Update

So I've not been very good at getting on here since school started. Number four is giving me a run for my money. I can't seem to get on top of things, and I feel like we've been sick for several months. Anywho.....I wanted to let everyone know that we are still alive.

Sara started taking her first steps about three weeks ago. She can now walk about 10-15 steps when she wants too. She is so cute, and sooo spoiled. No wonder she didn't start walking until 14 months, she was carried everywhere she wanted to go. :) She continues to be a Daddy's girl. Caleb and I both enjoy that. She's got him wrapped around her little finger already. Anytime Daddy's got a treat she watches and follows his every move getting as many snitches as she can until it's all gone. It's fun to watch.

Bryant continues to challenge our patience and is such a bright little boy. He is very quick to pick up on things. And is very stubborn. Don't even think about pushing it if he isn't ready to do something. Today he put some of the pick-up-sticks inside the girls recorder. I told him the he knew better and asked why he did that. He reply, "I didn't mean to." I told him he couldn't "accidentally" cram the sticks in there and he said, "It's just that my brain's not working right." I couldn't help it... I totally cracked up laughing that was so funny. I did eventually get them out with some surgical tweezers, but broke one of the sticks in the process.
Kaylee is turning into quite the little helper. She loves to organize and straighten things. (Not always at the most convenient times, but I'll take it.) She's our little tender hearted girl and seems to get upset at some of the simplest of things. She simply adores Sara and loves to play with her. She and Bryant have really started to get a long well and play together a lot.

Rachel is growing so fast. She's not my little girl anymore. She can be a very good help sometimes, but is getting into a spacy stage. It's often that she will halfway complete a task and totally forget what the rest of it was. When she wants to she can be very good at helping the others get their jobs done. It's nice to have helpers, but I'm not sure I'm ready for her to grow up any more. It's been fun to see her personality come out more as she grows. We watched "The Hannah Montana Movie" and "Flicka" a couple of months ago and the next day she told me she wanted some cowgirl boots. A few days late she came out of her room with a new ensemble of blue jeans, white shirt, blue jean vest (came with a dress) and casual shoes. A very cowgirl look and she was sure cute! Wish I had taken a picture.

Caleb has been pretty busy at work with the Adobe acquisition. With him being in a managing position it has meant a little more work for him. I think the hardest part of it all is behind him now and we are glad to find that this acquisition will be a slight step up in the benefits and time off. Omniture has been a great company to us and it looks like that is not going to change anytime soon. In his limited spare time he continues to find projects to improve our home and improves his skills at Rock Band too. He is such a great father and husband. He is definitely one of the greatest blessings in our lives.

I am continuing chiropractic treatment and am so grateful for the improvement I have seen in my overall health since I started treatment with a great chiropractor. I am kept busy with laundry, meals, kids homework, and so on. When I'm able to I try to fit in a few craft/sewing projects and occasionally read some good books. This is definitely a busy time, but when I remember to stop and appreciate the little things I realize what a joy it is and how many little things there are to be thankful for. I thank my Father in Heaven for how blessed we are. We are fortunate that Caleb has a good job and can provide for our needs which allows me to be where I want to be, at home to take care of our children. We are blessed with a beautiful family and a gospel understanding that guides us every step of the way. We are blessed to come from two amazing families which play such an important role in our lives, and give us so many great examples to look to. I pray often that I can do even half as good a job as our parents have done and continue to do.

Baptism Pictures (by Heather)

A couple days before Rachel's baptism we took some pictures while at Grandma Lu's house so we could mount them on pages for people to sign and write special notes to Rachel while they were waiting around during the baptism stuff. I was pleased with how they turned out and have posted some of my favorites.






We are headed to JC Penney this weekend to get some professional shots done, especially with her "princess" dress that Granny made for her so we'll post some of those too, once we get them.

Fall Drive on the Alpine Loop

We decided that after all these years of living in Utah that we'd finally drive and see some of the fall colors our mountains and canyons have to offer. We planned a drive on the Alpine Loop which goes up behind Mt. Timpanogos here in Utah Valley. We started up Provo Canyon and pulled out to look at Bridal Veil Falls, rather than just drive by, and watched the falls from a distance.

After taking the pictures we continued on up the winding roads and switchbacks and into the National Forest. There were several pullouts with sweeping views of the mountainside and we snapped a few pictures along the way.

