Olmstead Family News

Pizza&Movie Night

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:01:00 +0000

The music choice was Sylvia's... she and Asher love Petula Clark,
especially Downtown. Anytime Petula Clark turns on,
Sylvia gets all excited and does her little "happy dance"!!

another Sunday.

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:51:00 +0000

On Sunday we went ice skating! The ice was rapidly melting - YAY!! Tovala is practicing to be in the Olympics ;) -not really

Talia, who apparently looks kind of like me- from what I have heard anyways... :D

this picture is actaully from a trip to Stillwater on Saturday to get ice cream cones...

Asher, living up to his name as always HAPPY!!!

Later in the day on Sunday, Hannah, Eli, Joel and I went for a hike... took a different hike than we have done before, it was a lot of fun.

It is nice to have the weather finally a little warmer!

Behn won't stop growing! He is also pretty good at the game Risk... As I type he is working hard to dominate the world! ;)

Happy March!!

abram

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:04:00 +0000

Dear Abram, several days ago as I was looking at pictures and digging through some old cards and some other things (that I will mention later)... I decided to tell you about some of my favorite things about you! The more I thought about all of the things I like about you the more I wanted to tell anyone that reads this blog about you too!

As I mentioned, I dug up a whole bunch of cards and notes that you had written for me.... letters that you hand wrote to me while you were in college!! As I remembered how busy you were while going to school and working, I was feeling kind of special having received such nice long emails and letters! You are very thoughtful!

Not only do you make me feel special, but some how you manage to let each one of us know that you are thinking about us and that you miss us!

Do you recognize these pages? I can still remember you helping teach me my ABCs and creating my first little math book. I have very fond memeories of my kindergarten year!

I felt like I should post this picture- you could almost be in the olympics! ;P

This day was a fun one! I got to spend much of this skiing day with just you... I don't remember where everyone else was, but I sure had fun!

You are so good at making special memories with each of us! I have so many great memories- from re-roofing the house with you a few summers back to spending time in VA with you last spring... to that walk we took around the Lake of the Dalles 2 summers back....going Christmas shopping with you way back(before you had a cell phone) you forgot your wallet... you took me out for chinese on one of the first breaks that you came home from school for... painting the upstairs ceilings while listening to David Meece lol.... the list goes on!

and those are just some of my favorite times you spent with me... I know that everyone else could come up with just as many great memories as I have!!

I love you Abram and hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Your Sister, Yetta ;)

Sunday afternoon.

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:29:00 +0000

After church today, it was such a beautiful afternoon... we were pretty unanimous about wanting to spend some time outside! So, we went on one of our favorite hikes... across the river above the Lions park. Sylvia was SO excited to see the swings and slides!

I have been trying to figure out what this face means... ;)

I don't think the slide worked too well... pretty sticky with the wet snow pants, but it didn't matter! A slide can always be fun!

I am thinking that Sylvia will have a lot of fun this summer at the park, judging by her excitement today in seeing the playground.

We had a great walk!!

-----

These are just a couple of photos I took of some of the playing that was happening in our little yard:

LOTs of snowball fights- all the time! One good rule to remember when you start a snowball fight is: be on Eli's team- he has really good aim and if he wants to hit you, he will. ;)

little bit of February.

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:31:00 +0000

Nathan, Abram and Aaron don't miss anything! These are our beautiful Valentines flowers! If you can't read the tag, they are "from Virginia and Germany" to all of us girls!

Thank you!! We love you all and miss you lots!

Sylvia does a good job of making everyone feel very loved! Just when I think I am so special because she came up to my room first thing in the morning to give me a "big bear hug", I find out that she has already/ or is on her way to visit almost everyone else in the house and give them a "big bear hug" too! I guess we are all special! ;)

Yesterday(Saturday) Dad and Mom took us all to the Landmark Building in St. Paul to a Scottish Festival. It was a fun outing!

Sylvia readily volunteered to help "play" the shakers! She had a lotof fun!

After being at the Scottish festival we did a little shopping... lol one might think that shopping as a family of 13 might be a little hard, but we had fun.

On Saturday we woke up to a world covered in frost, it was amazing!!

Our town on a beautiful Saturday morning...

Last week Hannah, Talia, a couple of dear friends and I went ice skating!! It was so fun- can't wait to do it again!

We went to a place that we haven't been before, it was beautiful!

and... a gorgeous day for skating!

a little family history

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:24:00 +0000

Recently a relative sent us my great, great Grandma Sarah Briggs' wedding dress, who was married to George Briggs on May 28, 1901.

Sarah Helena Matilda (Porth) Briggs died when she was 79 - in 1960.

Below are a few pictures of her wedding dress:

Thank you Amy, for sending this to us!

Saying good bye to January...

noreply@blogger.com (Becky) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:28:00 +0000

Today we enjoyed a nice quiet Sunday afternoon. A nap, ice skating, good food,

and a game of farkle.

