The Birthday Boy!

Michael turned 22 on Sunday.  Don't you just love his cake?  We had a great time with some of his friends and the immediate family.  I thought this was a cute cake I found at Costco, so I just had to get it for him and we really talked it up before we let him see it!  We told him he was gonna love it and well, he did!

Among his many friends this cute girl came and sent Michael on a scavenger hunt before his party.  It ended in his bedroom with pictures of the two of them plastered all over his wall.  McKenzie is Michael girlfriend and is a very nice, talented, kind, fun-loving girl.

  Michael sure knows how to pick them!  They make a great pair.

However, McKenzie has chosen to leave this cute boy for 18 months in order to serve a full-time mission for the Lord.  Now, how can you be upset about such an honorable choice?  Of course Michael would love to marry her TODAY!  But it looks like we will just have to wait for "The rest of this story"

McKenzie's papers were submitted on Michael's birthday! 

Now the wait begins!

What a couple of great kids!

THE BASEMENT

Just thought I'd share some pictures of the basement area.

Now, remember that flood we had? We would not have been able to
 carpet our entire basement floor like it is if we hadn't had that flood.

The Lord works in mysterious ways:)

Here's a view of the downstairs. 

 There's the bathroom in the middle and then Bryce and

 Michael&Adams bedrooms on either side.

Here's the view lookig down into the basement from the stairs.

Here is our movie area for now. 

We have wired this area to eventually be able to

make it a kitchen area.(someday this whole entire basement can 

be a whole separate living quarters)

 For now this is a great little family room area.

Around the corner in the main area is our ping pong/ game area.  The door to your left is where the

theatre room may eventually go.  It is now being used as a weight/storage room.  The door at the other end of the ping pong table sits underneath our front entry way and is used as a storage room. 

Here is the veiw close to that storage room and shows Stephen's bedroom.

And opposite that china hutch(which was my grandmas) there is a small closet underneath

the stairs which I am using as a family history room.  It houses all of my pictures, scrapbooks etc.

And that is our basement besides the boys bedrooms which are a mess, so I wont be

showing those for a while.  One of these days they will all be cleaned at the same time and I will

dare to take pictures of them. For now, you get the idea:)

Mom and Dad Nelson's 50th Wedding Anniversary

Last night we celebrated my Mother and Father in Law's 50 Wedding Anniversary.  We had hoped that we could get the whole family out here for this but it crept up so quickly after Christmas and we were running out of time.  So, between Me, Darcie, Coleen and Jamie, we pulled off a pretty nice event.

We moved our living room furniture out and set up 4 long tables with room to spare. 

We decorated the place like a dinner theatre.

Everyone except Mom and Dad came early to help set up and get the food ready.

We had a nice dinner of a choice of chicken or salmon with roasted potatoes, green salad and rolls.

Of course Mike started out by toasting to Mom and Dad's 50 years of marriage!

He pointed out how important the family is and how Mom and Dad have accomplished something so rare these days.Then Mark took a turn and that got everyone conversing about old times.

After dinner we had some entertainment by the kids. 

I even sang this time....even though I had to choke back tears throughout my whole song!

After dinner and entertainment, we had Mom and Dad cut their cake that Darcie made.  They cut it and fed it to eachother just as they should have 50 years ago...they said they never did do this part!

They were so cute!  We made them kiss several times because our camera's

 just weren't quick enough to get that shot! Darnit!

Anyway, it was a fun time for everyone.

So, here's to the happy couple!  50 Years of hard work, loyalty, love

and never ending devotion! 

 Cheers!