Thankful in 2011

In true Thanksgiving fashion I would like to take this grand opportunity to be thankful. I am really not sure if there is a better word to wrap up my overall feeling and mood right now anyway... Many things in my life make me Thankful...

First, I am pretty excited to be celebrating 5 years of marriage this week. It has flown by and been absolutely nothing like we had it all planned but sometimes the good things in life are made out of many little surprises.

We together are sooo thankful for our little man Bennett. He has absolutely amazed us at every turn. The things he has overcome in the last 3 years is more than most people have to deal with in a lifetime and we couldn't be more proud of the little boy he has become.

I am still in a little shock that this year we are thankful for a little baby on the way. Last year at this time if you had told me that I would be enormous at the thanksgiving table dealing with sciatic nerve issues due to the pending birth of a little girl I would have told you, You are crazy we would never get so lucky! But here we are 28 weeks pregnant with a healthy mama and baby!

Lastly I am pretty thankful for our families and friends this time of year. We have so many fun things to do this time of year, so much family to see and so many silly traditions started already. This week will mark the beginning of our advent calendars, including our serendipity Santa and our ornament tree wall hang. Hopefully both these things will be a huge part of each holiday season here at the Olsen's. I am also going to put up our new stockings this year that I have been working on like crazy... my crazy sewing explains my lack of picture taking over thanksgiving weekend, but here are some of our fun family moments.
I know these are all the obvious things to be thankful for, family, kids friends etc... but sometimes I seriously sit back and think, how did I get everything I ever wanted?!? This little lady has somehow not given me that pregnancy glow and I usually come accross as uncomfortable and grumpy... but in the quiet moments of the day I just feel THANKFUL for everything in my life right now.

On Thursday we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa Olsen's house. Bennett and Alanzo played like crazy.

 They also got to sit at the adult table... although Bennett spent most of the time crawling underneath.

 We got up early Friday morning and headed down to Grandma and Grandpa Jones' house. We stayed the whole weekend and it was a blast full of football, good food and lots of relaxing and sewing with the kiddos.

Somehow most of the kids were sleeping during dinner including our little man.... but I must say it was nice to eat a whole meal without the help of our toddler...

The boys all got up Saturday morning to head up to the Tacoma Dome to see Uncle Marty and the Chehalis Bearcat football team play in the semi-finals for the first time ever! They played great, but unfortunately the team they played were a little bit better. We are proud of the Bearcats this year and Bennett had a blast at "Marty's football"

and after football these two little cuties had a contest to see who could fit in this box...

Reece won :)

Thank you everyone for a fun weekend!

The Year's First Snow

When I woke up before the rest of the house to see a bright white lawn out the window I think I was more excited than my 3 year old and the dog... I waited impatiently until I heard Bennett stirring and then I ran into our little guy's room and announced "it snowed!" He was pretty excited but told me "breakfast first" So after some french toast the boys got all bundled up and went out into the great white.

Of course Bennett just wanted ride his quad which quickly became a snow plow but they still had some snow left to build this snow man.

Now this mama on the other hand has been inside, infront of the fire, watching TV and sewing my new set of Christmas stockings. I am super excited about all the crafty Christmas stuff I am working on. I am pretty sure it is my form of nesting because lord knows I have not been cleaning the house and I desperately need to stop baking! I just finished sewing the names on the tops of the stockings and I had to stop and smile. My stocking that has previously said "Julie" now says "Mom". I know I have been a mom for 3 years now and maybe it is just the pregnancy hormones but I love that I have a new title for my stocking...

World Prematurity Day at 26 weeks!

Most people know that Joel and I have been involved with the March of Dimes for a couple years now and walked in the Thurston County March for Babies in 2011 and raised over $6,000 walking in honor of Bennett's Team. It was a blast! (2011 March for Babies)

Today is World Prematurity Day, It is a day that we can celebrate the healthy successes, remember the losses and raise awareness for this great cause. The March of dimes "helps moms have full-term pregnancies and healthy babies. And if something goes wrong, they offer information and comfort to families. They research the problems that threaten our babies and work on preventing them."

Mark you calendars for April 28th, 2012 when we will walk in Bennett's honor once again.

We spent this morning at another Dr appointment for our baby girl. Bennett, our amazing little preemie, got to meet the Doctor that we give thanks to all the time for his work when I was pregnant with him, Dr Wall. It was our 26 week check up and other than a perfect bill of health for baby and mama I must say I was most excited about how well Bennett did. He was yelling "that's my sister!" and telling "mama's doctor" that he was "awesome" (with a big thumbs up). The ultrasound techs and nurses were rolling in laughter. He hammed it up and I was excited for Dr Wall to finally meet him years later.

As I think about all the preemies brought into the world too early I am thankful for the work that has been done to help them grow into healthy kids like Bennett and the mama's like me that have been able to have a healthy pregnancy up until 26 weeks after such a different pregnancy 3 years ago.

Here are some pictures of our little girl today!

She was weighing in at an estimated 2 lb, 4 oz and in the 80%!

