Lost Camera and Tag

So, I lost my camera and that is why there have been no updates for so long. But, good news, I got a new one for Christmas and so we will be back in action. Yeah!!!!


Tag-you're it!
The name of this game is to answer the following 10 questions and then tag 4 other friends to do the same on their blog pages...

Best thing you cooked last week...I usually cook a lot. But, with all of the holidays and now that we are in San Diego nothing. I guess I cooked a really good spinach and pasta salad for Christmas Eve.

When was the last time you cried?
I am definitely not a crier. To be quite honest, I have no idea.

Five things you were doing 10 years ago:
1. I was in junior high and was loving it.
2. I was on the swim team at Brighton High School
3. Talking on the phone a lot.
4. Hanging out with friends.
5. Taking dance and piano.

Five things you were doing 5 years ago:
1. Getting married to my sweet, sweet husband.
2. Trying to finish up my undergraduate degree.
3. Moving into Pinnacle Reserve Apartments
4. Working with little kids at the Boys Ranch
5. Trying to do sharing time with 5 little sunbeams running around.

Five things you were doing 1 year ago:
1. Vacationing in San Diego
2. Vacationing in Arizona while my husand was in China
3. 8 1/2 months pregnant
4. Loving every minute of staying out home with my little Ez
5. Hanging out with the Young Women.

Seven of your favorite hobbies: reading, working out, going to dinner, hanging with my family, vacationing, taking pictures, shopping, and being with friends.

Five favorite foods:
1. Frozen Blueberries
2. Jamba Juice
3. Bread
4. Chocolate
5. Sushi

Five places you've been:
The Carribean, Several countries in Europe, Florida, New York, & DC

Five Favorite Memories:
Giving birth to two sweet little boys, getting married to my wonderful husband, my freshman and sophomore year of college, going to europe with my family, seeing ezra after coming home from a long week at girl's camp, and too many more to mention.

I am tagging: Brooke, Shanna, Di, Annie, and Sis

October 2007

I had Ezra and Luke's pictures taken at Trolley Square in October and I thought they were so cute. Janelle of Atellier Photography did such an awesome job. Of course both my kids got really sick the day before we got pictures and so neither of them were cooperating, and Luke usually loves Ezra but wanted nothing to do with him. However, she got some really great ones. I love the cute close-ups and the ones that they are interacting, so cute!

Ezra & Luke

9 Months

Luke is nine months today! Time just seems to be flying by. Ezra, being my first, it seemed like I just couldn't wait for him to do everything. I couldn't wait for him to walk, talk, crawl, stand, eat solids, whatever. But, with Luke I feel like I am enjoying every minute and he seems to be doing everything way too fast. He started to army crawl before he started to sit up, so I never even got any of that great time where they just sit there and play with all of their toys. So, he reminds me of Marianne's little Jack and Annie's little Elle. He is almost standing on his own, has been crawling for almost three months, and has been walking along furniture for probably a month and a half. I am not sure if he is just nimble or if he is doing his best to stay alive! (Aren't big brothers fun!) We have loved having two, it has been so fun to watch Luke's little personality emerge over the last couple of months, he is super sweet.

Bear Lake

I forgot to blog a really fun outing that we had over memorial day this year. Lauren and BB invited us to go up to Bear Lake and so we jumped at the chance. We love Bear Lake! It is so much fun and totally relaxing, thanks to Jackie cooking all of our meals and BB, Flint and Lauren taking care of the rest. Ezra loved it and we all had a blast. Besides the fact that the first night Luke and Ezra wanted me all night and so I think that I got a total of one hour of sleep starting at about 7:00 a.m., we had a great time. Ezra loved riding on the 4-wheelers, finding shells, swinging on the swings, and playing with one of his favorite friends Brax. Thanks Biesinger's.

The Romney's

We had an awesome June with my favorite sister and her kids. We love it when she comes to visit, but it also makes us sad to think that we will never get to live by our favorite cousins. While Brooke was here she definitely kept us busy. It seems like we had something going everyday, wether it was bouncing off the walls or just hanging out at Grandma Kimmi's. We miss you and love you Romney's! (P.S. There are no pictures because my mom is such an awesome picture taker that I always forget to bring along the camera! Thanks Mom!)

Cheryse & Mark's Wedding

On June 20, my sister-in-law Cheryse was married to Mark in the temple. This was a much anticipated event for the whole family. They had a really nice dinner the night before at the lion house, where Mark sang a song he had written for her. It was really sweet! Then the next day was busy, busy as we attended the ceremony and set up for the reception. Cheryse was a beautiful bride! The evening actually ended up really nice much to some people's surprise. Since I have told many of you about the wedding, I thought I would post some pics so you could see exactly what I was talking about. ENJOY!

All About Me

Since I have been out of the blogging world for some time I did not even know what this whole tagging thing is, but it looks like Shanna LeRoy has tagged me and so here it goes.

