Hiking with Dad

Wednesdays are Tommy's day home with the kids. They LOVE their Dad. probably because he is the coolest dad and loves to do things with them. Yesterday's activities consisted of hiking. You can tell from the photos that Olivia loved it too.

Nice photo of Dad and Olivia, taken by Howie

We already knew Howie loved to hike, but now we know that Olivia likes it too!

Cool sunset photo by Tommy through the arch

Something to make you laugh....

Where has Olivia been?

Tommy told me it has been a while since I had some photos of Olivia on our blog. Here are some of my favorite ones.

this face is becoming a frequent one of hers, wide-eyed and open mouth
This photo cracks me up, I don't know why, maybe it is the brow.Oh, Olivia rolled over on January 8th (3 1/2 months old)
the grandchildren born in 2008-Abigail April (8mo), Evelynne July (5mo), and Olivia September (3mo)

cute with uncle loganAll of this about Olivia---couldn't forget our little howie. This is after dad did his hair one morning. He is just getting so big, too quickly.

Schulthies Family Photo December 2008

Check out our crazy huge family. It is so much fun though. Not bad, considering we have 23 grandchildren and someone is bound to not be looking at the camera. We'll take it!The Original Gang
23 Grandchildren! WOW! Look how happy grandma and grandpa look!

crazy long update...sorry

These last couple of weeks flew by way too fast. I can’t believe that Monday I will have to go back to work. Seems like just yesterday Olivia was born and my maternity leave started. Now she is three months old. Crazy!

A lot of important things happened over the Christmas Holiday. On the 24th of December, Howie celebrated his 4th birthday. We were quite undecided about how to celebrate. A party was planned and then it was off and on and off repeatedly. Then the morning of his birthday he decided he didn’t want to be four and had a meltdown. It was sad to see him so upset about not being three any longer. He thought the change to age four would mean he couldn’t do some of his favorite things anymore. After an explanation and a happy son again, he decided he DID want to have a party. So a very last minute decision was made and we spent the afternoon at Pirate Island Pizza. It was fun, a lot overpriced, but Howie enjoyed it and that was what it was about. Howie right now is completely into Veggie Tales. Of course we had to have a cake with Veggie Tales on it. My friend was commissioned to do the work and made a very fun cake for Howie. I will always have to take special efforts to make his birthday special, even though it is the day before Christmas. Howie, we love you lots, Happy Birthday, little guy.

After some crazy Christmas weather storms and a lot of anxiety from me (which did little to help change the weather’s mind), my family made it to my house. Some on the 23rd, some on the 24th, another on Christmas Day and the last family on the 26th. We were finally all together at last, all 40 of us (23 grandchildren)! We had a family reunion over Christmas and it was SO FUN. We enjoyed each other so much. I wish the sinus head cold I had for 11 days hadn’t been during this time because there were so many things I planned on doing that week that I never got to due to my pounding head.

Christmas Eve we acted out the Nativity with the grandchildren, complete with costumes! That is quite a production. We had had a great time on Christmas morning. Christmas is so much more fun with little children. There is something special about children and their awe of all things Christmas.

Check out what Tommy got me! No, not lame, way cool. I have been asking for a ladder for a long time, he just suprised me and got it for me for Christmas. This is one man's tool that I am glad to have.Do you think Howie liked his new Hot Wheels track?

Friday we enjoyed the Washington City Recreation Center’s pool. We played in there for hours.

Saturday, we hiked and played in Snow Canyon State Park. The red petrified sand dunes were fun to climb as well as kid friendly. My family also found the lava caves pretty neat as well.

I just LOVE this photo of my dad. This is a great one of him smiling and so classic of him to be wearing his Agrilines hat. Love you dad.

Sunday was a special day. After church, a member of the bishopric came to our home so that we could bless Olivia. It was a neat experience to bless her at home with all of our family there (Rushton family too!). I will make a seperate post for this because it deserves its own space.

Later that evening when things calmed down, we held a surprise 40th anniversary party for mom and dad. We had cake and made them a hard bound book of memories and tributes. It was nice to hear mom read them aloud. It was pretty special to go down memory lane with them. They had no idea and were pleasantly shocked.

Monday we took the clan up to Pioneer park for our family photo shoot, thanks Serena-you did wonderfully well with our massive group, our overwhelming family. Can’t wait for those to be edited so we can share them with everyone. Monday night consisted of a night of dinning out. Tommy had arranged for some massage trade in exchange for our dinner at Benja Thai and Sushi. That was a fun experience to share with my family. We did have lots of yummy leftovers too. Tuesday, some of our group decided to go to the Grand Canyon. That had been our original plan for Friday but had been canceled due to the horrible weather. Half drove there to see it since it might be the only time they are in the area to do so. Others did Temple sessions and others hiked in the lava caves again. Tuesday was just a free day. I thought that we were going to have a fun New Years, but Wednesday morning, everyone decided they needed to get home and they ALL left. I was expecting a gradual exodus, not an immediate one. I guess hormones is the only thing I can blame it on, but I cried when I went from a house filled with 40 people to just our family of 4. It was an emotional afternoon.

I have to say that my family did remarkably well and were very patient with each other. They pitched in and helped with meals, dishes, trash duty, and even helped clean my house before they left. This was such a fun week and we will all remember it for years to come. Hope your Holidays were filled with family and fun too.

The house is clean, the holiday decorations are all put away and it is back to school and work on Monday. Gives the January Blues a new meaning. Here’s to 2009.