Santa's Reply

Dear Ollie,

Thank you for your letter today. We are all up here at the North Pole working really hard to get all the toys ready for all the boys and girls. I have sent some of the elves out to check up on the boys and girls to see who is naughty or nice. I believe Elmer has been down in your area of Texas. He is a very nice elf and sometimes leaves treats in the shoes of the children who are EXTRA good that day. Not all the elves do that you know, so you are lucky to have Elmer as your special elf. Now Ollie and Lily, I know you are good children. Try extra, EXTRA hard to obey your parents and do what they ask you to do very quickly and cheerfully. That will help them so much. You know, this is an important time of year because it is the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. That is really what Christmas is all about. It is very important that you try to do what Jesus would want you to do when your parents ask you to do something. They
are very smart and wise parents and they love you so much. They want you to be happy so that is why they try to teach you to be good. Santa also wants you to be happy and good. I hope that during this Christmas Season you will think about Jesus a lot and think about how he lived his life when he was a little boy just like you Ollie. Take good care of Lily and watch over her and help her to be good. You are the big brother so it is very important that you show her how to be happy and how to follow Jesus.

Ollie and Lily, can I just give you a suggestion? I really like cookies and milk when I am out on Christmas Eve, and the reindeer like carrots or berries especially. They need healthy food so they can fly well.

Have a Jolly, Merry Christmas Ollie and Lily!

Love,
Santa

Hooray for Grandparents who are willing to be Santa!

Ollie's Christmas Letter

Ollie composed a very sweet letter to Santa. Here's what he wanted to say. Because his mom didn't take the initiative to send an actual letter it was sent via e-mail.

Dear Santa,

This is Ollie. Lily and I want a play kitchen and Spencer wants pants. Mom wants a rice cooker.

Love, Ollie

And that's the end

Texas Winter

Yesterday the kids and I walked to the post office to mail some Christmas presents. I wore FLIP FLOPS. We had a great walk. Today, it's windy and COLD. Crazy Texas Weather. We did love the warm day. :)

San Antonio

We have some friends in Lubbock who take all of their children on a special trip for their fifth birthday. We thought it was a great tradition so we've decided to do that in our family. Ollie is our first five year old so Spencer and I took him to San Antonio for his birthday. (Grandma Beck came from Utah to stay with Lily.)

Friday we drove down. We stayed in a hotel by the Riverwalk. We strolled along the Riverwalk and had dinner in a Mexican restaurant because Ollie said he wanted Mexican food. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and watched some TV. Then we went to bed. All of us in the same bed... Ollie ended up sleeping snuggled right up next to me. He thought it was fun to all sleep in the same bed. I thought he was much to wiggly to do it again anytime soon. :)



The next morning we dressed warm and headed off to Sea World. Ollie was super excited. Here's Ollie and Mom outside the entrance.



Ollie wanted to feed the dolphins first. They were hungry and playful. Ollie was very brave and fed them fish and he also touched them. One of the dolphins splashed Mom and Ollie and got them all wet. Later, on the drive home, Ollie just randomly said, "What do eyeballs taste like?" Spencer and I were a bit mystified as to what sparked the question, and we told him that we don't eat eyeballs. He replied that dolphins do. We explained that dolphins eat the whole fish and we only eat the meat part of the fish. He's a very observant kid.



Here's Ollie with a shark in the background.



Ollie's first roller coaster ride-- the shamu ride at Sea World. This picture is actually the second time he went on it. The first time he went with Mom and she taught him how to wave his arms in the air and scream. He thought it was a lot of fun. The ride are crowded in the summer but not in the winter. We were able to go on the rides as much as we wanted. They have this one ride where you sit on a boat type thing and go on a rapids ride. We did this ride twice. The first time we didn't get that wet so we decided to go again. The second time Spencer and Ollie got soaked. Ollie was wearing warm up pants so he just brushed the water off. Spencer, however, got soaked and very cold. Luckily it was towards the end of the day. Plus it was a fun ride. I went on the roller coasters (by myself). They have one called "The Great White Shark" that was really fun!



We were able to see the Shamu show twice. The second time Ollie and Spencer sat really close (not much splashing in the winter). I sat back a few rows because I did NOT want to get at all wet. Spencer and Ollie sat right next to the area where the whale comes. During the preshow they got to sing into a microphone and be on the TV screen. They also got to see Shamu close up. In this picture you can see the whale and in the bottom left corner you can see Spencer's bald head and the back of Ollie's head.



