Catch up Post III

Tim and I went to Florida in May and went to the Cypress Gardens. The gardens were pretty, but not worth the price

Catch up Post II

We spent Mother's Day in ND. Elizabeth's family came to celebrate

A friend of ours gradualted that Saturday and Elizabeth awarded him his gold medal in Star Wars fashion (Joseph and Nathan made the medal)

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Catch up Post I

I haven't posted for a while and have many pictures of my wonderful grandkids to post. We went to ND in April and visited Michael and his parents, Elizabeth and her parents also came up and since the weather was nice we had our obligatory family cook out

Michael enjoyed doing pull ups with his plastic rings. He is so strong!

We enjoyed watching the "beggars" They were all hoping that Grandpa would share

Teddy Roosevelt NP!

Hey, all. I hope you're doing well... I put pics from our camping trip up on our blog. Please look. We're enjoying our visit with various family members, and I wish we could see all of you!

Our trip to Hawaii

Hi! We just got back from Hawaii... and I just put a whole bunch of pictures up on our blog! Please have a look.

We just visited Teddy Roosevelt National Park, and some pictures from that trip will be up soon too. Right now, however, I'm a little tired of posting, given the length of the Hawaii post... so it may be a couple of days. Yay for buffalo! They walked right through our campsite repeatedly. This should come as no surprise to any of you.

We're in the middle of a road trip. Right now we're in Grand Forks, and on Thursday we'll be in Aberdeen, then on to Fort Dodge on Saturday... and then to Yellowstone on the way home!

We survived the semester... and when we get back, we'll be language TA's for the summer! Keith will be doing Greek, and I will be doing Hebrew. I'm taking a couple of classes too. Keith will be reading for his comprehensive exams.

I hope everyone's doing well!

Love, Celia (and Keith)

Cocoa one week later

Cocoa loves her big back yard.

Cocoa couldn't get up the first step a week ago, now she can run up them really fast.

Cocoa is doing more and more things all the time. She got a little wet trying to figure out what the spinkler was.

We have had Cocoa a little more than a week now and boy is she fun. She is also a lot of work. She likes to bite things (not hard, but she is breaking in those little teeth). She loves to cuddle and be rocked on the glider bench on the deck. She has also learned that when Christie growls at her it does not mean that she is going to go after her. Christie is not quite ready to let Cocoa share her domain yet. She just tollerates her if Cocoa keeps her distance. Cocoa knows where to go when she need to go out side to go potty too. Smart doggie!!! She will go to the patio door and wimper and then she will pull on the drape if we do not come right away.

This is Cocoa

This is Cocoa, our new puppy. She is 6 weeks old and just a little sweetheart.

She is a Bit Bull Terrier. I know they kind of have a bad reputation, but with all the love and attention she will get from us she will break that old myth. In four weeks she will start puppy school.

Today she just started drinking from a dish, we were bottle feeding her for the last two days.

We got her on Thursday. We decided to celebrate her birthday on April 1st...it is just an easy day to remember. I'll post more pictures later.

Bella- the new addition to the family!

Bella and her new human momma!

Just look at that cute little face!

Bella's kitty mommy - Ashes - taking a break from feeding!

Yes, call me CRAZY, but when my friend Jeanette told me she had two cats having kittens, I just couldn't resist taking one home with me. Bella is my new addtion. She is named after Grizzabella, the cat that sings the song Memory in the musical "CATS".

So, thought I would share the good news.

Have a great day everyone!

Love Ya All!

Kris

HAPPY MAY DAY

Love Michael

Edited to add: http://jcolson.shutterfly.com for more photos!

Krandma's trip to Ohio

I guess I should give proof that I was there too.

Krandma's trip to Ohio

I went to Ohio about two weeks ago. Boy, time sure goes by fast. The best part was spending time with my grandkids and Eric and Stacey. We also took a trip to Hershey, PA. It was raining but lots of fun. Here are a few pictures to prove it.

