Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Happy birthday to our wonderful husband, father, teacher,  fix it guy, debator, leader, friend and all around best guy we know!    We wish you were home with us, but hope your students do well and we'll celebrate when you get home.  We love you!

Thoughts

I've had a busy day, week, month for that matter!  It is good to be busy with good things.  I am the enrichment counselor in Relief Society and had super Saturday last week.  We had a really good turnout and it went really well and boy and I glad it is done!   I was teaching 2 of the classes and keeping it all running, but it was a lot of fun.  Mark had a tournament and I was worried about having all the kids there, but they were absolute angels.

I have been doing more freezer cooking to avoid spending unnecessary money on convenience foods, and on Monday I made almost 20 meals in about 3 hours.  I was so proud of myself for getting it done and it feels good to know that we will be able to have a good dinner ready even on the days I am most busy.

Mark is off to a tournament again this weekend, has been gone since Thursday and will be back sometime tomorrow (Sunday).   So, I had talked myself out of going out to wave signs for Prop. 8 ( the marriage ammendment) but at the last minute called a babysitter and went.  I am really glad that I did.  It was a positive experience, despite a few expletives yelled and not so friendly waves, for the most part we got thumbs up and honks and waves.  I have really gained understanding of how crucial it is that we do all that we can to make this pass so Mark and I are making our best efforts to get out and help even more than we have been doing so we have done our part.

Tonight was the adult session of stake conference and again I almost used the excuse of Mark being gone not to go, but got a babysitter and went and again I am glad I did.  We had an area authority 70 who spoke and talked about all the hard times our country is going through now and how we have much more to come.  He encouraged us to not pray for these things to stop because in doing so, we are praying for the Lord to not fulfill prophecy.   I had never thought of it that way.  He then testified that the natural disasters and other hard things that we face can not take away from us anything of real value, only the breaking of covenants can do that.    All things we know, but it is good to be reminded.

Catching up

Our family has been so busy lately that i have not made time to post.  Here are a few fun things that are going on for each of the kids. More soon, but now I am off to bed so I can get up for my 5:30 cycling class.  Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Christian

Christian is 2 years old!  It is hard to believe 2 years has gone by already, but this boy has been an absolute joy for us.  Christian loves to be included with everyone and loves to be loved.  He loves to play sports- he can hit a baseball off a tee, make a basket and has known that you kick a soccer ball since he could walk.   I can hardly wait to see this boy every morning because no matter if I have to wake him up or he is already awake, he tells me " good morning mommy"  in his sweet little voice every single morning.  We had a fun little celebration with our family.  We have lots of photos and videos, but I am too tired to sort through them tonight!  I'll post more more pics and some video soon!

What a cute boy!

Elijah is such a fun, soft hearted boy!  Here are a few highlights for his last month:

1.  He finally got to start preschool.  He has been asking to start for as long as I can remember.  I am doing a coop with 5 other moms and he is having a great time.  He works h

ard and is his own person, but has fun with the other kids!

2.  He got a ribbon at the fair!  Elijah, Christian and I went to the fair on preschool day and we had a great time.  We visited the animals and exhibits and then of course we went to watch the Great Alaska Racing Pigs.  There were probably about 200 kids and Elijah was chosen to be a cheerleader for one of the pigs.  He chose to cheer for Sloppy Joe.  (To this day, if Christian hears someone say Sloppy Joe, he laughs hysterically and yells Sloppy Joe running!).  His pig got second and he won a ribbon.

3.  Elijah made friends with a preying mantis.  I was cleaning out the last of our summer garden,  and getting it ready to plant our fall crops when I found a toad, various disgusting bugs, snails and a preying mantis.  I brought it over for the kids to see.  Aubrey and Courtney were afraid of it, but Elijah held out his arm and let it climb all over him.  It perched on his ear for quite a while and would have stayed there if Elijah hadn't decided to run and play!  Isn't he a good looking boy?  I love this picture of him!

I love kindergarten writing!

