best year ever.

Dear 2008,

You have been a great year.

One of my favorites so far. I will always remember the wonderful times you gave me.

I will always remember...

-My first helicopter ride

-The funny, exhausting, frustrating & great times we have had while fixing up the Avenues house.

-My Grandpa's funeral. Especially when we closed the casket & the veterans service at his grave site. When they handed my Grandma the flag.

-Saying goodbye to him. The dinner we had a few months earlier, when we shared our favorite memories & the night at the hospital.

-The best New Years Eve of my life & watching G do the Men in Black dance for the first time.

A priceless moment!

-Afternoon naps with my love in Hawaii.

-Turning 21 in San Francisco.

-And specifically, getting pizza w/my brothers at midnight on my birthday. Not sure why, but I'll never forget that night.

-Many many days at the park with my little family of 4.

-Getting ready for Heidi & Erik's wedding with the girls. Riding to the wedding in the limo & getting to walk down the isle with G.

-Saying goodbye to our boat (and a lifetime of Lake Powell memories) on our

last trip to the lake with "Big Margy".

- When G made the decision to switch career paths. Watching him go through all the interviews to get his job with Goldman.

-Seeing wicked for the first time.
-The night in Newport when Meg, Jon, Scott, Greg & I sat on the beach & watched the sun set. Dancing on the beach & lifeguard tower with Megan.

-The day my new niece was born & when I held her for the first time.

-Hanging out at the restaurant in Newport & singing & listening to music late into the night.

-Our 2 year anniversary & walking the Temple grounds late at night with G.

-Walking through our first house for the last time before we moved out. (I miss it so much)

-Working on my 3 tiered chocolate fudge cake & surprising G with it on his Birthday.

-The night of the presidential debates, spent at home with just the 2 of us.
-My first sharing time lesson & everything I learned from that great calling.

Goodbye 2008,

thanks for the memories!

happy day of birth to the blog.

my blog is one year old today.

(woop woop)

although i am pretty sure nobody besides the husband reads it anymore
(and not even him sometimes; its okay, it's boring, i understand :))
i am still glad i have one.
i am glad i have a record of my happy (and sometimes sad) moments.

and frankly, i can't believe i stuck to anything for a whole year!
go me.

merry merry christmas.

Our Christmas this year was lovely.

Turned out to be one of my favorite Christmas' ever, which was a wonderful surprise considering I was thinking it might turn out to be the worst. Here are some of the faces we saw along the way (at least the ones we remembered to snap pictures of)...

grandma & kate.

makayla marie.the moffitt family on xmas eve.

heidi & erik.

and margaret & geir.

********************************************************************************
but, i do have to admit that the best part of christmas this year was spending time with my lover
(even though he had to work the day before & after christmas).
he is sort of my favorite person ever.

please ignore our extreme bed head hair & smooshy faces.
it was early.

now, i'm off for a few more hours of rock band in my pj's & sledding with the fam.
hope your christmas was magical & merry, too.

just so tiny.

i am not kidding when i tell you that i would fall over dead with joy

if i ever stumbled upon one of these little creations.

these little tiny's are "left to fend for themselves" in the streets of london.

i am completely obsessed with them.

please, if you ever travel to london, find one for me.

i will love you forever & worship you, too.

visit the littles here.

the olsen's official christmas update of 2008.

(this picture of me & my grandma has absolutely nothing to do with the below post.

but, i love my grandma & i love this picture of us together)

G & I had a really great weekend & we finally feel like this home remodeling project will soon be coming to a close. We have been working on remodeling the Avenues house since October, so we are both excited for normal life to return (especially G). We now realize how nice it was to both be done with work at 5 and have the rest of the evening to do whatever we wanted together. The fact that it hasn't been that way for the past several months has made both of us appreciate that time together so much more. I can really say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I love my husband & I love being with him.

On Saturday night, we went Christmas shopping & we had so much fun together. Normally, both of us hate the mall, because of all the crowds, so we were a little worried that we might not survive the mall during Christmas time, but surprisingly, we made it out alive & without any serious injuries! The lines weren't even that bad. It was amazing.

After shopping, we returned home to wrap all of the presents & watch The Grinch. I don't know why I am so in love with this movie, I think it might have something to do with Holley's influence? Anyways, I am totally in the Christmas mood now (finally)!

Yesterday, we got to make our 2nd gingerbread house of the season with G's family and I have to say that it is our best one yet! I am very proud of the little sucker. Anyways, I realize this is a boring post with no pictures, but I wanted to document our happy little weekend. I am so thankful for my husband, who is truly the hardest worker I know. He has slaved away at his job & at the new house and I am so impressed by his dedication. With that said, I hope he will slack off much more in 2009!

2008 has been an incredible year for our little family. We have changed jobs, moved out of our first home, had challenging church callings, grown up a lot, celebrated our 2nd anniversary, taken some amazing vacations (Hawaii, San Francisco, Newport, Lake Powell), welcomed a new niece into the world, said goodbye to my sweet grandpa, and enjoyed many unforgettable moments together. It's been a great year.

