Pink

Yes I realize my background is a tad bit pinkish. I was going for a new look for the New Year so I thought I would embrace pink since I have shunned it for so many years.

Fun Christmas

I'm finding as the kids get bigger and understand Christmas a little better it becomes more fun for me to enjoy the holidays. Alex still doesn't get the Santa = presents thing yet which is ok. He just knows that he get to rip wrapping paper off toys and he's pretty excited about that. This year we didn't have Dani or Steph here on Christmas Eve to celebrate with us so Sarah, Lindsay and I had to gang up on Mike and Ben in the Global Domination game of RISK. Ben was the first to be eliminated and then Mike felt that his wife and sisters were somehow being unfair to him by attacking him from all sides and wiping him off the face of the earth. Then miraculously, after the bloody defeat of the boys, suddenly peace broke out in the land and everyone was happy. Goes to show what would happen if women ruled the world. We had a wonderful Christmas Day. Ben's brother David and his wife Susie stayed with us Christmas Eve night so they were here to help the boys open gifts. (It was really only David that helped. Susie unlike David is not a morning person and chose to sleep in a little longer. I like her already;)

It was fun to see the boys' reactions to everything, although they were more excited about the candy than the actual gifts.

We then went over to Grandma and Grandpa Hart's to spend time with them and more of Ben's family. Again the boys were more excited by the food than the presents. We were so pooped out that we went home for the afternoon and we all took a 3 hour nap. That night we went over to my parents house and did gifts and during dinner we were all able to talk to Dani.

It was nice to actually hear her again. She is doing great. She loves her mission companion. And the work is going on. They share a car with the Elders. So they get it one week and ride their bikes the next. She said that first week her butt hurt so bad but she's getting used to it now. Steph was also able to call, however only mom and dad were home when she did. She is also doing well. She said she loves the marching. She's also in charge of getting her flight up to snuff with their exercising. Who knew Steph could lead? She'll be graduating from basic training the middle of January. Then she's staying there for another few months for her technical training. She's very excited for that. We're so glad that both of then had a nice Christmas and they are warm and safe. We're also very grateful for the many blessings we've been given and have enjoyed this time to reflect and truly appreciate them.

Annual Contest

Last night Mike and Lindsay had their Annual Gingerbread House Making Contest. This was the first year we were able to attend. Ryan and Sarah were there making an over the top Cinderella castle complete with drawbridge and carriage.

They were trying to overthrow Mike, who last year "won" with his rendition of the Hogwarts castle. This year he decided to go with a re-make of the "wise man and foolish man". He made a waterfall with a house built on top and a house built down below. Of course his was the house below and the house on top was Dave's. (Dave is his best friend and now brother-in-law.) Lindsay's sister Stacey and her husband Kyle were already done with theirs by the time we got there so they were just doing random creations. Her other sister Emily and her husband Dave did and airport from the Portland OR area. It was pretty good. And her other sister Julie and her husband Dave (formerly of Mike and Dave) did something cute but I have no idea what it was. Sorry!

Ben and I did a miniature Schrute Farm complete with beets. It was great.

Then we all played a card game that I have no idea the name of, but it's way fun. The prize for the winners was first choice on the Christmas gifts that Mike and Lindsay made. After the first round Ben and I were in the lead so naturally I wanted to stop it right there. But at the end of the game we were in fourth. So at least we beat one other couple. But the gifts that they had made were wooden chests.

Mike had made Lindsay one that was just beautiful. These are about half the size of what he did for her. So thanks Mike and Lindsay for a wonderful night out.

Something new from Elvis

This special letter was written for Stephanie by my dad.

