Happy Birthday, Olivia!

Wow, where has the time gone? I am back and committed to write an update about once a month. A lot has been happening in the Tost Household since last August, but that is for another time. Today is a day to celebrate Olivia's first birthday.

Her brothers have been very busy today prepping for our family celebration this evening - decorations made, cards made, cake created, etc. It is safe to say that Olivia is surrounded by love! So, here's my letter to her...

My dearest Olivia,

You are also known as Liv, Livvy, little princess, and sweet pea. Your smile brightens every room you are in and you are willing to share it with anyone. You love your brothers and will just crawl up on them and smother them with kisses. They love you too, and are always looking out for you. River is your little interpreter, he is always anticipating what you want.

You have had a busy year. You went to the beach by the time you were 3 months old. Thanks to your Uncle Ben and Aunt Allison there was always someone around to cuddle you. You have taken a few trips to Ohio. You spent a day at Idlewild lounging by the pool and taking in the sites. You love visiting Grandma, Pap, and Pappy. You love romping with the boys and surprisingly can hold your own. You love playing with a little toy skateboard and giving your baby dolls kisses. You love nuzzling your brothers' pillow pets - guess we should get you one of your own. You giggle in triumph as you climb the cushion tower your brothers have built.

You've had a year of firsts...

- smile

- sleeping through the night

- rolling over

- crawling

- tooth

- words - "no!" "milk" "ook"

- steps

You like to pass the days playing with your toys, listening/dancing to music, chasing your brothers by walking on your knees, and most of all being carried and cuddled by mommy and daddy.

You have filled my days with joy. I love you, little princess. I will never tire of walking into your room each and every morning being greeted by your huge smile and squeal of delight.

Happy Birthday, Olivia!

Love,

Mama

Playing with her new phone

Olivia's helpful Tarzan brothers

A birthday kiss from Daddy

Happy Birthday, Olivia!

Been Quite Some Time

As life begins to calm down again, well not really, but I can dream, I will join the blogging world once again. I will be a monthly poster, as a weekly/daily seems impossible. Official post will be in April, so stay tuned!

My Space Cadet

On Tuesday, Gavin turned 4. I was full of excitement for his day & feeling a little said that another year has come and gone. It was an amazing year. He has grown so much this year. His philosophies on life make me laugh. The information he has stored in his head never cease to amaze me. Watching him become a big brother again fills me with pride. He is so protective of his siblings.

His birthday started with lots of birthday hugs. I brought pizza to his daycare, so they could have a pizza party. I rushed home before heading to work to decorate for our family party, complete with super hero balloons. He requested Spiderman mac & cheese for his dinner, but Kraft no longer makes this variety, so we settled on the Toy Story version. Side Note: River would not eat the Buzz or Woody shaped noodles. It was fun watching the excitement on his face as he opened his present from mommy & daddy - VTech camera. He took about 100 photos before bed time. He built with is dad his Trio block Siege Tower, which his brother & sister gave him. We ended his night with an extra special treat - ice cream from Kerber's Dairy. I think it was a great birthday, though he can hardly contain himself, waiting for his big party day!

In the spirit of my post for River, enjoy my little letter to Gavin & some pics of him growing up...

Gavin - my little space cadet...

Your Grandma Tost used to call your dad that and you are very much like your dad. You have a great imagination. You like to draw. This year you drew my favorite family portrait. You like to solve puzzles and are very inquisitive. You love to go on discovery hikes. Some may say that you are a slow walker, but I say you are just taking in all the details. I love watching you play chase with your brother & listening to your little giggle. I love how you stick up for River when he has gotten himself in trouble. I don't understand, but think it is cute when you say you have to go potty, but on the way to the bathroom you get distracted and I have to remind you where you were going. Oh, my little space cadet. I love when you give your baby sister a kiss on the head. I was so proud of you when you spelled Stop for the very first time and even prouder you came up to on the desk, grabbed a pencil, wrote S-T-O-P, and said "Mommy, I just wrote stop!" I love it when you sing your favorite Weezer songs. I especially love when you spontaneously come up to me, give me a hug and kiss and say "I love you, mama." I treasure these moments always.

