Aunt to number 24!

I have a new nephew - Daniel Kent Ashton (Kent is the name of his paternal grandfather). I now have 18 nephews and 6 nieces, and love them all. I love being an aunt. Daniel is my second sister, Mindy's, 6th kids (she has 5 boys and one girl). I am hoping to have lucky number 25 for our family. Since the time Ryan and I started trying we have had 5 nephews born, all my sisters got pregnant after we started trying - had we been able to get pregnant right away we could have had number 20 - or any of the numbers since then. But we are now hoping to have number 25 - but if one of my sisters beats me to it again, that will be okay too. I am just happy to have a new nephew for now. Welcome to the world, and our family, Daniel.

Army of Angels

We just had an amazing day at the temple. In October the Dallas Temple will celebrate its 25th anniversary. To celebrate this occasion, a stake from a few hours away had a temple day. They came on buses, and in cars. We had to secure parking at the Health Center close to the temple to accommodate everyone that came today. Also to accommodate everyone, we had tons of temple workers volunteer to help us out. It was amazing, like an army of angels, all in white. I would say there were around 30 sisters and 30 brothers working. They had packed sessions every 20 minutes. And it all went surprisingly smoothly. What a blessing to be part of that.

3 Down - 10/11 Left to Go - States That Is

I had a training to attend in Chicago for the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R). So I left for Chicago on the 9th in the evening. Monday was my first day of training, and I learned a lot. After we were done training I walked over to Lincoln Park. It is a really nice park, quite large, but everything contained in the park was closed, including the free zoo that I really wanted to see, so that was a disappointment. I got my first view of a great lake (Lake Michigan), and even walked on the beach. Tuesday I had training again – again I learned a lot. After that I went with a couple of the girls from my training to the downtown area. We went on the Magnificent Mile – went in a couple stores, and then out to dinner. We didn’t have a whole lot of time so didn’t get to see much of it, but I guess it is good to say I have been to the Magnificent Mile, even though I’m not much of a shopper. A little after I got back to the hotel Ryan arrived, so that was nice. Wednesday morning Ryan and I went out to breakfast, then he walked me to training. While I was in training, again learning a lot, he went to The Museum of Science and Industry, then to Wrigley Field to walk around the outside, then to the Lincoln Park Zoo. He got there just a half hour before it closed so many of them animals had already been put away – but he did get to see the lions and the tigers, so that was nice for him. I think he really enjoyed all that. We then met up and went to downtown to get some pizza (which wasn’t quite as good as we expected because we made a poor ordering choice, but still good), and then to Navy Pier to look around, get some fantastic popcorn, and watch fire works. It was a good time. Thursday we packed up our room and then started heading out to go on an architectural boat tour. I don’t know that I would ever go on it again, or strongly recommend it, but I did enjoy it. After the tour we went out to pizza again, but at a different place, and we really enjoyed it. Then we went and picked up our rental car, got our luggage from the hotel, and headed out of Chicago.

We headed to Green Bay, Wisconsin. Other than my ADI-R, the purpose of this trip was to work towards our goal of getting to all 50 states. Neither Ryan or I had been to Wisconins, Michigan, or Minnesota, so we went to each. (I now have 10 states I haven't been to, Ryan has 11). Our friends, the Gunnels, (Brian Gunnel moved into my BYU ward my 4th year at BYU and was there still when I left on my mission. He and Ryan had lived together at the Riviera before Brian moved into my ward and were still good friends. That next school year while I was on my mission Ryan moved into the ward to live with Brian, which is when he got to know Maggi and Jenny, my sisters. When I came home sick from my mission I went to visit Maggi and she told me about Ryan – she had a crush on him – and introduced us. I was still set apart as a missionary at the time so I wasn’t thinking about Ryan as someone I could date – but was super impressed with Ryan even just from the few minutes we talked, knew I wanted him in our family, and told Maggi she should marry him. She said he was too old for her. When I came home from my mission and decided to do another year at BYU I remembered Ryan and Maggi and I talked about him on our way back to school. We tried to visit him the second day of school but he wasn’t there. He came the next day to visit us and we have been together ever since. Why do I write this story now – because it is because of Brian and Maggi that Ryan and I finally found it each other. So we owe a lot to them – but why Brain didn’t introduce us as soon as he got to know me is still a mystery, as we are clearly perfect together,) live in Green Bay now. On our way there we stopped a couple places for cheese – yum – the best string cheese ever, plus some delicious curds. Then we had a fun evening with Brian, Mel, and their boys. Brian and Mel are the kind of friends that no matter how long it has been since you have seen them, once you are with them you are immediately at ease and feel you could talk about anything. I’m grateful for those kinds of friends.

We left Green Bay the next day and headed to Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. So, we had seen Lake Michigan in Chicago, and it was impressive just by its size. But Lake Superior was incredible. If you did not know better you would have sworn you were at the ocean – turquoise blue water (like the Caribbean), sandy beaches, and amazing cliffs. It was just so beautiful. We did an amazing hike as soon as we got there, walking along the cliffs, but mostly through this incredibly gorgeous forest, and to a waterfall. It was shaded the whole way and temperatures were in the 70s – just much more pleasant than hiking in Texas.

