niel-SONS

Toothless in Twin Falls

2010-02-03T12:53:00.000-08:00

My failure to update the last few months is not due to a lack of excitement in our lives. I blame it all on my pregnancy. Every free moment I have I spend resting...is that so wrong. #4 has literally kicked my behind. Feeling guilty that I have family members who maybe would like an update every once in a while I decided to post today.

A few exciting things that have happened in the last few weeks include:

#1 our first visit from the tooth fairy.

Will is now 7 and I think is the only kid in his first grade class who has not lost a tooth yet. Well as soon as I noticed a slightly wiggly tooth 2 weeks ago he got very excited and worked on that thing as much as he could. Then with the advice from his Uncle Aaron we tied some floss around the tooth and popped the tooth out. No Pain! No Tears! Lot's of Blood! In Will's own words, "Blood was gushing out like a volcano". What a brave little man. And for the lucky boy a very generous tooth fairy left $2 for him that night.

#2 Brent took Will snowboarding/skiing for the first time this year. They spent the day together at Pomerelle and had a really fun time. Will ended up enjoying the skis more than the snowboard. He is looking forward to the next trip up the mountain so he can go on the big lift with Dad.

#3 The due date is getting closer. I am starting to see a light at the end of this tunnel.

Today's update will not include updated photos of me. I am not the type to post weekly belly shots of myself (obviously). Proud as I am of this growing bundle inside of me, I frankly will never think that any belly shot of myself is attractive enough to post to the world (or the few who care enough to still check this blog on occasion). So believe me when I say that my belly is growing and I do look like I am 9 months pregnant when in fact I still have 6 weeks to go. My Dr. gave me a glimmer of hope today however when he told me that I was still measuring big due to the excess of fluid I am carrying. Nothing to worry about, just means that my body will probably want to go into labor a little earlier than normal...Darn!

#4 The 12 days of Valentine's starts today. I am trying to figure out what cute/meaningful things I can do for Brent the next 12 days that will not impose on our budget. Any ideas?

IT'S A........

2009-11-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

Is it inappropriate for me to put a picture of my baby's "gender" on my blog?

In case any of you can not tell this is obviously another BOY.

I am just so PROUD, THRILLED, and NOT SURPRISED!

I know that most people I know were rooting for girl...I hope you are not disappointed. We sure are not. We just need help with a name now.

Does anyone have any good ideas about how to celebrate other than going out to eat?

Good News/ Bad News

2009-11-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

We took Andrew to the Dr. last night because his fever was 103.6 with Tylenol. He was miserable. The good news is that he doesn't have the flu. The bad news is that he has strep throat. Good news, the antibiotic is working full force and he is felling much better today. Bad news, we will most likely have more sick kids this week.

I sure hope not.

No Trick-or-Treating for this boy

2009-10-31T10:48:00.000-07:00

I took the boys to get the H1N1 Vaccine yesterday. Andrew freaked out when I accidentally said the word "shot". I had to explain that getting a little shot was much better than getting really sick. He finally calmed down and ended up getting the nasal mist so it turned out to be pretty simple. Until later that night he started throwing up, running a fever and getting a very croupy cough. Poor boy was up most of the night. I guess he will be staying home from all Halloween festivities tonight.

Wasn't the vaccine supposed to prevent him from getting sick? I think this boy might be sensitive to vaccines in general. After his kindergarten shots he got really sick for 2-3 days.

Just FYI the other two boys are just fine.

Getting ready for Halloween

2009-10-31T10:30:00.000-07:00

This is how the Nielson/ McGee families got ready for Halloween in Twin Falls.

Miss you Grandma and Grandpa. Wish you were here to Trick-or-Treat to tonight! (Or last night in New Zealand) Happy Halloween!

An Update of Epic Proportions

2009-10-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

The craziness of our lives the past 6 months has caused me to eliminate blogging from my endless list of things to do. Life is now returning to somewhat of a normal state and I feel like I should get caught up a little.

May

Brent and I celebrated his 30th birthday on a Caribbean cruise. We had such a wonderful time. Looking back at all that has happened this summer we are so grateful that we were able to spend this time together. I think it will be a while before our next vacation without kids.

Andrew graduated from preschool. Notice the sling. He broke his collar bone while we were away on our cruise. We were not surprised to get the news...of all our boys he is the one this would happen to. Oh, we love you Andrew.

Andrew celebrated his 5th Birthday at the end of May. He had his first "friend" party. He was thrilled to celebrate with his friends. I survived the madness only to realize I had not taken one photo of the event. Sorry Andrew.

I did get some documentation of this celebration however. This is how his Aunt Katy decided to let the kids "party" while I was preparing for the family party on his birthday. It's a good thing I wasn't there. They had a blast.

June

Will graduated from kindergarten. He had such a fun year.

Summer sports begin.

One of the most difficult days of the summer for the boys was saying goodbye to their uncle David who is serving a mission in Kobe, Japan. Don't let the smiles fool you, they were all crying their eyes out. We miss you terribly Dave.

We spent a rainy weekend up at Redfish lake with Brent's parents and sister. Because of the rain we changed our plans from camping in tents to spending the weekend at my Grandpa's cabin. Not such a bad thing. We had a great time.

One of the wonderful changes in our lives has been having Brent's sister and her family move to Twin Falls. My boys love spending time with their cousins. This picture is of Jacob and Lucy pretending to go to school.

July

I think the highlight of our summer was spending a week at Snowbird with Brent's family.

There were so many activities to do. We all climbed the rock wall.....

Jumped and flipped like crazy on the bungee trampolines...

Enjoyed the bounce house...

Went on nature hikes...

Raced down the Alpine Slide...

Conquered the electronic Bull...

And ended each day like this!

We came home from Snowbird and said goodbye to our first house and moved over to our new (Brent's parents old) house. We said our goodbyes to Grandma and Grandpa Nielson as they moved to Utah. We were sad to see them go, but found comfort in the fact that we would be so close for at least a year. The original plan was for them to train in Salt Lake for a year and then they would be given an assignment overseas in August of 2010....well things changed slightly.

The day we moved into the new house we took one of these and found out we are expecting our 4th child. I am due on March 26th. The move was easy because we own so little. There is literally a drawer or cupboard for each individual thing we own in this house. So much space and nothing to fill it. It is so empty compared to how Marcia had it. It's actually slightly depressing but exciting at the same time. It is nice to have this blank canvas that I know will be the house I work on making my home for the rest of my life. We love the space. It has been A LOT of work and a lot of adjusting. The most difficult part for me was trying to adjust and keep up with the work load while feeling absolutely miserable. I feel so much better now and I'm so grateful that we are here.

This is one of the boys favorite activities in the new house. They love the big jetted tub in the master bath. I must admit it is one of my favorite things too.

The last week of July we were able to spend some time with our McMahon cousins. My sister lives in North Dakota and we only see them once or twice a year. We were so thrilled to have them visit this summer.

We spent some time at the cabin again with my family. Grandpa Crandall and Uncle Aaron taught the boys how to fish. We found a perfect place to fish and everyone in the family caught a fish, including Jacob. Guess what we had for dinner?

August

We spent a few days at Lagoon with the boys and Brent's family. I spent many hours in my yard and garden. We also enjoyed the Twin Falls County Fair. This was a very sick month for me and as a result I don't have pictures of anything. I must have been having a good day on the boys first day of school because I managed to get one of these.

Both boys were very excited about going to school. They both got the teachers that they wanted. Will feels like such a big boy now that he is in school all day. He loves having 3 recesses and eating lunch at school. He really is maturing. Andrew is making a lot of new friends. He loves learning to read. I think his favorite part of school is that he gets to be like his big brother.

September

Soon after school started, they did vision and hearing screenings at school for all of the kids. They sent a paper home saying that Andrew had failed his vision screening and needed to be seen by a opthamologist immediately. We scheduled his eye appointment and sure enough his left eye is "lazy". His right eye is 20/20 and doing all the work. They put him in glasses that day and they are supposed to help his left eye get the workout it needs to function properly. The doctor asked me if he was more clumsy than my other kids... UM YEAH! Guess I should have though of that and gotten his eyes checked a few years earlier. OOPS. He looks so darn cute. Don't you think?

Again, lots of adjusting to new house, new ward, new calling, school, homework, keeping house clean, being sick, keeping up on the garden, harvesting garden, canning, making jam, etc. None of which I have pictures to show for, not that you want to see pictures of those things anyway. And here we are in...

October

We were able to attend General Conference and watch Brent's dad speak. What a wonderful weekend that was. Just before conference Brent's parents were asked to serve in the Area Presidency in New Zealand. Suddenly our time with them was cut short about 9 months. It was wonderful to spend conference weekend with them and the rest of Brent's siblings. We are so sad to have them go but we are so grateful for their examples of service and sacrifice. Our lives are being blessed tremendously because of their obedience. I am so grateful that my children have such wonderful grandparents.
We are planning to go visit them sometime in 2010. We can't wait.