4 Jobs I've Had:
1. LDS Family Services as a Counselor and Adoption Worker
2. Utah State Hospital as a Social Worker
3. Utah Boys Ranch (Sunshine Solutions)
4. Provo Juvenile Court (sat there every day and practically did nothing)

4 Movies I can watch over and over again:
1. Hairspray (I love it because the main girl reminds me of one of my bff's Aspen)
2. Grease
3. Girl's Just Want to Have Fun
4. Newsies

4 Places I've lived:
1. Draper (twice)
2. Provo (a couple of times)
3. Sandy
4. Who knows, our house is up for sale!

Favorite TV Shows:
1. American Idol
2. So you think you can dance
3. Singing Bee
4. House

Places I've been to:
1. Mexico
2. Several countries in Europe
3. Grand Cayman
4. Belize

My Favorite Foods:
1. Bajio's salads
2. Sushi (Happy Sumo)
3. Cadbury Mini Eggs (it's a good thing easter is only once a year)
4. Bread

Websites I visit daily:
1. My email
2. Friends blogs
3. The MLS
4. Comcast.net to check out the news

Places I'd rather be:
1. San Diego
2. Hawaii
3. Hanging out with my sis!
4. Somewhere I have never been!

Blog Buddies I want to tag:
1. Brooke Romney
2. Marianne Christensen
3. Annie Egan
4. Diana Willardson

Elder Olsen

So, I finally decided to get back to the blogging world. I want to apologize for being MIA for a while, but our summer has been really crazy. The first post that I am going to do is about my cute little brother Beau. He is currently serving a mission in Madagascar and has had some really crazy experiences. The most recent one he shared with us could definitely be the most unusual. They have a holiday in Madagascar where they dig up the bodies of their ancestors and redress the bones, dance with them, have a huge feast, and then rebury them in their new attire. There are many more details, but that is the jist of it and he sent home some pictures and this is a little excerpt from his letter...."On Friday, we were invited by a member to go roll some bones: or what we call here a famadihana so we took some time out of our p day to go do tha. All I can say is it was crazy! This culture absolutely is crazy! I sent some pictures of it. I have a picture in the grave: me wrapping a dead body, a picture of them carying the body out of the grave, and then the party with the food: yes that is a cow head, a pig head; and the rest of the guts; it was honestly the craziest thing I might have ever done in my life, it was so nuts! I was carrying a dead body on my shoulder and wrapping some guy in new cloth, it was crazy:! A once in a lifetime experience. It was funny bc it was a big fam reunion too and this fam was shocked we knew malagasy..." I think that our little Beau has definitely been forced to grow up the last year and a half.

Love Being the Mother of Two

It is funny how when you are pregnant you really aren't sure what to expect with your second. I remember having thoughts like, "will I love him as much as I love Ez? will he be as cute as Ez?" and for all of you that are wondering the answer is yes to all of your questions. I have loved being a mother to two! Each moment with Luke is just as precious as when I was experiencing it with Ez (Actually to be totally honest, I think that because I was so overwhelmed with the whole baby thing the first time around I think that I am able to enjoy the preciousness of Luke even a little bit more). And they are so different from your first that you love them for completely different reasons and the same reasons too. I almost feel as though I wished away Ezzie's first couple of months because I was just excited to get him to the next phase. Luke's first couple of months seem to have flown by and it seems like I can't get enough of each stage. Also, there are definitely times it is easier to love a sweet little baby than a naughty little two year old.

Luker's Blessing

Luke was blessed on May 5, 2007 and it was such a fun event. We love an excuse to get family and friends together. Spencer did a great job on the blessing, and Spencer said that Luke was smiling and laughing the whole time he was giving the blessing. He has really turned into the sweetest boy! Thanks everyone for your help and support!

More Pictures by Jamie Hammond

Pictures

I just wanted to tell people that my sister has a photographer friend coming into town the week of June 11-16. She is an awesome photographer. These pictures were done of our family by her in December and we were so happy with the way that they turned out. She will shoot anywhere you want to. Her sessions are usually about an hour and she will do each kid, family pictures etc all in the same session. She can do pregnancy, family, kids, newborns and will go from SLC to Provo . She is $125 for the session, then you can buy prints from her or get a CD for $75. I think she would also do a Christmas card. Also, if you book with five people she will take $50 off. Like if Marianne, Annie, and Di wanted to and maybe Di's sisters or something, you don't all have to do it together just book it and say you have four other friends who want to book with her. Do you get it?
Her website is http://www.jamiehammondphotography.com/ is you want to check it out! Let me know if you are interested.

Then that weekend we wanted to do something really fun for Ezra to celebrate his birthday. So, we decided to head to Thanksgiving Point and go to the petting zoo. We thought Ezra would love it! Well, we were totally wrong. He was freaked out by every single animal from the rabbits to the chickens to the cows. (He is definitely his mother's son.) He would not even get close to them, but we did finally get him to do the pony ride after much coaxing.

On April 16, Ezra turned two years old! Ezra had a great birthday. We started the celebration on April 7, with a joint birthday party with his cousin Camden (his birthday is on the 15th) because Camden's mom had a baby (baby Beckitt) on Ezra's real birthday. Ezra got tools from his cousins Hunter, Gage the little guy in the picture), and Ashlyn and he was so excited. That was his favorite present. He had to open it right away and play with all the tools and even wear the outfit. He wanted tools so that he could help his daddy fix stuff.

Dying Easter Eggs

However, his favorite easter activity was definitely dying eggs. He loved it! He loves to get messy and he loves colors. He also was so excited to taste the eggs and to enjoy the fruits of his labor. And since the Easter Bunny forgot to visit our house this year he got to take these fun eggs home from Grandma Olsen's.

The Big Egg Hunt

Ezra was so cute at the easter egg hunt. He would look and look for the eggs but he could not find them. They would be right in front of him and he just could not see them, it was hilarious. So we helped him find some eggs and when he realized there were candy inside of them he was really excited. After every egg he would find he would have to sit down and find out what the treasure was inside.