The Year Without a Santa Clause

Every year I take the kids and we get pictures taken with Santa Claus.

As you can probably tell in this picture, this tradition was more for my enjoyment then for my kids. I love this picture, the woman taking it kept trying to get Mikayla to smile, it wasn't going to happen. And sadie's little eyes have some fear behind them. But I still laugh when I see these pictures, and trust me so do my kids. They love the pictures where they are crying.




Sadly, this was the last year that Kyle was willing to sit with Santa. I know he would have the next year if I had made him, but I didn't force the issue.

This last year was new. We went down to Southtowne Mall with My sisters and their kids. The wait was ridiculous (over 2 hours) so we decided to go and eat lunch. After lunch the wait was even longer, so we decided to go down to the VF Outlet and get pictures taken with their Santa Clause. When we got to the VF Outlet, we discovered that they had Santa's Throne, but they didn't have the Santa, at least not today. So we decided that this would be the year without a Santa Clause.

As you can tell from this picture, the kids weren't heart broken. However, when Kylee found out that these pictures were going to count as the pictures with santa, she was upset. Oh well, hopefully she will look back at these pictures and be able to laugh about our year without a santa.

The Infamous Sugar Cookies

The only reason why they became infamous is because these sugar cookies became my breakfast the next morning (not because they are "more than famous"). I don't know why I do this to myself, but occasionally I do.

Since we were snowed in yesterday, we decided to make some sugar cookies. If you know me at all, you know it is very rare for me to bake at all, so I was very proud of myself. It's not that I can't bake, though yeast is not my best friend, it's really that I just don't enjoy baking. But I do enjoy baking with my kids (when they are not fighting over every ingredient). The girls had a great time rolling out the dough, and decorating their cookies. And on some you could still see cookie underneath all the sprinkles.

Fun in the Snow/Hot Tub

Who would pass up the opportunity to relax in a hot tub, especially when it is so cold outside. Sunday Night we went to my sister Marsha's house to celebrate Molly's first Birthday. Marsha and Brady have a hot tub, so they told the girls they could bring their swimsuits. If you know anything about my girls, they are like their dad....they never pass up an opportunity to enjoy a night in a hot tub.

They had a great time, and when they got to hot they jumped out and rolled in the snow...crazy kids, I didn't get any pictures of them rolling in the snow, just having fun in the hot tub. Thanks again for the fun night.

Snow Day

In the 10 years that we have lived in Eagle Mountain, we've probably only had 2 winters with this much snow. It's not very often that I have had to shovel my driveway and sidewalks 3 times before 3pm. The girls woke up this morning thrilled that the snow was falling.

Kylee even said "mom, the snow is so beautiful, it's like a peacock."

I couldn't exactly think how to respond to that comment, peacocks are very colorful and snow is white, so I just smiled and agreed that the snow was very beautiful.

After lunch today the girls decided that they wanted to make a snowman, so Sadie found some supplies and helped Kylee and Samantha build a Snowman. They were very excited and thankfully since I was shoveling snow, I was around to take pictures.

Christmas Activities

I love Family Home Evening during Christmas time, there are endless activities and some of my favorite lessons. Tonight we decorated Gingerbread houses.

If you are wondering why Kyle and Bret are not in this picture, Kyle was creating a family elf dance video that he kept deleting, and Bret was upstairs asleep. (That's the other reason for the previous post:). The girls had a great time decorating their Gingerbread Houses. I was so impressed with how easy it was for everyone this year, Christmases past I've always had to help, but this year they decorated the houses with no help from me...in fact whenever I would try and add my expertise, they would get upset. I'm fine with that, I got to sit back and watch their little creative minds at work. Here are the finished products.

Sadie and Mikayla's Gingerbread

Kylee and Samantha's

Bret and Kyle...This one's for You

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Kyle's plan to take over this blog

This is Kyle speaking,
I will continue to add new posts until my mom has renamed this blog The Kyle Corner and if she doesn't I will continue posting until everyone gets so sick of them that they will stop visiting. Ha ha ha ha!