Coming in November....

What will this baby be??? Is there really any question? Why some people think our chances are 50/50 I don't know? I am putting my money on BOY! Honestly if that is the case I will be THRILLED!!! If by some crazy fluke it is a girl, I will also be THRILLED, and SCARED OUT OF MY MIND!!!

I will keep you updated.

Celebrating the BIG 3-0!

2009-05-05T08:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Brent!

Brent is turning 30 today. I have known for a long time that I wanted to do something special for his 30th birthday. After a lot of thought and several fabulous ideas, I came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to pull off any big surprise for his birthday since he would be the one paying for it. So the beginning of this year I told him to do a little research and figure out something he wanted to do for his birthday this year. I think only a few hours passed before he came back to me with all of the information ready to book a cruise. Honestly, I was a little shocked that it wasn't Disneyland, but very grateful...and excited. So we booked this vacation months ago.

Given the state of our lives the past couple of months I have not thought much about our vacation. Last week Brent informed me that it was only 1 week away. I honestly had no idea it was so soon. Now it is only 4 days away and I can not wait. I am so excited to get away from our house for a week. I am so excited to not have to cook a meal. I am so excited to not have to do laundry. I am so excited that I don't have to wake up each morning and rush to get my house clean enough to show. (Please sell while we are gone)

The thing that I am the most excited about is spending serious relax time with Brent. I have to say that I think we both deserve it. Thank you Brent for choosing such an awesome Birthday present, and for paying for it. This was an easy birthday for me. I just have to pack my bags and come along for the ride.

It is going to be a wonderful week.

Happy Birthday Brent. I Love You!

Faith

2009-05-04T13:54:00.000-07:00

I have to preface this post by saying that I took this from a letter I just wrote my sister. I have been wanting to update my blog, but of course am too busy. So I did a little copy and paste action to save myself some time.

My life has been a bit overwhelming lately. I have been completely wrapped up in getting my house ready to sell. It has made me a bit crazy. I am not doing so hot at my responsibilities as a wife and mother. In fact I keep thinking about a conference talk by Elder Pearson http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1032-13,00.html about faith and fear and how they can not coexist and I feel like my actions are contradicting my beliefs. With all of my heart I believe that the Lord knows how to sell a house and if I rely on Him it will happen when it is supposed to. I am, on the other hand, completely consumed with making every possible effort to make my house appealing so that whoever walks into my home will want it because it is so amazingly clean and organized and decorated. After a couple of very humbling experiences, I realize that exercising the faith that I have means that I need to move forward with my life as normally as possible. I can not neglect my responsibilities as a mom and a wife just because someone may call at any moment to see the house. I have to be the best mom I can be. I have to love and appreciate and spend time with my kids and husband and trust that the right family will come along at the right time and want to buy the house because of its qualities, not because it is the cleanest, most organized house they have ever seen. So today I have been focused a little more on that. I let the boys play with all of our tiny Lego's this morning. They were spilled all over the floor, but I didn’t care. I just played with them, while doing a little bit here and there on the house. I really don’t want my boys to look back at this time of their lives as the time that mom was really mean. I don’t want this transition to even faze them. They deserve a happy/sane mom. And so I am trying to ignore the fact that there is toothpaste splatter on the bathroom mirror, and crumbs all over the kitchen floor, and my windows still need to be washed. Today I am happy because I am relaxed and loving my kids. Now if I can just figure out what to make for dinner.

House for Sale

2009-05-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.irwinrealty.com/98399520

As most of you know we are moving. Brent's parents are moving to Salt Lake City in July and we are so blessed to have the opportunity to buy their home. We are so excited and can't wait to move to a bigger home with a bigger yard! The challenge we face now is selling our house. From what we have heard the real estate market in Twin Falls (and everywhere else) is really slow. So we are exercising a lot of faith that the Lord will help us sell this house.

I thought I would post this information so that if by any chance you, or anyone you know is moving to Twin Falls and looking to buy a house, I know of a great one that is available.

Terrific Twos!

2009-03-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

I have to retract anything that may have sounded negative in my last post about this little guy. He does have an independent personality, but I am going to count that as a good thing even though it is sometimes stressful to deal with.

This little guy has really amazed me in the past couple of weeks. Being the proud mom I am I just had to blog about it.

First of all we finally took Jacob's Binky away. This has always been a dreaded process with all of my boys and I just didn't want to deal with the withdrawal symptoms of a baby boy who was detached from his Binky. It was 2 weeks ago and he has not put up even the slightest fight about it. No whining, No crying, No tantrums. Nothing but cooperation on his part. In fact, he found a Binky on the floor under the stove the other day and put it in his mouth for a second, and then willingly threw it in the garbage. What 2 year old does that? (Maybe that was an easy decision on his part due to the dust bunnies and old crumbs attached to the Binky when it went in his mouth???) Whatever the case, he did it! So I am starting to think at this point that maybe I don't have it so bad with him.

And then the Second miracle. (I hesitate writing about this for fear that I may jinx myself, but I am going to have faith in my little guy and go ahead and boast.) We finally set up his "Big Boy Bed". Again, we put it off because we didn't want to deal with the fight of teaching him to stay in his bed. Well, guess who stays in his bed with no fight or fuss? It has only been 2 full days, but so far, so good. He loves his new bed. I think his favorite part is that he can get out all by himself when he wakes up. The past 2 mornings have been like Christmas for Brent and I as we wait for him to wake up. He will just run out of his room with the biggest smile on his face and say "I did it!" Oh we love it!

He really is an amazing boy and he adds so much to our family. We are all so in love with him and thankful that he is ours.

Jacob we are so proud of you. You are amazing!

And the Winner Is....

2009-03-16T09:42:00.001-07:00

Before (Dec. 2008)

After (March 15, 2009)

Anyone who reads my blog probably already knows that the Nielson family has been doing a "Biggest Loser" competition since the beginning of the year in an effort to get our entire family living healthier lives. What most of you probably don't know, except for the Nielson family, is how successful the family has been not just losing weight, but making healthier life choices.

Yesterday, March 15th was the first official weigh-in. It is exciting to report that the family as a whole has lost 98.4 lbs. The thing that I am most excited about is that my husband was the official "Biggest Loser" at yesterday's weigh-in. He has lost 23.6 lbs. since January 1st. As you can see from his before and after photos, he looks amazing. He has been working so hard. I am so proud of him for being so determined and sticking with this. He looks like the guy I met 9 years ago. :)

Congratulations Brent! I love you.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

2009-03-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

What do you do with a two year old? I have done this twice before so you think I should know. This little guy is just different than my other two.

I adore him, I have since the day he was born. I am thrilled every morning to hear him from his bed yell, "Mom" and as soon as I open his door he says, "Good morning, Mom". The past couple of days he has been giving "super hugs". He will just run up to any member of the family and give a great big hug. Last night Will went to bed a little early because he wasn't feeling well. About an hour after he had gone to sleep I lost sight of Jacob and went looking for him. He had gone in Will's room, climbed up to the top bunk to where Will was sleeping. When he saw me he yelled, "I'm giving Will hugs". Thankfully Will didn't wake up. One of his favorite things to do is rockabye. Before he goes down for a nap or to bed at night he always asks to rockabye. That just means that we sit and rock in the rocking chair for about 5 minutes and sing a few songs of his choice. In my mind that is a great time to sing lullabies, but for Jacob he wants to hear songs about all of his favorite characters. He will say "Ernie song" which is "Rubber Duckie" from Sesame Street, or "Cookie Song" = "C is for Cookie" also from Sesame Street. He also likes all of the Winnie the Pooh characters lately so he asks me to sing the "Pooh song" and the "Tigger Song" which is fine because they both have songs, but what do I do when he asks me to sing the "Rabbit song" or the "Piglet song"? Let's just say I am not so good at making up songs. If it were any other human being I was singing the "Rabbit song" to, I am sure I would completely humiliate myself. Jacob, on the other hand, absolutely loves it.

He is talking so well lately. The past couple of weeks I have found him saying the most unexpected things. I asked him where his binky was and his answer was, "Oh, probably down stairs". He asked me for something the other day and trying to delay getting whatever it was he wanted I asked Why? He just simply said, "Because, Mom". Yesterday he wanted my attention and said, "Hey, Annie". That was a first and quite a shocker, but very funny. We blew bubbles outside today for a while and he was running around trying to eat the bubbles. He ran up to me and while laughing at himself said, " I am eating all the bubbles Mom". It just surprises me to hear him talking in complete sentences. He is just a little man.

One big change in his 2 year old self is that he has become very independent. Everything is "Jacob do it" in a very frustrated tone as I try to buckle his seat belt or get him dressed or change his diaper. These are things that he really can't handle on his own so it is a constant battle not letting him do everything. He gets his very own snacks every 10 minutes of the day and gets them taken away every 10 minutes of the day by Mom. So lately we spend most of the day having a power struggle and explaining why it's not good to eat a whole box of Sponge bob fruit snacks in one day. I actually got mad at him for the first time yesterday over the snack issue. I yelled at him for not listening to mommy and told him if he does it again I would send him to his bed. He broke down in tears and was devastated that I had been so mean. I felt terrible but let him cry it out for a few minutes. After having a 10 second talk on why we obey mom we shared a "super hug" so now things are good.

