Jantz's on his scooter (see post below)

http://web.mac.com/candicenelson/nelsonnine/Blog/Entries/2008/5/29_%E2%80%9CSee_Ya_Suckor%E2%80%99s%21%E2%80%9D.html

Thanks Candice!!

The full Nelson!

My family LOVES to go to South Jordan and hang out with the Nelson's. It always brings plenty of laughter and the kids love each other so much they refer to each other as "cousins." We met up with them over the Memorial Day weekend. Nothing fancy, but it doesn't matter. They all just like to hang around. They spent loads of time riding bikes and scooters through the trails at Daybreak. They all had a blast! In fact, oddly enough. The other day when I picked up an afterschool snack at the store that Josh had been asking for, I said, who is best mom ever...and with a smile on his face he said I was. Then Jantz just piped up out of nowhere and said, "well actually, I think Candice is the best mom ever!" It's ok, no hard feelings! I totally agree with him! Candice is the best! Noone compares really! She is going to love to read this!

Abby

The whole clan after attacking the ice cream guy with a cup of change! Haylee, Maggee, Lillee, Jantz, Abby, Nick, Rylee, Josh, and Hunter!
The happy couple. They are seriously sooosoooo cute together. I tried to grab a picture of them holding hands walking upstairs but I wasn't fast enough. I wish you could all hear their cute little conversation - from the minds of 4 year olds.
Here's my favorite autistic kid eva! He is amazing! He has come so far! I loved watching Hunter ride his scooter, he is more than 3 x's Jantzen's age and goes 1/4 the speed! But that is just his style! He always looks this happy. The best is just watching Hunter in the field with only a weed to keep him happy! Jantz is always telling me how funny he thinks Hunter is. Candice and I overheard him ask Hunter why he is always by himself! We cracked up over that one!
Cute little Luccee - I HAD to post this one!

Jantz tore up the trails like a madman! The kid just turned 4 this month! I seriously thought that an emergency room visit, or air evac ride to the hospital was immenient! He was cruising like you wouldn't believe down these hills and then turning the corner at the bottom on a dime. It was truly NUTS! You would have to see it to believe it!
Maggee
Then things started to get a little CrAzY!

Maybe they were tired of seeing my camera.

Some Fun with Josh

On Wednesday Josh had his "Mom and Me Literacy Tea" at school. The mothers were invited to the classroom where the kids sang us a song about how much they like to read with us. Then all of us together read a couple of poems. We learned that specifically literacy means the ability to read and write, or the ability to use language to read, write, listen and speak. We read some fables that each of the kids wrote and them we answered some questions about reading together and made a little scrapbook. The kids also taught us about "Koni or storyteller" dolls. The dolls are usually women and they are surrounded by children. They represent ancient pueblo traditions of reading to children. Each of the kids made one out of clay for their mothers. Then we had some cookies together. It was so much fun. Heritage is such a great school they do such fun and original things with the kids. These are some pictures I took with my cell phone so the quality isn't great but you can get the idea.

Josh and his fable and the scrapbook we made and my Koni doll with 3 babies.

The next JO BRO??

After the tea I took Josh to Ogden to DK Studios. He had been asked to record some background vocals with a group of kids for a lady in our neighborhood who is putting out a cd this summer. He was SOO SOO excited! He keeps telling us that one day he would love to be a singer in a band so this was a really fun opportunity for him to see inside a real recording studio and see how things are done. People tell me he has a good voice but I wouldn't know because I am so NOT musical! There wasn't much he had to sing but he didn't care! He had so much fun. At one point he asked me if he was going to get paid for it! I think he is getting a little ahead of himself. I told him that he should just be thrilled with the opportunity alone. It was really dark in there so I wasn't able to get quality photos, BUT at least now he has something tangible to remember the moment with.

Looking for last minute gift ideas??

Have ya seen these? So cool! I guess I don't have to exercise ANYMORE to have legs like this chic. All I need is a pair of these Victoria's Secret Fit Flops. To have legs like these..... I am SOLD! Size 7 1/2 please!

