More and more of Lucy's wedding

After Lucy's wedding ceremony in the Salt Lake City Temple,
 family and friends went to the Memorial House nearby for
 Lucy and Andrew's celebration dinner.
The Memorial House is a quaint little spot in the beautiful
canyon of Memory Grove Park near the Salt Lake City capital building.
 It was so charming.

Here are some favorite photos of the evening:

Court and Chris, and the mother of the bride, (Umi):

Jane with her cousin Lydia. 
Jane looked like this most of the night; she was so happy:

Claire and Jane both get a chance to dance with Grandpa.
at this magical October wedding:

It was so fun to be together with family and friends
at the wedding dinner....especially Mr. Nielson mmm mmmm...

Elizabeth

Christian's littlest sister Elizabeth was married today
in the Mesa, Arizona temple.
Pretty crazy that Christian and I both have little sisters getting married
within a few weeks of each other.

The ceremony was so beautiful.
I hope they remember the promises they made together and with God.
I hope they remember the love and spirit felt in the temple.
And I hope they remember how much their family and friends love them.

 Nicholas was a good boy and slept most of the time.
During the marriage ceremony, he was in the capable hands of my
Nielson nieces, and this time we were a little more prepared, and there was
no need for a breast-feeding temple patron to feed a grumpy Nicholas.
But the report was that he slept the whole time.

Christian's brother Stephen looks a lot like Jane.
 It's the orange hair.

Claire's dream came true: 

Two aunts getting married within two weeks of each other.

Two parties, two flower girl dresses, and two cakes, 

and lots of cousins.

 After the wedding, Mr. Nielson and I talked about our wedding.
Our wedding day was the best day ever.
I remember the ceremony, I remember how I felt, and I remember
the way Christian looked at me.

I'm crying now.

I'm 5, I'm 5 I'm A Big Girl Now I'm 5...

On October 29th, my oldest child, my little Claire,

 turned FIVE!

Before the cake, Umi had all of the party guests gather around her as she

shared a really spooky story with the help of the flannel board.

This is the same scary childhood story she told all her kids.'

 school Halloween parties. It never got old, and somehow, it

was always scary, even though I knew how it ended.

At the end of the story, Umi screams like a witch, 

which is super scary and unexpected. 

As a child, I'd look at her and sometimes wondered if she was really my mom.

It was that scary.

Everyone loved the story so much that they wanted to hear it again!

It was that good!

Later in the evening, a very special visitor stopped by; Mrs. Fairy Bones

 came to wish Claire a happy birthday. 

She brought treats for all the "good children" and asked

 them what they were going to be for Halloween. 

Essentially, she was like a Halloween version of Santa Claus.

Mrs. Fairy Bones is a fictional character that I created for the bedtime stories.

 I tell Claire and Jane at night.

 For the past two years, I have been telling them wild and magical 

stories about two fairies named Ali and Leah. 

The girls love these stories, and I make them up as I go along, 

without any particular storyline or logical sequence.

But there are a few characters who are always in them, and Mrs. Fairy Bones

is one of them, so having her at the party was a huge hit!

This year, Claire asked for ghostie cupcakes.
Lucy and Courtney came to help me bake and decorate these little
guys in Umi's kitchen.
Lucy had just gotten back from her honeymoon, and while we cooked
Lucy shared with us her favorite parts of her honeymoon with Andrew.
Well, not her favorite, favorite parts, but you know.
We had a few good laughs too.

Later, as we (me, my mom, Lucy, and Courtney)were putting Claire to bed 
 decided to go around the room and share one thing we loved
about our little "Toad," which is our nickname for Claire.
Umi could barely speak; she was feeling so emotional.

My top five favorite things about Claire are:

1. Claire is so willing to help-, especially with Nicholas.

2. Claire always smiles and takes a sincere interest in others, and is very honest.
For example: "Mom, I don't much like your shirt today, but I sure love ya!"

3. Claire loves to learn and takes school seriously.

4. She looks like me!

5. Claire has always been one of my best friends; 

we always laugh at the same things together.

HAPPY 5th CLAIRE!

A BOY

Ladies and Gentlemen:
I had a baby!!!!!
Welcome to Earth
Nicholas Jones Nielson

October 6, 2006, 3:18 pm

8 pounds, 14 ounces, and 22 1/2 inches long.

Let's just round it up to 9 POUNDS!!!!

14-hour labor.

Nicholas was successfully and safely born at home.

After delivery, I requested a Cafe Rio salad, and while I ate that salad,

 Christian and my midwives told me all the 

crazy things I yelled during labor.

We (especially ME) are so grateful Nicholas has arrived!!!

September Sadness

I took this photo when we lived in New Jersey.
September 11th was very close to home for Jersey folks.

I promise I won't forget.

Labor Day Visitors

My parents and siblings promised me that going to the BYU football game
 was not the only reason they came to Arizona last week.
Of course not! I knew they wanted to come to the extreme heat to watch
my kids dress up and dance in front of them
in the living room over and over again.

Luckily for all of us, Lucy brought her fiancé Andrew, too!

He is such a cool dude and was so cute with my babies!

My sister-in-law, Lindsay, (who is also pregnant) chatted with me about 

how sometimes it feels like aliens reside in our bellies.

Highlights of the trip included:

*Antique shopping in downtown Mesa with Courtney. 

Courtney found a really cool necklace that she really wanted
until we saw the $150.00 price tag.

And after further investigation and contemplation,
since I was pretty sure the necklace was plastic,

we found out it was really $1.50 minus the extra 20% off!
SOLD!

