I've Been Blessed...

...with 35 years of life! And with a wonderful family to celebrate with on my birthday.

We went to dinner and then the girls and Steve surprised me with an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins filled with my FAVORITE ice cream Pralines and Cream. YUMMO!! They also got me a Carrie Underwood CD.

Turning 35 has got me thinking. I'm not in my early 30's anymore. I'm now mid 30's approaching the later 30's. I remember when I was in my early 20's and thinking wow, the 30's are so far away and mid 30 people are so much older and more mature. But now that I'm here, I don't feel that much older. Well, my body is starting to feel older but I still feel like I'm on the young side but do my teenage nieces and nephews view me as a lot older. I'm no longer in the 34 and younger group that they consider lower risk for having babies. Now if I have baby they will put me in a riskier group because of my age. Ugh!! I remember my mom in her 30's because I was between the ages of 9-17 during that time. She was my mom but she was so much older but now I think, "I'm the same age she was then but she seemed so much older to me, but now that I'm here she really wasn't." O.k. now, I'm getting too deep even for myself. Oh well, I'm happy where I'm at and I'm glad I don't think I'm as old as I thought people were when I was in my early 20's. I'm still a spring chicken, right???

A visit from Grandma, Grandpa, and Great-Grandma

My mom and grandma flew out of Denver to Arizona to see my mom's brother and came back the day before Father's Day and my dad drove down to give us his bikes. Audrey likes to curl up next to her grandpa and this time she took a snooze. I used to love to sit next to my grandpa Thompson (my dad's dad) and I have seen many a picture of the two of us close together like the above picture.

Greeting my mom and Grandma at the airport

The girls wanted to ride on the luggage

This one didn't work out so well. Audrey slid down and went kaboom.

My mom bought them these outfits and I think they are so cute.

Our First Family Bike Ride!!!

I AM SO EXCITED!! For years I have wanted to bike ride as a family but I never thought Steve would get into it but we talked about it one day just randomly and then soon after we were on Craig's List looking for bike trailers. We were fortunate my parents had bikes that they used over 20 years ago sitting in their garage they said we could have. So my dad drove them down, my brother fixed them up, we got a bike trailer for Owen and Audrey, and a bike trailer that is like a tandem bike for Olivia and off we went. We still need to get helmets for Steve and I but we went on our first bike ride on Saturday and it was a BLAST!!! The kids had so much fun and my legs were like jello when it was over, my buns were sore the next day but I can't wait to do it again!!!

At one point I looked back and Audrey was holding Owen's hand.

The best part of the whole day was when we were riding through our community there were a lot of people outside because there was a community garage sale and Olivia kept saying "Hello" to everyone she saw. And this is the conversation that followed:

Steve: Why are you saying hello to everyone you see?
Olivia: Because they are precious in God's eyes. (We have been teaching them about the 'preciousness of others' or the value of others - something we learned in a parenting class.)
And because God loves them.

Soon after we came to some really pretty rolling grass and:

Olivia: Oh how beautiful it is!
Steve: You know what's beautiful is you and me on a bike ride together.
Olivia: I just love family bike rides!
Olivia: I love my sister, I just want to kiss her little lips.

Later we were crossing a busy street and Steve and Livi were ahead of us. Olivia was very worried that we weren't going to make it across the rode and someone might hit us. Audrey heard her and yelled out, "It's o.k. sis, I'll be fine."

You know it's not everyday that you hear siblings talk lovingly toward each other but when they do it's so awesome. Sometimes bickering can just get to you so when I hear them like this it makes me smile. They do love and care about each other.

A Fun Ballerina Birthday Party!!

Olivia and Audrey's friend Caroline turned 6 and had a ballerina birthday party and everyone dressed up like ballerinas. It was such a cute idea and the girls had a blast.

Caroline's mommy has taken ballet classes so she was teaching the girls some things about ballet. She even got our her toe shoes towards the end and the girls were in awe.

Learning ballet moves

They blew bubbles at the end and walked around in flower petals.

The Ballerinas

I don't want my picture taken

Don't you smile

There it is! (with some kind of pose thrown in)

Thanks for the great party Joy, you did such a good job and we had so much fun. Thanks for the memories!

Swimming with friends

We had a fun day swimming last week with Vicki, Paityn, and Jake.

Jake did not want to look at me for this picture.

Olivia

Paityn

He loved the water

Holding Hands and Hail

I went to check on the girls before I went to bed and this is what I found. My sister Amber and I always used to hold hands when we fell asleep so this made my heart ache with joy remembering back to my childhood and my close relationship with my sister. Audrey told me when she saw this picture that she reached over and grabbed Olivia's hand when she fell asleep.

We've had a lot of rain and hail lately. The other day it came down so hard, the kids and I were in the grocery store and it was so loud it sounded like it was going to come through the roof. They were so scared. I don't know if they have ever seen hail before, or at least they acted like they hadn't so we went and watched it through the glass doors. When we got home I found this big piece of hail in my front yard. It's the biggest one I've ever seen. I haven't seen any damage so that's good.

7 Months Old!

Hi Buddy! What's going on with you this month? Well...

• you weigh around 19 lbs. (oops, when I took him to the dr. a few days later he weighed in at 18 lbs. 10 oz. so my scale is a little off)
  
• still wearing size 3 diapers
• you wear 6-9 and 9 month clothes but are starting to wear a few 9-12 month clothes.
  
• you are sitting very well without support
• your first two teeth broke through and came in on the bottom probably a week after you turned 6 months. Boy have those been boogers, you don't like them and have been fussier than usual. They are still only about 1/2 way through and daddy thinks the top ones are coming in too.
  
• Still sleeping good through the night. From around 7:30 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. , nurse, then back down until 7 or 8 a.m. So from 11-12 hours most nights.
  
• 2 naps but every once in awhile 3.
• you are babbling a lot lately and you definitely are saying da da da da or da da and you repeat it when I say it sometimes, so cute.
• you started eating baby food about 6 months 1 week and you love it. So far you have had brown rice cereal, avocados, bananas, sweet potatoes, winter squash, and pears. You want to eat more than I remember your sisters wanting to eat. Maybe that's because you are bigger.
  
• your daddy has been traveling for work and boy do you light up like a Christmas tree when you see him again.
  
• And just today, you got up on your knees for the first time and rocked back and forth like you are getting ready to crawl. It won't be long.
  

I really wanted a picture of you in this OU onesie before you outgrew it and you were not happy with me.

A picture of The Cat in the Hat onesie from Grandma...

...and the back

His shirt says Cutest Dude on it.

Audrey Did a Flipover

Audrey - "Mom, mom, hurry, come look, I did a flipover!"
Me - "A what?"
Audrey - "A flipover!"

Me - "Oh, you mean a somersault!"
Audrey was so excited that she learned how to do a somersault, and so proud. It's amazing how these things really get them excited and they really want you to watch over and over.

Then big sister had to have her turn.

1st Zoo Day

Owen's 1st trip to the Zoo. Look at those chunker legs, hee hee.

Come on Dad - PUSH!!

Because the double stroller above only holds two we decided to rent this wagon for the girls. What am I going to do if I go to the zoo without Steve? Livi can walk I guess but she gets tired so fast.

Nap time

Riding the carousel with dad

If you click on this picture Olivia is behind Audrey on the dolphin.

I wanted Steve to take a picture of me with Owen in front of the steel giraffes so he got us but not much of the giraffes. One giraffe's head is cut off and the other giraffe is nibbling my hair.

One tuckered girl