My kids are rockstars

We had a fantastic time in Utah and then had the most uneventful drive back I could possibly imagine. I was super worried about how the drive back would go. The kids were total rockstars. They were as chill as possibly could be pretty much the whole time. Spencer watched about a million movies and Genevieve slept and ate and slept and ate over and over and over again. It was awesome all around.

We spent the middle day of our drive back in Nauvoo for the late afternoon/evening. It was fantastic. We had frozen custard at Annie's. We went to the visitor's center. We went to a bunch of shops and got ourselves a sunstone, and ended the day at the Nauvoo Pageant. We have some friends from Utah in it and they saved us seats and it was so cool to be on the front row. I actually spent most of the event standing on the side holding Genevieve, but it was still a great view.

Back to the vacation itself, we did some great things. We had a fun time at my family's reunion. 

 The kids were in heaven watching the Lorax on the projector.

 This place had the most gorgeous view.

My grandma brought every souvenir she could find from previous reunions as a joke at our family  meeting. It was hilarious. I can't believe she could come up with all of them for the last 13 years.

Once the reunion was over we went to Bill's parents' house for a few more days. This is the one and only picture I took there, lol. We couldn't be bothered with taking pictures. But we had a great time and did lots of playing and lots of going to places we don't have in South Carolina like IKEA and Winco and other such places. It was fun. We took the kids to a splash pad one day. My sister got pictures there. I definitely need to get them because the kids had so much fun. Well, Genevieve didn't, but in her defense she was super tired. Anyway, it was all around a great time and a great vacation. It's nice to know we can make something like this work. Here's to more good times in the coming years!

11 Months

Genevieve has just blossomed over the last few weeks as we have vacationed and been around lots of new people. She's been incredibly mom and dad centric for several months now, but she's unwound a bit lately and is willing to at least interact with other people. She still loves other kids. It's all the adults she's a bit wary of. But she's getting more friendly to them now.

At 11 months she is super vocal. She loves to chatter. I'd say she knows how to say mom and dad, at least I think she does. :) She likes to mimic what we say, so it sounds like she's saying other things at times. Spencer will talk gibberish back to her and they'll chatter away. It's cute.

She is cruising all over the place and recently has started lunging at us if we stand her up, but she's not particularly close to walking yet. I thought she was, but changed my mind after I saw her cousin Shae, who just started walking during our vacation. I imagine it will still be a while until Genevieve walks. She crawls super fast and loves to climb. I caught her trying to climb up onto the ottoman at our family reunion. She had her leg all the way up on it and just couldn't quite pull herself up. I'm sure that won't stop her for long.

She's smiley and happy and still sleeps like a dream, no pun intended. Haha! She loves to eat. I'm pretty sure she's never refused to eat in her life. This girl knows how to enjoy food.

Her hair is starting to grow in the back, though not so much in the front. She's still a redhead. She has the most beautiful clear blue eyes. People often comment on them.

I can't believe we've almost had this little lady around for a year. Time has flown! People often ask us if we have any nicknames for her since her name is pretty long. The answer, not really from her name yet, but she's lovingly known as Little Squish around here. Spencer even calls her that. We can't help it. Those rolls are to die for!

Vacation!

We're vacationing and it's fantastic. I'd say that for two kids who love their routines, Spencer and Genevieve are doing fabulous with the lack of those routines. I haven't uploaded any pictures but so far we've stayed in a giant's house for our family reunion, gotten to go to the temple for the first time this year, ate tons of tasty food, spent lots of time with awesome family, welcomed a new beautiful niece into the world and said hello via Skype, witnessed another niece starting to walk, did some hardcore playing with aunts and uncles and cousins, and generally had a fabulous time. Spencer had one of the best moments in his life last night when his grandma unveiled the Lorax quilt she made for him. He was so excited. Genevieve has unwound enough to play with all our family instead of seeing if it's possible to become my second skin whenever anyone looks at her. It's been a good week. A few more days and then off to the epic across the country drive. Should be exciting. :)

Toes!

This little lady got her toenails painted for the first time this week. I did it on a whim, but I totally love it. This may become a habit. Having a little girl is so much fun! She and Spencer are different in so many ways and I love having them together to play off each other. Possibly the best thing about both kids is that they're both cuddle bugs. Love it!

Relaxing Week

I just looked at the pictures I've taken this week to see what I wanted to write about and I'm sadly lacking in any photography. Really, we've just had a super relaxed week.  4th of July was fun. Some friends from church host a 4th of July backyard pool party every year. This year we've had almost perpetual thunderstorms for the last nearly two weeks. 4th of July morning we woke up to this.

By the time the party came around the skies had cleared temporarily and we actually had some sun. Thank goodness for portable canopies. We all squeezed under the one they set up while it alternatively poured, thundered, got clear, and then drenched us again. Being from the west where storms like this are few and not nearly so intense, Bill and I both thoroughly enjoy all the rain. I wish I had a picture of Spencer as he stood getting soaked so that he could keep drawing with his sidewalk chalk. He loves, loves, loves the rain. I was hoping to teach him to swim this summer, but we haven't quite been able to make that happen. He's not as ready for that step as I thought he'd be, though he does love water and isn't afraid at all. We'll see if we can get him out swimming as the summer goes on and maybe he can learn a bit.

Speaking of swimming, we had all intentions of going to the lake on Saturday, but the storms haven't ended yet and we got rained out. Instead we did one of our favorite things and drove to Greenville to go to Costco, then to REI. Costco polish sausages and a shopping trip, playing on the bikes at REI plus browsing to our heart's content, made for a great Saturday afternoon/evening. Both kids zonked at REI. That made it all the better. :)

I did make these delectable treats this week.

I had no idea how easy cream puffs are to make. I used this recipe. We just finished the last ones we had frozen this afternoon. They were amazing.

The big news really is that we're leaving for Utah in just over a week. I'm giddy with excitement to see all our family and have our first real family vacation since we got married. I mean the kind you remember as a kid where your parents planned a whole trip and went and executed it. We've seriously never done this and I'm so stinkin' excited to go have a great time. It's going to be fantastic.