Securemama is BACK!

Well, it has been a while, but YES I have a new post on my securemama site. www.securemama.com. It's a site to raise awareness about Internet Safety and give adults the tools to keep their kids safe on the computer and Internet. I am hoping to get this going again. If you like it, tell your friends. If you have a request for a certain topic, leave a comment here or on the site.

Here's the latest post - How to secure an iTouch, iPhone for kids and Teenagers.

Impromptu Photoshoot

I needed to switch out pictures in my picture frames. My original idea was to have the kids hold wooden hearts for Valentines day. But ... since it was February 2nd, I just took their Portrait. I have very good afternoon light in our family room. (Thanks Bountiful windstorm!) I put two king size sheets on the couch opposite to the window. It was kind of crazy and I didn't get a shot of all four kids (I don't know if that is possible). Maybe I could try and switch heads on photoshop.

I started by bribing "Who wants a Doughnut?" (They really wanted a doughnut after seeing a segment on 'The Chew' about doughnuts). It was hard but it only took a half hour. AND I did make good on my promise and against reason bought doughnuts for the kids right before dinner.

I kept using my LONG experience of watching America's Next Top Model to help them have a good smile. Phillip kept having a goofy smile. In a moment of weakness I said, "Think of Money!" You can see the delight in his eyes below. Lily and Amelia I kept saying, "Beautiful!" "Princess" "Gorgeous!" and this then got Lily motivated to take more pictures. She got different outfits and had her own photo shoot.

I'm glad to capture their cute smiles along the way!

January 2012

It has been a busy month of eating, sleeping, napping, & resting for both me and Henrie. I was glad to get a bunch of meals when Henrie was 3 weeks old. I got back into cooking and had the crazy idea to cook 10 pounds of pork. Ha! I had 5 pounds of Cuban pork and 5 pound of Cafe Rio pork. I think I prefer the Cuban. Here's the recipe. I think I was craving the Cuban food that we ate when we went to Florida! Very good!

Mouth of babes update - the kids have been saying funny things lately!

Amelia - Pete was talking to Amelia and said, "Amelia, are you my sweet sweet baby?" and Amelia in a decibel which she can only reach screamed, "I AM NOT YOUR SWEET BABY!!."

Amelia likes to play pretend with her dollies. Since I'm usually sitting on the couch feeding the baby I started playing pretend with the girls with my hand. Now she has taken to the idea and I catch her playing with her hands. The right hand is 'The Mommy' and her left had is the baby or "honey."

Lily - Lily was playing with one of her babies and started saying "this little piggie"

"This little piggie went to the store, This little piggie went to Costco, This little piggie went to Cathy Rio, This little piggie went to get pizza, and this little piggie had none." (very telling of what we have been eating lately!

Phillip - Phillip is still very inclined to build a mine shaft in our back yard. He is going to dig for gold to pay for his mission. He has drawn plans. A very accurate arial view of our back yard. He has a 12 step plan with a picture of each activity (1. Wait for Summer 2. Dig with my tools 3. Use Daddy's tools to dig deeper etc.) Phillip kept asking how much a mission costs. I guess he's trying to budget his future gains from our back yard. He ended up coming up with $50,000. He said that he would get $50,000 worth of gold in the back yard. However, by the time he goes on a mission gold will be worth 3 times as much, so he will share his money with other people. Here is his list of Beneficiaries: Poor People, Lily, Amelia, Henrie, and Grandpa Olsen. He will only give me and Pete a "Little Bit" because we don't really care about money.

Henrie - He reminds me a lot of how Phillip was. He often has a concerned look on his face. I guess he is trying to figure out this world as soon as he can.

Me - I keep spending too much time on Pinterest. I decided I should share one of my tips this month is an easy salad dressing recipe. See below.

What cute kids! Manufactured pose!

Natural Chaos!

Cute little kids! I feel like I have so many kids! I have to use the red-eye remover on 8 cute little eyes!

The girls playing "This little Piggie" with their Opa. They will have to share their new version.

Girls playing in the snow. It has been a dry month and we finally have snow on the ground. I have enjoyed having the warmer weather!

Easy salad dressing: Use an almost empty mustard jar. 1/3 vinegar (red wine, balsamic, regular) 2/3 Olive oil, 1 TBS of honey, salt and pepper. Shake and you are done!

Henrie Update

So Henrie is more than 2 weeks old now! Can't believe it's only that much time! It seems he has always been a part of our family.

He is our 'Three-Pete." Phillip is sometimes referred to as 'Re-Pete' and this little guy reminds me a LOT of Phillip. He often has a furrowed brow as he is trying to figure out the world.

I have some great care-takers. Phillip held the baby for about a half hour yesterday as I was making dinner. I had to make sure the baby smelled o.k. because Phillip couldn't stand the smell of a messy diaper. Amelia has filled up bottles for him, full of tang, water, whatever she can find. A few times she has tried to 'feed' him. Lily asks to hold him first thing in the morning and patiently waits by me as I feed him for her turn. Overall, I would say he has a calm personality and such a great addition to the family.

Thank you to everyone who has sent presents and well-wishes! He is a cute little guy!

