Sami's 3rd Bday

We had our first "not at our house" birthday party today and I must say, I will never be having a birthday party for Tanner or Sami at our house again. I loved going someplace, having everyone come, having the staff run the party, having the staff clean up, and then coming home to our house.....ALONE:) Now our little one on the way will have his/her 1st and 2nd birthday party at our house but the big kids..........SOME PLACE ELSE!! I would have paid double the amount to not have all of those 3 year olds at my house to entertain. It really was a blast. The kids had fun, the parents had fun watching, and best of all, I have no cleaning up to do.

Snowy Day Fun

You know, I really really really dislike snow. I would be happy if I could go the rest of my life without ever seeing snow unless I chose to go to a mountain to go skiing. What is it about the snow I dislike so much? First off, it means that we cannot really be outside playing. The kids love to be outdoors and the cold is just not very conducive to this. There are many more reasons as well. Yes it is pretty when it first falls but then it is just dirty. Dirty cars, dirty coats and clothes from brushing up against dirty cars. Dirty carpet from walking in dirty snow and coming inside or getting in the car, slick sidewalks, wet shoes and wet bottoms of pants from walking through the snow. The list really goes on and on. With that said, we decided to make the best out of the snow and head out for a short period of time to play. The kids like to play in it for a little while but once it gets on their little faces or makes its way under the mittens, the fun is over. Anyways, here are some photos from our fun in the snow.

3D Ultrasound Pics

Eventful few Days

It has been an eventful few days at the Spiecker House. Xan left last Friday to go to Phoenix for some football bowl game. Very exciting to him, but not so exciting to me as you can tell since I do not even remember the name of the bowl game or who was even playing. Anyways, on Sat. night I started feeling weird. Short of breathe, thought I was having contractions, a little faint, just weird. I decided just to go to sleep so hopefully I would feel better in the morning. Sunday morning came and no improvement. I went about my day, taking the kids to McDonald's for a play date and then decided that I better call the doctor after I realized I was having about 7 or 8 contractions an hour. Of course the doctor said I needed to come in and see what was going on. I called my sister, because of course Xan was gone and so were my parents, and she came over to watch the kids and off to the hospital I went. They hooked me up to a nonstress machine to check out what was going on. Sure enough, I was contracting about every 3 or 4 min. They watched me for about 3 hours and the contractions slowed down. They didn't go away but slowed down. Luckily, they were "nonproductive" meaning that they were not causing me to dilate. They gave me the option to stay over night or go home. Of course I chose to go home. the baby looked excellent. His/her heart is very strong and was fluctuating much more than a baby of almost 29 weeks normally would. The doctor was very happy with this and said that he/she couldn't have looked any better. I went home and the contractions continued through yesterday. Today I am feeling much better today thankfully. This baby needs to stay put for at least another 6 weeks or so. I would prefer 8 weeks but will take 6.

All of this put a big damper in our plans. We were suppose to go to Denver for my brother in law's wedding on Wed. Of course my doctor said there would be no travel in my near future. Xan decided that he would take the kids with him so I could have a few days to be completely off my feet. Well this morning Sami woke up sick so of course now she cannot go either. Needless to say, Tanner and Xan are off on an adventure by themselves in the morning and Sami and I will stay here and rest up. The moral to this story, flexibility is the key when you have children.

Sami Saying Some Nursery Rhymes

Sami is very into nursery rhymes right now. Here is a video of her saying her favorites. The best part is that when she says "Little Miss Muffet" she says "eating her TURDS and whey." Poor girl cannot say the "c" or "k" sound. She uses the "t" sound instead so curds is turds, kitty is titty, cookie is tootie, you get the picture.

My Little Dancer

Sami started dance class today. I must say, the $250 for class, the $55 for shoes, and the $30 spent for a dance outfit were all worth it just to see how happy and excited she was. The class is for 3 year olds so you can guess how much real dance instruction there was but it was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. We spotted this class while at an open gym play time and Sami was immediately taken by it. "Momma, I do dance class too, please please please" is all I heard for weeks. I looked into the class and found out that she missed the cut off date for her age by about 3 weeks. I told her this and it absolutely broke her heart. She cried and cried. "I big enough Momma" she would say standing on her tip toes. After some time to think about it, I decided that if she really wanted to do it, I could make it happen. Needless to say, the dance studio thinks her birthday is 1/1/2008 instead of 1/21/2008. If anyone ever asks, "Hmmmm, I must have made a typo when filling out the online registration form." Won't be the last time she lies about her age:)

Christmas at the Spiecker House

As you can tell, we had a fantastic Christmas. The kids got so much stuff we do not really know what to do with it all. I am so glad I cleaned out our playroom before Christmas because I cannot imagine the overflow of toys we would have if I did not. They got a lot of building materials this Christmas....Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Hardwood building blocks etc. Our playroom now has been taken over by plastic tubs to hold said building materials. We have had numerous building parties where we have built villages of Lincoln Log Homes, bridges with the hardwood blocks complete with farris wheels out of Tinker Toys. What fun. The excitement the kids have makes the holidays so much fun. I cherish these days as I know it won't be long until the belief in Santa is no longer and the magic of Christmas is lost a bit. Happy Holidays to you all. I hope you all were as blessed as we were this year. May 2011 bring you joy and happiness.