Moving Home

Call me crazy, but I enjoy moving. There's something very exhilarating about closing one door and stepping through another. Sure, the process can be a little hectic and even stressful at times, but that's all part of the adventure. Packing up and moving our family over 1200 miles away down to Texas (which is another fun-filled story all together) will always be one of my favorite family memories. We were surprised as anyone, but when it came time to take the next step up in our lives we decided we wanted to stick around the area we've come to call home for the past 3 1/2 years. 

I'll spare you all the details, but our transition into home owners happened very, very quick. Within one month we went from kind of thinking about maybe looking at homes to owning one. Among the many blessings we've had during the process, we were fortunate enough to have nearly two months to move over to the house. Our poor cars served as mini freight trucks as week after week we mercilessly crammed everything we thought would remotely fit into them. Our goal was to only have the large and heavy stuff in apartment on D-day, and I have to say, we came pretty darn close!

It was kind of weird living in limbo between two places for so long, but moving day came soon enough.Amazingly it only took us a half hour to load up. Props to Denton 4th ward brethren who were moving machines!

Night before the move 

For his part, Andrew was incredibly excited about the move. This was due to two primary reasons: First, the house has come to be known by him as the place "he can run and jump in" (without torturing the poor downstairs neighbor). He could now practice his sliding and jumping without us getting all over his back! Second, and quite possibly more important, moving meant that he got to ride with Daddy in the truck!

 

Roll Out!

Boys love trucks!

 

The day was not without it's mishaps as Kara twisted her ankle fairly early on in the process. Also, due to a miscommunication on our part, there was no one waiting at the house to help us unload the truck. After pulling up and taking a few moments to rest, we took the bull by the horns and had just unloaded the truck ourselves. Kara was quite a trooper and "played through the pain" and we knocked it all out within an hour. 

When all was said and done it was another fun little family adventure that I'll always look back on with fondness. I'm sure we'll be unpacking and making the house our home for many more months, but the move is done! Here's to opening a new door in our first house!

Nelsens on the move!

Moving Day!

Tomorrow is Moving Day!!!

Time has flown by, it seems like just yesterday we were signing the papers with a couple months ahead of us to move over and now tomorrow will be our first official night in our house!

A big thanks to John's dad and Kara's mom for all the help in getting us ready. We couldn't have done it without them!!!!

World in a Minute

We keep meaning to post, we really do! There's just so much going on with our little family right now that we hardly seem to have a free moment. To catch everyone up, here's the Reader's Digest version of the Texas Nelsen's past couple months:

1 - Grant is learning to talk much more now (see video) and Andrew continues to amuse us.

2 - We were able to surprise John's mom by showing up (along with the rest of John's family) at Disneyland for her Birthday when she thought it would just be her and John's dad (see video)

3 - We spend a fun-filled, and slightly chaotic, Thanksgiving with Kara's family.

4 - We decorated our Christmas Tree. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at the bottom half (thanks Grant) but it was quite nice looking that first night!

5 - We will be home owners before the year is out!

6 - We are preparing for the long drive up to Utah to spend Christmas with John's family.

We hope to post more details about all this soon, though it could easily not be till February or later after we move into our new house!

This is Halloween...

As we've said Halloween is one of our favorite holidays. We love decorating the house, picking out and carving pumpkins as a family, and getting our costumes ready. This year was no exception. Breaks between conference sessions was spent hanging ghosts and bats around the house. The weeks that followed were spent planning our costumes. Before we go any further, here's a quick look back at previous years:

2004 Murder Mystery Party: An Affair to Dismember (John: Hannibel Shecter, Kara: the Gypsy Aretha Garlik)

2005 Murder Mystery Party: The Chicago Caper (John: Billy "The Kid" Thrower, Kara: Molly M. Awbsterr) 

 

