The Nelson Kids

Best of Disney 2010

2010-07-06T15:36:00.001-07:00

For my daughter:) It’s hard to take 600 pictures and decide how to document our wonderful trip to Disney World, so I decided to chose some of my favorites for a fun little summary!

First night~ Chef Mickey’s

Celebrating Claire’s birthday a little early!

Cole was not a fan of Minnie :(

Raining, raining, raining!!

Trying out the fun pool and slide at the hotel!

Early dinner

Hollywood Studios!

Fantasmic!

Having a serious discussion at Magic Kingdom!

Claire’s Birthday!!

About to go eat at the Castle with all the princesses!

Back to Hollywood Studios! First stop~ Toy Story Mania!!

Fun lunch at Hollywood and Vine!

Before our wonderful dinner at Ohana’s!

Jack’s special desert!

Downtown Disney!!

Epcot!!

Last day~ back to Magic Kingdom!

Minnie’s house!

Mickey’s house (actually his garage!)

Lots more pictures were taken and tons of fun was had by all! More details to come!

Smile :)

2010-04-29T21:30:00.001-07:00

Claire’s Open House

2010-02-25T19:49:00.001-08:00

We’ll just pretend that February follows September and fill in some blanks later! Claire had Open House at school tonight, and it was her first time to sing in a program. She did great! We all loved seeing our little baby up there!!

Here she is right after they walked in

A little nervous :)

Singing!!

listening to the director!

doing the motions!

Waving to sis!!

Then off we went to Claire’s classroom which had been transformed!! The theme for the night was Playday Goes to the Pond, and there were ponds and pond creatures everywhere! So adorable!!

Claire with her frog and bucket!

Claire and her best buddies!! They were supposed to wear a solid bright colored shirt, and great minds think alike!!

one of the ponds :)

Cute dragonfly lights and a little pail from Miss Penny! One of the mom’s made little dragonfly hair clips for the girls :) And check out Claire’s handwriting!!

Miss Penny :)

Claire’s homework!!

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-12T11:13:00.001-07:00

Bill’s parents recently bought a new house in Kingsland (outside of Marble Falls), so we headed out last Friday to visit them!

Here are the girls hanging out on the back porch on Saturday morning!

Before lunch we went to see some nearby caverns but the timing of the tour didn’t work out! We also stopped at a little scenic overlook and took a few pictures! Lots of pretty views!

A few pictures back at the house after lunch

We went out for a yummy dinner at a restaurant on the water, then played out back and took more pictures!!

Sweet pictures with Pop Pop

pretty sunset :)

One more First Day of School!

2009-09-01T12:45:00.000-07:00

My sweet girl started "the three year old class" today! She did great! Cried a (very) little when I dropped her off, then cried alot when I picked her up! She didn't want to leave! I've stropped trying to guess what she'll do!! :)

First Day of School

2009-08-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

My baby started Middle School today! How is that possible. As I type, she's still at school and I'm having one of the longest days ever. Praying she has a good day! My sweet boy started third grade with a precious teacher and several friends in his class. Hoping he's having a great day too! Just a few pics from this morning :)

Jack was ready first, so we went on out!

Not to be left out - Claire joined him! Aunt, notice Claire's friend :)

Maddie finally ready!

Another "First Day!" Love these three!!

Claire's Birthday!!

2009-07-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

My baby turned 3 on June 21st. How is that possible? She's supposed to stay my little one! But she's growing up so fast, and is a complete joy! We just had a little family party on that Saturday, but she enjoyed every minute of her big day! She had asked for "a bike, a scooter, and a bath for my baby!" The "bath" being this huge wooden (and heavy) baby station combo with bed, bath and highchair on top and cabinets beneath! Of course she got all three :), but I only have pictures of the scooter that day. The baby center had to be put together, and it took her about a day to master the bike. Now she rides that thing all over the house (too hot outside, so I relented!)! Soo cute! I'll have to take some pics of bike riding too!

The Birthday Girl!

wearing the birthday crown :)

starting to open presents

first present!

more opening...

getting out the scooter! thanks grammy and poppi :)

sweet sisters :)

this looks fun!

Chapman enjoying the new princess drum :)

Jack enjoying the party!

getting on her new helmet to go try out the scooter!

this feels good!

off she goes!

I love this girl, and the fact that she always needs her sunglasses :)

Back inside for cake! Claire picked an ice cream cake (with icing ballons!) from Baskin Robbins. Perfect for a hot June day and yummy!!

Chappy needed in on this! I guess his mom was anticipating a mess - I don't know why!!

"look at my cake, Chapman"

the candles are lit!

I can tell she's embarrassed but loving it that everyone's singing to her in the next two :)

about to blow...

I did it!!

Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love you!

Even more family reunion fun!

2009-06-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

Here is the group picture we took of everyone! This is my mom and her sister and brother and their spouses, children and grandchildren. My brother and my Aunt Kathleen's daughter weren't able to make it, but everyone else was there! What a fun memory it is! And here are some pictures from our second and last day!

While most of the boys played golf, some of us went into town to a few little shops. Alli got a root beer, and we had some fun taking pictures!!

More kubota fun :)

Mom, Uncle Vince, Aunt Kathleen

Their sweeties

One of the reasons we got together was to celebrate my cousin Bailey's high school graduation! She is so precious and we loved getting to honor her! Here she is opening a few graduation gifts :)

the audience

back out for a last little bit of playing!

yes the grill is attached to the kubota! we had yummy bbq

and cake and homemade ice cream!

