New Benches

Sean and I found this amazing deal on benches Thursday, so we bought four of them to put around the fire pit in the back yard. The boys spent Friday morning putting them all together and I think they look wonderful and make a great addition to our back yard. Sean spent the day today re-painting the door frames around all of the back doors and mowing and edging the lawn while the rest of us cleaned house and did laundry. We were supposed to have a BBQ here tonight with Sean's family and his cousin that is here from out of state, but it has been postponed until Monday night so I'll post BBQ pictures then.

The boys went to the annual Moody Movie Night last night. A family in our ward has a huge grassy hill in their back yard, so every summer before school starts they have a movie in their back yard projected on a big sheet. Everyone brings snacks and blankets and hangs out on the lawn to watch the movie (it was "Cars" this year) and then the kids all stay and play night games until midnight or so. It is a fun tradition we look forward to every year.

Feeding the Masses

This post might be kind of long, so bear with me. A month ago, Trevin gave a family night lesson on Being a Pioneer where he explained that we didn't have to be a pioneer that crossed the plains to be a pioneer. There are many ways that all of us can be pioneers in different things.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, when it was my turn for the lesson, I gave a lesson on geneology and how important it is for us to keep our personal journals so that our stories aren't lost. I also related some stories of some of my ancestors to my kids so that maybe they might remember them. On my dad's side of the family I talked about my Great Grandma Bebensee who was a librarian in Nebraska and how she always made us "Spudnuts" when we went to visit her. She also had a cool sprinkler to run through and she called us "Tootie". We called her Grandma BB because Bebensee was too hard to say. I told them about my Grandpa's brother Willis who was a pilot during WWII and was shot down. My Aunt Terri wrote a book about him which was a great resource for my lesson. I also told them about my Great Grandpa Evers and how I used to get embarassed to talk to him because he didn't hear very well and I had to shout at him and how he lived to be 105 years old.

On my mom's side I told my kids about my great grandmother Richardson who crocheted me a baby dress and also crocheted my mom a baby dress. We both have pictures in these dresses and I still have my dress. My mom still has her dress also. I told them about my Great great grandmother Princess Ivy Estelle Brooks who I always thought was a real princess when I was little, but when I saw a picture of her when I was older, she actually looked like one of the Beverly Hillbillies. Princess was just her name, not her title.

It was fun to relate a few stories that I remembered to them. I made a book for my junior year in high school for an English project that had my memories (or stories I hear my parents or grandparents tell) about many of my relatives. In addition to the story, it had a picture (photocopied) and a recipe (typed with a typewriter and lots of whiteout). As I looked through this book, I decided I wanted to re-do it with the modern age of digital scrapbooking. So, since I told my kids that when it was my turn for treats for Family Night (which was this last Monday) that I would make Grandma BB's Spudnuts, I decided to start with re-doing her. When I get everyone done, then I'm going to get them all bound in a book for each of my kids and myself so we can all have copies of the stories, pictures and recipes. The picture of her are from when she was a small child with her father, when she was a young woman, and a picture of how I remember her.

Now to the Feeding the Masses part of my entry. We made the doughnuts and I forgot that the recipe made so many, so when we were done mixing, cutting them out, cooking, and sugaring, we had more doughnuts than I knew we could or should eat. So, we took plates of doughnuts to 5 families in our neighborhood so they could enjoy them for their family night treats also. It was fun and my kids and husband loved them!

School shopping

We are done with the dreaded school shopping. Actually, it wasn't so bad this year, except for the expense of it all. I ended up taking the kids one at a time this year and we made it a date for shopping and lunch. It was fun to spend some one on one time with each of them. Trevin is easiest because he isn't really that picky yet. We were done in about 45 minutes and had an early lunch at Burger King two weeks ago after his registration. He got Mrs. Turner for 4th grade, which is who we all wanted him to get. She is the best! Then, while Tyrel was at scout camp last week, Travis and I went and got them both registered, had lunch at Wendy's and then went shopping. It seemed to go better this year than last because it took us 2 malls and roughly 12 stores last year to find him the shoes he wanted which were actually back at store #6. This year, we went there first and found the shoes he wanted and we got it all done at one mall. Travis has guitar, weight training, and Seminary along with his regular classes this year. Tyrel is back from scout camp, so he and I went to lunch at Brick Oven and then to the mall today. We got his shoes, socks, and pants, but he wants a Steeler's hoodie, and we couldn't find one in his size, so we are bidding on one with EBay and hope we win it, if not, he will have to settle for a BYU hoodie or something. Anyway, I am glad we are done. Tyrel has weight training, 3 D design, and is a teacher assistant for Mr. Christensen along with his regular classes this year. Travis and Tyrel are pretty pleased with their schedules for Jr. High and everyone is ready for school to get going.

