Christmas 2010

I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone for 2010! We never thought last year that we would be spending Christmas with a 12 week old baby boy! This year we did a Christmas card, but we got them out a bit late... Here is a preview.

Before Christmas, Dan's sister Pam and her family came up to visit from California. They came just in time for the Glenn Christmas Party too! We had such a good time seeing all of the aunts and uncles and the cousins. There was a lot of visiting and eating going on. The kids even did a little nativity that was super cute!

The Sunday before Christmas we had a nice family dinner at Dan's parents' as everyone in the family was there except Jackie and David from Oregon. Jackie was still very pregnant as her due date was January 1. I think they all had a really good time though. The kids skied at COP and we all got to watch the Nativity at Heritage Park. It's always a tradition to go see the Nativity on Christmas Eve on the Glenn side, but this year we went a bit early so that we could all go with Pam and her family. Dan's Dad was the Inn Keeper this year too! It was really well done and he did a great job too even though it was freezing cold that night. Dan and I tried to go again on Christmas Eve but when we arrived we saw that there was a long line up to get seats. The line turned out to be an estimated hour long wait, so we decided just to go home. I don't think Casper wanted to wait that long outside either.

Christmas was a really busy day this year. Casper slept so well Christmas Eve he didn't want to wake up on his own. I had to wake him up at about 9:30am so that we could get out the door!

We picked up my sister Amanda from the bus stop in the morning and headed out to Carstairs. We arrived and woke up my younger sister Kimberly and opened our gifts. Shortly after my brother Arlen came and he opened his gifts. It was so nice to see Arlen and Amanda. They are the two we don't see as often, especially Arlen. I just hope they know that they are loved by us and I just hope that Casper will be able to see them more often as he grows up. My parents cooked us some breakfast food and then we headed back to Calgary to visit Dan's family.

We arrived at Dan's parents' place and ate dinner. Then we visited and opened more gifts. Spence and Laurie and their three boys were there and also Dan's Grandma Reese was there. We didn't get home until about 7:00pm! That's when we had our own little Christmas and opened our gifts from each other. Three Christmas' in one day is pretty exhausting! Although it was fun, we are maybe considering next year not doing as much so we aren't so tired at the end of the day!

On Boxing Day we got together with my family for the big Olsen family dinner. Everyone was there except for Arlen. It was held at Kristie's house and it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of visiting and gift giving! The next day we got together at Tammy's house in Airdrie and visited some more before going to the Airdrie lights. After that everyone else went back to play games, but we headed out to Olds to hang out with some friends. Meaghan and Dallin and Chelsea and Blaise. I hadn't seen Chelsea since her wedding almost 3 and a half years ago! It was so nice to visit with them and play games all night!

That about wraps up our Christmas experience this year. I know Casper didn't really know what was going on, but it was so much fun spending Christmas with him in our family. I'm excited for next year when he can maybe understand Christmas a bit better.

We also did a Birth Announcement for Casper. I just love it!

We also want to congratulate Jackie and David on their new addition Sophia Noelle Gipson! She was born December 29, 2010 at 12:56am weighing in at 8lbs 15oz and 21" long. She is so adorable and we can't wait to meet her!

Merry Christmas

We were shopping at Cross Iron Mills Mall the other day and we went to Bass Pro Shops because they had free Santa pictures! I stood in a line that didn't seem too long, but it sure took awhile to get through. Casper was sleeping the whole time I was standing in line so he didn't seem to mind. Right when it was our turn I had to wake him up and get him out of his stroller. So here is groggy Casper with Santa:

Boy, do I ever love this kid! He is just over 11 weeks old in this picture.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Mr. Sleepyhead

I absolutely love my baby! He slept 8 to 10 hours for three nights in a row this week. And before that he was sleeping about 6 to 8 hours. I know not all babies are like this so fast, but I'm just so happy that mine is! I just hope it continues and I didn't jinx it with this post...

