The Stirland Team

Claire's Birthday

2012-01-24T06:57:00.000-08:00

Claire turned one in December. I have no idea where the year went. I do know that it passed in wonderful bliss. Claire has been a DELIGHT to our family. We have all been smitten by her sweet teasing happy personality. She loves to give us kisses. She loves to play with us. She smiles a lot. She is such a joy. We sure love her!

So the pictures posted in a random order and I'm okay with that. Here's what happened to her on her day. We started the day by opening presents. She helped but mostly Lily and Ollie opened them. She was happy to have new toys. Then I was holding her while getting breakfast for the other two kids. She was the unfrosted cupcakes on the counter. She wanted one. I thought well, why not, you only have one birthday a year. So she got an unfrosted cupcake for breakfast. The other two came in and saw what she was eating and of course wanted one. So they got cupcakes (and cereal) for breakfast. Spencer came in and was surprised to see everyone eating cupcakes for breakfast. That night we gave her a frosted cupcake. She was not sure about getting dirty. She touched it a few times and then decided to try to eat it by leaning over. Then she actually picked it up and ate a bit. I would have to say thought that she likes it better unfrosted. :)

Ollie's Birthday

2012-01-24T05:54:00.000-08:00

Ollie had his seventh birthday last month. What a wonderful blessing he is for our family! I remember the day that he was born like it was yesterday. He didn't really even cry when he was born. When they handed him to me he just picked up his head and looked at me. He's a great kid and we love him so very much!!!

Ollie always wants different cakes. This year he wanted a cake to represent the earth and he wanted it to have layers. I thought well that's strange but that's what he got. I did a bottom layer of blue to represent the oceans and a top layer or green to represent the land. He was very happy with it!

He got a giant cardboard play house. He and Lily spent HOURS coloring it. Then they spent HOURS playing in it. It kept them very entertained! Ollie was actually with us when we bought it. When he saw it in the cart his eyes lit up! I wanted it to be a surprise so I told him it was for a sub-for-santa gift. His little face just crumbled but he didn't complain, he just said, "okay." I was so proud of him for acting so good about it so I told him that it was for him but he couldn't have it until his birthday.

He also got several books (mostly read by now) and some swimming stuff. He's been wanting new swim goggles for a while now so he was excited to get that. His sisters got him a real working compass for all his adventures.

To make the day a little more special we had the missionaries over for dinner. Over all it was a wonderful day. Ollie had fun!

Randomness

2012-01-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a selection of random pictures that show more of our everyday life. Enjoy!

Ollie is the best big brother ever! He adores his little sisters. Here he is helping Claire learn to walk- this is an old picture, she now walks everywhere.

This is a dress that was mine when I was little. My mother saved it all these years and now it's Lily's. She was super excited to wear my dress to church. :)

Claire "helping" mom with the dishes. I use the term helping very loosely. Anyone who's ever had a toddler will understand.

The girls reading books.

Ollie (number 4) at a soccer game. He played soccer this fall. He really enjoyed it. He made several goals throughout the season.

Hiking in Cameron Park. Super fun family outing!

The girls playing together. Claire loves this little bike and Lily was pushing her around the house.

Lily's finished Halloween birthday quilt. I had fun making this but it seems I always forget how long it takes. :)

Thanksgiving

2012-01-06T06:07:00.000-08:00

Here in Waco there is a tradition at Thanksgiving. The tradition is football. This year the tradition did not end well for Spencer. He got a black eye and sprained his thumb and finger. The jury is still out deciding if this will continue to be a tradition for the Stirland family. :)
But really, we did have a good Thanksgiving weekend. We spent Thanksgiving with some good friends and had fun eating and visiting. That weekend we went to a craft fair at a local farm which we enjoyed. Ollie picked a bird house to make and Lily picked to make a candle. We also enjoyed the yummy food and seeing the animals.
We also put up our Christmas decorations. This is the first year that we put them up so soon. It was fun to do it when we had a long break because it didn't feel so rushed to get it all up.

Santa Letters

2011-12-20T06:26:00.001-08:00

Dear Santa,
I love you. I want to send you a thank you note. Our Christmas tree looks so pretty. I already told you I want Barbies for Christmas. I want real Christmas icecream on Christmas day. Let's play together. I want a pink carseat. Claire also wants a matching pink carseat.
love, Lily

Dear Santa,
I've been a good man this year. This Christmas I need love, dog food for the dog, a Christmas coat, and I want a art books, lots of paper to draw on, and learning books about animals.
love, Ollie

p.s. Our Christmas tree looks pretty.
I can't wait for you to see it!

Dear Santa,
I've been a good baby this year. This Christmas I need new diapers. I want princess walkie talkies for my older brother and sister. I want a new baby doll.
love, Claire

Ollie helped Claire decide what to say. He's been learning about wants/needs in school so he differentiated between the two. He also started out his letter by saying that he was a good boy but than changed it to a good man. I love life with a seven year old!

Halloween

2011-12-19T07:11:00.000-08:00

We had lots of Halloween fun this year! We had two fun parties for the kids. Ollie got to have one with his friends and Lily got to have one with her preschool friends.

Lily sweeping a pumpkin. At Ollie's party we played a relay game race where the kids had to sweep pumpkins. It was a fun game that they all liked.

Lily playing pumpkin bowling. Another game from Ollie's party. Yes, it was Ollie's party but he was too fast and all over the place so we have pictures of Lily doing the activities and not Ollie...

Lily's preschool Halloween party. We played a beanbag game, bingo, and had yummy treats.

Raggedy Anne and Andy (aka Shreann and Spencer)

Mummy wrapping game from Ollie's party.

Ollie was a dragon this year. He knew exactly how he wanted his costume. I had a hard time finding it but he really liked it! I didn't get any pictures of him with his mask on.

Tinkerbell Lily. She got to have glitter in her hair which she LOVED!

Claire was a duck. She wasn't sure about having something on her head, hands, or feet. :)

The best picture of the three kids together. Taking pictures of all the kids together is hard work!

We made some fun food for Halloween and the parties. Here's some teeth made out of apples and almonds.

Pumpkin cupcakes

Mummy hotdogs

Pumpkin pizza

Spider crackers- made by Ollie

Pumpkin carving... Claire loved to feel it and taste it. She didn't mind getting slimy but the older two were hesitant to touch it!

The finished product- a cat pumpkin

Family Pictures

2011-12-19T06:35:00.000-08:00

A few months ago we had family pictures taken at the Waco bridge. They turned our really good! Here's a few for your viewing pleasure. :)

Ollie Quote

2011-12-15T11:19:00.000-08:00

Every night the two older kids take turns choosing which CD they will listen to as they fall asleep. Last night it was Lily's turn to pick and she choose the musical "The Fantastics". Ollie then said, "Now remember Lily how I was teaching you about consistency and moderation." It's sure wonderful that he will teach her these things and I wish him luck!
(I did explain to him that four year olds like the same thing over and over and over again.)

Lily's Birthday

2011-11-29T04:08:00.001-08:00

Lily had a fabulous fourth birthday! (over a month ago... sorry for the delay) She talked about her birthday coming up but she didn't want to know when it was because she wanted it to be a surprise. We woke her us by singing "Happy Birthday" to her. Then we let her open her presents. She was thrilled with all of them! She got some "Pinkalicious" books, a tinkerbell costume, a new quilt, some crafts, polly pockets, a new shirt, some tights, and some money. She was fun to watch open everything because she gets so excited! She wanted to wear her new shirt and tights and she had to have her hair in "pinktails". Then she headed off to preschool (which she LOVES). I made her some "pinkalicious" cupcakes for her to take to preschool to share with her friends. She was super excited about having cupcakes for the treat! After preschool we spent the afternoon playing with her new toys. After a dinner of hot dogs, which was Lily's choice, we had CHOCOLATE cupcakes and then went to Ollie's soccer game where we shared more cupcakes. Lily had a great birthday! I just can't believe that she's already four! I don't know where the time has gone. She is a delight to our family. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. She brings us great joy!

P.S. Lily is into "Pinkalicious" right now but I don't think her favorite color is actually pink. When you ask her her favorite color she will say "all of them" but from watching what she chooses to wear I would have to guess that it's yellow. She really does think that pigtails are called pinktails and I don't want to tell her otherwise. And she loves CHOCOLATE. :)

Lily Quotes

2011-09-21T07:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a few funny quotes from Lily.

This morning after giving Claire a hug- "Claire, you're a part of our family so we won't let you get in the shark pool."
I'm not quite sure where the "shark pool" is but I'd guess it has something to do with Ollie teaching Lily about sharks eating people.

Lily begging for more sweets...
L- "Pretty please?"
Mom- "No."
L- "Pretty please?"
M- "no."
L- "Handsome please?"
I laughed pretty hard but the answer was still no. :)

So Lily has this fear of slides. I think she has a hard time balancing so they scare her. I feel that once she learns how to do it she will love them so I'm always making her go down the slide. Today after going down the slide THREE times holding onto Mom's hand I got her a sucker. As I was giving her the sucker I said, "Lily, you can do hard things because you are amazing. I'm proud of you." Lily responded, "Yeah, I can do hard things so I can get suckers." Not quite what I had in mind. :)

2011-09-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

Lily gave her first talk in church a few weeks ago. She was super excited to have a turn to talk in the microphone. She did a really good job!

This watermellon was from our garden. It was super delicious. We started with many but this one was the only one that survived.

