Goodbye 2013

This year has been a busy and crazy one! Here are a few highlights and 

achievements we thought were worth noting.

Here's to 2014!

Christmas 2013

We had a goal to have enough of our remodel done that we could have Christmas at our own house, and we made it! Here are some pictures of a little bit of our holiday fun. We celebrated with the Walton side of the family the Sunday prior to Christmas day, (I was feeling pretty sick so there aren't any pictures of that..) and then we spent Christmas Eve and some of Christmas day with the Jensen side of the family, since Terry's parents went out of town Christmas day. 

Oliver met Santa for the first time.. it didn't go well... We missed out on Santa last year.

I grew up with the tradition of eating donuts and egg nog when we decorated the tree. Oliver really liked the top of the donuts.

And got ticked when we wouldn't let him have anymore.

 

Christmas Eve we open one present, Oliver got a dump truck!

I grew up with this story, and Oliver completely took over.

He thought he needed to help wrap some gifts.

Our Christmas tree after Santa had come. Oliver got 3 dump trucks total... one from each grandma, and one little one from Santa. How spoiled! Terry set me up with all the canning supplies I could possibly need, and I got him a camp chef and grill, no more cooking steak on the George Foreman!

He wouldn't open any gifts, he only wanted to sit there and drink his milk.

But, he finally came around and ended up loving his new train set!

 

 We are so grateful we were able to spend Christmas with our own family and our extended family.  As a parent, Christmas is completely different. I loved spoiling Oliver and seeing how excited he got, and getting anything for myself was hardly a concern. This time of year is such a great reminder of what life is about.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all! I'm sitting here at 8:30 waiting for Oliver to get up and for Terry to get home from dropping his folks off at the airport (how does a trip to Houston and 2 cruises sound for Christmas??) So, while I wait for the fun to begin I thought I'd get a little festive and share our Christmas card. If you didn't get one, that's because it's sitting on my counter with your name on it, no address, no stamp, waiting to be delivered... but it probably wont make it now. So here is it's virtual version :)

*Terry loved the idea of letting everyone know that we were having another boy!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

3 Years

On December 18, 2010 at approximately 9:00am, Terry and I were sealed for time and all eternity. We dated for a short 2 months before getting engaged and set our wedding date for only 3 months later. Did I mention I was only 18? We were crazy... But what a blessing this has been! There isn't a thing that I would change. I love him more with every second that passes by, and he is the best dad a wife could possibly hope for! For our anniversary this year, we worked on the house and I think we had frozen chicken nuggets for dinner. Always keepin ya on your toes, huh? We plan to get take out and go look at Christmas lights, as soon as the house is done (which we have carpet now! We're almost there!) Happy Anniversary! 

See? We really were crazy, and maybe we still are! 

Phone Fun!

I haven't updated in awhile since we have been jumping in between grandmas' houses while our place is being remodeled. Here are a few moments captured on our poor quality cell phone cameras. ;) 

From left to right , top to bottom.

Oliver playing in the wall rubble with his loader tractor.

Our rock wall is gone!

Oliver actually fell asleep on me, I don't know the last time he did that...

My grandparents are staying at my parents house for a little while, and the day before Thanksgiving my grandpa was hospitalized from having seizures. In this picture he was talking to my grandma on the phone and was so excited to hear from her. It was a sweet moment to witness! 

Oliver found a bucket and ran around with it on his head, he thought it was great!

Oliver loves my parent's dog, Oscar, and thought he needed to eat out of a bowl on the floor too. Silly kid.

Our remodel is almost done! We will have carpet installed next week and finally get back into our own place. Just in time for Christmas!

Blessings.

Last weekend we went down to my sister's for our nephew's blessing. While there, I grabbed my other sister and had her snap a few pictures for us! It was freezing cold and we may have only gotten two pictures out of it, but that's okay! Oliver was a little trooper, just unhappy through it all. 

My "at the time" 23 week pregnant belly.

I absolutely love black and white pictures, Terry loves colored... Best of both worlds!

