MEGA Catch-Up

Well, I've completely neglected this blog for the past 4 months, so now the time has come to make up for my laziness with a brief photo catch-up of the lost time. I'm blaming my absence on the fact that our only camera is Glen's "work" camera, so it goes wherever he goes during the week. Also, our computer is about to kick the bucket, so doing anything that requires any uploading or use of any memory makes me nervous. Now, I realize that most of you don't really care what we've been up to since November, but just humor me here.

Shall we start with Thanksgiving? I think we shall.

We enjoyed a short visit from Glen's family from Utah over the holiday. It was nice to be able to celebrate a holiday with family!




After running an extremely soggy 10K on Thanksgiving morning. Glen finished 6th overall and I got my best 10K time ever!


The family at the beach!


Christmas:

It was just the four of us on Christmas morning, as usual. Here are some pictures of the goodies:










In January Caleb turned 4!





And in February Grace turned 2!







And lastly, somewhere in the midst of all that, this happened:


Due August 11th!

Inspirational messages by Caleb

Okay, I've got like a million things running around in my head that I should have or still need to post about, but for now I need to write down these gems that have come out of Caleb's mouth recently:

*After I announced that is was time for everyone to take a nap, Caleb promptly informed me, "No, we're not taking naps today. Sorry."
Oh, well okay. Thanks for letting me know.

*Caleb and Glen were looking at a toy magazine that came in the mail.
Caleb: "Oooo, I like that toy."
Glen: "Would you go pee in the potty for that toy?"
Caleb: "Uhhhhh, prob'ly not."
Well, thanks for being honest, kid.

*After Glen finishes the evening family prayer with "Amen" Caleb immediately says, "I popped out two boogers for that prayer!" Wow, thanks Bud. I'm sure the prayer sincerely thanks you for those boogers. And we sincerely thank you for the constant entertainment you provide!

August Happenings

August was a busy month for us, and it went by way too fast. The first week of August, I was participating in our multi-stake production of "Savior of the World". I had a ton of fun being involved in a production again, but unfortunately, I have no pictures.

Happy Anniversary to us! We celebrated our anniversary the middle of the month. Us then:



Us now:


Happy Birthday to Glen! We celebrated Glen's birthday toward the end of the month:


Lastly, as if Glen hasn't been working hard enough on our house, he decided to run the Hood to Coast relay! It was a great opportunity, really. His friend, Alan, was on a team and they needed one more runner. He finished the race with his team, and came away without injury, so he's a happy camper! The team did really well, actually. They came in just over 27 hours, and 306th out of 1000 teams. Not too shabby. I came along with the kids and we stayed two nights with the Rasmussens. They were great hosts, and didn't even mind that Caleb and Grace woke up at 3:30 in the morning the first night, and didn't go back to sleep (not even kidding, folks. Longest night EVER!)

Here are a few pictures of the relay fun:





The whole team running to the finish line:

Kristin and I drove an hour and a half to Seaside with the kids to see the finish, but we were too late :( They finished the race a lot sooner that we (and they) thought they would!



Glen and Alan at the end:


And here are a few pictures of the kids with Spencer (Alan and Kristin's little boy):






Notice how both of my kids have something in their mouths. Thanks, again, Rasmussen's, for letting us stay with you! (and for letting our kids get their germs all over your toys) Good job, Glen and Alan!

Utah Trip (just a little after the fact...)!

This post is waaaaaay overdue, since we returned from our vacation 6 weeks ago. But life is crazy and we moved the computer downstairs, so it is no longer at my fingertips (this is a blessing and a curse). So, here is an extremely long photo blog of our summer vacation to Utah.

The trip actually started out as a business trip for Glen, he spent the first 3 days visiting Chase branches in Northern Utah and Utah Valley. We drove all the way to Logan the first day and stayed with Glen's sister, Cory, and her family for two nights. (Cory just gave birth to their fourth baby, by the way, a little boy named Adam. Congratulations!!)