Casper is growing so fast it's really hard to keep up. He must have had a few growth spurts lately because now all of a sudden none of his clothes don't fit! On the the next size I guess...3-6 months. I'm sad to see him not fitting his cute clothes anymore, but he has so many cute ones in this size I'm excited to see him in them.

He is holding his head up really well now. He tends to only get wobbly when he's been propped up for awhile, or when he's getting excited about something or smile lots he'll bury his face into my shoulder. I just love it! It always puts a smile on my face!

I guess all this sleeping means that he's been growing a lot. I'm sad to see my big baby get even bigger, but I love seeing all of the new things he's learning. I just hope he knows how much we love him, even when he's crying or screaming. How can you not love this boy??

2 Months Old

I just can't believe Casper is 2 months old already! But then it feels like we've always had him. He has grown so much in the past 2 months it's hard to keep up. His clothes seem to be shrinking and we can see his cheeks getting bigger. He had his 2 month shots yesterday and he weighed in at 13lbs 9oz and 24 inches long. He screamed when he got his shots in his thighs. I felt like crying too, but I barely held it together. Hopefully next time won't be so bad...

I am happy to say that Casper is sleeping really well! I'll feed him at about 11:30pm and he won't wake up until about 6:30am give or take. Then we go back to bed for a little while after that. A couple weeks ago he surprised us with sleeping for 8 hours straight, then after his feeding he slept again for another 2 hours! That was a special treat for us.

Last night was his first night sleeping in his crib and he did so good! We had him sleeping in there for naps during the day, but never at night. I wanted to wait until we got a baby monitor to put him in his crib because I didn't think I would be able to hear him with our fan/humidifier on all night. And it's a good thing I did because I really couldn't hear him. I only heard him through the monitor. Thanks to Dan's mom Sue for giving us a monitor. It's going to be well used! I was more sad to see him go sleep in his own room than Dan. He was so excited for him to be in his own room. He's just growing up so fast already! But I guess it was about time he went into his crib because he only had a couple inches clearance on each end in his bassinet because he's so tall!

One of our favorite things to do is to make Casper smile. My heart just melts when I see him smile. Sometimes it doesn't even take much and he puts on the biggest grin! We tried to snap a few pictures of his adorable smile and this is the best we could get so far:

Casper loves his dad so much too! We find him smiling at Dan when he's not even looking. It's the cutest thing ever!

During the past month, I have had 3 baby showers. My first one was the Olsen/Panorama Ward shower that was held at my sister Kristie's house on Friday November 12th. Her and my sister Jodie planned it. We just moved into their ward, so it was a good way to get to know everyone. We had a really good time there and it lasted way into the night with a lot of fun and laughs! We got a lot of useful gifts out of it too! The second one was held in Olds at Kim Christensen's house. Her and Anita Kincade organized it. It was initially planned for Wednesday November 17th, but as most of you know, the first bad snowfall of the season happened on the 16th. And it got even worse the next day, so we rescheduled for the next Wednesday on the 24th. Weather was a bit better that day, but I think with the rescheduling and bad weather caused many people not being able to show up. We had two people come, Mary-Ellen Toker and her daughter Cristina. It was such a good time anyways and it was really good to see Cristina because I hadn't seen her in years! My last shower was last night on Wednesday December 1st. It was the Glenn baby shower and it was held at my mother-in-law's house and planned by her and Pam Glenn. There was a lot of family that made an appearance and it was so much fun to see everyone again. Even though the Glenn Christmas Party is in a few weeks, it was nice to catch up with the girls. Again, we got a lot of useful gifts and really appreciate everyone coming out to meet Casper. Everyone did such a great job planning all of my Baby Showers. Thank you to everyone who put in the effort to make each one a really fun time! Now we have Christmas to look forward to!

Blessed

It was the coldest weekend of the year. Sunday, November 21, 2010 Dan blessed Casper in church. It was such a great blessing and we couldn't have asked for better behavior from Casper. He was awake when we got to church and by the time Dan started the blessing, he fell right asleep and didn't make a sound. I love this kid!

