Thirty and Flirty and Thriving.

Oh yes it has finally happened. I had to say farewell to my 20's. Honestly I really have no problem being 30. Almost feels like I get to start over. New family, new life, new experiences and adventures.

Mike truly went all out with this celebration. I woke up to streamers all over the house. Seriously looked like a party spider had come into the house. A big bouquet of balloons tied to my chair. Plus he surprised me with Einstein Bagels. It was a delicious breakfast. Later we celebrated as a family with Cafe Rio. Love their salads. All the kids were so excited about giving me their gifts they had picked out. Cute new jewelry, a blanket, a movie and some treats. Plus Mike knows where I love to shop and asked the nice ladies who work at Bella Ella for advice. Very cute new outfit.

 Mike definitely impressed me. I haven't been pampered like that in a very long time. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband and wonderful kids. 

 

 

So cheers to Thirty!!!

Surviving our first family vacation.

Our first real family vacation this Summer was at Bear Lake. All of Mike's immediate family came as well making more of a family reunion. It had lots of craziness but lots of fun stories to remember because of it. Poor Ava happened to be involved with all of the stories. That poor child is definitely accident prone. So story begins we ended up staying at the KOA. The first 2 days we were there we got rained on. It was so cold. It was very nice that we happened to rent a cabin. I felt bad for all those stuck in a tent.  It was so cute I thought. We had the hook ups with our since we paid extra thinking we were just going to get a extra set of bunk beds for all the kids to have a place to sleep but we ended up having a separate room from the kids, plus a T.V. / DVD Player, and a refrigerator. 

 

 

Bear Lake is gorgeous.

 

 

You can see how excited Wyatt was to be stuck in a vehicle surrounded by girls. lol

 



 

Our Cabin

 

The second day we were there I guess Mike's Dad, Grandpa Rod, bought all the grand kids kites. So we spent quite awhile flying them. Madi happened to pick a Mickey Mouse kite but to her surprise when she opened it it was a Iron Man kite. So funny. Also her kite was the best one out of the group. So she was definitely fine having a boy kite. 

 

Such a sweet picture of Mike and Ava flying her kite.

 

 

 

 

 

We even had a double rainbow. It was beautiful.

 

On out trip it also happened to fall on Ava's Birthday. The big 3!!! We had pre-ordered cupcakes to take with us on our trip. I did half princess and half Spiderman for all the girls and boys to be happy. To our surprise most of them survived the drive. I was happy so obviously the fridge came in handy. :) So we just had a small celebration and we brought down some presents for her to open. Even his family members got her gifts as well. Lot of new toys, clothes, and a scooter. Super cute. She was a very happy camper.

Unfortunately this is about the time the horrible stories began. So first before her birthday celebrating started I lost her. She had walked away without anyone even realizing it. I of course was running around searching for her, starting to get emotional, thinking worse case scenarios. Luckily Mike's brother David found her just playing in a big puddle. It was seriously only about 5 mins of looking but still being a mother you know how it feels when you get that horrible feeling of wondering where or what has happened to your child.

Later that same day Mike's brother and sister in law brought their 2 dogs along for the trip. They are sweet dogs they are but one of them is a little more hyper and younger then the other. They were outside and all the kids were petting them while they were eating pig ears. Not sure what it was about Ava but she ended up getting bit by the younger one Sally on the face. Seriously again I had gone somewhere for just a minute,  so when I heard Ava had been bitten by a dog I was freaking out. Especially hearing that she had gotten bitten on the face. It could of been really bad. I have seen pictures of others with some major permanent damage from incidents like that. Luckily she only ended up with a scratch by her lip and one on her nose from it.

The final incident was later that night. We had built a fire and all the kids kept slowly inching closer and closer to it with their little camping chairs. Ava of course wanted to be like everyone else. Unfortunately she lost her balance and literally almost fell into the fire. Mike grabbed for her but not without some damage. Her poor wrist got the worst of it. 2nd degree burn plus her fingers on the same arm had blisters across. Her hair had gotten burnt as well and one side of her face from her nose across her cheek got burnt, but it looked more like a sunburn. So I count my blessing that it wasn't worse. That her face didn't get the worse of it and have to live with such horrible damage the rest of her life. I am grateful the Mike had such quick reflexes. That someone was watching over her cause all of those incidents could of been a worse outcome. Other then that all the kids were walking bruises from one fall to the next.



 

 

Look how little she use to be. So cute.

 

 

Birthday Girl!!!

