The Olson Bunch

One week old - Words not necessary :)

2011-07-16T16:56:00.001-07:00

Sisters, sisters. There was never such devoted sisters

2011-07-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

Sophie is really in love with her sister Addie and can't wait to take her home.

She had a great first night and will be coming home on Sunday.

Adeline Elizabeth Beaird

2011-07-08T15:21:00.000-07:00

Jennie looked great and had a super easy delivery. They started the induction at 8:30 AM and she was born at 2:30 PM after only 1/2 hour of pushing. Addie was 9 lbs 7 oz's and 22 inches long.

Permission to grow up

2011-06-17T11:52:00.001-07:00

Back in 1999 the government started issuing quarters for each state and like most people we started our collection. At the time Kent said that he wasn't in any hurry to complete the set because that would mean that Erik would be turning 15. Well as time marched by and the collection became more complete we could see that day coming. Since Erik was the last one we still didn't want the day to come so we never completed the set, it was missing just the Utah quarter. So over the past 3 1/2 years we have had the Utah coin in our possession but we really didn't want to add as that would mean we would be saying out loud that Erik had grown up so we simply avoided it. Several times Erik had that quarter in his hand and we would just look away, laugh or say something like "sorry we don't know where the book is" or "no we can't put it in because that would mean you are grown up and we won't accept that". Well since he has graduated and is ready to head off to college and his mission we felt that time had come to give him permission to "Grow Up". So for one of his graduation presents we gave him a card and a note in regards to this along with the quarter taped to the back of the card. It's kinda one of those things that brings a bit of tears to your eyes but it had to happen.

So the time has come.

Congratulations my grown up young man! Love you forever!

Graduation, Graduation, Graduation

2011-06-14T18:25:00.000-07:00

A major milestone has occured in our life. Erik graduated from High School, earned his AA degree from Green River Community College and completed Seminary so we have had 3 commencement services in 5 days.

It began on Friday June 10th with the GRCC graduation at the Showare Center in Kent. I estimated that there was around 500 kids graduating and they said about 130 of them were running start students.

Erik looked mighty proud to be sitting with such a large group.

Kent was able to be at all of the ceremonies also so that was great.

Then onto Seminary graduation. Erik was deterimed to achieve that same goal as all of the other Olson kids in that he never missed a day in 4 years and he earned his Seminary pin all 4 years also.

Today, June 14th was his graduation from Lindbergh High School. There was around 250 kids in his class and even though he attened GRCC the past 2 years he wanted to be a part of the LHS graduation.

We are so happy for him as this part of his life ends and the next exciting chapter begin. We have several trips planned over the summer and then he is set to begin BYUI in September before leaving for his mission probably next January.

Way to go Erik!!!!!

Sophie playing ball

2011-05-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

I have been amazed at Sophie's ability to throw and catch a ball. This is just a short clip of her and I doing it but she can actually play ball from a good distance. I love this girl!

Hanging out with my favorite girls in SLC

2011-05-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

One of the best parts of traveling for work is the many chances I have to be with Jennie, Mike & Sophie. Tonight Jennie and her sister in laws were having a girls night and Sophie was able to join in the craft activities.
Jennie found this really fun board at the DI for only $1.00 and she is making a cute sign for Sophie and her birthday party in July. It's coming along great!

Chelsea was working on sewing projects but was really sad when her needle broke :(

Easter - The next generation

2011-04-16T17:42:00.001-07:00

We had a great time with a few of the "next generation" over to hunt for Easter eggs in the backyard. Sophie, my great nephew Tyler and Brooklyn (Cara Perkins Compton's) daughter. The weather turned out pretty good so it was a fun time.

Brooklyn is amazing! She is in constant motion and wants to be involved in everything. She is only 10 months but walks so well (she started walking at 7 months!) Her grandma & grandpa were here so that was also fun.

Tyler totally got it! He was the first one to get his "quota" of eggs. He and Sophie played together so well.

When I was in about 6th grade I made my first bunny cake like this. I have always enjoyed doing it. This time I didn't put coconut on it because Erik doesn't like it as well.

It was a great time and Roxie and her friend Eric was able to be here along with Cara and her Eric.

Randa came over so we have the 4 "girls" here. It seems like all we need is prom dresses.

This was a great picture. Cara & Brooklyn along with Jennie & Sophie.

Christmas at the Olsons

2010-12-23T18:46:00.000-08:00

Yes there has already been several family blogs with these pictures but since it was at our house I wanted to put some up myself :) Here is our cute family! So the family Christmas was a little crazy this year. We had the parties early this year so that our "kids" could have Christmas at home with their kids. Michael, Rachael and their kids came in Thursday evening and Jennie, Mike & Sophie came later in the night. Friday was a running around day for Jennie & Me and that was fun but at some point on Friday Jennie found out that their dog, Bjorn, had gotten out of the fence at her sister in law's house. Then very late Friday night around 11:30 our power went out. By Saturday morning at around 5:30 AM I was at 7-Eleven getting ice for a cooler to try to save food for our family party on Saturday evening. I kept hoping the power would come on and we even started cooking the turkey over at Kyle's. Some time during all of the commotion going on it appeared that our cat got outside and we couldn't find him. Around 1 PM we decided to try to find a generator and tracked one down out in Covington so Kent and Laif went to go get it. Then Jennie got a call and her dog was found hiding under a car at a grocery store so her SIL went to go get him. The guys got home with the generator and hooked up about 2:00 PM and we plugged in the fridge and one lamp. We were ready to see what else we could get hooked up when the power came on about 2:30. I'm sure if we hadn't gotten then generator the power would have stayed out (at least that is the story I tell myself) Then about 1 hour later Kent and I were upstairs and Kent heard the cat. He was just taking a very long nap on a bed under packages. He just looked at us like "what were you looking for me?" So the dog was found, the power came on and the cat appeared. All that was wrong became right in about 2 hours.

So onto the evenings Christmas festivities and then to Christmas morning with all of the immediate family (23 people).

The 2 youngest additions! Olive and Christopher are so adorable!

My little artist

2010-10-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

I bought a set of coloring books, stickers and paint books for 4 bucks for Sophie. I guess she must have painted before at her Aunt Tara's house because she totally knew what to do.
She was so careful in dipping into the paint.

She actually liked to paint specific objects, it was so fun to watch her.

The family's newest Eagle Scout

2010-10-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago Erik earned his Eagle Scout Rank and we finally were able to hold his court of honor. There were many people that helped and his big brother Scott came and was the Master of Ceremonies for him. It was an awesome night!

Bishop Perkins took time out of his really busy schedule to say some really great things about Erik. Thanks Bishop!

