So I made some cool earrings...

Santa Claus is coming to town...

Christmas 1984


Oh, the antissssssssss..........cipation! I love December. My birthday is the 21st. Adam's is the 5th. My mom's is the 15th. My nephew Nathan's is the 20th. My nephew Jacob's is the 25th. Sarah's was the 29th. My brother-in-law Brandon's is the 30th. My aunt Roselle's is the 31st. And my friend Kevin's and Michelle's little boy "Hamster" both fall on the 21st like mine. They are what my mom calls "star twins".

Something about the winter time just makes me happy. Maybe it's the cool, crisp air that has us donning sweaters. It could be Orion high in the sky, always there when I look up at the stars. It could be Christmas!, and the memories of family and friendly togetherness. I just love December!

You can always go.... Downtown!

I just love my family! Here we are in downtown Newnan.


We were visiting a friend, Clay. He and his wife were selling their wares downtown today- she makes jewelry and crotchets and he carves neat and useful items from wood.





If you notice Erick in the photos, he has his hand up his sleeve. He still has a weird thing for sleeves; when he's nervous/shy/tired he will try to find a sleeve. He even tries to put his hand up Chrissy's sleeve. When he doesn't have someone else's, he'll use his own, ha ha.

Thanks to Clay for the photos!

Halloween is coming...

E R I C K

Tripp's portrait, by Erick:

Iowa Trip 2009

We just got back from an amazing trip and a long drive to visit some awesome friends. It was so much fun! Rebeccah and her kids and our mothers piled into a 15 seater van with me, the boys, and Christina. Everyone did great, except Tripp grated on my nerves A LOT! But luckily he survived. The drive home was a little stinky, but I am so up to date on my Chuck Norris "facts", and I have been inspired for future paintings!

On our way to Vandermeer Park.


A shot from the Rose Garden:


Back at the house, Bobbie and Erick played in the flowers.


Tripp always tagging along of course.


Erick taking a ride on a scooter.


Tripp decided he needed something bigger.


Whenever we get together, Michelle and I always try to paint or draw something. She had some oils and canvas, so I got to it.


Michelle had a trip to the caves planned for us. It was really cool and very picturesque and I took lots of pictures so that I could paint them. There were a lot of steps, some natural, but most not.
Maquoketa Caves:

It was an awesome trip!


She was awesome the whole trip through!

Nursing Covers!

Thanks to my wonderful little sister I have sewn my very own nursing cover. I will definitely be able to use this without getting hot and I will able to see what is going on. It's lightweight and has a great pattern! Thanks Bekah!!

Seeing an old chum... well, she's not old.

I can't wait to visit Michelle!! It will be a long trip, with 2 grandma's, 4 mom's, 9 kids, and 7 grandkids. How can 22 people fit in a 15 seater van? I'll let you try to figure out that riddle, mua-ha-ha. I am so excited! Yay!

A, B, C.... it's easy as... um, 1, 3... 4?

Erick is learning his alphabet. He really likes to spell things. We have started reading the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to him (we unfortunately do not have a copy with a cassette narrated by Ray Charles), and he has really picked up his letters. He spells his name, he spells out book author names that he sees on the table, he spelled out Oreo on the bag of cookies we were eating, and the letters that the water authority spray painted on the road. It is really cute to hear him, especially when he is unsure of the letter or doesn't remember it, and so he just changes it to one that he knows, usually E because that's his favorite one- It's "him," you see.

I'm starting to have him practice writing his name and also sounding out the letters so that he can actually start reading.
M O O N, that spells read.

Happy Anniversary

Ok, so Adam and I had our 4 year anniversay August 13, yes at some point it will land on a Friday. We weren't able to really celebrate it yet, but we have two movie tickets and a gift card to Subway that we're waiting to use. I love Subway! Anyway, my friend Sara blogged about our wedding those 4 years ago, and I wanted to share it with you- Go HERE for great pics and laughs!

Hello Beautiful!

Christina Roselle Olsen!

Erick loves his baby "Kissy". I've been telling him to call her Chrissy, because it's hard for him to say Christina.

We're so glad she's here!!

