Happy…

It’s one of those days where I have a great deal to do and have every reason to stress, but watching my kids run around and being able to stay at home to watch them makes me feel very grateful. 

I was getting ready to update the blog to include the latest event – Autumn’s birthday Mustang Search and found some pictures that simply made me happy to look at. I’ll share them with you, but first a quick background blurb: Don is a talented puppeteer and has done a little story read for each of the girls preschools. We had dug out all our puppets for the occasion and still had them laying around, and unbeknownst to  me the girls had each grabbed one and taken them with them to the truck for one of our many mini-adventures. As we start our trips, it is the usual order of things for Don to crank up the Olsen Playlist of Jammin’ Songs  and everyone starts busting out the moves (I watched this ritual from an adjacent car once and it’s pretty funny to see an outsider’s view of the whole thing…),on this occasion as I turned to admire my oh-so-talented-jammers instead of little girls I saw this…

I love my hubbie and girls. Everyone has a different vibe…vitality…style…in their family, I hope you find as much happiness with your unique chemistry as I do with mine.

Bizzie and Minnie!

Here’s the amazing duo…

Forgive me, I’ve got to ramble here for a second – one of the things I LOVE about being married to Don is how different we are (funny how it can be the most challenging thing too – but for the most part it is incredibly positive). One of our differences is our family backgrounds, where I grew up with an appreciation for the outdoors and the animals in it I did not have the experience of a daily hands-on that Don had growing up on the farm. I see the confidence that Don has from the experiences he received young - mastering fears of animals larger than himself (I’ll figure out how to post a picture of him showing steer several times larger than himself later), time alone to ponder-work-and figure things out on his own…Anyway, I’ve loved giving the girls a taste of a similar experience by showing lambs in the Mini-4H portion of the Benjamin Stock Show. They get to work closely with an animal, face the scariness of controlling a scared animal in front of a judge, and receive a trophy for their hard work!

Don and I are also grateful for Uncle Kip for providing Minnie to work with in the first place, he was her “coach” and was so kind and patient with her. We gathered at the Brown’s Barn in Payson on a Saturday morning and patiently waited for the pigs, steer and cakes (see previous post) to have their turns and with us was a lot of family support!

The Raymers… (my family)

The Olsens… (Heidi – Don’s sister and his mom, Kathleen)

(Blair and Kathleen again, Don’s parents)

(And of course, the sisterly support – I could tell Autumn was having a case of green envy, but she did an amazing job of being happy for and helping Bizzie)

  

(Liberty was just having fun…)

We had a bit of time before Bizzie needed to take Minnie in before the judge so Don worked with her a bit more to make sure she felt comfortable. He was pretending to be the judge while she had to make sure the lamb was always between the judge and herself, with her leg square in front of her neck so she couldn’t jump forward – she had it nailed!

The time came for her to lead Minnie into the arena - it was a madhouse! There were 20 little kids pulling around jumpy lambs of various ages and there were so many adult helpers that the kids had a hard time figuring out who the judge was! How did Bizzie do? AMAZING! And I’m not just saying that because I’m her mom! She led her lamb in, and in the chaos Minnie got skittish and jumped forward, flattening Bizzie on the ground! She promptly got up, grabbed Minnie’s rope, got control of her and kept pulling her in the direction the judge was directing her!!! No tears, no break in concentration – WOW.  She got to the spot she was directed to and with more chaos and loose lambs around her, she and Minnie did what they had trained to do – check out this perfect stance -

And here is the video of her receiving a trophy for her hardwork – while holding Minnie still – I’m telling you – amazing.

It can be hard to read Bizzie, she keeps her emotions fairly close. But I think she was pretty happy with herself…

It’s a bit fuzzy, but I love that Kip took the time to give Bizzie a “well done” pep-talk afterward too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bizzie’s part was done but her cousins’ turn was still coming. Kelly and Ashlynn have been doing this for a couple of years now and are pros! To help Ashlynn control her sheep she has the willing and gentle help from her friends and family (her sheep is being shown by a friend next to her and her dad, while Kelly watches protectively on…)

And here is Pro Kelly! Here are her skills in action, winning her the Senior Showmanship Award.