The next morning we went scuba diving in Lake Superior. There have been tons of ship wrecks in the Great Lakes we learned. We have never done a wreck dive, and have never been that interested in it, but that is pretty much the only kind of dive you can do in the great lakes. Despite the water being super clear, the Lakes are too acidic to support much animal life. But we figured it would be kind of cool to dive a Great Lake, and that it would be neat to have the new experience of a wreck dive, and since it had been more than a year since our last dives, it was time to get some in. So we did a two tank dive at two different wrecks. We learned we really aren’t big fans of wreck diving. Maybe in the ocean where wrecks attract animal life it would be exciting, but in the Lakes you see the wreck and it is cool for about 5 minutes as you explore (they are well preserved because the coldness of the water and lack of animals), and then you have seen all you care to see – but you still have about 45 minutes of bottom time left. Our first dive we figured since we still had air we should swim around and see what else we could find. I guess that is not what most people do because we scared our boat captain and he was about to call the coast guard. We still had half tanks left when we got to the boat, but he insulted Ryan’s navigation abilities thinking we had gotten lost and that is why we took so long to get back. Why do a two tank dive if you are only going to stay down 5 minutes at each place? At our next wreck we just came up after we were done exploring, we had 2/3 – ¾ of our tanks left. The captain was happier with us.

Later that day we did another hike along Pictured Rocks – it was about 10 miles so it took us a few hours, but it was an ideal hike – shady most of the time with tons of amazing view points. Ryan and I hike together very well. I never feel like either of us is slowing the other down or that one of us is more daring or desiring to do more strenuous hikes than the other – we are just evenly matched.

The next day we left Michigan and headed back for Wisconsin to the Apostle Islands National Lake shore, also along Lake Superior. It was fairly similar to Pictured Rocks, though the water was a little rougher. We did a hike that evening after we got there, also very pretty.
We had planned the next day to kayak out to the islands, but the water was just too rough, so we considered taking a boat ride, but the only seats they had available were on the inside. We didn’t feel like it would be worth the cost to not even be able to see very well. So instead we went to various farms to look for jams and berries. We had bought some blueberries at one farm, some jam at another, then we came to a farm where you could pick your own berries – so we picked raspberries – so fun and so delicious. At one of the farms we stopped at we met the coolest dog in the world - a black lab. As we were pulling up he ran to the car and just was wagging his tail so hard his body was shaking. As soon as Ryan opened the door he took off running. We thought it was odd since he had been so excited. A few seconds later he comes back with this rag in his mouth which he drops right at Ryan's feet, ran a little ways off, then looked back at Ryan expectantly. So Ryan threw it up in the air, and the dog jumped up and caught it right out of the air, brought it back and dropped it right at Ryan's feet. This went on and on. When Ryan delayed picking it up one time he nudged it on to his feet. Every time he would catch it in the air. He never played tug of war, just dropped it and waited. It was so hard to leave him, we wanted to take him with us. Do you think his owners would have minded?

We headed on our way to Taylors Falls, Minnesota. Along the way we stopped at some more cheese places, and also at a National Parks information station. While there the ranger lady suggested kayaking along the St. Croix River – and so we did. I’m so glad we stopped there – it was amazing. I could kayak like that every day. There were cliffs on both sides with trees all along so you were always in the shade, it was cool out, the water was crystal clear so you could even see the fish swimming along side you, and there was enough current that you didn’t even have to paddle if you didn’t want to. The only thing disappointing about it was that the ranger made it sound like you were guaranteed to see a bald eagle as you went down, and we didn’t, although we did see a really cool falcon.

Once we got to Taylors Falls we did a little hiking, which was fun.

The next day we had to fly out of Minneapolis/St. Paul - so we headed that way. We stopped to see the temple, but it was closed so we couldn’t go in. We went to the state capitol and were quite impressed. Then we went to Mall of America just to experience it – and it was amazing. Our trip then had to come to an end- too bad, it was a great trip.

Happy Birthday America!

To celebrate our countries birthday, Ryan and I went down to West with our friends Jesse and Leanne Bell and went canoeing and kayaking (we got one of each and switched off). Although I left the experience fairly sunburned, we had a really good time, and despite what I anticipated, my arms never got sore. It was just nice on the river, very pretty with limestone cliffs, and plants, and it wasn’t as hot as we thought it would be. The only negative (other than the sunburn) was for some stupid reason, we decided to switch boats in some super nasty, stagnant water and we all ended up with leaches on our feet. Well, Jesse was the only one who actually had them on his feet since he didn’t have shoes on, we had them on our shoes. It was a first experience for all but Jesse, and they were rather nasty, but tiny and you couldn’t really feel them. It was more the idea of them that grossed you out then the actual leeches. But we really did have a great time. After the river and on our way out of West we stopped at The Czech Stop were I used to sometimes stop on my way from school and got some kolaches. We had all been hungry and they were very enjoyable. When we got back to Burleson we were all exhausted and ready for showers. We had planned earlier to get together later for fireworks and dinner, but that never happened. Ryan and I took showers, had some left-overs, went to the grocery store to get some ice cream, and then just watched fireworks outside our house, which was nice. It was a good 4th – and I am very grateful to be an American and for the rights and freedoms I have as one.


