Inspired by a Stranger's Life

Hey everyone. For those of you that don't know Heidi Spangler, you HAVE to read her blog. First of all, Heidi is an amazing person that I admire so much. I have never met anyone so absolutely perfect in every way. I was always asking people to tell me something bad about her, because it really does seem like she's perfect! BTW, no one could ever think of anything bad to say about her! She's beautiful and has a gorgeous family that is, well... perfect. Her sister just passed away and she has written such a beautiful and inspiring tribute to her on her blog. I never met her sister, but reading Heidi's blog about her life has truly inspired me. If you have few minutes, read it. You will not be sorry that you did. Get a tissue first! (I have a splitting cry headache!) This woman was amazing and beautiful, and I can tell just by reading about her that the spirit radiated through her daily. She was definitely no ordinary girl. I hope I can be a mere fraction of the person that she became in her short life here on earth. My heart aches for her husband and children, and all of those that had the pleasure of knowing her. The link is on my blog, it's The Spanglers.

LAGOON

Our family after the last ride of the day. It was a long hot day, but we had so much fun. We were dead dog tired and ready to go home.


My sweet girl hung out in her stroller pretty much the whole day. She was such a trooper.



Maycie and Konnor were so brave and went on "Wicked", the biggest and highest roller coaster at Lagoon! As you can see they loved it!

Daddy's Portrait

Maycie drew a portrait of Paul in Sacrament meeting a few weeks ago. It was at that moment that I realized that she just might be a child prodigy of art.

Busy Busy Summer

I finally have a second, or let's get real, an hour to do some bloggin. We've been busy! It seems like if it's not one thing, it's another. Living close to family we definitely always have something going on. Swings, sprinklers, swimming, soccer, hanging out with cousins, and flooded yards. Just to name a few. We're having a fun summer! I've posted a million pictures trying to catch up. I haven't even got to the 4th of July yet. Maybe another day.

Frustrating Phases

This is Averie's newest discovery. She stuffs her toys in the vents of the A.C. unit and then gets mad when she can't get them out. She's a tiny tornado!



This is her saying, "Iss stuck! Git it!"


Such a big girl! She has to do everything herself, but as you can see the progression of putting her shoes on by the end she is crying and mad at her shoes. She's pretty fun to watch.

Swimming with Friends

Ellie and Gage in deep conversation

Ephraim Roots

My siblings and our families had an awesome trip to Ephraim, Utah with Grandma and Grandpa Jones. Grandma wanted to show us where she grew up and where she and Grandpa met and fell in love. Grandpa was playing baseball at Snow College, and Grandma worked at a drugstore in town. She wanted to meet him, so she purposely spilled a milkshake on him. He was mad, but the rest is history! They are so wonderful, I enjoyed this "history trip" so much. We visited all of her family who are buried there, her mom and dad, grandparents, aunts, uncles etc. It was interesting. I wish I would have taken a picture of her old house. We also got to go to the Manti Pageant which is awesome! If you ever get the chance to see it... DO. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

The Manti Temple The Manti Pageant. It was so awesome!
Andrew and Averie cruising the cemetary.

Our family War Heroes

This is where Grandma's Grandma and Grandpa are buried. They have a beautiful view of the Manti Temple.

Tagged by Ginger!

20 Years ago...
1. I was 11
2. I was living in Lava Hot Springs
3. I spent most of my time on my bike and playing with dolls
4. I looked like I was 16 and was insecure because I had big boobs!

10 Years ago...
1. I had been married for a year and was working at UCCU
2. We went camping all of the time. It was so much easier without kids.
3. Paul was always studying
4. We were building our first house in Lehi. (I loved that little house!)


5 Years ago...
1. I had my 2nd little girl, my Ellie Boo
2. We were living in Springville
3.We had just accepted a job in Washington and I was sick about leaving family. Little did I know that it was about to be the best decision we ever made!
4. Just loving being a mom. I'm so boring I can't remember what else was going on then!

3 Years ago...
1. Ellie was almost 2 and Maycie was 4
2. We were loving Washington and all of our amazing friends there
3. We were fixing our fixer upper
4. We spent the 4th with the Leavitts in Tacoma. Not the best 4th, remember guys? Ohmagosh, it was one catastrophe after the other!
5. I dyed my hair brown and it looked awful!!!!!



1 Year ago...
1. We put our house up for sale because we were moving to Idaho
2. Averie was crawling around, she was so cute and chubby
3. I got a little chubby myself, moving is so stressful!!!!!
4. A year ago in August we pulled up to the little house my sister found for us to rent, and I started to sob. I was thinking "what have we done?"