I'm sure I win the mother-of-the-year award for letting my baby put balloons in her mouth... but isn't she cute?!?

Ollie is very into drawing animals lately. Here's a picture of his jumping dolphin. I'm sure I'm biased but I think he does good for a 6 year old.

Claire is our super cute alarm clock. She gets Mom up at 6:00. Then at 7:00 she gets the other kids up. The kids get up much better when they wake up to a cute little sister. :)

Lily's first day of school

2011-09-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

Lily is doing a co-op preschool with some children from church. She was nervous about going to school at first but we had our first class at the park and had a party so she was excited about it. I love these pictures. You can almost feel her excitement! She is loving going to different friends' houses and learning about different things.

Ollie's first day of school

2011-09-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Ollie's been in school for a month now... but here's a few pictures from the first eventful day! He is at a new school but he's adjusting well. He likes his new teacher. His favorite subject is PE. This year he's started more testing and homework each night. He's growing up much too fast!

This, That, and the Other

2011-09-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a few miscellaneous pictures. Hope you enjoy!

Texas Popcorn

2011-08-04T09:15:00.000-07:00

We added a new member to our family on Father's Day weekend. It was Spencer's fathers day present that he has wanted for a long time. Ollie wanted to name her Texas and Lily wanted the middle name to be Popcorn. Ollie really enjoys her and is very good about feeding her twice each day. Spencer loves to take her for runs in the morning and it's his job to scoop the poop. Spencer and Ollie are both working hard on training her and she seems to be a fast learner. So far she has learned to sit and not jump on people. She does still get excited and jump up on small children but they are working with her. I'm not a huge animal person so she is an outside dog. I feel bad that it's been so hot out there but... I don't want dog hair all over and all our stuff chewed up. :) I do make sure she has water throughout the day.

Misc. Utah/Wyoming Trip

2011-08-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

I always have good intentions of finishing documenting our California/Utah/Wyoming trip. But then life happens... Here's a few highlights. We sure enjoyed out time on vacation!

We saw a 3-D animal documentary movie. Kids loved it! Ollie talked about it for days!

Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum- always a favorite, especially the sand/water table.

A cave full of dinosaurs!

Super scarey dinosaurs!!!

Claire's not too sure about multiple airplane rides... neither was Mom but we made it home.
The pictures are obviously out of order- we didn't fly back home in the middle of the trip. :)

We took the "train" to get downtown. When we got there we got to see Temple Square and go right up and touch the temple.

A night in the mountains complete with fire, cousins, and gnomes!

Lily swimming in Grandma Beck's little pool.

Claire and Great Grandma Barney.

The kiddos playing in the reflection pool. I must admit that everytime I see it I want to get in and play too!

The Stirland Brothers.

A tea party. Lily dressed up as tinkerbell and had faries painted on her cheeks. Ollie was the only boy and choose to have his face painted like a prince. I guess in his mind a prince has big blue eyes???

Claire and Mason. Claire is about 4 months older than Mason but they are about the same size. Claire had lots of fun pulling on him and grabbing his hair.

In Wyoming we were able to celebrate Grandma Barney's 90th birthday and Grandma Stirland's retirement.

So that's our hightlights for out trip. Just like the trip this post was fast and furious. :)

Disneyland

2011-06-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

After our wonderful days at the beach we headed over to Anaheim and Disneyland! The kids were excited because we had been talking all about it but it far surpassed their wildest dreams.

Waiting in line for "It's A Smallworld". This was the kids favorite ride! We went on it several times. The first time we went on it Lily waived at all the dolls the ENTIRE time. She was just enthralled and waived and waived and waived. It was more fun watching her than the ride!

We saw lots of princesses! Lily loved them all. Ollie was not at all interested in having his picture with princesses but he did consent to have ONE taken. He wanted a picture of him with a knight instead. :)

Lily's favorite princess to see, was Snow White. She was super nice and spent extra time talking to Lily. Lily still talks about talking with Snow White.

Claire just enjoyed being held for three days. She was great the whole time. She was very easy to take.

Eating Mickey Mouse suckers while waiting for a show.

Ollie watching a parade. Notice the nice calm unsmiling face.

Lily watching the same parade. Mouth open, hands wiggling, and whole body shaking with excitement.

Familiar friends.

Spencer and Lily on a ride.

Pull harder!!!

Ollie's feather mustache.

Lily and Mommy on the Dumbo ride.

Tired kiddos! Yes, Lily is asleep facing backwards in the stroller. :)

Disneyland was three great days!

Vacation 2011

2011-06-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

We had a super fun vacation this summer! We started out by flying to Southern California. We met my Mom, Dad, and brother, Nate, there. We spent the first night at my cousins house. Then the next day we went to Laguana Beach. We spent two days on the beach basking in the sand, surf, and sun. We all had fun just romping around and relaxing! We especially enjoyed getting to spend time with my cousin and her wonderful family!! We don't get to see them very often so it was wonderful to get to know them better.

The kids buried Uncle Nate, who was a good sport!

Papa and Claire just chillin'.

Looking at the tide pools.

Lots of playing in the water.

Lily showing some sea shells she found.

Easter Best

2011-05-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

One great thing about two little girls is matching dresses! Papa and Ollie also got new ties with matching colors.

Tornado Alert

2011-05-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

Spencer and I were watching a movie when we heard the tornado warning. We quickly turned everything off and turned on the radio. The radio warned us that a storm was coming and told us to get to shelter before the storm hit. We gathered our supplies and hauled all the kids into the bathroom. The kids slept through the whole thing. We spent an hour in the bathroom until the storm passed us. Luckily, no tornado's. Also lucky that just the day before we had practiced a tornado drill for family home evening. We knew exactly what to do! :)
During the practicing Lily kept saying, "If the tomato comes we get in the bathtub." I'm sure she's having visions of tomato's coming and knocking on the door and we all hide in the bathtub. :)

Feet Glorious Feet

2011-05-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

Feet are the perfect toy-
They are 100% washable, never get lost, and they are free

Papa

2011-05-02T13:37:00.000-07:00

There's no doubt who these children belong to.

Early Starts

2011-05-02T12:59:00.000-07:00

We believe in starting our kids out early on learning to be independent...

Claire is learning to change her own diaper...

Wash her own face...

And feed herself. :)

Fort Worth

2011-05-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

We had a pleasant trip up to Fort Worth a few weekends ago. We drove up and met our friends at the Botanical Gardens. We had a nice walk through the gardens then finished the afternoon with a wonderful picnic and some Frisbee and football. We really enjoyed visiting with the Walkers and seeing the beautiful gardens. It's always fun to spend time together!

Lily's New Bike

2011-05-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we were in Walmart shopping. We saw this pink and purple tricycle. Lily saw it and said very excitedly, "A pink bike!" I replied, "Do you want it?" Her eyes just lit up as I put it in the cart. She is still learning how to get her feet to go around in circles but she sure likes it.

A month (or two) in Review

2011-04-04T08:01:00.000-07:00

It's been over two months since I last posted. I just don't know where the time goes! Here's a few highlight of our last two months...

Everybody loves and adores Claire!

Ollie and Lily both love time to hold her.

Claire is growing like a little weed! It's probably that middle of the night feeding that's helping out.

She is a happy smiley baby! We are enjoying her immensely!

Ollie is going through a phase where he loves to take pictures. Here's his favorite toy after he dressed monkey up in Claire's clothes.

Two more pictures captured by Ollie.
The top was taken on night setting.
The bottom one is a cute one of Claire, who he loves to take pictures of.

One day Ollie did Lily's hair for her. They both had fun taking pictures of the finished product. Ollie took DOZENS of pictures of her. Lucky you, you only have to see one. :) This also show Lily in her favorite shirt which she wants to wear every day. It says, "happy sparkly day" on it. Fortunately, it gets dirty and she has to wear something else.

Ollie definitely wins best big brother of the year. At night while Papa sings "Little Bunny FueFue" (sp?) to Lily, Ollie puts the build-a-bear Tinkerbell costume on his head and dances around as the 'good fairy'.

Ollie wanted to take pictures of his rock tower. I convinced him that pictures are more interesting if they have people in them. Again, Lily is in her favorite shirt.

Ollie loves school. He's been learning all sorts of things. One day they learned about slaves. Ollie came home with TONS of questions. It was fun to explain slavery and the civil war on a six year old level. The conversation started with him saying that he learned about the underground railroad, "but it's not underground and it's not a railroad."
He loves to read and just devours books! One day after picking him up from school we stopped by the library. He did make it into the house but that's as far as he got before he had to start reading. Sometimes he doesn't even get out of the car when we get home after a library visit. I have to go out after about 30 minutes and remind him that he can come in and read his book. The rule at our house is if you can play ball inside than you can read outside. Yes, we play ball inside.

Lily loves to play outside! She loves to get dirty. One day we were working outside and she was just filthy! I couldn't resist taking a picture. The picture doesn't do justice to her dirty face that had burgers smeared all over it. Thankfully children are washable!

Lily got a cape in the mail from Grandma Beck. She loves to wear it with her crown and dance around the house. Lily is learning her alphabet and counting to 10. She loves it when I take time each day to have school with her. She especially likes it when I pack her lunch in her lunch box. One evening we built a fire and roasted marsh mellows. I cooked one nice golden brown for her. When I offered it to her she said, "I'm not eating that! It's dirty!". I was more than happy to eat it for her.