As exhausted and frustrated as he makes me at the end of each day, I am so glad that this little boy offers so much love and joy to my life. He is living proof that there must be opposition in all things.

Thank you for blessing me with perspective today.

2009-03-02T13:51:00.000-08:00

I have been in a bit of a grouchy mood the past couple of days. When I think of the possible reasons, I can't come up with anything that justifies my behavior. Adding to my bad mood is the fact that I am in a bad mood for no reason in particular. So this morning as I had an hour alone, (thank you mom for taking my kids so I could go grocery shopping) I said a prayer and told Heavenly Father that I was sorry for being such a baby. I expressed gratitued for all of my wonderful blessings and asked that I would be blessed with some perspective so that I could understand how blessed my life really is.

After being in the grocery store for 10 minutes I ran into a friend from my ward who I had not seen in church yesterday. I stopped to ask how she was doing and make sure things were ok. Come to find out, her father in law had a massive heart attack a few days earlier and almost died. She talked to me about how she was dealing with it all and what a difficult experience this has been.

That was such an obvious answer to my prayer. It is an amazing truth that we have a Father in Heaven who loves each one of us. He cares about each of us. He hears and answers our prayers no matter how big or small they may be. I most definately gained some perspective today. Surly the Lord has bigger issues to deal with like healing the sick, comforting those who have lost a loved one, revealing truth to those who may be seeking it, etc. Any issue is more significant than my bad mood, yet he answered me today. So I thank my Heavenly Father and my friend for blessing me with perspective today. To my friend, my prayers are now with you and your family durring this difficult time.

Baby Nightmares

2009-02-18T10:40:00.000-08:00

Does this image frighten you? It does my 2 year old.

Jacob has been waking up early (like 5am) the past few days just sobbing. I bring him in to bed and try to get him back to sleep. It happened again this morning. I went in to get him and he was still laying down in his bed and seemed to be crying in his sleep. I picked him up to console him and asked him why he was crying. His answer shocked me. "A scary duck is eating my leg." He could not go back to sleep. I layed with him until about 6:30 when Brent got home from the gym. When Brent walked in the door Jacob jumped up and had to tell dad all about it. Brent misunderstood and asked "a dog ate your leg?" to which Jacob answered, "NO, a SCARY DUCK ate my leg!" Oh, that's even worse!

The funny part is that he keeps talking about it today. He has taken me to his bed 3 times to show me where the scary duck was eating his leg. I wonder if he will freak out next time he sees a real duck. I was unaware that kids that small can have nightmares. Poor Jacob. Ducks are pretty scary, especailly when they eat your legs.

Happy Birthday Jacob

2009-02-14T15:52:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to our valentine baby. We love you Jacob. Thanks for bringing us so much joy the past 2 years. You are amazing.

Wonderful Life of Motherhood

2008-11-12T12:43:00.000-08:00

I was reading one of my favorite blogs today, which happens to be my sister in law,
http://tyandk8.blogspot.com/ and she just had a good post about parenting her 2 year old daughter. If you have an extra minute read her post, I am sure you can relate as a mother. As I read it I was reminded of an experience I had the other day that I wanted to share.

One thing in my life that I used to hate is grocery shopping with all of my boys. In our town you can save lots of money by shopping at WinCo, as opposed to one of the higher priced chain stores like Albertsons or Smiths. The trade off is that you end up having the most miserable experience if you have children with you. WinCo is cheap for two reasons, they don't accept credit cards and only recently started accepting debit cards, so you had to pay with cash, check, or like most people in that store food stamps. The other reason for being cheap is that you have to bag your own groceries. One more down side that I should mention is that they don't have carts that hold more than one child. I am sure that the most miserable day of my life was the day I decided that we were absolutely too poor to shop anywhere but WinCo. (I had previously shopped at other stores to use the Sky Miles credit card.) So I decided it was time to start shopping smart.

Jacob was just a few months old so I had him in his car seat clipped on to the top of the shopping cart. There was no place to put Will and Andrew so they were just roaming free as I desperately tried to collect my groceries while being a responsible parent and keeping my eyes on them. The shopping trip lasted almost two hours and you can imagine how I was feeling by the end. First I was furious because my 3 and 4 year old boys were not perfectly obedient and helpful like I wanted them to be for the past 2 hours, and Jacob was tired and hungry and screaming in his car seat. I got up to check out and still had the "bagging my own groceries" part of the shopping trip ahead of me. While I was attempting to do that, with 2 boys running amuck, and one screaming infant the checker tells me my total. I go to pay and that is when I learn that this store does not accept credit OR debit cards. My only solution was to leave all of my groceries there, gather up my children and go home crying. It is days like these that I hate being a mother.

Well the other day I was in WinCo again, making our weekly grocery trip. This time I again have my 3 boys. As we were headed to check out I saw a young mom pushing a shopping cart full of food. She had her little baby in her carseat clipped to the front of the shopping cart. Behind her she was pulling another cart with her 3(ish)year old son in it. As I passed her I saw that her face was flushed. Immediately I remembered the worst day of my life. I decided to go ask if she was ok. She assured me that she was and that she was finished shopping and only had to check out. Tears filled my eyes and I just told her that I too had been there. I was actually sort of embarassed and surprised at how emotional I became, but realized that I had just spent one hour shopping with my 3 boys in WinCo and was actually having a good experiece with my boys. What I realized was that as mothers we have plenty of days that we want to throw in the towl. We have experiences with our children that just make us crazy day after day after day. Then there comes a day or a moment that we realize how blessed we are and how amazingly wonderful these children are that we are raising and we are not sure how we got there. When was it that I started enjoying my shopping trips at WinCo? I remeber very clearly making a vow to myself that I would never set foot in that store again. But here I was happy to be there, happy to be with my children, not being bothered by the small things they were doing. I even bagged my own groceries without being bothered. And so I thank that young mom for reminding me of the bad days and promise her that wonderful days lie ahead. Life just continues to get better with these little ones and I am so thankful for mine.

My First Car Accident

2008-10-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

Well after 28 years it finally happened for me. My very first car accident. I am fine, no damage to me, just shaken up a bit. The driver that hit me had no insurance or registration. She was also driving without a license. Needless to say she was not happy with me for getting in her way. I am so grateful my boys were not with me. I would have some explaining to do about the words coming out of her mouth.

So now we need to get our car fixed:(

Protect our Families

2008-10-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

Put the kids down for a nap today...all 3 of them! :) I thought I would check out the latest information on proposition 8 from this blog and ended up in tears thinking about the direction this world is turning. Having 3 boys I know that as a parent it is going to be hard enough raising them to be moral in this world as it currently stands. Read through some of these articles, watch the videos and debates and it will give you a glimpse of what we could be facing with our children in the very near future if this proposition fails.

I have to say that when my 4 year old asked me the other day why a boy and a boy don't get married it infuriated me. I don't know if it was just a simple statement of observation or if he heard about this somewhere but I will not teach my children, nor should anyone else, about homosexuality at the age of 4. Instead I used it as an opportunity to teach him what I know is correct. "Marriage between a man and woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children."

To read "The Family, A Proclamation to the World" click on this link: http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=e1fa5f74db46c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=1aba862384d20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____

Twin Falls Idaho Temple Dedication and Youth Cultural Celebration

2008-09-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is President Thomas S. Monson and directly behind him in sunglasses, my wonderful father-in-law.

The highlight of our summer was the Twin Falls Idaho Temple Open House, Youth Cultural Celbration, and Dedication. As many of my family members have said, I can not express in words how amazing these experiences were. It only made sense in my mind that these were truly "tender mercies" from the Lord that I was experiencing.

"When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding...truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance (see 1 Nephi 1:20)." -Elder Bednar

I will forever be grateful for the blessings of this amazing summer!

Blog Resurrection!

2008-09-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

After a very short and very busy summer I have found that blogging was last on my priority list. For anyone out there (Katy) who even checks my blog anymore I hope that this post will give you a bit of hope that I am back. I am making no promises as to how frequently I will be updating. I have reached a new and very exciting phase in my life. I have 2 boys in school. I am a room mom for Will's kindergarten class which keeps me occupied 2 mornings in the week. Our boys are involved in art classes, swimming lessons, and other activities that keep me busier than I have ever been with them. I LOVE IT! I have found that as my kids grow life just gets more enjoyable. Each new phase is something to be enjoyed. So sorry to all of you who still are in the phase of life where you spend all day at home and can find time to blog, but I am just not that girl anymore. (Please sense the sarcasm in that last line. I don't mean to offend any of you.)

Hopefully I can blog again soon about the wonderful summer we had. Most of which is blog worthy. I just need to find the time.

