"I Want To Be A Missionary Now"

Another Wallace has entered the MTC. I thought it was so great that Tucker went into the MTC on Taysom's birthday! It was a quick visit from the time he got off the plane to leaving him in Provo, but we loved hanging out with Tucker the past little while. He is so ready for this and is so chill about it all! I was in awe. Talk about a sweet, studly guy. In 2 years, the ladies better watch out. He'll be such a blessing to the people in Indiana! Love you Tucker! Love you Wallaces! Thanks for sharing him with us!

Cousin Connection

Every couple of years the Hinckley side gets together again. Originally a family of 8 children, and then 49 grandchildren, it has since multiplied until there are currently almost 300? Is that right mom? So obviously it's hard for everyone to get together even on a semi-regular basis. This year we had about 2/3rds of the family meet up for an evening at Ensign Peak. We rode the bumpy wagon, ate yummy food, caught up with cousins, learned more about Grandpa Hinckley and watched a movie about the old farm. It was so fantastic! For the longest time I've been wanting to show Richie my grandparents house up on 12th Avenue, but the timing was never right. This time the stars aligned and the man living there now even let us come inside and walk around the backyard to check everything out. Maybe it's just because I'm overly emotional, but I held back tears the entire time until I could get in the car. :) It's a pretty special house, full of wonderful memories.

Another great thing about the reunion was that we got to hang out lots with A and her kids, Russ and Nat and their kids, and mom and dad! We spent Saturday morning up on temple square and thereabouts. We toured the conference center and snapped a quick photo next to Alonzo Arza Hinckley in the hall of the apostles, (my great-grandpa). We checked out a little of City Creek Mall and tried to stay out of the rain as much as possible. What a fantastic way to spend a weekend! I tried to steal pictures from my mom's blog, but it's not working, so for now all you get it this one.

Here we go again!

I feel like the blog has taken on more of a "family log" role rather than more of a journal feel. I guess that's all well and good, it's still our family's history, but sometimes I wish the ol' blog muse would come sit on my shoulder and help me write something fun and entertaining in addition to being informative. It just hasn't been happening, and I suspect it's because every source of spare energy has gone into making something else.



Yep,I am with child again! This picture was taken at 10 weeks ladies and gents. 10 weeks and already showing, that's how I roll on baby #3 I guess. In this picture I had just finished canning about a million green beans and it was some crazy hour of the night/morning, hence the tired/disheveled/crazy person I look like. I walked into the bathroom and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and thought, "Hey, I actually look pregnant!" So I ran and grabbed the camera. I am now 16 weeks and showing even more. To most people it still looks as though I'm just gaining weight. I really hate this stage. If I want anyone to think I'm pregnant and not fat, I have to wear certain clothes, have eaten a certain amount through the day, get me at the right angle...blah blah blah. I'm ready for that obvious bump to appear.

We've hesitated announcing it on a bigger scale since it's taken us so long to get a baby to finally stick around. We had a miscarriage at 5 weeks last October and another miscarriage at 8 weeks in March. However, I feel confident enough a this point to announce it publicly and just hope and pray I don't have to eat my words later. We had a Dr. appointment last Friday and everything looks great, he even guessed it would be a girl at this point! Really?? I guess I'm just not anticipating a girl, I have my mind wrapped around a house full of mostly boys, but I'll be over the moon about boy or girl.

Now that I'm 16 weeks, I feel almost normal! Hooray! Despite how great I feel now, I'd say this has been the hardest pregnancy up to this point. That first trimester was a little rough. This was the first time I had definite food cravings. Like Gwen's pregnancy, in the first tri I had an aversion to processed foods and chocolate. How's that for a diet plan? Driving by billboards of cheeseburgers made me queasy. After a few weeks went by, things switched big and all I wanted was processed fatty foods! I would hear a commercial for KFC on the way home from the gym and just HAVE to have it! I never did, "I'm a good girl I am", but I would have Richie make me special grilled cheese sandwiches instead, complete with garden tomatoes and pickles grilled right along with the cheese. YUM. Sending me grocery shopping for a few months had it's downside. I bought all sorts of junk that we don't normally buy, like limon potato chips. I'm happy to report I'm back to normal, which means I can resist most food wants, unless it's Nutella and graham crackers.

We're so ready for this baby to be here! Ha! Tell that to March 8th, an eternity away. I told the kids I was going to the Dr.'s last Friday to check on the baby in my tummy and Miles said, "Oh! And you're going to squish the baby out today?" I told him no, not yet, and he whined. The kids know what's happening and are very excited. They've wanted another baby for a long time. Let's hope it stays that way once the baby gets here! Miles wants a boy, Gwen wants a girl, we just want a healthy baby.

End of August

Blogging...HA! I feel like there isn't any time for this ol' blog of mine lately. So here's a few pictures to prove that we are alive and well in the Garner home.

I had a good thrift store day earlier in August and found Miles some "new" clothes. My mom and dad have been de-junking their house lately and they found this gem that Gwen is wearing. It is actually a baby dress that my Aunt Peachy and Uncle Roland brought home from Germany for my oldest sister Jenn, back in the day. I think it's the cutest, and made Gwen squeeze into it for an impromptu photo shoot. I knew that was the only time she'd fit into it, so I snagged the opportunity. Dang, my kids are cute.


We've been getting in as much park and outside time as possible. Before we know it, we'll be stuck inside! Miles has mastered the climbing wall at Riverton Park.