I really was there :)

Alli braided the girls' hair! She's such a fun aunt/cousin :)

And that's all! You're not going to believe it, but I really did narrow this down!
scroll down for day 1 :)

Family Reunion - First Morning

2009-06-29T12:58:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we headed to my cousin Dawn's house in Missouri for a Family Reunion. We had a WONDERFUL time! She and her family live a few miles out of town on some beautiful land with LOTS to do! The first day we were there everyone just hung out around their property fishing, swinging, playing, and on and on...

We did some swinging out over the pond!

Rachel

Aubree

Chapman's not too sure about this!

Robbie

We did some walking around..

and playing

And we did LOTS of fishing!

Maddie caught one!

Robbie caught one!

Even the littles fished!!

Chapman caught one! (look at Jack's face!)

Chapman LOVED the rocks!

so sweet :)

Aunt Kathleen caught one!

Chappy's had enough :)

Jack "catching" one!

Claire caught one!

Poppi caught one!

back at the house..Kathleen, Grammy, Dawn

Alli, Bailey, Aubree

Now for some face painting!

Showing off her artwork!

Maddie & Aubree loving spending time together!!

Chapman with a bat and ball - shocking :)

More face painting

One of my favorite pics :)

playing Trouble!

Now off to have lunch!

More Family Reunion Fun

2009-06-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

After lunch the first day, it was tie dying, relaxing, playing in the kubota, a little baseball and sno cones (and of course more fishing)!! You try to narrow down all those pictures!!

I LOVE this pic of Chapman and the dog in the Kubota!

Just relaxing after lunch

Sweet girls :)

Time to tie dye some reunion tees!!

a little baseball

Now sno cones!!!

and a little splashing!

and some "pretend" four wheeler riding!

basketball

taking pictures :)

and more fishing!

camera fun - Aunt and Claire making... sad faces

happy faces

and silly faces!!!

and lots more fun!

Bonfire

2009-06-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

We had a fun bonfire the first night. We roasted hotdogs and marshmellows for smores! Yummy!

Poppi's artistic photos!

Inside for some crafts :)

Good night, and don't worry - I didn't take nearly as many pictures the next day :)

May so far...

2009-05-23T17:27:00.001-07:00

Scroll down for several new posts!!

Cousin fun!

2009-05-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

More Birthday Fun!

2009-05-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my sweet boy is already 9 years old. Like my mom always says, "I have two sweet girls, but only one little boy!!" And a precious one he is! I'm so proud of him and all that he's becoming.

The next two pictures were on Friday, his actual birthday. Jack was "pawed"!

Then Saturday, the Penuels and Grammy and Poppi were with us for a birthday cookout!

opening presents!

reading a clue for Grammy's traditional "hunt" for the gift!

time for cake!

a few pics of the littles having fun!

When Jack saw me working on his birthday post, he said he hoped he'd get 72 "compliments" or at least more than 5! :)

Ranger Game

2009-05-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

Jack's 9th birthday was May 15th! Instead of a "party", he invited two of his friends to go with him to the Ranger Game that night! He wanted it to be a boys night with just his friends, Bill and Poppi. I was only a little sad that he wanted Poppi to go instead of me :)!

Landry, Jack and Cooper almost ready to go!

The whole group!

some pre-game activities

Having fun!

"Happy Birthday Jack Nelson" went around the stadium! Hard to get a picture, but very exciting!!

Fun Friday Forming and Frolicing with Friends

2009-05-23T13:14:00.000-07:00

There's an episode of Friends where Joey uses a thesaurus on every word of a letter he's writing to make himself sound smarter! Every time I saw someone's post of this little art outing, they had a really cute title. So I had to get out my thesaurus to come up with my own clever title while not copying someone else's! It's actually been a couple of weeks now since we went with Aunt and Chapman to Kids & Art in Frisco for a fun morning of craft making (forming) and playing (frolicing) with LOTS of other sweet friends!

A little playing when we got there

Claire and Blake

She really liked these maracas!

My friend Julie realized that her cousin and I were both here, but we didn't meet. When I looked at my pictures, I had this one with her cousin(in the back) and her cousin's little girl (on the right). So close! And such a small world!!

Starting our craft! Painting (Claire's old favorite!)

Too busy for a true smile :)

Glueing (Claire's new favorite!)

She really liked glueing!!

Chapman liked it too!

Last ones in the place!!

The perfect ending - some bubbles...

and a lollipop!

The WHOLE group!!

Fun Friday!

A little more art!

2009-05-23T13:07:00.000-07:00

Shortly after our fun art outing, Grammy brought paint with water books to Claire and Chapman. Another huge hit!!

Tea for three!

2009-05-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

Claire has THE most precious preschool teacher this year. She had a hard time adjusting to school at the beginning of the year, but Miss Stephanie went above and beyond to make her comfortable. Now she never wants to leave at the end of the day! Miss Stephanie auctioned off a tea party at the school's fundraiser, and one of the mom's in our class won it! There are only 3 girls in Claire's class, so she invited the other girls (and their moms!) to join her! And OH MY GOODNESS, it was so cute!!! Looking back at my pictures, they don't even really do it justice!

Here are the girls arriving in the room. You can't really tell, but there were all kinds of girlie goodies sticking out of the boas on the tables - braclets, rings, cute little flower pads, etc! Princess confetti/stickers and of course candy!

