Saweet Christmas thought!

"I read in a book that a man called Christ went about doing good.  It is most disconcerting to me to find that I am so easily content with just going about."  Toyohiko Kagawa

I am thankful...

...for some simple things in life, that we need more of:
Honesty.
Kindness.
Generosity.
Love.

Halloween hilariousness!

Oh ya we did!!!  Um, really don't need many words for this gloriousness!  We (probably mostly me) had the time of our lives answering the door!  The biggest compliment were the older "cool" kids saying how awesome our costumes were and how awesome our dogs were and how awesome our pumpkins were and on and on...I seriously felt like such the cool house!!!  We handed out krabby patties because they're Scotty's favorites (and Duncan's!)

 (And yes, with this dark wig, I look a lot like my little sister!  Well, thank you very much!)

You have to notice that Scott made Vader Frank an appropriate size light saber that he carried around all night!  OMGOOD GOSH!  Isn't that hilarious!!!?

There is NO more handsome Han Solo than Scott; this includes Harrison Ford!

You can see the shadow of me holding a bone to get the boys to focus on the camera.  Frank's Vader hat to the side falling off, cracks me up!!!

"Help me Obi Won Kenobi, you're my only hope!"

And, don't think for a second, that we didn't head on over to the ole Petsmart and proudly parade around in their Halloween costume contest!  "Did we win?" you ask!  What do you think?!!!!  It was like the Paparazzi were following us around...the crowd was going wild over us!  Honestly!  I may need to go to rehab now because of the pressure!

Scott likes to keep this talent kind of unknown, but he is the most artistic person I know.  He can draw, paint, create ANYTHING!!!  He always does these incredible pumpkins!

Frankenstein

Jack Skellington

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (my favorite!)

We had a great Halloween even if I did have bronchitis and am still recovering from my bloody September in Ogden!  Goonies never say die!

I love my tiny family.

Please don't leave me, summer!

Oh summer, we love you!  The weather, the lack of school and other organized events.  I like to blame my parents for birthing and "raising" me in Hawaii!  (I actually claim O-town but Hallo!)  It's not my fault!  Santa would come in on a surf board on Christmas day.  But then who doesn't love summer?  It equals summer work parties, summer family reunions, and for Scott and me, both our birthdays.  I also love flip flop tan lines and leisurely walks with the boys until Frank is spent, (usually doesn't take too much).  Summer also means quality time spent with family to me--Trafalga, Seven Peaks--just showing up at my parents' and sisters' houses and knowing they will be home with the kids totally game to do anything.  Summer holds my favorite holidays; July 4th (Independence Day),  July 24th (Pioneer Day), and 9/11 (Patriot Day).  I love the clothes of summer best--men's cargo shorts (I prefer 1 or 2 sizes too big that I either find on sale at target or get "handed up" from my little brother).  Comfortable t-shirts (that either come from the Goodwill (there's a great new one on 7th East) or Thrift town 2nd hand stores--gotta get a good deal--obsessed with getting a good deal!!!--ask Dro!).  And the cherry on top, flip flops.  But then, I wear flip flops year round!  I really don't like wearing shoes and don't get me started on socks!  OK, I rambled long enough...wow I didn't know I was this passionate about summer!

Summer Work Party!

 I am LOVING my job at University Hospital.  It is so rewarding and the people I work with I realllllly enjoy.  We had a big summer party at Sugarhouse park and it was awesome.  I RVSP'd for 2 adults and 2 furry kids.  The furry boys were a hit!  The doctors now know who I am.  If you count, "Wow you're the girl with the big, damn dog!"

 I found a 3XL scrub top at DI and Scott drew the University Hospital logo on the back!  So awesome!

 This is Dong Fang who did some serious Judo on the pinata!  It was hilarious!.

 Holly.  There are no words to describe Holly.  Love her.

 Jenny, whom I adore--and pretty much runs the place, spinning Dr. Eric Lindley.  He is the coolest fellow ever.  He acts like he's "one of us."

 The men in my life!!!:)

Summer Nielsen Extended Family Reunion!

 They had a ginormous candy cannon that was awesome!  All the kids went out into this open area of the park and the candy was shot out for them to grab and collect in their own little ziplocs.

 Scott pointed out that Archer was a genius and instead of running to get his candy, he let the cannon bring the candy to him and then ate it as he got it.  We both thought it was hilarious!

 My awesome cousin also has struggled with infertility.  There is nothing and I mean NOTHING like someone else who has experienced some of the same struggles.  No one else gets it, just like anything else in life, there is a huge difference between sympathy and empathy.  HOWEVER, these guys had THE most successful IVF ever...check out these TRIPLETS!!!  Meet Brock, Cade, and Zac.  Oh my goodness gracious--they were a circus unto themselves.  It was so much fun to watch and talk about!  They will be one  in October.

