Other things in December

The week after Collin's birthday party was CRAZY!  We had something everyday, and some days had two or more!  Collin had an appointment at the podiatrist to see what we should do about a fungus growing around and under his big toenail.  Turns out it was about 8-9 warts!  The doctor put some ointment on them that would kill them all.

Left was taken two days after the dr visit.  Right was taken a week after.

The next few weeks Collin's toe slowly turned red, then purple, then black.  Skin fell off.  It was swollen and painful.  We couldn't even get a shoe on it for a while there without a lot of pain. Poor buddy!  He missed a couple of weeks of preschool because of it. It is looking SO much better, almost completely normal now.

Friday the 13th was HealthEquity's Holiday party.  Greg's in charge of the committee that puts the celebrations and parties together, so when I go, I don't get to see much of him.  I know a lot of people that work there now, and just in the past couple of months had my good friend's husband start there as well as my sister!  So now I really have people I can hang out with while supporting my husband.

Me and my beautiful sister!

Then Saturday we met my family at Red Robin to celebrate Collin and my brother, Lewis' birthdays.  It was fun!  Collin got a Jake and the Neverland Pirates ship that he LOVES.  Its one of the few toys that he'll play with longer than 2 minutes.

Sunday was the Olsen Family Christmas Party.  It was a good time.  We ate, read stories, sang Christmas songs, and the kiddos exchanged gifts.

Trying to get a whole family picture.

Collin opening Tate's gift, a train.

And his, Mike from Monster's University.  He loves it!

Greg found a fun scarf/hat.

After the first snow storm, we got one that was more wet.  It was great for making a snowman!  Greg came home early from work so he could build one with Collin.  Collin was SO excited!

And Tate turned 3 months!

Collin turns 4

Collin's birthday was the Monday after Tate's blessing.  For that reason (plus that it was a Monday) we decided to do his party the following Saturday.  On the day of his birthday, we asked him what he wanted to do, and he wanted to see Frozen on the big screen.  After opening a present, we went to the movie!

He was excited about his work bench with its working parts!

 The next day, we let him open another present.

SO excited because his other DS (that we bought used) broke.  Now he can play his games again!

Then Saturday came with a major snow storm.  Only three of the 9 friends we'd invited showed up.  1 let us know that they couldn't make it.  Wish I would have known, because then it wouldn't have taken so long to get the party put together!  Again, I put the finishing touches on the party last minute.  A big THANKS to my mom, who came up Friday to help me get things done!

Collin wanted a Secret Agent Perry the Platypus party.  I went with just a Secret Agent party to give myself more things to do.  I made shirts and hats, a bunch of disguise stickers, a Pin the tail on Perry game, and puzzles of bad guys.

When the kids showed up, we got them dressed in their secret agent gear (hat and shirt).  Then I took their picture and told them that today they were going through secret agent training and if they finished they'd get a secret agent badge!  The first thing we did was help other secret agents (pictures of animals) disguise themselves.  This was a huge hit!  I had glasses, wigs, hats and mustache stickers for them to use.  Collin probably did 5 different animals.

Then we went downstairs to get our secret mission from Perry, but he was missing his tail!  We had to help him out first.  They closed their eyes, and did really well getting the tail in the right place! (Forgot to take pictures!)

Then we came upstairs where a trap was (supposed to be) set up!  There were 4 colored "buttons" on the floor and 4 smaller circles with numbers on them.  We figured out that if we hit the buttons the matching number of times with bean bags then the trap would free us!  This took longer than I thought it would (probably cause there was only 4 kids throwing bean bags), but was also a huge hit.  When the party was done, the kids set it back up and played again!

We worked real hard to break the trap so we took a small break for a snack of cheesy crackers, apples, and marshmallows.

Then we went upstairs to find the bad guys.  There was another trap!  Lasers (red string) criss-crossed the hallway!  I was going to show them how to get through the lasers, but they dove right in and made it through all by themselves!  Collin went first, and only pulled two off the walls :)

In Collin's room there were bad guys, but they were scrambled.  Each kid took a puzzle to discover the bad guy and then put them in jail (the trash can).  Because there were only 4 kids, they got to each do two.

They were good sports and did awesome so here they are with their badges!

Then we opened presents.  Collin got some dinos and monster trucks, a Book of Mormon animated book, a nightlight, a soccer ball, and a make your own bouncy ball kit.

In their take home bag was a pair of sunglasses to help disguise them, a magnifying glass for finding clues and treats!

Collin is getting big as well.  At the doctor appt we found out that he is in the 70th percentile for weight and height, his hearing is great, and he has 20/20 vision (and I don't!)

Some more fun facts about our 4-year-old:

His talking is coming along.  He still struggles with the /k/ sound sometimes, especially in words he learned early in learning to speak.
He is super social.  He LOVES playing with friends.  Preschool has helped a ton with his social skills.  He listens and plays nice with friends nearly all of the time!
He still loves games.  He plays his DS, computer and games on our phone very well by himself.  Sometimes he's better than us!  In an attempt to limit electronic time, we invested in some board games.  He loves those too.  We're still working on loosing without freaking out...
He is so sweet.  Out of blue, he'll say "I love you, Mom!" or "I like you, Dad."
He adores his little brother.  He talks to him and gets so excited when Tate smiles at him.  He's a great helper, too.  If Tate is sad, he'll try to give him the pacifier or whatever else he could do, including calling for Mom "Mom!  MOM!  Tate is sad!"  When visitors come over hes eager to show them our "Baby Tate".  "He's so tute!"  (Can't get that /k/ sound!)
Preschool is also helping a lot with his learning.  I couldn't get him to focus (or care) about letters before.  Now he surprises me by knowing them as well as some of their sounds.  They trace and write at preschool, but he hasn't picked that up yet.  We've been practicing at home though, and he's slowly getting better and more interested.
He loves to dance!  We put on upbeat music and he is busting moves!  He's much better than he was back in the days of just bouncing.  From watching characters dance on tv, he's actually picked up some legitimate dance moves.

