Introducing the letter of the week...

The A says aaaaaaa and aye!  Can you tell which child painted each of these?

I love having a boy AND a girl!

FAQs

Baby in there? Doctor take it out?  Feed it rice?.....no!  Only MILK!  (Asked by Max 100 times per day) 

Yes, the baby is in there.  It will be out soon.  Yep, just milk!

When are you due?  

October 23rd

Just one this time?

Yep, just one (ha, ha).

How are you feeling?

Do you want the real answer, or the nicey-nice one I usually throw out because I know most people don't really care.  The real answer is that I feel like CRAP.

What are you having?

A baby

Is this your first?

Nope, my fourth (I love the jaw-dropping that comes with this one!).

Are your other kids excited?

Very.

Was this planned?

Totally

Whoa.....are you STILL pregnant?

This one gets a blank stare from me, it doesn't deserve a response!

And, my favorite.........

Why don't you come to the next ward activity and you could lay on your stomach with your arms and legs stretched out and we could play "Spin the pregnant woman" with you?

Huh?

Sandbox revisited...

Due to my lack of research, Jon got a truckload of the yuckiest, dirtiest, rockiest sand ever, which the place called "beach sand."  It just wasn't acceptable, so I insisted, and Jon was a good sport, that we get some better stuff, and this time I did my research!  We got the most awesome sand ever, it's REAL beach sand, and the kids spent hours on Saturday making castles, truck tracks, and tunnels.  So now, we have a little beach in our back yard!  These pictures are terrible, but I wanted to show how awesome the stuff is.  Come and play to see for yourselves!

Soccer season has begun!

We have an awesome team this year, love the coaches, and are super excited that Olivia gets to play with all girls!  It's a great chance to get some exercise, meet new friends, and be a part of a team!  More photos soon of her actually PLAYING! She is doing great, especially loves to play goalie, and scored an awesome goal on Saturday!

Will miracles ever cease?

They are BOTH potty trained.  I think we all need a medal!  Now we just need to convince Max that he wears underwear, not panties. Jon cringes every time he hears his boy showing someone his big-boy panties!  I don't care what he calls them, I am just thrilled that he is keeping them DRY!

Our lovely eight year old!

I could not resist sharing some of these beautiful photos that my lovely, talented friend, Kristen took of Olivia in her baptism dress.  She is so much fun and I think Kristen really captured that in these photos!

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain!

Olivia was baptized on Saturday, September 13th.  This was the absolute highlight of our week. We are all so proud of Olivia and her choice to be baptized.  She has been counting down to this big event for months, and had every aspect of it planned.  She looked beautiful, and just glowed! We can't believe she is already eight, and we are thrilled with the young lady she is becoming!

Here she is with her first set of scriptures.  After the baptism she told me, "Mom, I will never leave the house again without my scriptures!"

Grandma and Papa came all the way here to celebrate this special day with her!

Dressed in white!

The whole family looked forward to this day!  Thanks for being such a great example to your little brother and sister, Olivia.  When Molly woke up on Saturday she said, "Ya-ya get batized, and I sooooo exciting!"  

A day at the beach!

We took a drive to the beach on Friday.  Here is the whole gang eating their ice cream cones at the cheese factory!

Olivia and Jaide are such good buddies.  Olivia wants to be just like Jaide, and I LOVE it when Jaide is around to rub off on her.  They have so much fun!

Geoffy burried Molly up to her neck in sand.  She loved it, and it warmed her up!

We had a great time at the beach, and, despite the chilly wind, we did have sun, and that is a rare thing at our beach, so we played in the sand, waded in the "headache cold" water and buried ourselves to stay warm.  It's always fun to go to the beach with Crystal, Geoff, Jaide and Tage!  Thanks for coming, guys!

Our favorite hike with some favorite visitors!

We love to hike up to the Salmon River and had so much fun taking our visitors there!  We ate a yummy picnic lunch and donuts from our favorite bakery, Joe's.  Here are some highlights!

Crystal and Tage are SO MUCH FUN to have around!  They just made my whole WEEK!

We saw tons of HUGE fish jumping in the river!  It was so much fun to look for them and then jump three feet high when they popped up out of the water! I think Crystal and I had more fun with this than the kids!

Give kids a stick and some sand and they are happy for hours!  (Except when you are Molly and your brother hits you with the stick!)

Happy Birthday to ALL of my favorites!

This post is backwards, it goes from the end of the day to the beginning......bear with my computer illiteracy!  Happy Birthday to all of my sweet children!

M and M got a sandbox full of trucks and toys for their birthday.  

The back-hoe cake for Max

The cupcake cake for Molly (her request was only that it be PINK)

And, the scripture cake for O (disclaimer from Mom...what the H^@#?  Who asks for a scripture cake for their birthday? Just my big eight year old and I made a mess of it, but when she saw it she exclaimed "MOM!  It's just what I wanted!"

She LOVES Webkinz.  They were the hit of the birthday!

Washington Park for a picnic, because the zoo was out of control busy!

French toast with candles.......

Crazy as it sounds, and as terrible as my planning is, all three of my lovely children were born on the same day.  The trick for me now is to make their birthdays as unique and separate as possible, while still being celebrated in a 24 hour period!  I think we succeeded this year!  They all seemed happy from start to finish.  Here are some pictures of the festivities!

The mouths of babes.....

Jon was taking Olivia to school yesterday when she looked out the window and said,

"What the hell is that?" to something she saw on the side of the road.

Jon, taken back, said, "What did you say???"

To which she replied, "Nothing."

Later last night, O and her dad were watching Planet Earth when again she said, "What the hell is that?"  That's when Jon called me into the room.  He looked at Olivia and told her to tell me what she just said.  She looked afraid.  He said it was fine, she wouldn't get in trouble.  So, she repeated it.  Trying not to laugh, I said, "Where did you hear that?"  (thinking, please don't say me, please don't say me).  She wouldn't fess up, she just said she didn't know.  We explained to her that she could say "What the heck" but that hell is a swear word, and we should not use it.  

We cannot stop laughing about this......are we terrible???

First Day of Second Grade!

I can't believe my baby is in the second great!  She was so excited to go to school this morning, and couldn't wait to "surprise" me with what she was going to wear!  I was surprised, for sure, with the random combination, but she looked adorable and didn't stop smiling all morning!  The first thing Molly said to her this morning when she woke up was, "I miss you, Ya-Ya!"  It was so sweet.  She took the words right out of my mouth!  It was a great summer, and we will truly miss our Ya-Ya! (that's what M and M call Olivia!)