Happy Birthday Z!

We went to Alpine today to celebrate Zach's 7th Birthday. The weather turned out really nice and the food was great, too. Ribs, wings, and pulled pork were served from Holy Smoke. A family friend of the Nielson's (Casey's side of the family, not Jim's haha) owns Holy Smoke. It's in Layton and it has scrumptious food so I hear. What I tried at the party was really good though. We also had baked beans, rolls, salads, fruit, and cake and ice cream.

The kids had a great time playing outside. I don't think Ryan sat still for more than 5 minutes. He was either playing in the sand box, with the kids, or with the plethora of toys. After eating, Ryan was running back to the sand box. There were kids swinging and I was afraid he was going to walk right in front of the swings and get hit. So I went after him yelling his name to stop. Dallin said to me, "Annie, let Ryan play!" Dallin is only 4--he is so funny :) Dal loves playing with Ryan and Ryan loves playing with Dallin. Dallin will chase Ryan and Ryan loves to be chased.

Ryan had fun riding on the trike, but after awhile it was wearing on my back. So my mom took a turn pushing him on the trike since his legs won't reach the peddles. Paula went and got this little car for Ryan to ride in so we wouldn't have to bend over anymore. Ryan loved it! Madeline would push him in the car and he would laugh. He had the biggest smile on his face. The best part is how he put his little arm--he propped it up on the seat. It was like he was so cool in the little car. Paula was so nice and let us take the car home for Ryan to play with. She made sure it was ok with Casey--he said it was a one way deal and didn't want it back :)

Ryan fell asleep before we had even left Alpine. He was completely wore out. He didn't eat much at the party so I tried to give him some fruit when we got back to our house. He was soo tired that we just gave him a bottle and he went right to bed and slept the whole night. Ry was exhausted :)

We had a great afternoon in Alpine. Happy 7th Birthday Z!!

Zach with his Star Wars cake--it's actually some character from Star Wars but I'm not up with my Star Wars

Z licking his candles

Nick enjoying the party

Molly holding Ryan while we sang "Happy Birthday" to Zach

Ryan on the trike

My mom pushing Ryan on the trike

Ryan in the car--notice his arm :)

Driving the car

Dallin--the kid who used to HATE to have his picture taken--asked me to take his picture on his bike. I was shocked :)

I love the smile on Ryan's face. He was having so much fun while Madeline pushed him in the car.

Another picture of Ryan smiling in the "Coupe"

Ryan probably thought his car was really chasing Dallin, haha.

Look at that cheeser

Madeline showing Ryan all the bells and whistles of the car

Going fast in the car

I am 34 weeks today--not the best picture but I feel bad that I haven't been as dedicated to taking belly pics with this baby as I was with Ryan.

Just Another Saturday

Today we finally cleaned out our garage. It was driving me crazy--we still had boxes of crap that we hadn't unpacked and just junk everywhere. Now the boxes of crap are downstairs (that's the next project, but we need some shelving down there first). After organizing as much as we could (we have one shelf in the garage so we need some more or some cabinets...it will come with time) and putting and throwing stuff away, we swept, vacuumed, and mopped the garage floor--I mopped the garage floor and Jim thought I was OCD for doing it, but it does look so much better now :) I even washed the blinds, windows, and window sills of the two windows in our garage. It seriously makes me feel so much better about life that our garage is clean. I'll feel even better when the basement looks the same, haha.

We found one of the Army hat's that Jim's mom made for Ryan. It was a bit small for Ryan's head--Jim said it could be a welder's hat. Ryan is into hat's these days--it used to be I couldn't get him to leave one on his head for more than 1/2 a second--so he left the "welder's hat" on all afternoon. He looked so silly. A little boy selling brooms for Intermountain Handicap Services came by this afternoon, too. The duster that Ryan is carrying in the pictures is what we bought. Usually I don't buy stuff, but I felt like we should help the handicapped for some reason. Jim was really nice and gave the boy a root beer--he was walking selling the brooms and it was really hot today.

We also put a tree ring around one of our tree's. It wasn't what I had pictured but it turned out ok. I love that there is a distinct circle around the tree now. I can't wait until we get an "edge" or whatever you call it around our flower beds so there is a distinct line around them as well.

