Finished

 I finished Jared's Baby Book today!

Back in high school and college I was really into scrapbooking. It was relaxing and I could work on it for hours.  After I finished my last year of college I decided I was going to give up scrapbooking.  I had a digital camera so I wasn't developing pictures like I used to and it gets to be really expensive. I didn't even make a wedding scrapbook.  Same thing with Egypt, although I did make a large photo album of our 2.5 years there.  But I knew that once I had kids I would want them to have at least one special photo album that was all their own so I decided I would make a "First Year" Scrapbook for all the kids we have.  My goal was to have it done before we had our next kid or they turned two, Jared will be 15 months in two weeks and we are NOT having a baby in the next 9 months.  So I am starting the New Year off well ahead of schedule! It's great.  It was really nice to scrapbook again.  I am not going to pick it up again but it was really fun to look at pictures and see how Jared has grown. 2010 was a nice year for us.  I tried to look through it with Jared but he lost interest pretty quick.  He probably won't really want to look at it until he is much older but that's okay.  I will enjoy  it until then.  I love this little boy and am so happy he is part of our family.
Sample Pages:

 

Here's to a New Year full of more fun memories. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

P.S. Does anybody have any simple journal writing ideas?  I have been writing in a word document each Sunday for the last few years but I have really not been interested the last 6 weeks or so.  I know lots of people use their blog as their journal but I am just not sure that is the route I want to go.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Some Christmas Cheer

We had a very nice California weather Christmas here. I was hoping we would have a White Christmas but no such luck although we did enjoy watching that classic film on Christmas Eve.  Last year we were in California surrounded by family and this year we were the extreme opposite, just the three of us.  We missed visiting with our families (we didn't miss the 20 hour drive) and I would have loved for the Grandmas to get to watch Jared play with the great toys they got him. He was so excited.  But we had a really nice day together.

We started unwrapping presents after the traditional orange rolls and hot chocolate breakfast.  Jared half way unwrapped one present and then decided he wanted to go play upstairs so he took off and Mark and I stayed downstairs and opened our presents.  Then Jared decided to come back down and this time he was more interested in opening his presents.  After we finished it was time for his nap so we took him upstairs and while he slept we put together said presents.  Once he woke up we brought him down and he was so cute walking from one toy to the next. 
Here are some pictures of our Quiet Christmas festivities.

 Christmas Eve Dinner.

Ham, Funeral potatoes, rolls and stuffing with Pear Pie and ice cream for dessert. Some friends invited us over for dinner Christmas day and we had essentially the same meal and then we ate it at our house for dinner last night. It was still yummy.

 Merry Christmas!

For Mark

 For my Dad.

Thank you Marmee!

Mark's Mom and Dad made each one of the kids in his family this same poster.  

We are so happy to have a current picture of all of Mark's family members.  Everyone who has come over likes to check it out and guess which are his siblings.

Earlier in the week we went out to look at Christmas lights with some friends.  Whenever we go we like to hand out one or two "Best Christmas Lights Award" to the house we like the most.  I print out a little certificate and get a bag of Christmas candy. The friends we took with us this year could not believe that we would go up to random people's homes and ring  their doorbell to give them a certificate.  The man we gave it to this year was so happy!  He was an older man and after we explained what it was he invited us in.  It was nice  I think we totally made his day he certainly made mine.  It is one of my favorite traditions we do.  Christmas Eve we read the Nativity, sang lots of carols and finished our Advent calendar.  I am so grateful for this special time of year. 

Only 363 days till Christmas!

A Shout Out...

To my fabulous sister Susanna!  

She made Jared a Winter quiet book and we LOVE it.   She continually amazes me.  She is so generous, creative and talented.  Thanks so much Aunt Susanna!

 

He loves the cookie page. 

We have placed it under the tree and he will often walk over and grab it, it's fun. 

♥ GREAT job Sister! ♥

Just passing the time

Here are some pictures of a very cute little boy just passing the time.

 Jared loves our water bottles.  After we pick up Mark from school Jared always wants to carry Mark's water bottle and roll it around.  He has still been teething some and so he loves to chew on the straw on mine.  This was after we went on a walk one nice mild day. 

Playing in our little sandbox.  We are trying to teach Jared to keep the sand in the sandbox but it's not going very well.  Oh well.  It's really not that hard to sweep up some sand.  And one day we will be able to play outside again. 