The Truth Can be Funny

This is my new favorite comic in the Sunday paper. This is Kyle most days, especially Sunday Morning. It just made me laugh and I didn't want to forget it.

Week in Review

Kyle got a call Sunday night from the Drivers Ed teacher signing him up for the "road" portion of Drivers Ed, finally Kyle has made an effort to get his drivers license. I was very excited that he would be able to pass off road and therefore be able to get his drivers license, until I found out that in order to drive with the teacher he would need to arrive at the school by 5:30 a.m. so this week on Monday and Wednesday I was awake by 4:45 in order to heat up the car to a temperature that wouldn't cause me to shiver uncontrollably, and took Kyle to school. Then Friday, his Test Day, he had to be at the school at 5:15....seriously??? Thankfully he passed his test and once he receives his certificate he will be a licensed driver....now I'm not so sure "thankful" is the correct word.

We got out all of our Christmas decorations on Monday night, and I've decided I really don't enjoy decorating for any season. Don't get me wrong, I love putting up the decorations, but after a while, the house just feels so cluttered, of course my tree might be the problem, I have a monster tree that takes far to long to put together. My goal this year is to find a fantastic deal on a pre-lit 3 piece tree. This year was especially difficult because Bret wasn't able to get into the attic to get down all the stuff, so that was left to me...who says men aren't necessary in the home??? I can't wait until my husband is back to full mobility, this whole "cripple" thing is getting old fast. Don't get me wrong, I'm being very nice, so nice in fact that I don't really feel like myself.

I have spent over $700 at the dentist this month. Do you think my kids will be upset if I tell them that their fillings are their Christmas gift from us? And of course my one child who has insurance didn't have any cavities, why is that always the way it works?

Sadie has been getting a lot of phone calls from a boy!! I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this, she is only 12. Every time he calls, she gets this little smile, and the other day when they were getting off the phone, I overheard her say "you need to hang up first, no you hang up first". Are you kidding me???

Tuesday for Young Womens we dipped chocolates. I have a fantastic friend, Jeanette, who gave me her recipe for her peanut butter and her coconut chocolates. The girls had a great time, and the activity was very easy, what a relief, I needed a break after Evening of Excellence.

Samantha has decided that Clue is now her favorite game. Do you have any idea what it is like to play a game of clue with someone who can't read, and doesn't really understand the concept. Thankfully I have to help her mark off all her cards, so I know immediately who did it, where, and with what weapon....I don't consider it cheating, I just keep playing until she gets bored and then I miraculously win the game. Trust me, I'm a saint for playing Clue with a 5 year old.

Kylee stayed home today because her foot hurt. Her foot.....I blame Bret.

I went to my spinning class last night after taking a week off because of Thanksgiving, and it really kicked my butt. At the end of the class the instructor did a weight lifting section, and my friend Melissa is way stronger then me. Just thought I'd share, I was using 5 lb weights, and she wasn't even breaking a sweat with 12 lb weights. What's that about? I really am a wimp. At least I have more balance then my friend Heather, she was making everyone laugh trying to balance on the exercise ball, good times. When I got home from my class, Bret told me that my YW's secretary called to remind me of our 55 minute meeting with the Stake...whoops, I missed that one. Some days I feel like I have everything all together, and other days...not so much.

Some days I really don't like to make dinner, it doesn't help that Samantha won't eat anything right now that is colorful. And every time I'm making dinner Kylee takes a look and says "yuck, what is that?" Like this child has never seen chicken? Kids sure can be swell.

Our Thanksgiving Weekend

Since I have already written a previous post on our "Thanksgiving Eve" I will forgo that part of the story and start with Thanksgiving Day. Thankfully we were finally able to make it to Oak City on Thursday, when we arrived there was still some work that needed to be done. Once we got Bret all settled on the couch (this is where Bret spent the entire Thanksgiving weekend, with the exception of his bathroom trips and the Christmas parade, and the one game of "hand and foot" that we were able to persuade him to play), we started to work on the food. Once everything was all finished, Sadie was able to help her Grandpa Olsen carve the turkey. Once we were all seated our thanksgiving dinner began. There is something crazy about a meal that takes all day to prepare and only takes 20 minutes to eat (I am personally a fast eater, so it probably only took me 15 minutes...and not because I was being healthy).

