Training Begins

So before Christmas my sister called and had a fun vacation in mind... going to California in May, renting a beach house on Huntington Beach, going to Disneyland, surf lessons, oh.... and running the LA Marathon! I wish I was tough enough to do that, but running for over 4 hours doesn't appeal to me yet. But Sam was ready to give it a shot.
He is using the Hal Higdon training method, and started Monday. This week he ran 3 miles three days, and 6 miles today, Saturday. This picture is after his six mile run. He said he hit a wall at 3.5 miles, but once he pushed through it he felt fine the rest of the way. I bought him a Garmin 305 for Christmas which does all sorts of cool stuff. It is a GPS, counts distance, calories, and heart rate, keeps your pace, and more. We both got fitted for running shoes. Sam is a huge over-pronator so the specialty running shoes we bought for him have really made a difference.
Unfortunately it is really cold here right now. The three mile runs he did on the treadmill in the mornings. The temperature today was 57 degrees, finally nice enough to run outside! I'm sure Sam will do great! He has really amazed me with how quickly he has been able to build endurance and become " a runner." The marathon is in May. I will keep you posted on how his training is going. And yes, though I don't want to run 26 miles, I am a little jealous that he will be doing it without me!

Sweet Shaye-Shaye

The more time I have with the kids, the more I come to understand the meaning of the counsel to "become like a little child." Every morning I walk Shaye down to the bus stop, which is just around the corner at a friend's house. And no matter what kind of morning it has been she always says the same thing as she walks away. I stop across the road, and she goes across and into the house on her own. In the short distance she goes on without me, she calls back to me while I watch "bye momma, I love you" over and over! She probably says she loves me 3 times, yelling across the road as she goes. This always gets the morning on the right path, even if we started frantically trying to get homework done, hair fixed, and teeth brushed in time! She is such a blessing to all of us, and truly loves her family!

Christmas Eve

Each Christmas Eve is devoted to Sam's family. This year we started the day with a great breakfast at his mom's house. After we ate, we exchanged too many gifts and the kids got spoiled, as usual. Poor Jaxson woke up sick that morning. You can tell in the last picture how bad he was feeling. I felt so bad for him... and he tried his best to have some fun!
In the afternoon, we all went to Sam's dad's house for a steak dinner and more gifts! Several cousins, and Sam's grandpa were all there. It was nice to visit with everyone. Shaye had a great time playing outside in the warm Texas weather with her second cousins, and poor Jaxson took a nap.

Christmas Exchange

This year I was able to get together with my girls from home for a gift exchange and night out. Since I am the only one out of the 9 of us who lives out of state, I rarely make it to the get togethers. We had a great time! It was good to see my girls again!

Posin' for Pics

My sister got a new fancy camera recently, so we all had to be her subjects during the holidays! Here are some of my favorites.

Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends and Family,

What a year it has been! It’s hard to believe how quickly time passes. In the spirit of this holiday season we would like to share some of the things our family has experienced in 2008, and hope you and yours are doing well also.

This year brought us a great blessing! Sydnee Ruth was born on May 22nd. She is so similar to Shaye in many ways. Not only does she look exactly like her, but she has the same temperament and same big smile (although she got shots on the day we took this picture and didn’t feel like showing it off!). Our family has enjoyed having a baby around again. Sydnee is happy almost all the time. She started sleeping through the night around 3 months, and is enjoying baby food now. She loves to watch Baby Einstein videos and play with her older siblings who smother her with love!

Jaxson will be 4 in February and enjoys attending preschool this year. He is in a class of 6 boys. He goes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. He struggles to understand why he doesn’t get to go every day like his big sister! He is learning letters, colors, songs, seasons, holidays, and much more. Jaxson is our little sponge who comes home and shares all the interesting things his class has been doing. He had a hard time sitting out the soccer season this year, and is looking forward to being old enough to play in 2009. For now he enjoys directing the affairs of our church nursery as the oldest kid since he has a February birthday 

We can’t believe Shaye is 6 and already half way through the first grade. She has really grown up a lot this year, and sometimes that makes us sad! She is reading now and learning how to work with money and time. Shaye has stayed busy with soccer practice twice a week, games on Saturdays, homework everyday, and helping with Sydnee. She enjoys taking care of her baby sister, and loves to hear how Sydnee looks just like her. And of course we didn’t miss the premiere of High School Musical 3 in October!!!

This year has been a busy one for me, filled with lots of great opportunities. I am still teaching fitness classes at our YMCA, and am now the Fitness Coordinator. While this puts a lot on my plate, I have enjoyed meeting lots of people and getting involved with our community. I’m lucky to have such a fun job! I was recently called to the Stake Primary Presidency at our church, and look forward to serving in this capacity. After Sydnee was born, I was able to indulge in a few hobbies: reading the Twilight books, running a couple of 5k races, and even getting a few girls’ nights out!

Between work, his church callings in the Elder’s Quorum Presidency and as Ward Employment Specialist, school board, and family, Sam has plenty to keep him busy. He took a new position at work this year, moving from Talent Management and Occupational Health Supervisor to Global Employee Data Supervisor. I’m not real sure what that means he does, but he enjoys it! Sam also picked up some new hobbies this year. He got a road bike which he rides often, finished a mini triathlon, and participated in several 5k races.

As a family, we were able to travel to Washington in July to a family reunion for my mom’s side. We had a great time and were so glad to have the chance to visit with family we hadn’t seen for a while. We also did some traveling closer to home this summer, going to Eureka Springs, Arkansas and Branson, Missouri. Sam and I have been fortunate to do a lot of traveling in the last year. I was able to go with him to London not long ago. The history and theater were amazing. We went on a cruise for his 30th birthday to the Caribbean. Now we are planning a trip to New York in January. Traveling has become one of the things we enjoy most!

As the year comes to an end, we can look back and see that our family has been blessed in many ways. We have much to be thankful for…most of all our Savior Jesus Christ for whom we celebrate this season. We hope you and your families are also enjoying the holidays, and have a fantastic 2009!

Love,

Sam, Natalee, Shaye, Jaxson, and Sydnee Springer

Warning! Warning! Warning!

Between journaling, scrapbooks for 3 kids and one for Sam and I, blogging, Myspace, and baby books, I just can't keep up! I don't know how some of you Super Moms do it. I switched over to digital scrapbooking to save time, and I am still about 6 months behind. So I am going to have this blog published into a book. My cousin told me about this, and I am so excited! I try to update this blog with pictures and captions anyway, so it will be just like a scrapbook in the end. At the end of 2009 I am going to have the year published. So this post is to serve as a warning that I will be journaling on my blog more! I know, its not as much fun to read as it is to see all the pictures, but I will be trying to write things down that I want to keep for our family.
I know some of you have already done this. So please share any tips you have!

Three Amigos

Six Month Sweetie!

Sydnee is getting pretty good at sitting up. She can roll, but doesn't do it very often. She's still just as happy as ever! It's like she's too content all the time to bother rolling and moving. So she is our big chunky monkey! She looks just like Shaye did, almost exactly. I will try to scan a picture of Shaye soon to compare them. Sydnee is eating rice twice a day, and we are about to introduce vegetables. As always, the time has gone so fast!!

Girls Weekend in Dallas

This weekend about 13 of us girls went down to Dallas. It was such a great weekend! We shopped way too much, ate way too much great food, had some crazy moments, and saw Twilight. It was a much needed getaway, and the husbands were so great to take off work and stay home with the kids. Here are a few pictures!