October Afternoon

Today is the perfect fall day and the boys and I are spending the afternoon at my mom's. With Halloween just a day away, there is a lot to look forward to. It's moments like these that make me the happiest. 

A few of my favorite things

With an almost-brand-new baby in our almost-brand-new house, this summer has been a time of introduction. Here are some of my favorite things about our summer of firsts.

1. While I feed the baby in the morning, James watches Brave in the family room. I can hear him singing all the songs. This is a first. My boy can sing.

2. Having a backyard for the first time has been amazing for all of us. Our favorite thing to do is water the plants. I'm happy to report that the hydrangeas are thriving!

3. We have an outdoor freezer! It's the little things people. And the fact that we have Popsicles on the ready isn't disappointing anyone.

4. Our angel baby sleeps all night. This is a major first for us! He has given us the greatest gift new parents can ask for, the gift of sleep!

5. Being a mom of two is even better than I imagined. My two boys have my heart completely. I'm the luckiest. 

6. Scott can put his engineering to good use with all the things to fix around here. What would I do without him?!?

7. My favorite thing about our summer has been our long summer walks around our neighborhood. Bella completely terrorizes the other dogs while James brings fists full of cars to play with as we walk. Foster sleeps and Scott and I can actually have long conversations. I look forward to these walks.

8. We can see a mountain from our backyard. James always asks to go to the mountain so a couple weeks ago we said "let's do it". It was a very fun mountain adventure and we are eager to go back. In fact, James asks everyday if we can go to the mountain. 

9. The last "new" to report is that I just installed the blogger app which means a lot more blogging!

10. To round it out, we also discovered cookie butter. 

Here are some pics from our summer:

Foster Scott

The last two months have been the busiest in Olson family history.  We sold our condo, moved into our dream neighborhood, unpacked, unpacked some more and had a baby.  I was sure all my hard work would send me into early labor and sure enough after a long trip to Costco, I started having labor pains. Scott was convinced I was being dramatic and wasn't in labor and he went to sleep for the night...so he thought.  After an hour of progressing pain, my sister was at our house to spend the night with James and Scott and I were headed to the hospital.  After 12 hours of labor, Foster Scott arrived.  

From the moment I met him, I knew he was going to be incredibly sweet.  In the hospital we held him constantly, even while sleeping, which we had to hide from the nurses.  We just couldn't put this little guy down.  That didn't change once we were home.  We still love holding him and occasionally I sneak him in bed with me.  

James has taken some time warming up to Foster, imagine that!  When James visited us in the hospital he wouldn't look at Foster or sit next to me.  It was an extremely hard adjustment for him but after two months with a baby brother, he is starting to come around.  The other day he walked over to the baby and said "Foster, my name is James."  I'm hoping that now they have been formally introduced, they will be the best of friends.

At 9 weeks of age, Foster is cooing and smiling.  In fact this kid is all smiles.  Scott is the best at getting Foster to smile.  I swear it's because they look identical that they like smiling at each other. When Scott gets home from work, the first thing he does is make the baby smile.  He says it's the best part of his day.

It's hard to believe that in one day you can turn a family of three into a family of four.  It has been  a long, tiring, rewarding two months.  Couldn't imagine our family without this little guy.

Winter at the Beach

We've been so lucky to have had really great beach days in both January and February and we are taking full advantage.  James plays in the sand and braves the waves and ends up naked and tired by the time we leave.  And me....well I'm a beached whale.

Only Seven Months?!?!

It is crazy that I still have over two months to go and I am already this big!  I'm praying I don't have a 10 pound baby on my hands.  The babe is kicking like crazy and is very active which makes me happy and just a little nervous.  I think this one might be my wild man.  I'm having all sorts of aches and pains compounded by a two year old that is just beginning to throw tantrums.  But the fact of the matter is, we are so excited to welcome our new baby boy to the world and to see our family grow.  I'm blessed to be surrounded by such sweet boys!

Tonight while putting James to bed....

Tonight as we were putting James down for bed, he put up a bit of a fight.  He was crying and trying to climb out of his crib.  I think he might be in the stage when nightmares begin and so sometimes he associates going to bed with being alone and being scared.  So to make him feel better, I tucked him in, turned off the light and stood by his crib singing lullabies.  I haven't sung to him like that since he was a baby.  He nestled into his blankies but I could see his eyes wide open watching me sing.  I sang all three verses of "I'm a Child of God" paused for a moment and then went on to the next song.  During the pause, James pulled both hands out from under his blankets and started clapping.  I never got this reaction when he was an infant and I have to say, it's nice to have a little positive reinforcement.

Halloween

We spent last Saturday night in the church parking lot Trunk or Treating.  James liked putting the candy in the kids bags but mostly liked putting the candy in his mouth.  We had a great time decorating our trunk and watching our little bear/monkey have a great time.  A special note, dad came dressed as a cowboy with a homemade mustache.  I was very proud.

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The after party consisted of watching The Lorax, of course!

The fruit snack wrapper in this picture is killing me.