Random photos of the kids watching one of many movies on the trip down (seriously don't know why my parents ever went on road trips with 6 kids without portable DVD players):




These are the only pictures we took while in Logan. This is Caleb and his cousin, Kade:



After 2 days in Logan, we drove down and stayed with Glen's parents for the rest of the trip. Here is Glen and kids on the 4-wheeler (standard form of transportation in Genola):



Caleb and Grace, having a bath with Aunt Aliceson (Glen's youngest sister, who is five days younger than Caleb):



It was hard for me to decide which one of these gems to post:







For some reason we didn't take any pictures of the following events, but the first few days in Utah Valley were spent welcoming Glen's cousin home from a mission, Family Home Evening up Payson Canyon, dinner with Glen's best friends, and swimming at the Payson Pool with Glen's family. My parents, two sisters and brother from Arizona, and one sister from Michigan started to arrive at this point. We met up with my sisters, Liz and Becca, and their families in South Jordan for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house.

My sisters with their families:


Our family:


Me, Becca (Ella), and Liz (photo courtesy of "Pizza in a Cup"):

Becca lives in Arizona, and Liz lives in Michigan. Needless to say, we don't see each other very much :(


We also had a birthday party for Glen's sister Brittney, and brother Brent, who both have birthdays in July. The venue was Glen's brother and sis-in-law's house, Cody and Heather.

The birthday kids, having a great time singing happy birthday to themselves:


Cody (with Brent, Shawn and Cheryl - Glen's birth mom and her husband - in the background):


Caleb with cousins, Gideon and Vin - Cody and Heather's boys:


Grace had a great time getting mighty dirty:


This is Glen's grandpa with his super awesome head and neck cover, perfect for those hot sunny days working on the farm:


The Fourth of July was my favorite day of the whole trip. We began the morning running the Freedom Run 10K. Glen was the winner of our group, running in at 41 minutes! The runners were Glen, Me, John (brother), Becca, and Melissa (sister). Brother-in-law Jared also ran, but he was MIA when we took the picture:


The previous picture was just a facade; this is how we really felt:


Then we headed down to watch the parade with Glen's family. Here is Caleb with his uncles, Nathan and DJ (Glen's brothers):


They saved the best float for last! This is Glen's awesome sister Brittney (white dress), who won the "Miss Genola" crown this year:


Go Brittney! Here is Glen and the kids enjoying the parade:


Okay, this is getting too long. Here are some pictures from other family get-togethers.

My sisters and me at Grandma Pete's (me, Becca, Melissa, Liz):


Me and my man (with cousin Peter and Grandma in background):


Glen and Me with our super happy kids (we were all apparently sleep deprived):


Us with Cheryl, Glen's birth mom:


Family photo at the Payson Pool (Caleb really did have a good time, I promise):


Caleb and cousin Quinn at my uncle Brent's house:



Grace with cousins Lauren, Rachel, and Jacob:


Grace and Ella (Grace's onesie is on backwards. I don't know who dressed her that day):


Caleb insisted on having his picture taken with Ella, too (let's see how tiny I can make my eyes):


Caleb roasting marshmallows:


Lot's of cousins roasting 'mallows:


Five of six siblings. We really missed Candice, who wasn't able to come :(:(:(



And last, but not least, all those in favor of a shorter vacation next time, say "aaaahhhhhh":



THE END.

Traffic

When I drive around with the kids, I try to teach Caleb about basic traffic rules, like green lights mean go, and red lights mean stop. Today while running errands with the kids, I was approaching a red light and Caleb started this really annoying whine over and over. Here is a transcript of our short conversation-

Me: "Caleb, what's wrong?"
Caleb (in super whiny voice): "Nothing, I'm just whining."
Me: "Well, why are you whining?"
Caleb: "Because the lights are red!"

Hmmmmm. Isn't that interesting? Apparently he's picked up on the fact that red lights not only mean stop, but whine annoyingly and continuously as well. I wonder whose behavior he's imitating here. Something to think about....