School Pictures

We always get great pictures from my friend Jenn. She comes to AIM to do our school pictures, so I make her do my kids too. Hanna is always upset because I don't let her get her regular school pictures and I take her out of her school (shh) to come get my school pics. Well, it's all for memories sake! The kids are just growing up too fast. A funny story about these pics is that I was curling everyone's hair and Alizah just stood there and silently took the "torture". After I was done she ran away without saying a word and came back with soaking wet combed STRAIGHT hair. She has her own little way of dealing with things, she'll just take care of it herself!
It is Spring Fest in Moses Lake and we have had a busy weekend. Thursday we took the kids to the carnival, Friday was the lip sync at the amphitheatre, Saturday morning-the gymnastic team in the 5K, and tonight is the moonlight parade. Good thing Monday is a day off! I'll hopefully get pictures of everything and post more this weekend...

Hanna's Baptism Weekend

So many people attended Hanna's Baptism this weekend. She is well-loved and supported. I guess coming from a big supportive family, I can't imagine anything different. We are very lucky to have a family that wants to share these special days with us. For Hanna's sake (since this our journal and scrapbook all in one) I'll list the people so she'll remember. Grandma & Papa Nelson, Megan & Cade, Dusty, Joycelyn & Fallon, Great Grandma Bowen, Maimi Dawn, Papa Goose, Kalan, & Justin, Britni, Colllin, Bridger, Branson & Broxton, Korbi, Steve, Beck & Paisley, Jakobi, Chad, Jax, & Lizzi, Bishop & Sister Redford (primary teacher), Ginger, Chuck, Taya (friend) & Chase, Amy, Chad, Kylie (friend), Heuser kids , Melanie, Milo, Kathryn (friend), Bushman brothers, Sister Rigby (Primary president), Sister Leavitt (primary presidency) & Callan (friend), Lindsay Ries (babysitter). WOW, I hope I got everybody....We are again very blessed to have this many supportive people in our lives! After Hanna got baptized, she told me, "This is the best day of my life." She thought the water was a little chilly and was freezing afterward. I thought she was the most beautifull one getting baptized this weekend. She had her updo from Melanie, so her hair even looked pretty after she was all wet. Her dress was gorgeous too. It came from her Nelson grandparents. She got "What I always wanted!"-her maroon triple set of scriptures from Beck grandparents and many cards, necklaces, and bracelts, books, and scriptures holders from other friends and family. We had a dinner at the gym afterward and now everyone is gone! Whirlwind weekend, but so nice to see everyone. I hope to have pics to post from our fun meet on Saturday. I have to hunt them down cuz I left my memory card at home!

Hanna State Level Four Weekend

Hanna at the Pacific Science Center.

Her favorite visit-The Space Needle!

Toothless Hanna and Coach Mom

Hanna and some teammates from AIM

More teammates

It was a big weekend clear back at the end of April that I'm blogging about today. Hanna made it to State for Level Four. She had had a rough Sectionals meet with a few falls, so barely slide by, but still got to go. State was a huge deal with so many teams. She did her best ever on Bars (8.9) and Vault (9.4) and did fairly good on the other two. She had a fun weekend with her friends at the motel swimming and eating out. The next day I had to coach other sessions so she went with dad to visit the seattle sights. The two younger girls were in Idaho at this point, with Hanna being extremely jealous about this fact, so she got to do the big things in Seattle to make up for it. Her favorite was the space needle. She has wanted to go for so long and talks about it non-stop. She also got to go to lots of fun places to eat and a little shopping. It was a great family weekend, but we really missed the two little ones.

So this morning, I'm enjoying a lttle calm before the storm. I'm blogging when I should be cleaning, cooking, preparing etc. But I'm in for a big weekend and I hope we all survive. Family starts arriving today for Hanna's baptism. We also have to set up for the fun meet that is tomorrow and cook for the baptism dinner. I should have tons more pictures after this weekend! We also have new tile in our house and a new toilet! When the toilet was outside for the tile to be done, the wind knocked it over and it shattered....it's been a week to say the least. So Korbi is pulling in for me to babysit her kids while she goes to a doctor appointment in Spokane, so here goes the weekend. We are off and running. Pray for us:)

Busy Idaho weekend!

Our Idaho trip included a stay at Aunt Jake's house with lots of holding,
bouncing, and rocking baby Lizzi! At Uncle Kalan's thesis presentation, Great Grandpa Beck posed for a few pics with the kids. I can't believe he made the trip! He looks great (hard to believe near 100). I think the wheelchair is a trick. Any minute he might be jumping out and grabbing a kids' ear at the way some of them were behaving:)

We were lucky to see Grandma Mimi and Cousin Sommers too! So much family in such a short time. My two uncles came along with Sommers husband and little boy.

