This is for Don because I know he is bored with reading my current posts over and over and over….

What’s your family’s “thing”? Eat popcorn and watch a movie together Friday night, make waffles every Saturday mornings,  … you know – the thing you have subconsciously done as a family for as long as you can remember but don’t know how it really started?

Judging from the number of posts dedicated to our particular “thing” I think it is safe to say that the Olsen Family “thing” is – we go on long drives and then get out and explore. It is actually really fun! But I didn’t realize how much we did this until I began blogging and realized the majority of our pictures are of us on some hike in the middle of nowhere. So… my point? There isn’t really one, I just needed some form of an explanation for yet another post dedicated to us – in the middle of nowhere – exploring…

This was our adventure to “The Old Grainery” that Don and I hadn’t been back to since I was pregnant with Autumn and the cops made us come down and fill out a report on why we were spray painting old graffiti of the “F'” word to say Buick … it’s a long story, I’ll go into that much later…maybe.

There’s no trail to the top so picture Don and I pushing and dragging three little children up some steep rocky cliffs, to obtain the grainery full of litter and graffiti but a gorgeous view and you may begin to understand our fascination…or not. Here are the pictures to help you visualize.

On the same trip we stopped by the tucked away Paul Bunyan’s Wood pile and let the girls be the leaders in navigating us around the ranging cattle’s “piles.” Ah, yes…good ol’ wholesome family recreation…

 

Though we apologize for the many similar postings, we gotta post about the things we do, and this is it…we are willing to spice it up by taking requests of where you would like to see us go (in Utah) and will do our best to get some crazy shots of the place for you…let us know. Until then…

Remembering Bizzie’s Birthday

But before I do, here is another quote to keep the true meaning of the Holidays alive!

The Christmas Spirit

"Born in a stable, cradled in a manger, He came forth from heaven to live on earth as mortal man and to establish the kingdom of God. During His earthly ministry, He taught men the higher law. His glorious gospel reshaped the thinking of the world. He blessed the sick. He caused the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear. He even raised the dead to life. To us He has said, 'Come, follow me.'
"As we seek Christ, as we find Him, as we follow Him, we shall have the Christmas spirit, not for one fleeting day each year, but as a companion always. We shall learn to forget ourselves. We shall turn our thoughts to the greater benefit of others" (Thomas S. Monson, "In Search of the Christmas Spirit," Ensign, Dec 1987, 3).

Now for Bizzie’s Birthday. At the end of October the girls and I headed up to Washington to spend time with Grandma Martha, cousins and Aunts & Uncles. We had a wonderful time and I will post some of the other pictures from that trip later. Bizzie was ecstatic to spend her birthday with Grandma Martha! And Grandma Martha had a heyday making it as special as she could for her. Together those two picked out decorations (interestingly enough Bizzie chose the interesting combination of Halloween, princess and rainbows….) and made the house beautiful/gory for her cousins who would be celebrating with her. Then Grandma took everyone to this AWESOME “Alice in Wonderland” theme corn maze, Bizzie couldn’t stop talking about how fun it was. Finally she got dressed in her birthday outfit and the cousins celebrated her special day with a moving rendition of a Salsa Birthday Song…I’m pretty confident she felt very special!

We were frequently lost but everyone managed to keep their cool…

Here’s the birthday girl in her birthday outfit!

By way of explanation the flashing lighte were suckers the kids got from making their way out of the corn maze...

Hurray For December!!!

True Gifts

"We all enjoy giving and receiving presents. But there is a difference between presents and gifts. The true gifts may be part of ourselves—giving of the riches of the heart and mind—and therefore more enduring and of far greater worth than presents bought at the store.
"Of course, among the greatest of gifts is the gift of love....
"Some, like Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens's A Christmas Carol, have a hard time loving anyone, even themselves, because of their selfishness. Love seeks to give rather than to get. Charity towards and compassion for others is a way to overcome too much self-love" (James E. Faust, "A Christmas with No Presents," Ensign, Dec 2001, 2–6).

It has been a flurry of projects in the house as I’ve tried to get a couple of ideas together in time to begin on December 1st. I have a gazillion projects (as usual) I want to give as gifts this year and I was terrified I was going to spend  the Christmas Season stressed instead of enjoying the memories and focusing on the Savior…so to try to off-set that I came across some fantastic ideas for my family to help us be more Christ centered during the month:

I get the Disney Family Fun magazine and in there someone reported the idea for a “Good Deed Jar” where they put in 24 good deed ideas and everyday the family pulls a good deed out of the jar to perform. When they’ve completed it they put it in a box and on Christmas Eve they put the box under the tree as a gift to Santa (we are doing it for the Savior to show our gratitude for his life and example to us). The hardest part of all this was not assembling everything but trying to get my family to focus during FHE long enough to come up with 24 good deed ideas (I had to threaten Don between my teeth when he kept breaking out in bizarre Christmas Songs).

It went something like this, after 10 long minutes of brainstorming (ME) “…okay you guys we’ve got 7 ideas so far….anyone got anymore?” (Bizzie) “We can make cookies and eat them!” (Autumn) “We can give each other our Christmas presents early!” Looking at Don for some parental help in re-directing the girls he chimes in with his favorite Christmas Carol “Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat! Please put a penny in the old man’s hat!” I gave him my stare and then raising a paper to shield my face from the girls I told him in an angry whisper, “Start helping me or you are doing the rest of this yourself!” He quickly responded with the more helpful suggestion of, “We can do something nice for someone who is not nice to you.” Hidden meaning in that…probably…but it got the ball rolling in the right direction again and we got all 24 ideas down and had a great time doing it (FYI: Don got that I was tired and did his best to curb any further “little-Donny” responses).

Anyway, hear are some of the pictures of putting together the jars with my friend Crystal.

I definitely enjoyed talking with Crystal more than crafting and I LOVE crafting, so what should have taken us an hour took us 2 1/2! Hee! Hee! I am continually amazed by this woman! In less than 5 minutes the sentences “Pine is an easier wood to chop than others,” “I was carrying my rifle in the desert,” and “I use to fix the carburetor on my old Chevy…” came out of her mouth…she finally looked up from what she was doing to find me with my mouth dropped open, unaware of her absolute coolness!!! I am so glad she’s around as another role model for my girls!

The kids had a great time playing, eating popcorn, and watching the Classic Christmas movies. Love these boys!

 

 

 

And here is the final product! My Cricut broke down so we ended up doing a lot of it the old fashion way – if scissors can be old-fashion – Don spoils me!!!

 

 

 

 

Crystal had the idea of curling the papers instead of folding them, so cute. So the little white on top of the jar is the selected good deed slip waiting to be completed so it can be put into the star box!

Good luck everyone keeping the Savior in your hearts during the season. I am convinced if I can just do that, that even if I don’t get everything on my children’s Christmas list, or am unable to complete all my gifts made for others, I will not look back on the season with any regret. I love you and hope this is a peaceful, meaningful season for you!