Year in Pictures 2010

Boy this is a tough thing to do, so many milestones to show, so many cute pictures, so many memories! I'll do my best though, here it goes.

 Riding Trax with Dad

 Valentine's Day watching the game

 California Wedding

 First Tri

Our Fourth Wedding Anniversary in the Arizona Sunset

 Spence Family Fun!

Fourth of July Where's Preston edition

 Bragg Family Fun!

 Hot time in the old town

 First time Trick or Treating

 Bragg Cousins

 Christmas Morning Joy

There it is, our Spence Family year in pictures... there are so many more I could have put on! We had a great 2010 and I just know we'll have an even better 2011! We hope everyone has a Safe and Happy New Year. Love to all :)

TMT: Family

Wow, last one of the year! No pressure or anything...

On Sunday, we had the chance to drive up to Temple Square in Salt Lake City and see the lights. It was cold, and the trip was short, but it was wonderful. We walked through the Tabernacle, Visitor Centers and the Assembly Hall. My mom claimed their were less lights this year. I don't know whether there were or not. What I did like was the Temple. It was so beautiful all lit up. It got me thinking when we were driving home about how thankful I am that Matt and I were married in the Temple, that we can be together forever and we don't have to worry about "'Til death do us part". I love that because Matt and I are sealed, Ty and our little Maylee are sealed to us as a family too.

Yesterday night we had a chance to meet up with a family that Matt met on his mission in Texas. They were here visiting and couldn't leave with out seeing Matt. While we were getting some dinner at Cafe Rio, Matt had Ty on his shoulders and the family kept saying, "Matt, it's just weird to see you with a family now!" I laughed to myself thinking, "It has been so long since he was single, that it's weird for me to think of him as not having a family." I say that because I lucked out big time in picking the perfect (well perfect for me) husband and father for our children.

This morning, in a rush to get a few things done I skipped reading scriptures to Ty. Later, I was checking a few e-mails and Ty came around the corner carrying my scriptures. He put them down and tried to un-zip them himself. Now this MIGHT have been a coincidence that we didn't read this morning but I am pretty sure that Ty knew we missed it and wanted me to read to him. I am so glad that he is picking up on the importance of reading scriptures and praying. (Last night Matt could hardly spit out our prayer because Ty was sitting, folding his arms and bowing his head so adorable like) I am glad that he helps keep me on track too and he is only 1 and a half.

I love my little family, I am so blessed to be with them forever and I cherish everyday I have with them, they are my daily Tender Mercies.

p.s. check out the crazy lady behind us, glad she's my mom....

A Christmas Syrup Snack

Straight up videos, I took so many pictures I don't know what to post! We had an awesome day full of family and friends.

Going up the stairs to see everything for the first time. Ty had no idea what the big whoop was, but he was EXCITED about it!

Buzz, from Grandma Kay and Grandpa Harvey

Woody from Mom and Dad

Fun in his new Discovery Tent from Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Bragg. All the kids LOVE them!

Watching Toy Story 3 on DVD that Mom and Dad gave him for Christmas, with his very OWN Buzz and Woody, in his new Buzz PJ's, IN his new tent, munching on a morning Stroopwafel, WITH Jason... I doubt life could get any better then that for our little man.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

So, I ordered our awesome Christmas cards on November 30th, thinking they would come in PLENTY of time to send them out... I was sorely mistaken. I still have yet to receive them SO in an effort to send you all our card this year I thought I would post it. So sorry you didn't get it in the mail with a fun family picture and everything!

Oh and here is our Christmas Letter to those who read them. I always do, I LOVE to read them then I just sum up for Matt :)

Doesn’t it always seem like so much has happened, yet nothing has changed? I’ll do my best to update you all properly with this letter but if you want to know the day to day, inner workings of the Utah Spence family check out our family blog on-line, we update it frequently with funny stories, pictures and breaking news.

As can be expected our little Ty guy is growing like a weed. He is 18 Months old and does everything a typical 18 month old boy would do. He frequently surprises us with new things he has learned. He loves to be outside, be the temperature 100 degrees or 10 degrees he doesn’t mind. He is learning so many new words, and says “mom, Mom, MOM, MOMMM” all the time. He loves to play with his cousins and actually gets excited and recognizes when we pull up to their houses. Ty likes to kick and throw any ball he can get and whenever he see’s a sporting event on T.V. usually he says “Ohhhh” (like you do when your team is on defense). He started walking in about September, but he skipped the walking stage and went straight to the run. He is busy and Matt and I keep busy running after him. He has no fears yet, so he’ll do just about anything be it sliding down huge blow up slides by himself, going on mini-amusement park rides meant for much bigger children or running after a neighbors dog. He eats everything he can but mostly his favorites are fruits and veggies. He tries to do anything and everything his Daddy is doing too. He is definitely a Daddy’s boy. His favorite movies are Toy Story 1, 2 or 3, Cars and Bolt and will be so excited to get his very own Woody doll on Christmas morning.

