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.

The Growing Belly

19 Weeks

22 Weeks

24 Weeks

25 weeks

27 Weeks

29 Weeks

30 Weeks

Almost 33 Weeks

34 Weeks

37 weeks

38 weeks 2 days (the day before he arrived)

Sami at the Christmas Tea

Tanner at the Christmas Tea

A Few Pictures

Chrismas Tea at School
Showing some dance moves

Baby Girl sings too.

Before School

Silly Sami

Wow, I need to update more.

Well it has been a very long time since I have posted. I am going to start doing so again on a regular basis, I promise. Things around here have been crazy. I am not going to try and catch up on the past almost year but I will hit some highlights.........

Summer was great. Spent most of our time at the lake. Kids swam like fish and can both swim without floatation, but of course we only allow this in pools. Life jackets are still, and will be for quite some time, a must at the lake.

We found out in July we are expecting another baby......now due in about two and a half months. We are thrilled and looking forward to her/his arrival. Yes we decided to make this one a surprise:) Kids are happy and looking forward to the new addition. They each have some very interesting ideas for names. Tanner would like Gilbert for a boy and Sami would like the baby to be name Coconut, regardless of the sex. Good thing they are not in charge of coming up with the real name.

Fall came way too quickly but both kids started school. Tanner is loving every minute of it and I am sooooooo happy we opted to keep him home from Kindergarten one more year. His self confidence and self esteem has improved so much. He is reading and writing like a champ. Sami had a rough start but has finally adjusted. She is starting to actually say that she like school which is a good thing. She does tell me that she would prefer to stay with me all the time, which is nice to hear.

Sami got her tonsils and adnoids out the beginning of Oct. It was discovered that she was having sleep apnea spells which was why she was awake for hours and hours each night for almost an entire year. She healed very quickly and has finally started to sleep. I am more thankful for this this anyone, I think. I didn't realize how tired I was until I finally got to sleep for more than 4 hours a night.

And that pretty much brings us up to the present. Tanner broke his arm this past Monday. I am so very sad that he has to have a cast on his arm for Christmas. We opened a few presents this evening and he had to have help. Breaks my heart. Luckily he will only have the cast on for about a month.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May 2011 be good to you all!!