Fall is in the air...

School days have begun and are swiftly passing.

Anders is enjoying his 3rd grade experience with Mrs. Nelson--he is running for Student Council and is quite excited for the experience. He is also looking forward to mentoring a "kindergarten buddy" with his Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Eggiman's class. Football is in full swing and his team the "Razorbacks" are ready to win a game this season.

Kate loves University Preschool. She does miss Mrs. Langer and the Jacob's Ladder gang, but looks forward to donning her mouse backpack every morning and heading with Dad to the WEB building just two buildings over from my work. Dance has started and she is enjoying her new dance classroom on the 3rd floor of the Academy Building.

Osten is living the big life at Sheri's house. He and Ian also share a special bond with Ian bequething Osten a very special kitten toy. Osten gets to spend most of his days with an ubercute girl named Hattie and will soon be spending his days with a sweet little boy named Lucas too.

Life is moving quickly and we are trying to embrace the moments as they fly past.

September's here!

Really quick post to say Happy Birthday to my Momma! Anders is starting 3rd grade and Kate will be starting Preschool on the 13th. Time is fleeting quickly.

Tea Party

Katie's perspective on a tea party

The clear blue sky above our party

Katie going crazy with the camera

Anders showing Osten some Bounce moves

Tea for five

Osten at his first tea party

Anders at his first tea party

On our front lawn on a sunny July day, Anders, Katie, Osten, Karen and Brad participated in a tea party where cranberry juice and cookies were served. It was so fun to get the honks and waves from passersby--it's nice to take time and spend moments with the kiddos.

Announcing Osten John!

Finally I'm feeling up to writing a little bit about one of the most amazing little people we have ever known. Osten John was born into our family at 5:17am on Friday, May 21, 2010 weighing in at 8 pounds 1 ounce and filling out his britches at 21.25 inches.

He is a delightful little person. He loves to be held and does quite a bit of sleeping, so we will be getting to know him more and more in the next few weeks as I'm home until August 16.

Anders is totally in love and Katie is too--she is having a little more difficult time getting used to sharing the spotlight, especially when we are entertaining guests, but I'm sure she will get more used to the fact as time goes on. Brad and I are over the moon and we have been enjoying time with Grandma Betty and Grandma and Grandpa Blomgren spending time here at our home taking care of kids and of me while I am recovering from having such a wonderful little person.

Love to all and if you haven't met him yet, we are excited to introduce you to one of the sweetest little people ever born.

The cute story from Sheri...

Subject: Katie story
We were outside playing and katie all of a sudden starts exclaiming, "there! Sheri LOok! there it is!!! Do you see it?!" I ask "what' looking down the road in the direction she is pointing, at the road, houses, school, neighbors lawn, back at her to see what she is looking at.

""That thing, right there! Right there! Do you see it?!" "I don't, what do you see?" EXaperatedly Katie says "Look that thing that the girls jumped out of!!!!! Do you see it!!!!" Looking in the direction she is frantically pointing in, I start searching for girls...teen agers? Did they run off. I scan the yards, I look toward the school, down the road, at the neighbors houses, back at Katie and back to the road. "What girls?"

Disappointedly and loosing hope, she says "the singer girls..." I look up an barely catch a glimpse of the white, blue and Green truck disappearing down Bartosh Street. "OH the chickmunk girls! I shout, the FedEX truck, they jumped out of a FedEX truck. Bent over Katie comes back to life and says with wide eyes and surprise, "YES from the squeakquil." "Yes!! I did see it Katie!" ANd I got a great smile and a huge hug!

Thank Goodness Odegards lent us the movie two weeks ago!!!!!Now that was an intense moment. Air traffic controllers have NOtt'in over me!!!

Update...

Ivan and Brad after Anders' birthday party


Siri and Katie at the party

Katie at her dance recital

Anders and his buddies at his party

Ivan, Molly, Betty and Brent at Anders' party

Anders' birthday booty!

Grandma B reading to the almost nine year old and his sister

DQ with the Thibodeau's!

Wow--how time is flying. Just got another really cute story from Sheri and realized that it had been a while since I had updated our blog.

Our lives will more than likely be changing quite drastically in the next few days. A new member of our family is expected to arrive on Friday, Anders is now a nine year old, Katie is now a 4 and almost 1/2 year old and we have done a lot of living in the past few months.

Brad has built a nice little urban farm complete with livestock (2 bunnies), a barn (storage shed) and tilled acres (5 raised beds) and a compost pile. I have complemented the vegetable gardening (peas, carrots, tomatoes and potatoes) with a little flower gardening.

Anders is completing his third year at Greenwood Elementary (second grade) and unfortunately had to miss his class field trip yesterday due to an untimely illness--fever, cough, malaise. I took full advantage of the moment though and took a little longer lunch and spent some time holding him in my diminished lap and we had great conversation.

