{Lucy May Turns One!}

Today little Lucy May turns one!

(photo by Erica)

Time sure has flown by this past year - we all can't believe little Lucy is already one!  What a big girl!

Little Lucy is taking this baby stuff seriously - she doesn't want do walk, she prefers her little monkey-scoot-crawl.  She is getting a lot faster at pulling up and standing by stuff. We all carry her all the time, so it's no wonder she doesn't want to walk!  She can get places so much faster by getting us to carry her or her little scoot.

At one year Lucy has 4 little teeth.  And she is the worst teether!  Ugh.  She loves to bite just about anything with her four little teeth too!  

She likes to eat anything she can feed herself and she loves bottles and sippy cups of milk or juice...as long as someone holds them for her!  Silly girl.

Lucy has a couple words - she loves to say "uh-oh"  it's really the best thing ever!  She also can nod her head, "no" and likes to say dada, mama, wo-wa (noah) and is working on pa-pa (grandpa).

~~

This weekend we had 2 family birthday celebrations for her and Noah.  She had a great time being the center of attention.

Sunday we had a party with the Christiansens.  Aunt Pam brought her a present and it was wrapped in glitter wrapping paper.  Forget the present.  All Lucy wanted was the wrapping paper!  She kept putting it on her head - baby hair and glitter?  Let's just say it is Tuesday and she is still covered in glitter!

Wade decorated a big cake for her to eat (we mean destroy) on Sunday.

She really enjoyed playing in it but as soon as she got a taste of the cake - she pulled this face!  

What a goof ball.  

She didn't like it at all.  

And if you look close, you can see blue glitter all over her head in the pictures!

Monday night we invited my sisters family over and had another cupcake party.  Lucy liked her chocolate cupcake a lot better than her pink cake.  

Don't be fooled by the straight face.  

She was pretty excited about the candle!

What a year it's been.  We are so in love with little Lucy.  

We are so glad you are in our family, your little heart is healed and you are healthy!

Happy Birthday little Lucy May!

{Halloween 2013}

We had a busy and fun time this year for Halloween.  The trunk or treat at church was the day before and we had fun watching the big kids at their parade at school.  We spent Halloween night at Aunt Judy's house celebrating with a spookie dinner and a little trick or treating.

This year we had:

A hobbit:

A skeleton:

A fairy princess:

A pirate:

And a pretty little ladybug:

And the group picture - well it turned out typical for our family.

Don't they look like they are up to something?

BAM!

 Happy Halloween!

{Eli is 3}

Look who turned 3...

Eli Owen!

Wednesday Eli celebrated the big day by turning "free"  He has been telling everyone he meets that his birthday is in August.  It took him a while to convince that he really was turning 3, he wanted to be 4, or 2, or even 1.  But finally he has got the hang of it.

Eli is a great little boy.  He loves to play outside and loves cars.  He does not like spiders, and will scream like it's an emergency if he sees one.  Ants, on the other hand he will play with and smash for days.

I asked Eli a few questions and got these fun answers:

Favorite color: blue

Favorite song: That's what makes you beautiful, and Popcorn Popping

Favorite toy: bike and scooter

Favorite movie: Cars

Favorite animal: "elephants, and giraffes, and tigers, and monkeys and dolphins and more dolphins"

Favorite food: candy

Favorite drink: chocolate milk

Favorite thing to do: play with Avery

Favorite person: Avery and Daddy

Eli is such a fun boy.  He really does eat just about anything we give him, although he does really love candy too.  If he can find it than he will eat it..and sneak it..and find a way to get it.  He loves to have drinks of juice or chocolate milk.  He loves sausage and pancakes.

Eli has been of my easiest babies.  Maybe it's because he has his fingers in his mouth all the time, but he really is a pretty easy going boy.  He loves his blankies (he has two) and his fingers.  Take those away (the blankies, not the fingers) and he gets pretty mad.  He sleeps really well, loves his big boy bed, and still takes a nap every afternoon.  

Eli loves his bike.  He could ride it all day every day.  One day I saw him riding in circles in the backyard this summer and when he saw me looking at him he yelled to me, "ME SO HAPPY MOM!"

