Ella Kristin is Here!

We are beyond excited to finally announce the arrival of our little girl Ella Kristin Rehema Olsen. Ella was born on Thursday, June 25 at 6:25am at the Owatonna Hospital. She weighed 8lbs 11 oz (a surprise to us all!) and was 21 inches long. The three of us came home from the hospital today and are settling in to life with a new born. It's amazing to watch all of the incredible things she does that absolutely melt our hearts.

What's in a name?
The name Ella came from Ang's adopted grandma when she was younger. "Grandma Ella" was a resident of the nursing home where Ang's mom was working. Ang's family spent years visiting her, taking her to piano recitals, bringing her baskets of kitties and puppies to play with, and listening to her stories of growing up on a farm in the early 1900s. Grandma Ella lived to be just six months shy of her 100 birthday and had a love for her family (all passed away before she did) and had a strong faith in Jesus.

The name Kristin comes from two very special people, both of whom are sure to have a loving influence on Ella in the years to come. Kristin is Ang's mom's name as well as Pete's sister's name. Pete's sister is also Ella's godmother.

Rehema also carries great significance. It is the Swahili word for Mercy. It is a reminder of the calling that God has put on our family, no matter where He leads us. He has designed each member of our family, as well as our family as a whole, to specific purposes. We are excited to see Ella grow in God's love and to discover His purpose for her life in the years to come.

Doo Dee Doo Dee Doooo

Still no big announcement to make! We've been passing the time packing and mostly staying in the house since we do have air conditioning. (That's a great thing since public radio said that the heat index in Owatonna was 112 today.) We did get to play tennis two nights ago and have gone on numerous walks to help move things in the right direction.

We'll pass on news as soon as things start to happen!

Random Things That Don't Induce Labor

We decided to have some fun on our due date to help pass the time. A few of these are random things that many people say will bring on labor while others are just events that happened through the day.

Big Mac

Pineapple (although it's supposed to be fresh)

Raspberry Tea (we couldn't find raspberry leaf tea)
Spicy Food (yikes)
Castor Oil (eew!)
Pete wanted to try it too. What a man!
Backyard Boxing
Hail
And a tornado! (so we watched a movie in the basement)

"All My Bags Are Packed, I'm Ready To Go"

It's funny how often that song is running through my head these days. We're very ready to go whenever the time does come to make the trek to the hospital. I took two walks yesterday to see if that would help, but still no movement. We're enjoying passing the time, though. I'm slowly packing a couple moving boxes but mostly just doing things that I can do from my comfy sitting position on the couch. One thing that's helping is to set something fun each day if the baby isn't here yet. Yesterday it was ice cream at a new place, tonight we're planning to go to a movie, tomorrow we'll figure out something, and Sunday is Father's Day so we'll go out for that. Not too much longer!

Still in the Oven!

Today's the day!! We've reached will-it-ever-get-here June 17 - our due date! Things certainly feel that they're moving in the right direction, but no sure signs yet. We'll keep the blog updated whenever things do start, so keep checking! And thanks for all the prayers!!

The Nursery

We've got our little nursery ready for the few days we'll have after the baby comes home before our move the first week of July. I wish we could take the room with us!

The beautiful furniture was passed down to us from Pete's parents when they moved last fall.

Here you can see our Pack n Play. We'll be getting a crib after the move.

Lots of yellow, including the adorable blanket made by Bryn, Ang's pen pal of 18 years.

All-important supplies.

The cloth diapers we'll be using after the first month.

books books books!

Our little duck friend.

Photo Update

We've got our computer back in order, so here are a few of the photos we've wanted to post!

Jake's UMD graduation in May (Ang's brother)

Pete gives his first pedicure!

He did an excellent job.

I've always wanted to be able to do this.

We went camping the last weekend in May at Rice Lake State Park.

Ah, the sunshine. (37 weeks)

Passing the time with a little baking.

Closer & closer

Since we're lacking a computer at home this week, I'm not able to use my newly found free time to update our blog with all the pictures I had hoped to post. We've taken a lot lately! We went camping last weekend, which was a last-time-before-baby-comes event we were glad to squeeze in. We've seen a few movies and have completely enjoyed spending time together. So we'll get some of those pics up soon. And some of the ever-growing belly.

Twelve days to due date! We had an appointment today, which went well. We're just waiting at this point. I'm definitely enjoying having time to clean, read, watch movies, and take plenty of naps since I finished teaching last Friday. We'll post any news once things start happening!!