He Can Fly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My little brother Matthew just got his approval papers from the FFA. He and his wife, Lauren having been living in Florida for about a year waiting for this to happen. They moved down there so that he could go to the school Delta has there. He submitted an application for approval and was denied. The reason being that he was born with a cyst in his brain and has had to have over 20 surgeries since he was about 12. Well to make a long story short, he appealed it and he just got approval today.

This is so incredibly amazing and I am so excited for him. His whole life he has always wanted to be an air force pilot. He could not join the Air Force because of this whole thing with his head. So he turned to the next best thing. HE has struggled for so long and has come just within arms length of all of his dreams and now one is finally coming true. I love you Matt and Lauren I am so glad your dreams are both coming true.

I Am Grateful For...

MY LITTLE SISTER PEA!!!!!!!!!!!

We are going up to Utah to spend Thanksgiving with her and her family.
I can not wait. Before we decided to go up there all I could think about was Christmas. Now I have a huge reason to start counting down to Thanksgiving.

Benjamin TAG

I got tagged by my friend Ashlee. Well Benjamin did.

Name and Meaning: Benjamin William Nelson. We can not name our babies til we meet them. We had a few names in m ind but they flew out the window when we both sat down with Benjamin the day he was born. After a day we decided on Benjamin. William is his dads and grandpa Nelsons middle name. That was decided when we found out it was a boy. Benjamin means Right Hand Son, good for the first born right. We did not know the meaning when we choose it, in fact I just found out.

Age : 2.11

Nicknames : Benamin (Jacob calls him that), Ben, doodlebug.

Favorite Activities : Playing with Jacob, anything you can do outside. Watching a movie he has never seen.

Favorite Foods: Tootsie Rolls, spaghetti, meatballs, green beans, all fruits.

Least Favorite Foods : Any veggies other than green beans. Just found out tonight that he is not so found of pepperchinies.

Favorite Music : I Am A Child Of God, I Am the Champion(from chicken little) the entire soundtrack from chipmunks. Dances to Jason Maraz, and Love inc.

Favorite Toys : Train set from IKEA-inside. Shovel and bucket-outside.

Favorite Book : I Can Fly by Mo Willems. Goodnight moon.

Favorite Item of Clothing : His Incredibles shirt. His daddy is on it, his words.

What Makes Him Happy : Any family member that comes to visit him. Taking care of Jacob, when he can help him stop crying it the best.

What Makes Him Sad : The Pumpkin choo choo. Its the train at the pumpkin patch at sunset station. When Mommy cries.

I tag Ora (ERIN), Madisen (JENESSA), anyone else that wants to or that has a cool meaning for there name.

Help!!!

My mother-in-law bought me some gummy eyeballs to use as cupcake toppers for our Halloween party we have every year at my Sister and brother-in-laws house. Problem is I have no idea how to make them work.

I have thought about just frosting the cupcake and topping it with the eyeball. But thought maybe that was not "ghooly" enough. Then I thought that I would make a one eyed monster cupcake but they eyeball is huge and I do not know if it will work. I am going to try my ideas this week and see what I like, but thought I would let you come up with some ideas and maybe add a little more creativity to the cupcake.

So for all you out there with this gift, and you know who you are, please let me know if you have any ideas that I am just not thinking of.

This is what the eye ball looks like.

Mo Willems

When Benjamin turned two, my brother and sister-in-law got him a book. When I first went to read it I hated it. Do not get me wrong the book was so cute. Adorable illustrations, cool colors, but I did not like the way it read. It was simple with only a few words per page and frankly I found it boring to read. Benjamin on the other hand instantly loved it. I read it everyday to him and could not figure out why I found it so bland and he found it so fascinating. Then about a week before Matt and Lauren (the gifters) left for Florida they came over to spend some time with us and our boys. Benjamin of course went to get his favorite book and had Lauren read it to him. It was then that I fell in love with this book. She read it they was it was supposed to be read. With life and character. She yelled when the word were CAPITALIZED , read it with the right punctuation?!. She brought the book to life. Now I love it. I love to read it. I love the message which I missed all those times reading it because I was clouded by the fact that it bored me. Now I have read all of this authors bo0ks and I will own them someday. I am still going to collect all of Dr. Suese's books, but Mo Willems is right up there for me right now. Here are my favorites of his.

This has got to be my favorite. It makes me laugh to read. And it is a great story about friendship.

Great story about finding yourself. Best illustrations.

This one was the gift. And is still the favorite of both Benjamin and Jacob.

Pictures

Bobby and I took the boys to get there pictures taken yesterday. It was our second attempt. Our first attempt was a disaster, and resulted in zero pictures. I was preparing for the same outcome this time around, but we got better results. Andrew the photographer, would not give up. He stayed positive and made the boys feel welcome and happy. I did not get all the shots I wanted but He did get some really adorable shots that captured my kids personalities to a tee. He was a little discouraged when he only got 26 shots to choose from but we sat down any way and this is what I got.

Benjamin's Profile

I love this one. He sits just like that when we are playing. My sister Pea sits that way as well.

This is my Jacob. This picture is his personality. He would not keep his tongue in his mouth.

