Linda Oliver's Rockin New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve was spent at my mom and dad's house this year. It really was a rockin' time full of...

...quality time with the neices

...Lionel Richie jam session

...food that only comes around once a year(only because we would all be cows if we ate it more often that that)

...horns, hats, bells, poppers, confetti, beads




...kisses(don't be fooled by the pictures, he was totally loving it!)


...sparkling toasts to a new year!

Merry Christmas

Christmas was fantastic. Santa came to our house and I guess Owen was a really good boy this year cause Santa brought him a lot of presents. We had a great morning openeing presents and playing with toys. Monica and Amberly came over to see what Owen got from Santa. He loved showing them all his new toys.


Jason bought this beanie for me but it was a sized one and fit Owen much better than it fit me.


Jason's Aggie basketball shorts and my pea coat(that Jason picked out all by himself). I love it!

Owen got a tent and a tunnel that he loved! He really liked having people come sit in his tent with him.
When we finished up at home we went up to mom and dad's. Melissa and Steve came too and Amb could not wait to see what Santa brought her and Monica, so they busted into the living room before Clark's and Copes got there.

As soon as everyone was there we opened the presents we drew names for and everyone had a great time. So many great presents were given and received. Monica even gave me a homemade gift of hand colored ceramic animals!




My mom makes Christmas last all day long. It is always so fun!

Jennifer, Jeff and Jake didn't fly in til the day after Christmas this year, so we had Christmas with Jason's fam on Sunday. We went to John and Angela's and had a delicious dinner. I ate like 2 pounds of ham. We got more great presents and had a great time. I love family time!

Owen rocked his guitar from Jen and Jeff. He loves guitar, especially when Chris Carabba is playing it.


Thank you so much to everyone for the gifts, the love and the memories.

Christmas EVE

Owen got to see Santa again and this time he liked him. He told him he wanted a truck for Christmas.

We spent the night with Jason's family. We had pizza and played games. Before we left, the kids all opened a giant stuffed animal from Grandma Harris.

When we got home Owen opened his Christmas jammies and slippers. He was very excited and very cute.

After Owen was in bed Jason and I finished some stuff up and slept under the Christmas tree. I love Christmas Eve.

little yule often

This is an old Danish holiday that no one that I have ever met has ever heard of. On Dec 23rd you make all your treats for Christmas. We don't make a lot of stuff, but we always have a good time. Dad takes a lot of crap getting the fry cakes just right, but I think deep down he loves it!

FRY CAKES...roll, cut, flip, fry. A Christmas morning favorite! Seriously, I start getting craving pains for these in November.


SUGAR COOKIES...Monica is cookie chef. She makes the dough and usually rolls and cuts them(mom did this year) and then we all(most of us) help frost them. Always taste better the next day cause they get soft and delicious.

Craziness...Monica putting on a snow hat in hopes that the fry cake smell would not taint her hair. Amberly, Brinlie and Owen played along.

CONTEST WINNER...Melanie for best holiday sweater! They had a contest at her work for ugliest/cheesiest sweater. This belongs to my mother(she had plenty for Mel to choose from). The bow was Mel's own special touch of holiday beauty.

HAPPINESS...having yummy treats to eat, having all the family there(minus Rich and Max, we missed you!), singing along to Elvis Prestley Christmas and making forever memories!

Temple Square

This weekend Jason, Owen and I went to Salt Lake to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square. It started snowing Friday morning and Jason was thinking that maybe we should stay home. We have been really excited about going all week, so i told him no way. We left pretty early and the roads were pretty bad. It took us two hours to get to Centerville. We have both lived in these winter conditions our whole lives, Jason is an excellent driver and I felt completely safe with him...it's just the semi that jack-knifed in front of us that made us nervous. Other drivers are really my only concern when driving in the snow. Especially the big pick trucks and suv's that think they can go as fast as they want cause their 4-wheel drive makes them invincible. I hate to tell you, but we saw just as many 4-wheel drive vehicles that slid off the road as we did other cars. Anyway, we got there safe and I love all the snow we are finally getting. It really makes me happy this time of year. My mom was not happy that we went and when I called her once we got to Salt Lake she apologized for calling me names, like dumb, senseless, ridiculous. She was mumbling these to herself after she found out we still went she was appalled that I would risk our lives just for fun...needless to say, my mom is a worrier. I forgave her and appreciate her concern.

This is the first time we have stayed in a hotel with Owen since he has been old enough to enjoy it and he loved it. He had a great time. We stayed at the Red Lion and unfortunately they have an outdoor pool that was closed for the season. Lucky for us my sisters were staying at Little America right across the street. We met up with Angela and her family and Melissa and Steve and rode Trax(another great time for Owen) to Applebees at the Gateway. It was snowing huge beautiful flakes and it was so fun to walk around in, minus the getting soaking wet...still fun though. After dinner we went swimming at little America. Their pool is half indoor half outdoor and they left the outdoor open. It was really fun swimming outside in the snow. I talked Alexa and Alex into doing polar bears. After they did it I couldn't resist and got out of the pool, rolled in the snow and jumped back in. It was very stingy. We sat in the hot tub for a while and then we headed back to our hotel. We watched the Santa Claus 2 and went to sleep.

The next day we had donuts and did some shopping at the mall. After shopping my family and Angela's family went to Temple Square(Melissa and Steve went home. We missed them!). We were a little early for the lights and Alex wanted to take a tour of the conference center. Max and Owen were running around laughing their heads off, so me and Ang were a little spent with the tour, but it is a beautiful building and it has a lot of interesting art pieces in it and I would suggest that everyone do it sometime. After the tour we went outside and looked at the lights. It was very freezing and so we didn't spend a lot of time, but it was incredible. Then we went to dinner and went our seperate ways. It was fun spending the weekend with Jason, Owen, the Copes and the Summers. Hopefully next year the whole family can go!

Christmas is coming...

...and Owen could not be more excited. He is going to be so much fun for Christmas this year. He loves looking through the newspaper ads and finding the toy sections. He gets so excited and wants everything. He digs through my mom's newspaper basket to find the ads(kinda makes a mess) but it is very cute.


Owen loves the Christmas decorations. He loves the village from aunt Annette the best. He watches it for so long and wants to get in the buildings.

This is a cute video of Owen telling you about his favorite Christmas movie. Don't mind the deep man voice from me, I have had a blasted cold all week!