September at the G's!

Hey y'all!  It's been crazy this year!!! Does anyone else feel that way?!  I swear its been one thing after another and blogging has definitely not been on my mind.  A few highlights of our past couple months:
1) Boating, hiking, running, biking, camping, swimming, playing, and working were our main activities in the Greiner household for the months of August and September.  We've spent a lot of time together and it's been such a blessing to me to have my two boys in my life!  We love to go boating with Carly and Logan Peterson, we hike, bike, and/or run at least once a day around our area and went swimming at least 5 times a week sometimes more before Ivory Ridge closed in September.  Our boy is becoming quite a little fish!  It's hard to remember that he's only 17 months old, he does so much!
2) Gregor is ROCKING at Bluehost!  I'm still kind of out-of-the-loop on exactly what he does there, but he is getting tons of recognition from the big bosses and his team loves him.  I'm so glad I married such a hard worker, definitely beats a lazy butt!
3) I was MEGA busy during August and September.  Working four jobs is not something I would suggest to anyone.  Teaching Elementary Orchestra, Aquatics Director at Ivory, Assistant Lone Peak Swim coach, and running my own private violin studio along with three church callings has left me a little worn out.  Oh, did I mention I have the most rambunctous 1-year old ever and was training for my first marathon?!  Oh, yeah.  Did that, too! SHEESH!  I'm seriously turning into my MOM!
4) Austin is a TALKER!  That's been his big advancement of the past couple months!  He has a few words that are understandable, but he loves to go off in his own jabber giving us full sentences and getting upset when we don't understand!  I'm pretty sure he's speaking Adamic, but I don't really know that one yet.  Gregor speaks almost exclusively in German to him and I'm the English speaker, so maybe its a combination of both?
5) My hubby is a mountain biker!  His transition to cycling has been fun to watch!  He and Logan go a bunch, but he goes by himself a lot, too!  Lambert Park is the biggest attraction as of late and he always comes home mega sweaty and tired.  What a stud!
6) I ran my first Marathon in September!  It was such a great/hard experience!  Top of Utah is a great race and beautiful to boot!  I had a PR in my half marathon split and did pretty well up until mile 18 and then I pulled my hip/butt muscles hardcore.  My sweet husband came and walked/supported my little broken body for a few miles and then I was able to finish pretty strong.  Anyone have any suggestions to prevent hip injuries?  I swear ever since having Austin, those babies have not been the same!  Even so, I learned a lot and hopefully will do even better in the future.
7) We had our family pictures taken by the fabulous Christina Kreitel.  She's my hairstylist and runs a photography company as well.  I had a fun idea for our family pictures and she totally went with it!  We were going for a early 1900's throwback and did the shoot out on the Great Salt Lake near the Salt Flatts.  We drove for 8 miles on this salty dirt road (I swear you could dump a body out there and no one would EVER find it, food for thought...), but ended up at the coolest magnesium field.  Magnesium turns salt water pink, so the pictures had this cool effect of the white salt and then the pink water slowing changing to blue.  Gorgeous!  If you want to use Christina for your pix, let me know and I'll get you hooked up!
8) Grandma (Mana) and Ta'te (Grandpa) Greiner came up the last week of September as well!  It's always such a pleasure to have them around, and Austin ADORES them!  He doesn't get too much exposure to the Greiner side of the family since they live in Texas, so it was awesome to have them up here for a few days!  We went for an amazing hike up in Park City, hung out around American Fork, and just spent good time together.  I'm so lucky to have GREAT in-laws!  I've heard some horror stories about in-laws and I can honestly say that mine are fabulous!
As you can tell, we're doing pretty good over here!  I'm excited for the remainder of the year and seeing what the future brings!

At the Dinosaur Museum!

At the Dinosaur Museum in August with Aunt Kate!

Dad hold Aus holding Tate.  Hmmm.

Tuckered out little boy!

Camping at Strawberry

Austin doesn't really fit in there anymore.

Our dishwasher broke and that was the result!

Our new dog!  Just kidding, just a cool neighbor dog!

After Top of Utah.  I didn't really feel THAT good.

Family Pics 2012

Oh, and I'm making my blog private. If you want an invite, let me know!!!

3 Greiners in the Summer

Probably my very favorite picture of the summer right there! 

Our fam at the Balloon Festival

Mom and Austin!

Me and my Sweetie!

