Make a difference May

I can't believe it's May already! May comes with many mixed emotions for us, it has nearly been a year since we had Blaze and on the 14th we will celebrate his 1st birthday. Honestly I can't believe I have made it a year... I never thought I would make it thru the first year... In so many ways it has flown and in many others it has been the hardest year of my life. As I've thought about what I could to in May to be a little better I thought I would make May our Make a Difference in May month. I want to be better because of Blaze, because I am a Mom, and because I have a little angel counting on me to make it back to be with him.

I don't quite have it all figured out yet... but I want to post this month on someone who has made a difference in my life and I want to in turn make a difference in the lives of others.

As we celebrate Blazes birthday we would love for you to join us in making a difference in the lives of those around us. Those we know and Love and those we don't know but simply meet in passing. We want to honor Blaze on his birthday by serving someone in need we would love for you to join us and share your experiences with us of how serving someone made a difference in your life or in those you reach out to.

So today I am a different person because of Blaze. Because of him I have learned things about myself I didn't know. I have been pushed to what I feel are my absolute limits. I Love this little boy more than anything. I long for the day I can hold him again and I miss him more than words can express. He has made me a different person!


Because of this little angel, I have cried and learned that it's okay to cry and grieve, I have Loved more deeply than I ever imagined, I have learned to be more grateful for the people in our lives, and I have come to have more HOPE in my Savior who I know holds my little angel until we can be with him again. I LOVE YOU BABY!

Lots of Life

So I am a real slacker at updating our blog sometimes... and I look at other blogs and think 'I wish they would update their blog' I am not so good at it myself and I have the mentalitly if I don't have pics to show then I should wait till I get some... well you'll just have to wait for pics here's what has been happening in our house since the 1/2 in Moab
* We got a new camera YEAH thank you tax returns we've waited 3 years to get money back from the goverment ha ha
* We went to Idaho for the weekend Rays brothers Cameron and Brodie were in a play Annie Get Your Gun. They did an awesome job we had a great time watching them.
* Also while in Idaho our new neice Zaylie was blessed she is adorable!
* Ray went to New Mexico to race a Chem E Car they built from scratch (just a little one) they had to make it run on Chemical reactions and they won 1st place YAY so they now go to Nationals which are here in Salt Lake in November (BIG YAY because I HATE it when he is gone I worry the whole time)
* We celebrated Easter and took Blaze a little Easter basket with the cuttest Ducky (wish it was real they're so cute)
* Ray got an internship here in SLC this summer YEAH huge blessing from heaven!
* We celebrated my Grandma and Grandpa Nessens 60th Anniversary. What an accomplishment they are so cute together and we feel SO blessed to be part of their family. We spent the whole day playing and visiting it was a blast!
* We had a Pizza Picnic with Tyrel and Elena at the park and LOVE spending time with them we always have a great time
and lots of other little things in between and we LOVE the sunshine and spring time!
That is our last month in a nut shell we do have lots of pics that I will post later :) Kind of a boring update but we have been running and life is flying by.
We have a 5k coming up on May 1st and Ray starts Baseball tomorrow night... more updates with pics to come...

Moab 1/2 WE DID IT!

WE DID IT! With a lot of training and hard work and a lot of love a support we ran the Moab 1/2 for our little Angel Blaze. Thanks to Amber and Tim for these shirts to run for Blaze. What an amazing experience!

This is us just after I finished thanks to Tyrel & Elena for the pics

and cheering us on WE LOVE YOU!

Ray finishing the race in 2hours 9 minutes he's AMAZING!

Uncle Lance surprised us at mile 12 as a volunteer it was a great surprise and just what I needed thank you Uncle Lance and Aunt Sheila for coming to surprise us and for taking pics! WE LOVE YOU!

Ray passing Aunt Sheila I love the #1 what was he thinking? Makes me laugh Good Job Babe!

Me and Uncle Lance at mile 12 side note I am only smiling because I was absolutely burnt out I had given it my all and had no energy to finish... only to come around the corner and see people I love so much cheering me on. Divine intervention to place loved ones at the finish line to help me finish. I have such gratitude for the love and support we have felt as we set out to run for Blaze its over whelming!

I finished in 2hrs and 39 minutes.

Thank You Everyone for supporting and loving our little family!

Aunt Sheila had this sign for us as we ran by her at mile 12. My heart is very full thinking of that last mile... after I passed Uncle Lance and Aunt Sheila I could see in the distance Ray in his orange shorts and blue shirt... I was so excited to see him! Standing with him was his brother Tyrel and our little nephew Silas... the closer I got Silas was waving his arms and cheering me on he ran up to me and gave me a big hug saying good job Nanet! I have absolute love for that little boy he is so sweet and that giant hug from one little boy was a little piece of heaven on earth. Ray grabbed my hand and ran with me to the finish line.. people were cheering us on and Elena had made a sign for us that said "Blaze the Trail We Love You!" It was perfect it matched our shirts without even planning the day turned out to be great! Tears streamed from our eyes as we crossed the finish line together we did it... we did it for our angel Blaze and we didn't do it on our own... I know that heaven is closer than we realize and angels surround our little family here in person and from the other side we are blessed with love!

oh just a side note... I know I said I was supposed to drop down to the 5 miler and I did for a week or two ha ha... due to recent events in our family we struggled with the decision to bump me back up to the 13 or stay at the 5 I knew I could do more than 5 but hadn't ran farther than 8 ever... so a last minute decision on Friday we changed me to the 13 and I am so grateful that I was able to run what we had originally planned on.. I want Blaze to be proud and felt like sticking with the 13 would help him feel the love that we have for him and WE DID IT!