One day I walked into the kitchen, only it had transformed. It had turned into a lake! The dishwasher had broken and it was a mess. I quickly stopped the dishwasher and spent a good while cleaning up the mess. It was beyond being fixed so we bought a new one. After a week of no hot water in the kitchen and dishes by hand Spencer and Lily installed the new dishwasher, after replacing the sheet rock. We do still have to fix the warped baseboards but other than that it's good as new.

We've been hard at work in the backyard. We added a veggie garden. It took a lot of time! We spent forever getting the soil all ready. We found a worm that fascinated the kids. We are also rebuilding out deck to get it away from the house. We are hoping to avoid termite problems on the house. They can eat our deck... just not our house. :) It's been a big project that is still ongoing. I'll post pictures of the finished product. We are also fixing up our playground for the kids. Hopefully we will get everything done and it will be a nice safe place for the summer. Plan on coming swimming soon!

Sweet Papa took the kids outside and helped them build this wonderful fort. Mom and Clarie took a nap.

Claire admires her Uncle Ben. He can fit his mouth around the rim of a cup and drink the water that way. She's trying to stretch her mouth out by eating her fist. Just keep practising Claire!

Ollie and Lily decided that their snack was the left over brownies. Papa was surprised when he got home from work and all the brownies were gone.

As you can see we've been busy! Life is full and we are enjoying it! Here's to hoping it's not two more months before I post again. :)

Family Photos

2011-01-31T10:07:00.000-08:00

We tried to get some good family photos when we were all dressed up for Claire's baby blessing...

We had a lot of silly faces by Ollie

Some crying by Claire

Some not looking at the camera by Lily

More silly faces by Ollie

And finally a good one of the kids!

Three generations of girls

The best one of our family

Claire's Blessing

2011-01-26T12:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a few cute pictures of little Claire in her blessing gown. Isn't she beautiful?

Grandma Beck's Visit

2011-01-14T11:50:00.000-08:00

My Mom (Grandma Beck) came for a wonderful visit this past week. The first night she was here Lily slipped and broke her collar bone so... we spent most of the time at home. We did go to the Mayborn Museum on saturday and had a lot of fun. Grandma also took Ollie on a date which he really enjoyed. Lily had a movie date at home with Grandma which she thought was really fun. Grandma also got to see our new little Claire and our new house! She was a HUGE help in taking care of our children. I enjoyed visiting with her and catching up on all the news of happenings in Utah.
Thanks for the wonderful visit!

Grandma, Ollie, and Lily making music at the museum.

Grandma and Ollie being elves.

Grandma snoozing with Claire.

First Broken Bone...

2011-01-13T11:21:00.000-08:00

So we had the first broken bone in our little family. And the winner is. . . Lily. She and Ollie were racing into the bathroom to brush their teeth one night. As she was going from the carpet to the wood floor she slipped. She's fallen on the floor many times before but this time she landed on her shoulder and ended up breaking her collar bone. She has to wear a sling for a few weeks and she had a few rough days at the beginning. It's been a week now and she is doing much better. Poor kid. Luckily for us my Mom was here when she broke it. Between Lily needing extra care, Ollie being out of school, and Claire eating non-stop there is no way I could have done it all! Thanks for all the help mom!

Claire's First Bath

2011-01-13T11:05:00.001-08:00

Our family has a tradition that our babies first bath is given by the whole family. Ollie was easy- it was just Mom and Papa. Then when Lily was born Ollie got to join in on the first bath. Little Claire had her first bath with the whole family. There were a lot of hands all over her helping. She did very well and didn't get upset until it was time to come out of the water and get dressed again. Ollie and Lily sure love their little sister and want to help with everything. Claire is sure loved!

Transformation

2011-01-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

One day over Christmas break I sent Ollie and Lily into their room to have "rest time". That basically means that they have to play quietly in their room. After rest time they came out giggling. Ollie had decided that they would switch their clothes. I was amazed that Ollie could even fit in Lily's clothes but he managed. I laughed and took these pictures, then every rest time for the next few days they came out with switched clothes. I guess if it's funny once it must always be funny???

Christmas

2011-01-13T10:10:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas! Both kids were super excited for Santa to come. The night before we gave them new pajamas and a book. Then we acted out the nativity.

Here's a picture of Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus.

The kids loved opening their presents and stockings.

Lily loved this new dress that has a matching doll dress.

Ollie loved his nerf dart tag game.

Claire was oblivious to the whole event but she loves the bouncy chair Santa gave her.

Lily had fun crawling with her new baby that crawls.

We spent the afternoon with some friends and had a wonderful dinner with them. We enjoyed spending time together as a family!

Grandma Stirland's and Aunt Lizzy's visit

2011-01-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

Grandma Stirland and Aunt Lizzy came for a visit during the first part of December. They came to help when the baby was born... unfortunately, Claire wasn't born until after they had to go home. They did help get things ready and make some freezer meals which we greatly appreciate! We had lots of fun while they were here. We went and had lunch at school with Ollie one day. He had fun getting extra attention. We also went and saw where Spencer works and met his work friends. Lily loves to go visit Papa at work so she especially enjoyed that. We went to story time at the library. We had fun playing at home. We had a wonderful "Thanksgiving" meal. They babysat for us while we went on a date and also during a doctors appointment. We also went to Chuck E'Cheese for Ollie's birthday. He got to invite a friend. We all had a great time playing games and eating Pizza. Here's a few pictures of their wonderful visit.

Lily and Papa riding the jet ski

Ollie and Cole playing air hockey

Grandma, Aunt Lizzy, and Ollie

Dog pile on Aunt Lizzy, who was cold the whole time she was here... the day after she left it warmed back up

Thanks for the wonderful visit!

Happy Birthday Ollie!

2011-01-02T09:13:00.000-08:00

Ollie had his sixth birthday a few weeks ago. He had a fun day. He was so excited about all of his presents and his Toy Story cake. I can't believe that he is six already! How time flies. He is such a joy to our family. He is such a caring person. He loves and adores his little sisters. He and Lily are best friends. They love to play together! Ollie has a nurturing personality. He loves to take Lily and teach her things and explain things to her. He loves to learn new things and is always asking questions. We sure love our Ollie!

She here!

2010-12-16T11:19:00.000-08:00

Announcing the birth of Claire Elizabeth

We are all home and doing well. The Kids love their Claire Bear. We are happy to finally have her here.

New House

2010-11-30T11:19:00.000-08:00

Here's some pictures of our new house! We are enjoying having more room. We also love having a yard for the kiddos! We ended up painting every room in the house except for one bathroom. As we picked the colors we went with color. We have lived in places with white walls for so long that we picked lots of color. :)

This is the front of the house.

The baby's room. We painted it yellow and then did one accent wall of big squares. It turned out awesome!

The playroom... two purple walls and two blue walls. The kids picked out the colors for this room, with some guidance from mom.

Ollie's and Lily's room. Bright green walls with blue stripes at the top. They really like it. :)

The living room. Not really sure how to describe the color... I guess it's a brown but with yellow???
We painted the kitchen a light green color (a mistake) and where it meets with the living room walls it reminds me of easter. We will probably repaint at least the kitchen but it will be a while. We are all painted out! We are mostly moved in and unpacked. There are still just a few little things to unpack but mostly we are done. We also haven't hung the pictures yet. That's because of me... as we were getting the walls ready to paint I fixed tons of holes! The last people who lived here hung everything with screws and gaint nails. There were holes everywhere! I spent so much time fixing them all that I want to really know where I want to hang the pictures and not move them a dozen times which would create lots of holes. :)

We had lots of help with moving, cleaning, and painting. Thanks for all our wonderful friends who generously gave of their time to help us! We REALLY appreciate it! We are enjoying our new house. :)

Happy Halloween

2010-11-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

Our traditional carving a pumpkin.

It's always fascinating to see inside and feel all the goo.

We always let the kids each draw a pumpkin face and then we decide which parts of which drawings to use. This year our pumpkin had the eyes that Lily drew (with help) and the mouth and nose that Ollie drew.

Little miss Snow White

Scary Darth Vader (or Dark Vader as Lily called him)

Lily's Third Birthday

2010-11-02T17:54:00.000-07:00

Lily had her third birthday about two weeks ago. I've been meaning to post but... life get busy. The following is a letter that Spencer sent out to the family about Lily's birthday morning.

Today we woke Lily up to an arousing number of happy birthday. Ollie, Shreann and I
sang and watched Lily smile her approval. After that we got her out of her crib and asked her if she wanted to open her presents. She said YA!! Then she smiled and proudly told me that she gave me a present, as I picked her up I smelt what she meant.

After I changed her she ran into the living room, which my 33 week pregnant wife
decorated with balloons, streamers, and a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign. Again our efforts were rewarded with a huge smile.

She loved all of the presents. Ollie had Lily open his first. I so proud of him he spent his own money and really thought about what Lily would like. He bought her this foam play doh thing. What ever it was she really liked it. She then opened a present from Shree and I, a new hat and gloves. Next she opened a scrap book that Grandma and Grandpa Beck sent and was tickled that it was a book all about Lily.

She continued on and opened a gift from Grandma Stirland. As she took off the rapping paper she said "A baby! How did they get the baby in to the box?" She continued to open it and quickly asked me to get the baby out of that box!
While I was getting her new baby out of the box she opened another gift from her mom and dad, a Little People Nativity set. She is really in to Little People and we wanted her to have it before Christmas so she could play with it.
Last present she opened was a cowgirl dress up kit that she got from Aunt Lara, Uncle Rich and Madi. She put on the hat and worked on opening the book.
She is sure loved.
Thanks everyone!
Love,
Spencer Wm.

