New House

Well, we've finally bought a home. After a year of looking, and 3 houses under contract, including short sales and foreclosures, we finally found the perfect home for us! It's about 30 years old in a neighborhood that has lakes, parks, swimming pools, and a golf course. It's close to freeways, libraries, the temple, hospitals, shopping, the lightrail, etc. The house has a lot of updating and work to do, but that just makes Spencer drool in excitement. He loves having projects every night. The house has plenty of room and a lot of potential. It's so nice to have a backyard and a garage! I feel so old to have my own house! Here are a few pictures!

We just moved into our new house and we have a cinderblock wall with a fig tree right next to it. It is a really great climbing tree the the kids absolutely love. One day, they were climbing in the tree and I was cooking dinner. I heard Carli screaming my name, so I ran outside and I could hear Cale crying but I couldn't see him. Carli was standing on the wall and said, "Mom, Cale fell off the wall into the neighbor's yard!". As I ran around to their yard, I was imagining what he had fallen on: cactus, cement, a pool, a mean and vicious dog, a rose bush. I just didn't know. I opened there gate to find Cale trying to climb back over the wall. Well, at least I knew he was okay. And he had fallen onto grass, so that was a relief. I told them it's probably not a good idea to climb on the wall anymore. They heartily agreed and we quietly exited our neighbor's yard.

Mountain Man

So, Spencer is the leader of the 14-15 year-old boys in our ward. In Mesa, there is something called the Mountain Man campout, where all the teachers in all of Mesa go up into the mountains and do all sorts of Mountain man stuff. Like, skinning a coyote, making arrows and shooting them, rifle shooting, tomahawk throwing, etc. The leaders were encouraged to grow a beard, so Spencer started growing his beard at Christmas and let it grow for 3 months. It was disgusting, to say the least! He would often have food in his beard and it was so long that it was curling. I felt like every time we met someone, I needed to put a disclaimer on his beard and apologize for his out of control facial hair. Anyway, I didn't like it, but he really enjoyed growing it, especially because then he could trim it in all sorts of different ways when he was done with Mountain man. Here are a few of the styles he tried.
Right when he got home-full beard


He now has a hair cut as well
Completely shaved! My favorite is when he has a little bit of scruff though. The hard working man has always looked sexy to me!

running the half "Merrell-thon"

I have been running with a friend for the past few months on Saturdays. She has been training for a half marathon and wanted someone to run with her on her long runs. So, I went with her. Instead of running an expensive race, her family (last name Merrell) created their own half "Merrell-thon". She invited me to run it with her and I said, "uh, yeah!!!" Then I went home and told Spencer that I was going to run a half marathon in a week. I cunningly said, "too bad you haven't trained so you can't do it too." Well, he couldn't resist the challenge, so he said he could "easily" run 13 miles. I said, "there's no way", and he said, "Oh, I'm running it."
Well, I was very pleased I got him to run the marathon, but I was worried I had just either killed him, or hurt my pride by letting him join and running the risk of him beating me even though I exercise 5 times as much as he does.
So, we started running, and in the first 8 miles, I could tell that he was going slow with me to stay with me. I told him to run ahead, but he just "wanted to be with me". Yeah yeah. Well, at about mile 11, Spencer's knee's started to hurt him and he said he needed to walk. I felt like I should probably walk with him since he would do that for me, but my competitive nature won over and I said, "See you at the finish line!"
I know, I'm terrible, but he wanted me to go ahead, so why argue? I beat him by 10 minutes, but that doesn't matter, right??? I did have to gloat and tell Cale that I won, because he is so unbelievably sexist. He couldn't believe I won. I ran it in 2 hours and 7 minutes. Hurray!

Anyway, here are some pictures. It was really fun. We were both so sore the next day, but it was worth it. For some reason, there is a huge sense of accomplishment running that far.

Cute kids

I love my kids so much! I don't tell them enough. I feel like my day is full of hurrying from one thing to the next, telling them to go clean something up or to hurry or to stop fussing. But then when I do take the time to stop and think about how much they listen and obey, and that they forgive me so quickly, and laugh so easily, they make me so happy!

Karen's baby shower

I threw my sister, Karen, a baby shower. She is having her first baby, a little girl that they are naming Makayla Kristine, in just a few weeks. I hosted it in my new home only 3 days after moving in. I didn't think I could pull it off, but I did. It wasn't the most fancy party, but I had fun! I hope Karen did too! Kammi was down here for a racquetball tournament and Kristin was here to scope out the graduate program at ASU, so they were both able to be at the party. It was really fun. Poor Karen is so uncomfortable, but doesn't she look so great???

Bomma's funeral

My Grandmother (Bomma) Died a couple of weeks ago. She was 9o years old and ready to go. She was a wonderful grandma, and I will miss her a lot. I was able to fly up to SLC with Danielle to go to her funeral. It was so great to see my family and be there for my mom.

Hiking and other outings

Fun times with T-ball

Well, we put Cale in T-ball to see if he would pay attention more to the baseball than he did to the soccerball. And he does! When the batter hits the ball, the whole team chases after the ball and fights over who gets it. Someone always ends up crying. It's very entertaining. Cale runs after the ball too and is very good at taking the ball from the other children. When a child cries, you can usually see him out there lecturing them about it not being a big deal if they don't get it and to try harder next time. The child usually stops crying and never cries again. I guess his little lectures work!