5 Months Old!!!

That's right, Addyson is 5 months old already! How can our baby be turning into such a big girl?! She is still very aware of her surroundings anytime she's awake and not trapped in her carseat, putting everything into her mouth and reaching out for whatever she can grasp. Addyson LOVES to play with mommy and daddy's cell phones (even though uncle Chris gave her one of her own) as well as the remote control, she's SO close to rolling from back to tummy (she can do tummy to back almost anytime she's put on her tummy with help) and she's got two teeth coming in!!! We're working on eating solids (cereal with "yummies" mixed in) and sitting up now too, she tolerates the bumbo a little bit better each time she's in it and we've put together a fun booster seat so baby can join us at the kitchen table (Thanks Great Grandma Inman) I think her favorite thing of all is sitting on mommy and daddy's lap or next to us on the couch...with a little help of course! We are having so much fun watching her change and grow everyday...living in the moment and thriving with all of the joys that come along with parenthood :)


Hope you enjoy the posts, of course we're proud parents with much to brag about....Love to all.



The Olsens

Home From The Hospital

We've already updated things on facebook (yes, it's facebook official) but I thought since the blog has become somewhat of a "journal" for us, I should update the blog for memory sake!! This morning Chris complained of some back and shoulder pain, me being the PTA that I am asked, "do you think you just slept on it wrong and it's muscle soreness?" Chris wasn't sure what was causing it and headed off to school. After surviving one class he decided that since the pain had migrated to his chest and gotten worse, he would go get things checked out. Boy are we glad he decided to do just that! After having gone to an instacare and getting some x-rays taken, the PA he saw first suggested going straight to the ER to get the "spontaneous pneumothorax" (or partially collapsed lung) looked at/taken care of. After calling me, I met him at the ER and we got him checked in. He was only given oxygen for the first several hours, needless to say, I was not impressed with the ER care (but I'll leave it at that). The pulmonologist we met with informed us that Chris would need to have a chest tube inserted into his lung at some point today. Our options were a small tube that could allow us to go home, or a larger tube that would require him to be admitted to the hospital for several days. 7 hours later, the small tube was inserted into his chest and we slowly but surely made our way home. A big thank you goes out to the Bennett family for taking Addyson over night, Dan Olsen for keeping his sister-in-law company and sane, and also Carie Eastman (one of the best co-workers ever!) for visiting while we waited during his procedure. Dan also helped get Chris home and settled so I could pick up some pain meds. and a wedge from the clinic to help with sleeping arrangements. We've now been half listening, half watching the Jazz game and trying to introduce liquids and finally solids into Chris' system....Poor kid hasn't eaten since last night (it was an early morning and no breakfast was had). Once he's feeling a little bit better I'll try to get him to agree to some photos and have those posted soon.

Thanks to all those who have expressed their thoughts, concerns and offered up prayers for Chris, Addy and I. We love and appreciate you all :)

After his x-ray tomorrow we should have a better update...

Christmas Break/Addy's First Christmas & Addy's Baby Blessing

A little out of order...

Baby's first Christmas was also a success!!! We flew back home to Iowa (another first for baby-she even got her "wings") to celebrate with the immediate Inman's and Olsen's and to meet Great Grandma Dolores and Great Great Great Aunt Thelma. She of course was spoiled by her grandparents and got lots of cuddle time with grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles as well as great aunts and uncles!!! Uncle Andy and Aunt Emily entertained Addyson with a fun photo shoot, those photos still to come, and Uncle Jamie and Aunt Amber got some practice in as they are expecting a little girl in March!

Although we kept Addy on her "Utah sleep schedule" she still had a habit of waking up at the wee hours of the night and morning and sometimes both so it was nice to have both grandmas around to take over so mom and dad (Chris and I) could nap and/or sleep in!!!

On December 26th Addyson was blessed by her father as we visited our home branch. She wore the beautiful dress made by her Great Grandma Verla Smith and two beautiful bracelets given to her by each Grandmother. We love our family and are so very blessed to have had a safe and enjoyable trip, having had the opportunity to spend lots of valuable time with both sides!

