ONE YEAR AGO TODAY!!

My heart is so full today as I look back to a year ago. Today was the day Nolan returned home from Iraq after 15 long months of being away. I remember the excitement and overwhelming feeling of relief. It was the hardest time in my entire life and I learned so many things from him being away. There were so many times when I thought that I just couldn't do it anymore and times where my heart ached so bad for him and what he was going through. I worried about him every day. However, I can honestly say I was so blessed from Heavenly Father to know every day that he WAS going to come home to me safely. No matter what trials he or I faced Heavenly Father blessed me with a reassurance of his safetly and without that, there is no way I could have gotten throught this.

I am so proud of you Nolan and your strong will to do this. I know you worked hard and gave it all you had! You taught me so much about patriotism and courage. You took care of me the best you could from where you were. I always appreciated your phone calls even in the time where you were so tired from 30+ hour missions you still made time for me! I love you so much, thank you for your service to our country. I am so happy and so grateful to have you home with me now. This last year has been so great and I am so happy to finally be able to live our lives side by side! I love you sunrises and sunsets forever!

Enjoy the pictures from the 2nd best day of our lives! (I wish i could have posted the video but i am not very computer savvy!)

It was such an overwhelming feeling of joy that i had never felt before watching his plane come in.

All of the soldiers making their way to their families! They all looked the same!

Oh how long i waited for this moment!

nolans really good friends

My support group..Nolan's family was there too but i couldnt' find a picture!

Sisters right before we got to Hill Air Force Base!
Thanks to all the service men and women who are still fighting and thanks to those who are home! God bless you and your families!

Our little powder puffs!

This weekend we hung out with our friends Jared and Lauren. It turned out that WE the wives got an awesome idea...Let's do make overs!! These are the happy faces before they knew what they were in for! THEY WERE SUCH GOOD SPORTS!! THANKS BOYS!!

BEFORE PICTURES!!

Nolan looking very unsure of all "stuff" that is being caked on his face!

TAA DAA!! The beautiful Nolan!! ha ha! He was such a good sport and his comment to all of this was: "It's just getting me ready for little girls! Cause I will totally let my little princess put make up on me!" He will be such a cute daddy one day!

YIKES! He doesn't look like a very cute drag queen!

After his makeover was done it kinda freaked me out!

AFTER PICTURES!! They are going to have to be even better sports about this whole thing after its posted all over the blogs!! ahahah!! We love you boys it was so much fun to play dress up! Thanks for being so willing to let us have a laugh!

Sweetest Husband EVER!!

So despite the stressful week we have had..dealing with the trials and stresses of Nolan's math class..we have both been diligently working on being extra loving, caring, and supportive to eachother.

Well needless to say I think Nolan has taken the cake on this one! While Nolan sat at the kitchen table with his math tutor, I came home later than usual from the gym and took my usual route to the shower. Well to my surprise what did i find? A cute message written on our mirror (a nolan and jani favorite) in dry erase marker. "Honey...I am wondering if you are free on Sept. 27th at 6:00? If so, I would like you to be "My Fair Lady"....please check yes or no (with little boxes)" and taped to the mirror were two tickets to the play My Fair Lady!

My stomach instantly got a little butterfly feeling as the thought...HOW CUTE IS HE!! went through my head. I ran downstairs and wrapped my arms around him and said "thank you..you are the sweetest husband ever!"

Thanks babe for your cute little ideas and I can't wait to go to the play..I CHECK YES!! LOVE YOU!!

Girls Night!

For the past two weeks Nolan has been busy on the weekends, and during the week I only see him at 9:30 sometimes 10:30 at night because of school. He had drill for the army last weekend, and this weekend he went on a fishing trip with my brother (i will have to post pic later). Yea I really miss him! I live for the weekends when we can finally spend some time together! So to keep myself sane I spend time with my girlfriends!

This is my best friend Lauren. We met 6 years ago during our sophomore year. We have been good friends since. We were always hooked to the hip during high school. Everyone knew that wherever Janica was there would be Lauren also! We went up to Utah State University together and had blast! We have been through so much together. I am so grateful to have a good friend like her who I can trust, and talk to about anything. I love ya Laur BFFAETC (remember that?) ahah!! Thanks for such a fun girls night! (we did dinner and scrapbooking and shopping all in one night!)

This is Heidi and Felisha. These are some friends from college that actually lived right by Nolan. He probably saw them more than I did. We have kept in pretty good contact and this weekend we got to reminisce about the old days and how we all ended up with our college loves :) It was so fun to see them.

So as much as I miss Nolan these last couple of weeks, girls always need a little bit of girl time!

NANNY 911

So as many of you know, I am a nanny for a little baby. He is almost 9 months old. He is in the stage where is is climbing up on things and crawling like crazy. He is in a very clingy stage, he hates it when I take two steps away from him and just cries. He seems not too intrested in his toys. HOW CAN I KEEP him entertained? Please help! (we go on walks but that is the only thing that keeps him quiet and still for more than 2 min).
Also when he gets into stuff he shouldn't what is a good way to help him understand the word NO??

Happy Birthday DAD!

We spent last weekend celebrating Dad's birthday! All he wanted was to have dinner and game night together, then sleepover and have a big breakfast in the morning! It was so much fun! We all gave him a new BBQ grill and he loved it! Happy Birthday Daddy Pops!


All the kids in our aprons and birthday hats and aprons helping cook dinner together.

When Shanna and I were younger we used to make up dances and make the family watch us, well we brought back the old days just for DAD! It was hilarious, we could barely finish the dance without laughing our heads off!

SISTERS AND APRONS!

Next came the flour game. You have to cut away the flour from a penny, if you make it fall you retrieve it with your mouth! Staci and I were the only ones with steady hands, we never had to retrieve it!

And the birthday boys goes in for the kill! We love you

Dad, thanks for inviting us to your birthday party!