Waffle Sundays

Now that we go to church at 1 we've turned Sunday mornings in to waffle Sundays. Brighton gets up at 7:30 and eats a bowl of oatmeal. Then at about 9:30 we start making waffles and she eats at least one on her own. By one I mean just one square, so I guess technically half a waffle. We told Mom & Dad Nelson about this and they were excited to see how much Brighton loved waffles. And, as it usually goes with kids, Brighton ate 2 bites of her waffle and didn't want any more. Proving once again who's really the boss. Grandma Nelson got B her own kitchen set for Christmas and B usually walks around stirring things in her cup with one of the spoons. Now she likes to "help" me cook and always wants to be on the counter watching the action.

F-16 Graduation

So I can now officially say that my husband is an F-16 fighter pilot. We had Tom's graduation last night and everything went great...once we got there! We had all sorts of green carpet events that day (red carpet but since they're the Emerald Knights, it's green carpet) and were done at 2:30. I'd made a hair appointment at 3 (I can pull my hair back in a ponytail, that's about it) and was having my makeup done at 4:30, so I had plenty of time. Well, when I walked in to the salon, the girl said they didn't have any appointments writen down for that day so I had to wait 45 minutes. So, now I didn't even get to sit down until 3:45 and had to someone get an up-do done by 4:15 to make it back home by 4:30. Yeah right. The girl did a great job at doing my hair as quickly as she good (I think it still turned out great) and I got out of there at 4:45. Then it took 12 minutes to get home due to construction on Camelback. So I walk in and get "The Look" from Tom - he's not mad but concerned about us being late. Cocktails started at 5 and dinner was at 6. Frantically rushing trying to get ready would be an understatement. Add on top of that a one year old who wants to be right where all the action is - awesome. Tina did an AWESOME job with my makeup and managed to do it in only 15 minutes!! We made it out of there at 5:38 and got to the hangar at 5:49 - so we weren't late!! It was a crazy rush, but we weren't late and so it was fine. Our speaker was really good, dinner was typical club food (not so good) and we had a fun time. We brought Tom's parents home after dinner so Tina could go home and then we went back to the O Club for drinks with everyone. Like I said, it was a great night once we got there! Congratulations Tom on graduating and becoming an official Fighter Pilot!! So hot!!

The guys - Ryan, Kruntje, Tommy, Tim, Tom, Frank, Bailey and Eric

My hot husband the fighter pilot

Tom's parents came down for graduation

Me and Cherrill

Jayme Lee - this is my gym partner, one of the main reasons I've lost weight. She watches Brighton while I work out then I watch her daughter Anna Lisa while she works out. It's harder to not go to the gym when someone's counting on you to watch their kid!

By the way, Tom received an award yesterday. He received the Top Flier Award - all around best pilot. I know, he's awesome.

Christmas in Atlanta

Brighton loved hanging out with her cousins. My brother and I thought that Callin (he's 2 and a lover) and B would get along the best and that Corbyn (the oldest at 3) would basically ignore her or try to play too tough with her. Well, Aunt Shauna bought Callin a coloring book and markers and B tried to take it away from him a few times, so they didn't really hit it off that well. He actually carried his coloring book under his arm for the rest of the day so she wouldn't take it. In fact, it took him another day to want to play with her. Corbyn, on the other hand, took to her immediately and was always giving her hugs or sharing with her or whatever. I loved seeing the three of them together - it was so cute! One morning I was letting the kids jump on the bed (I don't think that's allowed, cause as soon as my brother got back, Corbyn ratted me out to him and told him that I was the one that said it was okay) but anyways...B would just sit and watch the two boys jump and she really wanted to figure out how to jump cause she saw how much fun it was! Grandma was there too and B would go over to her and grab her fingers and try to jump.
One day we went to Stone Mountain, this cool lil town/discovery place/amusement place (words don't really describe it well). My grandparents were there and Grandpa didn't want Grandma walking that much so he decided to get her a scooter. Well, when the boys saw how fun that was, Grandpa got another so they could each ride on one (nevermind that this meant he wouldn't have to walk either) and then told my dad to get one so Brighton could ride too cause heaven forbid she be left out!! Dad reluctantly (yeah, right) agreed. We had a funny lil caravan goin on, it was funny. And also a little scary, Trisha had to walk in front of Grandma to make sure she didn't run over anyone. Alright, so my oldest brother, Steve (the 2 boys are his kids) has a "slight" obsession with Fantasy Football and Tom Brady. Shauna found the perfect gift for his adoration - Tom Brady cologne. It was hilarious! Also funny is that my 3 year old nephew kicked my butt in wii bowling. He's showing my mom how to play in the pic.

I absolutely love my family! I love how big it is, I love how much fun we have together, and I love that I can a bazillion pictures and have to make collages to show off everything I want to show off!

