Happy Birthday Buddy!

Last Friday was one of our best buddy's Birthday Party - Oliver turned 4. This was a bitter sweet day for me since it is all part of the count down to our leaving some of the dearest friends I have ever had. But I will leave those sad thoughts behind to focus on the fun.

L- R: Linus, Carter, Caleb, Oliver, Elizabeth and Alli

The breaking of the pinata. Normally once a pinata breaks the kids go diving into the loot to grab as much as they can before another kid stakes his claim. But not our bunch. They were making sure that each kid got a bouncy ball, a squirt gun, some candy, etc. Yes, even Carter was this way, shocker I know!

Richy as always is meeting the kids demands, at this point it was all about being pulled around in the wagon. What a great guy he is. So here I go sentimental again. I think it has to do that Richy has been around my family about as long as I have, since he and my brother have been buddies since elementary school, but from the day we made that connection I have felt like Richy was more of an older brother to me than just a friend. I have a great respect for Richy as a husband, father and just for the person that he is.
Hayden in her party dress. {Bragging Warning} I just think she is so stinkin cute and beautiful. I love her expressive eyes and her big, flirty smile. I just can't get over how awesome she is!

Apparently, I am not the only one that thinks she's totally awesome. Evan couldn't keep his hands off of her all night. :)
But, at the same time, Daddy couldn't either. I love this picture. (BTW, thanks to my buddies for sharing all of your great pictures with me.)


This is one of Hayden's favorite games. It promises great smiles and laughs.
Hayden and her boys: Evan (8 days older than Hayden and 5 months), Hayden ( 1 day short of 5 months), and Callum (3 weeks younger and 4 months)

Our resident crew just chillin. These times when we just hang out and "chill" are my favorites. We end up just laughing and having a blast. Allison, Me, Matt, Dan, and Shelly with Sydney on her lap.

To top it all off at the end of the day we had a balloon popping war. You tie a small balloon to your ankle and then try to stomp on each other's balloons to pop them and be the last one standing. Richy won. Matt, Heather, Me, Allison, Justin, Jake and Richy.

Camera Blues

My camera is currently out of commission and I have been lamenting that I don't have any current pictures of my baby girl who is growing up so fast. I also am lamenting how fast money is being thrown in so many directions with the "trying" to sell our home and the purchase of a new home so I don't feel like I can really go out and buy another camera right now.

So I was overjoyed when Bonnie (my mother-in-law) posted these pictures on facebook. Ahhhh, I love staring at my baby girl.

There's those beautiful blue-eyes again.

Also, she just went to the heart doctor yesterday for a follow up visit from the NICU. The gap in her heart has closed and her heart looks totally normal and healthy. She also weighed in at 14lbs. 6oz (she will be 5 months tomorrow!!!)

This video is over a month old. It is when Hayden first started laughing. Now she's laughing these gut wrenching laughs. It is SOOOO fun!! But since I don't have a working camera, this old video will have to do.

Our New Home

After 2 stressful weeks of looking for a home and 2 offers that fell through, we found a home and agreed on a price the day I flew home to Pittsburgh. Everything was down to the wire, but it all worked out and I think we got a house that will function very nicely for us. We were a little heart broken over the 2nd house that we lost, but this one I think might have a little more that will meet our needs. Matt is very excited about the 3 car garage, and I am excited about the openness of the home and the big backyard.

The kitchen: Matt was set on there being an eat at counter in the kitchen where he can eat his bowl of cereal. And I really liked the family computer desk since we like the computer to be viewed only in open (non-private) areas.

The kitchen flows right into the hearth room so the chef (me) can be apart of all the fun.

This is the entry way. There is a formal dining room just to your left.
The Master Bedroom.
Master Bath - quite the upgrade from our black and pink tile with a teeny-tiny sink.

