Okay, this is going to be a pretty long post, because I have
so much to write that I haven't posted about since well like May! I want to
document our fun year, so I will do it with a big bang, and hopefully next year
I will be a better blogger. Why do I blog I sometimes ask myself? And I think I
want to make one of those book blogs. Have you seen those? Those are really
awesome, so if I do good every year, maybe I can make one for our little Nelson
family every year.
Dad’s
Retirement Party
So I am going to start way back in May when my dad retired
from the Heber Unifed School District after 35 years. My mom planned a surprise
retirement party for my dad after the school year ended, and it was so much
fun. I was in charge of collecting memories from everyone that knew my dad and
compiling them for my mom to make a book. It was a lot of fun to see all the
replies I got from so many people. My dad truly is a wonderful person and has
affected SO many people in the community. Anybody that knows my dad knows what
his values are and that he has a strong testimony of Jesus Christ. A lot of
people showed up for his party and you should have seen his face, it was
genuine. About 100 showed up and we had a good time. Oh and we also dressed up
all the granddaughters in cheer leading outfits and had them do a cheer for my
dad. This had a little sentimental value. When I was about 4 years old, my
sisters and I dressed as cheerleaders for a homecoming thing ami jig when my
dad was coaching the volleyball team, and
a lot of people remember us doing that, so when we had all the girls do
it at the party it brought back memories.
Disneyland!!!
Yep, we were able to go to Disneyland this summer for a
whole three days. We had so much fun. We left on June 12th and
returned home on June 18th. We stayed at the Red Lion about a block
from the park. We left on a Sunday and we were able to make it to Shawn’s mission
ward in Banning, CA which was really neat, because that sacrament meeting a man
spoke that Shawn baptized! It was pretty neat. He said the ward just wasn’t the
same, but it was still neat for him I think. After that we headed to our hotel
and Monday we headed for the park. We had read to hit Toon town in the morning,
because nobody goes there first, and they were right, it wasn’t really busy,
but the first ride we took the girls on was Rodger Rabbit, haha, their first
Disneyland experience! It was kind of spooky but oh well they survived. On
Tuesday we went to the beach, which was a highlight of the trip. Keely had so
much fun digging in the sand. WE didn’t go in the water as much, because it was
so cold, but Keely didn’t mind one bit playing in the sand. Wednesday and
Thursday we spent the days at Disneyland as well. Now I will say, we probably
won’t be going to Disneyland during the summer time again. That place is so
crazy. The girls were very patient waiting in the lines, but it was still hard
on them. There were so many people there. Friday we went to San Diego to play
around and then we came home on Saturday. We were very glad to be home to our
own beds. It was a good learning experience as it was our first real family
vacation.
Camping in July.
Next up we had our annual Williams family reunion camping
trip. We look forward to it every year especially when it starts to get so hot
in Mesa, it’s a great excuse to get out of the heat and head up to the
mountains. This year I was 7 months pregnant, so it was a little tougher to be
helpful with setting up camp and what not, and sleeping was kind of hard, but
the kids have so much fun playing with their cousins and roaming the woods.
This year the kids found a tadpole hole, and they had so much fun catching them
and watching them swim between their fingers. Everyone was able to make it
except for Sam, and we ate good and relaxed. Shawn brought his ladder ball game
that I bought for his birthday, and we had some tournaments going.
A week later we went camping with the Nelson’s just Friday
and Saturday of the end of July. We had never done that before and it was so
much fun! I am hoping that we can get together every year for a camping
excursion. We camped past Strawberry and the weather was beautiful and the
grass was green. We had cobbler that night we got there and of course the
cousins had a ball.
