Little Miss Nelson's Nursery Part 1

Before I start telling you all about Little Miss Nelson's Nursery project I need to let you know that it would not have been even close to what it is if it wasn't for Kelly. He spent so much time working on it, drawing up different plans and going back to the drawing board when things wouldn't work out. He sometimes questioned if what he was really painting was for a girl and if I was still going to like it when it was finished. I am so grateful for a handy man in my life who can do anything and everything.

This room use to be my craft room aka the messiest room in the house. Well after we spent half a day getting everything moved down to the new craft room we were ready to finally start envisioning what we wanted this room to look like.

Before photos of the bedroom.

Slowly our house is changing colors in every room. Our whole house use to be this tan/beige color and well since we have been married we have painted over half of the house something new. Its crazy how much paint can change a home.

I am a Lowes Lover. We shop there for almost any project that involves our home improvement.

I love the Valspar paint line it always goes on great and the colors are always rich! I tend to pick colors that are vibrant and risky so having a paint that makes it look just like the card is awesome!

Indigo Cloth

and 

Bella Grove Sorbet 

are the two colors we used in this project both are from the Lowe's Valspar paint line.

Semi-Gloss Valspar Ultra Paint + Primer 

this has very low odor and zero voc.

We painted the blue wall first and ran out of paint had to get more for touch up and a third coat. 

Nala loves being anywhere close to Kelly but every time we paint she ends up wearing it. Same thing happened this go around, she rubbed up against the wall while it was wet and had a mint bum for over a week. 

The base coats are done. Accent wall is Indigo Cloth and the other
three walls are the Belle Grove Sorbet

This is when things got rough real fast.

I had always envisioned a spanish Moroccan tile stencil on her wall.

After attempting to get the stencil we had borrowed from a nice friend it just wasn't going to work.

As you can tell..

So cover that back up and go back to the drawing board...

(This is why I mention that Kelly is an amazing husband)

I had showed Kelly a million different ideas on Pinterest. Stripes, argyle, stencils, different shapes. We went back and started looking again. I came across some metallic polka dots. I thought for sure if I showed it to Kelly he would just straight up laugh and say 'Yeah right, I am not painting that'... well, the total opposite happened. He was in for it.. Although once he had come up with several different grids and layouts we weren't sure how we were going to get the PERFECT CIRCLE on to the wall. 

Luckily for us we have our resources and Kelly has an amazing sister who helps us with projects. We asked Krystal if we could cut 3" circles of contact paper on her Silhouette machine that we would then use as a stencil after sticking them to the wall. She has used contact paper for many stencils and said yes that would totally work. Well we got to cutting them out and after a roll of contact paper we were ready to get to work.

Kelly stayed up past midnight coming up with a better grid formation and then spacing them out and drawing the grid onto the wall with a sharpie highlighter and paint marker.

As you can tell not all of our circles that we cut even filled the whole wall and we did reuse some of them. But thats the glorious thing about contact paper its sticky enough to be used twice.

You may be thinking why didn't you go to Lowe's or Hobby Lobby to find your own polka dot stencil. Well I will let you know one thing yes there are some out on the market but they are all tiny little guys and to be honest they won't sit flush against your wall even with adhesive glue spray.

Next step. Test Kelly's painting skills once again and see if this polka dot thing is going to work.

Well after doing one coat on all of them and then going back and doing a quick second coat we were ready to see if we pulled the contact paper off what it would do?

Sadly the latex had just made a barrier with the contact paper so it was as if the paint wasn't sticking to the wall at all. Well, of course it was going to be a little harder for us to get what we wanted.

Kelly spent about 5 minutes on every circle after that with a x-acto knife going around the whole edge of the contact paper to get the paint to separate from the stencil.

AND IT WORKED!!! YAY!!

After 75 dots later we had a finished product... we had the cutest mint polka dots on the block.

Probably the only polka dots on the block because I don't think our neighbors are as crazy to paint polka dots or have the need to paint a bedroom like this.

The night we finished painting our room we also got to pick up our crib. We thought for sure we were going to have a couple of weeks before it would arrive to the store. Well it took 3 days... I am not complaining.

I didn't mention to Kelly that I had read it takes 5 hours with 3 men to set up.. 

#badwifestatus but I knew it would probably make him change his mind on the crib.

