Damon Mark Olson

Our sweet little Damon was born on Friday, December 11th at 1:36pm. I was induced into labor that morning at 5:00am. He weighed 8lbs 5oz and was 21 inches long. We were very suprised by his size. I was much smaller with this pregnancy than with the others, and the doctor predicted that he would be in the upper sixes lower sevens. Dr. Robinson was the doctor who delivered him.

This was by far the easiest delivery I have had. Thank goodness! The epidural was wonderful, and I didn't feel a thing once I got it. I even asked if I could take some home! Terry and my mom were there during the delivery, and the kids got to come later that evening to meet there new little brother. Blake was a little "standoffish" at first, but now really seems to love him. Every now and then I will find him sitting next to Damon just rubbing his head or sometimes just giving him a little kiss on the forehead. I am really glad he his warming up to him, and I know he will be a great big brother to him and they will be the best of buds. Ashlyn has always been excited about having a baby brother so we knew she wouldn't need any time getting use to him. The first thing she said at the hospital was, "how long do we get to keep the baby?" We told her forever, so she was pretty happy about that. She loves to hold Damon and feed him his bottle. She also likes to give him his binky, but he hasn't really seemed to like it so far. We are just so excited that he his finally here. He is such a sweet little guy, and I personally think he is the cutest little baby in the world! We just love him to death! He's a keeper!

*Just on a side note... when Damon was first born, he had the funniest cry. It was like this high pitch little girl scream. So cute! Terry says it sounded like a cow elk call. (Not that I have any clue what that would sound like.) But his cry has changed a bit. Still cute, just different. (Although, it really isn't that cute at 3:00 in the morning!!)

Just a few hours old.

He looks like he has been in a fight in this picture!

Proud big sister!

Proud big brother!

Our Big Adventure

Right after Halloween Ashlyn, Terry and I came down with the swine flu. So we were locked up in our house for over a week. So once we were all feeling up to it, we decided it was time to get out of the house. So rather than going to a movie, or anything else that would keep us indoors, we decided to go on an "adventure". (Well, that's what we called it anyways!) So we all dressed up real warm, grabbed our winter gloves and hats, and piled into the car. The kids were sooo excited. Terry drove us up to Swan Valley, and over to the "girls camp" over there. And here is what we saw...

The world's biggest slide!
(or at least the biggest slide I have ever seen!)

Terry's Grandpa Peterson helped build this slide, and was actually the first person to ever go down it!

Blake did not even hesitate. He ran up the stairs, got on, and slid down. I was terrified!! I just knew he was going to fall over the side to his death! Luckily I was wrong, though he did shoot off the bottom of the slide. He got going pretty fast down that thing!

Terry being a kid. He was just as excited to go down it as Blake was!


Ashlyn and I were happy enough to just watch. She was too scared to go down it, and I was too scared for her to go down it!!

(Terry did take some pictures of me, but I look like a Sumo Wrestler in them so I decided to leave those out!)

After we had enough fun on the slide, the kids got to swing, and we threw around a frisbee for a little while. We also went on a short hike on one of the trails that were up there. Then on our way home we stopped and had some of the "famous" square ice cream cones. We had fun, and it felt wonderful to step out of the house for a little fresh air!!

Halloween '09

We had a pretty fun and busy Halloween this year. To start it off, we carved pumpkins on the Wednesday before Halloween. (Well, Terry and I carved ours, the kids drew on theirs.) Then on Thursday we went to a family costume party that our friends, The Highs, put on. We all dressed up, and there was a ton for the kids to do. They bobbed for apples, did a cake walk, decorated cookies, and also had a pinata. There was a ton of food too! Thanks Ashley and Cameron for the fun party! The next night we had another family costume party that our friends, The Daniels, put on. We put our costumes back on, and played a bunch of Halloween themed games, while the kids played their own games with a couple of teenage girls. It was nice to have the kids busy so that us adults could socialize without the kids bugging us. Thanks Angela and Tyson, it was fun! Then on Halloween night we went to our church for a "trunk or treat." The kids got a ton of candy, though I personally enjoy the "traditional" trick or treating. It is way more fun going door to door for your candy. Oh well, maybe we will do that next year. We had alot of fun and look forward to next year! Here are some pictures taken from all of the fun...

Ashlyn showing off her beautiful pumpkin.
Blake with his.

Me carving mine.

(Enjoy the prego shot, cause its the last one your gonna get!)

All of us posing under our pumpkins. Notice the baby's tiny pumpkin on the end.

