'Twas a Fun Family Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas,
when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in the tent, Wearing new pajamas Great-Grandma just sent.

And Mama in her sweater

and Pa in his shirt,

Had fun with the kids, but ate too much dessert ;)

Around the new train set the kids made such a clatter,

It was as if the other gifts would not really matter.

But, into the packages the children tore like a flash.

And at the end of it all,

the littlest one would crashÜ

Watching the children's excitement and awe was a beautiful sight,

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Thanksgiving Trip to Utah

For Thanksgiving we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Bountiful, Utah and all had a fabulous time. We hadn't been back since moving to Arizona almost 2 years ago! The kids had a great time reconnecting with cousins, staying up late, missing school and eating junk for a week. Kirt and I also enjoyed the vacation and visiting with family and friends (Thanks for dinner, Payne's). Here is a sampling of our little adventure. . .

All the cousins in the backyard.

(except 2 still in Boston--we missed you)

Elaine, Abby and Madi had a fun time together. They enjoyed sleepovers at Grandma's, Barbie's and crafts. Madi was so sweet to just hang out with her younger cousins, who absolutely idolized her Ü

What Thanksgiving would be complete without a little football!

Taft or Orange(b/c that's what color he says his hair is) as he was nicknamed had a blast with his older cousins. I think it's b/c he can burp on demand--what teenage boy doesn't think that's cool ?!

Cameron and him became fast friends.

Brigham couldn't get enough of the roller coaster in the backyard!

It may be hard to see but his smile was always so huge going down this thing.

And Briggy enjoyed playing blocks with his cousin. Austen was so patient to stack them up again and again as Brigham kept knocking them down and giggling.

I had fun just chatting with my Sister-in-laws, shopping and seeing Twilight again Ü

(I stole this photo from Sarah's facebook page so that's why it's so puny.)

For the past 6 years Kirt's family has donated a tree to the Festival of Trees in memory of his younger sister Kellie. Throughout the year Kirt's mom collected all the fun bears and ornaments and such pictured here. So, on Monday Amy and I spent the day decorating this fun tree. It takes a bit of time as every ornament has to be wired on so they stay put when the tree is later transferred. (More info on this Festival is on the post below.) It was fun decorating and the kids enjoyed hanging out, too. . .

Dallin and Ethan thought these bears made better hats than decorations!

Taft was being sneaky tying this bear up in the sled Ü

We finished off our trip with a visit to see the lights at Temple Square.

Hard to capture in photo's , but so beutiful to see.

Overall, we had a great and busy time in Utah. We drove straight 11 1/2 hours home. The kids were so exhausted from vacation they slept all but about 3hours home--nice Ü.

Festival of Trees

As noted in the above post, Kirt's family donates a tree to this festival in memory of his sister Kellie. Our theme was A Beary Merry Christmas. There are various other themes from whimsical to nostalgic to whatever. Even the rival schools BYU and the U decorate a tree in their colors. It's fun to go around and see all the trees and added ambience. Below is a sampling of some of my favorites. . .

All of the trees and decor are donated by families and companies. After being decorated they are auctioned off and 100% of the proceeds go to Primary Children's Hospital. If you ever find yourself in Utah during this Festival I highly reccommend stopping in to see the 100's of trees and getting to know some of the stories behind them.

Catch up Time

Lot's of activities and little time to blog has been the theme of this month. So, here is a small summary of what the Nelson's have been doing these past few weeks. . .

Schnepf Farms Field Trip












I was able to accompany Elaine's class on a field trip to the farm. It was a fun time seeing how a farm worked and playing around. Elaine got to pick some radishes, which by their size more resembled beets!

Train Park-Layton Party

From riding the carousel to climbing walls and taking a spin on the train around the park. All had something they could enjoy at the family party Kirt's work put together.

Happy Halloween!

The kids had fun dressing up this year. Although Taft was a pirate for about 30 seconds. Briggy, on the other hand loved wearing his pumpkin costume and sucking on the collar Ü

Taft was proud of his cupcake spider he made at playgroup. Treats won out over costumes with him. We also had fun helping out at the parties in both Dallin and Elaine's classrooms at school. A busy sugary day!

