Lately

 I'm so grateful for this guy.  This weekend we were out at the Church in separate cars.  He told me to follow him to the car wash so he could wash the van for me.  And he didn't even wash his own car.  He takes such good care of me!

 This little stinker is still keeping us on our toes with his endless mischief, but we adore him anyway.  This little scene is just the price I pay to go to the bathroom once in awhile.

 Braddock had kindergarten registration and screening this week.  We've worked VERY hard to help him be ready, but it's hard that he's so very young.  He's done well and hopefully we'll feel ready to send him by August.  Can't believe how fast he's growing up.

In the past two weeks Landon's lost THREE teeth!  That toothless grin was hard won.  We've been begging him to pull out the top front tooth for the entire two weeks.  Then he finally came bouncing off the bus the other day without it.  Hallelujah!! And he insisted on a picture with his "twin."  I love how much he adores Bridger.

Blue and Gold Banquet 2017

Saturday was the much anticipated Blue and Gold Banquet for the Cub Scouts.  Tanner has been planning/prepping for this for months now.  He's been SO excited to actually put it on.  He was in charge of making the program for the night.  I helped him a bit but I'm constantly amazed at his computer skills and how he just seems to magically know how to do pretty much anything at age 9.  The theme for the night was emoji/dutch oven/dinner theater.  Kind of a random mix, but they pulled it off quite nicely.  Everyone got to decorate yellow plates to make their own emoji's and we had a pot luck dinner of dutch oven dishes.  The boys topped the evening off with some classic Cub Scout skits that had us all laughing.

Brace Face

Well Tanner survived his expander.  He still technically has it on, but we don't crank it anymore to stretch his pallet.  That part is done.  And as of last Thursday he's now sporting a full set of braces across the top of his mouth too.  He's done really well, with just a bit of pain in the front where the new braces are.  I think he'd say it's all been worth it for his new favorite stuffed buddy "Chewy" that he got from Grandma and Grandpa Nelson.  Chewy's got braces just like him!

11th Anniversary

Another year has flown by, and I count my blessings that Dean is my partner in crime through it all.  We've had various ups and downs throughout our marriage, as everyone does, but this year I'm grateful for being on an up swing.  I think both are important, but I'm especially enjoying things being really good right now.  Despite a crazy week, we managed to sneak away Friday night for an anniversary date.  We had the hardest time deciding what to do, but finally settled on driving an hour away to an outlet mall and then hitting up an authentic Mexican restaurant, Compadres, for dinner.  We haven't been out that way since we were first married or maybe even just engaged, so it was time for a repeat.  We had fun chatting the whole drive and then just enjoyed shopping without kids and talking over dinner.  We drove through some Amish country to get there and even had a near miss with a poorly lit horse and buggy in the snow on the way home.  It was the perfect night away and chance to re-connect.  Thanks to Mom and Dad for watching the boys!  And here's to another year down with eternity to go.  Sure love you Dean Nelson! 

St. Patrick's 2017

This year St. Patrick's was a little overlooked because of my luau and our anniversary.  We kept things pretty low-key and just started the day off with some gold coins, green milk, and Lucky Charms, thanks to some little leprechaun that continues to elude us.  Tanner's always one for being extra festive, and he came out of the bathroom sporting an fun hair-do for the day.  Not sure where he comes up with this stuff, but it makes this festive momma's heart happy.  And since I had to make their lunches anyway, I scrounged up any green food I could find just to make things more exciting.  I'm pretty sure Landon threw away his egg and guacamole sandwich though.  So much for trying to make things festive.  Ha!  That evening Dean and I snuck away to celebrate our anniversary so that morning was the only real celebrating we did.  And truthfully I'm just fine with that.  Sometimes simple is best.

 This kid was a bit un-impressed by the whole St. Patrick's idea.  That was before he knew those gold coins were chocolate though, and then he was totally on board.

Relief Society Luau

Lately my life seems to revolve around Relief Society Activities.  It's been a LOT of time and work, but lets face it, my calling is to put on big parties and it doesn't get much better than that!  This past week was our big birthday bash for the year.  The Relief Society organization is 175 years old this year and what an honor it is to be part of such an amazing group of women who are united in doing good.  We kept the program for the evening pretty simple and just listened to a few words about our theme of "Ohana" and looking out for each other as a sisterhood from our President Bonnie Weeks and my partner in crime Shelley Stanley.  We had a full dinner of Hawaiian Haystacks, salads, and rolls with a delicious Coconut Tres Leches Cake for dessert.  What's a birthday party without cake right!?  Everyone has a fun time with the photo booth, relaxing in the hammock, or just visiting and catching up with each other.  I'll admit after weeks of work going into it, and hours and hours of set-up, it was just a teeny bit painful tearing down all the decorations, but I'm happy it was a success.

These kiddos were troopers being dragged to the Church a thousand times in preparation for the evening, but hammock's and ipads are pretty cushy accommodations I'd say.

 

Volleyball

Around here volleyball has always been Dean's thing.  He played in high school and then coached both here and in UT.  I've always kind of just stunk at it, and being married to someone who's pretty good, I've mostly just avoided ever playing in our married lives.  But the women in our Ward put together a team and I figured I'd take a stab at it.  We got together Saturday mornings for several weeks to practice and then this past weekend was our Stake Tournament.  Playing with a bunch of armatures was just what I needed to have the confidence to try and learn a little more.  And ya know what!?  We improved SO much in those few short weeks.  I woke up at 5:15am on Saturday, and snuck out of the house before anyone else was even awake.  We met up with everyone at the Church and then drove over an hour to get to the tournament only to find that not a single other Ward showed up with a volleyball team.  We were a bit disappointed, but we grabbed a couple extra players from the sidelines and put together two teams of five each and played anyway.  And I can honestly say I've come to really enjoy volleyball.  In fact I'm pretty bummed it's already over.  Hopefully we can talk it up in the Stake and get something going for next year.

Best Snow of the Year

Well it only took till March for us to finally get a decent amount of snow around here.  I wish it would have been a snow day so we could have all gone out in it when it was fresh, but we still had a blast heading out after Tanner and Landon were back from school.  Things got even more fun when Dad got home from work and the boys ambushed him.  And although we're looking forward to Spring, we're soaking up the snow while we still can.