Mr. and Mrs.

Christmas and the New Year!

2012-01-18T15:06:00.011-09:00

February 15th, 2012

I'm slow at getting this post up but Christmas was lots of fun for us. This year we stayed here in Provo and spent the holidays with Ryan's family. Christmas Eve we played games, had a white elephant gift exchange, watched old home videos, and watched their traditional Disney Christmas video. Chelle read the nativity story with Sienna's help and had pictures of it all on a felt board. Sienna was so cute and knew the story so well.

Christmas morning we woke up early and opened our presents. Ryan got me lots of stuff for my camera, including this camera bag!

All the present opening was too much for Brickly.

Jax didn't seem to have a clue what was going on but he seemed to enjoy himself.

After presents we had a delicious breakfast and then quickly got ready for church. The whole family decided to go to Ryan's and my ward because we convinced them about how cool the bells on our buildings organ is. It's one of those really old organs that they don't put in churches anymore and it is beautiful. Our ward organist as absolutely amazing at playing it. She adds things and does awesome key changes and just makes you want to sing loud. The neatest thing about the organ is there is a golden star at the top near the ceiling and when she pushes some button the star starts to spin which makes the bells start to ring. December is our favorite because she seems to play the bells most often with Christmas songs. Christmas morning we were not disappointed, we got to hear them not once but twice! Everyone loved them.

4 Months Old!

2011-12-15T13:57:00.005-09:00

December 15th, 2011

Jaxton turned four months old a week ago. We just love him to death! He's rolled over from tummy to back several times but hasn't done it in about 4 weeks. He's rolled over from back to tummy twice but hasn't done it again in about a week. He's learning how to use his hands a lot better. Just recently he has started to see his toys, want them, and actually pick them up. Anything and everything in his hands ends up right in his mouth. He's our drooly little man. He smiles all the time, loves to talk to anyone who will listen and has the cutest little squeals!

Height: 25 1/8th inches, 50%

Weight: 13 lbs 2 oz, 10-25%

Head: 41.6 cm, 25-50%

Life in November

2011-12-13T14:43:00.008-09:00

November was definitely a more calm and relaxed month. We had the opportunity to visit my sister Mabry and her sweet little baby Luke in the Primary Children's Hospital several times. He was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and had to have heart surgery at the very young age of one week old.

Here is cute Jax in his Bumbo

I love how round his face is.

We spent Thanksgiving at Ryan's Aunt and Uncle's house in Logan, Utah. We had a great time there with lots of family and of course enjoyed delicious food! We were able to take a 4 generation Ossmen picture. Look at those good looking guys.

Oh yeah and I kind of have purplish hair for now. Just wanted to try it...

Exciting October

2011-12-12T07:18:00.021-09:00

October was tons of fun for us. The main highlights included Jaxton getting blessed, our trip to Seattle, and our awesome Halloween Party!

We forgot to have someone take our family pictures when Jax was blessed. But here is our attempt at a timed self family photo. And a special thanks to all our friends and family who came to support us.

Jaxton and Daddy

We had so much fun in Seattle visiting Janna, Spencer, their kids, and Marybeth. We always love to be with family and it was fun to get out of Utah for awhile too.

We had way too much fun at the park, especially on all those dizzy spiny toys!

Our Halloween party turned out to be pretty fun! Lots of great costumes and of course yummy food.

The oh so cute fire fighting family

The Birds and the Bees

The Mr. Potato Head Family

Angry Birds

Grease Lightning

One Hundred and one Dalmatians (or three dalmatians and a black lab who we tried to spray paint white dots onto but she would not hold still enough for us to make them show up).

And last but not least, the SpOoKtAcUlAr desserts!

My worms took 2nd place. Aren't they just disgusting looking?!

September Happenings

2011-12-10T08:53:00.011-09:00

I'm not a very consistent blogger so I've missed several months. So I'm going to go back month by month to update the things in our life.

First of all September. Our little Jax turned one month old and we were definitely still getting used to being new parents. On September 13th he smiled for the first time for me and not just randomly. Luckily I had the camera right there so I took this cute picture.