Well, things have been pretty slow around here with just Mom and me and Grandkids and Sarah and Mike and Jennifer and Lindsey and Ryan and Ben and Lucy and Toonsees….you know….pretty slow.
It's kind of funny though. For the past 28-years I've daily walked around the house picking up socks and shoes and clothes and towels, and turning off lights and tightening the lids on soda bottles and ketchup bottles and hanging toilet paper on the toilet paper hangers and collecting cups and plates and spoons and forks and knives and sun flower seed shells from in front of the TV and taking them to the kitchen and turning off the porch light before going to work and turning on and off the air conditioner and heater when it got too hot or too cold. Well, it looks like I'm still doing those things! Who would have guessed that it was Mom making all those messes all those years and letting me think it was you!…who knew??
It reminds me of the story often told by Elvis about growing up in Topalo, Mississippi. Some of the particular details may be fuzzy but the story is applicable. Elvis grew up as normally as is possible in the deep south and was more or less a normal kid – he had friends and pets and neighbors and Aunts and Uncles and Cousins and he knew most of the folks in town because he either went to church or school with them or played baseball or ate lunch at the Chick-Filet with them. He often recalled the story about a neighbor of his (the house on the south side of his parents home -- not the north side, where years later the guy who invented Napster used to live before his family was….well, that's a different story for another time). The Tetbar family lived to the south of Elvis' home, just across the irrigation ditch on the other side of the giant rhubarb plants that Mrs. Tetbar (Louise) raised and entered every year at the county fair and every year she came in 4th place behind the Pastor's wife who was always placed 2nd or 3rd except the one year she and her husband went to the "Quadrennial Spring Slip-on" in up-state Arkansas at the "I'm living for the Lord Campground and Retreat Complex", and got caught-up in a sting operation the Federal Alcohol-Tobacco-and-Fire-Arm Agency was conducting and unexpectedly asked Pastor and his wife to spend 7 extra faith-promoting days as guests of government at the 'Spring Lake Adult Correctional Facility" in Western Kansas, so she didn't return home early enough to transplant the Rhubarb starts on time so they never did mature and were not quite as sweet as they normally would be at fair time so she place way behind Mrs. Tetbar that year – but Mrs. Tetbar still came in 4th place.
Mr. Julius Danbout Tetbar wasn't related to Elvis but all the neighborhood kids called him 'Uncle Bubba' and he and his family had lived next door to the Preselys ever since he and Mrs. Tetbar had moved into the neighborhood shortly after their marriage. Being a country boy at heart Bubba had been around farm animals all his life so he kept a few animals in the short barn on his 2-acre property, usually a half-dozen chickens and a couple of short breed Goats and he devised a 3-foot square box that looked like a sand box but was full of grass clippings and humus and wood chips and then some sand and this is where his prized 'long-string' night crawlers were raised and corralled because Bubba felt that a real man wouldn't fish with cheese on a hook, he would only use worms – the same type of bait the Apostles from the Bible used – because if they were good enough for them they were good enough for him.
Of course the chickens provided eggs and kept the flying and crawling insect population under control, but the Goats were Bubba's pride and joy. They did a very nice job of cropping the grass and weeds and bushes and ditch-bank shrubbery and Bubba always looked the other way when they started chewing on Mrs. Tetbar's prize Rhubarb because this was one of the few things Bubba truly hated because his Mother had made all her kids eat Rhubarb as they were growing up during the 1930's depression because it was plentiful and free and grew all over the place so it was easy to pick. So Elvis' favorite Bubba story was when Bubba had 2 female short-breed goats that he had trained just like a dog. They did their job but also liked to play chase the ball and go on walks with Bubba where he'd show them off to the fellows down at the barber shop. So one early November morning Bubba is out feeding the chickens but he couldn't find the 2 sisters. He looks all over the place and discovers that the back gate is open free swinging on its hinges in the wind and it looked like the girls had taken it upon themselves to take a hike so Bubba takes to the neighborhood looking for them but after several hours he stomped back into the house all in a tissie because a real man does not admit that he misses anything and he wasn't going to break down and admit it. After 2-3 weeks he's missing the girls so much that he goes out and buys a male short breed Goat to take their place which he knew wouldn't be hard because a goat is a goat. Problem is his new goat was a real knot head and didn't like Rhubarb and wouldn't go near it and he wouldn't eat grass or weeds because his previous owner only fed him alfalfa hay and he wouldn't eat anything else. So Bubba was not about to give in and let a goat get the best of him so he didn't feed the stubby little mutt for 2-weeks thinking the goat would get hungry and finely eat grass and stuff. So early one morning at the end of the 2-weeks Bubba goes to the back yard to feed the chickens and see if the goat had started to eat and instead Bubba finds the goat laying on his side frozen solid like an icicle and this really put Bubba in a bad state of mind because he'd first lost his 2 prize girls and now this fat-head was ready to push up some daises. Bubba went to the short barn and grabbed the shovel he used to work the worm garden with and went out and found a good spot to bury the goat and places the shovel on the ground and jumps with both feet on the shovel blade because the ground was frozen and he knew it would take a little extra effort to dig the hole. When he came down on the shovel it snapped and broke and Bubba fell on his back and cracked his elbow and got frost in his hair and now he was really mad so he went to the short barn and got the pick ax and square nose shovel – because that was the only shovel left – and he went out and started chopping a hole in the ground that took 45-minutes and he was really really upset about this time so he grabs the goat by ears and tail elevates it above his head but thinks better about it because he sees Elvis out of the corner of his eye looking through the knot hole in the fence watching him. So he laid the goat on its side in the hole but it wasn't wide enough for the goat to fit even though it was deep enough. So he laid the goat on its back with its feet sticking up and started chunking clods of dirt with the shovel into the hole until it was filled up but the legs from the knees up were sticking out of the ground. Mr. Julius Danbout Tetbar really lost it then and runs to the short barn and comes back with his wood saw and starts cutting off the legs at ground level but because the legs were frozen solid they were difficult to remove so Bubba started kicking at the legs and one of them snapped off and smacked him in jaw making him loose his footing and he fell down with his head landing between the front legs sticking out of the ground and he laid there blowing steam out of his nose and said (this is why this story reminds me of you) "I SURE MISS THOSE GIRLS."

