Carson and GG & GGpa...the sweetest thing

This trip could not be more fun. Look how fun we are all having. Below is Carson and Grandpa sharing a great joke. They are laughing together. How fun is that. Grandma (GG) gives the best kisses and she feeds Carson. Oh look how great they are together.
Cousins...look how cute...only two months apart. They were fun to see. That cute little cubba wubba girl and little Carson Lee holding hands...or so it seems...
Here is uncle Jeff, and look at Chuck...he hit Carson's funny bone because everytime he saw Chuck he just laughed and laughed. It was so cute.

The two Carson's. Ok, so Carson Sr. was not thrilled to hold a different baby, but hey for a picture...might as well... And so it goes. I fly home tomorrow. I hear its cold. Yuk. I like this warm stuff down here. Guess its another reason to head back.

This is the life!

So I post weekly on Carson's blog I have become lax on this blog. You get a snapshot of whats going on in our life on that blog, but I do try to keep it so impersonal so cuz so many people go across that site. So here I am live and in person.
Carson and I have had such a great time here in AZ. The weather is so good, sooooo good. I love it here. I could live here.
Its been fun to see Carson and GG and GGpa. They have bonded so much and he just lights up when he sees them. And I have to say they light up when he is in the room too. Priceless.
We have been eating great down here, Gma just made a wonderful roast and Gpa has made some perfect fish for us cooked to perfection.
Gma and I sat out on the porch and Carson waved at the Golfers who were just so happy to see a little baby on the course.
I went shopping for jeans for a bit, but I did not find any:( But Carson liked mall walking and he really likes looking out and seeing whats going on from that stroller. I can't wait for weather up north to catch up so we can ride around in the stroller.
I drank so much Dr. Pepper down here, its like pouring out of the faucet. I'm going to have to cut it all off when I get up North and hit the Gym. So there is my goal out loud. Guess I'll have to do it now.
Carson rolled over to his side a few times down here. So guess we need to start watching where we leave him, he could roll himself right off.
Well it been fun. I'll post pics on the Carson blog. Its just easier to do it once I suppose. So check it out sometime later today.
Happy Sunday.

From ibmom & Gma Mar. 30, 2008

Dear Gang,

This month is nearly over and it's gone so fast. We have had the most wonderful week with our 6th Gr. Grand child. He is so cute! He knows us and gives us smiles and is so good unless he is hungry. The funniest thing happened today. Jodi said it was a first. He pooped in the bathroom sink while she was bathing him. I said: "What did you do next?" She said after she got over the surprise of it, she lifted him out of the sink on the towell he'd been on, put him in the tub with a clean towell and cleaned up the sink, and finished his bath.

Tonight, Jeff, Linda, Allison, Chuck, Carson, Talan, and Jocelyn are coming over for Pizza. It will be the first time to have the 2 Carsons together. And it will be fun to see the 2 babies together. We'll miss them when they go back to S.L. tomorrow (Monday) morning at 10:00 a.m. We'll need to leave home by at least 8 a.m. It amazes me how she gets him in and out of the car with the car seat and all of the paraphanelia she needs. I am staying home from church because i"m not breathing well today. Jodi is out oin the back Patio with Carson. I guess I'll join them. It's 79 degrees. Love you all. ibmom and gma

I really like spring

Well, it turns out that I'm a little sad that the snow is melting, because skiing season is coming to a close. I'm going to miss it, but I'll get up there Thursday and hopefully a couple more times this year. But not to worry, this nice spring weather definitely has it's benefits too. I got to go climbing on Saturday and today. I hope I can get better this season. I went to a gear swap on Saturday and bought a rope, so a couple hundred dollars more of gear and I'll be ready to up and go whenever I want. Sometimes fun can be so expensive. Work is going well, for the most part. Our indoor soccer registration has more than doubled last year, and we'll be up and running starting tomorrow, so I hope we hit the ground running. I have a very supportive boss in anything that I look to do, so that has been helpful.
It was good to have easter dinner with almost everyone, i'm anxious for mom and dad's basement to be finished-it will be a sweet place for everyone! As most of you know, I was able to visit Irene Garcia from Ecuador last week. It was so great to see her, and reminisce on past times. she even made me some Ecuadorian food and patacones-fried bananas. It was heavenly, and I was able to get some updates on the old ward. That could have been the highlight from last week.
I am also happy to say that I am enjoying my ward more and more. I am really starting to like this salt lake place. there is a lot of good people and a lot of diversity as well. I've been working hard to be a missionary, and it's tough, very different than wearing a name tag 24-7, but I'm learning a lot. Life is wonderful, I love you all!

