Christmas Eve 2009.

Well, while we are sitting around waiting for Peter to get home from work so we can do Christmas...I might as well get my Christmas Eve post done.



Lexi really getting into one of the treats a neighbor brought by:)



With the craziness of the move, unfortunately, some of our traditions got overlooked this year. we usually do the gingerbread house about a week before so we can have it out all week...but we forgot/didn't have a chance and had to do it christmas eve morning.

this year we had all of Peter's family over for Christmas Eve dinner(minus his brother who did christmas eve with his girlfriend's family). we just did a casual dinner/game night. it was fun, thanx everyone for coming!

Our tradition is to open Jammies on Christmas Eve. Hadley remembered so when he told Devin they were opening jammies...devin looked at me and said, I will just open a toy instead. he had to do jammies...and wasn't thrilled...it's hard to be 5!

this is all the kiddo's in their jammies. Lexi loves her Dora jammies...she screams when I try to take the pants off to change her diaper.

another tradion that I overlooked was cookies for santa:( normally I get one of those sugar cookie mixes and let the boys make them...all by themselves. I got the stuff but time just got away from us and we didn't get it done. so we just used some of the cookies that a neighbor brought by...and of course our traditional oats for the reindeer!

(we put the plate on the floor by the fireplace, and the dog promptly ate it)

This is Peter's Christmas gift. We got it on black friday so he(we) has been able to enjoy it for a while now.

and this is my christmas gift. I love it!! it needs some breaking in...the cushions are still very stiff and un-sat on...is that a term?? I will have to have lots of people over and make them sit on my couch:)

Now it's Christmas morning. Peter is at work, at least it's not a regular 12 hour shift...just a 6. I let the kids open their stockings this morning and now they are so patiently waiting for dad to get home to open the rest of their gifts.

only 2 more years...then peter hits the 10 year mark at work and doesn't have to work christmas anymore!!!!

Cards.

howdy all! I am going to be sending out our New Year's cards (aka, I didn't get my butt in gear in time for them to be christmas cards)
anyhoo, I know several of you have moved this last year, and some newby's I don't even have your address yet. so if you fall into one of those categories...I need your address. you can email them to me at olsonfamily99 at q dot com. or message me on facebook, whatever works for you.
thanx so much and I hope you all have a great christmas!!!

More SNL

I was talking with Susan on the phone about the earlier skit I posted and discovered she had never seen the Firelight skit that Taylor Swift did...so this is for you Susan:)

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SNL

If you missed SNL this weekend, Taylor Lautner hosted. He did ok, this was the funniest skit of the night, and of course...being about twilight...you know I gotta post it:)

ps...you will have to shut off the music at the bottom of my blog to hear it.

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Our Weekend.

friday night we went with our friends, the Willie's, to temple square to see the lights.


I tried to get a picture of the kids in front of the Christus but my flash wasnt working for some reason and so I just got the outline of my kids:)

us, in all our bundled up glory.

An attempt to get a picture of our hubbies and all the kids. Lexi is walking off and who knows what Hadley and Spencer are doing??

This is my hubby, who can't take a serious picture, and lexi all bundled up in the stroller, warmer than all of us.

The red tree...always my favorite. you have to see it in person to really appreciate how many lights are on it.

Is it possible to get a bad picture of this temple? I think not.

The tree inside the Joseph Smith Memorial building. it was huge and georgeous. I loved the colors on it. they had the same color green that I picked out for my new tree and they also had cream and a burgandy color with it...I have decided that next year I am adding those colors to my tree too!

We went to the top of the JSM building to check out the view....and warm up:)

on the way back down all 10 of us plus one regular stroller and one double stroller CRAMMED into the elavator. Tanya said I needed a picture of all of us crammed in there so I put the camera up and took a picture....all I got was Tanya;)

then off to JB's for hot cocoa and dessert!
This was the Willie's first trip to temple square for the lights. it was cold and the kids were a little rowdy. it was REALLY crowded. there was a MoTab concert that night and Elmo live that night..it was insane downtown. I could tell Tanya was thinking she would never do this again so I told her that it's like childbirth...by next christmas you will have forgotten how bad it was and you will do it again:)

I know that most years it seems like alot more work than fun...at least for the parent's. but I know that my kids will always remember this tradition and they love it...so until the day it actually does kill me:) we will keep doing it!

