Cereal for Vincent, Potty for Olivia...

Sorry, two days in a row with new blogging. Oh, and I'm taking tons of pictures today because I got a "surprise" new camera last night. I'm still trying to figure out the flash and stuff, which is why things are still a little funny.



Olivia started potty-training on Tuesday this week. She already decided that she'd rather go on the big toilet instead of the baby one. Yeah! I don't have to dump and clean it anymore. Also, she does all her business there if we catch her at the right time...She pooped in her pullup two days in a row in the morning right after I put it on her, but after that has gone in the toilet. I hope this keeps up!



Today, Vincent was still acting really hungry right after I fed him, so I mixed up some cereal for him. He is also 4 months old today! He ate like a champ. When I brought the spoon in close, he'd open right up and take it in his mouth. Again, what a good baby!!! I am so surprised with him.




After he finished his 4 teaspoon meal of cereal, he went right to sleep in the vibrating seat that was Elizabeth's. Poor Vincent has to sit in a blue seat with pink flowers. Oh well. Not worth replacing. The flowers are little.

Mini Class Reunion+Food idea+Good book

I got together with a few of my old classmates today with all our kids. I had the most with 3, also the oldest and youngest there (there was a nephew younger than Vincent though). I had the only girls too. What's up with all these boys around? So, after 8 years since graduation, we had 9 kids total (my 3, two friends have 2, and two friends have 1.) We've seen each other a little since then, but not all together and fun like this. We had snacks and ran around the backyard at Amber's house. The kids all played pretty good together, minus the toddlers wanting to get at a couple of the babies and hold them =). We are all living in the Tri-Cities now and I don't know why I never see anybody. We must all shop at different times in different places. It's weird that we don't run into each other more. I guess Tri-Cities is pretty big.



Chelsea, with her only child, Michael (7 months)



Me with Vincent. Youngest of my three kids, like you don't know that.



Amber with her only, Evan, 13 months. Thanks for letting us get together at your house, Amber!



Sheena with her baby, Logan. She also has a 2 1/2 year old Aiden.



Amber with Rayleen. Rayleen has two boys, 5 and 3.



Kevin (Rayleen's boy) and Elizabeth were born a month apart.

Food Tip:
My mom makes French toast in her waffle iron. It cooks evenly on both sides and then has holes for the syrup too. The bread is the same size as waffles normally are too. We call them "Fraffles".

Book Tip:
"The Sunflower" by Richard Paul Evans is a great book. He is a clean romantic-based on true experiences author who is LDS and wrote "The Christmas Box" among other great books. We are reading "The Sunflower" as our Relief Society activity book group book.

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day, we went up to Grandma and Grandpa Ransom's property just outside of Goldendale by Satus Pass. They bought it about 8 years ago and are fixing it up. There is a lot of red, red dirt. Elizabeth and Olivia went for a lot of rides in the trailer of the 4-wheeler. In these pictures, cousin Dylan (Suzie's son) and Grandpa George are driving, while the girls (cousin Sami (Sara's daughter), Olivia, Elizabeth and Grandma Shirley) ride along behind.




Vincent spent a lot of time in the camp trailer eating and playing. He's still happy. Cross your fingers that he'll stay that way.



Elizabeth enjoyed playing in the dirt with her cousin Dylan. They also like to play with Scooter (Grandma and Grandpa's dog).



After lunch and fun at the mountain, we decided to drive over by Mount Hood. We took a lot of backroads and found several waterfalls for the girls to look at. Here's the picture we took of some of the rapids in creeks. We went through a major rainstorm too. I think it got all the bugs off the car. Again, Vincent was great, except the last hour home. But, who can blame him for that, since we were in the car until 11pm. Fun weekend.

Books and Toys...

