The Oliphants

Father's Day

We went to Houston on Saturday for Jessica High's wedding, so spent the night with the Oliphants. The boys and I agree that they have the best Daddy ever! He LOVES to play with them (and they especially enjoy wrestling with him!) and is so good at teaching them, helping with them, disciplining them and more. The kids enjoyed bringing Chris breakfast in bed, then we went to the Oliphants' church, and had a nice, relaxing afternoon. The kids loved playing with their cousins, especially their newest cousin, Sawyer! He was born only 5 weeks ago and I got to be a part of his birth...it was amazing. A few other pics below show what a good little eater Ila is (even as she's too tired to keep her head up!), Jackson feeding Tex (Rob & Kirsten's dog) ice cream, Jackson crawling like a crab, Kirsten and Sawyer, and various pics of our boys with Sawyer, Mimi and Boppy with our kids, Bryce doing pull-ups (way to go!), and Ila in the sling we tried out of Kirsten's (she loved it b/c in one hold she got to chew on her toes!). Enjoy...

Dinner with the Irelands

A nice evening out with my parents, Lauren and Joshua. We went to Tokyo (hibachi grill) to celebrate mine and my Dad's birthdays. Originally we planned to go to Carrabba's, but Nathan and Connor insisted on Tokyo b/c they have the fire, make volcanoes, and "we always go there for birthdays!" Below are fun pics of Ireland watching the fire, a few posed pics, and some fun pics of the kids eating with chopsticks (which they love to do). Yes, Jackson's pants are falling off in the last picture. They fell down all night (first time I'd put those shorts on him after pulling them down from Nathan and Connor's hand-me-downs.

All in a Day! June 11th, '08

These pictures are from one busy morning which started really early (I've had trouble sleeping lately, so got up at 5 a.m. this morning). By 9 a.m. I had gone to a muscle conditioning class at the Wellness Center, showered, had everyone make beds and get dressed, done a load of laundry and dishes, the boys helped make a yummy breakfast of eggs and fresh blueberries and strawberries, then cleaned up, switched their superhero costume tub out with the Star Wars tub from attic shopping, and we had Ila down for a nap. We stayed home all day, enjoying the newly discovered costumes, our back yard, a music jam and more. When I asked Nathan what kind of music he'd like to play (giving him a few options), he wanted none of the above, but chose the Nutcracker (he loves it!). He and Connor were so helpful around the house and with Ila. As Connor was taking off his wet t-shirt after swimming, he said he could hear the ocean in it. He had Nathan and I listen as he said, "It's a magic shirt!" I decided to spare you the photos of Jackson going to the bathroom, but he was so cute when I took his diaper off this morning. I asked if he needed to go potty and he immediately ran to the potty (big one...he doesn't care for the toddler potty so much!), went potty, wiped, flushed, put the lid down, washed his hands (with soap!), dried them, and attempted to put his pull-up on. He then heard Ila and proceeded to go in her room, turn on the light, crawl in bed with her, and then gave her a bottle. Lauren came by with homemade bread, which I toasted for each of us. When it was ready, I called all the boys in to the breakfast room. I asked Nathan to get Jackson since he wasn't coming, and next thing I know Nathan is walking into the kitchen with the loaf of bread, followed by a very distressed Jackson. Jackson got a bit impatient while waiting for me to toast the bread and grabbed the loaf from the counter, and took it as far as possible. Nathan said he found him eating under the piano. I took this picture of him where I found the crumbs. All four kids loved the bread! Later on this day as I was putting away laundry, I came back to the living room to find Jackson feeding Ila pepperoni pizza. She will eat anything and everything, so we really have to be careful! Jackson gets most excited when we mention Addie, "Oooooh, Addie!" and often runs to the computer to try to Skype her, when he sees or hears Ila, and when he sees or hears big trucks, tractors or helicoptors. Ila is still as sweet as ever, is crawling all over the place and is now pulling up on things, loves flipping through books (especially if I'm reading to her) and swinging on our front porch swing. When I walk with her she looks up at me and smiles...so sweet! Our children bring us a lot of joy! At the end of the day, Nathan and Connor had cabin fever, so Chris stayed home with the younger two and I got to take them to see Kung Fu Panda. They loved it! Afterwards Connor wondered if the theatre would let us borrow it and Nathan wondered when we could go back to see Indiana Jones.