Happy Merry Christmas to us!!

Mike surprised me with a beautiful black dress coat!! Good job Mike!! Mommy likey!
Sidney's favorite was the puppets I bought at IKEA. Cheap puppets of a pig and a dragon. :)
I made the kids their own snuggies. They loved them!! (actually Meghan got a blanket because she thought she was "too big" for a snuggie.

We had a very blessed and happy Christmas!!

It's that time of the year again....

Merry Christmas from the Sperrys!

This year the Christmas letter may not get written...since it's Christmas Eve and I still haven't written it. Whatever. Don't judge. I can't help it if I make my life hectic. It happens.

Mike celebrated his 42nd birthday this year. He also ran two triathlons (read more here) and (here), he also ran for School Board and lost by a close margin. He continues to work hard for our family and we are so glad he is employed.

Jana celebrated her 35th birthday this year. She is thankfully still employed at the Sperry household and loves her job most days. She got to go to Girls Camp again this year. She still serves as YW President in the ward and loves it. In August, Jana and Mike went on a trip to St. Louis and Nauvoo which they totally enjoyed. She also had another ectopic pregnancy and had to have surgery to remove it. Not the most fun, but she is glad to be healthy.

Meghan celebrated her 12th birthday this year. She is so excited to start going to Young Womens with her mom! Highlights from her year include...getting braces , 2nd place in the Science Fair, being a big bad 6th grader, and getting her huge mole removed.

Rachel turned 10 this year. She got to have a friend party and thoroughly enjoyed herself. She continues to be a fun kid and loves life. Rachel was diagnosed this year with Aspergers and has tried to settle into a routine to learn how to cope better. She is looking forward to getting braces next year.

Jenny turned 9 this year. Her favorite thing from this year was when we went to see Lion King, the Musical! Jenny has learned to love reading and continues to be a social little butterfly.

Jonathan celebrated his 7th birthday this year. He has lost a lot of teeth this year, and his favorite thing to do is play computer or Wii. He livens up our house with his "boy" antics and we are grateful for that!!

Sidney turned 3 this year. She is such a silly little character! She constantly keeps me hopping! She talks almost non-stop and continues to be my #1 snuggler. She is anxiously looking forward to being a Sunbeam next year (okay, I am the anxious one...she just thinks its fun).

As you can tell, we are healthy and happy. We live in a free country and are surrounded by people that we love. We hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season and remember the reason for our celebrations....

Happy Birthday to Meg!!

yummy Chinese at Dragon Hill

Ice cream sundaes...on a Monday...haha


FAVORITE PRESENTS...

new jeans!!

my own straightener!!

and a CAMERA!!!!

One spoiled (for the first time in her life, so it's okay...) young lady!!!

Happy Birthday Meggy

Almost 8 years ago when Mike and I met a cute little 4 year old girl and listened to her giggle and saw her sweet smile, I could never in my wildest dreams imagine that she would be growing up to be such a beautiful young lady!

Meghan, you are a joy to have in our family!! We love you to bits! Your smile DOES really light up the whole room and your eyes always have a mischievous sparkle to them. Don't change for one second...you are amazing just the way you are!

(our first visit with Meghan)

(gorgeous 12 year old Meg)

Meg's Bday Party

We decided to let Meghan have a "friend party" for her birthday this year. It's not every year that a young lady turns 12 you know....

She invited her closest friends...Kasidy, Karlee, Jessica, Jamie, Catie and Clarin. They were all able to come except Clarin. It was great fun!!

We made homemade pizzas, then the girls went downstairs and played on the Wii. After a while the birthday girl was anxious to open presents so they came back up and she opened her gifts and ooohed and aaahed over them all. Then we had donuts from MadBrooks, and then there was more playing of the Wii until it was time to go home.

I am glad that Meghan has a great group of friends. It will make the next critical years so much easier for her.

new niece

I have a new niece!! Andi and Lorin had their baby on December 9th. They named her Avery Claire Jensen and she is adorable!! I can't wait to see her in person and hold her!!!

We had a visitor!

This handsome young man came to visit the other day. With his parents of course!! Caleb had a doctor's appointment in Ogden and Amy called me and Sidney and I met her and Chad and Caleb for lunch. Caleb is a hoot and always makes me laugh!! He tells it how it is and you know exactly where you stand with him. Sidney loved having someone to be silly with....apparently I don't fulfill that wish enough!


Check out Caleb's face when Sidney tried to give him a kiss! Priceless~!!

There is no one better

...than Uncle Scotty!

I have the best brother in the world! Truly I do. He is a truck driver and makes regular trips to Utah, but they aren't always at the most convenient times so I don't get to see him as much as I would like. Last year he called me one afternoon and Jonathan and I ran up to Ogden to a truckstop to have dinner with him. Well, last night he called to tell me that he was dropping off a load at a place in Clearfield and would Sidney and I like to come and hang out with him while he waited for his turn to drop his load. I said sure so as soon as I got the kids off to school this morning, Sidney and I hopped into the car and headed to meet up with him.

Uncle Scotty has a magnetic personality to kids. They all love him and my kids are no exception. Sidney loved to crawl around and check out his truck and she especially had fun sitting on his lap and snugging him. He is a great uncle!!

Scotty is telling Mommy a story and Sidney is just chilling and looking at all the knobs and levers

"driving" the truck

checking out the bed

snugging Uncle Scotty

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree...

