Friday, December 30, 2011

This is for you, Dan!!!

A couple of days ago Joe was talking to his brother, Dan on the phone. Since they live far away, we rarely get to see them and apparently he likes to check the blog to see what's been going on. Dan mentioned that I'd been slacking on the blog (teasing of course) ...but he is so right! There are lots of reasons/excuses that I can use (tired, sick, PREGNANT, busy, etc) But, I still want to fix it! So, I've been working on getting caught up. I just figured out how to back date the posts that I'm working on so that they actually show up in the order the pictures were taken. So, there are "new" posts showing up as far back as August :-) Why, you may ask, would I bother to post pictures with the dates that far back when no one will take the time or even know to go back and look at them??? Well, that's because the main reason for this blog is our Family Yearbooks. I compile all of the pictures and posts from the past year and then have them printed in book format. (A link to the 2010 book is at the bottom of the blog)We have three years so far, 2011 will be number four. I love the books that we've made so far and have a lot of catch up for this book to be complete...so here it goes!

Thanks, Dan, for the reminder!



Oh, and yes, for anyone who may still read this blog and didn't already know, we are expecting a baby at the end of May. So far, no major problems, just lots of reminders of how difficult pregnancies are for me. But, the baby is healthy and growing. We go in for the "official" ultrasound in a couple weeks to confirm the gender. We've had several ultrasounds so far...but they have been a little too soon so give a definitive answer...but we think that we know what it is. Stay tuned for an update!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

The Big Day!

Here are a few pictures from Christmas at our house. We never end up with as many pictures as we should, but at least we have a few...and lots of video! Here's a quick look...

Christmas Eve PJ's
This a tradition that we do with the kids, but Joe surprised me this year and had some for me as well! 

The rest of the pictures are Christmas morning...

This kitchen set was from G&G Lodge and she LOVES it!

We gave her this princess doll and dress-up set. She had to put the dress on immediately, right on top of her PJ's! 

Sam is checking out the new Hero Factory set, probably making sure it was the one that he'd requested :-)

Andrew opening a new game...not quite sure what to think about it!

Since we have 9:00 church, we had to take a break from the presents to get ready for church. Luckily, we only had a one hour service and then we came right home to dig in some more!

Sam had been wanting an Etch-a-sketch for a long time, he was really excited!

Andrew with his new Rocky from G&G Lodge...that's his excited face :-)

Sam was showing Abby the Finn McMissile car that he got from G&G Lodge

 Abby and her new doll. She has a ton of baby dolls, but she still gets just as excited about a new one. She even rotates through her babies to make sure they all get enough love and attention. What a good little mommy!

Grandma and Grandpa Olson came to church with us and sat with the kids since Joe and I were in the choir. After we came home and finished opening presents, we ate brunch with them then they hurried off to their ward. Later, we went to their house and had dinner and opened the rest of the family presents. It was a great day. A good mixture of family, presents, and naps! But, we did really miss Rob and his family who just moved to Arkansas. :-(  Family gatherings just aren't the same without all the cousins to play with!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Getting in the Holiday spirit!

We have been getting VERY excited for Christmas around our house! Here's some pictures to show a few things we've been up to...

Sam found this Santa hat and decided "dress up" as Jolly 'ol Saint Nick. The beard is made out of paper and taped to his cheeks :-) 

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we pulled out the tree and ornaments. They love to decorate and look at each ornament as they come out of the boxes. It's always a little more stressful for me with so many little hands grabbing for the potentially breakable ornaments. But, this year I was the official ornament-hander-outer and it proved to be a much happier experience all around!




These are the Christmas jammies that Grandma Olson made for them. They got to decorate the T-shirts at Grandma's house on Thanksgiving. So fun!!!

We also had a new Christmas guest show up this year as we got our own Elf on the Shelf who the kids named Jingle. We're excited to see what sort of mischief Jingle will get into!

Merry Christmas!