The Jungle Book

Here is the opening scene of Griff in the Jungle Book.  He did such a great job!

Juan's new job!

I've been meaning to post on here more detail with Juan's job. He was in a great spot at Dell and not exactly loving it, but working with good people and great hours. He also was working for turbo tax in the evenings as a second job to build up his resume in tax and get some extra income, which he also did last year but that was for the IRS. Also starting last year, Juan decided to study for an exam called the EA which is basically the tax side of the CPA exam. He went into Austin and took 3 parts, and passed 1 week before accepting this new job.

So Juan always keeps his eyes out for job listings, but there was no urgency since he was pretty content at Dell. Then this job came through. It is for a small business here in Austin called Fourlane (they just changed their name from Adam's Quick Books). They do business consulting and mostly quickbooks training. Marjorie is the CEO and has had articles in Forbes, is listed on the Intuit (Turbo Tax, Quickbooks company) website as a leading consultant, and they have over 5,000 clients-mostly small business, some enterprise. Her clients have been asking about tax and that is where Juan comes in. She hired Juan to head up the tax branch of the company! They have a sales team and a marketing team. He has a bio in the works to be published in small publications to get his name out there, he has been asked to write a 900 word article on Fraud for Intuit's website. He is a grown up people! Haha, really Juan and I sometimes laugh, this job is big stuff. He has been working this new job for 2 weeks and they have ironed out all the processes, forms, web pages, all the details of how it is going to work. With his EA certification, he is authorized to defend clients in front of the IRS as well as filing taxes for all sizes of businesses. When this job came up it all just made sense, his second jobs over the last two years, this certification he sought out and studied hard for. I am so proud of Juan. It wasn't an easy decision taking this position because they do not quite pay as well as Dell, but they do pay 100% medical insurance premiums so it is going to pretty much even out. I do not understand how people make job change decisions that also involve a move, because we were a wreck over this decision. The best part is after the decision was made, it felt so right and we wondered why we ever went back and forth on it.

Juan works completely from home which is so wonderful. Everyone in the company works remote but they are mostly in Austin. Juan will go to conferences and will meet with clients outside of Austin from time to time, but the CEO urges that he keeps travel minimal and takes great pride in the business being a remote business. I cannot say how helpful this is for me and having young kids. The girls and I go on errands while Oscar is at home napping and I look forward to summer days at the pool without a 1 year old. Of course I will only leave him with Juan during naptime, but that break alone makes all the difference.

We are feeling blessed and grateful. I am so proud of Juan, he is always looking for further education and I remember kind of being like, EA? ok, sure, whatever you want to do. But he knew what he was doing people. Haha you can tell I am not a career woman.

 Galveston pics!

 Amber and I sculpted this mermaid and then had a hilarious time trying to pose by it for a picture. We are looking like shorties in this one.

 Juan with a chain of kiddos.

 Bluebonnet photos.

 Taken by my dear friend Kasee.

 Amelia loves bugs.

 My 5k on Saturday! My pace was 10:36 and I didn't once stop and walk. I got so close but I would not let myself walk!

 From the poppy festival Saturday. Amber's kids and her mom with me and Maya.

Juan's mustache is now gone!

Griff's Musical

Here's the info for Griff's Musical this week!

A Night in the Secret Garden

 On April 18, 2015 I had the most magical night of my entire life! This night I spent a night in a secret garden with my best friend: the most amazing guy ever!! Conner took me to PROM!! As a group, Conner, Evan, Rylee, and I spent the entire evening together. Before prom, we all got together for pictures at a cute little park in my town oval. After pictures, we rode in the "limo" (Conner's car) filled with balloons, streamers, and aligned with Christmas lights! We went to Cold Stone and got ice cream! As we walked in, the workers were freaking out about how adorable we were and told us they were almost tempted to give us free ice cream!! Afterwards, we went to the PROM! IT WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I HAVE EVER SEEN! To start off, the entrance looks like a passageway through a stone wall. Once you enter, the gym has a chandelier of lights and suspended from the chandelier were fabrics draped across the entire ceiling! There was a fountain with juice pouring out of it, tables and chairs coated in white cloth and decked out with embellishments and center pieces, white columns coated in lights and vines, and the whole gym was lit up from Christmas lights. It was breathless! And what a better way to experience this prom then with such an amazing guy! Before the dance, a buffet dinner was provided. After we ate and captured some photos in the photo booth, we danced! We did so many dances together like swing dancing, line dancing, Bollywood dancing, interpretive dancing, waltzing, and chacha and salsa dancing. It was so much fun!!! The entire night to sum it up was: magical! Honestly straight out of a fairytale book!! I would not have been able to experience anything like it without Conner! To top it off, we stopped by Burger King to get the famous chicken fries and had a little fun dancing to no music in the Milford town oval while waiting for Rylee's ride. I don't anything can top this night!

My mommy and I!

The corsage is BEAUTIFUL!

I never actually figured out how to put on the boutonniere.

Conner and I

I love this girl to death!

Great Family Videos

Hello family!  I have been typing up these family stories all day so I thought I'd post the videos on here cause they are a lot of fun to listen to.  On Easter Sunday I had everyone tell family stories for my Folk Lore class assignment.  I need 10 stories to type up and send in to the official Utah State University archives.  Everyone signed release forms and I'll send these stories in for others to enjoy.  There's some great stuff here!  I love our family!

New Shelves Finished

Before...notice no shelf on either side of stove and chords coming down from TV.

After...granite slab on the ledge on both sides of stove to make a functional shelf.

No longer any chords coming from the TV. Kevin built a shelving system off the side to put all of our components on and ran the chords up through the ceiling. It looks so nice. I love it!

Lots of fun projects going on. Ultimate spring cleaning going on at the Olsen home. Yay!

March Madness For Sure

Brooke and her comp have become really good friends.

Went on a school ski trip with some of my favorite people. Brookie, RJay, Bhaba and Zack...some of the kids I work with at school.

Carley, Zack and I spying on Nat from the car as she talks to her "friend" Conner. ;)

We finally got to see our driveway for the first time since November. 

Nat and I dressing up for Hawaiian day at school.

Zack driving us all FOR THE FIRST TIME!

Carley teaching us about the foundation of the church and how to be good missionaries for FHE.

Even though Brooke did not get our Christmas gift she got her 20 gift for her birthday! Thank goodness!

For St. Patty's day the kids eat lucky charms with green milk (simple) and I put together a little treasure hunt around the house to find a pot of "gold". Traditions since they were little...cannot stop now.

Highlight of the month! Nat's play...she makes me smile.

3 more inches a couple of weeks ago...AHH!

Sisterly love! Nat's biggest fan.

Friend support galore!

Seriously I cannot say enough about this month. It seems to have gone by so slow (because of the extreme cold and lots of snow) but yet sooooo fast. I love our crazy busy life. I used to be so on top of things with keeping my house so clean, and now that the kids and all of us are so busy it seems to have gone to pot, but I guess there are seasons and this is the season of teenagers and craziness. I love supporting all their many things, but I also LOvE just being together in our home and just hanging. Life is so great! My kids are so much fun right now. Zack is beginning to get it with respecting our rules and being a contributor to our family, Natalie is just getting through school, she is number 5 and takes that very seriously, Carley is becoming sassy and continues to be fun. Kevin and I rarely see each other, but seem to make it work. It is truly madness here, but the good kind and we love it! On to April. We are seeing signs of spring. Yay! We love you all.