I love VIRTUE

This week was my first YW Evening of Excellence as young women's president. The theme for the night was virtue. To prepare for this we had a few activities beforehand.

Our first activity was a virtue photo shoot. We did this about a month and half before. We had a brother in our ward, Ron Aguilar, who was so kind to bring his equipment to do a professional shoot. We dressed the girls virtuously and in biblical attire. They turned out super cute! The girls didn't know what they pictures were going to be used for yet, but they suspected it would be for the upcoming excellence night. Here are a few of their more casual virtue shots:

Then we had an activity a few weeks later where we read and learned about 12 different women of virtue in the scriptures. After, we put the names in a jar and the girls randomly selected a women for them to study. They were given the assignment to list all her virtuous qualities and then relate themselves to this women.  Each of the girls wrote a short paragraph on this and sent it to me. It was fun to read all that they learned and how they saw themselves in comparison to the women in the scriptures.

Finally, the night arrived this week. My fabulous presidency decorated the chapel beautifully between the dessert table and the display table! The display table where the girls put their personal progress projects and goals was decorated all things gold~ the color of virtue. We framed their virtue pictures to add to their display and put candles surrounding the table. Then the room was darkened so that all you could see was their virtuous works on the display table.

We had a great program with almost all the Young Women participating. Two of the young women gave talks on what virtue means to them. Then we showed the video presentation - Young Women of Virtue. (I had prepared a slide show of the girl and the women they choose to study~ Young Women of Virtue). Afterwards I gave a talk on how our young women are virtuous. Following my talk, the Bishop closed with his thoughts on virtue.  The spirit was definitely felt many times throughout the evening. It was great! So glad it all came together.

What topped off the evening for me was coming home to a clean house (which I had neglected all day to prepare for this night) ~ thanks to Dave and my girls. Also, before I had left, Dave gave the blessing over dinner and had specifically asked that the evening would be perfect. When I came home afterwards, Autumn and Joy asked how it went. I responded saying "Perfect!" not even remembering that Dave had prayed for that. Joy responded excitedly "That's EXACTLY what Daddy prayed for!" So grateful to have such a wonderful supporting family, a great YW Presidency, and virtuous young women!

I love big families!

Yup! I am officially announcing that I am expecting child #6. In early July, Dave and I decided that we wanted one more. AND we mean, ONE more. By August, I tested positive on a home pregnancy test. However, I didn't go rushing into the doctor. I had no idea how far along I was because I didn't do a good job of tracking my cycle and it was really random as it was.

I finally scheduled an appointment with my new doctor as I as concerned with some things that were going on with my body. I was having some spotting. And given my past, I was pretty concerned. By the time I was seen by doctor, he performed an ultra sound to make sure everything was fine. It was! Everything looked healthy and showed no signs that I would miscarry. Then the doctor told me that based off of size and development, I was 9 weeks pregnant.

Since then, we have had a lot going on, so we decided to wait awhile in telling everyone. I am now 15 weeks pregnant and should find out what I am having pretty soon (I just have to schedule the appointment)! Anyway, I love big families and I love that ours will be one more bigger around April 26th.

I love Halloween!

It's definitely a crazy thing trying to get all 5 of my kids ready for Halloween. BUT, it is fun too! This year we didn't go out and buy brand new costumes like we have done in the past. Instead, we used the costumes and dress ups that we already had. I am glad that we did!

I remember when I was a kid, that was what I did. I either borrowed costumes from friends or made something up from what we already owned. It was very rare that I had a brand new costume purchased for me. I think the only I can remember that was new was my sparkly clown costume. BOY did I love it! But all the other ones ~ Medusa, 50's girl, Hippie~ yeah, those were from what we had. I loved them just as much!

Autumn chose to be Fancy Nancy. She had fun pulling out all the fancy stuff to make up her costume! And I will admit, I had fun doing her hair all Fancy-Nancy-Like! She had curls, butterflies, flowers, ribbons and a crown~ just all in her hair!!


Joy chose to be a Southern Bell ~ or as most would say, Scarlet O'Hara. Autumn was this last year. It worked out great. EVERYONE loved her costume! They couldn't help but say how beautiful she looked. AND SHE DID!


Gini chose to be a beautiful brunette Cinderella. This is the dress that Gini picked out when we got all the girls princess dresses as Disneyland! This is no ordinary dress. IT IS FANCY!! Everybody commented on how it was the prettiest Cinderella dress they had ever seen! Gini of course, would just giggle and flash her cute little smile and bat her pretty eyelashes.


