What a crazy, busy week!!! We are back to trying to pack in as much as possible into each and every day. With the weather being better, all of the kids had at least one soccer practice last week. With four kids playing soccer again this year at 2 games a week plus a practice, I'm not exactly sure how we're going to get everyone everywhere!!! Last year was easier because the kids all had friends in the neighborhood on their teams--not this time! Saturdays will be particularly difficult with Chad working many of the Saturdays and 3/4 kids play in several different locations. Good thing we have grandparents that only live a mile away! They've offered to help and I'm sure there will be times I will need to. Chad is coaching Keiera's team yet again--even after promising we'd never do that again! They always end up needing help with coaches and Chad gets sucked in again. This is hard anyway as he can't be to all of the games. Well, after practice yesterday, he is determined more than ever NOT to coach Keiera's team. They are fun to watch though!

Our kids were out Thu-Mon for Spring Break. Chad didn't have to work Thursday so we decided to take the kids to a movie. Well, Chad ended up taking Alex and Jaydon to Race to Witch Mountain and I took Skyler and Keiera to Monsters Vs. Aliens. The biggest problem for me was that I had to wait until after the movie to eat some popcorn :) I LOVE Stadium 8's popcorn. The ones that went to Witch Mountain--loved it! Skyler enjoyed Monsters Vs Aliens, but Keiera struggled. We had to go out once for a drink and then later to the bathroom. We still had a good time.

Friday we had some cousins, Tacy and Rachel, come and visit so they would be familiar with us and our house when they stayed over night on Sunday. They did great and were easy to have. Although I have to say, I'm glad we're out of the diaper stage!!!! We had them for a 3 hours and then I took them home. We then picked them up late Sunday night and had them until 5:30 p.m. on Monday. I was worried how Rachel would be at night, but she woke up at 2 a.m. and when I finally found her binky, she went right back to sleep. She then woke up about 6:45 a.m. and I gave her her bottle and brought her in with me (Chad was at work.) She fell back asleep until 8:15 when Tacy and Keiera couldn't stay away any longer. It was a fitful sleep for her anyway. Jaydon and Skyler were able to sleep over at Kendall's house and we brought Gabby home with us. Gabby and Alex did a great job playing with Rachel in the morning. Keiera and Tacy played together really well too! In the afternoon Rachel took a LONG nap, which was nice. Then around 5:30 I met Julie at the hospital to trade kids back and then I took Tacy and Rachel up to see their new baby brother! He is a cute little thing with no name! Hopefully he has one by now :)

Saturday I took the kids to the Hyrum Easter Egg Hunt for the first time. (Chad was working.) It was crazy. Jaydon got about 20 eggs and Keiera only got 4! Skyler found $1.75 in quarters in his eggs though. Jaydon and Alex each got $.50. After Jaydon's soccer practice, I took them to Lee's Marketplace in Logan to get treats around the store. It was one continuous line around the store, but moved quickly. I take them there every year. Later that night, we went to the Church so Chad could get some things done and the Easter Bunny could visit our house. The kids had a great time finding candy all over the house. We only couldn't find one egg--I finally found it the next day! Sunday Easter was beautiful. After church, we waited until Chad was done with work and then met him in Logan to head out to his Brother Layne's for Easter dinner. We even got a game of Knights of Catan in!

I think I covered everything one way or another! And I'm sure you've all quit reading paragraphs ago! The next few weeks will just be filled with soccer.

Wow! This has been one heck of a Spring for our family with colds. Towards the end of last week Keiera woke up one morning and coughed for about an hour, but then was just fine. She did that for several mornings. Then family arrived to visit for their Spring Break and she decided she better start coughing more. What fun is family visiting if someone isn't sick? By Sunday she was coughing quite a bit. The poor thing coughed ALL night long! Actually I think she went 20-30 minutes in between sometimes. Chad finally took her downstairs and held her while he tried to sleep. She never complained once! They "slept" until 10:30 the next morning. By then, she definately had a fever too! No school, much to her frustration. She was almost done with the yellow books and really wanted to start the green ones. She didn't get to go to school yesterday either so I called her teacher and we went and picked up her last yellow book and her first green one. She was feeling much better, and barely had a fever, but I thought she probably shouldn't go and cough on everyone. So instead, I took her all over Logan running errands and coughing all over everything in the stores! We went to seven different stores and she did amazing! Her reward was a package of straws--go figure on that one! She coughed quite a bit last night, but hopefully can go to school today--we are out for Spring break the rest of the week :) I am suppose to be helping in her class for their Spring Party, so I hope she can go.

Anyway, yesterday finally felt like Spring and 3/4 kids had soccer practices. Keiera was one of those, but she didn't get to go. She coughs and coughs when she is running around. It was hard to keep her from running around though. It was a beautiful day and the snow has melted again, which means more is probably on the way! It's suppose to be a rainy Spring Break. Chad only has tomorrow off, so we might go to SLC--if we do, we might have something more exciting to tell about!

We did get to enjoy a lot of Chad's family this past weekend though. We had a niece and nephew stay with us from Friday-Sunday. On Saturday evening, Chad's sister and kids came up to spend a few days of their Spring Break. Sunday was a fun day with Chads sister and two of his brothers (plus their families of course). The kids loved playing and didn't want to leave, but we had school. We went and visited for a few hours on Monday night and then yesterday. They are leaving today.

