March + April

A random sampling of what's been going on at La Casa del Olson this spring:

A special cake for a special birthday boy.  Happy #33, Jared!  

 

Despite limited success in the past, I have high hopes for this year's veggie garden.  I even bought a grow light!  The girls are excited, too;  every time we go to the hardware store or garden center, they want to pick out seeds for the garden.  Elizabeth wants to grow corn;  Anna wants to grow watermelon.  I'm hoping to grow enough tomatoes to do some canning.  Keep your fingers crossed for us!  

 

The kiddos weren't too enthusiastic about modeling their Easter finery.  (I'm a sucker for matchy outfits for the kids, but this was truly serendipitous:  I'd bought that shirt for Ben nearly a year ago, in a clearance sale, and then just a few weeks before Easter I found those dresses for the girls at the JBF sale.  Voila:  coordinating outfits for all three of them, for less than the original retail price of just one.)

 

Easter Eggs, 2012

I can't remember why Anna was upset, but she perked up as soon as we let them loose in the front yard for the Easter egg hunt.  Speaking of Anna. . .

 

Kids seem to have something in their genetic code that compels them to put anything remotely hat-like on their heads.  In this case, it's a milk jug with the bottom cut off (to be used as a "hot cap" to protect frost-tender plants in the garden, if you must know.) 

We got a special visitor in the mail:  Elizabeth's cousin in New Jersey sent us a paper doll version of herself, as part of a school project.  (Elizabeth was particularly excited because, as luck would have it, she's been reading Flat Stanley at school as well!)  We took "Flat Brooklyn" for a visit to the state capitol and then mailed her back home, along with a letter and some photos of Utah. 

Soccer season is here!  We went ahead and signed Anna up along with Elizabeth--and it's been pretty entertaining to watch her team of 3- and 4-year-olds.  I love how the shorts hit them below their knees. 

Ben usually spends the second half of the night with us.  He gets really restless around 4, but then around 6 he settles back down into a deep sleep until 8 or so.  I love waking up to see him utterly sacked out like this. 

Whenever Anna finds an ant outside, she runs in asking for some food so she can feed them, and I'll give her a piece of a cracker or something similar.  One day she decided to bypass me and just grabbed a box of Triscuits from the pantry.  I opened the door later that day and discovered this: 

Ahhh, spring--we're glad you're here!

Boy

So there's this saying that's become quite popular among the vinyl-lettering-on-the-wall crowd:

To be honest, I really disliked it the first time I saw it. . .

. . .and the second through 114th time I saw it, too. . .

But lately, as Ben is growing up and out of the relative androgyny of early infancy. . .


. . .I have to admit that it's pretty spot-on:

I swear, Ben is noisier and dirtier than either of the girls were at this age. He just. . .YELLS. All the time. He's only got four actual words at the moment (mom, food, car, and ball--what else does a guy need to talk about?), but what he lacks in vocabulary he makes up in volume. He growls, hollers, squeals, and hoots all day long. He can't throw a ball without shouting, or eat without grunting. It's all very entertaining, actually.


And while I'm proud that neither of my girls is terribly fussy about staying tidy and clean, Ben seems to have a unique talent for getting dirty.  I think he'd live outdoors if I let him.

Oh, how I love my noisy, dirty little guy.  

Lovebirds, Part II

(See Part I here)

Twelve days after Sarah and Christian were married, we were back in Salt Lake for Skylar's and Jordan's wedding. The weather wasn't quite as nice (50s and windy, brrr!) but we still managed to brave the cold for some pictures:

It sure was thoughtful of the gardeners to plant bulbs in coordinating shades of yellow and coral, don't you think?

Four men and some babies: Aaron and Noah, Jay and Ella, Jared and Ben, Nick and Lexi.

Mr. and Mrs. Keeney

Jared's mom sewed Skylar's wedding dress; every time we visited these past few months, she'd give me a status update, showing me the fabric swatches, the patterns, etc. This was the first time I got to see the finished product--so pretty!

Group hug from the grandkids.

After pictures, we drove home to drop off our babysitter and take a little break to steel ourselves for the rest of the night. The reception took place at a charming reception hall in Lindon:

It was a little too chilly to play outside, but what does that matter when you've got a fully-stocked candy bar at the ready?

Between visits to the candy bar and the photo booth, the kids camped out in the bride's room playing Crazy Eights.

The old newlyweds, fresh off their honeymoon and ripe for babysitting.

The bouquet toss

Sending off the bride and groom with a display of sparklers. . .

