Christmas 2007

Christmas was a good day for the Nelson Family. Here are a few pictures of Christmas morning. I made them small because there are so many. I hope you can all see them well enough. Captions below each picture.

This was a couple of days before Christmas, but very festive looking. They were sitting by the tree and fire eating a giant bucket of Christmas popcorn. Life is good!

This is after Santa came and before the boys got up.

Connor was very happy with his ten billion helicopters and airplanes that he got.

Travis got a mini weather station from Santa. It's now 35 degrees outside, 69 inside and there is 47% humidity in the house. (o:

Joseph was thrilled with every single thing he got. He kept saying everything was the best!

Spencer was a bit sleepy still but quickly woke up once the presents started coming his way.

Connor and his "hairplanes" and "airacopters".

"Lovely in the morning" mommy got a snow globe with "Our Princess Dawn" engraved on the front. Thanks mom and dad! (so it's now official and engraved~I am a princess!)Here they are with their Thomas train carnival track thingy in the box....
Here they are after is was put together.
Joseph wanted to wear a tie for Christmas dinner, but he also wanted to wear the cool new clothes he got, so he did both!

You can't really see it, but it is snowing in this picture. First time in over 30 years that it snowed on Christmas day in Seattle. It came down for a couple of hours and then went away, but it really made our day!

Can You Get High on Baby Powder?

Today I made the mistake of letting Connor out of my sight for 5 minutes. That's all it took. He went into the bathroom, got the baby powder out, and proceeded to cover himself in white. On the bright side, it smells really good in the house now. Like a giant newborn baby. The cleaning up part isn't as much fun, but it's just baby powder. Unfortunately, we don't have the cornstarch kind, so hopefully he didn't inhale too much of the evil unnatural talc! So, for all those who looked at this picture and thought Travis and I had a naughty side business that Connor got into, no, it's just baby powder!

A Perfect Tree!

This weekend we decided to get our tree. We do fresh ones, so we like to wait until the middle of the month for them. I think because of our schedules this year we waited a few days longer than normal, but nobody seemed to notice too much. (o: Usually we all go as a family to Carpinto Brother's and pick out our tree. This year I told Travis to just go over to the closest store and bring one home. He took Joseph. They ended up going to the little nursery down the street. They grabbed a tree that was all folded up and wrapped in twine. Kinda took a gamble on what it would look like, but it was easy to transport. Just threw the thing in the trunk. We paid about $15 less than if we would have gone to Carpintos too. He "unfolded" it and this is what we found.

It is a beautiful tree! We had to trim some off the bottom as you can see, but it is the freshest tree we have ever gotten. The whole place smells wonderful!

I took this after shot yesterday morning and of course the sun had to be out. The one day in the month that the sun decided to make an appearance I tried to take a picture. But you can still see the perfect form of the tree. We were very proud and impressed with our "gamble" tree and have decided that this is the way to go every year.

Lastly, Travis was goofing around with the camera while we were decorating. He has discovered the macro setting, so he was taking macro shots of all of us. (this is why he's not in any pictures) I have to include them cause I think they are kinda funny. The dirty faces of the boys and the nice pimple face of Dawnie. (o: We think Connors turned out the best. It's what I think Travis was trying to get with them all. Spencer, of course, moved and was acting goofy.

It's Been a Week???

I can not believe that it has been a whole week since I last blogged! I'm a bad girl. Sorry! So, a quick week in review. Saturday the boys and I went to the airport and picked up Grandma Nelson. She finally returned to us from Utah. Her mom, who lives in Logan, has not been well and so she wanted to go down there and spend some time with her. But, we got grandma back!!! The boys were super thrilled about hanging out in the airport and didn't mind the 40 minute delay. Then, grandma came home!!! Yet another thrill. So, that was a good day.

Sunday the Seahawks beat the crud out of the Arizona Cardinals and clinched the NFC West title for the 4th year in a row!!! Woohoo! Go Hawks! Oh~and church was good too. (o:

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were just busy with errands and Travis and I working. We did a little decorating~like wrapping our front door like a giant present, but otherwise they were not super eventful. Friday (yesterday) was a really great day because Travis and I both had the same day off! We took the boys on a ride to see Christmas lights in Seattle and just get out of the house. We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Nelson and see their Christmas decorations. We were going to help them put up their outside lights, but it was, ironically, too dark to hang up lights. (We'll go back in a couple of days.) Then we came home and lit a Duraflame log, had dinner, baked a few gingerbread cookies and hung out. Travis and I read some more of our Secret Societies book. It sure is nice to have the whole family together from morning to night. Days when only one of us has to work is good, but these days are great! Then we have the days like today where I am home then Travis comes home to kiss me goodbye. Those days aren't so fun. We have really come to appreciate each other a lot more now that we are apart more often.

