Fun On Fridays

Fun Friday #1

We went up to Logan and checked ourselves into a hotel so we could spend the night. Glen thought it was a perfect opportunity for him to go to the BYU/Utah State basketball game that night.

Since he was going to have to scalp tickets and it was such a popular game for the fans of both teams, I decided he would probably have better luck trying to find one ticket for himself rather than worry about trying to find two seats together. I definitely did not want him to buy two single tickets and have me sit in some random area with Glen in another area. That did not sound fun at all.

I told him I was perfectly happy to stay in our lovely hotel room while he went. I stayed behind and he went. We were both happy.

The next morning my nephew, Zack, went to the temple for the first time. We were supposed to arrive at the Logan Temple at 7:30 a.m., hence another reason we spent the night in Logan.

It was so nice not to have to get up super early to make the drive from here to there that morning.

Zack chose Rumbi Grill as the place he wanted to eat after the temple. This is Cheryl with her friend and Zack with his friend.

Fun Friday #2

Both daughters came to visit on the same day, which means all four cousins got to play with each other.

I knew I was failing miserably trying to get this group of four to all look at me at the same time.

I love how the little kids enjoy so much going into the office to watch the family picture show on the computer screen.

It's better than watching a movie. Their parents are the stars of the show and sometimes they even see themselves pop up on the screen.

Brooke entertained herself coloring.

All the kids were entertained by the snow when it started to fall. We went out to the garage to watch the snow fall as we told Rebecca's family good-bye.

The kids were so excited to see the falling snow. Eli could not contain himself and had to run out into the wetness and hold his hands up high and shriek with delight as he kept exclaiming, "Snow, snow, snow!" over and over again.

So cute!!!

After his cousins drove away, Eli walked into the house, slipped with his wet foot on his first step onto the tile and fell smack onto his face. In one second he went from ecstatically euphoric happiness into hysterically screaming sadness.

Poor little boy. His fat lip showed the extent of his injury, but I'm happy to report there was no blood shed at the scene of the fall.

Eli's grandpa knew the perfect way to wipe away his tears. Popcorn!!

Here's the little guy with his pajamas on taking a closer look at the pilgrims.

And here he is all smiles again as he looks at the falling snow by the window.

Oh, if only Glen could get as giddy as the children when the snow falls. Perhaps he wouldn't dread winter so much if he looked at snow through a child's eye.

It's a ______ !!!

Jeff and Sarah are expecting baby #2 and the day arrived for them to find out if they are having a boy or a girl.

They had the ultrasound without finding out.

An ultrasound picture was inserted in a card and put into a sealed envelope which was then delivered to me.

I became the keeper of the secret and my lips were sealed to anyone (Rebecca, for instance) who might pressure me into sharing the information before the appointed time.

With eager anticipation, I opened the envelope...

and found out...

it's a BOY!!!

Good thing the word "boy" was printed on the ultrasound because I wouldn't have been able to figure it out on my own. Whew!!

I got to work mixing up the correct color for the frosting.

Sarah had instructed me that she wanted me to put either pink or blue frosting in the middle of a cake and none of the colored frosting could show through the white frosting on the outside of the cake.

The way I decided to ensure no color showing through was I put a ring of white frosting around the edge of the cake and had the blue frosting inside that.

The cake was finished before Rebecca arrived. She had instructions from Sarah to make Oreo-type cookies with pink and blue frosting for the party that evening. Brooke was the official taster.

Caroline entertained herself outside with the snow.

The Excell home was the location for the gender reveal party. Sarah had definitely put a lot of work into decorating and everything looked so festive and clever and cute.

Everyone got busy dishing up some food and eating all the good stuff.

Eli ate his meal in his chair and the rest of the time he was eating food from the plates of the other kids.

Sarah and Jeff were anxiously waiting for everyone to finish eating so the cake could be cut and they would have a little better idea of what the future will hold for their family.

Once Jeff's parents and our sons got connected on various cell phones, Jeff got busy cutting the cake for the purpose of the party--to have the gender of the unborn child revealed.

They saw the blue frosting and found out it's a BOY!!!!

Sarah wanted to see the ultrasound for herself, confirming positively what the blue frosting was telling her.

The little food scrounger could hardly wait to dig into the cake. Too bad the piece of cake he was eating was Brooke's. She was very frustrated when she discovered Eli had beat her to it.

All I can say is watch out!

If you think you have your hands full now, just wait for April 17, 2012, and there will be

double the trouble
double the work
double the cuteness
double the fun
double the love
and double the joy.

CONGRATULATIONS, Jeff and Sarah!!!! Eli is going to love having a little brother.

Outstanding!

Glen attended a company meeting in Minnesota at the corporate office a few weeks ago. Prior to the meeting, all the general managers and corporate people who were going to be in attendance at the meeting were asked to nominate two people for a special award.

The intent of the award was to recognize anyone within the company who had made the extra effort to help and support any other employees in their jobs.

On the second day of meetings at the end of lunch, the CEO of G&K got up to recognize the recipients of this award.

Four people received the award that afternoon of Outstanding Business Partner for the 2011 fiscal year.

The last person recognized was Glen Thomas.

He definitely is a team player.

Always has been and always will be.

He likes to help out wherever he can.
He helps people solve their problems.
He answers questions.
He figures things out.
He works on special projects.
He teaches classes.
He works hard and loves to make a positive difference in what happens at work.
He's not just set on helping his own location improve.
He sincerely wants others to be successful as well.
And he's all about helping on the corporate level whenever they need him.

I'm excited he has gotten recognized for his efforts.

I've always known he's one outstanding individual and now he's got the award to prove it.

Outstanding job, Mr. G&K Man!!!

Watching the Kids While Rebecca Worked

If a conversation starts out, "Mom, what are you doing such and such a day...?" I know I should be worried.

Rebecca started out a conversation like that and included 9 dates in the sentence. And they were 9 full days--like from 8:30 until 3:45. That wasn't including the hour-long drive down there and then the hour-long drive back home.

Someone would have to be crazy to say okay to that--right?!?

Well, call me crazy...

But who wouldn't want to spend that much time with these cute little girls and their baby brother?

We got our system down.

Brooke colored a picture every morning and then cut a piece of paper into small pieces that she wanted to use for tickets to whatever party or show she was planning for that day.

Natalie and Emma--I think we have you to thank for teaching her all about making tickets to a show.

Notice how nicely the girls look with their hair all styled. Brooke wanted Bear's hair to be styled as well so he would be ready to go outside to play.

Spencer didn't need much hair styling, but he did require a feeding of baby food and some playing before he went down for his nap.

Then the girls were free to run outside and play with their friends.

It was a pretty calm autumn day, but every once in a while there would be a little burst of wind that would blow the colored leaves out of the trees.

When this happened, Brooke looked up in surprised delight, squealed and excitedly exclaimed, "LOOK!! It's raining LEAVES!!!!"

Don't let this picture fool you. The wind was NOT whipping up the leaves.

It's just Brooke helping an armload of leaves "rain" on her little sister.

One day when I was down there, I got an added bonus of being able to see Ben. He is now using Rebecca's washer and dryer for his laundry facilities and he's using her as a free lunch.

He always claimed he was going to find a cute girl in Provo to feed him. I guess he found one!

He gave me a hard time when I tried to take his picture that day, so I'm using a picture I took of him and Austin when they stopped by a couple of weeks ago on their way up to Logan.

Rebecca says Caroline got confused and called Ben's friend Awesome instead of Austin.

Let's face it. I think Austin is awesome. I think Ben's other two roommates are awesome as well. He's done an awesome job surrounding himself with awesome friends.