Memorial Day 2009

Someone asked if they could take our picture together, and then we took a picture of them. Too bad Ryan was in doing a session at the time or he would be in the picture, too.

Olivia's first attempt at taking a picture. She may have a future ahead of her.

Luke wanted to take a picture of the Fountain.

For Memorial Day Weekend we wanted to take a trip to Chicago to do Temple Work, and have an mini vacation with the family. You know, we've kind of made it a tradition to do Temple Work on Memorial Day Weekend, I realize we're not visiting graves of those who have gone on before us, but the work which we are doing for them helps them to progress in gaining the greatest blessings available for them. It's kind of a nice thought.

We went to the Temple right as we got to Chicago. It was so nice to be able to be there. Then we went to check into our hotel. I thought about going to Navy Pier, but the only thought on the kid's minds were about the swimming pool. So we went swimming. To Livvy now, Chicago means hotel swimming pool.

After swimming, we went to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, the food was okay, but the cheesecake was delicious. Next time, I think we'll eat somewhere else and just go for the cheesecake.

On Sunday we went to church with our friends Molly and Raymond, and their kids Weston and William. They invited us back to their house to eat and visit. It was very nice.

On Monday, we went to the Brookfield Zoo. It is such a great fun zoo. Everyone was at the zoo that day, you couldn't hardly turn around. My neck froze up, so I wasn't the nicest person around, but we still had fun. As we left, the rain started falling, our timing couldn't have been more perfect.

The Geese and their goslings were the big hit of the day. Luke and Livvy would have followed them everywhere if we had let them.

The baby giraffe is tired.

The Brookfield Zoo has the best monkey house ever. We had fun watching them play. Unfortunately the lighting is bad for pictures.

The Polar Bears are so playful here. This particular bear was doing as Livvy and I called it, "the Backwards Dance," and as Luke called it the "Moon Walk." Whatever it was it was hilarious. Over and over again he would come sauntering backwards out of his house until he reached the pool. Then he would head back inside, just to repeat his backwards swagger back to the pool again. We watched it over and over again.

Last we went to the "Dinosaurs Alive" exhibit. It was okay, we expected a lot more considering you had to pay extra to see it. Livvy was freaked out by the huge monsters, and there were so many people we just rushed through to get out of there. There were so many toddlers screaming in terror, because these dinosaurs move their head and there are roaring noises piped in for the show. It wasn't worth it.

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend. I can't wait to continue the tradition next year.

Cute Random Things about Olivia

In an effort to remember funny things my 2 year old says, this a post for her.

Vocabulary:



Sadirt= dessert

StinkerBell= TinkerBell

Eldigator= Elevator and Escalator (she's just over coming her fear of both).

Painted Nail Polish= Fingernail Polish

Flip Flips= Flip Flops

Smack It!= hit it or smash it

Bob= Caterpillar

It's Blooding= It's bleeding!

Can I hold you? = Will you hold me?

Nicely = Please

MissTina = Christina





Olivia fell down the other day, and came up crying- she was tired, not hurt, and she cried out "Oh, I've got a hang nail!"



I lost it the other day when Livvy stuck her Cheetos covered hand into her bulk container of hair conditioner, and let her know- angrily how expensive that stuff was and it was not to play with. Now whenever she sees the conditioner, she says' "That's spensive" and she doesn't stick her hand it it. Man, a new 32 ounce wide mouthed bottle of condition ($52) and we had to scoop the Cheetos part away. Ahhh well, lesson learned by mom and daughter.

When I remember or hear some more, I'll make a new post. Luke and I have been racking our brains trying to remember what she says, so I'll be better about writing them down from now on.

A second mom

Last night as we were reading scriptures, Luke was acting out. I was telling him it was time to shape up and settle down. Livvy was copying me, repeating every word I said, using the same tone of voice. I turned to her and said, "Livvy, you're not the mom!" in my firm voice. She tips her head to the side and answered with her million dollar smile, "Am I the dad?"

We all had a good laugh.

Happy Mother's Day 2009

Well, it's not the best picture, but I thought I would post my new do. I went and got my hair cut as an early Mother's Day treat for myself last week. I really like it, but this was the best I could do taking my own picture as I was running out the door for church.

Oh, you ask why Ryan didn't take the picture? Because he had meetings before church on Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day to all you women out there.

My Mother's Day.