Jaron's Blessing

We got to go up on Sunday and be with my brother Brett and his wife Andrea for their new little baby blessing. Jaron was so cute! He is very bright eyed. I got to hold him for a long time and avoid helping set up for the dinner. He and I were just chillin. Jaron's great grandmother made his blessing clothes and he looked so cute in them. The food was great also! Can you believe I actually remembered to bring my camera? This is the fourth baby blessing for us this year (3 in Sean's family and one for my family) and the first time I remembered my camera. Sorry to all of you Nielsen's that didn't get your baby blogged. Maybe I can catch them for their first birthday. All of the new nephews and niece are so cute.

17 Wonderful Years

Today is our 17th wedding anniversary! I can't believe it has been that long. In ways it seems like we have always been together and in other ways it seems like just yesterday. We were married on August 2, 1991 in the Salt Lake Temple and it has been a wonderful 17 years together. Some of you will laugh at the word art on the layout. It says, "He asked, she said yes." Although Sean always says that I asked him, the real story is I did bring up the subject, but he really did the asking. Here is a list of our 17 favorite memories as a couple (not in any particular order):

1 - The births of each of our three wonderful boys

2- The cruise to Alaska for our 10th anniversary

3 - Staying at Daniel's Summit Lodge and riding the 4-wheelers in the mountains around Strawberry Reservoir and picking wild raspberries for one of our anniversaries.

4 - Fishing at Windy Bills for our honeymoon and then going back again for our 1st anniversary. Meeker, Colorado. We also had a great time riding horses and chasing elk with uncle Craig.

5 - Taking the 4-wheelers up to Red Lake in Payson canyon for one of our anniversaries.

6 - Our weekly Friday afternoon lunch date.

7 - Our trip to Orlando and riding all of the roller coasters and thrill rides at Islands of Adventure.

8 - Teaching the 8 year old Primary class and the 15 year old sunday school class as team teachers.

9 - Dancing, we met country dancing and most of our dates were to the Palace or the dances with the Western Dance Club. We still love dancing together.

10 - Sitting in the hot tub in the evenings and talking.

11 - Going bow hunting the first year we were married and actually getting a deer.

12 - Our trip to San Francisco twice, the first time just the two of us and the 2nd time with Diane and LaMarr.

13 - Fixing up the old house together and moving into our other two homes

14 - 4-wheeling at the Devil's Racetrack at San Rafael with the Barton's

15 - Buying tickets for all of the Nielsen's and going to Grandma Nielsen's 80th birthday in California

16 - Going to St. George camping and 4 wheeling twice, first time with the Barton's and 2nd time with Jen, Todd and Haylee, and Jason and Carolyn.

17 - Taking the Nielsen family to Lake Powell and teaching them to play watermelon basketball.

s'Mores the Nielsen Way

Monday for Family Night treats, we had S'Mores the Nielsen way. It has taken us years to perfect our technique. We didn't like the traditional way because the marshmallows squish out the sides and you end up with just unmelted Hershey's bar and dry graham crackers. My cousin's family taught us to make the with Fudge Striped cookies, and that was better. Then we had a friend show us how to make them with the marshmallows squished between two Deluxe Graham cookies. This was good, but you still ended up with chocolate all over your fingers and the marshmallows squished out the sides. So, Sean decided one time to roast his marshmallow (slow roasted so it gets big and brown) and then push the Deluxe Graham cookie up the middle. It is perfect! You hold on to the end of the cookie and eat it all at once. The hot marshmallow melts the chocolate and it is just perfect (according to us anyway!) We also like them with Grasshopper cookies in place of the deluxe grahams.

So sad

I just have to say that I am really bummed that Will got voted off "So You Think You Can Dance" last night. He was my favorite guy. It should have been Mark that got the boot. That's all I have to say.