Easter

I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. He is the Savior of the world, and the son of God. He overcame death - temporal and spiritual - to provide the way for us to return to Him and our Father in Heaven. He is real. He lives. He loves us. He loves me.

One of my favorite scriptures: 2 Nephi 25:26, "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."



I wanted to make sure it was clear that I understand the true meaning of Easter before I got into the "fluff" part of Easter =).

Here is Spencer thoroughly enjoying his Easter basket full of goodies!

We had a nice day yesterday - full of candy, food, and family. And we were blessed to hear from the leaders of our church during General Conference. Spencer spent the better part of the day organizing and sorting his candy in his Easter eggs, over and over. Oh, don't worry, he ate a lot of it too. He also blew a lot of bubbles, and asked every 3 minutes if he could open his sidewalk chalk. (It snowed like 3 inches yesterday morning, so we didn't have a good opportunity to use the chalk outisde.) Dave's parents, his brother, and a friend from our ward came to our house for dinner. I made most of the meal, and was really pleased with the way it turned out, and I'm excited for the leftovers =).

My Happy Place

Spencer and I went to Disneyland!! Dave decided not to come with us at the last minute...cause he's a party pooper. Oh pooh! We went with my sister Mary and her family, my sister Alaina, and brother Kyle. My mom was also supposed to come, but she got a really bad flu and also couldn't come...so sad =(.

I LOVE Disneyland! It is my happy place, my very favorite vacation destination, and it was SO fun to be there with family, and it was SO fun to watch Spencer and his cousin Sam experience "The Happiest Place on Earth" together. Spencer always tells us that Sam is his best friend...AWWW! We had 2 great days there. It was not too crowded, and the weather was beautiful. We got to ride and see everything we wanted to, the kids were so sweet and well behaved, and we just loved every minute of it! Here are LOTS of pictures!!

The Group

Kyle and Alaina have some sort of obsession with jumping in pictures. Spence wanted to get in on the action...but he doesn't jump as high, so was back on the ground a lot sooner =).

4 out of 5 siblings...Laura, we MISSED you! (Can you tell our dad is a dentist? I think we all have pretty nice teeth =).)

Mary's hubby Ben, and cute little Jane!

Dancin' on Main Street...sorry we don't have your face in this one Ben...but it looks like you sure can cut a rug!

Alaina, a Disneyland expert, was prepared with ponchos so we could ride Splash Mountain at night, and not freeze. There was no line, so we got to ride twice in a row without getting out of the boat! Woot!

I love these 2 crazy kids!

The Cute Cousins

Sweet Jane.

Ok, is this not the cutest pair?

Micky Ears! Expensive...but worth it =).

The Characters

The Rides

Ok, we didn't realize how fast and bumpy this "little kid" ride was gonna be...and we were laughing SO hard the whole time!

The...Crazies?

The End

I have decided that we should be having family reunions at Disneyland AT LEAST once a year! And Dave MUST come. And my mom, and dad, and Laura and her family. And then we'll go once a year with the Batemans too. Ok, it's settled. =)

Lunchtime Rules

Today as we were eating lunch (grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, and apple slices - all thanks to Dave), Spencer stood up and shared the lunchtime rules with us...

#1. Eat all your food.
#2. See with your eyes.
#3. Share with me (me, being spence).
#4. Listen to me (again, me = spence).
#5. Eat all your food.

Rule #2 was a doozy, but luckily we followed all the rules and no one got in trouble. Whew!

Spencer, Love

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day!!

Spencer and I made some Valentines. It was our first craft experience at home using more than paper and crayons or play-doh =). It was lots of fun! They turned out pretty cute, and Spence is just learning to write his name and stuff, and I just LOVE his handwriting.

Funny Boys

I LOVE to laugh. It is really one of my favorite passtimes. So I always knew I wanted to marry someone with a good sense of humor, and I lucked out. To say Dave has a good sense of humor is quite an understatement - he's pretty darn hilarious. Spencer, too, is proving to be pretty darn funny himself!

You gotta check out Dave during one of his finest moments - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60iXYaHcv4k

Recent Spencer Funnies

When we were in MT a few weeks ago, we were driving with Dave's 90 year old grandma in her truck. There was lots of snow and it was pretty bumpy and there were lots of swerves going on. Spence bumped his head on the window, and then said, "Great Grandma Kay, you are making me crazy!!"