Ryan brought me the laptop so I could work on my talk in bed, while he and Luke fixed me breakfast in bed.

I got to open my presents during breakfast. Olivia picked out a huge container of water balloons for me. Oh, I've so been wanting some of those.

Luke couldn't find the gift he wanted to buy me, so he bought me the movie the Ant Bully.

Oh boy, I've been dying to see that. I haven't got the reviews for you on that one yet.

Ryan bought me some foot lotion from Bath and Body Works.

Ryan and I then had one of those under the breath talks about what kind of presents the dad is letting the kids pick out.

After breakfast, Ryan occupied the kids while I continued to stress over my talk.

12:00 Ryan fixes the kids a sandwich while I'm trying to straighten my hair. 12:05 he leaves for meetings while I'm still working on my hair.

12:15 I hear Livvy yelling something so I go to see what's going on. She is coming up the stairs (with the new carpet) with a cup of chocolate syrup in it, yelling she wants me to make her some chocolate milk.

I then see the chocolate hand prints up the wall she is leaving in her trail.

Enter kitchen and see the puddle of chocolate syrup on the floor (wood, thank goodness), and look around to see what else there could be. While getting a rag to clean up the mess, I notice the afore mentioned cute girl holding the chocolate syrup bottle, chugging the syrup as fast as she can. I take it away from her, and notice the chocolate smudges all over her face.

Then as I go to wash the hand prints off the wall, she climbs on the counter, and pours honey all over and proceeds to finger paint with it. (Honey left out by the honey who made the sandwiches).

As I'm grabbing her away from that, Luke comes in the kitchen and steps in the puddle of chocolate syrup and proceeds to leave footprints of it on his way to the bathroom to wash his foot.
At this point, I, who am on the phone, groan out, "why do we have Mother's Day?"

Well, I got the majority of the mess cleaned up, (I'm still cleaning up sticky parts on the floor) and even made it to church on time. My talk went fairly well, and I can even laugh about the messes I was dealt that day.

After church our Ward held a Linger-Longer. We had made a crock pot full of Kahlua Pork. I tasted a little as I was shredding the meat and it was delicious. Unfortunately, we ended up at the back of the line, and got a tiny portion of it, and little of anything else. But we ended up going to Rollie and Jonathan's house and had grilled salmon which was so delicious, so it was all good.

So the day wasn't picture perfect, but if it was, there wouldn't be any special reason to remember it. So I'll take it, and love it. And I'll love my family forever. Like I said in my talk, I'm so thankful not only to be a mother, but I am so thankful that I can be Lukas and Olivia's mother. Life is good.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Eva, Penelope, and Olivia enjoying the fruits of their labors.

For Cinco de Mayo we had some friend's over to celebrate. We had a very "Americanized" Mexican meal of Chicken Enchilada's, Warm Fajita Salad, 4 cheese rice, refried beans, salsa and chips. It was good food and good company. What more can you ask for?

After dinner, Luke had decorated, as only an 8 year old boy can, a paper bag pinata. Unfortunately he had to leave for scouts before we were able to break it open. The 3 little girls weren't exactly sure why they we whacking the bag with a stick, but they were sure happy when the candy came falling out.

Families

We had a very fun Family Home Evening where we talked about the blessings of the Temple. Then we all built a Temple out of 3 ounce Dixie cups. The kids thought it was great.

Here are our hideously cute baby birds. Their nest is on our fence post butted up to the house. We have fun checking on them and making sure they're still there.

It was so neat, when Luke found the nest we actually got to watch one of the birds coming out of it's shell. That was a first for us all. We thought it was a cool experience.

Playing goalie. No goals got past him this time.

Ready for the game.

See the line judge in the background?

He's on a breakaway!
GOAL!

Soccer season has started yet again. Luke is doing great! He has turned into a great forward, and loves to score. We are loving cheering for him. He is going to play again next season. Wahoo!

Shipshewana

:(I only thought I wanted to ride on the horsey:(

Brooklyn has such a big smile!

We went to Shipshewana as a family to look around and shop. The kids, rode the carousel at the mercantile. Everyone but Livvy loved it. Olivia was so funny, she wanted to ride it so bad, but freaked out and wouldn't sit on an animal. So she and Ryan ended up on the bench.

Hotel Fun

Cute girls!

Ang titled this photo, "Look alive, Luke" and I have to agree. He was so excited to have his picture taken like this. Boys!?!