Precious centerpiece. Each girl had a pink wand with her name. And those are huge "diamond" rings in the vase. They had each gotten one attached to their invitation!

taking their seats

of course they need a tiara!

l-r Natalie, Hannah, Claire

yummy lunch included chick-fil-a nuggets (doesn't get better than that!)

the "tea"!!

barbie lipstick that's really a lollipop!!

with Miss Stephanie

first after tea activity - the new favorite - painting! Claire was first in line!

princess painting purple on pink paper!

I LOVE this picutre! Forgot to mention the tatoo they got at the beginning!

A little princess board game! Claire is getting really tired at this point - so not a lot of smiling, but still having fun!

Claire's turn! The silver necklace she's wearing has a little crown on it - also a gift from Miss Stephanie (so sweet!)

landed on the crown - yay!

wearing the game jewelry

fake smiling for the group pic

with Miss Lisa - our sweet sweet aide

The final gift - how cute is this! Such a sweet memory!

These were a few pictures of the girls playing in the hall before they got to go in!

scroll down for pics from teddy bear picnic

It begins....Teddy Bear Picnic and Field Day!

2009-05-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

It seems like every time I check my email or the kids bring home a note from school, it's something to go add to the calendar. Every year, May is crazy with "end of the year" activities, but this year seems especially so! For one thing, Claire is now in preschool, and she has activities too!! So it begins...

The two year old classes had a Teddy Bear Picnic on Thursday! Sadly it was pretty wet and overcast outside, so the picnic came indoors. Still lots of fun though!

Meeting up with Mommy & Daddy - ready to "picnic"!

Claire's only request for lunch - cheetos!!

There was lots of cheeto eating with a little sandwich eating thrown in!

wiping the orange fingers!

a little drink

a little apple (yay!)

All done!

What now?

The biggest hit of the day - easle painting!

playing in the beans - another big hit!

and my favorite picture - hopscotch!!

As mentioned above, the calendar is so full that some days even have multiple events!! Thursday was also Jack's Field Day. So in the small window I had between the start of field day and the start of the TB Picnic, I headed out to watch Jack. I guess I missed the note home telling me that second grade boys want nothing to do with their mothers at field day, nor will they allow them to take pictures especially with them actually looking at the camera - sad :( And most of the fun events were going to take place after I left. So here a couple of pitiful picutes - mainly just to prove I was there!!

A little bit of Easter!

2009-04-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

I didn't make it home with very many pictures, but we had a wonderful and relaxing visit to The Falls! The kids dyed eggs with Chapman (pics on Alli's camera!) and made easter crafts. The girls got their hair braided by Aunt. We ate several DELICIOUS meals and hung out on the patio. Sunday was filled with easter baskets from the easter bunny, church and easter lunch, and an egg hunt! Fun-filled days!!

Claire's new baby that drinks a bottle, burps, then goes to sleep! She also laughs and cries! Claire has been taking such good care of (you guessed it!) Baby Claire!

Jack and his Bakugons! I couldn't tell you what these are if you paid me a million dollars, but he could talk your ear off!!

Maddie in her cute new hat and slippers!

Ready for church

I just love these next pictures!

The table set for yummy dinner Saturday night!

The girls who set it!

The chef!

Jack's Award!

2009-04-17T16:28:00.000-07:00

Jack got an award at school for trustworthiness! Love that sweet boy!

Jack and his little buddy Luke were so excited and happy to be up there together! And that's our sweet next door neighbor, Brooke, next to Luke.

Claire's room and photo shoot!

2009-04-08T11:29:00.000-07:00

I put it off until after Christmas, but I finally got sweet Claire into a big girl bed! It took me forever to find bedding I liked and get everything just so! But she's been enjoying her new room for a while now, and I've been meaning to take a few pictures! I had also promised Claire we could take some pictures in to show her teacher, so this morning we headed up to do that! After we took a few shots of her room, we ended up having a little photo shoot! I was trying to practice with some of the settings on my camera since there was quite a bit of natural light. And for some reason, Claire was in a somewhat agreeable mood and did a bit of modeling for me! My photography skills are still quite lacking, but we got a few cute ones. Please excuse Claire's around the house, leaving town, so don't want to dirty up cute stuff outfit:)

showing off her night light

She even let me take her hair out of the ponytail (Claire's hairstyle of choice!) for the photo shoot! Sorry, she's not praying in these!

She kept wanting to see the pictures and after she saw herself looking down like this, it was all she wanted to do!!

Let's play a little dress up!

looking down again! she only wanted to take pictures in the chair by the bed!

pretending to sleep! you can kind of see her cute little teacup of paci's on the night stand (don't judge me - we'll deal with it when she's 3!!)

Special thanks to my sweet sister for helping me do this room and for painting cute things for me!! She painted the flowers above the dress up clothes and cute "rejoice" canvas! Couldn't have done it without her!

Luau!

2009-04-04T18:47:00.000-07:00

We had a luau at the kids' school tonight. Everything looked so cute - darling decorations that my few pictures don't do justice! Lots of fun things to do!

A few pictures to remember the night!

photo by Jack!

photo op - what's wrong with this picture??

that's better!

another cute couple

bean bag toss

waiting outside the gym after refusing to go in - too dark and music too loud!!

waiting in line for hula hoop toss

mom, please stop taking our picture!

seriously!

