What We've Been Up To

Branson and Roxy wondering if they could make a clean escape out the window!

It has been a crazy BUSSSSSY month it seems. I don't seem to have much spare time these days. We've been enjoying watching Branson grow right before our eyes. He has now got four teeth (two more will be in within the next few days). He has learned to walk. He just takes off and goes. He seems to go so fast for such a little guy. He wanders around all day long jabbering to himself, humming and pushing his "swatter." His favorite toy in the whole wide world is a fly swatter. He sees grandma swatting flies and laughs and laughs. He decided they are a great shovel, cane, poker. He pushes it into, under, over, around or on top of anything and everything in the house jabbering to himself the entire time. He has learned so many words. He is such a smart little guy. He will be 1 on the 26th of this month. I can't believe it. It seems that he was just born. Now we are eagerly awaiting the birth of his baby brother, Gavin, who will be here in less than a month.

Jade and Brit have bought a trailer here in the park and have been busy getting it ready to move into. They have been painting and cleaning like crazy. It is a nice home and will be perfect for their little family. It will be nice to still have them so close so I can get baby hugs and kisses often!

I have also taken up the hobby of jewelry making. I am totally obsessed with it now. It is a great stress reliever and not a terribly expensive hobby. Here are a few things I have done. I'm not perfect at it yet, but am working on it every chance I get.

These are just a few of the interchangeable watch bands I have done.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRITTINEY!

Today is Brittiney's 24th birthday!



We are having the traditional roast and potatoes sunday dinner for her today. I am so glad to have Brit as a part of our family. As they have been staying here, we have gotten so much closer and gotten to know each other very well. She is such a good mom and a great wife to Jade. She works hard and deserves the very best!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIT!

28 YEARS!

Yesterday was our 28th wedding anniversary. I can't believe I am old enough to have been married for 28 years!!! YIKES ... through all the years we have been good times and bad times but I wouldn't trade the past 28 years for anything in the world. We have three great kids and a great family and we are all so close. Glen is truly my best friend in life and the one I go to when I need to laugh, cry, complain or get a boost of encouragement. He is such a hard worker and has always makes sure we are all okay. He is the first to help out when someone needs help and you will never hear him complain. That is what I love most about him. He is such a generous person. He has done well with putting up with me for all these years, so he really needs a pat on the back!

Just to think that most of our family didn't think we'd last six months being married. I was 17 and Glen was 25 so we really had the odds stacked against us. Here we are 28 years later!

LOVE YOU HONEY!

LONG OVERDUE UPDATE

I haven't posted in a while. Not really much exciting has happened in our lives over the past month (that is probably a good thing)!

Glen has been busy in our yard and his mom's yard and has things looking beautiful. He has quite a vegetable garden growing and keeping us all full of zuchinni. We have a HUGE pumpkin patch growing in the mulch pile as volunteers from last year's pumpkins. Glen had thrown six pumpkins in the mulch pile last year as we didn't get to carve them since Branson decided to be born that day! There must be at least 20 pumpkins growing out there now. We'll have fun carving this year for Branson's birthday party!

I spend most of my days working from home and watching Branson for a few hours a few afternoons a week. He is growing like a weed and is such a smart baby. He loves our cats, or "kees" as he calls them. He is crawling all over the place and walking around furniture. He will be walking before long I am sure. We are anxiously awaiting the new baby who is due Novemeber 5. I am so excited to have a new baby to hold and cuddle. Branson doesn't like to cuddle much anymore. He has much more important things to do than to sit on my lap and cuddle!

Daddy's little "rocker"

Chelsie and Brian came home last weekend and camped out at Glendale Lake in Brian's parent's camp trailer. They decided to try to get one camping trip in before summer was over and Chels started her busy schedule back in school. There are no mountains or nice lakes around Twin Falls so they were happy to have a weekend to spend outdoors. They told us all that if we wanted to see them we had to come to the camp spot and they wouldn't have to spend the weekend running to all ends of the county seeing everyone. It was nice. We went out both Friday night and Saturday we had a barbecue and dutch oven potatoes with our family, Brian's family and even some family friends showed up. The girls all sat down and made beaded watches, as I had taken my beads and stuff, while the boys played with the dogs and fished a bit. The food was delcious and it was nice to spend some time with the kids.

This is what my office looks like most afternoons. Branson just plays and plays. He is a good boy and so glad that we are able to spend as much time with him and watch him grow up.

One of his FAVORITE things is watching me vacuum. He used to crawl behind me and grab the cord. In fact, that's how we taught him to crawl. Now he just kind of sits off to the side and occasionally gets brave enough to crawl over and touch the big black "monster." If he is in the tub or highchair or in his bedroom and he hears the vacuum come on, he gets mad and throws a fit until he can come join me. He is just mesmerized by the vacuum. This is one of the mornings that Brit had him in the tub and he just had to get out and come help me vacuum.

He loves his "papa" and grandma (he sometimes calls me "nana" but not sure that's really what he's doing). He makes me laugh many, many, many times throughout the day and laughter is a GOOD THING!

24TH OF JULY WEEKEND

I finally got out of town for a couple of days!! I had the opportunity to go down to Spanish Fork and visit with all of my sisters and my mom. We had a very fun weekend and it was good "therapy" time for me to get away and spend GIRL TIME with my sisters and mom.

