New Year's Eve

2010 in review

This was a fun challenge I did.  I was only going to do one picture per month, but then I had too many pictures to just pick one from each month, so this is what I ended up with.

January - Trevin played basketball, and spent the month on his science project.  February - Trevin earned his All 20 award and presented his science fair project. March - Trevin got a BB gun for his birthday, Tyrel got a new phone and we had a family BB shooting competition,  Travis and Tyrel received their Eagle Scout awards.  April - we had a big snowstorm for April Fools Day and then again for Easter Morning.  Trevin played soccer, and we took pictures at Red Bridge for grandma’s Mother’s Day present.  May - we planted our garden, and put up a fence.  Travis got his driver’s license and went to Sadie’s with Ashley.  Trevin participated in the Hershey Track meet, and Tyrel shaved for the first time.  June - Travis and Tyrel went to St. George for Youth Conference, Trevin went on his first overnight campout as a Boy Scout and learned to mow the lawn.  We spent a week with the Evers at Bear Lake at a cabin.  July - Spent lots of time floating the river at the Richardson Family Reunion.  Tyrel spent lots of time riding and jumping the 4 wheelers, Trevin took swimming lessons.

July - Sat on the lawn with the Nielsen’s to watch fireworks at the Stadium of Fire.  Attended the Smith Family Reunion at Soapstone and won a mega roll of toilet paper for being the best at Family Fued.  August - Spent a week in Denver with all the Evers family to visit with Great Grandpa and Grandma Evers.  Tried to take the waverunners to Utah Lake, but they died again, Tyrel got his learner’s permit, the boys started school.  September - Trevin played Flag Football, Lori bottled lots of salsa, attended the Onion Days parade and got to sit under the awning with the announcer, granpa Nielsen.  October - went on the Provo River Halloween Cruise with Sharlynn, Travis and Trevin wore the “fat” costumes for Halloween.  November - Sean played the part of Moses in the Ward Roadshows.  BYU beat Utah!!!, Travis didn’t shave for “no shave November”.  December - Tyrel became skilled at using the snowplow, we attended Christmas parties at the Evers and the Nielsen party was at our house where we made gingerbread houses.  The boys got Sponge Bob pj’s for Christmas.  We held the annual New Years Eve party at our house.

YAY!!

The loan fiasco from my terrible, horrible, rotten, no good, very bad day funded!

Free Food and Cheap Food

Sean sent me an email Wednesday morning asking if I wanted free food.  See, apparently, since he is on the board with the Spanish Fork Chamber of Commerce now, he is entitled to some perks.  YAY for perks.  There is a new Wendy's opening in Spanish Fork and they invited all the Chamber Members and their families to test out if their systems work and their employees were trained properly.  So we braved the awful snowstorm for free dinner at Wendy's and the boys thought it was most awesome!

On our way home, we noticed a sign at Crisps in Salem that the store was closing and everything was 40% off.  So, we stopped in there and got $500 worth of food storage for only $290.  SCORE for the Nielsen's.  Our pantry was looking pretty bare, but it is now full again.

Scrapbooking

Kristi came up and spent the day scrapbooking.  She caught on really quick and it was fun to be able to teach her and see her so excited about it.  I hope she keeps doing it.  We got the program ordered for her, Adam bought her some disks for her birthday and she actually got 5 layouts done the first day.  I think that's pretty good for just barely learning the program.  The kids played outside some, watched some TV, played Super Smash Brothers and had a pizza party.

We also got Kristi's blog updated and made her a new background and header, so it is all cute now.  She promises she will keep it updated better now that we got it all fixed up for her.

Troy and Lisa sent me the pictures from McKynlee's blessing a while ago, and I was able to get these layouts done of her in her blessing dress, so I thought I'd post them even though it was like a month ago.

Grandpa's "RUG"

So, funny story.....

When Santa was here for the Nielsen family Christmas party, Carolyn asked for a rug for her family room that now has a tile floor, so it was warmer and quieter for her kids to play on with their toys.  Lisa also asked Santa for a rug for her house.  So, when Grandpa LaMarr got on Santa's lap, he asked for a "rug" too while patting the top of his head.  He is getting a little thinner on top as of late.

It got me thinking.  My great uncle Wilbur had this awesome hat at the family reunion this summer.  It's a baseball cap that looks like a visor with hair coming out the top, but the hair is fake.

Heidi and Kirk got one for Uncle Greg for Christmas this year with brown hair 

So we thought since Grandpa asked for that, it would be funny to get him one too.

