Weekend Fun

Last weekend we went to San Antonio. Greg has a friend from growing up who is stationed there with the air force. So we went and hung out with them and went to Sea World. They were so nice to us. Not only did we stay at their house but they gave us the insider's tour through the park. Meaning we missed the lines and still got to see all the shows we wanted, like Shamu. If that wasn't enough they traded off going on the rides while the other one watched Luke. How nice is that?! They live really close and have the year pass and that's one of the reasons why, but still, it was the best. So thanks to the Livseys for an awesome weekend trip.

This weekend was the cub scout camp out. Greg is a webelos leader and so we packed up our stuff and hoped Luke would do well.(He did.) The camp area was in the state park about an hour away. It was about a five minute walk from the lake. The site was a little small for our big group, but it was fun. The camp site was several inches of silt or loose dirt so everyone was pretty dirty. The scouts were constantly looking like dirty ruffians. The boys also participated in a raingutter rigatta (boat race). They then had a raingutter sundae. We had left by then, but I can only imagine those filthy boys digging in.







Happy Easter! We put six eggs with candy on the lawn for Luke. He wasn't super interested until we opened the first egg and he saw the treat inside. Then, he basically went to the other eggs and opened them immediately. I did get him to eat his candy in two sittings because some of his candy was wrapped. He enjoyed himself.



That's about it.

My little helper

Luke loves to play in water. So he recently decided he really likes to help with the dishes. He will pull a chair over to the sink and just play/drink in the dirty water. He really loves it when his mother kindly turns on the water in the smallest stream imaginable. I know it is not terribly eco-friendly. He always pulls out the water plug and watches it drain. This can keep his attention for an hour, no joke. He normally hates wearing bibs, but will put on an apron for this activity. He sometimes pitches a fit when I try to take the apron off.




Taking a sip (I swear I don't encourage the dish water sipping)

The zoo

Last weekend we went to the zoo because we had some free passes that were about to expire. We had fun, but Luke still doesn't emote much, when it comes to animals. The funniest part was watching him pet the goats. He would give the goat one pat and then move on.







Then Greg went to the shooting range with a friend and Luke and I went to the open house of the our new church building. A friend needed me to translate the tour into french for her neighbors. It was hard to remember some of the words that would have been so easy five years ago, but whatever. Don't ask me which words, it's embarrassing. Fine, "sin" and "restoration".
But all in all, it was a good experience. Much thanks to the Spencers for helping with Luke.

Spring Break

Just a week after returning from Arizona, my family came for spring break. My Mom and two brothers came. Dad didn't come because he was coming down with a nasty flu that was going around his school and didn't want to pass it along. Thanks Dad but we missed you.

They came Saturday night and we had pizza ready for them. Through the next week we played games, watched Dollhouse and other movies and shows courtesy of netflix instant watch, and ate food. My mom also brought lots of crafts. She is always working on at least one craft. We did designs to go on personalized plates, Christmas aprons for the granddaughters, Christmas themed busy books and nativities. Can you tell where we're going to Christmas this year?

Greg took Wednesday and Friday off to play games and enjoy the company. We didn't forget St. Patrick's Day to have corn beef and cabbage, it's a tradition. Friday was also my birthday and so we had to have a huge celebration which mostly consisted of Little Ceasar's for lunch and Chinese take out for dinner. I'm now 29 years old.

Greg got me some flowers, Ticket to Ride USA(to go along with TTR Europe), a hello kitty pez dispenser and disney princess crazy bracelets. Mom got me a Christmas songbook for piano, and some delicious honey.

Mom and the boys left Saturday morning super early. How fun is it to have a Spring Break birthday!?!

The Girl Cousin's Reunion

I recently returned from a trip to the Phoenix area for a cousin's reunion with Greg's cousins. Greg's Mom came early for the sister's reunion and watched Luke and some of the other kids while the cousins played. Only the girl cousins 18+ are invited. It was super fun!
Luke and I flew there Wednesday and then took a nap while we waited at (Great)Aunt Donnie's house for Grandma Debbie and Emilee to arrive. Because we had gotten there early in the day, Luke was done with his nap not too long after they got there.

Thursday night we went to Stefani's for our cousin reunion. We ate ice cream, talked, watched movies. The next day we got on our black, red and turquoise for our photo shoot. We went to a pecan grove and got some shots and then to a nice man's yard. Our timer wasn't working so we had to recruit a friendly neighbor. He took lots of photos and then asked if we'd like to take some pictures by his swing set. We were all a little wary of it and then saw his huge self-built swing set. It was awesome.

We returned to Stef's for lunch and then went to the mall. We ate at a burger place and then returned home. Bree showed us how to make cute flower broaches. They had sent an itinerary about the reunion that just said what we were doing and the whole time I prayed that Bree was teaching it since she always does such cute things. We ate more ice cream, talked, watched movies and went hot tubbing.

