Christmas Day

Thought I'd post some Christmas Day shots. We had a great day. Starting out at 7:00am at our house, the girls had a blast opening gifts and eating a special Christmas day meal. Ava got some Legos to build with while Jillian opened a cash register (which has quickly become the favorite play gift for both girls). Jon outfitted the family in new Sharks gear. Even little Eli is game ready. Go Sharks!

Our friends the Johnson's sent us a great snow globe with Finn's picture in it. The girls carry their new friend around all over the house. Give us a big smile Jillian!We next loaded up the van with some gifts and headed out for the day. A grueling 5 minute drive down Blossom Hill road to the Olson's. Uncle Andrew was home from Cal Poly and delivered a group of packages with a theme - Cal Poly Gear. Grandpa O spent a lot of time holding Eli. Grandma O had hot danish - yummy - for breakfast number 2 and we enjoyed some time outside swinging the baseball bat.
Lunch time meant that it was off on the next grueling drive - a whopping 7miles south on highway 85 to the Benson's. Grandma and Grandpa B were waiting excitedly for us to arrive. Uncle Andrew(#2), his girlfriend Michelle and her daughter Haleigh were there Christmas excitement. Some snacks, stockings, and then an early dinner. It was a world wind of excitement during the gift giving. Ava and Jillian got some matching sleeping bags and pillows. The girls had a long day but a fun day. Here we are in front of the tree.

Eli hanging out on the floor with daddy. What a smile!

Merry Christmas 2007!

Stockings - creativity exercise

So Ava reminded us that Eli needed a stocking to hang over the fire place. Since Sara made the girls ones, she needed to run out and get materials on Christmas Eve to make one for Mr. Eli. She made a new one for us too with extra material so that we all matched. She also has been wanting to add something to the stockings to represent the year for the girls. Well we settled on using their birthday party idea for the stocking. We then needed to break out the creativity juices (after the girls had gone to bed) to cut out shapes.


This in the results. Felt cutting was really fun!
A Rocket, a train, a little chick, a butterfly even a hockey stick for Mom and Dad.

Christmas Cookies

Sara had a great idea to make some Christmas cookie for the Grandparents and our friend Rachel. So the girls and I rolled out the dough and then cut all the cookies with cutters - stars, snowflakes, reindeer, snowman. The frosting part was the most fun, but keeping Jillian's fingers from getting into her month was a real challenge. Well those became a tray for us to eat! Ava's choice was the pink sprinkles.


Jillian cutting shapes.

Ava and Daddy having fun!

Frosting time

Jillian's cookies, with little finger licks.

Ava and Daddy's bunch. YUMMY!

Our three month old little guy

Eli celebrated his three month birthday today. We cannot believe how fast time is flying! He is growing quickly and is really starting to show his personality. He smiles all the time and laughs, loudly, at almost any familiar face. He has really taken to his bathtub and is kicking like a swimmer whenever he is in there, soaking the bath giver and everything around him. He is still sleeping fabulously (7'ish pm to 7'ish am) and while naps seem to be intermittent, I'll take the sleeping through the night anytime! His hair is growing in a bit more though his little cowlick seems to be sticking with us. He's considering rolling over and gets to his side before he gives up. Any day now I imagine I'll see him on his belly.

The girls have started calling him Mr. Man and Whammer Hammer ("because he whams his hands like a hammer!") and are absolutely in love with him. I have to keep my eye on Jillian who I have now found feeding him Playdoh and, just today, a watermelon lollipop. The girl loves food and I guess she's trying to share her love with her new little brother. Ava is an adoring big sister and a huge help to me and Eli seeks her out whenever she comes into a room.

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. My good friend Rachel from Westmont will be coming into town from Chicago on Saturday and I cannot wait to see her and spend time with her. We'll then be doing the family shuffle on Tuesday celebrating Christmas morning with the Olson side and then enjoying our time with the Bensons and sharing a meal. We hope you all have a great time with your families and celebrating God's gift to us in sending his Son.

Decorating the Tree

Our Tree in all its glory!

Which one can I put on the tree Mommy?

Careful, don't fall.

Merry Christmas from the Olson Kids!

The tree went up perfectly except for the weak branches. We found out how heavy our ornaments were. Oh well. The spirit of Christmas was hopping and we enjoyed a nice cup of hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows. The girls love the the lights and looking at each of the new ornaments we added this year.

Jon

Christmas Tree Farm - the hunt is on!

So the tradition we have for bringing or christmas tree home is to go up to the Los Gatos / Santa Cruz mountains to the Summit tree farm and cut it down. Its a fun tradition because of the hunt involved. Will the tree last till christmas, will it fit in the house (I like tall trees), will it have a random hole we couldn't see before we cut it, or my family's personal favorite, will it fall down this year! (I've gotten some real winners in the past - like my dad; string, wire, support boards, towels anything in the house becomes a great prop to keep the tree up! Well this year was new b/c our newest addition Eli. The girls are more into the "Hunt" and it was a beautiful day up on the hill. The tree we got looked really good, but ended up having "weak" branches. The next post will be about the tree decorations.

