The pictures

Leprechauns and Big Tom

A couple of weeks ago, leprechauns come and visited the girl's pre-school. They over turned tables and left a mess for the kids to clean up. So, when the girl's got home from school, they were talking a lot about leprechauns. So, later that day, Juliana asked me to write a letter to them. It goes as follows:

Leprechauns:

Could you please clean up the mess you left behind?

Could you please give me some candy?

Could you please give me some toys?

Could you please give me some gold?!

Could you please grant me a wish?

Where do you live?

My name is Juliana Nelson.

I love you.

She then asked me to hand the letter on the door that leads out to the garage so that the leprechauns can see it.

So, fast forward two weeks and you will see from the pictures what the leprechauns brought everyone.

The girls also had a really cute Leprechaun program that they performed for all of us at pre-school. Juliana was a leprechaun and Rachel was a toadstool, although dressed like a leprechaun and was holding an umbrella to make her look like a toadstool. It was so cute, and they did so good talking, singing, and dancing.

The Big Tom part of this post is about the new horse that I will be riding. Today was the first time I rode him. I met Big Tom the first time I went to the barn to take the tour and meet Laurie. He is very tall and the biggest horse at the farm. He is a beautiful black with a bright blue right eye. His left eye is brown and the blue eye is very rare to see on a horse. Laurie feels like I am getting good enough to begin to ride other horses, so Big Tom was my first try on a new horse. It went very well and he is a great ride, although very different from Tego. I will miss Tego, but I know I will ride him again. At the end of the lesson, Sarah remarked how much Tom liked me and how well I was doing on him. I said of course he likes me, I love him. He made me look good, just like Tego. Then as we were leaving the arena, I made the mistake of getting in the way of Tom's very large hoof and he stepped on my toes. Oh, that hurt. But my toes are intact and they are pretty badly bruised. I need to make sure I have better footing around him. He seems to be a little more in your face kind of horse. It was so much fun as usual. I look forward to the challenge of helping Laurie work with another horse that is coming off an injury and has not been ridden in over a year. I will begin to ride her in about a month. I met her today, her name is Mary and she is also a beautiful black altough quite a bit shorter than Tom.

Silly Birthday Boys

So, here are the rest of the pictures from the birthday festivities. As you can see, the boys had so much fun! Oh, the joys of three very silly boys at a very fun birthday party. Joseph invited his two best friends from school to join him for the party. Then he decided that he wanted to go bowling and then to Red Robin for dinner. We picked up the boys right after school on Friday. Mike took the afternoon off and then we went out for the fun. We arrived at the bowling alley in Lone Tree by the Park Meadows Mall and got all set up with a lane. The alley was very nice and Mike was able to set up the bumpers for the kids and then they went down for his turn. He actually did quite well on his game. Good job dear! I of course was the cheering section. I do not like to bowl so I just watched and kept a close eye on the five kids that I was in charge of at the time. Everyone had so much fun there. The girls used the little ramp that they provide to help them get the ball down the lane. They were fascinated by a young man next to us that was bowling several games in a row. Clearly he was there all the time and I am pretty sure he got a strike every turn. They kept telling me how good he was. The boys had a great time taking turns and in between turns we opened up presents. I have put pictures of what the Grandparents have sent him. Thanks guys! The Nelson's sent him Harry Potter books and a shirt and then my parents sent him a gift card to Barns and Noble. He loved spending the card and was able to get three more books there. He has a large stack on his bed side table of books, he reads every morning before getting up and then reads again before bed. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law sent him a cute horse Webkinz to go with his other ones. She said that it was supposed to remind him of Tego, but Joseph decided to name him Mickey. Go Figure? We got him Operation and then the girls got him a bulldog Webkinz named Vador as in Darth Vador and a Hippo named Z-Man after his friend Zachary.

After bowling and presents we headed over to Red Robin for dinner. The kids all had different kids meals and I had the cheeseburger and Mike had a steak sandwich. Everyone had a great time there as well.

The boys will begin baseball at the end of the week. Mike is so excited for it to start. He has gotten how to DVD's from the library and books about coaching little league as well. He is planning to go to a certification class this Thursday and become a certified coach through the City of Aurora. I know that we will be a great coach because he learned how to be a great coach from his dad who coached for many seasons his three sons when Mike was Joseph's age. Isn't funny how life is the same that way sometimes? Ron (my father-in-law) taught Mike and now Mike will teach Joseph. Circle of life I suppose.

Tego and I had a great lessons on Saturday. I did some more jumping patterns and they are becoming more difficult, but I am learning and slowly getting better. It was such a nice day that Laurie told me to walk around on Tego outside for a bit before getting off and untacking him. It was so fun to walk around until he decided he was done walking and began to eat dead grass by the trees. Oh, the joys of working with a large animal.

Joseph will be starting Weblos as well. I just cannot believe it. Ten years ago I was pregnant with him , it does not seem like it was that long ago. Happy Birthday my dear, sweet Joseph. We love you and are very proud of you.

Bowling with the Boys (and the girls)

Here are some pictures from the weekend, I will plan to write more later.

Bob the Bullfrog and the Olympics

For Christmas, Joseph got two webkinz from Santa. One is a lion named J-Man and the other is a very fat, very spotted and rather cute bullfrog named Bob. (Please do not ask me where the Bob part came in, it was Rachel's suggestion.) So, ever since Christmas, Bob has been a close part of our family. Joseph loves him and takes him just about everywhere. (I have told him much to his chagrin that he cannot take him to church.) I know, mean mom.

So, naturally, Joseph and Bob the Bullfrog watched the Olympics together. I am not quite sure who was more captivated, Bob or Joseph with all the events and athletes. I am not quite sure who had the bigger crush on Lindsay Vonn, Bob or Joseph? I am pretty sure it was Joseph, although Bob would have made a close second runner up or shall we say silver medalist? Just as a side note, Joseph is in love with Lindsay Vonn, he has always had a thing for older women. But he has good taste, she is beautiful. Bob's favorite events were the skiing and he loved it when they crashed. Bob (oh I mean Joseph) said that was his favorite part, to see them crash, must be a boy thing. Needless to say, we loved the Olympics!

Mike is beginning to start coaching Joseph's baseball team through the City of Aurora with another person from our ward whose son will also be on the team. They are so excited about starting. I am glad that Mike is done with school so he feels like he can commit to something like this. He will do great, and Joseph will love it.

We closed on our re-financing our mortgage this past weekend. It was a big process and I am glad that it is over. But, it has been for the best and it will be nice to have one payment instead of two.

Things at the barn are going very well for me and Tego. I had another really great lesson this past weekend. I am still continuing to do jumping patterns. They are very challenging but I love it and would not have it any other way. Tego always makes me look so good, he know what he is doing and I am learning a lot from him. Thanks Teg, you are the best!

This past weekend, I went to the hospital and worked for several hours on the scrap booking for Katherine. I really did not think I would be there that long, but I got there at 9:30 and left at 3:45. We did stop for lunch and then returned to work. It was a really good experience. The Creative Memories consultants donate their time and many of their supplies to the event. I enjoy scrap booking, but this was the Cadillac version of it. I have never worked with Creative Memory supplies, they were so nice, very high quality. I was totally addicted to it. The pages that I have done have turned out beautifully and I plan to return to do it again in June. The pages are sitting in my closet here and if anyone would like to see them sometime, let me know and come on over and I will show you.