Catching Up

Well, I have tons to catch up on, which I hate getting behind!!!!! So I'm just going to ramble on and yes maybe pictures will come later, but I don't have time to wait to load them. So Christmas was great. We stayed in Las Vegas and for the first time had Christmas at our house. Mat's parents came along with his sister and little boy Jamison. So we hosted Christmas. Christmas Eve we had our annual Bingo game and good food (alfredo pizza, bbq chicken pizza and other goodies), which was fun the Kincaids and Mat's co-worker Mike came too. Then we read and acted out the nativity -- we got everyone involved even Mike (who isn't a member) which he enjoyed it. Then we opened on present -- our PJ's!!!!
Christmas morning always seems to go by to quickly!! It was really fun though. Santa brought the girls Strawberry Shortcake dolls and Gage the traditional 1st Christmas cowboy hat. So we spent the day playing with our gifts and hanging out. For a good part of the day I prepped for Christmas Day Dinner. I was really excited to do Christmas Dinner myself and it all turned out great I was really proud of it (definetly will have to post pic of it). We had ham, scalloped potatoes, scalloped corn, rolls, salad, and apple pie.
Let see then on the 30th Mat's Aunt Wendy and Uncle Rob came with kids R.C. and Hailey to visit for the weekend. We played with them the next few days, going to dinner and breakfast and the Outlet Stores and Circus Circus. We had a good time it was really grate to see them.
On Jan. 2nd we headed out to Alamo, with my parents and then Mat's parents came. We spent the day working on Cache's graveside. We poured concrete and set his headstone, it looks very nice. It felt good to finish it and take care of him. It is really hard to believe that it has been a year since we lost our little guy -- sometimes I'm not really sure how I feel about that, somehow it feels like it went to fast.
On Jan. 3rd us and all of our family from Saturday went back into Vegas and blessed Gage. It was wonderful. The day before in Alamo I picked up his blessing outfit from Suzi, a wonderful woman who has made all of my kids blessing clothes from my wedding dress!!! She is amazing and so special we appreciate her so much!!!! His out fit was beautiful. The blessing was beautiful -- I'm so grateful Mat is a worthy priesthood holder.
Well after the world wind we got to settle down a bit. I've been trying to get into some kind of routine, hopefully I'll hit a groove soon.
Mat has been in Alaska the last two weeks, and I've been in Alamo!! He'll be home tomorrow and we are excited to get back to normal.
Hopefully I won't get to far behind anymore. I will posting some updates on Gage with some pictures. He is growing so fast and hitting those oh so fun milestones, so I've got to get those posted. Soon Soon!

Christmas Newsletter

Dear Family & Friends,

This year has been a busy time for us and full of learning and growth for our family. The beginning of this year we said good-bye to our little guy, Cache. We only had a short time with him, but he has been a wondrous blessing to us and we are so grateful that he is part of our family. We have learned so much from him, we have grown closer as a family and to our Heavenly Father. We are so grateful that we will have the opportunity to see him again and that we can have him forever!

Dalia Madsen is 4 years old and going on 5 in May. We can't believe that she will be starting school next year, which she is very excited for!! Dalia is such a sweetheart, so loving and caring, she definitely wears her heart on her sleeve and can be emotional at times. She is such a help to her mom at home, she is always asking to help her with whatever she is doing except maybe picking up toys! Dalia loves people and making friends. She loves to play dress up, Barbies, anything princess, coloring, drawing, writing letters, and doing her hair. She also loves to play with her sister, although I think she likes trying to be her boss most of all. Dalia loves to watch Barbie movies (which Dad has a special rule for: no watching while Dad is home, Barbie movies aren't for boys), she also likes SheRa (a cartoon I grew up with -- remember HeMan anyone?), and of course MUSICALS. Dalia loves to dance around the house or almost anywhere there is music -- and it's even better if she has a window or a mirror to watch herself in. She also loves to sing and has an amazing talent of picking up on any tune and the lyrics, even if she has only heard it once you can catch her singing it weeks after -- but she likes best to make up her own words to familiar tunes. She has enjoyed primary, she is a sunbeam, of course since they get to sing! She has sung in sacrament meeting a couple of times and also she had a solo in the primary program -- it has been very fun to watch. Dalia also took a 3 month long gymnastics class and enjoyed every minute of it. She will be starting a dance class in January and is very excited. Dalia has been doing preschool here at home with me and is doing very well and loves learning.

