big guy & little guy

olivia loves to talk about god. she is constantly asking questions. most of the time, i'm not really sure how to answer her. sometimes i don't think the "simple faith of a child" applies to her.

her main complaint lately about god is that she can't see him. it drives her nuts! last night she was so frustrated she said "mom, i want god to get out of my body so i can see him!"

later at bedtime...
olivia: mom, which one is the big guy and which one is the little guy?
(i had no idea who she was referring to. finally after much guessing...)
me: do you mean god & jesus?
olivia: yeeeeees.
me: well, i guess god is the big one.
olivia: ok, then jesus is the little one.

she proceeded to show me with her hands how big each one was. then she settled on the following description...
olivia: so god must be 65 and jesus is 45.

nail polish girl

olivia has 2 BIG passions in life right now. ariel and art. this weekend she discovered a new one. nail polish.

she has liked to have me do her nails for a while now. but this weekend she realized that she could paint her nails herself. and of course that meant she wanted to do mine too. ( that should explain the smudges on the above picture!)

being super crafty, olivia doesn't just want to apply one color. no way. several colors must be used. and glittery paint is a must.

so i think i need to stock up on wet 'n wild nail polish. i don't think a 4yr old needs to experiment with my opi collection :)

how many languages can you speak?

olivia cracks me up. here's a recent conversation...

olivia: i can clap in several languages.
me: cool.
olivia: i can talk in barbie language, too.
me: what's barbie language?
olivia: you know...like when ursula says "never underestimate the use of barbie language."

thanks for making me laugh, olivia!

happy easter

this morning at church was my sunday to be in the nursery. tim offered to help so we got to hang out together. 23 little ones...birth up to crawling stage. lots of fun! tim decided that the nursery was not where he wants to volunteer his time :) i'm not sure why not because the 2 kids that he hung out with both fell asleep in his arms AND he transfered them to a swing without them waking up. that takes skill! but i guess he's not convinced. so he's going to look for somewhere else to serve.


this afternoon my parents came up to have dinner with us. and to keep up with his usual holiday tradition, ryan slept the day away. so far he's missed thanksgiving, christmas & easter. thankfully we caught some pictures before naptime! and speaking of naptime, after dinner we all sat around and watched the Masters. at one point tim & i were both asleep while my parents played with olivia & garrett. so all in all, a good sunday afternoon!

tim's newest fan

i'm always amazed at what random stuff olivia notices. she's always telling me about stuff she sees on commercials. and she can usually tell me about it word for for. and usually it's stuff like when the newest mermaidia dvd comes out or how much she likes the lelli kelly shoes & cell phone. (if you haven't seen that commercial, you're lucky. that song is always stuck in my head!)

a few weeks ago i heard olivia singing a song to herself. it was the new tim mcgraw song "last dance dollar." the only part olivia knew was "1 2 3 like a bird i sing cuz you've given me the most beautiful set of wings." she called it the "1 2 3 song".

tim mcgraw performed it on the view and that was like christmas morning for olivia. thanks to the magic of tivo, we played it over & over. well we couldn't resist...last tuesday it hit stores. so we bought it for her. probably a waste of $10, but easier than downloading it off itunes and then having her carrying my ipod all over the house.

so if you call our house and hear music blaring it's probably tim mcgraw and the "1 2 3 song".

it's finally here!

for the longest time, tim has had the dream of opening his own business. we knew we'd do it eventually...like later on when the kids were in school and life wasn't so crazy. well, someday the kids will be in school but life probably won't be any less crazy. so in late january we decided to jump in. jump into the world of online retailers.

ok, this is probably not news you some of you. i have been bugging you for ideas and suggestions for a few months now. i cannot tell you how helpful you guys have been!

and now feel fun kids is officially open for business!

in the next week or so we will add our own brand of clothing. we are also adding lots of new children's products all the time. so check it out and see what we've been up to.

my smilin' boys

who can resist a baby's smile? for a while now, ryan's smile has reminded us of garrett's. what do you think?

ryan

garrett

sorry olivia, i didn't add a picture of you. when you were this little we had a "crappy" digital camera and well...the images are not so hot. but don't worry, but the time you were 1 we got a better one :)

we love spring

today has been an awesome weather day. almost 70 :)
so we made the most of it...cuz it's supposed to snow this weekend. gotta love march!

walking to get olivia from school


on the way home


"garrett, help pull me"


this is the life!


babies look cute in every season!

deep thoughts by olivia

a few nights ago olivia really wanted to understand how God could always be with her (like in her room at night) when she clearly can't see him. according to her, God is way up by the moon. i used the "God is like the wind...you can't see it but you know it's there" explanation. she acted like that was a good explanation. i expected her to get all freaked out with the thought of an "invisible" someone in her bedroom at night.

then in the car today olivia and i had the following discussion...

olivia: mom, how did God get where he lives?
me: you mean heaven? well, he made it.
olivia: mom, how does God get in my heart?
me: well...if you love him you can ask him to come in.
olivia: but how? i've seen him in my books and he has lots of colorful clothing on. like how does he get through my skin?

how am i supposed to answer that?

but olivia is not all about deep theological thoughts. she is still just a 4 year old.
a 4 year old who, this afternoon, convinced her 2 yr old brother that he should wipe her poopy butt.

success

garrett has been working on potty training for a while now. mainly it's been since christmas when both sets of grandparents supplied him with lots of underwear. we got the hint :)

he's been doing pretty good except for one small thing. i won't go into details, but let's just say i was washing at least one pair of messy, yucky underwear a day. but for almost a week now, garrett has been able to use just 1 pair of underwear per day. hooray!

so today i felt risky...i did not put a diaper on him when we went to the y this morning. i explained to the worker that he was potty training. she was sooo not thrilled that he just had a pair of underwear on. she told me she thought he was too young and gave me a look that said 'put a diaper on your child, please.' well i just left him diaper-less and prayed for the best :) and it worked!

thanks for making me proud, garrett!