We have been hearing amazing stories of all the amazing snow just in time for a white christmas. Christmas this year has been different for us, being in warm weather AZ and being unemployeed for too long hasn't really brought on the Christmas spirit. But it has got cold enough to start sipping hot cocoa, which is spencer's favorite winter past time. And it has been raining which is basically snow to people down here....and do i miss the snow....em not really. But I do miss all the friends and family that come with christmas, all of mom's really good treats, like fudge...um what i would do for fudge, and all the kids little cute sayings about what they want for christmas, and how its a chrisman tree not a christmas tree...So without feeling to sorry for myself, I wanted to say MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! we are headed to A-town today and the poor kitty is going to have to fend for herself! ---Oh PS DOES ANYONE KNOW SOMEONE COMING FROM UTAH TO AZ AROUND NEW YEARS with room for two? We are trying to bum a ride with someone if we can??? let me know my mom would be so happy.

I'll miss being home, this is the 3rd Christmas in a row where I won't be able to be at my house for christmas...ya i know what we do for our husbands right. Speaking of which, because we are on such a tight budget strictly inforced by me, spence and I decided no gifts kinda like every year, we would spend the money on our new kitchen cupboards and food storage....jealoous? you should be. But because I love love love surprises I but together the 12days of Christmas for spence so we could at least have some christmas excitement around here. It was fun I got with some of the med school peps and had them take some of the gifts to school to surprise spence. It was fun. Here is how it went.

1st day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
One Christmas ornament to hang on the tree,

for each year to keep and show with glee.
On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
One dozen cookies in a tin, to watch you eat with glee and a huge grin!
On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
One BIG KISS! No mistletoe required.

On tOn the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
A box of life, to say thanks for making such a wonderful new life

in Arizona and taking all the hard times without any strife.

On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
One sweet crème saver, To always have a mouth full of flavor.
On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
One eatable bear, which I was hoping we could share.

Because its been 1yr & 4mo since we became a pair.
On the 7th day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
One PEOPLE magazine so you could catch up, on all the gossip
On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
Three small Santa’s made of milk chocolate, and a special date.
On the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
FISH and MORE FISH!
On the 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
Some good candy bars to take with us and eat in the car.

On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
A new movie that we have never seen!
On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
My favorite ____________________with all
Plus by tennis racket fixed to play & have a ball!

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and remember to drink all the eggnog you can because in a week it will be off the shelf!

what i'm doing this week, last week and possibly next week!

So last week i decided to start on some home repairs! with the much needed encouragement from my mom and sisters I decided to re-due/re-finish our kitchen cabinets! So i bought a little hand sander, some paint, and other stuff and started at it!!! I took all front boards off, took all the hinges and handles off and started to sand away. I spent about 2 full days just sanding!! my hand literally turned into the claw hand!!! It was interesting to use the sander for years i had seen my dad use it, always wondered why he held it certain ways....now i know. And yes i am painting the cupboards black! but it is coming together so well!


before



after

So you can see what everything looked like before, I wanted to take a break from painting (cause after a couple hours my hand goes numb) and figured i'd post an up date on what i've been up to this week.
Spence has been telling some friends at school that i'm redoing our kitchen and they always look shocked..."youre letting your wife do what?" Luckily I have years of experience working as my dads right hand man/woman. Thanks to my dad I know how to do all types of manly stuff like: painting, using a saw, drill, hammer, etc, sheetrock, mud & tape, electrical outlets, you name it i can do it! thanks dad for always letting me be your helper, and learning so much from you!!

finale of cat vs dog

Ty and Ash come home and their dog was still all in one piece! By about day 8 the cat had finally given up, and realized that the dog may annoy her but she can't do much about it. A couple of times we would see the dog race by chasing the cat, only to again see the dog race back by as the cat chased him! it was hilarious to watch. Hopefully ralphy enjoyed his stay, and yesterday kai spent the morning looking for the dog. I think she misses having someone to boss around on. but we will have another visitor for doggie day care this week. Teeny tiny capri is going to come over and visit while michael is at school. I think that ralphy broke kai into the whole cat/dog thing, so well see how it goes.

friday nights....

So one thing that I and many of my friends (all med school wives) have realized and started to come to terms with is that there is no such thing as a "Friday Night" or a "Weekend." I still remember the meeting for significant others at the beginning of school mom and I attended and this lady told all of us to never plan on having a weekend or a day off from medical school. At first I thought this was a bit harsh,

but now I understand what that mean lady meant.

