Happy birthday to me

Yep big freakin deal- another year older- yada yada yada... I don't really care much anymore. I turned the big 2-6 for anyone who cares =)

But you know what I do care about?!! The sweet presents I get from Tim each year because our anniversary, mothers day, and my birthday all fall within the same week of each other sooooo I usually get a big present. This year was a REALLY BIG PRESENT!

I'll let the pic speak for itself...

My razzle dazzle new fancy smancy camera- yay!!! There were absolutely NONE in our Spokane area here so since we were heading over to the Seattle area for the weekend I was able to find one there- and for $30 less than Bestbuy had them over here for! And now I'm not expecting any presents for the next few years since this practically cost an arm and a leg

New pretties

Hannah got her ears pierced today. Poor kid was more upset about getting her head held in place than having holes put in her ears... lol... go figure. My kids are little spit fires. She screamed bloody murder while I held her head then once they were done we stood up and she stopped crying right away.

I just love the look on our faces here... almost like we're saying "I'm not so sure about this"

Happy baby with pretties in her ears now =)

Then this afternoon I finally got my flowers planted. I bought them last Saturday, but haven't had the time or good enough weather to plant them. Yay for me!!

Before

After- picture sure doesn't seem to do it justice.

A new adventure

Life just got a little busier in the Olsen house again. Tim was just released as the 1st counselor in Young Mens... and then he was called as the Young Men's president...

I'm a little nervous about having to get the girls ready by myself on Sunday mornings as Tim now has meetings every morning before church, especially once I get pregnant again. Hannah's pregnancy was a lot easier on me than Hailey's was so hopefully that means the next will be easier as well. Luckily he'll already be there so I'll have to have him save us seats in case we're a little late, lol. We had kind of joked a bit that he might get that calling, but when he did a week ago it was shocking to us... and still kind of is. I know that he'll do wonderful at it and I'm really interested to see how the calling helps him develop. Sometimes he can get walked on a little so hopefully this helps him speak up and get his opinion heard more. The boys sure seem to have taken to him so far so good luck honey!!

I know that he's felt quite "stretched" lately with as many things as he's attempting to take on and I have to admit that he's doing very well with them. He's still managing to help me get things done around the house while still working and maintaining very good grades. I'm so proud of him. Anyways we've both had a few nudges lately that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing and we both feel that this is another more obvious nudge from our loving Heavenly Father that we're doing as he would have us do =)

Annniversary date night

So I really have absolutely no clue who reads this... but anyways if you do you already know that we had big plans for our anniversary... and they were almost ruined. See we were having our survey done on Friday and guess who comes to our door a few minutes before 6pm asking to be paid?!! If you guessed our surveyor you would be correct. So we had gotten him to knock $100 off the price by paying cash, but the cash was in the bank, I mean come on, who keeps that kind of cash on them unless you're a little old lady hiding it in your mattress?!! Most people don't now.

So I didn't think it was a big deal because I thought that he would give us some warning... well he didn't. Literally we were trying to walk out the door and get to our hotel and check in. Tim was very embarassed, he wouldn't take a check, blah blah blah. We all started freakin out and left and things were still really tense between Tim and I because we weren't able to pay him right away (though we could have had the guy realized it was 6pm on a friday night- hello banks aren't open on weekends!!). We left to go to our hotel and I suggested we stop by the bank and see how much money we can pull out of the atm... guess who's bank's drive thru was open?!! Ours- stcu!! Thank goodness. So we got the cash out, called the contractor, and told him that we would meet up on sat. Phew- ok major disaster avoided and we were able to go and enjoy our night now.

So we checked into our amazing room. We stayed at the Davenport Tower in their honeymoon suite. Ahh... see the giant jacuzzi- that's the reason why I got this room! We had dinner at the Melting Pot, went back to our room, then decided to go out for a little fun. We checked out the piano bar downtown and it was pretty funny being the only sober people in the bar besides the workers, lol. Oh well we danced a little and then headed back to our room. It was such a beautiful night and we were able to enjoy downtown a little.

Cheers to us! Our only room service order was a bottle of sparkling cider- $18- Yikes!!!!
The next morning we walked through the Davenport main hotel and took a self guided tour. It was amazing! All of the old rooms and molding and just everything! It's so neat! It's almost like you take a trip back in time. And of course we stopped in the gift shop to get some of their amazing soft peanut brittle- Yu-mmy!!! Then lunch at the Safari room in the Davenport Tower and back home to the monsters =) What a fun, relaxing time it was away just the two of us.

Recent projects

A few weeks ago I had Tim's dad come over and we went to rent a sod cutter to get the area ready for my garden. I'm determined to have a garden this year. No- I don't have any experience. Luckily Tim does, but he's been so busy lately that I've had to do a lot of the work on my own. Anyways we got the sod up and YES I got to use the machine. It was actually pretty easy. Then came the long process of actually pulling the sod up cause the grass wasn't really solid in that area so it came up in pieces, sometimes quite small pieces. Then you had to bang the dirt off and the weather didn't cooperate like I wish it would have so the dirt was still wet for 1/2 of it. Oh well... I probably spent about 5 hours on my hands and knees doing that... major back pains after that for a few days, but it's done now- yay!!! The sod that I pulled up filled 3 wheel barrow loads! And then I had Tim rototill the garden area up for me. Our next step is to wrap the boards on the side there w/ plastic (prevents chemicals from boards from leaking into soil) and then lining the garden w/ the boards. Then top soil and we're ready to plant yay!! Next on our list this summer is replacing the outdoor carpet on our back and front porches. There were 2 layers of carpet and then tons of scraping, but luckily my fabulous hubbie did all that. I got to remove the quarter round. I'll have to post pics when he's able to get the carpet on. Darn weather needs to cooperate.

