Another New Video

On Wednesday this week I put Craig on the floor on his back and went to put a movie in the DVD player. When I turned back around, he was on his front!! He was looking a bit surprised, too. :) We flipped him back over, I got the camera, and this is him doing it the second time. It's takes him a minute, but he does it. I put the video at the bottom in place of the one of him turning front to back. He is also doing the tripod sit thing and can hold it for a pretty good amount of time. He's recently discovered his new favorite toy--his feet. I love it when he grabs them and rolls around on his back on the ground. He is such a sweet, happy baby. He loves to talk and make noise and play "Super Baby." (That's where we hold him up above our heads and he bends his legs up, arches his back, spreads his arms, and smiles so big he can't keep his eyes open. :)) Anyway, I could go on, but I'll let you watch the video.

New Pictures

Here is a picture of me as a baby and a close up of Craig for everyone to compare and see if you think he looks like me. I need one of Robert at Craig's age to really compare well, but we're still trying to get one. Nothing much is new here. Life is going as usual. Craig is working on trying to go to sleep without being nursed. Tonight Robert and I are going out to dinner with his boss and the owner of the Springs and we're leaving Craig home. I'm sure he and the babysitter will be fine, but it will be our first time out without him. He's usually pretty easy, though. Let's keep out fingers crossed!

New videos

I put some new videos at the bottom, so be sure to check them out. One is a good one of Craig--I finally got him on video smiling and sort of laughing. Being cute, mostly. I also took a video of a hailstorm we had here last week. It was random and totally a surprise for us. The hail was the size of melon balls (like the ones you cut out of a melon with a scoop). It was pretty neat. Also be sure to check out the new pictures I posted on the side.

Updates...sort of

I finally updated some things on the blog, as you can tell. In case you didn't notice, I changed the video of Craig at the bottom of the page. I also took off some old pictures and put on some new ones. He's changed so much in just a few months. Last Wednesday he was 12 weeks old. We made it through the fourth trimester! To celebrate I made some cookies that looked like watermelon slices. If you want the recipe, let me know (just colored sugar cookie dough, chocolate chips for seeds, and green sugar for rind...pretty cute). He also went to the doctor on Thursday for his first immunizations. :( It was a rough day for the little guy. He weighed in at 17 lbs., 24 in. He's in the 95th percentile for height and weight, but the 50th for his head, which is unusual for an Olson offspring, but which I was grateful for during the delivery. :) Robert's been pretty busy with work. They've had a lot of events lately. Things are picking up for me, too. Our Relief Society is doing a program this summer for the Young women. They let the Young Women choose from a list of skills (music, cake decorating, scrapbooking, etc.) that they would like to learn over the summer, then they teamed them up with sisters in the ward that specialize in those things. Then at Enrichment next month the girls will present what they've been working on. I've been helping four girls with music and singing. It's been a lot of fun. I'll try to remember to record their performance and post it. They are doing really well. So, I've been busy with that. I don't think there's much else going on. We had the same big hale storm here that Scott and Lani had in South Dakota. I took some pictures and a video of it and will get them downloaded soon. Well, gotta go!

Summertime!

I have been wanting to take post pictures of the scenery around our home and down our road a little and I finally got to it. There were some beautiful flowers during the short spring that we had and a few have lingered through the summer. I try to go for walks a few times a week and pick some new flowers. The very first bouquet I picked during the spring is the one pictured below. I love how the mountains are close, but sad that I can't really go on too many hikes yet. I have to wait until Craig is old enough to sit in a backpack carrier. He's beginning to prefer sitting up when being held than to lay back. He's cooing a lot and is his happiest, most smiling, most talkative self first thing in the morning. Sometimes I wake up to him squirming slightly next to me and when I look down, he's staring at me wide-eyed and smiling as if to say, "You're finally awake!" He's also showing signs of becoming somewhat clingy. When he's perfectly happy, he's happy with anyone, but if he's the slightest bit tired, hot, or gassy, he wants Mommy, or sometimes Daddy will do. :) It's cute, but sometimes a little difficult to deal with. I'm sure he'll grow out of it, though. For now, we are enjoying his cuddliness and watching him grow and learn.

