Happy Birthday to my sweetheart!

Today Mike turns 48!  We are exactly 3 months apart...so I like to tease him about being older than me for just 3 short months! Gosh!  Can you believe it?  We are actually growing old together and guess what?  It is rather fun! 

Last night Bryce made this beautiful cake for his Dad as we celebrated

with good food, family and fun!

So, today we can relax and just enjoy being together as a family on this special day of the year!   Good thing it is Sunday because I know if he had it his way he would be celebrating by working on the house! 

 But instead he will be relaxing and enjoying the Sabbath day.

So, happy birthday to the man who is our everything!

And just to name a few:

Loving Husband

Great Dad

Great Cook

Hard Worker

Great Craftsman

Honest

Great Leader

Strong Priesthood Holder

Full of Integrity

Determined

Kind and Loving

Faithful and Strong

And just plain ol' good to the core!

Happy Birthday Honey!

We love you so much!

Eddie Spaghetti your meatballs are ready!

Yep! That's what we would always say to him!

Today is my brother Eddie's birthday!  He is one year older than me and we are both getting closer and closer to being over the hill!  However, the older we get the wiser we get...right?  I sure hope so!  I have been thinking about Eddie so much lately. 

He will probably never see this post but that doesnt really matter because I love him just the same and I dont want to ever forget how special he is to our family. 

This picture shows him and his daughter Tabbatha many years ago.  Tabbatha is turning 20 next week!  She was probably around 5 or 6 at this time.  Life flies by so fast doesnt it?  But for right now I want to just call out a big I LOVE YOU to my big brother Eddie.  Eddie was always the life of the party when we were little.  He loves to dance and sing (all the Stephenson's love to sing), play guitar and just be silly. He is a great basketball player(even tho he only stands at 5'7 or 8") and was a great wrestler in high school.  Eddie used to love to hide in dark shadows in the house and then jump out and scare us...Oh I hated that when I was young...(still hate it when Bryce does it to me). He is quite the handy man and is great at working on cars. Eddie is a very tender-hearted and loving brother.  He is one of a kind and is passionate and determined to survive whatever life throws at him.  I love him to pieces and look forward to seeing him again when we get back to California.  Eddie Spaghetti, your meatballs are ready!

A dancer in the family

Well, Bryce is taking a dance class now.  He really wanted to learn how to do Hip Hop.  So, we went to a nearby dance studio where they teach all different kinds of dancing and he tried a Hip Hop class and left feeling extremely frustrated.  He did see a couple of friends from school there who were also taking a ballroom dance class.  So, he decided to try that the following week.  And bingo!  He loved it!  They have been teaching him the waltz and also some swing dancing.  He comes home each week and shows me some of his new moves.  Mike and I are so excited to see Bryce become better and better at this.  It is so fun to watch and even more fun to do.  I really hope he keeps up with it.  I know it will prove to bless him the rest of his life!   

Hogge Fun

One of the best things about moving to Utah when we did is that even though we left all of our friends back in California, it seems that a lot of the kids that my kids have grown up with are now coming out this way to go to school.

For instance, our good friends the Hogges!  They are some of our favorite people that live in Sacramento. However, their kids are getting older and leaving for College now, and guess where they are going? NO, not BYU Provo, but they are going to BYU Idaho and Kelsey is living here in Utah. So, last weekend we had 3 of them over on Sunday after church and they spent the night and stayed til Monday.

We had a blast! (their parents are just as crazy as I am...so it works well when we all get together) The Hogge family knows how to party...I was exhausted...but a good kind of exhausted of course.  And we ate and ate and ate....seriously. 

We took these picture for Michael in Australia

And these for Adam in Argentina

Michael and Adam are best friends and will be reunited soon!

We cant wait!

One thing about the Hogge's is that they are always so helpful.

Nicole and Katie helped Bryce make dinner while I layed on the couch.

And Kelsey helped Stephen do the dishes.

 Kelsey tried to get Stephen up out of bed after his nap.

I had a blast taking lots of cute pictures of the kids.

My boys were in heaven....the girls dote all over them and they love it!

This was the highlight for Mike of course!

I made breakfast at 10:00 on Monday before the girls packed up to leave and go back to Ogden and Idaho. It was so nice to have girls around again.

We absolutely LOVE The HOGGE FAMILY!!

Some people just cant be replaced!!!

Come back again girls anytime!

And next time bring the rest of the family with you!!

 

EFY 2004 - DUSTIN GLEDHILL - ONE VOICE

In honor of Elder Nelson's birthday yesterday...
Here is the song he sang at his farewell 18 months ago!
Have a beautiful Sabbath Day!

Happy Birthday Elder Nelson

Today Elder Nelson turns 21!  Can you believe it? I can't.

It's just too weird.  I love this picture because it shows so many

of the realities of what he is all about these days as he serves the Lord

in Australia.  Living like a Missionary.  Love the green chair and the leopard

print curtains especially and as a final touch the American flag he is holding.

Way to go Michael.  We are so proud of the man you have become.

Happy Birthday!  We love you!