After the clean up was all done, we were able to play games and visit. That is always my favorite part about Thanksgiving.


The next day Fay, Jana, my girls and myself went to see Delta's version of Festival of Trees, they only had about 25 trees, but I'm always amazed at the talent so many people have for decorating (sadly I received no part of this talent).

Then later that night we went to Delta's Christmas Parade and to the park where they have the Christmas light displays.

We had a fun time and we were all grateful that we were able to spend so much time with family, it doesn't happen as much any more.

How did we spend our Thanksgiving Eve?

That's right, in the emergency room.

The day started out great, the weather was beautiful so we decided to go to the park, the girls had a great time, they ended up getting into a wood chip fight with this guy and his daughter, (funny story, this guy actually turned out to be related to Eric Snider who wrote Snide Remarks which was my favorite part of the Daily Herald, he is in town visiting his brother who lives in 10th ward, small world). Then I loaded up all the kids and we went to lunch and then to see Disney's new movie Bolt, which is very funny, the Hamster steals the show. When we got out of the movie, I checked my cell phone and noticed that I had a couple 911 texts from Bret, it turns out while he was delivering his final package of the day he ended up stepping out of his truck into a hole in the grass and really hurt his ankle.

I have never been so grateful for the fact that Kyle can drive, I quickly drove to the terminal in Orem and Kyle jumped in the car and drove Bret to Timp Hospital, and I followed with the girls. It was really sweet to see how concerned the kids all were for Bret, Kylee was crying the entire way to the hospital. Once at the hospital and when we finally were able to talk to the doctors it was determined that Bret's ankle isn't exactly broken, but he has a "chip sprain" (I really think the doctor made that up). Basically he did the most damage he could to his ankle without breaking it. So now he is home elevating his foot with a wonderful ice machine rotating ice cold water over his ankle, thanks to some neighbors Stace and Kirk.

The kids were a little disappointed that we didn't make it down to Oak City tonight, but they have been lots of help. Kyle drove Bret home from the hospital while I waited for over an hour (because the pharmacy is going to be closed on Thanksgiving) for his Lortab. It could have been worse. I'm just grateful that we didn't go down to Oak City earlier today, that would have created a bigger problem for Bret. And really tomorrow we will be in Oak City, and I'm sure as long as Bret gets a piece of Lemon Meringue Pie, and another piece of Sour Cream Raisin Pie (gag) then he will have a Happy Thanksgiving...or at least we will drug him enough that he will believe it.

Cute at any age...Especially 16

When Kyle was younger every year in school he would have an assignment to select someone that he admires and write something about that person. Every time he has selected his dad. Surprisingly this year for an assignment in English he had to select someone he is thankful for and create this Turkey. I'm so grateful for the relationship Kyle has always had with his dad. Kyle has always been grateful that his dad has "always wanted him"(he uses this statement often), every child should feel wanted and loved, and I'm glad that with everything Bret and Kyle have had to deal with, they have each other.

I'm especially grateful, because some times it's not all hugs and kisses with teenagers. So I just needed to post this turkey (did you notice the fedex hat?) so we will always remember how lucky we are to have kids, especially teenagers. Love you Kyle:)

Just Thoughts

My thoughts in a post.

Sadie left her watch somewhere in the office this week, and the watch was set to beep at 9am, so every morning at 9 I would try to find the watch while it beeped...whenever I got close enough where I could almost pinpoint it's location, the watch would stop beeping...very annoying.