My dear sweet daughter in law kindly got my computer all set up with her favorite menu blogs. They come to my home page every day. I had great plans of looking at them and gaining new ideas to feed the family

Well, I confess that I haven't spent much time on them, but the good news is that Yetta is really enjoying the blogs! She frequently asks if she can make dinner!! This makes me very happy needless to say. She made this fantastic tomato basil soup with tortellini.

So... Jennifer, thank you for your inspiration and thank you to Yetta for putting it into action.

Keep up the good work!

Last weekend we enjoyed a spur-of-the-moment-decision trip to head up to Big Sandy Camp with our church.

The weather was nice and mild. The family enjoyed broom ball, snowmen building, climbing, chapel, board games, volleyball, late nights, naps, and lots of visiting.

Vacation Days...

noreply@blogger.com (Becky) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:43:00 +0000

The Newest Bread Maker!

noreply@blogger.com (Becky) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:30:00 +0000

At 7 years old in the Olmstead house you become "of age." I am proud to announce our newest bread maker...Tovala Olmstead. She made her first batch of bread during Christmas vacation.
Thank you Tovala for your much appreciated help in the kitchen!

A Day Out With Behn and Asher

noreply@blogger.com (Becky) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:20:00 +0000

Mark and I enjoyed a wonderful day out with Behn and Asher. Nathan got to come along as a special guest and tour guide. We went to the Twin City Model Railroad Museum. We enjoyed the treasure hunt at the museum as we looked for a list of replica scenic items
throughout the museum. Before hand we had lunch at the"The Rail Station" in Mpls then a stop at Starbucks afterward for a little hot chocolate. Behn and Asher are a bundle of fun to be with. Thank you Nathan for helping to make the day a special one!

Ask, and You Shall Recieve ;)

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:04:00 +0000

There is a ceramics shop down the street where people can go and paint ceramic plates, vases and what not... I always thought it would be fun to go do it with some of the kids, but today while I was picking up some craft paper, I found these and thought that it would be fun to paint them!

Asher painted the tiger, Sylvia painted the hippo, Seth painted the lion, Behn painted the parot, Talia painted the Zebra and Tovala painted the elephant.

Seth and Talia were both good at adding lots of detail!

Tovala and Sylvia both had to find a place to add some pink paint on their hippos and elephants...

While painting, we were talking about each animal and Sylvia asked me if hippopotamuses go in water and I told her that, yes Hippos love the water... a little later Talia informed me that Sylvia was trying to put her Hippo in the sink, with water.... oops. (the little figurines are made out of clay and are not finished)

Why are all of the extra-FUN activities so messy?? I mean, what could be more exciting than sticking your feet in cold wet paint and then running up and down a long paper mat with pink, red, yellow, blue and purple- painted feet!

Sylvia LOVED it! She thought it was pretty fun that I let her stick her feet in the pink paint!

needless to say, we made quite the mess and it took a while to get our 10 feet cleaned off and then to get the bath tub cleaned out again too! ;)

A couple of nights ago some friends had us over to play broomball! The Olmstead team won!

I am convinced it was all of the extra help from Tovala, Asher and Sylvia!

It was a fun evening AND no one got hurt!

They had even built a little fire to warm up by!

Christmas and Family

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:57:00 +0000

This was taken the first day that everyone was home! Talk about a big group- what a great way to start a family visit!

Abram drove home with some of his "Virginia Family" who quickly became our "Virginia Family" too! It was such a pleasure to have them here for just over a week! They were a blessing to us all!

With all of the late nights this is how we found the little ones in the morning... their "waking" time doesn't seem to change no matter how late we stay up!

We are all very happy to have Nathan home from Germany!!

Sylvia LOVED to read stories with Mr. & Mrs. Hannah!

making some puppets with Mrs. Hannah...

We did lots of playing in the snow and went for several hikes!

Goofing off with the big brothers...

On Christmas Eve we did our family Christmas gift exchange.

Grandpa Neal and Grandma Judy came for Christmas Eve also and Mom made the traditional Swedish Meatballs and mashed potatoes. The boys did well too... Aaron, Eli, Joel and Noah each ate something like 23-26 meatballs out of the 175 total!

Christmas Day was a lot of fun like always! LOTs of food, family and fun!

We had our Happy Birthday Jesus party along with Christmas carols, scripture reading and message from Uncle Mike.

and thanks to Dad, Sylvia didn't miss her nap ;)

Abram, Hannah and Eli all practiced up on their violin and played a little for us! :D

We went ice skating, sledding, made snowmen, had snowball fights... and so on.

It was a great day to go Ice Skating...

We went for a hike and these crazy guys decided to test out how tough they were... Behn won... he did a snow angle w/o his shirt.

