The Nielsen's
Saturday, November 20, 2004
Friday, November 19, 2004
The Nielsens
Thanks Jennie for posting our pictures of Katie. I wasn't sure I'd find the time to figure out how to post pictures. This week Katie is 5 months old and Ian turned 7. Next year he'll be baptised. Where does the time go? December 16th Katie will have been in our home for 6 months. Our adoption finalization court date is set for that exact day, with her temple sealing following (not scheduled until after court finalization) and blessing scheduled for the first Sunday of the New Year. We'll inform you of exact temple dates ASAP. Meanwhile . . . we are moving to South Jordan to our new home 5112 W Woodridge Drive. Ken was looking forward to negotiating a good deal on a new home, put a low offer on a house that had been vacant for awhile in a great area, and they took our offer without blinking an eye. Last week we started showing our home and it's already sold. I was hoping, in the back of my mind, to have a place big enough for both our families to come for Katie's sealing & blessing but seeing as it's already November that seemed a far cry. Surprise, surprise! Best of all, there are two steps to enter the front door and that's it: everything I need is on one floor. No more children waking each other up all night long, a garden tub I can get into by myself, a large fenced backyard and enough storage space to put everything away. Yahoo! We're close to the Jordan River temple, Jordan Landing and Ken's work.
Katie is a dear, wonderful blessing in our lives. She has big brown eyes and spends most of her awake time taking it all in. Her big brown eyes calmly look you straight in the eye until she bursts into a smile from ear to ear. Ian is a great big brother. He's so good with her. He does love to scare her though, which also sends Ken & I through the roof. I had to laugh the other morning before the break of dawn when I heard Katie squeal as loud as she could. Her little head bobbed up like a turtle from her basinet as she looked around. She saw Ian asleep in his bed and let loose a big squeel. He retorted, "You stinky skunk" and rolled out of bed with his heart still racing from the scream. Like Ian, the first week Katie was in our home she fixed a stare and Mom & Dad's picture any time she was in our livingroom. You could turn her body any direction and her head would turn to look at their picture. I know Mom & Dad love Katie. I can feel it every time I hold her. I can't wait to take her to the temple and have her share in the blessings of our eternal family. Heaven sure opened up to get her in our home. So many, many miracles.
It sure was fun to see Aunt Lorna at Carolyn's. She grabbed Katie and put her right on her lap, while the rest of us patiently waited for our turn to hold her.
Thanks Jennie, for organizing this site.
Linda
Katie is a dear, wonderful blessing in our lives. She has big brown eyes and spends most of her awake time taking it all in. Her big brown eyes calmly look you straight in the eye until she bursts into a smile from ear to ear. Ian is a great big brother. He's so good with her. He does love to scare her though, which also sends Ken & I through the roof. I had to laugh the other morning before the break of dawn when I heard Katie squeal as loud as she could. Her little head bobbed up like a turtle from her basinet as she looked around. She saw Ian asleep in his bed and let loose a big squeel. He retorted, "You stinky skunk" and rolled out of bed with his heart still racing from the scream. Like Ian, the first week Katie was in our home she fixed a stare and Mom & Dad's picture any time she was in our livingroom. You could turn her body any direction and her head would turn to look at their picture. I know Mom & Dad love Katie. I can feel it every time I hold her. I can't wait to take her to the temple and have her share in the blessings of our eternal family. Heaven sure opened up to get her in our home. So many, many miracles.
It sure was fun to see Aunt Lorna at Carolyn's. She grabbed Katie and put her right on her lap, while the rest of us patiently waited for our turn to hold her.
Thanks Jennie, for organizing this site.
Linda
Friday, November 05, 2004
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
New Yorkers
What great updates! And fabulously descriptive! I'm convinced that I need to go see Adrienne's house now. Well, this morning at 5am we got Julie and Carter off on a plane back to Utah. They were planning to stay another day, but Julie realized the whole world falls apart when she goes out of town! We did get to go over to New Jersey and visit Rebecca Young and the boys. They also have a great new house - a 100-year-old Victorian house in a very neat area. It has a big yard and is about as close to New York City as you can get in New Jersey. Rebecca says that David Jr. loves his work and she is plenty busy with her three boys. It was fun to see them. We're also excited that Stefanie and Jan will be out here soon to stay with cousins that are in David and Rebecca's ward, and hopefully we'll meet up with them in the city sometime. We also had Ryan's brother and sister-in-law visit a few weeks ago - and they got us tickets to go to the Republican National Convention with them (they were alternate delegates for Utah). It was fabulous! We were there the night President Bush spoke and we felt like we were faking like we were important or something. It was so neat! I literally almost ran smack into Rudy Giuliani (former NYC mayor), made eye contact and got the half-smile from him. I think it was my "in" into New York politics! Just kidding. Anyway, that's about all that's new here! If anyone wants to post pictures to this, you can read about it when you first sign in under the "edit profile" part. Off to the right as you scroll down there's a link that talks about free photo hosting. Or feel free to email me any picutres you want posted, along with what they are and I'm more than happy to post them for you, since it takes me all of about 3 seconds to do it. My email is jen_isom@hotmail.com. If you have multiple pictures and it may need more storage space, you can also email me at jennie.isom@companiongroup.com.
