The Nielsen Family

I planned a little girls trip with my BFF Chelsea the second weekend in April. It was a much needed break and so much fun! I wish the weather would have been a little better but it was a blast anyways! I love spending time with her. We are complete opposites and we get along great. She has been my best friend since we were 10.... so I have so many fun memories with her. This trip just added so many more! We started out the trip a little crappy.... we flew out on a thursday night and we were supposed to be in Vegas by around 10:00 PM, but Utah was having a major storm that day... so we sat on the plane for 3 hours waiting for it to get De-Iced. NOT FUN. At all. By the time we got to Vegas and checked into our hotel and got ready for bed it was 4:00 AM Utah time. We were so dang tired! Friday we slept in and then worked out.... then we went shopping for the rest of the day! We went to a movie and then dinner and back to the hotel to sit in the hot tub. It was so much fun to sit in the hot tub every night. Saturday we walked the Strip all day long and shopped some more. We decided we wanted to go on the New York New York roller coaster which was SO much fun!!! We went on it just as it was getting dark so the whole city was lit up. It was awesome to see everything. And the roller coaster was a blast! Sunday we went back to the strip and relaxed and soaked up the sun for a little bit before we went to our show. We saw a comedy/magic show that was pretty good. After that we headed back to our hotel to get some dinner and gamble a little. Dinner was yummy (well at least mine was) but the gambling didn't go so well..... ha ha. I will leave it at that. I decided I really shouldn't gamble.... :) We flew out early Monday morning. Back home to reality! Thanks Chels for such a fun trip. I will never forget it! I think we need to make it a yearly tradition :) Love you!

I really am going to go private.... I just haven't done it yet! I haven't really felt too much like blogging.... I do have lots to blog about... so here goes! This is going to be a really long post.... sorry everyone! I really should blog more often and I wouldn't have this problem I guess... but I've decided blogging is a lot of work!
I will start with December, since I didn't blog the whole month :)

We started off the Christmas season by going to the Oakridge Boys Christmas Concert on the 30th of November at Abravanal Hall. Ryan's parents took all the adults as part of our Christmas this year. It was a nice way to start the season and it was lots of fun! Thanks Julie and DeeRay!

DeeRay, Julie, Me, Ryan, and Devan at the concert

I found out on the 3rd of December that I was going to be having surgery on the 10th.... much sooner than I expected. I had been having lots of problems and pain with my C-Section scar and some other things. I had a cyst that burst on my left ovary and they also got rid of some more endometriosis, and cut my right side of C-section scar back open and took a mass out. Fun, huh? I knew I was going to have to have the surgery, it was just a lot sooner than planned. I took a week off of work and took some time to recover. I need to say thanks to my mom, Ryan's mom, the ward, and some of our neighbors. You guys are the best! Thanks for taking such good care of us while I was not feeling good. I am so grateful to have such awesome people around us that are so good at serving us when we need it most. We are so blessed to have them in our lives. I was feeling pretty good within a couple weeks. Thankfully just in time for Christmas!

We started off the week of Christmas by going to dinner with my family. Every year, my parents take us all out (the adults) to dinner at Applesbees as part of our Christmas. It is so much fun and a night that I always look forward to! After dinner, all the girls went shopping and the guys watched the Jazz game. It was such a fun night! Thanks mom and dad! Sorry, no pictures from that night!

The next night, (the 23rd) we went to Ryan's Grandma Bennett's house for a special surprise visit from Santa and a game night with his family. It was lots of fun and the kids were all surprised to see Santa! Hazen is still not too sure about Santa.... he is not a fan and he pretty much refused to sit on his lap. Maybe next year... Rhett on the other hand... was very curious and didn't cry at all! He loved him! He sat on his lap twice!

Ryan bringing Hazen upstairs to see Santa!

Hazen, happy to be sitting on Grandma Julie's lap watching Santa from a distance....

At least he's not screaming.... but this is as good as it gets with Hazen! He is one stubborn kid!

Rhett and Santa! He loved his bells!

On Christmas Eve, it was a fun, but hectic day. Rhett woke up with a high fever and he was super cranky. I had to find somewhere open to take him to see a Doctor. The poor kid had a double ear infection and was very unhappy. I went all over the valley to find somewhere open on Christmas Eve! Luckily, we were able to get him started on another round (he had an ear infection the week before) of antibiotics. Needless to say, he was not a very happy camper for Christmas. Poor kid. After I got back from taking him to the Dr., we decided to go bowling before we had to head to the next family party. Kendall, Alyssa, and his girls came bowling with us, along with my parents for a little bit. It was lots of fun! The kids had a blast, but I didn't get any pictures. After we were done bowling, we headed back to the Bennett's for some dinner and our annual Christmas program. Dinner was good-as always, and the Christmas program did not disappoint! We had the usual Nativity seen that we always do, then we had a white elephant gift exchange after some of the other kids showed off their talents.

Blake and Hazen on Christmas Eve waiting for the program to start

Rhett, just chillin on the floor, being a happy kid for a minute!

Hazen singing "Lollipop, Lollipop" with the snowman. It was so cute!

Singing some more....

My cute little Reindeer :)

Now on to Christmas Day.... Hazen was so much fun this year! He finally has it all figured out... he knew Santa was coming to bring us gifts and he was fine with that- as long as he didn't have to see him or talk to him! He woke up Christmas morning and the first thing he asked was "How did he get in?" He knows we don't have a chimney, so he was a little concerned... what a smart and funny kid. He was excited to see all the gifts Santa had left him, and boy did he get spoiled! Thanks Santa! Rhett was still not feeling too great and he hadn't slept most of the night, so he was tired, and couldn't really care less about his presents Santa had left him. He loved the paper though! Rhett got lots of clothes and a few toys. Hazen had asked Santa for a BB Gun, and that was all he really wanted. He got lots of clothes, some new games, a couple movies, a hunting game, and the BB gun! Santa sure spoiled our boys! Christmas day is always crazy for us because we have so many places to visit that day, but it didn't feel quite as hectic this year. It was such a nice change!