I'm not sure why there are dates on these pictures as we don't have any on any other pictures we have taken. And I think it is funny how clearly wrong the date is since I didn't even get the camera until last year. But whatever, I don't know how to get rid of it.

My First Train Ride

BNSF has a few passenger trains. Every year around this time they go to different cities and give rides to employees, their families, and some community groups. This is the first year they did it here since Ryan has been with the company. He wasn’t sure it was something we would want to do and so didn’t’ get tickets right away. By the time he had talked to me and tried to get tickets all the ones for Ft. Worth were gone. But we found out they were doing some out of Temple (just a little past Waco) so we got tickets for that. We got four tickets and so invited our friend Zane. Zane is the son of our good friends David and Billie – and he LOVES trains. Billie came too, so that was fun. We enjoyed having Zane along, first because he is just a pleasant and funny person to have along, but also because of his enthusiasm. They gave us snacks and drinks and stuff to entertain Zane. We had a good time and got to see little nice scenery as well.

We Love Our Garden

Every spring since we have been in our house we have planted our garden. We pretty much always plant tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumber, and then we fill the rest of our garden with whatever we feel like trying that year. This year we decided to try onions, broccoli, and purple cabbage - and they have all been very successful, which is amazing because we are not generally successful at our first tries. I have loved eating from our garden this year. But what I didn't know was how pretty these plants would be. I think our cabbage plants are especially pretty, but I also love the flowers that have grown from a couple of our onions.

Six Years and Counting

Ryan and I have now been married six years. Luckily for us, our anniversary fell on a Saturday. We went a little early to the temple, before our shift started, and did some sealings. I couldn’t say for certain, but I am pretty sure that every year around the time of our anniversary, if not the day of, we have done sealings. It is a nice way to remember our wedding day and the covenants we made. Doing them actually on our anniversary made them even more special for me. And it was a nice way to start our anniversary, and our day at the temple. After the temple we went to Blue Mesa Grill, one of our favorite restaurants, for dinner. Then we headed to the Omni Theater in the Ft. Worth Science and History museum to see the second Night at the Museum movie.

It may not be the way that everyone would choose to spend their anniversary, but it worked for us. We had a good time and have decided we will stick together for another year.

The roses Ryan gave me for our anniversary.

New Ward - New Callings

Ryan and I moved to Texas, to Burleson, two days after we got back from our honeymoon. That was in June of 2003. Although a year later we moved from our apartment to our house, we have been in the same ward the whole time. We love the Burleson Ward, it feels like family to us.

A few weeks ago when we were at church we were asked by the stake executive secretary to meet with the stake president later that day. We weren't terribly surprised since a couple people in our ward had made comments to Ryan about his "new calling" thinking he had already been called - but he hadn't and they weren't telling what the calling was. We had a couple guesses, but we were definitely wrong. When we went to talk to President Beesley that evening we were both stunned when he asked Ryan to be the second counselor in the bishopric of the singles ward. I was not surprised that Ryan would be considered for such a calling - he is worthy and very capable - I just hadn't ever thought about being in a singles ward again. President Beesley also asked if I would attend with him, so I said yes.

I have had mixed feelings about this. Ryan and I have loved being temple workers together, but as a bishopric member you are not allowed to be a temple worker, though you can still volunteer. Also, I love working in the nursery and will really miss my little kids. Finally, I we will miss the Burleson Ward. I love the people there and will miss seeing them weekly. But we are excited to work with the Singles. If I were single I am still young enough to be in the ward, and Ryan is just barely too old - so we feel like we will be able to connect with them pretty well. And singles wards always have a lot of activities so that will be fun.

Last Sunday, (a week after we received the call), Ryan's dad ordained him to be a high priest (kind of weird since we both still feel so young and don't even have kids yet). And then today was our first day in the single's ward. Ryan was sustained and went to sit on the stand, and I started my I don't know how long stretch of sitting by myself. After church President Beesley set Ryan apart. So now it is official. I think we will like being in the single's ward, a couple people have already introduced themselves to us and welcomed us to the ward, and even though it is a small ward, they all seem to really enjoy it. So, we have begun a new adventure.

Luke is home!

I just wanted to let everyone know that Luke was able to go home today! His heart seems to have healed and has been doing well. Thank you to everyone for all your prayers. We are especially grateful to our Heavenly Father for helping us find the problem in time, for the great doctors and nurses that helped Luke, and that he seems to be doing well. Thanks everyone!

Happy Memorial Day!

