The Ouimette Family

Lovin' These!

2010-12-03T15:53:00.000-08:00

Brick Anyone?

2010-11-30T19:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, ya'll, I need a brick. Seriously. Whenever I would go and visit my grandma as a child she would always say on our arrival, "I need to put a brick on your head." It was her way of saying that time was going too quickly and consequently her grandchildren were growing too quickly. I am in need of a brick for our little Miss Anya. Today she stood up in the middle of the living room, while I was cleaning up from lunch. Soren yelled, "Mommy look!" I watched her and started counting out loud. "1....2.....3....(Soren is now jumping around Anya)....4...(Anya sensing something fun, puts on a big smile and starts flapping her arms)...5...flailing arms cause her balance to be knocked off followed by a straight forward face plant....and then yes lots of crying and cuddling. Now, you are probably asking yourselves the same question Erik asked me, "Why didn't you run to her when you first saw her?" I honestly was in shock that she was standing, I almost had the sense if I don't move, she won't either. I felt like time froze in those seconds as we just stared at one another, me in disbelief and Anya in blissful ignorance.

Anya is 6 months!

2010-11-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

What a joy Anya's first six months have been! Here are some highlights of her from the last few months.

- At her 6 month appointment she was 18 pounds 4 ounces (90%) and 27 3/4 inches tall (98%).
- She is very intense and determined to get her mouth on EVERYTHING! (Her intensity is what made her pediatrician predict crawling by 6 months and walking by 9 months. So far her predictions have been right, but hoping the walking one is wrong. ;-) )
- Loves to chew on her fingers and cloth as a source of comfort.
- Enjoying 2 meals of food a day. She had a steep learning curve with food and gagged a lot, but now she has learned how to move the food around and swallow it. She LOVES to eat. Feeding requires two spoons, one for her and one for me.
-Can use a soft spout sippy cup. She can lift it to her mouth, but if the water comes out too fast, she needs help pulling it away.
- Has her two bottom teeth.
- Sat up independently by 4 months.
- At 5 months, up on hands and knees and scooted around the living room using a worm maneuver, toe pushes, elbow crawl, and rolls.
-At 6 months + 2 days she got up on hands and knees and crawled across the kitchen floor in a length of about 10 feet.
-Can go from her belly to a sitting position.
-Pull herself up to a standing position. (This is very scary as she is not stable on her legs and falls over easily like a big tree going "timber." She has hit her head a couple of times already, ouch!)
-She pulled herself up on a laundry basket and side stepped around two sides before falling.
-Loves to stand. She makes her body stiff when you try to sit her down because she wants to stand, not sit.
- Has become a real "Mama's girl" and cries a lot in the nursery at church and the fitness center. (We are slowly making progress in this area, we just keep trying.)
-When with Dad or Mom, she is very happy and smiles at anyone who stops and talks to her.
- Laughs at everything Soren does, especially when he wrestles her.
- Loves it when Olivia sings to her and enjoys her gentleness which is in great contrast to Soren's touches.
-Enjoys peek-a-boo.
- Plays with her feet when nursing doing yoga type positions.
-Each week she gets fixated with a different sound. Sometimes it is a high soft "ahhhh" while other weeks its nonstop raspberries.
-She has some crazy hair going on. It is getting beyond that butch look and actually laying down at times, but sometimes the static makes it stand on end, soooo funny.
- Horrible sleeper at night- typical night she may be up 3-4 times. (We are working on that and making great progress!)
-And in Olivia's words we all "can hardly remember life before Anya."
- We love you Baby Anya!

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-09T10:51:00.000-08:00

We had a fabulous Halloween celebrating fall and making fun memories. With a child in kindergarten and one in preschool, we seemed to have lots of chances to be out in the fresh, crisp autumn air celebrating. We have been so blessed with amazing weather this fall. We are still enjoying 60 degree days in November, awesome!

Soren's preschool took a field trip to a pumpkin farm and after a wagon ride into the field, each child got to pick any pumpkin they wanted. It didn't take Soren long to find THE one. They also had a corn maze and lots of fall cutouts for Soren to poke his face through. His class also had a small Halloween party which was jumped started by the kids singing some very cute fall songs for the parents.

Olivia's school had a fall party at school as well. I am a room parent this year and one of my responsibilities is to plan the 3 classroom parties that will be held this year. The other two moms and I decided to divide and conquer the party. I was in charge of the craft, so we made pumpkin sun catchers using contact and tissue paper. I always enjoy going into Olivia's classroom to see her in that environment. The kids were really behaved considering it was a party at the end of the week...perhaps it helped to have all their parents around. ;-)

Costumes this year were really pretty easy. Olivia's Cinderella costume still fit from last year and she was very excited to wear it again. She did throw on some wings at one point and called herself, "Cinder-fairy." Soren still had the fabulous fireman's costume, which he chose for his preschool party. I had also found an awesome dragon costume at a second-hand store a long time ago. I had forgotten about it until I came across it in the Halloween bin. This is a great costume! Little miss Anya made an adorable ladybug. She was happy to go along for the ride. She pretty much just enjoyed sucking on her zipper. I will have to find the CD-Roms of Olivia in this costume, because the resemblance between the two is amazing.

Since Halloween was on a Sunday, different towns had different times for trick-or-treating. We really wanted to give the kids an opportunity to pass out the candy as well as receive it. So, on Saturday we found a small neighborhood to go trick-or-treating in. Then on Sunday we made our no-fry donuts, oh these are sooo good. The kids kept looking out the window all day for trick-or-treaters, they just couldn't wait to pass out candy. When the doorbell finally started ringing. They would jump up and down with excitement as they scrambled to the door. Pretty soon they just waited outside the door, then on our sidewalk, then in our driveway, they were full service candy-passer-outers. ;-)

Our Family Nemesis: Strep!

2010-10-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

Uggh…strep, how I loathe thee. Strep has yet made another round of victims in our household and this time I think I just about lost it. For those of you who aren’t up to date on the battle of strep vs. Ouimette family here is a quick recap. Although I think this outline is just as much to help me process what we have been through. Warning: This may be a looooong post.

May 26- Olivia stayed home from preschool with a sore throat and fever. Fever broke within 24 hours so never went to the doctor, mistake #1!

May 28- Olivia’s last day of preschool’s family picnic- Note on door that said, “Your child has been exposed to strep.” I remember thinking, “Hmmm, that must have been what O had, but she seemed to fight it off pretty quickly and easily. Good for her. Must have been a mild strain.” WRONG- This should have been when I ran to the Dr. to get a culture because this strain, even when symptoms are gone will live in the back of the throat at least 2-3 months.

May 29- E very sick, extremely high fever, talking incoherently, dehydrated- goes to dr. tests strep +

July 3- Arrive at fabulous ranch with family and E gets sick again, high fever, sore throat, etc. Dr. visit in Panguitch, UT confirms yet another strep. We think that perhaps the first antibiotic didn’t kill it, so gets a stronger one.

July 24- Weekend with the Cox family, after our visit their girls get sick and Ashlyn was confirmed with strep.

Aug. 7- E very sick again. It’s on another weekend, decided to wait to Monday morning to go to Dr. But by Monday am he is feeling much better and decides not to go.

Aug. 24- Playing with the neighbors a lot and then they get sick with yup, you guessed it, strep.

Aug. 25- Starting to think all this strep around us is too weird. O and S are showing no symptoms, but take them in for a culture anyway. Dr. thought it was a bit strange that I wanted a culture since strep usually takes care of itself if not treated with antibiotics. But she is quiet when the results show they are both +. They had been reinfecting Erik and others. Another round of antibiotics.

Aug. 26- Decide to have myself cultured just to see. My test was -. Phew, improvement. E was in Orlando for training, we talked on the phone about him getting cultured when he got home, but when he returned life got busy, no culture completed…another mistake.

Sept. 15- O home from school with fever and sore throat, but she tests negative for strep.

Sept. 23- S sick with croup like cough. Strep doesn’t usually come with a cough, so just did the nebulizer and got better in a few days. He did have diarrhea and so we thought his sore bottom that started around the 26th was a result of irritation from loose stools….yet another mistake.

Sept.29- L sore throat and fever. Dr. reveals + strep result.

Sept. 30- Take O and S in for cultures again. O still -, Soren’s strep was all throughout his colon and now coming out of his bottom in the form of mentioned above. Another round of antibiotics please.
I have a theory that E had strep in the beginning of Aug. and perhaps reinfected the family so E goes and gets culture. Quick test is negative. Guess I was wrong…

Oct. 1- Phone rings, it is the Dr. the 24 hour culture for Erik showed that he was strep positive. He hasn’t had symptoms for nearly 2 months, so the strep was still living back there all this time allowing it to spread to the rest of the family. Perhaps my theory was correct this time...

Oct.1- Call Dr. to see is Anya should be cultured. Strep in babies is very uncommon, but not impossible. She says if she develops a fever, then we will culture her and to keep an eye out for yellow/green mucus and a fever.

Oct. 2- Anya’s nose begins to run, sleeps horribly. I am thinking that she has strep for sure and take her temperature every hour, but never a fever.

Oct. 3- Anya wakes up with her first tooth, runny nose stops and returns to sleeping normally. Hmmm, must have just been the tooth, or not?????

One of the many hats a mom has to wear is that of a nurse, but I am feeling like a pretty lousy nurse these days. All this strep has not only taken a toll on our family physically and financially, but it has started to attack me on a more personal level. I have been humbled by doctors questioning our living environment and hygiene habits. I promise I really do sanitize the house weekly and my home doesn’t resemble those of hoarders. I throw toothbrushes away each time, which is another expense that is adding up since we use an electric toothbrush. And yes doctor, each round of antibiotics was taken correctly and completely.

My philosophy prior to this incident was one of letting the kids’ bodies fight for at least 24 hours, unless they were absolutely miserable, and then consulting a doctor if their little bodies needed some help. But looking back, if I would have just taken Olivia to the doctor at the end of May when she was sick, this whole thing would have been avoided. Instead, it came in to our family and has ping-ponged back and forth. My main job right now is to take care of the family, but I just can’t seem to get this one licked. I have sanitized ever surface I can think of, including ever tiny Lego, soap dispenser, knob, etc. I made chicken noodle soup last night in efforts of enhancing immune systems. Now I just pray that strep will leave this family alone and health can be restored…now, time for my antibiotic.

Cold Season has hit!

2010-09-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

Now that school is back and session and kids and their germs have merged once again, we have been fighting the common cold around here. Olivia was home a couple of days last week with a 102 fever and today it is Soren's turn. Perhaps this is why I am blogging when the sun is up?!? Time to make some chicken noodle soup, and read some more books and snuggle up this little guy.

Fall-alicious!

2010-09-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we decided to go out and take a Sunday drive and look for signs of fall. It was fun to meander through the beautiful countryside and see the bits of orange sprinkled throughout the trees. We ended up at a family-friendly apple orchard that had a corn maze, jumping castles, bouncing balls, swings, pumpkins, and of course apples and apple cider, yum! Here are a few pics of our outing.

Well, they say the squeaky wheel gets the oil and it looks like our squeaky wheel, Anya has had enough of this watching the family eat and wants to join in. Lately I have been feeling that Anya is just hungry! She is still a good nurser and eats about every four hours, but this just doesn't seem to be cutting it anymore. She has been waking up somewhere between 12-2am to eat and she guzzles during this time. So, with the hopes of better sleeping and the desire for Anya to be full, solids have begun! Most books will tell you that it is not nutritional necessary until 6 months, but I am finding my mothering experience to not completely agree on all terms of "the books." In my five years of mothering I have learned to educate myself and then combine that knowledge with my God-given intuition. With Olivia, she too was an early sitter and was just about crawling when I started her at 5 1/2 months. I really tried hard to wait until 6 months, but her activity level just required more. Soren got his first nibbles at 5 months and he too was already sitting by this time. And now Anya is 4 1/2 months and has been enjoying tasty morsels of avocado. See a pattern here? I guess I just keep moving up this milestone by 2 weeks with every child!

Big Preschool Boy!

2010-09-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

Soren had his first day of 3 year old preschool and he loved every minute of it! We went back and forth on whether we were going to do preschool this year, but we thought that since Olivia was going to be at kindergarten that it might be good to let him have a school experience too. He has a wonderful teacher and is having an amazing experience.

