The Stirland Team

Forever

2015-03-06T07:27:00.001-08:00

So it has been forever since I have thought much about my blog... Needless to say, we have moved twice in the last year. It has made things very very crazy around here. Who knows when I will be caught up enough in life to catch up my blog...
But, here are a few cute things the kids have said recently, if case anyone still checks this blog. :)

The other night Katie and Ollie were fighting over a chair. After a few minutes Ollie proposed a compromise. He said, "See Katie, that is a compromise. ". Katie responded with, "No, that is not a compromise. It is a chair. ". We all started laughing so she knew she was funny.

Lily is our little ham and it is carrying over to her school.... Her teacher told the class that in their journals they needed to write a sentence and demonstrated by saying, "blah, blah, blah." So Lily wrote in her journal 'blah, blah, blah, blah, etc...' for her three sentences. She also has decided that it is a good idea to write 'Mystery' for her name instead of her real name on her school work. I am not too sure how much her strict teacher will think it is funny to get all this work from a 'Mystery' child but I think it is rather funny.

Never a dull moment!

Hair this morning

2014-07-11T09:36:00.002-07:00

Every morning I ask my girls how they want me to do their hair. Their answers today:
Katie "Bow". That is her normal response.
Claire "angel hair". Angel hair is a French braid around her head to make a 'halo'.
Lily "Mary Lenox hair". Just a simple pulled back braid.

It's fun to see how different they want their hair... (Especially since I am a ponytail girl)
Have a happy hair day!

Claire's Photo Book

2014-06-26T07:12:00.001-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

Last blog about vacation...

2013-11-26T14:05:00.000-08:00

Thank you all to bearing with me in my month long journey to document our vacation from two months ago... :) While in Florida we went to Univeral Studios Island of Adventure. We went to see the Harry Potter world. We LOVED it. But before I go into that I must tell about our drive to get there.

On the way there (about a 30 minute drive total) Claire threw up. She was sick and we didn't know, until it was way too late! Then Ollie, who was sitting next to her, threw up because he couldn't stand the smell or sight. I told him to just breath deep and look away from the vomit. I was hoping to stop it... It didn't work. Ollie leaned right over and threw up all over Lily. So yes, we had all three kids in the back of the van covered in breakfast. The three adults were just shocked at first and then we all laughed (after we rolled down the windows). We were almost to the park at this point so we made a slight detour for some clean up. All three kids and their car seats needed cleaning. Have you ever tried to clean up lots and lots and lots of vomit, in a random parking lot, with only baby wipes??? I would not recommend it. So, my wonderful husband volunteered to take Claire back to the condo and stay with her while we went to the park. Huge shout out to him for doing that!!! So we got dropped off at the park and the day began with two very stinky children and a baby. We did go into the bathroom and cleaned them up at best we could but you know how that smell just seems to linger...well linger it did. :)

When the park opened we headed right for the Harry Potter part. It was incredible! The whole thing is so realistic and true to the books. We started out with the ride that is in the castle. I must say if you have ever wanted to wait in a line, it would be that one. We didn't really have a wait so Grandma and Ollie went back after just to look around. The ride was awesome! My Mom and I both loved it! Ollie thought it was too scary but he did go on it. Lily and Katie were too short. On a funny side note... I was feeling queezy from the smells in the car and was a little worried about the ride. The lady in front of me had strong (and nice) smelling perfume so I stood nice and close (no personal space for this lady) and inhaled her nice smell until I felt better. :) Then we hit up the rest of Hogsmeade. We loved every minute of it. We spent half our day just in that part of the park. Ollie got a new wand in Ollivander's. The worker was really cute in helping him find the "right" wand. We tried butterbeer. YUMMY! YUMMY! YUMMY! We had lots of fun seeing all the things in Honeydukes and the joke shop. We bought Papa an extendable ear as a thank you for staying home... He loved it and took it to work to keep on display. Then we went to the rest of the park.

The kids really liked the Dr. Seuss land and had lots of fun there. They had a Merry-Go-Round that Katie really liked. The park also had several play areas for the kids which was nice because most rides had height restrictions. We did go on a few adult rides and our favorite was the water ride. We got nice and wet. :) When the park closed Papa came and picked us up. Claire was all better the next day. :) Thankfully it started and ended (for the most part) with Claire. :)

Here's a few more funny things about the day:
At one point we were standing in line and a lady close to us said very quietly to someone with her, "Man, someone really stinks."
Another time I had bent down to help one of the kids (either Katie or Lily, I don't remember which). I was hit with the smell again. I stood up and said quietly (because who wants to admit that their kids stink) to my Mom, "I can hardly stand to be around these kids." Smells really get to me! My Mom told me later that I got a really funny look from a lady by us in line when I said that. :)

Good times and great (if smelly) memories.

