Life rewinded part I

I have to start this out, with what so far, in our married life, is Spencer's biggest accomplishment. As of Dec. 9th 2010 Spencer is an Orthodontist. 10 1/2 years of School has finally come to an end. Though as exciting as it was, it had to be the most stressful time of our lives, trying to figure out where to go next, where was the best place to take our family etc? I get anxiety just sitting here thinking about it. Though I feel as stressful as it was we have been really blessed with the friends and family that has helped us through the process. We are excited to now call Grand Junction, Colorado our home for now. After these graduation pictures everything is kind of a hodgepodge of events in and out of order, hope you enjoy. And there is a second posting underneath for all the evens we couldn't fit into one posting.

2010 OU Orthodontics graduating class. Dan, Raj, Spencer, and Joe

The Ladies- soo happy- no more school. Cherisse, Kristin, Steph, Jeana

Kristin and I. We spent so much time together while our husbands were galvanting around "conferences" and spending time at the school. I loved all our walks and talks. Going to miss you!

More fun wives who I love and miss- Christina and Sarah

All the ladies/ girlfriend from all the 3 years of residents.

I now have soo many good friends all over the United States. I really feel so lucky to meet so many really amazing people through this whole journey!!

Gift bags from the faculty

The Johnson dinner party.

For a graduation gift my friend Kristin and I had a brunch with our friends and family that traveled for the big event and to say good job.

Spencer with his Mom and Pop's

A little graduation pop for a party favor.

The Cake. Isn't is so cute and just perfect for the event.

My mom who is super crafty and helped me with those cute pops.

Yeah!!- Our kids were here. We don't have any pictures of us with our kids on graduation day. I'm the worst mom!

Well, doesn't it look so official. Here is the sign in front of Spencer's new office.

A little jump back to the holiday season (for Christmas festivities refer to the following post.) Talk about a reality check- go snowboarding with your little sisters, (one still in high school) and then you realize how old and frail you are getting. But so fun!

Blast from the past. We were so lucky to get to see some of our most favorite friends the Frandsen's and Lee's. Oh so many nights in dental school spent with these ladies- that's how we made it through!

The guys. With our kids not around it was almost like nothing had changed. A late night fun of laughs and fun.

This was a family picture of us in our favorite winter outfit. . .

AKA ugly sweater party. No that is not a neck brace on Spencer, just a turtle neck :)

How we have spent our last week- trying to put our lives back together here in Colorado.

A little fun in our back yard

We moved only 4 hours from family, we hadn't even been here a week and Grandma has already been to visit- so glad to be closer!


We have already had a lot of really big 1st in the last week. Spencer's first big day of work as an orthodontist. Sofie's 1st day of preschool- and . . .

Sofie lost her 1st tooth. It happened so quickly. I feel so ill prepared. I haven't really talked to her about the tooth fairy or prepared a little tooth party like I wanted. Last night I noticed she had a wiggly tooth. Spencer just couldn't believe it since it's sooo early. Then today she was eating her lunch when we heard a crunch and Sofie said "There is something crunchy in my food." Reached into her mouth a pulled out her tooth. I don't even know the going rate for a tooth these days? Any advice will be gladly excepted.

Well this is not all of the last couple months. . continue on to the next post for more. (You might want to take an intermission break, it might be longer than this one.)

Life rewinded part II

These events are pretty much in reverse chronicle order. That's how the pictures were downloaded and I have to leave it that way or I'll never get this post done.

Spencer had his 32nd birthday. We were at the Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's residence to celebrate and it's one of their family traditions that everyone says something nice about you on your birthday. It was the one day in like 17 years (that was pulled out of my rusty memory) that every single person including in-laws and grandchildren were there and it was only for one evening so lucky Spencer got to hear a lot of nice things from all his nice family members!

I didn't get enough pictures of Sofie and her cousin's but she had sooo much fun with all her cousins.

Christmas morning with the long awaited Santa stash. She was so excited she stayed up soooo late in her bed listening for Santa's reindeer. I thought she was never going to go to sleep.

Dentist Barbie from G & G Swendsen.

Finally some boy toys. I don't know who will enjoy this more Spencer or Luke. Spencer and his 5 brothers always had a game of pig going on in the house since Luke got this for Christmas.

So I have to record this story for the history books. So Christmas day we went tubing on Taylor Mountain behind the Johnson residence. The hill was pretty big and pretty steep so we had been only going about 1/2 way up the hill to sled down. Well I was at the bottom pulling Luke on the sled (that cute girl in the photo is not me it's my sister-in-law Kelsi). Meanwhile my sister-in-law and a Johnson cousin had decided to go all the way to the top and come down. They started barreling down the hill. When I looked up they were coming straight at Luke, who was laying belly down on the sled. Everyone started screaming and I yanked on the sled trying to get him out of the path of destruction but when I pulled on the sled it slid right out from under Luke leaving him in the path, not on the sled. Things happened so fast I remember thinking "Oh my gosh he's going to get run over" by the time I thought that it was already done. A huge tube with 2 adults on it pounded over the top of Luke. I'm not talking grazing him or over his legs or only part of his body I am talking completely over him. He came flipping out the back in a huge flurry of snow with his boots and socks flying off. I ran as fast as I could to pick him up. Luckily I heard him crying and knew he was alive. His cheeks had some minor scraps and were bleeding a little bit and he was a little glazed over for the next couple of hours but other than that he had no injuries. I keep re-living the moment and it was like a bad nightmare it happened so fast. Spencer said he has never felt so much rage as he did seeing them head straight into Luke. It was so scary. I'm just so grateful he was ok. Now that it's over I just think add it to the list. . . Spencer getting hit by a car, Luke getting run over on the tubing hill. aghhh!

Here is the survivor Luke with Santa, not real thrilled. . .

Unlike his sister Sofie who didn't miss a beat getting on Santa's lap.

So here they are the two boy cousins that were born 4 days apart. This is at the first part of the week. Notice Luke was picking on Noah. Well Noah figured out how to stand his ground and by the end of the week if Luke crouched in on his territory Noah went up and gave Luke a little shove- basically saying- stay back this is mine.

Temple square visit with the Swendsen family.

Candid of the kids.

Sofie was a little dare devil with the sledding. She loved sledding and would be so sad when it was time to go.



Snowman with a Sofie head in Grandma's yard.

On the trip from OK to UT we stopped for a couple days in Colorado Springs to hang out with Spencer's brother and his family- Here is me and my super tough sister-in-law Tina. She took Spencer and I up the incline. It's like stairs straight up a mountain- killer! I think it's like a mile long- but don't quote me.

Here we are at the top.

Oh what's that little thing in the packing box?

Sofie's last day of gymnastics with Coach Andrea.

A last girl's night out with some of my really fun friends from Oklahoma City. Oh, this picture makes me miss Oklahoma so much. I really have learned soo much from these girls and feel so blessed to have them as friends.

So this is Spencer and Sofie at a Oklahoma City Thunder NBA basketball game. There is a funny story that goes with this. You know how you tell your kids they can't eat too much candy or they will get a belly ache? Well Spencer let Sofie have free reign to treats and popcorn this night and in the middle of the night I heard Sofie say "My tummy hurts" I knew what was coming and dragged her into the bathroom just in time for the vomit to make it into the toilet. Turns out it's true- you eat too much candy, you will get sick.