I have been wanting to let Jared play in the sink with some water for awhile but have been too chicken.  Now that his balance has improved so much with his walking I finally felt brave enough to let him play in the sink.  I had also just cleaned it that morning.  (I think kitchen sinks are disgusting and love how shiny they look after I clean it.) He thought it was pretty cool.  I think it will work better if I do it in the bathroom sink next time.

Got Milk?

We finished all of our holiday baking today. It was fun. We made so many cookies! We also made some chocolate covered pretzels. We did milk chocolate but I think I like the white chocolate ones more.   Tomorrow night we are going caroling with some people from church. I haven't been caroling in a really long time so I am looking forward to it.  The lady who organized it was telling me how 13 - 14 families signed up to go but a few of them said they didn't want to go if it was cold.  Ummm... do they realize they live in Colorado and its December?  Anyway.  I am excited.

I love this vest. (And this boy.) Too bad it is almost too small.  I wish companies made 15 month clothes.  Jared has outgrown all the12 month stuff but the sleeves and tummy are too big on the 18 month stuff. The length is perfect ( I think Jared is pretty tall)  Why don't they make 15 month old clothes?

14 month old Jared

At 14 months Jared:

Walks 98% of the time.  For the last 2 weeks he has been really thinking about walking.  Watching him learn how to walk has been fun and exciting!  It's so darn cute.
Has mastered sliding down the stairs.  He has been doing this for about 2 weeks also (maybe I should have done a 13.5 month post?).  For a long while he would sit at the top of the stairs and squawk for help. Now he just slides right down.  It is also very cute!  He will crawl backwards till he gets to the first step then slide down.  It reminds me of the trucks that beep when they back up.  It's really nice to not have to go rescue him from the top of the stairs. 
Signs:  More, all done, and yes.  He loves to blow kisses and wave good bye or hello.  This week he has been starting to give us "high fives" if we ask him and prompt him.  Once he does he will do it again and again.
Says: Mah for bananas mostly but also for other foods he really likes and get for blanket. I love it when I hear him talking (babbling) to himself in his room or crib. 
Is actually a good listener.  Example: when we were putting up the Christmas tree anytime he tried to grab an ornament we told him No, that's not a toy then put him in time out (It's like 1-2 minutes in his pack in play) Since then he has never tried to grab anything on the tree.  I am so proud of him.  I really didn't want to just decorate the top of the tree.
Has decided parks are pretty cool.  Too bad it is now cold out and he will have to wait to go again but we will try to go any warm day we can. 
Still loves his blanket and reading books.
Has 6 teeth that have broken through.  2 on the bottom and 4 on the top.  They other day I got a really good look at his mouth and was surprised to see 4 teeth there.  I knew 2 were coming through but didn't know about the other 2.  Poor little boy.

His favorite foods are: cheese, peanut butter sandwiches, avocado and spaghetti.  He gets really excited when he sees that he gets to eat one of these and waves his arms all around.
His new favorite household item is our laundry basket.  He love pushing it around. I think it has replaced the strainer. He also really likes to put things in the dryer and pull things out. He loves to try to play with the dishwasher as well.

I took some pictures of him today (Or attempted to but he was all over the place and none of them turned out very well) and couldn't believe how old he looks!  I will miss my sweet little crawling baby boy but Jared is a super cute little boy!

 

For the longest time Jared would throw his blanket onto his back and crawl around with it. Now he can and does walk with it.  In the morning when I get him out of his crib he loves to play peek-a-boo with his blanket.  It's pretty fun. (and cute of course; I should have titled this: Jared at 14 months is still so cute!)

Light Up The Broadmoor

We went with some friends over to the Broadmoor Hotel and Resort last Saturday and enjoyed their Christmas tree lighting ceremony.  The Broadmoor is a super fancy hotel here and they have a huge lake on the grounds.  We went over and checked out the Gingerbread village and then went outside to see all the trees lit up.  The lights looked so pretty on the trees and reflecting in the water.

  

 I so wish I had my matching scarf.  

Water (ie the lake in this circumstance) makes everything feel so much colder.

Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season thus far!!

P.S.  I just got an email back from my stake Primary President and she said the Quarterly Activities are NO LONGER HELD! 

To quote:

"Your are correct.  The guidelines now state that the quarterly activity days are no longer held.  From my understanding, the church is trying to scale back on meetings where possible.  Hopefully this will allow us more time to spend with our families as well as attend the Temple and do our visiting / home teaching."  

