Yippee for you!!

You guys are the best!!!

Thank you all for your comments! Now that I know I have 4 followers... (not related to me) I will for sure keep blogging, thanks for indulging me!! Now I feel so super responsible to keep you all happy. Maybe I should do a drawing or something. Maybe one lucky person who enters a comment could win...oh I don't know...My super top secret cornbread recipe, or...a....okay I'll keep thinking, but know just how appreciated you are.

Meanwhile we are still plugging away at Christmas, the warm snuggly feeling grows stronger every day and Mike and I almost completed our neighbor gifts tonight. Big victory!!! But for all you not in my neighborhood anymore. Sorry. I miss you too. The gift of your influence will always be with me.

Kids are great these days they are growing so big I love them so much. And...drum roll please...After 13 months of waiting Macey got her first tooth!!!!! It is adorable bottom right and the second bottom is peeking through too.

Merry Christmas to all and since I clearly did not mail Christmas Cards this year (or any other year so far) you can all stop holding your breath. But for the record it is my new year resolution to mail some next year so... we will see...

Merry Christmas

Come on!!!

I love Christmas, my house is all frilly, kids are extra good (Santa Bribe) and I have that oh so warm snuggly feeling in my heart...but...if I may, I can't help but feel a little lonely, have you ever wondered who reads your blog but can't figure out how to put the little counter device on.
I have.
Just wondering if some of my fav bffs in the world and some of you strangers, if there are any would kindly post a comment, it would really boost my christmas blues...
Is this going to ruin blogging for me? It could in so many ways you know. Oh well bring it on.
luvs

Ps Just wanted a little someone who I adore to know I am thinking a lot of her right now, sorry, I couldn't be silent anymore. If only I could think of some way to make you laugh right now you know I would right?

Mom: this is for you

Mother of my heart and soul I would love to post a picture of my tree...but its not up yet. Maybe Camron could come and set mine up for me too... But just to let you and Hilary and Kylee know next year I am setting mine up for Labor day so I can beat all of you. Ha

Vynessa I am sure you will have none of this nonsense and set your tree up in a timely fashion like all of us normal people :) So since I don't have a picture of the tree..... here are some others and actually I was just testing to see who reads my blog even if there are no pictures....

Ps special thanks to angie jones who spent 1.00 in lemonade. She is my kids new best friend.

I hope they call me on a mission!!!

One of my favorite things to do is snuggle the kid that wakes up early and talk with them about how things are going and then kabamo get really deep with them and talk with them about the things that really matter in life so the other morning I was talking with James in just this sort of fashion, and I asked "James are you going on a Mission?" ......long pause so I thought he had gone to sleep, so I asked again "James are you going on a Mission? this time in a whispery voice...And he said "yes"
So I said "well what if it is really hard work?" He answered " well then I will do it because I am an Oliver and we can do hard things." at this point I thought I am so glad I believe in catch phrases and have pounded this into my kids heads!!!! So then I asked " Well what if it is really really hard and you miss your mommy and daddy so much?" and he rolled over to look at me with his huge blue eyes and said, "Then I will be brave mommy."
"Okay," I whispered "so will I"

Gratitude

It overwhelms me when I think of everything I am grateful for this year. So I decided it is best to make a top ten out of it.
1. I am grateful for the understanding of just how blessed I really am.
2. I am grateful for the opportunity to be this blessed.
3. I am grateful for work
4. I am grateful I learned to work at an early age, and still get to learn every day.
5. I am grateful Heavenly Father chose me to be a steward over 3 special kids.
6. I am grateful to learn the lessons they teach me, even if with one particular kid I feel like I've already learned them...the hard way, which I now am finding out was not the hard way at all.
7. I am grateful for health. I know you don't always get it. It is a blessing.
8. I am grateful for a husband who is loyal honest and has integrity.
9. I am grateful for the knowledge that Heavenly Father Loves Me.
10. I am grateful for being his child.

ring

Almost 10 years ago a handsome guy decided he found enough good in a silly 18 year old girl to pop the question and give her a ring. Thank you mike!!!!!

quick catch up

I just thought I could quickly recap all that is going on.
Hawaii---- Ahhhhhh! super huge shout out to Laura and Mom O for watching the kids. We had so much and fun and after about the second day of waking up at 5:00 am Hawaii time we realized that was the most relaxing we had done in a long time. Funny thing is that we actually went a tad stir crazy. Polynesian Cultural and North Shore were my personal favs. Its nice to have a happy place in my mind to go to when kids and real life crazy. Best of all is it was a great marriage rejuvenate. I love my honey.
Wade Vreeken friendly reunion at our house was super fun. WE carved Pumpkins and made the worst caramel apples ever! You guys are a fun bunch of people.
Other than that we are just plugging away. Two kids in school brings a whole new set of stresses along with it. Life is teaching me to take a chill pill ( as my kids say ) Not much more time in the day than to do house chores homework and reading and give kids kisses and hugs and send them off to bed. Crazy, we live for the weekends.
I'll post more later and pics of Hawaii right now James is begging to play webkinz

My little ones!!