WE LOVE YOU BLAZE!

Birthday Boy

Meet the Handsome Birthday Boy 28 WHOO HOO!

At his Birthday BBQ grilling at his best

Meet Porter our 'nephew' sort of ha he was eating beans at Costa Vita and had us all laughing

Ray at I Fly Utah on his birthday... much better than jumping from a plane if you ask me

Ray prepping to fly :) Love the Orange Goggles

Ray, Porter, Tyrel, & Silas at the b-day bbq waiting to help blow out candles

Last but not least our cousin Brodie came home last Wed from Argentina I love this picture of him with our nephew Tyke.. WELCOME HOME BRODIE!

That is our week in a nut shell Brodie came home, Ray turned 28, we had a bbq, went to I fly Utah, had dinner with a bunch of our at Lonestar for the Birthday Boy, a giant sleepover with our family, Brodies homecoming, and a family get together on Sunday night with the Aunts... and a few more things to add but a few pics to tell :)

This week Moab 1/2 here we come!

Happee Birthday to my Handsome Husband!

Doctors Orders

Our big race is in just 16 days away... Moab here we come! Under the doctors orders I am sad to announce that I will be dropping down to 5 miles rather than the 13 we have been training for. Because of fertility things I have to keep my heart rate under 150 and am only supposed to do 'low impact' exercise... is there such a thing? I'm a little sad about it but we have come to the conclusion there will always be more races and our running journey is just beginning.

So the good part of this is I can keep my heart rate down for 5 miles... and I get to see Ray finish rather than be the last one in :). The bad news is we have trained so hard and I feel like I am being jipped a little. So it has become a hope of children and running for our angel ... I can have both but not together so until the race... Happee Running!

A Thoughtful Gift

Last week was INSANE at work, Ray was sick with a nasty cold, our car had some issues, and running was more than I felt I could handle even with it being a short week. So I came home from work on Friday put my things down and on the table looked at the mail and there was a package from the R house... those of you who don't know what the R house is it is for families hoping to adopt.. a website for adoption stories and adoption hopefuls. I have only looked at it a few times and its inspiring. Adoption seems to be coming up a lot for our little family the last few weeks... anyway I opened the package and inside was this...
This beautiful necklace! A gift from a secret someone reminding me that We can do hard things. To say the least this ever so thoughtful gift was just the boost I needed at the end of an eventful week. I wish I would have had a camera while opening it I was so surprised (a hard task to do because I don't really like surprises) I was overwhelmed with gratitude that someone would send such a gift to me. Someone who knows that was just what I needed to keep going and a wonderful reminder of what my new years resolution is.

So to Kayla the secret someone (she asked for my addy last week that is the only way I knew it was her) I LOVE YOU and am so grateful to have you in my life! Thank You for your thoughtfulness in my behalf and for the encouragement to keep going! You are a huge blessing in my life and I am grateful for you!

A shout out to all of you who bless our lives. I continue to be amazed at the out pouring of love and support we feel from those around us. It has been 9 months since Blaze passed away (yesterday) and the Love that continues to come to our family helps us carry on so Thank You for reading our blog, for praying for our family, for your emails, phone calls, texts, and all that you do to reach out to us. We are so blessed to have you in our lives! WE LOVE YOU!!

Valentines, Olympics, & Baths

Every year on Valentines we forget to take a picture... this year was the exception.... We went out to dinner with some family and friends at our yearly tradition the Red Iguana and it was delicious! Then we went to see Valentines day (it was ok... don't regret seeing it but wouldn't buy it) and we ended the evening getting fro yo at Juicy Juice it was a very fun date night... so since we didn't get a pic of date night we took one after church on Sunday... Valentines Day.

I love this pic! Ryker and Tayson watching a dvd on the piano bench while we celebrated the opening night of the winter Olympics. In Vancouver Canada WHOO WOO I have a love for the USA and a love for blessed Canada so its fun to have it close to home and celebrate the victories of all countries. It was fun to watch it with Shelley & JL and have the boys here we are blessed with great friends!

Go USA & CANADA

Last but not least Dexters bath time he hates it! We love it because he smells good and he is so skinny under all that fur we just laugh the whole time :) we LOVE this little dog!

In other news...

We ran our 8 miler on Monday and I was not a happee camper... I've been sick so we pushed it back from Saturday. It was not easy and I was grumpy most of the time it was raining, I was wet , and cold, and my feet hurt... it was so much harder than 6 and way harder than 7 and my attitude didn't help one bit. To top it off my Ipod died 200 meters from the finish which means my 8 miles was not recorded on our nike chips... I think the Lord is compelling me to be humble and I will be the first to say I need it. luckily this week we drop back down to 5 miles and I know I can do that.

My sis Ashleigh Started school this week I am SOOOO PROUD of her she is amazing! Watch out nursing world here she comes.

Our car is on the outs luckily we own it and think its something simple like the battery... now lets just hope it is.

And we are speaking in church on Sunday I have the assignment of introducing our family... I'm worried to say the least... I miss Blaze so much!!!

Happee Weekend!