Time to Catch Up!

Christmas 2008

Santa Came!



The stockings weren't exactly hung by the
chimney but Santa filled them anyways!

Ashley always takes good care of Enoch.
Bekah wants to help too!

What did Santa bring Josh?

Hurry Noelle!

It's a barbie!

Noelle gave Rachel the coveted golden ball!
Rachel also gave one to Noelle. How tricky!

Santa knew Cami likes to exercise!

A Rubiks Cube was on Xiaoyi's list!

Enoch got a new outfit!

Bekah enjoying Christmas!

The only thing that would have made our Christmas better would have been to have sweet little Faith at home with us. She was having difficulties breathing and so she had to stay in the hospital for one more day. I went back to the hospital Christmas afternoon to be with her. Cami came with me to keep me company.

When I first started this blog I was so excited and had high hopes of keeping an online family journal and I was doing quite well but then the sickness that accompanies my pregnancies hit and I fell into a black hole.

When Faith arrived I emerged from the black hole!! And it has been such a joy to have her as part of our family! But it has taken me awhile to figure out how to add one more person's needs into my already busy life and stay balanced. I still don't have it figured out?! I am beginning to think that I will never figure it out!

So even though life is chaotic and at times I feel like I don't even have time to breathe I am going to start blogging again! Soon...

Announcing the arrival of

Holly Faith Spendlove

December 22, 2008

1:54 p.m.

7 lbs 3 0z

19 in

American Fork, Utah

It had been a long hard 9 months and I must admit I was thrilled my blood pressure was high and I needed to be induced!

Vaughn had to wear a mask and gown.

The baby was breech so I had my first c-section.

Noelle thinks "Dad looks like a lunch lady!"

I was sad I couldn't hold my baby right away.

Finally!

It was all so worth it!

The weather outside was frightful the day Faith was born so by the time the Vaughn was able to bring the kids to the hospital to see their new little sister they were unable to see her up close because she had been moved to the NICU.

Our Family Welcomes Xiaoyi!

On August 14 Vaughn, Ashley, Cami, and I went to Maeser's Back to School Night. While Ashley and Cami socialized and I waited in the long lines to pay fees and get schedules, Vaughn wandered around the school. He came across a stack of papers that contained profiles of students from around the world who wanted to be foreign exchange students but still needed host families. A cute girl from China, Xiaoyi, really grabbed his attention. He brought me her profile and told me, "I really think we should do this!" It didn't seem very feasible. Sure it would be fun BUT...We have 7 children already! I am expecting in January! and we aren't exactly made of money! How could we host a foreign exchange student!?!

We called the phone number of the Nacel Open Door Representaive anyways "just to see" what it all entailed and ... it sounded like a lot of work... forms to fill out, a home visit, a background check.... Vaughn and I AVOID extra work so we decided not to bother, "We had enough on our plate already and besides, on Nacel's website it didn't even look like Xiaoyi still needed a host family and if we were going to do this we had our hearts set on her!"

The Rep didn't give up like we had. She somehow managed to get us excited enough to at least fill out the forms. Then she invited herself on over to do the home visit. I had to beg for a day to clean! She wanted to come in an hour! We must have passed the background check because on August 26, Vaughn received an e-mail from Xiaoyi thanking us for being her host family!

We picked Xiaoyi up at the airport on Thursday, August 28 (only 2 weeks after first looking at her profile)!

And I must say it has been a WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE to have Xiaoyi as part of our family! I stongly feel Heavenly Father has had a hand in this arrangement. I am very grateful to Him for making it all work out so well.

Too Sick to Blog!!!

As much as I have enjoyed blogging, for right now due to "morning" sickness that lasts all day I don't feel up to blogging or anything else. Hopefully I will be able to resume living in a few more weeks.
Yes, if you haven't already heard, this is an announcement! I am expecting my last baby the first part of January!!!

Spendlove Family Dinner

We had the Spendlove family over for dinner Sunday evening. We celebrated Katarina's, Rebekah's, Enoch's, Derek's, and Josh's birthdays! It was fun to see everyone again! We missed Larry,Venise, and Will.

All of the cousins

Another Softball Update

Some of us are spending a lot of time at the ball park. It's been fun to watch Cami play. On Monday the Indians won their game against the Blue Jays 13 to 12! On Wednesday it seemed they were going to win again against the Gators. They were ahead the whole game until the last inning and then nothing went right for the Indians. The final score was 10 to 17. Oh, well we can't win them all.