Easter Egg Hunt

All the Nielsen clan got together down at Todd and Haylee's this year for an Easter Egg hunt.  We had salads and rolls and then had an Easter Egg hunt.  I wish I had a good picture of it, but the one I have is blurry, but it was so funny as Haylee opened the gate for all the kids to come in the back yard to find eggs, Travis was in the front of the line. I know it was because he was in a hurry because he had to go to work, but it was so funny to see the big 18 year old crowding out all the little kids to be first in getting the eggs.

Even the big boys had fun!

Scrapbooking Weekend

I went scrapbooking with my friends this weekend in Orem.  Heidi got to come up this time too.  It was fun although I was all set to organize and resave all my templates and when I opened up the folder on my external hard drive, there were only 2 templates on my EHD.  Somehow, the transfer didn't happen, but at least I still have them all on my hard drive at home.

Instead, I got all of Tyrel's dance layouts done as well as our Thanksgiving craft activity layout.  I made some new patterns for us to use for pattern papers, visited, ate, and had a great time with my friends.  I won't be able to go to the June one, but they moved the date for the September one, so hopefully I'll be able to go to it now.

School Dances

I've been a bad blogger lately, but we have been busy lately.  I finally got all of Tyrel's dance pictures scrapped so I can post them.

He went on a blind date with Sarah from Spanish Fork for Sadie Hawkins.  He had no idea who she was at all when he got the Lifesaver invitation on the front porch.  He checked his yearbook, Facebook, texted his friends and finally found out that he was set up by his ASL teacher.  He was worried about going out with someone he didn't know, but he did know all the guys in the group and he ended up really having a fun time. They went to In & Out Burger for dinner, played miniature golf at Trafalga , went to the dance and then went to one of the other girls house to watch "Elf"

The next dance was Sweethearts.  He took Kayli Peterson from our ward and doubled with his friend Hunter who took Samantha Magoffin.  They all had things going on so they didn't go on a day date.  They went to Jaxies for dinner and then to the dance.  Afterwards they came back to our house for ice cream and watched .  Doesn't he look handsome?  

Next he went to Preference with his friend Storm.  They doubled with his friend Hunter and his date Kandalyn.  For their day date they went bowling.  Storm won the first round and Tyrel won the 2nd round.  They went to Kandalyn's house for takeout from Texas Roadhouse for dinner, to the dance, and then back to our house to watch "She's The Man".  Another fun date for him.

Coaching the Brick Masons

Pathetic name huh!  I guess the city ran out of team names by the time they got to naming the 11th and 12th grade teams because all of them have stupid names.  Tyrel got a few of his friends together to make a team this year.

 They wanted Travis to coach and Travis was so super excited to wear his suit like Jerry Sloan and coach the team.  We figured it would be ok since he was 18, but the city said no that they thought he would cause fights with the other coaches (Really??  They apparently don't know Travis, he is one of the most mellow even tempered people around).

So anyway, they talked Sean into it, which is good anyway since Travis has had to work almost every game.  They haven't done so well, but they have had fun and Travis did get to be the assistant coach and help with one game.  Sean wouldn't let them dribble the ball at their last game and they came really close to winning by just doing passes and no dribbling.  

 We'll see if they can pull off a win next time.  He didn't have them do it until half time, they were down by 20 and got to within 2, but then lost by 7 at the end.

Super Bowl Sunday and PINTEREST

So, for those of you that don't know, I have a confession to make, I'm addicted to Pinterest.  For those of you that don't know, it is like a virtual bulletin board.  Instead of bookmarking the sites you like and then wondering why you bookmarked them, you can create boards with different subjects that interest you and "pin" images from the internet to the boards and then if you go back and click on it, it will take you back to the site. 

 For instance, if you find a recipe you like, you "pin" the image to your food board and then when you need to find it again, you simply glance at the pictures on your board, click on it, and it will take you back to the site with the recipe.  

Super cool huh!  It has crafts and decorating and recipes and clothes and photo tips and pretty much everything you would ever want!  Plus, you can follow your friends pins and repin them to your board if you want.  So, speaking of football (above) and Pinterest, I found this recipe for oatmeal cream cookies that were decorated like footballs for superbowl party snacks.  I thought they looked super cute, but my boys demanded homemade oreo's as their football snack.  So, I made my oreos football shaped.  They were more just oblong, but they tasted oh so yummy!  Not the best picture, but you can see it below.

We didn’t really have a team in the running this year.  The Steelers lost so we were then rooting for the Broncos to make it, but they didn’t get there either.  

Sean cheered for the Patriots because it is against his nature to cheer for any New York Teams.  The rest of us cheered for the  Giants becase we don’t like Tom Brady. In the end, it didn’t realy matter who won though.

Our favorite commercial this year was the m&m comercial.

Our game food was

tacos de carnitas

Brazilian Limeade

nachos

crackers and dip

chips and salsa

and

I made these fun football cookies that really didn’t turn out to be fotball shaped, but they tasted oh so yummy!  

We didn’t have anyone over so we just watched it on the big scren ourselves and enjoyed spending time together as a family.

Hopefully next year one of our teams will make it to the Super Bowl so we can have something to cheer for other than good snacks.

SUPERBOWL  XLVI

February 5, 2012

Played in Indianapolis, Indiana

Greg is over the hill

My baby brother turned 40 this year.  My mom put on a surprise party for him and it was fun to go down and spend some time with family and friends.  We had a Cafe Rio burrito bar and it was so yummy.  Lots of good toppings for that and for the ice cream sundaes we had for dessert.

Greg found out beforehand, so he decided to bring his craps table that he built himself when he was in college.  In fact, I think teaching people to play craps and then beating them at it is how he paid for his expenses while going to college.  So, he taught everyone who wanted to learn how to play, much to the dismay of this mother, my boys enjoyed it.

Friends

I can't remember for sure which weekend these pictures were taken, because this is a regular weekend activity at our house.  The boys have their friends over to play WOW, Magyk, Video Games, or just to hang out.  We end up with an entryway so crowded with shoes you can barely get through.  But, at least they are here and we know they are safe and not doing anything crazy.  They have good friends and we love having the house full.