Thank you to all of the family that was able to make it. Even with the bad roads and the cold weather.

Casper James Glenn

Born Friday October 1, 2010 at 10:55pm. 9lbs 5oz and 23 inches long.

The morning of Thursday September 30, Dan goes off to work and I start packing the kitchen up as we just found out we got a new rental property and have possession on October 1. It didn't last long because I got pretty tired pretty quick. So I headed out to the NE from SW Calgary to go sign the papers for the new rental. I'm pretty sure this was the last time I drove. The whole way there I was experiencing major back pain like I've never experienced before! Yes, this was while I was driving, so it wasn't the safest thing to do. I finally get to the office and I sit in my car for awhile in the rain waiting for a good time to quickly go in before the pain starts up again. I was so nervous to drive home because I couldn't tell when the pain would start and stop. However, I made it home safe and sound, and I didn't go out again. I told Dan that he needs to come home to take me to my doctors appointment at 2:20pm because I couldn't drive there myself. Everything went well at the appointment, I was almost 3cm dilated!

That night Dan was scheduled to DJ in Didsbury about an hour and a half away. I was pretty nervous to have him go, but luckily nothing happened. I could feel contractions, but they weren't very consistent or painful. I had to sleep on the couch for the last week or so because for some reason I couldn't lay flat for very long because that back pain would come back. So I had to sleep on the couch all propped up on pillows and cushions, which still wasn't very comfortable, but I got more sleep there than in my own bed. Thursday night I would sleep for about 20-30 minutes and wake up with either back pain or a painful contraction. I wasn't really able to time anything because I was so exhausted, I could barely think straight. All I knew was that I was in pain, and I was frustrated because I was so tired! Finally I got off the couch at about 4:00am because the contractions were getting so painful I couldn't sit up or lay down. I went to the bathroom and stayed in there for awhile and I tried to time the contractions. Every 2 minutes or so. I go into our bedroom to wake up Dan just after 4:30am and the whole time I was debating whether or not to bother him. After I had another contraction I woke Dan and he was instantly awake! I told him about my contractions and he asked if I wanted to go to the hospital, and I wasn't sure if I needed to yet. The one thing I didn't want to have happen was to go to the hospital and be sent home. Especially because Dan had to work the next morning. Dan gets up and goes into the bathroom and then I get another painful contraction, so after that I got dressed and when Dan came out he knew that it was time to go! We gathered my bag and the diaper bag and drove to Foothills Hospital. We got there just before 5:30am and there wasn't very many people waiting to be checked so we got in pretty fast. They told us I was just over 4cm dilated and they saw that my contractions were really strong so that means we would be staying! Dan called my mom so that she could be there with us and she got there about an hour or so later. Then he called his parents and in to work to tell them that he wasn't coming in.

We finally got a delivery room after waiting for a couple hours and I went right into the shower. I spent about 2 hours in there! It was soooo nice! I would have liked it even more if the water wouldn't all of a sudden go from freezing cold then to boiling hot at random times, especially when I was in the middle of a contraction! I think I got out of the shower just after 12:00pm and I went onto the delivery bed so they could check me again. I laid there for a few hours and going through all of these painful contractions when I finally broke down and wanted something to help ease the pain. They gave me the gas for awhile but that wasn't enough. I tried to go as long as I could, and I think I did a pretty good job! They gave me an IV and fed some drugs through that. What a difference! With both the gas and the drugs, my head was pretty messed up, but I loved it! But they had to poke me a few times to actually get it right, I bruised at every point they pricked me at. The doctor checked me again and she found that I had stopped progressing at 8cm! And now with each contraction I had a major urge to push and it was way too early for that!

