Ode to Rachael Olson

One of the coolest people I know had a blog entry not too long ago (here's her blog http://http://myolsonfamily.blogspot.com/) where she and her hubby found an old dresser by the dumpster. They hauled it in and made it into an awesome TV/DVD stand. I chuckled at first and thought, "that Rachael is a hoot!" but admired her for having the guts to haul that thing in and turn it into the cool piece they did.

Then...last night, Travis came home from work at 10pm. He took the garbage out like he always does (good husband). He came back in and said, "There is a little computer desk and a cupboard thing out by the dumpster. They look kinda nice. You should go look. So, I put on my flip flops and went out to look. They were in really good shape! The desk was on wheels, so I (very noisily)rolled the thing across the parking lot. I came in and told him he had to help me haul the thing up the stairs. Then, I cleared a space in the living room by the sliding doors (lots of natural light), pulled all my homeschool stuff out of the cardboard box that they were in, and set up our official 'school desk'. We used to have the laundry room as our classroom, but with three kids now learning, we've kinda outgrown it. So, since I have been making them do lots of worksheets lately, this desk is perfect. They get me one on one and they have a cool desk to sit at.

If you were wondering about the cupboard thing...we didnt bring it in. I'm kinda regretting that now. It's purple. My color! But it looked heavy and now it's been sitting in the rain all day. Who knows. Maybe I'll still go out and try to salvage it. And since we know half the people in our complex, it probably belonged to someone we know, so...thanks to you if you are reading this and left it.(o:

So, here it is...the desk! I love it! Thanks for the inspiration Rachael! You da bomb!

Blessing Preview

So this morning I woke up with the terrifying thought that Elizabeth might not fit into her blessing dress. For those non-Mormon people...we do not baptize our infants~that is done when they reach the age of 8, but we do give our babies a special blessing. Travis does this for our family and it is done during church, usually on the first Sunday of the month (which we call Fast Sunday because it is a day set aside for fasting). Also, usually, we bless our babies the first Fast Sunday after they are born. Since Elizabeth was still in the hospital on that day, we thought of doing it the first Sunday of March, but Travis ended up having to work, so we are going to do it on March 29th. (which, I know, isn't the first Sunday of April, but we will be having our church's General Conference the first Sunday, therefore Fast Sunday got bumped up a week)

Anyway, since we are having to delay 4 weeks, I was afraid that the little dress that my parents gave Elizabeth for her blessing (the boys were blessed in their dad's blessing outfit) would be too small. So, to ease my anxiety this morning, I tried it on her. It, of course, fits perfectly and will be plenty big enough to fit her next Sunday. She looked so beautiful I just had to snap some pictures. She was in a very good mood, which she may not be in on Sunday, so I thought it would be a good idea to capture her happy anyway.

So, here are a few pictures I shot of her this morning. Joseph saw the pictures and said, "Elizabeth looks like a beautiful princess!!!" and Spencer said, "Yep, she sure looks sharp!" (o:

Even her little shoes are cute!

This was a little later in the morning. I was getting ready to dress her. She loves to be naked and was just cracking herself up, so of course I had to take a picture of that too.

And, in case you were wondering...yes, I still have three sons and yes, I do pay attention to them. Connor is still getting into plenty of trouble, Spencer is still addicted to SIM City, and Joseph is very busy drawing and playing monster trucks.

Daddy

Today we were out driving around and I just couldn't help think what a good daddy Travis is. Last night he was holding Elizabeth, talking to her, getting her to coo back at him. It was so sweet. He has always been great with our kids, but I can't help notice that he is more lovey dovey mushy with his baby girl. I think some of the reason is because she is our 4th baby and he's more comfortable, but I think lots of it is that she is his daughter. His little girl. He likes all the pink. (o: It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy watching him interact with her. Well, with all the kids really. I just am really grateful that I have a husband who loves his children and is such a good father to them. They sure do love him.

Here are a couple of pictures that I really like...

This is Travis when he was little. I think he said Kindergarten or maybe first grade. Wasn't he cute? I love the 70's clothes.

