The CRAZY Adventures WIth The Olsen's!

Pregnancy

2012-01-26T20:31:00.000-08:00

Being pregnant so far has been a neat experience as well as a bit of a challenge. It is not what I expected to say the least, but life is fun like that and full of unexpected surprises, right? Honestly, I was hoping to have a similar pregnancy as my sweet mom and sister, but so far its been quite different.

I cannot tell you what a blessing it was to get pregnant without even blinking. Well... maybe it took blinking a couple of times.

We consider this a huge blessing from our Heavenly Father and feel so lucky to get a sweet angelic little girl in a few months that is growing and is super healthy!

I feel our sweet angel inside me doing somersaults and karate chops and think what a fun party she must be having most of the day. Sometimes while I am teaching or talking to somebody she will start doing something crazy and I'll have to stop, and make a funny face or sound because it is the neatest yet weirdest feeling. Sometimes I just start giggling and cannot stop because it is such a cool feeling.

Throughout this whole thing, Nick has been the sweetest husband and gives me so much support each and every day. He is the greatest and I am the luckiest girl in the world. I love him so much.

Life is still exciting and adventurous as ever!

Fall, How I Love You!

2011-10-16T15:17:00.001-07:00

Fall is my favorite season and it is HERE! Living in Utah their is a vast difference in the season change from summer to fall. The trees are gorgeous, and I tell my students almost everyday how much I love the fall!

Teaching 5th graders started the end of August and has been the highlight of my life! I love what I am doing. I am convinced that I was born to be a teacher because I love waking up and going to teach 28 children each day.

I figured I would never see my amazing husband this year, but I was WRONG! We both get home around 6:00PM and then usually I am still preparing for another hour or so, and then we spend the rest of our evening together. It works really well. Its crazy that both of us work around 11 hour days, but we cannot complain when we both love what we do.

We still manage to have amazing weekends and fit really amazing things in. Instead of trying to update you on the past months, I will just give the highlights.

For my birthday, we went down to St. George for the weekend and saw "The Little Mermaid" at the Tuachan Theatre. It was and incredible show. My parents saw the production on Broadway and then saw it at the Tuachan and said that their was no comparison and the Tuachan production was a "must see." They were absolutely right. WHAT A PRODUCTION!

My husband is always such a trooper because he always goes to things like this with me even if he doesn't want to and then usually ends up liking it in the end.

Here we are with some shave ice enjoying the intermission of "The Little Mermaid."

We also wanted to do an endowment session at the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints St. George Temple, but it was closed unfortunately. We got a beautiful picture though!

One of our favorite spots in Provo is Bridal Veil Falls, and the bike paths they have the majority of the way up Provo Canyon. We got some bikes and headed up and down the path. If you have not done this and you live in Provo, it is a must!

One weekend, we headed up Lamb's Canyon to our Grammy and Grandpa Anderson's cabin. Some of our best friends came with us and we enjoyed breathtaking views, endless amounts of delectable food, and hiking!

Nick and I try to do this each year and we absolutely love it.

HOCKEY SEASON HAS STARTED! WOO HOO! That means my amazing brother has games each weekend that we get to go NUTS over!

I am pretty sure that hockey, soccer, and water polo are the most difficult sports to play! Some people would probably argue with me about that, but this is how I feel so you won't be changing my mind any time.

My brother and his amazing girlfriend Lauren! Love them both!

I am sure you have seen some of Nick's art work at dinner before, but here is his most recent art piece. If we ever have extra time on our hands he usually creates something crazy out of the food we are going to eat.

Lastly, this past weekend we went to the "Hee Haw Farms" in Pleasant Grove with our friends. It is a really cute place with a corn maze, pumpkins, pigs, haunted hay rides, and amazing slides.

I couldn't figure out why my flash on my camera wasn't working, but here is Nick and this massive pumpkin. It was ENORMOUS!

They had these guns that you shot ears of corn out of that were powerful and loud. Nick and Jared thought they needed some moving targets out there. We didn't volunteer for that job.

Thought this was a cute little farmer! HEE HAW!

The Haunted Hay Ride! Yikes!

I was wrapped all around Nick the majority of the ride because I was freaked out!

That is pretty much the gist of the past few months. Hope your Fall season is going amazingly well because ours sure is.

Bye Summer

2011-08-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went on a trip to Vancouver, Washington to end our summer with a bang. Some of our family lives up there and we have not been able to visit them yet.

We did all of the things we love which include: being with family, being outdoors, and hiking. My sweet grandma owned a farm in Eugene, Oregon, but had to sell it when she got older and could not take care of it by herself. That is really the only part of the North West I have seen of the United States. The whole time we were in Southern Washington I could not believe how GORGEOUS it was. I am sure I annoyed everyone around me by constantly commenting on how breathtaking the views were.

Our nieces and nephew are the cutest things and are the most incredible children. It was so much fun to play with them for four days!

This hike was gorgeous and gave us some spectacular views of the Columbia River and the gorgeous mountains. I think ever since we have moved to Utah our breath constantly gets taken away by the gorgeous mountains! These mountains were covered in trees and different than our Utah mountains, but they were magnificent.

One day we went spelunking in the ape caves. This is one of the coolest things I have ever done. It is a massive lava tube under ground where you have to scramble over huge piles of lava rock. It was so dark in the caves that when we turned off all the lights, you could not see your hand directly in front of your face. We all had headlamps or flashlights. I want to say we were in this long lava tube walking and scrambling for about 1 1/2 miles. It was so neat, and I was incredibly impressed with my nieces and nephews who had to rock climb an eight foot wall at one point in the spelunking adventure. They did great!

It was really cold down there.

Nicholas and Annalise riding razors together. I now know what Nick wants for Christmas. He loved that thing.

They live in such a nice neighborhood and live at the end of an awesome culdesac.

We were all ready to go down "Blackberry Lane" and pick wild blackberries.

Annette, Kilee and I.

There were so many delicious huge blackberries at the very top. Don't worry we figured out how to get them with Annalise's help!

Vista Point. One of the coolest state parks I have seen.

This is totally a model picture of Nick. Actually both are. He wasn't even trying.

This state park has tons of waterfalls along the Columbia river. I am not sure what this one was called.

Priceless Kian face!

Kian loved hanging onto Nick's leg on one of the hikes. It was really cute.

I love this family!

We are sad that the summer has come to an end, but what a terrific way to end it! We will definitely have to do this as much as we can. Annette and Kimball, thanks for the greatest trip.

School starts tomorrow! I am so excited!

Fun Summer Activities

2011-07-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

Our summer has been super duper busy filled with many adventures.

In the middle of June one of my best friends, Stephanie, graduated from Paul Mitchell the school. We have known each other since freshman year of college and have been close ever since. Some of our favorite experiences were in China together where we lived and taught english.

Steph worked so very hard through school and had to complete 2,000 hours. Here we are together at her graduation. Way to go Steph.

In June we had our 3rd anniversary!!!! It is crazy to me that we have been married for three years! These three years have been the some of the best years of my life. I remember people used to tell us that the first year of marriage would be the most difficult. After the first year Nick and I were confused at what everyone was talking about.... we decided if that was supposed to be the toughest year, our life was going to be blissful because it was joyous and wonderful!!! Let me tell you, in our case, WE WERE 100% RIGHT!

For our anniversary we decided to have a romantic evening here in our sweet home. Nick is such a romantic (If I could just tell you some of the things he has done for me... you would be in awe) and one of the many things he wrote in the card he gave me was, "I am grateful we still have the spark in our marriage and thought it was only appropriate to celebrate tonight by letting sparks fill the night sky." One part of my gift was boxes of sparklers! It was incredibly cute and we had so much fun in our front yard letting the sparks fly!

Three years!!!!

I promised that I would put up pictures of Landon coming home.... well turns out we didn't take as many photos as we thought, so instead here are some of Nick and our adorable nephew, Payton.

He is going to be the greatest dad.

One day while I was inside working on some things, Nick had said that he was going to go out to our cherry tree and pick the cherries. I was so excited because these cherries are so scrumptious. Well I went out side and saw Nick picking the cherries........... in our tree.

Apparently we don't have a ladder so my versatile hubby climbed the tree. (This is so Nick by the way.)

This was the view I saw right when I came out. The tree doesn't look very tall because I took this picture on our porch steps.

One day this month, I was walking home and a thunder and lightning storm broke out of no where. I was only a couple of blocks away from our house and I started to run as fast as I could. Within one minute I got soaking wet. I stopped running and just started laughing hysterically. It was so funny. The storm was so strong that it looked like trees were going to collapse either on me or into the streets. I could not help but laugh because no matter what I did, I was soaking wet. (Even if I had an umbrella it would not have helped because the umbrella would have broken in that strong of wind.)

Nick took a picture of me. You cannot really tell that I am wet because my clothes are one solid color. If you see how shiny my skin is I was drenched! I had to take a towel to my body once I took off all the wet clothing. I felt like a little kid again playing in the rain.

Our ward had the most amazing activity a couple of weeks ago. It was 150 foot slip n' slide! It was the greatest activity. The boys of course competed and started doing crazy tricks down the slide while the girls just had a blast going down tons of times.

Nick walking up the hill in the most beautiful weather.

The boys waiting for their turn to show off for each other.

Nick and I!

One of Nick's tricks he did was climb on the back of two other guys' backs and then ride down. He mastered this and did quite a good job, although I caught the not so good time on video. I kept thinking we were going to end up in the emergency room, but Nick is pretty awesome and doesn't get hurt when he does crazy things, thankfully! (The second time he did this trick is on video, its at the bottom of this post.)

Because our families live in Southern California we don't get to go all the way to California to see them often. It seems like this summer we have made an extra effort and traveled to St. George a lot to meet and spend time with each other. One weekend we met my younger sister there to play, play, and play some more.

Mattie and Rooga have both told me they love having older siblings that are established because we have our own money and we love to use it and spoil them when we are with them which is very true.

I say that because we did just that. We did lots and lots, but one of our favorite things we did was going to the park to play croquet.

Rooga always makes fun of us because we love games and if you look in our trunk at any given time, we always seem to have some game or activity. Well, we had ladder ball and croquet so we whipped it out and had some fun. We were having so much fun that a group of kids started coming over asking if they could play, and they did.

After the game, we took a little rest at the park.

I have the greatest family ever and I get to see them even more this summer which I am so excited for! Landon, Regan, and Nick and I will all be living within blocks of each other come this fall. That means the majority of my family will be in this state. YAY! Cannot wait for that.

Our fun didn't stop, Rooga went back home and Nick and I went to Zions National Park for a family reunion. This reunion was super special because Nick's mom and dad were in charge of it. Every immediate family had their own mansion to themselves. That meant our family got our own place to ourselves.

This was a perfect way of doing it. We got to do whatever things we wanted during the day with whomever we wanted, then had dinner together as our whole family (which is HUGE).

Because our family is extremely outdoorsy, we went on hikes each day.

The first day we went to observation point which was a 6 mile hike that looked out on the majority of Zions.

The majority of Nick's family. (We are missing TA, Nick, Gavin and Brooke)

We spent the 4th of July there which was great because their was a huge fireworks show that Kanab put on. We all went up there and enjoyed quite a large firework show. I was really impressed at how spectacular it was.

Nick, Trevor and Emmet.

After the firework show, Nick and I had sparklers back at the house, and we wanted to have a little fun of our own. We went outside while all the other adults were inside talking and our neices and nephews were sleeping, and we had a blast lighting all of our sparklers.

Yesterday, we went up to Threeforks trail in Spanish Fork Canyon. It was a 4 mile hike up to these hot springs and waterfall. It was so beautiful, but too hot to go in the hot springs. We went in the cold waterfall water instead.

Us at the top of the waterfall. (You cannot see it yet)

A small waterfall we found on the top of the larger waterfall)

Nick straddling the waterfall.

Here is the larger waterfall.

We love the outdoors and are enjoying every little bit of summer. We are excited for more adventures we are going to have this summer.

**Here are two videos of us. One was Nick doing a trick on the slip n' slide and one of us the night of the 4th of July with the sparklers!**

Elder Ball is HOME!

2011-06-23T20:55:00.001-07:00

My very sweet brother Landon came home on Wednesday from serving a 2 year mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

He is such a light and very tender to be around. Their has been quite a few tender moments that we have experienced as a family since he has been home. There has also been tons of laughing, crying, hugging, singing and being crazy like we normally are because that is the way my family is and we LOVE IT!

Having our Landon home is the best. What an amazing man he is.

While looking at my siblings, I am so glad my parents decided to have such a large family because we all are so unique and incredibly close. My siblings and parents are my best friends and I am so grateful I will be with them for eternity because I love them all so much!

Welcome home Landon, our little bussmodit! Your the greatest brother. Love you the most!

(Pictures to come)

St. George

2011-06-06T14:00:00.001-07:00

Each and every weekend is a new adventure for us. Nick has been traveling a lot for work lately, so when the weekends come we get excited for the adventures we take. Two weekends ago we hiked up to the "Y" which was a blast! We have done this before, but it is such a beautiful view at the top why not take advantage of it, right?

Us at the top of the "Y"

This past weekend, after class on Friday morning, we booked it out of this town to St. George for the weekend. My mom, dad, and two younger sisters came too which was the best!

We played and played all weekend. I could not have thought of a more relaxing and weekend full of laughter and fun. We were missing two of my sisters and there families, and my brother (WHO COMES HOME IN 2 1/2 WEEKS WOO HOO).

The weather was perfect, sunny and warm with a cool breeze. We hung out by the pool and laughed and talked (This is my absolute favorite thing to do with my family). Mattie jumped in the pool as soon as she could, and soon got me in swimming with her!

Us ladies then headed off to do some shopping! We thought we would be back pretty soon, but the boys got lonely without us. WOOPS! Sorry Boys!

Mattie and I at one point were waiting for my mom and Rooga to come out of a store and saw an Asian man taking pictures of the plants in front of the department store! We were laughing so hard!!!!! They were not that pretty yet he was snapping pictures. I tried to get Mattie to take a picture of him taking a picture of the plants, but she couldn't do it because she was laughing to hard.

The following day was filled with a lot more laughing, chatting and good food that mom and I whipped up. We also got in the car and headed off to do some hiking to some beautiful waterfalls. On the way there Mom and Dad stopped and Jacob Hamelin's house and we took a tour that was quite interesting.

Our tour guide was older and kept using really funny and old phrases. I wonder if Mattie and Rooga understood what he was talking about sometimes.

Us outside in the Garden of Jacob Hamelin's Home.

Rooga and I in the sewing room. (She looks like an angel! She is gorgeous!)

The tour guide got Mattie and I to make Hamhock Dolls.

This is what a Hamhock Doll is.

Mom and Dad holding a map of everywhere Jacob Hamelin traveled.

Right after the tour, we headed off to do a beautiful hike.

Rooga and Mattie

All of us.

Mom, Dad, Rooga and Mattie

Mom and Rooga

Nick and I

Angelic Rooga

Dad and Mattie looking at some cliff jumpers

Mattie was the only one wearing her bathing suit and wanted to jump. She got a little scared and then dad ending up jumping in with her in his clothes. She did great! (It was probably 10 ft.) She did awesome.

