Happy May!

Things are going well on the Nielsen front. May is always a great month, it means the weather is getting nice, the flowers are in bloom, busy season is over, and summer is coming! I also feel a sense of renewal in May. This week was a big one for Ariana, she graduated from her Little Leopards Preschool. They had a little graduation ceremony and it was just adorable. I was so proud of Ariana and what she has learned there. She LOVED preschool and every morning would ask what that day was, which meant, was it a preschool day or not. She looked forward to it so much, so we may have to come up with some other options this summer to keep her excited about things. I think we will start going to story time at the Library. She and Eden seemed to really like it the last time we went. 

For Mother's Day we went down to St. George, we celebrated Great Grandma Cleopha's 90th birthday! We did a Temple session and then had a big family dinner. There were a lot of family that came to celebrate. It was a great time. And my aunt gave her a bike, that she proceeded to ride around the pavilion, what an awesome grandmother I have! 

Seth is thoroughly enjoying his 1-year stint with the US Attorney's office. He would LOVE to end up there one day. For now, he is just trying to work hard and make a good impression. I think he is doing a good job thus far. 

Josh and Shanelle got married February 12th, it was a beautiful day! I am so happy that they found each other. I think they will be a powerful couple. 

One tragic event that happened was that a dear friend, Kirt Guerisoli, passed away from pancreatic cancer. It is so hard to lose someone like that. Kylee and I went down to his funeral, I was able to play the piano for a musical number that his daughters in law and Melissa sang. It was a beautiful funeral, and a great tribute to such a stellar man. The one thing I want to take with me forever is his great example of being a consistent person. He was the type that made righteous actions into a habit, such as attending the temple every week. He has been doing that for years and years, and that is very admirable. He was such a good man and I will miss his laugh and his love. He was always a great support to me. 

Life is so precious and I am trying to learn to not put off things for later, just be the person you want to be. Be the mom you want them to remember. Do those things today, for you never know what tomorrow holds. Take the family pictures now, don't wait until you lose 10 lbs. Treasure those moments with your kiddos because they will never be that little again. These are the things I tell myself, so I don't let my life escape me. I feel like it kinda already has, so I am trying to change that. Ariana is going to be turning 5 this October, and I can't believe that! Time to go on more family vacations and make a lot of memories. I love my girls and Seth so much! They bring so much light and joy into my life. I am one lucky girl...

Happy New Year!

Well it has been a whirlwind since I last wrote. On Sunday evening after Thanksgiving, we were headed back home from St. George and just out of Nephi, we were rear-ended by a semi-truck. Everyone had come to a complete stop and so had we. Apparently the semi-truck could not stop in time and slammed into us, pushing us into two more cars in front of us. It was a horrific experience, having all the air bags deploy and Eden just let our a blood-curdling scream. It was scary, but thankfully we didn't have to call an ambulance. Kylee and Jon were about 30 minutes ahead of us and they turned around and came back. Thank goodness for them. I sat with the girls in the Highway Patrol car while Seth just handled everything. It was a scary experience. I think we are all traumatized. We get nervous when we drive and come to a sudden stop for fear someone will ram into the back of us again. So we have been dealing with doctor appointments, chiropractor visits and physical therapy....not fun.

But time continues to march on. We had a wonderful Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with Clint and Emma Rogers who is Jon's brother, so we had a good time with them. They had a little nativity reading and the girls dressed up as angels. It was fun to be with people and celebrate together. They were so sweet to invite us.

We spent Christmas morning here and did our gifts here and then headed down to St. George. Santa brought the girls a pink Cadillac Escalade power wheel, it is a huge hit (and I mean huge). If only the weather was better so we could use it more that would be nice. Eden just cries if I try to take her out of it. She LOVES it and so does Ariana.

Eden is starting to run now. She is just growing up. The constant struggles at our house now is that Eden wants to play with all of Ariana's toys and Ari has never had to share before, so that is hard. Or Ariana has her toys/dollhouse arranged perfectly-so and then Eden comes and changes things all around. So there is a lot of tears on both sides due to this common occurrence.

Seth was able to go to a special regional training for Bishops and Elders Quorum presidents only with Elder Bednar. He said it was AMAZING! We have discussed a lot of what he spoke about and it has really lit a fire inside Seth to become an 'agent unto himself' and that he controls his life and what he becomes. The meeting was 4 hours of Elder Bednar and Seth said he could have sat for another 4! I am happy he was able to attend such a powerful meeting and I am a little sad that I could not have attended. ;) I can only imagine how awesome it would have been. I remember when Elder Eyring came to our mission and what an awesome experience that was. Even when Elder Holland came and spoke at our Stake Conference, especially the Saturday evening adult session, it was just amazing. They are so powerful and the spirit is so strong in those meetings. Anyway, it has been fun to make some changes in our home and see the difference that it makes.

Ariana is loving preschool and asks every day when she wakes up what day it is, followed quickly by a question is she is going to preschool that day. It is cute. I love that she enjoys it so much. This weekend the girls have been sick and Eden has been throwing up so it has not been a very fun couple of days for them, but hopefully next week will be better. We are going to the Provo Temple Open House on Wednesday and Seth's birthday is on Thursday.

We recently purchased a crystal stage light that you see at dances, we put it in our front room and have dance parties. It makes it really fun and the girls love the light. We are having quite a few more dance parties with the girls nowadays.

Our Stake, the Sugarhouse Stake was dissolved two weeks ago.  Our ward and the Emerson ward have joined the Salt Lake Bonneville Stake, which is east of us, up the hill. It has been interesting and a bit sad to watch as they dissolve and combine wards and stakes, but that is just the dynamic of neighborhoods now. There are not a ton of LDS families that move into our area. And when they get bigger, they tend to leave. But I am excited that we joined the Bonneville Stake, I think they are a good stake. Now we are in Dave/Karly Nielsen and Jorgan/Alison Jacobsen's stake, which is fun. Anyway, it will be fun to see how things work out with the change.