Our Tree

This year because we are moving the day after Christmas we decided not to hassle with a big tree. So we found this 2 ft. tree and bought it so we could still have a tree to put our presents under and a easy clean up for the next day. It didn't take us long to decorate but the kids loved doing it. They are so excited for Christmas and then the move it will be a full weekend. We hope everyone has a great Christmas!

The tree seems really small once the kids are sitting in front of it, it just disappears behind them!

Our Halloween!

I know I am late on this but better late than never at all! We had a very fun Halloween weekend we first started off with a party at James' work, the kids were so excited to get to go into Dad's work. He works for Intel and it is a factory so kids are not allowed inside so the kids never got to see where Dad went to work everyday. It was a fun evening of games and a spook alley that the kids loved. This night Olivia went as Super Girl, Will was Batman, and Madalynn was Super Girl also.

On Halloween night we went Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood and it was so crowded the houses are so close together so it is a place where people like to drive in to Trick-or-Treat at. We had a ton of fun and saw numerous friends from school as we walked around. For this night Olivia decided to be a witch she loved being able to switch since we already had both of Olivia's costumes she decided to switch it up.

It was very fun to see the kids come home and spread their candy out to see what they got and it brought back so many memories of my Halloween nights as a child spreading out my candy and trying to trade with my siblings for something I liked that they had. this was a fun thing that we did every Halloween and I love the memories of those nights

After everything was all done we let the kids choose some pieces for them to eat and then collected all the candy to put away for the days to come. This is what we ended up with....

WAY TOO MUCH! I guess when there are 3 kids getting candy it does add up, the good thing is when we put it up it is kind of out of sight out of mind. If they ask we let them choose some but we tend to not eat a lot of candy around our house, we still have over 2 and a half of those bags left so we are set for a long time. :o) We hope everyone had a great Halloween!

She's Legal........

To Babysit! In the state of Oregon 10 years old is the legal age to babysit. I can't believe she is growing up so fast, she is so fun, and caring of her little brother and sister. She really enjoys school, she struggles with certain subjects but very rarely do you see her not excited about going to school and what is going on in class. This year she has started going to a dance class a lady in our ward teaches and she comes home after every class so excited about what she learned that day. She is very excited for the Christmas recital for dance so we can see what she is learning.

Olivia is excited to get the responsibility of babysitting but a little nervous about it too, we are going to start out slow and help her get confident in what she is doing. My friend here told me she lets her kids babysit at home until they turn 12 and then they can babysit for others, I like this idea so we have decided to do this. We are so proud of her and I love the mother/daughter activities we are enjoying together.

Happy Birthday Olivia!
We Love You

My Baby Is 3!

I can't believe my little Madalynn is 3 today, it seems like just yesterday we were in Colorado and she was a baby. These last few months she has really blossomed and has quite the personality! She is so fun and a little trying at times but the fun and happy out weigh that.

This was Madalynn this morning right before church she was so excited to go to nursery on her birthday. Our camera is not the greatest at times and this picture is so cute I wish it had come out better. Anyway, Happy Birthday Madalynn! We love you!

Back To School!

This past week, our kids started school again! Olivia is now in the 4th grade and she loves her teacher and the friends she has in class. Here she is before leaving for school.

Will is now in the 1st grade and is so excited to be going to full day school. He is very happy to be riding the bus both to and from school with Olivia. Here he is before going to school.


Madalynn in the past few months has really gotten her personality and she would not be left out for pictures, and once the kids were dropped off she was not happy they were gone. She kept asking us if we were going to get Olivia and Will. She was very cute about it.

The morning was chilly so the kids had to put coats on before going, I was surprised I don't think I have had a cold 1st day of school before.

Coming home on the bus the 1st day some how Will got on the wrong bus, and he was fine he didn't care but Olivia got emotional because we told her to keep her eyes open for Will and she felt it was her fault. We quickly reassured her it wasn't her fault and there was just a mix up. She is fine now and Will gets on the right bus now.

I know it has been awhile since I last blogged, our computer broke so I didn't have Internet for a couple months so i will blog about our summer in the next weeks!

A Hair Raising New Park!

