A little R&R

Since the last couple of months have completely revolved around church -- we decided that we needed to

spend some serious party time together as a family! So . . . we took one evening and stayed at a hotel with an indoor pool -- Joshua was pretty pumped when we told him! Kayla, as you can see, would have been completely satisfied to just hang out in the tub with her suit on!
I must be honest . . . the water was VERY, VERY chilly! Very disappointing. But . . .we made the best of it and tolerated it as long as we could! This was the first time Joshua just had his floaties on (with the life jacket swim outfit as well) and he thought he was pretty hot stuff!

Kayla and daddy!

Another highlight for Joshua . . . pushing the elevator buttons. You know, folks . . .it just doesn't take much sometimes! We had a great time just chillin' as a family -- in spite of the cold pool! We ended the trip with a McDonalds run so "you know who" was happy (Bryan!)!

Christmas in Houstonia

The gang from IN was there and it was so much fun to catch up with them! Claudia was showing Kayla the finer points of running the DVD player!

Opening gifts!

And then Santa made his appearance! I asked Joshua today who gave him the balloon rockets -- and I expected him to say "Santa" but he said, "Joshua" . . . so apparently Santa needs to work on being more convincing!


I didn't get a picture of Grandma and Grandpa together, so I'll just put separate pics up. It is so fun to see them open their gifts --

We just count our blessings every year that the family is able to get together and celebrate Christmas!

The Nelson Christmas

Well . . . let's just say that Christmas with a 3 yr old and a 1 yr old is quite interesting! We started by reading the Christmas story and having Joshua move the nativity figures. That went fine for a while . . .

. . . and then Kayla was DONE!

And would you guess that Joshua's favorite gift was a $2 foam rocket???? Go figure! It is quite amazing how high he can get it to fly!

Kayla got distracted easily so Joshua willingly helped her open her gifts!

Joshua opening the matchbox cars and play mat from G/G Nelson!

Confusing order

Alright -- I just realized that I had a whole stash of pictures that were "hiding" so . . . this is all going to be out of order. I know . . . for you Type A's out there (like I am) . . .it'll just kill ya!

Like father like son!

One of my favorite things to do with Joshua is hang out in the kitchen! He loves helping me! And, I've learned that when it comes to sugar cookies with 3 year-olds . . . it's better just to buy a mix and get to the fun part (choosing the shapes, sprinkles, etc.!)

It is a very long 8 minutes!

Hear ye . . .hear ye . . . this microphone stand was actually constructed by Mommy! Joshua has learned that I can only do the objects that have pictures on the outside of the TinkerToy container. Otherwise, he has to wait for Daddy to come home!

Merry Christmas!

Alright folks . . . an apology is definitely in order for the lack of blogging lately! We just finished our big Christmas outreach, so things are starting to simmer down! Steve and Freya are in KS so we've been having fun having out with them and their kiddos!


Hmmm . . . . the picture above shows four controllers, yet somehow there are only two players on the screen . . . hmmmm . . .!

This was the first time we saw baby Henry! He is just such an incredibly happy baby!

Kayla "rediscovered" the bouncy seat!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Joshua!

Our "baby" turned 3 this weekend! After Kayla's b-day several weeks ago, he was MORE than ready to have his own birthday! It still is so surreal to have family here for birthdays -- we just feel so incredibly blessed!

Opening gifts!

His gift from us was a guitar, or "guitar he-ho" (hero) as he calls it! Actually, it's just a pretend guitar but he's enjoying it . . .and so is Bryan!

He is very much into Thomas the Train-- this was as close to having a "train" birthday cake as I could get!

And not to be upstaged, Kayla decided to take her first steps the day of Joshua's party! She's pretty shaky, but is getting braver and better every day! It really is fun to see the two of them playing together now that she is vertical much more.