A Baptism, a Reveal and a Cleaning

Last weekend my brother Andy's daughter, Maggie, got baptized.


The baptismal ceremony was very nice--especially since Maggie asked her Grandpa Ward to give the confirmation talk. We enjoyed a delicious meal afterward, at their home, with Amanda, Andy, Austin, Preston, Rachel and Maggie.


We were invited to another event over the weekend--a special reveal dinner--held at Dallas's mother's home. Kathryn was happy to show us their finished master bedroom that she and Bob have been working on completing.


Bob was busy in the kitchen fixing his delicious cranberry chicken dish.


During dinner, Dallas and Rebecca made their big reveal declaration of the gender of their unborn child by holding up a pink napkin--IT'S A GIRL!!! But, I guess we'll have to have another event to reveal the name of baby #2 because they are clueless as to what to call this second daughter. The due date is July 10th.


Dinner was topped off with yet another celebration of Rebecca's birthday. How many does this make for her??? At least 3, but who is counting??


Yes--Brooke was invited to dinner, also. I just loved her bright, shiny, red shoes.


When she got restless, Dallas put a movie on for her and she became completely mesmerized by what she was watching. Is this what a couch potato looks like?


The thing I am most proud of accomplishing this week is getting the storage room cleaned and organized. I went on a buying spree at the grocery store, taking advantage of the case lot sale that was going on, and needed to make room for all of that food. Perhaps one can't appreciate the finished, organized result without first recognizing the messy condition it was in to begin with.

Here is the before picture of the table/window area when you first walk into the storage room.


Now the after picture with all of the double newlyweds's wedding gifts put away until they have room in their own homes for them.


First aisle littered with sacks of food.


Now all the food put away and the shelves straightened.


Second aisle with cases of food on the floor.


Now all organized with all the food on the shelves.


Can rotator almost empty and back storage area overflowing with Rebecca's schoolteacher stuff and hand-me-downs for Brooke.


Can rotator filled with cans and back storage area still overflowing with all of Rebecca's stuff!!


Ahhh, it feels good to see the big difference a little work can make.

Visiting the Kids in Omaha

We were very excited about going to Omaha to see Jacob's family a couple of weeks ago.

But, before we could leave town, we had to take care of some more dermatology business--getting a cyst removed from Glen's back. While we were there, the doctor pulled out his freezing canister and went to town on Glen's head again. I decided to take advantage of the situation and requested some more spots be frozen off of me (50 more to be exact). Glen suggested we not post any more pictures of our latest spotty dotties, but I'm afraid they are going to show up in some of the following pictures. So you've been warned!!

When we got to Omaha, Natalie and Emma were thrilled to see us and it didn't take long for Luke to warm up to me, which made me very happy!









He never did warm up to Glen, although I did manage to capture the only two times Luke would let Glen hold him--and the one time only because Luke was curious enough about Glen's pen to venture close enough to check it out.








We arrived at their home Thursday evening and got the kids bundled up to go out to dinner.


We ate at Hu Hot and were impressed with how well Natalie and Emma could eat using their chopsticks.





While Jacob was at work Friday, we took Emma to the elementary school with us to eat school lunch with Natalie. We hardly recognized Natalie all bundled up in her coat, hat and scarf when she came in from recess.



After lunch, we spent a few minutes in Natalie's classroom where we got a tour of the room and then we watched Natalie writing her numbers. Natalie's nice teacher gave Emma a board to write on, too.




Emma now sleeps in Natalie's room and Emma's purple room has been converted to the playroom.






They also have a big, new Barbie house in their basement and the storage space under the stairs has been converted into the cutest dress-up room for the little girls.



Luke sure loved it when Jacob got home from work! And we loved it when Jacob got home because that meant we could go eat dinner at Upstream.



On Saturday, after her dance class, Natalie went on a date with her Grandpa to buy a Webkinz--which she named Mia and she showed him how she can play with her virtual pet online.



That day we went to an early dinner at Outback. Luke loved dipping his French fries in ketchup.




When we awoke Sunday morning, we discovered there were two children too sick to go to church, so Grandma volunteered to tend the two sickos while the rest of the group went to church.


Emma had a fever and spent most of the morning resting on the couch. Luke had been throwing up and when I put him down to get dinner in the oven, he pulled the kitchen towels off the oven handle and rested his head on one. Poor sick children!




Glen put himself to good use by changing out some lightbulbs and by helping Jacob get the Sunday dinner on the table.



There was plenty of time for playing games--Elefun with Natalie and Ticket to Ride with Jacob and Laurie every night after the kids went to bed.



We are certainly glad to see that Jacob is doing a better job of raising his kids than he is raising the evergreen tree (that is anything but green) that he planted in their backyard. The tree (or twig) stands all of about 6 inches tall. We can't figure out why Jacob is so proud of that thing?!?



It was so nice spending time with Jacob, Laurie and their kids--when they were here for Thanksgiving and when we were out there last month. Great family--great trip!