Is this for Real?

Yes, it is. This picture is of Steve with his mom, dad, and sister Shelley in front of their pool when he was growing up. His hair is PERMED! And worse than that, look at his socks and cut-off shorts. Hee hee, I actually think he looks adorable and I love your hair Garlena and Shelley. Wow! Thanks for passing this pic on Aunt Joanne. Steve actually was very nostalgic for awhile thinking back on some of the best times of his life. To see this picture better click on it to enlarge.

Another First

My firstborn started Sunday School Class yesterday. They can start when they are three years old so off she went. Well, I actually went with her for the first time and maybe next time too just so she can get used to what she is supposed to do and be comfortable without me. This is the first time she will be in a class without me supervising. I'm very nervous. I want her to behave and obey the teachers and participate. What if she's the troublemaker? What if she can't sit still and listen? What if she's mean to the other kids? What if? What if? What if? I know I probably sound silly but this is an exciting step for her and for me and I'm kind of sad in a way because she is growing up and can go to a class by herself without me. Boo hoo but yippee at the same time.

Here she is with her friend Pearl

Her class with the books they made.

Oh, and one other first. Her first somersault by herself without my help!!! Yippee!

Happy 3rd Birthday Olivia!!!

At 5:57 this morning, three years ago, Olivia Amber Lee was born. We are so blessed to have her in our lives and Steve and I still can't believe we have a 3 year old. Audrey, Olivia, and I are traveling back to Wyoming at the end of this month for my grandma's 80th birthday party and while we are there we'll have a small party for Olivia's birthday with family. But today she still got a few presents, dinner, and a cake. To start it off, I let her open up one of our gifts this morning while Audrey was napping.

Yes, that's right, it's Candy Land, a game all kids must have, right? So we had mommy - livia bonding time. AND...

She beat me! I didn't even let her win.

Steve wanted to take the kids to McDonalds and let them play in the play land. Uh honey... have you met our kids. Olivia has always been timid about doing things, she is not a daredevil at all and has to have us right there by her side. Well, there was no way I was crawling through all the tubing because 1. I'm claustrophobic and 2. There were a ton of wild little boys screaming and racing through as fast as they could go bumping into each other. I don't blame Olivia but this is about how far she went the whole time...
Can anyone say hand sanitizer please?

Well, at least we got our pictures taken with Ronald McDonald. It wasn't easy to get the girls to sit close to him. Audrey cried for awhile before she finally smiled. Again, a little timid. That's o.k., I think I was like that too.
She opened up a nightgown that she loved from Aunt Lisa, Uncle Lee, and Grayson and earlier that day she opened a medical doctor's kit from Aunt Shelley, Uncle Jeff, Macie and Garrett. She played with that for awhile checking all my vitals. Thanks guys.

When we got home, she blew out candles from a last minute swing by Baskin Robins and get an ice cream cake because how can we let the day go by and not have a cake. Now that I think about it that was Steve's idea and I know how much he loves ice cream cakes, hmmm. Was it really for her or him? Just kidding honey.
Steve told me, "Well, we made it through the terrible twos." And I said, "I think it's the twos and threes." Oh well!
I'll leave you with some funny things Olivia has said over this last year of her twos:

Some of these I have posted before but here they are in lump sum:
-"You were outside and I was losting you!"
-"We're playing hiding seek."
-My dad gave her some pine cones to throw in the water, she looked up at him and said, "You're a nice grandpa."
-Me-"Who's ready to go?" Olivia-"Me." Me- "You are?" Olivia-"Yep, am are."
-Talking to another kid who was looking at her insulin pump she said, "It's my biabetus. It makes me sick in my toe."
-She looked into her Happy Meal and said, "Hey, what's the big idea?"
-To Audrey she said, "I love you baby sister. You're my best friend."
-She wanted me to read another story after I said last one. She kissed me and said, "I love you mom!" I said, "You're such a little manipulator." and she said, "I'm not a nipulator."
-October 2007, "Mom, I pooped!" Me-"O.k." Her-"Mom, I pooped again." Me-"O.k. honey, that's great." Her-"Mom, I pooped in the dryer." Me-"WHAT?" Yes, it's true and disgusting but she crawled inside the dryer after already going in the toilet and voila. I cleaned it thoroughly with disinfectant. Oooo, gross!
-December 2007 she kept saying to everyone, "What's wrong with everybody?" or "Mom, something's wrong with everybody." To myself-Ya, what is wrong with everybody? Hee hee.
-We were eating dinner and she said, "This is the worst idea I ever heard of in my whole life."
-She calls magazines, "mazagines"
-She calls strawberry shortcake, "strawberry cortcake"
-She says "hedick" instead of headache.
-This morning we were eating breakfast and she said, "Maybe we should move onto dessert."

