O.L.I.V.E.R.

Sadly, this has been a draft in blogger since just before his birthday in May!

O-ne year old! (plus 3 months now)

L-aughs like Gus-Gus the mouse in "Cinderella" with occasional snorts like "Wilbur" the pig.

I-ntensely loves his siblings - kisses Camille, brings things to Lucy, climbs all over Kilian

V-ery much a clown. "Falls" on purpose and does a "crazy baby dance" for laughs.

E-njoys middle of the night time with mom or dad in the rocking chair. (still true at 15 months)

R-outinely pretend cooks with pots and pans in the kitchen floor.

We celebrated Oliver's first birthday in May with dinner and a cake at home. I had big plans for making a "lion" cake, but I spent so much of the weekend getting the house ready for the guests, that I ran out of time. So we had a very plain cake. He didn't mind.

I promised myself I would make the real cake later on that week, leaving the matching jungle decorations up in the kitchen. So as long as 2 months later, I was so used to seeing monkeys and zebras that I didn't even notice them. No new cake ever happened and he's 15 months now.

This week he started Parents' Day Out on Monday/Wednesday (but it is actually my "day in" since those are my "at home" work days). What a big boy!

Cutest backpack ever!

Handful of dirt - a new favorite hobby.


Fancy cake or not, we are so thankful for the joy that Oliver brings to our family! We love you!

(following pictures are at least 3 months old)

4

I am late with giving the spring/summer birthdays proper posts, but will try to catch up now.

Camille is now 4!

She celebrated with a special night at Noni and G-Pa's house, then we all went over there early to wake her up with a surprise 4 candle cinnamon twist and "happy birthday" serenade. We jumped on the trampoline with the sprinkler that afternoon and then enjoyed an early dinner at Cracker Barrel.

4 things that make Camille happy (according to her):

ice cream

playing princess

shopping

when new babies are born

4 old pictures of Camille - from before I started this blog

Dunkin' Daddy

My brave husband volunteered to sit in the dunking booth Sunday at our church's "Jamaica". This is pretty daring considering he has taught many of the kids involved with today's fund raiser.

Kilian was one of the first ones to sign up.

I have tried a couple of times each of the last 3 days to get the video on here, but no luck. Kilian hit the target 2 out of 3 times. It was great!


Lucy followed, but the one time she hit the target it wasn't hard enough to make Brad fall.


Brad complimented her aim anyway.

We spent the rest of the time sitting in the shade watching other people send him into the water.

Without planning it, 3 of our 4 wore red and white today.

Lucy is also sporting some purple glitter butterfly art on her face.

Busted, Part II

Alternately titled: How many kids do I have??

We have been trying to work on earlier bed times since school starts so soon. I was under the impression we had sent all kids to bed tonight, so I have been in our bedroom, doing some work as well as uploading video for a different blog post.

After hearing some strange *clinking* sounds for a while - I go out to see what is going on.

Poker lessons!

Click here to see Busted, Part I from November 2007.

Where, oh where

has my baby gone?

My boys before haircuts and my boys after

I mean...this little guy sitting in Kilian's lap is really cute, but where is baby Oliver?


and wow - now Oliver really looks like Kilian did at this age.

Kilian's Naming Rules

Before we even found out that we were expecting baby #5, Kilian had figured out that the first initials of our kids spelled the word "lock" (Lucy, Oliver, Camille, Kilian).


He let me know that when we had another baby, we needed to use a B (block), F (flock), S (locks), or if we were sure we would have two more kids, we could use E and then D (locked).


Now that we have been talking names for this baby -he has strong feelings on our ideas based on these rules. We actually have the name for either boy or girl nailed down now, which is crazy early for us! We're not telling if they follow Kilian's rules though. We're saving the name for a surprise as well as gender*.

*Full disclosure. When I had my 20 weeks sonogram I did tell the tech that I didn't want to know the gender. Then I proceeded to look as hard as I could to see what I could see...or not see. I think I know, but I'm not publishing my "unofficial" findings. Only 17 or so weeks until we know for sure!

Summer Summed Up

He turned 1

Click here to see him next to this elephant at 1, 2 & 3 months.

She graduated from Kindergarten

She turned 4

We were the proud owners of a pet turtle
(until it died about 19 hours later)

She baked

She baked and iced

and he "cooked" so much we started calling him "Little Chef"

(Also - "cook" was his fifth word)

She graduated from "tumblebugs"

He built things

We made evening trips to various parks (many, many times)

He trained an apprentice bug catcher

We went to

Canyon Lake

with cousins

He played ball

She got a haircut and we all went to an amusement park

finally, my belly grew ~ and "Cinco's" due date was moved to December 4th!