Baptism

Elliot was baptised on Saturday. He was so sweet and so excited. It was an amazing experience to have as a parent. I couldn't have been happier or more proud of him.

Here are a few facts about Elliot that were shared at his baptism:
Favorite color: Red, of course
Favorite food: Pizza
Favorite school subject: History
Favorite primary song: I am a child of God
Favorite scripture story: Jonah and the whale and Daniel in the lion's den
Future profession: Professional athlete

It's Great to Be 8

Elliot is 8! Having an 8 year old is pretty great. He's excited about everything...school, piano, friends, church, baptism, etc. We had a football birthday party at West High, one of the perks of your dad being the coach. Elliot's uncles helped run the combine. The boys caught passes, tackled, kicked field goals and attempted to catch punts. We ended with a flag football game.
Thanks Dan and Dave! You guys are the best.

Lost Tooth

Charlie lost his first tooth! He was so excited. Not so much for the toothfairy or the money, but to put his name on the tooth chart at school. Even still the toothfairy did make a visit.

Halloween

The kids enjoyed Halloween so much this year. The boys sprinted to every house for the first few blocks. I had to go back and get a stroller for Lucy because she got so tired trying to keep up. After trick-or-treating we went to the black out game up at the U. Go Utes!

Birthday Girl

Lucy is three! How did that happen? And how have I not lost all the baby weight yet? Oh yeah, Mama likes her some Reese's. Any who. Lucy had a spectacular birthday. She got princess dresses, shoes, lip gloss, crowns, purses . . . it went on and on. She was in heaven. We topped off the night with pink cupcakes.Lucy we love you! I still can't believe you carry around a purse with more make-up in it than mine. But let's face it, that's not hard considering I only carry around chapstick.

Middle Child

Here is a belated first day of school picture of Charlie. He's neglected. Get over it.

Redlands

We visited Redlands over the weekend to visit super cool Uncle Dan. He is a receiver for the Redlands Bulldogs. The halftime entertainment was the best ever. The kids got to go down on the field to tackle tackling dummies, catch passes and kick field goals. Elliot caught one pass and Charlie ran some sweet routes, but no catches.

Elliot of course made friends with the Redlands little leaguers and played football with them for most of the game. That is until two 8 year olds got into a brawl that was broken up by a police officer. Nice.

The best part was watching Daniel play in his first college football game. It was totally worth the 24 hours of driving it took us to get there and back. Seriously.

Lucy and the beach

Lucy's beach experience went a lot like this. . . be carried to the beach, have Grandpa Patch build you a sweet sand castle (Aurora would be jealous), play in the sand, put a toe in the water, be entertained by cousins and uncles, get princess fruit snacks from Grandma and then be carried home. Not too shabby.

Lucy loves Daniel. Go Redlands!

Had to throw this one in of Charlie because one pieces are so hot right now.

Surfin' U.S.A.

Seriously happy about surfing.

First day of school

I'm pretty sure I'm not old enough to have a second grader. But somehow Elliot started that very grade today. He was up at the crack of dawn getting ready, eating and making his bed. I don't know where he came from. Hopefully, he'll balance out the morning beast we affectionately call Charlie. Getting him up and dressed for kinder next week has disaster written all over it.

Fun in the Sun Sampling

One of the perks of working in the public school system is having your summers off. We took full of advantage this summer and traveled to Yellowstone, Washington D.C., North Carolina and Bear Lake. The kids spent more time in the water than on land this summer. They learned to surf at the Outer Banks. They also spent many an hour skim boarding. In Bear Lake, Elliot continued to master the wake board and we got Charlie up on skis. Lucy had a blast as well, enjoying the water from a safe distance. Salt water doesn't taste too good.

Uncle Clark has an amazing camera with pictures from N.C. Geoff, I'll post more pictures when I get the disc this week. . . so lay off. I know I'm bad at blogging. Deal.

Yellowstone

We made our annual trek to Yellowstone with Grandma, Patch and the uncles. Even though the weather didn't cooperate, we still had loads of fun. The animal tally this year: 6 black bears, including a sow with her cubs, 4 grizzlies, 8 sandhill crane, a great blue heron rookery, 2 bald eagles and an eaglet, a beaver, 500+ bison, a handful of elk, a pine marten, a couple of coyotes and a red fox. Not too bad! The boys both became Jr. Rangers. Elliot took it very seriously. We stopped at many a location for him to read the information he needed. Charlie pretty much got forced into the whole process, but was excited with the end result...a sweet badge. Lucy was a pro at spotting bison. Due to the fact they are huge and don't move.

