Olivia

Where do I begin with our little princess? Our sweet as can be, feisty, independent, beautiful girl! She is all girl but no sissy. I love that she loves the frills, the pink, the glitter and glamor yet this girl is just as tough as her brothers and holds her own in this household!
When we found out that Olivia was a girl I was shocked. It was fun to buy pink and purple and hair bows. She has always been a daddy's girl. She and Matt have such a cute bond. I am glad she has a great daddy to give her lots of affection and 3 brothers to watch over and protect her. She is beautiful and they will have to help me fight off the boys that come calling!

I found this one night after she had gone to bed...setting out her outfit complete w/accessories.

Olivia started kindergarten and she has blossomed into such a social butterfly. When she was younger she was incredibly shy and I was really worried about her starting school. When she was 4 she started a dance class and she just sat in the middle of the floor and watched with a smile. She wouldn't talk to anyone and wouldn't do any of the actions...but she was happy (sounds like daws at preschool). After her 3rd or 4th time she started to join in but was very reserved. Well fast forward 2 years and you should see Livy at dance class now. It's fun to see her in kindergarten and watch her interact with the other kids. I get to be the art mom once a month so it gives me a chance to teach her class and have some fun with the kids. She is best friends with everyone and genuinely likes ALL.
She can be really silly and goofy. She has got the BEST Laugh! It's a real deep hearty laugh and she really gets into it to be funny. She's a future Cyd with the "killer laugh". Being Goofy...

Being Goofy again

Her hair has finally grown long. She has wanted long hair for years and it has taken almost 6 years to grow it. The problem is she has a super tender head and so combing it each day is a battle. I try to convince her that it would help if we cut it some but she won't hear anything of it. She wants it to grow to her feet or at least to her past her "bum" I'm sure we'll never let that happen but I know she'll put up a good fight. She got her first perm a month ago and she's loved the curls. Unfortunately it hasn't helped with the combing battle we face daily. It does help it look nice with very little effort.

Olivia loves to play house, her favorite color is purple, She loves to color, paint or draw. She loves to ride her bike or hike when the weather is nice. She is starting to read and is so excited about that. She also just started piano lessons...it's hard to believe how quickly she is growing up. She has really enjoyed living in CV and being close to her cousin Alexa. It's been great "girl time" for her. They've had quite a few sleepovers. She loves to go play at their house full of girl toys!! They are in dance class together and it's been great for them. Her kindergarten class has more girls than boys and she has loved having so many "girlfriends" One can never have too many "girl friends"!

She plays so well with her brothers. She and Dawson get in lots of play time while the big boys are at school. They play house all of the time and I am the "grandma". There have been many times that they've been playing as we were out shopping and they call me "grandma" while we are in stores. I hope that when people hear that they have to wonder how I'm their grandma. I know I'm getting old but hopefully not looking that old yet. Ha ha.
Olivia and her boys...notice her spider man sweatshirt (ike gave to her) paired with a skirt!


Hard to put into words my love for my little girl. She always says that I'm her sister (well me and the dog). She wants a sister so bad so I guess she'll take what she can get. She was so excited that Koda was a "girl" she didn't feel quite so out numbered. She is the silliest funnest (I know...not a word) most precious...5 almost 6 year old on the planet.

Dawson

My big plan for this blog is to have a family journal. It is so much easier to sit down at the computer than to actually write in a book...why is that? Matt and I started a journal when we were first married. Our initial plan was to write in it weekly...after a couple months it turned to monthly and now it seems I stumble upon it with each move and update it once a year or so. Since starting "the blog" I've had a much better track record!

Just a little update of each of our kids...their hobbies...their likes/dislikes etc. Today I'll start with Dawson since he hardly ever gets to go first.



It is so hard to believe that our baby will be five years old this year. All four kids ended up in our bed the other night (Matt leaves early for work and I think some snuck in once he was gone) We woke up a little early and had time to talk and giggle in the bed..all four of them. We started talking about when Dawson was born. The older kids really don't remember it since they were all so little themselves. Isaac remembers it some (he was the same age as Dawson now) He loved holding Dawson. I thought the novelty of it would wear off after a few weeks but it went on for months and months until Dawson was too big to hold. Dawson was an easy easy baby (they all were but he was especially) For the first 8 months or so he slept all day and mostly all night. He'd wake up to eat every few hours and go back to sleep. He woke up for the day at 8pm once the other kids were in bed and would hang out with Matt and I until 11pm or so. It was like he knew that if he wanted to get some quality attention he would need to wait til the other 3 little ones were asleep. He still loves just hanging out with Mom and Dad. He is more content to be at my side in the kitchen or out helping Matt in the garage or yard than doing anything else. He loves to "work" He seriously has a long attention span for projects that Matt or I are working on. He would rather be helping Dad than watching TV or playing.

