Dance Camp

Elizabeth and Olivia were in dance camp at a friend's house this week. Her two older daughters were the teachers and her two younger daughters (who are Elizabeth's and Olivia's ages) were in the class too. Monday I drove over to their house three times to drop off/pick up and discovered another mommy doing the same thing, so we switched days the rest of the week and even had some playdates while sisters were dancing at the non-driver's house so there would be room in our vans to pick everybody up from dance. They had a fun time. I even managed to get a few errands done while it was my driving day with just two kids.Andy was in Seattle three nights this week for training, so we kept busy with afternoon playdates, pictures and a doctor visit for Abigail's six month milestone, FHE at a friend's house whose husband was also out of town, and easy dinners. Abby is now 13 pounds 5 ounces and 25 inches long (she's about four inches tall....maybe). She is petite, but very alert and active. She's growing, just not very fast. Olivia was kind of small like her. We aren't worried, even though we know so many babies younger than her who are bigger already. She's not starving. I promise. =) This is what she was doing while we waited for the nurse to come back to give her some shots. She can put her feet all the way up to her ears. Who needs toys anyway??? One of my visiting teachers watched the other three kids for me while I took Abby to the doctor. It was nice to not have to redirect all of their energy. I love our doctor. They had just received a shipment of baby formula and wanted to give me a bunch of their extra (not even close to being expired) formula. Um, I'll take it. Thanks! They even told me that when I run out, I can come back between appointments and pick up some more. I'm still breastfeeding Abby, but she eats about 8 ounces a day as well. She gags on regular baby food and spits it all up, so we're going to try that out some more later.
The kids all went to bed very well and behaved as good as can be expected. (The last two nights they have gone back to wanting to play at bedtime again. How can it seem easier with just me? So confused. I LOVE it when Andy's home! Maybe they didn't want to make me mad or something...)
The pictures from Abby's photo shoot are here and here. There are two because in the first set they didn't get one the portrait way of the pose I liked best and apparently they can't crop it from landscape to portrait. Abby was a little out of sorts because she was tired. We still got some cute ones. She doesn't like to smile for them much there. I like JCPenney's Portrait Studio because they have a package for $7.99 and if you fill out a survey after you go there you get a $3 off coupon for the next visit. With tax, I paid $5.40 for the whole package and an extra 8x10 (with another coupon). Pretty great.
Friday night was the dance recital to show off their new dance routines from their five hours at dance camp this week. Elizabeth was in a jazz class and Olivia was in ballet. Videos below. The outfits are ones that their family has worn in other dance recitals or they've been passed down from cousins or somewhere. They have quite a collection and the girls each chose the one they wanted to wear.
Andy's parents were able to come and watch the girls dance (and corral Vincent.)
He needs it. He is so silly. Olivia is convinced that Vincent's whole name is Vincent 'Trouble' Ransom because weeks ago Andy said that trouble was his middle name. Anytime I call him Vincent Paul, she corrects me. So funny.Olivia's ballet dance:

Elizabeth's Jazz Dance:

I love these songs. So cute and fun. Remember they only had five hours of dance camp and some of that time was making little crafts and eating a snack and their teachers are 13 and 11. =)

Sunday Best

Today after church we were waiting outside next to our car under a tree with nice shade and I thought it would be fun to take a few pictures of Abigail because tomorrow (Monday, July 25th) she will be six months old. She's having her pictures taken at JCPenney's, but I like snapshots sometimes too. It's hard to believe that she's been in our family for six months already and on the other hand, it's hard to believe that it's only been six months because it just seems like she's been in our family forever.
I took a few of just Abby and then the other kids jumped in. I really do love these fun kids!I got the individual ones by cropping just them out of group pictures that the other kids weren't looking.
Abby is adorable. I like that she's wearing outfits for a long time. This dress is 3 month size. I think it will be retired after this because it's getting too short. She's just a petite little girl.Vincent cheesing it up. Olivia is so fun!Beautiful Elizabeth. She is growing up!I hope your Sunday is wonderful. I hope to spend the afternoon napping and then eating dinner and going to have cake for Andy's cousin's birthday. It should be nice.

Jumping off

On the last day of swimming lessons, they have all the kids jump off the diving board (the high one too-if they are daring).
Today was that day.