I am off to get the boys hair cut, and then swimming lessons. :)

Best Photo Shoot EVER!

2008-07-09T11:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first day for the temple open house. They are having the "VIP" tours this week. Yesterday's tours included all of the missionaries from the Boise Idaho Mission. The mission president and his wife asked if I would be willing to take a photo of all of them in front of the temple as it would be the only time that all of them were together at the same place and time. I had no comprehension of how large this group would be. In my mind I imagined about 30-40 missionaries. The first group arrived and I was overwhelmed when I had to arrange approximately 70 missionaries. Just as I was feeling ok with everything the mission president's wife approached me and told me that they were still waiting for about 100 more missionaries. I honestly thought she was joking. About 2 minutes later a bus pulled up and sure enough over 100 missionaries joined the group. I have to say that as they all got organized for the photo I could not contain my emotions. Luckily I was wearing my sunglasses, but I just began to sob at the sight I was beholding. 200 missionaries gathered in front of the House of the Lord. What a beautiful sight. I felt such gratitude to these young men and women for the sacrifices they are making and for the marvelous work they are involved in. I received another confirmation in my life that I belong to the only true church upon the earth. I feel such gratitude to a loving Father in Heaven for blessing my life with such amazing experiences such as these. I look forward to the next 6 weeks of the open house and dedication for the Twin Falls Temple and the special experiences I, and many others, will have.

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-06-25T22:10:00.001-07:00

My blog background makes my photos look a bit transparent so the quality doesn't look that great. To view these images in better quality click on the image.

First Summer Campout

2008-06-25T21:04:00.001-07:00

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Last week Brent was gone overnight in Sun Valley for a Law conference. We were not able to join him because of some scheduling conflicts. I decided that the boys and I had to plan something super fun since dad was doing something super fun without us. So we decided to go camping. Yes, me and all 3 boys went camping without dad. How did I do it you ask? Well, we only had to travel as far as the backyard. The boys loved it. We read books together for a couple of hours until it got dark. Then we looked at the stars for a while. I have to be honest, I was not looking forward to sleeping on the hard ground when I had a nice comfortable bed ALL TO MYSELF. But I resisted the temptation of sneaking inside and actually spent the entire night in the tent with the boys. We had such a good time. The boys made me keep the tent up the next night so they could do it again.

If you are ever looking for cheap summer entertainment, camp in your own backyard.

To All Twin Falls Stay At Home Moms!

2008-06-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and I am thrilled. The past few days I have spent a lot of time outside with my boys enjoying the beautiful weather. Today it dawned on me that I am going to go a little crazy if I spend my entire summer without some adult interaction.

I have had a few experiences over the past few days that have made me realize that maybe I am not the only stay at home mom wanting something to do, but I don't know where to go to find out what's going on around town. I will be the first to admit that I stink at organizing play dates and other activities that involve people other than my family. If it involves getting on the phone and calling everyone I know...it's probably not going to happen. And so I am wondering from all of you stay at home moms, are there any resources out there that you know of that I can find out what is going on around town. Any mothers groups? Any blogs? If there are no resources, let's get some.

Does this sound like I am begging for friends? I was just thinking it might be nice to set up a blog where people can post activities that they know of going on every day. Then the mothers who want something to do can look at the blog and see who is doing what, where and when. What park is everyone going to today? Where is everyone eating for lunch? Who is having people over to run through the sprinklers? Who goes exercising in the mornings/ evenings and would like someone to go with them?

If you come across this blog and have any ideas or info for me please leave a comment. If there are enough people out there who feel the same way that I do in this town lets get something started and spread the word.

Is Today the Day?

2008-06-13T10:08:00.001-07:00

Could it be? Is summer here? Please, oh please, oh please let today be the start of summer!

After getting ready for the day this morning I walked outside to find Will blowing bubbles. Me and the other boys joined him and as we were blowing and chasing bubbles, all I could think about was spongebob squarepants. I don't watch that show, but have seen enough episodes in my life to know that he LOVES to blow bubbles. Because I couldn't take a picture or film this most joyous of occasions, because I was the one blowing the bubbles, I just had to take a mental picture of the moment. (And if I did have a camera the results would look something very much like this photo) Not only do we love bubbles, we love summer even more. And the fact that it is warm enough to be outside at 10:00 am just might mean that summer is finally here.

Global Warming??? Not in Idaho!

2008-06-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

I just have to say to anyone out there in the world who is concerned about global warming, move to Idaho...it's a non issue here. Today is June 11, and it is 39 degrees today. My yahoo weather widget on my computer shows a chance of snow. My boys have been asking me for 2 months when we can set up the pool outside. I keep reassuring them that summer is just around the corner. I am beginning to doubt that myself. Instead of the pool this year we may have to bring out the snow clothes. Building a snow fort seems to be the more realistic option this "summer".
Take a peek at my sidebar and look at the weather...this is no joke. :(

Another Temple Tour

2008-06-10T09:51:00.001-07:00

Brent and I had the opportunity to take another tour of the temple on Sunday with the temple committee and the 14 stake presidents in the temple district. Once again I have to say how amazing it is to be a part of all of this and to have such wonderful opportunities. The temple is very close to being completed. The furniture for the temple arrived yesterday. And from the way things looked on Sunday there are just very minor things that need to be finished up. Then after a good cleaning it will be complete.

I am so excited for everyone to have the opportunity to see it. For those of you who are wondering how it compares with the other temples, in my opinion it is right up there with the most beautiful that I have seen. It is very modern. The design inside is absolutely beautiful. I am amazed at how all of the details tie together so well. For those of you who still do not know, the open house begins the 11th of July and the dedication will take place on Sunday, August 23rd. If anyone is interested in tickets you can go to http://www.lds.org/reservations/ticket1/0,10785,1624-1-442-0,00.html they are now available online for anyone who would like to go.

Recent Temple Photos

2008-06-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

Goodbye McGee Family!

2008-06-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

I just had to post these photos of my 2 nieces Lucy and Claire. My sister in law Katy has been in town for the past two weeks with her daughters. We had so much fun with them. My boys love being with their cousins...they don't have any that live here...maybe someday.

Katy let me do a photo shoot of both of her girls and I have to say they are such darling little girls. I love them to death. I also have to say that it's photo results like this that make me miss my photography like crazy. We had so much fun.

So Katy, Lucy, and Claire, thank you for a wonderful 2 weeks. We love you and will miss you until we see you again in July.

Gardening Tips Anyone???

2008-06-03T13:34:00.001-07:00

Brent and I finished preparing and planting our garden about 2 weeks ago. I think I am a little obsessed with my garden because I find myself outside about 6 times a day looking for the smallest sign of a sprout. I can't wait for everything to grow, I am so excited. I just keep thinking about how bummed I will be if my garden isn't successful this year.

I have grown a garden before, I loved it then also, but I have to admit I am not the best gardener, because I don't know anything about it. My goal with my previous gardens has been that we can eat something out of it. I guess by those standards we were successful. The problem was that we threw away at least 80% of what we grew. Sad, I know, and so I decided to rethink my garden goals this year. This year my goal is to can/freeze most of what we grow for food storage. The problem with that is that I have no idea how to do any of that. The only thing I have ever canned is freezer jam.

And so, with HIGH HOPES for my garden this year, I am asking for ANY gardening advise that anyone has to give. Here are the main questions I have when it comes to caring for my garden:
1. What is the best way to fertilize?

2. Any tips on weed control?

3 Any tips on bug control?

These are the things I have planted this year:

1.Green Beans

2. Carrots

3.Red and Yellow Onion

4. Tomatoes

5. Corn

6. Spaghetti Squash

7. Zucchini

8. Cucumber

If you have any tips on freezing/preserving/canning, any of these items, or know of a good resource please let me know.

I know I am going to have oodles of tomatoes this year so I also would like to get ideas on what to do with all of them. I am thinking maybe some salsa? some spaghetti sauce? Any good recipes out there that would be good for any sort of canned tomato?

