McArthur Family

August

2012-01-19T22:00:00.000-08:00

Holy Smoly! The month of August was a busy and fun one. We started the month off by heading to Wyoming. We went to the Big Horn mountains with some of Spence's family. We enjoyed some pretty nice weather, until it started to rain! We took cover under a tree, so we survived.

Mia thought life was pretty grand just sitting on her little chair in the great outdoors.

Ellie thought life was pretty great too!

The boys went fishing for most of the day, so we just hung around the campsite and explored. Mia was worn out and crawled on Grandma McArthur's lap and fell asleep. She was pretty exhausted!

Both the girls loved the fourwheeler!

We made smores which were great thanks to brother-in-law, Shane. He is the perfect marshmallow maker man. :)

Ellie loves Aunt Shawntay, especially when she has food!

It is always fun to watch Tazz and Mia play together. They remind me alot of each other. They had fun pretending to fish. They watched their dads clean the fish in the stream. Tazz was so excited to help his dad and copied everything Shem did. When they first started, Shem threw the guts (eww...) into the stream so Tazz grabbed a fish and was about ready to throw it into the stream but luckily as he drew his arm back the slimy fish fell out of his hand backward when he threw it. It was pretty funny.:)

Ellie has always loved sunglasses and wants to have them on pretty much all the time. I can't believe she will really keep them on.

Mia is such a great little helper. Every week when my pills need refilled, I just count out my pills and set them on the counter and she puts one of each into the container. She is hilarious to watch.

Ellie is our great little eater. She is so different from Mia because we STILL have to convince Mia at breakfast, lunch, and dinner to eat, but Elles belles is an eater for sure! Wonder where she gets that from?:) She loves anything we eat, especially fruit!

Notice the food is gone in front of Ellie and Mia still smiling with a sandwich in front of her!: )

We celebrated Ellie's 1st birthday on the 28th of August. The year has flown by and we can't imagine life without our cute little girl in it. For her party, we had some family over for some cake and ice cream.

We had a polka pot party. We made some cake pops and had different kinds of candy. If you know Ellie, you know she LOVES candy so we knew we couldn't go wrong with candy. My mom and dad came down and were able to be their for her party. The Sheets came along with Hugh and Candace, and Carlos, Natalie, and Stone.

Mia was exhausted after church and could just not stay awake. She was so excited for the party and then she fell asleep on the couch!

Ellie was anxiously awaiting everyone to arrive at her party.

We played two games that consisted of some of Ellie's favorite things. First, we played the cheese ball toss because Ellies LOVES cheese balls. Everyone stood across from their partner and tried to throw a cheese ball in their mouth then we took a step backward. Everyone did pretty good, although there were quite a few cheese balls on the grass afterward, but Ellie walked behind everyone and ate them all up.:)

Our next game was a stroller race. Ellie loves to push her dolly around in the stoller so it was a great game to play at her party. Each person had a stroller/cart and had to race to the finish line. The only rule was that the stroller had to stay on the ground. Mia and Sydney raced first and did great.

Next up were Hugh and Candace...

then Jill and Michael...they are both cheating by the way....

and finished out with Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin.

Ellie enjoyed the races and clapped for every one that finished!

We went inside and watched a DVD of pictures from Ellie's 1st year, then finished the party with cake. Ellie was pretty curious about the candle but had the help of her sister to blow it out just in time.

She got some great presents...thanks everyone!

She got her the 1st yummy piece and loved it! She couldn't get enough of it. We made inside of the cake, per Mia's request.

She kept the fork in one hand but didn't use it, she ate with her other hand.

Yummy...yummy! We sure had fun at her party and were glad we got to celebrate. We just love this little girl!

The rest of August consisted of lots of trips to the park and enjoying the nice weather outside. One day at the park, Ellie kept poking her little face through this slide and it looked so funny! I couldn't stop laughing at her!

One night while I was at a Relief Society activity, Spence took the girls outside to fly a kite. They stayed outside the whole time I was gone and Mia got the kite "so very high in the air" and was very proud of herself.

We also found a Dora jeep in an abandoned storage unit so we bought a battery for it and it runs like a champ! Mia needs a few more driving lessons, but they sure enjoying driving it around!

Our life fills so full and blessed and we are grateful for the memories we made this month!

July

2011-10-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

July was a busy month for us! It was a month full of family, fun, and vacations...well our type of vacations! We starting the month out in Wyoming for the 4th of July. We started the fun by going to the wading pool. Mia loved the water which was an improvement from last year. Ellie is our little dare devil and wanted to just run across the water! She didn't realize that she would fall in, so needless to say I had to hold her hands and let her walk around.

While I was walking with Ellie I turned my back to Mia and the next thing I knew the lifegaurd had to jump in and grab her. She had turned upside down in her floating boat and couldn't get back up. Scary, but glad the lifegaurd was there! Mia was a little bit more cautious from then on but still liked the water.

Oh Elles bells!

One of the highlights of going to Wyoming is seeing Cricket...this little black dog in this picture. Mia and Ellie love her. Mia loved feeding Cricket her food and Ellie basically just screamed in excitement everytime Cricket would come around. Good thing Grandma and Grandpa McArthur....and Cricket were patient with them. :)

Paedyn was staying with Grandma and Grandpa McArthur for summer swim lessons so we got to see him while we were there. He sure is a funny kid with lots of spunk. Mia loved having all her cousins to play with.

Mia had Ellie's jacket on and it looked a little small!:)

We were able to light some fireworks for the 4th of July which is one of my favorite parts of the holiday. Funny though, Spence and I feel the same way about fireworks that they kinda seem like we are just lighting our money on fire. But we always get the musts...sparklers and snaps and anything else is just additional fun.:) Luckily Shem had some cooler fireworks for us!

Cute girls in their 4th of July gear.

Grandma McArthur filled up her swimming pool for us and Mia once again enjoyed the water. It was kind of a cloudy day so Ellie didn't get in. Paedyn entertained Mia most of the time though.

Ellie played the entire time with this car. She would open the door and get in and shut the door. Open the door and climb out then shut the door. Repeat. Oh what fun....

Is it just me or does Mia always have someone in headlock when we take a picture?

Mia was pretty excited about the fireworks. She kept wanting to hold each one and really liked the snaps. She giggled everytime she threw one.

I had never got to light a firecracker so I got my first chance with Tazz and Mia. They were pretty fun to see and hear. Ellie wasn't so sure about them though.

Luckily, Uncle Shem was there to help with all the fireworks. He is a pretty handy guy.

It wasn't quite dark when we did sparklers but we still had lots of fun with them. Aunt Shawntay held Ellie the entire time we did fireworks and she sure loved it.

Ellie wasn't so sure about them but I had to help her at least do a sparkler.

Grandma and Grandpa McArthur enjoying the fireworks.

On the 15th of July we headed to Green River, Wyoming for our neice Chatney's baptism. The Monday before we left we did our Family Home Evening lesson on baptism. Mia was so curious about it and why Jesus was in the water and why she couldn't be baptized yet. It was a fun teaching moment and Spence and I had to stifle our giggles as she asked all her questions. Chatney is such a cute girl and we are so thankful for the example she sets for our girls. We are glad we got to be apart of her special day.

Mia with special girl of the day, Chatney.

Chatney with our new brother in law Steve. We are so glad that he is offically apart of the family and such a darn good guy! :)

Since her baptism was on Friday we were able to stay on Saturday and spend the day with Spence's family. We had fun driving some of Steve's romote control cars and boats and going to the splash park.

Grandma and Grandpa's laps are never empty when we are all together. :)

The next weekend we headed to Idaho for our Baldwin Family Reunion. We had it at my parent's house in Blackfoot. We started off our reunion in the water at Jensen's Grove. Nikki Sue and Bruce brought their jet ski's and tubes and everyone had lots of fun with them.

Meggan and little Phoneix with on-looker, hilarious Olivia.

Meggan and I were in charge of lunch so we ordered 2 6 foot sandwiches from Wal-Mart and we were swimming :) in sandwiches for the rest of te afternoon. We also enjoyed watermelon and fun desserts. Marie and Dad helped us set it all up and dish up the kids.

The schedule of our activities.

Elles belles wasn't too sure about the water this time around. She was super sleepy so she hung pretty close to her dad most of the day. But she sure looked great in her swimsuit!

I braved my swimsuit and headed into the water with the kids. The mud at the bottom of water was the best toy of the day.

We made the girls all mermaids then the boys joined in so we made them mermans. After everyone had their "tails" on we counted to 3 and everyone broke out and became humans again.:) Funny kids!

All the kids were pretty exhausted by the end of the day! Nobody really got naps except the babies. Ledger had played so hard and sat down and before anyone knew it he had fallen asleep on the chair. Mia had lots of fun playing in the sand and loved making sandcastles. It was a little windy and little Mia would not let me put her hair in a ponytail. She has made it clear to me, almost every morning, that princesses do NOT wear ponytails, they leave their hair long and down. It drives me bonkers, but I guess you pick your battles.:)

Two fun cousins, Kenadee and Sophia.

On Saturday afternoon, we had a Baldwin Rodeo. To start the rodeo, Grandpa Baldwin had all the families come out and round Sprout around the arena. Madeline got to ride with Grandpa. This girl LOVES horses AND grandpa. So basically she was in heaven.

Ellie was a asleep so Mia got Sprout all to herself. She was pretty proud.

Hugh made Candace get on the horse and she was a good sport and got on!

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Erickson Family: Jace, Madeline, McKenna, Mallory

Baldwins: Ledger is the true cowboy and proudly waved to all of us watching! :) Love this boy!

Smiths: Damien, McKoy, Addison, Eden, Carter, and Ashley

Poutlers: Jaden, Trey, Emma, Chase, Marie, Conner, Jake

Larkins: Kenadee, Bruce, Nikki, Jared. We missed Bailey, Brecken, Brenna, and of course, Jackson, on his mission in Mexico.

Baldwins: Kate, Savannah, Nicholas, Ashley. Olivia was taking a nap and missed out!

Last but not the least, Grandma got on Sprout and everyone loved it! She was a good sport.

We missed the Sheets family on Saturday because they headed to Oregon to another family reunion. The next even of the rodeo was roping. Grandpa, with his helpers, loaded the cattle and had a few groups come in on foot to rope. First, he had the grandkids. I was impressed with the ropers in this family! Next were the boys. Jared caught right off the bat and won a dinner at Rupe's with Grandpa. The second time around, Spence roped one too! He is a pretty good roper under the tutalage of my dad.:) Then the ladies got their chance. Marie won the dinner! Darn her! :)

How cute are all these boys? These are grandpa's best helpers. Kind of gives me a lump in my throat thinking about all the things that these boys will do in the next 10 years! What good missionaries these boys will be. Tear...

The boys getting their chance to rope.

These pictures are a little out of order but on Friday night we had a family trivia game. We splited into 4 teams. Spence and I had thought of a question about each person in our family. We had a member of each team come to the table. We asked the question then the first person to grab the beanbag got to answer the question. We had lots of laughs! The last question was, "Who is having a baby in February 2012?" It was ASHLEY and we got to help her announce their new baby coming. Everyone was so excited for baby #5 in the Smith family!

Team 1: Sheets and Smiths

Team #2: Larkins and Baldwins

Team #3: Grandpa and Grandma and Ericksons.
I didn't get a picture of the Poulter/ Baldwin team. Whoops!

After our rodeo, we had our Pioneer party. Growing up, we always had a Baldwin Pioneer Party and it was one of the things I always looked foward to. We have tried to continue the tradition in our family. We all dressed up like pioneers and started our night. We had some fun games, stories, and square dancing. It was a great day and makes me realize how grateful I am for pioneers who sacrificed so much. I am amazed by their strength and testimonies.

Boy's Foot Race...I can't remember who won? Probably Spence:)

We had a tug-a-war, boys vs. girls, pretty sure the girls won!

We had potatoe sack races...pretty sure Mia won this one!

We also had a self defense class in the midst of the fun. Uncle Jake is a black belt and showed us all his stuff! The kids and adults that it was pretty cool stuff and I have already had lots of fun practicing on Spence! He..He..:)

McKoy having lots of fun and me looking super confused.

Sensei Jake and helper Conner.

Back to Pioneer day...some fun pictures of our square dancing.

Kate and McKoy holding the bridge for all of us to go through.

Mia was so pumped for this moment. Jaden, her dancing partner got to sashae down the line and she was in heaven. She hopped the whole way down! Hilarious! Jaden was so nice to her too!

Grandma is usually the highlight of the group and played ring around the rosie with the grandkids. The dress she is wearing is the one that I always remember her wearing to pioneer parties in the past. Can I just say that this lady is stinking amazing?

We had so much fun at the reunion and were sad that it was over. I am so grateful that my families are our best friends. They are such great examples to us and I know Heavenly Father put me into this family because I needed them all to help me to be better.

Damien, Ashley, and kids got to visit us the next weekend at our house because Carter had a baseball tournament. Mia was excited to see her cousins again and they had a blast playing together. We got out the slip and slide and had fun watching them slide down. We had a BBQ at Jill's house then got a movie for Spence and I and Ashley and Damien and put the kids to bed. Thanks to our big mouths we ended up not watching the movie and talked until 1:00 am. They had to leave early the next morning but we sure do love when the Smith's come to visit.

How many things are hilarious in this picture?
1. That Sydney looks like a giant?
2. Eden doesn't have a shirt on, but kind of looks like she does because of her suntan.
3. When I showed Mia this picture she didn't say anything but "Where is Sydney's headband?" Seriously, her hair opinion is getting a little out of control.

Oh Addison! Striking a pose.

Eden wasn't so sure about the slide, so she ran to the top and grabbed the hose and sprayed anyone that came near.:)

Taking a little break from playing to read some books in Mia's bed.

Whoosh! What a month! :)

June

2011-07-11T22:07:00.000-07:00

June was here and gone before we even knew it! The summer heat is burning us up and are SO thankful for our air conditioner! We keep it pretty cold in our house too. The girls love playing outside and by night time they can be pretty dirty. One of my favorite things about these two girls is when they have just gotten out of the tub, clean, smelling so good, and in their pajamas. Sweet memories for sure. Mia's hair (Ellie's too) is getting longer and one night in the tub we spiked her hair. She wanted to see it and I don't have a hand held mirror in the entire house so we had to take a picture to show her. Nevertheless, she thought it was pretty cool!

Just an example of how dirty this one can really get! I sure love her smile...and her 6 teeth! Ellie is such a nice girl and smiles constantly. One day while we were at Sam's Club checking out, Ellie gave the cashier the biggest, cheesiest grin the entire time we were checking out, so she gave Ellie a ballon. The ballon entertained her the entire time. She tried to bite it, suck on it, sit on it, lay on it and pretty much anything else she could figure out to do with it. Later that day, she got a little excited with it and it popped when she was holding it and it was complete devastation! Poor girl!