The Smith Family...Good lookin' group, I'd have to say!

My handsome bros on Independence Day

PJ.  Our faithful guard dog...

GOOD MORNING!!!

Wow, can you tell we're more busy in the summer than any other time during the year??!!!  I wanted to blog and update y'all on our summer so far.
June Highlights:
1) Family Time!  We spent A LOT of time outside together.  June was a HOT & DRY month, but we decide to endure the heat and enjoy beautiful Utah by hiking, swimming, and playing!

Uncle Karl and Austin

2) Austin had his first swimming lessons this summer!  He "helped" me teach the Mom & Tot class at Ivory and he passed off EVERYTHING!  Yea AUS!
3) My 28th birthday was on the 14th.  It was a mellow, yet very nice day.  Gregor worked a half-day and we went to lunch with family.  I got some sweet running gear from Gregor and Austin, then headed up to Eden to prepare for RAGNAR.

Austin decided to go swimming in his clothes and we didn't have a diaper for him...Don't worry, my mom came and saved the day pretty fast!

4) RAGNAR!!!  This was the coolest, hardest race I've ever done!  2 day, 12 people, 3 runs.  I had the privilege of running for the "Holy Schmidt" team, the nicest group of people I've met in a long time!  We got to stay at their gorgeous cabin in Eden and enjoy running from Logan to Park City Relay-style. I actually ended up running 4 times because one of our teammates got injured so I ran a 6.9 miler, a 5 miler, a 2.7 miler, and finally and almost all uphill 7.8 miler to finish.  No sleep, tons of lactic acid from sitting in the car, and a calf injury...When do I get to run again next year?!!!  I CAN'T WAIT!!!
5) Father's Day!  It was fun to celebrate my sweet husband with a yummy breakfast, and an easy, chill day at home.
6) Visit to Grandma and Papa's up in Ogden.  We got to see a bunch of family members and enjoy some fun and good conversations!  Austin got to meet some cousins and aunts and uncles for the first time, too!

Aus did a header off our back porch.  Scared the crap out of us!

7) Gregor fixed his bike and has been a cycling FOOL!  He and Logan have done a ton of fun rides this summer and I'm so glad my hubby is finding an awesome, renewed athletic love!  He and I went for a ride yesterday and he kicked my butt hardcore and he was on a Fixie (a bike with only one gear) while I was on a road bike.  I guess his big thighs are good for something besides swimming!
8) We bought a new car!  We had been looking for a newer, bigger car for our growing family and found a gorgeous 2006 Mercedes SUV for an amazing price!  I feel a little pretentious driving such a nice car, but I feel really blessed to have a vehicle that is dependent and family-friendly!

July Highlights:
1) RAIN!  July finally cooled off a little and the rains came!  There have been a bunch of fires in Utah Valley this summer from Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs to Alpine.  It's been a little freaky to see the mountains burning.  I was bummer a little because we had to reschedule lessons at Ivory a couple times, but it's better that those scary fires were put out!
2) Austin has become such a little "helper".  He loves to help me cook and clean and then undo everything we just did and then some.  He's SO freakin' cute, though!  It's hard to get upset with him when he smiles at me!  He's helped me make koolaid a few times and loves baking, too!
3) Austin and I do a lot of day trips.  We went to Thanksgiving Point on a few occasions in July, but my favorite was probably when we went to the Animal Farm and got to pet some fun critters.  Austin LOVES cows and was totally perplexed with them for about 3 minutes, then decided that eating the hay and dirt (and probably some poop, too) was a much more fun way to spend his time.  It cracked me up and don't worry, we washed him up VERY well after we left!  We also got up SUPER early on the 4th of July to go to the Balloon Festival.  We caught the back end of the festival, but got to go to breakfast with my family then go and watch fireworks with Car and Log down in Provo.  Good times!
4) My first nephew was born on July 12!  Tate Logan Peterson is our family's newest addition and he couldn't be cuter!  It's funny that my sister, Carly, is so blonde with big blue eyes, and her baby looks NOTHING like her!  He is Logan's boy all the way!  Dark brown hair, big, dark brown eyes, Log's barrel chest, big thighs and skinny calves.  It's pretty funny!  He has the sweetest disposition and is really patient with his big cousin, Austin, picking at him all the time.  I'm glad I have time with this sweet newborn.  I've forgotten what its like with a little tiny baby, mine's a MONSTER!
5) LOTS and LOTS of swimming!  I've taught every single session this summer and it's been exhaustingly wonderful!  We had our best summer ever at Ivory and I'm so happy that it went as well as it did.  I'm aiming for even better next year with a lot more advertising and full classes!

