Sunday Afternoon Naps

Today I am grateful that I was able to take a Sunday afternoon nap. It is one of my favorite parts of the weekend.

More of the Party

So, after we had our fun sledding, everyone came up to our house for soup and breadsticks. We had chicken noodle and taco soup and then, who should appear, but Santa Claus........ right at our house!

Everyone got to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas and he had a little gift for everyone too.

I didn't hear everyone, but I know there was a blue guitar and a pink guitar request along with a scooter, an Ipod, some political requests, and some drums. Kaiden asked for a sword and Santa asked "How long" (meaning length of the sword) and Kaiden gave him this really weird look and said "Forever." (meaning how long he wanted to have the sword) That gave everyone a chuckle.

Later in the afternoon we had all the kids make gingerbread houses. Lauren and Carter thought it was more fun to eat the candy, but everyone else made very creative, beautiful houses. It was a lot of fun!

Thankful for SNOW

Tyrel

I'm so grateful that it snowed this past week so that Sharlynn's hard work planning the Nielsen Family Christmas Party was able to work out. We thought we would have to cancel the sledding part of the party, but we were able to go.

Trevin

The kids (at least most of them) had a great time. Carter didn't seem to like it too well but it was fun to see Travis in his silly hat, Tyrel mastering the snowboard, Trevin trying to come down on his knees and face planting in the snow, Kaiden giggling from the top of the hill to the bottom, Corbin with his eyes squeezed shut really tight, Savannah and Alli playing on the mountain of snow at the bottom of the hill and Ken and Lauren having a snowball fight.

Travis and misc pictures

We had some camera batteries die throughout the day, but between all of us, I think we got some good pictures.


Todd's family

Alli
Lauren

Guitar Man

I snapped a few photos of Sean over the past couple of weeks playing his guitar. As you can tell, he was thrilled to have his picture taken! He is a funny man......

I love it when he picks it up and plays, and now I love it when Travis picks his up and plays and especially when they play together. Travis played Silent Night for our closing song at Family Night the other night and did a great job. It sounded so good. Tyrel will be taking guitar at school the 2nd half of the year and I am so excited to have 3 guitar players in the house.

I guess I should do my gratitude post for today while I am here. Today I am grateful for my wonderful husband that takes me out to lunch for a date every Friday. He is awesome. He even humors me and takes me to the same old place every week. I should probably take a picture of us there to scrap so we can remember. LOL!

Book Club

Today I am grateful for my book clubees. We had our last book club for the year today and we had a wonderful lunch at Kara's house. It is so fun to get together with these ladies monthly and I'm so glad I am reading again! I read a lot when I was younger and then not so much when I got married. When we started our book club in 2004 I joined because I thought it would get me reading again and I have loved it. We have read some great books over the years, and some not so great books too, but that is ok! I did this layout as a challenge last month with the books I have read over the last year. I think I may have already posted it on my blog, but it goes along with this post so I am posting it again.

Quick Trip to Colorado

I made a quick trip to Denver for my uncle Darrell's funeral over the weekend. We left Thursday morning all packed in my car. Me, Heidi, Greg, Brett, Andrea and Jaron. Greg drove the whole way. It was fun to get to see grandpa and grandma's new place.

We got lost a couple of times driving around Denver, and there were a few times Greg had me laughing so hard I could hardly see to drive because my eyes were watering.

Even though it was under sad circumstances that we had to make the trip to Denver, it was so much fun to be able to travel together as siblings for the 8 hour trip. We had a great time reminiscing and laughing and having a good time together. It was fun to see my parents who have been gone on their mission for 11 months and to see Grandpa and Grandma Evers. I’d love to be able to take the kids out this summer if we can get the money and if they are feeling well enough to have us. We took a four generation picture while we were there which I will treasure always.
It was also fun to get to see Sara, I think it has been around 10 to 15 years since we have seen her so we took the opportunity to take a picture with the “Evers cousins” too.
My favorite part was getting to sit around and listen to Grandma talk about her younger years. We also spent quite a few hours with Aunt Micki listening to her tell stroies from their childhood and how my grandma took care of her when she was little. She also threw in a few stories about my dad when he was little including the one where he learned to pop paper bags and when he scared the stove deliverymen to death when he snuck up behind him, blew up his bag and popped it. All in all it was a great weekend.

Jaron got sick on the way home. Luckily he puked in the convenience store we stopped at instead of all over in the car. I felt bad for him though because Andrea didn't dare feed him anything after that because she was afraid he would get sick again. I think it was the big breakfast and then driving through the mountains. A combination of food, winding roads, and altitude didn't sit well with the little guy.

We got to eat at Uncle Ron's restaurant (The Egg and I) twice while we were there. Thanks grandpa and grandma for taking us out to eat and footing the bill. The food was great. We all had a hard time deciding on what to have. I guess we will have to go back again to try a few other menu items. The gingerbread hot chocolate was to die for.

Today I am grateful for my wonderful sister in law who sent me this video. It helped me get into the real Spirit of Christmas. Thanks Jen!