The Best Gift Ever

Since we have been married, we have come to learn how each one likes to receive gifts. Greg likes to pick out his gift and look around to find the best deal. I on the other hand loved to be surprised. We have struggled in the gift giving department for a while, but last night I received the best gift from Greg that I have ever gotten.

For an early Valentine's Day gift, Greg ordered this book of our blog. It was a total surprise to me!!! It is honestly the best gift ever. I love it so much! I have always wanted to find a way to have our blog published so we could have a hard copy of it, but I don't even remember telling Greg this is what I wanted to do. But he being the amazing man that he is figured it out without me even knowing. I went to a movie with a friend last night, and when I came home Greg was already in bed since it was pretty late, and there laying on my pillow was this lovely book. It made me cry.

Now that I know that you can do this, we have decided to get all the years we have had the blog published. It does cost a little bit of money, so it will take some time to do that. I just love having this history in a book that we can look at for years to come and that our posterity can look at and learn more about us.

If you are interested in publishing your blog as well Google SharedBook.

Heaven on Earth

Today I was able to go to the Palmyra Temple, and came out feeling much more able to continue on with life. I love how that feels. Greg starts school again this next week, and I have been dreading it, but now I feel much more comfortable with the thought.

Oh how I love the temple!

One of the blessings of serving in the Primary in our church is singing the Primary songs. They are so inspired and teach such amazing doctrine. One of my favorite songs is "I Love to See the Temple." What a wonderful message it teaches!


Have a wonderful weekend!

New Blog

I have started a new blog, so follow along if you want. :)

http://talentpursuit.blogspot.com/

How do YOU achieve balance?

Ever since I stopped nursing Deagan this past summer, I feel that he is almost pulling away from me and only wants Greg. It has been really hard for me because I feel that since I am with him all day, playing with him and taking care of him that this should be the other way around.

A couple of months ago, Deagan was going through this really hard stage where he was throwing tantrums ALL the time and I felt like we were butting heads 24/7. It got so bad at one point he told me that he hated me, and it broke my heart. Does he really understand what that means? He probably doesn't, but just to hear it from him made me cry.

Things got a little better, but he still really prefers Greg to me, and it is really hard for me. What am I doing wrong here? I was looking online at a few articles and some people made the comment that since the mother tends to be the one who does the housework, cooking, etc that her time if divided between playing with the children keeping up with everything. The dads tend to be the ones who have more time to play with the kids, and the article suggested that because of this children can tend to draw more towards the dad because they are the "fun" parent.

I am not sure where to find a balance with everything. How do I keep up with everything that has to be done in taking care of a house (or apartment in our case) and still give 100% of my attention to my kids? I just don't know how to make this all work, and it really scares me that this situation is only going to get worse once our new baby comes.

How do all you great moms out there balance things?

28 1/2 week belly shot

So excuse the bad quality of the picture but here I am at 28 1/2 weeks. (The 1/2 is very important :)

A few of my favorite memories from the past few weeks...

As I mentioned earlier, we spent the Holidays with Greg's entire family. Here are just a FEW of the many that I have from that trip:

Aunt Melissa and cousin Shad. Deagan has talked about you non stop Melissa since we left. He is always asking for either you, Holly, Brad, Grandpa, or Uncle Bryce.

Deagan had not seen his cousins since April. He loved being able to play with them. He kept calling Shad Izaac for some reason though. Funny kid.

The family was having a Christmas Eve program and these two were watching quietly from the fireplace.

Deagan playing Joseph

Shad as a wiseman?

Grandpa Nelson and Deagan

We went ice skating for Aunt Melissa's birthday which was the day after Christmas, and Deagan got really cold from pretty much the moment we started. So we came inside and drank hot chocolate and let Deagan play while everyone else finished ice skating.

"This is delicious!"

Daddy and Deagan ice skating. He didn't want to put his own ice skates on so Greg held him for a while.

Christmas morning: Matching sweaters!

I don't think that Deagan was really upset about what he was getting, but he made such a great face! I think he is opening clothes in this picture, so maybe he is upset. I felt bad because we opened all of his Christmas presents before we left because there was no way we would be able to take them all back on a plane, so he didn't get to open as many gifts as his cousin.

That also might explain the huge frown here.

This is from the day after we got home. We hadn't really got a lot of until this past week. There is about a foot or two more on the ground since this was taken as well. The temperature was pretty warm considering it is winter, so we decided to go play in the snow and build a snowman at a field behind our place.

Daddy and Deagan hard at work.

Greg took this one, and I kind of likes how it turned out.

His snow suit reminds me of the kids from "The Christmas Story"

Daddy and Deagan embracing their snowman after they finished building it

Deagan's poor gloves would not stay on

Looking at the snow that got on his hand

For some reason I just really like the lighting in this picture

Throwing a snow ball

Daddy throwing a snow ball

Deagan getting a snow ball thrown at him

Forming his own snow ball

More pictures to come!

HAPPY 2010!!!!!

HAPPY 2010 EVERYONE!!!!!!

It is so hard to believe that the new year is here! 2009 was a year for change for us, so we are so excited to see what 2010 brings!

Highlights from 2009:

January I started my last semester on campus at BYU-Idaho with 18 credits. Greg started an internship, and was the stay at home parents for the semester. I also started working at UV Manager.

February Greg was accepted to Syracuse University and George Washington University!

March We traveled out east to check out both schools and came back knowing we needed to be in Syracuse.

April I graduated from BYU-Idaho! We moved over 2000 miles away to Syracuse, NY, and I finished my job at UV!!

May We moved into our new apartment, and spent the rest of the month trying to find a job and getting settled.

June Greg started school at Syracuse University!

July We found out we were expecting Baby #2 and had the chance to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant

August Greg finished his first semester at Syracuse University, and I was able to go back to WY for a family reunion! I also started babysitting.

September Greg, Deagan, and myself celebrated our birthdays!!! Greg began his second semester at Syracuse

October We saw the lovely Niagra Falls and celebrated Halloween!

November We found out we were having another BOY!!!

December Greg finished his 2nd semester at Syracuse, we went to NYC to visit some friends, and we flew out west to visit Greg's family for Christmas!

2009 was a great year for us and we can't wait for what will happen this year. We are especially excited to see our little guy in March!!!