Jack O'Lantern

The finished product!



Helping Papa Cut.



He loved getting out the seeds. He was excited that we were going to cook and eat them. :)



Ollie picked what the pumpkin would look like. He told me how to draw the eye, nose, and mouth. He really wanted the mouth to have curved teeth?!?

Ollie Quote

Ollie- (Said to Mom, right after she got done exercising) "You'd better take a shower or you will have to go in a cage at the zoo."
Mom- "Why?"
Ollie- "Because, you smell."

First Oreo

Lily's first ever oreo. You don't need teeth to eat an oreo, if you suck on it long enough it disolves. You can tell from the photos that she LOVED it!

86 Degrees

Ollie loves to get himself dressed in the morning. The other day he picked out sweat pants and a sweater. I explained to him that it was going to be warm that day (high of 86) but he didn't want to change. Even after he was hot and sweaty he still refused to change. I wonder where he gets his stubbornness from??? :)

Quick Update

Spencer and Shree- We started a 90 day challenge this week. The challenge is to get healthier. We get points for drinking enough water, proper diet, and exercise. The reward is money. Spencer wants to buy some new CD's. Shree is still trying to decide how to spend it. I guess first we have to earn it. We decided to do this mostly because Shree decided to, so Spencer had to agree. :) We've been trying to exercise and eat healthier since Lily came along (Dwarfs often have weight problems) but we just felt that we really needed to put a big focus on this so here we go. We are currently on day 3.

Ollie- Tried cleaning his room by putting everything in the closet. Mommy decided that was definitely not something to let slide. Mommy took everything back out of the closet and made him start over. The second time he did it right. :)

Lily- One year pediatrician check up: weight 14 lbs 2 oz. Height 25.5 inches. Head 43.5cm. She is going to get her kidneys rechecked by ultrasound (enlarged at birth). Needs to have her hearing checked (free- thanks to Papa). Maybe needs a speech evaluation. Still patching right eye to strengthen left eye (still a horrible time) for 1/2 day. Wearing a harness at night and naps for hips. Physical therapy from ECI twice per month with daily from Mom. Skin still using ureacin cream.

Well that's just a real quick update. The kiddos are up from their nap (Lily) and rest (Ollie).

Art

Ollie loves to do art. I'm always on the lookout for fun, easy, and cheap art projects for a pre-school age kid. I saw this one in an art book and it looked like a lot of fun. What we did was take some grape vines, put them in brown playdough, and then decorated them. Ollie had a lot of fun. He really thought we were trying to grow grape trees. I had to throw them out when he wasn't looking because I was sick of trying to explain that we made them just for the fun of decorating them and NOTHING was going to grow.



A close up of our trees. The ones in the book looked a lot cutier, but Ollie had fun cutting out the felt and decorating the tree.



Side note- We used to have a lot of fun different colors of playdough. Ollie has since mixed it all together and we now have tons of brown playdough. At first I tried to explain to him that it was more fun to have different colors but he is convinced that mixing them together is the "best way". He loves his brown playdough and hasn't asked for any more of different colors. :)

Thanks!

Dear Family and Friends,

Lily just had her first birthday. What an adventure this past year has been! It is hard to imagine that just a year ago we were unsure whether she would be able to live or not. It feels as if she has been a part of our family forever. She has greatly blessed our home.

We (especially Lily) have had a very rough year. We have felt the Lord guide us and lift us. We have had so much love and support from our wonderful family and friends. We thank you so much for your continued love, support, and prayers. We know that we have made it through these challenges with the Lord’s help every step of the way. What a loving Heavenly Father we have, to give us you. Thank you!!!

Love,
Spencer and Shreann

Lily's Birthday! (part 2)

Here is the cake eating part of Lily's birthday. Ollie helped me make the cake. We made Lily her own special cake and put pink frosting on it. (Ollie has decided that Lily's favorite color is pink.)



She loved the frosting! She didn't get into the cake much because she was too busy with the frosting. The missing chunk in the front of the cake was Ollie trying to help her get the cake part. He handed her the chunk which she dropped and then went back to the frosting. :)



I'm not sure if she was trying to smell it or if she had some on her palm that she was trying to get off. :)



What a cutie! We sure love her!!!