Presents made for the new baby (A car made out of stickers).

Wide awake and soaking it all in.

Henrie's biggest fans!

Happy Lucky Seven Anniversary!

Has it really been 7 years?!! I like the picture above because I of course trip down the stairs at the exit of the Salt Lake temple.

We went to The Roof restaurant and had a great view of the Salt Lake Temple. We were also able to see the Mormon Tabernacle concert.

The most romantic gifts ever ... For me .. Gnomeo and Juliet. I'm already a yard 'accessory' collector and this takes it to a WHOLE 'Nother LEVEL!

For Pete .. In concert with the BEST singer song writer of ALL TIMES. Neil Diamond here we come!

Bountiful Wind Storm

There were record wind speeds a week after Thanksgiving (95 mph in Bountiful!). The windstorm made national news! KSL article. We were without power for 44 hours. It was amazing how much we rely on electricity! Good thing I had a smart phone or else I would have felt REALLY cut off. Our heater uses gas, but the blower uses electricity. So we didn't have heat and our house quickly dropped to about 55 degrees that first night. Pete got the kitchen fire going and we had it up to about 67 by the time we went to bed. I went to my parents the next day and slept over my sister-in-laws house that night. My mom was on her stake emergency preparedness committee and gives us emergency prepardness items for christmas. We did pull out the 1,000 hour candle and the solar powered emergency radio.

The power came back on and we were SO glad to be back at home. But it didn't stop there. Our street alone lost 16 50-year-old trees. Pete was out all day Saturday and even Sunday cleaning up fallen trees and branches. They canceled church so that there would be more time for cleanup before another possible storm. Deseret article on the Sunday clean-up.

So did we get any damage? Yes, our 25ft flag pole that was staked in the ground by 36 strands of christmas lights snapped in half. You can see in the picture that the deer and santa look like a war zone. We tried to salvage what we could, but the ground was already frozen and we couldn't stake anything new into the ground. It was sad because there were a lot of people showing up to our house for a show. It will be up and going next year!!

I think what I learned from the wind storm and power outage how quickly circumstances can change with a disaster (this was a small one). We did go out and buy a generator prior to the second storm because we didn't want to have to leave our house again. We still had gas and running water, so we'll have to think through our recovery strategy for both of those!

Christmas Decor

So, I am a little crazy ... or maybe a LOT crazy ...

When we were starting to talk to contractors for our exterior remodel I got REALLY excited when they said we could vault the ceiling in the Living room. Pete saw the glint and my eyes and knew it meant only one thing ... I was imagining a BIGGER Christmas tree.

Well, it required removing the roof, one custom curved steel beam and new dry wall, roof, etc .. and our Living room was ready for my new TREE!

By Day ...

By Night ...

I didn't get a picture of all of our trees. Here's my entry from last year. The only changes were we added another tree for Amelia (a PURPLE tree!). I also created a Jim Henson Wreath. It's already put away, but I'm tempted to get it out of the cover to get a picture of it. Ah well, we'll have to wait until next year. We also had a Christmas Carnival display with a Circus train. Again, I'll post a video next year!

Shelf of German Junk!

A new shelf to display Nutcrackers, matryoshkas, and nativities GALORE!

I only got this video of the Christmas Light show display. Sadly, our light show was only up for a week because of the wind storm. Excuse the background sniffles, I had a cold when I shot the video and meant to retake it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I realize why I have been slacking with my blog ... we were really busy this Fall!

Thanksgiving was a LOT of fun. I think looking at the pictures it was more fun now than at the time. Both Pete and I had come down with a really bad cold, but we went ahead and showed up at family functions .. tried not to get anyone else sick.

Pete and Phillip got to have two football games. One in the morning after breakfast with the Olsens, and one at a park with the Wirthlin family. The Thanksgiving meal was great as always. I made the southern sweet potato casserole, apple pie, and 'my' green bean casserole. It's funny how you get 'type cast' with certain dishes.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to Breakfast with Santa! The kids loved it! Phillip especially LOVED it! He kept saying, "This is the best breakfast ever!" I think because he could have as much bacon as he wanted .. 11 pieces. My favorite part was the hot chocolate bar (there was REAL chocolate in it), the Santa photo shoot where they gave me the digital image (Christmas card RESCUE!), and really fancy coke bottles. I kept asking for more, then later explained to the waiter that I wanted to add the coke bottles to my coke Christmas tree!

Happy Rainbow Party Pete!

Well, Amelia and Lily couldn't decide on a 'color' for Pete's birthday party theme. They decided he needed ALL of the colors! Thus, the "Rainbow Birthday Party" for Pete. I think I went a little overboard, but Pete was a good sport.

We went to St. George over Pete's birthday weekend. It was a great day of hanging out at Becca and Paul's house. Becca was cooking non-stop all weekend. It was a very relaxing weekend. We even went to the "Glitter Hole" which is a pit of gypsum. The kids got to collect the 'glittery' rock.

My Purple Girl! Amelia!

