Birds and Plants

It was windy and cold here all day today...until about 7:00 pm. Then the sun started shining, the wind went away, and it was beautiful outside. We took advantage of the nice weather, even if it was only for one hour.

First we planted some flowers. The boys actually planted them. In a month or so we will transplant them into the flowerbed. Owen had fun throwing the dirt at Bridger. Eli helped as much as possible (by not crying).

After we planted flowers we decided to put up a bird feeder and attract some birds to our house. Gabriel is very excited to do some bird watching. Owen said he just wanted to shoot the birds (pretend shoot, of course). Well, I hope those birds find their new food source soon so the boys can see them!

Diaper Cake

Megan is going to have her baby girl in 1 month. We can't wait to meet her! To get ready for her arrival we had a baby shower at my mom's house.

A couple of days before the baby shower Megan's best friend, Zoila, and I took on a project. We built baby Cook a diaper cake. It was so much fun to put all of it together.

Here is a picture of Eli helping us with the preperations and the finished project. It turned out really cute!!

Eli 5 months

My sweet baby is 5 months old. He is such a cute little guy. Auntie Megan discovered that he is very ticklish. Just give him a little tickle between the ribs and you will have full on baby squeals. It's so cute.

He started eating bananas and rice cereal last week. Now he loves to eat with us. He sits up in his highchair and opens his mouth like a little bird. Gabriel helps me feed him sometimes and does a really good job.

He also is rolling over and grabbing anything within sight. He loves to crinkle paper and put everything in his mouth. Watch out because he rolls across the room and you might lose him when you leave the room for a second.

He is a screamer. To get my attention, he has started screaming really loudly. I think he learned this from his two older brothers. We will have to work on our quiet voice!!

Here he is all smiles!

Friends and Bikes

Once in a lifetime you meet a friend that will be your best friend no matter where you live or what stage of life you are in. My friend, Cedar, is that person. No matter where we live, what we are doing, or how long we go without talking, we are always close. I can pick up the phone and call her no matter what time of day and she has time for me. She has stood by me through it all and I for her. I'm so glad that my first day of college, I went and knocked on her door and asked her if she wanted to go to dinner. My life has been forever changed since that day because of our friendship. Thank you, Cedar!!

Here is one of our recent get togethers with the kiddos and bikes.

Perspecitve

Life has a funny way of putting everything into perspective. What seemed really hard to me 10 years ago seems like a piece of cake today. This may be hard for me to explain, but it has been on my mind today. 10 years ago, I was working full time and getting my master's degree. I didn't think that I had time for anything. I was so busy and it seemed so hard at the time. 5 years ago, I had one son and was working and I didn't think things could get any harder. 3 years ago, I had two sons, stayed at home full time and thought things were really hard. So, here is where I'm at today. I have 3 sons (1 preschooler, 1 toddler, and an infant), my husband is across the country working, and I'm running this house by myself. I can truthfully and honestly say that I have never been so busy, and so overwhelmed in my life. Give me back my full time job and full time school schedule, it was a piece of cake. What I'm doing right now is hard. It's stretching me to limits that I didn't know existed. It's bending me in ways I never wanted to bend. Everything is hard and complicated. I know in the bottom of my heart that God has placed these things in my life to make me the person he wants me to be and the funny thing is, I've never been happier. My life may be hard but it is also joyful, contented, and full of love.

For example, God definitely wanted me to become more patient and it's working only because I have no other choice. Here is a situation from today. Eli was crying because he was hungry and I just start to feed him when I realize that Owen has had an accident in his pants. I have to put the baby down and do damage control before I have poop all over my house. Eli is not happy and screams at the top of his lungs while I run Owen to the bathroom. While I'm in the bathroom the phone starts to ring and Gabriel is yelling something about Bridger getting outside our gate. What can I do? I can't shout out in anger. I have to take a deep breath. I have to let Eli cry, the poopy pants come first and the phone and Bridger can wait. I took one thing at a time. After the drama is over and I have picked up Eli and Owen is again clean and dry, I think, I'm doing this...all by myself, I 'm taking care of these three boys and I didn't lose my temper. These moments of satisfaction are short because there are more messes to clean, books to be read, laundry to do, and phone calls to make. God IS making my more patient. This is a good thing.


I honestly think that whatever I do in life will be nothing compared to what I'm doing right now....then again I thought working full time and going to school was hard. What did I know? Like I said, God is changing my perspective on a few things, his way, not mine!

Here are some pictures of my littlest blessing Eli Paul. How can these not bring a smile to your face.

Baby Eli-4.5 months old

While Owen has been getting well my little Eli has been busy! He has decided that he wants to be held, entertained, or fed at all times. Anything he doesn't like, he screams. It's not a little scream....It's a loud scream that says come over here and help me. He has an opinion and there is no going back. He has to keep up with his two brothers and he is doing a really good job.

Eli thinks that Gabriel is the funniest thing he has ever seen. Gabe can make Eli laugh just by looking at him. Gabe spends a large part of his day talking, singing, and entertaining the little dude. It's so cute to see them together. Every once in awhile Owen will decide he wants to play with the baby also. His play doesn't always make Eli smile. Eli is just not to sure about Owen yet.

