The Nielson's: September 2008

I want to use this blog to keep somewhat of a journal of our lives. I've tried keeping the handwritten type of journal and I have one entry last October and that is it. This may be the longest post in blog history, but I'm going to re-cap some of the events that took place in September. This may occur in several posts...

For Labor Day, Jim, Ryan, and I went over to Oak City to visit with Jim's family. We actually went over to borrow Jim's dads metal detector. My dad keeps his glasses hanging from the collar of his shirt so when he bends over to pick something up, they occasionally fall out. He doesn't realize they are gone until he goes to put them on again, which could be hours later. This time he lost his glasses (for the 100th time now) in the squash patch. He's been lucky before and has found them, but his time he wasn't so lucky. We broke out the metal detector as soon as we got home and started looking for the glasses. I actually saw them right before Jim was going to use the metal detector over where they were laying. I took a picture of my dad holding his newly found glasses. (BTW, I took this picture in the event that I started a blog I could blog about it, haha)

Jim using the metal detector to find my dad's glasses in the squash patch

Still looking....

My dad with the dirty, bent glasses we recovered

The next day, September 2nd, was Ryan's 6 month birthday. I got the idea from another person's blog to make Ryan a 1/2 birthday cake since he is 1/2 a year old. However, my cake was not even close to being as cute as the girl's that I got the idea from. How do you frost a cake without getting crumbs in the frosting?? I even put the cake in the freezer for about 45 minutes to see if that would help. We also met Jim in Spanish Fork that afternoon to get Ryan something to wear for his 6 month pictures that were the next day.

The cake--after we'd had a piece or two

Ryan by his cake. Yes, I let him have a taste or two :)

The 1/2 birthday cake. It doesn't look too appetizing, but it tasted fabulous. My dad said he couldn't wait until Ryan turned 7 months old so we could have more cake :) I took that as a compliment, haha.

On September 3rd we had Ryan's 6 month pictures taken. I had them taken by Peekaboo Photography in Pleasant Grove. She does an awesome job; I wish I had her talent. I keep trying to think of things I could do for her so I could trade her and have her take pictures of Ryan all the time. Ryan did really well with the pictures and only started to get a little tired at the end of the hour long session. Here are a few of the pics she took. It was hard to choose what to post they are all so cute.

Ryan loved this sheep skin rug. He cried when we got him out.

I took a Quickbooks class at Squire in Orem on September 9th. My mom was so nice to watch Ryan for me while I was gone. I had to leave the house at 7:15am to make it to the class on time and I didn't get home until about 2:30pm. She said he was really good and didn't really cry. For those of you who don't know, Ryan is pretty much a momma's boy. If he can see me, he'll want me to hold him. It's nice to be loved, but it seems like I don't get much done. I've even tried the baby carriers where he is in the front and that's even more of a hassle cause he's like a little octopus and his arms and legs can grab anything and everything. SO, I left before he was awake so he didn't see me before I left. I was relieved when she said he was fine while I was gone. OH, and he managed to sleep in that morning until 9am. He usually gets up around 7:15am or so. He's always an awesome sleeper for my mom :)

While Jim was in Iraq, he was given the St. Barbara's award. St. Barbara is the patron saint of field artillerymen. Every year the field artillery has a social, the Red Leg social, to celebrate St. Barbara and induct new members into the order. On September 12th, Jim and I went to the Red Leg social that was held at the downtown Hilton. Jason, Amy's husband, was also given this award while serving in Iraq so we went to the social together. I was so glad they came; it was so nice to have someone to talk to. We had dinner (that was acutally pretty good), visited, and sat through a never ending program. They gave us a program with times listed by each item on the program. The last item on the program was listed at 2200 (or 10pm) so I was freaking out. My mom was tending Ryan for us and I knew we wouldn't get home until Midnight coming from downtown. Luckily, Ryan was asleep when we got home and slept pretty good that night. We had a good time, and it was nice to go on somewhat of a date with Jim.