I was so sad when the weekend came to an end. I wanted so badly to be with my family longer. Its alright, I will see them in 2 1/2 weeks when Landon comes home!!!! I am so excited!

Oh How We Have Loved The Month Of May!

2011-05-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

This month has been the busiest month ever, but I have to say it has been quite eventful.

The first of May we celebrated the love of my l

ife's birthday. If you did not know, Nick is not a "let's have a birthday party" kind of guy. He likes it intimate with just him and I. If I am lucky I can have a huge birthday party with immediate family,but the only immediate family we have close by is my sister and brother-in-law and they live 2 1/2 hours away so we don't see them as much as we'd like to. Its stinks for his wife who wants to celebrate him and shout from the rooftops, but at the same time I love celebrating him and making it a huge deal still with just me. I sing to him and dance for him and put on quite a show. Its pretty hilarious actually.

Nick is going to get an awesome new phone for his birthday, but because I wanted him to open something on his birthday this is what he got......

A soccer ball. (He has wanted this forever)

The most hilarious movie ever! Despicable Me.

On a more painful note, I was only born with one wisdom tooth. Unfortunately it was impacted and had to be pulled out. Total bummer! They didn't put me under for it and the oral surgery wasn't too bad. The bad part was the pain after. Ouch. They didn't give me any pain medication, which was fine because I did have some Motrin. Oh and P.S. I am the kind of person that doesn't like everyone around me to be in pain as well from complaining, but if someone asked me if I was in pain I would respond, "yes I am most definitely in pain right now." So whether you think that defines me as a person to take pain well, then so be it. Usually only people who know me well know if I am in pain like my hubby or my parents and siblings.

Here is the honker!

On the most FANTASTIC note ever, Nick and I were able to go on a vacation for 10 days, 2 days in New York and 8 days in Ireland! We have been planning this trip since October and it finally arrived. I couldn't believe how fast time flew by. It seemed like we just started talking about where we wanted to go, but here we were on a plane! WOO HOO!

Why Ireland you ask.... well, to be 100% completely honest, we chose Ireland because of all the most breathtaking photos and views that what we had seen in books and I have to admit in movies like P.S. I Love You. You can think I am ridiculous, I don't care its the truth.... at least I admit it.

The couple of people we talked to that were from Ireland or lived in Ireland told us that Irish people love Americans. Well, let me tell ya, that is so true. Everywhere we went and everyone we met absolutely loved Nick and I. We could talk for hours with people we had never met because they were so interested in us and so sincere. It was amazing to see.

Ireland was breathtaking! Every turn we took we were awestruck. This was by far the most beautiful country I have ever seen in my life so far. We took hundreds of pictures, literally. (Don't worry I didn't put them all up on this site, that would be a little excessive don't you think?)

The first night, we were in Dublin and stayed in such a classy 4 star hotel. Each night after that we stayed at the most beautiful B&B's. First of all their are only really nice hotels in the cities which there are only a few major cities, secondly their B&B's are like 4 star hotels! We loved it, and stayed in award winning B&B's every time. They were gorgeous and quaint which we loved.

We flew into Dublin and stayed their for a day and then drove all the way across the country and worked our way counter clockwise. (I would highly suggest this if you go to Ireland because the majority of tourists move clockwise) Although our pictures are the opposite way starting from the end of our trip to the beginning, we had the most amazing time.

Nick in Dublin. There was lots of shopping.

Powerscourt Estate (Monkeying around)

Near the Sally Gap

Glendalough - Like everything else, this was breathtaking. Ireland has castles and monestaries everywhere. We stopped here and hiked to both the lower and upper lakes as well as the waterfall. It was so calm and peaceful everywhere we went. It was literally a fresh breath of air.

Glendalough

Castle at Glendalough

While walking around after dinner and came upon this sign. Love it.

OH! So we were not impressed with traditional Irish food, but we happened to find the most delicious, classy restaurants wherever we went that was absolutely fantastic. I would tell you Ireland has AMAZING food, but in reality Ireland has amazing restaurants.

Rock of Cashel - We loved this place because the history of it is AMAZING. There is a legend that a mountain you can see from this Rock looks like crater or a huge bite had been taken from the mountain. The legend says the devil had taken a bite out of that mountain and spit it out on this particular mountain. They all call it "The Rock."

Rock of Cashel

It was incredibly windy and felt like we were going to be pushed over from the wind. We almost had to lean into it in order to stay standing.

In Cork City, they have this crazy famous English Market. It was amazing to go around and see the magnificent food. We actually ate lunch at this cafe up on the mezzanine in the picture. It is DELICIOUS and quite famous.

A beautiful scenic walk around Blarney Castle

The best tree I have ever seen - Blarney Castle Grounds

They actually had a garden with all poisonous plants in it. NUTS! Each plant says DO NOT EAT.

Nick gettin' Luck of the Irish by kissin' the Blarney Stone (P.S. You have to kiss it like this, it was quite the adventure)

My turn.... This old man is awesome and bracing himself as he helps each person do this.

The view from the top of Blarney Castle.

Blarney Castle

This was the dungeon. So cool.

Nick put me in the dog house- Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle

Brandon's Point- We did not get any directions to this place and found it. It was nuts that we found it too because it is in a small town on the narrowest one lane road. If this was the only thing or view we saw on our trip, It would have made my trip. This was my personal favorite.

More of Brandon's Point

Dingle Peninsula

Torc Waterfall hike in the Killarney National Park

Killarney National Park

The Ring of Kerry

Killorglin

One of our B&B's - O' Regan's

Driving on the right side of the car and on the left side of the road was stressful to learn in Dublin the first day. Nick was great and got the hang of it after a day. CRAZY and stressful experience at first though...... for both of us. I think I peed my pants a couple times.

Cliffs of Mohr - Oh so beautiful.

The Ring of Kerry

Drive on a random rode on the way to the West Coast of Ireland. The roads all look like this by the way. GORGEOUS and teeny tiny.

Bru Na Boinne

Our trip was AMAZING! We are so glad this is the country we chose next to visit and travel. It had such beauty that you seem to only dream about or see in movies and pictures. It was a perfect time to go because tons of tourists were not there and we had all the sites to ourselves. The weather is usually good in the month of May from what we researched, but it did rain while we were there (it was never bad though).

It looks like we wore the same clothes everyday because we were always wearing our jackets and hoodies to keep us warm in the chilly weather. What a great trip. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT! Do it..... definitely do it.

I was so sad when we had to leave and even cried a bit. I did not want to go back to reality, but guess what.... I just finished my 2nd practicum today, so I am almost done with SCHOOL!!! Then I will be a teacher officially. WOO HOO! I love it.

My Amazing Husband is 25!

2011-05-01T13:46:00.001-07:00

Today is my amazing husband's 25th birthday! He is seriously the most amazing man I have ever met and I am so proud of him and lucky to call him mine.

Nick is such a fun, energetic, handsome, dedicated and motivated individual. I have never met anyone in my life that is more driven than Nick.

Here are some fun facts about Nick....

He loves JELLO! It is his favorite snack and he makes it all the time.

Nick is a really intelligent person, in fact his boss and coworkers have a nickname for him.... its "Boy Genius."

He has some pretty awesome moves, and if your lucky you might catch him doing something nuts!

If he had the time and trainers he would be a free runner because he practically is one!

He is a peacemaker and makes everyone around him smile and laugh.

He looks at the technology section of the news everyday to see what else he can learn. (He doesn't really look at any other news unless it looks pretty important.)

I could go on for days.... BASICALLY, Nick is the greatest and I love him with all my heart! Here are some pictures of him to celebrate his birthday!

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

Today is such a special day and it gives us hope to know Christ lives. Happy Easter!

Be Careful What You Wish For..... and Then SQUEAL!

2011-04-05T09:16:00.000-07:00

These past couple weeks have been to say the least....... NUTS! A good nuts though. To make the LONGEST STORY OF MY LIFE short, I was hired to be a 5th grade teacher this upcoming Fall at an Elementary School I have been at for the past month. I am so excited and think about it everyday.

At BYU in the education program you do student teaching or an internship. With the internship you have to apply and then interview in front of all the principals and facilitators of that school district. There was 36 woman who interviewed for jobs. There are not that many job offers, so you have to impress them. If you get hired, you are a normal teacher who gets paid and your own class. Because I was not going to do this internship, the principal and facilitator at my Elementary School begged me to change my mind. With a lot of pondering, praying and thinking Nick and I decided to go for it. After going through the funnest interview I have ever had, I got hired on by the principal, facilitator and school I have been working with for the past month! I will still be graduating next April, but I will be completely done with undergraduate college classes by the end of SUMMER! Crazy! I cannot believe we have been here less than a year and I will be done by the end of summer. We have a lot to be thankful as well as saying be careful what you wish for because you just might get it (I say this due to the previous post before this).

2 weekends ago my two older sisters came up and stayed with us. We needed a girls weekend badly, and Nick was willing to have all of that estrogen in the house. We went shopping, watched the Cosby Show, laughed a lot, saw Tangled in 3D (again), went out to eat, went for a hike, got our car stuck in the mud, and got our favorite.... Caramel Apples. We always have so much fun.

All of us at Tangled.

When we went for a hike at Bridal Veil Falls, we parked on pretty solid ground, so we thought. Our front wheels were in a little bit of mud. With trying to get out, we got stuck even more. We were all laughing so hard as we were trying to get out. Nick having gotten stuck many times in Florida got right to work. The only problem is, getting stuck in the sand is what he was used to.

MUD is a totally different story.

About 7 people came by to try and help us push our the car and Nick, Lindsay and I were so muddy to prove it. It wasn't until a young man long boarding down the canyon saw us and said he had a truck and would come and pull us out. We were hoping it was a big truck and it was thankfully. It was a 77 Chevy and oh it was pretty. He pulled us right out.

When Nick and I get in these situations we laugh about it more than we get upset because it is just funny situations. It was cold, but we weren't worried at all. These situations always make me so thankful I married an easy going, but hard working man.

We didn't have the camera at the actual seen. BUMMER. But we tried to show how dirty our car was and how gross we were because we were COVERED in wet mud. This picture does not do justice AT ALL! Just use your imagination.

The weekend before that our Aunt Sue came down for a gymnastics meet. She judges meets all over the country because she is the best. We were able to see BYU vs U of U. I love gymnastics and it is great seeing it live. We got to see Sue in her element and then of course hang out with her after. She was too sweet and took us out for dinner at Goodwood Barbecue. Yummy.

Finally, this last weekend we headed up to North Utah and saw some of our childhood best friends, Melissa and Dave. They have a little girl who is 1 and she is too cute. We all brought a plethora of junk food and yummy food and had a filling General Conference weekend. Spiritually filling as well as our stomachs filling. We had a blast Dave and Bwee, THANKS!

This month is March Madness..... I went in to Nick's room one day and saw that he was working hard while the Duke game was on.

We love playing games, and Nick usually wins, but I was winning and I got really excited about it, about 3 times around the board Nick took the win from me with some good moves. This picture makes me laugh.

Happy!

2011-03-18T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hello friends! I wanted to let you know we are still alive and having a blast with life. We have been super busy.

This whole month of March I am in my Practicum for school. For those who do not know what that involves, I teach in a classroom for one whole month and I am observed 3 different times. I teach about 1 - 3 lessons a day. On top of that I still have all of my other assignments to accomplish. So to say the least I am pretty busy! (This is not considered student teaching)

I absolutely love my students. I wish I could show you a picture of them, but unfortunately it is against the law to post any pictures of them. Nick has told me this month that I am so happy everyday when I come home. Let me tell you I am!! Saying I love what I am doing is an understatement. I LOVE LOVE LOVE TEACHING! I wish I was done with school now and teaching full time. Who needs one more semester of classes and one semester for student teaching..... well unfortunately I do. Bummer. Oh well.

Nick has been super busy as well and has finished his software he wrote for his company!!! I am so proud of him!!! This is huge!!!! He has worked on this project for more than 3 years. WAY TO GO HUNNY! He works so hard for us. Now, he has another HUGE project for his company and lets face it, when software is developed its never over and you constantly need to update it.

Just wanted you to know.... we are alive and both love what we are doing. Life is so GREAT!!!

Valentine's Day and Smore....

2011-02-19T16:02:00.001-08:00

Valentine's Day is always such a blast every year. Nick and I have so much fun planning what we are going to do for the big date. Nick and I have a tradition in switching Valentine's Day every year. That means that we take turns in planing the whole day or night out. This year was my year.

Because I have class on Monday and Wednesday till late.... I had to set up most of Valentine's Day beforehand. I decorated our family room by setting up a Valentine's picnic. It was super cute. This picture does not do justice to how cute it was. I set our places with our china and huge heart cookies to decorate, as well as a children's love book I got him one year for valentine's day, and candles everywhere.

That night when I got home, all of these chocolate covered strawberries and bananas were decorated and he had started dinner that I had planned. I was tickled. He is the greatest husband.

A long time ago we had sloppy joes and homemade fries for our Valentine's Day dinner. We decided to keep that a tradition and make sloppy joes and garlic fries for dinner if we didn't go out somewhere. We love this tradition because the food is always soooooooo delicious!

Well, our night was perfect!! With candle light and romantic music on in the background.... it was great. Nick is always so great and dances with me in our kitchen ALL THE TIME! My parents do this... to this day, and Nick and I both love that they dance in the kitchen together. he has made an effort to do this with me, without me even asking him. He sure knows how to make me weak in the knees. So, we danced and danced to the lovely music in our family room It was an amazing Valentine's Day.

On another note, my sweet Dad comes up to the city quite a bit now because of work. Whenever he comes down we try and spend at least one fun night with him. He has been here this whole week, so we were able to go up and see him yesterday.

We started our night by going to this amazing authentic Italian pizza place my great friend Mckenna told me about, Sette Bello. It was DELICIOUS! Nick and I have not gone to Italy yet, so I really don't know, but my friend Mckenna lived in Italy for a while and my dad has been to Italy a few times, so I knew it was authentic.

I love how we don't have to have anything planned and our evening always ends up being the greatest adventure! After dinner, we headed up to say hello to one of my great aunts, my dad's aunt, but she wasn't there unfortunately. After we stopped by 7-11 because it seriously has the best hot chocolate EVER!!! I am not kidding. Nick and I have been to many coffee houses and places and no one can beat 7-11's hot chocolate. You just have to know the secret (I will tell you if you ask me). After that, we walked through temple square, then headed back to the hotel to play some games.

Our cousins, Shelly and Chris were in town so before we even made it up into the hotel room, we were laughing and spending time with them. The next thing we know, we are all in the "Just Go With It" movie laughing so hard.

The night came to an end, but we sure seemed to fit tons of stuff in. I just love my dad, and his laugh and personality is contagious!! I am so glad we get to see him so much because he seriously is the best.

Play Time

2011-02-06T07:57:00.001-08:00

Between work and school all week, we are ready for a break by the weekends. Trust me, we pack them in with lots of fun activities!

Instead of trying to catch you up to what we have done, I will start with last weekend so this blog post does not end up being longer than it already is.

Last weekend, Nick and I went for a GORGEOUS hike. We have all of these beautiful mountains right next to us so we searched a trail and went for it. We have never been snow shoeing, and apparently when you hike in the snow you should have snow shoes, but we didn't mind, we still went.