I'd have to say some of the biggest excitement happened just as we got back to Utah. We were escorted from the airport to Chris's Aunt and Uncles house in Salt Lake by a fancy taxi service, after unloading our luggage and finding our car keys we started the car, hooked Addy's car seat into the base and Chris and I began to uncover our snow buried car. While clearing off the car and trying to open each frozen door, the car locked for no apparent reason. The keys were in the ignition, the car running and not a single lock was touched, however...ADDYSON WAS LOCKED IN THE CAR and Chris and I were stuck outside in the freezing weather. (it was nearly 9:00 at night) Thank goodness for internet on our phones, I googled a locksmith (we look back and regret not having just called the police) and we called to have them come help us out. As we waited for the locksmith to get to us on his list of stops to make, Addyson was inside the car, carseat cover on, screaming at the top of her lungs. I was crying, Chris was making phone calls, and all we could do was wait. There were moments that I couldn't hear Addy crying....which made me nervous...so I'd pound on the window hoping to keep her "alive" of COURSE I was over-reacting, afterall I'm a new mom and this was the worst thing I'd done in her life yet!!!! When the locksmith finally reached us after what seemed like an eternity (it was really just shy of 30 minutes) he got the car unlocked and I sprinted to the door and threw open the carseat cover only to find a sleeping baby. She had cried herself to sleep I'm sure, but that didn't stop me from getting her promptly out of the carseat to hold her in my arms. It was then that I realized she had had a blowout ontop of having sweated quite a bit from being nice and toasty warm inside the car and under the cover! In the backseat of the car I changed her stinky diaper and put her in her jammies and then being quite physically and emotionally drained, we FINALLY headed home! People keep telling me, "you'll look back on that and laugh some day" and honestly....I'm still having a tough time believing that!

I knew I'd struggle with this....

Another few months go by, and of course I have yet to blog!!!! Sadly, one of my New Year's Resolutions was to journal and blog more often. It's been my goal to keep up to date on work, our Dental School journey, date nights, friends and of course our little lady growing and changing like a weed!!! Addyson is now four months old and such a joy in our lives! She is such a happy little girl, smiling, giggling and squealing with joy everyday. We just had her four month check up and although she is a bit on the light side, she is already 24 inches long and healthy as can be. (she was 18 inches when she was born) Poor little girl got three more immunizations though and was sick the day after, but daddy came to our rescue when he joined us for her appointment and provided some moral support for mommy, agreeing to hold Addy down while she got her shots. He was a good cuddler right after too! He's keeping busy with school and still working quite a bit here and there at the Dental Lab and I'm keeping plenty busy working at the clinic full-time (four days a week now though!).
We did find time in our crazy schedules however, to attend the #4 SDSU vs. #9 BYU basketball game on January 26th. It was a night to remember as we stood in line for almost one hour with thousands of other people waiting to get into the Mariott Center. They had handed out 4,000 wristbands (two of which we were the proud recipients of) ahead of time, all of which ensured you a spot in the student section. As the Mariott Center filled up quickly, everyone hoping to get a seat as close as possible, we ended up believe it or not, being able to sit with some good friends of ours! The energy inside the building was amazing, the noise intense! Needless to say, Addy stayed at the sitter's while mom and dad enjoyed the game to the max! BYU played great!!! Aside from some poor defensive rebounding I was quite impressed :) As the game came to an end, BYU up by 13, the fans stormed the court for the perfect ending to a perfect night! I'd say that night has definitely been the highlight of our new year thus far. As I type this I'm thinking to myself, "how can it possibly already be February"?!!
This month we are probably going to be pretty busy....I will share my birthday with super bowl Sunday, Valentine's Day is always a hit and President's Day gets Chris out of school and me out of work!!! We are looking forward to celebrating my birthday this Saturday and are also planning a possible trip to California over President's Day weekend. We hope to visit Chris' mission area and if we can swing some free Disney tickets, even take the little lady there for some fun and sight seeing :)
Grandma Inman will be visiting in March and then a fun gathering and celebration will be had with both sides of the family in April as Chris graduates from BYU!!!!
Life is fun and unexpected, Chris has been accepted into Midwestern University in Downer's Grove, IL and we look forward to begin planning for Dental school, hoping to have heard from a few other schools by graduation time. Decision time will come in April as we will need to start looking for housing and I'd like to look around for possible PTA jobs wherever we might end up!

I've said it once and I'll say it again.....I'm going to do my best to keep you all up to date on the happenings in the life of the Olsen's.