This picture explains the title! Madalynn was the hit of the slide, everyone thought her hair was so cool. It was a tall slide so she picked up a lot of static electricity as she slid down! And because her hair is still baby fine it stuck up everywhere. :)

This is immediately after the 1st picture so the static stayed as long as she was on the slide it was very funny!

Olivia loved this spinning toy and you can see the circle behind her that was a spinning toy too that they both loved. The spinning toy behind takes a lot of arm muscle that my kids don't seem to have a lot of yet. But we will keep going back to help build muscles.

Will loved the climbing things and there were a lot of them to play on, he also liked the spinning toys.

At the same park there was a water fountain that shot up out of the ground at different intervals. Will & Olivia loved getting as wet as they could, Madalynn however loved seeing the water shoot up but ran away every time there was a chance she could get wet. We loved finding this new park, we will go there a lot this summer.

New Glasses!

I can't believe it but it has been just over a year since Olivia got glasses so it was time to have her eyes checked again. We went and her eyes have gotten worse so we needed new glasses. The doctor said in a year or two if her eyes are still getting worse we might want to consider hard contacts to stop her eyes from getting any worse. Until I married James(he has hard contacts) I didn't realize your eye sight doesn't get any worse when you wear hard contacts. It seems weird to think I have a daughter that could be wearing contacts in a year or two.

Here she is in her old pair, she loved the purple but was excited to get a new pair.


And here she is in her new pair the shape is a little different but they look similar, the color is different too. These are black on the outside and on the inside it is a light purple/pink color, and on they have tiny rhinestones on the sides and a few on the top.(not sure if you can see them in the picture)

My little girl is getting bigger and so grown up looking! I am so happy she is my daughter.

Faux Hawk!

James took Will to get a haircut and I told him we should get it shorter so he could spike it if he wanted. So he came home and the lady had spiked it all up and Will loved it! So on Monday I told him we could try to do a faux hawk to his hair for school, of course he had no idea what I was talking about, so I explained and he thought it sounded cool.

So here is what it looks like he says he wants his hair like this everyday because the kids in his class kept touching his hair(it was crunchy from the gel) and saying faux hawk and Will told me it was "sweet". I have no idea where he picked up that phrase but everything now is sweet.

I love this kid!

How Lucky Am I?

I was sleeping this morning and started to wake up and I was thinking wow I am waking up on my own and not to a alarm, then it clicks in my head wait where is the alarm? I then jump out of bed realizing I forgot to set the alarm, I look at the clock and it is 7:10. OK James will be home by 7:30 and I am only 10 minutes late waking the kids up if we hurry we can get everything done and get them off to the bus. So I go to their room and I see that their door is open and no one in their beds, I go downstairs and the kids are dressed and eating breakfast. Now to let you know this does not normally happen every morning I wonder if I am going to have a hard time getting Will out of bed, we finally made a deal with him if he gets up with no complaining he can stay up a little longer at night and read an extra book. This deal has been working and we have had peaceful mornings lately. So this morning I am feeling very lucky to have the kids I do and their wonderful personalities.

Our Fun Saturday!

2 weeks ago we had a beautiful weekend, it finally reached the 70s and it was so warm compared to what it has been. That Saturday was Will's 1st T-ball game and it was fun to see him play and have fun. They played 3 innings and everybody got to hit and run the bases, and they all got to play 3 different positions. Will is improving every game and doing great and loving it.

Here is our Will The thrill baseball player #9


Olivia & Madalynn enjoy cheering for Will and watching the game mixed with trips to the playground!


One of the positions Will got to play was catcher and he loved that he had to wear a mask for this position.

Then after the T-ball game we packed a lunch and ate in the car as we drove an hour to Multnomah Falls to explore the area. We were excited to get there and find out it is free to go walk up to the falls and explore the area. In Colorado it cost to go to any nature attraction, so we were expecting it would cost us to get in. Before we went we were told the falls were in the movie Twilight, I didn't remember them so it was fun to go back and watch the movie and see them in the movie.


Here are the kids on the trail up to the bridge, it was a warm day but still pretty chilly up closer to the falls. We look forward to going back in the summertime and hiking some more, and having it be warmer.