Christmas Day

The boys threatened me last night that they were going to get up at 5 am this morning and I told them no way.  Then they said 4 am and I again shut down their plan.  I told them they had to let us sleep until 7 at least.  At around 7:30 am, I heard Tyrel whistle (they know better than to come up the stairs until after we get the camera set up and we get out of bed).

We had a fun morning opening presents.  The boys got me a new can opener (not because I think I need a new one, I'm fine with the old one, but they hate it, so it is more for them I think.)  Sean got me a really pretty flower arrangement to set in some room that I haven't decided yet.  Then they all got me some new Mickey Mouse PJ's because my Minnie Mouse ones that I have had since we went to Disneyland when Tyrel was 5 finally ripped out a seam up the side so I needed new ones.

I got Sean the WOW upgrade and a GPS for his work truck from all of us because he has a hard time finding addresses sometimes and is always calling me to Google an address for him and give him directions.  We had fun trying to decide which voice we wanted on it.  The boys got him some black socks and a new tie for church.

Travis also got the WOW upgrade, his Skull Candy headphones that didn't get here yet, an oil vial for his key chain for consecrated oil (he asked for that, I'm proud of him), and a window scraper for his car. 

Tyrel got Skull Candy headphones that aren't here yet, a boogie board, and snow gear (gloves, coat, boots) for his winter campout.

Trevin got an Eagles Hoodie, some cars, and a Wii game.

All of the layouts I've been doing for the boys all year for their scrapbooks have been a secret.  I've been getting them printed through the year but not letting them see them.  I put them in their albums and wrapped them up and gave their 2010 books to them for Christmas.  I think it was their favorite present.  They all looked through each and every page and it was fun to see them reminisce and laugh about things they had done throughout the year.  I think I'm going to do that every year now.

We all got scripture markers in our stockings along with the traditional orange (chocolate oranges for our non fruit lovers), corn nuts, and some candy.

We used the GPS to find our way to Grandpa and Grandma Nielsen's for breakfast casserole.  Sean thought it was funny to not go the way it told us too so that it had to keep recalculating.  I said the lady was going to get mad at us if we didn't follow directions, I was just waiting for her to raise her voice at us.

The breakfast casserole and homemade Christmas punch and eggnog was yummy as usual and it was fun to visit with those that were there.  We came back home and chilled for the afternoon and then went back down for ham and funeral potatoes in the evening.  It was a lot of fun to spend time with family.

Christmas Eve

 It's Christmas Eve.  I made turkey with most of the trimmings for dinner tonight.  Everything is done and ready, but Travis and Tyrel's main present never got here.  I am so mad.  They guaranteed me they would have them to me by Christmas Eve.  At least they are older now and understand that they will get here eventually, but it makes it kind of sad that they don't have very much to open in the morning.

We read the story of Christ's birth in the scriptures tonight.  Sean played some songs on his guitar and we sang along.  Then we let the boys open their Christmas PJ's.   They were so excited to get SpongeBob PJs this year and I did well guessing on their sizes, they all fit perfectly.  They filled the Santa plate and actually went to bed fairly early.

Christmas Card

I didn't get as many Christmas cards sent this year as I usually do.  Postage is so expensive!  So, in case you didn't get one, I still wanted to share because I think they are cute.  So here is the annual Nielsen Christmas card.

You can click on the images to see them larger if you care to read what they say!

I had to post those cute pictures of my awesome family to cheer myself up.  It has been a terrible, horrible, rotten, no good, very bad day.  I have a loan I have been working on for over 3 months now and the lender is making it so difficult I just can't stand it.  Today was the last day to get it closed this month or else start all over again and drag it out another month.  We were almost there and it was just one thing after another and we finally just gave up, at least the loan officer gave up and turned of his computer and phone and said we would just have to send it to another lender next month and start it all again.  Right after that, the lender called me and said they were sending documents but it was 1 1/2 hours after the title company had closed and 4 hours after the customer had left.  I told them to send them out anyway just because I wanted to make them work even though it wasn't going to close.  I went down to Sean's office in tears because I had been working on it for the last 3 months, but working my guts out today trying to make it happen and then it didn't.  My being spiteful paid off though because the title officer was checking her emails from home and bless her heart, she saw the documents come, called the borrowers, and ran to their home at 8:30 tonight and got them to sign.  The loan officer got the message on his voicemail and called to tell me it was a Christmas miracle and I told him I had told them to go ahead and send the documents out even though he told me to just forget it, so I took credit for the miracle and I'm so thankful for that awesome title officer that took it upon herself after hours to make it happen for us.  Now hopefully it funds next week.