 

And finally, the day came to a satisfying end when Kelly’s sheep received the “Grand Champion Award” and Ashlynn’s sheep received the “Reserve Champion Award”!!!!

 

I know I’ve used the word a lot – but, what an AMAZING day!

Aunts+Cousins+Cakes+Lambs=Crazy Fun!

In preparation for Bizzie and her cousins entering their lambs in the Benjamin Livestock Show Aunt Heidi and I got together the night before to create a cake, with Bizzie’s and Ashlynn’s help, to enter in the kids Cake Auction! Heidi was the mastermind and had developed a terrific plan of a barn cake with sheep cupcakes surrounding it. So while sweet Don watched sick Liberty at home Autumn, Bizzie and I made our way to American Fork to decorate! After a scrumptious meal of Papa Murphy Pizzas, we began mixing the various colors of icing we needed, and here is where our only glitch occurred…we were going for a “true red” barn, but our food coloring refused to cooperate! Half-way through mixing the colors into the icing Heidi asked Bizzie and Ashlynn how the red icing was coming along – Bizzie looked up at me concerned and said quietly, “Mom. It’s pink.” Hmmm. Over the next 45 minutes we got bright pink, salmon, rust, brown, everything but – red. So we let it go and went for a rustic, weathered brownish-red color – I thought it looked great! (Heidi, I could tell, was bucking-up and making do, but she was making me laugh with her disgruntled look every time she looked at the barn!)

Here it is from the top getting it’s shingles put on…

My job, after some experimentation and brainstorming with Heidi, was to assemble the sheep. At one point I emailed a picture of them to Don and he texted back, “Wallace and Gromit.” They did look like the sheep off that show! I, again, thought they looked pretty cute!

As the night wore on the girls found entertainment watching Charlotte’s Web (SUPER appropriate for the livestock show the next day I thought). Aunt Heidi is such a good mom and aunt - she is very patient and makes it super easy for kids to want to be around her as she gently helps them accomplish even the most challenging tasks. Here is a video of her and Bizzie putting grass around the sheep…

The finished product!

The next day at the Stock Show they had the Cake Auction in-between the showing of the pigs and the steer. Each child brought out their cake and the auctioneer started the bidding process with farmers and grandparents, uncles and neighbors trying to outbid each other and help the kids feel supported. “$25? Do I hear $30? $30? $30 to the man in the Dickies. Going once… going twice…SOLD! Give that man a hand!” And on it goes. Well every year the Olsen Clan pools their resources and drives the bid up until it reaches the amount they’ve collectively decided on – which means where a cake might normally go for $30-$40, the Olsen Cake’s end up going for… well, a little more…

Here is Kelly, Ashlynn, Bizzie and Autumn holding the cake up for the bidders…

And here’s the bidding… poor Kelly was holding that heavy cake all by herself, but she kept smiling and was grateful when one of the auctioneers helped her out at the end!

Yep. $200. Maybe it’s the hormones going through pregnant me, but I tear up in gratitude for family, who above all else, are doing their best to make the kids memories so wonderful! FYI: It was  the highest bid that day… So - Go Rustic, Weathered Brownish-Red Barn Cake!!! Keep watching the blog and I’ll post the rest of the events at the Livestock Show soon!

Easter on the Farm

Spring officially kicks-off when it’s finally time for the Annual Easter Egg Hunt at the Olsen Farm! And though it was drizzling a bit and overcast, things were blooming and the excitement of the kids echoed the anticipation of the warmer days Spring promised.

Poppa and Grandma had gone all out creating a fun Easter Saturday for their grandchildren. A lunch of sloppy joes, deviled eggs, fruit and yumminess got us warmed up for the incredible Easter Egg Hunt of over 200 eggs for 4 grandchildren!!!! Poppa had worked hard to get the front grass the perfect length - short enough to walk through, long enough to hide all those brightly colored eggs! The kids grabbed their baskets, Poppa gave the count off and off all the grandchildren took, according to their various degrees of experience, to find their eggs. Ashlynn was content to meander with her parents and discover the eggs along the house, Autumn raced to the far side of the field to go “where-no-child-had-gone-before,” Bizzie went for the obvious finds along the flower beds, and Liberty, with successive looks of confusement-astonishment-delight, learned the joys of finding colored eggs in grass!

