Lottie's First Birthday

It was Lottie's Birthday yesterday. I can't believe how time flies. It was kind of a crazy day because we had a so much going on. Trent had meetings all day and I had to speak in church and then there was a long choir practice to get ready for the Christmas fireside were doing. So finally, at 7:30 we were able to have some cake for Lottie.

I need to work on my cake decorating skills but I'm giving myself points for trying. Lottie liked it but she was so dainty about it. She just took a little pinch each time and then when she ran out of frosting she quit eating.

Lottie draws attention wherever she goes. Mostly because she starts waving as soon as she sees you. She weighs about 16 lbs. She isn 't walking yet, she is quite timid. She will stand on her own but is really uneasy about it so she just slowly squats to the ground. She loves her friends and babies. She eats a TON of food! She loves to make messes and look at books. She'll follow Olin around until he gets mad and then she'll smack him in the face. She is not afraid of him at all. She LOVES JayLee. Jay has been a great helper with Lottie and she loves to take care of her. It's hard to imagine life without our Lottie. Happy Birthday!!

Lottie

This is our Lottie!! She is so much fun! Not many people get to see this side of her because she is such a mom/dad's girl. She isn't too keen on going to anyone else....unless you are loaded up on the jewelery, then you can be her friend.

We went in for her 9 month check up. Her stats are, weight: 14.4, length: 26 in. I told the Dr. She is focusing ALL her energy on growing hair, she'll gain weight later.

Swimming

Swimming in Castle Dale is always so much fun. I love it when Bryar and JayLee get together because it is like they are long lost friends. They always play so well together and never want to leave. These girls went down every slide together. If JayLee got sprayed, Bryar wanted sprayed. We love the swimming pool in Castle Dale because it is pretty shallow and we can just let them run!

Here is Melissa and her little Ava. Ava just might be the only redhead my mom gets.

It took Olin a little while to figure out he could go on the slides himself. When he finally decided he could do it though watch out! He didn't wait for anybody to clear out at the bottom he just went!

Uncle Carl, Bryar, Olin, and JayLee. Carl is probably the only guy in our family that will pose for a picture. Uncle Carl taught Olin that they are buddies so whenever you ask Olin who his buddy is he says, "Uncle Carl."

(I still can't get blogger to turn my pictures, is anyone else having this problem?) Here is Lottie and Trent just waiting to leave. Lottie doesn't love swimming. Every time her toe hits the water she lets out a little moan but once she was all the way in she started to splash and play.

We were all in Emery County because my Uncle Jim and my cousin Dillon were getting baptized. We're so so happy for them and it was fun to get to share that experience with them.

July 4 - Stillwater

On July 4th Uncle Colby and Aunt Nicole came out to visit. We drove to up Stillwater to see the water spilling over the dam. This year there is a lot of water out here. There has been a lot of flooding and sand bagging because of it.

It started raining right when we got up there. Of course we didn't bring jackets so we weren't there for long.

It is really pretty up there. Before we headed up to Stillwater we had lunch with Nicole and Colby. We played the wii for a while and of course did some roping. Nicole brought soda pop and of course Olin was on her like a hound dog. Before they left I told them to take some food and Olin knowing how this goes calls out "Leave me some pop!" Thanks for coming out to visit. It was lots of fun and thanks for the pop.

SLC Trip - - Temple Square

We got to the hotel room on Sunday night too late to do anything. We just checked the swimming pool out and then went to sleep for the night. However, you all know how "fun" it is to sleep with kids in a hotel room. We ended up making a line of pillows between Olin and JayLee because they were on each other's side. Or someone was talking to someone. Or someone got pinched. You all know the drill. And as you can imagine Lottie wasn't cool with brother and sister not settling down so she didn't want to either. I finally got them to go to sleep by telling them that our friends down the hall had 5 kids in 1 hotel room with them and we would give their beds away if they didn't go to sleep. It worked.

Trent was in meetings all day up there so the kids and I, with a friend and her said 5 kids went to Temple Square on Monday. It was so much fun and you can bet the kids played in every water feature/fountain on the walk from out hotel room to Temple Square. We went to children's museum which was lots of fun. I almost didn't get Olin off the little truck inside there and I had to beg JayLee to take the costume off and stop dancing. We toured around temple square, played in some water at the Joseph Smith Memorial building, (yep the kids played in the fountain on the top floor), then we headed back to the hotel.

