Time

Where has the time gone? I can't believe its been a month since my last blog post. I have lots of catching up to do. February has been a very busy birthday month. My brother Cody's, best friend Devon's, Ryan's, and McKenna's. Cody's was first and I had everyone over for dinner. Cody chose stew and apple pie for his bday dinner. The kids practiced and put on a little play for Cody. Nate was Bowser, Ty was Mario, and McKenna was princess Peach. The kids had a lot of fun performing it, and did a good job.

Ryan turned 30 this year. He and I went to the Keg for a nice birthday dinner, and then we had a party with his family out at the farm. We had a cafe rio style meal, with shredded chicken, rice, beans, etc in a tortilla shell. It was delicious! We got to play games and hang out with the family. We even had a little chin-ups competition!

A few of the party guests!

Yesterday was my best friend Devon's birthday. The night before her bday she was going out for dinner with a friend so I decided to decorate her room for her birthday with a banner, and balloons, and some flowers. I left her a card and some cake pops. She was grateful for the surprise and I had fun doing it. Then our friend Megan and I planned a birthday dinner for her with our families. Devon requested Ham and potato's and some marinated veggies, and Megan made delicious peanut butter cup cupcakes. We had such a fun time, and after the kids had gone to bed, Megs came back over and we visited until midnight. I sure love having good girl friends!

Yummy cupcakes

McKenna's 4th birthday was on Wednesday but we're having her party on Sunday with the Malacko's. But we did get an early present for her at the beginning of the month...

She got her ears pierced! She was really excited about it and still wanted to do it even after I told her it would hurt. She picked out her earrings and only cried a little after they did it. She loves them and is taking very good care of her ears. What a big girl!

We love celebrating birthdays but having 6 birthday parties in 3 months has certainly birthday'd me out. I'm glad I don't have any more birthday's to plan for a little while.

Five

We had Ty's bday party on Sunday. All of our family that could make it came over for Ty's choice of a Lasagna supper. We opened gifts, then the kids broke open the pinuata (which by the way completely freaked Hayley out. I've never seen her scream the way she was. I guess that could be pretty frightening to a baby who has no idea why we hung up this thing the same size as her and are beating it with a stick...she probably thought she was next), then had skor cake and icecream. It was a lot of fun! we sure appreciate all the love and support we get from our families! I know Ty loves all of you very much!

Very excited about the money he got from Grandma and Grandpa Olsen

Lucky boy also got a DS from Grandpa and Penny. Right after he said "Grandpa your spoiled."

Update.

We had a really fun fondue party with the Olsen's on January 2nd. Cheese fondue with veggie's, bread, and weanie's, then chocolate with fruit and cookie. It was delicious!

Hayley is getting so big. She is so much fun and we are just loving her like crazy.

I put her in her Bumbo, and she immediately went for the toaster.

She loves sucking on her toes!

She loves her exesaucer

She tried rice cereal for the first time...wasn't too interested in it though

She's sitting all by herself!

The kids all love the DS

This boy is obsessed with Mario...the head band across his face is supposed to be a mustache 

We've been housebound all last week when the weather was freezing. I HATE going out in the cold if I don't have to. We're happy this week is looking warmer. Life is good.

Ty Matthew.

My Ty guy...

Is 5 years old!

I can't believe my beautiful, chubby little baby boy is all grown up. He is so much fun and makes us laugh all the time. I'm excited for him to start Kindergarten in the Fall and see what this little guy is going to offer the world. Happy Birthday Ty! We love you!

5 months!

Its been awhile since I've done a post on the little bean. She is 5 months today! The last two months have actually gone by quite slowly, which is fine with me. Here is what she is doing:

makes a lot of noise! she's chattering and laughing and shrieking. She especially love's her siblings and makes the most noise around them.

She was sleeping through the night but then got a cold and now she usually gets up once in the night to eat.

She loves her bumbo, exersaucer, and jolly jumper.

She's rolling over all the time and is even getting pretty good at sitting all by herself.

She's really strong on her legs and loves to jump.

We gave her rice cereal for the first time a few days ago, but she still hasn't really taken to it.

Still loves to be held and cuddled.