With fall coming we had the most beautiful colors here in Provo. One afternoon we decided to enjoy those colors in Provo Canyon and take a walk to Stewart Falls. Jax did great in our carrier until we started hiking out. He had a poopy diaper and a very hungry tummy. But we did get to take our first family pictures with all of us including Brickly.

The hike up.

The colors were so amazing!

Poor baby, we had to change his diaper on a rock, and as you can see it took three of us to do it.

The hike back, finally happy with Dad and a bottle.

We grew an awesome garden this summer...well I should say Ryan grew an awesome garden, although I did water it once in awhile... Anyways check out how HUGE our carrots got!

Jaxton's Photo Shoot

2011-09-13T17:22:00.017-08:00

August 12th, 2011

Chelle and I decided to do a little photo shoot with Jaxton. He was only 5 days old and a perfect little model. Here are just a few of the pictures. Some of these pictures Chelle took and some of them I took. Please tell me what you think. I'm still very new at this photography stuff. Chelle has been a great teacher though.

He's Here!!!!

2011-09-13T15:40:00.011-08:00

It was Sunday August 7th. I was 41 weeks pregnant and ready to have this baby. Our bags were packed and our car seat was ready. Babysitting arrangements were all prepared for Brickly. At 3:30 pm we finally received the phone call we had been waiting for from the hospital. "Can you guys make it here by 4?" You bet we could, we had been ready for this moment for weeks.

After we got to the hospital my nurse explained that because I was only dilated to a 1, if they gave me pitocin right away I would most likely end up having a c-section. So the doctor wanted to first insert a tablet that would soften my cervix before giving me the pitocin. They were planning on doing the tablet three times, four hours apart and then after that they would start the pitocin around 5 am the next morning. Well right after they inserted the first tablet at 5 pm I started having very regular contractions that got progressively stronger and more painful.

After a little while the baby's heart rate started dropping very low which got all of us worried. The nurse said if his heart rate didn't stabilize then they would have to do an emergency c-section. Luckily his heart rate did eventually stabilize. They checked me again and said that I had progressed to 4 cm. At this point I was in a lot of pain with each contraction. They said because I had progressed so much I would not need any of the other doses of the tablets or the pitocin. Things were going a lot faster than expected.

By 11:30 pm I finally asked for the epidural which made the whole labor process a lot more enjoyable. Right after getting the epidural the nurse checked my progress again and surprised us all when she said I had already dilated to a 10 and was ready to push.

The epidural was so strong that I couldn't even feel my contractions to know when to push. So the nurse had Ryan tell me when they were and had him count during each contraction. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire was on tv and in between pushing I would answer the questions. I was surprised by how great and pain free I felt. After pushing for only about 40 minutes the doctor came in and about 10 minutes later Jaxton Lathen Ossmen entered this world.

Jaxton Lathen Ossmen

Born August 8th, 2011 at 1:16 am

6 lbs 13 oz, 19 inches

This is right after we got home and the first time Brickly met Jax

Kind of like Christmas...but with no presents

2011-08-01T16:17:00.006-08:00

I once heard a friend of mine describe her due date that way, Christmas with no presents, after it passed and she hadn’t had her baby. Well that’s pretty much how it feels. Yesterday, July 31st was the day we had been looking forward to, the day our baby was due to arrive. Here we are August 1st and still no sign of him.

Well I’ve had many unsuccessful attempts at trying to put a collage of weekly pregnancy photos on here, so for now I guess I will not post that. But I will post a few pictures to show the baby bump progresses.

Week 12

Week 20

Week 30

Week 40

Seattle Reunion!

2011-06-02T18:28:00.004-08:00

Over Memorial weekend all of us Lathen sisters and our parents were able to go to Seattle and spend the weekend enjoying great weather, great food, and great company. It was the first time that I can remember that we all got together without husbands or kids (with the exception of one cute little nephew who is too young to not be with his mom).

Six Sisters - two pregnant

These are my wonderful parents

This is a disgusting yet cool wall near Pike's Market that is completely covered with gum.