Mataya Lyn is 2 1/2 years old going on 3 in March. This past year Maty has really grown into her own little person, and Spunky doesn't quit cover it. She too is a sweetheart and is such a caregiver, but she is extremely independent and not crushed so easily. Maty loves to be a big girl, trying to do everything that Dalia does or her mom. She is a big help and a hard worker already! Maty gets along with almost anyone, but you'll often find her doing her own thing and loving it!! Above all this year her number one favorite thing to do is playing with her "little peoples" (Fischer Price little people sets). sShe does like to play with her sister, Barbies and the like. Maty is a movie girl too, she has become a huge Charlotte's Web fan this year and has a little stuffed animal pig that she takes all over! Mataya loves to make up her own songs, and she is enjoying the Christmas carols especially jingle bells (Dalia too!) Maty is currently in nursery and she loves to go! She also took a 3 month long parent/child gymnastics class, which we both enjoyed, she thought she was such a big girl. Maty has been attending preschool here at home with Dalia and she is very sharp and has caught on to everything quickly.

Gage Averett was born December 1, 2009 @ 7lbs. 12 oz. 19 3/4 inches with tons of dark hair. He is already such a joy to us. The girls are of course smothering him with love; there have already been several squabbles over who gets to hold him next. Gage looks so much like the girls, he is such a cutie -- and I think, if it is even possible, that he has hold of his Dad's heartstrings even tighter than the girls, their interaction is fun to watch!! We are so excited to have him with us and to enjoy getting to watch him grow and learn by leaps this coming year!!!!

The girls and I also did a bit of traveling this last year. We took a trip with Aunt Joni through Utah and Idaho visiting family. We also attended the Wood Reunion this year which was such a great time, we very much enjoyed it. Also this year we took a family trip at the beginning of November to Sea World!! We had so much fun!! It was a memory making trip for our family and one we hope to repeat, not necessarily to the same place.

Mat has been very busy this year with work and church. He is currently serving as the Elders Quorum president in our ward. He is such an example to our family of true unselfish service and we have received many blessings as a family by his sacrifice to servve. Mat also had the opportunity this last year to make two trips to Nome, Alaska for work -- one of which was a 3 week long trip, but he was able to meet diffrent people and see new places. Mat has also applied to the Las Vegas Metro Police Department; he did so back in April and has been going through the application process which has been very slow and frustrating. This is something he has always thought of doing and with the economy as such we thought a backup plan was a good idea -- so why not!

Well, as for me this year has been full of the comings and goings of my kids and husband as well as my own projects that are never ending. I have been doing preschool at home with the girls, which with Gage being here now is going to present a whole new challenge! I just got released from the primary presidency so we'll see what is next in that arena. Also this past year I decided and took the opportunity to video interview my Grandma Stewart, basically a bio interview. It was great to hear the stroies and advice and to just spend time with Grandma. This coming year I plan on transcribing the video and putting together a book as well -- oh lots to do!!!!!!

As I said before this year has been very full for us!! We have been very blessed and are hoping for greater opportunities for our family this coming year. We love you all and wish you all the best!

Merry Christmas! Love,

The Spieth Family

NEW ARRIVAL!!!

Gage Averett Spieth

Born December 1, 2009

3:29 p.m.

7 lbs. 12 oz. 19 3/4 inches

He is doing great and we are all enjoying having him here. Sorry I haven't got to posting sooner, and I'm probably going to be a little slow at posting for a bit, so be patient with me!!

Tired?

