Dance Class

We decided to try Sadie out in a tap/ballet/tumbling class. She mostly did very well. Her teacher was very nice and patient with her (even when Sadie would just wander off and lay on the ground or play with the bar.) Her teacher would just say afterward that she is just an independent child (who knew?)

Here she is before class in her tap shoes and leotard. So fun!

Today was the last day of the class, so the teacher brought in butterfly wings and tutus for the girls to dress up in.

Although the class is usually just organized chaos, the teach got them to all line up. Poor Sadie, although she is not the youngest she is definitely the shortest.

And then came Sadie's favorite part of the class. . . tumbling!


It was a good experience, but we decided to sign her up for a tumbling class instead of the dance tumbling combo again because she enjoyed the tumbling so much more, and, let's face it, she has a gymnast's build!

Photoshoot at the Park

We decided to make a Thanksgiving morning trip over to the park to attempt to take some family photos for a Christmas card. Like any outing with two or more children, it was an experience. Since I was taking the pictures, that meant Lolly was holding David and Sadie was free to roam around. Our camera's timer gave me ten seconds to grab Sadie from where ever she was playing, run to where Lolly and David were sitting, sit down, put on a genuine-as-possible smile, and convince Sadie to look and smile at the camera. Believe it or not, but we got a couple decent shots. I would post them, but then what would be the point of sending out Christmas cards? While we were out, we decided to try and take a few shots of the kids. Below are some shots we got of Sadie. I would post the shots of David, but all of the shots were either out of focus from him moving around or added ten pounds to his little frame.

One of These Things is Not Like the Others. . .

Picture Catch-Up

Since David is now 4 months old, we decided to try him on rice cereal. He wasn't to thrilled with it, so we will be putting off solids for a little longer.

Some Sadie randomness

And some recent pictures of our pup, Rory.

P.S. Ruthanne- I have only heard her bark once.

A very merry unbirthday. . .

Chris' birthday came so inconveniently last weekend (couldn't he have scheduled his birthday better?) and he literally had NO time to celebrate it. He's such a trooper that he didn't even complain, even though this birthday was a big one (he is no longer in his 20's.)

Last night we celebrated late by going out to dinner and to a concert with the Calvis. We went to go see William Joseph, and man were we impressed! He's a piano player and composer. If that sounds boring then it is because you have never heard him play. I'd compare him to John Schmidt, but more modern. He toured with Josh Groban and Clay Aiken and was on the most recent EFY cd. We actually met Bill (William) a couple months ago (and had no idea who he was) when we sat next to him at a birthday dinner for Jason. We'd heard Jason talk about his friend William Joseph the piano player before and for some reason I'd always pictured him as being in his 50's.
Here is a link of him playing Asturias on the Dr. Phil show.

On a different birthday note, we finally broke down a got a puppy. I can't believe I have a baby and a puppy, but somehow we are surviving. We named her Rory and are very happy with her.
We don't have many pictures of her yet (I'm waiting on my new lens that should be coming any day.)

Beauty and the Beast and Vampires

I think she was inspired by the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

And doesn't he look like a very beastly kangaroo?

Have a Happy Halloween!

Before and Afters

There have been a few minor changes here lately. First of all Sadie finally got her first real haircut. I was too afraid to have it done sooner because I was afraid she'd loose her baby curls, but it was just too long to manage.

Before:

After:

Note that her hair was straightened; we'll see today after she takes a bath if is curls much or not.

And I finally got around to getting a bookcase for Sadie's room. She is obsessed with books and they were getting out of control, so some of them graduated from our bookcase downstairs to her own upstairs.

Here is my $10 craig's list find before:

and After:

