Cute Puppies!

Friday, I got together again with a few of my classmates from high school. The kids and I went out to Burbank to go to my friends' house. The kids big enough to, ran in the sprinkler and splashed in a wading pool, then my friend brought out her three beagle brand new puppies. They were adorable! They couldn't even walk yet; that's how new they were. She had a couple of the kids sit down to hold them, so Olivia sat down and said, "Me want hold doggy." She is normally scared of animals close up, but actually held this one for like 10 minutes. She loved it. Elizabeth put hers to sleep. She loves them too. They have to get their fill of pets other places because we don't do pets at our house. My dad is allergic, so I tell them that if we got them, Grandpa Paul wouldn't be able to come over. (He really wouldn't be able to, without sneezing like crazy and having a runny nose) Plus, Andy and I aren't pet people....But, if all pets stayed as cute as these puppies, maybe....
Check them out!










Oh, and I have an awesome friend with two little girls and a boy (same order as us, just a little closer together) who is doing a great and fabulous arts and craft day every other week or so for an afternoon. The first time, they painted frames for Father's Day. On Thursday, seven little girls made toilet paper butterflies. I think they are super cute. Next up, necklace making. I love having a good, crafty friend to take my kids to play and have fun!! Here's a picture of all the kids with their butterflies:

Wiggling like a Fish

Today we went to a picnic in the park with the library. They had a craft, chips, drink, and treat, plus a visit from a group called "Wiggle like a Fish". A guy we know from church sings songs for kids with this fish. It's pretty cute. Here's the picture of our girls with a couple of friends. Another busy day......
We left the house at 11am.
Post office to mail a package and letters, WalMart to return wrong size batteries for kid toy, Park for hours eating and playing, then library to return books and movies and get new ones, now home at 3pm for an hour until Activity Day for the 10 and 11 year old girls and then dinner, Andy's Home Teaching, Temple Recommend Appointment, game night.....I guess I should probably go and feed Vincent. He probably needs that by now.

Olivia's Jedi Song and more...

This is Olivia's "Jedi Song". After Elizabeth sang her's, Olivia had to copy her. If you listen to Elizabeth's in the last post and then this one, you can tell what she is saying better. She did it all on her own. I didn't catch the very first part, but you'll get it. Plus, the first time she sang it, she added the Luke Skywalker part too. She even does a bow at the end if you catch it.



Here's Olivia's ABC's too. We love her head nod. Sorry about Elizabeth's snotty nose sound in the clip. Plus, some of that was me stifling laughter. She's so funny.

In other news, I finally got a little time to weed my flowerbeds today. Andy was working in the back on the sprinklers....and I just let the girls run around the front yard and layed Vincent on a blanket and finally got it done. Now the garbage is full of weeds though and garbage day isn't until Thursday. (I know, I've been really putting it off.) I still need to weed our garden, which is growing like crazy with our mild weather and rain lately, but at least I'm done with some of the weeds. I filled up 5 buckets. Three fit into the garbage. Two will have to wait a few days. I use old laundry soap buckets with handles because they are easy to stuff full and carry to the garbage. And then I don't have to throw them away or figure out something else to do with them. I figure that if I wait a while to weed, then I won't have to do it too many more times this year before Fall. That's probably not a gardener's point of view, but it's my lazy gardener's point of view. It really just means that it takes longer, all the weeds are bigger, and it doesn't look as nice for longer. Oh well.





I also went to the mall at naptime and survived with three kids. I ended up leaving with one bottle of lotion (75 Percent off), two pink rubber ducks ($1 each at Bath and Body Works), three pairs of sunglasses ($1.99 at Children's Place), and four hungry people. Also, the one thing I went in for and it came with a cool new mommy gift bag with sample lotions, baby rash cream, and even a green plastic baby spoon. It was a pretty good trip to the mall. I was surprised how good the kids did.

I think Olivia is giving up her naps. She doesn't want to go to bed at night anymore and wakes up too early. We're going to try this out for a few days. If she is still waking up early, back to naps. I love it when she naps. I can set Elizabeth up with a quiet activity or movie or better yet, send her across the street to play with a friend, and occasionally, even Vincent will nap at the same time as Olivia. I don't know that I'm ready to give them up yet, but I guess she's almost three. She's working on potty-training still. She tells me when she needs to go sometimes. Like, when we got into a store on Monday, she told me, so the girls and I went into the bathroom and Andy took Vincent to do guy things, and then when we caught up to them, she said she had to go again. Ugh! That's the tough part of potty-training. All the time spent in public bathrooms. At least this one was at Target and they generally keep their pretty clean.

