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 :)

3 Years

Last Tuesday August 17th was mine and Dan's 3 year anniversary. Can you believe that? It has been the best 3 years ever too. I love Dan with all of my heart and I think there's more love between us as each year goes by. Especially over the past several months, Dan has been the greatest help and support. I am so excited to start a family with him :)

Glenn Family Vacation 2010

Once again, the Glenn family vacation was in Oregon, but this time we were closer to Lincoln City on the coast. The beach house was amazing. Dan and I drove down again this year, and I didn't do as bad as I thought I would. Dan was pretty worried about how the driving would make me miserable, but we pretty much made the same amount of stops as last year. We divided the trip up into 2 days again. We spent Sunday night in Spokane then arrived to the beach house on Monday. We would have made it there two hours earlier, but we got stopped by construction. So we ate dinner late then relaxed until we went to bed.

Our view from the living room & dining area.

Tuesday we all woke up and had breakfast, then headed down to the beach wearing our best. We got family pictures done on the beach, and I think they all turned out great! Other than having the sun in our eyes in some, we all looked pretty good.

Pam and Chris Severson with Blake, Megan, Abby, Josh, and Kate.


Will and Heather Glenn with Grace, Eva, and Brianna.


Spencer and Laurie Glenn with Ethan, Will, and Cullen.


Jackie and David Gipson with one on the way!


Dan and me with the big bump.


Richard and Sue Glenn

After the pictures, some went out shopping and some stayed by the coast and went crab hunting. Dan and I stayed to experience the crab hunting, even though we didn't catch much. We caught one crab, but he was too small to keep so we had to let him back into the ocean. Not having much luck with the crabs, we decided to try again at a different spot the next day.

On Wednesday a few of us went to a different beach with some big rocks to try and catch some crabs there. Pretty much the same story there too. The kids were pretty excited to catch something though. As we were waiting, the kids were finding all sorts of things! They found a bunch of hermit crabs, tiny fish, and Uncle Dan found them a dead starfish. They also found a little black crab. After having that experience, I think they were ok with the fact that we still didn't catch any crabs in the trap.

We all went back to the beach house, and Dan and I decided to hit up some of the shopping before dinner. We didn't really get much for us, mostly just for the baby. Our little boy has the biggest and cutest wardrobe ever! We got home and showed off our purchases and hot-tubbed the night away (which is pretty much what we did every night).

Thursday was a pretty relaxed day again. The main event for us was the Whale Watching Tour! It was so fun to be out on the ocean and to see a gray whale! It was pretty hard to get a good picture because it was pretty foggy, and we always missed the part where he sprayed out of the water.

Can you see the whale's back?

That was the fun part of the tour, but on the way back I got sea-sick. As did Jackie and little Abby. I never used to have a problem with being on a boat, and on the way out to the ocean I felt just fine, but it was when my feet started to hurt from standing that I had to sit at the back of the boat and that's when it all of a sudden hit. It was like my first trimester all over again. It's a good thing we didn't get a chance to eat before the tour. So when we got back to the beach house, I napped for a bit before dinner.

Friday was a fun/sad day because that morning we were all packing up and getting ready for the long trip home. Our plan was to spend the night at Jackie's house just outside Portland then head to our hotel in Spokane the next day. On our way to Jackie's house we stopped by the Aquarium that everyone else went to on the Monday before Dan and I arrived. It was super cool! I've never seen anything like it. They had everything there from sharks to jelly fish to sea lions to snakes! If we ever make it back to that area, I would really like to go back there.

We stopped at a few more shops and picked up the stroller that we had our eye on (it was $100 cheaper in the States!). Then we headed to downtown Portland because we had never been there out of all the times we've been to Portland. Jackie and David told us about this really yummy desert place there so we decided to try it out. I'm so glad they told us because it was so delicious! And this is where our night went from the greatest to the worst.

