California Trip

So as most of you had heard...my Cali trip was very...adventurous! haha To make a long story short, I got off of the plane and it was POURING rain, and it was like that up until the day I left. I'm talking mud slides, hurricane warnings, etc.. the second night I was there Kelli's little girl Kaylie got the flu, like puking every ten minutes flu. Then a day later Kelli came down with it. So for the last two days I was there they were all sick, I felt so bad for them! They of course felt horrible that happened while I was there, but here's the thing..I could sit on the couch and just talk to Kelli for a week straight and have so much fun. That's why we are best friends, it's just like old days when we get back together even though it might have been over a year or so. We just pick right back up and it's great. Courntey was able to take us shopping one of the days and do our hair. She stayed the night and of course brought Kelli and I pregnant junk food to snack on the whole time. It was so much fun to spend some time with my girls, I love you both!




I LOVE this little girls, she warmed Right up to me
just after a few minute's of being around her. I
don't know if it had to do with that giant lollipop
I brought her..but whatever works right?

Court took me shopping and did my hair while I was there..thanks friend!

Oh the sicklings! Kelli came down with the flu right after her daughter did while I was there. I felt horrible for them! But as you can see we both were still able to laugh and have a good time!

Talon LOVED the one on on time with him and his mommy. He was free to fly, so I took him and only him with me. It was so much fun, he was so good and it was nice being able to just focus and love on him.

Talon and Kaylie just played and played. This is them pretty much running in circles the whole time I was there!

Random Pictures!!!

Here are a few pictures I took while we were with Ben's family over Christmas. There was so much going on that I didn't take A TON of pictures, which I regret now! But, my sweet husband bought me a new Nikon photography camera (well, I put alot of my babysitting money towards it and he took care of the rest. lol) so alot of these pictures are of me just playing with my camera. I gave Brittney and Chad this Snuggie for Christmas. It was HUGE, as you can see!!!

Our gingerbread house. Brooklyn and I did it together, it was so fun

This was our "Christmas Card Shrine!" Every Christmas this is my FAVORITE part, getting cards from everyone else. LOVE IT!

Ben's Grandma made us all these aprons which turned out SOOO cute. My kids love them!!

Austin was actually really good!

We went bowling with Ben's family over Christmas and had a blast!

Daddy's little girl

Loves to give kisses

Let me tell you about this little man. He tells me about five times a day how "pretty and how bootiful" I am. He does it to Brooklyn, even to my mom. We were in Walmart yesterday and there was a little girl about his age and he walked up and told her she was a very pretty girl. Such a ladies man!!

Isn't she getting so big!! I can't believe how mature she even looks to me lately. I have a FIVE year old!! Wow. She is such a good girl, the best. Love you princess

This is the look I get most of the time lately! haha

He is my BIGGEST binkie baby...I really need to get rid of it before this next baby..I think I'm more scared then him though!

My studly three year old

Grandma's kisses

My beautiful princess

This is the cute cheeser I get like ten times a day

My dad used to always say what a good daughter I was..when i was sleeping. lol..I'm starting to understand that statement. jk. Love you baby..

Oh Austin James how I love you

Engagement Pictures

These are a few of my sister and Ryan's engagement pictures I took for them. I had only had my camera for a week or so, so I didn't know alot about taking professional pictures and just thought they were going to be for fun...BUT, they liked them enough to actually use them for their announcement pictures. Anyways, I took like 2oo pics, but here are just a few of my favorites. Keep in mind..these have not been touched up or anything!! lol..

HERE COMES THE BRIDE!!