Here is the falls with the bridge across them, you can hike to the bridge and on up to the top of the falls. We only went to the bridge this time but will go to the top next time. When we got back to the car we drove up and got to this look out building, by this point Madalynn fell asleep so I stayed with her in the car and James took the other 2 and they climbed to the top of this look out and said they had fun. Then we came home and had a movie night with a rented movie and it was a very fun day spent together as a family.

Our Easter Weekend!

Our weekend started with a ward Easter egg hunt at a families farm it was so fun to go and see this beautiful property, we also found out this was the 22nd year that the hunt had been at their home. It was fun, but I didn't get the best pictures so here are the kids after the hunt. It was very cold but luckily no rain fell during the hunt. The kids favorite part was the fire pit they had going, it was fun to see all the kids having a great time. The kids also loved that dad was able to come, James had worked the night before and had to work that night so he sacrificed some sleep to get up and be a part of the day and the kids loved that he was there.


The kids with there Easter cans and treats!


I got ambitious this year and remade our Easter cans, Olivia and Will each had one I had made a few years ago for them but they needed a makeover. So while I was making a can for Madalynn I fixed the other cans. I love how they turned out.


The kids in their Easter outfits, I love how cute they look. While at church I thought to myself they would fit right in the Emerald City! But I love how springy (not even a word!) they looked.

This is after church and I have a hard enough time getting Madalynn to smile she was having none of it for this picture but I love how they all look together.

I hope everyone had a good Easter!

Spring Break In Utah

Our Trip to Utah started out on Sunday morning at 3am, we figured if we left during the night we would get a few hours of kids sleeping and the trip would go quicker. No such luck! They all woke up and the whole 14 hour trip they all slept for only 1 hour. Our DVD player for the car wouldn't work, so the kids were kind of restless until we made it to Boise. Luckily we had our receipt and we were able to take it back to Target and exchange it. We got one that worked and the rest of the trip went very smoothly. While in Utah Will turned 6, I will do another post about his 2 different celebrations, but here he is opening presents at G-pa & G-ma Hanson's house.

I can't believe my little guy is 6 already!


While visiting G-pa & G-ma Chadwick the kids got these crocheted hats from G-ma. They all loved them but especially Madalynn, even now at home she wears it everywhere she can.


I love this picture of her, she just looks so cute! She is so funny about putting her hands in her pockets she has gotten very stubborn about it at stores and it makes me smile. You will see in the next picture Madalynn wearing another crocheted hat, we had told James' mom how much she likes hats and so she crocheted a hat using remnants of yarn she had thinking it would be a toy Madalynn would play with. But after Madalynn wore the hat constantly, even to stores, James' mom was very embarrassed that it was mismatching. So that is when she crocheted the other matching hats, and of course if Madalynn gets a hat the other 2 want one also. G-ma was very good about crocheting 3 different hats and they love them.

The 3 of them had so much fun playing outside at both Grandparents houses!

I love this picture of Olivia, she is looking so grown up to me! She makes me smile and I am so blessed to have her sweetness in my life!

Towards the end of the trip all 3 kids got sick so the trip home was not as easy as the trip to Utah but we made it and we are so thankful we were able to go and see family and friends. We loved being there and were sad to say goodbye and look forward to seeing everyone this summer.

My Sweet, Silly, & Growing Kids!

Well this past week has kept us moving! Here are the kids before leaving for school on pajama day they were so excited to wear pjs to school, and of course Madalynn couldn't be left out of the picture! You got to love the bed head hair on her!

Our growing kid! A little while back Will came to us very excited and said he had a loose tooth! He was was happy to have his first tooth coming out, so as time passed it wasn't getting any more loose so we told him to keep wiggling it with his tongue and it would come out. We talked to James' mom and she said James' sister Katrina's teeth would get loose then get tight again and eventually had to go to the dentist and have her teeth pulled. We didn't want this to happen to Will so we helped to wiggle it and kept encouraging him to do it. Then last week while eating an apple( those always do it) his tooth started to come out, we had to finish pulling it but now Will has lost his first tooth! He is so excited that it is his turn for the tooth fairy to come to him!(not the greatest picture but you can see where his tooth was on the bottom middle.)

