Are you kidding me!?!

Today has been one of those days. You know... the ones where you would rather be anywhere but here! As if a normal day isn't enough to drive you into wanting to throw yourself from a window of a 10 story building. Between constantly cleaning up after Damon, to fighting with Ashlyn about actually eating some real food for a change, and glancing at the bathrooms that have needed cleaning for days. These are normal days... but today we had some things added to the bliss of our everyday lives. To start things off... Terry left us this morning for Boise, and won't be coming back til Friday night. (Thats right serial killers... we will be home alone for the next 3 nights.)  But as Terry drives away to what I can only imagine to be a quiet few nights without hassling with the kids, I am sitting at the table feeding Damon a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles. Terry had just finished telling Damon to "be good for Mom", when Damon gets this sweet little smile on his face, reaches over, and purposefully knocks the entire bowl of cereal right into my lap. I just sit there stunned. Its one of those things where you have absolutely no idea what to do next. I can't sit at the table covered in cereal all day, but if I stand up and try to make my way over to the sink, I just leave a trail of cereal and milk behind me to clean up. So I eventually get up and spread the mess across my kitchen. Once I got every thing cleaned up, I go and throw the clothes I had on in the washer, which consisted of one of my favorite softball t-shirts that I have held on to since highschool, and let them wait there until I was ready to put a full load in later. So the rest of the day goes on like normal, until about 3 when I realize that I need to wash Blake's new Cub Scout uniform cause he had Cub Scouts tonight. (this is a brand new shirt that he has yet to wear and has been quite excited about wearing.) So I grab it and throw it in, along with the rest of the darks I have laying around waiting to be washed. That consisted of a few things from everyone's laundry basket, but also every pair of jeans that fit Ashlyn right now. Later as I go to grab Blake's shirt out of the dryer so that I can put his patches on before he leaves to go to scouts, I am shocked at what I see! There was a bundle of crayons sitting on the top of the load, rubber banded together, and completely melted. And all of the clothes were sporting a new calligraphy of colors. I wanted to cry! Not only was Blake's brand new shirt ruined, but every last pair of Ashlyn's jeans were in there along with a favorite hoodie of mine, and a favorite hoodie of hers! I did not know what to do. I called a few people to ask if they knew what to do, and I looked online. I've tried a few things to try to get all of the stains out, with no luck, and I am making one last attempt at the moment with a washing solution in the washing machine right now. I sure hope it works!! And whether it works or not, I still have to clean out the dryer that is also sporting a variety of new colors. Fingers crossed that my kids and I survive these next few days without Terry!!

The Olson Family

This year Terry's brother Cordon, who lives in Atlanta, decided it was time to bring his 4 kids up here for a visit. They decided they wanted to come during the winter so that they could do snow activities. So the first day they got here, Terry's mom rented out the church and we had a big family get together with extended family. The next day, we decided to take the older kids skiing/snowboarding. I was super excited to go skiing cause I haven't been in years. Unfortunately, the morning we were going, I walk into Damon's room to find him and his bed covered in diarrhea. So that meant I had to stay home with a sick boy, while Terry and Blake went skiing with the other kids. I was disappointed, but Blake had a great time. He decided he wanted to snowboard. Terry said Blake had a bad fall pretty early in the day, and was ready to just quit. But Terry made him keep trying, and he ended up getting the hang of it and had a blast. Terry didn't manage to take any pictures though. The next day we all went up to Island Park and stayed the night in Terry's uncle's cabin. It is such a nice cabin and has tons of sleeping room. We played in the snow and snowmobiled the whole time we were there. It was alot of fun.

Ashlyn playing in the snow.

Ashlyn and Jackson.

They buried Jackson in the snow.

 Cute Bently

The beautiful Miss Kassidy

The handsome Taylor

All of the cousins that made it to the cabin.

The sweet Damon

The beautiful Miss Ashlyn

The day after making it home from the cabin, we had family pictures taken by my friend Julie Denning. We were hoping to get a full family picture, but unfortunately Terry's brother Trace and his family were unable to make it down for the weekend...

All of us.

(Excuse the pregnant looking girl on the right. Looks like she is retaining water or something, though I can assure you she is not pregnant even if she does look like it! UGH! Please tell me why my face looks so huge!)

Grandma and Grandpa with all the kids.

Our cute family



Valentines Day

This year for Valentines Day, we decided to keep it simple and spend the evening at home with the kids. The weekend before, Terry and I went out to dinner and a movie and decided to just count that as our Valentines date. The morning of V-day, my friend Mindy took all of the little girls in the neighborhood, and did there hair in this really cute french braid that was in the shape of a heart. The girls loved it, and were so excited to all be going to school with the same hairdo...

