2nd Annual Gingerbread Houses

We got together with Jake, Les, Mic, Atlee, Max and Diane to make gingerbread houses and for dinner. We had a blast and the end results turned out really super cute. The kids have so much fun doing this, it is definatly a tradition that I am glad we started and will definatly continue to do every year. Its pretty funny to watch Justin, Jake and Max get so into it too!! :O)

Christmas Pictures

I decided to be brave and attempt getting Aspen's pictures taken again. The last time I did this it was for her 2 year old Birthday pictures. We totally skipped her 3 year old Birthday pics because I was afraid that she would be terrible, since this is what has happened in the past. I started from the beginning telling her how I wanted her to be a good girl and listen to the photographer. I decided to bribe her with a Happy Meal....don't you love my parenting skills? However, IT WORKED!!! She was amazing. My husband and I just stood thier silently with our jaws hanging open terrified to speak or move thinking that she might suddenly start to rebel. When you look at her pictures you probably can't even imagine her misbehaving....They turned out perfect! I am so excited that she is willing to get her pictures taken again.

Thanks....

Thanksgiving was great this year. It was the first year that "my generation" in the family put the whole thing on. It was at my cousin's Sindra and Brian's house. They did a fab job and the food was great. The best part of Thanksgiving was that I completed a goal that I have had for so long. I ran my first 5k. I was very slow, but I completed it having jogged the whole thing. I didn't stop or walk any part of it. This was a huge accomplishment to me and taught me that I am capable of anything if I just make up my mind to do it. :)

Halloween

Aspen started off the Halloween season as a monkey. HOwever, I gave in and let her play in her costume all day in Halloween since she had been begging to do that everyday since we had picked out the costume. Bad idea. I now know why parents don't do that. She some how managed to get caught on something and rip the entire side of the costume....the whole thing looked like it had been fileted. So her and I ran down to Target at like 4pm on Halloween day and had to find a costume. They only had 2 left in her size. She chose the lady bug costume and it ended up being pretty cute, however I liked the monkey better. She had a great time trick or treating and got a ton of candy. The first pics are of us at the Dinosaur park in Ogden. They had an awesome Halloween celebration that Grandpa Roger took us all to after going out for pizza. All in all it was a great Halloween season. Aspen gets so excited about these events that it makes them 10x more fun for all of us!

Its your bday old man!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN!!!On your 40th birthday I will celebrate you by counting out 40 reasons why I love you...

I love you because.....

40. I have learned so much from you.

39. I have so much more to learn from you.

38. You make me feel safe.

37. You have the hardest time keeping something a surprise, but it is so cute to watch you try!

36. You have an infectious laugh that never fails to pull me out of my bad moods.

35. You never fail to ask me how my day was.

34. You greet me every day with a hug and a kiss.

33. You are an amazing, loving, caring father.

32. You look damn good in your jeans! (wink, wink)

31. I have so much fun with you no matter what we are doing.

30. You taught our daughter how to reel in a fish all by herself at age 2!

29. My hand fits perfectly inside of yours.

28. I can tell you anything and have told you everything.

27. You naturally care about everyone and everything around you.

26. You are kind and gentle to animals.

25. You never fail to hold a door open for me or any other person coming in a door behind you.

24. I feel so proud introducing you as my husband.

23. Our daughter has your sense of adventure.

22. You never give up on me.

21. Hummmana....Hummmmmana

20. You have the same dreams and goals as I do.

19. You take care of me...and Aspen....and Porter....and Koda....and Simba :)

18. You take my breath away...still 4 years later

17. Did I mention how good you look in those jeans? Well you look better without them! :)

16. I am so vulnerable to you and it feels so good.

15. You smell SOOOOO GOOOD, all the time!!!

14. No matter what I cook for you, you love it!

13. Your dance moves....I dont think anyone else has moves like that....hahahaha

12. Aspen will expect the best in men becuase of YOU!!!!!!

11. I want a little boy that looks JUST LIKE YOU!

10. I have been married to you for four years and I still have to call you 100 times a day!

9. You are the first person I think of in the morning and the last one I think about at night.

8. You are a total nerd...just like me.

7. You have the most attractive, strong hands.

6. You arn't afraid of being yourself.

5. You inspire me to not be afraind of being myself.

4. Watching you flyfish literally brings tears to my eyes. (not just when I am pregnant and hormonal ) haha.

3. You are my lover.

2. You are my husband.

1. You are my best friend.

Happy birthday my love! I look forward to loving you for 40 more years!