Here's a picture of all of us with a Christmas dolphin. Ollie had a lot of fun.

Saving a Kitty

Here's a picture of Officer Ollie getting a kiss from Grandma after rescuing her kitty from a tree. Ollie loves his new police uniform but he doesn't want to handcuff anyone He's the kind of policeman that rescues animals. :)

Ollie's 5!!!

Happy Birthday Ollie! We started out the day singing "Happy Birthday" to wake you up. You were very excited to see the kitchen decorated and especially the star balloons that Papa got you. You opened up your presents first thing before Papa went to work. You got the handcuffs that you really wanted. You also got some money and... tickets to Sea World. Mom and Papa decided to take a special trip to San Antonio with just you. You were not really too happy about the whole idea because Grandma Beck was going to be staying here with Lily. We finally convinced you that Grandma couldn't come because she didn't have a ticket and then you wanted to go. :) We played with your new toys during the morning while Papa was at work. Papa took off a half day and was home in time for lunch and cake. Every year I let you pick what kind of cake you want and this year you decided that you wanted a wedding cake. I questioned you several times in the days before your birthday to make sure that you really wanted a "wedding cake" and you really did. You described that you wanted a cake that had three different layers and they all had to be different sizes. I'm not quite sure why you wanted a wedding cake but I did my best. It turned out kind of lopsided but you loved it. You wanted a candle in each color so you ended up with six candles instead of five. You also really wanted your ice cream in a cone. Funny kid. :) After cake and ice cream we drove to San Antonio!

Funny things about Ollie- He is really interested in growing up, getting married (he still thinks that he wants to marry Lily), and having children. Maybe that's why he wanted a wedding cake. He loves to draw and color. He loves to have his own supply of crayons, markers, pencils, scissors, and glue. He is always creating. He never stop talking while at home (and I mean NEVER). He still loves to help his Mom. He loves to spend hours setting up a scene for us to play. Once he has spent all that time setting it up he usually only wants to play it for a minute and then wants to move on and set up something else. He is increbibly bright and really seams to excell at math. He loves stuffed animals (and has way too many). He wants to learn to tie his shoes. His favorite food is strawberries. His favorite day is Sunday because we get to go to church and he gets to pick where everyone sits for dinner that night. He loves to learn about animals. He really wants a dog someday. He brings his Mom, Dad, and Sister much joy and delight.

Happy Birthday Ollie! We sure love you and are so glad to have you as part of our family.

Christmas Tree

My Mom was able to come out for Ollie's birthday. The day before his birthday we set up our Christmas tree (a new full size one, thanks Mom!). We also had a nice turkey dinner with all the trimmings. We had a lot of fun and were so glad that Grandma was able to be here with us! We've also learned that having a third person helping keeps things more orderly and less likely to break.

Ollie is old enough that he understands Christmas and Santa. He's very excited about getting some presents. Lily has no idea why we put a tree in our living room but she had fun hanging candy canes on it. She also wants to sleep under it. Two year olds just take everything in stride and nothing is odd for them. I'm pretty sure that she will be excited to get some presents from Santa.



Here's a finished picture. Yes, I know the ornaments are all clustered in spots and no, I'm not going to fix it.

Reading

Ollie and Lily just love books. All day long they bring me books to read to them. Another thing they really love is to snuggle in bed with me in the morning and read books. Ollie has been learning to read and will now occasionally read to Lily. Here's a super cute picture of them reading together.

Yarn

For some reason, my children love yarn. They are always using it for different things. Ollie just loves to use it to tie things together. He really enjoys tying knots. Lily loves to put it all over her and get tangled up in it. It's also great for pretending to be kitty's and trying to get the yarn from each other. One day I asked Ollie to clean up all the little HEB balls from my room back into his room. After about 15 minutes, I hadn't seen him come out of my room once so I figured I'd better check on him. Instead of just carrying them and making several trips he had attached them all to a piece of yarn so he could drag them behind him and only make one trip. I thought it was a great idea but it did take him much longer than it would have to just make several trips carrying them. Very inventive kiddo.

