laugh.

the most important thing that i learned this week was to laugh at myself. it has been a stressful week, to say the least. after an exceptionally difficult day, mike showed me a picture he took of me while i was sleeping and said, "sweetheart, laugh at yourself. just laugh." that was saturday and since then we have just laughed. at everything. may i suggest if you find yourself in a tough position find something to laugh at [search talking animals on youtube...your side will be in so much pain. good pain :)]
here are a few things we have laughed at this week...

happy new year!

family and friends, happy new year! we have never been much for living it up on new years eve so we spent the last hours of 2009 watching episodes of glee. we actually missed ringing in the new year because we were so into what was going on with the glee club :) any way, we thought as our first blog of 2010, mike and i would share our favorite moments of 2009.

[january] i started playing my cello again.

[february] we celebrated having winston for one year.

[march] i discovered my love for baking. i think this is more mike's favorite moment rather than mine!

[april] we celebrated pippin's first year with us. mike's birthday dinner with mom and dad olson at joe's crab shack. we miss them. and joe's crab shack...

[may] kris allen was crowned the american idol.

[june] after 10 years of waiting, i finally got a jetta (thank you kirsten!). we traveled to emmett with the robinsons to pick pounds and pounds of cherries!

[july] as strange as it sounds, mike losing his job with verizon. it was a blessing in disguise that took 5 months to understand.

[august] we finally took our honeymoon to cannon beach! 3 days of gardening with grandma and grandpa jenkins. spending one full week with little hallie, jodie and clay.

[september] we sang-along at the jason mraz concert. the move out of the shannon glen apartments was amazing and much needed. i found a new job. before mike did :)

[october] mike and i celebrated our one year wedding anniversary...in one foot of snow. we moved into our beautiful townhome in beautiful bend.

[november] we were very impressed with the twilight saga: new moon. so worth the wait!

[december] mike lost 30 pounds this year, and i lost 40. according to mike, we lost a 5th grader. we started our own holiday traditions. my wedding ring was recovered by the bend city police after three weeks.

we are very much looking forward to the next 12 months and as most people we made a new years resolution. but our resolution is awesome...this year the popplewells are going to go on an adventure. <3

ho ho ho!

we hope everyone had a wonderful christmas! our christmas was amazing. i really didn't expect it to go so well considering how homesick i was...and how olson-sick mike was :) thank you everyone for our gifts and cards you sent, it was so exciting to see family pictures and family updates. mike and i had a lot of fun taking pictures. here are just a few of our favorites!
jodie, clay and hallie mae, as you can see, we love the blanket! it was the first thing we opened. it is so soft and SOOOOO big...the perfect cuddle blanket! <3

ahhh...the scent of mexican vanilla! yummy! we knew this would be a present, and when we got mom and dad olson's package we almost opened the vanilla so i could start baking with it right away. but we were patient! however, i immediatly used it for french toast and vandi hansen's vanilla syrup and boy did it make it taste so amazing! <3

after 2 months of mike dropping mad and crazy hints, he finally got his guy fieri cookbook [diners, drive-ins and dives]. and he was ever so happy. <3

kirsten we had so much fun trying to guess what is was from williams-sonoma you gave us. we were very pleasently suprised to find out exactly what was in that box. we love it! such a great gift idea and it will definatly be used! <3

okay, you all know us well which means you all know how much we love our animals. so christmas morning wasn't just about mike and me opening presents, it was about them opening presents as well. they didn't understand why they got all these new toys and chewies, they just knew they were going to have the time of their lives playing with everything. <3

i know how to drop hints too! ever since the release of dan brown's latest thriller on september 15th, i have done nothing but drop hints. all the time. i thought that maybe it would be an aniversary gift (don't get me wrong, i love my james bond) but noooooo. so when i opened that rectangular shaped gift at 6:30 am on christmas morning i was giggly and giddy, to say the least. this is mike's favorite picture from this christmas. <3

this year we had a great time hosting a gift exchange with some friends. we had such a blast, a ton of laughs and got an adorable picture out of it! <3

i love my husband, obviously. but this christmas i realized just how much i love him. he got me the glee soundtrack, volume one. jodie and kirsten, i'm sure, understand. i cried. and it has yet to leave the cd player. <3

as a stocking stuffer mike received bean boozled. as a joke. i really didn't think he, eric and kyle (our friends) would open the box and start popping them in their mouths. it was pretty funny though! <3and so family and friends we leave with this. we love you, we miss you, we can't wait to visit and spend time with you. the weather is cold, windy and snowy, but our hearts and home are warm with the love you all sent us this year. have a happy new year!