Me & Jim

Jason & Amy

The group

The next day, September 13th, we went to my nephew Cade's baptism. After, we went to the Nielson's house to celebrate his birthday and baptism. We had dinner and yummy cake. Paula has a lady that makes cakes for her kids' birthdays. They are always the best, moist cakes you'll ever have. I need to get the recipe for her cakes; they are delicious.

Cade with his dad, Casey

The Nielson crew--Paula holding Sophie, Casey holding Nick, Zach and Cade

September 13th was also my niece Madeline's 6th birthday. We celebrated her big day on Sunday the 14th with a dinner and more yummy birthday cake at their house in Herriman (can you tell I love cake, haha--I developed a terrible sweet tooth after I had Ryan. It's worse than ever). She loves Hannah Montana so all of the gifts she received had something related to Hannah Montana. She was pretty excited with all of her new stuff.

Madeline with her new Hannah Montana guitar.

After Jim got back from Iraq at the end of May, we knew we needed to get our own place. About a week before Jim left last June, I had a complete melt down thinking about living alone. My mom came to our apartment in Spanish Fork and told me I didn't have to live alone and move back home with my mom and dad. So, I did and am I ever so glad that I did. The next month we found out we were expecting and I was sick the entire 9 months. I threw up clear up to the morning that I delivered Ryan. Anyway, it was a good thing for me to move back in with my parents. Now that Jim is home, we decided to start looking for a home. We started looking and were a little discouraged. Everyone had said that prices of homes were so low and that it would be so easy to find a house. Well, with me not working, we had a target house payment budgeted and wanted to stick to it. The only way we were going to get a house in our price range was to buy a dump. We kept looking with our realtor, Dave. Dave decided to show us one of his listings. The price of the house was a little out of price range, but he thought we could offer about $15k less than what they were asking and they'd probably accept it. Well, after all of the offers and counteroffer BS we finally closed on a house on August 29th. We started moving all of our stuff in that weekend--we had stuff in my dad's storage units, in my mom and dad's basement, in Jim's storage unit in Provo, and in my mom and dad's house. Oh, and all of the stuff that was in storage had about an inch of dust on it so everything had to be washed. It's made our moving experience even more joyous. We finally got blinds on September 16th. With the help of my mom watching Ryan, I was able to get the bulk of our stuff washed and put away so we could move in. We actually still haven't moved in--we just need to move the stuff we've been living with at my mom and dad's up. We've been pretty busy on the weekends so we haven't made the big move yet. We're hoping to do it this week though. I'll post pictures of our house later--I don't have any on my computer.

That weekend was my cousin Jamie's wedding. On Friday September 19th, we went to Jamie and Jesse's wedding dinner. We had ham, yummy potatoes, corn, salad, rolls, cherry cheesecake, and rootbeer to drink. It was really good. On the 20th we attended the wedding ceremony and reception. It was a beautiful wedding and Jamie was a gorgeous bride.

Jamie's sister Jakoye, her mom Barbara, and Jamie at the wedding dinner

Me, Ryan, and Jim at the dinner

Kael and Kaitlyn (Jakoye's cute daughter) at the dinner

Jamie & Jesse Kendall

Jamie's cute cake

Grandma J giving Karlie a kiss. Look how cute the bridesmaids and flower girl dresses were.

I love polka dots.

Jim, Me, and Ryan at the reception

Jamie's brother Joel & her dad Tony

On Saturday the 21st, we drove over to Oak City to give Grandma Guin her birthday present. Guin celebrated her birthday on Wednesday September 18th. Happy Birthday Guin!

Ryan sitting with Grandma Guin reading a book. This was the only picture we got of our trip over to Oak City.

On Friday September 26th, we went to Annie and Cory's new house for a BBQ. My old roommate Kristy came as well as Clint Markland. We've been wanting to get together and go to dinner since Jim got home in May. I don't know what the deal was, but we just barely got together. We kept changing the date and the time and the place. When we finally decided when to ge together, Kristy told us that she'd put it on her calendar in pen so we couldn't change in anymore. I thought that was pretty funny. Anyway, we had good food, good laughs, and a good time all around. I miss seeing Annie and Kristy every day.