Dear Blogging World,

Dear Blogging World,

Hello? Are you still there? It seems like you haven't been around much lately. It wasn't too long ago that I could turn on my computer and find that 5 or 6 of my favorite people posted something new, and I could spend a good hour catching up on what they were doing. Now it can be 5 or 6 days before ANYONE updates. Some of my past posts have had as many as 20 comments, letting me know that my friends and family find me important enough to check in on, and to let me know they did. My last post had merely 5 comments. For the past four years I have enjoyed having you in my life so that I could stay in the lives of so many of my best friends whom I never get to see (miss you guys!). I even love seeing and hearing from friends and family that I am around nearly everyday. I have never seen some of the babies my dear friends have had in real life, yet thanks to you I feel like I know them. I understand that life is busy, trust me I know. I just hope that this is a "slow" time in the life of blogging, and not a death.

Hope to see you again soon,

Olivia

P.S. I couldn't possibly do a post without adding a picture of my darling little girl. Here she is all dressed up for the 4th of July. Two months old already!

Randomness

I have had good intentions of updating my blog for over a month. I've thought of many cute little things I could blog about like, "signs of summer", "adventures in swim lessons", "Happy Birthday Elijah", and "my beautiful babies". But like so many things in my life I never seem to get around to it. So today I will do a mash-up (LOVE Glee) of all of those good intentions.

On Sunday, Rick had a meeting before church, so for the first time I had to get all four kids and myself out the door and to church before 9 am. I didn't even notice when I was getting them dressed that I coordinated them so nicely. When we got home I decided to snap a few pictures before they ran in the house to change their clothes.

On June 18th Elijah turned three! If you ask him he will tell you he is three AND a half. I guess it's because I've been calling him two and a half for so long, so he naturally thought that on his birthday he would be one year older...three and a half. He is still the happiest most easy going child that I have. He almost always has a smile on his face. Even though he is three, he is still kind of hard to understand. I understand most of what he is saying, but others have a harder time. Just the other day he was trying to tell Jack something very important, but Jack just kept saying, "huh?" He doesn't say his initial GR sound or K sound, so we all love to hear him ask for gram crackers. It always comes out dam dackers. Oh, I just love this boy.

Noah was the only one who got to have swimming lessons this year. I figured that Luke gets them at school, and Elijah can wait another year (like when I don't have to be in the pool with him!) On the first day it was evident that Noah was a little beyond the rest of the class, who was still working on putting faces in the water. When we came the next day they let him go into the next class. He has always loved to play in the water and is totally fearless, but he also loved to learn to actually swim. He did a great job and loved every minute of it.

On a sad note (a very sad note), we lost our camera a month ago while we were at Lagoon. Not sure how it happened, but when I went to get our camera to take some pictures of Liv at one month...no camera to be found. Lagoon was the last place we had it. The only saving grace was that I had forgotten to put the memory card in the camera before we went to Lagoon, so at least we still have the pictures that are on the card, just no camera. I still wanted to take some pictures of Liv, so I sneaked next door and stole my neighbor's camera to do the job. I haven't had any time to edit the picutres yet, but wanted to show everyone my beautiful baby and her handsome big brothers!

It is unbelieveable that next week is the 4th of July. This summer is FLYING by. Hopefully I will be able to post again before it is gone, but I'm not making any promises.

Pictures of Liv

So far Liv has been a very good baby and aside from being a little sleep deprived, I am feeling great. The boys LOVE her so much and rarely leave my side. The day I came home from the hospital I started crying that I have to go back to work and leave her in 6 weeks. To make myself feel better I decided to sit on the couch and hold her for the next 6 weeks and give her as many kisses as she can stand. Fourth time around, and I am still struck by how much you can love your little baby so quickly! The first picture is at 4 days, the rest are two weeks. I am so happy that Liv has hair! All of the boys have had some hair, but I was really worried that my daughter would follow after me and be BALD until she was 2 years old. Thank heavens that when I finally get a girl, she has hair. It is lighter than Noah and Elijah's, but not as light as Luke was. I think she is going to be blonde like Luke. Now I just have my fingers crossed that she has curls, like her dad!

