A day late and a dollar short

Elliot had a great birthday. He requested The Dodo for dinner. Yes! A meal even Mom can enjoy. Elliot was so gracious at his birthday party, thanking everyone for their gifts. As an added bonus he did not start to plan how he was going to spend his cash until everyone left.Here are seven things we adore about Elliot: his laugh, his smile, his inability to play any sport without being decked out in the gear of said sport, his desire to do things well, the way he treats others and his knack for catching any naughty word, from the slightly naughty to the really naughty, and pointing it out to the offender.

When Mom's away . . .

This is what I drove up to after 3 hours at Burt Brothers, a full-on tackle football game. As you can see the neighbors were decked out in Daniel and David's jersey hand-me-downs (Thank you, Grandma). Elliot is wearing his Chargers uniform, big surprise. Charlie is wearing his "blackout" uniform, which he hasn't taken off since Thursday . . . Go Utes! They were serious. Justin was calling plays and had them very organzied. Thanks to our next door neighbors who let their front yard be used for all sorts of sports activities. We'll be going through major football withdrawls when it finally gets too cold to play outside. Good thing we have basketball jerseys and a hoop in the basement!

Yes We Can

I'm ready to pitch in and be the change I want to see in the world.

'pooky house

We have graduated to the next phase of the Halloween experience . . . serious trick-or-treating. The kids ran from house to house for 2.5 hours. Lucy got in on the action for about the first hour. She spent the next hour and a half being pushed in her stroller eating most of what she had gathered. The best part of the night was having Justin join us for the last hour - after his team lost wah, wah . . . yay! Obviously, I'm a bad coach's wife.

Word to Your Mutha

Justin and I tied for 3rd place at the 1st annual So You Think Can Dance party. We hip hopped our way through Chris Brown's "Gimme That." We pretty much rocked the crowd's faces off.

The stomp that ensued was awesome. Sadly, I am stiff this morning.

Birthday Girl

Lucy is 2! The boys were so excited for her birthday we opened presents right after breakfast. They gave her a make-up kit with chapstick and glitter eye shadow. She loves it! The "get yourself all done up" gene must have skipped a generation.

Her big present was a 3 story doll house. It is very pink. When she could work her way in, fighting her brothers for space, she loved it. By mid afternoon it was turned into a space station with R2D2 and R4 trying to keep General Grievous and his troops at bay. Whatever. Lucy makes light saber sounds and loves to play soccer so the boys can play with doll houses and wear her lip gloss.

Happy birthday Princess Lulu.

Futbol

The boys soccer seasons are winding down. Can I say, without being a bad mom, that I really enjoy not coaching. To just watch and cheer has been a little slice of heaven.



The White Tigers and Green Rockets have made us proud. Both teams are awesome and I don't mean that in a supportive, all kids are great kind of way. They dominate. Some how they both were placed on teams with lots of kids that are aggressive and love to play. So they score a lot and win by a lot. And needless to say, for anyone who knows us, we like it that way. Just kidding . . . sort of.

Little Man on Campus

Charlie told me all morning that he was sick and would not be able to go to school. Then in the next breath, he would say he wanted to be picked up for school just like Elliot. We took a scooter ride around the block to get his wiggles and jitters out. And then he was off to his last, first day of preschool. Charlie is so funny and smart. I'm excited to watch him learn and grow. Hopefully, they can teach him to write his name! He does not want to learn that from me apparently.Lucy has a play date with Aubree while Charlie is gone. And I'm going to wash all the bedding. Doesn't that sound fun!

Big Man on Campus

The big day is finally here. Elliot is a 1st grader. As he was eating breakfast, which was mostly pushing his cereal around because he was too excited, he said to me, "So, I guess I'll see you tomorrow night?" In his mind being at school all day, literally means being at school all day. I already miss him. How can my little boy be in 1st grade, when I remember 1st grade? Mrs. Pearson's scowl is still etched in my brain. Elliot did allow me to walk him to class. I think only because he didn't know where his room was. However, once we got to the door he waved us off and went inside. No hugs, no kisses, no tears . . . at least not from him.

Mom, watch!

Lucy is at such a fun age. She is saying more and more every day. Her favorite word of the moment, besides no, is watch. All day long I hear, "Mom, watch" followed by a somersault, throwing a ball, putting on clothes, jumping and anything else she thinks is awesome. It's pretty cute and is helping to take the edge off of entering the terrible twos.

Sorry, there's no sound! The point of this post was to hear Lucy say, "Mom, watch." But her mom is not that smart with the new technology.

Bear Lake Favorites

We have a family tradition of dicussing our favorite things about trips on our drive home. So here are a few favorites from our latest trip to Bear Lake.

