Too Cute

I was feeling nostalgic last night, so I decided to go through old pictures of our boys.  I look back on those pictures of when the boys were smaller, and I can't remember how hard it was at that point in our lives; all I can see is how much I love those little boys.  

I am not the best mom.  I struggle every single day.  But I love my boys, and I am learning every day how to be a better mom.

As I looked through those pictures, I felt the courage and ability to be a better mom.  I decided right then that I needed to take more pictures of my boys.  I want to look back on this time and remember the love that was in our home and the happiness that these two brought us every single day. 

I want to remember the moments that at the time seemed small and not really important, but I know that when I look back on these pictures I will smile and remember how little they were and how sweet they were. 

More Christmas Pictures

Christmas 2012

It's hard to believe another Christmas has come and gone. It's sad that after all the anticipation leading up to it that its over. We had a great Christmas though.
I was starting to feel homesick since most of my siblings were going to be in Powell for Christmas, but I decided the best way to avoid being unhappy was to focus on others. And we were blessed with many chances to do just that.
Sunday before Christmas, we went around our neighborhood and delivered cookies and introduced ourselves to some neighbors we had not met yet. It was a lot of fun to do that as a family, and it was great to get to know some of our neighbors. We are blessed to live in a great neighborhood with a lot if great people. We are the youngest family by far on the block, so people were excited to have some life back in the neighborhood :)

Christmas Eve, we had Greg's aunt over for dinner. I am glad we had invited them because it turned out her husband had to work and she would have been along Christmas Eve. It was great to have family over the celebrate with.

Celebrating Christmas with small children is a lot of fun, and it is easy to forget you self when you are focusing on trying to have a great Christmas for your kids. The kids seemed happy with what Santa brought, and played well together all day! A Christmas miracle in my opinion!
The kids favorite gifts were anything involving Avengers. They made gear Superheroes don't you think?:)
While it was still hard to be so far from family this year, it was really nice to be together as a family for our first Christmas in our new home and to make some new traditions.

Giving Service

Our relief society has teamed up with a local non profit organization the winter to provide service for individuals in need in our area. I have tried to help out when I can and bring the kids when I can as well. I want them to learn the blessings of service! Last week, we helped out together food baskets for Christmas, and the kids had a great time helping. They helped count fruit and vegetables and helped carry juice. They had fun helping, and I hope they learned something about giving service in the process.

Cool Dude

Dress Up

One of my favorite things about having small children is watching them use their imagination. It is amazing some of the things their little minds come up with.
Lately, our boys have been on an Avengers kick. Their favorite Avenger is the Hulk, so they have been pretending they are the hulk for the past couple of weeks. And in case you didn't know, the Hulk does not wear shirts. As a result, our boys have not worn shirts at home for quite some time. Deagan understands that you have to wear shirts in public, but Kayden hasn't totally made the connection that he shouldn't take his shirt off in public to be the Hulk. :)
Deagan also was into dressing up as Sabta before Christmas. He would put in his big winter coat and hat and then carry around a bag full of toys. He made a pretty cute Santa:)

Library time

I love taking our kids to the library. We have been blessed to live by some pretty great libraries too! A new one opened up shortly after we moved to Maryland, and it is super nice.
They recently had a train display set up at the new library, and the kids were mesmerized by it. It was really cool because of all the detail that went into it.
I am grateful for places like this to take our kids!

Trike-A-Thon

Both boys are attending a preschool based out of a high school, and they are just loving it! And I am loving the time that I have now to workout uninterrupted!

A couple of weeks ago, they did a fundraiser through the school where they got to ride their bikes around the gym. Deagan has turned into a pretty good little biker, but Kayden is still trying to figure it out. So while Deagan was riding lap after lap, Kayden stayed right by my side.

They both looked so cute though in their helmets! It was so fun to watch.