All in all it was a great day. :) I don't have any pictures of opening presents. It happened first thing in the morning. Ollie helped me wrap everything the night before so the second Lily woke up and we got done singing happy birthday to her he wanted to open presents. His idea of her opening presents was him putting the present in her lap and then opening it for her, while she watched. They both had fun! She got come clothes and a bunch of new toys. She has really been having fun playing with and discovering them. Happy Birthday Sis!!

Lily's Birthday! (part 1)

We have good old fashioned dial-up internet connection so it works better if I don't post more than 4 or 5 pictures at a time, but I had to share Lily's birthday so this will be a two part post. :)

Lily celebrated her first birthday on Saturday. We spent the morning at Ollie's soccer game. Lily loves to watch him play. She gets so excited everytime that she sees the ball. She would love it if she could get in and play. After her nap we went to the park for the rest of the day.




There is a fun park about two miles from our home that we decided to walk to. Spencer and I both love to be outside and our kids inherited that from us! They don't mind being in the stroller for a long while.



Lily loves to swing. Before her cast went on she didn't hold her head up and have strong enough back muscles to do much swinging. With her cast she didn't fit in the swing. So... this is a new, much loved activity. Anytime she hears the swings (chains creaking) she gets super excited. For her, this was the perfect birthday party!



This is a blurry swinging Lily but you can see her smile. :)



Lily also likes to go down the slide (especially if her favorite person, Ollie, is waiting for her at the bottom).

After the park we went home for the cake and icecream- now for part 2.

Super Hero Club

The other day Ollie got a package from the Super Hero Club. He is now officially a member of their club. He got a sword, shield, breastplate, mask, certificate, and letter. He was so happy! The package was left on our balcany (we live on the second floor) so he figured out that the super hero's left it for him by flying. The letter told him about being good and being like the hero's in the scriptures. He wants to use his sword to help other people. The mask is his favorite color (purple). His cousin, Madi, is also a super hero. He has had a lot of fun playing with his new things. Thanks Super Hero Committee!! (Grandma and Grandpa Beck, Aunt Lara and Uncle Rich)

Good Morning

Spencer is awesome at getting up on work mornings- on his days off I use our cute kids to get him out of bed. It's hard to get upset when you wake up to a smiling little face.

Jokes

One night I decided to play a joke on Ollie. I put his pajamas on upside down. I thought it would be funny to see what he did. It was super hard to get his feet into the hand holes. Then I didn't snap the leg part all the way so he had a head opening.
His reaction- He kept trying to pull his short 'sleeve' down and he wasn't very comfortable but he couldn't figure out why. He didn't say anything about the problem. He just walked down the hall trying to adjust things. Spencer and I started laughing so then Ollie knew something was going on. We managed to get a few good pictures before we changed them right side up. :)

Rambles

Funny quote- Ollie after standing on the bathroom scale, "I'm almost a man." (Age 3)

Lily quote- "Eeeeeeeee" (short for wheeee). Said while being pushed on the swing- a new occurrence for her; she didn't fit in the swing with the cast on.


Life post cast- Life is much better now. There is a night and day difference in Lily. She is so much happier. She is eating better- it probably helps that she can now sit in a high chair and feed herself. She is sleeping better- this is a huge bonus because more sleep means less awake time; this in turn means less patch time! Simple things that you don't appreciate until you don't have them: sleeping in the carseat, swings, bending, exersaucer, highchair, being able to play with toes, BATHS!!!

Whales of fun

Ollie was eating little whale crackers. He took each whale and made it swim into his mouth, with the sound effects each time. It kept him busy for about 20 minutes. He's got a great imagination. I love three year olds because everything is so real to them.

More Laundry

More uses for a laundry basket- "a wagon with no wheels". It keeps the younger child happy and the older child busy. It also wears the older child out. :)





P.S. No laundry was hurt in the taking of these photos- it was previously dumped all over Mommy's and Papa's bed.

Laundry

We used to have two laundry baskets- one for whites and one for darks. We now have "two dinosaurs in the zoo". Good thing they are in their cages!

Pancake Pigs

These are the before pictures...




These are the after pictures.
Spencer likes to make pancakes. When we got married I introduced him to the world of chocolate chip pancakes. One morning both my boys loaded up their plates with pancakes. I couldn't help but tease them and take a picture. Bon Appetite!!

Play Time

This picture was taken just a few days before Lily got her cast off. She loves to ride this little bike of Ollie's. Her legs were spread just far enough apart that she fit great on it. Ollie is way to big for it now but he still loves it. He is very kind to share his toys with his little sister. :)