And for a trip down memory lane - last year this event was 50's. Look how much everyone's grown in a year! Stop please! :(

Catching up and Play-doh!

2009-03-22T17:40:00.000-07:00

When I was downloading pictures for all these posts, I came across these of some fun play-doh playing!! I'd forgotten I took them! See fun babysitter post below to see the source of the playdoh!

Open House

2009-03-22T16:56:00.000-07:00

The week before Spring Break we had Open House at Jack & Maddie's school! Lots of fun things to see! When we're going somewhere like this and I have my camera ready, I try to take advantage of everyone being all ready at once. But it's usually at night, so where do we always end up - the fireplace!! I really am going to work on that!

Me with each of my babies! (Daddy's going to work on his centering!)

Now no mommy!

Jack's character, Billy Bob Joe Fred Jr. (Ah to be 8!). He wrote a really fun story about BBJFJ!

Showing Dad some work!

Making sure we saw everything on the list - Walk a Day in My Shoes!

Maddie's desk

Madeline and Mrs. Chaney

Checking out the Music room

And of course - the cookie!!

Fun Babysitter!!

2009-03-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

When I took Madeline and Jack to see the Jonas Brothers Movie, Uncle came over to watch Claire. He showed up with a fun new playdoh set and M&M's!! Does it get any better than that for a 2 year old? And yes, she was still up when we got home!!!

Leadership Award

2009-03-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

Sweet Maddie was chosen to receive the leadership award this six weeks.

Just a few out of the whole school

Playing outside

2009-03-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

a little windy!

who needs a door!

little boy :)

little girl :)

Inside for an attempt at a cousin pic!

The littles

Claire's Open House

2009-02-25T18:46:00.000-08:00

My baby had her first Open House last week! She was so excited even though she had no idea what we were actually talking about!! Miss Stephanie said that during school that day, Claire asked her what she was doing. Miss S said "I'm just getting ready for Open House." Then Claire said "I'm having an Open House too!" Like that was such a coincidence!!

The "getting ready to go" pic in front of the fireplace. I have to come up with some new locations!!

Claire and Miss Stephanie!

A few examples of what we got to see!!

Miss Stephanie should just cover the tables with yellow paper every day because ALL the kids were fascinated! :)

And no Open House (or any school event) is complete without a cookie!!

p.s. Claire does not have a new beauty mark or something on her face! She had a run-in with Maddie's fingernail!!

Valentine Parties

2009-02-25T18:21:00.000-08:00

Just a few pictures from M&J's Valentine parties. In second grade they each brought in a baby picture and all had to guess who was who! They guessed almost everyone correctly! They all got Jack right!! They also decorated cute V-Day cookies! We got to the fifth grade party when it was almost over, so we just hung out with Maddie for a little bit!

Everyone laughing at the baby pictures!

Jack decorating his cookie

The finished product!

Miss Mama's girl held out her arms to Jack's teacher and let Mrs. Bradsher hold her for quite a while!!

Maddie and Claire hanging out in 5th grade

Maddie's Valentine craft - she did not want me to take this (too cool!)

Happy Birthday Madeline!!!

2009-02-11T18:48:00.000-08:00

My sweet first baby had her 11th birthday last Wednesday! I CANNOT believe she is that old. It seems like just yesterday that she was born! I still don't know how I waited my whole pregnancy to find out if we'd be having a boy or girl!! And I'll never forget the feeling that day of hearing "It's a girl!!" What a precious girl she is! She has brought us more joy than I could imagine!

We started celebrating the weekend before with a little swimming, dinner and slumber party. I don't know why I took no pictures!! Then on Wednesday, Maddie woke up to fun birthday signs in the yard!

That night, we had a birthday dinner, cupcakes and a couple of presents!

Then Grammy and Poppi came to town last weekend for a family celebration! Maddie and Uncle share a birthday, so we always have double the fun!! After a not so calm and relaxing birthday dinner :) there were lots of presents to open and yummy cake!

present from Jack!

Jack's unbirthday gift from Grammy! :)

in action!

We're redoing Maddie's room a little, so the Penuels got her this cute flower for the wall!

Uncle has a few presents too!!

Out in the garage, Maddie found a new desk for the new room!

The birthday couple!

Happy 11th sweet girl!

Catching up!

2009-01-29T22:26:00.000-08:00

I think I'm caught up on January now!!! Scroll down for several new posts! If you make it through the first one, the rest are short!

100 Best Wishes!!

2009-01-29T21:06:00.000-08:00

How special it was to go to my Great Aunt Reecie's 100th Birthday Party!!! She is such a sweet, special, selfless lady and it was an honor to help her celebrate 100 years! It was so fun and very interesting to learn more about her life - all the things she's lived through and several amazing little stories. Like the time her family worried their children were about to be taken by gypsies!! I can't even imagine. Aunt Reecie is my grandmother's sister. She doesn't have any living children, but all 5 of my grandmother's children and thier spouses, 12 of her 14 grandchildren and their spouses, and 17 of her 18 great grandchildren were there. The 18th great grandchild had just been born the day before!! So I think Reecie got a good idea of how much she's loved. It was so fun seeing everyone. It's not often that we're all together! Happy Birthday Aunt Reecie!!

The Birthday Girl!

playing with baby Chase

cutie :)

I could have taken this picture at almost any point in the party!!

BFF's

The cake was DELICIOUS!!

