Spence {JaM}

January 05, 2016 at 07:15PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 02:16:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1PJaL2X This cutie took me shopping tonight in the rain 💕☔️ #hollycapri

January 01, 2016 at 05:47PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 00:47:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1kziCVE And now we're driving into a gorgeous first sunset of the new year ☀️🎊 #nofilterneeded #iheartaz #happy2016

January 01, 2016 at 05:44PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 00:44:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1RVDeWy We went on a hike today, and may have gotten a little off the trail 😳 🌵 it sure was beautiful though! #happy2016 #iheartaz #watchoutforthepokies 🌵☀️

Thanksgiving 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 20:09:00 +0000

Looks like it's time for a new post!! Yikes!

For Thanksgiving this year we took a quick (3 days) trip to California to spend it with my family. We debated on whether the long drive would be worth the 3 days we would be there, but in the end it was definitely well worth it! It was so wonderful seeing my parents and siblings and nephews, and even some of our extended family!

We didn't plan any official photoshoots while I was there, but I did pull out my camera and capture some cute shots of the kids with their cousins and grandparents!

First we headed up to my dad's. We got there at 4:30 am and he was nice enough to stay up with Taylor and Capri while Jordan, Calin and I went to bed. Such a good dad :D

We had a big Thanksgiving dinner with my brothers, and Brenda's daughters. The kids had so much fun playing so many cousins.

We even braved the cold for a couple minutes to snap some pics of all the kids together :)

I love the area my dad lives. It's beautiful up there, and I'm just dying to do a real photoshoot out there one fall!!

Late Friday afternoon we headed to my mom's house. Dome and Jenna came over too and we watched some Christmas movies together while enjoying some Yogurt Mill and hot chocolate.

Saturday was full of relaxing play. Capri LOVES Grammy's flower garden so she spend a good amount of time out there.

We took a little walk to the field across the street. Climbed some trees, played in the leaves, and picked apart pine cones.

The we headed to Crane Park with Alan, Stephanie, Troy and Kaleb. We met up with my grandma Hatti, Uncle Pete, Aunt Celia, and cousin Henry.

The kids were having so much fun with each other and I loved following them around capturing those sweet playful moments!

I love pictures of Capri swinging! I have so many, but it's one of her favorite things to do, so I love capturing it.

4 generations :D

Last slide before heading back to Grammy's to watch the Stanford game.

We headed home around 2am Sunday morning. Luckily Jordan did most of the driving and I got to sleep most of the day, but now I have lots of unpacking and laundry to catch up one. Not to mention getting ready for Christmas :D Yay!!!

August 29, 2015 at 11:30PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 06:30:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1NGDgQ2 This cutie of mine turned 6 today 🎉

August 12, 2015 at 01:55PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 20:55:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1Ki9Ilh Capri started preschool on Monday with Ms. Nicole. She was so happy to see all her old preschool friends!

August 12, 2015 at 01:51PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 20:51:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1J4TEXu 1st day of 1st grade ✏️📓📚✂️

August 07, 2015 at 04:38PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 23:38:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1KWlTdh 🎓Graduation day! It's hard to believe this day is finally here. Jordan is now a Doctor of Physical Therapy. I couldn't be more proud of him! He's the hardest worker I know, excels in all his endeavors and always puts his family first 💕 He's accepted a job here in Gilbert AZ as a DPT in an outpatient orthopedic clinic, and also has officially accepted a position as an adjunct faculty member for the anatomy department of ATSU (teaching at a graduate level!) Oh, and he also received TWO awards for his awesomeness!! I could go on and on bragging about this guy and all of his amazing accomplishments! Congratulations Jordan 😘👏

August 03, 2015 at 07:46AM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 14:46:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1SBPgFP SUP at sunrise followed by breakfast on the beach. Great start to a Monday morning ☀️🐚🌴 #cabosunrise

July 31, 2015 at 08:09AM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 15:09:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1I7i7Ke This morning 😎 #Cabobreakfast

July 29, 2015 at 09:59AM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 16:59:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1OCct4k Off to Cabo for a week to celebrate this guy! He turned 30 last week and graduates with a Doctorate in Physical Therapy next week 😀 I'm so proud of him! And so excited to spend the week with him. Thanks @jvalponi and @grace.rojas7 for watching the littles while we're away ❤️

July 26, 2015 at 01:00PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 20:00:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1OInUrW I'm a little late, but Happy 30th Birthday to this guy! I don't know how I got so lucky! He took care of the kids all on his own for 5 days while I was at camp last week. Even celebrated his 30th birthday alone with them. Then I came home to a clean house (way cleaner than left it), happy kids, and a bouquet of fresh flowers. I love him more and more each day! 😍 happy birthday @jordancspence 🎉

July 25, 2015 at 07:19PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 02:19:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1CXWqNG First time at girls' camp was an experience I'll never forget. The young women blew me away and I miss them already. We had so much fun and grew so much over the 5 days. I wish I could do this every year! #anchoredinchrist⚓️ #hwseals

July 18, 2015 at 08:17PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 03:17:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1Gti6Mj Such a fun morning out on the river with some friends. I hope we do it again soon ☀️

July 14, 2015 at 11:26AM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 18:26:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1TAHMjk #cowappreciationday2015 #cowseatfree #eatmorchikin

July 09, 2015 at 12:22PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 19:22:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1CsefUC My lunch date. Enjoying free tacos @chipotle #summerreading

Steve & Connie

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 06:52:00 +0000

Last weekend we all got together for Steve and Connie's temple sealing. It was beautiful!