Can you believe they are so big!!! You feed them, you diaper them, you give them every thing you have, and then whamoo(word girl) they turn around and leave you for school. And thats not the worst part they come home the first day and you are thinking: who are you, you look like my child? You just have alot more attitude:(

But at the end of the day you have to cut off a little bit of the apron string because they love school and they are becoming who you know they can be.

It still stings a little bit!!!

Sonia and Jamesy boy are doing great in school! It is fun to be the mom of such fun kids! Not much other news besides that! Post more later!

Oh yeah, mike got his tonsils out. Yes... we are crazy. He is all but better now, but, it was kind of touch and go for a week. I literally thought he would die of pain. Poor guy. i wish I would have taken pictures!

P.S. Doesn't Macey have the coolest hair and don't worry we will put her in gymnastics, and yes she is wearing sonnis socks...don't ask!

just keep swimming

Swim lessons are under way and the kids love them. We have been having fun, thanks to all the cousins and old friends that are there. The WJ pool has been awesome, sonni says she loves her teachers! So fun. Kids are learning a ton too.

P.S. Its an indoor pool, so yes that is my super scary farmers tan. Yikes!!!

A change in the wind

Big and little changes for the Oliver clan.
For all those who haven't heard Mike was made the First Counselor to the Bishop in our ward. This means lots of big changes for our little fam, but I know the blessings will keep rolling in.
For the last 3 years I think Heavenly Father has been preparing our family, especially Mike by giving us life experiences and testing and proving our faith. I am grateful for all the tender mercies Heavenly Father has given us whether through family, or people who have come into our lives. Please pray for our family to be able to be resilient to life's changes. We love all of you that have touched our lives and been such great examples to us.
List of Little Changes
Lindseys going to have to wake up 1 hour earlier to get all kids ready for church Sunday mornings
Mikes going to have to wake up1 hour earlier to go to meetings
Lindseys going to have to get used to missing her honey a little more
Mike will probably have to listen to a very minute amount of more whining
Lindsey will problaby have more time for FSI and blogging at night
Mike on the other hand will probably have less time in general

List of Big Changes
Spiritual Stretching and Maturing for "Olive" us
More pondering about lifes meaning, challanges and triumphs
More Quality family time, less quantity time
More Gratitude for lifes blessings
Added measure of Spirit in our home (if we are doing our part, of course)

Killer Duckling Attacks on the Rise

My child is going to hate me for this one day, but this is by far my favorite picture of the summer to date! My new TM friend Emily took me and the posse to This Is The Place Park. It was so fun! We loved it. There was a petting zoo and pony rides, fun history facts on little old log cabins. A train and much more we didn't even get to see because we got a little wet, which was fine because I was just grateful it wasn't 100 degrees. This was our first visit and it is at the top of my summer picks for a fun day trip with the kids.

Top Five reasons I think summer is really just around the corner!

1. How many days can it rain in a row?

2. We just finished our landscaping before it got hot...so...anytime now.

3. I just cleaned all the windows in my house this morning which promptly got rained on; signifying the beginning of a long time summer tradition for me :)

4. My darling children are ready to burn their mommy at the stake because every time we put on our shoes to go to the park, thunder claps and it downpours, which I don't understand because nature loves them (hence the great genes) so I think it should stop raining any day now.

5. I get more and more funny the longer I am cooped up and finally am driven to expressing myself via blog....(thank heavens for Mike) and there are only so many of these kind of posts you guys can take!

P.S. Michelangelos baptism and the air show makes for the best kind of Saturday!!!!!

GROWING PAINS! FOR PARTY OF FIVE!!!!

Once again. James is the great indicator of how life is going around here!