Mia loves watching Cinderella. She has always liked watching Mickey Mouse then Dora but now loves anything princess. She loves getting dressed in a princess dress and sitting down to watch Cinderella. it is fun to watch it with her and remember my favorite parts...we love Gus Gus, especially when he says "Happy Birthday." Mia laughs prety hard in that part-just like her Mom :)

On June 11th, I ran in a half-marathon in Rexburg. One day in March, I was talking to my sister, Megan, on the phone. We got on the topic of our "bucket lists" saying that we had always wanted to run a half-marathon. By the end of the conversation, we decided there wasn' a better time than NOW to do it. So off to training we went. We recruited my sister Jill and her husband Michael too. I have never liked running and thought anything that involved running without a ball was ridiculous...so this was kind of a big deal to me!:) It worked out to be usually running about 3-4 miles about 3 times a week then doing a long run on Saturday. About half way through training, my sister Jill hurt her knee and a week before the race my sister Megan tore her meniscus while playing volleyball and had to have surgery! I was so sad for her! So I ended up running by myself, but it wasn't too bad. Spence rode up with me to Rexburg since we had to be there at 7:00 am and waited with me until I started. As we waited, I wasn't that excited and even told Spence that I would rather "have a baby" then run these 13.1 miles! :) Anyway, even though I had fun doing it, I sure am glad that it is over.

My mom and dad brought up the girls and meet us after the race. My camera was in the car so we only got a few snaps from Spence's phone. The race wasn't as bad as I thought but still pretty bad.:) I had heard that it was a "hilly" course but I wasn't expected all the rolling hills! About mile 5 to mile 9 I felt ALL the hills. Between miles 9 and 10 is when I felt like I was going to die. To be honest, I don't know why any one would ever want to run more than 8 miles! Each time I hit 8 miles, it kicked in the worst for me, but then after 10 miles I kind of just went numb anyway. :) It felt good when I saw mile 12 sign knowing that I only had one more. The biggest thing I learned while doing this that the body is an amazing thing. Even more amazing is how much our mind can tell our body to do. Looking back, it was kind of (seriously only kind of :)) fun.

During my long runs, I would just have to focus on something else. Running in my partially ghetto neighborhood, I would come up with "what if" scenarios of things happening to me: what if a car pulled over and pushed me into the car? or what if I got attacked by that huge big dog? or what if I completely collapsed in the middle of the road? kind of scenarios. Music was a must for me too! I memorized the General Patton quote and would have to repeat it over and over again. I am glad I get to check it off my bucket list, but really I couldn't wait for it to be over. I like running a little more now but nothing over 8 miles!

Father's Day was the following week and sure had to celebrate because Spence is so great! On Saturday, we let him choose what we were going to do tha day. He ended up combing a few of the choices: we went to the driving range, out to eat, and a drive/hike in Ogden Canyon. We had a fun day!

On Sunday, we decorated the house...

and woke Spence up with his presents. Mia was so excited and kept saying, "It's Daddy's birthday today!" :)

We gave Spence 5 rounds of golf and 5 buckets of balls for the driving range, some shirts and candy. Mia got to pick out what shirts to get her dad and she choose a red and brown one. Ellie was a little more interested in the hanger.

We made pull-aparts and eggs for breakfast, but had to eat fast before Spence had to run to bishopric meetings!

A quick picture before he left! We are so thankful for all that Spence does for us. He is such a great dad to our girls and is always wanting to be with them. He is involved in all that they do, which as a mom, I appreciate so much. He is great to always help me in anything that I need. He basically is just amazing.:) We are lucky to have him in our lives.

Not much more to say about this girl...other than isn't she just so darn cute?! This was her first day with piggy tails and she was happy about it! Oh I love this girl!

Yes...she is wearing a Wyoming Cowboys shirt...sorry loyal BYU fans. I am trying.:)

Mia is loving that Ellie is starting to be interactive. They do pretty good playing together and Mia "helps" Ellie with all her toys. It makes me excited to think that they will be best buddies and I look foward to it!

Poor Ellie!:) She really does get choked all the time! :)

May

2011-07-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

We had another busy month with summer fast approaching. The rest of May was pretty much uneventful as far as events go. We loved going to the park...seriously Mia can't get enough of it. Ellie is crawling all over the place and loves to follow Mia around the house. Her favorite toy is my treadmill. As soon as I try to get on she heads to it as fast as she can. I run her as far away as I can and then run back to the treadmill and she heads back my way. Yes, it is really fun game.:)

Mia was so excited because she picked out both of their outfits. She got her "poka dot" pants and Ellie a "poka dot" shirt with a striped shirt for her and striped pants for Ellie. She loves to be "same...same" as her little sister and Ellie doesn't complain. Poor girl, she gets choked whenever we have to take a picture.

On Friday, May 13th we headed up to Idaho for the weekend. Our neices Kate, Savannah and Olivia were having their combined "carnival" birthday party. We brought Sydney with us and Mia was in heaven. This was them on theway to the party...two excited girls to be with their cousins.

Ashley and Nitch did such a fun job with the party. Since all their birthdays are in May they decided to combine the birthday parties. Kate turned 6 years old, Savannah was 4 years and Olivia turned 1! It was such a fun party and Mia still talks about how much fun it was. :) We were glad we got to go!

First, they got to design their own bag for their tickets. There were lots of games. Mia loved the duck pond...

and the sack races....

of course, the pony rides, given by Grandpa and Trey on Sprouty boy (the beloved pony)...

and the face painting...(Ashley's mom and my sister Ashley are great artists! Mia wanted to look like a cat.)

She also thought the bean bag toss was fun and did pretty good with the help of Jaden...

and last she absolutely loved her butterfly ballon that she got from the ballon man! I don't know how I didn't get a picture of him but he was the HIT of the party. He was pretty talented and could make anything the kids wanted. He even made me a fishing hat to wear, which was pretty darn cool. The line for ballons was pretty long but all the kids each got one. :)

Ashley made these fabulous cupcakes/cakes for her girls! She seriously did amazing! She made Olivia cute popcorn cupcakes...

Savannah requested a chocolate cake with gumballs....and it was delish!

She made Kate these cute color cupcakes that looks like a rainbow in the middle. Seriously, this gal is super talented. They served hot dogs, popcorn, and lots of candy as prizes. It was a perfect day! Look at these tired girls with all their loot from the party!

Spence starting going back to school in January to get his Master's degree and we started to feel the pain of him going to school during May. His first semester of classes weren't so bad, but now into his 2nd semester he stayed super busy with homework. The credit union he works for merged with another credit union and he has busy with that also. The girls and I entertain ourselves and keep busy with each other. :)

For Memorial Day weekend, we headed back to Idaho for the Baldwin Family Reunion. On Friday, Spence headed to Wyoming with his brother to pick up a car that we bought. The plan was that I head to Idaho on Saturday and he would meet me there on Sunday. We headed to Idaho on Saturday after taking Ellie to a quick morning doctor appointment after waking up about every 2 hours, which she never has done before. She was unconsoleable,too. I was just sure she had an ear infection, but she didn't...the doctor said probably just teething. Yes, I felt a little dumb but better safe than sorry right? She must have known her dad was gone for the night and was sad about it. :) But we arrived in Idaho later that day and that night we were able to go to dinner with my parents, Marie and Jake, my Aunt Jane and Uncle Rick, and my Uncle Tim from Arizona. We don't get to see Tim very often so each time he is in Idaho it is always fun to see him. I love seeing my dad with his brothers because they are all so much alike. My Uncle Tim is one of the most funny people I know. He is so quick witted and always is making us laugh. We sure enjoyed dinner with him.

Mia and Ellie got special treatment and go to sit on Grandma and Grandpa's lap the whole dinner. Once again, they were in heaven. :)

On Sunday morning, I got a call from Spence saying that he had driven 2 hours to the East entrance of Yellowstone Park and they had closed the entrance because of SNOW! He would have to drive 2 hours back than go around another 8 hours. He was a trooper and came that day. We were glad to finally have him there. Later that night, all the boys headed out to my sister Marie's house to help sandbag their house. Their road was completely covered in water and they had to use this paddle boat to get to their house. The water was quickly rising so the boys thought they better make a move. The night turned out to be a long one, with a neighbor's truck getting stuck and rolling in the water. They finally got the truck out but it was pretty much totaled. We felt so bad for Marie and Jake and are so glad that the water is gone now and it didn't cause too many major issues.

On Monday morning, we celebrated Emma's birthday. It was suppose to be at Marie's house but due to the water issue they moved it to my mom's house. Emma wanted a pajama party, so all the girls came in their pajamas and got to eat from the cereal bar.

Seriously I think there were 12 different kinds of cereal. Yum!

Then the girls got to pillow fight...

and I became a target...do you see me getting nailed by own daughter?!:)

Cute Emma with her awesome cake. Note:this cake and all the cereal was rowed over on the boat! Hilarious...well hilarious now, but not at the moment!

Later that day we were able to attend our family reunion in Moreland. It was so fun to see all my Aunts and Uncles, and cousins. Our family has grown so big and it is hard to keep track of everyone! My cousin, Ruth, took two pictures then put them together to capture the whole group. We went to the Moreland church and ate some yummy food and because of the rain stayed inside and visited. It is always fun to catch up with everyone.

I sure miss these two people. Each time I see this picture I get a lump in my throat. I am so grateful for their examples and the legacy they left for us. We were able to go to their graves also. My cousin, Natalie, repainted the flower and boots to brighten them up.

April

2011-06-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

April was quite a busy month here at our house! We started the month off by listening to General Conference, which we always love. We tried to have some fun activities for Mia (and us :)) to do while we watched. She got excited each time President "Monster" would get up to talk. Yes, she called him President Monster instead of President Monson, but we got that corrected by the time the weekend was over.:) She loved when the choir would sing and would lead the music as big as she could and even busted out in song sometimes. We are so grateful to hear the inspiring words each conference and love the feeling that is in our home while we watch together.

Mia did pretty good watching and loved to lounge out on the couch.

Our ward got re-aligned at the end of March and we started in our new ward after conference. We were sad to see many of our friends be in other wards but are excited they are still our neighbors and at least in the same stake as us.

We celebrated my birthday on the 10th. We were able to go out, just Spence and I, for dinner the day before. Spence was amazing and got me a treadmill for my birthday! I have been wanting one forever...well, since I had Mia. I have always hated running, but there isn't anything quite like running for burning those darn calories. :) So needless to say, I was so excited to get one! Spence did a great job finding me this one. We didn't get a lot of pictures of my birthday celebration, but we did have my sister Jill and her family and my cousin Carlos and his wife Natalie and their baby Stone come over for cake and ice cream.

We had "crazy cake" my absolute favorite chocolate cake and got to blow out my candles with the help of Mia.

It was a great birthday celebration and I am always very taken care of on my birthday! :)

For my birthday, my wonderful mother came down to my house for 2 days. I had been trying to get some inspiration for Mia's new bedroom since we moved her into a big girl bed and I could never come up with anything I liked. So while my mom was at our house she helped with Mia's room. Seriously, my mom is amazing. That lady gets more done in a 24 hour period than I do in 2 weeks! She is an inspiration to me and makes me want to do better everyday. While my mom was here we finished Mia's room and I love it! It turned out exactly how I imagined.

I didn't think there was another way to rearrange the furniture in the room but my mom took one look at it and after a few shuffles of the bed, dresser, and chair we found the perfect set-up. It is so funny that just someone else's eye can see another way for things to work when I had been starring at the room for 2 months and couldn't figure out another way for it to work...but then again it is Susan Baldwin I was working with. :) I had made these pom-pom flowers awhile ago for her room but we added the canopy and it pulled it all together.

I had initially wanted to make pillows for her bed but couldn't find any fabric that I loved but found some dish towels at Ross for 4.99. I made the white flower pillow out of felt and then used the dish towels for the other pillows. My mom whipped out these dish towel pillows in minutes and then we added some fun flowers and ruffles on them.

I saw this idea for a lamp and thought it was so cute too! Oh the things ruffles and hot glue can do!

And in my mom's spare time at my house, she whipped up these ADORABLE aprons for Mia and I. We love them!

I was so glad that my mom was able to come and help me. She does so much for all of us and is truly inspiring. I hope someday I can be like her!

The weather has been getting nicer and we were able to get outside more often, still with hats and coats but at least some sunshine! Our nephew, Paedyn, stayed with us for a few days before his parents came down for Spence's sister's wedding. We had lots of fun playing games with him. He is a pretty funny boy!

Since it was the week of Easter we did LOTs of practice Easter egg hunts outside. Mia was in heaven.

and so was Ellie!

On April 22nd, Spence's sister, Stasia got married in the Mt. Timpanogos temple. We were able to have most of Spence's family around our house for the wedding and through Easter weekend. The night before the wedding we made some sugar cookies. Chatney, Taylon, and Mia helped frost the cookies. They did a great job and Mia thought it was so fun.

The wedding turned out great. I completely forgot my camera and didn't get any pictures of the entire day! Darn it! We are so glad that Steve is an official part of the family now. Ellie was pretty worn out from all the excitment and fell asleep on Uncle Shane.

Mia slept on the floor of our room while Grandma and Grandpa McArthur slept in her bed and she thought it was the best! She got to have Chatney and Taylon lay by here while her dad told them a story.

But during the story, Spence got a little excited in his story telling and his gum fell out into Chatney's hair! So, bedtime was halted until we got the gum out of her hair! Boy, it was a good story though! :)

Chatney's impression of how Spence was telling the story. Ha..Ha.

On Saturday, we started into our Easter celebration fun. We dyed Easter eggs, which is always my favorite part. Mia still hasn't quite caught onto the point of coloring the eggs but still thought it was pretty cool.:)

This girl sure likes her dad.

and making silly faces...thank you Dora.

Although Ellie was asleep for most of the action, we colored an egg for her with her name on it.

Mia and Ellie with some of their cousins, Paedyn, Taylon, and Chatney! Waiting for the Easter egg hunt in line youngest to oldest.

Mia had lots of help from her cousins to let her find some eggs. She thought is was pretty fun and was shocked to find that there was candy inside too!

Ellie was just excited to be a part of the fun!:)

Taylon got lots of hugs from Mia and she would really get into the hug by jumping and wrapping her legs around him. Mia was so sad to see everyone leave and so were we. We had so much fun with all of them and can't wait for them to come again.

The Easter bunny found our house too. Mia was excited that he brought her a dress up dress and some candy. She would shake her eggs over and over and would get excited all over again because there was candy in it again.

Oh, the poses of Mia.

Ellie got a book and some yougurt bites, but she thought the grass was alot tastier.

Spence got a shirt and some candy to share with is wife! :)

As a tradition in my house, we always got an Easter dress and I found the girl matching dresses but didn't get a good picture of them all day in them, so we go a quick one at the end of the day with headbands thrown in some wild hair!

