Hoop it up!

As if this day couldn't get any better. . . .

I've been playing in a basketball league with some girlfriends and having SOOOO much fun! It's my favorite sport to play and everywhere we've lived I have tried to get some girl ball going. It finally happened and it is absolutely glorious! We're called the Pig Tails and right now we've got a perfect record.

I had a pretty good game last night. They listed me as player of the week so I thought I would share.


http://www.hometeamsonline.com/teams/?u=4POINTPLAYNET&s=basketball&t=c

We're just a bunch of has-beens having a super great time!

FYI

You might want to check out this site:

http://nielsenjourney.blogspot.com/

We're kind of jumping for joy over here!

Love is in the Air

FEBRUARY highlights!

  SUPER STAR

 We all attended Town Hall at Jackson School because our little Evan was getting a Super Kid award. His award was for being a Superstar Reader, and he has improved in leaps and bounds since the beginning of the year and really is a super reader. I enjoy having him read stories to me each night before bed. Such a big boy!

 HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Don't those cookies look like the most delicious cookies ever?! Mmmm, so scrumditiliumptious! 

 

 Matthew and I had a fabulous valentines weekend. We went out with a group of friends to a restaurant ran by the Cordon Bleu' Culinary School. It was a five course meal and proved to be a wonderful event. We just ate and talked and laughed and ate. They are such a great group of people, we will miss them terribly. Saturday was the big Stake Valentines Dance for the adults. Matthew is such a good sport to put up with my love of twirling in circles and gettin' my groove on. There was a photographer there and this is what we got. I sure love that handsome guy, my dreamy valentine! After the dance my girlfriends and I went out to the movies and watched Valentines Day.  Did I mention I'm going to miss those girls. It was a great weekend!

 MY LITTLE COOKER-MANS

One of my absolute favorite things to do with the boys is to cook.  Evan has always been a good little "cooker-man", as he likes to call himself. He did a superb job on that bok choy and mushrooms. Dallin thinks he is the great wielder of knives so I have to keep an eye on him. He mostly loves to help me bake so he can dip his finger in every second just to make sure it tastes good. I value that time with my boys and I hope it continues through out the years. I  would love to raise little men that can whip up a mean batch of cookies,  a delicious curry or some tasty little shrimps (Evan's favorite) with fried rice. They are pretty willing to try almost anything and I try some interesting stuff sometimes. No Mac n' cheese and tater tot casseroles here, thanks to Matthew, we have some pretty diverse pallets and we have a lot of fun with it. Oh the ways a marriage can help you grow.

January Showers Bring February Flowers 

(that doesn't sound right)

Spring made it's grand debut fairly early around here. We have a small cluster of baby daffodils that we're in full bloom and such a tiny bundle of joy. I love those daffodils!

BEST BUDS

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I love these two cutie-patuties! They are getting so big and are becoming the best of buds. My little sister and I are about the same distance apart as they are and I am getting a kick out of watching them interact and remembering my sis and I doing the exact same thing.  At night, when they are suppose to be sleeping, they have the most fun. They sit in there and squeal and giggle until their bear of a mom storms in to quietly remind them that it's time to drift off to dreamland. They can spend a morning creating a fabulous make believe world for their animals or lego guys that covers the entire floor of the game room and then get outraged when I ask them to clean it up. Evan is really figuring out the roll of "big brother" and takes great care of his little buddy. He reads him stories at night and helps him clean up his messes. I love to hear them get so excited about using "teamwork" to do their jobs together. They are two of the cutest little boys around and I am so grateful to be their Mama and the recipient of all their lovey hugs and kisses as well as their beautiful pictures and artistic creations. I can run to the grocery store and when I walk in the door they run up and give me the best squeezes as if I've been gone for weeks. I'm the luckiest!

