Wanting Time To Stand Still

Wow!  These past few weeks have blown by so amazingly fast.  I'm wanting it all to slow down just a bit!  Changes are happening...towards the end of October, Spencer applied for a new position with SkyWest airlines.  He has applied for so many positions over this past year and we have tried to be patient while waiting for the right one to take advantage of his hard work ethic.  Finally, after feeling like we needed to explore different options, he got a job at headquarters as an Engineering Coordinator.  For one reason or another, we felt like he had been black listed and we recently found out that some people were saying that he was difficult to work with.  Spencer does stand up for what he knows to be right and sometimes that works against him politically.  Anyway, we are so excited for this new opportunity!
  We listed our house for sale the day before Thanksgiving because with this new position, we will be moving to St. George, Utah.  A step closer to family!  We had one showing Thanksgiving weekend and then a few days later a friend of mine called and told me that her parents were looking to purchase a house for her single sister.  She told me that they wanted to take a look at our house so I told her to come on over.  As it ends out, her parents made an offer!  We bought this house at a very bad time.  The value has decreased by about $100,000.00.  I did not make a mistake with the zeros, trust me!  So we are having to short sell the house.  We are anxiously waiting to see how it all goes because we weren't behind on our payments.  Now that we need to find a place to live in St. George we won't be able to afford a rent payment and the mortgage payments. 
Thanksgiving...it was good!  Spencer had started working in St. George 3 days earlier but, he was able to make it home for Thanksgiving dinner.  His sister, Cassandra, and her son Tristain, were able to come down and they brought the dog that we gave to her a year ago.  The kids were so excited to see the dog and the dog was excited to see the kids, so she peed, hence the reason why we don't have her.  It was good though!  I had to prepare the turkey all by myself so I was a little nervous about that but it turned out great!  I also did most of the sides.  I did keep it simple because of everything else that was going on!  Cassandra brought cheesecake and pecan pie for dessert.  We played spoons and visited.  It was a successful, happy day!
  Tonight the kids and I decorated a bit for Christmas!  Again, we are keeping it simple because of our whole situation.  The plan is to keep the kids in school until the 16th, then head to Utah for Christmas, then back down here to finish packing everything up and moving it up to St. George.  In our decorations this year we found a little elf.  I new tradition going around is something call the Elf on the shelf.  It is about an elf that comes to your house and reports back to Santa each night to tell him if the kids have been bad or good then returns back to the house in a new spot before the kids wake up.  I thought that it would be a good way to explain to Makenzi about the true spirit of Christmas.  So the little elf came holding two notes.  One for the Olsen kids and the other for Makenzi's eyes only.  The one for the kids was the whole story about what the elf is all about.   The kids ended up naming him Alex.  After the small tree was decorated and each of the kids rearranged the nativity Makenzi read the note by herself.  We said family prayer minus Spencer, then when the little ones were all in bed Makenzi needed to talk with me in her room, without Garet, she said.  She proceeded to ask me if I believed in Santa.  I actually got all teary eyed because my baby is almost 10 and I know that friends have been 'talking'.  She was excited to be in on the special secret and I was so sad!  I just want time to stand still!  It is going way too fast!  In the letter to her only, it explained that I needed her help with moving the elf each night for her to be part of the Christmas magic.
I love this special time of year.  I love the spirit it brings.  I love all of the memories the season holds for me while I was growing up.  I love the thinking about what to give others.  I love the smells.  I love the time for reflection.  I'm just hoping that time will slow down so that I can enjoy it!

Halloween 2011

We have had a lot of fun getting ready for Halloween this year.  It all started when I looked at my budget and decided that we needed to be creative.  We had a lion and a scarecrow costume and I thought that if I could work with Eli's old knight costume, we would have a little theme going and I might have to only buy one costume!  I posed the idea to Makenzi first and she was game so I told her to act really excited about him being the tin man and he went for it! (Thankfully)  So this year we were the cast from The Wizard Of Oz! 

 

Garet Turned One!