Fortunately we thought ahead and had everyone dressed for the potential photo opportunities. We stopped at a pullout surrounded by Aspen trees and decided to get a few pictures. We had a friend of ours with us, Josh Keeler, who was in town visiting and he was kind enough to snap a few pics.

We made our way back to the car and continued to follow the loop around the mountain. The views were amazing.

Back side of Mt. Timpanogos - we've never seen it from this side.

The whole trip took a little less than three hours, about an hour of that driving to and from the mouth of the canyon. We plan to do more short trips like this in the future to become more familiar with the area around us.

First Frost of the Fall

The weather has been getting much cooler recently and we've started to see frost in the mornings. The first big frost we had this month came on October 5. I went out to the car to get ready to leave for work and found my car with a cool new paint job. Unfortunately this effect wouldn't last more than about a half hour after I took these photos.

Normally I despise scraping the windows of the car on a cold morning, but this was one exception. I was almost sad to do it. A cool thing I saw that I will remember for a long time...

Rachel's Baptism

Before I go too far, I know that we have family and friends that view our blog that do not share our same beliefs. Click here if you'd like to know a little more about our beliefs related to baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Rachel, our oldest, turned 8 this year and chose to be baptized and become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We held the baptism in the afternoon on September 26. Rachel invited many family and friends. We wish others from our families could have been here to share this special event, but understand the distance factor.

Our bishop conducted the meeting. Rachel's Grandma Johansen (Heather's mom) came to Utah from South Carolina because Rachel asked if she could play the piano for the meeting. We started off with an opening song and a prayer, then Rachel's aunt Kirsta spoke about baptism. Her cousins Audrey, Lauren, and Ryan Johansen then performed a song. I then had the privilege to take Rachel into the water and baptize her. Following the baptism, Granny Silvey (my mom) spoke about the gift of the Holy Ghost. We then confirmed Rachel a member of the church and gave her the gift of the Holy Ghost in prayer. After a few words from the primary leaders and the bishop, we ended the meeting.

Here are a couple of pictures we took before the meeting:

It was a very special day for Rachel. She received a few small gifts - Nate and Kirsta got her some flowers which was a big hit as you can tell from the pictures below. We didn't get as many pictures with family as we would have liked, but we know that they were there.

Granny Silvey made Rachel's white dress, as well as another blue dress. Heather took some pictures of Rachel and placed them on scrapbook pages. While we were changing after the baptism, everyone was invited to write a special thought or sign their name. We hope that this will help her to remember her baptism and the special feelings she felt that day.

After about 5 years...

... the goatee has come off. Don't know how long it will last, but thought I'd share for everyone to see.

Birthdays

So September is our month for birthdays - Caleb, Rachel, and Sara - we all share this wonderful month. Things have been pretty hectic, so here's a condensed course of events this month.

Most of you know the month starts off with my birthday. I decided to take a couple days off of work and I wound up spending a good portion of that working on the swing set pieces for my mom's yard. My birthday evening Heather tried to surprise me (I say tried, because I had a sense it was coming) by not telling me where we were going, but to be ready by 4:30. I had already heard from most of my family by this time, but I hadn't gotten the day-early call from my good friend Jared Moore yet. This led me to believe that we were going to meet up with them and do something. As we got in the car, Heather told me where to drive and I guessed that we would be eating out at PF Chang. Well, I called it. We had a good time at dinner with Jared and Lisa (as always) and then went to a movie afterward.

Labor day weekend came and we were about ready to assemble the swing set project. We did most of the final prep work on Saturday, and then took all the pieces, hardware, and necessary tools over to assemble it on Monday.

I robbed this picture from mom's blog. A single picture doesn't do justice to all the work that was done. Thanks to Nate and dad for sticking with me through the day to get it done. By the end of Labor day we had about everything assembled. It was a big project - one that I would probably do again, but not in the near future.

Back to birthdays...
Rachel turned 8 this month and decided she wanted a party with friends. Heather will take care of that post. What I'm covering is the family day. We had the family come down to watch football and play Beatles Rockband. We took a break to sing Happy Birthday. We had leftover cupcakes from Rachel's party, but not enough candles for me, so I started lighting the Hannah Montana cupcake decorations on fire.

Rachel took her turn...

Then Sara got her first birthday cupcake. It took a little taste of the chocolate to get her started...

... then she figured it out...

... and wanted more.

Peaches - 2009

Catching up on a few posts for the last few weeks. Spetember is a hectic month for us between birthdays and other happenings...

