Thursday, October 23, 2008

Pictures

We had family pictures done by a wonderful, super talented, friend of ours named Karyn last week. They were done at Mt. Ogden Park. They turned out GREAT! I am so excited about them! I would love for you all to view them here. Once you get to the site click on Greener family.

There are so many great shots that I can not decide which ones I should order. So, if you have time I would also LOVE it if you want to offer any suggestions as to which ones are your favorites. On the top of the page it has the photos numbered so write down in the comments here, what number(s) you like!

And the last thing I have to say is-aren't my kids so cute?!?! I love them! (you will see my point after looking at the pictures!)

Monday, October 20, 2008

Black Island Farm and Bad Luck Happening #2

On Saturday, Cam and I and the kiddos went to Black Island Farm in Syracuse. This is a huge farm that they turn into a Halloween event each year. They have three different corn mazes (one haunted and two non-scary), hayrides to the pumpkin patch, huge slides supported by hay bales, a corn pit (in place of sand), and many other fun things to do.



These pictures aren't the best (too dark!) but you get the idea!







We started our adventure at around 7pm-a little late but the only time Cam could join us. By 9:15 Hannah was tired and "done." We started heading out the car only to realize that somewhere in the 10+ acre play area/corn maze area the keys had fallen out of Cam's jacket.

Looking for them was pointless and the lost and found was empty. We called Cam's brother Grayson and asked him to go to our house, get the spare house key in the garage, open our house, and bring our spare car key out to us. Grayson went to our house and the spare house key that was supposed to be in the garage was nowhere to be found. He ended up just driving out to pick us up (THANK YOU!)


The kids crashed out in Grayson's car-no carseats (locked in the Escape...not good)

When we got home, Grayson and Cam "broke" into our house, got the spare car key and returned to Syracuse to get my vehicle. Cam returned home at 12:45 am. Needless to say it put a damper on the evening.

Maybe our luck is turning around though because on Saturday the farm called us and they actually found our keys! I can't believe they did. I am also so very grateful for Cam's brother who did a lot of driving around and chasing to get us (and our car) home on Saturday. We don't know what we would have done without you Grayson.

Tag

At first I didn't like these tags-but now I do! They are pretty fun and I can't help when I read others, I think about my own answers. So here is the latest tag from my
friend.
8 Things I am passionate about:
1. My family
2. The Gospel
3. Primary
4. Music
5. Education
6. Spending time and doing fun things with my kids.
7. Pictures-I take WAY to many.
8. Being involved in my son's school
9. Health care (sorry I had to add another)

8 words/phrases I use often:
1. Wow! Cool! (in response to Carson's many inventions and concoctions)
2. I love you!
3. Please
4. Thank You!
5. Hannah say "(whatever ever it is I am trying to teach her :)"
6. Carson-time to wake up!
7. What are you doing?
8. Time to go

8 Things I want to do before I die
1. Learn to play the guitar proficiently
2. Finish Grad school :)
3. Go on a vacation and spend whatever money I want to (I might need to medicate Cam before this can happen)
4. Learn more about the Gospel
5. Volunteer more
6. Raise my kids and see them as happy adults
7. Travel
8. Write down my personal history and all the little stories of my kids.

8 Things I have learned from the past
1. Now that I am a mom, I appreciate my mom so much more.
2. "you are in charge of your own happiness"
3. Cam's idea of a fixer upper and my idea of a fixer upper are completely different :)
4. It doesn't matter how much money you make, you just buy bigger things and your expenses stay the same.
5. I am happiest when I am doing what is right!
6. I love my children more and more each day.
7. No matter what is happening to me, there is always something worse someone else is going through. We all have trials and if everyone wore them on their sleeves we would all probably treat each other a little nicer.
8. My family makes me happy


8 things I currently want/need
1. My laundry folded
2. To pass my patho class
3. My vehicles oil to be changed
4. Hannah's cough to go away
5. November 15th to get here
6. A pedicure (or toe jam extraction as Cam calls it :)
7. One or two more family hikes before the season ends
8. A new good book to read

8 places I want to see/visit
1. Europe more specifically...
2. Germany
3. Switzerland
4. The Grand Canyon
5. Hawaii
6. NYC
7. Go on a medical mission somewhere...
8. Disneyland again with the kids

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. El Matador
2. La Ferrovia
3. The Olive Garden
4. Market Place Grill
5. Tamera Newman Restaurant :)
6. Orange Julius (not a restaurant but I love this place!)
7. Artisian Grill
8. Chili's

8 shows I like to watch
1. Remember-no tv.