Out to Sea

Our move is looming ever so near and I can't help but be a little excited and sad at the same time. Matthew is so excited to move on to the next step and I'm excited for him. We've always wanted to live in Colorado, in fact after school we were choosing between 2 jobs in Denver and Colorado Springs and the one here in Hillsboro. Obviously Hillsboro won. We wanted the boys to be close to their fun cousins and to be closer to most of our family.  Now we're sad to be leaving our wonderful family and friends behind. As silly as it may sound, I'm also sad to leave the ocean behind.

I grew up in Idaho and the first time I laid eyes on that vast body of water was when I was 14 years old. It was spring break and we drove the 5th wheel down to Newport, OR where we stayed at a campground right on the ocean. It was amazing, and of course we did all the silly things one does when first meeting the ocean for the first time. Like immediately running into the waves with freshly shaved legs, OUCH! Scouring the beach for any piece of sea life and thinking each find to be a treasure, including that rotten crab claw and dead starfish. I loved the sound of the waves at night and sitting in the cool sand watching wave after wave crash onto the shore.  Little did I know at the age of 14 that I would spend the 7 of my first 8 years of marriage living so close to the magical  blue. Those 3 years in San Francisco were absolutely amazing. Our first year we had a complete ocean view and Evan and I loved watching the large freight boats chug their way out of the bay all day long. I left our windows slightly open all the time so at any quiet moment through out the day I could hear those blessed waves crashing onto shore. I can't tell you how relaxing that can be. I was newly pregnant and so terribly sick. Matthew was gone from 7 - 10 almost every night and I was entertaining a 2 year old while spending most of my day loosing my lunch. I spent a lot of time on my bed and couch just listening to those waves and feeling so calm. There is just something about the music of the waves that completely relaxes me. We went to the beach at least once a week even when we moved across the Golden Gate to Sausalito. We were so spoiled to have it so close. We're almost 2 hours away now and we haven't made the drive as nearly as often as I would like, but at least I know it's there. Now to leave it so far behind, that saddens me a little. My boys don't remember anything different then spending a day at the beach. I hope they miss it too and that one day we will have some glorious reunions with our friend the salty sea.  We'll run into the waves and collect all the gifts in the sand. We will fall asleep to the sound of those crashing waves and remember all of the wonderful memories we've made in the salty air.

Here we are searching for those agates. It's our absolute favorite thing to do as a family at the beach. We have quite a collection at home. It's always fun to see who finds the most and who finds the biggest. So far, I'm the record holder for largest agate found. We'll carry those agates wherever we go and always have a little bit of the ol' Pacific in our home.

Ringing in the New Year

Here we go with 2010! We know it's going to be a great one with our big move to Denver for Ortho, and hopefully the blessing of a new little one to our family.  We started the month off running . . . . .

EVAN'S 1st BASKETBALL GAME

 

WE LOVE SPENDING TIME AT THE OMSI 

(museum of science & industry)

Dallin thought that this toilet was a good place to rest.

 Mad Scientist

 Learning about arches. 

This whole science stuff is Matthew's area of expertise and I just love watching all my boys interact as they learn and discover new ideas and concepts. They are just little sponges and I'm so glad that I married a brainiac that can teach them everything. They sure do love spending time with their daddy!

MAKING MESSES 

I was making bread and Dallin was quite fascinated with making flour creations so I gave him his own bowl full of it and he was content for quite sometime.

 ACTING WILD & CRAZY

This is an everyday occurrence over here. I listen to music when I'm making dinner and the boys love to come down and show off all their moves. I believe here there were showing their daddy their mad skills after he got home from work. Little boys are so much fun!

TRYING NEW THINGS

Evan loves anything that's cute and little so of course we had to try these baby bananas. So fun!

My, how time flies!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

December is always full of fun and festivities. We had a wonderful month attending all of the fun holiday events that we could.  We sure love to have fun!

Chocolate Dipping Party at the Tingeys. 

These are my absolute favorite people here in Hillsboro and I will miss them terribly.  We have had so many great times together and I hope we have many more. These ladies are fabulous!