Thankful

Today I am so thankful to NOT be in Dallas with Lily getting her cast changed. What a huge blessing for our family! Instead, I spent the morning with Ollie at preschool and I plan on spending the afternoon playing with two cute kiddos. :)

Halloween

Ollie was Buzz Lightyear and Lily was a girafee. We had a lot of fun at the ward trunk or treat. We also went door to door this year. We have always just done the ward trunk or treat but this year Ollie informed us that he really wanted to go "door to door".
After a while Ollie got tired of carrying his pumpkin bucket and wanted me to carry it. Lily, on the other hand, held onto the bucket for dear life. I offered to carry it for her but she did NOT want me to. She is a sugar baby and was very interested in the candy. Ollie was more interested in knocking and yelling "trick or treat".

Blackmail

One day we will be able to use this photo to blackmail Ollie. He loves this little shirt that is Lily's. One day he managed to squeeze himself into it. Crazy kid!

New Glasses

When we went up to Dallas for Lily's surgery (thankfully cancelled), she also saw her eye doctor. These glasses are the result. Now she wears a contact in the left eye and then glasses to fine tune her vision. When we took her to get the glasses she was happy to try on a few pairs for us. We were concerned about her keeping them on so we paid extra and had them cut off the ear pieces and put these special ear pieces on. The next day I went to pick the glasses up. I put them on her for the drive home. By the time we made it to the second light she had figured out how to get them off. She definitately doesn't like her new glasses. There's nothing like trying to keep glasses on an active two year old. On the plus side- her glasses bug her more than her patch so she doesn't bother her patch as much.

Lily

Dear Family and Friends,

We wanted to share our story about a miracle. As you know, Lily was scheduled for surgery that was to take place today. She was born with her hip dislocated and they decided six months ago to do surgery to try to put the hip back in place. The surgery was going to be followed by 12 weeks in a cast that would make her unable to move much. The surgery was scheduled back in July and we have been dreading what was to come.

Yesterday we went to the hospital for the admission process. The first step in the process was to take an x-ray. After the doctor viewed the x-ray he wanted to see us right away. Through a miracle, the ball part of her bone is lined up with where it should be. The doctor hopes that as it grows and gets bigger it will fill up the hip socket and be okay. For now, she doesn’t need the surgery! What a blessing for our family.

As we have prayed and given thanks for this blessing we have felt that it comes to us, in large part, through your fasting and prayers on our behalf. We thank you so much! The Lord loves you and continues to hear your prayers. Thank you for taking part in this miracle with us. We have felt your love and prayers!

Much Love,
Spencer and Shreann

Dear Family and Friends,
Thanks for taking a minute to check out our blog. We need your help.

When Lily was born, both of her hips were dislocated. For the first three months she was in a harness all day and night. After three months they decreased the time that she had to be in it to just naps and nighttime.



When she was six months old we found out that it had worked for her right hip but not for her left hip. The next step was to do surgery and try to put the left hip back in place. So, when she was seven months old she had the surgery. After surgery they had to put her in a spica cast to hold her hips still and give the bones a chance to form. She was in the cast for 4 months and got it off right before her first birthday.



Three months later we found out that her hip was dislocated again. They decided to wait for her bones to get harder before they did surgery again. On October 27th, Lily will have surgery again to try to fix her hips. They will do basically the same procedure but they will do the surgery from a different angle to try to make it work better. This surgery will be more invasive and she will have the spica cast again.



We would like to invite you to join us in a special fast for Lily. We believe that fasting and prayers are more effective than prayer alone. We will be fasting for her on Sunday October 25th. Please pray for her little spirit to have some understanding of why this is happening. Pray that her doctors will be guided and inspired on the best way to help her. Pray that her doctors will know how much she is loved. Pray that we will have the strength as a family to make it through the next several months.



We know that your love, fasting, and prayers will help to sustain us through this difficult time. We love you.

Happy Birthday Lily!

Happy 2 years baby girl! We sure had a fun day. We started off the day singing to Lily. She was delighted to have her whole family there singing to her. She especially liked the party blowers. She wanted us to sing happy birthday to her over and over again. Then we opened her presents. Ollie helped her open them and showed her how to play with them. Her favorite gift was the plastic wonderpet figures that Ollie gave to her. She knows all the wonderpet songs and had fun making them dance and sing. After playing with her new toys we went to the zoo. It's our first time going to this zoo and both children had lots of fun. Lily's favorite thing to see was the lions. The lions were laying right up by the window so you could see them very well. Ollie's favorite animal was the squirrel monkey. They both had fun playing on the playground and Lily went down the slide by herself for the first time. We finished off the day with cake and icecream. What a fun celebration for our little girl.