Mike Jacobsen who has been the troop Scout Leader since Erik became a Scout helped us out with the Eagle Charge.

We had over 50 people at the Court of Honor and all of the other Scouts participated.

Even the food turned out great.

Erik and his mentor!

My 2 Eagle Scouts - Great family picture (just missing my sweet girl)

Lot's of other family members were here including Ann & Mark - Thanks for coming!

It's hard to see everyone but Daryl, Rachel, Avery, Karl, Aimee, Tyler and Kyle were also there

Fun at the Science Center

2010-08-08T09:12:00.001-07:00

On Saturday Janet, Steven & the kids were in Seattle so we decided to join them. Donna and laif came over from Sequim and I told Scott They were around and since he lives pretty close he came down to join us all.

We went through most of the buildings and even into the butterfly house.

Katie is such a cute bug!

David was able to put together this bug all by himself.

There was even hands on art projects for the kids to do.

The final room was a circus room and the kids had a great time dressing up as animals.

Back to the trip

2010-07-02T05:06:00.000-07:00

So finally some time to put up more pictures of the trip. On Thursday July 1st we took the Staten Island Ferry boat over. There is no cost to take the ferry boat, that seems such a foreign concept to me. Great views of the city, it was a nice day and not too much heat again.

After the ferry ride we took the subway up a few stations and then walked over to the Brooklyn Bridge. There were a lot of other people doing the same thing as us. There were also plenty of joggers and bike riders going across. Kent and Erik went up further than me, I just stood around and people watched :)
Next we took the subway up to the Bronx and went to Yankee Stadium. This is only the 2nd season for this stadium. It was nice but actually I think Safeco Field is better,

. We managed to go when the Seattle Mariners were in town. The Mariners won the 2 previous nights at Yankee Stadium but they lost the game we went to. But it was really cool to be at Yankee Stadium though!

In the late afternoon and evening we went back to the Rockefeller Center and looked at the 'Big Apple' that was completed.

We also got into the Lego store and they had a lot of displays with their legos. This 'Monster' ran throughout the store.

Biking thru Central Park & The Met

2010-07-01T17:37:00.000-07:00

So on Wednesday morning we took a guided tour through Central Park. It was so much fun! The ride was about 7 1/2 miles long and mostly flat which was good (only 2 hills that we had to walk up) It wasn't too hot so that made it even more enjoyable. After the bike ride we went to The Met (Metropolitian Museum of Art) It is a huge place with so many exhibits that you could spend weeks there is you wanted to look at each piece of art. We only had a few hours so we went through it pretty fast. Here are just some of the 350 pictures Kent took for the day!

2010-07-01T04:14:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we went to the "Top of the Rock" that is the observation deck on the top of the Rockerfeller Center. We had read that it was easier to get up to then the Empire State Building and the same cost. It was good in that we got to combine the observation deck along with a tour at NBC studios in NY. The view was incredible and other than the fact it was still pretty hot we loved being up so high. After we went upstairs we went on a tour of the NBC Studios. We went through a few sets such as the Dr. Oz show, Jimmy Fallon and the SNL studio. It was a great tour and they had a video that made me feel really old as I watched so many of the old shows that NBC has produced over the years.

In the Evening we went to see West Side Story on Broadway. Of course it was great and Erik loved seeing all of the performance.

Just a sobering reminder

In Rockerfeller Center plaza they had a brand new Lego store open up so they had huge Lego displays everywhere. You had to get in a line just to get into the store. Outside they had kids building blocks that were then taken over for the main builders to put together to build "The Big Apple"

In the evening we went over to the Empire State Building after the show just so we could say we were there!

708 + Steps

2010-06-30T03:29:00.000-07:00

On Monday we went to the Staute of Liberty. We had bought tickets last February. It's a good thing since only 240 tickets are sold for anyone day to get up to the crown. People were in awe that we had tickets for "the crown". Right now if you try to get tickets for the crown you can't go up until the end of September. It was quite the walk, 354 steps up to the top of the crown and it was 97.7 degrees up there. Kent and I were both drenched with sweat but it was well worth the view and the bragging rights. Erik loved the journey up there also and of course beat us to the top by a mile. Throughout our days in NY there are many more stairs than just this as we are up and down the subway stairs several times a day. It seemed liked every we went there was stairs!After we toured around the staute we went over to Ellis Island. At both the staute and the island we had rented the audio tour guides and it was great to hear about each room and how the island worked. We loved it!We actually went over to Wall Street before the statue since we had a bit of time. It was fun seeing the bull and walking around looking at all of the buildings that you hear about on the news.This is the New York Stock Exchange. Mostly we wanted to see the building where we send all of our money to die.Later in the day we went to Time Square. It is a really busy tourist place but fun to look at all of the lights and advertising. I wanted to put more pictures up but I'm working off my phone for intenet (I'm too cheap to pay the $12.95 a day at the hotel for most days) and it takes about 5-6 minutes for every picture to load up. LOL I will try to get caught up a bit more tonight and write about our day on Tuesday.

We went over to the World Trade Center site. It's not quite the same right now as they are working very hard to build the new buildings. It was still a strange feeling walking around what was there and remembering what happened there.

1st full day of vacation in NYC

2010-06-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I met Kent and Erik at the Penn Station in NY and we easily made it to our Hotel up on the upper West side of Central Park. I had checked into the hotel earlier in the day so I knew exactly how to get to the hotel via the subway. So this morning we took the subway over to the NY Museum of Natural History. If any of you know Kent and cameras it will not surprise you to know that I downloaded his pictures to my computer he had taken around 225 pictures for just today! I'm saving each of you from the pain and I have just put a few of them on the blog.They had so many cool exhibits in the museum. There were 4 floors of exhibits to look at. We took a short 1 hour tour of the museum to give us the highlights and then we walked around for another 3 or so hours. After the museum we went over to Central Park. If you recognize this bridge it was used in the movie Enchanted. It was really beautiful there but it was pretty warm today and very humid. This fountain was also in Enchanted. It was used during the finale of their big musical number. Tomorrow we are going to the Statue of Liberty at 12:00 P.M. Of course we got tickets for around the hottest time of the day and it's going to be 93 degrees with more humidty. I guess we will see how we do.

Throughout Central Park you can find these large rocks that have marks on them from where glaciers came through. I guess they had "global warming" long before we were around. LOL

New paint!

2010-05-30T10:29:00.000-07:00

Since my mom moved up to Sequim I thought I would take advantage of some of the space by repainting rooms and moving furniture. This is Erik's old room and it was very very green. I fogot to take a picture before we removed the top strip of wallpaper. It had jungle cats on it.