Here's a few pictures of the cake that evening. Lily loved that it was a mickey mouse cake. For many days before her birthday she talked all about how mom was going to make her a cake. She didn't know it was going to have mickey and friends on it so she was extra pleased.

Later in the week Lily had a birthday party with her friends and their families. As she was telling me the people that she wanted to invite she would name the child her age and then name all the other children in the family. So we decided to have a picnic birthday party at the park for her. The weather didn't cooperate so at the last minute we changed the party to our house. The kids all had fun playing while the adults visited and then we had an indoor picnic. She had a lot of fun being surrounded by people who care about her.

The kids all had fun eating the cupcakes and cookies under the table. Lily was very specific about wanting chocolate cupcakes.

Lily enjoyed opening the presents with a little bit of help from everyone. :) She sure had a GREAT birthday! We love our little Lily!

Update

2010-10-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

Water fun.

Lily chillin' in the window.

The new Minnie Mouse.

It's been a while since I posted an update....

Ollie is LOVING school. He has an awesome teacher that he just loves. He loves to draw her pictures and write her notes. She is always so happy to see the kids and they know that she wants to be there with them. He is learning to play the piano and so far enjoys that. He is very excited for the new baby to come and he says he can't wait to hold the baby. He is definately a little Texan... He didn't know what iceicles were... He also wanted to put horns on top of his lego truck.

Lily misses Ollie at school and talks all the time about being 5 and going to school. She has a little backpack that she likes to wear around the house and she calls me "teacher". She is now mostly potty trained. She still has an occasional accident but usually she does good. She loves all things Mickey Mouse. The other day she found Ollie's old training wheels and she put them by her ears and said she was Minnie Mouse.

Spencer and I are doing good. Works is going well for Spencer and he really enjoys it. I'm feeling a little more pregnant each day. We've got about 7 more weeks until we are out numbered with three kiddos. Time seems to be flying by faster than we can keep up with it all!

School Days

2010-08-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

Ollie had his first day of school on Monday! He was very excited!! He was nervous about things for a few weeks before. Every time he told me something that he was nervous about we talked about it.
The night before school started he suddenly got upset and said, "What if my teacher asks me to draw a guitar? I've never drawn a guitar before." He really thought he needed to practise drawing a guitar. Spencer and I just chuckled and then assured him that his teacher was not going to ask him to draw a guitar on the first day of school.
Monday morning we woke him up and he was just super excited! He was all ready to go and learn. We all went to the school to drop him off. Aunt Ellen was also able to come which pleased Ollie. We walked him into the school to his classroom. He just walked right in. I had to tell him to come back out because I wanted a picture in front of his classroom. Then he want back in and just smiled at me and said, "Bye" in a very cheerful voice.

Our family in front of Ollie's classroom.

Ollie with Aunt Ellen.

Ollie in front of the flag pole.

When I picked Ollie up Monday afternoon he was very disappointed. I asked him what he did at school... He told me that all they did was learn rules and they "didn't do math or anything." I think he was expecting it to be more academic. On Tuesday he liked it a little better. He told me they didn't spend as much time learning rules but he couldn't tell me what they did do???? Trying to get information out of a little boy is like pulling teeth! He does really like PE and he wishes that he could read books during their rest time. I'm sure once he makes friends he will have more fun. :)

Summer

2010-08-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Summer,
We love you! However, we are exhausted and must say goodbye. We need a little more sleep and perhaps a little less play. We had a wonderful, busy time. We will see you next year!
Love,
The Texas Stirlands

TSRHC

2010-08-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

Lily had an appointment at the Texas Scottish-Rite Hospital for Children (TSRHC) in Dallas about a week ago. Because the appointment is all the way in Dallas we try to make a day of the trip.

We got there almost two hours early. (I might be crazy but sometimes traffic is really bad.) We had lots of time to play at the wonderful park that is right across from the hospital. The hospital owns the park so it's handicap friendly. The kiddos love this park and were very excited we got there early so they could play.

Ollie and Lily on the teeter-tooter.

Ollie on the train.

Lily climbing through a tube. She is finally learning how to turn around and go backwards to get out of the tube. She had a lot of fun practising her new skill!

After a long time at the park (super hot August weather), we went over to the hospital and got all washed up. Then we ate our picnic in the cafeteria while we watched the mickey mouse blimp go up and down. Ollie specifically asked if we could sit somewhere with a good view. :)

After lunch we washed up again and then checked in. We started the appointment off with some x-rays. It was Lily's first time doing it by herself! (No pregnant women allowed) We had practised at home before so she wouldn't be too nervous about it. She did great! She held real still and did exactly what they asked her to. Not bad for an almost three year old!. After she was done she got a little stuffed snoopy dog and big brother got a book.

Then the real waiting began... Lily's doctor is very very good. As a result, the wait time is very very long. The hospital does have fun waiting rooms which REALLY helps!

While we waited the kids played with the shadow wall. They love this wall and look forward to it every time! The wall displays different images such as butterflies which will land on your shadow if you hold really still. They love it when butterflies land on their heads. They also have a fun one with marbles that you "hit" and they bounce all over. We also played their little gameboys, read books, colored, and had a snack.

We finally saw her doctor. The scoop on her hips- They are still sublexed which means not all the way in but not dislocated either. Her right hip is looking wonderful and the bones all look good. Her left side has a few more problems. Her head (top) of her femur (leg) bone is big but it is finally starting to put pressure on her hip socket. The hip socket is finally starting to harden. The decision- Nothing for now. She will eventually need to have the hip socket deepened and the head of the femur narrowed down but not until she is much older. We are so relieved! It's so hard to see your kid go through surgery and pain. We feel very blessed that she can be left alone for now! She doesn't even have to see the orthopedist for another year! That's the longest she has ever gone. I sighed a huge sigh of relief after hearing that news and Spencer was equally happy when I called and told him.

We finished off the day by getting her a bigger hip brace to sleep with at night. Then we drove home through the rush-hour traffic of Dallas. Lily was exhausted and slept. Ollie kept asking if we were out of Dallas yet because I told him that I would get him something to eat once we got out of Dallas.
All in all, it was a great day! I must admit that my kids were made for going to doctors appointments. I'm always amazed at how well they do!

Ollie's Swimming Lessons

2010-08-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

Ollie did swim lessons again this year at the YMCA. He was nervous about it but he did it! He wants to learn to swim but he gets very nervous swimming on his own. Last summer I had to drag him out of the house to get him to go. This summer he enjoyed it much more. He is getting braver the older he gets. By the end of the two weeks he could swim SO SO SO SO much better! We are proud of him for conquering his fears!

Here he is doing his "ice cream scoop" arm with his face in.

Looking slightly nervous while waiting for his next turn.

Floating on his back by himself!

Good Job Ollie!

Help Mom!

2010-08-05T08:10:00.000-07:00

Lily was playing in the living room with her little people house. She decided to sit on it. She was able to climb up on it but then her short leg couldn't reach and she got stuck. I was in the other room and heard her yell, "Help Mom! I'm stuck!" She was starting to get upset so I pulled out the camera and she decided to smile instead. Funny how kids do that.

Bear Lake

2010-08-05T06:25:00.000-07:00

The last part of our Utah trip... We took a trip up to Bear Lake and stayed in a cabin. It was super fun to have a few days away with my parents and most of my siblings. We missed having Spencer with us! He had to get back to work.

While at bear lake we went to the minnitonka cave and spent another day at the beach. We also enjoyed games and movies at the cabin, plus some nice relaxing time. :)

Waiting outside Minnitonka cave for the tour to begin. Thanks Uncle Nate for carrying Lily for me!!!

Inside the cave.

A view of the lake from our cabin.

Allora with the inflatable dolphin. The kids took good care of this dolphin. They fed it, gave it water, and even gave it baths!

Lily throwing sand. Lily loved just sitting on the beach throwing sand. She sat and threw sand for almost two hours! She was okay with walking in the water but she did NOT want to go in the raft.

Ollie, Jonas, and Ezzie playing in the sand.

Ollie, trying very diligently to get the raft out on the lake.

Dinosaur Museum

2010-08-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

At Thanksgiving Point there is a very cool Dinosaur Museum. Our kids love to go there. They have several hand-on exhibits that they really enjoy. We always go home happy (and dirty). :)

Ollie and Papa had fun building this dinosaur!

Ollie playing with dinosaurs at the sand/water table. What kid doesn't like sand and water???

Ollie and Lily digging for dinosaur bones. They found some!

Grandma Beck, Lily, and Ollie in front of a shark.

Lily crawling out of a cave.

Abby and Sam

2010-07-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

We had fun playing with our Stirland cousins!

Playing in the sandbox.

Dinner at the kids table.

Swimming in the pool!

Funny sidenote: Lily didn't really remember most of the cousins or Aunts and Uncles. We talk about them so their names were familiar but not their faces. Spencer looks a lot like his oldest brother and for the first little while Lily would get them mixed up. She kept going up to Uncle Danny and wanted him and called him Papa a few times. After a while she realized and then she would look more carefully. :)

Princesses

2010-07-29T09:46:00.000-07:00

Look at all those princesses! What fun for Lily to have so many little girl cousins!

