Nielsen Twins!

Ryan and Amber had their twins this week. Luke and Logan and they are big babies for twins, 6 lbs 12 oz and 6 lbs 5 oz. We are so excited for the Nielsen's and it was fun to be up at the hospital and hold the babies. It is crazy to think Ryan is a Dad, we have known each other for so long and it's crazy that he is a Dad.

The twins were born at the University of Utah hospital and it is good to know there are now two more Utes in the world. I told Jackie that we will be having our babies there as well so that they are born Utes.

I never tire of seeing signs like these.

We have our half way walk through on the house on Monday. Shingles are on, windows are in, the electricity is in and so are the tubs. They did so much in a week, it's amazing. Hopefully they continue at this pace and we will be in our house in April.

Terry came out and help us put in an extra cable outlet, it is way too expensive to let the builders put extra ones in.

As we were walking through the parking lot today, we saw this car taking up two spots and if you look carefully that bumper sticker on the left of the car, says Share the Road, ummmm I guess they didn't get the message. It made us laugh.

More pictures

They finished even more today. It is basically all framed and the roof is almost done.

They started Framing

They started framing our house today. I am so excited!!! Cory and July are giving me updates every few hours. It is getting closer. Maybe by the end of the week we will have a roof.

Oregon Trip

Jackie and I flew to Portland on Wednesday night to see Brian and Abby. It was a fun relaxing weekend. Wednesday night we stayed up until way late talking and catching up. It's been a long time since Jackie and I have stayed up that late. Thursday we hung out while Brian was working, Jackie and I went on a nice walk and then went with Abby to school up at the Oregon State University. We walked around campus and looked through the book store since Abby only had one class that wasn't very long.

That afternoon we went on hike to see three different waterfalls. It is amazing how green and how many trees there are in Oregon. The moss on the trees behind Abby and Jackie is really cool.

We spent Friday morning reading and relaxing. That afternoon we headed over to the park to play some frisbee golf. Brian is really good at it. Me not so much.

This picture makes me laugh, because Brian doesn't stop working, but hey at least he can basically work anywhere.

Abby was an amazing host and made some great meals. She kept us full all weekend.

This picture below probably doesn't really interest anyone, but I thought I would post it for Ryan, it is Brian and Abby's house and their new truck.

Friday night we headed to the Oregon Coast. We spent the night in Newport and this was the view from our room. The hotel experience wasn't very great. Our neighbors in the room next to us thought it would be a good time to smoke and tell jokes and be as loud as possible at 1:30 am which was very nice of them. Abby went out and asked them to go somewhere else which they responded no we won't. Fifteen minutes later as they didn't quiet down Brian went out to try, and began his sentence, "Seriously! We can hear every word........." He shuts the door and you can hear them mocking Brian with a "Seriously", anyway they stopped and we thought we were good for the night, but a little after 3 am someone decided to knock on our door very loudly which startled all of us as we had just fell asleep. Brian went out again, and there is one lady standing out there and Brian asks her, did you knock on our door and she denies it, but then I think figures out she was banging on the wrong door and she went down a few doors and banged on the doors for a while. Needless to say we had a great laugh at 3 am. Jackie and I lived on the 101 in Ventura and we enjoyed seeing the 101 signs and smelling the ocean again. We sure do miss living on the coast. Those were the days........

Jackie's wonderful attempt to take a picture of the scenery, but just as she clicked the button the red barn showed up. It is a very nice picture of a barn though. We headed up to Tillamook to eat some Tillamook Cheese. The girls had some nice grilled cheese sandwhiches and I enjoyed my pepper jack cheese chicken wrap. We went on a tour of the factory and finished the tour off with some great ice cream. I always make fun of Jackie for her high school mascot which is the Beetdiggers, but as you can see from below we found a better one, The Tillamook CheeseMakers. Nothing strikes fear into the opposing team like a piece of cheese. I really wanted to see what their mascot looked like, a block of cheese, a cheese head, or what.....

Below are their pets. Kookie was a great dog and very well trained. I was surprised at how well she was behaved. Kookie was a lot of fun. The other picture is of their cat, I don't think I even asked the cat's name because as you can see, we just called her Fat Cat and she did kind of smell funny. When we walked in the door, we both laughed because Fat Cat's head just doesn't seem to fit to her body. The Vet said that the cat has a head for a 8 lb body, but the cat weighs 24 lbs. The cat made me laugh all weekend.

We had a great time with the Roberts!!! We have such great friends!!!
We babysat Cayman the night before we left and I thought this picture was funny, she was so happy on the saddle and pretend horse and then as soon as I got out the camera she gave me a big frown.

We Have Cement

We now have cement in our hole. Some of the underground plumbing has been done also. We didn't have very good weather this week and I'm surprised they did this much. Hopefully by the end of next week they will have the rest of the cement poured so that they can start framing.
If you look closely you can see a black pipe and then some white tubing which I assume is for the plumbing.

We are leaving for Oregon this week to see Brian and Abby. We are excited to have a short vacation and spend time with some great friends.

We Have a House Hole!!!!

We are pretty excited today, they finally started our house. They dug the hole, there isn't anything but a hole right now, but you know what, it is our hole and we are excited about it. July sent us a picture at work and we hurried up there tonight to see it. The builder said it will be sixty working days until it is done, so if they are right, it will be April 27th. Let's hope they are right. We will keep you updated, maybe next week we will have cement in our hole. We are really excited!!!!This is Cory and Jackie looking at our cool hole.

Below is our front living room, if you look carefully you can see our nook on the right and then the back of the house will be our living room where my new TV is going.

This would be our garage and behind it would be our master bedroom.

Afterwards we hung out with Cory, July, and Cayman. Cayman just loves Jackie so much!!! So much that she calls me Jackie as well. She follows Jackie around and just loves playing with her. She is so funny, everyday she is learning more words and is now almost putting together sentences. Tonight she said no leave, sit down when we were leaving.

UTES WIN THE SUGAR BOWL

To begin with, Ryan and I went skiing on New Year's Day. We got off the lift and saw this sign, and we thought this has to be a sign of things to come. We made sure to ski the Sugar Bowl a few times.
Wow what an awesome game. No one gave the Utes a chance, but they came out and really showed who the better team was. It was so awesome watching the media trying to back track from previous comments about how Utah had no chance blah blah blah. Look who is the only undefeated team left. Go Utes, maybe maybe the Utes will get a share of the National Title.
What makes the game even better is watching the game with Grandpa and my Brother Cory. For those that don't know, Grandpa did the sidelines at the University of Utah football games for over 50 years and I still have an Uncle that does it now. Cory and I would go to all the games as kids. I remember the 34-31 game and many many others. It is so great to spend so much time with my Grandparents, they are the best. Who has Grandparents where your two best friends are totally cool with hanging out there watching the game with them.

Here is Amber, Ryan, and Brian. What a great time.Here is a picture of Ryan and Grandpa. The ball on the left is signed by this years Ute Football team, and the ball on the right is signed by the Ute football team from the 2004 Undefeated season. Grandpa was given this ball at half-time of a game he was honored as a SUPER FAN!!

Alabama scratching their heads, wondering what happened to them.

Even when we got back to the house, my BYU fan Father in law even wanted to break out the Sparkling Cider to celebrate. It's cool to have such a great Father in law.

Lastly,

GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!