About Us

About Us
Glenn and I have been married for ten spectacular years. We recently moved to Saudi Arabia, which is obviously very far away from both of our families. We keep this blog updated so we can stay close to our friends and fam and to keep a record of our family adventures. Glenn is enjoying his new job and I am loving being a stay-at-home mom. We have two sweet little boys, Tate and Finn and two darling twin baby girls, Taryn and Kenna. We love them to pieces. We also love date nights, good movies, good food, and being with each other.
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

First Snowfall

Tate at 36 weeks old.It's winter here in Utah. It wasn't really winter two days ago, but then yesterday it was suddenly very cold and snowed most of the day. I can't make up my mind about winter. I guess it's the classic "You always want what you can't have." Last winter I seriously missed the snow. It doesn't feel like the holidays when it's 80 degrees outside. I love the atmostphere and feel of wintertime. The sparkly snow on the ground, hot chocolate, sledding, coats and scarves and gloves, my breath coming out in puffs, the misty, foggy air, and of course the fact that it means Christmas time is around the corner or just happened. There's nothing better than Christmas. But I do not love being cold. Hmmm. It's a puzzlement. I suppose that I would prefer a real winter to no winter at all. But maybe I would rather it hold off until the holidays, meaning Thanksgiving time. Yes, I think that would be my ideal. Does anyone know a place where winter hits right around Thanksgiving and lasts just until around the end of February or maybe March? Because I am of the opinion that the end of March should signal Springtime and am entirely opposed to even the occasional snowfall in May or June. That's just not right. Oh, and if it's going to be cold, which I think winter should, then it should snow. Maybe not every day, but every third day or so. I just don't enjoy cold weather with no pretty snow. It seems like a waste. Yes, that sounds about right. Wow, there are so many rules to my ideal winter...Hmmm. Well, I guess if I'm going to plan it out in my fantasy world in my head then it can be exactly as I like!
Little Tate seemed entirely indifferent to his first ever snowfall. Of course we just got out of the car and he was throwing a mighty fit. He's been a bit of an ornery face the last couple of days. Oh well,at least we got the picture.

Tate Loves Faces

My little boy has always had a thing for faces. He loves to grab them and pull on them and pet them. When someone is holding him he always has one hand on their face. Maybe he's just reassuring himself that they are still there while he checks out his surroundings. I don't really know. When he is upset or tired the grabbing and petting of the face gets more frantic. It can, on occasion, be a bit dangerous, especially if we've neglected his fingernails for a week or so. He's been known to cut tiny scratches and pull on lips until it feels like they might just come off if he's really upset. I love it. I think it's so sweet the way one hand just automatically goes up to the face of whoever is holding him and just rests on their cheek or searches for their mouth or nose. When he gets sleepy and someone is holding him he keeps moving his hand around their face and you know he's actually asleep when his hand stops moving...which can be several minutes after he has closed his eyes and stopped wiggling.
Don't know why he does it or how long it will last but I sure think it's cute.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

UEA

Tate at 35 weeks old


Tate loves crackly things lately. He can keep himself entertained for quite a while with his wipes bag or a wrapper of some sort.

This past weekend was UEA (Utah Education Association has a conference and school is out, for those of you not from Utah). We went down the the condo in St. George again and had a great time! We went to the St. George temple and did baptisms with Kenz, we saw Annie at Tuacahn which was great. Kenzie had never seen Annie before, poor deprived child. We went on a hike one afternoon up Snow canyon. It was beautiful! We hiked through sand about half of the time and that was difficult, but it was a gorgeous area. Tate throughly enjoyed himself. He just chattered and sang until he finally passed out. We abused Tate a bit this weekend. It appears that he has a very sensitive gag reflex. He's used to his thin baby food but anything with a little more texture makes him gag and he pulls the greatest facial expressions of complete disgust. It's just plain fun.It's also fun to figure out what Tate will find hilarious each day. Kenzie was making funny noises when we went swimming on Monday and it was sweet to see Tate absolutely crack up. He sure loves his Auntie Kenzie. It's a little unfair. When he's had a hard afternoon and we can't think of anything to cheer him up, Kenzie can walk in the room and he's all smiles.

By far the best news of the week is that we now have a plan! Glenn is in Houston for a couple of days for two second interviews with oil companies and then he comes out here on Thursday. Then he heads down South again to finish up his research! We have a plan. I love having a plan. Everything feels so much better when I have a plan. That's been one of the hardest parts of these last two months. So much of our plans have been up in the air because we had to wait to hear back from companies he's interviewing with to know when he would be where. I'm just so excited to have a plan now. The very hardest part, though, has been being without my honey. I'm glad I haven't had to be alone while we've been apart but I sure miss him.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

8 Months

Tate at 34 weeks old.

