Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was spent with the Olafsson Family at Erik's parent's house in Sandy this year. It was supposed to be the "Johansen" year for Christmas but since all of my nieces and nephew were planning on waking up early and Erik's siblings wouldn't be around on Christmas Eve, we decided to go to his parent's for brunch. It was a lot of fun being with family and opening the multitude of gifts Harald & Ranae provided for us. We are greatly blessed! Thank you to everyone!

White Elephant Party

This year, the annual "Bomb Squad" White Elephant Christmas Party was at Andrew & Jessica Drage's house. It was great to see everyone, especially Dustin (my cousin and Erik's friend) who was in town from Colorado for the holidays.

We had a very interesting gift exchange that included gigantic underwear and yes, a TARANTULA! Thankfully, it wasn't Erik or I that picked up the gift bag and got a scary surprise. I was also very happy to see that one of the gifts we brought went through three people. It was a picture of Mary that lit up and looked like it was from Tijuana. Everyone seemed to think it was pretty cool.

While I was "people-watching", I realized that last year no one had any children. This year, there were five babies. Lives change so quickly.

Christmas Card 2007

Hair Trauma

Girls, I know you can feel my pain......Last Saturday, I went to the salon to get my hair colored. I told the stylist I wanted a little color definition but still wanted to keep my overall hair color. To make a long story short, it turned out horrible! It looked like the color of ash. Yesterday I was able to go back to my old stylist who I loved (I had stopped going to him about 2 years ago because he was so expensive) and he did what he could to fix the color disaster. It is nothing like what I was originally wanting, but it looks a million times better and it's actually kind of fun having darker hair and looking different for a while.

Not Much Excitement

Nothing real exciting has happened since my last blog entry so I thought I'd just write about what we did last weekend. Erik and I went to dinner with a few friends of ours (Cooper, Mercedes and Nick) to Texas Roadhouse. Erik always likes to pretend it's someones birthday and this time, it was Mercedes' turn. After dinner, we went to see the movie "I Am Legend" which was pretty good. It was suspensful, sad and scary....too scary for me.

Thanksgiving Dinner

I didn't take any pictures this year so I had to track these two down from Erik's Aunt. Can you believe it? Tanya not taking pictures? Weird! Erik and I had Thanksgiving dinner at his parents house in Sandy. I made two jello salads and two apple pies. It seemed a little low key as a lot of family members were out of town including both of Erik's sisters, but we still enjoyed ourselves and I am happy to say I didn't even over induldge.

Goin' For A Ride

I have so much fun with my nieces and nephew...I get so excited when they come to visit. This Thanksgiving, my sister and her family drove up from Las Vegas and we got to spend a few days with them. Running around with Ashlyn (4) and Avery (2) takes a lot of energy and I am usually worn out by the time they leave. One night, I put Avery in a small, carry-on suitcase and rolled her around the house. Ashlyn thought it looked like fun so I put her in one of the large suitcases. I rolled them around the kitchen for a while and then tried to fit both of them in the one big suitcase. That didn't go over very well as Avery didn't like being squished. I know I could have fit them both in there though. Maybe I'll try the Lopez kids (my other sister's children) during Christmas.

Olafsson Family Pictures

Weddings are always a great time to take family pictures. Erik's cousin, Joseph Osmond married Kathryn Higgins last weekend in the Salt Lake Temple. Here some pictures we took after the sealing while waiting for the new bride and groom to come out of the temple.

Erik's Dad Breaks Loose

Below is a video of Harald (Erik's Dad) dancing at Joseph Osmond's (Erik's Cousin) wedding last weekend. He put on quite a show. The person laughing in the background is Liv (Erik's Sister). I love the brief look Harald gives at the end when he finally sees the camera. ENJOY! We love you Harald!

Dedicated to My Mother

Elf Yourself

A little something to make you laugh!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9621684274

Jim Brickman Concert

Tonight I went to a Jim Brickman "concert" at Deseret Book. I had the priveledge of sitting only 4 feet away. After all these years, playing his music on the piano and listening to his CD's, it was really exciting to see and hear him in person; especially for free! He was very charismatic, and couldn't play a requested song (Dreamland) because he couldn't remember which song it was and no one would hum it to help him remember. When he was answering questions, I raised my hand and asked him how long it takes him to write a song. He elaborated for a while and then summed it up by saying that it can take him only a minute or up to a day. Pretty amazing! While he was playing, I recorded a "holiday medley" with my camera (see video link below). After the concert, he signed a few autographs and when he got to me he said something I already knew:
"You had the best seat in the house!"

