Which Disney Princess Are You?

Strong and spirited. You're no one's girly girl; actually you are very determined person with a strong sense of self. Never let go of that! The only thing that equals your sense of self is your family, but the traditions of society can always be bent to protect something or someone you love.


I didn't think I was a Mulan, oh well!!

I couldn't figure out how to do the link right. If you want to take the quiz-go to the Anderson's blog (link on my blogging buddies list).

Olivia Updates!

So there have been a lot of firsts going on in the Radder Household. Some of which I have been able to photograph, so lets take a look at what's been happening in little Olivia's life nowadays.
We are on to solids now, and boy does she love it. I make her baby food for her, which so far has been so fun!! I have done carrots and peas and this week I'm going to add beans. When she eats she is all business, she hoovers it down faster than I can spoon it up. What can I say, like mother like daughter!
We have also been swinging! Our ward's Mothers Group has been meeting at Lynden City Park and it has been so great. Olivia loves action and the swings give her tons of it. Plus she takes great naps when we get home from all of the fresh air.
We have been having our mouths open- A LOT!! When I smile at her and talk to her I do an open mouth smile. The past couple of weeks she has been mimicking it. It is like it is her only form of communication. If she is happy-open mouth. If she is surpised-open mouth. If she is reaching for a toy-open mouth. If she is getting mad/sad- REALLY open mouth. If she is hungry-open mouth. It cracks me up everytime!!!

Well this might not be so new- but we have been drooling, RIVERS OF IT! I often wonder how her little body can create so much saliva. She has been a walking saliva fountain for a couple of months now. Everyone said when she started it "here come the teeth", so I kinda mentally prepared for the teething, but it wasen't so. This past week we were really sick so there were a lot of no sleep nights (that dang cold that was going around!). Well when we started getting better, Olivia was being such a pill, no naps, taking forever to go to sleep, etc. Well on Friday I was wiping up the drool and felt something hard in her mouth-she broke two teeth and I didn't even figure it out until they were there. It's hard to tell what it's going to be like for the next ones b/c we were sick during the teething, so she was out of control but there was more than one reason why. It sure is crazy to think she getting bigger-no longer that little infant baby- but exciting at the same time.

Thank You Lydia!

Here is a picture of the Twilight Cast

So a while ago I read Lydia's blog entry about the Twilight series. I has been interested in reading it for a while and her entry inspired me to finally do it (although it took me a couple of weeks to finally get around to it ). I have to say that I wasn't disappointed!! I went into a reading coma, I can't wait for the last one to come out in August. I was also pleased to find out that the are making it into a movie, with the first one coming out in December. The person that they have playing Edward is the same guy who played Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter movies (my true nerdiness just made itself manifest in that statement). Anywho, they have a teaser trailer out for the movie and so far it looks tempting! I love reading and it is so fun getting hooked on a new series, so Thank You Lydia! On a side note right after I got done reading the books Olivia and I both got really sick, so needless to say my house is a disaster zone! There is no way I could clean while in the grips of my thrilling books, and after I was done I was too sick to care what the house looked like. So now I must get my house back in order as I think we are past the worst of it and I finally have energy again.

What joys each new day brings ;)

I now know exactly how long it takes for Olivia's digestive system to work it's magic. Case in point: Yesterday at noon I fed her her first carrots and this morning at eight she had atomic bright orange poop! This is information I could have probably been fine never knowing (stinkville!!) Oh the joys of motherhood.

Our Saturday Outing

Here we are before setting out on the Capilano Suspension Bridge You almost get motion sick because the bridge sways back and forth from the people walking across it.
Here Marcus and Olivia are in from of Big Doug, one of the biggest Douglas Firs on record in Canada. We almost walked right by it because it isn't as big as like the Redwoods in California (that is what I think of when I think of big trees) but it is very tall. I guess for a Fir it is pretty big.

On Saturday we went up to my lovely Motherland, Canada. We went to go see the Capilano Suspension Bridge. Those who also went were: My parents, Uncle Paul & Aunt Laurie & Dustin, Uncle Jack & Aunt Joy. We were running a little late so we met everyone in time for lunch and then embarked out on our own. Once you cross the bridge there is this cool little hike called the Cliffhanger Boardwalk which runs along the cliff and underneath the suspension bridge, it was all very safe and secure. There was also this thing called Tree Top Adventures which was a series of smaller suspension bridges to platforms in the trees in a big loop. That was really cool too because you were up among the trees. Everything is included in the price of admission, the food was pricey, but that was to be expected.