Fourth of July

2010-07-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun on the fourth of July. Since it was on a Sunday we celebrated Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. What a treat to have three days!

Saturday we went to Riverton park. Ollie and Lily choose to go on a car driving ride. They were both very happy to go on a ride. Lily really thought she was driving and threw a FIT (hello, two year old) when the ride was over. Then we settled down, ate some yummy snacks, and watched the fireworks.

Sunday, we went over to my cousins house and had a party for Uncle Denny. Most of my extended family was there and it was really good to see them all! (Above) All the kids were excited for the pinata and waited in line for their turn. (Below) Lily taking her turn to hit the pinata. (We were busy chating with people and didn't get a picture of Ollie in time. Oops!)

Monday, we started out the day swimming at the pool. Then we went over to the lake. We loved using the canoes. The kids were thrilled to be out on the water. Check out the mountains in the background of the picture!

After canoeing we went back to my parents house and had dinner. After it got dark we got out the sparklers and fireworks. Lily was fascinated with the sparklers and kept wanting more. Ollie was a bit more cautious. He did a few but then he just wanted to watch.

We had very happy kids that night!

Mason's Birthday Party

2010-07-26T10:17:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed being able to go to cousin Mason's first birthday party! What a cute kid! We don't usually get to go to birthday parties to we were especially glad to be there.

Ollie enjoying the party noise makers.

Lily chillin with Grandpa Beck.

Mason wasn't sure what to make of all the people and attention. What a cute kid!

Mountains

2010-07-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights every year is going to the mountains.

The kids love finding gnomes! Here's Ollie looking at a gnome house. He especially liked the little gnome toilet.

Here's Lily finding a gnome cookie on a tree. She thought it was neat to find cookies on trees!

We love building a fire and roasting hot dogs and making s'mores.

Ollie loved the hiking! He just kept wanting to take off and go explore. Grandpa was kind enough to keep an eye on him!

Lily loved throwing rocks into the river. She sat for over an hour and threw rocks. Everytime she threw one in she got so excited. Papa was nice and patient and kept finding her more rocks. We love the mountains!

Aunt Lizzy's Wedding

2010-07-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

We had a GREAT trip to Utah! We spent a wonderful 2 1/2 weeks playing with our families. Here's some pictures of the highlights of our trip (and when I had our camera). :)

Aunt Lizzy and Uncle Don.

Aunt Lizzy's brothers singing her and Don a song at the reception.

Lily not wanting to be held down by Ollie for a picture.

Lily happy to have a picture by herself.

More Aunt Lizzy and Uncle Don. We are very happy for them!

Stockings

2010-06-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

So, a while back I had a post about how I made some Christmas stockings for my family. I had a lot of comments about making five instead of four.... Well, we are happy to let you know that we will be needing the fifth stocking. We are expecting another little Stirland to join our family the first part of December. Just in time to use the stocking! We are very excited!

Sea World

2010-06-02T10:22:00.000-07:00

For the three day Memorial Day weekend we went down to San Antonio. We decided to just go to Sea World. We had a great time! We had been to the regular park before but we had never been to the water park. We spent one day at the regular park and one day at the water park. Both areas are so big that we easily spent one day at each.
Here's a quote from Ollie, "I liked both days of Sea World and I liked all of it too. My most favorite part was feeding the dolphins and watching them."

Lily loved the stuffed penguins. She got really excited and ran up to them and said "hi".

Happy girl.

Ollie and Lily earned money by doing extra chores around the house. They managed to save $14 over a month. They really wanted to save up and buy some cotton candy. Here's them enjoying the fruit of their labors.

Here's Papa touching the dolphins. Ollie didn't want to touch them. Lily really wanted to touch them but her arms are too short. She just couldn't reach. We all enjoyed throwing them some fish and watching them swim.

Garden

2010-05-27T14:38:00.000-07:00

So you always hear "grow a garden". This is the first year in several years where we have been in one place for a whole summer. So... I tried to grow a garden. We are just renting so I tried to do it in planters. Basically- not worth the effort or money. Maybe it would be different if it was in the ground??? I did get three little cherry tomatos and I think I will get a few more before it gets too hot.

Ollie's Preschool Graduation

2010-05-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

Ollie had a GREAT preschool year! He loved every minute of it. He made great friends. He had great teachers. For the graduation everyone got an award. Ollie got the "Curious George" award. Very fitting! We were very PLEASED with the program!!!

Time Flies

2010-05-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

Time sure has been flying by! Here's a few pictures of the kiddos from the past month.

Lily likes to try on Papa's shoes. She can't really walk in them but she likes to put them on and stand up in them.

One day the kids were playing with the sidewalk chalk. They discovered that if you rub it on the ground and then get it slightly wet, you can then rub your hands in the wet chalk and transfer the results to your hair. It leaves simply beautiful colors in your hair.

Ollie loves to eat asparagus.

Lily takes her hair out every day that I do it. I have a limit on how much I can handle redoing her hair. As a result, most of the time her hair looks undone. For those that see her often... just know that in the morning, her hair looks like this. I do at least comb it every day. :)

We've played lots of dress-ups lately. One day Ollie tied a shoelace around his waist and Lily's wrist. Lily then got to follow Ollie all around the house. She was a good sport about it for a while but then she wanted to be on her own.

Ollie and Lily playing in the swimming pool the Easter Bunny brought them.

Dieing Easter eggs. Lily was very interested in the process. She especially enjoyed stirring them.

Lily and her friend Kenny. These two really like to play together. He was really interested in her bow.

A cute picture of the kids taken by a friend.

Jaguars

2010-04-06T12:10:00.000-07:00

Last night for family home evening, Ollie wanted to give the lesson (just like always). We usually have a repeat of whatever he learned in primary that week but this time he had something different planned.
He brought out a picture of Jesus and the scriptures. He then told us that we were going to learn all the stories of Jesus and Papa was going to read us the Book of Luke. Mom (looking at the clock) quickly vetoed that idea and limited it to one story. So we then asked Ollie what story he wanted to hear. He thought for a minute and then said, "The one where Jesus saves the Jaguar." We off course, were stumped. We then realized that he was thinking of a leopard- which means the story of the Lepers. We had a good laugh about that. Then Papa explained that lepers are people, not wild animals. :)
After the story, Ollie wanted Papa to read the back of the picture of Jesus that he had picked. The back was mostly about the artist who had painted the picture. Ollie had thought it was going to be about Jesus. I could tell by the look on his face, as Spencer read the words, that Ollie was crushed. So we then went and picked two pictures out of the gospel art kit and Papa read those to us.
I'm glad that my little boy loves to talk about Jesus and teach us what he is learning. Even if it is about jaguars.

Ollie

2010-03-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

Ollie just got a new bunk bed (thank you Uncle Sam for the tax return). He's been sleeping in his firetruck toddler bed for about three years now. He was getting too big for it. He is super excited to have a bunk bed. For now, he is sleeping on the bottom. He is a crazy sleeper and has already fallen out of bed once. We have been encouraging him to sleep towards the back part of the bed. One night I went in to cover him up and he was curled up in a ball almost against the wall. Very cute.

Ollie has also finished his reading lesson book. It took him about six months so it was a big accomplishment for him. To reward him he wanted to have a tea party. He wanted to invite all of his girl friends over. (He was worried about inviting the boys because he thought they might not like to have a tea party.) He had a GREAT time. He helped me plan the menu and fix all the food. He helped me vacuum and sweep the floors. He planned all the games we played. We talked all about being a 'host' before the party. He helped with everything. It was truly his party. After the party he cleared the table and washed the tea set. He's growing up! Here's a picture of the kids playing one of the balloon games and another picture of them eating their lunch and having tea (hot chocolate).

Lily

2010-03-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

Lily got some new hats. She LOVES them. She has several different colors but pink is her favorite. She also has some flowers to go with them. She has decided that she doesn't really like the flowers on the hat. I took this picture really quick before she managed to pull the flower off.

She loves to look "pretty". Today I asked her if she wanted to wear a dress and she wanted to wear a "pink dress". She then went into my room and looked in the full length mirror and told herself how pretty she looked. She loves this pink tutu. She would wear it all the time if I let her.

She loves to try to tell jokes. She tries to tell us knock-knock jokes (because Ollie does). She never gets them quite right. Her favorite right now is
Lily- knock knock
Mom, Papa, or Ollie- Whose there?
Lily- Mooooo
Then she laughs hysterically and says "I'm a joke!" We just laugh and say "Yes, you are a joke."
Her other favorite joke... I like to wisper in my children's ears, "I love you." It makes them smile. Ollie used to always then whisper in my ear, "I love you." Lily, however, always whispers in my ear, "I love Ollie." My job is then to tickle her and say, "You're such a teaser." She loves this little joke.

Our most exciting news for Lily is (drum roll please)... she walks! She walks very well. She wears a special shoe on her left foot to help balance her out. She loves having more freedom. This is a picture of the first built up shoe she had. A cute pair of green crocs. I know it's kind of strange to have a picture of a shoe on a blog but for all the far away family members and friends, I thought you might like to see this. :)

Kiddo Quotes

2010-03-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

Here's a funny quote from each kiddo

Lily- (said very joyously, while pointing at a fly) "Look Mom, there's a bird in our house!" She was very excited to have a "bird" in the house!

Ollie- (after talking briefly to my Mom on the phone)
Me- "What did Grandma want?"
Ollie- "She said she'd call back in a minute and then she said, 'If you'd like to make a call please hang up and try again.'" He really thought that Grandma was telling him to hang up the phone and try again. :)

We have a READER!!