What's happening to me?

O.k. so I tried to show Olivia how to do a somersault the other night. Simple right? Wrong!! As I was coming out of the somersault my head started spinning and I felt like it was going to explode. My equilibrium was totally off. What's happening to me? I was a gymnast growing up. I did round off back handsprings and back walkovers on the beam and flips off the vault, etc. , all with no trouble at all. Now, I can't even do a simple somersault without getting sick. I felt dizzy the whole night and had to just lay on the couch. I'm going to try it again another time to see if it was just the one time or have things changed. Is it just that I'm getting older and things like this start to happen? My mom can't even go on a swing anymore without getting sick. Anyway, I couldn't believe it and was a little sad about it. Waa waa!

Mom!! George is talking!!

Oh kids, last night I tucked Olivia in bed and all her buddies. When I say buddies I mean her stuffed animals that are lined up on both sides of her so that she is in the middle. A big stuffed Curious George is on one side and just to make her feel safe I tell her animals to protect her and keep her safe. Last night I was being funny and I told George to be good and go to bed, no talking. Well, a little while later I heard Olivia calling me. I went in there and she said, "Mom, George is talking!" or maybe it was, "George won't stop talking!" Can't quite remember verbatim but anyway I had to laugh and tell George once again, NO TALKING! Silly stuffed animal, you think he'd get it the first time.
She also calls me in almost every night because she wants to tell me a secret. Then when I bend my ear towards her she whispers, "A lion or a zebra." That's all, that's the secret. WHAT?? She did this for awhile but after we went to Wyoming for Christmas and she saw her cousins, now she calls me in and her secret is this, "Sara, Faith, Kyle, and Tyler" That's all she says. Weird.

Happy Belated Christmas and New Year!!!!!!!!

After some prompting from a friend (thanks Laura) I decided I better get back to the blogging world and update you all on our holidays. If only I would post a little bit at a time then blogging wouldn't seem so daunting to me but I wait until I have a ton of stuff to say and then it takes me forever. So since it's a new year I'm going to try and not be so wordy and fill you in on every little detail of my life because how boring is that. So here goes.

We went to Wyoming for Christmas to visit my family. We stayed with my older brother Troy, his wife, and four kids. Olivia had a blast. She played so well with her cousins that I hardly ever saw her. We were gone for about 9 days and I only checked my email twice and because the blogs I read are on my favorites list I didn't have the addresses with me so I couldn't read other blogs either. Wow! I thought that would be hard because I usually check my email several times a day and keep up with reading blogs almost every day. But it was a nice break. We've been back since New Year's Day and I am just now blogging. I'm definitely better at reading other people's blogs than I am at blogging. O.k. enough blabbing. Here are some pics. Oh yea, I only have a few pics of our holidays right now because I forgot my extra battery and charger for my camera. I took a lot with my mom's camera but since she has no idea how to load them on her computer and send them to me I won't be able to share them for awhile.

Christmas Eve was spent with my Dad's side of the family at my Uncle Craig's house. Great food, cozy house, snow falling outside, chestnuts roasting on his new wood burning stove, wonderful fellowship. It can't get much better than that.

My uncle Craig, cousin Hanna, and my cousin Chaney's baby Bjorn.

One of Santa's reindeer
My mom with Livi

Back at my brother's house all the kids opened one present before bed, their new p.j.'s

Uncle Mike and Audrey passed out after a long day

Olivia with her cousins Sara and Faith

My sister-in-law, Bethanne, and Audrey. Oh by the way, Bethanne and Troy surprised us all on Christmas Day that they are expecting their fifth child in June. Their youngest will be seven about a month after the baby is here so needless to say they were very surprised and not exactly planning for another baby. But God had other plans and knew that we needed another precious baby in our family. Everyone is very excited.

More pictures of Christmas Day and the rest of our trip to come when I get my mom's camera.

Not really related to this blog entry but just for fun. Steve and I went out last night with one of the Dr's that uses his product that he sales. We took him, his girlfriend, and his office assistant to dinner and an Avalanche Hockey game. We took a cab from the restaurant to the game but on the way back the line to catch a cab was long so we took a bicycle cab instead. Here we are with the little blankie they gave us to stay warm since it was like 35 degrees out. It was very cold once the bike started going but it was kinda fun.