Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

We did end up going to watch my cousin, Blake, pitch at the BYU baseball game. I was worried that it was going to rain, but it didn't. It wasn't even all that cold. It was such a fun game to watch. Blake pitched the entire game and won it 7-0. I was absolutely amazed that both boys were so incredibly well behaved and happy. We stayed for the whole game and even afterwards to say HI to Blake. It helped that both the kids napped for almost an hour on the drive down to Provo.

When we first got there, it was still light and there was music playing and a couple other kids dancing up on top of the dugout, so Weston joined them. He was caught on camera too. The clip is from the broadcast of the game on KBYU.

When Weston had to get down off the dugout during play he looked around and found his favorite guy ever, Cosmo. He spent much of the evening chasing down Cosmo and giving him high fives, pound its, and hugs. We even managed to get the boys together with Cosmo this time. Davin thought he was pretty great too.
Like I mentioned before, Blake had an awesome game. There was a pretty decent crowd and the Cougars really played well. Here are a couple photos of him pitching.
This is at the end of the game around 9:30pm. Can you believe I got a smile out of Weston? Dav was practically asleep in my arms here, but when we got inside where we waited for Blake he got his second wind and was pretty hyper.
Weston loved getting to see Blake after the game. Blake was so cute with him and scooped him up so Weston could give him a high five and say "good job." Later when Blake left to change, Weston commented to Ian, "Blake is the biggest man ever." That made me laugh. He is really tall. Then, when we got in the car to head home Weston said, "Maybe Blake could come to our house sometime." I think Weston's a fan. :)

It was extra fun because Aunt Cindy, Paige, Carly, and Jeremy were there too. So we got to visit with them and officially meet Whitney, Blake's girlfriend. We didn't get home until about 11pm and Weston stayed up that whole time on the way home in the car. He's currently napping. My wager is that he will be out for at least 3 hours.

I am looking forward to Easter tomorrow. Should be fun. I still need to finish preparing my YW lesson though. More to come on the sweet deals I scored this morning in another post.

Eggcellent

I am really enjoying these Easter puns. Aren't you? We are also really enjoying the Easter festivities. Yesterday we went over to our friends' house for a fun lunch and some egg dying. Tara made yummy egg salad, fruit and chips. She also made angel food cake for strawberry shortcake. It was really nice. After we ate lunch we newspapered the table and dyed some eggs. Weston had a lot of fun doing it this year. He thought it was really cool to dunk the eggs and liked to check on them often. Here he is checking on his egg with his name on it to see if it is ready. It needed a couple more minutes.
Weston had SO much fun playing with his friend Makenzie. They are so cute. They played games and ran around and held hands. They were both really into the egg dying. Here they are with their finished eggs. Big thank you to Tara for having us and providing everything.
In other news, I have been a slightly concerned in the back of my mind lately that Weston is 3 and still doesn't even try to color in the lines or draw recognizable shapes or objects. He mostly was still a scribbler. Well in the last week or so he has really come into his own in the art department. He has started coloring in his coloring books and not just scribbling. Using different colors for different parts of the picture. Not completely in the lines, but close. It's obvious he is trying. This morning he asked for a blank piece of paper to color on and this is what he brought me.
What?!? It's awesome. Clearly a person with eyes and a mouth and hair and 5 fingers. Wow. I was so proud. He's not behind the times in the art department anymore. He said that this picture was Davin. I can see the resemblance.

This morning after Weston's drawing brilliance was revealed, we got ourselves all ready to go and bought the rest of the stuff we needed to plant our herb garden at the dollar store. Weston picked out the planter and a Bert and Ernie math workbook (which we already started). I got the shovel, potting soil, etc. We were both really excited to plant our seeds. I have never ever gardened in my life, so I figured an herb garden would be a good place to start. We planted basil, parsley, and chives. Weston shoveled in most of the dirt, poured the seeds in the holes, patted down the topsoil, and watered it. Here's Weston just getting started shoveling the dirt into our bucket.
Patting down the finished plantings. I hope we can get some usable herbs from this. That would be fun.
I am really hoping the weather holds out decent until at least tomorrow because tonight we are planning on heading to Provo again to watch my cousin, Blake, pitch for BYU. Weston hasn't ever been to a baseball game. He's stoked. I will for sure be reporting on how it went tomorrow.

Hoppy Day

Today we went to the mall to visit the Easter Bunny and to buy some Easter See's. Davin got SO excited when he saw the EB. He was flailing his arms and making all kinds of grunts and squeals. He even waved when the EB waved to him. It was adorable. He wasn't the least bit scared. This EB was really quite cute and fun with the kids. He got up and knelt down in front of Weston to give him a high five and a hug. I am a fan of taking my kids to Fashion Place mall for pictures like this because they are less snobby and allow you to take your own picture, rather than requiring you to buy pictures at a minimum of $20 (like at South Towne). Needless to say both boys enjoyed their visit with the Easter Bunny.
After sitting with the EB we went to See's to get a chocolate bunny for Weston and a box of faves for Ian and I. As we walked away from the EB Weston commented "That Easter Bunny can't talk." I don't think it will take my smarty pants long to realize that he's not real. :( I am not doing Easter baskets for the adults this year, but we will still get a fun treat thanks to my mom, who is awesome, and sent me this card with a See's gift card inside. Teeheehee.
Also while at the mall I checked out The Children's Place sales racks and found Weston a pair of pants for $8.99, but then they rang up $6.29! Woohoo! My kids have both been wearing right through their pants. I can hardly keep up. It's not too much of problem though because I love shopping for them. We had a fun outing today and I am looking forward to the rest of our Easter festivities!