At the end of April we were able to go to Idaho for Phoenix's (my new nephew) blessing on May 1st. On Saturday we were able to go to my nephew Jaden's basketball tournament. It was fun to finally see him in action. Ledger, Mia, Chase, and Emma had lots of fun being entertained by Uncle Hugh for most of the game. Thanks Hughie!

Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin holding new baby Phoenix.

She was loving her basketball!

We love Jaden! He is a great basketball player. I am predicting he is the next Jimmer. :) Besides being a great athlete, he is such a NICE, good boy. We are so glad he is a part of the family for all the younger cousins to look up to him. He is a great example!

Is this little guy not the cutest little baby ever?! He is such a nice baby and has the longest eyelashes I have ever seen on a baby!

On Saturday, we had the rare opportunity of getting together just as adults and play games...owith no kids. It as fun to play with everyone. We had lots of laughs and giggles and even some of my mom's "can't breathe" laughs. Good times...

We are a little competitive in the Baldwin family so playing games can be super exciting. Nathan is so fun to play games with...demonstrated below. :)

Ellie was the only baby that got to particpate in the fun. We were hoping she would fall asleep but who could with all the excitement around? She got passed around person to person and even though it was 11:00 she was bright eyed!

We had a fun month and are so glad Spring is finally, well kinda, here. Lots of summer plans and fun things to do in the months ahead!

March

2011-04-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

Another month gone by....another cold month! Spence and I love the month of March...mainly to the fact that college basketball is in full force. We got to fill out brackets and Spence seriously would check his after each game. He really likes his sports :) and thanks to the droid he can get instant updates....wahoo. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with our annual green dinner! We made green chicken and rice with green breadsticks and green milk. For dessert, we had a rainbow cake with green whip cream! Yummy! Mia goto color and cut out our clover name tags for dinner and was excited to stir in the food coloring but kept asking "why come?":) I look foward to these holidays so that we can get a little change in our normal day to day rountine.

Ellie go to eat green beans at dinner time and thought they were pretty darn yummy too!

One weekend, Spence's sister, Stacia and her kids Chatney and Taylon, along with her fiance, Steve, stopped by our house for a few hours. Mia was so excited to be able to play with some of her cousins and loved all the attention!

Mia loves to push Ellie in her little shopping cart and Ellie thinks it is just as fun! I get a little nervous so I have to follow them around on my knees making sure Ellie doesn't make a jump for it or Mia run ino a door!:)

Our, well my, favorite team to watch this year was, of course, BYU! We joined the "Jimmermania" and loved watching each game. During regular season we were able to go to a couple of BYU's games and I started to realize at how darn good they were and was so excited to see them during March Madness. Some of my most vivid memories as a kid are my dad listening to BYU games on his radio and running around the house in his blue BYU sweater singing "Rise and shout the cougars are out...". He had or maybe still HAS a keychain that plays this song. :) Spence didn't really join my enthusiasm for BYU, much to the dismay of my ENTIRE family, so in spite of his bitterness, I made the girls BYU/Jimmer shirts!:) Mia's shirt said, "You got Jimmered!" and Ellie's said, "Can you show me how to Jimmer?" On the night that BYU played Florida, we had a BYU dinner.

I made some fried chicken that was "Gator Meat", blue mash potatoes, and a blue fruit salad. We sure love food coloring at our house! :")

I made Spence this poem and much to my disappointment BYU lost to Florida! Spence was also disappointed, but probably not for the same reasons...Ellie had a super bad blow out diaper right after the game and I made him change it :). But all in all, BYU had a great year and it was so fun to watch them. We sure will miss Jimmer but are excited to see the team next year.

Ellie tried out our swing and by the look on her face you can tell she loved it! Mia has a great time pushing her in it too.

For our Relief Society enrichment, I signed up to take a cake for our RS birthday dinner. Mia and I had a fun day baking and decorating this St. Patrick's cake. I didn't get a picture of the inside of the cake, but we made it rainbow and it was so fun to do. I think by the end of the day Mia defintely knew her colors, which we had been working on long and hard to conquer!:) She would hand me all the skittles, one by one, in each color. Good helping Mia!

At the beginning of March we traveled to Lovell to go to baby Porter's baby blessing. Porter is Spence's brother, Seth's and Janis', little baby. We were glad to see all of Spence's family and finally get to meet Porter. He is such a cute boy and has such a content personality.

Seth, Janice, Porter and Paedyn.

One of the highlights for going home for Spence is that we are able to see his grandparents. His Grandma McArthur is 98 years old and simply an amazing woman. I hope someday I can be like her.:)

Mia, Ellie and Spence with (great) Grandma McArthur.

Mia and Paedyn being silly!

Tazz, Ozz, and Shem trying to avoid the camera....I guess he did do a pretty good job at that! :)

Baby Porter in his blessing outfit!

Great Grandma McArthur certaintly has the touch with babies! Ellie snuggled up on her and fell right asleep. What a sweet momement.

All the McArthur boys, Shem, Shane, Spence, Seth, and Grandpa McArthur.

Mia had lots of fun getting pushed around on Great Grandma McArthur's walker by Grandma McArthur, but she decided that after her tha Grandma should have a turn. :)

Mia loved wearing her bathrobe this month. When she was really cold instead of grabbing a blanket she would grab her bathrobe. One morning she came out with her bathrobe on. I asked her if she had gotten cold in the night and she said she just put it on. I then noticed that she had a red mark on her head. I thought it was blood so I washed it off and realized it wasn't. After a little bit further investigation, I pulled her covers down on her bed and saw throwup! I asked her if she had thrown up in the night and she said, "Yeah..but it is okay cuz I just laid on the other pillow." She had thrown up all over her pajamas, too. The poor girl had thrown up in the middle of the night and didn't come get us! I felt so bad!

Most of our days consist of a normal routine. We get dressed, do our hair, just the normal stuff. This month Mia has discovered the love of changing her clothes! This girl goes through about 6 different outfits a day. Her favorite this month is her blue Dora shirt and a pink tutu. Without fail, I get her clothes on and hair done and within 30 minutes she will come out of her room in this outfit. One more time...wahoo.

For Christmas, we had gotten Mia a basketball hoop but after realizing how much she had gotten for Christmas, Spence and I thought we would save it for Easter. But one bored night, Spence brought it out and Mia loved it! She shot for a long time then her "coach", aka dad, had her shoot with a one hand and follow through. After about 30 minutes of it, Mia was in tears saying that she just wanted to play!:) I told Spence that he would have to wait at least a few more years. :)

One of the girl's favorite things to do before bedtime is to play "hotdog." Spence rolls them tightly up in a blanket and they, well Mia, tries to get out of it. It is funny to watch them play! They both love it!

Sure love these girls!

February

2011-02-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

What a long winter! Since it was so cold and snowy, we tried to survive the month of February and man we are glad we did! :) Ellie is growing so fast and turned 6 months old. She is such a sweetie and we can't remember what life was like without her in our family. Her 6 months stats were height: 27 inches-90 % and weight: 17 lbs-50%. We aren't really sure if she looks like Mia or not. It is fun to hear everyone tell us their opinions because someone will tell us she looks just like Spence and someone else will say she looks just like me or just like Mia. We aren't really sure...we just know that she is a cute one! She isn't really chubby at all though. She is long and wirey but is starting get a little chub on the legs and some in her cheeks.

When I get bored, I always seem to find my way to the ktichen and bake. I love to bake and especially love to eat what I bake.:) Since I have been married I joke about having a dream to open a bakery someday and bake lots of sweet treats and decorate cakes. But really,I think I have just been watching a little too much of Cake Boss and Cupcake Wars on food network. :) So needless to say the month of February was filled with lots of baking for me and Mia. She is a great little helper in the kitchen. She knows exactly when to turn on the Bosch when we make bread and love to taste when we make anything yummy. She likes to rinse off the dishes and wash her hands (but pretty sure it makes a little more work for mommy though). I enjoy this time with her because most of the time it is just Mia and I (Ellie is usually down for a nap). I have lots of great memories of my mom teaching me things in the kitchen, so I can only hope that Mia gets to understand the same things that I did with my mom. I hope she is learning more than just scooping flour from a bowl, but also to enjoy life! There really isn't a better memory that doesn't involve food right?:)

Mia's favorite thing this month was to hide from her dad when he got home from work in her big girl bed,which she thankfully still is sleeping great in it! Each day when Spence would get home, she would run into her room and hide. Then my great husband would play with her in her room for about an hour. She was in heaven while they pretended to sleep and call me in to see them or read an endless amount of books. Ellie usually got in on all the fun...and I got a little time to myself...well, to make dinner that is! :)

Ellie is finally starting like her jumper now-she bounces up and down for quite awhile! Good girl Ellie!

Ellie got her first try at food this month. She always watched us with each bite that we took and I could tell she really wanted some. So one night, we busted out the rice cereal for her. I am not sure who was more excited for it...Mia or Ellie. :) Mia just couldn't believe that her little sister was going to eat CEREAL! She was kinda disappointed when it was not her Captian Crunch but yucky rice stuff. :) And yes...Mia did try it and say "yucky" and tried to wipe it off her tongue. And like her sister Ellie did not think this stuff was very good. But at least she was funny doing it! :) And hopefully soon she will learn to like it!

Look at the face on this girl...and this was before she even had a bite! :)

That's a better face!

Her first intial bite...

and a little more. As soon as I would stick the spoon up for her to eat, she would immediately stick out her tongue. Ellie is a tongue girl. We are afraid she might be a little like Michael Jordan in that aspect.:) She always has her tongue out-especially when she smiles at people. Although I am her mother, I must say it is not the most attractive look for her! :) But eventually during her try at cereal, I tried just to wipe a little on her tongue.:) She never did get the hang of it that night and still does it quite often. Since then, she still doesn't love cereal or any baby food for that matter. But she is getting better at it. :)

We had a fun Valentine's Day...more like Valentine's week. I saw a cute idea on a blog for Valentine's candy so I made some to give out friends and family. On morning I took some pictures of the girls and I couldn't believe what a ham Mia was being that morning! She was loving all the attention and was loving kissing at the camera. When Mia was first born, the first thing I remember seeing where her big lips. I just love those big lips. Ellie was doing funny things too. All I have to do is look at Ellie and she cracks into a HUGE smile. I love it!

This is what we came up with for our Valentine treat. We printed them out and stapled them onto a zip lock full of Valentine candy. They turned out pretty cute!

We also made some sugar cookies. I LOVE sugar cookies and always have big ideas on decorating them but they are alot harder than I think. I thought it would be fun to make them look like conversation hearts. They weren't perfect...but they sure tasted GREAT!

Spence is always great to help out. He frosted most of the cookies while I decorated them. The day before we had a Valentine's Day party with a girl from Mia's nursery class and her cousin Sydney. We made cards, had a heart hunt, frosted some sugar cookies, and played pin the face on the heart. :) We had lots of fun but forgot to take out the camera during the party.

On actual Valentine's Day I felt so sick. I caught the cold that the girls had a week earlier and it hit me hard! We stayed pretty low most of the day but we did make a fun Valentine's dinner that night. Mia was so excited to have a red party...and eat noodles. We made spagetti and meatballs, with red heart shaped breadsticks and red jello with strawberries.

Check out this girl eating the noodles in the background...she is loving those noodles for sure. :)

Our fun and yummy Valentine dinner!

Our month of February once again brought another big change for Mia. We started the potty training process. I had been putting it off for a month or so. Mia would want to go potty but I just didn't want to potty train her yet. I finally got up the courage:) and one Monday we started it. I had no idea what I was doing, but after a trip to Walmart we came back equipped with Mickey Mouse undies(as Mia calls them), a small tiolet, and a small seat. We put on the undies and started the potty process. Poor girl-I had no idea what I was doing and I wasn't sure how to teach her how to know when she needed to go. So I set the timer and for every 15 minutes. It was crazy because we would sit on the tiolet and she wouldn't/couldn't go so I figured we would try again in a few more minutes and no kidding as soon as we walked out of the bathroom Mia had an accident. After about 6 accidents that morning, I was done with potty training! We tried pull ups for the rest of the day. We tried again the next day and the same thing happened. After the second day, I was down and out about it. I wasn't sure what to do. So after another trip to Walmart and coming home with 2 more packages of Mickey Mouse undies and 1 package of Dora undies we decided we would just press on. That next morning, I put Mia on the potty and she went! I kinda wish I would have had a video of myself jumping and dancing all around after she went! I was so excited that she had done it. Mia just looked at me...probably wondering what I was doing.:)The rest of the day was a success with no accidents and now Mia is a potty pro. Seriously, this little girl surprises me with every change we have make. She did so good and just goes with it! With every change we have had to make with Mia in the last year I have dreaded...like the binki, the big girl bed and the potty...but she has done GREAT with each one. (I think Heavenly Father knows that I couldn't handle anything else!) We spent quite a bit of time in the bathroom those first few days. Mia's favorite thing was to read while we sat on the potty...well at least until some of her books fell in the tiolet and it was complete devastation after that!:)

One of my favorite memories during potty training is the look in Mia's eyes when she would start to go potty. Seriously, her little eyes would light up and she would say, "It's tick-aly." Silly girl! Lately, Mia is little Miss Independent. She proudly announces "I did it...ALL BY MYSELF!" after everything she does. More than anything it makes me SO sad that she is growing up so fast. She is such a big girl! But I wouldn't change anything and we are so grateful we get to her parents.

We are still loving this girl! :) We are loving her LOTS of fuzzy, big hair and her sweet,content spirit. We are looking foward to some warmer weather and Spring coming soon!

January

2011-02-22T20:00:00.000-08:00

We kicked off 2011 with a trip to Idaho to celebrate the New Year with all of my family. On New Year's Eve we go together at my parent's house to party :). We made homemade pizza, which turned out very yummy! We bought party hats, party horns, and silly string to celebrate. We broke out the horns about 7:00 pm and by about 7:15 pm most of the adults were regretting that decision :). We played games, talked, and laughed and waited for the New Year to arrive. Ellie was entertained by jumping in the jumper for the first time. She did great! It was funny to see her try to get he hang of it! This jumper is super old, I think all my brothers and sisters jumped in it when we were little. Our family clowns Trey and Jaden arrived in very stylish fashion...lit up in Christmas lights. :)

Mia loved being with all her cousins again. All the girls played lots of dress up and had a dance party throughout the house. Addison, Savannah, and Mia.
Silly girls!

McKenna, Addison, Mallory, Ledger, and Mia. We let Mia stay up until about a whooping 9:30 pm and she was ready for bed. Then at 10:00 pm so were most of the kids and adults. We tuned into the 10:00 ball drop, true New York time, and said "Happy New Year!" and gave a few kisses then headed to bed! :) We were sad to see 2010 go, but are excited about what 2011 holds for our family.