My little sister got married this weekend!! She was the most beautiful bride and everything went so smooth. It was a crazy buys weekend at the McSpadden household trying to get everything ready, but it all came together nicely and they are finally married for time and all eternity! Ben and I got there with our kids Thursday night around 11pm and stayed through Sunday. Friday was spent getting everything put together for the reception and all of the final wedding touches and then Saturday was the big day. I was so excite/nervous for her I barely slept a wink all night! I got up early that morning and did her makeup, got the kids ready, and off we went to the the Boise temple where they were married. It was a beautiful ceremony and it didn't help that I was pregnant because I cry over anything anyways,..I bawled like a baby through the whole thing. I was ok until she started crying and then I lost it. Something about watching your baby sister getting married, I was very emotional all weekend. It was so neat just seeing her so happy and in love, it made me so happy that she found that for herself. Ryan is an amazing guy and adores Taucia. He treats her so good and just watching the way they interact with each other made me so giddy for them.

We had a lunchin at the church afterwards where of course my dad makes me get up and give a speech..which of course I bawled through again! We then went back to my parents, rested for a little while (oh and may I mention that my husband came down with a sore throat the morning that we left. He pretty much slept the whole first day we were there and whenever he got a spare second to rest. I thought he was just being a baby with a bad cold. But come to find out when we got back in town...he had STREP THROAT! I felt so bad. I did have some left over amoxicillan so the first day he started complaining I made him start taking that. Good thing too or we probably would have all got it. Anyways, he was quite the trooper with me dragging him to everything!)

The reception was that night and it turned out awesome. It was at the church and Taucia didn't want it looking like a church gym so they pretty much transformed the whole thing! Hanging lights, that see through sheer material over the lights, everything! For food she has an ice cream bar with every topping you could think of. A chocolate fountain and lots of yummy things to eat. It was a crazy busy night with all three of my kids tired, visiting with every person that came to the reception (it felt like...she knows SO MANY PEOPLE!) but it turned out amazing and we are so happy for her and Ryan! They are so happy in love and so cute. We are so proud of them and hope they know how much we love both of them. Thanks for a fun weekend guys, WE LOVE YOU!!

Here comes the bride!!

The VERY happy couple!!It wa so cute, as soon as Taucia came out the doors Austin ran up to her and gave her a big hug.

Ryan's family, they are all super nice. She made such a beautiful bride!!

YEA!!!

AWWW

They were so happy, it was so cute Outside of the temple


My darling little princess holding my bridesmade flowers..she carried them around ALL NIGHT!


This was the look I got from Talon pretty much all night...pulling on my legs screaming "MAMA!! MAMA!! He wasn't quite sure how he felt about all those people there so was a little nervous. Pretty dang cute in his studly little vest though!

Daddy daughter dance..my dad was pretty muchh in tears.

I love this picture. Brooklyn is laying on the floor watching Ryan and Taucia dance..I thought thaht was really cute!

First dance as married couple

Cutting the cake!

They were actually very nice to eachother with the cake because it was a CHOCOLATE frosted cake and Ryan was affraid to get it on Taucia's wedding dress.

Oh how I love this little boy

Two of my favorite quotes from Austin as of late:
Last night we were driving home and as he is looking out the window he says,"Mom, is the moon the door to Heavenly Father's house?" haha!
Second: I noticed every time I give Austin kisses lately he wipes them off. So, I asked him why and he said,"Mom! You are a girl! Every time you kiss me it makes me look like a girl...and I'm a boy mom!" He was seriously upset about it, it was hilarious.

Oh how I wish I could live in that little mind of his for just a day.

What an experience

Ok, so I had an event happen today that I decided I had to blog about. It was quite the eye opening experience for me and I don't think I have ever in my life felt the way I felt today.

