November 2016 Family Pictures!!

A dear friend blessed us with family pictures for our baby gift! Since she lives out of town and couldn't take them when the baby is born, she did them early for us. We went with the theme of "Thankful" for our Thanksgiving baby announcement but also used them for Christmas pictures. I have so loved looking at these beautiful pictures upon our wall and my Facebook profile. Here are all the pictures she captured for us. I especially love that I have some professional pictures of my little baby bump around 20 weeks, Graysen's long hair before we cut it, Nolan's true expressions {especially the ones with me}, our sweet Alivia who loves her picture taken, sibling shots, and our whole family photos! <3 always="" ashdon="" cherish="" for="" gift="" i="" p="" sweet="" thank="" that="" this="" will="" you="">

October- December 2016 Recap!!

Here's my final recap {mostly in pictures} of 2016!

September and October brought on beautiful weather and many celebrations! We celebrated Alivia's cross country season where she received a fun award for placing in the top 10 in at least one meet. We celebrated Nolan's 5th birthday, a little late, with friends and family. He has such a delightful time. We enjoyed a really wonderfully organized Trunk or Treat put on by Ben's work. The kids had a blast. The charterer on the bottom right was free for attending. I love it and the artist's interpretation of Graysen just cracks me up. We had our 2nd annual Halloween gathering with our good friends, the Jardons, where we enjoyed dinner as a group then went out and to trick or treat. The weather was perfect for Halloween this year. Our large group of kids had so much fun together. We did allow our kids a few processed pieces of junk candy before we gave it away. :)

The Denver Zoo has "free days" every year. This year, Ben was off work for one in November so we decided to pull Alivia from school and have a family day! It was honestly the BEST day trip out of Colorado Springs that we have ever had. We had so much fun. Things just worked out as planned and all of the kids had great attitudes all day. They listened to us and there was very minimal whining or complaining! It was a memorable experience. I'm so glad it worked out with Ben's schedule to make that day trip. The zoo also had a traveling art exhibit of all these really amazing sea animals made out of trash that was collected in the ocean and on the beaches. They were seriously really cool. We tried to take a picture of each one we came upon. 

We had such a fun time gearing up for Christmas. We did an advent this year called Truth in the Tinsel. It's a really neat program where there is a highlighted theme/bible verse, a piece of the Christmas story read from the Bible, and a related craft. We did most of the days until my family arrived in town. The kids enjoyed the craft time and liked doing them with Ben. They loved decorating our real Christmas tree together as a family. We went to a pajama cookie decorating party at our church. Graysen only liked the frosting and it was pretty adorable to watch him stuff his face in the frosting. Nolan didn't eat his cookie because he doesn't like frosting but he loved the decorating part. Alivia found enjoyment in both decorating and eating her cookie! Alivia had plenty of friend time from one of her best buddies birthday party to a slumber party at our house. Graysen had his first ice cream cone and made the biggest mess but loved it! Alivia got to go to the Nutcracker for the 2nd year in a row with her Grammy and had an absolute blast. Nolan and I have been enjoying yoga together and we introduced some of the videos to Alivia during her time off of school. 

This year we had the pleasure of hosting Christmas at our home for my side of the family. My mom, who lives in town, my dad, and my brother and {his now} fiance joined us for a wonderful celebration. My mother-in-law and Ben's grandma also came over for our Christmas dinner. The kids were spoiled and loved it. One of my dad's gifts to us was an experience gift to go and see the musical Shrek. It was seriously amazing, funny and over all well put on production. My dad who has been to many theater productions around the world even said it was really well done. And, it kept Nolan's attention the entire time so that has to say something! :) The kids had tons of family time, especially with Papa. The biggest news this year was that my brother proposed to his girlfriend. He chose the Broadmoor to ask the "big question" and the pictures of where he popped the question are beautiful. The adults got together for a surprise dinner (to Kristin) to celebrate their beginning at a local spot call the Warehouse. It was so fun to see them both smiling from ear to ear and beaming with joy! We can't wait for their wedding in late 2017!

Baby Spiers #4 Announcement!!

We announced that I am pregnant with baby Spiers #4 on Thanksgiving on Facebook and I just love how our announcement turned out! We are so excited to welcome another little cute baby into our hearts and home. Ben guesses it is a boy and I'm guessing we are having a girl. We will know in a few short months who is right! 

Back story: The day that I found out I was once again pregnant I couldn't wait to tell Ben, so I wrote a cute little note and placed it in a box along with the pregnancy test for him to open. He was happy about the news! The very next day we went to a baby shower for a friend. One of the ladies there was very pregnant and Alivia asked her if she knew if she was having a boy or girl. This started a conversation on whether or not we were going to have another baby. Alivia answered before I could reply myself saying, "Yes, she is having a baby girl". I was a just a little bit shocked. I didn't know if she had heard us talking the night before! When asking her about it she told us that she had been praying every night (which I know she had been because she would pray it out loud for us to hear) and God told her we would have a baby girl. I'm convinced it's a girl because of this story! How cool is that!? Ben still thinks that it's a boy but Alivia goes around telling everyone "it's a girl" in very matter-of-fact way! 

Baby Belly at around 23 weeks! 

