Time

So these past couple of weeks I have had some time to use my sewing machine!

I have been wanting to make Ollie and his cousin, Jake, matching ties...

I finally figured out something for an Easter basket for Ollie. I had the basket and just sewed a liner in it.Made this fun flower that I'm not sure what I'm going to dowith. I'm thinking clothing accessory or maybe put it on a headband... it might be kinda big and fancy for that? I found the tutorial here .

I also made a pillow for our living room couch. I finally found a yellow linen like fabric that I liked and went with it. I think I might add some more flowers...

I finally got around to painting the frame a got a couple of months ago. I added some wire and put it in our breakfast nook where we eat. The wall wa

s blank and I thought it would be a good place to hang prayer reminders of our missionary friends.

Last, but not least, I decided to make a temporary valence with the left over fabric from the pillow. I still haven't decided/ found the perfect material I want. Decisions decisions...

It was a SURPRISE!

My sister, Nichole, turned 30 on March 21st. She loves surprises so we planned a surprise party for her. She is very observant so we knew it was going to be hard to pull off. We told her that we were celebrating her birthday at Dad and Mom's on the Saturday after her birthday (the 26th), because we were busy the Saturday before. (We did take a shopping trip the day before her birthday. Mom watched the kids while Aaron, Nichole, Andrew, and I went shopping in Williamsburg.)

Anyways, Nichole and Aaron, and Andrew and I were at Dad and Mom's on Friday night for a MOPS event so Andrew, Ollie, and I just stayed overnight. Aaron convinced Nichole that they needed to go home, so we could decorate the gym (at my parents house) on Saturday morning.

So Saturday we got up and going to get the food made and the gym ready. Aaron, Nichole, and the kids got there for dinner, we took pictures, and sang Happy Birthday, and opened gifts. Then we told her that her last gift was too big so we had to leave it in the gym, so she would have to go out and get it :

)

Now up to this point I thought for sure she knew what was going on because of all the little hints she accidentally got. Well, we all went out to the gym with her and SUPRISE, most of her friends and family that lived close were there to celebrate with her! And she was SURPRISED! I was so excited! She said she thought something might be going on but had no clue it would be that! Yay!

With all of Aaron's great ideas, Mom helping me get stuff and making a sweet video of Nichole over the years, me getting to do invites and decorate, and my families help setting up.... we pulled it off! We did a candy theme and asked guests to bring a bag of candy instead of a gift. We had a table with empty glass jars and when the guests arrived put their candy it them. It turned out perfect and she LOVED it :) We had a fun evening just hanging out, eating, and watching the guys play basketball.

We love you so much, Nichole, and are so blessed to call you our sister! You are beautiful inside and out :) Thanks so much to everyone who made Nichole's party so great!

9 Month Pictures

In attempt to save some money... we decided to take Ollie's 9 month pictures ourselves. Andrew's pictures always turn out better than mine so he took them, and I edited them. Thought I would share some of the better ones...

Ollie's first tooth finally popped through last week. He didn't do too bad, maybe a little extra fussy and a runny nose but I can't complain. Now I am just waiting for that first bite.... I guess I just have to be thankful it took this long to get his first one. One of these days I'll get a picture of it :)

9 Months

Oliver was 9 months old yesterday! He weighs 22 lbs. and 11.4 oz. and is 29 1/4 inches long. He cried through most of his appointment besides the time I was holding him. He did not want anyone else holding him! He is starting to strange some. Most of the time he does good in the nursery on Sunday mornings or during MOPS, but lately I have had to go and get him and it's usually because he is tired. I have a feeling things will get worse before they get better :)

Here are some things he has been doing:

• he has been able to pull himself up for a couple of weeks but lately has been doing it a lot!
• smacking his lips... more like his tongue
• army crawling... he can crawl for a little bit but then drops to his tummy
• he will wave once in a while
• holds his arm up to things he likes
• he can copy quite a few things we do
• lays his head to the side
• plays peekaboo... he holds the cloth up :)
• loves pictures (especially kids)
• loves watching kids
• loves being outside
• plays around with letters/ toys in his mouth (see pic below)
• practicing stairs
• loves listening to the Veggie Tales CD we have
• not liking food with chunks :(
• being ornery :)
• taking 2 long naps a day and sleeping 11-12 hrs at night
• nursing 4 times a day and eating baby food 3 times
• saying da da da
• likes reading/ looking at books
• not liking to get his diapers/ clothes changed

We are enjoying him more than ever! Love you Buddy!

Disc Golfing

On Friday, we went to the park across from our house to play disc golf. Ollie brought his mini he got for Christmas from Uncle Zach. He did a good job just playing in his stroller. Andrew can't wait until Ollie is old enough to teach and play with him :)

This is the hole that Andrew got a hole-in-one on! It was his second shot but it was awesome! Good job Babe!


We are so excited for this spring weather... Ollie loves being outside!

Chicago

Last weekend we headed to Zach (Andrew's brother) and Annika's for a weekend of fun. On the way, we stopped at Dad and Mom Wiese's. We had so much fun showing them Ollie's new tricks and just hanging out and catching up.

After a delicious lunch we were on our way to Wheaton. The reason we were really going up was for the kids resale that my sister-in-law, Annika, introduced me to last fall. This was their spring one and I was so excited to get Ollie some summer outfits! We arrived around dinner time and headed out to a yummy Mexican restaurant and headed back to Zach and Annika's to put the kids down and hang out. Nancy did such a good job playing with Ollie and we had to snap a picture before bed.

Saturday morning us ladies woke nice and early and headed to the resale. We met Annika's friend and our sister-in-law Melissa there and had a full fun day of shopping. We all found really good deals and had a blast! The men did a great job taking care of the kids so we could get some deals :) Thanks so much guys!

After, shopping we headed over to Kevin and Melissa's for pizza and to celebrate Kathryn's 2nd birthday. Dad and Mom came up in the afternoon and we had a fun evening to celebrating and showing off the loot we had made out with at the resale.

Sunday we got to go to church, out to eat, and a stop at Goodwill before we headed home. It was such an enjoyable weekend and I can't wait to head back up for the fall resale! Yay for amazing deals! Thanks so much family for everything... we love you!

Long Lost Post...

So here I am posting about the Super Bowl. My mom sent me these pictures and I wanted to have them here in my little journal :) Enjoy!

Thanks for having us Dad and Mom!