At the beginning of the hike, there was a muddy trail we followed and then after 15 minutes of hiking we didn't have a trail. Instead we made one up. We figured as long as we were going up the mountain that was good.

We got to see many different animal tracks in the snow including baby tracks. It was really neat.

This was such a cool valley in between the mountains. The picture doesn't do justice. I kept thinking a bear was going to come out because it was a perfect cave-like valley. No bear.

When we sat down for lunch nothing stopped Nick from making a snow angel. Snow ending up getting in his pants.

I mentioned we didn't have snow shoes, right? Well, the funny part about that is the groves in my shoes kept filling with snow and I would fall. So this is how I looked probably 25% of the time on the way down. It was pretty hilarious. I got soaked, but it felt nice because I was so hot.

After our awesome hike, we came home, dried off, and changed our clothes because we were pretty wet after that. About 20 minutes later we jumped in the car and headed to Seven Peaks Ice Arena to ice skate.

He is the happiest and greatest man I know.

Do you ever do tricks when you ice skate? We do. This is one that he came up with.

I loved skating on the ice because it reminding me of my brother Landon. He played ice hockey before he left on his mission and this is where they practiced. I miss him.

After coming home, we couldn't rest too long because all of my sisters were in Utah, except for Mattie (We missed her so much). B was staying with Lou Lou and Andy Rice for a couple of days and then they headed down on Saturday afternoon to party with Nick and I.

Rooga came to Utah for scholarship auditions at UVU and we got to see her a little bit too. She stayed with a good friend of our family's, Lauren, because she is a dancer at UVU as well.

Saturday night was filled with games, the wii, Cafe Rio and the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. There is nothing like an amazing dinner and a caramel apple for dessert. YUM!

On Sunday, we all went to church and then hung out some more. Nick and I made an especially delicious meal for all of us. One of our best friends came over too, Steph! Steph is like a sister to all of us so we all wanted her there.

Unfortunately Rooga didn't come so that was a big bummer.

There were a lot of women at the house and Nick definitely held down the fort. He told me once during the night, "I now know how dad feels having all of these girls around."

My sisters are my best friends and I love when we are all together. Its the best.

This weekend, we headed up to Park City to spend the night with some cousins. Annie and Ian were staying in the St. Regis Resort and invited Kristen and Brent, Nick and I, Ian's sister and her roommate up for dinner and the Freestyle World Championships.

We just love Annie and Ian, and Kristen and Brent. They are so much fun to be around. We are fortunate to live close to Kristen and Brent, but Annie and Ian live in Colorado which is a bummer because we have so much in common. (i.e. outdoorsy things)

Nick and I riding the St. Regis Funicular up to the Resort on the mountain. (I didn't know what a funicular was until I rode on one, it is kind of like a gondola, but not. You can look it up it you are really interested.)

After hanging out and having a delicious meal we headed up the slopes for the Freestyle World Championships.

I couldn't believe how few of people were there. It was free, and there were probably 200 people there if that. I was amazed!!! Seeing this on TV is amazing, but nothing like seeing it in person. UNBELIEVABLE!!!! These men and women were extremely talented.

The lights are really bright so you cannot really see, but we were so close.

Nick, Ian and Annie.

The whole group back at the St. Regis.

Because it was so cold, we came back and had some hot chocolate. What an amazing night.

Nick and I have wanted to go sledding for quite some time because we got brand new sleds from Lindsay and Andy for Christmas. Nick found the most beautiful place up Hobble Creek Canyon. It had snowmobiling, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, tubing and sledding.

The drive and view was breathtaking on the way up this canyon. When we arrived, we and one other family of 4 had the entire hill to ourselves! Talk about lucky!

We gave our sleds a go and WOW are they fast.

Nick in action.

These sleds are so fast that we flew up and over this hill behind Nick. That hill is supposed to stop you from flying over it. It was pretty funny and a little a painful landing on the other side.

Me in action.

I don't think Nick and I have laughed this hard in a long time. What an amazing afternoon.

After, we came home and warmed up a bit, we headed to our cousins' place (Tim and Aubrey) to play and have dinner. They have the most darling children, and Tim and Aubrey make us laugh pretty hard. We are so lucky we live close to them.

Well, thats all for now folks.

My Kind of Scrapbooking and Californians Living in the Snow

2011-01-12T10:47:00.001-08:00

***If you LOVE LOVE LOVE scrapbooking the traditional way I would not go any further if you get offended easily****

Ever since Nick and I have been married we have created a memory book at the end of the year and we LOVE IT! I was once told by someone that "I would feel differently about scrapbooking once I got married." Well let me tell ya, NOTHING HAS CHANGED! I still hate the normal type of scrapbooking because:

It takes way to much time
SO MUCH MONEY
I feel like you decorate a whole page and it takes away from what you really are trying to focus on, THE PICTURE

I don't usually go on about this, but let me tell you about my experience. So far... we have three books and they don't take up more than a 1/4 inch of bookshelf space. Everybody loves them and looks at them when they come over to our house. They are really light and so much fun to look at. And finally the best part of all.... It took us 1 1/2 hours to do the entire book, it will be here in 2 days, and we got it on sale for $30! Now that is my kind of scrapbooking!!!! One book we didn't get on sale and it still only cost $60. That is amazing compared to how much money you spend on one scrap book.

I think if you are a avid scrap booker that is awesome. If it is a hobby of yours, GREAT that is totally awesome. I did it a couple times before I got married and hated it! All in all I feel it saves me time and money. That leaves me more time to play and have fun with my hubby and more money to do fun things!!! In the end I have GREAT looking memory books and I am sure you do to.

Our Utah and Snow Experience Thus Far:

The snow is not bad. Everyone seems to ask us if we are hating it. No we are not hating it. We have had so much fun in Utah. We felt like when we lived in Irvine, that was our home. We feel the same way about our home here in Provo, it is our home. I feel extremely blessed because I really feel we make home wherever we go. As long as we have each other that is where our home is.

Now, I do feel that living close to family would be fun, but if we don't end up back in California, that is OK.

Shoveling snow is a new hobby of ours we have picked up. Our cousin Jaime said you have to look at it as "exercise." I believe that to be true. It is kind of fun, until the sky dumps feet of snow on to you and then you get a fun workout. Nick is always so kind to do it most of the time, but wow, it is a workout.

Walking to school. I love walking to school, I still do it even though it is Winter. Walking to school wakes me up because it is cold and it gives you so much time to just think and ponder, the only thing I have learned that you need is to get shoes that will grip, because I slip all over the place with flat shoes. It is pretty funny... until you fall down the stairs because of it. Ouchy.

UTAH IS SO DRY! I have never in my life had to use as much lotion and moisturizer as I do now. WOW it is dry and makes your skin crack and makes you itch all the time. It is interesting.

I will step off my soap box now.

Christmas Time Part 2

2011-01-06T14:35:00.001-08:00

Here are more pictures of Christmas Time!

Here we are at Temple Sqaure in SLC!

This was such a cool nativity. It was in the middle of the reflection pool floating.

We spent Christmas with Nick's family this year. We got to see my family too, but for the holiday we stay at one person's home so it doesn't get stressful.

Nick wrestling with Gavin and Mattie. Mattie loves Gavin and usually comes to play with him at least once when we are there.

Nick playing with one his Christmas gifts, the Wii Fit. We love this thing. It is awesome.

I have been in the mood to do a puzzle for a long time. Let me give you a heads up if you like puzzles, DO NOT DO THEM ON CRAZY PATTERNED FABRIC! It is so hard. I finished.... it probably took me longer that it needed to because I couldn't move it without breaking it.

Mom Olsen and Tiffany-Ann always plan awesome meals. This picture usually has all of us in it working away at th Holiday meals.

Nick got a duffle bag!!!

Hm...... what do you think this is? This is the greatest gift ever so you will have to wait!

Gavin was so good at helping me open my presents. NO WAY! A french fry cutter! Awesome! Nick also got me and deep fryer, and a griddle/grill pan I have wanted FOREVER.

And the gift you have been waiting for is........

Balloons? Jordan really, you got me balloons!? Yes to go along with your 200 yd. Water balloon launcher!

One day we decided to go to the LA Science Center/Museum.

Nick and Mattie trying to pull the car up! Successful!

Hurricane similator. Yup 78.4 MPH. Nick and Nick thought it was weak. Mattie just laughed the whole time.

I am not going to try and explain what this is, it will take to much time.

Good thing that pole is there because I would have flown away.

They had this really cool jet outside. It was HUGE!

Now.... To test out the Christmas gift!

He must like this pose!

Tiffany-Ann giving it a try. HAHA I like the man in the background. He and his son came over and told us we were holding it wrong. It was pretty funny. So..... we ended up trying his method, and then went back to our method.

Mom Olsen taking a shot.

Gavin was loving this.

Nick was awesome!

Nicholas got an awesome shot from behind. You can see the balloon in mid air if you look hard enough.

For some reason we don't have a picture of Nick Raichart doing it. We had a blast and Nick loves his new toy. He has wanted one ever since he was a boy. Definitely awesome!

We had an amazing Christmas with our families. Now, we are back to school and work exciting as well as stinky.

Its been an amazing year! We look forward to all the adventures we will have this year.

Christmas Time

2010-12-31T14:02:00.001-08:00

Our Christmas this year was fabulous! It is every year, but every year comes with so many fun adventures and family!

This year we decided we needed to hold on to one of the best traditions of Nick's family. I had a girls night with some of my best friends, Jen and Noelle. Steph was going to come, but couldn't, instead Matt, Noelle's fiance came which was really fun. Nick just wanted to eat them so he did such a great job at that.

Here is a picture of Jen and I just getting started at the TONS AND TONS of cookies I made (You cannot see all of them, but trust me there were tons).

Here is the tradition: Nick's mom has a tree she puts up around Christmas time and she makes these cookies ornaments and hangs them up in the tree after making them, decorating them, wrapping them and hanging them. Each person who comes to her house during this time of year gets to take a cookie off the tree. It is super sweet, so I decided to do the same thing..... sort of. I made all of these cookies, and only a few people came over after we made them (We made them after Finals were over) so I made sure the girls took plenty home, and that I had plenty for us to give to others and of course, some for US TOO!

Nick and I decided to go an see the lights at Temple square! It was absolutely gorgeous! I have never seen anything like it before. It was freezing, but definitely worth it.

Here we are at Temple Square. (We have more pictures I will have to post)

After finals we finally got tons and tons of snow. Of course this is after "The biggest blizzard of the century!" Nick and I decided to enjoy the snow while we are here in Utah and play in it as much as possible. So we did!

First off, here is our cute home! Covered in snow! We have been introduced to shoveling snow now. Our backs are getting pretty strong!

We decided to build an awesome snowman!

Nick wanted to make sure it was pretty round so we, patted, patted and patted some more snow and.....

Here he is! Isn't he round!

I have tons of other pictures I want to share with you, but here is a start!

"That's How You Know" from Disney's ENCHANTED (Full Clip)

2010-12-15T18:04:00.000-08:00

This makes me smile!

We Have So Much To Be Thankful For!

2010-12-11T09:28:00.001-08:00

Nick and I went to Colorado this year for Thanksgiving and spent it with my immediate as well as extended family. We were able to catch the same flight as my sister and brother-in-law which made it that much more fun!

We got a lot of snow before left Utah and a lot of flights got cancelled so I was glad ours did not (We also flew out the day after we got the storm which made it easier).

As soon as we got into Colorado we dropped our stuff off at one of our favorite Aunts house (Aunt Becky) and started playing lots. It was pretty late, but our Aunt Effie made her famous Gyros so we of course couldn't resist! My family has so much fun laughing and reminiscing and teasing each other, so we did it for a couple of hours even though it was 11:30PM or so.

The next day was super busy getting Thanksgiving ready. The boys of course headed off to play football (It was super cold and all of my cousins we in shorts and a sweatshirt if that... they were crazy). Nick decided to come with me considering my cousins are big guys! (My cousin Joe is about 350 lbs., and the others are just big guys, and Nick didn't want to get crushed) Andy braved it especially because Joe was on his team! Nick and I were freezing our bums off so we decided to go and help the ladies at Grandma's house.

I was so proud because Nick was the only man there helping out. I have the greatest husband, let me tell you.

My whole family was there except Landon whom we missed so very much (I cannot believe we get to talk to him soon!!!). Thanksgiving dinner was of course delicious! Our family has gotten so big we barely fit inside grandma's house. We could barely move because their are so many people in our family now, and it just keeps growing (Which is good!!!).

That night we went to the movies because it is a tradition in my family to go to a movie. Well, Lou Lou, Andy Rice, Rooga and Mattie went to see Harry Potter (Nick and I had already seen it), Dad and Nick went to see Fair Game, and I really really wanted to see Tangled and my mom didn't want me to go alone so she and my Aunt Lori, Uncle Duane and cousin Steven went to see Tangled. I am pretty sure WE PICKED THE BEST MOVIE! It was so good. I LOVED IT! WOW! If you haven't seen it! You have got to!!!! WOW!

The next day, we were busy preparing for B's surprise baby shower that my Aunt Effie has been planning for 3 months. She worked so hard. Here are some pictures of the tables of food she did.

B was surprised and couldn't believe she was already having a baby shower considering they don't know what they are having yet (They find out next week! I am so excited). Lou Lou and I were in charge of the games and we had so much fun planning them. Our family is so competitive as well so, you can imagine how much fun and how loud it was!!!! It was the best, nothing like a shower where no one wants to play games.... SO BORING! Lou planned one where you melt a bunch of different candy bars in different diapers and you have to guess what the baby ate to make its poop like that. It was awesome, everyone loved it and some even tried the "poop" (aka chocolate) to guess what it was. B and Ralph got a lot of stuff, but I think the best gift was from Lou Lou and I. We got her some books, a blankie (lots of history if you know our B), a bumbo, and of course some awesome bath toys!!!!! All of the gifts had to do with fun memories we had growing up.

The next day, Andy, Lou Lou, Rooga, Nick and I went to the Denver zoo. We had so much fun!!!

Andy, Me and Lou Lou ready to play!

I think this was a hyenas skull eating my head. Not good!

Posing with the black bears. They were so lazy and so cute.

The monkeys loved Rooga. Everywhere she went they would follow her. We were laughing so hard. She was freaked out while she was laughing.

There was this cool sign saying how far can you jump and compared you to an animal. Of course we all wanted to compete, so we did! Here I go!

Nicholas practicing his jumping stance.

Rooga got pretty far I have to say! Her thighs are so muscular! Crazy muscular woman!

BUT, not as good as Nick!

Or Andy Rice!

Us girls wanted to pose with the cute hippos!

We imagine they would be pretty comfortable!

Lovely way to get off huh?!? Not to girly, I don't care though it was a blast.

The boys showing the hippos who is boss!

They are really wrestling those fatties!

WATCH OUT NICK!

Even though this was fake, I was still pretty freaked out, I kept thinking it was going to be like Harry Potter and come alive and actually eat me!

October

2010-11-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

October was so much fun! We had a great start to the month by having some of our best friends over for General Conference weekend. Dave, Bwee, Audrey and Jen came over and we had quite the party. The weekend was full of feasting, as well as laughing, playing with Audrey, catching up on everything, going on a long walk, and of course the boys reminiscing and playing games they used to play from their childhood!

