ANNA's BAPTISM VIDEO

"Gratitude is the memory of the heart"

My Mom & Dad recently wrote us an email from their mission. They talked about their experiences and "tender mercies". They encouraged us to share with them our "tender mercies" in our lives and families. I started to feel so blessed and realized how much more grateful I need to be about those blessings...those tender mercies...

A couple years after being married, I went through a year of not getting pregnant and ended it with a tubal pregnancy and surgery. Jay and I were feeling really low, but we knew there were children waiting for us. Six months later I felt that same pain during a family get together and Jay & I rushed to the ER. We were surprised to find out I was pregnant. But my levels were low and I was in a familiar pain that didn't end well the last time. We were worried and felt as if things were out of our hands, so we put the next couple of days in the Lords hands. We prayed, as did the whole family. Although my hormone levels were slowly rising after a couple days, they still were not being able to see anything on traditional ultrasounds. The doctors decided it was best to take me into surgery and look for themselves to see if they could find something. They were certain I had a dangerously growing ectopic pregancy (somewhere) that had to be removed. Then our tender mercy happened. Our doctor all the way in Mesa found out of my situation in that Peoria hospital. He later told me that something told him to call my doctors there and tell them to not operate. He told them to do a more higher tech ultrasound that they had not done for me yet. So they took me into ultrasound one last time and...there they saw her, right where she was supposed to be. The size of a little peanut. I was so early on in my pregnancy that it took a couple days for her to be seen. My pain was caused from an ovarian cyst that had burst. This pregnancy was a healthy one. Had they gone in, they could have caused problems to the healthy baby or my fertility. Crazy, right? I remember telling myself as we got ready to leave that hospital to never forget the surprise and the complete happiness I felt. Jay & I couldn't have been more happy than at that moment. Tender mercies...Anna grew a little bigger so that someone could see her ;) and my Dr. was inspired to call & tell them to wait & try something else first.
Now it has been eight years and four kids later. Anna is getting baptized at the end of this month. The kids are healthy and happy. I have a husband who supports me as a mom and can always calm me down or give me perfect advice on the bad days.

I am so grateful for the many different tender mercies in my life.

What can YOU do in ten minutes??

How To Accomplish Your To-Do List

In The First Ten Minutes of Your Day

****

By Blake Olson

Learn how to kick your mornings

into the fastest gear possible...and your Mom's, too!

1. First things first, don't waste any time after you are out the crib...dump out the nearest box of toys.

Don't take up too much time playing with them, though.

2. Mom's love a poopy diaper in the first ten minutes of their day. Especially if it leaks onto your clothes. While she is distracted cleaning up that fun mess, find a box of crayons, dump them on the floor and take off running to your mom's secluded bathroom.

3. Pull up a chair and experiement with her makeup.

Tip: It takes practice to be stealth-like. And I've had a lot of practice.

4. Move along quickly or you'll get caught. Head to the kitchen and more than likely, you will find a irresponsible sibling's bowl of cereal deserted at the table. Proceed to a carpeted hallway and dump it all out when you realize it's soggy. Isn't this fun?

I know, I'm real good at what I do.

5. If you are around 22 months like me, you may be good at taking off your diaper, too. You can make your parents wonder if you are ready to potty train OR if you are just a stinker (we all know it's really the 2nd option).
For no other reason other than 'just because', take off your diaper and pee on the carpet. It wouldn't be a bad idea to try and include a piece of furniture, either. This is a great finale to the end of the first ten minutes of your day.

Tip: Ease the verdict of your punishment by saying something cute, like
"peepees!" or "pobby!" or "baaaafroom!"

Follow these simple steps and you are guaranteed to have a great day.

...and don't forget to just keep smilin'!

Family pictures

for more (yes there is more ;) go to

http://picasaweb.google.com/ashleyolson4/December2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCKP1ttTr5OqkPw&feat=directlink

(thanks to my brother, Bryan & his wife Karin for taking quick pics of us at the last minute!)