This is just for fun. I saw it on someone else's blog.

1 . YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Randie Mustang

2. GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Mint Chip Chocolate Chip

3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of last name) Slea

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Red Horse

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Lee Paradise

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2letters of your first) Leash (ha ha ha :))

7.SUPERHERO NAME: ("The" + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) The Blue Orange

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Oscar Cuthbert

9.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names ) Ann Christopher

10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 6th grade teacher's last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Greibel Glendale

11. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) Autumn Cala Lilly

12. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you're wearing right now+"ie") Strawberry Sockie

13. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Muffin Birch

14. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: ("The" + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + "Tour") The Crochet Storm Tour

15. YOUR CELEBRITY COUPLE NAME: (half of your name, half your significant other's name, mixed together in whichever order sounds best.) Roberry (or Sherbert) ha ha ha :)

Craig and I spent the weekend in downtown Stevensville. I met a friend of mine who lives in town and has a couple little boys. We watched a parade for the Western Heritage Days festival and went to some other events. That night Robert and I went to the concert...Huey Lewis was there (see pictures). On Wednesday Craig and I went on a hike with another lady in the ward. It would have been pretty easy, but with the 14 pound baby strapped to my front, it was a little challenging. But we made it and it was beautiful. I think Craig liked the fresh air and scenery. I wanted to take some pictures, but I didn't feel like packing the camera up there, too. The baby was enough. :) Robert is almost done with the tiling job he's doing. When he gets it finished and everything gets landscaped, I will take some pictures of The Springs and post them. I also want to take some pictures of the scenery around here. Hopefully I can get that done soon. Well, gotta run.

Nothing new...

There isn't much to add...life is going pretty much the same as usual. Robert has been working a lot. He finished painting the basement of the The Springs (the reception center where he works as chef, if you didn't know) then they borrowed a super-powered carpet cleaner from a contractor they know and he cleaned all of the carpets. It was a tough job, but that's done, too. Now Jason (his boss) has him tiling an outside staircase when the weather is good, like today. He's getting a lot of experience in many forms of construction, but not too much chef work. :) There's usually about one event per month or so where he gets to cook. We are grateful for the job and that the owner is willing to keep Robert on and utilize his other skills and his willingness (and ability) to quickly learn whatever they need him to do. He is also working on a proposal to build a catering trailer. There's a huge need and market for that around here. If that gets approved, he will have that big project to oversee. I spend my days nursing Craig, swaddling and rocking him to keep him calm when he's not nursing, getting some housework done when (or if) he naps, and taking him on walks or errands during the day. We often walk down to visit Robert at work. Today Craig and I went into town for the Western Heritage Days festival. There wasn't much to so see today...tomorrow is the parade and more exciting stuff. The weather cleared up for the festival. It's been cold and rainy for over a week now. We even had snow advisories a couple of nights and woke up one morning to snow flurries! Nothing stuck here, but Butte and other cities got a few inches this week. I wish I would have taken a picture. I need to get used to pulling my camera out more. This time of year is so beautiful. The next time we go for a walk, I will take some pictures and post them. Well, I need to go get the dishes done while Craig is still sleeping. He's beginning to smile a lot, so I'll try to get a picture on here of that soon. I have a couple videos I want to put on (one from our camera and one from youtube) but I can't figure out how to do it. If anyone reading this knows, please help. :) Take care.