Matt is well, still up to the same stuff he has always been up to. He still exercises a ton and I have to keep him on track or else he would work out for 3 + hours a day if he could. He loves to run or bike, do his P90X DVD’s when he’s stuck inside, and he plays football and basketball frequently as well. He had an unfortunate instance this year where his beloved TREK mountain bike was stolen while he was at school. He dealt with our insurance company however and he replaced his bike with a new one, a Specialized. He enjoys spending time with Ty and me when he gets home early on those rare occasions too. He has gone to school every semester this year and OFFICIALLY graduates from the University of Utah April 2011 with his Bachelors degree in Finance. I know, as I read back through our old letters we thought it would be sooner but with a few re-taken classes it set him back a little bit. He is excited to be done with that chapter of his life and is ready to move on to other things. He’ll start applying for graduate schools to receive his MBA a couple years after that. He still works full time as well at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and enjoys his employment there. After graduation he’ll be working on getting his Series 7 license and taking his GMAT entrance exams. He’ll be exploring other employment options come April also, so if you know of any killer job opportunities wherever you are let him know!

This year I tried my hand at a few new things. I ran a few races and did a few Sprint Triathlons. I really enjoyed them and I can’t wait to do some more Triathlons next season! My sister and I performed in a community theatre play last summer “Hello Dolly” and also joined the community choir. I have also been trying to learn how to sew. This is mainly because of the new addition that we are adding to our family next year. Maylee Elizabeth is due March 31^st one day after my birthday and Matt and I are getting used to the idea of having a girl in the family. I will finish my work from home employment with Garbett Homes the end of December so I can focus on just being a mom. I am excited to be done with work but sad at the same time, I loved working for such a great company and I’ll miss speaking frequently with all my good friends. I love to bake and cook and I think I am actually getting pretty good at it! I like to blog and keep up with family and friends too. I still coach Volleyball and Basketball teams and love to see the progress that is made each season. I also love to exercise, read and watch any sort of athletic event that I can, especially our beloved BYU Cougars.

We have taken a few fun vacations this year including trips to California, Oregon, Arizona and Idaho. We love to visit family and friends. With Matt’s graduation we hope to have more free time to be able to visit more of you soon! We feel extremely blessed this year and give thanks to all those that have helped us along and prayed for us. We truly love and care for each of you.

Have a Safe and Happy Holiday Season!

Love, The Spence Family   

Gingerbread (Graham Cracker) Houses

 

First I thought I would post a picture of the scruffy college kid that sleeps on our couch. It's Colton. He came down on Saturday and just crashed with us for a few days before my parents made it down yesterday. He is so funny, we have a guest bed and he never used it... he would always fall asleep like this. Ty and I would try to be very quiet in the mornings not to wake him. 

Here is Ty waiting for Uncle Colton to wake up. Colton has watched about 20 episodes of PSHYC on Netflix and at one point he looked up at me in between episodes and said, "Huh, so this is what a stay at home mom does all day", after I had:

Worked Out

Read Scriptures with Ty

Done 2 loads of laundry 

Bathed, Dressed, Fed and put Ty BACK down for a nap

Swept,

Vacuumed,

Cleaned 2 Bathrooms,

Made all the beds, 

Put away everything

Baked some Banana Bread

and was beginning my "work" work on the computer for the day at about 1 or 2.  

HAHA Yep that is what we do, every day, the same thing... kinda boring huh. HAHA.

ANYWAYS here they are, the yearly Gingerbread house pictures. I am disappointed that I didn't get pictures of Jason and Sierra's houses. They were really cute houses that their Grandma Joanna helped them with. I think Kristin got a few.

 Here are Suzanne and Preston's creations. Suzanne's is a very cute little fire house and Preston's is a grand Spanish mob house? I don't know it was called a ton of different things. It took Preston so long to build it that he didn't have time to decorate it before they had to go home. He did start the front though.

 The birds eye view?

