Growing...and Growing...and Growing

Ollie is growing like a weed as you can see from these pictures.. He recently turned 6 months old and I'll be darned if he wasn't almost 23 pounds!
He is such a little chunker!
He is generally good natured, loves veggie baby food and going outside to watch Ethie and Libby.
Man, I love him!

Inspiration

Eric's dad, Steve Pelfrey, passed away in the last couple weeks after battling early onset Alzheimers disease. Here are some adorable pictures of Steve and Eric when he was little.
You know, Steve's funeral and the week surrounding it was an extremely touching experience. So very, very many people were there supporting the Pelfreys. Family and friends came from near and far. Ward members brought delicious meals. Cards, letters and flowers arrived by the dozens. People served in every capacity you could think of, even bringing toilet paper and paper towels by the house because they know a lot of people would be in and out. I was amazed. I realized that I was no where near where I needed to be as far as serving people at a time of need.
The funeral itself was also a fantastic and touching celebration of Steve and huge reminder of the things that really matter in life. I was not able to have too many years of interaction with Steve before he got sick and I look forward to getting to know him better when we meet again.
This experience was really a game changer for me...a sad time, but an enlightening one.
Thank you to those who taught me these lessons and set such wonderful examples.

Princess Mania

Well, its happened and my Libby girl has been bitten by the Disney Princess bug. She is not terribly interested in anything else girly, but she is obsessed with Disney princesses. Craigslist provided a princess toddler bed and grammas have supplied dolls and other princess accessories. The library gives us our movie and book princess fix. Libby and I even have a game called "princess questions" where I ask her trivia about Belle, Cinderella, Mulan, etc. The only way I could convince her to potty train was to promise a Tangled barbie. (Whose hair now looks like a trashy avante garde runway model)
So who's your favorite princess?

Caught on ESPN

Eric caught on ESPN at the BYU v Tulsa game with his buddies.

Christmas 2011

Our kids really got excited about Christmas this year. It was fun for Eric and I to remember what it was like to be a kid and be so anxious for Christmas morning. Unfortunately we are out one camera right now so we used our phones and most of the pix are a bit blurry. Oh well. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the day.

Not a Thankless Job

When I told my mom about this little incident, she told me to write it down. So I will. Right here. On this blog. Yesterday night I went to the dentist. I haven't been in far too long. But finally we have insurance so I can go. But that's beside the point. This particular dentist office has evening hours so my appointment was for when Eric got home from work. I left Eric with the kids, the baby and a full bottle of milk. When I got home 2 hours later Ollie was screaming his head off and according to Eric, had been for about the last 40 minutes. He had refused to take his bottle while I was gone, so I figured he was probably starving. I took my super sad little baby and sat down with him to nurse. But instead of nursing, sweet little Ollie just looked up at my face cooing, laughing, sighing with relief, in between leftover sobs. Is was exactly if he'd been saying, "Mommy, I missed you. Mommy, I didn't know where you were! Mommy, I am so glad you are home!" It was just so sweet and tender that it practically had me in tears. I couldn't give my little baby enough hugs. I felt at that moment that motherhood wasn't completely thankless.
Now what am I going to do next week when I have to get those 5 cavities filled?!

My Kid is Five.....AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Well, I remember telling my mother in law that my kids would never get older than three. I just couldn't imagine being a mother to anything but babies and toddlers. My little Ethan proved me wrong! My camera is on the fritz, so I don't have a picture of the joyful event that was Ethan's birthday, but I will tell you all about it. Ethan got to be the snack leader at his preschool, which is at the Science and Nature Museum at Fair Park here in Dallas. He goes on Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30 to 1 pm. He gets to eat lunch there at "science school." So after the kids had eaten lunch today, I brought in cookies for the class since it was Ethan's birthday. Ethan got a crown and an adorable "happy birthday" chorus from the class. His teachers are fantastic and you can tell they really love the kids. I really couldn't be happier with the preschool. Ethan learns a TON of stuff and he comes home telling me all kinds of things he learned. For instance, this month is outer space study at science school...so Ethan came home knowing that a blue star is a hot star, a yellow star is a warm star...blah, blah...I was pretty impressed! Tonight we had hot dogs and chips for his birthday dinner...that hasn't happened in a LONG time! Chocolate cake and ice cream followed and he opened his gifts. He loved them all, but the Diego rescue transport we got him really got him excited. He was having a blast playing with it before bed. Ethan is such a sweet little boy. He is generally well behaved and even though he and Libby fight/tease each other all the time, his teacher informed me that he is a very good boy at school and very knowledgeable. That always feels good to hear that your kid isn't the dumbest one out there! Thank heaven he came from Eric's gene pool! Anyway, I love my little boy...he is such a funny little munchkin and I don't know what I'd do without him!