overdue

Jax man turned one on December 9th. I feel that as his auntie I owe him a birthday shout out to celebrate the one year.

dear jax man,
This is a story about how you're mom and dad think their sneaky vs. your aunt here that knows all : ) lemme explain.
I remember picking up on the pregnancy signs, for example you're mom was craving grease like crazy and I asked her and she sneakily lied until the night it was revealed that Kez would be a big sister. I knew it.
As you know they decided to keep your gender a secret-but oh boy did I know : ) Everyone made guesses and we all anxiously awaited the big day when it would all be revealed. Well December 9th came and I found myself having finals down at school-your once again not so sneaky mom started inquiring about my schedule for the day and I knew she was in labor. Long story short I busted your mom and grandma for trying to lie, arranged my schedule to get home ASAP. I don't even remember that last final I took in about 10 minutes or less and I hit the road. I made it to Payson when I got the phone call-"Jaxon Jacob is here, and can't wait to meet you". I knew it. I knew you were a boy, I knew you were going to be born that day, and I knew I was going to miss it.

It's been a fun year seeing how different you are from your sister and watching you terrorize and destroy everything in your sight(benefit of being your aunt I can just let you run and do your thing).Thanks for being a reminder of what matters in life and for cheering me up instantly with your laugh, refusing to show teeth 90% of the time smile, and new words yelling "HIAAAY" as you run to me when you see me. Thanks for always making my day jax man.





Happy (belated) Birthday buddy boy. I love you so much.

night owl.

I am officially a night owl. It's no secret that I struggle with sleeping at night anyways but ever since I've been a night nurse my sleep schedule is all over the place. Anywho, I get exhausted sometimes and often times it happens at work from about 2am-4am you start to hit what we night owls call the wall. oh yeah, not fun.
But thank goodness I work with hilarious and awesome people that we help break down that wall. The respiratory therapists are the best at this and they have become some of my best buddies and they-well one in particular, keeps me on my toes.
exhibit A: one of the many pranks I receive from him. He loves to mess with my cart-however his all time favorite is to turn the cart completely around and then re-arrange everything on the top as it was so it doesn't look backwards at first glance. Leaving me reaching with keys in hand, clueless. I caught on and he got bored so he started mixing things up with my cart such as...

Exhibit B: I got the point across to stop messing with the cart but that doesn't stop him. The pranks continue such as his most recent joke...

Yes he went for the diet coke. Good thing he's hilarious, and makes work fun or else he'd have a major butt kicking. Although, he's got a hilarious joke coming his way when he least expects it I'm gonna get him so good : )
until then I'll continue to: to get scared as the therapists jump out and scare me, not answer their phantom/ghost call lights attempts, and join in with their radio banter, sarcasm, and inappropriate jokes.
Thank goodness for co-workers. seriously even outside of the therapists my aides and other night nurses are awesome. go night crew!

hank the tank.

I've wanted a truck, FOREVER! There's many things I love about them and I just couldn't wait to have my own. Unfortunately there has beeen lots of waiting.
I always wanted a Toyota Tacoma-fire red style. Well I didn't want to just jump in a decision and buy the first one I came across-good thing too because that one was a salvaged title, so I looked and My brother in law's buddy Ricky looked. Ricky used to sell cars and he seems to be an expert on good deals. Well he couldn't find any Tacoma's, but he found a Tundra. We talked about it and decided I'd go drive it in a week. Meanwhile, 2 days before I was supposed to go look at it my mom notified me a family friend was selling his Tundra. I thought about it and decided if I was looking at tundra's anyways it was worth a shot. I test drove it that night and fell in love with the thing, even though it was white (I never thought I'd drive a white vehicle since I hated them so much). But things changed and I found myself making an offer the following day, at the bank the next morning, and by that afternoon I had the keys in hand and was the owner of a Toyota Tundra.

the kids love it too. All Sunday Kez would respond to the question, who's truck is outside? with me truck!

I love it : )
His name is Hank.

ode to Howie.

Ode (but not a real lyrical poetic ode: more like a ode of pictures) to my car Howie. For journaling purposes:

I never had a car my freshman year of college, I had no need for one. Who drives on pure ice in -31 degree weather in Idaho?? not this girl. Plus at the time I had a boyfriend who was driving back and forth to visit from Utah who would always take me on adventures outside of town on weekends(or home for the weekend) and I also had some awesome roommates that I hitched a few rides home with or a ride to the Walmart on the other end of town. I had no use for a car and when winter hit I definitely didn't want one.

Things changed when I got accepted to SUU, Cedar's a little bigger than Rexburg and I was going to have a job which would also require driving. So I began buying a car to my parents loaded up the little Malibu and headed to Cedar City.
believe it or not everything I owned fit in that car and I used to be able to move myself without my dad's help-that one time : )
pardon the large and in charge Kleenex- bloody noses

I inherited or more so stole that lovely bright orange lei from Spencer aka Spencee. He was in my ward and Jeni and I were riding with him and as we made fun of him being girly with it I stole it and put in my car. He went on a mission never to see it again. Malibu was a popular car at the time and that bright orange is still the only way sometimes I can find my car or distinguish which one is mine. Thank you Spencee. That Lei also brought on the name Howie-my roommate Julia at the time had a friend over one night who said who's is the malibu Howie from Maui out there? lame enough he's been Howie ever since.