popplewell update!

happy holidays everybody! yes, we know it has almost been two months since an update, however, we do not have our own computer or the internet. So if you just live for our blogs a nice christmas present would be money so we can get the internet :) it's very expensive over here. any way, this is what we have been up to!

we have our very own christmas tree! for the first time! we bought it super early to ensure that we would at least have a tree. maybe no lights or ornaments, but at least a tree.

but we waited a few weeks, saved some money, and bought everything to decorate our beautiful christmas tree.

let me just say that we love our tree. look how pretty!

thanksgiving was, well, interesting. at least we got a cute picture out of it!

mike couldn't wait for the blessing to start sucking the turkey bones dry. maybe it was because he was so excited to get done with dinner so he could do this...

a member of our ward recently bought and fixed up an indoor sports complex. he invited everyone to play roller hockey thanksgiving evening. did you really think mike would turn that down?

We have been very busy with work and staying warm (it got down to -19 degrees last week!). we will try to update you all sooner than two months from now. but until then, we love you all and merry christmas!

WE HAVE A HOME!

we love our new home! i am very sorry it took so very long to put up pictures but they're here! yay! we were very lucky to have the missionaries help us move and even luckier to have pat rent us a uhaul so we could do it all in one trip!

the back yard is small, but the dogs are enjoying the fact that they can go in and out whenever they want. unfortunately though, they did learn some bad habits from dobby and gimli...:)

i couldn't capture how amazing out bedroom is. it has valted ceilings, its very own bathroom, a large ledge above the closet, a ceiling fan...ah its amazing.

our cabinets are huge! and there are so many! our fridge is extra wide also. in other words, we love our litchen!

the half-bathroom is downstairs. it's so cute. a HALF-BATH!

our living room looks kind of plain...only because it kind of is. we have been bargain hunting for coffee tables and rugs. but for right now, it's pretty stinking cumfy. it is home!

[not pictured: the stairs, 2nd bedroom, upstairs bathrooms, upstairs landing, and front exterior...but trust me...super cute as well!]

we are very happy with what we have and we wish everyone could see it in person. pictures will just have to do for now. au revoir <3

WE MADE IT ONE YEAR!

woo hoo! we made it one year! and what did we wake up to? 6 inches of snow. yesterday there was snow on the ground but today was absolutely terrible. so for an aniversary gift trish and gary got us winter coats! we are now ready for winter! also, i learned today that flats do not work in the snow. so i had to find some boots that fit my fat feet! other than the horrific weather we had today, our aniversary was fabulous. we had dinner at boston's last night and then went to see the invention of lying [it was hilarious!]. we then exchanged presents in front of the fire and i was especially impressed that mike was able to find a gift for me. volume one of the james bond movies! he couldnt go wrong. i am, after all, dennis olson's daughter! mike recieved a very fashionable shirt. very fashionable. :)

we were reading conference from yesterday (we were not able to watch it here) and read about the 5 new temples president monson announced. mike and i got talking about how great it would be to attend a temple dedication and we decided that brigham city sounds do-able! and then were started wondering why brigham city didnt already have a temple...
the dogs are loving the snow thankfully! pippin will watch the flakes fall from the sky and then try to attack them once they hit the ground. winston on the other hand rolls, digs, burrows, and flings the snow everywhere. but after a long day of playing outisde the boys still love to sit in front of the fire.

SNOW?!

it's october 3rd...there is snow on the ground...we do not have coats...i do not like this one bit. although bend is really pretty right now it is freezing, wet, and apparently it will only get colder. on a lighter note, our one year aniversary is TOMORROW! its so strange to think of how much we both have grown up this past year. we are still growing and learning from our mistakes and it is still so suprising that we both now have the will power to say no to the things we want. and i'm super proud of myself that none of my first paycheck was spent at the gap!

we are patiently waiting for when we will have a place of our own. and i am very excited to see what our new ward will be like and what life-long friends we will make there. we have a lot of money we need to save up before we can do that and unfortunatelyit will take a long time, but i am trying to take this time to hang out with mike's family and learn more about them. we love everyone very much and yes, i am still home sick. but we have eachother and our animals, and we know everyone is only a phone call away!