-me.

Aspen is 3!!!!!

I can not believe that my baby is three years old! These last three years have flown by so fast and have truelly been the best of my life. I cant imagine life without Aspen. She brightens everyone's world that she is a part of. To celebrate her birthday we had a party in the park. We had lots of friends, family, food and fun!! It was a blast! The most important part of the birthday to her was that she got a "rainbow cake" that she had seen on a blog on my computer. Mine didn't turn out as perfect as the one of the blog, but I thought it was great and so did Aspen. In fact when I cut into it and she saw the rainbow colored layers, she looked up at me and said, "Oh, It turned out really good mama!!" Melted my heart. I love her more than I would have ever thought possible!!!

We let Aspen open her presents from us before we went to her party. She woke up that morning and the first thing out of her mouth was, "Did my birthday come?" I said, "Yes!" She said, "I wanna open my presents right now!!!" She took off running downstairs and just started tearing into the first one!! HAHA!! She is so much fun!

Grandma Boo and Isobel!

Grandma and Grandpa Springer with Grandma Julie! Aspen is a lucky girl. She has a ton of grandparents and lots of "honorary" grandparents!! :)

For weeks before her birthday Aspen kept asking for a birthday hat. When I was in Dollar Tree I came accross this beauty and figured she had to have it!! Haha!!

The Rainbow Cake!!!! I was bummed that I didn't get very many good pics of the cake but for some reason it was the last thing on my mind. I wish I would've taken some better ones, but the next few photos show it off a bit :)

Going Private

Due to some unfortunate events I am going to have to make my blog private. If you are interested in following our family blog please send me your email address and I will make it available to you. I will be making it private within the next 2 days.

Slowly But Surely

So I was beginning to think that I was just ready to completely throw in the towel, that I was just done. I was going to sell all my possessions and move to Jamaica and sell pot on the beach or something......sigh. However, I think things are beginning to look up. It doesn't get much worse than totalling your car at the beginning of finals week, especially when you are upside down in the car by six grand....ugh. However, I think it is working out for the better. We had gap insurance on the car and it will pay off the difference between what the insurance payout was and what we owe. THis is a beautiful thing. We will get out from under the car that we were so upside down in. Then yesterday I found an awesome deal on a used Subaru and we bought it today. It is a great family car that will work great for commuting back and forth to school for me. We got a great interest rate on our loan and are starting to feel much better about things. Its hard when life hits you with so many hard things all at the same time. Finals week is SOOO stressful for me and then to add the car accident on top of it...and a few personal problems, I didn't think I was going to make it. But here it is, only a few weeks later and I am feeling like things are beginning to look up :).
On to another issue. Aspen was waking up daily crying and crying and begging us not to take her to school. I forced her to go one more day and in the end decided she just wasn't old enough yet. Plus to be honest, I don't think the school was the right "fit" for us. I am not going to say anything bad about it here, but I just think it wasn't right for her or for what we are looking for. Since she is only two I didn't feel like there was any point in forcing her to go when she will still get 2 full years of preschool before kindergarten anyway. So this was another stressful thing we were going through durring my finals week. Our house was a giant ball of stress and tension...so thick you could cut it with a knife. We have since simplified and cut out a lot of the stressors and are feeling SOOOO much better about things.
I had a short break from school and have now started another quarter. This quarter I finally start clinicals which I am super excited about!! Finally some real hands on experience!! WOOHOO!!! I officially have 15 months left until I graduate. After this quarter I will be 1/2 way there already! It is keeping me so insanely busy that it is flying by so fast!
Aspen's birthday and Halloween are both approaching rapidly and I am SUPER excited for both! I havn't decided what I am going to do for her birthday...but something fun. She changes her mind daily about what she wants to be for Halloween and we have yet to find her a costume. So far she has been the most interested in being a butterfly, Tinkerbell and a witch. She was a witch last year, but she just keeps saying she wants to be one again, LOL!
Anyway, all in all, I think our family is over the hump and we are going to survive. We are looking forward to fabulous fall with our favorite thing in the WHOLE world: Sunday football days in a warm cozy house with yummy crockpot soups and stews in breadbowls.....its a tradition for us. There is NOTHING I look forward to more than spending those sunday afternoon and evenings with my fam. :)

I did a bad, bad thing!