There really is no such thing as a typical friday night, friday nights in med school mean something else. Sadly I have watched spence have to tell several of his friends...oh the games on...well i gotta study....friday night ya maybe but probably not....well i'll have to study all day on saturday too! poor spence he can never go out with his friends and play. You see the instructors are nice enough to give the exams on mondays which allow the boys more time to study!(Which we're all really grateful for) And with all the material they are required to go over they could use all the time in world to complete the material and be ready to be tested. so now i and my friends are learning the new meaning of Friday nights....it now means a long lonely weekend of watching your husband study all day from sun up to sun down (just like every other day of the week) and just cause its the "weekend" in the real world doesn't mean the craziness of school has taken a break, now weeekends mean catch up time for spence, and for me they mean.....hold on tight and create my own weekend fun.....but this friday night some co-workers from chef-to-chef had us over to make gingerbread houses!! Alyssa had everything together and we had a great time! This was spencer's first gingerbread decorating experience and he was so good at it that he has pattened several decorating techniques!! It was so fun to get out and actually remember how good Friday nights can be!! thanks spence for taking the night off from studying!

dog vs cat

one last thing to blog about. we are watching tyler and ashley's cute little dog while they are away to welcome her little brother home from a mission. last week when tyler called i was excited! i thought, yeah kai will have a friend to play with!! so ralphy or as spence likes to call him franky has been here 3days and the cat is so mean to him. for no reason she will just hiss at him as she walks by. poor ralphy is getting bossed around by a 7lb cat. its funny to see them interact, both unsure of each other and unsure of why the other one is here, it cracks me up. so far they haven't become fast friends but i'm hoping by the end of the week that they will become snuggle buddies....or at least kai will stop bossin the dog around.

congrats to spence!

Caylen & Dave, Alyssa & Michael & us

all the girls and spence

JJ & Spence

This weekend was so fun mom and grandma came into town on Wednesday and we partied from dawn to dusk! debbie came on friday and again the excitement and fun continued! we shopped, ate too much, and laughed just enough to get side aches! we had a blast and spence loved being the only boy in all the bunch! Congradulation spence! your hard work is paying off! thanks for all your sacrifices and hard work! you are going to be a wonderful doctor!

white coat weekend

this weekend spence had his white coat ceremony! it was really wonderful to attend this event and be able to see spence welcomed into the health care/physician professional world. I was so excited!!! mom, grandma and momma mort came out for the ceremony and we had a blast watching spence and all the student participate in something so special. --here are a few pics, sorry our camera isn't the greatest.

another year come and gone

What a day! another birthday come and gone and lets face it, at a certain age a girl just stops telling her age! i had a great day! spence woke me up real early at 6ish which isn't early but we had stayed up til 1230 wathcin the "OC"season one i'm completely addicted (thanks michael for letting us barrow it) he turned on the lights and was so excited to give me my present but i couldn't see anything cause my eyes were still getting adjusted to the sudden light! little did i know he had created a little scavanger hunt for my present. it was hard too! but it was so thoughtful! spence went to school and later we went out for some good ol mexicano! and took all theses crazy pictures. spence is so funny!

After dinner we went to our v-ball tourney...(undefeated so far) we played a good game, some of the guys on the other team had pretty bad sportsmanship..it must be hard to lose. :) i was excited because we also saw one of our favorite little people in AZ (logan and my new bff annie and jj and cole too). anyways it was a great bday to end the night right my baba took me out for some good old dairy queen blizzard and ate with a wonderful scenic view! and another great present my mom, grandma and spence's mom are all coming in town tonight for another celebration of my birth!...no spence has his white coat ceremony this weekend!

Thanks everyone for calling and singing to me! i loved every minute of it! my dad sent cute ecards that always make you cry and laugh, even my bro from NYC took the time to call and sing happy b-day! jo thanks for making me ask the 3famous birthday questions it has been a good year, and it will even be a better one next year.

-needless to say it was a great b-day here in AZ.

I totally forgot to get a picture of "welcome to AZ" but we drove through NM on our drive home and since i made spence stop to take the pic i figured i better post it.

Spence added it up he drove 24 of the 30 hrs totally drive time...i'm not much of a driver but i am sure a great entertainer...we had some crazy fun games on all of our drives....(i kicked spences butt in all of em.)

We were both kinda ready to come home, spence didn't want to have to start up with school again and i didn't want to miss all the fun stuff that happens on a daily basis in utah. But we made it home. first thing we did was pick up kai...she has been at another kitties house (who happens to be a boy and weights about 20lbs more than her) for 13days! i was excited to see her and hoped she hadn't been too naughty while we were gone. We walked into jamie and james' house and i called for kai and she came running! literally she sprinted from the other room. we paid her room and board fee $20bucks aout a dollar a day what a deal. thanks jamie! and then headed home, hoping our lonely house would still be there and it was! so we decided to unpack and get ready for christmas!