Snow Day

I think it snowed almost all day long yesterday.  We braved the weather and went out delivering treats to my visiting teaching families and Sean's, Travis' and Tyrel's home teaching families.  Sean likes to drive in the yucky weather, so it wasn't a big deal for him.  The boys all chipped in and helped make the treats for our Family Night activity and we got all of them delivered but one.  Travis' family wasn't home, so we wrapped it up and will try again tonight if we can get out. 

The kids woke up this morning telling me the power was out, and it was.  Tyrel said everyone was texting him that the buses were cancelled.  Come to find out, that was true but they were still holding school.  We decided since it is the last day before break, we would just let them stay home, so they are out shoveling and then we just found out that they cancelled school, so it is a snow day.  They have been wishing for one.

More Snow - Evers Family Christmas Party

Seems as though we are full of celebrations this time of year.  Trevin got up early and went swimming with his Scout group.  Tyrel has been having fun learning to use the winch on the 4wheeler to shovel snow with the blade so he spent the morning cleaning up the driveway from the snow we got last night.

Once Trevin got home, we headed to Leamington.  Heidi and I enlisted Dad's help to get our catalogs put together while the cousins watched the BYU game and then a movie.  We played Pictionary Man for a while before dinner (hard game) and then we opened the presents.  When my mom asked me a while ago what I wanted, I had mentioned that I wanted Dad's conversion story written down so that I had it.  He had told it to us up at the cabin this summer and there were lots of details I hadn't heard before, so I wanted the story in writing.  We all got a copy of it and it will be my favorite gift I'm sure for years to come!  The funniest gift was the hat the Marchant's got for uncle Greg, what a riot!

Sean played the guitar and we sang a few songs.  Kaitlin played a song on the piano and Andrea read a story before we opened presents and then after all of that we had a yummy dinner of roast, potatoes and gravy, salad, rolls, vegetables and banana slush.  Everyone but Trevin was too full for dessert and I'm sad I was too full because I've been craving peppermint ice cream with hot fudge.

Nielsen Family Christmas Party

The party was tonight at our house.  I was in charge of breadsticks along with Sharlynn.  Haylee, Lisa and Traci made soup and Carolyn and Melisa brought desserts.  Everyone brought candy for the gingerbread houses.  The food was so yummy!  I love the recipe I used for the breadsticks, so I will have to remember to keep that one handy for the future.  The corn chowder that Lisa (actually I heard it was Troy) made, was to die for.  So yummy!

Actually, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Before we ate, Sharlynn got Adam and Kristi on her phone for us to wish a Merry Christmas to.  In the middle of us singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas to them, the doorbell rang, Travis answered it, and it was Adam and Kristi and the girls!  What a totally fun surprise for them to be here for the party and staying through Christmas. 

After we ate, Santa came and he was amazing!  He was totally not rushed and took 5 minutes or so with each child, even some of the big "kids".  We all got treats from Santa and then went to make our houses.  Each family made one and my boys each made their own because they are old enough now to do it themselves and they were excited.  That has been a tradition since they were tiny and even though they are big now, they still look forward to it and still want to make them every year.  I'm going to have to see if I can find a couple more sets of the cutters I have so I can give each of them a set for when they have their own families.  Or maybe they will all just have to come to my house to make them every year.

The kids played and we got the kitchen cleaned up and then visited for a while.  It was a great time.  I wish Ken and Jen and their girls would have come.  It would have been great to have the entire family there to celebrate the birth of our Savior together.

Baking and more baking

Sharlynn came up tonight and we got all the gingerbread houses baked for the family Christmas party.  My back aches as I go to bed tonight and I hope it feels better tomorrow as I have lots of housecleaning to do to get ready for everyone coming over.  Building 10 houses in one night is a lot of work, but it will be worth it to see the kids having fun building them.

Travis' SEOP

Sean and I were able to meet with Travis and the school counselor today.  It seems Travis is on track and only will need 2 required classes next year to graduate.  So, he is looking into taking some classes at MATC to get some computer certifications under his belt to help with job seeking once he graduates.  He is pretty excited about the prospects.  He also needs to take the ACT this year, which he is not too excited about.  He is transferring out of TV Broadcasting into TV Production for the 2nd half of the year, and is checking into a couple of other schedule changes to get him more channeled to computers as he feels this is what he wants to do "when he grows up".  It was a pretty productive meeting we felt.

