I have lost the will to blog.

(as you can see by the date, I did upload a couple pics and tried to blog a while ago, I just didn't finish it)

I have had absolutely no desire to get on here for the last month or so. it's not for lack of things to blog about...I just don't want to:) So, I will do a blog with some random pics from january...who knows, maybe it will inspire me and I will do some more....don't hold your breath tho:)

January has just been busy. Hadley is playing on an indoor soccer team right now. Hadley AND Devin are playing Jr. Jazz Basketball right now. The boys had birthdays, lexi is just crazy as usual, peter is still working almost 70 hours a week. I am busy being mommy and of course having fun:) I get together on Monday nights with a group of girls to watch The Bachelor...cuz it's a blast to watch/make fun of. Book Club started back up so we went out to dinner to pick our books for the year. I had girls night out last week, we went to dinner and to see When in Rome(super cute/funny).

Yesterday we hosted a SuperBowl party. I am still full today:) and the house is kind of a disaster from it but I am doing nothing about it cuz I need time to recover from last week. Lexi was super sick and therefore SUPER clingy. I got nothing done. Now Devin is getting sick and Hadley is full blown sick. He is supposed to be turning in his science fair project tomorrow but had to get an extension cuz he has been sick and hasn't been able to finish it (we were planning on doing the display board this weekend but he got sick)

To top it all off, I discovered some new books...and if you know me, once I start a book/series, I can't put it down til it's done. so I read 11 books in just over a week...dont worry there was a break in between:) I started reading the Vampire Academy books the weekend of the new year. I read 4 of them in 3 days. SOOOO good. There are 4 books out right now and 2 more coming out, the next not until May (I may die waiting) (there are 6 more in the works after that written from another characters pov) and don't make fun of me:) I freely admit that I am a twihard, but this series...blew twilight out of the water...for me anyway! they are currently making their way thru my friends in the neighborhood.:)

Then, the author of that series recommended the Morganville Vampire series, there are currently 7 of those out...2 more coming. They were good...not great...but good enuf to hold my attention. also, a REALLY easy read. I read all 7 in 4 days. a couple days I even read 2 in a day. Don't judge me:) I swear I didn't completely neglect my kids and house...I just got no sleep:)



So, that is our January. We will finish up the sports this month. then in March we are off to SoCal for spring break...I wish that was now!



The boys waiting to meet the Jazz player at the pizza night for Jr. Jazz...to be completely honest. I have not been impressed with how it is run and will probably never put my kids in it again. (to be fair, I am sure not all area's are like this, each county runs their own.)

The Jazz player...of course some foreign guy I have never heard of and barely spoke english. he was so nervous at first, then halfway in he decided he was a stand-up comedian and was trying to be funny...only you couldn't understand him. plus, he totally killed some kids playing a game of lightning...then after he beat the last kid, somebody came up and said something to him and he turned to the audience and said "oops, I guess I was supposed to let one of you beat me"

The boys had their birthday on January 22nd.(I will do seperate party posts later) I wanted to start their day off good so I had balloons and their present from us waiting at their seat at the table when they woke up that day.

Since they share a birthday, we try to seperate it as much as possible. we usually do 2 cakes, but this year it just didn't happen. We gave them seperate parties tho...and sang to them individually so hopefully they didn't mind sharing the cake.

They spent one saturday pulling each other up and down the hallway on blankets. they finally talked me into pulling them all in a train.

My dad sent Lexi a bucket with stuffed frogs in it for christmas...she pushes them around the house in her stroller.





Now, hopefully the following pictures don't mean she is going to be obsessed with tattoo's when she is older!! her favorite thing to do is draw on herself. pens, markers, sharpies...whatever she can get her hand on. when she finds a pen, she immedietly pulls up her pant leg and starts coloring. I don't think she has been without some kind of ink on her skin a single day in the last month.

This was just cute:) she woke up quite grumpy from her nap the other day. she just sat on the landing and cried for a while. she got really mad when I got out the camera:)

Peter helping Hadley stretch before either basketball or soccer (not sure which) and lexi came up and started copying him, and then devin joined in.

Peter's parents got us an RC Willey gift card for christmas. we used it to help us buy this cute table for my hallway. the picture doesn't really do it justice. it makes it look actually alot brighter/pea green than it is. it's more of a sage-ey green with cream antiquing around the edges. it is super cute, I love it:)

The last weekend before kids had to head back to school, I took them (and one friend each) to Kangaroo Zoo. This is Lexi playing with M&M's while the boys ran around....yes, I helped her sort those....I also freely admit that I am a little OCD! I always have to have my M&M's sorted like that to be able to eat them:)

just playing at Kangaroo Zoo. Hadley actually got lexi to go on a few of the inflatables....we are making progress(slowly) on her whole scared of everything phase!

Missed it.

I can't believe I missed the obligatory New Year's post! ok, here it is:

Oh my gosh, I cant believe its a new year already...it seems like just yesterday, blah blah blah.... I am so gonna lose weight and be a better person etc etc etc....

ok, I feel so much better now:)

seriously tho, it has been an awesome year. I am totally loving my new neighborhood and the great new friends we have made. it's been a good year for us.

on an exciting note...ok, not really exciting but whatever...I actually stayed up til midnight for the first time since I got married (my hubby is such an old lady about his bedtime routine and is a party pooper about staying up late!) so that was a big accomplishment. nothing too exciting. just watched a movie with a couple friends.
I am looking forward to the new year and we hope you all have a good one!

Rockin the pink eye!

She may have pink eye...but she is still cute!

Christmas 2009.

Peter had to work Christmas morning so to keep the kids from completely revolting...I let them open their stockings. they got to play with those toys and eat candy all morning while we waited for dad.


Lexi got a stocking full of My Little Pony's.

and a giant candy cane. she gave up on it after a few minutes and gave it to the dog.

Devin's big gift this year was a new bike. He has been asking for one. I wasn't going to buy him one the same size so we went up a size..it's a little big still. He also got some GI Joe stuff and new games for his v-smile and a bunch of bakugan and a remote control helicopter.

Lexi's big gift was a kitchen...this is her opening it. she also got her my little ponies and a bunch of babies and a shopping cart w/ food to go with the kitchen.

She is so cute playing with it...makes me a little sad tho cuz she seems so grown-up playing with it:(

Hadley's big gift was a Nintendo DS. He also got a bunch of games to go with it and some bakugan. He was a little disapointed. I had explained to him that if he got a DS and games...that was pretty much all he was getting cuz they are exspensive. he said he understood but you could tell he wasn't sure when he was watching devin open more toys than him:) Santa also brought us a bunch of Wii games so he has been playing with those too.

but he loves his DS and this is all we have seen him doing since friday:)

Christmas was fun and we feel so blessed this year. to have a good healthy family, and a good job at a time in the world when they are scarse. we are grateful for our wonderful new neighborhood and all the awesome new friends we have made, and for the new house we were able to build. we have truly been blessed this year. honestly, all year little things kept happening that we have just been amazed at what the Lord can do. I don't know what we have done to deserve such blessings, but are grateful everyday for them and for the Lord in our lives!!!

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!