Sylvia loves her big brothers!!

another hike in the park...

I could post lots more pictures, but since I want to leave some room for imagination... ;)

We had a great family visit! It was hard to say good bye to Abram, Aaron, Jennifer, Mr& Mrs Hannah, but we feel very blessed to have been able to spend a whole week with them all! ...and we still get to have Nathan for a whole week longer!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:34:00 +0000

(click on photo to enlarge)

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had as wonderful a time as we did! Abram, Aaron and Jennifer, and Nathan were all home for Christmas, as well as some of our new "Virginia Family". It was great fun to have such a full house!

(I will post pictures from the past two weeks!) ;)

day 7.

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:26:00 +0000

Dad and Mom,

ok... we miss you. I think we are all ready for you to come home! We had a good day- since nobody had to leave first thing for work, we slept in...Behn, Tovala, Asher, Sylvia and I came down, sat by the fire and watched Frosty the Snowman until everyone else got up (other than Hannah, who still doesn't know how to sleep in). Then Behn made potato pancakes (with a little help).

I had a meeting to go to, but Hannah made Christmas cookies with everyone!!

They made spritz cookies, Russian tea cookies, ginger snaps, and lemon sugar cookies.

When I got home they were still in the thick of several batches of cookies!!

This is when you guys called today, I think Sylvia liked talking to you over the speaker phone!

Sylvia and I weren't being much help, so we decided to run and get milk....

when we got back all the kids were sledding, so Hannah and I cleaned up the kitchen - then everyone came in and we had milk and cookies!!

:D we had a fun time!! Being quite tired of the kitchen, Hannah and I went for a walk and left Joel in charge of deciding what was for dinner... 15 minutes later we got back and he had ordered pizza. To tell you the truth, we were both very happy! NO MESS!!! ;) Thanks Joel and Eli!!

Now we are sitting in the livingroom, about to watch Miracle on 34th Street... then, I am not sure, but I think we are going to play hide and seek in the dark!

Drive safely! We can't wait to see you tomorrow! Love you!

day 6.

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:56:00 +0000

Mom and Dad,

We enjoyed talking to you today! We had a pretty relaxing day... this afternoon most of the kids played outside in the snow for a while, working on their snow forts:

It being a little warmer today, made it easier for them to stay out longer...

They ran out of snow on the patio and now are hauling snow from the back yard and anywhere they can find it!

After Sylvia's nap, she put on her tutu. She and Tovala were having fun playing dress ups and blocks... they were pretty fun to watch!! (btw, this doesn't take any posing... I took a dozen photos just this cute)

It was another great day, but we miss you!

day 5.

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:14:00 +0000

Dad and Mom,

Thank you for the post!! It is fun to see what you have been up to! Today several of us went shopping. Joel, Seth, Talia, Behn, Tovala and I still had a little Christmas shopping to do, so we went to Stillwater. It was fun! Thank you Grandpa & Grandma for letting us stop in to say hi! It was good to see you both!

This evening Tovala, Asher, Sylvia and I played a game of dominos!

They are pretty good at matching up the dominos with eachother and making fun designs! :D After our game, they went to bed and the rest of us played nertz and then boggle! It was a good game night!

Love you guys! Hope you enjoy the second half of the Newseum tomorrow!

day 4.

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:50:00 +0000

Dad and Mom,

Yesterday, was a great day! Hannah and Eli went to work. I cleaned in the morning (not our house). When I got home, Joel had made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - with one hand. ;) The afternoon was spent doing school and the kids did go outside despite the ridiculously cold Dec. weather!

Noah made the gingerbread house with everyone! I think they had fun! :D

A Day in D.C.

noreply@blogger.com (Becky) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:04:00 +0000

Abram gave us a tour of the Chamber of Commerce.

It was nice to meet many of the people that he works with.

Aaron recommended that we go see the Newseum. What a lot to see!

We only got through half of it. I think we will head back tomorrow to see the rest.

What a view from the top floor!

These are the front pages from newspapers all over the world.

It is a museum worth spending some time at.

Thank you for the recommendation Aaron!

Highlights from Virginia

noreply@blogger.com (Becky) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:20:00 +0000

I thought all of you at home might like seeing some pictures of the rest of the family.

We have enjoyed being at Aaron and Jennifer's home very much! Jennifer is a fantastic cook and has created one wonderful meal after another!

They make a wonderful home together, with a warm fire in the fireplace and all.

(Thank you Aaron)

I think they are a happy couple!

day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:36:00 +0000

Dear Dad and Mom,

Today was a good day! We work up and had oatmeal for breakfast. Then Hannah and Eli went to work. We started school and then the kids sent out to shovel the fresh snow from the drive way!

Joel is being good. ;) Being a one handed guy, he has a tendency to drop his computer. :P

Tovala and I worked on her Addition. She is doing a great job!

