Merry Christmas!

This week has gone by in a whirl wind, I swear! Anyway, Our anniversary was good. Spencer took the day off so that we could do fun stuff. I kinda woke up with a headache, but I had an appointment with my chiropractor that morning so I thought he would help it. He didn't, but he sure helped my sciatic nerves (they are both giving me grief). Anyway, Spencer folded the clothes while I took a nap and then we went to a matinee showing of Harry Potter part 1. I think we will be going to more matinees because it was VERY inexpensive. We saved the expensive part for dinner, The Cheesecake Factory. It was WONDERFUL. We ordered the fried artichoke hearts and Spencer understood why I loved them SO much. Then we both ordered different sandwiches so we could share. He ended up eating all of his and half of mine, they where so good though. It was a good anniversary.

Thursday is our birthing class and we are doing an exchange with her, her classes for my cakes. She lives in our ward and has been really fun to get to know. They have a birthday cake every year on Christmas for Jesus and she asked me to make that for her this year. She had one request, that Mary be holding baby Jesus.


Christmas Eve was really exhausting. We had the missionaries over for dinner. We had prime rib, which I think is now going to be our traditional Christmas dinner. It was a 6 pound roast and we have ZERO leftovers! One of the missionaries, Elder Hunt, is the smallest missionary I have ever seen (he has Cystic Fibrosis) and he ate about 1/4 of the roast, it was AMAZING!! Spencer had carved the roast and I had told him to cut it like bread, when I turned around his first cut had been about an inch and a half thick. I about died! Elder Hunt ate half of that piece AFTER he had already eaten a whole steak. When he was finished with that half, he ate the other half! We were all amazed. To accompany it I made mashed sour cream sweet potatoes with a little blue cheese mixed in, not much of that left either and I made a HUGE batch. The potatoes were so yummy, I think Elder Hunt ate the majority of those too. Then I made a salad that was probably the BEST salad I have ever made. Oh my heck! It had Granny Smith apples in it along with pomegranate, mushrooms, and bacon. Then I got the Blush Wine Brianna's Dressing...need I say more. It was so good that the other Elder, Elder Stafford ate the rest of the salad with the actual salad serving fork that we used because my mom had already taken his plate. It was pretty funny. I then made some baguettes to go with it all, and it was awesome. We had gingerbread for dessert and during dessert Elder Hunt shared a really interesting message with us, it was really neat. It was snippets of Zacharia Chapters 1 and 2 and it made it sound like they were talking about Santa, it was really neat.

Christmas morning was fun. I love it when the girls come down stairs and see all the presents, it brings the magic back in Christmas for me. I kind of lost the magic when we had kids and they were old enough for Santa. But today really healed that for me, I hid in the kitchen while they came down the stairs and it was childhood all over again. Very special.


A tradition we have started is a letter from Santa talking about Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas. We are really glad that we have started that tradition. CJ had found it and read it then came into the kitchen while I was making breakfast and started to read it to me.

We had our traditional breakfast of cardamom bread, hot chocolate, and fruit salad. I made an adjustment on the salad and added pomegranate to it, I think I will start making that our tradition because we ALL LOVED it. I also made orange rolls to go with breakfast, it was sublime. We then opened presents. Avary was so excited she was about ready to crawl out of her skin, she could hardly wait.

We opened presents youngest to oldest, Avary couldn't wait any longer so we let her go first.


CJ got a special gift this year, she lost a top tooth and got a dollar from the tooth fairy. They both got what they wanted from Santa, Avary got a Lego Horse Jumping kit and CJ got a dolphin Pillow Pet that she has now named "Squeaky". They both got their own suitcases so now we won't get their clothes mixed up when we travel. They were really happy with their Christmas. I finished quilts for their beds just in time for Christmas and they were really happy about those, we also got them new sheets to match. My mom has started a tradition with them, new PJ's that she gives them on Christmas Eve. This year I talked her into making them, the girls were BEYOND thrilled. They were really sweet and drew pictures for each other and wrapped them and put them under the tree. I love it when they do sweet things like that. They got a few more things like new bath towels, art supplies, new dresses, and $5 each from their Grandpa Herb. Avary made a noodle wreath at school that she gave to me to open. I love treasures like that.

