Almond Orchards

Emily did such a great job taking these pictures while we were in California. I am so excited to print them out. Of course there is always one who isn't happy in a family photo shoot... Ellanore was the winner this time! But she is super cute when she is sad haha! And walt running! I just love all these pictures!

Olivia

Things Olivia says and does:

I was going to change Ellanore's diaper and I asked Olivia to go get me a diaper. She came back with a used poopy diaper and she thought she was so funny!!


After telling me if I would have fed her vegetables when she was a baby maybe she would like vegetables now I told her I had fed her veggies so then she says "Mom,  maybe I wasn't born with the gift of eating vegetables." haha! nice try girlfriend!!


Just heard walt cry “ I don’t want to die!!” And Olivia said “don’t worry walt! That’s just how life goes! Don’t you want to be with Heavenly Father again!? And you can be with grandpa. You can hang out with him!” 

Look how cute she is!!!! How do I have a kindergartener??!! She was so nervous for picture day and asked if she could stay home but her desire to ride the bus every morning got her out the door. Im so glad I have this cute picture!

a sunny week

We have had so much sun this last week and it has been WONDERFUL! I never realized how much I loved the sun! I love snow and rain and fog and windy days but most of all I love the sun! We took full advantage of getting out. It was also a busy week for Michael at work so I kept us busy to pass the time.

After picking up Olivia at the bus we went on a walk to our park. Its about a mile walk and the kids have gotten good at knowing the way. It stresses me out that we have to walk across some pretty busy streets with no crosswalks but the kids have been good with bolting across. Something that is different about Seattle is their are not many areas with sidewalks. Most of the new construction has side walks but if its older or the block ends so does the sidewalks. We have had to get creative on our way to the park so we could stay on a sidewalk. 

Baby is getting really good at scootering and keeping up with brother and sister. 

 Usually by the end of our trip to the park and playing at the park the kids are too tired to ride their scooters or bikes home so lucky for them they pile on the stroller and I push them home but with Austin around I make him do it and I run with Beau. It may be sunny but its still pretty cold out.

 Its FREE Chick-Fil-A Breakfast on Wednesdays this month! You better believe that I am taking full advantage of BOTH Chick-Fil-A's in our area! haha!! I make Austin and Beau come with me. Last week I had Chick-Fil-A 3 times so when we drove past it today Ellanore got excited and yelled "there it is!!" but I had to tell her not today. She was disappointed haha!

 I love busy weeks full of activities and this week was packed. Olivia went to the dentist and did great! We have been referred to an orthodontist for some bite issues, I'm interested to see how things work out. When Walt and Ella went in a few weeks ago the dentist told me they both were tongue tied with large tonsils and small pallets. She asked if they snored, had problems sleeping through the night, or were restless sleepers..... UM YES!!!!! Well, guess what! She told me the same thing about Olivia and her bite is a cross bite. I reminded her that she told me the same thing about the other two kids and she said she wasn't surprised since it tends to run in the family. All of these little things can cause sleep apnea. SAY WHAT!!?? Im not a terrible mother who didn't teach her kids to sleep through the night!!!? IM NOT CRAZY!! Im not sure what will happen but this was kind of big news. It would explain a lot why Walt still needs naps desperately but sleeps terrible at night. Actually. Im blogging in their room while they fell asleep and now they are both snoring super loud. This may be life changing or not but it sure was interesting to find out.

 Walt gets screen time once a day while Ellanore and I nap. His new favorite game is Angry Birds and its pretty funny to watch him play. Michael and I loved this game when we first got married.

 Thursday night Michael called around lunch to tell me there was a BYU-Idaho alumni dinner at a Church in Bellevue. We drove down and picked Michael up around 6:30 and made it in time for dinner at 7. We realized that traffic is great going East and maybe thats where we should have lived instead! His 2 hour commute is getting old really fast! Our friend Steven Henderson was there visiting with some BYU-I students so that was our main purpose of going. The kids had fun on our adventure driving to Seattle and we love any time we get to spend with Dad! Seattle is a beautiful city!

 Austin  and I took the kids and Beau on a 2 mile walk in the beautiful sun! I really can't get enough sun!!

 My heart was about to burst when I saw this cute assignment Olivia did at school. "When I grow up... I will get mared. I will hav three kids." I love her so much!!!

 We FaceTimed Grandma Woolley and Uncle Daniel and the kids thought it was so funny that Uncle Daniel looked like Daddy!! They kept saying funny things like "why does he look like daddy!?" Grandma is coming to visit in 2 weeks with Auntie Rachel!! We are excited!

 Im trying to get into a Saturday morning date routine with the kids. Last week was with Olivia and this week was with Walt. We did donuts and a trampoline park. He had a lot of fun. I love this sweet boy!!

 Oh that baby!! She keeps me on my toes but also keeps us laughing!!

 This is another cute assignment for the 100th day of school. "When I am 100, my skin will have bumps." haha!! The picture cracks me up!!

 I don't know why this picture flipped but Im too tired to change it haha. Olivia was picked to be the student of the week in her class. She was so excited. She gets to lead the class and has special privileges like sitting at her own desk with a friend at lunch. I love how she put me as what she loves most. I sure do love this little girl!!!

