We're so over 2008

Our New Year's Party this year consisted of heading out to Lehi and enjoying dinner with the Olson family and attempting to play the most difficult game of Trivial Pursuit on the planet. Nobody could guess about 90% of the questions, we need to find a Trivial Pursuit for the Slow and Easily Distracted.A word of caution to those who may be considering buying the "90's" edition of TP-- it's too hard, even for people who graduated in 89 & 91.


Anyway.... it was a nice mellow evening and Abbie was such a funny kid tonight, she was yakking at people and playing with everyone, and she is such a sweet little thing. She had this timid personality and yet you can tell she knows she's the most adorable thing on the planet (and she's right.)
Thanks Caleb and Shell for having us over, we love you guys and appreciate the fun evening. Caleb- I have your batteries and they are in my purse, if you will remind me when I see you next- I will return them to you then. :)
It was good to see everyone and I am wishing everyone a happy and safe New Year.

Now I have exactly 2 hours to finish off all the Christmas sweets before my new diet starts.......

Possibly the last layout of 2008

If you're lucky......

I got through 8 of the boxes today in the great scrapbooking purge, and then took a break to do an actual layout. I stink at using whitespace, but I think I did it right in this layout.

SpaceNuts

We took Roe to the Clark Planetarium today and caught one of the shows about the space program. It was really cool, if you haven't been to one of the shows in the dome theater, it's a must. The telling of the first orbit around the moon and the first moon landing brought tears to my eyes and sent chills up Matt's spine. Romy tried astronaut ice cream and loved it.

Fun day.

Much Too Much

Christmas break has been pretty good so far. The best part has just been long days with Matt to run errands with, snuggle with and talk to. Sometimes we're just completely silly and sometimes, it's nice to talk about things that are going on in life and get one another's take on how to resolve various issues.

We've also been tackling some of the overwhelming tasks around the house, having Matt to talk to while I jumped in helped me finally deal with my scrap area, which has been a useless disaster for far too long.

We went to Office Max and purchased some file boxes. Big enough to hold a fair amount of supplies, small enough to sort through in about an hour. We bought 20 boxes. I filled 18 with scrapbooking supplies. That did not include my cardstock, my stamps, my letter stickers, idea books,or my rub-ons. Holy Moley.

When I started scrapbooking, I was pregnant with Romy. Kristine introduced me to it and I tried a few pages, hated them and decided to quit. Then, I picked up an issue of Creating Keepsakes and learned some basic rules of design and I was hooked. It led to me joining online communities and making friends I still email every day. I eventually was on a few design teams, worked for a big scrapping product manufacturer and got really swept up in the competitive industry aspect of scrapping and once it wasn't just a "hobby" I justified purchasing nearly every product on the planet. Every new line of paper, every new tool, every cute sticker- I had to have it.

And you can tell by this skyscraper of boxes in my front room.

Bleah- time to clean house. I have purged my supplies before, a few times even.

My big theme for 2009 is "Simplify" ( I know it's cliche' and it's been done-- but not by me) and this pile of boxes-- MUST be the first thing to take a hit.

I'm going to need to crank up my ipod and hit Harmon's for a few extra cans of Red Bull. Or I could just go old school and find a way to play this baby Matt and I discovered while cleaning:

Happy Family

Our family on Christmas day.....Happy and spoiled just the way we like it.

Note the body language between Grey and Roe: "Don't put your gross sistery arm germs on me....oh, and also ...CHEESE!"

Christmas 2009

Before we called the kids down...

Parker

Matt- there was also a Casino Royale poster

Jane

The sugarplums finally stopped dancing around midnight and Santa came. He must have needed 2 sleighs to get all the gifts here. With all 7 kids here this holiday- the haul was massive.

Everyone must have been really good this year, they all got the things they asked for on their lists. Matt got a blu-ray player, Parker got the latest Guitar Hero bundle, Emma got a triple barrel curiling iron, Zane, Kate and Grey got the video games they asked for, Jane got a cabbage patch doll and Roe got an Easy Bake oven. Oh and Matt surprised the heck out of me and this summer we are going on a cruise to the Bahamas! I've never been on a cruise, so I'm excited. I wasn't expecting that at all, thanks Matt- you're such a wonderful husband!! I'm never letting you go- never ever ever!!!!

Our plans to go sledding have been cancelled for snow,lol. there's a big blizzard hitting SLC right now and it's not expected to let up until tomorrow. We'll have to go another time, the kids are quite happy just playing with their new toys and relaxing today.

All the creatures are stirring

And Matt and I are waiting for the kids to go to sleep so Santa can come!

This afternoon we celebrated my 36th birthday and it was fun and low key, just like I like it. I had lots of fun with my new laptop and got just what I wanted for my birthday-- lots of warm socks, nightgowns and spa/bath stuff. I am all about the warm and cozy. My mom and stepdad came over as well and we all exchanged our Christmas gifts, Roe and Jane got massive make up sets, the boys got books and Kate got a beading loom and Em got a knitting thingie. (That's the techinical term, I'm sure.) Afterwards, we all enjoyed pizza from The Pie for dinner.

In the evening, every 15-20 minutes I called the three little ones down to check where Santa is on the NORAD Santa tracker, and kept them hyper and excited. We made a special batch of cookies for Santa, then sat by the Christmas tree singing carols and reading stories.