Kyle wanted to make macaroni and cheese about 9pm last night, for his bedtime snack, and when I came in the kitchen to check on his progress, I saw him with the pot on the stove stirring the macaroni, water, milk, butter and the cheese together. I asked him if he ever remembers eating macaroni and cheese with that much water in it. He told me he read the directions, he just missed the part where it said DRAIN. So I helped him Drain the macaroni and then re-add the butter cheese and milk. I guess I know where I failed him as a mother. Note to self-teach Kyle how to cook, don't just assume he knows how to make macaroni and cheese.

I went to a spinning class last night, and I'm really hoping that one of these times, my butt will get use to the bike seat. I swear I use to ride bikes as a kid all the time, when did I become such a wimp?!? Don't answer that, it's a rhetorical question.

Samantha loves playing games, I think this week alone, I've played UNO, Old Maid, Go Fish and Sorry over a dozen times. Samantha cheats when she plays games, hopefully all kids cheat at that age, of course I still cheat sometimes so I guess I know where she got it.

On Friday's I help in Mikayla's class for a couple hours, and there is this girl in her class that I just don't get along with. How immature is that, I can't get along with a 10 year old! I have learned that I just need to stay away from her because I swear she just does things to bug me...she doesn't like me either, I don't blame her, we just don't click. On Mikayla's report card, her teacher had written a note that "Mikayla has a hard time getting along with difficult kids in the class". Hmm, I wonder where she learned that. Note to self - be more tolerant so my children learn tolerance.

My super nice blender broke today, it was actually just spinning the ice around instead of actually crushing it. You know when you are looking forward to eating a smoothie and your blender breaks so you have to eat oatmeal instead? I hate when that happens.

I have Evening of Excellence for YW's this Tuesday, and of course, I need to talk, I have no idea what I want to say...actually the problem is I have so many things that I want to say and I can't narrow it down to 5-10 minutes. I wish I always new what needed to be said and then could say it! Maybe some day...but not today.

Bret and I are going out tonight with some friends. I love that our kids are old enough that we can leave them home to take care of each other. I use the words "take care" lightly here. Tonight we will get several phone calls about who's bothering who and can I eat this and drink this, and will you tell Kylee she needs to listen, blah blah blah blah. Maybe in a few more years we will be able to have uninterrupted time. That will be nice.

I've lost 20 pounds, which makes me happy, so I was putting on a pair of jeans that I just bought in a smaller size, and about 5 hours later when I was taking them off...the button pops off!?!? Not a confidence booster. Don't worry, I discovered that the button was defective and after Bret fixed it (that was his only job last night) the pants fit great!!

The BIG 40

That's right, Bret turned 40!!

Several weeks before Bret's birthday he asked me to promise him that I would not throw him a big birthday party. At first I was disappointed, because what good is a 40th birthday if you can't get a bunch of people together to make fun of someone you love about his old age. But since I promised, we didn't have a party. Instead I had a great idea to get rid of the kids and have a weekend to ourselves;) We had a great time. It's kind of funny, the weekend we don't have any kids Bret has to get up early(6:30) to go help at Hearts for the Holidays and I get up early(6:15) to go to a spinning class with some friends. After we were done with our busy morning, we finished off our Christmas shopping (that's right, we're done, feel free to be jealous), and then went with Michelle and Sterling to see Quantum of Solace, this has kind of turned into a tradition, James Bond movies seem to come out around Bret's Birthday, and since he loves James Bond as much as I do it makes for perfect timing, and thankfully the Hunts are fans as well. After the movie, we went out to eat at Red Robin. We had a lot of fun and laughed far to much for being so old, or at least Bret did.

So in honor of my Husbands 40 years, and since he didn't let me throw him a birthday party, and because I'm not the type to list "40" things I love about my husband (I could do it, it's just not my style). I thought I would post two embarrassing pictures (that's my style, thank goodness he never reads my blog).

This is Bret at girls camp playing Chinese jump rope with the YW, they thought he was the coolest. He was really good at it. I'm not sure if proud is the word to describe how I felt. Not bad for such an old guy. Love you babe, happy birthday.

Happy Halloween !

