"Though she be tiny...she is fierce"

The person that said that (was it shakespear??) got it spot on with Lola Belle.
She is tiny and FIERCE. The girl knows what she wants (usually Daddy, "blabee", or Elsa)

 Once in a kids life they should wake up to balloons in their room. We have chosen that to be age 3 or maybe it was 4 with the other two. Anyway, she woke up and screamed out to us saying "how did these balloons get here". Cute.

 Holding her three little fingers up...Cute, cute!

 And the two of them together (with EZ, not pictured) Cute, Cute, Cute!

 She ran out of her room and saw her cake. It was kind of a magical moment to see her face when she looked at it. That cake!! Gr...but I love making cakes and personalizing them for just that moment.

 And then it was on to gifts. She loved them all.

 Let's get a closer look at that cake.

 The traditional shirt I make them. This one was a no brainer. She calls it her Elsa shirt.

 We had a lot of visitors this weekend due to the birthday, but Brad also had surgery and we needed some help with the kids and company for me.

 This is one of my favorite pictures of them. So spontaneous and fun.

And lastly, we played a few arcade games for tickets with equates to cheap prizes. Well, we discovered that I am a bit of a whiz at this jump game they had. I earned the jackpot score and the tickets kept spewing out. it was kind of embarassing/rewarding. The kids gave the rest of their tokens to me so I could earn them more tickets. That is how Lola was able to purchase that fancy crown and wand which she has either worn or held for the past 3 days.
Happy birthday, sweetest Lola Belle.

CANCUN!!!!!

This post is dedicated to CANCUN. How we miss you Cancun. It was such an anticipated trip for so long and now it is such a happy memory. It was perfect in every way. I may not have been able to say that, had we been stuck in Cancun. Turns out you need to keep those immigration papers for your whole trip and don't lose 'em or throw 'em away. Good thing we met this nice couple who rescued us with money that we "promised" to mail to them (which we did BTW). We had to buy new immigration papers which cost one millions pesos. (okay just 60 US$) Turns out you can at least buy your way back into your own country. It proved to be a tense few hours at the airport but we finally made it back home. Enjoy the pictures.

VIEW FROM OUR HOTEL

 VIEW OF BRAD EATING ONE OF MANY TACOS. THE FOOD REALLY WAS GOOD THERE. REAL MEXICAN FOOD. LOVED IT. THE GUAC WAS IN A CLASS OF ITS OWN.

 CHICHEN-ITZA LIVED UP TO EVERY EXPECTATION I HAD.

 SWIMMING IN AN UNDERGROUND SINK HOLE. THE FISH WERE NIBBLING AT OUR TOES. UNREAL!

 WHO KNEW THAT IGUANAS MAKE MEXICO HOME. KIND OF LIKE OUR SQUIRRELS IN THE US (OR MAYBE JUST THE SQUIRRELS IN ILLINOIS.)

 HERE BRAD IS TRYING TO CATCH ONE.

 I JUST WANTED TO TOUCH ONE.

 WE PARASAILED. WHO WOULDN'T PARASAIL?

 THE RUINS OF TULUM.

 AGAIN, I COMMITTED TO THE PINK RASH GUARD FOR THE ENTIRE DAY. IT IS HOT IN MEXICO!

 SNORKELING. WE SAW 2 HUGE SEA TURTLES. SUCH A HIGHLIGHT OF THE TRIP.

 HERE WE ARE AT A TURTLE FARM.

 CAREFREE. IT WAS SO FUN TO BE WITH JUST MY BRAD.

 ALL TANNED UP AND READY TO GO HOME.

 THESE LITTLE IGUANAS WERE WAITING FOR US.

AND THAT WAS MY BRIEF SUMMARY OF CANCUN. YOU MUST GO!!

Just put our 5 year old to bed for the night!

Our EZ is 5!!!! Because we are back near family we got to have a party with all his boy cousins his age. It is a fun little group of boys.

 EZ loves KFC so that is what he chose for his birthday dinner. I get secretly so excited to watch him consume this chicken. He doesn't really love food so when he downs chicken I shout horray.

 Lovin his dimples in this one.

 And...the traditional shirt I make them each year. He loved it.

Gratitude.

This house we decided to build seems to be coming along. We made some major changes on the plan and are so much happier with what the end result will be. It was just too much house and too much! for us, so we had to make some hard decisions that were really good decisions, but decision that affected a lot of people. So come back later and I will take some more pictures when they get started up again:) THIS time on our real dream house.

 This little lady is my buddy while EZ and Miss Blue are at school. Obviously, she loves all things girl and Frozen. We actually have 2 Frozen cd's in the car along with the Frozen story that they read to you. Good times, friends. I mean who wouldn't want to listen to that every 15 minute, one way drive that I do a total of 6 times a day to pick up from various schools. But the happiness on her face is what it is all about.

