Groneman Family

THE BUFFALO HAS LANDED! :-) I had to go present to a class at UVU so I didn't get to see her yet, but she & Marilyn went to see a movie. They called and said they went to "Monsters vs. Aliens" so I suppose we know who picked the movie.

A happy birthday to my dad. I was just reflecting yesterday with Marilyn how all the family that were important and close to me as I was growing up are gone. I'm certainly glad I've got you guys now.

Katie, welcome to the quarter of the century club!!! Course, we won't be seeing you at their meetings, because we are moving up in the ranks of the half century club, but I know you will make an impact there for good! We LOVE YOU BUNCHES!!!

Today at church I showed Kiera a picture of the salt lake temple and asked her "what's this?" She declared that it was Cinderella's castle. I told her it was the temple and then she insisted that it was Cinderella's temple. When your world revolves around princesses theses things can be confusing.

Visions of little childrens laughter as they played in our little playhouse was the goal I envisioned as we gave away our little playhouse last week: But that was NOT to be! It is a chicken coop! Yes, we had several people who wanted it..but the ones that got it are turning it into a chicken coop! OK, whatever...Kim didn't have to tear it down! I rode to Walmart today for the first time on my bike! And I was over there as fast as if I had been in my car! Funny how hard it is to break old habits: Even though I had firmly in my mind that I was leaving to ride my BIKE, I went in to get the car keys!~and then I again felt for them in my pocket as I was leaving the store! Riding a bike will be a good thing! I was alarmed to realize how pathetic shape I was really in...my legs started aching before I had gotten 5 houses down the street, and it was a slight downhill slope!! We go walking all of the time, but that uses different muscles. So it will be good to let these muscles kno...

Today we took our trailer down to Marysvale for the summer. We talked about what we wanted to do and decided we wanted to ride the summer away. Going to Moab in May to start the riding then we'll be spending some time in Marysvale and some time at the mountain property. I've also got a season pass to AF canyon (you kids can borrow any time). Our friends in Marysvale live up a nice wooded canyon by a stream and are letting us put our trailer on their lot for the summer. If summer *must* come, I may as well enjoy it as much as I can.

I posted a LONG post about Emmy, but you can go to our gronemanbunch blog to see it. I hate to move down the adorable video of Kiera! :)

Hey, mommy used to try on grandma's makeup-- so why not?

Yesterday I took your mom out on a dinner date. We went over to Subway in Walmart and bought one of their foot-long $5 sandwiches and split it. This is cool....we can walk to go out to eat from now on. :) ...and cheap! :) :) :)

Warning! If you or your neighbor has a dangerous breed of dog DO NOT let your child play with the dog. EVER! The dog can behave irrationally as this picture shows.

Five weeks ago, I was pulled off my main project by the CTO of my company, and assigned to work on my own on a "skunk works" project . It's an iPhone project that our CTO wants to demo at a conference in the first week of April. I'd never used an iPhone, much less coded for one. Since then, I've spent a lot of hours learning how to write code for iPhones, and then trying to write something. Our CTO has been reviewing what I've done from time to time, guiding me where he wants the project to go. Yesterday I sent off the latest version of the project, and I came in this morning to find this in my email: Chad, This ROCKS! You absolutely made my day. Looking fwd to talking more tomorrow (Tues). My extra hours have paid off. It looks like I get to keep my job for a few more days. ;)

Do you kids remember the book that I used to read to you "Grover, be a Farmer!"? Well, yesterday, I was a farmer. At least I felt like it as I was (with difficulty) shoveling pretty wet manure into the trailer so I could take it home and disperse it on my veggie garden. It has been at least 10 years since it has had straight manure as an additive...and I felt it needed some help. So there I was with the curious sheep coming up to watch me, and the horses that had to move out of my way so that I could wheelbarrow the stuff up into the trailer; the dog was chasing the chickens and the roosters were claiming their domain and in hot pursuit of some of the hens. ...and then there was of course, that "sweet smell" of the farm one couldn't quite ignore. It reminded me of going to my Grandma Rasmussens house when I was a kid. It made me think how easily that could have been my life, if my dad hadn't gotten a degree, especially since both of my parents were ra...

