Little Miss Muffin

Evan and I recently started fostering dogs for Tennessee Valley Golden Retriever Rescue. What happens is we foster a dog that has been abandoned or rescued while they are looking for a home. We put them on the website and sort of evaluate thier personality so when someone is looking to adopt, they can know more about the dog. Applicants call us when they are interested and we can decide if they would be a good match for them. Our first sweet baby came to us the week of Thanksgiving and was just adopted on December 18. I had a really rough time giving her up because she was soo sweet, but her new parents are great! Just wanted to share a few photos of little Miss Muffin....




Muffin's name is now "Vixen" and she lives in Florida. We hear she is doing fantastic and it makes us happy to know that we were able to help her find a great home!

Look What The Stork Brought Us....

Also, we have our first child! She became a part of our family in March. She was my birthday present and was adopted from the Humane Society. Introducing Miss Carsyn Nelson!





Our next blessing came along in May of 2009. Evan calls me and says he is bringing home a dog he found on the side of the road that looked really hungry. When he brought this sweet baby home, he was hungry: his entire rib cage was showing. It was the saddest thing because this dog was sooo sweet. We decided he should live with us so we took him to the vet and got him fixed, shots, and found out that he was positive for heart worms. We began treatment and he is now a big healthy boy. Meet Mr. Brenton Nelson!

Introducing The Nelson's !

Well, to mark the ten month anniversary of my last post, I have decided to pick it back up again! There is lots of talk of a new computer for Christmas so this will allow me more time to blog, since I only have a computer at work right now. There are lots of things I need to catch up on, but we will start with the most important: Our Wedding. Our wedding was on July 25, 2009 at the Baptist Church at McAdory. It was everything that I hoped it would be. The only thing I was sad about was that my scrapbook I slaved over was forgotten and never got put on our sign-in table for our guests to see! I believe we were smooth-sailing if that was our only disaster! The ceremony was beautiful... Evan's grandfather married us making it extra special. My cousin Meagan played piano for us and Evan's cousin Chris sang one of my favorite songs, "Love Is Not A Fight" by Warren Barfield. (It's on the movie Fireproof)

Evan's other cousin Haley made us a wonderful DVD slideshow of our lives from baby pictures to engagement photos. We had a special song with pictures of our grandparents that have passed away- We viewed it for the first time at our rehearsal dinner and it was a sad moment for everyone, but we were so glad that we got to honor them and remember them on our special day. We had another song for our parents, one for our siblings, and one for our friends. I will treasure it forever.

Evan's grandmother did our entire reception and the food was wonderful! We had all of our favorites: shrimp, glass-bottle cokes, cheese straws, cordial pecans, etc....everything was yummy!

After a great celebration, it was off for our honeymoon for 6 days and 5 nights in Gulf Shores. Thank you to Miss Donna for letting us stay in her condo for our wedding present!

Here are a few wedding photos...




















As you can see, they are all mixed up, but you get the idea. I love looking at these photos over and over because they remind me of just how lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband and family. I am very lucky to belong to a new family as well as my own. I am now an aunt and very proud of that! I have been nothing but blessed by our marriage. I am so happy and proud to be Evan's wife.

Here is a picture of my ring.. the picture really doesn't do it justice... I love it! Evan even got tiny "N"s engraved all around the band to represent his last name. Anyway... enjoy!

Wow. First of all, I apologize for not updating in so long, but once people read this they will understand why there has not been any time to! Renovations are drawing to a close on our house. We have some flooring to finish,the doors need to be painted and hung, our beautiful banister is under way, the heat and air repair is about to begin, and some minor touch-ups on some paint... we are almost there! For those of you that don't know Evan proposed to me on January 30th and we are engaged to be married tentatively on July 25th at the Baptist Church at McAdory (Evan's church)! What a whirlwind! I have felt truly blessed over these past couple of months and could not be happier! I'm so thankful that I have met the man of my dreams and that we now get to spend our lives together. My only desire in this life is to have a family to love and care for, and I can't believe that is actually happening! I can't wait to make a home with Evan and be a wonderful wife to him! I hope that this clears up why my posts have slacked, but I have a few pics too: I only have a couple of the "finished product" pictures, but will get the others off of my camera quick for everyone and post them as well... a picture of the ring too! It is absolutely beautiful and perfect. All of the stones in it belonged to certain grandmothers in my family, with the center stone belonging to my Meme. She passed away in 2006, and I now feel like I have a part of her with me always. My Meme and Pop were married for 51 years before she passed away, and I could not be more honored to wear a simbol of their wonderful marriage to represent my own. So not only is my ring beautiful on the outside, but the inside as well!

1166 Sunny Dell Lane (behind all of the sun-blockers!

Bo Nelson doing his part during the first week of renovations.

After a long day of work.

This is the only room I have before/after pictures of right now. This obviously was the before picture of the living room/dining room.

The finished product... I'm still amazed at all the hard work that was put in by everyone.. thank you all!

I will have more to come I just have to get them off of my camera...Lots more!

WE HAVE A HOUSE!
On January 12th, Evan and his dad closed on the new house! They began renovations right after that, pulling up all of the filthy carpet. Since then, all of the holes in the walls have been patched, the locks have been changed, the electricity was all rewired and now works, and the plumbing is well on its way to being repaired. In addition, the walls have been stripped in the kitchen and are ready to have new backsplash installed. Evan even got the doorbell to work again.. (the little things are so exciting to me!) I apologize for the lack of pictures of the progress, but we have been very busy helping with this huge project. I have to go and tend to our horses right now, but I will post pictures ASAP!

I just wanted to let everyone know, that Evan has passed his EMT Registry. He got to take his test yesterday instead of the 9th, and is now a Paramedic!

This weekend was a busy and fun one! On Friday, Jenny & I took Braden and Ethan to see the firestation when Evan was working. Braden is going to have a firetruck birthday party, so we went to take some pictures for that. They had such a fun time hanging out with their cousin and playing on the firetrucks!

On Saturday, Evan went and got Bo and brought him over to my house. After a long walk and exploring in the woods, we bathed Bo and tried to blow-dry him. (He was a little afraid of the blow-dryer, but LOVED being towel dried.) The three of us loaded up and went to Petsmart to get him an I.D. tag. Needless to say, Bo racked up. He got his I.D. tag, a new red harness, a giant bone, and two pig ears. He was such a good boy in the store and even let two little girls give him big hugs and kisses. As some of you know, Bo's brother Luke was killed last week by a car, and Bo is taking the loss very hard. I think that Saturday cheered him up a little bit, but he still misses his brother.

RIP Luke

Evan and I are asked a lot about our babies, Cheyenne, Harlow, & Baby Girl. Cheyenne belongs to Evan, Harlow is mine, and Baby Girl belongs to Ronee and Reid.
Cheyenne
Harlow
Baby Girl

We love all three of these girls so much. Horses are such beautiful and fascinating animals- if you ever get the chance, own one. The bond we have with our horses are unlike any other bond with a different animal. All three of these quarter horses are line-back duns. Because Baby Girl is the daughter of Cheyenne, people first meeting them can't tell them apart. Harlow's coloring is a little bit lighter and she is also a lot shorter than the other two. We got Harlow in May of 08 and since then she has struggled to fit in with the relationship that Cheyenne and Baby Girl have. Recently, we have noticed all three of the girls seperated from the group at the barn and getting along wonderfully. One of the most beautiful sites is seeing our ladies come running in together for meal time. We wouldn't trade any of them for all the world. Here are some pictures of them: (place your mouse over the pictures for captions)