I can not believe how fast this past year has flown by! It is so hard to believe what huge changes took place in our lives on that day. We were a changed family in more ways than one.
We feel so blessed to have four healthy children. Garet has a personality all his own! He is such a serious little guy! People, especially strangers have a very difficult time getting him to smile at them. He just looks at them, then at me, as if to say, "Mom, who does this person think she is?" I just have to apologize and explain that he is a hard one to crack! He is not like the other kids at all.
Garet has officially started walking. He still mostly prefers to crawl but he doesn't hesitate to stand up in the middle of a room and take a lot of slow steps! He has been and still is a stinker when it comes to sleep. We are working hard at getting him to sleep through the night since it has been over 365 days and I have only had 6 nights of uninterrupted sleep! The hardest part is letting him scream his little head off! One, because Makenzi sleeps in the same room (since she is off of school for fall break she will be sleeping in my room) and two, he screams so hard that he has been known to break blood vessels in his eyes. Everyone says that we just have to tough it out!
Everyone just loves Garet, he has everyone wrapped around his little finger. He has the "baby of the family" thing figured out already.
To celebrate his first birthday, and the last of our first birthdays, we had a small milk and cookies themed party. I am so grateful for our good friends that we have here. Thanks to those who helped us celebrate!

Cake Smash Photos

He really enjoyed his cake!

Gavin turns 3!

 I cannot believe that this little guy is 3!  I can remember hoping for him to join our family.  I had actually given up hope that we would add more kids.  Then, right when I least expected it, this great sweet spirit blessed our family.
 Gavin is such a happy, fun, and helpful little guy.  He looks up to his older siblings, his older brother in particular.  One little thing about Gavin, is that he has always liked to help me cook.  He is constantly pulling a chair up to the counter to help put ingredients together.  He has earned the nick name of "The Rocket" in nursery.  He really is a fast little bugger! 
 Last week we took a trip to Utah for Spencer's nephews' wedding.  While we were there we had a birthday party for the three boys.  So today was a celebration on a much smaller scale.  I think that he still had a fun day! 

This morning Makenzi and Eli were both awake and getting ready for school before Gavin got out of bed.  I talked to the kids and told them that when Gavin woke up that we would sing Happy Birthday to him.  He came out of the bedroom while the kids were having breakfast at the table so as he came into the kitchen we sang him the Happy Birthday song.  At first he didn't understand why we were singing but when we said his name in the song he got a smile on his face.  I think that he thought that his birthday was in Utah.  Later, my parents called to sing to him and wish him a happy birthday.  Then tonight we had some friends kids over for a babysitting swap so we had pizza and cupcakes with them.  Gavin thought that it was a great party!

Playing together...Priceless

Almost three year old  upset that he can't do the things that the big kids do.
Baby is tired of big kids smothering him.
Three year old and baby playing together.

Priceless.

Garet is 10 Months-Little Stinker

My baby just keeps growing whether I want him to or not!  It is so much fun to have a sweet baby in the house.  This baby can be and has been a little stinker when it comes to sleeping.  He is the complete opposite of Gavin.  Lately his trick is to wake up when laid down in his crib.  I have to just let him cry it out.  I really don't like to have him cry because he doesn't just cry anymore, he screams.  In fact, he screams so hard that he has broken blood vessels in his eyes.  Little stinker!
He gets around quite well these days.  He is crawling all over the place and putting everything that he possible can into his little mouth.  It has Spencer quite worried that he might choke on something.  The last time that we had a baby at this stage we also had a dog that went around and ate everything that could possibly harm the baby.  So for the moment I miss having a dog around.
Garet's latest trick is to pull himself up on things and then stand.  The kids think that this warrants attention with a dramatic, "MOM, MOM!" until I am looking and then they say, "Garet is standing!"  I know that this is so exciting to see him standing all by himself but, I almost have a heart attack when the big kids act that way.
So there you have it, my baby is quickly becoming a toddler.  I relish these last days, weeks, months, however long it is going to be until my little stinker is walking around the house.

Eli Turns 7!

It's Eli's birthday!  I can't believe how fast my boy is growing up!  He got to choose what he wanted for breakfast this morning and he chose waffels with ice cream.  Then he got to take a snack to share with his first grade class.  He came home from school wearing a birthday crown.  He wanted to get pizza and eat it at Agua Caliente Park, so that is what we tried to do!  We ended up eating the pizza in the car on the way to the park.  When we got there we knew that it was going to be a short trip because a monsoon was looming.  Sure enough, we had about 10 minutes at the park and then came the down pour.  I think that he still had a good time!  When we got home, he got a present and we had hostess cupcakes for dessert.
I sure am proud of this boy!  He is growing so quickly!  His favorite things to do right now are play his "army man" computer game, watch TV, and play outside.  He doesn't like chicken or most of the other things that I make for dinner.  He is responsible and loving.  He always wants to give you a hug before you head out the door!  I love him so much!

