Newport Beach trip with the Nielson's

We just got back from a trip to Newport Beach. We were gone for 9 days and we had so much fun. The first day we got there we had my brother David (he lives in LA)take us on a tour of the LA, Hollywood area. It was so fun we saw so many fun sights, we went to Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills, the Santa Monica Pier, we drove past the LA Temple, we went pretty much everywhere. It was so much fun. The rest of the trip we stayed in Newport Beach. We went to Huntington Beach twice, Laguna Beach twice, the actual beach in Newport Beach once, and Disneyland three days. We had such a great time the weather was between 70 and 80 the whole time except for the last day it rained and we spent that day in Disneyland before we flew home. We couldn't ask for better weather, we had so much fun spending time with Ryan's family. We also had Will's 1st Birthday down there. Oh, and our trip would not be complete with out a couple of trips to Jack's Surf Shop. We go there everytime we go to California and we have to buy Jack's t-shirts. We have dozens of them.
This is us on Rodeo Dr.
We are up on Mulholland Dr. and the Hollywood sign is behind us.
Sam and Jack with the city behind them.
The Santa Monica Pier
The kids and I with David out on the pier.
We rode the Subway down to Hollywood and Highland that is where the Kodak Theatre is.We were on the top floor of the Kodak Theatre where they have some of the fancy Hollywood Parties.
Ryan and Will in front of the Kodak Theatre
Sam and Jack in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theatre. They are on the Harry Potter Square.

Will & I at Huntington Beach
Ryan and the kids at Huntington Beach.
I love this picture you can see Will's reflection.
Grandpa Mike & Russell at the condo.
Will with Grandma Tina at Huntington Beach
All of the boys.
Brandon & Dena
The kids playing in the sand.
Our little family.
Laguna Beach
Ryan and Will at Laguna Beach
Will at Laguna Beach
Sam at Laguna Beach
Will at Laguna Beach
Jack at Laguna Beach
The kids at Laguna Beach
Our fam with the sun in our eyes and me not paying attention.
Grandpa and Grandma with Will and Jack in front of the Winnie the Pooh ride. Oh ya Jack wore his hoodie, hood on and everything for 2 full days at Disneyland and pretty much half of the trip he is a funny little guy.
Jack had to do everything with Ashton. Jack reminds us so much of Ashton, they even dressed alike that day.
Sam, Will & I at Disney's California.
Ashton, Ryan and Will at Laguna Beach.
We kind of buried the kids at Laguna Beach.

I am ready to plan another trip, anyone want to go?

Will's Birthday!

Last Sunday January 18th was Will's 1st Birthday. We had a great day. We were down in Newport Beach, CA on vacation. After lunch we had a little party at the condo then headed off to Disneyland for the evening. Disneyland was open until midnight that night because the next day was a holiday so we got plenty of time in.

Will is such a sweet baby. He is always happy, he is a good sleeper, and he is so much fun. I can't believe he is already 1. We feel so blessed having him in our family.

Shopping with the girls

For Christmas my mom took the older granddaughters shopping. This year I was invited to go too because they spent the night at my house. We had so much fun shopping, doing pedicures, and doing karaoke to High School Musical.


Macey and Rylee wanted to go up the escalator the wrong way so we let them.
We stayed up until 2:30.

Thanks girls for a fun time. :0)

Review of 2008

Wow what a year 2008 was. We started off the year with a few unexpected surprises. Will decided to come 3 weeks early, it was great for me because I was sick the whole time. My due date was Feb 4th or 5th I can't remember but he came on January 18th. What a sweet baby, he has brought so much joy and happiness into our home. Sam and Jack both love him to death.

On Super Bowl Sunday we went to our friends to watch the game, Will was 2 weeks at the time. When we go home Ryan's truck had been stolen along with all of his work tools that were in his truck box, and our door to our house had been kicked in. Tons of stuff was stolen, my poor kids were terrified. They slept on our floor for about 3 weeks it totally freaked them out. They are still scared sometimes. When we went in the house to see what was taken Jack looked in the pantry and said "at least the robber didn't take our cereal and at least the robber didn't take our pudding" so cute. It just makes you so mad and you feel so violated. That night Will also got really sick. He came very close to getting RSV, I had to watch him night and day, but luckily he didn't get it. A couple weeks later they found Ryan's truck it was totally stripped. Let me tell you working with insurance is a pain in the butt. We had to deal with our home owners and our auto. It was a pain but after paying our wonderful deductibles we got everything taken care of.

A couple of weeks after our house got broke into Ryan had an appointment with the Stake President and I had to be there, :0( got to love those appointments. Ryan got put in the Bishopric. The Sunday they put him in we decided to bless Will because our parents were already coming up. But we didn't decide this until 5:00 the day before. I had to make a mad dash to Costco before they closed to get some food, call the rest of our family, and I didn't have a blessing outfit. Everything was closed by the time I realize I needed an outfit. A friend of ours owns White Elegance and she met me at one of her stores and open it so I could get a blessing outfit. So the first month and half of 2008 was very emotional. I was not looking forward to taking my 3 little boys to church by myself. Jack was where I was most concerned he is kind of a challenge. But he has done so good. When I would have to go feed Will, Sam and Jack would just sit so good all by themselves. I was definitely being blessed.

The rest of the year was pretty mellow we went on some fun camping trips, and spent time with family. Then in the end of September Ryan decided he was going to start another business. We spent the end of the year setting up a new business, getting financing (when the economy was not good, which was a pain in the butt), and learning a new product. And also taking over the business he already was part owner in. His business partner left just after Thanksgiving. So he has been shuffling his time with both business, and a crazy church schedule. It has been crazy, scary, and emotional year. But we would not change it for anything we have learned so much through all of these experiences it has brought our little family so much closer, and we were bless with a wonderful baby boy.

I am looking forward to a new year that will hopefully be a little less emotional, but full of great experiences.

GO UTES!

On Friday night we had a few of my brothers over to watch the Utes game. We had a lot of fun, and the Utes kicked butt. Poor Ryan is the only Utes fan in the family. My brothers are all BYU fans (so is Sam). My brothers did cheer for Utah I am sure this will be the only time though. Will & Jolie
Gordon & Pon
T-Bone & Luke
Kade & Sam
Missy
Ryan Cheering on the UTES
Jack with all of his gear on.
The Gang
Later that night Luke, me, and Ryan played Pass the Pigs
Kade & Kayla spent the night. Kade & Kayla on the futon, and Jack & Sam on the couches.