Examples To Follow

I have always felt like when dads or parents for that matter were handed out I won the lottery. What a blessing it is to know that you have parents that will always be there for you. Even better, I had parents that taught me the best values and taught them by example. My parents are both amazing but today I want to talk specifically about my dad. I recently had the opportunity to attend General Conference and watch my Father be sustained as the First Counselor in the Young Men’s General Presidency. It was an amazing experience. We had great tickets to the session. I knew my ticket was good when I handed it to the young man taking tickets at the door of the conference center and he said “Hmm…I’ve never seen a pink ticket before”. I was right down in front and I felt like I was literally sitting at the feet of the prophets and apostles. It was an amazing experience to watch my father the man that I have always looked to as an example take his seat on the stand with the great men of the church. This is the man that always made me feel like a princess. This is the man that took me on daddy daughter dates. This is the man that I always knew I could ask for a blessing at a moment’s notice. As the only daughter among his five sons I was always Daddy’s Little Girl. I was proud of that place and I still am.

I looked down our row after my dad took his seat on the stand. I saw six worthy priesthood holders that I love with all my heart looking up at my father on the stand. They were my five brothers and my husband. I was so grateful that these men in my life have had and will continue to have such a great example to follow.

My dad has two twelve year old grandsons my son Russ and my brother Tony’s son T.J. They were able to go to the Priesthood session in the conference center that evening. Russ came home from the priesthood session so excited. He and T.J. along with my brothers and husband had once again been up front (yes, they had pink tickets for that session too) these two boys were standing up right by the front barricade as the Prophet walked out of the session. They said “Hi President Monson” and he turned and said “Hi, boys”. This is an experience that I know my son will never forget. As he has talked about it in the days and weeks since, I know that through the prophet turning and saying those simple words to them he helped build Russ’s testimony of a living prophet. He has always loved his grandpa and wanted to be like him. But, I’m so grateful that his grandpa’s life put him in a situation where he could hear the prophet’s voice speaking to him.

The following week I was sitting in Sacrament as Russ was passing the sacrament. Caleb sat up straight and said, “There’s Russ!” He watched so carefully everything Russ did and I could see him moving around in his seat to get a better view of his big brother. But, it was the look in his eyes that got me. It was the same look I saw in Russ’s eyes the first day he was passing the sacrament as he watched everything his dad did. It was the same look Russ had in his eyes when he talked to me about what it was like to see his grandpa up on the stand in the conference center and have the prophet speak to him. It was the same look that my brother’s and husband had in their eyes as they looked up at my dad on the stand. How can little Caleb go wrong if he follows the example of these great men of the priesthood in his life as they strive to follow the example of the Savior?

Where Did This Wonderful Young Man Come From?

It doesn't seem like it was many days ago that I was handed the most beautiful baby boy I had ever seen. The nurses in the hospital named him baby Elvis and I couldn't even get them to bring him to me one morning because they were too busy enjoying him in the nursery. Jason had to finally go and find him! He looked like he had been given a haircut the day before he was born because he had a perfect little man's haircut. Russ was born the weekend of General Conference and I can remember holding him in the hospital while I watched General Conference and thinking that life could not get any better. This year his birthday fell on General Conference weekend again and he turned 12! Yesterday that baby passed the sacrament for the first time. I was so proud of how seriously he took that responsibility. It was fun because they asked Jason to pass the sacrament with him this first time. He watched everything his dad did and was so worried about doing anything wrong. I felt so blessed to have two wonderful men in my life that take their priesthood responibilities so seriously and yes it made me cry! I hope that Russ will always remember that he can look to his Dad as an example to follow in honoring his priesthood just as he did yesterday. I wish the next 12 years would not go quite as fast as these last 12 have but I guess I won't count on it. I love you Russ and I am so proud of the wonderful handsome young man that you are becoming!

Joel

I was looking around at some of my friends and family members blogs and noticed a few linked to mine and some of them show that I made my first and only post 6 months ago. So, I decided to start adding some. I could see myself getting very addicted to this and I don't have enough time for that. I found these pictures the other day of Joel at the Fathers and Sons campout in May. I know it is kind of late but they crack me up so I wanted to put them up here. I told Jason that he didn't need to take Joel this year. He has 5 sons! 4 sons would be a handful without a toddler who would not be 2 until August. But, he wouldn't hear of it and wanted to take him anyway. He said he had a ball and loved the dirt. You can see that is true from the pictures below. They are not the best quality because Jason only had his Camera phone but I still love them. I wonder how much dirt he ate!

My First Blog!

I have wanted to start a family blog for a very long time. I think it is a great way to record what is going on in our family. My mom always told me not to get behind on my scrapbooking like she did. I didn’t listen when I only had three children thinking I had a lot of time. But, I went from three children to seven in just nine months. Now I am very far behind! I still want to do my scrapbooking but I am going to use this blog to record what is going on with our family and to let anyone that is interested see too. So, here is my first attempt at a blog.

I am married to a wonderful man named Jason and have 8 children. I always thought I would grow up and have a perfect family that included 6 children spread about 2-3 years apart. Jason thought that 5 children would be a pretty good number but was open to considering 6. Jason and I did a very good job of working toward my dream family for the first nine years of our marriage. Then life threw us off the plan! Jason’s sister who has struggled for years with substance abuse lost her 3 children to the state. I had recently had my 4th child J.R. but, we decided that bringing them to our home was the right thing to do. So, we went from having 3 children to having 7 children in 9 months. About a year and a half later we were blessed with a wonderful surprise from heaven in our beautiful baby boy Joel! That is how I became the mother of eight. It has been an interesting ride so far. I have made a lot of mistakes, done a lot of good things and learned a lot along the way. I’m very excited to watch this Nelson crew learn and grow. I hope and pray that I will be up to the challenge and that I can help them become the best they can be. But, enough about them this section is about me!

In my imaginary spare time I like to read, sew, sing and play the piano. Before we adopted 3 more children I had started a personalized gift business. We found it was too hard to find and keep employees and train them with the specialized skills they needed to produce my gift creations. We also found it was too time consuming for the mother of 8 to create these gifts on her own. During this time one of my long time Vendors a company called Ganz came up with a new product called Webkinz. If you have an elementary school aged child it is very likely that you have heard of Webkinz. I changed the focus of my business to include items that do not require as much effort from me. I have also started a website specializing in Webkinz. If you have a child that loves Webkinz go to my Website Kinzconnect and sign up for my Free Weekly Newsletter and I will keep you up to date on the latest Webkinz news. I love computers, the internet and developing my Website. I’m going to extend the love of developing my Website to this blog.