Beeson Family 2008 Holiday Blog

Anakin (Addie) Skywalker
Addie is our loving, mellow, even-tempered child – but she has her moments. When Elyse gets her upset, WATCH OUT! Following a summer of watching all the Stars Wars movies this summer, Elyse enjoys getting Addie even more upset by calling her Darth Addie, Anakin, or Addakin (and then Addie REALLY gets upset!).

Contemplating the Force
“Do you think Padme knows that Anakin eventually turned back to the good side?” Addie loves Star Wars and constantly contemplates the power of the force, why Obi-Wan Kenobi let himself be struck down by Darth Vader, and other deep thoughts about the series. She likes the movies so much that she often hums the music. Did you know that there’s a different melody the evil empire – Addie can hum it for you. She even dressed as Padme Amidala for Halloween. Drop by – we’ll be watching the entire series again this holiday break.

Confidence in her Talents
Addie likes to dance and enjoys gymnastics but she LOVES art class. When her school teacher asked her to write down what she thought she was good at, Addie instead of writing one or two things gave her a laundry list of thing. Hallelujah! We pray she remains this self-confident as she grows. Among her talents are new solid bike riding skills, scooter expertise, and love of reading.

Who Needs ‘Em
After a pattern of frequent sinus infections, Elyse’s doctors suggested the removal of her Adenoids. It worked great. No longer does she have lingering coughs, colds, ear infections, etc. We just hope that we don’t have to watch our daughter undergo any type of surgical procedure again, and experience the panic that can accompany children coming out of anesthesia.

Eager for Kindergarten
Lysie is in her last year of preschool and loves having her own set of friends and teachers. As luck would have it, her new friend at preschool lives right around the corner. We can actually see her yard from ours. This thrills Lysie to no end. She constantly bombards mommy with questions scheduling a play date with Campbell. Kindergarten can’t come soon enough. She rides her bike with Mommy and Addie to school. And after dropping Addie off at her class, she makes a daily trip to Addie’s old Kindergarten teacher to give her a hug.

Our Goofy Girl
If Lysie wasn’t so obedient in class, she’d definitely be the class clown. In fact, her favorite thing to do is anything that will make her sister laugh – and not just chuckle, but she’s not satisfied until Addie is belly laughing uncontrollably. When I tell Lysie something like ‘we’re going out for dinner’ she’ll respond, “Really? For real? In real life”, questioning whether or not I’m pulling her leg. And over the last week or so, she’s been telling us that she has a present for us, then RUNNING and lunging her arms around us and give us a big hug.

Run Forrest Run
From the blog entries below, you can see what Mylie has been up to. If spinning classes weren’t enough, or step class, or treadmills – Mylie now trains for 5k runs and does personal weight training. She’s improving almost weekly. The only question remains is – what intensive workout activity will be next?

Golden Vacations
We visited California several times this year and were reminded why 35 million people make it their home. We spent a great week in SoCal doing, what else… going to Disneyland and the beach. We had a great time NorCal in July as well, giving the kids time to get to know their aunts, uncles and cousins much better.

Attitude of Gratitude
In spite of horrendous economic woes that the country is enduring, we continue to be blessed beyond measure with health, happiness, family, and friends.

Merry Christmas - Happy Hanukkah

We invite you to return to our blog, and comment on our stories and pictures.

The Wing Ding 5K

So last weekend I finished my second 5k. My goal for my first race was just to finish it. So after finishing my race in August I added another day to my running schedule and continued to train. So my whole goal for this race was to get a little faster. A few things unfortunately were a little off. First, I thought it would be a good idea to have protein bar so that I wasn't running on empty. Bad idea, I ended up nauseous for the whole first half of the race. Next time I won't be eating anything till after the race I obviously get way too nervous for food. After the first mile my time was 11 mins 45 seconds and I thought I was doing pretty good but then I kept waiting for the second mile marker but it never came. Well I shouldn't say never it finally came but it seemed like forever and when I looked at my watched it showed 32 mins. I freaked out and just started running faster and I started passing people up. About a 1/2 a mile later maybe less I saw the 3 mile marker and realized I might be able to beat my time although I wasn't sure how much time had passed so I ran as fast as I could and came in at 37 min 13 sec. I was so excited. Then about an hour later the girls and I ran a 1k for kids. Addie had so much fun. Lysie not so much she kept complaining that her legs her but when I asked her if she wanted to stop and walk she said "NO". She would not quit. She ran the whole way and was happy when it was over. I have a feeling Addie will be running more races with me but Lysie not so much!