January always seems to be a long month. It is cold and snowy and we never have much going on. We try to make the best of it and get through the month :). One day, when we had Sydney over to play, Ellie had a HUGE blowout. (On a sidenote: This girl has a blowout about every time I change her diaper. I have changed diaper brands 3 times and sizes but can't figure it out. I am so tired of trying to get stains out of clothes and onsies! I am not sure what to do!) This particular blowout was witnessed by these 2 girls and they couldn't believe it! As I was cleaning the poop out of Ellie's hair, ears, and neck :) they would run in and out of the room yelling, "Poop! Disgusting Ellie!" They thought it was pretty funny...I should have had them clean it up! :)

Another day Mia put her boots on her hands and crawled around on all fours most of the day.

Ellie loves being in her jumper. She has a perma-grin most of the time. She gets a little assistance from her big sister in the swinging department.

Mia loved enjoying the snow in January and was facinated by the icicles. She found this big one after a walk through the storage units with her dad. She thought it was the coolest thing...well, at least until it melted. :)

Ellie's first ponytail. She has always had quite a bit of hair but it is really starting to come in. I love the fuzzy hair!

My mom and dad came down for my neice's concert one night and we got to see them while they were here. Of course, Mia had to get on her Minnie jammies and show them all. She sure is heaven when visitors come to our house.

We got out our standing jumper and Mia had to show Ellie all the ins and outs of the new toy. Ellie still isn't quite sure what to think of this toy, hopefully she will learn to like it.

One night when we were getting the girls ready for their bath I thought it was hilarious to compare these 2 little bodies. :)

When Spence had a day off for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we decided to do the big bed swicheroo. I had been dreading this since Ellie was born. We have been so lucky with Mia's sleeping. From the day we brought her home from the hospital she was a great sleeper. We would put her down around 8:30 at night and wouldn't hear a peep from her until the next morning at 7:30 or 8:00ish. I was so worried that she wouldn't stay in bed, not take naps, and wake up during the night. We told her for about 2 weeks about this new big girl bed so when the day came she was ready. She was so excited when we brought it in. We decided that since we already had a queen bed we might as well just use it rather than buying a twin bed. After we got it all made, she wouldn't get off! :) We kept checking on her the first night making sure she didn't fall off and the next morning I heard," Mommy! I slept in a big girl bed!" She was still just sitting in her bed, waiting for me to come get her. She loves to pull the covers on herself and has all 5 dollies sleep by her.

She has done great in her bed, but figured out last week that she can get off the bed by herself and has come found us in our bedroom. So yes...we have had some early mornings, but hopefully she will get back to her sleeping in schedule. :)

I am always preparing myself for the worst during a change, but Mia seems to suprise us each time! Good thing we have such a good little girl!:)

On January 20th, Spence had his 28th birthday! As soon as Mia woke up that morning she started talking about the birthday hats and candles (thank you Mickey Mouse) that we had to get for her dad's birthday. We got them on first thing in the morning.

Spence was able to come home early from work so we could celebrate his birthday. We carefully wrapped his presents that morning and had them set out for him when he got home. He had some help from his 2 girls opening the presents. :)

We gave Spence some new shorts, new jeans, and some candy. Mia was more interested in the candy than anything. After opening presents, we headed to Olive Garden to eat dinner. Spence loves the salad and seriously could probably eat about 4 bowls and I think that he did! :) It was great food and we of course enjoyed the breadsticks too! After dinner, we decided to do a little shopping. (The shorts I got him were too small so we decided to exchange them.) After finding some great finds, we headed home for some cheesecake.

We always remember to take a picture on Spence's birthday for some reason...to see the past few years look here.

Spence always requests cheesecake for his birthday and this year I decided to try an actual cheesecake. Much to my suprise it was super easy and I kind of felt like a professional when I pulled the springform pan off and my cheesecake LOOKED like a real cheesecake. :) And even better, it was REALLY yummy! I used this great recipe from one of my favorite food blogs.

We put the candles on the cake and Mia was ready to party! She was a great helper!

Ellie was ready for bed by the time we got done so she wasn't the happiest but she sure was cute! :)

We sure love Spence! We couldn't ask for a better example in our life. He is so unselfish and always puts us first. The highlight of our day is when he gets home from work and we get to have him for the night. We are grateful for this guy in our life! :)

December

2011-02-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

Wow...yes, December. (I'm bound and determined I am going to get caught up! :))What a fun month! I have always loved this time of year and especially love it now with our girls! We started the month by setting up our Christmas tree. We decided that our new tradition, yes, we finally have our OWN family tradition :), is to give the girls some new Christmas pajamas when we set up our tree. We found some cute matching pajamas that I thought they looked adorable in! Mia watched very closely while we were putting up the tree. She wasn't quite sure what why were putting a tree in the house, but she went along with it.:)

Ellie didnt' last very long. She fell asleep as soon as we started to decorate so I had to get a picture of her the next day in her new jammies. She looked great!The first few weeks of December we had a few of Spence's work parties we were able to attend and got to eat at some GREAT resturants. Mia loved hearing about Santa Clause and her favorite song "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Clause", which her dad taught her one night. She was curious about why our stockings were hanging up and asked everyday why they were there.:) Even though our month was busy it seemed like we had quite a few nights at home enjoying each other...Mia especially enjoying Ellie.:)

We were also able to have some visitors at our house. My mom and dad came down and stopped by one night to watch the NFR, which is always a big highlight in our family during the first part of December. It is always fun to watch.

Another night we were able to Hugh and Candace, Carlos, Natalie, and their new baby Stone

come over for dinner and watch the NFR too. Mia loves visitors, especially her Uncle Hughie and Ellie got pretty comfortable on Hughie too. It seemed like Ellie really grew from a newborn during the month. She started sitting more and more in her bumbo and looking around so much more. Mia can't wait for the day when Ellie can follow her around and play but for now she brings all the fun to Ellie and does whatver she can to make her laugh.

This little lady started rolling over like crazy! I would lay her down and within

seconds she would be on her tummy. Oh joy! Mia being a silly girl with Q-tips! On the 18th of December we were able to go to Idaho for our Baldwin Christmas party. We left on Friday afternoon so we could make it for the couples party. When we got to Idaho we dropped off Mia at my brother Nicholas' house with babysitters, Brecken and Bailey. She loved playing with them and Kate and Savannah. Ellie got to come with us to the party. The couples all met at my mom and dad's house for some food and games. I forgot to get out my camera that night but we had lots of fun and many laughs! It was fun to be with all my brothers and sisters and their spouses. Everyone was able to come besides my sister Jill and brother Hugh-we missed them though! :)

On Saturday, we had our family Christmas party at Marie's home. We had a great pasta dish with yummy garlic bread and dessert. After the food, we our traditional nativity. This year Ellie was baby Jesus and did very good in the part. Mia was an angel but was a little confused on why her mom insisted on tying a HUGE white tablecloth around her. :) There were alot of people and LOTS of kids but the nativity was a success.

Ellie being held by Mallory who was a great Mary alongside her cousin Spencer as Joseph.
Look at these cute shepards, Jace, Conner, Jaden, and Ledger. My dad read the Christmas story from the balcony so all the little kids were looking up. I thought it was fitting. :)
After the nativity, we had our cousin gift exchange. Mia was so excited about her new Mickey Mouse book that she got! Kate and Mallory entertained us with Christmas songs and during their performance we had a special visit from Santa.
Mia had talked about Santa the whole month, but was pretty much terrified when he actually was in the room. She was able to at least walk up to him and get her present but then ran back to her dad. It was funny to watch her be so cautious. We had a great time and always look forward to our fun family parties.

For actual Christmas, we headed to Wyoming. We left on the 22nd of December and started our long 8 hour drive. The girls did good and we didn't have to stop too much. Our car was loaded down...I swear we had SO much stuff, but we finally made it! Mia loved Cricket, Spence's family dog. She loved grabbing her food and holding it out for her to eat. Poor Cricket! :) She wasn't left alone the whole time we were there. Chatney and Taylon were able to be there the whole time we were and Mia loved playing with them too. Chatney was such a great helper and was always quick to do whatever Mia needed. :) On Christmas Eve, we headed over to Great Grandma McArthur's house for dinner and a little program. I was being the annoying photographer and made all the McArthur boys line up for a picture. Steve, Shane, Shem, Steven, and Spence. Yes, we are a little out of the loop with our names not starting with the letter "S"!
The McArthur grandkids, Ozz, Tazz, Taylon, Chatney and Mia. Ellie must have been in her carseat in this pictures...whoops! Isn't this a cute family!? We are so excited that these two are getting married...April 22nd! We can't wait to have Steve an offical part of the fam. :)
At Great Grandma McArthur's we were able to see all of Spence's cousins that we really only get to see about once a year. When Spence talks about Christmas it always consists of the memory of getting together with his family on Christmas Eve at his grandma's house. It is a fun tradition and we are glad that we got to be a part of it this year! Aunt Shawntay reading a Christmas story to all the kids. After Grandma McArthur's house, we headed to Spence's other grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa Engelking's. We had MORE food and visits with cousins. After a busy day, we headed back home to get ready for Santa to come. Mia was so excited to leave cookies and milk out for Santa. If anyone asked her about Santa, she would have to tell them that she was going to leave cookies for him. So when the time came to actually leave out the cookies, she was so excited. We wrote a note to Santa and Chatney helped Mia sign her name. On Christmas morning, Mia woke up asking if Santa ate the cookies. :) He sure did and she was very excited. I'm afraid that is all she thought Christmas consisted of, but boy was she suprised when she saw all the presents. We saw what was in her stocking first and she loved it all! Mia was really good to help Ellie also find the things in her stocking. We moved onto the presents, which we all got way too much of!

Enjoying her new lipsticks....

and her new dolly. Ellie loved her new rattle... and her Aunt Shalane. :)

Whenever we asked what Mia wanted for Christmas she would say "noodles!" We probably could have just gotten her that and she would have been fine. Then when we got to Wyoming, she was telling everyone she wanted a barbie. Not sure where it came from, but thanks to Grandma McArthur she got a barbie. She also got a new dolly, books, pajamas, and some play food for her new kitchen that Santa left at our house in Utah.

Ellie was also spoiled this Christmas. We had originally said we were only going to get her one present, but obviously she got more than that. But she deserves it!:)

We had a few relaxing days after Christmas just playing with all our new toys, watching some movies, and eating lots of yummy food (my favorite part, of course:)). We were glad we got to spend the holiday in Wyoming with family.

We survived our ride home and Mia was permanetly in these Dora pajamas for about 2 days after we got home. She was just so excited about these jammies she couldn't contain her excitement. Poor Ellie...

I always hate when Christmas is over so I try to milk it for as long as possible. I love the week after Christmas because it still feels pretty lazy and you get to eat all the left over food and candy. (again, my favorite part :))! Mia loved playing with all her new toys but found the most fun with these little paints she got. She sat and painted for hours which was pretty nice for me too. :)

Crazy girl in the dryer! My mom and dad gave each of us these big Symphony candy bars, just like my grandparents used to do, and I told Mia to unwrap them for us. She did a great job...she didn't just stop at the wrapping paper but went all the way to the chocolate. When I found her she had taken a few big bites out of each one. :) Good job Mia! We are so thankful for the Christmas memories we made this year. We are grateful for the birth of our Savior and the example he was for us. I love the chance we get to remember all of this and the spirit in our homes during this time!

November Part 4

2011-01-18T13:24:00.001-08:00

The first part of November we started our most dreaded change as parents...taking the binki away. I was dreading it since the time Mia was 6 months old. She loved her "binks", as we called it, from the moment she was born. I sure loved that binki, I think, just as much as Mia. Wie had talked about taking it away and we decided we needed to do it soon, but hadn't done it yet. One Sunday night when Spence was putting Mia to bed, he came out of her room with a big smile on his face. He said, "Mia didn't ask for her binki, so I didn't give it to her." We hide all the binkis in a top cupboarded and we decided to see how the night went. The next morning, I heard Mia wake up with a big cry. She couldn't find her binki and we couldn't find it! She couldn't believe it and ran to tell Spence and Ellie that her binki was lost. Mia didn't ask for her binki again that day and only did one more time the next day....and that was the last of the binki! Whoosh...we were so glad it wasn't a traumatic experience! We sure lucked out with this girl. :) After our Thanksgiving holiday, we decided we would stay at my parent's home and celebrate Mia's 2nd birthday. We emailed out these invitations inviting all of her cousins, aunts and uncles, and friends to come to her Mickey Mouse party. After I showed Mia this invite, I made she looked at it for awhile and then said, "Where professor?" Wow. Do you think she has ever watched Mickey Mouse? (Professor is another character on Mickey Mouse for all non Mickey Mouse watchers!)She had talked about having a Mickey Mouse party for a long time. She LOVES Mickey Mouse, so we got all the prepartions to make it a fun party. Mia woke up late that morning and boy was she exhausted from all the previous partying and we had to get her moving to get her ready for her party that afternoon!
Grandma and Mia were in charge of blowing up the ballons for the party. Mia did get a little scared of the ballons :), but did her part in stretching the ballons for Grandpa. Spence and I were on cake duty. We enlisted the help of Candace, Hugh, and my mom. Doesn't Spence look great in his apron. Poor guy! He is such a good helper in anything I need him to do. He just digs in and helps. He did get called "Martha McArthur" a few times that day though. :)

We made a fun Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake with Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy on the top. We made a white cake with creamy decorating frosting...yummy! I watch all the cake shows on T.V. and would love to be a cake decorator, but it's pretty hard to make it look like you want, but thanks to Spence we made it work.

The party hats...

the cupcakes...

the decorations...

one of the cutest party go-ers there, Madelyn!

Getting ready for the party to start!

Before anyone could start eating, all of the cousins had to do the "Hot Dog Dance."

It was pretty fun to see them go at it! Mia with one of her favorite cousins, Ledger.