Jon

Ava's Creative side - medium Playdoh

Here's a fun shot of Ava's creative side sprouting out. She created all the detail: hair, fingers, the face.

Eli finds his fingers

Here's a great shot of Eli going to town on his middle fingers.

We love our swing set!

The backyard was leveled and then I spent the day on Black Friday putting up the swing set or "Play structure" as Ava likes to call it. Its such a fun addition to our family. Also included is one more picture front yard. Nice and flat.

A visit with the Great-Grandparents

Four Generations: Sara, Eli, Ava, Jillian, Great-Grandma "Gigi" Howard and Grandma "B"

Great-Grandpa "GPa" Howard, Jillian, Ava, Great-Grandma "Gigi" Howard and Eli

We had a great time visiting with the very great Great-Grandparents. Sara's grandparents came down from Roseville to meet little Eli. The girls were excited to see their Gigi and GPa and I know the Howards were excited to see their great-granddaughters and their newest great-grandson. We had a fun time and its always really special to be able to take pictures like these. We are so blessed to not only have such wonderful grandparents to our kids but for the kids to have two sets of wonderful great-grandparents!

Eli at two months

Eli had his 8 week checkup last week and he is a big boy! He weighed in at 12lbs (55 percentile) and was 23.5" (75%). WOW! He is a good pound bigger than either Ava or Jillian was at that age! Otherwise he was healthy as could be. We're enjoying him so much. He's starting to talk a lot more and you can even get a bit of a giggle out of him during diaper changes. He is getting to his side now when laying down and just yesterday grabbed at a toy and held on. Amazing how quickly they grow!

Watch out Elton John...here comes Jillian!

Just for a good laugh.

Ava's Brachial Plexus Procedure

We are so fortunate to have found a new procedure to address Ava's brachial plexus injury! We saw Dr. Hentz this summer who told us they were doing something new: injecting the pec muscle with botox to temporarily paralyze it then casting the affected arm. The idea is it will allow her arm to have a slow, deep stretch in underused tissue, muscle and joints. Once its removed her arm should be stretched out but her super strong pec muscle (which has overcompensated for years now) will have no ability to move. Her now stretched arm will have the chance to move in ways it never has!

Step two will involve putting a constraint cast on her non-affected arm. This cast will be on for around six weeks and will restrict her from using her non-affected arm and force her to use her newly stretched left arm.

We're especially excited as this "Constraint Therapy" is a research project out of Stanford meaning it is being fully sponsored and paid for: cast, specialists, therapy, everything! God is so good!

We'll keep you posted on the results!

Home Improvement - Back yard

Before

Loads and loads of gravel - (three plus pickup truck loads full)

After #1 - no more gravel

Preparing for a swing set!

Home improvement - Front yard revisisted

Well, with all this fine California weather, we needed to continue on our home improvement projects. The front yard was first. Last post showed the removal of the faux river. Now we had to scrap and scoop up layers and layers of tan bark(two truck loads). Remove old sprinkler system pipes. Remove hidden cement paths and the rototill it all flat. Lots of back breaking work. But its nice to do it yourself. Thanks to Dad and Dad for all the help.

J&S

Game on!

A follow up to our soccer star post. Ava really got into the game aspect of soccer and had a blast on her last day. She scored the first goal with a keeper dribble down the field and shooting it in. Then she volunteered for Goalie! She made a great stop. In the end, everybody got a medal.

J&S

Our brief sports experience

Well seems our little Ava may have inherited her mother's mad sports skills. Which really just means that she tried it out and decided it wasn't much for her. We signed Ava up at the YMCA for their soccer "experience" and have so far completed exactly 2 out of 4 of the Saturday skills trainings. She wasn't too impressed with it and, along with her friend Grace, decided putting the soccer balls in their shirts and pretending to birth babies was much more entertaining. We got an adorable picture out of her though!

Family Resemblance

We were looking through some family pictures and found these two. Often people ask me where Jillian gets her round face. The pictures to the right are of Jon's maternal grandmother. One is of her at five weeks of age and the other is of her on her wedding day. The five week old picture looks so similar to Eli and the wedding day picture reminds us an awful lot of little Jillian! We think so far that Jillian and Eli really resemble one another. Hope you enjoy them!

The Apple Butter Festival

Every year we head down to Watsonville for the Apple Butter Festival at the Gizdich Ranch. The "Amish" (quotes mine as these Amish come complete with cell phones and Blackberries) come and demonstrate the making of apple butter. The ranch has music and apple tastings and hayrides. Very fun! The kids love it and we enjoy getting outside for the day. The girls chose their pumpkins for carving including a little pumpkin for Eli. This year our friend Aletha and her son Walter joined us. Ava and Walter had a great time together. I'll be honest, taking our three kids is a lot more work than two was, but we still had some fun and got to take home a DELICIOUS apple raspberry pie!

Mommy and Jillian on the Hayride. / the old apple corer/peeler

Jillian in the hay tunnel/Ava on top of the hay tunnel

Eli in the Pumpkins / Aletha and Walter - 1st timers

Jillian Dancing to the banjo pluckers


Happy Apple Butter Festival!