Kiera has a new favorite thing to do on walks: find the weed-seed dandilion things and either blow them or shake them. I'm sure our neighbors LOVE Kiera spreading weed seeds all over their lawns. She seems to think it is very entertaining though. I had to endure Church with my 2 little ladies alone today (I have more and more sympathy for Christa all of the time) as steve was gone doing dental school stuff. Steve is currently on a 9 day break from school but he is spending 3 of it in LA doing service (and staying in a hotel there), 2 of it helping the 4th year students with their boards 7am-5pm, and 2 of it with the scouts camping. That leaves very little time for the little fam back at home who miss their daddy. meanwhile, life goes on. Kiera and Lyida are cute and busy little ladies.

Yesterday it was really warm so I changed the oil/filter and cleaned the air filters in our ATVs so they are ready to go for the summer! Spent the afternoon placing some geocache travel bugs around Provo. Did't feel too hot so spent the rest of the day vegitating. Chad stopped by for about 3 seconds to drop off some stuff he borrowed & a cute picture of Emmy. So...what did you do with YOUR saturday?

A couple of cute drawings from a couple of cute kids. This is the first drawing I have from Jacob! Thanks guys. (click to enlarge)

I'm just SO CUTE !

You've had those times where you see a piece of "art" and think to yourself, "Wow... they got paid for that painting.  Wow.  Some moron paid for that painting.  I could do that -- when I was five." Katie and I decided to try watching Survivor on TV last night for the first time.  As it turns out, a basketball game was on instead, so as we  finished eating our salad on the couch, we had a brilliant idea -- make paintings of our own. With only minutes of premeditation and preparation, we were out of the door.  Our first stop was DI to pick up frames.  Our second stop was across the street to RiteAid to pick up paint and brushes and two delicious cadbury cream/caramel eggs.  The medium:  An old t-shirt of mine that was dedicated to rags. The inspiration:  Probably the salad we ate. The goal:  Get someone (who doesn't know better) to compliment us on our artwork selection when they walk into our apartment. I think the red symbol either means "Courage,"...

Kiera "yubs" her little sister. Lydia rarely cries when she gets yubs from Kiera. She loves having Kiera around and thinks she is the funniest thing ever.

Tonight the Gronemans and the Gronemans came over to the Groneman home and had a nice dinner. I got Emmy to give me a great big smile and to actually laugh at me! Cute kid. Speaking of cute kids, when I got home there was a letter from Kiera for me! Here it is. I like the part about the blankie. It was the Gronemans vs the Gronemans for a game of Blokus! Brett won. Grams and Gramps sat on the couch playing with Emmy during the battle. Alas, people had to go home. Bummer. Oh, I got a cool book from the younger Gronemans called "The Book of General Ignorance". Sounds like it will be right up my alley.

YESIRREEE! Only 1 more year until Kim can celebrate his official "Senior Citizen" status! He is already planning on celebrating that birthday by a shopping spree at Deseret Industries, where he will get everything on his Sr Citizen discount!!! The anticipation is intense! We are going to celebrate this occasion by going out to eat at Los Hermonos tonight and then tomorrow evening, the boys and their precious wives are going to join us (Emmy included of course) for dinner here. So we wish the rest of you could join us, but alas and alack, that is not to be. Oh well... In other great anticipation events: Walmart in Cedar Hills has it's grand opening tomorrow!! I am curious to see just how much of an impact it has on our roads here. I think it could be really bad...but Kim worries that the location here won't give them enough business to stay in business...in which case it would be bad if they had to shut down. But I have been saving my purchases till it opens, j...

So I recorded a video of Kiera singing happy birthday and was going to post it on the blog, but I decided you'd probably appriciate this video more.

Whoooaaaa... I'm going to have to start calling you "Old Man"...

OK, We need the family's help again, for Christa. I just spoke to her briefly, and she did not ask me to do this, but we didn't talk long because she needed sleep! So, here is the deal...It sounds like most nights Ty is getting Christa up between every 40 minutes to an hour ALL NIGHT LONG! Most of the time, he doesn't need to be fed or changed, she just walks with him and pats his back until he goes back to sleep...and then she joins him for a short nap until the next go around. I asked her if she can just sleep with him in bed since he seems to need her reassurance, but she said that doesn't work. Even if she gets him to sleep first and then goes to bed, he wakes up because he likes her to WALK him! Aurggghhhh ! And the same thing goes during the day. I had told her that she would have to take her naps with him sleeping on top of her, but he wants her moving while he naps. I asked her to PLEASE call his pediatrician for suggestions! How she has survived a week ...