I know me have a christmas tree?? yep, spence has so much christmas spirit it has rubbed off on me! so we put up our cute little tree, drank some hot cocoa, and said good-bye to vacation cause monday morning 8am sharp is another 10wk quarter of med school!

so thats our update, for now! we had a wonderful thanksgiving break and i have to admit i cried a little yesterday to spence cause i know i'm gonna miss everyone more than ever!

alamosa TOO! what happens in alamosa stays there

Don't worry no animals were harmed during this filming. We drove to Colorado for thanksgiving and had a great time in alamosa. justin has grown a foot, he is as tall as me which means it won't be long tell he is taller than spence. Alamosa is such a quiet place, i love all the geese that fly by its really pretty, cold but pretty.

Just the men and their toys!

baby taylor if she goes missing i might have taken her home with me...sorry jo she is just too cute!

gage the rock chrisman! he can do half nelsons and much more...becareful cause hes got the moves!

dancing with the twins! mama mia!

just some more fun pics we took while visiting. i needed to take more pictures but its hard to take a break from all the fun!

where we've been the past 2wks!!

Yeah school was out for spencer for a whopping 2wks so we took complete advantage and spent every day together all day, some would call that 24/7!! first on the list-o-fun was to finally make it to the mesa arizona temple, it was beautiful and a really unique temple, of course afterwards we went to del taco and ate like kings. then we packed our bags and headed of to my favorite place in the world UTAH! we wanted to surprise everyone so we left monday after work at 3pm and drove all night and finally got there...10hr and 1 almost squeezed our way out of it ticket later at my moms house at 1am and she was up waiting for us! love that place it is always so homey, i miss it!

we then went to have breakfast with the chrismans at 630am (they get up real early) jo was in the shower so we didn't really get to surprise her but gage and reese were floored! then we headed off to see the kemps. and little did we know it amanda was in the shower...at least my bffs are really clean they shower every day:)

spencer was able to spend time with some of his favorite little people, the twins! mary-gail was a little nervous at first with spencer (they haven't seen him since august) it broke my heart but then she warmed right up after a couple good squeezes from her favorite uncle.

We had a great time in UTAH! running with my running partners jo and dad and even spence was awesome (i haven't run since the marathon because of my leg) drinking egg nog tell my cholestrol level doubled. working with dad, twilight with the girls, drinking some more egg nog, playing cards with the nielsons, wrestling with a pro wrestling gage micheal chrisman brown black, going to church with my mom, watchin the office with kristy and brett, sleeping at grandmas, being with spence all day every day, seeing all the grandkids double in size (well some of em doubled ...chrismans) watching mary-gail and becca eat their birthday cakes, laying on my moms extra soft bed with her, watching kongfu panda, and the list goes on.

I didn't really think i was home sick til we actually got to provo, i really missed everyone! we had an awesome time utah. i feel made we didn't have a lot of time to spend with everyone, and that i didn't take more picture! next time for sure.

My super duper wife

I broke into the blog and wanted to thank my wife for being so good to me. My first quarter as a med-student is over and I could have never accomplished it if it wasn't for Carly. She did everything in her power to make my life easier and for that I will be eternally grateful to her. Just wanted to say thank you and that I appreciate all that you do for me. Love you

J.O.B.

many of you have asked about my job... what is it that i'm actually doing?? jo laughs because i've told her i bag lettuce in an ice box. so in a nutshell this is where i work and what i do. (i'm not web savy yet...thats amandas job she's gonna help me during thanksgiving otherwise i would have put a cut picture or something up)

its called chef-to-chef, its basically your local farmers market on wheels. Each week we head to downtown phoenix and pick up local fresh chemical free produce and then deliever it to certain locations around the valley. It is really an awesome idea, extremely healthy, and a fun atmosphere to work in. We have an awesome website chef-to-chef.com check it out! Most of my job consists of standing in a fridgerated truck prepping the produce and getting it bagged up for the costumers. I really enjoy my job and spencer is a really good sport because i have to be at work by 615am so that means he has to be ready and dropped off at school real early....so early the secruity guards think he actually sleeps there:) no really they do...when i drop him off the parking lot is empty, the lights are all off, yet you'll find spence studyin' away each early morn. what a trooper.

so today while driving back from downtown in the truck i thought about all the amazing people i work with and figured i'd blog a bit about everyone...when i got to thinking i couldn't believe all the amazing women i'm surrounded by...these are there back grounds:
NASA engineer/rocket scientist/astronaut currently working as a personal trainer! (oh ya her husband is a cardiologist) then we have a masters in public health who has been to over 6 countries promoting health, worked for the peace corps. for over 2yrs, and is taking a break to become a mom (oh ya her husband is an ER doctor) then we have the owner who is the nicest, sweetest, extremely faithful, funniest, wildest women ever!! (she reminds me of lisa chrisman which is super fun its always nice to have a mom away from home.) then we have a socialogist, who is putting her husband through podiatry school, also a police/firefighter in training, and then me! it is awesome!

