April 2012-Mamo & Grandpa Visit with Great Grandpa&ma Nelson too!

    We love it when Mamo and Grandpa come to town as they are always ready to help with projects and party hard! This time Johnny and Kylie were here at same time so we had a big Harley Davidson Date!  

     Then we tried out a new lunch spot at Crystal Cove State beach after touring through the fish ponds in Laguna canyon! 

     Then when Chris got back in town we found a groupon for jet ski rentals in Newport Harbor so of course we had to do that too! And amazingly, Grandma and pa Nelson even joined us for that day and loved it!

   We also spent some time at the apartment making memories like baking and sewing American Girl doll clothes and reading stories.  The adults also snuck away for a date night at a steak house in the canyon!

March 2012-Birthdays, Basketball and Buddies...

     After the last play performance, Chris and I snuck out for a fun birthday party for our friend Katie at the Dueling Piano bar. We laughed so hard and even danced a little, such a great night with friends!

I forgot to show my Valentine's gift from Chris, I finally got that mom's necklace I wanted with all my kids' initials.  I'm also having so much fun watching Carter play basketball with his buddy Jack and Jack's dad as their coach!  And McKinley is my little friend who goes everywhere with me right now!  And lately that is mostly house hunting!  I really liked this house with a pool and play gym by our AV school!  This month we also had family dinner with Chris's internal Lindsey and met her for the first time. She was so  sweet and kind.

March 2012--Dr. Seuss Play for Madi!

  A highlight of Madison's 4th grade year was acting in the school play.  She loved wearing the costume and make up and most of all being with her friends. We had quite a few friends/fans come to her play each night since we didn't have any family in town so that made her feel very special!  We all had a part in helping with ber play too--Mom was backstage on the headset, Kennidy helped with hair and make up and even McKinley got in costume to hand out programs.  Dad helped drive kids around while mom was gone and Carter was a loyal fan! What a busy couple of months that was! 

March 2012--McKinley's 4th Birthday!

   We surprised McKinley with her first big girl bike on her birthday and she was so excited.  Her big celebration was a joint birthday party with her close friend Maysen Sheldon at Build a Bear!  The little kids were so cute and she loved every minute of it!  We had boys and girls from church and from preschool--Michael, Lauren, Lily and Elizabeth, Scotty, and Addy. What a sweet tradition to take our kiddos to Build a Bear on their 4th bday!

March 2012--Kari and Kids visit for Spring Break!

    I missed my family so much while I was gone in Arizona with my aunts, it was so good to see them.  And I even got roses from Chris so I think he missed me too! 

 We love it when cousins come visit, even when we are all crammed into a 3 bedroom apartment!  Kari and the kids love the beach and the pool just like us so we spent a lot of time at those two places!  Then we wanted to celebrate the kids birthdays so we took Brayden to RideMakerz with Carter (his new favorite place in Downtown Disney). And we tried to have Kari take Bailie to American Girl for her birthday (since she has never been there) but they got into a little fender bender on the way!:(

   So we got to have them stay in town even longer while the car got fixed.  They all went to Kennidy's violin recital and Madison's Dr. Seuss play! And we made up for it by taking Bailie to make her first Build A Bear with McKinley!  Kari also gets along great with my old neighbor Heather and they had fun hitting the singles scene at the Ranch Country Dance club!

   These are my roller-blading friends (Heather, Bethany and Valerie) and we try to go every Friday pushing our littles in the stroller.  This day we had extras as I was watching Braxton for Kari (because she was supposed to go to American Girl that day) and our friend Korey came too with her little girl.  Sometimes we really push ourselves and run back down the trail instead of blading. I'm sure running the whole way would be the best work out but then we wouldn't get to talk as much! ;)

February 2012-Nelson Girls Trip to Arizona

Not long after our family trip to Mammoth, I left for a quick weekend trip to join Aunt Diane, Lisa, Linda and their daughters Brandalyn & Kara!  I also got to pop over and see Kari and her kids for a dinner so that was fun too!!  Chris helped set us up at a beautiful Marriott hotel and we had a fabulous weekend relaxing at the spa, laying by the pool, getting nice tans and shopping!

February 2012-Mammoth Ski trip!

  Over President's Day weekend we went to Mammoth with our friends Scott and Heather and their family! We absolutely LOVED seeing our big kids up on skiis together while staying in their gorgeous mountain cabin! 

We missed church on Sunday after realizing it was Stake Conference so we had a fun family outing riding the tram at the lodge.

We also loved to hot tub in their snowy backyard at the cabin and ice skating in town.  The adults favorite part was our fancy date night at a steak house nearby.  What a fabulous winter vacation for our little Californian kiddos!

February 2012-Chris's Birthday and Valentine's

     Living in the apartment wasn't too bad though because we were hardly ever home! From preschool field trips at Pretend City to visits at the beach with Uncle Matt to Activity Days parties we kept pretty busy.  

   And then it was February and we celebrated Chris's 39th Birthday in style with balloon love notes and 39 playing cards with fun memories on them.  We also started a tradition of going to dinner with his old BYU buddy Tony and his wife Michelle who now live in Laguna Beach.  

    McKinley got sick with her first breathing treatment which was scary for me since I hadn't had to do those much since Rhode Island with Kennidy maybe...  She got better quickly though and loved helping me make Sugar cookies for Valentine's Day to take to her preschool and our friends.  I was also in the classroom for Carter's Valentine party so that was fun too!

   Madison is growing up so fast and loves it when her sister Kennidy likes to give her new hairstyles and make overs. Madison also insisted on doing her 4th grade Mission project for school ALL by Herself! And I think it turned out pretty good!