We are totally feeling the growing pains of three kids, I feel like its finally set in. Craziness at our house! Some times I feel like our theme song should be du dut dottle dot dut do do dut dout. (think three ring circus theme song) I keep telling myself someday things will get easy again, someday I'll enjoy one of those quiet afternoons I used to love. But deep down I know an era has ended... kind of like the Sunday Nap era after two kids. And as far as mothers day goes, I have been noticing a lot of unmothers lately and have thought, wow look how long they spend putting on lip gloss before they get out of the car? Or what would it be like to carry just one bag every where you go? But I keep reminding myself: you chose this crazy sort of happiness, your investment isn't in perfectly glossed lips, its in the future and most of all I remember that if someone wouldn't have sacrificed this much for me I wouldn't know how important it is to do it for some other ungrateful child. (That was your official mothers day shout out mom!) So, chaos take your best shot, the laundry will get folded one day, and someday 3 kids I know will be worried about a hectic home and I can sit at my computer laughing my head off. Ha

Easter

Happy Easter. Who in their right mind isn't happy that it is spring (in a fashion)

I love my Savior and just wanted to take a minute to express how much I believe in the Atonement and how much I am grateful that we can each partake in it no matter who you are, or how much you need it. Lately I've especially been happy for the enabling power of the Atonement and hope to use it more in my life. I normally try to keep my blog from coming across too preachy, but today I feel so blessed to have a testimony and to have the Spirit that I cannot contain myself. My cup is running over and I don't have the power to turn off the faucet. Don't get me wrong, things aren't perfect, in fact they have been kind of stressful this week, my emotional burdens are heavy, but my blessings out weigh my trials, and in the end I have the power to ask my Father for help, and with His help I don't see anything that I can't accomplish. So my gift for Easter to each of you isn't a heaping basket of candy, although that in itself is a blessing, but a testimony of Christ, and a Heavenly Father who loves us.

Baby Unicorn Loose at Our House

April Fools, Macey thought up this joke and the kids got a kick out of it. Hopefully you guys will too!

Okay, seriously

Does it get much better than this? I love sunsets and this is just one I've captured off the back deck. Love it!
I haven't blogged for a while and just wanted to stay updated, since this has also become a family journal of sorts.
March has been fun and eventful. We had a special visit from those tricky leprechauns, they left us all kinds of goodies. The kids had a blast looking out on the porch for the foot prints.
The weather warmed for a bit, but is now back to freezing, I am having to get used to living here because all the springy ness takes about two weeks longer to get here. Booooo, but we've traded for sunsets, so I can't complain too much.
This very minute mike and chris are ripping out part of our rock wall and making more room for the trampoline and adding a wall for trailer parking, thanks to chris who has spent all morning so far on our yard with the track hoe. We are going to make a few changes to the back including stairs on the south side and hopefully and paver patio and fire pit. I is going to be a lot of work to do a new yard, and we still have to take things out of the old. Yikes.
Sonia is doing well at preschool. Miss Jen has been heaven sent. She is so good with Sonia.
we are picking up joy school again starting on monday with nolan and anniston. James is super excited. that makes me happy.
Macey is growing, little by little, I finally broke down and started supplementing with a bottle of formula at night it seems to be helping.
My mom is going for an "early retirement" which makes me happy even if it wasn't her first idea. Yippee for lazy lunches on the patio. Thats the way I like life.
Mike is busy with yard, scouts, and work. He picked up a side job so we could get some trees for the yard. He knows how to speak my language:)
I just got called to be an assistant stake extraction director, and am happy to dive into the world of family search indexing.
Bottom line life is plowing on....

WHAT A GREAT VACATION! WE HAD SO MUCH FUN, THE KIDS WERE SO GOOD, THE WEATHER WAS AWESOME, AND OUR HOUSE WE RENTED WAS PERFECT FOR THE YADONS AND US. HERE'S HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN:

SAT WE TOOK A DIRECT FLIGHT OUT OF BLIZZARDY SALT LAKE TO ORLANDO, PICKED UP OUR CAR AND HEADED TO THE HOUSE TO FIND THE POOL WAS STILL HEATED FROM THE LAST GUESTS SO MIKE AND CHRIS AND THE KIDS ALL JUMPED IN AND PLAYED UNTIL EVERYONE WAS READY FOR BED, THEN CHRISTY AND I WENT SHOPPING!

SUNDAY went on a nice drive on the way to church, aka chris took us the long way and 1 hour later we made it to the kissamee ward which was so welcoming to our families, came home a shorter way and met up with our new favorite friends Tamara and Aaron and kiddos we all had a grill out(Florida's version of a bbq) and hung out, nice and relaxing!