I wanted to make the room a good room for guests and since my mom left her queen size bed here I decided to put the bed up in this room. Of course Kent always ends up having to do most of the work......When we first started painting I really didn't like the colors I had picked out but in the end it turned out really good. The bed is pretty big in the room but it will be nice for people to have a large bed to sleep on.

Now we have 2 rooms set up with beds!

Family visits

2010-05-08T07:23:00.001-07:00

One of Kent's cousins, Agneta, and her husband came for a visit last weekend. It was so much fun because Jennie & Sophie were already here and then Kent's 2 sisters came over also. We had such a great evening with everyone.

Agenta and Valter went to Florida first and then came to Washington. Donna, Laif and Ann showed them around in Seattle, Sequim area and Victoria. They went down to Chehalis to see Janet and her family.

It was so fun to have Janet, her 2 daughters and some of her grandchildren!

This is a great shot of the four siblings.

Of course Sophie has to be the center of attention.

Everyone enjoyed just sitting around visiting and catching up with each other.

Mark & Janet sharing great times.

Jennie & Agneta enjoyed getting to know each other.

Girls everywhere!

Lots of guys too!

The Joy of Sophie

2010-05-08T06:56:00.000-07:00

I love that Sophie has such unbridled laughter!

Sophie & Jennie came up to visit last weekend. We had several fun events over the weekend. Sophie loved playing the piano and singing at the same time. She would sit at the piano and sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! It was great.

Sophie has a great laugh and often makes herself laugh just for attention.

Looks like she went to the zoo but it's actually her great-grandma's bed.

Fun in Oregon

2010-04-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

So I had a 3 day business trip in Oregon this week so I stayed at the fabulous Hotel Olson. The cost to stay there is very small (just a little kid time is all). So last night I was going to take care of David, Anna & Katie while Steven and Janet went out to eat. A really cool thing happened though, Anna had just gotten a message that she had won a bike from Applebees. She had put her name down several times when they ate there and she won! So I got to take the kids out to dinner and pick up her bike. She was so excited she could hardly hold still! They were really good though. David took this picture of Anna while we were driving. You can see how happy she is.

When the manager took the bike down to give to Anna the customers clapped and cheered for her. I think she felt pretty special.

After dinner the kids wanted to show me their school so walked over there. Katie road the skooter all by herself and she was really proud of it.

David is a great bike rider and was really zooming around fast! I had a great time at this special hotel!

Quilting Retreat

2010-03-30T16:04:00.001-07:00

This last weekend I went on a Quilting Retreat with my mom and sisters. I'm not much of a quilting kinda person but I had a quilt that needed to be finished so it was nice to be able to work on it. People had great ideas on how to finish the quilt. This picture doesn't really do the quilt justice. It's got very cute patterns throughout it.

Donna & Diane mostly worked on a quilt for my mom's bed. It turned out really nice.

Fun in Salt Lake

2010-03-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

I got to go to Salt Lake this weekend and play with my girls! Sophie loves to go to the swimming pool. Jennie has been teaching her to swim and she is really good at it.

Such a big girl helping in the yard!

Walking the trails!

2010-02-27T16:21:00.001-08:00

So this morning started out as another sunny day so we decided to take a walk. We have never really walked around the Mercer Slough (close to Bellevue) so that's what we did. Kent & Erik as the tour guides kept us on the right trails.

One of the trails leads you around a blueberry farm. There was a lot of bushes that will have yummy blueberries on them this summer.

One of the places we stopped along the way was the Winters House. The people who owned much of this land built a really nice house and the City of Bellevue bought it in 1992 and began refurbising it.

Justlike my new stove in the kitchen!

Skung cabbage everywhere. It is sure pretty to look at.

Spring is here! Well at least for a few days

2010-02-21T15:25:00.001-08:00

It was such a beautiful spring day that we decided do the Zoo! I don't get out to Pt Defiance very often so it was nice to see the new things that they had there.

I love all the seahorses...

So cute!

He does't look very happy does he?

Winter in Dallas

2010-01-10T05:08:00.000-08:00

So I went to Dallas to help out a struggling warehouse and expected to be here for just 1 week but......................... I found it needed more help than I first thought so I am staying 7 more days than I planned. It's not to bad except they have had record cold tempatures. At night it has been around 15 degrees and has not been above freezing in days. I have been working about 14-16 hours a day so I haven't gone out to see anything in Dallas. I did go out last night and see a movie so that was nice. I'm going to find a ward to go to today before I got to work though.

On Friday I am going to fly through SLC and I have about a 6 hour layover so I can play with my cute family in Utah :)

Sandbagging & Acting

2010-01-07T14:59:00.000-08:00

As part of one of Erik's merit badges he needed to spend some time helping a community prepare for an emergency. So we choose to help create sandbags for the City of Auburn.

Way to go Erik!

During Erik's first quater at GRCC he had a Drama class. His class put on a play called "Noises Off" Erik did an awesome job with his characters. We saw it twice. We couldn't take pictures during the play but here are a couple of shots of the sets.

Sophie, Sophie, Sophie

2010-01-05T08:26:00.000-08:00

Boy does this girl love her Uncle Erik! Lots of Sophie!

Christmas Morning

2010-01-04T08:13:00.000-08:00

Hazel cuddling with her mommy.

The cat was having just as much fun as the kids.

Look carefully and find the real doll.

Presents everywhere!

Sophia loved opening presents. She is holding one of her favorites from Kyle. A very soft white puppy.

Kyle gets a Kitchen Aid???? When is he going to cook for me?

Nothing like a Perkins donut for breakfast

Lots of food for Breakfast

Christmas Eve at the Olson house

2010-01-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve was full of food, family, fun & music! It was great to have people over not worry about digging the cars out of the snow to get people home!

We ONLY had about 26 people this year.

Noah was having a great time with the new Wii game

Rock climbing!

2010-01-03T07:45:00.000-08:00

For Erik's 17th Birthday he and Jennie went to an inside rock climbing facility in Seattle. They had their very own teacher for an hour. They had a great time (a little sore though!)

Happy 17th Birthday Erik!

Look what my daughter made me!

2009-12-19T12:22:00.001-08:00

So every year I have been able to get my kids Santa picture done. Most years it was at the same Santa setup. Jennie took all of the pictures and made a quilt out of them. This picture doesn't do the quilt justice so you will have to come to my house to see it :)

Thank you Jennie! You rock!

Disneyworld 2009

2009-12-17T04:28:00.000-08:00

The pictures say it all!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T07:50:00.001-08:00

This year was a bit different for us. We got to go up to Sequim with Donna & Laif. It was fun that much of the family was able to be there. Donna & Janet set a beautiful table!

