Weekend Update No. 1

Y'all, wasn't Conference so great? I felt like it was tailor-made for me and so many of the things I have been thinking about and worrying over. Now it's time to get to work and put principles into action. Amen!

 Note the nearly gone chocolate bunny in his hand!

All of our Conference traditions are still going strong. During one session, Alex drew the picture above of his "plan to destroy the Lamanites." In his world, all bad guys have to come to a bad end--I guess we'll work on that whole "love your enemies" thing with him.

Our weekend officially started back on Thursday evening after the Wheelers arrived. We ate a "Jerusalem Dinner" with some traditional foods from the time of Christ (dates, goat cheese, olives, lentils) and some not so traditional foods for the less-than-adventurous eaters (grilled chicken, couscous, hummus), and discussed the events of Maundy Thursday.

We had a great time with the Wheelers. We laughed hard, had good discussions, and the kids had a ball just being together. Good friends are precious, and we hope these stick for life.

Between sessions of Conference yesterday, the kids made Lego creations related to Easter--while I took a power nap--and these are what I woke up to:

(I don't remember the scriptures ever mentioning that some of the twelve apostles sidelined as security officers?)

(He was using Simon Dewey's "Why Weepest Thou?" as his model.)

I have today off also, so we are still enjoying the weekend, slowly recovering (maybe eating leftover carrot cake for breakfast?) and planning to celebrate Clark's and Oliver's birthdays tonight with the family. The hits just keep on coming!

No Joke!

No April fooling--the blog is back! Though I am kind of at a loss as to how to start up again, I hate to think of all the stories that have gone unrecorded since I stopped writing. Because, let's be honest, I'm not journaling them anywhere else. (I just realized how much my phone is affecting my writing when I wanted to put an emoji after that sentence. Yikes!) Plus, I still just plain love blogs.

Today we are getting ready for our friends from Missouri, the Wheelers, to arrive for an Easter weekend visit. The kids are sooo excited that they're not even complaining about getting their rooms "company clean." We will be hanging with them, watching General Conference, and having Easter dinner with the branch missionaries this weekend. Looking forward to all of it!

Last weekend we got together with the extended Nelson family for some early Easter celebrations. It was the usual--delicious food, an egg hunt that goes faster and faster as the kids get older, and a confetti egg fight. Then, the unusual--the women and most of the girls (Aubrey included this year!) finished off the night by going to the Women's Session of General Conference together that evening. Loved that!

Ahhh, good times! Those kids can crack those eggs on each other hard.  And even though I requested not to have any eggs broken on my head, I still ended up with hair and a hoodie full of confetti. I think we all did. Stinkin' kids. Ha!

This weekend I'm hoping to start a new tradition. On campus on Monday morning, some anonymous group had left eggs filled with candy and scriptures all over. The college students were loving it, and I thought it was such a fun idea for kids, too. So instead of another egg hunt, we are going to fill our baskets full of plastic eggs with (non-melting) candy and an Easter scripture/message inside and drop them around town for people to find--at the park, on cars in parking lots, etc. Hopefully we will make some people smile, and spread the message of Easter: He is Risen!

30 Days of Thankful: Family

Thankful for every last one of them...

Thanksgiving 2013, Port Aransas

30 Days of Thankful: This Day

Need I say moore? Hope you all had your fill of sweet potatoes, pie, and plenty of laughter.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

30 Days of Thankful: Hometown Parades

One of the perks of homeschooling is getting to attend the Veteran's Day parade every year. Though we have been going for several years, it's just in the past few years, as the kids have gotten older, we have been making a real effort to help them understand and appreciate it for what it represents, which is more than just a fun event with marching bands and lots of candy thrown at you. (Seriously, it is a lot of candy.)

This year each of the kids created a sign (with Mom's mad lettering skills help--thank you junior and high school student council election posters!) to hold up as they watched the veterans pass by.

A picture of Alex with his poster showed up in the newspaper this morning. And I missed a pic of Shayne with his poster, but it read "Thank You Freedom Fighters."



It was really touching to see how well the posters were received and how much they were appreciated. The kids got so many thank yous for their thank yous! It reminded me that even little gestures can go a long way. And it really was such a little gesture, compared to the incredible sacrifices and service offered by the men and women we honored yesterday. I am so thankful for them and their families, and thankful for the opportunity we had to express our gratitude at our little hometown parade.

---

"Much time has passed since the first colonists came to rocky shores and dark forests of an unknown continent, much time since President Washington led a young people into the experience of nationhood, much time since President Lincoln saw the American nation through the ordeal of fraternal war--and in these years our population, our plenty and our power have all grown apace.

"Yet, as our power has grown, so has our peril. Today we give our thanks, most of all, for the ideals of honor and faith we inherit from our forefathers--for the decency of purpose, steadfastness of resolve and strength of will, for the courage and the humility, which they possessed and which we must seek every day to emulate. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.

"Let us therefore proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold blessings--let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals--and let us resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow human beings throughout the world."

From President John F. Kennedy's 1963 Thanksgiving Proclamation

Well, that was fun!

I have to say, my first instinct after everything had died down after midnight on New Year's Eve was to do a little blogging so I would have a post ready to go up in the morning...and then I realized my December Daily was over. Still, I plan to take advantage of the habit and keep posting as often as possible. It's made me remember how to blog, even when I'm busy or feel like I don't have anything to say.

We had such a fun New Year's that I thought I'd share what have come to be some of our favorite traditions:

Kid-Friendly Party

When Shayne and Gracie were really little, we would count down to the New Year at about 8:00 p.m., let them blow their horns, and then promptly tuck them in for the night while we stayed up to hang out with family and watch bad tv (I'm looking at you, Rockin' New Year's Eve).

