New blog

Apparently my photo storage is completely full from all our blog posts and picture uploads!!!  So, being the not-so-computer-smart person that I am, I just went ahead and created a new blog.  We will continue our family blog postings at... wearethenelsonfamily.blogspot.com    =) 

school Thanksgiving and leaves

Last Thursday, Drew's school had a Thanksgiving performance and feast.  Here's Drew's class singing!

 

 

Here's Drew and his class getting ready to sing!  (Drew's peaking in the back row).

 

Drew and Emma had fun and really enjoyed the popcorn chicken they served at the Thanksgiving feast!  =)    All the kids had on hats with their Indiana names...Drew was "Wise Owl"  LOL

On Saturday night we had the kids paint a bunch of pieces to make some ornaments for us and for the grandparents.  They both LOVE painting and anything to do with art, so I love looking up ideas of things to make with them.

Drew's painting the brown tree trunks for our Christmas trees!

On Sunday morning we started raking leaves in the back yard...and there are a LOT of leaves back there!  It was a lot of work, but we made a lot of time for fun too!  =)  Here's Emma buried in the leaves.

We all took turns falling backwards into the leaves!

Family shot - we are nerds...

Cannonball!

Chad jumped over the leaf pile...oops!

Drew's turn!

 

Emma would just run until she was buried in the leaves.

Then as we started bagging the leaves, the kids started getting a little crazier with their leaf entry techniques!  LOL  

He looks like he's up to no good!

Yardwork and Family Pictures

I wasn't feeling well a couple weekends ago (bad cold), so I stayed inside to do some cleaning and Chad and the kids were gonna do yardwork.  Well, I peeked out to see if they needed anything and saw Chad chasing the kids around with the leaf blower!!  LOL 

 

Drew even got to use the leaf blower on his own.  He's a great helper!

We had scheduled with a friend of mine to do some family pictures this past weekend.  She has a fancy camera and likes to practice with it on her friends' kids and families.  But she ended up having a crazy weekend and had to cancel.  I was really bummed, but we still took the kids to the park and tried to get some decent shots with our basic point and shoot camera.  (I REALLY want a better camera...I think I take enough pictures to justify it!! haha)

I think these pictures turned out decently - I will play around with them and try to enhance them some.  But I think we'll still try to meet with her to get clearer pictures too.

New furniture & Happy Halloween!

The kids love our new barstools (also an early Christmas gift from my parents)!  They color at the island and eat breakfast up there every morning!  It's funny how much a simple change in furniture can change a room! 

 

And here's our new kitchen table - it matches the room so well!

Emma and Drew were so excited on Halloween morning!  Here's Drew in his jammies - it was Jammies Day at school - even the teachers were in jammies and slippers.  And Emma wore her Halloween tutu outfit all day! (the pigtails only lasted till lunch...)

 

Finally...it was time to trick-or-treat!

Emma got really excited when I put whiskers and a nose on her.  She knew it was my makeup, so she kept asking for more makeup.  LOL  So, we did a little lip gloss too. =)

And Drew's lego costume lasted through the end of the night - even though he had a rough time going up porch steps and tripped on the sidewalk and couldn't catch himself before falling down and skinning his knee!  But it still got lots of compliments from other parents and kids!

School Party, Last soccer game, Pumpkins and Leaves

This Thursday, Drew's class had their Fall Celebration party.  I was one of the three moms in charge of planning this party.  I baked sugar cookies and brought orange icing and candy for them to decorate the cookies and make jack-o-lanterns.  Here's Drew and Emma at work!

 

We also had the kids make silly spider hats, and we read them several Halloween/Fall stories.  Drew was such a good big brother and sat with Emma! 

Then Thursday night my parents got into town!  On Friday we had kind of a lazy day.  I woke up not feeling well, but the kids had a great time hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa!  Then on Saturday morning my parents got to see Drew play soccer!  He had a great game.  He was aggressive and played well - and scored two goals!  Here's Drew and Madison with their game faces on, waiting for the ball to be put back in play after someone scored. 

 

And we got laughing so hard at how Drew was sitting with his legs crossed when he wasn't in the game!!  HAHA

It was actually his last game of the season, so they got trophies!  I've loved being a soccer mom and watching him play the last couple months...and now we're on to basketball - it starts at the end of November!

 

 

After Drew's game, we went to the fall festival at Drew's school. They had all kinds of vendors inside and a bouncy house and pumpkin painting outside. And we took this crazy picture there! LOL  

 

 

The guys played golf outside and Emma swept the deck  =)  The leaves are REALLY falling down now!