Here is a beautiful view of the city and me with my parents

I GOT CRAFTY

2011-03-09T11:17:00.005-09:00

One day I was bored so I started looking at random blogs and I came across some crafting blogs. Then I got in this really really crafty mood. I told Ryan I wanted to go to the DI that night and get some "supplies". Then we went to the new and amazing Hobby Lobby and got some other supplies needed. So far I've only finished two of my several projects but it's been awhile since I've posted on our blog so I decided to show what I have done.

Project number 1...

We found this lovely gold frame with these incredible tigers at the DI. I then painted the frame black, covered the back cardboard with cute yellow fabric. We then drew all the lines for the calendar that we wanted on the backside of the glass with permanent marker. When you put it all together it's the perfect erasable white board and calendar.

Here is the finished project!

Project number 2...

We have a shelf that is covered with mail and bills and other paper things that don't really have a place. So when I saw an idea to make a cute bill holder I thought it would be just perfect for us. We found this frame with the back board at the DI and I new it would be just perfect. I again painted the frame black to match. Then after buying a few cute fabrics at Hobby Lobby and a lot of measuring, cutting and gluing, it actually turned out and works wonders.

Don't you love it? The back board didn't cover the entire frame so we left a small gap at the top and we are planning on adding small pegs where we can hang our keys and things.

Tis the Season!

2010-12-10T09:59:00.006-09:00

This year we decided to go out and cut our Christmas tree down. After hiking and hiking we finally found the perfect fat and fluffy tree.

Ryan's brother Brandon came with us. Bricky was having so much fun running around in the snow that Ryan had to hold her to make her be in the picture with us.

She had so much fun jumping as high as she could to catch the snowballs we would throw at her.

Sawing away..

Success!

For some reason as we were hiking and hiking looking for the perfect tree we didn't realize that we would have to hike that perfect tree back out with us.

After taking turns hauling the tree we eventually made it back to the car where we tied it on and headed home.

I love how fat and fluffy it is!

Family Photos!

2010-11-17T09:38:00.004-09:00

This was our attempt at timer self photos...

It's hard getting a little puppy to cooperate. Unfortunately the one the "turned out" the best, our smiles don't look as real. Oh well, it was fun anyway.

And this one is just of Brickly and me because she's just so cute!

In love and flowerless

2010-09-01T13:47:00.003-08:00

The other day at work my co-worker's ex fiance came in and brought her a dozen dark red, beautiful, long stem roses. She was less than thrilled by the sight of them. I on the other hand was slightly jealous. Well a little later in the day a patient came up to her and their conversation sounded something like this:

Patient: Those roses are beautiful! What's the special occasion?

Co-worker: There isn't one.

Patient: Well the only time my husband gives me flowers is when he is being a jerk and he's trying to make it up to me.

Co-worker: Yeah that's pretty much what these are for too.

Right then it hit me. That's why I never get flowers (besides the obvious Valentine's Day and anniversary) it's because Ryan is never a jerk and therefore never has to "make it up to me." After overhearing that conversation I just couldn't stop smiling because I realised how truly Lucky I am to have Ryan and how lucky I am to not get flowers.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!!!!

2010-07-20T11:59:00.009-08:00

Ryan and I decided to throw ourselves a combined birthday party since our birthdays are only 12 days apart.

We had it all planned out perfectly with food, games and location in a beautiful park by our house. And then that morning we woke up to several inches of snow and still coming down hard. That's what we get for living in crazy weather Utah where snowing at the end of May is a possibility. So after some last minute changes and arrangements we didn't reschedule but just changed locations to a church which ended up working very nicely.

My days of working at the ropes course paid off after we all played some fun, active, crazy group games. We also adapted some Minute to Win It games into a group relay game.

1st Place...Kings (Queen) for a day!

2nd Place...Looking pretty with their necklaces because they were "pretty" close.

3rd Place...Straws because we "suck"

4th Place...Last but not least - wearing shower caps because they "Stink!" (Also included but not pictured are Mike and Tiffany).

We also made our own Birthday Cake because I had found a recipe for a beautiful 11 layer cake that I had been wanting to try. We only ended up with 9 layers but it turned out quite delicious and pretty awesome looking.

