Baby On Board

Yep! As the title of this post suggests, we are indeed expecting our very first baby!!! I am due October 1st and so far everything is going great. No morning sickness or crazy cravings...yet :) We are both very excited and were so anxious to share the news; we did however, wait until I was almost 12 weeks to tell our families. After Jim and Angie's surprise visit we decided to send OUR surprise home with them. We had made "Grandma to be" and "Grandpa to be" T-shirts for the grandparents and gave strict instructions for them to open the surprise package together. I'm still not sure who was the most surprised but my mother, and also my father-in-law both claim to have had at least an idea of what it was about! It was a fun day for a lot of people, we shared the news with parents first, then grandparents, and then finally friends and extended family!!! I have posted the first "baby bump" picture on facebook and once I figure out how to add pictures to my blogspot they will be accessible on here as well. We have already had our first doctor's visit and so far I really like the doctor we have chosen, she is not only an OBGYN but she is also a family doctor, so I am taken care of for anything and we can also follow-up with her after the baby is born. During the first visit we got to hear the baby's heart beat, but I also had to be brave and get my blood drawn (if any of you know me very well you know I HATE needles)!!! It was the most amazing thing though, and although it's still hard to fully comprehend, hearing the heart beat made it seem all the more real. I have another check up in a few weeks and I think we may get to see the baby via ultrasound. It's an exciting, nervous new time of our lives and we look forward to sharing this experience with all of you.
So there you have it, the latest and greatest in the lives of the Olsen's.

*Surprise*

What a Weekend!!!!
Going into the weekend we had planned to do dinner with Chris' grandparents Friday night and attend an 80th Birthday Party for his other grandfather on Saturday. Other than that we were thinking it'd be a pretty low key weekend, which either way we were fine with it! Well...everything changed quickly Friday evening. After a quick trip to the mall we were told our dinner dates would be to our place to pick us up within the hour, as we waited and watched some of the basketball games our doorbell rang. Chris opened the door only to find his PARENTS standing there!!! We were both SHOCKED! They quickly explained to us that they were our "dinner dates" and his grandparents were only a cover up to make sure we didn't have plans for that evening. They had made the 18 hour trek from Estherville, IA to attend the Birthday Party on Saturday making for a loooong drive and a short visit in Utah. We all headed to Red Lobster to eat, and lo-and behold, Chris' grandparents were there along with two uncles and an aunt. It was Jim's (Chris' dad) birthday Friday so they planned a Surprise party/dinner for him as well.
*THEY WERE FULL OF SURPRISES THIS WEEKEND*
After dinner we packed our bags and headed to Mt. Pleasant to stay with Angie's (Chris' mom) parents only to get up Saturday morning to get ready to surprise the Olsen's! Everyone at the party was shocked as well and we had a great afternoon of visiting, eating, and celebrating Grandpa Burke's 80th Birthday!!! We also enjoyed the exciting yet sad ending to BYU's season along with some other exciting and crazy basketball games before heading back to the Ames' for dinner. After eating lots of good food and watching the movie The Princess and The Frog, we headed to bed so the in-laws could get some good rest before their 12 hour drive Sunday. Sunday morning we got up bright and early, went back over to the Smith's for breakfast and then headed back to Provo. Jim and Angie were quickly on their way to North Platte Nebraska where they will be staying over night before heading the rest of the way home on Monday and Chris and I enjoyed some of the Sunday games with his friend Pat and later took advantage of the beautiful weather when we went for a walk!!! Dinner tonight was also a success!! We grilled delicious (but not as delicious as Iowa's) sweet corn and chicken and had a nice mix of potatoes and red and green peppers. The night and busy weekend is slowly coming to an end as we watch the passing of the Health Care Bill and wonder what the future will hold......I guess all we can do at this point is get mentally and physically prepared for what the WEEK holds! One day at a time right?!?! That's all for now....

