Merry Christmas!

All is merry...

 

All is bright...

 All mommy & daddy want is a silent night...

From our crib to yours....

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

The Olson Family

5 months old & First trip to South Dakota

On December 15th Grace turned 5 months old. I know I say it every month, but how is it that she is 5 months old already?! Here is her monthly picture with Pooh bear.

Daddy trying to get her to smile for the camera.

This last weekend we headed to Deadwood, SD to see our good friends Tommy & Ashley get married. Grace did great on the car ride. I just tried to entertain her in back while Brian drove us ladies 400 miles each way. While we were there we had some time to do some sightseeing and took Grace to see Mount Rushmore - her first national monument. It was a cool, clear day and there was hardly anyone there - it was great! Here are some photos.

Now those who read this who knew my dad know that he was quite the well, smart a** and jokester. So years ago when I was probably 10 or so, my parents took Katie & I to South Dakota for a family vacation. Honestly I remember that trip a lot. We saw Mount Rushmore, went to Bear Country USA and did a bunch of other stuff, it was a lot of fun. Well while there dad had Katie & I standing in front of Mount Rushmore with our arms in the air and one finger pointing up. He kept telling us to move a little left, a little right and we were like seriously dad take the picture already. Well in those days you didn't see the photo until it was developed, when mom got the pictures back dad was quite pleased with himself. You see the photo shows my sister & I picking the noses of one of the presidents, he thought it was hilarious! At the time I just rolled my eyes and was like whatever dad, but I have to say now that I laugh about it. So, to honor Grandpa Phil, Grace helped me pick the nose of Abe Lincoln. I told Grace Grandpa would be proud!

And now on to the wedding. How cute is she in her dress?!

Looking good daddy!

And finally the happy couple, congrats Tommy & Ashley!

Of course coming up this week is Grace's first Christmas. Judging by the boxes arriving for her lately she is sure to be spoiled! She doesn't know how lucky she is to have such wonderful friends and family.

Hope everyone has a great holiday!

The Santa Photo

It is a scanned copy so it isn't great quality, but it is sure cute!

A week of holiday fun.

Grace is soaking up the holiday air. She celebrated her first Chrismakuh with her honorary aunts. When my good friend Marissa had her daughter 3 years ago we all decided she should know about both Christmas and Hannakuh as two (Marci & Rachel) of our group are Jewish. Since the kids are still pretty young it really is just an excuse for the 5 of us to get together and catch up and have some fun with the kids. Marissa now has a son as well and now I have Grace and next year Marci will be adding a little one to the celebration as well. Our little group of kids is growing fast and I can't be more pleased to see our little family that we chose grow. Nothing is better than amazing friends.

Here is Grace with Avery & Ben after they opened their gifts.

On Saturday Brian & I took Grace on her first visit to Santa. She was in a great mood that morning and tolerated the line, which thankfully only took about 10 minutes to get through. The photo we bought is pretty cute with Grace gazing at Santa, but here is the one photo we were allowed to take. I am going to see about scanning in the photo we bought at work and get it up here some time this week.

And meet Sophie. Sophie is a teether I heard about. When I went to look it up I found out it cost $20! But it is made of BPA free products and safe to chew on. So while I was doing some shopping on Amazon for Christmas I saw that Sophie was on sale, so I splurged and got it for Grace. She LOVES Sophie. When Grace saw Sophie for the first time she looked at her, smiled, then grabbed her and began to chew on her. Grace loves to go to town gnawing on Sophie to bring relief to those gums that are bound to sprout some teeth soon.

Coming up this week, Grace's 5 month birthday and a road trip to South Dakota to see some friends get married. It will be a fun and adventurous week!

Baby, it's cold outside!

Let's just say the Olson house is ready for some warm weather again. It has been around 15 degrees and lower the past few days. It makes getting out of the house pretty difficult. Grace has a minimum of two blankets wrapped around her, a hat on and some mittens, all loaded up in her car seat. But alas we have to work so we have to go out. Here is hoping it warms up soon!

After Thanksgiving we put up the tree and Grace helped decorate. Here she is hanging up her first Christmas ornament.

And posing with the tree, she likes looking at the lights.

Someday when we get a house we will have a tree bigger than 3 feet, but for now this works.

Along with Christmas come Christmas cards. I haven't done them in years, but now that we have this cute baby to show off I figure we had better send some out. Here are a few of the runner up photos. I'll let you wait to see what we picked when you receive one in the mail (and I'll post it here closer to Christmas).

And this one is priceless...I imagine she was saying something like "Geez mom, are you serious?! I don't want to pose, I want to play and I am SO not smiling for you." :o)

Lastly, an eye update for you. I took Grace to see Dr. Oliver on Thursday. He said things are looking good right now, from what he can see. He can't always get a good look since Grace moves around and also gets mad pretty quick with the bright light n her eyes. He however wants to do yet another exam under anestesia in January to make sure the retina is still attached and check the eye oil and a few other things. I was less than pleased to hear this as we hate having to have her have anestesia again, but here is hoping that when he goes in all looks good and all he has to do is look and not fix anything. I joked with him that maybe he should do the surgery before December 31 so that I wouldn't have to start paying our insurance deductible again with the new year since we are beyond max on it now, but he didn't think it was funny. I had to assure him I will do whatever for our baby, but if we can make the bills less that always helps. I thought it was humourous, but maybe you have to know me that I joke around during stressful times.

Otherwise Grace is doing well. She, Grandma G & I survived my work conference last week and we are getting excited for a visit from Aunty K and Nana this month.

Stay warm!