Olivia turns 4

Our sweet little Olivia turned 4 on August 4th - her golden birthday!  In the morning she had pink pancakes in flower shapes, and strawberry lemonade.  As is tradition in our family, she opened presents right after breakfast.  She had gifts from mom and dad, her brothers and grandparents.  She's at such a fun age, so excited about each item she received.  Her eyes really lit up when she opened the princess dolls she had seen at the Disney Store in Salt Lake.

She is really into princesses, and she got some great dress ups for her birthday as well:  

Since she had a big friend party last year, we decided to just do a family party.  But since her birthday landed on Saturday, we wanted to have some of our local "family" come help us celebrate, so we had a BBQ in the evening with 5 other families. It was tons of fun, but I have no photos of the occasion.  Between taking care of Levi, making sure everyone had what they needed for dinner, and that all the kids were getting along, we forgot to sing happy birthday to Olivia.  She still had a grand time playing with several of her good friends, and enjoying cake, but no one can have a birthday without getting happy birthday sung to them.  So, right before bed, we stuck some candles in a cupcake and did the honors:

Olivia is a spunky, fun, creative and loving little girl.  She loves to give her little brother Levi several hugs a day, and "moos" him with kisses.  She loves to dance around, and whenever there is music playing, she will start spinning around to the music.  She doesn't just talk through the day (although the talking is usually non-stop), she also sings her requests and conversations.  I think I finally figured out why she cried so much as a baby - she just had a lot to say, and she still does!  She's very particular about how her hair is done each day, and when I ask her how we should do it on a given day, the request is always very specific.  "One side pony with a braid only in the front," was the request I received yesterday.  She's starting preschool this year, and will be a big kindergartner next year.  We love having this fun-loving little girl in our family.

Levi Nathaniel's Entrance

Levi was due April 14th, but at 37 weeks, I was pretty sure he was going to come early.  I had a few nights where my contractions were almost close enough to cause me to head to the hospital, and knowing that I was already at 3 cm, I was pretty sure I was close.  But then the contractions became less and less frequent.  I can became more and more uncomfortable.  On top of that, my doctor was taking a trip to Paris over spring break.

Thankfully I had an appointment the day my doctor returned, and an induction set up for 2 days later.  At my appointment, I think my doctor sensed my frustration and exhaustion, and asked if I would be open to an earlier induction.  Even though my mom and my sister weren't due into town until the following night, I was ready to have this baby, and starting to feel that he wasn't going to come on his own, no matter how long I waited.

Our good friends the Jakeman's offered to take our kids for the night, and also fed us a delicious dinner of french bread pizza.  The hospital called, and Sam and I headed off.  At this point I felt contractions again, and so I was hopeful the labor would progress quickly, and without too much intervention.

When we checked in to the hospital, and they hooked me up to the monitors, it showed I was contracting every 4 to 5 minutes, but then they would slow down. They took me off the monitors to allow me to walk around, but all that did was stop my labor all together.  I'm not sure why, but my body really likes to be laying still in order to have contractions.  So I gave up, and got back into bed. Sam had gone home to make sure the kids had everything they needed for the following day, and I made arrangements over the phone for them to play at friends houses until Sam or my mom could take over. 

Pitocin was started at 10 PM, but my labor seemed fruitless until they gave me an epidural at 1:30 AM.  My doctor came in right after and broke my water, and predicted he'd be back about 5:30 to deliver me. Sam tried to settle in for the night, and I tried to get some rest as well.  But I couldn't sleep at all.  I was hooked up to monitors, and I could still feel contractions, and they took my blood pressure every 15 minutes.  I also had to turn from side to side to help make sure the epidural would be even.

We hadn't officially decided on a name yet, but I think we were both pretty sure his first name would be Levi.  But we really hadn't come up with a middle name that stood out to us.  It was while I was lying in bed, numbed up from the epidural, watching the contractions on the monitor, that I thought Levi Nathaniel was a good name.  About 3 am my nurse came in.  I was thinking that she was also worried about my progression, but all she said was that she wanted to check me.  I was shocked when she reported I was at a 9.5, and just needed to switch sides again and I would be ready to deliver really soon.   I was a 10 by 3:30, and the doctor came in soon there after.

