Sand Dunes with Grandpa!

The middle of March we got to go the sand dunes with my family. We had a great time and the kids loved it even more than I expected. The only thing that could of made it better (besides having a condo on the dunes ofcourse) would of been having "grama" there! It was still fun to see siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and ofcourse, Grandpa! Thanks for a fun trip Dad!


Casen we pretty excited to be hanging with all the adults


I think this was his first icecream cone (don't get me wrong this kid has eaten plenty of icecream, just not in a cone all by himself). I think he was in heaven, good food... good company.


Brinley and Casen were having so much fun playing with Grandpa. Brinley thought she was pretty clever to put the bow in Grandpa's hair.




Casen LOVES motorcycles, or bikes as he calls them, and had so much fun pretending to ride this big old motorcycle with the help of his great Uncle Chris!


Possibly more excited about the dune buggy!


Brinley opted out of going on a ride and had Aunt Brooklyn paint her nails in rainbow colors. She had fun, but I don't think she knew what she was missing out on.




Brinley at the top of a VERY BIG hill with Grandpa.


I was a little nervous about Brinley heading down this big hill, but she LOVED it and went down several more times... she is fearless!


Casen LOVED riding up the huge sand hill even more than Brinley, can you see him clapping???


He kept asking for "mo" (more). This was after his forth or fifth run. Notice the ghetto bike helmet? :) Yeah his head was just to little for the kids helmets even though he really wanted to wear one!


Grandpa was very surprised at how much fun Case was having... and just as excited!

Pizza Party!

A couple weeks ago we were finally able to get together with our friends the Browns! Ryan working and Russ was on TDY, so it was just Mandi and I and all the kiddos. We let all the little ones make their own pizzas and the had a great time.


4 fabulous pizzas!


Maddi


Tia


Koda


Brinley



Casen Buddy

Evening with Casie and Derek, and ofcourse FORREST!

Ryan was working on a Monday evening and so Derek and Casie invited me and the kids to her Dad's for a BBQ. We were very excited to get get out of the house, and the kids couldn't wait to see Forrest! The first time Brinley and Casen met Forrest they were ecstatic! Casen was so excited his hands were shaking and he almost stopped breathing :) All I heard for 20 minutes were screams of excitement! Needless to say, they LOVE Forrest, and ofcourse Derek and Casie :)


I made this dessert... unfortunately it looked a lot better than it tasted, dang it!


Brinley loves giving Forrest his bone and holding him in her lap.


Casen loves to get kisses from Forrest...never thought I would let my kids kiss a dog... but it is way too cute! Here he is just hugging him while Forrest tries to share his food. If it were up to Casen he would just walk around with him hanging in his arm all day long.


Casie sitting by the pool with the kids. They wanted to jump right in! Casie is so sweet to Brinley and Casen, I just had to get a picture of how cute they looked together!





The kids had so much fun running around! Thanks so much Jolleys!

Uncle Andy comes home!

Ryan's younger brother Andy spent the last 2 years serving a mission for the LDS church in Argentina. He is a great example to all of us and has sure grown in to an impressive young man. He got home on March 10th and we got to go to Idaho that weekend to welcome him home!


Brinley loves her cousin Rachel and had a great time getting to play with her all weekend!


Casen doing what he does best :)


All the Nelson boys back together again!


This is our new nephew Stratton, he is adorable! He was only 10 days old when we went to visit. His older brother is Brigham, and they plan on calling them "Briggs and Stratton" like the lawn mower engines :)

Our dear friends the Deardens!

Our good friends the Dearden's moved to New Mexico the middle of March, we already miss them! Before they left we got to do one more fun family outing. We headed down to Mandalay Bay and had a great time watching the dolphins, lions, and tigers. It was fun to get to have one last get together!

After they moved, Brinley prayed that we could fly on an airplane to Linkin's new house :) We will sure miss having them here!





Linkin and Brinley ran around holding hands the whole time, it was so cute!








The whole happy bunch!


One of the dolphins kept doing some cool tail flip that would make these under water wind tunnel circle thingys :) Jackie and I were pretty impressed and stood there and watched the dolphin make dozens of these.


The two little guys loving the dolphins.


Jackie decided it was time for me to be in a shot! Thanks for the cute pic Jackie Sue!

Silly in St. George

We got to run up to St. George a couple of weeks ago, and it was fun to be back. The kids were excited to see the pool, even if they could only dip their hands and feet in. Hopefully it will be warm enough soon to start swimming again!

Little miss Brin and her hair-do

For those of you live by us, I am sure you are well aware of the fact that it is hard for me to get Brinley to let me do her hair, and if I can get her to settle down long enough it rarely stays in very long. Needless to say I was pretty excited when she way just as happy with the hair do as I was... it even stayed in long enough for church :)

Busy Bodies!

Our kiddos are pretty crazy... busy... always in motion, etc. So I love it when they settle down and focus on something for a while. Brinley has started building with lincoln logs and legos. I love watching he build, she is so creative and I am amazed at how well she can piece things together. Casen just loves anything that moves, especially trains, or "choo" as he calls them. He loves playing with his train set, but sometimes it can be kinda hard for him to keep it together!



Brinley and one of the first cabins she built.


Casen pushing his train and saying "choo!"





Poor little guy gets pretty frustrated when it falls apart.


Pretty mad that I was taking pictures and not helping him fix the train track.


Brinley and one of her masterpieces, she built the whole thing all by herself... minus the brown roofed shack in the back, yeah, that one was all me :)


The Lego Castle!