elder rice

i swear my little brother grew up over night. while i sat listening to him at his farewell, i couldn't believe that that smart, funny, mature young man was the same person i used to beat up when we were younger. now that toothpick of a kid is way taller than i am and headed to mexico for his mission. he had his farewell on may 23rd and it was so good to see a lot of family members that we don't see very often, including my grandma rice. glenn gave an awesome talk and we had pulled pork sandwiches at my parents house afterward.

glenn had to report to the MTC on june 9th. he didn't have to be there until 1:15 so we all went out to lunch with my grandparents. we then drove over to the MTC, took pictures and said our last goodbyes. the hardest part for me (and i hope glenn doesn't mind me saying this) was seeing glenn cry as curtis and i got in our car to leave. i don't know why that hit me so hard but it really made my heart hurt for him...i can't even imagine leaving everything behind for two years. my parents got a letter from him on saturday and he said he is really enjoying it up there which made us all feel better. he is picking up the language really fast and even bore his testimony to us in spanish. he is going to be an amazing missionary!

update/cabin fever

wow have things been changing around here lately! mason boy grows bigger by the second. he is mastering walking and it's about freaking time! he was taking a couple steps here and there and one night while our friends were over he walked all over the place with the other kids, acting like he had been walking for months. alia is a good influence on him :) mason is also gaining a huge vocabulary which is proving to us just how smart he is. he knows what a dog, duck, and cow says and he likes to say "what's that" "there it is" "this" "that" "dad" "dog" "cup" and some others that of course i cannot think of right now! some of his other tricks include knowing where his tummy, ears, mouth, head and feet are, he knows several different signs like "more" "eat" and "bath" and he can point to everyone in the family (his aunts, uncles, and cousins too) if you ask him where they are. i can't wait to spend all summer with him!

as for me, i am obviously done with work until august. with a little luck i will be able to work in the same classroom again next year...the teacher that i worked with this year will do a little sweet talking and hopefully things will work out how we want them to! curtis is working hard even though it is summertime. he is still working full time and taking 3 online classes. if all goes as planned he will graduate with a bachelors degree in accounting next may! wahoo!! his trip to california went well and he may be going back several more times this summer. there is a chance of him getting a job down there so we are keeping our fingers crossed that it works out!

this past weekend we went up to our cabin with some of our friends. we hung out, rode four wheelers and went to mammoth caves which was just a short drive away.

mason ate A LOT of dirt this weekend. there are plenty of pictures to prove it.

brody, drew and kayla being crazy!

we girls went on a little ride and got away from the chaos for a little while.

me and cheryl working on lunch

this is ethan at mammoth caves
curtis, mason, alia, brody and kurt
the whole gang heading into the cave...there were 13 of us total. this cave required some crawling which was a little hard with the younger ones so while the girls stayed back with the babies, the boys took the rest of the kids through. we heard there was some crying, but they made it through :)

we headed home late saturday afternoon and as you can see, we were exhausted. we had such a fun time and we are so lucky to have such great friends! we have lots of activities planned for the summer and are looking forward to every second of it! thanks to kurt & noelle and tony & cheryl for letting us spend our weekend with your families!

say cheese!

we recently asked our good friend noelle to take mason's 1 year pictures along with a couple family pictures and they turned out so cute! of course we picked the most windy day of the week and mason got sick of us yelling at him to smile but we managed to work around the road blocks and got some great shots! noelle always does such a great job and we can't thank her enough! here are just a few of the shots we love!

the beginning of craziness

summer hasn't even officially started yet but we are already feeling the chaos that comes with it!

our crazy weekend started on friday with the graduation of curtis' older brother chris. i left work a little early and we headed to st george for a dinner that the family was having in his honor. we then went over to dixie state college and sat through the usuals...speakers, diplomas and school songs. mason was a pain as a result from no afternoon nap and too much stimulation but we got through it!

that night we stayed at curtis' grandparent house in st george so we could go to his cousins endowment session the next morning. we got to the temple right on time but they had already taken the 10:00 session up "5 or 10 minutes ago." when we asked if we had time to get up there they said they had already closed the doors which means they took those guys up there way early! talk about frustrating. so FYI: the 10:00 session really means the 9:45 session so you better show up 30 minutes early. since the next session started 40 minutes later which would result in us missing the luncheon for logan, we left the temple and got some errands done. we ate, hung out, and then went swimming in the pool. this was mason boys first pool experience and it didn't seem as if he really liked it at first but i think over time he got used to it and loved hanging out with his dad.



we drove back to cedar that night, then woke up and went back to st george again sunday afternoon for esther's blessing. after the blessing we had yet another dinner get-together and more family time.
wow. i look TERRIBLE in this picture but it's a cute one with all the mom's and cousins. just ignore my "too long of a day" hair and enjoy everyone else :)

even though it was a crazy, long, over stimulating weekend, we had a good time. we were so glad that most of curtis' family could make it out, especially casey, carolyn and talia who we don't get to see very often. mason and talia are finally close enough in development that they can play together (minus the fact that she walks and he doesn't) and they love to be with each other. grandma steph even had to put them down for a nap at the same time because they didn't want to be apart :) before we know it esther will be tagging along with them!

we are looking forward to august when we can all be together one last time before casey leaves for iraq.

we love you all and are so glad we were able to spend the past couple days with you!

next week curtis is flying to california for a little job experience with the company he works for. everyone in the corporate offices are super excited about his accounting degree and one plant even asked about hiring him! too bad he doesn't graduate until next may! :( we are keeping our fingers crossed that they will still be interested next year! it is also his birthday on saturday which i am pretty excited for :) after that we have just a couple more things to go and before ya know it, may will be gone!

hair, hair everywhere!

as a parent, you don't see the changes in your child like other people do, but every now and then mason will do something and i realize how big he is getting. he has become really good at sign language (he is pro at "eat" and "more" and he is learning "bath" and "all done"), he will totally copy anything you do, and he is becoming more and more independent every day. saturday morning we did something else that made mason look so much older it made me want to cry....he got his hair cut for the first time! where or where did my little boy go?

i decided to take the task on by myself. i knew he would wiggle like mad but i was more afraid of totally screwing up his hair than him moving around. eventually i just told myself to suck it up...he is 1 and i couldn't make his hair look any worse than it already did right?

these are the before pictures...how i will miss those dark curly baby locks!

after...

does he not look like a year older than he did? seriously, no more baby face :(

even though i miss the curls, everything turned out all right....i think. mason was a champ as usual, wiggling minimally and only crying towards the end. his hair looks pretty good (hopefully those of you who saw him at church today don't totally disagree with that :) and i feel like i didn't do too shabby considering this was my first try!