Sadie's First Christmas

Although not planning on being part of the Christmas program at Lolly's cousin's house, Chris and Sadie were both given roles in the Nativity Reenactment. Chris was Reader #1 and Sadie was the Baby Jesus. Sadie stole the show with her fine performance, at least until her bottle ran out! At that point, the Baby Jesus decided she was done performing. After the show and a fresh bottle of milk, Sadie posed with the rest of the cast and crew for a quick photo-op. She's our little star-in-the-making!




Sadie is learning how to walk with a little assistance from her mom and from her new Radio Flyer Push-Car.

Christmas Card

Fun with toilet paper

So, Chris and I just finished a project in one of our bathrooms, and I left Sadie in the bathroom while I went to get the camera. As I walked away I was thinking about how Sadie had never been in a bathroom alone before, and I was wondering how long I had until she discovered the toilet paper. Well, needless to say, when I came back, less than a minute later, I found this:

We had a lot of fun putting the beadboard up, it was actually easier than the chair rail, becuase the bathroom is a smaller room, so we didn't have to worry about splicing pieces together. We are really happy with the way that it turned out, Chris keeps going back into that bathroom to admire his handywork.

Fun with Tupperware

And I'm not talking about me. If Sadie starts to get fussy while I am making dinner, I just open up the bottom cupboard and let her go to town with all of our tupperware. Her first item of business is to climb all of the way in.
Then she usually starts tossing lids and containers over her shoulder and onto the kitchen floor.
Everyonce and a while she finds a part that looks tasty and starts gnawing on it. All and all, I find it a good diversion, I just have to remember to wash all of my tupperware before I use it!

A Unique Gift Idea

A friend of mine from BYU has a business that takes classic stories and novels and replaces the names of major characters with names of your choice. What a fun, creative Christmas gift that would be perfect for many hard to shop for family and friends! The business is called My Custom Novel; check out the link: http://www.mycustomnovel.com/index.php. Also, I don't think that he'll mind if I share this, but if you are interested in ordering a book, use the code "Mongoose Friends" for a 20% discount when checking out.

Announcing: Sadie's Room

This has taken a lot of time and work, so I apologize for all of the pictures, but I am pretty pleased with how the room turned out.
Here is a before picture (just white walls):
Then we added some green:
Here is the after: We added stripes, a chair rail and some decorations.

I have to add that it was a learning process and it is no where near perfect, but I am glad that we did something new and different, at least to us. At 10 months Sadie finally has a nursery. Better late then never, right?

I don't know if you can really get a feel for the room layout from the pictures (the before picture is as you walk in the room, and most of the other pictures are taken from the opposite direction), but you get the main idea. Thanks so much to Chris for all his hard work, and for the early Christmas present from my mom (the quilt hanger that I put the blanket and dresses on) and Jill, do you recognize the cross stitching on the left? It is the one that says 'some bunny loves you' that you made for me when I was a kid. The other is a little announcement sampler with Sadie's birthday and weight. Someday we hope to get a matching dresser/changing table. It will go where the glider is now, and the glider will go in the corner between the window and the closet (not pictured because it isn't that exciting right now). Someday . . .

O Christmas Tree

We have been a bit distracted lately, but here are some pictures from decorating our tree last sunday. Sorry there are no pictures of Chris, he was taking the pictures.
Sadie seems to really like the tree. Whenever the lights are on, she is very mesmerized by them, so much that she gets very still (which those of you who have been around her lately know that she usually doesn't stop moving for anything) and she doesn't try to pull anything off of the tree.


Sadie is 10 months old, as of yesterday, and she still has no teeth! I'm not complaining though, I think she pulls off the gummy look well. And, no, she didn't actually eat the candy cane, it still had the wrapper on it, and she didn't play with it for an extended amount of time.

Seven Things About Me

that really aren't that exciting. I feel like my life is an open book, so I don't know what I can say that most of you don't already know.
I was tagged my Annie, and even if you don't read my seven things, don't forget to check for your name at the bottom.


1. In the last two days I have watched the whole 5th season of the Gilmore Girls (rented free from the library- gotta love it.) In my opinion there are few shows out there with better banter.

