Jeremy and Natalie's Wedding

We're evening up the odds- another girl joins the family! We already adore Natalie and are so happy for the two of them!

cousins

At the end of July, the kids and I left Texas, Matt, the movers and the new house behind and headed for Idaho and Utah to get out of the craziness for a few days. It was so nice to let Matt handle the moving stuff and relax in the non-humid weather with so much of our family. Despite Lydia throwing up the entire drive back from Twin Falls to Sandy, we had a fantastic time. The kids couldn't get enough of their cousins. I so wish we didn't live so far away.

To make it even better, we had a couple days with the Glauser family as well, as we all met up for Jeremy's and Natalie's wedding on August 1st. Matt flew in that morning for the blessed event (it'll get its own post).

Idaho cousins Utah cousins

Preschool

It was Back to School for Lydia this year as well. She has been so excited, and absolutely LOVES it.

I have to admit, it was a little weird that first day to be ALL alone for five hours on the middle of a weekday, but I'm quickly getting over that taking advantage of my two days a week all to myself for the next few weeks before the baby is born!

off the grid

So, we survived the summer and are back full swing into school routines and preparing for a baby who's ETA is rapidly approaching. The boys started school at the end of August and I really thought I'd have all kinds of time to catch up on things, but honestly, I don't know where those 7 hours go each day. So here I am, almost 3 weeks later, finally getting around to coming back to life on the internet.

new house party

We had a little party at the new house Friday night, complete with roasted hot dogs in the backyard firepit and a sleepover movie night (well at least Matt and the kids slept over. I went back to my comfortable bed at the old house). The kids loved it. Garrett proclaimed, "This is the best campout EVER!" and they keep asking to go back to the new house.

We've got a bit to take care of before we are officially moved in, though. The kids and I leave tomorrow morning for Jeremy's wedding in Utah, the movers come on Wed/Thurs/Friday, and Matt will join us in Salt Lake on Saturday- then we'll come home to the new house for good, hopefully all in one piece.

Summertime

Our one (and probably only) July post: a photo recap of our California Vacation and our Lehnhof Family Reunion.

California was so fun, sunny, cool in the evenings, and full of family time. We're back now to the apparently record breaking Texas HEAT and HUMIDITY. Throw that in with the hurricane last year and we might just find ourselves a little summer home in Alaska from here on out.

I was a little concerned we'd run out of things to do and drive each other crazy all summer, but we're finding our days filling up way too fast. Between gymnastics, baseball, music lessons, awesome community swimming pools, and buying a new house, I celebrate days like today when I don't have to go out at all.

Happy Summer to one and all.

Garrett's birthday

(February 2003, 9 months old)

Somewhere along the way my little guy turned 7. My first thought is of all the psychology research about the first 8 years being the most critical in development and influential in a child's life. So I guess that means one more year to cram as much in as we can, and undo any damage we may have done, huh?

Really though, he's one pretty fantastic kid in a million different ways, and we love him so much and are so proud of him.

California Weekend

I spent the weekend in Redlands for the wedding of my adorable friend, Cara. Cara stayed with us in Brazil for several weeks last year, at which point this little romance began via Facebook. It was fun to be there to witness the union I predicted 12 months ago. The wedding was beautiful. It turned into quite the girls' weekend with a sister, sister-in-law, and a neice all meeting up at my Mom's for the blessed event. Somewhere between all the wedding activities, we managed to fit in a visit to our favorite nail salon, eating at Cuca's and In-N-Out, and shopping way more than any of us probably should have. It was fantastic! Next time Erin and Bobbie have to join us.

mom, Kerri, Jenny, Sadie, me

It really was such a nice weekend to get away, even though I'm pretty sure I got less sleep than I have in a long time. I'm having a hard time getting back into life as usual. I fell asleep during my Pilates routine this morning in the middle of my living room floor.

the results show

the votes:

Lydia- Girl

Ethan-Boy

Garrett-either

And the winner is....

Ethan

It seems that Lydia and I are destined to be outnumbered, but being Glausers and all, did we ever have much of a chance for it being any other way?

Lydia will get over it soon enough, after all it's still a baby that will need a new diaper every few hours and she's all over that. Plus she now has free reign on my buckets of baby girl clothes for her dolls.

Our little guy:

JON SCHMIDT with LOVE STORY meets VIVA LA VIDA

This is AWESOME.

Love, love, love it.

Love Love Story.

Love Viva la Vida.

Love Jon Schmidt.

I'm so downloading the MP3 and sheet music as soon as they're available here.

Or maybe I'll just buy his new album coming out this summer. I'm due for some new Jon Schmidt anyway.

In the meantime, we'll keep it on replay here.