Even the adults were looking hard to make sure we recovered all 200+ eggs so Poppa didn’t have to mow over them! (FYI: we were still finding eggs the next day…)

Rhett and Ashlynn searching high…

Olsen girls searching low…

And where were the wonderful Easter Egg Hiding Fiends? Enjoying the show from their favorite bench… (this is Poppa’s usual farmer-look, inside he’s having a blast watching his grandkids)!

The bounty was RICH -

EVERYONE had full baskets, to the point that they were sharing (kids sharing?!) with each other to lighten the load – I can hear Grandma’s feathers ruffling as she reads that last part – she’s thinking, “My grandchildren are examples of pure altruism!” – and I’ll let her, because every kid needs someone in their life that thinks they’re absolutely perfect:)!

Liberty loved her “eggs” (a favorite word all month) so much that she refused to let her dragging basket be carried by anyone else!

Did the festivities end there, you ask?! Ha! Poppa had gotten a cute little Easter Bunny Pinata that Grandma was reluctant to let the kids whack – but, love for her grandchildren came in first…

Poppa was able to hook it up one more time for Ashlynn who gave it some solid whacks before the candy came pouring out. And then, out of love for his wife, Poppa gave her the bunny’s remains to carry reverently inside… and thus was the sad end of the cute little Easter Bunny Pinata…

She looks teary eyed but she’s really just giving us one more shot of the many photos of Grandma with her eyes closed:)

We headed inside to settle down, warm up and enjoy the tradition of opening the “special” Easter Eggs that contained the story of Christ. This ritual always ends with Grandma and Poppa giving each of the grandchildren a special picture of the Savior with a message written out to them on the back to put in their scriptures – a priceless keepsake. Here is a video of the very last egg being read by Aunt Heidi and our family discussion on who the angel might have been who announced that Christ’s tomb was empty.

And, just in case the grandchildren may still be wondering if their grandparents loved them…they handed out little toy Easter prizes!!!!! One of the many perks to being a grandparent is the joy of spoiling your grandchildren I guess:)

It was a WONDERFUL time of being loved, and sharing both the fun and spiritual joys of the Easter holiday with family!

Celebrating Passover

I looked forward to this Easter Season with excitement! One of the main reasons was being able to take another go at celebrating the Passover from a LDS perspective. We used this book again to walk us through recipes and ceremony procedures:

 

And we invited the Wolfe Family to join us! I love Passover, it falls a week before Easter giving Don and I a chance to introduce the crucial spiritual side of Easter before the Easter Bunny excitement takes over. Having the Wolfe’s with us did amazing things for the attention span of the kids too! We kept dinner simple (non-kosher pizza, unfortunately) while we watched a portion of the, Prince of Egypt, to refresh everyone’s memories on the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. And then we gathered around the table, set with extreme care to impress on the kids that what we were about to do was more reverent than casual:

The long plate in the middle would hold the “matzah” (unleavened bread) that we would later hide a portion of for the kids to find by candlelight – cool parable of finding the gospel/truth with the Light of Christ! The little glass jar has toys in it for each of the kids as a prize for finding the hidden matzah – obviously, their favorite part:) On the other end of the table is the Seder Plate, which held the various foods we would introduce to the kids that hold symbolic meaning:

A LOT of grape juice was consumed as we moved from one symbolic food to another we would end with a toast of gratitude/ remembrance of our Savior. One of my favorite parts was remembering the plagues by dipping our fingers in the grape juice for each of the plagues and dripping it on our napkins to count them – I think Liberty made up an additional 20 plagues because I couldn’t get her to stop, she just kept on dipping!

