Can't wait for Christmas.....

It's crazy to me to think that Christmas is only two days away. I am sad that it's almost over already. I swear, where does the time go these days?? Well here is a picture of our cute "skinny" tree. We had a bigger one for our first three Christmas's but the stand broke on us last year and it fell over numerous times breaking a few ornaments that are sentimental to us. So we decided to just sale it at a garage sale and keep this one that I have had for years. It is the perfect size for us for now and until we are done with Optometry school. We are trying to down size all our stuff so we don't have to worry about taking a lot with us when we go. Who knows what kind of room we will have. It seems to be the more space you have to live in the more stuff you seem to buy to fill it. Needless to say, I have 90% of our belongings in boxes in storage so I won't be buying stuff. It's hard not to want to get decorations and such cause that is what I love doing, I like changing things up and re-decorating. It's in my blood, what can I say. So here is my cute hubby playing a guitar game with all his buddies. It's so funny to watch these grown men play video games at such an adult age. I actually get a kick out of watching them all act like 10 year old boys. Two guys playing guitars, one doing the vocals, and the other playing drums. It's a fun filled event to get together with all our friends from high school. We do love the holidays and to be able to spend them with all our family and friends.
Here is our picture we used for our Christmas cards this year. I know there is a pumpkin decoration in the background but this was on Thanksgiving day and we both liked how the picture turned out. Every time we get our pictures taken we look like we are getting our engagement pictures done again. I love it though.

Turkey Time!

To start off our Thanksgiving day right my sister, sister-in-law, and I all ran in the bitter cold turkey trot. It was only 4 miles but it was 24 degrees and eight in the morning. The wind was just nasty, but we had fun. We all hurried to finish so we could have some nice hot chocolate at the finish line. I have to say it was strange to think of having hot chocolate after a run like that but it really hit the spot and warmed up our tummies. This is my mom, all my sisters, and I on Thanksgiving day. I have the neatest sisters and mom ever!! We are all so close and the best of friends. It's the best when we all get together for some kind of craft.
My mom is the best women ever!!! She is so talented, caring, loving, kind, giving, and much more. I love you mom!!!
Todd, my niece Abbie, and I being goofy with the camera on Thanksgiving. Abbie loves to take funny faced pictures. She loves her aunt Ashley and uncle Todd so much.

GOOD NEWS!!!!

I am happy to say that my wonderful husband got a call from Memphis Tennessee today and they have already accepted him to their school. It's nuts because it was only last Friday that he was interviewing with them and it's only been 4 days and they want him!!!! We are happy to have acceptance to one school already. We still are going to apply to a few more schools and see if we have a few options. If not then Tennessee here we come!!!!!!!!! We are so blessed and can't wait for school next fall.

On another note I had a request for the prices of my beanies. Adult are10 dollars, Kids are 8 dollars, and infant to babies are 5 dollars. If you want a flower they are 3 dollars separate or only 2 dollars more if you buy a beanie with it.
I have like I said pretty much any color you can think of so Sarah put in your orders and I will get started on making you and your girls some. The yarn I use is nice and soft so it wont' irritate the skin.

Camo Beanies

One of my hobbies.....

So I am a beanie making fool this time of the year. I love to crochet and every year I think I learn more and more techniques on how to make them better. I think after four years I have it down pat. Thanks to my good friend Kristen for introducing me to the crochet world. I make a lot of differnt patterns, colors, sizes, and styles. I even sale them if people are interested. I will have to post some more pictures of the different kinds I make. If you are interested just let me know. The flowers you see on the beanies in these pictures are removable and are on a clip so you can put them in your hair or switch them around with other beanies. I also make just about whatever you want. You can kind of see the differnt colored buttons on the red beanie below. I am just coming up with all sorts of different ideas. They make great stocking stuffers or just gifts.

The Wedding.....

We went to one of our friends wedding reception over the weekend and it was fun to see so many of our friends who we haven't seen for awhile. This is a picture of Clint, Todd, and Jared. Here are all of Todd's buddies. There are a few that are missing but this is the majority of them. I love when we all get together, it's like the good old days.
This is my favorite flower by far. I am a huge fan of the gerber daisy. These were the flowers I had at my wedding and they were on all the tables that this wedding we went to. Plus I wanted to play with the cool features on my camera.

Here is Todd and I at the reception. It was a pretty cool place to have a reception. It was at the Springville museum and they had some neat rooms in that place for instance the room we are in has trees inside. It was a cool atmosphere.

One has come and gone....