Makes perfect sense to me!  They could be fun but were really chaotic too!  So if you are in a presidency I would totally bring it up to your leaders.

"There is Safety in the Handbook." Amen to that.

Could it really be?

As most of you know I am the Primary President in my ward. I was just reading through the new handbook and it appears that the Primary no longer holds Quarterly activities!!! I went to the church website and it also says we don't hold them.  Could it really be?  Because this would certainly simplify my life!!  It would also go along nicely with the whole idea of "People not Programs" (Elder Bednar) and simplifying things that was mentioned often in the worldwide training.
So I am sure some of you (Michele!) are in Primary Presidencies or have friends who are so I am just asking to see if I am just making it up because I would like it to be true or if they have noticed this too.  Please leave me a comment if you know something I don't. (Well if you know something about this because I am sure all of you know MANY things I don't.) THANKS!

P.S.Coming very soon, pictures of "Light Up the Broadmoor"

Tree Trimmed and Halls Decked!

Today we stayed home and decorated for Christmas.  I love how a house can change with Christmas decorations.  It was super fun to get everything out and find new places for our decorations. We decided to go ahead and put all our ornaments on the tree.  At first we were just going to put balls on it since we aren't that attached to them and they are not quite as breakable as all our glass ornaments from Egypt but we changed our minds once we started decorating.  I know that Jared will want to play with them but we want him to be able to listen when we say NO so here's to hoping for the best. We actually got our tree at Target's "Pre Black Friday Sale".  I thought it was really weird that they were having a sale before Black Friday but it worked out well for us so whatever. We decided that we would go ahead and get an artificial tree.  I think in the long run it's better to spend money once instead of every year and really there are a lot of high quality pine scented candles out there.  Every now and then when our kids are older we will take them to a tree farm or the mountains so they can have that experience but for now this will work great. Also if we do get to do that whole international teaching / state department thing I think it would be very beneficial to have our own tree.

 

 

Yay for decorating banisters.

 

 

A week ago we went to the Christmas Tree Lighting in Old Colorado City.  It was the same weekend as Starbucks buy one get one free deal so we stopped and got some amazing hot chocolate.  I love their peppermint hot chocolate. We are going to the Broadmoor for their Christmas tree(s) lighting and gingerbread village tomorrow.  I am super excited.  I LOVE this time of year.

Creepy!

Last week in church it was announced that there had been a series of robberies at various church building parking lots in the area.  Our building, our old meeting house, and two others had all had cars broken into over the last few weeks.  And it's not like these are scary or questionable parts of town. They told everyone to make sure they did not leave ANYTHING visible in the car.  All of the robberies occurred on a weeknight, not on a Sunday. At first I thought it was really weird because people said things like diaper and gym bags were being taken...  WHAT?  But after talking to a few people it turns out that they are actually getting car registrations and garage door openers!!!  Thus the title of this post.CREEPY!
It is so creepy that people have started taken notice of the hours people are at church regularly and then being so sneaky. *** It's like they take the diaper bag or gym bag to throw off the scent. I would never think to check the glove compartment to see if the registration was there or the garage opener.  You can bet I checked to see if our registration was there today (it is by the way).  But then again who is to say they didn't just write down the address?  But I digress...
So now I have two reasons that I am grateful that we don't have a garage.  (I ♥ our carport it totally keeps the ice/snow off the car window.  Not that garages aren't nice too anywho....)
1.  We will not accumulate as much junk because there is no where to store it
2.  No one can use our own garage or property to break into our home.
Today I went walking with a friend and we were talking about what we would do if our house was broken  into. Do you have an "escape" plan?  The best I have ever come up with was grabbing the phone and blanket and then calling 911 while hiding under it.  I don't think its an amazing plan and now I have Jared so how would I keep him safe?   I really think it's important to also have a fire plan in place. (So I just gave you an excellent idea for Monday's FHE) The first night we stayed in our home we went to bed and then at like 1:00 in the morning we both woke up to a beeping noise.  Since it was a beeping noise I totally woke up thinking the room was filled with smoke.  It was so scary!! I could not believe how much it felt like and smelt like smoke.  Our minds/fears are powerful things. We quickly came to our senses (woke up really) and figured out it wasn't a fire but the alarm battery. SO ANNOYING!! Mark and I were both super paranoid so we set up the pack n play downstairs and brought Jared down and then slept on the couches.  So the first night in our new home we didn't even sleep in our room.  So we do actually have a fire escape plan. I am in charge of Jared! I think I might practice climbing out the upstairs window... and make sure our important documents are easily accessible. It's hard to think about what you would grab if you had a few minutes.  But don't worry our plan was not as elaborate as this one...Really click on it, you'll be glad you did.
Seriously though I really encourage you to make a plan. I didn't write this to freak people out, I have an active enough imagination as it is.  But it really is important to be ready!