I help take the kids who buy a lunch at school to get their lunches on Mondays (since Austin is here I go Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday) the school doesn't have a cafeteria so they eat in their classroom. Since Olivia is the Spotlight/Student of the week she picked one friend to sit at her special table with her to eat lunch. Since it was so nice her teacher said we could eat outside! Olivia picked a little boy she has a crush on to eat with her so we all sat outside to enjoy the warm sunshine! It was fun watching them run around, until Ellanore crashed and burned. I have loved watching a little piece of Olivia's day at school. If I didn't go into help I would have no idea what happens in her day.

The rain is coming back tomorrow but I'm grateful for all the sun we had the last few days! And YAY daylight savings! I love that it was light until 7:30pm! All this sun has brought out all the pretty flowers on the trees! Its just beginning and I know its only going to get better. Last spring was amazing, bring on the tulips!!

back to real life

We are jumping right back into real life!! Its definitely a lot colder here in Seattle than it is in California. In 30 minutes it snowed about 2 inches in some places. We walked out of church to lots of snow. It was really exciting. I love little things that add spice to regular days. We saw probably 4-6 cars in ditched on our way home from church. We get out of church at 4 so by then the temperature was dropping for the evening and everything froze. Olivia and Walter had school delays which was another fun spice to a regular day. 

 Austin and Michael found a fun game to bond over and I'm sure it will be played a lot when the weekend rolls around!

 Im freezing so Baby and I have been cuddling a lot in The Chair with blankest, a heater, and some books.

 I love when it isn't raining after school and we get to ride around on our scooters and bikes! It makes everyone a lot happier!

I worked out twice this week and it felt great! Walt was helpful when the part with a ball started but the rest of the time he was climbing all over me.

 This girl wants to be exactly like her big sister so after watching Olivia ask of lipgloss all the time she started to ask. She puts it on 20 times a day!

 She is so dang cute!!!

 This was a different day and in the same dress... don't worry about it! Once its clean and on it won't come off for days!!

 Beau wasn't very helpful with my workouts either!

 I gave away ALL my kids hand me downs this week. Im a little sad that they are gone but they were just sitting in boxes in a closet. Now they will be use and passed on so I feel much better about that. We won't be in this house forever and we could move as early and next July. The thought of moving 20 large diaper boxes full of clothes and trying to find a new place to store them has been giving me anxiety so I jumped on my spring cleaning bug and gave them away. Im try to get rid of as much as I can.

 I don't like letting my kids play on their Kindles because they get so moody when they do but Walt was an angle playing with Ellanore and staying out of the way so he got lots of screen time with Beau so I could get things in order. Beau and Walt are becoming good friend and I love watching them play.

 Its still cold here but Baby insists on dressing herself and usually its skirts and shorts! And this day she demanded to walk home from the bus stop!

 Saturday morning Olivia and I were up before everyone else so we went on a date! We had so much fun!! We got donuts and talked then we went shopping for some new dresses.

 She was so happy! I loved all our one on one time we had.

 As we drove home I asked Olivia to share her testimony with me and she said "Jesus was baptized and I will get baptized too!". I am going to add this question to my Saturday morning date tradition with all my kids.

 Later on Saturday I got a call from a Sister in my ward who needed someone to fill in her spot at the Temple so Michael and I got to go on a date!! It was a perfect night! We knew we were in the right place. We left feeling so much peace and filled with the Holy Ghost. We also got to go to dinner! Austin is the best Uncle!! He played with the kids, fed them, got them in their jammies, and brushed their teeth while we were out. I don't know what I will do when he leaves. Having him here has been so great!

 I needed to document my AWESOME hair for church! haha! I had done it like this before but its been a while. I love fun and easy hair dos!

 And more lipgloss!

 Ellanore is my little buddy on Mondays. She goes all over town with me and is usually an angel! Today she was a little more feisty but we still had fun jumping off sidewalks and holding hands. Our typical Monday goes like this: Get up and ready, walk Olivia to the bus, walk home get in the car and drive Walt to school, go to the grocery store (costco), take the groceries home, go to Olivias school and help with lunch, wait 30 minutes in the car, pick up Walt, go to the grocery store (fred meyers go home and nap, walk to the bus to get Olivia, make dinner, FHE (if Michael is home before 7 if not save it for Tuesday) and bed. I feel like we never stop but I like it and its only like this on Mondays so its not too bad.

 I wasn't watching Ellanore when we were driving to help in Olivias class and she drew all over herself in the car! haha

 Remember how I am budgeting for food and staying pretty strict to my budget? Yeah..... Its not that easy when your kid cries or screams your entire trip to the store!!!!! Blew the budget this week and just started pulling things off the shelves to get us out ASAP!! haha!!

 Its hard to believe that we were in California last week!!! It feels like it never even happened. I think the transition happened smoothly since we came back and had half of Saturday and all of Sunday to recover. Real life is pretty good even with all its ups and downs!! And the Sun is shining a little more lately and it makes a WORLD of difference!!