I'm not sure how many of us really understood Uncle Bubba's presentation. The one thing we understood was that he's some sort of architechure genius and smarter than the rest of us combined! Congrats Master's Degree Kalan....You made it!! Proud of you and in some sort of sick way (in your mind) we hope you end up in Seattle.....:) We miss you!

All the cousins had such a great time at a "get your energy out before the two hour thesis presentation" stop! They ran, jumped, climbed, and screamed. A little gym away from home. Thanks aunt Jake for the great idea! The sisters and Maimi got to catch up a little while the kids played. Not too much though, it's seems like forever since we've been together.
School needs to be out soon!

It's raining, it's pouring!

I have so many of our past events to post, but today I chose a picture of Alizah during one of her moments of sheer joy to post in hopes of reminding myself that you don't need an event to create memories! It was pouring rain and Alizah wanted to play outside, so she grabbed her raincoat, boots and ran outside. When I saw her standing underneath the edge of the house letting a sheet of rain pour onto her head, I knew this would become one of my favorite memories of her. She would look up and giggle as the rain poured off her nose. We only had one raincoat, so Piper was waiting impatiently at the door for her turn or the moment would have lasted longer. So next time I'm at the store, we're buying everyone raincoats and boots and that will be my goal to stop what we are doing when it starts to rain and go outside to play!

Hanna's Baptism

Anyone reading this is invited to Hanna's Baptism on Saturday May 16th at 6:00 at the Stake Center. So there it is.....the baptism announcement. Poor Hanna...Aunt Kiki and mom had great plans to make cutesy invites, but life has gotten in the way and a blog invite will have to do. We would love the support if you would like to come. We will be doing a dinner after the baptism at the gym with some yummy food, just don't have that part planned yet. We know Hanna will look pretty though cuz we've already tried the dress on, dressed up and did a few pics! She is super excited and has waited for a month already to do this. We look forward to the family who is traveling from Idaho and can't wait for the fun weekend.



If you know me, I'm frantically trying to make everything go my way to prepare, but so far, we're behind in preparations but I'm sure we'll pull it off somehow. We've been visited this week by little furry creatures, so now my entire house has been bleached. We love the spring and living in the country..... We saw our first snake of the season too, at least they are coming out to eat the mice! I have been so bad at the blogging, but just spent the evening organizing pictures, so hopefully I can catch you up on the last two months!

Piper 3rd Birthday

(I did something wrong copying these pics and they are tiny-Korbi help!)Happy Birthday Piper!! She's three years old today, but we celebrated her birthday last Saturday at the bowling alley with a few of her friends.

Piper does hold her own with these two boys, but she does also play

the girl card and cries to get her way!

Piper's friend Collin....well her "Honey, Honey." She sings this to him from
the movie Momma Mia!

She got a scooter complete with helmet and knee pads (Aunt Kiki tested it out around the bowling alley). Piper also got her carseat (she asked for it-I'm serious...Paisley got one a few weeks ago and we made a big deal about it so we think this is where it came from-whatever works right?). She also got "soupcase" (luggage-she also asked for this:)) and money-again-she asked for it!! She loved her Little Pet Shop toys, cookie set, and flip flops- and so did Alizah!

So my favorite things about Piper are:

her "hanna" cheeks
her head shake as she gives us attitude
the way she holds the 'l' sound, like Collin
the way she antagonizes her sisters
the way she cuddles with her dad
how she can jump on the tramp with a cast on her leg
the way she insists (and wins) to wear pants on Easter Sunday
how she loves her friends and "escuela"
her bob haircut
the way she 'reads' books and counts in English and Spanish
how she loves "chalk milk in a ba-ba"

I don't want my baby to grow up, but I'm also enjoying the new things that she is learning. I thought today about when she was born. I thought for sure she would never be born. I would walk and walk around the town with all the kids in a stroller and contractions would not start. I was laying on the couch on a Sunday morning wondering if I should get ready for church. It was about 9:00 in the morning and I thought I felt something, but didn't want to say for fear it wasn't real. By the time I got in the shower I was doubling over and thought I'd better hurry to the hospital. By the time I got upstairs to labor and delivery, I was at an 8-almost 9 and begging for an epidural. The nurse told me later, she never gives epidurals that late. Piper was born 8 lbs. 4 oz. less than an hour later after only 2 pushes/really only 2 half pushes. The nurse was yelling for the doctor telling me to stop pushing the whole time. Piper was really big compared to her sisters. We had to spend a week in the hospital because something was wrong with her blood that she had to get medicine for and she was really jaundice. Alizah and Hanna thought it was because I drank too much Pepsi. Maybe? I guess I should remember what exactly was wrong and document for posterity. We brought her home to loving sisters and she has been drug around to their activites every since! She's finally starting her own classes and loving that she's a part of everything. She has grown up in the gym and is very comfortable as a climbing, swinging monkey...do we all remember the broken leg and bleeding head this year?
I LOVE YOU LITTLE P.J!!