Todd had his first interview with Ohio State last Thursday. Talk about nerve racking for him. He said that he felt like the interview went well but we just have to wait and continue the interview process until we hear back from any of the schools. He said that Ohio State is a huge University that it's almost overwhelming. But he said it's a very pretty place with nice people, but now on to the next interview. He is flying out to Memphis Tennessee this Thursday for his second interview. We have family that live about a hour away from Memphis so he will have a place to stay. We are so blessed to have that as an option. Todd has a cousin that lives in Ohio so he was able to stay there and save us some money too. We are so grateful for every one's hospitality. The plane tickets alone aren't cheap so saving money where ever we can is nice.
So other than that we are just both still working hard and saving all that we can. Time is surely flying by fast. We can't believe that Christmas is around the corner. These next few months will hopefully be exciting for us. Waiting to hear back from schools is pretty stressful and very hard to be patient. But in the mean time we just keep going about our usual daily tasks and all that good stuff.

More birthday fun

Todd managed to have himself three different birthday desserts this year. 1) ice cream cake 2)pumpkin pie 3)brownies. Of course not all in the same day. He is so loved how could we all help it. Nothing is better than celebrating your birthday for two weeks!!!!

Halloween Party

We had a fun family Halloween party friday night. It was fun to see how creative my family was with their costumes. This picture is of my little sister Jentry, her husband Mike, their son Hunter, and Mike's mom. They had the best outfits for sure. Dorothy, the Tinman, Lion, and Scarecrow. These are my two nieces Abbie and Olivia. They were both of course princesses. Olivia wasn't too happy if you can see. She is at the hard age right now.......terrible twos!
This is their little brother Adam, the sweest little guy ever!
This is my sister in law's niece, Jocie, in the wedding dress and my niece Mckinley. She made the cutest little witch. She was charming everyone with her dancing on the kitchen table to the "Backyardagains."

Alright so here is Todd and I. I know we might frighten most of you but we came up with our outfits at the last minute. Todd is a rock star guy(wearing my rolling stones t-shirt) and I decided to be a basketball player. I know I am lame but it was all I could come up with for such short notice. At least we were in the spirit and had fun.

Bring on the interviews....

We are so happy to be hearing from optometry schools for interviews. Todd has applied to both Ohio State and Memphis Tennessee and both schools have already set up interviews. So we are flying Todd out to Ohio on the 9th of November and then to Tennessee a week later. We are so excited to be at this stage of the application process. We are still planning on applying to Berkley California and not sure how many more we will need to apply to. After he interviews with both schools next month we hope to hear back soon if they accept him. So we are really crossing our fingers that we get accepted to Ohio most of all but we will be excited with wherever!! It's just the anticipation that is getting to us right now. We are both nervous and anxious to find out where we will be going. We have some family and friends that live in Ohio and just love it there. So we will see what happens. We just wanted to update all our friends and family with the latest fun news. Keep your fingers crossed for us!!!!

The "Toddster"

Todd got a new computer game for his birthday and really likes it a lot. Scout loves to sit on his lap while he plays. They are so cute. I made Todd model this beanie I made one night so I could make sure it was the right size and length. He is my model head all the time whenever I make an adult size beanie. I know he must get sick of me putting them on his head even when he is in the middle of a game. Sorry honey!! We had all our friends over for some brownies and ice cream to celebrate Todd's birthday. I got a pretty good shot of him blowing out his candles. We love our new camera.

Happy Birthday Todd!!

I just wanted to wish my wonderful husband a happy birthday today. He is very special to me and I have been so blessed to have married the sweetest and most patient man ever!! He works so hard in all that he does and it pays off. We have known each other for over 10 years now. We first started dating when we were out of high school and we have had many years of great friendship and love. I am so happy I married my best friend. I know this is a little mushy but I wanted him to know all this even though I tell him daily how important and amazing he is to me. Being married to Todd there is never a dull moment, and I love that. Excitement is the key to keeping life entertaining and fun. It's crazy he is 28 years old!!! Although I am not too far behind him turning the same age in January. Oops I had better watch what I say about the age thing. I love you sweetie, you are the best ever!!!

Conference at the Cabin

We had a lot of fun with my whole family this weekend at our cabin. The leaves were so amazing and so we got some cute pictures with our new camera. Watching conference up at the cabin is sort of a tradition we have. Great food, wonderful company, and great spiritual feeding too!!

This is my cute older brother Dustin, his sweet wife Cori, and their adorable little girl Mckinley. This is the Olsen Family Cabin. We love being able to get away up in the mountains together and make fun memories. It's so nice to be able to relax and not worry about life when you are up there.
Todd is freezing his "booty" off but loving the mini blueberry muffin he is eating. He didnt' want me to take this picture if you can tell. Sorry honey!!!