That's about it. Today I took the boys to do some shopping. Travis is at work, so I took the boys with lists in hand. We first went to Kohl's. It was pretty insane there. We stood in a corner and watched Daddy work his customer service magic. He's so good! Since it was the Early Bird Special still, plus my employee discount, plus the friends and family appreciation time (if you ever want coupons for those days, let me know), I was able to buy $64 worth of goods for $22!!!! Awesome, eh? The best part is that everything you buy at Kohl's is really good quality. I feel good about the day. (o:

The "Gingerbread" House

We didn't quite get to the building of the gingerbread house (or graham cracker house in our case) on Wednesday, so we did it tonight. Travis is at work so he wasn't able to help, but last night he and the boys painted pictures with finger paints and glitter glue, so he was able to do some special fun things last night. (we saved him some candy) I think Connor ate more than he put on the house, but he enjoyed himself and that's what is most important. It has a place of honor up on the bar by my fancy nativity. (I have 6 nativity scenes. The boys call that one the fancy one) Now we are watching Frosty the Snowman and then it will be bedtime. Here is the final product. Getting ready to begin. Notice Connors fingers are already in the bowl of candy?Joseph putting his finishing touches on. Spencer just kept adding and coming up with new ideas. Connor is going to be dreaming of sugar plums I'm sure after all he ate!
Final product looking down on it.

Secrets and Pizza

Travis and I have been reading a book together just for the fun of it. He reads to me on the couch in the evenings. It's a nice bonding time and we've both learned a lot. Not only about the subject, but the guy who wrote the book has an incredible vocabulary and we've actually had to keep the dictionary close by. It's called "Secret Societies" by John Lawrence Reynolds. It discusses in tremendous detail the histories of certain "secret" societies. How they originated and what they are really about. Some of the societies are the Assassins, Templars & /Freemasons, Druids & Gnostics, Kabbalah, The Mafia, Wicca. It's been a really interesting book and we have learned a lot of history of the world. The best part though to me is the fact that we are taking the time to read to it together & discuss something besides Kohl's. (o:

In other news, I took the boys to Pizza Hut the other day. All by myself to a sit down eating place. They were very good. I signed our 'school'~the Nelson Boys Academy~up for Pizza Huts reading program, Book It! They sent me charts and coupons and so once the boys read a certain amount of books that I allot, they get a coupon for a free personal pan pizza. We went during lunch time. They have a lunch buffet so I got the buffet, Connor eats free, and the other two had their pizzas. We walked out pretty stuffed~all for $8! It was a lot of fun.They told each other knock knock jokes while they waited for their pizza and we discussed the holidays and had a really great time. Now they are asking what they can read to earn their next pizza.

So, that is about all for now. We are going to make "gingerbread" (graham cracker) houses tomorrow and start working on their Christmas cards. They are insisting on making some of their own this year.

One last thing. Everyone who can, please pray for my brother David and his family. He leaves for Iraq next month. He will be gone for I believe about 5 months. He, they, could use the prayers starting now because the mentally preparing is just as hard as the actual going. He will be leaving his wife and 4 little ones behind, but we know that he will be back in no time. Thanks!

Snow

I wish I had a camera, but yesterday we got lots and lots of snow. Why not take a picture of it now? Cause we live in Seattle! When I went to work at 7pm, the roads and everything else was covered in snow. When I went home at 1:30am, the snow was all gone and it was raining. Crazy weather! But, the kids had a lot of fun watching it snow during the day. We took a drive into Seattle to see the Christmas lights. It really started coming down while we were out. The roads got a bit slick, but we had a lot of fun.

So, there is our current conditions. I hear that it's going to be in the 50's next week! It's never dull in Seattle. (o:

Check out this brood! All of my siblings live within a half days drive from Mom and Dad now that they moved to Atlanta. So, for Thanksgiving, they all went to stay in Mom's big fancy house. They went and had their photo done and I wanted to share it. They dressed in color code, but the photographer arranged them according to size. Too bad we weren't there. Don't know what color we would have had though. Orange? Under the photo I'll give a brief rundown of who everyone is.
Mom and Dad in RED.
David & Stephanie's family is in BLACK. They have 4 kids. Emma, Ethan, Breanna, and David Jr.
Jamie & John's family is in WHITE. They have 6 kids. Devin, Mary, Jacob, Orrin, Kaylee, & Aidan.
Bobbie & Jeff's family is in BLUE. They have 2 kids. Mckenzie & Max.
Nate & Kristina are in GREEN. Braelinn is the cutie in front with the bow in her hair. They are expecting a baby boy in just over a month.

