Came in to find Steve reading 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' to Spencer. Thought it was a very Christmas-y picturesque scene.

Thanksgiving

I thought I'd start with a funny picture of Spencer :)

We spent Thanksgiving up at Steve's mom's house in Saratoga Springs. The whole family was there! This is the last time we'll all be together for at least 2 years because Steve's brother Brian left on his Mission 2 days ago to Chicago, IL. The food was good-the company was good-it was all GREAT!

The four Oliver brothers

Halloween with the Wastlund Cousins!

Our cute little lion!

Spencer's 1st trick or treating!

Moved!

We are moved out of our Springville house. Many thanks to all the family and friends that helped us out. A special thanks to my mom Vickie. She came up for 3 days so she could watch Spencer so I could focus on packing/cleaning. Instead she not only watched him but cleaned most of the house and helped pack. She's superwoman-thank you! And also a special thanks to my mom-in-law Robin for coming up to help and for letting us store so many things at your house! You're a life saver. Also a shout out to my sibling-in-laws Jessica and Brian. You two are awesome!! Right now we are staying with Robin in Saratoga Springs until we can get into the new digs in Cedar City hopefully next week. I start my new job on Monday and am going to Stay with my sister Amber in St. George. (Thank you to you as well). Steve is going to keep working up north until we get into the house. Man I get tired just typing this and thinking about all the moving and commuting we're going to be doing the next couple weeks. I forgot how much I hate moving. I'm so grateful we had so much help. I can't imagine how people with no support do so much on their own. I am indeed blessed.

Happy Birthday Steve!

It was Steve's 28th birthday. He took the day off of work to relax with the fam. For our presents to Steve, Spencer and I let him sleep in and then went to wake him up with presents. I gave him some of those ear candles that supposedly get out ear wax and impurities. Steve's always wanted to try them. It didn't really work. And Spencer got him a game for his XBOX. We just relaxed and ate and ran errands all day. It was very fun to be together. He also received some wonderful cards and well wishes from friends and family. Thank you all. He used the birthday money he received to buy some new jeans, shoes and another XBOX game. (Both games are ones the family can play together-so that's good). For breakfast I made Steve a breakfast casserole that has eggs, hash browns and ham in it. We found out Spencer loves that stuff. He was scarfing it down. In addition I also made Steve a birthday cake. For those of you that didn't know what an extraordinary baker and decorator I am- here's a picture to show you.

A little then and now for you to see how far Steve's come!

Love you honey!

Scary!

Spencer had his first choking experience on Sunday. We were at Steve's dads house to visit him and Paula and have a delicious dinner. They had put toys out for Spencer to play with (including a super cute book they bought for Spencer). He had been playing for almost an hour when all the sudden Paula noticed that Spencer put something in his mouth. Before anyone had time to get to him he had already swallowed it and was choking. Tim (Steve's dad) picked him up and was hitting his back while I was trying to fish it out but it wasn't working. I was keeping my calm until Steve said "he's turning blue" Then I was frantically trying to fish it out. I was so frantic I not only cut Spencer with my fingernail but also triggered his gag reflex and made him throw up. But he also swallowed the thing he had put in his mouth and was breathing again. We searched all over trying to figure out what he had swallowed when Tim finally found one and then three clear plastic pieces on the ground. Spencer had swallowed one of four pieces of plastic that had fit on the four corners of a picture frame to protect them from poking people before you put it on the wall. They had been put on the coffee table and accidentally bumped off. The sad thing is I noticed one out of the corner of my eye when we had first arrived but I thought it was just a little piece of paper so I didn't bother picking it up. If I had been a good mom and picked up the supposed piece of paper Spencer never would have choked. So lesson learned.

The Next worrying part was that it wasn't exactly round and smooth. I was worried it would get caught in his digestive track and cause major problems. So I had the extremely fun task of looking for it during his diaper changes. But luckily it came out just fine this morning. SO glad that's all over with.

Spencer Reading his new book (Yes it's upside down-but hey he's reading right?)

Catch up!

I haven't updated my blog in a while so here is a quick overview of what's been going on the last month-ish.

