First Bites

Lydia is almost six months old so we decided that it was time that we finally start her on solids. I've been putting it off, but it was time! She did great and was so excited about finally being allowed to eat "people" food (as the other kids call it).

 

Apparently, Joe as not getting the food to her fast enough!

What a cute girl!

New Haircut

Andrew got a new haircut!

 

 

Before:

 

 

 

After:

I'm pretty sure that this is the shortest it's EVER been! What a handsome kid!

The Craziest Day of the Year! (A.K.A...Halloween!)

Every year I'm amazed by how busy Halloween is! It's crazy (and exhausting!) how many things we can cram into one day. To start the day off, I made Jack-O-Lantern pancakes for breakfast. Then, we hurried and got the kids and costumes to school on time. This year I was in charge of the Halloween party at Andrew's Kindergarten class and Joe went and helped in Sam's class party. Sorry, no pictures from Sam's party because, like I said, Joe went to that one ;)

Andrew's party was in the morning, so after I dropped the boys off at school, I hurried home to finish getting ready for the party. I packed up the sugar cookies I'd made (enough for both boys' classes), decorations, ingredients for frosting, paper goods, etc and hurried out the door. Thank goodness for Melissa for watching the girls for me! While the kids did their costume parade throughout the school, I mixed up the frosting (oops, forgot the vanilla so they got butter flavored frosting..eww! No complaints from the kids, though!) The party was a success! After that, we headed home for lunch. The afternoon was filled with preparations for the evening activities. After school we went to Joe's work for the family party there.

 We won a prize the best group costume, even though our costumes weren't coordinated. I think they just couldn't resist the cuteness of the kids!

From there, we went to a party at the home of one of Sam's friends from school, David. There we had dinner and then went trick-or-treating with the whole group in their neighborhood. It was so fun!

The weather was perfect, a little cool but no rain or snow. By the time we got home, even though it was not quite 7:00, we were all exhausted! What a fun, crazy, busy, tiring day! 

Four Months Old

 

I can't believe that this cute girl is already four months old! She is such a sweet baby and has the entire family wrapped around her chubby little finger!

 

Love you Lydibug!

Boy's Day at Silverwood

All summer Joe told the boys that he would take them to Silverwood, but it never worked out. But, since he's a such a great Daddy, he found a day that would work before it closed for the year! They had a great time together with out all of us "girls" slowing them down :) Here are some cute pics from their day...

 

What a difference a year makes! This ride last year, they had to stop after the first drop to let Andrew off because he was screaming so loud! He was so scared, but now that he's five, he's all grown up and "silly things like that don't scare him, he just knows how to be brave"...or so he tells me!

Hiking in the wilderness

Yesterday we took a trip out to Couer d'Alene to enjoy this last weekend of Summer. We met my parents out at the park. The weather was nice, but a little breezy which made the freezing cold water even worse! The swimming part of the afternoon didn't last for long! Joe and the kids came back shivering and covered with goosebumps. We enjoyed burgers from Paul Bunyan's and a live band playing at the concert stage. After dinner, my parents had to leave, but we decided to take the kids to go on a "hike" at Tub's Hill. The kids LOVED it! The boys had fun following every trail and climbing on every rock. Sam was sure to warn us about poison ivy ("Don't worry, I learned about it in first grade" he told us very smuggly.) and Andrew thought that this must be like the wilderness in the Book of Mormon. They were amazed by the size of the lake.

 I told them to pretend like they saw a bear for this picture...

And of course the muscle shot...

After we got back to civilization (A.K.A. the parking lot) we decided to take them down to the dock to walk for a bit. We only made it down one side (everyone was getting pretty tired from all the walking) but they loved all of the boats. We finished off the fun evening with a stop at Cold Stone. Sam serenaded us by singing along with the radio that was playing there, he said they were playing all of his favorite songs! It was a very fun day. I love spending time with my family, especially when we get to go on new adventures!

Storytime!!

Abby got a new Princess Encyclopedia and she isn't the only one who's been loving it!  I love seeing all of the kids enjoying books together, especially now that Sam is old enough to do some of the reading! Lydia just loves to be down on their level and be part of the action. Notice how Abby got all dressed up for the occasion!

I sure do love this crew!

Future Elder Lodge

The last several weeks when Sam gets ready for church, he always says that he wants to look like a missionary. So, when I got him new church clothes, he made sure that I got him dark pants and a long-sleeved white shirt and tie. Last Sunday, Joe pulled out one of his old missionary tags and Sam wore it to church. Doesn't he look handsome!

Ok, the smile is pretty goofy, but he is growing up so fast! I'm very proud of him and his desire to do what's right!

She's all fancy!