Thanksgiving 2012-Washington

We had the chance to go to Washington state to visit Greg's side of the family for Thanksgiving this year.  It was so fun to spend time with his whole family.  The kids had a great time playing with all their cousins too.  It was times like these that made me so sad that we live so far from family, but I am so grateful for the times that we can get together! I just wish I would have thought to take more pictures than I did.  We were just too busy having fun :)

Family Picture 2012-It shows their personalities well :)

The WHOLE Nelson family!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Greg and his brother

Halloween

As I mentioned in my previous post, Hurricane Sandy came through the East Coast shortly after we moved in, which was also the weekend before Halloween. The storm was projected to continue through Halloween, which was a Wednesday, so our county rescheduled Halloween for Saturday. By Wednesday, the storm has weakened a lot so Halloween was scheduled to go on as planned on its original day. Our boys were thrilled!

We attended our ward Trunk-Or-Treat party that night, and the boys came dressed up as Batman and a Ninja! They were the cutest Batman and Ninja there :)

Our First Home

This is old news by now, but on October 24th, we bought our first home!  What a scary/exciting process it was! We are loving our new house so much, and have been busy updating a few things around the house.  As we are finding out, home ownership is expensive, so we are going to tackle these projects little by little, but we are really loving making this home our own.  

The weekend we moved into our home, hurricane Sandy hit the East coast.  Having just moved in, we weren't sure how our house would hold up, but it weathered the storm just fine.  We were very blessed in our area in the fact that the storm did little damage compared to what it did in NY and NJ.

We are very excited for this new chapter in our lives, and we look forward to all the memories we will fill this home with!

Where we are now...

Before I post about anything else, I wanted to write about where we are now and what has led us here. Here is a quick recap...

-Greg got home on the 20th of September.  

-We looked for houses from the 21st-26th and were blessed to find "the one."

-We put an offer on the house, after some back and forth, everything was agreed on, and we were under contract.

-On the 27th, Greg and I flew to Costa Rica.  We stayed there until the 3rd.  It was a great vacation, but I was so ready to be back in the states.  It is a whole new world over there.

-We flew back to Wyoming to get the kids on the 3rd.  We stayed with my family, saw a few of my siblings, packed up saw some great friends, and then flew out on the 6th back to the DC area.  

-I spent the whole first day back here depressed about being away from my family. I hate the distance between us. 

-We enjoyed Conference, which was really so lovely.

-We found temporary housing on a local Air Force base, and have been there since.  Greg works during the day, and I stay here with the kids.  Its a challenge right now, but we seem to get through each day.  

-We close on our house next week, and I can't wait! I am ready for some stability!

So right now, we are in limbo, but we are together, and really that is all that really matters :)

Logan Marathon

Backing up a bit since my previous post....

The weekend before Greg got home, I ran a marathon.  I never though I would or could do one, but I did.  It was so hard but so wonderful.  I would do one again.  Life is a little different now, and I don't have the help that I did when I was living with my family, so I don't know when I would even train for one, but if I had the chance to do another one, I would do it.  

Training for this race was hard and good.  Hard in the fact that I had a few set backs with minor injuries, and honestly running 10+ miles is just plain hard.  But it was great in the fact that I felt so blessed during my training. So blessed.  I felt like my body was physically blessed.  I am so grateful for that experience.

The night before I left for Utah, my dad gave me a blessing, and I received so much peace and comfort.  I was suppose to run this race for some reason, and the Lord wold help me finish it.  I knew that without a doubt. I was so nervous leading up to this blessing, and I felt confident that with the Lord's help I would finish.

I drove to Pocatello on a Thursday to meet up with my sister, Ashley, who was coming to Logan with me.  We then went to Utah the next day, and spent the day having fun together.  It was a great day! 

The next morning, I was up at 3:30 to get ready to catch a shuttle to a park in Logan where they were going to bus us to the top of the canyon.  It was a very early morning, but I was running on adrenaline and nerves.  As we were going up the canyon, I kept thinking, the only way to get back to town is run back, and that was really nerve wracking! We drove forever it felt, and I had to run that whole way back!

It was freezing at the top; I think in the high 20's, low 30's.  I had some warm clothes with me, but they had a place to drop them right before the race started so you could have them at the finish.  10 minutes before the race, I dropped off my clothes, and then waited to start.  The race started 10 minutes late, so by the time we actually started running I was FREEZING.  My fingers were frozen, and my toes were frozen.  I wished I would have brought gloves, but now I know next time to bring gloves, so it was a lesson learned.  I didn't warm up until mile 3, but after that I was warm enough.  

