Spencer turns 5. Mario Party

Little Spence Dog planned his birthday party months ago.  He wanted it to be MARIO themed. He wanted to mostly just play Wii.  He only wanted 3 friends...so we would have a remote for everyone.  Spencer has talked about his party and his birthday...pretty much ever since we decided on the theme.
The night before we went to Wendy's to celebrate.  (Dad was gone and Mom was feeling lazy.) Our Wendy's got remodeled and he thought it was so fancy and cool.  Then we came home and made the tie dye cake.
 

 

This is the inside.

It turned out cute. 

 

 

 

He is finally five and I can't believe this sweet kid is growing up so fast.  He has recently learned to read.  He loves to play "fight." He loves make believe and plays the best alone out of all the kids.  Spencer is a wonderful kid.  We love having him around. We call him Mook.

Friends came over and we kept it simple.   A little photo shoot first off.

 

 

 

 

 

Then Pin the "stash" on the Mario.

 

 Aubrey likes to be the boss and organized most of the games and the wii time. I was grateful for her help.

 

We had pizza...cake...."little sodas" and chips.  All per request of Spencer.

Happy Birthday buddy!  We love you.

These are extra pics from when I visited Spencer at school.  He got to make his treats and share them with the class.  We are able to bring pics of him and talk about him growing up.  It was cute.  Then the teacher gave students time to "compliment" Spencer.  My favorite was when they kind of froze and said. ..."I love you!."

He was kind of silly and the teacher said that he has never seen that side of him.  She said he is the model of obedience at school.  Sounds like Mook.  Luckily we get to see all sides of Spence at home...even the crazy. 

 

 

So I can see these pics on my computer...but not my phone or ipad.  So I uploaded them again from my phone here...so people can see them.  Super annoying. Too lazy to redo the whole thing.

School pics 2013

We never buy school pics. I kind of refuse.  Here is Spencer and Aubrey this year. 
 

 

Veteran's day!

So the night before Veteran's day...I was like "Hey...let's get out of the city and do something fun!" This was around 9 o'clock.  I think in the past my last minute lack of planning would have been shot down.  But my AMAZING husband jumped on board and we decided on a fishing trip...Payson AZ to be exact.  Jake got up early and packed the car and planned the food and made my idea a reality!!! 

We really had a magical day.  The drive was scenic and beautiful.  The creek or river was perfect.  Lucy kind of slept and all in all we had a wonderful day together as a family. 

The kids went exploring and found a huge rock. 

Lucy likes to feel big like the older kids! 

The kids were shocked to find big leaves.  We don't have any at our house.

 

We moved location 3 times on our trip.  We went to a canal type bridge and actually Jake threw the line in and within just a few minutes he felt a bite.  Weston caught the fish...but I didn't snap a pic until we were letting it go.  We thought for sure we would catch plenty of fish.  We could literally see 3 or 4 swimming around...never to bite on our line again.  Boo 

We went and got lunch...then ended up at a park/lake that was going to be stocked soon.  I guess it wasn't stocked yet...cause we never got a fish here.  Although...like before, we got our one and only bite within minutes of casting in the rod; only to never have another bite in the following hours.  We came home empty handed.

If you look really far....far in the background there was a flag flying in the breeze.  I just sat on this park bench and felt so much gratitude for our wonderful Country that we live in. I also felt a little bit of sadness. I don't talk politics much...hardly ever.  I just felt humbled and concern for freedoms.  At this point in time I don't think America is the America that our founding fathers and great grandpa's and grandpa's fought for. We have freedoms...we do... and I am grateful for them...but we are losing so many things that make America great.  We are losing MORALITY...We are giving up freedoms because of this. I pray that our children will have the same freedoms we have...and we won't continue to give them up. 

I want this kiddos to ALWAYS have the right to live their religion...raise their families how they want...and to be Happy!!! I want them to be truly free.

Halloween part one.

Honestly there are probably too many parties for Halloween/Harvest...but we are having fun at them this year.  It started way early this year with school parties Friday.  Here is Aubrey and her silly teacher at Mercado.  Montessori does this awesome thing where the 3rd grade and up are in charge of the Mercado and plan their separate booths...they spend the money and have business plans and get ready for the whole thing during school. Then they earn "fake money" and the younger kids are all given 20 fake dollars and Friday at the Mercado everyone gets to spend their money and enjoy.  I loved seeing Aubrey take her job seriously and the creativity and fun was impressive. I also loved seeing kids running the booths instead of Moms and Dads being in charge and then paying up the wazoo to go and have their kids get spoiled.  I just loved the whole thing.  Anyway, here is a pic of Spencer and Noah enjoying the Mercado.

 

 

Weston goes to GAA still and here he is in the parade at school. 

He sure makes a great cop!Friday night we went GAA's Harvest Social.  Jake was the DJ and so we all look forward to going. I was running late but got there just in time to enter Lucy in the Costume Contest with the other kids.  She and our family won "The Cutest" costume.  I actually said...Lucy and fam. I think she is the cutest little wonder woman you have ever seen.   These pics are a bit out of order...but here us girls are.  There was a raffle at GAA and we decided to enter ALOT of tickets this year.  Our neighbors won the BIG prize last year...so we figured it was our turn.  I was also feeling lucky.  Our twenty dollars paid off and I won the grand prize....a new MINI IPOD!!! I was so excited.  I will probably never see it between Jake and the kids...but excited non-the-less.

 

 

 Here is a picture of all most of the ladies in our ward who dressed up for Halloween at the ward "Trunk or Treat." There are such fun and amazing women in this ward.  I am so lucky.  Pretty cool costumes too!

My bestie...Shelly was adorbs and HOT as a pirate this year! 

Ok...so Sat afternoon was the big Watkins party.  There is always amazing food and games for the kids.  One of our favorite traditions is the donut on a string.  This was Lucy's first time participating. 

Spencer and Max thought it was a blast. 

Here is a pic of the kids checking out the new Ipad. Weston was absolutely stoked and kept reminding me that it wasn't only mine and I HAVE to share it!

More donuts. 

I have to admit...I loved my costume this year.  Who doesn't want to feel like Wonder Woman once in a while?