Merry Christmas

Spencer Wade Family Christmas Letter

Our year began in California where we lived for the last three years while Spencer completed chiropractic college. We enjoyed many fun outings with our fellow students and ward family; all of which were great people whom we have come to love and cherish. We will never forget our friends and the memories we made.

In June Spencer graduated from school…YEAH!!! And we packed up our belongings and moved to Seattle Washington. Moving is a lot of work! We took a little break in-between the packing and unpacking and took a much needed trip to see our beloved families. We spent time in Idaho and Utah enjoying the outdoors and making memories with those we love so dear. We also enjoyed a beautiful drive to Logan, UT to visit a sister and dream of days to come when we are able to settle down, buy a house, and open our own chiropractic office.

Here in Washington we have begun a new life with Spencer working for Dr. Aaron Collins of Collins Chiropractic. He is a great teacher and is giving him the added knowledge that is needed to run a successful chiropractic office. Spencer works long hours but he is so glad to be finished with school and all of the stress that came with it. Spencer serves as the Youth Sunday School Teacher and is so impressed with the faithfulness of the youth in our ward. He and I both love to be among the youth.

I am also privileged to serve with the youth as I am in the Young Women’s Presidency. Our youth are small in number but they do have great strength in their testimonies. I am quickly learning the area and making friends as I do marketing for the office Spencer works in. I also participate in child play groups with other mom’s in the area and attend library story time with Stetson.

Stetson just celebrated his 2^nd birthday and is getting so smart. Just this week while eating lunch he pointed at himself and said “me boy.” He didn’t learn that from me. Stetson loves to be outside, whether rain, shine, cold or warm. Just the other day we headed to the park to play in the rain and after enjoying the slide at least a dozen times he was drenched. This is the way many of our days go together. I am so grateful for this little boy!

As this year draws to a close I am reminded of the beautiful blessings that life offers and am so thankful that Heavenly Father has blessed me and my family with another year together. This year had its own set of challenges, but the Lord has sustained us and strengthened us to come through them better than we were before. The Christmas season helps me to be more grateful for Jesus Christ’s birth, life, and mission. Understanding our Savior’s mission and teachings help make it possible for me to begin again, each and every day, striving to become more like him. May we all strive each and every day to become more like the child, who became our Savior, whose birth we celebrate this time of year is my wish.

Love, Spencer Natasha & Stetson Wade

Thanksgiving

I don't have any pictures for this one although I know that our family documented this event and I would love to have copies of what they took.
Spencer, Stetson and I were a little spontaneous and drove home for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of driving, 28 hours to be exact, but it was so worth it!
We left Burien, WA Wednesday afternoon and drove to Middleton, ID. Surprising my parents and little brother when we showed up at about 10pm. We stayed the night and then awoke early so that we could make it to Riverton, UT in time to share Thanksgiving dinner will ALL of Spencers family. They were not as surprised as my parents because Mom Wade is too intuitive. But they were all happy and excited to see us. Oh, I should say that one member wasn't there and that is Elder Paul Wade who is so faithfully serving his mission in Wehpeton, ND. We are so proud of how hard he is working.
Friday was are only day without driving and we enjoyed it by spending time with Mom & Dad Wade. Talking about one of our favorite topics food storage and the last days. Once you get involved in this kind of stuff you either love it and can't stop thinking about it, like us. Or hate the mention of the subject. Hopefully you feel like us and just want to be prepared and ready for whatever may come, capable of taking care of your family. What a blessing it is to be prepared with a little food and camping supplies, or a lot. :)
That night we enjoyed a Pizza party with chef Dave (Spencers older brother) and most of his siblings. We had a lot of fun at there house playing Pictionary and eating yummy food. Stetson loved playing with all of his cousins. Spencer and I love watching him with other little rascals. Some-days we feel bad that he is the only little one we have. He would love to have other siblings. Hopefully that means he will be a great big brother.
Saturday was busy. I got a hair cut by sister Susan (Thank you so much!), Spencer enjoyed some one on one time with sisters and a fathers blessing from Dad Wade. We then enjoyed hours together in our car as we headed back to my parents house. Were several of my siblings were waiting to enjoyed more wonderful food and time together. It was so good to see everyone and enjoy what time we could with them.
We knew that it would be a short trip with lots of time in the car but really we were so blessed to have good travel conditions and a great time visiting with family. We feel like we packed a 2 week trip into 5 days.
Thank heavens for family's and the good times we can have together!!!
We only get to take our memories with us when we go, my as well make them good ones.