Soren has had to stand by and watch Olivia experience a lot of things first, so we wanted to make this day special for him. I made his name in pancakes, which he loved and now requests often for breakfast. Sorry honey, those are for special days, and days when Mommy has more time and patience. :-) Erik and I both went to drop him off and he went right in to the classroom without incident. The teacher had several activities out and around for the kids to choose and with only 7 students in his class there was a lot of empty stations. Erik and I kind of looked at each other with a bit of surprise when he went in and picked the "fine motor center" stringing beads on a string. That is usually something that frustrates him, but apparently not when you are in a preschool room! He has picked that same center first everyday, so I think making some beaded necklaces may be in our future. When we picked him up, he was having recess in a small play area and playing with some other children. It was so fun seeing him interact with his peers. He was so excited to tell us all about his day. I think he has been listening to his sister's retells because his retell included just about as many details as she puts in...."We did the hokey pokey where you put your hand in like this....we ate crackers in the shape of Toy Story and had juice with a picture of Clifford on the box...we had recess..."

Afterwards we drove through the McDonald's drive thru and ordered 1 vanilla cone and I wish I had a picture of his face lighting up when we handed the treat to him. To make the day even better he got to sit on the front step and eat it while watching a cement truck right across the street from our house. What an amazing day!

.33333

2010-09-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

Well, our little peanut has reached the .33333 mark of her first year. This past four months has been a busy, fun time. This time period included a lot of traditional firsts, like first bath, first outing, etc...as well as some fun ones like our first road trip to visit family in Utah, and first hike in the mountains of Colorado. We were very thankful that she took this 4,000 mile journey at 2 months when she was still sleeping a lot, it made the trip much easier for everyone!

At her 4 month check up she weighed in at 16.5 pounds and was 25.25 inches long keeping her in the 90 percentile for both. Some of her milestones during this period has been first smile, rolling over (she is now officially a tummy sleeper), first giggles, and most recently sitting. Her temperment is still pretty laid back and only fusses if she is hungry or tired. When we are shopping, she loves to give anyone who stops and says hi to her a nice big smile and if they are lucky some coos as well. She has discovered her voice and not only like to coo, but make many other silly noises, like a coughing sound or low grunts. The hair on top of her head has also started coming in, but we are still uncertain of its color. At this point it is looking like a light brunette. The verdict is still out on her eye color, my prediction is that they will be similiar to Soren's color.

Ahh man...I just spent an hour making a slideshow collage and it won't load becasue I made it with a noncompatible program. I just figured out an easier way to make a slideshow on picasa, upload it to the web and then just embed the url, but this mama is too tired. So I will give it a whirl tomorrow. And because every post needs a picture :-) here is one of Anya "helping" me carry the laundry upstairs.

Off to Kindergarten!

2010-09-01T19:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it is official, we now have a kindergartener in the house. Today was her first day and what a day it was! Last night the school had an open house for the families to come and drop off school supplies, sign up for various events, meet the teacher, and get familiar with their new classrooms to help ease first day jitters. It was helpful for Olivia to have some sort of idea what to expect today. She woke up bright and early this morning and was really excited to go, but for the first day the second half of the alphabet was only going in the afternoon from 1:15-3:45, so it was kind of a long morning for her. Her normal day will be from 8:45-3:45 every day. As the time for her to get ready got nearer she grew more and more nervous and truthfully so did I. Once we got in the car to drive to school she started getting nervous and said, "I don't think I am ready for kindergarten." "What if I don't know what to do?" We reassured her over and over and tried to calm her nerves. Once we arrived she joined one of her friends from preschool in line, but just couldn't hold back the tears. She cried a little and told her teacher that she was feeling nervous. Olivia's tears opened the waterworks among the mothers waiting by for their kids to march off into the building. The moms were on the brink of crying just trying to hold back and as soon as they saw Olivia crying they couldn't hold it back anymore and well with Olivia and moms around me crying, I was toast too. ;-)

Soren had a great afternoon without his favorite playmate. He actually fell asleep for the first time in a long time during rest time, I think he actually let himself rest knowing that Olivia wasn't there. I think sometimes he just gets down right exhausted trying to keep up with Olivia. After he woke up we went outside and waited for Olivia to get off the bus. The bus driver pulled up and gave Olivia instructions on how to safely cross the bus. She was half way across the street and we noticed she didn't have her backpack, so we yelled, "Don't forget your backpack" and I think our yelling scared her, like she thought a car was coming or something. But she ran back to the bus, got her backpack and came running to my arms and collapsed into her safety net and let out some of her anxiety in the form of tears. Once we got in the house, had a popsicle and heard about her day she was very excited. We had her favorite dinner, spaghetti, and heard all about her day. Everything from the songs they sang...thumbs up, bottom out, tongues out...to Mr. Monkey, a stuffed monkey that the person gets to hold when they are talking during sharing time, to super stones for super behavior. I love how Olivia not only includes the activities in her retelling of events, but also her personal narrative about what was happening in her mind. "Well, I felt a little nervous when we were walking down the aisles (hallways ;-)) but then I got into the classroom and put my stuff away and then we started to do fun things and I thought, well, this is going to be a lot of fun. When we started singing all my nervousness just went away." We are so proud of you Olivia!

FIghting Giants

2010-08-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

Here is apart of a conversation between Soren and I this morning:

Soren holding his Bible: When I grow up I want to be in the Bible.
Me: Who would you want to be like?
Soren: Well, either Samson or David.
Me: What would you do?
Soren: I think I want to be like David and fight giants.
Me: How would you fight giants?
Soren with great animation and lots of demonstrating moves: I'd get Daddy's hammer and nails and then knock him down to the ground and use the nails to pound him to the ground so he can't get up and hurt anyone because I protect God's people.

Parenting in the "Zone"

2010-06-11T07:41:00.000-07:00

When people found out we were expecting our third child, a common response was a basketball analogy, "So, you're moving from man-to-man to zone." I remember having the thought that I was already playing "zone" when Erik was working as I was out numbered 2 to 1, but I have found the transition of 3-to-1 a bit more difficult. Things are just busy, busy, busy, I find myself just hustling more throughout the day to get everything done. I would say the majority of the time things seem to go really well, with only one fire to put out at a time...Anya needs to be fed, another one of Soren's melt downs, Olivia needs help making yet another paper heart, etc...I have found the craziness comes when there are multiple needs that happen simultaneously and everyone wants Mommy NOW! This is what happened to me last weekend while we were making the drive from Spring Grove to Milwaukee. Erik had caught a very aggressive form of strep throat and was running a fever of 102-103, so we decided to stop in at the walk-in clinic in LaCrosse on the way for him to get checked out. The timing for a stop was great as it was lunchtime and the kids and I headed to Fazoli's. Things in the restaurant went great. The kids sat down, had good manners, Anya was smiling in her car seat at strangers who stopped to talk to her...Wow, this was going really well. Then we entered the van....WAAAA...an explosion of cries. Anya was screaming, Soren was mad at Olivia for something. GPS to the rescue! I pushed the park feature and it showed one within a mile and a half. Perfect. I can feed Anya the older kids can play and get some wiggles out before we continue on the long drive. I quickly pulled into the parking lot where I had spotted an empty picnic table. I reached in to grab Anya and her entire backside was covered in #2, no wonder why she was so upset. After I pulled her out and made a beeline for the picnic table with a large pack of wipes to tackle this mess, I realized that I was walking through someone's graduation party, which provided a lot of onlookers to this chaos. I just smiled and continued on with giving a bath to naked, screaming Anya squirming on the changing mat on the table. I got her dressed and fed her and she was much better. During this time Olivia and Soren were running all over the park. When it was time to go I called them back to the car and Soren came back covered in mud. So, he was next on the agenda for a bath with wipes. Then Anya's car seat got a bath with wipes. Phew, finally everyone was clean, fed, and buckled in so we could go pick up Daddy and continue on with our journey.

Portrait session

2010-05-19T15:10:00.001-07:00

When Anya was 10 days old, we headed to Portrait Innovations to do a photo shoot for the kids to mark the passing of another year. We plan to do more family photos with Aunt Terilee this summer when we see her in Utah, we just wanted to capture this fleeting newborn stage before Anya changes.

Onward and Upward...

2010-05-19T14:56:00.001-07:00

Anya had her two week check up this past Monday and she is growing very well. The goal for this check up was to be back to her birth weight of 9 pounds, 7 ounces, well she met that challenge with an additional 4 ounces weighing in at 9 pounds, 11 ounces with a height of 22 inches. We had a team of two nurses that hadn't seen Anya before and they commented on her height about four times, as well as her "never-ending" torso. She is definitely our long green bean. ;-) This two week mark also brought the end of the umbilical cord as the last little string/ artery gave way, so now all she has is a cute little bellybutton.

She is settling into a nice eating and sleeping pattern. I usually put her down for the night around 10 and she will get up around 2am and then again at 6am to eat and goes right back to sleep. She will then wake up again around 8 to eat again and then eats about every 2-3 hours in the morning taking small cat naps throughout the morning. Then around 12:30 she is ready for her loooong nap. She has been taking a 3-4 hour nap most afternoons and then wakes up for an evening of eating and smaller cat naps. This long nap gives me some great time to be with the other kids, take a nap with Soren if Olivia is at school, do housework, etc. She has been such a great addition to our family!

Anya Elizabeth

2010-05-10T20:45:00.001-07:00

On May 3 at 2:43 a.m. we welcomed into the world our third child, Anya Elizabeth. She tipped the scale at 9 pounds 7 ounces and measured 21.5 inches long. She is very long and slender with some very kissable cheeks. Her weight is in the 90 percentile and her height places her in the 95 percentile, while her head circumference is in the 35 percentile. Mommy was very glad for the small head size! ;-) She was born after three days of early labor with irregular contractions ranging from 10-20 minutes apart, and about 12 hours of real labor followed by 8 minutes of intense pushing. We were very thankful for our wonderful doula who coached me through every part of the labor and delivery. Anya was a little bit turned, but she turned with the positions the doula suggested, something we wouldn't have thought of by ourselves. Her coaching really kept the pain manageable. A big thank you to my parents who came here to help us celebrate Olivia's and Soren's birthdays as well as be with them while we were at the hospital. That was a huge help!

Big sister Olivia couldn't be more smitten with her little sister. She ADORES her and wants to hold her continually singing her songs and telling her stories. Soren is also in love with his little sister and is learning (we hope!) to be gentle with her. Gentleness doesn't come naturally to him so it is a learning process. :-)

Anya is now a week old and is doing very well. She is sleeping well for the time being which we are all thankful for any rest we can get. I can see how life with three kids is going to be busy yet joyful. We are so thankful to have Naana here with us now. I even got a three hour nap this afternoon, how great is that! This is probably why I am finally posting, thanks Naana! :-)

Still pregnant...

2010-04-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

With only five days until my official due date, we are all getting very excited for the arrival of our daughter/sister, as we realize each day brings us one day closer to our union. We have really enjoyed our doctor and his philosophy about pregnancy as he doesn't get too stressed out about much and treats it as a normal, natural part of life. He generally doesn't consider induction until the completion of week 41, which is the same as the doctor we had in Dubai. At my 39 week check-up on Friday, I could see some wheels were turning in his head and he was acting a little bit different than normal. After he measured my uterus, which has expanding beyond my previous pregnancies, and checked for effacement/dilation, he took a look at me and said..."I think we have a large baby on our hands that is very comfortable in there, what do you think?" I had to agree that this is my biggest and most rounded belly of the three pregnancies. He then said that we needed to get a ballpark estimate of the size of the fetus to determine if an earlier induction than 41 weeks would be necessary and ordered an ultrasound for the following day. Saturday morning we went in and the ultrasound tech made measurements of every part of the baby. Everything was measuring 39/40 weeks, except the abdomen, which was measuring quite large. At the end of the measurements the computer puts out an estimated fetal weight, which was...drum roll please....9 pounds 12 ounces. I would be lying if I didn't say it took my breath away for a few seconds as a surge of fear of what labor and delivery could hold rushed over my body. The technician was pretty surprised and said that maybe the abdomen measurement threw things off a bit and reassured us that ultrasounds can have a one pound margin of error. We will just concentrate on the hope that it is off by being on the high side instead of the low. ;-)

Later that afternoon we had our last birthing refresher course with a fabulous doula that we found in Menomonee Falls. After talking with her, a good (well, best as one can at this point) night sleep, and an uplifting church service, I can say that I am replacing that initial fear with a spirit of determination and confidence that I can do this and trust God will be there with us each step of the way. I am also trying not to focus on the size of the baby, but rather all the good news that came from the ultrasound. The placenta is still healthy, there is still adequate amniotic fluid, and best of all, she is in the best position for delivery with her spine on my left front. I can feel her feet kicking me from behind my right rib, just about all the way up under my bra strap. Her rounded shoulder blades are resting on my left hip bone, it really feels like there is no barrier between her and my hip. Without fail when I lay down to go to bed at night she gets the hiccups and sends a little rhymic vibration through that hip, which I find very reassuring because it lets me know that she is still in the optimal position. We continue to pray for her to stay there as I really don't want to repeat Soren's back labor.