Spencer got one of the girls' pictures. It was from CJ, a night sea dragon, go figure. The girls gave Spencer a Snuggie and they were happy to help him test it out, although it is FAR from cold here (yesterday when I was dropping some goodies off at a friends house there were kids outside at a park playing soccer. Sure, I remember playing soccer on Christmas Eve....NOT). I gave Spencer my traditional gift of hot sauce. He has found a new Tobasco, Chipotle, that he REALLY likes, so much so he practically drinks it. Santa brought us new sheets for our bed and he gave me a fun little magic wand with a mini-pillow (center picture). In case you are wondering, the bottom writing says, "The magic will work as soon as the elves can refill the enchanted bank account." I love Santa, he has great humor. I'm having problems sleeping because of my sciatic nerves and I could really use a body pillow, so when the "elves" refill the "enchanted bank account" I will be getting one. I also got a pair of really nice slipper shoes to walk around in. They have cute pom poms on them that Jersey REALLY likes. Going to have to watch that particular adornment. My sister made my mom a really neat stone plaque and Santa brought her the new Tom Clancy book. She got a lot of stuff from my siblings too that she had opened during the week and then she put them back in the packages and put them under the tree, it was pretty funny. All in all I would say that we had a good Christmas. It was nice not to have a ton of stuff.

Merry Christmas to everyone from us. We love you all and are thinking of you this time of year!

Winter Wonderland

No snow yet. I think we might still be holding out hope for it, but I'm not going to hold my breath. The decorations went up really nice this year. The weather was so nice and warm, I asked Spencer to hang the lights outside. Of course, the day he did it was the coldest day that week. He did it anyway and it turned out GREAT!!

The girls take turns every year putting the star on the tree. Last year was Avary so CJ got to do it this year. They could hardly wait to get that star on top of the tree, it was so funny.

The girls decorated the tree all by themselves this year. I helped with the high stuff, but they basically did it all. They were really excited and it really turned out cute.

We decided since we don't have snow outside, we should have snow inside. The girls, Spencer, and my mom all cut out paper snowflakes and we hung them from our ceiling in the living room. It turned out really neat.

I'm thinking we should do it every year.

We are all getting excited for Christmas, especially the girls. We have an advent calendar that my sister made us and every day they make sure to put the next day up on the calendar. They keep counting down the days until Christmas. It is really funny because everyday they get more and more excited, if that is even possible but they do it.

Road Trip to Utah

So, about a week before we left for Utah for my brother-in-law's wedding, we had our ultrasound done. We found out it was a boy, in case you all didn't hear by now. The tech was so good at getting good photos of the baby. There was one where he was laid out with his feet crossed and a hand behind his head. She even showed us a his bicep, it was really neat. Anyway, here is a picture of our little boy:


We are ALL so excited! The girls jumped up and down and cheered when they found out. We had balloons filled with "baby boy" confetti and we had them pop them. They were really excited. My mom was in the hospital at the time, so we made a little puzzle for her to do with the boy symbol on it and she was able to do that in the hospital (we didn't think the staff would be too pleased with the confetti in the balloons trick at the hospital).

Spencer's brother, Ricky, got married this last week, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. It's funny because I didn't meet Courtney, his new wife until we saw each other in the Sealing Room of the Temple. It was bizarre, but she is so cute and they are so cute together. We did talk though over the phone a lot. I can't wait to actually get to know my new sister-in-law! Of course I did the cake! It was really fun, despite the blizzard that came into Cache Valley before and during the reception. Anyway, I'm getting a head of myself here. We left for Utah the Friday before Thanksgiving. The girls did a really good job with the travel. They were pretty cute:

We took my mom with us and dropped her off in Salt Lake at my Aunt's house so that she could spend Thanksgiving with family. We didn't run into any weather on the way there or on the way back. We kept a really close look on the weather. Ricky and Courtney got married in the Salt Lake Temple so we decided to stay with Spencer's cousin, Rachel (she used to live here and we became good friends). They live in Farmington and we thought the girls would really have a good time playing with their cousins Sabrina and Oliver. They had SO much fun! So much in fact that the girls wouldn't calm down when it was time to go to bed so Sabrina ended up having to sleep with her parents the whole time we were there.