We went to a stake women's conference with excellent classes and a delicious soup bar and mint brownies. It was very uplifting. We went back and lied around Stef's house. For dinner we got some delicious pasta takeout.

Luke turned 18 months that week so we sent him to nursery. He did well and then threw up in the last 5 minutes. He hadn't seemed sick before or after so we attributed it to the fact that we feed him to keep him quiet in church and then he had more snacks in nursery. He is usually ok about stopping except when the food is too good to resist. Remember vacation last year(muffins, yogurt, snacks in the car, fries and frosty) and the vomit all over me.

The next few days I spent mostly at Aunt Donnie's house having fun. We didn't play as many games as in previous times, but the addition of children decreases free time. Megan, Stefani and Allison all came over during our stay and made it more fun.

Wednesday we went to Annie's and watched Dina make up some delicious cupcakes. She knows how to make them real fancy and has such a gift.

Thursday through Saturday was the sister's reunion for Debbie and so it was a little quieter in the house. Thursday night we went to Aunt Heather's shower. Saturday morning we had a shower at Grandma Darger's house for Christina and Spencer's baby.

We left Sunday morning. It is so fun to visit Arizona where so many of the cousins live. Even after our reunion was officially over we still were doing stuff together. They have really accepted me into their family and I had so much fun there. I realized on the trip that I have known them for five years already. The time has flown. Greg was a great husband to let me go have fun with his relatives while he stayed home alone.

February happenings

Sorry I haven’t given any news lately. The main reason is laziness.

So Greg and I have enjoyed weekly date nights with our babysitting swap. The first time we went to a nice restaurant and played mini golf at a black light course. The second time we went for Chinese food and then played games at someone’s house. The third week was our turn to watch the kids. Two are 3 yrs old and they don’t go to sleep. The other ones do. So basically you have to semi entertain the older two the most. It wasn’t too bad. The hours are 6-10 so it’s a good chunk of time. Last week we went to the furniture store and got a new bedroom set. Hooray! I have been looking forward to that for a while. Then we went to P.F. Chang’s for appetizers and delicious chocolate cake. This week we went to the temple and got a session in. It was a rush to get to the 7 pm session on a Friday night. We got in and it wasn’t full but it was still a little stressful. Houston only has sessions once an hour. We also were lucky to sit on the front row.

This week I am going to Arizona. Greg’s mom has a girls reunion every year. A couple of times they have let some of the girl cousins tag along. This year they are doing a special girl cousins part right before. The grandma’s will watch the kids while the girls have our 3 day event. Debbie, Emilee and I will all be there for a week and a half. I am so excited. Greg will be lonely and we will be partying.

Luke likes to drum. He drums on the table or turned over buckets and he really rocks out. He head bangs while doing it. He also likes to play the keyboard. He can climb up on the chairs, all by himself. That is scary and we don’t really like him to do it, but he does. He has fallen off a few times including once face to tile. There was a huge goose egg and I felt bad since I was right there and going to get him down.

He is generally pleasant. He just wants you to be paying attention to everything he does. Like when he’s rocking on the drums or keyboard he wants you to be watching.


Luke had some friends over playing the keyboard. The oldest boy said, "I love being in a rock band."

He doesn’t talk but makes his wants known. He squeaks soft or crazy high pitched. If we are watching a show he isn’t interested in, he tries to grab us by the finger and pull us up. He leads us by the hand to where he wants us to go with him. And he throws his food on the ground, waves his hand or his finger to say “no, no.” He also folds his arm to pray. He likes to watch Elmo and Barney. We love our little baby and know that he’s not really a baby anymore. He enters nursery this week as he turns 18 months old.

Luke licks off jam from bread or in this case, mustard and ketchup from hamburger.

I recently got a haircut. While inside, my car got hit but someone. Luckily, they left a note, but what a pain.


Luke "before"


Luke "after"

The water main being blown out down the street, while we were cutting Luke's hair, resulted in gross mess.(This story has been edited)

That’s the news.

Sarah, Greg and Luke

Holiday Post

I can't believe I haven't posted since Halloween. That's pretty bad. But I was recently out of town for 3 weeks, so I can use that for my December excuse. November doesn't have an excuse. I just didn't post. So anyway I have a ton of pictures from the holidays.






The reason I went to Utah for so long was to attend my mission companion's wedding. Congrats Desi and Ben!



Luke had so much fun playing in the snow (mostly with his grandparents while I kept warm inside. Grandma Debbie helped him build a special snowman.





Luke constantly was trying to get onto the raised fireplace ledge. Success!


Yes, I did make Luke wear his Santa costume to the Gessel family party and around the house.




This is basically what Christmas was to Luke, jumping on presents.


At the bowling alley with the relatives



Chad's dirty laundry bag, poor Luke









One night we went and saw the zoo lights at Hogle Zoo. It was cold.



The Tiger growled very suddenly and loudly right behind us when the picture was being taken, I involuntarily was stepping forward and almost peed my pants.