(I didn't realize I was so much shorter)

Fondue Party with our local family - The Nielsens

We're going to miss living by them too. We have had so many fun adventures together and the cousins always have a great time. It will be hard to not be so close to them anymore. Thank goodness you have family in Denver so we'll hopefully see you quite a bit.

Christmas Party at the Jackson School House  - Block Party

The boys and I attended this party so we could sit on Santa's lap and go on the hay ride. It was a bitter cold night, but we just bundled up. We waited all night for our turn and ended up being one of the very last ones to make it on the wagon.  It was definitely worth the wait. We caroled to the neighborhood as we sang carols to our neighbors. Did I mention I love this time of  year?

 

  

Evan's School Holiday Party with all the 1st graders

This is Evan with his pal from Kindergarten, Sean. Evan the cute nosed reindeer!

 

  Evan and his best pal Joe. They were in Kindergarten together and now Mrs. Buck class together. Such cute little buddies. Joe made Evan a duct-tape wallet that he loves. What a great friend!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

December - Our Magical Christmas Tree

Matthew has Mondays off so we picked Evan up from school and headed to the hills to find ourselves the perfect Christmas tree.  It was a super foggy day so we were missing out on a gorgeous view up there. After quite a bit of hunting and lot of running around and squawking we found ourselves a beauty. It was our biggest one yet. We usually buy little pip-squeak trees, but we splurged on a 6+ footer and it was so worth it. 

Dallin thought he found the perfect little tree for us all, but we convinced him to keep looking.

Evan found himself a comfy little chair to sit and relax from all his hunting. 

 

Everyone wanted to help chop down the tree!

Our little elfs trimming the tree. They did a beautiful job and it was a fabulous night!

 

 

I LOVE Christmas trees. They are my most favorite Christmas decoration. I love to turn all the lights off and just bask in the glow of the tree lights. It's so relaxing to me. I use to drape Christmas lights around my bedroom year round while in college. I would study and sleep with them on.  They make everything wonderful! I love sharing all of this with my two little elves and hopefully making wonderful memories for them. I just love this time of year!

November 2009

Our November Memories 

Matthew is sure getting good with his camera!

Our primary presented their Sacrament program. I was pretty proud of all the kids, it went beautifully.

Dallin attended a super fun class called Hop, Skip & Jump. 

Evan is learning SO much in school and getting SO smart.

I had a fabulous Girls Day with my sister-in-law Sarah and our friend Jen.  We got pedicures, I got a hair cut, watched New Moon and grabbed some grub. It was so Wonderful! The next day the talented Jen took pictures of our family. Of course they were pretty amazing!

We completed our Homestudy for the adoption.

The boys and I enjoyed the falling leaves and crisp Autumn days.

Drove down to the Nielsen homestead in California for a great Thanksgiving. We were able to see everyone but Mike, Heidi and boys. It was so fun to visit our beautiful San Francisco, although there wasn't enough time to enjoy it all again. Of course, we had to go for a hike in the beautiful Brentwood hills. Matthew has so many memories there and it's so fun to watch him make more with his little rascals. 

We had a FANTASTIC November!!!!

October Highlights

1. Matthew flies all over the country interviewing for an Orthodontic Residency.

2. My little sister has her 3rd little boy, sweet little Nelson.

3. The boys and I drive to Idaho to "help" with the new baby and spend time with all our Boise cousins. Absolutely Wonderful!

4. Dallin starts a Hop, Skip & Jump class where he LOVES to dance.

5. Evan and Matthew finish up their soccer season.

6. Bethany discovers the wonderful world of Yoga.

7. We hit some happening Halloween and birthday parties.

8. Evan (the master ninja) and Dallin (the cutest bat) fill their pumpkins full of candy while trick-or-treating the night away.

9. Poor Evan gets the nasty fever and cough and we're all down and out for a few days.