My doctor is out of town this Monday and Tuesday. He said he would call me on Wednesday after he gets a chance to review the ultrasound measurements. But from our conversation on Friday, I am pretty sure he will want to induce me ASAP. So the baby will be here soon!

Take my picture!

2009-12-18T10:04:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I know that this blog is really out of date, but I have a story to post because I found it so funny and I want to record it somewhere. And perhaps this will jump start some more updates. :-)

Yesterday we made a trip to the local DMV to get our Wisconsin licenses and register our van in Wisconsin. After being there for about an hour waiting and doing paperwork and going to another line to wait some more the lady said, "OK, we will just get your picture now and you can be on your way." Well, apparently Soren thought that meant we all should get our photos. I took mine and then Erik took his and we began walking to the coat rack to begin the bundling up process to go outside. Soren just stared at the camera lady instead of following us and began shouting, "But I want my picture too! I need my picture taken." I got down and talked to him quietly trying to diffuse the situation by letting him know that this is a picture for our driver's license and when he gets older he can get one too. Then he proceeded to through himself on the floor, kicking legs and all demanding he get his picture taken too. By this time we had a rather large audience of onlooker and since Erik was ready he just picked him and took him to the van where we heard more screams of this great injustice.

Fast forward now about seven hours to bed time. Erik was reading a story about this little bird who left the nest to go exploring. After the story he asked Soren, "What do you want to do when you are big?" Erik then offered some suggestions like being a pilot and flying big airplanes, or being a fireman and driving firetrucks to put out fires, etc. Soren's response, "I am going to get my picture taken."

The Nelson Ground Breaking Ceremony

2009-06-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

Let the building begin! As many of you know my parents are building a house just north of Decorah out on a farm they bought two years ago. I have so many memories of Mom "walking" me through drawings of various homes that came in the magazine Country Living as well as her numerous doodles of various floor plans on pieces of scrap paper. So, this is truly a lifelong dream come true for her. They are both enjoying the process of tapping into the potential of what this bare land will become some day. This weekend we surprised my parents with an official "Nelson Ground Breaking." They knew that we were coming up for the night, but they weren't aware that Andrew and his family would also make it up for the big event. The ceremony consisted of Dad and Mom being presented with their hard hats and golden shovel. We then made a toast and dug the first hole! Our reception afterwards included a lovely fire made by brother Andrew and the roasting of hot dogs, served along side a fruit salad, broccoli salad, and several delicious condiments for the hot dogs. The meal was topped off with some scrumptious S'mores!

The Golden Shovel Breaks Ground

Builder-Ma & Builder-Pa

"Git R Done!"

Getting them out there wasn't hard, just volunteer to help and you're there! Here I am pushing the bark down out the chute so they could bark the wind break trees to help with weed control.

The grandkids were happy to help!

Cheers!

Olivia picked a lovely bouquet of flowers

We then pulled the actually blueprints out and did a rough draft of staking it out so that they would have a better idea for the real staking on Monday. The real digging is set to start this week!

Mom looking rather official with the blueprints

Taking Measurements

My Waterloo Days

2009-05-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

Friday night we decided to head down to the main stage/ carnival area for supper. Erik and I had some amazing gyros while the kids enjoyed a large corn dog. We went down with our family friends, the Robinsons. We decided to go in together to get a ticket package to make the tickets a bit more reasonable. The older two got to choose two rides, while the little ones each picked one. Olivia and Tori went on a little roller coaster. When if first took off it went much faster than either of them was prepared for, their faces were lit up with surprise! Olivia and Soren went on a not-so-tame cars. The cars would go around in an oval and at the turn it would whip them around so fast their heads would kind of do a whiplash like movement. Soren wasn't so sure about this. He looked a bit pale and started saying, "Out, Out." But with our cheering and the help of his big sister he stopped trying to climb out and actually did start to enjoy the ride and even had a smile on his face by the end.

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-23T19:54:00.000-07:00

We were blessed with some great family time this Memorial Day weekend. Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed north to the Twin Cities to join Erik's extended family and his Dad/ the kids' Grandad to help Papa celebrate his 86th birthday, as well as honor the memory of Nana. Man does Papa ever inspire me! He is an amazing 86 year old and really embodies the term "life long learner." It was so great to also see Randy/Dad/Grandad! He was full of special treats pulling items like chocolate cake and ice cream cones out of seemingly thin air. The kids definitely loved these treats but it was an even bigger treat to get to play Mr. Potato Head and kick the ball around with Grandad.

Papa and Soren kicking the ball around

Papa and his four children with the beautiful bouquet in memory of Nana

On Monday we enjoyed another family bike in a local state park, George Wyth State Park. It was absolutely beautiful biking along the river. It didn't take us long to learn that it was best to keep moving or else we would be lunch for some poor hungry mosquitoes. While we may have starved the mosquitoes, we did not; we enjoyed a nice picnic along the trail.

Sandbox!!!

2009-05-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

The sandbox is officially up and running! My Dad built this sandbox during the kids' birthday weekend. I wanted to stain it so that it would match the playset before we filled it with sand. The kids have been not so patiently waiting for the pretreated wood to dry out enough so that I could stain it so that it could be filled. I pulled it out of the garage yesterday, put two coats of stain on it, and then filled it with 30 bags of sand today. I have had a lot of people tell me that I am crazy for wanting this for the kids. All these comments made me a tad bit nervous so we held a sandbox meeting (aka learning sandbox rules) before they played in it. The kids have handled it really well, and the mess hasn't been that bad. They know that we have sandbox time and when they are ALL done we clean up, put the cover back on, wash off at the hose and then wait until we are dry before we go in the house. So far, so good.

Potty Training

2009-05-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

Oh the joys of potty training...starts by picking up a large bottle of carpet cleaner and Clorox wipes, a Froggy potty, a pack of underwear, and a lot of patience and persistence! Around the middle of April I had started talking about going to the bathroom, identifying when he was going in his diaper and just sitting on the potty seat to become comfortable with the whole idea of potty training. With Olivia we just picked a week and stayed home and focused on just potty training. One of us would run out for groceries or whatever and the other would stay home and keep doing the potty thing. This time with Erik gone during the week, errands that still had to be done, and an older child with activities, the process was a bit more difficult. I found myself throwing a diaper on him when we went out for the sake of convenience and then putting him in underwear at home. This was fine until he started to rebel against the whole process. So, I finally had to just committ to staying the course, so I started hauling about 3 changes of clothes in my purse along with rewards: sticker for trying, M & M for pee, and sucker for BM. I have quickly learned all the locations of bathrooms in our area. After the committment on my part, his success became more frequent, at least with number 1. Number 2 on the other hand was a whole different story. He looked like a nervous hen sitting on her eggs waiting for them to hatch. He knew he had to go number 2, so he would sit down and go a little and jump up real quick and yell, "Dump it." So, I would dump it into the toilet and then he would go some more, jump up and yell, "Dump it!" This would go on for about 3 more times and he was very emotionally distraught over the whole process. I tried to get him to just sit and relax and not get up until he was finished. Little by little with the help of last summer's leftover parade suckers I was able to get him to sit and finish so that he could earn a sucker. We eventually got it down to two pop ups and then finally he could sit and complete the big job in one sit. Now, we have moved on to the big potty and the froggy potty, M & M's, stickers, and suckers are a thing of the past. He has done remarkable well. His first accident free day was Mother's Day, which made a great gift for me! A few days later he was waking up from naps dry so we went to no diapers for nap and then a few days later he was waking up dry in the morning, so we are completely out of diapers! The next step...pacifier weaning. Lucky for him we have a June flight to California that will involve late night travels and a two hour time change, so for the sake of our sanity and the other passengers this is being postponed until our return.

Pre Potty Training Days...Everything better when done with a friend

Enjoying a sucker after a successful sit

Wearing his Elmo Underwear (and pointing out a plane in the sky...he is his Father's son)

Summer is Officially Here!

2009-05-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

Olivia was pretty surprised this morning to see her name spelled out in pancakes. The last time I did that it was for the first day of preschool and here we are at the end of the preschool year. She had a great year making new friends and learning to be apart of a group.

First Day of School
Last Day of School
First Day of School
Last day of school

Olivia and her teachers

The highlight of the last week was a field trip, on the big yellow bus nonetheless, to a farm. Yes, that is right a farm, with animals and all. So, you can imagine who had the frightened little girl wrapped around her body, yes, that would be me. The farm had a dog that wasn't tied up so she was constantly checking over her shoulder for his where abouts and refused to let down her guard, well almost. I did see her relax for a moment when the free ice cream was passed out.

Soren joined the circle to listen to the rules and expectations of the trip too.

On the BUS!!!
Ice Cream!
Can you guess what flavor Soren picked?
Milking the pretend cow

A Whole New World

2009-05-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

We have been discussing for some time about investing in bikes for our family. We live in an area with so many great trails that we have never been on. After a lot of research we settled on the trailer hit tandem bike for Olivia to be hitched to Erik's bike and the safe t seat that attaches near the handle bars for Soren. This past Wednesday we took our first bike trip. We left about 8:30, but then had to keep coming back to keep tightening this or that and fine tuning all the new equipment. We were finally on our way by 9. As we went out we noticed that there was a wind that was blowing across the bike path, but it wasn't that bad. We went out about five miles and enjoyed the sights and sounds of many frogs and geese in the river. When we turned around and started to head home we noticed the wind had really picked up and the direction had shifted slightly so that it was now head on to us. We later found out the winds were 30 mph with gust up to 40-50 mph. No wonder the ride home was so difficult. Olivia was a trooper and insisted on pedaling the whole time. We kept telling her that she could rest for a little while, and just sit and Daddy would do all the work, but she kept on pedaling. Soren loved it. He kept yelling "pun, pun," which I eventually figured out was "fun, fun." His huge smile only disappeared as we fought that wind. He kept gasping for air and would say, "wind all done." We so look forward to more bike rides, but perhaps on a bit calmer day.

Snack Time
The little one who never stopped pedaling

Tis is pun!

Hydrating with water and later with Popsicles :-)

Field Trip

2009-05-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

Olivia had a field trip to a local diary farm that even pasturizes and bottles their own milk as well as make ice cream, cheese, and other diary goodness. Soren was very happy to get to join his big sister on the big yellow bus. Not sure which was the favorite, the bus ride of the free ice cream at the end of the tour?

Reviewing the rules...who is that blondy the snuck into the circle?

Riding the "big yellow bus!"

Milking Time

Then ice cream time!

Doctors and Concerts Don't Mix

2009-05-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

This morning I had scheduled the kids' 4 and 2 year well checks at the doctors. I was under the impression that Soren would be getting shots and Olivia wouldn't need shots until before Kindergarten. Boy was I wrong. Soren didn't need any shots, only a finger prick to test of lead poisoning. Olivia on the other hand needed 4 shots. Yikes! This wasn't the best planning as her preschool concert was later in the day. As soon as she realized she was getting shots she got herself all worked up and there wasn't a person in that clinic that wasn't aware that she didn't need shots as she screamed, "I don't need shots. I don't need shots. No shots! No shots!" It took two nurses and myself to hold her down, she fought so hard. She wiggled away for one of them and drew a little bit more blood and would most likely end up bruising. She hobbled on out of the office and cried every time she touched her legs. After lunch she laid down whimper and took a nice long nap. I expected her to wake up refreshed, but instead she woke up and continued to cry and whimper. I even tried letting her watch a movie to help her forget about them, but that didn't work either. I wasn't sure if the concert was going to happen so I told her that she just may have to skip the concert. She didn't like that idea either and really wanted to put her dress on. I told her if we put it on then she HAD to stop crying to show us she was ready to go and sing. She tried really hard and by the time her hair was done and dress on, she had stopped crying. She did well at the concert and we didn't see one tear! I had been trying to take the band aids off all day, so as we were enjoying an evening snack after the concert, I just reached over and took them off. She cried but them stopped when she saw the skin under the band aid. "Hmmm....Mommy the skin is all new. How did that happen?" This comment really showed us how she had let her imagination run wild thinking that the skin under the band aids would be all bloody and disfigured. As soon as the band aids were off the drama stopped. If I'd only have known that taking the band aids off would have stopped all that crying...now I know!