After lunch on Saturday the Mabbs and us went to a creek by
Payson and played around in the water, as you can see it was really muddy and
messy. We had fun and when we were all done we hopped in our PJs and drove
home. J
Halloween
Of course Molly was born in September, but I already posted
about her birth, so I will skip to Halloween. Halloween was really fun this
year; we went to our ward Trunk or Treat, and then on Halloween night we
knocked on the doors in our neighborhood. The girls really got it this year,
and we pushed Molly in the stroller. Lydia was a ballerina duck and Keely was
Fancy Nancy. They both looked so darn cute. Oh and Molly was a black cat, but
nobody saw her because she was sleeping in her car seat the whole time. Oh and
Shawn was “Mayhem” from the Allstate commercials. He was a teenage girl. J You will have to see
the commercial on youtube if you haven’t seen it. Those commercials are so
funny. Oh and I was Mrs. Mayhem. Of
course the girls already know what they want to be next year.
Molly’s Blessing
November 2011
We bless Molly in November and I was so excited to be able
to have the luncheon or brunch at our house this time. With Keely and Lydia we
were living in apartments or condos and had no room, and it was nice to have
the space. Shawn did a wonderful job on her blessing and I don’t really want to
talk about making her dress, let’s just say that I unstiched that thing
probably 12 times, and then I decided to start from scratch. It took me a LONG
time to get that dress right. But It’s behind me now, and it didn’t even matter
anyway. We had a wonderful time with our families. We are so blessed to have
such great support and love from them.
Lydia
got sick the day before the blessing and we couldn’t decide if we should carry
on with it or not. She crashed out and Shawn took her to bed. The next day we
took her to the doctor because she was wheezing so badly. The doctor told us to
do breathing treatments. That girl can get so sick.
Soccer
Chrissy and Jon put together their own community soccer
teams and they had such a good turnout. Keely got to play with her two cousins
JP and Nathan. She had such a good time, and we were really surprised to see
how well she did! She got right in the mix and even pushed some kids down to
get the ball. If she fell, she got right back up and chased that ball down all
over the field. She was tougher than I thought she would be, and of course she
was so excited to get a trophy.
Thanksgiving and Tree
Hunting
For Thanksgiving this year, we went to my mom’s house and
stayed a few days. Keely, Lydia and the girls had fun putting make up on each
other and doing hair. I guess they were playing Salon, and it reminded me of
the fun stuff that me and my cousins used to do. Keely is growing up so fast.
The day after Thanksgiving we went with Kim and Greg to find a Christmas tree
for us and Shawn’s parents. We went by Greer I think, and there turned out to
be snow! We were a little unprepared for that, and it was freezing. We just wanted
to get a tree and go.
Molly sure is a good baby, she smiles at anyone who wants to
play with her. She reminds me a lot of Keely.
Chrismas Lights and
Nativity
We always to to the temple to look at the lights during
Christmas. This year we went with all of my sisters. So it was me, Kelli, Kim
and Ginger with our families. It was a lot of fun. After that we went to
Ginger’s house to have some hot chocolate.
The Nelson family has been doing a live Nativity with all
the grandkids a couple of weeks before Christmas. The kids really like to dress
up and act out the scripture verses. This year Keely insisted that she wanted
to be a donkey. I kept telling her no, because I couldn’t think of costume for
her, but she figured it out. She had in her mind that she wanted to be the
donkey that took Mary to Bethlehem, and it turned out to be a good idea. Lydia
was an Angel, and Molly was the baby Jesus.
Keely’s 5!!
We did a birthday party for Keely this year. We thought it
would be fun to have boys at the party, so I talked her into doing a super hero
party, and it turned out to be a huge hit. I had the kids decorate their own
capes and masks, then they flew around outside with them for a while until they
looked for kryptonite (green rocks) to save superman, so he doesn’t get hurt.
We played other silly games and had cake and ice cream and opened presents.
Keely was spoiled and I hope she doesn’t think that she get that every year. It
was a lot of work doing a party! And I was a little stressed. Why do I let
myself get stressed over silly little things? I hope the kids had fun, because
we sure did.
Wheww that took a long time…. J
Hopefully I will be better at documenting my family so I can preserve the
memories that we are making and it won't take me 2 hours to cram them in on the 2nd to the last day of the year.