Here's all the kids on Sunday in their nice outfits. The sweater is still too big for Vincent, but I put it on him anyway.
Vincent is finally starting to pick up toys (well, hold them when I give them to him and make his little fingers hold them anyway.) We bought him this caterpillar that has different things in it (crinkle noise, rattles, squeaks). I decided that it was long enough he wouldn't be able to loose it too easily while I'm in the shower if he's awake (hopefully then I won't come out and hear him crying every time. Oops. I do take care of him, I promise.)
I was at a quilting class on Wednesday during Elizabeth's preschool (we swap with other moms and trade houses, 5 little girls.) Olivia was trying to cheer Vincent up by reading him a book. What a nice big sister. (I know, she needs her bangs cut again.)
My mom found this train for Vincent, so I decided to set it up for him before the girls wreck it. He seems to like it. He was following it with his eyes around the oval and I think he liked the music too. Thanks mom.

Finally a girl cousin on Crowther side!!

Finally Elizabeth and Olivia have been joined by a girl cousin on the Crowther side. They are quite a bit out-numbered with 8 boy cousins and one brother. My parent's have 9 grandsons and now 3 granddaughters. I'll share a picture of the three girls together. Their new cousin has 4 big brothers and her name is Lydia. She was born on Sunday, May 18.

To get to the hospital, we decided to have an adventure. We caught the bus after Visiting Teaching and rode the bus for 20 minutes or so until it got to the hospital. Some of that time was waiting at the transfer station in the same bus. Here's the pictures of us on the bus and waiting at bus stops. Vincent is hiding under the blanket in his carrier, asleep.

Thankful

Today I am just so thankful.
I'm thankful for my wonderful, supportive husband and all he does to help me and our kids. I'm glad I found him and that he loves me even with my quirks.
I'm thankful for my good kids (most of the time they're good anyway) and the things I'm sure they are teaching me about patience and love and honesty and forgiveness and acceptance and humility).
I'm thankful for the knowledge I have of God's plan for us; not necessarily knowledge that I know what will happen, but that I know it is all in His big plan.
I am thankful for the Gospel and the Truth that I know because of it.
I'm thankful for my extended family and their support and love they show our little family (I guess with three kids now maybe we aren't little anymore).
I'm so thankful for faithful ancestors who paved the way through so many hard times and helped me become who I am.
I'm thankful for our awesome ward family we have here in Richland. They always check up on us and are great to our kids and us too.
I'm thankful for so many things and dread the day when real trials will come. I'm afraid they will all be when our kids are teenagers. But I hope I can prepare now so I will not falter under the stress of trials.
I'm thankful for our country and the bounteous blessings and priveleges we have here that we don't even comprehend. We have so much, we don't even think it's strange to have it all. We hardly know what it's like to do without. For many of us, doing without is not buying Oreos at the store or the name brand of things. We never go to bed hungry and get to eat without having to kill the chicken in the yard. I'm thankful for that too.
Maybe this seems like a strange posting this time, but I think it's about time I say how thankful I am for things, even if it's not Thanksgiving time. I really am thankful!

Swinging, Parenting idea, and A Lilac

While Andy and Elizabeth went to see Speed Racer last night, I took Vincent and Olivia for a ride in the wagon. We walked to a park about 20 minutes away so that Olivia could ride in the baby swings. She loves to swing! Vincent slept in the wagon. What a great baby. Andy and Elizabeth really enjoyed Speed Racer and said that we will buy it when it comes out. Which reminds me, we went with some friends and Elizabeth to see Superman when it came out, and during the beginning part where it's all quiet because it's saying who paid for the movie, Elizabeth started going, do do dododo do do dododododododododo. (The Superman theme, obviously I don't write music, sorry) It was all quiet in the theater. It was too cute!! She was sitting between a couple of our game night buddies and we couldn't stop her. Better than yelling, I guess. Then she kept asking when Superman would show up, 'cause it kept being Clark Kent. Funny girl.



