Halloween 2015

This Halloween was so much fun! Lincoln was so excited for it and could not wait to go trick or treating. Fortunately the weather also cooperated with us enough to actually be able to wear the costume and not cover it up with a giant coat. The only bummer is I didn't get a picture of our little mickey mouse Bances. Spiderman Lincoln was pretty cute though.
We did a cute little craft with the kids and Haubits for FHE one night making "spiderwebs".

Lincoln was really into these skeleton pajamas because they glowed in the dark. He wanted me to take pictures of his skeleton dancing.

Our first Halloween festivity was a Clue Party with our friends Howard and Seneca Thruston. We had appetizers, dinner, played the Clue Board Game, and watched the movie. It was so much fun. I found my dress and Sheehan's green coat and vest at a thrift store. 

Devin was Colonel Mustard, Julianne was Ms. Peacock, I was Ms. Scarlet, Sheehan was Mr. Green, Seneca was Ms. White, and Howard was Professor Plum. There home was beautiful and dinner was yummy. 

We voted Devin's costume the best costume of the night.

Lincoln loves to find this picture on my phone and just cracks up at how funny he thinks his Daddy is. Silly Mr. Green. 

A few days later we met up with Ian his wife Madi, Lys, and my Mom to enjoy an afternoon at Cornbelly's. I always love their Mexican grilled corn. It's a highlight for me. We ran into my dear friend Kale Shillig who was running the zipline. 

 The kids were sitting so nicely as they were entertained by the animatronic chicken show. Vance kept escaping our group to go and sit on a hay bail and just watch the chickens sing and dance. He cracks me up. 

 We ended the night with a hayride. We were directly behind the tractor, which made Lincoln's night. 

 On Friday night (Hallow's Eve) we went to my Mom's to carve pumpkins. I made Sheehan carve Lincoln a Spiderman face. I carved a Mickey Mouse face for Vance and my Dad carved our big pumpkin into a Jack Skellington face. 

I found this old picture of Devin, myself, and Lys carving pumpkins at the Avocado house. I had to be about 3 years old. Someone said it looks just like Lincoln, I think it looks just like Vance but maybe it's just the blonde hair. 

I loved dressing Vance in this skeleton sweat outfit. He only has the sweatshirt on here but his Superman slippers make up for the mismatched outfit. 

The kids are getting big enough to help with the pumpkin cleaning and carving. Kiley did her pumpkin entirely on her own. Good memories with family. 

On Halloween Day we went back to Cornbelly's with Sheehan and played in the kiddie area we didn't have time for earlier in the week. The boys just adore Sheehan and he is so good to play with them. Just look at those boy's smiles as they ride down the giant slide. Pure joy. 

Smashing pumpkins. Lincoln tried really hard to use the mallet on his own. He did pretty good even though the thing probably weighed more than he did. Finally Sheehan stepped in to help him actually smash the pumpkin. They loved the destruction.

 Vance and I in our cow train seat. 

Sheehan with his boys in their cow train. 

We ended the night trick or treating around our neighborhood with Shay's family, Devin's family, and Colleen stayed to visit the next couple of days. The boys had a great time playing with their cousins and having more kids to trick or treat with!

Lincoln and his preschool teacher Mrs. Frost

Our family then and our family now

It is so fun to compare Devin, myself, and Alyssa when we were little kids carving our own pumpkins to where we are now with our kids now carving pumpkins all together.
In the picture above I am pregnant with Rae making 7 grandkids. Kiley, Lexi, Lincoln, Jacquline, Vance, Ezra, and Rae on the way.

It's A Girl!

These brothers are so excited to announce that we are welcoming a baby girl in March 2016. We all couldn't be happier and most importantly the ultrasound showed that she is a healthy, active baby.

Lincoln and Vance had to join us for the ultrasound appointment. Lincoln is in his Halloween jammies so that Daddy could take him to his Halloween Preschool party and slip his spiderman costume over his jammies. Vance picked out his own boots. :) 

They were good sports in the doctors office. Thankfully they had some books and coloring pages for them. Lincoln was very excited to see the baby on the tv screen where they showed the ultrasound image. He yelled out, "I see him, I see him." Vance just kept saying, "Baby!" making the ultrasound techs giggle. They were a bit of a distracting but entertaining bunch. 