The doctor then had to break my water to help with the progression and it.went.everywhere. I remember seeing my mom and Dan in the background and their jaws dropped to the floor when they saw the fluid coming out and it just wouldn't stop! Just before they broke my water, the nurse asked the doctor if she wanted a pail to catch the fluid in and she refused and said that she would just use the pads. Big mistake! The panicked looks on their faces were priceless!

The doctor also told me that the baby's head was slightly turned to the side and so if he didn't turn on his own, we would have to do a C-Section. Yikes! This is definitely not what I wanted. She eventually suggested that I get an epidural, which is something else that I really didn't want, but with the drugs in my system I agreed because I just wanted this all to be over with! I hadn't really slept in over 36 hours and I was just exhausted. The epidural was supposed to help the baby turn his head better so that we didn't have to do a C-Section. As scared as I was, I got through it. Dan gave me a blessing before and I think that's what helped me the most. They had me pee first and while I was doing that, they changed my whole bedding because it was all soaked from my water breaking, so that was pretty nice! They helped me back on the bed and I told them to wait because I was having a contraction, but to my surprise, they said they aren't waiting and I panicked! Everything went just fine though, the epidural kicked in pretty fast and I could finally relax and get a little rest.

It was once again the end of the nurse's and doctor's shifts so I was introduced to nurse Jessy. Then I saw doctor Brown walk through the door! Doctor Brown is the doctor that I've been seeing for every appointment throughout my pregnancy at the Grace Maternity Clinic. I was so happy that she was going to be the one to deliver my baby too!

I was finally fully dilated and nurse Jessy suggested I start pushing a bit to see if it would help turn the head. And that's exactly what happened! I was pushing in all different positions when it was finally time to call in doctor Brown. We were all pretty happy that the head was turned the right way and the chances of me having a C-Section were pretty slim! I was soon crowning and everyone was getting anxious. Doctor Brown looked at me between pushes and said that she might have to do an episiotomy on me, and I stopped everything and told her I reeeaaalllly didn't want that. She looked up at the nurse and quietly smiled and said "ok". Then he finally came out after 19 hours of labor and 3 hours of pushing, it was the happiest moment ever! They put him on me and he started crying and it was the sweetest sound I've been waiting to hear for so long! They took him away to clean him up and check him out.

I only had minor tearing and was stitched up pretty quick. I knew they didn't need to do an episiotomy on me! Everyone got a chance to hold him and get a picture taken from my mom. I was so happy that it was all over with and he was finally here. And to our surprise, we were able to have a private room! The nurse told us that it was pretty rare to get a private room so late at night, but we were so lucky to get one. They let me rinse off in the shower and then led us to our room. Another nurse showed me how to breast feed and Casper caught on really fast, he even surprised the nurse! This was about 2:30am and Dan left to go home at about 3:00am. We were all pretty exhausted. I had Casper stay in the nursery that night so that I could get some rest, but the nurse came into my room pretty often to check me so that didn't really happen. And the next day (Saturday) Dan did the walk-through for our new place and started to move in with the help of family.

That weekend was also General Conference weekend for the LDS Church, so Dan went to the Priesthood Session that night as well. Then he came over to the hospital for a visit and my mom and Kimberly showed up later as well as his parents to meet Casper for the first time.

I got discharged on Sunday and I didn't really have a home to go to, so I went home to Dan's parents' house and we started to watch Conference and I caught the last little bit of the last talk in the last session. Oh well I guess. I was just happy to finally be home with my new son and start being a mom. We spent the night there and were able to go to our new home Monday evening.

I love my new little family and I'm so grateful we are sealed together for time and eternity.

Thanks to all that helped us with the move and with our new life together. It was really appreciated!

Maternity Pictures

On Labor Day Monday Dan and I had some maternity pictures taken. They turned out great too! We got them done by Abigail Taylor. She did a few shots for Dan's DJ buddy and Dan saw the work that she did and she's so great. I loved working with her! We're normally not that great in front of a camera, but she made it so much easier than we thought it would be. We were so worried that she wouldn't be able to get very many good shots of us, but there are so many! Thanks again Abby!