After desert we walked back to where we parked and our car was gone! Both of us panicked. Our car was full of our things that we had just bought. Was it stolen? Then Dan found a sign at a different entrance to the parking lot from where we came in and to our knowledge it was a tow-away zone that had no signs posted to let us know that before hand! So Dan found a pay phone and called the number on the sign, and they had our car. I just want to mention here that there was another car parked there beside two towing signs and that car was still parked there. The towing people have no sympathy towards anyone, so we ended up having to finally find a cab and go get our car. $219 later we were back in our car, tired, and furious. We arrived to Jackie's house late so we had to sleep on the couches where we got next to no sleep. We were in no condition to drive all the way to Spokane. So we stayed there a little later as we slept in her spare bedroom. We then drove to Spokane, still furious, but thought, how could this get any worse? It's just really too bad this happened on our awesome vacation.

We arrived at our hotel to find that our room only had two double beds. So I was sad that we had to sleep on separate beds that night too (there's no way we could sleep in one with my big belly between us, and we really needed our sleep). The next morning we started home and we finally get to the boarder only to find that they need to search our car because we had mentioned that we bought a car seat and a stroller. Turns out, even though it said on the outside of the box that it passed both Canadian and American safety standards, we weren't allowed to bring it into Canada because it didn't have French labeling attached to it. Their reasoning for it? If by chance we decide to sell it, and if by chance we sell it to someone who only speaks French (which I don't know how we would do that because neither of us know any french), and if by chance they install the carseat wrong, and if by chance they get in a car accident, then it might be a problem. At this point I think I was just in shock with how things were turning out that I didn't know what to say or do. I watched them take away the stroller that we had been planning on getting for months and all we could do was drive away. They told us that they would hold it for us for 40 days at the boarder and then if we do come back through, we could pick it up and return it to get our money back. Yeah, I'm sure we would be driving all the way back there while I'm about to give birth. How could things get any worse? That's how. I figured we had wasted more money during that week than we had actually spent or "saved".

We arrived at Dan's parents house late Sunday night to drop a few things off and pick up our other car. We told them the whole story and they were in shock. I think everytime we tell people what happened, they are more upset about it than we are! I just felt so helpless the whole way home.

Luckily, there is a somewhat of a happy ending. It turned out the Laurie and her family were planning on spending some time out at their cabin in B.C. and then they were going to drive down to Spokane to do some shopping. So Laurie told us that she could pick up the stroller and return it for us! And that she did! Our money was put back onto our credit card and we didn't lose anything from it. Except now, we still don't have a stroller, and I really don't want to spend $100 more on the same one up here. We have to start all over again looking for a decent stroller at a decent price. Wish us luck because this baby will be here before we know it!

I don't know if we'll get any of the towing money back, but at least we're home now safe and sound. Thanks to Sue and Richard for the awesome time out at the beach house! I just love spending time with the Glenn Family.

July Current Events

I know I haven't been the best at updating the blog. However, I have still been reading everyone else's!

Today I am 29 weeks along, and I'm really starting to think about how much mine and Dan's life is going to change. Every time we are just hanging out, watching TV or just chatting, I think that times like this are going to be minimal in just a couple more months. I'm so excited and nervous at the same time! I just hope everything goes smoothly to ease the stress of everything else. So far, everything looks great with my pregnancy. The septum that they thought they saw in my uterus either doesn't exists, or it has actually stretched with my uterus and they can't see it. I also had another scare with the gestational diabetes test too. I had to go in for a second test because my blood sugar level was high, and also my iron was too low. So now I'm on iron supplements and according to the second test, the baby is just fine. He's just big that's all.

Canada Day came and we got a special visit from Dan's sister Jackie and her husband David who live down in Portland. I got suspicious of their visit and guessed that they had some special news for us, and it turns out, they are pregnant! She is due January 1! I'm so happy to have someone in the family to be pregnant with again! Too bad they live so far away. I was only pregnant with Jodie for a couple months before she had her boy. Congrats Jackie and David! We are super excited for you! To celebrate Canada Day, we went to the Raymond parade with Dan's family and met up with my family for a little bit. We then went to Waterton to have a picnic BBQ, but once we arrived, it was pouring out. However in the end, we decided to have one anyways and I think everyone had a pretty good time.

