The best Pre-Pre school ever!

Bennett and I have totally lucked out this year and have been able to be part of one of the best pre-pre school classes ever. He has been going to this toddler group at the local elementry since he was 15 months old. It is a program for kids that need help in a specific area (Bennett's being speech) to help get them caught up before they start Pre-school. There is a speech therapist, motor therapist and great teachers.

We have had such a great year and I feel lucky to call this great group of moms my friends. It truly made me positive that Olympia is a perfect place for us and I cant wait for the years to come where we will watch this little group of kiddos grow.

Thanks girls (and the dads too) for a great year! Because B is the youngest of the group he is the only one continuing next year until he is 3 in December... we are already out there checking out pre-school programs in the area to start in January 2012.

Here are some pictures from the end of the year BBQ... 

The Zoo with his girl

Another trip to the zoo with his girl Charli. I wont lie, I may have been putting off packing for our 3 weeks camping trip that we leave for in the morning. But it was a fun afternoon and Bennett was delighted! He was so excited about all the animals. He would yell "mama elephants!... monkeys!... baby tigers!"

We even got to see the 13 day old leapord cubs... too cute!

Bennett even stole a good bye kiss... Love these kids!!!

Our dreams came true again...

After many years of trying the ol' fashion way, coming to the conclusion from many Drs. that we could never get pregnant naturally, numerous failed fertility treatments and a large deposit put down at the adoption agency... we got the surprise of our lives.

I was feeling a little run down so I was setting out for a long run on the treadmill to hopefully give me a little pick me up. I put Bennett down for a nap as I was chatting with a friend on the phone and looking at the calendar and suddenly realized "hhhmmm that doesn't seem right" So I dug deep into the bathroom drawer to see if I could possibly find a pregnancy test to calm my mind from wandering into hopeful world.

And to my surprise the test was a bust... so in an attempt to not talk about my pee too much I just submerged the whole test... whelp that made both lines go dark pink... hmm now did I just screw up the test or was that kinda positive?! I quickly talked my mind out of "hopeful mode" but thought "I better make sure" So I woke up my sleeping child and drove to Walgreens. I must have looked a bit crazy in running clothes, carrying a sleeping child to buy a pregnancy test but I have long stopped caring about that stuff.

I drove home chugging Gatorade and I ran and put my sleeping child back into bed. I took a test with pink lines and to my surprise... both went pink, and with the amount of pregnancy tests I have taken over the last 5 years I knew exactly what that meant... So I went for the big guns and took the digital test... YEP POSITIVE!

So I called my Dr. and said "what the heck?!" and she said "If you want to get results of blood work today you have to come in soon" and so I went and woke up my kid once again and drove across town (still in my running clothes) to the Drs. office.... Later than night I got the call I had been waiting for... We are pregnant.

After many years of working with the same infertility Dr. that is also our OB... He said "congrats Julie, I feel kinda left out"

We will be introducing our new little Olsen in Febuary 2012!

A Birthday for Charli

One of our favorite girls celebrated her 2nd birthday. She is a beautiful, sweet and happy little girl that has stolen Bennett's heart. He has always talked about her constantly and I am pretty sure since I have been best friends with her mom for 20 years, he is stuck with her for a long time.

Bennett has never been interested in singing... but he has been belting out "happy birthday Charli" like no other.

One of Bennett's favorite part of the day was the cupcakes. Grandma Jones and I made them for the party and Bennett stared at them all the way up to Charli's house while yelling "charli birthday cake please!"

Jania did an amazing job decorating and they had an awesome gyro bar for dinner... yum!

Happy birthday to one of the sweetest children on the planet!

Thank you Grandma Ruth for helping us make Charli girl the cupcakes!

Someone else also loved the CupCakes!

Just Playing in the Dirt

Oh how I love this dirt loving boy of mine. He has been fighting a bit of a cold the last week and is cranky crank as can be. It has been sad to see my little guy grumpy and it has made it an absolutely exhausting week, so today we did nothing. We snuggled on the couch watching Toy Story 3 which he calls the "garbage truck movie", and we played outside eating snacks. Although these days are tough when he seems to just want to whine all day but I know someday I will miss these quiet days alone with my boy.

We did get out a bit this afternoon to play in the dirt... we planted, herb starters, pumpkins seeds and bush beans in our garden... hopefully even with all these cloudy days they will grow!

An afternoon bird watching

I love it when Bennett makes a friend and that little guy has a great mom and they know of some new fun parks... win win win! Today Bennett and I went with his buddy Torin, his Mama and new little brother to a local bird watching trail... I had never heard of it and it was different than all the other parks. Bennett LOVED it. Torin really liked showing him all the little trails and docks that he knows and they were running so fast we had to be quick to keep up with them. A ton of docks went out onto the marshy pond where there were birds, ducks and even salamander type swimming lizards. Bennett loved the "baby gucks" the most. We will definitely go back and hopefully Torin and his mama will come with us.

Happy Birthday Dada!

It is Joel's Birthday weekend and Bennett and I got him two sunshine filled days! It all started with a perfect day yesterday with out little family of three lounging in the sunny back yard and  an evening trip to the red robin patio (which Bennett now calls the "french fry store")

This morning I took advantage of Joel and Bennett playing happily in the front yard and went on a long run down to capital lake in the sunshine... beautiful... but what was more amazing in my eyes was to arrive home to see my two sweethearts washing my car... and my youngest sweetheart covered in suds chasing the dog that was also covered in suds!

After helping the boys get cleaned up and the youngest into a nap I ran to the store, I slowed to a screeching halt when I surprisingly spotted pony rides in the parking lot nearby. I did a quick drive by and turns out it was a pony ride for $5! I got Bennett up from his nap by saying "hey buddy, want to go ride the horses?!" and he giggled and said "OK!!!" he happily got dressed and off we went...
Bennett paying the cowboy for his pony ride...

His pony was named "cowboy" and Bennett talked about cowboy all day!

After the ponies we headed up to Issaquah to celebrate Dads birthday with Grandma & Grandpa Olsen and the whole family. I was great to relax, visit with family and let the three little boys run like crazy around their back yard. Grandpa has his "cowboy town" outback that he built himself and boy does Bennett love it! Bennett didn't want anything to do with us, all he kept saying was "Hunter, Alonzo" and running like crazy. I watched them play make believe and chase for hours. Every time he is around little kids I get more and more surprised about how social he is. I know between Joel and I, we can't really be too shocked that our kid is outgoing, but he is so genuinely excited about interacting with them and I guess I am just surprised how fast he is growing up!

 Bennett brought his cute little bike and was so proud as he ran around on it... a great day outside with the fam!

Bennett was wearing his bike helmet nearly all day... here Hunter is helping him put it on... such a great big cousin!

Grandpa happily sat with the little boys at the kid's table... Bennett loved it!

Finally!

Summer we have missed you! and with this great sunny weekend it finally feels like you have finally arrived!

I hope there are many more weekends with you and our little guy husking corn in the driveway... a perfect evening!