Family Pic 2010

 My talented sister-in-law Amy took some family pics of us last summer. This is the one we loved the most (I know Todd's tie is driving some perfectionists crazy right now):

Can you tell why we didn't choose this one? Ha.

Thanks, Ames!

This week....

The other day we took the kids sledding at the park across from our house.  It was SO COLD and we were there for 20 minutes max. Take a look at these pictures,though, and you can see how much they loved it. The color is really bad, but their faces are priceless.

Cute pink cheeks...

Audrey started ballet yesterday. I can't believe she's old enough to go to ballet, but mostly I can't get over how cute she looks in her ballet get-up.

Todd Nelson = cutest dad ever. The kids adore him. I adore him. Enough said.

This was a "daddy sandwich" at Audrey's request.

Christmas 2010

I am getting worse and worse at keeping my posts up to date, but this is going to be a big picture party. Get ready. We started the holiday season with Thanksgiving in Cincinnati with our dear friends the Hunters and the Nielsons. We didn't take a single picture. Lame-o. But we love them, nonetheless, and had a great Thanksgiving.

The next week, we ventured 1 mile up the street from us to a local Christmas tree farm and picked out a Frasier Fir. The pain of buying and lighting a real tree (not such a pain for me because I don't participate in the lighting) every year is so worth it to me to have the whole house smell like piney goodness. I LOVE that part of the season.

 Drew posed  for Mid-western GQ.

 Ah....

 To celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary, I took the kids and flew to New York, leaving Todd to celebrate by himself at home. Actually, some time alone with SportsCenter is probably a pretty good anniversary gift.  I'm a good wife.

We landed at Todd's parents' mission home, met up with Erin and Sverre and headed into the city. The first day, we went to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. The kids did really well considering how cold/crowded it was. In order to board the ferry, you have to go thru airport style security which meant unbundling and rebundling all those little bodies. Definitely worth it though.

Audrey was Abby's shadow for the entire vacation - Abby was so cute with her.

Cute, chubby boy in a little stroller. Ellis Island.

True Nelson style feeding time.

The next night we saw the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. It was fun and Audrey was in awe.

 Todd flew in late that night and the next day was Christmas Eve. We went to the New York New York South Mission conference. Such a cool way to spend Christmas Eve. 

Lunch lady Lulu dishing up some ham and funeral potatoes for the President.

I was trying to sell my ham....Todd was not joking around.

 The cousins Christmas morning....waiting for the mad dash.

The best chaos

 Grandma Chris got ear muffs for all the boys as a joke.

 The day after Christmas, it started snowing mid-morning and stopped the next morning. It was beautiful. The Jensens and we were supposed to fly out the next day, but all the airports were closed for business. So our stay was extended by 4 days.
The day after the storm we went into the city and it was a little eery....piles of snow everywhere, and so quiet! We had a great day - thank heavens our kids were with Grandma though, otherwise it would have been miserable.

We went to see "Memphis" that night on Broadway...I heart musicals. Todd hearts ear muffs. It was FRIGID.

Todd (and his ear muffs) helping un-stick a car.

How crazy is New York City? Nice stacked parking lot.

And 2 days later we headed back in to see "In the Heights". Twinner scarves - ah cute.

The crowds were a different story though. The snow  had turned into huge puddles and it was the busiest, most crowded I have ever seen the city. Yikes.

Our kids spent a lot of time at the mission home while we were adventuring. They had the time of their lives.

And that was that. SUCH a fun Christmas. It was a great crowd to be snowed in with.  It's also so nice that Rick and Chris are visit-able while they're on their mission. We love, love, love them.

And here are a few Ann Arbor happenings  in conclusion:

These two spend 3/4 of every day hiding under a blanket.

The other day Audrey was crying and when I asked why she said, "I need to hold my baby but I need to use my hands too!" I can sympathize, sister. So she came up with the solution and I loved it. She's totally full of it and I love her.

While I was helping her tie her baby on, Drew found some contraband markers and went to town on Audrey's bed. This picture makes it look like she helped but it was all his own artwork.

The geek squad.

Audrey asked if she could take a picture of us....nice picture, right? Todd's so disgusted by my romantic kiss.

Woah, that was a record post! Happy 2011!!