Are you ready?

(Here is Jared all ready for church)

*** Right after Mark and I got married we lived in Rexburg for one semseter while I student taught and he finished up the last of his courses.  We never locked our door there (even when I lived with 5 other girls we rarely locked the door) during the day.  Well one day I menitoned this to my sister and she thought I was crazy and proceeded to freak me out talking about how some creepy person could have been watching Mark and mine's habits so they knew when no one was home and when I was home alone and that we were basically setting ourselves up to be robbed. Talk about increasing paranoia.  We always lock our doors now.  It is never unlocked when I am home alone I rarely even open it.  Which leads to another story from Egypt but I don't feel like typing it up. Needless to say we will never live somewhere again that does not have a peep hole even if we have to drill it in ourselves.

Family Photo Shoot

So awhile back I got an email from the Colorado Springs "Groupon" offering an on-site, hour-long, photo shoot for 50$ plus 100$ credit toward buying pictures.  An Amazing deal!  We wanted to get some official pictures done since Jared was turning a year so we went with it.  Here is the online gallery in case you want to check them out.  It was fun.  We were so lucky that we had amazing fall weather and there were still lots of colors.  Too bad buying the pictures are super expensive!!  I am so glad that the deal came with the 100$ credit.

Jonathan Betz
password:  mark-april

How cold is too cold...

To take your 13 month old on a walk?

I love going on morning walks but I don't really want to freeze poor Jared.  So I am just asking if anyone has any opinons on this matter to please leave it on here.

Last night we had our first snow!  I love how pretty snow is.  When you are sitting inside all warm and you look out and see little flakes falling.  It's magical. You can drink hot chocolate and snuggle under a blanket with some Christmas music on in the background if you so choose.  It's wonderful.  I don't find it so magical when I have to drive far but I have been really happy with Colorado Springs snows so far.  The snow comes and then melts away in the next 2 days or so.  Granted last winter was said to be super mild and I really wouldn't have minded even more snow we will see what this year has in store. I just really love seasons. These aren't super cool pictures or anything just a first.

Our house with Snow.

Cool Mormons

I was fortunate to grow up in a Northern California City that had a pretty decent LDS community. I was never the only Mormon at my school or even in my class.  I had a good amount of LDS friends but I was never quite a "Cool Mormon" as I liked to call them.  These are the fun loving Mormons who are super silly and creative and do all  kinds of crazy things on the weekends and every other sentence is some kind of an inside joke. Mark was a "Cool Mormon" growing up.  They really were a fun group but I never quite felt like I fit in. I occasionally hung out with them but just wasn't quite part of the group.  (Not because they shut me out they were really nice people I just didn't try, was doing other things; although at times it did seem like I would have to try really hard to be part of the group.)  Well today I believe that I finally achieved "Cool Mormon" status. 
The missionaries called today to check what time they were coming over for dinner so we agreed on a time and then the Elder said: " I am really glad we are coming over to your house for dinner, it's one of my favorite places to eat."  I immediately thought I did it; without even trying I have become a "Cool Mormon". As I was growing up I always wanted to one day have a home and family that the Missionaries liked to come over to and knew that they could ask us for help and we would do it.  This ward is the first time I feel like we have done it. Well, we did it in Egypt too with the Gerber's but it was a little different since they were the same age as our parents and we were like added children to them. We sure miss the Gerbers!
What is particularly funny about this story is the timing of it.  Last week I went to a Relief Society activity with a friend.  When we got there we went and sat down at a table where no one else was.  I joked to her that we weren't cool enough to sit at the "Cool" table.  But then, three sisters who by my definition would be "Cool Mormons"  you know the ones everybody likes and wants to sit by and talk to who have been in the ward a good while, (maybe Popular is a better word?) came and sat by us!  I was so surprised.  Then I felt sort of bad joking about it to my friend because they are nice people. 
 Anywho, I guess now I will see what it is like to be a "Cool Mormon" and if I was missing anything all those years ago.  But then again the other sisters may have just sat by us because the one "Cool Mormon" was already there... we will just pretend they really did want to sit by us.  Or maybe they just feel sorry for me being the Primary President....We will have to wait and see if I can maintain this status.
In other more exciting news,  Elder Nelson came and spoke to our stake on Sunday. Pretty cool huh?  He spent a lot of time talking about Luke 2.  (a great chapter) It's amazing to me what some individuals can get out of two verses of scripture compared to what I get.  I think the point or goal would be to read a few verses and then stop and think instead of the goal being to finish the chapter. That whole Search Ponder and Pray bit.  I guess I just feel like I really read my scriptures if I can say to myself "Good job Aprillee you read x amount of chapters today."  It's all about perspective. It was really great to have Elder Nelson here.  I am so thankful I could be there.