Well the next day he spent about 3 hours putting the crib together all by himself. 

So whoever took 5 hours with 3 men obviously couldn't read or had some other issues.. hehe..

(Don't look at 'chicken'! Nala has moved all of her toys into this room thinking this where she gets to hang out now.. she definitely knows something is going on because we have spent so much time in this room for the last 2 months!)

I love love love love love love love love love love LOVE how this room turned out. We still have some other little secrets going on that I will post in Part 2 but until then don't you just love how symmetrical those polka dots are!!!

Baby Bump Update!

How far along: 37 Weeks
How do you feel about being full term: It was a little weird being at my appointment today and hearing that we are on the last few appointments before she will finally be here.
Dilated/Effaced: 2 cm and 75% effaced. Funny story; I asked Kelly if he knew what effaced meant and he replied: The doctor meant that we were 75% left until 'we see her face'... So effacement was a new lesson for Kelly.
We normally can get a some what good face shot of her but today she was sitting so low and ready to come that he had a hard time getting a good measure of her head. After that he said you are A LOT LOWER than you were just 2 weeks ago. It seemed like he was shocked at how much she had pushed her way down.
Total Weight Gain: I weight 158 lbs. that puts me at gaining 13 lbs. from the very beginning of this pregnancy.
Stretch Marks: If I have em', I can't see em..
Sleeping: Where do I begin. I at least don't have insomnia like I did a couple weeks ago. I still have a midnight potty break.. Or I have a kickboxing class going on in my stomach.. then at about 5 am it changes to a Zumba class and then by about 7:15am we take a break and finally sleep. So this little girl is very active and likes punching, kicking, wiggling and twerking. (Yes, I swear her bum is always shaking)
Best Moment This Week: We have been getting her room finished up. I am sorry I haven't posted photos yet. I just want it completely done before you see it. So hold out just a little longer. I have loved getting her clothes ready in her closet and deciding where to put everything.
I also have to say THANK YOU to all of those who spoiled her rotten at several baby showers. I can't imagine how cute she is going to look in these outfits, shoes, headbands etc., It will be so fun to play dress up with her! We are so spoiled between our family members, friends and ward. Thank you again!
Contractions: Well, the Dr. asked if I had them. I said 'I think so but I don't know if thats what it was.' he then reassured me that I probably had and that when they get worse I will know. hhmmm, that was some jinxing because right after our appointment it was on like donkey kong.
Food Cravings: Frosty and Lays Classic Chips
Labour Signs? Don't think so yet.
Symptoms? I still have some round ligament pain going on mainly because she likes to sit and punch right in that spot.
Happy or Moody? My patience is limited. Don't believe me? Ask Kelly. Oops. Don't do that because he would say thats even when I am not pregnant. But lately I have been pretty short and to the point with certain things. Luckily he just sits back and says okay.
Looking Forward to? I am looking forward to getting her here already! We also have been told that we will probably go before our due date since I am already dilated so the new projected date is now: Nov. 12th or 13th. 
Hospital Bag Packed? After some harassment from my sister and dance girls. Yes, it is packed. I have no idea why but it is really hard to pack when you know its not a vacation to somewhere fun. I didn't like thinking about how I was packing to go somewhere for the worse pain in my life. eek.

Every day Kelly reminds me : "Are you ready for the worse pain in your life?" I have started to respond with "Are you ready for me to yell and rip off your hand?" ...  then the subject changes pretty fast.

This week I got a call from BabiesRUs and I had won something off my registry. I just had to pick what I wanted and then go in and pay the tax. So, I paid $12 for this 4moms Mamaroo. It was really easy to set up and Kelly wishes he could sit in it and get rocked to sleep. I was pretty stoked that we won something like this that we really would have never gotten.

Maybe they will come up with adult swings?!



Today, I did the first load of laundry for Little Miss Nelson. This isn't all of her clothes but it was time get everything washed and ready for when she makes her debut. Hope she knows how much she is loved.

The Mercedes Mouse

Well, I don't know if this is bad karma or if its just so I can have something to laugh at but we have found a new friend.

I will admit I drive around in the Mercedes playing "Fancy by Iggy Azalea".

Now we know that we have a mouse who also likes to be FANCY.