Then this summer we've also decided to try to start on a garage too... I know it's a huge project! Well we needed to get a survey of a property to find out our exact property lines to plan... Anyone ever had to get a survey before?!! So I started calling around for an estimate and I'm thinking a couple hundred dollars... my estimates ranged from $1500-$2200!!!!! I'm seriously not joking there!! Ugh it was because a survey hadn't been done in our area in a LONG time... well sorry contractors, but that still doesn't make it any easier on my checkbook. Well of course we went w/ the $1500 guy- duh!! Still seriously not happy about that price and it sure takes a big chunk out of our garage fund. So just had that finished this last friday... read on the next blog to see how it almost ruined my night...

Happy anniversary- to us!!

May 7th marked 6- yes 6- years!!! Wowza!~!~! Where has time gone?!



This past year has been an absolute blur

• We sold our first house



• Lived with Tim's parents for a few months- quite the experience.



• Welcomed Hannah into this world on May 31st- Yikes she's almost 1!!!!



• Went through the craziness of looking for a new home



• Bought our new home and put lots of blood, sweat, and tears into it (well not really any blood, lol, besides a few cuts and bruises here and there)



• Moved into our "new to us" old home- we just love old homes and the character they have



• Moved into our new ward w/ church and received callings with the YM and YW-
  something new for both of us.



• Tim started school full time again.

I'm sure there are other events that I may have missed, but that is a wrap up of our entire last year- no wonder it flew by so fast.
Looking back at our wedding pics we look soooo young. I was 19 and Tim was 22... ahhh the good old days. This year we've been trying to do something a little nicer than we usually do. I think I'm just ready for a night away from the kiddos so what a great excuse. We tried to do it last weekend, on our actual anniversary, but Tim's dumb work had him working not only crazy swing shift schedule, but the weekend as well. I told him if they asked this weekend that they could call and talk to me about that hehehe... ya not happening!!!So our plans are a relaxing night away at the Davenport this friday. We're super excited- we've never stayed there before and my momma is watching the girlies for us. Dinner at the Melting Pot- can you say yum?!! Or maybe Pf Changs... I can't decide right now and I do love me some lettuce wraps. It all kind of worked out better for this weekend anyways because last weekend all of the hotel rates in town were higher because of Mother's day and Gonzaga graduation so it worked out in our favor. The room that I wanted at the Davenport was $200 higher last weekend- Eeek!!!-- of course we couldnt' afford that and we were going to have to stay somewhere else. So luckily I get the room I want to on Friday =)

Is it spring yet?

Poor Hailey had just been dying to get outside lately... She got some fun new bubbles and chalk from grandma and couldn't wait to use them. They've been sitting out for a nice day.

And yes she got that all on herself-
Gloves, hat, scarf, and neck warmer. She was quite devastated when I told her that it was too warm to wear that anymore.

I was quite proud of my "action" shot here with my pile camera. It actually caught the bubbles and didn't blur them. Oh I just can't wait for my new camera!!!!

Double trouble

Hannah can motor around quite good lately... and I should have known better when she was quiet too long. This was what I found... lol Should have been my first sign when I saw the empty roll in the hallway outside the bathroom...And if it's not the toilet paper roll it's the shoes... I swear I pick these up at least once a day. Usually it's more like 3. And then once Hannah pulls them down everywhere Hailey walks around in them and leaves my shoes around the house once she's done with them. So glad they have each other to play with though... even though I'm dreading once Hannah can walk because I know that the destruction will only get worse from here... I can sense my OCD coming out now, lol. "Must clean up the mess..."

Eggs!!

I swear one of these years I'm going to get the hang of doing fun holiday stuff with the girls. I had all the intentions to color eggs BEFORE Easter, but that didn't happen... so we did it Monday night for FHE instead.

Easter fun

So I'm a little sad to say that I've been a bit of a blogging loser... I just keep forgetting to do it. So here it goes. Only a week late right?!! Lol! So we took the girls to my mom's church in the valley this year. It was a little weird visiting someone else's church like that, but oh well and plus my mom got to see the girls. Not gonna lie it was a little awkward and then we had quite the experience there. Tim saw someone that he used to go to church with when he was a teen, but the other guy isn't active anymore and now goes to this church. Well his friend, Jeff, introduced us to his wife and when she asked how he knew Tim he said that they used to go to church together. Then his wife, who by the way was as fake looking and acting as they come, says "Oh what are they doing here then?" Not a "thanks for visiting our church, welcome, etc." My jaw just dropped that she actually had the nerve to say that... I'm so thankful that my church isn't like that at all! We don't discriminate others based upon their faith and are always very welcoming to visitors.

So anyways, besides the fake not-so-nice lady, the church really had a lot of fun and great activities for the little ones. They had a fun bouncy castle, big slide, lots of games, a few small farm animals (goat, chicks, rabbits, pig) and egg hunts that were separated into age categories. Hailey loved the slide and didn't want to hardly do anything else!!
Then we went out for the egg hunt and Hailey was a champ! She filled up her basket in about 2 seconds and so then I gave her Hannah's basket and then she filled that up too, lol! My camera batteries gave out so I didn't get as many pics as I would have liked to. Then Easter morning before we went to church the girls got to get into the baskets. So cute! Hailey wanted both baskets and Hannah was just way more interested in the eggs!