CHRISTMAS LETTER 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Another year almost complete! Time just flies!  This is a summary of 2012 for our family.

Gra is now almost 6 years old.  She started kindergarten and she absolutely loves it!  She is learning many sight words and she is so proud of her accomplishments.  She performed in her first ballet recital in June and continues to take ballet.  Gra is our fun loving wannabe teenager but we love her as she keeps us young.

Cee is 13 and in the 8th grade.  He is an officer at the junior high and this is keeping him busy doing lots of service projects and attending the school sporting events.  He is still competing in gymnastics.  He participated in the spelling bee and received second place.  What an awesome accomplishment after all those years of practice. He earned a scholarship and a bunch of other prizes.  He is working hard on scouts and should be ready for his Eagle really soon.  We are so grateful to have a son in our home.  It’s refreshing!

Sid is 16 and a junior in high school.  She is in dance company.  She loves to dance and she is very good at it!  She still dances ballet and she got three awesome parts in the Nutcracker this year.  She was a Reed Flute, Snow, and Waltz.  She also choreographed a dance; for the Winter Concert, that was very creative.  She’s working on her driving hours and on finishing her personal progress so she can get her license.

Car is 18 and graduated from high school this year.  She participated in her last ballet recital as a senior.  She worked at Cherry Hill for the summer.  She wanted to go to UVU but at the last minute she realized she wasn’t ready and decided to wait until January.  In the meantime she has been working at a daycare center. Now she is registered and ready to move out at the beginning of next year.  We love having Car around--not only does she make us happy, but she has saved us many times as a chauffeur when we have needed help driving kids around.  We will surely miss her when she goes to school.

Kai is 21 and is in her senior year at BYU.  She is in the Family Studies program with an emphasis in fashion design.  She is a wonderful designer and will be participating in a fashion show in February at BYU as one of the designers.  Kai had the opportunity to do an internship in Boston at Anthropologie this past summer.  She lived with my brother’s family and she thoroughly enjoyed the change of scenery and environment.  She continues to work at the BYU bookstore and does some face painting on the side.  

Lis graduated with her Master’s in School Counseling in the spring.  She was blessed to get a job at a charter school that services 7-12 grades.  It is a half time  job  which is perfect since G is still in kindergarten.  She is loving her job and the opportunity to help students succeed.  It’s definitely a change of pace trying to balance a job and a family at the same time.

Cas changed positions this past year from operations manager to database administrator within the district.  The district also moved his entire department to Layton and that has doubled his commute from 7 to 15 minutes!  He is busy working with the young men in the ward and is always planning activities and campouts.  He is an amazing husband and father.  He has picked up more of the family duties since L started working.

Some of the events that we all participated in this year include:  A Disney Cruise in April.  We wanted to plan a fun vacation this year since we had two graduates and  it’s getting harder and harder to  plan these as everyone is growing up.  A Disney Cruise was perfect because it would cater to the various ages of our children and parents.  We flew to Florida and spent a day at Universal Studio’s (Mainly Harry Potter World).  The next day we boarded the cruise ship and went to the Bahamas and Disney’s private island Castaway Cay.  It was a dream vacation for us but it left us wanting to do it again in the future (maybe with extended family.)

We had the opportunity to participate in the filming of the Bible Videos that the LDS church is producing.  Cas grew out his beard (he had never done this before and doesn’t ever want to do it again, but it was worth it so that he could have the chance to be on the set).  Cas was there for the filming of “Caiaphas questioning Jesus' authority”. Lis and the older girls participated in the filming of “Jesus feeds the 5000”.  It still has not been released yet but we are anxiously awaiting its release.  It was a very hot day but such a spiritual experience for all of us.  Cee and Gra participated a few times last year. We may or may not be in the videos when they are released but either way, it was a testimony building experience for us all.

We had a year full of blessings.  Not to say that we did not have trials, because we all do at one time or another, but we’re always amazed at how the blessings come even amidst the trials.  We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!

Thanksgiving

November 22, 2012

This year we had most of the B's from Cheyenne come and spend Thanksgiving with us.  It was a lot of people at our place but it was fun!  The kids just have fun being together and so do the adults.

 Jenner (nephew) has been into exercising and because there were so many kids/beds in the basement there was no room to exercise so he went out on the patio.  A few of the cousins joined in the fun.  It was pretty cold out there and we were all watching from the inside so it was as if they were performing for us.

We started a new tradition this year.  I knew what I wanted to do it but I didn't know how to implement it until I saw this idea at the BYU Bookstore.  I got a piece of black butcher paper and hung it up on the wall.  Everyone throughout the month was encouraged to write something they were thankful for on the wall.  This is the final product.  It turned out great!

 Car & Jenner with matching shirts and socks.  These kids are crazy!

This was the teens/single kids table.

This was the youngins table.  KC and I were at this table :)

This was the parent's table.

The kids made a Thanksgiving movie and they made everyone and I mean everyone go outside and dance gangnam style.  It was pretty crazy and we were all just laughing!

This is the link to the video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQfxjMY3zOQ

The kids went out to the curve and were dancing as cars drove by.  

The boys playing football.

Like father like son!