Here he is talking to Elizabeth. She has him around her little finger. (o:

Here we are watching some random kids softball game that we happened upon. We ate our lunch and cheered all the kids on.

Here they are in a park in West Seattle. He's not afraid to get dirty. (o:
He also loves to teach the boys things. Here he was teaching Connor how to kick a ball. I couldn't find the picture of him showing the boys crabs under rocks at the beach, but I have it somewhere. I have a ton of those kinds of pictures. He is a great dad and I love him with all my heart. We all do!

For Grandma Teese

Hi Grandma Teese! I miss you! Come back and visit me! I love you!!!

(she looks like she's flipping you the bird, but she really isn't, I swear~wrong finger) (o:

Blasts from the Past!

Last night Travis and I were going through a box of old photos looking for pictures from his mission to post on Facebook. There are a bunch of people from his mission that are putting together a Columbus Ohio Mission page, so we were working on helping add to it. We came across some pretty funny old pictures of ourselves. I can't believe we were ever this young! So, in the spirit of sharing but also to document and have an extra copy of these somewhere, here are a couple of funny old pictures. (mom, please don't disown me for this) (o:
This was taken at Travis's apartment at Ricks College in Rexburg, ID, not long after we got engaged. We were sooo in love and so young! (1994)

This is Travis and Rob McKnight, one of his roomies. He roomed with Rob's older brother, Jason, also. Travis and Jason served in Ohio together. I love the cinched jacket. This was 1994 also.

Tee hee. This is Mom and Dad in 1994. Dad, what's up with that hat? Look how cute you two were!!!!

This scanned terrible, but it was the night that I got my wedding dress. My mom bought that yellow dress at a thrift store as a joke. She claimed it was her Mother of the Bride dress. I wouldn't have cared. I was just so happy to get married, Ireally didn't care much about the details. Just wanted the wedding. (o: This is at my parents in St. Louis. Travis took the photo.

Travis took this when we were engaged. This is at Mom and Dad's house in St. Louis. I took him there to meet my parents. He called this my Hillary Clinton headband look. I just like how skinny I was!

One more of my guy. Here he is with Barry Brooksby on their mission. Travis was pretty dang skinny there. Note the nice square glasses. It was good that he broke those while out there and had to get the more "modern" round ones. (You know, the gigantic round ones that took up half his face)

Okay, that's enough for now. We had a ton of fun looking through all these last night. This barely scratches the surface of what we found, but it's a good sampling. (o: That's all for now.

A Video of Elizabeth

A special shout out to Grandma Teese here! (o: I would say turn down the volume cause my voice is embarrassing, but she coo's so you gotta hear big dorky me.

Random Things

Here are some random stories and pictures worth sharing. The first couple are funny. See, Connor loves the toy mice that Grandma Deone has for their cats, Misty and Whiskers. He's always playing with them when we go over to their house. Deone bought a new little mouse that squeaks when you bounce it. He fell in love and brought it home. Cats never even got to see the thing. (o: This morning I went into the living room and started talking. Connor said, "Mommy! Be quiet! You're going to wake up Chet!" Now, I knew that they named the little mouse Chet (after the mouse in the PBS Kids Go show Ruff Ruffman), but I didn't know Chet now had his own "house". I look in the bucket (that should be holding a billion Lego's), and this is what I found...
Do you see little Chet? Connor even let Chet borrow his super special yellow blanket!

Do you see the cheese and graham crackers? I asked why cheese and graham crackers and Connor said it was because mice like cheese and he likes the crackers so he thought he would share what he liked too. Isn't that so super cute? He has been asking to watch "Ratatouille" every day lately too. Isn't it sweet that he wants to take care of the thing? I love it!

