My cute kids!

Just thought I'd show my kids off. We love going to our new park day. It's on wendesday's in case anyone is interested.

Here is Tyler climbing

Here's our Grace cute as ever!

Here is Andrew trying to be like is big brother and sister

The Newest Nielsen!

So Wade and Shelane had their 5th. Josh Asa Nielsen born 2.23.08 7lbs 1oz. and 21.5 inches long.
You can visit their blog to read more about him. But they're doing good. He was almost born on Trev's birthday. Yes today Trev is 30 and he is so excited about it :( Trev loves having all the attention focused on him and having a birthday on sunday is even better. It was actually a pretty relaxing day. I planned on getting up early to feed all the animals for him but he beat me outside so I helped him with the ones that were in the barn. It was raining so he feed Lady and Slick that are out in the field. I sent him to bed so I could make him his breakfast and have the kids serve it to him. They love birthday's. I try to decorate for every holiday because they love it so much. I didn't get to the streamers last night because I fell asleep early and so of course Tyler asked me when he got up where all the decorations were. Thanks Tyler I almost didn't feel guilty. We gave Trev some snowboarding pants, work pants, and a boot dryer. You put your boots on these sticks that dry your boots for you. It's been a long winter of rain so Trev has had to use the hair dryer a few times to dry out his shoes. So hopefully the hair dryer will last me longer. We rushed to get ready for church that starts at 8:30 a.m. and made it in time for the opening hymn. I teach the Book of Mormon to the 14&15 year olds' in the room that Priesthood has it's opening exercises in. So I decided to embarrass Trev a little and write a birthday message on the chalkboard for the entire Priesthood to see. He loved it!!!! J/K My mom made another delicious meal and then the opened a few presents, played apples to apples and then I had to drop Trev off at the church for a fireside. It was a busy but good day. Trev I love you and you will always be 23 to me. Thanks for all that you do for us! We love you! ( I would post a pic of Trev but he hates having his picture taken too so use your imagination).

The New First Presidency!

Wow does news travel fast, especially in the LDS community! I just heard this morning that President Monson is now the new Prophet (chills just ran up my arms), President Eyring 1st Counselor and President Uchtdorg 2nd Counselor. Just typing that made me realize that these men were called of God to lead us. I am so grateful for the Gospel, it's awesome. We had a meeting last night to realign the Lincoln wards, again, and we stayed in our ward. Nikki and Jared are back but we still couldn't get Britt and Chad in our ward. Britt lost a lot of friends in the split and she is bummed but understands growth is always good in the church. By the way Giants won the superbowl, that was kind've unexpected but we love the underdog don't we. The sun is out and I am inside cleaning. I love the sunshine through the windows though. It is just beautiful!

Bittersweet

Last Sunday we got to stay a little later at my parents house because Tyler didn't have school on Monday due to Martin Luther King Jr. day. So we got home late which usually means the kids sleep in a little bit the next day. I almost took the kids up to the snow by myself but when I woke up I decided I would just spend the day with the kids cleaning their rooms and just taking it easy. Well I get a phone call from Trev around 10:20 saying that Chris ( a lady that boards two horses at our house) is outside and she says that she thinks Duke is dying. So I get the kids situated so that I can run outside and check on him and by the time I got outside he had died. This is the big black horse that Grace and Tyler get bucked off of in September. He had this disease called HYPP which in layman's terms means that in his breeding he got a genetic disorder passed down to him that attacks your muscles. He had just recently been suffering from HYPP attacks which means that his muscles are spazzing out and you can see it rolling through his body. So I run outside to a dead horse that I had been holding a grudge towards because he hurt my Grace. So it starts to rain and I"m scrambling between making sure the kids are looking outside at him and trying to find blankets and tarps to cover up this huge horse. I was surprised at how hard it hit me. He was a beautiful horse and really had a cool personality. He was shown in some local horse shows and cleaned up really good. He was my dad's first horse and always would meet me at gate when we would get home from school and race us down the driveway as we pulled in to the garage he would run into his stall in the barn. He had a Stallion spirit. So that was a fun way to spend a day off.

