Bye Bye Christmas!!

I am also so sad when Christmas leaves. We wait with anticipation for like a month and then it comes and is gone just like that. We Nelsons had a good Christmas this year as every year. Last year we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl, and it will alway continue as we watch her grow and experience new things that life brings. It was so good to be with family these past couple of days. Last year we missed the Barnett traditional gumbo because I had just barely had Keely, and I was so excited to eat shrimp gumbo that my Maumau prepares. It was really good this year too, as always. Christmas morning was fun to see Keely opening presents (well really just playing with the paper). She got Little People Zoo from Santa which she loves and a Little Mermaid cell phone!


I suprised Shawn good this year. He had no idea what I got him. Every year that we have been married prior he has either seen his gift of he knew was I was getting him. This year I got him a shot gun, and my brother in law bought it in Show Low and just kept it in Heber until we got there. It was really fun being sneaky.


Here are some pictures of our day, Oh and Keely's bottom. I coudln't resist. She ran away from me when I was changing her diaper to go play with her leap frog table. :) So cute.

How do you like my dad's hat? I love Christmas Morning.

Keely and her Mermaid phone

Playing with her cousing Macey

The Nelson Clan

We are so very grateful for our family and friends. We love them so much!

Happy Birthday Keely

Happy Birthday to my sweet little baby Keely! I can't believe that she is one year old, and I have been a mom for a year now. It feels like just yesterday that my water broke and I was delivering her in the hospital, I swear the memories are still so fresh in my mind.


We had a party for Keely on Saturday with family and friends at Freestone park. It would have been nice to do it at our home, but it is just too small to fit anyone in here, so we did it at the park. It turned out good. The kids were running around and having fun; Kelli brought a pinata which was fun for the kids. I am glad it is over though, I don't know why I stress so much. I know it drives Shawn crazy. Here are some pictures of the day....

I had a lot of fun making this cake.

Keely was crawling around everywhere. She got so dirty.

Keely and her pinata. She got really mad when the kids broke him apart.

Keely eating her cake. MMM good.

Her messy face. She was so tired. She was ready for a nap.

Here is a slideshow of Keely's first year. She is not a baby any longer..... :(

Elfing around :)

So we got sent an email last night with this fun thing. Haha I couldn't stop laughing at it. I wanted to post the video, but all I can post is the link. So click on this link and laugh. You have to make one for yourself as well. Haha I think it is so funny. Enjoy, Merry Christmas!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1169230826

Thanksgiving

Well this Thanksgiving, we went up to Heber to spend it with my family. It was so nice to be up there for the cool weather and enjoy family for the weekend. I love my family so much; it is so much fun when we get together. Everyone was able to make it excpet for Travis's Family and Ernie's family, but we still had a crowd. My mom made a wonderful meal, I have never seen Shawn pick at a turkey like he did. We played scum, rummy, and phase 10 that night, which is always so much fun. Keely had fun playing with her cousins, especially Ben and Emma's Abigal. She is like exactly one month younger and they were just following each other around. Here are some pictures.....

Aren't they so cute?

The day after Thanksgiving was my mom's birthday, and we made her a cake and sang to her. I am so grateful for my family and the love that they have for me and my little family. I don't know where I would be with out them.

I love this picture. That is Ben my brother, he is such a goof ball sometimes, and is usually the life of the party.

The day after Thanksgiving we went out to hunt for our Christmas Tree. Can't beat getting a permit for 10 bucks. My family has been going to the same spot for the past 3 years or so now, so we have made it kind of a tradition. It is so fun to get bundled up and cut down your own tree. We got a really good tree, small but good. We strapped it to our Jetta and took it back with us.

This is Keely's new thing - walking with your fingers. It seems that all she wants to do lately. She gets so made when you don't do it with her. It will be so nice when she will start walking.

This is Hailey, Kelli's girl. She loves to hold Keely.

Well that was our Thanksgiving weekend in a nutshell. Now it's time for Christmas. I love the holiday season. :)

The Zoo and a Suprise!