Sun, Glorious Sun!

We have been sadly bereft of warm, sunny Spring weather so far this year, but then today we are enjoying a glorious 68 degree, sunny, clear day! I am absolutely loving that we got to go to the park today. Davin is big enough to play. He is a fan of crawling through tunnels and eating wood chips. He giggled for about 5 minutes straight when we first got there and I put him in the swing. Weston had a grand old time running around and climbing to his heart's content. I am so glad that we are (hopefully) into Spring now.

Relax . . .

Ian got to be home this whole weekend and we relaxed, watched Conference (www.lds.org), and generally didn't really go anywhere. It was great. On Friday when we were at the grocery store buying some things for the weekend, Weston asked for a box of Hot Tamales. I told him we could get them. He was really surprised. I used them for his Conference "game." I gave him 3 words (prayer, prophet, and temple) and he could get a hot tamale from the bowl in front of the TV each time he heard one of the words. He did really well when he was paying attention.

Saturday went really smoothly. I got to sleep in until almost 9am, which was great. We all watched Conference together. Weston payed attention to most of it, then spent the rest of the time playing with Davin. After Conference we all got dressed and went to the library. That was our outing for the day. I got both boys napping after lunch and I got to watch the entire afternoon session in quiet. I only dozed off during one talk. I was proud of myself and really enjoyed getting to just listen and absorb.

When the session was over both the boys were still sleeping, so I snuck off and went shopping. No great deals, but I found the hard-to-find things, so it was still quite successful. I got 3 pairs of capris and a pretty church outfit. I came home and took over so Ian could go to the Priesthood session. Saturday night I actually got to spend time with Ian! It was so great. He's so cute. I love him.

Sunday did not go as smoothly. Ian got to sleep in, so I was up with the kids. I made a big breakfast of french toast and bacon and we had friends over. It was harder to pay attention with more people and Davin was pretty fussy. I got him down for a nap, but it only lasted about half an hour. After the morning session we all went for a walk in the sunshine and then had lunch. I was hoping everyone would nap again for the afternoon session, but no such luck. Weston wasn't really tired and just played in his room for a bit and Davin just screamed in his room for a bit. Sigh. I will have to re-watch the Sunday sessions. It was fun to have our friends over though and it was nice to spend the weekend together. We all really missed Ian last week while he was working lots. Hopefully this week will be better for him. I am excited to dye Easter eggs this week and gather up the things for the kids' baskets. I also have to prepare my Easter YW lesson, so it should be a pretty busy week.

Deals Part II

I was starting to stress. Our vacation costs for the year were adding up and they all seemed to need to be paid for right away. We just got completely out of debt in February and I was not prepared to go that route again. As luck (and helpful family members) would have it, things are working out great.

Trip #1: Olson Family Reunion in Southern UT
We are having an Olson Family Reunion in June. I am so excited. We are staying at this really great ranch and the price includes our room and all our food. Back in September we paid a deposit and I thought that we just all would pay our balance when we got there, but it turns out that since we are big group we needed to pay the balance in April. So my Aunt LeeDean is in charge of collecting the money. This isn't really a deal, but I though that we still owed about $500 for the trip, but it turns out that the balance is only $330. Woohoo! Doable.

Trip #2: Aly and Ryan's Wedding in OR
As I mentioned Aly is getting married and we, of course, need to be there. Driving takes too long since Ian only has one day off for this trip and is really intense (13 hours). Luckily airplane tickets for summer are pretty cheap to be found and we were all going to be able to fly to and from the wedding for about $500. But it's still $500 that we didn't really have. Again, luckily, Denny got bumped from her return flight home from our house two weeks ago and got a $360 voucher for her trouble. She very generously donated her voucher to our wedding trip fund and I bought all of our plane tickets last night for only $154 out of pocket. Yay!

Trip #3: Anniversary trip to CA in November
A few months ago Ian and I attended a timeshare presentation and, in return for wasting the sales peoples' time, received 2 plane tickets to LA and $40 at Olive Garden. It isn't a completely cost free trip. We have to pay the taxes and fees for the plane tickets, but all in all I paid $95 for the two of us to have a mini 2 day getaway to CA for our anniversary. Now, someone to watch the kids . . . any takers?

So, all our trips ended up costing less than I anticipated and they are all going to be paid for in the next 30 days, which will be nice for when they actually come up.