My favorite part about Halloween is after I finish getting the girls all dressed up. And this year we were able to wear the same costumes as last year, so we not only saved tons of money, but the costumes even fit them better. Go me! Happy Halloween!

Silly Girl

Since I don't write in a journal, and I don't have the best memory, I needed to write this down before I forgot about it.

Mikayla is silly, for lack of a better word. She has the ability to make others laugh. Today in Sacrament meeting she decided while we were singing "Put your Should to the Wheel" that the song would be better with actions. So she sang and acted out the entire Hymn, which made it difficult for me to keep a straight face while signing. Seriously you need to read the words to that Hymn and just imagine the variety of actions that go along with the song. In fact, during the last verse..

Then work and watch and fight and pray
With all your might and zeal.
Push ev’ry worthy work along;
Put your shoulder to the wheel.

Mikayla inspired me to join in, and I have to say... without any prior practice, we were definitely on to something great.

Don't worry, I'm not a completely terrible parent, I wouldn't let her act out the sacrament hymn.

October 24th 1996

So I thought for Sadie's Birthday I would tell the story of my pregnancy with her and the day she was born. I have had friends tell their stories and I have enjoyed reading them. Hopefully you can forgive all the scalloped edges in my pictures, it was 1996 that's how we did scrapbooking in the old days.
I was really lucky during my pregnancy with Sadie, I remember being tired mostly...as this picture shows. However look at that belt, I was 5 months pregnant and still wearing a belt. Of course it was my first pregnancy. This is my favorite "pregnancy story"...One night Bret and I went out to dinner, and during this pregnancy my morning sickness hit at night...right after dinner. So I was careful and got a chicken sandwich and didn't end up eating to much. After dinner I told Bret we would need to leave because I wasn't feeling very well, once we were on the way home, I knew I wouldn't make it and so I asked Bret to pull over so I could throw up in the field. (as a side note, I don't like to watch people to throw up, and I'm sure no one wanted to watch me throw up, so I chose a dark field). As I was walking through the field I knew I needed to find a spot so I took a few more steps and because it was dark I couldn't see the ditch that ran along the field...yep, I fell in the ditch . And to my humiliation that is where I threw up, laying in a ditch in about 3 inches of water throwing up. When I got back to the truck I thanked Bret for coming to my aid, and he said "I saw you walking and then you just disappeared I figured you found the perfect spot." ...good times.

The day Sadie was born I remember waking up to go to the bathroom about 6am. As I got out of bed my water broke (of course at the time, I though I had an accident and I was so embarrassed, remember this was my first pregnancy) I hurried and cleaned up and changed my clothes and got back into bed. About 5 minutes later I felt like I had to go to the bathroom again, and when I got out of bed, the same thing happened. This time I knew my water broke. I woke Bret and told him I was going to have a baby. I had been told horror stories about getting to the hospital to early, and also about husbands with bad breath, so I made sure to get cleaned up and gather everything we would need for the hospital stay. After we dropped off Kyle at my moms, we went to the store to buy Bret some breath mints (looking back that makes me laugh, however, his breath was minty fresh. I didn't mind him talking to me during labor with minty fresh breath). By the time I got to the hospital, I was dilated to a 4 and 80% effaced, so they gave me an epidural, and honestly, if I could get my hands on the anesthesiologist who gave me that epidural, he would not look pretty. It didn't work, actually it worked really well on my right leg(I couldn't walk by myself for 24 hours), but the rest of my body felt everything, but I can't complain, once I was ready to push it only took me 4 times and Sadie was here.

At about 4:30 in the afternoon Sadie was born. She was such a sweet baby, and she hasn't changed.

My Sadie

I just wanted to make sure and post about Sadie today. She is 12 years old tomorrow! I don't think anyone could be more excited about turning 12 then Sadie. She is most excited to be able to leave primary and come into Young Womens. For weeks she has been asking me if she can come to our activities, she is so excited.