Unfortunately, I hit his bike with my van last week and it damaged the wheels.  Wade says it is fixable, but we haven't done it yet.  We were thinking of getting him a scooter anyway, so he got a new scooter for his birthday!  He loves it.  He rides it in the house and out of the house.  He rides it pretty much all the time.  He got a new helmet from Grandpa.  He loves to wear it around and hit things with his head! haha.  

It took him a long time to come around to it, but Eli loves nursery class at church.  He walks in and waves goodbye and doesn't even look back.  His favorite part is in our new nursery he gets to eat gummy bears if he sings during singing time.  He loves to tell me after church every week, "I eat gummy bears without you mommy!"

For Eli's birthday we celebrated by taking a walk around the block with his scooter.  We went to the park and we played at home.  We went to McDonalds to play in the playplace and cheeseburgers and had ice cream cupcakes.  He had a great day!

Three is the terrible twos in our family - so this year will be a challenge, I am sure.  But Eli is great and we are so happy he is part of our family!

We love our Eli!!

{13}

Today, 13 years ago, we were a couple kids getting married. Some years have been fun, some adventurous, some have turned out exactly how we had planned, and some have not.  This year has proven to be quite a challenge.  But we know one thing for sure.  We have each other's backs.  We always have and we always will.  

Between life and Lucy's excitement, we both forgot to make any plans.  So we decided last night that 49 cent slurpees from 7-11 for everyone and a day with the kids sounds just about right.

{9}

Happy Birthday!  Today Gage is nine years old!

Gage is such a fun kid to have in our family.  The first year - year and half were pretty rough.  He was a pretty hard baby.  And he cried a lot.  I don't want to say it was colic, because colic is supposed to stop at 3 months, but Gage didn't stop crying for about 18 months.  I remember visiting doctor after doctor and switching pediatrician so many times.  I thought something was so wrong with him.  Until I found one that after playing on the floor with Gage looked at us and said, 

"He's fine!   There is nothing wrong with him.  I have a couple kids like him myself.  He is very directed and knows what he wants.  Channel him in the right direction and he will grow up to be a great successful adult!"

She was a great pediatrician, and we were sad when she decided to quit and stay at home with her kids.  (But I couldn't blame her.  I wouldn't trade these days for anything).

That being said - Gage is a fantastic kid.  He always strives to do exactly what is right.  He pays close attention to rules and always tries to follow them. (Unless, of course, I make them up).  His first grade teacher had a rule that they couldn't talk during lunch. (There was no cafeteria, so they ate in their classrooms).  I kinda thought it was a super silly rule.  But he always obeyed it.  Even in second grade when he had a different teacher it took me a couple weeks to convince him that it would be okay for him to talk at lunch time.

It didn't surprise me when I asked him what his favorite color was, he answered, black and white.  This totally fits Gage.  Everything is black or white to him.  

Example:  One time this year his teacher sent home some cursive handwriting homework and it had one letter that they hadn't gone over in class.  Gage just sat there and told me he couldn't do it!  He said that it had to be a mistake because they hadn't covered that letter yet.  I showed him that there was an example of the letter and I showed him how to do it, but I think he ended up skipping that word.  I couldn't believe it, but later that night when Wade got home, I related this story and Wade said, "Yeah, I remember one time in elementary school when a teacher sent home homework and there was something we hadn't learned yet on it yet too. I took it back to the teacher and showed her!"

Gage is just like his Dad - black and white.

This move has been pretty hard on Gage.  He says he likes his new school (except computers) but he still misses his old friends.  He wishes he could have both.  He's so quiet and serious I think it's hard for him to find good friends.  But he is such a loyal friend.  He is always trying hard to make everyone happy. (He gets that from me)

Gage is a fantastic big brother and he adores Lucy.  He loves to play with Eli and Avery (when they aren't touching his stuff) and Noah is either his arch enemy or his best friend.  They are perfect brothers.  I ask him every once in a while if he ever wants his own room and he always answers that he likes sharing with Noah right now and that he would miss talking to him at night.

Gage has been working very hard in reading this year.  His teacher has the Hooked on Phonics program and we have been able to borrow it and send the levels back as we finish them.  He is always good at working so hard on his levels and reading his stories.  He is finishing the last level soon.  I can see a huge difference in his reading this year.  He is reading chapter books faster and reading them out loud more to Noah.  Just last night as I was reading a picture book to the other kids, Gage would jump in and read a page or two for me.  Without me asking!  I was so proud!