Aubrey is the perfect kindergardener.   She has really found her niche in school.  Her personality has always been loved by everyone around her and she has made many, many new friends.  Her teacher is excellent and does a good job teaching all the standards that are required these days and still making it fun for the kids.

Aubrey is perfectly behaved in class.  I walk several neighborhood kids to school in the morning and one little boy is in her class.  One of the first mornings I picked them up, the little boy said to his brother in amazement,"  That's Aubrey, the girl who has never had her name on the board."  As we were walking into the classroom I heard another little girl say the same thing to her mom.  I guess she has made an impression on the other kids!

I love the papers Aubrey brings home, where she phonetically spells out the words and has her cute little pictures.  Aubrey is very proud of her work and we are very proud of her.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of one of her papers.  I don't know how well you can see it, but it is T week and she draws and writes:  tigr, tlfon (telephone), tonl (toenail), tmatos.  I just think it is so cute to see her handwriting and I know how hard she works to figure out the words!  What a great little girl.

All Hail Grand Puba!

Despite a nervous stomach and anxious start to 3rd grade, we are all thrilled that we had Courtney skip 2nd grade.  She has done phenomenally well in all her subjects ( she gets upset when she gets an A- on a paper or test).  Courtney has been outgoing and made several new friends.  She has gained tremendous respect from the teacher and students around her and we are very proud of her.

Today, she had a multiplication bee in her class and she WON!    She was so excited to tell me after school.  She said,"  my legs were shaking and my stomach had about a gazillion butterflies because last year I was just a 1st grader,   but I knew that 3x7 was 21 and I won!  Her teacher has a grand puba hat she got to wear for the day and the class all hailed her!

Courtney has also started piano and again is excelling.  She teaches herself how to read the notes even before her teacher goes over them.  We'll have to take video and post it soon.  She has her first recital coming up in a couple months.

We get her report card next week and will post a picture of all the A's I am sure she'll have!

Fishing in Alaska

Elijah was sitting here watching me post the pictures of the girls and wanted to add his fish picture. Grandpa is an avid fisherman and he always takes us fishing when we are in Alaska. This year was no different, even though it was the coldest summer on record for Alaska. We did not have too much luck this year, but Elijah caught a stickleback- you will be amazed at the size, especially when we tell you that yes, he did actually catch it on a hook. As you can see from the look on his face, he was very pleased.

I went out with my brother and sister a few days later and caught a nice silver salmon- it was the biggest of our haul for the day- about 9 lbs. They are fun to catch, I had a few others on and lost them, but here is the one that didn't get away!

First Day of School

Well, our wonderful summer has come to an end..though it is still nearly 100 in Bakersfield! We still have lots to post about our summer travels, but have had computer issues and all the pictures are not yet uploaded, so maybe by winter we will post about the rest of our summer! Suffice it to say we had an amazing one and we were all very spoiled with dad taking most of the summer off and all the traveling we were able to do.

Alas, we are now back to reality. Yesterday, Mark started at his new school Independence and the girls both went back to school- Aubrey to morning Kindergarten and Courtney to 3rd grade. Everyone is thrilled with their new classes. The only one with issues is Elijah who misses his playmate Aubrey tremendously. But, he will start preschool in a couple of weeks.

Ohhh Aubrey!

Aubrey is such a cute and funny girl! We were getting her ready for her first day of kindergarten and she needed a picture for her teacher. I thought it was easier to take one and print it, rather than try to dig out a current one of just her... NOT SO! Aubrey was more interested in entertaining us all with her antics and we got the following slide show.

The many faces of Aubrey

First leg of Olsen's Summer Lovin '08

Well, we're back from our world tour, ala Barak Hussein Obama, although we actually just stayed in the United States, as Obama probably should have done. Our first stop was in St. George with Kam and Amy Wixom (and 3 kids). Kam was my roommate at Aspen Grove and we frequent their "bed and breakfast" most every trip up north. It's always nice to relive the good 'ol days.