Yesterday I...
1. I spent the whole day throwing up
2. Tried to take care of my kids while wanting to die!
3. Cleaned up puke from Ellie slightly missing the toilet by about 10 yards.
4. Tried to comfort Maycie who was also tossing cookies all day.
5. Cried because I felt sorry for myself that I can't call in sick.
6. On the bright side... I lost 3 pounds! (usually my days aren't this fun, really)

Today I...
1. Took care of Paul, who unfortunately got the crud last night (and got to call in sick:)
2. Took Averie with me to run errands. We had a fun date together.
3. Actually took a nap while Averie did, because I'm not quite feeling 100%, more like 95%.
4. Did some more throw up laundry
5. Hope we never get the crud in our house ever again!!! I'm so done with puke!
6. Just realized I should have waited a few days to fill this out so it wasn't all about puke!

Tomorrow I...
1. Will take Ellie to Tumble Time
2. Will take Maycie to Soccer practice
3. Will get a few things done for the 4th
4. Will probably spend too much time on the computer

In the next year I...
1. Hope to have our house built
2. Hope to lose 30 pounds. Ya right, that's been my hope for the last 7 years!
3. Hope to potty train Averie
4. Hope I can find time for things that really matter in life. ( this was actually Ginger's answer, but I like it!)


I tag Jewelia, Elise, Kristy, & Jaime

Happy Birthday Maycie!

I can't believe I have a seven year old! She is getting so big, and responsible. It is not uncommon for her to get her little sisters out of bed in the morning and make them breakfast before I'm even coherent. She is so thoughtful and loving and still extremely... how do you put it nicely, um.....talkative. She's definitely not verbally challenged. We love our Maycie to bits! I could not ask for a better daughter. I'm so extremely proud of her. She's truly everything I wish I could be! Love you Sweetheart! (She loves to read our blog).
For her birthday she wanted to choose anywhere she wanted for lunch, get a manicure, get her ears pierced, and then go shopping. I have to say this was all entirely her idea. She's a woman after my own heart! We had so much fun. Her Great-Grandma Faye, Grandma Chris, Aunt Nicci, Aunt Wendy, and I spoiled this kid rotten , (especially Grandma Chris!) She chose to eat at Wingers where she ordered macaroni and cheese. When i asked her why in the world she would go out to eat and order that, she simply held up the menu and pointed. It read, "a meal fit for a princess." She knew I would understand, and I did. Then, we all went and got a manicure. After that, we headed to the mall for some ear piercing and shopping! My mom, (Grandma Chris) went coo coo bonkers and bought her everything she wanted at Claire's Boutique. She would say, "Maycie, do you like this?" Maycie would reply "yes" and in the basket it went. It was fun to have a special day with just her. I also have to mention that she absolutely had to make and decorate her own cake. She wanted triple chocolate fudge with chocolate chips, chocolate frosting, and chocolate sprinkles. Like I said before, a woman after my own heart!




Anything she wanted!

Ouch! Beauty is pain! But so worth it.

Manicures!
Lunch at Wingers.

Sorry about the picture, Wendy!

Music and Lyrics

Why is it so dang funny when someone sings the wrong words to songs? Today I was laughing to tears because Maycie was singing, "Listen" from the Dream Girls soundtrack. (It's on my play list if you want to hear it), anyway the lyrics say, "I'm all alone at a crossroads." Maycie's version says, "I'm all alone as a cockroach!" I'm sure it was much funnier hearing her belt it out as serious as can be. It made my day!

What the Hail?

Hmmm, I thought we left Washington. Maycie's first soccer game got rained out. Bummer! It was actually hailing after this picture. Yep, I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be JUNE!!!

Here's the Scoop!

We moved yet again! Why do we do this to ourselves? I don't know! We moved to a town home (temporarily of course) because it's only a few minutes from where we are building. It will probably take at least a year since Paul is doing a lot of the work himself. So, we will get to move yet again next year! Yeah! Next time should be for A LOT longer (hopefully).


The water in the bathroom wasn't hooked up right, (did I mention this town home is brand new?) Averie got to take a bath in the kitchen sink until it was fixed. Pretty cool!

Hooray for Warm Weather and Power Wheels!

Averie gets a head start for the big race around the house!

Ellie and Bo Bear

He's seven years old!
And the race is on!
Car-pooling.
My sweet girls enjoying the warm weather.