July-October 2012

Yeah, I'm just super awesome and diligent at this blogging thing. Oh, well. It's not like we have kids, and let's face it, that's why most people blog and most people read those blogs-to look at the babies. haha We had a busy summer this year. My little brother, Jake, came and lived with us from July to the end of August when school started. He worked for my father-in-law doing menial jobs at the machine shop no one else wanted a few times a week and then we put him to work mowing our lawn once a week. Brian particularly liked that arrangement. We took a camping trip to Lagoon with Shan and Jake at the beginning of July and went to the water park and rode the rides and spent a sleepless night at the park due to a major wind storm. But it was probably one of the best Lagoon trips we've had. Brian is in the teacher's quorum and that's Jake's age group so we had teenage boys in our basement most of that time playing games and watching the Office and eating candy. It didn't bother me though, they kept to themselves and didn't break anything so I was good. :)On Saturday, the 20th, we had officially owned our home for a year! We've been so blessed with good jobs and financial security (which I completely attribute to paying our tithing!!) so we are grateful for what we have. In the last year we've gotten our house, furnishings, electronics, new appliances and other small things that all make our house a home and I'm grateful. It's been fun to make finishing touches on rooms that make it our own. Here's a little bit of our summer...! Our newest home improvement was all brand new kitchen appliances!! We really only needed a new fridge because ours was on it's last leg but while we were searching for a good deal on KSL we found someone that was selling all of their appliances for the price of one fridge! The are almost brand new and all black so Brian's dirty fingerprints won't show. :) It was too good of a deal to pass up since we would be needing a new dishwasher next anyway so we felt very lucky to have stumbled on that! I'm excited to add some new paint next and make the kitchen look brand new! My nephew, Logan turned 2 this year and is really into animals and trains so we celebrated his birthday at the Hogle Zoo. I haven't been to the zoo since I was probably 6 years old so I was excited. I remember it being much bigger then though.... The family got together this year and celebrated Grandpa Nelson's 80th birthday in Preston. We had almost everyone there so you can imagine how big the event was. It was cowboy themed, of course, and they displayed his saddles and harnesses and everyone got to say their favorite memory of Grandpa. Afterward we went to 'That Famous Preston Night Rodeo Parade' and then hung out at Aunt Becky's the rest of the weekend. Good memories. :) This is our GIANT yard sale that I did with my sisters-in-law, mother-in-law and a lady in their ward. My parents cleaned out their house and anything that was going to the DI they gave to me to sale. There was even more in the garage! We had TONS left over but Brian and I sold a lot of our stuff. Summer helped me sort and price stuff or I would never have been able to finish! We made almost $400!!! Woot!

This is how dirty Jake was after working at the machine shop. Also, this is pretty much how Brian looks everyday after work so you can pity me and the laundry I have to do. :)

We had really bad fires that surrounded us on all sides for weeks and weeks this summer. I came out after work one day and that's what the sky looked like and ash was all over everything. The big black smoke cloud was just over the hill behind our house. So grateful it never reached us.

January-June 2012

So here we are halfway through 2012 and I am just barely posting again. For a while there wasn't much going on and our camera was too big to keep handy in my purse so I wasn't taking pictures. Then I got an IPhone and I suddenly got better at documenting our life. I hope my family members don't mind me posting these since they are mostly all of them and their cute families. This has been a somewhat trying year for me but being able to look back at the pictures I've taken makes it all seem better and I feel very blessed to have the family I do. Love you all! June-Backyard Brian has been tilling up our backyard all summer and he has been really busy with work and other things so it's taken a long time for him. Plus we have tons of rocks in our yard. :( We had 2 tree stumps that we had removed this last week by a back hoe and some trenches dug for retaining walls. Wayne and Preston came up to help clean up the mess and smooth out the ground. We want to level it a little more, build retaining walls and hydro-seed. It's looking good and Logan and I watched them for 45 minutes straight out of the window. He was fascinated and didn't move for that long. It was so funny. He even tried to push the screen out and join the boys. :) Memorial Weekend-Golfing Summer got engaged over Memorial Weekend and we went golfing with her fiance, Caleb and it was the first time we've been able to hang out with him. We had a lot of fun and are happy for them. Golfing was fun, we played Frisbee, and board games. Shantel's Graduation She really didn't want me to post pictures but I just picked a couple of the good ones cus we were there...so we need to document it! haha Our Sweet New Wheels! Oh, yeah. We also bought a new car on vacation!!! Woot, woot! It's a 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe and I loooooove it! St. George Trip Brian's parents rented the same house as last year and we had a blast! Here are some of the highlights. Brian and Logan playing in the sand. Lots of concentration...:) May-Planting Our First Plants Our yard needed so much TLC and Brian has been working so hard and it looks so wonderful now! We had to bring in top soil and we bought all new bushes and I planted my first flowers. :) We just barely bought new bushes to plant along the side of the stairs but I don't have a picture yet...coming soon. Before... ...After! If you look really close you will notice that Brian's truck is riding low from the heavy load. The sad thing was this wasn't even enough to fill them all. My hot husband workin' hard! March-Brian's Competition Brian won the regional and state competition at Ogden-Weber Tech in machining. He rocked the competition and is headed to nationals in Kansas City the end of June. His instructor told Brian that he has one of the best chances of winning nationals that he has seen in 14 years and it will be really good for the business so it's pretty exciting. March-Easter The kids all got kites for Easter so we were out flying them... ...with a fishing pole. Better distance, of course. January-Cookie Party Brian and I got the XBox with Kinect for Christmas so we had Preston, Jenny and Logan up for chocolate chips cookies and a Kinect party. Poor Jen was close to full term being pregnant and we thought the running and jumping might bring baby Lily a little sooner. :) Logan was right in the middle of it all. :) Other Fun Times This Year