Listening to the apostles and prophet had to be the best, but good friends and good food come in a close second.

The boys found this game they used to sneek when they would watch general conference as little boys. The game was called "Lode Runner." They were so into it. Although I have to say, Audrey was the cutest in this picture, sorry boys. Come play with us soon guys we loved having you!

Each and every week is filled with work, work and more work for both of us, so when the weekends come around we like to play, play and play some more. It has started getting pretty chilly here and we realized we don't have any warm clothes. We decided to go shopping and buy some snow gear. We now have snow coats and snow pants. We are trying to add more warm clothing to a wardrobe as it gets colder. Our California blood is still pretty thin, I wish it would thicken up BEFORE the winter comesm but I know I am going to freeze my bum off. The heat is on everyday, I know I am a wimp right now. I know I will get used to it some time soon. I did when I lived in Rexburg so I have to here, right?

For Halloween weekend Nick and I decided to do our favorite thing and go for a hike. We found this trail that leads to a waterfall. It was really pretty and the pictures do not do justice, but that could be because we are in need of a new camera and because pictures usually don't do justice.

This bridge is so cute, or shall I say the bridge is cute because of the handsome man on it!

We wanted to carve our pumpkin earlier, but we were just too busy, so we put on a "classic" movie and I started to carve away. Nick wasn't sure he wanted to participate until I was done cleaning out the pumpkin and then he knew he wanted to help so he jumped right in. He is so silly.

The finished product! Oh yeah! We love the crazy face pumpkins they are our favorite!

I was so proud of our pumpkin, I just had to give it a love. Yeah, I know, I had never hugged a pumpkin like this before either, but I liked it I have to admit.

I am not superstitious... but I mean COME ON!

2010-10-08T17:34:00.000-07:00

So... I happen to be born on August 3rd. I am also the third child and third daughter in my family. I am the third granddaughter on my mom's side. My dad was 30 when he had me. Nick reported to the MTC on the 3rd of August. Whenever you are in groups and their is a "3" involved usually I end up in that group. Hotel rooms that we stay in for some reason usually have the number "3" in them. These are very FEW of the things that come in three's in my life. I am not kidding. It just happens to be that way. It is pretty funny and my family as well as Nick since he has been married to me has noticed this strange thing. These things happen all the time!

Well the reason I am going off of this whole number 3 thing is today another random thing happened. My husband Nick told me to google his name today "Nick Olsen." He is the third on the list. Coincidence, YES, but things like this are so weird and happen frequently that I just needed to say, WOW! Think I am weird? Its alright I do too and I love it.

Life Is So Fun!

2010-09-12T09:28:00.001-07:00

This summer was so much fun! I cannot believe Fall is already here. Although I have to say that Fall is my favorite season of all time. I love the weather changing, the leaves changing and of course the Holidays.

Well, there are a couple things that I have to catch everyone up on. At the end of August, my family, Nick and I, Uncle Mark Greenhaulgh and the Ryser Family all headed to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. This is a tradition for my family and we have many fun memories there together as a family. I was so excited to take Nick because he has never been before. (He is such a good sport. He goes to things like this with my family all the time because we love the Arts.)

The Rysers have a beautiful home in St. George and they were so kind to let us all stay there. Of course this entailed us talking to wee hours in the morning and laughing our heads off! Julie and my mom made the most delicious meals as well. It was perfect.

We had plays to go to each and every day while we were there. I planned out our whole itinerary which was so much fun. The Shakespeare plays in the outdoor theater are always my favorite. Much Ado About Nothing was probably my favorite play, but I really did enjoy The Merchant of Venice. Nick actually liked those the best too. He was laughing and smiling through it so I know he enjoyed it. The festival also does musicals and comedies during the day that are not Shakespeare and we went to all of the shows except one.

Here is my Mattie May after seeing "Great Expectations" with William Shakespeare. She is perfect in our family.

I wanted to tell Mr. William that I am quite enjoying this festival and my mom caught me whispering to him.

My beautiful Sister Rooga! She is such a woman now. Watch out boys.... She is a knock out.... Be careful or else all of us sisters will knock YOU out! We have so many fun memories because we shared a room my whole time at home. How I love this little girl. (She is not so little now, but she will always be my little rooga!)

All of us girls posing with Juliet from "Romeo and Juliet." Mattie, Me, Rooga, Holland and Kari Ryser.

Friday night was my favorite, we all went to see Tarzan at the Tuacahn Theater in St. George. The man playing Tarzan actually went to BYU and was a Young Ambassador. Jane was my favorite because she had a beautiful singing voice, and I recognized in the end that she is PREGNANT!

"Crazy For You" is playing as well at the Tuacahn theater. We did not go and see it, but I am crazy for Nick so I wanted to take this pciture with him.

Our week was full of fun and plays. We wish Lindsay, Andy, B and Ralph could of been there with us and we missed them, but we still had a blast!

SCHOOL HAS STARTED! I am so busy with school. I am only taking 15 credits right now which is not that many, but I am taking 7 classes and the work load feels like 25 credits. I cannot believe it has been 2 1/2 years since I was at BYU-Idaho. It is such a great feeling to be back. I love my classes and am having so much fun here at BYU. Nick thinks it is weird for me to be studying so much when he feels like he should be the one studying all the time.

Because I am so busy with classes, homework and assignments during the week, we really look forward to our weekends. A couple weekends ago we hiked to Bridal Veil Falls. It is not hard or a long hike to get to the bottom of the falls, but we actually hiked up the mountain to the beautiful part.

Here we are at the top of the mountain.

These Falls were so pretty especially because the sun was in a perfect spot that reflects the top of the falls.

I was soaking wet! It was so worth it.

My eyes are so weird looking in this picture.

Me climbing up the steep side of the mountain.

This is what it looks like 1/4 of the way up.

He gets more handsome each and everyday!

We have been so busy this summer with Nick graduating, moving to Utah and tons and tons of trips. We were super busy around our 2 year anniversary and were not able to go out of town. We really wanted to but we decided to wait and celebrate it a little bit later. Well here were are 2 years and 3 months later and we finally were able to go do a trip and celebrate our anniversary!

I was lucky enough to not have any classes on Fridays, so this past Thursday afternoon we packed up our car and headed to Nick's Grammy's Family Cabin in Lamb's Canyon.

Where the cabin is located is absolutely gorgeous. It is private and you have to have a key to get to the road that leads to the top of the mountain where Grammy's cabin is conviently located. It was SO cold and actually snowed on Thursday night. Our view was impecable! Of course pictures never do any justice, but what a romatic weekend. Grandpa actually said to Nicholas "Can you think of anything better than having your bride stuck with you in a cabin all weekend?"

Here is part of the view. It was breathtaking!

It is so hard when you don't have another person to take your photo together! What a bummer! Oh well, we will live.

You cannot really see our faces in this photo because of the shadows, but look at the scenary.

Because it was so cold, Nick constantly added wood to the wood burning stove to keep us warm. Of course snuggling is what really kept us warm. That is the best and my favorite! Maybe that's why I love the Fall so much.

One day we went down to Park City for lunch and to see their snow clothes since we are from California and don't have ANY! Here we are at Park City Resort. It looks so funny without any snow and without skiers and snowboarders flying down the slopes.

We got an AMAZING deal on some snow pants! We each got a pair so we can play in the snow this winter. We also got the most delicious carmel apples at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. We had so much fun at the cabin. We actually went hiking and found Salamandar Lake. It really is more of a pond, but it was created by beavers. We love hiking so this was super fun to explore the mountains.

I had the best anniversary! My husband is the greatest husband any woman could ask for. I love him so much.

Family in TOWN!

2010-08-04T12:00:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was full of spending time with our nieces, nephew and brother and sister-in-law! It was so much fun. Annette drove down from Seattle with the kids and came to our home in Provo. We have not seen them since last summer so we were so anxious to see them. After about 10 minutes first things first. Wrestle with Uncle Nicholas. They were super busy. We have this really fun couch with SO MANY PILLOWS! Here is how hard they worked together to get Nicholas under all of the pillows. Those legs under the pillows are Nicholas'.

(Our camera is having some issues so I will have to show you some more pictures later.) We had so much fun. The kids and I made homemade pizza for dinner. It was quite the event. After dinner, we went on a walk to where Annette and Kimball used to live. It turns out they only lived a 2 blocks over from us. AND.... Nick and I looked at their old home when were looking for a place here in Provo. We were laughing pretty hard when she showed us.

That night was fun when the little ones were going to sleep. Kian was Nick's buddy and came in a couple times. Here is what he was doing.

Just asking Nick all about what he was doing and why.

He was not ready to go to bed yet. He just talked and talked away.

The next morning we picked up Kimball from the airport and headed east to Altamont Utah. We stayed at Annette's Family's Ranch the whole weekend. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! They have the most beautiful land. I kept having the coolest cowgirl dreams each night because I was having so much fun . ( Annette took tons of pictures. I will have to get them from her and then show you some more.) We were expecting to work lots. That is what we wanted to do. That is what you do on a Ranch. They had two family parties during the weekend so we didn't work as much as we expected to.

Annette took us on a tour of the ranch and answered so many of my questions. I was so interested. I don't think I stopped smiling all weekend. We did herd some cows while there which I was super excited about.

Annette and I went horse back riding the last day which was so fun. I did not grow up on a ranch... but my dad had a farm growing up and had to work so hard all the time and I remember going up the farm and having the greatest memories with my family and working hard...etc. Well, I smelt so many familiar smells at Annette's Ranch that I used to smell at the farm. It brought a lot of memories back.

It makes me happy to work hard and get your hands dirty. You end up getting pretty stinky in the end as well. I just love that feeling. Seriously. You feel like you accomplished a lot.

Annette's family was so kind and really fun to be with.

Here I am on "Rounder." He was such a fun horse. I was laughing and smiling the whole time.

We also got to go to Annette's sister-in-laws and see the baby deer she was taking care of. Stacey is a Vet-Technician, and officers drop off wild animals all the time for her to take care of that are either sick, hurt or motherless. It was so cool how the deer would let us pet it.

The deer hung out in the backyard. It was so interesting how it would just stay there.

Dylan, Kian and Nicholas.

Thanks Kimball and Annette. We had the GREATEST WEEKEND WITH YOU!

Oh yeah!

2010-07-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

Nick and I saw this commercial in the movie theater. We were dying. You have gotta take a look!

YUP.... We are Utahans!

2010-07-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

We officially are Utahans. Pretty exciting. Our first weekend here was the Fourth of July. We went to the "Stadium of Fire" concert this year because Carrie Underwood was going to be there. She was breathtaking. She sounds just as good if not better live then she does on her CD's. We thought Carrie Underwood and the fireworks were awesome. The announcers were kind of cheesey and said some pretty funny things that you probably would only get away with.... in a state like Utah.

We were really close to the stage. It was fun because Carrie Underwood is a pretty small woman so when she came out we were like "where is she" and we were super close.

On the fourth of July we went and had family dinner with Grammy and Grandpa Anderson. We are so excited we get to be apart of family dinner now. Its nice being close to so much extended family that you never get to see.

This past weekend we drove up to Hyrum and spent the day with Lindsay and Andy Rice. It was so much fun. We have been wanting to go on Andy's boat for quite some time now and we got to go. He actually took us where he goes bow fishing. Well, you can only guess what happened next.....

He told Nick to grab a bow and arrow and get up there and shoot some fish. It was so much fun! I didn't fish because I was having a blast watch Andy Rice and Nicholas do it. Andy is a PRO! He is totally awesome. He caug

ht quite a few. There were very few times he missed.

Lou Lou was the co-captain of the boat. She drove it so Andy and Nick could shoot. Andy Rice says Lou loves driving the boat.

They wanted me to try driving the boat. I am not going to lie. IT WAS TRICKY. Can't you tell by the look on my face?

I just started laughing because I felt like I was 15 again learning how to drive. A little bit different without a wheel.

What a handsome husband I have. Oh man.

The captain of the boat... Mr. Andy Rice.

The boys shootin' the fish. They are pretty much the same size it is so funny!

One of the many fish Andy Rice caught.

Nick caught one! WOO HOO! The fish was hanging by its skin. That fish was definitely not feeling well.

We had such a fun day with Andy Rice and Lou Lou. We are so excited to be close to them. They are the greatest.

My sweet Nick exhausted after a long days work. He works so hard for us. (thanks hunny your the best)

Nick and I love the outdoors, and there is so much to do in this state. The first Monday Nick had off we went on a beautiful hike up to Stuart Falls in Provo Canyon.

Nick being adventurous and hiked right up to the falls.

My first attempt to get a shot of him.

It was such a hot day and being right next to these falls cooled us off a bit.

It was so different hiking here with tons of taller greens. We are used to more flat greens.

We are so excited to try different hikes and go to different beautiful places here. We are enjoying every bit of it while we are here.

June... What a great month!

2010-07-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

WOW! We have had the most exciting and crazy month! June that is. WOW! Where to begin.

Nicholas graduated from UCI in the middle of June! He graduated with the "Magna Cum Lade" Award. He was awarded this top award because he was in the top 3% of his graduating class! WOO HOO! What a smarty pants. He is excited he finally has his bachelors degree, but excited to move on to some exciting things.... like working! haha. For those who don't know us as well... Nicholas has been working full time and going to school full time.... CRAZY I know. His life will be a little more calm now. He really does balance his life out amazingly well. I have never seen someone so dedicated. I love that about him. Nick did not want to walk, so for me he took some pictures in front of the UCI sign.

I made sure to get an extremely embarrassing display of balloons for him! The heat kind of deflated them a bit. Look how happy he is!

Right after he graduated we packed up our cute apartment in Irvine and headed to Provo Utah. We moved into our little ADORABLE home just south of BYU. We were so excited to move here because we are ready for a different exciting adventure.

We had two days to unpack once we got here in Provo Utah. (Well, I unpacked because Nick needed to work) I unpacked and then we headed out on the first flight on Friday morning back to California with my sister Lindsay.

That night was busy with my sister Regan dancing her booty off at her dance company's show. She is quite the amazing dancer and dances about 30 hours a week on average. CRAZY! She homeschools so she can focus on her dance so much. She is extremely motivated.

On Saturday, my sister B had her bridal shower. Very fun. I cannot believe she is getting married in just a couple of weeks. It is going to be beautiful. Oh yeah... The bridal shower we super fun.

A couple days later we headed down to Arizona with both sides of our family to celebrate Nicholas and his accomplishment of graduating! We went backpacking to the Indian Reservation Havasupai. A lot of us got to go.... My Side: Dad, Mom, Mattie May and Uncle Mark

Nick's Side: Mom, Dad, Kimball, Taylor and Sue

So there was a total of 12 of us.

(This is kind of a backwards and forwards. WOOPS! It will be interesting!)

We got to take the helicopter out of Havasupai. Nick got the fron seat, but look how happy Mattie and Mark are.

The hike down to havasupai was about 11 miles. The hike is not too hard... the thing that makes it hard is the heat. We all had heat stroke about 2 miles before we got to our camp. We each had tons of water to drink while on the hike and the last couple miles we were out! YIKES. Well we were all kind of seperated, but my mom, mattie, mark, dad and I did. From the sounds of it the others got heat stroke too! (we started all together and then split up into, fastest group, medium and slow) We were in the medium speed group. As soon as we got down to the camp site we put our feet in the cold river and drank tons of water and felt much better.