Working

So this morning I'm trying to check e-mail feed the boys and clean up after breakfast while they are in the living room pulling out books, taking chairs into the living room to stand up on to get to the ornaments on the tree that are only on the upper half, pulling cushions off the couch so they can jump on them, dumping walnuts all over the table and then chucking them at each other, Alex yelling at Spencer because Spencer's sitting in "his" seat and eating "his" things. So I go up to Alex and say, "You're working mom over today aren't you?" Alex laughs and giggles and says, "Yeah."

I can't do it

Alex is now into saying "I can't do it mom." Whether it's putting on his shoes or picking up his toys it's been "I can't do it myself." So last night we went on a drive just to get out of the house, so we decided to go get some ice cream. I'm sure most people know how brilliant it is to give kids in the back seat ice cream without any supervision. So, being the forward thinker that I am, I got in the back seat with them. Ben got his own ice cream up front, Spencer got a sucker (If anyone has seen Spencer with ice cream you know that the sucker was a smart move), and Alex and I shared an ice cream. Well as I was unwrapping the sucker for Spencer, Alex was going nuts to get at the ice cream. I told him to just hold his horses. He sat and thought about it for a second and said, "Mom, I can't hold my horses." It was so much funnier listening to it in person. Ben and I laughed all the way home.

Done

Well Ben finally defended his Master's Thesis. And the good news is HE PASSED!!! He now has to wait for that magical day when his diploma will suddenly show up in the mail. We are so happy that he is done and even more happy we don't have to pay the U any more money. YEAH!!!!! The ONLY sad thing is we won't be able to get the student discounts for things anymore. DANG. But it's a small price to pay for a piece of paper on the wall saying Ben can now put an M.A. behind his name.

Here's a little something from Elvis

Ok here's a little preface. My dad likes to include Elvis in just about everything he writes. I don't know why but it does add a little something to correspondence. This is what he wrote to Danielle's mission presidents' wife to let her get to know Dani a little better. Lets hope it worked.

A fond memory of mine with Danielle is actually several memories. Having taught 7-8 year-old CTR classes for many years I was privileged to attend quite a few baptisms when the kids turned 8. Not wanting to go alone, I would usually take Dan with me. So, she has attended more baptisms than most missionaries ever will. It’s sort of like the story told about Elvis when he was shooting a movie in Germany and had the chance to visit some of the areas around where he had been stationed with the Army a few years earlier. He and several cast members took 3-days off and traveled to the Bavarian Alps in hopes that they would be able to spend some time skiing on the world famous mountain slopes that he had skied during his previous stay when, coincidentally, he had extended his tour of duty thinking he would be able to ski to his hearts content because his Company Commander found that if he had Elvis work 3-days on and 10-days off life was so much easier around the Army Post because Elvis lived off-post and when he was at work the Public Affairs Officer on Post would have to spend all of his time taking care of not only the press with the multitude of reporters and cameramen, but also the throngs of tourists from the U.S., and on top of that herds of German women, young and old, who were making it difficult for the Post to operate as it should and the Post Commander, a 2-star General, who wasn’t about to let an E-3 Enlisted Troop who wasn’t even an NCO take over control of his post – you know how those high ranking Army Commanders were in the 1950’s – so he had ordered Elvis’ Company Commander, a 6’5” former NBA Basketball star who had been drafted and had to leave his moderately paying NBA career to be an Army Officer with a job that payed even less just so he could babysit a whinny-snotty-nosed-rich-brat who didn’t even have to live in the crowded one-room open-bay barracks like the rest of the recruits and who probably ate steak and bratwurst every night because he had more money than he could ever spend in 10 lifetimes. So, Elvis and about 37 movie crew members checked into one of the local youth hostels – not a hotel but a youth hostel where everyone slept in a 1-room open-bay area on sleeping bags laid on the hardwood planked beds – and Elvis and the crew spent the 1st day skiing at the nearest chalet – well, really sitting around the chalet drinking hot chocolate in the big 27 ounce insulated steins and with those super-duper-delux-extra-large marshmallows that the Alps are so famous for, and spinning stories for anyone who would listen and there were a lot of people to listen because as soon as it became known that Elvis was on the premises – actually Shecky Olvar was one of the group and most of the crowd was jammed around him to hear his stories about that fiasco in Lapland where, well you know, we don’t need to get into that here – well the people really packed themselves in to overflowing to see and be a part of the excitement and that’s when it happened. The manager of the Chalet was at wits end trying to keep order in his very orderly place of business. He very discretely took Elvis aside telling him that he appreciated his patronage but with all the people in his group and all the people who had gathered to be with his group it was becoming too unruly and he asked Elvis why it had to be this way. Elvis, dipping his head a little to the left and fixing a serious but benevolent gaze on the manager is reported to have said – and this is how it was like when Danielle accompanied me to all those baptisms – he said: sir, ‘I’ve found that I love to go to where my friends gather and where I can feel the Spirit!’