This last Friday October 10th I had got in my trunk to put some newspapers to take to a recycle bin with my mom. No big deal right?! Until we saw a fluffy pillow of shredded toilet paper. At first we wondered what had happened and then my mom said, "I bet you have had a mouse in your car."....as much as I was hoping that was just a joke.

I didn't know I had a roll of toilet paper in my trunk but there definitely was a nice pillow. It was either a mouse or someone thought they were funny and they toilet papered the inside of my trunk.

Well... I quickly called Kelly and told him what I had found. I did my best to get most of it cleaned up but it still would need to be vacuumed and that wasn't going to be me.

Saturday morning Kelly woke up and cleaned out my entire trunk for me and he found some even more clues from this FANCY thing.

1) It made its bed on top of a picnic blanket
2) It loved eating some goldfish
3) It was even reading some church literature (aka True to the Faith)

Once my trunk was clean I was ready to go to the baby shower my sister and mom held for me. My worries were done for and I thought that for sure that mouse was gone!

Well after the shower we had a baptism for our niece Alli. We drove to Syracuse and spent most of the afternoon with family. Kelly was helping shingle a new roof for his Grandma later in the afternoon. I decided that I would head to the Sprint store to finally trade in for my new iPhone 6. As I got about a mile away from his Grandma's house everything seemed fine. I was just cruising along listening to the radio and enjoying my AC when... my car started to sound like a jet engine was now in my car.

Yes my car is a sport model but it wasn't in sport mode and this was like insanely loud. I pulled off the side of the road and called Kelly in a frantic state to come and rescue me. It seemed like it took him forever to finally come he sat and listened to my car and we figured out it was the blower motor for the AC. Well, that didn't make me too happy but at least it wasn't 90 degrees outside.

Since Saturday I haven't turned on my AC or been able to use my heater. Which really isn't a horrible thing since its Fall and you don't need it all the time. But I was concerned it was going to be something that would either cost a lot of money or that would be really frustrating to try and figure out.

Well here I am on a Wednesday night. Kelly insisted that he would work on it tonight and at least see what he thinks needs to happen.

After being out in the garage for about 20 minutes he came inside asking me if we have any gloves. Okay? Kelly isn't afraid of grease and why would he want disposable gloves to look at the blower motor.

I asked why he needed them and he said... "I better not tell you!" ... well ... What was it that made it not work? ...That's right the Mercedes Mouse. He totally tripped the motor and well his little body is what stopped it from working!

Luckily it wasn't a horrible gross mess. (I didn't look but from what Kelly said it wasn't bad).

I guess that was the only way we would have ever caught that mouse.

I so hope we don't have an encounter with another mouse thinking that they should be able to ride around town FANCY!

He at least lived his last days in the comfort of a Mercedes C230.
Ta-Ta Mercedes Mouse. (Don't send your friends!!)

Ain't nobody got time for that...

Well I just have to say Kelly use to tease me about not having matching socks but when he took his work boots off at his grandmas last night look what he did. 

It made me laugh. Even Grandma Smith said "are you starting to be like maggie?" 

So in the Nelson home nobody has time to find a matching pair of socks. 

The Baby Bed

Last night we were finally able to take Grandma Smith out and get a crib!

 This past summer she was in the hospital for about 3 weeks with blocked bowel and ended up having surgery to remove scar tissue.

Once she was finally released from the hospital she was in a rehabilitation center for a week and a half. Then, once she was home there was constant care from Kelly's mom, siblings and she had home health coming in every other day to do physical therapy and test her heart. 

I am sure I mentioned it before but Kelly has a very close relationship with his grandma. He always has and will. When we were first dating he had told me that one year Grandma told everyone she doesn't want gifts, she just wants to be visited once a week. Well Kelly has done just that since then he has gone to her house every Sunday night. Since she had been so sick we were at the Hospital or Rehab center anytime and all the time. I can't tell you how worried and stressed Kelly was to see his Grandma in such pain and sickness. It was cute how much he loves her but heartbreaking to see him so sad. 

Grandma Smith was the first person to find out we were pregnant since I threw up in her car earlier in the spring while we were going to Taggarts grill in Morgan. Ever since that night she has told us that we need to pick a baby bed and she will get it for us. At first that seemed so far away and we were not even thinking about baby things yet. 