I have not had the opportunity to do any other good shopping this week since Ian has been working late late late (like until 2-3am) for the past 3 days. Major bummer. We really miss him. Weston prays at dinner for "Daddy to get home safe" even when Daddy is home now sometimes. I am going a little nuts being alone so much. On top of that it has been cold and snowy almost this entire week. It's doing nothing for my attitude. I'm hanging in there though and looking forward to a relaxing Conference weekend with Ian home. I might even still sneak off and do a little clothes shopping after all.

Here are a couple pictures from our time hanging out at home this week.

The kids had a blast playing on the Aerobed. I blew it up to make sure it didn't have any holes or anything. As you can see, we even had a few hours of sunshine yesterday morning.
While I was folding laundry yesterday Weston saw his new Toy Story shirt that Aunt Aly gave him and immediately wanted to put it on. He loves it and requested a picture. What a ham.

Deals

Everyone who knows me, knows I love a great deal. My sister in law, Aly, thinks that I am like the deal guru. The fact is I am just cheap and only look at good deals and therefore always find them. Let me tell you about the good deals I've found this week.

First of all, my mom called late Sunday night (ok, 10pm, but I was getting into bed) to tell me that Land's End was having a bathing suit clearance. I am NOT a big online shopping fan, but for a great deal, I'm ok with it. Tuesday morning I hopped online and checked it out. They had some awesome deals. I ended up ordering this suit for less than $20 including shipping.
Later that afternoon, my mom called to offer to buy me a swimsuit from this same clearance sale. Well, I had already bought one, but she got me one anyway. Thanks Mom! So fun. So now I am also going to have this suit (also $20 but not including shipping).
I hope they both fit and look cute! Mom ended up buying a bathing suit for all the sisters. She's so fun like that. Now we will all have cute, new swim suits for our Olson Girls' Reunion this summer! Woohoo!

Ok, moving on. Yesterday my sister in law, Aly (who I mentioned before just got engaged), and my FIL, Jim drove all day from Oregon to our house. They got here at dinnertime and we ate a delicious dinner together. They were here for less than 24 hours just to hit a couple bridal shops in search of the perfect wedding dress. When we realized that Allyses Bridal in Provo was open until 9pm we hopped in the car to get a jump start on the search. It was so much fun to help Aly wedding dress shop. She described what she liked to the consultants and they started pulling out dresses for her to try on.

Dress #1 was beautiful. It had a full skirt with a tulle overlay. The tulle overlay had little sparkles sewn on it. The top had kind of a v waist of lace and beading, then a faux v neck, so the actual neckline was more square. It didn't have a train and had a simple zipper back. It looked amazing. Aly really liked it.

Dress #2 was also very pretty. No tulle skirt, but really pretty satin with beading and still a full skirt. Aly didn't love it as much. It was really heavy and cost $800. We all still liked the first dress the best.

Dress #3 was the one Aly saw on the mannequin on our way in that she loved. It was beaded and had scalloped edges on the neckline, sleeves, and hem. It had a tulle overlay, big train, etc. Aly tried it on and loved the lace up back, but the scalloped lace edges itched and the dress weighed a ton.

After looking at the 2 other dresses the consultants had pulled out for her, she put back on the first dress and we decided it was the one. It really is gorgeous. I can't post pictures because what if her fiance looks at my blog! Anyway, the reason this is on my deal list is because the amazing, perfect dress that we all loved only cost $395! Woohoo! We decided to also buy the poofy slip, so they went to go get one from their storage room, but then couldn't find it. Since we had already paid for it they said they would ship it for free. We then decided to also special order the veil she wanted in white and they said they would ship that with the slip for free. Then she also got a %25 discount on the veil and it ended up only being $95. Although these are all big numbers, it was a fantastic wedding dress shopping success.

Instead of having to take the kids and all go wedding dress shopping this morning, we got to have a slow morning and Papa and Aunt Aly got some playtime with the boys. Then we went and picked up Ian and all went out to a nice lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. Another great deal, by the way. Kids eat there for $2.39! I will have to remember that. After lunch Jim and Aly hit the road again and are now on their way to Rexburg to empty Aly's storage unit and bid farewell to BYU-I for good. (The pics are from the last 24 hours)
Final deal of the week (so far) . . . I saw in the Big Lots ad yesterday afternoon that they had a twin Aerobed on sale for $39. This is a sweet deal. My mom is somewhat obsessed with Aerobeds. She has had one for a few years now and just recently converted my dad and made him get one too. She always brings hers when she comes to stay with me. They are really cool and convenient. I saw the ad, but couldn't bring myself to buy it because we already have an air mattress. Last night Jim slept on our air mattress and this morning when I came out to the den with Weston, Jim was about six inches sunk into the bed. Apparently it has a leak. So on my way home from Sweet Tomatoes I swung into Big Lots and bought an Aerobed for $39! I am pretty excited about it.

Wow. Well if you made it through this post, you are a dedicated friend or family member. Sorry I ramble so much, but I do get quite excited about a good deal. I am hoping to get some clothes-for-me shopping in later this week too, so I may have to do a Deals Part II post in a few days. Here's hoping!