Saturday night Peter and I went to the Jazz/Laker game. It was horrible...if you are a Laker fan:) the dang Laker's just couldn't make their shots and the Jazz couldn't miss. they beat us by 8 points and we had to do the walk of shame out of the arena in our Laker gear....always fun:) we still had a blast tho!

Earlier that morning we had the ward breakfast, which was yummy and fun. then we went with the Merrell's to the clubhouse to see santa.

Hadley thought he was too cool for santa. I did get him to kinda sit on his lap though.

Devin is at that age where he just loves santa and really get's into the whole thing. He is convinced, and telling everyone, that santa is bringing him and ipod touch. I keep telling him that santa knows he is only 5 and would like toys better...but he wont be swayed. hopefully he wont be too disappointed christmas morning cuz I really doubt santa got him an ipod!!

And Lexi HATED it:)

the kids had some late nights and a long weekend. it caught up with Lexi after church on sunday.

Lexi sat on the counter while I was making dinner. she had a pile of frozen peas that she was eating and for some reason decided to eat like a dog.

Peter putting some final touches on my shelves that he built in the garage.

Good job dear! I love them. we filled them with christmas decorations and camping stuff, and other random things that we only use like once a year. now they are neatly tucked out of the way.

We may or may not have taken a couple truck loads of garbage over to the other Richmond subdivision and put it in their dumpsters:) Oh well, I have more room in my garage now and Richmond owes me for making me handwash my dishes for 2 weeks!

(if you didn't know, they installed our dishwasher wrong and it didnt' get fixed for 2 weeks)

It was a fun/busy weekend. eventually we will be unpacked and settled into this house and Peter can actually have a day off on his day off. I feel so bad putting him to work as soon as he has time off....but there is just so much to do still!

Getting ready for Christmas.

We were driving the other day and the boys said "mom, are we going to put up a tree this year?"...oh yeah...christmas! I kinda got so wrapped up in the move that I didn't think much about it. so we spent the weekend getting ready for christmas.
Saturday we headed out to the annual Christmas parade in Tooele. it was cold, but the parade was short and sweet...and they threw candy...(unlike lame Oregon parades!):)


This is Lexi getting out of the car...still warm and happy:)

all of the kiddos waiting in the back of the car for the parade to start.

We met up with Tanya and her family there. these are my kids and hers before the parade (lexi, hadley, devin. spencer, amber and megan)

Here comes Santa!

Lexi got cold pretty quickly and spent the whole parade crying. but when she saw Santa she tried to be excited...while crying:)

this is all the kids after the parade...notice Lexi in tears.

After the parade I took the kids out for breakfast. and of course, hot chocolate!

The boys begged for their own tree this year so I got them a little 3 foot tree for their room. I let them use my old ornaments to decorate it.

They love it!

Lexi helping hang ornaments.

All finished! I finally got myself some new ornaments this year. When we were teenagers, my aunt had us pick a "theme"...she was all about the themed trees. well, I picked snowmen & mittens. it was a great idea and it was awesome to have all those decorations for the first few years of marriage when you can't afford that kind of stuff (I hated getting them as gifts as a teen tho!!:)) anyway, it is hard to pick your "theme" at 15 and hope you will still like it when you are 30. needless to say I am a little sick of snowmen!! So I decided to start getting some new ones. I only got a few this year but will build up the stash over time:) My aunt had the most beautiful blue and silver tree and so I thought about doing blue and silver cuz I had always loved it so much...but then I found these bluish-green ornaments that I loved and went with that and silver instead...I know, a HUGE difference:) what can I say, I think outside the box:)
you cant see the color great...I definately have more silver than blue so far.

Moved.

It was a crazy and busy weekend but we got moved in...not unpacked...but moved in:)
it started with me literally staying up all night for black friday shopping(don't laugh, I got some awesome deals and I am done with christmas and birthday shopping). then had to move. it sucked. I was so tired and kinda grumpy and not many people showed up to help so it took forever!
but we are in and I love my house!! All the essentials are unpacked ie. bedrooms and the kitchen. the rest of the stuff I am having a hard time getting motivated to unpack...I mean, it's already been in boxes since february! plus, now I have to think about at least getting a christmas tree put up.
we finally got phone, internet and tv back yesterday so I feel more normal:) I am on strike today, then it's back to work this weekend.