Friday, September 24, 2004
Labor Day Weekend
Stefanie and I went to see Brian and Adrienne over Labor day weekend. We drove Martha's van so we could take Adrienne a crib and kitchen table and chairs. Feeling rather desperate to find a bathroom, we pulled off in Idaho Falls and spent a half hour looking for one and then another 15 minutes trying to find our way back to the freeway. We did enjoy driving past the Idaho Falls Temple though! Then we got on going towards home and not to Adrienne's, but finally got turned around. (Of course, we realized immediately that we were going the wrong way, but there was no where to turn around for miles.) Anyway, all's well that ends well and we finally got there. Adrienne met us in Driggs so we could follow her out to the lodge. We never would have found it in the dark.
Their house is like a rustic cabin mixed with wild artsy colors inside - the perfect metaphor for Brian (rustic cabin) and Adrienne (artsy). The walls are all different colors. She has tiled the entry ways(herself)and bathrooms with slate, which is dark and contains splashes of blood red, yellow wheat, olive green, teal blue, khaki gray . . . and these are all the colors of her walls. A big wall in the kitchen is a gorgeous rusty red, while the living room is green, and the eating area in the kitchen is teal blue - - and these rooms are all joined and visible from the others. She has done a fabulous job! They had no living room furniture yet, but it has probably been delivered by now. It's about the size of our house.
From May to mid-October, Brian is gone from 7:30 A.M. until about 10:P.M. when he comes home and crashes. Who wouldn't after spending an entire day rowing upstream?! He is mostly home from October to May, except sometimes clients want to go fishing in other places and then Brian plans the trip and takes them there.
Brian and Adrienne live across the street (dirt road) from his dad and next door to his brother and sister-in-law and their three kids. Most of the other houses on the road are summer homes that are rarely inhabited. Next door to Brian's dad, Jon Huntsman has a cabin. We arrived at night so only saw the inside of Adrienne's house (that I want to call a cabin, but it really is more of a house. It's just so cool in it's cabin-like setting). The next morning we could see that they were in the middle of a valley of golden fields of grain interrupted by an occasional field of potatoes or alfalfa. Here and there you see rows of willows that rim the rivers running through the valley. The whole valley is surrounded by mountains, but on the east, behind their mountains, you can see the Grand Tetons towering over the tops of the local peaks. They are most impressive, these huge, rugged peaks of the Rocky Mountains (most aptly named). I took a walk Monday morning and could hear nothing but nature sounds, no horns or traffic or engines running, just a cacophony of birds twittering, geese honking, and an occasional bellowing bovine. It is a place filled with peace. One can also understand how a person could get lonely there! In the winter the temperature gets to 30 and 40 degrees below zero. Sometimes they are snowed in for a couple of days. This makes me think of Grandma Hatch on the Canadian prairie.
They have an English Setter named Sadie (I think). What a life she lives! She sleeps in the garage. In the morning they raise the door and she's off to find her friends, a couple of long haired black labs who live in the barn and belong to Brian's brothers. Monday they all came home reeking of something awful and dripping wet from their romp in the river. Burrs were stuck here and there. What a happy trio!
When we were ready to go home, Adrienne took us over to the lodge where we made some terrific sandwiches (the guests make their own lunches in the morning to take out on the river so they had all sorts of things - sliced turkey breast, tuna salad, egg salad, bacon, sliced tomatoes, lettuce, onions, bags of chips, homemade cookies, rice crispy treats, trail mix, vegetables and dip - - left over from the night before was a rich chunk of cheese cake and a tall glass of fruit. We split the cheese cake, poured the fruit over it, and devoured it. Adrienne goes over to the lodge every day and scrounges up some delicious soup or salad . . . and tries to stay away from the fabulous desserts!
We went to their ward Sunday and it was a great ward! The past stake president taught a great Sunday school lesson.
Monday we went over to the house they had moved from (the retired couple who lived there went on a mission to Leeds, England and lent their home to Brian and Adrienne). We cleaned for a few hours - Stefanie doing two bathrooms and while I did the kitchen. We stopped in Brigham City on the way home and bought peaches and pears. They were scrumptious and are now stored up for the winter!
We are hosting a light supper for the General Relief Society Meeting Saturday. We'll serve Grilled Chicken Salad in Pita pockets with humus, cucumbers, grapes, and cookies. Our stake center is being remodeled so we are using a loaner. It will be interesting to see how many come to a new building . . . we may be having openhouse Sunday night with the leftovers!