2. I have never been dumped (I can only hope that Chris doesn't ruin my streak . . . j/k.) I had a lot of fun dating, and I did plently of things that should have gotten me dumped (dating two guys at the same time, kissing my ex in front of the guy I was currently dating, the list goes on.)

3. I was student of the year in 6th grade. Go Hawks! Too bad things have only gone down hill since then . . .

4. I might have already disclosed this already, but I had a mullet when I was a kid. My mom cut my bangs from ear to ear and let my hair grow long in the back. Too bad I don't have any pictures scanned . . .

5. You guys are in for a treat. I found a mullet picture of me which also includes my siblings. From left to right: David, Danny, Jill, Me (the youngest), and Bret.

I have a great family, but one thing that has defined and shaped me is that my brother David died when I was 16 (sorry to make it so serious.) To make a long story short I am grateful for the opportuity I had to serve my brother and to know that I will see him again.

6. When I was little I used to hold my breath and pass out to get what I wanted or to get attention. If you ask Chris he will tell you that I still go to extremes to get what I want.

7. I am a list maker. I make lists for everything. I don't especially like marking things off my list (although I do like the feeling of accomplishment.) When I feel even slightly overwhelmed I just write down everything I need to do, and pick the most important thing and get going. . .

I am sure this is the part that you have all been waiting for. This is mostly a test to see if half of these people even check our blog anymore. I'd like to tag Ashley, Cassi, Jill, Holly (just ask Matt for help,) Lisa, Tad (or Teri), and Heather.

Ok, people don't let me down!

Christmas Tree Craziness

I have waited to post this blog, in order to minimize spoiling the surprise for our family members, but the last few are in the mail today. What, you might ask, has been sending me to the craft store once a day, has been monopolizing Sadie's nap time, and has taken over our kitchen counter? Well, our relief society had a craft project to make advent calendars shaped like trees from matchboxes, and I guess you could say I got a little carried away. Over 300 boxes (I used party favor boxes like you get at weddings), 13 trees later, and 900 pieces of chocolate later (I also put slips of paper with Christmas activities for each day in ours), Chris is grateful to see this project ending, and to be getting a kitchen table back. I have been a little decopauge crazy the last two months (that is a whole different post completely), and I think that I might have finally gotten my fill of it. Here is how they turned out:

Here is my little 'forest.' Each tree is unique.


Anyone interested in instructions on how to make your own advent tree, check out my sister's blog 12 days of Christmas Gifts. They are day number 8, and all twelve days are now posted!

Madison 11

My favorite roommate (ok, pretty much my only roommate) from BYU organized a little get together of our roommates from Liberty Square. We missed, Lisa, who ironically was in Arizona the whole time I was in Utah. I guess we also missed Ginger and Ruthanne, does anyone know what happened to them?n It was good catching up on old times and meeting each other's babies. I can't wait until I come out in January, and then maybe we can try this again.

Me, Cassi, Britney, and Rachel.
Us with our kids. Britney felt a little left out, so she picked up a stuffed frog to hold.
Cooper and Sadie playing for the first time.

Cousins

It turns out that I need to take more pictures of Sadie with her cousins on my side of the family. I guess we will have plenty of time for that in January when I watch my sister's five kids for a week while she and my brother in law go on a cruise.

Kiara, Lily and Sadie
Kiara drinking a bottle, and Sadie eating some plastic chicken and coke.
Lily

Two New Clarkes

While we were in Utah we were able to meet up with some friends who use to live in Mesa, The Clarkes. We were excited to meet their newest little one, Olivia, but we were suprised to find out that they had an even newer addition to their family, puppy Ceaser. Such a cute little thing, it makes us want to get a puppy for C-mas (although we won't ever be able to agree on what kind of dog to get). Our visit was very short, but we hope that these random visits will help Gavin and Addie remember us. It was also Gavin's 4th birthday, Happy Birthday Gavin!

An Obsession: The Bachelor

I know that I am not the only who gets drawn into different sitcoms or reality tv shows, but I might be the only one who likes the Bachelor. Chris makes fun of me constantly, but then half of the time he watches with me. Well, last night was the 'final rose ceremony,' you know, where he is down to two girls, and he is suppose to propose, or at least pick one of the girls to date seriously. Well, the whole lead up to the ending was about how he had two really great choices, and he didn't know how he was going to choose between the two. Then at the end, he picked neither! I am so ticked! Before I never understood how parents could name their kid after some movie star or tv character, but I have a confession: we kinda got Sadie's name from last year's season of the Bachelor. It came down to two girls: the one we liked (Sadie, pictured below) and the one who won (no idea what her name was.)
They are having one last show tonight where the bachelor is suppose to explain why he did what he did, but we will be driving to Utah, so it will have to wait for another day. Thanks for letting me rant and confess.

