So Much To Tell - So Little Time

What a busy year!  I can't believe how fast it has gone.  The summer just flew by!!  We've made little updates in the house and outside.  Everyone has grown so much!  They seem to be getting growth spurts all the time.  (Dave and I get them too, although they are more gradual and the other way - hehehe!)  The following pics were taken in May of this year.

 So, Olivia is beginning to stand up here.  Oh boy, here we go - the start of mobility!  This was the deciding factor to put the mattress down so she wouldn't fall out.

 

Here are some pics of my beautiful tulips!  I love it when they come up in the spring.  They are so vibrant and gorgeous!

 And of course, the kids in front of them.  It was hard to get a good pic, though, because the sun was in their eyes.

Yvonne and Cole were helping me with the dishes.

Our wonderful exersaucer!  It's a wonderful invention!!  Notice her feet???

Dave got a model truck to work with and teach Cole how to do it.  I'll post pics of the finished model soon.

  

No, he wasn't using the paints and markers.  Elena wanted to paint, too, so she sat at the other end of the table to make a picture.  She did pretty good, I think.  :)

Anyway, hopefully I get more up soon.  After all, it's already the end of September.  As for now, tootaloo!

A Busy Weekend!!!

Wow how time flies!  My little one is already 7 months old!  And such a smiley little girl, too :)  These pics were taken on Easter Sunday, so she's 2 days shy of 7 months, not that it makes much of a difference though. 

And onto another note....

Elena just had her 4th birthday on Saturday!  Isn't that an awesome grin!!!  She played with her Baby AllGone all day - or at least when she was able to.  She tried on every one of her clothes and has worn them all in the last few days ALREADY!  I guess that means she likes them. 

 

 

And on another note....

We visited Opa and Oma on Monday afternoon (the kids did their school in the morning first).  Anne and her kids were there too, so they all played together.  We did some egg decorating in the afternoon.  Check out our crowd of eggs!

Quite the crowd, eh? 

Happy Easter to all!  Christ has risen. He is risen indeed!

We visited with Arend and Rosee and Colin and Abby after supper.  The kids played while we chatted.  Arend seems to be doing better.  Little by little he'll get there, the Lord willing.  He's able to smile almost a whole smile now, and he can feel soreness in his muscles.  That means the feeling is come back, albeit slowly, but it is!  We'll see what the Lord has planned for them.

Till next time!

Wow, it's been a while since I posted on my blog.  Other than being sick, not much has really happened.  No, we haven't ALL been sick at the same time, it just seems to be spread out.  The more in the family the longer it seems to take to get everyone healthy again. 

Anyway, we found a table on Kijiji for a great price.  Now you may ask why we needed a new table.  Ours is extremely large and our dining room is not huge.  Plus, we want to put benches with the table in an effort to seat more, so we wanted a table with a pedestal.  Take a look at the one we found.

Not bad for 20 bucks, eh?  We didn't think so.  It didn't come with any chairs though, so we're still looking.  The chairs we have are just not nice (and now they don't match).  Anyone know where we can find some very sturdy chairs?  The table is oak, just so you know.

On a not so nice note, Last week Monday, I brought Cole and Olivia in to see the doctor because they both had spots all over them, looking like a heat rash.  But Olivia had had it since the Wednesday before (almost 2 weeks ago now), so I didn't think it was that.  Cole also had a sore throat.  So he was diagnosed as having tonsillitis along with symptoms of scarlet fever, and Olivia was treated for the symptoms of scarlet fever - although neither one had had any kind of a fever. 

Weird, eh? 

But that's not all.  They were put on Amoxicillin (did I spell that right?) for 10 days.  Friday, Olivia had a fever and slept for most of the day.  I took her to the walk-in (cause my doctor isn't open after 12:30 on Fridays - yeah, I know, that in itself is annoying!).  They said the fever was because her body was fighting the infection. 

