Whenever Spencer Leaves...

The police somehow end up in my neighborhood. When he went to ODS a few summers ago, one of my neighbors was arrested (he was home the next day, so we're pretending like it was for something minor). Two weeks ago, the cops were here again. Here's how it happened this time...

A few weeks before Spencer left for his annual dental service trip in the Dominican Republic, he ordered several things online. The first was some BYU shirts. He checked the online tracking religiously, and then one evening he noticed it said "delivered" even though we never got a package on our doorstep. We thought it was a mistake, but the FedEx driver said he left it in our entryway by our boots. We called the BYU Bookstore, and they said they'd send a new shipment. Problem solved.

The next order was a few filters for our vacuum. We weren't really keeping track of them, but my neighbor brought them to us one day. The box had been opened, and she found it in the snow in her front yard. Weird.

The third shipment was books from Borders. Spencer was in the DR when they were delivered, and Sydney and I had been at my parents' house for the weekend. When we got home, there was an empty box at the end of our driveway. Sure enough, it was Spencer's books... but they had been stolen.

Fast forward about a week. I was coming home from a baby shower (the day before Spencer was due to come home), and I passed a few cop cars on the back roads near my street. I pulled onto my road, only to see a police car parked right in front of MY HOUSE. When I parked and got out of the car, the officer came over to me and asked my for my ID. Turns out my neighbors little girl was playing in their yard, and a teenager walked up to our house and peeked in the entry way. She went and told her mom, who ran to the door and saw the kid walking down the street. She yelled, "We see you! We know what you did!!" and he turned and looked at her and then kept walking. Her husband came from the back room of their house to ask her what was going on, and then he went running after the kid. I guess when my neighbor rounded the corner, the kid was running down a side street. Yada yada yada, the cops were called, the kid was arrested, and my neighbor ID-ed him. I had to write a police statement and everything!

Thankfully, we're safe. At least until the next time Spencer leaves....

January So Far...

We had a pizza party in the living room on New Year's Day while we watched the Rose Bowl. Way to go Buckeyes!

Tonight we did some clean-up before we get back into the regular grind tomorrow.

Spencer and I are both dreading it (mostly the driving part for me), and I am hoping that Sydney will get back into the routine pretty quickly. It has certainly been nice being together for the past 2 weeks.

Penitentiary Glen

After seeing the display of Nativities in Kirtland, we went to Penitentiary Glen for the free Snowdrop's Adventure game. Turns out Sydney was too young to really get it, which we were expecting, but we thought we'd check it out anyway since we were in the neighborhood.

She sure loved this white deer. It's head moved up and down and it wagged its tail. She watched it for a good 5 minutes.

Occasionally we'd pretend to actually play the game. Spencer let her do the spinner a few times.

At the end, she got to go down the slide. Love this little cutie!

Merry Christmas

I was so excited to spend this Christmas with my family, since it will be the last one where we're all get to be together.

We drove down to Mom and Dad's house on the 23rd,

and had another little celebration for Spencer's birthday.

On the day of Christmas Eve, we played in the snow for a few hours. Spencer had a lot of fun on the four wheeler,

and even took Sydney for her first ride.

For our Christmas Eve celebration, we had our traditional buffet at Nonnie and Dan's house. We also had a talent show complete with dancing, keyboard playing, a story, a magic show,

and even a visit from Frosty the Snowman.

Dad read the Christmas story while the rest of the family acted it out.

Sydney was the angel, and was adamant about not wearing her halo. Still pretty darn cute though.

Elayna, James, and Allison were the wise men,

and Riley, Dallin, and Wendy were shepherds. We left a little later than planned that night, so Sydney fell asleep in the car on the way home. I had to open her Christmas pj's for her and we had to wake her up to put them on. She was not very happy about that.

On Christmas morning (after Wendy's kids had already run downstairs to see that Santa came), we staged a picture of everyone on the stairs. When we were growing up, we always had to wait at the top of the stairs until my Dad said "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas" to signal that we could come down. One perk of being the youngest was that I always got to run down first :)

Santa left Sydney this cute sled with a few presents inside. She loved punching that balloon all morning.