We are certainly blessed, and couldn't be more grateful for all that we have. 

Here We Go!

Well, the time has come! We knew it would happen eventually, but we're tackling our first major remodel! We are soo excited for this a project to be done and I seriously cannot wait! Our goal is to have it finished before Christmas, but the tractor tire broke off Saturday, and then Terry got the flu today... So we'll see how quickly this project comes along. We are taking out a major rock wall that is in the middle of basically two living rooms. It will make such a huge difference in our home. We are really looking forward to the end result!

Our new wood stove is the first thing to be put in. I will do a post when it's all done with all of the before and after pictures!

Rain

It was such a rainy day today, and all I wanted was hot chocolate. I figured I'd hold out until the evening and have it as dessert. Terry, however, wanted sticky popcorn. So we had both, except he got peanut butter popcorn (I like it better than caramel, and since I made it, I get the last say!) 

 

Oliver loved helping!

Terry lent a hand here or there as well :)

Peanut butter popcorn and hot chocolate, and Oliver got chocolate milk

Success!

Excuse my attire... Oliver enjoyed feeding everyone else as much as he liked eating it himself!

18 Months

We went in for Oliver's 18 month check up the other day! Here's a little update on him:

Weight: 24.5 lbs

Height: 31.5 in (approximately, he wouldn't hold still)

He is advanced in his vocabulary- he knows about 10 words and 4-6 is average for this age

His favorite words are: Tractor, cow, and dog

He sleeps about 12 hours through the night 

Takes about a 3 hour nap once a day

Is VERY clingy right now

Hates nursery with a fiery passion

Enjoys running wild

Baby update (Oliver and I both had appointments at the same time)

My due date has been moved up a few days because I seem to have big babies (at least for my size!) and was measuring big at our ultrasound. My due date is now March 10th, so we'll go in on the 3rd for a c-section.

We've been busy getting our place ready for some upcoming changes. Oliver's "new room" just finished getting painted today, and he was very helpful. We'll put up bunk beds, and pull out his toddler bed next week. We have a new wood burning stove coming next week that we'll get installed and then we'll start our "little" remodel! We're really looking forward to the changes coming around the house within the next couple weeks!

Oli-O-Saurus

Oliver went as a dinosaur for Halloween this year. We enjoyed lots of parties and donut night with our family and friends. Here are some pictures from our Halloween night.

Oli-O-Saurus, the cutest dino I know!

just the backside of his jacket...

I went ahead and dressed up this year as a Magic 8 Ball! Terry was supposed to be the part that said "Ask again later" but failed to play the part ;)

Not our best family photo, but we're all there!

Happy Halloween!

Hand, Foot & Mouth

Or more like head, shoulders, knees, and toes! Don't forget the eye, ears, mouth, and nose. Oliver got the virus going around know as Hand, Foot and Mouth. IT IS AWFUL. Poor kid got sores aaalll over his body. Mouth, ears, cheeks, back, arms, toes, and his entire diaper area probably got the worst of it. It's insanely contagious and most common in kids, and quite rare to catch as an adult. The poor kid could hardly eat. I basically gave him anything I could get him to eat, so there was a lot of fruit snack and yogurt eating. In kids, it's real common to throw up and have a head cold, so we dealt with that as well. Luckily, he only had one night that he didn't sleep well, but other than that, he slept 12+ hours. He was quite cuddly and always wanted to be held, but we couldn't blame him. Especially when his sores looked like this:

He took multiple baths a day, ate what he wanted, played when he felt like it, and cuddled as often as he chose. He's been doing so much better, as are the rest of us now. We missed our happy, go-lucky, little boy, and so glad he's feeling better!

Update**
I ended up getting this as well, thanks to my poor immune system caused by pregnancy.. Not nearly as bad as Oliver, but it is certainly miserable! So far, Terry has held strong for us.