But on our way back they played in this fountain, can't remember where it was though...somewhere downtown in between temple square and the Sheridan. It was kind of funny, there was a security guard that stood and watched us the whole time. He never said anything to us so I figure it was OK that they were playing in the water.

When we got back to the hotel room we went swimming and you can bet after that long day we didn't have to fight them to go to sleep.

On Tuesday we took it easy. It was pretty interesting having Olin in a hotel room. I thought it was going to be rough because he would be bored and he doesn't really like to watch TV. He definitely surprised me though. there was an overstuffed chair with a foot rest in our room that quickly turned into his skidster. No one was allowed to sit on it because "It is my skidster" the foot rest was the forks and I had a full bag of diapers that quickly became his bale of hay that fed a lot of cows. Lottie even had to fight for her binkie because "That is the key mom" I think he is way more inventive than Jay is.

We went swimming a couple of times and then when Trent was finished with his meetings we headed to the Gateway and then rode Trax back to our hotel. Then you guessed it went swimming. That was definitely the highlight of the hotel for sure. The pool was outside so it was freezing cold but the kids would run back and forth from the hot tub to the pool.

On Wednesday Michele and Alese came up with Otto and we all went to the Living Planet Aquarium. After that Michele took JayLee and Olin with her back to Spanish Fork and was going to take them to St. George with her on Thursday night and then we were meeting them down there Friday morning. St. George was hot. 105 degrees pretty much the whole weekend but we stayed in the pool a lot. I didn't get any pictures of St. George but I'll see if I can round up some pictures from Alese.

Living Planet Aquarium

We took a trip to SLC for 3 days. Trent had some meetings up there so one of the days Trent's Mom and sister, Alese and her little guy Otto, came up and we went to the Living Planet Aquarium. It was kind of crazy chasing these kids around but it was fun.

The penguins were the best part. We ended up standing in front of their exhibit for a long time so I pulled Lottie out of her stroller to have a look. She loved them! She sat and watched them swim around and then she would touch the glass when they got really close.

Olin was pretty bored with the whole thing but then JayLee found this giant frog they could sit on and he decided he liked it a little bit. I had to beg him to stand next to this penguin for a picture ( I know it's turned sideways but blogger isn't letting me rotate them today so, like I tell my kids "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.")

Grandma, Jaylee, and Olin in the sunken ship room.

After we left the aquarium we went to lunch and then JayLee and Olin went with Grandma for a couple of days. We met back up with them in St George on Friday morning. I of course took no pictures in St George but it was a lot of fun. Hot, but fun. We spent a lot of time in the swimming pool. Most of the family was there, it's so nice to hang out with all of them. Were all too spread out to get to do it very often, but we all have fun once we get together.

Thanks for the weekend, Michele, it was a lot of fun.

She is 5!!!

JayLee turned 5. I was looking through pictures on the computer and decided she needs a post all to herself. CAUTION: There is a picture overload in this post!!

She was a colicky, ornery baby. It may have just been that we didn't have a clue what we were doing but JayLee was rough. I used to dread every night at about 7:00 because I knew she would cry and cry and cry. She didn't want to eat and who knew when she would sleep. Nevertheless we all survived.

And we love this little girl!! When she got over the colic it was like having a different baby. Very social. Smiling at everyone. I remember one morning we woke up to her laughing in her crib, cutest thing ever! She loved her binky. She was and still is afraid of men (hope that lasts another 20 years). She was also terrified of the vacuum but she still doesn't really like anything that is too loud.

She is one beautiful and crazy, funny girl!!

She LOVES

Babies
Horses
Cameras
Aunts, Uncles, Grandmas, and cousins (in no particular order)

I cannot count how many times she fell asleep on that rocking horse. It was a lot.

I have to beg her to wear anything but cowboy boots. stillThis is a picture of my Dad and JayLee when she was almost 2. Just a couple of weeks before he passed away.