Papa Condie

Bye Bye Stephie

My sister Stephanie is leaving this morning for Basic Training in Texas. She is the wild child of our family and there was no stopping her. She'll be there until next April or May so she can do her technical training as well. Then from there who knows where she'll end up. She loves anything involving the snow so hopefully somewhere cold so she can get out and snowboard as often as she wants. So we said goodbye to her last night and I'm not sure Alex understands that he's not going to see his aunt for awhile. When she was walking out the front door he said, "I see you on Sunday." Maybe a Sunday a long time from now. Well good luck Steph and remember FOCUS!

Our Veterans

For Veterans Day my mom and my aunt, Steph and I with the boys went on a journey up into the Utah mountains and out to the Uinta Basin to a little group of towns on the outside of Duchesne. My grandpa grew up in this part of the world and now they were setting up a veterans memorial site to honor those who served in the armed forces.

They put in on the side of the main road of Altamont. We surprised grandpa by being there for the program where they were honoring the veterans of the Upper Country.

It was a wonderful program where helicopters buzzed by and did an aerial show above the memorial. My grandpa's sister still has a house up there so after grandpa took us on a tour of where he grew up, we went to go visit the relations. They had an old homestead still on the property that they have coverted and a few rock piles that the boys enjoyed playing in. Thanks grandpa for serving and helping to keep us free.

Halloweening

We had a Neighborhood Halloween Party on Wed. that was just a blast. They had dinner and games and music and pictures and EVERYONE dressed up. Alex went as a Jazz fan because he didn't want to dress as ANYTHING else and this was the only thing I could think of the day of that he even might consider wearing. Spencer was Superman. It was the costume I made for Alex back when he hadn't figured tantrums out yet. But Spencer was so cute with his little chubby legs in those tights. For Halloween we got the boys dressed and went to trick-or-treat both Grandma's and then we came home and let the boys pass out the candy. They loved it and we didn't have to go out. So a win win both ways.

Cakes

I've been taking cake decorating classes. It's a class that Hobby Lobby offers and it just so happens that my back door neighbor teaches them. It was fun and I learned lots. Here's a pic of my final cake I did. And yes there is a little piece taken out of the back. Alex got to it before I could take the picture.

Baby Feet

Spencer is now up and going ALL the time. He loves to walk and he's almost running (mostly away from Alex). Before when he was only taking a few steps he hated wearing socks and shoes. He would curl his little toes under and it was impossible for him to sit still while you were trying to jam these itty bitty shoes onto his feet. But now that he is full on walking he carries his shoes with him all over the house. He knows which ones are his and which ones are Alex's and he is especially fond of my black fuzzy house slippers. So now when I tell him we are getting ready to go, he'll go get his shoes while I get his socks and he sits down on my lap and pops his little feet up so I can get everything on and then he's ready to go out the door. He's such a cute little guy.

Part Three

Friday

We decided to spend the day up in Logan. We stopped by the American Heritage Village. It's a working farm with cows and chickens and corn etc. Alex, Spencer and Ben wouldn't touch any of the animals so it was up to me to show the boys there was nothing weird about a calf.