Enjoying some with Samantha!

More cake!

Sweet sisters-in-law!

Still playing DS!

Chapman got a party favor - a Hershey bar!!!!!

Attempting a great grandchildren pic! Really next to impossible!! These are the 2 best of 17 that I took! For some reason Sarah decided to lay across the floor in front, so then Claire just had to do the same! I was so proud :)

l-r:Grace,Elie,Abby holding Chase,Connor,Samantha,Jack,Maddie holding Chapman,Lauren holding Max,Will,Riley,Elzabeth,Allison and Sarah and Claire in front!

Brandi,Max,Lynn,Linda

GG (less than 4 years from her 100th!)

cuties

Uncle and Max

Cute couple back home!

5th Grade Program

2009-01-29T20:53:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the recorder?? Brings back elementary school memories for me!! This year the 5th grade program was a recorder performance rather than singing. They all wore concert black to make it more professional. Very fun to hear their sweet songs - they did a great job!!

My little performer!

A little warm-up

Getting to her spot

I got to use my new zoom lens for these! I had to go waaay back in order to get a good view of her, but I zoomed right in!!

In action!

Mommy's Birthday!

2009-01-29T20:48:00.000-08:00

Just a picture of my sweet kids helping me celebrate my birthday. I had a fun birthday dinner and cake on the big day! Then another sweet celebration in the Falls a few days later. How blessed I am!!!

Cotton Bowl

2009-01-29T20:31:00.000-08:00

Bill, Jack and Uncle headed off to the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2. Sadly, the Red Raiders had a disappointing end to their exciting/frustrating season! But my boys were excited to see them play anyway. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful way to spend the day together!!

Before the game!

Cotton Bowl Photo Ops!

It's official...

2009-01-12T20:27:00.000-08:00

Claire is potty trained!!! My sweet baby was the easiest of the bunch! I kept putting it off, but she decided she was ready, and she was!! So Friday night, she got to go to Toys R Us and pick out whatever she wanted as a reward. She was so cute going up and down the girly aisles looking and looking. But I guess it's kind of like your wedding dress. When you see it, you just know!!

Yes, she already has three baby strollers, but she didn't have a DOUBLE stroller! I mean, how could she pass that up! And it came with twin babies!! Claire named her new babies herself, so introducing...

Claire and Chapman!

I'm pretty sure Alli didn't know that Chapman can be a unisex name as she had another name picked out for a girl! But our little Chapman looks really cute in her purple bow! And it is a little confusing having 2 Claires in the house!

The mommy and her babies!!

Family pictures

2009-01-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

When we were in Wichita Falls for Thanksgiving, a friend of Grammy's came over to take some pictures. I was excited to get some of our little Nelson family and some of the whole group! We just got them all back right before Christmas, so I thought I'd share! I had a hard time narrowing down, so there are alot!!

My boys :)

The whole family!

Grammy & Poppi and their babies!

Grammy & the littles!

Do you think Grammy loves these?!

Me and my girls...

I hope we have one like this one day!

A few more...

Christmas Eve

2009-01-01T12:26:00.000-08:00

The Nelsons have three Christmas Eve traditions I would say. First, we go to the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at Grace Church where I grew up. It's wonderful seeing old friends and family, singing Christmas carols, focusing on Christ's birth, and seeing the room filled with candlelight. Claire did really well this year, and loved seeing all the candles. Then we come home and have our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. I'm pretty sure we're one of the few families that have Christmas Eve nachos(!), but we all love it!! Then after lots of asking, the kids get to open one present - their Christmas pajamas! They always get sooo excited and look soo cute!

It's finally time!!! (I would have tied really cute bows if I'd thought ahead to the picture, but for whatever reason - my kids love stick-on bows!!)

We love them!!

Modelling the new jammies!

Oh I forgot a fourth tradition - of course we leave cookies and milk for Santa. Maddie and Jack were kind enough to get his cookies ready really early this year, since Claire had to get to bed. But don't worry, they put his milk back in the fridge until they went to bed, so it would stay cold!!!

Now I have to confess that I took one, yes ONE sad little picture on Christmas morning - not even worthy of it's own post :( It is so crazy with all the kids opening at the same time and wanting to show you their gifts. Plus helping Claire. No excuse I know. And Poppi decided to video this year, so he wasn't taking pics either. Sadly I don't have his video or know how to upload it! But we had a blast!! Maddie and Jack got DS's from Santa, and tons of other fun things. They even got moon shoes from Uncle! Which now that I think about it, I have a picture of those on my NEW camera! I haven't really gotten to use it much and have no idea how to upload the pictures yet, but that's next on my list! Claire got this cute little market and shopping basket that has a seat for her baby from Santa!!

M,J,& C in Claire's new market!

Christmas visits and babies!

2009-01-01T11:06:00.000-08:00

I'm finally back in town and ready to get caught up on Christmas pictures!! The week before Christmas- Alli, Chapman, Claire and I headed to Plano to see my cousin Mike's new baby. Little Max was born November 13th, but we hadn't gotten to meet him yet. His big sister, Samantha, is about 14 months older than Clarie, so they are really starting to enjoy playing together! Here's few pics from our visit:

Claire and Samantha

Alli and sweet baby Max

and Claire..

and Samantha (Chapman preferred not to be the picture, but that's his water gun!!)