This hike is hard in over 100 Degree weather.

That day was fun. The following morning we started hiking to the beautiful waterfalls.

These particular falls were GORGEOUS! The pictures definately do not do justice. It was as if we were in a dream. Here is my dad playing in the falls.

My Mama, Taylor and i just got out from swimming in this beautiful green water.

One day we hiked all day in the water. It was so fun and refreshing. Here is Nick and I at one of the many beautiful parts in this river.

The three of us had so much fun on this trip. They are my buddies!

This is Havasupai Falls. My Dad, Nick, Taylor and Kimball would climb under it and jump into the falls and under it and out. I went under the falls and felt like I could not breath. I got out as quickly as I could. (I prefer cliff jumping over this!)

Daddy, Mommy and Mattie climbing down in front of Mooney Falls.

After Cliff Jumping (you will soon see pictures) Mattie was so sad because she could not cliff jump because it was too high. Well we found this swimming area that had about a 8 foot jump that we all played on. Mattie was having a blast. She just giggled the whole time.

Nick and I just cliff jumped off of Rock Falls. it doesn't look that tall yet. Just wait.

Nick and I at bottom of where we were all jumping with Mattie.

My Dad cliff jumping off of Rock Falls. He was having so much fun. Doing the running man off of the cliff.

Nick jumping off and just having a blast.

Me jumping off. My mom said I had perfect "pencil form." Nick said watching me cliff jump was very sexy! HAHA. Nick didn't think I would do it. I am not sure why. I have told him many times I have done stuff like this all the time. I told him the trick is not to think about it and then you just jump. The thing is though.... I was falling for a long time I had time to think about if right about where this pictures was taken. I was thinking "Oh my goodness I still am falling and haven't hit the water!" Nick didn't need any tricks but we were all having a blast. My dad, Nick, Taylor and I all cliff jumped.

Dad, taylor, mattie, Mom, me, Nick and Kimball. Swimming at GORGEOUS Falls. I am not sure what they are called. They are brand new since the Flood. We are so lucky to see them!

My sexy husband!

Just getting sexier.

Here is the majority of the Falls. It was huge!

When I walked by that I could not believe I jumped off of that. It was huge. It was fun though.

Mooney Falls.

Nick and I on the beautiful water river hike.

The three of us girlies!

Mooney Falls behind us. (It was so hot it felt so good to get all our clothes wet because we dried really fast) That is why most of the pictures we don't bother to strip down to our bathing suits.

The whole group in front of Mooney Falls. (mom and dad olsen are missing. They couldn't come)Havasupaid Falls

Us on the hike down. We were at the village but still had a couple miles to go.

Our packs were awesome.

This is what it looks like while you are hiking down 11 miles. So pretty. You would never know what was coming unless someone told you of course.

We had the most amazing trip, and drove all night to provo. I just absolutely loved it.

We now are in our cute home in Provo and we are just loving life.

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

We had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend. It was such a blast. On Saturday, we went to the Scottish Festival. It was so much fun. I have never heard or seen so many bagpipes in my life. I also have never seen so many men wear kilts in my life!

The main reason we went to the Scottish Festival was because our friend, Jake, was competing in the Highland Games. We have never seen something this cool in a long time!!! It is this huge weight competition between this huge dudes that probably eat a cow for each meal. Jake throwing the weight over the bar. This weight is 52 lbs. It is like taking a huge Sparkletts water jug and throwing it over this high bar with one hand. The bar then goes up another level if you pass.This is the weight for distance. He does a fancy twist and throws this weight as far as he can.Sheaf toss. Basically it is a weighted hay stack and he has to throw it over the bar.Catapult. I think that is what this is called I am not sure though.Hammer throw. Here is Jake between all of his manly lifting! He did awesome!

We were totally sporting the kilts! We wanted to show our Scottish Pride! Nick looks pretty good in that kilt I have to say!

Captain I am ready for take off!

He is my muscle man! This didn't fit him before they chiseled out some of the steel to fit his abs and pecks. Oh yeah!

This was huge on Nick, but he looks great and ready for a war.

Our ears were ringing after the Scottish Festival with the bagpipes being played all day long, but what a cool day!

On Memorial Day, we went with our great friends Daniel and Caitlin to the San Diego Zoo. We had so much fun!

I was taking this photo at a bird show. A woman had just slipped and fallen into this pond of water. She got soaked! Daniel and Caitlin are the background.

In the new polar bear exhibit they have this steal crate type of wall that the polar bears can be fed some snacks. This polar bear loves peanut butter on his apples, but who doesn't... it is just too good.

This statue is the actual size of a grown polar bear. Nick would be squashed in a second. Daniel... probably would last 2 seconds. He has about half a foot on Nick.

We were looking at the Lions and we came upon this nasty sign. It says "Caution: Spray range 7-10 feet." Yeah this gate is about 2 feet from the Lions. SICK! Lets just say we didn't hang out at the Lion's Den very long.

We could not get a very good shot of the Elephants. They were super cute though. We saw one getting a pedicure. It was pretty funny and cool at the same time.

Caitlin, Daniel and I waiting for the Sea Lion show to start.

We had a fabulous time at the zoo. I have to say it was a gorgeous day and it really was not that crowded which made it even better. We love Caitlin and Daniel and will miss them when we move, but we are excited for our new adventure in Provo.

Nick and I are moving in a couple of weeks and I have already started packing up the stuff we are not going to be using everyday. I am super excited because we found a really cute home that we are going to rent in Provo while I finish school. We are really excited to be close to a lot of our extended family on both sides.

Nick's Birthday

2010-05-04T21:12:00.001-07:00

Nick's Birthday was on Saturday! It was so much fun! To start the day, we were able to go through a LA Temple session with my sister's unoffical fiance Ralph. He is a convert of one year and he is the sweetest guy. It was really special. After that we all went to an awesome Jewish Deli on Westwood called "Juniors."

At the end of the day we had special reservations at "Benihana." Nick didn't know where we were going so it made it a great surprise. It was so much fun!!!! Nicholas is 24 now. Can you believe it! We had the cutest little Japanese chef. It was awesome. We had a family that was pretty quiet at our table along with the loudest woman I have ever met, but really sweet (Those of you who think I am loud.... I am, but not as loud as this woman was) So with the combination of me and this loud woman it was awesome. We really gave the chef great support!!!
I made reservations a week and a half before Nick's birthday to make sure that we would get in. Well when I called they asked if it was for a celebration of some sort and I told them it was my husband's birthday. Well, another boy at the table was having a birthday as well. Well the other boy's family was upset because they signed up for something to get his birthday dinner for free and they wanted to make sure they got it. Anyway, they came and sang to this boy, but did not sing to Nick. Nick really did not mind because I had made him a JELLO CAKE (as requested) that was waiting for him at home and I told him I would make a production of the birthday song just for him. At the end of the meal, we had already paid the bill and were standing up and leaving and this really loud but sweet woman next to us said "I hope you have a Happy Birthday!" This Japanese woman was near us cleaning up and freaked out and said "Its your birthday? We did not sing to you!!! Sit down.... sit down!!!" (Say that in a thick asian accent) So we are laughing so hard because she brings out a pineapple (a benihana tradition for birthdays) along with 3 other people one of being the manager to sing to Nick. Then she takes a picture of us and prints it out on their fancy paper. It was quite the production. Really funny. We went home and had cake and ice cream! And then he opened up some gifts. One being a toiletry tote from his sweetheart!

An awesome book from his grammy and grandpa, and some others from Mom and Dad Ball and Lou Lou and Andy Rice. It was so much fun!

I love this man... A girl could not ask for a more handsome, more intelligent even more fun husband!! He is everything and more!!! Happy birthday my LOVE!

One Week in Paradise!!!

2010-04-03T18:32:00.001-07:00

We just got home from a vacation in Playa Del Carmen (AKA paradise)! We were gone for 7 days and each day was a blast. Some of our best friends went with us which made it even better. Steph and Jeff.

Everyday we went to sleep with our window open because it opened up to the beach and it was so peaceful to fall asleep to. We would usually wake up and just play all day in the ocean and pool. We would go Kayaking, read, play games.... basically everything relaxing that you just love doing. It was a beach day each and every other day. PERFECT! Plus the water was turquoise and you could see everything around you. So if anything was swimming with us we could see it. Pretty awesome.

Each night we would stroll 5th Avenue, find a restaurant to eat dinner at and stroll around. It was great!!!! (We all got pretty burnt as you tell!)

Jeff and Nick at the greatest restaurant!!! At least going in..... It was horrible going out.

Steph and I were so burned! But we had so much fun. I promise we put on sunscreen multiple times and still look what happens. One day we went to Xcaret. It is half a marine zoo and have entertainment. It is pretty awesome. The views are gorgeous everywhere in Playa Del Carmen! (It is EXTREMELY humid there so basically my hair was curly sue all week)

We were able to go to the Mayan Ruins. It was AMAZING! They even had LDS guides. We saw a guide wearing a "BYU" hat (WOO HOO!) and oh course we all say "Go BYU!" He told us he does a tour based upon the teachings of the Book Of Mormon. We were so excited and he said he would give us a tour after he did an Italian one but each tour is about 2 hours so we would of had to wait quite some time. We didn't end up finding him so we toured it ourselves. Here Nick is where you can see most of the ruins.

Isn't this Ocean the most beautiful thing! This is why we went here for a week. The water was so warm. OOOOODA LAWLEEEEE!

You cannot really see, but behind us is where the Mayans would sacrifice people. They would lay across this alter and then chop their head off or cut their heart out and let it roll down the huge pyramid like ruin. Gross but interesting.

We were guessing the Mayans were pretty small people because their door ways were just a smidgen smaller than Nick and I! We could of been perfect sized Mayans.

This photo is great because look at the guy next to me. Awesome.

When we would go Kayaking, we would go way way out into the dark dark blue part of the ocean and you could still see all the way to the bottom. Nick even saw some turtles. It was so cool.

This is what Nick's lips look like when I am done giving him smooches.

This little area was the neatest place with all the floors made artistically with broken tiles.

We were imitating blow fish. How do you think we did?

Each day we came back to our room.... the towels were made in creative shapes and animals. They made us an elephant and some swans as well. It was VERY neat.

Nicholas challenged me on this rope at Xcaret and being as competitive as I am, I took it! I felt like I ripped or tore my rotating cuff but guess what? I did not lose!!!! Neither did he. haha.

The whole gang at a yummy restaurant. Jeff's dinner came on fire and a pineapple made into a little man.

So.... that drink in front of me.... its a Pinata!! (virgin Pina Colada's are called Pinatas) Basically I had tons of them while we were there. This one was almost bigger than my head! That is pretty big, considering most people think I am head heavy.

Nicholas found his perfect size stool to go along with his perfect size guitar.

Anybody want to dance? OLE!

Honestly..... besides are skin.... we are practically native.

Nick and I won a shirt in this contest. Here's the shirt.

Nick when he was going up and getting it. I was of course really loud and embarrassing as I can be.

We were so happy to be where we were. You cannot see the background but imagine it was gorgeous and that is exactly how it was.

This was our view from our room. The sun came up about 5:30AM and because we slept with our window open all night we usually woke up pretty early.... or Nick did and when I woke up around 6:30AM and rolled over his eyes would be WIDE OPEN and he would say "GOOD MORNING! I am so glad you are up!"

One of the greatest parts of our trip was when I swam with the dolphins. Dolphins are my favorite animals and I have always dreamed and wanted to be a trainer. Nick so kindly let me buy the ultimate package with swimming with the dolphins. Only one other girl from France did the same thing. We were two girls in a huge pool swimming with two dolphins. I was able to swim with dolphins before in Florida, but it was nothing like this.

Two dolphins are actually pushing me all along the tank/pool (whatever you call it). It was so much fun. I was squealing and laughing the whole time. I was able to do this a couple of times.

The best part was just loving, touching, feeding and actually swimming with them for one hour. Nick definitely made one of my ultimate dreams come true. I was the happiest girl on earth. The trainers kept laughing at me and saying I was so happy and that they never had seen someone so happy while doing this. (They probably thought I was nuts.... I was as if I were a child all over again in a candy store)

Playa Del Carmen was paradise for a week. I was so sad when we left. I was happy to go home, but we were having so much fun and I didn't want it to end.

This was crazy because we are both from California and we are both used to seeing the sun look like it goes into the ocean at sunset. This picture was taken around sunset and it was interesting not to see that for the first time. We loved it here and really want to go back some time.

Our Decision

2010-03-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

I got into BYU! YAY! This is where we are headed this Fall. We are so excited and have lots to do, but for now...

Its time for a nice long vacation. **Sigh**

Where We Are Headed This Fall

2010-03-08T13:19:00.000-08:00

I wanted to update you all on what has been going on in our life! I just got accepted into BYU's Mckay School of Education. That is really exciting, but now we are just waiting to hear if I get into the actual school. We will see.... who knows. So weird that I could get into the program and not the school, but we will let you know ASAP!

If you did not know we have two choices: 1. BYU or 2. BYU-Idaho. I already got my associates from BYU-Idaho and I absolutely loved it! Basically we would be happy for the change of scenary because I am ALL ABOUT MOVING and CHANGING PLACES! We are too excited either way! We will let you know where the final decision is soon hopefully. There are a lot of things to way out.

Our weekends have been a blast! We don't have any pictures though. BUMMER! Oh well!

We are going to Playa Del Carmen, in a week and a half, for 7 days with some of our best friends so we will have lots to tell you and show you then!

Life is busy... but oh how it is GOOD!

2010-02-09T21:03:00.001-08:00

Life has been crazy busy! Sorry we have not updated you on whats been going on. We have way to much fun and go go go and then forget to post anything. We have done so much since the last time we posted, so I will just start with the last couple of weeks otherwise you would be here quite some time trying to catch up.

Nick and I are moving in about 4 months so we decided we are going to do something "CALIFORNIA FUN" each and every weekend. We usually have plans every weekend that is "California fun" but now we are making a conscience effort.

A couple of weeks ago we had some free tickets to go to Legoland (thank you so much "Dad" Peterson!!) We went with Tiffany-Ann, Nick and Gavin because we can never get enough of them. THEY ARE THE BEST! We love them so much and have so much fun with them.

In this picture I am actually in the "tank" or fish bowl. I am a pretty funny looking fishy!

Nick saw a man and thought he could use some help. He wasn't very successful so..... I decided I would try and help. Basically we didn't succeed. What a bummer!

We slid down this awesome slide!Thats right..... I won!

I thought this cop and I had similar cheesy smiles. What do you think?

This tourist asked for some help with his camera. (Those kids think I am nuts! Its great)

Nick saw a local celebrity at legoland.

We didn't post any pictures of Gavin, Tiffany-Ann, and Nick! I wanted to post some of the cutest pictures of Gavin but we will let them show you!

Nick, Tiffany-Ann and Gavin came and spent the night at our house before we went to Legoland. We all LOVE games and play them all the time when we are together. They introduced us to this game below!

This game is a crack up. I could not get enough of it! We ordered this game right away and have become very good BEAN FARMERS! Yup thats right. Thanks for introducing the greatest game TA and Nick.