Here's the front view of the hair.

Hailee, Ashlyn, Ellie, Emma, and Danika

(this was the end of the day, so their hair got a bit messy before the picture.)

And the back view.

For dinner I decided to decorate the table all festive...

I made french dip sandwiches, and heart shaped rice krispy treats. And because there were candles on the table, the kids insisted on turning off every single light in the house so that we could eat by candle light. It was romantic!

Lakers Game!

A few weeks ago Terry was able to score his company's season tickets for the Jazz game on the night they were playing the Lakers. Terry has always been a Lakers fan, and has turned me into one as well. It was such a fun night! We stayed the weekend at my parents' house in Clearfield and caught the train at the Layton station and rode it down to Salt Lake. We were soooo excited when we got to the stadium and saw how awesome our seats were! We were on the fourth row from the court, and right to the side of the Lakers' bench. So we were practically right there by the Lakers. It was so fun! The dork that I am kept yelling out Kobe's name so that he would look at me, but he never did. I would like to assume that he just couldn't hear me, rather than he was just ignoring me. The kids were back at my parents' house watching the game and saw us on t.v. several times. So once again being the dork that I am, as soon as we got back to their house, Terry and I watched the game again so we could see ourselves. Yep, we are cool! We did see ourselves but weren't as up close as I had imagined. In fact, if I had known how far away from the camera we were, I wouldn't have been so self concience while eating my personal pizza, with fear of being caught on t.v. stuffing my face! Oh well, lesson learned. Anyway, here are the few pictures I was able to take while at the game. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of ourselves....

We pretty much just took pictures of Kobe. He's our favorite. I did get some more pictures, but they turned out pretty blurry.

Blake finally lost a tooth!

That's right.... my big 7 year old just barely lost his first tooth! This boy has been hoping and waiting to lose a tooth since he was 5. His front two bottom teeth have been loose for a while. In fact, his adult tooth is almost completely grown in behind it. I took Blake to the dentist for a checkup, and the dentist told us if these two teeth weren't gone by his next visit, (which is this month) he would have to have them pulled. Each costing $60. Terry decided he wasn't going to pay the dentist to do something that we could do ourselves, so he told Blake that if he could get them out himself, he would pay him $20. So Blake started working on getting it loose. Once it was ready to come out, Blake let Terry tie a string around it and pull it out. It worked! So his first tooth came out on December 23rd, 2011. So Blake had a pretty exciting couple of days. The Tooth Fairy came, then Santa came the night after! Since taking this picture, Blake, with the help of Terry and a string, has managed to get the other tooth out as well. Thanks to Blake for saving us a total of $120! Although, I'm pretty sure Terry still owes him the $20 he promised him. The Tooth Fairy brought him $5 a tooth, so by the time he gets paid by his dad, he will have made $30 for 2 teeth. This boy sure knows how to make some money. All I can say is, I'd rather keep it in the family than give it to the dentist!!

Damon is 2!!!!

Damon had his 2nd birthday on Sunday, December 11th. We had a pretty low-key party for him. Terry's parents came over for dinner and a little party. We just had cake and opened some presents.

Here's his cake. He LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse right now, so I got the only Mickey Mouse Cake they offered at Walmart. (Kinda girly looking, but he didn't seem to mind!)

Dad helping Damon blow out the candles.

The kids blowing their party horns.

The whole family.

(Ashlyn had been extremely sick the night before this, that is why she looks a little rough!)

Opening presents. This was from Grandma and Grandpa. Its a dog that you pull on a string. Pretty cute.

This was one of those blow up, stand up punching bags, that pop back up when you hit it. It lasted for a few minutes then got a hole in it!!

He also got a remote control car, a toy hammer set, and a few other things.

We sure do love our Damon. He is getting so big. I wish he would slow down a bit. He is at such a fun age right now and I wish he could stay this age forever.

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

Birth

                                                                                                    

1 Year

2 Years

 

On a side note....

Damon has become very interested in using the potty! He tells me everyday that he needs to go poop. He doesn't poop everytime, but he has many times. I haven't even attempted to potty train, he is just kinda doing it on his own. How did I get so lucky?

Catch up time!!!!

It has been WAY too long since my last post! I decided I better get caught up before Damon's birthday and Christmas, otherwise I may never catch up. So I will just start where I left off...