Just An Excuse To Post Some New Pictures

There's no real update to speak of, but I received one of the CDs of Addyson's photos today and couldn't wait to upload them to share. Included are a few of my favorites with many more posted on Facebook. We are enjoying a lazy Saturday watching BYU football on TV (49-3 in the fourth as I type this) after which some much needed errands will be run and I even hope to get Addy's Birth Announcement and Blessing Invites done today and sent out soon. If you'd like to receive one please respond with your address! Happy Weekend to all. Oh! And Addyson can now say she has been to 2 BYU football games, 1 women's volleyball game and a men's basketball game!! GO COUGARS :)

Halloween, Babysitters, Work & Great Great Grandparents!

It's hard to believe one, that it's already November and two, that Addyson is almost 7 weeks old now. We enjoyed one last hurrah celebrating her first Halloween before I started back to work, and to my dismay, Addy has to have a babysitter. No, actually her sitters are GREAT and we were very luck to find such kind and loving ladies with flexible schedules to help out! I will admit, some tears were shed the night before and that first day I left her with her first sitter; but it is nice to be back to work and back in a routine! My co-workers are GREAT and my boss has agreed to let me take one day off a week. The goal is to have Wednesdays off to spend some time with my baby girl and get things done around the apartment, because let's be honest, no one wants to spend their weekends doing dishes and laundry!!! Anyways, I've survived my first week and a half back and look forward to spending my evenings with Chris and Addy!!! :)




Addyson has experienced a lot of fun and exciting new adventures lately. Although they may not seem fun or exciting to her; Chris and I are having a BLAST being new parents! Above is a picture of myself, Addyson, Chris and Addy's Great Great Grandma Johansen ("Grandma Jo"). Grandma Jo will celebrate her 90th Birthday tomorrow 11/11/10 and it was so neat to be able to introduce them and get a picture of them together! Chris' parent's will be coming out to visit for Thanksgiving and we are going to have a 5-generation picture taken; talk about exciting and neat experiences :) And speaking of pictures; Addyson and I had a girls day today and met some neat ladies who took Addy's pictures!!! She did SO good and was content and happy for the majority of the shoot. After capturing LOTS of cute poses Addy decided she had had enough! We called it a day after several hours and I hope to get more photos taken again in the near future; we can't wait to see the ones taken today!!!

Long Overdue

Hello all. If we still have any followers out there that is! I apologize for the lack of posts and updates. My last post was news that we are expecting and now this post we have a 4 week old! Addyson Elaine Olsen was born at 3:21 on Saturday September 25th 2010. She was an itty bitty thing weighing only 6 pounds 5 ounces and was 18 inches long. I had been pretty miserable all day at work on Friday and just knew she would be making her debut soon! Sure enough, after a less than desirable night of tossing and turning I awoke at 7:00 a.m. to what I assumed were contractions, they lasted for nearly 5 hours (two of which I spent at work finishing my paperwork from Friday) and then I finally decided it was time to eat lunch (in case labor was longer than expected and I couldn't eat for several hours)and head to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at 1:30 and Addyson made her debut one epidural and 2 hours later. I only pushed for 10 minutes!!! It was a BYU football game day and although we missed the game live in the stands, Addy arrived just in time for us to tune into it on the TV. It's hard to believe 9 months came and went and after such a whirlwind delivery we are both sooo happy to have her here! Grandma Stacie came to visit and help out for the first two weeks and then we also had a quick visit from a good friend of mine from home (Laura Menendez). We are pretty well adjusted to this new life at this time and are thoroughly enjoying all the joy Addy has brought to our lives. She's already met some extended family as well as mommy's co-workers, become quite the shopper; joining mommy and grandma in numerous outings, attended her first parade and football game, has started rolling onto her sides, holds her head up fairly controlled and most recently has discovered her fingers; sucking on her thumb and index fingers! It's amazing how much she has already changed and it's hard to believe she will be 4 weeks old tomorrow and officially one month old on Monday! Chris continues to keep busy with classes, dental school interviews and work. He has already interviewed at The University of Iowa, Indiana University and Case Western; with one more interview scheduled at a Chicago school. We are anxious for December 1st, the soonest he will hear back from any school and also cannot wait to head home to Iowa in December to introduce family and friends to Addyson. I've been enjoying maternity leave and all my one on one time with Addy but sadly will be heading back to work November 1st. We hope all is well in each of your lives and wish much health and happiness this time of year! So there you have it...the latest and greatest in the lives of the Olsen's.