I won't tag anyone but feel free to tag yourself!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Wow. I can't believe my baby is already 15 months old-she is growing so fast! Today she had her well-child check up here are her stats:

Ht: 31 1/4 inches (75%)
Wt: 24.9 pounds (80%)
Head Circumfrence: 47.5 cm (90%)

She is perfectly healthy and happy! The only comment the Pediatrician made was that she was VERY slow on "growing teeth"-but that was okay for now...if she does not have any molars (or any signs of molars coming in) by 18 months I need to take her in again. So we will see. This was also the worst visit for immunizations. She has never cried that hard/long before but today was quite traumatic for her I guess! Poor baby.

Here are all things great, good, cute, adorable, funny, lovable etc about Hannah!

She is quite the professional walker and has gained a lot of independence from this skill. She wants to WALK everywhere instead of riding in the stroller or being held. She also tries to "jump" and gets very close to getting both feet off the ground.

She continues to "dance" on command and has added "singing" on command to her many talents-very cute.

She shakes her head yes and no appropriately.

She LOVES to wave bye bye.

She says her own version of Carson-especially when prompted in the morning to wake him up.

She loves, LOVES, loves playin in her brother's room-which he does NOT love. I swear she knows it is off limits and therefore loves it even more.

Much to her mother's dismay she is an early riser. But she also goes to bed early, so I can't complain.

I can finally put a teeny tiny ponytail in her hair-if she allows it and does not rip it out (which she is constantly trying to do and succeeds at most of the time).

She (and her mom) are currently suffering from seperation anxiety-many tears are shed and leaving is no fun.

She loves to play chase.

She LOVES to be outside.

She won't give real kisses anymore but she will make the "kissing" smack noise.

She gets so very excited when Carson comes home from school-I think she misses him.

She is beautiful and unique, with dark big eyes and light blondish hair that sometimes looks like it has a little red tint to it. I can't wait to see how her features continue to change and grow with her.

Her new nickname is Bell. We have always called her "Hannah-bell" but that has been shortened to just plain Bell. I love that nickname for her and it seems to fit.

We Love our little Baby!







Saturday, October 18, 2008

Body Worlds

On Thursday, my Mom, my sister Melissa, and my nephew Connor and I went to Body Worlds in SLC at The Leonardo. I have mixed feelings about it. I was expecting great and for me it was "good" I have the feeling of "did that don't need to do it again."

We were in a bit of a rush the entire day. My sister Carrie stayed in Heber to tend my kids, so after the museum we left SLC and headed to Heber, to get the kids and drop Connor off at home. I also had to be home in time to get myself and the kids ready for family pictures with the Greener family that night-but we were on schedule and I would have plenty of time....or so I thought.

About five miles up the canyon my Mom's car overheated and died. We poured our two water bottles into the water coolant place (sorry I am car illiterate :) let it "cool" for awhile and tried to start it. We drove about 10 feet before it overheated again and we turned the car off.

By this time I was getting panicky. It was looking like there was no way I was going to make it to Heber, get the kids, get back home again, and make it for the family pictures.

Well, to make a long story short we all made it home and it only took 4 men and three vehicles to do it. This was bad luck happening #1.

Oh, and we did make it home for the family pictures and if you would like to view them please go here. The pictures turned out great so at least luck was on my side for a few moments that day...

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

For Rent! Finally! Yeah!

The upstairs apartment is finally ready for renters in our duplex. I could not be happier. Cam and I spent most of Saturday deep cleaning it. How can I describe it? Here are a few words..Filthy, disgusting, gross....The kitchen cabinets were so bad I had to scrap off an inch of film with a razor blade-regular scrubbing would not get the scum off. I swear those things had never been cleaned. Here are some pics of only the upstairs...if you want to see the "before" shots go to my April posting-"fixer upper"-and the two after that. More pictures are on the KSL website.





Monday, October 13, 2008

What we have to wear to stay warm in the Greener household



Waterfall Canyon





Two weeks ago our little family hiked up to Waterfall Canyon. It is probably 4+ miles round trip. I INSISTED on going that day, even though the weather was not the greatest. I really wanted to go before we couldn't go anymore, so this was the day. Cam tried to talk me out of it, he said it was going to start raining and we would get soaked, but being an optimist (and a boss) I said we were going to be fine.

We started out and the weather was fine. I started carrying Hannah in the Kelty for the "easy" part and then Cam carried her during the "goat climbing" part. The hike was a little more difficult than we anticipated-but by this time we HAD to finish!

We finally made it to the top, and the waterfall was beautiful and worth the hike. I had packed a lunch and we sat down to eat and it started pouring rain. We immediately started heading down the hill and the trail was soaked, muddy, and slippery. Everyone but Hannah (protected by the rain hood on the Kelty) got soaking wet! I will admit for everyone here to read this....Cam was right and I was wrong-it was a bad day to go on a hike. :)

Monday, October 6, 2008

A moment...

