Merry Christmas from Spencer Central!

Hey All...here are some pictures from the Christmas morning frenzy!


Noah, Ethan, Kestle, and Tanner with their Heelies


The Perez family: Melissa, Cesar, and baby Luz.


Salomon wth his new trumpet!


Julia digs the new jacket!


One can never have too many boots!


A new Tee for Sarah,


A new tool box for Cesar,


And a new baseball uniform for Salomon.

A Christmas wish for Elle!

Lucy was feeling so bad for Elle and wanted to help give her some encouragement with this whole eating thing. So for Lucy's christmas wish she wanted her mom (Melissa) to post these picutres so Elle could she just how fun eating can be. Lucy hopes these will help and wishes her all the best! Merry Christmas, Love Luz

The Final Product: More of the Remodel

The Blue Room: USU or Emory University--that's the debate!



The Master Bedroom. Carrie hung the closet doors herself. They used to be old brown sliding doors. She also installed the closures at the top so they stay closed.

Our 4-legged family: We heart animals--and realize that not everyone else does!

So, all of our animals, with the exception of one, are named after classic rock bands.

This is Aerosmith (Aero). She passed away in late October, but this is her "blue steel" look. I miss her a lot, and so does Styx, but Styx has new buddy now, Red Hot Chili Peppers (we decided that they have been around long enough...).


This is our newest family member - Chili. She is a Vizsla that we got from a blind girl whose husband died earlier this year of cancer (that was a weird story--and now she's been accepted to the U Law School). Anyway she is moving into a smaller place plus who can care for a dog by themselves while in law school!! Chili is super cute and smart and NICE! She is so scared of the cats but Phantom is helping with that everyday!


This is Doobie (as in "the brothers"). She is our bigger cat, and much more independent. She is not a fan of Chili, but I think Chili is more scared of her.

This is my fav - shhh don't tell. Phantom - named by Ruthy - is our runt kitty. She is so loving and loves to sleep in our hair or on our faces. She loves to tease the dogs by playing with their tails and she loves to lick them clean. In this picture, she wouldn't leave me alone while I was working in the bathroom. One day I was even prying up tiles with a kitty on the back of my neck. This day she crawled into the heating vent to warm up.


And....Styx. She was originally Anne Marie's dog (our other roommate--Anne Marie-not the dog!), but Anne Marie moved to a small apartment, so we kept her. She loves for anyone to pet her, and loves to bark - hence the bark collar. She was really lonely and depressed after Aero died, but she is much happier now that she has Chili. She also loves to play with the Taylors' dog Lucky. She looks sad but really it's because she's not being petted for one moment! We can't even take her to the dog park anymore because she just runs from human to human!

What is the #1 reason never to fall asleep at the Taylor house?

Because you might wake up with random gooey things in your hands!

So Kresta made the mistake of falling asleep before the weekly Taylor family dinner...and that's always a mistake. My youngest brother Bart put toothpaste in her hand and tickled her face. But instead of going to scratch her face, she scratched her stomach and got toothpaste all over her shirt. She has claimed revenge, I have a feeling it's going to be a shaved eyebrow or a reverse mowhawk at Bear Lake next summer...I'll keep you posted :)

The Remodel

So as many of you know we have been remodeling our home. This house is a lot like Kresta's old house that has hard wood floors, old plumbing and really bad wallpaper. Carrie and Kresta have been able to redo the entire upstairs in 6 months--mostly due to Carrie's efforts. (We all know how long it took Kresta to redo one room in 2 years!)

The Gutting!

The new lights, sink and wainscoating! (It turns out that kittens are like toddlers and love to play in the sink!)
Totally new shower, rod and curtain... the old was dirty tan with painted tile, yuck!
New paint, shelves and tile!

Sofia spent the day with us and I have to say she is technologically advanced. If you haven't seen her amazing skills at her own home with the new Mac--you are missing out! Carrie's purse was next to Sofia while we drove her back to Logan. She saw the camera, figured out how to turn it on and then she took several pictures which I would say rival Aunt Kresta's ability!!

Thanksgiving from East Coast Spencers

Elle had a great Thanksgiving!! She can't stop talking about how much she loved her cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and new friends. You can see more other-than-family pics at the blue door window blog.

Here is a leftover halloween pic. Our little hula girl!


Elle is already living on the edge of danger. Do not try this stunt at home.

Elle's favorite outdoor activity!



Preparing for Elle's first triathalon

First Airplane ride


Gabe's professor, Charlotte Collins, knitted this blanket for Elle. We saw her at a conference in DC

Elle really made a connection with Amber's professor, Ronda Cole

Eleanor and Eleanor (Roosevelt) BFF!


DC Sight-seeing

Grandma Chiq and Elle's first encounter (and Jules)







What a sweet meeting

The three beauties








The other three beauties :)

And one more beauty (Amber!)


One beauty, one Zach. (OK, he's good looking, too.)

One beauty, One Josh (Josh has a beautiful personality, at least)

The Grandparents!! (one grandma decided to give Elle a cheese fry - ouch)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACH

Feliz Cumplianos
We had a fun night with our friends at Cafe Sabor for Zach's 23rd Birthday. Because it was his birthday I gave in and took him to the new 007 that he's been begging to go see. He can't get over the fact that he's 23.


TURTLE UPDATE: Our four turtles were getting along so well with eachother, that we thought we should get them a pet. So we got a Snail to clean the tank. Well..... one day I didn't feed them and lets just say they enjoy fine French Dining. They completely cleaned out the snail shell- poor little guy :)

Amy and Dave's Blog

Over Thanksgiving, the general consent was to add Amy (Olsen) and Dave's blog to the links on the side. Looks like an awesome adventure!