The preparation is consuming, the clean-up is extensive, but the satisfaction of the parents is priceless! As we sat around afterward discussing the deeper meaning of scriptural symbols with the kids running around with their matzah toys, I felt very content knowing we had made the effort to fortify our children a little more with the gospel and it’s hope…

FYI: To answer the question of why Don and I enjoy celebrating this Jewish holiday I’ll use this small excerpt from the above book: “In a very real sense, Passover and Easter are the same holiday. Passover simply looked forward in anticipation of the Atonement, while Easter looks back in commemoration. President Howard W. Hunter said, ‘I believe it is safe to say Passover is with out equal in the Jewish calendar of celebrations. It commemorates the passage of a people from subjection and bondage to freedom and deliverance. Passover in the Old Testament and Easter in the New Testament testify of the great gift God has given and of the sacrifice that was involved in its bestowal.’”

Update on Mamaw and Papaw

They were doing really good when we made our last Tuesday visit. They had just finished their dinner and their visiting nurse was taking care of vitamins, blood pressure, feet care and checking out Papaw’s latest “owie,” (he couldn’t remember how he did it but he had a jammed finger). They chatted with Autumn and Bizzie during all of it and watched Liberty explore and snuggle with Papaw.  Once the nurse left (she was very kind and patient) we talked about everything and nothing. Mamaw wanted to hear about the latest things the girls were doing and Papaw was content just to listen. I told him I had found a cassette with the song “Richest Man in the World” and for the first time that night understanding really lit up his face and he began singing the song word-for-word. It was so sweet to hear. The girls love being with them and are looking forward to our visit tomorrow, we’ll fill you in more later.

Holiday Catch-up…

Have you ever gotten behind in your journal writing and kept telling yourself you would sit down and do a catch-up session before moving on because too many wonderful/tragic/memorable things have happened to NOT write them down? But life keeps happening and memories kept piling up and you fell more and more behind? Most of my journals start and re-start with the words – “That’s it! I’m starting the journal writing again! A lot of great things happened (here I enter in three explanatory words of 30+ events and then say…) but I don’t want to not write about today too so I’m starting over – NOW!” Point? I’ve reached that point with my pictures for the blog – so I’m going to spew it all on there so I can get to today…tomorrow – someone tell me I’m making sense, please?

My sweet Bizzie and I had a lot of fun and time to do Holiday traditions together – she was instrumental in helping me get the gingerbread cookie men cut and baked to be decorated for Family Home Evening…

And she pressed designs into 40 little red circles for our gifts to neighbors and friends with the Cuttlebug – no complaints just an excited, “Mom, I got these done are there more?”

NUTCRACKER!!!!

Autumn and I went on our 2nd Annual Nutcracker Girls-Night-Out! This year we came prepared with layers of tights and pants under our dresses and still froze, but had a lot of fun eating at The Roof which overlooked the SLC Temple (gorgeous! the temple and my daughter!). Then we walked through Temple Square to “Bart” the horse that would take us to Capitol Theatre…

And of course the Nutcracker was wonderful! Don who arranged the reservations at the restaurant, the horse carriage ride, the front row tickets at the ballet as a Christmas gift to his girls was also serving as babysitter to Bizzie and Liberty who were anxiously waiting to turn 6 so they could join us too…

Thank you DAD!!!!

We ended the evening with Autumn taking pictures of Temple Square’s lights…

And then popping into the Joseph Smith Building to defrost before trekking to our parking spot!

The Holidays meant school was out and with blizzards…

and below zero temperatures there were LOTS of opportunities to cozy up! These are my favorite pictures of the girls…

Christmas Eve is full of traditions for us. One of our favorites is taking candles to grandparents who have passed on, hearing Grandma and Poppa tell us stories of them and singing Christmas Carols to them…

And Finally New Year’s Eve!!! For several years we have gotten together with Melanie and Auri Burnham’s family for a kid’s New Year’s Eve party where we celebrate midnight at 9pm – much to the confusion of our neighbors but perfect for all those little kids! It’s great cuz if you need a little more time to get ready midnight can wait. This year Rhett, Heidi and Ashlynn Burnham joined us too! Here we are welcoming the New Year in…

And the countdown…

That catch’s us up so hopefully, the next post will be more current. I hope your days are as busy as mine and as full of joy and gratitude for the memories you’re making with your little ones.