When the gender had been revealed and most of the images were taken for the doctor Sheehan left with the boys to take Lincoln to preschool. I met with the Dr who, again, assured us that so far we have a normal, no complications baby and pregnancy. Babies are miracles!

The ultrasound techs gave me little pink candy wrapped chocolate hearts. I got hungry after being at the Dr office all morning so by the time I got home only 2 out of the 3 candies survived. You can see one of the wrappers by the ultrasound image. 

To make our news "Facebook official" Sheehan made this little sign and I attempted to get a clear picture of the boys with the sign. Here are just a few of the many, many pictures attempted that did not make the cut. 

Lincoln really wanted to hold the baby shoes along with the pictures. 

They decided sitting under the entry table must be the perfect place for pictures. The outlet is particularly nice. 

Vance had enough picture taking and left our photo shoot. Lincoln was not happy although he started smiling and yelling "cheese!" but looked everywhere but at the camera. I knew our photo session had come to an end. I had to make do with what I had. The final collage is the very first photo of this post. 

 Sheehan says I've been buying everything pink in sight. Maybe I have. I came home, got in jammies, and began looking through all the cute 0-3 month girl clothes we get to enjoy in a few short months. Here's to 19 more weeks! We can't wait to spoil our little LaRae!

First Day of Preschool, Picture Day, & Halloween Party

Lincoln started preschool August 18th, 2015 twice a week in the afternoon at Learning Dynamics in the 3 year old class. His teacher's name is Mrs. Frost. He just loves his teacher and preschool. Sheehan was able to come with us to Lincoln's open house where we (Sheehan) filled out his paperwork. Lincoln was more interested in checking out all the toys Mrs. Frost had for them to play with.

Lincoln on Class Picture Day

Spiderman with his teacher Mrs. Frost at their class Halloween Party. When Lincoln is in costume he only allows us to call him Spiderman. He picked his own Halloween costume this year. I gave him all these cute options and he said, "No, I want to be Spiderman." So there it is. He is a boy that knows what he wants. 

Thurston 1st Halloween Murder Mystery Party

We went with Devin and Julianne to our mutual friends Howard and Seneca Thurston for a Halloween Murder Mystery Party. I was Ms Scarlet and Sheehan was Mr Green. Devin was Colonel Mustard and Julianne was Mrs. White. 

We each brought our respective weapon from the boardgame Clue. We had dinner, played the board game Clue, then watched the old 1985 Clue movie. 

It was a great time and since this first party Seneca has held a Halloween party every year which we love to attend!

Temple Blessings

I've been able to do a lot of Family History since Vance was born. Grandma Bev started asking for my tech help on a couple things and from then on I became obsessed with finding her Grandmother Simona Zamora and her parents and so on.

It really saved me on many days that I felt like all I did was change diapers, clean little faces, and repeat. Being a stay at home Mom is wonderful and I am so blessed to be able to do it. I struggle with my pride in working and being praised for my accomplishments in the workplace. Not having that praise and pride has been really hard for me.

I felt some of that pride in accomplishment as I did Family History and saw my hours of research fill out our family line. I had many great experiences being led by the spirit to just check one more record to find the name or information I needed. After gathering more than 20 male and female names to take to the temple we did a Family Temple Baptism Session at the Mount Timpanogos Temple.

Bailey Blair-Holmes went with us and helped us with the proxy baptisms. Grandma Bev took her home to relieve our babysitter while Sheehan and I did some more work. When Sheehan and I came home it was about 8:30 pm. Our boys don't go to bed until 9-10pm because neither Sheehan or myself are very good about sticking to a bedtime routine.

It was a miracle that they had fallen asleep on the couches downstairs at 8 pm. This had never happened before and they stayed asleep the rest of the night. So blessings do come from temple service! Sometimes in the form of sleeping, peaceful toddlers.


Here are some family members. We did the temple work for a couple of them on this day in October 2015.

Grandma Connie (Concepcion Reyes-still living in Riverside)

Stephen Hernandez Sr. (Connie's first husband, Grandma Bev's Father-passed)

Simona Zamora (Connie's Mother)

My Grandfather Clyde Nelson Sr. (Papa) has a brother named Ron Nelson who is the youngest of the 3 Nelson siblings and was known for being so, so funny. He passed away recently after battling cancer. He was living with his son Tim Nelson in Frisco, Texas at the time. Grandma Bev was able to attend the funeral.