Ryan and I got up early and went down to Meridian State Park to go "hiking". Hiking in Texas is very different than hiking in the west, because it so flat. There are very few places in Texas that you can go that I would consider to really be a hike, and they are many hours from here. But still, the parks call their trails hiking trails. Meridian is at the top of the hill country – neither of us had ever been there so we figured if it was hilly it would seem to be more like hiking. Well, it wasn't too hilly, but there was a ton of vegetation, you were almost always in the shade, so you felt more like you were in a foresty mountain wilderness than just walking through the desert like it has felt at other state parks here. I really liked it actually. We saw some wildflowers we have never seen before (I should have taken pictures of all of them – but unfortunately didn’t). We also had several fun animal encounters. We saw a tree full of vultures, a mosquito hawk bouncing in mid-air (we couldn’t figure out what it was doing or how it was doing it, but then we saw another one doing the same things so maybe it is normal behavior for them – my best guess is that it is some kind of mating act), we saw a big bunny, a turtle crossing our trail, and a long black snake with yellow strips down its length.

Luke Update

A couple days ago my brother in-law Mark sent out the following email expalining Luke's story:

Luke David Earl Nelson has arrived.
He weighed in at 7 pounds 7 ounces and 20 inches long.

He came early. Not that Emily went into labor, but we had to have an emergency C section yesterday.
I am keeping this as the short version of the story. It is one that is a miracle though.

Emily had an ultra sound yesterday and the tech saw something in the heart that she did not think looked right. So the doctor came in and looked. Then an hour later a pediatric cardiologists came to look at the heart. He saw something right away. We went from that office to Summerlin hospital at about 1 pm. We were then put in for a C section at 6:30. They would have done it sooner but Em had eaten some lunch.

Luke was born and looking pretty good. They took him immediately from the OR to the NICU. They did some tests and we now know he is a problem called pulmonary hypertension disorder. Basically there is to much pressure coming from the lungs and not getting enough blood to flow from the heart to get oxygen and then spread it to the rest of the body. The lungs were put under distress when Luke was still inside of Emily. So the lungs are staying constricted which is making it so there is to much pressure. We need Luke to have the lungs relax so the heart.

Luke is sedated. He is on a ventilator with a treatment that is designed for this exact case. He is going to have a couple of hard days. We are hoping that all will go well and he will recover.
We are not sure of when or how long. It will be a bit of roller coaster. 2 steps forward 1 step back.
You can see in the pictures he is so cute. Two of the pictures are from last night at about 11 pm. This was before he started going down hill and was put on all the machines.
He is really sick.

Emily is recuperating well. So that is good. We just need our little baby Luke to get better.

We feel that we have had the best team of doctors and nurses that we needed so far at each stage. They have been really good.

The huge miracle is that Em had an ultra sound and the tech saw something and said something. Our first nurse last night named Jill has been an NICU nurse for 21 years and has never had a case like this one. The reason why is that the baby would have died inside the mother at the end. Or been born and then have lots of problems and it would be to late to do anything about it.
It all had to do with the little flap in the heart that usually closes up as soon as the baby is born was closing up or was closed up before he came out. This is what caused a problem with some other duct and the tricuspid valve in the heart.

So Luke is here. Please pray for him to recover quickly.
We are at Summerlin Hospital. We had to go to a level 3 NICU center and a hospital that Emily's OB delivered at.


Here are 2 of the pictures of him that Mark sent.




As of today, Luke is doing much better than he was before. He is down to being on only one ventilator (he was on 2 before). He is no longer in a state of induced paralysis, he is on a decreased level of medications, they can touch him a tiny bit, his lungs are healing and his heart is doing quite well. Emily has to leave the hospital tomorrow, so this will be quite difficult for both her and Mark as they live at least a half hours drive fro the hospital and the very soonest Luke could get out would be Wednesday. We are all praying that he will be well enough by Wednesday that htey can take him home, that he will be free of all machines, eating on his own, and all that good stuff. Thanks for all your prayers!

Aunt Again!

Yep, that's right, #23 arrived last night. Luke David Earl Nelson arrived last night, weighing in around 7 1/2 pounds. But even though he is a good-sized boy, he is almost a month ahead of schedule. My sister had just gone in for a regularly scheduled appointment and because of his size the doctor decided to do an ultrasound. While doing so he found that Luke had a heart problem and ordered an emergency c-section. A few hours later he was born. He is still in the NICU. We would be so appreciative of any prayers on his behalf. His heart is not doing great, and neither are his lungs so he is not getting enough oxygen. Prayers for his parents, Mark and Emily, would be great too. Thanks so much. As soon as I get pictures of my newest nephew I will post them!

To Las Vegas Again

My sister Molly and her husband Bruce went on a 2 week cruise and left their kids with my mom to take care of. Molly was worried that Lissa and Timmy wouldn’t get enough attention and that my mom may get a bit overwhelemed and behind in all she always has to do. So I went there for a week to help with the kids. I had a good time, but it was a lot of work and was tiring. But they are cute kids so it was okay. I didn’t see any of my friends while I was there, and really didn’t spend that much time with most of my family. I really mostly just stayed at my parent’s house and took care of kids – which was what I went there for. But my first day there Mindy’s daughter and son, Ellie and Ethan, were over and Lissa and they had a “birthday party” for me, which was so cute and sweet. The next day all my sisters in town came over for Taco Thursday, which is always fun – I love just hanging out with my family, I wish I could do it more often. Another day I went with Mindy’s family, my dad, and Molly’s son Adam to a cub scout picnic where they did an egg drop (my dad and Adam had built an egg drop contraption together). One night I went with my parent’s to a movie. Jenny and Cam and their kids came on Friday – and it was fun to have them. Once they were there Lissa had play-mates, so she took a little less time. Saturday was Michaelanne’s senior prom so we all went over to help/watch her get ready. It was fun to be there for that – she looked really pretty. Monday we went to CJ and Mike’s track meet – which was fun. They did great. My mom made me rolled tacos for a birthday dinner for me (my favorite) and my dad got Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes (cheesecake is my favorite) and Emily’s and Mindy’s families came over to celebrate my birthday – which made me happy. It is the first time that my family has celebrated my birthday in about 10 years – so that was fun. And then the next day I flew out.