If you haven't picked up on it yet, Gage LOVES Legos.  He can play with them all day long, day after day.  And at night, he reads Lego Magazines in his bed by flashlight.  He is pretty creative with them and can built just about anything.  He was super excited this morning when he opened his presents.  He got a set of the Narnia books and The Hobbit Hole Lego set.  He had it put together in no time and hasn't stopped playing with it since.  He is anxious for tomorrow, when we are having a little Lego birthday party for him and a couple friends.

He is such a good kid, we can't believe he is nine!

We are so proud of Gage and love him to the moon and back!  

{6}

Today Noah turned 6!

I can't believe it's been six years since this little blond hair boy joined our family.  He keeps us on our toes.  Some of Noah's favorites this year are:

Food: Fried Chicken Legs

Song: Star Wars Theme Song, and When I am Baptized

Color: Orange

Toy: Legos, Handcuffs and Star Wars Figures

Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Drink: Orange soda or Root Beer

Movie: Star Wars

Game: Lego Star Wars

Ice Cream Flavor: Chocolate

Animal: Turtles and Newts, (because they start with N)

~

Noah always cracks us up and has the best jokes.  He is full of energy   His favorite thing to do is jump and do flips on the giant bean bag.  We often find him doing summersaults from room to room instead of walking.

Since our move Noah has started to really love singing and primary (the children portion at church).  I attribute this to the male singing teacher they have in our primary.  He is our neighbor and now Noah thinks singing is so cool!

Noah is very caring and a good helper.  In his school class there is a boy who has a special speech problem. The teacher has told the class they can all be helpers to this other little boy.  Noah has become his best friend and loves to play with him.  When I've talked to him about this he says, "I don't care that I can't understand what he says all the time, Mom.  We just like to play together.  He is fun!"

Noah prays that the new baby will be healthy and not sick every night.  He is the only one that will sit still and wait for her to move.  He is going to be a good brother for her.

Noah is such a good sport about taking his medicine.  I think it would be hard and I would complain if I had to take a medicine twice a day that I didn't like.  But he takes it without complaint.  He loves to go with me to refill it and picks a different flavor every month.

Food is very important to Noah.  He loves to dream up "food machines" and draw them for me.  If he could invent these they would make whatever food he wanted, whenever he wanted.  He wants his very own slushy maker for Christmas.

~

Noah wanted a pretty simple birthday this year.  

He wanted to play with his cousin Keegan,

 he wanted to go to the jumpy house,

he wanted a slushy,

and he wanted to play video games.

For lunch today we drove to Sonic and Noah got to pick out any slush he wanted.  

He choose an orange cream slush.

Then this afternoon Keegan and Daesha came up and we all went to Kangaroo Zoo!

These boys were a whirl wind of action!

I could hardly keep up with them and where they were going!  

They had a blast!

A couple hours later they were all tired and hungry.

We headed home for hot dogs, cup cakes and ice cream.

The only disappointment he had was that we didn't let him play video games (because we only had 2 controlers and there were 6 kids).  

But he was pretty happy with the Bionicle movie he got to watch instead.

~~

Happy Birthday Mr. Noaha-Lowa

You're a great kid.

We all love you very much!

The Big 2!

 Two years ago today Eli Owen joined our family!

Eli is such a happy, content boy. He is easy going and will put up with just about anything...except nursery at church!

Eli is such a typical boy! He loves to race cars on his car track all day log. He loves trains. He loves dirt, sticks, being outside, bikes and skateboards.

He also will sit and play princess and house with his sister, make me some dinner in the toy kitchen and give the best cuddles around.

He doesn't just give five, but loves "bones" or "knuckles" too. Each time he makes them explode like little fireworks too.

Eli loves his two "ankies" (blankets)...and of course those little two fingers that keep him happy. That is going to be one hard habit to break!

His favorite color is blue. Because if you ask him what color anything is, blue is always the answer.

Eli is a talker! He totally reminds us of Noah because, just like Noah, he can say anything an everything. Some examples of things he loves to say:

Crossing guard (we wave at him 3 times a school day), ankie, ancake (pancake), pillow pet, car, train, show, and the one that makes us laugh every time he says it, 

"I fart!"

He can also say everyone's name in the family: Daddy, Mom, Gage, Noah, Abery (says it with a b), I (for himself) and baby.

