Uncle Greg

Life has been crazy and I haven't updated my blog lately, but I had to wish my baby brother a happy birthday today. I did this layout of one of his baby pictures that is my favorite. He turns 37 today. We love you Greg! Don't you love those chubby little hands?


Some of my boys favorite memories of Uncle Greg are when he lived with us for a while when we lived in our other Elk Ridge house. When we would sing the "Family Night Song" on the line that says "Father and mother, daughter, son, together on family night" we sing "Father and mother, my three sons, together on family night". But when Uncle Greg was living with us, we would sing "Father and mother, my three sons (pause) and Uncle Greg, together on family night." My kids thought it was hilarious and sang it that way for years after Greg didn't even live with us anymore. They still throw it in every once in a while now and it has been years since he lived here.


He stayed in a room in our basement and it was "Uncle Greg's room" until we moved out. Jen always thought it was funny when she would come stay over and sleep there (after Greg had moved out of course) and the boys would still call it Uncle Greg's room. I think she thought she had stayed there more than him and wondered why it wasn't called "Aunt Jen's room". Even when Greg was living with us, he was rarely there. I think Jen probably spent more time sleeping in that room than Greg did. He is such a busy guy with softball and his friends. I loved that he would cook us dinner once a week as his "rent". It was great for me to have a break and he is a great cook.


They also always love riding in the truck with him because he has crazy music and love playing with his video games.


Hope you had a happy birthday and hope you can work it out to come up so we can take you to dinner next week sometime. Love ya!

I Met Someone Famous - kind of

K, those of you that know me know that I am a fanatic about "So You Think You Can Dance". Well, today, my boys stayed after school to do some missing assignments and I had to run by Wal-Mart to grab a few things on the way home. They went their way to find treats and I went to find the groceries I needed. When I was done and checked out, I was walking out and there was this guy that I almost bumped into as I was texting my boys to find out where they were and he was getting a sticker on his items he was returning. I thought he looked familiar but couldn't place him right away. Tyrel texted me back that he needed my ID for the thing he was returning so I turned around and went to customer service. So this guy that I bumped into was behind me in line and I figured out who it was. It was Thayne from "So You Think You Can Dance". So I turn to him and say, "Hey, you were on So You Think You Can Dance weren't you?" He smiled and said yes and I told him that I had watched him and that he was one of my favorites. My kids thought I was a total geek.

New Years Eve

I can't believe the year has come and gone. It has been a year of struggles financially for our family and we hope for a better year this next year. I have actually been swamped with work over the past month, so hopefully the loans all close and we can get back on track again.

We had our annual New Year's Eve party. I think all of the Nielsen's were able to make it this year except for Melisa's family and Troy and Lisa. We played games, watched movies and had lots of yummy treats (Haylee brought yummy pomegranate ice cream) Then, when it struck midnight we shot off our illegal fireworks and all the kids shot off their poppers. Grandpa Nielsen had the bright idea to buy noisemakers this year and I thought I was going to go insane for those 5 minutes that the kids were blowing them. They definitely were noise makers!

I had put together a Nielsen Memory Lane family trivia game with lots of fun trivia questions from stories I've heard told over the years. It was fun to test everyone's memory. Alexis actually won the game and she is only 9!

Evers Family Christmas Party

We got together with my family on the Saturday after Christmas. We got the yummy tri-tip for dinner along with all of the fixings. It was fun to be together and even more special because Dad and Mom leave on their mission in a few weeks and won't be here for next Christmas. Their wish is for us kids to stay close and do things together while they are gone and I think it will be fun to plan and do things with my brothers and sister this next year. Heidi and my mom got all of the boys and Kaitlin t-shirts that said "git er done" on them. This has kind of been our family motto since dad had his surgery over a year ago.

After dinner Travis and Sean played the guitar for us and Kaitlin and Tyler sang a hot cup of cocoa song for us. It was fun to be together with family and fun that mom and dad almost have their dining room done for us to eat in. We ate in it even though it isn't quite finished.