This is the first sign of green, from my onions. :)

Happy Birthday Annie

2008-06-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I turned 28! I had a wonderful birthday. We have been celebrating since Saturday and the festivities continue through tonight so it's still my birthday (unofficially if you still want to send birthday greetings...jk) Saturday was the western days parade…lame, but fun for the kids. After that we went to Chili's where they gave me a free molten chocolate cake for my birthday…I pretty much ate the whole thing by myself and I loved it. Then on Saturday night Brent and I went out to dinner with my parents to celebrate. We ate at the Garden Café. It was fun being with them, but dinner was pretty disappointing. I ordered baked Salmon. When they brought it out it was wrapped in fancy parchment paper. Once I removed the paper it was covered in all sorts of vegetables, which I love, so I was pretty excited about my delicious healthy salmon right? Well I took a nice big bite and the texture was like mashed potatoes…..what the???? I thought to myself that doesn’t taste or feel like salmon. So I removed all of the veggies and to my surprise I found a nice big piece of raw salmon. OOOPS! Someone forgot to bake my “baked” salmon. "Surely that could not happen, maybe it’s just a different type of salmon, or maybe it’s the way they cooked it that makes it look and taste totally raw". So I showed my dad and had him take a bite. YEP! It was RAW! So after telling my waitress, she took my plate back to the kitchen and brought me a cooked piece, placed nicely where the old dead fish used to be, bathing in all the old raw juices. Let’s just say I completely lost my appetite. Yes they still charged me for it…and the dessert, which was the only thing I ate…and they wished me happy birthday on my way out. How nice of them. HMMMM someone needs some training. Or, I probably need a backbone. I guess we won’t be going back there any time soon. I am really not that upset about it, it was just pretty gross. Anyway, on Sunday we had some friends in our ward invite us to dinner and she happened to make my favorite meal. Ham and cheesy potatoes YUM! Thanks Hills! And tonight we will be celebrating again with the Nielsons. I am just getting pretty chubby from all the birthday cake I have had in the past 3 days. Not to mention all of the leftover cake I have been snacking on since Andrew’s birthday last Tuesday. So that is the reason I go work out in the mornings, just to burn off all of my birthday cake calories.

I love birthdays. I am so thankful to all of the family and friends who said and did kind things for me. I kept thinking yesterday, "I am so glad I was born". Dorky? Maybe. If you had my life you would be thinking the same thing though. I am so blessed. I am thankful to all the people in my life who have helped me to be where I am today. I am grateful for the blessing of an amazing husband, and such amazing, beautiful children. I am so thankful for my life experiences and for the perspective I have through the gospel of Jesus Christ. My life is wonderful and so I am so glad I was born. Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday Andrew

2008-05-30T20:33:00.001-07:00

Andrew turned 4 on May 27th. How is that possible? Why are all of my boys growing so fast?

Things I love about Andrew:

1. His craziness- no matter how serious the situation Andrew is always happy. You can't get mad at this boy...it's not possible.

2. His energy- Ever since he was a baby he has wanted to roll/crawl/walk/run faster than he is able. He has so much energy, but boy does he take great naps!

3. His sincerity- He will frequently at very random moment stop to tell me how much he loves me, or to thank me for some random thing that I have long forgotten. He is so sincere.

4. His ability to reason- This boy has never been a tantrum thrower. It is amazing to me how he always respects our decisions. If I don't let him have something he wants, his response goes something like this, "Oh, ok maybe later I could have that". I am constantly surprised at how laid back he is.

5. His politeness- He tries really hard to be polite. I have tried to teach him to say, "May I please have....". Whatever it is he is trying to be polite about he throws the word "may" in there as if that is the polite way to say anything. When he and Will start to argue over a toy he will say,"will you may not do that". Or if he wants something passed to him at dinner he will say,"can I may have some of that?" It makes me smile.

6.He is laid back- Details don't bother him. He has a girl in his primary class that shares his birthday. She sent him an invitation to her birthday party which happened to be a "princess" party. He is the only boy in that age group so the party would be all girls and him. The invitation said that all the girls would be dressed up in princess dresses but that he could dress as a prince if he wanted. So everything about this was a little worrisome for me. I was feeling so bad that his first birthday party invite he would have to turn down because it was a "girl" party. So, I approached it very delicately with him not wanting to stress the "princess" part. He was so excited. He had no reservations about any of the details of the party. He was thrilled to dress as a prince. I was so happy to see that the mother hosting the party actually made up some boy party favors for him. He had a wonderful time and didn't say one bad thing about his "princess" party.

7. He is so handsome- He has such beautiful skin (Thanks to Brent). He has such nice hair. He has beautiful eyes.

OK the list goes on, but I can not. I love Andrew so much and I am so happy that he is part of our family.

Congratulations Will!

2008-05-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

Will graduated from preschool last week. He did so well this year. He loves learning. He misses his teacher and his friends. He has a little girl that he says he is going to marry. Every day he tells me how much he misses her. He drew a cute picture the other day of the two of them playing at recess. He drew hearts all over the page and at the top he drew a sad face because he misses her. I had him mail it off to her today so she knew how much he misses her. He made such good friends. He had such a wonderful preschool experience. We are so proud of him.

Will's First Helicopter Ride

2008-05-30T20:13:00.001-07:00

I had the opportunity to take another helicopter ride to take some aerial photos of the Temple. I was able to bring Brent and Will with me. We had such a great time taking Will. He was so excited. You can see it in his face. He absolutely loved it.

I am so blessed to have this calling. I have had such amazing experiences. I am so happy that I am able to share some of them with my family. We are so blessed.

Photo Update-Why I love my life!

2008-05-30T18:48:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned how happy this guy makes me? ...keep reading

Wow he is so stinking cute.

I love a good photograph. This photo represents so many things to me that make me happy. 1. Jacob wanting to do everything his big brothers do. 2. Andrew taking such good care of his little brother. 3. Grandam's house. That makes us all happy. 4. Summer time- the fact that the weather is nice enough to be outside.

My college roommates. They are all such beautiful, amazing girls. It was so fun to get together for a little reunion 2 weeks ago. I haven't seen them since college (8 years ago). I have been so blessed to have such wonderful people be a part of my life. I am so proud of all of them for the good women, wives and mothers they are. They are such great examples to me. I love you Kim, Laura and Michelle.

Let's do it again.

Spring is here! I LOVE SPRING! I love that the earth comes alive again. I love all the beautiful blossoms. I feel like my spirit comes alive in the spring. I can't get enough of being outdoors, and observing the beauty of the earth. It makes me so happy.

I love this picture! This is Brent's grandma Lucille. She is 84 and just adores all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She loves to spend time with our boys but she is limited in what she can do with them. She always talks about how she feels bad that she can't run around and play with them like she used to with her grandchildren. I think that is all she sees our boys do is run around and so she feels like she can't do much. The other day she dropped by to see us for a minute and Andrew asked if she would read him a story. He climbed right up on her lap and handed her a book. I think it was a special moment for her as it was for us. She is a wonderful woman and I am so thankful for everything she does for our family, but most importantly the love that she gives to our boys. We love you Grandma Lucy!

One of the greatest sources of JOY in my life comes from this little guy. He truly makes me a happy person. Whenever he walks into a room and sees someone he loves he makes this happy, shouting, groaning noise with a huge smile on his face as he runs to give you a hug. The best part is that it happens every time he sees me through the day. Every time I leave the room and come back, he is so excited to see me. I absorb all the loves and cuddles he gives because I know that it won't last long. They grow too fast.

Jacob you make me smile!

One thing that we have enjoyed as a family for the past couple of years is tagging along with Dad as he travels to continuing education courses across the state. We go to Boise a lot. We stay in a hotel, eat out, swim...party, and the next day while dad is in meetings, I go do something fun with the kids. This photo was at the Boise Zoo. I just realized the other day that we may not have these experiences much anymore because Will will be in kindergarten next year.

This is my niece Teya. I was able to spend a couple of weeks with my sister Jaime and her daughter in April. I love spending time with family.

This is Will's preschool class. We have been so blessed this year to have him be a part of such a wonderful group of kids. He has such a wonderful teacher. I am so happy for Will that he has something in his life that is just his, and he is so happy with it.

Only the Nielson family can appreciate this picture. :)

I love that my two oldest are so close. They have such a good relationship and they love being together. Andrew enjoyed being able to go to all of Will's preschool field trips. Will helped him fit right in with the rest of his friends.

Will took a field trip to the bowling alley with his preschool class. He is a pretty good little bowler.

Will participated in Spring Soccer this year. This was our first "sports" experience with our kids. His experience was positive because his dad was there with him having fun. It was fun to sit on the sidelines and watch them play together.

The Host

2008-05-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

Just wondering if anyone has started reading...or maybe already finished Stephenie Meyer's new book The Host? How does it compare to the Twilight series? I just got it today and I am excited to start it. Let me know your thoughts!

Happy Birthday Brent!

2008-05-05T13:10:00.001-07:00

Today is Brent's 29th Birthday! I have never been too successful at surprising Brent on his Birthday, or any other holiday for that matter. He always knows exactly what he is getting, or not getting and that seems to put bit of a damper on things for me. As I prepared for his birthday this year I was excited to get him a couple of things that would certainly surprise him. Well come to find out the boys spilled the beans and so no more surprises for Brent :(

Feeling saddened by this I began to think of ways I could make his Birthday wonderful without having to surprise him with anything. As I said my prayers this morning and thanked my Heavenly Father for the wonderful man that I married, I realized that if he knows how loved and appreciated he is, that will help him to have a very happy birthday!

So Brent, my birthday wish to you today is that you know how much I love you. You are the greatest blessing in my life. Since the day we met, you have made me want to be a better person. After being together for 8 years now (WOW!) I hope that I am. Your hard work and sacrifice is noticed each day. Thank you for all you do as a husband and father to make my life, and our children's lives so happy. You are my dream man. Thank you for being you. I love you!

Happy Birthday to our 2 new nieces!