Finished basement with a full bathroom and a possibility of a 5th bedroom if we so desire. The backyard in the "sea of suburbia" as our friends like to put it. This is a whole different life than Pittsburgh. Overall, this should be a good home for us that we can grow in. The neighborhood is loaded with kids and has an Olympic sized pool and splash park in it. And the house is only 3 minutes by car from Matt's parents. It doesn't really feel like this is all happening. We have been looking forward to this point for SO LONG that it is hard for me to actually let myself feel like this is really happening. Here's to settling down and planting some roots. (After so many years of moving around that almost scares me.)

Feelin Groovy!

My poor little pumpkin has had quite the rough ride so far in her life, but she still remains to be such a Happy, Go-with-the-flow baby. At the end of last week Hayden started a new round of Bronchiolitis on top of her round that she was still trying to finish up and then Monday morning she came down with the stomach flu and vomited for 24 hours straight. Then she started throwing up again last evening because she was coughing so hard from her bronchiolitis. But through it all she was smiling, cooing and laughing. She is so inspiring to me the way she is determined to be happy and to not complain (total opposite of her mother). Yesterday morning (in between her sick sessions) she decided to be super cute and flash her adorable smiles to let us know that she is doing just fine. Thank you my "sweetie" (Carter's favorite nickname for her) for giving me some peace of mind through your smiles. I feed off of your strength.




Thanks Stac for the cute pants! :)

Help, I Lost my Pants!

Our Big Boy Carter has also lost his diaper!! Carter is now Potty Trained (well, we are still working on some things). He is very proud of himself. And I have to admit when I look at him when he is playing and I glimpse that red waist band of his Lightening McQueen underwear I swell with pride, too. Way to go my little buddy!! Life is a whole new ball game now.

Happy Easter!! 2010

For some reason our family likes spending Christian Holidays in an ICU of some sort. Christmas was in the NICU and Easter we were in the PICU. But no matter where we were at we still had a good holiday.



In fact, while in the hospital we found the Easter Bunny (please excuse the sideways pic, Matt didn't understand he couldn't hold the camera that way):

Carter got to do 3 egg hunts so he wasn't feeling too bummed about anything. He did our church hunt on Saturday, he did a hunt with me Sunday morning before we went into the hospital and then a hunt with some sweet friends of ours later that day.

Growing up, it was traditional in my family that the girls got Easter dresses so I was set on getting Hayden an Easter dress. But those stores know how to suck you in so of course we had to get Carter the matching sweater vest.

I love this picture because they you can see how much they look like siblings, right down the same facial expression.

So yes, I am the totally lame one that brought a camera to church so that we could get a family picture of us. Hayden was only staying through sacrament and I knew by the time Carter and I got home Matt and Hayden would be changed so it was now or never. Make fun all you want, but dang it I wanted the memory in hard copy form!

Happy 31st Daddy!

Yesterday, sweet Matty-Matt turned 31! I am a big fan of making birthdays special and in some way different from every other day. This year, Matt's birthday wasn't anything spectacular (other than the fact that this was the day that my baby love was brought into this world), but it did seem to be an easy-going nice day.

Austin Collie's Colts Jersey - Matt is a HUGE fan! From Matt's parents (w/ a little idea help from me).

Matt had to round at work in the morning and as soon as he got home it was present time! Carter asked if he could unwrap Dad's present. We said sure as soon as Dad gets changed out of his scrubs. Carter must have only heard the first part, because in less than a minute I heard Carter running down the stairs yelling to Dad what was in the wrapped (now unwrapped) package. Luckily, I was able to grab Carter and pull him back up stairs before Matt heard him.

This book is from my parents, Remembering Kirtland, along with some birthday mula.

Next we went off to breakfast at our favorite Pittsburgh breakfast joint Pamela's. Oh delicious! And as birthday luck would have it, I think this is the best Pamela's has ever tasted to us.


Matt receiving birthday wishes from family and friends. And how fitting that he would be making the Joe Lowry Jr face seeing as he is on the phone with Joe Lowry Jr himself.