Welcome Emma Liv

I'm sure Olivia will be adding more pictures later, but wanted to get a few up so they can be seen by those who are too far away to visit. Liv was 20.5 inches and now holds the McNeil weight record of 8lbs 14ozs, edging out Jack by 1 oz. Both Mom and baby are doing great. Here are some of the pictures from today.

Easter "Eggs"travaganza

So many fun things to share about Easter this year. We started with the Egg Dive at the swimming pool where the kids were able to swim, collect eggs, and win prizes. They loved the morning, and the only hiccup was that the camera batteries died right after Luke's age group went, so I didn't get any pictures of Noah or Elijah!

Later that night we sat down to dye our eggs. Each boy got his own dozen, but with the FIVE dozen that Grandma cooked, Noah flew through his own and then some. They had a great time and did everything by themselves, except Elijah who got my help. And even with that help we spilled some of the dye. I was a nervous wreck everytime any of the boys would put an egg in to color. I wanted them to go slowly and make sure they were careful. They wanted to be little boys. It was hard for me to watch.

Easter morning came bright and early (all mornings do around our house!), which was a good thing since we needed to get out of the house to choir practice BEFORE 9:00am church! They boys quickly found all but one of the eggs. Once we were home from church they got back on the search and found the last egg (with a little help from mom!). They also found their baskets with TONS of candy. And a new toothbrush. Thanks Easter Bunny.

I didn't get any pictures, but we were also so lucky to enjoy two delicious Easter Dinners; one with the Gunnerson's and one with the McNeil's. We are so lucky to be able to enjoy spending holidays with our families. We love it!

Luke's 9th Birthday

After months of living a hum-drum life, we finally have something exciting. Something blog worthy. Last week Luke turned 9! It is hard for me to believe that he is getting that old, and my first thought was, "Oh my, next year he is going to be double digits!" We started the celebrating early with a weekend in St. George for General Conference. Luke's picks for fun were pretty predictable...bowling and IHOP. Bowling was especially fun since for the first time ever Luke was able to beat Noah! On his actual birthday we had his favorite dinner, cake, and presents.

For the love of the game

To say that Luke loves basketball would be an understatement. It would be like saying the Sahara Dessert is sandy, or Antarctica is cold. Luke LOVES basketball. He plays everyday, watches every game on T.V. (no matter who is playing), and even chooses to read books about it. He keeps his own stats based on how many shots he hits from various points around the basket, and has even started to "coach" Noah. Surprisingly, the coaching has happened without too many fights. LUKE LOVES BASKETBALL! The last two years he has done the rec. center basketball team, but this year he was finally old enough for Jr. Jazz. Rick was equally excited and volunteered to coach the team.

After the first practice it was obvious that Luke/Rick's team was not the most talented group of 8 and 9 year olds, but they both came home from practice excited for the first game. They lost the first game by 15, and the second, and the third. They only lost the 4th game by 2 points, and probably could have won if Luke wasn't out with Strep Throat. The lost last week by double digits AGAIN. While our team struggles with dribbling and passing to OUR OWN TEAM, other teams can shoot 15 foot jump shots, and have ACTUAL plays! I'm not sure how the parents of the other boys feel when I am constantly yelling "Arms up, Johnny*." "Timmy*, find your man!" "Wrong basket, Billy*." I do it out of love. Really I do. I'm trying to help.

*Names have been changed

While all of these substantial losses has diminished Luke's love of Saturday morning games, it hasn't dampened his love for the game of basketball as a whole. He can't wait until spring when the snow is gone and he can practice on our outdoor hoop. (It's NBA issue. If you know Rick you know why we couldn't go with the after Thanksgiving $99 special that I wanted to get. No, ours is full size backboard, breakaway rim, cemented into the ground, adjustable height, and has outdoor lights!)

I know that when the organizers of the Jr. Jazz teams were forming each team they had no way of knowing that they were putting together possibly the worst team in the history of Jr. Jazz, but it happened. Thankfully the season is more than halfway over, and next year brings a new team. I decided that I am going to personally deliver our team roster to the organizers and suggest that this group of boys NEVER be put together again!

Noah and Elijah aren't too keen on sitting and watching the game. They love to run around, "get lost" finding the drinking fountain, and make funny faces for me to take pictures of.