We did it!!!!

This is my cute sister in law Jill and me. We both trained together for the Hobble Creek Half Marathon this summer and we were both happy to run and finish the race on August 25th. It was such a beautiful day for us and a fun experience. This was my second half marathon so far and I am sure there will be more to come in the future. I want to run a full marathon one day, but that sounds pretty insane to me. Thirteen miles for a half marathon is quite a bit don't get me wrong but a full maraton is double that with 26 miles!!! Either way I am crazy!! My little sister Kelsey also ran the half marathon with us and she did very well for her very first half marathon. She was 20 minutes behind us but that is still awesome for her first race. We are all very proud of each other for never quitting even though we all couldn't walk very well for the next few days after the race.
Todd and I hanging out with his family after a Sunday dinnner.

Sunday Fun

Here is adorable Kira, one of our nieces from Todd's side. She just turned two on Saturday and it was fun to see her open all her presents and eat her cake. This is Breanna the older sister and Cozette the middle sister and Kira is the youngest of them all. They are the cutest little girls ever. I have been wanting to get Todd's side of nieces and nephews on our blog. I just need to get his two nephews on here and we will have all them on.
Here is Todd and one of his favorite little girls ever. Her name is Madison and her parents are good friends with the Christensen family. They are like family to all of us. Todd is just a kid himself when the kids are around. He loves excuses to act naughty like the rest of them.

Scout's new AMAZING tent!

I know you are thinking that I am pretty lame but I saw this cat tent at Ikea and had to get it for Scout. He is so dang cute and we just love having the little furry guy around. He keeps us both company and makes us happy. That is what pets are for right??? They are the greatest. So until we have kids we spoil little Scout, but not too bad. I know how some people can get a little too out of control when it comes to spoiling their pets. Scout is low maintence (sp?)which works really well with our busy schedules of coming and going all the time. Besides loving to come home in the evenings to see each other and night Todd and I love coming home to a pet that is just as happy to see us as we are to see him. Okay, I think I have shared plenty about how much we love Scout.

FUN with FAMILY and FRIENDS!

We went to Mirror Lake over the weekend with my whole family. I have never been there before and it was so pretty. We are so lucky to be around so many beautiful sites in the mountains of Utah. All the grandkids had so much fun getting all dirty. We went fishing, hiking, played games, took naps, and whatever else sounded fun. I grew up going on a lot of camping trips with my family and we made a lot of fun memories togther. It's fun to enjoy them now with all the nieces and nephews as we get older and as the family continues to grow. Some of the best times and talks we have are around the camp fire at night.


This is "The Gang." We have all been so close over the years. Some of our friends were in town visiting for a few weeks from Iowa and it was about time we got a good picture of everyone. We are growing very quickly with everyone's new additions (kids). We love getting together when we can, it's so neat to have such a tight close friendship with them all.

HE DID IT!!!!!

Man oh man, what a crazy day for Todd. He took the long 5 hour OAT test today and he kicked serious booty!!!! My amazing and smart husband is the best ever. He has studied so hard and put so much time into preparing for this test. I am one proud wife for sure and the knots in my stomach will hopefully go away now that it's all over. He scored a 360 which is beyond amazing so we have a great chance of getting into schools that we have been looking into. I am sorry I had to brag about this wonderful news but this has been such a stressful thing for the both of us. I am so glad that he is all done and doesn't' have to stress about that anymore. Now we get to start up the application process and go from there. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and kindness for Todd. He is truly grateful for all of you as I am.

Two sick kids

Well it's been not to fun the last week and a half for us. Todd got a sore throat/cold a week ago Sunday and decided to share it with me so we were sick pretty much all last week. I am finally feeling better but Todd has started up again with yet another sore throat. I feel so bad, he is just miserable and there is only so much you can do. You just have to let the body duke it out and get over it. He has decided to take the OAT test this Saturday the 21st of July. He is feeling a lot better giving himself more time to prepare which is a relief. I know he is still pretty stressed about taking it but who wouldn't be right? We are both anxious to have that test out of the way and on other things. Keep him in your prayers this week and cross your fingers. He will do great, I know he will!!!!! GO TODD!!!!!KICK SOME OAT BUTT!!!!

Our 4th of July was a lot of fun this year. We got together with both our families and partied it up. I was also able to see a few of my old roommates that I haven't seen in a while. It's always fun to get together and catch up on each other's lives. Holiday's are the best, especially when we remember all the men and women who have fought for our country so we can live in such a wonderful and peaceful place. We love you all and it was good to see everyone over the 4th.