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring Has Sprung...Well, Kind of! We've been teased with "spring" weather for a while now, and after a snowy/rainy Saturday,today was BEAUTIFUL by my standards :) Sometimes I wish I had a job that involved the outdoors a little more, but then again, I'd just be complaining for the entire Winter Season if that were the case. I guess you just can't win with me and my fair weathered preferences. I did sneak outside for some fresh air on my lunch break and then talked Chris into going on a walk with me after we both got home from work. We started before 6 in our jeans and t-shirts and after a good 2 and 1/2 mile jaunt we had a chilly trip home (still in just our jeans and t-shirts). Chilly or not, it was nice to get out and get some fresh air and aerobic exercise, however little it might have been; but we were both content sitting on the couch watching the Jazz play basketball and Jack Bauer play hero when our walk was over! We make it a priority on our Monday nights to catch each new episode of 24 and then spend the week in suspense waiting for the week to pass. Chris is being a good student and doing some homework as I type this, and I am facebooking it up while playing with fun backgrounds and posting some uninteresting news on here ;) It's hard to believe March is halfway over, and even harder to believe we've been married for almost 8 months. Time flies when you're having fun! Although we miss our families and friends we are keeping busy and enjoying our time in Utah. Looking forward to more "spring" weather, as the forecast for the week looks promising! More to come as the adventures of the Olsen's continue....That's all for now though!

"Bad News"

Ok, so don't get too worried initially by the title of this post. It's not AS BAD as it could be...well, only because of the actual outcome that is. Last night we decided to make dinner with some neighbors in our building, a delicious meal of grilled chicken, rice, veggies, grilled cheesy french bread and an amazing dessert of chocolatey-monkey bread! We had been in and out of the apartment grabbing necessary additional ingredients for the meal and then after eating as much as we all possibly could, we began wondering if our neighbor's apartment was just a little bit bigger than ours. Chris and Travis decided to measure and then compare differences, well...they first measured theirs and then headed up to our place after which they decided there was about a 2 and 1/2 foot difference. So, that was the news, and the "bad news"...well, I unfortunately was able to guess it immediately. Chris had locked us completely out of our apartment! This is a third time occurence for him however the other two times we were able to use my keys to re-enter. And so began the greatest adventure of the night! The guys began by using credit cards to pick the lock, followed by a few attempts to pop the door handle completely off. The next idea was scaling the small railing/wall in front of our apartment to pry off the screen window and attempting to wiggle and push on the glass window enough to undo the latch. I was sweating and extremely nervous by this point having watched Chris try to balance on the un-sturdy railing (being supported by only a few peices of cable on either end) above a 10 foot drop and decided it would be ok if we just had a slumber party with the Philips and figured everything out in the morning. The guys however, were positive they could figure something out that night! We then headed to the back of the building only to realize just how high our balcony really was from the ground. We estimated about 15 feet from the ground to the very edge of the balcony wall. I thought for sure we could find someone at 11:30 on a Saturday night to loan us a ladder but for time sake the guys decided to do some cheerleading stunts boosting Chris up and over the edge. I don't know official cheerleading terms but I was the girl who stood near by to assure the "flyer" didn't kill himself. Travis boosted Chris up to stand on his shoulders, I helped the rear end a bit with a good boost up as well, (and afterwards we decided we should have had Janessa recording this amazing task) with one extra push from Travis to lift Chris up just a few more inches, Chris was able to grab the metal handle and shimmy his way up and over the wall onto the balcony. He wiggled the door a bit....and no luck. He then opened the small utility like closet located on our balcony and flipped on a light before another good wiggle of the door, and finally... IT OPENED!!! I couldn't decide whether to be more happy or scared about the fact that the door was able to be unlocked from the outside so easily, but afterall WE WERE IN! Chris grabbed the keys AND left the door unlocked, just in case, for the rest of the evening. So, a few good cheerleading moves and some good scratches on the arm later, we were able to call it a night, or morning, around 2:00 a.m. and sleep in our own bed! We'd like to thank the Philips for helping us to prepare such an amazing meal, break into our apartment, and keep us entertained for a fun Saturday night! :)
I knew this was blogging material right away. Just don't get your hopes up because not everyday is as exciting as this for us.

Let's Get This Started....

Alright, so after viewing numerous blogs of others, we decided it was a fun way to keep up on the lives of family and friends and maybe it was something we could start as well! Afterall, I (Laura) do quite well with "facebooking" and we are both always on our computers. So here goes nothing.....I guess the real test will be to remain consistent with updates and find enough stories to share!!! I think I'll end this short post here and play around with the page some. Then I suppose I'll work on an update of our lives up to this point :)