 

So originally Matt wanted to build a Barn so I told him to share with me and build a barn out back behind my house. Matt agreed and was excited to create his barn. THEN he started watching the Boise St./Utah Bowl game on ESPN and decided he would create during commercials. Yeah, so one commercial he came up and built his, uh whatever that is. I watched him take just moments to squirt frosting ALL over it and put those gummies on top THEN he grabbed a handful of skittles and was about to slap them on the side. I told him to stop and come back later that I didn't want a junky barn out back behind my cool house. Needless to say, Matt never came back and he is proud of his "Storage shed" and all ready ate all the candy he put on it. Notice my mom in the background? She was building a sweet looking School house, but she got grouchy when she ran out of "bricks" (Starbursts) so she just did the front and whenever people would compliment her house she would grouch about it. I should have taken a picture of it....

  Colton decided to take over on the barn building duties, PLUS he helped fashion the roof. He did a rockin' job on the barn! Matt told us to not stick out our necks so far, so of course we stick them out more.

 Then Matt took this one and Matt said "Good one, Uhh Mick you look tired though" HAHA Of course! I had been working on that thing for ohhhh 4 or 5 hours! Looks pretty good though huh? It's a farm house with a wrap around porch. 

Colton took many breaks in between his farm house building.... The boys watched the game and meandered up to compliment the workers and eat our candy haha. Thanks to Mom and Dad for providing all the candy, I loved building my house. I used every kind of candy we had there. I know Matt is even MORE excited to eat my house today when we get back down to the Wu's. 

Oh and special shout out to my Dad who is turns 51 TODAY! Happy Birthday Dad! You are the BEST Dad in the whole WORLD!

TMT: Bad News with little Good News Sprinkles on top

BAD NEWS:

Saturday morning while Matt was driving into work early for some extra tax training he was changing lanes hit black ice, did two 360's and hit another car.  The Police Officer that gave Matt the ticket for "Speed too fast for conditions" had called a snow plow out 2 hours earlier and it still hadn't come out obviously, but in the city of Riverton the law is he HAS to get a ticket for it even though he didn't do anything wrong.  (He even called in to try and get OUT of giving Matt the ticket with no luck) Matt came home really upset and frusterated with himself having never caused an accident in his life. We have liability only on that car and it's our only vehicle right now.  We will have to fork over too much money to have it fixed that frankly we don't have. Coincidentally this is my last week of work as well so we wont have that extra little bit to help pay for this unexpected expense, on top of other things that we have coming up in the future.

GOOD NEWS:
No one was even remotely injured, Matt was spinning pretty slow because he was driving cautiously in the first place and both cars are still drivable. The car he hit had two passengers and the friend even had time to tell the driver that the car spinning in front of them was probably going to hit them so they should stop. We do have insurance to cover the other car of course and we also have small accident forgiveness so our premium should stay the same. Also, my sister and B.I.L. have so graciously let us borrow their Honda while we are out of a car. It will be returned to them soon as we just dropped off Matt's brother and his family at the airport to go visit her family for the Holidays. They said we can drive their Jeep until they get back on the 29th. On top of that luckily school is out for the Holidays so we don't have to worry about getting Matt to and from Salt lake, just to Sandy for work and back.  Also, I am so glad that Ty and I weren't in the car when it happened considering I am pregnant and Ty sits right where the main impact was. I don't think anything serious would have happened but it's good that we didn't find out.

It's never fun to try and work with auto body shops to get everything squared away for a decent price but hopefully the shop we chose will be good. They seem to be on top of it and very honest. This sort of thing can happen to anybody and like I said no one was hurt so that is a HUGE blessing it's just a tough situation to find the positive in when we were all ready stretched so tight. Guess we'll have to tighten the belt even tighter and hopefully in a few months we can recover from the big HIT this was.   

PROMISE I'll post some better, happy pictures soon :)

TMT: Random Mail

Isn't it awesome to go get your mail and receive a random check for something you over paid on months ago and they are giving you the refund? I would say so. That makes the Holiday's Merry and Bright....

You know what else does? Christmas Cards! I LOVE them! It's so fun to get mail from friends and family near and far. Pictures, letters, sparkles and well wishes are wonderful! I am still waiting on our prints to send ours out, which I am bummed about because a lot of my college attending friends and family wont be getting their own card because it will be too late. Hopefully I get them in the mail today so I can send them out tomorrow!

Special Edition Matt Post: Saturday/Sunday Meetings

It’s your typical Sunday morning. I woke up late and needed to get to church for the morning meetings. The ward clerk asked if I would go since he would be out of town. I quietly crept into Ty’s room to grab my suit. I was quite pleased with myself for getting ready without bothering anyone. Ty and Mickie were both still asleep and I had left a note to tell Mickie I would be home around 9:30 am. When I got in the car, some beautiful church music was on playing “Angels we have heard on high.”


