My one and only...Coach

For those of you who don't know this is Coach.

What you also may not know is that he is a wildly talented, freakishly athletic, endlessly patient, tirelessly hard working, infinitely loving, and an insane smarty pants.

Can you tell I kinda like this guy?

This year has been a tough busy year for Coach and the men of the BYU Men's Volleyball team.

The Cougars got a rocky start to there season by losing their previous coach. After that Rob was brought on as the interim head coach. Seeing that it was august already, Coach and the team didn't have much time to prepare for their quickly approaching season.

This resulted in the last year being a crazy trial by fire whirlwind of 70 hour work weeks, lots of sleepless nights, tons of team dinners, and rob trying to define the kind of coach he wants to be.

It was hard and I am so proud of Rob and the team for their efforts and success this past year finishing #2 in the country with 20-7 record only to be beat by the team who took it all the way to the national championship.

Coach went above and beyond the call of duty to make the BYU men's volleyball team the best they could be.

As many of you know he was up for the permanent head coaching position and did not get the job. Crazy right? How could they not want the guy I just described?

At first I was really upset...then I was pretty pissed off...then I was able to be rational and see that the Lord was just sending us down a different path. And that's OK.

So as of now Rob is the assistant to a wonderful head coach and an amazingly talented team at a university we're still proud to call home.

Coach also decided to go back to school. So a week later he took the GMAT and aced it, the little stinker.

All in all we have no idea where life is taking us now but we're excited for a new adventure...and we couldn't be more grateful for the experience we had this last year and the group of players, families, coaches, and volunteers we had the privilege to know better.

So I guess we'll keep you posted on our next move and in the mean time keep supporting the BYU MVB and my sweet hubby...Coach.

Love you babe...

We love Volleyball!

So I've been loving taking tons of pictures of my little sweetheart since I got my camera. The challenge has been getting her to smile and to stay put. She loves to "see, see, see!" She turns around to see the picture the second she's gotten to the spot I've told her to stand.

On Yo Gabba Gabba there's a song where they "Hold stiiiiiillll..." so I've been saying this to her but unfortunately after that they..."wiggle wiggle wiggle go!" So the wiggling follows immediately after 2 seconds of holding still.

When you tell her to smile she automatically does this shoulder shrug head tilted cheeser face. This must be what I look like when I tell her to smile and say cheese or else I don't know where she got it. (Note Hugo's poor sad ears. She's literally loved him to pieces. He now has "hair.")

As a result candids are usually my best bet.

But sometimes I get a cute cheeser smile right at the camera.

So we've been loving Volleyball games. Not only because they're so fun, but because it means Robbie's in town and we get to see friends and family.

Margaret and Bob joined us for this match.

Along with my dad.

Everywhere we go Elizabeth sees Y's and has to point and scream "Y Y Y!" This is an inevitable result of everything Rob owns having a Y on it. So after every game she runs around on the gym floor and points out the Y's and has a ball running back and forth under the net with the other kids. She also has grown to love Cosmo...it certainly wasn't always that way...

Baby and Daddy, always the cutest pair...I couldn't love them more.

So although I love volleyball it's not the kind of place the doctors encourage me to take Liam...understandable. As a result I've got plenty of tickets to every game, so if you want in...

What a girl wants, what a girl needs.

Rob: "Hey this weekend the guys are gonna do a team hike and we thought it be fun to do tin foil dinners afterwards."

Me: "So are you telling me I'm making 40 tin foil dinners?"

Rob: "Yeah, pretty much."

And we did and it was a success. Although my kitchen and chopping hand will never be the same we had a good time with some bomb tin foil dinners which to my husbands credit he did help me a lot with. I did however decide I'm never making them again without one of these:

Which I actually have but I'm missing the blades!? Who knows how these things happen. Definite note to self that this is a necessity!

Anyway, so it was an awesome day for a hike and a great night for a bonfire.

What 35 tin foil dinners look like in our frig...

Thanks for the good time BYU MVB.

BYU MIA at NCAA F4

As you all know we are heavily involved with Volleyball around the Neilson house. So of course we were very excited to have the NCAA Men's National Championships here in Provo. On the other hand we were not so excited that BYU wasn't in it. We still went and it was actually kind of weird. We definitely saw some good volleyball which is always fun,but it's not very entertaining when you could care less who wins! I kept telling Rob, "just choose for me, who should I root for?" Anyway, we got to get out, see talented athletes, old friends, and get some free snacks. So all in all I'd say it was a success. Hopefully next time it's here we're the front runners. By the way, let me just mention I'm very proud of my husband and all the BYU volleyball players for how far they came and improved. I'm so excited for how awesome they're going to be this next year!