The weekend after was a special one. My niece Amber Mason was baptized on Saturday July 10. She is the first grandchild to be baptized on the Olsen side. It was really something to remember. Dan was asked to give a talk on baptism and it was great. Then the next day, Dan's nephew Ethan got baptized! It was a pretty spiritual weekend and it was so great to see them make this decision to be baptized into the church.

The Calgary Stampede was in town for the past 10 days. We told ourselves last year that we wouldn't go this year, but we did...twice. Last year we spent so much money on just admission and food alone, we came home with nothing to show for it. However, this year we saw a few more things and got pretty good deals with parking, admission, and food. So we weren't too upset about it. Good job Calgary Stampede for redeeming yourself. This year they had a new Ice Skating Rock Band show, and it was so amazing! It was just like seeing a show in Vegas! It brought back memories of our honeymoon in Vegas. I hope they continue having this show every year because it was definitely worth seeing. We went to the Marianas Trench concert at the Coke Stage that same night too (Monday). It was a pretty cold night. We went to the Stampede again on Friday and met up with Kristie and Iain and Kimberly and her friend Virginia. We walked around to the places we didn't see last time and went to the Superdogs show. That night One Republic was playing and they sounded so good live! It was a pretty fun time this year. It's hard to believe that this time next year we'll be hauling a little boy around.

This past weekend was the Carstairs Beef and Barley Days! Or as I like to call it, the Barf and Beely Days! We went out to Carstairs Saturday morning, had a pancake breakfast at my parents' place, then watched the famous parade. After that we walked around town, watched the kids run their races and also ride in the train that my dad happened to be driving this year, walked around town to visit the pet store, then finally went to Burger Baron for lunch! I love this tradition. My family normally all gets together for this special event and I look forward to it every year.

We are finally moving! Not into a new house, or area of the city. We are moving 3 floors up onto the 5th floor of our building. Not quite the move we were hoping for, but this will definitely be fine to live in through the hot summer months. Anything is better than our old place during the summer! Dan has been so great with the whole move too. He has done so much work himself because I can't do very much with this belly. Our first night sleeping in the new place was Saturday night. We got the cats upstairs and all of the important things we would need. I have to admit that the first sleep there was hell. Chester was howling all night long. Izzie was trying to get some shut-eye but couldn't because Chester was keeping everyone up. I thought this was quite strange because we have moved so many times with Chester and it has never been a problem, but this was Izzie's first move with us so we didn't really know what to expect from her. She warmed up to the place pretty fast, but it was Chester who wasn't sure about it all. And the funny thing is, is that this place looks pretty identical to our last, just backwards with a few minor differences. So why was he like this? We were up every hour to every half hour until about 5:30am trying to get him to be quiet. I tell ya, it was worse than sleeping with a newborn. Thanks for the training Chester, but that was a bit much. The next night turned out a lot better. Not a peep from either kitty. Dan thought that if he gave Chester some love before going to bed that he might feel better, and it worked! We are still slowly getting all of our things brought up to the new place. I hate living in two different places, but at least it's in the same building. We got a new bedroom set that we finally got to set up, and it's great! We also got a new sectional from Costco that we both just love. It's nice to see our home being made into more of our home. I'm hoping this move will help us get more organized, especially with the baby items. So far it's great, but I haven't got into the many bins of my old things yet.

Dan has been getting quite a few interview lately! We are hoping that something turns up from it all. I think he's pretty tired of applying for jobs everyday for the past couple years. So with him not having a steady job right now and with me about to go on maternity leave, our house-hunting is on hold. I don't think we'll ever stop watching the market or looking at places, but as for actually purchasing something, it might not happen for awhile still. Unless of course we win the lottery somehow. I know that everything will come together at the right time, even if I think that the right time is right now.