And the real reason there hasn't been any blogging lately:






We've been canning up a storm here with all of our lovely garden produce. Hallelujah! We've also gotten plenty from the Garner and from free sources we find around town or on ksl. It's like a dream come true watching all those shelves fill up with full bottles again!! Mom, I even channeled Grandma Hinckley while I did some peaches the other day and made sure only the pretty sides were showing and carefully placed each one in the jar to maximize the aesthetics. We've also been gearing up for school! Both our neighborhood joy school group and the class I'm teaching professionally. We've had all of our trainings, meetings, parent orientations, and yesterday was the first official day. I was so nervous, but I think it went as well as could be expected. I've got 10 girls and 3 boys! (yessssss!) and all of them can hold a marker the right way! (score!!!) Richie's also started back to teaching and is glad to be back in the swing of things. He even picked up an early morning class this year. That means all of us (meaning me) are going to bed earlier. I must really love this guy.

Beginning of August

I didn't make a summer to-do list this year and as a result, I feel like the summer is flying by without much accomplished. The kids are fed and clothed, so I guess it's all good, right?

Our church is at one this year, (killer) so to take up time in the mornings the kids have really long baths. Sometimes they're lucky and get to bathe in mom and dad's bath tub with the jets. The jets combined with some dish soap make the best bubble baths of all time.


We have the best neighbors ever. They have 4 kids but only a 17 year old girl at home. They just moved here from Arkansas and are missing their grand babies back home, so they've really taken to Miles and Gwen. It's not unusual for them to invite us over for dinner, bring over extra food they made, offer to sew clothes for my children or offer to babysit. Earlier this week they came over and asked if we'd like to go to the zoo the next day. They bought a family pass and figured we could pass for their family and we got in free! So the kids and I went to the zoo with Scottie, Lisa and Dani on Wednesday! They pushed the stroller, bought them special drinks, and video taped the kids like they were their own grandchildren. Like I said, best neighbors ever.


Richie's started the "Insanity" work out program and has been doing great. His time to work out is usually when he gets home from work. If he's lucky the kids are still napping, but sometimes they're awake and join in the workout. I think it's the cutest. It should be noted here that Miles has the habit of changing his clothes repeatedly when he's in his room for nap/quiet time. He loves to wear his church clothes, but always picks the hottest ones. No, I did not make him work out in long pants and a long sleeved shirt. Alright, moving on.


August is the month to gear up for the next school year. I'm busy getting ready to teach pre-school starting in September at the Winner School, which I'm kind of nervous about. Richie's month is full of in-services and bonding time with faculty members. This week we went to a class/broadcast/conference at the conference center with other teacher's and their spouses from the area. We heard from the big-wigs of church education, also the Relief Society General President (who is on the education board) and Elder Nelson. They even fed us lunch afterward! Later on in the week was faculty in-service. Thanks to the Garner fam for watching our kids while we went up to Bear Lake overnight! We stopped in Logan and did a session in the temple there which was neat. Faculties change frequently in CES, and I'll be so sad when this one breaks up. We had a great time with each other! But it was a happy reunion with our kids. They're pretty cute I guess.

Colorado

Every other year my family gets together for "big" family reunion. On the off years, those of us who can will meet up in St. George. This year was a "big" get together that Richie and I were in charge of planning. It works out great. This was our first year planning it, and we won't have to plan it again for another 10 years! We all decided on Colorado since it was a little closer to the mid-westerners. (They still had to drive 17 hours. Bleh.)
We vacationed on the Vallecito Reservoir, about 30 miles from Durango, CO. To find a place to rent that will fit 28 people was difficult, even when I started looking in January, but we found a few cabins (which looked much larger online) on the lake and they suited us just fine. Monday everyone filtered in and got settled.

Tuesday we hung out at the lake and the pool. At the stage Miles and Gwen are at, all the need is a pool and it's the best vacation ever. I'm glad they're so easy to please. I hope it stays that way for a loooong while. We also went out to eat that night at the Bar D Chuck Wagon. It's dinner and a show! They even had a little train there to ride, which just made the best vacation, even better in the eyes of Miles and Gwen.

Wednesday we took some family pictures in our official Crosby family reunion 2013 shirts. Pretty sweet huh? I don't have one of the siblings/everyone because we only had our volunteer photographer use one camera, maybe I'll post it later, but here's all the grandkids (minus 2) in almost perfect age order. We bribed with candy to make this magic happen. Afterward we decided to hike to a river to swim and fish. When we got to the trail head, we asked some hikers coming out how long the trail is. They told us it was 3 miles there, 3 miles back. Yikes. Knowing our kids would never make that on foot, we quickly took our position in the back and enjoyed looking at every flower, every rock, every butterfly, every cricket etc.... We probably only made it a quarter mile, but our kids were so ready to be done, so we turned around and went swimming at the pool when we got back.

On Thursday we sectioned out time for just the gals to be together, and just the guys. I feel silly that I didn't take any pictures of us girls window shopping and eating in downtown Durango! The guys went river rafting later, and I didn't get any pictures of that either. Lame! However I took a bunch of pictures later when we had a talent show to celebrate my Dad's retirement! This might have been my favorite part of the trip. We had guitar, ballet, singing, dancing, skits, football instruction, art, and a grandkids flash-mob. Yeah, we've got a pretty cool family.

On Friday some family hit the road, but before doing so, we watched a movie my sister put together all about my dad growing up, marrying my mom, working, and raising 5 kids. I sure loved that. Throughout the week we made sure we fit in game playing and crafts.

Saturday, the rest of us hit the road. On our way back to Utah, the Lamb family and us Garners side-stepped a little to make a trip to Mesa Verde National park. Despite car-sickness and some fatigue, I'm glad we went. It was a really neat place and Miles keeps talking about where the Indian's used to live. We made it back home Saturday night, and I think I'm still recuperating. We finally got through all the laundry, I think.... The first couple days home were hard because the kids kept whining to see their cousins again. I'm sure glad they are forming friendships with each other. That's the best, most important part!