1st NFL Game

While in Arizona, we also went to an Arizona Cardinals game. I had never been to an NFL game before; it was really cool! We got there a couple hours early and watched some of the players warm-up before the game started. Erik made me yell to their kicker "Niel, you're on my fantasy team" to see if he would come over but it didn't seem like he heard me. Before we went, we bought some upper bowl tickets on Ebay. The entire first half, I stared down at the lower bowl scowering the stadium for seats we could move to. I found some on the 50 yard line in the 9th row. No one sat there the entire first half so we thought it was safe. We ended up sitting there the whole second half of the game! I have to say....it was a little wierd seeing them so close. It almost didn't seem like they were professional athletes and famous celebrities. The Cardinals beat the Detroit Lions 31-21. It was an experience I will never forget. I can't wait to go to another game some day.

Trip To Arizona

Last weekend, Erik and I went to Arizona for the weekend to visit my sister, Liisa. It was a lot of fun; hanging out with our nieces/nephew and spending time with Liisa and Eddie. We only get to see them a few times a year so I was really happy that we got to go down there for a few days. Those kids are little balls of energy, it was hard to keep up with them. My body actually got sore from jumping on the trampoline so much. They said some of the cutest things. One of which, was when I asked Lindsay to get something for me out of the office and she said she didn't know where the office was. I found out she calls it the "computer lab". How funny! I also taught the kids about favors. Let's just say Lindsay and Kayla love doing favors for me and Erik. :)

Miss The Rasmussen's

I was organizing my pictures tonight and came across some that got me reminiscing. Oh, the many nights we spent hanging out with B & T (and Sades) before they moved.
Bonnie and Tyler Rasmussen...and of course Sadie and Parker. We all have so much fun together.
Unfortunately, their off in Nebraska at dental school. We miss you guys!

Tanya's Photography

Here are some pictures I've taken for my Photography class at the U.

Movie Reviews

Bee Movie ****4 stars
I can't even remember the last time I watched an animated movie, let a lone, went and saw it in the theater. I saw Bee Movie last week with my work (it was our Fall Family Movie Night) and I highly recommend it for those of you with toddlers. It was very entertaining and had a cute message.

American Gangster **2 stars
Good acting. Very long. Obscene language and sexual content.
Tip - don't go see this with your parents. Overall rating? Descent

Hillary Uncensored

Ranked as the #1 video on Google Top 100 videos IN THE WORLD.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7007109937779036019&pr=goog-sl

Google suddenly took it off its Top 100 list when it was viewed more than 2 million times. Google has hidden the video from global access to drive down its views and lower its ranking. The documentary uses exclusive home videos of Hillary taken by her largest donor, Peter Paul, to expose the illegalities that won her Senate election & the obstructions of justice that keep her there.

Awesome Website

Being that yesterday was election day, I thought these pictures were pretty funny. Check out this hilarious website: http://www.cafepress.com/rightwingstuff

Pure Luck

A couple of weeks ago Erik and I went to Bountiful Ridge Golf Course. He played 9 holes while I took pictures for my photography class I am taking at the U. I complained the whole time because we hadn't seen any animals (he always sees deer).

We got to the last hole, I got out of the cart, walked around some trees and finally, saw deer! While Erik finished, I followed the family of deer around a grove of Aspen trees and took some pictures. They were beautiful. I couldn't have been more than 10 feet away. I got the shot I wanted and it was pure luck.

Favorite Product

I know I just barely turned 24 so I shouldn't really be concerned about aging, but I've been giving it a lot of thought lately. My parents have both had skin cancer so it's about time I stop caring (at least a little bit) about vanity and start taking precautions. So, here is an early New Year's resolution: No more tanning beds and hours spent lounging by the pool...hold on, I don't think I can really keep that resolution. Let's say: no more tanning without wearing at least SPF 15. :)

A few months ago I found this awesome self tanner; it works for face and body. You don't get streaks and it goes on extremely light while still giving color. I highly recommend it! It's called Shiseido (pronounced "shi-say-dough") Brilliant Bronze Tinted Self-Tanning Gel - Medium.

I highly recommend it!

Horseback Riding in Heber

Hello Everyone!

I've conformed!

I never thought I would do this, but I finally decided to make a "blog". What does "blog" mean anyway? I don't know, but it's the newest trend and being someone who likes to stay on top of trends, be it with fashion or computers, I'm taking the plunge.

Hopefully you will all enjoy this. I'm not a very amusing person but I will try to make it entertaining so you'll keep coming back to our site. Erik always makes such a big deal when I tell a "joke" because, trust me, I am not funny. However, I think this blog will be more about showing pictures and giving updates on our lives than cracking jokes.

I've created a poll on the right-hand side of the web page and I would really appreciate it if you would participate. Since I've never done this before, I don't know what people like and this will help gauge the amount of information/pictures I will add.

Love you all! Tanya