I walked into the church and shook the Bishop’s hand and said my hello to the 2nd counselor and the finance clerk. The Bishop was doing tithing settlement with one of the families. I assumed he was just finishing a few more interviews before our meetings. After some small talk with the 2nd counselor, he says, “So why are you here?” “Oh, I’m here because Brother Erickson asked if I would come here for the meetings this morning.”

Both he and the finance clerk looked at me quite confused. “What meetings are you having?” Now I was confused. “The ward meetings,” I slowly replied. The silence became uncomfortable, so I said, “It is the second Sunday of December, right?” “Well, it will be tomorrow,” he replied. “Today is Saturday.”

As I stood there quite embarrassed, I said, “So I guess I’m a little early then?” This was somewhat a relief, as I thought I was late. Turns out, I’m a day early. They both laughed and said “if you think today is Sunday, you may have too much going on right now. You should go home relax.”

I guess with finals week, a new job function at work and Christmas music in the car, (which sounded like church music) I never realized today was only Saturday. Needless to say the confusion continued with Mickie, when I came home in a suit at 8:15 Saturday morning. After recounting the story to her she laughed me out of the room. I might as well go down stairs and clean since there is nothing better to do on this Saturday/Sunday morning.

Whoops

 I was cutting out some fabric to make another little outfit for Maylee a few days ago and Ty thought that he should hold the scissors instead of me, mid-cut. He got his little finger in there. Let me assure you sewing scissors are sharp! I didn't know I had cut him because he didn't cry and I didn't think he was that close. It wasn't until about 2 minutes later, after I put all of it away and was getting him lunch, when I noticed a little blood on his hand. I looked all over trying to figure out where it came from. Bloody nose? Nope... Cut on the hand? Nope (not that one at least). Then when he went to grab something with his OTHER hand did I see allllllll the blood. Let me tell you, it was a lot. I am shocked it wasn't all over him. I can usually handle it just fine but when it's my own child it made me a little queezy. Ty just watched it run off his fingers and hand. I washed his hand looking for the cut and had to hurry to get a band aid to put on there before it bled more. It was hard to find a small band aid too, I need to keep those in a more handy spot. He did however manage to get it on my white shirt, pants, couch and carpet. I got it all out... ANYWAYS Ty didn't care and thought the band-aid was cool as you can see by the pictures. I on the otherhand felt terrible!

 Last night Preston ended up working late so as a last minute back up plan Suzanne asked me to be her date for her work Christmas party. It was a nice evening at Thanksgiving point. There were candied nuts and Cinnamon suckers on the tables and Suzanne told me to take them home to Ty. He loves nuts and suckers! We never rarely have any sweets around our house so Ty was super excited when I gave him the sucker. I didn't think he would be able to get the gynormis thing in his mouth but he managed. He loves to come over to me hold it up and say "Done?" then when I go to grab it, he pulls it away quickly and runs off laughing.  

 I am absolutely certain he gets that from his father. Glad to know they have the same sense of humor.

I like the wood stick part too, cuts down on the gooby hands. Thanks for inviting me Suzanne it was fun to go with you, sorry Preston couldn't make it. Hopefully I was adequete company though!

The Tree Hunt

 

The Tree Hunt of 2010 was a success. We only went about 4 places. This was taken at one of the dud places. Ty liked crunching the pine needles under his boots. 

 The Jackpot place was Smith's Marketplace. They had Tons and TONS of Trees. Suzanne, Preston, Ty and myself were excited. Matt uhhh not so much. He doesn't think trees look different. I have this one big so you can see Matt's face and Suzanne's face. Funny!

 Preston, looking like a regular Oregon lumberjack, with their Awesome Grand Noble Fir... Beautiful!

 We have just a Grand Fir, no NOBLE-NESS for us. It was a good one though. Still a little short for my taste but both my boys were TIRED of looking at trees that Matt thought all looked the same. Good thing for Prezanne's truck... makes things easy :)

 Sunday night we decorated. Ty was a big helper but has since learned that the Tree is for looking NOT touching. We heard tons of Ohhhh's, WHOA's and WOW's during the whole process.

The boys in front of the finished product.

Finishing touches done by Ty.

After the Tree trimming it was time for bed and I finally got this picture. He usually has his head bowed more, but isn't that just dang precious? All I said was. "Ty it's time for prayer" and he came around the corner of the couch like this :)

It's now Christmas time in the Spence house. Special thanks to Prezanne as well for getting us the lovely cinnamon scented pine cones. Evergreen and Cinnamon the perfect scents of the season!