Their house is like a rustic cabin mixed with wild artsy colors inside - the perfect metaphor for Brian (rustic cabin) and Adrienne (artsy). The walls are all different colors. She has tiled the entry ways(herself)and bathrooms with slate, which is dark and contains splashes of blood red, yellow wheat, olive green, teal blue, khaki gray . . . and these are all the colors of her walls. A big wall in the kitchen is a gorgeous rusty red, while the living room is green, and the eating area in the kitchen is teal blue - - and these rooms are all joined and visible from the others. She has done a fabulous job! They had no living room furniture yet, but it has probably been delivered by now. It's about the size of our house.
From May to mid-October, Brian is gone from 7:30 A.M. until about 10:P.M. when he comes home and crashes. Who wouldn't after spending an entire day rowing upstream?! He is mostly home from October to May, except sometimes clients want to go fishing in other places and then Brian plans the trip and takes them there.
Brian and Adrienne live across the street (dirt road) from his dad and next door to his brother and sister-in-law and their three kids. Most of the other houses on the road are summer homes that are rarely inhabited. Next door to Brian's dad, Jon Huntsman has a cabin. We arrived at night so only saw the inside of Adrienne's house (that I want to call a cabin, but it really is more of a house. It's just so cool in it's cabin-like setting). The next morning we could see that they were in the middle of a valley of golden fields of grain interrupted by an occasional field of potatoes or alfalfa. Here and there you see rows of willows that rim the rivers running through the valley. The whole valley is surrounded by mountains, but on the east, behind their mountains, you can see the Grand Tetons towering over the tops of the local peaks. They are most impressive, these huge, rugged peaks of the Rocky Mountains (most aptly named). I took a walk Monday morning and could hear nothing but nature sounds, no horns or traffic or engines running, just a cacophony of birds twittering, geese honking, and an occasional bellowing bovine. It is a place filled with peace. One can also understand how a person could get lonely there! In the winter the temperature gets to 30 and 40 degrees below zero. Sometimes they are snowed in for a couple of days. This makes me think of Grandma Hatch on the Canadian prairie.
They have an English Setter named Sadie (I think). What a life she lives! She sleeps in the garage. In the morning they raise the door and she's off to find her friends, a couple of long haired black labs who live in the barn and belong to Brian's brothers. Monday they all came home reeking of something awful and dripping wet from their romp in the river. Burrs were stuck here and there. What a happy trio!
When we were ready to go home, Adrienne took us over to the lodge where we made some terrific sandwiches (the guests make their own lunches in the morning to take out on the river so they had all sorts of things - sliced turkey breast, tuna salad, egg salad, bacon, sliced tomatoes, lettuce, onions, bags of chips, homemade cookies, rice crispy treats, trail mix, vegetables and dip - - left over from the night before was a rich chunk of cheese cake and a tall glass of fruit. We split the cheese cake, poured the fruit over it, and devoured it. Adrienne goes over to the lodge every day and scrounges up some delicious soup or salad . . . and tries to stay away from the fabulous desserts!
We went to their ward Sunday and it was a great ward! The past stake president taught a great Sunday school lesson.
Monday we went over to the house they had moved from (the retired couple who lived there went on a mission to Leeds, England and lent their home to Brian and Adrienne). We cleaned for a few hours - Stefanie doing two bathrooms and while I did the kitchen. We stopped in Brigham City on the way home and bought peaches and pears. They were scrumptious and are now stored up for the winter!
We are hosting a light supper for the General Relief Society Meeting Saturday. We'll serve Grilled Chicken Salad in Pita pockets with humus, cucumbers, grapes, and cookies. Our stake center is being remodeled so we are using a loaner. It will be interesting to see how many come to a new building . . . we may be having openhouse Sunday night with the leftovers!
Monday, August 30, 2004
Camp
So I just got back from girl's camp. Our stake is sure interesting! Besides being somewhat more disorganized than I'm used to, out of 9 wards and branches that make up our stake, 5 are Spanish speaking. Some of the leaders don't even speak english at all. Our ward is also interesting to work with because there are a lot of white girls from up-scale Scarsdale, and then a lot of black girls from less wealthy areas and it's interesting to see how they mix, or don't mix as the case may be. Anyway, overall it was a good time and we had a lot of fun, but it was definitely eye-opening! I called Ryan half way through and told him that our children were not allowed to go through the teenage phase.... :) I have much more sympathy now for all of you who have been through that!!!! This week the Republican National Convention is here, so hopefully it's not too eventful of a week as far as security is concerned!
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Kindergarten
Dawson started school yesterday! What an exciting day for our family. Cory thinks Dawson needs a palm pilot just to keep track of all his social obligations. He already has friends to play with for the next fews days. We've had to write it on the calendar since his schedule is getting so busy with different play dates. He loved school and his teacher! Should be a fun year! Hope everyone is doing well!
Julie
Julie
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