Friday we went to the Spanish Fork parade. It was a BIG parade and lasted for a very long time. After the parade, they have games and booths and variety of stuff going on on the stage. It was nice to sit and relax and visit with all my sisters and their families.






Draven on the bungie jump trampoline. He was so funny to watch!



After the park, we went back to mom's apartment for some air conditioning and rest. We all met up at my sister, Shelly's, house and my sister, Amanda, had brought hundreds of sets of beads and some watch faces and all the necessary doo dads to make beaded watches. We had tons of fun and laughs and made some pretty cute stuff. THANKS MANDA! She claims she got it all in a clearance bin at a craft fair and wouldn't let any of us give her any money ... she is sooooo busy all the time. I don't understand how she has time for craft fairs!

Friday night we went to the carnival. Amanda and Shelly run a preschool and Amanda had made 500 prize grab bags for the fishing pond she had at the park and parade Thursday and Friday. She was charging $1 each for them and they all had a glow necklace or bracelet in them. She was selling them as a fundraiser to get a new play yard for the preschool and had made quite a bit of money throughout the day. She decided that the carnival would be a good place to try to sell a few more of them, so Amanda and I sat on the grass and sold the grab bags. The closer to dark it got, the more popular they got! The kids all wanted a glow necklace or bracelet. It was nice to sit and visit with Amanda and her husband while my other sisters all took their kids on rides. Aspen asked if I would take Hallie and Draven to ride a couple more rides. They are 4 year old cousins only a month apart and are so close and so darned cute together. It was great fun for me to watch the cute little guys ride the train and wave so excitedly every time they passed me standing there watching them.

Hallie and Draven on the train

My sisters' and brothers' kids are all growing up so fast. I don't get to see them often enough. They have such cute families and have to make trips down to see them more often!

After the carnival, we went to the baseball park and watched fireworks. I must say, I am impressed at the big time Spanish Fork has for the 24th.

Saturday was a lazy laid back day. Mom, Shelly and I made a venture to Sam's Club. Mom doesn't go anywhere but Shopko (where she works) so it was fun for her to get out a bit. We all met up at Bajio Grill for lunch and then back to Shelly's to make some more jewelry creations. I hated to leave to go home. I really, really, really wish I could live closer to them. I think it would be so great to be able to drop by and see any one of my sisters at any time, and would love to live closer to my mom. We get along so great and I just love my getaway weekends down there. The only thing that would have made it better would be if MY girls would have been able to go with me. THANKS GUYS! I'll be back down soon. LOVE YOU ...

July 11, 2009 - Chelsie and Brian's Wedding Day!

Well, we did it! The months of planning and planning and planning is over. The wedding is done and life is back to semi-normal. It was a BEAUTIFUL wedding and the day went perfectly!

Aside from starting nearly an hour late, the wedding was perfect. Now, the explanation as to why it started so late: When Brian and Chels were picking their groomsmen and bridesmaids, Brian knew that he wanted his best friend, "Rooks" to be his best man. He is in the U.S. Navy and found out shortly after being asked to be the best man that he was being deployed. He would not be back in time for the wedding. Brian has been bummed out about that ever since. A couple of weeks before the wedding, Chelsie got a call from Rooks saying that his ship would dock in Washington the day before the wedding. He was determined to surprise Brian and show up at the wedding ... Chelsie was so excited and told everyone except for Brian. It was a well guarded secret and Rooks even contacted Brian and told him that there was no way he would be home in time. His ship docked on time and he drove like a bat out of *&@# to get to Utah. He called at 7:00 in the morning and told Brian's mom he was just outside of the Idaho border in Oregon. We timed it and knew that he was going to be late, but at that point, we couldn't start the wedding without him. We had it planned that he would be an escort on Kandice's arm since she was the maid of honor. Josh was on her other arm. Brian didn't know that he was coming or had arrived until he saw him walk down the aisle with Kandice. It was a pretty special moment to be there to see. We had told Brian that the delay was because Chels had a "wardrobe malfunction. He was growing mighty impatient. We had Glen and Brian's mom inform the rest of the crowd and the officiator what was going on. The officiator even mentioned it after the ceremony and thanked everyone for being so patient.

Kandice and her two special escorts

Daddy walking Chelsie down the aisle

Mr. and Mrs. Brian Young

Now for the wedding ... it was a beautiful setting, beautiful weather and a beautiful couple. They are so cute together and we just LOVE Brian and are so glad to have him be a new member of our family. They both looked so GREAT and the men all in tuxes were so handsome. The bridesmaids were adorable and everything turned out just as planned. We had a good turnout and it was a pretty casual affair. That is exactly how Chels and Brian wanted it. They didn't want a fancy smancy wedding.

Before the ceremony







They were thrilled that so many family and friends were able to make come and appreciated them all so much!

Thank you to everyone that came and helped us out with anything and everything! I appreciate it more than you know ...

These are just some of the nearly 500 photos the photographer took that day. Kandice and I took a few as well so it was a well photographed wedding!

Chelsie and her girls

Brian and his dudes

Abigail the adorable flower girl!

Branson the adorable ring bearer!

The two families

Proud mom and dad

Pretty rings

We wish Chels and Brian the very best in their life together and the happiest future imaginable!