I LOVE it when kids misinterpret things, and Brynn is a great half listener so she surprises me often with what she says. This is her conversation the other day with Andy about lightbulbs.

Brynn: "What are you doing with those eyeballs?"

Andy: "Well, these "eyeballs" (chuckle, chuckle) have stopped working so I need to replace them with new ones."

Brynn: "Yeah, that happens. The eyeballs upstairs stopped working too. Are you going to replace those eyeballs?"

Andy: "Sure I will. Show me where, and I'll put in some new eyeballs."

Girls' Trip

Last week I went on a trip with 3 of my friends. We all have 4 kids each, and our cute husbands watched our kids while we partied for 3 days.

Our flight was really early on Thursday, so we arrived in Long Beach at 7:30 a.m. (which means we were awake WAY too early!!!) But, that also meant that we had a full day of fun at Disneyland and California Adventure. I was really excited to go to Disneyland because it's been 11 years since I've been, and I was not disappointed. We rode every ride that we wanted to, and we kept the people around us entertained with our conversations. I mean that literally. In line for Indiana Jones the girl in front of us turned around after about 20 minutes of listening to us, and asked us to repeat what we just said. She said she was in a college class, anthropology or something, and she had been walking around listening to conversations for the past 2 days, and she liked listening to us the most, and was jotting down notes as fast as her hand could fly. A little weird, sure, but we tried to keep the conversations really entertaining for her.

The tower of terror was my favorite ride! I took a picture of the picture that they take of you. I think my hair is pretty funny. All the pictures of me throughout the day are just as good. I know I look like a spaz, but that's ok...It's the happiest place on earth.

It was the last one that we rode, and had I known how much I would love it I probably would have dragged Megan, Lindsay, and Sarah on it a few more times throughout the day. We ended our day by going to the Color of Wonder show. I thought it was really cool. It was a busy day for us. We were there from open until after close, so we were pretty tired by the end of the day.

Friday we did the fun Hollywood/Beverly Hills experience, and I was reminded just how disgusting the walk of fame is. There are some crazy people that hang around that area! But it was fun anyway. I just made sure to clutch my purse with a vise grip, and stay together with the other girls. Good thing we had GPS because none of us had any clue how to get to the Hollywood sign, or how to get to anything else in L.A., but Sarah's phone was a lifesaver more than once. My favorites from Friday were going to the Hollywood sign and going to the Beverly Center. The Beverly Center, for those of you who don't know is a crazy expensive mall in Beverly Hills. The reason I loved going here wasn't because of the stores, it was because of the people. I have NEVER, and I repeat NEVER seen that many beautifully put together people in one place in my life. And beautiful black men. Compliments to them!!! They might as well have been dropping hundred dollar bills as they walked. The clothes, the hair, the jewelry was just beautiful. I have no idea if that is what it's always like at that mall, or if some NBA players/ family and friends were doing some shopping before the All Star weekend at the Staples center, but I don't care. It was so much fun to people watch, and enjoy the experience.

To wrap it up, Saturday we went to Newport, Costa Del Mar, and Balboa. We drove to the Newport temple just to see it. We ate pizza at a really yummy place on the beach, then walked the pier a little. Then we headed to South Coast plaza to shop for the rest of the day. It's funny because I got sick and was really sick for the entire trip, (yay for me), but I didn't really feel how sick I was until we got home from our trip because we were so busy having fun. I really hope we make this a tradition because I had so much fun with these girls!

Last month Abbi turned 8. She had a morning party because she wanted to have a breakfast. There are always at least 10 girls that come to her parties, and this year was no different. They decorated frames, and played games. It was fun. 3 things about Abbi that make her so adorable are: she wears a hoddie zipped to the top and skinny jeans MOST of the time, and would all the time if I didn't suggest other options some times. She loves to read to us out loud, and she is a very good reader, and she is a daddy's girl to the core. She cries when he has to travel, and can't get enough of him when he's home. Lucky for her he loves to be home with his girls.

Last Saturday Abbi was baptized. It was such a special day for her. She wasn't nervous at all, just excited about everything. The morning of she was very proud to tell me that she had memorized the 4th article of faith because it relates to baptism. Abbi is the best big sister, and we are so proud of her for being an example for her little sisters.

5 Months already

Reagan is a really good baby. I admit that with Reese and Brynn I was anxious for them to get to the next stage so often, but not with Reag. I have LOVED every single thing that she has learned, and I feel a little sad when she moves on to the next new experience.

She just barely started babbling a little bit. She will happily say "dadadada" all soft and cute, and then the further away I get the louder her "dada's" get until I come back. The girl loves her some attention.