Before I knew it, I was giving 4 or 5 good pushes, and little Levi's head emerged.  2 more to get the shoulders out, and he was out and up on my chest.  I could hardly believe he was there.  He let out some loud screams, and then settled down on my chest.  He was beautiful.  Looked a lot like Noah and Olivia to me.  Lots of dark hair, and huge chubby cheeks.  He had no interest in nursing, but was making the cutest little faces.  He kept his eyes mostly closed, and let out some yells here and there, but was content to lay there next to me while they finished up.  Sam cut the cord, and then sat back down quickly to make sure he wouldn't end up on the floor.

They let me hold him for quite a while.  We all guessed how much we thought he might weigh.  I was thinking somewhere around 8 pounds - my doctor had said he didn't' think this baby was going to be big like Olivia and Noah.  Sam, however, thought he was going to be over 9.  I was pretty surprised when they declared he weighed 9 pounds 5.5 ounces!

He scored a 9 on his apgar test, his coloring not quite pink enough for a 10.  The nurses diapered, dressed and swaddled him, and gave him back to me.  He was ready to nurse now, and did a whopping 20 minutes on each side.

Sam and I enjoyed the quiet morning with Levi, and marveled at his tiny parts.  10 perfect little fingers and 10 perfect little toes.  A nice round head, and a strong neck, just like Olivia.

We called the kids in the morning, and it was so fun to hear their squeals of delight at hearing their baby brother was finally here. Their first question was, "When can we see him?"  Sam brought them to the hospital that evening, and they were each so excited to hold him, look at him, and constantly comment on how cute he was.  One funny side note, the kids were all pretty disappointed at our name choice.  We hadn't decided for sure on a middle name yet, but Levi was his first name.  The kids had been rooting for Isaac, and I think Olivia threw a bit of a fit in the car on the way to the hospital.  Thankfully the fit was so good it put her right to sleep. But once they saw him, they got over that, and quickly warmed up to calling him Levi. 

The Big 35

We celebrated Sam's 35th birthday on Saturday.

I asked him to pick up birthday candles for his cake on his way home from work on Friday.  The checkout girl kept commenting on how someone must be really old if you have to buy two packs of birthday candles.  Honestly, anyone older than 20 needs 2 packs, so if that's really old, I guess we're ancient. In 6 more years, he'll need 3 packs.  Now that's something to comment on :)


The kids were super excited, and woke up extra early Saturday.  They wanted to "help" me make breakfast for Sam (Harrison did scramble eggs), but they also wanted to wake Sam up extra early. I'm sure just the birthday surprise he wanted on a Saturday morning.  While I was cooking up crepes, they went in his room and sang a chorus of happy birthday. So much for breakfast in bed.

The Sunday before his birthday I pulled out my trusty old cake doctor book, to figure out what kind of cake to make him.  Olivia took the book, and pointed to a cake, and said, "This one!"  I looked, and it was a chocolate peppermint cake.  We still had quite a few candy canes left over for christmas, so it seemed like a good idea, and Sam thought so too.  It was chocolate cake with a peppermint candy cane buttercream filling, and peppermint chocolate ganache for frosting. The kids helped me decorated the top with mini-candy canes forming hearts. As I was putting the candy canes on the cake, it made me remember my mom had made a special candy cane cake for me for my 2nd birthday - but it didn't do the trick, as I was distraught my baby sister came home from the hospital that same day.  Ah, memories.

The kids couldn't wait until after dinner to have cake, so we had it after lunch.  It tasted pretty good, but for some reason the cake was incredibly crumbly.  Not sure what I did wrong, as I followed the doctored up recipe, adding buttermilk and extra eggs or something.  I did forget to add the vanilla, but I really don't think that would make it crumbly.  Oh, well.

I forgot to get a shot of the cake before we stuck all those candles in it. 

The kids didn't seem to notice the cake was crumbly.  They ate it right up!

 Sam was a good sport about helping with projects around the house on his birthday.  I hope he felt appreciated, as we all really think he's the greatest - greatest dad, husband, and the greatest at everything he does for all of us.  We love you Sam!

