Top 16...

Whew. Fair warning: this one might take you a few days to read…

I have been inspired by other friends’ blogs to review the last year of the blog.  Only instead of highlighting the things I’ve already shared, I’m going to recap the top 12 16 things that didn’t make the blog… for whatever reason that may have been!  Probably mostly due to my laziness, or business, or grrr… something like that!

(Also, these are not in order of most important, but rather January – December…)

16. Our wonderful Wednesdays with Max and Mimi.  Last school year I watched two sweet little boys, Max and Mason (or MiMi as Madelyn called him) on Wednesday afternoons.  We had lots of fun adventures… especially once the sun started coming out again!

15. SNOW DAYS!!! Just like any true child…any true teacher rejoices when they see snowflakes in the 10-day forecast (at least if you live here in the Willamette Valley).  And naturally, you tell yourself not to hold your breath because it rarely actually happens, so you don’t want to get your hopes up!  Well, we were so fortunate to have a couple of these wonderful days in January!  We rejoiced. Played until we were freezing. Came inside and baked cookies. Napped. And then rejoiced some more!!!  I know, everyone with “real jobs” is jealous. Don’t hate. We really are wonderful people! ;)

14. Our family trip to Bend during Christmas break!  For some reason it seems so weird (already) to look back at pictures of our family when it was just the three of us!  We stopped on the way over the pass and Matt fished the Metolius for the first time since his surgery.  It was COLD, but beautiful, as usual!  The Metolius is one of a few places that Matt refers to as “God’s Country”.  He taught me how to fly fish on that river and asked me to be his wife at the head of the river where water magically appears from the ground.  Fun memories… I hope we have many more days together as a family on that beautiful river.  

13. Another trip to Seattle… In April Matt had another check up (we were still going up there every 3 months at that point) and we decided to make a weekend out of it and stay in a HOTEL!  Big deal, I know.  Us Olsons usually just pitch tents.  Nope, not this time!  We got a smokin’ deal on a place downtown and spent two days as a little family.  We took Madi to the Seattle Aquarium, ate at a fancy restaurant and swam in the pool hotel!  Lived. It. Up. ;)

       

12. EASTER!!! We did an early Easter egg hunt at my parents’ house the night before Easter, which turned out to be genius as it rained on Easter… again. It’s amazing how different holidays are from year to year when kids are this little! Madelyn was totally into the egg hunting… I can only imagine what next year will be like!

11. Eagle Crest!  We were lucky enough to take a small Konolsonrad family vacation again this year! Yup, you read that right – Konolsonrad.  Konrad + Olson = Konolsonrad and it’s deadly!!! This was our fourth official Konolsonrad Family Vacay. We’ve toned it down since the kids have arrived.  We didn’t head to Vegas, or San Diego, just over the mountains to Eagle Crest where we went to bed early, attempted to sleep in with toddlers, went for long walks, and drank coffee.  Yeah, we’re that crazy! ;)

(Watch the leg, Kade!)

There's NO way we could take this boy to Vegas. I mean seriously, imagine all the chics we'd have to ward off! ;)

(I'm sort of in love with this picture of Madi! How did it not make it on here until today?!?  She's not competitive or determined... no way! ;)

(Mads and Kade are 8 months apart and their new baby brothers are 4 weeks apart. ;)

10. Camping with the Moodys!  I posted about Madelyn’s first fishing trip, but never got around to finishing up our weekend.  We happened to choose the most beautiful weekend EVER to go camping and we were a little worried because it was so early in the year (June). I learned this summer that Ramie and I are a couple of the only few crazy women that camp 8 months pregnant! Who knew?!? Regardless, we had a great time! And honestly, I think I’d rather camp pregnant again vs. take a toddler and a busy ten month old camping next summer… hmmm.