1. Elliot wakeboarding "for reals." He started from deep water and even tried to come back from outside the wake.

2. Tubing galore. The boys and cousins had a blast tubing. The highlight was Aunt Kathy's helicopter wipeout.

3. Minnetonka Cave. We were a little scared when they told us it would take 1 1/2 hours, but were pleasantly surprised by how well all the kids did. Lucy, the firecracker, hiked almost the entire way out by herself. As an added bonus we saw a moose on the drive home. That's a big deal to the Lyon/Spencer spawn.

4. Kathy's deluxe rice crispy treats. Imagine rice crispy treats topped with melted chocolate chips, browned marshmallows and cut up twix bars. Yummy!

5. Elliot being old enough to take Charlie mini-golfing sans parents! We watched them putt away from the comfort of our lawn chairs outside the condo.

6. Bourne marathon with a lil' Nacho on the side. Justin and I watched all 3 Bourne movies (I heart Matt Damon) and then subjected J.D. and Kathy to their first viewing of Nacho Libre. Everyone needs to see this movie with Justin. It is 1,000 times funnier.

7. Beach baby. Lucy loved, loved, loved the beach. She played in the sand and swam in the nasty "pool" someone dug and filled with lake water. I'm sure there were about a thousand disease causing germs in there, but she was so happy I couldn't take her out.

The only downer was missing Morgan and Geoff. They chose China over Bear Lake . . . whatever.

Thanks Nana and Grandpa! The Spencers heart Bear Lake.

Boating and Chocolate

Thanks to Grandpa Joe and the Hogan Expedition, the Spencers have become boaters this summer. Elliot is bound and determined to wakeboard. And thanks to a pretty awesome uncle, who tandem wakeboarded with both boys, and lots of practice Elliot got up last week twice by himself. Now we just have to work on staying up and deep water starts. Charlie tries to get in on the action, but he likes to go slow which doesn't really work.

When it's not Wednesday, our designated boating day, the kids have been playing a lot of star wars and eating a lot of popsicles. Apparently, Lucy likes chocolate.

Yellowstone

We made our annual trek to Yellowstone over the weekend. It seems our kids look forward to this trip more and more every year. And luckily, Yellowstone never disappoints. Charlie won the "What animal will we see first?" contest with bald eagle. The kids love to spot bears, elk, bison, pronghorn, coyotes and all manner of birds.
Our wolf hunt came up short this year. A ranger told the boys the white wolf we saw last year was killed by a rival pack in the fall. And, to add insult to injury, her pack left the park. Thus began the obsessing of how and why the white wolf died and when would she come back to Yellowstone. After two days of questions, Charlie told us the wolf would come back to Yellowstone when Jesus "corrected" (aka resurrected) her.

We hiked to many a stinky pot, which Lucy did not like at all and Charlie thought smelled like gopher, aka sulfur. The boys threw rocks at any water source they could spot. Elliot became a Jr. Ranger, again. We had a great time!

Thank you Grandma and Patrick! We love you.

Wasatch Back

I don't usually post about myself, but I did something over the weekend that was amazing. (That is to say, the experience was amazing, but I'm pretty awesome as well.)

I ran the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay with my friend Annie and her fun and funny family. We spent 31 hours together running, driving, starving, not sleeping and then running some more. I can't tell you why running, driving and starving was so fun, but it was!

I was runner #2 and my legs combined for 15 miles. On my final leg I was passed (road killed) by Matt Garff. What?!! As if losing to him in the Boulton Fun Run wasn't enough.

Wanting to hurl after trying to catch Matt!

I am literally counting down the days until next year's race. For the first time since my kids arrived I feel like the "I want to be athletic" part of Sara is back and I'm loving it!

I'm so glad that he's my dad

Eight greats about this Dad

1. He watches break dancing instuctions online.
2. He does all the kids hair, including shampoo, cut and style.
3. He knows Charlie's temper comes from him.
4. He's taught the kids how to play every sport imaginable.
5. He reads to the boys every night.
6. Elliot and Charlie are the apples of his eye.
7. He picked out all the paint colors in our house.
8. Lucy melts his heart.

Wedded Bliss

The youngest Lyon got hitched this week.

The grandkids had a grand old time at the dinner. There was dancing,chasing, eating, spilling, dancing some more, watching Nemo (lifesaver!!!!), and then dancing even more.

Swimming Lessons

The boys completed their second round of swimming lessons on Friday. Elliot is a "for real" swimmer. He can swim the length of the pool and go off the diving board. He gets worn out quickly though, considering he swims almost entirely with his arms.

