Jared got his permit!

In a blizzard, I took Jared to Draper to the new DMV office there and he took the test for his driver's permit. I was so happy there was no line! And extra happy he passed the first time (barely). He didn't want to drive home in the snow, but when we were almost home I had him drive the rest of the way. He did great! I can't wait to have another driver! By the time he has his license, Brittany will be off to college!

Sammy the Dog

Sammy the Dog died today. He was 3 years and 9 months old.

I took him to the vet on Monday because the whites of his eyes were red and he was lethargic. The vet thinks he must have eaten some rat poison. He did blood tests and gave me some Vitamin K to give Sammy. We did that the last few days, and he seemed to be getting better, but Brittany found him in her room this afternoon. We are all very sad. He was a great pet. We hope he is happy in heaven, running around and having a good time.

New Leafblower

  

Obviously I am a bit behind with my posts, but here's early December and our new leafblower. It snowed a few days after this, so we were happy to get the yard cleaned up first! Jared is just crazy.

College Bound

Brittany applied for college today! It's so weird! Well, she's not weird, it's just that I'm getting old, you know!

No Cavities!

Took Jared, Tanner and Kiersten to the dentist today. NO CAVITIES! Yay for us!

Thanksgiving

Kiersten had a great time on the buoy swing Grandpa made. We're glad Grandpa likes to push her on the swing!

The guys killed some skeet before dinner. We didn't eat it, though...

Jared and Kiersten tried out Rod's bike. They think they're cool!

Men making gravy and carving the turkey! (And making funny faces in the camera)

The wonderful dinner we ate!

Little Big Town & Carrie Underwood

We went with our good friends, Paul and Marsha Jeffries, to see Little Big Town (who just happened to be opening for Carrie Underwood).

Olson Donut Fry 2008!

Mark finally made it out of the kitchen after he was done cooking all the donuts! 

Mark and Kris

Brittany, Jared and Robert (Brittany's boyfriend)

  

Kris and Carey Penrod (Fawn and Carey were in town for Christi's baby being born and got to come be part of our family!!)

Charles and Kristal (Charles was so kind as to bring his rototiller and till my garden before this party!!!! Thanks!)

Grandma Bess Olson

We were happy to have all 61 guests on Saturday night for the 54th Annual Olson Donut Fry! It was fabulous. We made 5 batches of donuts, about 250 in all!

Halloween Night Trick or Treating!

Tanner didn't want to go trick or treating, but Kiersten did, so I took her around the neighborhood. It started to rain and we had Dad bring us some umbrellas. We had a great time!

Wax Museum and Halloween Parade

Tanner was Hades for wax museum on Halloween. It was great! He kept saying, "My father ate me and then threw me back up!" What a great story.

This is Kiersten's expression when she saw me waiting to watch the Halloween parade in the gym. How cute is that!

 

Kiersten after the parade and just before the class party. Meow!

New Dining Room Table and Barstools

Here's our new barstools downstairs.

And the new kitchen table and chairs!

Fall in Utah

This is the view out behind our house. Wow!!!

Our Earthquake! DRILL

We had an emergency preparedness drill in our ward last Monday night. We were given an envelope on Sunday at church and told to open it at 7:00 pm Monday. Our paper said we had had an earthquake and we had specific damage and injuries that we had to deal with. We had broken glass all over and a broken water pipe. We had a gas leak and a small fire. We went over how to put out the fire, turn off the gas and the water, splint Jared's broken leg, and use our first aid kid for other injuries. We also had one of our children locked in their room because of the house damage and needed to get them out a different way. Our block captain came over to assess damage and see if we needed any assistance. After we took care of our problems, we had to walk up the hill (about 1/4 mile) to our neighbor's, carrying our 72-hour kits, where we met and discussed our solutions. What a great exercise! We learned so much and figured out where the holes are in our preparedness!

Here's Jared with our water in our rolling coolers.

And our 72-hour backpack kits. They worked great!

Christi's baby!

Christi (Penrod) Higham had her baby at 2:53 p.m., Sunday, October 26, 2008. 7 lbs. 5 oz., 19.5 inches. Mark and I got to go see them at the hospital. So sweet!

Proud Grandma Fawn!

Tanner's friend

Tanner had his friend Jordan over. Macaroni and cheese is always a hit!

Brittany Choir Concert

Brittany had her last fall concert in high school!

Backyard ice sculpture

Our neighbor's sprinkler has a little leak and it sprays on our back fence. It iced up overnight for several nights and looked really cool in the morning sun.

Crazy Hair Day!

It was crazy hair day at the elementary. Kiersten had a three ponytails with two braids in between. We sprayed the braids purple and ran a Barbie hair coloring thing through the front two ponytails. It was great. 

Kiersten was really bugged that she didn't "win" for the best crazy hair day look!

New Job

I got a new job working for a lady in my ward. She makes jewelry. Her business, Jewel Kade, is growing a lot and she needed someone to help her get some of the business details taken care of. I am learning Quickbooks and helping with her blog. Here it is; feel free to order! The blog is still in the working stages; we are getting new photos shortly.