Sugar and Spice

I am sure that those of you out there who have boys enjoy them, but right now I can't imagine that a son could be any more fun than my daughter!


When we are out anywhere she expects everyone to stop and tell her how cute she is! She is in for a shock when we go to Utah next week, where she will be one of milllions.

You May Call Me Counselor

It is finally official. I received my certificate in the mail today from the Supreme Court of Arizona admitting me to practice law in Arizona. I am an attorney. Granted I still don't really know anything, but that little fact shouldn't deprive you all of the opportunity to call me counselor or Christian Olson, Esq. I don't usually like to toot my own horn, but this little certificate took a lot of work to get and a lot of sacrifices from my dear wife. I think next time I will just borrow a certificate from someone else and photoshop my name in. To the rest of my friends who have also recently been admitted to the bar, congratulations! Celebrate and enjoy the fact that it is over. Don't celebrate too long though; we've got billable hour requirements to meet. I think I have already lost .2 hours writing this post. I'll have to make that up sometime.

9 Months Old!

Strange to think that up until now Sadie has spent more time inside me, than outside me.

More dead flowers

This is the second set of plants that I have killed. I want some indoor plants that I can keep above our fridge, but I can't keep anything alive up there! Does anyone have any suggestions as to any somewhat pretty looking plants I can put up there?

Happy Birthday!?

It seems that Chris has delegated all family blogging duties to me (Lolly), so I apologize that the blog has been all about me lately. Today I thought I should do a little Chris update, considering it is his birthday and all--- Happy Birthday Chris!! When I asked Chris if he wanted a cake for his birthday, he said no. He wanted cupcakes. Apparently they taste different.
On a sidenote the recipe I followed says that it serves 12 (normally it is a bundt cake) but it made over 3 dozen cupcakes. Apparently 3 cupcakes is one serving, if you are ever interested in rationalizing eating more sweets.
So, we have an excess of chocolate cupcakes at our house. Doesn't sound like a problem, right? Well, we were going to invite some friends over for a last minute get together to help us by eating their three cupcake a person serving, but then sadly, Chris came home with the flu. Not only has Chris not even eaten one of the cupcakes, he has not even looked at them. How sad.
Now that we are on the topic of the flu, I would like to take a moment to point out the two types of flu people on the world. When I get the flu, I have no problem throwing up, because I know that it is what my body wants to do, and that I will feel better afterward. Chris is the other type of flu person, he will do anything to not throw up, even if it means he feels crummy the whole time. I can't understand why he hates throwing up so much, and he can't understand why I allow myself to throw up. Ok, sorry, I'm done with this lovely topic.
On a different note, Chris has received a calling in our new ward. He is in charge of the Venture Program. He will be working with the priests in our ward; our Bishop said that there are about 18 of them! He will have his hands full, but it will be something that he can enjoy.

Our sick Baby Kangaroo

This weekend was full of Halloween Parties. On saturday we dressed Sadie up in her kangaroo costume and headed over to our next- door neighbors for a neighborhood halloween party. It was fun to be able to get to know our neighbors a little better. An interesting fact is that all of our neighbors at the party (except one family) have moved to Arizona from California in the last 5 years. We left that party early so that we could also attend our ward's trunk-or-treat activity, which was also fun. Chris thought it was really cute that Sadie wanted some chile, so he gave in and fed her a little bit.
As you can tell in the picture Sadie was a little fussy when we put her costume on. Her costume has a big stuffed belly, making it hard for her to move and crawl. It is also very hot, which in some areas of the US might be good, but not here in AZ where we are having record highs, most days in the 90's still. We got Sadie home into bed by 8 (later than her 6:30-7 bedtime) and we were suprised when she didn't wake up until 9:30 sunday morning. We found out that she had gotten sick over the night, and had thrown up in her crib (so sad!) We figured that the chile from the night before had upset her tummy a bit, and we all went to church because she seemed to be in a great mood. After church we had Grandpa and Grandma Olson over for dinner, and Sadie woke up right at the end, and threw up all over me. It is hard to see her so sick, but at the same time it is cute because she is actually being cuddly and clingy. Apparently it wasn't the chile, because she threw up yet again last night, long after the chile was out of her system. Hopefully she will feel better today (so far she is still sleeping.) Here are some pictures of her in her kangaroo costume from a happier day.