San Diego

2010-07-13T12:04:00.010-08:00

Marybeth, Ryan and I drove the 11 hours from Provo, Utah to San Diego, California for Luke and Brooke's wedding. We made some fun stops on the way though. First was to sit on the famous extra large chair at the Beaver Valley Chevron.

Once we got to San Diego we met up with Mama and Papa and after eating some delicious fish tacos we went to Mission Beach and walked around.

The wedding was beautiful. I just love the San Diego Temple.

Even Kenny made it :)

It was a beautiful day but unfortunately the temple was being cleaned and was covered with scaffolding.

OUR NEW ADDITION!!!

2010-05-18T13:06:00.013-08:00

We have a new addition to our little family! No we aren't pregnant... but we did get an adorable puppy! We named her Brickly. She is a black lab and we got her about a month ago at six weeks old. Those first few days and especially nights we felt like bran new parents. We took turns waking up with her about every hour and a half through the nights to take her outside to go to the bathroom. When we would have to leave her she would just cry and cry. During the day we pretty much had to follow her everywhere and try to predict when she needed to go to the bathroom. We downed almost a whole bottle of carpet cleaner.

This is Brickly on the very first day we got her. We can't believe how little she is there. She grows everyday.

Poor pup got fixed and had her dew claws removed hence the bandaged up paws and cone of shame.

Sometimes she looks more like a cute little bunny rabbit.

Daddy's little girl :)

Watching her try to run in the grass with her cone on was the cutest thing ever. The first few days the bottom of the cone would sometimes catch on the grass and she would end up face planting. Needless to say she was the brunt of many good laughs!

Snowmobiling!!

2010-03-20T08:19:00.009-08:00

Ryan and I went snowmobiling with some people from my work. The first time we went we went to Cascade and snowmobiled up a trail to a beautiful snow covered spring cascading down (Hence the name). We hit some pretty fun jumps too!

Here is the beautiful cascading spring.

And this is us hitting our sweet jumps!!! I only got bucked off once! :)

The second time we went, 11 of us went up Farview Canyon and stayed the night in an old kind of rustic cabin. The only way to get to the cabin in the winter is to snowmobile in. So we hauled all of our stuff in on sleds pulled by the snowmobiles. When we got there we had to dig out the pump and the shed with the generator which were both covered with several feet of snow. Inside there was no running water so we had to bring that in and boil it over the stove. With no running water that means the toilet didn't flush. Next to the toilet was a bucket of water that you had to poor down the toilet to flush it. You then had to go outside and refill the bucket. It was a great weekend!

In Loving Memory of Grandpa Lathen

2010-01-28T09:59:00.008-09:00

Wesley Waldo Lathen

August 16th, 1917 - January 23rd 2010

I have so many wonderful memories of Grandpa. Growing up I loved going to his home in Eugene, Oregon. The first thing I would see every time we arrived were his huge beautiful rose bushes that always seemed to be in bloom. In the back yard he had the most wonderful garden with the biggest, best tasting raspberries I have ever seen in my life. I remember climbing his cherry tree and eating so many my stomach hurt. My cousins, sisters and I would throw all the apples that had fallen off the tree over the fence to Blu his old horse. I've never met a horse who liked to eat bread as much as Blu did. I remember the time we found a wasps nest on Grandpa's wood shed. Watching the uncles and older cousins take care of it was the funniest thing. It looked like a whole SWAT team was called in to destroy it.

Inside Grandpa's house was just as great. His closet of toys never changed. They were so old yet I love them so much. I remember being so sad the day I came to Grandpa's house and that bowl of plastic fruit was gone. We never were without sugar. The kitchen cupboards held endless supplies of candy bars, licorice, and other goodies. The freezer always had ice cream and delicious berries to put on top. The cookie jar was always full although I know Grandpa didn't make them, it must have been one of the aunts. All of us kids would spend forever standing in front of his fridge organizing the collage of photos he had of all us grand kids. I would count every one's pictures to see if he had the most of me up.

