"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is a song I used to {goofily} sing all the time {with my best friend/sister-in-law}. In fact, we sang it in front of Race the first time I met Race. Haha. Good time! Anyway, later it turned into a phrase I doodled all over my notes in school. When I doodled it all over things it would make me think of all the things I am looking forward to in the future. Things that are "over the rainbow". This phrase has come to mean so much to me and has come to encompass all of my dreams and wishes.
Here are some of the things that I am looking forward to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow":
Graduating college {oh so close!}
Having more time {okay I don't know if this one ever really happens...someday!} Raising cute babies!
Learning to SEW {totally working on this one now!}
Learning to cook healthy meals for my family {and ones that Race actually likes even though they're healthy}.
Buying a cute dog to be best friends with Race, me, and our children.
Going on vacations with Race and with our future children.
Making memories together {we are definitely already doing this}.
Being pregnant and wearing cute maternity clothes with a cute lil belly {Is this a weird one? Haha. Probably but since I haven't experienced it yet I can be excited for now}!
Going to a live temple session in Manti or Salt Lake City.
These are just some of the many wonderful things
I look forward to in our future. But for now I
will enjoy our simple, school filled lives.
Being married is a blast. There is so much
fun now and so much fun to look forward to.
What a wonderful time to be alive!
What do you all look forward to Somewhere Over the Rainbow? And what are you enjoying in your lives now?
Engagement/Bridal pictures: Let's see em! {I'm going to split this into two posts so that I can share even more pictures} This is the Bridal pictures portion of the post.
I love that our photographer Jessica Downey {of Sierra Studios Photography} made sure that we felt comfortable around her. As you can see we are laughing in the majority of our pictures! It was so much gallivanting around the temple grounds and feeling absolutely like a princess! And Race was my perfectly handsome white knight!
A bug flew up my nose immediately following this picture. And then it came out my mouth. That's good luck, right?
I love our photos beyond belief and it is so fun to go through and look at them again and again. A lot of these photos are the ones that I love the most but haven't put around the house because they aren't the typical show-off-to-everyone kind of pictures. But, I really love our genuine faces in these and I love looking at them and remembering how much fun it was to spend this time just before being sealed in the temple together being so in love. It makes me want to get some professional photos done again just for funsies. :]
When you knew he was the one: Self explanatory...But how and when did you know?
I THOUGHT that Race was the one pretty soon on in our relationship. I was PRETTY SURE he was the one when we went to Vegas. While we were there Race went to the temple sealing of one of his companions from his mission. I had not yet been through the temple so I sat in the waiting room of the Las Vegas Temple . While I was sitting there a cute little old lady was leaving the temple. I imagined her walking up to me and asking me who I was waiting for. In my head my answer immediately was "My husband." And then I backtracked and said "I mean my fiancee." And then I backtracked again and said "I mean my boyfriend!" This conversation did all happen in my head but it really let me know that Race was someone I truly loved and wanted to be with for forever. This was still of course pretty early on in our relationship so after a lot more praying I did come to KNOW that he was the one I was going to choose to be with for eternity.
I do believe that we choose who we are going to marry and decide to commit to them for eternity. There may be more than one person out there that we could be happy with but there is one person that we choose to be with. President Gordon B. Hinckley said, "Be worthy of the mate you CHOOSE. Respect him or her. Give encouragement to him or her. Love your companion with all your heart. This will be the most important decision of your life, the individual whom you marry." I chose to respect, encourage and love Race with all my heart and I KNOW that was the best decision I have made in my life.
I had a gift-card to Shutterfly.com so I made this cute little photo book to have on our coffee table. I don't really know if this counts as being crafty since I left it pretty plain. But I love looking at it and I love showing it off to people. My mom even borrowed it for a couple of weeks to take to some of our family reunions to show off to people. :] It was so fun and easy to make and now I am working on one for my Grandma and Grandpa Olmstead's 50th Wedding Anniversary. I can't wait to show that one off too!
And Christmas was woooonderful.
So that's what I will be blogging about. Sorry I'm little slow.
We'll begin with the wedding!
On Saturday, December 19th, 2009 my brother,
Jonathon E.B. Olmstead was sealed for time and all eternity to
Jaclyn Anne Francois in the Mesa Temple!
It's crrrazy having brothers get married.
Crazy and exciting of course.
Here are some pictures of the beautiful wedding and reception
Here's the happy couple right outside the temple: Here are the handsome groomsmen:And the bridesmaids :] : And here is my ENTIRE FAMILY (all eleven children and two in-laws) at the reception:Daaaang good looking people. :]
I love my family and it was so wonderful to see
my brother get sealed in the temple.
Both of my brothers and both of my sister-in-laws are wonderful examples to me and
I am so grateful for them.
I can not wait to follow in their footsteps and get married in the House of the Lord.
So only a few days after the wedding came another wonderful thing... CHRISTMAS! :]
My family does not have very many consistent Christmas traditions because my parents like to mix things up every year. Some of the traditions I can remember doing over the years are:
The Twelve Days of Christmas (they tricked us into thinking someone else was doing it for us). It ended with delicious cinnamon rolls brought to us on Christmas morning by my little brother.