2008-04-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

We had a very exciting day as a family last Friday. Both of Brent's sisters, Katy and Emily, delivered their babies on the same day. We are so excited to have these beautiful babies here and can't wait to see them. We are so happy that all went well with their births. Both moms and both babies are doing well.

What a wonderful thing to have these beautiful babies come into such loving righteous families.

Kara Elizabeth Plane

Claire Mirien McGee

Congratulations Jeff & Emily and Katy & Tyler!

I have a testimony of DI!

2008-04-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how long it has been since I have updated my blog. You would think that after such a lapse in time I would have something seemingly more exciting to update you all on. Well for me, this is the most blog worthy event of my life the past few weeks.

I assume anyone who reads this has either been in this situation, or soon will be. Brent and I have found ourselves in a bit of a financial pinch the last little while...since...oh...let's see...oh, wait, we have been in a financial pinch since the birth of our first baby 5 1/2 years ago. So anyway, we are poor. Why you ask? Aren't we out of school, and Brent has an awesome job, and he was just made partner this year? That is exactly what we keep asking ourselves. Then we remember that between the government, the church, ALL of our student loans, our car, our home, Dr. bills, and a few absolutely necessary expenses (like water, electricity, garbage, etc.) we have no money left for entertainment or enjoyment. This month as it has been getting warmer we realized that it is time for some new clothes for Will. I also was reminded that the end of the summer last year I cleaned out my closest and finally got rid of any thing I have owned since High School. Believe it or not that pretty much wiped out all but a few of my summer clothes. Brent also ripped through 2 of his suits in the last couple of months and he is now in need of 2 new suits for work.

Feeling a bit excited about the idea of going and buying a few new things for myself and Will I went through the closets, storage room, and all dresser drawers figuring out exactly what our needs were. I came up with my list. I was very careful not to add my "wants" to the list, only "needs". After making my list I got an ad from JCPenny announcing their semi-annual "Buy one, get one $0.88 sale". I was so excited. Now I could go get what we needed, and get a "sweet deal".

Later that afternoon Brent called and informed me that his tire was flat on his car. We took it in to get it patched up and they told us he had to get new tires... he had been putting it off for a year and all 4 of his tires were completely bald. So we got new tires, 4 of them, all brand new tires on his old car, not cheap :( Oh, and did I mention that he had to get his car fixed the week before because it wouldn't start. So there was all of our extra money and some. Why does it always happen that way. Just when you think you are so totally broke, the most random, expensive, repairs-bills-replacements pop up, and then you give up all hope and go into more debt. Does it ever end?

Anyway, back to our clothing needs. I hit the Penny's sale after having cut my "needs" list in half and walked away having spent $80. How many items did I get for $80? only 6. For some of you, that might be amazing, but I was raised thinking, and still do, that a pair of jeans should cost $10 and a shirt $5. When it comes to kids clothing a pair of shorts should not cost $15 ON SALE! Kids clothes should all cost under $5. I expect to replace my wardrobe for around $100. Maybe that is why I hate shopping so much, because I am always so mad at how much everything cost. Does anyone else shop like me? You walk into a store and you don't even look an item of clothing, or try it on, you just walk around checking price tags and once you find one that matches what you were thinking of spending you check out. Then a few days later you realize what an ugly, misshapen, over sized, waste of money that purchase was. Needless to say, I have never been the best-dressed mom on the block.

After a few hours at the mall and having spent more money that I had budgeted, and not gotten even close to what it was we needed I was very frustrated. So I got the bright idea to check out DI. I have never been a successful DI shopper, probably because I can't stand to be in there for more than about 4 minutes, but I am pretty sure the Lord opened up the windows of heaven for me yesterday in the form of DI. I walked in and immediately found Will 3 pair of shorts for $5-total. I decided to give the women's section a shot and found myself 2 very cute, very nice pair of jeans for $4-each. Then I wandered around for a while feeling so excited about the fact that I just got our absolute necessities for $9 I wanted to see what other great deals I could find. I came across 2 little boys baseball gloves for $3. That is wonderful because the boys are starting baseball in the summer and we just recently returned some previously purchased baseball gloves from Target because we felt like they were too expensive. Then I decided to check out the kids books. This was just a big fat bonus for me. I spent an hour looking through all of the kids books and found so many good ones. It was like a school teacher had just dropped off her collection and I was there to pick it all up. I found close to 60 books that I wanted to buy, but I knew I shouldn't spend a lot on books even though they were all only $0.25-$0.50 each. So I put half of them back. I left DI having spent only $30. Half of that was on books!

Today we took a trip back to Pennys to return all of our "sweet sale" merchandise.

And so I end with this, I would like to bear my testimony, I know that DI is true!

Boys' First Movie

2008-03-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

This post is from Brent, and this is my first. Annie has been the one who has kept the blog up to date thus far, and so here is my first contribution. When I was a kid I used to love making movies. Now that I have kids, I now have an excuse to make movies again. This was the first one we made together. We have also done a Transformers movie that I will post in the future. I'm still trying to get the licensing squared away with Andrew (he won't let me post it unless he gets a royalty for each time viewed). Anyway . . . enjoy!

Mom takes too long blogging

2008-03-25T11:17:00.000-07:00

I guess I spent a little too much time blogging this morning instead paying attention to my crying baby. Jacob put himself down for his nap this morning because "I just had to finish this one post". I find myself saying things like that a lot. Please forgive me. Sometimes I forget my priorities. Sorry Jacob, you do look pretty peaceful now! I do love you.

Cute Boys

2008-03-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Annie!

2008-03-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

One more exciting thing happened on Easter Sunday. I received my Young Women's Medallion for completing my Personal Progress. I didn't get it as a Young Woman so I have been working on it for the past couple of years as a leader. I finished up my goals last week and was presented with my necklace in sacrament meeting on Sunday. I am very excited about it.

Jacob is Walking

2008-03-25T10:39:00.001-07:00

Jacob started walking last week. We had been practicing with him, but he still preferred crawling as of last Monday. We delivered some St. Patrick's Day cupcakes to Great Grandma Lucy and when we went in Jacob decided that he wanted to walk in her house. He amazed us all. Grandma said,"I didn't know he was walking". Well we didn't know either. Go Jacob! He is still wobbly but he sure is cute.

Easter Egg Hunt

2008-03-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

We had a very entertaining day on Saturday. We opted to participate in the Twin Falls city Easter Egg hunt at City Park. I had to convince Brent that although he would see half of his clients at such an activity it would be enjoyable for our children.

This was the first time we have ever done this. We read in the paper that the senior citizens at the nursing homes colored 300 DOZEN eggs! So we figured they probably needed help from our boys to clean up such a mess. We showed up to the city park and there really were thousands of eggs lying on the ground (not hidden as you can see in the photo). There were 4 sections of the park roped off for different age groups. We found the section for the 5-8 year olds, and somewhere across the park was the section for the 3-4 year olds. Not wanting to split up the family we snuck Andrew in with the 5-7 year olds. We went and found an empty space to stand while we waited to begin the "hunt". As we approached our spot the lady next to us said, "you know they have this sectioned off for different age groups". Apparently she felt threatened that her six year old girl might miss out on some potential hard boiled eggs, taken from our 3 year old boy. We kindly informed her that it was ok, we didn't want to split our family up.

The funniest part of the whole experience was that after the police siren sounded, hundreds of kids went running for the eggs. It literally lasted less than 30 seconds and the whole thing was over. We went to find our kids. First, we found Andrew. He was so excited he had gathered up 7 eggs. He was very proud of himself. Then we found Will. He was just mad. We went to see what the problem was and as we approached him we could see that his disappointment was a result of finding only 2 eggs. He had his eyes set on one particular egg at the beginning, and by the time he got the one he wanted he turned around and all of the other eggs were gone. Needless to say this was a very stupid egg hunt. We felt bad for Will, but could not stop laughing at what a bizarre experience it all was. We probably won't waste our time with that tradition in the future. All it took to cheer Will up was a trip to Artic Circle.

Happy Easter

2008-03-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

The Easter Bunny was good to our boys this year. We have spent the last two days watching and re-watching all of our new movies. We are sick from eating so much candy. But, aside from all of the goodies we had a wonderful Sabbath. We are so thankful for our Savior Jesus Christ, for his life and mission. We are thankful for the blessings that come to us all, through the atonement and resurrection. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter too!

Twin Falls Temple Dedication Announcement!