The boys did have fun pretending to ride them though. And they all took turns roping. They all did pretty well surprisingly.

Alex wanted to jump into the hay but when he finally got on top I guess it looked to scary so I had to hold his hand. We also did a corn maze there. Way fun - except it was 12:30 and the boys were starving. So I was trying to find the quickest way out. Luckily we had a map and it wasn't to long before we were out and eating at Logan's Hero's.

Saturday

We thought we'd go and cheer on the Utes. We were lucky to even get in the game. It was sold out and exactly on minute before we bought the tickets someone turned in 10 extra tickets that weren't being used. So we got to sit up in the international section of the stadium - beats sitting with the MUSS. It was great. The Utes won and the weather was beautiful. We had two older Chinese ladies sitting next to us that were absolutely enthralled with Spencer and his curly hair. They were talking to him and taking pictures even. He went over to say hi for a minute and then realized he wasn't with mom any more and then came straight back. But they still fussed over him like he was theirs.

So that was our staycation 2008! Looking forward to next year!

Part Two

Here is the new temple in Draper. It is a lot smaller than I thought it would be. It looks pretty big from the freeway. But the second pic is of the other temple being built. It's hard to see but it's the biggest building in the picture.

Wednesday

We went up to the Hill Aerospace Museum. Growing up military I have a weird thing with planes and helicopters so it is a good thing I have little boys.

We love walking around all the big planes and just seeing the size of them is incredible. You wonder how they stay in the air. The first time we went Alex was really nervous about all of it so I showed him the nose on one of the planes and said, "Isn't that silly?" Now whenever we go he shows me the silly nose airplane.

We also dug out our garden. We had to pull a few green pumpkins out to but we just couldn't wait any longer.

Thursday

We made cookies in the morning. So much fun! Alex had dough and frosting and who knows what else all over his face and hands by the time we were done.

I got to go with my mom to my brother's best friend's wedding. Mike and Dave have been friends since they met. Just imagine two fat chubby boys playing together. Well Dave married Lindsay's (Mike's wife) sister Julie. So now they will forever be related. Good luck to the Arrington's who now have to put up with them both.

So after that we went to the Children's museam. They have a Life Flight Helicopter that the kids can sit in and mess with the buttons. It was great.

They had a construction area that Alex loved.

And a water area that Spencer loved.

STAYcation

Because of Ben's school and work schedule, we couldn't take any time off - until now. So we have 9 days of fun filled Hart activities planned. Here is part one.

Saturday

We went and saw the Utah giant pumpkin weigh in. These things were HUGE!

Then we went on an IKEA splurge. I LOVE IKEA! We had so much fun going around the store. They were having a sale and people were getting a little crazy so Ben started throwing elbows - no joke!

After all that exercise we needed to sit down and relax and have some seriously good food so we went - where else? the Cheesecake Factory. YUM YUM!

That night we also had a Condie Family get together. My dad and his siblings and most of their kids (me and my cousins) and then our kids. It was a crowd. But we had fun playing card games and having lots of food.

Sunday

This is what we woke up to.

We went to church and took naps,played around and later Alex went down to Sarah and Ryan's with Steph and built a snowman.

Monday

We went bowling. We took Steph with us to help out with the kids and to give her something to do, now that Dani has left. So I thought I'd done alright in the first game but Steph completely creamed us in the second game. Ben has to learn when there are Condie girls around he is just never going to win.

We also went swimming that afternoon. We couldn't get any pictures of that cause I left the camera in my bag in the locker and I wasn't going to dig it out from the bottom of all our stuff. And by the end of the day we were all so tired the boys actually went to bed on time and Ben and I were asleep by 8:30.

Tuesday

We went to the Living Planet Aquarium. It wasn't as much fun as we hoped. Both boys fell asleep in the car on the way down (rough day yesterday). So Spencer was trying to sleep till the last 20 minutes we were there.

Alex was mostly freaked out by everything except the shark tank. So we spent a lot of our time there.

Since we were in the area we decided to drive up the new temple in the south part of the valley. It looks almost done. From up there you can see the Jordan River temple and the other new temple under construction. On a good day you could probably see the SL Temple too but it was a bit smoggy today. I'll post those pics on part two.

New Addition

We now have a new member of the family - Hewie! "Ewie" as Alex likes to call her is a hamster. Mike and Lindsay were looking for a home for Hewie and we thought we'd take her in. She's fat and chubby and loves to run on her squeaky wheel very early in the morning. The boys love her and she's pretty low maintenance, which is good for us. Welcome to the Hart's Hewie!

