Thankfulness

View from our house

Kirsten and Bob and Johanna at Erica's wedding

Russ and TJ

Disney Castle

Tom and Sydney Cruising the Weatherwax's Corvette

The best way to describe living in Pagosa Springs is like living in a Norman Rockwell painting with today’s benefits. We drive down the roads by our house and wave at friends we haven’t met yet. Customer service still lives here. People are happy to help and seem to always have a kind word for you. Greetings with smiles and open doors greet you throughout the town.

Church is very much like yesteryear too. Of course the preaching is quite spectacular. People are loving and genuine believers. After Tom was installed as pastor, the church came to our house for fellowship. Laura was excited because she didn’t have to do a thing. The ladies took care of everything. Kids were playing on the play set as people milled around for a few hours. Tom felt like he was running for mayor, moving from one person to the next.

Another perk is that the church is currently building. The new building should be done next fall. Sydney even got her picture taken with the working crew as they poured the foundation. Its fun to be able to not only develop a church from it’s foundation but also see the actual foundation being poured too.

Our home is of story books. We wake up in the morning and are greeted by Pagosa Peak and the steam rising up from Lake Hatcher. Our house was made for us. Not ever having set foot in it before our move in day, it was like coming home. Everything fit perfectly and Sydney knew just what room was hers.

Kids are great, Big T is crawling like a madman and Sydney loves being a big sister and little helper. We are looking forward to many years here in Pagosa. We look forward to having you out for a visit. Just be careful, it’s a place you won’t want to leave. A Christ filled community does still exist and it’s just an hour east of Durango.

Big Changes

Pagosa Springs, Colorado
Most of you know by now but the Olson's are off to Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Tom has taken the senior pastorate of Pagosa Bible Church and we are very excited about this next step in our lives and ministry. We will be leaving California at the end of this month and appreciate your prayers as we travel out there and get settled.
Our summer proved to be quite the eventful one with the addition of Thomas to our family and job changes, house changes, we sold our cars and bought a car and traveled to Yosemite, Hume Lake, Dana Point, and Colorado twice. It is definitely one we will never forget (for better or worse). We love you all and thank you for the encouragement and prayers we have gotten over this last year. Please know that if any of you happen to find yourselves in beautiful southern Colorado, stop on by! In the meantime we look forward to sharing many more experiences and pictures with you!

Hume Lake

Sydney watching "Connie" the deer

Roasting Marshmellows

I camp

Swimming

Playing at Hume Lake

The best part of camping

Big Trees

The Fam

Update on Thomas

Thank you all for your prayers. We went to Loma Linda this afternoon and Thomas is looking good.
He does have a heart murmur and he will be having an echo cardiogram in two weeks.
The doctor doesn't think it's too serious but he wants to make sure, he was great.
Laura was so happy to have such a caring Doctor who explained everything. He also stated that there was no trace of the stomach issue. Thomas has a touch of colic but much milder than his sister had. The boy knows how to eat and keep most of it down.

We are off to Hume Lake for a seven night camping trip. We were advised by the doctor to have fun.
Please pray that we keep with his instructions.

Love you all and lets praise God together with thanksgiving.
We often forget to say thank you to the Lord after He shows us His grace.

In our weakness, He is strong

Family is such a wonderful blessing. The other night after Tom put Sydney to bed, he heard her in her room begin to pray on her own. It started with some random things but moved quickly to specifics.
"Thank you for hands." She bagan to clap and said, "Thank you for clapping." Then began the list; "Thank you for mommy. Thank you for Thomas. Thank you for owies. Thank you for Cassell's (a family in our small group at church). Thank you for Kenzie. Thank you for Daddy. Thank you for Connie (worker at church). Thank you for outside. Thank you for Grant. Thank you for playing. Thank you for Daddy (Tom insists that she said it twice). Thank you for toys. Thank you for Wiggles. Thank you for bubbles. Thank you for bed. Thank you for...(some names Tom couldn't make out. She concluded her prayer with some gibberish and said, "That's all."
She made us realize that our little 2 year old loves the Lord and is thankful for all He has done for her. Something we all need to remember. Even the owies, we need to be thankful for.
Some of you already know but yesterday at Thomas Jr.'s doctor's appointment, we were given some bad news. The doctor believes that Thomas has a heart murmur and a problem with his stomach. He said that both issues could likely require 2 separate surgeries and has referred us to specialists at Loma Linda for further testing. We're getting a second opinion tomorrow and next week we'll be taking him to a pediatric cardiologist to see what's going on. We would appreciate your prayers during this time. God is great and has given us such a peace that everything is going to be fine. We are praying that he was misdiagnosed. We already have a HUGE praise that our health insurance has been extended 60 more days so we don't have to worry about that.
We praise God that He has used this situation already for His glory!!!!