Kelly's Grandma absolutely is a generous person. She has spoiled her grandkids and great grandkids not with just money and gifts but by just being herself and the witty person she is. One of the things she has done with everyone is buying them a crib when they have there first kid. At one point we were so excited that Grandma would be able to know we were expecting and that she would be able to see our new little baby. But this summer when she got so sick, so fast we weren't sure if we would be able to see her reaction when she finally would get to hold our baby. There were a few nights that Kelly would say in the parking lot I am so bummed that she may not be able to go get a crib with us or make it to see our baby born. 

Well miracles happened and they happened so fast. Grandma was determined 75% of the time while she was in the hospital that she would make it to see her granddaughter Mickenzie be married and that we still had a baby bed to get so she couldn't leave any of us yet. Grandma made it home 2 days before the wedding and was able to get clearance to go to the wedding and reception. It was great to have her in the temple and see how happy she was that day. It was a huge goal to be able to go and she even was able to stand up for a few pictures. 

We tried to go two other times to go and look at cribs with Grandma. Either the weather was bad and she didn't feel well or Kelly had to work late. 

Last night was finally going to work. I picked Kelly up from work and we headed straight to pick up Grandma. She was excited and ready to go! She even told us her blood pressure had been high all day because of her excitement.

Once we walked into the store she decided she wanted to sit in a wheelchair. Kelly helped her around the store and we showed her the crib we liked. She then exclaimed "well, let's buy it!"  

She was very happy that we picked a white crib. It was something she had her mind on. We also took her around the store to pick a mattress and she insisted on getting us diapers for the baby shower in a couple weekends. 

We tried to tell her we don't need her to get us diapers since she was already getting us a crib. But we learned one thing you don't tell Grandma no! 

We were looking at diapers and the box had 200 or so inside. Kelly was trying to tell his grandma we don't need that many because our baby will be into the next size probably quickly and they don't go through that many diapers as newborns. I started to laugh and so did grandma! Kelly couldn't believe that our little girl will probably use 10 or more diapers a day when she is born. It's funny how much learning goes on before the baby is even here. 

After we checked out and ordered our crib and conversion rails Grandma told us she wanted a malt. So we took her to Warrens to get one. She had a cherry shake. She hasn't had sweets in a long time but she insisted she was fine now. 

On the way home I had a toddler mattress laying on top of me. It couldn't fit in the back of the trunk so I got to have it squish me. It was quite comical. 

It was so fun to be able to spend time with Grandma Smith and I think it meant a million times more to both me and Kelly that we were able to finally go. I can't wait to have such a gorgeous crib in Little Miss Nelson's room and for her to one day to know that she got it from her Great Grandma. 

This is how we fit a mattress in to grandmas car!

Baby Bump Update!

How far along: 33 Weeks 5 days
Total Weight gain: 10 pounds. Yes, I know you are probably thinking you aren't healthy or the baby isn't healthy. Well from everything I have been told it is a great range for me to be in. The weight doesn't really seem to bother me as much as the ball that I am carrying in front is bothering me. I look realitively small but, to me its nothing but small.
Maternity Clothes: Yes I do have a few maternity shirts and a pair of H&M maternity skinny jeans and Old Navy maternity capris. I couldn't live without those H&M pants. Talk about comfiest thing and I don't feel like I am wearing maternity clothes. I love the rouching on the tops I have bought. My favorite places to get maternity tops have been H&M, Target and Old Navy.
Stretch marks? No. I have not had a sign of stretch marks. Veins are more visible but nothing really has seemed to look like stretch marks. Which this is something Kelly cares about a lot. He always asks me 'your not seeing stretch marks are you?'
Sleep: Oh how I wish this could be better. There are some days where I am completely fine and sleep throughout the night and then there are others where I wake up at 5 am and can't fall asleep until Kelly leaves for work at 7am. Its nice that I don't have to be to work until noon so I can get a couple hours of sleep on the bad days.
Best Moment this week: I would have to say the best moment this week was finding some cute clothes and ideas for her room. I am getting excited to see it all come together. I am getting antsy for baby showers.
Movement: OH MY YES! She is very good at sprawling all of her limbs out at once. Like hey mom did you want me in Karate lessons? It is fun to feel her move. My parents always ask if she's moving and they have felt her kick a couple times.
Food cravings: Uhm, I still love pizza.. If I could eat it every day, all day. I don't see a problem with it.
Anything make you sick?    Not really! But I don't love having to do the dishes at times and the smell of cleaning out the fridge. But that could just be a regular thing.
Labour Signs? Not any that I am aware of.
Symptoms? Round Ligament Pain. Oh my this is like the worst thing ever. Its right about my left hip bone and I don't know how she does it but she plays and kicks on it always when it hurts. I also don't love getting into the drivers seat of any car because my left leg is the last leg to go in and it always shoots a stunning pain throughout my leg and back.
I also have experienced some back pain on my left side but its more of a dull ache most of the time and then BAM it hits like a knife is back there and then it fades.
Belly Button in or out? How about non existent. It is stretched out. Its funny to me and I kind of like poking at it because it feels so weird.
Wedding Rings on or off? On. Haven't had any swelling in anything but my piggies.
Happy or Moody? Happy. For the most part I haven't been moody since the beginning. I am calm until I am just stressed out and wanting to break down. I feel pretty good and happy.
Looking Forward to? Baby Showers. Going with Kelly's Grandma Smith to buy her crib and finishing her room. Oh it will all be so adorable and fun once we can get done with this painting process.

