A snowy Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving brought with it a good storm, as I am sure most of us experienced. We headed to Rigby to be with my family for the feast. We thought we were being smart by leaving early on Wednesday to my parents house, but apparently so did everyone else. I-15 was packed with traffic and we were all driving on bad roads. Most of the time we were only going 25-30 miles per hour due to the icy roads and because of all the traffic. We did have time to enjoy a good sunset as we were driving 5 miles an hour here. The total time to drive from Pocatello to Rigby was 3 HOURS! Thank goodness our little girls decided to take a good nap.

When we arrived in Rigby we were surprised by the huge amount of snow that was there. My parents had large drifts everywhere and the cars were all snowed in. All of the snow was fun to play in and good for jumping off of. This drift went mid way to my dad's truck door and then covered the back as well.

Brynlee decided she wanted to go skiing out side. We wanted to get up to Targhee on Friday but it was a little too cold for the little ones. Thank goodness my parents had lots of snow in their yard, Brynlee had her own private bunny hill and chair lift (her dad).

After Skiing, we moved onto snowmobiling. Last year we attached a rope to the sled skis and then let Brynlee go in circles, but this year she has moved up in the world to driving on her own. She had a huge snowy field to ride in and Luke was able to run along side of her to help out.

After awhile Brynlee decided to give her little cousin Aliza (16 months) a ride on her snowmobile. It was hilarious to watch Brynlee drive around the little sled with her cousin hanging on the back of it. They both did great!

If you are wondering what Chlöe did the whole time....Well this photo sums it up. She slept most of the time at my parents.

Great-Grandma Joyce held her for awhile and entertained the girls. Thanks Grandma.

On Saturday we drove over to the Rexburg bench and went for a snowmobile ride. Here are a few photos of Brynlee and Luke and Grandpa Allred.

Brynlee and Chlöe keeping warm in Grandpa's snowmobile trailer.

Catching up again

The Nelson family is finally settling in and we are slowly getting into better routines around here. We have had a lot of changes with a new baby, Luke's new job- well career actually, and with me staying home full time. I had always looked forward to the day when I did not have to work or have most of the responsibility to work but now finally being here has taken some adjustments. I have had to remember that it takes a long time to get things done and I have had to adjust my expectations. My favorite part about being home with the girls is not having my life scheduled on the hour, well almost and having time with them...seeing the llittle things.

Here are a few photos of Halloween and Chlöe's blessing. I need to stay up with taking photos of little Chlöe because she is changing so fast. This was taken last week. Her little face has filled out much more, but I wish time would slow down a bit.

This is our craft project Brynlee and I made for Halloween.

Brynlee and Dad at the Trunk or Treat.

Our trunk decorated for the event. Luke purchased a fog machine, the kids thought it was fun.

She was a little unhappy. I think it is because she fell asleep during her first trick or treating experience and was sad that she missed it.

Brynlee being Cheesy with little sister.

Brynlee having fun playing in the leaves at Brandi and Jake's house.

Big Sister and Little Sister shirts.

Grandma and Grandpa Nelson with Chlöe

Grandma and Grandpa Allred with Chlöe

Newborn Session

I am so excited to show all of you these photos that were taken of Brynlee and Chlöe. We had them taken when Chlöe was 4 days old in Blackfoot at Paisley Studios. Again I highly recommend this studio! Anyway....see for your self

Chlöe Skye Nelson

Finally I am able to introduce you to the newest member of our family. I wanted to do this much earlier but I have spent the last week recovering from a nasty Battle with Mastitis! I had a really bad infection, and I am glad to finally be on the mend and to feel somewhat back to normal.

Chlöe Skye Nelson was born on September 13, 2010. She weighed 6 LBS and 2 oz, 17 in long.

Her labor was awesome. Five hours from first contraction to when she was born at 10:30 in the morning. She has been a great baby. She actually does what newborns are suppose to do, sleep and eat. It has been nice to have some time to recover from, well everything. Brynlee was not sure what to think of her sister at first. We had a rough first week as she was not sure what to think, but after spending a great one on one weekend with my parents in Rigby she was alright with coming home and was ready to be a big sister. She has gotten more comfortable with her little sister every day and has gotten back to being her good ol' self again. We are glad to have our happy Brynlee back.

A little information on Chlöe's name.

My great grandma's name was Chloe Nelson (No relationship to Luke's side- just so you know)

Luke's Grandpa Nelson is from Sweden, so we thought we could pair my great grandmother's name with a Swedish spelling. As for Skye- it means clouds and Brynlee's middle name is Sierra- meaning mountains, we thought it would go together well- and would represent our love for the outdoors.

There will be more photos to come. These were all I had on my computer. Getting sick put a damper on the amount of cute photos, so don't worry more to follow. We did a newborn photos session in Blackfoot at Paisley Studios and had some amazing photos taken of Chlöe by herself, with Brynlee, and then a few with me. I am excited to get them back and post them. Just a plug for the studio that took the photos, they were amazing to work with and worked magic with a little three year old sister that did not want her photo taken with her sister.

LIfe is Crazy

I have been meaning to catch our blog up for a while now but have been unsuccessful. This past month has been crazy busy and I will try to catch up on the details.

We took a little family road trip late in August and drove to Sun Valley, stayed at Red Fish lake and then headed to a friends wedding along the East Fork of the Salmon River. It was a beautiful drive and we were able to see amazing mountain ranges every where we drove. It was nice to get out and enjoy some of the last good weeks of summer.

Over Labor Day weekend Brynlee and I signed up for the Pocatello Marathon's events. I walked the 5K and Brynlee ran, well attempted to run in a .2 mile kid race. We figured with all of the races Brynlee has followed Luke and I to, she would have fun running in her own.

Being pregnant, walking the 5K was not as easy as I thought it would be, but I slowly made it.

Luke ran the Wasatch 100 mile trail race over this past weekend. He did very well and finished the 100 miles in less than 24 hours. What makes it more amazing is that his knee was in horrible pain and he was still one of only 16 people who finished in under 24 hours. (a total of 250 people signed up for the race). I was very proud of him. I was not able to be there to support him on this race, due to my pregnancy moving along faster than we planned on it was better that I stay home and not travel to Utah. We did not want to have our little girl come into the world while he was running the race.

I ended up going into labor on monday morning.... and I will post about that adventure later.

Luke Graduated!!!

I am happy to report that Luke officially graduated from PA school on Friday!

Yeah, we are so excited. He will take his boards on August 17th in SLC and then we will wait some more to make sure he passes and then he will get his licence and begin his job in September with Idaho Sports and Orthopedics.

Congratulations Luke. Thank you for all of your dedication and hard work the last...well, thanks for hanging in there for the past eight years of school and marriage!

We were able to give Luke a few good surprises for graduation. His parents drove 14 hours from New Mexico to surprise him and come to graduation. It was fun to have them here with us and it was great seeing Luke's reaction when he realised that his family had come to support him.

Later after graduation we held a little surprise lunch for Luke in the back yard and had a few friends over to hang out and celebrate Luke's accomplishment with school.

I just want to thank all of our amazing family members and friends who have been there along the way. We couldn't have done it with out all of the support of family and friends- so THANK YOU!