I had had some issues with my feet a few weeks before my race, so I was nervous going into the race.  I felt fine until mile 4, and then my foot started to really hurt.  A mile or so later it felt better, but then around mile 13 it hurt again.  I was not sure if I should finish the race with how it felt, but I remembered the blessing my dad gave me, and I knew I would be blessed to finish the race, so I prayed for my feet. A short time later, it felt fine again, and I was able to keep going.  An answer to prayers!

I felt strong until mile 20, and then I was so done.  My quads were hurting so bad, but I knew if I stopped, I wouldn't be able to go again, so I kept putting one foot in front of the other.  Around mile 23-24, a pacer for 4:15, came up behind me and was really encouraging and they ultimately helped me to mentally get through those last few miles.  At mile 25, my sister popped out of the crowd, and started running with me.  I was so emotional when I was saw her.  It was just what I needed right then.  She was not allowed to finish with me, so she went as far as she could and then I finished on my own. There were so many angels on the course for me that day that helped me finish. I am so grateful for them!

My official time was 4:13.  I am happy with that time, but now I have a time I want to beat :)  The best part of that day, was seeing 3 of my siblings at the finish line waiting for me.  I am so grateful they came to support me! I have the best family.

I am so grateful for the chance I had to run this race.  It was an amazing experience.  We are capable of so much, and with God's help we can go anything!

Greg Returns Home!

This past month has been pretty crazy, so I am late in posting about so many things.  I have to post this one first though because it is by far the best thing that has happened this past month; Greg got home!!  

On September 20th, I flew to Baltimore to meet Greg at the airport.  I got in a couple hours before his flight was in, so I had time to get my bags, get a bite to eat, and then figure out where his flight was coming in at.  Since he was flying with the military, he was coming in a special area of the airport where all military personnel come in.  It was a really neat area because they had tons of signs on the wall, a big group of family and friends waiting for their loved ones, and then a ton of soldiers waiting to deploy.  A local organization organized a care package for everyone coming home, and they arranged for someone to sign the national anthem.  It was emotional, and I felt so proud to be a part of this country at that moment.  

A little while later, I got a call from Greg!! He hadn't been able to use his phone in Afghanistan, so I knew he was finally in when I heard from him.  He had to go through customs before he could come out, so while it was only a few minutes, it felt like forever as I waited for him to come through those doors. A few minutes later though, he walked through the doors and it seemed so surreal to see him! I was so nervous before for some reason, but once I saw him I was just excited! I was also really emotional, but it was a great moment!   I am so glad to have him home!!

Weekend Getaway

This past weekend, I had the rare chance to take a trip by myself to Utah. I was signed up to run the Top of Utah Marathon in Logan, UT. (A post to come on that later). I left Thursday, met my sister in Pocatello, stayed the night there, and then drove to Brigham City the next day for the temple open house before heading to Logan.

The open house was beautiful. I just love the temples. After the open house, we went to Salt Lake to visit my grandparents and my aunt. We stayed with them for several hours and enjoyed our time with them.

My grandpa is really into family history, and he told us several stories of our ancestors. We have great lineage. It makes me proud to belong to such great stock.

This was the first time I had seen my grandparents since I have been here. I'm not sure how we didn't make it work to see them until that point, but it just never worked out. I'm just sad I didn't have the boys with me. I showed them all pictures though and filled them in on their sweet little quirks and stories. It was such a great visit. I am so grateful for my family.

We drove to Logan that night, and got ready for race day! I will recap that in another post! :)

Planet Kids

I grew up in a small town with very limited options of ways to keep kids busy; especially in the cold Wyoming winter months. A few weeks ago though, a new kids place opened up called Planet Kids. It is every kids dream come true. It is honestly the best thing for this small town. I have taken the boys several times and they love it. I am just sad that it opened right before we move! It will definitely be a place we go to every time we visit.

I love supporting local businesses, especially when they are something my family could totally use.

Precious moments