We are all doing good. The kids keep us busy, but they are good most of the time. Sorry this is going on so long. I'm waiting for the last video to attach. I hope this post makes sense to somebody. These videos took a lot less time than the one with Elizabeth in the last post. Does that make sense? Has anyone become an expert in downloading videos?

Exersaucer and Jedi Song

I decided that Vincent is probably big enough for his exersaucer now. He liked it a lot. It still works best to prop him up with blankets around him because he's still so little. He can touch the bottom of it though. 6/18/08



Vincent is trying out his new baseball cap. 6/19/08



Olivia told me to take a picture of her like this. Her hands around her eye make it look even bigger. 6/19/08



Here's a cool picture I took of a butterfly. I was trying to get it, which is why I took my camera out. Elizabeth loved watching it and said that she wished we had nets to catch it in.

I've been trying to record Elizabeth singing her "Jedi Song" for weeks. My new camera records with sound, unlike my old one....so here she is. She says that she is going to sing this song on "American Idol". I kinda hope she doesn't. It's like the weirdos who dress up in costumes from the beginning of the show.



Olivia wanted to sing her ABCs for me. I love that every letter she nods her head to the beat. What a funny girl. It takes too long to save a video on here, so you'll have to ask her to sing next time you see her. After Elizabeth sang the "Jedi Song", Olivia wanted to sing it to.

Ballet and Reunion + Birthday = almost too much fun.

Well, the crazy super long weekend is finally done! We were so busy every day! It was a lot of fun though. I'm apologizing ahead of time, because this has totally become a play-by-play journal entry. I'll add some pictures to look at too.

Last Wednesday was the beginning of the gathering for the reunion. Andy's cousin from Ohio came to stay at our house with her three kids. They got along great with ours. The first sentences from the oldest two were about Star Wars and Superheroes. I think we've trained Elizabeth on how to get along with boys and what things they like. She even, I think, pretends that she doesn't like princesses, ponies, and dress-up when they're around. They all ran around and played until the cousins fell asleep because it was midnight in Ohio time. Our girls were wanting to talk and play and goof off because they were in Vincent's room in sleeping bags.



Andy's cousin, Sunny, and her three kids. They were all so nice and the kids got along great!

Thursday, Andy's cousin from Kennewick got married, so we hired a babysitter for our combined six kids (Thank you Rachel!) and went to the Temple for that. We returned home two hours later to babies that were just waking up from naps and four other happy kids. Yeah! Then we went to a luncheon that was supposed to start at 2pm, but most of the aunts and uncles didn't show up until 3pm or so. Then, they started decorating for the reception and we went with other cousins and hung out at Andy's parent's house to work on a surprise scrapbook project for Andy's Grandma Ellen. That night was the reception and then games at our house until midnight with some cousins. We love games.



Vincent hanging out with Andy watching the kids run around.



Olivia with Elizabeth wading in the river. It was cold water.



Our little family. Our color was brown so we knew who was who and who belonged to who.

Friday was the start of the real reunion. We went an hour to a park that they had a reunion at 30 years ago. Everyone was supposed to come at 11 with lunch at 12:30...again, we were the first ones there and were alone there for a half an hour until the cousin staying at our house came. (She was only that far behind because she missed a turn, having not been in Washington for like 15 or more years.) Everyone else came about 12 or 12:30. The cousin said, "What's this about? All the people with kids are here on time and the people without kids are late? That doesn't make sense." We are just always on time for things. It was okay anyway because two of our kids were asleep in the car and were able to finish naps. After lunch, the kids played in the river and blew bubbles and played games. Elizabeth went fishing with Grandpa and other boys. (She's always the lone girl at things.) Then we did dinner and soon after that, we were tired and got home about 9pm, just in time to have baths for the girls to get all the river water off of them and put them to bed before Andy's cousin got back and cousins came over for games. We love games! They came about 10pm and stayed until 12:40. We had a great time playing Scum and Apples to Apples.



Grandma Ellen McClellan. She is so cute! Look at the sparkle in her eyes! We're so glad our children live close enough to get to know her.



Elizabeth at Ballet rehearsal. I've decided it's easier to take pictures at the rehearsal and relax at the performance.



Elizabeth with Miss Torrie (Aunt Torrie) at the recital.