One of Gregor GIANT catches!  Haha!

6) Gregor went out with Logan, Log's dad, Dean, and their cousin, Kade on a fishing/backpacking trip through the Uintahs.  They caught over 100 fish combined and loved every minute of hiking/fishing/and FREEZING (during the night).  I'm glad they got to go, but I was very glad to have my husband back when they got home!
7) THE ZOO!  We took Aus to the Hogl Zoo for the first time in his life in July!  HE LOVED IT!  We have a lot of African influence in the decorations in our home (Gregor's from Africa) and so he was super stoked to see the elephants, tigers, lions, rhinos, and monkeys!  We got a huge kick out of watching his fascination at these amazing animals and feeling a little like kids again ourselves!  Gregor LOVES animals, too so both my boys were on cloud nine that day!

Austin "helping"

At Thanksgiving Point

Uncle Collin and Hammer

My little German Baby

My new nephew Tate!!!  He's perfect!!!

The size difference blows me away!

Dad and Aus at Sundance.  Mountain Biking Heaven!!!

Tater waiting for his daddy

Cousins!

My beautiful sister, Car Car

I'm beautiful, too, right?!

On a walk-about

Carly and I at SheDaisy

Water time!

I gave Oakley a haircut all by myself!

My son is SO brave!  Drinking out of a Lion's mouth!

Another fav of mine!  My boys at the zoo

GOR ILL A!

Me and my Honey, Gregor

Tater in his powder blue tux...

Gorgeous sunset on an evening run

I'll update y'all on August hopefully next week.  We have lots to talk about with the Olympics, camping, etc!  I'm trying to figure out how to post pictures with picasa because the blogger picture loader BLOWS!  (If any blogger people are reading this, please fix it!) Any tips would be super helpful!  LOVES!!!

My Boys

I haven't been very good at blogging lately, but I wanted to write a quick note about my sweet boys.  I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful family!  I'm completely outnumbered, but I really don't mind!  Gregor is the best husband I could ask for.  He is such a wonderful provider.  He works so hard to take care of Austin and I.  His job at Bluehost has been a huge blessing to us, and he's proven in only two years how valuable he is as an employee.  We seen promotions and raises and so many, many blessings since he's been there.  I truly feel like Heavenly Father has guided us so lovingly in these past two years.  Gregor is my best friend.  I love that I can just look at him and we start smiling about something silly, or we know exactly what each other is thinking.  He really loves me!  I've sometimes had a hard time accepting that he does, I don't know why?  He's so handsome, smart, funny, strong, and just an all-around wonderful guy.  Its hard to believe I've got it so good!  He's a great dad to Austin, he teaches him so much.  I'm amazed by his patience with me and our son.  I'm sure we both drive him pretty crazy sometimes, but he's always kind and patient.  I sure love my man!
Austin is such a treasure.  Its awesome to me that I am the mother to such a beautiful, strong, independent, loving boy.  I can't believe how much he's grown over the past year, it blows me away.  He learns something new everyday.  Lately, it's been how to open random things, turn on lights and lamps, walk down stairs, and make sounds for different animals and things.  He's so smart, so curious!  It's gotten him into trouble a few times, but he learns pretty quickly.  He's got a great laugh, and a huge, crooked smile!  He's a BEAUTIFUL boy, like baby model beautiful.  Curly blond hair, huge blue eyes, a strong, yet chubby little body, cute little nose, just a cutie!  I watch him sleep at night and just think how lucky I am to have this little boy in my life.  He teaches me so much.  Being a mother has been the hardest, yet most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life.  I'm so grateful for that!

Playing in the fountains at City Creek

Me, My Sweetie,  and CarLog at Avengers!!!

Enjoying a Hagen-Daas Bar a little too much!

My handsome boy in his birthday outfit from Great Grandma and Papa Smith

It's neat to me that I can call these two my family.  The transition from being the daughter/sister to being the wife/mother hasn't been easy, but it's been so worth it and I'm grateful that I have my little family to make it such a wonderful ride!  I love you Gregor and Austin!!!  Love, Kendall/Mom

1st Year? CHECK!!!

