Anniversary and June Update!

Today is our third year anniversary! We were married on July 13, 2007 in the Washington D.C. Temple. As I was looking through our wedding photos to post a few, so many memories of that day came flooding back to me. It was a very special day and so much fun!

As we look at where we’ve been and where we are today, we realize we are truly blessed. I am so lucky to have Kyle as my eternal companion. Poor guy is stuck with me for good. :) I’m grateful for the time we have had together and the many years to come as well. My sister Chrissy took Rylan this past weekend so we could celebrate. It had been a while since it was just Kyle and I. We take Rylan everywhere we go because we don’t want to spend the extra money on a babysitter. Needless to say, we had a great time…thanks Chrissy!

The last time I posted was the beginning of June; I don’t know where that month went. We’ve been super busy with lots of family in town plus all of the summer events. Here are a few things we’ve been up to:

Rylan went swimming for the first time. He was pretty quiet at first, having a somewhat scared look on his face. It didn't last too long though, he got comfortable and began to splash, splash, splash! It was getting all over him, in his eyes and mouth. He didn’t even seem to care. No crying at all. He just splashed more and more.

Mid-Splash...

Kyle’s Mom and sister Kristin came into town from Colorado for the Nielsen family reunion. We had a lot of fun hanging out with them for the weekend they were here.

This is Carson, Kristin and Seth’s little girl. She was only a few weeks old at the time. She is adorably gorgeous and I loved holding her. It got me super baby hungry for our little girl! We are very anxious for her arrival…I am at least. :)

Rylan and Nana

My Mom moved out to Utah from Virginia about 2-3 weeks ago. It’s been great having her here and getting to spend so much time with her! Here are a few things we’ve been up to.

My Mom got tickets to the Stadium of Fire where we got to see Carrie Underwood perform. It was a lot of fun! The show was great and the fireworks seemed to never end. Kyle and I bought a few fireworks to do on our own with Rylan. It was still daylight because of his bedtime, but I think he got the idea. Any fireworks that made a 'pop' or crackling sound seemed to frighten him. However, he did okay watching the ones that lit up with minimal sounds. Here are a few pictures of our 4^th of July.

Rylan with his first firework...

No more fireworks please...

Chrissy and her kids came to visit from Vernal. We went to Big Cottonwood Canyon and had a BBQ.

Rylan trying to cook his first S'more.

Not the best picture of me, but needless to say Rylan loved the river! He took his eyes off of it for literally 3 seconds enough for us to get this facial reaction from him.

Rylan, Grammy, and a few of his cousins!

We also went to the Gateway mall when Chrissy was here. They have the Olympic fountain which is a water show set to music. Kids can run through and play in the water while it goes.

I wasn’t brave enough to go out there, I didn’t want to get wet. So my mom took Rylan for a ride.

Not so sure about the water spouts.

And here are some random pictures of Rylan from this past month.

He still loves to empty whatever cabinet or drawer he can get into! The mess on the floor is his doing...

Rylan loves to help brush teeth! No matter what he’s doing, he’ll drop everything when he sees one of us with a tooth brush. He’ll just hold on to the handle the entire time as happy as could be. We did end up buying him one of his own, even though he still only has two teeth. Hopefully this is the beginning of a good healthy habit for him. He loved brushing teeth before he was even one. :)

Rylan is a very happy and active child! I will admit that I’m constantly exhausted with being 8 months pregnant and trying to keep up with this little guy. He loves to be chased (crawling) and loves to play an easy game of hide and seek. He’ll watch us go down the hall and he’ll laugh as he crawls to come find us. Then he runs away screaming and laughing as we pop out and chase after him. He also loves to wave “Hi” and “Bye.” Although he's not walking on his own yet, he did take two steps without holding on to anyone last week. But that’s the most that we’ve seen from him. He’ll be turning one year old in about 3 more weeks!

So I am on my official long-term summer break. Friday was our last day of school. I told my class that I would post all of the pictures I had taken that last week of school by Saturday. Sorry, I'm a little behind. It was definitely the best 5th grade school year yet! I will definitely miss this chapter of my life, but I'm glad I have so many wonderful, fun memories to cherish!

Almost Summer....

Well here we are....tomorrow will be the first of June. This is my official last week of school. I won't be returning next year with two kiddos basically under the age of one. :) If I have our little girl right on time, that will make them 1 year and 1 week apart. It's been a rough year juggling everything and I just don't see how it suppose to happen with two. I'm grateful to be able to have the chance to stay home with my children. It's figuring out how to continue to survive while Kyle starts school and works part time as well. I know that the Lord will provide a way. I'm just curious as to how. :) Here are a few pictures to sum up these past two months. We've been keeping very busy with school, work, and church callings....but we've managed to have a little fun in between on the weekends.

Sweet Rylan at my friends Wedding Reception.


He has been on the move (crawling) since the end of April now...


Rylan has learned to open up cupboards and drawers. He thinks it's the best game ever to empty out everyone he can open.


Or even emptying the book shelf...


He loves to climb in, on, under and over everything he possibly can and often finds himself stuck...


Chrissy's family came in to visit from Vernal a few weeks ago. They invited us to go to the zoo with them. Rylan only seemed to be interested when he was up close and personal.


They invited us to a BBQ afterward...Being such a beautiful day, I thought Rylan would love crawling all around the yard. We discovered he didn't like the feeling of grass very much. We're slowly introducing him.


