Playing Catch Up!

This year has been flying by and I realized I have forgotten to post about important events in our lives.  I am going to try and lump them all together in one, so get ready!

In March 2010 Ethan turned "7" and we had a birthday celebration at Chuck E Cheese with all of his friends, we had a great time!

Then in May Emily turned "2" and we celebrated her birthday with a Butterfly themed party.

The boys were involved in a lot of sports this summer, we attended baseball, t-ball and basketball every Saturday for the last 6 months, not including all the weekly practices.  I am glad we haven't started a new season of sports yet.

We pulled out all of our carpet and had beautiful antique handscrapped bamboo wood floors put in.  This was not a luxury buy, this was done to improve the health of our 2nd child. I keep asking myself if there is a prescription for this or a tax right off, but he's worth it :o)  It has made a huge difference in his health, so it was worth every penny!

This summer we visited the Dallas childrens museum and the Fort Worth nature and science/childrens museum, the kids loved them!

We went to Kansas City to attend the blessing of my newest nephew, little Taylor William Nelson.  It happened to be during the 4th of July, so we were able to be with family for this Holiday.  We spent a week hanging out, shopping, going to movies, watching fire works and celebrating Wesley's birthday.

We just returned from a fabulous DisneyWorld Family Vacation.  The kids had a fantastic time!  It was great to see all of their facial expressions.  The kids had such a fun time, Ethan asked if he could have his birthday party there. 

I'm sure there are tons more pictures and events that I haven't gotten to, I will have to post them as I come across them.  Dan and I went to the play, "WICKED" in April for my birthday.  And we were able to take a wonderful 5 day kid free vacation to South Padre Island.  We flew my mom in to watch the kids, thanks mom for being so good!  The kids loved having you here.  I hope everyone has had a great summer, we have had a blast!  Let the school year begin.

Mid Thirties - When did this Happen!

I hit mid thirties today.  I'm not sure when this happened, I feel like a teenager but look more like a middle aged woman :o)  I reached the age that when you enter a clothing store, you aren't sure which department you are supposed to be buying from.  Life is great, kids are adorable, husband is fantastic, family is everything!  Bring on the next 10 years...

My Sister posted a cute blog about me, it's amazing how much she really knows me.  Thanks for the cute shout out Marcie and the fun laughter that followed.  

http://cloudfambams.blogspot.com/

Emily is 22 months!

Ok, so I know that I'm a slow mom when it comes to getting professional updated pictures of my kids.  I take pictures of them all of the time with our own camera, but I usually try to get them into a photographer two or three times a year.  Well, I realized that the last professional picture that I had of emily was back in January 2009 (aah!).  So, I thought I'd better get on the ball.  The little stinker didn't want to sit for her pictures, but we did get a few adorable shots.  These were the only decent ones out of 50.  I'm hoping that she becomes easier with photos the older she gets.  We love you Emily!!

Grandma and Grandpa Came to Town

Yes, we were very lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Nelson in town for a weekend.  My mom did stay on thru the next week to hang out with me and the kiddo's.  On Saturday we took them down to Fort Worth's famous stockyards, where we had some fantastic mexican food and had tons of fun site seeing.  There was a rodeo going on and the place was packed.  We came across a man riding around on a HUGE bull offering people rides.  So of course, my dad throws Ethan on it right away.  I of course wasn't thrilled with the idea.  What if this bull decided to go crazy, but I felt OK about it until Dan decided to let Emily ride.  I protested multiple times, but no one was listening.  Emily was so excited, she kept saying, "moo moo" over and over and over. 

Cupids Corner

Our Stake hosted a Valentines Dance entitled "Cupids Corner" on Satruday February 20th, and several stakes were invited.  Our ward was asked to provide all of the decorations.  So, our Young Men and Young Women decided they wanted a balloon arch and tons of hearts everywhere.  Well, to purchase a balloon arch is tons of money, so I decided I would look into making one.  It took about 45 balloons, but it ended up not being very hard and taking only a little manual labor on my part (an hour and a half).  I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of the rest of the gym, it looked super cute.  The youth were very excited on Sunday, they said that everyone thought our decorations were the best they've ever had.  It's a good thing teenagers don't have high expectations!

We Had A Snow Day In Texas

We received 8 inches of snow, crazy I know!  The kids had a great time playing outside, making snowmen and throwing snow balls at each other.  It was a good thing we still had all of our outdoor ski gear from colorado, if not they would have been frozen from head to toe.  It started on Thursday and didn't stop snowing until Friday morning.  Of course the kids had Friday off :o)  Unfortunately the snow only lasted 2 days, by Saturday it was all melted off.  This of course made the outdoors a HUGE mud pit.

Christmas 2009

Christmas morning - Santa wraps our presents

Emily and her new kitchen

Toys and wrapping paper everywhere!

Christmas morning

Christmas Eve

Well, we had a fantastic WHITE christmas in Texas.  The kids had a great time and got everything that their little hearts desired.  On Christmas Eve we took the kids to watch, "cloudy with a chance of meatballs".  It was a great movie, then I made a huge mexican feast and we ate until we were sick.  We had dan's famous eggnog, read the nativity story and listened to christmas music.  Christmas day was so relaxing, we stayed in our pajama's for most of the day it seems :o)  My super good friend julie dropped off some fantastic maple flavored cinnamon rolls and we ate those for christmas morning...they were awesome julie, thanks!  We then packed up the car and left the day after christmas to head to Kansas City to spend a week with my family, but unfortunately, we had to turn around in Oklahoma and come home.  The roads were horrible! I've never seen so much ice, there were about 50 cars off in the ditch.   So, after 7 hours we returned home with 3 very sad little ones. 

We spent the rest of our holiday going to movies, out to dinner, the Dallas World Aquarium, Ft. Worth Gun Show (not my choice), bowling and spending some amazing quality time together.  And of course, christmas wouldn't be christmas without everyone getting sick....YEAH!!  We love each other to much sometimes, we passed around sinus infections and bronchitious.  Now the Holidays are over and it's time to get back on a regular schedule.  My favorite part of holiday vacations....SLEEPING IN!