Sisters are the best...

I just have to say that sisters are the best!!! What would I do without my BFF's?? They truly are, I love each and every one of them so much!! Tonights shout out has to go to Jana though, she helps me with this blog thing that is sometimes harder for me than it should be - I am computer challenged and not very bright when it comes to technology (is that my mom coming out in me??) I am glad that they have got me going on this little bit of journaling though, because it is at least something. Thanks girls for all your love and support of your oldest sister!! I love you.

Christmas Morning...

Wow!! I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone already. This morning the first thing that Ella said to me is "Mom, is Christmas over?" - Since the tree and decorations are still up, I think that she is sure there is more to come. Luckily for us, our Christmas gift this year is a cruise. So, there is more to come. J.D. made these letter tiles and the kids had to unscramble them after unwrapping a stack with their name on it. They were confused at first, but it didn't take them long. They all worked together and it was fun to watch each of them figure out different words of the clue. Brenna was the one who got the last word 'cruise' and she screamed a very high pitched scream...it was fun. We decided that it is more important for us to spend time together as a family, having experiences, and creating memories that will hopefully last a lifetime than having lots of gifts. Our family is growing and changing so quickly that I feel I need to eat up every last chance I get to spend time with them all together, before I know it Morgan will be moving on and that scares me. Time goes by way to fast... I am sure I have said it in other posts, but it is true. We are excited to go on our trip, we leave on Saturday to drive to Los Angeles where we will get on the ship on Monday thru Friday. Leaving cold weather behind and hopefully enjoying some sunny weather!!!

These are all my "peeps" waiting patiently at the top of the stairs so I could go check to see if Santa had come, they looked so cute, and I like to torture them for as long as I can! Ha, ha!

Picking our tree...

So last night we got to go and pick out our tree for this year....

what an adventure!! It was really cold, everyone had to pee, and

no one could agree on how tall, how fat, how skinny the tree should

be. (It's a good thing Brenna was at dance, or that would have been one more opionion to take into consideration). Overall, it

was a fun night, Ella got to see and "make nice" with Santa and his reindeer that were there at the lot, oh ya, she also had an opinion and wanted the 'purple one' - all these weird colors of flocking!! The boys ran around the lot and got lost a few times and we all tried to get warm by the fire. I think in the end we picked out a nice sized, nice shaped tree. So many fun things to do in life.

Home from New York...

Starting our trip in Central Park

Outside the Metropolitan.

Times Square at night.

Typical tourists!!

FREEZING on the bus!

Dinner at "The Palms"

After the show...

A Birthday cake from "Trump"

Rockerfeller at Christmas...

Hot Dogs on the street!! Yum.

Regis and Kelly, AWESOME!

We are home and we had an amazing time!! The memories we made there will last a lifetime and I am so happy that we could spend this birthday weekend with Morgan and Brenna. They are the 2 best teenage daughters that I could ask for. I am thankful for them and the relationship that I have with them everyday...

Going to New York...

Since Morgan is turning 16 (gasp!!) this month J.D. and I wanted to do something special for her, after all, she is a fabulous daughter. We thought that we could do a big "sixteenth" birthday party for her, but we decided that it would be funner and probably more memorable for us to take her on a trip. So....we leave tonight. Taking the 'red eye' to New York City and spending 4 days there. Just J.D., Morgan, Brenna and I, I am so excited. J.D. and I planned the trip a little over a month ago and have been keeping it a secret, (so hard), until last week. We told the girls with sweatshirts that said New York on them. They had tears of excitement and poor Drew had tears of jealousy, sadness, etc. We have lots of fun things planned, shopping, seeing a show, doing all the sight-seeing stuff.... (all stuff that Drew would hate!!) Hopefully we don't freeze!

Red Lipstick on Thanksgiving...

We all decided to put on Morgans really red lipstick on Thanksgiving and kiss the kids...they all got into it and wanted kisses on their cheeks, their foreheads, and their lips!!

Thanksgiving...

I can't remember if this was the 3rd or 4th year that we had Thanksgiving at our house. Whichever, it was a really fun day. As per tradition, we set our "big long table" up so we could all sit in the same room for at least one dinner in the year. I have to hand it to J.D., he really had a vision the first time we did it and has kept the tradition going. I didn't think it could happen, but he pulled it off, and now he is quite a pro at getting the tables set up (consisting of our own kitchen table and SIX Costco tables). We sat 32 around the table this year, Grandma and Grandpa Nelson joined us for dinner and my cousin Michelle and her boyfriend Nate came over to visit. It is so fun to be around family and enjoy each others company and to truly count all our many blessings. We always have way too much food, and way too much dessert, but is is awesome!! I think all the kids had a good time, not to many melt-downs, and the weather was nice. J.D. started our dinner off by giving thanks to "ties", pilgrims wore ties, we are all tied together in the gospel, we have family ties, soccer ties (which helped to get the Real to the playoffs), and ended his speech in announcing that we will soon have a "tie" in our family with the birth of our 3rd boy in May. Three and three, who gets that lucky??

I started my Thanksgiving day with a 5k in Draper. It is called the "Human Race" and proceeds go to the Utah Food Bank. Last year it was just me and Jill, but this year Morgan, Brenna, and Julie joined in the early morning fun. We also had Jills friend Amy and Morgans, should I say, boyfriend, Riley with us. It rained a little, but we all had a good time. Morgan and I finished in just about 42 minutes with the rest of the group not far behind. It was a challenge for me to not take off and run (pregnancy has some downfalls) but it was all good!!

We of course went shopping at 2:30 a.m. to get our season started off! All the sisters went, including Morgan and Brenna, which ended up saving me money, because I did absolutely no shopping for them, but we missed having Christina with us. Hitting the mall that early in the morning is a weird experience (people eating anything from Chinese food to pizza at 3a.m. is a tad gross if you ask me). We then hit Walmart, where people are absolute FREAKS!!! I just sat back and watched the madness. I had no intentions of what I was going for and anything I bought was a bonus. Ending our morning at Target (everyones favorite) and then having breakkfast at the IHOP. I just need to tell my awesome sisters how much fun I had. They are the best, and I absolutely love spending time with them. I am blessed to have them in my life this Thanksgiving (along with so so so many other things).