2010-03-01T12:13:00.000-08:00

Ollie has joined the world of readers! Back in August I decided that Ollie was ready to learn to read. I asked several friends for recommendations of reading programs. I picked a book called "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox, and Elaine Bruner. I picked it because it was only one book that I had to buy, it had great reviews, and it was easy to follow. I loved this program because it told ME exactly what to do to teach him to read.

Ollie just finished the book last Friday. I am so PROUD of him. He has worked so hard. He can really read now! We had many battles about it along the way (he gets his stubbornness from me) but now we get to read "real" books. I'm still planning on reading with him everyday but we are going to transition over to picture books now. He is very excited about it! He keeps saying, "Reading opens up a whole new world."

After six months of lessons I let him pick a reward. I gave him several options: 1- Chuck E'Cheese as a family 2- Take a friend out for ice cream 3- Take a friend to the museum 4- Tea Party with friends. He picked a tea party with friends. He then proceeded to tell me all the friends he was going to invite... needless to say, he has many friends and he wanted all of them. We came to a nice conclusion... we will have the party on a school day (to exclude school age friends) and we will keep the guests list to girls and have another party later for the boys. He then told me how to decorate the house and all the food I need to fix. He's got the whole thing planned out in his mind. Hopefully, I can get the plans close to what he wants. :)

Mom's Snowman

2010-03-01T11:59:00.000-08:00

About a week ago, we got snow. Real snow. It was enough snow to completely cover the grass. It was awesome. I was way excited about it. I dressed the kids up real warm and outside we went. Lily promptly sat down... got all wet... and screamed and screamed and screamed. Ollie complained that his mittens didn't keep his hands warm enough and didn't want to take his hands out of his pockets (except for one very well aimed snowball directed at mom). Being the good mother that I am, what did I do... Told the children that we were NOT going back into the house until I had built a snowman. Amid the screaming and complaining I quickly built a little snowman. Then we went inside and the kiddos got a warm bath. My children are definitely Texans!

Here's a picture of Ollie standing by my quickly built, lopsided snowman. :)

Captain Awesome

2010-01-31T18:25:00.000-08:00

Spencer is a great dad and husband! When Ollie was just little he decided he wanted the kids to call him Papa but I'm trying to change it to Captain Awesome! The kids just adore him and so do I! What would be a better name than Captain Awesome? :)

Lily loves to walk under our legs and pretend she's going under a bridge. She really wanted Captain Awesome (C.A.) to go under HER bridge. I was lucky enough to get a picture. C.A.'s head is all that fit. :)

Captain Awesome does the dishes, almost every night. And he cleans bathrooms like you wouldn't believe! Here is C.A. doing the nightly dishes with both children. You can't see Ollie but he is there.

Thanks Captain Awesome!!

Homemade Ice Cream

2010-01-31T18:11:00.000-08:00

Growing up my family made homemade ice cream all the time--- in the winter. I know that most families eat ice cream in the summer (we did that too) but we made the wonderful stuff in the winter. We did this because we had an unlimited supply of SNOW which works better to freeze the ice cream than ice does. We learned from a young age that ice cream is the best dessert, especially when my brother Nate dishes it up into HUGE bowls. YUM!
A few weekends ago we decided it was time to bring out our ice cream maker and make the good homemade kind. The kids were fascinated by the process. We had to use regular ice but it turned out very delicious. We all enjoyed it immensely!! Here's a few pictures of the kids with ice cream mustaches.

My Project

2010-01-08T08:49:00.000-08:00

My Mom is very crafty. Growing up I always saw her sewing, painting, scrapbooking, etc.... She had four daughters. For some strange reason, most of her crafty abilities went to one daughter. I am NOT that daughter. (And no offense to my other two sisters who are also not that daughter.)

When I was young my mom had me join 4-H to try to learn to sew. I did learn some things. I had to sew a project to enter in the county fair. My mom really wanted me to make a pair of pants... PINK pants. I did. I won the blue ribbon for them. However, I HATED them. I made them simply because Mom wanted me to. Then the real horror started. She wanted me to wear them to school- in front of my friends. I did not want to wear pink pants but Mom was so proud that I had won a blue ribbon for making them. Finally, after much wearing down, I wore them. Once. Then they sat in the bottom of my drawer. After that, I begged to stop 4-H. Thus ended my short sewing career.

Over the years I will occasionally sew something. I once tried to make something with a zipper. Disaster. So now I know that my sewing needs to be things that have no zippers or buttonholes. (I've never tried a button hole but it looks hard.)

A few weeks ago, I thought it would be fun to make matching Christmas stockings and Christmas tree skirt. But who really has time to do that in December, so I waited until after Christmas. That is also when the fabric went on sale. Here's the finished product...

They turned out beautifully. I debated about using traditional colors or different colors. I even had my dear husband come to the fabric store with me to help me pick out the fabric. (He was a good sport about that.) We picked out less traditional browns and blues. After much sewing and figuring things out we now have five matching stockings and a tree skirt. (Notice, the tree skirt has ties, and NO buttons).

P.S. Dear Mom, No offense about the sewing jokes... The sewing lessons did help. I knew how to thread the bobbin and the machine and all sorts of little things that helped. It would have worked if I hadn't learned to clip the seams on the curves. :)

P.S.S. Five Stockings... not an announcement. Only a dream at this point.

Reading AKA Sleeping

2010-01-06T13:40:00.000-08:00

Spencer has been working on reading a Luois L'Amour book for a while now. Every time he starts to read it he falls asleep. I think it's funny so I take pictures. :) He had the one book for so long that he checked it back in and had me get the same book from a different library. One night he even read out on the couch (hoping it would keep him awake) which means that he slept on the couch.

Glasses

2010-01-06T13:31:00.000-08:00

Trying to keep a two year old's glasses clean is trying. I clean her glasses at least two times each day. Needless to say, I did clean her classes after this picture. There was one little spot that she could still see out of. :)

TWO Little Ballerina's

2010-01-06T13:11:00.000-08:00

So we have one boy and one girl child. But we have TWO little ballerina's. This is definite blackmail someday for poor Ollie. (It was Ollie's idea to both dress up in tutu's.)

Christmas Morning

2010-01-06T12:46:00.000-08:00

So our kids slept in until their normal waking time (7:30), which was really good because Santa spent several hours at our house putting together a play kitchen. We all got what we wanted from Santa. The kids were very excited about the play kitchen. Santa had put it all together and left it in front of our tree.

I went into the living room first so I could take a picture of their faces when they saw the kitchen... here's that picture.

The kids played with the kitchen for a while and didn't realize that there were presents behind the kitchen. We moved the kitchen and they continued on.

Ollie got some wonderpet stuffed animals to add to his collection. Lily (no cute pictures of her) got some baby toys/accessories for Ava (her doll).

After the presents were all opened Spencer made us a Christmas Morning Feast. We then spent the rest of the day in our PJ's playing with our new things. All in all a great day!

Santa's Reply

2009-12-23T07:31:00.000-08:00

Dear Ollie,

Thank you for your letter today. We are all up here at the North Pole working really hard to get all the toys ready for all the boys and girls. I have sent some of the elves out to check up on the boys and girls to see who is naughty or nice. I believe Elmer has been down in your area of Texas. He is a very nice elf and sometimes leaves treats in the shoes of the children who are EXTRA good that day. Not all the elves do that you know, so you are lucky to have Elmer as your special elf. Now Ollie and Lily, I know you are good children. Try extra, EXTRA hard to obey your parents and do what they ask you to do very quickly and cheerfully. That will help them so much. You know, this is an important time of year because it is the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. That is really what Christmas is all about. It is very important that you try to do what Jesus would want you to do when your parents ask you to do something. They
are very smart and wise parents and they love you so much. They want you to be happy so that is why they try to teach you to be good. Santa also wants you to be happy and good. I hope that during this Christmas Season you will think about Jesus a lot and think about how he lived his life when he was a little boy just like you Ollie. Take good care of Lily and watch over her and help her to be good. You are the big brother so it is very important that you show her how to be happy and how to follow Jesus.

Ollie and Lily, can I just give you a suggestion? I really like cookies and milk when I am out on Christmas Eve, and the reindeer like carrots or berries especially. They need healthy food so they can fly well.

Have a Jolly, Merry Christmas Ollie and Lily!

Love,
Santa

Hooray for Grandparents who are willing to be Santa!

Ollie's Christmas Letter

2009-12-21T14:41:00.000-08:00

Ollie composed a very sweet letter to Santa. Here's what he wanted to say. Because his mom didn't take the initiative to send an actual letter it was sent via e-mail.

Dear Santa,

This is Ollie. Lily and I want a play kitchen and Spencer wants pants. Mom wants a rice cooker.

Love, Ollie

And that's the end

Texas Winter

2009-12-15T10:37:00.001-08:00

Yesterday the kids and I walked to the post office to mail some Christmas presents. I wore FLIP FLOPS. We had a great walk. Today, it's windy and COLD. Crazy Texas Weather. We did love the warm day. :)

San Antonio

2009-12-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

We have some friends in Lubbock who take all of their children on a special trip for their fifth birthday. We thought it was a great tradition so we've decided to do that in our family. Ollie is our first five year old so Spencer and I took him to San Antonio for his birthday. (Grandma Beck came from Utah to stay with Lily.)