Eli totally thinks he is just as big as everyone else around here. He loves jumping off the couch an stairs, trying to ride the big bikes, and being a total dare devil! He thinks he needs to sit on the potty everyone someone else goes, we are totally not going there yet though!

At bedtime he loves to climb in his own crib and jump. But then we tell him, "Eli, it's time to lay down and go to sleep" and he does!

He loves to help do the dishes, he tries his best to put away silverware. (I find it in all sorts of drawers!) an after grocery shopping I can always find him at the back of the van when we get home, waiting for a bag to carry in. He loves to tell me, "I help!"

He really is an easy going kid. I hope that the 2 and 3 year old years won't change that:)

(He recently added "mine!" to his vocabulary, so I'm not holding my breath!)

It's hard to believe that it's been 2 years already.

He makes us smile and laugh every day. 

 We love little Eli!

Easter 2012

I am finally getting around to blogging about Easter this year.  We celebrate all week long with different activities.  Monday we talked about the Easter story using the pictures from the gospel art kit.  Then I took the pictures and taped them up on a wall in the house.  We left it up all week and it was a nice reminder for the kids (and myself!).  

We also learned a new song - which Gage got to sing with his best friend Luca in Sacrament Meeting at church Easter Sunday in front of the whole congregation!  I thought when they asked us if he could sing it that they asked that both my boys could sing it, so Noah learned it too.  He did such a great job and practiced so hard, but when we got there Sunday his name wasn't on the program.  He was a little heart-broken, but he recovered.  Gage did an awesome job singing the song.  He loves to sing.

Friday night we had some friends over and we made our annual Resurrection Cookies.

Friday one of my sisters and her family flew in from Utah.  It was great to have extra family here and the kids had a lot of fun with their cousins.

Saturday started the big festivities.  I started to post all the pictures, but quickly realized I had too many so I made some quick pages.

Saturday morning we headed to the church for the kid Easter egg hunt.  Avery is such a girl, she would only pick up pink or purple eggs!

Saturday afternoon we dyed Easter Eggs with our cousins in Olympia.

And then Saturday night we headed out for the annual egg roll.  It was fun introducing my sister's family to this silly tradition.

Sunday was a great Easter day.  We spent time together as a family, enjoyed church service, ate too much food at my parents and enjoyed the spirit of the day.  And I didn't take a single picture!

It was a perfect Easter Season.

{Baptism}

Eight is GREAT!

In our church once a child is eight they can make the choice to be baptized.

So, Saturday was Gage's special big day!  

Gage was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

We had a small program Saturday morning.  Wade's parents were even able to fly in from Utah just for the special weekend.

Gage and his Grandpas.

The Grandmas

Avery kept asking for a picture with Gage.  She was pretty excited about the morning.

Our little family.  I've decided, it is impossible to get a picture where we are all looking at the camera (and no one is making faces).

Our four little monkeys.

We set up a table of different pictures of Gage growing up.  The kids all had a good time looking at his baby pictures after the program.  The big plate of Costco cookies also helped the pictures become a main attraction too.

Gage had such a great day.  We were able to have a special program just for him that included almost all the family.  Noah said the opening prayer and Grandma Christiansen said the closing.  Gage chose the songs we sang that day, "I am a Child of God" for the opening song and "Scripture Power" for the closing.  His Grandma Bullard played the piano and I led the music.  Grandpa Christiansen gave a short talk about baptism.  And Grandpa Bullard gave a short talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Gage had called his best friend Luca earlier that week and asked her if she would want to play a special musical number.  She played  and sang "I'm trying to be like Jesus" on the piano.  It was so good we asked her to do it two times!

Wade performed the baptism and the confirmation.  They looked so handsome!

During the baptism a lot of the kids moved to sit on the floor next to the font.  As soon as the baptism was over, Avery turned around and loudly declared to the crowd of people, "It's my turn next!"

After the baptism program we headed out for a celebration lunch at The Rock for Gage's request - pizza and burgers.  Wade took this really attractive picture of our group.  We did have a great time!

It was such a fantastic day.  It's hard to believe he is already 8!  He is growing up so fast.  Gage tries really hard to make good choices.  He is always striving to choose the right.  He is a great example to his brothers and sister.  We are so happy and proud of Gage!

It was a one amazing day - one we will never forget!