Brett's "Great Kid Award"

I am so very proud of Brett.  He was chosen as the boy recipient for the "Great Kid Award" for Payson Jr. High.  As explained in the award, "the award is intended to be given to the young man or young woman who has exemplified an attitude of service and support of their fellow students and a deep respect for their teachers...They simply need to be someone who everyone sees as a great person who goes out of their way to contribute to the success of others..they should be held in high esteem by their classmates and teachers and be seen as someone who is a friend with great personal integrity."

He had the award ceremony at Tahitian Noni. It was presented by the Utah Valley Chamber of commerce. They presented an award to them as well as gave them a bag with a bunch of goodies.  It was such a neat thing and I am so proud of Brett for being such a great example!

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Has it really been that long?

I win the award for the lamest blogger and mom.  I got onto my blog the other day and started to read some of my past posts.  I felt so bad because they include some really great memories that I would not have remembered otherwise.  I know I have said it before, but for nothing else I need to blog for me and the memories our family makes. 

We just completed a really awesome trip.  We took our whole family to Mexico City to see my parents.  It was SUCH a neat trip!  Everyone just loved it.  We drove down to LA to catch a flight from there into Mexico city.  It saved us about $2000.00 to do it that way so we figured it was worth it!  Another perk was that we were able to go to Disneyland for a day.  That was also fun.  It was amazing to me though how Disneyland took the back seat to Mexico.  The kids loved it there and especially loved being around the missionaries!!  Brett wanted to leave on his mission right then and go to Mexico.  What a cool experience!  We did a lot of "church" things and the kids did not complain once.  It was all spoken in Spanish too.  It is amazing that the spirit speaks to you no matter what language is spoken and the kids could feel the spirit.  We talked about the way we felt a lot and they could recognize it. 

It was also so fun to see my parents.  The kids and Jared had not seen them for nearly 2 years!!  I went last April with my sister and I get to go again with all my sisters in June!!  My little family is jealous.  It will be a lot of fun!  I will have to try and catch up with other things that have happened in the last year.

My sweet little man!

 I feel bad, it has been so long since I have posted anything.  My baby is growing like a weed.  He is such a joy.  We love this little guy so much!  He has had ear infections for the past 2 months and we finally had to get tubes.  The last 2 pictures are when he was in the hospital.  The picture on the left shows his gut.  Jared loves to take pics like this.  FYI he is a big boy, he is 20 lbs and he will be 5 months on the 23rd.  Can you believe it?  5 months!!  What a sweet boy!

My cute little Talker!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRVOR1-tcOs

JJ's baby blessing and smiley boy

JJ was blessed this past weekend.  We did it at our house because they were having a special stake conference.  It was great! All of our family's were there, minus my parents  :(  That was hard.  My mom and dad sent his blessing outfit from Mexico, so it felt like they were kind of there (not really though)  Jared gave him a beautiful blessing and it was wonderful!

He has also recently started smiling and I really am pretty sure there is nothing cuter then a smiling baby.  Love it!!

a laugh a minute

Shelby constantly cracks me up.  As we were sitting here eating lunch, she turned to me and randomly said, "mom if anyone barges into our house, you just let me take care of it."  I laughed and said, "well Shelby, what would you do?"  she answered, "Just kick him in the face"  I am so glad we are in good hands.

hALLoWeEn

We had a fun Halloween.  We went up to Logan to be with my sister and her family.  Logan is a place I have never been to.  It was beautiful!!  We enjoyed it very much!  It was tons of fun and can't wait to go up there again!! 

One neat story!

I have to share quite possibly one of the neatest things that happened the other night.  It was Halloween night  the kids were watching some Halloween show on the Disney channel.  I was upstairs with Jared.  When the kids were done with the movie, Shelby came upstairs to go to bed.  She proceeded to tell me the show they had been watching scared her.  (Joquelle later imformed me that it was not at all scary, but it must have been to a 5 year old).  I told Shelby she would be fine and that I would leave her door open and leave the bathroom light on.  After she had fallen asleep I had gone into her room to pick some dirty clothes, I was fixing the blinds which were turned the wrong way (yes I am OCD) and I woke her up.  She looked and me and began to sob uncontrollably.   I asked her what was wrong and she said through her tears, "He is gone, I want to see him, but he is gone."   