Kaity was a Cat Witch. This is the costume Joy had last year. I must say that Kaity makes a cute and friend Cat Witch. Everyone said that she must be a nice and good witch, because there was nothing scary or evil about her. SO TRUE! Kaity would giggle and say, "Nu-Uh! I am mean witch!" with the cutest grin possible. You can't fool us Kaity!! (or can you? tee hee!)


Jackson we did actually buy~ At the dollar store! We don't have boy dress ups and there aren't any costumes to pass down to him. So, when I was at DollarTree I spotted a pirate hat, sword and patch combo for $1!! Perfect. He could be a pirate and wear his church clothes. He made a great pirate. He would go around saying "ARRRR" as loud as he could. It was surprising that he kept on his patch and hat for so long. We told him that if he wanted to go trick-or-treating to get candy then he would have to wear it all~ and he did! He got right into it . He was the first to say "Trick or Treat," then say "Thank you!" then say, "Yup! I got lots of candy! I need more." So cute!


I definitely love Halloween!

I love carving pumpkins!

This year is a tight year for us. So, we told our kids that we have to cut back on a lot of things. With it being Halloween, we knew we wouldn't be able to buy all the fun stuff that we buy each year ~ pumpkins, new costumes, accessories, decorations, etc. This meant cutting out my favorite pastime of carving pumpkins.

Our children were pretty sad about this too. Luckily for Kaity and Gini, they had field trip scheduled for school to go to a local pumpkin patch where they would get to pick their own pumpkins. They were pretty excited now that they knew they could carve a pumpkin this year. Autumn and Joy were of course pretty bummed. But Joy asked if she could use her allowance money to buy a pumpkin ~ of course! As luck would have it, when we were at the grocery store, Safeway had a deal to buy one medium sized pumpkin for $5.99 get one free. So, Autumn and Joy combined their money and got two pumpkins. YEAH!! This year we would get to do some carving after all!

We had a ton of fun. Kaity chose to draw her own pumpkin face (as you can see). Happy Jack-O-Lantern face for her. She even named it ~ Roar-y. Gini wanted a cat face for her pumpkin. So we found a simple design that she liked. Catching onto what Kaity did, she named hers too ~ Cute Cat. Joy wanted to draw her own. She came up with a great idea for a design and Dave helped refine a little so it would be easier to carve. Autumn found a scary face that she like and used for her pumpkin.

The girls gutted their own pumpkins~ which is always a gross mess. I actually love it!! We saved all the seeds for Dave to make yummy pumpkins seeds for a desert later. Then the carving began! The girls did a great job carving their own pumpkins, with the occasional help from Dave and I. Jackson was pretty bummed. He kept asking for his pumpkin....Yeah I felt bad that I didn't think about him wanting to do one too!

After we cleaned them up, Jackson helped put the candles in and we put them outside for all to see! Then we went inside and ate some butter and salted pumpkin seeds and cinnamon and sugar pumpkin seeds. YUMMY! What a fun night!

I love to learn new things!

Thanks to my good friend Natasha, I was able to learn something that I have wanted to learn for a long time now....Sewing! Natasha inherited a extra sewing machine and box of goodies and just brought it on over for me to use. And not that, but she came over several times to teach me how to read a pattern, cut out a pattern, how to thread a bobbin, how to thread the machine, AND how to Sew! Wow I am lucky to have such a great friend. (Thanks Natasha!)

So, I picked out fabric of my girls favorite colors and ribbons to match and I sewed some skirts! They girls were very involved once I told them what I was working on. Each day they were asking what I had done and if they could watch me work on it some more. It was a lot of fun! And I couldn't stop at just skirts....I had to make flower pins for their white shirts to match their skirts. AND I had to make bows too...Okay, a little overboard...I know. But I love it!! Today the girls got to wear their new outfits to church. They just loved it!

Now...I need to learn how to sew curtains....next project? I think so!

I love my after!

I didn't always use to be a big girl. But for awhile, I let myself go. I stopped exercising. I ate a ton. I just didn't care. I went from being pretty normal, to being pretty big. I was 220 lbs at my heaviest and wearing size 20 in womens.

