Farewell to Grandma and Grandpa J

Grandma and Grandpa had their farewell this weekend. They reported to the MTC this morning in preparation for their mission to Russia Rostov-na-Donu.

The talks they gave in sacrament meeting were incredible. I could feel the spirit and I cried like a baby. Partly because I was going to miss them and partly because the talks were so uplifting and full of profound teachings.

It was a big party after sacrament meeting. Aunt Marilyn was so nice to entertain Zander for us. That sure is a big job!!!

Garrett and Steve were little and big helpers in the kitchen getting ready for dinner.

And Stockton... well, Stockton entertained us all!

One of my favorite things is having Sunday dinner with Grandma and Grandpa J. Joyce is an excellent cook and John is fun to chat with!!! It was nice to have most of the family together for a delicious dinner on such a delightful day.

This was the rest of our weekend.....

Stockton and Conner played basketball.

Friday I got to go to my first hockey game! The Grizzlies won. I even got to see a penalty shot. It was a lot of fun!

Zander, Stockton, and Gar came with us. It was their first hockey game too. I think they had a good time! Conner was at his first scout camp-out. Megan was working on a science fair project. We missed them!

It was nice weekend!

Happy Birthday Dad!

I honestly have the best dad in the entire world!!! Anyone who knows my dad would agree with me!! For his birthday, we went over to their house, at pizza, cake, and sang some karaoke. We all had a GREAT time!!!! Spending any time with my dad makes for a GREAT time!

Love you Dad! Happy Birthday!!!

Valentine's 2009

We celebrated another great Valentine's Day!! The boys and I ate as much candy as we could possibly lay our hands on! We LOVE suckers!


Every Valentines Day we make cupcakes with HEAPS of frosting and LOTS of sprinkles!!

Beautiful and Delicious!

The cupcakes are a big hit! We have so much fun together decorating! I love the time we are able to spend together. I had a horrible headache this year, but it was still a lot fun!

Valentine's Day breakfast is a favorite of mine. I make buttermilk pancakes from scratch. The delicious pancakes are topped with mounds of strawberry syrup. Niel made the bacon and eggs. Oh... and the strawberry milk tastes so sweet! YUM!!

This year one of my good friends got married! I spend most of the day in Salt Lake City. The temple was beautiful inside. This was my first time ever going inside the Salt Lake Temple. Amy and Dave looked so happy!! It is my parents wedding anniversary on Valentines Day too. Happy 34th wedding anniversary Mom and Dad!

February is a busy birthday month for our family! We celebrated John's birthday up at Lisa's house in Ogden on Sunday. John and Joyce leave on their mission in a week. CRAZY! We are going to miss them greatly!

Here is Grandma J giving it her best on the drums. Way to go Grandma!

Valentines Day

I was having a conversation about Valentines Day. We were trying to decide what is the best thing to do or get for Valentines Day. What do you think?

Take my poll above and give me some ideas. Leave a comment or send me an email. I always like to have good ideas on hand.... you know.... just in case! :)

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

Photo Shoot

It has been a really long time since I have taken pictures! I was over joyed when Kristy asked me if I would take her engagement pictures..... over joyed and nervous! But I have to say.... I had a great time!!! It was so much fun to hang out with Kristy, Nate and their family for a morning. I think the pictures turned out good! The credit will have to go to the good looking couple and the happy family! I am so very happy for the both of them!!!

February Goal

Ok, so I realize making resolutions for the new year is WAY over due. But this year I have decided to do something a little different.... a slight twist of goal setting.

My amazing cousin Rachel posted some insightful information on goals. I spent the month of January trying to decide what goals I wanted to make for the new year. I wanted to keep my goal attainable, but also something slightly difficult to make a change in my life. So... this is what I came up with...

Every month I am going to set a goal for myself. The goal will be something that is difficult for me... but to make it attainable, I am going to make the goal only last for a month. I am also going to be very specific. I am going to post my new goal every month so you can ask me how it is going.... I want to have good things to report and be accountable for my actions.

I thought I would start off with a really difficult goal. My goal for February is:

NO SODA POP (especially Dr. Pepper)!

I have come to realize I am addicted to that delicious, high sugar, caffeinated, thirst quenching drink! This month will be very difficult as I don't have my tasty caffeine to help me through the day. Wish me luck!!

I work with the BEST People!

This past week at work has been long. But long in a good way. All the sales people from the West area met together to discuss future plans, past successes, numbers, goals.... and that big word I don't like so much..... CHANGE.

I have worked on the Southwest and Rocky Mountain teams since I started at LANDesk. It has been a great pleasure working with Patrick, Deana, Mark, and Chris. Last year was a really good year for me! I learned a lot!! I love my job!!! I am really going to miss working directly with them!

This year I got the opportunity to try out the new specialists. Man, was I lucky!!! Brittany and Andrea are amazing, organized, quick woman who have made my job easier. Plus, they make me smile everyday!! I look forward to the new change and for the new success we will have together.

(I will also have to blame them for the extra pounds I am gaining for all the out - to - eating we do together. Got to build team unity.... right?)

A little of This and a little of That

It isn't like me to go so long without posting! Here is a little update on our lives....

Garrett and Stockton made the big leap and went snowboarding with me! I was proud of both of them for trying it out. Stockton kept going and did pretty good...... Garrett was frustrated and gave up. Garrett has decided to wait a few more years before he goes again.

Brynlee celebrated her 6th birthday at Boondocks!

I had fun doing the jump rope game. I got lucky.... once!

Grandma and Grandpa Dean took us to see Walking with Dinosaurs! It was awesome!!!

