The Vikings Rock!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We hope you have a great Thanksgiving and have a lot to be thankful for.

We are thankful for God, our 3 kids and the rest of our family, our home, and all our wonderful friends!

Lots of Love,
Team Spindler

Rainy Day Fun

You can't imagine how excited the kids get when a little bit of rain falls out of the sky. On the way to school it was raining pretty hard and they couldn't get over how loud it was -- so loud we had to turn up the radio! Then of course they don't get to go to recess because the playground is too muddy. But the nice part is catching glimpses of those maginificant rainbows and not understanding why you can't go to it and find the pot of gold!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Team Spindler hopes that you had a very fun and safe Halloween. Here are some pictures from our antics....

Visit with the Josephs...

The Joseph Cousins came for a visit. We had lots of fun playing, eating, and just hanging around together with basketball and baseball games, swim meets and shooting off rockets, and of course, the pie making, which for some reason I didn't get any pictures of! Too bad they don't like the warm weather so much because we sure would love to live closer together!

Elvis got a haircut!!

Here is Elvis before...




And after...his ears are a little too short....we don't know if he is embarrassed or not...

Gram and Poppy are here

Gram and Poppy made it to AZ on Monday and came over to have dinner and share in some halloween cookies....

Que Pasa??

This week was a busy one with all our sports and activities in full swing.

Archie recently moved up to the DTAC swim team which is a USA Sanctioned team. It really doesn't mean too much different except for it costs more and he can now get disqualified in his races if he doesn't do something correctly in his strokes. They do practice a little bit more and focus more on building their competative edge rather than just getting the stroke right. His first meet was last Sat. He swam the 50 Free and 25 Fly. He also got to swim the 100 Free and 100 Medley Relays, both of which his foursome broke the team records from back in 2001 -- the Medley by 2 seconds and the Free by 11 second!! That was awesome.

He also started his new season of basketball. They have a bunch of their old teammates back together and they are really improving as a group. Yesterday, they got to play their game full court which they all thought was pretty cool -- little did they know that it was actually harder! Archie is a great team player and of course, has a slight advantage with his height -- I just measured him today and he is 4' 8". I'm only 5' 4" so it won't be too much longer before I look up to him!

Sam is playing both his baseball and basketball. He still loves anything with a ball -- he spends most of his time either on the driveway with Martin or in the house on the DS. His baseball is coming along although Daddy is still a little frustrated. He smacks the heck out of the ball at home and at practice, but at game time he is a little bit more reserved. He has a great arm and can fire it at Daddy. We have to remember that he is still only 6 and has plenty of time to work out his kinks. He also has learned how much fun it is to chew bubble gum while you are playing!!

At basketball, Sam's team is also finally working together better. Sam is working on shooting his layups rather than driving down and just shooting from the outside.

School is good for both boys. Sammy has a more strict teacher this year which he really responds well to and Archie has the more fun teacher. Sam always says it isn't fair, but doesn't realize how much harder Archie's work is.

And last, but definitely not least, Alice is keeping herself busy with gymnastics, dancing, swimming, school and her BFF's. She is definitely a girly girl these days -- loves pink, dresses, purses, and doesn't care for boys unless they are "her boys"...i.e. Archie, Sammy, Daddy, or Elvis! Her most commonly said thing these days is "Mommy, we both girls. Daddy is a boy."

Her vocabulary has increased dramatically over the last few months. She recently went through a severe case of the "Whys", but that seems to have subsided some -- my typical answer was because the sky is blue which would suffice for almost any question.

She goes to school 2 days a week with Ms. O'Donnell. It is a very creative class -- the same school that Sam went -- and I think it has gotten better than when he was there. I ride her over there in the bike trailer which she loves. Her class has only 3 girls in it which is a change from last year where her class only had 1 boy.

Alice is still growing as well although it is like a snail! She is now 37 1/2 inches and a little over 29 lbs. I'm working on her!

Daddy and I have been obviously keeping busy by keeping up with the kids activities and we are totally enjoying it all! It is fun to see them so active and enjoying what they do.

Hasta La Vista!

Alice wrote her name for the very first time all by herself -- the L is upside down.



I'm wondering if Alice is practicing to be a great shopper or a bag lady -- she LOVES her "things"!

Alice's new trick...

Weekend Camping!