We ate hot dogs, nachos, chicken salad, and fruit. It was yummy and perfect for a 2 year old birthday party! After all the food, we played a few games. First we played, "Don't eat Pete!" It's a game we have a played a few times at FHE and actually got it from my sister Ashley's family. The game is played like this: we had a paper of about 24 sqaures. On each square was an M&M. One person was chosen to go into another room. Then the rest of the group choose which square was "Pete" (we used Pete off of Mickey Mouse just to keep along the Mickey Mouse themed party :)). After a "Pete" was chosen then the person came back in the room. Then they would start to eat the M&M's and as soon as they started to eat the "Pete" everyone would yell "DON'T EAT PETE!" It was pretty funny to watch everyone's expressions as the game was played! :)

Next we played, "Bark like Pluto." Everyone had to bark there best Pluto bark...this was Mia's favorite part! :) Our last game might have been a bad idea on my part. It was "Don't wake Willie the Giant." Willie the Giant is the giant off of Mickey Mouse and one of the characters Mia talks about all the time. We printed off a big picture of Willie's face and enlisted the help of my brother Nathan to be the giant. He would go to sleep and I placed candy all around him. The kids would have to try and sneak the candy without waking up the giant. But the Giant was so scary that only the big kids were doing it! By the end of the game we had about 5 kids crying. Mia still talks about how scary Giant Nate was! :)

The sleepy giant...and the getaway! :)

After the games, it was time for cake. Mia had been practicing blowing out her candles and did a great job. (Yes...if you look in the background you can tell I was pretty excited about it.:))

Then we got to open presents. Mia was in heaven with all of her presents. Thanks to such great cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents she got so much! I don't think she even noticed the presents we got her. :)

We had a fun party! We can't believe our little girl is already 2 years old! She teaches us so much about life and we enjoy her so much! Some fun facts about our Mia when she turned 2:

-Her favorite foods are cheese, steak, and yogurt. I am afraid that is pretty much what her diet consists of. Well, and candy!

-She loves books. She will sit on the ground with a pile of books and talk and talk about the books she is reading.

-Each night at bed, she has to sleep with a dolly and her blankets.

-She can sing all day long! Her favorite songs right now are: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, I am a Child of God, I saw Mommy kissing Santa Clause. (Her dad taught her that one and she thinks it is hilarious!)

-She is a great big sister! When she sees Ellie spit up, she yells "Throwed Up! Burp rag!" Then takes off running to get a burp rag and clean up Ellie.

-Mia loves to hide. Each night when her dad gets home from work she hides as fast as she can. (Sometimes that means just hiding on the couch and closing her eyes :))

We are so BLESSED to have this little girl in our family!

November Part 3

2010-12-29T16:54:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We were able to go to Idaho for the holiday. We left Wednesday around 3:00 and hit some bad roads around Inkom. It took about an hour to get from Pocatello to Blackfoot, but at least we made it safely. On Thursday, we went to my sister, Marie's new home for our big feast. Her home is AMAZING and they made it so comfortable for all of us to be there. Shane, Spence's older brother, was able to come and meet us and we were so glad to have him! Marie is so talented and had all the tables decorated so cute with name cards and all! These were our cute name card holders...she had also made cute little pilgrim hats but I didn't get a picture of those...darn it.
While we were getting all the food ready, the kids ran around the house. Mia was in heaven with all of her cousins! From left to right, Kate, McKenna, Addison, Mia, Chase, Emma, and Bailey.

Grandpa is a great help in the kitchen but also a GREAT entertainer for the kids, too! )

Wow... Kenadee looks super excited! :)

We all brought a little something for Thanksgiving, kinda of a must when you serve for than 50 for dinner. We had TONS of food, but it WAS Thanksgiving after all! I went pretty easy just making some shrimp dip, a pretzel salad, and my favorite cookie salad. Poulters and my parents did the hard part....the turkey! After a blessing on the food, my dad announced we would eat youngest sibling to oldest sibling, so we were in luck and got to go first! I guess there are a FEW advantages to being the youngest. :)

My brother Nicholas, his cute wife Ashley, girls Kate and Savannah, and cousin Addison.

Funny story of the day: as we went around the table telling what we were grateful for and since we were kind of spread out far not everyone could hear what each person said. So I took it upon myself to be the "microphone" of the day. I got alot of jokes and teasing about it but at least everyone heard what was being said. :) My mom said she was thankful for Joseph Smith and being the awesome mom gave us each a leaf from the sacred grove from when they were able to visit there on their way home from there mission.

I just love the feeling after eating Thanksgiving dinner. You just have to sit back in your chair and take a deep breath and hope you wore a baggy shirt! :)

We had SO much dessert and boy was it yummy!

Baldwin tradition is our flip (our favorite game since we were little) tournament. This year we had a kids tournament along with the adults. Sad to say but Spence and I were put out in the first round by Hugh and Candace!

After dinner and during the tournament, we were able to play some games and my family sure gets competitive...but it sure was fun! :)

Along with Baldwin tradition we had our annual In-law vs. Outlaw (us) basketball game. This year we were able just to go into Marie's gym that is connected to her house...yes...it is amazingly nice. This game is always something we look foward to and we always have lots of laughs! This year the biggest laugh of all was when Jake E. came out like this....

wow...can I say anything else! :)

The Outlaws: Nicholas, Ash, Jill, me, Nikki Sue, Marie, Mugs, Nate, and Hughie.

The in-laws: Spence, Jake E. Michael, Damien, Meggan, and Candace. (I think Ashley Cache was feeding a baby and Jake P. was getting everything ready!)

It was a pretty tight game but the In-laws took the game! They better be ready for next year! :) It was fun to play with everyone and am amazed by all their athletic abilities!:)
After the adult's game, the kids were able to play there game. These kids are tough and got some good planning in.

McKoy, Stockton, Carter, Conner, Spencer, Jace, Mallory, Kenadee, Trey, and Sophia. Jaden got to play with adults!
The littlest kids got to have their own game too! It was hilarious! But I sure was impressed with their dribbling skills.

McKenna, Ledger, Emma, Kate, Addison, Sydney, Savannah, Chase, and Mia. (I am not sure why she is crying in this picture...oh boy!)But after the crying, Mia had so much fun! She ran around the gym like she was a pro! We especially loved her sporting her Duke uniform!

After a long fun day, we were able to spend the next few days at my parent's house and got to hang out with the family. It was nice to be able to relax and visit with everyone. My mom made some carmel apples, which the kids loved, of course.

Mia sure loves Addison! She always asked when she can go to Addison's house. At Ellie's 2 month doctor appointment, the doctor said that since Ellie really favors her left side of her head that her head was pretty mis-shapened. So we have had to do stretches on her neck and always make her turn her head to the right. Spence is always really doing it and this time put a pillow on top of her head so she couldn't turn her head...poor girl! :) We had such a great holiday and were so thankful that we were able to spend it with our family. We have so many things to be thankful for and are glad we get to spend a day remembering all that we have been given!

November Part 2

2010-12-13T20:56:00.000-08:00

We celebrated our 5 year anniversary on the 18th of November. Spence had a work conference in Salt Lake City that weekend, so it worked out great that we got to take a little vacation (yes...it was only 25 miles from home, but still a vacation for us!). On our actual anniversary-Thursday, we went out to eat, but Mia had a cold so we settled in for a night at home. Spence got me a new camera for our anniversary. I am so excited because I hate our old one!! Since, we had decided not to spend alot of money on our anniversary gifts, (well, I thought we decided on that--but Spence obviously forgot! :)) so I did an, Anniversary Week celebration. I started on Monday and had a different theme for each day with an fun activity we could do! On Wednesday, we were even able to go to the BYU vs. Utah State basketball game in Provo. It was a great game and we had great seats! On Friday, we went to our hotel in Salt Lake then joined Spence's conference for lunch at the Macoroni Grill. My sister Jill watched Mia for us so after lunch I headed to pick her up while Spence went to more meetings. That night we were able to go out at Spencer's Steakhouse. It was AMAZING food! I sure was glad that Spence's work paid for it...because we about had a heart attack when we saw the prices on the menu. My brother Hugh and his girlfriend, Candace came and watched the girls in our room while we went to eat. Good thing I have such great brothers and sisters! Mia was in heaven with Hughie and Candace! She sure loves those two! On Saturday, we were able to go swimming, go to Gateway Mall, Temple Square, and ate at the Joseph Smith Memorial building. The girls slept great in the hotel room...can you believe that our whole married life we have only stayed in a hotel twice? So we thought we were pretty cool!5 years have flown by so fast! Sometimes it is hard to imagine what our life was like before our two little girls, but it was such a fun time too! I am so grateful that I married Spence and don't know what I would do without him!

That Sunday we were able to get together with some of my cousins for my cousin's Carlos' birthday! It was great to see all of them. It was great to catch up with all of them! There has been 5 babies born since August so we have them in birth order, oldest to youngest... Miley, (my cousin Emily's baby), Ellie, Harrison, Madison (my cousin Natalie's TWINS), and Stone, (my cousin Carlos' baby). Cute little babies! I am sure my Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin talked to each of them before they came to the Earth-giving them special instructions. I hope they will be just as good of friends as I am with their parents!

Cousins: Jamison, Carlos, Hugh, Emily, me, Callie, Natalie, and Jennifer.

Carlos blowing out his big 30 candles!

Mia is such a great big sister and does whatever I do with Ellie to her dollie! I am grateful for her sweet, kind spirit in our home and she is always quick to get her mom laughing! Ellie turned 2 months old and had to get her shots. She was devastated and had the biggest tears! Poor girl-but she was comforted pretty fast and slept for most of the day. She weighed 12 lbs. 8 oz. (95%) and was 24 in. (95%). She is a growing girl!

November Part 1

2010-12-06T14:19:00.000-08:00

We were able to get our family pictures taken in the first of November. A friend in our ward, Cat, took these and she is a GREAT photographer! I loved the fall colors and the park that we went to. If you are in the need a photographer, check out her blog! She seriously did a wonderful job! She took some of Ellie at about a week old and later in her blessing dress-yes, she is a very good friend :). I am trying to keep all my pictures in order so that I can print this blog into a book, but if you want to see the pictures look here and here.

October Part 3

2010-12-02T15:00:00.000-08:00

In October,we were also able to go to my parent's for a few days. My sister, Ashley, wanted to paint a hutch that she had and I wanted to help! It turned out great! She added beadboard and then we painted it a mustrud yellow color and added a glaze afterward. It turned out awesome, but I didn't get a picture. While we were at my paren'ts, of course, Mia got to ride Sprout, the favorite family pony! She was in heaven and looks at this picture over and over! To start our Halloween celebrations, we headed to a pumpkin walk for Family Home Evening that Monday. Mia was so pumped to carry her Mickey Mouse pumpkin (thanks Mom!) and she was suprised when people startd to put in candy! :) It was pretty cold so we had to bundle up!

I have always loved Halloween and I love that my husband will dress up too! Each year at Spence's work, they have a theme that everyone dresses up to. This year it was a retirement home...so yes this is Spence is 50 years! My mom and dad were staying at our house, so I asked my dad if he would come in and be our model! Ha..Ha...not really! Spence was a good sport about letting me do all sorts of things to him :). With a trip to the D.I., baby powder and makeup, I thought he still looked pretty handsome...well, kind of!

Since most of the family was down in Ogden a rodeo, we decided we would host a Halloween party for everyone in our dojo. We ordered pumpkin breadbowls, made cheese and broccoli soup, chili, and scary appetizers. It was yummy food and great company!

This year we dressed up as a pirate family! I found the girl's costumes at an early Kid-to-Kid sale and thought they were hilarious and they were only $5...so we were set. After rummaging through my material box and a trip to the dollar store, we quickly put some costumes together for Spence and I, too. Our littlest pirate, Ellie, looked adorable! She is already 2 months old in this picture and is changing so much.

Big sister pirate, Mia, loved all the fesitivies of Halloween and is pretty sure we should get candy like that every day!

What cute little girls!

Everyone dressed up for the party and we had some pretty good costumes! It was fun to see what everyone came up with...Larkins: Disco Queen Nikki Sue. Super Nerd Bruce, and Willy Wonka Kenadee.

Dad as a blue M&M (Mia couldn't get over how cool Grandpa's gloves were :)) and Cleopatra Mom.

Baldwins: Bullrider Nate with his rodeo Queen wife Meggan and rodeo clown Ledger! How cute!

Sheets: Jelly Belly's Jill and Michael, Purple haired witch Sophia, #1 Duke fan Spencer and Stockton and Sydney as Beauty and the Beast! :) We had fun eating, joking, playing Just Dance on the Wii and playing some carnival games. Mia's favorite game was the donut game but had a little assistance from Grandma eating her donut. Even after the game was over, she would head back over and take a bite or two a donut then go back to what she was doing. She is a little like her mom in that aspect :).

So I had the bright idea for the adult's game that we would get Texas sized donuts for the donut game. I thought it would be so fun and yummy....but I was regretted that decision after we were done...do I need to say anything about the size of these things....

All smiles before...We hauled into eating our donut, but after like 3 bites I was finished and so was Spence. If you notice in the background, the everso competive Nathan and Meggan had a strategy of Meggan holding the donut and Nate eaing it. Nate was taking it pretty serious! :) We had glaze all over our face...

and yes, there were a still a few smiles even after the gagging the donuts up!

I must say, I may never eat a glazed donut again...

no, actually I probably will:)!

We were glad to got to celebrate with the family! After the party, we headed to our ward trunk or treat with Nate, Meggan, and Ledger. It started to rain during the middle of it, so we took off early, but the kids still got a LOT of candy! That night we were able to go to the Circuit Finals Rodeo to watch Nathan rope. Mia loved going to the rodeo each night and loved especially being with her cousin Ledger.

After all the fun, we headed home to bed. We were exhausted after our long day of fun...as we were getting the girls ready for bed I couldn't resist taken a picture of this little cutie in her Halloween jammies... and this one too! Except she was being a little stubborn and wanted only to wear her Minnie jammies. :)

We had a fun Halloween celebrating and look foward to the fun next year!

October Part 2

2010-11-11T14:10:00.000-08:00

We had another busy week after Ellie's blessing. We had our 8th annual girl's weekend with my mom, sisters and sisters-in-laws. I look foward to this each year and get so excited about spending a few days with my best friends! This year was different because Mia got to stay with her dad instead of coming with me. I was worried about leaving her but I knew that Spence would take good care of her. Mia was not a little bit concerned were I was going, but kept asking where Ellie was going. :) Spence and her had a good time together. On Friday morning, I got this picture from Spence saying, "Looks good-no?" He did great with her hair! I am still amazed at how he got her to hold still while he did it, I can barely get ONE ponytail in, much less FOUR!:) They had lots to do while I was away. They cleaned up around the storage units, went to the pet store, almost bought a hamster, played lots of basketball in the dojo, and went to the BYU vs. Wyoming football game with Grandpa Baldwin. The game was rainy and cold and during Mia's naptime but from the sounds of it they had lots of fun!

Yes, she loves being with her daddy!

We started our girl's weekend by meeting up at Maddox in Brigham City to eat. Since we were staying at Nikki Sue's in Heber City, she didn't come and meet us but after dinner we hurried up to meet her! Nikki and her family are the best hosts! It seriously is like a little retreat when we go there. It is so comfortable and relaxing. Thursday night we got settled in, talked, laughed, and finally headed to bed. On Friday we headed for a day of shopping in Park City.
We decided that this year we would only do ONE day of shopping and all would wear sweat suits and tennis shoes so we could do some serious shopping!