2008-03-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

The dates for the open house and dedication of the Twin Falls temple were announced today.
Everyone mark your calendars. The open house will begin on July 11 and go through August16. The open house will run Mon-Sat. The Youth Cultural Celebration will be August 23. The dedication will be held on Sunday August 24. Anyone is invited to attend the open house. This is a chance for the general public to view the inside of the temple and learn more about temples and the work we do there. If you have any questions on how to get tickets let me know. The goal is that everyone who would like to see the temple is given that opportunity before it is dedicated. Once it is dedicated it is closed to the public and open only to faithful members of the LDS church. This is truly a once in a lifetime experience that we are so excited about. For more information about temples you can visit http://www.lds.org/temples/home/0,11273,1896-1,00.html

New Favorite Movie

2008-03-16T19:52:00.001-07:00

Brent and I watched August Rush last night and we were blown away. It is sooooo good. We decided to show our boys the movie this afternoon. We thought they would enjoy the music. Will kept telling us, "I want to learn music, when can I learn music?" We pulled out Brent's guitar and he is still playing. It is nice to see a good clean movie. For anyone who hasn't seen it I would highly recommend it.

This is Will practicing his August Rush skills.

Cody Court

2008-03-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

The two things you should know before I tell this story, if you don't already know, is that Brent is an attorney, and our street is called Cody Ct. The boys have learned over the past year that when dad is getting dressed in the morning, if he wears his suit, he will be going to court that day. This morning as Brent, dressed in his suit, was kissing the kids goodbye, Andrew looked at him and said, "Are you going to Cody Court today?" We tried to explain that Cody Court was where we live and the courthouse is where dad goes to work. Andrew's response to that was, "NO, I said Cody (saying it with an accent making it sound something like K-YODEE) Court." The way he said it was as if he understood the difference between the two, it was us who did not understand him. The courthouse and Cody (pronounced-Kyodee) Court are the same thing. Cody Ct. and Cody (Kyodee) Ct. are two entirely different things. So anyone sending us any mail in the near future,make sure you are careful not to send any mail to Cody(Kyodee) Ct. it may end up at the courthouse. Just clarify with your postman before mailing.

Binky Babies

2008-03-12T14:14:00.001-07:00

Jacob at age 1 succumbs to a binky. We can't believe it! We can't tell you how many times we have tried over the past year to get Jacob to take a binky. We have spent so many Sundays pacing the halls of church because this boy loves to be noisy when he is tired and bored (like most babies I know). We have even tried to force it on him a few times. I went in to his room last week to check on him and found him sitting on his floor with his blanket sucking on a binky he found under his dresser. Who knows how long that had been there, or what was living on it. He didn't care. He loved it. He has been sucking on it ever since. He is so quiet now. I will put him down for a nap and have to guess when he is awake because when he does wake up he will just sit in there quietly sucking his binky until I come get him. (I've been able to get a lot more done this past week :)

Andrew too was a binky lover. Probably our worst. He has a new habit of sucking his bottom lip that just drives us crazy. His lower lip is always chapped. This is Andrew at 1year.

I promise this photo is from this century. This is Will at 1 year. We did not have a digital camera back then so the few pictures we have of him, I recall we always wanted the binky out. This is the only documentation I could find that he in fact loved his binky.

Twin Falls Temple Tour

2008-03-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

Brent and I had the privilege of taking a private tour of the Twin Falls Temple with the temple committee a couple of weeks ago. I just have to say what an amazing building this (and all temples) is. The construction is not complete, but they are hoping to have things finished up by April at which point they will turn it over to the church for all the finishing touches. (Detail work, decorating, etc.) I continue to find myself having experiences like this, thinking to myself, "Who am I, that I am here, having this experience?" I don't know the answer to that. I know that there are so many people more qualified, experienced, worthy, deserving, however you want to fill in the blank. What I do know from having these experiences, however, is that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me. I feel that this is another one of his "tender mercies" that he continually bestows upon me. I am so excited for the completion of this beautiful Temple when everyone will have the opportunity to see the House of the Lord in Twin Falls.

Thank You Twin Falls Public Library!

2008-03-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

One of the few winter activities there is to do in Twin Falls, is to go to story time at the public library. Since November, the boys and I have been going to story time every Friday morning. The boys usually sit and listen to the stories while I walk around with Jacob finding books and movies to check out for the week. We have been pretty consistent at taking home about 40 books each week. Each week as I check them all out I promise myself that I won't get as many next week. Then as we return the books the following Friday I remind myself of how annoying it is to haul 40+ books in and out of the library with 3 boys, and again promise myself that this week we will cut the number in half. This week I actually stuck to my promise for the first time in 4 months. I only found about 25 books this time. When I went to check out they reminded me that I had a "couple" of books on hold. I remembered that Will and I had looked online a few weeks prior at all of the dinosaur book options, and placed them on hold for when they were available at our library. Well the "couple" of books they had on hold ended up being about 25 more books. So I set a record this week for the most items I have ever checked out at one time.

The library has a limit of 50 items and today we met that...exactly.

I must say that as annoying, and I must say, stressful, as it is to haul out that many books each week with my boys, I must say I am grateful for the blessing it is. Believe it or not we return each week having read all of our books. So, today I am thankful for resources like the library that give me the opportunity to spend quality time with my boys, regardless of how inconvenient it may be for a few moments. I am also thankful for wonderful boys who love to sit with their mom each day to read.

New Template

2008-03-06T15:00:00.000-08:00

I am sure most of you bloggers out there know that it's not such a good idea to change your template all the time. (Before I go on I guess I should let you know that I am not the most intelligent blogger so there may be solutions to my annoyances that I am just not smart enough to have figured out. If that is the case feel free to fill me in on your blogging secrets so I don't continue having all of these problems.)

I had the brilliant idea at the beginning of the year to change my template with each holiday. What a good idea, right? That's why I have had my Valentine background on for so long. When I updated for Valentine's I learned a few things about my brilliant idea. The first thing I learned is that when you change your template, you erase all of your widgets and sidebars. So now, when I find the time, I will be redoing all of that. Second, it's just tough to find the "one" template that matches your personality/mood/lifestyle, without copying all of the cute ones that your family and friends already have. It's kinda like wearing the exact same shirt on the same day to the same place....that's embarrassing. So I have been looking at so many templates in preparation for the big day (today) when I finally take off the Valentine's template and do something more permanent. I really wanted to do something that was somewhat reflective of my family. Well I found the "one". It was love at first sight. I know some of you may be thinking, "what?" but those of you who know my family well, know that I have 3 dino loving boys. I don't think they will be spending too much time checking out our family blog enjoying the T-Rex, but I am happy to have found one that represents my family in one small way. I also don't think the copying thing will be an issue.

So, for now, and for the next long while, enjoy this dino page and think of my boys each time you check up on us.

Happy 1st Birthday Jacob/ Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-15T11:30:00.000-08:00

This was my Valentine's surprise from Brent!

I was out late on Wednesday night. We had a very late mutual activity and I got home at 12:30 am. When I walk in the door these were on the table. I was so surprised. Thanks Brent.

As you know Jacob was born on Valentine's Day. We combined the holidays and had a wonderful evening. We invited Annie's parents over. We had a steak and shrimp dinner that was incredible. (Thanks to my mom) After dinner Jacob (with help from his older brothers) opened presents and ate cake and ice cream.

This is how we do birthdays in our house. All 3 boys attack the gifts. I love this picture because you can see the joy on Will and Andrew's faces as Jacob's new gift is revealed.
Good gift Grandma and Grandpa Crandall -They all love it!

This is Jacob eating his cake. We may have another Justin Plane in the family. (He hated getting his hands messy) The frosting on his face was grandpa giving him a little help.

I have to add that his new high chair seat is Grandma and Grandpa Nielson's gift. Our old high chair gave us a few near death experiences...it was at the end of its life. Thanks Brent and Marcia for making our baby safe.

Happy Birthday Jacob. We love you so much. You have brought us one of the happiest years of our lives.

I have to explain this one :)

2008-02-15T11:10:00.000-08:00

Some of you may have seen this. For those of you who have not it's quite inspiring.

Katy (my sis-in-law) sent this to us the other day. I took it quite seriously.

To read it click on the link below. You may want to do what I did. Print a copy and put it on your refrigerator as a constant reminder!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_t-2_4XQoXiM/R7CBtgIgEeI/AAAAAAAAA8c/e0MnyuPMSZ8/s1600-h/housewife.jpg

So the picture of Jacob is what needs some explaining.

I am always looking for ways to be a better wife and mother. When I read this it was like an Oprah "light bulb moment". So I quickly made preparations for Brent's homecoming that evening. I put on a dress and some bright red lipstick (I don't own a bow for my hair so I thought some lipstick would do the trick), had a delicious hot dinner on the table for Brent when he walked in the door. I failed at keeping the kids quiet part (that is a work in progress).

Brent thought it was hilarious. My boys thought I looked like a freak. They kept asking me if I had to go to a meeting. We didn't get a picture of me, but had to pull out the camera after kissing all the boys on the foreheads. They thought it was so funny.

Speaking of Temples...

2008-02-12T14:31:00.000-08:00

Brent and I had the opportunity to attend the Rexburg Temple Youth Cultural Celebration this past weekend. I have to say this was definately one of the most uplifting, spiritual experiences in my life. One cool thing was that we sat about 10 ft. from Elder Nelson, Elder Bednar, and Elder Costa. WOW!

