Saying Good-bye

Back in October when Scott called me fr om Utah to tell me he had an offer from Overstock.com, he gave me permission to tell one person. His words exactly were, "You can't tell anyone about this yet, except Traci [Christensen]." When he said that I immediately broke down crying and replied that the last person I wanted to tell was Traci. She has been my closest friend for the last 4 years and the thought of leaving her made me feel somewhat sick. I dreaded it for 2.5 months.

The Christensen's have been such good friends to us. Scott and Lee hit if off from the get-go when they realized that they were both indeed TRUE BYU fans. Traci and I found we had a lot in common and things just worked out for us to become friends quickly. And then there was our sweet Marianne and crazy Skyler, born 6 weeks apart and destined to be best buddies with how much their moms hung out. We feel so blessed to know and be friends with this family. We have so many fond memories with and of them. We grew as close to the Christensen's as real family and they will always hold a very special place in our hearts.

Marianne & Skyler
All the kiddos (5 Christensen girls & 2 Nelson boys)
Carson, Megan, Mikenna, Molly, Marianne, Marissa, Skyler)

Lee & Scott

Traci & Karolyn

You know you're a bad parent if...

Are we horrible parents? Hopefully the initial response to this is an easy "NO?" But after reading this post one might change his/her mind...

We love Halloween! It is one of our very most Favorite holidays! We have been doing festive things all month long and loving every second of it! Friday night we heard about a FREE Haunted Trail in our community. We are all about supporting our community especially when an event is free! I called earlier this week to make sure the Haunted Trail was still on. The lady on the phone excitedly said "YES!" and then went on to tell me a little about the trail including one little sentence that worried me--"It is geared for children ages 8-12." I did wonder, at that moment, if we should reconsider taking our 1 and 3 year old but in the end we decided it would be so much fun-we just had to go!

Here are a few before shots while we waited in line for 1.5 hours:

Carson

Skeet Man

We had fun running around and exploring while we waited. After 1.5 hours of waiting it was finally our turn. By now Skyler is already saying he doesn't want to go but we were not leaving after having waited that long. So being the good parents that we are and since we are trying to raise strong brave boys we forced him in. Everything was going great until we rounded a bend and a mammoth THING popped out from behind a tree. Skyler let out a blood-curling scream and screamed for the remainder of the trail. We couldn't help laughing. Most of the trail guys took it easy on us after that. The problem was they were all dressed up in scary costumes and masks so even if they just stood there, trying to be harmless,they looked creepy. They would just stand there and wave and Skyler and he would scream even louder. It was quite the experience. We did feel a little bad afterwards but we think Skyler has recovered. The entire way home Skyler kept saying, "I don't EVER want to go back in that maze! Never, ever!"

Well despite us terrifying our son, it was a fun little community event. Thanks Top-City for the Halloween fun and the great memory!

During the trail

It's Official-we're moving on

This is my house so why is there a "For Sale" sign in front of it?! Yesterday our neighbor came over and asked if we thought we were "too good for the neighborhood." Well if we did we would never admit it! But the real truth is that Scott was offered and accepted a job with Overstock.com. Overstock is located in Cotton Wood Heights Utah and Scott starts around January 15, 2011. We met with a realtor Thursday, October 21st and he came back on Friday the 22nd to pound this UGLY sign in our front yard. I say ugly only because it is sad for me to think of selling this little house of ours. We have made so many memories over the last few years and I love our little house. it will be sad to leave but we know it is time so hopefully we're able to sell quickly so maybe the sign will go away...

Obstacle Course and Pumpkin Maze PAT night

For the last 3 years we have been participating in Topeka's Parents As Teachers (PAT) program. Each month a parent educator comes to our home with information for me about the boys and their age plus she brings games/activities that are age appropriate and fun for the boys. I started this program when Skyler was only 5 months old and I did it more for me than him-it was one way to interact with an adult one extra time a month! And now we have grown to love our parent educator and the PAT program so much.

Aside from their monthly visits the PAT program holds play groups each week and they also hold a big monthly activity. For October they hosted a Obstacle course and pumpkin maze night. We made it a family outing and had a lot of fun.

Scott played a little bball with the boys. Carson LOVED to slam dunk and HATED when Skyler took the ball away from him!





Skyler did a great job going through the obstacle course and the maze. He has been really into mazes lately so that was fun for him to do a life size one instead of using his fingers on paper.


At the very end the kids got to do some parachute activities, which is always lots of fun! Skyler loved it. Thanks PAT for a great night.

Overland Station

We recently went to Overland Station with some friends to watch the trains as they went through Topeka. We packed a snack and and a blanket and sat right outside the fence that is by the train tracks. We got to see 2 really long trains-it was loud and awesome! This was a lot of fun and it was FREE!

Skyler was so excited to see the train. He grabbed the fence and had me choked up against it. It was so loud I couldn't even tell him to let go! And he was gripping the fence so tightly, I couldn't pull away. Choo Choo!!!

Even Carson had a lot of fun watching the trains, eating and playing football
Skyler had some help counting the boxcars

Birthday Bash-Part 1

To keep with tradition, we decided to go on a family camping trip to begin our birthday celebration for CJ-the BIG #1! We headed down south to a little place called Pomona State Park-the trip was a lot of fun. It was fun to watch the boys discover nature. Carson loved to just wander around and explore and at night he was completely mesmerized by the fire.

the birthday boy

exploring the tent

We saw a "moon" rising (yes that is the moon)-this picture does not even come close to giving it justice; suffice to say it was amazing-I will always remember it!

our little "pumba"


Skyler loves camping because it means SODA!!!

our beautiful blaze



Scott had Skyler 100% captivated by his stories about robbery, courage and men getting heads cut off-what 3 year old wouldn't be enthralled? Luckily Skyler did sleep through the night and actually asked to hear the story again the next morning! Boys will be boys...


the boys kickin' back; Carsy loved climbing up into the little chair. Skyler was only too happy to let "little" brother take over the little chair when we announced that we would have to get him a "BIG" chair. He is growing up way too fast!

Roasting mallows-this was Skyler's first time doing his own.

His actual birthday morning...

I LOVE this picture of my little boy-he is such a cutie!


Stuffing food into his belly! He couldn't get enough!


This is the face he makes when he is disappointed with us-I think he makes the cutest "you should feel sorry for me" face in the world!


a little blurry but oh-so-cute!

Overall this camping trip was a success-we had a lot of fun despite losing the air out of our air mattress (thank you Skyler) and Carson's 5:30-6:15 AM romping party; luckily he went back to sleep-in fact we all did! It was a great start to the birthday!

Royal Good Time

Last Monday we attended our annual Royals baseball game. It was a lot of fun, although the Royals lost-sad! The boys had a lot of fun and CJ became an "Offical Royals Fan!"


(Skeeters good pic)


CJ's good picture

KC Royals vs Texas Rangers

A couple goofy pics:

It's "official"-he is a fan!

Clearly-he is intense about sports!

Skeeters Outting

For Fathers Day 2010, each of the boys gift to Scott was an Outting with Dad. Skeeters outting included a pass to play miniature golf and then ice cream at Cold Stone. Skeeter had so much fun with his Daddy--he loved playing golf (and did really well, even got a hole-in-one!), wearing his cool shades, being on a "Safari" and eatting delicous ice cream.