Christmas on the Farm

Christmas was pure delightful homecookin', great company, freezin' tractor takin' pictures, silly Santa, and "Family Fued" fun! This year we drove 16 hours from Utah to South Dakota to spend the holidays with my step-mom's family. Growing up, I'd spend parts of the summer and some Christmas's with them and it's been so fun being back. The Olson's opened their hearts and homes to my brother Daniel and I when we joined their family, and it feels the same this time around as well. I've felt the closest to this set of Grandparents more than my "blood" related ones, just because of the time I spent with them.

Grandma and Grandpa Olson are celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary tomorrow, but we honored them yesterday when we all got together. There were 48 people and 5 dogs all in Grandpa and Grandmas house and it was so fun. Some of the things that remind me of them are the smell of coffee, cowboy boots, and their simple, genuine love toward each other.

We took pictures of all the grandkids and greatgrandkids by the big John Deere combine tractor. My fingers were so cold that I had a hard time snapping shots by the end. Jaxon was so excited that Santa came to give each kid a present. Talon got John Deere fruit snacks and Jaxon got a puzzle set. The night before Christmas they opened up their John Deere sweatshirts and sweatpants I bought at Gabes for crazy cheap. I thought they would be perfect for this years Christmas on the farm. My dad put together a family fued game that we all enjoyed. All the laughter and love is what made our Christmas so special.



P.S. For Christmas Doug gave me a love letter and 10 coupons of service and has let me sleep in everyday. I gave lots of babysitting so he could go pheasant hunting twice a day everyday here and also 8 days during deer hunting during the bow and rifle season in WV. So far he hasn't got any pheasants but has shot a whole bunch...he's still hoping for something tomorrow.


P.S.S. The boys had a fun time bouncing or should I say launching each other on the air mattresses.

Missing You!

Well. today Amber left Idaho to go back to be with her family. At the last minute Jax spoke up about wanting to go with her. So we quickly packed his stuff and sent them on their way to Utah.
So now here I sit not sure what to do with myself other than miss my wife and kids! I miss you Amber!
Its amazing how much I miss chasing little ones, feeding/playing with and so forth. Life is beautiful with a family!

3 Celebrations for our 3 year old!!! And 29 year old!!!

Jaxon and Doug's birthday are back to back, so their celebrations usually occur together.


Jaxon turned 3 and was blessed to celebrate 3 times. The first was a few days before his birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Mac, Jen, and Kim (east coast McArthurs, except Kate). We made his favorite food macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches. His passion is DINOSAURS so we cut the grilled cheese into dinosuars, invited dinosaur guests, attempted a dinosaur cupcake cake (turned out pretty scary), and made dinosaur sounds all night long. Kim brought us some new Free Range Studio shirts, so of course we had to take a picture.

The next celebration occured on Doug's birthday, when we celebrated with all of my family in Utah. Jeannie made this adorable Dinosaur cake and I gave Jaxon his Dinosaur quilt I'd been working on till the wee hours of the morning. (I only slept a half an hour before we flew to Utah). It still isn't finished as I need to do the actual quilting on it, but at least he can use it during our trip. When we asked Jax how old he was, he showed us on his hand three fingers and accidentally touched the cake. So we got a fingerlickin good 3.I love watching Doug read cards from me. There's something so pure about his reactions. This time I scored a smile, some laughter, and even a tear! Babe I sure love you!



The final celebration occured when we drove to Idaho to be with the rest of the McArthur family. Corrie spoiled Doug with an amazing mexican feast, which included yummy tomales, 2 pies, and 1 cake. Doug was thrilled about celebrating with all his brothers. He loved going jack rabbit hunting with them, playing some football playstation, talking knives and guns, and just being together.

Thanksgiving...so thankful that

my in-laws came to my house to celebrate. Doug's parents and three sisters joined us for yummy food, sleep overs, midnight conversations, shopping, and Twilight. We enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner in our garage/turned playroom so we could all fit at the table together...I know kind of ghetto but it was super fun! We each wrote something we were thankful for about each person there and that I must say was pretty special to read. We had half the McArthur clan with us while the other half gathered in Idaho. Doug and his dad enjoyed hunting together and after 3 days of freezing weather, Doug shot 1 deer with his "cowboy" pistol which he was very proud of, 1 deer with his rifle, and tag teamed another deer with his dad. All of these deer were bucks, 1 really old buck with no antlers and no teeth and 2 young bucks. While Doug did try to convince me that hanging dead deer off our back deck wouldn't freak out our neighbors, I argued that that deer go straight to the butcher!!! Doug's mom is thrilled to have so much meat in her freezer.