Easter

Catherine has been waiting for some more posts, this is the tickle video from early March

We had Chris, Joseph, Catherine, Michael, and Rebecca for Easter. The easter Bunny gave some different gifts, as none of us (except Catherine) needed the candy. Joseph and Catherine modeled the fashionable Easter bibs with Michael. Grandpa and Grandma Olson got the best Easter gift. I noticed that the camera only seems to take pictures of grandchildren, lately. Since about July 3, 2007, I'd say. Interesting situation. Elizabeth spent Easter with her Great Grandparents Reid in Colorado. Mommy says she can crawl, but no one there would know because they all wanted to hold her all the time. The week end after Easter we went to Aberdeen to Visit.

This and That

Happy Birthday Aunt Karen! Your nephew sent me a text message this morning to remind me. What a good nephew!

I was about to say there is nothing new going on but there is! The Easter Bunny was VERY generous this year and brought us a new 2007 Town & Country van. We love it! It was a great deal. Granted we'll be making payments to the Easter Bunny every month but that is fine by me!

On Friday Joseph and I (and probably Michael) will attend the ND Democratic convention to hear Obama and Clinton speak. I think it will be really neat! I am a little nervous about taking MJ but he does fairly well in noisy places with lots of people unless he's really tired.

I'll let Grandma Ilene post photos from Easter! But for now I have this one of Becca and Michael to tide you over. The shirt says, "My mom is a Quality Chick" Thanks Auntie Bec Bec!

Michael is growing like crazy in my mind although not statistically. That's just fine by me! At four months he's 13 lbs 11 oz, 23 inches tall and extremely cute, I might add!!!

I can hardly believe it has been one full year since we found out I was pregnant. I remember that day very well- it was a VERY good one!

St. Patrick's Day

Dear Famliy,

For St. Patrick's Day Stacey and I competed in a St. Patty's Day 5K race. The day of the race I asked Stacey to hook me up with some gear at Wal-Mart to make sure I fit in. Well I think I more than fit in, I rather became the spirit of the race.

Here are the comments Stacey put on the her Family's Hardy Blog:

Happy St. Patrick's Day to ya, I hope it brought good luck to ya! Ha ha! Eric was a crazy Leprechaun and sported the best costume at the Wright Patterson 5K Fun Run. He was cheering everyone on, hollering out of the start line and all through the race giving high-fives to most people heading back after the turning point. He definately brought a smile to everyone and might even get his picture in the local paper for his trend-setting costume. It was a blast. We ran most of the way together and then I watched Eric pull ahead, his afro softly bouncing to the rythme of his stride. Ha ha! I enjoyed finishing on my own. It's a great feeling to compete in a fun way with other runners. Eric finished at about 30 minutes and I at 31:30. The weather was chilly (30s) but we beat the sleet at the end.

Above: Eric recovering from his run.

I have to think of a Halloween costume for Joey so he can wear that wig.

[Eric adds: It was fun seeing the kids taking turns wearing the fro and wearing it around the house, Joey of course wore it the most.]









Joey struck again getting into the liquid laundry soap the day after I posted his other pictures.
There were 5 big puddles we had to drench with water and soak up. I cried when I found it but I guess it could have been worse.

-Stacey

Eric adds: At least we didn't scrub a hole into the carpet like the time we had to clean up his fingernail polish spill . . . ah, the joy of home ownership and cleaning up after 3-year-old kids.

Sarah and Joseph, look what you get to deal with in the near future. Instead of getting too angry just get out the camera.

Love Eric.

Grandchildren

Tim and i made our trips to visit some of the kids two weekends in March. Here are some of the fun pictures. Michael and Elizabeth both love being with Grandpa and aren't so sure of Grandma. Catherine, Joseph, & Michael will spend Easter with us. Sarah, Nathan, and Elizabeth are going to Colorado to visit Nathan's grandparents. We alos visited George and Bernice. Bernice didn't want her picture taken but Elizabeth was fascinated With Great-Grandpa's oxygen tubing.

Photos

I still need to download pictures from last weekend when Grandpa, Grandma, Sarah & Elizabeth visited. Also I have a photo from Chris' birthday. But for now, here are low-resolution photos from our professional photos last week.