Elizabeth jumping off the diving board. The instructor had to help her again. They tied pool noodles around all the kids in their class. The younger classes had life jackets.
Jumping from the edge of the pool.Swimming. She's getting pretty good, but needs more practice still.Elizabeth after swim lessons.Olivia on her way to the diving board.A daring little girl in Olivia's class who went off the high dive while Olivia was on the little one. (I sent pictures to her mom for her since the high dive is a big deal and she didn't have her camera.)Olivia standing on the end waiting for her teacher to come and help her.Olivia hanging out in the deep end.Now two weeks off to do other fun summer things and we'll do it again.

Swimming Lessons

I have been missing a little on here. Sorry. (Or not sorry, if you didn't miss reading my posts....)
Elizabeth and Olivia have been in swimming lessons for the last week and a half and even though the actual lesson is just a half hour, it seems to take up the whole morning. They start at 10, so I can't do much before the lesson except get up and ready for the day. They don't get dressed until they get in their swimming suits, so they are kind of lounging around in the morning too. After swimming lessons we have a little time to run an errand or two if we need to, but it's getting harder and harder to feed Abby in public (she likes to pull on the blanket and I sit on bleachers), so we can't be out for too long.
Olivia is in the beginning class still, but it's level three of minnows, now called otters, just to keep things confusing. She loves it. This is the first year we've bothered with goggles, but they like them and we already had them, so I'm going with the flow.
Elizabeth in her level two class. She's getting better and better and I think she's better than me (really not saying much) and she just needs to work on her back float (that I finally was able to do when I was pregnant with Olivia). There are some kids from our ward taking lessons at the same time and both girls made friends with girls in their classes.After we get home and eat lunch, I try to get Vincent to take a nap and most of the time he does, but about half of the time, he'll play in his bed and talk to himself for an hour or two before finally falling asleep. This makes it so he's actually in his bed for 5-6 hours a day. He probably could give up his nap, but then it's harder for me to nap and it's harder on the girls who need a little quiet time without him and without a nap he's cranky! I like Abby to nap then too, but a lot of the time she wants to be awake while Vincent sleeps and sleep when he's awake or when she and he are both asleep I have to make dinner. And that is how the whole day is wasted with swimming lessons. We'll have next week off from swimming lessons (and do dance lessons instead) and then the next week will be totally empty. We'll be wanted to squeeze in the last of the summer playdates then though before two more weeks of swimming lessons and school starting. Vincent is going to do some swimming lessons next time too. I think it will be good for him.
Last Friday night we had a craft night with Ransom Made Design (facebook page and website) and my second cousin came (our moms are cousins) with her new son (does that make Abby and her son third cousins or second cousins once removed?) Anyway, it was fun to see her and she made this cute sign for her daughters. It turned out super cute.
Today (Wednesday) I watched a friend's daughter while she hiked a hill close by with some friends and then we went with her to the house of one of the girls in Elizabeth's swimming class. I packed sack lunches for everybody the night before and the kids had a great time playing.We discovered connections (Of course! My mother in law told me that I know everyone and we can play the Kevin Bacon game with me. Probably. I know a lot of people and I like to keep in touch with them and both of my parents were raised within two hours of here pretty much their entire lives and so have I, so it's really not that surprising-especially within the church). Friday night we discovered a connection between my dad's aunt's family and Shirley's best friend's family in Utah. Okay, okay. I know everyone, even you! =)
Anyway, our new swimming lesson friends are related to a family in our ward. They are really nice and now that Vincent and Abby are both sleeping, dinner is cooking, and laundry is done-I'm obsessed, I'd better go lay down for a few minutes before Abby wakes up.
More swimming pictures to come, I'm sure.