Lately more and more I have been thinking about becoming a graduate school dropout. I am having an overwhelming, make me want to cry/dropout, at any moment school week. I know I won't really do it but man the thought sure has sounded good this week!

I have an advanced patho test this Wednesday that I feel completely unprepared for. Have I studied? Yes. But it is pretty much like this..."Study these 1000+ pages, know everything, and you will do great on the test!" I have been studying but have no idea as to where to focus my studying on or what we will be tested on. Believe me, we have asked the professor to guide us and no assistance has been offered...very frustrating. It's not easy stuff either..example-ATP and ADP work with PIP kinase, fatty acid chains of outer lipid monolayer of plasma membrane blah blah blah....Don't worry, I don't know what it means either.

So instead of studying I am blogging-go figure! I really just had to get that off my chest though. Sometimes school is not so fun and I question my decision to go back to this stinking graduate school. Okay, I've had my moment and I'm done now.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Tagged

4 RANDOM THINGS I LIKE ABOUT MY HUSBAND
1-He is such a hard worker
2-He still looks like he is 19 yrs old
3-He is an excellent piano player
4-Good dad, good hubby, good provider-the list goes on (most days...:)

4 MOVIES THAT I COULD WATCH OVER & OVER
1-Dirty Dancing
2-Enemy of the State
3-Sommersby (if you haven't seen this-you must rent it now!)
4-Pride and Prejudice (new and old)

4 T.V. SHOWS I WATCH
1-We don't have "TV"-only the capability to watch movies/DVD's but I do make it a point to be someplace where there is a TV for American Idol.
2-
3-
4-

4 PLACES I HAVE BEEN
1-Washington DC/Maryland
2-California
3-South Carolina
4-Nauvoo

4 PEOPLE WHO E-MAIL ME REGULARLY
1-Deborah
2-Cam
3-School People
4-Lindee

4 PLACES I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT
1-Europe (Cam owes me a trip there)
2-Hawaii
3-Grand Canyon
4-NYC (going there in November! Yeah!)

4 OF MY FAVORITE FOODS
1-Macaroni and Cheese (still number one after all these years...)
2-El Matador Chips and Salsa
3-Cilantro lime rice
4-Raspberries

4 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO IN THE UPCOMING YEAR
1-Our family trip to NYC
2-Being that much closer to school being over...
3-Carson and Hannah's B-day's-I love to do their parties, make the cake etc.
4-Being released from playing the organ (if anyone would like to hint this to my husband (or another bishopric member) I would greatly appreciate it :)

4 PEOPLE THAT I WILL TAG
1-Cristy
2-Deborah
3-Brooke
4-Keisha

Saturday, October 4, 2008

An ambitious moment

I had great plans for conference weekend, none of them included Hannah being sick with a cough and fever. Needless to say my plans changed and because we were stuck in the house I decided I wanted to do something drastic in the house.

I started thinking about our "red room" as we call it, and how it is basically nothing but a storage room that is getting junkier by the minute. When we bought this house I wanted to make it a mud room, but Cam didn't. Later we thought we would make it an extra/guest bedroom. It is pretty small and would basically fit a queen bed tightly and a small dresser. Well we have never made the effort to have enough funds to buy the bed etc.

After Christmas, and since we have had Hannah I started putting all the decorations and baby items Hannah grew out of. It was not pretty.

Today, I cleaned, boxed, and organized and made the "red room" into a Play room for the kids. I am not done yet, I want to get some shelves and Carson painted some pictures to hang on the walls. I also have only moved in a few of the kids toys. But overall, I am happy with the project!

Before....





And the semi finished after...



Present I bought for myself...

Carson has been begging to go hiking but we are limited in what we can do because of our little Hannah. I have been carrying her in the Maya wrap and that is adequate for easy trail walking but nothing more. Also my shoulders and back start aching pretty quickly now that she is getting bigger. I have been looking online for a used Kelty backpack for the past 2 months and after a few lost bids and a few not being exactly what I wanted I finally found one!



I got it off of KSL for a great deal and it looks like new-it came with lots of "extras"=like; attachable backpack, cooler, changing pad etc-I decided these are for the professional hikers (which is not me :).

Of course right after I got it we had to try it out. It was a little overcast and cool but we still had fun. Carson, Hannah, and I trekked up Mt. Ogden (3.1 miles round trip). I think Hannah liked her carrier-she actually fell asleep in it.





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I am looking forward to many more adventures and love my new present for myself (and Hannah-right?)