I once gave Grandpa a ceramic piggy bank that was of an old Grandpa with glasses sitting in a comfy chair with his legs crossed. It made me feel so good every time I went to his house and I saw he had it sitting out in his living room. One Christmas Grandpa gave Marybeth and me two HUGE (well at the time they seemed huge) stuffed rabbits. Mine was brown and I named him Thumper. To this day I still have him and he is my very favorite childhood toy. I used to sleep with him anytime I was sad or scared and he would make me feel better.

We used to go on horse riding camping trips. When I was too young to ride my own horse I sat behind Grandpa on Blu. One time Blu got pretty upset and started bucking but I held on to Grandpa and I didn't fall off. Grandpa loved the trick where you bend some one's pinkie finger down then push in. It hurt every time yet somehow I still liked it when he did it to me. I can't even count how many times he called me a knuckle head :) Most of the time Grandpa seemed so content sitting quietly in some comfortable chair. But when you got him out on a golf course you would see the clubs flying out of his hands as fast as the swear words were coming out of his mouth. We all love to joke about that side of him.

I always love all the stories Papa and his brothers tell about him and my Grandma while growing up. Somehow they never get old. I wish I could have know Grandma. I'm happy Ryan was able to meet Grandpa even if it was only a couple of times. I'm sad he never got to see his house. But I guess to him it would just seem like any other old house, and without the memories connected with it, I suppose it is.

Having Grandpa there for Thanksgiving was great. I'm so happy I was able to see him, talk to him and hug him one last time. When I got the news that he had passed on I knew I would miss him dearly but I was happy for him. He was very ready. I know he is with his wonderful wife now and many other loved ones who have passed. He is happy and that makes me happy.

I love you Grandpa!

Tracy Arm

2009-09-04T21:44:00.002-08:00

A bunch of us from work all went on the Tracy Arm Tour. It was a 10 hour boat ride out to the Sawyer Glaciers. Those glaciers go right into the ocean. As the boat got closer and closer there were more and more icebergs. It was one of the most beautiful things we have seen. The glaciers are continuously calving or in other words breaking off all the time. Our boat was able to get pretty close to the smaller of the two glaciers and we watched several chunks break off and fall into the water. It was so loud we could only imagine how loud it would be when one of the really big chunks broke off. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of the larger chunks break. There were so many harbor seals lounging around on the icebergs. Seriously this was one of the coolest things we have done in Alaska.

Float Plane to Taku Lodge!!!

2009-09-04T20:58:00.002-08:00

There are a lot of tours here in Juneau and Ryan and I have done a lot of them. But the hardest one to get onto and most people agree the best tour is taking the float plane out to Taku Lodge. After several unsuccessful attempts we finally got to go on the tour!

The view from the plane was incredible. We saw the Taku Glacier, the East and West Glaciers, and the Hole in the Wall Glacier which is right across from the lodge. As we were flying out we even saw a couple of moose.

Heaven on Earth!

We took a short hike to a beautiful looking waterfall. The whole thing looked like those rock waterfall things that some people hang on their walls in their house.

Canoeing at the Mendenhall Glacier

2009-09-04T20:30:00.002-08:00

We found some canoes behind the church so one day we decided to tie one on top of our car and take it to the Mendenhall. We had a great time even though there were a few times we almost tipped and fell into the freezing glacier water.
We canoed out to two different waterfalls both of which were HUGE! Here is Ryan with one of the waterfalls.

Yep...I'm walking on water.

After going to the waterfalls we canoed across the lake in front of the glacier to the other side where we got our and hiked up a little ways looking for ice caves.

We found the sweetest cave ever! It was huge and so so blue. After we explored it for awhile the boys decided to light some bottle rockets into it to see how loud it would be. It sounded like gun shots they were so loud.

Whale Watching and Orca Point Lodge!

2009-09-04T12:38:00.004-08:00

We got on a whale watching tour and it turned out to be the best whale watch tour we have ever been on!!

The first part of the tour our boat took us to the Orca Point Lodge where we had a very delicious salmon lunch.
We saw tons of whales!

We were even lucky enough to be able to see the bubble net feeding which is where a group of whales work together to make a large circle of bubbles which traps the fish. They do that as they swim straight up and then all come out of the water at the same time with their mouths wide open. It is incredible to watch! It is very rare to see it because they only do it for a few weeks out of the year. Our boat ended up getting right in between two different groups of whales bubble feeding. At one point the boat turned on the sonar finder and we could hear the dominate female making the most eerie noises.