Olivia loved looking around at everything, they even gave her this pin that said she was a Rainforest Explorer. They have guides that go around every so often if your inclined to that sort of thing. It was nice because they had all these signs that explained different parts of the forest, it was very informative. It would be cool to go again when Olivia is like 5 because I think she would get a kick out of learning all about the forest. After we explored our brains out we went over to Joy and Jack's for a potluck BBQ. Brian and Lydia came up for the BBQ and we had so much fun. Joy has Guitar Hero and we played a few rounds and got our buts kicked by Brian, but still had a ton of fun. In our defense we don't own the game so couldn't be brushed up on our pretend guitar skills, but are ready for a rematch anytime ;). It was a fabulous laid back weekend!!

Our New Neighbors

It's Feeding Time at the Radder's
They have already cleared out the area directly behind them
They sure love those blackberry bushes!

This is how they sleep, all over each other like this. They are in what I like to call their pig chalet, Marcus made it for them for shelter, he even used left over roofing tiles from our house. This is Violet, we had to have her double penned up while trying to make sure the fence was secure.

So first of all I have been blogging like a maniac so be sure to scroll down because I think that this is my third post today, I've had some catching up to do, we have had so much fun stuff going on to blog about! :)

Well we have new neighbors, 6 to be exact! We put up a fence and have two cows, well one is a cow which we named Violet and the other one is a bull, which we haven't quite named yet. They are both one year old. Technically they are my parents cows, but we are hoping to work out a deal where we can get one down the road after Violet has had some calf's. It was quite the hoopla when we first got them. The bull broke free twice and Violet broke out once (on Mother's Day of course!) but we figured out the kinks and their pasture area is like Fort Knox now!


The pigs are way too cute. There are 3 girls and one boy. The boy is all black with a white middle and the girls are all pink. We haven't given them names as they are going to be in the freezer later this year. Marcus built their enclosure around our humongous pile of gnarly blackberry bushes with the hopes that they would eat them down, root out all the roots and take care of our blackberry problem for us. Right away they were rooting around in the dirt, but I was skeptical whether they would eat the bushes and the other day when I went out to feed them they had cleared a 4x4 area overnight-way to go pigs! Plus they are so happy to run around outside and roll in the dirt. Olivia comes with me in her stroller to do the morning chores. We do the pigs last and she is just mesmerized by all of their squealing and oinking. With any luck all of them will stay in their respective pens, but who knows you may see me chasing pigs down the Everson Goshen if any of those pigs turn into little Houdini's.

Olivia's First Time to the Temple!

Here we are outside the Temple, the weather was Perfect!
She was so good just hanging out in her stroller for all of the pictures and everything, then I figured out what was keeping her so occupied.....
Her stroller was positioned right underneath this tree. I took this picture from her view. It was even more beautiful in real life. The light was filtering through the trees and it just looked amazing! She did so good on this trip. She hardly cried at all the whole time, even with her naps being disrupted and everything. It was so great to be there and see my cousin starting his own Eternal family!

Playing Catch Up

So last month we went to Portland for my cousin Ammon's wedding. It took me forever to get these pictures downloaded so I am playing catch up in posting them!

I was nervous before we left that she would be a maniac on the flight, but she was awesome. She pretty much was passed out the whole time! On the way back we flew around Mount Saint Helen's which was pretty dang cool.

We went with my parents and my favorite Auntie Rosalie. It was so much fun! Rosalie and I bunked rooms at the hotel and just had a BLAST! Olivia slept great through the night and we learned that long distant trips are definitely doable. My Dad flew us down which was also really cool, it was the longest flight he has done yet. On the way back we stopped in Bremerton at a place called the Airport Diner which is right off the runway and had some pretty amazing fish and chips!

Oh wow

Home Sweet Avion Trailer

Well I have a lot of new pictures to upload, just haven't got around to doing it yet. I was looking for a picture that I already had down loaded and found these. These are pictures of the trailer that we used to live in when we were building our house. Looking at these made me so grateful for the beautiful home that we have now, especially that it doesn't have wheels! We did end up painting the trailer and putting in hardwood floors although I couldn't find any of those pictures. Our queen sized bed fit perfectly in the front end. It took up the whole front end in already limited space, but at least Marcus and I didn't have to sleep in separate twin beds!! Just thought I'd share our trailer trash days ;)