Kick those legs!

One of the perks of having Grandma and Grandpa G, and Eric and Ang and family staying at the hotel, is that we were able to go swimming. The kids had so much fun. It, of course, took Livvy a little while to warm up to it, but she saw Kaiya having fun and she decided that she liked it too. The pool also had a hot tub, that was very hot. Brooklyn, Kaiya, and Luke loved the hot tub and looked like little lobsters. Olivia put a big toe in and wouldn't have anything to do with it.

Happy Easter

Livvy's hunting for eggs filled with CANDY.

Luke so wanted Silly String, and that good little Easter Bunny brought him some.

CANDY, Livvy's favorite!

Grandma and Grandpa P with the grand kids.



Grandma P with her matching Easter Bunnies.

We had a wonderful Easter this year with family at our house. It worked out so well that grandmas and grandpas and Eric and Angella came for Luke's baptism on Easter Weekend. It was so fun to have everyone here. Somehow, Gary and Rose were able to allude the camera's yet again, and so we have no pictures of them. How did that happen? Hmmm maybe it had something to do with me losing my camera.

Church doesn't start until 2:00 P.M. so we had a nice relaxing Easter morning. We slept in a bit, then tried to keep the kids occupied until Eric and Ang and the kids made it over. Once they came we had an Easter Egg hunt and enjoyed our Easter baskets until it came time for church. After church we came home and enjoyed a delicious Easter ham with a mustard ring, Crash Hot Potatoes, Raspberry Pretzel jello, and all the fixings. It was great. It was so nice to have our family here with us for Easter. What a blessing.

8 is Great!

On Saturday April 11, 2009 we had the amazing opportunity to have a baptism for our son Lukas Gavin. It was a very special time, and both sets of Luke's grandparents were able to make it from Idaho to come and see him be baptized. Eric and Angella and their family were able to make it from Ohio too. We are so grateful to all our family and friends who came to support Luke and our family on this very special day.

Luke and his very proud dad.

What a handsome boy!


Happy and proud mom with her wonderful Luke!

Warming up the piggies.

Grandpa P with Brooklyn and Kaiya.


Grandma P with baby Sarah. (Rollie's in the background).

Valerie and Larisa (with Sonja in the background). I wish we could have gotten more pictures of our friend's and family who came. :( Sorry we didn't, but we're glad you were there for us.

Beauty Shop

We had some friends over to show off our new floors earlier in April. The three cute girls decided that the dog needed to be "prettied" up as well. They were so excited to chase the poor dog around looping necklaces around her body.

Ashleigh, Brynn, and Livvy are all smiles putting the pretties on the dog. Cali, on the other hand, looks a little embarrassed.

Props to Ryan

If you know my wonderful husband, you know he is a hard worker. He sets his goals and loves to see success. That's something that was hard to do in his previous job. He would work his tail off, but because his employees actions (in the state of Michigan-Idaho was a different story great employees, good success), he never saw the sweet result of all his hard work.
The great thing about his new job, is that when he works his tail off, he gets to see the results of his efforts. Ryan was able to set a record for the state of Michigan for the month of April in regards to selling the power wheelchairs. Yea for Ryan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I sure love Ryan. I love that he's happy in his new job, and love that he wants to take care of his family. I love that he's able to see the results of all his hard work and efforts.
Love you Ryan. You're the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, that was fast...

My camera is done already. I can't believe how quickly they fixed it this time. I was so excited to download some pictures today, but Ryan needed to take the camera to work. We need to find a cheap camera for work.
For those of you who don't know, lately I've had a really bad track record with cameras. Before this camera, (which has been in the shop twice in the almost 18 months I've had it) I went through 3 cameras in 2 years. Some are my fault that they broke, and some have been because of help from little friends.
I am so thankful I bought the extended warranty, but I just remembered the warranty runs out in February of '10. According to Ryan, and I agree with him, it's time to start saving for a new camera.

out of order

My camera broke again, and I feel like I'm out of order to the blogging world. I don't even have access to my pictures I've taken to upload them.
So now I'm enjoying all of your blogs while mine sits lonely and abandoned for the time being. Hopefully we'll get it back soon, they said it could take up to 6 weeks. I'm glad I bought the extended warranty. It has sure paid off.

Here she is, Miss America

Well, she may not be Miss America, but Miss California has got some guts!

Tag, you're it!

