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! 

Our first big snow storm

This is our backyard view. Isn't it so pretty? 

We've been waiting for a snow like this.

The kids are loving it and so are we, as long as I dont have to go out in it!

Our house

Mom and Dad's house behind our new basement:)