The girls and I did a little Jazzercizzi to warm up before the run

Addie was kicking some serious butt running for such a little girl. She really surprised us.

Halloween 2008
So for Halloween this year Addie dressed up as Padme (for those of you who are not into Star Wars that would be princess Leia's mother). The girls and Mike watched the Star Wars series this summer and fell in love with it. Mike and I have always been fans but this was all new to the girls. I think we were both surprised how they took to it. Lysie was origionally planning on dressing up as princess Leia but then change and wanted to be a Ballerina, butterfly, fairy, baby bunny. Don't ask, I don't think she could decide on on thing. We did Trunk or Treat on the Saturday before Halloween and it was cold so the girl both had turtlenecks on and by Halloween it had warmed up so that they both went with out. I know they're hard to recognize with their bangs slicked back but that's them. Actually since then Addie has decided she wants to grow her bangs out.

We made our annual trek to the pumpkin patch to take pictures of the girls and to pick out pumpkins to carve on Halloween.

She sure loves her daddy

Lysie throwing hay.

The following pictures were all from the Halloween party at Lysie's preschool.

Lysie and her friends on the hay ride

Check out that turtleneck...She was being surprisingly modest that day

Lysie ready for her 1st field trip

Lysie learned about milking cows

Lysie checking out the big turtle

I decided I needed a different kind of a goal so at the beginning of the summer I decided to pick up running. For those of you that know me well, you know that I believe the only time you should run is if someone is chasing you. That being said I decided to train for a 5 k. I have several friends who have done this recently. Anyway, I was off to a pretty good start for the summer and really felt like I was making progress until I attempted to Wake Board while up visiting Jeff & Anne (Mike's and Sister-in-law) at their lake house this summer. I say attempted because I was not very successful and in the process injured my hamstring. However, I was determined to continue my training for the 5k unfortunately I had to regress a little bit with my running. The week before my first race I thought I'd push myself and see how far I could run. I was able to run 19 mins straight without walking not what it would take to finish the race but I figured I'd be able to run most of it and walk a little bit. Not exactly what I'd originally planned but I was okay with it and had decided I'd try and run the whole race the next time. Well, the night before the race Addie and Lysie prayed that I would win the race. There is no way mommy is winning any race is what I wanted to tell them and talked to Mike that night about it. He's take was that my "winning the race" would be running the whole thing without taking any walking breaks. I was skeptical but felt challenged to try. I told my friend Christa the morning of the race that I was going to try to run the whole thing. She had to run slower to keep pace with me and kept encouraging me the whole way. I don't think I could have done it without her but I did. On August 16th, I achieved my goal and finished my first 5k. Now I'm training for my second. I'll definitely be running another one in November and possible October as well. Below are some pictures of us running and crossing the finish line at the exact same time.

Lysie on her first day of pre-k. Doesn't she look cute! She made mommy put curls in her hair so she'd look her best!

Proud Siblings!

Baby Kate Nicole Olson is here!
So Tuesday morning I get a call from Mike that Robyn is in labor 5 days early and mom isn't coming in until late that evening. I call Robyn feeling a bit panicky and she says yeah she's in labor but the contractions are still pretty far a part. I tell her if she needs anything to call me that I'm heading to my hair dresser for a cut and color to which Robyn replies that she's really in need of a cut herself. So I call my hair dresser to see if she can squeeze her in between my color and my cut. She does, so with great looking hair Robyn heads to the hospital at 11 pm. Mom landed a little after 11 pm and mom and Mike head for the hospital. Dan calls at 10 to midnight and Robyn is really close to delivering. Mike apparently tells her to start pushing if she wants Kate to come before Chloe's birthday. Robyn was successful! In just two pushes with no epidural Baby Kate was born at 11:58 pm on September 16th. 6 lbs 13 ounces and 18 1/2 inches.

Anyway, here are the pictures on the newest Olson!

Cousin Daphne came out for a visit for ten days and we all had a great time with her. Lysie said of Daphne: "I love that girl. She's so pretty and so nice." and when she boarded the plane "I miss Daphne! When is she coming back? And Why did she have to leave?" Addie and Lysie have always been Brittney groupies. Now their Daphnie groupies as well. Get them all together and the kids wouldn't know what to do with themselves!

Daphne and I took the girls to the mall. They got a mini makeover at Libby Lu's and some jewerly compliments of Granny Diana and Daphne got to shop at Holisters (an early birthday gift).

Daphne dolled up the girls and the three little Divas check out downtown Austin you should have seen all the people staring.