What a Winter!!!

Hope everyone had a great Winter and hopefully we will start to see some signs of Spring. We have had a fun and busy winter and a little sad that it is coming to an end. Jesse and I have enjoyed a great ski season and are looking forward to a fun summer with the girls. Reese and Roxie are doing great and are so much fun. It has been a little while since my last post so I will do a short little update on each of us.

Here is Reese getting ready to bed in her big girl bed! We bought Reese a bed a few months ago and she does pretty good in it! She is just growing up so fast I can't believe it. We are still working on the potty training...unfortunately she has kinda lost interest in it. Sooooo we will keep at it and try to keep encouraging her. She is a smart little girl and knows her shapes, colors and knows some numbers...just doesn't always get them in the right order...haha it is pretty cute. The other day she was counting her bath toys and said '4, 5, 6, 40, 1' So we are working on it! She is so sweet when she wakes up in the mornings and comes running into Jesse and I's room and tells us 'I wake up 6:40...just on time' and then goes over to Roxie's bed and says 'MMMorning Baby Roxie' That is our daily morning routines. Reese is a big help when we are out working in the yard and is always telling Jesse and I that we are doing a good job. Well you can probably figure Reese is just full of funny one liners and keeps me, Jesse and our families continually laughing!

Roxie is doing great and is growing so fast! She is a very happy baby and has the biggest smile I think I have ever seen. There is nothing better than when I go to pick her up she gets so excited and her whole face lights up when she smiles. Roxie is much harder to get to laugh than Reese was...I really have to work hard to get a laugh out of her. All she wants to do is smile at you. I mean she will talk and squawk all day long but she just really wants you to earn it! The older she gets the more and more she looks like her Daddy! It is pretty funny how much Reese looks like me and how much Roxie looks like Jesse. We will see people and that is the first thing they say to us! Roxie is a strong little girl and is already rolling over. I will put her on the floor and walk out of the room for a minute and come back in and she will be all the way over on the other side of the room. She really surprises me sometimes with how strong she is. She is defiantly the best sleeper in our house! She will go to bed around 9 or 10 and then I won't hear from her til around 8 the next morning! Oh how blessed I am!!

I have had a active winter! We had a nice long ski season and I played city league basketball the past couple months. Pebble Creek opened up early this year and had so much great snow we got to hike and ski some pretty fun stuff this year. We took a long weekend to Sun Valley and had three days of excellent skiing. Our basketball season was another fun one!! There a few of us that have played together for the past couple years and then we pick up a few new girls each year. We went 11-0 this season and then ended up taking 3rd in our tournament. Which kinda sucked but all in all it is just fun to play! I am looking forward to working in our yard this summer. Which should be alot since we have to start from square one....grass. I am also looking forward to doing fun things with the girls this summer. We sold our boat and bought me a new SUV so we will be doing alot of over night camping trips, water parks, zoos and what ever else we can figure out to do as a family. The boat was really just to hard with little kids....so we got rid of it and will wait to get another one til they are a bit older. Sure will miss it though!!

Edward Jones transferred Jesse to an office here in Pocatello. So no more commuting to Rupert! We were extremely excited when we got the news. It has been great having him back in Pocatello everyday. He has been super busy and has been traveling quite a bit lately for work. He has been to Tennessee and Arizona with in the past three weeks. With the new office he has all his clients he had from Rupert plus all the clients that were already with this office. So now he is managing about 4 times the amount he had in Rupert so....it has been alot of work for him! But those who know Jesse know he is loving every minute of it! As usual Jesse loved every minute of his ski season and is looking forward to dirt biking! He finally got is dirt biking partner back so I'm sure him and Chase will be out riding as much as possible! One more piece of good news is that Jesse's little Brother Andrew got married. Him and Lucy were married in the Rexburg Temple. It was a great day and we are extremely happy for them!

So we have had alot of great things go on the past 6 months and are grateful for all of them. Unfortunately we had a few heart breaks. My Grandpa Nielson passed away in January. He lived a long and in my opinion successful life. My Grandpa was a extremely hard worker and worked for everything he and his family had! I will always have good memories of my Grandpa! Love You Grandpa!

We also lost another very important person in our lives. My Uncle Brett (one of my dad's brothers) passed away at my parents house on February 13th. This was such an unexpected lose for all of us and still really can't believe he is gone. He was only 51 years old and is such a giving, loving and caring man and that list could go on and on! Jesse and I were extremely fortunate that we were so close to Brett and his family. Brett was always a constant in my life and was so good to help Jesse and I when we needed help with anything. We all miss Brett so much and know that it just won't be the same without him!! Love You Uncle Brett!!