Weekend fun with the Nielsens

Jake's parents got him a tool chest for his graduation present. Jake loves taking good care of his tools so this is perfect for him! I don't think any chainsaws will fit in there thankfully!

I got Jake a humidifier (that's right, a humidifier) for his present. Sounds lame, I know, but since I've been married to Jake I've come to learn that the more practical a gift I give him, the more he'll like it. Our old humidifier was a cheap one and it stopped working about a month ago so I thought a nice humidifier would be the perfect gift.

Jake's mom got this graduation pinata about 7 years ago and Jake took it from her and has had it ever since. He's been waiting to graduate from college to fill it up and bust it open. Here's a picture of Dylan taking a swing at it.

Braxton taking a whack at the poor pinata

Jake's mom made him this awesome scrapbook from his first day of school to his graduation day. It is so cute! I wish I was as talented and creative as she is.

This is a video of Jake trying to hit the pinata. Our brother-in-law James was such a good pinata-holder that Jake had a hard time finding it.

Jake's Graduation Day

He did it! He graduated!! Hooray for Jake! We had a great weekend celebrating. Here are some pictures from the big day:

Jake was SO excited to graduate! I don't think I've ever seen anyone as excited for anything in my life. He's starting his new job in Salt Lake next week and he can't wait to get out there in the work force and not have to go to school anymore (well...at least for a little while!).

Jake's whole family came to Jake's graduation! They all had to fly/drive hundreds of miles to get here. Their support meant so much to us! Here's a great picture of Craig and Jake at graduation.

LynnAdele and Jake

The proud graduate!

Jake and his family

Jake and our nephews

Me and Jake

Scooter and Michelle graduated too! Well, Michelle graduated in December but attended this ceremony. Don't they look happy? We've had so much fun living in Logan with Scoot and Michelle that when they decided to move down to Salt Lake we had to follow them. Thanks, guys!

Jake up by the "A." Notice his chin is healing up nicely. Everyone just thinks it's one of those ugly sole patches (is that what they're called?). No offense if any of you have one of those.

My parents were able to come up too. We had fun watching the Jazz game and eating dinner with them at their sweet hotel the night before.

Thanks to all of you for your cards and gifts to Jake! Everyone is so thoughtful and we really appreciate your love and support.

Fast Healer

I thought I'd give you an update on Jake's chin since it looks so much better now. He only had his stitches in for about four days and it has healed beautifully! By graduation day we'll hardly know it's there.

This is the day his stitches were taken out.

Here's a good close-up of his fixed tooth. You can't even tell it was chipped! Thanks again, dad!

Chainsaw Massacre

So the other night Jake calls me from the emergency room to inform me that he has been cut in the face with a chainsaw. That's never a good way to start a conversation with your wife. He proceeded to tell me that he was cutting up pieces of the huge pine tree we had to cut down in our yard and the chainsaw ricocheted (sp?) off the tree and sliced open his lip and chin. Part of the cut went all the way through his chin into his mouth and he had to have so many stitches he couldn't even count them. He kept telling me he was fine and it wasn't a big deal. Then he sent me these pictures:


*Warning: if you get grossed out by blood, guts, etc. do NOT look at the following pictures.


Hmmm...how would you feel if your husband sent you these pictures of himself? Needless to say, I freaked out a bit. I told him that he wasn't careful enough, that chainsaws are too dangerous, and that he'll never be using one again!

I was in Salt Lake working so I didn't even get to take care of him that night. Thankfully, our neighbor Joe was with him and took him to the emergency room.

Jake is a real trooper. He hasn't complained a bit about it except he is sad that his front tooth is chipped. Luckily, I know a great dentist! I'm very grateful Jake has such great guardian angels watching out for him or else he could be blind, noseless, armless, legless, or even (heaven forbid!) dead.

Internet down

Sorry that I haven't been blogging lately. Our internet has been down for a few weeks now. Hopefully I'll be able to post some new pictures soon!

Moving to Salt Lake at last!

Our exciting news is Jake's graduating in May and we've decided to move to Salt Lake! I'm so excited! We have to sell our house in Logan first but we've been looking around Salt Lake for a town home or house. If any of you know any good places in the Salt Lake valley (preferably on the East side) please let us know. Also, Jake is job hunting now so if you know of any good accounting positions available please let us know that also. Thanks! We're excited to move closer to lots of family and friends!

Laurel's Art Workshop

This last week my mom put on a watercolor workshop at the Sons of Utah Pioneers for the Utah Watercolor Society. It was Thursday night, Friday night, and all day Saturday. I was able to come down from Logan and attend it. I'm so glad I did! My mom did an amazing job like she always does. I met some great artists and I learned so much about how to paint. Hopefully someday I'll be able to paint like my mom. Here are a few pictures from the workshop:

Here's my mom painting one of the demonstrations.

This is the finished product of the demo.

Me and the famous artist!

I even got to paint a bit while I was there.

One of our assignments was to find a picture with a good light source on it, do a sketch of it showing the light and dark patterns, and then paint it. Here's my finished product. It turned out pretty abstract so if you can't tell what it is, it's a lady sitting on a bench. I also started another piece but it's not finished yet so I'll post it when I'm done.

These are all the ladies that came. They were so sweet! A couple of them came three hours early just so they could get good seats! They called themselves Laurel's "groupies." Each of them would come up to me and tell me what they love about my mom's art and what a wonderful job she did on the workshop. We had a great time!

Bunnies!!

Blaine and the boys have a rabbit that just had baby bunnies! They are SO cute! Check 'em out:

Laurel and her bunny

My mom and Sandy. When they were kids they would grab the little paws of kittens, puppies, bunnies, etc. and squish them while saying in a high squeaky voice, "Seberdicky, seberdicky, seberdicky!" Don't ask me where they got that!

Wes is holding the two twinner bunnies that are all white and have pink eyes. Wes named them Al and Bino. Not very nice huh?

Truman showing off his bunny