Three Generations

When we were home in July the kids had a picture taken with my Mom.  I don't know what I was thinking of or I would have gotten in the picture so there would have been four generations!!

 Brandy, Cooper, Mother, Jared and Graham

 

 So imagine my in the picture.....and then you have four generations on my side of the family.

 Rob, Mother & Me

 

I sure love my fam!!!!!

Welcome Baby Girl

Sloan Rachel Jesperson

August 28, 2012

5 pounds 14 ounces

18 1/2 inches long

 

 

Byrd Drug Store

Byrd Drug Store has been apart of the town square in Troy since I have been alive.  And a trip home is not the complete without going in for a drink or a sandwich.  So when Amy called up and said meet us there for lunch we jumped in the car and headed that way!

Here is a picture of June, Amy and Sarah Todd patiently waiting for their pimento cheese and ham sandwich - which was worth the wait.  I know - I had the same thing!!

It is so much fun being home and surrounded be familiar places.



Bennie was enjoying a little "chill" time.

 Cooper was enjoying all the play time he was getting with his older cousins!!

And Graham was enjoying all the attention he was receiving too! 

Byrd's is a drug store in the back and a little soda/sandwich/ice cream counter in the front.  I have fond memories of when I use to work at the bank in Troy (during my Senior year of high school) of going on ice cream runs for my office.  They would put the ice cream in cups, then in a box and I would hurry back to the bank before they would melt.  Good times!!

Todd joined us for lunch but the only picture I have of him is with his head turned!!

Thanks to Todd and Amy for the invitation to join them for a fun lunch!!

Fish Fry - Yum!!





Jared's one request while being in Alabama was to have a fish fry, so of course Uncle Cyril was quick to honor that request.

The fish were bought (we sure miss having Daddy's pond stocked with fish)....

 .......the oil was heated

 .....and Cyril created another wonderful feast for all to enjoy!!

 Rob loved his assignment - and that was to just sit back and visit.

Of course a fish fry is not complete unless you have ALOT of people there to enjoy it. 

(My cute neices, Brittany, Dresden and Hollis enjoying a laugh with Granny.)

Even though Graham could not "partake" of the food I think he really enjoyed all the attention he received from his Alabama family.



A Southern Shrimp Boil

This year the entire family went to Alabama the end of July to visit with my fam and we had a great time.  We were there for nine days and we did alot of.....eating!!  The South truly has some of the best food.

We started our first day off with a shrimp boil courtesy of my brother, who works in the Gulf.  He brought fresh shrimp home that were to die for!!

He added the shrimp to some red potatoes, sausage and corn on the cob....

...put them all together in a big pot with Cajun seasoning and what you end up with is called "heaven"!!  

 Of course all this was done outside with the temperatures in the 90's and the humidity in the 90's also!!

 You can tell that everyone is hot, sweaty.....

 ...and enjoying there visit with aunts, uncles and cousins.



And if you are wondering where Cooper is....well this is where he stayed the entire evening -  on the mule (and often he was able to persuade someone - thanks T-Todd and Hollis -  to take him for a ride on it).

Thanks Cyril and Linda for a wonderful evening!!

A Lesson Learned Early!

This past week I had the opportunity to talk with a sweetheart of a lady that was really struggling with a church calling.  She has been the president of the young women organization in her church ward for the past several years, has a young family and is struggling from the pressure of trying to juggle family and church.  As we were talking I felt impressed to share with her a lesson I learned many years ago when I was in her same situation.

I was serving as the Young Women's President when Jared was 2 and Bran was 5.  Being Young Women's President requires alot of meetings on Sunday, a weekly activity for the girls, girl's camp, young conference, etc.  It had gotten to the point that when I walked out the door to go to a meeting the kids would cry, beg for me to stay home and of course that would break my heart.  I went in for a  temple recommend  interview with the the stake presidency and had the privilege of meeting with one of the counselors (professionally he was judge, and later he went on to be called as a Stake Patriarch).  During our chat he asked me how my church calling was going so I unloaded on him how I was struggling with leaving my little kids to serve the  youth in the ward.  What he told me next was something that I will never forget.  He explained that a few months prior he was walking out the door to attend a Stake Presidency Meeting and his son was shooting hoops in the driveway.  His son ask if he would shoot hoops with him and he informed him he had a church meeting to attend.  He walked a block from his house and said it just hit him...the stake presidency will never remember me being late for a meeting but my son will always remember that I did not have time to shoot hoops with him.  He turned around went back and shot hoops with his son.  Family comes first and then our church callings. 

Because of that conversation, Rob and I have always made sure that we were there for any activity Brandy or Jared might have (and now that includes our grand kids) no matter if that meant we would be late or even miss a church meeting.  If all is well with our family, then we can serve the Lord 100%.  Now not all people will agree with this and feel that church callings need to have top priority, but this is the philosophy we felt inspired, after the insight given to me by this amazing man, to use in our family.  And hopefully it has worked because we have two amazing kids who have firm testimonies of the gospel, married in the temple and are active in the church. 

This was one of the happiest days of my life - when Jared returned from serving a two year mission in the California San Jose - Spanish Speaking Mission

Now you may ask why I am blogging about this?  The answer is because my blog is my journal and now that my kids are parents of there own I wanted to share this valuable lesson with them that we were fortunate enough to learn when we were starting out our family.

TCIT

My favorite pouty lip!!

You always know when little Graham is sad because the most adorable little pouty lip will appear on his cute face!!

Isn't that the cutest thing you have ever seen???



