All Grown Up

Pleasant Grove Soccer Fall 2010

Evan has always had really good speech for his age. He says all of his letters correctly, unlike Lily and her cute "L's" that sound like "Y's". She is getting better, but why did we name her Lily that has 2 L's? Anyways, one funny thing Evan has always said is he calls the remote control a gmote. We have never corrected him because we think it is so cute - we are his parents of course! Well the other day Rob asked Evan to hand him the gmote. Evan looked at Rob and said, "Dad, it is a remote, not a gmote". That was a sad day in our lives! Our little boy was all grown up! We asked him how he knew it was called a remote (we always say gmote in our house) and Evan said his friend Brock corrected him and told him it is called a remote. Those friends, they ruin everything!


Evan loves to play goalie

Evan has been playing on a soccer team since August. He was really enjoyed it and is quite the little player. Most of the other parents of kids on the team probably call him the ball hog, but we are proud of him! For the first few games all he wanted to do was play goalie. Of course he had to take turns but his favorite part of the game was when he was goalie. These last few games he has enjoyed playing the field and "hogging" the ball. Evan is pretty competitive and one of the older ones on his team so that means the other kids don't really care if he hogs the ball and scores all of the goals for his team. His game last week he scored 3 goals!! Though they don't keep score so I am not suppose to be counting - but when it is your kid you do keep track so you can brag! 

Evan defending his goal!



All Dressed Up!

Lily at Discovery Gateway

Our Lily is at such a cute stage! She has the funniest personality. Tonight I was getting ready to go to the temple. I had changed into a dress with sandals. I hear Lily thrashing around in her room and crying. I asked her if I could help her and her sassy side came out with an adamant, "no, go away mom!". A few minutes later, Lily walks down the stairs in a skirt, shirt (which is on upside down- the neck is around her waist!), sandals and she even put tights on! She was so proud of herself! It was cute that she even put tights on because I haven't put tights on her since winter. I wish I would have taken a picture. I gave her a hug and told her I was going to the temple. She then replied, "I want to go with you". Thus the reason she had gotten all dressed up, tights and all!

Evan's First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Evan's first day of Kindergarten and no tears were shed by the mother or the child! I have heard that EVERY MOM cries when their first born goes to kindergarten. Well I guess I shattered that rule. Evan was as happy as could be to be going to kindergarten and I was just as happy to have him entertained by a cute, young, energetic teacher for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week.

After 3 pictures Evan was getting antsy to get on his scooter and ride to school.

Once at school of course I wanted more pictures unfortunately the sun was blaring in Evan's eyes.

Evan had to show off his prized possession - his new Transformers backpack.

Evan was so excited when his teacher came outside and told them to line up. Evan asked if I would stay until he went inside. As his class was walking inside Evan looked at me and said, "Mom, you can leave now." So grown up! Where have the last 5 1/2 years gone?

Here is a picture of Evan and his teacher Mrs. Longenecker at the school's open house.

She is absolutely adorable. She has played off of her last name and her classroom is dinosaur themed. She gave each kid a dinosaur name and put their face in a dinosaur that has a clothespin to hang their artwork in the hall for all to see.

After school Evan casually walked out of his classroom, but once he saw Lily and I he started running to us. He was nicely reminded to walk by one of the teacher's aides. So many rules to remember in kindergarten! Evan and Lily gave each other a hug because it had been a long time since they had seen each other - like almost 3 hours! The way they fight at times, I assumed they were sick of being around each other all day every day during the summer. I think the 3 hours away from each other is great for them plus I get a little peace and quiet!

When asked how his first day of kindergarten, Evan replied, "A girl in my class cried the entire time. First she wanted to choose the color purple, then she wanted to be the first to answer a question, then she got sad at recess. She cried a lot." Later Evan did tell me he likes kindergarten better than preschool and that Mrs Longenecker is really nice and read a story about a racoon who went to kindergarten.