Amelia came up with her own Birthday theme this year. It was a PURPLE birthday party! (Weeks prior she kept changing the color, but I was able to get her to stick to one color). I think Amelia's purple designation started this spring when I got Lily & Amelia easter outfits, Lily=Pink Amelia=Purple. It's kind of translated to their room decor (pink and purple christmas trees), slippers, and piggy banks, etc. When asked, "whose birthday is it?" she would say, "My purple birday pawdee!!"

Amelia is a good little helper. It's amazing what she is able to do on her own. She is very ARTISTIC! She can wield a sharpie like no other. She did cover our couches, walls, end tables with her original art. Below is a picture of her all tuckered out after coloring my bathroom with lip and eye liner. She has a determined independent spirit. Her new saying is, "I do it MYSELF!"

Amelia, Lily, and their cousins Brinklee and Bryndee are all in purple dresses! I would like to say that I made the dresses myself.. but no .. Pete's mom made the dresses and the girls all wanted to wear them for the party!

Christmas Recap

What a GREAT christmas we had! It was so sweet to have a brand new baby at home over Christmas. I was feeling pretty good and the kids were SO excited to have their baby brother home. Below is a picture of the kids SHOWERING Henrie with love. Phillip told me that he didn't want anything for christmas because he already got what he wanted ... a baby brother. But, on Christmas eve, he decided he wanted more ;-)

We went to Pete's Parents house for dinner, nativity, singing with the bells and much more fun! Henrie was the perfect baby Jesus.

It was nice to have everything done before the baby was born. I went to bed on Christmas eve at midnight! (it's usually 1 or 2 AM). Santa was nice enough to leave a note for the kids. You could tell it was from Santa because the edges were burned.

Phillip's Favorite part was "the whole entire day." When asked for specifics, he said, "EVERYTHING, I liked EVERYTHING about christmas." I think he was pretty excited to get the Nintendo Wii. It was an impulse buy, but Phillip and Pete played Lego Indiana Jones for 2 and half hours without noticing the time go by!

Lily's favorite part was when she opened presents, and Daddy opened presents, and everyone had their OWN presents. She said when opening a present, "OH Daddy you are SO Sweet!"

Amelia's favorite part was her big and little Lalaloopsy. When asked before christmas she would say, "My favowate pawt is TEENY TINY Lalaloopsy!!"

My favorite part was that both Pete and I gave each other foot baths. I know we are both a little weird, but at least we think alike!

Pete's favorite part was just staying home and being lazy with the family. First time we have stayed home on Christmas day and it was GREAT! I think we will also continue with my last minute meal plan. French Onion Soup and Fondue for dinner. It is comfort food, but it doesn't take too much effort to prepare.

I didn't get too many photographs this year, but I guess that means I was enjoying myself too much! Enjoy!

The kids and their early Christmas present!

Lily & Santa Henrie on Christmas Day

Amelia and her favorite item from Santa from her Stocking.

Phillip enjoying his Matchbox Race Track

Lily and all her new princesses, and Tangled bookshelf.

His and Hers Foot Bath!

Henrie, tired after a long day of sleeping and eating, had to sack out on the couch next to Homer.

Welcome Henrie!

We are pleased to announce the birth of Henrie McEntire Olsen.

He weighed 6 pounds and 10 oz, 19 inches.

He looks a lot like Phillip as a baby. A little peanut!

I have most of the day with the baby, me, and my iPad. Maybe I'll finally get a chance to catch up on the happenings since October!

Halloween Party

Well, I'm glad to say we successfully hosted our 4th Annual Halloween Family Party. It was a blast!

There was dancing! -- Here's Pete wearing Emily's Mortisha wig. It makes him look like a Hare Krishna!

There was a photo booth! Here are the kids enjoying the spotlight! Once there were more than 5 in the picture, everyone wanted to be in!

Of course apple bobbing and doughnuts on a string.

Fun costumes GaLORE! I like Pete's Yoda back-pack!

Minnie Mouse and a green M&M!

And the food! The skeleton was a cute idea for about 5 minutes. I kept on having to replace arms and legs. Within 10 minutes into the party it was a cutting board full of body parts.

Penny's Halloween bark. Thank you Pinterest!

So I don't have pictures of two of the highlights .. the Halloween show! I'll have to post a video soon! It was a rush to get the show together this year because it was raining all week until the day of the party!

Spook Alley! - The spook alley was even BETTER this year! WE had the "Dead Janitors" (one of the grandkids came up with that) in our heating closet ... Some talking skulls inside R2D2. Black lights, fog, strob lights, brains and eyeballs. The best part was we had one of the older grandkids dress up in a skeleton costume. You didn't notice the skeleton on the couch. while the kids touched the eyeballs and brains, the skeleton would get off the couch and scream at them! Pete was the skeleton the first couple of rounds. Phillip walked through the spook alley and was telling his cousins he wasn't scared. But when Pete scared them out of the spook alley, Phillip was freaked out. Phillip said, "DAD!! did you know there was a SKELETON in THERE!?

Not to give away any surprises, but I want to try these for next year ..

Glowing water

Dry Ice bubbles

The biggest miracle was that we had the house clean and babysitter ready within 12 hours. Here's a Picture of Pete and me at the M&M store on the Vegas Strip!