Liv's 3 Year Old Pictures

Angie Jungling of Jungling Photography took Olivia's three year old pictures and did a great job once again. These are just a few of our favorites. All of these pictures were taken on site at the Lily Pond in the Amana's.

Isn't she adorable?!!

Olivia's 3rd Birthday

A lot of planning went into Olivia's birthday this year. Our family is getting pretty big, and because we haven't had an "Eekhoff" family vacation since the 90's I thought it would be nice if we could tie it all into one. So after lots of emailing and a couple of site checks we decided to have our party in Des Moines at the Ramada Tropics Resort. It has an awesome indoor water park with three different pools for all ages. Olivia and Adam stopped by to check it out about four months before her birthday, and for the last four months before her birthday all she talked about was her birthday party and the pirate ship. (They have a pirate ship in the kids pool.) She would ask to see the pirate ship all the time! Finally, I saved their website as a favorite so when she asked I could just pull it up and she could see pictures of it from there! We had also planned to go to Adventureland but decided late in the trip that the younger kids may not be able to ride that many rides, so we went to the Blank Park Zoo instead. The older kids did end up going to Adventureland but complained of extreme temperatures and long lines, so I was glad we didn't go. So here are a lot of pictures from our little family vacation and Liv's party.

At the Zoo!
L
Olivia and Matt 

Jonathan, Hannah, and Hayden. I love Hannah's expression in this picture. She gives the best teenager looks that I'm not sure what I am going to do when she actually becomes one! Maybe it's God's way of giving me some time to figure out how to handle these looks, especially when they start coming at me from all directions!

Cousins Matt and Silas watching one of Liv's favorites, the sea lions.

Liv and her daddy feeding the fishes.

Matt joining in on the fun.

Our sleeping arrangements. Babies in one room, mom, dad, and Olivia in the other. (I should clarify that. We had a suite so there was a door between the bedroom and the living area. We did not actually have two hotel rooms.)

 Olivia, ready for her pizza party to begin!

The whole family!

Liv eating her pizza.

Cousin Hudson. He had his 1st birthday party the next day!

Aunt Paula cutting the cake, Liv playing with her new barbie, and Hannah sneaking in some frosting.

I think she thinks it's her birthday.

Holy Sugar High! Watch out here she comes!

Cousin Jaxen getting his bounce on.

Little Ella is pushing Liv in her stroller and Matt is making sure everyone is out of the way.

Cousin Silas. He is the CUTEST!

The next day we celebrated Hudson's First Birthday. It was a lot of fun and we are so glad that we were able to be there. I actually have video of it and that is why I have no pictures. I hate that. I wish I could video tape and take pictures all at the same time. So here are the two pictures I have from that, and unfortunately Hudson is in neither. Sorry Hud!

Hayden, Hannah, and Jonathan waiting for food.

Olivia found all these "acorns", actually pine cones, and her and Silas loved to collect them into that little box. They were called acorns because she had been on a Chicken Little kick for about two months. So we wanted to be like Chicken Little.

Then on her actual birthday we celebrated by having yet another pizza party, but this time it was at Godfather's in Cedar Rapids. At this party Adam's side of the family came to help her celebrate. It too was a lot of fun!

Olivia opening up some presents!

Her cousins Brady and Owen supervising.

All in all it was a great time and maybe we started a new tradition on the Eekhoff side, or maybe not. But either way Olivia had a great time and loved all the time she got to spend with "All her family"!

LETS...GO...HAWKS!

Getting ready for football season!


Jonathan, Hannah, and Hayden

Lets...Go...Hannah!
Hawks newest Cheerleader!

Hayden thinks Hannah is going to be pretty good!

Hayden and Jonathan looking out the window watching mommy mow the lawn.

"Where's Liv?" you ask. She was spending the day with Nana.