This past Saturday Shawn and I went to the Phoenix Zoo. I had never been and Shawn's sister gave us some tickets, so we decided to go on Saturday. It was really fun. It was so nice to get out and walk around and enjoy the weather. It got hot in the afternoon but the morning was really nice. Keely really didn't show any emotion towards the animals, except the turkeys by the petting zoo. Probably because we could get right up close to the cage. The petting zoo wasn't open for some reason. I think they were doing som renovations, but I was curious to see how Keely would react to the goats and sheep. Saturday was also her 11th month birthday, she will be one year in a month. Here are some pictures of our day.

This is Keely with the turkeys.

I don't know if you can see the giraffes in this picture, but that's where we were.

Keely with her sippy cup. She is still learning how to use it.

On another note, that same day, my mom came down to bring my Grandma down for Thanksgiving and also to pick up some groceries. She came by to see Keely about 3:00 and then left to get her grocery's. She called me about 10:00 at night and said "I forgot to give you something, so I will be by in about 5 minutes" And I was wondering why she was still out and about when she should be in bed and relaxing from her busy day. Well when I open the door for her out popped my sister Ginger!! She has been in Conneticuit for 8 months and wasn't going to return until next month just before Christmas, but she got to come home early! It was the biggest suprise I have ever had. I was so confused when I saw her. My mom and her had been planning to suprise everyone since September. Not even my dad knew she was coming home for good. They are so funny. But it is so good to have my sister back home and safe. I have missed her so much. Welcome home Giner!! :)

Lack of Things to Say....

It has been a while since I have last posted something. I guess we are pretty boring and nothing is going on. Shawn is still busy busy going to school and working full time. He is such a good worker. Monday, Tuesdays and Wednesdays he doesn't get home till 9:00, which makes my days so long. I find the only thing to do those nights is to work, which means I am getting a lot done, so I guess that is good. I am getting so excited for the holidays, I think that is all I think about (now if the weather would cool down it would feel more like the holidays were coming). I am making stocking right now, getting our Christmas cards all ready, and I am making Keely some pj's for her to open Christmas Eve. I even worked on my background last night to make it in the holiday spirit (thanks again Taralee!).

Keely is almost one I can't believe it! She will turn one on Dec. 17th. We weighed her on Sunday and she was 19 pounds even. She is such a small girl. Last week when shopping for groceries I was asked if she was about 6 months old. I was like "no, she is almost one actually" and then when we went out to dinner, this old man asked if she was 4 months old. Now honestly, does she look 4 months? I don't think so. It was kind of an insult to me. I worry about her weight as it is, and people go and say things like that. Geez. Haha it's okay, I know she is healthy and fine. Today she waved goodbye to Shawn for the first time. I have been trying to get her to do that forever! She can stand by herself for like 3 seconds, and then when she realizes what is going on, she will fall. Hmm what else is she doing lately that's fun? I don't know, but she is learning so much everyday, and it is so strange that she will be walking and talking and feeding herself before I know it. Here are some pictures of her lately.

These are very special moments when Keely lays with you.

She's really playing with her toys

Helping me do laundry:)

Wow that's all I have. I haven't really been taking pictures lately. Maybe because I know we have a ton. haha. We will have some next week I am sure because it is Thanksgiving!!! Wahoo turkey and Heber here we come :) Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!!

I used to love Halloween when I was little, but the last couple of years I haven't been in to it, but it all changed when I had a baby to play with :) It was really fun to dress Keely up in a costume and take pictures. Keely insited dressing up as a giraffe. I couldn't help buying it, she was just too darn cute in it. Amanda was kind enough to have Courtney and I over to take pictures and eat some desserts. Madden was bee and Jaxon was a chicken. Those two boys are so cute. It was fun going over there to take pictures. Us moms probably looked so funny trying to get those three to smile and flashing our cameras like crazy. I think you could totally tell that we are all first time moms. :)

I was suprised that Keely didn't really mind her costume. She is so silly. Next year I think Keely will enjoy Halloween more when she knows what is going on, and can actually go trick or treating. But anyway that was our Halloween, I hope everyone else had a good one too!