We next visited Shannon's sister in American Fork, where we met up with her sister-in-law and two of her kids. It was just a crash two hour visit, since the in-laws were in town and the festivities for the 4th in Idaho were beginning to brew.

Once in Idaho, we stayed at Nathan and Alison's (for the first three days) where the fun never stops. Elijah took to Mathew pretty intently, falling immediately in love with the under-the-bed movie theatre. The girls loved Tina, fighting each night who would sleep closest to her. Shannon and I enjoyed the hot tub and pleasurable discussions that occur with family.

Meanwhile, at mother's, Linda and crew combined with Sarah's family provided even more energy to our vacation. It's interesting to note that at practically every home we visit exists a separate world of interests, relationships and non-stop energy. It's almost like an instant drug induced caffeine rush--albeit a natural one.

Maria's was no different. Nathan, Ron and I took on the local Rexburg golf course (although Ron begged off the back nine due to a broken leg, or something like that). The kids ran wild in the wide open spaces of the Nate back acre.

The next day, after the 22nd (?) annual Flag Raising Ceremony with good 'ol fashion American patriotic zeal, we watched the parade, barbequed at mom's for lunch, then again at Maria's for dinner, caught a baseball game (men only), and ended with the fireworks (interrupted by Margaret disappearing for 10 frightening minutes). All-in-all, a typical Olsen fourth of July.

Other notes of interest of our stay in Idaho are the boating/knee-boarding at Blacktail with Nathan's boat, visits with Grandma (doing amazingly well for 90 years!), and mom taking the kids to the temple--they will always remember that experience. We love Idaho and the time we spend with all your families!!!

Finally, on the way home, we spent the night at Ben and Venuvia Keller's home in the Provo Valley. Ben's a good friend from Bakersfield and our children are practically identical in every way. We are also good friends with Ben's brother Brad, who curretly lives in our neighborhood.

Traveling from there back to Bakersfield was fairly uneventful--thankfully ;).

By the Numbers

Well...we are home!! We have had an amazing summer thus far and here are a few of the statistics, that may help you see why we haven't posted in a while. We have a lot to catch up on...many posts to come over the rest of the weekend!

• 7- the number of state we visited this summer
• 34- the number of nights in June and July we were not home
• 8- the number of different houses/hotels we slept in- THANKS everyone who hosted us!!
• 36- the number of cousins the kids got to spend time with ( +4 if you count 2nd cousins)
• 6- the number of beaches we played on!
• 2- the number of fish we caught
• 21- the number of hours we spent on airplanes with 4 small children!
• 40+ - the number of hours in the car to reach our various destinations!
• Infinite- the number of memories we made as a nuclear family, extended family and with many of our wonderful friends!

Pictures and stories to come soon- we need some sleep! Thanks to all who contributed to our "Summer of Seven states"!

Swim Lessons

For the last two weeks, Courtney did her annual summer swim lessons. By total coincidence our good friends from down the street had two of their kids in the same group as Courtney. She had a great time and did an amazing job. She's been a good swimmer the last couple of years, but really did well learning the strokes this year. She can now do butterfly, freestyle and backstroke.

When I was finding her pictures to post, I realized I never posted the other kids swim lessons they did a month or so ago. Thanks to the tabacco settlement a few years ago here in California, there are some prolific First 5 California programs. One of the programs they ran this year was $25- 10 week swim lessons for kids 5 and under. We signed up the three younger kids then and Courtney was the photographer. The kids all did well. Christian is a little water baby...in fact a couple of days ago we were swimming at a friends house and put arm floaties on him and he swam by himself! Elijah is my most cautious and still not too sure about the water, but is getting braver. Aubrey really came into her own this year in swimming. I was frustrated with the lack of progress, but then two days before the end, she decided to put her face in the water while trying to swim to her teacher. When she did that she transformed her stroke from doggie paddle to freestyle. She took off across the pool like it was nothing and has not stopped since. She can do a standing dive perfectly now and even did a flip off the diving board a few days ago. It is what we have always known about aubrey- that once she gets over her initial fears, she can do amazing things and there is no stopping her!