 

The final day was finally no longer raining so we decided to go the the Lake. There are a few areas that are like the beach where there is sand instead of rocks. It was so cold. No rain but still so windy. I seriously stayed in my hoodie almost the whole time. The kids were troopers to be in swim suits and actually play in the water some. Mike and his Nephew Tanner were out there like it was perfect swimming weather. I must of married someone cold blooded. lol It was actually really fun though to be with everyone and have a picnic at the Lake. Lots of people but it was beautiful.

 



 

 

 

Kaylin is such a little model. Poor Madi so cold. lol

 

 

The camping grounds even did little train rides. So fun and cute.

 

 

So that's the end of out first family vacation. Like I said so crazy and lots of running around. But we all had a great time. All of the damage has healed. I am sure in no time someone will end up adding more bumps and bruises to the list. We shall see how long it takes until the next family vacation. lol I am hoping this Fall but we shall see if Mike is up for it that soon or not after Bear Lake. :) 

Happy Mothers Day!!!

There are so many woman I am love so much and am grateful to have them in my life. It is hard to narrow it down to just a few to say thank you to. These 3 lovely ladies stand out the most to me considering it being Mothers Day.

 

First off my own Mom who I love so much. She has been my life saver over and over again the last couple of years especially while I went through the hardest trial I have ever had to go through. Divorce. She was with me through it all and was always prepared to allow me to vent to here and cry on her shoulder over and over again. I will never be able to thank her enough. Even when I had to move in to her home she went out of her way to make it nicer for me and painted her basement the colors I wanted in my own home and wasn't ever able to find the time or money to make it happen. She is always willing to help me or anyone who is in need. Even when it means dropping whatever she was planning on doing for herself to make sure she is available. She is a wonderful example to me of Christ like behavior. I love her so much and am so very grateful she is my mother.

 





 

Next is Nicole Utykanski. She was my Mother in law and no matter what anyone thinks or says I will always consider her my Mother in law. She is a amazing woman who was also with me every step of the way during my Divorce. She would take me to movies trying so hard to help distract me from what was happening. She is such a beautiful and generous woman. She always has a smile on her face and is so positive no matter what life throws at her. I want to be more like her and learn to always think positive.  She is one of my best friends and I am so grateful to know her. I love you so much Nicole and I hope we will continue our friendship forever even though soon I will no longer have the last name Utykanski. lol

 



 

I also want to acknowledge my Mother in law Nancy Nielsen. She is a beautiful woman inside and out. She has always been so nice and accepting of me since day one. We are becoming great friends already and I am looking forward to many more years of making memories and growing a stronger love for one another and a stronger friendship. She works so hard and is very generous as well. She is someone that I am learning to never give up. She has been through so much but you can tell she is much much stronger because of it and I hope that once all my pain is gone that I end up like Nancy. You can tell that she truly loves her kids and is so happy with who she is and that to me is beautiful. I would love to end up being in the same mind set as her one day. I am still working on it one day at a time. I love you already and am so excited for the years to come with this wonderful woman. 

 

 

My new family!!! I am so grateful that I have found such a wonderful man with such sweet kids who I love so much already. Mike made sure I had such a wonderful Mothers Day even though I had to work unfortunately that day. All the kids including his had made me sweet cards and crafts from school. They were all so excited to present them to me I loved it. Mike did so many sweet things for me as well to make my day so wonderful. He cleaned out my car which was a very wonderful gesture for those who know what my car usually looks like. lol Also got me flowers, breakfast, gift cards to Rodicillo's, and Sports Authority. Also I am looking forward to my gift that is being made right now a crafty door!!! It is basically a normal door that you paint and antique and hang pictures on it to decorate the home. I have wanted one for the last couple of years since I saw them at Quilted Bear. I am so excited for it to be finished. I will have to post pictures once it is finished. I love you Mike thank you so much for loving me in return. I am truly grateful for my new journey with my new family. I feel so lucky. 

 

 

My family

Wyatt, Mike, Me, Ava, Zadie, Kaylin, Madi.

 

Happy Mothers Day!!!

 



Mr and Mrs Nielsen.

