Our Christmas "Letter" Video!

Boys

Aren't the most beautiful little boys in the world? (I'm not allowed to call them beautiful around Cora, she says, "they can't be beautiful, they're HANDSOME")

Christmas and Grandma :-)

Thanks to Grandma Judy for this little nativity, the kids have been playing with it incessantly, acting out all the parts. I put it up on our mantle recently to give it a break and also to PREVENT some breaks :-) In any case, I think it's the sweetest little nativity ever :-)


Also from Grandma, Christmas dresses that that girls were allowed to start wearing once we hit December. They were SO excited! I didn't have time to take pictures before church (of course. not matter how early I think I'm starting the getting ready process, it's always a bit of a rush by the time we get to loading up in the van). So as I planned to take pictures after church, Cora fell asleep in the car and didn't want to wake up, but she looked like a little sleeping beauty in her dress, so I had to catch it. Isabelle looked just like herself with a little attitude in her picture :-).



Soren REALLY wanted to try on one of the girls pretty necklaces that came with their Christmas dresses. He also cannot go anywhere without his new cowboy boots :-)

One more

One more post. Is this not the CUTEST baby in the world? My favorite thing to do with him lately is give him a bunch of little kisses on his neck (well, neck and cheek since there's not much of a neck going on) until he giggles. So dreamy. Wish I could bottle up the sound of that laugh and the feel of those cheeks and the smell of that head and keep them forever.

Grocery games

So, I'm not the best coupon-clipper and sale-chaser, although I pretend once in awhile that I'm totally into it. It can be like a part-time job, so when I have time to sit down, look at the ads, clip the coupons, then plan which stores I'll use which coupons during which sales etc., it's really exciting. And being able to do it with Clark and Soren in tow is a serious accomplishment. It's the only way I can really contribute to finances, and the only "savings" I have some control over in our budget. Anyway, I'm really proud of this grocery trip I did today, so as weird as it is to POST about it, I'm going to anyway just to have some proof out there that I have done something perhaps smart, perhaps frugal.... :-) So I took a picture of all the groceries I bought today that totaled $38.00. With sales and coupons, I saved a total of $43.67. That's the first time I've ever saved more than I paid. I've seen a couple of news shows where this expert shopping/coupon woman goes up to the cashier with a cart full of groceries and pays 25 cents or something. I'm not going to aspire to that or else I'll get depressed. In any case, I must celebrate the few triumphs I get :-) (how can you tell Brad's been out of the country for almost a week? I can't stop babbling to a computer... and this is the third post on the blog in 30 minutes. Help me Rhonda)

OK, so it doesn't look like much, now that I've uploaded it, but I wrote that whole paragraph... There's a bunch of produce hiding back there, okay? I still feel accomplished, even if you're saying what a freakin' loser. Alright, that's enough.

Things and stuff

Neighborhood friends--We have the friendliest street I've ever lived on! The weekend usually ends up with lots of kids sharing backyards (one new neighbor has a big trampoline, and I actually feel a little sorry for them now that the whole street of kids knows about it!)

Cora and Nikki

Isabelle and Elisabeth with Elisabeth's dog - isn't he gorgeous? I love this picture because I get to imagine we have a pet, but not really have to go through with taking care of it :-) One day...


The Primary had an MTC experience for the children at church one Saturday. The girls really loved being "Sister Olson." It was weird for me to realize that if (when!!) they serve a mission like I did, they wouldn't be "Sister Duerichen," like I was. I hadn't really thought about it until they put those little missionary tags on. Boo. Couldn't they use their mother's maiden name just for their missions? Is that thought an indication that I would I just be trying to relive those 18 months through them? And if yes... so?!


Brad took the girls to the Renaissance Festival-- they have literally asked us at least once a month since last year WHEN were they going to get to go again. And we made the costly promise :-) But they had fun again, and this time I opted out to stay and chase Soren in the comfort of our own home :-)

Halloween!

I had a hard time getting pictures of the kids dressed up, even though they dressed up more than once this Halloween season! Clark was a strawberry--it's tradition! Cora and Soren both had turns wearing that costume. Isabelle was a mummy for one party, then a witch. Cora was a pretty princess! Soren was whatever. He was a "pop star" for a party, since I couldn't come up with anything original, I tried to spike his hair, but discovered that we don't own any gel in this house! Just mousse, which doesn't quite do extreme hairstyles. Anyway... here they are :-)

Soccer

THat's Cora kicking the ball :-)
The girls after a game with their snacks and drinks! (always a must after a game
Clark is usually like this at their games and Soren is usually wandering around with one of us chasing/playing with him :-)

Auntie Erin

My sister came to visit (from Denmark!) and it was great fun. The kids loved playing with her--the girls here pictured here playing Skipbo. She and I got our hair cut together. It was a little hairy (haha) with the two boys in tow. I had intended to get a much shorter do, but we ended up with too little time and I didn't want to rush the hairstylist with something major. So it's a healthy blah style for now :-)

