Fourth of July

So, this is embarassingly late...but I thought I should still do it. We had such a fun 4th of July. Asher and Annie and I went over to Ben and Whit's with Doug and Jackie, and a couple that I met there, the Allers who were great fun! We had a bring your own meet BBQ and then some delicious desserts provided by yours truly and Sara Aller (who by the way, I could totally empathize with as she was like 8 months prego in the middle of the summer. I do not miss that!!) I made the trifle (which you can't really tell is a trifle, but it was yu-mmy!!) Sarah made the cheesecake which was also delicious! I am not ashamed to say that I had full helpings of both!



Asher kept pretty busy by playing with this ball tossing toy for like 30 minutes. It was awesome. I have to say, that he was not the only one that was amused by this toy, and I am not talking about the other children that were in attendence!
I really wanted Asher to see some fireworks for his first ever 4th of July. This was his reaction to the fireworks...

...was it worth his being off his sleeping schedule for a whole week after that (due to keeping him up so late) I'm not so sure. But I have to say that he looks so stinkin' cute in his tight pjs, sitting in the monkey chair.

After all the kiddies went to bed, we continued on with our own "parking lot of fire" with the fireworks that the boys bought. We had some near explosions when they tried to set off several flowers at the same time. I think they intercepted and it did not go well. But we had a fun time. We could even see the huge fireworks show from the Stadium of Fire pretty well, so we watched that, which I was not thoroughly impressed with. Oh well!! All in all, is was a pretty successful evening full of food, laughs and fire. I don't think it gets much better than that!

Our new baby!

Well, we have some exciting news...I got a puppy!! :) We actually got her a few weeks ago, but I have too busy potty training the little thing to have time to blog about her! ;) So here's the story: My mom's dog Mandy, who is a miniature dachsund, had puppies, and my mom really wanted to keep one of them in the fam. So I said that I wanted one. It was actually a really hard decision for me because Nate didn't really want me to get her and it is a lot of work, and I wasn't sure if I was up for it. But I thought it would be nice to have a dog when Nate is gone and for the kiddies. Plus, she is a snuggly girl, and I like that. But the most important reason is that she is so stinkin' cute and little, I love it! It has been a lot of work, and I am still working on house breaking her, which is really frustrating at times, but she is getting better. If anyone has any tips on housebreaking little puppies, I would love that! I named her Annie because she is red, so I was thinking little orphan Annie. I have to say, I do get her and Asher's names mixed up quite a bit.

Little Joelie LOVES dogs. He came over to see her when she first came from CA, and he just gave her tons of hugs and kisses. She was really scared to be in a new place with so many new people, so she was shaking and kind of sad. Joel kept saying "it's ok puppy, it's ok" and "puppy's sad". He would get this really concerned look on his face. It was the cutest thing. Asher has been having a lot of fun with her too. He has never been afraid of her. In fact, the first day, he practically mauled her to death, grabbing her ears and tail and head. But now that she is more comfortable and playful, he has to run for his life if they are ever on the floor together. She just wants to play with him by licking and jumping, but he's not such a fan of that kind of play. I think he still likes her though. All of Nate's brothers think she is really cute, especially Mackay. It's kind of fun to see a softer side of grown men when they are holding a little puppy! And I have to say, I think Nate is even starting to warm up to her. So I'm sure as life goes on, you will see more posted about our little pup. For now, here are some pictures and video clips of her first few days here with us.

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The Chocolate Kitchen

Many of you know that I like to bake. Just as much as I like to bake, if not more, I love to make the things I bake look beautiful! So two weeks ago, I started a cake decorating class at Robert's Arts and Crafts. I have started a new blog, The Chocolate Kitchen, to not only share my progress, but to keep as a baking/cake decorating blog to share all my projects, recipes, tips, etc. I am so excited about it. I am especially about the new banner, as I really wanted it to be a super-cute site that people would want to come to. Thanks SOOOO much to Lindsay (Slade) Daniel for putting it together for me in Photoshop, helping to make it look good on the blog, and for being so patient with my indecisive-ness. You're the best Lindsay!