Perhaps my proudest moment on the trip was seeing Elliot's backpack. His "Yellowstone" books were sorted and placed in Ziploc bags. The wolf maps were in their own Ziploc in chronological order. And every Yellowstone Schleich animal we own was bagged up as well. It brings a tear to a mother's eye. My unproudest moment, carrying Lucy on a flat, dirt path hike because she was scared of the, wait for it, BIRDS. What?! Girl needs to toughen up.

Racing Skids

Ragnar was even better the second time around. We had a blast running, talking smack and mocking ourselves or anyone else we crossed paths with. Highlights . . . Merili passing her nemisis running up Jordanelle, Nicole packing Diet Cokes in the cooler, having my little brother along for the fun, driving a 15 passenger van and rocking the shanasta out of Avon a.k.a. running up Avon at a snail's pace. Lowlight . . . having a 15 year old boy sprint past me going up Avon Pass. Freakin' teenagers.

Charlie vs. The Easter Bunny

Charlie is full of questions these days. Is the Easter Bunny a boy or a girl? I said girl, but I think he may be a boy. Also, is he a human dressed up like a rabbit or a for real giant bunny? If you really think about both are a little on the creepy side. The kids loved searching for their baskets. Justin cut the search time in 1/2 by giving hot & cold clues within the first 5 seconds of the hunt. What?!

Kindred Spirits

Two of my kids' three cousins moved home recently. To say the Spencer spawn have been excited is the understatement of the year. These kids love each other. They can't get enough of one another so we went hiking on Saturday, sans Couch who was learning lots of important football things at Utah State.

The highlights include: a dead mouse, catching baby grasshoppers, deer scat, identifying animal tracks, mud puddles and throwing rocks into puddles. What is it with rocks, water and boys? My kids could do that for hours. Why do we ever pay for entertainment?

As you can see, even Lucy got in on the bug catching. However, she was not impressed with the mud on her shoes. Muddy, pink boots are so last season.

The Chosen One

Charlie is 5. Which means no more whining or tantrums . . . at least that's what we told him.

To celebrate we had a jedi training party at our house, also known as the Jedi Temple, on Saturday. The padawans rescued Ahsoka from the Hutt, practiced their lightsaber skills, battled the death star, trained in Dagobah, drank Yoda sodas and dueled with Darth Vadar.

Despite Darth scaring the pants off of Lucy, fun was had by all.

Bob 'n' weave

Lucy cut her hair this week. She gave herself a 1/2 mullet. Which is to say, she cut the hair on the right side of her face to her chin. The embarrassing part . . . she was surrounded by 4 adults and 1 Bridger and not a one of us saw her do it. Oh the horror of the those long, golden locks on the floor.

So after a few days of walking around town with a 1/2 mullet I took her to Cookie Cutters. First of all, why didn't I think of this idea? Second, I hate paying for haircuts. We've never paid to have someone else cut our kids hair. One of the perks of being married to a metro guy who loves to shop, watch "So You Think You Can Dance," cut hair and on top of all that is the new head coach at West.

Doesn't she look cute? As an added bonus, Wednesday was her daddy's birthday. Happy 35th old man!

Bye, bye baby

Tonight will be Lucy's first night in her big girl bed. Right now she's screaming at her door to be let out. But when she passes out on the floor we'll transfer her to her new bed. She's been so excited all day. We picked out sheets and a "princess tutu" bed skirt at Target. She helped take apart the crib and carry in the mattresses. She bounced there all night until it was time for bed. And then the drama, oh the drama. Thank goodness for spinny knobs so kids can't get out.

It's been a weird, bittersweet day. I can't believe we don't have a crib in our house. It's been 7 years of cribs, changing tables and rocking chairs. And now there's beds, dressers and bookshelves. The last remnant of babies in the house is diapers. Spring break is d-day. Those suckers are out of here. I mean it this time.

For those who knew me when, yes that is the bed and dresser I used growing up. I bought the quilt on my senior trip to D.C. with my mom. I loved it so much and wanted to pass it on to my daughter. I swear that was just yesterday. But then I see a mirror and know for sure it wasn't yesterday.