"Oblivia"

I'm in the bathroom and Olivia tries opening the door. I quickly lock it before she opens it and I say, "Do you mind?" Then Olivia politely says, "Mom, what does 'mind' mean?" In my hastiness I reply, "Bother, Don't bother me, I'm in the bathroom!" Olivia then says, "Why don't you just say, 'Don't mind me?'" At this point I had to laugh and then proceeded to correct myself in this teaching moment. I love my little Olivia; we nickname her "Oblivia". She's our little space cadet in so many ways and in just as many ways she surprises us with her ability to learn and memorize anything she sets her mind to.

Sarah won an art contest at the Primary Children's Outpatient Center in the new Riverton hospital. We are so happy for her. She LOVES to draw. It now hangs on the wall in the hospital.

Here's our beautiful Aimee. It's kind of a spring-y outfit, but I couldn't resist!

Here's Aimee's blessing day! Jonathan gets a special tie for each of the kids' blessing's. When they are older he will give them (or their husbands...) the tie. I think he is going to have a hard time letting them go. He said it might be when he dies.... ;o) He loves his ties. I made Aimee's blessing dress. It won a first place blue ribbon at the Utah State Fair. I was pretty excited!


This is Sarah's 6th Birthday. She wanted a Candyland birthday cake. It had so much candy on it, I made a separate cake for the adults to eat. She loved helping decorate it!

This is Aimee in her reindeer coat. Sarah wore this when she was a baby. I was so happy to have another winter baby so I could use this coat again. I love it!

This is Sarah with her AWESOME dance teacher. Tonight at her mini-recital, she lost her tooth! You can see her gaping hole in her mouth. She is pretty happy about it. Now the tooth next to her hole is loose!

Random Updates... MORE to come!

Blogs are supposed to be update twice annually, right? Okay then, I'm right on schedule. ;o) These pictures are sort of out of order. But this is what we have been doing for the last few months!
This is a picture of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert Jonathan and I went to. It was pretty incredible. We were in the 9th row on the floor. During part of the concert they actually had snow falling from some mysterious place above us. It was magical!


Here's my little Singing Bird, Olivia. This was the name given her at her preschool's Thanksgiving feast. It is very appropriate. She is always singing.


Here is "Singing Bird" asleep on the floor. I guess she was tired. ;o) This girl can sleep anywhere, anyhow! I love how she is all sprawled out on the floor!


Here's Halloween! I had two pirates and a cowgirl! I got to stay home and take care of little Aimee. She was only two weeks old..

And here's a picture of our little Aimee Rebekah. She is a sweet little angel. The kids smother her with love! She loves to smile at them as they sit and talk with her.

Super Busy!

Samuel turned two in June. Like the lop-sided cupcake?

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open house

Tree swing at the Leavitt Family Reunion

Frozen Yogurt pops, first and only time! ;o)


All the days are melting together, literally. This heat is killing me. The month of July has been a wild one! I really look forward to the holiday this weekend. More fireworks! We had family staying here fourth of July weekend, then during the following week, the day after they left we had a little mission reunion at our home then had a friend stay with us, then more family staying here until this Friday! Basically we've had two or three days this month with no one here. The kids have had a blast. They are definitely used to having SOMETHING going on, and when there's not, they just whine. So it's been nice to have so much family and friends to visit with this month.

Sarah and Olivia start school at the end of August. It's starting to feel like we are beginning a new phase of our life--kids in school--and all the beauties and trials it brings. I'm terrified of dealing with Sarah in the REAL WORLD. As much as kindergarten can be considered the "real world!" Here we come. I am so grateful for Jonathan and the spiritual strength he is in our family. He is always ready to teach lovingly to our beautiful children the principles of the gospel that will give them strength and courage to face the trials that they will be experiencing throughout the rest of their life. I constantly feel the pressure of being a good mom and teaching the kids the things they need to know and being eternally patient. I know that if I just smile more, I find more to be grateful more and find myself being more patient and loving with my kiddos. My heart melts when they learn to play so well together and teach each other. I love to see Samuel copy everything the girls say or do. Can't wait for our newest addition to the family to join us. I only wish I knew her name. :o)

On Saturday, I was playing ward softball and was running to first base, tripped and fell (gracefully, I'm sure) and sprained my knee. It's been pretty frustrating. I had to have the girls tuck themselves into bed last night because I could not get down the stairs. It's worse than having surgery on my ankle. At least then I could crawl around. And to make matters worse, I can't take anything but Tylenol. Ugh. I hope I heal quickly!