Christmas Part 3

Ok! I have tried uploading this three times now and it won't load the right way so you'll all just have to get a sore neck from looking sideways. Thsi is the second thing that hasn't worked right for me this morning, that means it's definitely time to get off the computer!! :) Before we left for Atlanta, we went to the Nelson Atkins Art Museum. I used to always go there on field trips as a kid and haven't been back in years! There used to be this mannequin that was dressed as a museum guard that they placed in a corner - he looked so real!! I was excited to see the guard again, but they remodeled the museum and I couldn't find him!

The Fam at Christmas

Every year at Christmas we take a picture at my parents' table. I'm not too sure why, it's not the prettiest place at my parents house, so who knows. Maybe it's because on Christmas day the only time my parents could get us all together in one place was right before we ate.

Montezuma's Castle

We decided to drive up by Camp Verde yesterday to see Montezuma's Castle - which isn't really Montezuma's castle. Some Spaniards came across it a few hundred years ago and decided it was a castle of the Aztec ruler who lived over 2000 miles south. Oh well, the name stuck. Really it belonged to a community of 45 who were apart of a village. The people disappeared for some reason around 1400, and since there's no surviving record, there's really no answers to the who what where when and whys. The castle

Montezuma's Well - the holes in the wall are cutouts of doors and windows that the people used. They built their homes in the walls.

Brighton was on a quest to find the perfect rock. Maybe it's over here.

Hold on, maybe it's on this side.

This one looks good, hold this one for me Daddy.

THE One.

Brighton had a great day running around and screaming (for joy). We had the backpack with us to carry her, but she didn't want to be held for more than a couple seconds (just long enough to catch her breath).

I Love You, Hoss

I had written this longer post about my cousin Eric "Hoss" Kennedy who passed away yesterday, but then erased it all. I rambled on and on about how much he was loved and memories of him and the struggles I'm having with his passing, but none of that seems appropriate now. The point is he passed from an aneurysm of the aorta, it was very sudden and very unexpected and has shaken my whole family. I know how hard this is for me to deal with and I'm heartbroken thinking about how much this has hurt my sweet aunt and uncle and my grandparents. I hurt for their loss and for the pain that they are enduring now. I know that there is a plan, I know that they will all be reunited again. BUT, that doesn't change the fact that today it hurts. And it will hurt tomorrow and it will continue to hurt for a long time. I love my family dearly and wish I lived closer so that I could be there for them in some way instead of way out here sending empty words over the phone.

This may sound rude, but I'd appreciate it if no one commented.

I love you, Hoss.

Scrapbooking Monday & Tuesday

Hey everyone! Tom's flying Monday and Tuesday night, so I'll be scrapbooking after I put B to bed. So if anyone wants to join us, we'll start scrapbooking at 8. Leave a comment if you plan to come so I have enough tables set up.

Part 2

Here's the fam decorating the tree and Brighton in her Christmas dress. I'm particularly fond of my brother Ike's outfit, complete with the dark socks. He's working on perfecting his dorky doctor getup.

On another night, we had a party with the Eyerlys and Petersons. Our parents have been friends for about 20 years now and used to all work together in my Dad's company. We used to

have a company Christmas party every year and so this year since most of the kids would be home my parents thought it'd be nice if we all got together again.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

While at Grandma's, Brighton found the drawer of beaded necklaces and from then on was never seen without wearing one, or two or three or four. The pic of me with the funky face is right after B finally tore the piece of wrapping paper and poked me in the eye! Yeah, thanks. My dad is always complaining about not being able to find the remote or not being able to read the buttons cause they're so small, so Sean found him his own special remote.

Christmas Part 1

Before we left town we had our squadron kids party where Santa taxi'd in on an F-16. Brighton stared and stared at the big man, even followed him around a bit, but kept a safe distance from him. When Tom sat her on Santa's lap, she was okay for a split second and then started crying (no big surprise). Brighton and I left for KC to see my family on Tuesday, Tom joined us on Friday. Saturday night we went to my parent's ward luau and watched members of the ward perform. The girl in the green shirt is my sister - at the end they asked for volunteers to come up and she went. Luckily I had a fussy baby at the time and was just totally unable to get up there! It was a great night!

Modest Formals

Does anyone know of some good sites to buy modest formals? Any help would be appreciated.

We went up to Las Vegas a couple weekends ago to see some friends who had just moved there. Dan & Emily moved from South Dakota and Aaron & Shiloh moved from Japan (both are in the military). We were so excited to see them again and to be able to see them before we left the country! It was Moab's birthday that weekend, so went to his birthday party. Shiloh made him this awesome race track cake - he loved it!

Dan & Emily's son Caden
Happy Birthday Moab

Dan, Emily, Caden & Brighton

We had Brauts for dinner and one of the kids left his plate on the floor. Well...Brighton found it.

What?

My friend Mary of DMC Studios (link on the right) was nice enough to take some family pics while we were in Utah for Thanksgiving! Mary and I have known each other since we were 10 (or some where around there) and she has some amazing talent! Thanks Mary!

A year old and already embarrassed by her Mommy and Daddy