At 4 months she was 14 lbs, so I'm guessing she is a pound or two more by now. She is an excellent sleeper, she can sit up a little bit, but not for long (we're working on it), she rolls over from her tummy to her back, but not the other way around yet, and pulls everything to her mouth, including faces and gives nice wet kisses.

What's Been Going on...

In December we had our biggest snowstorm in the 10 years that I've lived in Utah. It was pretty incredible! Unfortunately this storm cancelled school. Usually that would be great for Abbi, but it was the last day before Christmas break, so it was supposed to be a party day. All fun, and no work. Plus she had a gift for her teacher. She was devestated, but, she got over it and played in the snow for hours.

Molly looked like a marshmellow every time she came in the house. Her body was caked in snow.

Abbi is always the one helping the other girls. She pushed and pulled them all around. Apparently it gets pretty tiring. I pulled her around for a while so she could have some fun too.

We went to a funny sweater party before Christmas. We had a few matching sweaters, but it didn't really matter. It was just funny wearing a snowflake turtleneck, and a Christmas tree sweater. Next year we will have to be on the lookout early for great sweaters.

On Christmas day we went to Dana's parents' house for dinner, and games. The girls watch enough football that they had at least some idea of what to do.

Brynn is still learning to share, so most of the time she just ran around with the football ignoring everyone else asking for the ball.

Our kids and Laura and Isaac's on Christmas morning. You can't really tell, but it was almost crazy how many presents were crammed under that tree.

We drove back in the middle of the night after Christmas day. The drive home was pretty scary for part of the trip because we kept hydroplaning, but we made it back in one piece. Later that day we went to visit with my parents.

Photo Shoot #1

I love these pictures! My friend Karen that I love took these pictures.If you want to see more of her work go to www.shinephotographybykaren.com. I know I have posted some before, but I had to post some more. Reagan, Reese, and Abbi were so easy to get pictures of that day. Brynn was NOT! There are lots and lots of her being crazy, but not many of her actually smiling. Luckily we did an outside shoot as well, and she was wonderful that day!

Thanksgiving with the Olausons

We had a great Thanksgiving at my parents house this year. We made a ridiculous amount of food, and it was so fun being able to be together watching football, eating, and playing games.

Abbi doesn't usually wear make-up. Every time we go to my parent's house my girl swarm my little sister Myla, and ask her for a make over.

My mom and Reag. She's 3 months now, it's crazy that she is so big already!

Abbi took this one.

My parents have this big knobly walking stick, and the kids...and adults were having a really good time playing that pulling...stick game... Whatever the name is the kids loved it.

My brother Doug came to Thanksgiving, obviously. I haven't seen him in almost 8 years, so it was really nice to have him with us. He had never met any of my kids, or my other brother's kids, so he had alot to take in. Brynn stayed away completely from Doug for a while, but eventually she decided that she really liked him, and started to hover. Finally she was bold enough to ask to sit with him, and from then on that's where she wanted to be.

Birthday Girl

Reese turned 5 today! We are so lucky to have Reese in our house. She is such a cuddly, loving girl. We gave her the option of having a birthday party at home or at Chuck-e-cheese this year, and she chose home because she wanted a pinata so bad. Her party was filled with candy and cookies and pizza, and all things sweet and bad for you...just like she likes it!

Here are a few things about Reese that make us love having her in our house.

~She loves to sing and make noise. (The singing is from us both, but just like her daddy she makes noises like clicking or tapping to a beat ALOT).

~She will wait to see what Abbi chooses and that is what she wants too.

~She still LOVES gum and lipgloss

~She's our vege girl.

~Reese loves our dog Molly and kisses her all the time.

~She can write her name and thinks she knows how to read. She's really creative, and tells fabulous stories. I could go on forever, but we love our little Reese B. She was our Thanksgiving present 5 years ago.

1st Snow

We had our first decent snow the other day, and you would have thought it was Christmas morning listening to the squeals and giggles from my girls.

Abbi was really excited that the snow was wet enough to make a really good snowman. When it started to melt, the eyes and nose and mouth fell out, and it looked like a skeleton snowman. (p.s. our yard is not weeds like it looks like. Our neighbors don't have a yard yet, and this pic is on the line almost of our yards.)

BYU field trip

Yesterday I took my girls to the planetarium at BYU. Abbi was really excited because I let her skip the first half of school to come with us. I didn't remember that I brought my camera until we were walking back to the car, but still we got a few cute fall pictures.

They are still so little so rolling down hills is an adventure. My stomach starts to churn a little just watching them!

Brynn decided to NOT cooperate so I only really got one picture that's not even good, but that's more than I was expecting with the type of day she was having!