little ski buddy

Well since I have one of those lame 40 hour a week jobs, I didn't get to participate in what you are about to see.  But I am glad that Oly and his daddy and bumpa got to do it together! 

Last Friday Steve took Olaf up to the pass to go skiing for the first time!  I am told he did quite well, though he hasn't quite mastered the "pizza wedge" and much prefers "french fries".  Which is not so good for those little boys hoping to remain upright :)  Lucky daddy was there to hold him up most of the way!  Thanks to our friends Ethan and Jenny we have lots of photos to document the day.

 

Auntie K

Auntie K is known to be pretty awesome around these parts.  While Forest is still a bit skeptical that Auntie K and I are related (she is taller after all, with MUCH more fashion sense) and tends to hang back at first, Olaf is full of constant sweet request demands for attention the minute he sees her.  Can you set up the train set?  Can you read to me?  Can we watch Cars 2?  Can we play outside?  Do you want to play cars?  Is it Christmas yet?  Can you buy me a present?  What's this?  What's that?  Let's dance!

Like any loving Auntie would, she acquiesces to most requests.  Lucky for us!  Kendra was home last weekend and came over one night to play games, and got to hang out at bedtime.  The boys LOVED it.  She'd been here about 3 minutes before she turned to inform me "Jenny, you are going to have a lot of broken bones in this house" as the kids chased each other down the hallway, tripping on blankies and running each other into the walls.  I am just surprised we haven't visited the ER yet! (knock on wood)

Love you Auntie K.

first day of snow play

It has been just gorgeous here with the snow!  Cold, yes.  Slow driving, yes.  But super beautiful. 

Olaf was really excited for the weekend because he knew we'd get to go outside to play in the snow.  So yesterday we got them all bundled up and went for a little walk into the woods, picked out our Christmas tree (didn't cut it down yet, just found it), and did some sledding.  Olaf has finally gotten a little tougher, and actually walked most of the way himself instead of crying to be carried.  Bonus!  Awesome!  Forest was content to babbled while on my back.

We all came back rosy cheeked and ready to warm up by the fire that Steve had started.  COZY.  Just in time for naps :)

The boys seem to be growing up so quickly.  It's crazy how Forest went from baby to toddler in like 2 months I swear.  He doesn't talked a lot yet, mostly just babbling.  But we can make out what he means for ball (ba), bottle (baba), binky (baba), blanky (baba)... ha ha, do you see a trend?  Usually it's accompanied by a pointing finger.  Well there's also "go", "up", "dada" and "mama" and I think he says thank you sometimes "tay-oo" and olaf "o-ah".  Who knows though really :)  We just love that he's trying to communicate.   He loves walking, playing cars, putting little people in cars and taking them back out, throwing balls, terrorizing the dogs, blowing raspberries, chasing people and climbing stairs.  Ah and DANCING like a maniac.  Love it. 

I want to send lots of love to Grandma Riley in Oak Harbor today -- hope you are feeling good today!  The boys are all sending you lots of hugs and kisses!

haircuts

 In the past month we've gone from moppy...

To mohawk...

To buzz cut...

Though every stage was cute... I can't wait until it finds it's middle ground!  But I will say... boy this buzz cut is EASY PEASY.  Rinsing the soap out takes no time at all now.  Which makes for a happy mama and boy.  He looks SO grown up like this.  And it is crazy how much this boy resembles his cousin Trygve with short hair.  Seriously.

Love my little Oly.

Chi-Town

Last month I had a fun chance to visit Chicago for the first time.  I have been waiting until I had lots of time to write a post about it, and how much fun I had, and describe my photos in detail... ha ha ha!  Well I never had the time I was looking for, but I do have a few minutes now, so I need to post this! 

Anyway, my good friend from college, Joanna, invited me to come spend the weekend in Chicago with her last month.  She was going to be at a work training near the city the week prior and had gotten a hotel room in the city for the weekend.  Bonus (for me) is that her husband wasn't able to go, so she invited me to come instead!  I decided to go a few days early, because I also have lots of family from Chicago (the ones I re-met at our family reunion last July) and I wanted to see some of them too.

