Dinner Time!

We started giving Lydia rice cereal in the evening a couple months ago. She really likes it...but sometimes gets so excited she wears more than she eats. "I love dinner time!"

"Get in my belly!"

"It's so good..."

"Do I have something on my face?"

Food Coma...

We often follow dinner time with bath time in our home. :-)

Lyds lately...

Wow...almost 5 months already. It's hard to believe! Lydia is smiling and talking much more lately, which is a lot of fun to see and hear. One of our favorite things to do it watch Lydia sleep- there is nothing sweeter than watching a sleeping child...love it. Here are a couple shots of her sleeping.

Her pharaoh pose...

In addition to watching her sleep, we love getting her from her naps. She generally wakes up full of smiles.

 
Here Lydia is trying some of our home-grown cilantro for the first time. She shares her Mamma's opinion of it.

Three Cheers!!

After almost three years of praying, we are happy to say that our condo sold!! We give great thanks to God for this blessing and a special thanks to my Aunt Cindy, our real estate agent, for all of her hard work. I drove to Port Huron last week to sign the papers and as of July 27, we are no longer condo owners! Three cheers for only having one mortgage- Hip Hip Hooray! This is where I lived prior to marrying Zach. It was a very nice home for me and I hope the new owners enjoy it as much as I did.

The good old Condo Binder.

Mulchified!

Zach and I really enjoy finding projects that we can work on together. Our garden/landscaping has been looking a little rough this summer and since we both enjoy working outside, we decided to take on our first mulch project together. We had a nice time spreading the black mulch around our house and, man, does it look better! Here are the before and after pics... Before...

After!

Before...

After!

Before...

After!

Before...

After! Voila...wow, too bad the soil isn't as dark as the mulch.

Delia and Lydia

A friend of mine had a baby girl, Delia, one week before we had Lydia. We get together a couple times a week for walks/talks and it is fun to watch our girls interact and grow together. Recently I was going through Lydia's clothes and I noticed I had two of the same outfit...so here's the result...photo shoot!

I love this one...Yum Yum...arm sandwich!

Two beautiful little ladies.

Lydia lately...

So, Lydia has learned how to stick her fist and thumb into her mouth. It's her favorite hobby these days. But recently she surprised us and decided she needed a challenge. So now in addition to her fist sucking, she has taken up foot sucking! Talk about flexibility!

Here are a few recent pictures. Zach and Lydia all ready for church.

Some friends invited us over to swim. Here we are ready for some splish-splashing. She loved the pool! She was kicking her feet and splashing water all over herself.

Sweet smile from a sweet little Lyddi.

She is also a huge fan of her Jumperoo. She has quickly caught on.

Baggo!

For my birthday Zach made me a Baggo game- which I love! So the next step was painting it. I looked on-line to get ideas and found one I really liked. I chose blue and orange because those are Zach and my favorite colors. Here is the game- primed and ready for paint.

And the finished product! It reminds me of a British flag, but I'll take it!

Now all we need are the bean bags...on to the next project!

Family Picture

When we were in town we got my whole side of the family together for a long anticipated family picture. With 10 adults and 9 grandkids it was no small feat! Here we are trying to get organized.

Still trying to figure things out...Check out Dave and Zach swinging Blake off to the right. :-)

We did it!

Another great shot.

We had to do a couple goofy shots...

Grandpa, Grandma and their precious jewels...

Uh oh, we've got three criers...can you spot them?

Olson family pic.

Cottage Vacation

We travelled to Grand Rapids to spend a week at my parent's cottage. It was a wonderful, fun-filled, relaxing vacation....the only bummer was that it ended too soon! The first morning as I was drinking my coffee, looking out over the peaceful lake, I saw a turtle come up on the lawn to lay some eggs!

My Aunt Helen was visiting from Arizona so she was able to come out and meet her great niece.

Jayne came out with her boys to meet Lydia too. Although Blake and Bryson enjoyed meeting Lydia, they were even more excited to break in her toys. :-) Bryson...

...and Blake.

My dad and me.

Grandma and Lyds. Lydia was excited to show Grandma her newest trick...sticking her fist into her mouth.

Auntie Jayne holding Lydia for the first time.

We went to visit Lydia's great-grandparents. Here we have four generations together.

Love this.

Lydia with Grandma O.

Lydia and her daddy, grandma, and great-grandparents.

We spent our days relaxing, playing games, weeding, reading, boating, journaling...all good stuff. Lydia got a bit bored watching Daddy and Mamma play Baggo.

Sweet pea...

Each morning I weeded for an hour. Here I am after I finally got out the big daddy in the garden...a full-blown tree! It was my Everest- I even pulled a muscle in my back working at those weeds!

Lydia and I are enjoying a putt-putt around the lake.

We had several friends and family members come out to visit. My friend, Heidi, and her son, Colton, came out for an afternoon.

Adri, Laura, Jodi and I all hung out with our kids. It was so wild to be together with our kids...it feels like yesterday when we were all out on the high school soccer field together, and now our kids play together- so sweet.

Aud, Siena, and Lydia.

My Aunt Cindy stopped by to meet Lydia. Unfortunately Lydia was a bit fussy. :-)

On the 4th we invited our families out for the day. It was a blissful zoo of family! Tracy made a lovely display of patriotic treats for everyone to enjoy.

Grandpa O and his little lady.

Lyds making eyes at her fam.

Thanks to Auntie Jayne, Lyds was all decked out for the day: Mamma's little sparkler!

My Uncle Casey and Aunt Marianne came out. We haven't seen them since our wedding so it was really great to see them again.

My cousins, Gary and Cindy, also made the trip out. So great to see you guys!

Sarah had fun holding her youngest cousin.

Daniel just had fun!

Grandma and Lyddi.

Lyds got some good time with Uncle Dave too.

Uncle Cal and his niece.

This boat was cruising around during the day. It is so nice to see that flag waving in the wind.

Zach pulled a little trick on Cal and Hannah. "Hey guys, let's take a nice picture together..."

"Wait...What?!"

SPLASH!

What a wonderful vacation! We wish we could have stayed longer, but we are so thankful for the time we had to rest, see and visit with family and friends, and have our own quality family time together. Thanks to everyone for coming out to visit and spend time with us. We love and miss you already!