Spangler Family Communication Center

By the way our condo still hasn't sold. We are getting it painted friday. This should attract more people to come see it. I hope that it will sell soon. We need it to. Please pray with us that our condo will sell. Thanks #4's family

Well, I m reading three books right now. Two are for deployed military families and one is a dobson book. The New Dare to Discipline. I haven't gotten very far in that one.

Sarah, sounds great with the clothes. Thank you so much. I always seem to leave something. Oh well.

The kids and I are doing just dandy. Life is hard for the most part but it is getting easier. Right now I am staying at a friends house helping her with her kids during the week. I am going to go see Mark soon. YEAH!!! Just me no kids. I'm kinda sad for him because he hasn't seen them in a while. I send him pics nearly every day. This is the most documented time in our kids lives. I haven't missed a funny moment. It is habit now to take pics of everything funny (including a few temper tantrums). Ali probably thinks I'm nuts. I need to evenually get a camera that takes pics faster. It's funny because ali goes around with her imaginary picture taking pictures of us all.

The kids joined a reading club and Ali is like a book away from earning a diamonds back ticket. She's won lots of fun prizes on the way. So it looks like we will be going to a game pretty soon.

We all miss Mark a ton and we are all trying to adjust to our new temporary life. It doesn't seem normal that's for sure.

Well, as far as dates in DEC goes, I still don't have anything concrete. REally nobody in My Leadership knows exactly what is going to happen after November. However I think that the week between Christmas and New years would be a sure thing. But besides that I can't say for sure.
Mark

Well, as far as dates in DEC goes, I still don't have anything concrete. REally nobody in My Leadership knows exactly what is going to happen after November. However I think that the week between Christmas and New years would be a sure thing. But besides that I can't say for sure.
Mark

Hi everyone! We wanted to give you an update on the big development at our house. The rest of this email is copied from our other blog, just to save us some typing.

I don't know how much we've shared about Addie and her sleep habits, but she isn't exactly a champ in this department. Though she finally began sleeping through the night, putting her down for naps and for bed was really difficult still. She would not go to sleep- just cry and scream- unless she was rocked and swaddled. It was exhausting and frustrating and we had tried many times to break her of it.
Well, today was the day we had set to try again. We planned to use a program called "Sleepy Time"- oh it sounds cheesy until you are desperate- then it could be called anything and you wouldn't care. Anyway, we were all set for battle- we had a plan and we had been praying about this a lot!The first nap of the morning came and it was time to put Addie down without rocking her, without swaddling her, and prepare for an hour of screaming. I was dreading it!I did what the plan suggested- used a long routine to help her settle down, gave her a lovey to cuddle with, and out of the room I went. She started crying. Five minutes and still crying (no biggie- we're used to this!). But at minute eight, something strange happened. Instead of getting madder and screaming harder like usual, she got quieter and then quit. Nothing! Silence! Could it be?! I thought she was winding up for a big protest, but another minute of quiet went by. I thought she was playing, but then another minute of quiet. Yes folks, she fell asleep. On her own. Perhaps you don't realize just how amazing that is to us- it is BIG.
At her second nap of the day, it happened again. She fell asleep in six minutes. It was amazing. It was fantastic. It was great.

At bedtime, Greg got to see it happen too. His mouth hung open in shock. This morning when I put her down for her nap, she cried for 2 minutes and fell asleep. We feel like we got a whole new lease on life.
So just wanted to tell you all that is what is new around here. We are still battling with her acid reflux but just started a new perscription that will hopefully keep it more under control. We miss all you guys A LOT and Christmas can't come soon enough.

Hey everybody I had a thought. I was kind of thinking about this for the menm but if the women want ot do it too then it is all good. I know we are all very busy, but I was just thinking that it would be cool to go through some good books together. I have been reading a book called Chasing Daylight by Erwin McManus. It is really good, he is a great author.

If anyone is interested let me know, I f not then please blog some of the good books you have read recently and I will go check those out. Thanks everybody. I love you guys.

Mark

Happy Birthday Julie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Sixth Anniversary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, Jess and the kids are back in Phx. Mark is still in TX training as usual. Things were starting to get too demanding there. It was a hard decision for us to be apart even longer but, Mark really needs to begin focusing largely on his training without having to try to juggle all the responsibilities of his wonderful family. We just need him to focus on his training so he can make it home safe. You don't become a top gun over night. :) What a stud. Hehehe. Anyhow the kids are doing great. Micah is crawling all over the place and sitting up like a pro. Ali is Ali I suppose. She has a bigger vocabulary every day. Her new favorite phrase is, "I can't." My favorite phrase comes early in the morning and sometimes in the middle of the night, "Mommy, I'm verwee hungeee wight now" Today Aletheia and I had a mommy daughter day. We have never really done this but I have to day we will do it more often now. We went to Waterworld. Micah stayed at our friends and neighbors house. They loved being his substitue parents for the day and he had a ton of fun drooling on someone elses carpet. Plus they have dogs and Micah loves to chew on doggy ears. (The dogs don't always like it though) Anyways, Ali and I had so much fun together and I never had to say things like, "Just a minute baby" "Let me feed Micah first" "Hold on let me put the baby down" "No baby, mommy can't hold you right now" "Mommy just wants to have a minute without someone on her lap" It was so great. We sat in the lazy river for about two hours total and splashed each other and laughed. We went to the kiddy land and went down slides. We sat in the wave pool and watched eveyone be nutty while the water edged closer to us. We wadded around and I even let ali spit her drinking water on herself. Something she isn't normally allowed to do but loves to. I even taught her how to spit water out of her mouth and hit something, or someone. I came out more as a big mist but at least it didn't just drool out of her mouth. We laughed and had a blast so by golly we are going to have another fun day of just her and I. I didn't realize how much I can enjoy them separately as well as together. Nice.