Wounded Soldier

Singing like a Champ!

Receiving her Certificate of Completion

Friends

Professional Pictures

2009-05-02T19:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures we had taken at Sears Portrait Studio for their Four and Two Year Photos. The photographer must have had a lot of experience taking pictures of kids because he knew exactly when to click the camera to get their smiles. He only took about 30 pictures and they were all pretty good. But he still can't compare to Aunt Terilee, she is still the best!

We also got some pictures in their Easter outfits.

Our package included one of these arrangements, so we did one of Olivia having a tea party with two of her bears.

Birthdays, Birthdays, and More Birthdays....Too much birthday!

2009-05-01T18:45:00.000-07:00

Wow! Did we ever celebrate their birthdays this year! Here is a recap of our crazy birthday week. On Thursday Olivia brought cupcakes in the shape of ice cream cones to preschool. I made these last year for her and she remembered and asked for them again. The one tricky part is that they can get soggy if they sit out for too long, so I got up early and made the cupcakes. I then brought Olivia to school while the cooled, came home to frost them, and returned to school to be with her class as they sang to her. Soren loved being in school with his big sister. We got to go down the hallway to the bathroom with her class, which he just loved. He held her hand and they skipped happily down the hall together, very cute.

Friday, the actually day of their birthdays, was pretty uneventful. We cleaned and marked some stuff for a garage sale which we had at a friend's house. Another family brought homemade pizza and I brought a pan of brownies that we used to put candles into and sing.

Saturday, my parents picked up my two nephews and then came down for the day. We had a busy work day and replaced some boards in our fence, planted perennials, and the kids favorite, watched Grandpa build a sandcastle! All this hard work was rewarded with a Hawaiian Luau supper once Uncle Andrew and Aunt Jody arrived. We once again had cupcakes and ice cream...are we getting sick of cake yet...oh no, just wait, there's more!

Monday Olivia had requested for a Fancy Nancy birthday party. For those of you who don't know who Fancy Nancy is, she is a book character that loves to use fancy words and dress up fancy. Sometimes these popular series books, like Junie B. Jones, has the character a bit too naughty of overindulged, but this author has done a really great job of keeping the character well behaved with a vivid imagination. My favorite part has been the explosion of vocabulary. For example, Olivia named her new doll "Sparkles (which she pronounces Farkles...still working on that sp sound) Iridescent." Olivia LOVES dressing up any day, but she really loved piling on the accessories and getting ready for her special day. I even hit the 25 cent bin at an Avon lady's garage sale and got some lipstick and blush for the girls. We made some fancy purses and had a fancy show. The girls had a good time!

Fast forward to Thursday...I had debated about whether to do anything for Soren that would be just for him and not shared with Olivia. I decided to invite 3 other two year olds that we see often over for a play date. When you add in the older siblings and the other children that the mom's were watching the day, it got to be a bit crazy. The kids played, made puppy puppets, and played a game that we learned while living in Dubai, pass the parcel. I had planned to sing some songs with the puppets but things were a little crazy. We had a snack of fruit and crackers...and in all that craziness and this one tired Mama somehow forgot completely about the puppy cupcakes. After everyone left and I picked up Olivia from school, I opened the refrigerator to start making lunch and there they were. I was so sick of cake that I had to get them out of the house. Good thing each guest lives within a few blocks of us, so we got in the car and delivered them. So after our lunch Olivia and I sang, "Happy Birthday" to Soren.

Phew...what a week! I feel like I am still trying to figure out how to handle this double birthday. I want each kid to feel special without being overindulged. I feel like we crossed over into the overindulgence territory this year. After this week of too much birthday, Olivia was what my Grandma would say, "Too big for her britches." She started being defiant and just plan naughty. After a few days of having TV privileges taken away and then finally losing the privilege to attend another friend's bowling birthday party, I feel like she is back down on humble ground. We went over to the little girl's house and Olivia gave her her present and apologized for missing the party because of her bad choices. That got Olivia's attention and I felt like a "Mean" Mom for a minute or two, but the reward of having a well-mannered Olivia back was well worth it.

Tumbling

2009-04-30T18:16:00.000-07:00

The tumblers

Olivia's last tumbling class of the spring session was a recital for all the girls to show their new found tumbling skills to their parents. The girls made a line at the end of a long line of mats and their instructor would say a skill and then each girl would do that skill to the other end of the mat where they were greeted with applause. I really appreciated the chance to have undivided time to watch what Olivia has been doing. I am normally either so busy chasing Soren around trying to keep him off the tumbling floor, or since the weather has been nice, I have just taken him on walks around town. It was fun to see Olivia's progress since the beginning of class, her coordination has really improved. Way to go Olivia!

The steam roller move

The Big Finish, the bridge!

The instructor gave each girl a flower and cookie, Soren was glad she had an extra cookie for him. He loved clapping for her the entire time, and the cookie was definitely a great bonus!

Big Boy Bed

2009-04-28T18:08:00.000-07:00

Soren enjoyed his week of vacation away from his crib, in fact, he did so well sleeping in a big bed on our Milwaukee trip that we decided to put the crib away when we got home and set up his twin bed. We put the box spring and mattress directly on the floor and put up a child rail. He has done fabulous! He stays in it really well, thus far. In the morning he gets up and goes to his door and knocks while yelling, "Mommy, I up, Mommy, I up." I hope he continues to stay in his room, I am afraid that one of these days he will open the door and go into Olivia's room to tell her good morning, and then I would have two kids up at the crack of dawn. But, praise the Lord, so good thus far.

Traveling Business Man + Family = One fun...and a little less productive week!

2009-04-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

"Bye Daddy." These words have become too common and difficult at our house as we go through this transition with Erik working in Wisconsin while we are still living in Iowa. One night Erik and I were looking at the calendar and discussing how we can help break up the final stretch to summer...I know let's go with you for a week! With about six weeks left, Erik saw that in his calendar he had a slower week in mid April since that was when some schools would be on spring break. This week's schedule included spending some time in the Milwaukee area and then going to a Spanish conference at a huge hotel that had an indoor water park, we knew that this would be a perfect week for us to tag along with Erik. The first day the kids and I just hung out at the hotel. We went swimming in the pool, but the water was a bit cool and the kids wouldn't stay in. Luckily I had packed some puzzles and coloring books, so we went back to the room and kept busy doing various activities. Then the snow flurries kept our picnic indoors, but the kids didn't mind because we had a picnic on the bed which they thought was the best...eating in bed?!? Sounded good to them! In the afternoon after Erik was finished with some appointments we went to the arboretum and then up to see Erik's storage unit and drove around looking at various towns and communities.

Our "picnic"

Ohhh...smells beautiful

I wouldn't do that Soren

Hey, is this light like a telescope?

The next day Erik was able to drop us off at the children's museum for a few hours. The kids really enjoyed all the interactive displays...while, I guess with the exception of one. Smoky the bear was going to do a little performance on the stage and talk to us about preventing forest fires. A lady was introducing him and Olivia did NOT like the idea of a bear coming on stage. I told her it was just someone in a costume, but she wasn't buying it. Her screams forced us to leave the performance, but little did we know that as we waited near the elevator that the doors would open and out would come Smoky the Bear. This time both kids were startled by this rather large costume and now I had two screaming clinging kids...a little reminiscent of Santa at Christmas. I was eventually able to settle them down and enjoy the rest of the museum. I do have to say that Olivia looked over her shoulder about 100 times and kept asking me where Smoky the Bear was.

The way Olivia is holding the phone tells us she has no idea how to use this phone...

Playing mechanic was a favorite. They changed tires, put coolant in, and even used tools!

Jelly Bean Distribution Center Tour

Our third day in Milwaukee was the one the kids had looked forward to the most. Erik had to be at a presentation by 7 am, but the zoo didn't open until 9, so we decided to book a taxi. The kids loved being buckled up in the big seat belts in the back of the most expensive taxi ride I have ever taken. When the ladies at the front desk heard we were taking a taxi to the zoo they felt sorry that we had to pay, what ended up being $35, to take a taxi that they gave us some complementary tickets to the zoo. Wow! That was such a great gift! We were at the zoo for about five hours, which was a bit longer than we originally planned, but Erik got delayed by a curriculum director. He felt so bad, but I told him there are much worse places than a zoo to be "stuck" with two kids. We ended up hanging out in the monkey and ape house because it was inside (the weather was a bit rainy and cold) and the kids loved watching them. Soren liked the gorillas. One of the gorillas came and pounded his fist on the glass. Soren had the most worried face and I thought that we were headed for another loud cry, but there were some high school boys on a field trip that just laughed and so he quickly turned that frown upside down and laughed too. Although it was one of those fake nervous laughs, still better than a scream though!

Taxi Ride with 2 excited kids

Lunch time at the zoo

Is that Smoky?

That afternoon we headed up to Menomonee Falls for the Spanish conference. It was an amazing hotel. Olivia LOVED that we had a staircase IN our room. She really wanted to sleep upstairs all by herself, although that changed a bit when the lights went out. :-) The video below shows just how excited she was! We hung out in the pool quite a bit. The kids started off being really hesitant, but soon they were going down the small slides all by themselves. Soren was evening going down and putting his whole head under each time. We were amazed at the improvement they made just over the course of the three days we were there. This really showed us how we need to commit to regular swimming so that they can become more comfortable in the water.
In front of Lake Michigan

We went to the park for our picnic

We had to check out by 11, but Erik wasn't done until 3 so we took in another small children's museum in Menomonee Falls...here they are dressing up, they loved the dramatic play center!

He Is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

2009-04-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

We had a fabulous Easter weekend. Friday we went up to my parents' house in SG and spent the evening with them and were hoping that our kids would cooperate for the late evening Good Friday service, but crankiness set in and bedtime became a necessity, especially knowing that this weekend was just beginning. Saturday morning we enjoyed a delicious brunch with my parents before driving northbound to Minneapolis to be with Erik's Papa and the rest of his father's extended family. The kids were very excited to wake up to a jellybean trail that lead them around the living room and then it made a dead end near two baskets. They eventually found their Easter baskets filled with spring goodness and yummy treats. We then went to Papa's church for a wonderful uplifting church service. I was surprised, but oh so thankful that Soren fell asleep in my arms during the sermon. The little cat nap served him well as he was able to get through the afternoon a little bit easier. Olivia, Soren, and second cousin Tyler enjoyed a Easter egg hunt in front of Papa's apartment. We had so much delicious food. We combined several tables together to make one looooooooooong table that extended the entire dining and living areas of his apartment. We enjoyed sitting together and shared memories and stories at which will most likely be the last Easter dinner hosted at Papa's apartment. We enjoyed our family, but we enjoyed the Good News even more!

Soren's Shoe Fettish

2009-04-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

Soren has discovered the world of shoes! He loves to put on Olivia's shoes and dance around. He is very proud that he can put these shoes on all by himself.

Palm Sunday

2009-04-05T12:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a Palm Sunday this one was...as we walked into church the snow began to fall, and fall it would for the next 12 hours. My Sunday school class was a bit smaller due to the weather, but those that came were so excited to walk up and down the aisles waving their branches proudly while shouting Hosanna! We go to a larger church, so there was about 200 kids ages 3-12 waving those palm branches, very cool demonstration of praise and worship. Among all these big kids there was also one little-almost-2-year old. Soren really wanted to go and kept saying "Me too, me too!" He did a great job and followed Olivia up and down the aisle with no problems. Since he was so much younger and shorter than everyone else, he drew a lot of attention and smiles from the congregation.

