Handy husband

With the anticipation of a new baby the NEED (or maybe my WANT) to do some switching around with regards to kids and bedrooms became more and more of a priority for me. I mean I guess if this was a girl I could have put three boys in one room but I was not liking that idea and really wanted to give Dylan his own space. Dylan is a lot like me and likes to have his "me" time and with 2 little monsters for brothers he was definitely lacking in that department. Not to mention, he's a bit older than Luke and it made more sense for Luke and Tryg to share a room. Our house technically has 3 bedrooms but fortunately lots of other space to work with.

We have this weird long room in the back that we think used to be a deck a previous owner enclosed. It has had multiple names in our house...MOM's GYM (since that's where I kept the treadmill and exercise equipment, the BOWLING ALLEY since it was all hard wood and rather long, or the simply OTHER or BACK ROOM. Here's some pics below of the room when we first bought the house.

It was a very awkward space with some weird cabinets, counter top and a sink. We could never figure out why this room would have a sink??? The kitchen actually had a window that looked out into this room and it included 2 rather ugly sliding glass doors...one from the office and one from our dining room. Very weird!!! And when we bought the house the room came complete with this hospital bed that you see in the picture. Also very strange!

So...I pictured making this room into two rooms...Dylan's new bedroom and another room that we'll call Mark's man room/kids play room. I know those two things don't really go together but I told Mark as long as the kids can play in there, store their toys, and watch movies on his flat screen TV then we can call it his MAN ROOM :).

I had gotten a couple estimates on having an outside company come in and transform the room but in the end we decided to put Mark's handy man skills to work with the help of his Dad and brother.

Phase 1 included mostly demolition.....

Making some progress...

working on the closet....

My deck became the staging/storage area for a while... It's starting to look like a bedroom!

I find it amazing that most men (not all...let's be clear) seem to just know how to do things like put walls up, hang doors, spackle ceilings, install ceiling fans, and do things with electrical wires. I don't get it but I do appreciate it! The boys finally got to help with some painting and Mark got to take a break as you can see.

Well...it only took a few months but it was pretty much finished before Molly came and that's what I asked for. Here are some pics of the finished product... It still needs a few finishing touches (door frame, baseboard,etc..). This area used to be a weird sliding glass door from our office. There were only a few frustrations along the way (and countless trips to home depot)

• having to put in 4 ceiling fans before he found one that worked right.
• realizing he bought the wrong door after he hung it up.
• finding out the closet he and his Dad built was a half inch too small for the closet door.
• trying to figure out why 2 out of the 3 outlets now did not work.
• wife nagging him to finish.

I love that Dylan has his own space now but I probably love even more that Mark was the one that gave it to him. I love having a husband that knows how to do this stuff....although he probably wishes he never made known his capabilities to me :) ! I guess after all his hard work he probably deserves that MAN room and once he gets his big flat screen TV up in there (probably in about 2015 or so)...I'll post some more pics :)

Pink, pink....and more pink

This is my all baby stuff in one post. I need to find ways to condense these posts because I have way too much to catch up on. First up...my tutu's and tiara's baby shower given by Jenny Lops (Mark's sister). She definitely made up for all the blue in my life with lots and lots of pink! It was great with tons of yummy food and cute decorations. My favorite...the cream filled cupcakes! Jen did an awesome job with the help of course of Sabrina, Allie, Mary, Melanie, and Mandy. Thanks girls!!!

I got lots of fun stuff. Mary did not disappoint with her homemade quilt for Molly. I loved all the cute clothes, shoes, blankets, and bows!!! Oh...how I can't wait for some pig tails! Meanwhile back at the house....the boys were putting on a daddy day care so that the girls could relax and enjoy. Brandon, Mark and Tom took charge of 7 kids and as you can see they seemed to have at least most of them under control... The female Olson clan....

Next up...my baby girl room that I have been working hard on. For any boys reading this you may want to just skip to the end because I'm pretty sure you wont care about this part :). I actually didn't have to ask Mark to do any painting. The room had green and white walls with lots of blue accents and I simply traded out the blue for some pink. I think it turned out pretty cute.