Pee Wee Sports Camp

Last week , Elijah participated in a pee wee sports camp. Each day he learned a new sport and played it with the 15 other 3 year olds in the camp. It took him a couple of days to get over the fact that it was not camping with tents and a fire like he had done with Mark a few weeks ago. Once he got over that, he had a great time. It was amusing to watch the junior high teacher/coach who ran the camp try to teach 3 year olds and keep them occupied, but he did a good job. The kids were adorable and suprisingly skilled at most of the sports. I think Elijah's favorite sport was basketball. He got a medal at the end and is very proud of it. Here are a few pictures.

College Roomates

My freshman year at BYU, I lived in Heritage Halls on campus, where I had 5 other girls I had never met for roomates. We had so much fun! We were an eclectic group of girls to end up together, but we made it work and had a great year. We lived together again the next year, until Kim got married and then Jill and I along wih another roomate Ruth were even in the MTC at the same time a couple years later.

Yesterday, I had the chance to get together with two of those roomates and their children. We are in Las Vegas for the National Forensics Tournament where Mark has a student competing. My roomate Jill lives here and Kim made the trip down from St. George to see us both. We met at Jill's house, let the kids play, ordered pizza and talked about the good old days. It was funny to see what each of us recalled and didn't recall. All 6 of us who were together that year are still active in the church and leading very different lives, but doing well. It is afun to see what BYU looks like 14 years later! It had been 8 years since I'd seen Jill and 10 since I had seen Kim. They are amazing women now, doing great things and raising tremendous children. I am glad we had this opportunity to see each other- let's not wait another 10 years before we do it again girls!!

Father's Day

How grateful I am for the wonderful father Mark is to our children. This weekend, I went camping for a women's retreat for my stake. Mark cheerfully agreed to let me leave Friday morning and return late Saturday afternoon. While taking care of all four children and shuttling them to various activities, he managed to install the new laminate floor in our dining room we have spent the last week remodeling. ( I will have to post some pictures next week when we get back home). When I left it was just bare cement and came home to the wood laid, new basebords painted and installed and most of the chair rail in place. While he admitted, when I told him that I felt like a slacker in what I would have accomplished in the same amount of time with all the children, that they had very little structured time, they had been fed and were all well and happy. This is just one example of how generous, industrious and dedicated Mark is. He is an amazing example to me. When I got home we celebrated Father's Day with a nice dinner and the kids sang the primary songs they had learned for Father's Day for him. It was especially cute to watch them sing "I'm so Glad when Daddy comes home" and all of them actually climb up on his knee, put their arms around his neck, pat his cheeks and give him a great big kiss. Our children absolutely adore their daddy and for good reason. We hope we let him know how much we appreciate and love him this father's day!

By the same token, I hope my own father knows how much I and my family love and honor him. He is a constant example of optimism, service and love. I am grateful for all he has taught me and how he continues to bless my life and that of Mark and the kids daily. We love you dad!

Father's Day

Changes for Mark

As many of you know for the past few weeks, there has been a lot going on for Mark at his high school, South High, which had lead him to consider positions at other schools in Bakersfield and even some aministrative jobs in Idaho. So, a couple of weeks ago he interviewed at Independence High School. It is a new school opening in Bakersfield a few miles from our house. It is opening for 9th and 10th graders and adding a grade each year until it is a full high school. ( Incidentally I started as a sophomore in a school that opened like this and absolutely loved it- it is a great way to open a school.) Anyway, we hadn't heard back for almost two weeks and on Friday Mark decided to stop by and see what was going on. The assistant principal was happy to see him and after a short conversation offered him a job as an English teacher and Forensics coach there. They are also hiring an assistant coach, which I think is fabulous news, since i am hoping that he wants to do a lot of the travelling and weekend work and Mark won't have to be gone quite so much. He will also be able to bring the grant that he has been working on at South and open it at the new school. This is great news for Mark since he has loved working with it and feels it is cutting edge stuff in education. He has also been hired to be a consultant for the same grant and oversee and direct the opening of it at 4 new high schools throughout California. We feel amazingly blessed in how this has all worked out and are very excited for Mark. We know that the Lord's hand has been in this as He is in all of our lives. The assistant principal, in the course of the offer, called Mark a gift from heaven, as he fit exactly what they needed. Of course, I know that he is a gift from heaven and am tremendously grateful for such a loving, helpful, supportive, hardworking husband, who leads, guides and supports his family better than I could ever ask for. We are love him and are very proud of him!