Also I should mention that I am terrible at taking photos.  Truly awful.  Not only do I not take time to compose any of the shots... I forget to take it out 3/4 of the time!  So here ya go -- These are all taken on my iPhone, which is why they are just OK in quality.

Under the "Bean".  That's me in the blue coat in like 5 locations.

Hands down coolest architecture in Chicago.  It's an apartment building.  Each of those wave/ripples are someone's deck outside their condo.  Awsome.  It looked so cool both up close and far away.

Top of the Willis Tower.  Gracious that's high up there.

Another view below.

Dinner at the 50/fifty: Hamburger topped with pulled pork, cheese, and a mac and cheese waffle.  With a side of sweet potato fries.  I ate about 1/3 of it. SO GOOD.

What a creative light fixture in a bakery!

Inside the Bleeding Heart Bakery.  Best cake balls ever.

Bridget and I talking to... shoot I forget.  Apparently he had his own TV show.  That was before my time :)

Chris and I at Navy Pier.

The Bean.  Again.  It was worth 2 visits.

Joanna and I.  Love her.

All in all, it was a GREAT weekend.  It was a little weird being away from my kiddos for that long... especially Forest since he's still nursing...  but I did enjoy staying up late, enjoying little coffee shops, shopping, walking for hours, and doing a lot of other things that little people don't enjoy so much :)  Plus I knew Steve was taking good care of them with a steady diet of mac and cheese, pizza, and quesadillas, plus a lot of good movie watching and cars playing.  Good times traveling.

Per Olaf: my "boring" work

To many folks, I have a pretty blah job.  I sit at a computer all (most of the) day.  I review channelization plans.  I coordinate a bunch of specialized folks in environmental, traffic, utilities and real estate offices to make sure they are all communicating and getting work done.  I design traffic control plans for construction.  I budget.  I estimate.  I write specifications.  I try to figure out solutions with lowest cost and highest benefit to the public.  I inspect roadway construction.

It's not sexy.  I don't dress up in a nice suit every day and meet with big businesses on 50th floor office conference rooms.  I don't travel (except to even more rural parts of the state).  I get paid about 50%-60% of what my private sector counterparts make, though my job is no less challenging in my opinion.

I work in a small town.  Like somewhere around 27,000 people I think.  Maybe?  (quick someone look up Wenatchee, WA).  Which I used to think was huge when I was growing up in Leavenworth, population tiny (3500?), but really it's not.  You run into people you know EVERYWHERE.  But there are some neat advantages to working in a small town.  Like the fact that I can actually affect change in my community.  Tonight I set up and led an Open House for a big project I was working on.  In this short time period I met with 1 state legislator, the mayor of Wenatchee, two City Council members, the City Engineer, the County assistant public works director, got quoted for a radio news story and met with at least 25 business or home owners in the area.  I didn't stop talking the entire time I was there.  And I got to interact, listen to concerns, show off all the good stuff we've designed, get feedback, and provide information to the community.  All while rubbing elbows with the (small time) politicians.  But even small town politicians actually have  say in State government and you know what?  That's pretty sweet.  Because that means I can affect what happens in my area.

So I'll take my non-sexy job with the salt of the earth type people because you know, I like living in a place where I can meet people, lead projects, represent my organization, and know I'll run into those same people year after year as we "share life" together.

Here's to small town life!

Hello friends,

Well, it's been a while.  We have missed you.  Or rather, perhaps you have missed us?  Well we've just been trucking along.  The first 9 days of October were rough, as it was the fourth week of Steve working in New Jersey.  Hence the fact that I really had no time to myself to write posts!  I was pretty much in survival mode...  The bad news is, Steve was gone for a really long time.  The good news is, we all survived!  AND we'll be able to pay our bills for quite some time with all the hard work we put in during that time, which is so nice heading into winter :)

