Whew! Finally updated!

There, how is that? I finally got our updates done. I hope you enjoy them! :D Now, I just need to do better on keeping up so that doesn't happen again. Take care and Happy New Year!!!

Twilight Premiere (Nov 19, 2008)

Ok, so the weekend before the Twilight movie was to be released, I heard about an essay contest at Barnes and Noble bookstore. The essay had to be about, “Why I am the biggest Twilight fan” and if your essay is picked then you get a ticket to see Twilight the Tuesday before it opened, which was November 19th. I found out that I one the Saturday before. I was SO excited!!! It was first come first serve and I really wanted to go see it, so I met a friend of mine, Pam Frandsen, to wait in line at the theater at 8am. Pam ended up having to go to work about an hour later, but I was able to stay and keep our place in line. We were first. I was so excited! I was glad that we were first in line because when it came time to get our actual tickets, there weren’t very many seats left. There were about 6 or 7 rows of seats open. I was shocked because there was a long line of people waiting and they were not going to be able to accommodate everyone.

After I saw the movie, I didn’t know what to think at first. I was torn. But I found it better the second time I saw it. I think Summit did a good job trying to portray to story to film. There are a few things I would change myself, but in all, it was good. And I am anxious to see how the next one will be done. I did see the movie fives times within a week. Including the midnight showing on the 21st. Was it the best movie?? No, but it wasn't bad either. It's worth watching again and worth buying and adding to my movie library.

New Kids On The Block Concert (Nov 15, 2008)

My friend, Donna Mills, is a HUGE New Kids fan longer than I have known her. She had purchased tickets to see this concert back in May. The closer the date got, the more excited she got. It was so funny to watch her. She asked me to go with her along with another friend of hers. We met for dinner before the concert and then headed over to the E Center. As we walked into the building, there were tables of merchandise to purchase. Donna was taking a look at what was available and deciding if she should buy anything. At the end of the concert she purchased a tour t-shirt. Our seats were in the 37th row on the floor of the E Center. That was so great! And if we couldn’t think it would get any better, the New Kids went to the center of the floor and sang a few songs. That was right next to where we were sitting. I thought Donna was going to faint, she was so excited. Ha ha ha I was so thankful that we had earplugs as well. We could hear the music just fine with them in and we could still hear after the concert was over. I was never a huge fan of the group growing up, but I have to say that I like how they sound now that they have grown up. They did several of their old songs along with some songs from their new album. Thank you, Donna, for a great time!

Gina’s trip to St. Thomas, USVI (Oct 27-Nov 4, 2008)

From October 27 to November 4 I was able to visit my brother, Jesse, and his girlfriend, Leilani, who live in St. Thomas. I went alone and I had a wonderful time. And on November 3rd, our younger brother, Rick, and his girlfriend, Amy, came down to visit for that week. I loved seeing Rick’s big smile and see him relax. He was having such a great time. To spend a whole day with both of my brothers was awesome! The only person we were missing was our sister, Sheri. Jesse was able to let me go sailing with him on an OnDeck sailboat, which is where he works racing sailboats. I was able to sail and race another boat and on the way back inland, I was able to steer for awhile. That was a great experience and to see what Jesse does for his job from day to day. Needless to say, I was recharged and refreshed to come home and it was good to see Eric and Keira again. I am grateful for Jesse and Leilani for allowing me to stay with them. I was even able to see a little bit of Puerto Rico since I had a connection in San Juan. So there is another country to add to the places I’ve been. Although, I would like to go and look around a bit more in the future since that is where my Great Grandmother Warnick was born. (In picture: Jesse Burke, Gina Nielson and Travis Ross)

Halloween (Oct 31, 2008)

While I was away in St. Thomas, Keira and Eric went trick-or-treating as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. They also spent some time with Eric’s sister, June, and her family. That is two Halloweens in a row that I’ve been away and I won’t be planning that next year. I’d love to go trick-or-treating with Keira and Eric. Keira also went out with my mother the day before. So, guess who got quite a lot of candy? And guess who helped her eat all that candy? Ha ha ha Yep…Eric. :D