Then, the weekend before Christmas, we headed over to Aunt Laura's to hang out and do some celebrating with Bill's side of the family! We had a delicious dinner, opened some presents, played some Wii and this time I got a picture of sweet baby Lily! Claire and I LOVED getting to hold her!!

Claire so excited to hold Lily!

All the cousins: Grayson, Maddie, Jake, Jack, Claire, Katie and Lily

Claire's loving Christmas!!

2008-12-15T16:53:00.000-08:00

She's been enjoying old treasures! Loving all the Christmas books, toys, ornaments, movies, music, and even dishes that we get out each year!!

Having fun with new treasures! This new snow globe from G&P doesn't even have to be shaken. Just turn it on, and the snow blows and music plays for as long as you want!

She even got to ride the carosel when we went Christmas shopping!

And my very favorite is her love for "Away in a Manger". We have children singing it on 3 different movies, so she'll watch any of those - but would prefer to watch only that song (Maddie & Jack love that)! Then when we're in the car, I have to keep replaying it over, and over, and over! But when she sings along so sweet, I just don't care!

Santa's Village

2008-12-08T17:50:00.000-08:00

For the last few years, we've headed to Santa's Village in Richardson with Aunt, David, and (for our second year)Chapman!! This year, Grammy and Poppi were in town for some Christmas shopping, so they got to come along! As usual, it was pretty crowded, but it's cute and the kids really enjoy it!! The littles weren't much in the mood for pictures (shocking!), but I ended up with a few cute ones!

Chapman really, really liked the cookie he got from Mrs. Claus!!!!

Thanksgiving Memories

2008-12-02T18:59:00.000-08:00

We headed to Wichita Falls last Tuesday after a quick stop to visit our new niece/cousin Lily. She was just precious, but of course I forgot to bring my camera. Hopefully we'll get some pictures with her soon!

We weren't in the Falls long before Grammy brought out all we needed to make darling little Turkey Cookies! The kids had so much fun using candy corn, icing and baby m&m's to create these cuties!

The finished product!

Although many chose to take a few things off before eating their cookies, Claire loved the whole thing!!

Thursday we had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner (special thanks to Grammy for that!!) and darling table decorations made by Maddie and Aunt at Night of Fun! Each person had a unique turkey marking their spot!

The Nelson Family

Grammy and Maddie always sit at the end of the table together on the piano bench!

After dinner, it was off to the park for the boys and the kids. They had a blast and Poppi took these darling pictures. I had a REALLY hard time chosing just these!

My walking nephew!!

I love him!!!

Claire with her Uncle! He is sooo sweet with her! And she might have him wrapped around her little finger!

Love, love, love these next two pics and these two people!!

What's Thanksgiving without a little football?? Even though they live in the same town, Jack and Nathan had to travel to Wichita Falls to get together!! They had a fun game with their dads!

Huddle

Friday night we headed out to see some lights. It was pretty cold, so Grammy went searching in her coat closet for hats for the littles. This is what Claire chose and then wore many more times. Sadly, we couldn't bring it with us :(

And Finally!! Saturday, Jack, Bill, Poppi and Uncle headed to Lubbock for the Tech/Baylor game! I hear they had fun!!

Littles Night of Fun!

2008-11-23T22:38:00.000-08:00

Ever since my sister and David have been married, they've given Maddie and Jack a "Night of Fun" for Christmas! This was the third year that M&J headed off with Aunt & David for their much anticipated night, but it was the first year that sweet Chapman was around to probably cramp their style. Hence, "Littles Night of Fun" at Aunt Jen's! Now remember we're talking about a 1 and 2 year old. Chapman arrived about an hour before bed, it was dark and cold outside, and we had one carseat. So our night consisted of a little playing, jammies, a bedtime story, and off to bed! We did get to do a little more playing on Saturday morning too, and we had LOTS of fun!!

Claire we tap on the drum, not Chappy!

This is fun!!

Almost ready for bed! So sweet!

Good morning! Ready for breakfast!

Chappy, I'm going to read you a story!

Claire, I'd rather look at this remote.

No, Chappy. I'm READING to you.

Seriously, look at the book!

O.K., O.K. I'm looking.

I like this book!

Now head on over to Alli's blog to see what the bigs were up to!!

I'm thankful for...

2008-11-20T18:59:00.000-08:00

my precious 2 year old who made this cutie turkey in school today! She was so proud of each little handprint. Handprints which will just get bigger. A wonderful reminder to me to cherish this stage which will be gone so quickly. She may be getting molars, she may be learning to scream when she doesn't get her way, and she may want to do everything "my byself", but she also yuvs me soo much, thinks things are "precious", and wants me to "hold you" all the time! I love this sweet girl!

2nd Grade Presents...

2008-11-13T18:55:00.000-08:00

The Magical World of Disney. Tonight was Jack's 2nd grade program. Each song was from a different Disney movie, and each class dressed for a different song. Jack's class song was "It's a Small World." Being the world travelers that we are, we had tons of international children's attire laying around!! Thank you to Uncle David for finding us a poncho and sombrero in the Watermark skit closet! Here are a few pictures from the night!

Let's see how many family combos we can make!

Jack and Luke waiting in the cafeteria

I can't even count the number of programs I've been to between Maddie and Jack. But, it never fails that no matter where I sit, how much I plan, how early I get there, and how many times I ask them where they're standing, this is what I see...

They usually move over a little between songs (see below), but then it's right back to top hat in the face when they start singing again!

