he's 31 today

i had great intentions today to celebrate this fabulous man of mine. and i bought all (almost) the stuff we'd need for a birthday fit for a king. but here's how it actually went down.

7:30 i wake up and get ready for my 8am meeting, leave the house w/ everyone still in bed
10:15 return from meeting to find an empty house, homemade waffles w/ fresh fruit and not a trace of breakfast mess
10:25 boys return from playing at the park
10:30 put asher down for his nap and then visit with our very diligent and dedicated home teacher
11:15 wonder why the baby is still not asleep and just jabbering away, go in and sing some more songs
11:25 take a phone call and talk church business
11:45 head into kitchen to find the birthday boy happily adding the last ingredients to the thai chicken crock pot dinner. i got to put the lid on and start fixing lunch for the boys while he goes in and finally gets that baby to sleep
12:00 i finish getting ready for church while micah assembles his own chicken wrap (yummm)
12:45 i'm off to church w/ the big boys, micah hangs out for the next two hours while asher gets his nap in (i know we're bad mormons but honestly--why take an unnapped baby to 1pm church until 4 o'clock?)
4:30 return home to find a beautiful chocolate cake already baked and frosted. (strike 3 for me). so the boys and i at least get the table set all fancy w/ place mats, napkin rolls and henry weinhards before micah gets home from his after-church-responsibilities. jaden prepares a delicious salad, including fresh chopped cherries, tomatos, raisins and carrots all by himself hoping that his dad will say "yummmmm." beckam decorates the birthday boy's chair w/ beautiful artwork. we call grandma doris and wish her a happy birthday!!
5:30 micah gets home and we enjoy a fabulous dinner where we discuss why our daddy is so special which includes jaden's declaration that "he's the smartest dad because he chose the best wife in the world AND he always makes me first even when his friends are around." and i shared that i was grateful for him because he always makes all of us first all of the time! he's completely selfless and i know that even though today is his special day, he loved every minute of serving his family all day!! and he always makes me feel like the best girl in the world!
6:00 call britney to wish her a happy birthday, too! and then eat cake w/ chocolate brownie ice cream (oh, that micah bought himself at the store yesterday because i didn't even think of it while at the store earlier)

and why is jaden's face all red you wonder? because minutes before he looked like this:

scary. darth maul has nothing on him.
they got into the face paints.

happy birthday micah.
we LOVE you so!
and how lucky are you that the whole nation gets the day off tomorrow to celebrate!

(sorry to those of you w/ reader for the duplicate posts. )

happy mother's day.

mine was spent on sanibel island celebrating the marriage of my brother-in-law dan to the lovely sara kramer! it was such a beautiful and perfect beach wedding with lots of friends and family there to support them. when we arrived at the hotel the scene was reminiscent of our davis days looking like we'd landed at the bike barn. there were over 50 bikes lined up for every wedding guest each one personalized w/ a name tag. inside our rooms we had welcome bags including bios of each family member on both sides, sights to see on the island, a daily agenda, water bottles, sunblock, saltwater taffy and the beloved insect repellant! learning from my sister-in-law's 500-and-something no.see.um (the bugs are that tiny) bites, i bathed in that stuff every night and got away unscathed.



images taken from minna dyer here and here.

we put many miles on our bikes mostly at night alligator hunting. at night they can only be seen when light reflects off their eyes that glow like fire. it was crazy creepy cool. we only had two minor biking incidents. one was my father-in-law who indoed and flipped over his handle bars, sending me into complete hysterics for a good 20 min. (i seriously have a sick sense of humor. what is wrong with me?!) however, i was repaid for my cruelty the following day, when i duplicated his accident as my dress got caught in my break pads and sent me sailing. i wasn't laughing then but fortunately, my adrenaline was at its max since we were on a photo scavenger hunt racing against the other nilssons and two of our competitors were actually passing us at that very moment so i didn't even feel the cut on my leg. we also spent a day at sea exploring different islands and marine life. we saw lots of dolphins and a sting ray JUMP out of the water. apparently they do that!! micah took me out on my first brief sailing excursion. besides my fear of feeling like shark bait, it was exciting and scary for a second when micah fell overboard leaving me to man the sail.

this image from christy dyer.
both of my sweet mothers spent their mother's day taking care of my children. a mothers job really never does end. i hope i can give my daughter, oh wait! i don't have one!!! my sons and their wives a kidless getaway one day, too (just not all at the same time)! and then do all their laundry when they get home so they don't have to (thanks again mom!). i hope i can show my children how much i love them the way my mothers show me! we so greatly appreciated our time together and squeezed every second out of our kidless getaway!


darron, dan and micah



















i returned to a beautiful new set of dishes from my boys that they remembered i'd been wanting and the sweetest homemade cards! these made my heart happy:

HAPPY mother's DAY
to mom
love Jaden Nilsson

mom I Love You so much you are the brite side of my life. love Jaden Nilsson.

and a picture of me watering my garden filled w/ beautiful flowers, a ladybug and bee. and a picture of jaden saying, "your garden is pretty" with me saying, "thank you."

in six days all the nilssons (sans children) will be gathering in sanibel, florida to celebrate the marriage of dan to the lovely sarah. and because this family loves a competition, we have been playing sanibel trivia. everyday brian sends an email with sanibel trivia and the first one to respond with the correct answer gets a point. sometimes there are bonus questions or challenges. like a seventy two word blog post.