Basketball

Skyler played his first year of basketball, and he really enjoyed it.  He didn't have any of his friend on his team, but that did not seem to bother him at all.  He made some great improvements in his ball handling skills this year.  He is not the star player, but he can make a clean steal, and he love it.

Skating

Skyler and Ethan were able to go skating at the Olympic Oval for school again this year, and the family was invited to come along.  I debated going, since neither Ethan, or Ryley could skate unassisted, and I was not sure how I could manage them both on my own since Jordan was at work.  In the end we did decide to go.  I hardly saw Skyler because he quickly took off with his friends.  They had a bunch of skate trainers which helped me a lot.  Ethan made it around the Oval twice, and he was done.  So was I since my skates were 2 sizes too small.  Ryley on the other hand was not.  She did the Oval 4 times, 2 of which I spent running on the pavement beside her since she did not want to get off.  I have GOT to find a trainer and take theses kids more often!

New Job

 I have now quit working at the mission home as the cook.  I did it for the last 5 years, and it was hard to leave.  I decided to quit because I am now the new rep for Modest is Hottest and having fun with some great new clothes and accessories.  It was a lot of work initially getting organized so that my type A personalty could deal with the extra stuff in my house, but now we are all organized and running smoothly. I am enjoying it even more that I thought I would, and I can totally work around my family! 

Random Acts of Kindness

 I wanted to teach the kinds about kindness, and really teach them about being kind to everyone.  So I decided to do a family home evening lesson on Random Acts of Kindness.  I found an image online that said "please enjoy this random act of kindness.  Now pass it on"  and I printed them out, and got them laminated.  In theory these were going to make the rounds.  Then for family home evening we went to the shopping area in our community and the kids all had to fine a random person to give their card (attached to a small gift card) to.  Skyler ran up to this person and dropped it in his basket.  Ryely found a little girl and her Dad that she wanted to give it to. Hers was funny. We finally got it given to them, and we walked away, and the guy chased us down and asked us what we were up to.  He could not believe that someone would do that.  The kids had a lot of fun with it, and while I am sure that we still have a lot of work to do in teaching them to shoe real kindness to everyone, it is a night they will not soon forget.

Fun in the Snow

We took the kids tobogganing in their time off school.  They loved the big hill, and are all really little dare devils.  I am by far the biggest chicken in our family.  I went down once, and for some reason Ryley and I were being sprayed pretty bad with snow, so I tried to protect her, when we got to the bottom, I checked to see how she fared, and she was laughing hysterically.  It was the time of her life!

Chritsmas Eve

 We hosted Christmas this year to help accommodate Mom.  All of my brothers were going elsewhere for Christmas, and Mom was not comfortable joining us at Nielsons for Christmas Eve, so we hosted it and mom was a part of the action.  We had Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Cooper, Loewens, and Ashlyn and Jeff.  We did it some what traditional for both sides of the family.  My family always does appetizers on Christmas eve, so we had appetizers.  Then the Nielsons always do a talent show, and act out the Nativity, so we did all of that , and played some minute to win it games. Skyler, Grandpa Nielson, and Uncle Jeff all had magic tricks to show off, and the Skyler, Dakota, and Grandma Nielson played the piano. As the night wound down, and we were getting ready to go our separate ways the kids all got some new pajamas.  We had a lot of angry birds jammies, and a lot of happy and excited kids.

Izzy the Elf

Bear with me while I play catch up over the past 3 months.  I still have not finished documenting last year.  We had an elf on the shelf that visited our house during the month of December, and she was a naughty little elf.  On her last night here she decided to shave a line in Uncle Erics beard.  (Maybe she thought it was as gross as I did?)  regardless, the kids found our naughty little elf with all of the evidence.