Some days i find myself just grateful to have met them all because they are really great people. so take a gander at chef-to-chef and eat fresh fruits and vegetables!!

and don't worry i'm still job hunting for another job that will make me millions of dollars and fast!:)

TWILIGHT!!

Its official i bought spence and I a ticket to see twilight on opening day 1st show NOVEMBER 21 AT 10AM! we are both so jazzed!!! yes absolutely jazzed especially since this is the first movie we have been to since we say indiana jones this summer with my sweet grandpa way back in June. spence is a good sport and knows the whole sagga because every day i would tell him what stupid thing bella did, or that when we go camping i'm secretly scared that James is in the bushes and going to attack. So a word to the wise you better get your tickets now at fandango.com CAN'T WAIT!!

NACHOOOO!

NACHOOO! ever since spencer watched nacho libre he has perfected the voice of nacho to the point that people literally think he speaks spanish. so this year as we were trying to pull together costumes we called momma mort to send us patty's costume of nacho libre. luckily the costume made it here in time, thanks again momma mort for sending the costume. i dressed up as sister incarnation (the nun nacho has a crush on) i used a long sheet as my skirt and a pillowcase for my head...pretty handy eh.

we went to my new bosses house for a party and had a really good time! here are some pics of some of our new friends here in AZ, they are pretty creative.

Dave and Caylyn dressed up as...you guessed it football 1st down markers, they literally had a chain tied to their feet to mark the spot! pretty funny.

Michael and Alyssa dressed up as the professor and ginger from gilligans island..some of there friends dressed up as gillian and clan.

spencer's birthday!

Thats right folks spence is 26! he is getting so big and grown up! for his birthday this year i wanted to do something special of course. -during his birthday when we were dating (and he was turning 24 i still can't believe he went out with a grandma like me :)) i had jo and heather and kellie from work blow up condoms for ballons and decorate his room, i still remember her minivan being stuffed full with those ballons. then last year we were lucky enough that the weekend after his birthday we went to cleveland and interviewed for med school we stayed in a beautiful hotel (5star super duper expensive hotel that the school paid for) that has the softest bed known to man. and visited kirkland. so i was a little nervouse and wanted to top those birthdays so i let my creative juices run wild.

each night this week when spence came home i had a small present for him....i said this is your birthday week celebration! a week of spencer! we don't have any money because the bread winner of the family (thats me) has decided to persue other avenues at this time which is pretty scary because rent is due. so the budget was none to little. but i found some killer deals at target...dress pants that he wore to clinicals this week, a nice t-shirt, some shorts(cause i'm tired of sewing up all the holes in em) some candy, and the grand prize was a season episode of SCRUBS his favorite show that i've been hiding in my secret spot for 4wks!!! then on his actual birthday i picked him up from school, blind folded him and drove around to disract him and took him to the mtn i found the other day. i had a pic-nic for us and some clothes for him to change into. i thought i was so sneaky cause i had my hiking clothes on under my pants so to not give away what we were doing. the picture is of us on his 26th birthday with a beautiful desert sunset. and to keep the heather neilson tradition it was a beautiful place to discuss the year and his big 3 triumphs!!

anybody who knows me knows i love to make peoples birthday cakes....but i couldn't make a whole cake cause no one would eat it and i would have to throw it out. so, for his birthday cake i took 3 of his favorite zebra cupcakes and put candles in them and sang a wonderful solo birthday song!
so happy birthday babe! Thanks for sharing so many memories with me! i'm excited to keep 'em rollin' and to keep laughin over the years about all the silly things we've done.

can you believe how cute those kids are!!! don't worry i only cried a little (spence did too their his fav's) when i saw how big my twins are getting!!! and ms reese aka hannah montana is pretty hot! and josh and pam (like every year they know how to do halloween) take the winner for best couples costume...(those gansta's are scary.)and could my mom queen bee be any cuter??!! i miss you mom. manda sent me some pics and i uploaded em all....i know some of you check her blog kempkuties but i like lookin at the kids and pretending we still live in utah....ah sad day to miss a party!

my kids HALL-O-WEEN