There is a show on Nickelodeon called "The Fresh Beat Band," and there's a lot of music and dancing, so Spencer Loves it. There is a song they sing at the end of every episode, and part of the lyrics include, "what a great way to spend some time together." I was singing this one day and Spencer corrected me with, "No mom! It's 'what a great way to SPENCE some time together!'"

He calls the back of his knees his "knee pits."

Just yesterday we had our niece, Bailey, over at our house. Spencer gave Bailey a toy and Bailey said, "Thank you!" Spencer then replied, "You're totally welcome!" And Bailey said, "Yeah, I'm totally welcome!"

(This one isn't recent...) One day, a number of months ago, during one of our potty training attempts (for poo, he's been potty trained for pee for over a year...), I was explaining to him that he cannot get his Thomas the Train underwear wet or dirty, so he cannot pee or poop in them. He thought about that and said, "Can I toot in my underwear?"

January in Review

Oh, how I have been a blog slacker! The month of January was pretty BUSY! And luckily, I have mostly good things to report...

HIGHLIGHTS

I thought this day may never come, but...Spencer is finally potty trained! He's pooping on the potty like a champ! No more diapers - finally!! (I have to say, I am a little embarrassed to admit that, because he is almost 4 1/2...he should've been done with this over a year ago or more. I'm sure I did something wrong...but don't judge me, ok? I'm just so happy we're done!)

We threw a suprise party for Dave's Grandma Kay's 90th birthday! Last weekend ALL of the Bateman siblings traveled to Fort Benton, Montana (talk about freezing middle of nowhere, sorry) to celebrate this momentous occasion! One sister even came from New York, and one from Texas - wow! This is no ordinary 90 year old either - she's sharp, independant, generous, funny, and she shoots porcupines and rattle snakes. She's truly amazing.

My sister, Alaina, came to visit! (shout out to Alaina - hollah.)

Dave's brother Bob moved to Provo to go to school, and has proved to be a great new babysitter! (shout out to Bob - hollah.)

I hosted a fabulous night of Bunco at my house! Complete with another highlight - oreo brownies and a great new recipe for apple dip (thanks Jessie)! Most of us even stayed until like 12:30 am - SO fun!

I re-started up an exercise routine. Good timing after the previous highlight's treats.

LOWLIGHTS

Dave was gone in India for 3 weeks, and I didn't go to my parents house in California at all (like I usually do).

All in the same day, I heard about a peeping tom in our neighborhood, and that the house next door to ours was broken into...all while Dave was gone!

I was a blogging slacker.

IN-BETWEEN-LIGHTS

I got called as RS president...?!? (I know what you are thinking...but I'm pretty sure that our Bishop doesn't actually smoke crack...)

We now have 9am church. It's great to have the rest of the day open (for meetings, ha ha), but just a little early for me to be up and ready!

I took Spencer to a model train show. I didn't think about the fact that there would be lots of amazing trains that he would be FORBIDDEN to touch! He did ok...but it wasn't as fun as I had hoped.


A couple of pictures...

The suprise party was a huge success!

(Gramma Kay and Dave's sister Deb - from NY!)

The Batemans up at the ranch in Fort Benton, MT

p.s. This is my 100th post! Go me! Hooray for blogging. I really do love it.

p.p.s. I do have much more to blog about, so there will be more to come...hopefully sooner than later!

Happy New Year!

With a face like that, you KNOW you'll be having an exciting new year!

Happy 2010!

(Um...wasn't it just Y2K? Seriously, the last 10 years have wizzed by, and this whole new decade has really snuck up on me! Ok, wait...am I in my 30's? Dang, I knew it.)

Spencer Story:

One evening Spencer and I were talking about how he is growing and growing. I told him someday he would be big like Daddy, and he'd be able to drive a car, go on a mission, go to work, use the cutco knives (he is obsessed with our cutco knives [should I be worried?], and we tell him he can't touch them until he's "big like daddy"), etc, etc. Very matter of factly, he added, "And I'll have a big bum like Daddy."

Don't get your hopes up little guy...your dad does have a ghetto booty, but your mom has a pancake bum.