The birthday party Ellie, Ethan, and Lissa had for me - too cute.

When Jesse first came to visit Timmy was very curious so he had to take a look.

Lissa, already to go to her princess party.

Okay, look at that smile and tell me you are not completely in-love with him, so adorable!

The tasty cheesecake my dad got me for my birthday - yum!

Amanda Has Entered the 30s Club

Well – it has happened – I’m now 30 (good-bye 20s) and I am fine with it. I had 3 days of fun-filled celebrations (1 for every 10 years of my life). I lucked out and my birthday was on a weekend this year. Friday Ryan invited a bunch of our friends from the ward to join us for dinner at a restaurant we like (Big Tony’s) and it was just fun to spend time with them all. And then we had them over for dessert which was also super fun. They were so nice and gave me gifts even though Ryan told them not to. I have great friends.

Dinner with our friends, the Poyfairs, the Bartons, The Alexanders, Us, and The Binghams


Saturday was my actual birthday. I had initially planned to take the day of from the temple so we could do something super exciting – but then I decided there would be no better way to spend it than in the Lord’s House, and I am glad I made this decision. We started the day out by having brunch at Blue Mesa Grill – it was amazing, I highly recommend it. If you become a member of their Chili Heads Club they will send you a coupon for a free brunch for your birthday – so we only had to pay for Ryan. Even though it is kind of expensive, it is so delicious it is worth it.

This was my first plate of food - I think I probably had 5 more - AMAZING!


We then went and did our shift at the temple, which was great. After the temple we headed to Ennis for the bluebonnet festival. We didn’t actually attend any festival events or even go into town, just went to see the bluebonnets. We didn’t have time to see all the bluebonnets I would have liked to, but we saw quite a few – probably the best ones, and had a good time. We even got to have a yummy picnic in a field of wild flowers, which was nice. It had been raining at the beginning of the day so we were worried it would mess up our flower experience, but it was sunny by the time we were done with the temple and the ground wasn’t even muddy, so it was nice.

Our fantastic picnic.

After our bluebonnet viewing we went to the drive-in movie. Once we parked our car to reserve our spot, we played some miniature golf – which was fun. I came closer to beating Ryan than I ever have (his thumb was broken so he wasn’t playing as well as usual since he couldn’t hold the club right) but I had a couple bad holes and lost my lead – dang it.

Super awesome miniature golf course - right?

I don’t like the way the Honda Fit looks – it is a hatch-back and I have never been a fan of hatch-backs. But it was nice having it for the drive-in. We laid the back seats down (they lay completely flat) and made a bed in the back and then left the back door open – it was awesome. After 2 movies (17 Again and The Fast and the Furious - not great movies but drive-ins are just fun) we headed back to Burleson, very tired.

How we viewed the movie screen from lying down in the back of the Fit - it was better than it looks from this picture - promise.

Sunday afternoon (after we got our naps in) Ryan’s parents and his sister Heather (Sheri was on her way back from a conference in San Diego) came over for dinner. They made Panini’s – they were very good. We had a good time. It was a perfect 30th birthday.

Yummy pound cake Ryan's family brought me for my birthday.

A New Car

A week and a half ago Ryan called me at work and told me his car was making some funny noises and not driving very well, so he took it in to an auto shop. A few hours later they called and told him the clutch is out. His Prizm is a 98 so a little old I suppose, but I had planned on us having it for several more years, or at least a couple more years. But Ryan had the feeling that it would just become a money pit for us if we were to try and keep it as we are not very hand with cars. So we decided it was time for us to buy a new car. He told me it was no big deal since he already knew what car he wanted - a Honda Fit. I was surprised, especially since I had never heard of a Fit and we had never discussed what we would get for our next car. We spent the next Saturday car shopping, I think we went to about 6 dealerships and drove cars on each one. I was leaning towards a Hyundai Elantra of another Toyota Corolla (I really like mine), and I struggled with the Fit. It is a hatch back, I think all hatch backs are ugly. But I figured Ryan would be driving it so it would be up to him more than me what we got, and he wanted a Fit. So this weekend we went ahead, and after checking prices at all the dealers, bought a Fit. (It wasn't really that easy - it was several hours of negotiating and such - what a headache.) But we are now new car owners. What has made me like this car a bit, despite it's ugliness, is its functionallity. the back seat lie down completely flat so there is actually about the same amount of room in the back as a CR-V has. Also, the actual seats of the back row can fold up, leaving a really tall floor space. Ryan sold me on this functionallity by saying it would be great for a dog - we'll see how soon I can get a dog to go with the car.

