Summertime Fun Photo Dump

The calendar just switched over to August.  Johnny is now 10 months old, and Forest is about to turn 5!  This is crazy, just crazy.  Early in June Johnny started scooting/crawling along (~8 mos) and now he's a little speed demon on four limbs.  I think he's actually pretty close to walking!  A few weeks he started taking steps if you hold both his hands, and he stands on his own quite often.  He is seriously such a little joy!  He now says "Dadadada" for Steve and "Mamamama" for me... Daddy was the first word, little stinker.

In June school ended for Olaf.  He ended the year with a great field trip with his school to Orcas Island, a school play, and then a family trip to a Mariners game!  Wow it was packed.  THEN my birthday, and his birthday...  Oh, then Family Camp at Tall Timber.  Oh, then we moved to my mom's house.  Yeah...  all in about 20 days or so!

July wasn't so crazy.  Play dates for the boys, water play, softball for me, and lots of work for both Steve and I.

And now, a giant photo dump...  I may have to do this in a few posts.

These are all from Olaf's birthday party - it was a big one!  He was lucky enough to have most of his cousins, and four of his best friends from school there with him. We played, had a treasure hunt (hershey bars as the prizes - they definitely melted), ate "how to train your dragon" cake, opened gifts, and had an epic water fight.  Fun times had by all!

living life

Our February chugged along.  And now March is steaming along too!

February was full of school (Olaf), cross-country ski team practice (Olaf + Coach Steve!), school activities (Olaf-Do you see a theme?), working in Wenatchee for Jenn, trying to figure out small business taxes (yikes), work for Steve here in Plain, and Fire Department this and that.  We were all so sad when football season was over :(  Not sure what to do with our Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays!  But Olaf still wears his jersey at least one day a week which totally makes me happy!  

Forest seems to have turned a corner at his daycare/preschool and is no longer smacking the other kids and throwing fits.  At least not very often anyway :)  He still has his days (this week even) where he is a total pill and I wonder what I am doing wrong as a parent.  But I am just so happy he no longer takes out his frustration on his little friends!  I am so thankful for a preschool director, Traci, would is always quick to encourage me as a parent when he has a hard day.  Hearing someone with a ton of experience say that his behavior is normal for a kid of his age, and it is a stage we will get through, is comforting when I feel like I am totally screwing up as a parent.  She always stresses that we have a game plan, together, to help his behavior that we can both reinforce the same way until it improves.  And in the end his behavior seems to be improving.  Yay for consistency!  Aside from school, he's been enjoying annoying his older brother, playing with his younger brother, and snuggling me whenever he has a chance.  He is still so passionately sweet that I can barely get out the door without 14 kisses and hugs.  He's also my only child to tell me that he loves me un-prompted, at random moments throughout the day :)

Purchased with his own allowance money and part of a gift card!

Like I mentioned above, Olaf's schedule has started driving ours, which seems crazy for a 1st grader but perhaps is completely normal for the oldest child?  He had a chance to join the cross country ski team through Plain Hardware this winter.  The hardware store provided all the equipment and groomed trails for FREE!  They even picked the kids up from school and fed them a snack and cocoa.  And Steve had the chance to hang out and coach Olaf and 3-4 other kids at the same time.  I think they both enjoyed it, but were glad it was over.  Both have agreed that next year they would rather spend their afternoons up at Stevens Pass though... so sounds like nordic skiing will be a hobby but not main event for Olaf.  Contrary to what his name may imply :)

Also a gift card/allowance/bday money purchase!

This tooth came out when his sled collided with a wood pile... It wasn't loose yet, but I guess it was bound to come out eventually!  He pulled out the tooth next to it the next day, sho he taksh wish a little lishp right now, so cute.

I had the chance to try skate skiing myself and I LOVED IT.  If only I had the equipment (and time) to really pursue it as a winter sport!  Perhaps once the kids are older I will get into it.  Somehow it seemed to come pretty naturally to me, and I loved how fast I could go!  So fun.  However I do still enjoy classic skiing, which I can do right out my back door, on my own equipment.  So there's that.