A week before that we went to the Santa Ana Zoo with some of our best friends Caitlyn and Daniel. It is an itty bitty zoo but definately worth while.

On Nick's mission he got stuck in the sand many times. This brought back many memories!

He is not a crazy driver... but somehow he lost me on the way! BUMMER.

The BEST part of our day was when we got to ride...

AN ELEPHANT! That is right. Becky (the elephant) took us for a lovely stroll around the park! She was extremely hairy and I couldn't stop touching her.

LETS GO AROUND AGAIN! PLEASE!!!!!!!

Its all over.... THANKS BECKY! That was awesome.

So there you have it. We do random things like this each weekend. I will try and keep up with the posts, but I cannot promise.

The CRAZIEST day!

2009-11-18T19:55:00.000-08:00

Today I must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed. You ask why?! LET ME TELL YOU!

I woke up feeling sick (My poor hubby is sick and I cannot stand to not smooch him, therefore I always get sick). After trying to decide if I should go to work or not today because we are both sick I decided to go since we were not seeing any patients today. (I still work on those days)

I got in my car which was completely covered in morning dew/frost. I also had no gas. I pull into this gas station and could not see out of my rear window along with the side mirrors because of the frost. I finally found a space at this popular gas station and stuck my head out the window while backing up. I get out and realize I pulled in the wrong way and my gas tank is on the other side. (Your wondering why I would get confused if I drive it every day. Well, both of our cars' gas tanks are on the opposite sides of each other so after being in one and switching after getting gas in one and then the other.... You can get confused!) Anyway, back up and turn around the car to the correct side. I get out and try to pry my gas lid open. (The button no longer works and it stinks having to pry it open each time but its too expenive to fix a little button so I figured I would live with that a long time ago.) Its too frosted over to pry it my fingers because of the water/dew. I then get my paper towel I had for my bagel and wiped it off so I could try again to pry it open. Didn't work until I got my keys to pry it open. Then I put my credit card in and it says "Go see the attendant." Then he charged it because that machine for some reason does not work with credit cards. I then accidentally select the PREMIUM gas. Lovely!!!! so I start to laugh histerically thinking "Well my car is going to run really well!" I couldn't stop laughing thinking how odd this whole experience was.

Called Nick and told him and he said "I don't think you are meant to be out in the world today hunny. Be careful." So I am driving to work and a big truck rear ends my car two blocks away from work. I couldn't believe this! I was thinking ....... NICK WAS SO RIGHT!

Then I went to work and had some problems.

I am driving home randomly bawling my eyes out and then pulling it together. This happened about 4 times on the way home. (I have about a 30 minute drive home) I am sure people thought I was mentally ill.

Then the bawling happens right when I walk in the door and see Nick. We talked about everything...... I cried the whole time and then we cuddled after we figured everything out together which made it all better. I couldn't have asked for someone so perfect for me in every way! What a husband! Nick is such a support. I love him so much.

So.... It was a crazy day. On top of everything that happened today and being sick..... My vistor has come to visit me for a few days. So all you women out there know that things small seem a lot bigger than they really are during that time of the month. Well this was pretty much a catastrophe! I am glad I started out the day laughing histerically about everything. Although it ended up pretty much on the complete opposite side of the spectrum.

WHAT A DAY!

Halloween and an early something............

2009-11-08T19:59:00.001-08:00

I have completely forgotton to post this, so here we go. Halloween was a BLAST. Nick and I threw a party which I did not take a lot of pictures of, DANG IT! I was having way to much fun!

Nick and I went to our good friends house for a Halloween party (the weekend before Halloween).... I know... we love partying. We all brought our pumpkins over and carved them. Nick and I decided last year we would both contribute to one pumpkin. We thought that would be good this year too. We took turns as you can see.Nicholas took this picture... so if you can see something you don't want to... sorry. This is our finished prouduct. We really like happy pumpkins. And this is our Squinty eyed happy pumpkin. I have squinty eyes and love smiling so basically its me in a pumpkin! It is me when I am in my 90's with one tooth! AHAH.Our party was a BLAST. We invited lots of couples over! WE HAD YUMMY DESSERTS and lots of games. We played a murder mystery game which was the greatest because everyone gets really into it and starts assuming everyone is the killer. It is great! I wish I took more pictures of everyone.... what a bummer. Everyone was supposed to dress up with anything they had at home. So I was a hippy. and Nick was white trash. YUP! He had trash all stringed up on a piece of floss. SO FUNNY! He had to have his trash wherever he went in the night. Not planning too, we both ended up wearing all white. If your thinking we look more like we are ready to get baptized.... well it kind of does look like that huh!? Oops!

This past weekend we were shopping for a lifetime gift that I have wanted for quite sometime. YUP! I was so excited.... we went into the store and I felt so excited to go and try and look and each individual one out. I was not planning on getting this fabulous thing that day but there offer was amazing!!!! My Santa Baby was very good to me a little bit earlier this year! Do you know what it is?

That's right!!!! A SEWING MACHINE! I know.... maybe some of you think this is ridiculous but I thought it was GREAT! I was having so much fun fooling around with it as SOON as I got home. It is amazing too! Nick even sat down as if he were going to sew something without me and thought it was GREAT! I am so excited to have this for the next 25 years. THANKS TO MY SWEET Santa Baby.

Our Little Pumpkin

2009-10-21T17:32:00.001-07:00

Halloween is almost here and this past Saturday we made it a date to go and pick out a magnificent pumpkin. We went to the pumpkin patch here in Irvine. It was HUGE and a REAL pumpking patch.Thats right real! It had fields and fields of pumpkins that you could literally pick. This was by far the coolest pumpkin patch we have been to. At first we thought we wanted to usual pumpkin for great carving..... chunky. Actually I cannot lie... chunky things during the holidays are my FAVORITE! Chunky pumpkins, chunky turkeys, big chunky Christmas trees! Anyway, you get my drift. So at first we thought this was our winner. Nick is showing us what a great pumpkin he found.

Well, I came across a tall pumpkin and it was super cute, so we decided we needed to keep searching for our pumpkin (Or as Maria my coworker likes to say, "punkin" because she is an amazing latina and cannot pronounce it! I Love Maria!) Here Nick is doing quite the analysis on the pumpkins.

And of course here I am goofing off and trying to immitate this crazy contorted pumpkin. You should of seen this thing it was super crazy (especially on the side that was closest to me). I think it got cast out because look how they seperated it! Poor pumpkin! Some would say this pumpkin and I have lots in common..... we are very weird.

Nick and I always laugh at how our weights are so different in size. Now... I know I am dramatic, but look at him..... He looks like an underwear model with clothes on! Look how he is posing.... he is a crack up. Me..... well there aren't any words that can describe me.
I found it! Tall but at the same time perfectly good for an amazing Jack-o-lantern!

Just wondered how it felt to be pregnant and a penguin. Penguin because holding it like this made me waddle! Yeah....that pumpkin was very heavy!

First thing on our list as soon as we got home..... Give our little Pumpkin a bath! Thats right a bath.

It was quite the eventful day. YAY HALLOWEEN IS COMING!

LAS VEGAS!

2009-09-18T16:31:00.000-07:00

For my birthday we went to Las Vegas. I got tickets from my Mother-in Law to go see Cirque De Soleil and Nick got us a suite in the Trump hotel. IT WAS SUCH A FUN WEEKEND!

It started out with us driving down last Thursday night late. This is us just so excited to be here! Nick and I at Rainforest Cafe. Nick has never been to this restaurant and I told him I loved the rainstorms. He liked them too. At one point he even got up and walked around to look at all the animals.This snake snuck up and Nick in the Rainforest Cafe. Yikes! I decided to hang out with my pal after nice, yummy meal.

While we were in Vegas visitng our B, we took quite the tour through Las Vegas. We went everywhere and saw everything! IT was quite the weekend. How could we not stop at the lovely M & M Factory. I just loved all of their crazy stuff. This headband was too cute.

My B smoochin the Blue M&M. She definitely gave the green M&M a run for her money. Look at those lips. Who wouldn't want to smooch that pretty lady?

A priceless picture in the M&M frame.Peanut or Roasted nuts? Roasted for me yummy!I love giving Nick green M&M's. He is so sexy! I thought why not give him the biggest green M&M I could find! Nick and I in the M&M factory. This room spins so much and really gets you disoriented. We are holding on for the ride. We were so exhausted after walking up and down the strip in such HOT HEAT! We were glad when we got to these moving sidewalks.They mistook Nick for the blue M&M! I couldn't believe it! This ball was spinning on this pedestal. So cool. Nick is admiring it while B is posing!

We went on top of the Eiffel Tower. It was gorgeous. B thought she was going to throw up because it was so high up. She is our worrier.

We tried to get the background with us in it. It did not work well.

There it is ladies and Gents. The Eiffel Tower! It actually was half the size of the real one. I cannot wait to see the real one! SOON YAY! Hmmmmmm....... Paris..... LOVE!

In the Bellagio Hotel there are these arches of Water. Nick couldn't stop thinking of all the math that was put into a particular fountain that we took video of. I will have to post that later. But here is B and I fascinated with it. She touched it and we got soaked!

I really wanted to drink it. I DIDN'T THOUGH.

We got to go and see "O" from Cirque De Soleil. IT WAS AMAZING! I was AWSTRUCK! I love Cirque De Soleil and this was probably one of my favorites. SO COOL! Nick had never seen it either so I wanted him to go so bad.We went to dinner before the show at a restaurant in the Luxor Hotel. It was super yummy!

Nick and I under the Eiffel Tower. He is my favorite!

Us in front of the Statue of Liberty!

We got to see the Lions at the MGM Hotel. They were so cool and huge. There were men just in there hanging out with them and not worried at all. Very cool!

My B! I love her!

Basically, this was an amazing weekend where we got to visit B and have a blast. And then have a couple days just the two of us! What a dream. We stayed in the nicest suite in the Trump Hotel. They treated us like kings and queens. Nothing is like having a weekend away with B and then just the two of us. Talk about a honeymoon revisited. It was so lovely!

"Safe" Irvine

2009-09-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

While I am at work, I got a text message from my friend explaining to me someone just got shot in Verano Pl. Verano place is the complex where Nick and I live. I was so confused. Let me explain.

When Nick and I moved to Irvine everyone was telling us how nice it is and that it was named the safest city to live in. There aren't shootings in Irvine... EVER! BUT when it does happen it not only happens in Irvine, but on UCI campus in my complex. CRAZY! What are the chances! I called Nick at the start of my lunch break and asked him if he heard about it..... He said "Yes, but I was not going to tell you so you wouldn't have nightmares." SO FUNNY! He was trying to protect me... or my dreams and thoughts!

If you know my family at all... we are SO DRAMATIC! About everything! It is pretty funny to watch. Well, my dad was very honest with all of us kids in every situation. Let me give you an example. "Jordan, don't ever run into the street because if you do a car will not see you and they will kill you and your body will be crushed instantly, and we will loose you just like that!" Of course in an overly dramatic way. Now that was not gross, but because he was always so worried about us girls in any situation he would tell us how it is to the most horrible extent possible. You can imagine how scared we were and still are from the "this could happen if your not careful stories." The funny thing is I told Madison one of these stories a while ago. Nick laughed and said I sounded just like my dad and just as dramatic. I then realized, well it freaked me out and still does so it did its job so it works pretty well.

Well probably once every other week I wake up crying histerically. I have BRUTAL dreams. I mean dreams like my family being brutally murdered in front of my eyes. I don't know why.... then I always go back to my dramatic family and the CRAZY stories all of us told and still tell.

SO I just laughed because Nick didn't want me to have scary dreams. He knows me so well. Anyway.... interesting huh?

Dinnertime with Nicholas!

2009-09-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

Every night I come home, make a fabulous dinner (cooking is one of my favorite hobbies, so I take time to make it AMAZING) and we eat together. Just like any other couple or family we talk about our day, laugh at each other.... yadda yadda. Well, you never have to ask Nick if he is done with his dinner. Why you ask? Because he starts to play with everything and ANYTHING around him on the table when he is finished. If you know Nick pretty well and have been fortunate enough to eat with him, well then you have seen it for yourself. It is the funniest thing to watch. Last night this is when I knew he was done with his dinner because this is what he came up with.This is one of his tallest creations. Because this is a daily thing... I decided to take a picture of it to show you. My husband is a nut and I LOVE IT!

Reasons Not to Play Video Games

2009-08-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

I imagine most would think that I, being a "computer nerd", would love computer games. Well...there could not be a more untrue statement! I can't stand them! I think they are worthless, a waste of time, and a general hazard to one's health! I'm sure many do not share my opinion on this matter but I was happy to find that the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with a few Universities performed a study that verified my feelings. Let me highlight a few points from their research

Playing video games:

Makes you fat
Makes you depressed
Degrades your physical health
Effects you mental health
Rids you of any social skills you have

Here is the abstract from the study http://www.ajpm-online.net/webfiles/images/journals/amepre/AJPM_PR_Oct_2009_Video_Games.pdf

That being said....I pass no judgement on those that indulge in such activities. =P

Nick

Mormon Night and Angel's Stadium

2009-08-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

Last night was Mormon night at Angel's Stadium. Of course we were high high high in the nose bleeds but thats ok we had a blast. None of our friends were sitting next to us and we couldn't find them. So of course if you know Nick and I we entertained ourselves laughing the whole night away. The Angel's were doing HORRIBLY and Nick asked me if I wanted to go (around the 5th inning) I said yes only if he would sing "Take me out to the ballgame" with me in the car really really loud. First he said, "oh well then lets wait until the 7th inning!" I gave him such a hard time for this and we were laughing so hard. He finally agreed. On the way out I kept giggling so much because I couldn't wait for us to be singing at the top of our lungs in the car. It was really funny. This is not odd for us though we do stuff like this ALL DAY LONG! Its really funny. I am glad I married such a hilarious man! He goes along with my craziness.

This is us attempting to take a picture in front of the big A.
What the "A" looks like. Just picture the picture should look similar to this. Yeah weird.

Ok.... so this picture was an experiment. Nick and I were laughing because my forehead always shines hardcore in every single picture. So Nick said it is because my face is dirty. And I told him to touch my head to see if it feels oily. He said "well not really but kind of." We were laughing because I told him his hands were oily. We were laughing and then we took an experiment picture and it didn't shine. We were dying because we were laughing so hard. He was right. So funny!

This is us really high in the nose bleeds but it is the stadium in the background. HAHA.

My 22 Birthday

2009-08-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I turned the big 22! Can you believe it! My cute little sister Madison said "Its ok DOO DOO your not an old Fart yet!" I love it. She cracks me up. My whole family made my birthday so special.

It started out with my handsome husband cooking a fabulous breakfast for me before I went to work. I then worked the whole days which is kind of a bummer, but Taylor got me an awesome ice cream cake, they sang to me, made sure all the patients knew, and they took me out to lunch. Basically he made it awesome.