So getting re-married seriously is so stressful and so crazy. Constantly praying all the time to make sure my decision was right. Making sure I wasn't making a mistake. I never ever want to get divorced again so this decision honestly took me a good couple of months before Mike finally got his yes answer. So my new mother in law pretty much took over the wedding planning which was fine with me cause I had no idea where to start. The week before the wedding I decided to look for a white or cream dress. Originally I was just going to get married in a chevron print dress cause I figured once Mike and I got sealed a year later I wanted the beautiful wedding gown then so I was going to make it super easy the first time around. Everything was becoming more and more like a actual wedding so I thought maybe it would be a good idea to get a different dress for the occasion. I searched and searched everyday that week and seriously went everywhere. I wanted something more like a maxi dress nothing too dressy. On my wedding day, Feb 28th, I went to my work to get my hair done and seriously broke down crying. I couldn't find a dress, I was so stressed out, the wedding was only a few hours away. Even my co-worker Kassi went out to her car and brought in some of her dresses to see if any of them would work. It was a very kind gesture but she is quite a bit smaller then I plus non of them were quite what I was looking for. I had basically given up and felt defeated. Thinking I would just go back to my original plan with the chevron dress. Once my hair was done I gave it one more try before heading  back to my moms house. I stopped at Fashion Corner in Lehi. Nothing. I was about to leave when one of the sales girls told me there was a very pretty white dress in there Draper store. She had one of the workers text a picture to her phone to show me. It was perfect. This was at seriously 3 p.m and I was getting married at 6 p.m. Once I got the dress and got back to my moms it was 4 p.m. So it was insane to finally finish getting myself ready and 3 girls ready to be out the door by 5. It happened though. Funny when I arrived at the church my future mother in law at the time came up to me and asked me if I was sure I wanted to get married today? Said it isn't too late to cancel it. I must of had a scared look on my face. Honest I probably was a little nervous and stressed. I told her I was ready. The ceremony was nice we even face timed my brother Josh and his wife Ryan so they could watch it also. The food was good. We did just a potluck type ordeal and it turned out really yummy. My friend Rachel Gubler and her husband took pictures. When I get them I will have to post some. My sister in law Katie made a really nice cake. It looked amazing. It ended up working out in the end. Makes me realize that God truly works in mysterious ways.

Afterwards we went to a hotel in Springville. It was really a beautiful room. Mike surprised me with rose petals on the floor, bed, jet tub. I have never had any guy do something so romantic for me. It really caught me by surprise. He is such a wonderful man I am so lucky to have found him.



 

 

My favorite!!!! I love baths and wish I had such a large tub in my home. :)

 

The next morning we went to Vegas. Stayed at the Tropicana which was ok. I still don't think it was a 4 star hotel but it was alright. We were on the 14th floor so we did have a nice view. The first night Mike surprised me once again with tickets to see Faith Hill and Tim Mcgraw Soul2Soul concert. It was amazing. They are both great singers and entertainers. I love country music. The next day we went and saw the show Mystere. It was pretty good I thought. Crazy how acrobatic some people are. Lots of comedy as well. The costumes were pretty strange looking some of them but I was really happy we went. That was the show Mike chose.

 



 

My husband is so HOT!!! :) I love him.

 



 

View from elevator.

 

Our honeymoon was short but sweet. I enjoyed our weekend getaway but it was nice to get home to our kids and start officially mixing our lives together. We did get the kids a few souvenirs as well. They were very excited for them. I am so happy with my decision and am excited to move forward and be with someone who really loves me and treats my girls so wonderfully. Now I just need to get use to being Mrs Nielsen. lol

STARTING A NEW JOURNEY.

So my Valentines Day this year was a little hectic and crazy. Madi ended up having to go to the doctors she had Strep. Plus I had to run around to take Kaylin to school, plus drop of craft for Valentines Party that I was no longer participating in since Madi wasn't feeling well. Plus on top of that I was sick as well. Then I also had to work that day. So just on the go go go. lol Moms job is never done it seems. After all the chaos it was nice to finally get home and relax with my Valentine Mike.

 We had been talking wedding talk for a couple months now so I found it so cute and amusing that he was actually truly nervous to ask me to marry him and to put my ring on my finger. I mean seriously we already had the date and honeymoon booked.  So course I said yes. I love him and I am hoping things will work out a lot better this time. I had a hard month coming up with the decision to marry him or not. A lot of praying happened. I just didn't want to fail again. One divorce seriously is all I can handle. I talked to several people about their thoughts and their opinions if I as moving too fast. In the end it was up to me to decide if I felt like this was the right decision for me and my girls.  My girls absolutely adore him. He treats them just like one of his kids. So I knew that that wouldn't be a issue.  Finally one day while I was driving and praying I heard a song from Carrie Underwood called Who are you? I have had this CD downloaded on my MP3 player for awhile and had never heard that song until that day. It hit me hard and gave me the courage to try again. I am truly excited to start this new journey with Mike. I am almost certain we will end up hitting some road bumps with all the new adjustments that need to happen with his kids and mine. I think together we can truly make a wonderful family and maybe someday bring one more into the mix. ;) Will see though.

For now we are planning on doing just a small church wedding with our immediate family. Mike's bishop will marry us then just a short honeymoon in Vegas for the weekend. I am hoping in about a year or year in a half we will be able to get sealed in the Temple for time and all eternity. I feel so blessed to have found Mike and to be able to move forward.  