Kate is completing her first year of Jacob's Ladder Preschool where she continues to thrive and grow. Today she should be bringing home a CD with photos that one of the Mom's in her classroom put together of photos throughout the year. I am eager to view and so is she.

I'm thouroughly enjoying these last days of pregnancy and just pray that I will never forget this wonderment and joy...what a gift from heaven!

Hope you enjoy the update and love to all...

The green eyed monster...

Thanks to Sheri for doing some amazing journaling for our family...

Ian and Katie got in a tangle this morning. Ian in the Tinker Bell dress and Katie in Snow White. Katie with tears says, ian hit me in the belly. (Trust me, I was mortified!!). Speechless and holding Katie I looked at Ian. His eyes teared up and he said, "Katie said she had a baby in her belly, and I don't want her to have a baby in her belly." then holding back a sob "I told her I want to be the baby," "throwing his hands up says, "if she has a baby in her belly, then I can't be the baby." Now crying.

Ahhh---So I tried to say no hitting in the belly, but he would not let me finish, so commented that the feeling he had was called jealous. I asked him if he was worried that Katie would not play with him if she had a new baby. He said yes. i asked Katie what she thought about that. She thought for a few seconds and said, "well that makes me mad!" Ian cried. I asked Katie if she would still like Ian if she had a baby in her belly. She paused, said yes, Ian through up his hands and cried, "no she won't." I couldn't help thinking to myself ("yep and your dad felt the same way about you three...and still pouts sometimes...). After trying to get them to see each others perspective and realized...nope it was not going to happen, we came upstairs for a bit to play in the playroom. And Ian got talked to about hitting in the belly (sorry!!).There pretend play is so real to them!!! Yet I was amazed at how real they could talk about such a huge issue...so interesting.

Out of the mouths of babes...

Katie/Ian friendship through the years...

This is a FaceBook post from Sheri. I believe Katie has a dream and that dream is to marry Ian Magnuson--read on.


Katie said if her baby is a girl, she'll be called Ella, if a boy, Dr Reams or Ian, but probably Ian. I replied, "Well, maybe, when you are a grown up, you can name the baby that comes out of your belly, "Ian." Katie smiled pleasently, "Well, when Ian and I get married, we will both be Magnusons, then the baby will be Ian Jr and we will have a girl and name it Katie Jr."

I love this little lady and at the same time, have a little fear for Ian if he decides in the future that Katie is "not the one".

She is four!

Katie, Siri, Ian and Chuck E. at Katie's party

Katie experimenting with makeup

Stella and Katie showing off their birthday gifts

Katie getting her birthday medal from Chuck E. Cheese

Katie's princess carrot cake created by Grandma Betty

Katie is now a 4 year old girl who had a special party at Chuck E. Cheese on her big day. Everyone seemed to have a happy time and we all were able to eat the lovely cake Grandma Betty made...I just love her imagination.

Love to all and Happy Birthday Katie!

Hot chocolate

So, this cold overcast morning, I decided it was hot chocolate with whipped cream day for myself. I don't often pamper myself, but felt the need to indulge.

That didn't go over very well with Anders and Kate as I didn't include them in my indulgence. Instead of being very late for work, I said "Anders, if you don't lose a block today and Katie, if you don't get your cot moved, you will be richly rewarded with this treat at the end of the day". I informed Sheri of my plans with Katie and her incentive of not having her cot moved and this was her delightful response...


I laughed about the cot. Katie totally cracks me up. She hates being moved away from the others. I think right after Christmas she had it moved one day, but it had been a long time and I don't think she has since. She was so ticked! Lately Ian has wanted to sleep head to head with her, their cots together. So I told them we could try it (How can I say no, but serriously this is a recipe for disaster)! So I told them I would move them if they goofed around. Oh boy, words cannot describe what thoughts you could just see floating about her little brain, you could just see her eyes and face take on rapid movements as she processes the idea...elated to sleep next to Ian, but not being goofy is not her strong suit, and she KNOWS, I will follow through. You could just see her insides jumping around excitement and being resentful to me at the same time. I have been SOOOO impressed, and I am sure she works really hard, but they have been successful last week and this week. She is so proud, yet relieved each day she succeeds!

Is she tired today? Ian just told Katie she can only love him and she started bawling hysterically, because she loves he momma too. Ian was horrified she was bawling, so I had to calm her down and explain that Ian just wanted to tell you he loves you so much it is hard to share you...then she switched to telling us about finger sandwiches and something about her Dad...My she is just having some pregnancy hormones, she is with child you know---she tells us that there is one growing in her belly.

My pregnant belly is still laughing from the commentary on my sweet daughter, Katie.

Tiny Baby Olson

Baby in reclining position with legs on left and head on right


Looks like they might be camera friendly (like big brother and sister)



An action shot--baby really was on the move

Hi!

I'm attaching a few photos from our ultrasound this morning...that baby is a mover just like his/her big sister Katie!