Baby Blessings = A Trip to Vegas

My two newest nephews (Jesse and Jack) were going to be blessed the same day. I hadn't planned on going because I couldn't afford the plane ticket. But on Wednesday my sister Molly called and asked me why I wasn't going to come. She the offered me one of their Southwest passes (her husband Bruce is a flight attendant). How could I refuse - especially since I hadn't even met Jack yet. Beyond just wanting to be there for my two nephews big day my uncle Randy was in the hospital I wanted to be there in case he was going to pass away. Well Molly mailed the passes right away so I got them Thursday. Friday morning Ryan and I got up early and headed to the airport. Apparently mid-March is a really bad time to fly stand-by, everyone in the world (or at least Texas) seemed to be on Spring break. I spent the day going from one gate to another hoping they would call my name as one of the stand-by passengers who could get out of Dallas Love Field. I finally got on a plane at 4:30 that was heading to Vegas vis Oklahoma City and then Denver. When I got to Denver I was told I wouldn't be able to get out of Denver that night, but it was likely I could get on the first flight the next morning. Luckily my best-friend Wendy Lewis Reni lives in Denver now. So I called her up and asked if she would like an overnight guest. She and her husband and cute baby Dash came and picked me up, took me to dinner, and then to their cute house. It was so nice to get to spend time with my best friend (I have two best friends - other than Ryan - both named Wendy/i), and get to know her husband and baby better. I think it was meant to be. Saturday morning Wendy took me to the airport. I was very lucky and got on the flight, which was great because it was the only flight that would get me to Vegas in time for the baby blessings. It was so nice to be with my family for such a special experience. I had a lot of fun with my family the whole time I got to be in Las Vegas. I had dinner with some of them, learned how to make bread, had "Taco Tuesday" (when my sisters and mom get together to hang out and eat tacos - they make a special effort to do them when I am in town - I lvoe being with my family), had a picnic at the park with them, went to my niece and nephew's track and field meet, and just enjoyed spending time with them all. I have the best family in the world and I am so grateful for them. Oh, and even though my uncle is still in the hospital, and likely won't make it much longer, one positive thing about that is that his 3 sons were at my parent's house the whole time I was there, so I got ot spend more time with them than I have in years.

Me holding Jack at the blessing

David, Maggi, Jack, Jesse, Jenny, Cam - right after the two blessings.

Taco Tuesday - it happened to be St. Patrick's Day. Back row - Mindy, Ethan, Missy, Maggi, Jack. Front row - my mom, me, Molly, Timothy, Jenny, Jesse (Emily wasn't feeling well - she and Mindy are both pregnant, and so she didn't make it.)

Playing at the park with my nephew Seth (Emily's youngest)

My family lined up and feeding ducks at Sunset Park

Baby Jack

I'm an aunt - AGAIN! Jack Lawrence Ross is #22 in my family, my 16th nephew. He was born on Tuesday afternoon after my youngest sister, Maggi, had been in labor since Sunday afternoon. Jack is her first baby. Maggi did it without any epidural or anything. She was super tired by the end, but she is amazing. Some people say that everyone should try running a marathon - I think natural child birth is much more impressive. Go Maggi!

I have been waiting for pictures of my newest nephew since he arrived but none have been sent to me, but luckily today I have found some on my sisters blog so I pirated them. I was the only one of my sisters not there when he was born so I think maybe they just didn't think it was urgent to get pictures out since they had all already seen him. Anyway, I think he is pretty cute!

Welcome baby Jack - I can't wait to meet you!

For the birds

I am not sure exactly when it started, but close to as long as we have had our house we have had problems with birds around our entry-way. We (meaning Ryan mostly) will have just swept off the entry and beat clean the door mat and by the next morning it will be covered with bird feathers. Also, several times over the past couple years we have found broken eggs, with and with out baby birds on our entry, which is quite disturbing. The puzzling thing has always been that we could never find a nest - but we would hear the birds. It was very strange. And rather annoying. Well, when we were in our attic looking for our wreath hook at Thanksgiving time we finally found the reason for our problems. In our attic was this huge nest - apparently our builders did not secure the corners of our attic very well. At the time all our Christmas decorations were in the way, but before we put them all back in a few weeks ago, we removed the birds home and tried to discourage them from rebuilding. We will see if it works.

I'm A Winner!

Really - I won! Ryan is incredibly lucky and wins things all the time. His luck has not yet rubbed off on me and I rarely win anything. I can only think of one other time I have ever won anything - I won a Shaq t-shirt in high school because of a can a Ocean Spray Cran-Rasberry juice I bought. But I didn't even like Shaq so I gave the shirt to my sister. Anyway, on December 2 my friend Ashley Myers posted on her blog that she hsa some boxes of Chex Mix Bars that had been sent to her because of a post she had done abouthow much she loved them and she was supposed to give some of them away, and if you wanted to win them to leave a comment. I have done these kind of entries to win before, but since I am unlucky I never thought about it after that. In fact, I totally forgot about it. And even though I read almost all of her posts I guess I somehow missed the one where she listed winners, because I guess my box arrived while I was home for Christmas. But since being home I have been enjoying my box of Chex Mix Turtle Bars. They are definately more of a dessert bar than a breakfast bar - but they are pretty darn good. Thanks Ashley - I'm so happy to have won!