My boys are getting sweeter (and sometimes more sour) all the time.  The sweet moments just seem more precious, and of course the tantrums are louder and more dramatic.  And sometimes more hilarious.  I forgot the one year old tantrum that happens the MINUTE they don't get their way.  Including facedown on the floor sobbing, or throwing oneself backwards off whatever surface they make be sitting on while screaming.... ah, the joys.  My boys are little masters of getting their way...  I am probably too easy on them while Steve is gone (hello, it's called survival.  Which is easier, listening to 45 minutes of crying, or giving the kid juice...?).  So when Steve returns from long sessions away, he gets to help break them (me) of our bad habits.  Sorry Hub.  However I still think the kiddos are doing quite well considering it's just me trying to direct their little lives a lot of the time.  It's a lot of responsibility raising these little people!  Holy moly!  I just keep on praying that they keep those sweet innocent hearts for a long long time.  And that I don't do anything to screw it up :)

This morning the boys and I returned home from Church, and Olaf immediately ran into the office and jumped on a pile of sleeping bags and Steve's multiple puffy jackets we had stashed in there.  He then invited Forest in to play too.  A few things to note in this photo below...  1.  Olaf is wearing gardening gloves.  Why?  He loves them!  He kept stealing mine so I bought him his own.  I don't get it, but if it keeps him happy why not?  2.  I couldn't get a happy picture of Forest without that bottle all up in his mouth.  Whenever I tried to grab it away the cuteness melted into not.so.much.  So there it is in the photo.  and 3. Matching shirts.  We had family photos taken yesterday, yay!  So they were wearing the same cute outfits for the second day in a row.  LOVE button ups on little men.

And now October is halfway over.  Whoa.  Happy fall!

Funny faces

Well I look sort of dorky with that expression, but who can resist Forest in that cute sweater with a smirk on his face? Not me!




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Phew

I am currently at work. I just discovered I have TERRIBLE bags under my eyes, and to top it off I didn't wear mascara to at least 'pop' them out away from the bags a bit. Yikes. Good thing I am not trying to catch a man these days! This month is teaching me that I definitely do not want to have another baby any time soon. Maybe someday in the very distant future, but man, not yet. I am getting a run for my money.

Last night I went to bed at 11:15
p. Olaf woke up at 12:30a crying all crazy, and he had to go to the bathroom, and his owie on his finger hurt, and he had growing pains in his legs (this happens once or twice a month), and he needed me to "RRRUUUUBB MMYYYYY LEEEEEGGGSS MOOOOMMMMY… WWWAAAAAAIILLL!" Of course crying this woke up the other one, and each them strongly disliked when I was tending to the other. Finally I just let Forest cry himself back to sleep (only took about 5 minutes) and Olaf crawled up into my bed so I could rub his legs for 15 minutes or so. Of course he kept telling me "I NEEEEEEED MEDICINE MOMMY." But I am not a huge fan of doling out the childrens Tylenol like candy, so I just rubbed his little leggies until he fell asleep, sideways in my bed, with his feet in my ribcage. He sleeps awesome like this. Me… notsomuch.

Then at 4:00a Forest was up, crying. I admit, I am so exhausted at night I don't even try to just walk him and rock him to calm him down at that time. And I can't sleep through it to just let him cry. So I just give in and give him milk, knowing that it means at least he won't need the milk at 5:00a like usual, so I can sleep until 5:30a. But then I overslept until 6:09. What's amazing is that I was only 12 minutes late to work today, which is great considering I took a shower, got 2 boys and myself ready for the day, had two daycare drop-offs, and ferried 2 pans of enchiladas for dinner to my mom's house. With a 35 mile commute.

Now I am trying to not fall asleep at my desk!

Up a hill

A little hike up Icicle Ridge with Olaf's friend Rylee and her mama Kelli. A lot of fun! (isn't Rylee so cute?)




















(HEAD. MOVE. NOW. It's like an orange on a toothpick!)
(who can name that movie??)








Happy to get outside with my boys and some friends!


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Location:Icicle Ridge Trail, Leavenworth, WA

Cute boy

He is finally taking steps on his own!!! This little walker was a key advancer in this regard. You should see the look of joy / terror on his face when he really gets to pushing fast. Priceless.




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Party Time

Guess who had a birthday party this weekend...?





























Good times and wonderful kiddy chaos was had by all. Forest was lucky to have all his Saugen/Hizon cousins all there, in addition to his best bud Dudley and his other best buds from Miss Julie's house (the gal who watches him while I am at work) AKA her kids :).

