Growing kids

They are growing fast! Thank goodness Berit has grown out of her newborn-i-need-to-be-held-constantly-or-else-I'll-scream-so-loud-you-won't-dare-put-me-down phase. She is getting cuter and cuter. She loves tub time and her brother thinks she is pretty fun. He just needs some gentle reminders that its not O.K. to actually touch her eyeballs. Olin is 2 and he can count to ten and sing the alpabet song and help make lefse. He is a very good boy.

Here is Berit's smile and Olin on his bday.

Berit is finding her smile! It takes some doing to get it out and is quite difficult to photograph, but everyday, its a bit easier. And Momma's girl slept from 7p to 5a last night. (I am knocking on wood right now because this phenomenon has only happened once). As you can see, she has kept most of her hair, but I think it may be thinning a bit. Olin still likes her most of the time. The top picture is Olin on his 2nd birthday. I'll be able to post some of his actual party and Berit's actual smile in a few days.

So if any of you decide to take a roade trip with a 2 year old and a newborn, you might want to think twice. We headed out to Boulder for Chris and Laura's wedding. It was wonderful, we had a babysitter, we were staying in a super nice hotel, we were in Boulder. I got to have a few too many beers for the first time in about a year and I had a pedicure and someone did my hair. It was awesome. And the wedding was great: ) Then we headed off with the Scamp with no real destination in mind. We decided to keep driving to a minimum, so we headed straight north and camped at Devil's Tower for 2 nights and then went to the N end of the badlands of NoDak. Devil's Tower was truly spectacular and the N side of the Badlands state park is really much more dramatic then the south part. I would recommend both places to anyone. Then we visited Harold and Ellie on the farm and saw Lisa and John. We finished the trip in Bismark visiting all of the McCall relatives. All of the above is the good. What wasn't so good was a 3 week old newborn who was against allowing anyone to relax in the evening. Poor little Berit wailed from 6p-9p for the whole week we were camping. Olin got a bit fed up. He has a lot of words, but couldn't quite express how frustrated he was with the crying baby. So he acted out in his special Olin way. Like by throwing a full glass of milk over his mother's sleeping bag. There are many, many more details, but I'll stop there. Let's just say there weren't people crowding us at the campsites.

Berit is here!!!!

I never quite have this blog figured out. The pictures are supposed to be in reverse order. Oh well. Here is Berit Pearl! Not sure if you can see, but the monitor is displaying her 9lb 2oz, 21 inch status. She is a big girl and she is hungry! These are all taken very shortly after birth. She has eaten pretty much every 2 hours since then. As you can see, mom and baby are doing well. In fact, mom was probably doing better in these pictures than now: ) I have been quite spoiled over the past 18 months. Its funny how quickly you forget what sort of havoc a newborn imposes on your sleeping schedule. I can't complain, though. She just wants to eat. She is easy to soothe as long as she gets what she wants. And big brother Olin is very proud. More pictures to follow shortly.

We've been busy! We moved, Nate and I both got new jobs and I am so pregnant, I can hardly stand it. I'm due in three weeks already! So these photos are already 2 months old! I would have just skipped to more current ones, but these were so cute, I thought they had to be shared. They are from our trip to Colorado. Olin and I and Kara and Georgia flew out to Denver to visit Janeen, Avery, and Grayson (baboo--is what Olin calls him). It was great to get together and the kids had a blast.

What a beautiful spring! Its been so nice to spend some time outside without a million layers on. Olin loves being able to run outside and visit the chickens and feed them grain and chase them and bach at them. I think he is going to miss the chickens more then anyone else. We are moving soon, probably within the next 6 weeks. Our house is for sale and if we don't sell it soon, we'll try to rent it. The top 2 pictures are from last weekend at the peace gardens by Lake Harriet. The bottom 2 are from Easter. Mimi is playing with cousin Carson at my parent's house. The bottom is Olin in his first suit with a football. He kind of looks liks he could be a mini pro football player. Scary.

I may be his mother, but I just have to say....Isn't he about the cutest kid you've ever seen? Biggest changes this month are a few more words and a bit more hair. The middle picture really shows it off. Its pretty fuzzy, but curls up quite nice when he sweats. I hope it will be thicker some day.

There have been a few additions to Olin's life. His Uncle Jon and Auntie Ania had baby Mason on 2/16. Janeen and Ryan had baby Grayson today!!!!!(feb 18th) As far as I know, everyone is healthy and happy. And for those of you out there who don't know yet, Olin is going to be a big brother! I'm due Aug 17th. I just started my 2nd trimester and I already like it much more then my 1st.

Everybody got Viking's jerseys for Christmas. Olin is #4, but instead of posing as the QB, he is the football.
Janeen and Avery and baby boy Hill came to visit in the snowstorm. It was great to see them!

This is Olin's new look. We call it the Stink Eye.

Above Olin is with cousin Carson and Grandma and Grandpa McCall on Thanksgiving. Olin loves playing pool with Grandpa. The rest of the pictures were taken in the end of November and December. Olin met Santa for the first time, he wasn't a huge fan. He likes getting out in the snow and he loves watching football and eating pretzels with his dad. Cousin Ella came over to play for a while. They had a great time.

It doesn't make sense to jam 3 major holidays into 6 weeks, but I'm not the one who made that plan. We have been quite busy. Olin has been a full fledged walker since sometime in November! He gets faster and faster every day. He loves to climb and be chased and play hide and seek. And Grandma Diane came up with a new favorite....ring around the rosy. As soon as he is out of his crib and in a clean diaper he wants to go a few rounds. He has 4 words, listed here in order of most often used: Ball, dada, mama, addi. Since his vocabulary is still quite small, he is becoming an expert at many different facial expressions and he has a grunt for everything. Above are some fall/halloween pictures. Olin is Yoda and Mimi is Princess Leia (obviously).