Going Bananas

Our sweet, monkey boy Baylor turned 3 on the 19th! So what better way to celebrate than by throwing him a MoNkEy BiRtHdAy BaSh!

My sister designed this fun invitation...

Baylor seriously counted down the days until his party. He was so excited for his "friends" aka cousins to come celebrate with him. On multiple days he made some pretend phone calls on his toy story phone inviting a few of them to come. He even helped me make some of the decorations. He can run the cricut now :)

The picture banner has pictures of him from birth to now...

It was so fun for me to look back through pictures and see how he has changed.

We asked his guests to bring an item to place in a time capsule for B.

He gets to open it on his 18th birthday!

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

We had a yummy chicken taco/nacho bar

He got so many fun presents...

I had to include the one opening the clothes because his reaction was so cute. I figured he would open it, see clothes, and chuck it- but he was excited! It was probably the Woody pajamas and Mickey shirt that got him :)

A few of his favorites were his work bench, his vtech d.j. table, and his singing sock monkey. Russ was also lucky enough to get him this basketball signed by all of the Jazz players! He got to go to a special signing night and we thought it was perfect for Baylor. I'm sure he will appreciate it even more when he gets older.

Along with his cake and cupcakes, I decided to try some cake pops...

pretty sure we won't be having them again any time soon...

they were cute but they were a big pain in the monkey butt :)

The cute birthday boy!

Making a wish and blowing out the candles!

Hooray for birthday treats!

He was so excited for the favor table

All the kids got their own bag and a mini monkey :)

I wrote a little poem that was attached...

Here's a little monkey

I hope makes you think of me,

And helps you to remember

All the fun when I turned three!

Then they got to hit up the treat station!!!

Nothing like sending your guests home on a sugar high!

We LOVE you BAYLOR!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Alexis slept through the whole party

Not that she was laying down... everyone was happy to hold her.

And I wish this picture showed her shirt better- she's rockin' a sock monkey shirt :)

I sure love my kiddos!

Guess Who Turned 3!

Our sweet Baylor turned THREE on Thursday!

We sure love our MoNkEy BoY :)

Can you tell what the theme for his party was...

There's WAY more sock monkey fun to come!

And of course Alexis needed her picture in a monkey hat too...

Happy 3rd Birthday Baylor!

We love you more than you'll ever know.

SHE'S HERE!

On Monday, Nov. 28, it was business as usual. I ran a bunch of errands frantically trying to get Christmas presents taken care of and a few last minute "to do's" done before the baby arrived. We had a doctor appointment that morning where we had finalized our plans to be induced on Thursday, Dec. 1. At the last store, my mom sat in the car with Baylor so I could quickly make a return. While "hustling" in I felt one of those lovely "lightning pains" as I like to call them. That was my last stop for the day so I dropped my mom off, called Russ and made plans to take Baylor to Build-a-Bear when he got home, and headed for home. At about 6:00 I stopped at the mailbox to grab the mail, and when I hopped out of the car I got a little surprise... let the flood gates open! My water broke! I thought that only happened in the movies. I was just grinning from ear to ear and luckily it was dark so no one could see my surprise :) I drove home, got B in the house, and called Russ. Thankfully he had just got off the train and would be home in 5 minutes. I frantically starting throwing stuff into a bag. I guess that's why they tell you to pack one ahead of time lol. I was certain that they would have to start me and had only started gathering things up. My sister came over and got Baylor and we headed to the hospital. It was truly one of those surreal moments and I just kept asking myself if it was really happening. My mom met us there about an hour later and the fun began :)

From the time my water broke until I delivered our sweet girl was about 7 hours. 4 hours shorter than Baylor. I know even 11 hours is considered a pretty short labor, but not in my world. 7 was much better :) I went into labor dialated to a 4 and about 75 % effaced. The majority of the labor was getting to a 5 and being completely thinned out. After we reached that, she was delivered within about 2 hours. We had some complications right at the end, but thankfully it all worked out and the baby and I were both okay.

Introducing...

Alexis Elaine Olsen

November 29, 2011

1:06 am

8 lbs. 6 oz.

21 1/4 inches long

Love at first sight

Her first bath :)

The nurse gave her this right in my room so I got to watch

Regardless of what time you deliver, routine is the same, so we were up ALL night

The next morning Baylor got to come and meet his little sister. He wasn't sure quite what to think and was very nervous about the hospital setting in general. The first day he was pretty nervous, but by the second day, he warmed up. He brought her this cute little bear that I took him to pick out a few weeks ago. "She" also gave him a little present with some little stuffed dogs and a Big Brother book.

Day 2 he got a little closer and told us "she is so cute"

This day he and my mom brought her the cutest pink giraffe I have ever seen and some balloons. We had lots of visitors that wore masks with all the sickness going around. Russ was worried the whole time because he had sick coworkers and felt like he might be getting something, so he wore one just to be on the safe side. Avagard in... haha

We are so in love with our sweet little girl

I can't get enough of her little feet. Her hands are very girly as well. Long and skinny fingers :)

And for all of you who I told she had lots of dark hair... I wasn't kidding!!!

Can you believe her hair?! Her skin is more of an olive color too. My Grandpa Forrest would have said "it's the gypsy in her" Lots of people in my family have it, just not me...

All bundled and ready to go home.

She was 2 pounds heavier and almost 2 inches longer than Baylor!

She is still so tiny, you forget how small they are at first!

We are doing great and are busy adjusting to FOUR of us.

And remember how Baylor would tell everyone that his baby sister was coming when we put up the Christmas tree... well please believe I got all the Christmas stuff up the night before! (probably helped put me into labor!) But at least we were good on our word, she certainly delivered and came right on schedule :)

Welcome Baby Alexis, we already love you more than you'll ever know.