On our way home from church, the wind started to pick up and visibility dropped greatly. Olivia declared it pajama day and changed into her pjs for the rest of the day, and so you can probably guess what Soren wanted to put on too, yep, his pjs. So, we dyed Easter eggs in their pajamas. It was an unusual April snow storm that brought about 5 inches of snow, as well as a day for some great family snuggle time. Hopefully that was the last snow of the season!

Town Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

The kids enjoyed the all town Easter egg hunt at the park this weekend.

Being silly while waiting for it to start

Sibling love!

2009-03-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

Olivia is such a great big sister! She loves to poor affection onto Soren and sometimes he is receptive, while other times shows a reaction more like the following picture sequence demonstrates.

Sweet as....Maple Syrup!

2009-03-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

On Sunday after church, we met my parents at a Maple Syrup farm about half way between our homes. This farm puts out about 1500 taps on various maple trees throughout their farm and then boil it down to make a very delicious syrup. It takes about 40 gallons of tree sap to make 1 gallon of syrup, very labor intensive. Since it had been rainy and cold, we bundled up and wore our boots, which was a good thing because it was very muddy back in the woods. They served pancakes outside in a pavilion as well as offer horse drawn rides through the woods, pony rides for the kids, and a tour of their small processing facility, which is about the size of a milk room like you would see on a family farm. While we were eating, Olivia turned to me and said, I want to ride on a pony. Now, for any of you that have been around Olivia and animals can really appreciate how huge this was. She has not been a fan of animals, no traumatic incident, just paralyzed with fear from her imagination. This said, she has also always had a soft spot for horses. She would actually pet a horse from time to time, but it would be a very quick swipe of the hand and that's it. So, for her to suggest riding a horse, was HUGE! There wasn't a lot of kids around, so they let her actually take three rides, a larger pony named Pearl, a smaller pony, and a donkey named Biscuit. She did fabulous! She would even stand on the ground (vs. in my arms and clinging to my shirt) to pet the horses. I plan to hang some of these photos on her bulletin board in her room for her to remember how brave she was. We also now thank God for making horses during night time prayers, Olivia is thankful, but I think Mommy and Daddy are even more grateful for the hope that this fear of animals shall too pass.

On the horse drawn wagon

Olivia's New Hair-do!

2009-03-26T11:39:00.000-07:00

Olivia has been asking for quite some time now to get her hair cut like Dora. Her hair needed a good trimming anyway, so we decided to cut off about five inches and go for a nice summery bob cut. She loves it! Speaking of Olivia's hair, something peculiar is happening. She is starting to get bald spots, the largest is about the size of a dime on top of her head. Her pediatrician said that that is normally caused by a ringworm type fungus, but there isn't any scaling present, so it doesn't completely match the description of that. She decided to put her on the treatment just to make sure, which is a six week course of this anti-fungal medicine. I made an appointment with a dermatologist for a second opinion and to explore the possibility of it being alopecia. I am however, encouraged by what appears to be some new hair sprouts from that area. Is there anyone else out there that has any experience of this? Especially family members, as alopecia is hereditary. As you can see in this photo, she is wearing a lot of head bands these days out in public to cover these spots. She is also very excited to be wearing her bibs in this photo. I found them in a clearance bin a long time ago. They were so big on her then but not anymore!

Grandpa turns 60!

2009-03-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

To celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday we had a fun-filled family weekend. My brother and his family, as well as my aunt from the Twin Cities all met at my parents' house. We decorated the living room with lots of balloons and streamers using both John Deere green and yellow for Dad's birthday, as well as Hawkeye colors of gold and black for Andrew, whose birthday is the following day. The balloons were a highlight as the kids played with them throughout the day and then the popping fun started. The kids laughed so hard watching Grandma and Grandpa sit on the balloons! I don't have a lot of photos from the event because I was trying to console a mighty fussy Soren. We had just finished a round of antibiotics for an ear infection, so I thought perhaps teeth? But when tylenol didn't help, we headed home early and went straight to the doctor's office and had both kids examined and sure enough, both kids' ear infections were back. So, we were given a stronger antibiotic this time, which eventually healed both the kids.

Shaving, already?

2009-03-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

One thing we have learned since becoming parents is that bathroom time becomes family bonding time. While I get ready each day, I often get fashion advice from Olivia and many questions like, "Wat you do-ing?" from Soren. They love watching Daddy shave and sometimes they even get to participate...with the guard on, of course!

Nap Time turns into Reading Time

2009-03-11T20:44:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like these days of Olivia actually napping (she was sick in this photo) are just about over. She only naps after we have had some busy days or weekends. So, I have decided to take advantage of this time to do some activities with just her. We either get out a puzzle or game that is difficult to do when Soren is awake because he is a bit on the destructive side of things right now. Sometimes we do crafts or sit and talk over a cup of tea.

But then one blustery day, I had made an unusually stop at Yonkers (which is right next to Old Navy) to check on some sale items. As we walked to the car I had Soren all bundled up in my arms and I was kind of pulling Olivia by the arm because she wasn't walking very fast and it was VERY cold. I noticed that she was studying...not just looking...but studying and her lips were moving a little. As I was getting the kids buckled into the van, she asked, "Does that word say 'old'? I asked her why she thought that and she proceeded with "Well, doesn't o say /o/, and l say /l/ and d say /d/?" Why, yes it does! At this point our nap time activities became known as "school time." She loves getting out all the letters and games and reading books. We only do this more academic focus for about 15-20 minutes. I try to stay very mindful that she isn't quite four and I follow her cue about what she wants to do when Soren is sleeping. We end up doing reading activities about 3 days out of the week. Since Erik is traveling during the week for work, she is always so excited to show Daddy what she learned each week. So, here is our budding reader...

Children's Museum

2009-03-07T20:39:00.000-08:00

This weekend we took the kids to the local children's museum. I can't believe that we have lived here for over a year and this is our first time there. The kids loved it! When they first got in there they were so excited they just ran from one thing to the next, so many things to touch and explore. We were able to slow them down and spend some time at each station. The highlight was the tractor simulator and milking the cows. It was a great family outing!

Spring has arrived!

2009-03-05T20:34:00.000-08:00

We have had some amazingly warm temperatures this week, so we are all chomping at the bit for spring to get here and stay. We celebrated this warm day with some great play time at the park, as well as a little picnic. Why is it that peanut butter and jelly tastes so much better outside?

2009-02-19T20:02:00.000-08:00

After Olivia's gymnastics class, we had a quick supper, so that we could move onto baths and bedtime. Apparently it was a little too quick for Soren. He climbed up on the table and got an orange out of the fruit bowl and started chomping away. He was so proud of himself that he had peeled it. He is becoming Mr. Independent and wants to try to do everything "by self." After he tries for awhile, then he is more open- minded to a helping hand.

Worship Songs!

2009-02-19T19:52:00.000-08:00

As I was cleaning up lunch, I heard Olivia singing a variety of songs that we sing during Kidz Rock Worship at our church. My heart was immediately warmed watching Olivia teach these songs to a sleepy Soren. I didn't want her to see me with the camera, so I tried to stay a little further back, so sorry for the "grainyness" of my zoom. I also love how this is three different songs rolled into one! "I am trading my sorrows.....trust in the Lord with all your heart...have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous." My hope and prayer is that these words move past just words and take hold in their hearts.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T19:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Olivia was so excited for her Valentine's party at school this week. She wrote all the names of all of the kids in her class on their cards. This was a test of patience, but doing a few every day didn't make it seem quite so difficult. She was pretty excited about her accomplishment when she finished. She was also pretty excited about making sugar cookies to bring to her party at school, she of course, had to make sure they were fit for her friends at school. She approved!

Soren is always jumping!

2009-02-12T19:43:00.000-08:00

Soren is always jumping, hence he has earned an affection name of our little jumping bean. He really prefers to jump on the couch, bed, crib, from chair to automon, but we have been trying to encourage other means of jumping. He brought the bathroom scale out into the living room, and what should one do with this apparatus? Why, jump on it, of course!

Snow, Snow, and More Cold

2009-01-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

The snow has reached our porch floor

When I went to bed the other night there was a prediction for about 2-4 inches of snow in our area. I was a bit surprised when we opened the blinds to find about 8 inches. Olivia looked out the window and looked at us and stated in a matter of fact way, "Looks like it is time to go back to California." I then spent the next 2 1/2 hours shoveling and pushing snow. We are starting to run out of places to throw the snow, so I had to push the snow down a ways until I could find a place to throw it. I enjoy the work out that snow shoveling provides, but with the bone chilling temperatures of today reaching -40 wind chills, I am starting to think that Olivia was onto something...Grandad and Naana, you may want to prepare for more visitors. :-)

The pile of snow on top of the retaining wall

I kept digging until I found the mailbox...it's around here somewhere

The front sidewalk looks more like a tunnel

These piles are about 5 feet

Dance Recital

2009-01-13T12:18:00.000-08:00

Olivia had her dance recital this past Tuesday after having to be postponed during December because of the weather. Now normally the phrase "dance recital" conjures up an image of a stage, ballerinas, fine music...this wasn't quite the case. It was held in the fitness gym in our small town with people exercising in the audience. At least the gym members had a fun recital to watch to pass their time on the exercise machines. The four ballerinas looked so adorable in their little outfits. They did one ballet number and a tap routine.

The little ones watching their big sisters

Sledding Fun

2009-01-10T12:10:00.000-08:00

We realized that we hadn't taken the kids sledding yet this winter, so we thought today would be a perfect day to do that. While we were in California, there were a few warm days that melted the snow, so that when it got cool again, the top layer of the snow was pure ice. Then we got about 4 inches of fresh snow on top of this ice, which made for great sledding conditions. The kids really enjoyed going down the hill and only complained when they hit some snow and got their faces covered in snow. After about 45 minutes the coldness started settling in and they both started asking for hot chocolate and a warm bath, both of which we were happy to give.

Ahh...now we are nice and warm!

California Christmas, Round IV

2008-12-26T11:06:00.000-08:00

Yeah, sunny California! We were blessed with wonderful flights and a smooth drive from LA up to the central coast. We arrived around 3 am at Erik's parents and it felt great to crawl into a bed. The kids were great travelers, sleeping for most of the flights and car rides. We were so excited to see everyone and spend some great quality time together. The last time Erik and all his siblings and families, and his parents were together for Christmas was five years ago, so this was definitely a treat. Now, anyone that knows the Ouimette's knows that there is no shortage of photos to capture the memories while we are together. After sifting through about 600 pictures (not an exaggeration!) I made a slide show marking some of the highlights while we were together.

We loved being in a warmer climate and getting a much needed break from the coldness that has gripped the Midwest this winter. The kids and I enjoyed going on daily walks and outings to the park. We also spent time together taking in all the wonderful sights and events: exploring tide pools during low tide, observing the 2 ton elephant seals giving birth on the beach, having a tea party under the eucalyptus trees filled with thousands of migrating butterflies, walking the beach looking for pretty stones and shells, watching sunset from the pier, running and jumping in the amazing sand dunes, celebrating Patty's 60th birthday with a skit filled with memories and sharing, and so much more. Our time in California was so relaxing, rejuvenating and refreshing! We so cherished this time together!

California here we come!

2008-12-25T10:04:00.000-08:00

We were all so excited to fly out to California. We went up to the observation tower and Daddy gave the kids some lessons on plane identification...perhaps I should take a few notes too. During this trip I discovered one of the best travel items, a inflatable beach ball. It was great! We would inflate the ball, let the kids play and burn off a lot of energy kicking, throwing, catching, and chasing the ball. Then when it was time to get back on the plane, we would deflate it and tuck it back into our backpack until the next lay over, perfect!

Nelson Christmas, Round III

2008-12-23T09:43:00.000-08:00

In the afternoon of the 23rd, we drove up to Spring Grove for the Nelson family Christmas. We had our traditional oyster stew and clam chowder dinner. We usually open gifts in the evening, but the kids were all tired and ready for bed, so we decided to wait until the following morning. And good thing we did! Soren opened up a drum and instantly fell in love. He would pound on the drum and then go and give everyone in the room hugs and say thank you, thank you, and then go pound some more and then repeat the hugging and thanking. He just minght give the little drummer boy a run for his money! We then went to church in the afternoon before Andrew and his family had to go back to Stewartville so that Andrew could sing in his church choir.

"The stockings were hung, by the chimney with care,

in hopes that Saint Nicolas would soon be here!"