That night of thanksgiving we had all of the Nelson side of the family come over and say hi.  It was crazy for like a half an hour there were so many people here and everyone was just talking trying to catch up on life.  It was a fun surprise to see them all.

We had to keep up the tradition of looking through the ads.  We were a little upset that many places were opening at night instead of early in the morning.  But a few of us did end up going shopping at night.  The thing I love about Black Friday more than the deals is the time that we all get to spend together.  It's like a rush to find what you want but then we can just relax and have fun!

On Saturday night we went to Provo and Jenner fed us at the Creamery.  K had to work so we went to the mall for a little while to wait for her to get off.  Afterwards we went to temple square to see the lights and had some hot chocolate.  We were able to get a family picture since we had Jenner and Derek with us.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I love having family over at our house for the holidays!!!

Nutcracker 2012

The Nutcracker seems to consume most of the month of November because there are a lot of practices and since KC and I chair the props committee backstage we are busy that entire week.  As busy as it is we love it so we do it year after year.  

This year was a little different as we only had S in the Nutcracker.  She did have 3 good parts though so it was like having 3 kids participate.

Reed Flute Dance

Snow Dance.

Waltz Dance

"Company"

This is in the lobby.  We were just waiting and someone offered to take a picture of us. I'm so proud of S she did an amazing job in all of her dances!!!

October 2012

October 2012

We were able to go to the homecoming game at BYU this year.  This is the BYU marching band (including Jenner).  We haven't been to a game for a long time so it was a fun date.

 The Post-Game show.

 We went to Cornbellies at Thanksgiving point with the M's family and my parents.  I'm grateful to Z for always sharing fun and affordable events going on so that we can get together and have fun!

 We attended a  Multicultural Event at the Conference Center.

 We celebrated Tayevion's 4th birthday.  I thought the cake was clever.

 G's Cinderella Halloween pumpkin.

 G as Cinderella.

C in her first costume as "Cat Woman"

C in her second costume (for the daycare where she works, she didn't think "Cat Woman" was appropriate).  80's Aerobics Queen.

 Trick or Treating with the M's.

K Birthday

 October 4, 2012

K is now 21.  She is a true adult now but not really to me she will always be my first little girl that was born 21 years ago.  I'm so proud of all that she has done.  Things haven't always been easy for her but she is a survivor and I love her just the way she is!!!  Her birthday often falls on Conference weekend and so we have to adjust our celebrations accordingly.  She opened presents in between sessions.

 We went to dinner at Bucca Di Beppo before priesthood session.

 Her birthday request was to have a Carrie Underwood deliver a birthday present with tickets to the concert. Because her daddy loves her so much he made that wish come true by making a card board cutout of Carrie Underwood.  Now K can hang out with Carrie whenever she wants.

 I got to go to the concert with K about a week later.  It was AWESOME! I love to spend time with K.

New Career and Job

October 1, 2012



I am always amazed at how my life always work out for the best.  I graduated with my Master's in School Counseling in April and I have been looking for a job since.  I didn't worry too much during the summer because schools take summers off for the most part.  I wasn't too worried either because KC has a job that supports our family so I had about 6 months to find something since my main worry would be to get a job so that I could start paying back my student loan.

I knew that when school started in September I had to get serious about looking because that is when last minute jobs would open up and I had to start paying back my student loan in November.  I started to worry because there just were not many jobs out there to apply for.

But as always Heavenly Father knows what's best!  One day in early September I got a text from a friend of a friend who is a school counselor and was wanting to go half time.  I was interested because I knew that half-time would be perfect for me this year for a few reasons:  G is in half-day kindergarten and being half-time would give some time with her, it would allow me to learn with someone as I get used to being a school counselor, and it would give a good transition between being a stay-at-home mom and working outside the home full time.

I went to the school to meet with her.  It happened to be G's first day of school and I was nice because it distracted me from being sad about my youngest starting kindergarten.  Mandee was very kind and she was looking to go half-time because she was in the process of trying to adopt twin babies and her life was just too busy.  We clicked right away and the connection was just perfect for both of us.  As always though there is opposition in all things and I had another opportunity for work at WSU but it would be full time and although I would be paid more it would end up being less in the end because I would be working full time as compared to only working half time. I prayed about it but the decision was pretty easy as to what would be best for me and my family.  To make a long story short, I started kind of training with Mandee through the month of September and then it was official in October.  What a blessing for both of us!

The school I'm working at is called DaVinci Academy of Science and the Arts.  The only drawback is that it takes me about 25 minutes to get there from home.  But I did get a pass for the Frontrunner (the train) so I can take that sometimes and not have to drive.  DaVinci is a charter school that houses grades 7-12.  The school emphasizes the arts and sciences (hence the name).  It's a great school with smaller classes and more personalized attention for the students than a regular public school.  I am working mainly with the junior high students (grades 7-9) and Mandee is working with the high school students (grades 10-12).  I work about 2-3 days per week depending on the week and I LOVE IT!  I love the opportunity to talk with students and help them with their academics and personal lives.  It's challenging at times and I'm still trying to figure it all out but I'm learning and I think I am being useful to the students.

I'm still working a few hours a week at my previous job at the daycare where I work in the office and take care of the billing for the center.  This works out well since I need childcare a few days a week for G before she goes to kindergarten.  It all works out perfectly!!!