So this will probably be short and quick, but I told myself I had to be better about posting on the blog. I've been really busy and yet I feel like there really isn't anything for me to post. Mostly I've been working on the normal things, laundry, cleaning, playing, church, and preschool. I've got sacks of things to take to DI sitting here nagging at me to get rid of them, but I just haven't done it yet. I also have a few piles of boy baby clothes that I've received from people that I have to get washed and put away that have been starring at me for DAYS!! Now I have a stack of diapers, thanks to Lynette (you're awesome) who gave me a "diaper shower," that the girls keep playing on and with that I need to get put away upstairs!!! Plenty to do, just too little energy! Mat has had meetings all week, which is pretty normal, but he had a couple more than usual and an Elders quorum activity today too, so we really haven't seen much of him. I've been pretty hormonal lately in a pissy kind of way so I could totally vent and go off about different church service issues, but I won't!!! Needless to say, sometimes people you interact with can be annoying sometimes, but who isn't annoying sometimes right. Well time for lunch and the girls are letting me know it!

Sea World!!!!

So last weekend we took a trip to Sea World. It was something Mat and I had been talking about and so we finally just did it. Mat was able to get discounted tickets through work and with the extra money he made off of going to Alaska for work for a month it wasn't a big stretch!! The girls were so excited to go, and the 5 hour drive really wasn't too bad. Mat got a good deal on our 5 star hotel right on Mission Bay beach, the Hyatt Regency, off of priceline -- except we had to pay $20 just to park our own vehicle in their parking lot, but it was nice! We drove early Friday morning went straight to Sea World and spent the day. Then Saturday we went to the beach, which we have video of that, but I was unsuccessful in getting any pictures, which I was bummed since it was the girls first time at the beach. We ended up getting wet, my fault which Mat will be the first to relate that story to you, so we had to change before we went to Sea World that day. We then went and ate breakfast, which FYI we fed our whole family at Denny's for breakfast what it would have cost us to get 1 serving of pancakes from hotel room service!! So after that we headed back to Sea World spent most of the day and left for Vegas around 3:30. The drive home was pretty good the girls slept most of the time and we got home at a decent hour!! It was such a fun experience and the girls have still been talking about it and when we are going back. Anyway, here are some pictures of our trip, they are in reverse order from the end of our trip to the beginning!! Hope you have fun looking at them.

Sea World Trip!

The "sword" souviners. We tried to have them get necklaces, but that was out of the question!















The Rides and meeting new friends.




























Dalia was so excited to go on the rides she even went on the Atlantis with her dad, but only once after that she didn't want to try it again.

We got to see Chris on of the Budweiser horses too!

The Penguins during the big feeding time.

We also went to the Sesame Street 4D Imagination movie. We got to wear the cool glasses, and Dalia kept trying to touch everything. It sprayed, rained, and blew wind on us for real inside the theatre, which the girls loved.

This was the Sea Lions Live Show, which was hilarious and the girls LOVED it!!! They even danced for us, doing some hip-hop.

Before the Sea Lion show started "Biff" the stage crew guy picked Dalia to come help. He tried to get her to let him heft her over the side into the pool. She of course was shaking her head no and then looked back at us to see if it was something she could do -- it was really cute. And sorry I just accidently deleted that picture and I'm not going to take the time and trouble to reload it!

Buluga Whale











Polar Bear

Manitee

This was part of the "Pets Rule" show, where the dogs, cats, and pigs did tricks and things. Of course afterward Mataya was in heaven getting to meet one of the pigs!!

OF COURSE, the Shamu Show, the girls loved watching all of the tricks and jumps it was great watching their faces.

I don't know if you can see Mataya's face, but she was in awe!

Getting to touch and pick up the sea stars as long as we kept them under water.

Sea Turtle

We had Mataya on the leash sometimes, but she is determined to go somewhere.

Sea Lion during feeding time.

The girls watching the Sea Lions during the feeding time.

Shark Reef -- they were a little scared.

Dad and the girls walking into the Shark Reef, it was actually really dark and they were a little nervous and were infatic that they were not going to touch any sharks!

Sting Ray's head peaking out of the water.

Dalia trying to touch and feed the Sting Rays, she was feeding a little one and got upset when one of the bigger ones stole the food.

Mataya was not to keen on the idea of touching the Sting Rays, she really didn't like the slimey feel since she has issues with her hands feeling dirty.

Watching the dolphins -- when their new show opens it will be awesome.

This was one of the first things we saw, the killer whales at the underwater observation area! and the girls just stared!

Here are the girls arriving at Sea World, they weren't excited or anything!!