And back home!

Adventure Camp

2008-11-08T09:14:00.000-08:00

Hi, I'm Maddie, and my post is about my 5th grade Adventure Camp. The Adventure Camp we went to was in Anna, Texas. We left on Wednesday, October 22 and got back on Friday, October 24. There were 10 girls in my cabin, Elizabeth, Lexi, Sara, Carol, Jocelyn, Katelyn, Dylan, Cheyenne, Melody, and me. We also had 2 cabin moms to help keep us under control!

Here are me and my friends from my cabin in the cafeteria waiting to leave.

On the bus.(I had Lexi take the picture)

Here's what the cabins looked like.

When we got to our cabin, it wasn't ready for us. So we had to wait outside.

There was a courtyard for us to play in during our down time.

Finally inside the cabin. Me in my bunk!

After a quick lunch, we worked on our skit for skit night. I was the narrator.

Then we went on a nature hike. Here's a picture of nature!

Each cabin had their own table in the dining hall. Here's ours!

After breakfast the next morning, we went to archery. It was so much fun, and I even hit the red circle!

Next we went to the challenge course. They called this the grapevines.

After lunch, we hiked out to one of the lakes to go canoeing. That was my favorite part!!

After canoeing, we went to dinner. Then it was time to practice our skit once more before performing it at the campfire. Here we are getting ready to go!

The skit went great! Campfire was awesome! The next day we went on a prairie hike, but by then I had run out of pictures! After the prairie hike we had lunch, then it was time to head home! Camp was flat out FUN!!

Home again!

Two little angels!!

2008-11-05T22:07:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention in my Halloween post that Claire's angel costume was originally Maddie's. Maddie wore it her second Halloween, and I remember thinking I'd never seen anything more precious. I've been wanting to look back in my albums and find those pictures. Now that I see them, I remember the joy I felt (and still do of course!) having that sweet baby girl. By the next Halloween, she would have a little brother, but at this point she was our one and only! I love you my sweet first angel!

And who knew that 9 Halloweens later, I'd have another precious angel. I love you my sweet baby angel!!

I think I expected my two girls to look more alike in these pictures (and I think they do in some pics). For one thing, Maddie was almost 21 months and Claire was 28 months, so 7 months makes a difference. Look how much shorter it is on Claire!! And I guess I lost the little halo bow somewhere along the way!!

What did I do?!?!

2008-11-05T22:06:00.000-08:00

When looking for the pictures of Madeline in her angel costume, I came across Jack in his first costume (he's 17 months here). And what else could it be but a football player!!! And I even picked out this costume without realizing that as Jack told Bill the other day "Dad, football is my passion!!" What if it all started back 7 years ago this night? I really doubt it though. I had to scan every picture I had to show how much he LOVED his costume!!

Get this off of me!!!

Seriously, a helmet too??

Oh well - if it means I get candy!!

And to all of you who know my sister, stay tuned! I asked my mom to get me a picture of her in the crayon costume! Alli, you know you were cute!!!

And just because...

2008-11-05T22:05:00.000-08:00

One more picture from last Halloween since I didn't blog then! How cute are they?
Now I promise, I'm moving on to November!!!

Trick or Treat!!

2008-11-03T14:25:00.000-08:00

What do a crayon, an angel, a lion and Micheal Crabtree have in common?? They were all at our house on Halloween to do some trick or treating!! And they had a great time!! Since Halloween fell on a Friday, Grammy, Poppi and Uncle all got to join our fun! Aunt and Chapman were back for Chapman's second Halloween (hopefully that will become a tradition!) since David was out of town. And one quick note - the cute little crayon costume was handmade by Grammy about 20 years ago for Alli! How fun to see it passed down! Now look out for lots of pictures!! (Thanks Aunt and Poppi for sharing!)

Stealing the neighbor's photo op!

Waiting for the angel...

There she is!

Precious little lion!!

Loading up in the wagon

Somehow the littles ended up with candy before we even got started!

The first house!

And many more...

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

2008-10-28T00:04:00.000-07:00

To our sweet Daddy: We love you so much, and hope you have a wonderful birthday! Happy Birthday banner handmade with love by Maddie, Jack & Claire.

A Claire Post!

2008-10-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

Because Claire and I are home (or out and about!) together most of the time, I tend to have more candid pictures of her. After looking through my camera today, I found a few I wanted to share! None of these individually seem like a post, so I'm including them all in one summary! Above is Claire in her cute little Red Sox shirt! Claire is not particularly a Red Sox fan that I know of, but her sweet Uncle brought her back this darling pink shirt from his recent trip to Boston (to see his beloved Baylor Bears play)! We love Uncle!! You can see Jack wearing his shirt in the New Bike post. I haven't gotten a pic of Maddie in hers yet!

PLAYING WITH CHLOE

Last week, Claire's little friend Chloe came over to play along with Kylie (a sweet little girl Chloe's mom watches). It's funny because Maddie's best friend is also named Chloe, so Claire was so excited to have "My Chloe!!!" come over. They played with lots of toys, and then moved outside to the sandbox and slide! I loved that they both had pigtails in that day! So cute!!

l-r: Kylie, Claire, Chloe

Taking turns!!

MY....tomboy???!!