SUPER SATURDAY and GOODBYE SOCCER
Last Saturday was busy as always - but lots of fun and brought some bitter sweet feelings for me. First we headed out to the Scout-A-Rama in Ogden. Both Dayt and I are involved in scouting so we had to attend. Josh was able to do a couple of fun things like archery and shooting before we had to head off to tumbling. After tumbling we had to fly over to the garage sale to help Dayt's grandparents. They do a big one with several families every spring. This year in an effort to teach the kids a little sacrifice and work ethic, (and to organize the playroom) we had them each go through their stuff and take what they wanted to the yard sale and let them keep all the money they made to go towards a trampoline. We left ours back in AZ and haven't replaced it since we left.

I brought my "NEW MOTHER'S DAY" camera along to play around with and learn how to use it. This picture of Abby doing a backhandspring turned out funny. Off to soccer...last games!

This is a "journaling" website for me so forgive me for all the soccer - you are all probably just as ready as I was to have the soccer season over. But actually, it is a little bittersweet for me. It causes a whole lot of chaos and craziness with scheduling on Saturdays BUT I love to go watch my kids play, and I will miss it on some level. I love that they are getting exercise and I am so proud of them because they work so hard and try their best each week. Grandma Gibson lost a lot of money this year because they both scored so many goals.

It was so fun to watch Abby turn into this different person on the field. She is soooo shy at school (to the point that it was a problem and we had to focus her goals at school on participating and speaking in class) but when she gets on the field she just turns into this fireball! She scored at least 2 goals every week and her biggest week she scored 6!

Josh did a great job too! He is really loving his position as a forward. He hustles like crazy and runs a 5K every game! He has really started to get a handle on passing and learning his position on the field. Josh is the one with the ball - sorry about the dude with the legs sitting next to me!

This is Jantz, just happy to be with us. He has been so tolerant of Saturdays! It must be boring to never get to play and have to sit and watch game after game!

Then we hooked up with our good friends the Crookstons for a late dinner! This is my best friend from high school Amy's (Griffin) kids. Our kids LOVE to hang out and they pair up nicely with age. As inseparable as Amy and I were in high school - we wouldn't have it any other way! We hopped on FrontRunner and cruised to Gateway for dinner.

This is Alex, Jantz, Abby, Anna, Skyler and Josh.

Off to Applebees. Here is the "kids" table - what a CrAzY group!

Jantz did get a little "payoff" at the end of the day for sitting through the other kids' activities. He loves trains - always has. He has been dying to ride FrontRunner! We have a station near us and his eyes are always peeled for the train. He LOVES it! He finally got his wish to ride! He is our nervous kid so as always there are A LOT of questions! He is so curious about how everything works. He was a bit "concerned" at first, but had a blast!

Ok, WOW what a post!

ROCK ON DC!

My two hours of voting for David Cook paid off! I love this guy! Ok, so before some of you out there freak out...I'll say that Archuleta has the better voice, BUT my boy Cook is the whole package! He is way more original and creative and appeals to a much larger group of people. Carrie is still my favorite idol and there is NO WAY another idol will sell more than her, BUT I can't wait to have a little Cook with my Underwood! There are several Cook songs (and an Archie song) for your listening pleasure!

Josh's 2nd Grade Program

It's the end of the school year and I am finding myself at the school for something almost everyday. Last Thursday Josh had his 2nd grade program - once during the day for the studentbody and then again at night for family. The 2nd grade teachers really did an amazing job. The music was so cute! They sang songs about a lot of the things they had learned about during the year, rocks, bugs, recycling, history, reading etc. I wish the grandma's and grandpa's that had to come to the earlier performance would've been able to come at night. It was so much easier to understand the words because without the entire studentbody being in the gym it was easier to make out the lyrics.

Josh is in the upper middle part of the picture with the white stars on his hat
Josh is sitting next to his cute little buddy Wilson Piper
This is NOT a baptism picture even though it looks like it is. The white shirts were mandatory for the program. This is Josh and his fabulous teacher Cynthia Johnson

On the bulletin board - this is Josh's Flat Stanley aka Ladanian Tomlinson from the Chargers. Flat Stanley helped the kids learn about new areas around the country. Josh's Flat Stanley traveled to Denver Colorado - thanks Uncle Derek for sending the postcard!

"Building" RUFFIE!

Here are some pics of Jantzen at Build -A- Bear on his birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Gibson have a tradition that on your 4th birthday you get to go to Build -A- Bear and pick out a new furry little friend. It was no surprise that Jantz picked out a cat!