First Day of School

Today was Makenzi and Eli's first day back to school.  They were both pretty excited about going back.  When I woke up Eli this morning, his eyes popped open.  He was so excited!  Makenzi knew what she wanted to wear, like a typical girl, on her first day back.  She is really excited about her new teacher.  She got who she wanted.  I am curious to see how this year goes after the last two being not that great.
Eli's teacher called and told me that he did well with his first day as a first grader.  I'm really hoping that he feels successful.  I wonder how he will adjust to being at school all day.

Summer Vacation 2011

July 4th 2011

The 4th of July in AZ is just not that exciting compared to what I grew up with.  Luckily, we have good friends that we got together with for a BBQ!

 (This is what happens when we say that we want to get a quick family picture)

Right before we were supposed to be leaving to head over to our friends house, the monsoon hit.  And boy did it hit!  Shingles flew off of our roof!  Spencer ran to the hardware store and bought the materials that he needed to replace the missing ones and then he spent 2 hours hammering up there!  My fingers are crossed in hopes that we don't loose any more this monsoon season!

Garet Is Now 9 Months!

 I am way behind on posting Garet's growing progress.  Now I am kicking myself.  I didn't take his monthly picture with his Mickey Mouse. Grrr.  Anyway, I can't believe that Garet is 9 months!  It always amazes me how quickly time flies by.  It took nine months to grow him and this is how much he has grown on the outside!

  

 He is beginning to figure out how to get up on his hands and knees so I'm sure that he will actually start crawling any day now! He has started doing the stomach lunge thing.  He is super cute! His latest trick is to be on his stomach and then move back to a sitting posititon.  Secretly, I'm grateful that he isn't too mobile yet!

Eli's (Extra) Tooth Extraction

My boy Eli.  When I was pregnant with Eli, he stopped growing at 35 weeks gestation.  I went in for a special ultrasound to see if they could figure out why he had stopped growing.  During that ultrasound they didn't find any reason why he shouldn't be growing but they did find that he was going to have a cleft lip. 

Right after delivery, I got to see him for a split second as they walked him by me before they took him into a different room to be examined to see how extensive the cleft was.  As it turns out, the cleft was minor, unilateral and incomplete, meaning that the opening didn't go all of the way into his nostril.  The neo-natologist that examined him did notice that he had a bump on his gum line.  We were told that he could possibly be missing teeth there or have extra teeth.  It turned out that he had an extra front tooth that grew in perpendicular to his other teeth.  It also looks like he has an extra adult tooth in the same position.

On June 1st, Eli went to the dentist that is on the oro-facial team here in Tucson, which is all of the kids regular dentist, and had his extra tooth removed.

Here is a before picture.

And a close up!  You can see that it was on the upper left.  He lost the front left one awhile ago and the dentist was hoping that the adult teeth above it would push it out just like the other baby teeth but, since that one was turned, it was affecting the lower adult teeth and making them crooked so she said that it was time that it came out!

Eli was a brave boy and wanted his dad to go with him.  Spencer said that Eli did a great job!

This is an after picture with the big empty space.

He got to bring the tooth home in a little tooth carrier.  The root was still large so it wasn't going to come out anytime in the near future. 
Good job tough guy!

What happened to May?!

Mother's Day was great this year!  Spencer let me sleep in and then made crapes for breakfast.  The kids made gifts at school.  Makenzi made a card and Eli made a flower vase.

On May 23rd, Eli graduated from Kindergarten along with his buddies Masen, and Bryce.  They had a great year in Mrs. Montes class.  The are all in the same class for 1st grade and they are very excited about that!

 Eli getting his diploma........

 The 3 stooges

 We are so proud of how hard Eli worked in school this year.  He was at the top of his class!

 On May 26th, Garet cut his first tooth!  This is the first of the last first milestones for us.  His first tooth is the front bottom left.

It was also our 11 year anniversary!

We haven't changed a bit! Ha ha!

My parents were able to come down to watch Eli graduate from Kindergarten and help out with some projects around the house.  We really appreciate all that they do for our family.  My mom stayed a few extra days so we were able to go on a date to celebrate our anniversary!