And we got to spend lots of time with family who flew in to join in the celebration :)

Matt even brought baby Grace with him. Oh how I love that chubby little lady! I wish I could keep her!

(after the temple we picked up the kids and went out to lunch. Grace tried to sneak Matt's salad when he walked away for a second. Oops!)

It never cools down here, so the only thing to do was swim. And we sure had a great time!

My kids have been in swim lessons all summer long, and they're really improving (last month Capri would scream if she had to put her face in the water)

6/27/2015 Swimming from Michaela Spence on Vimeo.

IMG_0667 from Michaela Spence on Vimeo.

Oh, and Calin lost his second tooth. There are a few different stories going around as to how it happened. Calin says "Braden kicked me really hard and knocked my tooth out!" But if you ask Braden he says "No way! Calin bit my toe!" Hmmm . . . which story do you believe? :)

We had dinner at our house each night. It was fun trying to squeeze everyone into our little dinning area :)

It was such a fun weekend! I wish the rest of the Spence gang could have been there. It sure got me excited for our Spence reunion next year!

May 13, 2015 at 03:40PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Wed, 13 May 2015 22:55:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1FlkZoh 1 scoop for every 10 books he's read on his own in the past 3.5 months. I love this little book worm of mine!

Growing Up

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 07:08:00 +0000

taken a few months ago . . .

3 years earlier, right before Jordan started grad school . . .

So much can change in 3 years. Look how much my babies have grown (+1!).

Arizona has been an amazing adventure. I still hate the heat, but there is so much to love about this place! Now that graduation is approaching it's time to decide where we want to be, where we want to go, what we want to do. It's pretty overwhelming and scary making such grown-up decisions!

I'm so proud of Jordan. He works so hard at everything he does. And all the things he's done to get him to where he is today have paid off. He's had multiple offers at some amazing PT clinics, working with some really great PTs. How do we choose??

In a couple weeks we'll be flying out to Boise to check out a clinic that has offered him a position. We're really excited to get a feel for that area and see if it's a place we want to raise our family. As hard as this decision is, we're thankful for the options! But how do we choose?! We'll be fasting, and praying, and hopefully that clear answer will come to us and we can stop stressing about it.

Looking at those two family photos makes me happy. We've always felt God's hand in our lives, in the everyday things, in building our family, and leading us to the places we need to be (like Arizona). Sometimes the plan doesn't really make sense to us, and it's not always what we have in mind, but His plan always turns out better than we could have imagined on our own. And that adds some comfort to this big stressful decision.

Stay tuned for some updates in the upcoming months . . .

Capri

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Sat, 07 Feb 2015 20:37:00 +0000

When I actually bring my camera with me and take photos of my kids I usually dump them onto my hard drive and forget about them. Sad.

Today while searching for photos to use with a project I came across this one.

I love it. So much. I thought I should post it before it gets lost again.

Soccer

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 03:30:00 +0000

Calling started soccer a couple weeks ago. He's so excited about it! This is his first time playing on a team and LOVES it! And though I am a bit biased being his mom and all, but he is a dang good player :)

We signed him up with some good friends, and it makes everything so much fun!!

Capri has so much going to practices and games. She has deemed herself the "dumdum fairy" and brings suckers for her and her friends every practice and game (we're working on putting an end to that, but it's funny that in her mind soccer practice/game=suckers)

The kids all get turns playing goalie (keeper? I know NOTHING about soccer)

Taylor has started playing soccer too. The day after Calin's first practice Tay started kicking any ball big enough around the house. It's so cute, I really need to get a video soon.

I'm impressed with these 5-6yr olds. They have an idea of what they need to do, and they aren't overly aggressive, but still enough to be competitive, and it's rare that any are sitting down, wandering, or just not paying attention.

Here's the sequence of photos from one of Calin's first goals.

Their team name is the Volcanos. And after the games we make a little ~~tunnel~~ Volcano for them to run through. :) So much fun!

*Valponi Trivia*

True or False - My family hates soccer.

True. They might disown me for letting my kid play and not converting him to be a soccer hater like we were growing up. haha. No they won't, but really, growing up we didn't talk about soccer, or play soccer, or even consider it a real sport. Maybe all the hating was always just a joke, but I was too nervous to ever ask ;) I don't think soccer will last for Calin, there are too many other fun sports to play (baseball, football, basketball . . . ), but it's fun for now, while he's young and he can just run and score goals and feel like a champ!

Go Volcanos!

January 14, 2015 at 09:41AM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 17:14:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1BqqWw5 Cousins ❤️

December 24, 2014 at 10:32AM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:32:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/13EQurR Happy Holidays!! ❤️the Spences

December 22, 2014 at 05:31PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 00:53:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1AZLdpA Christmas shopping with my mom in cute downtown Sonora 🌲

December 20, 2014 at 01:43PM

noreply@blogger.com (Michaela) — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 20:43:00 +0000

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1ARBktW Not great, but better than it was. And of course Taylor didn't seem to mind. He dug right in and loved it 😋