Outside fun

Monday we had a few friends over to play while their mom packed for a three week trip and after playing dress up and with other toys inside and having a snack, we moved the fun outside. Their mom came to pick them up and we kept playing. I decided I'd better clean up our leaf blown patio.
Abby enjoyed the swing. Olivia liked pushing her in it.
Abby's first time in the swing. (Super) Vincent on the slide in the background.Elizabeth found this enormous leaf next to our tree.Super Vincent! I finished weeding the garden Wednesday night. It always takes so long to weed and I didn't want to finish today because my hands hurt enough Wednesday night from pinching so much (like 4-5 hours in one day). It might be time for the square-foot gardening idea. But now it's done and I don't have to worry about it for a while. The girls started swimming lessons this week and are enjoying it. I have yet to take pictures of them swimming, but I'm sure I'll get to it. =)

Bathtime in the Sink

Saturday I finally got it together enough to get a few pictures of Abby getting a sink bath. I love our huge deep sink for these (except I have to reload the dishwasher just before her bath, but I have to run it just about everyday, so it's not too big a deal). We just have one (not two side-by-side like normal sinks) so it's extra big and she can lay in it. She likes to kick and splash once she remembers what's going on when she's undressed and wet.

I especially love the way she smells afterwards.

Clara 5K

Saturday morning we went to a 5K to help support Clara who is a two year old fighting cancer. She has a very vicious type of neuroblastoma and is expected to be in Spokane having treatments until September or October. She is one special little lady. I have no idea how many people were there this morning (update: roughly 500), but I know that there are even more people who wish they were there.
It was put on very well and it was fun, even though I'm not in shape (at all) and it was a long walk. I was carrying Abby and walking with Olivia, but they really aren't my excuse for not running. I've haven't been a very good runner since middle school. One of my good friends, Chelsea, who is Clara's aunt is six months pregnant and RAN in 27 minutes. Brian, Clara's dad, said a few nice words before we started that were very sweet and sincere.
Before we started my mom took a picture of my brother Jeff with our family.
Vincent and Olivia were listening super well today as you can see.
Here's two pictures of us starting out that someone in charge of the event took. One shows Elizabeth and not Olivia and the other is the opposite.Elizabeth ran/walked with Uncle Jeff. It made her day to get to run some of it.
We hung out with Vincent and Andy on part of the way, but Vincent was going slower than Olivia so I just ended up in the middle with Abby until we split off all the way.
Andy with Vincent and Olivia. We just bought shirts for the kids.
Olivia should patent that shirt hold she has on Vincent. Olivia decided that she wanted to run part of the time. She was moving so fast, but wasn't getting very much farther than if she was walking. It was kind of funny. She's in the air in this picture and yes, of course she's wearing a skirt. Do you even know her yet? She wears a skirt just about everyday and only doesn't wear a skirt when I make her wear pants.Andy had Vincent with him and they only made it to the water stop before turning around. Vincent was getting tired and whiny, so they went back and waited with my mom.
Here is my brother Joe with Kori, Colby, and Sam. They were faster than us.
A little while before the finish line, Jeff came and walked the rest of the way with Olivia.
And when I finished, this is what I saw. My mom and family waiting for us. It took the three of us about 65 minutes to finish. We didn't bother going super fast because we weren't in that big of a hurry (and because we can't go that fast), so we finished nearly last, but we did it.
Olivia picked up a couple of rocks about halfway through the race and wanted to throw them in the water. I told her that she could do it when we finished or a few times we were close enough to the water to do it, but she wanted to do it at the end. Here she is, assisted by Elizabeth and Uncle Jeff, throwing them in.Olivia and Elizabeth on the dock after the race. Those are cheerleaders from a local high school in the background who handed out water to the racers partway through.My mom had Jeff take this picture of us with Abby and Elizabeth.
I enjoyed passing people I know and those I didn't and saying hello and encouraging words. It was a lot of fun. There were even a few little boys who were passing high fives. Cute.
I had to feed Abby after we finished since she started getting upset about ten minutes before I was done and I didn't want to sit down and feed her and make everybody wait for me (and I'm not sure I'd want to finish if I sat down too early). My mom's blog is here.
It was a great thing to do and an even better cause. We came home and relaxed (except for Andy who changed the oil in the car and mowed the lawn) the rest of the day. It's been a while since we had a relaxing Saturday afternoon.