She sat on Daddy's lap to open her presents.

I think this was the only one she really sort of opened by herself- mostly because she had fallen on it earlier and there was already a tear in the paper.

She was inseparable from her new cell phone. I loved seeing her in her cute Santa pj's.

After we opened presents, we ate our yummy Christmas morning breakfast of waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, Christmas punch, and fried ham. Delicious!!

This was the first family picture we've taken since I was in high school and Dallin was the only grandchild. Our family has grown so much! We had a great time spending the day talking and playing Scrabble, Bananagrams, and ping pong. Overall it was a great Christmas!

We drove straight from Mom's and Dad's to Clarke and Char's house in Indiana. They blessed baby Gracie while we were there, and Sydney got to wear this cute Christmas outfit from Grandma B.

The following Monday, we were excited to play in the snow! Sydney looked like a little marshmallow in her new snow pants and boots.

She sure looked cozy in her new sled! She wasn't really a huge fan of the snow though.

We had a great time playing with cousins and visiting with our great family!

Happy Birthday Spencer!

We celebrated Spencer's birthday a little early since we'll be gone tomorrow. We went to Quaker Steak & Lube for dinner (he's been big into wings lately), and then came home for some cake and ice cream.

Much to my surprise, he requested a carrot cake this year. I think he was just craving some of that deliciously healthy cream cheese frosting.

Jack & Sydney helped him blow out his candles.

Love this man, glad that after being stuck in Washington D.C. for 2 days, he made home in time for us to celebrate. Happy Birthday Dear!

Sad Week, But Getting Happier

When I picked Sydney up after work on Tuesday, Becky told me she hardly ate any of her lunch and she took two 2 hour naps. That night she hardly ate any of her dinner. I think she went to bed around 6:30pm and slept until about 7:45am.

All wrapped up- mermaid style.

Wednesday was kind of miserable. Every time I put her down, she cried. She was crying half of the time when I held her. When she was happy enough to walk, she was wobbly and fell more than usual. Those minor falls resulted in major breakdowns. She spent most of the day in my arms, on my lap, or sleeping. Something was obviously up, so I called the Dr. and we headed to her appointment that afternoon. Sydney was NOT HAPPY when the nurse weighed her and took her temperature, and I practically had to pin her down so the Dr. could look in her ears. But, it all paid off. The Dx: ear infection in her right ear. We got medicine that night (for free no less! Thank you Giant Eagle!) and she's been on the up and up ever since. I'm glad to have my happy girl (mostly) back.

I'm also glad to have Spencer back, starting tomorrow morning. We pick him up at 8am. Hallelujah!!

Thanksgiving

I'm currently watching You've Got Mail (I've seen it about 500 times, but it's one of those movies that when it's on tv I just kind of have to watch it), so I figured this is as good a time as any to finally post about Thanksgiving. This year we got to go to my parents' house. We hadn't been there for a really long time since we usually stay with Shauna and Dan when we're in Columbus. It was nice to be at their house so we could see them for more than just a few hours.

The only assignment my Mom gave me for Thanksgiving dinner: green bean casserole. It became kind of a staple for me in college, and so now it's my responsibility to make it for every Thanksgiving that we're together. Since that's way too easy, I also volunteered to bring pies. Costco style. I'd like to think that I would have homemade them if I hadn't had to work on Tuesday, but no need to kid myself :)

Although this picture of me is not flattering in the least, it was the best one from a series of me trying to get Sydney to wear this cute turkey headband. It's also the one that best shows how she reacted to it: not good.

My family getting ready to dig in to the delicious spread!

Sydney especially loved the rolls, turkey, sweet potatoes (which were more like candy), and the pumpkin pie.

Sydney with Grandma and Grandpa.

One of the sweetest things that happened: while Spencer, Mom, and I played Scrabble, Sydney was just walking around the house. After a little while she went into the living room with my Dad. About 20 minutes later, we went in to find my Dad holding her, and she was just laying on his shoulder. He said she just let him hold her almost that whole time!

We also got to play lots of ping-pong, so altogether it was a very Happy Thanksgiving! Can't believe Christmas is in just a few weeks!!