Labor Day Weekend

Every Labor Day since I was a kid, our family has had a tradition of going to an amusement park. It was always kind of a family reunion on my Dad's side of the family. Back then we lived in Louisiana, so we would go to Houston's "Astro World." Now that we are grown and have families of our own, we wanted to keep the tradition alive. So my siblings and I have started taking our families, along with our Mom and Dad, to Lagoon. The kids have loved it, and its fun to let them do the same thing we did as kids. Well unfortunately this year things were different. My sister Jenna and her family moved to Peru, and my sister Aja and her family had other things going on this year, so we didn't end up going to Lagoon. Instead, Terry and I took our kids camping with his parents. The day we were supposed to leave to go camping, Damon was running a fever and was acting cranky. So before leaving, Terry took him into the doctor to get checked out. They ran all the test and they came back negative, so we decided he would be ok to go camping. So we did. While there we did alot of 4 wheeling, and a little bit of fishing. We all had a pretty good time. Damon had quite the trip... While fishing at this little creek, Damon was sitting really close to the water, and it was really pretty, so I thought I would grab my camera off the 4 wheeler to take his picture. Just as I pulled the camera out, Damon dove in head first. Terry had to yank him out by his foot. (Unfortunately I was not quick enough with my camera.. I missed the shot!) So I put Damon on the 4 wheeler and drove him back to camp to change his clothes. (His clothes were completely soaked!) A little later in the day, I was in the camping trailer with Damon when I suddenly heard him crying. He had pushed on the door of the trailer, and the door had popped open, and he fell out of the trailer head first, going down on the 3 or 4 metal steps of the trailer. Luckily he only got scratched up. It could have been much worse. Finally, before leaving to head back home, Terry's mom got a call on her cell phone. It was Damon's doctor office. I had left my phone at home on accident, and the office had been trying to call me all weekend, and finally decided to call Bonnie cause she is listed as the emergency contact. The swab they had taken of Damon's throat turned out to be strep throat. Poor baby! We had taken him camping with strep throat, and he had fallen into a cold creek with strep throat. He was such a trooper though. He didn't act sick at all while camping. No worries though... we were able to get home in time to get his medicine from the pharmacy, so he was just fine. Although we were sad to have to miss Lagoon this year, it was nice to be able to take the kids camping one last time before it got cold. Here are some pictures taken over the weekend...

The kids on Blake's 4 wheeler.

Damon on the horse swing.

Ashlyn on the horse swing.

Blake on the horse swing.

The creek where Damon went for a swim.

This picture was taken on the top of Sawtelle. The drive to get up here was the scariest drive ever! I for sure thought we were going to slide off the edge of the cliffs to our deaths. I was such a baby!!! The whole time we were up there, all I could think about was the dreaded drive back down. I did not like it at all. It was pretty though!

Another view on Sawtelle.

Blake playing Lasso golf. A camping regular.

Damon's face after the fall from the trailer.

Halloween

Next on the list is Halloween. We went to several different Halloween festivities this year. First was the annual High family/Daniels family Halloween party. Then we went to Trick or Treat street. (Local businesses line the street and fill up the kids' bags.) Then on Halloween we went to the Iona city Trunk or Treat, then to a few neighborhoods for door to door Trick or Treating. The kids got tons of candy!....

Terry and I at the Halloween party.

Blake and Ashlyn at Trick or Treat Street.

Blake the karate kid at his school costume parade.

Ashlyn the Geisha at her school costume parade.

Damon the angry cowboy.

Thanksgiving

We had a really good Thanksgiving this year. We drove down to my Mom and Dad's house in Utah, and got to spend the holiday with them, my brother Ricky, and my sister Aja's family. We were sad my sister Jenna and her family couldn't be there, but we were able to chat with them on Skype. We drove down on Wednesday and then celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday. Next was BLACK FRIDAY. We are big BLACK FRIDAY shoppers, and were really excited that everywhere we wanted to shop was open Thanksgiving night. So rather than waking up early, we just stayed up late. (I hope they do this every year!) Shopping was a little disappointing this year. They really didn't have any amazing deals like they normally have. But I still walked away with plenty of stuff, and it was still alot of fun and crazy!! On Friday we took the kids on a train ride from Layton to Salt Lake City. The kids were all really excited cause this was their very first train ride. Once in Salt Lake we found a place to eat dinner, then went to Temple Square to see the lights. It was really crowded and really cold. We rode the train back home and then enjoyed some hot cocoa. On Saturday we drove down to Terry's brother's house in Riverton and spent the day with them. We really enjoyed ourselves on this trip and it was really a bummer to come home!....

Blake and Caitlyn breaking the wish bone. (Caitlyn won.)

My boys on the train ride to Salt Lake.

Me and Miss Ashlyn on the train.

Two beautiful cousins, Caitlyn and Jaedyn on the train.

Our family looking down on Temple Square from the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building.
(Blake had dozed off for a second!)