"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.

BRET'S ANGRY DANCE! Dont forget to pause my music list...

I'm STILL here!

I have neglected our blog long enough! I'm always thinking that theres something else I should be doing rather than hopping on the computer! I'm so bad at keeping this thing updated!
Well, the Holiday is quickly approaching and I'm still trying to get a Christmas card put together (once again another computer project) and I'm still trying to finish editing photos from a wedding I shot Thanksgiving weekend.....(computer)! I've got to get a move on here!The kids are doing great! Cash is just doing so great! Sleeping and eating well and giving us thee cutest smiles every time! Sophia is quite excited for Santa to come this year. She has been watching the Tim Allen "Santa Claus" movies and can't wait to leave him some milk and cookies! When she see's the reindeer fly through the sky with Santas sleigh she comments "Santas giving presents to boys and girls.........he's so sweet". Spencer and I always tell her that Cash is "so sweet", so I think she's starting to put that phrase into all of her sentences now. She cracks us up every day, just a week ago she walked in the bathroom, stood on the scale and said "Umm, 40 pounds". Then when you ask her what time it is, she tells you its "40 o'clock", I think she has a thing for the number 40.Spencers shifts have all been extended an hour cause of the holidays, he's at work for 10 hour days. It will be nice to have him home for 3 straight days when Christmas gets here!
I've recently hopped back on at gap part time. I can't believe I worked there for 5 years before I quit and now I'm back. I only work Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I just wanted a chance to do some "grown up interacting" once in a while. Spencer was so supportive of me doing something for me, and this is what I wanted to do. So I'm loving getting my hands into some fun visual merchandising and seeing those markdowns! :)Now that the basement is done, I had the treat of going out for my birthday to shop for all my wall decor. SO EXCITED! I have a family picture collage wall and a wall of clocks! Yes thank you Jen Coberly for the sweet clock collage idea. I ran it by Spencer and he loved it!It's going to be bittersweet at Christmas this year! Especially for Sophi.....her fun Uncle Brett and Aunt Jessica are leaving this friday before Christmas to head back to school. I don't think she quite understands that they're leaving for quite a while. She loves them so much and talks about them at least once a day. We're really going to miss you guys, its been so much fun to have family in town for awhile, I dont know how we'll do without you now! We love you!The bright side for Christmas is that we've got Courtney and Jordan coming!!! Finally an upside to this previous downer! When we talk to Sophia about somebody visiting for Christmas, she knows just exactly who! "Courtney and Jordan got married!" she tells us. When Spencer put on his suit jacket for church yesterday, she asked him "Dad are you gunna get married?" I think since its been summer and Spencer only wore his suitcoat to weddings......now thats its winter and he throws it on, Sophia thinks he's headed to a wedding!

Hope your all having a good start to the Holiday! Heres a pic from the wedding I did!

TAKE THIS "TWILIGHT" QUIZ.......YOU KNOW YOU WANNA!

http://twilightersanonymous.com/Quizzes/Find-out-which-female-character-you-are.html

Here's whats new!

Other than balancing the art of motherhood with 2 children now, here's what I've been up to. In the last couple of weeks I did a senior picture shoot. Cammie is an exchange student from Belgium and will be here in Nebraska until December. It was a fun shoot! We also did some fun shots with her friend Tina from Germany also an exchange student.

Cash had his 6 week check up this last week. Hes now 10 pounds 13.5 ounces. and growing like crazy. He took his 3 shots like a champ, and hopefully we wont be in to see the doctor until Jan for his 3 month check up. In the last week or so Cash has also been quite the entertainment for mom and dad. We now the have the technique of making him smile down to an art, with the baby talking and tickeling his chin. What a dreamboat!

Sophia had a BLAST at what we told her was a "pumpkin party" a few weeks ago. It was a fun petting zoo and pumpkin patch all ready for the Fall holiday. We dressed her up as a cowgirl before we left.
Spencer is still hard at work at Best Buy, and putting the finishing touches on our newly finished basement. We (Sophia especially) have been enjoying it for weeks now. Sophia asks everyone who visits, "Wanna see my basement?" Shes quite excited about her new play place and moms quite fond of the high noise level that has moved from upstairs to downstairs.

I am starting to get a little more rest through the night now, Cash will sleep for 6 hours at times. Its bliss let me tell you. Right now I'm trying to keep up on my scrapbooking but I'm starting to realize why digital scrapbooking is becoming so much more popular. I think its going to become much more popular with ME too.....soon!

Here I couldnt resist putting him is Sophias baby doll stroller. Ha ha!

TAG....your it!

So through my blog stalking I noticed a fun tag and decided to jump on the wagon and make my first tag to my blogging sister in laws! (Jennie, Megan, Mary and Courtney) Here's how it goes:

Go to your 4th picture file,

Post the 4th picture in that file, explain and

Tag 4 people!

Simple, yet FUN! Here's mine.

After coming home from church one Sunday, I pulled Sophias church clothes off and let her run around the house in her diaper while I fixed some quick lunch and grabbed her some comfy clothes. While I was busy, she located my church shoes that I had kicked off and walked around the house with them and her sippy cup. She feels pretty important putting on mommys shoes.