Madelyn's baby brother and Judson's baby sister are only 2 1/2 weeks apart! =)

(Tickling each other! ;)

Cleaning something off his face! (I don't know where she gets that?!?! ;)

9. Zoo – At the very end of July Madelyn and I made one last trip to the zoo before baby brudder was born.  The Moodys have a zoo membership and they were so kind to bring us along as their guests!  We loved it! It turned out to be the perfect day for a picnic at the zoo too! (Again, so weird to look back and only have one kid!!!)

Madelyn and Judson are good buddies (5 months apart) We even had someone ask if they were twins! 

8. Our 8^th Anniversary! I was, well, long overdue on our Anniversary and it turns out I went into labor exactly one week later! Go figure! At least we don't have to share our anniversary with Em. Or should I say, at least he doesn't have to share his birthday with us!?! We went to a cute little restaurant in Silverton that overlooks a creek an reminisced about the last eight years... life is soooo different. =) 

 Can you believe I married this crazy guy?!?! ;) 

 7. Seattle… again! Sensing a theme? =)  This was our first trip up as a family with Emmitt AND we got to stay with my sister.  (tear)  She LOVED having us and even gave us her wonderful bed while we were there.  She slept on the couch with Madi and had a little playdate with her during Matt’s doctor’s appointment.  We had such a wonderfully relaxing time.  I remember Matt saying that it was the least stressed he had ever felt on a trip up there! (She had cable and he got to watch college game day, just sayin’…) We walked down the street to a cute spot and she took some family pics for us! I’m a little too critical of myself to appreciate them as much as I should, but it was fun!

  (Touchdown, not a cartwheel!)

6. Lambert Family Pics! What a fun afternoon! Jess Harvey took some awesome pics of our family! We usually just plan a time once a year and take some candid pics of the family, but with the chaos of our ever-growing clan we decided to splurge and have a professional do the hard work! Totally worth it, BTW!!!

(There are tons more. I just picked a few faves!)

Mom, Dad and the sibs! Love 'em!!!

Yeah, they're pretty cute. I know! =)

5. Thanksgiving! We traveled over the mountains for a short trip to Grandpa and Grandma’s house! I didn’t manage a group picture while we were there =(, but I did get a family one and a family pic of Mike and Whitney... can't wait for that baby boy to get here (any day now)!!!

4. The Carousel and Christmas time! We’ve tried getting creative with ways to keep ourselves entertained while Matt’s gone with basketball.  December was a busy month for him because pre-season games usually entail more traveling (2 weekend trips and a 5 day trip to Idaho, which he actually had to skip because of school).  Madelyn LOVES the carousel, so we invited Papa to come along and enjoy it with us! He then treated us to Starbucks and we drove through the Keizer Christmas lights! It was a pretty perfect, Christmasy night!

She's pretty much enamored by it all!

3. Our last trip to Caca’s house… for a while! Another lovely weekend in Tacoma, just the kids, me and Auntie Caca, or “yours sista” as she is lately being referred to! We snuggled up and did Christmasy things together. We baked, made homemade chili and cornbread, strolled to a cute nearby park, bundled up in our jammies stopped to get Starbucks and drove through a Christmas light exhibit (I’m failing to remember the name of the place).  Wonderful. Lovely. Memories. Then we wiped our tears and said our goodbyes!

Em's first time in a swing! It's safe to say he LOVED it!

2. Our annual Zoolights trip! Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of pictures to show for this trip… my camera battery died right when I went to take a family picture of Kyle & Katie. =( Nonetheless, we still had fun!

Sweet Liv all bundled up! 

1. MERRY CHRISTMAS! Yup, here's the Christmas card I selected, created and then never ordered! =) I had it in my shopping cart for quite a while and just couldn't bring myself to spend the money... especially since I had just sent out birth announcements (late, of course ;).  So... to all those who actually read this, here's your card!!! =)

All in all, I'm in awe as I review our year.  We are blessed with such amazing family and friends and we have SOOOOOO much to be thankful for! 

Here's to 2012!!! =)