So that's everyone. 13 of the 16 grandkids. Pretty impressive bunch I would say. (o:

Turkey, Snow, and Black Friday

Thanksgiving was good. Travis's dad came over and we had quite a feast. Then, we borrowed his PT Cruiser while he took a nap and we drove the boys up to Snoqualmie all the way up to the summit to see some snow. There was a tiny drop, as you will see in the pictures. It was very cold up there. Then we came home, lit a fire in the fireplace and had egg nog. Very nice. Then, I got up at 2:30am to get ready to go to work on Black Friday. The store opened at 4am and I have never seen such a huge crowd of sleepy looking crazy shoppers. For the most part it was a lot of fun. The lines were insane and I got to be the lucky line control person. I made a lot of new friends while standing around the line and I even made a couple of enemies, cause, well, you know, going to a huge sale with a thousand other people at the same time~I can totally see the surprise at the long line! Brother! I came home at 1:30, and Travis left at 1:32. He got home 12 hours later. It was a very interesting day.

I have a few pictures below of our fabulous holiday. Hope yours was great as well!
The famous Butterball!! It was good, but it really did just taste like turkey. (o:

Here they are, eating their yummy dinner. It was very informal this year.

The family picture we took while playing up on the summit.

Very cold little boys.

Just playing around.

Trying to get Connor to handle the snow. He said it was too cold!

This is the scene from the summit. The mountain on the right is the one Travis and his dad call the Matterhorn cause it looks like our favorite Disney ride mountain. (don't ya think?)

The Turkey

Why is it so super exciting to go buy a big, frozen solid, dead bird? And why does it have to be so hard to find just the right one? Yesterday I took the boys over to Fred Meyer to do our Thanksgiving dinner shopping. We grabbed a pumpkin pie (usually I make a sugar free-crustless one, but with the fact that I'll be working the night before~store bought will have to do), we got the stuffing mix, we got the cranberry sauce. Then we headed over to get our turkey. Now, most stores have this little deal. Freddies is no different. Spend a certain amount of money, get your turkey for dirt cheap. But, it has to be a specific type of turkey~usually the store brand. I have always said~hey, a turkey's a turkey, right? Well, last night we went over to the freezer section and there were NO TURKEYS! Well, there were plenty of expensive ones that were on sale for $1.40 a pound, but none of my precious turkeys that I would be able to get for 39cents a pound!!! I rang the little meat guy bell. Out came the meat guy. Sorry~we're all out. I begged him to please tell me that they were doing substitutes. He said talk to a manager. So off I went with my three boys, a cart full of food, searching for a manager. Never found one. I asked a cashier and she told me I would have to bring in my receipt early the next morning and hope that I could snatch up one of the special turkeys. But the meat guy said there wouldn't be anymore! Oh, well, you better still try. That was her answer. Well, we still needed all that other stuff, so I just as well go pay for it and try to figure out what we would do. See, my freezer's not big enough to go get the turkey weeks in advance. I thought 4 days would be good enough. Apparently that's what everyone else thought. We went to pay. The cashier~who's name is Mila and who we have always really liked~told me that they were substituting turkeys and the other cashier didn't know what she was talking about. Guess what they brought me as a substitution. A Butterball! (a $34 one and I paid $8.19!!~I paid more for the 2 Duraflame logs!!) I've always wanted to try a Butterball, but they were way too expensive, and a turkey's a turkey, right? Well, I guess that's only a theory when the only thing you get is the store brand. A justification or something. But now, I have a 21 pound Butterball in my refrigerator! I'm so excited!

So, that was our turkey buying excitement. I wasn't able to get any egg nog cause they were sold out and my turkey bags were gone too, so I'll have to send Travis out on a turkey bag hunt for me tomorrow, but otherwise, I am all set to go. Travis's parents were supposed to come to dinner, but Travis's only living grandparent, Grandma Peterson (who is 92) is pretty much in the last days of her life, so Travis's mom is down in Utah to be with her mom. We will have his dad over though. We always have a good time with him.

The only draw back to anything as far as me and turkey day is I have to work the night before and then I have to be to Kohl's at 3:30am to be ready to greet all those insane shoppers that will breaking down our doors at 4am!

Better go. Connor just made his own toast. This is a first. Better go make sure the house doesn't explode!

