It's starting to look a lot like Christmas!

Pretty clever title huh?

Guess What!! There are only fourteen more days until Christmas! Yay!

Okay well the thing is..we have been all decorated for a couple of weeks, but I have neglected the blog. 

Anyway I am feeling compelled to share with you all how festive things are around the Nelson household

Is this not the most charlie browniest tree you have ever seen? 

and the stockings were hung...

isn't this the coolest thing? fishing line and bulbs...the only problem is I keep fussing with the pattern...

The most time consuming Advent calendar ever!! I originally planned to let me kids take down and wear the sock but after the time...NO WAY this is an heirloom! The lessons have been super fun and have taught us all a bunch about the season and ourselves.

 and of course our "happy birthday" Jesus. It has been super weird this year...baby Jesus hasn't come up missing once (yet?) however one tradition remains...the littlest Nelson busting out in Happy Birthday Baby Jesus at random...I think it is one of my favorites!

Thankful-ness

Around this time for the past two years I, like many of my Facebook comrades, would fill my daily status bar with a shout out to something I was thankful for..some more meaningful than others. This year however something in me felt somewhat bitter towards the whole practice (let me insert that in no way am I taking away from the people who chose to take part of this challenge...I just honestly wasn't moved by the calling as I had before) I felt guilty for not participating but not sure why I felt so annoyed with myself about it...I am not having any trials in my life that would cause me to be jaded; in fact quite the opposite I have been learning so much about myself and have gained a new piece of my life through Faith that up until very recently my life had been completely void. 

Soooo what's the problem? I figured it out today while listening to a presentation this morning addressing the topic of gratitude. We are so focused on the wrong and how to make it right we seem to take for granted all the beautiful things that happen everyday. The presenter nailed it since we are little people are always telling us how to do it right, we are programmed to seek out the wrong in order to make it right. She recommended taking time to smell the roses...to enjoy what is right in the world. My plan: Gratitude journal, actually it is part of my prayer journal however it seems appropriate. Each day I will write down five things that I am thankful for, five things that I have been provided with that I take for granted. 

Today Day One I will share my first five with you:

One: 

My Family..Through them I have the most to teach and the most to learn.

Two:

Country: I am so blessed to be able to raise my family in the most gracious, industrious and beautiful country. God Bless the USA! 

 

Three:

This is multifaceted part A: My amazing job that has allowed me to grow in so many ways and discover my talents and strengths as well as weaknesses. Part B: My crazy friends and their sense of humor! I love that this picture was captured and shared

Four:

need I say more... (ps have you seen it..she is missing!!)

Five:

I so thankful to have been saved.

My newest obsession...Pinterest!

So a few short weeks ago a friend of mine told me about this website Pinterest.. it is amazing. It's like this crazy pin board self editing magazine like thing of beauty! So for the first few days I just browsed but now i am in full need of a Pintervention...seriously said that....

Anyway So I have tried to recreated two of the inspirations I have stumbled upon...
First off is this super fun and versatile milk maid braid up do.. you can look at the step by step here and you will find I totally got lost and found my own way but I still think it is cute...

 it was super easy to wear and after the fly-a-ways where contained worked out really well...

second: keeping with the theme of braids and versatility I found this  yummy gem

I can't wait to try it with ham and cheese and serve it with tomato soup or maybe with mozzarella, pepperoni and pasta sauce paired with a minestrone...

My next project....

 this will replace my old (actually the last of the "original" newly wed hand me downs) shoe storage and catch all...then I am dreaming of this one..

sweet dreams....

Liars! All of us!!

Okay, you see I have been saving up this little tangent for quite some time now...the other day while burning daylight on pinterest I was faced with this truth..i am a big, fat liar and you see the thing is you are all in on the biggest lie EVER too. Its a joke really, I mean all of us are guilty (and if I am being to general and you really truly are not guilty..I don't know if I should be more sorry that I called you a liar (making me a bigger liar (yes this is a sidebar in a side bar of a side bar conversation with my self)) or that you have actually taken the time to be honestly read your way out of this! ANYWAY.....here it is, the biggest lie of all time...

yup..your guilty..checked the box a few times huh? I know I have and I used to be totally uncomfortable with it every single time, then to make matters worse I always had that sneaking suspicion that there is some clause in the "contract" to access and download free printable coupons that if I cross the street barefoot on a Tuesday a mass of flying monkeys that can only be expelled by dowsing them with $5 bottles of Fiji water will commander the discounted loot. (and I have never cone across a Fiji water coupon)

I imagine it would look a lot like this...