Things we love about Lily:
Papa- "I love that Lily always makes me laugh. I love that she likes to sing so much. I love her determination. I love that she always tells me 'good job, papa.'"
Ollie- "I like that she always makes me giggle and she makes me giggle by sitting on my belly. I like it when she plays with me. She is good at giving me hugs and kisses."
Mom- "I love to hear her talk and sing. I love that she loves to practice walking. I love racing her while crawling. I love that she likes to hide under the kitchen sink."



Here's a conversations we just had that tells more about Lily.
Mom- "Lily, what's your favorite toy?"
Lily- "My green toy." (I'm not sure what toy is the green toy, especially since she doesn't know her colors yet.)
Mom- "What's your favorite color?"
Lily- "Green."
Papa- "What's your favorite food?"
Lily- "Cheerios."
Mom- "What's your favorite song?"
Lily- "Happy Birthday."
Mom- "Lily, how old are you?"
Lily- "One."
Ollie- "Lily, say two."
Lily- "Two."
Papa- "Whose your favorite friend?"
Lily- "Ollie."

Indians

For Family Home Evening each week we rotate who does which part. Last week it was Ollie's turn to do the activity. He really wanted to play Indians, so we made head-dresses. Here's a picture that we tried to take ourselves. It took several tries to get all of us in the picture (and Spencer's hat still got cut off). :)

The Ginos Family

We had a fun visit with the Ginos family. They were on their way to San Antonio and stopped by to spend the night. The next day we went to the Mayborn Museum and had fun playing. We wished they lived closer so we could see them more often!!




I was trying to take a picture of Spencer and Lily. Spencer told Lily to look up and that's exactly what she did.



Ollie and Brayden cooking eggs in the pioneer room.



Ashlyn and Lily all dressed up in the tea party room. These girls are only four days apart so it's fun to talk about them and what they are doing because it is so similar.



Ashlyn, Brayden, Lily, and Ollie on the school bus. I tried several times to get pictures of all four of them at once but it just didn't happen. Here's the best one.



Somebody loves and looks up to their big brother very very much!



Look at that smile!



Ollie, Brayden, and all these animals all slept in the same bed. They don't see each other very often but they always play so well together. When they do see each other it's like no time has passed.

Lily Dressing

Lily likes to try to get herself dressed. She doesn't quite have the dexterity to do it yet but she sure tries and we praise her so she thinks she knows how to do it.

Christmas, Here We Come

So we made some Christmas decorations the other day. When I told Spencer what we were going to do, he said, "Really!?!". He thought it was strange (and maybe he's right) because it's only September. I just wanted to get some of the Christmas stuff done before Lily goes into her cast. So now we have some presents for the Grandparents. :)
Just so you know, it was not fingerpainting. Lily got that dirty with a paintbrush. The kids had a lot of fun!

First Day of PreSchool

Ollie had his first day of preschool. He's going to a co-op preschool with children in the ward. He loved his first day. He was nervous about going. I talked with him about why he was nervous... he was afraid that his teacher would ask him to count higher than 100 and he wasn't sure if he could count higher. I just explained that the reason we go to school is to learn and that he didn't need to be afraid about the things he didn't know yet. He then got excited and was ready to go. I'm excited that this will give him a chance to interact with other kids more. I think it will also help him to learn more in a structured environment. We (Ollie and I)also need some adjustment to being away from each other. They do all day kindergarten here so next year he will be gone all day! I'll sure miss him!

Dress Ups

What child doesn't love to dress up? Mine sure do. Ollie colored this monkey mask and then wanted to dress up. He colored the mask with lots of colors and said he was a baboon. Lily was super excited when we showed her herself in the mirror. She was very happy to be a giraffe.

30

I turned 30 a few weeks ago. 30 has always sounded so old, but I don't feel old.... For my birthday we went to the beach at Waco lake. We had a great time! I guess it's okay to be 30. :)

Where's Lily

Getting out of the shower one day, I went to check on my children. Ollie was standing in the kitchen just giggling. He had opened the pantry and moved the flour and sugar buckets out. He then convinced Lily to crawl in and then he shut the door. I opened the door and Lily was just sitting there. She wasn't scared or anything. They now play this game whenever I'm in the kitchen. Thankfully, Lily's not afraid of the dark.