Its a little early......but is it really!

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AUGUST

I took Sophia to my good ol'hometown fair...the Cass County Fair. Oh, the memories! :) I went with Spencers brother Ben and his wife Megan and their 2 kids Luke and Claire and Spencers other brother Brett and his wife Jessica. I left Cash with my mom cause it was a little hot and I really didn't want to battle 2 kids when Sophia would be the only one enjoying herself on rides and such. Here's a peek, it was really fun!



Her and Luke did quite a bit of dancing!

They weren't too sure about the rollercoaster!

Strawberries with Uncle Brett

Her in the crazy pink car with the bear I won her(thanks jessica)
Its amazing to me how much she loved that cheap little pink bear!

Riding the "pink" elephant.

A good old carousel ride with mom!


Last but not least...the slides!

We got to welcome Spencer back home right in the middle of August, it was FABULOUS!!

Now since Cash was not at the fair, I have to give him a little shout-out for the month of August. He started walking the end of July and was a pro by mid August. He's the sweetest thing you'll ever lay eyes on and the most loving little rascal, he makes your heart just melt! AKA "my little dreamboat"


If he's ever in a bad mood, all you have to do is give him the phone and its fixed.


HA HA! Sophia didn't care too much for her Alice in Wonderland wig in the month of August. Maybe when she's in Kindergarten she'll be ready to be Alice of Halloween.

JULY

After I returned from my quick 3 day trip Spencer and I realized that he would have a long weekend the following weekend because it was the fourth of July. So I booked myself another flight to Fort Jackson in South Carolina this time and we had the honeymoon we never got to take! It was great. We went to the Columbia Museum of Art, the water park on base, saw an awesome fourth of July show on base that made me feel really patriotic, ate at Hard Rock, walked along Barefoot Landing which was great and ate at a little Italian restaurant and we even drove 3 hours to Myrtle Beach and stayed in a great hotel for 1 night.


Might I add I had a sweet yellow rental car!

A sea of soldiers! It was incredible, especially on the fourth!




This was all just what I needed to start the month of July off and wait 6 more weeks for him to finally come home!
Sophi and I made a "countdown chain" so we knew just how many days until Daddy got home!

We even celebrated my fathers 76th birthday at the end of the month and made our usual homemade ice cream!

JUNE (where did you go?)

I have two, no three excuses that have been keeping me from the blogging world, Sophia, Cash, and the return of my husband! It has been months and I'm taking this moment to play catch up....this may take a few posts...you got a few minutes? :)


Spencer was still at at basic training and the kids and I filled our time with fun activities and things to do to the pass the time.



The end of June Spencer graduated from Basic Training and I finally got to see him after 10 weeks! I flew out to Kentucky and had a horrible time getting there. We landed at our connection on time but sat on the plane for over an hour because they didn't have a gate to unload us at. So we(a mother and her son) missed the flight and they couldn't fly us out til the next morning so we had no other choice but to drive 6 hours to Kentucky from Tennessee. I was running on an hour of sleep but it was so great to finally see him, you have no clue! He looked fabulous and I cried like a baby!


He's behind the kid in the goofy BCG glasses.

"SLOGGER"

Well ladies and gentleman I have officially given myself the title of the slacker blogger aka "Slogger" Here I am...Since Spencer left for Basic Training mid April my life has become full time mom...wait, I've always been a full time mom. Now I'm an EXTRA full time mom! For those of you who don't know, Spencer has joined the Army National Guard as a chaplains assistant. He is currently in Fort Knox, Kentucky doing some hardcore training. Trust me when I say hardcore. The stories I have read sound just like the movies.
Lets see...a brief overview. He sleeps with his rifle which has to be named. He has named his "Angelita de Guerra" little angel of war. Dessert, aka "fatty cakes" are always in the mess hall, but they're not allowed to eat them unless they want the whole platoon to do extra physical training. He uses the word Drill Sergeant so much that it slips into his prayers at night. He only sleeps from 10pm to 4am and that's if he doesn't have an hour of "fire guard" to wake up for and patrol. They have to unmask in a gas chamber where afterward the majority of them puke. They have had a rifle cleaning competition where the winner gets 10 minutes of phone time...Spencer came in second. Sleeping on top of your covers is against the rules, resulting the whole platoon being woken being up at 1 am and lectured for 10 minutes on following rules. They take 240 guys, line them up in a rectangle shape in a huge training pavilion and order them to take a nap.
These are a only a few of the strange stories that Spencer has written me about. He also has had very positive experiences along the way. There is a guy in his platoon that is also LDS, he said that things are only hard while he's doing them and that he's always glad that he does them. He's never wanted to quit more than any other time in his life, but never wanted to finish something and accomplish it so bad at the same time. Truly he's doing great! As of date I have only spoken to him once on the phone, its been 3 weeks. I hope to hear from him soon.
For the kids and I, we are blessed to have family so close. My mom is great at helping me with the kids when I work 2 days a week and Spencers mom is always willing to watch them so I can have a break and run some errands on my own or take time for myself. Plus we have Spencer's brother Ben and his wife Megan who moved here about a month ago and its great to be able to spend time with them. We are greatly blessed and taken care of. I get to fly out somewhere around June 25 to see Spencer at graduation after which he will head to his AIG (advanced individual training) for 6 more weeks in either North or South Carolina. Contact with him will be tons better. He will be able to have his cell phone there and weekends off. Its more of a school all day type setting.
I hope this keeps most of you up to date with our family. We love you and miss those who are not here with us. Hope you enjoy some updated pictures.