Stetson's Birthday

Our little guy is two now and is getting more adorable everyday! We didn't do anything big for his birthday since we are still new to the area and we have no family close to celebrate with us. We did visit the Cove, a family favorite, which is a park on the Puget Sound. Went to an art show and enjoyed carrot cake and dinner with one of Spencers old college roommates. Arron England and his family he is also also a Chiropractor now but used to make fun of Spencer for wanting to be a Chiropractor back in the day, ha ha.

These pictures we all taken on the big day to represent how much he has grown and to show at least the door to our new abode. I forgot to mention we also rented and watched "Toy Story 3" and really enjoyed that.

We sure are glad that Stetson is apart of our family and we are enjoying very moment we get to share with him.
Love you little Rascal!

Camping at Mount Rainier

Our family enjoyed a wonderful time exploring the Mount Rainier National Park over Labor day Weekend. Since you, our friends and family, were not able to be with us we took enough photo's to help you share in our adventure. We hope that you enjoy them as much as we do.

Stetson trying to decide what he things of this forest slug. What do you thing?

Starting in the upper left corner going clock wise: A view of Mount Rainier park, one of many Glacier lakes, A very deep canyon mountain river, on the way into 'The Grove of the Patriarchs' and another view of Mount Rainier.

The biggest tree in 'The grove of the Patriarchs'

Left: Stetson holding a hug piece of moss that fell from one of the trees in our camp ground.
Right: One of the cutest shots I have taken of our little rascal in a while as he paused for a minute exploring 'The Grove of the Patriarchs'

Our family standing in front of the lower portion of Myrtle falls.

Upper and Lower Myrtle Falls

Starting with upper left and going clock wise: Mount Rainier, Stream running through our camp ground, Our camp ground and a prairie located near Paradise visitor center.

As this was the only camping experience that we enjoyed this year we were so excited to get away from the city and be together as a family. There is something so peaceful and rejuvenating about being out in the fresh clean air of nature and seeing the amazing creations of Gods hands.
I am so thankful for this beautiful earth that I am privileged to live on. I find that living in the city is not my favorite but being able to find beauty through nature always lifts my spirits and reminds me of my faith in God.

Thank You

Thank you friends for you kindness and love. It is always nice to know that there are those I can call when I need advice or a listening ear.
I have learned even more how are lives are only partly what we choose and then mostly what the Lord sees that we need.
I am grateful for the additional one on one time that I get with Stetson and with him entering the age 2 stage of life I am learning a great deal of patience. I am also learning to give up my will for what will be the better teacher or saver of the patient challenging moments.
I am truly grateful for a Savior who understands me, who helps me through theses and other challenging moments and for his forgiveness when patience doesn't succeed as well as I would have hoped.
I am also grateful that my son is so forgiving and perfect because I am flawed.

Blessings and Life

We have had a lot going on these last few weeks. Moving was an adventure, our vacationing was an adventure that added more adventures. Spencer starting a new job and that has been very time consuming but less stressful than school. He really enjoys the Dr. that he is working for and all of the time that they have to talk about Chiropractic and more specifically CBP.
One of the added adventures that came from our vacation was me rear-ending another car while in Idaho so that required me making another trip home to pick up our repaired car and going to court to settle the case. Thankfully our car cost less than expected and 2 of the 3 charges were dropped making my fines minimal. So these are a few blessings. Another blessing was being able to see my family and spend time with them. One of my brothers left for boot camp right after my visit and the other just had his wisdom teeth pulled so I was able to help pamper the one and see the other before his leaving. Family is a great blessing!
Thankfully my mother decided to come back to Washington with me and help entertain my son while I drove. It was a long trip and she did a great job. Stetson also was well behaved for being in the car for over 8 hours.
Another blessing, although tragic as well is that my mother is here to take care of me and my little family. After returning from my trip to Idaho on Monday we celebrated my birthday on Tuesday and then Wednesday morning the tragedy stuck. I miscarried our baby. I am doing fine now we are pretty sure that the baby quite thriving few weeks ago i just hadn't noticed or allowed my self to think about it.
I know that there must be a reason and that the Lord is watching out for me... us! I also know that I don't have to know the answers to everything or the reasons for why things happen the way they do, when they do. I can only trust that the Lord loves me and wan mmnts to bless me. The only frustrating part is knowing that what I want isn't always what the Lord has in store for me.