Here are some things to remember from your year:

• Your favorite color is black
• Your favorite PBS show is Superwhy
• Your favorite sandwich is PB&J
• You like Star Wars, Spiderman, X-men, Scooby Doo
• You like building with you click it blocks (Trios)
• You went to see "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Toy Story 3" at the movie theater
• Your favorite songs are "Partying", "Troublemaker", and "Keep Fishing" by Weezer
• You love listening to Daddy make up stories at bedtime

I love you Gavin, as high as the sky and as deep of the ocean...

Happy 4th Birthday!

Love

Mommy

4 years old!

Crazy Days of Summer

We survived another busy week/weekend.

• Livvy turned 3 months old - can you believe it! Every morning I hold her and think, this is the smallest she will be today, tomorrow she will be a little bigger.
• We got to visit with old friends. It continues to amaze me that friendships that I created 15+ years ago at camp still continue to grow. That we can go incredible lengths of time between visits but after 5 minutes of catching up it's as if we were never apart. Except now we have a kid, or two, or three in tow!
• Jayce and I got to go on a real date. We ate/gorged on delicious Italian food, talked to each other in complete sentences, and watched a movie in its entirety. Thank you Grandma & Pap for watching the kids overnight.
• We celebrated Gav's best friend Dominic's 4th Birthday - they are growing up too fast
• We entertained overnight guests
• The high point of my weekend was celebrating Olivia's baptism and spending the day with family. She was so precious!

I am sure that I am not alone in thinking that this summer is just flying by. I started a family calendar on our refrigerator. As I began filling in the little blocks, I realized all of our weekends, I repeat ALL, but one of our weekends are filled until Labor Day. How is that possible? And I thought that once Livvy was born we would never have a family social life. At that time I would become overwhelmed with just the thought of getting everyone packed up and ready for an outing, now it just feels like second nature.

Small highlights from this week:

• Watching Riv's face light up as he watched Weezer's "Represent" video for the first time. Soccer balls, need I say more.
• Getting random hugs and kisses from Gav accompanied by the words, "I love you, mom" because one day he will think he is too old to do this anymore.
• Taking some quiet moments to sit with Livvy and watch her eyes gleam as she smiles and tries to work herself up to a little coo.

A better Mama

This weekend was a major milestone for me since Via was born.I'm calling her Via now. It is Riv's creation. I got to bust out and have an evening out. I truly believe I am a better mom to my kids & wife to my hubby when I take this time away to re-charge. I am very blessed to have a hubby who understands this side of me & encourages me to take the time. Without it I feel extremely isolated.

So, Saturday night I busted out with my best friend from high school. I was feeling trendy & artsy, so we ventured to the Southside for an art opening at the bicycle bar. There we met up with her brother - who actually is a biker, and a friend of mine who was displaying a piece of his art. Time passed quickly, I quieted the voice in my head that usually makes me feels guilty for such outings. Jamie and I came to the conclusion that bikers are indeed a different breed...bacon on a triple layer PB&J sandwich. Really? Why would you do such a thing?

Family adventure this weekend - Toy Story 3! Yes we all went. Gav loved it. Riv enjoyed what he saw. Via was quiet the whole time. I had tears fill my eyes at the end. Jayce fully appreciated the technology to make such a movie come to life. We only temporarily lost Riv's shoes. A major feat for the Tost family!

Weekend Survival

With Jason heading out on his annual guys trip, the decision to be made was:

1. Me stay home with the kids until Sunday, then pack them up and head to Pappy Tost's on Sunday or...
2. Head to my parent's house in Uniontown, hang out with the family, swim, maybe sneak out for coffee or an adult beverage with an old high school friend, and then head up to Pappy Tost's on Sunday.

Needless to say option two won. The promise of a refreshing dip in the pool & seeing Rhonda out wayed the stress of me trying to figure out how to put three little ones to bed on my own, which is a very daunting task.