Then on Wednesday I found out from Trev that some stuff from his job site got stolen, which really is the the norm now for us. Trev's brother and his wife came to visit, Mathew and Heidi, for Heidi's birthday. We had a lot of fun hanging out and celebrating Heidi's birthday. We went to Chuck e Cheese's for it on Saturday and wow was it crazy but we fun. They are such a cute couple and totally compliment each other. Heidi loves the kids and the kids love her. She is so much fun and is such a sweetheart. They flew home Sunday after dinner and then later that night we got the new that our beloved Prophet, President Hinckley died at home Sunday night. What a great man he was! I shed some tears during the Christmas Devotional this past year because you could tell his health was declining and he seemed a lot more fragile.

So he has gone home to be with his wife. Can you imagine the welcome home party he got! I will always remember his dear smile and spirit.

The week has been bittersweet, but winter always has it's bummer days. Man I can't wait for summer.

Nielsens at Yellowstone reunion

(From top left to bottom right: Wade, Hazel, Shelane, Wyatt, Heidi, Mathew, Jared, Nikki, Jacob, Lisa, 2nd row: Allan, Lora, Preston, Sandy, Oliver, Mira, Cristal, Owen, 3rd row: Trevor, Andrew, Tristan, Carson, Devin, Ethan, Christian, Wesley, Shane 4th row: Me, Grace, Taylor, Ian,5th row: Tyler, Isaac, Kaitlyn, Porter, Collin, Atali, Jorden =37)

I forgot to add this picture but you need to see just how many Nielsens there were at our Yellowstone reunion. This is Trevor's mom and dad and brothers and sisters and all the kids. This picture is updated for now until Shelane has her baby, good job shelane! This is the clan.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Santa brought me a new camera! Finally I can start annoying my kids again! We made the Trek east to Utah for Christmas with Trev's family and made it up to the Peterson's later on. We had an absolute blast. Yeah it's kind've hard to pack for five people plus presents but we totally were excited to go and really enjoyed spending an entire week. That never happens. Tyler finally got to play in the snow and make snow angels, and snowman, and sled and snow shoe. And he's not tired of it. Grace kept eating the snow and we had to keep taking her on a walk to find some clean edible snow. Andrew was attached to Dad the entire trip which was nice for me but I felt bad... somtimes. We played with cousins everyday and went sledding. Caught the BYU game, GO COUGARS! We really love visiting and loved our time with our Grandmas and Grandpa's. Keep watching for more updates. I should be doing this weekly now. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's.

About my blogging hiatus...

Some of you might be wondering why the sudden decline in new posts. We've been on a serious potty training schedule. I think I reached my limit on diaper changes and spending money on them when I know Grace is old enough to be potty-trained. So after spending long day with the stress of it all I went to work. I started doing some research and found a book online written by a mom/ day care provider who has potty trained over 300 kids plus her own three boys. Her only credentials is her experience and doesn't mess around with theories, and what psychologists say. Start pre-potty training months before by making sure to keep them as dry as possible. That means being on top of the diaper changing and yes avoiding that saggy diaper look. So I've already started with Andrew. So far Grace hasn't had an accident for a couple days and we throw the biggest parties ever when she goes no.2 in the toilet. I think I almost cried because I was so happy. Having the week off for Thanksgiving relaxed us a bit. Hopefully she will stay consistent while at school. We had a great Thanksgiving with my family this year and even managed to get some family pictures taken. So don't be surprised if you've already seen our picture when it arrives in your mail. Mom made an awesome meal with all the fixings' and Laura made sweet potato casserole. She did a great job. It was a full house, though we did miss Kyle a ton. It was really weird not to have him there but it sounds like he was well taken care of at a members house. I am so grateful for all our friends and family. We have so many good people around us and who support us. I am so grateful for my own family. It is so fun so see them grow and to watch them start new things. Trev is such a hard working, loving, and fun husband and dad. It's the kids highlight when dad comes home. They always give him such a grand welcome home hug. I'm usually in the kitchen waiting for my turn. Anyway that's what's new with us hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!