 Here we have the traditional cousin pictures that we just have to pose for to make everyone happy.

 LOVE these chicas!  Cherie, Leah, Sarah and me.  Honestly, nothing like instant love of family!  NO MATTER WHAT!

Summer Birthday Celebrations!

E-man turned 10!  WOW, I can't believe the man is 10 years old!  He is so adorable and wrote us the dearest thank you card for attending his party.  I love this kid!

I think Carter was a little envious of the great stuff Ethan made out with!  The dear part is, the next day Ethan told Melinda he wanted to use ALL his birthday money to purchase Carter a Wii game he had been wanting.  YES!  That is how sweet that Ethan is!

He got a new bike!!!

Re-enacting his initial expression.

He had requested birthday donuts, instead of a birthday cake.

Here's Rosie offering Archer a joint, oh, I mean, a Cheeto.

Me with my homies...I didn't get the memo that we were supposed to flash our family gang sign in this photo.

I love these girlies!  It makes me miss Inger, Lisa, and Mendy!

"What?  I'm just gettin' my donut!"

Ace knows one way to eat stuff...everything and all at once!  It is thoroughly entertaining and he can totally digest it just fine until someone draws attention to him and then he panics and...

...launches it out!  Scott got some great pictures here!  This reminds me of a time when Scott was holding his sister's kid, Kaiya, and she had eaten one too many bites and threw up all over herself and Scott.  Scott just picked her up and headed for the tub.

I sure love this little family and love how the boys all look like little stepping stones all in a row.

We celebrated Scott's birthday at the Red Iguana and then went to see the movie The Bourne Legacy.  We celebrated my birthday by attending our first coed flag football game. (I worked late and got there too late to play, so I just watched Scotty).  We came home after and Scott had picked up dinner in advance from my favorite Thai restaurant.  I think those are white biker shorts under my other shorts???

Summer Annual Sundance Ski Lift!

This little tradition has been so fun!  Every year is different.  This year I told Kristen that she was coming either by her own choice, or bound and gagged.  It was just the three of us and it was so enjoyable.  Great conversation!  We went to Midway after and just meandered.  I love days like this!

We timed it perfectly.  The leaves were absolutely perfect in color!  The reds, oranges, yellows, greens...ah man...all the while still being warm, warm summer!!!:)

So summer, don't leave us.  Don't tell us the dog days of summer are coming to an end.  And that the crisp, wonderful autumn will be followed by yet again, that white, lasts forever, cold, horrible to drive in, shiz we know as winter.  Don't do it, summer...lie to us if you must!

THE Nielsen family reunion 2012

I have been meaning to post this forEVER...but dang the time has gotten away from me...oh well!  August 11 through 16 was just flippin' fantastic!  All of us crazies got together and had some dang good times.  I love my family so much!  I really know how lucky I am that I actually adore my brothers and sisters and that we all get along so well.   

It began with Scott and me staying at Mendy and Jonny's in St. George at their new house.  It is a beautiful home with a GINORMOUS back yard.  The kids drove their jeep around while first showing me their muscles and second...

...doing the sprinkler!!!  These guys crack me up 24/7.  Cache, Wrigley, and Ivy are always up to something hysterical.

Scotty was asked to watched Tay baby and was authorized to give her licorice!  (Usually we just give candy without asking permission).

We are a family who loves to help each other in any fashion!  Jonny and Mendy were putting in their front yard and once the hot sun went down, we all went out to help wherever needed.

I sure appreciated my dear husband who helped my parents check everyone in.  He was really helpful and I know my parents appreciated it.

Ivy girl at the Cheesecake Factory.  She is a little ham when the camera comes out!

Wrigley received a fresh buzz right before the event!

We spent most of our time pool side and it was heavenly.  The Grand View in Las Vegas has the sweetest little set up of pools!

John and Glenn

Solomon and Harrison

Rosie and Paddy

Jonny, Mendy, and Ivy

Scotty, Duncan, Bronson, and Ethan

Bronson was a genius to create this little set up!

Wrigley

Jonny and Ivy

Wrigley, Bronson, and Ethan

This cracked me up.  Amongst all these crazy boys running around and splashing, this little girl had set up her "kitchen."  She was cooking and making all sorts of things and offering them to the boys.  You can see Archer looking on, wondering what in the crap she is doing!

It was so funny to watch him share the same space as this little girl.  It's funny in general to see the four Stailey boys interact with girls since they have no sisters.  Ace just couldn't figure out why this little gal was trying to talk to him and why she wasn't trying to swim and splash.

Miss Ivy getting tired

So cute!  Melinda and Mendy--a couple of hott babes!

Us

We had a big family dinner and talent show at the local Tex Mex where they served the "large" tortilla chips..."HALLO!"

That same day, August 13, Taylor turned ONE!  WOW, that was fast for me!  Maybe not for Lisa and Norm???

