First big decorating experience!

If someone were to tell me ten years ago that I would one day stay up until 1:00am on a night before work (getting up at 4:00am) decorating and being crafty I would have told them to go back to crazy town. Well, I would've felt bad for telling them that last night, because that is exactly what I did. I have actually been planning this out for about a month now.

My sister-in-law gave us a big mirror for Christmas the year we moved into our house (2009). I like it when people buy me decorations because I am no good at making decisions on what to buy myself. Well anyway, it has been lonely on the entry way wall and I've been wanting to do something to go along with it ever since we hung it. It started out kind of a brassy color... but I decided to spray paint it black to go with the frames I was going to hang with it. On a blog I found a lady who bought a bunch of frames on KSL for like $10 bucks (all different sizes and colors) and then just spray painted them all black. I always thought they had to be the same type of frame and all new, that would've cost somewhere around $60 just in frames if you got a good deal! But her picture looked great with them all painted black, they weren't identical but went well together. So I did the same thing, found a bunch of frames someone was getting rid of on KSL for $10 and spray painted them black (well I had Randy spray paint them) to match my newly painted black mirror. :)

I wanted an inspiring quote to go with the mirror theme, so after searching through quotes and quotes about mirrors online I came up with this one:

"Life is like a mirror... It looks better when you smile!" :)

Then I came up with this design in paint (the rectangles being where pictures would go):
Well, like I said before, I decided to go with the black theme, so changed up my picture/layout a bit so that all of the frames, mirror and letters were black. I contacted a lady who had done some vinyl lettering for me before and she was more than happy to work with me on my design.

So here is what everyone likes to see, the before and after pictures:

So I was a bad and didn't document the best. I forgot to take a picture of the mirror before we painted it. This is the only picture I could find that shows a glimpse of what color it was to start with. I think I took it when Lena was like three months old.

Here's the mirror after I (well Randy) painted it. I LOVE how it turned out.

AND... drum roll... the finished product. :)

First Time at the Zoo

So we went to the zoo on Saturday for Lena's very first time. I thought for sure she would love it since every time she sees or hears a dog (something which she has super hearing and seeing for, because most of the time she sees them before I can even see them) she freezes and says "woof woof" and gets SO excited! She got a little excited at the elephants and wanted to get closer and the monkeys were "okay"... one thing she DID really anjoy at the zoo was pushing her own stroller! She ran and ran just pushing that thing, even up really steep hills she kept trekking away at it. :) Rosie was nice enough to guide her so she didn't run into the fences or garbage cans. :) Jimmy was interested in the stroller too, he wanted to touch the wheels! As usual. :)

Here is Lena obviously interested in the Elephants. We couldn't get her to look at the camera. :P

My Dad in his cool shades with Lena. :) It was fun to have him come with us.

Rosie and Alex being cute with the babies. Neither of them wanted to stay in their stroller. :P

Here's just a little taste of the fun Rosie had guiding the stroller as Lena pushed it ALL around at the zoo.

And Jimmy with his Daddy (Alex) after an exhausting day at the zoo. :) I couldn't help but catch it on camera.

My name is Olga

My name is "Olga"... my name is "Olga"... several times in my life I have found myself repeating this to myself and really thinking how crazy it is that people know me by that name "Olga". My personality and life experiences and who I am is summarized in one word.

I had an interesting experience with my name the other week. It was my first day of lab for my anatomy class and we were learning the bones in the skull. My lab instructor was going around with the roll and trying to learn peoples names and when she came to me I told her my name and she said, "Are you mad at your parents for naming you that?" just kind of matter of factly. Me being used to that kind of response from telling people my name (not necessarily that blunt) I didn't think anything of it, I just smiled and said, "I'm used to it." While I didn't think anything of it my classmate was appalled that my teacher would be so blunt and brought up a conversation about how she likes my name and other old fashioned names, she was really sweet.

While I wasn't offended at all at this comment, it did get me thinking more about my name. I was proud of myself for not getitng offended, I was proud of myself for liking my name and not letting anybody else's opinion affect that. I know that a lot of times "Olga" is thought of as the name that belongs to one of the big viking women who wear horns on their head. I know that when people hear my name before seeing me they expect to see someone "bigger" or possibly foreign. I don't mind this at all and actually love to use it as a joke and conversation piece. Being the shy person I am and also someone who desires to NOT be shy I love having a subject I know so much about be a topic of conversation. :)

So to get it down in writing and for all of those out their who still wonder about my name but are too shy to ask, I am not Russian, however, my name is Russian. In fact, my family is Italian... to which most people say "'Olga' is not an Italian name" no it's not, I am Italian but was named after a Russian, well, that's not technically true, I was named after an Italian who was named after a Russian. I was named after my Nonna (Italian Grandmother) Olga Lucia Bruno Comollo. She was named after St. Olga who brought christianity to Russia.