She loves to be outside, swim, sleigh ride, swing, ride bikes, RIDE HORSES or just play with friends.
She rides her stick horse ALOT!! inside or outside, it doesn't matter. We have had to lay down the law about riding in my bedroom since she busted my full length mirror.JayLee has NEVER been afraid of horses. She has wanted to lead them since she could walk. There has been many fights over who gets to hold the leadrope.

She loves to sing and dance. She memorizes songs super fast. We really only listen to the radio in the car but that is all it takes. She LOVES Taylor Swift and Cowboy songs (Chris Ledoux). About once a week she has some ballet dance she has made up to show her dad. She is creative and smart.

She is so fun and we are so proud of who she is.
She is 5 and she is ready for Kindergarten.......except she failed her vision screening so next time you see her she may be wearing glasses.

Ioka Lane

The only thing I don't like about living where we do is the long, cold winter. This winter wasn't so bad because my friend and I got our kids together to play and the two of us pulled out some power tools. We have been talking about doing this for a while and I know some of you don't care about the crafty stuff I do, so you won't have to hear about it here anymore. For those of you who do care, we started a blog. go to http://iokalane.blogspot.com/ to see what we've been up to. Here is a sneak peak though....

JayLee's dance recital

Jay's dance recital was this Friday. Here is a video of Jay's class. Her class is 3-5 years old so she is one of the oldest in the class. When she stops she is trying to get one of the younger girls that ran off the stage to come back out. I was really proud of her for stopping to help, she is a really neat girl. It was fun to see her watch out for someone else when she could have been nervous herself.

She had a blast and she was really excited to wear makeup. Let me just tell you that her eyelashes are AMAZING!! They are so long! I was so jealous while I was putting mascara on her. She is one lucky girl. Sorry about me moving so much while taking the video. Olin was on my lap and kept moving back and forth. I finally had to put him on the ground but he was so excited to see JayLee.

This is part of her class. She is pretty good friends with the 2 girls in the yellow and the littlest girl in the purple is the girl she tried to get to come back out on stage. She is definitely sad that dance is over for the year.

As I was talking to her teacher, she told me that she was really excited for when she starts teaching them to turn out because JayLee is so naturally turned out. I just laughed but it puts a whole new perspective on being bowlegged.

Hannah's visit

Not much has been going on here lately. Lottie is growing up fast though. She is a really fun baby. She has a 4 month check up tomorrow so Ill let you know how big she is then. This picture is just when I was changing her into her pjs. She is almost always smiling and you can get her to laugh quite a bit now too.

JayLee's dance class went to a nursing home a couple of weeks ago to perform. Of course my camera died after one picture but atleast I got one right? Her dance recital is coming up and she is pretty excited about it.

My sister Hannah came to visit yesterday along with her 2 kids Liam and Kahlen. Hannah came out to get some pictures taken. (My friend Nichole is AWESOME. Check her out on Facebook or her website and then come and visit me to have her do your pictures....she is AMAZING!!!) Hannah left for a couple of hours to get her hair done and then get the pictures. She was worried about leaving me with 5 kids under the age of 5......rude huh? I even got them all in one place for a picture. OK honestly, it was really cold outside (too cold and windy for Trent to work outside) and Trent helped...ALOT. And Lottie and Kahlen and Liam slept for most of the time. But you have to give me props for getting them all to sleep and the picure.

Her is cute little Kahlen. She is so fun and her little brother Liam LOVES her.

Of course there had to be a little disagreement between the 2 boys. It all started with me using Olin's precious beloved John Deere blanket (click here, here, or here if you need to be reminded) I was feeding Lottie and that was the closest one. Liam saw it and thought it was pretty cool and wanted that blanket so he grabbed it and laid down on the floor.

What? you don't see the green blanket..... Enter, Olin. Yep, he took it and he thought it was really funny. If you don't know Olin, he is a tease and he likes to wrestle so Olin saw this as the perfect opportunity.So Liam eventually caught Olin and they wrestled for a bit. Then Olin being a year older (but not much bigger) than Liam got the blanket back and said triumphantly, "I'm stronger than him." It was all in good fun and Liam, being a pretty big tease too, just laughed when it was all over. It was fun to have Hannah come and my kids thought it was pretty cool too. Thanks for coming out Hannah. We love you!!