As you can see, it has been quite a while since I posted last, almost a year! So, I have a lot to catch up on. Here are some of the highlights of the last year...

Randy came home from his mission last November and we all decided to wear these shirts that he sent us for Christmas the year before. He didn't send one for Lena, but one day I was out shopping and came across one at Target and had to get it for her. Randy was a little taller, skinnier and much more talkative than when he left.

When autumn came and the leaves started falling, Lena was in heaven. She loved to play in them. I love this picture of her and Aren, especially since I don't have very many of her with her daddy.

Last winter we took Lena out for a little hike around Battle Creek Canyon. She was very good even though it was freezing! The hike was gorgeous.

At our ward Christmas party Lena met Santa Clause for the first time! She was much more interested in the candy cane that he was holding.

And here she is opening presents at my mom's house.

Aren's parents came to visit over the Christmas break and we had our annual Bombay House trip with the whole family. Lena also had her first huge tantrum. By this point Nettie had calmed her down and the food had come so she was happy again. The next day she had a check-up and I found out she had 4 molars coming in and 2 ear infections...I guess she was justified in her outburst! :)

Over the last year we were able to visit our grandparents on several occasions and we tried to get some pictures of them with Lena...Here are a few of them.

Great-grandma Sorensen

Great-grandma and Great-grandpa Mildenhall

Great-grandma and Great-grandpa Hicken

Lena loves to swim and play outside, so this summer we were outside a lot. I didn't get too many pictures of her but here are some of her and Max at South Fork Park. They played in the river, chased a frisbee around and laid-out in the grass.

We ended our summer with a trip to California to see Gerrit and Laura. Of course we forgot to take pictures most of the time, but I managed to get some of Lena and Aren at the beach our last day there.

Well, that about sums it up...other than that I'm 25 weeks pregnant (which is why there are no pictures of me at the beach)! We are expecting a little girl around the 21st of December and I'm so excited!

Lena's 1st Birthday Party

 Lena is turning ONE on Wednesday, but we decided to celebrate yesterday while everybody was in town for General Conference. Here are a few pictures. Thanks for all the gifts. She loves all of them!

At my mom's house. Left to Right: my mom, Lena, Miquel, Anna (my mom's upstairs neighbor), and Erica

opening her first present

Thanks for the blocks mom and dad!

 

I made two cakes, one for Lena and one for everybody else

what a mess!

She was definitely in need of a bath! Thanks for all the bath toys!

Playing with her blocks

I love this face

Look what she built!

A Few Summer Adventures

Although I've graduated, I'm now a TA for the Ethics and Values class at UVU, which means school is in and summer is over. I attend a lecture by the professor every Monday and Wednesday and then I teach two classes of 25 students each on Fridays. It's been pretty good so far but we'll see how I feel when it comes time to grading papers.

The summer has gone by way too fast and I've neglected to post anything about it so here goes to a big "catch-up" post...

Late Spring we went up past St George to go rock climbing with the Utah Climbing Club. Aren and I both did climbs over 120 feet. Lena had lots of fun playing outside.

My sisters and I took Lena to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point and she loved it!

For Aren's birthday we had dinner and dessert at my mom's house. We made him a giant ice cream sandwich cake.

For the Fourth of July we went over to Nate and Netties and watched the neighborhood fireworks. Lena loved watching them.

For my birthday we were in St George so we spent most of our time swimming. We went to this river, which was pretty cool but there were a lot of people there. So, we left and went swimming in the pool instead.

One weekend we decided to go hiking with Ammon and his girls up American Fork Canyon. On our way back we decided to take a dip in the river. It was freezing and after we were all soaked it started to rain.
Aren was up first...

Then Ammon...

Then me...

And last, but certainly not least...Lilly!

Lilly got to ride back in Ammon's backpack.

Next is a small tribute to Miquel. Miquel left for Dixie but forgot to bring with her some very important things...her cheerleading outfits from RVHS...haha.

Just for you Kelli. Never forget how cheery you once were.

Another trip with the Utah Climbing Club. We went up Santaquin Canyon and I did my first lead climb. Unfortunately, nobody got any pictures of us actually climbing but here are a few of the hike back down.

One of our first hikes together was up to Silver Lake, which we both loved so we thought we would do it again this summer. This time we went all the way to Silver Glance Lake, less than mile above Silver Lake. On the way down we stopped to swim in Silver Lake. It was nice and refreshing.

That was our summer of 2010 together, however, for Aren the adventures weren't quite over. He got to go to the Philippines for work and from the looks of it stayed at a very nice hotel.