Yes, they are all way too gorgeous. From the top, Marie, Jill, Nikki Sue, Meggan Arave, Megan, Ashley Cache. and Ashley S., me, Ellie, and my mom. (We have lots of multiple names in our family, so we still use Meggan Arave's last name and Ashley Cache's middle name to differ between them all! Hugh's girlfriend, Candace, missed out on this picture but was able to meet up with us later that day.)

We stopped our shopping madness around 12:30 to grab some lunch. Nikki took us to a fabulous little place called Kneaders. It was great food. There were such cute Halloween decorations that they had for sale and some of the sisters bought some really cute things. We decided to get some of their fabulous desserts and share...I got a carmel apple with white chocolate, and cinnamon! Holy Smokes it was so amazing...I didn't really share it!:)

Enjoying our great soup and sandwiches at Kneaders!

After we finished our shopping at the outlets, we decided to head to the Last Samarui to eat. It was such an entertaining dinner. We had lots of laughs and fun!

Mom, Ashley, Marie, and Jill all enjoying their meal:)!

We each had to try to catch a shrimp that the chef threw at us. I think we all caught it too!

Ashley is super talented with the shrimp!

These two ladies were the only kids allowed to come. Livvy and Ellie were great the whole time. They were very patient with all the shopping but were excited to get home and take off all their clothes! Ellie loved being held by each of her aunts and especially her Grandma.

Wow...all our shopping bags! Yes, we did some damage to our budgets! Our tradition is to gather in Nikki Sue's front room and show everyone what we bought that day. We are all together shopping but don't really get to see what everyone ended up with so it is fun to see what we all got. We start from oldest to younest and show our things. There uaually are lots of exclamations saying,"Oh, I should have gotten that!":) After showing off our merchandise, we headed downstairs to play some games. We started to play Mafia, but failed terribly! The Baldwin girls are not good at lying! I think the sister-in-laws were a little disappointed in our game playing abilities! We then played the game where each person had to tell 2 truths and a lie. I thought it would be super easy to tell which one was the lie but everyone got pretty creative! One by one everyone trailed off to bed around 1:30 am!

On Saturday, we had a very relaxing day. We had a great breakfast by Nikki Sue, waffles with strawberries and whip cream. We played games and just hung around. For lunch, Jill made honey lime enchiladas that were so yummy and we had lots of treats, golden graham smores, chex mix, salsa dip, and fruit pizza.

Ashley Cache and Ashley-they are "game playing" fools!

Candace, Meggan and Marie. After lunch we played a fun game...our favorite things. Each person brought their "favorite thing" to give to 5 people. Then we drew the names out of a jar to see who got that gift. My sisters Megan and Jill were in charge and after the first 2 people to give their gifts and still not having one, I jokingly said, "Are you sure my name is in there?" They double checked and they really had FORGOTTEN to put my name in the jar! It was pretty funny! We started the whole game over just for me :). I think Megan and Jill were trying to pull a fast one on me though:)!

It was fun to see what everyone brought:

Nikki Sue: Stephen's hot chocolate and marshmallows

Jill: chocolate covered popcorn and lip gloss

Marie: Florence's chocolates and a hanging sign

Meggan Arave: Italian soda mixture

Megan: fuzzy socks, Reese's pumpkins

Ashley Cache: cute vinyl decorations

Candace: carmel, chocolate pretzels, cream soda, kettle corn

Ashley: Double Stuffed oreos and fingernail polish

Mom: Nativity set, T.J. Maxx bag, earrings, Avon lotion

I made some blocks that had different quotes and a big hunk candy bar. We decided that this game would be a girl's weekend tradition! While we were doing that we each had to answer 10 questions about us. I know all these girls pretty well, but it was fun to learn more about each of them. During the day on Saturday, we also wrote a note to each person and put it in an envelope. When I read them, I was touched by the things that they wrote. Yes, a few tears came to my eyes as I read each one. I am so thankful for each of these girls! I love each of my sisters and mom so much and we have been so blessed with WONDERFUL sister-in-laws! Each one of them is simply amazing and they ALL inspire to be better! I am already looking foward to next girl's weekend!

The same weekend as our girl's weekend our good friends, Jake and Gretchen, came down to Utah. They stopped by our house on Thursday night before I left and we were sad that we didn't get to spend the whole weekend with them but were able to spend part of Saturday night visiting at their hotel. Mia and Owen had fun jumping on the bed and watching movies and their twin girls, Allie and Avery were hilarious just to sit there and watch! After we left Mia kept asking, "Where Owen go?" We were all sad to leave but can't wait to see them again!

On Sunday morning, we made our way back down to Provo to go to my nephew's, Jackson, mission farewell. He is such a great kid and will be an amazing missionary. He setting such a great example for our family to serve his mission in Mexico. Everyone was sad to see him go but time will fly by and before we know it, he will be home!Some of the family at Jackson's mom's house enjoying their food:)!

Sophia, Brecken, Kenadee and Mia. Mia loves all these girls despite her face in the picture. :) I feel lucky that Mia has these girls to look up to.

Blessing Pictures

2010-11-06T13:20:00.000-07:00

I felt so bad that I didn't get very many good pictures of Ellie on her blessing and my photographer friend, Cat, said she could take some pictures of her. She was happy, smiley girl for most of the pictures and I am so glad that we can remember that special day a little better now!

October Part 1

2010-11-04T21:18:00.000-07:00

October was a very BUSY month for us. We didn't have one weekend without lots to do! So we feel like we are barely catching our breath now that it's November!

We started out our month by listening to General Conference. We love listening to conference. I printed off a activity packet for Mia to color while we listened to conference. She was so excited to color all of the pages. I figured that since there were about 10 pages that it would take her at least an hour to get through all the pages, but within 5 minutes she was done coloring! :) After about 10 requests to watch Mickey Mouse, I explained that we had to wait until we listened to the prophet speak. As each speaker would get up to speak, she would yell "THE PROPHET!" She loved the music but each time they would sing a song she would then yell "ALL DONE!" Silly girl! We are so grateful for the words we heard that weekend and made us as a family want to do better each day! Mia intently trying to color all the pictures!

Mia and her dad enjoying Saturday morning session of General Conference. We ate cinnamon rolls and milk each morning session...yum. While Spence went to the priesthood session we had a girl's night out-just Mia, Ellie, and I. We did some shopping, stopped at Arby's-to get food and milkshakes, then headed home. It was a fun weekend!
Mia is growing fast and acts so grown up all the time. I can't she will be 2 soon! We had to take her in for her 2 year old checkup( it was about a month early but our doc wanted her to get all her shots before her 2nd birthday) and her stats were: Weight:28 lbs. 4 oz. (55%) Height: 34 1/2 (93%). She talks all the time and learns new words each day. She loves reading books and will sit on her chair and read them aloud. She is trying to learn her colors, but still calls everything, "purpleyellow." She is such a great big sister and loves Ellie! Each morning she says "Hellooo..Yellie!" and then she rubs her nose in Ellie's hair. She always gives her great big kisses and loves to help change Ellie's diaper. We are so glad that she is a great helper! Wow..tall brown socks, orange crocs, and no clothes...wow! Ellie is growing fast, too! We don't know what we ever did without this little girl. She is the sweetest little babe. She is very content, most of the time. :) She has found her hands and loves to suck on them. She is sleeping good at night and usually only wakes up once, around 4:00 am. We are enjoying every minute with her!

Exhausted after playing with her toys.
She loves laying on her dad.

I just realized how many pictures we have of her sleeping, but I sure love a sleeping baby!

Peek-a-boo!

We blessed Ellie on October 17th in our ward. Spence's parents were able to come on Friday and meet Ellie for the first time. We were all excited to see them! Of course they came bringing presents and brought Mia a wonderhorse. She loves that thing! The horse is pink and Mia loves getting on and off of it. We were able to spend Friday night with Shane, Spence's brother and Spence's parents then we got to meet up with Stacia, Spence's sister, her kids, Chatney and Taylon, and her fiance, Steve, on Saturday. We went and ate at Cafe Rio..yum..yum. We had a house full but we loved it! Our sacrament meeting is at 9:00 am so we had to get going pretty early...and amazingly we were on time!:)

At Mia's blessing, I was so disappointed because I didn't take hardly any pictures and now I am kicking myself because I only a few that day!!! I have learned my lesson and next special day, I am putting someone in charge of just taking pictures the whole day! :) I did get a picture of Spence's parents before they left though. We were glad that they were able to come and share this special day with Ellie. She sure likes her grandparents!

Spence gave Ellie such a wonderful blessing! My mom is always great to use her shorthand knowledge and write down the blessing so that we can read it later. Ellie is such a special spirit and I know Heavenly Father has some great work for her to do. :) We are so blessed to have the priesthood in our home and so many other priesthood holders in our family.I debated and debated if I wanted to use Mia's same blessing dress. I went back and forth between buying a new one or using Mia's. So the day before, I decided that I wanted to get Ellie her own dress and I am so glad that I did. Spence's mom and I were able to find a perfect dress for her and Ellie looked beautiful. The dress was a size too big, but I got it anyway, and took in the neck, back, and sleeves so that it fit just right. :) She sure is a cutie!

She wore these pretty pink shoes but her dress was so long that they couldn't really been seen, but I thought they were too cute not to take a picture. :)Our family that was able to come was: (my family) Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin, (my oldest sister Nikki and her family were out of town to Lake Powell) Jill, Michael, Sophia, Spencer, Stockton, Sydney, Marie, Jake, Jaden, Conner, Trey, Emma, Chase, Nathan, Meggan, Ledger, Megan, Jake, Jace, Mallory, McKenna, Madeline, Hugh, Ladd, Candace, Nicholas, Ashley, Kate, Savannah, Livvy, Ashley, Carter, McKoy, Addison, Eden. (Spence's family) Grandma and Grandpa McArthur, Shane, Stacia, Steve, Chatney, Taylon, Trisha and Tracy (cousins). We served breakfast with cheesy eggs, hashbrowns, chocolate chip and plain pancakes, with coconut syrup, maple syrup, and strawberries and whip cream. We had chocolate milk and orange juice, too. It was so yummy! We had a great time with all the family around. Mia was in heaven having all her cousins around and was SO sad when they all left. It was a very special day and glad we got to share it with our family!

Newborn Pictures

2010-10-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

As a baby gift, my friend, Cat, gave me a free newborn photography session. Ellie was about a week old in these pictures. Cat brought tons of fun props and backgrounds and did such a good job. Mia even got in for a few shots, too! I love these pictures like this because they don't let us forget how precious and tiny Ellie was (and still is :))!

September

2010-10-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

This month seems like a blur. With a new baby at the end of August we just barely are catching our breath and September is already over. Ellie is growing and changing so much already. She is a pretty good sleeper-for the most part-but most days she thinks our day starts at about 5:30 am. But even though I am so sleepy and my eyes are hard to keep open, I just love her little bright eyes starring at everything. I love when she starts to drift back to sleep and she makes her little newborn noises and then an occasional laugh and smile. It is in these early morning moments that my joys of motherhood seem so easily found. It makes it all worth it when I hear her little giglgle. It seems like we never were without her! When Ellie was born, she was super dark but had "stork bites" or "angel kisses" on her forehead, above her eyes, and right under her nose. They have slowly began to fade but we still can see them. She must have had lots of angels kissing her hard before she left heaven:)!My mom was able to come down and spend a week with us...yes...I am super lucky! She took care of Mia while we were in the hospital and from the moment we came home she worked and worked! She cooked, baked, cleaned, sewed, played with Mia, took charge in our storge unit office, planted flowers, rocked Ellie, and organized. I was in heaven for sure:). She stocked our freezer full of cinnamon rolls and banana cookies. She sewed my super cute, yellow and black, rag quilt and made me a matching diaper bag. I am still amazed at how much this lady can get done in a 24 hour period. Oh, I hope one day I can be half the woman she is! I am so lucky to have her as my mom! It makes me want to have another baby right now if it means she can come back! :)

She bought Mia a Mickey Mouse puzzle and Mia loved putting it together. She would only ask Grandma to help her. This is a common face that we get from Ellie. She loves her mouth wide open!
Proud sister Mia. She loves to hold her sister and gets right down in her face to tell her "hi yellie." She is such a great help when I need a burp rag, binkie, or blankets. When I ask her to grab something, she takes off running, yelling "hustle, hustle."

I'm loving my 2 girls!

We had lots of visitors to see Ellie. I sometimes spaced getting the camera out and taking pictures but I did get a few of them documented. But throughout the month, Ellie has been able to meet most of her aunts, uncles, and cousins. We are so blessed to have so many!

My sister Jill and her kids, Sophia, Sydney, Spencer, and Stockton.

Cousin Sydney holding Ellie. Mia loves Sydney, too. Each day she asked when we get on her shoes, "Syndey's house?" Poor girl...her mom is pretty boring.:)

My sister Megan and her family came down too. Mallory is one of the best babysitters ever! She held Ellie for most of the time they were here. She is only 6 and can change diapers-I would hire her anytime!

Next to come was my sister Ashley. Her husband and oldest son, Carter went hunting but we did get to see McKoy, Addison, and Eden. Here is McKoy being the first one to hold Ellie.

Addison is a great babysitter, too. She loved rubbing her head on Ellies hair and saying "Wow, her hair is so soft."

Eden did love the baby, but got side tracked by her boucing seat. She is such a funny girl!

I love pictures of sleeping babies. They can get so darn comfortable in any position!

Spence has been such a great help. I've hardly had to change a diaper or cook a meal. He is so good to play with Mia when he gets home and let me take a break. While he took a few days off, he was able to put in a new kitchen faucet and get alot of storage units maintenance done that has been needed to be done for awhile now. We are so grateful for all that he does and our girls are so blessed to have him as their dad. Best Buddies...Mia and Ellie.Mia loves to help me give Ellie a bath, which is so helpful...ha..ha.. She makes sure she tells me every body part of Ellie and loves to rub the shampoo in her hair.

Look at the "cheese" grin on Mia's face.

I love the smell of a newborn baby, especially right out of the tub!

Mia has newly discovered headbands. She hasn't let me put one on her head since she was 4 months old, but when I got them out for Ellie she couldn't put enough on her head!

We didn't make the transition from the bed to a big girl bed before we had Ellie, so Mia is still in a crib and Ellie is in a bassinet. Mia sure loves her crib so hopefully we can convince her to sleep in a big bed soon. But currently Mia thinks her crib is big girl bed and the bassinet is for a baby.

Poor Ellie.:)

Oh I love this little girl!

My sister Marie gave these matching outfits to us. They are so hilariously cute! We made it to church the last week in September and I was excited for the girls to wear these!

One day I got out the baby toys and Mia went through each one showing Ellie....and this was Ellie's face at each one. :)

Both Spence and I had siblings really close to our age, so I am excited to think that our girls get to have that experience too. I am excited to see them play together, grow up together, and be best friends. (I try not to think about the times they will fight over a toy and pull each others hair:)) As each month goes by, I am stunned to look back and think about how blessed we are.

