Jack's Blessing

We were thrilled to bless Jack a week ago on the 4th of January. We had some great support from family and friends. Several people got to meet Jack for the first time and he looked fantastic! So it was a big weekend for him :) Here's Daddy and son :) Alex gave a wonderful blessing, he even got choked up for a moment from the emotion of blessing his son, it was a sweet experience for me. Our almost family picture... Sorry Phoebe, Gramma has you in her pictures Grampa Ron enjoying his first meeting with Jack :) And we were lucky enough to have our friends Kent and Sharon Nance here with us :) It was a wonderful day made complete because of everyone who was there.

Let's back up a moment OK

• First off Thanksgiving....

.....hmm I never posted on that but enjoyed everyone elses posts, and like everyone else I also have no pictures. :( Sorry about that, but thanks everyone for coming!!! :) We had great fun and I hope to do it again next year if no one is opposed :)

• Christmas

And so this is Christmas :) What's Christmas without a tree? The Sperry's and Grandma Jo made it down and got to meet Jack for the first time :) I think he made a good first impression Alex, poor guy, got me a camera for Christmas and now he has to deal with this :)

• New Year's Eve!

This is our future Rock Band! Thanks to our friends the Enger's We enjoyed great Guitar Hero tutoring and a glimpse of the next great girl band! They've got some great rhythm :) Ally played everything at some point, layna rocked out on the drums and guitar (guitar was rather brief... I think she prefers drums), and Livvy settled in as the bass player, while our 2 year old friend max ruled the microphone! I was allowed to sub a few times, and Alex and the other dad's made some great competition for best band of the night, it was great fun! I might add that this is Phoebe and Hannah as fabulous groupies :) These groupies did best while doing puzzles for the band. So we played and talked and ate and Alex fell asleep till New year's came... It was a good night!

I think that catches us up since I was able to post Jacks birth. Things have been good here, I'm hoping to start some painting projects soon and Dad now has me thinking some Civil War Reenactment stuff, but wow that will be a lot of work! It's so much more than making a cool dress. I guess now we just wait and see where we go from here!

Happy Everything Everyone!

Jacks Quilt

A little RicRac lovin!

Yes we love the quilt Mom & Sarah made for us. And yes I do mean us. Here are some pics of Jack and his lovin' the quilt but honestly... I still can't decide if I'm going to let him use it so people see it everywhere we go or if it's going on the wall in his room because it's to perfect to use!

Thanks again Momma & Sarah! I have to admit I'm lovin' that quilt shop for all it's benefits!

Nativity & Noel

So our stake puts on a community concert and Nativity display every year called
Nativity & Noel.

It features choirs and groups from the area, such as performance groups, and even some spectacular High school groups, and even work choirs (the walmart choir was fantastic :) ) as well as "The Ozark Mormon Chorale" including members from all over the area. I didn't get to stay and listen to all of them this year just a short sampling of some.
But hey maybe next year I'll be in it. :)
For this year I participated in the Nativity display.

It's called an International Nativity Display and includes Nativities from all over and a live Nativity performed every few minutes.
This year Alex and I and baby Jack got to be Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus.
I've done it once before when we had Allyson and I looked like the young teenage Mary. They were willing to over look that this year since we had a brand new baby boy who was absolutely perfect in the manger.
He just lay there and looked around all wrapped in swaddling clothes... He did need a pacifier on the last few times. Jack was 9 days old when we did this so I ended up trying my best to sit normally in between performances but it seems every time I sat down the music would be on to cue us for another round. It probably didn't help that we always ended up stopping to talk to people who wanted to see the baby and ask questions on our way out. :)

Oh well, oh, I'd started to say that having done this once before I have to say I am truly grateful to have had this experience. As wonderful as it is to watch a Nativity scene taking place before your eyes. It's fantastic to be apart of one. To sit there listening to the narration (it doesn't really matter to me what exactly it is, they all tell the same story) and knowing you are representing the earthly family of the Christ child let's me feel so much closer to the experience and there is nothing I can think of that helps me more to remember the true meaning of Christmas.