They have a fun little playroom that the girls spent most of their time in. Avary thought it was our new house and CJ decided that when we move, we need a house just like Rachel's. It was such a fun time staying with them. They even introduced me to a new game called Settlers of Catan. I'm strongly addicted to it now, thank you very much! I was able to finish the cake at the house, with the help of Rachel and Spencer. It was probably one of the easiest cakes I've done.

The ceremony was beautiful. The wind was blowing quite a bit and there was a blizzard warning for Cache Valley for around 3:00 that afternoon, so we had to leave the Temple a little early and get back to Rachel's so that we could make it through Sardine Canyon before the blizzard hit. We made it just in time!! I wish I could have taken pictures of what blew in, but our camera ran out of batteries. It was a COMPLETE white out. I don't think I have EVER seen a snow storm like it in my life. What was even more impressive was the amount of people that actually showed up to the reception in weather like that. The reception was at a beautiful new event center in Hyde Park, just North of Logan, called Castle Manor. It was breathtaking! We were able to get there around 2:30 so I was able to spend a lot of time making sure the cake was perfect.

Of course now that I look back on it there are some things I would do different, but it really turned out beautiful and most importantly Ricky and Courtney LOVED it! When I knew cakes were my passion, I knew that when Ricky got married I would do a surprise groom's cake for him, so I did:


Ricky LOVES John Deere. I knew I was going to make him a John Deere cake and so I did. It turned out so awesome! All the kids loved it and it was a great surprise for Ricky.

By the time the reception was about over, the snow had stopped and it was alright to drive. We stayed the rest of the week in Lewiston with Spencer's family spending Thanksgiving with them. Well, everyone but Ricky and Courtney, they were in Jamaica on their honeymoon.

It was a good trip. We even drove down to Salt Lake on the Friday after Thanksgiving and had lunch with my Dad. The girls had fun playing with his Playdough and CJ "asked" Spencer to make her a dragon out of the Legos (I say "asked" because it was more of a demand) so he did. It was good to see him.

We decided to leave a little early because of more storms blowing in so we left the next day for home. We made it in not great time because we stopped off in Cheyenne for dinner. We first had stopped at a Village Inn and it took 10 minutes for someone to actually acknowledge that we had stepped into the room. We had decided to take our business somewhere else when they FINALLY came to seat us. We still left. The girls were really wanting breakfast for dinner, so we found an IHOP about ten minutes away. We were sat right away and everything seemed fine until our waitress came back AFTER taking our order and asked where our menus were AFTER she had already taken them away. This was about 20 minutes after we had ordered. THEN she proceeded to take our order AGAIN and in the middle of writing our order, she dozed off a couple times and then snapped back awake acting like nothing had happened. Her handwriting reminded me of the movie "Awakenings" with Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, it would start fine and then trail off. You can imagine our hesitancy after the experience we had at the Village Inn. Spencer asked her if she was OK and she said yes. After she had left, he found the manager and told him what had happened. He said that he was sending her home, I guess she had a rough day, and that our ENTIRE meal was on the house. We felt really bad for her and made sure that she had a proper ride home, we didn't feel good about her driving home. We were even prepared to pay for her cab, but the manager informed us that her daughter was going to drive her home. He made sure our order was put into the computer and when we got our order it was right except a few additions. It was all good though, we left her a $10 tip because we figured she needed it. Later on Spencer told me that while I was in the restroom with Avary, the waitress had come up to the table and had apologized and explained that she has kidney problems. The only thing I can figure out is that the medication she takes makes her tired and forgetful. Needless to say, we are NOT going back to Cheyenne to eat again. That was enough for us! It was an all in all good trip though, but we are sure glad to be home!