Leavenworth Day Trip

Given the success of our Dayton trip, we decided to visit the tourist haven of Leavenworth. We went on Mollie's birthday, and figured it would be a fun way to celebrate. This town is smack in the middle of the Cascade range close to both Seattle and the Tri-Cities.  It is a very small town, and sometime back decided to remake itself as a bavarian mountain village.  Most of the buildings in the town center have been remodeled to fit the theme.

There were several differences between our Dayton trip and this one. For starters it is much further away (3 hours) so we had to rush to get out the house in time. I had wanted to stop at a little candy apple factory on the way there, but given how late we got out of the house, I felt that we had to press on to reach Leavenworth sometime close to lunch. We got to town around 1, and we were all pretty hungry. Looking at the town via Google maps, I had thought it would be easy to find a decent restaurant and sit down. But when we got into town, it was immediately apparent that Leavenworth's Christmas Festival was a pretty big deal.  There was no parking anywhere that I could see.  The town is only a few blocks long, so it's not too hard to drive the streets and see cars parked everywhere.  There must have been 10,000 tourists walking around.  It was packed! People streaming in from all around, and big tour buses bringing even more.

The streets were constantly flooded with people.  And all the shops were stuffed too!

We doubled back and parked at a Bavarian Bakery at the edge of town.  We stopped in there hoping that this was the kind of bakery that makes sandwiches or something.  Alas they did not.  But they did make some good pretzels and cinnamon bread.  That kind of became our lunch.

We got the kids bundled up and walked into town.  It was a very cold day.  Almost unpleasantly cold, so we decided to get indoors and visit the Nutcracker museum.  Although it's pretty small, just two or three rooms, you can fit an awful lot of nutcrackers into a small space. The kids were really excited to see all the different characters (star wars, disney, fairy tales, astronauts, mormon missionaries).  All in all a fun place.  They had a scavenger hunt for Harrison to do, and he really enjoyed that.

We went out onto the main square to figure out what to do.  It was so crowded that it was moderately disorienting.  We wandered around and looked at all the stores, but there was not really any room to get inside any of them.  The hat shop had a line of ~30 people standing outside queued at the door.  We got some kettle corn as a snack, but hunger was setting in, and none of the restaurants had indoor seating. So we walked back to the edge of town and hit up the old reliable McDonalds.  Even here we had to wait for a booth.

After that we went back to the car to get snow pants and the sled.  Near the center of the town there was a hill that had been set aside as a sled hill.  It was short but sufficiently steep to be fun.



I took the boys up to the top and Mollie went to find a place to try and get some pictures. It was getting very crowded, as the hill was adjacent to the tree lighting podium and only about 30 minutes before the ceremony started.  On the first trip down the hill, they boys got turned around backwards and tried to stop by putting their hands down into the snow.  They had forgotten to put their gloves on and without gloves, that got pretty cold.  Crying insued.

 As they looked around with kids coming down the hill fast and furious they tried to figure out how to get back up to be with me.  The confusion and freezing hands started a melt down.  After gloves got on, and hands got warm, it took a good 10 minutes of cajoling to get them to try the sledding again.  After a few happy rides with Dad steering, the lighting ceremony started.  

My favorite sledding picture.  That's me with Noah on my lap.

I really wanted to have a good brat while I was there, so I left Mollie with the kids by the sledding hill, and ventured out into the crowd.  The lines at the restaurant were gone, which maybe should have been a clue to me.  The ceremony started while I was gone, and was pretty much over before I made my way back to Mollie. 

Mollie got some pictures:

We were standing right next to the large Christmas tree, so you couldn't really see the whole thing.

The lights were pretty amazing, but we were all cold, tired and cranky. So we headed to the car, and headed for home.  I think Dayton was more enjoyable, but Leavenworth was more dramatic.  We'll have to go back to Leavenworth sometime when it's not the lighting festival, and save the Christmas kickoff type of festivities for Dayton.  Live and learn.

Harrison's Birthday

This October Harrison turned 8! Since he had a baptism the next day, he was able to celebrate his birthday with all of his grandparents.  Harrison enjoyed opening his presents. 

As one gift, Harrison got a set of scriptures with his name on the cover.