WHY?

Christian is growing up way faster than I remember the other children doing and certainly much faster than I want him to. It may have something to do with the fact that I have always been pregnant long before any of my other kids hit this age - in fact Christian was born when Elijah was the age he is right now- so I always knew another baby was coming and there was not a question if it would be the last time to go through each stage. While I am fairly certain we will probably have at least one more, there are many days where we are completely overwhelmed with our four and don't see how we could possibly add more to the mix! Anyway, the other morning we had one of those moments where you realize how quickly he is growing up and it was so darn cute, I had to share! He got up around 6 or 6:30 like he always does and Mark and I were still in our room talking. A couple of the other kids were up so he was wandering around the house. Christian helped himself to a box of cereal as is his usual when I do not respond quickly enough to his hunger pains. He came into our room with two huge handfuls of cereal, having left a Hansel and Gretel worthy trail all the way down the hall from the kitchen. He well knows the rule that he is not to eat outside of the kitchen area. So, I told him that he needed to go eat at the table or in the kitchen. He looked at me with his big beautiful eyes and very clearly said, "WHY?" I began to respond and half way through Mark and I both laughed because we just realized that we were answering to the why of a 19 month old. Nevertheless I answered with something like that was the rule and he needed to go eat in the kitchen. I guess it sufficed because he dutifully marched back to the kitchen. All I know is since then, I get asked why about everything from him and he is way too young for that! I guess that is what happens when you have three very intellignt older siblings to follow around all day.

Aubrey Emma Olsen

In the words of Aubrey- " Yesterday, I did Kindergarten practice. I went to the school where I am going to do pre- K. I knowed everything that Mrs. Toller said. It was fun. I got a red star sticker.

Mom's note- Aubrey has been really excited to start kindergarten for 2 years, We signed her up for a 5 week summer program to help her get ready. The only bad part is that they are not running the program at our school so she has to attend another near by school. I had not really thought to prep her for that and when we pulled up for her assessment yesterday, aubrey lost her excitement and said, " I am starting to get really nervous now." She thought she was doing it at Courtney's school. I explained that she would just go here for the summer and when she started real kinder in the fall, she would go to Courtney's school. Well, the nervousness escalated to an all out refusal to even go in the room or talk to the teacher. Thank goodness for little brothers! Elijah told the teacher he would go in with her and so Aubrey reluctantly followed after him. When he started to answer the questions and do the activites, she would have none of that, so she started to join in. She warmed up quickly after that and did a brilliant job on the assessment. The funny part was that we had to keep stopping Elijah from answering all the questions and doing all the activities. There were a couple of times when Aubrey missed a small part of an activity ( like choosing out shapes) and Elijah quickly pointed out her mistake and got it correct. The teacher and I were both impressed with both of them. They are great kids!

Slip Sliding Away is our nice weather...

We can officially no longer brag about our weather...yesterday we had a record breaking high of 105 and record breaking low of 74. We actually had a blackout last night. Mark is at Fathers/sons campout with Elijah. The girls and I ( with Christian) had some friends over to make pizza and play. They were up watching videos until Midnight and both the girls and I fell asleep on the pull out in the family room. I woke up HOT at 2 am to find that we had no power, therefore no ac or fans. It was 82 in our house and only 5 degrees cooler outside. I have to assume it was a rolling blackout, though the apartments behind our house still had all the outside lights on, but our neighborhood streetlights and everything were out. Luckily it came back on by 3 am and I was able to cool down the house a bit. I can't wait to get to Alaska and Hawaii this summer!!!

