Christmas 2010

We really enjoyed this Christmas season. We got to spend a lot of time together because Richard got an extra week of vacation this year and didn't plan for it, so it got used spending time home with us. It was so nice having him home more than normal. I really enjoyed all the excitement in my kids eyes this year and thought many times how lucky I am to have these three healthy and happy children. My girls especially love the Christmas season, the decorating, social gatherings, school parties. They love wearing festive clothes and earrings. I, on the other hand, prefer things really low key, so it's an internal struggle for me to keep up with them. Luckily Richard makes up for my lacking. He knows I hate getting the decorations out so he usually does it, which if he doesn't know, I should say I really appreciate him for doing that! I ended up using our camcorder the whole morning of Christmas and didn't get my camera out once. I feel so bad. We had a Christmas Eve celebration at our house with Richard and Carolyn, Branson, Stephen, and Jon. When they went home, the kids seemed more than happy to get right to bed. We read the Christmas story out of Luke and Porter held a picture of the nativity and said, "That baby is so hungry." Porter came into our bed at some point in the night and I ended up going in to see if the girls were up sometime before 8. We don't make them open up things one at a time, so Richard and I just watched the girls rip through their presents and laughed at Porter who would rip off a little of the wrapping paper and bring it to us. Then, we left it all behind and headed down to Gramman and Pa's house for the weekend. We had a lot of fun playing games, a wonderful Christmas lunch of ham, turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, dumplings . . .you get the picture. Carolyn is the best cook! We missed our Utah family! I got to talk to my dad, grandma, and skype with my brothers, sister and their families. We are so grateful for our families and most of all for our Savior. I can't begin to imagine how this mortal life would make sense to me without the knowledge of His Atonement for us. We talked this season in our family about how that is the greatest gift in our life and how we can show humility and gratitude for that gift by how we live our life and treat others. Now that Christmas is all cleaned up and we are starting a New Year, I hope to be able to take those lessons with us and as a family grow closer to the Savior this year.

Richard { 34 }

 

Christmas activities

Savannah has been working on her Christmas songs for several months in Chorus so it was fun to see them perform last week. They probably could have used a bigger venue as the cafeteria ended up being standing room only. I didn't even attempt a better picture closer up. She did a really good job!

 

wishing

***Disclaimer*** The Spiers family is mindful of the true meaning of Christmas and is working hard to celebrate it meaningfully.
BUT,
the mom of the house had a brief lapse of reality and decided to make a wish list all of her own.

Amazing Pictures from WWII

The lost blog post

I looked back at all our pictures taken this year to find some "lost blog posts" I could preserve for our memories. I am not the best at always having my camera with me and since I have a preference to blogging with pictures, many stories go untold. My camera was broken for several months and I'm afraid, the only picture I have of Porter from his birthday was taken with Richard's phone. The entire summer was not blogged about because we were too busy lounging at the pool with our friends. Someday I need to do a post entirely about how we spend the summer. However, I have come across a picture that is very blog worthy and thought I would post it to recap our beach trip we took in October with our friends, The Boland's. We love Mirimar Beach and hanging out with our good friends Ryan and Jenn! Even though the boys get really competitive, Jenn and I could not stop laughing at our boys getting so serious about beating us at Sing Star - this picture was taken very early in the morning and makes me laugh every time I see it!

Disappointed kiddos

So we had a busy Saturday. I had signed up to do the jingle bell 5k and got up before everyone else to go to that. When I got home Richard put up outside Christmas lights and the girls and I left for a baptism of a friend of ours in the ward. We came home and baked a pecan pie and mac & cheese for the ward christmas party. I double checked the ward calendar to make sure of the time and even sent a text to another friend of ours in the ward to let them know it started at 7:00. What do you know, but the Spiers show up with our food in hand ready to mingle and party, only to be rushed in and seated because everyone had eaten in the last hour and they were starting the program. I didn't even get to hear my friends sing and perform because Porter wasn't about to sit with the lights out - so I mingled with the other 2 year olds and their parents in the hall. As soon as the program was over, we headed home with teary kids- who, hadn't eaten or seen their friends. So, I guess the lesson learned is 1) don't rely on the ward calendar on the website and 2) I need to make better food to take - just in case that is what we are stuck eating for dinner, because it started an hour early. Here are a few pictures of kids (happy because they are looking forward to the ward party). No pictures were taken after!

Dumptrucks

I got distracted online after a phone call today and the next thing I knew, Porter had his dumptrucks on my bed. He kept telling me something and I was going "uh huh" while I was not paying attention to him. When I looked up I said "Hey get those dirty dumptrucks off my bed and he said, " They not dirty, they dumptrucks, they working."