Okay.  So I took her home, and it seemed to go away.  The problem was she didn't seem to be very comfortable.  She didn't want to really sit, or lay down, or play for longer than 10 minutes.  Very unusual for her.

Monday afternoon, I noticed new red spots on her body.  Okay.  What now?  By the time Dave got home (after doctors hours), her face had large blotchy spots on it.  So I called in the morning and got her in to see the doctor this morning.

She's had an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin!  We're very thankful it was just a skin reaction and not some other kind of reaction.

My poor baby... and yet she stills smiles.  Hopefully she clears up in the next couple of days.

Glad the Weekend is OVER!

Okay, so we were not done with the flu.  I was sick Sunday night - oh joy.  We did minimal school on Monday, but today, we are back to the grinding stone.  HOPEFULLY we are done now, although colds and coughs are still here.  Poor Olivia kept me sleeping on the couch with her last Friday night.  She would cough and wake up every half hour or so.  That was a long night!  So on Saturday, I was wiped.  Then I got sick - probably cause I was so tired!  Anyway, I SO hope we are done with it. 

Olivia is now 5 months old!  She is growing so fast!  She's eating rice cereal now and I'll introduce oatmeal this week.  We'll see how she likes that.  In another couple of months she'll be eating table food - won't that be nice?!!  She's already grabbing at everything on the table.

These are from today.  Doesn't she seem happy?  Yeah, despite the cold, she's still cheerful and not miserable.

Ailments

Well, we're almost done with everyone getting sick.  The flu is a funny thing - at least this one is.  Elena was sick a week ago Saturday.  Dave and I just felt yucky, although I think he felt worse than I did.  Then everyone was fine.  So by Monday everything was back to normal.  Saturday night (actually Sunday morning) at 2am (this week!), Cole decides to get sick.  Sunday night (more like Monday morning) at 4am, Clarissa got sick.  Now Yvonne is sick (around 9pm).  At least I didn't have to get out of bed!  Here's hoping and praying that this is it for us!  Sorry if we made anyone else sick! 

Here's some cute pics of Jasper, our gorgeous puppy!


We just got our little guy that night.  He fit under the stool!
He was trying to hide from the kids, I think.




I know, on the furniture.  Right now he's only allowed on one chair.
But soon he'll outgrow that.



This is before Felix realized he was there!  Now they get along
like 'cats and dogs' but in a playful way.



Aww, Jasmin has a new pal.



Olivia just adores Jasper!  She's not scared at all!




Elena, the big sister!  Love it!



For Valentine's Day, I made heart pancakes for the kids.  They loved them - mind you, they were allowed to put cool whip on them, too.   Talk about a sugar rush!  But it's only once a year...

Here's Yvonne...






 Here's Cole..





Here's Clarissa...

 



And here's Elena!



 We had a ton of fun!

The Beginning

Okay, so I'm joining the world of blogging.  I had thought about it for awhile, but never joined.  So here I am.  We'll see how it goes and how I keep up with this.  I figured that since I'm hardly on facebook, I should at least keep everyone up to date with what's going on somehow.  As I learn how to do this, I'll try and get some past pictures of Olivia on here so you can see the changes.  WOW has she grown!!!  She's already 4 1/2 months old!  She's rolling from her belly to her back and just last night she rolled from her back to her belly!  She finally got her little arm out of the way.  Now she's rolling all over the livingroom floor.  I guess it's time to get the playpen out. Here are some pics so you can see her as she's grown in the past 4 1/2 months.



This is the day she was born, September 26th, 2010.

Isn't she beautiful!



Elena was very proud to hold her little sister.




Here she is at about 1 week old.





Clarissa loves holding her little sister, too.

 

We got her smile on camera at about 2 months!

Here's Olivia just before Christmas at 3 months.

 

She loves her exersaucer!

At around 3 1/2 months, she really started trying to roll onto her belly,

but her little arm just kept getting in the way!



Okay, I think that's it for now.  Next time, I'll show you how big Jasper has gotten already!