What is really sad about the whole thing is all we can do is submit..I mean unless we actually have the time to read a 45 page document that refers both to state and federal laws (for those of you I am sorry)..If you are like me once long ago you probably tried to read at least the bold print, right? but even that is like trying to translate Kanji to French with a slurppy (or is it Slurpie...maybe) milkshake (I'm in Utah 7 Elevens are a thing of the past in the southern regions). It probably does not help that I have a terrible habit of sidebar 

conversations and tangents as well as self diagnosis ADD (actually it's probably that i just quite caring as much as when the topic first began) BACK to topic! So since we have submitted I check the box without thinking twice then I "Safely remove" my iPOD...yup wrong again but that's neither here nor there just to find all my icons moved and silly updates made and I get all pissy..."when were they going to notify me of this?" 

*sigh* but alas there is nothing we can do...

BTW

The literal translation in French is

Je n'ai aucune idée et je suis totalement couché et j'ai utilisé Google Translator pour en arriver là ...

Okay you caught me another big fat lie!! 

Uphill and Birthday Brats!

Oh what a day it has been! Mary and I woke up this morning at 6:15, left my house and at 6:30, and ran a 5k at 7:00. It was a pretty tough course but we ran about half and walked half. So all in all, it went well.

Mary and I after the race! Yeahhh!

Afterwards, we got home and got ready then went straight to the Splash Pad for Daniel's Birthday party. It was quite the success! Once we got there, the kids got down to their swimming suits and went straight to the splash pad. Sophia was all over that; the first one to jump in the water and get soaked. Alexis and Sadie thought it was a little cold so they slowly worked their way into the water. While the kids were playing in the water Mary and Candace went to set up the scavenger hunt. "The cake went missing." Daniel didn't want to play because he found the cake in the cooler and told everyone where it was. That didn't stop Mary though! She made them do it-- the kids enjoyed it.

Kept this one big to show you how cute my little baby is

See! There were a little cold after putting probably
only their feet in the water. 

Sophia still playing in the water!

One of the hints was the Pinata. Our "grenade" was actually a dinosaur (it was an Army theme). One of the kiddos broke the hook so we had to tie a noose around the poor dinosaur. It was actually really funny to us adults.

This is the poor Dinosaur after the noose
was tired around this head.

Then of course, next was cake and presents!

After that the kids started leaving and the party died down. Hallelujah! Now some friends of me and Ronnie's are sitting in the nice a/c house. Hope everyone had just as a productive day as I did.

Heroes and Friends

These past few days have been very difficult our family during a time that America remembers when neighbors became heroes and strangers became friends, our family has been dealt an emotional loss. The air surrounding us is charged with an emotional nostalgia as we remember when times where most innocent.

I do not need to review the history with you but I thought I would share a moment today that brought me to my knees i found myself to be so filled with love and pride for our Country, our friends and our God. Our God who gives us the strength to overcome and the right to forgiveness and love for one another...our opportunity to share this beautiful life with our dear friends and family..although we may not understand why, we must understand that there is a reason.

There may be a time in our lives when a decision needs to be made, a decision that may defy reason, a decision that may be difficult for someone else to understand...When  these decisions are made by others we try to understand..but it is not up to us to understand the reason as we are not allowed the entire picture at this time.

10 years ago the 40 passengers and staff of United Airlines Flight 93 where held captive while flying over rural Pennsylvania...you all know the story. President George W. Bush while dedicating their memorial today put it in this perspective for me today.. At the moment America's democrasy was under attack, our citizens defied their captors by holding a vote. The choice they made would cost them their lives, and they knew it. Those words clarified so much to me right now...they then called their families and said their goodbyes. Tapes of one of the Patriots reveals him telling his wife the plan and her telling him to sit down and maybe the hijackers would change their minds...she didn't see the whole picture..today she is so very proud of her husband and fellow Patriots.

Another part of the speech he mentioned that "the world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here"

Left Ronnie (my husband) Center Daniel Left Bryan

Daniel Wilson Rest in Peace

We will always remember you for who you are and how you touched our lives...while we may not understand we have faith and love you.

God bless you.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/09/10/george-w-bushs-flight-93-memorial-dedication-speech#ixzz1Xc0NLAy1

New Years Resolutions!!