Pumpkin Patch

My sister was able to come visit for the weekend, so Oliver and I decided to take a break from riding tractor for the day, and go visit the pumpkin patch! We headed over to Linder Farms and it was nothing that I had expected. First, I had to pay to get in! I was slightly shocked. I'd never even heard of Linder Farms before... We got there and it looked like and county fair. Oliver was only excited about the tractors driving around... Yep, I paid $4 for the kid to sit on a tractor, that he got kicked off of because it was someone else's turn. We could have done that at home, with no time limit. He did love the Petting Zoo they had though, and the stick he found and hit me with. Even though it wasn't what I had expected we enjoy doing things with the extended family, and getting out of the house is always nice too!

The Stick!

Stryker wasn't feeling well that day, and only wanted to cuddle with his momma. 

Reese was the most well behaved kiddo. Slept the whole time!

Harvest

Fall for farmers means one thing. Harvest. This year's corn harvest seems to be incredibly CRAZY. We thought our corn wouldn't be ready for another few days to a week, and BAM! All of our fields were ready on the same day! Terry has been working like crazy. For instance, he got in around 10 one night, the next morning was up and at it around 3am and didn't get home until 9 or so, only to get up around 5:30 the next day. I know one thing for sure, I married a worker, and I couldn't be more grateful. He is such a go-getter, and the greatest example to our kids. Oliver and I will go ride the tractor or the combine just about any chance we get. Oliver can last in the combine for a good hour or two. The tractors aren't quite as exciting and he gets stir crazy more quickly. He gets so excited when we pull into a field, he'll jabber away in the back seat. I'm sure grateful for the lifestyle we get to live!

Announcing...

That's right, folks! We're expecting Walton Baby number 2! 

We are also pleased to announce....

It's a boy!

(I wanted to do a cute gender reveal picture, but this was all Terry liked!)

Fun Facts (for journaling purposes)

He is due March 15, 2014

However, due to c-sections he will arrive no later than March 8th.

Terry felt the baby move when I was 17 weeks and 3 days a week and a half sooner than when he felt Oliver. 

Oliver likes to pat, lay on, and drive his tractors on my growing belly. At least someone enjoys it!

I have been sick, and still am, but nothing compared to Oliver. 

Terry is the only boy with 5 sisters, and I only have one brother and 2 sisters, so we feel like we are breaking tradition having TWO boys! 

This baby will be grandson number 4 for my parents with no granddaughters, and grandson number 11 for Terry's parents with only 4 granddaughters. 

He was measuring one week big on his ultrasound and had nice tone legs!

Today I am 18 weeks and 2 days.

We are all so thrilled to have this little one enter our family, even Oliver, or at least we hope :)

Build-A-Bear

When I was in high school, my mom made us all bears from build-a-bear with a recording that said "Ashley Fay, I love you, I love you, I love you." (Fill in my brother and sisters names). She did this so when we moved away we'd always have her with us. She decided to do this for all of her grandkids as well, so we finally went and built Oliver a puppy! He was scared of the loud noises, but he sure loves his dog! He's figured out how to push the button that says, "Oliver Lee, I love you, I love you, I love you" with Grandma Jensen's voice. He just beams with pride after he pushes the button, completely proud of his accomplishment. We're glad Oliver has grandparents that love him! 

Phoney

Once again I found all sorts of fun pictures on my phone! So here we go! From left to right, top to bottom. 

I had a cupboard with a nasty old ironing board in it. I had Terry take it out and build little shelves. We'll use this area as our "command center" maybe.... If I ever finish it.

I am attempting at decorating for the seasons, not holidays, I gotta start off simple. 

Oliver got out of the bath and started crawling around and cuddling with his towel. He is such a goof! (Ya dig the nice carpet in the bathroom? It's on our "to do" list. Only a few more things ahead of it).

This kid could be outside all day! He brought his tractor with him when we went to ride the combine, and of course had to play in the dirt!

Oliver climbed under the backhoe to help his dad find a part number. 

Oliver loves the wagon! Grandpa Jensen will pull him and cousin Stryker in it around the block. They have a ball!