She is such a cute little girl!

WOW!  Can you believe this?!  28 NIELSENS all together?!  We are only missing four people!  I love it!!! So happy to be a part of this BE GOOD DO GOOD crew!

Well, this started out as Duncan an Archer, but quickly turned into Wrigley and Cache doing a little dance to the Gypsy King's version of "You've Got A Friend in Me" from Toy Story.

My dad encourages A LOT of dancing in my family for some reason...well it has trickled on down to the grand kids, especially!  Wrigley was doing the worm in no time!

Ethan with a little tribute to the flappers.

Caroline had written a play for her and Bronson to perform for their talent.  Very impressive.  Along with Ivy taking the stage and showing everyone her panties!

Then the official Jonny and Mendy family talent was announced as Wrigley took the stage and acted out that commercial with the M&M's where the brown one wonders why the red one is staring and it's because the red one thinks the brown one is naked and yells, "Oh, so it's that kind of party...Hit it!" and the music "I'm Sexy and I know it" starts to play.  Well Wrigley did just that and it was bloody hilarious!

This was him throwing his hat into the audience.  It was so funny!

The best part of this picture is Tyler (Alexa's boyfriend--the one in the coconut bra) in the background laughing so hard!

Next was Norm and Lisa's family.  Cache was their talent.  He was a transformer.  Norm would say, "Bumble Bee, transform" and Cache would crawl on the ground and turn into a car.  Then Norm would tell him to go back to bumble bee and he got back up.  ALL the while making these mechanical noises like "bok, chook, shik, chik, book," (is anyone following what I am even talking about?) and doing movements like the robot!  It was so funny and at the end he said, "Autobots, roll out!"  But imagine it with a little lisp and not quite the "r" sound down yet.  Absolutely adorable!!!

Caroline entertained us with a gymnastics routine, with Inger as her DJ!

Rosie and Paddy performed a little TV roulette (to a tough crowd, might I add). LOL

Cutest. Picture. Ever!!!  Lis, steal this, blow it up, send it to Costco, have them take out the red eye, wallpaper your house with it!!!

Totally partial to this photo as well.  Scotty loves all the little ones and they ALL love him.  It is seriously the dearest thing to observe!

Well, we got some good blackmail on BISHOP Anderson.  The Anderson family did a rousing rendition of "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts!"

We made them do it twice we all laughed so hard.  We figured that if Alexa's "boyfriend" win-a-date was willing to don a coconut bra and grass skirt for our family reunion and hang with us crazies and then profess to have enjoyed it...well, we kinda like that kid I tell ya!

Quincy came out with some MAD dancing skills and stole the show!!!

  

Next up was the Stailey clan!  They did an Arabic tribute to "No you can't go back to Constantinople" (is that even the title?)  It was hilarious.

Ethan played the violin solo in the beginning and middle.  Carter played with asps tied to string, Duncan...did the splits?

Deron's dancing was legendary!  Melinda's belly dancing came into play and she looked a little "too" professional.

Duncan was having one "H" of a time with his turban!

However, nothing is better than this final pose!  I mean check out the fun imagination and character of those little boys!  I love everything about this photo!!!

We of course had a free for all dance fest after.  If you are wondering where OUR talent was...well, we had great plans and then that turned into maybe we'll just do "My little buttercup" from our previous talent show and then it turned into nothing.  We kind of pooped out.

Proudest. Moment!  I claim them all!!!  They are ALL mine!!!

My proud parents!  I am sure that has got to be a great feeling.

Rosie flashin' the family gang sign.

Solo and I are ready for our close up!

Carter, Bronson, Ethan, Duncan, Archer.  We have so many fun boys in the family!  I am glad that Taylor and Ivy have each other as little girlfriends.

Alexa, Tyler, and Wrigley

Cache

Taylor

LOVE IT!!!

Norm, Lisa, and Tay

Alexa and Archer

Miss Ivy girl loves to "take care" of Taylor

I love this picture so much of Ivy's sweet profile looking on so lovingly at Taylor!

Norm loves to FRO out Taylor's hair!

And Taylor is down for the count.  She just needed a nap and I was MORE than happy to sit in that chair next to her and watch her.

My little brother turned the entire pool area into one ginormous slip 'n slide!!!  It was soooo funny!

NIELSEN custard baby!

We had dinner at Grimaldi's where they give the CHILDREN dough to play with until the pizza is done...well Norm started a fun little game...

We got to play with Tay baby while Norm and Lisa went to see Phantom in Vegas.

We had an amazingly fun and bonding time.  It was seriously SO sad when it ended.  We all called each other and complained that we were away from each other.  I was seriously depressed for a few days.  I just really love my family so much and am so happy and I know SO lucky to have a group of people that I genuinely enjoy being with and love so, so unconditionally.  Thanks guys!!! 123