Our Beautiful Garden

Steve and his "Cool" hat

Ethan and Matthew planting red onions

Rachel and her Tomato Plant

These are the before pictures

Picking Green Beans and a Pepper

Our Beautiful Garden

Rachel with some delicious Green Beans & a Pepper




One of Steve's hobbies is planting our self reliant garden. Not only is it a hobby (a talent he learned from his dad) and a means of fresh produce, but it's main purpose was to help our children understand where all this yummy food comes from, (when Ethan was little he said carrots came from rabbits, that's when we started our first garden) AND to learn how to work. We planted corn, green beans, strawberries, red onions, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, peppers and lots of herbs.

Although, they might never know how it really is to harvest a garden, I grew up with a garden 15x this size that I "got" to learn how to work in, they are enjoying watching it grow and are still working on enjoying eating it.

Rachel walks out to it every day to see how her tomato plant is doing. It has 6 tomatos on it now. We have had a few Sunday meals with fresh green beans already harvested from our garden. Steve and the kids have done a great job and it looks beautiful.

"Brother Free" Girl Time

Rachel loves to have girl time. She doesn't get enough of it around here with her two brothers. I do keep reminding her that she could have 4 brothers like I have, though. We caught a couple of "brother free" girl time on camera. She loves to sing and dance and of course be loud and silly.

Spendlove Corazon

What do you do with all your 30 second video clips on your digital camera? Make a music video with your kids, of course! Steve put this one together in 2006. Enjoy!

Our Budding Entrepreneur

Ethan dictating to Mom: "One day I went to Hobby Lobby and I saw these little packets full of string and I decided since I had money in my pocket I would buy it. When we went home I opened the package and we searched lanyard instructions on the internet and I found a really good website called www.boondoggleman.com and from then on I've been making them. Now I sell them. I can do special orders. So if you want to buy one, email my mom." Ethan has become quite creative with his lanyard keychains and has already made over $60. We are impressed with him and his ability to teach others how to make them also. I like the fact that it keeps my kids busy doing something besides watching TV.

Oops! There was a Dull Moment

Lauren has always been one to entertain herself well, which has been a great blessing. One day she was entertaining herself too well while I was attacking my todolist. She found a dull moment and a red marker and got creative. Luckily for me the marker wasn't that difficult to come off. You gotta love this age!

Never a Dull Moment!

This is where "Where there is never a dull moment" comes in. I am not sure what was happening at this moment, just knew that I needed to take a picture before I found the repercussions of it. I will have many stories to tell of this imaginative boy of mine.

Lauren's Three 4th Birthday Parties

Lauren is very proud that she had 3 birthday parties. She had her first one at Joy School with cupcakes she help decorate. Her second one was with all of her friends from church. There are a lot that are her age and we invited them all to a Splash Party in our backyard. Maybe someday we might be able to invite everyone to a pool party, but doubt it. All 12 kids played so well in the backyard with the big blow up pool, sprinkler, playset, h20 balloons and a few snacks. It was actually kind of relaxing, even in the Houston summer heat. I was very excited to finally get to her family birthday party and give her her present. We gave her an American Girl Doll, which a few years ago I would have never dreamed of buying a doll like that, but a friend of mine talked it up so much I got hooked. I want one for myself! Well, Rachel got one for her birthday and Lauren just loved it, so it was exciting to finally give her her own. And she is in love with her doll. We got them matching dresses and we are going on day #2 of wearing the same dress. I can't believe my baby is 4. Someone just told me that the personality you see in them at 4 is their personality for life, or something like that. At first I cringed, but I wouldn't have her any other way. Happy 4th Birthday Lauren!

Lauren's Joy School Graduation

This was a fun year of Joy School. We had 5 very cute girls, much different from the 6 boys I had when Ethan was in Joy School. However, I have a bitter sweet feeling about ending Joy School. This will be my last baby to go through Joy School. The graduation ceremony, as is anything when Lauren is involved, was very entertaining. They each recieved an award and prepared a song and a cheer. Although, Lauren danced and ran back and forth in front of all the other girls, who were standing in a nice straight line performing like they were supposed to, the whole time. Part of me laughs and the other part isn't quite sure what to do. She is a cutie and I love every ounce of her joyful being. I somehow managed to get a few pictures with her being still with all her classmates.