Taking our kids sledding at Lake Wenatchee.

I love this view when he sleeps on my arm...

John has recently mastered the art of rolling from back to front.  He is always reaching for things, and immediately putting them in his mouth.  The days of allowing lego pieces to be all over the floor are numbered...  He's also trying to sit up unassisted, but is just not quite there yet even with pillows.  Usually he starts folding forwards (led my his massive cranium) and then he falls right or left depending on where he is reaching.  He also started rolling on to his side to sleep and night, and seems to be more content that way.  I am of course always nervous about SIDS, so I am constantly rolling him back on his back :)  Luckily he sleeps like the rest of my boys, including Steve... like a ROCK.  

We are looking forward to getting outside more this spring and enjoying the sunshine.  It's almost time to start gardening!

3

How come no one told me how much more work 3 kids was than 2?  Oh wait, all of you did!  I mean, I am glad I ignored y'all or our tiny blessing wouldn't be here right now...  But seriously, where does my time go?  I am sure I'm preaching to the choir when I say that.  If I'm not breaking up an argument between older brothers, cooking, cleaning, or feeding the baby...  then I am at work in Wenatchee, ha ha.

But what was that, that John Lennon said?  "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans"?  So I am working on recognizing that this is life right now -- in the weeds with an infant, figuring out finances and work and play and raising children and school and family.  This small stuff is life so I better figure out how to enjoy it!

A New Normal

Hi.

Meet John Brian Saugen.

fresh out.

milk drunk

Adorbs.

that's a big forehead.

vintage Zorn via daddy.

John's our newest, most precious, family addition.  2 months old as of December 7th!  I will have to post some newer photos (once downloaded off my phone) showing his sweet sweet smile that he shares generously these days.

And.
This is my dad, Brian.

He passed away on September 30th, exactly one week before John was born into our family.   Boy do I miss him...

Birth is amazing, and death sucks.  There's not really any other way to describe it.  Luckily, friends and family make life worthwhile in between.  I feel like there is so much I want to write about those two events, but I just don't have the energy to put proper emotion into it right now.  So...  I won't.  Though I am sure I'll touch on both as life carries on.

We are just settling into our new normal, whatever that is.

I go back to work full-time after the new year, and am working half-time this month, and so am enjoying the days that I am home with my family.  I can't say this was the most "restful" or "relaxing" of maternity leaves...  quite the contrary actually.  But I'm really enjoying the role of "stay-at-home-mom" for this abbreviated time period :)  Boy I can get a lot more done than usual!  Organizing!  Sorting!  Getting rid of stuff that has accumulated that we don't need!  And I've really enjoyed cooking, since I actually have time to do so during the week.  (Unfortunately for my waist-line though...)  The only real hard part of maternity leave is trying to see all the people I'd like to hang out with - the ones I said to "I can't wait to spend more time with you during maternity leave!"  And then I found I didn't have time, or I just haven't made time to do so...  oops.  Mostly because I love being in my home with my kids, and am really just treasuring not having to schedule every minute of every day.  So I am trying to not feel guilty for not seeing all the people and instead just focus on what is making me happy, which is just staying home and being boring.

I hope to keep updating this blog more.  I love that I have so much of Olaf's beginning stages recorded on the blog.  Sadly Forest (middle child...) doesn't have as much.   Hope to remedy that for all three of them in the next year!

I really do miss this space

I don't know why I have found it so hard to post these last few MONTHS!  I really have always enjoyed having this space to share updates and photos...  and then I keep forgetting to download photos.  And then I am pregnant and therefore exhausted.  And I sit in front of a computer at work all day so I don't really want to do that at home...  So anyway, I take un-intentional but needed breaks I guess.

Recently life has been full of busy busy times.  Olaf finished up kindergarten, yay!  Steve is working locally, yay!  I keep gaining weight and making a healthy baby boy, yay!  And Forest went an entire week without hitting someone at daycare, yay!  Little milestones for all :)  Really, there is so much to cover that I don't know that I even have the energy.  And clearly I haven't downloaded the photos yet, ha ha.

