i know, i know...

it has been awhile i know.
you are probably all wanting to see what new adventures olaf is up to.
and perhaps what steve and i are up to as well...?

our good friends jake, levi, and matt are here helping us frame our house!
it is incredible. every day i come home and something new is completed.
today i came home to the east wall framed in (facing river road). it looked
exactly how i had pictured it in my head. nice work boys! i will start posting
pictures of all of that tomorrow. i don't have to work tomorrow in wenatchee
which is very nice. though i will probably have to go buy groceries somewhere.
feeding 4 grown men is a lot of food! luckily mom and dad are feeding
us all at their house tomorrow. and letting us shower. yay!

i got to eat sushi tonight with my friends from wenatchee - charlotte, emma,
and mary ann. i never get to see them. but now that olaf has childcare
in wenatchee, i can stay in town which is wonderful! the sushi was SO SO SO
good. spicy tuna is my favorite. the salmon sashimi was good too. and the
yellow fin rolls. and the salmon rolls. but spicy tuna was the best. i was too afraid to try the
hot wenatchee rolls... they had a little too much going on for me. i should have
taken a picture of them so you could understand what i mean.

such a fun evening!
i am looking forward to posting more tomorrow.
until then...

scootapotamus

Olaf is learning how to scoot backwards on his tummy. It is really quite cute except for when he realizes he is actually going away from the things he is trying to reach... and he gets a little whiny. But still very cool that he is moving a bit! I am now watching him scoot into the refrigerator.

Chelan keeps trying to take over his blankets on the floor the minute he moves off of them. Nothing like a wet dog to make a baby blanket smell great :)

Happy 2009!

babys first christmas

oUr HoLiDaY. In a little (ches)nutshell.

We got back last Friday night (12/26) from a lovely Christmas holiday. We were able to spend Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa Riley. It was a nice supper at the Country Club, and then gifts for the grandkiddos back at their house. We saw a lot of family that we hadn't seen in a long time, which was great! Dinner conversation was lively and all the kiddos (all 6 of them) behaved great (no crying even from the babes).

Grandma, Grandpa, Tad

Trygve and Serenity

Christmas morning was spent at the hotel with the Saugens and the Sorensens - so much fun to have all the kids together! We opened stockings and had breakfast together. (Our room smelled like sausage for a full 24 hours :)

I'm so excited about my Spiderman PJ's!

Olaf and Ingrid await their stockings.

Micah and Olaf are good at sharing their toys.

Look Mom, Santa brought my this sippy cup! (teether with handles...)

Then we headed to Mark and Barb's home for Christmas dinner (DELICIOUS TURKEY) and shared the evening together. The kids (again) all were spoiled rotten with books and toys and clothes.

Olaf learns about Barb's toy box of goodies.

Elmo, I want to eat you!

I found myself so thankful for such a diverse family -- one that I love to share life with. If I could only get more folks to join us and the Saugens here in Leavenworth.... (hint hint Jenny Sue and Haakon) Really though - how many folks are lucky enough to marry into a family that they absolutely love? They truly are a great group of people. (That includes all of you - not just those who I saw this weekend) Anyway, I'll stop my gushes.

That's my post for now. Enjoy the pictures!

delight

Pure delight... that's what I have when I hang out with this kid. My little Roly poly Oly. Happy to just be himself. And I love him so much!

Already Sunday...

Well, it's already Sunday. That means that Steven will have to leave again this evening for his work away from home... sad :( Although we manage fine without him these many days/weeks he is away for work, we still miss him terribly. But I know that he loves the work he does on the boat, and it makes me happy to know that his work fulfills him, so we make do.

Audioning for "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe? Seriously. No I am serious.

How much is Steven working away from home, you might ask? Well, it changes monthly. But he will gone about 2.5-3 weeks each from November through February. But this is good, right?! We are trying to pay for a remodel! And the bonus is, when he is home this winter, he will ACTUALLY be home. Last winter he was home for 13 days over the holidays... and spent all 13 days working on Ski Patrol. We did not spend much time together sadly. But not this year -- this year we will be able to ski together!


Every now and then, when I am in need of a husband for some type of work which husbands normally do, I call on one of the other husbands I know and their wives let me borrow them -- my dad, nick, dave, the helpful men at les schwab... What a blessing to have good friends and family so close!
Grandpa Brian and Drooly Oly

These are Olaf's "Uncle" Nick and "Auntie" Jaimi

Uncle Dave and cousin Micah

Les Schwab -- Did you know they will come pick up your car for you, take it back to the shop, check it out, call you back with the results, fix anything, and then drive it back to you and give you the keys back? AWESOME. You don't even have to leave work!

Welcome Alexsandr!

Baby Alexsandr Encinas was born this last Wednesday evening, December 3rd! My sister Kirsten did an awesome job, and after nearly 24 hours of labor, the little man was finally born! He weighed in at 8lbs, 2oz, with dark brown hair and bluish greyish eyes. He has his daddy's crazy bent-in pinky fingers and Kirsten's eyes. He is BEAUTIFUL. Seriously cute. And so tiny!

CONGRATULATIONS Kirsten and Moises!

PS... Mom did I spell his name right????

Black Friday...

I have never been shopping on "Black Friday" before, so my mom and I decided to head into the big city of Wenatchee with Olaf yesterday morning to try to score some deals. I was anticipating a crazy madhouse of people being rude and rushing to get the last Tickle Me Elmo or whatever it is this year. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find organized lines, lots of the products I wanted still on the shelves, and nice people! How could this be?! Well for one we avoided Walmart, which I hear is the craziest of all stores. Two, we didn't get there until about 8am (even though I got up at 5:30 like usual...). So apparently we missed the long lines and the rushing. And three, we went prepared with a list of what we wanted from the sale ads so we had a "plan" in place.

I finally understand why people like shopping the day after Thanksgiving - there are some INCREDIBLE deals! Carters childrenswear for 60% off? (Less than an outlet price). Electronics at 60% off? Flannel at $1.47 a yard? I know. Seriously Good deals all around. I didn't spend much, but sure got a lot of goodies. Not to mention the deals I can't mention because the recipients may actually read this blog.

Anyway, I just had a really fun time with Mom and Olaf (who was a champ by the way! aside from his blowout at JCPenny's). I know it's easy to get caught up in the mayhem and "consumerism" that sometimes surrounds the holidays... but I more feel like we just had a fun day picking out some simple gifts for people we love. Thanks for coming with me Mom!

kisses...

So to continue my fun day -- We got home at 2:00pm ish and Steven had our bikes all ready to go. The two of us packed up Olaf in the Chariot and went for a nice ride in the semi-freezing hail/rain/snow/sleet weird weather mixture. It was just nice to get outside and exercise in the crisp air while warming up our bodies. Oly slept most of the ride - he was so bundled all you could really see was his little face poking through. Lucky duck :)

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving holiday full of family, friends, laughter and too much food. I know we did!

we still love you seahawks!

Reminiscent of Thanksgivings past... I had to sit next to the guy eating off the bone :)