Plays with toys. Her favorite right now is a fruit snack wrapper!

She's such a happy little girl. We all love her so much! Here is a couple pics Devon took recently. Isn't she beautiful!!!

This Year.

I love starting a brand new year! I am a planner, and a list maker. I make list's about everything. So when a new year starts I like to roughly plan the year out (of course I know things come up and things change, so nothing is set in stone) but here is a rough outline of what our plan for this year is: We were working really hard at getting out of debt, and were almost there, but then the opportunity came up to buy our house. It sort of just fell into our lap, and felt right, so we dove in and are very glad we did. Everything just worked out, but our debt snowball kind of got put on hold and we even added some more debt on with a down payment and little fees that pop up when your purchasing a house. So this year we want to go crazy on our debt again, and get as much as we possibly can paid off. Nate will start Coach pitch this spring and Ty will start T-ball. Ty is very excited to finally be able to play. I want to start a mini garden. I've never done it before so I want to start small and will only plant a few things. I'm excited to start learning how to do this though. There is something so special about being able to eat things that you planted and help grew. We also want to get our yard finished this year. We only have a couple of things to do. We have to close off the sides and put in a gate, and finish our shed. Ryan also wants to close in our furnace downstairs. Our basement is unfinished so its just sittin there and it makes us nervous to have the kids playing down there with out it closed off. We are planning to get a piano this summer so that Nate can start lesson's in the Fall. I am excited to have a piano in the house and maybe I'll even learn. I know how to read music but have never played and practiced enough to really be good at it. I've always wanted to be a good piano player so here is my chance. McKenna will start her dance combo class in the Fall which will be tap and ballet. It will be fun to see her learning to tap. Her Grandma Kim took tap as a child. Nate will start grade two and Ty will finally be in Kindergarten! I think we will enjoy each other a lot more with him gone half the day. I also want to get my main floor all finished. That means a few more finishing touches on the living room, a new Kitchen table, and my laundry room organized. We'll also be saving for our family trip to Disneyland! Our plan is to go in February of next year! So much to look forward too!

Remembering.

One of my good friends that I grew up with's Mom passed away On Friday. Yesterday I went to the funeral. As I was driving to the chapel on the north side where I grew up going to church, in my old neighborhood, a lot of emotions, feelings, and memories came back. Memories of her. My Mother. Its interesting how I can go from feelings of absolutely missing her, to having a thought that I need to tell my Mom something, almost forgetting for an instant that she's gone. I was reading over the program for the funeral and some women from my home ward were going to sing. The thought that I need to tell my Mom that they sang went through my head. Still, after 3 1/2 years I have small moments where I forget. I wonder if that will ever go away. When I heard the tragic news of my friends Mother, I had vivid memories of driving to my parents to find out what was wrong with my Mom, knowing that something was seriously wrong. I could picture exactly where everyone was sitting in the living room, my Dad's actions and the way he told us, I remember not being surprised but hearing it out loud was very devastating. I remember having hope that night, hope that she could beat it. The days to follow the news kept getting worse, and I just knew it wasn't going to get better, it was her time. The next four months were a bit of a blur. I remember people saying "atleast you get to say goodbye and prepare". I'm not really sure you can prepare for something like that until it actually happens. Not emotionally anyway. Yes, it was nice that we got to say goodbye, but at the same time, sometimes I wish it could have happened instantly so that she wouldn't have had to suffer the way she did. It was so painful to see her that way. Loss is loss, no matter how it happens. My Mom's funeral is such a blur. As Devon and I were sitting at the Luncheon for M's funeral, we were trying to remember details of my Mom's funeral and just couldn't. I think it was because we had this bubble of protection over us to help us get through it. Anyways, the funeral that I was attending brought back a lot of memories. It was a beautiful funeral. M is an incredible woman. One of the sweetest most kind hearted I have ever known. My friend spoke at it, and did an amazing job. He reminded me of many things and I was proud of his courage and testimony. Testimony that he will see his Mother again. That she has an important job to do on the other side, and that she will be waiting for her family to join her one day. They will be together again. As I will one day be reunited with my Mom. There is no greater knowledge then that.