Much to my father's dismay Howie saw a lot of the off road. I liked to pretend he was a truck 90% of the time. don't worry daddio I was still careful : ) however this spot pictured below happened to be a favorite of mine and Jeni's for off-roading adventures. After a good rain we'd take our cars down to this spot and go muddin. this spot also was part of our drive's we'd always take and one late night this spot served as the reason I got pulled over for the first time. Future reference: mudding in trucks, and not in the early hours of morning and cops won't think you're drunk.

Speaking of drives Howie's seen it all, well seen a lot. He had his first real road trip adventure when he took us to Vegas for Jessie's bachelorette party, been as far north as Logan, and he's even made the drive over the mountains to Ol Piute county (which is where I'm pretty sure his missing HubCap lies...). Outside of road trips there were many drives around town-that's what I love is getting in and just going for a ride-three peaks, Enoch, and the love bumps were the fav's. Many best friends of mine have been passengers of Howie's and over the years he's kept us safe and me ticket free : )
It hasn't been all sunshine and fun over the past 4 years, there were more than a few vehicle mishaps I got to experience first hand with Howie.




and let's not forget stewart...

When I started nursing school, commuting to clinical after clinical Howie got me there. Fourth semester was not only rough on me, but poor Howie started to take a toll of the miles he'd accumulated in my behalf the past years and especially that semester (going home as much as possible, st geezy 3 times a week, and New Harmony many times for Cyndi). Howie started to struggle and the bills came as repairs were made. Howie got me home and out of Cedar City just like he'd brought me in, however he was back in the shop before too long due to my mistake. (I don't know if I mentioned this accident but for my sake I'm not going in to details...)

we made it out okay, a little broke but okay and Howie didn't stop there. He trudged through and the summer's held some more repairs such as belt replacement, etc... a lot of cash went into him. He's still gotten me around despite the creaky door, and the hole in the windshield washer fluid container (=no windshield washing capacity).
However, the time has come where Howie is not safe, not really I just registered him so he passed, but I worry about him and it's time for a new vehicle. Which is why I'm proud to welcome a new member to the Brittany Olsen family... a truck.

I'm not gonna post pictures or info yet-wouldn't wanna steal howie's thunder. I just felt a lil credit was due to the little car that's gotten me through college, and been there for me through a lot the past 4 1/2 years.
thanks for everything lil Howie, I'll never forget the memories. I hope the best for you in the small future.

tradition.

I love traditions and tis the season for the start of many.
1.Black friday.
I don't really know when this tradition started but it's one that us girls in the family always look forward to, to go battle out for the deals. The boys not so much-well at least Taylor. He made it one year just to see what it was like and he has not been back and rolls his eyes at the words black friday : ) This year walmart opened at ten pm so we went early, thank goodness too because I had only slept about an hour and a half that day when I got off the morning and as you can tell by the glasses-I was exhausted. But I still fought hard and came home with good deals. The DVD's were worse than a rock concert mosh pit.




2. Christmas decorating day after thanksgiving.
When my grandma passed away in February the grandkids received a lot of her things. I inherited a lot her antiques, favorite games she had, salt & pepper shakers she'd collected, etc.. well something else I got was a mini christmas tree. I technically cheated at the tradition because I put it up a few days ago but yesterday after decorating at the parents house I came home and decorated it and hung up some lights. I love christmas decorations!
some of my favorite ornaments....




my pretty sweet stocking I got a few weeks back with the ladies in the st. geezy Tai Pan

Thanksgiving

Today I'm thankful for:

Being home for the holiday.

My hilarious and awesome family to share it with.

Amazing food and delicious desserts.

Games, laughter, more games, and much more laughter.

A night off work to enjoy it all.

Happy thanksgiving!!!

Thankful for day 6

Today I'm thankful for: life.
For the opportunity I have to experience life and have the experiences and adventures that I have and the ability I have to wake up and start over everyday and to try to make each day a better day than yesterday.
I'm also thankful for this beautiful place in which we live, and for the surrounding mountains.(I'm even more obsessed with sunsets lately and especially here in the UC over looking Utah lake. B-e-a-utiful!!)

(My attempt to get my face in a picture with the sunset seen above)
(a sunrise but still nonetheless beautiful. made getting off work late more tolerable)

I'm thankful to be safe where I live, for the freedoms I enjoy, and for those who fight and sacrifice to keep it that way.
I'm thankful to be living and for the time in which I live because heaven knows if i was back in the pioneer days I'd of been killed off.

What are you thankful for today??

thankful for day 5

Today I'm thankful for: Friendship!

I've always believed that people come into our lives for a reason, and how lucky I am to have been blessed with such amazing friends! We've had the best of times, and they've been there for me through the worst of times. I'm thankful for the memories, the laughs, and for the good times and adventures (many more still yet to come)!!

thanks for everything. love ya'll!!!

What are you thankful for today???

day 4 of thanks

Today I'm thankful for: The Gospel.
- that I get to be with my family forever, and know that I'll get to see them all again someday.
-Prophets, and for the modern revelation we receive. (love conference)
-the peace and comfort.
- the church leaders and missionaries who sacrifice their lives and their time for the church. And as I've seen from personal experience both from my dad and now my brother and best friend, the sacrifice is beyond huge.

*Elder Taylor Olsen aka my studly brother


*Sister Jacqueline Shields aka my BFF Kobe


PS. I'm grateful for Monday's and for the e-mails that come associated with that day. I love hearing from them!!

and last but not least...
-prayer and the ability to receive some sort of direction in this crazy life because heaven knows I'm a horrible decision maker.

What are you thankful for today???