*Shopping with my mom. 

She pampered my children with sticker books, new PJs, dance slips, 

books, and yummy lotion for the new baby.

*Eating out with Lucy and her new manfriend, Andrew, who

I LOVE and whole-heartily accept as my new future brother.

Lowlights included:

*The trip was WAY too short.

*Getting grief for Oliver's "girlie haircut" by: Iwontmentionanynamesdad.

*BYU Cougars lose the game, and we end up
waiting in the parking garage in Tucson for 2 hours.
Traffic!!

*Not getting to see CK.

My husband's Second Wife

Yesterday, Christian came home with the Elite Blade CP Pro.

Or, in other words, a remote control helicopter.

He couldn't put her down for the rest of the day.

Am I getting replaced?

A big fat bummer day.

Signs that I should have known today would be the worst:

I woke up to some awesome thunder and lightning and sadly

it only lasted a few hours.

 ( I really, REALLY love thunderstorms, but not when they only last a few hours.

Sometimes the sun just really depresses me.  I know I'm weird.).

Then I stepped on a scorpion.

Then the owners of the house we put an offer on decided one hour before 

signing the contract that out of the blue they don't want to move anymore.

I've been crying a lot since then.

Oliver stepped in dog poop.

 Burned a perfectly good dinner.

Claire gets stung by a scorpion before bed.

And, I have no pictures to post on this post.

Birthday in Mesa

Since I was in Utah the day after my birthday,
 I never posted anything about that special day.  

I mean you turn 25 once!
On June 27, 2006, Christian came home from work with
a dozen of colored balloons.
We piled into the car where we met Andrew and Reachel on
Mill Ave downtown Tempe near the lake.
We each picked a different colored balloon, wrote our special birthday
wishes on it, and then let them go.
It only took Oliver 2 hours to finally lets his blue balloon go.

Of course, Jane picked an orange balloon because that is her favorite color

Beautiful Reachel:
I don't know what Claire wrote, but it probably 

has to do with ponies and the color pink:

Christian is seen here writing his wish-- which I'm sure was:

I wish for a million dollars, so I can buy

Stephanie a house:

My wish: I wish for a house, I wish for a house,
I WISH for a house! And a healthy baby, of course:


Happy 25th to me!

Strawberry Lemonade

Have you smelled this lotion before?

Whenever I open it up and smell I am transported to the Summer of my Junior year in 1997.

It reminds me of cheerleading practice, boyfriends, my sister Lucy, the 4th of July, and hiking the Y.

All wonderful memories.

He's BAAAACK!

Jimmy is back from New Jersey where he has been living

with one of my dearest friends, Aimee, and her family.

Only the truest of friends would take someone's dog 

for nearly three months.

And only the worst friend would even ask that request.

So we bought him a one-way ticket to the hottest state in America,

where he has been painting ever since.

Welcome home Jim-pal, we've missed you!

1983

1983

Those were good days!

Piled on Matt's motorcycle are me, Courtney, Jesse, Matt, and Andrew.

Can't wait to see all of them in Utah next week!

It's called Vintage Jane.

Sometimes I like to sew.

When I have awesome fabric and some free time, I really like to sew.

Lately I started sewing and selling baby blankets.

My cousin Nanette started an art market in Utah 

where she sells local goods, arts and crafts.

She invited me to sell them at her summer venue.

The cool thing about these blankets is they are made with darling

vintage reproduction fabric. The prints are so cute and I kind

of wish I didn't have to sell them because they are all so darling,

and colorful, and cozy, and soft.

Where the deer and antelope play...

The memorial weekend took us five hours east to New Mexico 

where the Nielson family owns 9000 acres of sprawling rangeland. 

The objective of the trip was for the menfolk to build a barn so the big Nielson

family can have a large area for social gatherings and dancing.

Jane really enjoyed going for rides on a "side-by-side" which is 

basically a souped-up golf cart.We took many rides across the gorgeous land 

searching for bones, Indian ruins, and pottery.

We also found a baby rattlesnake sleeping on a rock in the warm sun.

It's still too cold for them to be out and about.

(Thank heavens).

Oliver and I sat on the front lawn at the homestead while Christian, grandpa,

 and his brothers did some gardening.  

 Jane brought a darling little pink cowgirl hat and she

wouldn't take it off, which was nice since I always knew where she was.

Christian and his brothers worked hard and used serious muscle for this project. 

They managed to build a barn all in one day.

 It would have made the Pontipee brothers proud.

(You know from the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers?)

When the sun was getting low the boys all returned to the ranch house for dinner.

Mary had delicious chili and seven homemade pies ready to devour.

Mary is a saint in every way and I regret to say,

but I didn't help make any of it.  

I really need to step it up.

Claire was always so busy running around with cousins.

She wouldn't hold still for any longer than it takes to wipe her nose.

Sadly, this is the only photo I have of her on this trip to the ranch.

My favorite part of the ranch trip was when Christian and I searched

the land and picked us out a quaint little area 

  two miles away from the homestead.

Someday we hope to build our own little frontier there.

FIESTA!

Our first Cinco de Mayo Party with friends was a "hit"!!!!

  Get it, a hit (because we hit the pinata).

We decorated Russ and Mary's backyard with fun festive lights and served

treats and drinks and a delicious Mexican chocolate cake which was delicious 

and spicy since I added cayenne pepper!

Notice Claire's hand on her bottle. 

 It NEVER left her sight- she was so excited to claim that

root beer as her very own.

I think this might be a thing now.

So this was our official first ANNUAL Cinco de Mayo party.