The kid are all upstairs watching a Christmas movie, the little ones are so excited they may never fall asleep, which is a bummer for me because I am already exhausted.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

You'd Better Not Pout....FAIL

Happy Birthday Chris!!

I'm so in love with you and happy we're together! You make me happy every day. Thank you for having the other half of me.

Frosty the Snowdork

Grey has been bugging me since the first snow that stuck to go outside and build a snowman with him, but so far most of the snow we have had has been too powdery.

Today it was really wet outside and I knew the snow would pack well, so after school everyone but Parker went out front yard to build one.

It didn't take too long, the snow was really sticky and so we built two, but the second one looks a little sickly, so I'm not posting a picture of him.

Matt and Zane are off at the movies together tonight to see Forever Strong http://www.foreverstrongmovie.com/ it's a rugby movie and Zane is going to start playing in the spring. He's pretty excited about it and so are we. Zane is a strong kid and he should be able to kill in rugby.

I think the rest of us will just enjoy the warm house and make some Christmas caramels and hot chocolate.

Boring Holiday Poll

Just a little Holiday Poll from another site.......

When do you put up the tree?

The day after Thanksgiving and I let the kids decorate it however they want.

When do you take the tree down?

Usually January 1stish.

Do you like eggnog?

Yes, too much. I use to hate it as a kid but "big" Romy's mom made me try it and I was hooked. Parker is a total eggnog groupie as well.

Favorite gift received as a child?

I was always a sucker for a Barbie. My favorite one was the year I got a Crystal Barbie, she had the coolest dress and best hair.

Hardest person to buy for?

Zane. He is very particular about what he likes and insists on making everyone read his mind every holiday and guess what the specific things he wants could possibly be.

Easiest person to buy for?

This year it has been Matt.

Do you have a nativity scene?

Yeah, the same one I have had since Parker was little, all the figures are adhered to the stable so little hands can run off with Baby Jesus and behead a wise man or two. I no longer have little hands around here, but why tempt fate?You know as soon as I buy a nicer nativity I'll turn up pregnant.

Mail or email Christmas cards?

Mail. I had over 100 this year and next year I am cutting back. I love getting them in the mail almost more than I like getting actual presents.

Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

Red and blue velvet slippers from my ex. I was shopping with him and pointed them out and said "I want slippers but not THOSE- they are butt ugly." Sure enough all he remembered was that I had pointed to those slippers.

Favorite Christmas Movie?

Christmas Vacation

When do you start shopping for Christmas?

I pick up a few things before Thanksgiving, but I do probably 80% of the shopping on Black Friday-- not at 6 am though.

Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?

Not that I can remember. I tend to donate the weird stuff to the goodwill.

Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?

Homemade caramel and toffee.

Lights on the tree?

Well, yeah. Who doesn't put lights on the tree?

Favorite Christmas song?

I like a lot of them. I think right now my favorite is "Oh Holy Night"

Travel at Christmas or stay home?

Stay home and go sledding.

Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's?

Sure. If I can name all my kids, I can remember the reindeer. Crap...can I name all my kids?

Angel on the tree top or a star?

Angel.

Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?

We open a few atthe family party whenever that is and then wait until Christmas Day. I always get to open presents on Christmas eve because it's my birthday, though.

Most annoying thing about this time of the year?

Grumpy shoppers and the yearly holiday schedule games with ex spouses.

Favorite ornament theme or color?

silver

Favorite thing for Christmas dinner?

Pizza. We do not do a big fancy meal, we relax and watch videos and take it easy.

What do you want for Christmas this year?

A quilting frame and supplies. Warm socks and nightgowns.Oh and peace on Earth and stuff.

Two more

The first one is digital, I was mostly just playing with a new brush I made out of some clip art, the second is of my favorite picture of Zane.

Christmas Crop

After the party last night everyone decided to just relax and opted not to go freeze our buns off
at Temple Square. Matt watched football, the boys took over the Wii, and since all the tables
were set up anyway, the girls and I had a scrapbooking evening.

I got three layouts done,and the girls had fun crafting as well. It's been awhile since we all did this together and we cranked up the Disney tunes on my ipod, ate all the leftover snacks and had a blast. We'll probably keep scrapbooking today as well and then it all gets cleaned up until I get the time to tackle the mess that my craft room has become again.

Romy's:

Jane's:

Emma's:

Katie's:

How to Party like an Olson

Today was our final formal party for the holidays, the rest of the time we will just be doing stuff with just the nine of us. We had the Olson Family over today 8.5 kids and 12 adults.

The weather was nice and everyone enjoyed good company and lots of food.

I taught the older girls how to make lasagna and we all enjoyed visiting and opening gifts together afterwards.

Abbie stole the show as always, she is such a sweet little girl.

But, she's still not sure what she thinks of her uncle Matt.....

Emma loves sitting with the grown ups....The cool kids always hang out on the stairs..
Zane's not a Freshman yet, but well on his way to taking over thew world, er, I mean White house....

"over 1,000 pieces!!!!" Romy and Jane were super thrilled. They could not wait to put stickers on their bed frames and walls!!!

A special star just for Mom and Dad......

The childhood stockings find their owners....

Abbie reads books with her mind.It's a Christmas Miracle, Lori!!