Merry Christmas to everyone. We love you all.

It's a boy!!!

It's a boy! 

OK, so I'm here and ready to go! If you want to see what I did for thanksgiving you'll have to check out my sisters blogs but really I think we're all past that now :) Please every one know that I am thankful for many things. :) I am now in the Christmas spirit and after birth pain! So here's the official announcement...

Jackson Alexander Sperry 

was Born

December Fourth Two Thousand Eight

At Three Thirty Three in the Afternoon

Weighing Seven pounds Nine ounces

At a Length of 

Twenty and one Half inches

to

Quintin Alexander Sperry

And 

Hillary Ann Sperry

hehe. Yeah, we are pretty excited! We have been so blessed by the love of friends and family too! From the shower and the meals and offers of childcare and personal care and visits, you have all been so wonderful. Alex just asked if I thought I would still know how to cook after this is over... my response... Well you know I can still make cheesecake so we're good. *Ahhhh, to live on cheesecake.* Sorry slight distraction, Anyway, Jackson has been well welcomed into this world. Now if we can just keep him awake to see it then maybe Alex and I can stay awake too. Can't wait for a good sleep pattern to kick in. At the right time of day. :)

Mothers who know by Julie B. Beck

My friend Jolynn sent this out on facebook and it made me think alot :) and cry. Ok, so I know I'm all pregnant and emotional but yes this made me cry this morning... Perspective is a horrible thing to have some times... It makes my vision blurry... or maybe it clears it, but the tears make it very confusing to decide which one it is.

I know in this talk there is a lot of we must do this, and do this, and this. And part way through the tears gave way to being overwhelmed... The tears returned shortly after... We need to remember that there have also been many talks that speak about not being overwhelmed and not comparing ourselves to the talents & abilities of others, and the things we think... we know others are doing, but it's also important to remember what we are shooting for. The compilation of clips is from a talk by Julie Beck titled Mothers who know, I've linked it here. And while there are inspirational talks out there for women in every walk of life this one is specifically for mothers, as the title indicates, however there are many instances where Mother could easily be exchanged simply for Women. These are things that we as women should be doing and striving for not only in our families but in our lives. To help those around us and ourselves. Think of how you could improve yourself if we nurture our own minds with the gospel and time. If we pattern our homes after the Lord's will it only be beneficial if you have children? No, it blesses everyone who enters it. It would certainly be wonderful in the lives of our children though to have such peace and order around them... I think it will even help if *ahem* we (this one is definitely for me ladies) even just strive to have that.

Thinking a little towards fly lady principles a little is better than nothing, and we can bless our families and our lives simply by making the effort. (Even housework done incorrectly still blesses our families... that's such a freeing principle.) Anyway I could go on... I suppose the end rant was partly brought on because I read a few comments that were left to the video. Oh well I suppose in the end we just need to remember a couple of things, One - what good is anything if we don't have a goal to reach for, and Two - that whoever we are there is always room for improvement.
And thus the tears and blurry vision.

Yes we did have Pumpkins!

So about a week before Halloween we bought pumpkins...

A few days later we dove into the gooey nastiness. The girls loved it! Ally is starting to show some pumpkin carving understanding and Livvy is doing great as well. Honestly it was nice to circle the table helping people and actually be helping some of them, because they were actually making good progress on there own! So good job to them!

Layna and Phoebe both had a blast! Layna got right into her pumpkin designing it and cleaning out guts! Woo Hoo Layna! Phoebe didn't get into the pumpkin but was very excited whenever dad pulled anything out... she eventually tried going after seeds :) She was fun to watch!

Phoebe eventually decided the coolest part was sculpturing the guts after they were out and on the table! Thankfully there was no eating it just playing with it like it was an awesome gooey sand pile!



Livvy liked it too... a little bit :) hehe


Our lit up pumpkins! Yes success!

And last here is some Pumpkin Joy from Phoebe.... For Everyone!!!