I think he forgot to make a wish when he blew out his candles.  Note the look of dissapointment when asked what he wished for: 

We are so proud of our Harrison.  This was a big weekend for him.  He turned 8 and chose to be baptized. We've got a whole 'nother post just about that. That same week, I was also contacted by his 2nd grade teacher, and informed that there was nothing for him to learn in 2nd grade.  She had done everything she could to challenge him, and it wasn't enough.  I am so grateful he finally had a teacher that recognized this problem - it's one that I was aware of for quite some time, but anytime I brought it up, people seemed to think I was exaggerating or bragging or something. But his teacher went to the administration herself, had him tested, and followed up. It was amazing. It was determined that he would be a great fit for the 3rd grade gifted program (thankfully also housed right in our home school) and he would start on Monday.  With our permission, of course.  After a good talk with his teacher and a visit to the new class, we decided to make the big move.  I really didn't think I'd ever consider skipping my child a grade, as I have heard quite a few negative things about it.  But when it came down to it, it was the best thing for Harrison, in the opinion of his 2nd grade teacher (who we love and miss terribly) and the principal, the school counselor, as well as officials at the district level that had to approve of the move.  Part of what made the decision quite a bit easier is that he did just turn 8, so he's not that much younger than most of the kids in his class.  He seems to be doing great in his new class, and is much more challenged.  It has been a good move. I'm a bit sad that it couldn't have been made at the beginning of the year, as it is always a bit difficult to be the new kid (again), but I think he's adjusting to that okay.  I guess I'll see if I still feel the same way when I'm sending a 10 year old to middle school in a couple of years.  Or a 17 year old to college.

Happy Birthday Noah

"I'm six!"

 In the background, Olivia is wishing that she was five so that she could do all the fun things that she saw Noah do.  It's a pretty fun age. Noah decided that he wanted a dinosaur cake, and that he wanted to help decorate.

It being the first fall that we have not moved in several years, this is the first birthday for Noah since he was 2 that he has actually known people in the area.  We thought about throwing a party and inviting over friends, but he chose another way. We gave him the option of having a friend party or having some extra cash.  "Money!"  I was a bit taken back, but he really knew what he wanted.  He wanted to buy more Legos. (We originally used this as an option with Harrison and Noah overheard and was really excited by the idea.)

One of the winner presents this year was a baseball and bat.  We had gotten a mitt for our southpaw a few days before at the neighborhood garage sale.  We guessed right that he might be ready and excited for baseball.

We finished it off with a Lego Harry Potter set, the movie Rio, and some popcorn for the nights viewing celebration!  We love Noah. Happy Birthday

Olivia is 3!

Olivia turned 3 on Thursday, and we had a great time celebrating!  She woke up nice and early, and was super excited that it was her birthday.  I think turning 3 is one of the best ages, because they really get what a birthday is for the first time, and love everything about it.

We put up a birthday banner and blew up balloons and had streamers out for when she woke up.  Her party wasn't until the next day, but she started asking right away when her friends were going to come, and when she could have some cake!  She had to wait for that, but we did let her open some family gifts.  She loves being a little mama, so she got some dolls and doll accessories, including a doll bed that Sam built for her.

She was really excited about getting a dress for her dolls.  She loves wearing dresses, and insisted on putting the doll's dress onto her doll right away.  

That night we celebrated with pizza and ice cream, complete with blowing out candles.  You have to do it on your actual birthday, right?  I just didn't feel like making 2 cakes (I'm not much of a cake fan) so we just put some candles in her ice cream.  

The next day was her party.  I'm glad I did it in the morning, or I think we'd have all gone crazy from the "When is my party?" question.  We went with the Hello Kitty theme again, mostly because I had snagged a bunch of cute Hello Kitty items from Target back last fall.  We kept it to just a small group of girls.  It was so interesting to me to have only girls in the house - Harrison and Noah were over at a neighbor's house.  It was really so calm.

We decorated (and ate!) cupcakes,

played outside,

played pin the bow on Hello Kitty,

opened presents,

sang Happy Birthday,







had some cake pops,

and just had a great time!