I am currently 26 weeks along with babytres and no, he does not have a name yet.  My mom's list of family name suggestions contained Valentino, so that's what we are calling him for now.  :)  Maybe one of these days we will actually find time to sit down and pick one... but like with Forest, it will probably be just in time for his delivery date.  I am finally starting to get excited about having a little babe join the house this fall.  Not that I wasn't before... well, actually that's true, I wasn't very excited for a long time, as I was so overwhelmed.  So it's a refreshing and welcomed feeling, to be glad there is a little one on the way!  The boys are pretty excited too, even Olaf, who adamantly wanted a sister at first.  Now he's happy about the little buddy and loves feeling him kick through my stomach.  I love my boys.

I'm up late and really should be in bed right now, oops.  But I am taking the rest of the week off to take the littles to Family Camp at TTR, woooohoooo!!! so I can sleep in until they wake up, 6:15am at least I hope!

Okay, random post is now over, back to your regularly scheduled blog reading.

marching along

Well life just keeps marching on and here we are in March.

In January we celebrated Sue's 60th birthday with a weekend in Leavenworth with the whole family.  As per usual, we loved spending concentrated time with everyone, especially since Josh and Mac were close to leaving for their grand adventure to Thailand/China/India soon!  We managed to squeeze in a family photo and watched a great Seahawks game together too :)

Bunch of nerds right here.

February was a banner month for snow, which was great, because Dec/Jan kind of sucked... but in the one month we tons of storm cycles, and the snow in the backyard got up to about thigh high before it all started melting last week.  Winter isn't over, oh no, but March is winter's transition month... The snow slowly melts between small storms and reminds us that it will be warm again...  we start riding bikes outside and I get all excited for the season to change.  I love winter, seriously, but I love spring too, and I am always excited to usher in a new season, whatever it is.

Olaf and Daddy go skiing!  (again.  That kid skis more that me!)

I escaped up the FS road with Charlotte, her momma, little River, Emma, and the dogs for a little ski/snowshoe time.  It was lovely!

Met up with Steve taking the boys for a little snow-bike ride :)

What else is new??  Well I got a new car!!  Woohoo!!  Not that I didn't love my WRX, but who doesn't love a brand new Subaru Impreza with better gas mileage and leather seats?

 I let Olaf make his own PBJ.  Why haven't I been doing this for years?  He was so proud.

Also something he was proud of -- putting reindeer antlers on Steve's head while he took a little evening nap :)  Pretty cute.

Recently we've had some nasty viruses in our house.  First Forest got caught for a full week, and now Olaf is in the midst of fever and swollen gland goodness.  Poor kiddos...  Never fun to watch your kids be so sad and sick.

Speaking of sad and sick, I've been pretty nauseous myself lately -- of course mine is for a much happier reason, as we'll be adding another kiddo to the Saugen clan in October this year!  I am slightly overwhelmed by the thought of our third kiddo at this moment, but I am going to blame first trimester exhaustion.  We are definitely excited to round out our family into a nice odd, kids outnumber the parents, five people.   No seriously.  We've been thinking about it for a while now and are so glad we decided to just go ahead and give it a try.  Life's an adventure, and from my perspective, the kids have made it a much richer adventure.  So here's to being crazy busy and loving life as a momma to 3!

tiny comedians

Kids are funny.  I was just scrolling through some of the "notepad" notes on my phone this morning and came across these two gems I had written down:


Olaf:  "I'm a mummy.  In agent Egypt."  (note -- *agent, not ancient)
Forest:  "Hi Egypt!"
Olaf:  "No, I'm not Egypt, I'm a mummy."
Forest:  "Oh, hi mommy!"


"Hey, Netflix is a sight word!"  -- Olaf 11/13/13

Just wanted to share.
Happy Seahawks Game Day!!!