Tatie is 8 months old this week. He's getting better at scooting around. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth and then collapses onto his tummy and does his little army crawl scoot. Silly kid. This last weekend he really started cheesing it for the camera. Usually he catches sight of it and freezes, mesmerized by the red light on the little black thing. I love his silly cheeser face.

He's really put on some poundage since he's decided to start eating food. He can seriously put it away. It's wierd to see him start to grow out of his clothes again. He's been in 3-6 months size for such a long time it helped me keep the illusion alive that he would stay little forever. But alas, his clothes are getting a little snug and he is, in fact, still growing. It's been really fun to share him with my family for a while. I am just so proud of my little man and it's a blast to see my family enjoy him too. It will be hard to go back to Texas and be all alone again and feel like my family doesn't get to share him. It will be nice to be with Glenn again though. I miss my own little family.

We put him on the grass this weekend and he loved it. He kept grabbing big awkward handfuls and trying to get it all in his mouth. Can't play on the grass like this in Texas so enjoy it while you can buddy.

Shakespeare Competition

Thousands of Junior High and High School students in Cedar City, Utah. Julius Ceasar wearing a backpack and tennis shoes running to his next round. King Henry trying desperately to flirt with Juliet in between workshops but he still doesn't really know how to flirt so it's just plain fun to watch. Hoards of students in all black wandering around campus. Several students "talking to themselves" as they rehearse their monologues in hallways or sidewalks. It was quite a scene. Our junior high had a pretty small group this year, just 25 students to keep track of. We were able to see three amazing professional plays in addition to all of the rehearsing and performing that we did ourselves. Each night when we got back from a play we would rehearse in the hotel parking lot until curfew at eleven. It was astounding how much improvement happened in those last few evenings. I don't know if it was the panic or urgency of having to perform "for real" the next day, or if something just clicked, but every piece was so much better by the time they were to perform.
Glenn was a good sport and he and Tate spent a lot of time alone as I was rehearsing and watching students' performances. It was so great to have them there to support me and to be with when I didn't have to be somewhere else. They spent most of one afternoon like this:
Glenn reading a book and Tate rolling around on the bench and playing with the contents of the diaper bag. Tate also really enjoyed my Excedrin bottle. I got a nice migraine on the last day and was happy that I just stopped nursing so I could partake of the really good stuff! Maybe I'll just keep it in the diaper bag because Tate was so entertained by the rattle noises.
We decided to leave before the awards ceremony because Glenn had a flight out early on Sunday but made them promise to call when it was over. One of our monologues took first place which is so great. He really deserved it. We took fourth place overall and I'm just so pleased with how things turned out. I was really impressed with the students and their attitude about the competition. They had a good time, saw some good theatre, and learned a lot. The fact that we placed well was a nice bonus. I'm glad that they weren't too focused on the competition aspect because I think it made for a much more positive experience overall.
I learned a couple of things this weekend:
  • I enjoy theatre. I love seeing it, talking about it, and directing it. I have missed it a lot this year and I would like to find some way to be more involved.
  • I don't need to teach drama full time. I'm glad I did it once, I really enjoyed coaching the students for Shakespeare but it's just not as important as it used to be and I don't have the drive to spend 80 hours a week teaching drama, which is what I would have to spend in order to feel good about it and know I was doing my best. I have a little boy. I'm his mom. That job is more motivating and important to me right now.

That's it. It was a fun weekend and I'm glad I agreed to coach the students. I'm proud of what we accomplished and it was fun to be around other teachers and friends I used to associate with all the time.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Giggles

Glenn was supposed to be back in Utah last Sunday but he missed me so much that he found a flight into Vegas on Friday night and met my family in St. George for Conference weekend. I missed my honey and it was so great to be with him again. We had a great time shopping, swimming, and hanging out at the condo. It sure is a fun place to get away with all of the family.
We've been trying to decide what to do with Tate for Halloween. One cute thing we've come across is this pirate costume. He looks pretty sweet in the hat. I don't know how much I want to spend and how much I want to dress him up, especially if we'll be in sweltering Texas for Halloween. We'll keep pondering.
Tate at 33 weeks old
This week is my last week with the Shakespeare team. We've had a lot of rehearsals and last night was our Evening of Shakespeare where parents, friends and other students came to watch them perform their pieces. It went really well. I think all of them had their best performances yet. It really helped to have an audience to react to their work. Glenn, Tate, and I are heading down to Cedar City for the weekend to attend the Shakespeare Competition. We still have a few kinks to work out but I think they've come a long ways and I'm really proud of them!Tate is so much fun right now. Every time he hits a new phase I'm a little sad about the one we leave behind, but each new thing he learns is so exciting. He's so happy right now. It's just fun to be around him and listen to his chatter and see what he's going to find hilarious today. Last week it was my mom saying "Baaa" and he'd just bust up laughing. This morning Glenn was folding laundry and he would flip the shirts before he folded them and Tate just started giggling. The more Glenn did it the harder Tate would laugh. We just got a really short clip but I think it's so sweet.