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.