Ellie's Birth

2010-09-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

About 2 weeks before my due date, which was Aug. 23rd, my doctor informed me that he would be out of town from Aug. 19 to Aug. 28. He said that he could induce me on Aug. 18th or I could wait until he got back. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't go into labor on my own and so was my doctor, so he told me to think about it and let him know. Spence and I talked about it and finally decided that I would just wait and let this baby come on her own. My due date came and went with no baby. All week I did everything I could to try and even get one contraction, but nothing happened. So on Saturday morning, we headed into the hospital to be induced.

Do I look scared yet? After getting all the paperwork done and getting admitted, we began our wait. Spence and I watched some T.V., talked with the nurses, and actually just hung out pretty comfortably. After about 2 hours, I hadn't had a whole of progression, so they started me on pit. Holy smokes, for about 1 hour I had some of the hardest contractions of my life. It got pretty intense and I was ready for my epidural:). Poor Spence, left to get something to eat and when he got back he had a wife that must have looked pretty rough. He took one look at me and said, "Whoah...are you okay?" I felt great after my epidural and progressed fast. We were ready to go and the doctor came in and after three short pushes, our little girl was here. She weighted 8.9 lbs and 21 inches long. I couldn't believe how much hair she had. It looked like it had been crimped! So cute! She has such long fingers and toes and sure was a cutie!

We weren't sure on a name for our baby girl. We had made a list and narrowed it down to 3 names, but even after she was born we didn't pick a name. Poor baby girl, didn't have a name for the first 12 hours of her life...but little Ellie she became! Proud big sister, Mia, was so excited to see her! She didn't get to come see her until the next day, but wow she was loving her. She admired her binki over and over, but shortly discovered the hospital phone and her interest in the baby was lost for a bit:).

Grandma Susan was able to come down and watch Mia while we were at the hospital and even got to stay with us for a week! I had been so worried about Mia and how she would handle the new baby and the changes that would follow. I had talked to her for a few days before Ellie was born and told her that "Mommy was having a baby and Grandma was coming to stay with her." She would repeat it to me, "Granma come to my house, mommy go bye bye!" As soon as she saw grandma, she said "bye mommy!" I don't think she even knew we were gone...she loved being with Grandma!

We had lots of visitors come and see baby Ellie. My sister Jill and her husband Michael were some of the first ones to see her!

Can I say that this is my favorite picture of our new baby girl! She sleeps with her mouth wide open like this all the time!

Spence is a great dad and sure loves his girls!

Another one of our visitors, my niece Kenadee. She was able to come down and help my mom with Mia. Mia adores Kenadee and was so excited to get to spend some time with her.

Shane, Spence's brother was able to come see us too. Ellie got pretty comfortable with him.

After 2 days in the hospital, we were ready to go home.

On our way....

Ellie is a great baby! She likes to eat and has slept pretty good during the nights. We are starting to adjust to being a family of 4 and loving this new little spirit in our home. We feel so blessed to have her here and are enjoying every minute with her.

She is here!

2010-08-30T13:31:00.001-07:00

She is here! Ellie McArthur was born on Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 7:35 pm. She weighed 8.9 lbs and was 21 inches long. She has lots of dark hair and is such a good baby! We can't believe she is finally here and love her so much already! Her big sister Mia thinks she is great and her new dolly! We will post more pics and her arrival story later :)!

July-Part 2 and August-Part 1

2010-08-24T12:32:00.001-07:00

I missed a few pictures when I was doing my post for July, so I wanted to make sure I got them in here. For the 4th of July, we were in Idaho and oh course, I wanted to make an apple pie. Spence had the idea, probably inspired by all my food network shows I watch, that we should have a contest who could make the best looking pie. So we made the pie and then went to work competing...the result: Spence was named the winner! Remember that it was MY family members voting...I consoled myself thinking that they just felt bad for him, but I guess he did do pretty good. Here is a picture of his masterpiece.... He really did do good!

In the first part of July we were able to go to Spence's work party at a fun party place called Boondocks. They had dinner there and then we had passes to all the games and fun things they had. Mia wouldn't leave the carousal most of the night. She would run right to it

each time we tried to coax her to a different game. We eventually made our way to the minature golf course and had a great time. Mia ran from hole to hole and thinking that this was the greatest night of her life :). After about 3 holes, Mia wanted to touch everything in sight and forgot about the golfing.

Of course, Spence beat me.

Another highlight is that Mia got to ride her favorite pony, Sprout. She was so excited and couldn't believe that a horse was so little. Most of the time we were in Idaho, she wanted to be on him. Thanks to her nice cousins, she got to go on quite a few rides.

This is what Mia does without Sprout, she grabs her plastic red cowboy hat and rides her horsey at home. Right after I took this picture, she got bucked off again and wouldn't look at horsey for the rest of the day! :)

August has really flown by and I can't believe it is almost over. On Saturday we got a chance to go to the Hoagle Zoo. I have been wanting to go all summer and we finally had an open Saturday. I loved watching Mia's face as we went from animal to animal. It was so funny to watch her expressions. I think her favorite was the elephants, but she loved the tigers the monkeys too!

It was super hot that day and really busy at the zoo

but we seemed to make our way around pretty easy and found lots of places with shade. Yes-I understand this is a side profile picture of an almost 40 week pregnant belly and not the most flattering, but it was the only one when Mia was looking!

Daddy was a great tour guide! We went to the bird show, which was pretty funny. The birds would fly in over our heads and barely miss our hair. I think at one point in the show, I screamed out loud. Poor Spence :). At one point in the show, they had a man stand in the crowd and a bird flew and landed on his arm. For the rest of the show, Mia would hold her arm out each time a bird came out just hoping it would land on her arm. She's was being pretty brave but I can imagine the scene if the bird really did land on her arm! :)

This giraffe kept licking the pole in front of us and it was kind of sick looking. There tongues are black and it looked so dry! But Mia sure enjoyed it. As we were leaving the zoo, Mia got to play with the water on this spinning ball and pretending to watch her hands over and over. As we left, she kept asking for the animals. We can't wait to go again! So I am getting pretty mad at this ticker thing on the side of my blog. I just noticed it said my baby was 1 day old. But no, I have no baby yet! Yesterday was my due date and I am feeling fine. My doctor is out of town this whole week, so if the baby doesn't come before Saturday he will induce me then. Until then, we are trying to get ready for her and all the changes that will come. We still haven't figured out a name that we love, so I am hoping she comes with a little note attached with her name. :) We can't wait to meet her and know that we are so blessed for her to be able to come to our family!

July

2010-08-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

Our family had a fun and busy month in July. Each weekend we had somewhere to go and the weekdays were filled with things too. So needless to say we were pretty exhausted by the end of the month. Mia is growing so fast and is the highlight of our days. She is talking so much now and keeps us laughing all the time. She seems to learn a new word each day, but her latest one is "come." Anytime her mom is not paying attention or in the other room, she will grab my hand and wave her little fingers and tell me to "come." It seems like I always am trying to get things done or trying to start a project so her little reminder is good for me. Her hair is getting longer and blonder each day. Everyone asks us, "Where did she come from?" Her coloring must have come from her Grandma Baldwin and we are so glad because she is pretty cute to us! The month of July I rediscovered the store, D.I. I had a bunch of projects I had wanted to do during the summer and one day decided to look for some things there. Too bad for Spence, but everytime I go to D.I., I seem to find something pretty fun! Mia's blue little recliner was my first find and I have been finding things every since. This little chair was only $6.00 and when I saw it, I just knew we had to get it. With a little upholstery cleaning and some good scrubbing we got it in tip top shape. The plan is to recover it, but I have yet to get to it, but I will someday. But for now, Mia loves to climb on her chair watch some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or read her books in her own personal recliner.
Another favorite find of Mia's is this little rocking horse...only $4.00 and again with some cleaner and some stitching up, this horse was ready to rock (ha..ha..). Mia was all about riding it when we first got it home, but within the next 30 mins she got going a little too fast and fell off over the head of the horse. She cried for about an hour and wouldn't even look at the horse. But by nightime, she was back to being best buds with the horse. She will comb his tail and mane and always has to run and tell the horse "bye" when we are leaving. After watching a few of her uncle's rodeos, she now has a red cowboy hat and a rope that she usually has to have when she is riding her horse. Oh...boy...:)

Other exciting news that happened in July was that my parents got home from their mission! They served a year long CES mission in Raleigh, North Carolina. Their year gone went by slow in some parts but incredibly fast in some parts, but we are all glad that they are home with us now. I love this picture of them on their mission. Most of their mission was serving in a singles ward and institute at Duke/UNC, so they did a lot of cooking. My mom is a great cook and dad is a great help so they went right to work. I am sure all of the students were sad to see them go, but we sure are glad they are back :)!

While making the long ride back from North Carolina, my dad arranged a time with each family to stop by at their homes and see us one on one. He made appointments with us all and they spent some time with us. (My dad is funny like that!) Mia sure was glad to see her Grandma and Grandpa. She was pretty good at remembering them from when we went out to visit them in North Carolina and warmed up really fast to them. Of course, she had to show off all her tricks! They visited all of us that live here in Utah then made their way home to Idaho.They met with each of my brothers and sisters, then finally headed home to their house. Some of the family had gathered there to welcome them home...

Pulling up the driveway...(thanks for the pics, Marie:))

...these are some happy grandkids for sure!

Elder Baldwin

and Sister Baldwin. Notice the back of their car...funny...it was loaded down pretty far...but my mom is an excellent packer!

We got together on 4th of July weekend for a big family get together now that my parents were home. We got to attend my nephew Carter's baptism that morning and my other nephew Trey's baptism that afternoon. This picture was from Trey's baptism. Both Carter and Trey are such good boys and we are so blessed to have their examples in our family.

While we were in Idaho we went and fed the ducks one night at the greenbelt in Idaho Falls. Mia loved running around and giggled at the ducks. We went with my sister Megan and her family and my parents. Afterwards, we went and ate at Smitty's...and it sure hit the spot!

So much fun with her dad!

Yes, I know that is an awesome picture of me, but you can't always just post the good one's right?

The 1st Annual Baldwin Cousin Camp was held this year in Heber City at my sister Nikki Sue's home. All of the Baldwin cousins ages 6 and and above were invited and got to stay overnight and have 2 days of fun. I got to go up for the 1st day of camp and help Nikki out. My sister Megan brought her suburban full of kids from Idaho and stayed the whole time to help, too.

We went over all the cousin rules... yes, Mia thought she was pretty cool that she got to be invited. She was loving life with all her cousins around her! My sister Jill, her daughter Sophia and I made shirts for the camp as well.

Wow-these are some crazy kids!

On the back of their shirts we wrote Grandpa Nick's nickname for each kid.

For lunch that day, we made personal pan pizzas. Yummy!

Hard at work making pizza.

I am amazed about how good all of these kids are. My brothers and sisters must be excellent parents because their kids are just so much fun and such nice kids! We were glad we got to spend the day with them!

In the middle of July we were able to go to the McArthur Family Reunion. This only happens every 2 years so we were excited to go. This picture is from our ride home from Wyoming after about a weeks stay...and Mia was so exhausted!

On the ride home, we got to stop and see Spence's sister, Stacia and her kids, Chatney and Taylon. These are 2 of nicest, smartest kids ever! We were so glad that we got to see them and Chatney gave Mia a purple ballon that she played with the rest of the way home :)!

After the reunion, we were glad to spend some time at the splash park in Lovell. We went with my sister-in-laws, Shawntay and Janice and their kids. Mia loves her Aunt Shawntay, especially when she has cheetos!

Mia with her cousins, Ozz and Tazz. We somehow missed the chance to get a picture with Janice and Paedyn, but they were there and we were glad they were!

He.he..Tazz...isn't he the funniest ever?

Mia like the water better this time. She was trying to get use to it!

Mia and Tazz, just checking out the gate together.

Getting ready to get in the water.

For the family reunion, we went up to a campground called Porcupine. Spence has been looking foward to it since the last reunion. He got to go fishing, which was one of the highlights of his trip for sure. It was great to see all of Spence's family, some of who we don't see until each family reunion. I was pregnant with Mia at the last reunion so she got to meet lots of new relatives! Spence's family is fun to be around and always so nice to us. We sure feel thankful that we have all of them to call family.

This was Mia's favorite thing to do...walk and get water from a well. If she could wash her hands in it all day long, she would be in heaven!

Oh the wonderful scenery of Wyoming! Spence couldn't be any happier when he saw this sign :). So many memories for him.

We all sure loved the 4 wheeler and I was hoping the whole time it would put me into labor! :)

They were dirty, tired, sunburnt, and misquito bitten...but they were loving it! On one of the nights that we were there, we had had a memory night. Each of Spence's aunts and uncles, along with Grandma McArthur sat in the front and told stories about their childhood and growing up. It was so fun to hear all the stories, especially the ones about Spence's Grandpa and Grandma McArthur. Grandpa McArthur died when Spence was just 6 months old, so it was great to hear what he was like. Grandma McArthur is plainly amazing! She is 97 years old. She is one of the kindest women you will ever meet. Most of the stories about her included how well she can cook but also how she always shared with anyone in need. She is a woman that I SO look up to and hopefully can be like someday!

While Spence went fishing, we found a great activity for the kids...throwing rocks in the water. They loved it and thought they were so grown up!

We were glad we got to be there for the reunion and can't wait for the next one in 2 years!

While we were in Lovell, we got to see these two chunks! These are our good friends, Jake and Gretchen's little girls...well...not so little...but hilariously chunky! I just want to kiss their chubby cheeks all day :)! Each time we go to their house, Mia can't believe that there are 2 babies, 2 bottles, 2 binkis, 2 blankets...etc. She loves it! We are always glad when we get the chance to go to Lovell because we get to see the Walkers! Owen was at his cousins playing when we took pictures but we did get to play with him too!

This is a huge accomplishment...we got all 3 of them looking at us!

July has always been one of my favorite months. We were so busy that I can't believe it is over and August is already here. We are now just waiting for our new little baby girl to get here and hoping we are ready for all the changes that will come with her arrival. We again feel so blessed for all that we have been given and so glad that we get to live each day loving our life!

June

2010-07-30T12:59:00.000-07:00

Our month of June, of course, went by super fast just like the past few months. It was filled with fun events to attend and people to visit. As I look over the pictures from each month and realized that I need to keep updated on them, I am touched to see how blessed we really are. We are so thankful for our Heavenly Father and all that he has given us and it has been such a blessing for me to be able to look back and see all that he has done for us.

