School

July Fun!

Estefan is 10!

On July 20th Estefan turned ten!!!!


He's really into Legos right now, so I made him a lego cake.


Make a wish!


He got legos, legos and even more legos!


I wonder what that present on the left could be?? A fishing pole!
Cards and money, too!


And always, a book, we got him The Call of the Wild.

We love you Bud!
Can't believe you are ten! Stop growing, would ya?!

Recent things...

Estefan got a new 410 shot gun,

Allie lost her first tooth,

Mark caught a baby bird,

and the kids all went camping in the back yard!

Great Brain Presentation

All the third graders had to do an end of the year "Great Brain Presentation." They picked a topic, researched, wrote a report and then gave an oral speech about it. Estefan choose the Titanic.

He loved learning about it and loved telling us all about the ship, how it was made, when it sank and the work they are doing on it today.

Estefan was so nervous to give the oral presentation to the class. He froze up once, but then went to his poster for help. He did great!!!
I didn't check the camera SD card before I started filming (it was mostly full of course) and the memory filled up about three quarters of the way through his speech, darn it! But you get the general idea...

Estefan you are awesome!!
I can't believe he's going to be a forth grader come Fall!

May Day Part 1

This morning we went to the May Day dress rehearsal at the fair grounds. Estefan won't be able to attend the actual performance so we were so glad to be able to see him today! We also got a sneak peak at Allie's dance too!

I forgot to check my camera settings and the pictures I got of Allie all turned out like this! Whooops!!

Kinda artsy I guess... ;)

Allie and the rest of the kindergarteners did the parachute dance. It was so adorable!

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I figured out my error before Estefan danced and phew, I got a couple good one's of him and some video too! He and the rest of the third graders did a square dance to Cotton-Eye Joe.

Bud and his wonderful teacher, Mrs. Wimer!! We love her!

May Day is always to fun. Can't wait to go again tomorrow night!

One year older and...

swimming too!

Happy Birthday

to you!!!

Yesterday we celebrated Estefan's 9th birthday
and Elise's (a Dalley cousin) 6th birthday!!

There was lots of cake, lots of fun and lots of presents!

What's with this growing up thing?

If there are any mom's out there who've figured out how to control the space time continuum.. let me know.

Tell Me Tuesday: Bud's Quiet Book

Estefan's birthday is coming up and I could resist making him a Quiet Book after he loved Mark's so much.
Here is the cover. Camouflage of course!!!

Let's take a closer look at that buckle! So cute, huh. Thanks for your help with that Mom!!

This is the first page. Any guesses at what it is???
Hover your mouse over to find out!

Next is a road...

The tops open up to store the cars and the Mr. Potato Head pieces.

This page is next. Can you guess what it could be??
Hover over to find out!

Next there is an I-Spy page and a little pocket to keep a notebook and pencil.

Hope he likes it!!!

Linking to

May Day Dance

I love raising my family in the same town that I grew up in. I love to tell my kids, when I was younger I used to go ditch sliding here or ride my horse there. I love the fact that they are able to do some of the same things Dustin and I enjoyed doing as we grew up. I love that we could all sing the Moapa fight song and the "We're from Grant M. Bowler" songs together (that's never happened, but we could do it.. lol)!

One of my favorite traditions, that is still holding strong in our little (but growing) town, is the May Day dance. The kindergartners are still doing the parachute dance and the 5th graders are still braiding the May Pole!
And while some of the dances are different, a little change is good now and then. And I have to say Estefan looked really cute in his straw hat, doing a hula dance! I can't wait for next year when Allie gets to join in on this fun tradition.

Love makids!

Pinewood Derby, Among other things

On February 19th, Estefan participated in his first Pinewood Derby.

This was his car. Its a Army Hummer/Truck complete with bombs on the roof.
He even wore his favorite camouflage shirt to match. ;)

His car wasn't the fastest but he had lots of fun!
He even won the prize for "Most Original" design. Woot woot!

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After the race the boys headed out to Gold Butte for some fun.

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while the girls partied it up at Missy's bridal shower!

Missy is going to be my new sister in just a couple weeks!
Allie was Missy's little helper and opened most of Missy's presents for her.

It was a great, fun filled day for all!!

Primary Spotlight

Every Sunday, in Primary a child gets to be the spotlight. One of the members of the Primary presidency reads a poem aloud, about the child of the day and everyone has to guess who they are. Yesterday, one of my children was spotlighted. Maybe you can guess who, here is the poem.

I came down to Las Vegas, Nevada from Heaven above,

My home has 8 people and one animal to love.

I like to ride four-wheelers with my family,

If you see someone with brown eyes and brown hair it could be me.

I like to learn about life skills when I go to school.

When I grow up I want to be a photographer/hiker/archeologist/geologist/artist. 

I think that would be cool!

In my spare time I think building things is fun,

and I like to eat steak with A1 when the day is done.

I like any color except pink when I'm making art.

When I read the scriptures Ammon chopping off arms is my favorite part.

On Sunday CTR 7 is the class I go to.

Singing Book of Mormon Stories is one of my favorite things to do.

On July 20th you can sing Happy Birthday to me.

Does anyone know who I could be?

I'm Estefan Nelson!!!

It had to happen eventually.. right?

Friday night we decided to have a camp out on the back lawn. Dustin brought out the hide-a-bed mattress (for me cuz he loves me soo), lots of pillows, blankets and a portable TV. We watch Matilda under the stars and had a great night.

Little did we know that earlier in the evening Estefan took a pack of Juice Fruit bubble gum from my super secret candy stash and hid the pack of gum under his pillow. I don't know if he snuck the gum and chewed it during the night and it fell out of his mouth.. or if the dew from the law turned the gum into a sticky wad.. but this is what he woke up like the next morning!!

He came in for breakfast and said, "Mommy Lauren, I did not sleep very good. My head feels all hard."
So I had him turn around and let me take a look. Holy crap! There was gum caked all over the back of his head and all down his t-shirt!!! I had to throw away his shirt and the pillow case he slept on.

Now what???

Scissors... hack job hair cut... bald spots... no good.

Clippers... too much gum... jammed up the razors... no good.

How about the ol' peanut butter trick? Eh, does that even really work? It was worth a shot.

Mark was very curious as to why Dad was buttering Estefan's head. Estefan was a great sport and asked for a piece of bread!

And holy moly it worked!! The peanut butter soften the gum and Dustin was able to comb it right out!

TA-DA! Gum free hair!!

At first I was really upset at Estefan for pilfering my super secret candy stash and hiding gum under his pillow for later.. but it was just too funny! I couldn't help but to laugh. Crazy man!

And he promised never to hide candy in his bed again.

Lesson learned?

I think so.