When we got home, Evan and Lily played school. Evan was the teacher and Lily the student. It was really cute for the hour they played well together, then the fighting began again!

After his first day of kindergarten!

New Do's

Lily was in desperate need of a haircut. She will be 2 years old in 2 months and has NEVER had her haircut. Not even a trim. What you need to know about Lily is that she won't hold still, especially when I try to do her hair. This is definitely a problem when the hair dresser has scissors in her hand! Evan on the other hand is great at getting his hair cut. He holds perfectly still so I have never had to worry about where to get his haircut. Rob or I just take him wherever we are going to get our haircut.

So I decided to go to Cookie Cutters for Lily's wiggle sake. The kids pick out a movie and then pick out a car to sit in while getting their hair cut. Lily isn't a movie fan. Once again, she doesn't sit still long enough to watch even a few minutes of it. I picked a Dora movie since she really likes a Dora book from the library. Lily picked this pretty pink car to sit in and to my surprise she sat perfectly still! I don't know if Dora mesmerized her or driving the pink car was super entertaining or the whole experience was just so new. But all that matters is SHE SAT STILL!!Evan picked the dune buggy and watched Shark Tales. Of course he just sat there as the hair dresser cut away. Evan requested "sticking up" hair like his uncle Tyler. This is the shortest Evan has ever had his hair. He looks so grown up.After the big event, the kids got suckers and balloons as if driving a cool car and watching a movie weren't enough. Plus there is an indoor playground. A new haircut puts everyone in a good mood, even kids!Showing off the new do's. They both look so much older!Evan's fo-hawk. All day he kept asking me if it still looked like Tyler's hair and if it was still sticking up. I miss Lily's cute baby curls a bit because they made her look like a baby, but who can resist this cute bob? Truthfully, Lily's hair before the cut looked too much like a mullet so welcome to the year 2009, Lily!

Our Water Adventure

Why haven't I blogged for a month? Well a few reasons - we have been outside a lot this summer and I would rather be outside than starring at a computer. Another reason, I have been updating myself on everyone elses blogs and then it gets too late for me to update my own blog. I am sure no one can relate! But the biggest reason is the past few weeks we have been dealing with a lot of water. Our basement flooded about 2.5 weeks ago. Our washer's drainage hose came disconnected and ran the rinse cycle for 6 hours. But instead of filling up the washer with water it would just drain out the hole where the drainage hose connects. Lovely. So I woke up to a very wet basement.

I called our landlords to let them know this fabulous news. They were driving up to Yellowstone for vacation and am sure I pretty much ruined their vacation. Rob and I felt like we were moving again while we carried up all of our belongings from the basement to our garage, living room and family room. As you can imagine our house was a mess.

I borrowed my neighbor's shop vac to get rid of the standing water in the laundry room and then borrowed my grandma's carpet cleaner to suck up the water in the carpet and pad. Rob and I sucked up 45 gallons of water which took several hours. Our next adventure was to get the carpet out of the basement. All I can say is luckily our basement is small and there are only 2 small rooms and a hallway of carpet to take out because wet carpet is heavy!! We took the carpet out on our neighbors driveway (they had moved) because it was such a hot, sunny day we figured it would dry well outside.

Well Rob got ready for work and left while I continued to suck up water. I used the carpet cleaner again, what a great invention, to suck up as much water as I could from the carpet pad. As luck would have it, about 45 minutes after we got the carpet outside it began to rain. Rob was at work at this point so I was running around like a crazy women bringing everything into the garage. I was quite the site carrying the carpets all by myself. We also had some stuff drying on our back patio that I quickly picked up and brought inside.

Later that evening when I had dealt with as much water as I could handle, the kids and I headed to Home Depot to get some of those huge carpet blowers to dry the pad out. But before that stop we decided to stop at Micky D's for some Happy Meals and playtime in the play area. I needed a break from the flood and the kids had been deprived all day. Evan and Lily had a blast playing and I just sat and relaxed for a moment. I felt pretty good since I had had a chance to shower before we headed out and spent the moment forgetting about the day's events.