Charlie loves the pool. He spends most of his time under water diving for toys.

Lucy tried to strip the whole time we were at lessons. Like her brothers before her, she wants to be in on the action at all times.

Headed to Boston

My mom qualified for the Boston Marathon yesterday! She ran the Ogden Marathon is 4:13, 2 minutes faster than the 4:15 she needed to qualify. Watching her power through the last 100 yards is always amazing.

Mom, you are an inspiration to me in so many ways. Thank you.

I'm thinking of running the Salt Lake Marathon next spring. Any takers?

Boy Heaven

"We stumbled upon "boy heaven" over the weekend. We took the kids for a bike ride along the Jordan River and found a dirt bike track with jumps galore. Before we could say, "Be careful," they were off. It took a few wipe outs before they got the hang of it.

Elliot has since asked me about 100 times, "Mom, was that the best day ever?"

The boys have also been taking swimming lessons to get ready for summer. After lessons, but before soccer, they love to climb the rock wall. They both can get to the top. However, Charlie usually freezes up there unsure of how to get down. We're working hard on the descent, since there's no way I'm climbing up.

Lucy is trying her best to keep up. She's now doing her version of a flip, a somersault, on Nana's trampoline. Nana also convinced her to climb up the ladder and go down the slide. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but the slide is more like a luge, without the turns. It's fast.

To Geoff: Sorry about the lack of posts. The Body Bugg has me obsessed with the calories I burn per minute. Blogging = 1 per minute. That's not good for my cal in/cal out ratio.

Nursery

Today was Lucy's first day of nursery! Which means for 2 of the 3 hours of church I am kid free (except for the 11 kids in my primary class).

Thankfully, she went in without a problem. She has 3 amazing teachers who held her, played with her, sang to her and taught her. So to all the nursery workers out there, you are amazing!

What else is new with our 18 month old firecracker?
* She loves dogs, the only animal sound she makes is barking
*Words: Mom, Dad, El, dog, no, Patrick (we think)
*She is binky and high chair free
*Lucy loves to ride her bike and scooter . . . which is pretty much me pushing her around on her bike and scooter
*She got her first big girl haircut

Trouble 1, trouble 2, trouble 3

After weeks of begging, bribing and wiggling, Elliot's front tooth finally came out. He was playing football and collided with his friend. He came home bloodied, yet excited. On Sunday, we tried bribing him with a Schleich husky, a Zoobooks subscription and cold, hard cash. No deal. What have I learned from this experience? Teeth fall out when they're good and ready and 6 year olds are stubborn.

After dinner tonight, Charlie and Lucy wanted a yogurt. I told them to sit up to the counter. Charlie obliged and ate his yogurt in about 1 second flat. Lucy gave me one her "looks" and walked around the kitchen trying to sit in any seat except the one with her booster. She then pulled her little red chair, which she uses as a stool to get into all sorts of mischief, over to Charlie's barstool and climbed up to finish his yogurt.

Justin looked at me and said, "She's a troublemaker." To which I sadly replied, "I know." I went to move her over to her booster seat to eat her yogurt and noticed it was missing. Enter "trouble 3." Charlie was sitting, or should I say hiding, on my kitchen floor eating Lucy's yogurt.


P.S. As I'm typing this, Lucy is on my kitchen table trying to drink Justin's coke and "help" me type. Seriously, don't you wish you were a Spencer?

Animal Yahtzee

My kids love this game! It's my new bribing tool. "If you pick up your toys, I'll play Yahtzee with you." Of course their favorite part is when anyone gets a Yahtzee, or wahtzee according to Charlie. It is definitely making the journey to Bear Lake this summer. So Morgan, Geoff and California Lyons prepare yourselves!

Easter Extravaganza

We've had a fun filled Easter break. The kids went to two Easter egg hunts. We watched A LOT of basketball. (Georgetown is not awesome.) We settled Catan like maniacs. The boys had an epic battle in "egg wars" at Grandma's. And after 11 years of marriage Justin and I bought new sofas!


Charlie super stoked about a money egg. (One of the perks of having grandparents with a laundromat . . . eggs filled with quarters.)


Lucy figured out late in the game that the eggs had candy in them. However, once she did it took a long time to gather eggs.


Elliot opened the eggs before putting them in his sack to make sure it was either the type of candy he liked or a money egg. If not he, put the egg back and moved on to greener pastures.

Birthday Boy

Charlie turned 4 yesterday! (We could not be more thrilled to be out of the TERRIBLE THREES!) Charlie is an amazing kid. He is funny, fun, smart, sweet, feisty and daring. We love you, happy birthday!