Pumpkin Patch '07

This afternoon we took a trip out to Banducci Farms Pumpkin Patch with our good friends, the Congdons. All kids had a great time playing with the pumpkins and all the adults had a great time taking pictures. We are trying to make it a little tradition every year to have "pumpkin patch" pictures and almost missed our chance (the patch closed at 4pm and we got there about a quarter 'til). The Banducci's have a really fun set up at their farm, complete with a corn maze, pond and animals, so the kids just love it. Caleb was cracking us up with his huge gaping grins :). Luke, Matthew and Jaden spent most of the time running around and being "boys", checking out all of the pumpkins and seeing how many they could pick up. Miss Baylee, who is 18 months and just the cutest thing, was fascinated by the pumpkins too, and she kept pointing and saying "punkin". We ended up getting a ton of adorable pictures and had a great time! I will try and post pics of the boys in their costumes tomorrow afternoon.

"but i don't wanna take a nap..."

oh, these famous words. i hear these words at least once a day and they're usually followed by "...but i'm not tired...". well, yesterday when luke should have been taking his nap i let him hang out with me in the kitchen while i did some cleaning. he wanted to watch some train videos on the computer (a new fascination of his), so i set him up on the counter next to me with the computer. within 5 minutes he was out like a light. i was cracking up because a tiled countertop cannot be the most comfortable place to sleep, however, his little body clearly could not stay awake for another minute.

after i caught some priceless pictures of his nap i started thinking about all the other places i have seen my kids sleep besides in their beds. below is a short clip of all our boys' unusual nap places. have a great night.

Paige Elizabeth Ollivier's first 15 days

we love you paige!

End of the week review...

we hope everyone had a wonderful week and weekend! our week wasn't the best - here are some hightlights: matthew's x-rays came back clear on tuesday but his bloodwork showed a bacterial infection called mycoplasma (or walking pneumonia). he has been on antibiotics all week and is doing fabulous. wednesday evening caleb's little nose started running and by thurs morning he was having a pretty hard time breathing and was throwing up his bottle. so, back to the doctor. our fears of another RSV infection were unfounded but he does have a mild upper-respitory infection and is back on breathing treatments 3x a day. the doc wanted to re-check him again friday morning which ended up being doubly useful seeing how luke was up at 2 a.m. that morning with a 102.4 temp. (i know, it's ridiculous). But as of today matt is doing great and showing no signs of an illness; caleb's lungs/chest are sounding a ton better then thurs (but still on breathing treatments); and luke has an ear infection in his right hear and is on an antibiotic. We are really hoping that this is not a prelude to how our entire fall/winter will be...

As for this weekend, anne's mom & dad watched the boys on saturday as we made our way down to malibu beach with some of our good friends, tony & jen congdon for a "business" cook-out (tony works at northwestern mutual with nate). we had a great time and the weather was perfect!

That's it for now; below are some pics from the last few weeks. have a great week!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

Tonight we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary with an amazing dinner at our favorite restaurant, T.L. Maxwells (for those of you who haven't tried it, we highly recommend dropping everything and going there immediately). We enjoyed every minute of our 2 hour dinner and nate had suprised me with a dozen yellow roses (my favorite) and gorgeous earrings for my anniversary present. what a wonderful husband i have! Anyway, we had a great time without the kids (thanks mom & dad) and are very excited about our little milestone.

P.S. Althougth our day ended up great, it started out a little crazy. we had to take matthew into his pediatrian at 8 am this morning as a follow-up to his emergency room visit the night before. thursday afternoon around 4, matty started flipping out because he couldn't take a breathe. he was only able to inhale a small amount, like he was having an asthma attack or something. after giving him a breathing treatment and it not helping, nate rushed him into the e.r. some bloodwork and xrays were done, and on one of his lungs they found a nodule with some flattening around it. the dr. said it looked a lot like pneumonia or valley fever. he was given a steriod shot which helped open up his airway and he was able to breathe much better. so this morning we took him into dr. ho's office and more xrays and blood work were ordered and we should get the results of everything at our appt tues morning. we'll let you know what the diagnosis is when we find out, but in the meantime please pray that he has no more episodes.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Nate's 30th Birthday

Happy Birthday, Nate! Nate celebrated his 30th birthday on sept. 24 who a few little get-togethers for family and friends. Special thanks to gabe & staci woodward for letting us use their beautiful home, to mom & aileen for surprising nate with a party at mom's house, and again to aileen for the awesome football cake! we love you all, thanks for helping us celebrate what a wonderful man nate is!

A new baby!!

No, not for us! my brother Matt & sister-in-law, Ann, welcomed a beautiful baby girl saturday morning (oct 6th). Miss Paige Elizabeth Ollivier was born after a whole 45 minutes of labor and has a ton of blonde hair. We love our new little niece (& cousin) to pieces! Congrats matt & ann!

Matthew's 2nd Birthday

Happy Birthday, Matthew! We had a fantastic birthday party for little matty last saturday (the 29th) here at the house. there were lots of kids and grown-ups (nate thinks 40 in all) and we snacked on pizza, nachos, sno-cones and cotton candy to go along with our circus theme. nate hung streamers to give off the circus-tent ambiance and anne made a "roller coaster" cake which matt promptly demolished. he got lots of great gifts and it was such a blessing to have so many people we love here to celebrate with us. thanks again to our virginia-based family for all your cards and gifts ~ we missed you guys! here are a couple pics from the day. Enjoy!