For her Birthday she wants to have a "girls day", so Saturday we are going shopping and to lunch and maybe a movie (No, we're not going to High School Musical 3). As I was looking back through her picture books I decided to post some of my favorite pictures. These had to be scanned onto my computer so they won't be the best quality, but the pictures were so cute I couldn't pass them up.

Sadie was such a beautiful baby girl. She had so much hair, when she was a baby she would grab a handful of her hair and pull then she would start to cry and she would stop pulling her hair, then she would repeat the process all over again. That's one of her favorite stories.

Sadie has always loved to laugh, that is something I love most about her...she can find happiness is everything around her.




Sadie has always loved camping, and thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Olsen, we have a camping trip every year. She has always been so curious. On this camping trip we went fishing and Sadie wanted to see everything we were doing with the fish we caught. She even wanted to jump right in and help me gut the fish. (I guess she got that from me).

Here she is eating pumpking guts...she didn't get that from me. She has always loved Kyle, and always wanted to do everything he would do. They have always been really close.

She has always had a close relationship with her Grandpa, she loved to hear him play his guitar and he's probably the reason why she started playing herself.

Her and Mikayla have always been best friends. Sadie is so good to her little sisters and makes a better "big" sister then I ever did. She is kind to everyone around her and always stands up for what is right. She works so hard in school and always wants to do her best. I'm so proud of the young women she is growing into, she is an example to me always. Love you Sadie.

Astro Turf ?!? Are you Kidding me ?!?!

This picture doesn't do the astro turf justice. But if you click on the picture, you'll be able to see how astro turf sparkles.

We have something new to add to the list of embarrassing things about Eagle Mountain...Are you ready for this...We have Astro Turf at the entrance to the City Center. Yes, you heard me, Astro Turf. From really far down the road, the astro turf looks like real grass, but as you get closer the astro turf get shinier, and really, who do they think they are fooling with that stuff?

Several weeks ago, the city removed all the dying grass, that they don't care to keep alive, out by the Eagle. They added gravel and Bret and I were glad to see that they were going to lay cement so that at the very least, the entrance stayed weed free. Then to my surprise, last week on the way home from a field trip with Kylee's class, they were laying Astro Turf. I really couldn't believe it, I know everyone is really big right now on going green, but this is taking it a little far. Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way about astro turf, but I really hope I'm not.

Topaz Mountain

First I have to thank Brenda for the pictures. I kind of stole these off your blog. I realized that I didn't use my camera I used Fay's camera...hence the thievery.

This weekend we took a trip to Topaz Mountain in search of Topaz Crystals. The kids had a great time. We arrived at the base of Topaz Mountain on Friday night about 6 pm, and the kids immediately saw the spot where they would spend ALL of their free time...

Yep, on the top of this mountain. My kids played all day and would have played all night if the thought of them falling to their deaths in the dark was something I could have handled that weekend. So when the sun would set they had to get off the mountain. I climbed up that mountain a couple of times, but I realized that adults (namely me) understand and can imagine the pain of falling, so I was a little nervous about having my kids all over that mountain, so I did what any mother of 5 would do...I couldn't watch when they were on the mountain. Kylee was the only one that had a minor fall (to no ones great surprise) and so we made it through the weekend without any deaths.

This picture we took before we left on our "little" hike to find topaz crystals, which turned out to be a "BIG" hike. The kids turned around about 45 minutes after we started, but not before Bret found a cool snake that all the kids got to touch, and not before Samantha decided to step on an even bigger snake...However, they did turn around before we found any crystals. Thanks to Aunt Elissa, the kids were able to go back to camp and climb their mountain, while the rest of us "die hards" with Norman in the lead continued on our quest. Sadly we hiked only another 50 yards before we found crystals, so the kids could have stayed. But don't feel bad, we spent a total of 6 hours hunting for crystals(it might have been longer), and the kids who went back to camp were able to share all the crystals we found...no one left empty handed.

I love that we get to spend this kind of time with Bret's family, the kids love to play with their cousins and we get to visit with family that we don't see often enough.