Three years ago, we started getting together with Clark and Marchelle and our friends the Crofts, and we let the kids stay up. Suprisingly, they all make it, fueled by sugar and being together. They play, watch movies, and just generally run wild. And the adults try to keep a handle on the mayhem while talking, eating, and playing a few games. (Phase 10 has created some serious rivalries and trash talk!) Midnight celebrations involve a countdown, horns, silly string, and poppers.



The kids love it so much, and I must say, we do, too.

I also tried something new this year, after reading this blog post and going to Target's after-Christmas clearance sale. The morning of New Year's Eve we stripped the Christmas tree of all but the shiniest bulb ornaments and filled in the empty space with brightly colored beads, disco ball and glitter ornaments, party hats, blowers, glow bracelets, and funny glasses. The very festive New Year tree was born:

Chips, Dips, and Dorks

For the past two or three years, we've had a New Year's Day tradition at my parents' house. Aptly named after Seth Green's quote in the movie Can't Buy Me Love, our menu for the day consists entirely of different kinds of dips. We watch football, play games, and just graze all day. It is the best.

Chex Mix, Black Bean Dip, Veggies and Ranch Dip, Spinach Artichoke Dip, Chocolate Dip, and Queso,

with plenty of crackers, chips and fruit in the background for dipping.



Bowling

Another one that the kids just love. When we went this year, Shayne and Gracie just kept thanking us over and over for taking them. I've often joked that this tradition helps me to not have to go bowling any other time of the year, and it's true!"Nope, sorry, that's our special New Year's activity." I know I've posted many pictures of our bowling over the years, so here's a little video instead:

Happy New Year, everyone!

Bunny Hop

(It doesn't take me long to fall right off that wagon again, does it?)

Because of all the new babies in my extended family in the last month, it fell to us to host the Easter festivities that are usually at Nana and Papa's house. The egg hunt, the confetti egg fight, Easter dinner. I even made my first Easter ham. So proud!

Gracie's "programs" she made for the occasion.

Our yard doesn't have nearly as many good hiding spots for the hunt as my parents' does, but we still managed to have some fun with it.

I love these next pictures of Alex. The second one perfectly expresses the mayhem and fun of the egg fight. Look at that wild hair!

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

I do have to say, it was very strange to sit down to a holiday dinner with just our little family. Our first time ever, I think. No pictures of our yummy meal, but I wanted to share the link to these bacon-wrapped green bean bundles from Our Best Bites we tried for the first time. So good, y'all.

Many of you probably saw the picture I posted on facebook of the kids in their Easter finery. Just so we're clear, as evidenced by the pictures above, candid pictures in bright sunlight are no problem whatsoever for our kids. Ask them to stand, look, and smile, however, and you get the following...

 
 

More evidence of their vampire-like aversion to sunlight and the camera. We were in a hurry to get out the door on time, or maybe I could have asked them to run around and play and been able to get fantastic pictures. At least you get a general idea of how adorable they looked. :)

In other news, I went up to Arlington this weekend for Time Out for Women with my Aunt Helen and a couple of friends from Waco. I think it may have been one of the best I've attended in terms of the program and the things I took away from it. Lots of good things to share, which I'll try to do soon.

We are Thankful from A to Z

A: Atonement, Apple iphone (Is that wrong?)

B: Brownies, Band-aids, Books

C: Church family, Clothes, Colors

D: Daddy, Doctors

E: Electricity, Eating, the Earth

F: Friendships, Fruit, Flowers

G: Grandma & Grandpa, Glasses

H: Health, HEB, Haircuts (sometimes)

I: Ice Water, Ice Cream, Internet

J: Jobs, Juice, Jokes

K: Knots, Knights in shining armor

L: Loving family, libraries

M: Mommy, Modern Medicince

N: Nana, Nursery

O: Opportunities, Optimism

P: Papa, Piano

Q: Q-tips, Q-pons

R: Roku, Restaurants

S: Scriptures, Shoes, Sports

T: Time, Talents, Techie husband

U: Underwear, Umbrellas

V: Van that takes us on Vacations, Vitamins

W: Water, Wii, Windows (double-paned ones, to be exact)

X: eXtended Family

Y: Yard sales, Y'all

Z: Zhu-Zhu pets, the Zoo

Happy Thanksgiving! (Alpha idea swiped from here.)

Happy Halloween!

 
 

Hope you have lots of spooky fun!

The Ultimate in Overpackaging

Here's another idea to file away for a future holiday...

For our church youth New Year's Eve party, I was in charge of coming up with an "activity" for the kids to do at midnight. I got your standard hats, tiaras, and noisemakers, but really wanted to avoid the mess of streamers and confetti. Then I remembered this idea I'd seen on Martha Stewart to tape bubble wrap to the floor for everyone to jump on at midnight. And thanks to my friend, Amazon, I was able to find a huge roll of 250 feet of bubble wrap for $30 and free shipping.

It was enough for 65 teenagers to bounce around on and, by all accounts, was a huge hit. (I didn't actually attend the party.) Thank you Martha!

What really cracked me up, though, was opening the door to the bubble wrap package carried by the UPS guy. I just started laughing. He looked at me like I was crazy, so I explained to him what was in the box. He laughed and shook his head all the way back to his truck. Check out this GINORMOUS, tall-as-me box...

Yep, gotta be sure to protect the bubble wrap with layers and layers of tape and cardboard! Thanks, Amazon!

(If you try this, be sure to get the kind with large bubbles; the smaller ones won't give you the firecracker popping effect that makes it so fun!)

Happy Halloween!

Pickin' Pumpkins

Man, Alex was SO proud of himself today at the pumpkin patch.

 
 
 

Good job, big guy!