Here's how to do this 8 THINGS thing:

Mention the person that tagged you- Kasey
Complete the lists of 8's.

Tag 8 of your wonderful bloggy friends.

Go tell them you tagged them!

8 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO

1. Not understanding Luke's homework (oops, that's already happened).
2. Receiving Livvy's hair product in the mail
3. Livvy leaving the "put almost everything in her mouth" stage. (most stages I am completely happy to live in the moment- this one scares me).
4. Being able to run 5 days a week again.
5. Building my dream boy's bathroom in my house.
6. Being completely debt free (including mortgage)
7. Learning to braid Livvy's hair
8. The Resurrection


8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY
1. Made phone calls.
2. Had Family Home Evening.
3. Fixed Mexican Pizza's for dinner.
4. Took Luke's forgotten lunch to school.
5. Went to the library with Olivia.
6. Did research on swimming lessons for the kids.
7. Took a message for Ryan regarding the product he represents (how did his patient get our home phone #?)
8. Cleaned

8 THINGS I WISH I COULD DO
1. Always keep my temper in check.
2. Hire someone to clean my bathrooms.
3. Play indoor soccer year round.
4. Organize better, and make better use of my time.
5. Always be in shape
6. Have more energy
7. Listen better
8. Have more interest in decorating (house, home office, for holidays...)

8 SHOWS I WATCH
1. Extreme Makeover Home Addition
2. Jon and Kate plus 8
3. Little People Big World
4. Today Show
5. Monk
6. Diner's Drive In's and Dive's
7. Dinner Impossible
8. Disney Channel

8 BLOGGERS TAGGED
1. Tammy
2. Carrie
3. Molly
4. Andrea
5. Valerie
6. Alicia
7. Angella
8. Stacy

Enough from me, let's hear from you.

Ramble

I know that life will never really slow down, (at least for many, many, many more years), but it seems as if things are out of control lately. I finish one major commitments, and bounce right to the next one. Then throw car trouble in on top of it, and a beautiful little girl who needs to get her mischievous side out of her and it gets a little crazy.
I lost the cord to attached my camera to download my pictures to the computer. I'm sure I will find it soon, and then I will be able to post some events from our last couple of weeks.
But I sure am thankful for the 2 days of beautiful weather we've had, and am looking forward to some more.
Ramble.
So anyway, I'm off to run and try and clear my head.

Now as I go back and read this I'm not really sure why I would post it because it's a jumbled mess. Maybe it's so that when I look back on this I can remember how life just felt topsy turvy at this point. I know we all have our times like that. This is one of those for me.

Bunk Beds

How many of you out there have bunk beds for your kids? They are great! You've got 2 beds, (3 if you're Sarah) and they save so much space in the kid's room. I love them...all except for when it's time to make them.
Can there be a more difficult task? I pull the mattress off and put the mattress pad and fitted sheet on, then put it back on the bed to put the sheets and blankets on. How do you tuck the sheets in, and keep them tidy so they don't hang onto the lower bed? And then ouch, trying to shove the sheets and blankets through that tiny little crack in the first place. As you can tell, I just recently put Luke's bunk beds back together, and made it all neat and tidy. And then what did I find after he crawled on up there to sleep? He pulled all the sheets out of the end that I considered the foot of the bed to become the head of his bed. I just about cried. Oh well, he slept well.
Surely one of us should become rich making an easier way to make a bunk bed.

did you?

Did you ever have the feeling there's a woset in your closet?

I'm back

Can you tell I'm back on line? I've got my computer back. Thanks Ryan. Ahhh, the power at my fingertips.

Birthdays and Blessings

We went to Ohio for Luke's birthday and for Sweet Sarah's Baby Blessing. We had fun, other than Olivia spiked a fever while we were there and was on round the clock breathing treatments. Uncle Eric was so nice to make Luke's favorite birthday treat. Cheesecake. Eric made a white chocolate cheesecake, and Luke was in Heaven.

Luke loves to hold little Sarah.

Olivia and Brooklyn were enjoying their cheesecake.

Yum! Luke licked the candle clean. You just can't let any of that cheesecake go to waste.
I'm not sure why he has such a sober expression on his face. He was loving his birthday.

Sweet Sarah- all dressed up for her blessing. The lighting isn't great, and her dress and the blanket have the same type of pattern. But boy is she cute.




Where's Kaiya? I didn't get any pictures of her. Sorry.