Our Christmas Vacation

So, it has taken me a little while to get around to blogging again - but I am finally ready to blog about our great Christmas vacation. Mine started a little earlier than Ryan's. I headed for Vegas on the 17th of December, a Thursday, and the morning after Las Vegas had received the most snow it had in I don't know how long, since before I was born. Growing up my mom always told us that if it snowed and then snow stuck an inch that she would keep us home from school, or come and get us. As it only even snowed at all about once every five years, and when it did snow it rarely stuck at all, and when it did it pretty much started melting soon after - there weren't really opportunities to take advantage of this "snow day" offer. I have in my memory one day of snow sticking more than an inch because I remember making a snow man, but I am almost positive this happened on a Saturday. But still we always prayed for the snow to come, and to stick - not only for a snow day, but just because it would be fun. I am not the kind of person that likes living in the snow, I don't like ice on the roads (rolled my car the first time I drove in the snow and hit black ice), I don't like scraping cars or shoveling walkways or having to worry I will fall as I am walking. But I have always liked visiting the snow - and I LOVE snow in Las Vegas. As I flew into Las Vegas and saw the entire city all white, covered in snow, a site I have never seen before, I can't even explain how excited and happy it made me. Unfortunately I didn't have a window seat and I didn't think to take a picture, but it was awesome. When my dad picked me up from the airport and took me back to my house it was crazy seeing my street so filled with snow. Earlier in the morning the day before my mom had offered to babysit a bunch of my nieces and nephews - I think maybe 13 or so were there. Then it started snowing and my sisters couldn't come to get them so most of them were still there when I got home. They had already been out playing before I arrived and had come in to thaw, but we all went out and played some more. It was great!

On Saturday was the Las Vegas Bowl where BYU played Arizona. The outcome of that game was not a highlight of my trip – however, I didn’t go to it and didn’t watch a ton of it so I wasn’t highly invested in it, luckily. But because of it other events did happen that were highlights. The first was the UNLV vs. Arizona basketball game. Yes, the game would have happened even if the Bowl game hadn’t, but because of the game there were tons of Arizona in town and so the basketball game was PACKED. My dad took me on a date. (My dad has season tickets, has had the same seats ever since the Thomas and Mac has existed, and has missed very few games in its existence – you could probably count the number of missed games on one hand and they would be because of either births or marriages in my immediate family.) I grew up going to Rebel games and am a loyal Rebel basketball fan. For any other sport I will cheer for BYU Cougars, but when it comes to basketball I will cheer for the Rebels (although if the Cougars win I will still be happy – it is a win-win for me.) I get excited to go to games (although unfortunately to this one I was accompanied with a migraine, I had had one every day for almost two weeks and so I was beyond exhausted as well as in pain so I am not sure everyone could feel my enthusiasm.) The Rebel color is red – and it just so happens that that is Arizona’s color too – so there was a lot of red. The announcer thanked the Arizona fans for wearing Rebel red to support our team. I think it helped. It was an awesome game! My dad is a huge fan (obviously) and loves going to games, but I don’t know how long it has been since I have seen him that excited at a game. And his enthusiasm is contagious. My dad has a loud voice. When he boos ref.s it is so loud that video men have gotten him on camera (no joke – when I was little I was at home watching a game while we was on a vacation going to a game and he was booing some ref and there he was on camera.) Well, when he gets excited he also has this “whoo, whoo, whoo” cheer that is just him, that no one else could really do. It’s hilarious and makes you smile. Anyway, it was a great game – we won!

One of the other great blessings of the Bowl game was that it brought my good friend Nicole Santiago to Las Vegas. I met Nicole on my mission when I had been out about 3 months. We lived together in a house in Eureka. Although I never got to officially be her companion, although I would have loved to, I did get to spend a lot of time with her, and I learned so much from her. She was one of the best missionaries ever, she was a super hard worker, but she loved every minute of it and had fun. She taught me about joy in the journey. And she continues to teach me about that. She is so amazing! She has one of the greatest perspectives on life of anyone I know and I count myself blessed to know her. Although I don’t get to see her very often, I don’t even talk to her very often, she’s one of those friends that despite how long it has been since you last saw or talked to each other, when you are together it feels like it was just yesterday. That is the best. She is the best. Love you best friend.

Sunday night was my family’s annual Christmas pageant. Every year we reenact the Christmas story and then my nieces and nephews may perform some musical pieces they have been working on. I don’t just mean my parents and their descendents, which would be over 30 people, I mean extended family on both sides. We had 60 people in my parent’s house, give or take 5. It was packed and crazy. But the kids were adorable and things went fairly smoothly considering how many people there were.

