This must be what evil tastes like

Sariah has started eating solids and loves food!! So much more than any of our others. Her favorites seem to be apricots, peaches, and banana's mixed with strawberries. She has not liked any vegetables at all. We tried carrots and green beans on seperate occasions but tonight thought maybe we would try to mix them together and offer them. As you can see, she provided tons of entertainment.

MIA

I have been notified that my posts have been Missing In Action. So here it is for all of those that need an "Olson Fix".

We have still been doing a lot and I must confess, the lack of posts lies with the fact that our camera is no longer producing clear pictures. I am hoping we get another one soon. But with Christmas, my birthday, and anniversary over with... :) Since that is not a good enough excuse for some (Mother) I will post older pics and make do, for a blog is not the same without the pics.

Sunday was one of "those" days. The morning went well but then during sacrament Sariah proceeded to scream throughout the whole thing. If we had been in the back of the room it wouldn't have been a problem. I could have stood with her or something. But, no...... Matt has always had this thing about sitting in the second row! He thinks the children behave better when they are smack in front of the Bishop and are not distracted by others. Supposedly we also pay better attention and learn more. This may all be true in some respect, but does he realize how distracting we are to others???

So we are faced with the decision to stay and let her make sacrament a mockery or do I parade down the aisle all the way from the front in the middle of sacrament? So, we stayed and tried to quiet her but she was having none of it and wanted to make everyone as miserable as she was. I swore to Matt that I would never sit in the front again. But, I know it is important to him and if I try to take a stand our family will sit seperated in church. Is it worth it or not? Why oh why can't he just be like most men and want to sit in the overflow?

So, anyhow we come home and that evening Matt, Seri and I are trying to play a game of Risk which was a bad idea in the first place. The boys don't like playing and don't like the idea of not being involved in what everyone else is doing. Seri is still trying to figure out the strategy of the game, the boys are either orbitting or up in our faces asking questions and Sariah is crying and fussy. All I wanted to do was play a game with my husband!!! In the midst of this I tell Matt "There will be no more!! Do you understand me? I refuse to have any more children".

So there it is..... I am starting to feel like I am done with the whole baby thing and have felt that way since Sariah was born. Whether it is a definite feeling or one that will change as she gets older I am not sure. As it is now, by the time she leaves the house I will be 50! Thirty years of never once having it be just Matt and I. Have another one and that resets the clock to square one. I don't know. Matt is still convinced there are at least two more....... Guesse we will waite and see.

Onto other things. Seri was responsible for the treat for Family Home Evening on Monday and was determined to make a cake by herself. She mixed it and poured it perfectly, pre-heated the oven, everything. Then she put it in the oven and being a little afraid of touching the hot oven she let go of the stoneware a little too early. It flipped and landed upside down on the bottom of the oven. she was in tears but we told her the worst that would happen would be Dad telling her boyfriend some day what a good baker she is and then relating this story. We opened the drawer beneath the stove and a lot of the batter had flowed down there. So after the scripture and song the boys promptly got spoons and started eating the batter. I looked in the oven and it seemed that a lot of the batter was still contained in the stoneware, lifted the bowl and found we had a thin cake. I scraped it off the bottom of the oven and put it on a plate and we procceded to have "upside down cake" . I must admit it tasted great. Everyone agreed and the boys told sis that they were thankful she had dropped the cake. I think the taste was made sweeter by the love our family showed in handling the situation.

My darling Michael

A friend of mine just posted a blog where she discussed only one of her four children. He has been her most interesting child and she talked about his personality so intimately that you immediately related and fell in love with him. (thanks Theresa). It got me thinking that I should probably do the same with one of mine.

Being a mom of four it is so different to think of them in isolation of the other siblings. Usually if I am talking about one of them the other three work their way into my conversation also. Thus the age-old challenge of those with a pluthera of children, how to relate to them one-on-one ; apart from the group.

So we come to my darling Michael. I don't remember him being that much different from the others as a baby. It wasn't until his pre-school years that I realized that he had a different personality than I was used to raising. It may be that this was when his brother entered his life and he became the middle child.....

He is definetly a sensitive child and wears his heart on his sleeve. He feels every single emotion with every part of his being. Thus he is able to love completely without abandon, but he is also able to be hurt and devastated completely.

He cries at the injustice of the world ("but why didn't that man stop and let the ducks cross the road, mom?") and at sad parts of movies (When Lightning MacQueen left his friends on route 66 you would have thought his best friend had died.)

Seri and Isaac are very easygoing and adaptable and I have to remind myself that not all children are alike, even when they are in the same family.

Michael makes friends with his peers very easily and within minutes can have a new best friend. He is also able to brush things off that may have hurt his feelings, things I would have been really upset about he just shrugs off and forgets. He is very quick to accept and forgive.

However he is not shy about letting others know how he feels, usually it is when he does not want to do something or when he is fighting with his siblings.

He is amazing with computers and loves all things electronic.

Michael is a very picky eater which leads to the same dinner conversation almost every night. "I don't want that". "I don't care, you need to eat some of it". And on and on it goes. He just knows what he likes and doesn't often deviate from his chosen food groups (guesse he is a lot like me).

You can see his love for you a million miles away. In his smile, his eyes.....it's always there. Curling up with mom and dad, an arm around his brothers shoulder, or curling into his sister's arms for comfort when something has made him sad.

pics

We were recently notified that there are no current portraits of the family. So, today we paraded off to the studio and believe me, with our family it really is a parade. It took forever to get some good shots and we never got a perfect family shot, there are just too many in the family now to get everyone smiling and looking good at the same time.