Autumn Goes All-Sport!!!

Here is Autumn getting ready to compete in the 400m in the Hershey Track. I was so proud of her, a 400 is a marathon for a 3rd grader! But she had been practicing for a month and had a strategy for finishing and she made it! She placed in the middle of this heat and later raced the 50m and won that race!

Here she is exhausted from running on the unusually hot day. Her first words were, "Mom that hurt!"

Here is Autumn getting ready to go to her second day of volleyball camp at BYU. the ages range from 3rd graders to 12th graders. I am so use to thinking of Autumn as grown up and tall for her age that it was a sweet shock to see how little she still is (she was by far the smallest at the camp - granted volleyball players tend to be taller).

She found that she really loves playing volleyball.

Swimming is also going on right now which continues to be her favorite. Don and I have her signed up for a lot of sport camps this summer to expose her to the various sports out there so she can pick what she wants to be involved in. Our criteria for her extra activities is that she finds it fun, that she tries her hardest and that we stick to doing one thing really well - it looks like swimming will be that one thing.

Things I Am Sure SOMEDAY I'll Miss...

SHOWING APPROPRIATE ENTHUSIAM FOR ALL OF AUTUMN'S PROJECTS: "Mom, my group gathered all the litter around the school and we made a poster and I collected the most and the person that collected the most got to keep the poster and isn't that so cool!?"
LEARNING NOT TO BE GROSSED OUT: "Mom! I saved a slug! I picked it up and put it over there in a safe place and it was slimey and then I finished my sandwich, can I have more?"

ENJOYING A BOX OF KLEENEX'S THAT HASN'T BEEN EMPTIED AND RESTUFFED: Liberty has got to hold some Guiness Record in unloading boxes the fastest! She was sad because I told her, "Li-ber-ty! No!..."

Passover in a LDS home...

This year Don and I fulfilled a long-time goal of celebrating the Passover in our home. We loved the idea of having a religious ceremony to add more meaning to Easter than the Easter Bunny. Where it was our first attempt and the girls are still young we focused less on being "kosher" and more on understanding the ceremony. It was a lot of work (simply because it was new and I wasn't confident in what I was doing) but it was so fun!

A month before, I read Celebrating Passover: A Guide to Understanding the Jewish Feast for Latter-day Saints this had everything an LDS family needs to have their own Seder (the main meal during the week long Passover) dinner. My quick book review on this book is 10 out of 10 stars (especially if you know nothing about Seder like I did) it laid out the meanings to the 5 symbols on the passover plate, recipes for the meal, references to LDS prophet and apostles, and a complete Haggadah (or script) for the meal. The girls favorite part was dipping their fingers in the grape juice 10 times as they recited the plagues of the Exodus (what kid will balk at the opportunity to be told to play with their food?!) and washing their hands at the table in a bowl. My favorite part was watching the patriarch of my home read the Haggadah with feeling, watching the girls enjoy being asked questions and finally, watching Don lead the girls holding a candle (for us, representing the light of Christ) through our dark home in search of the previously hidden matzah. Highly recommend the experience to anyone. It is meant for young children all the way up to elderly scholars (Don has a friend who is a devout Jew who celebrates the Seder several times during the Passover - one for his children using puppets & games and one for the adults in a more serious discussion format - it fits all family types). Anyway it was both touching and great fun! The dishes were horrific though...

Lady Heidi

I know I won't always be the one my girls turn to to share the secrets of their hearts (I hope I am for most of them, but I remember as a youth the need of a confidant outside of my family). In this General Conference, Julie Beck quoted Eliza R. Snow in her talk, she said this to the sisters:

"We want to be ladies in very deed, not according to the term of the word as the world judges, but fit companions of the Gods and Holy Ones. In an organized capacity we can assist each other in not only doing good but in refining ourselves, and whether few or many come forward and help to prosecute this great work, they will be those that will fill honorable positions in the Kingdom of God.... Women should be women and not babies that need petting and correction all the time. I know we like to be appreciated but if we do not get all the appreciation which we think is our due, what matters? We know the Lord has laid high responsibility upon us, and there is not a wish or desire that the Lord has implanted in our hearts in righteousness but will be realized, and the greatest good we can do to ourselves and each other is to refine and cultivate ourselves in everything that is good and ennobling to qualify us for those responsibilities."

I am so grateful for the many ladies that surround me and my girls. My hope is that when the time comes that Autumn, Bizzie and Liberty need an outside confidant they'll find these solid role models surrounding them, loving them and not just coddling them but helping them reach for higher heights.

Among many others, I am grateful for the love of Aunt Heidi. I look at these pictures and videos and my heart weeps with gratitude at the sweet, pure love she extends to my girls. I am also able to see how such love makes you that much more beautiful to those around you - thank you Lady Heidi!

Easter Exhaustion...

The combination of eating, hunting, playing, the relaxing atmosphere of General Conference weekend and the Olsen home are the makings of a mighty crash! Here is the proof of the wind-down of a fun afternoon...

Liberty enjoyed crashing on Poppa's lap.

Ashlynn enjoyed soaking in the activities around her, hunting for eggs, letting Molly lick her entire face before she even started to show signs of getting tired.


Judging by Grandma's face she is getting close to nap time too:)

No words are necessary for these pictures - even Molly was exhausted!

After looking at these pictures it hit me again how much I love my little family. With the almost 4 year space between each of my girls I am able to enjoy each of the girls "latest" with great enjoyment. Autumn was helpful to Ashlynn in the Easter egg hunt while having her own fun, while Bizzie's aura screamed with fun and contentment finding all the eggs and even following Autumn's example in helping sweet Ashlynn, Liberty was able to walk to some of the colorful eggs but wasn't quite sure what to do with them and so simply enjoyed the excitement she felt around her, while Don and I were able to catch it all on film. Oh, sweet contentment and joy. Every now and then I come across moments that I mentally say the word "click" hoping my mind will freeze that moment in my memory to enjoy in the years to come... Here's one last image of Easter, it's of Liberty discovering Easter Eggs!

Easter Fun on the Olsen Farm

My camera cord was giving me problems so I upgraded to a card reader (all thanks to a wonderful husband who cares about what I care about and willingly provided the funds to make it happen:) ..so now I can post pictures again!!! There are a quite a few so I'm breaking it up into smaller posts so as not to overwhelm you!

Our Easter Tradition is to go down to the Olsen Farm the Saturday before Easter. We eat, hunt for eggs, "read" Grandma Olsen's Easter eggs (to bring the true meaning of Easter to the festivities she has written out the scriptures leading up to the Savior's resurrection and placed them in plastic eggs with symbols that the scripture represents - which we take turns reading), and crash. This year we ate subway sandwiches, Heidi's yummy deviled eggs, Kathleen's traditional potato salad, and I made the Summer Berry Delight. In my next post I'll add the crashing part of our Easter...

Lions, and tigers and bunnies - oh, my!

You talking to me?!

I thought this was such a dainty way to find eggs.

Aunt Heidi, Ashylnn and Uncle Rhett.

Poppa dancing with Liberty!