Silverline Alumni Halftime

Last weekend was Homecoming for Fremont High. It is their 20th year anniversary which means that they invited back all of the Silverline Alumni to perform at halftime.

We had a couple practices to learn the dance. It was a great time to reunite with old teammates and to joke about so many things that happened in and outside of practice. I loved seeing all those girls again.
Did I dance? Yes, I did!

Some thought I was crazy for doing it and I know my dad was totally worried because his granddaughter is like his greatest concern. But the dance was somewhat easy and repetitive the only part that was hard was when we had to squat down well because there is a basketball in my belly and no abs so my balance is totally weak.

But we made it through the performance and it was awesome.
Kelly had made it back from working in Vernal just in time to go straight to Fremont. I never thought he would really see me dance at Fremont. But now he has watched me dance with every team I have ever been apart of.

I am very happy that the team this year gave up their Halftime for Homecoming so all of us oldies could come back and enjoy the football field again. It is fun to be with this years team since some of the girls I have coached at the studio are now Seniors and are just fabulous girls!

Can't wait to see them compete at Region and State this year!

My parents came to watch halftime they got a good kick out my dancing & also my friends Alexa & Katey came to watch. Mainly, because they said "I can't miss something like that!" .. But they were shocked that I didn't do that bad except for the hook-up into the kick line.

National Gas Rodeo Competition 2014

Thursday September 11th
We got up at 7 am to finish packing the week leading up to this vacation was crazy! Just so much to do and so much going on but then we took off to the airport around 9 am we met up with OJ, Hatch and Tyler. We finally made it to the airport parked and went through security, checked bags and then we were boarding super fast and we took off at 11am! Denver here we come!!
I have to be honest I hated that we were flying on September 11th, there is something about going to the airport that day, getting on a plane, being in a terminal, checking baggage that just seems a lot more depressing and sad. It made me think about how many people were lost that day and I would be lying if I didn't admit that I was a little stressed about flying that day.
Obviously I didn't know how flying was going to be at 30 weeks pregnant let alone it being September 11th. But the flight was very smooth we had very little turbulence and by the time you are up in the clouds you are coming back down to land. Denver was a really short flight.

A little flashback to when Kelly won 1st place at Questar Gas Rodeo

The Denver airport is really cool! Its huge & super nice. Sadly Salt Lake isn't that nice. But, once we got our bags I had to get a jacket out of my bag. It was SOOO... cold getting off the airport and into the terminal. I had no idea that in September it would be only 50 degrees at the hottest point of the day.

We got our rental cars and started to head to the city. Its crazy how you are in the middle of nowhere when you land in Denver. It doesn't look like Colorado.
We found a spot for lunch it was called Burgerfi it was definitely not the cheapest burger joint but it was delicious and well when the company is paying for it can you really complain? Hatch, OJ and Tyler shared a bucket of fries.. it really was a massive pile of fries.
Hatch and OJ are foreman from Questar. Kelly had OJ as a boss last year and this year he has Hatch. These to guys are the absolute funniest people. The company had some people who decided not to go & so Hatch and OJ got tickets to come along with us. Tyler is Kelly's teammate and is super friendly and goofy.