After some life changing events, I decided that I needed to get my butt into gear and focus on losing weight. I started with a kick-off diet to help me get my food portions under control. Along with eating better, I exercised. There is no secret people ~ eat good and exercise! Although, I will say that having someone to do it with makes the whole process easier. I am so fortunate to have my sweetheart Dave in my life. Dave and I help each other out by keeping each other in check. I am now proud to say that I am down 85 pounds and am happily a size 4. The best part is that I have kept it off for almost a year and a half!

So, why am I bringing this up now? Well, I was trying to find some old photos and realized that they were on my old computer. I set it up and found the photos I was looking for and I also found photos reminding me just how far I have come. I am so happy that I have made the necessary changes in my life and that I will NEVER be that person again!

I love SURPRISES!

Dave has officially finished his Master's Degree!!!! And boy, do we both LOVE that!! We will be leaving this afternoon to go to Visalia and visit with Mom and Dad Nelson. Then Thursday morning we will be off to Los Angeles to go to USC. Friday is the big day :) We are so excited for him!!

The girls have known about going for the graduation and staying in hotel and they were already really excited for that part. But they didn't know all of it....so this morning we told them the BIG SURPRISE!!

I love being a Mormon!

I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and I'm a Mormon! I love the website that our church has created to get the word out about who we are and what we believe.

http://mormon.org/

Here, it states: "While our backgrounds and experiences are diverse, Mormons are united by a commitment to Jesus Christ. This site features Mormons sharing their stories and telling what their faith means to them."

So, I have been encouraged by our Ward Missionary Leader to create a profile and I did! I shared my story and answered some general questions too. Check it out:

http://mormon.org/me/1WMQ/Tera

I love that my girls have a passion for singing!

I was surprised when both Autumn and Joy told me that they wanted to try out for their school talent show. Joy wanted to sing "The best of both worlds" sung by Hannah Montana and Autumn wanted to sing "You belong with me" sung by Taylor Swift.

So they had their auditions and much to our surprise they made it~ with a little change up. They asked if Autumn and Joy could join forces and sing Autumn's song together. Done! The girls were so excited to have made it!

Last night was the Talent Show! Our girls are definitely stars! I love that they had the courage to stand up in front of strangers and friends and just sing their hearts out! They did just a good job. So cute!

All the pictures...

http://rachaeldphotography.smugmug.com/Other/Nelson/16425092_Gg4Bq#1235521036_hzmSk

LOVE THEM! Thanks Rachael!

I love that I finally have Family Pictures!

So this has been a long time coming! I really wanted to get family pictures done before Christmas so I could mail out a cute Christmas card. We thought that Thanksgiving would be the perfect timing for this as we would be down in Visalia and my Sister-In-Law is a fabulous photographer and we could enlist the use of her skills! BUT, it just wasn't the right timing.

After the new year, it was looking better. Unfortunately, I wasn't going to be going down to Visalia anytime soon. So we went with the next best thing ~ a local recommended photographer in the Sacramento area ~ Rachael D. Photography.

Our original scheduled session was in late February, but we had to cancel due to rain. So we booked in mid-March, but we had to cancel due to rain...AHHH!! Will family pictures every happen?!

YES!! This last Tuesday, it was a bright sunny day and perfect for pictures. Here's a link to our preview shots : http://rachaeldphotography.blogspot.com/2011/03/after-re-scheduling-and-re-scheduling.html

They turned out great! I can't wait to see the rest! I love that I finally have Family Picture!!

Welcome to the Circus!

It's no secret. I love to plan parties and I love to add my own little touch to making things a little more fun. Autumn turned 8 on March 9th and she wanted to have a Circus birthday party. I had a lot of fun planning this. There are a lot of things that can be done for a circus party.

As always, I look for something to help inspire my direction for each party. This time around, I found some cute polka dot wrapping paper from Target. It had all the bright colors that are seen at a circus - Red, Yellow, Blue, Teal Blue, Orange, and Green. I especially liked the addition of the teal blue because that is Autumn's favorite color of blue!

Next, it was time to create the invitations. Instead of going through my stash of scrapbooking paper, I decided to use the wrapping paper. After all, that was the inspiration behind it all. I wanted the invitation to have a little bit of a BIG TOP circus feel, so I printed off some red and white striped paper. I used this at the top and rounded it off ~ again the BIG TOP feel. To seal it, I made a little decal that read "COME ONE, COME ALL." Inside the invite read "Nelson Entertainment Proudly Presents: AUTUMNS BIRTHDAY CIRCUS; Come to the Greatest Show on Earth! It Will Be Fun for All: TREATS~GAMES~CLOWNS; Appearing One Day Only: March 12th; Show Time: 1:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M.; Join Us Under the Big Top at: (Address Listed); Don't Clown Around ~ RSVP to the Ringmaster at (Phone Number Listed)." I made sure to download some free Circus Fonts that helped add the the Circus feel. They turned out cute!