Next we went to Home Depot for the carpet blowers. The kids loved helping me get them to the car because they are on wheels so Evan pulled one and Lily and I pulled the other. Once home I got the blowers doing their job and started to go through some of the boxes that got wet in our storage room. My mom showed up with 8 plastic storage bins and helped me transfer things from boxes to the bins. Great idea Mom. Luckily our only losses were 7 board books. We had several boxes get wet but nothing damaged inside of them.

We let the pads dry for over a week and then our landlords came and relaid the carpet. After the carpet was back installed I cleaned all the carpets downstairs and decided to go for it and clean all the carpets in the house. Our last thing on this fun adventure was to get everything back downstairs. We have most everything back in the basement except our guest bed. Rob and I were tired of carrying things downstairs so hopefully soon that bed will get in it's room and we will be back to normal.

So the positive out of this experience are:

1. All of my carpets are clean!
2. Things are reorganized and clean- well the playroom stayed organized for about 30 seconds until Lily and Evan invaded.
3. I am ready for the next flood - all my things are in plastic bins not cardboard boxes
4. I will check the hoses on my washer regularly

Don't feel bad for us, we really have had a great August with many trips to Thanksgiving Point gardens, children's gardens, and dinosaur museum. We also had a great weekend trip up to Logan to visit Rob's brother's family and go to the Logan Temple. Our dear friends, Reed and Andrea Reichwald, also visited us for a night. We met them in Minnesota and had a great time catching up and seeing how big their girls are getting. Olivia and Evan started where they left off in Minnesota or #8 as Evan calls it (that was the # of our townhouse). They played well and didn't want to part. We had a fun summer and are now ready to get back into routine with school in session.

Pink Eye

So Evan started preschool 2 weeks ago and is home today missing school due to pink eye. Gross. Luckily I have eye ointment left over from when Lily got pink eye in the spring from the gym daycare. We didn't even make it 2 full weeks of school without getting some kind of illness. I have a feeling this is how the year will go - if it isn't pink eye it will be some sort of cold or flu. So here's to a school year full of snot, coughs, sore throats, fevers, and if we are really lucky, pink eye again! (No, that is not Evan's eye. His pink eye is pretty mild. We luckily caught it early).

Family Time

Last night I was scheduled to work, but got cancelled. We were in desperate need of some family time so we went miniature golfing at Boondocks. Both kids loved it and Rob and I also really enjoyed ourselves! Evan picked the Lizard course to play.

Survived Hole #1

Rob and his lucky green ball. Rob gave me a handicap of 1 on each hole and I barely beat him!The kids were so cute carrying their club and ball, acting like they knew what they were doing!Lily was attached to my club and ball. She would not put it down. Rob and I actually switched off with his club and ball and just let Lily carry mine around. Any time we would look at Lily she would pull the club and ball toward her and say "mine"! Yes, she is in the lovely "mine" stage.This lizard was the last hole and if you putted the ball into the right spot it blew fire. Rob was the only one of us to get the cool fire effect and Evan thought it was way cool!
Mini golf was a blast and I think we will be doing it more often if anyone wants to join us! Though the bumper boats and go carts also look like a lot of fun. So we may have to try those out next time.

Rob's Birthday

Yesterday was Rob's birthday and he wanted to keep it low key. Since he was the birthday boy that is exactly what we did. Rob asked for no presents but Evan insisted so Rob asked Evan for a red matchbox car. I took Evan to the store and he picked out a red matchbox car but decided that Dad needed 3 presents so he also picked Rolos and a Kit Kat. It may not be much but it is what Evan insisted Rob would want for his birthday! Evan hid the gifts around the house and Rob searched for them.

