Derek & James

Everywhere we go people always comment on our 4 girls. Then they ask if we are going to try to get Derek a boy! My knee-jerk response is always, "HECK NO!" (In the past week or so I've started warming up to the idea... don't know why??? FREAK!) Anyway, the point of this story is we have a nephew, James, and he is Derek's surrogate son for now! Anyone who knows Derek's family always tells James he looks like his Uncle Derek. Katleyn and James have been best buddies since birth, and really, they could be twins. Anyway, James had a golf tourney and Derek went to cheer him on and be his scorekeeper. It was cute, they were matching and they didn't do it on purpose!

Happy Father's Day

It is getting silly how far behind I am on this dumb blog! Oh well, better late than never, right?!
Everyone came to The Oliversons for Father's Day. It was the same weekend as Katelyn's baptism, so I was lucky to have my mom and dad there that day too. It was beautiful weather, so we spent the evening outside visiting and playing musical chairs! Derek is the best dad. He is definitely a kid at heart, and the kids love playing with him. Everything's always more fun when Derek's involved!

Just a simple game of musical chairs...
Derek is a tad competive... and if you think he takes it easy on the kids you're kidding yourself!
In the end it was Derek and Taylor. EVERYONE was cheering for Taylor, and Derek was screaming like a girl everytime he ran around the chair. It was hilarious!
At the last second Derek, with his cat-like-reflexes, slipped between Taylor and the chair...
making Taylor fall to the ground and Derek won the game. All the kids rushed Derek and tackled him.

hooray for derek! (seriously)

so i'm not one to get all mushy and cheesy (on my blog anyways!!!), but today i have to. derek is taking a final right now, and i'm so proud of him. he's worked so hard and he's been very successful and i'm just so proud of him, and thankful. i haven't done a very good job of showing it. i've been feeling sorry for myself the past couple of days....or weeks!! i've just been being very pessimistic. so this morning i woke up and decided to have a new attitude. i've been kinda ornery with derek too...how mean is that when it's finals time?! anyways...when derek first started school he decided he wasn't going to study on sundays. so even though he had a final this morning he didn't study at all yesterday. instead we went to church, he went home teaching, and then to a priesthood training meeting. i know he will get the grades he wants, because every time we've sacrificed just the tiniest little bit we always get blessed SO MUCH. so anyway, i just wanted to public praise derek for doing so well in school, and thank him for sticking to his goal of not studying on sundays. i also need to thank Heavenly Father for always taking such good care of us. He's never failed us...even when we didn't necessarily deserve His help.

Thanksgiving 2008 pictures

top: mom, dad, kristina, angie bottom: katelyn, elea, derek, annie, alexis, jeff, samantha, duke (we miss thomas!) (not too shabby for setting the camera timer and making a run for it!!)

ryan...this is for you.

ryan is one of derek's best friends and i found out that he is getting bugged that all of his friends' wives only blog about what their kids are up to. apparently he wants to hear about his buddies too, and i guess that's fair. derek is part of our "posse"!!! i wish derek would do his own posts, but that's not going to happen so here's an update on derek....

derek is still really busy with work and school. he's working at a law firm as a clerk, but he basically does everything a lawyer does. he got his senior certification, which means he can present in court if his co-council is an actual lawyer. ok, so i may not be explaining this totally correct, but you get the drift. yesterday he and a buddy of his flew to denver to watch the byu vs. air force game. after the game he flew home and we watched UFC 91 with some of our friends. on monday nights derek plays intramural dodge ball. that's basically derek's life in a nutshell. the nights he gets home late the girls get really bugged because they hate when i put them to bed. the whole time they keep asking me when derek's going to get home. he has a routine, which includes singing, that they won't let me do. anyway, ryan, if there's anything else you want to know just ask!!!!!

new callings........

when we moved in september we only moved across the street, but it feels like we moved 100 miles away. it's silly how i hardly see my old neighbors when i didn't move far at all. another thing that makes it feel so far is that we're in a different ward and a different stake. you know what switching wards means...yup. new callings. derek and i each had a really bad feeling about the callings we were going to get. the #1 calling derek never wanted was to be scout master. he didn't do and/or like scouts growing up (except for the camp outs). he never earned a merit badge or anything. and come on...now he has ALL GIRLS! well, he got called to be the scout master! ha ha a friend of mine moved out of the ward last week and she was the primary chorister. i KNEW i was going to take her place...and i was right. at first i was totally freaking out about it, but i think i'll be ok. lucky for my my sis-in-law, mother-in-law, and good friend (yes, i'm talking about you dd) have all been in my shoes, so hopefully i'll get good ideas from them.

oh, and our new bishop was not trying to get on our good side. after giving us the dreaded callings he asked us to speak in sacrement meeting! ha ha

my week so far

first of all i have decided to weigh in on saturday morning. i take sunday off, so i feel like monday isn't that accurate. and saturday is after a week of working out!! so from now i will be posting my weight loss on saturdays.