We drove by the Rockies stadium it looked really nice. I kind of wished we could of gone to a game. Every time we went on a family trip when I was a kid my dad would always take us to some baseball game didn't matter if it was professional or not. That is a great memory I have from going to Oregon & North Carolina with my family.

This is the first year they are holding the National Gas Rodeo in Colorado Springs. They moved it from Louisiana this year and brought it back to Colorado Springs it started here. Every year they would go to the Budweiser plant and do the tour there.  I guess its really cool and a great experience. So the Coors beer plant is in Golden, Colorado. We decided to go do the tour after lunch, it was super chilly waiting for the tour bus to come pick us up. We went on the tour it was a self-guided tour which was kind of boring you didn't really see much of the plant, the coolest part was seeing the packaging and the cans coming in to be packaged. Kelly loved watching the machines working in that part of the plant. I personally didn't love the smell of the factory but it was my first time being in a beer plant. Once we were done they had free drinks and taste testing well we taste tested.. Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew. hahahaha, okay all 12 of us drank pop. We got some funny looks from those who were drinking alcohol.

We then made the trek of this giant mountain to see Buffalo Bills grave. It was very foggy and muggy you couldn't really see the view from the mountain down to Golden. Which I don't know if that was a good thing or not because we were pretty stinking high and I think I would of got car sick if I could of seen the view. The shop that is by his grave was open but not the museum. It was pretty funny when we walked into the little gift shop there was a small pony for kids to ride on and of course Hatch who is 6 foot hops on and acts like he's riding it, we started laughing at him and the sales guy came around the corner and started yelling at Hatch. Hatch quickly jumped off and that kid quickly didn't feel like he had very much authority after seeing the size of Hatch.

Buffalo Bills Grave

Hatch riding the pony in the Gift Shop

We started heading to Colorado Springs. We had the choice of flying straight there or to Denver but everyone thought it would be fun to play in Denver. It definitely was worth it. Colorado Springs is only a little over an hour away from Denver. But what we didn't know is we would hit construction, a rain storm and rush hour. It took us forever to get there. I fell asleep in the back which was probably best considering my back was killing me from having to sit up so straight and the little Chevy Equinox we were driving really wasn't that nice of a car for it being a 2015.
By the time we got to the hotel I was relived but I was also very done with the day. I was kind of moody and extremely tired. I didn't want to do much else but luckily there was a Chili's across from the hotel. All of us from Questar Ogden ate there it was definitely delicious who doesn't love Chili's?

The hotel we were staying at is a Hilton it is very nice and huge! I couldn't get over how big it was. Everyone who was competing in the Rodeo was staying there. They of course already started drinking that night when we got into the hotel. I was kind of disgusted how bad it smelt by the banquet rooms.

Friday September 12th

Tyler & Kelly
at the practice grounds with the National Gas Rodeo Logo

We got to sleep in, but come to find out we should of been up a little earlier since they had some pre rodeo things going on. We went down and ate breakfast with everyone and then headed off to the Rodeo grounds so the boys could practice and see the equipment they would be using the next day.
It was very cold. I had looked at the weather but thought it was going to eventually get warmer. I didn't take any closed toe shoes since well none of them will fit very comfortably on my swollen piggys. I sat in the car with some of the wives getting warm as the guys tested the mini-x, backing up the dump truck and trailer and doing whatever else they were doing. I was really confused about what was going on since I didn't get to go to the Questar rodeo in the spring. Kelly was nice to try and explain things to me as he was looking at them. We later went and got me a pair of shoes at Target so my feet wouldn't freeze at the rodeo the next day.

Practicing the Relay part

We were getting hungry and well with 3 full grown men and a company card they wanted to eat something delicious. I am not use to how men eat I definitely learned that this trip. We ate at Rudy's BBQ it was really yummy. I had wanted to go there since several years ago my dad went to one in Texas and brought me home a t-shirt. We had pulled pork sandwiches, banana cream pudding, potato salad. It was delicious. Tyler and OJ shared a pile of meat. Yes, a huge pile of meat. They made Tyler finish all of it the poor kid looked like he was going to barf after he was done. We also got my dad the same t-shirt that he got me years ago. I figured he wouldn't remember that he got me one. On the back it says "I didn't claw my way to the top of the food chain... to eat vegetables."