And lastly, for those who've been asking to see my prego belly...me at 29 weeks!

What's new with Rylan?

Sweet little Rylan!! Like I mentioned in my last post, I've been on Spring Break. I can't believe there's only one day left. It didn't feel like very much when a weekend fell right in the middle of it all. I did say I'd post some updated pictures during Spring break sometime, so here they are!



Rylan has been so much fun, especially this last month. He is so full of smiles and laughs and just into everything around him. He's not crawling yet, but He bounces when he's sitting up and slowly moves toward an object he wants. When on his belly, the only direction he moves is backwards; He gets pretty frustrated when he's reaching for something in front of him, and as he moves trying to grab it he just gets further and further away from it. It's kinda cute though. :) He loves playing peek-a-boo and is really good at pulling himself up on things. Here's a picture of him standing and playing at the table. He looks mad, but he was in the middle of talking or should I say 'babbling' in this picture.



His first two teeth came in a few weeks ago. They're hard to see, but they make his smile just that much cuter....(capturing it on camera is another issue, even with all his smiles!)



We've been taking lots of video of him as well, but my computer is nearly dead and downloading anything more to it will probably finish it off, especially with the amount of video I have to look at. So I'm waiting for our new computer to come in before I show some of Rylan in action.

This past weekend we of course had the opportunity to enjoy conference in the comfort of our own home. It was a little different having to entertain Rylan throughout, but we made it through. He was really into it all. I'm not sure if it was the colors on the tv, or the voices, but we got a little picture of Rylan watching his first General Conference...



Easter morning was fun with Rylan being a little older. If only the Easter bunny knew he just needed to give Rylan a basket of grass to be happy, he could have saved some money :) Here's a picture of him when we first sat him down in front of his basket...



He made a mess pulling all the grass out, but he was happy! He also got a big yellow ducky which he just loved!



Rylan's first Easter!



Here's a few other cute, random pictures:



Like father, like son:

Seeing Pink!!

We found out last night that we will be having a little girl come August! I know I've been bad at posting... life has been very busy. We moved the first weekend in March and then unpacked and cleaned out our old apartment all the second week along with babysitting. And last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity of giving a talk in sacrament, teaching sharing time for primary, and getting to conduct as well. So it was a busy weekend preparing! Kyle's still working, 5th grade is still full of all sorts of crazy fun lessons and activities, with parent teacher conferences coming up next week. Then... the long awaited Spring Break!! So then, at that time I will have to post some updated pictures! I just wanted everyone to know about our exciting news!! Rylan will make a good big brother! We are very excited!

Happy Birthday Kyle!

It's been two weeks already? Time sure has flown by this February. We've been staying busy with lots...packing (we move Friday yet again), work, baby showers galore, Valentine's Day, church callings, Kyle's birthday, little Rylan... who is getting more and more active, and much more.

Here's a quick picture of Rylan. I know the head is cut off a little, but he's got the sweetest smile... I had to share.



Today is Kyle's birthday!! We work opposite schedules with me at work during the day and Kyle working in the evenings. We don't get to see each other except for the middle of the night when Kyle gets home or the early hours of the morning when I leave for work. Both times are sadly when either myself or Kyle is half asleep! Although Kyle and I didn't get to see much of each other on his birthday, Rylan and I went to visit him at work for his dinner break. He got a big thing of balloons sent to him to let him know we were thinking of him too. I hope Kyle felt somewhat special on his big day. He's 25 years old! He is the best husband and father! He's so adorable to watch as he plays with Rylan and he’s great at taking care of him too! I appreciate all that he does for me (I can be pretty demanding at times). He's very patient and I love him very much! I couldn't find any single pictures of him... he's always with Rylan. :) Which is why I love him even more. Here's one of the two of them this past Halloween. Happy Birthday Kyle!!



Another big part of this past month has been the baby showers. I promise you that I've been to at least 3 baby showers just in the month of February. One of which, I helped decorate with making a diaper cake for the table decor. I'm posting this picture not because I'm proud of how it turned out, but because I told my crafty sister (Chrissy) who I can't keep up with.... that I'd show her how it turned out. I'm just glad it finally stayed together. :) So this is my first ever diaper cake... not as cute as yours though Chrissy.



So with all this baby shower talk, I figured now is a better time than ever to share my news with those of you who may not know yet. We are expecting our second child come August 17th! I am 15 weeks pregnant... again... :) I'm feeling great now that the first trimester is over. It's amazing the difference! Am I showing yet you ask? Well, I'm not sure. I don't know if it’s still baby fat left over with the previous pregnancy or if it's the new little one on the way. So we'll see how I fill out. Kyle and I are looking forward to it!

Other than the above, life has continued to be busy, but great as we take on each new day. I'm loving teaching and being a mom. We'll see what the month of March has in store!

Rylan 6 Months Old

Okay so I've changed my goal to every two weeks...since I'll admit, not a lot happens around here. I thought I'd post an update on Rylan this weekend. He is now 6 months old and just had his 6 month check up. He's doing great as far as gaining weight and growing. The pediatrician did comment on the size of his head though. :) He's in the 85th percentile in head size. Meaning he has a very large head. We thought that was kind of interesting. He's sitting up all on his own now and is rolling over well. He loves to smile, giggle, and talk to himself. We love this kid more and more each day! He's so much fun! I can't wait until summer, to spend more time with him (still 4 months away). Here's Rylan at 6 months old!