The Day of Snow

  
  

In the morning, mom came rushing in and said there was snow falling! I got out of my bed. I looked through my big window and it was snowing outside! I wanted to go outside and make a snowman. After awhile Dad helped me get on my snow clothes. I went outside with my snow clothes on, of course. I got a couple of balls. Mom rolled them. I put the head on and Mom put on the face. After church the snow melted and the snowman tipped over. I wanted to pick up the stuff that was left from the snowman, but I decided not. I had some warm hot chocolate instead. - by Kiersten

Last of the Canning!

   

     

I managed to get all the tomatoes picked the day before it froze. Made them into marinara and salsa. Yum! So glad to be done and get all the canning stuff out of the kitchen!

Jared's 15th Birthday

  

Jared turned 15 on September 26. He wanted the Nike+ for iPod (a sensor that fits in your shoe and turns your ipod into a pedometer), and he spent a lot of time the first few days running on the treadmill. He also got his very own Costco-sized bag of M&M's. Now he won't have to eat mine!

Kiersten's Lost Tooth

I was down in my office on my computer, when I heard Kiersten wailing upstairs. She came down, followed by Jared, and was trying to tell me what was wrong through the washrag she had over her mouth. She apparently was pulling on a pillow in her room, and a gameboy fell off it and hit her in the mouth. She was crying and walking down the hall to find me, when she reached up and her tooth fell into her hand! She remembered we put a wet washrag on her bleeding gums the other times we took teeth out, so she got one for herself and came and found me. She was really upset, but I was so glad, because we didn't have to fight her to get that one pulled out, anyway! This is the tooth that she hit as a toddler that sort of died back then, so I think that's why it came out so easily. She has the cutest lisp now! Well, at least her s's are whispery.

More Canning

Okay, the fun is wearing off a little, but it's still fun to see all those pretty jars! Here's salsa and tomatoes.

New Scrapbook Pages

I have managed to do six more scrapbook pages since my scrapbooking trip. Check them out here.

Cat Heaven

There was a photo of an elephant on the front of the newspaper today. Kiersten saw it and remembered that she had seen that elephant at Hogle Zoo. I explained that the elephant had died and that's why it was in the newspaper. She decided it must be in elephant heaven. Which is like cat heaven.

Here's what cat heaven is like. The ground is made of yarn. There are lots of birds. They have a temple; it is a big building that is a scratching post. All the buildings are made of scratching posts, but they don't live in them; they just scratch. It never rains, but it is windy when the cats are hot. There is never water. There are no trees or plants so they don't need water because cats don't like it.

Just wanted you to know.

What my kids will eat

Not much!!

Kiersten eats bread, hot chocolate, chocolate milk, chocolate toast, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and m&m's. She will eat peas, carrots and corn for vegetables. No fruits. Oh, and she likes buttered spaghetti noodles. She prefers to eat this at the table with a candle lit and with the desktop waterfall thingy running so it's romantic.

Tanner eats bread, pizza, bread pizza (made by putting pizza sauce and cheese on bread and microwaving it - ick!), pita pizza (same idea), pb and whatever sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, bananas, strawberries. No vegetables or meat.

Jared eats meat. And chocolate. Lots of it. And milk.

Brittany prefers fast food!! Mexican, if she can get it.

Weekend News

So Mark went on Friday night and had a full sleep study. They hooked up wires all over him and told him to sleep and they'd watch. Hah! Needless to say, he was really tired yesterday!

I got to go last night and help work on a Disney trip scrapbook for a lady in our ward who is suffering from metastatic breast cancer. It was really nice to be able to do something for her and be with friends who are all so great. We finished the book and another smaller book of photos, and they will be given to her tomorrow to celebrate her 42nd birthday. Her husband has a blog and he sometimes writes about how she's doing. He's pretty funny.

This week hoping to get the network all completed, and we are going to order some furniture for the house; yay!

I figured out some more stuff on my facebook page, so that was fun. I'm working now on getting my movies off my computer's hard drive and onto an external, so I can have more room for scrapbooking. I was inspired watching these ladies work on Susan's scrapbook; the word "cute" was used many, many times as we were looking over all the pages.

Networking

As an update to last blog: the N network thing is being a pain. It works fast when it works, but it doesn't work all the time. I think it's because our G network cards for our macs are struggling with it. So today after much search, I discovered that there is a solution to this problem. USB internet adapters! They are small like a USB thumb drive, and they work like the card in your computer. I managed to find one that would work for my macs, so I bought 4 (2 desktops and 2 laptops). Yay! I'll let you know in a few days if they work. One upside of this is I can put one on the old laptop Tanner is using for school, and take it away when  I don't want him to have internet access!

N-Router and Exercise Ball

Today I spent some time working on our network. Our airport expresses keep getting knocked off the wall and broken, so I bought a Belkin N1 router. It's great! It's supposed to have a much greater range than our old G routers, and when we upgrade the wireless cards in our computers, it will be even faster.

And I also got an exercise ball. I get tired of my treadmill, and I think I need to build some muscle to help me burn these calories, so I thought I would try this. I'll let you know how it goes!

School is going great so far; the kids are staying caught up and Brittany is working quite a bit at Arby's. I love it when she has money!

Alpine Eagle Walk

Tanner and Kiersten had the Eagle Walk on Friday last week. They had to get pledges for each lap (or a flat donation). I went over and walked (ran) with Kiersten for 40 minutes, and we did 2 miles!! That's 12 laps. She was great.

Here's the Alpine Eagle.

And the tired mom.