Ole!

Owen received his mission call today. He will be serving in the Mexico, Torreon mission (Spanish speaking of course) and will enter the Provo MTC on November 19th. We're so excited for him and know he will be a wonderful missionary. Soon he will be able to speak Spanish with Brett and Steve! Now he just has to find a job and be patient for the next 13 weeks.:)

Sarah - please forgive me...

My Dear , sweet Sarah: Sorry this is sooo late. I lost track of this month. Hope you had a great birthday! Love you!

August "Rush"

I snuck in to take this picture the other day. Aubrey had fallen asleep with her bum up in the air, and found a binky in the crib. She has just started taking them at nap time. She just looked too sweet and even though she had been cranky, it all just melted away when I saw her like this! : ) I love my little sugarpie...

We've been so busy lately it seems with all of the house preparations, but it seems that about everything is in place now. I drove past "our" house today with Aubrey and the sellers were moving out so that was kind of exciting.

Aubrey didn't really want to take a morning nap so finally around noon I decided to go run my errands anyway. We dropped off some paperwork at the bank and on our way home I gave Aubrey a little "open-the-flap" book that she's been looking at from the library in her carseat. She was pretty quiet but every time I peeked back at her she still had her hand holding up a flap.

When I stopped at a stoplight I turned around and she was knocked out but had fallen asleep holding up the flap to the bunny rabbit page. It was so cute. But apparently the elephant page looked mighty tasty because a whole corner of that flap was gone and little pieces of red paper were stuck all around her mouth and on her cheek!

She's such a crazy girl. I know she must have been pretty exhausted though because she didn't even wake up as I took her out of her carseat and walked her all the way upstairs. She was so warm and cuddly in my arms. I'm really trying to hold onto her baby moments, I know they'll be gone so fast. I was just thinking tonight as I put her to bed how good it feels to have the weight of a sleeping baby in your arms, especially when they're all soft and sweet smelling fresh from a bath.

We took her to a park here close to us this evening to have a little dinner picnic with my family. It was a beautiful night and we had brisket and watermelon. It was nice to sit and visit a bit. Aubrey loved to look at the fountain in the pond and all the ducks. Actually, she wasn't really interested in the big ducks but loved looking at the little fuzzy baby duck that came swimming by after it's momma.

On another note, has anyone been watching the Olympics? We've been watching about every evening. Unfortunately, we only caught the tailend of the opening ceremonies the other night. We did get to the amazing fireworks however. I absolutely love fireworks and I wish I could have been there right under them in the stadium. They really had an amazing show. Anyway, that's all for now. Hope everyone is well. We are missing everyone and are extending an open invitation to visit us ol' Missourians anytime!

We bought a HOUSE!!

Yes, we did it. We took the big plunge and bought a house in Grain Valley, MO just about 15-20 min away from Independence where I grew up. It's only 2 yrs old and we're really excited about it. We close the end of August and I can't wait! I'm so sick of apartment living. Since the pics are no longer available on the MLS, here is a link to the builder's website with the floor plan. Ours is the 1500 sq ft. Dogwood plan with the luxury master bath. The unfinished basement is about the same size, so when we finish that we will have more room than we know what to do with!

http://www.valleyhills.net/dogwood.asp

Aubrey has two teeth on the bottom now! They both poked through today. I still can't really see them but I can feel the tops of them. I can't believe she's old enough to have teeth already. She turned 10 months old on Sunday and is crawling all over the place.

PS...I tried to upload some pics on here but they are all coming up as errors so I'll have to try again later.

try, try again

Attempt #2 with the rest of the pictures...

playing catch-up

I don't think I've posted anything since right after our reunion, so I supposed it's about time. It has been a really busy couple of months for us. In May we went to the Winter Quarters temple with David, Brett graduated, we moved to Utah, and my family visited to take David to the MTC. We've also had visits from Doug and Lizzy, and Gwyn and her new husband, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures from those good times. In June we went to San Diego for a few days and had a great time hanging out on the beach and catching up with friends. So far this month we got new couches and a bbq, we got to see Katie and Sarah at the Aird farewell party, and they put the steeple up on the new temple! Anyway, here's a few snapshots to sum it up...

Some "Red" for Brooke

Dear Red,
I keep hearing people say that I should do more for the environment. Currently I ride my bike to work, but it occurs to me I really just get in the way of cars, clogging up traffic and thereby creating more pollution. Is there anything I can do?
Wannabe,
Eco-friendly

Dear Clog,
I'd say start small and simple. For example try just using one light bulb in your house, of course you will have to carry it with you from room to room but just think of all the bulbs you'll be saving.
It only takes one...to screw in bulb,
Red


Dear Red,
I am really hungry. What kinds of meals can you make in less than an hour?

Dear Hungry,
Well, I can make all kinds of fantastically delicious meals in less than an hour, but no, Gavin, I do not have any leftovers for you.
Hamburger Helper helps the helpless,
Red

Dear Red,

How do you feel about garden gnomes?

Green Thumb

Dear Green,

I feel pretty good about them. In fact when my friends start talking about computers or other things I'm not really interested in, I pretend they are gnomes because let's face it, talking gnomes are hilarious no matter what they are saying.

Delightfully distracted,

Red