I could not, not get this one.

This is the only shot we got of them together, with hands out of the mouths and looking forward.

Anyone Know?

Whenever I add anything to my side bar it does not fit. The Christmas one there now is the olny one that has even come close. Does any one know how to fix this? HELP!!!

I Am A Child Of God

So for weeks, well since he was born, but more recently weeks, I have been teaching Benjamin I Am A Child Of G0d. The primary chorister wants the nursery kids to join them in the primary program to sing this song. Benjamin does not have the best attention span, or so I thought. Every time we would start to sing it he would stop somewhere in the middle and just change the subject, or want to sing a different song. I was kinda loosing hope that he was going to sing it. But today I was swinging my boys outside and he started to sing it without any cue. He sang the whole thing. I started to cry, I was so proud. Obviously he has been paying attention. He also ask me today if Nephi was the one who built the boat. I feel like I am doing ok now. I feel like on a day to day basis my kids are not learning anything about the gospel. I know that they know who Heavenly Father is and that every night they want to say prayers. But I was feeling like nothing else was sticking with them.

So any of you out there that are having the same experiences, on day out of nowhere your child will surprise you and let you know they get it. Do not get discouraged.

Be Who You Have Always Wanted To Be

President Uchtdorf's talk in the General Relief Society Conference really hit home for me. I was not going to go to the meeting. The UNLV vs. UNR football game was the same night. For those of you who do not know, UNLV and UNR are huge rivals. Every year we fight for the cannon. Whoever wins the game get to keep an actual cannon on there campus until they either win to keep it or loose it. UNLV has not won in forever but this year they are blowing any previous records out of the water and it is only the beginning of the season. They are playing better than ever. We actually had a chance to win this one and get the cannon back. Well as it goes Bobby was ask to go on a Scout camp out that weekend. I did not want to go alone. So the game was off. No biggie. He thought that he would be home Sat. by 5 so I made plans to go tot he broadcast. Only then I found out that the camp out was not even scheduled to be done til 7 sat. night and its a +- 2 hour drive home. So plans canceled. Or, so i thought. My father-in-law called me when he found out and told me that he would watch the boys for me so I could still go. Now any other night this would have been just another nice offer, but hello UNLV game night. My father-in-law is a huge football fan as well and has all the packages available with cable to see any game at any time. He also has a six-in six picture, which means that he can watch six games at once. I told him that I did not want him to have to miss out on the game. He said the sweetest thing next, and I quote "The game is no big deal, I want you to go, bring the boys over and I will not let you say no." Well what could I say other than be there around 430.

So I got to go. I went with my mother-in-law , Kathy and two sister-in-laws, Kristel, and Kari. (For those that put that together yes, our girls include, Kathy, Kristel, Cristen, and Kari, crazy, i know) To make this night even better Kristel is not a member but wanted to come tag along. Cool part coming later. To top that off we ended up going to Kari's stake and it the same steak my Aunt Dawn and her daughter Megan are in so we all got to sit together. My mom was up with my Grandma, I did not leave her out.

So we all sat and talked until the broadcast started. Kristel had a few questions and we answered and filled her in on who that speakers were, and there "jobs". As I sat there I few things hit home as the Relief Society General Presidency gave there talks. I absolutely loved Sister Barbara Thompson's enthusiasm. She just made me smile.

But I have to say that president Uchtdorf's talk is the one that made me sit up and fill guilty for even thinking about not being there. He is truly a man of God. There is no doubting that he prepared and was instructed by the Lord on what to talk on. I have had the "I feel like I am just not doing enough" conversation with almost every women I know in the church. And all very recent conversations. Relief Society has always been an easy joke, in church meeting, talks, and even the movies made about the church. We tend to go a little overboard. We try so hard to make everything perfect. We want everyone to be touched by what is said, sung and heard. And no matter how wonderful everyone else may think the meeting or activity went, those who were on the committee, or those who gave the talks, always think back and wonder about what they could have changed. I do it all the time. Whenever I have talked in church I go home thinking, oh man, if only I had done this, or said that. I leave Nursery every week thinking about how it can be better next week, and then continuing that thought to , I know someone else could do better.

What makes this all the more crazy, is I do a pretty dang good job. When I really look back I have seven or so kids that remember what they were taught week to week. I have kids that remember the songs that the learned. They are all happy when they go home and happy to come back.

I am prepared and sometimes go to extreme measures to help the kids learn and remember. I think I am pretty fun and I have fun with the kids. I do not get stressed out if one of them feels like walking around instead of eating snack or participating in singing time. I try to include them as best I can and hope that it all goes well. Every week presents a new challenge that I love to solve. I do mess up but from now on I ma going to take it and learn. No more lingering thoughts about ,, "if only I could go back and do it over" That ends today, or should I say ended Saturday night.

I urge all of you to take his message to heart and really think about your individual creativity. Make yourself better on a daily basis. Feed your EGO. And no comparing yourself to anyone else. You are special and our Heavenly Father made you just the way you are. You can accomplish anything you want. Be who you have always wanted to be, but were to afraid to be.


For those of you who are interested UNLV lost, well they got killed by UNR. Game was a bust and I made the right choice.