Banana Cream Pudding (YUM)

Tyler had brought the belt buckle they won at Questar Gas rodeo in the spring but he didn't have a belt for it so we spent the next 4 hours driving around to leather shops to try and find a belt for him. We finally ended up at the Boot Barn and got him one.

I caught him studying the rules... 

We made it back a little late to the hotel so Kelly and Tyler hurried to get the shirts, hats and other things they brought to trade with other competitors. I hurried and ironed their dinner shirts since they were wrinkly from getting embroidered. I went down later and met up with Kelly for the dinner. It was a really good dinner and they showed the new trophies and talked about what would go on the next day. They also picked the best t-shirt during the dinner.
One of the big parts of the Rodeo is designing your logo for your team and then making cool gear and bringing it to trade with other companies. Kelly spent a lot of time looking at different books and coming up with where to put logos etc. They really turned out cool, they got a lot of compliments on the stuff they had brought to the rodeo. Which was nice since they had some issues with the guy not printing them correctly and doing a horrible job with some of the stuff. Lets just say they won't be going back to him for stuff next year.

Its a tradition when you are at the rodeo to go get ice cream every night. Although it was 39 degrees at 10:30pm we still went to Baskin-Robbins and ate ice cream with everyone. It was nice to talk and get to know everyone a little better and I think it relived the guys from thinking about the competition tomorrow.

Saturday September 13th

Kelly had to get up and be to the grounds early since he is a team captain. Since all of the boys had to be there so early us women decided we would go over later. Which meant that Hatch got to escort us women to the grounds. We ate breakfast and headed over just in time to see it all begin.

Kelly and Tyler had the pipe cut first. They were kind of happy that was their first thing they had since its the hardest and stressed them out. They did it in 29.90 seconds and really did a great job with it. Everyone from Questar had congratulated them.

Next was the service installment. They did really well with this one as well. They took their time they didn't have a problem with the wires getting tangled up like other teams were having issues with. Their time was 158.28 seconds which was pretty average from everyone else who was competing.

Mr. Kelly Captain Nelson

Then it was on to the Meter Set. This is where things were a little rocky, they had a great plan going into it and were pumped. Kelly was going to pick up the box that had everything inside and run it down to Tyler who was at the end of the relay. Well Kelly took off running and as he picked up the box his hard hat flew off and parts flew out of the box. He gathered it up nicely and quickly. His hard hat never touched the ground but he still got a ten second penalty for it which made it for a bum deal. Kelly was very mad at himself for it but they put everything together right on the Meter Set the night before they made some changes to the way it had to be done since some of the parts were hard to use at the practice. Their time for the Meter Set was 101.63 seconds without the 10 second penalty it was  91.63 seconds.

Waiting to do the Pipe Cut

The last thing is the Sand Dig. Kelly made sure his little hard hat was on so tight for this event. They did the 2 man teams two at a time they were up against the guys who won the National Rodeo last year. They would have beat them but Kelly's poor little hard hat fell off again and so there was a 10 second penalty once again. They still kicked some serious trash at it. They had a time of 19.68 seconds which by the time everyone competed would put them in 3rd place for the best sand dig. But with the penalty it dropped them down to 29.68 seconds.

They then total all the scores up and the top 10 make it into the relay. Then the others who don't make it to the relay have the option to get back in to do the relay with a mystery event. Well after totaling it up Burnin' Rod was one second behind making it into the relay... Yes they were ONE SECOND from qualifying. Their subtotal was 319.49 seconds without the two penalties it was 299.49 seconds. They would of easily been in 6th place going into the the Relay. Instead they had to compete in the mystery event which was way confusing and super hard.. it was ridiculous for a mystery event. But they ended up not winning that event so they didn't get to compete in the relay!

I have to say by the end of the day I was very proud of Tyler & Kelly. For their first time ever doing the Gas Rodeo for Questar's Competition and then winning that and being able to come to Nationals that was already such a cool thing for them. But they did really well for the first year at Nationals. I know Kelly will never live down the fact that he has a small head and his hard hat wouldn't stay on but, he really did his best and to me they will always be number one.

Look at those studs!

