Fall Festivities

For Family Home Evening last Monday we made Caramel Apples. Ty chose Chocolate and Heath Bits. 

Maylee (sporting her scary face) chose Chocolate and crushed Oreo's. I cut up their apples for everyone to share and they didn't want to share. They both just munched on the WHOLE apples! 

Caught off guard... 

SCARY FACE! Haha Maylee just smiles and Ty gives a good attempt. 

Matt's was a masterpeice but he ate it so quickly I didn't get a picture. I just plain forgot to get a picture of mine. I did an Apple Pie Caramel apple, it had Vanilla chips and cinnamon sugar on the outside. It was tasty. Ty and Maylee said it was the best FHE ever. They say that almost every FHE but it's good to hear it anyway. 

This morning we went to the Bi-Zi Farms Pumpkin Patch. It was a perfect day, a little TEENY bit chilly, so perfect for some fresh spiced cider. 

It was Emma's Nap time so she just wanted to be held. We didn't plan on her being tired so we didn't bring a stroller. We should have but USUALLY she is going going going. 

Hay Pyramid

Maylee was big enough this year to climb too! 

Tractor driving. 

Sipping on Cider. (Too much cider in fact Ty and Maylee had troubles later due to full bladders. Note to self: don't let Ty and Maylee drink that much cider at the beginning of our fun... it won't be fun near the end going with them to the porta potty over and over due to pea sized bladders.) 

Cutie pie Maylee. (She was SO HAPPY to have a big yummy Cider all to herself though!) 

Petting the farm animals. 

Emma thought this little teeny goat was great. 

Piggies!

Calf Roping

Matt put Em down to go show Ty how to rope and she wouldn't let go of his legs. He walked away and she laid down on the ground, not throwing a fit, just to take nap. HA I picked her up. 

Maylee excited to watch Ty rope. 

The tutorial...

The swing...

The throw! He was so close that Matt just tipped it over the calf. 

Pullin' the rope tight, he got it! Kids' a natural! He must have some Texas cowboy in his blood. ;)

Pumpkin Launch! 

Matt tried to one arm it since he usually launches it too far. 

Maylee giving it a try. 

She put it in then didn't want to launch it. 

The second one she launched with Matt. 

We navigated the corm maze. Matt and Ty had the maps and we got through flawlessly.  

Kid photo op. 

Tractor! Ty was excited...

But Maylee wasn't so excited once she got up there, she still mustered a smile though :) 

I didn't get any pictures of our hay ride or actual picking of the pumpkins... how does THAT work! Oh well. Ty and Maylee though it was a great time. Emma fell asleep on the way home and took a LONG afternoon nap. We love the Pumpkin Patch. It's an awesome place to bring our kids each year. 

Emma's Groovin'

Emma's moves are for about the first 10 seconds. A.DOR.ABLE! Check out that booty shakin'! I think we could have gotten a longer bit of her dance antics had older brother not SLIDE TACKLED his younger sister. Oh well, that's life in our house.

Spence Family Time in Medford

So I have a DSLR camera that I am borrowing from Kyla, and I have a point and shoot that I still use for video. I go back and forth using them, then I forget that I have pictures waiting on one or the other camera. I found these pictures and realized I haven't blogged them!

When we went down to Medford we also spent some time with Nate, Kelly, the kids and Steve. He came out for a visit and it was good to see them all. We went to the park then went back to their house while the Dad's all went to the Priesthood Session of conference.

 These two girls LOVE each other. 

 Emma, a little blurry because she is ALWAYS on the move. 

 Oh man, ADORABLE Amber, I love this picture. She's thinking about smiling for me. 

 Ty with his ever classic CHEESE face. 

 Tanner and Dallin kicking a ball back and forth. 

 Dallin, in kicking action. 

 Matt, Nate and Steve before leaving to the church. 

How did I not get a picture of myself or Kelly! Oh well, we were there :) 

Heart Melting Fire Safety

I was in the shower with the door closed. I hear a knock. I hopped out sopping wet to let Maylee in who needed to use the potty (we have 3 bathrooms, it has to be the one I was showering in I guess...) She left the door open. When we use the master shower and leave our bathroom door open for a minute or two the smoke alarm goes off in our room, causing ALL the smoke alarms in the house to go off. 

Rewind to about 4 days ago: Ty and I had a talk about Fire safety, things like; if a door is closed touch the door handle to see if it is hot, staying low below the smoke, getting out the window if you can't go through your door due to fire, how Maylee and Emma are too little to know what to do in a fire so Dad and I would help them, to go across the street and wait for us there... we went into a LOT more detail but you get the gist of it.

Fast forward now to the present: The smoke alarm went off. Maylee had just finished using the potty. I heard the alarm and thought for a minute to just hurry and finish showering. Maylee asked if she could take a shower. I told her to take her shirt off and hop in while I worked on the smoke alarm. I have a towel wrapped around me while I wave a hand towel just below the smoke alarm. I hear Ty first, "Maylee! Maylee!" Then he comes crawling around the corner, "Mom! Where is Maylee!?" with quite the look of concern on his face. 