As some of you know a couple of months ago I found a really cheap ticket online to fly out and visit my friend Kelli in California, so this past week I drove down to Boise, Idaho; left Austin and Brooklyn with my family and Talon I went on a little trip together. I won't go into much detail about the trip...it was definitely fun seeing Kelli, Jeremy and adorable little Kalylie, but let's just say the second day I was there Kalie got the flu, and then two days later Kelli got the flu so we pretty much just stayed indoors and played. (Oh and the weather was crazy, rained like sheets all week as well..so that just added to the funness..haha)It was still fun to catch up with Kelli and Courtney though, I swear we don't see each other for years and when we get together it's like we're back in high school all over again.
ANYWAYS, so yesterday I flew back into Boise, picked up my kiddos and made the long 6 hour drive home today. We came upon Treamonton and I was having one of those moments where the kids were crying, we were tired of driving and we all just needed a little break. So I was getting ready to take the next exit when I look up and see a red SUV in the opposite lane on the other side of the median rolling and coming right at me. I pulled over ASAP to watch this car roll three times and land upside down in the snow filled median. I saw the passenger in the car as it was rolling (that's how close she was to me) and could tell she was a young girl but couldn't tell if anyone else was in the car with her. I jumped out of my car along with two truck driving guys. Both of the men started digging the snow out to get down to her and literally had to get flat on their stomachs to start pulling her out. I'm standing about 5 feet away not really knowing what to do and as soon as they get her head and shoulders out she starts screaming at me to GET HER BABY OUT!!! Panic swept over me because the snow was completely filled with snow and I didn't see a baby. I had on my dumb clog shoes that kept falling off because the snow in the Median was up to my waist so I just kicked them off and started running towards the back seat. The mom was pointing towards a handle looking thing so me and a man pulled on it at out popped a car seat....filled with snow. I brushed the snow off right in time to hear a piercing NEWBORN baby crying, and sure enough a tinny tiny baby boy is in the car seat crying like crazy.(he was FOUR WEEKS OLD) I knew it was a good sign he was crying so I got him out of his car seat, took him to my car and wrapped him in blankets. (Now may I remind you that I was gone for 10 days so I had all my luggage in my car...blankets, clothes, shoes, onesies from Talon, etc...so it was a huge blessing. They got the mom to my car and she was HYSTERICAL. There was another lady that pulled over that happened to be a nurse so checked her and the baby out and they both seemed to be ok. Except that the baby had glass all over him and the mom had a huge cut behind her ear and was bleeding everywhere. She checked the baby out and told me to take off his wet clothes and change him into some of Talons, which drowned him of course but I was happy to have them with me, then wrapped him up into one of Austin's big flannel Thomas blankets. I had extra shoes for the mom, gave her a jacket and just waited for the ambulance to come. It got there..which seemed like FOREVER, and I just held that baby., picking glass out of his hair, wondering how such a little thing didn't have a scratch on him. They both ended up being ok, mom just had some pretty bad bumps and bruises and needed some stitches. But as soon as I bundled that little baby up he fell right asleep in my arms (which I wasn't sure was ok but the EMT guy said he was fine) and I seriously just said prayer after prayer thanking my Heavenly Father that I didn't come upon something worse and that this poor little family was ok. The ambulance took them to the hospital (oh and I have to add, my sweet Austin told the little baby he could keep his blanket..which I thought was really sweet because it was his favorite) and after they took off...I lost it.
I seriously sat in my car and bawled like a baby. In the moment I was all about helping, getting things under control, and as soon as they left I'm pretty sure I went into shock. Ben called me right as that happened and I was so emotional I couldn't even talk...which pretty much freaked him out until he understood why and then was just concerned about ME getting home in one piece. I did just that, and then hung onto him and my kids like no other the rest of the night.

I think sometimes I go through phases in my life where I just try to get through the day, take things for granted sometimes, and I don't really stop to look at everything I have and how amazing my life really is. I have never had more of an understanding of how fast that can all be taken away from me and how fragile life really is until I witnessed this today. Sometimes we all start feeling sorry for ourselves, think about if we could have this or that..but the only thing that matters is the now and what we do with it. I think of all of the people in Haiti and how scared they must be right now..I can't even imagine.
Anyways, what a scary eye opening experience this was for me today, but one that happened to me for a reason for sure. And one that I will never forget.