36 Weeks

Two Jack Lake 2010

Once again this year for the Labor Day Weekend, we headed out to Two Jack Lake. Last year was a lot warmer, but I think this year there was a lot more memories to be had. Dan and I were the last ones to arrive (as always) and we met up with his parents, Spence and Laurie and their 3 boys. We ate hamburgers and hot dogs and visited for awhile. It was a lot colder this year too. The wind is what did it. But when it died down, it was quite nice! We were just finishing eating when this Japanese man came up to our table. We all thought the same thing... He's going to ask us for some food. But to our surprise, he was there with a few of his friends from Japan and they were a filming crew! All they wanted from us is to be in their film and describe what we were doing and why. We were supposed to act natural of course, but it was so unusual it was hard not to "put on an act" like the boys did. They filmed us "cooking" our food, showed them what kind of food we ate, the boys showed them how they could climb trees and run around. I think they really liked it all! Spence and Laurie also rented out a raft and they filmed them rowing away in the lake. They were so grateful for us participating they gave the girls some kind of gift which was a handkerchief of some sort in nice material. They told us that they travel all over the world and compare the different cultures and then they air it in Japan! So I guess we'll all be on TV in Japan! It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime thing to experience.

After they left, Dan and Spencer took Ethan and Will out on the raft to try and catch some fish. They were out there for awhile, but still came back empty handed.

Dan and I then headed for home because we had an appointment to get some Maternity pictures taken. It was a good thing we left when we did because traffic was a nightmare! It took us an extra hour to get home so we had to push back our appointment a bit, but luckily we were able to get them done. There will be a post about that shortly!

36 weeks pregnant

The Waiting Game Begins

Today is my first day without going to work. My boss was nice enough to let me have the last two days of August off! I have worked for Sterling Homes since June 15th, 2009, and it sure has flown by fast! I will miss working there, but it's sure nice to know that if I don't have a good night's sleep, I don't have to worry about waking up early to go to work! As of today, I am 35 weeks along, and still as big as ever. I get so many comments on how big I really am, people are shocked when they hear my due date. I get it people...I know that I'm huge!

This is me one day shy of 33 weeks.

Earlier this month, on Friday August 13th, my co-workers surprised me with a baby shower! It was so nice of them to do that, and it was my very first baby shower too! Here is a look at all that I got. It was pretty hard to display everything!

Clothes


Much needed accessories


Very cute balloons


My Favorite gift, a Coach diaper bag!

Olsen Family Reunion

This past weekend was my Dad's family reunion. It's not very often that we get together with his side of the family, so this was Dan's first time really meeting them all!

We drove to Edmonton Saturday morning and went right to my Aunty Anne and Uncle Doug's house. It's been years since I've been there! They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and it was also my Dad's 61st birthday the day before. So there was lots of food and cake to be eaten. We all had a really fun time there catching up with the Olsen side of the family. Let's not wait as long for the next one!

Aunty Anne and Uncle Doug Dawson celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary!

My Dad and his siblings (left-right Tom, Anne, Karl, Elsa, Jim)

All of the cousins at the reunion

We were missing Tammy and her family, Arlen, and Amanda.


Uncle Tom, Me, and Uncle Karl. It's tradition to have your picture taken with these two when you are pregnant. For obvious reasons.

After the reunion, Dan and I went to the West Edmonton Mall. What's a trip to Edmonton without going there right? We didn't buy anything except for a crib mattress, but we had a good time walking around until my feet and legs were almost falling off. We then went to the Alberta Legislature Building and walked around the grounds. I had never been there before and it was really quite nice!

33 weeks and 5 days prego

This may look like a nice picture, but it was really painful to get into that position!

Dan was a trooper and drove the whole way to Edmonton and back. I have to admit that I'm pretty sick of traveling by car. I'm lucky to have Dan to drive me places :)