My house is a third world country...

Well, I only have a few minutes to post an update. The hurricane hit last Saturday, and it is now Friday and we still have no power to our house. Luckily, the weather has been unseasonably cool, which has been a major blessing. I have so many pics of the damage to our neighborhood, but since I don't have internet at my house, I'll have to post them when I get back from Switzerland. Hopefully within another week we will have power restored so I can share with you our "exciting" hurricane story. (Not really very exciting, though.) Our house is fine. Our fence in our backyard blew over in one section, and we had a lot of debris from a tree falling on our driveway. But that is really all. We are so blessed...so many people had their entire houses destroyed. My across the street neighbors had a huge tree take out their garage. What a mess! The grocery stores are slowly getting back to normal, and gas was hard to find at first, but is starting to normalize too.
I'm leaving tomorrow for Switzerland and I'm so excited...but I feel bad leaving my inlaws with my children in my house without power. Pray for cool weather! :)

Hurricane Update

Well, Switzerland is looking pretty good right about now...

I've received several phone calls, emails, and text messages wondering how we are doing. So I thought I'd post a message here to let everyone know that we are fine so far. We're still about 12 hours away from land fall, so I'm sure the situation is going to get worse, but I think we'll be fine. My biggest concern is a prolonged power outage since it's still hot outside...

Trevor has missed his flight to France (all flights have been cancelled). Hopefully the airport will be open on Sunday so he can fly out. But I am glad that he will be with us during the storm...I thought I was going to have to do it alone for a while!

We'll keep everyone posted as we know more! Thanks for all the prayers and concern.

Happy Birthday Grace!!!

It's Grace's 7th birthday tomorrow, and this is what I have been working on tonight in preparation. I have to say, I'm happy with how it came out...but me and buttercream frosting have a love/hate relationship. I wish it would have gone on a little smoother. This was my first time dabbling with fondant. Maybe next time I'll try covering the whole cake (for a nice smooth look). But Grace really wanted chocolate frosting--I mean, who can blame her!

I can't believe I have a 7 year old child! That means next year she will be baptized! It's really all going way too quickly. Happy Birthday, Grace! I love you more than you will ever know.

In other news...

this is what Kate is up to lately.

That's just gross. And yes, she's a climber. She also is really into hiding lately. She'll just find a quiet corner somewhere, and sit and hide until someone comes and finds her. She thinks that she's hilarious and very clever.

Mamma Mia!

I have to start this post with a shout out to my good buddy Jon Fairbanks for introducing me to the ABBA gold album over 8 years ago on a little road trip to Vegas. Ah, memories. Since then, Trev and I have loved that album. It's got such a great beat, and you will often find all of us dancing and singing to it in the car. Yes, all of us. The girls LOVE it.

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical of the premise of Mamma Mia in a play. So, I haven't seen it...then the movie came out. Again, hadn't seen the play, so wasn't really planning on making this movie a priority. Well, my mom and sister and sister-in-law saw it last weekend, and they just raved about it. So, I got a little excited to go see it.

Well, yesterday, due to a little tropical storm (named Edouard) headed straight for Houston...Trevor didn't have to go to work. Yeah us! Then, the "so called" storm that was supposed to be a category 1 hurricane when it made landfall, was just a typical rainy day in Houston. Nothing to even write home about. We were a little disappointed...oh wait, relieved should be the word. I guess we're a little starved for some excitement? Anywho, the storm came, it was a dud, but we had been indoors all day, so we got a babysitter and went out to see the aformentioned movie.

I loved, loved LOVED it! Want to see it again and again. If your are not much for musicals, then this is probably not the movie for you. But if you don't mind the characters bursting into song rather frequently, then you will love it too!

The Summer's Top Ten (so far)...

I've been thinking about all the fun things we have done this summer so far, so I made a top ten. So, in no particular order, here it is:

1. Jordan and Andrea's wedding. What a fun and neat thing to experience. Their temple sealing was the neatest one I have ever been to. The man that sealed them told them some really special stuff. They are such a cute couple, and it reminds me of how fun it was to be newlyweds just starting out. Good luck you two, we sure love you! (Yeah, like they even read my blog. ha ha)

2. Hiking the "Y" for the first time! Yes, I grew up in Utah Valley my whole life and I had never hiked the Y. Well, I take that back. I attempted to hike the Y when I was a senior in high school, but due to a lovely thyroid disorder, I just couldn't make it. So this time, I was determined to make it. It was a youth activity for the Aitken's ward, so Grace and I tagged along. I was a little worried about Grace when after literally 5 steps up the path she started whining and saying she didn't think she was going to make it. But we had a little conversation about having a positive attitude, and thinking like the little engine that could. She didn't complain again. She just kept truckin' up that hill and pouring her water bottle on her head as she went. (It was 95 degrees...but hey, at least it was a dry heat!) And, cue the music, we made it! We even made it ahead of all of the Young Women. It was a great time, and the view was incredible.