Some years we go to the church and my mom plays the piano or organ and we sing the Christmas songs from the hymn book.
One year we had Christmas on Thanksgiving (as a surprise) so that we could focus more on the real meaning of Christmas as it came about.
We make gingerbread houses almost every year.
And we of course always read the Christmas story out of Luke 2 in the Bible.
I am grateful for these traditions and for the different things that my parents have tried over the years. It keeps things new and I love that they always keep us kids focused on Christ and serving others during this season.
This year as we read the Christmas story and sang Christmas songs in our living room I was filled with an overwhelming love and gratitude for the wonderful family that I have been blessed with. I was able to hear stories about the lives of my grandparents and I was able to hear their testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was able to see my parents and my siblings and some of my cousins and my aunt and uncle and my grandparents and feel the love that they have for me as well as the love that I have for each of them. Along with this I felt the love that my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for me. This love cannot be captured in words or pictures but I did take some pictures of that night so that at least I can look back on them and remember. Maybe the love, warmth, and comfort will translate through somehow...
Here are my grandparents and one of my cousins:
More family (we sit on the stairs a lot since we never have enough couch space):And some more family (we are happier than we look...I promise. Haha):
Well, that's about it. The next day was Christmas and it was quite fun as always. Opening presents took FOREVER cause we have so many people and we open one present at a time starting from the youngest and going to the oldest but by the end I think we all cheated a little bit and opened presents in secret...I did at least. Oops. ;)
Oh, one more tradition that I have with my two sisters, Helena and Gelsey is that for the past four years we have gotten matching or at least similar pajamas every year that we wear to bed on Christmas Eve. So here is our picture from this year of us in our super comfy and warm FOOTIES! :]
I am home for the holidays and it is absolutely wonderful! :]
In the Bible Dictionary under the word temple it says: "Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness."
Each and every time I go home I am reminded of this phrase as my parents have done such a wonderful job making our house a HOME.
Today I was sitting at our extra-long kitchen table that we've had forever
looking at our white board/bulletin board and noticing all the little things that have been stuck to it/written on it over the years: Family engagement pictures, pictures of new baby cousins, a picture of Jackie we've had up since before E.B.'s mission, a dollar bill, a picture collage Gelsey made when she was in kindergarten (or maybe it was Solomon), notes on the whiteboard, new cell phone numbers; just lots of random things that have little memories connected to them.
I love my family and being at home around them all the time despite all the chaos.
Over this break I decided that I am going to work on being "More Diligent and Concerned at Home" as Elder David A. Bednar challenged us this past October General Conference.
I am going to work on:
1. Expressing Love and Showing it.
2. Bearing Testimony and Living it.
and
3. Being Consistent.
There are lots of things to focus on during the Christmas season and
family is a very important one.
I hope that I can share my love and my testimony with my
family through this season and through the coming years.
I have been blessed with wonderful parents and siblings who do this for me and
I want to return the favor. :]
So far this Christmas season I have taken the kids to get their hair cuts for my brother's wedding this Saturday. This turned out.....not so great. Here are some before and after photos...the boys' hair honestly did not look very different. And my mom was not too happy about that. But I'm not a mom so I didn't know what to tell the hair cutting people. :/
So here's the before. I love how they are all sitting the same. Hahaha. And I told them to look mad. Gelsey did an acceptionally good job.
Here is the after picture.
Uhh yeah the boys' hair does not look different.
We might take them in to get it fixed before the wedding this weekend...
But Gelsey's is nice and cute and short though. :] Like mine! GO SHORT HAIR! Also over the break I have taken kids Christmas shopping. It is our first year doing Secret Santa with the whole family (now that the kids are all old enough to earn some money with chores and pick out presents mostly on their own) so I get to cart the kids around to all different stores to get this final shopping done. YAY! ;)
Today I made three double batches of chocolate chip cookies for the wedding luncheon dessert. Holy heck that was a lot of baking for me! (Roommates: I thought we baked a lot...this topped it all (at least for in one day) and I still have more to do. HELP!!! :/)
I have also been able to spend time with my Grandparents (they are here for a month and for my brother's wedding)
With having my grandparents here I get to here my Grandma play the piano and it is absolutely beautiful. I tried to upload a video but I couldn't figure it out. So I'll try again later.
Anyway, I have thoroughly enjoyed being home although I'm sure in about a month I'll be ready to head back up to Flagstaff with my wonderful roommates :]
To end here are some WONDERFUL pictures!
Here are the Olmstead girls (plus Jasmine and minus the sister-in-laws) Here is one of Rachel and I at the temple lights. I was also able to see Katie Wilson, my friend Chris Brown, and I got to meet Katie and Rachel's friend Ryan, but I forgot to take more pictures. :( But here is one of Rachel making me look RIDICULOUSLY short! And here is one of me trying to make Rachel look RIDICULOUSLY short. Haha. Did it work?? Well, that's all for now. There will be more very soon though because we have a WEDDING coming up! :]