This is a picture that Joseph took. He really enjoys taking pictures of me holding Elizabeth. She was laughing at the dog up until we got the camera out. By then she was just looking, but it was cute all the same. Oh, and for anyone noticing...yes, I'm wearing the same outfit as I was in the pictures from last week, but I can explain. That is my Weight Watchers outfit. I wear the same thing every time I go weigh in and since I had just gotten home (where I lost 6.2 pounds by the way) that is why I'm wearing the same clothes. For anyone who has tried to lose weight and gone to WW, you know the obsession of wearing the same clothes each time, or at least clothes that weigh the same amount. (yes, I weigh my clothes) Hey, this is serious business! (o: And I would concede that I'm a little bit weird except I go to my meetings and meet lots of people who do the same thing. Anyway... I didn't come here to tell you all that. Next picture!

This is my latest and greatest attempt to get the kids (including Travis and myself) to get things done around the house. I write a few chores down that I really want done, and then we all do them and get to erase the ones we do. Who doesn't love erasing dry erase off a board? Let me tell ya. Since I started this a few days ago, things are getting done. Even Daddy is getting to erase "take out the garbage". Even though he does it every day, he's now getting a little recognition. (o:

Last one. Do you remember the photos of our skeletons we did back before Elizabeth was born? You don't? Well, I would put a fancy link to that day here, but since I'm not Shauna and don't know how, I'll just tell you it was on January 28th that I showed off our school work about skeletons. Well, here is our latest study parts. This is a tracing of Joseph and he is displaying a brain, heart, lungs, stomach and intestines. (the green thing is broccoli. Joseph thought it important to have a bit of food getting ready to enter the mouth) We still have to discuss the muscles and how they are attached to the bones, but I was so proud of all this I just had to show it off. See how much fun homeschooling can be? The best part of the whole homeschooling thing is that when we talked about the intestines and waste etc, we got to say poop a bunch of times! It was awesome!

Okay, I better go now because Joseph is supposed to be in bed, but won't go until I tell him my favorite monster truck from Monster Jam. I would have to say that it would probably me Medusa since it's driven by a girl, but I also really like Grave Digger and Big Foot. Oh, sorry, I was just informed that Big Foot isn't from monster jam. What a dummy I am. (o: Does anyone else have a favorite?

That's all the randomness I can come up with tonight. I better go and get the dvd all ready to go. Travis will be home soon and we like to watch "Noises Off" and eat a snack together when he works late. He will be home soon. Have a lovely day!

Waaayyy Too Fast!

I just had to document that today a decision had to be made. I can no longer dress my baby girl in newborn clothes. They still fit, but juuusst barely and I really don't want her to get uncomfortable. She's 5 weeks old, so she's not really a newborn anymore anyway, but she's still a lot smaller than her brothers were at this age and I just really wish she would grow up a tad bit slower. Time is already going way too fast. )o: Anyway, now I can start dressing her in the 0-3 month outfits and share pictures of her in all those cute little outfits. I'm just sad that time won't stand still once in a while.

Here are a couple of pictures of her in a 0-3 month outfit. (She hated the hat by the way)

Green Lake

Yesterday we went to Green Lake in north Seattle. My idea to go for a walk, Travis picked the place. It was a very nice lake. It had a big trail around it and lots of people walking. We walked for about an hour. The boys had a lot of fun throwing sticks in the lake, looking at all the dogs, and exploring under the trees. Here are a few pictures of our day out.

The family before we headed out.
Travis on a dock. The boys love it when he takes them out on docks. Think they are so brave.

Exploring under the trees.
Travis walking. I had to document that he was there because he did most all of the photo taking.

Throwing stuff into the lake.

Me pushing Elizabeth in our squeaky stroller.

Elizabeth enjoying the ride.

Elizabeth had to have a small snack midway through.

In other news...I went back to Weight Watchers yesterday. Everyone seemed to be happy to see me back. I'm looking forward to losing some hip, butt and belly. (o: Travis took this of me on my way out the door. Oh, and Elizabeth was the hit of the meeting.

My Kids

Travis had to work today, so I took the kids to church by myself. They all looked so cute before we left, that I had to snap a little photo of them. Travis was asking me to snap one to put in his lunchbox, so here it is. I love being able to say "my kids" instead of just "my boys". I'm so proud of this little bunch. This is what my life is all about. These kids and Travis, of course! I'm a lucky girl!