Summer Vacation

Well, if you're going to be unemployed at least have fun with it right? Here's some pictures of our trip to Yosemite and Sydney's 2nd birthday. The trip was great despite the 10 hour road trip (Yikes!!) Uncle Rupie even came to play with us. Yosemite is breathtaking this time of year. We enjoyed it so much.
Sydney's big birthday bash was quite the party. She had so much fun seeing everyone and got tons of great gifts. I am so jealous of her wardrobe right now. She absolutely loved having everyone sing Happy Birthday to her - "For ME!" Thank you so much to everyone that came - it meant more to us than you know. We love you!!!!

Busy Busy Busy!

Well no shortage of news on our end. First of all, my sister Gayle and her daughter Mackenzie flew out to spend some much needed time with Sydney and myself and of course they met little TJ. We had so much fun - I LOVE my family! Mackenzie and Sydney had such a good time together. I've never seen Sydney so happy and hyper! If anybody out there needs a babysitter in McKinney Texas, Mackenzie's your girl.
We also received some not so good news last week. Tom lost his job at Church of the Woods. No fun with a one month old but God is in control. What a roller coaster. Anyway, we decided that since we suddenly had some (okay a lot) of extra time on our hands, why not go camping. We were able to go up to Yosemite (which turns out to be a 10 hour drive with kids) and camp for 4 nights. We had a lot of fun and it was great to get away. Our relaxing trip ended up being a hiking marathon but it was wonderful and no we have officially broken in Thomas to the wonderful world of camping. If any of you out there get the wild hair to go camping in the near future please let us know because we are looking for reasons to leave. We appreciate your prayers during this time of uncertainty and just a tiny bit of stress. We know God is in control and we can't wait to see what He has in store for us.

Life with two....

Well, we are hanging in there. Life with two is fun and busy. We still have no routine - I know he's only a couple of weeks old but being Little Miss Schedule, it drives me a little crazy. Poor guy deserves a break. Sydney is such a good big sister. She loves to help out. Everytime we leave the house she goes through a checklist of things that I should bring - "Diapers mommy, wipes, glasses (sunglasses), keys, purse". She's quite thorough.
We had our first babysitters last night. Two ladies from church were kind enough to come over and watch Sydney and TJ so that Tom and I could go out for our anniversary. Everything went great - thank GOD! Bless their hearts - I certainly wouldn't want to babysit a newborn.
Thank you everyone for all of the kind notes and phone calls. We love you all!

Meet Thomas Lloyd Olson Junior!

It's a boy! Little Thomas was born on May 1 at 6:58 pm. He weighed 7lbs 3 oz and was 19 1/4 in. long. The labor wasn't too long or bad and we only had a little problem with the epidural, other than that Thomas popped right out - literally. Less than 24 hours after the little guy was born we were on our way home. We couldn't wait to see Sydney and introduce her to her new brother. She had a little bit of a rough time at first but is already doing great with the new addition. She is a great big sister and offers him her sippy all of the time and tries to share her food. We can't wait to watch them interact more and more.
So far, he has adjusted so well to life in this big world. He sleeps a lot and thankfully that includes the nightime. He only wakes up once or twice to eat. We are praying he keeps that up. I'm sure we'll be writing lots more later but we wanted to update everybody on our new perfect little addition.

Ready or Not

Hi everyone! Just thought I'd give a little update on the goings on in the Olson home. I had a doctors appointment last week and as it turns out I have started pre-term labor. My doctor is expecting me to have this little one at any moment. I'm at 34 weeks now but it sounds like everything should be okay, the baby just may have to go into the NICU for a short time to get help with breathing. I'm hoping that I can last another week or two but who knows. I have a much needed hair appointment on Thursday so I'm hoping that I don't have to cancel that. Ha, Ha! Other than the contractions and this kid wanting out badly, we are all doing good.
We took a little trip to Cambria on the coast and it was beautiful. Once again, I went to wine country as a pregnant lady, which really stinks. Sydney got to see the elephant seals. It was very nice to get away and relax since it might be awhile until we can do that. Oh and the big news is that Tom finished the remodel of our bathroom. It looks so good and we are very thankful to have 2 again. He's worked so hard on this house and it looks like we finally don't have anything big hanging over our heads. Everybody come see it!!!!
I also attached a link to myregistry.com that has ideas for Sydney's birthday. I'm honestly not trying to be greedy but some people have asked and I keep forgetting stuff so I thought I would go that route. Just enter laura olson in the search criteria.
(note from Tom)Here's a date for all of you to remember and put on your calendar; June 21, 2008. We are having a three in one party. We are inviting you to the House Warming Baby Shower Sydney's 2nd Party, or H.W.B.S.S.P. Please RSVP for the HWBSSP ASAP. Party starts promptly at 11 a.m. ish or so. We will be having a BBQ for lunch and ice cream dessert. Hope you can make it. I know those who love Sydney and the rest of the family will be able to come.

