We made it!!!!

We are all home now and it is so nice. Since I have been a horrible blogger I guess some of you wouldn't even know we left. Glen was gone all of August and September doing rotations in different cities for school (Madison Wisconsin and Kansas City Kansas). He came home for a day after three weeks of being gone. I spent 3 weeks in Malta visiting my family and Glen got back to Toledo on Friday night. I just kept saying I can't believe your really here. It is so fun to have him back....2 months was a long time. The kids were so excited when Glen walked into there room Saturday morning after they woke up. Taylor said DADDDDDYYYYY, very loudly and would not let go of him for a long time. Overall it went pretty good being alone but I sure was happy to be able to spend a few weeks with family. The kids had so much fun playing with cousins and I loved having people to talk with all day. We first visited my sister Jenny in Richfield Utah for a few days and then spent most of our time in Malta with my parents and also spent a lot of time over at my brothers house with my sister in law Tayna and all of their kids. We ended our trip by going to Boise for a Time Out for Women conference and got to see my brother Nolan and my his wife Ashley and their kids. It was such a fun trip but it is always so hard to leave. We were ready to go though because we were so excited to see Glen. I will post about our weekend and Taylor's birthday soon.

My Mom, Ashley's sister Raeanne, Ashley, and Tayna

My Dad telling the kids stories from his mission to Africa about all the animals. I remember him telling me these stories when I was little.
Matthew loves to cook and help. Here he is helping make bread.

A really fun playground in Burley

This was the first time I ever tried curling Taylor's hair

The kids helping my Mom pick up tumbleweeds all over their lawn

My Mom is amazing and came up with a really cute family night lesson so fast complete with props and a treasure hunt.

Taylor loves corn and ate a couple of them this night

Taylor helping to water the flowers. They really loved helping my Mom; all of her jobs were so much funner than the jobs you can do at our house.

My mom reading the kids a story before they went to bed. They both did so good sleeping there. Matthew slept in one day until 9!!! They are both back to waking up before 7 now that we are home.

My Mom and I found my snorkeling stuff and Glen is borroing my brother Jonathan's for a trip sometime next spring hopefully!! These two cute kids are not coming with us!!!!

These four kid spent a LOT of time together and we miss them a lot. They had a lot of fun.

We cooked hot dogs and roasted marshmallows a couple of times in the trees by my parents lawn. Matthew was in heaven and wanted to do it a lot. We also had pizza parties while watching the BYU football games a couple of times that Matthew thought was so fun too. Poor BYU

This was in Richfield while visiting my sister. We had a fun time shopping and were shocked by how well the kids did for hours. I was really shocked because Taylor is the worst shopper ever.

We were in this scrapbook store forever and luckily they had a toy area for the kids. The store had the cutest ribbon and I now have a lot of bows to make for Taylor.

We went swimming at a natural hot spring that they made into 3 nice pools that were all different tempuratures. It is in this little town called Almo about 30-40 mintues away from my parents house. Kids from here went to my school.

Christophe, Taylor, Jill, and Brandon

Such good cousins

We went kyaching at my parents house on the river and you can find some spots where it is really shallow to get out and walk around.

I thought it was funny that my Mom wanted a picture of us at the grocery store so i had to put this one on here. This fancy cart didn't cost money like it does at my grocery store in Toledo. Jill, Mom, Jenny

Taylor, Matthew, Savannah

I feel bad I didn't get pictures with all of the cousins or Nolan and Ashley. Getting to spend so much time with my family was great and I love it so much since we don't get to see them very often.

Staying busy

This summer is flying by and we are trying our best to take advantage of it before the cold dreadful winter gets here. I know we still have quite awhile until then. It has been hard doing much else besides being in the water since it is so hot and humid. I took the kids swimming a few days ago and it was so much fun. Matthew kept diving away from me in the little pool as I tried to squirt him with a squirt gun; he is getting so brave. We went to the big pool and Matthew amazed me; he was swimming a few feet all by himself. It wasn't the best form but he was doing it and was loving it as was I. Taylor and I cheered and clapped for him and he was so proud.

I was in the kitchen one morning doing dishes from the day before :( when I came into the living room to see this. They had made beds for everyone including me (on the very left) and Taylor's baby (on the right). Matthew even had the right pillows for each person.

I grabbed a rubber band to get Taylor's hair out of her face and decided to try the side ponytail. Her expressions in these pictures just kill me. The second picture is my favorite. She looks like such a little goof/nerd. So funny!!

Taylor kept trying to be like Matthew by jumping and diving and lets just say she swallowed a lot of water. Taylor is always trying to be bigger and older than she is. She thinks she can keep right up with Matthew and the big kids. Matthew and his boy friends tell her often that she is a baby and can't do certain things. Taylor does not like that very much. Taylor is talking so well it just amazes me. She speaks full sentences and you actually can understand her very well. Her and Matthew can play so well together sometimes because they just talk back and forth.

Glen's Mom has been such a help lately coming down and brought us such a great dinner the other night. Matthew and Taylor surprised me with the way they ate these ribs.

We finally got a hose and a sprinkler to use in our yard. I always say I can't wait to have a yard but we really do have one. It is not fenced and we do share it with the other people in our townhome but it is a yard. We are the only ones usually out on the lawn anyway. I do watch them closely with the road and driveways but they are both pretty good about staying on the grass and sidewalk. It's nice to be able to step right out our door and do sidewalk chalk or eat lunch on the grass.

Matthew was trying to help Taylor into the sprinkle and she ran out pretty quick. She said it was too cold!

A wonderful day with my favorite people

We went to the zoo last Saturday and it really was the perfect day. It wasn't too hot or humid!! We were able to have Glen the whole day all to ourselves which is very rare. A lot of our pictures look a little blurry and I hope it was just that we were using the timer on a rock and not that our camera is dying.

I love how curious kids are. You can't ever walk very fast anywhere because they have to stop and check everything out.

Taylor's smile is just the cutest thing ever in the picture below. Such a cheeser!