I have had a lot of interesting conversations based around my name that I would like to reflect on. Most of these conversations don't start as bluntly as the one in my Anatomy lab however. Most people try to be suttle in their wonderings and ask something along the lines of "where are you from?" I remember after a while getting so used to people asking this in reference to my name that one time someone asked me where I was from and I gave the whole speal to them, "Well, my family is from Italy but my name is Russian..." (and continued on like the previous paragraph) and it turned out the person just wanted to know where I lived... like I should've just said Salt Lake City... man did I feel dumb!!! They just wanted a simple answer and I just told them the whole history of my name!

I distinctly remember a couple times in first grade where I wished my name was something more common like "Jenny" or "Brittany" but now I am so glad that my parents chose the unique name they did for me. :) It may be a little on the stranger side but regardless of what Shakespear said I do believe part of me is who I am because of my name.

Contact case

So I'm sitting here at work when I get a phone call from my sister Eva. I answer the phone and hear "Oh my gosh! Lena just did the CUTEST thing!", now very interested, I said "what did she do?" she says, "Well she got one of the contact cases out of the toy box and brought it to mom to open, mom opened one side up and Lena stuck her little finger in the contact case and then brought her finger to her eye!" Then she went on to tell me that my mom opened the other side and she did the same thing with the other finger and other eye! Oh my gosh! I can't believe how much she catches on. I've only put my contacts on in front of her a couple of times and usually I assume she is having fun opening the cupboards and not watching me. I need to try to be as good as possible so she will only have "good" things to copy. :P I'm so impressed with her and so excited to teach her all these new things I didn't even know she paid attention to. :)

Canning

Cooler weather also means the end of gardening days for the season. This is a bitter/sweet time for me. Bitter because it's so sad to think that we won't be able to just run out to the garden for tomatoes, cucumbers, zuccini, onions, potatoes etc... and sweet because we don't have to worry about missing a day and getting mutant zuccini as a result (as Randy would say). ;) AND because we get to bottle all of the stuff we grew and have it all year round. And bottling we did. We bottled about 67 pints of Salsa and tomato sauce. It took all day long and this is what we got:

Was it worth the mess?

YES!!!

Lena did us a favor and kept Grandpa entertained while we (Randy, Becky (Grandma) and me) bottled all of the salsa.

I'm pretty sure Lena giggled at grandpa for about 5 minutes non stop when he stuck this diaper on his head... then continued to put it on and off of his head for a while longer.

She climbed into this little box all by herself. :)

She's been doing this thing lately where she lays on the ground voluntarily (usually we have to tackle her down to get her diaper changed) and rolls around on the floor.

I wanted to post a picture of an example of a mutant zucchini from last year:

This was Lena between 2 and 3 months old.

First Rain Storm

Fall is officially here and winter isn't too far away. We had our first really cold day for the season, complete with rain. I thought to myself "looks like we won't be able to go outside today" then I remembered that some cool people a long time ago invented warm clothes, and then other people made them miniature so as to fit on little Lena-sized people. :) So then I said "why not". We bundled her up in these miniature warm clothes and took a field trip in the rain. :) She enjoyed it for a little while until the wind got too strong.

Bubble Wrap

During conference weekend we were able to spend some time out in the back yard. Also, we received a package in the mail that came with huge bubble wrap! We figured it was a good time for Lena to have her first experience with bubble wrap and oh boy did she have fun. :) It also helps that the other day she started "jumping" for us. We were at Nonna's house when it happened for the first time and we clapped and cheered for her. She was so proud of herself so kept doing it. I'm not sure both feet have actually left the ground during her "jumps" but it's cute as ever watching her try!

Mowing the Lawn With Lena

As parents we always try to find ways to include Lena in the everyday things we do. Be it sweeping the floor, stirring up dinner, unloading the dishwasher (knives and dangerous things removed previously) and getting the mail. She is SUCH a big helper and loves being included in what we do. We like it not only because we are able to teach her these important skills, but because it makes it so we can get the stuff we need to done around the house without having to tell her to always go away or to go play with her own toys. Of course, it may make the task a little bit longer, but to us it's worth it. :) We found another thing to include Lena on the other day. (October 1, 2011):

Lena mowing the lawn with daddy. :)

Fun with a bucket.

Sometimes... no, a lot of times I wonder why we even buy toys for our children. The other night Lena was entertained for about half an hour just pushing an empty bucket around outside. It was so cute to see her have so much fun by doing such a simple task. She would even pick it up and lift it over cracks if she got stuck.