Good food and lots of company! The only sad part was that Rachael got really sick and wasn't able to come over for Thanksgiving dinner. Lucky for her she was at her parents house so she had some good company. Michael did a great job with the kids though.

The "Kids table" It is fun to see the next group of kids growing up.

How cute is Hazel!!!

Anna loved playing with Hazel. Anna is such a polite young lady. I love her smile and the happiness she brings!

In our family of men it is rarely the "Thanksgiving Day football game" but rather the Thanksgiving Day video game

This is such a great shot. The kids are looking at the video game but they are standing in front of this beautiful quilt that Donna made.

Cousins, Cousins, Cousins

Scout Rocket Blasts

2009-11-27T07:37:00.000-08:00

Our Scout troops have been working on their Space Exploration merit badge and as part of that they went to Flaming Geyer Park to launch them off. The only problem was that someone forgot to open the gates to the park!

After being stranded for over 1/2 hour the Scoutmaster walked into the park and found someone who came and unlocked that gate. (I think someone over slept..............)

So the boys got right to setting up for the launch and really seemed to have a good time.

Erik & Eric off to launch their rockets together

The "Erik(c)'s rockets set to go. On the first launch it went really well. On the 2nd launch Erik's disappeared and he could find it for a long time. Everone was watching Eric's because it went so high and then nobody saw were Erik's went. Finally after we were eating lunch then Erik found his closer to the river.

There were so many people here. The weather was chilly but great for the launch.

Of course nothing like some food to finish it off. The Jacobsens brought Hotdogs, chips & hot chocolate! Way to go Jacobsens!

Christmas? You have to been kidding

2009-11-13T06:22:00.000-08:00

So I have been in traveling a lot this week to Dallas, Atlanta & Detroit. While in Detroit I found a radio station that is playing nothing but Christmas music!! I thought, oh, it couldn't be here already could it. I want my 2 weeks before Thanksgiving first!. So I was looking at old pictures of last year. I thought about how much had changed in my house and the first thing is that I have a new kitchen! So goodbye to these countertops and canisters, I can't wait to do my Christmas baking in the new kitchen :)

One thing I hope does change from last year is the weather. Oh what a long, cold, snowy, blizzardy winter we had. I don't mind a little snow but that was ridiculous..........

So here's to happy baking, fun holidays and NO SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So bad about bloggin...

2009-10-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

I never seem to take the time to put up anything on the blog anymore! We really goofed off all summer and did very little on the house. Today we were taking out a couple of old stumps. One might think this log that Kent was carrying was heavy but it was so light weight you wouldn't believe it. This stump has been decomposing for years and it is like a sponge. We are just trying to do a few projects around the house. Painting the front porch, nailing up the molding, installing the water line for the fridge and moving the gas stove back in place. The last item cost us a bit of money... We moved it last weekend on a dolly and didn't realize that some of the logs in the stove were loose and very very heavy. We broke the glass door and so that was a $120 move... Such is life.

On the way to Eagle

2009-09-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

Start by creating a plan..........

Gather a few dozen donuts

Sit and ponder a while...........

Gather 25 of your great friends...........

Find an overgrown park..........

With too many bushes and plants...........

find a beautiful summer day, put in some serious work.........

Use lots of tools, drink water and donated soda and.........

Yyou have a work of art and the major portion of an Eagle project done! Way to go Erik!

Weekend in Utah

2009-09-08T17:17:00.001-07:00

So over Labor Day weekend we went to SLC to visit with Mike, Jennie & Sophie. We to South East Utah to do some hiking and visit a museum. We hiked in Moab and saw such beautiful sites. It's hard to imagine just how diverse the earth is. It was a great weekend as Scott also came down to join us. We had so much fun having all of our kids together for the weekend!

This is Delicate Arch in the Arches National Park. It was 1 1/2 miles up to this point. That was a bit hard for us older chubby folks but the rest of the gang did fine. There really was only one steep part but it was pretty hot so that made it more challenging.

Scott held the place together for us.

This is a shot of "windows" it is an area that has 2 different windows through the rocks. This one was a lot closer to the parking lot :)

County Fair Fun

2009-08-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

We often like to find a small county fair and hang out. This time we went to one in Lacy Washington (near Olympia) It was a nice little fair but it got way too hot by 3 PM.

There was a group of girls doing a gymnastics show. It was fun to watch and reminded me of Jennie.

We also like to watch the kids race their horses.

What fair would be complete without the mama pig and her hungry babies!

A bit of traveling

2009-08-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

We did a bit of weekend running around. We went up to Mt. Rainer just because. We always forget how long it takes to get up there. It's about 2 1/2 hours to get to Paradise but it was really nice up ther. At 10 A.M. it was already about 80 degrees though

We took a very short walk up the hill, there were so many wild flowers out it was just beautiful.

This is the new visitors center. We really weren't that impressed compared to the old one. It was kind of a disappointment.

Tragedy at a friends house

2009-07-30T16:55:00.001-07:00

A good friend of mine's home caught on fire today! The house is a total loss but everyone including all the pets got out safe.

There is very little that I can do to help other than lend a listening ear. The family has good insurance so that is good news for them also. Please keep the Hillestad family in your prayers!

Major Milestone

2009-07-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

Wasn't it only yesterday that we welcomed this sweet little boy into our lives? Watch out world here he comes! Way to go Erik

The fork and the toenail

2009-07-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

So as you most of you know one of the things I did when we remodeled our kitchen was to replace most all of my dishes, glasses, utensils and silverware. I ended up buying very heavy silverware. I really love it and have gotten used to the weight of it but today there an "incident" with a fork. Kent was very nice and had fixed me up a frozen dinner to eat and I was sitting at the island when he brought it to me. I decided to move to the table to eat my dinner and didn't realize he had placed the fork on top of the dinner. When I picked it up the fork dropped on my toe. I knew it hurt but it took a few seconds to realize that the fork had gone straight down and 2 of the prongs went into MY TOENAIL! I was bleeding right through the nail.... I don't think if you tried to drop a fork on your toe you could get the prongs to go through your nail on purpose!

Not to bad of picture below......... If you zoom in you will be able to see one of the holes it left......

Maybe I should have gone for the plastic silverware

4th of July fun

2009-07-08T16:39:00.000-07:00

The kids had a great time lighting off all of the fireworks. It was nice just to sit back at watch it happen. Always a good time when no one gets hurt and nothing gets burned down :)
Bjorn loves playing out at Travis and Holly's house. He chases the cows and the goat and he spent a lot of time playing with Henry Doodle.

Lot's of luvs and kisses for my little baby!

Finally an update! Fun on the lake

2009-07-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

So the Beaird family had a reunion this week and we got to join in on some of the fun. Travis had a couple of wave runners and everyone had a great time on the lake.