Abby is a true girl, she loves clothes and accessories! Every Sunday she LOVES to pick out her dress and then twirls around the house. Last Sunday I just had to get some pictures of her outfit, she looked adorable!

She didn't actually wear the hat or glasses to church, but she sure looked cute! Love it!

Guess who's 3 months old already!!

I can't believe that Lydia is already 3 months old!! 

She is such a good baby! She sleeps A LOT, including 10-12 hours each night. When she's awake, she loves to watch her big brothers and sister play. She tolerates all of the love that they give her really well :-) Everywhere we go she gets compliments on her chubby cheeks and her cute baby rolls. I love how when she gets smiling really big her beautiful blue eyes almost disappear behind her cheeks. So cute! We are so glad to have this sweet little girl in our family!

Happy Birthday Bat-boy!

Andrew is 5!!!

 He had a very fun batman themed birthday! At our house, we open presents starting in the morning and then throughout the day so that they have a chance to play with and enjoy each thing before digging into the next package, so here are some shots of his early morning gifts...

You'd never know it from this picture, but Andrew was sooooo excited about this set, he's been wanting it for months and G & G Lodge came through for him! That's his excited face...

 Another excited face...he really did like his presents, I promise!

For lunch he requested Dairy Queen because, in his expert opinion, they have the "best hot dogs in a bun." :-)

For dinner, he requested his favorite: grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. I love easy birthday dinners, no complaints from this mom! After dinner we headed to Chuck E. Cheese where we would celebrate with family and Andrew's favorite friend from church. Always a fun time! Andrew found one game that he was really good at and came away with a record number of tickets that night, it was pretty exciting for him! Here's some shots of the cake and presents that we saved for the "party".

This huge Batman was from G&G Olson, it's about the same size as Abby!

Danny and Joe chatting...probably talking about Danny's first few days of Med School!

It was a great birthday. Since we only do friend parties on the even birthdays, this year was way less crazy and hectic!

Here are some tid-bits about Andrew at 5 years old:

• Favorite color is red (but he says he loves all the colors except GIRL colors like pink and purple)
• he loves to build legos and is very good at following instructions by himself
• he has taught himself to read and has a great headstart on kindergarten
• he loves science books, especially ones about dinosaurs and space
• when he grows up he wants to be a builder (he and Sam plan to go into business together), an artist, an astronaut, a scientist and a daddy.
• he has a great sense of humor and cracks us up with his silly jokes and cute laugh
• he loves to help me with things around the house, especially dishes and cooking

I am so grateful that we have Andrew in our family. Love you buddy!

And, just because I was pleased with how it turned out, here's a couple more shots of the cake I made...

...thanks for your help Breanna!

Family Camping Trip

This weekend we took a fun camping trip with Danny and Jessi and their family. The kids and I headed up earlier in the day on Thursday with D & J to claim a spot and Joe came up later after he got off work. It was quite a scene with two nursing babies, the boys riding their scooters around like madmen, Abby "practicing" on her little port-a-potty, Ollie walking around hitting trees with sticks and Danny trying to get two tents set up! Luckily, Danny enlisted Sam's help and was able to get the tents up while I got the fire started to cook dinner. Joe showed up just in time to cook a hot dog over the fire.

Here's a shot of the two newest little campers. They did pretty well out in the elements!

I think that Sam was showing us how strong he was to prove that he could help Danny with the tents :)

Believe it or not, this picture was taken in the first hour or so after we arrived, and Ollie was already covered in dirt!

 

Abby was so excited to make a smore with the humongous marshmallow...eating it turned out to be quite a trick!

 

Andrew didn't see the point of cooking the marshmallows, they are so much easier to eat straight out of the bag!

This baby moose made a couple of appearances throughout the weekend. Once it walked directly behind our tent while I was napping with the girls. It was so close! Joe never got to see it though, he was always in the wrong place at the wrong time!

Here's Abby's favorite picture face. Everytime I pulled out the camera, she automatically made this face!

Joe love playing with the fire!

Like father, like son!

 

This was the next morning, all bundled up before the sun was up enough to warm us up!

 On Friday we drove to a spot where we could hike to some waterfalls. We'd been there before but of course the kids didn't remember it so it was like a whole new adventure! Here we are setting out on the hike...

...On the trail.

Once we got to the first waterfall we stopped to play in the water for a few minutes.

 

 Here's a family shot

Danny and Jessi's family

It was a fun and very dirty camping trip. It's always amazing how dirty kids get when they are camping! Grandpa Olson came up on Friday evening and spent the second night with us. There's just something special about being out in nature with family. I love it. We get to find whole new ways of entertaining ourselves like poking the fire, throwing rocks in the river, hide and seek in the forest and just taking walks around the campground. I love being out there, but I also love coming home and taking a shower!