Bever Park and the Bever Park Zoo

Cedar Rapids has a small, small, small place where they keep a few ducks, pigs, chickens, and things of that nature for kids to come see. (Basically, it's for the kids that have never seen a farm before.) Anyways, since I had never been to the Bever Park Zoo, Nicole, our nanny, and I thought it would be something fun and different to do. So I picked a day when I had extra hands to help to go check it out. My mom was in town and had brought my niece Madison with her, and then my other niece Rachel also came. We decided to have a little picnic at the park first, and then move on to the zoo. I thought they had a splash pad there but it turns out that it was way old and no longer in use. It was really hot that day so I was actually looking forward to getting my feet wet a little. Although, they did have a pool nearby that Olivia begged me to take her to, lucky for me, "Next time we come," actually worked! (and in case your wondering, "next time," has not come yet.)

So below are some picture of our adventure at Bever Park!

Here we are trying to have a picnic. Nicole brought her roommates little dog. He was supper cute, and I use to have one just like him when I was a little girl, but the kids had never been around a puppy before so it was all very exciting for them (and nerve wracking for mommy)!

Here are my kids taking up all the little baby swings! Sorry folks, your kids are just going to have to wait their turn! :)

Jonathan.
I love this picture. He was having so much fun flying through the air! Somehow I forgot his hat, so he had to wear one of sisters! Still looks pretty cute though, if you ask me!

Liv playing on the play ground.

Checking out the geese.

Hayden, Hannah, and Jonathan wondering when this hot tour is ever going to end!

The kids did really well, and we will probably come back again next year. And who knows, maybe we will even go to the pool! ;)

Kids First Corn on the Cob!

Living in the mid-west there are some things that we get to enjoy that not everyone else does. And one of those things is fresh picked corn on the cob. It's amazing! And let me tell you, once you have had real corn, you will never want to go back to anything else. In Iowa you grow it, pick it, cook it up fresh, and then freeze what you can't eat so that you can have the sweet, yummy, deliciousness all year round. When Adam and I lived in Texas and South Carolina it was something that we truly missed. On a side note I will tell you this though, Schwan's frozen Super Sweet Cut Corn #773 is about the closest thing you will ever get. Anyways, back to the point! Here are some pictures of Hannah, Hayden, and Jonathan getting their first bites of the real deal!

At first they all started by gnawing at the very end of it.

Then Jonathan figured it out.

And it wasn't much later that the girls figured it out too!

The finished product! My camera isn't loving closeups right now, but you can still tell that they were really digging into it.

A Glimpse Into the Future

As most of you know Adam has been coaching the 9th grade baseball team at Prairie. Tonight they had a their end of the season party AT OUR HOUSE! It was actually a lot of fun to see all these kids here. They watched the Home Run Derby, had a soccer tournament in our backyard, and played old school RBI Baseball on Nintendo (that's right, NINTENDO). We got 8 pizzas and 4 orders of bread sticks from Little Caesar's. I made a batch of cookies, and I kid you not that they were gone in less then a minute. 20 cookies, gone in less then 60 seconds! Thanks, Betty Crocker! The only part that I didn't like is when they would call me, "Mrs. Sadler." There is nothing like adding a few years to your age then being called Mrs! (That is unless you are a teacher.)

A few of the boys watching the derby.

Playing soccer

 

Playing RBI

Watching "the boys" and eating a cookie. Liv was just as fast to grab a cookie as "the boys" were. She had a lot of fun and kept calling them "the boys." Too cute! 

Look at all these shoes! I couldn't believe all the big shoes that suddenly resigned at every door.

More shoes at the garage door.

Shoes at front door.

Liv standing next to dad as they watch the Home Run Derby.

So when it was all said and done I felt like we got a little glimpse into the future. When Nicole and I were putting the babies to bed she said that she thinks our house will be the house were everyone will want to hang out. My first thought was that I'm going to have to get a job just so we have enough food. Then, my second thought was that it would actually be pretty cool if we were that house. I mean, having the never ending flow of kids running through your house all the time would get annoying, but being able to keep an eye on what is going on with our kids and being in the know, definitely worth it. So I guess if this was a glimpse, I don't think it will be all that bad. Unless, they keep calling me Mrs. Sadler!