Never a Dull Moment

Well, for starters I want to say Congratulations to Carrie on her sweet baby girl, Marley Wrenn Whitlock, born on March 26th! She's beautiful and I'm so glad everybody is okay.
Happy Easter everyone! We were so happy to have my parents in town for the holiday. They have been such a huge help watching Sydney so that we can get some stuff done before #2 arrives. We had a great Easter despite Syd being sick with a cold. We still went to church and (not that this was the total reason) Sydney got to wear her little dress, complete with matching purse. She was quite proud and pretty much strutted around like she was the stuff. The Easter egg hunt was so fun. We had much more success with it than last year. She loved finding the eggs. Granted her treat inside was animal crackers and some strawberries but it made her happy. We'll save the Peeps for another year.

We are going on another little getaway this weekend up to Cambria. Gotta go see the elephant seals. We're keeping very busy and anticipating the new kid. No idea on if it's a boy or girl. Apparently my doctor doesn't even know. Healthy is all we care about at this point. Thank you Lord for my family!!

Palm Springs

It was short but sweet. We had a lot of fun in the sun. Thank you Johanna for such a wonderful birthday present. We ate, we swam, we shopped but unfortunately we didn't sleep (thank you Sydney). Sydney went on her first water slide. I think she may have swallowed a bit too much water and seemed to be a little tramatized about going into the pool after that. It's time for swimming lessons.
She's growing up so fast. She's recently learned our first names and thinks it's so fun to call us Tom and Laura. The other day when she was suppossed to be taking a nap, she started calling for "mommy" and I didn't go to her so she started yelling "Laura!" over and over. She's such a little goofball.
Meanwhile, the other Olson offspring is growing leaps and bounds. I feel and see feet and elbows regularly and have to really watch eating any sweets in the evening or I get jabbed through the night. This kid shows no mercy. Lord, help us! We're getting very excited to meet you little one!

Just call me slacker

Ok, so it's been awhile. We're back and better than ever. We finished the move - yea!!!!! We are loving the new house. Sydney can play outside and it's just so nice and relaxing. Here are a few pictures. They were taken at night so it looks pretty dark but believe it or not it's a really bright and cheery house. As you can tell there is still more work and decorating to be done but we are very excited to just be there.
We are going to Palm Springs next week for my birthday. 32 years old!!! Eat your heart out gay men of Palm Springs, here comes the preggers in the bathing suit. We're looking very forward to just relaxing and of course virgin cocktails all around.
Life is good.

Super Week

Despite the title, it hasn't really been that exciting of a week. I don't really have a lot to update you all on - I wish my life was a little more interesting than that. We are still experiencing some serious cabin fever but fortunately today we were able to go down the hill and enjoy the 80 degree weather. Just wish I hadn't been wearing the Ugg boots - yikes. My excitement for this week was Super Tuesday - my Superbowl. Unfortunately, the man I had chosen to support just dropped out. Not that I was too disappointed since I didn't/don't really like any of the candidates anyway.

So, it was brought to my attention that I hadn't really posted any good pictures of little Syd and I also decided to post one of me preggo and proud. This baby is starting to really move a lot. I was hoping for a nice calm, docile baby this time around but judging from the kicks and jabs, this one is going to be quite fiesty. Still no cravings except I'm loving Tom's processed, sugary Skippy peanut butter. It's a far cry from my organic, unsalted as Tom calls it "nasty" peanut butter, but apparently this kid is not into nutrition yet. Tom and I thoroughly freaked ourselves out by watching some videos we had taken of Sydney as a baby. We concluded the evening by looking at each other and saying "What are we crazy?!?" Seriously, we are so excited but I'd be lying if I said we weren't a little apprehensive about going through it all over again. Lord, help us!


We are gearing up for the move over to the other house and I will post pictures of it as soon as we are finally over there. It's been an extremely long road but the end is in sight. Thank the Lord!!!!

Getting Started

Well, here we are with a second baby on the way. I'm anticipating life getting more and more hectic so I figured this would be a good way to keep everybody up to date on our growing little family. Sydney sure isn't the only one growing right now; I'm getting huge and just to verify it, I pulled out the pictures of my first pregnancy. It's official, I'm quite large this time around. Just to make matters worse, Tom is losing weight - rub it in why don't you.

Our second little one is due May 20 and we've decided not to find out if we are having a boy or girl. It was a fun surpise with Sydney so why not go for it again. Of course, this drives my family crazy - sorry Gayle.

On to more current events, we are still trying to dig out from the biggest snow we've had since we moved here. We got at least a couple of feet of snow. Tom took Sydney sledding and is very proud of the fact that they caught air. She's a brave little girl and as soon as they stopped, she yelled "PLEASE!!!" She's definitely daddy's little girl. She doesn't mind the cold and just wants to play. She had hot cocoa for the first time (mommy's version of hot cocoa, anyway) and she was a HUGE fan.

Other than that, life as usual.