A bendy little girl... so fun to see her fingers and toes... love her!

 The ultrasound tech swore our little girl has hair... I'll believe it when I see it :)



Boring November...

Since we found out about our little surprise back in June I have been ordered to "take it easy"... Everything with little miss Olsen has been looking great for weeks and somehow my adorable little man convinced me of one of his favorite activities on the planet from this last spring... riding his bike down our long driveway to retrieve the mail.

Last spring this was a huge work out, it included running after him and keeping him on the side of the road, and usually carrying his bike back after he ditched it a 1/4 mile from out house. But today I was brave and I am sure glad I was. Dare I say that I had a leisurely walk with my son on a bike. He told me all the rules of the road as far as "stop, look for cars mom". He rode his bike all the way back to our doorstep and was delighted to be outside in the brisk November air.

The leaves have drown our whole block and it was beautiful but sadly it was getting dark and the pictures are not doing it justice... too fun.

 I also thought I would take this time to take one of those pictures everyone has been begging me to do. I actually regretted not getting more pictures of my belly when I was pregnant with Bennett but I have never been brave enough to even consider maternity shots (and still wont)... so this is our version of those magical belly shots... and yes it includes my bathroom mirror and my three year old about ready to whack his baby sister with his plastic golf club... (don't worry I caught him)

Baby girl growing at 25 weeks 5 days.

2nd Annual Sewing Weekend

Last year we decided to celebrate Grandma Jean's Birthday by getting together with all the ladies of the family, all of our kids and all of our craft projects we were working on for a weekend of fun in the basement of my parents house... It was a total success last year (1st annual sewing weekend) and to no one's surprise was a perfect weekend this year again!

I realize to most people 8 kids 4 years old and under, 7 sewing machines and 9 mommies sounds like 72 hours of craziness... but honestly it couldn't have been more fun. We had some great family, great wine (for those lucky unpregos), great food and nearly perfect kiddos. There were a few more than many sharing fights with the toddlers but that is to be expected... I am pretty sure I heard "that's mine!" or "It's Bennett's turn!" about a million times :)

Its hard not to think about how lucky we are that we all have these kiddos to bring our family together for weekends like this. We have an amazing family that loves these traditions... all these kiddos will have memories of running around grandmas house in matching PJ's for 3 nights of slumber parties with their many many cousins... I am one lucky mama! Happy Birthday Grandma Jean, You would love seeing all your great grand babies! We miss you!

And a huge thank you to Pam, Emily and Teri who took pictures this weekend!!!

From Left to Right, Bennett 35 months, Cash 11 months, Paige 22 months, Chloe 11 months, Jack 1.5 months, Lilly 4 years, Reece 27 months, Evie 25 months... We are missing Violet 17 months, Rose 4 months and our little lady -4 months :)

A small glimpse of the craziness!

The kids being busy...

These two were a crack up... loved holding hands this weekend!

Two of the ladies... Evelyn and Lily

Aunt Pam and her granddaughter Lily, future sewer :)

Working on the stitching... and yes, my kid still has a Binky (don't judge... he loves it and it is usually our little secret :)

Bennett was so patient (well kinda) of mommies crazy crafting

And believe it or not... we actually got some sewing done!

On Saturday I just couldn't help myself and jumped into a Christmas stocking project that Pam and Emily had been working on... Here are the beginnings of 4 of ours... I will post the finished projects later... so fun!

 A wall hang for our little girl's room... Thank you Auntie Pam for helping me with this! I cant wait to put it by the one you did for Bennett!

 I used the fabric from her bed skirt and curtains to mat these Wee Gallery pictures, there will be three total but I broke one of the frames :)

Baby Girls bed skirt

So proud of Teri who completed her first Sewing project (but mostly proud of my Auntie Pam and Mom who spent hours figuring out the darn pattern)

Happy Halloween!

This is the first Halloween where Bennett was super excited! I am not sure if there is a prouder mama out there of their adorable little trick or treater!

We had a great morning, enjoying the sun and wearing his fireman costume. We ran around the front yard in the sun and leaves while I chased him with my camera. I am pretty sure that our little firefighter will be wearing this costume for months to come! We decided that we are going to frame these pictures for when he becomes a firefighter in 20 years.

We visited Daddy at work in the afternoon and after a big nap we headed over to Meg & Wes' for some pizza and trick or treating. I was hopeful that Bennett would enjoy the candy collection but I had no idea how much he would catch on and love it! He followed Lily's lead and ran to every house with a big "trick treat!" and even a parent prompted "thank you, happy hawoweeeen!" I was so excited and proud of him. He loved it as he lugged his enormous and pretty heavy orange pumpkin around. Mama probably walked a little further than I should have but it was totally worth the back ache when we got home.

Thank you Meg Wes, Lily and Chloe! it was a great way to spend our Halloween!

 Pretty sure Bennett will do anything Lily does... even smile for a picture for mom!

 Mama and that baby girl and big brother fireman!

 What a team! Thank you Lily for being such a good example and helping Bennett out!!