I hope you'll all check it out and add it to your favorites. I am going to try and be really good at keeping new things on there, so check back often!!

Asher's new tricks...

Asher is getting bigger and learning new things everyday. We think that he is hilarious and so fun and of course, so cute! He has recently learned to pull himself up to a standing position. The first time he did it was in his crib when he was supposed to be going to bed. So for the whole next week after that, it took him forever to go to sleep because he was so pleased with his new trick, he just couldn't get enough of it. Now he is all over the place. These are his two favorite places in the whole house. He spends like 90% of the time that he is awake and in the house in these two positions:






























This is a cute video of him standing and trying to get down from a standing position. He gets very frustrated when he can't do what he is trying to do. But he prevails in the end.

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Asher has since mastered the art of just kneeling down to get down from the standing position. He spent about 15 minutes this evening going up and down, up and down on the bench you see pictured above. Silly kid!

Here's Asher standing in his favorite place in the kitchen, looking cuter than ever!


Here's Asher waving to everyone from his favorite place at the bench in his bedroom!

Asher's new cuddle toy...

The other day, I put Asher down for his afternoon nap. I still had his mobile up in his crib because he had just barely learned how to stand up in there and didn't think it was a big deal. Well, when I left the room, I noticed him playing with but thought it would be fine. Then as I listened to him play, I heard a small noise, that I thought was just him shaking the railing or something. I thought I would hear crying or something if he had pulled the mobile down (which worried me a little, cause it is a strangling hazard you know...yah, all 3 inches of string! But hey, you never know). So I just left it and went on with whatever I was doing. So a little while later, I peeked in to see if he had fallen asleep, and sure enough, there he was, cuddled up with his mobile. I did gently remove it from his crib after the picture, who knows what would happen if he had gotten a little wild in his sleep! ;) But I sure thought it was precious!

Nate's book tour

So as I have mentioned in a previous post, Nate finished his book, Championship Contest Fiddling, that he has been working on for about 2 years. He is SOOOOO excited about it. I cannot emphasize this enough. He really should be excited about it though. It is a huge accomplishment, and a one of a kind book in the fiddle world. A couple of weeks ago, Asher and I accompanied Nate to Boise Idaho for a book tour (which was really just a fiddle contest where Nate was able to sell a bunch of his books!:) We were his groupies. Although it was a rather pointless trip for me and Asher (he was not a very good boy on this trip!), it was fun to be with Nate, as well as visit with Amber (Jensen) Crowley and her husband Mike, who were kind enough to let us stay with them and put up with our child crying for hours into the night. :(

Which Jane Austen heroine are you most like?

Take the Quiz here!

You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

I was a little surprised by my results, but I think that I am actually pretty similar to Elinor in some ways. However, I do think I am a little more outgoing and fun that she is, at least, once you get to know me!

Duffy and Tessa are married!!

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On June 26th, Nate's brother Duffy got married to Tessa Stimpson in the Mount Timpanogas Temple. The sealing and recpeption were all beautiful. It was so fun to have the whole family in town and be able to visit. I took a lot of pictures, especially of all the Olson grandkids, so I thought I would make another montage to display them. Enjoy!

Santa Cruz Beach Babies...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

So every year, my family goes to New Brighton Beach in Santa Cruz, CA to camp and go to the beach. It is one of my FAVORITE traditions. There are tons of families that go that we don't get to see very often, so we all love it. I had to leave early this year because Nate's brother Duffy was getting married on Saturday, so me, whit, my mom, and the kids all went up on Monday night so I could have a few days there. I have to say, camping is a lot harder with a little one, and going to the beach is not nearly as relaxing as it used to be. I had to chase Asher around to keep him from putting everything he saw in his mouth. I was not 100% successful. Asher LOVED the beach. He crawled all around in the sand (which, by the way was very hot!). He loved the water too. I sat him down where the tide comes in, and he loved playing in the mud. That is until I let him get hit by a little wave. It didn't knock him down, he just got water in his face. He actually didn't even cry, he would have kept on playing, but I thought maybe he'd better not! It was all so fun though, and I'm glad I got to spend some time with whit and my mom, and a few of our friends that were there early. Asher and I also drove up to Palo Alto to visit my old roommate, Maren and her 3 month old, Leah. It was so fun to see them! I wish we would have been able to visit a little bit longer, but that's ok. I hope you enjoy the video of our time in Santa Cruz!