...this year we weren't big losers.
We got you up on time,
and decorated you fine.
Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree,
it actually feels like Christmas!

Here is a step by step process of decorating the tree at the Sperry home:

"Jenny, just hand it to me and I will do it. Got me?!"

"I will put this right here. Don't move it Dad."

"Daddy, I wanna help....Okay fine, let me lift you up"

"Look I have antlers"
(Be very glad I did NOT put the picture of them hanging from his armpits as he said "I have hairy armpits")

"Mom Mom...I am helping dad with the lights!"

"It's so pretty Momma"

It was so much fun. Gosh I can't wait to take it down!!

cut it out! (part 2)

And here we are post surgery 5 weeks. I think it is healing quite nicely! Her scar is about an inch long, but it is very smooth and shouldn't show too badly. The pathology report came back that it was "non-cancerous that had the appearance of cancerous and could develop into cancerous".

I'm glad we erred on the side of caution and had it taken off.

cut it out! (part 1)

Warning: If you don't like small amounts of blood in pictures then don't read this post....



So cute Meghan has this mole. This very BIG mole. It has always concerned me with its size (it is as big as a dime), but a couple of months ago Meghan snagged it with her fingernail and it bled like crazy. It is right above where her bra strap sits and I knew that it bugged her. I took her to our awesome family doctor and he said he would be able to cut it out but that it would leave a small scar. Meghan wasn't worried about that since she dresses modestly and the only time it could ever show would be when she has a swimsuit on.

here is the big mole

he had to cut it out in a football shape so that the edges could go together more smoothly when he stitched it up and it wouldn't pucker so badly

all cut out...just a little blood

cauterizing to stop the bleeding (it started to get a little heavy for a minute).....ignore the bra....I didn't mean to get it in the picture...I'm just glad it was a clean one!

starting to stitch her up- he did internal stitches that would dissolve on their own within 60 days and then 11 external stitches that got taken out after 10 days

Piano recital

My girls are lucky that they get to take piano from a great lady in our ward that plays really well. She is a mom with lots of kids too, so she doesn't take any crap from my kiddos and bonus...she only lives 5 houses away, so they can walk to their lessons.

Every year she does a recital and she does it at the library where there is a grand piano so the kids get the experience of playing in front of a crowd on a "real" piano (or at least that's what my girls call it).

It is great fun since all her students are kids from the neighborhood. She has 16 students now and so this recital was a little longer than last time. Mike was out of town so I was in charge of videotaping it so he could watch it later. Jonathan decided he should wait until we got to the library before he had to go #2 and so the WHOLE first half of the recital he was MIA. Sidney wouldn't stop climbing around on the chairs and dancing.

I tell you all of that not because I want you to feel pity for me.

Although that would be nice.

No, I tell you how cuhrazy it was so that you understand when you see the pictures below why there are only two pictures. All 3 of my big girls take piano. Yep, all 3. However, one of them (ahem...Jenny...ahem) wouldn't sit still long enough for me to take her picture. Of her very first recital. That scrapbook page will be rather empty!

So, no pic of Jenny. She did play really nice though!

Meghan

Rachel

traditions

Every year it is tradition for my BFF Shannon and I to take a group Halloween picture of our kiddos. We have been doing this since the little boys were like 2 or 3.

This year we didn't get the whole group though, because my big girls went off trick or treating by themselves and were already gone when we hooked up for the photo.

I am so glad for good friends with whom I can share traditions!!

Halloween 2010

This year we had a Hippie (Meghan), a Ninja (Jonathan), a Crayon (Sidney), the Tooth Fairy (Rachel), and Candy corn (Jenny).

We also had rain for Halloween which made trick-or-treating fun. Not to mention the LOADS of candy because our ward also did a trunk or treat. WOah Bessie!! Too much candy!!

oh what do we do when we are off track?

...besides be bored out of our living mind?!

This was a hard one for some reason. Normally there is plenty for us to do, but I lacked motivation to entertain this track break and it showed. The kids were aching to do something fun so we loaded in the car one day and went to Gardner Village.

I had never been, but had heard people talk about it tons. It was fun! First of all, it is all these little specialty shops that sell completely cute and overpriced stuff that you can't resist but will.

Fun!

The best part about going this time of year is that they have up their witches. We went around looking at all of them and taking pics with some of them.

Enjoy!

Home Run

Every once in a while I score.

I like to make fun things, but I have learned that as a mother I am not the most patient person and cooking with my kids is not as fun as I would like it to be. I really want to be that mom in the "Parents" magazine that is perfectly together and has her children all gathered around her as they bake delicacies and laugh and enjoy each other.

I really would.

The reality is that with two kids with ADHD, one of them also with Aspergers, a tweener with an attitude, a 7 year old that would rather play Wii, and a toddler I just can't have the"fun enjoyable moment" that I see in magazines. NOT that I am blaming it all on them....oh no!...I fully admit to being a little bit OCD and controlling about "my kitchen".

So, I do what I can when I can.

I wanted to make these cute cookies for Halloween because they are Sooooooo cute and hello...they are cookies!

I got all the stuff together and for family night we made our own. It was mostly fun and the kids liked being able to eat them. I think we will do this every year!

What should we call him?

The name that seems to have stuck is "Toothless Joe". This kid has tried for 2 weeks to get his other loose tooth out and finally succeeded last night.

Lucky thing since the tooth fairy does double if you lose a tooth on a Monday night.

Seriously, I need to speak to her about these dumb rules she has made. They just mess up my system!