Halloween Festivites

It was a fun week of Halloween festivities. It was the start of the girls fall break from school. They got a whole week, I like having it during Halloween. We started the week with our ward trunk-or-treat. It was really fun. We had a Chili cook off and I entered my unchili chili (loaded baked potato soup). That soup went faster than any of the chili's, it felt good that people liked it, but I didn't win. They only had prizes for ACTUAL chili, go figure. I was impressed because it was the first time I have EVER made it. Doubt I can make it that good again though. Anyway, it was a fun night. I even got my mom to dress up, took a lot of convincing but the girls helped quite a bit! Spencer was a bat-man (not THE batman but a bat-man):

He was pretty clever about it, he threw it together about 20 minutes before we left for the trunk-or-treat. He used a garbage bag for his wings. The girls were tooth-fairies. We used recital costumes from CJ's first year of ballet and her last year ballet recitals. It worked out well, we thought:

Avary said she was a "Princess ballerina tooth fairy", but we just said a tooth fairy. I dressed up too, I went incognito. We took pictures but I had a couple "accessories" in the pictures that I really didn't want to "show". I went to Walmart because all my pants that fit me were dirty and got some Halloween camouflage pants and wore a black shirt and one of my black chef hats from school. I got a lot of compliments on it. LOVE the pants, so comfy!!!

The Tuesday and Thursday before Halloween, the girls did their Halloween dances at ballet. They did such a great job! I took video, but I don't know how to post it to my blog yet. Hopefully Spencer can help me out one day.

The following Friday we went to Spencer's work to trick-or-treat there. There are 3 buildings to his work and we only went to 2......we had to empty the girls buckets TWO times and they filled them up a third. They always clean house there. Avary had changed her mind by then what she wanted to be for Halloween so she is a cat and CJ is still a Tooth Fairy:

On Saturday CJ had a birthday party to go to for one of the boys in her primary class. She got to eat "Mummy Dogs" while she was there. I thought it had spoiled my plan on having mummy dogs for dinner that night but she was all for having more. So, we had mini-mummy dogs for dinner that night with sweet potato fries. They were good too! I had sliced my thumb pretty good earlier that morning and I couldn't really roll the mummy dogs, so Spencer and the girls did it for me. At first Spencer was helping, but then they started to run out of dough and Spencer was doing that and the girls ended up making most of the dogs. I was so proud of them, they are really growing up and learning a lot!! That night they decorated a pumpkin with a kit that their Grandma and Grandpa Schumann sent them. The pumpkin turned out really cute:

The girls woke up on Sunday wanting special pancakes. They weren't the "special" I thought they would be, like pumpkins or something like that. Spencer was up and letting me sleep in and they went up to him and asked for "Hello Kitty" pancakes. When they ask, they get:


I am always so impressed when he does stuff like this for the girls, especially when it is stuff he has no idea about, but the girls had a puzzle of Hello Kitty so he could figure it out. Halloween on a Sunday is sure different here in Colorado than Utah. We were hopeful in having kids come to our door on Saturday, but none showed. They showed on Sunday though, but we had made a decision to not hand out candy on Sunday, so we put a "Sorry, no candy" sign on our door. We heard kids screaming almost all night though because of our next door neighbor, Eduardo. He ALWAYS does something awesome in his garage for Halloween that makes kids run screaming down the street. We were hoping to get rid of all the "gross" candy by handing it out to trick-or-treaters on Saturday, but our plan didn't work. Now we have two ginormous bowls full of candy. Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!!

Last Post From the Past

In July, my oldest brother Reed (Spike) came with his daughter Lara and visited for a couple days. We had a LOT of fun with them. We took them to the beach. He thought we were kidding seeing how it is Colorado, but he realized that we had a good spot to go to. We went to Aurora Reservoir and had a really good time.

Spencer really did have fun, I think.

