Christmas '08

Christmas is my favorite time of year! I love getting together with all my family! Christmas Eve the Spear family went to Lebanon to hang with Mike's parents, the LaClave's. MiMi and PaPa had a wonderful meal waiting for us and gifts galore for everyone! Michael's sisters, Katie and Andi, were there with their kiddos too! My neice, Madi, such a lil' sweetie and my nephew, Liam, such a smart lil' guy full of energy! We gave Madi a new princess jacket and of course, still had the security tag on it!! I was soooo mad! Crafty MiMi made Grace a sweater and Jackson a Colts hat! So cute! Michael and I received a WEBCAM! WOOHOO! We are so excited! Not expecting that at all!! So fun! We all went, as a family, to attend the 9pm Christmas Eve service! It was really neat! The kids were so into it! Jackson was so excited to have fire in his hand! HA! We all had candles to light when we sang Silent Night at the end of the service. Jack just couldn't wait- he kept saying really loud- "Can we do the fire thing!" It was so funny! MiMi sang a beautiful Christmas song too! The kids loved hearing her sing! Lil' Madi said real loud, "I like MiMi's music!" It was so cute! What a great Christmas Eve. Our kiddos were ready to put cookies out for Santa, so we headed home, while MiMi, PaPa, Madi, and Katie put flowers on Uncle David's grave. Christmas is always a hard time w/o Uncle David around! So, we got home pretty late and Jackson put the reindeer food out on the porch and Grace wrote Santa a letter, put out some milk and cookies.
The next morning, the kids woke up and were in awe that Santa really came! Theie innocense is so sweet! The got way too many gifts! Mom went overboard! I popped MiMi's egg caserole in the oven (thanks Mimi!) and put on the coffee, shortly after, Nana, PopPop, Uncle Nicky John, Cassie and Carly arrived! MORE PRESENTS!! We had a wonderful morning! A lot of laughs and fun! Then we all got ready and headed to Evansville to hang with the newest members of our fam- Ethan and Eli! What precious lil' angels! Ali and Quinn just had identical twin boys Dec. 7th! It was so fun spending Christmas Day with them! They add so much joy to our family!! PopPop bought the Wii for all the kids- so it was pretty fun watching us all learn to play Wii! Quinn and I got pretty competitive in Tennis!:) The racket even flew off and almost broke their TV! HA! It was really fun! We even played a lil' TWISTER! Fun family times!! We are now ready for 2009! I start my student teaching here in IPS, and Michael will continue to work, trying to hold the number one position on his team at Charles Schwab! Go MIKEY! Jackson goes to an in-home daycare in Geist. He loves it and is doing so well there! However, he is always the class clown! Then there's Gracie! Our sweet lil' princess! She is in 1st grade at a new charter school- the Project School. She has become our lil' author! She loves to write and draw! So proud of her!! K- I know this was long, but I wanted to update you all! Sorry for NO pics! I hate that- but I lost my camera! UGH! Love to you all!

Aunt Court

I'm sooo in love!! I can't believe the special love I feel for these lil' guys!! Just precious angels!! Michael and I went to visit them over the weekend by ourselves! I couldn't keep my hands off of them! They are sooo tiny and sooo handsome! When we left, the entire drive home, I couldn't stop smelling my hands b/c they smelled like the babies!! I'm seriously obsessed w/ them! Can't wait to leave on Christmas Day to go see them again!! -Aunt Court

My Handsome Nephews are FINALLY here!!

So precious! My lil' men! Ethan and Eli arrived on December 7, 2008. Immediatley we jumped in the car and headed to Evansville to meet them! Ali went a lil' early- she was 35 weeks! But the babies are doing great! Gaining weight everyday! They came home last week. Michael and I are going to take a trip this Friday to visit them w/o our kids. I just can't wait! They are soooo precious! What lil' blessings from our Lord Jesus! My lil' muffins! I just love them sooo much! Then Christmas Day, Grace, Jack, Mike, and I will head down to E-Ville again to spend time w/ the Shepherd's for 4 days! I just can't wait to see them again!! Aunt Court and Uncle Mikey love them soo much! Oh and Grace and Jack Jack can't stop taking about them!!

Chi Omege Monthly Dinner!

So fun that my sorority girls from BSU go out every month for dinner! It's so fun to catch up monthly and enjoy a good glass of wine together! It's crazy that we all have families now, and are all grown up! What happened to the years?

Great friends, good sushi!

Love my best buddy, Jenni Hufford! She is such a great friend! We had fun eating w/ our hubbies at a sushi place! I LOVE my friends and I LOVE good sushi!! :)

My Gracie's in 1st grade!

Grace just started 1st grade at a new charter school downtown! She loves it! The first day she was eager to meet her new teacher, classmates, and see what her new school is like! But our "Nervous Nellie" (a.k.a. Grace) got very anxious on her second day of 1st grade! Change is not a fun thing for our lil' girl! She gets really nervous! So, Grace was throwing up all morning on her second day of school. Needless to say, we didn't even make it to school, after pulling over 3 times in the car for her to puke! Poor Gracie! So her MiMi came over and watched her and comforted her all day, while the rest of the Spear's went to work and school! Ever since Grace overcame her nerves, she has loved going to her new school! She can't wait to go each day! She has made great friends, loves her teacher, and is learning a lot! She wants to be a writer when she grows up! She loves to write stories! So cute! Our baby is growing up soo fast!

