Introducing the newest member of our family:

Clarise "the clean" Nielsen

Yes, Clarise is our new (used) portable dishwasher! HOORAY!!! Our apartment didn't come with a dishwasher so ever since April we have been keeping our eyes our for something other than elbow grease to clean dishes with. Who am I kidding? Brian does the dishes. But at least now I don't have to feel guilty about not scrubbing down the dishes by hand!

We ran our first load of dishes last night and I have to say, I've never been so excited to empty a dishwasher!

Sorry if you're bored of my blogging. I think I'm making up for lost time.

A party, a picnic, and a play

We had a great weekend here at the Nielsen home. Our ward party/"camp" out turned out great despite the bad weather we were hit with on Friday. From traffic to detours, we finally made it to our spot and set up our tent just in time for the rain to start pouring. The inside only got a little wet before we managed to get our rain fly on. Most of the ward came up for dinner and then headed home for bed. Only about 6 brave couples stayed the night. I have to admit, as much as I love camping, we will have to put our tent on the shelf until next summer when I can actually get some sleep.

We enjoyed a leisure Saturday just playing wii and getting the laundry done. I love Saturdays like that. We also managed to have a picnic in our front room as a little stay-at-home date. Yeah, yeah, we're silly, but we like it that way.

On Saturday night we headed down to Payson to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Brian's parents. We had such a great time together and really enjoyed the music and fun performance. Even our little girl joined in the fun with some pretty amazing cartwheels inside my tummy. She loves to move to the music.

And, of course, the weekend wouldn't be a weekend without more of my projects. All the sewing I did this weekend was hand stitched stuff. I stitched around two of my onesies to give them the homemade look they deserve:

And I made some flowers for my quilt top. I'm not sure yet which ones to go with, or if I should do a combination of the three. Here is general idea of the final product:

But maybe with a button:

Or two?

And last, but definitely not least, today marks 7 months pregnant! I am getting so excited to meet our little baby girl!

Brownies Anyone?

I made THREE batches of these delicious brownies from scratch today. It was my first go at a recipe rather than boxed brownies because let's face it, box brownies are still super good, amazingly convenient, and loads cheaper to make. But ever since I tasted these goodies at one of our friends', I've been dying to make them. And our ward camp-out tonight is the perfect place to take them (so I don't end up eating the whole batch myself). They are called "Gotta Have It Brownies" and here's the recipe!

First you bake them....

Then you put a whole bag of marshmallows on top and bake 'em some more...

And then you frost them with yummy frosting...
and EAT them!

Now I just need to clean up this.

The Crazy Nester...

So, it's becoming pretty apparent that I am enjoying this whole "nesting" phase thing. Ever since we broke down and bought our crib, I have been exploding with projects! Brian thinks I'm going a little crazy on him, but I absolutely love how I feel. I have so much energy and a drive to get so much done. Take Monday for example... I dropped Brian off at work by 8am and then headed to Walmart where I picked out a curtain rod and some brown bed sheets. I went straight home, unstitched the edge of two sheets to change them into curtains, ironed them, installed the curtain rod above our bedroom window, and hung the curtains. I haven't hemmed them yet because I wanted Brian's input and he didn't exactly know that I was doing any of this. (SURPRISE!?!)

My morning didn't stop there though. Before I headed to work I managed a stop at the fabric store to buy the rest of my supplies for my first quilt. I took some fabric from my mom's cupboard over the weekend and decided I could make a cute quilt out of some of it. Hopefully it will turned out as cute as I imagined. Last night I ironed the pieced and sew the backing pieces and the top pieces together and then laid them out with the batting between. I also purchased some curved safety pins yesterday (another trip to the fabric store) so I will be able to baste this so I can get it on the machine to do some stitching in the ditch (there's a first time for everything right? wish me luck!!!). Here's the top so far.

On Monday night we also added a new baby item to our list: the travel system! We got the Chicco Cortina Travel System. It includes our car seat, base, and stroller. Brian was such a proud daddy and put the whole stroller together when we brought it home.

{just look at that smile!}

While he was piecing that together, I saw our new purchase as an opportunity to make a car seat canopy! I've been waiting for that project until I could measure the handles for strap placement, but I think it turned out cute. Thoughts?

{me at 30.5 weeks}

So am I going as crazy as Brian says I am? Did I mention I have onesies ready to have applique added to them? Hmmm... yup, this nesting business is for real!