Lara wanted Spike to bury her in the sand. I think he had a little too much fun:

She didn't take in account that sand goes everywhere. She spent quite a bit of time in the water after she got out.

We had a little scare while we were there. The girls were playing with the buckets and wanting to get water to put in the hole that Spencer built. Avary swam out a little too far and filled her bucket and it sort of dragged her under. We heard the whistle and when I looked I knew it was Avary. The little stinker wouldn't let go of the bucket. Spencer was down there with the girls, but he didn't realize it was Avary that the lifeguard was going after. We took a little break after that. But then she wanted to go back into the water. We explained to her that she can't use the buckets like that and if that was to EVER happen again, to LET GO! I think she got the picture.

After we ate lunch, my second brother Shaun called to come and visit. When Spike told him we were at the beach he thought he was kidding too. I guess Aurora Reservoir is pretty new and when Shaun lived out here with his family a while back, they didn't have it. They ended up coming and visiting with us at the beach until we had to leave.

After the beach we went home and had an early dinner and we got all gussied up and went out on the town. Spike had bought us all tickets to see "South Pacific" while it was here. It was great. The girls liked it for about 20 minutes and then they played on mine and Spencer's gadgets the rest of the night. We got home pretty late because on the way home we ran into a check point to see if we had been drinking. The girls were SO tired! The next morning Spike and Lara left and we all realized we didn't put on enough sunscreen and we were all lobsters! We had a great time though.

Happy 5th Birthday, Avary!!!

Well, this years September birthdays were not too exciting except Avary's. Spencer's grandpa had passed away and he was out of town for my birthday so my mom took me out to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate. Then when Spencer came home we all went to Olive Garden to celebrate mine, my mom's, and Avary's birthday. Since mine and Avary's birthdays were on Sundays, we just hung out and relaxed, we did presents with Avary though.

Avary had a really good birthday, she got a lot of horse stuff.

This is her Pillow Pet from Spencer and me. She was SO excited when she opened it up, it's a Unicorn.




These are paint and play horses from my mom. CJ got dragons for her birthday and Avary wanted the horses. She was excited to open these too.

She got this cool ball from her Grandma and Grandpa Schumann. At first we didn't know what it was, but then Spencer figured it out.

The girls really had a fun time with it. Unfortunately it popped a couple days later. CJ gave her a book of horse puzzles. I didn't get a good picture of those so I don't have them on here.

I asked her what she wanted for dessert on her actual birthday. She decided that she would wait for cake for her birthday party so.......

She settled for fresh peach cobbler.

The next Saturday we had her birthday party for all her friends. I talked her into a costume party, it wasn't that hard to talk her into it. She had a lot of fun that day.


Of course, a My Little Pony cake. I didn't make this one. When I was pregnant with Avary, CJ had a birthday and I bought that cake from the store so I decided I was going to do that this time too. It sure was a lot easier. It actually tasted really good. I took her to pick it out and she picked all the flavors herself. She had a chocolate cake with strawberry filling and a whipped "cream" icing. We were impressed.


We had a pinata that was a Unicorn. I can officially say that my girls HIT like girls. All the other kids whacked the snot out of that unicorn and CJ and Avary barely tapped it, it was pretty funny.

More horse stuff.

I was glad that I was feeling OK for her birthday. I was afraid that I wouldn't feel good, but it worked out. Especially since we also fed the missionaries that night.

Summer Wildlife Roundup

This summer, I've been riding my bike home from work most days. Along the way, I've seen quite a bit of wildlife. I took a few pictures (with my phone, so the quality isn't great). I saw about 10 to 15 deer total, and here is one of them:

You might have to look hard, but it's in there!

I also saw two coyotes, but I didn't take pictures of them. One was running under a fence and was only about 10 feet away from me.