Since it was Christmas Eve, Olivia put out her thank you note, cookies, milk, and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. After the kids went to bed, Erik and I prepared for our Christmas day flight to California!

When the kids woke up, they were very excited to see two full stockings full of lots of goodies. It was filled with so many great new activities for the airplane, like sticker books, DVDs, etc...that darn Santa, he is so smart, how did he know we were traveling today?

Our Family Christmas, Round II

2008-12-23T09:36:00.000-08:00

Monday morning we woke up to celebrate our family Christmas. We made birthday waffles, complete with peppermint ice cream and a candle and sang "Happy Birthday" to baby Jesus. We then opened up a few gifts and spent the morning playing with new toys and lounging around in our pajamas. What a fun morning!

Phares Christmas, Round I

2008-12-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

This weekend we went up to my parents' house for my mom's side Christmas party. This was suppose to be the first time in about ten years that everyone was going to be together. My cousin and her family flew in from Las Vegas, and family from Minnesota and Iowa were going to be there. Unfortunately weather put a dampener on these plans and my uncles and aunts, as well as Grandma from central Iowa weren't able to make it. We still had a fun busy household with seven kids under the age of 7 running around. Mom, as always, out did herself with amazing food. We played our usually gift exchange game and just enjoyed catching up, playing 500, and hanging out together.

Sunday School Program

2008-12-14T08:55:00.000-08:00

This year I have had the great opportunity to teach Sunday School to the 3 year old class at our church. It has been a real joy to have Olivia in my class, it is great to know what she learns each week and to be able to talk about it throughout the week. We had a Christmas program in the late afternoon on Sunday. The group of about 60 three and four year olds sang "Away in the Manger" and "Give Me Oil In My Lamp."

Advent Nights

2008-12-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

One of the highlights of this Christmas season were our family Advent nights. Naana sent the kids Advent presents to open each week to retell the Christmas story. The first week was Mary and an angel to represent the angel coming to tell Mary that she was pregnant with Jesus, the second week was Joseph and a donkey to represent when Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem on a donkey, etc... Erik, with the help of a friend, made a small Advent log for each week's candles. We all looked forward to lighting the candles each night, singing Christmas carols, and retelling the Christmas story. Olivia is now a real pro and remembers the Christmas story so well. Soren, on the other hand, loved all the animals in the stable and would tell us all the sounds they make. :-) Thank you Naana, the kids loved it!

Ice Cream and Christmas Lights

2008-12-05T19:21:00.000-08:00

On Friday night, we decided to introduce a new tradition to our family. After supper we bundled up the kids and went to Moo Roo's Ice Cream Store and got 4 very delicious Candy Cane flavored ice cream cones. We then enjoyed our cones while driving around various neighborhoods admiring all the Christmas decorations while listening to Christmas songs and singing along with those most familiar to us. This will definitely be an event that will be repeated next year, and perhaps many after that. :-)

Soren was thrilled to get his own cone.

All of us with our candy cane ice cream cones!

Yummy!

Let's go look at all the lights.

As expected, Soren was a giant sticky messy. :-)

One of the many houses we stopped to ooh and ahh over...

Preschool Christmas Program

2008-12-03T19:03:00.000-08:00

Olivia had her Christmas concert this past week. There is just something about preschool aged chrildren singing that brings a hugs smile to our faces. Erik and I were enjoying the kids' "character" on stage. There was a boy who refused to hold hands, some kids wiggling around, some acting rather stoic, and those like Olivia that were enjoying the "swishiness" of their dresses. Olivia looked so happy as she sang the words and did all the actions. Her dress had an under layer of a tulle ruffle to give the dress some volume. She enjoyed swaying back and forth and twirling her skirt for the performance. She had such a great time. The preschool teachers did an amazing job of preparing the kids and making a memorable concert.

Olivia already to go, you can see Olivia's excitement in her eyes.

Soren's ready to go and clap too.
This number included ringing bells, how fun!

Grandpa & Grandma made the trek down for the concert, we enjoyed some yummy popcorn afterwards.

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2008-12-01T18:35:00.000-08:00

This Christmas is our eighth Christmas as a married couple, but our first year with a full size Christmas tree. We have been blessed with the opportunity to spend Christmas in many different parts of the world. Now that we are settled into our first house, we were so excited to get all of our Christmas decorations that are making their first debut this season. We have had a great time singing Christmas carols, doing advent nights, cutting down the tree, hanging lights on our house, and filling the house with splashes of red and green and many twinkling lights. We have had a few ornaments that have had to got to the "Ornament Dr." thanks to Soren, but he is slowly learning to leave the tree alone. The kids picked out their ornaments for this year. Olivia chose a pair of ballet slippers while Soren picked a John Deere tractor. Both very fitting choices. After Soren's tractor lost its steering wheel and 2 wheels, it has now been quaratined to the top of the tree. Here are a few pictures of decorations...I will take more and post them later.

The two warmly bundled munchkins fell asleep on the way to the tree farm.

We found ours quickly...the frigid temperatures made us not too fussy. :-)
Olivia held the tree while Daddy cut it down.
Decorating the tree.

One of my LONGEST days...

2008-11-28T11:10:00.000-08:00

This past Friday, was one of those days, that just seemed to go on and on...Yes, a big part of that was due to the craziness of my decision to partake in "Black Friday's" Christmas shopping extravaganza. As Erik and I looked through the adds on Thursday night, the vacuum cleaners caught our attention. Our vacuum cleaner has been smoking and we decided that when a vacuum cleaner leaves the carpets dirtier than when you begin that it is probably time for a new one. Erik researched all the vacuums in the ads and we decided on one that was being sold at Kohl's. When I flipped to the front to see the timing, my heart sank when it said 4 am. Oh dear, a short night. So, we made a plan that I would get up early and then later get to nap as Erik drove to Spring Grove. I was at Kohl's at 4:20am, which apparently was late. I could barely find a parking place and was greeted with mass confusion when I walked inside. The line wrapped all the way around the circumference of the store. I got the last vacuum on the shelf and went to get in line...an hour and a half I was out of there. I had so many things on my list, but had to settle for the most necessary. Then I made a relatively quick stop at Target and Sears and made it home by 7:10. As I walked in the house, I was greeted by a pale looking husband who had gotten the flu while I was out. He convinced me that he was ok and could manage to watch the kids while I did my 4 hour shift rating the English proficiency exams. It turned out to be quite the difficult shift. Erik could hardly stay awake, so the kids kept wandering in to my work space. I was trying to do various arts and crafts and listen to the examinees on the computer at the same time. I sometimes had to listen to them 3-4 times, but I eventually got the job done. After I finished working, I fed the kids lunch and packed the suitcases. Erik had progressively gotten worse and decided to just stay home. So, the kids and I drove up to my parents' house in Spring Grove to leave him to a quiet house to rest and heal. The car ride was nice and quiet with two sleeping kids in the back. A few hours after we had arrived in SG, my mom wanted to go and check out the Festival of Trees. This was simply a marvelous event. They had all these adorable store fronts that made you feel like you were walking in this quaint village with places to buy candy, cards, decorate sugar cookies, watch Christmas movies, and visit Santa. In the past, Santa has not been one of Olivia's most loved people. But I had hopes for perhaps just one tiny photo this year with her standing maybe within 5 feet of him. As Santa came in she waved and said, "Hi Santa!" But she had a death grip on my jacket. Soren turned around and was frightened by him and his cries were just enough to feed Olivia's fear. She screamed and clung onto me so tight. I reassured him that we wouldn't go and talk to him and was finally able to get her settled down by going over to watch a movie. She checked Santa every few seconds just to make sure he was still sitting in his chair. She was ok with him now, because she knew he was going to stay there. But then, out came Frosty! Frosty, unfortunately had the misfortune of not having a predictable location and was walking around greeting children. As he approached the movie area, Olivia stood on her chair and began screaming at Frosty at the top of her lungs (I can't emphasize that enough) while wagging her finger. "NO, NO, FROSTY, YOU GO AWAY, BYE, BYE, NO, NO!" I could feel my face getting red with embarrassment. She was wrapped so tightly around my head and body. Her fear had been just enough to send Soren into a huge screaming fit as well. They were both wrapped around me so tightly and screaming so loud that I had the attention of the whole Fest Building. As I was walking out, Soren was screaming so loud that his pacifier fell to the ground. So now I know I was quite the sight as I had to try to pick up the pacifier with 2 screaming kids wrapped around my body. Oh dear. I was so relieved to get outside. All the tiredness of the week and the day engulfed me and soon we had the Ouimette, party of 3 crying outside. I was so thankful to get back to my parents, feed the kids supper and put them to bed, so that I too could hit the hay. Sleep cures so much, as I woke up the next morning with a refreshed view of the prior day's events, I could hardly stop laughing thinking about what a spectacle we must have been. Rest assured Santa, we won't be making any visits to you this Christmas. That's ok, this gives us another opportunity to focus on the true reason for the season.

Healthy Snacks

2008-11-20T18:18:00.000-08:00

This past June I had a lot of fun picking strawberries, and like usual, I got a little carried away. I made four batches of strawberry jam and frozen many to have for snacks. Now that there is a blanket of snow covering the ground, these strawberries are tasting even better than I could have imagined. The kids especially enjoy strawberry smoothies. I use this great recipe from the book, Super Baby Food. It has yogurt, wheat germ, flax, a little brewer's yeast, and of course, strawberries. It is definitely a favorite around here!

I used another recipe from this same book to make homemade wholegrain pretzels for Olivia's preschool class. These soft pretzels along with some grapes made a great snack for her class. It must have been a hit because they were all eaten! Olivia loved helping making the dough into a "snake" and then twisting it.

Siblings!

2008-11-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

As Soren gets older, it is becoming easier for Olivia and him to play together. Olivia usually makes up a game and gives a variety of commands for Soren to do, and he most often happily follows her lead just thankful for being included. It has been so fun and rewarding to watch them become closer. While I have been looking forward to the development of this relationship, I seem to have neglected that along with this relationship would come fights. We have entered the world of sibling rivalry, and what a world it is! Soren doesn't have much language so he usually tries to get what he wants by grabbing, hair pulling, and biting. He usually does these behaviors when Olivia provokes it with not sharing, or not giving Soren a turn. Some days I feel like a interpretor and referee, but those moments when they play so well together, I just love to sit back observe.

Enjoy the following sequence of photos/ videos that illustrate this roller coaster ride.

Best Friends 1minute...

Come on Soren, let's go play "hotel." Let's go buddy!

30 seconds later...

3 1/2 and 1 1/2...Wow!

2008-11-01T18:47:00.001-07:00

Can you believe we are already at the half way mark of another year? Just the other day I was looking through some pictures from their birthday party in May. Somehow it feels like we just had this party, but looking at the pictures I was amazed at just how much they have changed in the past six months. I have heard many times about how time goes faster as you get older, but I never quite understood it...now, I am getting it. I want to cherish each stage the children go through, they are such rich blessings in our lives that we are so very thankful for!

Benchmarks in Development:

Olivia: She is such a delight! I so enjoy her witty humor and honest insights to life. She is making friends and learning such important social skills, such as sharing, taking turns, being helpful and kind, apologizing and forgiving, ect. She listens very intently and is detail-oriented. Our conversation about the day's events at preschool can go on for 20 minutes as she gives me the run down of the exact directions the teacher said for each activity (First, we needed to color the squirrel, then cut...), the snack (sugar-free red Kool-Aid with graham crackers in the shape of animals), and even may include a pretty outfit she noticed (My friend had a sparkly pink shirt on today...). She doesn't miss much. This intense observing has served her well also in the alphabet area as she knows the majority of letters and their sounds. We are working on rhyming, phew, what a tough thing! She can identify numbers to 20 and do simple adding. She has made friends with the scissors and loves to cut out just about anything! Olivia has enjoyed imaginative play for a long time now, but in the recent weeks, it has shifted up a couple gears and she gets very emotionally invested in her make-believe world. We were pretending to play Cinderella, I got the role of Cinderella, while Erik and Olivia were the wicked stepsisters. They were ordering me around to clean this and that and then we got to the part where they ripped off Cinderella's pretty dress and necklace. I made a sad face and pretended to cry, until I looked at Olivia and she had a couple sympathetic tears running down her cheek. Oh, game over and time to talk. I just love her compassion! While the imaginative play has increased, so has the drama, she can cross her arms, stomp her feet, and push out that bottom lip further than we knew possible. She is definitely testing her boundaries and learning how to control a large range of emotions.