With that said, I can't wait for Christmas!

(Our family on Christmas Eve last year)

Gregory John Olsen, Jessica no-middle-name-how-sad-is-that Olsen, Toby Magoo Olsen (2) and Jack Bauer Olsen (2).

(PS. Obviously, I am in better spirits today than I was on Friday. For the record, that grumpy post was written after I got the news that my sweet Mom had slipped and fallen on the ice & was in the hospital with a dislocated shoulder. At that moment, it felt like anything that could go wrong this month, would. And yes, between car wrecks, injuries, death, work stresses and moving stresses, it has been a rough month, which is why I am going to leave my negative post up. It will make me even more grateful for the great months!)

no sugar coating here.

Many, many, many things have gone wrong this month. The month that will forever be known as the cursed & horrible month of December 2008. For some reason, I feel the need to explain how many things have gone wrong to you, my dear bloggers. And perhaps, have you agree with me when I say that sometimes life sucks.

I started explaining, in detail, how many things have gone wrong during this horrible month. I took the time and wrote it all out (not going to lie, it felt good). And then, when I finished, I felt like a majorly ungrateful person (didn't feel so good), so I quickly erased it all and slapped myself firmly across the face.

And then, attempting to be more brief, I wrote this:

"December sucks. I'm ready for January"

And I was going to post that, but then I realized that there would be no point in oozing my negativity across the blogosphere, so to spare you of the major downer (aren't I so thoughtful??) I didn't do it.

I don't even know why I am writing all of this, except to say that I am trying really hard not to complain about life and it's sucky nature right now. I am trying very hard to be like the rest of the blogging world & only mention the good, focus on the good, blog about the good. I am really really trying.

With that said,

December SUCKS!
I'm ready for January.

On the bright side, I have my gjo. And I love him. And he thinks life sucks right now, too. At that makes me feel better.

a very grown-up christmas.

{GJO & I helped my Mom make these for her neighbors the other night & I'll I can say is I sure hope these goodies meet a better fate.}

Last year, for Christmas, I sort of made 87 billion of these caramel/chocolate dipped pretzels for all of our new neighbors. I dipped, drizzled and packaged for hours and topped them all off with a homemade card. I was so domestic.

When I finally finished, G and I bundled up tight and hopped in the car to make our deliveries. We started on our street and went to visit the first family. It was about 8:00 (too late?) when we rung the the doorbell and waited on the porch steps for about 5 minutes before anyone came to the door. Finally, as we were about to leave, our pajama clad neighbor opened the door with a confused look on her face. They were just climbing into bed & she apologized profusely for her outfit, making an awkward situation even more awkward (I'm not sure she knew who we were?). G (embarrassed for disturbing them) quickly handed her the package & mumbled a "Merry Christmas" as we escaped to the car. Our first visit hadn't been much of a success and G was convinced it was too late to keep delivering. I, however, wanted to make one more stop and so, it was off to another neighbor's house. This time, an elderly lady with a quick wit & sassy personality (love her). She, thankfully, was clothed & awake (a good sign) and welcomed us in to her retro home. G graciously made small talk, while i tried to pipe in with a lame comment every now and then (let it be known that I SUCK at small talk) and eventually our conversation morphed to the upcoming election and politics. It didn't take long before the political flame was blazing and they were both in the throws of a heated debate. Come to find our lovely neighbor disagreed with just about every stance my very opinionated husband held dear.

I tried not to make eye contact with either of them as a sat on that rickety sofa, eying her possessed cat and watching in horror as she shoved book after political book into G's lap. It was a long night in that teeny tiny living room. We never even took off our coats.

Several hours & a few political duels later, I awkwardly put and end to the "discussion" and wished our now upset neighbor a "Merry Christmas!"

As we trudged through the snow & back to our car, I couldn't help but comment on what a disastrous first attempt that had been & how I never wanted to try to be a grown-up again (delivering goodies to neighbors you don't know is a grown-up activity in my book). The pretzels (and all their lovely packaging) were thrown into the trunk of our car & we didn't see them again until February, when we re-discovered them & then proceeded to eat all 87 (or was it 87 billion?) of them ourselves.

And that, my friends, is the story of that one time Jessica tried to be a grown-up & wasted days of hard work & chocolate in the mean time. This is just a guess, but it might take several years for me to recover. Moral of the story: chocolate & politics don't mix.

Happy goody delivering!!!

to all those who doubted...

i would just like to inform all of you that gregory john olsen now applies chapstick a mere 2 times daily. once in the morning & once at night.

and he no longer carries a stick with him everywhere he goes and can still function without a stick in his pocket.

and the other day he said he could feel his lips starting to heal & get better/more moist after the withdrawls. don't get me wrong, here, the withdrawals were rough, but we made it through and now his lips stay moist on their own like they should.

chapstick addicts of the world...there is hope!!!

(ps. sorry about the incredibly boring nature of my blog currently.)

sweater weather.

ugly christmas sweater day at work.

not only is mine
ugly

it also belongs to a boy.

see the eagle?
pretty sweet.

let it snow! (?)