Erik had fun on the boat, on the wave runner and being pulled on a tube.

Jennie & Chelsie just hanging out! Aren't they cute? Luv ya both!

Boats every where

What a wonderful group!

Blogging for Jennie

2009-06-01T14:38:00.001-07:00

So Jennie & Mike moved over Memorial Day weekend and I got to go down there this last weekend. Jennie hasn't been able to put up postings as they do not have internet yet and she actually has had to do work at work! So I thought I would put up a few things. This new house has sat vacant for about 1 year so it is so overgrown you can hardly see the house. The neighbors are so glad that someone is moving in. Mike worked for many hours on Saturday and got a bad sunburn and hardly made a dent in the place. I think they are going to have to bring in some help to get this job done. Some of the roots are the size of small trees.

It's hard to imagine how tall this stuff is but they completly cover the windows on the lower level of the house.

Jennie and I put together Sophie's new bed. She has still been sleeping in a pack and play and Grandma thought she needed a "big girl" bed. It turned out very cute!

Here is a great picture of my happy girls! I had so much fun just holding and hugging my girls.

Sunday at the Olson's

2009-05-24T21:21:00.001-07:00

What a beautiful summery Sunday! We had Michael, Rachael, Noah & Hazel over and we had a little bit of food...............A little bit of fun and games

A little bit of jumping around

And a whole lot of fun!

Gotta love COMCAST!

2009-05-22T18:53:00.001-07:00

So you know all those ads from Comcast about how the digital conversion was coming but if you have Comcast you don't have to do a thing! Well that is not entirely true. If you don't already have Comcast's digital service then you have to add more to your T.V. If you don't they tell you that you will still get the first 29 channels. Well that pretty much leaves you with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and a couple of others. All the rest of the channels are some government channels! So even though I didn't want to we have to add Comcast digital boxes to our T.V.'s, as if I don't already have enough stuff added to them. My biggest worry is whether I can get my TIVO to work with these new boxes. But to top it off the lady at Comcast, who could barely speak English, sent me 9 boxes. I do have 9 T.V.'s but only am putting boxes on 6 of them. The main box is supposed to get you extra movies, music and other things. The other 5 boxes will just allow us to get what we already have but of course for an additional cost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We get the first 3 free but have to pay $2 a month each for the other boxes. So Comcast sends me 4 of the main boxes to use. Now I have to drive them back to their offices and return them and I'm sure they will look at me like it's my fault! Do I sound a bit ticked off? If you could feel my typing you would know how irratated I am. So now we hooked up all 6 boxes and got online to "activate" them and we are waiting to see if they will really work. It's supposed to take about 45 minutes. Time will tell I guess.

Trip to Prosser

2009-05-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

So finally an update! Yesterday we went to Prosser WA, this is a small town in Eastern Washington but it has some meaning to us. This is where we found Amauri Rivia by the side of the road on slushy Sunday morning in March. Well Amauri is doing much better and his family had a graduation party for him and for his cousin. It was wonderful to see him up and about and doing so well. He still has at least one more surgery to contend with but I'm sure he will make it through.

This is a picture of Amauri and his girlfriend. The family threw a great big party. There was probably over 80 people there when we left and the party was just really starting up.

The food was so good. Chon (Amauri's dad) cooked up really good Mexican food.

We left before the music and dancing started because we had such a long trip home. We drove over there the slow way and stopped and saw a lot of great sites. What a nice day for a trip!

The life of a cat

2009-04-27T07:55:00.001-07:00

The life of a cat. Taking naps all day, laying around with good friends that don't bother you with their problems. Leaving your hair on anything you want. Having food & drink available 24/7 or complaining loudly about it even in the middle of the night. Keeping your nails in prime condition on what ever piece of carpet or furniture is handy. Demanding attention when ever you want. Well at least this is our cats' life!

From This to That

2009-04-20T20:29:00.001-07:00

Boring to......................

Wow!

While it's still not done yet a lot has been accomplished. The next big wow will be the tile backsplash. I'm going with my friend Jeri to look at tiles on Thursday! Thanks to Kent for all of the hard work.

Easter in the kitchen

2009-04-12T16:21:00.000-07:00

Do you like my kitchen island? I wanted to have dinner at home today so we took a piece of plywood and put it on the island with a plastic table cloth. Worked pretty good! The kitchen is so nice I love just sitting in here. The gas is now working on the range so I can cook. Still no sink but that is on it's way.We decided to cook a turkey as the inaugural use of the new stove. We are just having a quiet Easter dinner with Erik & my mom.

Tropic Brown it is

2009-04-07T06:48:00.000-07:00

So we bought our granite yesterday. It is called Tropic Brown. Kent wanted something a little more splashy than this but we kinda agreed on this one (alright well I think he caved into me) We will have this installed on the 15th of April (Just so happens I will be out of town and Kent will have to handle it :))

Coming together

2009-04-06T08:47:00.000-07:00

I now have a DISHWAHER!! No sink yet but it's very pretty. It is not really white, I just hadn't taken off the protective cover in this picture. Like all the rest of the new appliances it is stainless steel and black.

A beautiful thing to look at!

Cabinet progress

2009-04-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

The inspectors stopped by to check out our progess. They were the cutest inspectors that have come by.

Kent is preparing the area for the microwave

What a beautiful sight! The microwave works, the oven works but the range on top has to wait until next Saturday to get the gas hook up. One guy gave us a bit of over $1200 to put the gas line in, he wanted to replace a bunch of the gas lines. Another guy came out and actually looked under the house to see what our pipe situation was and the pipes were plenty big enough for the stove so the bid is $388! I think I'll choose "door" #2! We are still going to try to get the dishwasher installed today!

Beautiful cabinets!

2009-04-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night Kent put up the strips on the wall so we could put up the cabinets. He laid the cabinets out and took off their doors so we could start hanging them.

Las night we starting putting them up. They are great! They go with the floor so well, I'm very excited!

Of course nothing is easy (unlike what HGTV tends to make you believe) We have to put an outlet in for the new microwave. Of course the wiring that was there for the old hood isn't long enough so Kent has to put in a junction box tonight for it. Then we have to put in the outlet through the back of the small cabinet that is over the stove. We only have one more upper cabinet to put it. It will be a bit harder because we have to attach it to the ceiling rather than to the wall. I hope by this weekend we have all of the cabinets installed and the fridge put in place. We have a guy coming out tonight to give us another bid on the gas line. The first guy wanted $1280!!!!!!! This stove could turn out to be very expensive.