Our VERY silly kid! Madalynn came downstairs the other day dressed like this, we were laughing so hard she was making sound effects and acting like she was batman! She very much wants to be with and doing whatever Olivia and Will are doing. I think it is the best that she dressed as batman is carrying her baby. A day doesn't go by that she has that baby and is feeding it or putting it to bed. She tells us to shhhh then says "baby night night" she keeps us laughing. But she is our most stubborn and independent child, she wants help with some things but other things she gets very upset if we try to help. We are excited to go to Utah next weekend so our families can she the kids, but Madalynn has changed the most since we moved!

Our sweet kid! In this picture Olivia is dressed up to go to school and they are going on a field trip to the symphony and were told they could dress up if they want to, and of course she did! This past week she came to me and told me she was saving up her gotchas(a gotcha is a slip of blue paper a teacher gives you if they catch you doing something good) so she could get a shirt. If you collect different amounts you get different things, in the past she had turned in 10 gotchas and gotten a free pass to go bowling, so James and Olivia had a daddy/daughter date and went bowling just the 2 of them. Will thought that was very fun and wanted to have a day with just daddy, so he wanted to collect gotchas and get the bowling pass and go with daddy. Well at the school some teachers use them more than others and sadly Will's teacher doesn't use them very much and Olivia's does. So after Olivia told me she was saving her gotchas, she needs 35 for a shirt, she told me she wanted to take 10 of hers and get a bowling pass for Will for his birthday. She told me she knew it might be hard to get the 35 she needs for her shirt but she knew how much Will wanted a special trip with daddy. I was so proud of her for thinking of her brother and doing such a sweet thing, she came home from school on Friday ready to give it to him so he and daddy could go on Saturday and had left it at school. So we jumped in the car and got back to her classroom, luckily her teacher was still there and she got the pass and gave it to Will. I am so happy my kids love each other and that Olivia is so loving and sweet!

Crazy Sock Day!

This week for school they have been celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday. Both kids have loved the activities all week, they have especially loved the theme for each day. Tuesday was crazy sock day and these were the socks they wore, Will loved having shamrocks on the bottom of his feet. He told us when he got home he took his shoes off several times so people could see the shamrocks too. And Olivia loved her socks, I guess not so crazy but fun! She had activity days that night and insisted on wearing her socks and I talked to her leader the next day and she told me how cute Olivia looked and it made me smile.

Olivia in her outfit she had leggings
on under the dress but the socks covered
them completely. (I am a little bothered
that these pictures came out grainy I
just need a better camera.)


These are Will's socks, his favorite color now is
green so he was very excited that these socks had
green stripes on them!


They had a great day, today was dress up like your favorite character from a book, they are not allowed to dress up for Halloween here at school so I think this is their way of letting the kids dress up. And I think they are most excited for tomorrow they get to wear their pajamas to school. I will definitely be taking pictures of that.

Valentines Day!

We had a good Valentines Day, James had to work the night before and the night of so we were not able to celebrate that day but we are going out tomorrow night to celebrate! I got a surprise Friday when there was a knock at the door and this package was delivered to me.

I was very surprised to see it! I was not expecting flowers just thought we would have our night out to be together.

Inside the package were these roses, very beautiful and very thoughtful of him to remember during a work week to order flowers.

I had found cute shirts on sale for the kids so I dressed them in them on Saturday and took some pictures. Madalynn is looking so much more like a kid than a baby these days, she makes me smile but I am sad to lose my little baby.

We are working on good smiles with Will, I think he is getting some better but not very natural looking yet. We will get there! I loved this shirt I thought the Heart Breaker was so cute. He also is looking more grown up to me these days.

Again natural smiling is being worked on with Olivia too, she is very fun and is starting to get into girly things. She is asking to go shopping with me and wants to watch girl movies together. I am excited to do mother - daughter things with her.

Here is all of them together being goofy I was trying to get them to relax before another picture was taken.

Here is my bunch of Valentines! I love having them in my life and are so thankful for them!

Hope every ones Valentines Day was a good one.