Halloween Party! (Oct 25, 2008)

We went to the annual Halloween party on October 25. This time it was held at Brian Tervort’s home. He hasn’t been able to come to a party, so he wanted it held at his house. He and his wife, Dayna, were very hospitable in letting Donna and I do what we needed to do to decorate. Halloween is my favorite holiday and I do what I can to make it a good one. I dressed up as Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. She is my favorite Disney villain. And Eric was a wolf. We had such a great time with all of our friends. We had some really good food and played some really fun games. A friend of ours, Kim Frandsen, made a James piñata. For those who have read the Twilight books, yep, that James. It was awesome. We also played a few rounds of one of my favorite games called “What If…” Now, the question is….what shall I dress up for next year???

Happy Birthday, Jordan! (Oct 12, 2008)

On October 12, it was my nephew, Jordan’s, 7th birthday. We went to his birthday party, which was held at Boondocks. That was our first time going there and it was pretty cool. They had so many games and activities. Keira played her first game of air hockey with Eric and she LOVED driving in the car game. She wouldn’t let Eric even touch the controls. It was great to see Jordan having so much fun with his family and friends. Happy birthday, big guy!

Merry Christmas!!!

Ok, I have to tell you…this was a great Christmas! It was our first time really doing the Christmas thing this year, now that Keira understands who Santa Clause is, and we had a great time. We didn’t have our Christmas tree up until Keira went to bed last night. So when she woke up this morning and saw the tree with the lights on…all she said was “Wow!” It was so adorable. Santa had brought her an art easel, which she went to first and wanted to start painting right away.

She also received a package of 10 cars and a car mat with streets, her first set of play dough, a book about dragons from a dear family friend, Ross, in England, a couple of outfits and a game.

We had some plastic candles with light bulbs sitting on a table at the end of the hall. Keira would keep going up to the candles and try to blow them out. It was pretty funny.

Eric made eggs, pancakes and bacon for breakfast and I made the ham dinner. We decided to stay home this year and it was a good decision. It was a blizzard for the first part of the day and the wind is blowing in another storm. Eric took the opportunity to shovel the walk and driveway when the sun came out for a short time this afternoon and Keira was out there with him playing in the snow. She loves playing in the snow and so we bought her a snow suite, which she wore for the first time today. It’s been a wonderful day for our family and we hope all of you had a special day with your families! Merry Christmas to all!!!

More info for those who want it!

Yes, it's about XanGo and Glimpse. I thought these were pretty neat and thought I would post for all who would like to see.

This link will take you to the list of 75 reasons to drink Mangosteen every day.

http://mangosteenhealthyoption.wordpress.com

And this one will take you to some before and after pictures of the Glimpse skin care users.

http://glimpsebeforeandafter.com/

XanGo!

So much for working on my updates. lol I'm still working on them, but in the meantime, I wanted to spread the word about XanGo! I just recently signed up with my sister-in-law, Paulette, to be an Independant Distributor for XanGo. It took me almost a month to join after hearing what the company was all about from Paulette.

They have a juice that is made from a single fruit called Mangosteen from southeast Asia. After reading about all of the benefits of this juice and hearing about a couple of people's experience with it, I had to give it a try myself. Paulette's husband has been drinking the juice and it is helping him with his joints...he doesn't hurt any more and then another who has diabetes and it has helped lowered their blood sugar levels. There is a list of at least 75 things XanGo helps improve. This is my third day and I'm seeing how it will help my knees. If you would like to have a taste, I have a bottle here at my home and/or if you would like to try a bottle for $37.50, you can order it from my website.