So, Pap Softcheck got to hog baby Livvy. I think Grandma got to hold her for all of 30 minutes the entire weekend! The boys & I, with the "help" of my niece, Kaylee, went for a swim in the pool. Gavin enjoys the pool but has a reasonable amount of fear to keep him from jumping in or straying too far from an adult. River, on the other hand, was convinced he could swim on his own & didn't need the help of his mama. So, mama let him slip under briefly to show him that we still needed to perfect his swimming skills. Aunt Terra took Gavin to the movies, which he consumed an entire Hershey's chocolate bar! Argh. Quite a shock to his system since he's never had more than a bite size piece of chocolate at any given time. Finally, my family got to see the consequences of the sugar overload. After much kicking, screaming, tears, and a calming time out, I headed out with my best friend from high school, Rhonda, for beverage or two. We only lasted an hour and a half out, but it was filled with catching up & planning camping/canoe trips. And if this wasn't enough for our weekend, Sunday morning I am tapped on the shoulder by Gavin saying "You ready to wake up mommy? We have lots of people to see today!" Which he was absolutely right & we couldn't get out of bed until we named them all.

Coffee in hand we pile into the van & head up to Pappy Tost's for a Father's Day/Birthday/Reunion with Daddy celebration. Plus Livvy is meeting her Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Rebeccah, Uncle Seth & Aunt Lydia for the first time. She, of course, charmed them all & looked very content having her Uncle Jeremy feed her a bottle. We look forward to spending more time with Jeremy & Rebeccah since they have moved back to the farm. A delicious spread was consumed. Stories were told. Boys running around & playing could be heard all afternoon, with only minor tifts & only a few tears were shed. An impromptu hay ride (minus the hay) was taken. Croquet was played. Star Wars figures were found in the shed! Pictures were taken. The event was very well documented. Anyone that knows the Tosts' know that they are a bunch of shutter bugs.

So, exhausted & on my second cup of coffee this morning, I survived the weekend without my hubby. I missed him dearly. Intrigued, I am looking forward to tales of the annual trip. Tidbits I have heard include a rabbit dinner & an abandoned circus. Hmmm, maybe ignorance is bliss.

Vacation 2010

Before I dive into vacation stories, here's an adventure just days before we left...

A few days prior to leaving for vacation Gavin jumped off the couch & cracked his head off of the corner of our coffee table. Now, I wished there would have been a camera rolling to view the chaos after this happened. Jason was not home – in Apollo picking up Ben’s bike. Gavin jumps, heads his head, begin with “I’m ok!’ then a frantic “Nooo” I immediately put my hand on his head to cancel the pain, on to feel the ooziness of the blood. At this point River decides it is appropriate to strip completely and run around the house laughing holding diaper the entire time. Olivia is screaming on the couch because her nursing session has been halted. I get Gavin to the kitchen, which I thought was a nice central location with floor that could be easily cleaned. I then proceed to call the pediatrician & Jason – who brilliantly suggests I take Gavin to a Med- Express place instead of an ER. Pediatrician agreed & assured me they would do a thorough evaluation & send him onto Children’s if they felt necessary. This poor pediatrician has already seen River & Olivia for their well appointments, guess Gavin felt left out. End result – a little bit of glue (Derma-bond). This was decided only after the doctor felt the need to clean & enthusiastically show me the difference beside Gavin’s laceration & one that needs stitched, have I mentioned that I am known to faint at the site of blood. The love of my child kept me conscious.

My Brave Boy!

Now vacation...This past week we made our annual trip to Rehoboth Beach. I am blessed to have an aunt that allows us to use her beach house for our vacation each summer. We were also blessed to have Ben & Allison join us. They were a tremendous help. Despite having a rough start, vacation was a good get away for us all once I stopped trying to plan things.

First news about vacation – no AC for a very hot & humid weekend! Jason always said that if I were a super hero heat & humidity would be my kryptonite.

Instead of boring you with a day by day replay, I will summarize our trip with a game Jason & I used to play called Hi/Lo – taken from the movie “The Story of US”

• Lo – River getting sick
• Hi – seeing the kids run around & give a tour of the hotel room we stayed in on the way down
• Lo – being stuck on the Bay Bridge for 45 minutes
• Hi –watching the kids play in the sand & be brave enough to get their feet wet
• Lo – Gavin getting sick
• Hi – walking up and down the beach with Olivia
• Lo – discovering the place we really wanted to have a date at was closed for the night
• Hi – stealing away an hour a day to read on the beach without the kiddos

Enjoy a few pics!