It's almost that time of year again! The Glenn Family vacation! We are going to be on the Oregon coast for the first week of August and I'm super stoked! It was such a fun time last year, I just know it will be just as fun if not better this year. We rented a different beach house at a different location so we will still be surprised when we get there. Dan and I are driving down again, but this time we left a little more extra time to make a few more pit stops along the way to stretch. It seems like there's still awhile before we go, but there's less than 2 weeks! Then after we get back, I only have 3 more weeks until I start my maternity leave! Wow, time sure is flying by this year! It's a good thing I'm occupied with different things so the tail end of my pregnancy hopefully won't drag on as much. And another good thing about going to Oregon is that there's no sales tax there! We are planning on doing some shopping there before going home, especially for needed baby items are are way cheaper in the States.

I think that brings you all up to date about what has been going on with us lately. I'm sorry for not updating as often. Hopefully I will get better!

25 Weeks

I finally got another pregnancy picture of myself! Here I am 25 weeks and 1 day.

I know I'm big, it runs in my family. And before you ask, yes, there is only one baby in there and yes, my due date (October 4) is correct.

Another Update

I can't believe how close I am to the end of my pregnancy! It still feels like it's awhile away, but I know (and hope) it's going to zoom by. I have just over 15 weeks left! I can't wait to be a mom. I'm so ready to meet our little bundle, but then I think of all the things we still need to do and buy before he gets here. I'm sure he'll come at the right time.

Life has been keeping us busy for the most part. Dan has a summer job spraying lawns for Green Drop. He is still looking for some kind of Marketing job to get the right experience, so if anyone knows of anything available, we'd love to hear about it! My job has been really slow, painfully slow. They say in the news that the housing market is doing really well, but it's definitely not reflecting that fact with our company! I started working for Sterling Homes a year ago yesterday, and at that time, everyone was super busy with house deals flying in the doors everyday. Now we're lucky to see one deal a week! Sometimes it scares me because there's really no point in them keeping me there because everything is caught up and there's no work for me to do. Hopefully they wait until I go on maternity leave! However, going to work everyday just to sit bored at my desk is no motivation to go at all. Plus it's getting more and more difficult to actually get a good night's sleep so I'm usually exhausted every day. Needless to say, I'm counting down the time I have left there! The feeling of being useless is starting to come back like how I felt at my last job, but at least the end is in sight this time.

Dan has been busy DJing lately. It's nearing the end of the 2010 Grad season and his new company did really well. They've had a lot of shows that have had really good feedback, so maybe next year will be that much better! To be honest though, I really don't like this time of year because Dan is so busy almost every weekend, but it sure pays off in the end.

I now have a new calling in our ward! I've wanted this calling right from the beginning and I finally got it! I am the one who creates the bulletin for sacrament meeting every Sunday! I think I got the calling because I'm pregnant. All of the other people who have had this calling have been pregnant or just started a family. So that's what you need to do to get this dream calling! Last Sunday was my first time doing it, and it went really well. I'm just excited to have a calling that I can do in my own time, and it will still be decent to manage once the baby comes (if we are still in this ward). I think I forgot to mention this in my last post, but Dan got a new calling a couple months ago too! He is the second councilor in the Young Men's. There's not a a lot of YM in our ward, one or two at best, but it's been keeping him busy and he seems to really enjoy it. His cousin Jesse is the president, so I think they have a lot of fun together in their callings.

Our goal of moving before the baby gets here is starting to diminish. With Dan only having a summer job and me going on maternity leave soon, it's not looking too good. I would love to be closer to family when we have the baby, but I guess this place will have to do for now. Maybe there's still something out there for us, but we have not found it yet.

I know I haven't posted a picture in awhile, so here is one of Izzie. She turned 1 year old on June 13th! I can't believe how big she is now from when we first got her as a tiny kitten.