Once the invites were made and sent out, it was time to work on the decorations and party details. I decided that it would be fun to turn the kids into clowns and they can perform in their own circus! So, when I was out at the Dollar Tree I found some red and orange cheerleading poms which lead to my bright idea for using those as clown hair. I figured I could make my own party hats and attach the pom on the inside of the hat to create the clown hair. And to add a personal touch, I put each kids name on their hat. I purchased a foam star sticker pack that I would divided up for each kid to use to decorate their clown hat. (You know, some thing to help pass the party time). I ordered clown noses off of Amazon for way cheap. A clown isn't a clown without the nose, right? Another part of becoming a clown, I wanted to make bow ties. Originally I was going to make them from ribbons, but that would've become super expensive! Then I had an idea of creating a bow tie out of tissue paper that I already had! And last, but not least, I purchased some face paint to paint on some simple lips and eye brows to add to the effect of turning them into clowns.

(The white bow ties were for practice. I wanted to make sure it would work before I created all the real bowties.)

Next the decor.

1. I made a welcome banner for the front door that read "WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS~FEATURING THE AMAZING~AUTUMN."
   
2. Inside, I decorated the table with a bright red table cloth and bright blue plates. On top of each kids plate I had a clown hat, bow tie, clown nose, and stickers to decorate.
   
3. Above the main table, I created our own little BIG TOP with red and white crepe paper.
   
4. I created a sign designating a CONCESSION STAND area that hung from the island counter. At the concession stand, I created signs for each of the snacks that the kids could help themselves to. It had all sorts of fun circus goodies: Self-serve Pink Lemonade, Popcorn, Carmel Popcorn, Peanuts, Frosted Circus Cookies, Licorice, Cotton Candy and 3 bowls of colorful Candy to choose from.
   
5. Since I was going to be face painting the kids faces, I created a sign for the "FACE PAINTING" area.
   
6. And I thought it would be fun to have a picture of each of the kids after they were turned into a clown. So with the polka dot wrapping paper I created a designated "PHOTO BOOTH" area where each kid could have their picture taken.
7. For the cake, Autumn wanted a Coldstone cake - Mmm Mmm Chip. Since this wasn't going to have a circus feel, I purchased some bright colored balloon candles.
8. And for the final touch, what's a party without a gift bag for each of the kids to take home? So, I created a sign saying "GIFT BAGS" and hung it from the entry table where I had all the gift bags lined up. Each gift bag was a paper, red and white, popcorn bag. Each was filled with bright colored goodies such as bubbles, play dough, start stickers, whistles, flavored tootsie rolls, and pixie sticks.

Now for the party plans! Autumn's party itinerary included the following:

• 1:00 PM - 1:20 PM - Party Guests Arrive. This time was designated for decorating clown hats, have their faces get painted, and help themselves to the circus snacks at the CONCESSION STAND
• 1:20 PM - 2:20 PM - Game Time. This included a Trick & Lion Roaring Contest, Monkey See-Monkey Do (Simon Says), Circus Charades, Balloon Blowing Contest, Balloon Squish, and Walk the Tight (tape) Rope.
• 2:20 PM - 2:30 PM - Birthday Cake. Sing Happy Birthday, eat some ice cream, and have more circus snacks.
• 2:30 PM - 2:50 PM - Open Presents.
• 2:50 PM - 3:00 PM - End of Party Fun. Give away gift bags and play more of the circus games.

The party was a blast! I had a lot of fun with this one. Autumn loved every bit of it ~ which makes all of it COMPLETELY worth it!

Happy Birthday Autumn!

A promise is a promise

Okay, okay! Things I love? How about nagging friends?

Jen and I were so against blogs. We decided that if one of us, for whatever reason, started a blog, the other had to start one as well. So, thank you Jen for being the first to become a blogger....It is with much persistence that I finally created my blog.

I don't believe that I will have time to keep a public journal of my life, so I simply decided to blog the many things that I love - my family, my friends, my designs, my party planning & decor ideas, my scrapbooking, my love for music & singing, and many, many other things.

Thanks Jen! And thank you for *nagging* me! :)