3. Ultimate Frisbee at Vivian Park. Some our young men from our ward in Texas came up for high adventure camp. So while they were in town, we took them up the canyon for some good, old fashioned ultimate frisbee. What a blast! Sorry again, Tiffany, for grabbing you in an inappopriate place on your chest. What can I say...I guess I'm just competitive!

4.Girls Night Out--twice! It was so fun to see my friends from high school. We can always just pick right back up as if we see each other everyday. It was so much fun chatting and laughing hysterically with you.

5. The Glazier Family Reunion. I could never leave this off the list. It is a highlight every summer. This year, we had only about half the people there, but it was still really fun. The kids just love playing in the sand by the pond, and could just run around outside all day. I would have to practically drag them in to eat. There was a zipline we could ride this year, and it was a lot of fun. My little Holly was the first of the little kids to try it out. She has no fear, that girl. All in all, a fun time had by all.

6. Valley Center Playhouse. Um, this is a highlight only because I will NEVER forget the ridiculous play that we saw there. We had a family girls' night out, and had a fantastic dinner at Magleby's, then to top it off we went to go see a play. I can't even remember the name of it...oh wait, yes I do..."Don't Kiss on a Park Bench." We all just kept looking at each other throughout the whole thing and laughing because it was so stupid. Famous line that we like to quote to eachother to remind us of our experience: "Ever since you started massaging my shoulders, I knew you were the one." Gag. Note to self: when considering community theater, stick with Hale Center...they are the best.

7. Parade of Homes. It was so fun gallavanting all over the valley and seeing some really amazing homes. It's great to get decorating ideas, and just see how the "other side" lives, if you know what I mean.

8. I made a quilt! Thanks Michelle and Mom, for all the help and support. It turned out so darling. Maybe once it's bound I'll take a picture and post it. ;)

9. Swimming lessons. Grace and Holly took private swimming lessons while we were in Utah. They had such a blast. And I can't believe how much they learned. Seriously, it was totally worth the money. They went from being non-swimmers to little fish! It makes going to the pool with them so much less stressful.

10. Galveston Beach. Yesterday, a bunch of my friends from church drove out to Galveston for the day. I originally wasn't planning on going...something about the screaming voice in my head shouting "flesh-eating bacteria, FLESH-EATING BACTERIA!" But, somehow, peer-pressure got to me and we went. It was so fun. We went to a beach I hadn't been to before, and the kids had so much fun digging in the sand, eating snacks, and watching dolphins. We're all a little toasty-skinned today (and when I say toasty, I mean burned toast!)

Well, that's it. My top ten of the summer so far. We have a lot of fun things planned in the coming weeks, so I may have to post a second list later.

Oh! I almost forgot. Something else really exciting happened...Grace lost her first two teeth while we were in Utah!

What we're up to...

Okay, this post is SO long overdue. I think I've just been in a non-blogging mode since I was on vacation all of June. Then there's just so much to catch up on that it gets a little bit overwhelming...you know? But I'm now ready to face it and start into the blogging business again.
Since we've been home, something really exciting happened. We are no longer the only Mormons in our neighborhood. Isn't that exciting? Well, to us, it is VERY exciting. I'm always trying to recruit some peeps to my hood. We kind of live on the outer reaches or our ward boundaries, and we get a bit lonesome sometimes. They have six kids, and they are just too darling. And it will be nice to be not the only resident Mormons, if you know what I mean. Plus, our ward has really been shrinking lately. A lot of families with youth-aged children have been moving away. So our youth program has really shrunk. We've been praying for new move-ins. He listens, that's all I have to say.
We're still steeped in home improvement projects. It's a never-ending list...if only we had never-ending funds! We are having new carpet installed next Friday. I think the current carpet has been here for 20 years, so yes, it's about time! So, between now and next Friday, we will be painting baseboards and doors, and fixing all the squeaks in our sub-floor. Oh, and organizing! Maybe I'll take some pics this time and post it when it's all done. But don't hold your breath...we know how I am when I promise pics (remember those promised kitchen pics?)
And another exciting thing on the horizon is happening in September. Trevor and I are taking a much-anticipated trip to Switzerland! I've hesitated talking about this because so many things could have come up and made it not happen. But the tickets are now purchased, so come rain or shine, we are going! We haven't gone on a trip just the two of us in a very long time. Trevor's parents have kindly agreed to come watch the midgets for an entire week...I hope they survive.
Anyway, we are staying busy, and trying to stay cool. I'm trying to convince Trevor that we need a pool in our backyard. Yeah right! We had so much fun on our trip to Utah. We sure miss our family and our friends. Oh, and Cafe Rio. ;)

We're Home!

We'll we're back! And it's been over six weeks since I have even looked at my blog...what a slacker! We had so much fun in Utah. I promise I am going to post a lot more pictures and tell you of our adventures. This is a picture that we took Memorial Day weekend.