Katie

Last night Stephen and I went to a Noteworthy Concert to see our good friend Katie Jensen and our new friend Cassie Crabb perform.  Wow!  It was quite a performance!  If you havent heard of these awesome ladies then you must click on their highlighted name...now! Katie (in the glasses) is a very good friend of Michael's from high school and Cassie and Michael met and became friends while doing a play together here Provo before his mission.

 Katie and Michael have been close friends since they were about 14.  They have been in plays together, choirs together, school together, church together and everywhere else together.  Katie has always been a good friend to Michael and has stuck by him thru a lot.  And now Katie is preparing herself to serve a mission.  I am so very excited for her!  However, she turns 21 in May so that is probably around the time she will be leaving and Michael will be coming home about the same time.  So, chances are that they may just miss eachother.  I know they will be bummed about that.  Now that we are living here in Utah we would have been so close to Katie since she has been attending BYU and they would have been able to hang out. But now when he gets home she will be in California or in another state or another country by then!

Although Katie may not know it, having her around and just keeping in touch and seeing her now and then has been such a big help for me while Michael has been gone.  She has helped me still feel connected to him.

Thank you Katie!

Last night as we were driving to the concert, I started thinking about all those years with all the kids together and all the fun they had and all of the memories they have made and I started to get really emotional and missing Michael so much!

But now it's Katie's turn. She is going off to serve her Father in Heaven on a full time mission. I am so proud of her!   She is a sweet girl.  She will make a great missionary.  Thank goodness Michael will be coming back by then!  

 And while one door closes another door opens:)

update on house progress

They finally delivered the lumber the other day!  Yay!

Stephen got to stack it! Lucky him:) 

 Here he is showing some leg...that kid cannot take a normal picture!

Anyway, Dad has been busy setting the wet sill all along the paramiter of the house!

And now he is working on getting the boards ready for the floor joist.

Measuring where the walls will be.

Oh, here's the entrance into the basement. We'll have a set of stairs here of course.

And then the house will be built up from here! 

So exciting!

Laying the foundation

Dad and Uncle Keith were up early and ready for the foundation pour on

Friday morning. When I took this picture Dad said, "we got no time for pictures!"

Brian's wife was controlling the cement pour with this contraption.

The open space behind the guys is where the stairway leads to the basement.

Everyone worked very hard that day.  It was a big and long job!

Thanks to all these guys and a few others!

Uncle Keith doing some finish work.

And here is the finished product.  That little doorway looking space,

 is in the basement under the front entryway and is a storage area. 

 I love having extra storage space!

Nice job guys!

The Nativity and "Breath of Heaven"

About 7 years ago my Bishop's daughter showed this video to me while she played this song by Amy Grant on her stereo. I thought it was a beautiful way to remember the birth of our Savior. Since then we watch it as a family every year at Chritstmas time. I hope you enjoy it just as much as we do!

Kick off to Christmas!

Last night we had our first annual Christmas Musical Celebration in our home.  It was a success except for the fact that we started an hour later than we had planned...ouch!  Okay, so you had to figure something would go wrong the first time right?

Mike welcomed everyone and hosted the evening. 

We started off the program with our family singing a primary song

"Samuel tells of the baby Jesus"

Amy Workman, neighbor, friend and RS president, was our accompanist and also sang a beautiful song by Hilary Weeks, that I cried every time I heard Amy sing ..."Christmas Time". Absolutely beautiful!

Stephen and Sophia sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"....in beautiful harmony.

I was impressed!

Sophia sang "When Mary Sang Her Lullaby"...

this is one of the reasons why people fall in love with this girl!

Absolutely beautiful!

Tristen Nelson(Chaparro family) sang and played Jingle Bells for us!

Awesome!

Sandy Nelson (Chaparro family) read us a heart warming Christmas story...

we all were teary-eyed after that.

Tatiana Nelson (Chaparro family) also sang a lovely "Away in a Manger"

She has such a sweet voice:)

Finally we heard a story by Mom about a missionary boy...(we had to include Michael somehow)

We tied it into Christmas and the message that Michael is sharing in Australia.

Here is Grandma Nelson with Sister Chaparro. 

Mom said she was happy that her son could go to Argentina and teach the gospel to their family!

I think everyone enjoyed the program and the evening. 

 It was a great way to kick off the Christmas season.

We had some refreshments afterwards and enjoyed just visiting.

And of course we had to take a picture of the 2 Nelson families.

(Stephen not shown...already shut down for the night.)

Sandy (Chaparro) Nelson was the first to hear the gospel in Argentina.

 Mike and his companion baptized the family and Mike confirmed Sandy 28 years ago. 

 She later married another Nelson who also served in the same mission.

Unfortunately the weather hindered my family from being there. 

I really missed having them there, but we managed to still have a great evening!

Can't wait to do it again next year!

A Christmas Musical Celebration with The Mike and Lisa Nelson Family

     Well, it's that time of year again! The best time of year when we celebrate the birth of our Savior. I am so excited for this season especially this year as we are finally here in Utah with family. We have missed them so much!  So, Mike and I have decided to start a new traditon that we are especially excited about. "A Christmas Muscial Celebration with the Mike & Lisa Nelson Family". This special celebration will be hosted by our family of course, and will be featuring our family as well as our immediate extended family members.

     It will be held the first Sunday after Thanksgivng and will be an opportunity to grow closer as a family and share the Christmas spirit with eachother. This night we will celebrate the birth of our Savior to kick off the Christmas season with special musical numbers and a few stories. Each person in attendance will have the opportunity to share some of thier talents with us Christmas style.  In addition to our immediate families we will be inviting a few special guests each year. To end the evening we will have a special christmas story told by one of the grandma's and then each person in attendance will recieve their first christmas bell of the season.  Afterwards we will share some christmas goodies. We are so excited to start this new tradtion. So, stay tuned to see how it went.

     Merry Christmas!

A great turkey day

Bryce was my helper on Wednesday.

  He helped put the finishing touches on the tables.

Kids table

Adult table

Christopher and Joey Mason

Regina telling stories....as usual

We played a fun game that Regina thought up.

Everyone put 2 things that they were thankful for in a jar.  Then we each took turns pulling one out and reading it and guessing who wrote it.  It took a while and it was a lot of fun.

Jim, Regina and Sophia sang some Phatom of the Opera songs for us.

Beautiful voices!

It was a great Thanksgivig Day!