Makes me smile

1. Blake has decided that diapers are now optional.

If I don't put pants on him, that diaper is guaranteed to be ripped off the minute he can get a hold of the velcro. He brings it to me and says, "Byeee-perr". Well that part doesn't make really me smile, but this part does....When I went to go wake him up from a nap to go to the kid's school, he was asleep in the fetal position with his bum in the air.

But this bum was bare.

And you can imagine how cold those cute bare cheeks were.

Goodbye to the diapered bottom and socks. One of my favorite outfits.

Anways, thanks for the laugh Blake.

2. This wasn't one of my kids, but...I went to go work in Anna's classroom today where I got another laugh. I was helping a little boy at his desk when he yelled down to Anna, "Hey Anna, is this your Mom?" Anna nodded. "MAAAN, you're sooo lucky!"

Was that a compliment or a pick-up line from a 2nd grader? And to think, we just met.

Either way...made me laugh out loud.

3. A few days ago I was sending the kids off on one of their bike-riding days to school. Anna and David were both about 50 yards away when David suddenly stopped and put his bike down. He came back running down the sidewalk and across the street to me. I thought maybe he forgot his lunch or water or something.

Nope even better.

He finally got to me and gave me a huge hug then tugged on my hand for me to bend down for him to whisper in my ear, "Mom, I love you. You're so cute."

Wow! If that doesn't make a Mom's week, I don't know what will.

David, when you're reading this someday,

no matter how old you are, will you please remember to always come back to say I love you?

4. Every time I mention "Dad" during the day...Kate gets pretty sad.

She says, "Where's Dad? I MISS'EM! " (with a frown). Daddy's girl.

5. I thought I would have plenty more than 5 things to share, but I can't seem to dig back in my mind far enough. I really need to write down these things when they happen. Every day I bust out laughing or I'm left sighing more than once.

More posts to come with lots of random pictures leftover from the past few months.

And just for laughs...a few weeks ago, I let the kids run around in the sprinklers.

The bottom of the slide held a nice surprise for Blake:

Happy 4th Birthday Kate!

Okay, so I tried not to get so sentimental but man, I'm getting teary as I'm searching back through all our old pictures.

When did they all grow up?

Please tell me. I don't know when it happened. I really miss those 3 chubby-cheeked kids.

On the other hand, now I still have 1 chubby-cheeked kid around that I baby way too much and 3 growing kids that take care of themselves pretty well. Those months after Kate was born were overwhelming...Anna was 3 1/2 and David was 18 months. Life 4 years later isn't much different though. Still hard & overwhelming. Just used to the noise and craziness. Or maybe my brain has slowly fried over the years? But seriously I wish I could freeze time just sometimes.

I count my blessings each day that I am a Mom. Every night, as I lay in bed (oooh the aching feet!),

their faces don't stop running through my mind.

I think about all the funny things they said that day, the tantrums they threw, the new things they learned and the endless messes they made. I talk Jay to sleep every night just talking about them.

Anyways, Happy Birthday to Kate. To me, her birth began my years as an experienced and overworked mom. Un-organized and exhausted. Kate is still the smiley, happy and bouncy part of my days that she always has been. And my absolute favorite thing about her:

She does a mean Robot Dance.

*video will come*

Screamin' Halloween

Here we are at the Clark family Halloween party a few weeks ago. We played carnival games and ate carnival food...it was fun to be in costume together, just like every year (love these crazy people). This was our first time getting together since my Mom & Dad left...we missed them! This October, we also enjoyed some pumpkin carving (Jay did ALL the work) and went to our ward's Trunk or Treat.

I LOVE Halloween. But I'm glad it's over, I love Thanksgiving & Christmas even more :)

Everybody loved the pumpkin guts, except Blake

Our little Vikiing. Very suitable.

The sweetest candy of Halloween only comes in 'Fun Size'