Last fall I tried, without success for a month to sell our 3rd ATV. Had quite a few people look at it but no buyers. Saturday I decided to try again so I put it up on ksl.com and had plans to put it on Craigslist as well. Not 5 minutes after I finished the KSL ad the phone rang. A guy wanted to come see it. In the next 30 minutes I got 5 calls. The first guy that came to see it said he was looking for something bigger. The 2nd guy that came bought it. What a difference spring vs fall makes. We are now a 2 ATV family and have a little more money in the bank. Marilyn & I spent the day working in the yard. Did a lot of tree trimming. I'm not looking forward to having to start to mow the lawn again, but I am anxious to get out on my ATV somewhere if I can convince my sweetheart that weekends are NOT for working. BTW, I have a season pass to AF canyon if any of you folks want to come use it at any time. It ain't Dizzyland, but it's close.

Yesterday Kiera said "I miss baby Emmy!" out of nowhere. I guess she must miss her! We are having Katie-Jello tomorrow for dinner (I just made it). Thanks for the new idea Katie. I've been in a bad food rut for a while now. Steve has finals starting monday and is studying like mad. I'm braving disneyland by myself with 2 little ladies on monday (probably for like 4 hours). I'm singing in church tomorrow. I got a tetnus shot 3 days ago and it still hurts. Kiera loves the color Red. She loves to wear her red dress and red shoes and eat red dum-dums (the only candy she likes). Potty training is failing right now. Lydia is a bucket of smiles and enjoys experimenting with her cute little voice. The poor little thing has a fever right now but is really good about it.

Our oven! http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5845295

So, he wants to know, what is HAPPY about that??? There is one piece of happiness that can come to an old man's heart on his birthday. And that, of course, is to spend it with those whom he loves...but of course we realize that isn't possible with the majority of this Groneman family. And Kim has always been a person who likes to celebrate an event on the event day (whatever it is!). And the event day is Tues evening. So, I am inviting all those who can to come for dinner. (This will be the first time in probably 10 years that I have had Kim at home to celebrate his BDay with...because he is always at Brainshare on his birthday. Hey, honey...there IS THAT to celebrate...No Brainshare this year!! The only thing he would like more than to do celebrating on his birthday, is doing it on Sunday after noon, IF that made it possible for Chad's AND Brett's little families to be there. We have Stake Conference this Sunday...so we could do it earlier in the day which would ...

This is important. Watch this SHORT VIDEO for probably some of the most sound and timely advice you can get right now.

Tomorrow is Pi day (3.14) so I think we should all celebrate by having some Pie! Today is Saundra's 66th birthday so if you have a facebook account, go wish her a happy one. I have a sister that's closer to 70 than 60 [shaking head]......

http://warehouse.carlh.com/article_157/

Disneyland should quit claiming it's the happiest place on earth. Utah is and this gallup poll proves it. (Just in case anyone is even remotely considering moving to Utah........)

(CLICK ON PICTURES FOR LARGER VERSION) A good time was had a disneyland today. Kiera protested getting on almost every ride, but liked all of them in the end. We waited in line 1 hour 45 mins to meet the princesses (too bad they didn't have her 2 favorite princesses available). Kiera requested teacups again. The only trouble with the trip was that Kiera didn't take a nap (as expected) but she also was too overwhelmed with it all to eat or DRINK and with the sun shinning on her it was a bit much. We took off for home a 3:30 PM and got very stuck in traffic. Meanwhile my exhausted little Kiera started vomiting in the backseat. About 1 hour into being stuck in traffic and having barely moved Lydia got hungry and joined the wailing from the back seat. 2 1/2 hours later we arrived home. Both of Kiera's blankets were covered in puke and therefore required washing. Kiera can't sleep without her blanket so she waited very impatiently. It's now 9pm and she is still awake and...

Click this picture for a group of cute pictures of Lydia

The Dastrup family should be on the plane on the way back to Albaturkey right now. It was one crazy week with Ty being a little fuss bucket and Jacob not in his own domain.....but Baby Einstein helped with that. We didn't have time to do anything fun...not even a single game (with adults...I wore my arms out sword fighting with Benjamin on the Wii!). This has been an interesting few months. With Emmy being born in December and poor Erica needing some help a couple of times with health problems we had Erica & Emmy here for a while...then we had a Dinosaur Christmas in Albuquerque. After that Marilyn went back to Albuquerque to help when Ty was born. While she was gone Cambrie & the little girls came so she could go do her clinicals and was here when Marilyn got back. Now this past week Dastrups have been here for his grandpa's funeral & Ty's blessing. At least we can say it hasn't been boring around our house nor lacking in the laughter (nor cries)...