Sister Anderson in our ward isn't doing too well and I was able to help with dinner for the family tonight.  Since so many of us signed up, I only had to do rolls.  It snowed a ton last night, so I waded through the snowy mess to deliver them.  I got to visit with her for a little bit and it was good to see her.  I hope she gets feeling better, we miss her fun personality around.  It is sad to see her so sick especially around this time of year.  I'm going to try to go next week sometime and sit and visit with her for a bit.

Caroling with the Scouts

We worked on our Good Manners belt loop with the cub Scouts today.  As we talked, we had them frost cookies and we delivered them to a few people in the ward.  We let the boys pick the song they wanted to sing (Jingle Bells) and we also let them pick who they wanted to deliver them to.  They picked the Haskells (who weren't home), the Hardy's, the Ditlevsen's (who also weren't home), the Harding's, the Bishop (who wasn't home), and the Anderson's.  They sang well and seemed to have fun and they all got to take a plate of cookies home with them along with the rubberband guns that they made last week when they were learning about tools.

Sister Brown came over tonight with the pictures of her new grandaughter for me to get her Christmas project finished for her.  I finally also got all of McKenzie's pages done too along with the ones I did for Andrea that my mom had me do for her for Christmas, so I should be able to get all of those sent to be printed tomorrow.

We had tithing settlement on Sunday.  I love our Bishop.  He always makes everyone feel so good about just everything.  He is an amazing man and I'm so grateful to be in this ward.

Ward Party

Our annual ward Christmas Party was this morning.  Santa was there.  We had breakfast casserole and cinnamon rolls.  They also had chocolate milk, juice, and cereal and milk in case you didn't want the real food.  It was yummy and fun even though I had to get up early enough to make a casserole to take.  They did a nativity program also.  Travis was one of the Inn Keepers.

Trevin's Christmas program

I had a meeting in Lehi this morning with the company I'm processing for.  I'm excited to be getting more loan business now.  It will be good this time of year when Sean is slower especially.  It has come at a good time.

This afternoon, Sean and I went to Trevin's school program.  It was the 4th thru the 6th grades and the 6th grade choir sounded excellent!  I was amazed at how well they sounded together.  Trevin seems to like performing in stuff like that.

Hair color

Sean colored my hair this morning.  We figured it would save us a few bucks to do it ourselves.  It is a little darker than the color I usually have and he wasn't thrilled about doing it, but it looks pretty good.

Christmas shopping

Sean and I were feeling a little better tonight so the boys talked us into taking them Christmas shopping.  We both still have those nagging coughs that take a month to go away.  I think we got most of the shopping done.  I still have one more thing to get from Trevin and then I got an email saying the main thing I got for Travis and Tyrel is backordered and they expect another shipment on the 22nd.  What??  Now what am I going to do.  I emailed them to see if they get it on the 22nd if they could get them out to us by Christmas so we shall see.  They just might both get a package wrapped that says IOU.  Why didn't they have it on their website that they were out of stock?  They will not be getting a good customer review from me.

Will these colds ever go away???????

I thought I was getting better and headed to Leamington to help Heidi with a home party on Friday.  Trevin came with me to hang out with his cousins.  Our party went GREAT and I woke up Saturday feeling achy and yucky again.  It's moved from my head to my chest, so now coughing and not feeling so great.  I didn't want to drive home, but had to.  I was wishing Travis would have come with me so I could have him drive home.  I took a 4 hour nap and did some laundry and got the kitchen back in order.

Sean and I both stayed home on Sunday from church but all the boys went.  I'm so glad they aren't sick and hope they stay that way.

Today (Monday) we were both feeling better, just the nagging cough now that will probably last another week or so.  The boys wanted to go Christmas shopping for family night, but Sean and I didn't want to go out in the cold, so we enjoyed just a scripture reading family night at home with some yummy chocolate cake the neighbor brought over.

Getting better

Trevin felt better today and went back to school.  I'm feeling fairly well, but Sean is still feeling crappy.  Nothing much going on, just hoping we get better so we can finish getting ready for Christmas.

More sickness

Trevin still felt sick today and Sean came down with the head cold I had.  I feel a little better today, at least I'm over the achy chilled feelings, just sinus pressure now.  At least we are between holidays.  I felt well enough to head to Delta for another scrapbooking home party.  It went well.  We just have one more before the holidays and then we will start scheduling for after the first of the year.