Pictures of Jade

Aunt Allison took some really cute pictures of Jade! She is just a couple days old in these pics.

Grandma Reynolds made this beautiful dress for Jade to wear on her blessing day!

Austin got this Chinese outfit for her while he was in China town in NY. My mom wants me to remind him that she is part Korean NOT Chinese. haha

Little Lacrosse Baby

Jade 1 week old!

Out of the house!

Last night my brother went through the Draper Temple for the first time! Lance stayed home and had a daddy-daughter night with Jade while I went to the temple with my family. This was my first time away from Jade! Okay, actually it was my second time... my friend, Aimee, took me to Walmart last week and I bought diapers.

Anyway, it was wonderful to be in the temple with my parents and my brother. It's wonderful to remember that we can be together as a family-in this life and in the next. I am so happy my brother made the choice to receive his endowment and to go on a mission. After the temple, we were talking about how sad it would be had he decided not to go, because he would've missed out on so much more knowledge and understanding about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am very proud of him and I know he'll make a great missionary.

It was a little strange being away from Jade. Everyone kept asking me if I was worried, but nope! I knew she was with Lance and he is the BEST dad ever! I wasn't worried at all. What was strange was since Jade wasn't around, I kept expecting to feel her move inside me-like she had for months while I was pregnant. Other than that...it felt so good to be out of the house!! Yesterday was the first day where I actually felt like my old self again. My body is finally getting used to being a mom! yay!

So...since I have been feeling good, I have started exercising again! Lance wrote up an easy workout for me to do everyday, which I started yesterday. It consists of exercises I can do while I am at home with Jade...so no gym required for the time being. I want to ease my way back to working out the way I used to...but not ease too easily. haha. So today we used our jogging stroller for the first time. Lance, Jade and I went to Cottonwood High and ran around their track and guess what?? I ran 1 mile without stopping! Okay it was more of a very slow jog rather than a run, but it was faster than a walk, and that made me happy!

By the way, nursing a baby is fantastic for losing baby weight!! I gained about 35 pounds during pregnancy, and I am already down 25 pounds JUST from nursing my baby and eating healthy...and perhaps lack of sleep. Now that I am sticking some exercise into my day, I feel pretty confident that I will get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. :)

Jade Marelyn Nielsen

Baby Jade has arrived! She was born June 9th, at 9:10 am. She was 7 lbs 2 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. She has lots and lots of dark hair, which I absolutely LOVE!

In case you're interested in birth stories...here's mine.
The due date was June 7th. I knew I wasn't supposed to expect her to come on the due date, but I still got my hopes up! The day came and I went in for a doctor's appointment...dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced...but no contractions and no baby that day. Yep, I went home and cried. I wanted her here so badly!

The next day (June 8) was Lance's birthday! We thought it would be crazy and awesome if Jade came on that day! In the morning I was having really bad cramps down in my abdomen. After awhile I realized they came regularly, so contractions? Unfortunately, they were about 15-20 minutes apart...so I couldn't go to the hospital yet. They really hurt, and I was worried I was going to ruin Lance's birthday because I didn't feel up to doing very much! We went to Cottonwood Heights and Lance did some platform diving. In the evening we went to Lance's parents' house for dinner. We were trying to decide whether or not we should go to the Ryan Shupe Concert that evening as we had planned (pretty much every year Lance goes to the Ryan Shupe concert for his birthday). We decided not to go (really good decision). My contractions were now about 9-10 minutes apart...the doctor on call had said don't come in until they were 3-5 minutes apart...boo!

We waited and finally around midnight they were suddenly 5 minutes apart, then 4, then 3! We rushed to the hospital...I was dilated to a 7! (darn it, I probably could have gone in sooner!!)

Once I got the epidural, life was grand! I slept through the night and in the morning I was ready to push! My nurse had me do some pushes while we waited for my doctor to arrive, but had me stop because the baby was coming fast! Once the doctor got there, the baby came right out!

It was so exciting to finally have my baby in my arms!! I thought she looked so darling. The nurses did all the tests and bath in the same room I delivered in, so Lance and I got to watch. She was so funny when they gave her a bath. She didn't like it at first, but once they started washing her hair, she calmed right down!

It has been so much fun having her around! I am in desperate need of some sleep, and learning to be a mom has definitely been challenging in some ways...but it is all totally worth it! Lance and I absolutely love our little girl! (sometimes it is hard to believe she is actually ours!!)

Lance doing a dive

Lance driving my dad's camaro for his bday

a LOVELY picture of me right before we went to the hospital

 Baby Jade

Lance is a daddy!

Grandpa Nielsen

Grandma Nielsen

 Grandma Robinson

 Grandpa Robinson

Memorial Day

This past weekend was awesome because Lance didn't have to go to work! yay!

For Memorial Day we spent lots of time outside and came home with a couple of sunburns :)

We spent some time at Jordan High:

handstand!  

 trying to stay stretchy- even while pregnant

 38 weeks!

I've discovered that wearing Lance's clothes is much more comfortable!

 B practiced the long jump

 trying to lift the tire :)

 We visited Grandpa Nielsen and Grandpa Reynolds at the cemetery

 We went swimming at Alta Canyon.

Lance did some awesome dives.

I rode the slide, even though the sign warned I shouldn't! :)

 My father-in-law in the middle of a sweet dive.

playing some baseball at the park

A wedding!

Lance's sister got married on May 9th! We all absolutely LOVE her husband Mike! He is such a great addition to the family. :) Mike and McCall are such a cute couple and we are very happy for them! Here are some pictures from the wedding!

Mike and McCall with the grandmas and mom & dad

with the siblings

me (at 35 weeks) and Lance

of course Lance needed a handstand picture!

me and Mary

 Lance's toe touch

 Austin's toe touch

 the brothers and their 'toe touches'

 dive rolling over the bride

the groom waiting patiently

Austin and Brooklyn 

 while waiting for the bride and groom to arrive at the luncheon...Brooklyn and Austin took a snooze

(you can tell they are related!)

 with my mom

 Austin and Grandma Yellow... and crazy eyed Tyce

 my family

 the newlyweds

Lance loves to tease all the little cousins 

Baby Shower

One of my friends hosted a baby shower for me the other day! It was so much fun! I loved being able to see so many of my friends! We ate some really yummy food (I had to have Korean food and lots of fruit-especially pineapple-because that's what ALWAYS sounds good to me), we played some fun games, and had a great time visiting. :)

 Is this little guy not the cutest thing ever??

Graduation!

On Friday, May 4th Lance and I did the whole graduation ceremony thing. I graduated from the University of Utah in December and Lance will officially be done in August. :) We have the same degree...Human Development and Family Studies!

We both have student id's from the U of U, UVU, SLCC, and Westminster College. We've been all over the place taking classes and changing our majors.

A moment to brag about myself...ahem. Despite transferring schools and majors a ridiculous number of times and taking a semester of college off while living in China (much to the dismay of some family members) I finished my bachelor's degree in 7 semesters! Booyah! I don't know how it happened, but somehow everything worked out perfectly. :)

I am stoked to begin my full time career as a stay at home mom! Our baby girl is due to come June 7th and we are so excited to begin this next stage of our life!

 We thought our robes looked like Harry Potter robes so we got out our wands and had a wizard's duel.

a pic with my parents, brother, and grandparents