I don't really think so!! But she did put Bill's baseball cap on backwards yesterday!! Of course she also included a headband underneath and all of the ponytail holders in my drawer as bracelets!! And then proceeded to paint her baby's toenails!! Oh, and she had my flip flops on too! Maybe she'll just have a fun fashion sense!

Painting baby's toes (can you see the nailpolish bottle!)

Number 7

2008-10-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

For those who don't know, Jack takes 100% after his father and 0% after his mother in his love of sports!! He loves them all and plays most!!! In the fall, it's football - yes, tackle - yes, he's in 2nd grade (don't get me started!!!) I may not agree with the concept of tackle football at such a young age, but I do think he looks really cute in his uniform. He manages to look so grown up and so tiny at the same time! So last weekend, the Leopards got to play their game at the high school stadium! It really was fun to watch them playing from up in the stands. They looked so cute, but it seemed like such a real football game! And they won!! I tried to take pictures, but it was so sunny that I couldn't see anything on the screen of my little camera. So basically, I was just holding up my camera and pressing the button. Needless to say, they didn't turn out very cute! But luckily one of the dads shared his pictures, so I can't take credit for the below! Remember, we're looking for #7!

That's Coach Bill in the back with arms crossed holding papers!

Good game!!

Arboretum Fun!

2008-10-11T20:43:00.000-07:00

Next on our calendar of fun events was a trip to the Arboretum with Aunt and Chapman! Sadly, it was a school day, so only Claire and I got to go. But, we had so much fun seeing all the pumpkins and having a picnic lunch! We also got to meet several of Chapman's little friends and their mommies! I could use all kinds of excuses why I don't have many pictures, but the main one is that I hardly took any!! I could tell after the first two that my sweet daughter wasn't in the mood, so I quickly gave up. The cute one from above I stole from Alli's blog along with a few others (yes I figured out how to do that, but not how to link to her blog from her name!!) Fun day!!!

"Chapman, if we don't look up, maybe they'll stop taking our picture!"

Alli and Chapman

Sweet new friends (not pictured: Claire!!)

New Bikes

2008-10-10T07:39:00.001-07:00

For the past several weeks, Maddie and Jack have been riding their bikes to school with our neighbor Brooke and her mom Alice. Alice is so sweet to ride there and back with them every day as I have Claire, no bike (and honestly, no desire!!) M&J are loving it, and the cooler weather has made it even nicer! However, both of their bikes had really gotten too small. Jack was hitting his knees on the handlebars!! So a couple of weeks ago, Jack got his new bike, and Maddie picked hers out on Saturday! Happy Biking!!

Hanging out on the driveway!

Claire and Daddy

Oh Say Can You See....

2008-10-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, the fifth graders from our district's three elementary schools were asked to sing the National Anthem at the high school football game. The district only added high school a couple of years ago, and this is the first year for us to have a varsity football team! They had a special Leopard Friday with all kinds of booths before the game. Jack got to play lots of fun games with his friends, and Maddie got her face painted and a new t-shirt! It was so fun being at a high school football game again! The fifth graders did a great job singing, and the Leopards had their first win!!! As I was not yet a blogger at this point, I didn't take many pictures, but if you look down in the right corner maybe you can find Maddie! I wish I could somehow circle her like they do on tv!

Just a Tuesday!

2008-10-05T13:19:00.000-07:00

I snapped these one morning before school, because I thought Claire looked so cute in her pigtails. I couldn't decide on my favorite, so I'm posting all three!

Happy Birthday Grammy!

2008-10-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

Continuing on in September, a few weeks ago we celebrated Grammy's 60th birthday! Her sister, Aunt Kathleen, came down from Chicago and surprised Grammy with a weekend visit. We had so much fun getting to see her and get caught up! We also had a fun birthday dinner and celebration on Saturday night. When I looked back at the pictures I had from the party, I remembered that Jack had my camera that night!! There might be too many to post as I think he took a picture of Grammy with each gift along with individual shots of everyone there!! But here's a summary!

Sisters!

G with card Maddie made!

Chapman

Everyone wants a picture with Aunt!

Two peas in a pod!

First Day of School

2008-09-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

O.K. For my first true post ever, we're going to start back about a month to the first day of school! Then we'll go from there and see what happens! Hopefully I can make some memories for my sweet kids!

First day of Fifth Grade (I can't believe it!!) for Maddie
First day of Second Grade for Jack

About a week later, Claire had her first day in the 2's class!

It takes lots of equipment to be 2!

First Day of School - The Early Years!!

2008-09-30T10:43:00.000-07:00

When I was working on my First Day of School post, I thought how fun it would be to look back at all the First Days we've had and see how we've grown!! The first year or two, I had Maddie go out on the porch by the front door for her official picture, and that just kind of became a tradition. Our front door and our school have changed, but we always take that same picture! As I look back, it appears that I like to take one horizontal picture a little closer up to see their faces, but I also take a vertical full-length so I can see their cute backpacks and usually new shoes!! So here we go on our trip down memory lane!

Maddie - 4th grade, Jack - 1st grade

Maddie - 3rd grade

Jack - Kindergarten (not my choice of backpack!)

We also had two years when we were at the same school as Aunt, so we had to take a First Day picture with her too!

In front of Mrs. Penuel's classroom!

Maddie - 2nd grade (1st year in new house and new school!)

In Miss Lam's (for a few more months!) classroom!

Maddie - 1st grade

Maddie - Kindergarten (I had to scan these)

Solo Post

2008-08-19T14:15:00.000-07:00