Elder Larry R. Lawrence - Courageous Parenting

Just reviewed this talk given at the last General Conference.
It is an excellent talk! If you have kids...you must listen!

The Day After

Had a very nice Valentine's Day yesterday.

I decorated #10 cans left over from canning for each member of our famly. 

 So, we each filled eachother's cans with love notes and goodies.

I especially loved Stephen's poem to me:

Dear Mommy,

Even tho sometimes I make your blood pressure increase

And your heart rate soar

I hope every once in a while I can do something like this

that you will just adore!

-ur secret admirer

It was a Valentine's Day to remember!

Hope your family had a good one too!

#14 reason I love my family

#14 BECAUSE FAMILIES ARE FOREVER!

I have a family here on earth

They are so good to me

I want to share my life with them

Thru all eternity

Families can be together forever

Thru Heavenly Fathers plan

I always want to be with my own family

And the Lord has shown me how I can

The Lord has shown me how I can!

Happy Valentine's Day

#13 reason I love my family

#13 Well, it isnt because of all of the youtube videos Michael has posted!

However, I love this song! "Party of Five"... Michael wrote this song for his group of friends that he hung out with in high school, as a graduation gift to them. But when I think about our family, we are also a "Party of Five". So I like to think of this song as our family song too! I miss this boy in our Party of Five!
How many people are in your party?

#12 reason I love my family

#12 Well, it's not because of their love for Dr. Thunder!

However, for some reason the soda of choice for the Nelson boys is Dr. Pepper.

This was our way to save a few dollars the other day.  Dr. Thunder instead of the standard Dr. Pepper.  It is a Nelson brother's drink for some strange reason.  Mike said his Grandpa Nelson drank it because he said, "water rusts my stomach",lol!... so maybe that is the reason. We dont drink it a lot around here since the caffine is not always our friend however, whenever my boys have a choice of soda's it is usually Dr. Pepper.  So, do I love this?  Well, not really, but I am running out of pictures to use for my 14 reason's I love my family...trying to be creative here...so give me a break!  I do love Mike's hair in this photo though..dont you?

#11 reason I love my family

#11 Well, it isnt because they look like this today.

However, I love the memories I have of these 3 cuties in my home, fighting, teasing, laughing, singing, dancing, running around, making noice and loving eachother everyday.  I truly am blessed to have such a cute bunch of sweet little boys...who are now very big boys!

#10 reason I love my family

#10 Well, it isnt because Mike is such a good kisser!

Oh, wait a minute...

YES IT IS!!!

Got windows!

Uncle Keith installing

Side windows

Front windows too!

Office windows

Bedroom side windows

Not all but some windows....looking more and more like a house everyday!

#9 reason I love my family

#9 Well, it isnt because we have cute little toddlers in our family!

However, my boys are willing to babysit them when necessary.  This is Jessica and she is our neighbor and our Relief Society President's daughter.  Last night Amy and I went out to make a ton of visit's to sisters in our ward to deliver visiting teaching routes.  Well, her husband was not home and we knew Jessica would much rather stay home and play than to go with us so Bryce watched her for us.  I love that my family supports me in my callings!

They are troopers!  A little bit of crying never hurt anyone!

(no, not Bryce, Jessica. lol!  And yes Amy, I stole this picture off your fb:)

#8 reason I love my family

#7 Well, it isnt because we're a bunch of party animals!

However, we like to celebrate birthdays, no matter whose it is.

Uncle Brad (Mike's youngest brother) celebrated his 39th birthday last Thursday.  We had a family birthday party for him on Saturday.  Here is Brad, Jamie, Bridger and Reese Nelson!  So very cute...arent they?  This is probably the only picture I have ever seen where the boys are actually looking straight at the camera and smiling(now if we can only get Brad to smile on que, oh well).  Yay! I just love our extended family out here in Utah.  There are so many of them!  It is very fun to have family to celebrate birthdays and holidays with again!

#7 reason why I love my family

#7 Well, it isnt because they like to climb tall buildings!

However, I love that they love to build them!  I just needed to show some recent pictures of the house.  Saturday Mike and the boys worked some more on it!  This roof has been quite a job!  Now they are finishing sheeting it so that we can close it up for the rest of the winter and not have to be working out in the cold anymore.

This is how it's looking these days.  At least it looks a little more like a house!

I do love that our family is building this house together!

Kenneth Cope - Broken

I believe that God loves broken things....especially broken hearts.
Enjoy your Sabbath!

#6 reason I love my family

#5 Well, it isnt because Michael is in another part of the world for 2 years!

However, he is serving the Lord on a mission and I am so proud of him!  Since Mike and I both served missions, we've wanted nothing more than for our boys to have that great blessing in their lives also.  Michael is our first missionary and he is loving it.  He has made us so proud and has blessed our lives so very much over the past year and a half that he has been out.  So, now we still have 2 more to go.  I sure hope and pray that we end up with 3 return missionary sons.  We are working very hard to make that happen.  I love Mike for wanting it just as badly as I do and I love my boys for wanting to follow the prophet and serve missions.  In a few years I hope we will be a family full of return missionaries and that is one of the things I love most about my little family!