Jedi Training

2013-11-23T12:34:00.006-08:00

One of our favorite things at the parks was the Jedi Training at Hollywood Studios. Ollie and Lily both did it and absolutely LOVED it. First they give all the kids a brown robe and light sabers. They teach them how to open the light saber (hard for Lily) and then they learn a little routine to do to defend themselves. Then Darth Vader comes out... The kids all take turns fighting him. It was super fun to watch! Ollie really got into it. After he defeated Darth Vader the storm troopers started to advance on him and he had to use the force to push them back. He really got into it. :) Lily was not at all scared (some kids were) to face Darth Vader. She just walked right up to him and got ready to hit him. There was one part of the routine where they were supposed to duck down to be under Darth Vader's light saber. The padowan (sp???) who was teaching them told her to duck down and then said, "Probably not necessary." It made us all laugh. :) I think the kids will remember this for a long time. I totally recommend this to anyone going...

Here's Ollie telling about his experience:
it was fun,it was so good defeating darth vader!

More Disney...

2013-11-23T12:15:00.001-08:00

I guess I got lost after my last posts, or I just like to be two months behind on my blog, or I'm a busy mother with four darling children... take your pick, but here's some more cute pictures from our vacation. These are pictures from Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom (2nd day), and animal kingdom. We had tons of fun at all of them! They all have such different feels and things to see/do that it made each day awesome! Enjoy!


Thoughts: Ollie and Lily, "Okay this fun but please hurry and take the picture." Claire, "A princess! She is so beautiful!" Katie: "Help! A scary person is holding me!"

Teacup rides are awesome!

Watch out, Lily is driving!

Traditional castle shot... can't really see the people but it's us :)

Oh No! Something is eating Ollie!

The kids love Phineas and Ferb so they were very happy to get to talk to them and get a picture with them.

Brushing the goats in the petting area at Animal Kingdom.

Watch out, there is a rhino behind you!

Half looking at the camera... I guess that's good enough. :)

Several more people looking...

Epcot- Day 3

2013-10-24T11:28:00.003-07:00

Katie was such a trooper for the trip. In this picture she was enjoying being out of the stroller and being able to practice walking.

Lily enjoying watching the fountains. She was really excited about it until Papa held her up and she got sprayed (below). :)

We loved seeing Mickey and friends!

Katie was okay with Mickey...

but she did NOT like Goofy. I think it's funny we are all looking at Katie instead of the camera.

Minnie mouse was okay too.

Silly girls pretending to be asleep.

Future firefighters???

They had this little piggy bank game that you played (about saving money) and Claire just LOVED the little pig. She wasn't happy when we had to give it back at the end of the game. :)

Meeting a princess. Notice how I just always call them princess. I can't ever keep them all straight. :)

The traditional picture with the big globe.

Ollie really wanted his picture with this guy. I think we were in Norway.

Nothing like a giant troll to climb on or bubbles to pop (below).

Playing with the music toys in the imagination station.

We really enjoyed Epcot. It's very different than the Magic Kingdom. There is not as many rides but there is more to see and explore. The countries are really fun to walk around and see all the different things. We didn't explore the countries too much. Little hands in stores and small crowded places... I'll just leave that to your imagination. :)

New Smyrna Beach -Day 2

2013-10-24T11:04:00.004-07:00

The second day we went to New Smyrna Beach. It was about 1 1/2 hours away and totally worth the drive. Our little kiddos love water. Add some sand and you have happy kids!

Tasting the sand- needs to be done every so often because you just might forget what it tastes like.

Katie discovered that wet sand is really hard to walk in!

Our castes were really more like hills. :) We made the hills as big as we could and then watched the water erode the hills.

Grandma helping Claire in the water. Claire was super brave and wanted to go in really deep. She just loved the waves crashing on her.

Lily was helping to build the hill "castles". She would run several yards away and get sand and then bring it back. :)

Three cute girls!

Papa taking a break after some hard playing

Claire lost her legs and became a Mermaid.

Ollie was very brave and went way out in the water too.

There's nothing like the beach!!