Cars, Sprinklers, and more

So I got tickets Wednesday for Andy and Vincent to see Cars 2 on Thursday night using the two free tickets that came in our new Cars and Incredibles Bluray disks. At the beginning of dinner an hour before the show, we told Vincent that he couldn't go unless he finished his dinner in time and set the timer for 20 minutes. He has a history of not eating his dinner and minutes later telling us he's hungry or just taking forever to eat his food. Like usual, he sat there not eating his food for the first 15 minutes and finally tried and finished half of it with five minutes left, but he refused to eat the other half. (You may be thinking he was full or that we gave him too much. Neither of those are true. He had about 8 bites total on his plate. And he was hungry. He's just stubborn.) Meanwhile we told the girls that they would go if Vincent didn't finish so they could get ready. I did my best to try to get him to eat to no avail, so Andy left with the girls. I, personally, was looking forward to a girls night and sending the boys out, but it was not to be.

About ten minutes after they left, Vincent finished his dinner and went to our front window convinced that "daddy is coming back to pick me up".

Nope. Tough luck. It was almost time for the movie to start by then. He sure was cute looking out hopeful though. He really only finished so he could have a cup of milk. I turned on the first Cars for him to watch. It's a pain to have to stick by what you say you'll do when/if they do something, but even though just one of us said it first, we have to back each other up and parent together. Maybe he'll believe us next time we make this kind of deal. He IS 3 and (almost) a half.

While we were camping last week, he sat next to his sloppy joe (he called it a burger) for a while before he decided he'd rather go to the tent. I checked on him in the tent a few times and he was just laying there in his sleeping bag not sleeping. An hour (Yes I said an hour!) later I asked him if he wanted to get up and eat it (it was covered and in the shade) and he finally got up and tried it and liked it. What a stinker!

Anyway the girls and Andy enjoyed the new Cars. The girls favorite part is in the previews when Mater goes in the girl's bathroom. Figures. Andy said it was pretty funny.

Friday morning I got going sort of early and cleaned the carpets in our three bedrooms. I cleaned the living room carpet a few weeks ago, but hadn't really had time for the rest of the house and they needed to get done, so it was the day for it. Now I just need to do the family room and I can super duper clean the machine and take it back to my mother in law and rest easy for a while and enjoy the clean carpets. Later in the afternoon it was time to run errands, so we went to the library and the kids picked out their prize books at the book store there (3 each) and then we were off to the bank and Costco (where the door guy told me that I had done well.-I'm still not sure if he meant that the kids are all cute or that none of them were crying, so I must have done well. I took it as both. =). After Costco we had to go to Walmart too. We did our two cart trick again with Vincent and Olivia in the big part of the cart, Abby in the baby spot and me pushing them, with Elizabeth behind me with her own cart where I can put all the stuff without walking around the cart. Elizabeth does a really good job keeping up with me and not running into things (except my ankle-just once today: no blood.) As we were checking out there, the lady behind me whose cart was heaping told me that she doesn't know how I do it with four and that she can barely shop with her two (who weren't there). Elizabeth returned the extra cart and the three kids stood by the wall while I checked out and they ate their little snack).

It was a successful day.

Now I don't have to do that again for at least another week. Phewww.

I started up the sprinkler in the backyard for the big kids to run through while I took care of Abby and they were happy doing that for a little while before they came in to watch tv and read their new books. I did have to snap a picture of that since it's the first sprinklering of the season at our house (the girls did go to our neighbor's house last month to run through her sprinklers.) They like to go down the slide when it's wet too.

Yes, that's my garden in the background. Before you get jealous of all of my plants, know that the majority of them are weeds. I'm not doing well with that this year. Abby is teething (still) and just wants to be held anytime I'm around. I think she's getting some early separation anxiety too and she watches me leave a room and cries until I get back. I guess she's that age now. Fun. She's so cute though I don't mind the extra cuddles.

After Andy got home and got the bills paid, we went back to Walmart for stamps and then to pick up our shirts and numbers for the special two year old Clara's walk/run 5K Saturday morning. She is 2 and was diagnosed with cancer a little more than a month ago. I went to church and school with her mom and aunts. We ate dinner finally at 8:40pm (very late!) where teenagers told us how cute Abby is and as soon as the girls finished, they were cleaning and closing the playplace. I hadn't even thought of that. I told them that we'd go to the park tomorrow and then realized that we ARE already going to the park for the 5K. Oh well. They weren't too sad and took it well and I bought them cookies because they didn't whine about not getting to play when they were looking forward to it.

We are having a pretty good summer and enjoying the daylight, even though that means that the kids go to bed pretty late. At least they are tired at bedtime so they don't play so much when they need to sleep. And now Abby's asleep too. Time for me to go to bed. Yea!