Bye Bye Dani

Last night we went over to say goodbye to Danielle. She is leaving this morning with the rest of the family in tow to go to the MTC. I didn't want to take two squirming boys down to Provo just to have to sit outside for an hour and wait for everyone else to say goodbye. So we went over to Grandma's and Grandpa's and magically everyone else showed up about 10 min later. So we had a good visit with everyone. Who knows when it will be when we finally will all be in the same room together - so it was nice. As we were leaving Alex went to give Dani a hug and he said, "See you when I'm 5." It's going to take some getting used to - not having her around but we know it's more important for her to go do the Lord's work. We'll miss Dani - be safe.

Tagged

Thanks Allison -

8 fav TV shows
1The Office
2 Mash
3 American Idol
4 The Today Show
5 seriously - we don't watch TV - after the first one was stretching it.
6
7
8

8 fav restaurants
1 The Mandarin
2 Spanky's
3 The Cheesecake Factory
4 Desert Edge Pub
5 Pogy's
6 The Old Spaghetti Factory
7 Holy Smoke BBQ
8 Jason's Deli

8 things that happened yesterday
1 I changed Spencer's outfit 4 times
2 Watched a horrible movie
3 watched the rain
4 went to Tai Pan Trading with my mom, sisters and sis-in-law
5 ate chinese food
6 worked on my christmas cards
7 got the mail
8 quilted

8 things to look forward to
1 potty trained kids
2 traveling with Ben
3 less laundry
4 dani coming back
5 a bigger house
6 kitchen counter tops that don't shred my shirts
7 losing baby weight
8 talking coherently with my kids

8 things I love about fall
1 wearing pants and sandals at the same time
2 pumpkins
3 fall leaves
4 snuggling with Ben on cold mornings
5 taking pics of my kids playing in leaves
6 Thanksgiving
7 filling the house with food smells
8 sweater weather

8 things on my wish list
1 get caught up on my scrapbooking
2 have Christmas shopping done by Halloween
3 have a clean house all the time
4 a new bathroom
5 new carpet throughout the house
6 a Bloomington house
7 a weekly date night
8 a new kitchen

8 people I tag
1 Dani
2 Sarah
3 Steph
4 Tara
5 Tiff
6 Kat
7 Lindsay
8 Laura

Princess Mama

Some of the things your kids say are just priceless. Like when your in the grocery store and they say, "You're old!" to the person standing behind you or they repeat something from their favorite movie and no one gets it so you have to explain where it came from and why they are saying it at that particular moment. Then there are those that just make you want to squeeze them and just make you feel good. Over the weekend we were playing at Grandma Bonnie's house. She has big square foam pieces that fit together to make a larger mat. Well Alex being the boy he is, doesn't mind that the Disney Princesses are on them, he still runs his trucks over them and makes houses and forts with them. So we were making a house with the door and everything when he realizes that there are princesses on it. So he kept saying the rest of the day, "Princess on my house." So today when I was on blogger he saw the picture of Ben and I and he said, "Princess mama." When I asked him about it he said, "Princess mama marry daddy in the temple." What a sweetie.

Grandpa turns 80!

I love my Grandpa. He is the only grandparent I have left so when he has a birthday as big as number 80 you had better believe that we celebrate it. Almost all of his brothers and sisters were able to make it and the great-grandkids just love him. We played games and made a quilt for him with pictures of him and grandma and their kids and families. It turned out beautiful thanks to Aunt JoEllen.

We had games and a dutch oven lunch and of course cake and ice cream. Thanks Grandpa for sticking around this long - and we hope you have many more wonderful birthdays!

Spencer's walking!

Spencer's been flirting with the whole walking thing. He knows that crawling is faster but he has to hold everything in his mouth when he crawls. If he walks he can hold more things in his hands but he can only go four or five steps at a time. So Wednesday he woke up and said, "I'm going to walk today." He just got up and started walking. He's still a little wobbly but if he falls down he just gets right back up again and takes off.

Finally in the House

Well I finished painting the cabinet a few weeks ago but we finally brought it over to our house and put it in the backyard so I could distress it and put on the doors. While Ben was painting a bookshelf inside and the boys were sleeping I was outside trying to get it all done as fast as I could because it was starting to sprinkle. Finally I had to ask Ben to come help. So we finished it up and brought it inside. 20 minutes later it started pouring. Here are a couple of pictures. I wish I would have gotten one of it before I started but oh well, just imagine it with a mix of dark and light green paint on it with patches of red.