Clark smiling and laughing

This is for you, Mom! (the music in the background wasn't intended to be a soundtrack or anything, Cora and Soren were just watching a Taylor Swift video on the computer)

Saturdays

Brad's at a camp-out today, and it's always hard to do Saturdays without him. It's so hot outside, activities have to be limited to something involving water and taking all four to the pool by myself is way too scary. Today is a good example of piecing together activities so as not to hear Isabelle say "this is a dumb day!" The girls got to pick a little prize from the treasure box, the reward for getting the minimum checks on their reward chart (includes brushing teeth morning and night, homework/reading/flash cards, clean room/make bed, piano practice). So they played with what they picked for a good part of the morning (these cool little diary-looking notebooks). Cora made hers into a "dream journal," and idea from the movie "Sharkboy and Lavagirl" and Isabelle made hers into her secret diary. Cora drew and colored pictures, relating to me the crazy "dreams" she had. One was about a gumball planet where it rains gumballs and everyone eats gumballs all day for food. Cora has always got some creative story going on (in fact, it's rare for her to let us read her a book, she always wants to "read" it to us, making up total nonsense. I mean, some of it makes a bit of sense and is very creative, but sometimes she just pieces together sentences interspersed with gibberish) Isabelle tried to get me to guess what secrets she put in her diary.
Right now they're outside doing this:




















And Clark is doing this:

Smiles

OK, so school is the theme as of late :-) Soren got Cora's backpack off the hook this morning and asked me to help him put it on. Then he walked to the front door and said, "can I bus?" (which is interpreted to mean "can I go get on the bus?") He threw a little fit when I said no and then he asked to get his shoes on, which led to another fit. He walked around the house for awhile with the backpack on ("packpack" he calls it), then finally gave up. He loves seeing the girls get on and off the bus and is getting less and less perturbed that he can't get on. I guess today he thought he could win a pass if he had the right accoutrement...

Just some cute

Brad's birthday

The girls had a great time trying to surprise their dad for his birthday this week. I love making my own cake and icing and decorating it myself or with the girls. This time was in haste, although to be honest, they never look good and always very home-made and messy. Yet it never seems to bother me (or the kids yet, I'm sure I'll get complaints when they're older and notice other folks who are actually talented in this area), I still love it and for all the things I suck at, I never feel bad about this particular un-talent :-)

First Day of School!

Isabelle and Cora were off to school this morning and were so cute and excited. Isabelle took good care of Cora on the bus and took her to her Kindergarten class. Soren threw a huge gigantic fit when he couldn't get on the bus with them. I thought he'd be okay by the afternoon when he saw them get off. But he threw a big fit again because he still wanted to get on that bus!

rock climbing gym

A few weeks ago Brad took the girls to a rock climbing gym and they had a great time...

Pneumonia

So, as if wasn't hard enough to recover from having a baby and getting used to a household of 4 kids, I now have pneumonia! Brad had to skip going to Scout camp to stay home and help out. I haven't had pneumonia since I was a kid and although I don't have the fever and chills today with really sharp pains every time I take a deep breath (just slight sharp pain :-P), I am feeling pretty frail and winded. It's weird. I decided to post an entry after I wrote this to my sister, Erin:

"I'm doing alright. I'm on antibiotics and Brad is taking care of everything else :-) I just had a hot dog and tater tots from Sonic for lunch, but at least I didn't have to prepare it :-) And Cora asked me to wash out her shoe just before they left now and as I was telling Brad about it, he said "yeah, she was really worried about this thing in her shoe and I said, 'if you just wait awhile, you'll forget it's there.'" It was a big chunk of caramel. Sigh. But I got it out for her and she happily went off without a hard-not-to-notice sticky substance in her shoe."

It's always interesting to see what happens when the Dad takes over. He does so great, though. For him, the more activities planned and the less food preparation, the better. So they went to Chik-fil-A this morning for breakfast and played in their play area, then to the pool, then Sonic for lunch, and now he just took the girls over to Kelly's for a playdate with Maria and Layla. Later he will take them to the gym while he works out and they play in the gym's kid room. The house is in shambles, but it kind of has been this way since the baby was born. Even with my mom here, we haven't been quite able to keep up with housekeeping, especially with the kids around all day. I just haven't been up to going out too much of course, and my mom can only handle Isabelle and Cora outside the house (for obvious reasons. Brad also took the oldest three to the store yesterday and put Soren in one of those carts with the car in front. Even if you buckle him in, he can get himself out and he remarked how hard it was to catch up to him once he bolted!!! Yes, I said, I should have warned you) But the girls have been to the pool a lot and to the library with my mother in these past few weeks. As well, Isabelle went to a week of musical theater camp, ending with a performance on the last day. It was SO much fun to see her in it. It was the "Sound of Music", and she got to play the part of Gretl. You know, "the sun has gone to bed and so must I...." CUTE. It was just the bare bones of the musical of course, they only had 5 days of 3 1/2 hour rehearsals to do it, but I was quite impressed and she LOVED it.