Baby

Yes I know I should have told everyone before leaving but I just think that unless people guess you should wait until the end of the 1st trimester to make sure that everything progresses properly. Some might think that I am not excited because I didn't shout out the news at the very moment I knew. I did... just only to my husband. I know that life doesn't always go as planned so I just want to be sure. I am sure now! Spencer and I are both very excited Stetson will probably take a while to catch on but I am sure that he will be a great big brother.

Moving

Well as some of you already know we moved! 2 days after graduation we loaded up a truck with all of our stuff and moved to Washington where Spencer has started working at Collins Chiropractic. We were very excited for the job opportunity and the new location. We are still happy about our choice although we are missing both family and friends as we have left an area that we loved and are in a new area that is still far from our family.
We want to thank all those that helped us move. You were a great support to us in our time of need and it will never be forgotten.
Thank you, we shall miss you.

Graduation

Us with Ryan and Melissa Beck at the senior dinner. We enjoyed the time away from kids and eating a great Salmon dinner together.

Spencer received honors both at the diner and at graduation. I am so proud of all of his hard work. We were so excited for him to graduate that is was a bonus to know his hard work was noticed and appreciated by others.

We were so glad to be able to share this day with family. Spencers parents flew out from Utah to celebrate our joyous day with us. We enjoyed showing them around, their company and all of there help.

A day at the zoo!

This was a few weeks ago now but my friend Nitzan was good enough to take some picture. We had a great time looking at the animals in the Oakland Zoo.
Stetson thought the goats were cool but that the brush you use to brush them was funner. He kept grabbing a new brush after every attempt to get close to the goats.

Klamath Falls

My sister DaVette and I. We both have similar hair cuts now so I had to get a picture together.

This is my sister brother and I, can you tell that we are family?
I think we all have the same nose.

My Parents. I think that they are two of the coolest people that I know. With a lot of quirky habits. Dad brought this kayak on a very long journey only to be used for approximately 30 minute's due to very cold weather.

Stetson makes this face a lot and I caught it on film. He is so funny!

This was our snowiest day during our trip and I bundles Stetson up for some snow time.
He loved playing in the snow and with his cousins.

The view from my window.

Crater Lake
Talk about a lot of snow. Over 44 feet of snow each year.

Stetson really wanted to put his hands in the snow and I was afraid that he would get frost bite so he wasn't to happy with me.

Phillip had a little photo session with Stetson and this in one of the pictures that came of it.
I thought that it was pretty cute

Stetson training to be a race car driver. He would climb in and out of this seat and really enjoyed watching the cars zoom by.

This trip was fun. It is always nice to see my family and spend quality time with them. I only wish that Spencer could have shared that time with us as well.
Thank goodness he stayed though because we are ready for him to finish up school and start real life :)

Valentine's Surprise

Spencer and I had a great Valentines/Anniversary weekend. It started out with me surprising Spencer on Saturday when he returned from a seminar with a different hair style.

He says that he loves it which is all I care about. He is who I did it for anyway.

Then we went to our ward dinner/dance which was fun. I taught a few people how to 2 step and we danced one slow song with little Stetson.

We danced another one at home after Stetson was in bed.

Sunday we made valentines for all of the youth in our Sunday school class and brought them candy, they love candy. For dinner we had the Perry's over and enjoyed each other, although Steve had a lot of running around to do...

Monday being Presidents day Spencer did not have school or clinic so we celebrated our anniversary. We went to a great Italian restaurant in Berkley called Oliveto (www.oliverto.com). It was a little on the high end but very good, I recommend it. It was nice to eat dinner without worrying about Stetson grabbing my food or running off and to be able to give Spencer my complete attention.

Here is my 11" of hair that I donated to Locks of Love.

I hope that who ever gets it will enjoy my curly locks.

Anniversary

Since Spencer and my 3rd anniversary is approaching I thought that I would post some wedding photos. It is crazy to think how fast these years have past.

Before we know it we will have our 10 kids and have been married 50 years. :)

i just want to say that my marriage is great, my family is a joy and knowing that I have this man for all of eternity makes each and everyday worth living.