We've had our peach tree for 2 years now and had a real crop this year for the small tree that it is. I'm guessing it gave about 3 dozen, minus the ones that we thinned a little earlier in the season. We saw these peaches on the ground after a storm came through last week and decided it was time to harvest.

The peaches were sweet and tasty. We had several fresh and Heather bottled the others this past week. Yummy!

Free Corn

So I was outside working on the swing set stuff yesterday (which is coming along nicely) and was interrupted by my neighbor's father. He came up and asked if we like corn and if he could give us a bag. I said sure and thank you! A little bit later when my neighbor came out we were chatting out by the trailer his dad was towing (that's where the corn came from). They asked if we wanted more and that whatever we didn't take was going to the horses. I asked if we could give him anything for it and he promptly declined.

I went inside to ask Heather if she wanted to process a bunch of corn and if she did, to come out and help me get some. We stacked many ears of corn into our wheelbarrow to the point where it was heaping and then went inside to call Mom & Dad and Nate & Kirsta. We all got together in the afternoon for a couple of hours and went through the process - shucking, soaking, blanching, cutting, and bagging. At the end of it all we wound up with close to 60 bags of corn with about 3 cups in each. Quite the haul and best of all it was free!

Important Poll

POLL: Which swing set would your kids prefer?

It's about time I make good on my Mother's Day promise to my mom. We're ready to buy materials and build a swing set for her back yard. We want to include a slide, a rock wall (my kids' request), and space for 3 swings off the main beam. We plan to have at least 1 regular swing, a horse swing, and a tire swing. We could easily exchange a trapeze, infant swing, or another glider, etc. in any of the swing locations. For that matter, we could always add on to the swing set in the future (swings off both sides)

I'm looking for your thoughts on the following basic designs:

Option #1 - custom design similar to what you see in this picture.
Cost = about $1000 and time to measure, cut, drill, assemble, etc.
The first design features a 4' x 6' deck with an open area underneath. Under the playset is open (about 4 1/2 ft clearance), leaving extra area for running, adding a round tire swing, or a picnic bench. We might come up with other ideas for underneath. I'm thinking about getting rid of the rope ladder. The down side is definitely the custom nature of the project. We have to measure and cut most boards.

Option #2 - a box kit
Cost = about $1400 for the kit and materials
This second design costs a little more. It features a multi-level deck (4ft and 5ft) and has more of a playhouse feel. The area underneath the decks is a little smaller and confined due to the posts - the kit suggests a sand box. The advantage here is the speed to get it set up. But it costs more.

In the end, we're putting up a swing set - very soon. Please let me know if you have any strong preferences on the design. I'd like to start on the project this week if possible.

Also - particularly to my siblings - if you'd like to contribute to the cost knowing that your kids will also enjoy, we'd appreciate anything you'd like to throw our way. Please let us know if you'd like to pitch in.

Late Night with Friends

While Caleb was in Germany the kids asked if they could have a "late night." I figured why not so we went ahead with it. The girls picked a movie to watch with their friends downstairs while Bryant picked a movie to watch with his best bud, Dave, up in his room. All together we had about 11 children, counting my three that participated. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be and the kids had a blast!!! Anyway, here are some of the favorite pictures.

Old Dresser

After years of sitting in mom and dad's garage, and after months of sitting in pieces in my garage, I can finally say that this project is complete. All the boys in the family (except maybe Scott?) took a turn with this dresser. Now Bryant gets his turn.

The dresser was in bad shape when I picked it up. Worse shape as I disassembled the entire thing. A mess in my garage after sanding. I wound up replacing the bottoms of all the drawers, the panel on the door, the shelf inside the door, and some pieces in the back as well. I wish I had taken a before and after picture...

Caleb's trip to Germany

As most of you might already know, I had a business trip that took me to Germany for this past week. I found out that I would be going two weeks before the meetings and, of course, my passport was expired. Omniture paid to have my passport renewed (express renewed) and I was ready to head out. We found out that the meetings were going to be on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I and my three colleagues decided to leave a couple days early to (1) get adjusted to the time change for our meetings and (2) take in some sites.

We left for Germany on Saturday morning, July 25, connected in Atlanta just in time to catch the flight to Frankfurt. We arrived in Frankfurt about 8am on Sunday morning (with an 8 hour time shift). We picked up our rental car and promptly headed out onto the Autobahn headed to Nuremberg - about a 2 hour drive. I got up to 180 km/hr which is about 110 mph. That was fun.