P.S. I am sure this is funnier to me then anyone else but maybe some of you will have had similar experiences. Are you or were you a "Cool Mormon"?
P.P.S. Sometimes I just really like doing the link options today was one of those days. 

Veterans Day Parade

As I was looking up things to do this weekend I saw that Colorado Springs was having a Veterans Day parade on Saturday and seeing as how every store or apartment building or car dealership or restaurant...(Do you see a trend here?) offers 10 -15 % discounts to military I figured this was a good city to go check out a Veterans Day parade.  Besides the fact that there are 2 Air Force bases, the Air force Academy and an Army base, seriously if you are military this is the place to retire!! So we went over to the parade and cheered on the participants.  As we were standing and watching I couldn't help but overhear people's conversations.  Lots of  "Smile, and we will send this picture to Mommy/Daddy in Iraq" (or elsewhere). Or tons of people yelling "Thank You!" and holding up big Thank You posters.  It made the parade even better.  I am not an incredibly emotional person but seeing those groups march and hearing the people express their gratitude made me really grateful and sort of choked up. For some reason the WW II Veterans always get me the most. Maybe it's just that soon there won't be any and it seems like WW II was such a different type of war.

 

Jared was very attentive. 

I think Veterans Day is sort of an overlooked holiday and am glad that we could attend the parade.

Today

1. I voted!  And it made me feel really good, I felt responsible and like a good person. I love my "I Voted" sticker and am still wearing it.
2. I got my new Colorado Drivers License in the mail which was perfect timing since I would need it to vote.  I am happy to report that I once again have a license from the state that I live in with the correct address.  After we got married I needed a new license so I could have my name changed on it so I got a Utah license.  Well I haven't lived in Utah since 2005 so I was actually really happy that it was expiring this year.  Colorado is way cheaper and I didn't have to take a driving or written test.  In Utah I recall having to take the written test but they let me use the book so maybe they were really testing my ability to read? I was sort of disappointed though because the Colorado License is not too attractive it's pretty boring.  I am happy with my picture which is nice except I look at it and think that's what I look like?  Not in a negative way just sort of hmmm.  It's hard to explain.
3. I bought some cold medicine for Mark. I went up to the register and the cashier asked if I was over 18 and I was sort of confused (then remembered that they check your age on cold medicine too) so before this clicked I said "Yes I'm 27" as I was pulling out my shiny new Colorado license.  Then the cashier really made my day and told me that I look younger then her and she is only 24. So sure that is only a three years difference but it's still nice.
In summary I am really glad that I got my new license today as it proved very useful.  I did some other things  today too but those are what I wanted to talk about.
My name is April Lee Spencer and I approve this message.

Happy Halloween

We hope everybody has had a Happy Halloween.  It was really fun dressing Jared up.  He was so completely adorable! It was nice to because he liked his costume and Mark and I could dress up to match him really easily.  I present:

Jared the Giraffe

With his parents, his branches with leaves.  So Mark and I wore long sleeved green shirts and brown pants so we could look like tree branches with leaves. The best part was how much we paid for Jared's costume,  Any guesses?  Way lower

$4.03!!  

We saw it at Babies R Us and it was marked $7.50 so we thought okay we can handle that and then Mark took it to the register and it came up as $4.03.  

Sweet! 

 Doing what Giraffes do, walking on all four.

These were all the leaves I could find in our backyard.  I remember spending HOURS raking up leaves growing up. Then we had a blast jumping into huge piles in our backyard.  Not so much here. One day we will find some big leaf piles for our kids.

And here are our 2010 Pumpkins: 

 

 I chose this pattern because the Ghosts looked like they were caroling, I am really excited for Christmas music.  It was the first time since we have been doing these patterns that I actually finished before Mark. 

Till next year!