Anna's first day of school

I think I just set the record for taking the longest to do my first day of school post.

First day of second grade

I just love that cutie!

Summer 2009

I guess I never got back on the wagon. Blogging is hard for me! Our external hard drive crashed in August and most of our pictures are on there. It was devastating to me that we don't have our pictures anymore, but we are hopeful that we can retrieve the stuff on there. Anyway, it also made me realize how important it is to record what's going on even if it's just a few stories and pictures here and there. I AM going to post more often now.

We spent almost all of July in Utah. We went to the Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone and stayed in a big cabin in Teton Village with my whole family. It was so fun and beautiful. I would love to retire there. Unfortunately those pictures are on the external hard drive. Here's some highlights of things we did that I actually have pictures of.

Hanging out with my sister's fam and their dogs in Springville.

Pretty Silver Lake with the Grandma and Grandpa Spencer

Having fun with cousin Mia

Visiting Friends

Shannan Keyes--we've been friends since 3rd or 4th grade.

Lindsey Van Ballagooie--friends for about 14 years! We met when we both worked at Wal-Mart.

My sister Amy's visit to California.

Aliso Creek Beach

Disneyland on Amy's birthday!

Amy's birthday dinner.

 Spencer's first time licking the beater from the birthday cake batter. I didn't give it to him, he's got Lucy's leftovers. I just loved coming out and seeing him so happy licking the beater.

I had my 32nd birthday also in August, but no pictures to post. They were too hideous and they made me look 10 years older.

That's it for the summer. When we came back to California, I started teaching art lessons and that consumed a lot of my time. It was fun, though. We still managed to go swimming as much as possible and to get some fun times in before school started.

I fell off the wagon!

I fell of the wagon, the blogging wagon, that is. But I'm back on it again. I have felt so busy with lessons and homework and taking care of kids that I didn't feel like I had time for blogging. But I want to keep doing it so I am going to give it another try. I don't know how you bloggers do it! It's sad that my last blog was in November and it was about Twilight.

I've got lots of pictures in this post, but not lots of writing so it shouldn't take very long to read! Have fun!

Halloween

This is when we first bought their costumes, I love this picture. Such cute girls!

Halloween!!! Wade is a greaser, I'm a poodle skirt girl, Spencer is a spider, Anna is Ariel (of course!) and Lucy is Belle.

Thanksgiving

We stayed in California for Thanksgiving and had a nice dinner with our little fam.


Christmas in Utah

Christmas Eve--the kids are in their Christmas jammies. Sadly, we didn't take any pictures on Christmas morning. We did film them, though.

Cousins putting on their Christmas make-up. Lovely!

This is our bi-yearly visit with my Grandma Spencer (she's 99!!). We love my Grandma and look forward to visiting her when we are in Utah.

The cousins bringing in the New Year (at 9:00 PM)!


Valentine's Day

We took our kids to the Newport Beach Temple on Valentine's Day so they could walk around the grounds and feel the spirit there. It was such a beautiful day and special experience
for our fam.

I love my cute kids.

We bought the girls pretty princess dresses for Valentine's Day (Actually, I just happened to buy them around Valentine's Day so we gave them to the girls as presents.)