TMT: pure, sweet and simple

Last Sunday was Fast and Testimony Sunday. Lucky for me (AND for everyone else I come in contact with on Fast Sunday's) I don't fast because little lady Maylee needs to eat too. Anyways as we were listening to the various testimonies born over the pulpit, one hit me the hardest. It was born by little 5 year old Chloe, she got up all by herself and said:

I believe this church is true. I love Heavenly Father and Jesus and I know they love me. I know that Jesus died on the cross for us so that all of us can be together again as families. I love my family, in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

It was pure, sweet and simple and in so few words she said everything I would ever say if I went up to bear my testimony.  
 I made sure to find Chloe after church and tell her how perfectly wonderful her testimony was and that I really appreciated it. She smiled with her little dimple, giggled and said "Thanks!" 


3rd Nephi 26:16 ."...yea, even babes did open their mouths and utter marvelous things"

Concert Videos

Here are some videos that Preston took of the concert for us. REMEMBER, everyone is volunteer for this concert (including the orchestra ;). I think the choir did awesome... there are some parts that make me smile when I hear them... maybe you can guess what parts I am talking about. Regardless it was really fun to learn some parts of the Messiah. Oh and Suzanne forgot her music, so we shared, it was actually nice because we share in the page flipping that way :) Good thing we stood next to one another!

This is God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen with a little Nutcracker suite twist. It was our opening number. I think Preston's finger covered up the mic on the camera at one point, regardless I think he did a great job recording!

This is For unto us a Child is Born from Handel's Messiah. I think it's funny how on the melisma's I have to bob my head to keep time :) I didnt know I did that until I watched the video.

This is Hallelujah from Handel's Messiah. Preston said he got all comfy and ready in the perfect spot then he forgot that everyone STANDS so he had to stand up and re-adjust :) This was my favorite one to sing. I love Preston's applause at the end too.

The lovely choir ladies

Respect in the home

Yeah, Yeah, I know I all ready posted today, but I saw this on the morning lifestyle show that I catch occasionally. I love Matt Townsend, he is awesome. I loved ALL of these points. I need to work on a few of them, I felt so enlightened and recharged that I figured I would share with everyone so you could be too! It's about an 8 minute clip.

If you aren't a long video watcher, read the article HERE. SUPER worth YOUR TIME! Promise!

Happy!

A few days ago a friend of mine wrote about how she read an article about marriage and family. The article stated that marriages make people happy and having children does not.

She and I both wondered, Can anything be MORE wrong?

Last night Matt got home late from school, (right after BYU had just beat Creighton on their home floor, woot woot 7-0 baby) and we had run out of diapers so I needed to hurry to Smith's (local grocer) to buy more. I wandered and bought more then I probably needed. When I got home I had bought Doughnut holes, Starbursts (at Matt's request) and California Cuties in addition to the diapers. Matt was getting Ty ready for bed with a diaper change and as I was sitting there eating my delightful fruit Ty said " Eeeaase" I looked at Matt and he said, "Oh, he is saying please because I gave him some doughnut hole earlier." I looked back down at Ty again and he said it again "EEEeeese?" So I gave him some. He was caught off guard, expecting doughnut, but liked it so he asked for another piece "Ease". I was so happy! We have been working on that for MONTHS! I told Matt that for a few more weeks we should give him ANYTHING he wants if he says "Eeeaase" :)

Other words he has started saying is "Yes", "There" and "Hello" (instead of the usual "Hi") He is understanding simple directions like "Come over here" "Please don't touch" "Can you put that back" and "Can you throw that away" and 2 days ago when he was done eating his apple slices he got up with his plate and put it in the sink himself.

Also, last night I finished up our chapter in Luke and Matt and I knelt down to pray. The second I closed and zipped up my scripture case Ty came walking around the corner with his little arms folded over his tummy and his head bowed. It was the CUTEST thing I have ever seen. He just knows that when I am done reading we pray so he was getting ready. Usually we have to tell him this time he knew. We've been working on that for a long time too. Now if only we could get him to say Amen or even better his own prayers... I'll be happy with his progress right now though. So precious. Matt could hardly pray he was laughing and smiling so much watching Ty walk around in a circle with his arms crossed and head bowed. 

As Matt walked him up to bed, Ty turned and blew me kisses and told me in his own language "Night Night Love You" and waved his cute little hand at me. After he was in bed Matt walked downstairs and said "These are the kind of nights to remember" Everything he did was so cute and sweet. 

If that isn't exciting and pure joy to us I don't know what else is! I mean come on real gratification for being a parent! It's pure awesomeness I tell you.