Connor and his Big Boys

So, Connor just turned 3 and potty training is only half-way done. Not really a big deal to me because Joseph refused to potty train until he was 4 1/2 and that was a HUGE struggle. I have learned that it's not worth it to force or fight it. We all grew up to poop and pee in the toilet eventually, so I'm not concerned. What I am concerned with, though, is Connor's half naked self running around half the day. Every time he goes to the bathroom (which is a lot lately cause he gets so much satisfaction from us cheering when he goes) he takes off his pants and his pull-up or big boys and then doesn't bother to put them back on. So, he runs around the house with a cute little naked butt and there is a big old pile of pull ups and little Cars underwear in the bathroom. (Most of which, are dry!) Right this very moment his is jumping on the mini-trampoline naked and singing! First of all, I admire his self confidence in his own body. Won't catch me running around and jumping on trampolines naked. YUCK! (o: Needless to say, Connor has taken a different approach to this whole potty training thing than both of his brothers. I just love seeing the differences of each of my children. They all have such unique personalities. It's so fun to watch. Joseph is our oldest so he is always concerned for everyone and kinda bossy, but very loving. Spencer, our middle child, is quiet, loves to do things by himself, and is very dreamy. Connor is the happiest kid you'll ever meet. He is extremely curious and loves making huge messes, but is always happy. The best part is they are each others best friends. They get along so well. That's my proudest accomplishment yet. I'm sure it won't last forever, but I can hope.

Gotta go fix some lunch and then we are going to the library. Joseph and Spencer both have their own library cards now, so we are going to go pick up some of the things they picked out that we put on hold. Everyone have a super Thursday!

Oh! And Happy Birthday to Travis's mom~Deone! Her birthday is tomorrow. We love her very much!

My Co-Workers

I promised I would put up some pictures from work. I took the camera and after we finished with our sets I started snapping pictures. Our boss, Tammy, threw us a little thank you party for all of our hard work that week. Almost half of the team is brand new and we were able to have the store looking really great for our Corporate visit. So, here are some pictures of my new friends. (o:

This is my boss, Tammy. Notice the signs in her hand. That is what we place all night long. Signs like those. So, next time you go to Kohl's, look at the price signs that look like those and think of me. (o:

This is Patricia and Tran. Tran has been at the store since it opened and did a lot of training with me. She's the best in the business!This was taken in the main office. Travis sees a whole lot of this office, since it is where the upper management has their desks. Oh~notice the sign that says sale on the desk there? That's ours. Christy is the one standing, Barb in front. Barb was my first trainer. She is going to be leaving us to work days in shoes soon. We'll miss her. Christy is one of the happiest people I know. Her positive attitude is extremely contagious!

Here we are having our little party. It was 11pm at this time. Great time of day to have a party! (o: We were actually getting ready to leave very early. Every other night I have worked I have not left there before 1:30am. We were gone by 11:30 that night.

I'm Tired!

I know that my postings are scarce right now, but I have a good reason. I'm exhausted! I started my new job last week at Kohl's. I love it! I think it's fun and the people I work with are super nice. I really enjoy working alone in an area. The quiet is very nice. Plus, I work from 7-1am. The store closes at 10 or 11 (depending what day it is), so for a couple of hours, I am working with no customers around. Half the store lights are off, and the music is playing overhead. It's actually quite relaxing. With that being said, though, getting to bed at 2:30am and then having to get up at 6 or 7...that is beginning to wear. Today I turned on the tv, and told the kids I was taking a nap and to just play quietly or watch tv. I curled up on the couch and took a pretty good little nap, but now I have a house to clean, school to teach, and children who want something other than pbj's to eat...with less time to do it in since I slept away some of my precious time. I am only working 3-4 days a week though, so I will be able to catch up a little this weekend. The worst parts of the job is 1.Having to say goodbye to the boys every night. 2. Never getting to see Travis. I told him that his co-workers have seen more of him than I have this week. One other good thing though, is that I am walking and standing for 7 hours at a time. My body is very sore, but I have to be earning a lot of activity points! I'll be seeing a nice drop in my weight soon.

In kid news~the boys have been doing well adjusting to having me gone and their dad home at night. They have established a couple of little routines while I'm gone. Spencer has been having lots of fun in the evenings learning new games on PBSkids.org, or playhousedisney.com. Joseph has been busy designing and building new play areas for Fluffy. (yes, he's still alive!) They both are really coming along with their reading in school. Joseph especially loves spelling. He's always excited when it's time to do a spelling test and he tries to help Spencer. I keep telling him it's a test, so no cheating, but he insists that he's just being a nice big brother. We have the same problem with Math though. Spencer is always telling Joseph the answer. At least they are working together. Connor has decided that the greatest toy in the world is my vacuum cleaner. He pushes it around and makes the motor sounds. Then he detaches the hose and puts the long attachments on and pretends to get in all the corners. I'm hoping he doesn't break the thing, but he has so much fun with it and thinks he's being so helpful! One day soon I'm going to see if he'll "play" with it while it's plugged in and turned on. (o:

Finally~Travis. He's doing really well at work. Just today he sent me an email that a customer
sent to Kohl's headquarters complimenting him by name at what a wonderful customer service person he is. I'm very proud of him! Hopefully this will help him get an Executive spot after the holidays. We just had a visit from some big wig Corporate people yesterday and they said nothing but good about Travis's area.

