Pond Lights

I'm grateful for my calling in Young Women's in my ward. We went for our annual hayride/caroling excursion tonight. We went down to Salem pond this year. The lights were beautiful reflecting off the water. The pictures don't really do it justice. We had donuts and hot chocolate afterwards. Thanks Bishop for letting us use the hay wagon again. It was pretty crowded this year! Thanks YM/YW for coming out in the cold to go caroling!

Almost done with Eagle Projects

I'm very very grateful that we are almost done with Travis and Tyrel's Eagle Projects. We have pants rounded up for their uniforms and they have their Board of Review on Thursday night. Wish them luck!

Sub For Santa

I'm grateful we were able to put together a Sub for Santa project this year again. We haven't had a lot of money with getting Sean's business started but still felt it was important for our boys to know that there are people worse off than we are. So, we requested a family with 2 children this year and went shopping for them tonight for family night. There was a little boy that is 4 1/2 years old and a little girl that is 18 months old. The mom is a single mother living with relatives. She works part time cleaning houses but doesn't make a lot of money. The boys had fun shopping. They picked out a big semi truck loaded with matchbox cars for the boy and some blocks for the little girl. We picked out a shirt and pants for each of them and also a book. The boys put on their Santa hats (I should get a picture of that) and we delivered it to their home. She was so gracious, she invited us in and let us meet the kids and gave us a thank you card and a couple of candybars. The little boy had cut the little girls hair earlier while the mother was working, so she had a bunch of bald spots, it was kinda funny, but such a good experience for the kids and for us to be able to help out a little again.

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!