Puppy+baby=disaster

So, today has been one of those mornings, and it's only 7:30 am. I actually had a fabulous night sleep. I didn't wake up once, when usually I am aroused multiple times do to Nate's snoring (so annoying). But this morning, I only woke up once at 6 am to let the dog out. Then I went back to sleep for a little while until Asher woke up around 10 to 7. Totally fine. So I feed Asher, let him play, etc etc. Let Annie in to play, and this is where is all begins. Now mornings are always the hardest with a puppy. She has been locked up all night, and now only wants to run, play, and chew, oh, and go to the bathroom! So I begin with my usual routine of telling her no and taking things away from her that she is not suppsed to chew, aka Asher's toys, giving her her bone or chew toys instead, only to have her back chewing something else 2 seconds later. This morning was particularly annoying for some reason. So anyway, I get on the computer to check my email and some blogs, and we have wireless so I am sitting right here, watching everyone, still stopping every minute or two to correct some puppy/baby incident. Then I get up for some reason, I can't remember why now, and walk into the kitchen, and in walking, I pass Asher. I do a double take and realize what he is playing with....POO!!! SICK SICK SICK SICK SICK SICK SICK, I cannot say SICK enough times.

Obviously it is Annie's poop, although she had already gone once this morning, and hadn't eaten yet, so she normally wouldn't go twice until eating, so I wasn't watching for her to need to go. Anyway, needless to say I freaked out that Asher was touching poop like it was no big deal, like it was play-dough. I took him straight to the bathroom and scrubbed scrubbed scrubbed. Annie is still outside whining. Supposedly puppies don't know why you're punishing them unless you catch them in the act, so you're not supposed to do it. I don't even care, in my mind, she needs to be punished, even if she has no idea why. Oooh I was so mad. I was actually mad at both of them, as if Asher knew what he was doing, but seriously, does he NEED to touch EVERYTHING?! So, I'm sure those of you who have thought about getting a puppy will think twice now. Which you should. Seriously people, it's not the easiest thing in the world to have a baby and a puppy, and personally, I would take the baby over the puppy anyday! Ok, so there is a lovely picture for you to start your day with. Hope you enjoy it.

PS I still love both of my babies, but man, they can be little pains in the my rear sometimes, especially when they are working together!

and the way it ends is....

... Don't worry, I would NEVER do that! So, I just finished the final Harry Potter book. I, LOVED it!!! I really did. It was so captivating from start to finish. Whenever one stressful event ends, another begins. Just when everyone starts to get comfortable, something goes wrong. The end was A-MAZING! I cannot wait to see how they portray it in the movie. I have to say though, I am so sad that it is over. I just finished the book tonight, and I am already missing Harry Potter. There is a little empty place inside me...sadness! I know, pathetic, right?! I don't even care, I'm with Jillian, perfectly willing to admit my Harry Potter nerdy-ness. I love all of the books. This last book is my fave, so intense, totally made me cry. I don't remember when I have EVER cried that much in reading a book, JK Rowling really did well. So anyway...that's all, I just needed to tell you all that I love Harry Potter, and that I already miss his guts!! :)

Happy Birthday Dad!

My dad's birthday was on Wednesday, and since I have been such a slacker-blogger, I didn't do a birthday tribute for him then. So it is a couple of days late, but better late than never. I am actually not exactly sure how old my dad is, but I think he would probably rather me not say anyway!! :)

I love my dad soooo much. He has always been so fun to be around. He has a very dry sense of humor that makes me smile. Dad has always been the best example to me of having a true love and testimony of our Savior and Heavenly Father, and has always encouraged me to seek the truth for myself.

My dad loves everything outdoors. He has hiked mount Shasta several times, hiked all over Yosemite, up to falls in Kauai, and countless other adventures. One of the craziest things that my dad does is do a paperroute at 4 am every morning with my little sisters. Yes, he made me do it as well. Starting from my Freshman in highschool, all the way til I graduated. He is such a stud. Our dad also recently just ran the odgen marathon with me and my sisters. Yeah, we totally slowed him down, but he was a good sport to stick with us.

My dad loves his 6 daughters. I have to say, that I think we made him a little nervous through the dating years, as will my younger sisters in the next few years!! :) Thanks for being such a great, fun dad, and for being such an amazing example. I hope you had an amazing birthday. I love you!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

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...

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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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