Special 2005 Bonus Costume: Honest John the Used Car Salesman

2006: Dracula, Witch, Yoda

2007 Wizard of Oz: Dorthy, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion

2008: Frankenstein & Bride and Woody & Buzz Lightyear

This year we thought it would be fun to hearken back to our pre-marriage days. Christmas break 2003 John and his family were at Disneyland celebrating the holidays. We had arranged for Kara to come up and spend a day with John in the park. After riding Star Tours you can do this thing where they take your picture and put your face in a Star Wars scene. Both being Star Wars fans (3 of our dates were seeing the trilogy at the Varsity Theater at BYU!), we loved the idea and the following photo has become legend in both Nelsen and Mangum households. We therefore thought it was time to recreate the historic moment. 

 

2009 Han, Leia, Yoda and a visitor from a distant galaxy...SpongeBob

We had a great time this year! It was our first time taking the boys trick or treating and we really pounded the pavement. We'll have candy for months! It was so much fun because Andrew really understood the concept and Grant was happy to be out and about (and trying to gnaw through snickers wrappers). Click the play button on the bottom of the video to play.

One of the great things we both love about Halloween is the chance it gives you to be scared without being in any real danger. Andrew found this out first-hand!

Under Construction

As you can probably tell, we're undergoing some major revisions here at Nelsens with an 'E.' We hope you'll enjoy the new format! Kara would like everyone to know that while John was updating the site he neglected to save the old info, resulting in the loss of all the old widgets, gadgets, etc. We've tried to frantically remember everything we had, but our memories aren't that good. If you used to be featured on our page and aren't, don't be offended, the deletion was not done on purpose. Please just comment and let us know and you'll be right back where you belong.

Howdy Y'All

After 3 years of living in Texas we finally made it down to the Texas State Fair! It was everything we were expecting and hoping it would be, and more.

Big Tex welcomes us to the fair

We made it down shortly after opening, so it wasn't too hot or too crowded, which was very nice. We started things off by taking the boys to the animal pavilion. Just as we were expecting, the boys were terrified of anything bigger than the little chicks. Grant was so terrified of the llamas that he literally wet his pants (which ran out onto Dad's shirt)!

Grant's few months of life flash before his eyes

Of course, a big part of going to the fair is the fried food. Here's a small sample of some of the things we found:

Believe it or not, the fried butter was the biggest attraction! We didn't try that one, but I can tell you that you haven't lived till you've sampled the divine goodness that is the fried snickers!!! Our favorite though was what was called "Pork Chips." It was fried thin shaved pig. Sooooo tastey!



We capped the day off by letting Andrew ride some of the cheap little carnival rides, which he loved. 

Giddyup little dawggy

I don't know if we'll go back (it was insanely pricey) but all in all we had a great time at the Texas State Fair!

It's here....

Fall is finally here. It was a long, hot, busy, and brutal summer but it's over and we're coming down the 2009 home stretch! As is tradition, Kara and the playgroup went down to the pumpkin patch last week. It has been a cold and rainy Fall so far (uncharacteristic for TX in our experience, but very welcomed!) so it was very muddy and wet, but the boys thoroughly enjoyed it. Here's a few pics from the trip:

October has got to be one of my favorite months. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! We're planning a great party at work (HR is the best place for work parties!) and Kara and I are working on some classic costumes for this year (stay tuned for pics). Just yesterday we visited the local costume shop looking for some of the last missing pieces. :)

I love this costume! The best part is the kid's face!

Not only is it the kick-off to the entire Holiday Season, but we also get colder weather (I'm very much cold-blooded so Yey!), and the baseball playoffs. Being a Cubs you wouldn't think I'd get very excited to see everyone else but the Cubbies play in Oct. but I love baseball and it's all good (except the Yanks). I'm hoping for a Dodgers/Yankees match-up and to see Joe Torre wipe the floore with the Yankees.

And if that wasn't enough, it's my brother's b-day (go Chad) Really, is there anything bad about October? If there is, I can't think of it!