Today the tree in our yard lost the last of its leafs. And of course that means...Gotta love fall!!

Elianna Rene Olsen

Congratulations Valerie and Mark! We love you guys!

Craaazzy Hair!!

Wild and Crazy hair night at AWANA was soo much fun tonight!! The girls had so much fun getting ready! Last week when we found out about it Gabrielle told me she wanted "lots and lots of bows!" It made it that much more fun that it was her idea!!

We decided to do more of a "Whooville" look for Lyla! It was too cute!

Even I got into it as a leader trying out some purple and green hair! It was a blast! Thanks aunt Jenna for your help getting us ready!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

WE LOVE YOU, MOM!

STEPHANIE, JESSE, GABRIELLE, LYLA, AND GIDEON

Weekend review

Friday evening we took the kids to the park. Gabrielle and Lyla brought their bikes and we went for a nice walk. I've brought Gabrielle there with her bike before but Lyla has never been fast enough before because I'll be going for a real walk so she and Gideon are in the stroller. But since it was just a little family stroll she got to bring hers, too and she was so excited. After a little ride we stopped by the river to watch the ducks and splash around a little And I wondered who was going to end up in the water first. It was Lyla. Fell right back onto her little bum! She was a bit shocked at first but went right back in to play some more!

And as we were at the river a young Mennonite woman came up to me to ask me about my sling I had Gideon in. Now those of you who know me, know that I think the Amish culture is fascinating and I secretly wish I was Amish :) So getting to talk to a Mennonite was as close as I've ever come and I was pretty excited! I know I'm a bit weird. We really had a great time at the park-we don't get the chance to do that as a family nearly enough!!

Saturday was party day-two birthday parties in one day! It was a lot of fun! The kids always have a great time running around with their little friends while Jesse and I get to visit.

Sunday was a great morning of worship. I am really enjoying being back in an adult Sunday school class. It is so good!! Then Jesse's parents came over for a bit. I just now thought of it but, I should have had my camera out -they were all bowling on the Wii. It was great fun and let me tell you-Gabrielle is one great bowler! She just flings that "ball" down the lane and usually ends up with a spare. It's hilarious! After Bud and Kathy left we were able to have some down time before it was back to church. We are starting an AWANA program and it was our registration/kickoff night. We are pretty excited about it!

It was a great weekend and now I am looking forward to taking the kids to Phoenix this weekend to visit some dear friends. I'm so excited!!!!

She did it! Gabrielle read her first Bob Book yesterday!! We've been working on letters and sounds for awhile now and I got out our Bob Books to see if she could do it, and sure enough she read through it! (for those of you who don't know what the Bob Books are, it is a little series of books that are written in three letter words and short sentences for beginning readers. Each books introduces new letters along with few new "sight words". They are great little tools!) The first reading was really slow, sounding out each letter but she did it entirely on her own. I had her do it again, then a third time when I covered up the pictures to make sure she wasn't relying on them to show her what it should say. I'm pretty excited for her, this is a proud moment whether she realizes it or not! It also encourages me to know that as clueless as I might be on this homeschooling adventure, I've started in the right direction! What a great way to start out her preschool year.

Lyla is really enjoying the idea of sitting down to do school,too. I had to get a workbook just for her because she was really wanting to get into Gabrielle's. She almost went straight through it in one day! I love that the girls love to learn(even if they don't know that's what they are doing!)

Even Gideon is learning new things. He is now pulling himself up on everything!! He also starting clapping the other day! So fun! I can hardly believe that he is almost a year!

Well that's all I can think of for now.

Here's some random pictures of the kids!

Trying out some new goggles in the bathtub

Exploring the river

Look what I can do!

This is the day that the Lord has made!

This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. It is a choice we can make and I have been choosing poorly this last week. But by God's amazing grace I have a new day to make a new choice. So I choose to rejoice, be glad and share it with you!
(Pictures soon to come!)