We did it!!!

Well, it's official folks. I along with 3 of my sisters and my dad, am an official "marathoner"! On Saturday may 19th, we all ran and FINISHED the Zion's Bank Ogden Marathon.

So we met the buses at 5am on saturday morning and took the nice long drive up the canyon. It actually was not nearly as long as I thought it would be. I have heard that the drive up can be quite daunting, but it really wasn't for me. We got up there and huddled around fires, and waited in lines at the porta-johns, along with about 2500 other runners. The gun went off promptly at 7am, although it took us a few minutes to cross the starting line as we were towards the back of the pack. It is all very exciting, there are so many people, all shapes and sizes. It is also quite interesting to see everyone's stradegies. We saw lots of walk/runners. They would run for like 5 minutes and walk for 2 or something like that. But they were keeping up. I think actually, the two ladies I saw doing that finished before us. We also got a nice treat around mile 3. I guess some girl just couldn't wait another second to go to the bathroom, so she just popped a squat right there on the side of the road (there were porta-johns like every mile or so). It was awesome!

Ok, so on to the actual run...it was great! It really was. I really enjoyed myself, and kept thinking how great this was, and just loved all the support we got from onlookers. We even had a hill after mile 13 that was no problemo. Then we got to about mile 22, and all that went away...I hated the marathon, and couldn't think why on earth I was putting myself through this torture. But I had gone this far, I might as well go another 4 miles. Mile 23...I am going to die, I am going to barf, I don't want to do this anymore, just keep going. Mile 24...why on earth did the city Marathon have to be 26.2 miles away from Athens (see Origins of Marathon), just keep going, you can't stop running until you hit the mile 25 marker, you can do it, no I can't, yes you can, no I can't...ok, I'm there! Mile 25, 1 more mile to go. Dad's telling me this is all mental...ppsshh, what is he smokin'? Get a drink, take a walking break to get geared up for the final stretch...put off running as long as possible...start running. We turn the corner onto the final stretch...we can see the finish line, and OH MY GOSH, it is SO FAR AWAY. I can't do this, I want to stop, just keep going, speed up so we actually look like runners, my lungs are going to burst...oh my gosh, there's Asher and Nate, and Ashley and Whit and Ben...we are going to make it...smile, look like this is no problem! We did it, we're there...it's over...THANK GOODNESS!! We didn't do it as fast as we would have liked, but we did it. I just looked at the final results and my official time was 5 hours and 5 minutes and 29 seconds. Here is a video of us coming into the finish. Sorry, it is very bouncy, Ashley started running with us and in doing so, had a hard time keeping the camera steady. If you listen closely, you can hear the announcer saying our names as we cross the finish line. He realized after saying a few Busaths that it was "Team Busath...the yellow girls".

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So needless to say, this was by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. WAY harder than having a baby (although I realize that that is not really saying much in my case). When I finished, I didn't think that I would ever run a marathon again. But just like having a baby, I was very quick to forget all the pain and suffering that I went through, and by the next day, I was already thinking, yeah, I think I could do that again. I guess we will see!





I would also like to thank Nate for all the love and support that he has given me throughout the past 4 months. (Sorry to get all cheesy on everyone) When I decided to do this, neither of us had any idea what we were signing him up for too. Hours and hours of babysitting when he had tons of things to do. Every saturday was basically shot. But I want you to know Nate that I could never have done it without you. I love you. Thanks for all you have done for me...especially the many cafe rio salads that you got for me after my long runs! :)


To the fam...Jill, Hailey, dad, it was so fun experiencing this with you. Whit, I could have NEVER done this without you. I was not a runner, but you made me believe in myself and pushed me to be better every week. I love you guys...GO TEAM BUSATH...THE YELLOW GIRLS!!