Here's my new bribery idea. One of my friends told me that she started to give her daughter quarters for chores she did around the house and in one day gave her $2.50. Well that seems like a little much if you have two little girls and I really don't want to redo too many chores, so I devised a system.
Each night we decide how good they were on a scale of one to ten and that's how many pennies they get. We may eventually graduate to better coins when the realize that a penny buys nothing, but for now, they just like to put money in the jar. I guess we can tell them that a "penny saved is a penny earned". The other good thing about this is that we have a mom and dad jar too. When they get out of bed at night (our constant battle), we take a penny from their jar and put it into ours. They are doing much better the last few weeks.


I finally got my first lilac off of my lilac hedge. Last year I ordered them from a company online and they were just sticks. This is the only bloom so far, but it looks pretty good for only being one year old

Happy Mother's Day!!

So, I took the kids on Thursday for a picture for our mommies for Mother's day. The photographer took a long time to get to us and then they like to shift kids around all the time, so Vincent got upset. (It's really great to pick up a happy kid and then just set him back down and expect him to be happy, right?) I did get one decent one. They are all looking and are mostly pleasant. I picked the top picture. The bottom one was just so funny, I had to put it in. Elizabeth said they were squishing her. I love the pained look on her face. Vincent looks like the king of the mountain. What funny kids.
Vincent took great pictures by himself last week grinning, so I don't blame him too much. He's such a great baby.
Our moms both already opened their presents, so now I can put these pictures on here.
How was your Mother's Day? What does your family do for you? I need some ideas for next year.

Shh, Vincent sleeps through the night!!

I've been trying to keep this on the down-low. Vincent sleeps through the night though. I don't want to jinx it, and now on Saturday night, he'll wake up a bunch, I'm sure. He does so well. He goes to sleep around 10 or 11 and wakes up about 6 or 7 for a breakfast and then goes back to sleep until 8:30 when he wants a second breakfast. He's totally a hobbit. (By the way, Andy loves Lord of the Rings, so it's rubbed off on me a little.)
By the way, it totally happened. Saturday night was awful. After he woke up at 3am, he didn't want to go back to sleep. Even in the swing, he kept on crying. I'm not saying that he sleeps good ever again!

Haircut Time!!

Vincent has had a bunch of hair right on top of his head since he was born, and so I told Andy that he had to wait until Vincent was three months to cut it. Well, he's three months now, so the hair had to go. So sad!! It's still pretty cute though and it will be even as it grows back. It is just long enough to rub on. I love that feel. He didn't even mind the clippers that Andy used. He just kept turning his head to the sound of the buzzing. He has such trusting eyes. Andy rinsed him off with the sprayer to make sure all the patches of hair were off. Cute baby!!

playground fun

On Thursdays we go to the playground with a group of mommies and kids from church. We all enjoy playing and visiting and letting the kids get all their energy out. Vincent had his first swing ride (other than the baby swing inside) and fell asleep in it. He was well padded as you can see. Olivia has a bunch of friends her age who come to play. Elizabeth was there too, but was running around too much to catch her picture.



On Tuesday night Andy and I went to the Temple for my Grandparent's anniversary with several members of my extended family, including their five children and spouses, and several grandchildren. They have been married for 55 years April 30th. They started out very unusual for their time though. Before they married, Grandpa served in the war and went on a mission. Grandma earned her college degree from LDS-Business College and served a mission as well. They married when Grandma was 30 and Grandpa was 29. Now today, it is not strange to be older, graduated from college, gone on missions, start having babies at 31, but in 1953? My other grandparents married when Grandma was 17 and Grandpa was, I think, 26. I have it both ways, I guess. I am so thankful for the great examples that they set for me as a small girl. They are great!!! This picture is of my grandparent's and their 5 kids. My dad is the one on the far right.







We also as a family visited my Grandparent's (Elizabeth calls them the farm grandma and grandpa). They got out their marble game and their gears game. The girls really like the marble game. We also had yummy twinkies and ice cream. The girls love them too.