My baby boy turns 1 today!  I can't believe it!  Austin Friedrich Greiner is the best little boy I know!  He has grown so much over the last year and has brought everyone who knows him so much joy.  Austin is 22 lbs and 31 inches tall.  He is a big kid and loves to do everything on his own.  He loves to give hugs, feed himself, swim, explore, eat, and play.  He loves his Mom and Dad, but also loves spending time with his extended family.  He loves his grandma and papa's dogs, and chasing their cat all over creation!  Austin has the bluest eyes and the greatest smile ever with his funny crooked teeth.  His favorite movies are: Cars, How to Train Your Dragon, and Finding Nemo.  He likes to help me cook, fold (more like unfold) laundry, sweep the floor, and vacuum.  He is my best buddy and I'm so glad he's our son!
Being a mother has changed my whole life.  I can't believe the amount of patience and love I have in my heart now.  I thought I knew what unconditional love was when I met my husband, but having a child has been the most learning experience I've ever had in my whole life!  Austin is so sweet and so wonderful, but is one of the biggest challenges I've ever faced!  He will drive me completely crazy, and then in the next moment, make me love him more than I have before.  Having Austin in our home has made me love my husband even more.  Gregor is the BEST dad!  He just glows when he gets home from work and gets to play with Austin.  He is teaching our son to be a great man by being great himself.  I sure love my husband! 
I'm so grateful for the opportunity that Heavenly Father has blessed me with in being a Mother.  It is the best/hardest calling, but is so incredibly and completely worth it!  I hope all the mom's out there feel the same!  Through parenting, I'm realizing the love that our Father in Heaven has for his children.  It is real and eternal.  I am grateful for my parents and husband's parents and for my Heavenly parents and for the blessings and lessons that they've given to me and my family.  I hope to be a righteous mother and provide my son (and children to come) with all the things that they need in their lives!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HAMMER-BABY!!!

Lucky Number 11

Where is time going?  I can't believe its already Austin's 11-month birthday!  Is my baby really going to be a year old in a month?  Holy cow!
Well, March was certainly a wonderful month for the Greiner family.  We started the month with a few fun trips to Ogden to visit the great-grandparents, up to the Peterson's cabin up at Sundance, a day trip to the Sweet's Candy Factory with some friends, and a few trips up AF Canyon.  Austin absolutely loves spending time with his family, but this month he has started getting a little shy with people.  This is so weird to me because this kid has always loved getting passed around and meeting new people.  He's been really clingy to his mom (ME) especially.  I think it's because he's teething again and realizing that there are a lot more people in this world than he originally thought!  He's growing like a weed and is now in his big boy car seat!  Putting him in the reclining one was getting hilarious, his long legs would dangle over the end and he just looked squished!  He loves his big boy seat and loves facing forward and getting to look out the window while we drive around.  This month has also brought about legitimate temper tantrums.  YEA!  It is actually pretty funny.  Austin throws his head back and wails, but it is so FAKE!  You can totally tell the difference between his feelings really being hurt and when he fakes it.  Pretty funny!
My little baby also doesn't look like a little baby anymore.  He's all boy.  100%.  He loves doing things on his own, loves dirt & water, making a mess, animals, and playing with balls.  We keep wondering what sports he'll want to do when he's older.  Right now I'm leaning toward swimming and soccer because he loves the water and loves kicking things around the house.  He's walking 99% of the time now, and is loving being more independent.  The only thing that is not advancing his is sleep habits.  This is totally the "I want my mommy" kid!  He will not sleep a full night in his crib.  It's killin' us, but ya know...it'll work out!  I have faith!

Austin after our tour of the Sweet's Candy Factory

Gregor and I also celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary on March 20th!  He bought me 2 dozen pink and yellow colored roses (just like when we got engaged in Austin, TX.  Yes, there is a relation to our son's name).  We got my sweet sister and brother-in-law to watch our Austin and we went to dinner at the Roof in SLC.  Oh, man!!!  Best food, best night!  I am so lucky to have my sweet, wonderful Gregor!  He is so good to me and I love him with all my heart.  I can't believe it's only and already been 2 years!  I feel like we just got married yesterday, yet I feel like we've never not been together.  It's amazing!
Well, that's the update...I'll include some pix of our family from March.  LOVES!