Dawson's first day of Preschool!
He loves preschool!! The silly boy is yet to say a word to his teacher. He just smiles. I don't know that he says much to the other kids in the class either but he loves it and is always excited to go and always happy when he gets done. Each day when I pick him up and ask him about his day this is our conversation.
me "Hey Daws, how was school"... dawson "good" ...me "what did you do today".... dawson "secret".
If I ask more questions he just says "secret" with a smile on his face. Once in a while he'll want me to guess the snack but that's about all that I can get out of him. He likes his little "secret world" that is just his. He is so independent, he gets himself out of the car and walks right down to class. He has a great teacher Wendee Lamb. One time we ran into his teacher assistant in the store and she had been watching him before he realized she was there. He was being his boisterous self (when he's with family) and being silly with Olivia in the Aisles. She was amazed to hear that his voice is really quite loud and how silly he was being since she had only seen the shy reserved dawson. This picture really shows his silly side and it's one of my favorites.



His favorite toys are BIG trucks. He has quite the collection of them. He also loves to play with his barn and his little people house. He loves Boats...especially Grandpa B's and Klint & Kim's. He wants a boat when he is big. He also loves airplanes just like his daddy.
He is a good pretender. He loves to hang out with his sister and big brothers and they all adore him. His favorite color is Blue or Yellow depending on the day (he'll be a good cub scout someday). He is so excited to be a Missionary when he gets big and a Dad. He talks about both all of the time. He loves to stay in his church clothes on sundays and often sleeps in them Sunday night. Isaac has told him that when he's a missionary he'll get to wear his church clothes every day and he's quite excited about that. I'm sure his fascination with white shirts will go away in the next few years. Isaac and Adam change out of their church clothes before I even make it in the door it seems.

Daws driving Grandpa B's boat

He loves Baseball. I am hoping to find a little baseball league he can start this summer and that is all he can talk about. He keeps reminding the other kids that "Mom is going to find me a baseball team and you can come and watch me". He's had lots of practice as the spectator for the big boys sports and it will be great for it to be his turn in the spotlight.

Here he is sleeping with Buster and his blankies.

Dawson is our sweet little redhead. We don't know where the red hair came from but we sure love it. He has gotten a lot of attention for it when we are out in public. Sometimes people should think before they say things but mostly people are great about it. He is proud of the red and knows its special. I love my little Daws. He brings countless smiles to my face!

Beaches, Sunburn, HAWAII

Matt and I got home from Hawaii today. We had an amazing trip!! It will be impossible to summarize it all here but I'll hit a few highlights. We were so excited to get back to the kids. That was a long time to be away but they had a great time with Grandma! My folks took them to their house last weekend and they got to spend time with cousins. My mom brought them back on Monday night and stayed here at our house and taxied them around to school, basketball, piano practice and dance class. She's amazing!! I think the kids missed Koda just as much as they missed us...maybe even more!

We spent most of our time on the Big Island and checked out all of the amazing resorts and beaches. We checked into housing and shopping too to see if a move there someday would even be possible. We've decided it's a definite possibility but probably not anytime soon. We went to church there and felt at home. It reminded us so much of the branch in Saipan. Our favorite memories of Saipan are of the branch and all we learned there. We were able to do a session in the Kona temple and loved that too.

We stayed at the Worldmark Resort on Kona which is close to the downtown festivities. The larger resorts are further up the coast. Each of them are set up on acres and acres of ocean front property.
A dolphin at the Hilton Resort in Waikoloa.

Enjoying the sunset on the beach at the Mauna Lani Resort. One of our favorites.


We took a day and drove all the way around the big island. We stopped at Volcano National Park. You can see the huge Caldera behind me. It is active hot spot. We weren't allowed to drive on the road around it because the gas levels were too dangerous for breathing.
We had a great view of it from the historic Volcano hotel though.