Here's her name:

And she started writing mom and dad.

Soren: There has been a common phrase we have heard since he was born, "He is all boy." And that continues to be the case. He is rough and loves to play hard! He doesn't only play with his toys, he jumps on them, stands on them, throws them against the wall, bites them...this whole gentleness is very difficult to teach. When he is eating, we need to be ready for the moment he is full and get him down otherwise, we will have food all over our kitchen and living room. He talks more everyday and always attempts at repeating any word you say, some more successfully than others, but we are happy that he at least tries. His most commonly words are: Mommy, Daddy, ma (milk), ju (juice), agua (water-we didn't teach him agua, he thinks he is saying water), yeah, eat, ca-ker, cook-ie, cheeeeese, tuc (truck), tac-tor, puppy, kitty, pony, hot, up, down, ba (book), and numerous others. We are also beginning to wonder is something is wrong with his legs because he has forgotten how to walk, he only runs full speed in every direction. He loves to dig in the mud, play with rocks, and give me bugs. (I think he found about 10 ladybugs in our house yesterday.) His favorite toys are anything Olivia is playing with, stroller, babies (he will be a great Daddy someday...once the gentleness develops!), Little People, balls, and the number one favorite is books. He is always bringing me a book that he wants to read. His favorite is a photo book that Naana made about his birth. He always says, "ouch!" on the page of me pushing...very funny. He is so full of life and his infectious-dimpled smile brings a lot of older ladies to our grocery cart while we are shopping. He definitely keeps us on our toes!

Although some days we get frustrated with tantrums, hair pulling, biting, fighting, messes, we wouldn't trade these days for anything. We are so thankful for being entrusted with the responsibility to raise Olivia and Soren. They bless our days with much happiness and thankfulness! Happy "Half Birthdays" you two!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T18:14:00.000-07:00

"Trick-or-treat!" and "Boo!" followed by "Thank you!" and "Tang doo!" may have been the words you would have heard if our little chicken and bumblebee visited your house last night. We had such a great night. First of all, the weather was a beautiful 60 degrees. When I bought the kids' costumes at a local garage sale this past summer, I never dreamed that they would actually be a little hot in them. We started the night out at a friend's house where we did a pumpkin craft and played Pin the Face on the Pumpkin, a spin off of the game Pin the Tail on the Donkey. The kids thought the faces were so silly! We then enjoyed a potluck, complete with Mummy hotdogs, they were so cute. We then walked around the block going to about a dozen houses. It was just so much fun to not be shivering as we were trick-or-treating. We went back to the house and had a great bomb fire, the girls got in their pjs and watched Winnie-the-Pooh Halloween movie, while the one years fell asleep. Since Soren fell asleep, we were able to sit outside and enjoy, what might very well be, the last pleasant night of the fall. It was so great to just sit around the fire, talk, and enjoy the night! Happy Halloween!

Our Pumpkins in the Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful weekend, so we decided to take the family to the local pumpkin patch. The hay ride through the pumpkin fields was fun. Olivia could easily spot all the orange pumpkins and gourds throughout the fields, while Soren on the other hand loved the tractor and said, "Tac-tor" about 30 times. The hay ride was so peaceful until we heard a loud bang. They had a huge 'pumpkinator' that shot pumpkins at the targeted school bus. Needless to say, the bus was pretty banged up and covered in pumpkin goo. Our kids were a little skeptical of that loud noise, so we tried to warn them when there was going to be a loud bang. In the petting zoo section, Olivia showed some improvement in her fear of animals, I don't think she screamed once, but we still didn't manage to get her to actually touch any. Soren loved every animal and wanted to touch them all. Olivia surprised us again...She normally hates paints and temporary tattoos on her face, but she decided she would like to get her face painted. She looked the choices over carefully. There was an adorable pumpkin, but I decided not to say anything and let her choose...hmm, she chose the skeleton. Erik and I just looked at each like, really? But the hit of the day was the tower of hay bales that had 6 different slides coming out, they played on these slides for about an hour! Well, you may be thinking, what about the pumpkins? They were, unfortunately quite expensive, and after paying an admission fee just to get in to have the privilege of buying their pumpkins, we decided to take the kids to Fareway grocery store where all the pumpkins were $3.49. Now that's more like it. The kids were so excited to carve the pumpkins. Olivia wanted hers to look like it was laughing, all I can say is, I tried my best.

Our little Jumping bean

2008-10-14T05:40:00.000-07:00

For the past 3-4 months, Soren has been trying desperately to jump like his big sister. He would bend his knees and thrust his weight up, trying so hard to get his feet off the ground. His feet always looked like they were glued to the floor, until recently that is. The past few weeks he has actually been able to get both feet off the ground. I have been meaning to get a video of this so tonight when we got home from Olivia's dance lesson he was jumping around, so I grabbed the camera. Olivia, not to be outdone by her brother, also does a new little trick that she made up on the spot, something she named 'under cat bridge.' :-) Enjoy our little monkeys!

Cousin Nathan turns 2!

2008-10-12T22:01:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we went to Stewartville to celebrate our nephew's second birthday. It was an absolutely beautiful fall day with temperatures around 70, amazing! The party was held at a gorgeous park and the leaves were so vibrant. I was able to get some good pictures of Soren in the leaves, I was so sad that Olivia was so defiant and wouldn't cooperate with my "fall photo shoot." I guess that's what I get for letting her stay up late the night before dancing the night away.

Nathan LOVED his Elmo cake!

Olivia must have forgotten to brush her teeth

Nathan and his cousins

My brother's family

Soren, as always, on the run!

This is what we call the "Grandpa face" because it looks just like my Dad when he is concentrating.

Playing in leaves is fun!

Dancing Queen

2008-10-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went back to Spring Grove to attend one of my classmate's wedding. Olivia could hardly wait for the dance to begin. The wedding ceremony finished at 4:00 and we had a little time before the dinner was going to be served, so we went back to my parents' house to change Soren's diaper and regroup. Olivia was beside me the whole time saying, "Mommy, we need to go, the party is starting." She was so excited to dance, and I think part of it was also staying up past her bedtime. As soon as the music started, she got her groove on and hit the dance floor. Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

Olivia was even giving dancing lessons!

Soren's first Haircut

2008-10-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had an appointment to get my haircut. After getting there and taking a look at Soren's hair that was beginning to curl over the tops of his ears, and their sign stating that babies first haircuts are free, I thought, let's go for it! We were able to give him a lollipop to hold him still for a few minutes, but then he soon got bored of that. So, I told him to feed Mommy, so then in continued to stick it in and then pull it out... a hairy grape sucker, yum! But soon, that too got boring for him, so he was passed off to Daddy where he proceeded to do the same thing. Phew! She was finally able to finish! He looks like such a big boy!

Do whatever you want, just as long as I have this sucker!

Stop, Drop, and Roll

2008-10-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

We have had a great time learn all about Fire Prevention both at preschool and through the community this week. Instead of the normal story time this week at the library, we had the opportunity to take a field trip to the local fire station. The best part was the mode of transportation to get to the station...we got to ride on TOP of the fire engines! The kids loved it, well, at least the ride. Once we got to the station, we watched a fire fighter get dressed and then they wanted each kid to give her a high five. Well, Olivia, understandably, was very nervous of all her apparatuses and masks and thus spent the rest of her time with her head buried in my legs and shoulders. Soren on the other hand, wanted to get in every emergency vehicle and push as many buttons as he could.

Here is our little button pusher.

Happy Birthday John Deere

2008-09-27T12:12:00.000-07:00

One of Soren's new words is "ta-cer" (tractor), so we jumped at the opportunity to take the family to a local festival celebrating John Deere's 90th anniversary. Olivia enjoyed the inflatable slide and jumping castle, while Soren's favorite was digging in the corn to find hidden treasures, John Deere fruit snacks! Both the kids loved to "drive" all the tractors. Grandpa, your grandkids made you proud!

Grandpa, just call us when you need some help!

Scarecrow Festival

2008-09-21T11:57:00.000-07:00

Our local arboretum had a scarecrow festival this weekend to help raise money for the maintenance of its facility. It was a beautiful sunny day, so a friend of mine decided to take our children to this festival since both of our husbands were busy for the day. The kids enjoyed looking at all the scarecrows, but I definitely think the highlight of the day was the corn maze. They did a good job of leading us in and around and getting us all turned around, as well as navigating us out of the field.

Here we go!

Soren always wanted to run in his own direction, just glad we didn't lose him!

Olivia enjoyed the races

While Soren enjoyed the sand

My 2 Precious Sunflowers

Go Pirates!

2008-09-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the Homecoming football game for our town. We had a couple of family friends over for supper and then walked 3 blocks down to the high school football game. We made it to half time, well just barely. The 2 one year olds needed to go to sleep, but the 3 and 4 year olds, along with their parents went back to our house for a bonfire and smores. Yummy!

Headed to the game!

Go Pirates!

Aloha!

2008-09-15T20:07:00.000-07:00

Purple, purple, purple, that is definitely Olivia's favorite color these days. So, you can just imagine her excitement when she needed to bring something purple for sharing time at preschool. After going on a purple hunt, she settled on this purple lei. I was explaining everything about leis, grass skirts, Hawaii, and before I knew it were were trying to shake our hips. As you can see it this video clip, she loved that part best!

I love, you love, we all love...olives?

2008-09-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

Eleven years ago when Erik and I first met, it didn't take me long to discover his love for olives. After going to one of our favorite Italian restaurants, he decided to try to replicate their bread dipping oil. It had olive oil, fresh diced garlic, Parmesan cheese, and then Erik of course added olives to his version. I do have to say that it is very delicious. Now whenever Erik makes this treat for himself, he has two little mouths right beside him wanting some of that yummy bread dipped in his special sauce. After both kids were introduced to this dipping oil, they too were on the path of loving black olives. The other day, Soren was signing "eat" while pounding on the refrigerator, and being the clever mother that I am, I figured out that he was probably hungry. When I opened the door, there was a piece of string cheese next to an olive container. When he pointed in that general direction, I thought for sure that he wanted the cheese. Nope, I was wrong he wanted the black olives. We have actually had to make an olive limit, 5 per kid, which just so happens to be the same number of fingers on one hand, coincidence? We will let you decide. So, the next time that you are at the grocery store where the olives are on sale, promise not to laugh at my cart, doesn't everyone by 10 cans of olives at one time?

Face the music, Laura, Face the music!

2008-09-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

Oh, to procrastinate, or not? That is the question! Have you ever fallen behind on something so far that it just felt to daunting to even attempt to catch-up? That is what has happenned to me and our website. It all started with our kids' first double birthday. I was busy prepping for thier birthday, then planting the garden called to us next, followed by evenings of fun with family visits, reunions, star gazing, and now here I am harvesting the garden that was part of the beginning of all this procrastination. I owe an apology to all my faithful babyjellybeans viewers. Every once in awhile I would check the site and I would be astonished to see the visitor number steadily climbing, my face would turn a pinkish hue as I quickly retreated and closed the window before anyone would see just how much I have procrastinated. Now it is time for me to face the music! I shall post! I will catch you up on the past! I shall post! I will keep you informed of the future! I shall post!

The Blessing of Seeds

2008-09-13T17:22:00.001-07:00

After six years of apartment living, we were so excited to finally get to have our own garden. We planted tomatoes, green peppers, zucchini, squash, lettuce, onions, green beans, broccoli, basil and cilantro. Just like the first time you do anything, we too learned many lessons this summer. We learned how to battle slugs and vine boars, when to harvest onions, the importance of planting at the right depths and give the plants enough space to grow. But more than anything we learned about God's amazing gift of seeds. In the spring, I brought out all the seeds for the entire garden in my hand at one time. Now, 3 months later, the bounty of the garden doesn't even begin to fit inside my hand. After bucket load after bucket load my freezer and deep freeze are plum full. Wow, those little seeds when tended to and brought up with love and guidance, blossomed to such productive plants. Hmm, seems to be a parable in there somewhere. Well, would you look at the time, it is time to go feed my two precious little seeds, or umm, children.

Spring

Fall

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for...Olives?