My preggo ticker says only 16 more days to go, but it's really only 13. I'm having her a few days early, so that my doctor will be the doctor on call. I know that some of you might think that I'm being impatient, but when you can call the shots during your pregnancy, it really is worth it. Plus, I LOVE my doctor. So, I've been having contractions here and there, but nothing really interesting. Plus, I'm really sick with a sinus cold at the moment, so I would be miserable if I was delivering a baby right now. I had a great baby shower, and I got to see a few friends that I haven't seen in a while, as well as getting to know the newbies. It was a lot of fun!

Ok, so I don't have to look at my brother's mustache any more I'll post about my nesting, which is very little. I've done the most nesting in my head, ha ha. Hopefully it will actually start happening. I'm tired of clutter, and of little things that don't really belong anywhere except a yard sale, which is where I probably got it in the first place.

Poor Erick was playing outside and pushing a medium-size toy car. He fell and skinned his nose up to his forehead. I keep thinking that it's dirt.

I'm going to run them over to the park for a little while today. I want to get some sand and put it in this clear little empty water bottle that I have. Then I'm going to put the little shells that I got from the beach in it, add some food-colored water, baby oil, and have my own ocean in a bottle. It's really for the kids to play with, but I'm going to enjoy making it, and then I can throw the rest of the shells away.

Tripp's doing a little Jerry Lewis on the piano- it's so cute! He's singing too!

Michael Jackson...

Graybeal... my little brother.

My brother is very special. I hope he uses his skills to the best of his abilities, and makes a very good life for him and his family. So it's a good thing that he already has a job, because I don't think anyone would hire this man:



He looks like the creepy guy that you see get arrested in those old '70 movies for being a pimp, minus the bling and gold chain, or the guy that's the example of a bad disco dancer on a John Travolta flick.(But he is a pretty good dancer, so that puts a hilarious image into my mind and I wish I had saved that video of him dancing to "Funky Town" in his Domino's uniform.)

My little bro, all grown up and creepy looking, you gotta love him!

I have nothing to write about really. The baby feels very alien right now, and does somersaults inside my very compact belly. I have about 6 weeks left and people are just now telling me that I am finally looking pregnant. Right...
Anyway, I have so many cucumbers(anyone want some?)that I need a simple recipe for making pickles. I have about 10 in my fridge and another 14 growing in the garden and should be ready to pick in a day or two. I bought some jar caps and lids, vinegar, and dill, so I'm going to google a recipe before the cucumbers go bad. Too bad I can't eat them raw, not even one little slice :( My grandparents used to live in Kathleen, and at some point we lived with them. They had two gardens, one vegetable and one was just corn and my grandmother, Mutti is what we called her, pickled cucumbers and they were the best pickles that I ever tasted. They weren't like bread and butter flavored, but they weren't crunchy dill either. They were like soft, dill "chips"; she didn't pickle them whole or in slivers, she sliced them into discs. Anyway, maybe my own instinctual twist on a simple recipe will come out tasting like hers. That would be awesome!

Erick started swimming lessons yesterday. Sis. Hollingsworth is his teacher and there are three other kids in his "class", Ruby, Christopher, and Kayden. I love that he is so excited about swimming. I could tell an improvement right away. We went swimming at a friend's house last week and he wasn't using his legs much, just mainly doggy paddling(and taking forever)where he wanted to go. A little while after his swimming lesson, we went to our friend's house again and he was kicking his legs and really moving around. I'm such a proud mama!

St. Andrew's

This was a really enjoyable vacation, even though there were some rough attitudes every now and then. It's hard to be happy all the time when you are sunburnt and have whiny babies and have to unpack camp, yada yada.... but it was still fun. Adam is the worst off- he did not use any sunscreen the first day :(

This is setting up,

and Tripp got so dirty in record time!

An evening at the beach. We came on this trip with a handful of friends and their families. We went to the mountains last year, Lake Carter, and it was a blast. This year we had fewer families, but we plan on making it an annual thing. It is really loads of fun!


We couldn't keep them out of the water, and poor Tripp just kept getting knocked down, but he didn't seem to mind one bit. He just kept going back for more.



We went to the Alligator Walk to see if any were out and about.

No alligators, but I wasn't complaining.

Our last day at the beach.

They played pretty well together.


My cute hubby!

And to prove that I was there, here is my tanned face peeking around the camera: