Bishop Glaus

Yes, it's true. Nathan is now Bishop. We are faithful that this will be a wonderful experience for all of us, but it's a bit... no, a LOT, scary.

We did get the privilege of hosting both sets of our parents for the occasion and Nate's grandma as well. It was so great to have them all there and feel their support, because boy did we need it!

Update September 2008

Well, Oliver did a log of growing this month. Both physically and developmentally. He's officially crawling now and has already realized that he can pull himself up to stand, which he has accomplished a few times now. He cries a lot more now that he's mobile and keeps falling over or whacking his face on things.

We have new videos and photos! (Links to your left.)


Grant was here on business this week and we got to visit with him for about 3 hours on Saturday morning before he flew away. It was so fun to see him and sad that it was so short. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANT, this Friday!!! The big 3-0.


Oliver is learning the meaning of the word "no" and more often than not throws little fits when he hears it and when his mission gets interrupted. (Usually crawling towards cords: computer cords, lamp cords, projector cords. Why do we have so many cords in our house?!) But just a few days ago, after I had told him "no" twice and removed him from his goal, the third and fourth times he went for it and I said, "No, Oliver", he actually stopped and turned around and crawled away. I was VERY amazed! He's a good kid.


Nathan and I are healthy and happy. Nothing new or exciting with us. Today is our 1st anniversary in our condo. It has also been four years since Nathan proposed to me and he still makes me laugh every day and he is still the greatest guy I have ever come across. I'm repeatedly shown what a fantastic choice I made, or really, what a great blessing I was given.

Ode to Edward's Chest*

For Nichole - may your love for sparkly, vampirey pecs live forever

"He was removing a light beige leather jacket now; underneath he wore an ivory turtleneck sweater. It fit him snugly, emphasizing how muscular his chest was."

"I noticed that he wore no jacket himself, just a light gray knit V-neck shirt with long sleeves. Again, the fabric clung to his perfectly muscled chest."

"He turned then, with a mocking smile, and I stifled a gasp. His white shirt was sleeveless, and he wore it unbuttoned, so that the smooth white skin of his throat flowed uninterrupted over the marble contours of his chest, his perfect musculature no longer merely hinted at behind concealing clothes."

"He lay perfectly still in the grass, his shirt open over his sculpted, incandescent chest, his scintillating arms bare."

... oh there's SO many more, if I only had time...

*Disclaimer: If it's not obvious already, this is a JOKE. In fact,... Edward Cullen is a joke. Ooohhh! Burn!!!

The Last Days of Summer

We had a nice visit last week from Mom and Nichole (my cousin). They painted our living room/dining room for us!

Oliver cut two teeth at once this week! Both up top. He's crazy as ever. He spends a lot of time lately doing "downward facing dog" (yoga pose) in an attempt to crawl as well as screaming over and over as loud as possible. In fact he's doing it right now.

As always, you can see more photos by clicking on our link on the left. Cheers!

Swertfeger's Visit

Brandon and his ADORABLE family came up for the weekend and we had a fantastic time! We went down to the marina here in Des Moines (18 miles south of downtown, right on the sound) and made a visit to Pike's Market.



Kaleb LOVED Oliver and was caught up in Oliver's room (while Oliver was napping in his crib) yelling "Ahver! Ahver!" (Oliver) at him. Amazingly Oliver slept through the whole thing.


Kelli is amazing as always. Very fun and smart and adorable. What else can I say?


For more photos check out our link on the left.

FINE ALREADY!!! I'LL MAKE A BLOG!!! GEESH!

When a 9 year-old asks you why you don't have a blog and tells you that it's "so easy" and that she "can totally show you how", you kind of stop and think... "what is this world coming to?"

So after years of being SO annoyed that everyone wanted me to read their blog, and after months of people asking me at least once a week if I have one, here it is (whiners). Apparently this is the only way people communicate these days and our little family has been silent for too long. So ALRIGHT ALREADY!