And so we reach the end of an era that began fifteen years ago when Emily and Erik tied the knot. The Olson "outlaws" are now complete, and we couldn't have asked for better guys to complete the set; Christian and Jordan are both incredible men, each perfectly suited to his respective bride. Sarah and Skylar were absolutely beautiful brides, and we're so happy for them to have taken this step in their lives. It's been such fun to be around these young lovebirds. . .although we veterans had better step up our game, because these guys are making us look bad, what with their elaborate proposals, heartfelt toasts, and other shameless displays of affection.

Congrats again to the happy couples--we wish you all the best in your new lives together!

Lovebirds, Part I

It's been seven years since the last Olson wedding, so we were all excited when Sarah and Skylar both got engaged this winter. To save Emily the trouble of making the trip from California twice, they settled on wedding dates just 12 days apart. Hoo, boy.

The fun started with Sarah's and Christian's wedding. The weather couldn't have been more cooperative. . .it was unseasonably warm for March, and just overcast enough to make for some beautiful lighting:

(You can't see it, but Anna is holding a stuffed deer in her lap here. She somehow smuggled "Bambi" along and insisted on holding her for the pictures. . .)

The grandkids heartily approve of Skylar's fiance, Jordan.

Our family (plus the aforementioned Bambi)

Mr. and Mrs. Thompson

Fiona and Jordan were all too happy to be Sarah's "attendants"

The granddaughters. Look closely and you'll see little Saoirse sound asleep on Sarah's lap.

Ben finally gave up and went to sleep while we were still taking pictures.

I think Anna would've fallen asleep, too, if she had a stroller to sit in. Poor girl was so tired--we'd spent the night at a hotel downtown and the kids went swimming Friday afternoon and again on Saturday morning before the wedding.

After we had pictures taken, Jared had to head back home to help set up for a basketball tournament. I stayed behind in Salt Lake, thinking it'd be fun to walk the kids to City Creek for lunch with the rest of the cousins. The crowds were shoulder-to-shoulder, but we pressed forward with an eye single to our goal: the food court.

Q: Why am I smiling as I singlehandedly drag three grouchy, footsore kids through the record-breaking crowds at City Creek on opening weekend?!?

A: I just spotted the Chick-fil-a.

After lunch, the kids and I waited at Temple Square for Jared to pick us back up. As we waited, Anna asked me, "Mommy, how do you find a man to marry?" I'm still not sure where to begin answering her. . .

At the reception, the kids had a wonderful time running around outside, playing with their "new cousins" (Christian's nieces and nephews), and taking full advantage of the dessert buffet and the photo booth.

The kids playing "Duck, Duck, Goose" on the lawn

After dancing, cake, and the bouquet toss it was time to bid farewell to the happy couple. The kids were such troopers. . .by the time we loaded them in the car to go home, Ben was so tired that he fell asleep before Jared had even finished buckling him into his seat. On the way home, Jared said, "Now I know what people mean when they say they could sleep for days. . .I feel like one night of sleep isn't enough to recover from this!" I heartily agreed with him. What can I say? We're getting old!

The next 12 days flew by in a flurry of outings and celebrations--Grandma's birthday, Conference breakfast, a trip to Gardner Village with the cousins--and suddenly it was Skylar's wedding day!

To be continued. . .

Hair-story

In honor of Ben turning one, Elizabeth and I thought we'd do a little tribute to Ben's hair.

The first two things the nurses said right after Ben was born were, "He's huge--he must be 10 pounds!" and "Look at that hair!" Only a slight exaggeration on both accounts: he was a few ounces shy of 10 pounds, and while he couldn't really compare to his Swanson cousins, he did have more hair than either of his sisters.

Ben had to be taken to the nursery pretty frequently during our hospital stay for blood tests and antibiotics; after one trip the nurse brought him back looking like this:

Baby's first faux-hawk

Sometimes babies will lose the hair they're born with. . .but not Ben. His long blonde hair just got longer and blonder. We had a lot of fun playing with it, styling into all sorts of silly hairdos:

the "Astroboy"

the "Cheap Toupee"

the "Kewpie doll"

the "Bozo"

the "Hitler"

the "Oompa Loompa"

No matter what we did, though, it always reverted back to a style that we affectionately referred to as "the Trump":


Something in me just couldn't bear to cut my baby boy's hair, but by the time he was 8 months old, I had no choice; it was literally hanging in his eyes. So one evening we put on a Baby Einstein video and I gave him a quick--and I do mean QUICK--trim:


Much better. No more Mr. Trump. . .though there's still plenty of length for Mom to play with:

the "Elvis"