a bratty wife + a good husband

Last week I was complaining to my poor husband about how I hate really don't like being poor and all I want to do is go shopping. {{I told him I was craving a new pair of shoes.}} He laughed and then issued a challenge...the very most challenging challenge. He said, "If we can go a whole week without going out to eat once--that means breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert-- then you can go get a new, reasonably priced, pair of shoes." I fell in love ♥ with him all over again and accepted the challenge. Um, it was really hard. >>It's no secret that I'm no chef.<< I just have such a hard time coming up with quick and easy recipes that I know we will both like, but somehow we did it and it was actually really fun! (I sound like a terrible wife right now. I getting more domestic, I promise.) So last night Nick took me to get my reward...

As we stood in the shoe section of Target (real high end shopping right there...but I love it) I held two beautiful pumps in my hand and racked my brain trying to decide which pair to get. I was so stressed out and I could tell my patient husband was ready to leave so I said "Babe? Have you ever felt like you were going to cry because you can't decide between two pairs of the exact same shoe-just different print?" He just laughed and said "Just get them both." Whaaaat?! I couldn't believe my ears but he was serious. Then I fell in love with ♥ Nicholas Ross Anderson all over again and we bought the pretty shoes.

Oooh the perks of being married to a sweet man, who's madly in love with you.. :)

--E. Stone Nelson--

 

 

On 2.17.2012 our big Nelson family was blessed with another adorable, sweet, precious little nephew. His name is Erven Stone Nelson--named after my Dad ("Erven" has been passed down for 5 generations now!) but we will call him ~Stone~. I could not be more in love with this precious little baby. I just love being an aunt. :)

Joel Erven Nelson and his first son.

These silly girls are big sisters!

The newest man in my life. I'm so in love.

We love you so much Stone! Thanks for coming to our family. :)

i ♥ love

Hooray for Valentine's day! Don't you just love that we have a whole day devoted to celebrating love?? It's also super fun to have an excuse to get flowers and chocolate and sappy love notes/cards/poems. :)

Remember Valentine's day in grade school? Making and passing out all your valentines (saving the cutest one for the cutest boy) and getting your bag filled with candy and cute little valentines from your classmates (inspecting the message on the valentine from the cutest boy hoping that he really put as much thought into passing out the cards as you did and that he was really asking you to "Be Mine")-I miss it. Remember Valentine's day in High School? Getting cheesy stuffed animal valentines and flowers or getting your car decorated and notes from a secret admirer ooorrr not having a valentine or goodies and taking a blow to the self esteem every time you would see one of those girls struggling to carry her 3 balloons, extra large bouquet of flowers, a huge stuffed animal and an over sized card.- I miss it. Which reminds me...yesterday I saw 2 different girls trying to walk home from school with teddy bears that were bigger than them. I'm not kidding. >>They basically had to give their bears piggy-back rides.<< Seriously? I just do not believe that a boy can walk into a store, see a life size teddy bear and honestly think, "Yes. This gigantic animal would be perfect for my girl. There is no better/simpler way to say "I love you. Happy Valentine's day." And I think it would be a good idea to give it to her at school, that way she can carry it around all day-even when she's walking home- and everyone can see what I got her. She will love it." Crazy.


Well, what's even better than grade school or high school Valentine's days are married Valentine's days. :) This was mine and Nick's 3rd V-day together (1 dating, 2 married). The 1st year...uh I'd rather not talk about it. Let's just say I was still trying to decide whether or not I wanted to seriously date Nick and he had already made up his mind, which resulted in an uneven gift exchange. He was romantic and gave me an empty photo album with the captions already filled in -like "going to a baseball game", "Picnic in the park", "on a hike"...- to tell me that he really wanted to date me and fill this photo album. Beyond adorable, right? Plus, he gave me a sweet card and a whole bag of Reese's peanut butter cups. What did I get him? Uummm, a lint roller. That's it. The memory still haunts me and I still feel the embarrassment. For some reason we had talked about how he needed one but didn't have one or something so I thought it would be cute to get him one for Valentine's day??? No Paige, not cute. LAME. Yeah, I wanted to die. So I made up for it on our 2nd Valentine's day together. I planned at super fun dinner with our best friends and made chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Remember>> this < post?

This year was wonderful too. Our celebration started this past weekend when Nick took me to lunch,'The Vow', and bowling. **side note: I may or may not have forced Nicholas to vow that he would take me to 'The Vow'.** We had such a fun weekend. >>p.s. I don't understand why some people hated 'The Vow'. It was cute and funny and romantic and made me cry. What's not to love? I really liked it. Of course you're going to be disappointed if you're expecting it to be as wonderful as 'The Notebook'...duh.

Valentine's day was so so {romantic ♥ and fun}. I loved coming home for lunch and seeing this on the table...

Ahh, I will never get sick of ~roses and chocolates and sweet cards.~ He even got me 2 packs of gum, because he knows I'm an addict.

My favorite part was making my presents for Nick. They weren't anything too exciting but it was just so was fun being sneaky...

I had this waiting in the fridge for him in the morning. This was an extra special treat for Nicholas because I'm usually anti-energy drinks, but I caved for my sweetheart. :) I even used his nickname for the pink lemonade Rockstar--"Pink Lady".

Then, at the end of the day I snuck to Nick's work and put this on his car...

Sorry about the scandalous "p.s."--I told you married Valentine's days are so much better. ;)

We finished the day by going to dinner at Carrabba's. The wait was long but totally worth it. Not to mention, we had the sweetest waiter who gave us a box of {Sweethearts} with our check. Thanks, Zach.

{{I'm so grateful for my sweet, handsome, funny, romantic, thoughtful, studly, forever Valentine. ♥}} What would I do without him? :)

xoxo

Anne of Green Gables

I drive a lot for work (runner for my Dad's law firm) and sometimes the music gets old so that's when I become an old fogey and turn on an audio book. I love it. It makes my drives go by so quickly. The latest book I just finished was {Anne of Green Gables}. What a wonderful book. I would find myself just driving along with the biggest smile on my face and giggling to myself. Always put me in a great mood.

If you haven't read it...>>read it.<<

confession-->Sometimes I day dream that I live in the early 1900's on Prince Edward Island and I am best friends with Anne & Diana. So if you hear me call someone a kindred spirit or bosom friend, you know why.

My new goal = have the same dreamy outlook on life as Anne does. She's always so imaginative and curious and positive. She's by far one of my most favorite charaters in any book. I know what you're thinking - "nerd alert". I know, I really do sound like a total nerd right now but I just had to get this all out there.

Thank you Lucy Maude Montgomery for bringing us this happy book. :)

p.s. I'm watching the movies asap.