I think the President Hinckley was truly inspired when he came up with a way for the youth to be involved with their temple dedications. You could not be in attendance at that event and have any doubt about the gospel and the purpose of temples. The feeling of the spirit that night felt like the actual, physical presence of the Savior himself. It was truly an emotional experience. For those of you who may not know what a Youth Cultural Celebration is, let me explain. Before a new temple is dedicated the youth in the surrounding areas put together and perform a medley of song and dance that depicts the history of the area and how the church was established up to the present time. It really is a celebration. In our church culture, most spiritual settings we are very reverent. It was interesting to witness an event that was truly a "Party" to celebrate having a new temple. Even in that "party" atmosphere the Spirit was "unrestrained". I have always known that I belong to the true Church upon the earth. I feel that the Lord has blessed me with that gift, to know. I can say that after this experience, my faith in my Heavenly Father has been strengthened. I know He lives. I know we are all His sons and daughters. Each one of us play a very important part of His plan. I believe that we each have a purpose. First we must come to know that we are literal descendants of God. Second that we live to understand our purpose in this life. Third that we spend every day, relying on our Savior, to help us achieve that purpose. God loves us! He wants us to return to Him. We can do that through the blessings of the temple. I am so thankful for this blessing in my life. I hope that each of you may have these blessing in your lives as well.

I am so excited to be involved so closely with the Twin Falls Temple. I look forward to all of the events that will take place during the open house and dedication of our temple.

Twin Falls Idaho Temple at Night

2008-02-12T14:17:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I have taken pictures at the temple. For the past few months it has looked pretty much the same outside. I am not allowed to take photos of the inside of the temple, so until spring time when the plants start to green up, I don't feel a huge urgency to be there weekly. A few weeks ago they put up the lights on the Angel Moroni at night. I think (I hope) the lighting situation will be improved when the temple is closer to completion sometime this spring. You can see in the pictures that the lighting is pretty scattered. I am happy that we finally have some lights on it, so it can be seen at night. We are still waiting on word from the first presidency of when the open house and dedication will be. We are so excited for this experience. It will truly be a once in a lifetime exprience.

For more photos of the temple visit

tftemple.com

The Boys!

2008-02-12T14:03:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I have pulled my camera out. We had major snow day last week so the boys and I stayed in and made cookies, watched movies, and found some time to take some pictures. So here are my handsome boys.

Favorite Memories of 2007 - Happy New Year!

2008-01-09T13:29:00.001-08:00

I have had the opportunity to serve as the Twin Falls temple photographer. From the groundbreaking ceremony in April 2006 until the dedication, I am responsible for keeping a photographic history of the temple construction. My photographs are used in the "Temple Times" publication, and will be used in the history book that will be placed in the cornerstone of the temple. I have also had a few appear in the Church News. A compilation of my photos can be seen on the Twin Falls Temple website.

I am so blessed to be a part of this historic event. I have the privilege of working closely with so many wonderful people on the temple committee. We are preparing for the open house and dedicatory services that will take place some time this summer. For any updates or information about the Twin Falls temple visit the website at

tftemple.com.

Jacob playing on the shore of Redfish Lake.

Will and Andrew Halloween Costumes.

Will and Andrew with Brent at the Staley Family Reunion.

Jacob's Halloween Costume.

One of my favorite pictures of Jacob. He has such big blue eyes!

Will's first day of school!

Brent and Annie after helicopter ride over Twin Falls.

As the Twin Falls temple photographer I have had the opportunity to fly over the temple several times to take aerial photographs. Brent was able to come with me on this trip. We look forward to next time when we can take Will.

Will enjoying the beach at Redfish Lake.

It is difficult to get a genuine smile from Will when taking his picture,

but if and when you catch it, it sure is cute.

Andrew enjoying the bubble gun he got from Grandma Nielson for Easter.

Mom and Jacob at the pool. I took my boys to Las Vegas

this summer to visit Jaime, Eric and Teya.

So far my favorite picture of all my boys together.

Andrew, Will, and Jacob

Brent is such a wonderful husband and father.

One of our biggest accomplishments this year was getting Andrew potty trained.

If anyone is having trouble getting their little boy potty trained here is the solution.

After months and months of trying, it finally made sense to him when he could do it in the trees. (This is not a joke)
Just so everyone is not worried, we only let him do it while we were camping.

(Except in this photo...this was public city property...I just couldn't resist getting this shot)

The whole family got bikes this year for Annie's birthday.

We spent a lot of time this summer riding bikes together.

You can find these 2 Superheros at our house just about any day of the week.

If your ever in trouble give us a call we will send Superman and Batman your way.

I guess that's life when you have all boys!

Jacob's baby blessing on Easter Sunday.

This was our best Valentine's gift ever.

Jacob Gail Nielson was born

Feb. 14th 2007

1:05 am

6lb. 13 oz.

21 inches

Will reading to Andrew.

They are such good buddies. They do everything together.

So far, they get along very well.

Christmas Memories

2008-01-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

Will got his first "Shiner". He was bending over to kiss his brother and hit his eye on the corner of the desk. At least that's the version mom and dad will tell you. If you ask Will he will tell you about the fight he got in and how rough and tough it was. His favorite thing to tell people when they asked what happened was, "you should see the other guy".

One of Brent's many talents is that he is a wonderful writer. One of his family Christmas traditions growing up was that he would write a Christmas play and the kids would act it out for mom and dad on Christmas Eve. This year Brent wrote a play for the grand kids to act out.

This photo doesn't do it justice, but you can see how cute the kids were in their superhero costumes. The plot of the story was that Batman (Will), Robin (Lucy), and Superman (Andrew) hear of trouble in Bethlehem and try to help find a place for Mary to have the baby Jesus. In the end of the story all of the superheros realize that the real superhero is the baby Jesus.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We spent most of our break with Brent's family. It was good to have everyone together. We spent a day together at Starley's cabin and although our trip was short we had a lot of fun. Don't let this picture fool you, although there was a lot of snow and potential for some serious snow play, we spent most of the time relaxing in the cabin. We got all bundled up for the 3 minutes it took to snap this photo. We will blame that one on the kids. I think all 6 babies were crying by the time we finished our photo shoot.

Overall our Christmas was wonderful. It was wonderful to be together with family. We enjoyed talking to both of our Brothers who are serving missions (Eric-Russia and Aaron-Spain). That experience certainly brought perspective to our holidays. We are so grateful for the blessings we enjoy. We are thankful for our knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that it is because of a living and loving Father that we are so blessed. We look forward to the coming year and all of the blessings it will bring.

2007-12-11T15:45:00.000-08:00

This is Will with his friends. From Left to Right: Isaac Panter, Andrew, Will, Cameron Higley, Garrison Hammer, and Brec Thomas.

Will's 5th Birthday!

2007-12-11T15:14:00.000-08:00

We just celebrated Will's 5th birthday on December 6th! I can't believe it.

For our boy's birthdays we always just do family parties because both of our families are here in Twin Falls. It is much easier, that way I don't have to worry about keeping a bunch of little kids entertained...I would stink at that. So, in talking about his birthday we were discussing the usual plan of having a low key cake and ice cream celebration at our house with Grandmas and Grandpas. Well, now that Will is 5, he has been to a few parties for his friends and understands that birthday parties should consist of bounce houses, balloons and confetti everywhere, goodie bags, friends, friends and more friends. He wanted a friend party. So, we compromised. He got to choose 4 of his friends and we made it a family night birthday party. We held it at the bowling alley so that I did not have to provide the entertainment. We had pizza and did the cake and ice cream thing, and Will got the pleasure of opening gifts from his friends. It was very low stress and everyone had a lot of fun. Will was thrilled!

We can't believe how fast time flys. In five more years he will be 10. David, Brent's youngest brother was 10 when Brent and I got married. Now Dave is a senior in high school, preparing for college and a mission. So, a few blinks from now I guess we will be sending Will off on his mission and we will wonder where the time went.

Happy Birthday Will! We Love You!

Our First Blog!

2007-10-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

I still have no idea what I am doing. Thank you Katy for setting this up for us. We really do want a blog it's just that I haven't had the time to sit down and figure this out until now. I love looking at all of your blogs and seeing how well all of our family and friends are doing. I promise I will keep playing with this and get it figured out so I can give updates on us regularly.

Brent and I are living in Twin Falls, Idaho. Brent is working as an attorney at his father's law firm. I am home with our 3 boys Will (4), Andrew(3) and Jacob(8 mo). I have been running my own photography business on the side of being a stay at home mom for the past 5 years. I love photography and this has been such a blessing in so many ways for our family. The latest news in our family is that I have made the difficult decission to give up my photography so that I can put all of my efforts toward being a mom. I am happy about this decission and just hope that there will be a time later in my life that I can pick it back up.

For now, I am blessed to have the choice of giving up something I love and replace it with something I love so so much more, my boys (that includes Brent:)). They are the joy in my life.

Nielsonblog!

2007-09-12T11:11:00.001-07:00

We Started a blog!!

CELEBRATE!