As of 3/26/13 as an Olin

Yep it has been about a month and a half since I've posted anything. The last time, we announced #3 is coming and then everything went down hill from there. Baby #3 is fine, it's just we have been a sick household around here. Mason seems to bring everything into this house from wherever. The beginning of February he came came down with the dreaded hand foot and mouth yuckiness. It only occurred in his mouth and to this day, one part of his tongue has not healed because he keeps biting his it over and over again.

We have had our fair share of colds, ear infections, sinus infections, and of course the most dreaded stomach virus a couple of weeks ago. Let me tell you, being pregnant made it ten times worse for me. We are hopefully all on the mend and hopefully, Spring is around the corner somewhere and we can knock out all of this sickness.

Updates on us all:

Mason, which everyone asks about, is doing very well. He is walking 75-80% of the time. We still have to work on him not spreading his legs when he walks and he is still a little wobbly, but we will take that over crawling all of the time. He continues to do physical therapy once a month. Next week he turns 18 months old. He isn't really saying much besides just grunting and noises and an occasional mama and bye bye. I've requested he be evaluated for speech and see if that will help with developing language. In February, Mason moved up classes to the creepers and crawlers. I think this has and will help in his development.

Jay amazes us each day, he is really getting good at drawing and has an imagination. He really keeps us on our toes with the things he says and how smart he is. I can't believe that next year he will be in kindergarten. Last week we received his official CMS letter stating he will be going to Bain next year. Crazy that he will be going where I went. Also next year there will be a new school building. It will be different walking into there. Jay has also started t-ball this year. Garrett is the coach and Jay is excited about it. Grandpa and Gramps are helping out too which I think he is excited about. He is pretty good and probably won't have to hit off the T. The coach can pitch the ball a couple of times before they try hitting off the T. The first game is in a couple of weeks and it should be interesting.

Garrett is preparing to go to Mozambique from the middle of April to the end of the month. This should be interesting because we both have not been out of the country, much less to Africa. I think he is excited and seems to have a great group of people he is going with. I just may need some sanity when he is gone. Hopefully the kids and I will make it by ourselves.

As for me, I'm feeling good most days. I do feel nauseous at times, but just deal with for the most part. As of today, I am 14 weeks along. Yes we will find out what we are having, but we probably won't until after Garrett comes back from Africa.

We keep on trucking here and look forward to Easter this weekend. We hope you guys are doing well and have a Happy Easter!!

Big changes

I guess it is time to announce that we will be becoming a family of 5 in September. Yep, you read it right. A couple of years ago, we would have said just two kids and we were done. Mason changed all that and now we sit expecting our 3rd child. As of now, we are 9 weeks this coming Tuesday.

I know we will get a few questions after that so I'm just going to answer all of them right now.

1. Yes we are done after 3 unless God has a surprise for us later on.

2. I've already had two ultrasounds and no it isn't ectopic and we are not having twins. Garrett kept saying it would be.

3. No, we will not become a minivan family. Sorry to all those who are, but minivans are not our thing.

4. Will we get tested for Down syndrome? No, I declined all of those tests. If God wants to show us like he did at our 18 week ultrasound, He will. There is no use to up our doctor bill for less than 100% results and worry.

5. Am I more at risk at having another special needs kid? I guess so, but we all are at risk. Only a few are chosen. The doctor does plan to send me to the high risk doctor to get the ultrasound done of the baby.

6. Do we want a girl? It doesn't matter. It would be great, but honestly it would be cheaper to have a boy since we have all the boy stuff.

7. We don't know what we will do about rooms or cribs. Maybe Jay and Mason will end up sharing a room for a bit. We will see.


We are excited to see where this next chapter will lead us.

Our Saturdays

Our Saturdays, since we have entered January have been filled with basketball games. That means we are cheering on Garrett's 13/14 year old team. Garrett has also been helping with the 15/16 year olds and coaches one or two of those teams as well. During the games, Jay finds things to do like cheer on the team (that only lasts a minute or two), play with his action figures, and play with my phone. Today he started to take pictures as the game. Here are a couple of his shots.. Next he will be making silly faces of himself and I'll have those to show.

Welcome 2013

So today starts a new day, new month and a new year.  2012 brought us new challenges, new friends, and a lot of growing up.

Mason has developed well throughout the year.  He began crawling and doing that very fast.  He really has developed his personality and seems to be hungry all of the time and smiles a lot.  He can give you a high five and I believe even can say mama in these last few days.  In 2013, we expect him to walk in the coming weeks, making him the smallest walking kid in the area.  He is still rather small compared to others his age, but we will take him large or small.