 

Sunday I went to IKEA with my parents while Chad let the kids run off some energy at the park.  I wanted to look at kitchen tables, b/c I've wanted to move our dining room table back to the dining room for awhile.  I ended up finding one I really liked, so my parents got it as an early Christmas present!! (which makes sense b/c it would be hard to fly home with it at Christmas-time!)  I am so excited! It's exactly what I wanted!  Then Sunday night we ordered pizza and carved our pumpkins.  Everybody got pretty crafty!   Here's Drew and I trying to talk Emma into sticking her hand inside the pumpkin!  I think this is the first year that Drew had no problem getting all gooey!

And Chad got a picture of one of the few times she actually did get her hand in there!

Drew and my dad are concentrating pretty hard on their masterpieces!

And here's the final product!  I think they look GREAT!!  As soon as we lit them, the kids started singing "happy birthday pumpkins!" 

After my parents left Monday morning, I took the kids outside to play in the leaves.  It was in the 50s, but SO windy so it felt colder! 

Ever since Drew's class talked about leaves at school, he's been very interested.  He really wanted me to get a closeup picture of this beautiful leaf!

Here's our silly face picture! 



Field Trip, Trunk or Treat, Mountains

All the 4 year old classes at Drew's school went on a field trip to Carrigan Farms this past week.  Emma and I wen too.  Here's Emma feeding the pony.

 

Emma and I in the pumpkin patch! 

Drew didn't have much to do with Emma and I - he was too busy running around and acting crazy with his buddies!  Here he is with Owen and Jack W. 

And I got a picture of them running by!  Here he is with Jack W. and Jack S. (Yes, there are two Jacks in Drew class, and it cracks Chad up that they call one of them JackS!!  LOL)  I was pretty frustrated with how wild and crazy Drew was on this field trip...apparently he and Jack W. are best buddies and act like nuts together...I'm concerned this is how he's acting at school.  At least his teacher seemed happy with him when I met with her for parent conferences earlier in the week!

I got them to sit together with their pumpkins long enough to take a picture  =)

Emma loved the hayride and she loved the 2 golden retrievers that were there!  In this picture I think she was watching the dogs swim in the pond! 

We went to the pumpkin patch with Grant and Sherry, and then Drew had a field trip to the pumpkin patch, and then Susan and Alan brought us a couple more pumpkins...we have LOTS of pumpkins!  We have only had one not make it...the bottom right one is rotton and needs to be thrown away!

This Saturday was the LKNM Trunk or Treat event.  Emma was a little black cat (you can't see her tail in the picture!) and Drew was a red lego (his costume is sitting beside them...he couldn't sit in it! oops!).  Here they are sharing some McDonalds in the back of the Jeep before the event really got started. 

Emma was a little bit clingy and wanted to be held for the first part of the event...wouldn't even smile for a picture...

Family picture (Chad and I didn't dress up like a lot of the adults)...and Emma still wouldn't smile.

But give the girl some juice and dessert and she's all smiles again!  Here's the lego costume!  Drew entered the costume contest and a kid in a homemade R2D2 costume clearly won...but Drew was a very obvious runner up!  (it was by applause).  Chad did a great job with his costume!

Then on Sunday, we went up to Blowing Rock.  We discovered an awesome one mile paved trail around Bass Lake.  It was beautiful there!  There were quite a few bare trees, but still tons of colorful ones too!  The weather was in the high 50s and sunny...perfect!  Here's Emma finishing up her Capri Sun before we went for our walk.  We brough KFC to eat before we walked - even Drew had some! (we found out the extra crispy is dairy free!)

 

There were 2 swans in the pond - they were so pretty!  I was surprised how long they would keep their heads under water!

 

Here's part of our crew heading out on the walk!

 

Emma was walking backwards and playing around with Nana.  She thought Nana was so funny!

 

Here's the kids with their Granddad and their Nana. 

 

It was such a pretty trail!  Here's Nana, Drew and Grandmom.

 

 

Drew and Nana were taking a break. 

 

The kids were being silly!

 

I love this picture of Drew!

Emma was done walking about halfway through the trail...but this made her happy! 

 

Me and the kids!  =)

 

 

Family picture! 

 

Emma got a big sloppy kiss from this friendly guy!

 

Nana and I...we were talking about how her leg was hurting a little bit.  And she said, "Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's just old age. It can sneak up on you, you know?"  =)   Yeah, that might happen at almost 88 years old...she is in amazing shape!

The kids with their grandparents 

After the mountains, we went back to Lenoir and the kids played on the playground at the school Susan works at.  It's a great playground!

 

I'm so glad we did the trip to the mountains.  I wanted to see pretty leaves and get lots of good family pictures...mission accomplished!  We had a great time!

Oh yeah...I need to add...EMMA IS POTTY TRAINED!  On Thursday night she decided that she wanted to wear undies and use the potty...and that was that!  Even through all this stuff we did over the weekend, she did great and had NO accidents!  We were gone for over 3 hours at Trunk or Treat, and she stayed dry and went potty when we got home!  I am still in shock...but totally proud of her!!