2008-09-12T20:10:00.000-07:00

Eleven years ago when I first met Erik, it did not take me long to learn about his love for black olives. After frequent visits to one of our favorite Italian restaurants, he began to try to replicate their olive oil, diced garlic, parmessan chesse bread dip. It didn't take long for Erik's version of the dip to include black olives. He likes to make this about once a week or so, so there always seems to be an open can of olives in our refrigerator. The other day Soren was signing eat and pounding on the refrigerator, and being the clever mom I am, I have come to learn that this is Soren's way of communicating, "I'm starving!" When I opened the refrigerator there was some string cheese next to the black olives. He pointed in that general direction, so I assumed, he most likely wanted the string cheese. Oh no, he knew that black juice in the little tupperware container meant OLIVES! And that is indeed what he wanted. Olivia also shares this love and we have actually had to make an olive limit at our house because we are beginning to go through a huge amount of olives. The limit is five per kid, which just so happens to be the same number of fingers, huh, coincendence? We will let you decided...just don't look at me funny the next time you see me shopping and the olives are on sale...doesn't every family buy 10 cans of olives at once?

Chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo!

2008-09-06T16:54:00.000-07:00

This year's Steam Engine Parade was a first for our family. My parents and brother's family have made this an annual event while we were out of the Midwest, so we looked forward to joining them this year on the mission to throw a Mister Freezie Popsicle to almost every spectator. My Dad restored my Grandpa's John Deere 630 a few years ago and he enjoys driving it among the hundreds of other restored tractors in the parade. If you are a farmer and remember the "good old days" this is the ultimate town festival for you. In order to get ready for the parade, Dad first had to rebuild the wagon that we all sit in. The floor had given out, so Dad replaced it with a new one, a floor that Erik screwed in about 400 screws. That floor is going no where. :-) My Dad also had a friend that built this tiny John Deere using a lawn mower engine. It was so small, my six year old nephew's legs even looked crammed as he drove it. He sure did give all the farmers something to admire chuckle at as he followed Grandpa's tractor. The Mr. Freezies went over well on the warm fall day. With our extra hands on deck for the first time, we actually got a bit ambitious and threw a few too many out in the beginning and didn't have much for the end. It was fun, but it was touch and go for our hands, frost bite almost got the best of us. Note to self for next year, bring gloves.

Grandpa's little helper...he worked so hard he couldn't make it through lunch.

The crew and Hayden's small tractor. (Click on images to enlarge.)

Peek-a-Boo!

Bringing in a New Decade!

2008-09-05T14:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, 30, how did that happen? So, here we are, Erik and I have reached a new decade, the 30's. I had the pleasure of bringing in the new decade a whole whooping 20 days before Erik. Fortunately, neither one of us was too phased by the new number. We are thankful for our stage of life and where we are in our journey, so the big 3-0 didn't bring much stress, perhaps just wisdom. :-)

It took me awhile to discover who the sneaky person was who hung up this sign on our tree in our front yard and the birthday banner on our front porch.

Daddy's Birthday Waffle

Not sure which had more frosting on it, the cake or Olivia

There sure is a lot of candles there!

The First Day of Preschool!

2008-08-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

Olivia has been excited for preschool all summer long, until we turned our calendar page to August and announced to Olivia that this was the month she would start preschool. Now that it was so close, she decided preschool could wait another year. She just became a bit unsure and nervous of what to expect. So, to help rekindle that excitement I decided to take her backpack shopping. As we enter the aisle I exclaimed, "Wow, look at all these cool backpacks. Do you see one that you like?" Thinking this would be a home run to fire up the excitement, I was quite surprised when she turned to me and said, "I don't need one. I am not going to preschool, I am staying with you." Oh, dear... keep trying...then I found it: the princess backpack! She wanted to smile and like it, but she was still hesitant, so I said, let's just try it on. Hallelujah! She loved it! Now, preschool was looking a little bit better. Then after the preschool open house, she was truly excited again. The night before her first day of preschool, she was so excited that it took her longer than normal to fall asleep. Fast forward a few hours..."Mommy, Mommy, is it time for preschool?" "What?" was all I could muster for a response as I rubbed my eyes and saw 3:24 peering back at me from the clock. Oh dear, I got her back to her bed and told her that she had to wait for the sun to come up. So, at 6:00 she came bouncing down to our room again. This time, I knew there was no getting her back to sleep. I made her a special breakfast pancakes that spelled her name. She thought that was pretty cool (as well as thinking that was going to be her breakfast for every preschool day.) Then we loaded up the wagon and walked to preschool. She was so excited! I think she aged a few years in our two block walk to school, how can my baby already be in school? She gave everyone hugs and kisses and then bee bopped right on in to her classroom. It was great to see her so comfortable and watch the nerves melt away. We turned to walk out the school as my eye caught that little purple backpack, thank you princesses, thank you.

Look at that smile!

She loves her locker!

Me love Cookies!

2008-08-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

Neighbors can be such blessings and this is definitely the case with one of our neighbor girls, Jasmine. She is in the 6th grade and takes the time to come over and play with our kids periodically and make them feel special. When I see that bright smile ring our doorbell, I know that I too am getting blessed with a good hour to clean up, cook dinner, or do anything without the kids under my feet. So, we wanted to celebrate this special friend before her school year started, which experience tells us, we will be seeing less of her...sniff, sniff. Olivia decided to celebrate her with a batch of chocolate chip cookie, her favorite. I let her, and consequently our little "monkey see, monkey do" boy, make the cookies pretty independently. I read the recipe, gave instruction, and broke the eggs, other than that, they pretty much did it themselves. Olivia was so proud! We were so caught up in the moment, I was taking their pictures, they were stirring, and then we had our finally product and I took one finally picture, click! I then had to face the proof that a 3 and 1 year old had just made cookies, a sticky flour mess covered our kitchen. Hmm... I wonder if Cookie Monster's kitchen looks like this.

The lick, caught in the action!

They waited and waited for those cookies to come out.

Soren's patience came to an end, he wanted one right NOW!

Below is a video of some of the stirring:

Waiting for Cookies to cool is so hard!

Singing in the Rain

2008-08-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

Splash! Giggle, giggle, giggle...these were the sounds this afternoon as Olivia and Soren enjoyed today's rain shower.

SPLASH!

TA-DA!

Ouimette Family Time!

2008-08-12T18:36:00.000-07:00

Summer family get togethers are the best! That is why I was so happy when Erik's family decided that they would make the journey to our house this summer. We had ten amazing days of relaxing, talking, laughing, watching Olympics, playing, dancing, drinking coffee, more Olympics, trips to my family, hikes, Field of Dreams, and even more Olympics! Wow, what a great time! As our family grows and continues to spread out we appreciate this time together so much more.

The Nelson Family Reunion

2008-07-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

This summer we had a great opportunity to get together with my Dad's family for the first time in a long time. It was fun to see all my cousins, as well as their spouses and children. We had such a great set up. We had 3 cabins that were all connected and shared a front porch. Each of my Dad's sisters and then us had our own cabin. We overlooked a grassy hill where the kids could run and play, a swing set, a sand volleyball pit, a horse shoe pit, and the river. We filled our three days with tubing, kayaking, bike riding, and much talking and laughing. What a fun time!

40 years ago there were 5...

Now we've expanded to 26!

Cinderella, Cinderella, Night and Day It's Cinderella

2008-07-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

Olivia has just recently developed the attention span to sit and follow a full length movie. We had some movies passed down to us and the only one that Olivia really enjoyed and actually watched was Cinderella. So, imagine her excitement when she found out the YOOH in Spring Grove was going to be performing Cinderella. She talked about the performance for weeks before hand. She even wanted to wear her princess dress, and conveniently get a free popcorn for doing so. It came time for the big night and as we settled into our seats Olivia's face was filled with excitement. Let the show begin and it did! Olivia was captivated. She was in her own world, she was concentrating so hard on the show that she didn't even realize she was moving her arms similar to the actors. Very cute. FLASH! BOOM! And just like that 15 minutes into the show, the lightening, thunder, and down pouring rains put an end to the performance. We went up stage to meet Cinderella and Olivia was speechless. She really thought she was THE Cinderella, not an actor. I wanted a picture of her with Cinderella, but Olivia kept saying, "No pictures Mom." So, enjoy the picture of Olivia with the program instead.

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

We decided to head up to Spring Grove to celebrate the 4th of July with Grandpa and Grandma. After the kids' naps we went to Harmony to take in the 4th of July parade. Following the parade, Olivia wanted to try her hand at all the fun games at the kid's carnival. We went back to my parents house for supper and then got ready for the fireworks. Soren got too tuckered out and ended up falling asleep. We didn't have the heart to wake him up, so Erik offered to stay home with him while we went to the fireworks. Olivia was SOOOO excited about getting to stay up late to go and watch the "magic in the sky." We got to Eitzen and found a great parking spot and set up our lawn chairs and got the soda and popcorn ready, now all we needed was the show to begin. I think Olivia was more into the popcorn, soda, and idea of staying up late than she was of watching the fireworks. But she soon caught on the the idea of oohing and aahing at each one. I think we sang the Happy Birthday song about 3 times during the show...Happy Birthday America!

I'm not so sure about this thing on my head Mom.

Ummph! Ding, Ding, Ding!

One little excited girl on America's birthday!

Swimming Like A Fish?

2008-06-20T10:27:00.000-07:00

With the arrival of summer comes the season of swimming! After many years of lifeguarding and teaching swimming lessons, I thought this would be a great time for Olivia to start official swimming lessons. During this experience I was reminded of my time teaching level one swimming lessons. It seemed each class had a few kids with no fear and would just jump in and go for it, then a few more that were cautious, but you could be easily coaxed, and then there was always that one kid; the kid that screamed bloody murder and had their arms wrapped in a death wrap around thier mother's leg. Yup, you guessed it, I am now the mother of that screamer. Wow, how did this happen? I started reflecting and realized that Olivia really has had limited exposure to swimming pools. She has been in a lot of little blow up pools, and played at the beach's edge in Dubai, but never really a swimming pool that was this large. The good news is that everyday she got a little bravier and by the end of the 2 weeks, I sat on the side and watched her blow a few bubbles. Did she pass? No, but did we ever have many victories to celebrate!

Taking our Little Monkeys to the Zoo

2008-06-13T07:20:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful windy day at the zoo with our dear friends Jim, Megan, Ashlyn, and Aubrie. Between the two of us we have four kids, all of their birthdays being within four weeks of one another. So, we decided to do a birthday outing complete with a picnic and of course, birhtday cupcakes! Although, the wind put a bit of a dampener on our idea of blowing out candles, so we saved that for when we got home. Good thing too, because it turned out we needed to strip them down and throw them all into the tub. The kids had a wonderful birthday outing and LOVED the animals, especially the new grizzly bear exhibit. Soren, our animal lover, was an intense spectator all day.

A Spring Trip to the Windy City

2008-05-29T07:34:00.000-07:00

We spent a fabulous weekend in Chicago celebrating one or our college friend's wedding. It was a beautiful 3 day traditional Indian wedding. Erik was something to the equivalent of a groomsmen and helped lead the processional dancing to Indian music while the groom, Sharran, came in on a white horse. We loved how the wedding was so much more than the joing of a man and a woman, it was also a celebrating the joining of their families. The decorations were eleborate, the settings were romantic, the food was delicious, and the time with old college friends was priceless.

Erik, Erik, and Moid

Erik, Soren, and the groom, Sharran
Sharran on the white horse
The beautiful bride

The Luther folks

We also had the opportunity to catch up with Erik's cousin, Stephanie, while we were in Chicago. It was fun to meet her husband and see her new apartment. We walked and walked and walked and saw a lot of neat things. Our normally cautious little girl saw a ferris wheel in the distance and asked if she could ride it. We thought this little sign of bravery needed to be reinforced, and it just so turns out mom and dad also thought the views would be amazing, which they were!

Mother's Day Trip to California!

2008-05-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

In May we had a wonderful quick trip out to sunny California. Erik's mom thought we were coming for Mother's day, which we were, but oh so much more. She was retiring from the position of Children's Choir Director and we were also attending her final performance and a celebration of her service. We had a great time seeing everyone, and of course, what would be a trip to California without another one of Aunt Terilee's phot shoots.

A New Format for the Ouimette's!

2007-11-11T12:43:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Ouimette family blog! We have decided to trade in our babyjellybeans for the new (and free!) blogspot! Please be patient with us as we adjust to this new format! Stay tuned...