Oh Boy- I'm a sixth grade teacher!

Oh no! Leave it to IPS that they call me and ask me to teach 6th grade in school number 27 until they find a teacher to fill that spot! School starts this coming Wednesday! And they said they have no potential candidates for this position! That means that I could potentially be teaching there all year! Scary! I don't even have my degree yet! So sad for those kids! I mean, I think I know what I'm doing- but do I? Who knows?! We will find out on Wednesday! HA! I think I'm in for a rude awakening!! Anyways, I have to student teach in January, so I know I can't teach this grade all year. Pray for me! I'll be the lil' white girl teacher in an all black school! :) I have Monday and Tuesday to set up the room, figure out what I'm suppossed to do and teach, and get acquainted with the school!
Gracie will be going to the new charter school in Indy called The Project School. You can check it out online- www. theprojectschool.org ! Very cool new concept to education! God worked this all out perfectly b/c the school I'll be teaching at is around the corner from Grace's school. Plus, there are hundreds of schools in IPS and they placed me in #27, exactly where I will be doing one of my student teachings in the winter semester! God is very clever! Also, pray we get the home downtown! Still waiting on that! The home is a few blocks from Grace's and my school too! It would be perfect! Pray for us! :)

Christina VISITS!! WhooHoo!

My best friend from Jersey came to visit us! Christina has been such a great friend to me! She is so wonderful! We just love her all so much! We really had a great time, between hangin' w/ DMB to playing cornhole- we had a hoot!! My kids also love her to pieces! Wish she could've stayed longer and lived closer! Thanks Chris for coming! We really loved having you!!!

Dave Matthews Band

Holy Moly! Ok, so my best friend from New Jersey, Christina, has a friend that works on the DMB crew and travels on tour w/ them. Her name is Michelle. Michelle is the BOMB! She was able to totally hook us up at the concert!!! Christina flew in and we headed to Verizon for the concert. We got to go backstage, eat with the crew and the band before the concert, have free drinks and food all night, and were given awesome seats! All night we went from backstage and then back to our seats! The concert was amazing!! Christina and I danced like crazies!!! It was so fun! Dave really knows how to get his crowd rockin'! After the concert we headed to the band buses and were treated so well by everyone! We got to go w/ the band and crew to their hotel downtown, the Conrad. When we got there, we were escorted to a private lounge room for the band. It was so crazy!! There were only like 20 people there, including Dave and the band! It was nuts! Christina and I were dying!!! Drinks, food, and conversation till 3:30 am with the band! We had to keep pinching ourselves! I think Dave M. thought I was a lil' weird when I told one of his band members that he reminded me of Reuben Studdard! They looked at me like I was nuts, and then I said, "Oh, Reuben is a lil' friend!" Dave looked at me and said, "A friend???" I was a lil' too much for him, I think! Oh well! We had a great time with everyone! Christina and I laughed the whole night and had a hoot!! So great to be with her! Kind of a once in a lifetime kind of thing!!!! CRAZY! I hung w/ Dave till 3:30am! WHAT???!!!!

Gracie's Kindergarten Connection

Grace started this extra kindergarten program this year. It was so wonderful! The teachers were awesome, so loving and compassionate! Grace learned how to read through this program and also learned the basics of math! We were so proud of our lil' reader! The end of the year program was so nice. Grace really shined! She even volunteered to lead a song! Our bashful, shy, lil' girl turned into a very social, out-going, confident lil' girl! We are so proud!!!

Indy 500

What a fun day we had at the Indy 500 this year! We rented a Hummer Limo, headed down in style with my dad, brother Nicky, Brittany and Greg! Oh and Ali and Quinn joined us on the trip down. The kids got a quick preview of the hummer before we headed out! The race was awesome and we had a hoot! Can't wait for next year!!

Our lil' Jack Jack!!! Sleepy Boy at Riley Children's Hospital

Jackson finally had his sleep study. He has sleep apnea and asthma- so he will be getting his adenoids and tonsils removed, along with asthma treatments daily. He has always been super tired- and Riley doctors believe it is b/c he doesn't get enough good, deep sleep due to his body having to work so hard to breathe at night. Hopefully the surgery helps. We have to do another sleep study after the surgery. The sleep studies are performed at Riley. Nothing hurts him- just very scary and annoying. Jackson did a great job! We pretended that he was in Star Wars with all the cords attached to him. He really got into it! He kept asking if he had more power yet!! Too sweet! He looked so pathetic!! I slept next to him, well, tried to. I hated the thing in his nose- he wanted to suck his thumb and put his tag from his blankie by his nose but the cords were in the way. He was very upset about that! Then in the middle of the night- he woke and was frightened- and yelled at me saying that this wasn't Star Wars and that I was lying!! OHHH I felt so horrible!! But he stuck it out and the techs got a good reading. So at 5 AM we were woke up and they started taking all the cords and tape off of him. That was the worst part- b/c Jack was sooo exhausted, irritable, and the tape hurt. So anyways, we find out the results in 7-10 days. Hopefully we get more answers and can plan the surgery this summer! Pray for Jackson!! He was so brave- but still has a lot more to go through!