We had a really good day. I love doing yard work and making things look nice, but it is definitely hard work. I hope our yard will look as good as my dad's one of these days--I hope he doesn't get sick of me always calling and asking for advice :)

Ryan running with our new duster...if he could only really dust with it :)

Being silly with his welder's hat on

He is so full of it

This picture makes me smile--he looks like such a big boy and I love his mug in this pic

Ryan helping put the tree ring in. We were actually trying to get a picture of the snot bubble he kept blowing, but just as soon as we'd get ready to snap the pic the bubble would pop. I know, it's disgusting but it was pretty funny, too. We did wipe his nose after we got our pictures, haha.

Ryan checking out the tree

1 year ago today...

Jim came home from Ft. Bliss, TX and was home for good from Iraq--wahoo! I can't believe it's already been a year...time flies :)

The 145th came in over a three day period--Jim came in on the second day, and his flight came in around 11:30am. Jim sent me a text message at 9:45am and said he was on the plane. I about had a coronary. I couldn't believe he was actually coming home for good.

I can't remember what time we left Levan that morning--I'm sure it was around 8am or so...we didn't want to be late. Plus, we had to stop and get the balloons I had for Jim filled. Right after Jim left the year before, we went to Keaton's 2nd birthday party. Amy had this way cool "2" balloon for Keaton. She told me they had letters and numbers and that I should get them for Jim when he comes home either spelling his name or his unit. She was so nice and got the balloons for me, I just had to get them filled the day he came home. The balloons were HUGE when they were filled. They almost didn't fit in the car--we had two letters of Jim's name in the trunk and one in the back seat of the car. So we get to the Salt Lake Airbase (SLAB) and we pop the trunk to get the balloons out. It was so windy and we didn't know the balloons weren't fastened to their strings that red hot and we lost the "J" to Jim's name. I was so bummed. We took the "I" and the "M" but people were probably wondering what we were trying to spell, haha.

Jim kept texting me letting me know where they were. I still have the texts saved...I can't bring myself to delete them for some reason :) Here is what he would text me:

11:27am: We are over Kennecott now
11:29am: We are over Antelope Island
11:34am: We just landed

Earlier that day I had texted Jim and told him to look for the big silver balloons spelling his name. After we lost the "J" I told him to look for the balloons spelling "IM." He sent this text back:

11:39am: You lost the J? Priceless :) That's funny

When Jim texted that they had just landed, we headed out side to wait for them to get off of their plane. I think I started sweating at that time, haha.

Little Ryan, 2 months--almost 3, waiting for dad to come home

Grandma Guin holding Ryan




Me holding Ryan. Notice Ryan has cotton balls in his ears. I thought it would get way loud and I didn't want him to get scared so I put cotton balls in his ears to muffle the noise :)




The plane had landed so we went outside to wait. The Patriot Riders were there with the flags lining the aisle the soldiers walked down when they got off of the plane. It was really neat.



Some of the nieces and nephews holding the signs they had made for Jim

Still waiting for the troops

The plane pulled up...

This Patriot Rider motioned for me to come over and told me thanks for letting my husband be away, and that the real heroes were the women at home. It made me cry--I was trying to be so strong and not cry that day either, haha.

It was really hot outside waiting. I was afraid Ryan was going to get sunburned.

Finally, the soldiers start getting off of the plane.

And here he is!!

Jim's dad giving him a hug

Jim talking to his nephew Will

Giving his mom a hug

Jim talking to Gabe--Gabe is fascinated with the military and always has the funniest questions for Jim. I asked Jim if he remembered what Gabe was asking him but he couldn't remember. It was a pretty hectic day, I probably wouldn't remember either :)

My dad giving Jim a hug

My mom giving Jim a hug

Jim holding baby Ry for the first time being home

The little guy fell right to sleep

We had to get a picture of the balloons I got Jim. I was so excited and thought they'd be so neat...I was bummed when we lost the "J." It still makes me sad.

Zach and Maddie at the SLAB

After Jim got his bags, we went to Noodles & Company in Draper to get a bite to eat. After, Jim's brother Jerry took us to Phoebe Draper Palmer Brown's grave in the Draper Cemetery (the pictures must be on my mom's computer...I'll have to get them because they are pretty cool). My mom has always wanted to see it so we took the opportunity to go. After seeing the grave site, we went home to Levan. Jim's parents came over to the house and chatted for awhile. I'm not sure what we did for the rest of the day/evening--I think it was so surreal that he was home that I can't remember much...it was all a blur :)

I'm so glad Jim is home. It was very stressful and emotional to have him gone, but it was also an experience that not many have and I have to say I've learned a lot from it. He still teases me because I told him while he was in Iraq that I missed him so much and I'd never fight with him again because it just isn't worth it. Ha--that didn't last too long. Even though we have a little squabble here and there, I still don't want him to go back to Iraq. He is full time in the Army though so he always has the possibility of being deployed. And if he does, you'll know where to find me...I'll be right back down in Levan with my mom & dad :)

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a very good Memorial Day weekend. Jim came home a little early from work on Thursday and we went to Home Depot to get some wood seal/stain to put on our little deck. Home Depot and Lowe's always give the military a discount for Memorial Day so we decided to use it. We came home and Jim stained the steps of the deck. He decided to do the hand rails, etc. the next day.

