Family Halloween Party 2009

Todd and Haylee had a fun Halloween party at their house this year. Both Todd's family and Haylee's family were invited. We ate donuts off of strings (Tyrel won twice). The little kids played paste the wart on the witches nose with pieces of gum as the warts. The adults played a murder mystery game and we tried to do a web untangle thing that was not successful at all. Everyone dressed up except Sean and I (I said I was dressed as a soccer mom, and Sean was still in his work clothes so he was dressed as an exterminator). We had lots of treats including caramel apples that were doubled dipped in chocolate with the chocolate fountain, cute little mummy cookies, birthday cake for Todd, 7 layer dip and chips, and more dips, crackers, cakes, and treats. My favorite part of the whole evening was seeing Grandma Nielsen dressed up as a clown. Sean said he has never in his whole life seen his mom dress up for Halloween, so that was kinda fun! We missed all of the siblings and cousins with sick kids. Hope you can make it next year if they do it again!

More Layouts of my boys

I did these layouts of the boys today and had to share. I just noticed how well this kit matches my blog background.

A New Driver at our house

Travis could have taken his test for his learner's permit last year in June (2008) but he has put it off again and again. He has lots of friends that are willing to drive him around, so he didn't see the need.

We finally decided 2 weeks ago when they were off school for Fall Break that we would run over to Orem and take the test. I was told to go to Nephi because they were less busy, but they are only open on Tuesdays. So with mini birth certificate and SS card in hand, we headed to Orem, filled out the application, waited in the horrendously long line for 45 minutes and were told that the mini birth certificate was not usable, they needed the original. Great!!! The Health Department talked me into getting those when he was born because "They can be used just like the original without having to haul the original around." HA! NOT!

So, we went home.

The next week, Tyrel had just got out of the hospital with swine flu so that was out.

So, on Tuesday, the 27th day of October, I picked Travis up from school and we headed to Nephi. We went in , filled out the application again because I left the other one we filled out in Orem at home, presented the FULL ORIGINAL birth certificate and SS card and Travis went to work on the test.

There was a girl there that started after him and finished up in like 10 minutes, way before he was done. She came over and sat by her dad who was near me and he was bragging that she had started after Travis and finished before him. Well, when they called her over, she had failed the test and had to study some more and retake it.

Travis finished and came and sat down by me. They called him over after they checked it and the nice lady at the DMV sat him down. He was allowed to miss 10 and he had missed 11, so she re-asked him the ones he had missed and let him answer them again and he got 7 of the 11 he had missed right on the 2nd guess. So, she let him pass. I'm sure they would have never done that in Orem because they are so stinkin busy over there.

He is now the proud owner of a learner's permit. Hopefully he won't put off his driving hours so he can have his actual license before he goes on his mission.

Annual Family Photo Shoot

Every year on Conference weekend in October, we get our family pictures taken. Usually, I set up the tri-pod and use the timer feature on my camera, but this year I asked my wonderful neighbor to do our family pictures. She also did a few of Sean and I and then I did the pictures of the boys myself.

We went for the more serious look this year so I didn't want you to think that they were mad that they were getting their picture taken, we told them to look serious on some of the shots. I think they turned out great. I edited them a bit with a 70s photo action to give them the old faded look.

We took them at Peteetneet which is an old school in Payson now turned into a museum. It actually reminds me a ton of the elementary school I went to in Colorado when I was in 1-6th grade. I think it is the same building plan because it is almost identical on the inside.

My friend Nicole let me use her new kit to scrap my pages with. I thought the colors looked good with our photos. You would never know it is actually a golf kit......

Oh, you will have to wait for our Christmas card to see the Family photo, or maybe I'll add the layout when I get it done.

Swine Flu

Tyrel woke up sick Sunday morning and stayed home from church. I just let him sleep because I thought that would be best to help him recover. The batteries in the thermometer were dead but I knew he was running a temperature. Sunday night we tried to sit him up for Sean to give him a blessing and he passed out. He came to and was scared and started breathing really fast and was hyperventilating. We had a pediatrician in our ward come look at him and he told us he needed to be hospitalized for dehydration. I didn’t think a fever would dehydrate him so much in just one day. He direct admitted us so we didn’t have to wait through the emergency room drama. They pumped him full of fluids and he was doing much better on Monday morning. He tested positive for Influenza A, which they are classifying as SWINE FLU, and also strep throat and pneumonia. He stayed home from school all week and drank lots of water, gatorade, and Sprite to keep from getting dehydrated again. Luckily, no one else caught it from him. The worst part for him was that he had to miss his last two soccer games of the season.

Shooters Soccer

My aunt just sent me a Photoshop tutorial that taught how to make this layout based on an NFL ad in a magazine, so I thought I would give it a try. It took me quite a while but I like how it turned out. I must say, it would be so much faster and easier with a template, but it did teach me how to use some new tools in Photoshop so I'm glad I did it.

Tyrel has had a pretty good soccer season this year in his first year of accelerated soccer. We had a game in Logan on Friday that I was a soccer mom/chauffeur for. I had 5 boys with me and did get there on time. The coach (and the boys cards) were late and come to find out, the coach had been on the phone with the other coach trying to get directions and he was giving our coach bogus directions! The nerve..... So, then the coaches come over to the refs wanting them to call the game since our team isn't all there. So, the ref gets on the phone with our coach and gives him the right directions and doesn't call the game (he didn't know that the other guy had been giving bad directions). Anyway, we beat them 3-1. The other coach was mad because the game didn't get called (after we all drove 3 hours to get there through rush hour traffic and accidents on the freeway). I don't think they have won any games because they are at the bottom of the division, but how satisfying would a win be that was a forfeit that you caused?? HUH? I don't get it.

Saturday Tyrel had a game in Orem that was a tough fought battle ending in 0-0 score. Then they had a game on Monday against American Fork (I think) that we lost 2-3. We really did play a better game than them. We had way more shots on goal but we overshot them 90% of the time. The net just needed to be another foot taller and we would have creamed them. I think they had way too much adrenaline every time they got it down there. Also, we were down 3 players so had no subs which always makes for a long hard game.

There are just two more games left this season. Hopefully they can finish the season off well.

Sadie Hawkins

Travis got asked to Sadie's this year. Chelsea and Courtney came over one night while he was gone to a young men's activity and left a trail of gum throughout the house. Then they had tons of gum all over his room with a poster that said "I'd be BLOWN to PIECES if you would go to Sadie's with me" He was supposed to start unwrapping to find the wrappers with letters on them to find out who his date was.
He decided to write a little pirate thing to answer her and we almost burned the house down while we were burning the edge of it. You can see at the bottom center where we got a little carried away. Travis and I were both blowing to get it out and just made it worse. I had to end up getting a wet washcloth to put it out. LOL. He had Trevin dress up in our pirate costume to deliver the note. Trevin was supposed to ask for the "scallywag" when he went to the door, but he forgot because the girls were so excited and busy taking pictures of him.

You may notice something funny about the group picture below. I'm not going to tell, leave a comment if you figure it out. Anyway, they went to the Anderson's for dinner and then went on a treasure hunt. Oh, the theme was PIRATES just in case you didn't figure that out already. Travis said the dance was really fun and he had a great time.

The first thing he said to me when he came home was "Chelsea's hair was so cool!" she had it in little braids with beads in the front, kind of like Captain Jack Sparrow hair. I love this picture of them.

Isn't this the cutest kit to scrap these with? No, it isn't one we designed, it is from Scraps by Andrea and I thought it was perfect.