This is actually the first friend party that I have put on for any of my kids.  The past 3 years have been a bit crazy moving each time right around all of their birthdays (Olivia's birthday just before each move, and the boys birthdays just after), so this year I decided it was time to put on a real party.  It was a lot of fun, and not as overwhelming as I thought it would be - I think that keeping it small (6 friends) and short (just an hour and a half) were key.

We are so grateful to have Olivia as part of our family - she is such an inquisitive, loving, energetic little girl, and I love the added sweetness she brings to everything.  She sure is a ball of energy, and keeps me on my toes, asking "Why?" to anything and everything that comes up. She is like a fish in the water, and would be happy if I took her swimming everyday.  She's got a little swim-vest, and can motor herself around the whole pool. She loves jumping in, and now requests that I don't even touch her once she's in the water, she just turns back around to swim to the edge so she can jump again!  She loves giving and receiving hugs and kisses, and is a master at prolonging her night time routine with any excuse to keep mom and dad in the room.  Which includes grabbing us tightly around the neck and insisting that she wants to "cuddle" for a while. She is also very into clothes, and has opinions about everything.

We love you Olivia!  Happy Birthday!

Sam's B-day

Olivia Turned Two!

I can hardly believe Olivia is already two. She has grown up quite a bit in recent months, and no longer seems like a baby. She's talking non-stop, and loves to express herself as often as possible. Her favorite phrases are "I did it!," "I got it!," "right there," and has already become quite the little boss of her brothers. The other night at dinner she barked at Noah, "Stop it! Come. Sit. Eat," as he was spinning around in the kitchen instead of eating dinner with the rest of us. Looks like she's already practicing the fine art of motherhood.

She had a great birthday.  She loves pointing out Kitty Cats, and saying "neow, neow," and has a special affinity for Hello Kitty, so we went with that for a theme.  She got a Hello Kitty stuffed animal, which has since become her constant companion.

I made some Hello Kitty cupcakes, and tried my hand at cakepops:

The cake pops were a little more challenging and time consuming that I was expecting. I think my icing/crumb ratio was off.  There's a reason they are laying flat... They were falling right off the sticks.

The first gift she opened was a Hello Kitty shirt I had made with an iron on.  It was so funny to watch her quickly strip off her jammie shirt, and put on her new one.  My boys could have cared less about clothes at this age, but she was really excited about getting clothes.  And she's much better at dressing herself at this age than my boys ever were.  Which can come at a cost.  Have I mentioned we've had to tape her diaper on with packing tape every night for several months because she will undress herself and take off her diaper in the night?  Yeah, not fun.

To go along with her "mini-mother" attitude as of late, she received some "mini-mother" doll toys from Grandma Margie.  She now puts her babies to bed in a crib, diapers them (complete with diaper rash cream), helps them sit on the potty and flush, bounces them in the bouncy seat, carries them in their car seat, and seats them at the table for dinner.  

 Here she is enjoying her Hello Kitty cupcake.  We celebrated by having her best buddy, Isaac, and his family over for dinner and to help us consume our cake and ice cream.  They brought her some Hello Kitty books, which also became an instant favorite.  I'm thinking she might even be Hello Kitty for Halloween...

Olivia is such a delight.  She is a ball of energy, and loves to laugh and play with whomever is up for it. She loves being tickled, and requests more and more if we ever stop.  One of her favorite games is ring around the rosies.   She's quick to say sorry, and loves to give big hugs.  Swimming is probably her favorite past time.  She'll bring me her swim suit and a swim diaper several times a day, to see if I'll take her swimming. She's a dare devil in the water.  She's becoming very independent, and wants to do everything on her own.  If we help her with something she wants to do herself, she often undo what we helped her with, and redo it on her own.  She is very picky about her clothes, and I often have to coerce her to wear what I have picked out for her.  But pointing out how pretty it is, and showing her that I have some matching hair bows is often all it takes.  She loves to be pretty, and asks to have her hair done each day.  She is extremely observant. (I tried to do some birthday shopping with her, and there was nothing getting past this one!)  Lately when we spell things to try and keep a secret, she yells out what we just spelled (like should we get out the i-c-e c-r-e-a-m?, and she yells, "ice ceam!")  We love you Olivia, and can't imagine our lives without you.