And then there was a floor

2009-03-31T15:59:00.000-07:00

I don't even know what to say................................... I think it speaks for itself

Cabinets & Flooring here we come

2009-03-30T10:58:00.001-07:00

So all of the major construction is done. Kent & Erik went and picked up the cabinets last Saturday. It's amazing how I just happened to be out of town when the cabinets arrived :)

The cabinets are stored in the garage, the front porch and some in the house. For as big of house as we have it seems like we are running out of room to put things!

So before we could get the flooring installed we had to finish up removing the old floor. What a lot of work.

It seemed like there was no end to the old flooring. Also the bowl in the background is where a valve was bad and leaking all over. Kent had to get that fixed BEFORE the flooring was put in.

Just when we thought we were almost done getting the flooring ready we realized we had our all parquet flooring in the entry hall. It took Kent a full days work to get this up and all of the glue scraped off.

Finally we put new plywood down every where to make the floors ready for the Hardwoods. Kent worked so hard on this!

By Sunday night we were ready to go. The flooring was level (well as level as it can get) and I swept up and picked up all of the tools.

Monday morning Jasmin started installing the floors and they are beautiful! I just luv to look at them. He hopes to finish on Tuesday or maybe Wednesday morning.

Erik gets a "Life"

2009-03-25T21:21:00.001-07:00

Tonight Erik was awarded his "Life" Rank in Scouting. We are very proud of him!

Erik was looking mighty good in his Scout uniform!

Erik was also awarded his Music, Personal Fitness & Family Life Merit Badges

Sophie! Gotta luv ya

2009-03-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

So on Thursday and Friday I was lucky enough to work from SLC. I got to take care of Sophie during the day and still got my work done. She is so GOOD! She plays so good, goes down for naps easily and is not very fussy at all. Gotta luv it! Jennie and I went for a nice walk on Saturday morning down to Great Harvest. I suppose the huge cinnamon roll with nuts and raisins kinda wiped out the value of the walk though..

Such a happy face

Sophia loves to play with books!

More kitchen updates

2009-03-15T21:36:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's been so long since I posted! I was traveling for business last week and then had so many committments this week I just didn't seem to have time. So over the last few days Kent has been cutting up the kitchen floor in sections. It is a lot of work because the floor is 2 levels deep and some idot had the idea using some glue on the original floor! You know tho
se builders, you just can't trust any of them :)

I think this picture is a pretty good shot of how the walls turned out and the paint job. The paint is called Lennox Tan. It's a very warm color and looks great in the room. Don't you luv the lights in this room .... jk..... We do have real lights ready to put up

The lighting has turned out so great! The hole that is still left is where our drop lights will hang down.

Here is Kent putting down more plywood onto of our subfloor. The subfloor is really worn plywwod from when we built the house. It was very weathered so we are putting a "clean slate" down for the wood floor. We have ordered the cabinets, flooring and most of the appliances. If things go well Kent will pick up the cabinets on Friday the 21st (while I'm out of town :)) and then maybe we will get the flooring installed as early as the 30th. We will see.

The sheetrock is done! Now onto the paint

2009-03-08T16:21:00.000-07:00

Well as you may be able to tell our kitchen is really a mess! If you have read my mom's blog you know that the sheetrock guy has been here most of the week. They finished the sheet rock texturing on Saturday.

The new ceiling has turned out especially well. I can't wait to put lights up in this and get the full effect of the lighting.

You may ask..... "How can you eat in the kitichen?" Well the answer is "WE CAN'T! We actually can get to a few things but it's not worth it most of the time. So we are eating out even more than we usally do (and we already ate out a lot)

I thought this was the coolest picture. Has Erik just made it past the veil?????

Making a laundry room out of a kitchen

2009-03-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

We have had 2 of these shelves in the laundry room for several years and they have worked great but it's time for a change. We are going to put a couple of the base cabinets here and a counter top.

Kent & Erik are removing an old skinny cabinet that we kept lots of weird stuff in.

So we are replacing all of the kitchen cabinets so we thought we might use a FEW of the cabinets in the laundry room. It turns out that we are going to use almost all of the upper cabinets.

Back to the house

2009-02-27T21:17:00.001-08:00

Erik has been a big help with the remodel. Kent and him were taking down the upper cabinets so we can start getting ready for the sheet rockers.

It's very strange taking down the cabinets.

Here is where the ceiling will go up a bit and the smaller can lights as well as the pendant lights that will hang over the island.

Pictures that are too cute to miss

2009-02-27T21:12:00.001-08:00

Here are a couple of shots that we took while we were down in SLC with Jennie, Mike & Sophia

Accident update

2009-02-26T09:44:00.000-08:00

Kent and I have been trying to find out more information on the accident that we found on Sunday morning but couldn't seem to find anything. Today, Wednesday, I received a call from a State Patrol officer wanting a bit more information about the accident. After I gave him that information I asked if he could tell me if the guy made it or not. He told me that he was alive but in critical condition in a good hospital. That was a piece of good news that at least he was alive. So about this same time one of the IT guys in our office was able to search the internet better than I and he found the following story. Then to top it off another guy in our IT department is from Prosser and he knows this young man and his family. Very small world! So maybe we can get some updates on him!

Man in critical condition after rolling JeepYakima Herald-Republic

PROSSER -- An 18-year-old man was in critical condition after rolling his Jeep Wrangler Sunday morning on Interstate 82 just west of Prosser, authorities said.
Amauri Rivera was being treated at Yakima Regional Medical and Cardiac Center, a nursing supervisor said Sunday evening.
Rivera, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the Jeep shortly after 9 a.m. when he lost traction on the sleet-covered roadway and overturned twice, landing on the outside shoulder, the Washington State Patrol reported.
Intoxicants were not believed to be involved, dispatchers said. The Jeep was destroyed.

