Jake turned 4!

It's true.  Jake is 4 now, only one more year until kindergarten, it's hard to believe.  Scott got home just a few days before his birthday, which made it extra exciting for Jacob.  Pretty much the whole time Scott was gone, Jake would talk about how Daddy was coming home, and then it would be his birthday!  Those two things were always connected in his mind.  If you ask him, he will tell you he prefers to be called Jacob, instead of Jake, but he answers to either.  (Or rather he doesn't answer to either, however the case may be ;)  He is a VERY BUSY boy, and not always in a good way.  But he is also creative, and sweet, and I'm happy to have him around a little longer.  

We are still working on 'nice' smiles for the camera, but at least you can see how happy and excited he was. 

I think Andrew was almost as happy as Jake that the birthday presents made additions to our Star Wars and Legos collections.

I let him help with the cake a little.  And he did the candles all by himself :)

Here's a good smile!  We had our neighbors the Meinholds over to help us celebrate and eat cake, but we ran out of batteries before we got more pictures.

We love you Jacob!

So far, looks like the blogpress app will be worth the $4.99. Still figuring out how it works. Of course most of our pics are on the external hard drive, so I'll still have to use the desktop to catch-up the last couple years. But hopefully this will help me stay caught up on current stuff. We'll see!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I am still alive...

...just a *little* busy. I really would like to catch up the blog. But for now, here are a few recent pictures to enjoy.

Mexico City Trip

Charis and I were able to make a whirlwind trip (4 days total, including 2 days of travel) to visit Scott over Memorial Day Weekend.  She's our first child to travel out of the country!  He came home less than two weeks later, so we debated if we should make that effort, but I am glad we did.  It was so nice to have some time together before we had to share him with the rest of the family!  And, considering we had a baby in tow, we a good amount of touring for 2 days.

This is for my Mom...

I thought you'd get a kick out of this.  Eden came up with the answer completely on her own.  I'm not even sure what the answer key says.  She definitely has a mind for strategy!  At her age, I probably would have answered that the Player 3 should take the shot.
 

Sometimes finished is better than perfect.

This has not been a perfect day, but it is finished!

Just Another Day at the Olson's!

So, I got on to blog this day the same night, but just couldn't bring myself to do it.  Hopefully reading what happened will put that one sentence post into context

The morning went well enough.  Jake had a dentist appointment- no cavities- yay!  But what I was really excited about was getting a new outlet in the basement for the soon-to-arrive treadmill!

Jake's prize from the dentist

I was even on-the-ball enough to have started dinner in the crockpot that morning, had brown rice cooking, and chocolate chip banana bread in the oven, when the contractor called to say he was finally on his way to my house to install the new outlet!

I sit down to feed Charis (so I won't have to while the contractor is here).  When she is almost done, I see Jake fall and hit is face on the fireplace!  He wasn't even rough-housing, just tripped over something!  I put Charis down, crying, to help Jake.  While I'm applying pressure and ice, I'm trying to decide what to do.  The electrician had JUST called (literally just a few minutes prior) to say he was finally on his way!  I've been waiting all day and the treadmill will be here in two days!

  I took another peek at the cut and tested it gently.  Bleeding had pretty much stopped and it didn't seem deep enough to require stitches.  And Jake had fallen asleep, but I'm only slightly worried about a concussion (he's at the age where he doesn't nap per se, but crashes in the late afternoon occasionally.  I decide a trip to the emergency room is not necessary (and definitely not desirable).  I call my mom and devise a plan: disinfect the cut and use NewSkin and a butterfly bandage and hope he stays asleep until I'm done (the cut is right above the corner of his eye).  My kind neighbor runs to the store for me (I had alcohol, but no peroxide, and I didn't want it to sting too much).  During that time the electrician arrives and starts working in the basement.  Also during that same period of time, Eden decides to 'help' by flipping the banana bread out of the loaf pans for me- oops!  HUGE mess of moist banana bread and melted chocolate on the floor, which had been recently mopped (of course)!  By now I'm just thinking, "Seriously?!  This cannot be happening right now!"

At least Charis slept through it all.

The outlet was installed quickly and everything calmed down enough for me to think about getting the camera to document this mini-adventure.  That's when I found this, I'm guessing Jake did this before his accident, but it could have been any one of the kids in all that chaos:

Yes, there's water in there with those pencils.  Isn't that how you keep your pencils ready to use?

Look how beautiful that outlet is, installed right on the insulation! ;)  I really was excited, the treadmill was being delivered in two days.

Now, all that has already been documented would be enough for one day, let alone one afternoon. Right?  But that evening as I'm cleaning up dinner, I shatter a glass.  I was so pass 'done' at this point. Then, I go to take the trash out and discover the garage door had been left open with the garage light on, which attracted at least half of the seasonal moth migration (which was heavier than normal this year) to our garage.  There were literally HUNDREDS of them flying around like crazy.  Sorry, no picture of that.  I do OK with most bugs, but I just can't stand how unpredictable moths are!  

One GOOD surprise that day- the same kind neighbor brought some SUPER yummy lemon cake leftover from their daughter's birthday.