Nuremberg - Sunday, July 26
When we got to Nuremberg we found out that we could not check in at our hotel until after 3pm, so we decided to walk around downtown to stay awake - a very important thing. Had we gone to sleep we would have had more trouble adjusting to the time change.

Nuremberg is pretty quiet on a Sunday - mostly tourists that are out walking around. Most shops are closed, but the museums and historic sites were open. Downtown "medieval" Nuremberg is surrounded by a huge city wall and is host to the Kaiserburg Castle. The city was a major hub of trade in the 15th and 16th centuries. In Nazi Germany, Nuremberg was also a central point for Nazi rallies, various points of Nazi symbolism, and the site of the first war crimes trails.

This is the market square. The crowd is gathered to hear the bells on the Frauenkirch (the name of the church in the square). I caught the tail end of the bells and the highlight - the figures that appear - in the video below.








This building is built out over the river that runs through town. It is part of one of the earliest hospitals of its time being built in the 1300's.



I thought Nate would get a kick out of these street performers.



This is the largest of the cathedrals that we saw. We went inside several of them and they were all impressive. This particular cathedral was severely damaged when Nuremberg was bombed during World War II. from what I saw in pictures it appeared that the roof was entirely collapsed and parts of the walls were blown out. They have done a great job in the restoration work.



We made our way up to the Kaiserburg castle grounds...



... where we got this impressive view of the city of Nuremberg.



It's amazing to me how big some of these buildings were. All with really thick walls and narrow windows. I think I would have had a hard time living in a castle.






One of my favorite places to visit was the Albrecht Dürer house. Dürer was an artist/printmaker/theorist in the 1500's. We got a tour of the house and saw some of his print making machines (replicas) in action. It was also pretty impressive to learn how they made paints/inks in that time - it took longer to make them than to use them...






We ended our tour of the city by going to the outskirts of town to the rally grounds that were created by the Nazis. Here are a couple of pictures of the Kongresshalle and the Dutzendteich (lake area). We went to a museum that was inside the Kongresshalle which gave an interesting history of the grounds and the Nazi party through the war years. I found the presentation quite fascinating - it was primarily pictures with captions. We got an English translation via headset so we could understand everything. The exhibit talked about events leading up to the war from the German perspective, all the way through to the trials held at Nuremberg.




Rothenberg ob der Tauber - Monday, July 27
The next morning we grabbed some fantastic German pastries at a cafe and then went on our way to a town called Rothenberg ob der Tauber. This is a snapshot of the German countryside that we went through.



Rothenberg o.d.T. is a quintessential German town. It has tons of old architecture, city walls, towers, cathedrals, and lots more to see.



Me on the city wall. (click picture to see the panorama)






Another section of the city wall. See the wooden pegs that hold this together?




One interesting thing that we found was the Sneeballen pastry. It's a pastry dough that's wrapped up into a ball and then deep fried. They put toppings on the outside. It reminded me a little of a funnel cake of sorts.



Moat anyone?



One of the coolest things we found in the gift shops were these nativity sets. The rising heat from burning candles spins the fan on the top. This spinning also makes the wise men and shepherd go around. I picked this one out because it has the look of old German houses/stables. We now have a nativity scene to add to our Christmas decorations.



We spent most of the day in Rothenberg - had a delicious German lunch of salad, cheese, potatoes, various sausages, schnitzel, bratwurst and sauerkraut. Fun place to visit and I was glad that it was recommended.

We left for Heidelberg which is where we stayed for our client meetings for the rest of the week. We worked really hard and but had some really nice meals and evening company. The meetings were pretty funny - all in English, but with accents from Germany, England, France, Russia, and America.

We stayed at a 5-star hotel in downtown Heidelberg. This particular hotel was family owned for about 140 years. Good sized rooms and all the amenities (that we didn't have time to enjoy).

Heidelberg - Wednesday, July 29
After our meetings were over on Wednesday we were itching to go see some of the town before we left. There was a huge castle up on the hill.



Unlike the other castles we'd seen, this one was a bit of a hike to get to - 314 steps plus some additional inclined roads to get there.




The view at the top was worth the effort. We spent a couple hours walking the grounds and I remembered that I could get some nice panoramic shots.






This was my favorite view of the city. You have to click the picture to get the full effect.



We left early on Thursday morning to leave from Frankfurt again. The flights were long and brutal on the bum, but I made it home safe and sound. It was a great trip and I hope you all get the chance to experience a part Europe in your lifetime if you haven't already.