Christmas Photos

Okay, I know I promised a Christmas blog, but since it's almost New Year's already, I'm going to just post some pics with commentary. I know I'm copping out, but seriously, who wants to read all the details when a picture is worth a thousand words, right?


Oh, so joyfully clustering all the ornaments in one small section of the tree.



Really mom, do you have to take a picture? I am way too cool to sit on Santa's lap. I don't really want this moment immortalized.



Katie didn't cry (yay)! Andrew so stoically agreed to humiliate himself for one more picture. I really don't think he'll be willing to go through this next year.



New Pajamas on Christmas Eve! We are so ready for our ridiculously long drive around the city "looking at Christmas lights" (so mom and dad can make sure that at least the two littlest ones are asleep before midnight. There's work to be done).




Christmas morning: The new kitchen was so five minutes ago. Have you seen my new castle? By the way, who are you to disrupt the lounging princess with bright flashes!




Woo-hoo! Our little sugar bug was very pleased with the contents of his stocking. (notice that the non-candy items have already been tossed out of sight and forgotten.)




Daddy gets a makeover. Sorry baby, those wavy locks won't get tamed with cold plastic. I'm regretting now that I didn't get a picture after the fact when daddy was wearing all the princess necklaces and jewelry. Priceless.



Andrew's favorite Christmas presents were the new Playstation games, but since those make boring pictures I'm posting him on one of our three new inflatable chairs. Joy. Jared took the kids to the dollar store to pick gifts for each other and these were Katie's picks for the boys (Andrew got one for Katie too so she wouldn't be left out). I'd like to know what Jared was thinking when he allowed this one. We barely have room in here for real furniture.





Here's the fairy princess minutes after the "I can't fly" incident. Apparently, she decided that she'd make the Cinderella doll fly instead.

"I Can't Fly"

Merry Christmas everyone. I'll do a whole Christmas post when I have a chance to download our pictures, but right now I just want to quickly share Katie's latest moment of cuteness. She's had a fabulous Christmas. She's completely covered in the princess department now, and as she was modeling her new dress-up duds (which consisted of a princess ballet leotard with skirt, topped with blue glitter skirt, complete with blue fairy wings and "big girl" shoes that are about 8 sizes too big), she started to kind of dance/jump around. This is totally normal for Kate. There's a reason I call her my "jumping bean." But the difference this time is that she is not jumping and dancing with glee. She looked so serious. Then she turns to Jared and says, "Daddy, I can't fly!" Jared repeats her statement, not sure what she's getting at, then she says, "I need batteries (points at wings), this don't work (big frown)." Ha! Baby, if that's all it took, we'd all be flyin'. So cute though. She'd noticed all the boys' new toys transforming magically with the addition of batteries and she hoped she could make her new fairy wings take her for a ride.

Drum Roll Please . . .

Okay, all you Olson baby factories, I know you've been waiting for this. It's true! We're going to make our fourth (and hopefully final) addition to the Olson family tree. I'm due in the middle of June sometime. My doctor really did give me a due date, but I seriously forgot. It must be a symptom of too many kids. I guess since I've done this a few times already, and I've heard it all before, I was just halfway paying attention to everything he said. Oops. Babycenter.com puts me at June 20th, but I think the date the doc told me was something-teen. I'll be seeing him a few more times, so I'll let you know. Jared always accuses me of being a bit too under-whelmed, so I'm sorry if I give that impression. I really am happy, but those who have actually seen me in my ninth month of pregnancy should totally understand the lack of enthusiasm I feel for the state I will shortly find myself in. I still hear the laughter in my head from people who saw me in my BYU graduation gown 7 1/2 years ago. I looked like I was harboring a circus under my tent (twitch, twitch, shudder).

I can also feel somewhat free from the guilt I felt at being such a bad blogger now that you all know. I'm just so tired all the time. The puking doesn't help matters either. Ha Ha yesterday I threw up in my carpool friend's driveway while attempting to run to the gutter. Life must go on, kids must go to preschool and what-not. I need to make a note to myself to keep a toothbrush and toothpaste in the car in the future. Too much information? Sorry. Just sharing.

The only really regrettable thing about this is that I may have to miss Brian's wedding. Sorry Bri, we'll see what the doctor says when I'm in my freak of nature stage. I'm positive that the airlines won't let me fly, and even if I do get the okay from Doc, I'm really not sure about the prospect of 12 hours in a car at that point. We'll see.

It's not that the last few weeks haven't been eventful, I've just been too lazy to blog lately. Braden was so proud to finally lose his first tooth (He's not even in kindergarten yet). We took a picture to commemorate the occasion:




Katie hit a milestone of her own. A couple of days ago, I was folding laundry upstairs while the kids enjoyed the electronic babysitter downstairs. After what seemed like an hour of matching socks, Katie came in my room saying, "look Mommie!" I ignored her for a moment, until she put a pile of blond hair on the bed in front of me. Nooooo! She had found a pair of the kids' scissors and thoroughly butchered her pretty hair. I'd had the front pulled back into two little pigtails and she cut half of one of them off, and on the other side, she cut a chunk of hair up above her ear. I really wish I wasn't too traumatized to take a picture, but it just didn't occur to me to document the disaster. After cleaning up all the hair and giving my shaggy monkey a bath, we put in a call to grandma to help us with hair repair. My mom wouldn't touch it. She told me that since this probably would happen again at some point, I needed to learn how to fix it myself. Advice and moral support were all she could offer. Thanks mom. So, here's Katie showing off her slightly crooked new haircut (with some choppy chunkies still showing on one side becuase I couldn't bear to go any shorter).