Facebook is the Devil.....

It's the real reason behind not keeping up with my blog. A decent amount of things have happened since the last blog. Nothing life changing of course. Except finding out the sex of our baby, and my mom getting married! Yippee we are having another girl. We wanted a little bro for our Samuel, but I'm excited about dressing up another little girl. We are really struggling with choosing out the perfect name. Jonathan thinks Clarke sounds too boyish. He does like it however. At least that's what he says. So anyway. Our other thoughts involve Lily, Rachel, Ella, Claire, and Ann. Any form/combination of these we've been tossing around. This is the hardest we've ever struggled for a name. Please shower us with opinions/suggestions.

Sarah is so happy to have her friends out of school for the summer! And equally anxious to join them in the fall. Olivia is going to preschool in the fall as well. I'm pretty excited about having quiet afternoons! Bibbs has now lost her ability to pout her bottom lip and give us big puppy dog eyes when she wants her way. We now know it is all a game! Samuel is ALL Boy and we love it. His eyes light up at anything he can hit or pound with.

Here is a picture of the Salt Lake Bees game we went to last night. Tons of fun. Really warm and overcast. It was awesome. Even when it started pouring rain in the bottom of the third inning. We stayed under shelter until the 7th inning and decided to call it a night. The kids had a blast playing in the rain. It was Air Force night and we got to see four people parachute from a plane and a big flyover with jets and such really close over our heads. It was a blast.


Here is a picture of our baby girl. We thought it was a pretty good profile shot. Olivia joined us for the appointment. She thought it was pretty cool. Sarah wanted to play at her friends house instead. :o) Oh well.


Here's some big news! My Mom got MARRIED!!! We are so happy and excited for her. She actually married my Uncle Gene (her brother in law). They are now the butt of everyone's joke. We have come up with some pretty wild nicknames for Uncle Gene, now that he is my "Dad" and my kids' Grandpa! (Duncle and Grapuncle) They were married for time only in the Rexburg Temple on May 9th. It was awesome.

Our trip to Seattle!

A quick update on our family. Jonathan finally got the call from Seattle to pick up his security card to start working from home. I went to Seattle a long time ago and fell in love with it. I insisted on going with him. We had my brother and sister-in-law watch our little Samuel for a few days while the rest of us made the quick/long trip to Seattle. I loved driving up there. I love seeing places I've never been, duh. But it was awesome to drive past all the apple orchards and vineyards. Even though they were still "dead" from winter, I can just imagine how much more beautiful it probably is in the summer! I loved Le Grande, OR. And I saw the ORE IDA potatoe building. I put two and two together and figured this is where my frozen french fries come from! It's on the border of Oregon and Idaho. Go figure! While Jonathan was at work, the girls and I took the Monorail to downtown Seattle and walked around Pikes Place, then down to the docks to the Aquarium. I've always wanted to go see one of the BIG aquariums. It was awesome. I love the ocean!


This is at Snoqualmie Falls. It's amazing to me that you can be at the ocean one minute and be out of the city and in the heart of the mountains 25 minutes later.

Snoqualmie Falls

This is on the dock at the Aquarium.

This is the Monorail we rode to downtown Seattle. We walked everywhere. Jonathan had to have the car for the day. The girls were such good sports in their casts!


This is in front of the tiny World Spice Merchant shop. I saw this store on Food Network and never thought I would actually walk right past it. The sign on the sidewalk is the only indication of what store is in the building. I was surprised to see that it had no signs on the building itself. It's a really cool place to buy whole or ground spices. I order from their website and it's cheap!! In many ways, from what I can tell, cheaper than grocery store prices--and better, fresher spices!

Livia would NOT touch the star fish, but Sarah thought it was fun. I thought it would be the other way around. Liv is usually the more daring one.


Here we are in front of the Aquarium.


It was night time, she insisted on wearing the sunglasses.


This is a different time eating Cheetos. She fell asleep eating them, it was pretty funny.