Sophia demonstrating her "can I Please have some more fruit snacks" look

Sophia getting a picture from daddy in the mail. She was SO excited!

This is the cute little guy I get to see tugging at me while I'm at the table. This is his new hair cut...just like dads.

Cash has been crawling for about a month and a half now, he's all over the place!

Easter a few days before dad left

A new year....and one long post!

Where do I begin to catch up....Uh...Christmas! We had a great time during the holidays this year. We were able to hang out Christmas Eve with Spencers family at his Aunt Judy's with everyone this year. We had a large group and enjoyed watching the kids running around. (Sophi,Ruby,and Ryan) We enjoyed the two new little babies (Cash and Sidney)and are excited to see how much crazier things will be with more kids and gifts next year!
Christmas day was fun, we got to open presents as a family in the morning, then we headed over to Spencers parents to have some brunch and watch Sophia open gifts and play with Courtney,Jordan,Grandma,and Papa.
We then headed home to prepare for Christmas Day dinner with my side of the family. The kids had a blast opening all their presents that Santa brought them.......yes,Santa Spencer visited this year. It was relaxing having the kids playing on their own independently while we just lounged.
So far winter here has been pretty mild, we've had maybe 2-3 times that we had snow covering the ground but nothing that has kept anyone snowed in for a time. Lately we've just been enjoying the kids and waiting for summer to get here.(so has Sophi)
Cash is an angel baby, he rolled over the last day of December and now loves to scoot around on the floor. We find him half way across the room at times. We're still waiting for him to sit up on his own, and to see those 2 bottom teeth pop through.
He just turned 4 months a few days ago and I have no clue as to where all the time has gone. He's pretty much a mama's boy and I love it.
Both kids started getting colds this last Saturday. They are both finally recovering since they've been sleeping with vaporizers in their room for the past 4 nights. I think Sophi enjoyed the box a little more than the vaporizer.
Sophia is getting smarter by the day....lets see.....she told us a few weeks ago that she wanted to "bust a move"(probably from some TV show).
She was disappointed to tears when I came home from working one morning (yes I'm back at gap VERY part time) that I did'nt bring her a castle. I guess her and dad had been looking up "castles" (play houses) on the internet and I think she figured I was bringing one home. I felt HORRIBLE, she just started crying when I walked in, I felt like a failure, luckily she was satisfied that we just printed her off a picture of one and now she plays with it around the house.
Dad and her are making forts around our house now and she loves it, she probably asks for one about once a day now.
She loves to play with the kittys at grandma "EVA LACS" when we visit.
Speaking of animals......Spencer had his first deer hunting experience with my dad this January. He shot 2 dear, gutted them, and helped cut it up. What a champ! We now have a nice amount of deer meat in our freezer and so far we have liked how we have fixed it. We were both skeptical at first but I think we found us some good recipes!
We all had out first family bowling experience this week for family home evening.
Sophi had fun the first few rolls, but enjoyed playing in the game room and the "go kart" that daddy took her riding in a lot better. It was fun to see the excitement on her face!
We sure miss all of you who check out our blog in one way or another. Its always nice to be around family and friends, we hope that you enjoy our little update and that you are all well.