We love our little 4 year-old.  I can't believe how fast time is going!  He's such a joy to have in our family.  He keeps us laughing and smiling!

Baby blessing

We decided to bless Tate the weekend of Thanksgiving because we thought more people would be able to make it.  WRONG-O!  Maybe 20 people made it.  Sorry to those who wanted to be there, but were unable to because we picked a bad weekend!  We missed you; totally our fault!

The blessing was beautiful, and we're thankful for those who were there to support us.  After sacrament meeting we had a luncheon at our new house.  We cleaned like crazy the day before to show it off!  We had soups, rolls, fruit and yummy desserts for the luncheon.  It was a great time!

Here's some pictures:

Grandma and the sleepy baby

I get told all the time that he looks like me!

Some friends and family who made it

Some nephews!

The kiddos liked playing downstairs, and played so well together!

Uncle/cousin Chandler and Tate

Perks of marrying an HR guy

There are plenty, but one of my favorites is that recruiting services who want Greg to use them, offer awesome things like 6th row Jazz tickets!  Yes, please!  What an experience sitting that close was.  The pictures aren't really zoomed in at all; that was our view.  So cool!

Former Jazz star, Hornacek, is currently the Suns coach.  That was an extra special treat.

What a fun night!  I love extra perks!

Tate is 2 months!

He's getting big!  12 lbs 4.5oz,  22.3 inches long, and 39 cm head.  He's just under the fiftieth percentile for length and head size, but is at about 75th for weight.  He started smiling at us about a week before his 2 month check up.  He's getting good at holding his head up.  Still doesn't like tummy time for very long, but with that acid reflux, I don't blame him.  He loves to snuggle.  And he's started cooing as well.  He loves attention!  He's also loosing his hair a bit on top of his head.  He's still super sweet, hardly cries, and sleeps great at night (granted its only for 3-4 hours, but I'll take that and asleep over awake!)

Halloween!

I had big plans for Halloween.  I asked Collin in August what he wanted to be for Halloween, and he said Mario.  So then I started planning.  I started planning before Tate came.  I even started shopping for pieces for the costumes before he came.  But then he came early, and all my Halloween plans went out the window!  Well, mostly because we couldn't stay well, did they go out the window.  I started on Collin's costume first, because if anyone needed a costume it was him. It took me 6 weeks to get his OVERALLS done!  6 weeks!  In years past, I've been able to complete multiple costumes in 2 weeks.  I'm so glad I got started when I did.  Even though it still resulted in a frenzied finish.  A crazy, last-minute, day-of-Halloween scramble, but worth it.  They turned out super cute!  I put the "M" on the hat as well. 

Just after I finished.  He was sick, but LOVED them!  And didn't take them off the rest of the night.

With a smile :)

I threw some Hawaiian garb on, and put our skeleton onesie on Tate so we were dressed up as well.

 

When Greg saw Collin, he busted out his Mario costume from a few years back.

Mario, and Mario after a red mushroom!

Collin, even though he was sick, really wanted to go trick-or-treating.

He remembered how it goes :)

Some Sept and Oct adventures

 We went to the State Fair with Grandma & Grandpa in September before Tate was born.  We checked out all the animals, got yummy treats and dinner, and rode some rides.  It was super fun!

Collin and Grandpa meeting an owl.

Firefighter!

Not the greatest picture, but this was Collin's favorite ride.  He went on it 4 times!

Then Tate arrived...

Since Tate has been here (almost 2 months now) we have been having all kinds of illnesses.  It started the day after Tate was born.  I got the stomach flu.  It lasted about 5 days, and Collin picked it up as well.  His only lasted 2, thankfully!  Then I got a breast infection.  Then Collin got a cold.  Then I got another breast infection.  Then Tate got Collin's cold.  THEN I got Collin's cold.  Collin got an ear infection after his cold.  Finally Tate and I were just feeling good again, and Tuesday Collin came home with another cold!  (At least I'm hoping that's what it is, and not the flu!)  Greg must have an iron immune system, because he only had maybe two days of feeling crappy through all of this.  

Best buddies!  I can't believe how different their coloring is.

 On one of our feeling ok days, we went to Gardner Village to do the Witch Hunt.

We also went to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins.  We forgot the camera, but Greg snapped one picture with his phone of Collin on top of a hay tower.  Just after he took it, Collin fell off, and hit his head pretty good. But, as he normally does, after hugs he calmed right down and was ready for the next adventure.  We found our pumpkins, visited the petting zoo, did the corn maze, and played in the corn pit.  Collin LOVED the corn pit!

King of the hay tower!

The only other thing we did besides Halloween and preschool a few days, was take lots of pictures of our boys.  So here's a few of them:

I'd tried a few times to get a picture of the both of them.

Sleeping... so peaceful!

The size difference!  Tate's catching up, but he looks SO tiny here!

Sleep smiles.  He hasn't smiled awake yet, but I bet its soon!

Collin has been fighting naps lately.  He plays in his room, and keeps coming out to check if nap time is over yet.  This day, I went up to get him from his room and he'd fallen asleep under his clothes basket.  Silly boy!