Ethan's 4th Grade Awards Ceremony

Ethan's award ceremony was different then the ones we have been to in the past. They now hold them in their individual classrooms, which saves time, but the teacher announced each award and had the students who earned those awards stand up. I was proud to see Ethan stand up as much as he did and it makes me feel a little bad for getting on his case so much this year, because he really did well. But it also kind of made me feel bad for the students who didn't stand up as much, I was embarassed for them. But maybe that is what they need to push them a little more, I don't know. I do know that I was a proud mother that day.

Matthew & Rachel's 1st Grade Award Ceremony

The end of the this school year is upon us as we start to attend our children's awards ceremonies. The first one was Matthew and Rachel's. It has always been fun to try and attend their school activities since they are always at the same time (that part of it is convienient). But I find myself running back and forth from one class to the other being sure not to miss their spotlight, one of the many joys of twins. But they both did great this year. We saw lots of improvement. Rachel's teacher this year, Ms. Meyer was Ethan's 1st grade teacher, so we were lucky to have here and Rachel loves her. I think Rachel is every teacher's dream student. Matthew's teacher, Ms. Slemp, was perfect for him this year. His sunday school teacher just complimented Matthew on Sunday and said that he was very vibrant. Ms. Slemp was able to keep vibrant Matthew entertained and teach him all at the same time. We had a great 1st grade year.

Ethan's Bear Badge

This was a big day for Ethan and myself. He recieved his Bear Badge 3 months before his 10th birthday and I was his den leader. He loves scouts and can't wait to actually have his own pocket knife and go camping with the scouts. We have had fun together and even though sometimes he acts like he is annoyed that I am there, there are other times I know he is proud that I am his Mom and den leader.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Just thought I would share a few pictures of my Dad as a child in honor of his birthday.

Today he turned 62. Although, you would never know it. He still works like he is 25. Here he is showing all the grandkids how to work.

He has a few traditions the grandkids get to share with him.

#1 He shares his vitamins that he keeps in the freezer. They just happen to be packaged in a chocolate chip bag. The kids love this!!!

#2 He saves his wishbones for the the grandkids to grant their wishes. My dad used to be a butcher and he can't have a meal without a good hunk of meat. So there are always wishbones around.

#3 He loves to take the kids out to the barn to collect all the chicken eggs. And of course the grandkids love it too.

#4 Every Christmas we build GRAHAM cracker houses with Grandpa. But only to blow them up with firecrackers or shotguns, if there is a fire ban. What a great tradition! We have even resorted to using hot glue guns to put our houses together, because the strongest house wins!!!

These are all fun times we have with Grandpa. Thank you Dad for being such a wonderful example and strong support for me and my family. I love you!!!

We were able to celebrate Grandpa's birthday with him this year. So, here he is at the ripe young age of 62.

Notice cute little Max asleep on Grandpa's shoulder drooling like crazy.

Now that's a great Grandpa!

My ACL (anterior cruciate ligamet) knee surgery

Back in November I was playing basketball in the Katy Stake Women's Tournament and wripped my ACL and meniscus in a two places. I didn't realize that is what had happened until January. I heard a big pop and it did hurt, but it gradully got better. Until, I would step or twist or turn the wrong way and it would bring me to the ground in tears and I would have to catch my breath to get up. After that happened a few times I decided to go see a doctor and that's when I found out what I really had done to my knee. We decided that I needed to have surgery, just didn't know when the best time to do that would be. Steve and I were so excited to go on the Pioneer Trek in March and my doctor said I could do it, but how would my knee really do? We had a friend of ours who was a Physical Therapist show me some exercises I could do to strengthen everything around my knee so there would be less chances of it giving out and I guess I did a pretty good job strengthening it along with a few prayers because I had no problems on the trek. I just had surgery May 2 and I was not at all prepared for what was to come. They arthroscopically replaced my ACL with a cadaver's and then repaired my meniscus. So I have one big stitch and 5 little scars. I was suppose to come home the same day but stayed in the hospital overnight because I couldn't keep anything down and felt miserable. I had crutch training the next day after feeling like a really old person walking around with a walker and then eventually made it home. Steve took really good care of me and the kids were OK. It has been 3 weeks now and I have pretended like I couldn't go up the stairs in our house for a little too long, but it has been nice letting my children do most of the upstairs work. I am going to physical therapy twice a week. The first week I couldn't do much. They really focused more on trying to get me to straighten my leg more than bending it. Now they have me on a bike. It gets better everyday. I just have to wear this huge brace for 6 weeks. It is really obnoxiously huge. The sad thing is that I am getting used to it, however, thankful that I am able to repair it and that I will be able to be back to normal. We did have some wonderful help with meals and babysitting during this and am so grateful for everyone's willingness to help.