The long trip home

2009-02-23T20:15:00.000-08:00

So we went to SLC to visit with Mike, Jennie & Sophia and had a great time. We also went to go pick up a car that we bought from them and bring it back to Seattle. The trip seemed to go pretty good on Saturday though we started seeing signs that warned there was bad fog ahead. We kept going and didn't know how far ahead the fog was and we thought we had made it as we were just about 16 miles outside of Pendleton. Then the FOG hit! It was very scary and we could not see even 5 feet in front of the car. We finally made it out of the fog and we were so very glad to get to the hotel and relax. Little did we know what was ahead though. So on Sunday morning we got up early and left the hotel about 7:30 A.M. for what should be about a 4 1/2 to a 5 hour trip. As we went just a bit down the road the weather wasn't too good and there was getting to be a bit of slush on the road. There was a roll over accident we passed and a couple of other spinouts. We then stopped in Prosser to change drivers. Kent started driving and just after we got back onto the freeway we saw a jeep that looked like it had spun out. We were driving slowly by it when I saw that there was a person laying on the ground. Kent stopped the car as quickly as he could and we backed up to the accident scene. I got out of the car and called 911. I wasn't sure if this person was alive or not and I was terrified to find out. As I got close to him I could see that he was breathing since the air was so cold I could see his breath. He was unconscious but breathing. I stayed on the phone with the 911 dispatcher to give them our position. It was really scary and I wasn't to sure what to do as we certainly did not want to try to move this young man. He was bleeding from his head somewhere but I couldn't really tell where. His face was covered up by the hood of his jacket and I didn't want to uncover him unless I had to. We didn't have a blanket but Kent was better thinking than I and he took the seat covers from the guys jeep and we covered him with those. Kent also thought to turn off the guys jeep as it was still running. As we stood back we could tell that his Jeep had rolled 2 times and then ended up on it's wheels. The roof of the jeep had come off and I assume that is when the guy was ejected. There was debris spread all over from his Jeep and it looked like he was a college student because of all the books and papers. Finally the aid units came from every direction and they took over. I was so relieved to see them come. We will probably never know if the young man made it or not but I feel good that we were there and could get him help so quickly. Kent took a couple of pictures at the scene of the accident.

The Lighting continues

2009-02-19T13:39:00.001-08:00

I know this isn't the lights but I thought I would show what our pantry floor looks like now. We are pulling up all the laminate in the entry hall and hallways so I took a section of it and cut it up and laid it down in the pantry. It actually looks really nice!

So we added 5 recessed spots in the kitchen for a total of 10. They really brighten up the room.

Here is the new light over the kitchen table. We have also removed the big lights over the island and Kent is building a section that will be raised up and include some smaller recessed lights and a couple of hanging pendants. We will be gone this weekend but hopefully next week we can get all of the electrical finished and then get a sheetrock person out. Once that is done we are onto painting and then putting in the floor. After the floor the cabinets and granite will go in. We are going to be without a kitchen for a while but we will make it work!

The cabinet case!

2009-02-15T14:05:00.000-08:00

Well for anyone who has ever been in our home you will remember the very large display case we have had in the entry hall. It has been a great place for Kent to display some of his cameras but as we continue our remodel it needed to go for a couple of reasons. #1 we are going to replace the flooring so it had to be moved out of the entry hall. #2 It is just time to get a better looking case. This one I got for $25 from Sears in downtown Renton about 16 years ago. We were closing the old Renton store and moving to Southcenter and this case was available for the taking so I took it! We put a listing up on Craigs list for free and got 4 calls on it. The first guy that wanted it couldn't get a hold of a truck to pick it up but another guy who runs a Junk Hauling business wanted it (he gets things and re-sells them) I didn't really care as long as someone took it. But while the Junk guy was here he asked if we had anything else. I told him I had a coffee table and he said he wanted it. Michael and Rachael had already taken one sofa and love seat and the end table so I was thrilled to get rid of the coffee table. Then I asked the guy if he wanted video tapes. He said yes so we must have given him 200+ video tapes that I had gotten from Thrift Books. All of this being said................ It's nice to get rid of some of the stuff and to be making progress on the house. Later on today or tomorrow I will post pictures of some of the electrical work that Kent has done.

Construction update

2009-02-15T14:00:00.001-08:00

While I haven't posted much in a while we have still been working on the house. Last weekend we replaced 2 windows. This one was the one in the "TV Room". Overall it went pretty good but of course we still have to put up trim around the outside of the windows.

When this window was out it was kinda fun just to lean into the house. (kinda reminds me of the Professor from the Wizard of Oz)

You can see a good shot of our messy back porch through our new kitchen window!

Our lighting dilemma

2009-02-07T07:42:00.001-08:00

So one of our biggest challenges in trying to envision the new kitchen has been what to do with the lighting. In the kitchen we have had the very ugly light panel. While it provides a lot of light we never finished right so I have never liked it. We think we have settled on the lights we want so you will have to stay tuned to see how it turns out!

Our kitchen table used to sit more in the middle of the run than where we have it now so our light is not centered.

These lights are actually really new and looked good until we opening up the wall. Now it no longer goes with the rest of the room. The good part is that we can use these in my mother's room since we haven't replaced those lights so they won't go to waste.

The remodel continues

2009-01-31T21:04:00.000-08:00

So today we started one of the harder parts of the big remodel. We are taking out the sliding glass door and putting a single door in instead. I know it's the middle of the winter and opening up the house seems like a crazy thing to do but the weather turned out very nice today.

We did run into a bit of problem with this job. It turns out that the opening for a sliding glass door is lower than one the one needed for a single door. So we had to cut out 2 inches out of the header and that took a couple of hours. If you have ever built or remodeled you know that things take longer than you had hoped for but it's not a surprise.

So we started about 9:30 in the morning and by about 4:30 P.M. we had the wall rebuilt and the door in place. Actually the door is just being held in place by 1 nail because it needs a lot of adjustments and we were just too tired to finishe it tonight. It actually lookes fabulous! I am pleased with how it is turning out.

Here is a look from the inside of the house. (needs a bit of sheet rock :) )

Day 2 of the kitchen project

2009-01-24T21:07:00.000-08:00

So today we got the rest of the sheetrock down and removed most of the studs. It's amazing the space that is there. We have so much work to do and this is probably about a 6 month project but at least we have begun.

THE BIG PROJECT HAS FINALLY BEGUN

2009-01-24T06:31:00.000-08:00

So after many years of dreaming of a major change in our kitchen we have finally begun. I have wanted for many years to remove the wall between our kitchen and "the room" next to it. We have called "the room" many names over the years. We first planned on it being a dinning room but we never used it as that. Then it was the "adult TV room" since the kids had a rec. room, over time it has become a TV room and since we put a big TV into it we finally used it a bit more. But I have wanted to have a kitchen/great room for many years.

Erik and I bean taking off the sheet rock before Kent came home but I'm not as good at it as he is.

We did make some progress and got about 1/3 of the sheetrock off in about 1 hour

Wildlife in the city

2009-01-24T06:22:00.000-08:00

I know my mom already posted a couple of pictures about this but even after living here for 24 years I am still amazed by the deer that come into our backyard. We get many different animals coming through. Besides the deer we get racoons, quail, rabbits and lots of different types of birds.

Catching up

2009-01-24T06:08:00.000-08:00

So it's been a couple of weeks since I have taken the time to blog. Really not that much exciting has happening other than the snow did finally stop! It still has been pretty cold since the snow with an occasional warm day thrown in between lots of frozen car windows and lots of fog. These pictures are from our front yard. Since we have a long downhill driveway we get a lot of run off from the upper road so a few times a year we end up cleaning up the "smuk".

