Our Little Speller

Ashton won her local school spelling bee, earning her way to the state spelling bee last week. It was a great experience. It was held in the Discovery Theatre at the Anchorage Performing Arts Center. There were approximately 150 kids competing. It took 2 hours to complete the first round! Ashton was the #5 speller (numbers were assigned randomly). She made it to the second round. She was a bit bummed, but excited at the thought of trying again next year. All that reading has given her quite a vocabulary!



Looking at herself in the paper before the Bee started. The Anchorage Daily News sponsored the event. They had pics of all the spellers in the paper that day.


Waiting her turn to go on stage to spell.

Ashton's turn on stage. Amazing, that part didn't bother her at all. She is so unlike her mother in that area!

Sena's New Do

Our Little Sena has been begging for a new hair do since Ashton donated her hair to Locks of Love last year. I was really fighting it. I figured it was just a phase - she is only 6 and greatly influenced by her sisters. And, I just LOVED her long hair. But, after her persistence, I finally gave in. Here's the result . . .


Still adorable! Just a more grown up version. She loves it!


Kylie was also ready for a change. Here's her new look . . .


It has a lot of potential. When Sheri styled it, she had it flipped up on the ends. Too cute! Of course, I didn't manage to get a picture of that.

Grandma Spear . . . these pictures are for you. I hope you get to see them . . . Love ya!

Incredible Hubby

Rob is an amazing dad. Ashton has been using the bow that Dad bought to have for the grandkids. Kylie was given an awesome (fully decked out) bow by a friend. I have my bow that I have started shooting occasionally. As a result, little Sena was feeling quite left out. So . . . Rob got online and found instructions to make a long bow. He made her a great little bow and in the process got "hooked". He's loving his new found hobby.

Here's our Sena during her shooting debut . . .


Way to go Hon - you're incredible!

Ashton's Braces

We now have two in braces! Ashton before . . .


And after . . . she is also sporting a new hairdo . . . AND she is almost 12 . . . unbelievable!!! She is becoming a young lady right before our eyes.

We have just been thrust into the world of orthodontia. Kylie has a tongue-thrusting thing in the top of her mouth . . . and just had two teeth pulled and braces put on her top teeth. She handled it all pretty well. I'm just amazed she can talk! Of course, it would take more than that to slow down her talking . . .


Before braces . . . I think she'll be pretty excited when she starts seeing results.



Still as cute as ever! Ashton will be following suit soon. She is scheduled to get full braces in February, followed by surgery to take care of a few impacted teeth. At least we are all healthy . . . teeth are a good thing to have challenges with I guess.

Creative Basement Uses

My husband has become quite creative in using the basement. Maybe it's because of the few long cold spells we have had. Whatever the reason, I'm thankful that he thinks "out of the box". The kids are having a ball!


Kylie is doing very well with her "new" bow. She may be Rob's new archery hunting buddy. At the rate she is going, he may have a hard time out-shooting her!

Remy is often "workin'" or fixing something. His latest favorite spot to hang out is Rob's workbench. He spent an hour there just checking things out and playing with a screwdriver. Definitely his father's son!

Kylie and Sena ready to rollerblade. Ashton runs to keep up with them - she outgrew her rollerblades. Rob gets his old rollerskates out and round and round and round the stair well they go.

While the rest of the crew is rolling around, Remy keeps up on his little car. He whips around corners without even looking where he is going. Other than toes, he doesn't run into much.

Always wanting to keep up with his sisters . . . here's Remy . . . ready to rollerblade!

Friends . . .

This Christmas season I have tried to be better about letting the kids have friends over and do messy projects. We've tried to have this year be more about people and less about things. Probably has something to do with being in campers during a rainy summer . . . we are very ready to have people over just to spend time together and hang out.

Two sixth graders loose in the kitchen . . .

Courtney and Kylie taking time to pose while decorating sugar cookies. I don't remember the last time we decorated cookies . . . usually way too messy for me to tackle!

Katie and Sena making cookies. I think they wore and ate more icing than actually made it onto the cookies!









Gingerbread houses . . . actually made on Thanksgiving with some friends. We had little candy balls bouncing all over the floor. I love Sena's toothless smile.




We've had a great time gearing up for Christmas. It all culminated with a Christmas party at our house last night. I had the battery recharging, but forgot to actually take any pictures. Could have something to do with the 80+ people we had here!!! Amazing . . . we all fit . . . between the lake, the house, basement and the garage. What a great group of friends God has blessed us with! For all who came . . . thank you so much for making the effort . . . and check with me if you are missing snow gear.