On Friday, Jim mowed the lawn. After he was done (so he could watch Ryan) I cleaned the bathrooms. That is something I can't do without someone to watch Ryan. He gets in the cleaner and the toilet, ugh. Anyway, it's just easier if Jim is there to watch him while I clean the bathrooms.

My friend Alisha had called me on Thursday and asked if I was available to go and get a facial. Her sister in law in in estetician school and needed a model to do a facial on. Since Jim doesn't work on Friday's and he didn't have drill I was able to go. It was really fun. After I got home from getting my facial, we went back to Home Depot and purchased a weed eater. Jim did a little weed eating when he got home. It's amazing how much better the lawn looks after we cut down all of the tall grass that was against the fence, etc.

On Saturday, we got up and finished staining the deck. It took awhile though. I started out helping Jim but then Ryan kept getting in the stain and got whiny so I went and put him down for a nap. But, he only slept for about 45 minutes so Jim did most of the deck by himself. It finally got finished though and looks really nice. That's pretty much all we got done on Saturday :)

On Sunday we went down to Levan for dinner and to decorate graves in the Levan Cemetery. The Roper's and the Brenchley's also came down for the day. It was alot of fun to visit and of course Sunday dinner is always good. My Aunt Nancy came down to put flowers on my grandparents grave so she came to the house for a visit, too.

Ryan checking out the headstones in the Levan Cemetery

The fam standing around chatting

My dad--he spent 4 hours along with four other men weed eating around the headstones in the cemetery. Needless to say, the cemetery looked really nice this year.

Ryan loved the all the pin wheels on the graves

My dad with his sister--Aunt Nancy

Ryan was really respectful and sat down on one of the headstones :)

We spent the night in Levan. Then on Monday, we went over to Oak City for the Edgar Nielson Family Reunion. Jim's dad asked if Jim would dutch oven some chicken for the reunion so we had to go over early enough so he could get his chicken cooked. Jerry was also doing chicken, and they both cooked potatoes in the dutch oven for their mom.

Jim & Jerry cooking dutch oven

Jim in his sweet apron

Ryan playing while Jim cooked

I just love his little smile in this pic

Jim taking a Pepsi break while cooking :)

Gabe found this bird in the yard. It had a broken wing. We were all disgusted that he was holding it especially when he came up and told us it was bleeding, ugh. We made sure he went in and washed his hands in hot water with soap. Hopefully no one gets the gungboo from the sick bird.

Jerry holding Ryan at the Family Reunion

I was being lazy, ok I was tired of chasing Ryan around the park so Jim's sister Wendy took Ryan over to the playground to swing. He loves to swing. They said he had the biggest smile on his face. It had only been about 5 minutes and I looked over and Ryan was hunched over in the swing. I didn't know if he was looking at the ground or what so Jim and I went over to see what was going on.

Ryan had fell asleep in the swing! Poor little guy--all hunched over. It looks so uncomfortable to me. But it was pretty funny.

We took him out of the swing and Wendy held Ry while he had a little snoozer at the park

Rheannon found a Mountain Miller at the park. If anyone knows me, I am deathly afraid of moths--they just flutter around and give me the creeps. I was dying when she brought this ginormous moth over. I was fine as long as she kept it far away from me. This is Riley holding the moth--he looks a little tense to me :)

Jim's cousin's little boy Quaid checking out the moth

Jim got to visit with some of his high school buddies at the park

Eliesia and Maddison giving Moose a ride

We went to the Oak City Cemetery that evening. It was cold and windy. Grandma Guin holding Ryan at the cemetery.

Checking out the old headstones at the cemetery--Jim says the grave they are looking at is one of Joseph Smith's wives graves.

I think this picture is way cute--Ry on Grandma Guin's shoulders

One of the creepy headstones at Oak City Cemetery. It reads, "Weep not for me my children dear, I am not dead just sleeping here." The headstone is from 1888.

We had a really good weekend. Thanks to all of the servicemen and veterans for all that you do and have done for our country.

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan -- to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

~ Abraham Lincoln, 2ND Inaugural Address