Saturday's reunion festivities didn't start until noon, but Elizabeth had her ballet recital rehearsal at 9:15. I had to wake her up at 8:45. She is quite the sleeper. She practiced and did great. I exchanged email addresses with all the other moms so that we can share pictures from the recital. We went home and picked up everyone to go to the luncheon for Grandma Ellen's 80Th birthday. (She actually turned 80 in April, but kids were still in school, so this was her big party.) She had a lot of friends there along with most of our families from the reunion. Andy's sister, Sara, made a great DVD slide show of pictures from GM Ellen's life and of her children that we watched right after cake. Then, cleanup, and off to Ransom's for more scrapbook work. From there, our little family (Andy, me, Elizabeth, Olivia, and Vincent) went to the park for the ballet recital at 4:30pm. It started at 5pm. I asked prior to the making of the schedule that our class be one of the first groups because of the reunion, so we went 5Th. We were able to leave about 5:50 and get back to the reunion for the auction. My quilt went for 42 dollars. Alright! Andy's cousin who was mostly in charge this year, presented the scrapbook to GM Ellen of her posterity. There was a scrapbook page for each of her children, their spouses, and all of the grandchildren and spouses and great-grandchildren. It was so big. Then, we had dinner at the church and the talent show. Andy, Elizabeth, and Olivia sang a song Andy learned when he was little, "Little House in the Middle of the Woods". It has motions too. Then Elizabeth sang her "Jedi Song" that she wrote and likes to sing. I'll put a video of it up. (By the way, one of the cousins asked her sons which part of the talent show they liked best and the "Jedi Song" was it.) Andy's nieces both danced and Torrie's husband played his guitar and sang. Sara played a nice piano piece and some others displayed talents. Other cousins sang, played instruments, and told stories. When the talent show was over, Andy's sister, Torrie came, finally done with the ballet recital (she teaches Elizabeth's class and more) after being at the park for 12 hours. We had to then clean every room in the church because we were all there most of the day, and you all know how well kids stay in the gym when there are awesome halls and classrooms to run and explore in (if you don't, you will learn soon enough.) Five minutes after getting home, there was a knock at the door. When I opened it, we had been toilet papered for my birthday by my friends. (We started doing this last September. It's really fun.) I started cleaning up some, so the sprinklers wouldn't get it and my neighbor came home and said it's an honor to be TPed and that if I cleaned it up, she'd do it again worse, so I left it. We were going to play games again, but some of the cousins were leaving the next morning to go home, so instead, we had a good night's sleep.



Andy with the girls singing the "Little House" song.



Elizabeth singing her "Jedi Song". I'm so glad she's confident.

Sunday morning, we went to church with GM Ellen for Father's Day. Most of the out-of-town relatives were there. We saw a bunch of people we know, since we are local. After the first meeting, we went to Andy's Aunt Carol's in Kennewick to hang out until the lunchtime meal. One great-granddaughter needed some attention while the meal was getting ready, so GM Ellen sat on the floor and played with her. Here's the cute picture. I hope I'm this cute when I'm 80 years old. We visited and talked while the kids (ie: Elizabeth) got sunburned running around in the grass. I don't think Olivia burns. Andy brought his laptop and combined every one's pictures from the reunion on CD's for everyone (my idea) and I suggested a partial sibling picture of GM Ellen's kids. It was partial because one son and his family didn't come (they live in Maine) and a daughter went back home to Seattle on Sunday. They did it anyway. GM Ellen is so cute. I went looking for her and found her inside doing all the dishes. I told her we'd like her to come outside for a picture and she started fluffing her hair up. CUTE! After the lunch and playing, we went back to Andy's parent's house for dinner and to take a family picture with all of his siblings. We finally got everyone to the same place at the same time!



Grandma Ellen playing with her Great-granddaughter, Elizabeth Carpenter (six months old). So cute!



McClellan Family-Carol Carpenter, Shirley Ransom, Richard McClellan, Grandma Ellen McClellan, Sandy Abbott, Nancy McClellan



Our big Ransom Family picture, mostly happy and looking at the camera.