My Very Own!

So about 3 weeks ago, my mom asked me if I would accept a piano she found, and I was like YES YES! I was so excited, because it was only $125 from a lady in Heber that drives the school buses. I didn't know she was going to buy it for me though. She said my dad was so excited to be able to buy me a piano. On Thursday she brought it down to me, and Shawn and Jason (two very strong men, I might add) brought it in for me. I love it. I can't believe I have my very own piano! I can't wait till I get good again; I have been so out of practice for a long time. Keely thinks it is her new toy, which she might as well because it is in her room. She climbs up there and hits the keys, it is funny. It makes it a little tight in our small townhome but it's alright. But here are some pictures. Thanks again Mommy!

For Grandma and Papa!

Grandma and Papa Nelson are vacationing in New Zealand and Australia for the next 2 weeks and they wanted to see their Keely. Keely now has 2 more teeth that popped in two days ago, so making a total of 8 teeth. I love her teeth. She is so cute when she smiles. I know Keely misses them, and I haven't posted anything new lately so I thought I would post some pictures. So here are some pictures of the last couple of weeks of Keely.

A few weeks ago we went to my mom's house for conference and these are at her house.

Keely had a ball in the lid drawer. When we went outside, she loved the wagon and got so mad at us when we took her out. She would scream bloody murder at me.

I thought this picture was cute. She was so interested in what Shawn was doing that she stood on his feet to see. We went to the park one Sat. and she mostly stayed on the blanket. I don't think she likes the grass too much.



















I was so happy, the other day Keely fell asleep on me! She hadn't done that since she was like 3 months old, and she has done it a couple of times since. It makes me so happy; I love it so much. It made my day when she did that. (I don't know why that is underlined, I couldn't get it off.)




Last night we went to Peter Piper Pizza with Jason and Courtney because Courtney and I have husbands who are so silly. They wanted to play the arcade games (mainly the basketball one) and get some pizza. They are so funny. It was a lot of fun. Keely didn't like Shawn shooting the basketball. It was scaring her for some reason. She had fun with Jaxon. It will be so fun when he gets older.


Anyway that's all I have for now!

SNOT!

Well Keely has had a cold for the past few days with a stuffy nose, and today it started to run! Haha it was so funny. I set her in her chair with some goldfish and I turned around and there was ton of snot running down her nose almost making it in her mouth. It was so funny, so I thought I would take a picture. All day she has been pushing my hand away from wiping her nose, but she didn't care that I wiped that away (yes I wiped it away after I tood the picture). I am sure once she is older she is going to thank me for this post. :)

Where Has My Baby Gone?

Two days ago Keely started pulling herself up on the couch. The first time she did it, you should have seen the look on her face. She was so proud of herself. Haha, it was so funny; she is a goof sometimes. I thought this picture was cute, so I wanted to post it. She looks so old in this picture. I am afraid that she will be walking soon and then I won't have a baby anymore. It makes me so sad.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Since September of 2006 Shawn's family had been planning to go to Disneyland in September of 2007. So we just got back from California, well last week we did. It was a lot of fun. All of Shawn's brothers and sisters were able to make it. It was a big deal to get everyone there because Grandma had to get her Christmas pictures there. :) She is so funny.




Well Shawn and I left Saturday (about a week ago) morning and headed to Riverside, CA so we could go to a ward that was in Shawn's mission. We stayed at a really nice Hilton which was pretty cool, and on Sunday we went to his missionary ward, but he was kind of bummed because he didn't see anyone there that he really wanted to see. After church we headed to Newport beach, so Keely could have her first beach experience, which did not go well I might add. She has never really been outside because it is always so dang hot, so she hated the feel of the sand in her feet, and she detested the water as well. After that we headed to Anaheim to check into our next hotel which was called the Castle Inn across from Disney land. About 2 hours after we check in, we had a little incident. Shawn left the room while Keely was on the bed and she fell off and her teeth cut her bottom lip. She was bleeding and crying and I was crying. I think Shawn got a little frustrated with the girly emotions. :) Anyway, so the next day we walked across the street to Disneyland. Keely loved seeing all the people there. Everytime we were in line for something, she was smiling at someone and they would comment on how much she smiles and what happy baby she was. She was so funny with all those people. Let's see what rides did we take her on? She absolutely loved Small World, hated Pirates, loved the tiki room, liked Buzz light year and dumbo, wasn't too fond of the carousel, I think that is it. I wish she was older when we took her so she could remember but oh well we got some good pictures.