I had been telling the kids since Aubrey received a slip n slide for her birthday in March that they could slide when it got to 90. I thought I was safe until they got out of school....alas, they remembered and have been diligently checking the temperature every day when Courtney got home from school and on Tuesday they found it was 92 and out came the slip n slide. They had a lot of fun and I had fun watching them!

Mother's Day 2008

I had a great Mother's Day...make that week. Mark and the kids decided that they would do all the laundry for the week as one of my gifts. I think that was one of the best gifts they have ever given me. I really did not think or worry about getting laundry done all week...I can't recall the last time it wasn't at least in the back of my mind! Then, Saturday the girls took me for a haircut ( I got about 10 inches cut off, so it was quite a change, but a good one for the 100 degree heat we have coming soon!). We had a lot of fun together. Sunday, I got breakfast in bed and the traditional flower pots and handprints from church. Mark and the kids made a great dinner that we ate on our patio in near perfect 75 degree weather and they gave me some fun gifts. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful husband and to be blessed with these 4 beautiful children. There are days where I forget that it really is great to be the mom, but most days I truly love it.
One thought from sacrament meeting...a former bishop, now high councilman, spoke. He shared some writings from his mother who had a great appreciation and love for art. He read some thoughts she wrote on her first trip to see art in Paris. His daughter is currently travelling in Paris and is carrying with her the notes and thoughts her grandmother wrote so many years ago. He said very clearly...Mother, sisters, WRITE IT DOWN! The message hit me pretty hard. Our kids and grandkids and so on will want to know who we are beyond that we made them dinner and made them brush their teeth! We need to record our memories and beyond that, I got from him sharing this that we need to develop our own interests and passions, as time allows.

How grateful I am for my own wonderful, amazing mother who has taught and loved me so much and continues to do so now with her example and life. I love you mom!

Books!

Posted by Courtney-I love to read books! This is a picture of me and all my library books.

Butterfly Bungalow

For Aubrey's birthday we got her a butterfly bungalow. She got a mesh tent and a certificate to send off for 10 caterpillars that would become painted lady butterflies. Our butterflies started emerging yesterday with the last one climbing out this morning. It has been really fun to watch the kids as they have gotten so excited about the whole process. If anyone out there has thought about doing it you should ( although those of you in Idaho may have to wait a couple of months since it has to be above 55 degrees). Now when they go out and climb in the tent I hear constant laughter and screams of " it landed on my nose!" or " there's one in your hair." We will let them go next week, but until then our little "pets" are great fun!

Butterfly Bungalow ( in Aubrey's words)

( in aubrey's own words- dictated to mom) " I love the butterflies. They are fun to play with. They started out with caterpillars, and they came in the mail. They were little baby caterpillars. They were kid caterpillars. Then, they were mom caterpillars and dads. Then they went into chrysalids. They turned into butterflies and they were baby butterflies. We put the chrysalids in the butterfly bungalow and now that they are butterflies we can go in and play with them. I getted to see one come out of the chrysalid- it was cool to me, really cool to me. We have to be careful not to touch their wings. We were careful to not touch their wings. We like to put them on our nose and gently pick them up. I saw them drink from the sugar water we feed them and I saw their tongue. It was really cool.

Christian's 1st Haircut

Christian has reached the glorious age of 18 months and thus goes to nursery. As part of the festivities, we gave him his first haircut this morning. He had such cute curls in the back that it was hard for me to cut them off, but the time had come. He looks about 6 months older, but still cute as ever ( notwithstanding the remains of breakfast still on his face!). So, off to nursery he went, but the party was short lived when he was brought back to me for biting.... any advice out there on that one?! I just keep on him and keep telling myself this too will pass....