Friday we drove down. We stayed in a hotel by the Riverwalk. We strolled along the Riverwalk and had dinner in a Mexican restaurant because Ollie said he wanted Mexican food. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and watched some TV. Then we went to bed. All of us in the same bed... Ollie ended up sleeping snuggled right up next to me. He thought it was fun to all sleep in the same bed. I thought he was much to wiggly to do it again anytime soon. :)

The next morning we dressed warm and headed off to Sea World. Ollie was super excited. Here's Ollie and Mom outside the entrance.

Ollie wanted to feed the dolphins first. They were hungry and playful. Ollie was very brave and fed them fish and he also touched them. One of the dolphins splashed Mom and Ollie and got them all wet. Later, on the drive home, Ollie just randomly said, "What do eyeballs taste like?" Spencer and I were a bit mystified as to what sparked the question, and we told him that we don't eat eyeballs. He replied that dolphins do. We explained that dolphins eat the whole fish and we only eat the meat part of the fish. He's a very observant kid.

Here's Ollie with a shark in the background.

Ollie's first roller coaster ride-- the shamu ride at Sea World. This picture is actually the second time he went on it. The first time he went with Mom and she taught him how to wave his arms in the air and scream. He thought it was a lot of fun. The ride are crowded in the summer but not in the winter. We were able to go on the rides as much as we wanted. They have this one ride where you sit on a boat type thing and go on a rapids ride. We did this ride twice. The first time we didn't get that wet so we decided to go again. The second time Spencer and Ollie got soaked. Ollie was wearing warm up pants so he just brushed the water off. Spencer, however, got soaked and very cold. Luckily it was towards the end of the day. Plus it was a fun ride. I went on the roller coasters (by myself). They have one called "The Great White Shark" that was really fun!

We were able to see the Shamu show twice. The second time Ollie and Spencer sat really close (not much splashing in the winter). I sat back a few rows because I did NOT want to get at all wet. Spencer and Ollie sat right next to the area where the whale comes. During the preshow they got to sing into a microphone and be on the TV screen. They also got to see Shamu close up. In this picture you can see the whale and in the bottom left corner you can see Spencer's bald head and the back of Ollie's head.

Here's a picture of all of us with a Christmas dolphin. Ollie had a lot of fun.

Saving a Kitty

2009-12-10T09:05:00.001-08:00

Here's a picture of Officer Ollie getting a kiss from Grandma after rescuing her kitty from a tree. Ollie loves his new police uniform but he doesn't want to handcuff anyone He's the kind of policeman that rescues animals. :)

Ollie's 5!!!

2009-12-10T08:38:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Ollie! We started out the day singing "Happy Birthday" to wake you up. You were very excited to see the kitchen decorated and especially the star balloons that Papa got you. You opened up your presents first thing before Papa went to work. You got the handcuffs that you really wanted. You also got some money and... tickets to Sea World. Mom and Papa decided to take a special trip to San Antonio with just you. You were not really too happy about the whole idea because Grandma Beck was going to be staying here with Lily. We finally convinced you that Grandma couldn't come because she didn't have a ticket and then you wanted to go. :) We played with your new toys during the morning while Papa was at work. Papa took off a half day and was home in time for lunch and cake. Every year I let you pick what kind of cake you want and this year you decided that you wanted a wedding cake. I questioned you several times in the days before your birthday to make sure that you really wanted a "wedding cake" and you really did. You described that you wanted a cake that had three different layers and they all had to be different sizes. I'm not quite sure why you wanted a wedding cake but I did my best. It turned out kind of lopsided but you loved it. You wanted a candle in each color so you ended up with six candles instead of five. You also really wanted your ice cream in a cone. Funny kid. :) After cake and ice cream we drove to San Antonio!

Funny things about Ollie- He is really interested in growing up, getting married (he still thinks that he wants to marry Lily), and having children. Maybe that's why he wanted a wedding cake. He loves to draw and color. He loves to have his own supply of crayons, markers, pencils, scissors, and glue. He is always creating. He never stop talking while at home (and I mean NEVER). He still loves to help his Mom. He loves to spend hours setting up a scene for us to play. Once he has spent all that time setting it up he usually only wants to play it for a minute and then wants to move on and set up something else. He is increbibly bright and really seams to excell at math. He loves stuffed animals (and has way too many). He wants to learn to tie his shoes. His favorite food is strawberries. His favorite day is Sunday because we get to go to church and he gets to pick where everyone sits for dinner that night. He loves to learn about animals. He really wants a dog someday. He brings his Mom, Dad, and Sister much joy and delight.

Happy Birthday Ollie! We sure love you and are so glad to have you as part of our family.

Christmas Tree

2009-12-09T13:05:00.000-08:00

My Mom was able to come out for Ollie's birthday. The day before his birthday we set up our Christmas tree (a new full size one, thanks Mom!). We also had a nice turkey dinner with all the trimmings. We had a lot of fun and were so glad that Grandma was able to be here with us! We've also learned that having a third person helping keeps things more orderly and less likely to break.

Ollie is old enough that he understands Christmas and Santa. He's very excited about getting some presents. Lily has no idea why we put a tree in our living room but she had fun hanging candy canes on it. She also wants to sleep under it. Two year olds just take everything in stride and nothing is odd for them. I'm pretty sure that she will be excited to get some presents from Santa.

Here's a finished picture. Yes, I know the ornaments are all clustered in spots and no, I'm not going to fix it.

Reading

2009-12-09T12:58:00.001-08:00

Ollie and Lily just love books. All day long they bring me books to read to them. Another thing they really love is to snuggle in bed with me in the morning and read books. Ollie has been learning to read and will now occasionally read to Lily. Here's a super cute picture of them reading together.

Yarn

2009-12-09T12:46:00.000-08:00

For some reason, my children love yarn. They are always using it for different things. Ollie just loves to use it to tie things together. He really enjoys tying knots. Lily loves to put it all over her and get tangled up in it. It's also great for pretending to be kitty's and trying to get the yarn from each other. One day I asked Ollie to clean up all the little HEB balls from my room back into his room. After about 15 minutes, I hadn't seen him come out of my room once so I figured I'd better check on him. Instead of just carrying them and making several trips he had attached them all to a piece of yarn so he could drag them behind him and only make one trip. I thought it was a great idea but it did take him much longer than it would have to just make several trips carrying them. Very inventive kiddo.

Thankful

2009-12-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

Today I am so thankful to NOT be in Dallas with Lily getting her cast changed. What a huge blessing for our family! Instead, I spent the morning with Ollie at preschool and I plan on spending the afternoon playing with two cute kiddos. :)

Halloween

2009-11-10T11:27:00.001-08:00

Ollie was Buzz Lightyear and Lily was a girafee. We had a lot of fun at the ward trunk or treat. We also went door to door this year. We have always just done the ward trunk or treat but this year Ollie informed us that he really wanted to go "door to door".
After a while Ollie got tired of carrying his pumpkin bucket and wanted me to carry it. Lily, on the other hand, held onto the bucket for dear life. I offered to carry it for her but she did NOT want me to. She is a sugar baby and was very interested in the candy. Ollie was more interested in knocking and yelling "trick or treat".

Blackmail

2009-11-10T11:18:00.000-08:00

One day we will be able to use this photo to blackmail Ollie. He loves this little shirt that is Lily's. One day he managed to squeeze himself into it. Crazy kid!

New Glasses

2009-11-10T11:07:00.000-08:00

When we went up to Dallas for Lily's surgery (thankfully cancelled), she also saw her eye doctor. These glasses are the result. Now she wears a contact in the left eye and then glasses to fine tune her vision. When we took her to get the glasses she was happy to try on a few pairs for us. We were concerned about her keeping them on so we paid extra and had them cut off the ear pieces and put these special ear pieces on. The next day I went to pick the glasses up. I put them on her for the drive home. By the time we made it to the second light she had figured out how to get them off. She definitately doesn't like her new glasses. There's nothing like trying to keep glasses on an active two year old. On the plus side- her glasses bug her more than her patch so she doesn't bother her patch as much.

Lily

2009-10-27T08:29:00.001-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,

We wanted to share our story about a miracle. As you know, Lily was scheduled for surgery that was to take place today. She was born with her hip dislocated and they decided six months ago to do surgery to try to put the hip back in place. The surgery was going to be followed by 12 weeks in a cast that would make her unable to move much. The surgery was scheduled back in July and we have been dreading what was to come.

Yesterday we went to the hospital for the admission process. The first step in the process was to take an x-ray. After the doctor viewed the x-ray he wanted to see us right away. Through a miracle, the ball part of her bone is lined up with where it should be. The doctor hopes that as it grows and gets bigger it will fill up the hip socket and be okay. For now, she doesn’t need the surgery! What a blessing for our family.

As we have prayed and given thanks for this blessing we have felt that it comes to us, in large part, through your fasting and prayers on our behalf. We thank you so much! The Lord loves you and continues to hear your prayers. Thank you for taking part in this miracle with us. We have felt your love and prayers!

Much Love,
Spencer and Shreann

2009-10-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,
Thanks for taking a minute to check out our blog. We need your help.

When Lily was born, both of her hips were dislocated. For the first three months she was in a harness all day and night. After three months they decreased the time that she had to be in it to just naps and nighttime.