Thanks for the Party

Just a note from the father figure in the family to thank our children for bringing so much happiness into my life. I love it when we are ALL together. I also love it when some of us are together, but it is a special treat to have the dozen of us together. I appreciate the adjustments that we all need to make to allow that to happen. Here's a couple of things;
1) Good luck to Troy with the campaign. He is going to be cooking pancakes next Monday and Tuesday morning and bribing people to vote for him. I am planning on having my apron and pancake turner available on Tuesday. Let me know if you need grills or anything else T.
2) Mom and I are going to be painting the garage this Friday and Saturday. If any of you want to play, we'll find you a roller.
3) The inspector from Centerville City was in the house yesterday. He should return tomorrow and the work should start up again. Yea!
4) Keep you eyes open for a pool table and a projector for the theatre room
5) The new projected day for completion of the basement is April 11th.
6) Let me know if I can do anything to help any of you. This is Spring Break Week so I am pretty flexible with my work.
I love you each and all
DAD

Ray of Sunshine in the Dark Clouds- MOM

HelLOW Family! Abb and Bryn

Bryn, sounded like you made tracks while down in Southern Ut with all the climbing, hiking, hanging (out) that you did. What fun to take a break from the norm! Great therapy for anyone. Ryan, I sure hope your tailbone is fairing well...sound like you'll be able to keep you mind off of it with all the games going on in March tho. Jodi and Matt have been diligent camera bugs and getting all those cool pictures posted. G'ma (Mom) is so good at giving us the details on what is going on south of the border, the Utah border that is and keeping us updated on G'pa. He is really coming along well comparitively speaking. I can't wait for Jodi to bring their cute little button on down for ya'll to check him out. The pictures are darling yes, but nothing in comparison to having him in person. Speaking of which, I have been having a terrible week with technology and was severly bummed about it this morning. I wanted to write on the blog but I was too grouchy to say something pleasant. From Yahoo email, to Outlook, to Word, to HP Scanner, to Comcast to company VPN from home...yikes....please no more details. Suffice it to be said that there was a very bright spot in my day. Jodi called and discovered that I was home ditching work and let me take care of buster brown for an hour. What fun we had. What a little smiley critter he is turning out to be. It made my day! and I was able to pull out of my pity-party and look at the good things in life again. I always love to be with my kids and grandkids!! How great it is. Thanks Kat and Ryan for letting us take two fun little tykes to the gymnastics meet last Friday, not to mention the germ-filled fun toys at McDonalds. We had a blast and it was great to show them how those girls can do those amazing tricks out there. Gymnists in embryo, you never know. On that sweet poetic note, let it be said that I love you all more than all the snowflakes at Bear Lake!! MOM

March Madness..by RP

Hello family,
I've appreciated the gentle reminders of others to log onto the blog. I've had very good intentions over the past couple of days, but just have been swamped doing other things. I know that there's no good excuse for not "blogging", so I'm not even going to try giving one.

Tonight I'm home with Spencer as Kath and Abby went to Disney on Ice with their friends. I know that Abby was pretty excited about that. Spencer and I have had just a great night together as it's fun to hang out with the "Little Dude".

Our house is finally moving forward again. The finish carpenters should be starting soon and the bricklayer is doing his thing. He said that it would take him about a month to finish the brick. It's not that we're doing a ton of brick, but he's just that slow. But whatever keeps him happy and employed I suppose. It's not that those guys have a lot of work right now as the economy has really slowed, especially for people in his industry.