"She's in the shower now, she was using the potty".

"Mom, Emma is in her crib! You get her and i'll get Maylee!" As he begins to crawl passed me. 

Then I understand what is going through his 4 year old mind, "Ty, this isn't a real fire, the smoke alarm went off because of the shower." As I said this I peaked around the corner to see Emma's door is now open and she is still sleeping peacefully in her crib. 

"Oh!" as he stands up quickly and somewhat cheerful, "This isn't a real fire? Okay... hey, can I take a shower with Maylee too?" 

"Sure, i'm done anyway." 

I didn't think much of it all for a few minutes, I just thought it was funny. Then I thought about if it really WAS a fire. Ty had no sense of self-preservation. His FIRST thought was to get low and find his sisters. I can just see him now in my mind, hearing the alarm and dropping to his hands and knees, looking for Maylee while crawling to Emma's room. Touching the handle, then opening the door to see her still asleep. Then continue looking for May while coming to find me so he can share his plan. I have no doubt in my mind that this love he has for his sisters was part of him before he came to this earth. Once this came to my mind I shed a little tear of happiness. We are very blessed to have such a good little guy in our family. Sure he still acts like a 4 year-old a lot, but it's times like this that hit me over the head and remind me how special of a child he is and how he is truly of divine nature. In the Book of Matthew chapter 18 verse 4, it states: Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I honestly think our little Ty is one of the greatest and I love him dearly. 

Emma's Unofficial Birthday Party

I kept talking with Matt the whole day of Emma's Birthday feeling bad that I didn't plan her a party. He kept reminding me she is just 1 and won't remember... but I said SHE WILL TOO! We have a blog! She'll go and look through our books and see we didn't do anything for her! Matt just laughed at that and suggested Dizzy Castle (same place as Ty's Birthday) I agreed so I text the Anderson's to see if they could come too. It's always more fun with friends. They gave it the thumbs up so we met them there. 

Matt, Ty, Aaron and Dax ran around for 2 hours straight. Ann and I watched Maylee, Tess and Emma. 

 Maylee was looking for Brother and Dad. 

 She found them! 

 Aaron kept shooting me as I was supplying him and Matt with ammo. He said "like shooting fish in a barrel!" I took cover quickly!

 I told Matt to smile.

 For some reason when other little girls see Maylee they want to pick her up. They can even be about the same age but since May is so small they think she is younger. She often puts her hands out and yells "Stop!" This time the little girl (who was just barely 3) was persistent so Maylee hid on my leg and I kindly told the other little girl she didn't like anyone trying to pick her up besides her Mom or Dad.  

 Ty was pretty much a blur...

 Playing the piano!

 There is the Birthday girl! She enjoyed just walking around wherever she pleased. 

 Maylee, dancing on the keys. 

 Popping bubbles. 

 Dax was REALLY hard to catch, he is 8 and would hardly stop for this picture. He was getting sweaty! 

 Emma!

 Dax joining in on the cockroach crushing. 

 There is Tess! She is actually closer in age to Emma than Maylee, but she is about 3 inches taller than Maylee. The three play well together. 

 That is Ann's hand, nervous Emma is going to fall off while Maylee JUMPED off. 

 Slides for the little ladies. 

 The big boys came in the little kid area for a few minutes, they quickly had to leave because, they got a little crazy. 

 Ann, with Tess and Dax. 

Emma was pretty confused about this whole thing... hence the straight face. Don't mind my LOVELY singing. In years to come, actually even next year, she'll be on-board I think. Oh and like how I used the same cake as the cake smash? I wasn't going to make a WHOLE other cake for the occasion! We didn't finish that one as is. 

 We went home and right before bedtime we had cake and ice cream and opened Emma's presents. 

 Emma didn't know anything about this present opening business. It took all the will power Maylee and Ty possessed not to open her gifts for her. 

 We got her a glow light seahorse to sleep with, it makes ocean sounds and plays soft songs with a glowlight. She seems to like it. 

 I handed over the camera to Matt so I could help Emma open her new book "Guess how much I love you" We wanted to buy her a party dress (really just a new church dress) we have bought Maylee a new dress every birthday (spring time=tons of Easter dresses!). Problem is for a Fall birthday they go straight from summer dresses to Holiday dresses here. So we were right at the beginning of the season for VERY expensive (45 dollar) little girl holiday dresses. YIKES! I don't think I spend that much on dresses for ME let alone a dress that will last Emma for a few months. So we'll buy her one when they go on sale in a few more weeks. 

Unfortunately the camera focused on Maylee's hair flower instead of us... blurriness is the result. Oh well. 

I think she had a good Birthday, she got lot's of special attention from everyone. Matt is right she won't remember, but it's just the start of a foundation of love I want our children to remember about their childhood.