When she was six months old we found out that it had worked for her right hip but not for her left hip. The next step was to do surgery and try to put the left hip back in place. So, when she was seven months old she had the surgery. After surgery they had to put her in a spica cast to hold her hips still and give the bones a chance to form. She was in the cast for 4 months and got it off right before her first birthday.

Three months later we found out that her hip was dislocated again. They decided to wait for her bones to get harder before they did surgery again. On October 27th, Lily will have surgery again to try to fix her hips. They will do basically the same procedure but they will do the surgery from a different angle to try to make it work better. This surgery will be more invasive and she will have the spica cast again.

We would like to invite you to join us in a special fast for Lily. We believe that fasting and prayers are more effective than prayer alone. We will be fasting for her on Sunday October 25th. Please pray for her little spirit to have some understanding of why this is happening. Pray that her doctors will be guided and inspired on the best way to help her. Pray that her doctors will know how much she is loved. Pray that we will have the strength as a family to make it through the next several months.

We know that your love, fasting, and prayers will help to sustain us through this difficult time. We love you.

Happy Birthday Lily!

2009-10-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

Happy 2 years baby girl! We sure had a fun day. We started off the day singing to Lily. She was delighted to have her whole family there singing to her. She especially liked the party blowers. She wanted us to sing happy birthday to her over and over again. Then we opened her presents. Ollie helped her open them and showed her how to play with them. Her favorite gift was the plastic wonderpet figures that Ollie gave to her. She knows all the wonderpet songs and had fun making them dance and sing. After playing with her new toys we went to the zoo. It's our first time going to this zoo and both children had lots of fun. Lily's favorite thing to see was the lions. The lions were laying right up by the window so you could see them very well. Ollie's favorite animal was the squirrel monkey. They both had fun playing on the playground and Lily went down the slide by herself for the first time. We finished off the day with cake and icecream. What a fun celebration for our little girl.

Things we love about Lily:
Papa- "I love that Lily always makes me laugh. I love that she likes to sing so much. I love her determination. I love that she always tells me 'good job, papa.'"
Ollie- "I like that she always makes me giggle and she makes me giggle by sitting on my belly. I like it when she plays with me. She is good at giving me hugs and kisses."
Mom- "I love to hear her talk and sing. I love that she loves to practice walking. I love racing her while crawling. I love that she likes to hide under the kitchen sink."

Here's a conversations we just had that tells more about Lily.
Mom- "Lily, what's your favorite toy?"
Lily- "My green toy." (I'm not sure what toy is the green toy, especially since she doesn't know her colors yet.)
Mom- "What's your favorite color?"
Lily- "Green."
Papa- "What's your favorite food?"
Lily- "Cheerios."
Mom- "What's your favorite song?"
Lily- "Happy Birthday."
Mom- "Lily, how old are you?"
Lily- "One."
Ollie- "Lily, say two."
Lily- "Two."
Papa- "Whose your favorite friend?"
Lily- "Ollie."

Indians

2009-10-08T11:10:00.000-07:00

For Family Home Evening each week we rotate who does which part. Last week it was Ollie's turn to do the activity. He really wanted to play Indians, so we made head-dresses. Here's a picture that we tried to take ourselves. It took several tries to get all of us in the picture (and Spencer's hat still got cut off). :)

The Ginos Family

2009-09-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

We had a fun visit with the Ginos family. They were on their way to San Antonio and stopped by to spend the night. The next day we went to the Mayborn Museum and had fun playing. We wished they lived closer so we could see them more often!!

I was trying to take a picture of Spencer and Lily. Spencer told Lily to look up and that's exactly what she did.

Ollie and Brayden cooking eggs in the pioneer room.

Ashlyn and Lily all dressed up in the tea party room. These girls are only four days apart so it's fun to talk about them and what they are doing because it is so similar.

Ashlyn, Brayden, Lily, and Ollie on the school bus. I tried several times to get pictures of all four of them at once but it just didn't happen. Here's the best one.

Somebody loves and looks up to their big brother very very much!

Look at that smile!

Ollie, Brayden, and all these animals all slept in the same bed. They don't see each other very often but they always play so well together. When they do see each other it's like no time has passed.

Lily Dressing

2009-09-22T17:15:00.001-07:00

Lily likes to try to get herself dressed. She doesn't quite have the dexterity to do it yet but she sure tries and we praise her so she thinks she knows how to do it.

Christmas, Here We Come

2009-09-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

So we made some Christmas decorations the other day. When I told Spencer what we were going to do, he said, "Really!?!". He thought it was strange (and maybe he's right) because it's only September. I just wanted to get some of the Christmas stuff done before Lily goes into her cast. So now we have some presents for the Grandparents. :)
Just so you know, it was not fingerpainting. Lily got that dirty with a paintbrush. The kids had a lot of fun!

First Day of PreSchool

2009-09-05T13:19:00.000-07:00

Ollie had his first day of preschool. He's going to a co-op preschool with children in the ward. He loved his first day. He was nervous about going. I talked with him about why he was nervous... he was afraid that his teacher would ask him to count higher than 100 and he wasn't sure if he could count higher. I just explained that the reason we go to school is to learn and that he didn't need to be afraid about the things he didn't know yet. He then got excited and was ready to go. I'm excited that this will give him a chance to interact with other kids more. I think it will also help him to learn more in a structured environment. We (Ollie and I)also need some adjustment to being away from each other. They do all day kindergarten here so next year he will be gone all day! I'll sure miss him!

Dress Ups

2009-09-05T13:02:00.000-07:00

What child doesn't love to dress up? Mine sure do. Ollie colored this monkey mask and then wanted to dress up. He colored the mask with lots of colors and said he was a baboon. Lily was super excited when we showed her herself in the mirror. She was very happy to be a giraffe.

30

2009-09-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

I turned 30 a few weeks ago. 30 has always sounded so old, but I don't feel old.... For my birthday we went to the beach at Waco lake. We had a great time! I guess it's okay to be 30. :)

Where's Lily

2009-09-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

Getting out of the shower one day, I went to check on my children. Ollie was standing in the kitchen just giggling. He had opened the pantry and moved the flour and sugar buckets out. He then convinced Lily to crawl in and then he shut the door. I opened the door and Lily was just sitting there. She wasn't scared or anything. They now play this game whenever I'm in the kitchen. Thankfully, Lily's not afraid of the dark.

Sunday Ready

2009-09-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a few shots of the family in the process of getting ready for church.

Aren't these two darling!

Lily saying "Cheese".

Ollie loves to dress like Papa for church. I've heard before that imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Mommy and Lily.

The New Pizza

2009-09-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

For dinner one night I made homemade pizza. I also washed some grapes and put them on the table.

Spencer and Shreann, Dinner= Pizza and grapes
Ollie, Dinner= Pizza + grapes

He wanted it together. He ate it and said it was good!?! The grapes did keep rolling off the pizza which frusterated him.

Sticky Forest

2009-09-04T18:05:00.000-07:00

My kids love to play a game called sticky forest. To play, you tape a piece of contact paper (sticky side up) onto the floor. (I use masking tape to tape it so it doesn't leave marks on the floor) Then they have fun walking across it. It makes a cool sound as they walk. They also like to see how fast they can run across it. It's a fun and cheap game.

Kid Quotes...

2009-07-30T11:11:00.001-07:00

So my kids are always saying the funniest things. Here's a few quotes from them. (yes, Lily talks great now so there are some from her too)

This morning Spencer was telling me about his dream last night. Ollie then pipes up and says, "Last night I dreamed I was eating a marshmallow and meat. When I woke up this morning my pillow and monkey were gone." He said all of this with a straight face. Funny joke.

Ollie (said while pretending to eat Lily) "Lily's my M&M"
Mom "Why do you say that?"
Ollie "Because I like her as much as I like chocolate."

Lily (said while crawling into Ollie's little tent) "I go house."
Mom "Oh, are you going into the house? This house is called a tent."
Lily (with a look like a light bulb was turning on, and pointing at the tent walls) "Oh, one, two, TEN!!"

The other day Lily got in trouble for something (I don't even remember what). She threw herself down on the floor and started kicking and screaming. Then she stopped screaming and yelled, "I want Papa!" (I guess Papa is nicer than MomMom.) I just replied that Papa was at work so she just crawled into her room and played by herself.

Lily had a speech-therapy evaluation. The lady came into our house and we were introducing ourselves. Lily piped up and said, "I'm Lily." The lady laughed and said she didn't think that Lily would need speech therapy, which she doesn't. Hooray for one less appointment. :)

The End

2009-07-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

Ollie and Madi.

Uncle Rich reading a book about Africa. Ollie now wants to move to Africa to see a real elephant and lion in the wild, just like Uncle Rich. Mom, however, says that Africa is not a good idea.

Lily wearing one of Madi's hats.

Drew, Hyrum, and Ollie. Ollie loved to follow these guys around and do what they were doing. He really enjoyed watching them play Risk. He also was able to see them play at a chello recital. He was very impressed with their playing.

Playing with cousins in the basement.

Lily with some of the Saunders.

The little boy that Lily is looking at is her 2 1/2 year old cousin Caleb. For some reason (unknown to me) his family calls him Bubby. Bubby loved Lily. He was always trying to carry her places and always wanted to play with her. He made a big impression on her because now when she is playing with her phone she calls Bubby. The converstaion goes like this, "Ello Bubby. Dis is Wiwy. I love you. bye bye."

So... Here's the last of the Utah pictures. I know it's taken me forever to get them all posted. I took about 200 pictures so just be glad that I'm not posting all of them. :)