Pushin' her bucket

After the bucket fun was over she actually smiled in a pictures I took of us. I cut off our heads as usual, but still thought it was cute enough to post. :)

Jimmy's Birthday! (Part II)

I had some other pictures I had to put in from Jimmy's birthday.

The CAKE SMASH!!! He wasn't really into eating the cake, but loved mushing it up in his hands. :) Silly boy. One day he'll learn to appreciate some good chocolate cake when he sees it.

Eva was totally awesome and went all out on dressing up as a pirate for the party. :) She's such a cutie and loves her babies so much! :)

I was really surprised to see my dad dress up like a pirate, it was pretty awesome to see him get into it. :)

Alex didn't dress up like a pirate, but he DID decorate a pretty awesome birthday cake, so we'll forgive him. ;)

So Eva and Sam are the master dancers with babies. Yes, the babies will only go to them for dancing if they are present. I really want to get them to choreograph something and film it. It's so much fun to watch them get their dancing workouts with the babies. :)

Jimmy's Birthday!

James Luigi Getts turned ONE YEAR on September 26, 2011. I know I've said this and everyone says it but I really can't believe it's been a year. I remember exactly one year and one day ago from this day Rosie joined us for some shopping and was having small contractions while it was happening. We got together with the rest of my family that night and they hurt enough that she had to stop and concentrate, we were so excited and very much anticipating Jimmy's arrival. We headed home and at about 4:00am I got a text from Rosie saying "Baby's a comin'" telling us that they were headed to the hospital. I couldn't sleep and woke Randy up telling him the exciting news. He was concerned about giving them privacy and thought that we should wait before heading into town. I knew my sister wanted me there so I told him that if he didn't want to come then I was going without him... well, that convinced him to ride into town with me. :) I went up to the hospital while he tended to Lena at my parents' house. Well, the labor was longer than we were hoping it would be (as it usually always seems to be!). Rosie was in labor until about 5:00pm when the doctor decided that a c-section was probably the best option. I remember Rosie being really surprised by the suggestion and even a little scared... she cried a little bit and then Shellee said "It's okay Rosie, they really aren't that bad" and my mom told her the same... at that moment I realized how crazy it was that our mom's went through the same thing and how grateful I was that they were able to relate and help Rosie feel better about things. I'm so grateful they were able to offer that comfort. Well, around 8:00pm Jimmy was born. We were waiting in the delivery room when they rolled Rosie back in (I wasn't there right then but was able to go in right after. I remember when I first saw Jimmy I was so impressed with how instantly Rosie was such a good loving mother. She was so cute with him. He slept a LOT and was pretty mellow. He had to have a "Billy Bed" which was kind of sad since he preferred to cuddle.

Now Jimmy is such a cute playful little guy who loves to get into whatever Lena is doing. :) It was so fun to be able to celebrate his life with all of my family. Here are a couple of pictures from the event.

This is a bib I made for Jimmy for his birthday. It was a Pirate party. :)

Lena and Jimmy love to shake this fence and listen to the noise it makes. :)

Jimmy makin' a run for the fence shakin' :)

For the pirate party we all wore fake pirate tattoos... the babies had them on their chest. :)

There's Lena's tattoo!

Blankies and Baby-sitting. :)

So we found a neighbor who wants to do baby-sitting trades with us and who is actually really good with Lena too! I always get worried that Lena will be a grump for her baby-sitters the whole time but so far she has been great with the one an only awesome Sarah Yerke. This night was our first time baby-sitting Christopher and he was SO GOOD for us. He saw his blankie in the diaper bag and insisted on carrying it around, Lena looked interested in it (and she's never really taken to a blankie before) so I got her one of her own and she was cuddling with it and carrying it around just like her friend Chris was. :)

Alex's Band's Gig :)

On September 20th we had the opportunity of attending the first gig of Alex's "new" band. :) My mom was so nice to offer to watch Lena for us so that we could go. It was so cool to see the result of so much "band practice". They did a great job and I'm excited to see more. :) I'm hoping one of these days they play the song that Alex wrote for Rosie when he proposed.. I've never heard it and I'm such a sucker for that kind of thing... especially if it has to do with my own sister! (I'm hoping Alex is reading this and gets the hint ;) ).

Here's a pic of Alex rockin' on the guitar! :)

More shoes

So Lena is completely obsessed with shoes, in fact, I think the third word she said was "shoe". She brings them to me (her own) to tell you she is ready to go outside... she always brings mine to me as well. :) Most of the time I end up with one pink flip flop and one black one... both for the right feet. On this day she couldn't find any of her own and I wasn't being very helpful on taking mine from her, so she put one on herself and insisted on walking around in them. She got REALLY frustrated when it fell off. She's a cutie pie! Even though she CAN be a little dramatic sometimes.