Weekly update: Not tons to report once again. I've spent alot of time this week helping out my best friend in the ward who had a baby the same week Ty was born. The baby is colicy so I'm helping out with the toddler (kiera's friend). I WISH I could be helping out Christa too as I know she is in need! We are ever so excited because Buff is taking me n the girls to dizzyland on tuesday. Kiera is already talking about the princesses who live there. We are hoping to get season passes soon (like buff). Kiera got her haircut yesterday and now looks much like mine. One of these days I'll post picutures. Lydias favorite person in the world is Kiera. She thinks everything she does is histerical. They are a fun little pair. Steve is busy busy busy with school and I on the other hand...am also busy busy busy with school (when my girls are asleep). 4 more weeks of this darn class.

Read all about it here . The Super Walmart will have a full pharmacy and a Subway sandwich shop. It opens March 18th. I can walk to the store when I get too old to drive. :)

A reason to party every day and I especially like: March 7th March 14-15 March 27-29 May 22 June 10-11 June 22-23 August 17-18

So, all you Utah Valley residents of the Groneman family: We are doing baby Ty's blessing in Orem this Sunday? Well, the Dastrups will be flying out that afternoon to go home. But in-between then, there will be Lunch (more like a dinner meal) at the Groneman household...and since you will have already attended church that morning, then you can all just follow us home and EAT with us! So, who can come? I think we will have Lasagna or Manicotti...Salad and such.. Come one and all, but let me know if you are coming.... to our last fling for awhile...

I used my spatzle maker for the first time today. It worked BEAUTIFULLY! thank you!

Had Lydia's 6 month appointment. weight: 15.1 lbs (normal for her age) height was in the 10th percentile. Proves our little lady is ROUND. 4 shots-- ouch!

Regarding the easy $25 Christa pointed out below: "Unfortunately, neither of you can participate if she is a biological child to both of you. We're doing a population genetics study rather than a family study, and the genetic similarity between first degree relatives is too high and will skew our results. Sorry about that! Thanks so much, though, for your interest in our research! Kathy"

Do you ever have those dreams where you're running, but you can't get anywhere ? You're not alone.

I went to disneyland today.... and it was AWESOME!!! It's been so long since I went to disneyland, it was great to go with some friends. It was a perfect day to go too because, since it's a tues, we practically walked onto all the rides. We went on space mountain twice, pirates twice, haunted mansion twice, buzz lightyear twice, splash mountain, thunder mountain, finding nemo, spinning tea cups, indiana jones.... needless to say we went on a lot of rides. This picture was the second time we went on space mountain. We all decided to do a pose (cory forgot) and it turned out awesome so I had to get it cause none of us could get a decent picture of it on our phones. It's me and cory and then sarah and lance. Interesting story... while we were there, we got hungry and decided to go to this french place over by the haunted mansion. Sarah and Lance had been there before so we started walking in. Well this lady stops us and asks us if we want to be her "special table...

From EmmyVideo

I just like the way he's sees it . That's all.

Want a free sandwich? Click Here

Brigham and I recently got $25 dollars each in cash for participating in this Night Owl study. It was pretty painless-- just answering questions about your sleep habits and then spitting in a little container (definitely the hardest part). If you are interested, email Kathy at krex@ucsd.edu and let her know you'd like to participate. She mails you the stuff and you just mail it back in a pre-paid envelope. Easy money!

64 Breanna Groneman 1 1 1 2 1 2 2 2 3 1 20.5206% 282 Chad Groneman 2 3 2 2 1 1 1 2 3 1 3.4832% 924 Kim Groneman 1 1 3 1 6 1 3 1 6 2 1054 Cambrie Nelson 2 1 2 2 1 1 16 2 1 2 1146 Brett Groneman 1 2 3 2 1 9 3 2 3 2 1289 Christa Dastrup 4 4 2 1 3 3 1 3 1 1 Good job Buff! Enter the March challenge here .

We've decided to bless Ty while we are here in Utah, and we are hoping that all of you Gronemans can come! This will be the first time I've ever had an immediate family member of mine there, so I am excited! It will be in Grandma Haslem's ward (long story) which is at 9 am. I'm not sure which building it is, but when I find out, I'll let you know. We hope to see you there!! I can't wait to meet Emmy and see my brothers and sisters-in-law, so I hope we don't have to wait until then!