Fennemore Retreat

This last weekend we had an overnight retreat with Chris' firm, Fennemore Craig, down in Tucson. We stayed at La Paloma Resort and it proved to be an exciting weekend. I have been very excited for this weekend for a couple reasons. The first is that my parents are down visiting us from Utah, and although that in and of itself is fun, they also demanded that we leave Sadie with them if we were going to Tucson. The second thing that I was excited about was that I had the opportunity to go to a day spa for the first time.
Well, the invitation said that attire was 'resort casual.' Chris and I interpreted that to mean khaki shorts and a polo. Chris spent the morning in meetings, while I went shopping with two of the other wives. We had a blast, and all was going well until the gals I was with started talking about the dresses and skirts that they had brought for the evening dinner and dance. I freaked out, becuase we hadn't brought anything of the sort. I texted Chris in his meeting, where he had just found out they we were way under prepared, also.
Luckily, I was already out shopping at a mall, so I bought me a new dress and Chris a new pair of pants, shoes, socks, and shirt. For those of you who have never gone clothes shopping with Chris before (which I hope is most of you) it is important to know that my husband is very picky, and that it is very hard to find clothes for him, because he is just so little. He needs stores to add a men's petite section. I avoid buying clothes without him at all costs, because he is hard to fit, and most of the time he just doesn't like what I pick out. Luckily, we have been dress shopping recently, so I remembered most of the things that he liked before, and bought very similar items. I was still very nervous, so I bought three pair of pants, hoping at least one pair would work out, and we could return the other two.
Chris then spent the afternoon in Kartchner Caverns and I went to the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa and got a facial and a pedicure, both amazing! The dinner was great, we were very happy that we were able to find appropriate clothes. I did very well with Chris' clothes, I think that he wants to keep all three pair of pants for work becuase they all fit well. Go me! After the dinner there was a short program in which one of the partners who is quite the clown invited people up for awards and for entertainment. It was all pretty funny until he said the next people he wanted to come up had no idea that they were going to do this, but that they all had a hidden talent. He called up the couple next to us, us, and two other couples. Chris put two and two together on the way up there when he realized that the host was lds, and so were the other couples that he called up. Although there are a fair amount of lds attorneys at Fennemore, there are plenty who aren't, so imagine how entertainning/ strange we must have look as after he told us two words we all broke out into song complete with over the top actions. The two words were: "Popcorn Popping." Although it was a bit humiliating, it was well worth it because we got a large basket stuffed full of various chocolate treats to take home. It was a very memorable trip.
To top it all off, we returned home from Tucson early Sunday morning to speak in sacrament meeting in our ward of three weeks. The topic was preparation, and even though we had the topic in our minds all week, our talks went well, but as you can tell, we were still very unprepared for our trip.

Chocolate Syrup and Pig Tails

Sadie likes to hang out with me in the kitchen while I make lunch or dinner. The other day I opened the pantry to get something out, and I look back and see this:

Sadie, "I know that there is something good in this, if I can only figure out how to get it out."
Sadie, "Hey mom, why don't you help me get this out?!"
I put Sadie in pig tails for the first time yesterday, they look pretty goofy!
I can't believe how grown up they make her look. Is that my baby??
Attack the camera!

Swimming and Painting

We are trying to get as much use out of our pool this month before it gets too cold to swim. The pool is about 70 degrees right now and that might seem hot in some areas, but for here that is pretty cold. We spent this weekend priming and painting one of our bathrooms (before the walls were the color of baby poop.) I will post some pictures when we are really done with it, we still want to install some beadboard, we need a shower curtain, etc to match, also. I think that we have enough weekend projects to last us a while. We got so hot painting that a dip in the pool sounded really good, so here are some pictures.

7 Month Portraits

Sadie wasn't in a very good mood, but there are a couple ok pictures in there.