We decided to head off to Roosevelt Lake for a night this weekend. We packed up and left from Sammy's baseball game where he hit 4 for 4. The lake was beautiful and the water was about 80ish or so. Archie went waterskiing again and got up and went a couple of times. It was great -- I'll try to put some of the video out soon. It was a group effort -- Kurt was helping Archie in the water, I was driving, Sammy was filming and Alice was the flag girl. Alice took her turn tubing with Daddy -- hanging on and pretty fearless. Sammy loved jumping in the water and having Daddy pull him back in on the rope. Kurt worked on his jumps on the wakeboard and Mommy just practiced her driving -- only ran into one boat this time -- no worries, it was at the dock.

P.S. -- Murray is a mascot from Archie's class and it was Archie's turn to bring him home for a visit. No one else had taken Murray camping or on a boat before so Archie was pretty psyched about that.

Labor Day in San Diego

We spent our Labor day long weekend in SD with our great friends -- the Weisenbergers! We had fun at the beach, bouncing on the trampoline, swimming, watching college football, going to the baseball game and the track. And of course, playing the Wii FOREVER!! It was so nice to be out of the heat for a few days -- the first thing the kids said when we stopped at the gas station in Yuma was "Why is it so hot, I want to go back to San Diego!"

Just CLOWNING around at school today....

HAPPY ALICE DAY!!!!!!!

August 22, 2008 marks the day that we first met Alice in person. What a fabulous day and 2 years it has been. Everybody that knows Alice, knows what I mean!

Alice THEN....



Alice NOW....



And we treated our Princess to a little bit of pampering....Pretty in Pink




And just what is "Happy Alice Day"...




Finally, a small trip down memory lane....

It's School Time again -- FINALLY!!!!

Even though the temps are still high, summer as we know it is finally over. We had a great one though with dancing, baseball, basketball and ice skating camps; lots of swim meets; bowling and movies; and just a good amount of TV, computer and DS time!! But this week it was back to the old routine, although we have to admit it was a fairly easy week with no homework and still lots of Olympics to watch. We wonder what mom is going to do with all her time now that we aren't around.

Archie starts 3rd grade


Sam starts 1st grade


Alice starts Preschool

Just a few pics from the week....

Friday was a fun day. Alice had a great swim lesson in the morning then Kurt took a half day and we went ice skating to get out of the heat. The kids are so psyched about the olympics. We watched most of the opening ceremonies and of course, Archie can't wait to watch the swimming and Sam wants to watch the baseball.



Alice thought skating with Daddy was the most fun -- he's much faster than Mommy...





And this is why Mommy is in charge of taking most of the pictures.....

Alice wanted to show you what she can do!

Here I am diving into the pool, floating in airplane then turning over into supergirl.



And here I am taking advantage of those super balancing genes that I got from China!!

APRA Swim Meet

Today was the APRA State Swim Meet. Archie participated in the 7-8 yr old 100yd IM, 25yd Fly, and 50yd Free. He took 8th, 8th and 4th, respectively. Considering that each race had from 3 to 5 heats of kids, he did very well. It was a fun morning watching him and all his friends compete.

Happy Mother's Day in July

It is a tradition to get a photo with the me and the kids for Mother's Day. We were just a little late getting to it this year, but here we are.....

A Little Hoosier Action....

Archie had his first official chance at the line ... shooting for 2 ... let's see how he did....



Then Sam got in a little action as well....

The Dancing Princess and Skating Princes

The Dancing Princess....
This summer Alice has been taking a dance class for 3 year olds. Here are some pics and a little video!



Freeze Dancing....



Skating Princes....

The boys went to a week of Ice Skating camp. They didn't know how to skate on Monday, but by today they were racing acrossed the ice. Archie is in the red sweatshirt with the bright green shirt hanging out and Sam is in the red and black hockey jersey.







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Archie's 8th Birthday -- Holy Cow!!!

More Birthday fun!!!



To see individual pics, click here:

Happy Birthday Daddy and Archie

HAPPY, HAPPY, BIRTHDAY, BIRTHDAY -- DADDY AND ARCHIE

Lunch with Steve and Becky


To start off our big birthday weekend, we met Steve and Becky for birthday lunches for Kurt and Archie at Teakwoods. YUM!!!

Weekend Fun!

This weekend we had fun swimming and going to a Diamondbacks Baseball game.

Latest Antics

WE'RE BACK!!!!!

I've decided after my 2 1/2 year hiatus that I would finally start to post to the blog again. This week marked the 2 year anniversary of us receiving our referral for Alice. It kind of snuck up on us and I have been pretty reminiscent this week. So interesting to look back and read how I felt over those few months.

Anyway, my vow is to try to update this once a week with a photo or two for anyone that is interested in coming to visit. So please bookmark us and hold me to my word!! :=)