Wow, give me a few kid-free minutes and a computer, I could really fill up this blog!!! I haven't really been able to write much in this or my journal or even emails to family and friends, so it's good to get something recorded. Usually the first few months of a new child in our family gets forgotten pretty quickly because I'm out of it and I don't write anything down (except with the first baby where you are carefully noting every diaper change, every spit-up, every moment of joy and panic...)

Anyway, it's always something around here, and it seems to be all at once. In addition to having to go to the doctor yesterday, our landlord was here for about 5 hours waiting for an A/C technician to check our our (well, her) system for a second opinion. We'd had the home warranty's people out a total of 4 times since we moved in (May 20) and they finally agreed to replace the condenser, but had some extra costs for her, so she came down to figure things out. I came home from the doctor to her sitting on the couch in our disheveled living room, I felt like crap, the kids were loud and crazy. At least she is quite a pleasant lady and didn't seem uncomfortable there. Although I wonder if she has second thoughts about the decision she mad to let us live here!

Blessing Day - July 4th!

Nana!

Clark cuddling with his Nana


Look at that thumb!! I don't know if he'll keep doing it, he doesn't find his thumb all the time or seem to need it, but it looks so cute when he's got it.

It's been wonderful to have my mother here ("Nana" to the kids) to help out. I'm always in danger of post partum hemorrhage since I've experienced it with all three. If I stand up too often or for too long, I can tell it puts me right back to how I felt right after he was born, so it's a real PAIN to not be able to do everything yet. I went for a walk with Soren and Cora in the stroller on Wednesday, feeling pretty good, but for the next two days I had to take it very easy as the bleeding had picked up as well as perineal pain. It was such an easy birth, why is the recovery so hard?!?! In any case, thank heavens for my mom, who is getting lots of exercise in our house :-)

Clark and his siblings

Clark has found his thumb! (and Cora has found her inner fish) He doesn't always find it, though, so he'll occasionally take a binky (pacifier) too :-)

Soren always asks to hold the baby, but it lasts about 5 seconds and then he says, "heeyaah" (here) and gives him back.

Do they look related? Actually, Clark looks a lot like all of them did as infants, it's fun to look at all of their baby pictures and compare.

Clark Elling Olson

He's here! A little delayed post here, email and facebook got the news first :-)

Clark was born June 15, 2010 at 9:39am. Here's the story, which I wrote on my iPod in the hospital and haven't quite edited but I need to get it down somewhere before time gets more away from me!---

2am I woke up to a contraction. It was pretty strong so I looked at the time and waited to see if another one would come along. 6 minutes later, another one. For about 40 minutes I timed contractions which varied from 3 to 10 minutes apart, so I woke up Brad. We sat up and talked while timing contractions, I also finished packing my hospital bag. After 2 hours of contractions I called Tena, it was about 4am. She came right away and we were off to the hospital. (BTW, the evening before we had just happened to take a dry run drive to the hospital!)

We arrived around 4:30am, by then the contractions had slowed down a bit. In triage the nurse checked me and I was dilated 5cm and completely effaced. Even though my contractions were slowing down I was far enough along they admitted me and I got all hooked up in my room. Around 6:30 they started me on pitocon to keep the contractions going and I was also given an epidural, so I didn't even make it to hard labor before I got the pain relief! So the labor went well, moved along quickly so that I was ready to push by about 9:30am (about ten minutes before I was talking to my mom on the phone to let her know I was in labor but had to get off in the middle of a huge contraction and all the sudden lower pelvic pressure!!) I could feel my contractions, but of course the epidural took away most if the pain. It took all of 5 pushes during 2 contractions to get him out. The doctor and nurse were great. Clark came out just fine and crying right away. I held him right after and he stopped crying almost immediately, but the nurses had to take him away to clean etc. (in the room) and boy did he wail! He was 7 lbs. 13 oz. and 19 3/4 inches long. Not bad for being 9 days early! He was born at 9:39am.

I did not hemorrhage as with the last 2, although they did give me meds just in case, as I did start to bleed more than the norm. Soon after his birth I got very nauseous and dizzy. They gave me some kind of major anti- nausea med (after I barfed!) that made me SO tired and loopy, pretty much for the rest of the day.

It took awhile to settle on a name, but we liked Clark- mostly for its Superman assiciation :-) and it just fit him. Elling is a family name on Brad's side. While the girls were visiting(since Mom isn't here yet, we had Judy and Elisa come down and help out with the kids--also Superwoman Penny in our ward organized to have the RS sisters bring meals for the next week, bless her!) one of the volunteers came in for something and was asking about what names the girls wanted for their new brother. Cora randomly says, "we can't name him Travis because that's my boyfriend's name, but he's not my boyfriend anymore because I don't go to that school anymore..." classic Cora :-)

Bare Belly

A little partial nudity here... But it's so fun to see the big belly before the baby inside shows up in the real world. Here I am 37 weeks/9 months pregnant!!!


I don't really go the pool bare-bellied, I just pulled up the top for the picture! I'm not a real believer in public belly-showing in any form, be it pregnant or flat-tummied :-)