After breakfast, Matt met up with a buddy and went and test drove BMWs. It got Matt even more excited for his own that he will be getting in a little over 70 days.

Next came the birthday dinner: Steak, broccoli and mashed potatoes. A true Nielsen feast, and OH MY was it delish! Matt is one heck of a grill master.

Then came the birthday cake. Matt really wanted ice cream cake. He would have loved his mom's cake roll, but when it comes to things like Heavenly Potatoes and cake roll Matt has learned I am NOT his mother. We got this cake roll at Baskin Robbins. I was planning on picking it up while Matt was test driving BMW's but that is when Hayden decided to nap. So Matt came with us to get his cake. Hayden was crying in the car and Carter would have demanded everything in the store so we decided I would stay in the car so Matt could pick out exactly what he wanted. The guy at the store asked Matt if he wanted something written on the cake. After writing, "Happy Birthday, Matt" on the cake, Matt handed him his credit card to pay for it. The guy after seeing Matt's name on the CC said, "Oh geez, you have to pay for your own cake." I definitely felt like I let Matt down. But Matt came back with, "My wife is out in the car with two screaming kids so I think I got the better end of the deal." Thanks Matt for sticking up for me, even though I still feel bad about it. But the most important thing was that the cake was yummy yum! (Oh yeah, I also forgot I was out of birthday candles, yikes I am loosing my touch!)

Despite all my flaws and how hard being a Dad of two and husband to a demanding wife can be, Matt still comes home everyday with a smile and excited to be with us. He works so hard from early morning to late at night, but instead of coming home and parking himself on the couch, he kisses me, gets smiles out of Hayden and wrestles with his boy. When we got married we received excellent advice of putting everything on the altar. I know that Matt has done that for us and for that we are eternally grateful.

Heading Home

Hip Hip Hooray!! My baby's going home today!
She has been off oxygen for over 12 hours now. They will let her go home in hopefully another 4 hours.
I am so anxious to have all my family under one roof again!

If you want to hear Hayden's story from her perspective, here you go:



At Carter's story time we sing a song about shaking your sillies out. In this video Hayden is shaking her sickies out. And yes, she is still in the PICU in this video. Doesn't she seem just like a baby you would expect to see in an ICU!?! Granted, she looked a whole lot different a few days before.



Because she was so energetic, we had staff coming in and out of her room all day long to play with her. She would always reward them with her smiles and coos. I think she was a therapeutic relief to everyone who was used to dealing with such sickly children all day.

She's so "Boo-ti-ful"

I am so in love with this girl. She takes my breath away. I remember hearing people say that about their own babies when I had Carter and I never believed them. Since then, after talking to a friend I realized I had postpartum depression after Carter and it took me about 6 months to truly love my child. I feel so sad that I missed out enjoying this infant time with him, but it makes me appreciate this time with Hayden SO MUCH MORE! And even better than that Carter and I get to experience it together and fall in love with her together every day. Carter tells her several times a day that she is so "boo-ti-ful." And I agree.



Carter is at the age where he is saying the funniest things. I am guessing someone recently must have told him that he has a lot of energy because right before I took the video above he was running around and then told me that he has a lot of energy (and he does!!).

My friend Jess made Hayden these beautiful bracelets when she was born. I have loved them!

Snug as a bug in a rug.
Daddy bundled up Hayden to take her and Carter out back to play ball.

Hayden has just found her hands and they have developed a love affair:

This was on Tuesday, the day we were in and out of the ER. I was running around the house trying to get their stuff so we could go and Hayden was crying in her swing. Next thing I knew Carter was singing to her and she stopped crying. At first the song was slow and sweet, but quickly it turned into this:

Carter can be such a sweet boy, even when it is his own kind of sweetness. Having two kids is so incredibly awesome! We have our struggles, but my heart has doubled in size since it has doubled in love.