Update.

We had a really fun fondue party with the Olsen's on January 2nd. Cheese fondue with veggie's, bread, and weanie's, then chocolate with fruit and cookie. It was delicious!

Hayley is getting so big. She is so much fun and we are just loving her like crazy.

I put her in her Bumbo, and she immediately went for the toaster.

She loves sucking on her toes!

She loves her exesaucer

She tried rice cereal for the first time...wasn't too interested in it though

She's sitting all by herself!

The kids all love the DS

This boy is obsessed with Mario...the head band across his face is supposed to be a mustache 

We've been housebound all last week when the weather was freezing. I HATE going out in the cold if I don't have to. We're happy this week is looking warmer. Life is good.

This Year.

I love starting a brand new year! I am a planner, and a list maker. I make list's about everything. So when a new year starts I like to roughly plan the year out (of course I know things come up and things change, so nothing is set in stone) but here is a rough outline of what our plan for this year is: We were working really hard at getting out of debt, and were almost there, but then the opportunity came up to buy our house. It sort of just fell into our lap, and felt right, so we dove in and are very glad we did. Everything just worked out, but our debt snowball kind of got put on hold and we even added some more debt on with a down payment and little fees that pop up when your purchasing a house. So this year we want to go crazy on our debt again, and get as much as we possibly can paid off. Nate will start Coach pitch this spring and Ty will start T-ball. Ty is very excited to finally be able to play. I want to start a mini garden. I've never done it before so I want to start small and will only plant a few things. I'm excited to start learning how to do this though. There is something so special about being able to eat things that you planted and help grew. We also want to get our yard finished this year. We only have a couple of things to do. We have to close off the sides and put in a gate, and finish our shed. Ryan also wants to close in our furnace downstairs. Our basement is unfinished so its just sittin there and it makes us nervous to have the kids playing down there with out it closed off. We are planning to get a piano this summer so that Nate can start lesson's in the Fall. I am excited to have a piano in the house and maybe I'll even learn. I know how to read music but have never played and practiced enough to really be good at it. I've always wanted to be a good piano player so here is my chance. McKenna will start her dance combo class in the Fall which will be tap and ballet. It will be fun to see her learning to tap. Her Grandma Kim took tap as a child. Nate will start grade two and Ty will finally be in Kindergarten! I think we will enjoy each other a lot more with him gone half the day. I also want to get my main floor all finished. That means a few more finishing touches on the living room, a new Kitchen table, and my laundry room organized. We'll also be saving for our family trip to Disneyland! Our plan is to go in February of next year! So much to look forward too!

Christmas Letter 2011

Christmas is here again! It is definitely our favorite holiday here at the Olsen house. With Christmas comes the end of the year and the beginning of a new one. 2011 has been a pretty busy year for us… We added baby #4 to our family. Hayley Kim arrived August 16th at a whopping 8lbs 1oz, my biggest baby. She will be 4 months soon and is adored by all of us. She is still so chubby and just so darn cute. She is making lots of fun noises and loves to laugh and watch her siblings play. She is so strong and has rolled over, and is starting to grab things and play with toys. She is sleeping through the night and is such a good baby! We all call her “Hayley bean, beanie, baby bean, or beanie baby”, pretty much anything with bean in it. We are so grateful to have her as a part of our family. McKenna will be 4 in February. She loves being a big sister and is so helpful with Hayley. She loves to play princesses and dress-up, and with all her little toys, and is very good at entertaining herself. She still has this high little voice that I thought would get easier to understand but is actually getting harder because she is starting to talk faster. She started dance class and swimming lessons this year and is enjoying both. She loves to play with all her cousins and is starting to play on the Xbox with the boys. She is so sweet and polite, but cries (which can be more like screaming) quite easily. She gives the best hugs! Ty is growing up and getting so big. He will be 5 in January. With Nate at school all day he has had to jump into the role of big brother and is doing the job quite well. He and McKenna play really well together, and he loves little Hayley and loves making her laugh. He is a bundle of personality and charm and is always making us laugh, but he loves to test us as well. Still as mischievous as ever! He loves to do things with Dad and Mom and doesn’t entertain himself as well as his siblings. He loves to be outside and has made friends with the little boy who lives next door. Nate is just sprouting up. He turns 7 in a week and started grade one this year. He is doing well and loves it. He excels in reading and is reading at a grade three level. He is doing really well in swimming lessons and even though he is a natural sinker, he works hard and is still a little fish. He loves to read, and is really into sonic and Mario right now. He loves all things electronic and would play all day if he was allowed to. He is a good big brother and is always willing to help out Mom and Dad. He also found a new love this year…Sprite and Rootbeer! I spent a good chunk of the year being pregnant. It was my hardest pregnancy and was very hard on me mentally and emotionally as well as physically. I’m so glad to have Hayley in my arms and out of my tummy. Ryan and I just celebrated our 8 year anniversary and both are vowing to get into shape this coming year. We also bought our very first house this past April. It’s a cute little two-story with an unfinished basement that we eventually plan on finishing. Ryan worked hard on finishing the backyard this summer and made a fun swing set for the kids. We love having a back yard, and we love having our family and friends over to our home. We feel so much love and support from all of you! We are extremely blessed and are looking forward to a new year with new experiences and new adventures. We hope this season finds you well and feeling blessed. We love all of you very much, The Olsen’s

8 Years.

Ryan and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary on November 28th. Last year we went to Florida for our anniversary so this year we had to do something a little more low key. We planned to go out for dinner and have a night with no children. My amazing Mother in-law took the boys and Hayley, and McKenna was supposed to go to my Brother's, but that morning McKenna had a fever and had puked a few times (this was the start of our never ending sickness, which we're still enduring). So we ended up keeping her and my sister watched her while we went out to eat and then we did all our Christmas shopping for the kids. We picked up McKenna and that was that. Seems like a short way to celebrate 8 years of marriage! It was nice to spend some time together though. We haven't had much time since little Hayley joined our family.

I always joked with Ryan about the 7 year itch, but we did it and made it through our 7th year. I think that's quite an accomplishment! After 7 1/2 years of marriage we were finally able to buy our own house. It feels great! We feel like we're real grown ups now. In all seriousness, Ryan is really an easy guy to be married to. He is such a good Father, and he respects me and treats me way better then I deserve sometimes. I feel like we've accomplished quite a bit together and am excited for our future adventure's together!

Love you lots and lots Ry!

Lately.

I am getting pretty behind on my blog, so I need to do some catching up. First off, we put our tree up on Nov 30th. I never like to put the tree up too early. I'm a firm believer that Christmas shouldn't start until December 1st, but it just so happened that this was the only night we could do it, and it seemed close enough. Its not that I'm a Grinch. Christmas is my most favorite time of year, but I also don't like to drag it out. I can only listen to  so much Christmas music and wait so long for Christmas day. So I don't like to think about it until I know there are only 25 days to celebrate it. Seems like plenty of time to me! We had fun watching Frosty the Snowman, decorating the tree, eating fudge and drinking eggnog.

Watching a Movie

Beanie watching the excitement

Ty loves this Santa

A few days after that, came this...

Sick kids. Yuck. Ty and Hayley both now have colds. Guess that comes with the season as well.



On a brighter note...the little miss is getting so big. She loves her Bumbo seat, and we even tried the jolly jumper. She loved it, but is still a little small. She kept leaning over too far. She is getting so good with her hands as well.

Pictures.

Just some pics that my bestest friend Devon (devondurocher.com) took for us over the last couple of years.

Our Christmas Card impromptu shoot

Hayley Bean

Our Father's Day shoot. We made a video for Ry

Family shoot 2010