Piano Recital

I am so proud of my talented children. It takes a lot of practice to achieve what they have. Just because Alan and I have always said, "Piano is non-negotiable," does not mean they couldn't have tried to make it difficult for us. Thank you Austin, Kellie, and Alexa for making some aspects of parenting easy.

Blessing #1

With my parents going on a mission and most of my children not liking change, our family decided to look for the blessings we will receive while my parents are serving in the field and while we are serving in their home.

Blessing:
Austin has been bullied in our ward; this boy is bigger, stronger, and admits that he enjoys being mean. Instead of letting the bully chase him out of church Austin has worked with our good Bishop to come up with alternate ways to attend all three hours of church without being near this bully by attending other classes. This is all well and good except he doesn’t get to be with his age group or be able to relax and enjoy the spirit when the boy is around.

Moving is giving Austin the opportunity to go to church with kids his age, learn age appropriate lessons, and gives him a chance to relax and feel the spirit. This is a huge blessing for all of us and I am thankful for the opportunity to stay in Springville and have a safer environment for my son.

Lex Makes Me Laugh

Alexa: I tricked ya, Dad.
Alan: Nope, ya didn’t.
Alexa: (walking away) Yeah, I did—just accept it.

Parental Pride

Kellie set a goal this year to get on the honor roll. She set it up so she was accountable to our ward’s Relief Society president, so once a week they would ask each other if they were still trying to meet their goals. The 1st term Kel was 0.02 points away from being on the honor roll. She was sad but she didn’t quit; she worked even harder to get on the honor roll. When 2nd term ended we found out that Kellie is on the honor roll. We are proud of her.

Kellie is Impressive

Kellie is an impressive young woman! She took the initiative on her own to work on Personal Progress in her spare time. Before turning 13½ she has finished her Personal Progress.

She loves Personal Progress so much she has decided to help one of her friends earn her Personal Progress award and in return Kellie will earn her Honor Bee. We are very proud of Kellie.

We gave her a bracelet to help remind her of the Young Women values she loves.
Kellie is a great example to all of us.

Scouting

We are proud of Austin, he has earned the rank of Life in scouting.
Next up . . . his Eagle!

First Day of School

Kellie and Alexa were so excited to get back to school. They told me they hope they don’t have as many breaks from school as they did last year.

First Day of High School

My boy is in High School! He has started High School and he loves it. It is a blessing to me to have my kids excited about learning. Austin is involved in drama and orchestra.

Parental Pride

Kellie is on the honor roll! As you may know, Kellie struggles with reading which makes her accomplishment that much more impressive.

I Guess Kel is Paying Attention

We were watching Music and the Spoken Word and the chior sang "Down By The Riverside" and Kellie said, "Well then they can't study the Book of Mormon."

Bakin' Cookies

For his Home Economics class, Austin had to make copies of a recipe, cook the recipe (by himself), and take it in for the class to try. He was confused by one ingredient but didn't question it; he just followed the recipe. The cookies were good, not great, but good. Later we found out that when he had copied the recipe he left out the word “baking.” He ended up putting in 1 ½ Tsp. of Sprite rather than 1 ½ Tsp. of baking soda.

Grandma Cook's Oatmeal Cookies
Cream Together
1 ½ Cups white sugar
2 Cups brown sugar
3 Eggs
1 Lb butter
2 Tbls. vanilla
Mix Together
6 Cups flour
1 ½ cups oatmeal
1 ½ Tsp. baking soda
1 ½ Tsp. salt
Mix all ingredients together.
Add 2 ½ to 3 Cups chocolate chips.
2 Cups nuts (optional; a wrong option but optional).
Bake 350º 8-9 min. leave on cookie sheet 5 minutes.

Bad Mom

Austin was recalling his childhood and told his sisters, "When I was younger I was being bad, so mom froze one of my toys and wouldn't let me play with it."

What really happened was Cynthia thought of a fun, cooling activity for a hot day: She froze one of his Star Wars action figures and let him use the hammer and screwdriver and go on an ice archeological dig.

We were amazed at how wrong he got it. How he mistook what should have been a nice memory as a punishment and an intricate one to boot.

Sad News in the Nelson House

Austin has the whine flu—poor Mom.

Poor Austin

My poor boy. Starting in July something was always wrong with Austin. He popped his knee cap out at Timberline Scout Camp. He came down with Shingles. He finally got rid of the brace and then he got the flu. We got the shingles taken care of and he got a horrible cold that his body was too worn out to shake.He is finally all better, now if we can do something about his mouth-y-ness ☺

Locks of Love

Alexa has always looked up to Kellie, so ever since Kellie donated her hair to Locks of Love Alexa has wanted to donate her hair to Locks of Love.
They cut 12" off and I was more worried about the short hair then Alexa was. I kept asking her if she was sure she wanted to do this now (the day before school started) and she said, "Don't worry mom, it is so in the now."

It turned out very cute and she is very sassy with this hair cut. I am proud of both my girls and their willingness to donate to Locks of Love.

Tennis Lessons

This year we really cut back on activities, but I let the kids choose one thing they really wanted to do. The girls wanted to learn how to play tennis. They had class at 7a.m. 7a.m.! It was super early for me, but they seemed to be able to get going in the morning.I had to tell Alexa to let the teacher teach. The girl does like to talk. She had some good swings and had a great time learning how to play.
Kellie has a wonderful backhand. If all of tennis was backhand she would play a pretty mean game.

Timberline

Being from a very active scouting family, it seemed natural for us to send the boy to Timberline. He fought us (probably because we told him he was in charge of paying for it). The more he fought us the more convinced I was that it was a good thing for him to go. First day there he was playing Scalp the Scout and fell down hitting his knee on a rock. Then that night while squatting down his knee cap popped out and then popped back in.We got a call at 10:45 p.m. from the emergency room, “Mom, I may have to have you come and get me tonight, I popped my knee out, and they think I tore it.” The knee was too swollen to really tell what was wrong and they (Austin and the Scout Leader) decided to wait until morning to decide if he should stay for the rest of camp or not.

The next morning Austin called and said he would be fine there with a brace, and that he really didn’t want to come home. However, he did call every day “just to check in” and let us know how he was doing. We had no chance to really miss the guy, but it was thoughtful of him to think of us.At closing ceremonies Austin challenged a staffer to a light saber fight. He was really into it, hopping around on one leg, then Alan yelled out, “Sweep the knee!” I laughed all through the videoing of the fight, but missed what Alan yelled, so I am laughing on tape and no one knows why.

Swimming Lessons

One of the reasons I love having swim lessons at 7 Peaks, besides the small classes, being outside, and giving the kids a day pass for the park, is the last day I get to take pictures of them playing on the slides. I don’t get to do that when we go to 7 Peaks for the day, I don’t want to get the camera wet. Not pictured: Austin-he sprained his knee at scout camp and didn’t get to have swimming lessons this year.

1st Day of School

We made it through the first day of school! We found out that Reagan Academy will take the 7th graders to Bryce Canyon every year (Kellie was the 1st class to get to go). They offer German (Austin), ASL(Kellie) and electives where Kellie can take drama and learn to play guitar and Austin can play sports and board games (I know it is a weird elective, but with his health lately . . .) I love this school, and the kids love the school, can't ask for more than that.