The company has just recently come out with a skin care system called Glimpse. Ok, I know I sell Mary Kay, which I still sell at 30% off, and I love the stuff, however, I have replaced my skin care with Glimpse. Holy Crap! It is the world's first green and clean, toxin free, Anti-aging skin nutrition using the topical application of the Mangosteen fruit that is performance driven. I was able to try it earlier this week and I was hooked...just with the one try. My big pores had gone down in size and my skin felt tighter, light and clean. With my other regimen, it would feel like I had moisturizer on my face, but with Glimpse...my skin was soft and hydrated without the feel of moisturizer on my face. There is a chart of toxins that are dangerous for ones skin and what products they are found in. I was surprised to see Mary Kay and ProActive on there. I also read about the benefits of the system including acne control. I know a few people who are allergic to Mary Kay products and I would like to try this on them to see if they get a reaction from Glimpse. It is said to lower, if not deminish, bad reactions with the skin because it is toxic-free. Anyway, if any of you would like to try it, please let me know. I'd be interested to hear what you thing of the product. One of the things I like most about this system is you have just cleanser, toner, serum and moisturizer. You don't have to add anything special for the eye area, etc. And another bonus...it can last from 30 days to 90 days depending on how often you use it!!!

If you are interested in learning more, please contact me and/or visit my website at: www.myxango.com/ginanielson

I haven't been this excited to share something with people since Twilight! ;)

Hope all is well!!!

First on the update list...

Eric did find a job within a couple of weeks of him being layed off. He had a couple of job offers and he picked one that was far from the field of land surveying. Well, not too far. He now works for Corrosion Control Technologies testing mainly water pipes for corrosion. He's liking it so far and has been to Texas, Roosevelt, Utah and is currently in Vernal, Utah. On the 15th he will be going to Denver, Colorado. We have been blessed for him to have the same (perhaps even better) income that he had at his previous job. I am still able to stay home with Keira for which we both are thankful. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers!

Where have we been???

Good question. We've been around, but busy. Eric has been out of town a lot for work lately. I've been busy working around home and frankly a little lazy on updating, which I wish I hadn't because there is so much to tell. So please bear with me as I give little updates on what's been happening. Stay tuned.

Twilight

Keira's First Swimming Pool

After a stressful day yesterday, it has been nice to relax today. Before I found out about Eric's phone call, I was able to buy Keira a swimming pool for under $9. I set it up for her and she has been loving it. She loves playing in the water. Might as well enjoy the warm weather while it's still here. I do like that fact that it has cooled down some. I don't care for the heat. Anyway, Keira had a great time playing in her pool.

Edited: After her nap, Keira went back out to her pool in just her diaper. After a minute or so, Eric and I checked on her and she had taken her diaper off. What can we say? Our daughter is a naturalist. *shrug*

Tough Times

Eric has been hearing rumors at work about layoffs since Wednesday. I told him, if it was me, I would ask my supervisor what was truth and what was rumor. Well, he did call on Thursday night and he got a call back this morning. He was laid off. They were planning on telling him when he got to work on Tuesday, so I'm glad that he did call and we found out before then. He has been on the phone all day looking for a job. Eric is good at getting right on the ball. He has a few leads, but he will be searching more next week. I've even picked up an application employment at Barnes and Noble. I just don't know what to do with little miss Keira. If I do have to work, I'm sure gonna miss spending all day with her. But you gotta do what you gotta do, especially to survive. We are not limiting ourselves to employment in this county...even this state. We will go where we need to go. Please keep us in your prayers.

And to top it all off, I read a statement about the leak of Stephenie Meyer's Midnight Sun rough draft. Here is the link to Stephenie's website and her statement: www.stepheniemeyer.com. She even posted a link to the rough draft. I'm torn to read it. I read up to chapter 3 last night then stopped. It just didn't feel right. Stephenie had mentioned that the project is on hold indefinitely. I was so sad because I was really looking forward to reading the finished, polished and published book. I'll just have to be patient and hope that she will finish it sooner or later. That was the cherry on top of today.

Hopefully we will be going up hill from here.

Support Stephenie Meyer

Ok, first of all, I believe everyone should have an opinion whether it be good, bad or indifferent. I, however, do not agree with how some people will express their opinion. For instance, the negative comments about Stephenie Meyer's latest book, Breaking Dawn. I can see how some people were disappointed in how it was written, the storyline and the ending. I thought it was lacking in a couple of areas, but overall....I loved the book. I have read several comments about how people hated it and it ruined the whole series for them along with their comments towards the author personally is just plain....cruel. True, every author must take the good with the bad and they can't please everybody, but there is a certain finesse it should be written. If one doesn’t like the book, write why they didn’t like it and leave it at that…move on. Plus, it is a fiction book…who knew where the story was going to lead?!