 The funny story is that we ran a mile fun run as a family. It was one of those crazy Saturdays complete with rain for the run. Bluebird took of strong and finished on her own. Ez and I held hands and finished strong and B-rad took Lola across the finish line. I had to race to a soccer game and B-rad and the other two stayed for the raffle because Chloe was convinced we would win something. So they waited for about 45 minutes. That was a good decision. Lola was honored as the  youngest runner and got a huge melissa and Doug art set complete with easel and all the extras. She kept talking about how "they all clapped for me". And then we won 2 other prizes. Brad gave the cheese basket prize to a young couple because he said he felt embarassed taking so much. So I think a Red Ribbon Run tradition has begun.

 Ez had a great soccer season. The best part was during the last game his sweet coach positioned the players to help EZ score a goal. And he did score that goal. It was perfect!

 And these three...I am so blessed to get to be their mom. I love them so so very much.

Summer in the WEST.

As I sit back tonight, kind of sad, slash happy, for Chloe to start 2nd grade, I thought i better get this blog updated before there are another bazillion things to post. Good thing I don't have a nice phone so that my pictures can stay neatly contained on my Canon.

Anyway...let us look at summer:

It seems like we have been in Logan for a couple days then we would drive down to Salt Lake the rest of the week. We did that for several weeks. Why not when we have great people to see and all this gorgeousness.

My parent's cabin. I am so glad they bought this cabin so many years ago so we can go and enjoy the peace and beauty and be together.

 Another view of the meadow. Sometimes I really want to have a horse and know all things about horses. But then I drive away and that feeling is gone. I did go to a week long horse camp when I was about 10. I think I realized that owning a horse is kindof a big deal. I need a friend with some horses, though.

 My dad volunteered to take some photos and he got this one. I love it.

 This girl...determined to the end...pulled her front tooth out. Took her about 3 hours, blood, sweat, and tears but she did it. She isn't super thrilled with putting the effort in to getting the other tooth out, though it is loose.

 It is always all about the games when we get together with the Nelson side.

 My sweet mom. She made home made fried chicken for the whole group and it was amazing. She is amazing. She even made home made icecream.

 At the river.

 My cute niece Rachel is moving to USU for the year. We are excited to see them every once in a while.

 Our other cute niece Annie is moving up here, too. We are so happy they are going to be Aggies.

 The whole group got in.

 And then for fun...Look how ridiculously happy we are at throwing water at their poor dog. Simple pleasures.

 This girl cries like she is seeing the Beatles for the first time whenever she sees Brad. It is a cute bond.

 Chloe just decided she could tube down the river with the bigger boys.

 Ahhh...the beauty.

 We were in Utah to celebrate birthdays in August. I am bummed I didn't get any of all the grandkid b-days, but here is B-rad in all his 35 year old glory. He is such a handsome guy:)

 One morning I went running and saw this beauty and had to drive back and take a photo of her splendor.

They started to dig our hole for our house. The kids are going to ask if they will just keep the dirt mound in the back yard. They really really love that dirt mound.

 On Brad's day off we decided to do the Ogden temple open house. I am so glad our kids had the opportunity to go inside such a sacred place for us. The temple is exquisite.

 We are glad Brett and my parents and Nancy could join us. Afterward we ate a great lunch and witnessed how Farr's icecream is becoming super rich off these temple open houses and people's undeniable craving for the best icecream. It's all true:)

 Here is what the temple looks like. Crazy how different it looks from the original. If you remember the original. We do because our first apartment was right down the street in the "classy" part of town. "classy" meaning someone died on our front sidewalk because he was shot somewhere down the road. But seriously, Ogden, who knew?? The downtown is beautiful and has totally been renovated and there is lots of cool stuff to do. We will be exploring it further.

Then we went to Eden, Utah. It really is paradise. I met my 3 college roomates and their kids. It couldn't have been a funner getaway.

 The kids were entertained doing about anything.

 Pineview Reservoir is close by.

 We have 10 kids between the 4 of us.

 Here is picture of the two littlest. Lucy (lulu) and Lola.

 9-8-7-7-6-5-5-4-3and2 (their ages...did you crack that code?)

 And hopefully you looked at this picture and thought that we went in that air balloon. We stood in line for 2 hours (or forever) and they cut the line off and US! It was kind of a bummer but probably more for me. The kids rebounded fine. we were going to head back to Farr's icecream (mentioned above!) but I had lost my wallet. So we just drove home and thought about how amazing our friends are and how beautiful Utah is. It really is such a beautiful state.

 And the BIG news is that we have a foundation in our house as of two days ago. This is a huge deal considering I have thought and talked about this house since April. Hello beautiful foundation. We are happy to have you here.

 And since we have to live in an apartment we may as well choose one with a pool.

Back to school tomorrow.