We celebrated a fun Father's Day with Spence. For Spence's present this year, I wrote a poem for Spence telling him that his gift for Father's Day was a 55' flat screen that he has been wanting forever. We decided a few years ago that we would start saving for one and we (mostly Spence) have saved enough for one for awhile now. But for those of you that know Spence, you know that he doesn't spend money very freely and so for the past year, he has continued to talk himself out of getting his flatscreen. So I thought that maybe for Father's Day, he would break down and get one, but secretly in the back of my mind I knew he wouldn't. And I was right, after reading the poem, he kind of laughed and said, "We better not." Good thing, I had a backup plan...I ran into the other room and got him the other presents we had boughten him. Mia and I got him some new hair clippers, a pair of shorts, and some salt water taffy.

We are so blessed to have Spence in our lives. Mia loves every minute with her dad! He teases her each chance he gets and she loves it. I think for a mom, at least for me, it is so close to my heart to see a dad and his child together. He is so kind to come home and take over and does so much to help me out. I am pretty lucky! I was so blessed to meet Spence and fall in love with him. :) He is pretty incredible and makes our life so better. We love you!

Spence's work had a booth at our local Relay for Life, so we went that night and had dinner and walked around the track. Mia hadn't been feeling great and was starting to get an infection in her eyes, but she was a trooper. She loved riding along in her stroller, but then loved when she could run\walk around the track! She sure loves to run away from her mom and dad :). We had a fun night and were touched by all the stories we saw and heard about while we were there. We have been doing a lot of baking lately, we made some 4th of July cookies to take to my visiting teachers..of course it was the last day of the month...but Mia saw her apron and hat and ran to put it on. It didn't last very long, but we sure think she is a cute little baker!

Mia hanging out in cowboy boots. She loves anything that has to do with cows and horses :).

My neice,Kenadee, was able to be with us for a few days and Mia loved it! Kenadee is such a great cousin and so nice to Mia. One afternoon she crawled into Mia's crib and Mia was in heaven! She is always so excited to see her cousin, "Nenanee."

During of our hot afternoons, my sister Jill called to see if we wanted to go to the splash park. We were excited to get out of the house and enjoyed our afternoon...although it was a little hot! We had a fun picinic lunch and tried to play in the water. It was pretty crowded and Mia was really timid, but we at least got her hands and feet wet :)!!

Mia and Sydney getting ready to go into the water!

She was not so sure she would like the water!

Enjoying out lunch with Jill and Stockton.

Mia has taken after her dad and loves to golf. She has a little set of golf clubs but she prefers to use our tiolet brush. She puffs up her cheeks, just like her dad, each time she swings. I have relentlessly tried to get a good video of her but this is the best that I can get! Silly girl!

May

2010-06-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

So far in this pregnancy, I have felt really good. I am pretty lucky for sure. I haven't craved too much different than I usually do, but I have seemed to feel like an increase of cravin for sweets...or maybe it is just in my mind :). But admist one of these cravings and cleaning out our freezer I discovered some shredded zucchini from last summer I needed to use so I made zucchini brownies....with the help of Mia. During our baking session, I marveled at my little girl who is just like her mother in the kitchen. She made sure she got a bite of the batter each time we added something, cleaned out the bowl and the beaters, and continued this process when we made the frosting. She even held a paper towel over her shoulder and if anything would spill she was quick to wipe it up. (I am a little OCD like that, too :)) Even after the brownies came out of the oven, she was just like me and wanted a taste and continued wanting one all night! We love this little girl for sure! For Memorial Day weekend, we were able to take a trip to Wyoming to be with Spence's family. We were excited to go since it had been February since we had last been there. Of course, I forgot my camera but my sister-in-law Shawntay got some good ones of our days there. Our activities consisted of: a fun four-wheeler ride with all of Spence's fam, which about put me in labor :) (not really), a big McArthur family BBQ, visiting with our good friends Jake and Gretchen and kids, and getting to spend time with Spence's grandparents. We sure are blessed to have such great family! Mia and Tazz standing by Great Grandpa McArthur's grave. These cousins were born on the same day and are so funny together. They are starting to play together and as you can see in the next few pictures, they loved to give hugs and kisses to each other.

Mia loved walking around looking at the horses and cows and wanted to be by them most of the time!

Enjoying Grandma McArthur's swing...

and the slide...

and Tazz's and Ozz's bubbles.

Cute cousins sharing in a quick hug and kiss. :)

We had lots of fun and can't wait to go to Spence's family reunion in July!

Month of April

2010-05-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some of our highlights of April...Puppy Sitting: Spence's brother, Shem's family, bought a new little puppy in Utah. They bought it a plane ticket to fly home to them but it needed a place to stay for a few days...so it came to our house! His name is Charly and is an American bulldog. He was only 6 weeks old when he came to stay and hilariously cute. Mia was asleep when we first got the puppy and when she woke up she couldn't believe that there was a puppy in her house! She pointed and said "puppy" for the first couple hours then she built up the courage to actually try to play with him.:) She thought he was pretty funny!

She loved when he slept because she wanted him just to sit down on her so she could hold him.

Isn't her hat too funny? We had fun with this little dog. It turned out that the night before we were supposed to take him to the airport we found out that he had to be 8 weeks old to fly...so Spence got in the car and drove to Rock Springs to his sister, Stacia's house, and met Shem there. I am sure the next time we see this puppy he won't be quite this small! :)

Biir My Birthday: My Birthday:My birthday was definetly a highlight for me! Spence did so great on all the presents he got me. I was getting ready in the bathroom that morning and he would send Mia in one by one with each of my presents. She would hand it to me and run away thinking it was quite the fun game. Then she rolled in her stroller and inside was a sewing machine! I have been wanting my own for a long time, so yes, Spence had been listening and did great on buying it! He also got me some perfume and a new rolling pin. I was able to go get pedicures with my sister Jill and niece Sophia, then they watched Mia while Spence took me out to eat. It was a great day!

General Conference: I love general conference weekend! We were able to stay home all weekend and just relax. It was fun to combine it with Easter too. Mia and I got dressed in our Duke shirts and cheered for Duke that night. We couldn't get a picture of her with her eyes open...each time she would smile she would shut her eyes. :)

Mia and Spence enjoyed conference while I made cinnamon rolls. She did pretty good just sitting there listening. She loved when the choir would sing and would get her arms moving pretending to lead the music.

Easter: In between sessions, the Easter bunny left our Easter baskets. Mia found hers right away and so did Spence and I. She loved the Catebury eggs the best but wanted to hold the whole thing by herself. She sure loves candy...don't know where she got that from?:)

Spence and I, of course, like our child, enjoyed all the candy in our basket too!

Mia got this little cash register and played with it all weekend. It still is one of her favorite toys, so I think the Easter bunny did good on that one. It came with a credit card and a place to swipe it and I think it is hilarious that little kids know exactly how to use it! Mia didn't even blink an eye...I guess mom is quite the example.:)

We also got to dye Easter eggs, which is one of my favorte traditions. Mia was pretty excited about the whole ordeal too. She knows what eggs are and always wanted to get them out of the fridge so she was especially excited that she got to play with them.

Yes...we did go a little overboard on all the colors...but we had to have lots of choices!

Spence's brother Shane was able to spend Easter with us and he was a great help for Mia. She always loves when he comes around!

Patiently waiting for her turn for an egg! On Sunday, we had our Easter dinner, a ham and funeral potatoes, one our our favorites. We are grateful for the chance we had to listen to conference and remember the resurrection of our Savior. We love this time of year and all the reminders of how much our Heavenly Father loves us.

Hot Dog Dance: Mia has never been a big T.V. watcher, but lately has been enjoying a few minutes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She really only wants to watch the end where they sing the hot dog dance. We love when she dances and have tried to record it so many times, but everytime we get out the camera she stops and wants to find out what we are doing! But this one was pretty successfull....

Month of March

2010-04-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

I am totally behind on my posts but I needed to get our events of March documented. :) We were lucky enough to take a trip in the middle of March to go see my parents on their mission in North Carolina! Yeah! We couldn't wait tot see these guys...Their mission has actually gone pretty fast. They are serving a CES mission in Raleigh, North Carolina. Most of their work consists of working with the institute programs at Duke and University of North Carolina. They teach institute classes but one of their larger tasks is cooking for the institute. They are in charge of cooking about 4 big meals each week. It is a lot of work and planning that goes into it for sure! They make cookies every Monday...and it's not just one batch of cookies, but about 5 times the recipe, which my mom is pretty used to. I couldn't think of better people to fill this mission and they are doing such a good job! They also serve in the singles branch that meets in the institute building. It was fun to see my parents with the students. They of course love them...but who wouldn't!This is in the middle of the post but I thought I better post about our fun green dinner that we had for St. Patrick's Day. We also had fun for the holidays at my house growing up with a green dinner as a must tradition, so we did our own this year. Mia was the best of help with dinner. We made green ranch chicken, green rice, green breadsticks and green milk. It was delish and super fun!
Back to our North Carolina trip...we flew out at 2:00 pm from Salt Lake. I was anxious about the trip, worried about how Mia would do, but she did great! She fell asleep as soon as we went in the air. She slept for about half the flight and when she woke up she was occupied by books and snacks the rest of the way. We flew to Houston, TX and had a short layover then got on a flight to Raleigh. We flew in at 11:00 pm. My mom and dad picked us up at the airport and we were so excited to see them! Mia had just woken up so she was a little out of sorts but just kept staring at her Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin.

Just getting off the plane in Raleigh and seeing my mom for the first time!
Mia got comfortable pretty fast with my parents. For sure one of Mia's highlights of the trip was Grandpa Baldwin reading her "horse books." She now is addicted to anything that has horses or cows in it!:)

Seeing Grandpa at the airport for the first time. She sure thought this guy was funny and especially when he would put her in a "bear trap"!

And she couldn't believe how nice this lady was! She was loving every minute of attention she got from my parents. Funny story...in my parent's apartment they had a table in their front room that didn't get along with Mia. She hit her head on their table so many times in the first day that the next morning my dad put it out on the porch. Poor Mia...she was just trying to show off and everytime she did anything she smacked her little head! Thanks Grandpa for redecorating for us!:)

After our late arrival that night, we still stayed up late and talked with my mom. The students had spring break while we were there so my parents were free from alot of the things that they usually have to do. Yeah for us! The next morning we got up and went with my mom down to their apartment's clubhouse to workout. My mom is a trooper like that! Then we got going for the day and head out to see some sights in North Carolina. Each day was filled with things to see and people to meet. We went shopping in between all of them also. Mia did great with the help of Grandma and Grandpa. Anytime she would fall asleep, Grandpa would stay with her in the car. We found some great deals on shopping and were introduced to some great reasturants and amazing food. I loved the southern cooking and especially the hushpuppies. It was definetly a great trip and we wish we could have stayed longer! Some of these are out of order of the places that we went but at least they are all here :).

Tobacco Museum: Since I love history, I sure loved this place! The area of Raleigh was built on the tobacco business. A man named Washington Duke figured a way for the tobacco to be dried differently and then rolled into cigarettes...and became super rich because of it. Later, through his influence Duke University was started. We got to go through the museum and take a tour of Duke's original house and barn where it all started. Bennett Farm: Again, I was loving this place! So much history there! It was the place that the treaty was signed to end the Civil War. We were able to tour around the original buildings. They also have a monument that says "unity" and has a dedication to the nation. It was really neat!

There were lots of rocks and mud so Mia got to be carried in her stroller! 1st Edition of the Book of Mormon: At Duke University, they have one of the first editions of the Book of Mormon. We were able to go and see it there. It was amaizng to think that we were looking at the edition that many of pioneers saw and read. It was for sure a great testimony building experience.

Duke Cathedral: One of first places that we went to tour was Duke's campus. We started out at the huge cathedral in the middle of the campus. The cathedral was started out being Methodist, but now has turned into a non-dominational church. My parents teach one of their institute classes in the basement of this cathedral. The cathedral is massive and very ornate. In one of the corners of the cathedral they have the tombs of some of the founders of Duke. This is a picture of Washington Duke's tomb. It is crazy to see them because they look so alive...kinda cool...kinda creepy...

Duke's Gym: Spence and I have always loved Duke basketball. So we were especially excited to go here. We love Coack K and so does the rest of Duke...

Duke's gym isn't what we expected. It was much smaller. When you see it on camera it looks huge, but in person it kinda looks like a high school gym. It doesn't hold alot of people so they say it is pretty crazy to try and get in. While we were there, it was the ACC tournament so we weren't able to see a game but just seeing the gym was enough for us! At the entrance, where they take the tickets.

The middle of the Duke's gym floor.

Mia had fallen asleep in the car on our way to the campus. Grandpa was nice enough to stay in the car to let her finish her nap. When she finally got in the gym she was ready to run! On the floor of the hallways, they have a little ball in the middle of a "D" and Mia would run from one to the next shouting "ball!" It was pretty cute! Duke has such legacy of winning basketball, so we loved to see all the things they had in the hallways. It was fun to look at all the past players and teams!

Here is our little future Duke player...maybe BYU :)...but she sure can dunk it!

Having fun with Grandma in the gym.

This fulfilled a life long goal for Spence :)!

Whoah...is that Coack K?

Golfing: At my parent's apartment complex they have a fun clubhouse that has a workout room, theatre room, and a lounge. Outside the clubhouse they have a putting green. Of course, Spence was excited to test it out. We didn't have a putter so my mom suggested we head to a thrift store to see if they had any. We headed to the nearest one and my dad said he would buy one for "a dollar and a quarter" but we splurged and found one for $3.75. The funny part was the one we found was pink!

The clubhouse...

Spence showing his stuff!

Grandma and Mia watching the tournament.

Go Grandma!

Our little golfer!

They also have a fun playground that Mia got to try out. They had fun little cars to drive with a race track, swings, and a playhouse. Mia sure enjoyed it until the wind started and we had to head back in.

Duke vs. North Carolina Baseball Game: We were able to go to the UNC vs. Duke baseball game. We enjoyed some hotdogs and some great seats. They had a huge bull on a billboard so it really kept Mia entertained. It was fun to watch a real live game, especially these two rivals.

University of North Carolina Gym/Muesuem: Holy smokes...the UNC basketball muesuem is amazing! We had fun looking at all they had!

All of Michael Jordon's things...

University of North Carolina's gym. Yes, it is huge and they have powder blue seats. When we went the gym was actually closed, but Spence found us a way in and we even got to out onto the floor. Then we got yelled at by the security guard but we warmed him up pretty fast by asking questions and no harm done :)!

While we were visiting we had so much fun watching all the different basketball games on T.V. especially BYU and Duke's tournaments. We loved the late night talks and lazy mornings. On Sunday we were able to go to church at the single's ward and was great to meet all the kids that we had heard about. We loved my mom's homemade cooking and my dad's funny stories. All in all the trip was one we will never forget and feel so grateful that we were able to go! We are grateful my parents are serving a mission and are amazed by their example but can't wait for them to come home :)!