Sorry about all the parentheses. I like them.

fun and games

Wednesday morning I took the kids to a free summer movie at a local movie theater to watch The Karate Kid (the new one with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith). We met a few friends there who watched it with us. A few other friends were going to the other movie that was playing at the same time. I think I knew at least six people (not including kids) there. It was fun even though you can't really visit while you are in the movie theater with a bunch of kids. It's just nicer for bathroom breaks if needed or if babies get fussy. My kids did awesome and didn't have to go out at all during the movie. Vincent stayed dry and everything. Abby sat on my lap and I had the girls on one side and Vincent on the other. The movie was longer than two hours and by the time we got home and I started making lunch we had been gone for nearly four hours. That kind of made the day pass quickly!

Olivia and Elizabeth waiting for the movie to start. (Just a reminder: My kids all dress themselves most days.)
Vincent enjoyed the movie. He had a little booster to sit in and kept pointing out the bad guys in the movie. The blond girl next to him is the daughter of a lady who used to be in our ward. She had some popcorn that Vincent kept snagging. I kept telling him to stop, but she was really awesome about it and nice to him.

I'm glad he behaved alright because Thursday night Andy's taking him to see Cars 2 in the same theater. We got free tickets when we bought Cars and Incredibles on Bluray. Since I took the girls to Tangled, they get to have a boy movie night too.

Abby mostly just sat on my lap and wiggled around slobbering on me. She didn't really cry. I think her hair might just be turning red on top now. I'm not sure though. Maybe tinted red. We'll see...
Soon after we got home, my little brother, Jeff came to hang out with us. It was his 26th birthday too. He hasn't been home for a long time, so he had a lot of time to take off and visit all of us up here. One brother took him out for lunch and my mom won a cake for him on a local country station that she always calls our birthdays into. She also won a cake for my nephew last week and Vincent has won for two of his three birthdays. Elizabeth won on her first birthday. My mom is really good at winning free cakes. So Jeff went and picked up his cake and brought it over for our game night. He was here much of the afternoon, so the girls and I played Mario Party on the Wii with him. It was fun. I won even holding a wiggly Abby and feeding her part of the time. =) Elizabeth and Olivia have been playing Mario Party and Mario Kart for the last few weeks and are getting pretty good.

Olivia lost her very first tooth right after Jeff came over this afternoon. She was hoping to keep it in there until her birthday (in a month and a half) and lose it that day, but it just came right out today. It's been wiggly since the end of May. That girl has patience and determination! She was all excited to put the tooth in her special tooth fairy pillow and is anticipating a visit from the tooth fairy in the morning.Jeff stayed for dinner and then game night. A friend of mine was in town from Pittsburgh and came to visit with her boys at game night too, so we had a good crowd to eat the cake.

Look at Olivia on the top right of this picture. She really gets into the games!

Getting Powergrid started. Our buddy Robie always plays a game on his phone while we play board games.
Nathan and Rayleen with Abby. Rayleen's husband Mike is still in Pittsburgh going to school to be a dentist, but she came for a week to go to a family reunion and her boys get to stay and visit with their grandparents for a few weeks too. I got out some pictures of her son Kevin and Elizabeth when they were babies (Kevin's a month younger than Elizabeth) and even looked at a few from our high school and singles branch days. Fun memories.
I made Jeff blow out 26 candles on his cake even though he didn't want to. We don't see him very often and it's fun to hang out with him.Look at all that smoke!

Thanks for being a good sport, Jeff! I hope you had a happy birthday!

Oh, by the way, my mom is in a quilting challenge sponsored by McCall's and is trying to be the Design Star. She already moved up in the competition that started with 93 entrants that is now at 20 entrants and I would LOVE it if you could vote for her. Hers is the only pastel quilt and they don't show voting results on the page. You can vote daily (or more than daily if you use multiple computers) and you don't have to give your email or anything else. Just vote, please.

Here is her quilt. The winner (after two more rounds of challenges) wins a feature article in the McCall's quilting magazine, a big sewing cabinet, and a fancy sewing machine with embroidery. She works really hard on her quilting hobby and the quilts are beautiful too! Vote!