New Moon...again.

Last night was the girl's night out that I planned to New Moon. 26 of us met up and went to Cafe Rio. then to the movie. Afterward we split up into smaller groups and went to various places for dessert and chatting. It was so much fun, a little chaotic and crazy with that many women...but loads of fun. And the movie was even better the 2nd time around!:)


some of the group at Cafe Rio before the show.
The collector's cups I got from the two movies.

A few of us at the movie.

Mandi, Me, TeKarri, April and Terri

The whole gang after the movie.

of course TeKarri, Tanya and I had to pose with the cut out. and I covered up Bella's face cuz let's face it...nobody cares about her:)

TeKarri walked off with the cut out and asked if she could buy it but they wouldn't let her.

And coming soon...well, June 30th anyway!!

New Moon!

Why is that crazy lady blogging at 3:30am?! cuz she just got back from New Moon and is too wound up to sleep!:)
I am going with a big group of friends on saturday but it was just killing me to wait until then. I happened upon 2 tickets to the midnight show tonight, so I called Tanya and off we went.
It was so much fun. we got gift bags with all kinds of twilight goodies in them. souvenier cups and free drinks and popcorn.
the movie was SO MUCH better than the first one. I am a twihard but the 1st movie was lame. this one completely exceeded my expectations. and it only had one cheesy part that made me roll my eyes and go "really?" . and according to the movie theater there are only 222 days left til Eclipse comes out!!:)
now, it's 4am and lexi will be up in 3 hours so I guess I should try to get some sleep...I think there will be alot of dr.pepper involved in my day tomorrow!:)


They had an Edward look-a-like there.



The nice, foul-mouthed, lady with the dreads and fangs took a picture for us:) and I have to complain for a minute here. I went thinking all about comfort and how late it was. took off my make-up, didn't do my hair. threw on my comfy clothes...not fair that I look terrible and little miss I look cute even at 2am is in the pics with me!!:) same thing happened at MJ w/ anj. I should have learned my lesson....no more being comfy at movies:)

Happy Birthday Alexia!!!

WARNING: this post may have been written by a mom who is more than a little emotional about her baby turning two. there may be alot of pictures and reminiscing:)

My dear sweet baby girl turned two today. I did ok, I only teared up a couple of times! maybe it's cuz she was such a good baby, maybe it's cuz she is our last and we have tried to cherish every moment a little more...but these last two years flew by! I swear she was just a baby a few months ago!!
Lexi was born November 19th. weighed 7lbs and was 23inches long...and she is still long and skinny today! we love you so much Loo and are so glad you are a part of our family!!! You have truly made our family and lives complete!





The day you were born.



One of the nurses took a bunch of pictures for us for free since daddy worked at the hospital. this is you, 6 hours old.





You and daddy. this is the picture they hung up at the hospital with all your stats on it for daddy's co-workers to see you.

This is the first time your brother's saw you. I love this picture because I love the look on Devin's face. You wrapped them both around your little finger from this moment on!

Your dad told me daily that this was his favorite thing in the whole world...cuddling with you!

Your blessing day.

I made you take a picture with me...you weren't happy about it apparently:)

Hadley loved you to death! he was constantly bugging me to hold you. when he got home from school, you were the first thing he went to!

You were the best behaved baby ever. slept thru the night, always happy. TONS of personality. and you hardly ever cried!

Your first easter, and your first stuffed animal. your brother's named him TeddyPig for you. then they played football with him and hadley threw him into my candle and got wax all over him. so when you are older and want to know why it's on there...it's hadley's fault.

Your first birthday!

We went to Grandma's house last weeekend to celebrate your birthday. this is you cheesing it up for the camera.

we brought out the cake and started singing, you had NO idea what was going on!

but you figured it out and blew out your candles...then you clapped for yourself:)
eating your cake.

opening your present.

You wanted daddy to hurry and open it!

You started playing with it before we even got it all out of the box.

Feeding your baby.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! sweet Lexi, we love you!! (even if you wont stop growing up like I ask you to do everyday!)