Eli made venison stroganoff and mashed potatoes for dinner... and then we made snowmen for desert- they didn't turn out quite right, but it was fun anyways!

(photo by Hannah)

After dinner, Sylvia and Tovala folded some laundry, Hannah read stories to the little ones and then they went to bed.

Hope you guys had a good day! We love you!

P.S. We all got your hug, Thanks! :)

day 2, we miss you...

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:01:00 +0000

Dear Dad and Mom, We had a good day. Hannah made breakfast of waffles, eggs and bacon, with the help of everyone here... and I did nursery with Seth. Church was great, I think that Talia and Behn took notes for you. ;) We came home from church, the boys watched the football game, I put Sylvia down for a nap- she wanted to sleep on your bed "Because, Momma lets her sleep on Momma's bed on Sundays". Then after we finished quiet time we packed up some food and dressed up nice and warm and went out into the cooooollllddd.

We made a fire in the cabin and cooked the egg rolls that you got for us over the fire and had hot rice too.

We played around for a while, sledding, climbing, walking....

and then eating some more egg rolls... and Joel brought his ipod and little speaker and we listened to Christmas music, while trying to keep warm by the fire.

We had a fun time!

While we were gone Sylvia asked if when we got home, if we could watch a princess movie.... So, we got back and cuddled up on the couch and watched Enchanted. She was happy: "This is the movie that I wanted to watch!".

We enjoyed talking to you all over the webcam!! We all agreed that we can't wait until you guys are all home! All the youngest kids are in bed; Eli and Behn are playing ping pong; Talia is making cards and Hannah is back to school.

Hope you enjoyed your evening!! Love you lots!

day 1, and still alive... ;)

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:12:00 +0000

Dear Dad and Mom, just have to let you know that the little ones are in bed. They got their baths and we didn't forget to feed them dinner. ;) Hannah made me breakfast this morning before I left... it was a good day! I got home safely, and Hannah had made some very tasty soup and Tovala made biscuits. Since I was gone all day, I didn't get to take pictures of anything else that happened, but I did hear that Joel took them all sledding - although Sylvia got to go sledding too, she is mostly excited to go sledding with Nathan and will tell everyone about it!

I read Thunder Cake to Tovala, Asher and Sylvia and sent them into brush their teeth... this is how I found them, when I came in to help.

They were tucked in with love, however Sylvia told me that she missed Mommy and Daddy...

Of course they made sure that we turned on music and left the "door open just a little bit".

We love you and hope that you enjoy the evening with Nathan, Abram, Aaron and Jennifer.... there is a chance a few of us may be a little jealous! ;) Good night!

Oh Christmas Tree

noreply@blogger.com (Talia) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:50:00 +0000

This year we went to a different place to get our Christmas

tree. The temperature was ten degrees and very cold!!

In the barn there were stairs that went all the way to

the roof where there was a little dwarf house!!

And outside there was an amazing playground maze!!

When we got back we drank hot apple cider, decorated

our Christmas tree, had pizza, and watched a movie.

sometimes you just have to jump

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:08:00 +0000

click on the photo to view larger

thanksgiving | family | food | fun | colin

noreply@blogger.com (Yetta) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:40:00 +0000

Thanksgiving weekend has been great!! We really had a fun time. Everything from bowling, to coffee, to hikes in the park, late night games of cards, Stillwater, movies, lots of food and family... We also had a friend, Christie, come up for a couple days!

we have a lot to be thankful for!!

Colin came up for the weekend, which was great!

Yesterday some of us spent the afternoon exploring down by the river...

climbing on the VERY tall train bridge, running through a VERY wet/muddy marsh, where most of us ended up with mud splattered all over us... unintentionally playing hide and seek with Hannah and Christie... LOTS of fun!

We ended in Stillwater- went to Dairy Queen - since Starbucks is no longer.... :(

it was a fun day!

THANKSGIVING:

Last week Seth and Talia were in charge at home- this is what they did with the little ppls.... they are such good big(and little) brothers and sisters!!

Preparing the potatoes for Thanksgiving- only 20lbs.

Liesel became fast friends with Sylvia when she offered to paint her nails... Sylvia is ALL girl- she loves pink, and anything girly! I am very sad, becuase she told me that she isn't a baby anymore... I am not sure if this is going to be ok with me. She is the baby and looks like she will always be... ;)

These are a couple of amazing apple pies that Hannah made to bring to work... she made some good brownie (or should I say pie) points with her co-workers!

Thanksgiving was great! We had a very fun day. It began with 150 Swiss butter horns and orange juice and lots of family!! Then on Friday Uncle Matt and Aunt Rutie and fam came up for Thanksgiving leftovers- which we decided were possibly even better than the actual Thanksgiving day meal, because the only work that was involved was heating them up!!

Colin, thanks for coming up!! We really enjoyed having you!