A Sweet Moment

A few days ago Brandy had a writing assignment due for work so I suggested to her that I take Cooper for the day so she could work.  Carole and I had planned to go shopping and to lunch that day so I just took Coop along with us (he is a great little shopper).  So while we were out the following conversation took place between Cooper and Carole.

Coop:  "Grandma, Grandma, Grandma"!

Carole:  "What Cooper"?

Coop:  "Where is Grandpa"?

Carole (totally caught off guard):  "Well Grandpa is in Heaven with Jesus".

Coop pointed to the sky

Coop (a few minutes later pointed to a man that was walking in front of us that was large in stature and had white hair like Alma's):  "There is Grandpa".

Carole:  "No that is not Grandpa.  Remember he is in heaven visiting with your baby sister before she comes to your house".

Coop:  "Oh".

As Cooper got older he was "to busy" to sit still to have his picture taken with Alma so all the pictures I have of the two of them is before the Coopster started walking.


It is totally amazing to me the memory these little ones have.  Alma passed away six months ago but Cooper still remembers him. It was a precious moment to witness.

Memorial Day with My Boys

For the past four years each Memorial Day weekend we have rented a condo and gone to Park City with the fam.  It has become a fun family tradition that I know I look forward to. Well over those four years our little family has grown to include two totally amazing little boys that are the apple of there Poppa and TamTam's eye!

Here is Cooper when he was a few weeks short of being four months old on his first Memorial Day Park City trip.

Well of course we "attempted" to recreate a picture of Graham (in the same position as Coop at the same age) on his first Park City trip.  Doesn't he have the biggest eyes!!!  

And of course Graham decided to show TamTam how much he loved her by spitting up on her (Coop did the same thing to Uncle Jared when he came for the first time but unfortunately I could not find the picture)!

We found out that the condo we always stay in us up for sale so of course I decided that we should all pool our money and buy it......it is only a mere $500,000 for a two bedroom, two bath, fully furnished condo.  So maybe next year we will be staying in our own condo in Park City instead of renting.......................................................................NOT!!!!!!!

The next Mario Andretti

If he has this passion at 2, what will it be like at 22????

Sure love this little speedster!!!!!

Graham's Baby Blessing

Four generations of Olsen's

In our Church babies are given a name (Graham Curtis Olsen) and a blessing by their father when they are infants.  So May 6th was the Sunday that our adorable little Graham was blessed.  Jared did an incredible job with the blessing and I think Graham knew something special was being said to him because he did not let out a whimper during the entire blessing!  Graham was surrounded by so much love as all of Cassidy's family and all of Rob' family were in attendance as well as several great friends.  And to make the event even more special,  Graham wore the same blessing outfit that Jared wore when he was blessed 27 years ago.  The men that were in the circle for the blessing were Jared, Poppa, Dave, Jim Wilcox, Chris Selin, Ryan Penman, Jason Attebury, Bishop Mike Nance (our Church actually sent out a letter several years ago requesting that Priesthood circles be kept small and our Bishop likes to make sure that request is honored).

We are so proud of Jared and Cassidy.  They are amazing parents and we know that Graham will grow up to do all the wonderful things that he was promised in his blessing because of them and their examples.

Also another little tidbit of information.....as far a genealogy goes Rob was the last Olsen on his Father's side (yes that means that he has no Olsen cousins).  So the pressure was on us to have a son, which we did, and then we past the pressure onto Jared to have a son which he and Cass took care of on the first try.  So the picture you see above are currently (the pressure is now on Graham) all of the Olsen men on that line of genealogy!!

My Sweet Hubby

Rob has been with Marlin Business Bank for over a year now and his job has involved alot more travel than he originally thought it would.  He has to go to New Jersey at least one week a month in addition to the other traveling he has for the Credit Research Foundation, D and B, and customer visits.  We calculated that he is probably gone from home a total of 4 months a year.  We are grateful that he has a great job that provides a good income for our family so I can stay home and be a full time Mom and TamTam.   We also have friends whose spouse travels each week for work so we are grateful that Rob is only gone four months a year and not more, but with that being said....we really don't like the time spent apart.

So this past April Rob planned a surprise (or it was suppose to be a surprise) trip to Hawaii for the two of us.  Hawaii is probably our most favorite place to go for rest and relaxation.  And that is exactly what we did...rested and relaxed!!

Rob did get up early in the morning to go take some sunrise photos...of course I stayed snugly in bed, asleep while he went!!

We woke up one morning and this is what we saw...beautiful blue skies with a gorgeous rainbow .... no place but Hawaii would you see that!!

We took walks along the beach....

 ...and of course we made time for a pineapple smoothie!

We went out to the North Shore to visit friends and also to have a slice of  Ted's delicious haupia pie.

You cannot go to the North Shore unless you stop at Matsumoto's for shave ice - kidney beans or no kidney beans (I prefer mine without the kidney beans)!!!!!!  We had a friend who went to Hawaii for the first time this past December and she thought you JUST went to the North Shore to see the big waves.  We had to educated her to the fact that the North Shore has alot of fun things to see and do, in addition to the big waves that roll in during the winter months.

Heavenly Father definitely blessed me to find and marry this wonderful man 33 years ago today - yes today is our anniversary - that is always trying to surprise me with wonderful trips, gives me tons of support in all the things I do and most of all he loves me unconditionally!  So what does my sexy husband have in store for our anniversary you ask......a trip to Paris, the Bahamas??  Well he is loading up the van and taking our whole little family to Park City for our annual Memorial Day weekend vacation of movie watching, good food, shopping, golfing, crying grandkids and wonderful conversation.  That is the most romantic gift he could ever give me!