For those who didn't hear, I had a mishap at our construction site. As I was walking up the plank from the garage floor to the house, the plank slipped and I fell a long ways onto my back. It's been quite debilitating, but I think it's getting better.

Work has been crazy busy for me. Not only is it tax season, which makes my life my busier making sure every one is taken care of as they prepare their taxes, but also the financial markets have been choppy. I spend most of my days on the phones and meeting people almost non-stop it seems. I guess it's better than the olden days where I wanted anybody to talk to me, but I do get home very tired after long days at the office. Thanks to all of you who have been so good in supporting my business by sending others to me. It's greatly appreciated!!

Finally, it is March and I do love this time of year with all of the basketball going on. On Thursday, I get to watch several games on a movie sized screen at the Skybox in SLC and then I get to go to the Jazz-Laker game that night. It should be quite a day.

Well, it's time for Spencer to take a bath and I promised that he could take his trucks in the bath with him. He just got a buzz and he looks so good with his short hair!

Love you all,
rp

March comes in like a lion

I can't believe that it's almost the middle of March, so far, so good though. Things are going great here in Salt Lake, I might say that I do miss having mom and dad so close. I don't know who I'll call when I need a ride home from work now. I went to St. George over the weekend and did everything I wanted to do. I hiked Angel's Landing, that's just a must do I think, it even snowed on us on the top, but I made it off a live. We went exploring in an old ghost town (Grafton) went rock climbing, that was the first in a very long time (like before my mission) and I was the one that had to lead the climb. We did a fake fall at first just to test the equipment, and I took Patrick right off the ground, luckily i didn't fall after that. We also went caving and I even got to have dinner and go to a fire with Rachael. Along with that, there was a lot of sitting around and enjoying the sun, and the time away from work and life. Vacations are wonderful, I would suggest them to anyone.
Work is going really well right now. I asked my boss if I could take a few hours off on Friday to go to a wedding, and her response was, of course, take whatever you need, I don't care. So I think somehow I've made it on her good side, which is a huge plus where I'm at. I did have to let an employee go last week, which was the thing that I've liked least in the past 6 months at the Sorenson Center, but I have to say it was like taking a thorn out of my shoe. Indoor Soccer season is here, and if anyone knows of anyone looking to volunteer as a coach, I'll be interested in their phone number.
Other than work, I'm trying to stay busy, and it's working really well. I'm training for the Salt Lake marathon, and after tonight's run, I'm a little frightened, I guess I need to train a little harder. I'm trying to make friends at church, you would all be proud of me, I even organized a pick-up basketball game for tomorrow night, we'll see how it goes. Volleyball once a week, and skiing once a week I don't even have time to clean my house. Life is good, I love hearing from all of you and know what's going on in your lives. That was an open invitation to write on the blog. Love you all!

ibmom & gma

Dear Friends,

Boy, I thought I'd better hurry and post or we'd be through with blogs. I love them too much, so please don't stop. I was waiting till we take gpa over to the Dr. this afternoon. He still has a couple of hangups. His left foot curves in and makes it a little uncomfortable to walk without the cane. His right knee cap is very tender. They should do away with the only elastic hose he has.

Gary, you didn;t give us a zip code number. So glad you are getting in and settled. Glad you like the temple work. I'm anxious to see your new home, but not until Michael's wedding in Aug.

Jeff brought us over two large sacks of Lemons from his tree and Grandpa squeezed them day before yesterdsy. And I put them in tupper cickle trays and just have one more to do. They called yesterday and said they had two more big sacks to get rid of. But, I have all that I need. The weather outside now is fabulous. Nearly up in the 70's. We also got grapefruit from him. They are sweet and juicy.

Just to remind you all, we are not on daylight savings time. So don't call us at 7:00 a.m. your time. It will just be 6:oo a.m. here. Remember, we are on the same time as California.

Jodi, the pictures of Carson are great! We can hardly wait to see him. I can even hold him while I'm sitting down. What about car seat for our car?