Okay, that's about all I can muster up out of my brain. Maybe this weekend I will be able to do some longer posts. I think I'll take my camera tonight and snap some pictures of my co-workers. They are really great. I have a fabulous boss~Tammy. She's nice, but doesn't mess around. My favorite kind of leader! So~see ya later everyone!

Halloween and Other Stuff

I know, I know...where are the Halloween pictures! It's been an interesting week though. Joseph's cold that he had last week...well, he so kindly shared it with the entire family. Connor, who throws up during a hang nail attack, got the fever and threw up for 2 days. Spencer just had the fever for a day. I had a small fever and a lot of achiness for a day, Travis had no fever, but his has hit him in his chest. Now everyone is walking around sniffling and coughing, but I am seeing an upward trend in recent days. Needless to say, Halloween was not the usual crazy holiday for us. Connor passed out on the floor a half hour before we were supposed to go to the church for Trunk or Treat. We skipped the chili dinner and party before the treating because we didn't want the kids out for too long. I ended up taking Joseph and Spencer and Travis stayed home with Connor. (who, by the way, slept until the next day) 20 minutes was all it took for the boys to get their buckets filled. Then we came home, lit a fire in the fireplace and counted the loot.

Spencer was so sick the day before Halloween that he really did not care what he would dress up like. About an hour before we left, he decided he wanted to be a fire fighter just like Joseph (who has had his costume for a month!). We dug out an old hat, slapped a cut out badge on one of Daddy's red jackets and, ta-da, instant fire fighter. Then, the entire time we were getting the candy, people would comment on how cute my little firemen were, and Spencer would correct them all and tell them he's just a kid...or...it's just a costume...or...that on Halloween he can dress up to be whatever he wants, but he's still just a kid. He's quite a character, I'll give him that. (o:

So, below are a couple of pictures of that night. The cute little butterfly princess is Janina. She is our neighbor and the only girl in Joseph's primary class. She is also the girl Joseph has announced he is going to marry in the Temple some day. Brother!

In other news, I have now been officially working at Kohl's for two days. Travis got to do the orientation that I was in. Kinda fun being at work with him for 4 hours. Last night he stayed home with the kids and I went in on my own. I was supposed to do mostly computer training, but the admin gal didn't get my info into the computer, so that didn't happen. I was on my feet all 7 hours recovering the aisles and changing out signs. It was fun and very nice to know so many of my new co-workers. Some people just called me Travis's wife, or Mrs. Travis, or one even called me the lady that bakes the cookies. (o: I go in again tonight at 8:30 and work until 1am. I'll be tired tomorrow for sure! Hopefully I don't fall asleep in church. They'll have to nudge me when it's time to get up and lead the music in Sacrament meeting.

Okay~have tons to do before going off to work, so I'll leave you with those pictures.

A "Perfect" Day

Yesterday was what Joseph declared a perfect day. It all started with me going up to Kohl's for an interview. Even though I am recommended by Travis, there is a lot of red tape that they claim I have to go through, so I went and interviewed. It was easy because normally Travis does all the interviewing so he just told me what I was going to be asked. We'll wait to see what my next step is going to be. Hopefully it will be decided soon. We could use the money.

After I came home from the interview, we took the boys (did I mention Travis had the day off?) to the Panda Express. Joseph has wanted to eat there for a long time. We had to wait until payday. So, off we went. We all had some yummy gourmet chinese food. (www.pandaexpress.com) Joseph must have thanked us a million times yesterday for taking him there.

After our yummy lunch we went to Carpinito Brother's farm to get our pumpkins. They were the biggest ones I have ever seen there! We decided on one giant one and a sugar pumpkin for each boy. We also got some giant celery (like 2 feet long) for Fluffy as a treat. We came home, painted and carved the pumpkins and baked pumpkin seeds. There are some pictures below of the eventful day. This family one is crooked because Travis set the camera on a gigantic pumpkin. I love that!

The one on the left is Spencers, and the other is Josephs. (notice Joseph's pumpkin is a slightly green one. He loves green!)
The rainbow pumpkin is Connors. The boys all voted on how they wanted our jack-o-lantern to look this year. Isn't he cute?