 

   

 

I love my halo ring. :) 

Merry Christmas/ Happy New Year!! Finally letting my secret out of the bag. :)

So this year the girls were with my Christmas Eve and until 11 a.m on Christmas day. They all got to open up their festive new pajamas and a new movie to watch as a family. We watched Happy Feet. The girls were of course super excited about Santa coming. Madi made sure to put out a cookie and milk for Santa and of course some carrots for the reindeer. Thanks to Jessica the treats were devoured. lol Yes baby sister decided to spend the night as well on Christmas Eve so it was a party. :) 

 

 

 As you can tell Santa came.

 

The girls couldn't wait long enough for Grandma and Grandpa to come downstairs before they dived into their stockings.

 

 

 Now this year for New Years Eve Bill had the girls so I ended up going to Temple Square and yes I had a date with me. :) That is my big secret revelation is I am dating someone now. We have been dating since August but you know how it is with new relationships you never know when it is a good time to tell anyone since you don't know for sure how long the relationship will last. His name is Mike, he is 34 years old. He has 2 kids a boy named Wyatt and a daughter named Zadi. My girls absolutely love Mike. So far so good. His kids and I get along as well.
 I haven't been to Temple Square in quite a while so it was definitely a wonderful date. The lights are gorgeous and the whole atmosphere is great. They had a bunch of free concerts in each one of the buildings so we building hopped quite a bit. I especially enjoyed a group who sang Broadway songs. All the performers were excellent.

 

 I loved these lights they reminded me of little bubbles floating on the water. So neat. :)

 

 

 Here is Mike. Tall dark and handsome. At least I think so. :)

 

 

 Yes I even got my New Years kiss. ;)

 

 

Here's hoping for a great New Year. I hope everyone else enjoyed the holidays.

Let the Christmas festivities begin.

I love all the holidays but Christmas has so many fun activities to do to get the kids excited for the big day. Seeing Santa of course is one of them. We went to the ward Christmas party which had food, singing, crafts, fun family pictures, and of course SANTA!! The girls were super excited to talk to him even though they don't look it in the picture. lol

Madi this year is asking for a tablet, easy bake oven, and a dream lite animal.

Kaylin this year is only asking for a tablet.

Ava is still too young to care. I am sure Santa will figure something out. ;)                

 

 

     

 

 

Kaylin's 5

Can't believe how quickly time flies by. My beautiful daughter Kaylin is now 5 years old!!!

 



Kaylin at only 6 weeks old.

 

We did a carnival party this year and the weather was perfect. Kaylin was so excited to play the games and have fun running around with all her friends. I did cotton candy cupcakes and made some popcorn cupcakes. I thought they turned out so cute. Thanks to the help of several family and friends the party was a definite success. Stephanie Utykanski brought her bounce house and a cotton candy machine. She was a excellent cotton candy maker. Susan Utykanski brought her dads snow cone machine and helped out making delicious snow cones for everyone. My sister Nickie was the greatest clown ever!!! She did a great job dressing up and making animal balloons. The kids loved it. Jessica Murano and Becca Wilson helped out by being artistic and painting all the kids faces. Everyone was looking very festive. We had games and prizes just made the whole party complete with at carnival atmosphere. Thanks again to all my helpers I really appreciate it and I know Kaylin really enjoyed her birthday party. :) 

 

Her present from mommy a new bike. :)

School is Back!!!

Fall time is here already which of course means school is back in session. My girls are growing up way too fast. Madilyn is now a first grader. Going to school full time. Kaylin is in her second year of Pre-School. She goes Mon, Wed, and Fri. I was lucky to find the Pre-School thanks to my boss. :) Ms. Amber seems really nice. Plus affordable which makes it great since it was hard to find anything in Alpine/Highland area that wasn't crazy expensive.  Her school is called Busy Bees. So far both girls seem to love school and meeting new friends. :) I am glad both of my girls are very social makes the new transaction of switching schools easier. The only issue I have had with Madi is waking her up in the mornings. Who would of guessed that waking her up 30 mins earlier then usual would be such a pain. lol 

 

 Madi is such a little poser. :)

 

Kaylin such a cute little diva.

Yes they are wearing matching shirts but different colors. I just can't help it sometimes. lol 

Changes.

So this post is going to definitely be a hard one for me to write. So much change has happened to me this past year that I didn't really want to share with anyone cause I didn't want anyone to feel pity for me and feel like they had to step on glass around me. I figure I will start with the easier stuff before I start talking about the harder things. 