Monday, our company left to do some tourist things before flying out Tuesday night. Also, it was MY 26Th BIRTHDAY and ANNIVERSARY. I spent the morning cleaning and gathering every blanket in my house to clean and preparing like 10 loads of laundry even though I just did some on Friday. The girls (and teething Vincent) were acting up and not listening (surprise after such a busy weekend) and so I called my mom and made her come up and go with me to lunch. Yum. Olive Garden. The kids came too and mom had the waiters sing to me. Just like seven years ago at our wedding dinner, except this one was not done in the opera voice like then. A couple of friends came and dropped nice little things by for my birthday (Yea, nice friends) and then in the evening we went to a niece's 1st birthday party. (By the way, watch out for 1 year olds to try and grab the candle flame. Ouch!) Sami was born on the 18Th of June, but Monday nights are easier to get together than Wednesdays. Her mom and dad combined my name in with Sami's and were very thoughtful about that at the party. I didn't mind anyway. I'm just 26. In four years, I told Andy, he can plan a big party. Someone told me that I should just say I'm younger, but I really don't mind getting older, especially since I have three kids. I'd prefer not to say, "Yeah, I'm 21 with three kids." I think 26 and three is great!



Vincent at the birthday party, looking especially cute.



Cute little Sami after opening her presents. I think she liked this one.

Tuesday, we went grocery shopping and relaxed. Boy was that nice. What a busy week. We had a lot of fun. Sorry this post is so incredibly long.

Yummy Strawberries!

The other day I was at the grocery store and thought about buying strawberries....
Look how many I found today in our own garden. I hadn't picked for a few days because it's been so rainy and windy outside, but I guess the rain and wind are good for them.
We got a twin mattress for Olivia yesterday, but haven't set the bed up yet. As you can see, she doesn't even really need all that extra space yet. She was all bundled up in the corner. And, oops, I woke her up. That wasn't very smart....
I finished a jean quilt today to auction off at our family reunion to have money in a family reunion fund (this is the first one, so it's still new to me....) I didn't have enough of the small jean squares cut out, so I used some of my brown corduroy from a skirt my mom made for me a few months ago, along with some $1 a yard fabric from WalMart. The points don't all line up. Good thing I'm not a perfectionist. I wish I was better at making these quilts. I guess I just need practice. Good enough for a picnic blanket. I know I love the one we got for our wedding. We use it all the time.

Time to go and eat my strawberries before the girls do.

Our Sunday...

Today, after church, we went to Walla Walla for a celebration because my sister's husband graduated with his two year degree in Fire Science. He is going to Paramedic school in Vancouver on Saturday. After that, we stopped by my parent's house and took a few cute pictures.



I think I finally got a picture of Elizabeth and Olivia both mostly looking at the camera.



The girls like to make faces at Vincent. He always looks at them like they're crazy and laughes.



Vincent is getting bigger and cuter too, if I do say so myself, and I did.

My mom took an even better picture of Vincent. Here it is:



Not super exciting. Just wait until the next one. We'll have reunion pictures and Elizabeth's ballet recital too.

Sprinklers, Bikes, and More...

On Monday, the weather was nice enough to put out our sprinkler for the girls to run in. I put my foot down for the swimming pool. Too cold(and it takes too long to fill up too.) Elizabeth loved it and kept posing for me drinking the water. Olivia liked it, but not too close. She liked going down the slide though.





Tuesday, Andy had a meeting, so I took the kids to the playground two blocks away. I let Elizabeth ride her bike and Olivia had her little trike, with Vincent in the stroller. Elizabeth shot off ahead of us with her little training wheels (this summer she will have them removed....) and Olivia took so long. Her helmet was funny too. It was too low. She kept having to bump it back up with her hand, like she was saluting or something. Part of the reason was that the trike is getting too little for her now, or that she is too heavy for it. (It was cheap.) She did stick it out though and rode all the way there, just in time for...Rain...again! It took like 20 minutes to go the two blocks! I took a couple pictures of the girls at the playground and then heard thunder and decided we better hurry. I carried the trike, Olivia pushed Vincent's stroller, and Elizabeth rode on home. Andy met us halfway, since the meeting was over. He carried Olivia home.







Wednesday was Elizabeth's preschool graduation. I do a mommy swap preschool with some friends from another ward at church and we met at a playground this time to have a little ceremony and picnic lunch. We had only girls for most of the time. There were too little boys for a month or so. We started in the fall. Elizabeth loved it. We just traded who was teacher and went to their house for two hours on Wednesday morning. The girls got to do show and tell (their favorite part of preschool) and crafts and play at the end. They had a great time. Plus, it was mostly free. Even better. We had subjects and letters for each week too. One of my friends talked to her mom and found these graduation hats. Funny. Plus it was a little windy and they kept blowing off. The second picture is with one of her friends who has the same shirt and they seemed to wear it at the same time often.