When I got home dinner was already prepared. I have the greatest husband... I am telling you. I am such a cry baby and whenever I get anything from nick I cry. I know.... but that is what love does to me. So Nick brings out a card he made.... I cry.... Then he brings out a cake he bakes (SO DELICIOUS!) and sings to me.... I cry. (When I say cry I mean tears falling.... not histerical)

For my birthday my mother-in-law got us tickets to go see Cirque De Soleil "O" in Las Vegas. I have wanted to see this particular Cirque for a LONG time. Nick got me a night in a suite in the Trump hotel. So basically we are going to VEGAS BABY! We are going to have the most amazing time, spend time with B, our Suite and of course see the SHOW!!!! What an amazing gift. I am so excited.

My sweet mom and dad got me a facial/Microdermobrasion
A couple of years ago I got staff infection on my face. I had it for six months. It was so gross. Anyway, ever since then I have always wanted to get rid of my scars. When I heard about this I couldn't wait to do it and my sweet parents got it for me. I am going this week! YAY! I cannot wait.

Basically, my family (on both sides) all called me and sang to me and made my birthday as amazing as can be! (Bwee and Dave.... I couldn't stop laughing at your message! AWESOME!)

After dinner, Nick and I went and played tennis together. Then we got hooked into the discovery channel because it is Shark Week. We had an awesome day. THANKS EVERYONE! Your so sweet.

Update!

2009-07-16T19:36:00.000-07:00

Nick and I have been super busy and have not had a chance to update you on whats been going on. Well, for the 4th of July celebration (the thursday before) we went up with my family to the Hollywood Bowl. As always it was a blast and it is tradition so how could we not go. John Fogerty played this year with the LA Philharmonic. It was so LOUD! Crazy loud. I mean it has never been this loud and I have been every year since I was four years old so wow! John Fogerty is interesting. He is still rocking out and he is in his 70's I think. Yikes, or good for him?!? As always the fireworks were amazing with the LA Philharmonic. I just loved it. My mom is so patriotic and therefore us kids are as well. Nick doesn't get teared up when we sing God Bless America or the National Athem, but I do sometimes and he just laughs. It is pretty funny. Call me ridiculous but I am my mother's daughter. (can you tell in the pictures)

Nick and I posing in front of the bowl.

We had such yummy food..... just like every other year.... but we get pretty stuffed.

Keana and Rooga rocking out to "Rolling!"

Matti was rocking out with B! They were so cute.

After the most amazing night at the Hollywood Bowl. We got to go to Mom and Dad Olsen's for the weekend. Kimball and Annette came down with the kids for a week. We miss them so much. They are just too cute. I really hope I live close to them one day. Such an amazing family. And we have lots to learn before we have kids.

We were all able to go to Dad Olsen's boat for the 4th of July. We celbrated Mom Olsen's birthday all weekend long. Friday night we went to a lovely dinner at the Tuscany (Thanks Mom and Dad) and then just kept going each day. Saturday at the boat we had a fun right on the newly fixed dingey. Anway, so fun going under bridges that were so low we had to duck our head so it wouldn't hit us.
We saw the most amazing fireworks show off of the boat. It was so fun.

Dad also entertained us with his old flares and shot a couple off and some into the water. Crazy looking but so cool!

Mom and I eating dinner! Happy Birthday to Mom!

So Nick runs to the trash can to throw some things away and looks down as he is throwing stuff away and finds a baby Seal. He just kind of stared at it for a while and the seal didn't move. We all then came and took pictures of it and what not. I think it was sick because it was not scared of us and didn't move much. None of us touched it but it stayed there the entire evening. So Sad. I think maybe its mama got killed.

Nick enrolled in summer school for both terms in order to finish by next June. This is pretty much how is brain is by the end of the day. He is so good to us. Works full time and School full time. I have the greatest husband. I love him so much. Busy man!

Celebrate Good Times COME ON!

2009-06-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

Thats right.... You guessed it. Nick and I have been married for more than one year! YUP! I cannot believe it. CRAZY! The time has flown by!

For our first anniversary we kept going back and forth about what we wanted to do for a couple months. We finally figured it out! We are HUGE outdoorsy people so we decided to go camping. I got out of work early early on Friday, we packed up our Toyota Corolla and headed to San Onofre. It was gorgeous! We seriously have everything for camping so we were set! We got to the beach unpacked everything and headed down to the beach. It was so cool because we hiked down to the beach. Our view from on top of the cliffs were amazing! Then we walked down and walked along the beach. IT WAS GORGEOUS! (Sorry we cannot share it with you Nick and I both forgot the Camera even though we reminded each other. We are so bad. I promise we will be better in the future when we have kids.) We spent quite a long time down on the beach. We had a blast.

We then went back to our campsite and just played cards, laughed, made dinner and sat by the campfire laughing at stories when we were young and since we have been married. It was so special. We even made hot chocolate while sitting by the campfire. If you know me... two jackets, a fire, and hot cocoa does not make me warm.

I bought the coolest sleeping bag for Nick before we got married to use when we were married and it was a double person sleeping bag! It is so much fun! So of course we used that for the first time. It couldn't have been better!

The next day we just hung out for a while til noonish. And we headed home to continue our fun day!

Tiffany-Ann, Nick and Gavin came up and spent the night with us and we had so much fun! Of course popcorn and slush were apart of our night. (Have you ever gone to any of the Ball children's home and not had popcorn and slush? I mean really) Played games and watched Ninja Warrior probably the coolest Japenese show ever. Gavin is too cute and calls us "Ni" and "Ju" for Nick and Juji. We love it. Its so much fun!

Basically we had the most amazing anniversary. My husband is the greatest husband and my best friend. He does so much for our family and definitely shows and tells me how much he loves me everyday. I am so glad I married the man of my dreams and my best friend.

May till now!

2009-06-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Nick and I have been pretty busy! Hence no post for quite a long time now. I am just going to go in the order of the photos! Sorry to you you who want them in date order!

First, my sweet brother Landon received his Endowment! Now he will be reporting to the MTC June 17th. He will be serving in the Culiacan, Mexico mission. He looked so handsome. I am so proud of him. He has prepared for a long time and he is finally here! YAY LANDON! YOU DID IT!

We were able to go through with him! How much fun it is to be with your family in the Celestial Room! Nothing else compares! I cannot wait for my other siblings to go through. What an experience! Here is the family! Uncle Mark, Landon, Mama, Dad, Nick and Me.We were so fortunate to go flying with Dave Benning in his awesome plane. Because the Bennings love Nicholas, and because I am connected to him, I get all these special treats as well! YAY!

I got to drive Dave Benning's Shelby GT 500 on the way there! YUP! Talk about amazing. When we got on the freeway he told me to gun it! AW MAN if you only could feel it. What an amazing feeling! Nick got to drive on the way home! Just shows how good it is to drive stick.... BISHOP BENNING might hand you the keys and say go ahead and drive it.

Me the passanger having a blast! Oh we went to Oxnard and back to Van Nuys! Totally flew over the ocean! It was awesome!
Here was our pilot. I am totally not kidding either! Dave Benning is an instructor so Nick got to fly. The coolest part of it was that the weather was HORRIBLE! It was foggy and just yucky! We flew up, up, up and over the clouds and found the sun and a beautiful day above the clouds. I know I sound ridiculous but honestly it was awesome!
This picture is a classic! I look like a deer staring at headlights.
Nick's birthday was so much fun! We went to a Mexican Restaurant with Casey and Cristyn (our awesome friends) and then came home and watched a movie, ate cake and opened gifts!

When he opened it up he was so happy!

What is it? Settlers of Cattan with the Expansion! Thats right. If you ever come to our home you know that Nick and I are the King and Queen of games. WE love them. They are our favorites for gifts to get and to give too! That..... popcorn and Slush..... and we got quite the evening in front of us!

When we went to Steph and Jeff's wedding in SLC we stayed with Grammy and Grandpa. We got to open Nick's Birthday gift up while we were there! He got the most amazing POPCORN bowls. THEY ARE AWESOME! We use them ALL THE TIME!

Finally, This is us at the SLC temple. We are having a blast at living life. We just love it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the LOVE OF MY LIFE!

2009-05-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

Today is a very special day because we get to celebrate Nick's 23rd birthday! Thats right he is moving up in the world..... WOO HOO! We have quite the birthday weekend planned! I love you sweetheart. Your are the most amazing husband. I am the luckiest girl in the world. SMOOCHES!

Spiderman climbing on very tall trees!

Nick's Debut!

WOW! So Nick won! Cannot remember how many but for some reason 23 comes into mind!

Most of our pictures our mouths are open! Yup... we catch lots of flies!

Howdy Cowboy! Going my way?

One of the greatest days! Many more to come of course!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Steph's Wedding in Salt Lake City!

2009-04-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Nick and I had a very eventful small vacation. On Thursday we left Irvine at 3:50AM and drove straight to SLC. We were going to fly but after tickets and renting a car it was too expensive. We got to SLC around 12:30PM or so and we were able to go and see Steph for about a half and hour or so. (For those of you who don't know, I met Stephanie at BYU-Idaho and we have been best friends since. We are complete opposite but we have so much fun together!!!!) We haven't seen each other for a year and a half so when we saw each other we just broke down in tears! CRAZY! She looked so pretty too.

After crying and just spending some time with her, and meeting her fiance for the first time, Nick and I went to Grammy and Grandpa's (Anderson....Nick's Mom's parents). They are so cute. We just always have so much fun with them sitting down and talking for hours but that is pretty much how the Olsen's are and I love it!! We had an amazing lunch that grammy had all prepared for us when we arrived. We then headed off to Steph's endowment. It was really neat since Nicholas and I have never been to a live session. Different but really neat. Steph of course looked beautiful and it was so fun experiencing that with her for the first time.

Following the endowment, everyone who was there for them all went to a Chinese restaurant.... it was pretty good. After that Jeff (Steph's Fiance), Devin (Nichole's hubby), and Nick left and all went to there own places while all of us girls went Karaoke singing and dancing. Of course for her last night being a single woman. It was so fun. We all sang "The Love Shack" which I kept singing all weekend long, I am pretty sure I annoyed Nick by breaking out in random lines like "funky little shack.... FUNKY little shack!" How fun we had. I didn't get home until around 2. I was up for almost 23 hours! CRAZY! Then through the night I couldn't sleep because I got sick and then I got out of bed around 6:45AM because Nick is a morning person and I was sick so might as well if I couldn't sleep right. We then had such a fun morning with Grammy and Grandpa.

We got ready and went to the sealing for Steph and Jeff. Grandpa was able to seal them, he has met Steph and of course it was so fun because he does the most MAGNIFICIENT sealings. Stephanie was breathtaking! She was the most beautiful bride. After an hour or so and taking some pictures with her we went back to have lunch with grammy and grandpa. They were so cute and gave Nick his birthday gift early. We are HUGE popcorn lovers so it was perfect what they got us. (Pictures will be coming soon!)

We went and helped Nichole with the cakes for the reception. Time flew by while we were working so hard (in Draper UT) and around 4:15PM we left and took the cakes to the reception. When we got there we just got into gear and did all we could to make sure everything was ready. I think Steph and Jeff had so much fun. In the middle of the reception we went and got tons of stuff to decorate there car. That was hilarious because we almost decorated the wrong car but thankfully Devin let me know that was the wrong car.

So many people came up to me and asked if I was married to Nick. I of course said yes. They all said something like "He is an angel and has been helping non-stop the whole night and just sees something that needs to be done and just does it! Hold on to him!" So after I sad goodbye to steph and jeff, of course I started to bawl in the car and just tell him how much I love him and how gratefulI was and how I got the best husband in the world. Oh man... I am the luckiest girl in the world.

We then headed to Logan Utah to spend time with Lindsay and Andy. We just talked and talked when we arrived. They have such a beautiful house and really have done so much with it! They are such an ambitious couple. They told us they had a surprise for Nick and I in the morning. We woke up and Andy had prepared two little bottles. We go out and they had 6 sheep! Nick and I call them "Sheepies." We we able to feed two babies. It was the coolest thing ever! I wish we had taken pictures but we didn't bring our camera outside and they were done by the time we thought of it darn it. They were so cool. Lindsay and Andy have a HUGE backyard so it is perfect for the sheep. After feeding the sheepies, we went into Logan canyon and went on a hike. For lunch we met Andy and had Indian food. WOW it was so yummy! I loved it! WOW! Lou Lou and Andy always get me hooked on restaurants in Logan. Who knew Logan had such amazing restaurants.

Poor Lou Lou had a migraine, she got to rest and we left and went to Bwee and Dave's (Melissa). We always have the most fun with them. You put any combination of us we all are the best of friends. We probably talked for an hour. They have such a cute place. Bwee has such a creative touch! She's an AMAZING homemaker. We then got to go to "Mom and Dad Arnell's" for Serra's birthday party. We really miss them. We just feel right at home when we are with them. They are so fun. We had such an amazing dinner with them. Of course the four of us had to jump on the tramp for a long time. We then went back to there place made some awesome pizzookie's and
talked all night long. We really wish we lived closer to them. We ALWAYS have a BLAST!

After having a great night's rest and a fabulous breakfast that Dave made we headed back home! We stopped in Nephi for church. It was such a small town. WOW! I lived in Rexburg but WOW it is pretty small. I thought so at least. Anyway, it was an amazing but really fun filled trip!

I got a new OVEN!

2009-04-13T15:53:00.000-07:00

As you know Nick and I moved into the on campus married housing about 3-4 weeks ago. Our oven did not work. It was the weirdest thing when I was trying to cook dinner. It got to about 150 Degrees and wouldn't get any hotter. This oven is old but I was kind of sad because I LOVE COOKING dinner. It is a huge hobby of mine! So last week they finally got around to getting us a new one.

Well the men that were putting it in had to try and squeeze through this itty bitty space. Nick and I were randomly coming in and out of the kitchen watching them. It was kind of funny watching this burrly man try and get from one side to the other. Nick says "come on you have to jump over the counter!" Than this guy says "you should be doing this.... your small!" That was the first comment. This man had to come and get us once so he glanced at our bed. Our bed has our bedframe, box spring, HUGE mattress, temperpedic topper on that and then our bedding which includes a nice fluffy down comferter! We think it is pretty tall but not ASTRONOMICAL but this man says to Nicholas "I am sorry but how do you get into your bed?" I was so confused at what he was talking about. And then he says "I'm sorry but really your bed is huge!" There goes comment two and three. We just laughed so hard! Then this big burrly man turns on the oven to check if it works (the new one) and to check he touches the part where the heat comes from in the oven (it looks like a pipe that runs around the bottom of your oven) and says "WOW that is hot! He was shaking his hand hard. He burnt himself. He left and Nick and I almost fell on the floor laughing so hard. Not laughing at him burning himself, but laughing at him checking it like that! First the small comments than actually putting his bare hand on the heating pipe! Oh boy!

...It got pretty crazy!!!

2009-04-06T15:51:00.000-07:00

Friday night Nick and I were just enjoying each other after a long day of work. Well after various fun activities Nick turns to me and says he is really thirsty and wants to go out and get something to drink. So we drive a couple blocks to the Albertsons that is on UCI property. While we are looking for something to drink, all of these college kids are JUST starting there night of partying and getting things for specifically that. Well, Nick and I got into a conversation about things our moms would not put in our lunches when we were little (i.e. twinkies, ding-dongs, sunny delight, capri sun, chips....). All because they weren't healthy enough for us. Nick and I could not decide on a drink so we finally made a decision. CAPRI SUN! We decided to go nuts and each get a box. When we were leaving the store I just started to laugh so hard. Here we are going CRAZY each getting a box of capri sun and all the other college students going to get who knows what. Our night seriously was just ending at 10:45PM and there's was just starting. We went nuts and each of us tried each others on the way home and then went to bed.

