pretty much.... I'm feeble.

Olivia, my dear sweet Olivia, is a thumb sucker. Not a single one of our other children sucked a pacifier or thumb, so this is all new territory for us. When she was little I kept trying to get her to switch over to the pacifier instead of her thumb (because I can take away a paci, and I can't really take away a thumb) but she would have NOTHING to do with those rubbery things. Thumbs only.

Well here we are, nearly 14 months after she blessed our family we are starting to notice some teeth issues. They are not buck teeth, just a bit crooked. Not to mention the constant blister and callous she has on her favorite thumb. After much discussion Dan and I decide that it would be be best to try and break her of this habit sooner rather than later. So we decided to put socks on her hands one night before bed.

The evening started out great, Liv thought it was hilarious! She was looking forward to picking stuff up and throwing stuff. That is until she picked up her favorite blankie...

That is when things got.... not so happy.

No she is not break dancing here. She was trying her hardest to get the sock off her hand with her teeth. After nearly an hour (or maybe 30 minutes, I can't really remember) I had to rescue her. We decided that we will attempt this again when she has her own room.

Whats up!?

Are you wondering what we have been up too? Well let me fill you in on our first week of February 2009:

Ethan got the flu... he is so sweet and sad when he is sick. We put a small TV and the 360 in his room so he could watch movies or play video games. I find it hilarious that his movie preference is Star Wars 3 (he is only 6 - does he really understand it , because I don't!)












Olivia had her first experience with Fudge at our Super Bowl get together - she loved it!






Ryleigh is in the 'I can't take a serious picture to save my life' stage - luckily she is cute anyways and I can totally remember being in this stage...




























Olivia is learning lots from the Wii Fit - like the word "HELLO" it is so cute. The only issue is - she wants to be on the Fit board when anyone else is on the board so it is difficult to get in a real workout - if that's what you can call it.

Spencer, we have discovered is challenged.......

He can NOT take a picture with his eyes opened. How many pictures does it take to get one with his eyes open? .....

Ahh, finally. And guess what - I accidentally deleted 3 of the picture with his eyes closed! He is such a sweet kid though, so I guess I will forgive him.

Go Cards!

Even though we are not in Arizona we are still SUPER excited for the Cardinals! We feel like we should be pinching ourselves - is this the same team we grew up not watching?

Piggies!

YEAH!! Olivia's Hair is finally long enough to kinda get into little piggie tails. She is so dang cute too because she will sit totally still while I put them in as long as she can check herself out in the mirror the whole time! Dang, I love her.

Poor Ethan today biffed it hardcore and jacked up his face - I just hope he doesn't pick at the scabs. I want to keep that face beautiful!

He Loves ME!

I have been complaining about my camera for like - EVER and I guess Dan noticed. I had a beauty class in Portland today that required me to go up last night and stay the night in the city and when I came home today I had a brand new camera and camera bag on my bed. It was so sweet and thoughtful, I wanted to cry but I was TOO excited. I needed a new camera so bad and so hopefully now I will be better at posting to the blog since I have no excuses now! Here are some pictures I took of the family tonight... with my NEW camera!

Not much

I have been thinking for several days that I need to post something because it has been almost a month since I have posted but nothing new is really happening - and I HATE my camera so I avoid taking any pictures with it and I usually like to post with some pictures. But I just can't hold out anymore - so here is a little update, as of January 23, 2009.

Olivia is doing amazing! She is growing like a weed and is as cute as can be! She has the most hilarious personality. She understands the concept of making people laugh and she loves to do it. She loves her right thumb and the corner of the purple blanket my aunt Cori made for her. She has absolutely NO FEAR - which makes me nervous and Dan proud.

Ethan is so great! He is loving 1st grade and his girlfriend (of 1 1/2 years) Piper. They hold hands and he saves her a spot next to him on the rug in class. His teacher claims that it is the cutest thing she has ever seen. He is a fantastic student - he's at the top of his class academically. He is getting ready to start Little League here in about 2 months and can't wait.

Spencer is fantastic! He has such a happiness and joy for life. He has this amazing gift for words too. He has always been that way, I can remember when he had just turned 2 - we were watching some BMX trick show on TV and the kid on the bike did this crazy twirly loopy spin in mid air and little Spencer said " That was incredible!" I just started laughing - what 2 year old says that?! Anyways, to this day he continues to amuse me with his use of words. He is also excited for Little League to start - as are we all....

Ryleigh is wonderful! She is such a ray of sunshine in our dreary Oregon life. She is so happy and bubbly and just great all the time. She is totally into fashion and looking pretty. She is also really into WiiFit Yoga, aerobics and strength training. She is great in school too - she is always at the top of her class and this year is no exception. She loves Livy to pieces and spoils her rotten.

Dan is doing good. He is going to school full time right now - which takes up a good portion of his time everyday. We are hoping that he will be able to get into Nursing school in the fall, which will eventually lead into more school and becoming a physicians assistant!
I am doing good too - I just work a lot! I am also still the Vice President of Softball for the Little League here in Albany although since I have been working so much I have really been slacking on my duties.
Life is good for us here, for now. We reserved our moving truck for June 20th to move back to Arizona so keep us in your prayers that we will be able to get the money together to actually move this time. My parents are trying to move back with us, my mom keeps threatening to move before June which would be HORRIBLE! Don't leave me here.......

Olivia's best friends

Olivia LOVES the dogs. She loves to hold them and squeeze them and pull their ears and tails and she would love nothing more than to have them want the same thing. Unfortunately when they see her coming they take off running. The other day when we were at my parents house I snapped these pictures of her torturing them in their dog bed. The dogs had been instructed to 'stay' and so you can see the look of pain in Noelle (far right) and Dubb's (right of Livy) eyes. Rusty on the other hand (far left) is hoping that if he pretends to be asleep she won't notice. Lucky for them all - she had her Barbie and she might like the Barbie more....