Asher was such a good boy. Ashley said he didn't cry once all day. I think he just loved being outside. What a cutie!

visit zazoosh.com and look up my number 2012 for more pics.

Happy Birthday Nate!

So, Nate said to me today (Sunday, the day after Nate's birthday) "so how come you did a birthday tribute for everyone else, but not for me?" Well, it was hard to convince him that I really was still planning on doing one, but just hadn't had a chance. Yesterday I was running around like a crazy person all day...whit and I had a quick 8 mile run, then had to hurry home and get things going for our Shabby Apple party at noon (which was a great success...such cute dresses!) After that, I came home and switched into birthday mode. I did feel bad that I wasn't able to devote more of the day to Nate. He even ended up having to help ME with things, which should not happen on one's birthday. So, when I said I still wanted to do one, he said not to do one. Sorry babe, I disobeyed!

Nate is now 32. I know, he's an old man! I am almost 25, 7 years younger, but I always say that our marriage works despite our age difference, because I am mature for my age and he is immature for his age, so we meet in the middle! Nate is an amazing husband and father. He loves Asher so much and is so protective of him. I am always amazed that I got such a wonderful husband. Throughout our marriage, I have been so humbled by Nate's willingness to serve and love me unconditionally.

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Nate's most recent accomplishment has been the completion of his book, "Championship Contest Fiddling". He has been working for about 2 years on this book, interviewing National champion fiddlers, transcribing fiddle tunes and writing and re-writing biographies, etc, etc. He has a contract with Melbay Publishing Company, but they usually take about a year to get them out. So Nate self-published it for now, and just got the first batch last weekend. A couple of months ago, Nate and I were on our way to Wal-mart, and he said that one of his goals was to make $750,000 and only live on $60,000 and give the rest to charity. I said, yeah, that would be great, but how are you going to make $750,000. He says, my book. I said, I don't think that you are going to be able to make millions off of your fiddle book. He says, why not, that's totally possible, just look at the DaVinci Code...(laughter, laugher...) So, I love that my husband has such high ambitions that he would compare his book to a National bestseller... and I also love that he has such a great sense of humor! I love being married to Nate. We have so much fun together. He is truly my bestfriend and the love of my life. Nate is one of the most talented people that I have ever met, and I am so lucky to be married to him. Happy Birthday Nate, I love you!

Warmin' up my vocalizers...

So Asher always does this hilarious thing with his mouth...he puckers up his lips and scrunches his face and makes spitting/buzzing sounds (it reminds me of a warm-up Jer-bear and other voice teachers would have me do before we start singing). I am always trying to get a video of it, but he has never been very cooperative. But the other day he started to do it and got in the "buzzing zone". He seriously did it for like 10 minutes straight (don't worry, the video is not that long), nothing I could say would stop him. It was so cute! He'll also occasionally do it when he has baby food in his mouth, which is not nearly as amusing! Anyway, I just thought I would share...

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Happy Birthday Grandpa Charlie!

Today is also my Grandpa Charlie's birthday, my dad's dad, who passed away a couple of years ago. I have so many memories of Grandpa. On several occasions, I would bring my science projects over to his house (we would go over there every Sunday or Monday) for "help", and he would end up practically doing the whole thing for me. He had (still has I should say, no one wants to attempt to clean it out) a garage full of every imaginable tool, and he loved to tinker around with things. So really, I was helping him to get his creative fix! :) Grandpa always had jellybeans (his favorite candy), and always tickled us. He always had all these funny little rhymes that he would say when he was playing with us. I can't remember exactly how they went now, but whenever I say little things to Asher, like: "bumble-bee, bumble-bee, bumble-bee, STING!" when I am feeding him, I always think of him. This is a picture of him holding one of his great-grand babies, I think it is Isabell Liddell, but could be wrong. I thought it was so cute though! Happy Birthday Grandpa, we love you!