On Tuesday Ryan finally got to Las Vegas so on Wednesday we headed to the Strip (Ryan loves the Strip – he finds it fascinating.) We had heard about this gingerbread house display at the Four Seasons so we thought we would go check it out. We were rather disappointed. I think if they had displayed the houses differently they would have been much more impressive because there were even things inside the houses and they had a lot of details on them, but you couldn’t see them very well because they were packed so closely together and you couldn’t get very close to them. But the carousel was made all out of chocolate and sugar and it had a lot of detail, so I guess that was kind of cool. After we went to the Belagio to see the garden. It wasn’t quite as impressive as sometimes, but they had some reindeer made out of pecans and some snow men made out of carnations that were kind of cool. We decided that while we were there we would watch the fountain dance since we hadn’t seen it in a while. That was fun. They have changed it quite a bit since the last time we watched – at the beginning they make this cloud like thing that I really like. We enjoyed it.

So – I have 6 sisters. Five of them live in Las Vegas and 4 of those have kids (the one that doesn’t live in Las Vegas also has kids but since she was about to have a baby she couldn’t come home for Christmas this year, and my one sister that doesn’t have kids yet will have a baby any day now  ). On the years that it is my family’s Christmas, on Christmas afternoon we will all gather at my parent’s house to eat and exchange gifts. With all my nieces and nephews (I currently have 21 but have 3 more on the way) and then 16 adults, things can get kind of crazy. I love the chaos. This is what it looks like.

On Saturday Ryan and I met my best friend Wendi’s brand new baby girl. Unfortunately, Wendi had just had a c-section and they were still in the hospital recovering so we didn’t want to impose on them with pictures. But she is super adorable! After, we headed to the new Encore hotel. My friend Steve (one of my best-friends from BYU, we met our 2nd day of our freshman year in chemistry) works there so we had him show us around, which was awesome. Not only was it so fun to spend time with him, but he told us all about things that just made the hotel so much more interesting and took us to places we never would have thought to go. Also, he took us into stores we wouldn’t have been allowed to go into had he not been with us. One of which was a jewelry store. In this store they have ridiculously expensive stuff, but amazingly gorgeous at the same time (although even if I was filthy rich I still don’t think I would buy it because to me it just looks fake, because it is so perfect I guess.) Anyway, he asked one of the store workers to help me try on this one necklace, his favorite one. I don’t know how many carets it is, but it was diamonds the entire way around, and each diamond is certified (whatever that means). The necklace costs $762,000. Too bad I had entirely the wrong type of collar/neckline to go with the necklace, but maybe you’ll kind of get the idea of what the necklace looked like. It was amazing! They also had this poker set where the chips were surrounded with diamonds and the dice were made of mammoth tusks. I have no idea where they got the mammoth tusks from, nor do I remember how much it costs. Crazy!


On Sunday we went over to spend some time with my sister Molly and her family. Ryan enjoyed playing the Wii with her family while I enjoyed holding the most adorable 7-month-old in the world - Timothy!

Monday night I had a get together with some of my friends from growing up and from high school. It was so fun – some of them I hadn’t seen since I had been married or even since before my mission so it was so good to catch up with people. It was also good to get to meet my best-friend Wendy’s new baby, Dash. I hadn’t for about a year, the longest I’d been without seeing her in our lives other than our missions, so it was definitely time.

Me, Katie Gibson Morgan, Amy Ekins, Julie Waldo Doody, Wendy Lewis Reni, Jamie Krahenbuhl Heagany (holding baby Dash), Janie Day ?

Tuesday morning Ryan and I headed for Flagstaff where my sister Jenny lives. Less than an hour after we got there she was ready to head to the hospital to deliver her 3rd son – we got there just in time. I stayed home with Ryan and the boys, Nathan and Ben, for a little while and we played in the snow with their awesome dog, Bella.

Then I went to the hospital to meet Jenny, Cam (her husband), and my mom (my dad had just left that morning to head back to Las Vegas for a dental appointment so he just missed it) while Ryan stayed to baby-sit. Jenny did an awesome job and delivered my 15th nephew without an epidural – what a woman! He’s super cute – Jesse Price Norton.

Both boys were so excited to meet their new brother – Ben continually asked to hold him and loves kissing him and Nathan was even willing to share his most prized possession, his stuffed cat, to help him sleep better he says.

We had tons of fun while in Flagstaff – going to National Recreation Areas or Monuments or National somethings, sledding, hiking, and we even made it to the Grand Canyon with my dad once he came back. It was a great trip.

Sunset Crater National Monument

Waptuki National Monument

Walnut Canyon National Monument

A hike we went on in Flagstaff

Grand Canyon National Park

We eventually had to leave so Ryan could get back to Texas to make us some money. I couldn’t get out on his same flights so I stayed behind. The day before I left I got to go to breakfast with four of my cute sisters. It was so much fun. I really, really like my sisters. I don’t just love them, which I do, but I really like them. I like the people they are. I like spending time with them. I learn from them, I am amazed by their goodness and am grateful for their thoughtfulness towards me. No, we don’t all always get along, but generally we do, and I do think we all respect each other. And they all have great hearts. They are the best and I am glad they are my sisters.

Me (holding Seth), Maggi, Mindy (holding Ethan), Molly (holding Lissa), Ellie (Emily took the picture)

So I had a great Christmas vacation – life is good.