Scouts

Dallin has loved being a cub scout. (I don't think I've blogged on this before) Its fun that Kirt is one of the leaders in the program here. Each month we get busy with activities and pack meeting. This month Dallin just completed the move from Wolf to Bear!

Zoo Walk

Last Saturday Kirt's company sponsored the employees to go to the Zoo Walk for Autism research. We awoke at 6:00 am to participate. It was a fun family event where our little monkeys got to see real monkies, lions, giraffes, etc. Dallin nicknamed this guy 'cotton candy'.

Brigham enjoyed seeing the sting rays. You can actually see the ray's face here Ü

Dad and Dallin goofing off at the end of our Zoo adventure.

Soccer Mom--Never say Never!

I wasn't ever going to be a 'soccer mom'! I've seen how having kids in sports can just make life so busy and overtake all your weekends, etc. So, I was glad Elaine did gymnastics one day a week and Dallin isn't too into sports. Well, it wasn't to last. One of Elaine's best friends--Emma Bartlett was signing up for soccer and her mom, who is a friend of mine, was the coach. So, I caved and signed Elaine up. And Elaine is just loving it! So yes, I have no completely free weekends. Friday afternoons are practices followed by a games on Saturdays until end of November. And the games have been early 7:30am and 8:00am games-yikes! No rest for the weary. Actually, it's still quite hot here so I'm glad to have it all over before the sun beats down too hard. Our team has afternoon games in November. It's fun to watch Elaine enjoy herself with her friends and learn some new things. She has taken quite well to the game and really goes after the ball and tries her best. I too have taken to my new role and cheer Elaine and her teammates on from the sidelines--Go Pink Thunder!

Way to get in there, Elaine!

Potty Trained!

Yeah for Taft! A couple of weeks ago I was watching my friends son who is the same age as Taft. He asks to use the bathroom and I was so surprised he was potty trained. That did it for me, no more diapers! The next day we hit the potty training full force. We went to Target and Taft was excited to pick out some Disney/Pixar themed underwear. He only had a little 1/2 accident the following day. It's been great! With my other kids I spent weeks going back and forth from pull-ups to underwear to diapers and then trying it all over again. Guess it's a good thing I waited until he was 3 1/2 Ü

Another Blog

One of my interests is natural health. For years I've been studying and appylying various topics under that category. And get great results. I recently completed a Family Herbalist study course and just read all I can on related issues and love to talk with and learn from others on the subjects of healthy eating, our food supply, natural remedies, herbs, etc. With the encouragement of some friends I hosted a discussion group a few days ago and have posted the notes on what I shared about eating a bit more wisely on a new blog I started, Healthy Steps. This is a group blog so multiple authors will be contributing info. Starting something like this was stepping way out of my comfort zone, but I recieved such positive feedback and we had a great turn out from our discussion so, I am excited about getting together next month. Any of my local friends are of course welcome to join us, let me know. Everyone has a little bit to share that when we get together we can all benefit and learn things step by step to help ourselves and our families achieve a new level of wellness.

Just Peachy

This weekend has been JUST PEACHYand I mean that literally. We bought 2 boxes(about 60lbs) of Utah peaches. Well, friday night we had Peach Mousse. Saturday morning we had pancakes topped with Sliced Peaches. That afternoon we enjoyed a Peach Smoothie. And for dessert, you guessed it, Peach Shortcake. All Saturday we Canned Peaches, made Peach Jam, and Frozen Peach Slices. Not to mention all the ones we just ate au natural. Kirt and I had never canned before and we hope to never do it again--what a chore! We netted 14 quarts and they all sealed fine so that was good. We worked for hours and I think we used every pot and bowl in the house, not to mention a whole laundry load full of rags and all the clean-up afterwards. Sticky floor, cabinets, counters, etc. I don't get why people do this. I guess if I owned an orchard and didn't want them to go to waste. Kirt, joked with me as I was whining over the work afterwards, "well, at least you learned something", I said, "yes, I learned that Costco has a pretty decent price on bottled peaches!" He agreed Ü