Jay turned four this past year and surprises us everyday with what he says.  He seems fairly smart and ready to start school this coming August.  I can't believe we will have a kindergartner.  He is excited and tells everyone he will be going to Bain School next year.  We will see come August how excited he will be when the time comes.  He continues to love superheroes, and has a new found love of Ninja Turtles.  It's crazy how all of the old toys from when Garrett and I were younger are now coming back around and Garrett can explain what all of them are.

As for Garrett and I, we continue to work at the same places that we have worked since we have been married.  Garrett is an architect and I'm a math teacher.  This month Garrett will be ordained as a Deacon on January 13th at our church.  This past year I ran in my first 5k, running a total of 3 in call.  My hope is to continue that do more this year.  Other than that, we do not know what 2013 will bring, but we do know there will be excitement, surprises, heartbreak, and fun with whatever is to come.

Happy New Year!!

Christmas Break 2012

As we welcome in a new year, want to finish out 2012 with a couple of pictures from our Christmas Break.  We traveled to Garrett's grandmother's in Loris, SC the weekend before Christmas to see his cousins and aunts and uncles and open gifts.  

Mason and Garrett found themselves resting in his Grandmother's lounge chair fast asleep.

Christmas Eve we spent time at the Wagoner's and went the Christmas Eve service at church.

Of course a little bit of time was spent on iphones this year since we all have them.

Everyone opened some gifts and had fun.

Christmas day, we opened gifts from Santa.  They included some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle gear and superheroes.

Mason wanted in on some of the action.

Midmorning, we traveld to the Olin's to spend some time there.  Mason had fun crawling everywhere and opening gifts.

Yes, Jay is playing with his Ninja Turtles in the packages.  We eventually opened them.

Christmas just wore us out and Mason one day fell asleep in my lap.

We spent an evening with friends and had some Kona Ice.

New Year's Eve we spent at the Deal's house.  Here are all the kids minus one who went to bed early.

Tomorrow we go back to work and school.  Can't wait until next Christmas to see how we have all changed.

Christmas, here we come

It's that time of year again.  School has ended in CMS, the Christmas parties for the kids are over, and we are getting ready to see family and friends over this holiday season.

The tree is up with all sorts of wrapped presents underneath.

The stockings are hung ready to be stuffed.

Tons of Christmas cards are hung on the wall from all sorts of family and friends.

(sorry not all of them pictured here)

And two little boys ready to open gifts.

We can not wait for Christmas to arrive.  We are planning to stay busy this weekend and through Christmas.  Jay has The Hulk, Ironman, Ninja Turtles, and Transformers all on his list.  If you just mention something else, he adds it to it.  Mason, has no idea what is going on, just that he can't touch the tree or presents.  Oh those glowing lights are just a way to trick little kids and get them into trouble.

This year, we don't have a picture with Santa with the boys.  We didn't make our way to a mall or anywhere else where Santa was there.  Jay really hasn't made a big deal of it.  He knows the reason for the season is for Jesus' birthday.  Last week in Sunday School they had a birthday party and brought gifts for the the Latin American Campus food pantry.

Next time, we will have pictures from Christmas to share.  Until then, have a Merry Christmas!!

Weekend Entertainment

Friday night,  I was able to get out for a bit and go to a friend's house to have a girl's night.  It was great to get away just talk about whatever and just hang out for about 2 hours.

Saturday started out cleaning house while Garrett went to basketball practice at the church with his 13-14 year old boys.  Cleaning with a one-year old at your feet can be challenging, but can be done.

Yesterday afternoon, we made our way to the Charlotte Motor Speedway for my 3rd 5k.  We had awesome weather; 70 in December.  We couldn't ask for a better day.

Kelly McNeill and Laura Church ran in the race as well.  Come to find out in the end, there were several other people that we knew that were there.  We started the race by driving a bus from the speedway to the ZMax dragstrip.  We ran from midway in the dragstrip to the end of it through a tunnel and up to one of the bridges that crosses the road.  The second mile that takes you to the bridge was the toughest because it was a steep uphill run.  Once we crossed the bridge into the speedway we ran all the way around the track.  It was a pretty neat run and really cool to be inside the speedway.  I know I've only been there once, but now I can say I've been there twice.

Afterward, there was the kid dash, which really seemed like a sprint that Jay ran.  It was kind of crazy and some kids trampled over some and others ran in the 5k lane to the finish.

If you look close, you can see Jay to the far left of the picture

Here is Jay crossing the finish line running his little heart out.

Here are the two little runners and their moms when it was all done.

My goal this year was to run a 5k and I've done 3 to finish out the year.  Not bad.  My first was 27:27 in September, 26:26 in November, and 27:24 yesterday.  I was hoping for better yesterday, but still not bad.  I was 1st for the 30-34 year old women and was actually 78th among all of the runners.  I'm not really doing it to win, but the competition side of me doesn't mind if I do.  I haven't signed up for one next year, but I plan to at some point.  Lets see if I can get a better time.  I would like to be under 25 minutes at some point.