MONDAY Let the games begin we started off at Epcot where sonia promptly swore off any and all roller coasters, but changed her mind later, then enjoyed perfect weather!

The next few days are all a blur but Chris' mom and sister joined us, and we went to magic kingdom, sea world, animal kingdom and mgm and had so much fun we were exhausted but here are the photo highlights

and really need I say more than the looks on their faces in these ones when mickey rode in on the train to magic kingdom

I know I don't need to say any more, but since this is the only exciting news that I ever get to blog about, I will.

The next Sunday we did church again and then after got to go hang out with Tamara and Aaron, kayden and tanner. Soooo fun they are great, who says southern hospitality is dead, not me! Aaron grilled fresh caught salmon and cod! Loved it. And Tamara made a delicious apple croissant dessert. Yummy. I'll be sharing the recipe later-

Monday we headed back to magic kingdom to squeeze the last drops of disney out of our trip and did a little (very little) souvenir shopping. Then it was back to the airport and we had to kiss 70 degree weather goodbye....Noooooo.

The next morning it was unpacking, okay the next three mornings, and now we are back to reality, but we did rename the hill to our house splash mountain ;) and my kids keep asking to see Preston, Sophie, Isaac, aunt Lori and Grandma Carol

M I C K E Y MOUSE

Hallelujah!!!!
The official count down is 36 Hours until we board a plane destined for Orlando! Is it typical that your kids are extra naughty right before you blow your life savings on vacation? Its typical at my house. James has been especially naughty this week. I'm not being mean, only honest. My little angel of a boy is really trying my patience. And I can only handle one trying child at time:
I guess in the long run it doesn't matter because I'm going to dream of palm trees and roller coasters. Yippee!
PS only 1/4 of the way packed!

Blessing Day

Blessing day was a hit. Macey was great and Mike gave her the most beautiful blessing ever! Can you ask for anything more? No, but we got it. We were surrounded by loved ones. It was so fun to see everybody. We had such a blast at the breakfast after, we had way too much food. Thanks to everyone who came to see us. Thanks to every one who brought something. Camron asked me if I would cater thier baby blessing, but I didn't make it all every one else did.
Ps a little shout out to Cam and Missy and soon to be born Evelyn today. Vynessa bore such a beautiful testimony. I can't say enough how nice it was to have most of my favorite people all together.

Right after we changed Macey out of her dress she had an explosion with poop up to her hair, no joke. Laura dug right in and helped me bath her and redress her. Thanks, hope you got all the mess off your hands:)

Mike was also in charge of taking pictures so we didn't get as many as I would have liked, but maybe at her baptism when everyone is back together again, we will practice mikes photography skills then, or maybe Sonni will be old enough to take over by then. Ha Ha

Speaking of Sonia, she has more or less decided she likes Sonni better. The Funny Girl asked me how to spell Sonni after school one day. Of course we have a rule of thumb that she should write Sonia at school, didn't I know that by setting the rule I sealed fate right there! At least she has a nickname we picked and isn't coming home and saying mom, I wish my name was------ fill in the blank with what ever the most popular name of the day is. Who knows maybe we will do that too.

Anyways back to blessing day, as it progressed little Macey just got more and more sick as the day went on. Poor girl, such a trooper. She was pretty worn out by 8 o'clock. Hopefully now that all the excitement is over she will recoop fast.

Loving Mommyhood

Sometimes as a mom I feel a little like robin hood. I steal from the rich (child with two toys) and give to the poor (child with no toys) all day long, not worried about true justice, just trying to keep the peace, hopefully one of these days I will get it together enough to teach some real values and not the value of yelling. Until then I'll just nurse a baby 5 hours a day, change diapers for 2 and do dishes the other... I'm so tired I can't even subtract 7 from 24. Oh well you get the point.

I'll blog again when I've taken a nap.

P.S. It was fun to go mikes friend Wades baby blessing and they fed us doughnuts after, can't beat that.

Loves,

Momma-hood

I only have a moment

Just thought I'd post a quick gratitude to all of my friends and family. Can't say enough how much I love you all. I am so blessed with so much support! Thanks a million to every one who has helped us these last couple of months and thanks to all my friends who have called from the tuscany ward. We miss you and didn't know how great we had it with all the best people in the whole world located just around the corner from us! Hope everyone is doing well.
Today we had fun with the Shayne B family they came over to the park by us and went sledding with Mike and the older kids, then came by for some impromptu hot chocolate and snacks. Fun. Life is just trucking along.