"who is gone, I asked"

"Jesus" she answered, "He was here and I want to see him, but now he is gone"

I asked her if she has been dreaming and she said yes.  I was dreaming about Jesus.  I told her to go back to sleep and that maybe she would see him again.

In the morning I asked her about that "dream"  I asked her if she was able to see Jesus again.  She told me that she "dreamed" of him all night long that she saw him over and over again.

She then told me that she had prayed before she went to sleep because she was scared.

Heavenly Father answers prayers.....Even to 5 year olds!

JJ's pics

I have such an awesome neighbor who took these pics for me.  I love them.  I could have posted a million more, but I chose some of my favorites!

Blah!!! Boy do I feel ungrateful!!

I don't understand life really.  I look at my life and honestly things could not be more perfect.  In the last month my husband has had not one, but two promotions at work.  He just got offered a job in HR with his company, which is such a blessing.  He started a masters degree a little while ago and I have to be honest I was nervous about it.  He hadn't really been using his bachelor degree.  I didn't want to spend more money for more school, but he told me that he felt really good about it.  I supported him and  he couldn't have been more right.

After just having been made a supervisor, they posted a job for an HR Business Partner.  They NEVER have openings in HR.  He told me he was going to put in for it.  I told him that made me nervous, I didn't want people to think he was ungrateful, he had just been made supervisor!  He did it, and I am so glad he did!!  I know he will do great and he is super excited!!

Then there is our beautiful new baby.  He could not be any sweeter.  It is safe to say that we are all in love with him.  It is true that he is a newborn and doesn't sleep the best, but hey what can I expect.

Anyway, with all this goodness in my life...I still feel Blah!!  Maybe it is because after a few weeks of feeling somewhat skinny with that baby out of my body I realize that I am so NOT and I have lots to lose.  Maybe it is that my mom and dad aren't here and have not seen my baby in person and won't until he is 3 (unless I am able to go to Mexico with him)  Maybe it is because on of my best friends (my sister) just moved to Logan and I can't stop by her house any time I want.  I don't know, I guess I am just venting.  I feel guilty for feeling Blah, but I do.  I know I can be a major pessimist, that is definitely a weakness I have.  I am trying to get out of this funk.  Sorry for the lame-O post, but I just had to get it out!!

I can't get enough!!

As if you cannot tell I kind of like this little guy!  I can't get enough of him!!  He has been under bili lights for the last 2 days so none of us have been able to hold him NEAR enough!!  He still is young, but is so content and sweet, he rarely cries.  He is so calm.

Meet JJ Ryder Nielsen

Here is our newest family favorite!!  Boy do we love him!!  9lbs 7oz!  20.5 in. long.

I do have to share the story of his name because it is actually a cool story!!  When I first got pregnant Jared decided he loved the name JJ.  I was not absolutely keen on it and would tell him we would see.  He got the kids all on board with the name and that is what they would call him.  We decided when I was about 6 months pregnant that JJ was not the name and were thinking of several others.  Trevor and Shelby refused to quit calling him JJ. 

On our way to the hospital we had decided that his name would probably be Ryder.  I told the Dr. that and he said he really liked it.  After he was born the Dr said, "so is his name Ryder then?"  I said, "I don't know Jared, is it."  The Dr then said, "Do you guys like BYU football" we told him that we did and then he said, "this kid is big, he looks like a running back, you should name him JJ"  I could not believe it!  I told the Dr. that is what Jared wanted to name him.  I took it as a sign and low and behold, his name JJ Ryder Nielsen.  I have to admit I absolutely LOVE IT!!