Spring Break in San Francisco

2009-03-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Spring Break was the last couple weeks between Nick's quarters. A lot happened! We moved into student housing on UC Irvine because it is cheaper. YAY for cheaper rent! It is really cute. The most amazing thing is how quickly we were able to move! I was definately ready for a vacation! Now, Nick and I are really outdoorsy people we love being outside!!! BUT we live in California and have NEVER been to San Francisco! We thought this would be perfect opportunity! So we got our apartment all unpacked and headed off for four days in San Francisco. We stayed right in the city... UNION SQUARE. Our first day we just walked all around the city, mainly Union Square, so I guess that is not really the WHOLE city just a little part. Then we went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner YUMMY! The next day we took the trolly down to Fischerman's Warf, Ghiridelli Square and Pier 39. We got there around 9 and it was BEAUTIFUL! I loved it! Just walking along the beach and everything there! It was amazing!

This is so funny beause I was falling off this light post and laughing so hard. Then there is spiderman to the right! I know a light post but my shoes kept slipping. Pretty pathetic!Nick when we got there! He is so cute and little! We then took the boat to Alcatraz. Wow! It was so interesting. It was so creepy going through this prison. Each cell was 5ft X 9ft. You could spread your arms out and touch the side of the walls! The main punishment for men here was being isolated in the middle of the bay, seeing the beautiful city and not being able to get there. The waters are also treacherous so there are many escapee stories were they try to escape and are never seen again! The water is FREEZING! Plus the currents are horrible! Nick and I personally think some Great WHITES ate them! Right around the corner from the bay is Stinson beach where it says "Enter at your own risk these are the waters of breeding great white sharks!" They can still get in so that is my scary guess! Nick and I in the cell! Our faces are priceless! You have to make this bigger! The view from Alcatraz! This picture does not do justice! IT WAS GORGEOUS! I would try to escape if I was there!This is the visitation window! YIKES! Smaller than I thought it would be!

The following day we drove to Muir Woods and saw the Red Wood Trees! WOW! This was gorgeous and we LOVED it. It was unbelievable! We couldn't belive how small we were compared to these things!

Here is a view from the bottom of a tree! And a couple of us! And of Course my climbing hubby!

The Second day when we were at Fischerman's Warf and we also walked all along the Beach and on Marina Road which was so gorgeous! Well we probably took every possible picture of the Golden Gate Bridge with us so here it goes with all the different shots!

Taken down in Sausilito.

Taken at Fort Point.

Taken at Fort Mason!

It was a great trip and we got some sun! How fun just to be with each other! I hope you had a great spring break like we did!

Car Mechanics

2009-03-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

Nick changes are oil whenever it needs to be done and fixes anything that needs to be fixed .... what a handy husband I have! This time Nick and I decided I should just go to EZ Lube and get it done, because we had an awesome coupon. I feel like whenever I go to these places they do a great job on the oil change but then they come up to you with "recommendations of things that are wrong!" I am such a sucker for people! And if someone is explaining that my car has something wrong with it.... then of course I going to let them fix whatever is wrong with it! Well, my sweet brother-in-law Andy had this huge scandel a while ago with Mechanics and how they completely cheated him the entire day and lied and just deceived. Well, ever since then I cannot trust just any mechanic. So when they told me the reccomendations it supriseingly wasn't huge things.... just the windshield wipers and the air filter. So I told them" you know I am going to hold off right now but thank you so much for all the hard work you did!" They didn't mind at all! YAY FOR ME! Plus we have one that we love and trust. This was just a great coupon.... oh I am a sucker for coupons as well! What can I say I am my mothers Daughter!

Landon's Mission Call

2009-02-19T17:00:00.000-08:00

My Sweet brother Landon got his Mission Call today.... DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!! He will be serving in the Mexico Culiacan Mission. He will be reporting to the MTC on June 17th! Our whole family was on a conference call around Lunch when he opened it. When he was reading it to us he got quite emotional. Then of course being our family we all cried too. We are all so proud of him. He is so ready and it finally came! YAY! We love you BRO and are so proud of you! You will make an amazing missionary.This is a picture he took with all the friends that were there when he opened it! YAY.

He an his buddy. I wonder if that is all of us on the phone! This could of been taken after though too. But then again we all have been calling him today!!!

Looked it up on a map! Way to go Bro!
Its the bold city right accros from Baja Mexico.

WOW! 19 years sure really went by fast! I cannot believe your going to MEXICO! We are so proud of you! Love you so much brother!

Landon baptized Mattie! This is a picture they took! What an awesome brother.

Our Valentine's Day!

2009-02-18T11:43:00.000-08:00

Nick and I decided to switch off every other year with Valentine's Day. I took the odd years and he took the even years. Thus, this year was my year to plan everything. Our day was so filled!

If you know my husband he is very productive and does not waste anytime. When he wakes up on Saturday mornings he gets right up and showers and gets ready for the day. I am opposite where I like to lay there for a little and just think and stare at the wall. So while he jumped in the shower I slipped a very cute card under the door. I then jumped to it and made a gourmet breakfast for us. It was so yummy. I made fruit salad, "Special Potatoes", eggs, bacon and OJ Slush. It was so yummy! He was so excited when he came out of the shower to find CHRISTMAS i mean Valentine's Day Breakfast. I then gave him a book "I Love you so!" Its a chidren's book and it is so cute but I thought this book did a pretty dang good job and explaining how much I love him. When I told him I had something for him he said I shouldn't have. AHAH then we both laughed when it was a children's cardboard book from Barnes and Noble! OH YEAH! The best ever.

After a yummy breakfast, we got a couples massage at Massage Envy. It was so nice! The fact that he didn't know a long time before is amazing because I cannot keep anything a secret having to do with surprises with Nick. I give it away just by giggling a lot and laughing. Yeah so bad. I have to constantly tell myself "Jordan act normal around him!"

We then came home and had Martinellis and some chocolate covered strawberries I made the day before. So yummy! We then drove down and had family day with his family in Los Angeles! It was so much fun. We just had dinner and talked to whole night. I loved it! What an amazing Valentine's Day!!!! I love you sweetie!

You Gotta Love People!

2009-02-04T17:14:00.000-08:00

On Monday a couple of really funny things happened to me. During my lunch break I couldn't stay inside because it was to gorgeous of a day to be cooped up inside. I took my book that I am reading and walked to the park. I was sitting in this corner of the grass where there was shade. It was so nice a relaxing and perfect for just enjoying the outdoors and reading a great book. Well, about 5 minutes from me sitting down this little girl about 4 years old and about 100 yards away from starts coming my way. I didn't think she was coming to me but she looked like she was "walking with a purpose." After a minute or so she just came right up and sat right in front of me on the grass. I smiled at her and this is how our conversation went.

me: Hi!
Girl: Hi! Whats your name?
me: Jordan. Whats yours?
Girl: Isabella
Me: Nice to meet you Isabella. (shook her hand)
girl: Are you a Doctor?
Me: No.... but I work for a chiropractor
Girl: is that a doctor?
me: I guess.
girl: Does your book have any pictures?
me: no.... but its really good still!
girl: I don't read any books without pictures
me: I could see that.... those are pretty good
girl: I am four... how old are you?
me: 21
girl: THATS MY FAVORITE

Anyway, it was so cute the conversation went on for about 20 minutes. As we were talking her mom (100 yards away) somehow let go of her chihuahua's leash and the dog started chasing this little asian girl on a scooter. The little girl started screaming at the top of her lungs and running towards the parking lot. Her mom then started screaming and started running toward her and hugged her and fell on the ground protecting her daughter. The chihuahua then started licking the girl and the mom was so mad and they were both crying. It was so funny. The little girl and I started laughing so hard.

Then, when I was at work this sweet lady Connie came in to get adjusted and she sat down and started talking to us. Her daughter goes to Princeton and we were talking about college. She turns to me and this is the conversation we had.

Connie: Where did you go to College?
Me: BYU- Idaho, but I am going back in a 1 1/2 years because I only have my Associates Degree and I want a least a Bachelors.
Connie: Why are you here?
Me: My husband goes to school at UCI and is a software engineer here.
Connie: Aren't you guys Mormon?
Me: Yes
Connie: Isn't it Mormon's number 1 priority to attend BYU?
Me: no it is actually to live with God
Connie: OK... but isn't it your 2nd priority?
Me: No but education is huge to us! Just like everyone else.
Connie: Why doesn't your husband go to BYU
Me: He didn't want to and his program is at UCI
Connie: He needs to get his priorities straight!!!!

I just laughed. It was hilarious. Not only that she has a very thick accent (she is asian as well) so I was trying not to lose it but I definitely couldn't stop laughing. What a day!

What a CRAZY WEEKEND!

2009-01-26T10:28:00.000-08:00

This whole weekend my husband and I have been sick with the stomach flu! It was HORRIBLE and we are still taking today off because we still don't feel all too peachy!

Friday night, we made plans with some of our friends and I was feeling great and then all of a sudden ran to the bathroom.... well I am sure you can guess what happened from there. A night sleeping on the floor in the bathroom waking up at least once every hour throughout the night to relieve my stomach!!!! The next night it was a rerun with nick on the bathroom floor instead of me! Talk about horrible. We both weren't able to keep anything down until about 36 hours later! We just spent this weekend sleeping and being in a lot of pain.

Last night, Nick looked at me and said "That's it I'm DONE! I AM DONE BEING SICK!" I just laughed! He seemed a lot better after he decided he was done. Then this morning we both seemed a little too ambitious and then we both decided we still need to take it easy! MAN HORRIBLE!

A little tid bit that you probably didn't know about me. About once every two weeks I wake up in the middle of the night shaking because I have had the craziest and scariest dream ever! Its true..... I have the worst, scariest, bloodiest worst nightmares ever! WHY I ASK YOU!? I have no clue. I have never enjoyed scary movies and never watch them! Well, I have never seen stupid horror movies like "Saw" or whatever but I swear if you were in my dreams they would be much worse! I bet I could make millions off of them if I made them into movies! THEY ARE SO SCARY!!!! I cannot tell you how many times I wake up and wonder if my family is still alive because in my dream they were just brutally murdered in front of me. Anyway, I will save you all the gross and nitty gritty details but seriously you would think someone like me who hates those kinds of things and love the cheesiest of all cheesy types of movies wouldn't get those but NO I do! I will step of my soap box now.

To all my friends and family I am in the process of disinfecting my apartment so have no worries and you will not get sick if you come over in the near future!

THE BEST BOOK EVER!

2009-01-13T17:47:00.000-08:00

Last night I finished this book "Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers. My sister in law got it for me for Christmas (Thank you so much Tiffany-Ann!). First of all I LOVE READING and always have. This book has been the best book I have read this year considering it is the beginning of the year. I would have to say the best of 2008 thogh as well. Yes I said it... the BEST! It is by a Christian author. She is amazing. If you want one of the most magnificent stories to read then pick this up.... you won't put it down. Its also very rewarding because for me, it made me appreciate my husband and love him even more. (B and Lou you have to get it trust me its our kind of book)

Anyway, I am in kind of a bummer deal. I was at Barnes and Noble today for two hours and could not pick one out because this one was just too good I didn't want one that was just ok. So I am asking all you readers to please please please give me an idea of a great book to read.

Since I am talking about great books and all here is some of the Books that I read in 2008!

The Twilight Saga by Stephine Meyer

Pride and Predjudice by Jane Austen

The Wedding By Nicholas Sparks

And I read a few Christmas books but I will just save the titles because they are quick reads.

Anyway, Let me know if you have any good suggestions! I was thinking the "Mark of the Lion" Series by Francine Rivers, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte or just some more of Nicholas Sparks Books! Thanks everyone!

My Amazing Wife

2008-12-14T16:30:00.000-08:00

So we went rock climbing again this last weekend with the Copa's in our ward. We went out to a dry waterfall called Ortega Falls in San Juan Capistrano. It was so much fun! But the best part about it was seeing Jordan climb! In the climbing world there is an established rating system to indicate how hard a climb is. The scale starts at a 1 which is walking down a trail and goes up to a level 5.15. Level 5 is where rock climbing actually starts, meaning there are vertical ascents required. Well, yesterday we setup rope for a 5.10 climb. Here is the description of a 5.10 rated climb from one website:

5.10 - Very sustained climbing. A weekend climber rarely feels comfortable in this range unless they go EVERY weekend or have some natural talent.

Well, she definately doesn't fall into the first category as we usually go about once a month. We setup the rope and she was the first one to attempt the climb and lo and behold she made it to the top! She never ceases to amaze me! Whenever I think she is at the point where she might give up, she sticks her foot in, grabs on to something and makes it to the top. I'm quite a proud husband....that is for sure.

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree!

2008-12-14T15:45:00.000-08:00

So I have never had a real Christmas Tree in my whole life. We always had one of those artificial ones. Jordan on the other hand has always had a real one and has even had the chance to cut it down herself with her family in Oregon. So, we decided to get a real tree for our first Christmas together.

The week before Thanksgiving we found a place that grows their own trees about 10 minutes from our house. You go to their lot, pick out your tree and cut it down yourself...at least that is what the advertisement said. So, we went that day as it was their opening day at about 3 PM and most of the good trees were actually already taken! But after a good 30 minutes of looking we found the tree we wanted, grabbed its tagged and paid for it. We decided to let it grow a few more weeks as we were heading out of town for Thanksgiving and that we would come back to pick it up later. We asked the guy at the cashier what the process was for picking up our tree and how we could cut it down ourselves. Of course, in this world in which we live, where know one ever takes responsibility for their own actions, he gave us the run around and basically said because of liability issues, we couldn't really cut our own tree down...we could take a picture with a saw, but we couldn't really cut it down ourselves. Well, I wasn't about to let some liability issues encroach on my holiday wish of cutting down my own tree. We started planning from that moment how we could get away with cutting it down ourselves.

Two weeks goes by and we have the plan. We drove up to the lot and asked if we could look around a bit. While looking around we planned out the attack. Luckily our tree resided in a remote location out of the main flow of traffic. We got back in the car, drove towards the exit and instead of turning out to the main street we made our way into the middle of the grove of trees (ok...really there was a dirt road, practically paved, that we drove down to get to our tree). We got as close as we could and turned off the engine. There were two families, one in front of us and one in back of us picking up their trees. I got out of the car, casually opened the back door and pulled out our accomplice, a Husky 18 inch bow saw. We briskly walked over to our tree we had picked out and paid for earlier and began to cut. Turns out it isn't as easy to cut down a Christmas Tree as you would think. All the sap... the funny angle. We get about 1/3 the way through and a worker passes by. I dropped the saw and he asks if we needed anything. We didn't, he said ok and left. Back to cutting. After a few minutes the tree (all 6 feet of it) starts to fall, I resisted the strong urge to yell "TIMBER!!". The deed was done. I picked up the tree with my burly muscles and carried to the car where we tied it to the top and drove home. It was by far the most exciting Christmas Tree shopping I have ever done!