One of my favorite baby shower gifts... Allie used the fabric from my bumper pads and made this cute bow and barrette holder. I can't wait for her to have some hair so I can actually use them! I got pretty crafty myself and made the cute 'M' wall hanging as well as this paper punch flower hanging. The desk actually used to be grandma's and was an ugly brown old thing but I re-finished it a few years back and absolutely love it so I had to include it in this picture. All and all I was quite proud of my "crafty" self :).

My sister in-law Jane made these bumper pads. I picked out the fabric and she did the hard part. She's pretty talented that way which makes it nice for me :). Mark's mom also worked some wonders on the rocking chair. It used to be her mothers but the fabric was a little outdated and definitely did not go with my color scheme so I picked out some fabric and she managed to re-cover the existing pads and made the cute pillows to bring it all together Now all I needed was a little girl. Molly Joanne Olson joined our family this past Wednesday weighing in at 8lbs 3 oz and measuring 19 3/4 inches. Yes, she is my biggest :). I'm pretty sure she'll have plenty to wear for quite a while :)

We are excited to have her join our crazy brewd of boys and I know she'll be well protected in the years to come....

She is perfect and we feel very blessed to have this precious new spirit in our home!

The official kid count now........Boys -3 and Girls - 1

Scotty and Kiley tie the knot

As part of my catching up on summer blogging. Here are some pics from Scotty and Kiley's wedding palooza in July that I know some family members would probably like to see...

We had a "get to know each other's family" dinner the night before at Rubys on the pier in Oceanside. The food was good, the kids were crazy, and we bonded :).

Mary presented Scott and Kiley with a homemade quilt that was adorable! She's quite the quilting queen now which we all have benefited from in one way or another :)

The sunset and skyline were gourgeous so we couldn't pass up some family pics on the beach before we left...

Fast forward to the next day....hanging out outside the temple waiting for the happy couple to make their debut. The kids of course had pretty much reached their limit of being well behaved by now :)

I'm thinking Tom's next job....Secret Service?

Finally...the happy couple arrives...in flip flops and Vans. Hey at least Scotty decided to wear some shoes:)

The kids had been dying to run down the big grass hill so after they made it through some family pics...we let them dirty up their white shirts. Scotty and Kiley also had a ring ceremony later that day before the reception. The weather was perfect and the scenery was gourgeous. The reception was great too but unfortunately we spent most of the time chasing our boys around so our pictures pretty much end here......yada, yada, yada.......and they lived happily ever after.

Congratulations Scotty and Kiley!!!

Summer Hodgepodge

This is my "I'm playing catch up post" for the summer. I have 9 days until this baby is born and let me tell you the last month or so sitting at a computer for any length of time has been extremely uncomfortable. So... I have really been neglecting my blog which is a shame because I have all these great pictures that are just sitting in my computer. I don't scrap book or even print them out and put them in photo albums so this blog is the only real use I have for them. I needed to find a way to get them up so here you go. Luke's birthday was first and as you can see he had a great time playing with his friends and cousins. Luke was really into the "UP" movie so that was his request when it came to his birthday cake. His favorite gift....The fishing pole from Aunt Jenny. Which is interesting since he has never fished but that didn't stop him from casting his line from anywhere in the house (without care to the fact that Mom says it's an outside toy). He would then tell us about all the things he had caught that day :)

I just had to include a pic of my 4th of July pies. I thought they were kind of pretty and very patriotic.

Next up was our staycation at San Elijo State beach. We camped for a few nights and had perfect weather. My parents, brother and his wife came down from Utah for a little SoCal sun. As you can see the kids had a blast catching sand crabs, digging holes, making sand castles, and swimming.

Gotta love our awesome wagon which made trucking our stuff to the sand much easier. The kids got to eat lots of junk and things Mom normally doesn't buy...like pop tarts. I also learned that Jane likes to eat the crust off her toast first and then the middle. Who does that???? Our trip was completed with Kenny getting stung by a sting ray while surfing. All I could think when he first came wobbling up to the campsite with blood dripping from his foot...."Isn't that how Steve Irwin died?" Apparently it is a pretty painful experience but he survived and was out surfing again in no time. Luke is very into the "why" questions these days and I'm pretty sure he's asking Kenny in this picture things like "Why are you bleeding? Why did you get an owie?" Why are you making that face?" That takes us through about mid July. Next up Scotty and Kiley's wedding, before and after bedroom pics, and lots of pink! Stay tuned....