I actually relaxed at the party. It was so awesome! The first party in awhile that I haven't been anxious or stressed - yay!!

if anyone has more pictures... Feel free to email them to me! I am terrible at taking them.... Luckily Mark emailed me a few today :).

Can't believe a year has already passed... What a blessed year it has been. Hoping for more good times ahead!

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Location:River Rd,Leavenworth,United States

One

Forest Tucker Saugen
Is one year old today.
Where has time gone?

I can't believe that a year ago we were in the hospital, loving and snuggling our little bundle, sharing his little self with our family and friends. I LOVED spending that day he was born in the hospital. I know that lots of women hate it and would rather be at home or in a birthing center, (which I am sure is awesome too) but I really enjoyed having people take care of me for a day. I never felt poked and prodded and intervened upon. I just felt relaxed and tired and special. How do they do that, those L&D nurses? They see the most incredible aspect of humanity (birthing) nearly EVERY SINGLE time they come to work, yet they still manage to keep their energy up and make each birth just as special as it is! I do realize that may have been my singular experience, but I am very blessed by it and the memories I have of it. Anyway, sidetrack...  I do have lovely memories of that night and day of Forest's birth day.

 08.29.10

Forest, you are my sweet snuggler.  The boy who still LOVES nursing at a year old and you are so excited to do so you squat up and down and screech until it's time.  Mornings are the best after your first nurse, because if I let you we will happily snuggle and sleep together from 5:00am to 6:15 on weekends.  (Which helps keep Daddy's side of the bed warm when he is gone for work.)  Of course this may change as you become more independent, but for now I will relish in your tiny body close to mine.

Early morning snuggling together.

You have the BIGGEST blue eyes I have ever seen.  Even Grandma Betty Newell calls you "blue-eyes" every time she sees you.  And your smile is ear to ear.  Luckily we see a LOT of that smile, especially when your brother is around.  I keep thinking he is beating you up, as he is wrestling you to the ground in a big bear hug... and you just laugh and laugh, and give Olaf that little eye twinkle as you crawl away, like you are saying "come and get me again!"  How special that you get to grow up with a big brother to look up to.

Picnic at Grammy and Bumpa's house.

Sometimes when I haven't seen you for a while, when I pick you up to hold you, you wrap those skinny little arms around my neck and play with my necklace while you press your forehead against my cheek for a few minutes... sigh.  I am trying to lock these memories away they are so sweet!  You also still seem to like being carried on my back in the Ergo.  We walk around the yard, chase Olaf, pick weeds, go for walks, and sometimes cook dinner like this, with you snuggled up on my back.  Aside from the occasional hair-pull to let me know you are totally over it, you sit quietly and just take it all in.  I love it.

Just arrived at Hidden Lake, time to relax.

Of course my dear son, you do have moments of being a holy terror.  Such as when you don't want your diaper changed (which is all the time) or when I take your toothbrush away from you and then close the door to the bathroom so you can't go back in.... oooh you get feisty mad.  But you get over it quickly and for that I am thankful.

Toothbrush time!

So, on your birthday Forest, know that you are loved by me, and your daddy and brother, and all the other people you know.  We were doubly blessed when you arrived, 365 days ago, and I am so looking forward to seeing what your next 365 have in store!  Love you little Foresty.

Look at the size of those craniums!  Like oranges on toothpicks! 

Cousins

Having fun climbing all over at the Moonlight Music Festival in Plain last night.









This little Plain concert morphs just a bit for me each year. It used to be Steve and I could enjoy the music, talk to all our friends and neighbors, and then ride our bikes home in the dark. Even with baby Olaf we were able to do this and just pull him along. It gets a bit harder to do each year. This year Steve was gone. And while there were many lovely family and community members to keep an eye on my children, it is MUCH harder to relax and enjoy. So we didn't stay too long.

Luckily I don't have FOMS (fear of missing something) so I wasn't too disappointed to leave early to put boys to bed. I have discovered that I have a much better time relaxing at home than wrangling two whiny babes just so I can talk to people for a few more minutes! I am looking forward to the day, though, when we can let the boys run a little free-er. But blessed to live in a place where until then, I have lots of helpers!


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