The other day, I followed a link to another bloggers website to read that she believes that Stephenie Meyer is racist and also makes comments of how it all leads to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Crazy…I know. People have been spending too much time looking for things like the above mentioned in fiction books, written for entertainment purposes, and not just letting the books take them for a ride. It’s a crazy world we live in.

On the brighter side, my friend Jeremy has set up a blog to support Stephenie Meyer. Check it out: http://www.supportstepheniemeyer.blogspot.com/ I’m so excited to see how many people signed up in the first 24 hours and I noticed today that the site was mentioned on the Twilight Lexicon!!! Way to go Jeremy!!!

Ok, I’m done with my ranting and on we go!

First "Official" Activity Day

Today was my first official Activity Day. I was recently called to be the Activity Day Leader in our Primary at church. My first meeting was just after I got home from California (Aug 9th) and I was not prepared, that is why I am calling this one the “official” first day. As the girls came over, I had a word search of the First Article of Faith waiting for them. It kept them busy while we waited for everyone to arrive. I had a game of Jenga prepared in a way where we could get to know each other better. I had made several questions and taped them to the blocks. When someone pulled a block out that had a question on it, everyone had to answer it. We went through two rounds and then it was time to make the ice cream. I found a recipe online on how to make “Ice Cream in a Baggie”. We put the ingredients together and had a good time shaking the backs to make the ice cream. The activity went a little longer than planned, but the girls seemed to really enjoy themselves.

A Zoo Day

Keira and I went to the Hogle Zoo with my friend, Julie Weir and her daughter, McKinley. It was a surprising day to start out…Keira slept until 9:40 in the morning. That is extremely rare. Once we got everything packed in Julie’s car, including our two big strollers, we headed off to the zoo. The girls were so excited to see the animals. We had a great time walking around, talking and watching the girls’ reactions. It was after 1:30 in the afternoon when we left and headed over to Donna Mills’ house to have some lunch. She is a Pampered Chef consultant. She had a party that night and wanted us to be her guinea pigs for a new recipe. I surely didn’t mind. Julie and I felt bad because we were running behind on time and we would be eating and running. Donna was willing to cook us lunch anyway. She prepared a Philly Cheese Steak Burrito…it was really good. It wasn’t until almost 3 pm when Keira and I got home. It took Keira a little while to calm down to take her nap, so it wasn’t until 4:30 when she finally laid down. When Eric got home from work, Keira came stumbling out of her bedroom. We could easily tell that she was still half asleep. Keira climbed into Eric’s lap and fell asleep. After about 10 minutes, she moved and sprawl across the arm of the sofa. We decided to leave her there for a little while and then we moved her back into her own bed. It was a fun filled day for the little one and we are planning on going to the zoo again sometime next week.

What does a ________say?

After waking up this morning, Keira and I were going through all of the animal sounds. I would ask her "What does a horse say?", then she would make a sound like a horse. While going through a lot of the animals, out of no where she asks, "What does Darby say?" I looked at her wondering what sound Darby, from My Friends Tigger and Pooh, says in Keira's mind. Then Keira says, "The Super Sluthes are on the case!" ha ha ha Can you tell that she is a Disney girl???

A Keira First!

As we were sitting down, getting ready to eat our breakfast, Eric suggested that I help Keira with the blessing of the food. I looked at Keira and she started saying the blessing all by herself! It was so darn cute! She didn't need any help and she said the whole thing from start to finish. We are so proud of her.

More Info On The Harry Potter Move

Although I am VERY excited to Twilight to be coming out 3 weeks earlier than planned, I am sad for those major Harry Potter fans. I like Harry Potter, but not to the point of being extremely depressed about the movie being pushed back to next summer. However, I can't imagine what it would be like to be told that a movie you've been so anxiously waiting to see is being pushed back 8 more months then expected. To wait another year. Sad. :( I feel for you! (Sorry, Leilani)

Here is an interesting article from MTV about the movie move. Check it out: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/08/15/did-harry-potter-release-date-change-to-avoid-twilight-competition/

Twilight Movie News Flash!

