Fall Hodge Podge

Crafty me….

I’ve been ready to “make” something for awhile now and the girls were insistent about getting Halloween decorations out of the boxes and up before Halloween came and went this year (go figure) - so this idea popped into my head…

 

I love the way paper crafts look but I don’t have a lot of time and money to spend picking out separate papers and piecing my project all together which is why I LOVE the new Cricut Imagine - it prints paper and cuts it. So all I had to do was pick the color of background for the banners, pick my letter font and color, hit print and there all my pretty papers were! To assemble it I glued my letters to the banners punched holes in the corners for the brass paper fasteners (I wanted it to have a careless hanging look), then I taped wired ribbons to the end and covered that with a Cricut cut pumpkin and – Voila! I thought it looked pretty cute… here are some close ups of the background printing options – love ‘em!

So that’s crafty me…now for the - 

hardworking three…

With the help of a rented lift, Poppa Olsen, and two little girls, Don got all the dead limbs from our backyard trees down before they became lethal with winter snow. I wish I had taken a picture of his arms afterward – between the ga-zillion scratches on his arms and legs, pulled shoulder muscles, two detached nails (one on his hand from a boulder and one on his toe from the doghouse) Don is creating a new meaning to “sacrifice” as he gives up precious time to create a safe and beautiful backyard for his family (it’s more appropriate to say “human” sacrifice at this point don’t you think?!) The girls made us proud with their hard working ethics and made us laugh when the girly-ness in them came out with the occasional squeal when they discovered spiders nest on the limbs they were carrying!

South View   (With extensive help from Kip & Blair bulldozing dirt, tearing up old cement pads, and cutting the trees back.)

Before:                                       After:

 

Center View

Before:                                       After:

North View

Before:                                       After:

We predict will be done with the backyard in…10 years-ish…

And finally…

Bizzie Girl turns 6!!!

Bizzie really wanted an Animal Friend Birthday Party – so we got together friends, masks, games (pin the trunk on the elephant, ring on a string), and cupcakes, turned the music way up, busted out our moves, and par-tayed!

The next day the Olsen’s threw a Pumpkin Party Bonfire and had another cake for her there! Thank you Aunt Heidi!!!

(I’ll take a moment to sneak in a non-birthday picture to commemorate Eli’s first bonfire. He seemed content being snuggled close by numerous of willing admirers…)

And to top off all the birthday mania – the Raymers took us up Hobble Creek Canyon and we celebrated her birthday once more with hotdogs, cupcakes, princess dresses (thank you Grandma Raymer!) and volleyball! Pictures coming soon… Man – turning 6 has never been celebrated more! Happy Birthday Bizzie Girl!!!!

And that’s it for this Hodge Podge Post!

50Years!

In a world where it is becoming a truly rare accomplishment, my wonderful in-laws have proven it is possible – they have been married for 50 years! We are so proud of them! There is a grand gala planned this Saturday for all to celebrate with them but on Tuesday just the family met at the Salt Lake Temple to enjoy a quiet celebration together. We gathered together for pictures in front of the Reflection Pool (interesting side note: 50 years ago Blair and Kathleen chose not to have pictures taken at the temple, I think because it was a late session and it was too dark by the time they came out, so we made up for it by taking as many pictures as we could) – here are the favorites:

Blair and Kathleen with their grandkids…

The Don Olsen Family… (he’s so cute!!!!)

A typical Olsen Girl shot…with Liberty showing her typical streak of independence – I love this shot…

 

When we felt we had taken every angle and shot we could of the occasion we headed into the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and rode the elevator up to the very top where we had reservations in a private room at The Roof. It was perfect for a close and private gathering, with a gorgeous view of the Temple grounds, and quiet enough that the two hearing impaired members of the family (Blair and I) could be apart of everyone's conversation. Outside the restaurant was a fountain that Liberty fell in love with…

We ate and ate and ate and talked about the memories of 50 years ago, as well as 25 years ago when Rhett and Heidi were married on the same day in the Salt Lake Temple  - and when everyone was finally immobile with full tummies Blair and Kathleen presented pictures of the temple to their grandchildren and we presented a gift to them – a gift that has kept me from being able to blog for the last month and do…anything else. Thanks to Don, lots of peanut butter sandwiches, McDonalds, help from Heidi, comfort from Don as I cried in a ball on his lap when things weren’t working out, and the patience of my 3 darling girls we were able to present a quilt to Blair and Kathleen capturing the highlights of their 50 years together. Bizzie carried the present to them and here it is being presented…

Don was catching a red-eye to New York that night and I was feeling pretty clingy to my man, I needed more time with him before he left, so as the celebration drew to a close we took the girls for a little stroll on the temple grounds before he had to leave. Some of my favorite pictures came from that quick stroll…

Olsen Girls on the Salt Lake Temple stairs…

Moroni….one of Don’s shots -

And now for my ULTIMATE favorite picture of the day!!!!!

As I walked around the temple grounds holding hands with my sweetheart and watching my sweet girls frolic and break loose a little bit after a couple of hours of being “ladies,” I was filled with peace and gratitude for the beautiful, eternal concept of forever families – oh, and Eli kicked throughout the walk to remind me that he too was included. Yes Eli, we are very glad you are included:)  The whole day was a meaningful, peaceful closing to a stressful month of quilting. 

Star Quilt started two years ago finished? Check!

I’ve talked to many of you about a quilt in progress for the last two years and I wanted to proudly announce that I was able to complete it in time to give it to Don Christmas Eve. This particular quilt had a lot of emotional build-up to it so it was very satisfying to have it turn out close to the way I had anticipated it. I began collecting Don’s shirts years ago when he finished Law School. I’ve come close to throwing them out MANY times and couldn’t. Inspiration struck as Don and I were talking about one of his favorite songs, “Impossible Dream” from the Man of La Mancha and I saw his shirts and this quilt! Here are the pictures of it in the making and the final product. On Christmas Eve the girls gave Don letters of why they appreciate him and then Autumn sang his song while I played the piano – being as pregnant like I was, I sounded horrible due to my inability to see clearly through the tears but Autumn did great, though greatly confused why everyone was crying!

It’s hard to read, but I stitched in the final words of the song on the back: “And the world will be better for this, that one man scorned and covered with scars, still strove with his last ounce of courage, to reach the impossible stars.” No one knows how hard they struggle, how heavy their loads, and how often they continue when it would be so much easier to give up than we  do -  So here’s to acknowledging how amazing our spouses are!

Learning Basketball at 33?!

Here's the other book I'm reading right now... Seems a little weird to be picking up a sport at 33, but why not? In my ward there are several women who are really good and a few of us who are better than average and then me who remembers only what I learned running around the gym in middle school wearing school issued short-shorts! We get together once a week and play 3 on 3 and generally have a blast. It beats the treadmill any day, I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard on a treadmill the way I do playing basketball with these ladies AND it's great exercise. After a couple of weekly games though I started lamenting to Don that I wish I knew how to improve myself (you know, actually get the ball in on purpose rather by accident...) and 3 days later a book arrived in the mail, a gift from Don ( that's one of the great things about Don, he listens and acts). So in a future book review I'll let you know if you can improve in basketball by reading a book!