Steadfast and Immovable Youth Conference Pioneer Trek 2008

Ma & Pa Spendlove

Our Girls

One of the many Ravines

Our Boys

The Larson Family Banner








Before Steve and I were asked to be a Ma & Pa for this Pioneer Trek, I had always wanted to go. My dad, who was in the Stake Presidency, just took his youth on a trek and kept saying how wonderful it was. So when we got the call I was ecstatic and just hoped that Steve would be just as excited. The Trek for both of us was exactly what we had hoped for and so much more.
We were given a list of things to do in the months before to spiritually prepare ourselves for the responsibilities that lie ahead. And that alone was worth it, but then there was more. We finally decided on a family name, the Larson Family. This is a family that was in the Hodgett Wagon Company and are the Great Grandparents of Tami Bauer, an incredible lady and wife of our bishop. So the Larson family on this trek conisisted of Eric M., Eric F., Andrew, Tuan, Blake, Ali, Britney, Marcela & Lauren. We had an amazing group of teenagers to call our children for 3 days. It was also kind of fun to be called Ma and Pa. They told us we would make great parents of teenagers. We’ll see!
Our family made a goal to not complain. And there was never a complaint. We wore the pioneer clothing, we ate like the pioneers (I think we ate better than most of the pioneers-chicken broth, hard tack, corn meal mush, beef & vegetable stew, homemade bread and ashcakes). We packed 17 lbs or less of our belongings, pulled and pushed a handcart just the like the pioneers and walked through mud, water, dry ground, rocks and many many ravines. We endured "20 minute trials" like an arrow in the arm, a wounded leg and blindness. We had our men and boys join the Mormon Battalion leaving the women to pull and push by themselves. And we even had to bury our babies (rice filled dolls that were given a real pioneer name and story) along the way. Many many opportunities to feel and recognize the spirit were provided. Many, many testimonies of the gospel were strengthened and shared. Many, many hearts were touched by the stories shared of the pioneers faith. And it was wonderful.
One of Steve's favorite moments was listening to the youth singing through the trees one evening as he went back to our tent to get his jacket. And he also enjoyed his time in the Mormon Battalion where he heard a very powerful message shared with them by Bro. VanLeuven. One of my favorite moments or most touching was the burial service of one of the babies in our company. I could write forever about all that was felt, shared and experienced in these three unforgettable days, but I just wanted you to get a feel or have a little glimpse of what we felt while on this trek. It truly was a life changing experience and we both feel like we received much more from this than we ever gave and our so grateful for this experience and for the pioneers!

Ladies Cruise to the Bahamas

I am oh so lucky to have such wonderful in-laws that I love very much. My Mother-in-law, I think, is becoming a "cruise-aholic". She and my father-in-law took all their children and spouses on a cruise to Alaska a few years ago and it was fabulous. And this year she took all the women in the family, except for Brooke who just had twin boys, on a cruise to the Bahamas. We had a great time. It wasn't the lounge on the beach, read a book, eat and sleep kind of cruise. There was no time for that, except for the eating part. We stayed up late dancing, mostly latin dancing and woke up early to do all that we could during our time together. I ate escargot for the first time and thought it was pretty good. I went parasailing with Lisa and Rebecca for the first time and loved it. It was like a relaxing swing over the beautiful aqua waters of the ocean. We went snorkeling and saw lots of different fish while enjoying the beautiful underwater world. We did a "little" bit of shopping and picture taking. We also took a bus ride to a nice beach where we were able to enjoy the tropical Bahama atmosphere. My roommate was Kari and we had matching pajamas by accident, it was perfect. We did lots more but the best part was spending time with five of my beautiful sister-in-laws and mother-in-law. I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with them and had a great time sharing experiences with each other as we bonded together. We had a great time creating memories that will last a lifetime and taking a break from our great lives at home. I have truly been blessed with a wonderful family.

{There is no way to just pick a few pictures}