An extra pic

I forgot to put this one in the cabin entry but I had to get it on here.  It's a great picture of Abby and Abigail.  I love the look of pure joy on their faces.  Tom and I were talking last night about how deeply kids and teenagers feel emotions.  They are either extremely happy or devastated.  Why does it sometimes seem that as adults we don't feel everyday emotions that strong?  I decided next time a moment of joy comes my way

I am going to stop and savor it!

Cabin trip January 18-21, 2011

For Martin Luther King weekend we went to the cabin with my cousin Lyn's family.  They brought some extras with them, their niece Heather, and my other cousins' kids, Abby and Brad.  We snowmobiled, ate, sledded, built an igloo,  played games, cussed the weather, and told embarrassing stories from our youth.

Lyn is my girl cousin that was the closest to my age.  I have many memories of playing at her house, talking about boys, curling our hair, sneaking in to stake dances, ect.  She lives in Nevada now and I miss seeing her more.  Their youngest boy was born on the same day as Nate so we call them the twins.  They have a great time together and they brought Abby E.  who kept my Abby busy all weekend.  We hardly saw them.  We also had 4 teenagers to entertain which never seems to be a problem at the cabin. 

The weather was crazy changing from rain to snow and back all weekend.  Tom had to leave at 4:30 AM Sunday to get to Poky for his meetings.  He snowmobiled the ten miles in the dark and the rain and then drove for 1 1/2 hours.  He went to his meetings and Sacrament and then drove all the way back and snowmobiled in.  He got back about 5:ooPM.  I hope it was worth it.  I'm grateful he did it so we could spend that time with my family.  The ride out in the rain with one broken sled wasn't much fun either, but I'm still glad we went.  Thanks you guys!

Lyn, Cody, Tom, Steve, and Nate

Jason getting ready to go "FAST"

Jason and mom

Of course we had to sled down the driveway in the dark. 
It's tradition.  Brad and Abby E.

Which then always turns into a GIANT snowball fight.
Tom and Nate

Sean, Cody and Nate

Abby and Abby sledding together.  Now that takes talent.



Making the chute.
Jason, Sean, Nate, Erin, Cody, Joan






















Getting ready for Erin's turn.



The beginning of the igloo.  Tom stayed outside with the kids until WAY after dark
helping the kids make an igloo.  I wish I would have got a picture of the finished product
 because that night some large animal came and knocked it down.
  There were tracks everywhere and it had been marked heavily with pee! 
I tried to talk the kids into it was Tom that marked his own igloo, but they still think it was a moose.



January 2011 happenings

In January the kids went back to school, Tom and I went to his cousins wedding in Salt lake (overnight ALONE!), Nate had a band concert, Erin had a choir concert, we had piano lessons, activity days, mutual, a cabin trip over Martin Luther King weekend,  AR store, Nate's honor band clinic in Rexburg (forgot the camera), Tom and Nate went and helped teach the survival class in Montpelier, I tried to help my mom and dad with their health issues, and assorted sick days for everyone.  What a month.

Here are the memories. 

I'll do a separate post about the cabin trip.

Jason has the moves just like his dad.  Excuse my yelling in the background.



Matt, Carol, Bride cousin Katrina, Amy, Joan and Tom.




The Mckinnon women.
Hillary, Amy, Aunt Debra, Carol, Jill, Kennedy, Lauren, Madie, and me. 



Nate's band concert

Jason tried to make my dad feel better by spending some quality time
 watching western movies.





Nate overlooking Bear Lake.

Believe me the month wore me out too.

Nelson family Christmas party

On New Years day we had our annual Christmas party in Woodville.  Tom had to work so I took the kids and went.  I can't remember a Christmas in my life that we didn't have this party.  We just ate and talked, but it was great to see family you only get to see a few times a year.

The family patriarch, my Uncle Marlyn

Erin and Nate, I swear they could be twins.

I have the cutest nieces and nephews ever!  Oh, and cousins.
Sean, Nate, Bailey, Cheyenne, Jessie, Erin, and Holly.

Nelson Family Forever!

Christmas break / New Years 2011

We tried to do a few things as a family over Christmas break.  Tom and Nate went snow machining one afternoon and we took the kids rollerskating one day just to get out of the house.

Nate and JR in the snow.

Jason was dancing more than skating.

On December 30th, my brother Jon and Laurel invited the kids to Lava for a night.  They had such a fun time with them.  I am grateful for family who love my kids.  It makes such a difference.  They played games and went sledding.  Tom and I met them the next morning with Jason and went soaking.  It was below zero so everything froze, including our hair!  It was great fun.

I think they might have worn Jon out.

Quirkle is our new favorite game we got for Christmas.  Tons-oh-fun!  Abby rocks at it.



Nate, Laurel and Jon.



Tom and Erin.  Notice the Christmas cactus in the background.
  It was my grandmothers and it is gorgeous.

Go figure, who is the center of attention?
 Jason thought swimming in the snow was fantastic.



Not that I like putting pictures of me in a swimming suit on the Internet,
 but I love this picture of all of us.  Thanks Jon and Laurel!






















So when we got home that afternoon we hurriedly cleaned the house and got ready for New Year's Eve.  A few friends came over and played games. 

We had too-much food, too-much 80's music (embarrassed our kids:)), too-much mess in the basement, and stayed up much-too long!  It was fun.  I'm grateful we have friends that have kids that get along so well with our kids.  They help my kids be better people and I always feel better after spending time with them.

Of course there were nurf wars in the basement.



Susan and Lisa trying to figure out a game much too late to think.



Happy New Year!
Kiara, Abby, Kaylena, Nate, Erin, and Calen.

Christmas 2010

Since it's almost February I thought I'd better get on the ball and talk about Christmas.  We had a quiet day at home.  Carol and Matt and family stayed but other than that we were on our own.  Our day was well documented because Nate, Erin and I all got cameras.  So I'll let the pictures's speak for themselves.

The before shot.



All Erin wanted was a camera.



Abby's prize was Zhu Zhu pets.

Jason had a Diego year.



Tom got old-man slippers.



Breakfast!  It almost looks like I made them myself!  I love Rhodes.

This doesn't have a lot to do with anything but I just love Lindy's pout
that her Dad turned down her music.  Too funny.

Relaxing

Abby and Lindy

Hank, Tom and Jason

Again unrelated, but I forgot to blog it earlier.  This is the new bishopric
 at the ward party.  Rich, Doug, and Tom.  Love it.

All in all a great relaxing day.  I'm grateful for our savior and the reason we get to celebrate with our families.

Christmas Eve 2010



Luke, Hank, Jason,  Nate, Abby,  Lindy and Erin

We had a smaller Christmas Eve party this year.  Aunt Laurel, Matt and Carol's family, Sister Willmore and Sister Bowman joined us for pizza and game playing.  Carol and Matt stayed the night to have Christmas with us.  It was great to get to spend time with them before they move.  Here is the traditional Christmas jammies picture.  It was impossible to get seven sugar high, Santa excited kids to all look at the camera at the same time.