Today, as I was cruising up a gentle hill, I saw a snake on the bike path directly in front of me. I saw it just in time to skid to a stop with my front wheel about 3 feet away from it. It was a rattle snake! It coiled up but didn't try to strike. You can just barely make out the rattle in this picture (click for a larger view of this and all the other pictures):

After I took the picture and calmed down a bit, I decided to detour around it through the grass. Here are a couple more pictures from the other side. You can see some skid marks above it in the pictures where I came to a stop. One of those is mine. I don't know if the other one is an old one or if someone else did the same thing.


To give this a sense of scale, I'd say the path is about 6 to 8 feet wide. I didn't try to stretch the snake out and measure it, but I'd say it was about 3 feet long.

I'm pretty sure I saw another rattle snake in this same area a couple of years ago, but that time I was going downhill and I just swerved around it and kept going.

So that's my wildlife roundup. Maybe next summer I'll start carrying around a better camera for some better shots!

Grandpa Schumann

"God saw you were getting tired
when a cure was not to be.
So he put his arms around you and
whispered, "Come to me".
With careful eyes we watched you.
We saw you pass away.
Although we loved you dearly,
we could not make you stay.
A golden heart stopped beating,
hardworking hands to rest.
God broke our hearts to prove to us,
He only takes the best."

-Author Unkown

Dear sweet Grandpa Schumann passed away last night at home. We will miss him so much. He was such a fun and loving man.

Spencer and I have been reminiscing about some things that we remember. I think the favorite memory of ours is when we had a "spoon on the nose" contest. It was so fun. Spencer, Ryan, Cami, Addie, me, and Grandpa all put spoons on our noses after some big dinner at my in-laws. We all had a contest to see whose spoon would stay on the longest. Grandma Schumann sat there saying, "Oh Henry" and we all waited to see whose spoon would stay on the longest. Grandpa won by a long shot! I have NEVER seen anything plastered on so tight in my life!! He would shake his head and that poor spoon was stuck on his nose until he pried it off. We were all laughing so hard, except Grandma of course, but we all had such a fun time with that. I tried to find the picture but I can't find it.



This picture was taken when we went to Utah for Ryan's farewell. The girls had so much fun with the dog. They ALWAYS loved to see Grandpa move his little "finger". (He was missing a finger on his left hand, you can see it in the picture.) Anyway, they always asked him to show it to them. He will be missed.

We love you Grandpa! We will always remember your laugh and your love of family.

(I love the song I put on our blog for Grandpa. Especially the last verse, I think of him when I hear it.)

Ballet Recital

The girls had their Ballet Recital in June. They both did so well, we were SO proud of them! This was Avary's first year and CJ's second. I LOVED their costumes. Avary's dance was to Celine Dion singing "What a Wonderful World". CJ's dance was to Tim McGraw's "My Little Girl". They were such beautiful ballerinas and the songs just fit them both.

This picture above was taken before the recital. They were so precious!

Avary's dance was first:

A few dances later it was CJ's turn:



They did so good. After ward I went backstage to get them. When I found them they both had been crying. CJ, because people were being too loud and she had a head ache from allergies, and Avary because she wanted me, I guess she missed me.

Spencer gave them both flowers. CJ was funny because she kept telling him not to forget her flowers. It wasn't too much of a surprise but they really enjoyed them. The flowers stayed around for a while too, I was really impressed! Anyway, we got a DVD this year, but it wasn't as good as last year's. At least we have it though.

More Updates - Preschool Graduation

So, back in May Avary graduated from preschool. It was quite an ordeal. I was really impressed and happy with the preschool that we chose. I am definatly going to go there again. Anyway, for graduation the kids put on a "Music Show". It was one of the cutest things I ever did see. They sang and danced and looked awesome. They told us to dress the kids up like American Idols. It was really fun dolling Avary up.

She sure had a lot of fun, I was so glad.

Her teachers just loved her, who wouldn't. Here are some pictures of her teachers.

This is Ms. Teddybear. They give fun names to themselves so the kids remember their names. I don't even remember their real names!

And this is Ms. Jellybean. It was funny because her actual license plate said "JellyB".

It was a lot of fun. They even had root beer floats for us after ward with some snacks, Spencer was ALL over that!!