Fun in July!

I figured I'd post about a few things we've been up to these past few weeks before it really gets chaotic around here. My due date is August 17th, but my doctor says that I won't make it that far. He said I'm dilated almost to a 3 and now 75 percent effaced (sorry, a little too much information I know). It's just crazy to me because after having contractions for what seemed like all day before we had Rylan, when I checked into the hospital I was at a 3. So, she obviously has her own agenda.

Two weekends ago was Pioneer Weekend and before the excitement on the 24th happened, my mom took us to the Days of '47 Parade Float Show where you could help judge. It was pretty exciting to be able to see all of the floats up close.

Rylan reaching to touch with his little pointer finger :)


They had a marching band come through, Rylan seemed like he wasn't sure what to think of it. This is Rylan with Aunt Kimmy (my sister). She moved here from Virginia and is staying with us for a little while.


Then that weekend, we went to the actual Pioneer Parade in Salt Lake City. My mom and sisters camped out the night before to get a good spot. Although it sounded like they had a lot of fun, I don't think Rylan would have done too well. Not to mention me being almost 9 months pregnant! We got there a little before the parade started. All of Rylan's cousins (Chrissy & Kevin's kids) were so sweet to share their parade toys with Rylan.

Rylan waiting for the parade to start!


I'm grateful they stayed the night to get the spot. I was able to reap the rewards without having to pay the price. :) They got a great view right on the street. It was really cool to be so close and in the action.



Rylan liked the parade for the most part. The only part he didn't seem to like were the Police driving by on their loud motorcycles with there sirens going off. I guess that part was a little too loud for him. He loved all of the bands though! Everytime a band would come by, he'd clap his hands and shake his little head (that's how he dances).

Grammy & Rylan clapping to the music.



The parade was a lot longer then I had expected. All in all, Rylan's first parade was a hit. He enjoyed it and was definitely exhausted. He was out when he got in the car.


Later that night we went to see some fireworks. Rylan did really well considering how the 4th of July went. Pioneer Day was a lot of fun. It was great to have family in town to celebrate it with.

The following weekend was Kyle's brother's wedding. We've got to hang out quite a bit with Greg & Emily during their courtship and engagment, so this was an exciting weekend to be a part of. Here are a few pictures from the wedding.

Kyle's family with the happy couple.



Family picture at the Salt Lake City Temple.


Rylan looking like a total stud!


That night they had a reception at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Rylan got to spend the evening with Grammy and his cousins (Timmy & Brittany's kids). He had a lot of fun at the "Fun Center" where they skated and got to ride a few rides.

Riding with cousins Brooky & Allie.



He dumped the cup over and icy cold water went all over his feet. I thought this was a cute picture. Rylan has lots of silly faces. He shows his emotions and what he's thinking on his face well.



Before Kyle's parents left, we were able to visit with them one more time. We sure did enjoy spending time with the family. They're from Colorado so we don't get to see them too often. Rylan will be celebrating his first birthday tomorrow! They gave him an early birthday present. He loved the gifts! This was just another cute picture of his facial reactions I was saying he was so good at.



Well, depending on when our new little addition to the family wants to come, I may be posting more pictures from Rylan's birthday. We have lots of family that will be in town for the weekend to help us celebrate. So we are very excited!

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!