Vacation, Alek is 10, Fitz is 4 Months, and Other Things I've Been Neglecting to Blog About

I do realize I haven't posted pictures of my family or done any updating in forever. I am lazy, what can I say? Here is a super long post to make up for that. And I apologize in advance for all the red-eye. My camera is being lame these days and I just can't take the time right now to fix all the red-eye in these pics.

Things that have happened this summer

Alek turned 10. Yes, I have a 10 year old. I can't believe how quickly the years have gone. It doesn't seem like so long ago that he looked like this:

BTW, I defy you to find a cuter kid. As cute, maybe, but cuter than this? Come on.

Alek is awesome. I can barely remember what life was like before he existed here on earth. He is one of my favorite people in the whole world and I am so blessed to be his mom. He has been in Arizona for two weeks and it's been torture. I can't wait until he comes home (still 9 more days).

We were visiting with family in Utah on Alek's birthday so he got to have a birthday party with a bunch of his cousins. He had DELICIOUS pizza made by his cousin, Ellie, and my sister, Jen. (Jen I need that crust recipe.) He had a very ugly cake made by yours truly (it was an unplanned rush job and I feel really bad about how it turned out). He opened presents and watched Inkheart. He enjoyed himself, as he almost always does, no matter what is going on. Even when he has extremely chapped lips.

So, as mentioned above, we went on vacation to Utah to visit family. We stayed with my sister, Jen, and her family. My mom moved in with them a couple of months ago, so we stayed with her, too, I guess. I got them to myself for a few days and then toward the middle of my stay, I picked up my sister, Heather, so she could spend some time with us before moving to Iowa. And then Amy and her family came to visit. At one point, we had 29 people in the house. Awesome. I don't know how Jen put up with all of us, but we had a great time.

Jen and her family live at the bottom of a gorgeous canyon. See?


Josh spent a lot of time drawing and reading, two things he hardly has time to do anymore, thanks to full-time dad duties. He had fun showing our nieces and nephews how to use the stylus pad.


Alek spent almost the entire vacation outside and I rarely saw him. Katie spent a lot of time following Gracie around. Charlie spent a lot of time trying to (and often succeeding) play in the toilet and bathtub.


Fitz got to meet the other two Geer grandbabies born in March. Josh and Fitz are just one day apart, and Sally is about 4 weeks older than Fitz. Can you tell?

Fitz and Josh

Sally and Fitz

Sally and Josh are both cuties and it was so fun to see Fitz with the cousins his age. If only we could have had little Max there, too, then we would have had all the new babies together.

While in Utah, my mom and Jen offered to watch all 4 of our kids one day (they're saints) so Josh and I could go on a date. We made the two-hour drive into Salt Lake, ate lunch and took in the sights at Temple Square. We also took a tour of the Conference Center. We had a great time. Being at Temple Square, I just felt overwhelmed by how much I love the church. There is no greater organization on earth. It's such a tremendous thing to be a part of.

Josh took this picture. Isn't it good?

Utah was awesome and I can't wait to go back. Hopefully next time I can squeeze in some time to see friends and make it to BYU.

Besides our tremendously fun vacation and Alek's birthday, our summer has been pretty typical. Charlie got a haircut. We used to be able to do this:



Now, not so much.


I've declared it the Summer of Harry Potter at our house. Katie is obsessed with HP; she watches the first three movies on a regular basis, constantly talks about HP, pretends to read the books, and tries to curse me daily. Alek started reading the series and is already on book 4. I'm a huge HP nerd and so I am re-reading the series. I am on book 6.

Eat slugs!

Alek the reader

On my birthday, we had a family photo shoot. It didn't turn out too well. Turns out, Josh completely does not know how to smile for the camera and we all know how easy it is to get kids to cooperate for picture taking.

First, we tried to get a picture of all of us together. This is the best shot.



Then we tried to get a good picture of me and Josh. Josh didn't make it so easy.




Last, we tried to get a picture of the four kids together. Ha ha ha. Here is how that went.





Last, but not least, Fitzcutie turned 4 months old on Wednesday. He had his 4 month check up today. He is 26.5 inches long and 17.5 lbs, which is 90th percentile for both. He is rolling over both ways, clearly wants to be mobile, and has two teeth. His hair is getting lighter every day and I can't tell if he's going to end up being blonde like Charlie, a redhead like Katie or some in between color. He is the sweetest, cutest, most easy going baby. I'm enjoying him a lot.



And thus concludes the world's longest blog post. Hope you enjoyed it.

UPDATE: Alek is actually 2/3 of the way through book 5 of HP, now. Just talked to him this morning and got the update.