Christmas Day

Travis only put 3 things on his list this year, he wanted Guitar Hero World Tour (didn't get it) Iron Man DVD, and a new black accoustic/electric guitar like his dads. I told Sean he was going to have to buy the guitar, because I know nothing about what is good or not. Luckily he found a Washburn guitar with an electric pick up on Ebay that had only been played 1/2 a dozen times and came with 2 extra sets of strings, and a hard case. The guitars he had looked at that were similar in the stores were $500-$800. He was able to pick this one up for $220 with shipping included. I was a little worried because it took like 3 weeks to get here and I was worried it wasn't ever going to arrive and then what would we do since it was the only thing Travis was getting? But it arrived in time and it was beautiful, not a scratch or a fingerprint on it. Travis was so excited when he opened it up and he and Sean sat and played guitar together almost all day on Christmas day. It was so fun to listen to them. Most of my pictures are with his hand in his face blocking the photo shot, but I did happen to get this one.

Tyrel only wanted snow toys for the January campout at the Haskell's cabin for scouts, so he did his own shopping on Amazon and got himself a snowboard and a snow scooter. He is loving his snow scooter. I don't have his pictures scrapped yet, but here is a photo without a layout.

Trevin wanted Indiana Jones Legos and an Eagles helmet. We opted for a real helmet so he could have as a keepsake instead of a cheap plastic imitation. He spent all morning putting his Lego set together according to the instruction booklet. All of the boys have really enjoyed Legos and it was fun to see him do it by himself.

Sick on Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve, all was going well. I had some extra time in the afternoon and since I didn't get pumpkin break made and gifted to my neighbors, I decided I should at least make some for Sean and Travis' home teaching families, so I made some pumpkin bread and while Sean and the boys were delivering, I threw together some chicken enchiladas for dinner.

After dinner we cleaned up the mess and I sent Sean downstairs to get the boys so we could open our Christmas Eve gifts and read the Christmas story from the Bible. All of the sudden I got the worst abdominal cramps I had ever had. I was in pain worse than I remember when I was in labor. I was sweating and shaking and doubled over in pain. Tyrel had been sick with the stomach flu a few days before, so I thought maybe that was it, but I seriously was in so much pain I thought an epidural would be great. I began to wonder if maybe my appendix had burst or something. It was absolutely awful!

I had Sean help me into bed and told him I didn't think I could stand it and that I needed a blessing. He was at a loss as to who to call on Christmas Eve. He tried his dad and got no answer, so he tried his brother Todd. Todd asked if we could wait until they had put their kids to bed and I said "No, keep trying the neighbors." Thankfully, Todd said he could come up. I felt really bad taking him away from the family on Christmas Eve, but I seriously thought it was something really serious.

While we were waiting I told Sean where the stocking stuffers were hidden and where the "Santa" presents were so he could get them out. We had the kids come in to our room and sit on the floor to open their Christmas Eve pajamas.

He came, they gave me a blessing, Sean walked Todd to his car and by the time he got back to me I was totally fine. I ended up getting up and finishing off the Christmas stuff like I had planned. I'm so thankful for the power of the Priesthood.

Nielsen Christmas Party

We decided for the first time ever to have a Nielsen Family Christmas party this year. It was at our house and we decided to have dinner and then to re-enact the Nativity because Sean's family grew up doing that.

We had spaghetti, salad, rolls, and dessert and then proceeded to get all of the "actors" in costume. After finding enough bath towels, we proceeded to the living room for Grandpa LaMarr to read the story while we sang and had the kids re-enact the story. My kids are so much older than the rest, it looked like we had giant wisemen. Trevin and Alexis were Joseph and Mary and we had a couple of little rabbits instead of sheep, but it was cute! Travis and Tyrel tried their hardest to stay out of camera range.

This is a picture of Diane and LaMarr in front of our tree.

This was a fun family tradition that I hope we can continue.