Tour de France Here I Come!

So I'll share a little secret with you all, maybe some of you know it already, but I really like to ride my bike. I attribute this fact to my father for raising me with a love of cycling. You see, he is a cyclist and oftentimes as a teenager I would ride my mom's bike and go on rides with him and I loved it. I never had my own road bike though until just last year. Somehow, after high school and getting married and having kids I sort of forgot about it for a while. Then last year after turning the big 3-0 I decided I really wanted to start riding again and I don't mean just riding around the neighborhood with the kids. I've been doing that, I've got the bike with the trailer hooked up and I lug the kids around but that was just a cheap bike we got at Walmart and I wanted a real road bike. So for our anniversary last year Kris wanted to get me a road bike and at first I protested, I didn't think we should spend the money, etc. But the more I thought about it the more excited I got and so we spent our anniversary last year in Salt Lake going to a bunch of different bike shops. We had a great time but we didn't find the right bike until we got back home to Rexburg (it's even red- my favorite color). I did get some great cycling gear at the outlet shops down there though. Then, after all that, winter came early and stayed late and I hardly got to ride my beautiful new bike (maybe this was why I was depressed all winter long:-) and by the time winter was all gone I was huge and pregnant so it hasn't been until just this past week that I got to ride my beloved bicycle and all embarrassment aside I thought I would be brave and post a pic of me all decked out for my first ride in a while. I think someone is having mercy on my poor soul and blessing us with unseasonably warm weather so that I can enjoy a few more rides before the snow flies. I love my bike! Thanks Honey, I love you for indulging my passion!

One Month Old

Colby is one month old and I cannot believe how the time has flown by, ok actually I can believe it, and it makes me sad. He's a wonderful addition to our family and it seems like he was always meant to be here.

I love to watch sleeping babies, I'm just sure they are dreaming of heaven!
We took a drive to Mesa Falls one Sunday afternoon and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and feeding the fish.
Look at those chubby cheeks and cute little chin.

Big bro Rex is experiencing some growing pains at not being the youngest anymore and we are hoping this does not last TOO long.

We love our cute little Colbster!

Toilet Troubles

A couple of weeks ago our toilet got clogged (as happens all too frequently with children, at least in our household, and this is the reason we got one of those toilets that can flush 40 golfballs when we decided to remodel our bathroom. OK probably too much information, anywhoo) and I noticed that my squirt bottle from the hospital was missing (all you women who have had babies know what I am talking about) so Kris pulled out his handy dandy auger (this is a tool which plumbers use to unclog toilets and our plumber friend from AZ was so kind to clue us into it, it cost us about $30 and has probably saved us hundreds in plumber fees, literally) to unclog the toilet, unfortunately the toilet was still running slowly after he had used the auger on it several times so we knew it was bad (in my head I'm thinking a squirt bottle could not possibly flush down a toilet right?) So we finally had to break down and call the plumber. He came carrying an auger just like Kris used and I'm thinking, good luck, Buddy my husband has tried that, but I decided to just let him do his job. He was in there for a while and I just knew it must not be working but after about 15 minutes I finally hear him say "OK, I think I got it" and I go in there and he is holding in his hands not one, but TWO train cars in addition to my squirt bottle from the hospital. My eyes just about popped out of my head and I about died when I saw all that stuff. And these were not those tiny trains that go on the wooden tracks, either. I took a picture of the one remaining train car that we have and as you can see it's about the size of my hand, the squirt bottle was just a bit bigger than the trains. As he was leaving the plumber said, "your husband had the right tool it just didn't have this hook on the end." Ahhhh, now we know his secret. And now Rex is banned from the bathroom, and Kris wants to get a lock for the toilet!

New Kitty!

About a week and a half ago we decided to get a new kitty for Owen, a little early birthday present. Pretty much since our other cat ran away (this is another long story) he has been wanting to get another cat. He can be quite sensitive and is our main animal lover. Two years ago I was out in the garden with him and he was playing with all the ladybugs and having a great time. I went inside for a few minutes and then I hear this blood curdling scream, I was in the kitchen and I dash out the side door just as Kris is pulling his car into the driveway and I see Owen running towards us sobbing hysterically (it was so loud Kris thought he had hit him with his car and didn't know it). We asked him what was wrong and he sobbed, "my ladybugs got away, my ladybugs got away." He was so distraught that the ladybugs had flown away. Kris and I had to stifle our chuckles because we thought something was majorly wrong. So, back to the kitty, Kris' had a friend at work that had kittens that were ready to go so we went and picked one out. Kris took Owen to Walmart and let him pick out a bed, food, and litter box. Owen decided to name it Cookie (it's mom's name is Oreo). She (we actually don't know if it's a boy or girl, but Owen insists it is a girl, and he insists she will have kittens and he says that Grannie is going to get one, just so you're prepared Mom) freaked out her first night and crawled into a gap of an unfinished wall in the boys' closet. Owen was devastated, crying and thinking that we wouldn't be able to get her out, so Kris had to cut some of the drywall to reach in and get her out. Now she's enjoying life being tortured ahem, I mean raised by four eager young children. :-)

I'm an Old Woman now!

My friend told me the funniest story at church yesterday. She said after church last week her six year old daughter asked her if she had gone to Old Women's that day. My friend looked at her confused and said "what did you say" and she said did you go to Old Women's today. Then it hit her that her daughter was referring to Relief Society and since she knew that the teenage girls go to Young Women's that all the other ladies must go to Old Women's. She told her daughter yes, yes I did go to Old Women's today. Makes sense. We had a good laugh over that. I also remembered something funny from the Olympics that Gracie said. We were watching men's diving and she said, "Nasty, those guys are wearing bikinis!" Then I remembered from men's swimming they all just wore those pants so this was the first time she'd seen the speedos. Here's another one- a couple of days ago I was feeding Colby and Owen asked me if he still had his ability cord. Kids are too cute!

He's Finally Here!

Here's some pics of our new little one- Colby Riggs Grover. He was born on August 28th at 6:35 p.m. and he weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces, 20 3/4 inches long. He was our second biggest one so far, Matthew proudly continues to hold the record in our family. Of course, if Colby had been allowed to be a week late like Matthew I think he would have given him a run for his money. Everything went very well with the delivery, I couldn't have asked for anything better. Easiest one so far, I guess they do just slide out by number 5. The kids are all enamored with him. I was worried about Rex and you should have seen the look of shock on his face when they walked into the delivery room and he saw me holding a real, live baby. I had been trying to explain it all to him throughout my pregnancy so he would be prepared. The morning we went to the hospital I had a talk with him about how the baby was going to come out of my tummy now and when they came into the room I just about died laughing when I saw his face, it was pure disbelief. He quickly overcame the shock and wanted to hold him, except for one small moment when he declared "I don't want it!" Now that we are home he always runs to check on "Colby" he can say his name perfectly, and I have caught him giving him kisses on more than one occasion. I was so worried about how he would react and it is amazing how quickly he went from being the baby of the family to being a big brother, which makes me a little sad because he seems so old now. As for Colby, he is a super sweet baby and it took me only seconds to fall in love with him. This being boy #4 I was having a hard time picturing what he would be like, it was like I couldn't really wrap my brain around it until he was in my arms. Your heart just makes room for more. We feel so blessed that everything went smoothly and that he is so perfect and healthy.