IT"S SNOWING AGAIN!!!!

2009-01-04T19:30:00.001-08:00

It's Sunday night about 7:30 and it's snowing again! We were cleaning up the Christmas stuff this afternoon and headed in and out of the house several times and it was just a normal time. Then Kent said something about a few flakes falling down around 4:30 PM. No big deal but about 1 1/2 hours later we looked outside and couldn't believe the amount of snow we had. There has to be at least 2 inches already and it's still snowing. (The weatherman says it will turn to rain tonight but we will see) They have already cancelled Seminary for tomorrow. ENOUGH ALREADY!

I remember when

2008-12-31T10:00:00.000-08:00

Well maybe I don't really remember this far back! Think about how much you are paying for gas right now. It seems like no big deal to go to the gas station again, actually it's kinda enjoyable. Well Safeway has this promotion that you get "gas pump rewards" for spending money at their store (we apparently spend a lot). So last week we decided to use our $1.00 per gallon off of gas and fill up Laif's truck, which we use a lot :), and my car. We only paid 78.9 cents per gallon and we bought 28 gallons (you can buy up to 35 gallons) We were feeling pretty good about this purchase. So a couple of days later I took my mom to the store and I looked at her receipt and she had $1.30 per gallon off. I have no idea how she got that much of a discount, I guess she spends more money than me at Safeway. Any how, the credit is going to expire on 12/31/08 so I really wanted to use that credit. We took Donna's big car down and Kent's car and put in 20 gallons and we only paid $8.78 cents! That was only 43.9 cents gallon. Unbelievable! We laughed all the way home.

SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW

2008-12-27T08:22:00.001-08:00

So back about December 14th we had some snow and we thought it was pretty cool but then it didn't go away and it kept snowing and snowing and snowing. When Jennie and Mike came up on the 18th it took them 9 hours because Sea-Tac airport kept getting shut down because of the snow. By the 20th it was like a blizzard at our house in the evening and most of the men were out braving the elements to chain up some cars. It seemed to stop snowing about the 22nd but that was pretty short lived and by Christmas Eve & Christmas day we had more snow and ice. Finally by the 26th it has started to rain and warm up and it looks like we are finally past the "DECEMBER STORM" as noted by the local news. It has been pretty but I am happy it's done for now.

Family Christmas Morning

2008-12-27T08:14:00.001-08:00

Katie loved her doll (once grandpa got it all out of the packaging!)

Next it was Steven's turn to figure out how to make things go together the right way.

Hazel was ready to play with anything she could get her hands on.

We had a great Family Christmas Morning. Steven, Janet & the kids made their way back over the river and through the woods in the white and drifted snow. We had pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, juice & delicious cinnamon rolls ready for the troops. There were presents every where and the kids seemed to love the excitement of it all. It was fun having so many little kids around again this year. At the Christmas eve party we had 8 kids and in the morning we still had 6 of them in the house. How fun!!!

More Christmas at the Olson's

2008-12-26T13:06:00.000-08:00

As usual we had a pretty full house. Most everyone was able to make it even in the bad weather. Mark, Ann, Melissa, Kevin & Scott couldn't make it out of Redmond though so that was a little sad :( By the end of the night though we were chaining up cars in the blizzard like conditions. Michael, Rachael, Noah, Hazel, Kyle & Scott all ended up staying the night. It was so fun to have a lot of people around late for our family Christmas eve and then we had a big breakfast on family Christmas morning.

Have you ever seen 2 prouder uncles? Sophie seems to soak in all the love and attention these guys can give her.

Food food everywhere you turn there was food! I don't think anyone went away hungry!

Christmas at the Olson

2008-12-26T12:56:00.000-08:00

Not everyone is happy to come to Aunt Debbie's house for Christmas. Actually once Katie gets warmed up she is a very loving little girl. Just don't cross her or tell her no or the "Katie" wrath comes upon you. (just ask her Grandma)

Who wouldn't love to find this under their Christmas tree? Uncle Erik took this beautiful picture of Sophia. She is such a good baby!

Even at 5 months old Sophie thinks she can do just about anything! She loves to be looking around. At home her favorite place is her walker so she can see the world.

Cookies & Fudge

2008-12-16T06:32:00.000-08:00

Erik! Stop! That's the wrong bag!

Cookies everywhere. Since the weather has not been so great Erik, Kent & I have been home baking lots and lots of cookies and fudge.

Fudge too?

And then there was snow!

2008-12-14T10:08:00.000-08:00

It doesn't look like much but there is a solid layer of ice under this beautiful snow.

The main street isn't bad but we have to try to get up our driveway which is on a hill AND has a turn in it. The good thing is there are guardrails on each side of our driveway to keep us from sliding down the "cliffs" the bad thing is there are guardrails and I always worry about sliding into them. We will see how it goes!

2008-12-13T14:00:00.000-08:00

The snowmen are back!

Beware of large bears

I love Christmas decorations!

The Tree!

2008-12-13T09:24:00.000-08:00

Which animal is stuffed?

Cooking for Spanish Class

2008-12-10T16:48:00.000-08:00

Erik's Sponge cake - ask him about the Celsius vs Fahrenheit setting

Sitting down for the big feast of Taco's and Burritos

Frying up the meat

Now how do you seperate those eggs?

Grandpa teaching Sophie about fast food

2008-12-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

Proud Uncle Erik!

2008-12-10T08:33:00.000-08:00

Catching up a bit

2008-12-10T08:28:00.000-08:00

So I'm finally getting around to adding some things to my post. Here are a few pictures from when Sophia was blessed at the end of September

Washington DC Mom & Me!

2008-09-14T13:03:00.001-07:00

Sophia Emilee Beaird July 19th, 2008

2008-07-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

She is here! She came into the world at 9:42 AM (about 15 minutes before Grandma could get there :)

She is 6 pounds 1 oz and 18 1/2 inches long. She has quite a bit of dark brown hair on the back of her head. Other than the fact that Jennifer had contractions for the last week when it came to the actual delivery they were only at the hospital about 5 1/2 hours and it was a very easy delivery. You can see how pround Mom and Dad are.

Erik's Bedroom

2008-07-04T23:12:00.001-07:00

We decided to move Erik down to the "big" bedroom and get him a bed that fits his grown up body. At 15 1/2 he still had a twin bunk bed and a green forest animal bedroom. We had a great time decorating his new room. He got a new bedroom, nightstand, cubewall, pictures and a new computer!

Just getting Started

2008-06-12T06:58:00.000-07:00

I thought that I should try this blog thing and see if I could really do it. I'm not good about a journal so I thought maybe this might work for me!