Yep folks. This is my car. Sigh. It is in a tow lot, waiting to be seen by the insurance man who will decide its fate. Note to all: When the large truck in front of you stops....you should too!....so sad. I know the pics are wierd, but we were taking them through the fence, becuase the place was already closed when I brought my husband down to see what I had done.

Aspen's 1st.....and last day of dance class....

So Aspen had here first day of dance class on Monday. It was actually the 2nd class, but she missed the first becuase she was so sick. Parents are only allowed to stay and watch on the first MOnday of every month, and since she was sick for that one, we didn't get to stay and watch for Monday's class. So we had to drop her off in a place that she didn't really know with folks she didn't really know and a lot of loud music. Sigh. She hated it. When I went back in to pick her up (I was sitting in my car in the parking lot the whole damn time, afraid to leave) the teacher told me that she had been crying the whole time. She said that she was upset when she turned around and saw that we weren't there any more and kept saying that she "wanted her parents." So in the car we were talking to Aspen about what she thought of dance class (as she is partially hyperventilating from crying for about an hour) she says, "I don't like it in there." I asked her why and she said, "I don't like my teacher's eyes." I looked at my husband and he looked just as confused as I was. So we probed a little and she told us, "She has wierd eyelash thingys." And she pointed to her eyebrows. At this point I realize that the teacher did have on quite a bit of makeup and maybe that was her deal, I dont know. But the one thing she had for sure was big, penciled in eyebrows. I guess Aspen didn't like that look haha. So I asked her why she didn't like them and she said that they were scary and her teacher kept trying to talk to her but she would just run and run and run. I thought, OMG! This poor teacher. She was probably trying to get Aspen and console her and Aspen was probably running in circles screaming that she had wierd eyebrow thingys!!! LOL! So we are trying to decide where we go from here....do I make her go back and try 1 more time? Do I see if maybe I can get us into a mommy/daughter class to start out with, do I say she isn't old enough and try again next year or do I assume that she just isn't into dance and bag the whole idea all together? Any advice is welcomed. :)

Aspen, Isobel and Kyann

Aspen's cousins came and spent the weekend with her. Unfortunatly Aspen was sick and didn't get to enjoy them as much as she would have liked. She still loved having them here. She kept calling them "my girls." Kyann and Isobel were so caring toward her and helped me take care of her when she wasn't feeling well. She had about 1 good hour each day that she played with them before being completely worn out. Porter wanted to be in the bubble bath with the girls so bad. He kept licking the bubbles off of thier arms.

The girls painted pictures together.

Digging for slugs!!!

Aspen's 1st day of Preschool

Aspen had her first day of Preschool on Thursday (9-10-09). She looked so adorable! I couldn't believe that I was actually getting her ready for her first day of preschool, how did my baby grow up so fast????? She was so excited to go, she kept saying, "I wanna go to school RIGHT NOW!" I had a pit in my stomach. We got to her preschool and she ran straight to the sandbox and started playing. I kept saying, "Aspen, mommy and daddy are leaving, we will pick you up in a couple of hours!" She ignored me the first couple of times and then finally glanced up and said, "Bye Mom, I'll miss you!" Thats it? No hugging the legs crying fit, begging me not go??? I was really relieved that she was okay with me leaving, becuase I would have broke down if she would've cried. I had to go to school directly after dropping her off, so Justin picked her up. He said she was really excited to see him and ran right up to him. He walked down to get her with Porter. When he put Aspen in the stroller, she looked up at him and said, "Dad, I'm all worned out!" So cute. Over the course of the next couple of days she kept saying little things about preschool. She has told us that her teacher says that you can't say, "Damn dog!" Justin and I looked at each other in absolute horror when she told us that one, LOL! When Justin picked her up the teacher told him that Aspen spent most of the 1st day learning how to listen and sit in her chair when she was supposed to. When we asked Aspen about sitting in her chair, she started to twirl her hair and looked confused and said, "For some reason they wanted me to sit in my chair, but I wanted to play with the toys instead!" HAH! Its like she couldn't even possibly imagine the logic behind having to sit in a chair with all those toys around to play with!! :0) Unfortunatly the very next day after school she started to run a high fever and got really sick. She has had a full on viral outbreak and is miserable. She has to miss this whole week of school and had to miss her very first dance class. She was so bummed. I was so devastated that she got so sick that I instantly went into defense mode and wanted to take her out of school and keep her home in her safe little bubble forever, but I know I can't do that. So we are riding this one out and hoping that by next week she is back to herself!