3 Months and Thoughts on Diapers

David is three months old today, and life is pretty quiet at the Olson house, but everything is good. Sadie loves holding baby David and never wants to let go of her baby.
David is still such a sweet guy, the only time he seems to get grumpy is when he'd rather be in his crib sleeping.
So, go ahead and think that I'm crazy but we've made the switch to cloth diapers. I'm sure the first thing that people think of when they hear cloth diapers are prefolds and plastic pants. Well, cloth diapers have come a long way since our moms used cloth diapers. I remember back about three years ago when my friend told me that she was cloth diapering her kids and thinking that she was seriously crazy (sorry Kristen.) After looking into cloth diapers, I have changed my mind.
I started out with a cloth trial pack (a local cloth diaper store has a pack of 6 different kinds of cloth diapers that you can try to help you decide on a brand/style for a month for $15.) I'd heard good things about bumgenius and fuzzi bunz, but in the end we choose bumgenius made by Cotton Babies. I LOVE my bumgenius cloth diapers, and don't tell Chris, but I'm pretty sure that he likes them, too (he was totally against it before we started, but he has slowly changed his ways.) I think that David likes them, too.
Some of the reasons I like cloth diapers:
- We haven't had any blow-outs or leaks (we were leaking through 1-2 diapers a day.)
- I think cloth diapers can be really cute (we have diapers in 7 different colors. Talk about accessorizing. . .)
- David was getting mild diaper rash from disposable wipes and diapers, but diaper rashes have been less frequent since we switched.
- Cloth diapering saves us money! It is a large investment, but considering how much we were paying for diapers they will pay for themselves at least 3-4 times before he is potty trained (saving us $1000-$1500)
- Cloth diapering is good for the environment. Although we use more water from washing, we save thousands of diapers from going to landfills where they pretty much never decompose.
-I love the thought of fabric being against his little bum instead of paper.
-Because David is breastfed, cloth diapers are very easy to use (when he starts eating solids we will have to use a diaper sprayer to spray his poop into the toilet meaning you only touch poop as often as you would using disposable diapers.)Like I said even Chris likes them. Our diapers have velcro, so it is just like changing a normal diaper. The only difference is that when the diaper pail is full I empty it into the washer instead of the garbage. Two quick washes later they are clean, and I let them air dry in our back yard (one of the benefits of Arizona is we almost always have sun.) When they are dry I spend 5 minutes or so stuffing the inserts into the breathable, but waterproof colorful covers and they are ready to be used again. We have enough diapers (30) so that I only have to do wash every 3 days, and I could probably go every 4 days no problem. Maybe it is because I am a stay at home mom, but I actually enjoy washing and stuffing his clean diapers.
-I've heard that cloth diapers help potty train faster/earlier!

To be a child again. . .

With a two year old around, it is hard not to notice the simple, innocent world of children. To Sadie, everyone is a brother, sister, mommy, daddy, grandma, or grandpa. If you are really special she might think you are Jesus (like the lucky guy today stocking yogurt at the grocery store.) Although I love the idea of her always thinking about others as brothers and sisters, it is a little embarrassing to be anywhere in public when she says, "It's grandma!" because let's face it, not everyone likes to be called grandma. . . We'll have to work on her tact.



And I can't resist this picture of my little man as he sits in his swing (but not swinging,) content to just have his little ribboned taggie on his face.

Thank You

So, Sadie has been saying the most random phrases lately. For example:

While riding in the cart at Walmart, very seriously she said, "Thank you for saving my life."

While looking for a puzzle piece, "I think Chris has it." (And when I said, "You mean Daddy has it?" She said, "Chris has it.")

When she wants to watch Dora the Explorer she says, "I watch D-d-d-d-Dora?" (this will only make sense to those who know the Dora theme song.) I hear this question often because the answer is usually no, so she'll wait a few minutes and ask me again.

I guess there aren't that many, because I can't think of anymore right now.

I'm getting ready to say goodbye to Sadie's baby curls and finally get her hair cut. Although she gets complimented on it all of the time, it gets too many tangles.

And some pictures of my sweet boy who has been sleeping through the night for a couple weeks now (10-12 hours straight!!)

2 Months

Here is a little recap of things at the Olson home:

David is two months old today! Time really flies.

A serious picture:

And a smiley picture:

Everyone says he looks just like his daddy and big sister, so here are some baby pics to compare with.

Sadie at about 2 months:

Chris at about the same age.

And me a lot older (sorry, no younger baby pics for me.)

And me a lot older (sorry, no younger baby pics for me.)

And I can't forget to mention the amazing BYU game.

Chris and I are alike in that the only sport we like is BYU football. And for me liking more means watching maybe half the game and socializing or playing games for the other half. We are very lucky that our good friends the Davises invite us over to watch most of the games (BYU games on tv are hard to come by here in AZ. . . the mountain is seriously lame. I guess it would help if we had cable or satellite, but Chris and I both find it to be a waste of money.) Anyway, what a great start to the season!



And last of all I found this article on a friends facebook page about my high school back in California. There are about 25 LDS students in a school of 1,400 and the last five student body presidents have been LDS. I remember babysitting the current president. Man, that makes me feel old.

Family Picture Time

So, while we were in Utah we decided to take a big family picture. Nothing professional (hence the lovely garage door background) but just something with all of us in it. I'm sure you can imagine how fun it was to try and get 10 adults, 11 kids, and 2 dogs to all look at the camera at the same time. Actually there were 3 dogs, but I guess Missy was wandering around the neighborhood.

This is one of the better pictures:

And Chris turned it into this:

Aren't we all grateful for photoshop? (Actually this was all done with paint.net.)

More Photos...

Blessing Pictures

We took advantage of our recent trip to Utah to bless baby David. His daddy gave him a beautiful blessing and then we ate and visited with our families.

Sweet baby David with his mommy and daddy.

Grandma and Grandpa Olson were able to leave their mission boundaries for the special occasion.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Thompson for having the blessing at your home.
Thank you to our family members who could attend!