Auntie Jeanie and Uncle Kippy!

We were lucky enough to spend the morning with Jeanie, Kip, Evie and Jack! We were down shopping for a new RV in Portland and I took the opportunity to get some Niece and Nephew time! It was a great morning playing and numerous times Jeanie and I sat back and laughed at our little toddlers who play a little too well together. They were cracking us up and having a blast. I always smile when I hear Bennett yell "El-a-van!" It is so busy and hard to find time to just relax and enjoy the kids and it was fun to get this special time with them... Oh and Daddy and Uncle Kippy found a trailer too! So excited to get out camping this summer!

This is about 5 seconds after we got there... they were off and playing as soon as they laid eyes on each other!

Bennett trying to share Jack's race car track...

Seriously the happiest kid I have ever met... Jack has this smile on his face 99% of the time! I cant wait to see him grow up and make the whole family laugh... I think he has his daddy's sense of humor!

Sometimes it amazes me how much this little lady has her eyes open... She is always so happy and it warmed my heart to have my sister and niece and nephew enjoy a day with our new little lady!

Annie Under the Weather

With how great our little lady has been doing at home I did not expect to be blogging from a Children's Hospital anytime soon... but here we are at Mary Bridge with out little lady hooked up to many cords and monitors. Let me start by saying that everything is fine... She is working her way to better health and should be home today or tomorrow good as new.

On Wednesday I started thinking that my little girl wasn't acting like her adorable perky self around noon. I took her temp and everything was fine so I put her down for a nap. At around two I could tell she didn't feel good and I called her pediatrician they said to come in and check it out just because she is only 5 weeks old. By the time I got to the office she had a low grade fever of 100.4. The Dr looked at us with an apologetic frown and told us that we were going to have to head to the ER at St Pete's or Mary Bridge just to get a work up and make sure it isn't a bad infection that would need early intervention. So I decided Mary Bridge would be a better bet for a little kiddo like Annie and away we went. We got here Wednesday evening and she was 100.6. So the rule of thumb is if the child is under 8 weeks old and has a fever of 100.5 or higher they get a standard work up of blood work, IV antibiotics and even a spinal tap. We were devastated over the next few hours seeing our little lady poked and crying.

I knew she still didn't feel well and over this whole time I was also dealing with a terrible cold (probably the same one she has) and it just broke my heart that she would feel as bad as me and even worse because she is so little.

So 2 days later we are still here on our required 48 hour stay to run the antibiotics and she is looking like she is on the mend. She has kept her temp under 100.0 for over 36 hours now and she is definitely looking more like her happy sweet self.

It have been a rough few days but thanks to every ones great thoughts and prayers it looks like we just have a little tiny baby with a bad cold. And a special thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Jones for watching big brother... I am sure he is delighted to get this extra time with you guys!

Here are some pictures from our stay after she was feeling a bit better... Hoping to get some of those big grins on camera soon but no such luck yet...

Goofy half grin...

Let's not have to do this again... no fun!

The first few weeks of Annie's life have been completely different than her brother's but one event they share is having their first big smile session at a hospital hooked up to many wires. On her second day here we snuggled in the middle of the night and she started smiling... like big cheeky grins. We had been getting some pretty cute smirks at home but nothing like this... it was her way of saying "I am feeling better mommy!"

It made me remember that although the hospital with Bennett was terribly hard there were many good baby Bennett moments there and lots and lots of snuggling my little boy that I wouldn't ever change.

New Brown Blanket

With all the beautiful blankets that were made for Bennett lord knows why he loves his blue blanket. It is a Carters blanket he got as a newborn gift and as nice as it is, it quickly became ratty, stinky and stained because he loved it oh so much.

Sadly as Bennett has grown into a 3 foot little man he is, unfortunately his blanket did not grow with him and I see Bennett curled up on the monitor nearly every night in a ball under this tiny blue blanket.

So this last week I set out to try to make a blanket he would love nearly as much as this old blue blanket.

He "helped" me make it, and was so excited as I finished it and he even told his teacher at school that his mommy made a blanket with cars airplanes and tractors on it... so sweet.

Sadly this has just been an addition to the bed and the stinky blue blanket is still present for we hopefully we will soon be saying farewell to the binky so at least that is bed time progress.

It was fun to work on this project after working on so much for Annie's room over the last couple months... I know it made my little guy feel special.

Helping me put in the pins...

Using his "cutter" we also use this cutter to cut avacados but dont tell him that :)

Baby girl doing her part to help...

All Done...

Proud Mama at the Tooth Doctor

I know there has been many opportunities for me to be proud of our little man Bennett, but it is always the small moments that get to me. Today I took Bennett to his annual dentist check up. We started taking Bennett at 12 months because kiddos born with the same complications that Bennett had can also have orthodontics issues and possibly need jaw surgery as teenagers so we wanted to keep a close eye.

