THE NIELSON FAMILY

It has been almost nine years since I finished my missionary service in Brazil. So many things have happened since then, it almost seems like the mission was in another lifetime. Here is a quick recap of all the adventure.

I married the former Amy Quist less than a year after I returned home on April 22, 2000. I graduated from BYU with a degree in Computer Science the day before. Amy had already graduated in Electrical Engineering and was working for Motorola in Boston. After our marriage, I moved in with her and began work on a Master's degree at Brandeis University.

Shortly after our marriage, however, we decided we wanted children, and that such a desire would conflict with the high cost of living in our current city of residence. Consequently, we moved back to Utah both for the much lower costs and also to be close to my mother who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. We were blessed with our first amazing child, Seth Alexander (Alex) on Decemeber 17th 2001. My mother passed away three weeks later, but had lived to fulfill the blessing my father had given her that she would live to see my first born child.

In 2002, I decided that my life was not complicated enough, and so I approached Amy about the possibility of pursuing my Master's degree at BYU. After much discussion and prayer, we felt good about our decision and I started the wonderful experience of working and going to school at the same time. I finished my Master's degree in Computer Science in 2004. During those two years, we also welcomed our second amazing child, Drystan Cade, on July 3rd 2003.

Amy and I again had to decide what direction we wanted to take after I finished my Master's degree. After much more discussion and prayer, we decided that it would be a good idea for me to pursue my PhD. I was accepted to the Rice Computer Science doctoral program in Houston,Texas, and have been there since 2004. I hope to be finishing in the next twelve months. It has been a great experience to be here and we have had many adventures. One of the most interesting of these adventures was my summer internship for Google in California in 2005. We drove to California with what would fit in our little Mazda 626 (inflatable beds and couches anyone?).

Our third amazing child, Kael Gryffyn, was born April 10th 2006. While he was born 10 weeks early, he lived up to his name ("Mighty Warrior, Strong in Faith") and was out of the NICU in just five weeks. In the two subsequent years, he has grown and developed phenomenally, demonstrating normal physical and intellectual development.

Amy, for her part, has focused her (considerable) talents into children's education. Specifically, she has focused them on our children's education. In addition to teaching Alex and Drystan reading, writing, mathematics, history, literature, cooking, science, and whatever caught their fancy at the library this week, she also is teaching a "science lab" class for a home-schooling co-op with which we participate. Anyone who remembers me will remember that I like totalk. A lot. Wonderfully, I married a woman with whom I am "equally yoked" and our household is always full of very lively conversation regarding politics, religion, education, relationships, family, books, art, and music. Not unsurprisingly, our children are known in their primary classes for their talking.

Interested persons will find that I reply quickly to email at sethjn@gmail.com and can be found on google's I/M at the same. Please keep in touch!

Seth Nielson
with Amy, Alex, Drystan and Kael