Winter finally ended, we think...

Yes, it's been a while since our last post. The winter was rather uneventful. We spent Christmas with Tyler's family and Derek wanted nothing to do with helping Mom and Dad unwrap presents once he opened his megablocks. Tyler has finished another semester of school and now only has 1 more!!! Mindy continues to work full time and after some events at work, is looking to return tot he hospital setting. This will hopefully lead to working part time after Tyler's graduation and hopeful career beginning.

After some pondering and exploring, Tyler is looking to go into strength and conditioning coaching. He is planning on studying for and taking a national certification exam over the summer. We are very excited since this a passion of his and something that can potentially bring lots of fun future adventures.

Derek continues to keep everyone in the household entertained. His vocabulary is expanding. He now says the following words: more, bah (ball), orange, ya, shoes, cheese, and the other day he said, "mais" (more in portuguese). Occasionally he'll say, "Dadda" and shakes his head, "no." We're grateful the actual word has not entered his speaking vocabulary yet. :) He loves being outside and probably thought he was going to die of cabin fever as the last few months have displayed all extremes of weather- mostly on the cold end. He ADORES nursery, constantly is throwing the tupperwares from the drawer in the kitchen everywhere, stacking his blocks, and placing his balls in the kitchen window sill- they all have to be touching.

We are finding that our house and yard are a constant project. Tyler recently decided to re-do the pantry on a whim, after Mindy asked him to put away the groceries. We're planning on a garden this summer, and will hopefully finish up the back laundry room before the Millenium. Never-ending, but that's the nature of the beast with an older home, and one that was build strangely (that's putting it very lightly). We love it though and are grateful for our own space and plenty to keep us busy.

Thanksgiving 2010

We travelled to Arizona to commemorate the pilgrims and indians this year. And boy are we glad! We escaped record cold temperatures in Salt Lake! We left the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and barely got out of town before a massive blizzard hit.

We spent time with Mindy's two sisters, Autum and VerRona, and their families. Mindy's mother also made the journey with them. Wednesday was spent hanging out, making pies, and enjoying the warm, perfect weather. Mindy made her first ever cheescake (pumpkin cheescake, that is). She didn't realize it was supposed to take a total of 9 hours unti she'd already started. It only took about 6, total. Nothing too fancy, just lots of time in the oven, in a water bath. Yes, it was more than amazing!

Derek spoke his "animal talk" to Autum and Dave's dog (this consists of high-pitched squeeling/babbling). Tyler played video games with Jake and Brian, and we had a grand ol' time.

Thanksgiving morning, CariAnn, Autum, VerRona, Mindy, and their cousin Amanda, all ran the Turkey Trot (10K that's been around in the area for decades and was the first race the 3 sisters ever signed up for). Mindy finally beat the guy running in the turkey suit (she'd been dreaming of for about 15 years) with a time of 44:38. Everyone did well and had a great time. Tyler played in a turkey bowl and showed everyone that he's not slow and/or old! He's a natural athlete, to say the least.

Thanksgiving dinner was scrumptious! We tried some twists on the originals, like chipotle yams, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, the pumpkin cheesecake :), and many others.

Friday we spent time with VerRona and her adorable 3 daughters. Derek and cousin Laura had fun playing outside on the swing set. We ate lunch at Joe's Farm Grill (a place featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" on Food Network). It was to die for!! Tyler said it was by far the best burger he's ever had- ever!

We drove back to Utah on Saturday. Again the weather was in our favor. Early Sunday morning a huge snow storm hit Salt Lake and dumped 1-3 feet of snow on the valley floor! We were grateful to be home and safe.

Our fall has been wonderful, full of fun, and entertainment (thanks to Derek). Tyler's semester will be over soon and we are excited for Christmas- especially since Tyler's brother Justin will be home from his mission.

Fall 2010

It has been a very exciting and interesting fall for the Canova's. Tyler is still at the University of Utah and is enjoying his classes- as much as he can. :) Mindy keeps working and enjoys every moment at home with her 2 boys.

Derek is learning more every day and we are amazed at how much he understands and responds to. He loves to cook with Mommy or Daddy, play in the pantry, do laps around the kitchen table, and climb up on the couch and yell at people out the window (well, even if there's no one outside).

Just the other day, Tyler and Derek found a gardner snake in the kitchen. Tyler thinks it was under the kitchen table and Derek whined wanting to play with it. When he grabbed Derek to put his shoes on, they walked back through the kitchen to the garage, and there was the snake making a break for it. Tyler caught it and let it go. He kindly thought about saving it so Mindy could see it when she got home from work. What a gentleman! Needless to say, Mindy is grateful he didn't act on that thought.

Tyler continues to enjoy being scout master and is working on a physical fitness merit badge with the boys. This means he himself is going to be exercising more. His motivation?- the leaders are competing against the young men. Tyler HATES losing. And Mindy thought she was competitive. She learned quickly in their courting that Tyler wins in that arena, hands down.

Mindy ran a half marathon Labor Day weekend and then the St George Marathon on October 2. She qualified for the Boston Marathon with a 3:38:33 finishing time. Needless to say, she was ecstatic! Hours of hard core training had finally paid off. However, when she went to register for Boston, due to a computer gliche, since thousands were all trying to register at the same time, it filled up before she could get in. Major bummer, but now she's on the rebound- looking for another race, or perhaps a new hobby. Believe it or not, a race with a cap of about 25,000 filled up in 8 hours. Running is taking over the world! It's great that so many are getting off the couch, but they're in Mindy's way of fulfilling her agenda! :)

That's our latest. Enjoy the pictures!