While Rob was searching for one of his presents, Lily started opening another one!Rob's Loot! So cute that this is what Evan assumed Rob would LOVE to have for his birthday!
After church we drove up American Fork canyon, which we voted is the narrowest and windiest canyon, and hiked Cascade Springs. It was beautiful. We also enjoyed a picnic with some really large ants. They aren't kidding that ants come to picnics. After our hike we decided to take the backway down and headed through Heber and then down Provo Canyon. It was a gorgeous drive and made us thankful to live in such a beautiful state. Evan hiked the whole way with his "walking stick". He told us that he needed it so he could "climb the big mountain".Nothing sweeter than a dad and his daughter.Best picture we could get of the three of them! At least we tried. For our picnic I think the kids only ate BBQ chips, but Rob and I enjoyed the pinwheel sandwiches I made.
For dinner we of course had Rob's favorite, RIBS, and his favorite chocolate bundt cake (yes, that is it on Rob's teeth).Evan tried to beat that picture with chocolate fangs and a milk mustache.We relaxed and enjoyed the day. My parents' stopped by to wish Rob Happy Birthday and it was nice chatting with them. My dad had brought some digital pictures that he had converted from slides. A lot of them were of me when I was a child. Rob decided that our chubby kids definitely get it from me! It was a great day and a nice birthday for Rob.

Granger Orthodontics Update

I wanted to post some updated photos of Rob's West Valley office, Granger Orthodontics. Rob and his business partner just finished their first week of being open and it went pretty well. There is still lots of work ahead of them to have everything running smoothly but we are all just taking it a day at a time! Once again thanks to my fabulous designer friend, Kelley, who designed the office. She is simply amazing!

External sign that faces BangerterClose up of sign
Windows into Rob's office from hallway of building Door into office

Your cute greeter
Reception Desk (a brushed nickle sign is being made to hang on the red wall). The waiting area/reception desk is my second favorite area. I totally love it but just wait until you see the treatment area. That is my first love.
Petrified Wood marble counter top at reception desk, so cool!Waiting area, now there are 2 oversized chairs in this area and a tree in the right cornerChildren's area that is still being worked on. Though the most important thing to the kids is there - the arcade game. Eventually there will be some kid chairs, train table, and TV. You can't see but on the left wall there is a book rack.Consult Room. Still in progress as well! A custom desk is being built for the left side of this room where Rob will sit to discuss treatment options with patient's parents.Hall to treatment bay. The wall of fame - it was such a good idea. This picture doesn't do justice, actually all the pictures don't do the office justice!!Xray room which is shared with the dentist next door.BathroomTeeth brushing area or kiss your cute daughter areaHallway paintingView of treatment bay as you walk down the hall. There are 2 chairs now but can have 4 for the future when it gets crazy busy (we hope!).Treatment Bay which is my favorite room. It is well lit with lots of windows and I love the red cabinets, the countertops, the wood floors, and paintings to the left. I just love it all! Rob loves it too which is good since this is where he will spend most of his time.Treatment Bay with cute Kelley and her ever-so-handy husband Brandon hanging the canvases.Semi-private room used for impressions and adult patient who don't want to line up with the teenagers in the treatment bay. The countertop is in now.Sterilization area
The lab, nothing much more to say about that.Staff Lounge which will eventually have a table and chairs so they can actually eat in here!! Those are lockers on the left.
Rob and Micah's personal bathroom off of their office. This was a huge requirement for Rob.
Rob and Micah's office. Obviously this room has been deprived with no furniture yet, but eventually a desk and bookshelf will be in here.

As you can see it is a gorgeous office but there is still some work to be done. The finish is so close in sight though. I am so proud of Rob and all the hard work he has put into this office. I am also grateful for Micah who came into this practice and has put his whole heart into it. He has helped out Rob so much and relieved a lot of stress. And the office wouldn't be this beautiful without our great designer Kelley. She has added so much flare and life to the office. Kelley has made it a fun place to work. So all Rob needs now is an office full of patients. Bring them on!!