At the end of our last day we were taking a picture of Shawn, me and Keely in front of the park and Mikey came right in our picture. He was no where to be found and there he was! It was so funny. I felt so special. We had been looking for him all day and he came to us! Keely loved him. She would not keep her eyes off him. It was too cute.




I didn't think it would be as hard as it was to take her, but going on vacation with a baby was a lot of work, especially in Disneyland because she got so sick of her stroller and being held, she just wanted to be down. I don't know if I would go to Disneyland again with a baby. It feels so good to be home!:)

Dirty!

So today I had to go into work to pick up more stuff to work on and apparently our office is dirty! It looks like she got her self into a bunch of coal to play with. I don't know why it is so dirty. It is brand new carpet. I thought she would get more dirty at home but I guess at the office there is more traffic. Everytime we get home from the office she looks like this. It is so gross! If she would crawl on her knees instead of scooting her belly around maybe she wouldn't look like that :) But even her toes, knee, and elbows get so dirty now. I think she is going to ruin all her clothes, haha oh well I love buying her clothes, so now maybe I have an excuse for Shawn not to shake his head at me haha just kidding :) But other than the dirty clothes she was a good girl for me today at work. Usually she demands more attention, but my coworkers daughter was there who is 4 and Keely had a ball playing with her. I think Keely needs to play with more kids so I don't have to entertain her all day. She totally forgot I was in the room when she was playing with that girl. It was so nice! I can't wait for Jaxon and Madden to get old enough so we can have play dates!

Watch out Baby!

I can't believe how fast Keely is growing! She is offically a transporter. She isn't really crawiling just army crawing, but she gets around. The other day I was getting her bath water ready for her and she suprised me when she came right behind me. It scared me half to death. She is going from room to room and getting into everything, expecially the things she knows she's not supposed to have. Little stinker! Here are some recent miscellaneous pictures.......

Her favorite big girl bath

She knows shes going into uncharted territory.

And there she goes!

Now she sees that I have a camera she wants

Shawn put her in there but she loved it.

She had really bad bed head one morning. It was so funny. Rough night.:)

She loves playing with her carseat.

New York, New York

Sister in front of Lady Liberty

So my sister Ginger is living in Conneticuit for a year being a nanny for a rich family in Grennwich. So... my sisters (Kelli and Kim) and my mom decided that we need to go make a trip and visit her. So about 2 weeks ago we left all our children behind (yes even Keely :( ) to visit New York City! We had a really fun time. It is so beautiful back east and New York is so fun! If I was single and rich I would live there. It was just like the movies. The subways are identical to what you see in the movies, but when you watch the movies, you don't get the smell. They stink so badly. We went into this one elevator and it smell just like urine. It was awful.
We stayed at the house that Ginger nannies for, and it was so beautiful. We went and saw the major sites like Statue of Liberty, Time Square, Empire State, the Met, Brooklyn bridge, 5th Ave, China Town... Ginger was our tour guide and it was so weird for our little sister to be showing us around in this big city. We also saw a broadway play "Hairspray". We wanted to see something else, but everything else was sold out. But I am so glad that we got to see Hairspray. It was halarious. I have never seen anything like it. I would definatly recomend it.
It was so amazing to see how people live there. No one owns a car. I didn't see one gas station in New York. Everyone just walks to where they want to go. We stayed for about a week, and I was glad that is wasn't more, I was getting so home sick to see Keely and Shawn. It was torture. I don't know if I could do that ever again. Especially with Keely being so little.

New York Police Men :)

Me in China Town

Ginger and Mom in Central Park