I know some of you may be thinking "ummm its September Lydia"...well I just have to say "Duh..it's the new year..random blog stalker" LOL JK but really I truly believe that the real new year begins when school starts. The clothes are pressed, the schedules are made, lists are checked and the air is crisp! (okay maybe in areas that have more than two seasons) So if you have checked out this entire blog you will see that i already have a bucket list for the year...but if you know me at all you also know i LOVE lists!!! So lets make one....

Not to mention my fridge calendar, my to do list apps AND gmail  calendars..BTW if you love these lists too i pick them up at pier one imports

1. Since I am apparently not going to finish my degree this year, I am going to have more time to harass my children about their school work! Yay for them... this year we will have a system that allows for stress free (well at least child shaking free) after school hours learning...
2. Finish some home projects...paint...paint...paint...volunteers??
3. Home cooked meals 5 times a week...I have bought a new apron just for this!! :) oh and lexy has her own too!! awe aren't we so domestic?

Pumpkin is wearing mine..they are great ...and have matching rubber gloves

4.  Balance!!! My diet, my budget and my time!!
5. Read the Bible. This has been both overwhelming and completely refreshing all at the same time!

Well that is all i can think of...right now..and besides my terrible grammar is buggin me!!

Miss Lou Who in her new classroom

BFFs!!!!

Daniel and the coolest first grade teacher EVER!!

Doesnt she look grown up? 

What would a ladybug post be without a little soph-a-loph??

and suddenly all the super heroes are missing (from my sons underwear)

I am completely baffled by two obvious truths..first off, in less than 12 hours we will be posing with new teachers on the first day of school. This summer has come and gone without warning. So in some sort of ridiculous attempt at either denial or defiance I waited until nearly the last possible second (monday morning would have been hilarious) to start and finish the insane back to school preparations...

 We started the marathon with haircuts at Paul Mitchell-the school..which had the kids feeling super big, super trendy and super hyped up on sugar cookies provided by the students for a back to school celebration.

After a struggle and being fifteen minutes late to our appointment because of Sadie"s mid back three feet deep (slight exaggeration) mane...I made the completely emotionally based decision to chop it off...i should react out of frustration more if this is what happens...

Here is Sophie getting her first big girl haircut...i feel that this deserves a post of it's own...however my family voted not to..since that would bore you...i know but this is a democracy. 

Sweet feather extensions...P.S. This was totally my idea and made me like the most totally awesome mom ever!! :) yup my kids are lucky to have me...they said that really...and yes they got the jeans they wanted later...SUCCKKKAAA!!!


Ok now for the second most baffling obvious truth...can you tell me what is missing from the following picture?

Other than my son's future dignity (my husbands guess) i will tell you....SUPER HEROES!!!
When did my son decide that he needed to wear underwear without characters? I have no idea why i find it so disturbing but I do!!! I may have just demoted myself from cool mom status but this needed to be discussed!! He grabbed them right up and said "I need these" through them in the cart with no explanation at all..whatever!!


anyway I hope all of your back to school shopping is done!!! and your real new year resolutions are made...we will discuss this later!! :)

Soph's hunt for for Birthday Bugs!!

Thursday night (her actual birthday) we ate cake and opened presents with just the family. On Friday night, her friends and more family came over and went on a bug hunt. We played a game where teams of two wrapped their teammate up in toilet paper. So they looked like caterpillars. Clever right? Well we had a BBQ and afterwards opened presents and had more cake. The night or so before Sophia's birthday, I told her that her friends were going to come for her birthday. Her response: "Oh goodie! I love them people." 

This is Sophia's birthday cake. Aunt Candace made it.
All the kids loved it. 

These are the kids playing the Caterpillar game 

Sadie and Emily came in second place

This is Sophia about to make a wish on her candles

Side note: I need to start blogging about the funny things Sophia says. On Saturday we went up to Ronnie's Grandpa's property and when we left, Sophia just started crying. We asked her what was wrong and she replied, "I miss my fwends. I wuv dem." Then she kept saying last night, "Guess what?" Then you would reply, "What?" She would get all up in front of you, get a smile on her face, "Get outta town!" Yeah, she has a little humor if you can't tell.

Well that was the weekend in a nut shell.

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day. 

Our weekend adventures!!

A couple weeks ago we went to the Panguich Utah hot air balloon rally. If you are ever in the area it is a beautiful display you would not want to miss. The kids where amazing (who am I kidding? so were the adults)

This small town has a full schedule of events that give you a feel of "back home"

   

the next weekend we took a trip to my husbands family property on Cedar Mountain, again a beautiful display!