Love, ibmom and gma

March is here

JODI -

There is still snow on my lawn, but at least my driveway is clear. Well things are starting to feel normal around here. We have a schedule and we have seemed to just picked up on this new way of living with a 3rd party around. Carson is as cute as ever and will be 3 months old next week. That is great. We made it to 3! He has been a bit sick this week with a stuffy nose and dry cough. I'm keeping him in as much as possible and did not take him to church or Debbie's house this week. We'll just stay holed up till we head down to St. George this weekend. We are staying at 'the condo'. We just pay Debbie or Sandy whoever's week it is and go down. I'm excited to get out of the house for a little R and R. While a schedule is nice, getting out of that schedule is even nicer.

It is really great having Mom and Dad closer. Sometimes they just drop by and sometimes I just drop by there. Its great. This Saturday I had a date with my dad. We had a lot of fun and drove to Draper to get a new safe tramp for the grandkids and to American Fork to test drive an Xterra for me. I really want an Xterra, its my new car of choice. We are looking till we find the right one however.

Ryan and Kath came over on Sat. and watched Carson for us, that was really nice and we were able to go out and spend some time with friends in Kaysville.

It is my busy season at work, so I'm busy at home working away. Carson puts up with it because he doesn't know how to grap the keys yet. People at work love him and have nicknamed him stripes. Its really cute, he loves it.

I am also very excited to go to AZ at the end of this month. Anyone who wants to come along, you are welcome, put I'm excited to show off Carson to he Great Grandparents!!! He can't wait to fly a plane for his first time and scream in first class.

Love you all,

PS An e-mail will follow this to remind you to POST!

We're on line

Just a note to celebrate the fact that we now have internet and comcast tv at 249 Cara Vella. Things are going well in our new home. We hope to get dry wall this week in our basement and the weather is looking like they might be putting in our yard soon. I love my teaching and my temple assignment and seeing our grandkids and living with the most beautiful lady in the world. I think that my cold is about ready to be officially gone. Keep in touch family, by blog or by phone or my E-mail or come and see us or call me and let me visit you.

Oye, Gordito!

--Matt


Hi Fam!

Just noticed that we've all been a little bit more relaxed in our blogging efforts...especially me! So, I decided to write a quick message to all ya'll.

My biggest news to report is that I joined Weight Watchers last Friday. So far, so good. It's a very practical / reasonable program...nothing crazy about it...like eating only meat or only fruit all day everyday. It's mostly just based on good common sense....eating low fat foods, portion control, etc. I'm on the online program, so after every meal I get to log it into the computer. Basically, it's just like a dietary budget where you have to plan ahead, be aware of what you're doing and then be accountable for what you've done. I think it will probably end up saving our family a lot of money too...not sure if any of you have been up w/ current events, but I can really scarf down quite a bit of food, and we all know that food = money...

ibmom & GMA

Hi gang,

I love the blog and hearing from you all. Haven't heard from Kyle or Troy for a long time. So glad to hear of Gary's new call at the Temple. A lot of our family work there including, Ned, Donna, and Merwin Griner (Lila's husband) Grandpa is feeling much better. He still takes a pain pill every once in a while. But his mobility is much better. He uses a cane rather than a walker. He can take garbage out, pick up newspaper, do washing and putting away. He doesn't get groceries or mail. He cand bring in groceries from the car. The only thing I need to do for him is pull his elastiuc hose off. And that will be through in a week and he hopes to drive the car over to the Dr. on the 12th. We'll see. We are looking forward to Jodi and Carson coming down on the 26th of Mar. Can you believe Easter is in March this year. That's early. Jeff will go in on the 15th Apr. for surgery on his neck. It's very complicated and we pray the Dr. will be blessed. It will be done over at the Scottsdale Hospital. I'll be going to church alone. I've missed the last two weeks. It's 10:30 a.m. and nearly 60 degrees outside. Grandpa is complaining because of the cold. Hope for the best for you all. Love, ibmom and gma