I just got home from a scrapbooking night at a friends house when I decided to check up on my email and Twilight news. I got a nice surprise when I read the first item on Twilight Lexicon's news blog.

Apparently, the Harry Potter movie that was to come out in November was bumped to next summer leaving a spot for....Twilight!!! Yes, it is true!!! The opening of the Twilight movie has been moved up from December 12th to November 21st!!! How nice is that?! That is definitely going to be on my list of thanks at Thanksgiving.

For those who would like to read the official message, here is the link to the info on Stephenie Meyer's website: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight_movie.html. Have a great day!

Breaking Dawn Concert Tour in Los Angeles, California

Just as the excitement of the release party dies, another adventure comes around the corner. I had the opportunity to see the author, Stephenie Meyer, once again, this time in Los Angeles, California on August 7th. She was on a four city concert tour for Breaking Dawn with a performance from Justin Furstenfeld, the lead singer from Blue October. It was an amazing experience, listening to the music and hearing Stephenie’s answers to some pretty good questions. You can check out the manuscript of the Q&A at this website: http://www.twilightlexiconblog.com/?page_id=1302 Once it was over, the balcony was dismissed first (where we were seated) to get in line for Stephenie to sign our books. We were done and on our way back to our hotel by 10pm, but not before buying a T-shirt. Earlier in the day, before the concert, Pam, Katrina and I went to Disneyland for a little bit of fun. And most of you know how much I like going to Disneyland. It was a short, but amazing trip and I would do it again in a heart beat. Thanks Pam!!!

Breaking Dawn Release Party

I have been neglecting my house, MySpace blog and some people for a special event that happened on Friday, August 1st . As most of you know, I love the Twilight series written by Stephenie Meyer and the fourth and final book, Breaking Dawn, was released on August 2nd. I was a volunteer for the release party at the West Jordan Barnes & Noble bookstore. I was the wondering photographer. I loved going around and taking pictures of all of the people there have a good time playing the activities and visiting. The party was put together by my friend Pam. There were several activities including pictures with Edward and Bella. The party was wedding themed and it started at 8:30pm and the books went on sale at 12:01am. I, along with several of my friends, dressed up as vampires. I was a “vegetarian” vampire with the topaz eyes. I went as the character named Carmen from the books. Eric even helped that night and he ended up being Charlie. He helped at the Pin the Tail on Jacob activity. He said he had so much fun see everyone be competitive at shooting Jacob in the butt. Get this, we even had a silver Volvo! The each layer of the cake represented each of the four books. Edward played the piano while Bella tossed her bouquet. He even played Esme's favorite song and Bella's lullaby. There was even a member of the Volturi Gaurd roaming around. Fox 13 News was there the whole night doing little segments along with 101.9 The End radio station who was giving out a free book every 15 minutes! I had such a great time and it was definitely worth all of the work.

Twicon 2009?!

Yes, I am a Twilighter and proud of it. I often check out two fan websites for updates; www.twilightlexiconblog.com and www.twilightmoms.com. As I was checking on the updates, there is a possibility of a Twilight Convention in 2009. Check it out here: http://twicon.org/. I think it would be awesome to attend.

A blog??? Yes, I broke down.

After visiting my cousins and their family this last Sunday, I've decided to break down and set up a blog. I do have a MySpace account, but this way anyone can see what's going on along with pictures.

I, Gina, will be the one posting, but I will post about our whole family. I'm so excited to get people updated. And, of course, the pictures!!! If you don't know, I love photography and taking plenty of pictures.

Hmmm....what else can I say at this moment??? Oh yeah! Bear with me while I do this. I have a hard time writing in a personal journal (what journal?), so if it's been awhile from the last time I post...light a fire under my butt to get me going. ha ha ha

Ok, Nellyn, Crystal and Ginger...here we go!