tan lines, splashing & guns

i think garrett is going to have the best tan lines this summer.

guess who loves to splash?

does olivia look a little too natural with a gun in her hand?

summer is here!

garrett new found love this summer is mint chip ice cream.
yum yum!

here's some summer math...
2 days at the cottage + lots of ice cream + lots of smores = one tired little boy
garrett slept for 4 hours yesterday...just another reason we love summer!

too busy

sometimes i feel like i get too busy for my kids. take this morning, for example. olivia was still asleep. garrett & ryan were watching cartoons. so i took advantage of the peace and quiet to work on the computer. next thing i know garrett was standing by me yelling something. i was kind of annoyed. he was supposed to be watching tv. giving me a few minutes of quiet. i was getting stuff done. i thought he was whining (what an annoying stage!!) that his show had ended. finally i looked down to see what he wanted.

poor guy. he didn't want anything. he was just so excited to show me that he'd gotten dressed all by himself. he was so proud!! and i felt terrible. sorry buddy!!

once i put his shorts on correctly, i found out that he'd put on new underwear, too. i'm discovering that there are endless combinations of how one can put 2 legs into a pair of underwear.

shoe lessons

you know when you see those women on tv or in magazines and they have on really cute shoes? i'm always wearing my tevas, so i figured i needed some cute shoes that were a little more dressy. well, i found these black shoes at target and i thought they'd look so good with my new red skirt. i actually bought them back in march in hopes of wearing them for easter. but i think we had a very cold easter, so i just pulled them out yesterday for church. when i left the house i was feeling pretty cute. fast forward to the car ride home...sore feet with lots of blisters.

as soon as i got home i threw my new shoes in the garage sale pile and grabbed my tevas. so the lesson for today is...don't mess with a good thing...and olowahu tevas are indeed a good thing!

my boys

it seems like lately all my post have been about olivia, so i thought i'd post a little about my boys...

ryan is our smilin' little guy. he just has 2 little bottom teeth, but loves to eat just about anything. yesterday he finally figured out how to drink from a bottle :) for the longest time it was just another chew toy to him.

ryan isn't crawling yet and doesn't really seem interested in trying. he gets pretty much everywhere by schooching, otherwise olivia & garrett bring him whatever he needs. it's a pretty good life.

now that it's turned warm, ryan has changed his hairstyle. his "old man fringe" along the back of his head has turned curly. so we'll postpone that first haircut for a while. it's just too cute to look at!

as for garrett...well his big interest these days is peeing standing up. he's been potty trained since january, but for the past 6 months i had him convinced that sitting down on the toliet was easier (and resulted in less mess for me to clean). well that era is over and our bathrooms are no longer clean. so proceed with caution if you come and visit!!

big girl

september 7th

the first day of preschool seems so long ago...well actually we can only remember the second day of preschool because olivia was sick the first day. anyhow, things were certainly different back in september. olivia was a shy little girl who loved to play by herself at school. draw, draw, draw...she used to come home with sooooo many pictures. well she still brings tons of pictures home (it's so cool to see how her artistic abilities has grown...she like to call herself an artiste). but she has also made some great friends. watching her interact with little girls her own age is so much fun.

overall it was a great first year of preschool. we're going to miss her teachers but she's super excited about kinderstart next year at a new school...and i'm VERY excited about her going to school 5 days a week :)

last day of school

what a girl needs

the other day olivia was taking a bath. garrett wandered into the bathroom and asked to get in.
here's what i heard from olivia... mom, i just need some time to myself!!!

how true, how true!!!

i guess no matter what the age, a girl needs time to herself!

too logical

olivia: mom, how does god make people?
me: he makes them in their mommy's tummy.

olivia: how does he make mommies?
me: every mommy was a baby. so they were made in their mommy's tummy. everyone was made in their mommy's tummy.

olivia: who is god's mommy?
me: he didn't have one.
olivia: then who made god?

running with 14,000 people

can you see us? well, probably not cuz we weren't exactly in the front. saturday, emily & i ran the 25K riverbank run in grand rapids. it was an awesome day...weather-wise, at least.

one lesson i learned from the race...it never hurts to train more!
needless to say, it wasn't my best race...but i DID finish and i DID NOT finish last!

happy belated mother's day

happy mother's day to all those mom's out there :) this post is a day late, but i figure that celebrating mom doesn't have be done just on one specific day.

we had a good mother's day here at our house...tim gave me the day off. what a great gift! i slept in late, took a nap with ryan and didn't make any meals. thanks for the great day, tim!