(If Terry loved me AT ALL, he would have told me to sit up or something, cause I look HUGE in this picture!)

These 2 pictures are from Blake's school. This was at their costume parade.

Ashlyn dressed as batgirl.

(She wanted to be batman, so we settled on batgirl!)

Blake as Darth Vader

Our whole family. Terry and I are rockstars.

Ashlyn wearing "billy bob" teeth. How ugly is this!!

Terry's parents stopped by the house to show the kids their costumes!

Baby Names...

Now that it is getting cold, I feel like the time is getting closer for the baby to come. I only have a little over two months left. I am getting really excited and anxious to meet the little guy. The only problem is, I cannot think of a name!!!! I have a million little girl names, but boy names are just tough. One name that I really like is Ryan, but Terry has vetoed that name because he says he has multiple cousins with that name. Also, I would really like to use my dad's name, Mark, as a middle name, so it needs to flow with that. Here are a list of some of the names I am considering, but I just haven't fallen in love with any of them yet, and some of them I can tell that either friends or family does not like. So I need your HONEST opinion. The fate of a child being picked on for the rest of his life depends on this name. If you can't be honest than it doesn't help!!! LOL! Tell me from the list which names you like, and which names you do not like. And if you can think of any other names not listed, please share. I'm not one of those people who like to wait til the baby comes to see if the name fits. I like to have a name picked out ahead of time. So here they are... and be honest people...

Jesse

Lance

Drew

Kyle

Dylan

Benson

Davis

Bennett

Justin

Dustin

Some of these names sound good by themselves, but when you put it with Mark or Olson, it doesn't sound as good. What do you think? Please help me pick a name... I'm begging you!!! Thanks!

What's in that sippy?

I was recently looking through some old pictures and ran across these. I'm not sure what we used to feed the kids, but from the looks of it, it must have been laced with something! Here are the kids passed out at the table, Blake on one occasion and Ashlyn on 2 separate occasions...

Summer 2009

This summer we had alot of fun. There were a few things that I have yet to blog about because I really have not been in the blogging mood. So I figured I would make one big blog to highlight a few of the things that we have done. So here goes...

We made it to one Chukar's game this year. And only because it was free!! Our friends, the Daniels, had some free tickets so they invited us, and the Nelson's, to a game with them. It was pretty fun. This is the first game that we have been to that the other team didn't "blowout" the Chukars. We left after the 7th inning while the Chukars were winning, and I believe they won the game. We actually enjoy going to the games but it is just way to hard to go with the kids. They get bored pretty easy. So maybe when they are a little bit older we can be regulars to the game. We will see...

Here we are at the game.

Blake and Terry hoping to catch a foul ball.

We also made it down to Rexburg's "splash park". This was also with the Daniels. Their little girl Ellie had her 3rd birthday party here and invited us to go. It looks like a really fun place for the kids. It has a bunch of water fountains that squirt up from the ground, slides, and at the very top of the structure it has a huge red bucket that is constantly being filled up with water, then when it is full the bucket tips over and pours all of the water on the kids heads. So fun and cute!! The whole time we were there I was wishing I was a kid again. Ashlyn didn't play that much, she just stood by splashing in the water. She hates getting water in her face so she refused to go up on the big toy. Blake on the other hand thought it was a blast, but the water was cold and he couldn't handle it for too long.

Here is Blake getting sprayed in the back with water.



My little chicken. This is all she would do.
(If you look at the top of the picture you can see the big red bucket I was talking about.)



Blake going down the slide.



Last but not least... during Labor Day weekend, we went down to Boise to be with my sister Jenna and her family to watch them be sealed to their newly adopted baby girl Sadie. They also had her blessing that weekend as well. Here are some pictures taken at the temple...

Our little family.

Here is a picture with my entire family.

(From the top left: My dad, mom, brother Ricky, me, Terry, Brother-N-Law Glenn holding baby Sadie, sister Jenna, Caitlyn, Caleb, Brother-N-Law Daniel, Joslyn, and sister Aja. Bottom left: Blake, Ashlyn, Baylee, and Jaedyn.)

My sister Jenna with her family.

All of the cousins.

(Baylee, Blake, Caleb, Sadie, Ashlyn, Caitlyn, Jaedyn, and Joslyn.)

We also made it to a "play land" called Wahooz while we were in Boise. I didn't get any pictures there because I didn't want to have to carry my camera around. There, we got to ride Go Carts, and Bumper Boats. There was a big "little kid area" with slides and things to climb on. Also batting cages and arcade games. The kids had alot of fun!