June...

I don't remember much about the month of June. However, two major events stand out in my mind: Tara and Ryan got married and we sold Brian's car....

First of all, congrats to the newlyweds. We are so excited for you guys and all that is in store for you. Sorry for the delay on posting about this one.
And last, but not least: goodbye dear car! We loved having this Subaru for moving things and camping. Now we are just down to the little red Honda (much better looking than the Subaru, but not quite as versatile). Sniff, sniff, tear!

July in One Post

July, in a nutshell, was a fun and busy month. We had two family reunions and my birthday. Not to mention fireworks for both the 4th and 24th of July. In the second week of July we flew to Oregon to have a huge Everton Family Reunion with all the cousins on my mom's side. We had a blast spending time with cousins and siblings on the beach and at the beach house. I have to admit that although the Oregon coast is one of my most favorite places in the US, I failed to take very many pictures. Here are a few from the day we went to Cannon beach:

{haystack rock}{a cool coastal shot that we stopped on the road to snag}

{who could pass up a sign that ACTUALLY spelled our name right?}

We got our crib on the 24th and set it up that very day. There was some difficulty in getting the box to fit in our little honda, but we managed to borrow Brian's parents' car and it got the job done (thanks again guys!)

{my baby 'bump' is getting larger by the minute!}

For my birthday my mom came down to Orem and spent the day with me. We went to lunch at Rumbi with the sisters that live down this way and then spent the afternoon shopping for some maternity clothes. Up until that point I was stretching out some non-maternity clothes in between wearing my 3 maternity shirts. THANKS MOM! I love the outfits we found and now I feel cute even with this (constantly moving) tummy.

Brian did a great job with my birthday. He gave me some chocolates (my very favorite) and a pregnancy massage certificate. He really knows his stuff! We hit up the Old Spaghetti Factory after that and then went to see "How to Train Your Dragon" and LOVED it! Definitely a cute must-see. In the spirit of the movie, Brian got a dragon pinyata and filled it with candy for us to hit. We had a blast in the park together with only a few questioning looks from strangers.

Two days later we headed to Park City for the Nielsen Reunion and spent three days with Brian's family. We had a bunch of activities planned that kept us busy and we really loved seeing everyone. I regret that because so many people had their cameras out, I didn't even snap one photo over the weekend. Hopefully I can snag some of Jenny's to post.

Dreaming...

I dreamed about sewing last night. I was picking out fabrics and designing a quilt layout. Seriously? Most pregnant woman dream about their babies or strange things (I guess I have some of those too), but I'm dreaming of projects.

I did buy some fabric the other day (when all I meant to buy was thread for the rag quilt) and I'm still deciding what exactly to do with it. I think I'm going to use the yard of pink and yard of yellow for a car seat canopy but I'm not ready to decide on the fat quarters and charm pack yet. Any ideas?

Catching Up

We've been busy. Really busy. But why am I apologizing, I am probably the only one who even views this blog. Nonetheless, a new post is FINALLY here!

We have been enjoying a WONDERFUL summer together. My stomach is getting increasingly larger and we are preparing to meet our little bundle of love. We found out on May 24th that we are having a baby GIRL! And we have been looking forward to life with her here ever since! Here are a few pictures of our little girl:

{her cute little foot!}

People keep asking me if I have any weird cravings. Yes. Is it weird that I crave good books and crafty projects? I am obsessed with beautiful fabrics (that I can't buy) and the potential quilts I can make with them. I am just finishing up my baby girl rag quilt that I made from my mom's scraps (thanks mom!) and it has completely opened a can of worms: sewing.

Here is a picture of the (almost finished) blanket. It's fun that it's out of scraps even though the colors may be a little off. I'll try to post another picture of it after I wash it.

Other baby news: we have a crib! A gorgeous, cherry colored crib. Did I mention we have bedding too? Well we do. What do you think?

We also got this cute swing from my parents and are starting to feel more ready to have a baby. Another project we took up (no, it doesn't stop here) included painting our apartment. Well, maybe more like Brian painting the apartment. He was insistent that I not be too exposed to paint fumes so I was sentenced to the back room (with my sewing machine and the movie Emma to keep me company) while he did the painting. He did a great job. Thanks babe!

{how in the world are you supposed to tape off a ceiling like that?}

{oh how I love the RED wall!}

{my next 'home improvement' project will be to make curtains}