 

 

 

 So my brother Josh and his fiancee Ryan have moved to Virginia. It was a surprise to everyone. My family is really close and my brother is one of my gamer friends. I will miss him and Ryan so much. Just hard to imagine not being able to call them up and say lets get together and nerd out. lol Ryan seriously blends in with us so well. She is an amazing woman and friend. I love them both so much. He moved out there for a job opportunity so I really hope it works out for him. Hopefully if I am lucky it will only be for a year and they will return home to Utah. I know that is when his contract ends so I am keeping my fingers crossed. :)

 

 Another big change Madi has officially graduated Kindergarten. I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by. It will be so crazy this Fall when she rides the school bus and goes to 1st Grade. Seriously when did this happen. lol I know Madi is ready though. She is so smart and is such a great friend. She always tries to be a little helper and peacemaker. I am sure she will do amazing in 1st grade. I will just miss her while she is gone.

Another crazy change I am dealing with this year is selling my home. I moved out to Santaquin 3 years ago and seriously loved every minute of it. Everyone thought we were crazy for moving so far away out in no mans land. lol My mom would tell me constantly that I moved out with the cows. lol But I loved being so close to the mountain and living somewhere that wasn't so crowded. Plus the freeway was only like maybe 5 mins from my house so it was really easy to get to where I needed to go. I love the neighbors I have met and have become close to. I will really really miss the Howarth family. They were the first ones I met and befriended my family. Amber is such a wonderful person and I will always be grateful to her for everything she has done for me. All the fun crafts, walks to the park, shoulder to cry on, babysitting, and just being a genuine friend to me. Thank you and Thank you also to Kathleen Lange. She was the great woman I happened to come across all by luck actually. lol I was wanting to put Madi in Pre-School and the city hands out little gift bags to you when you go and introduce yourself and set up your water and house stuff. In that bag happened to be a advertisement for Creative Academy which happened to be Kathleen. Just lucky because it was really really old. She no longer was advertising for her Pre-School when I found it. lol Lucky for me she was still teaching and took in Madi. We have become great friends and I love her so much. She has helped me so much as well. I look up to her and will always be grateful for all the help and time she has dedicated to me. She was always willing to help me even though she was dealing with her own struggles. I am just so grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful people. They will always hold a place in my heart. I will miss my home. Moving back in with the parents will be a huge adjustment but hopefully in time I will be able to get a new home and meet new people and start a new adventure.
Finally the hard one. As most of you have learned on Facebook I just got divorced May 17th. Bill and I were struggling since last June and he decided he wanted a divorce. I tried so hard to keep our marriage together. I mean no marriage is perfect. I loved Bill so much so I am sure it will take me time to heal and to be able to get past this. But I really do hope I will be able to find happiness again and I hope Bill is able to find whatever it is he is looking for that he feels will make him truly happy. Trust me I am not looking forward to this dating again at all. I signed up at LDS Singles and seriously so many crazies already. I have had many people asking for naked pics, a crazy marriage proposal, and a lot of men are only on there for hook ups. Not sure what I have gotten myself into. Dating sucked the first time around I really never thought I would be doing this again plus with kids it is so scary. I guess once I am ready I will meet someone wonderful for now I would at least like to socialize and mingle with some single men and woman. I haven't been single for 8 years so I think it would be best for now to keep it that status. You never know though who you will meet. Who knows what will happen. I should of changed my blog title to the many adventures of Jen. lol Since I am sure I will be sharing a lot of crazy dating stories once they start happening. lol
Well now you all know whats happening in my life. I will try to do better with blogging just haven't had a whole lot of motivation. Thanks for listening. :)

6 Already!!!

Seems so crazy to think about 6 years ago Madi was so small and cute

 

 

and ends up turning into this beautiful little 6 year old.

 

 





 

 I can't believe my baby Madi turned 6 years old March 13th. I can't believe this Fall Madi will be in full time school. This year she wanted a Tinkerbell party. We invited her little friends from school plus her cousins that are close to her age. There was a total of 11 girl including her 2 little sisters.  I set up a fairy treasure hunt that was stressful by itself. I ordered little fairy bracelet charms at the end of February thinking that would give them plenty of time to arrive before her party. Well I found out later that I ordered them from the U.K. and that it takes 5 to 16 business days to reach the United States. I was in panic mode. Luckily they arrived the Thurs before the party. It definitely cut it really close. I hung these fairies in the trees and bushes plus sprinkled pretty beads in the flower beds so the kids could capture their own fairy and collect fairy treasure to make bracelets. The girls also got to decorate fairy wands that were cookies. I think the girls enjoyed themselves. :)

 

 

 This year I got Madi her first big girl bike that she really loves. It is a Disney Princess one. :)