It's been a while

Time has sure flown by lately!! Whats new right. February is here and almost gone and I am more than just a little behind on this blogging business. Well I will spare you the many adventures since our last post in October and jump right into our most recent happenings.

I suppose our most recent excitement was celebrating Parkers 7th Birthday. Thats right my baby is getting all grown up. Parker is such a joy to be around and so helpful. He keeps me on my toes with his quick mind and all too grown up wisdom. He loves to read and play with legos, and is of course the best big brother ever. He is anxious for the next year to fly by so he can be baptized and go to scouts. Watch out world.

Parker wanted to have a Bug Birthday this year, and I was all too happy to accomadate. I admit, it was a welcome change from Star Wars and Legos.

We had a hot dog lunch with spider cake for dessert and played lots of fun games. I think the highlight was Dont Eat Pete. Anyone who knows this game would agree it is always a hit with kids. Especially when you use M and M's.
He also received so many fun 'bug gifts.' He got a really cool HEX bug, and even some real live crickets (which by the way I am even loving.)
Later that night we went out to dinner with Great Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Papa to celebrate the big day. Love the little grenn lizard that appears in every picture!!
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I was too exhausted to get Autumn out of her pajamas into some real clothes by the end of the day. So she celebrated Parkers big day comfy style.

Happy Birthday to my favorite Boy.

We love you and are so glad that you are part of our family.

The Missionaries Have Moved

One of the advantages of being married to the Bishop is that our family gets to see the missionaries a little more often than some. We love having the Elders in our home and enjoy the opportunity to feed them at least once a month. Well life has been pretty busy these last few months and the bishops schedule pretty unpredictable, so several times I have had to drop off dinner at their home. They are pretty good about calling to remind me and so without fail I prepared dinner and dropped it off at the previously arranged time. The odd thing was that every time I dropped off the meal-they were never home. I thought to myself "wow, the Elders have become really unreliable lately." Without giving it another thought I continued to drop off meals to the 'terribly unreliable elders.'

Then a couple of Sundays ago, in one of his morning meetings, the Elders asked the Bishop why they were stiffed their meal on Thursday night. To which he replied, "oh no, my wife cooked you a really nice meal, I was there when she took it over to you guys." To which the Elders replied, "We never got the dinner. We were home but it never came. Where did she take the meal to?" "dont you guys live on 4th street still." "No." The Elders replied. "You have moved?" questioned the Bishop. "Yes, like 3 months ago" the elders said.

Well needless to say they all got a really good laugh out of this-and mind you I still didn't know!!!! Later that day I am sitting in the chapel getting ready for the meeting to begin when one of the Elders comes up to me and says, "Sister Glenn did you know that the Elders have moved?" "What!!!!!", I said. Immediately I shot Randall the stink eye as he was sitting on the stand and turned bright red as I realized what this meant. I had been shafting the Elders for months!!!! Each time I took them a meal it was to the wrong house-and they never said a word!! So as horrified as I was, I am so grateful that this dear Elder finally had the courage to say something. How awful to think that the Elders were sitting there thinking, 'wow, the Bishops wife is terribly unreliable.'

Well the storty fortunately has a good ending. As soon as I got over my shock I began to think about whom I was dropping the meals off to. I thought, oh great, somebody is probably thinking who is this crazy person dropping food off at my door all the time. They probably didnt even eat it. After all who knows what someone could have put in the food!!. I was feeling pretty terrible that all of my food had probably gone into the trash for fear of food poisoning or something, when my neighbor (the ward mission leader) made a comment to me about that mornings meeting and the ensuing conversation. He laughed a little to himself and then told me that when the elders moved out of that apartment his son and family moved in. He then continued to tell me how his son was always commenting on how someone was leaving food on their doorstep-and they really enjoyed it!!!! At that point i just lost it and doubled over in laughter. I dont know if I was more relieved that my precious food was actually enjoyed or that i had just made the biggest Bishops wife blunder ever. Either way I got a good laugh out of the whole situation.

Just please Elders, the next time you move-at least let the Bishop know!!! His wife would really appreciate it.

The Big # 1

So I know this post is really, really old-but I am still trying to play catch up from the summer. Please bear with me, this is pretty much the only journal I keep so I really don't want to loose any of these great memories.

On August 7th Autumn turned the BIG # 1. It was with a mixture of both excitement and sadness that I watched my baby celebrate her first birthday. It is hard to believe that just a short 12 months ago I held her in my arms for the first time. Where has the time gone? Soon she will be bounding around the house with her new found freedom and all of the cute cooing and cuddling will be but a memory. So for now I am trying to soak in what is left of her sweet baby innocence and forget about what comes tomorrow. It will be here all to quickly anyways-My 6 year old reminds me daily!!!!

I love this picture of Autumn. I was really trying to capture the 'vampire teeth' she had goin on. At this point she had only 2 bottom teeth, 1 upper front and two 'fangs' on the sides. Pretty cute kid- although at times I wondered if she were really mine and not a TWILIGHT baby!!!