sunday i finally put a headband on alexis. it the first time she's "had her hair done". i have to admit...it looked pretty cute.

we have a reward/punishment system set up in our house for katelyn and annie. i bought a bunch of those rocks you put in a fish tank, or in a hurricane lamp etc, and i got each girl a jar. whenever they do something helpful on their own, or if asked they do it without whinning they get X amount on rocks. it works really well. they girls both make their beds every morning and help out with chores around the house without TOO much complaining. anyway, when they get their jar filled to the top they get something. 2 times ago they earned new razon scooters. the reward is usually something really good because it takes them a long time to fill up the jars. oh, if they are really bad the jar gets totally dumped out. example...i told annie it was time to come inside and she stood on the porch (where all the neighbors could see her) and yelled, no screamed, "NO, you're so mean, nobody else has to come inside. i hate you." ya, that was a time annie's jar was about an inch from the top and i dumped the whole thing out. she hasn't done that again!! anyway, the reason i'm telling you all about this is #1 a friend asked me to post a picture of the jars. #2 the girls both filled their jars last week and they wanted MP3 players. monday night i was up until 1am putting music on the MP3 players for them.

earlier on monday i went to the church to play ultimate frisbee with some of my friends. holy cow that is a killer work out. and it's SO FUN. my plan is to play that monday, wednesday, and friday. well, it was my plan...unfortunately on wednesday i went to play and seriously 30 seconds into the game i jumped up to catch the frisbee and when i came down i landed on another girls foot and SPRAINED MY STINKIN' ANKLE. holy cow that hurt...it was SO painful, but i didn't say one swear word!!! i tried so hard to be tough...i got a little teary eyed when i started thinking about my girls though. i was feeling overwhelmed thinking about all the things i need to do, but couldn't without being able to walk. like take sami potty, and carry the baby. i have such a great friend here who brought me home, got me situated, changed alexis's diaper, took sami to her house and fed her lunch, and then luckily derek was able to come home from work. he is so fabulous. i seriously only got off the couch 2 times the whole day, and derek took care of everything. he did make me put my foot in a bucket of ice water 3 times every 4 hours. that doesn't feel good at all, but it totally helps with the swelling. now today i can sorta walk on it. i look seriously handicapped, but at least i can get around. derek had to go to work today, so i had to be able to walk. luckily katelyn and annie don't have school today or tomorrow. usually i wouldn't be excited about that, but they are such good helpers so it's been really nice. and they feel bad their mom's hurt, so they're being really good! i'm pretty annoyed about this whole situation, because working out is out the window now for a couple weeks. i'm going to have to be so good about what i eat. sheesh!

sami found this box in the store room, and it seriously kept her entertained for hours. if i would've know she would play with it for so long i would have given her a box forever ago!!

Our First Garden

in our neighborhood there is a huge garden and whoever wants can sign up for a plot. anyway, we decided to plant our own garden this year. yesterday derek rented a tiller from home depot, and we made our rows and planted strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, baby carrots, green and yellow squash, cantaloupe, and sugar snap peas. the girls were a huge help, and they loved digging and planting. katleyn only got to help for a little bit, because she and I had to leave to go to her soccer game. annie stayed with derek and helped him the whole time. they were up there for about 3 hours, and when she came home she was covered from head to toe in dirt!! i'm really excited to go up there with the girls every morning and let them pull weeds and water. hopefully the stuff we planted will grow!!! i guess that has to happen before i get too excited. oh, so we figured we were pretty safe planting on may 1st...well, we were wrong. it is supposed to snow tonight. derek just left to go buy plastic to cover all the plants! we were supposed to have a bad storm last night and derek kept asking if i thought the garden would be ok!! and he came home from work and changed so he could walk up there and check on it! he really loves home grown veggies...plus he worked his can off planting everything, so it would be sad if it got ruined. maybe the weather men have predicted all wrong, like usual, and it'll just rain tonight. pray for no snow. forget the garden...i think i'll go insane if i wake up to snow. HELLO...IT IS MAY.

happy valentines day!

derek and i always say, "don't get me anything", and then one of us sticks to it and the other one doesn't. well, this year i knew he wasn't getting me anything, and so i thought i would be tricky and get him something. so i went all out and bought him a huge reses's peanut butter cup in the shape of a heart. it was a whole $1.50!! so it was more for a joke since we promised to not get each other something, so i was feeling pretty funny! i knew derek hadn't got me anything because the poor guy never has time to go anywhere but to school and work. well, i forgot about internet shopping, and at 5pm the UPS guy stopped by our house and dropped off TWO DOZEN beautiful roses!! i have to admit...i'm a sucker for flowers. i love getting them! anyway, he totally one upped me!





we got the girls candy hearts, valentine's t-shirts, and we gave katelyn and annie best sister necklaces. one says "big sis" and the other says "lil sis". they are really cute and they girls haven't taken them off once! anyway, i hope everyone had a good valentine's day!!

i got tagged

my seester tagged me, so here it goes.