We love our dentist and today I must admit I was super nervous... He got upgraded from the "quiet sound, crying proof room" to the chairs by all the other kids. This dentist is a pediatric dentist and somehow they knew how to work magic today.  Before I knew it they had Bennett brushing flossing and using the water pick. Even the dentist was gentle and awesome. Bennett was delighted with the result of the appointment as he ran to the prize counter but little did he know the dentist gave us the final convincing words to get rid of his binky... wish us luck this week!

I was so proud of him, I nearly tear up as we were leaving and Bennett was thanking the receptionist. This small apt that sounds easy to most would usually be a disaster with our kid that has been to way too many doctors and hates people looking in his mouth. I was so excited with how brave and trusting he was! He is growing into such a big boy.

Here is a blurry iphone picture of our little man being brave.

Annie June 1 Month

I can not believe our baby girl is over a month old! The last 4 weeks have flown by and honestly she has been a dream. I was unable to hold and snuggle Bennett as much as I would have liked in the first few weeks and this time I have taken full advantage... This little girl has absolutely stolen my heart. She just started smiling (havent been able to get any of the short smiles on camera... lots to come I am sure) She got her first bottle this week but is still mostly breast fed and is weighing in at a whopping 9 lbs 2 oz.

 Here she is wearing her pretty party dress with Aunt T on a party to welcome Grandma Laurie into town after her move to chehalis and to welcome our cousin Wes home from Afganastan! What a fun night to show off the little lady and celebrate two wonderful people!

 Here she is watching her lions... I know she is really young for it but I want to get her a play gym soon she can play under... she looks at these lions like "holy crap thats a lion!"

Painting with B

Today we took this snowy (yes snowing in March) day and stayed in and Bennett showed Annie more fun at home. Bennett has been needing some incentive to get in the tub and this kid can get dirty pretty quick so I have been forced to be pretty inventive. Today we painted! it is shaving cream, baby magic soap and food coloring. While B worked on coloring the whole tub I did a quick weigh in and bath on our little lady.

She is weighing in at 8 lbs 11 oz of complete adorableness!

Cute kiddos I have!!

 Showing me his wrinkled fingers...

Baby girl after bath... what the heck am I going to do with this hair?!

Sleeping in her bouncer on the floor of the bathroom while big brother plays...

No Olsen Girls Allowed!

Well it finally happened, this mama let her baby boy go for a boys weekend away without her. I must say I was dragging my feet a bit. Grandpa Olsen and Joel had been dying to get a whole weekend with Bennett at the cabin in Cle Elm and we had gotten to about 9 pm before I beckoned them home... but when I was pregnant I finally told Grandpa and Daddy that after our little girl gets here they could have a weekend with Bennett.... and boy did this boy know the weekend was all about him!!

It started a week ago when we told him about it and he woke up every morning convinced it was his day, he would say "today I go to the cabin with my daddy?!" and when Friday afternoon rolled around and I finally said yes this little boy was beside himself.

From what I hear, his enthusiasm didn't slow the entire weekend... he was sooo excited about grandpa's tractor, the snow quads, his cousin Alanzo and friends Matt, Brooke and Luke!

When he came running in the door on Sunday afternoon he said "I miss you mom" and immediately went into a story about a tractor, smores and lots of "my daddy's"... it makes me sad to not see him at the cabin so excited but I know it wouldn't be half as cool if mom was there to spoil the fun... my little boy is growing up!

And a little girl time with Daddy when he got home... zonked out daddy and babe!

Showing Baby Sister the Zoo

We had heard that it was supposed to be in the 60's and not raining and we took full advantage by planning a trip to the zoo with some of our favorite zoo pals, Aunt Jania, Charli and Reylan. It was a fun morning full of many pit stops for breast feeding, lots of chasing toddlers around the play area and snacking in the grass... oh and we saw some animals too.

It was busier than I had imagined our first stroll with two kids in the zoo but it was still fun to enjoy a little sunshine and always great to have an excuse to see my girl Jania and her adorable girls!

PS... it is terribly difficult to breastfeed, chase a toddler and take pictures at the same time, so hopefully I wont be one of those parents that takes a billion pictures of kiddo number one and then forgets all about these magical memories as I get too busy with two... wish me luck.

These two middle kiddos love eachother and kept peering through the strollers... love them!

Feeding the goats

The slide at the play area

Another picture of probably the same elephant we see every time...

My view of my baby girlie in her sling...

A family of Four...

This weekend we have been unbelievably boring, and it has been great. Mama is catching up on sleep and Bennett is loving every second of his one on one time with Daddy... Just settling in as a little family of four.

This morning we went on a walk to the mail box which is about a 1/4 mile from our house. Bennett loves the ride on his bike and we love the fact that in the whole half hour walk not a single car passed us. I could definately get used to this little family we have become! Loving it!

And a sweet surprise in the mail box... a gift from my dear friends mama, Grandma Joyce! We love her pink hats!!!

2 weeks!

Some pictures of our sweet girl at 2 weeks. I know people say enjoy every second because time will fly and boy I am feeling it already! How has the last two weeks gone so fast?!

She obviously isn't smiling yet but sometimes she definitely looks happy looking around... Such a sweet girl!