Craig's first time at church

Today we blessed Craig. He fell asleep right before Sacrament (which we were grateful for since he had been crying during the drive to church). However, when I took him out of his car seat and gave him to Robert for the blessing, he woke up! He fussed a little during the blessing, but held out pretty well until it was over. Robert gave a beautiful blessing. A lady in the ward wrote down most of it for us and gave it to us after church. I was really grateful for that since I didn't think of it until it was too late. It was fun to go to church and see everyone again after my long exile. :) But I didn't see much of them since I spent most of the day in the mother's lounge nursing Craig--he's still at that stage where all he wants to do is eat. He also seems to never want to take a nap unless I'm taking one with him, or he's in the stroller. Then he gets over tired. So, I end up nursing him. I'm okay with it, though, since I know he'll soon grow out of the cute and cuddly stage and I'll miss it. He'll want to be off and running in no time, from what others tell me. He is such a sweet little boy and the light of our life. I wish I could capture in pictures or video all the best moments. I try to, but some are impossible to get. Craig was weighed last Wednesday and he's already 11lbs. 12oz. He's has a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, so we'll see what other progress he's made in his growth. He was officially a month old last Friday, which is hard for me to believe. It is flying by too quickly.

Nothing new has happened lately, but I thought I should add a new entry anyway, since it's been a while. Craig will be three weeks old in a few days...time has (in a way) flown by. Last week I was tired of being home all the time, and I was feeling much better myself, so I started taking him out once a day to run errands and visit Robert at work. His routine is established (for now). In the morning he'll be pretty alert and content between feedings, then he'll take a nap in the afternoon while we're running errands and then when we get home I'll try to take a nap with him. He's doing really well and except for some crankiness late at night right before bedtime, he's been a pretty mellow and easy to please baby. We feel very lucky to have him. The pictures really don't do him justice...he's one of the cutest babies in the whole wide world. :) (I said "one of" since I know most of the people viewing this blog have babies of their own--but we're all a little biased toward our own babies, right?) Everything else is going well. I am trying to get back into my church responsibilities little by little. Robert is a ward missionary and an Elders Quorum teacher, so he's going to teach today (Sunday). He was able to go out with the missionaries last week and we were also able to have a new member over to our place for a new member discussion. She even brought a non-member friend. So, life is moving on. It's been a big change, but I find I really enjoy all the time I spend with him, even the cranky ones. :) Well, I gotta go. Take care, and hopefully I can spend some more time putting some more interesting things on here than just posts and pictures.

Well, two weeks (actually about two and half weeks) has passed and things are going very well. We are establishing our new routine and Craig is getting used to life "outside." He is still a very good baby and is usually pretty easy to read when he cries and needs something.

He's here!

Well, on April 30th at 8:41pm, little Craig Elijah Leal was born. We went the hospital at 7:00am (after a long night of irregular contractions) and after many hours of waiting, he finally came. We just love this little guy. He is such a good baby. He had a difficult time learning to nurse, but he seems to have picked it up very well now. He sleeps well, too. Sometimes too well...we have to wake him up in time to feed him. He was 8lbs 14oz and 21 1/4 inches long at birth. We're getting him weighed today, though, so we'll see what he is now.

Hello!

Well, I thought I'd give this a try. I set up this address over a month ago, but then the blogspot people emailed me about something weird...they thought it might have been a spam blog. I responded and then never heard anything from them. Today I randomly just tried to access our blog, and it popped up! So, I guess they decided we are who we say we are. Anyway, I have a few pictures I have posted and I will post more once the baby comes. We're just waiting, waiting, waiting. It could be any day or it literally could be another three weeks. I'm just trying to stay busy and keep my mind off of it. It's hard, though, because we had to have everything done (furniture put together, clothes washed, the baby's room organized, etc.) by the time we thought he might reasonably come, which was a week ago. Now everything is done and I've spent so much time focusing on it that now I have to find a new project, which I probably won't get to finish. I've got everything packed, too, which is kind of a pain since I'm sort of living out my suitcase with some of the daily things I need to use now, but I'll also need at the hospital. And every time we need the camera, we have to pull it out of the suitcase, too. Anyway, I'm sure time will pass quicker than we think, but until then, we wait! So, enjoy the pictures we have. A friend threw a small birthday party for me on Saturday (my birthday is not until this Wednesday, though) and Robert made me a beautiful Seven-Layer Chocolate Cake, which was fabulous. Unfortunately, the picture is in the camera out in the car, in the suitcase. I'll put it on later. Well, take care and I'll give updates later!