I just got back from girls camp. I'm currently serving as the 2nd Counselor in young women's. It was really fun but exhausting, and it seriously made me consider if I want to have any girls of my own. I think I handle boys better :) Steve and I designed the hoodies. I thought the colors the girls picked out made it look like someone sneezed on it but the girls loved them. My brother Jace came to visit a few months ago before he left for Europe. I forgot to post it so here it is! My two favorite baldies.
Our family and Steve's mom, Robin, and sister Jessica went up to Oregon last month to visit Steve's Grandpa, Uncle Vaughn and Aunt Debbie and Susan. We were really excited to take our new van until about 4 hours into the trip when the engine started smoking. We pulled over to take a look and their was some kind of oily fluid all over the engine. I checked the engine oil and that was full so the only thing we could think was the transmission. We had a cute little truck driver pull over to help. She agreed it was probably the transmission and suggested we call a tow truck-which is what we had to do.

This is us waiting for truck driver trying to stay positive.

This was our tow truck driver! Isn't he exactly what you picture when you think of a tow truck driver!?!

This is us in the tow truck for our two hour drive to the next town. Continuing to try to stay positive especially considering it was a $375 trip!

This is us at the Honda dealership. Trying not to cry when we found out the transmission had blown out. It was going to cost us $3800 to fix and the new transmission was going to take a week to come in. After a couple of hours of trying to decide if we would trade it in for something new so we could get going. Spending more money to rent a car. Going home or having Steve's family come pick us up. We finally decided to have them fix the car. Steve's sister Jennfier was just 2 hours away in Boise so they were going to come get us and take us to there house. Then Steve's Grandpa was going to pick us from there and take us the next 4 hours to his house. Then we would get a rental car to take us back to pick up the van in a week. (And by the way I didn't cry once-I kept a cool disposition)

Jennifer and her husband Jarom had to finish work before they could come to pick us up so we had about a 5 hour wait, and Honda closed in 2 hours. So fortunately Jennifer had a friend in Idaho Falls (Where we were) that was willing to pick us up and let us hang out at their house until they could come get us. They also had a friend that let them borrow their suburban so there would be enough room for us and our stuff. It was SO kind of everyone invovled!

Funny story. While we were waiting Steve took Spencer for a walk next door to the car wash. Jessica and I look over and see Steve park his stroller in the middle of the car wash. Then get the spray and pretend to spray all over the stroller. Then get the brush and scurb the wheels. And then stand back and admire his clean stroller. My husband is dork. But I love him for it.

The couple whose house we stayed at had a little girl about Spencer's age and they were just fascinated with each other. It was so cute.

This is random but when we were at Jennifer's house she had normal and giant size marshmellows. Steve was very excited! You can buy them at Wal-mart by the way.

Through this whole ordeal Spencer was such a good baby. I am so blessed.

Oh and hopefully I don't get in trouble for posting this becuase it's illegal but Grandpa's car didn't have enough room for all of us so we had to put Jessica in the back with the lugagge. Pretty comfy!

Once we finally got to Oregon it was a great trip! Very relaxing. Debbie (she's behind me) took us on a tour of their local dam. It was actually really cool.

Then we went on a nature walk.

Four generations!

Chillin'

Debbie and Susan have matching scooters so we all took turns taking it for a spin around the block.

Jennfier and Spencer

That's hot!

I've been working a little more this summer and Jessica (and sometimes Robin) have been watching Spencer. Spencer just LOVES Jessica. I think besides me the only other person he likes as much as Jessica is Jennifer. Those Oliver girls have a way with babies.

Jessica took this cuties pic while she was baby-sitting.

When Robin and Jessica watch Spencer at their house they usually take him swimming. He LOVES the water!

Steve's brother Phil, his wife Jess and their daughter Kyra came up from Texas to visit. We love when we get to see them. Here we are playing Curses.

While David played with Spencer.

And Grandma played with cute Kyra. (bad pic of Spencer I know)

We also went to Gardner village with them to look at some cute shops. And found this treasure while we were there.

Phil was the life guard

And when I got back from girls camp yesterday Spencer started crawling! It's slow and little jerky but he's doing it!