Playdates

I am the worst about scheduling playdates for my kids.  They get invited over to friends houses all the time and I have the worst time reciprocating.  I don't know what my problem is.  Well today, I reciprocated just a little bit.  Maya had 2 friends from preschool over that had previously invited her over to play.  We had lunch and then the girls played outside because it was almost 70 degrees.  Hello January?  They planted a garden.  This means they pulled branches off a bush and then placed them in the gravel of the walkway.  I think the wind will soon carry away this garden.

Stock Show Field Trip

Every month, Maya's preschool class takes a field trip.  This month we got to go to the National Western Stock Show.  Being relatively new to Denver, we learned this is an annual rodeo/ranch animal show thing.  We got to pet animals and see a sheep sheared.  It was ..... crowded as all get out, filthy, stinky and ultra confusing to navigate.  We probably won't be making it a family tradition to attend.

Caleb LOVED petting animals.  And by petting I mean grabbing large tufts of fur.

Maya having fun on her field trip.

When he contracts a strange disease in a week, this picture will tell me why.

My Husband's Addiction

My husband loves athletic shorts.  He has 9 pair.  I don't think he will ever think he has enough.  He claims that his reason for hoarding athletic shorts is that when he was a kid, these kind of shorts were expensive.  Now you can buy them at Walmart for 5 bucks.  Many of the pairs that you see were purchased in exactly that manner.  If you ever have an athletic shorts shortage, you know who to call.

The Best Boxing Day Ever!

What do you do when your garage looks like this?  The Nelsons can tell you with quite a bit of authority to CALL A PROFESSIONAL!  

This is what you look like if you try to fix it yourself.  Mike got his hand trapped in the coils of the garage door opener and literally thought he might lose his fingers.  I was out running errands with Haley.  Caleb was sleeping, and thankfully, Maya had just come out to the garage to "help".  Mike yelled out to Maya, "Go get a neighbor!"  And can you believe it, one was walking by right at that moment.  They heard Mike yelling in the garage, saw that it was not looking right, and came closer and yelled, "Do you need help?"  Maya let them in through the front door and the neighbor helped Mike free his hand by cutting cables and coils while his wife called 911.  The fire department and ambulance arrived and then called me.  I about died.  Mike said he could hear me yell through the phone, "Are you serious?"  I got home and it is not fun to see emergency vehicles in front of your house.  They took Mike to the ER, and he did not brake any bones, but cut, bruised, and smashed himself up pretty good.

The miracles in this story:  

The neighbor couple that happened to be walking by at that exact moment and heard Mike yell and actually did something about it.

Maya was in the garage when it happened and was able to open and unlock doors to let neighbors in.  To my knowledge, I have never seen her have the strength to open or unlock the doors before.

Mike received only minor injuries.  

We are so grateful for the angels that watch over us!

All dressed up and no place to go...

...except to bed!  Thanks mom for the cute pjs, robes and slippers!  

Christmas Morning

Twas the night before Christmas

Every year on Christmas Eve, we dress up as Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, etc... and act out the Nativity story.  Here is our sweet Mary, holding baby Jesus.  

Here is Mary a few minutes later trying to defend baby Jesus from Caleb.

Caleb was a sheep and hated every second of it.  

Here is our angel, Haley.

The whole family.  Mike was Joseph and I was a shepherd.  The wise men weren't represented this year.  You need a pretty big family to put on the whole show!