The Birthday party was a blast. Autumn loved all of the attention and of course her BIG yummy cupcake. Nana and Papa were there along with G&G DePiazza, Auntie Joy and Carter, Auntie Crystal and Brenna and Kayla and Tillie and Ben.

We love you lots Autumn and are so happy to have you in our family. Your smile is so contagious and your big beautiful brown eyes are absolutely stunning. You are looking more and more like your daddy everyday although everyone still says you look just like your mamma and sister. Congratulations on your big day. We cant wait to celebrate many more with you.

First Grade Follies

Today He was a real Boy. Full of curiosity and confidence our oldest child, who shall remain nameless, walked himself home from First Grade. Proud as he could be, he came through the door nearly 1/2 hour earlier then he normally gets home. A little taken back I asked him how he got home so early. With a mischevious grin he told me that he had walked home that day.

(Insert side note-Parker does not walk home from school, he rides the bus!!!!!!!! We live much too far from the school for a 1st grader to walk home)

To his reply I wasnt sure if I should laugh or cry. The Boy had guilt written all over his face. He then said "okay Mom, I'll tell you what really happened." Evidently the night before he had written a note to his teacher telling her that he was supposed to walk home that day. And of course the note never made it to school- but that didn't stop him. At the end of the day he marched himself into the cafeteria where the 'walkers' meet before they are allowed to go home. Somehow he bamboozled 'Mr. Poole' into believing that he had left his note at home (true i suppose) saying he was supposed to walk home instead of ride the bus. And without another thought they let him go.

Thank goodness for my dear Friend Nancy whom was driving home from the bank and ran into my son casually and confidently walking his 6 year old self home. She asked him if he wanted a ride to which he replied that he was just fine walking. After some convincing she got him to get in the car with a stern reminder that he should never get into the car with someone he did not know. She then drove him home and dropped him off. Thank you Nancy-I owe you big time!!!!

Of course as any good mother would do I gave him a stern lecture about the dangers of walking home alone and that he was never to do it again. Many tears were shed and some privileges lost but all in all he came out pretty unscathed. I must admit Randall and I had some pretty good laughs privately about the whole ordeal. This is one that won't be soon forgotten.

Sunny SanDiego

June gave us the opportunity to catch some rays down in Sunny SanDiego thanks to the ADA New Dentist convention. It was a last minute trip that we just couldnt resist. We had actually planned to go camping that week but the weather was still too cold in the Wallowas. So.. we settled for some sun, and believe me it was definately the better choice. We started our trip at LegoLand per Parkers request and had a great time. It was perfect for little kids-with rides just their speed. They also just built a new LEGO waterpark where we spent an entire day. We were lucky enough to find this beautiful Condo in Oceanside with gorgeous views.

It was like our own private Paradise.
We also had the opportunity to visit the new Mormon Batallion Historical Site in Old Town San Diego. Our hotel was only 1 block from the site. We enjoyed an awesome interactive film and even got to pan for gold. We highly recomend if you are ever down that way.

We then went to Sea World and enjoyed all that they had to offer. Don't the kids just look thrilled? Our day at the beach was definately a highlight of the week. The kids were thrilled to actually be on a beach that was relatively warm and sunny. We don't have many beach days like that in Oregon.
Please excuse the bikinie bums in the background. I tried to crop them out but to do so I would have to cut off my head-and I'm not so sure that would be attractive either.
And lastly we enjoyed our night out at the Luau put on by the ADA. It was held at the Catamaram Resort on their private beach. It was a blast but it got a little chilly and kind of late for the kiddos.

We had a great time and will definately be returning. There are so many great things to see and do in Sunny San Diego.

My 3 little Miracles

1st day of School

It's that time of year again .

Back to School, and can I say thank goodness. This is my first year of an all 'dayer' and... (I hope this isnt too terrible to admit) I'm loving it. I did have a few tears in my eyes that first day but none since. Parker is absolutely loving the 1st grade. Mostly because he gets to have 2 recesses and eat lunch at school. He had his very first Hot lunch last week-and he was ecstatic. When he got home I asked him what he chose-his reply: "well mom I had chicken nuggets, but i did choose the regular milk, because I wanted to be healthy."

Parker is in a 1/2 grade blend this year which I anticipate will work very well for him. He is above grade level in most areas especially in reading and comprehension. We are so proud of him and cant wait to see how he progresses this year.

Waiting for the bus.

Abrianna also started Preschool this week and is of course, loving it. She is attending Zoar Lutheran again, and has the same teachers and exact same class as last year. She has moved to Monday, Wednesday, Friday, mornings which works out great. It gives me a really nice break during the week. Once I get Parker on the bus and drop Abrianna off, I have 2 1/2 hours to run errands or clean house with only Autumn at my side.

Life is so good.