I gave a FHE lesson on general conference a couple of weeks before conference using an article from the March Ensign. I adapted our thoughts around King Benjamin and the tents the people stayed in to listen. The kids didn't forget the tent part and were determined to have a tent to watch General Conference in. Chad helped them make one Saturday morning and they all did pretty well--especially considering their two cousins were there! I think this may become a tradition for them. They also enjoyed taking turns sleeping in the tent. The boys took the first night and the girls took the second night. This was one of the only times Chad has been off! I can only remember one other time he had both days off and on occasion has gotten one of the days! For some reason he is ALWAYS scheduled to work that weekend in April and October! It was very nice having him home--or maybe it was the tent and cousins--but I was able to listen to EVERY talk. I even stayed mostly awake. There were MANY amazing talks and I am excited for the conference Ensign to read them again.

There's are last week--much more to say than the previous weeks!

This week was pretty much the same as last week! Only this time Jaydon and Alex got one soccer practice in before the snow came again. Last Thursday Chad took Keiera skiing again--she LOVES it! Too bad she didn't decide to try it sooner in the season as that will probably be her last time. Beaver Mountain closed last Saturday and then with all the new snow decided to open this coming Friday/Saturday. Jaydon was also able to go skiing (and miss school!) with his dad last Friday. The kids all love to ski!!!

Well, as much as we need the moisture, I'm hoping that next week is warm and sunny for Spring Break! I enjoyed the few days of not having to turn the furnace on and opening our windows for some fresh air. Spring is my favorite season and I'm ready for a little warmth--I hate the summer heat though!

I have been avoiding posting anything becaue there really hasn't been anything to tell. The kids are all unhappy about the snow! They enjoyed playing outside and Alex and Keiera even got one soccer practice in. I'm trying to be positive as we need the moisture, but I'm ready for warmer weather. I LOVE spring!!!

There really isn't anything to tell about our family. We have all had colds--some of us AGAIN! This one of the worst head colds I think I've had. Luckily the kids didn't seem to get that part so bad. They mostly complained of their head and throat hurting. I think we're all through it now! Maybe there will be something exciting to tell about next week.

I guess another week has passed. Our major event for last week was that ALL of us went skiing for Chad's Work Ski Night. Chad has been trying to get Keiera to go all winter, but she has gotten so upset. (Chad has a season pass and so does Keiera--if you're 5 and under you get one free with a paying adult.) I wasn't sure how long she'd last up there, but she did fantastic! It was beautiful up there as well. One scary thing that happend was while Alex and I went up the lift. Just as we were about to the top, Alex told me her ski was stuck. I couldn't figure out how, but when I got off, she couldn't. A hook from the lift had hooked the back of her ski! They had to stop the lift and come and unhook it! She was nervous the next time up--I would've been too. Other than Jadon being crazy and wishing he were better, we had a great time.

The other excitement for us was ALL of the snow yesterday! Around 4:30 went Chad went and measured the middle of our backyard, there was 20.5". Other than Chad being out all day and night shoveling, it was amazing. I was looking forward to Spring, but I'm sure this will melt soon. We had a great time watching our dog, Mac play in it. It completely covered him!

Well, that's our week!

Our trip to Disneyland was a lot of fun. We left on Friday, February 13th and returned home late Sunday, February 22nd. We saw lots of our cousins throughout the trip as they were all so great to let us stay a night or two with them. We spent the first night in Las Vegas with some of our cousins and then headed to San Diego the next day where we stayed with more of our cousins until Monday. We had planned to go to Sea World on Monday, but it was a down pour all day. (Some of our luggage got wet even with a tarp wrapped around it all!) Luckily we hadn't boughten our tickets because we had checked the weather ahead of time.

Tuesday, Feb 17th we headed to Disneyland in another down pour. This was Jaydon's birthday and the reason we planned to go this week so we headed there. We had bought rain poncho's before leaving on our trip--good advice from friends! By the time we finished getting everything worked out with Jaydon's birthday (the computers weren't working), the rain had stopped. We didn't have to get our ponchos out again. It did sprinkle, but it wasn't cold. (For us anyway, the workers all had big coats on all day!) The rain kept people away and we had a great time.

Wednesday, Feb 18th we headed to the beach. We only stayed for about 1 hour because it was quite windy and Jaydon got taken down by a wave and was freezing. (Keiera also got quite wet and was freezing.) The waves were amazing! I love the ocean.

Thursday, Feb 19th we headed back to Disneyland early--that was great! We were able to go from ride to ride at first. We then headed to California Advenuture and spent the day with our cousins. (They had planned to go the same week!) We had a great time. After California closed, we went back to Disneyland. It was so busy that we didn't stay long.

Friday, Feb 20th we headed back to the parks. It was warm and CROWDED! We still had a good time, we just didn't stay long. We were sad they didn't do the fireworks, but we did see the Fantasmic show earlier in the week and that was great. The kids did great on all of the rides! There were only two that Keiera couldn't ride. One was the California Screamer Rollercoaster. I hate that one anyway so I didn't mind riding other things with her. The other was Indiana Jones--we all like that one. She was almost tall enough--the worker tried hard to help her be tall even! Not quite.

Saturday we packed all up and headed to Alamo, NV to more cousins. We stayed there until Sunday afternoon when we headed home. That was a long drive home. We were all tired--especially of riding in the van! We were all so excited to see our dog, Mac. (Chad's brother kept him the whole time! Boy do we owe them.) Layne brought him to us that night at 10:30 p.m.! I don't think they wanted to spend another night with him--he didn't do so well at night! He is finally doing well again now.

Well, there you have it. The Nielson family vacation was a success and now were catching up! Luckily the kids didn't have too much to make-up missing 4 days of school! Skyler has a test to make-up today after school and I think they're all caught up now.