Disney World

2013-10-24T10:48:00.002-07:00

I have tons and tons of pictures of our Disney World vacation. Lots of them were taken by an awesome 8 year old. :) Here's a few of my favorites from the first day and the airplane ride there. In case you didn't already know... my Mom met us there which was tons of fun! She was a HUGE help. :)

The kids knew that we were going to go "sometime" but they didn't know when. When I checked them out early from school there was much jumping up and down and running with excitement. Another surprise was Grandma Beck waiting for us at the Orlando airport.

Katie's first airplane ride. She did great! Thanks to big brother for holding her so Mom could take their picture.

We went on a ride that Katie couldn't go on. We found her exploring the water.

Ollie driving without hands... When he got off the ride he came and told me that he did great driving and he's "almost ready to get his drivers license". He's 8. I just laughed and said, "Good luck with that buddy".

To infinity and beyond!

Dancing at the street party. I love how you can see Lily's excitement and Claire's happiness.

We met lots of princesses. Claire was in heaven. Lily and Katie were indifferent. Ollie was a good sport.

Ollie was much more interested in pulling out the sword than seeing princesses. :)

Grandma and Katie

Lily watching the electric parade on Papa's shoulder.

It was fun to all have matching shirts and the kids are still young enough that it's cool to dress alike. We loved our day at Magic Kingdom! We took home some very happy and tired kiddos.

First Day of School

2013-10-11T11:53:00.002-07:00

Before school starts we must get out our last minute silliness.

Ollie started third grade. He thinks that green shirt and green shorts is matching...

Lily was super excited. She was just beaming. She was happy she got a new purple shirt.

Lily making a "k" with her body to show she is in kindergarten.

Claire wanted in on the action.

Lily at her table

Ollie at his desk

Ollie started third grade this year. I can't believe it! I'm not sure when my little baby boy got so big. :) He loves school. He has Mrs. Parker for reading and social studies and Mrs. Strause for math and science. Science is his favorite subject. His favorite color is turquoise because it's a mix of green and blue. His best friend is Noah. He loves learning and is very smart. He always gets straight A's. He is learning to play the recorder this year in school. He is learning Karate after school three days a week. He is still taking piano lessons from Mom.

Lily is loving kindergarten! Her teacher is Mrs. Dungan. The school has been great about making accommodations for her and making things work. The kindergarten rooms have their own bathrooms so she can reach everything. She goes to the nurse everyday at 1:30 to get her patch on. She came home one day and told me that she "had two days off." I asked her what she had two day off of. She replied that she had two days in a row with no one asking about her patches. :) Kids at that age are very accepting so we have not had any problems. We did lots of practicing with Lily before school about good responses to questions kids might ask (i.e. patches, shoes, height). Mostly they just ask about the patches. Lily started the year with her favorite color being purple but now says that it is "clear" (not sure that really counts as a color???). Her best friends are Katherine and Aiden. She is taking piano lessons from Mom.

Claire and Katie are enjoying their time at home with Mom (except for right now because they want me to come play). So I'm off. Thanks for taking time to read our blog. :)

Lily Learning to Golf

2013-10-11T11:35:00.002-07:00

The orthopedic hospital that Lily goes to (Texas Scottish-Rite Hospital for Children) has a golf program for their patients. Lily was invited to participate in a clinic learning to golf. It was right here in Waco which was awesome! Papa and Lily went and spent a morning having a golf lesson and then some lunch. After the program she got a certificate saying that she learned to golf. She really enjoyed it. Papa said that she really listened and did a good job. Golfing is a sport that she can do with her physical limitations and is not hard on her joints. The hospital let her borrow a set of kid clubs that she can use at home. I guess we have a golfer in the family. :)

Boating with Lauren

2013-10-11T11:29:00.003-07:00

Spencer's co-worker, Lauren, invited us to go boating with her one day in August. We had never been before as a family. It was a lot of fun! Everyone had a great time. We did lots of tubing, a little knee boarding, and some swimming. It was fun to just play. :)

Papa and Ollie

Claire enjoying the boat ride

Papa and his girls (minus Katie who only got to go swimming)

The girls learned the thumbs up sign means faster and still use it when they want to go fast

Mom and the three oldest kids

Papa knee boarding

The girls want to go fast!

Swimming

Thanks Lauren for taking us! We had lots of fun. :)

Lily's Reading Tea Party

2013-10-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

When Ollie was 4 I did a reading program with him. I told him that when he was done he could pick a reward. He picked to have a tea party with some of his friends. When Lily was four I did the same reading program with her. She also picked to have a tea party when we got done. She was hard to teach to read. We needed to do each lesson (total of 100) between 3-4 times before she really seemed to grasp it. It took a really really really long time but she did it! She was super happy when she got to have her tea party. :)
(The tea party was last June but the pictures somehow got lost in computer land...)

