The In-Between Time

 It's been a whirlwind these past few weeks and I'm a little intimidated by all the events and pictures to sort through to even kind of get caught up here on the blog, but I am committed to try.   This post will be dedicated to the few days right after Adam got home from his mission and before we took off for our family reunion gathering (basically the time period of August 22-25). 

More than any other thing during that time,  I was really happy to just see our kids spending time and having fun together.  It makes my Mom heart joyful to see that my kids not only get along with each other, but are genuinely good friends and enjoy being together.  

My brother, Matt, and two of his kiddos were still with us during most of that time, as was our niece, McKenzie, who was in between summer and fall semesters at BYU. Their presence during this special time for our family only added to the experience.  They are all delightful people to have around and we are really happy that they were here.   Then on Saturday, Matt and kids left for Maryland and a few hours later, Cami, Lucie, and Oliver rolled into town from Alabama.    We also spent a lot of time on Saturday getting ready -baking and shopping-for Adam's homecoming and open house the next day.

With Lucie, Oliver, and Cami's arrival, our house got wild and loud very fast!   Lucie is as sassy, energetic, and talkative as ever and Baby Oliver just may be the sweetest baby I've ever met in my entire life....and I've met quite a few!     He scoots all over the place and basically only cries when he's hungry or when someone takes something away from him that he's excited to hold onto.  

Lucie and McKenzie definitely hit it off and Lucie was calling her "Auntie McKenzie" before long.  I loved, loved, loved seeing all my girls back together again and I loved seeing Spencer's and Adam's soft sides come out with Lucie and Oliver's presence.  I'd have to say that Lucie and Denali's obsession with each other was about equal and Denali LOVED all the attention she got while they were here.

 On Sunday, Adam gave his homecoming talk in our ward and we hosted an open house at our home afterward.  It was a joy to see so many old friends and to meet some of Adam's mission friends, though I neglected to get pictures of everyone that was there.  We  loved hearing him share some of his experiences as a missionary, as well as hearing him testify of Christ's love for each of us.  It was clear that he made a difference to many people over the last two years and we are proud of his willingness to serve the people of Oregon for that time.  

After the homecoming, we just reveled in our Lucie/Oliver time and enjoyed being all together as a family for the first time in more than two years.   My mom (Gramma Rosynanna to Lucie and Oliver) and my sister, Heather, were also very much enjoying all the snuggle and toddler time.  We ate a lot of family dinners all together and eventually we dropped McKenzie off at her new apartment for the fall, so she wouldn't miss her New Student Orientation. 

Next up on the agenda, our adventure to the wilds of Idaho...stay tuned...

Mid-August at a Glance!

It's been a crazy few weeks and we're in the midst of even more craziness, but here's a glimpse at our mid-August happenings around here! 

Enjoyed the sidewalk chalk art at Alpine Days:

Picked up Charity (Ellie's roommate) and stopped at a smoothie place on the way home from the airport.  She stayed with us for a few days!

Went to a family gathering with Bobby and Buddy's families.  I hadn't seen some of my cousins in 20+ years, so it was great to see them.  It was a full house, but fun to be there.

We belatedly sung to my Nana for her 95th birthday:

Ellie, McKenzie, Charity, and Emma dropped in for a few minutes  before they headed out for a concert in Park City.  The performer was Cody Fry, which no one had really heard about, but the four girls were excited to go. 

Went to the Provo Farmer's Market on Saturday...

Went to the Alpine Days parade and other festivities.  It was a tad bit of a let-down without any kids with us.  hahaha

We've been going on lots of walks, which one day was matchy matchy: 

We've been seeing tons of deer...

And lots of raptors lately...

 

Glen flew in his boss's private plane down for some meetings in Saint George for the day...

 

 

Emma and Ellie made us a charcuterie board for our Sunday dinner... It was quite tasty!

Denali was super cute...

I like finding pictures like this in the camera roll! haha

Can't remember if I ever mentioned the sprinkler saga, but basically we found out that our water meter and our neighbor's was switched and we were paying way too much!  It's a long story of how we figured that out, that involved not watering our grass for two weeks to prove to the city that something was wrong with our meter.  We FINALLY got it figured out and our lawn is still suffering the effects. 

Thankfully, we've had a lot more rain than usual lately.  Not quite like  rainy days in the East, but periods of time that are like a good soaking rain in the East.   We are hoping that it helps bring our lawn back to life! 

Ellie has also been enjoying the rain....

This is the least of the excitement of the last few weeks, so stay tuned for lots more coming your way...eventually!

Summer Happenings: Part 1

Well, what can I say?   All routine is out the window and I am having an incredibly difficult time keeping up here on the blog.  I known that there are approximately 2 people that may have even noticed that it's been while, but I feel like I need a little brain break, so here I am.

So here's a glimpse of the last few weeks...

Kristina and boys came to town for a couple weeks.  

It was loud and the house was a mess, but I very much enjoyed spending time with them...

I introduced them to Perler beads, which they'd never tried before, but Jesus dove in first, then when the other boys saw what  it was all about, got obsessed too. 

It was very cute how hard they worked (for hours a day) and how proud they were of their work...

Denali also very much enjoyed the extra attention!  

I taught them a couple of old-fashioned card games--Old Maid, Go Fish, and Slap Jack--and enjoyed watching them have fun playing those!

One day, we dropped by to wish Nana a happy birthday!   She's 95 now!  

I won't lie...it's a bit chaotic when they come to town, but it's mostly a good chaos that I enjoy.  

I always love my postcards, but this summer I've been a little extra obsessed with them. It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't love sending and receiving mail as much as me, but it's literally a stress relief for me and I love that it's not a super time consuming thing I can do for myself.  I may have to do a whole post on this topic soon, because I've been having fun with it!