What's his name? Derek Kevin Oliverson
How long have you been together? we've been married 7 1/2 years.
How long did you date? ok, i don't know the exact timing, but it's something like we dated for 6 weeks and then were engaged for 2 months.
How old is he? 28...he'll be 29 on super bowl sunday!!
Who eats more? that's a toss up!
Who said I love you first? derek
Who is taller? derek
Who is smarter? we're both smart in different areas. (he's going to laugh when he reads this!)
Who does laundry? usually me, until i get behind...then he "helps".
Who does the dishes? me, but once in a blue moon he does.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? me
Who pays the bills? him, thank goodness. he's very efficient at it.
Who mows the lawn? derek, when we've had one.
Who cooks dinner? me, but he usually helps on sundays or when he wants steak.
Who drives when you are together? derek, and when he insists on me driving he is the worst sideseat driver ever!!!
Who is more stubborn? derek
Who kissed who first? derek kissed me first.
Who asked out who first? derek asked me out, i said yes, and then the day of i tried to cancel...he was having none of that!!
Who proposed? derek, but he claims i did.
Who has more siblings? derek
Who wears the pants in the family? i guess derek does...that's annoying to admit.

i'll tag hhhmmmm...i don't know who has been tagged already, so if you read this and you haven't done it yet then your tagged!!

holy freeholies

derek has been planning on going to vegas this weekend for about 3 months, but the plan was he would be leaving friday. well, our friend, debbie, is a flight attendant and we are able to buy "buddy passes" from her...MUCH CHEAPER. the only catch is that you have to fly stand by. anyway, derek started freaking out today worrying that he wouldn't get on a flight tomorrow, so he decided to leave today. which is great, except we had signed up to have the missionaries over for dinner at 5pm. so, i asked my other friend, teri, to bring her family over for dinner too...can't just be me and the missionaries. anyway, it was 4:40pm and derek leaves. at 4:41 my sister calls, but i tell her i'm too busy to talk. at 4:43 my mother-in-law, marjean, calls but at 4:43 and 10 seconds debbie calls so i ask marjean to hold on a sec. debbie called to remind me that midwest airlines has a policy that standbys can't wear jeans (oh @$#&)...they have to be in khakis etc...i started freaking out, because derek was in jeans. so i hang up with debbie and then try to hang up on marjean so i can hurry and call derek. the first call to derek marjean says hello (apparently i didn't hang up on her) and i tell her i can't talk and hang up on her again. 5 calls later derek picks up and i scream "DO YOU HAVE KHAKIS IN YOUR SUITCASE?!?!" he's like, "ya........why?" so i tell him the story and it's no big deal he just changed at the airport. well, now it's 4:59 dinner's not ready and teri's got about 20 minutes before she can come over, and like usual the missionaries are right on time. i open the door and say "derek's not here, but the kellers are coming over so you can still eat here, but not for 15 minutes so can you go visit someone else for 15 minutes?!" they did, and when they came back we actually had a really good dinner...and it was a good time with the kellers. (teri and i had a good laugh watching wildboyz. i love steve-o...for thoses of you who don't know, or haven't noticed...he's derek's identical twin!!)

times sure does fly

so i can't believe it has been about 2 weeks since my last post. time is getting away from me. my lil' bro is on a mission and i totally planned on being the coolest sister and sending him stuff all the time, like for halloween, thanksgiving, etc... i had the 12 days 'til Christmas in the works for him, and on the 13th (12 days 'til Christmas) i realized i hadn't sent him anything yet. man i'm awesome. at least i did get all the stuff i bought him in the mail so he'll have it for Christmas! maybe he'll feel like he hit the jackpot. next...i really wanted to have family pics to put in our Christmas cards...and here it is and we still haven't taken one. i'm scrapping the idea and putting a pic of the girls with santa in the cards instead...which i will be working on ALL FREAKIN' DAY so our friends get them before 2008!!! i have gotten all of my shopping done, stockings and all. that is a huge accomplishment for me, because i'm usually finishing up on Christmas Eve!!

another way time is flying by is that derek just finished his 3rd semester of law school. i remember the day he came home and told me he wanted to quit the police department and go back to school. it felt like we would never graduate with BAs let alone actually make it to law school....now we're half way through. i'm so proud of derek. he's worked so hard, and it's totally paying off. it feels like i'm going to wake up and he'll be graduating!

i was watching my girls play this morning (they didn't know i was watching) and i about started bawling. annie will be 5 in february, samantha will be 2 in may, and katleyn will be 7 in june. holy crap i can't believe they are getting so big. time is going WAY TOO FAST!!!