spencer in our family! He makes us so happy!

Mikey is a Prodigy

A few months ago, Jaron was hanging out with the kids, quizzing them on math problems. Spencer was answering lots of them, leaving Mikey feeling left-out. So Jaron decided to make the problems harder...and all of the sudden, Mikey became a whiz at math! Spencer couldn't believe that his 4-year-old brother knew multiplication and division problems! Perhaps Mikey had a little inspiration...or maybe he really is a genius...I'll let you decide! I'm sad that I only captured the tail end of the "Advanced Math Games" on video. This had been going on for about 10 minutes or so before the part I recorded.

What You've Been Waiting For

Two mighty "Captain Underpants". Comin' atcha in full force!

We're BAAA AAAK!!

Jaron worked his magic, gave our "unfixable" camera a couple good whacks, and...voila! We're back in business! Way to go Honey! (Anyone need some bones fixed while he's on a roll...?)

Mullet Time

Here's a fun one from the archives: Jaron and Em schooled the competition at the Orthopedic "Mullet Contest" last spring (of course, we were some of the only few that went all-out...). You can't see it here, but not only does Jaron have a sweet mullet, but it's even "dove-tailed" in the back. I know, I know...we're a HOT couple!

Bad Luck!

Our third camera in less than 2 years has gone the way of the buffalo...(four, if you count our video camera too). It met it's fate on our kitchen floor. I was making Christmas goodies with the boys, and I let them have turns taking pictures of each other and the treats...I guess I should have made them use the safety strap! It's been a few weeks since this happened, but I've been too sad about it (and the fact that we went all Christmas without picture-taking!), that I haven't wanted to post. We'll be back up and running soon, but until then, you can shed a tear for us and the bad luck we've had with cameras.

Let It Snow!

Snow day!!!  We were all SO excited to get our first snow day yesterday (which has turned into another today!).  We had our first big snowstorm, with over a foot of snow.  The boys made a "fort" in the front yard, complete with a tunnel, stairs, slide and sitting area.  I didn't get a photo of the finished product, but here's them working on it.  I mostly wanted to capture how the snow piled up on each tree branch.  There's something magical about waking up in the morning, and it's still dark, but it's sort-of light outside because of all the white snow.  It was fun to be outside in the cold, play in the snow, then come in and get cozy with hot chocolate and marshmallows.  As long as we don't have to be out in it for too long, we really love the snow!!