Speaking of postcards, here's a little postcard challenge I'm doing with my sisters (and Cam).  The challenge this week (chosen randomly by Heather) was blue-footed booby.  I had run out of my authentic Ecuadorean cards, so I adapted this one to fit the bill.  haha...

Also...Ellie submitted her mission papers a few weeks ago.  We knew her call would likely take longer because of her seizures, but we are hopeful it will come soon!  

She finished her second trimester at BYU-Idaho and she is happy.  She had good roommates and really enjoys the environment up in Idaho...

I picked her up from Idaho and we are enjoying the extra noise and action that comes along with having her at home.  

I have a bunch more to add, but blogger is not letting me upload photos today, so I'll do a Part 2 soon.  Stay tuned... 

Cuteness

Some cuteness in my life currently...

Oliver is a very happy baby and he is getting quite vocal.   Of course he can't say anything understandable yet, but he jabbers like he has a lot to say!   He is also rolling over independently and starting to sit up.   I love how interactive he is on Facetime and I think it won't be long before he's chatting it up like his big sister!  

And Lucie continues to be a joy in my life from afar.   I love, love, love my conversations with her and eagerly look forward to every photo Cami sends me of either her or Oliver!    Here she is posing with a postcard I sent for a self-imposed postcard challenge I created for myself. 

Glen  turned on the Westminster Dog Show the other day and we thought it was hilarious that Denali seemed to be very interested too.  She watched the screen intently while it was on.  

  

Okay, maybe we aren't cute, but...  

McKenzie is and it was so fun to be a small part of getting McKenzie settled into her dorm room at BYU.   They were easy houseguests to have and I love that she'll be so much closer now that she's at BYU for the school year!  

Last but not least, I made cookies for a funeral this week and shared the leftovers with some other people.  I thought it was quite cute how Denali kept peeking her head up at the kitchen table to see if she could reach some of that yumminess.  

We may have given her a bit!  :)

So is anything cute happening in your life right now?   Tell me all about it in the comments.  I expect zillions.  

Reunion, Facetimes, Blood, and Birds...

Here's a  little glimpse at the past week at our house: 

I tried to send a bunch of graduation cards out to graduating seniors and was thwarted when the post office decided that they were "non-machineable" and will cost extra postage.  I'm kind of feeling grumpy about it, but don't know that I have any options other than slapping on the extra 45 cents each.   Hope all the graduates appreciate how much I love them!  😊

Denali got groomed again this past Thursday and we are very much keeping Kiwi and Denali separated again.  We did a soft reintroduction a few days in, but Denali still seemed very nervous, so we are taking it slow and easy!  No more injuries!

Glen and I donated blood last Thursday.   It went very smoothly and it's fun to have someone to go with again now that having lived in England for the two years of his mission is no longer a hurdle to him donating!   I also appreciate not having to stress about my iron levels when donating anymore! 

On Friday, I took my Mom up to Rexburg for a Clarence Joshua & Rose Ellen Hepworth family reunion.  I mostly planned this same reunion a couple summers ago, so my interest was piqued to see another one in action. 

   We were the sole representatives of the Fay/Florize Hepworth family there and honestly the main reason why I made the effort to go was to see Ellie while we were in Rexburg.  Fay and Florize were my maternal grandparents and I have several aunts and uncles and over 60 first cousins that COULD have been there, so the fact we were the only ones was saying something. 

It was fun to spend some time with Ellie and to see some long lost relatives as well.  And when I say, "long-lost," I mean LONG LONG lost...in that I'd never met the vast majority  of them in my life before.  It was fun to be able to see my Mom interact with several of her first cousins there though.   Apparently Rexburg is a hub for other lines of the Hepworth family.  I had no idea. 

While we were gone,  Glen played golf with his brother, Alex, for his birthday and then disc golf with Spence...

Then we celebrated Father's Day on Sunday by looking through old photos and enjoying some yummy food!   I can't believe how little my kids look here!    What was probably 17ish years ago seems like yesterday!  How am I that old? 

I've been enjoying my Lucie Facetimes lately.  The previous few weeks for them have been a little extra crazy with a family reunion with Garrett's side of the family, several houseguests, a  road trip to Chicago where Garrett was giving a work presentation, and Cami back to working full-time.  Additionally, Cam was recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, which was a relief in one way to explain all the symptoms she was having, but also added an element of stress to their lives. In other words, for a few weeks they didn't have a ton of time for Facetimes, but just the past week or so, things have finally started to settle down for them and, I, once again, have been eagerly looking forward to my sweet Lucie conversations.  Usually the conversations involve at least one of the following requests:   1.  to see our umbrella, 2. to turn on the facetime filters, usually the octopus or giraffe,  3. to see the lollipops which she requested me save for her and Bear Friend for when they come in August, 4. to have me read her a book.  

 

She is currently obsessed with "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" by Eric Carle and "If You Find a Rock," by Peggy Christian... both of which make me super happy!  She is delightful to talk to and a little smarty pants too!   I can't wait to see them in August again! 

I got this awesome postcard from Belarus from my Postcrossing exchange.   It's a great spotted woodpecker and it totally made me smile. 

Speaking of birds, I found this photo of a very pretty bird in  Norway in the camera roll today...where Emma is currently on her public health study abroad.   I haven't kept track of how many countries she's been to, but she is traveling all over Europe and seemingly having a great time.   I hope to be able to talk her into writing a blogpost about it when she gets back. 

 

Here's a random photo of Ellie and her roommate, Claire, from the camera roll this week...

Also, last week was the first week Glen started working remotely from the home office.  I rather enjoyed having him around more...and I think Denali did too! 

This week, he's back to Saint George again. 😑   Only 4 more times (I think) and he will be fully working remotely from home!

So that's it.   A week in the life!    Hope you have an amazing week!