Spring is upon us!

I guess a lot has changed since the last post. Oh how time flies! And like I ever have more than 5 seconds to sit in front of my computer these days. It's funny how when I would most like to document the wonderful events in my life I have the least time to do so.

So here are some highlights from the last several months: Halloween happened, Thanksgiving happened, Oliver's birthday happened (he's 3 now!), and Christmas happened. Exciting isn't it?


Just last week we had a pretty good snow. Enough to last one morning anyway and allow us time to play!


Up next: Violet's 1st birthday! She's changed a lot in the last month as she's starting to walk and at the same time FINALLY decided to crawl. Way to go, crazy baby!


Some favorite photos: This one of Oliver's hair the day he got it cut last. He calls it "Leo hair" because it sticks up like Leo's on Little Einsteins.

And this one of Violet learning her place as a woman. That is, being chubby and baking treats which she will eat all by herself.


We are loving Seattle still even though we have had to get creative for ways to play indoors, and I'm not very good at it! We've resorted to McDonald's playland and the filthy play area at the mall.

I love the diversity of Seattle, especially after living in Utah Valley for 3.5 years. ;) Oliver was running laps around the play structure at the mall along with three other boys almost exactly his size and as they all would run by I couldn't help but repeat to myself each time, "Black, Asian, Indian, and then the pasty white kid. Black, Asian, Indian, white kid." It really is refreshing.

Family Reunion

Alright, well this first photo is not part of the reunion. This is us down at the Farmer's Market right here in Des Moines, WA. We forgot Violet's hat, so Dad improvised.

We drove to Basin City, WA to stay over with Nate's Aunt Krista and family on our way to McCall, Idaho for the reunion. Oliver loved their place! He got to ride four-wheelers, climb up in a big tractor, play with and feed kittens, etc.! Good ol' farm life. We even went to their ward's 24th of July picnic (Pioneer Day).

McCall was very beautiful. We just wished we weren't so exhausted so that we could have enjoyed it a bit more. Oliver loved playing in the lake and even got to go on a paddle boat!


Pros: Seeing Nate's family. They are awesome and we wish we could have had more time with them! They live too far away! :(

Beautiful lake and fun times!

Cons: Water that smelled and tasted like blood (too much iron apparently). By day three I had to go buy bottled water and opted out of the shower because I was fighting waves of nausea. I felt like my own reek was better than bathing in blood. (Maybe some vegetarian vampires should move there and drink it up.)

Mosquito bites so big that they swelled up and then left bruises.

Oliver falling out of bed multiples every night and every nap.

The noise! Oh the noise! ...of everyone slamming the doors and talking/yelling in the hallway outside our room. We got very little sleep and most of what we did get was very broken. Oliver was a mess and threw lots of meltdown tantrums and at times cried, "I want go home!" (sob, sob). And we said the same thing and almost cried, too. ;)

Family Photos

PSYCH!

Hopefully none of you have already cross-stitched the baby's name or had it monogrammed on anything, because we changed our minds! I had chosen a name long before I ever got pregnant with this one, but I have been so worried that it's the next super popular name that I kept refusing to use it. So lame. So last night we decided that if it's what I truly LOVE, then we should use it. So our baby, for real this time, will be named Violet Louise Glaus. Hooray!

Getting Ready for a Baby Girl

We've officially decided that our baby girl will be named Noël Louise Glaus. Oliver doesn't really get it yet, but he's in for a big surprise about mid-March!

Getting Ready for a Birthday and Christmas

Oliver's 2nd birthday is coming up next week! We can't believe it. He does and says new things every day that make us smile, laugh and feel very proud. :)

He's been making us laugh this week when he sit with his Uncle Ben on the LoveSac and kicks back with an unplugged controller to play videos games with him. Every time the character dies Oliver exclaims, "Oh no! Hahaha!" Always with a laugh. It's pretty fun. Nate says he's in training and I'm worried that he's being exposed to things I'd rather he not. :)

We had a very nice visit over Thanksgiving with Nate's family in Arizona. His sister Natalie was married and it was so great! We are always sad to leave and find ourselves wishing we lived closer. Or more that THEY all lived closer. :)

Look at more photos and videos by clicking the links on the left! (You have to be signed into Google to see them.)

Blog, blog, blog.... I guess I'll update it.

Halloween was pretty good, except for the part where Oliver had a nasty cold and couldn't go out much. But he got to knock a few doors and realize that people were handing out FREE CANDY! He seemed to think that was pretty cool. AND he got to be a frog and hop around the house. (Or was he a Pokemon???... )

AND Oliver got to carve pumpkins for the first time (mostly he just stabbed a big spoon into the bowl of pumpkin guts while we worked).

Next up... Thanksgiving and Nathan's sister's wedding in Arizona. For photos visit http://picasaweb.google.com/nglaus and if you do not have an invite to view them, please email me at joy.glaus@gmail.com and I will get you one. We update that ALL the time, but this sad little blog does not receive the same attention. :(