April brought us a fun trip to Palo Alto, my home town. I followed Rob and the BYU men's volleyball team to battle it out with the stanford...trees? Anyway, it was a very fun quick weekend get away! We started things off by visiting our new cousin from Korea, Ethan. My aunt has now adopted her second child from Korea and he's adorable, I wish I had a picture! They took us to a local park and Elizabeth of coarse had fun sticking things in her mouth and watching other kids.

That night we went to see the volleyball game. My brother, who lives in Gilroy came up with his kids who are adorable. This is Etta's second cousin Ethan. Meaning second first cousin named Ethan. Although, scratch that...the first Ethan is my cousin. So the first Ethan is her second cousin with this second Ethan being her only first cousin named Ethan. Check. Let's move on.

Brace yourselves for the cuteness. Haha!

The next day we drove out to Gilroy and went to a theme park geared towards kids called Gilroy gardens. Follow the leader!

My cute niece Mikaela lovin it on the Merry-go-round.

Elizabeth was lovin it too! Twinkling lights, sparkly everything, animals, bright colors, mirrors, no wonder kids love these things.

She was also lovin her first official theme park ride alone! Well, at least for the first 10 times it went around! I can't believe they make these rides so long for tiny kids! The first few times around she was loving it. Then slowly but surely her and every other baby started to get an unsure expression on their faces that quickly turned to sickness and then anger. :) I think she still enjoyed it on a whole though.

So cute little Aaron and Mikaela!

Here's the whole fam! Aaron, Ethan, Andrew, Angela, Alyse, and Mikaela!

Elizabeth was so tired on the way home I didn't want to wake her so I decided to take a trip down memory lane and track down my old houses. This is the first house we lived in after we moved from newark when I was just a babe. So this is the first house I remember. Our best friends across the street, this is where I had so many memories of birthdays and learning how to ride my bike as I ran into parked cars.

This is the next house we lived in. It is so beautiful I wish I had pictures of the inside! I had many a fun time sneaking around the forest that was our backyard and our neighbors playing by myself having the time of my life! Love this house!!

This is my first school from the old house, Palo Verde.

This is the park we grew up playing at. All my days of chasing butterflies instead of soccer balls with the blue bombers and searching to find four leaf clovers out at ramos park.

Here's my tuckered little girl that slept the hour back from Gilroy, the two hour tour, and was still down for the count when I brought her in from the car. She was so wasted!

But so cute!

Supporting her team!

We had so much fun seeing my cousins, babies cousins, and the beautiful scenery that was my childhood! Thanks BYU!

Random ramblings

So, baby is 44 days away, and that sounds kind of far. BUT baby is 6 weeks away, and that sounds really soon! I'm getting so excited!! We have our second Lamaze class tonight and I'm so happy that Robbie can come. It's a little bitter sweet considering that his presence is at the cost of a national championship lost, but i'm glad just the same. Last week I attended my birthing class alone, and not only that but I had taken my wedding ring in for some work! I thought they might not let me in the class without a partner but I'm pretty sure they felt bad for me assuming I was a poor single mom without somebody so they let it slide! Either way it'll be nice to have my hubby there. If not for the moral support, for the back support! Lamaze breathing/positioning and such is not quite as comfortable sans partner. Anyway...yes, as mentioned, it's true. The fabulous BYU cougars of the volleyball kind are done with their season this year. They finished 2nd in the conference...stupid pepperdine. C'est la vie! I guess there's always next year. And we're hosting the Final four next year, did you know? Pretty sweet. Anyway, so I'm just kind of rambling with out much to say...but I should mention how grateful I am for my wonderful life! I'm 7 1/2 months pregnant and I've never felt better (minus the occasional fire raging heart burn :), I have an amazing husband who is so loving and supportive (AND now around all the time to hang with me!), and well, I just lead a charmed life. I've been given every blessing I could think of and I'm so grateful. So thank you heavenly father, thank you life...for being so kind to us. Keep it comin! We're going to continue to need those blessings...because I'm pretty sure this whole giving birth thing...is REALLY gonna hurt.

Confessions of a Provo Housewife...

My former life as a single women consisted of many things, most of which I would never say I miss. However, my former bustling social life does sound tempting from time to time. Pretty much these days my big night out is to the volleyball game. Isn't that terrible! I do have to say it gives me a wonderful oppourtunity to invite family and friends to catch up with. (i.e. Tiff and litte reagan baby...sooo cute!) Besides that large but lonely redeeming quality, it's a little sad that this is the big event I look forward to. So I'm thinking I've gotta plan something fun. Rob's just so busy and gone so often...and our Friday and Saturdays while he's here are sort of already booked...but we have to take advantage of this time before baby comes right? And I mean just look at 'em. He definitely deserves a hot date! Mmm mmm. :) Any great ideas?