Happy Birthday Ashley!

Today is my sister Ashley's birthday. She is turning 21, so she is now officially legal. Ashley is the 4th child of 7 and the 3rd girl of 6. She is currently living here in Provo with the rest of us and going to Paul Mitchell cosmetology school. Ashley is very talented with things of an aesthetic nature. She has always loved makeup and hair, which is why she decided to go to Cosemetology school.
Ashley also has the most amazing singing voice. Funny fact: we were all in Galena, and during Ashley's years in Galena, she had many solos. One year, Jer-bear decided to do a publicity video with snippets of different songs and dances. So we sit down to watch the dvd and look, there's Ash, and, oh wait, there's Ash again, and again, and again. Practically the whole dvd was the Ashley Busath show. It was awesome. So I guess we're not the only ones that think she is amazing.

In my opinion, Ashley has always been the "cute" one. She is so tiny and skinny and so beautiful. I must admit that until I got to college, I pretty much hated Ashley. I hated her because I was insanely jealous of her. There were countless times that people in our ward would come up to me and say, "yeah, you did a great job singing that solo, but do you know who has the most beautiful voice? Your sister Ashley...blah blah blah." It used to make me so mad. But when I finally grew up, I learned to accept the fact that I just wasn't that talented in that area, and started to realize that everyone was right about Ashley. Since then, I have always been so proud that I had such a talented sister. I still believe that she could still make it to Broadway if she wanted to.

Ashley is also the most emotional of all us girls. I remember one story my mother told us. Ashley was probably 3 or 4 and started screaming and crying about something. My mom said that she had to go to her room until she was done crying. So she goes to her room, cries cries cries, and comes out a while later, no longer crying, but still noticeably upset and says (while shaking and still sniffling a little) "ok, I think I'm done now". :) What a silly kid. Another time, our stupid cat Bell had kittens. Our favorite one was this little pudgy one with white feet, we named him socks. We kept the kittens in the garage in a box (w/ no lid of course) lined with blankets and such. One night, we came home late from a galena show. My dad pulled into the garage driving our enormous 12 seater van. The kittens were getting bigger and were now able to climb out of the box. We could see that they were out, but didn't think they were in the way. But I got out of the van, and sure enough, dad had run over our favorite kitten, Socks. It was not a pretty sight. When Ashley found out, she locked herself in the bathroom for like an hour and just cried. So sad. So there you have it, Ashley is a very emotional girl. But I think that that is actually one of her strengths. I think that it just further emphasizes how big Ashley's heart is. She truly is one of the sweetest people I know. She is such a good, kind person and wants nothing more than to love and be loved.

These days, besides going to school and working, Ashley loves the outdoors. She is always telling me about these amazing hikes and campouts she goes on with her boyfriend. She loves music of all kinds, and in her heart, I believe she still wishes she was cloggin' up a storm! :) Happy Birthday Ash. I love you and hope you have a FABULOUS day!!

PS. Forgive the bluriness of the top pictures, I had to scan them in and they didn't turn out all that great. Oh well!

A Gem...

So I have discovered a gem. I have been a long time fan of Patty Griffin, and all of her albums are amazing. But she recently came out with her new album, Children Running Through, Nate got it for me on itunes, and I LOVE it. You may have noticed my recent addition "Music" to my blog. The song that is there currently is "Heavenly Day" and it is a Heavenly song. I love it...it makes me feel so happy and light, like I am laying or running around barefoot in a field of dandelions and daisys, on a beautiful day, with someone I love (like my husband for example :). The whole album is fantastic. It's one of those albums that you can put on and listen to the entire thing without having to skip the ones you don't like. All of the songs have beautiful orchestrations and have so much emotion in them. I encourage all to check it out. At the very bottom of my blog, I have a playlist with some songs from her other albums, 1000 Kisses and Impossible Dream, which I also highly recommend.