At the stuffing station you get to pick out a heart to give your animal life, and then you make a wish before you put the heart inside....

Then you give them a bath and comb their fur.

Ready to get dressed...Jantz started with the "basics."
Here he is with his new best buddy...RUFFIE...another shocker right?
THANKS grandpa and grandma!
May 10, 2008

A SHINING Moment

Today as we were getting breakfast Jantzen reminded Dayton and me of one of my top 5 scariest movies of all time...I had to share because the similarities between the two were so perfect. Little boy, 3-wheeled bike, hard floor noise to silent - we're only missing the ghosts!

Pause the music at the bottom of the page to hear the video...

Jantzen's Big Birthday Bash!

Saturday May 10th - this is how it all went down!

Jantz was super excited that I bought donuts for his birthday breakfast He had been eyeing this basketball donut for months every time we went to the grocery store. We had to leave the house by 8:40 for an early soccer game so a quick breakfast was essential. Josh's game was first. The first two quarters didn't go so well. We were down a player and they outscored us like crazy. The boys never gave up and by the end of the game they were within a goal or two. Josh hustled his little heart out and ended up with 3 goals! Unfortunately the game went a little long so we didn't make it to tumbling - sorry Skeeter! Then off to the house to get everything together for Jantz's little party. Meanwhile, the birthday boy was at Build-a-Bear with Grandma and Grandpa Gibson. Pictures to come a little later.
Jantz is really into Diego from Go Diego Go so we started out with a little game of animal rescuer. Baby Bear was stuck somewhere and needed help. The kids had to use their "binoculars" to spy baby bear stuck way up high in the cherry tree.
We needed to get baby bear back to his cage where he would be safe. So we used a map from our rescue packs. First we had to figure out what we could use to cross the muddy river.
Then we had to follow the curvy orange path through the forest.

Then we had to find his cage in the long grass. The kids LOVED this game! And because of another crazy week (haven't had anything but CRAZY for weeks now!) Dayt and I planned out the party just moments before they arrived! KU-DOS!
Jantz is a little shy about us singing Happy Birthday! Love the Diego cake!

We played a couple of other simple little party games. The kids were so cute! They couldn't wait for Jantz to open their presents and they were thrilled to have some cake and ice cream. It is soooo easy to throw a party for 4 year olds. They are so happy with just the simple things in life. I wish I could be a little more like that. It was actually really fun and I was glad that I decided to go through with it. After the party we hurried to get Josh off to Jacob Cleverly's baptism (thanks Shauna for your help) and then off to Abby's soccer game. Abby started out the game having a hard time catching her breath and sat out a bit. I was thinking she may not play because she couldn't stop coughing but she had set a goal of scoring twice and had an audience of lots of grandma's and grandpa's so she didn't stay out for long. By the end of the game she had scored 6 ! That's my girl! It has to be said that she gets it from me! Then we met up with Grandpa Dave at Dairy Queen for a little ice cream and presents for Jantz. Then off to pick up the babysitter for Date Night! Dayt and I met up with some high school friends at Brad and Tammy McDougals, we had a great time. We hadn't seen a lot of them since we have been back from Arizona so it was nice to get all caught up with everybody. Brad produced a fabulous video from our senior year. The fashions were HOT and the hair was BIG! It was definately a good laugh! Good times!

Here are some random pictures from the last couple of "celebrations." On Thursday we went to Sam and Mel's for a BBQ. We celebrated Jantz's birthday and Mother's Day a little early. Today we had another "combo" celebration. It's Grandpa Gibson's birthday today and Mother's Day and we celebrated Jantzen's birthday party with my family at our house. We are thankful we have such a nice rental house that is perfect for get-togethers! I think Jantz was really happy! All the excitement and hype he had been talking about for weeks lived up to his expectations. He had a really good birthday. Thanks to everyone who took part in making it special for him. Happy Birthday buddy, I still keep hoping you will take me up on my offer to not turn 4! We have LOVED everything about you being "free."

Here is Jantz with his "contar." He was soooo excited! He said, Oh my gosh, it's a contar! I can't BELIEVE I have my very own contar! I will post some video of him ripping it up!