Unfortunately I cannot take credit for this photo. Brandon actually took this amazing shot. Ryan and my camera died just before we saw the orcas. But still this is the most incredible picture I have ever seen. There was actually a professional photographer on our same whale watching boat who ended up getting the exact picture. His picture turned up on the front page of the Juneau newspaper a few days later.

Here's all of us on the boat minus Mike.

Zip Lining

2009-09-04T11:41:00.006-08:00

Brandon came and visited us at the beginning of August. He stayed with us for two weeks and we did some pretty sweet things. One of the days we got on a zip line tour. There were about 9 different zips, almost 200 feet high at the highest point, and two suspension bridges. They said you could reach speeds up to 40 mph. We had a blast!

Rock Climbing!

2009-07-02T19:39:00.003-08:00

We got a memberships to 'The Rock Dump' the local rock climbing gym. We just bought some climbing shoes online and they came in the mail this week so we are pretty excited to try them out.

One weekend we went with some of our friends Out the Road to the sea cliffs. It was so cool. We got to climb outside on a beautiful sunny day. The rocks are right on the ocean so the view is absolutely amazing. We saw a couple of whales and a few sea lions as we climbed. Life can't get better than that!

The sun does shine in Juneau Alaska!!!

2009-07-02T07:06:00.002-08:00

One sunny day we went out to Twin Lakes and went kayaking with some of our friends. It was warm and sunshiny and such a nice change from the usual rainy days! We even got slightly sunburned :)

Sunsets in Juneau

2009-07-02T06:31:00.003-08:00

The sunsets in Juneau are always so amazing. The best part is that they last for hours!

Helicopter Ride!

2009-06-12T12:13:00.006-08:00

Through our work we are able to go on any of the tours for free depending on availability. Last week we were able to go on a helicopter ride with Temsco! It ended up being an absolutely beautiful cloudless day. Our pilot had worked there for 6 years and said it was one of the most beautiful days he had ever flown in. We were pretty lucky because we were able to go much further than cloudy Juneau usually allows. We flew over several glaciers and landed on the Gilkey Glacier where we were able to walk around and drink out of the fresh glacier stream. After that we flew further and saw mountain goats and a bear on the side of the mountain. At one point we flew right over the edge of a mountain peak and came across the most beautiful view of the ice field. It looked as if we were on the very top of the world. Again we were able to land, walk around and take some amazing pictures.

Herbert Glacier Hike

2009-06-12T11:12:00.010-08:00

We decided to hike to the Herbert Glacier. On our way we had to jump over this raging river of death. Luckily be both survived to tell the story.

When we made it to the glacier we came across this beautiful view - A couple of mountain goats looking down over the glacier

We made it!!!

Here is a sweet ice chunk from the glacier.

Glacier blue ice cave!!

Ryan's 25th Birthday!!!

2009-06-12T11:00:00.003-08:00

We decided to go with 'The Office' theme :)

We had a bonfire the first night we were in Juneau which was the day before Ryan's birthday so we surprised him with decorations and an ice cream cake that whitney had made.

Goin to Alaska!!!!

2009-06-08T19:54:00.004-08:00

On our way to Alaska. We recently got a new camera and were exploring all the cool features. This is a panoramic gone wrong.

We made it to Bellingham, Washington where we got onto the ferry. It was almost like a little cruise boat.

This is the solarium where those too cheap to buy a room sleep. We staked out our spot, set up our tent, and camped out for the three night journey.

Another experimental panoramic photo.

Three day boat ride...people go a little crazy.

First stop in Alaska was Ketchikan. We had a few hours so we ran into town and got breakfast.

Every night we had the most beautiful sunsets. The best part is that they last for a couple of hours because it takes the sun so long to go down here.

There are:

2009-01-12T22:10:00.000-09:00

2009-01-04T20:33:00.000-09:00

2008-12-16T21:58:00.001-09:00

The Boise Idaho Temple

2008-12-03T21:21:00.000-09:00