Baby Spiers #4 at 8 Weeks 

Baby Spiers #4 at 21 Weeks

Baby Spiers #4 at 21 Weeks

Baby Spiers #4 at 21 Weeks

Baby Spiers #4 at 21 Weeks

Baby Spiers #4 at 21 Weeks

2017 Goals!!

2017 Goals! 

Word of the year: Intentional 

Jesus' Follower:
1. Read the entire Bible with the book "The One Year Bible" with Ben
2. Attend a weekly Bible Study
3. Find a way to encourage someone/1 family 1x a month
4. Keep a daily gratitude journal
5. Memorize 3 new bible verses

Wife:
1. Be more intentional about encouraging Ben
2. Plan a date night 2x (or more) a month

Mommy:
1. Consistently have learning time 3x (or more) a week with Nolan to prepare him for Kindergarten next year
2. Set 15 minutes (or more) aside to have a special 1 on 1 time with each kid each week
3. Read the kids the entire Bible with the book "The One Year Bible for Kids"
4. Bake 1x a week with the kids
5. Teach Alivia and Nolan how to do laundry (I need laundry help :))

Learner:
1. Read 12 books- aiming for 1 book a month
2. Learn how to crochet

Crafter:
1. Knit or crochet a blanket for the baby
2. Create an online family scrapbook

Blogger:
1. Blog 2x to 3x a week on life, family, & thoughts

Saver:
1. Save $10 every pay period
2. Stick to our monthly grocery budget... so hard!
3. Buy nothing outside of our budget unless we have specifically saved money for it

Fitness: 
Rachel
1. Go to the gym 2x-3x a week
2. Run 1 mile without stopping
3. Do 3 pull-ups

Ben
1. Gain 10 pounds of muscle (Current weight is 165)
2. 1 Rep max on Bench 225 pounds
3. 1 Rep max for Squat 250 pounds

Homemaker:
1. Wake up before the kids! (I had this down for awhile but 3 kids and pregnancy got me back into the routine of waking up with them and not before them.)
2. Prepare Alivia's school lunches on Sundays
3. Prep dinner on Sundays
4. Get back into the routine of freezer cooking 2x a month
5. Use my planner every day for organization

New Year, New Blog?!

Well, since having a 3rd kiddo my blogging days have been near extinct. I want to change that. I feel a stirring in my heart to re-boot my blog with a fresh design and new content. I would love to go back and catch up, in detail, the BIG events of 2016, but there is just too much to re-live and remember. I am going to do one last review with pictures of 2016 and just move forward, otherwise I will just constantly be behind. I feel that God is asking that of me in my life right now- focus on the now! To often I ponder past events or plan for the future (which is not bad in any way), but what I really want to do is focus on what is right in front of me. I thought it would be fitting to portray that in my blog too.

Here's to a new year and more delightful adventures!

Looking Back & Catching Up: Graysen 7-9 months!!

Grasysen is a charmer! I don't know how and I don't know why but during our Florida trip, Graysen's hair became curly from the humidity. We were sure that it would go back to being straight with a little wave when we returned to Colorado, but his curl stayed and we LOVE it. It's not because of the comments (I would be lying if I didn't enjoy them though) but because he is just so cute with his big eyes and head full of curls. Graysen was full on crawling by 9 months (sometimes still an army crawl, but getting by quickly). He had his first Christmas away from home in Florida visiting my dad, brother + girlfriend, and mom's family. He didn't have any thoughts about Christmas except that he loved the bag of balls my dad got for him and he looked super cute in the hip clothes from my brother and dad. Graysen continued to charm us with his sweet smile, awesome sleeping habits, and his love for cuddling (especially before nap(s) or bedtime). He actually started to hum back to us when we would sing to him before he dozed off to sleep. It's seriously one of the sweetest things I've ever heard. Have you heard an infant hum??! :) He loved to be carried in the carrier as seen below, loved walks and outside time. Seriously, if he was in a crabby mood, I would pull out the carrier and we would go for a walk and a smile would return on his face or he would fall asleep for a quick nap! He ate about everything in front of his face. If outside time didn't work or it wasn't nap time, I knew food would cure the grumpies. So in a nutshell: he ate a lot, loved being outside, love cuddling, enjoyed sleeping and keeping up with his schedule, and was an overall happy little guy!

Graysen's first visit to the beach around age 9 months on our Florida Trip. He wasn't so sure about it at first but then came to love it. He was so cute in his little swimsuit playing in the sand. Graysen loves water but the waves of the ocean scared him so he didn't get any water play in during this trip. 

Looking Back & Catching Up: Graysen at 6(ish) Months!!

OH my, OH my what a little our cutie Graysen boy is!!


Fun at 6(ish) months:
- Started sitting up for a few minutes at a time for the 1st time. It took a few weeks to really get and sit for longer periods of time but he was a pro once he had those few weeks of practice.
- Started eating a few solid foods. The foods we tried at 5 months quickly became his favorite. Avocado, sweet potato, and banana were a success between 6-7 months.
- Still sleeping through the night and taking 2 naps a day.
- Started following Nolan and Alivia around and really wanted to be involved with him.
- He seriously put everything in his mouth!! We had to watch him like a hawk. Alivia and Nolan did not do that, so this was new to us.
- Loved being held in the carrier and taking walks.
- Loved to nurse and was a big time eater!