The food spread. We had fruit salad, a veggie tray, white bread sandwiches (no crust), chocolate donut holes, and mini cupcakes.

Ollie helped with the planning and the set up and food. He got some cub scout arrowheads for his help.

First, we decorated balloons with stickers.

The lunch was yummy!

After lunch we decorated goody bags.

After we had goody bags we needed treats to put in them so we played some games and the winners got treats.

After the games we did some art projects. We each made a bookmark by scratching off the black to reveal colors underneath. Then we got to make a princess scene out of stickers.

Lily had a good time and we are sure proud of her for learning to read!

Pretzel Man

2013-09-17T09:48:00.001-07:00

I just did several posts and realized there wasn't anything about Ollie. So here's one.
This is pretzel man made and photographed by Ollie. Gotta love his creativity!

Claire Quote

2013-09-17T09:46:00.001-07:00

It was raining and there was a loud thunder. Claire looked at me with a surprised face and said, "Mom, it sneezed!" :)

Help Mom!

2013-09-17T09:44:00.001-07:00

One day I heard Claire yell, "Help Mom!" I went into the living room to find this. She managed to get her leg stuck between the couch and the wall. I'm not sure what she was trying to do but it seemed like a good picture moment. Only after the picture did I help her get unstuck. For that, I get the "Mother of the year" award. :)

Puppy Lily

2013-09-17T09:40:00.001-07:00

Lily went to a friends birthday party a few weeks ago. When I came to pick her up she looked like this. She loved her little dog ears and face! We made sure we got pictures and she really wanted to "beg" in one of the pictures. :)

Sharing food

2013-09-17T09:38:00.002-07:00

One day, I picked up an Oreo to eat... at least I thought I did. As soon as it was in my hand it was grabbed by this cute girl who wanted to try it. She was fast!

So, I put her in her highchair and put a bib on her and let her go to town.

She loved it. She REALLY loved it.

Don't you want to come kiss those darling dirty cheeks???

Child labor laws

2013-09-17T09:34:00.003-07:00

We don't believe in child labor laws at our house. We say the younger the better. :) Also note that she is wearing a Cinderella dress.

Cinderella times two

2013-09-17T09:32:00.002-07:00

Claire loves to dress up! She also wants Katie to dress up. After they dress up we have to take picture, of course. Katie is not too sure about it.

She would rather taste the dresses to see how they would be to eat. Claire does NOT want Katie to taste her dress.

Claire would rather tackle katie....

But really, these two cute princesses are really good friends and really love each other!

Princess Hair

2013-09-17T09:26:00.002-07:00

Our wild child loves to have fancy "princess" hair. She will not let me do her hair unless I tell her that she is going to look like a princess and then she will hold still and let me do it. I don't have any good ideas myself so I always look at other little girls at church and get ideas from them. :) Here's one style that Claire really likes and will usually last the whole day.

Eternal Families

2013-09-08T12:56:00.001-07:00

We believe that marriage done with the right authority, at the right time, and in the right place (temple) can last after this life and into eternity (heaven). One day I was teaching primary (children's Sunday School) about eternal families. I wanted to show a representation of my family. My parents were married in the temple. The six married children have all been married in the temple. Our family is bound together for eternity (thus the chain). It was really awesome to see the effect two people can have. Thanks Mom and Pops for our family chain.
2 parents
7 siblings
6 spouses
21 grandchildren
That is a LOT of LOVE!!

Only Real Men Paint Fingernails

2013-09-08T12:44:00.002-07:00

One day Papa took Claire into the bathroom to cut her fingernails. He didn't know that cutting has to be followed up by painting. He was a good sport and took good care of both older girls. What lucky girls to have such a great Papa!

First Ice Cream

2013-09-08T11:36:00.001-07:00

We went to McDonald's and got the kiddos ice cream cones. Katie saw everyone else eating and wanted to try some. I gave her some of mine. When we got down to the cone I broke pieces off for her... and then I got it too close to her. She grabbed the whole bottom section and down the hatch it went. I was just glad that I had my camera with me. :)

P.S. She has her Grandpa's to thank for her beautiful blue eyes.

Coloring

2013-09-08T11:31:00.002-07:00

One day we played color on Katie.

She really enjoyed it.

It turned into color on Claire.

And ended with color on Lily followed by baths.