It finally heated up towards the middle of the day. Hatch & OJ were my bodyguards as they called themselves. They were so funny with getting me snow cones and bringing me drinks. They really watched out for me and it was very nice of them. While we were at the airport they wouldn't let me wheel around any bags or do much of anything. They kept saying I am fragrant and pregnant with child. They were very nice in doing all that they did for me. I really love those guys a lot!

So this year Questar only took 4 teams to Nationals. They only took the 1st place 2-Man Team from their rodeo (Kelly's team) and they took the top three in the 4-Man Team from their rodeo in the spring. The divisions that represented were; Ogden, Vernal, Bluffdale.

Questar did really well at the National Gas Rodeo these are the team names and their final ranking:
Burnin' Rod: Ogden- Kelly's Team (2 Man) 12th
Big Dogs: Ogden Team (4 Man) 13th Final time: 252.88 seconds (no qualification for relay)
Country Strong: Vernal Team (4 Man) 7th Final time: 401.92 seconds
Hound Dogs: Bluffdale Team (4 Man) 6th Final time: 398.27 seconds

Kelly caught me napping.. 

After the rodeo we made it back to the Hotel, I could tell I had a little too much sun but didn't know how bad it was until I woke up after my nap. I was pretty stinking bright pink on one arm and my neck. It only got up to about 75 degrees but the altitude definitely didn't help me.

Everybody from Questar went out for dinner at a steakhouse. It reminded me a lot of Texas Roadhouse. I got chicken fried chicken and Kelly got prime rib and shrimp. I couldn't eat a lot mine because I filled up on rolls and onion straws. But it was a very delicious meals. The Vernal team definitely got a little tipsy at the restaurant and were pretty darn funny. After we got back from dinner we went and watched people sing Karaoke at the Hotel. It was really funny to watch but the lady who ran the Karaoke looked really bad like a human version of a mouse.

We took a break and got some ice cream again at Baskin-Robbins and then watched some more karaoke before going to bed.
It was a long day both physically and emotionally. Considering I started crying at the rodeo because I was mad at what one of the judges was saying to Kelly because it came off completely different to me  and then Kelly was mad at me ... lets just say my little pregnancy emotions kicked in for a little bit.

Sunday September 14th
It was sadly already time to come home! I couldn't believe how fast this trip went! The men wanted to stop at the Bass Pro Shop before we left. It's a really cool store, obviously its not a women store but when your on a man's trip thats what you get right?!

A little love from Hatch with Bean

You can tell how tall Hatch is and how men will stare at a tank of fish forever!!

We finally got to the airport and I was super hungry since we hadn't stopped for lunch. But we didn't have anytime to get anything since our plane was started to board. So I ate my small bag of airplane pretzels and my half a cup of Coke. It was a easy plane ride back home and it was cool to watch as we flew over parts of Utah and it's always fun to look out the window as you land and take off.

I am so glad I got to go on this trip with Kelly! I can't wait for the National Gas Rodeo next year! Burnin' Rod is definitely going to keep their hard hats on!

This picture is one that Kelly sent me after the Rodeo. Obviously this is just a normal day at work.. welding on a completely live gas main. Yup, so glad that is my husband next to that pipe. You can see his little gloves say Bean on them. I like getting pictures of stuff he does at work although this one kind of scares me.

October!!

There is something about October that just makes me happy. Maybe its the fact that it means we only have a few weeks left until Little Miss Nelson gets here or the fact that I may secretly like that my house is cold in the mornings and it makes the struggle to get out of bed even worse.
I like that its totally okay to start my hot chocolate obsession soon, that my house can smell like pumpkin all the time. I also can't wait for McDonalds to bring back their pumpkin pie goodness, It also means that I can get out my favorite decorations, HALLOWEEN!

We love Halloween. Its such a fun season and we love the spooky things if I had a million dollars I would make our house super legit outside but I will just have to be satisfied with my $6 blow up from RC Willey.

This weekend is General Conference and we are headed to my Grandparents cabin in the Uintas. I am hoping that the trees still have their leaves and that I will be able to capture some great pictures.

September was filled with lots of crazy adventures. Between going to the National Gas Rodeo for Questar and I started a different job at the elementary school. It definitely flew by so fast. We went to Hooper Tomato Days and had Nala participate in the Dog Run which she would of done great if she wouldn't of got distracted by the dog next to her. Little twerp.

Well I am super excited October is finally here!!