My poor sick baby....

This sweet, wonderful baby is so sick...and it is breaking my heart. She went to her first day of preschool on Thursday (i'll post pics asap) and was sick by Friday afternoon....grrr....As if I wasn't having a hard enough time with her going to preschool, now I NEVER want her to go back, haha! She has had a high grade fever since Friday afternoon and it is now Sunday night. I will be taking her to the doctor first thing in the morning. I absolutely hate seeing Aspen like this....she has no life behind her little eyes...it makes me so worried. It made me realize how lucky I am to have a (normally) healthly little girl with no serious problems. I can't imagine the heartache that the parent's of children with serious problems go through. I cant imagine taking my toddler to get kidney dialysis or chemo...or anything else like that. Those parents are amazing! Well I am going to go snuggle with my sweet sick little girl and hope that things look better in the morning. :(

Preschool Orientation

Yesterday was Aspen's preschool orientation. She looked so adorable, so I had to snap a few pictures. She was soooo cute when we were there. We met her two teachers, who seem really awesome. She got to play with some of the other kids and with all the awesome toys. The highlight for her was definatly the sandbox. I had a pit in my stomach the whole time becuase I know that on Thursday I am going to have to drop her off for the first time......She will do great, I have no doubt in my mind about that, its me that I am worried about, LOL! I just can't believe that my baby is already old enough to be going to preschool. She looks so adorable sitting in the little chairs at the table, eager to learn. She even used the big potty while we were there :). After her orientation, Justin and I took her out to lunch and then to buy a new backpack. They had the cutest "Hello Kitty" backpack that I wanted her to get, but she didn't want anything to do with it. For some reason she fell in love with the ugliest backpack in the $5 bargain bin at Walmart. I had promised her that she could pick out her very own backpack, so what was I supposed to do? I had to let her get the one she wanted....and it is HUGE! It is so funny to watch her try to wear it....it literally almost touches the ground when she has it on. Her teachers asked specifically that we get her a full size backpack rather than the little kid mini ones.....so unfortunatly she has to have one that is WAY too big for her. We also took her to get a few new outfits for school. We had a great day and definatly started a tradition that we will continue from here on.

::..LaBoR dAy..::

Well we lucked out and were able to go to the cabin two weekends in a row! It was fabulous! Over Labor Day the whole Springer crew was able to get up there together for a few days. It was so much fun to watch Aspen run around up there with Micah and Atlee (her cousins). It was nice to spend time together as a family! Here is the whole crazy crew, minus myself of course, becuase I was taking the picture. Notice how everyone has to have thier "walking sticks" LOL!!

Just before sunset there was this amazing lighting....Justin had to capture it with the sheds of course!

My love and I.
Twins.

All three dogs got along great for the weekend. Porter loved having some friends to play with. Jake and Leslie have 2 german shepherds, Kenai (darker one) and Koda (white one). We were all impressed with how well they all got along.

Atlee is so good with Aspen. She sits and teaches her all kinds of things. Right here they were playing patty cake and other hand clapping games that I dont even know, LOL! Aspen actually spent the whole night sleeping downstairs with Micah and Atlee, it was her first sleepover. She did cry for me in the middle of the night so I just went and climbed in bed with all of them.....so I had a sleepover too!

I was lucky enough to get an afternoon nap in with my baby. VERY RARE OCCASION!
Aw. Grandma and Grandpa Springer are so cute.

A lazy afternoon in the hammock, or as Aspen calls it, "the bouncy thing!"

Ahhhhhh.......Fabulous.