Happy Birthday to me! Yep.... I got another year older. I might be getting old, but at least Niel still loves me!!!


We spent the day at the cabin sledding.....

.... and playing some serious Speed! I lost my title championship to Lisa!
I tell ya, the years are slowing me down!!!

To end the day, Rick, Brooke, Bryn and my dad all come over to our house to play Rock Band! It was a perfect way to spend the day!!!!

Merry Christmas 2008

We celebrated Christmas a few days late. It was a great year! It is so good to have the boys back home!!

Curses - Rockband - New Year!

12 Unforgettable Moments of Christmas Season 2008

12. We got our Christmas cards out early this year!!! Niel's Mad Lib was very creative!

2008 was a very (Adjective)______ year for the Oscarson Family. It started with the addition of our newest family member, our pet (Animal)______ Rock Star. The week of Valentines Day found Niel and Amy on an exotic journey to St. Lucia. While there they tried sailing, zip lining, and some amazing (Verb Ending in "ing")_______. Amy fought her fears and (Adverb)_____ tried scuba diving, but it ended up causing great pain in her (Body Part)_______. During the winter one of our favorite activities is (Verb ending in "ing")_______ karaoke at Grandma and Grandpa Dean's house. The (Adjective)______ tones of our singing can brighten anybody's (Noun)______. Megan showed off her singing and dancing skills in the play Joseph and the (Adjective)______ Technicolor dream (Noun)________.

As the weather warmed up, we moved our activities outside. We watched Conner (Verb)_______ his first 5K in (Number)____ minutes. A (Sport)______ court was put in our backyard, Niel shot his first (Animal)_______, and Amy redecorated the bedroom with (Adjective)_______ colors. Megan got to travel to Vegas to see the (Type of person or occupation)________ of the Opera. Garrett placed 2nd for his age at the family (Adjective)________ run. His little (Body Part Plural)______ were moving so fast they were only a blur. Our summer flew by. It started with a long road (Verb)______ to Montana to pick up the boys. We then took off to wonderful Kauai with Grandma and Grandpa J. Our favorite activities there were riding boogie (Plural Noun)______, a beautiful (Vehicle)_______ flight over the entire island, and lighting (Plural Noun)_______ on the beach to celebrate independence day. Zander felt so (Adjective)________ as he started pre-school. His reading skills are improving all the time, and he loves to read his own good night (Noun)________. Fall also brought Stockton's baptism. It was a wonderful event with many of his favorite (Plural Noun)________ around to support him. Conner, Stockton, and Garrett all played tackle football and were all-stars in our (Adjective)_______ opinion. As the year concludes we are grateful to our family and friends who we care so much about us. Thanks for making 2008 the best (Noun)_______ ever!

11. Stuffed French Toast!! Uncle Patrick cooks up some delicious Breakfasts!!

10. Rocky (our dog) got into the Christmas treats and ate over a pound of fudge!!! The fudge didn't sit well with him.... he got sick and threw up many times. GROSS!!!

9. Elf Brynlee and Elf Arianna decorated cookies for Santa!


8. Mindy and Eric joined us for a night on the town. We went to The Cheesecake Factory (Yum) and then dancing up in Salt Lake! We had a great time together!!!

7. All my sisters were together on Christmas Eve at Mom and Dad's house! It almost felt like we were kids again!!

6. Every time I would go to take a picture of Alayna she would smile!! She must be a natural model. Isn't she adorable?!

5. Niel shot an Elk Christmas Eve Day. As one of our Christmas presents, John cut of the meat for Niel and Joyce cooked up a roast for us to eat together for Christmas dinner. (I can't believe I didn't take a picture!)

4. Niel and I headed up to Sundance with my family. We attempted snowboarding!! Niel got in some great runs. I got up once and the second time up my bindings broke. I spent the rest of the day watching everyone have fun!

3. It snowed and snowed and snowed! It was definitely a White Christmas this year!!

2. Santa brought both Niel and I Rockband for Christmas. I guess he figured we each liked it so much, and he knows how we don't like to share, so he gave us each our own game...haha!

1. And the number one best thing about Christmas is.......

We are still not done!!

The boys will be home January 4th! I can't wait to see them and celebrate the holiday some more!!

Our little Elves!

Gingerbread Houses

My favorite tradition of all is making gingerbread houses. Check out all this candy!

I love to see what the kids are going to create. This year, Megan and Conner made a candy version of Lagoon!

This year Garrett made his very first candy house. He did a pretty great job!

Stocky made a snowman house with a garage!

Zander made his very own also!! He had to follow Stockton, so together then made him a little garage too! He was sooo excited!

Niel and I made our very own house this year too! We put on as much candy as we could!

We had a blast. The kitchen only took about 2 days to put back together!!

The lasagna party is another family tradition. Everyone on Joyce's side of the family get together for some delicious Lasagna and games.

The boys love the candy bar game! A set of dice are sent around the room. Each person takes a turn rolling the dice. If the person holding the dice is lucky enough to roll doubles, they get a shot at the candy bar in the middle of the room. The lucky person puts on a scarf and gloves and attempts to rip their way into the candy bar... that is until someone else rolls doubles.

Stockton started the game off and after about 15 minutes, and many different people, Conner torn into that candy bar.

Zander couldn't get the gloves on fast enough. Every time he finally got dressed, someone else would roll doubles and his turn was over.

Garrett barely got a chance either. He was just about as unlucky as I was. I didn't even roll doubles onces!

After the candy bar game, we play a present game. This is one game Zander can handle. He got a BIG sucker and was in heaven!

Megan got the great prize everyone wanted.... the bubble gum suckers!