We spent our last day on the big island relaxing on the beach and swimming in the ocean. After I got FRIED we took a stroll up the beach and watched these turtles having their turn in the sun. It was fun to watch them come in with a wave, relax for a while and then head back out to sea.
On our drive around the big island we stopped at a black sand beach. It's hard to see how dark the sand was in this picture. It was a true "black sand" that you could sink your toes into.



We spend our last on Oahu. We rented a convertable in Honolulu and drove around the island. Definitely the way to travel and take it all in. The views were amazing.


We started out the drive with a stop at Pearl Harbor. We road a boat out to the memorial that sits over the sunken USS Arizona. It has a list of the people who died when the Arizona sunk...over 1000 people. It was a sobering experience. It is such a beautiful peaceful harbor. We were there at 8:00 am and the attack happened around that same time in 1941. I can not imagine what it was like to be taken by surprise with such a horrible attack.


The view from the memorial. You can see the sunburn I'm still sporting even as I type.






Some views from our drive around the island of Oahu. Can you say WOW!!?



Who's that hottie on the beach? Matt kept getting chased by these waves. We were on the North Shore and were able to watch some surfers catch some waves. It sure looked fun!


We stopped at the Honolulu temple and BYU Hawaii. The church bought over 6000 acres there in the late 1800's. The temple was built in 1919 I believe. It's some prime property and the church has made good use of all that land with the Polynesian Culture Center. We didn't stop there because we didn't have enough time to make it work our pretty penny.


We ended the day at Waikiki. What a happening place. We spent a few hours there, watched the sunset and then headed to the airport last night. Our flight was during the night and we slept through most of it. We arrived in SLC to cold rainy weather and shortly after we got home it started SNOWING!! Big switch from the world we just left.

We had a great week. It went really quickly and we feel lucky to have gone. It was great to get home to our little family. They were well taken care of while we were gone and had a great time.
While we were gone I made the decision to not do Real Estate full time anymore. I had applied to another job looking for a more regular schedule but decided that I didn't want that either. It really hit me when I was sitting in the Kona Temple. I hadn't gone in thinking about it but it's amazing how clear my perspective gets in the temple. I really don't want anything else to focus on but our little family. Matt will look for a job back in the hospitality industry. I will keep my license and maybe use it once in a while but it will not be my focus. Real Estate consumes me too much. I had decided that last year in Boise but then we made the decision to come to CV, we thought it would work as long as we made sure Matt could be home with them. He is amazing with them and they've been lucky to get so much time with Dad the past 7 months. It is I that has been missing out! These kids are growing up too quickly for me to be so busy focused on anything but them. I feel lucky to be their mom. Matt and I have been married 10 years and it has really hit me hard that in 10 more years our kids will be starting to leave home and in 15 they will all be grown! 10 years is not very long! If I put half the energy I put into real estate into running a household I might actually get organized. ha ha!
Until Matt is able to find a full time job I will still do real estate a bit or maybe pick up a lunch shift waitressing. I like to work but I need a job that I can leave at work.

So, that might mean a move in our future! Now, that is exciting! ha ha

Aggie Basketball, Hawaii and stuff

Tonight Matt took Isaac and Adam to the Aggie Basketball game. They were so excited. I wish I had sent them with a camera so I'd have some pictures to post. Olivia, Dawson and I have had a fun evening without them. We hung out at Sams Club...found lots of fun things and then shared a hot dog, pretzel and ice cream...yum yum does it get any better than that?

Matt installed the doggy door today and Koda is learning how to use it. It's still a little intimidating to her but she's catching on. She sure is getting big. The kids love her a lot. She loves to chew on any paper products left out...toilet paper rolls, homework, paper plates,whatever she can find.

Our big excitement of the week is that Matt and I booked a trip to Hawaii!!! It's our 10 year anniversary next month (where does the time go)? Lately we have been thinking maybe a Hawaii move could be in our future sometime so this will give us a good chance to check things out and see what we think. We plan to try to look at a lot of things from a local's perspective and not just see the tourist sites. We want to check out grocery shopping, schools, parks, housing etc and definitely relax on the beach some. We are excited to go to the Temple there too. It will be hard to be away from the kids for so long. I really would just assume bring them along but 4 additional tickets are not cheap! We won' t know how to vacation without the kids!! My mom is going to come stay with them... so they will have lots of fun with Grandma!

I can hardly wait!