Eli has started eating bananas and rice cereal. He thinks the bananas are OK. Rice cereal, not so much. He makes a face and spits the stuff out. I think we'll stick with bananas for awhile. He is a big boy and sits up in his high chair. He also sits in the exeersaucer and he likes to play with all the fun toys. Here a few pics so you can see the little guy.

Scalded Skin

Take a deep breath! I am finally breathing and not worrying (so much). Things are looking much better today then they did a few days ago. The fact that I'm spending a little time on the computer is a testament to normalcy.

My little Owen was a very sick little boy for a couple of days. There were times when I didn't know what to think. He started getting sick at his Grammy's house on Friday and by the time I got there he was really, really sick. Before I tell the story, I just want to publicly thank Mary Ann and Von for helping me so much when Owen was so sick. I don't know what I would have done without them.

On Saturday morning we took Owen to the Dr. The Dr. couldn't tell us why he was so sick but it was very apparent that he was a sick little boy. She sent us over to the hospital for all the testing and her suspicions were that he had some sort of Staph/Strep infection. She prescribed some heavy duty antibiotics. Owen's face was swollen and he had sores over his eyes and mouth. He skin was bright red all over and very sensitive to the touch. He would scream if anything was touching his skin. He was complety miserable. Here is a picture of the little guy so you get an idea.

This morning the Dr. called me and told me that Owen has what is called Scalded Skin Syndrome. This is a rare type of Staph infection that releases toxins from the skin and burns your skin. OUCH!! DOUBLE OUCH!! Poor little Owen.

Good news is that he is looking and feeling much better. Thank goodness for antibiotics and good medical care! We are so blessed. It makes me realize how thankful I am for our health. We're not sure why or how Owen got so sick but will be doing preventative stuff around here for awhile. I've been wiping everything in the house down with Clorox bleach and we have been washing our hands a lot. Everyone else seems to be doing great and I'm positive that Owen is going to be back to normal in a few days.

Chocolate Monster

I'll just eat a couple of the kid's jelly beans. One little peep won't hurt. They won't notice if a little ear off their chocolate bunny is gone. These are the things I keep telling myself each time I walk past the Easter baskets. Just one jelly bean has turned into more then I want to admit. Today, I officially put all the evil leftover candy away. Out of sight, out of mind

I also have a sugar monster in my house. Most of the time he goes by "Owen" but he is truly addicted to sugar. This morning he came over and sat with me on the couch and I could smell chocolate on his breath. I asked him "Owen, have you been eating chocolate?" He said "No" and gave me a big Owen smile that told me the whole truth. Maybe I'm not the only one that has been sneaking a little candy here and there out of the Easter baskets? My little chocolate monster has been at work. When Owen was two years old we were singing a song about people we loved. I would sing the verse and I was having the kids name a person they loved. It goes like this "Shimmery dinky, dinky doo, Shimmery dinky, dinky doo, I love Grandma (fill in the blank here). We had named Daddy, Bridger, and all the grandparents and when it was Owen's turn he said "cha cha". I asked him "Who is cha cha?" He kept saying cha cha over and over until I finally figured it out. Chocolate. He loves chocolate. My little sugar monster. I had to laugh.



Easter at the Dahl house was wonderful. Daddy was home. He took his boys fishing and we spent time together as a family. It was so nice to have us all together. On Sunday, we went out to Josh and Chelsea's home for Easter dinner. We had such a good time. Chelsea is Ron's cousin. They have two little kiddos close to Gabe and Owen's age. The boys played all afternoon and had a ball

Here are some memories of dying Easter eggs and then finding them.

Spring Break

Spring Break 2010. I actually survived it with all 4 kiddos and no husband. What did we do for a week? We were so busy that it seems like a blur but I want to hit some of the highlights.

Amaya came over every morning. Gabe loves Amaya so much. He would get up early and ask when she was coming. I was listening to them talk one morning and he asked her "Amaya, why are you so smart? You know everything". Amaya said "It's because I go to school". That satisfied Gabe and he continued to ask her questions like "What is 25 plus 100". When she answered he was just amazed like she was doing magic. You can see the admiration in his little blue eyes.

Back to what we did with our week. We did a couple of exciting things like fishing, going for coffee, and going to see the baby chicks at Shiptons but here are the real milestones. Gabe learned to count to 100 this week. He walks around the house counting and is so proud when he reaches 100. Owen has finally ditched the diapers and is in big boy underwear. Hallelujah is all I have to say. He has transformed into a big boy in just one short week. And Eli? Eli has started sitting up in his Bumbo seat and grabbing at items. Including your hair if you get to close. He is also sleeping through the night and is laughing at his brother, Gabriel. He just looks at Gabe and gets a smile on his face. It's that same look of admiration that Gabe has for Amaya. Then Gabe will do something silly and make Eli laugh. You know that belly laugh that comes from within. It makes me smile to see my kids laughing with each other!

Gotta love Spring Break and all the quality time we get together.