The Eve of New Year's Eve

December 30th the kids, Shelby, Tyler and Shelby's friend Taylor went snowboarding with TJ up to Brighton. Thanks to grandma Van Cott, Shelby spent her $50 on some snow pants. Tyler is saving his for a snowboard he enjoyed it so much. TJ did not have the best time since he was teacing some beginners to snow board-sorry no photos,too much falling down! Later Neal and I picked them all up and met Kevin & Tammy at Applebee's for dinner. Thanks again to Mom Van Cott we spent our $50 giftcard to Applebee's and celebrated New Years Eve a day early.


These are some photos of us all, people in the restaurant thought we were all so strange to be celebrating, I am sure they all wondered if we actually knew we were a day early in celebration. Tammy and I ordered Pomegrante Margaritas and Tammy kept saying we needed to order Tom Sawyer's...new name for the drink i guess! What she actually meant was we needed a Margarita like the ones we ordered at Sawyer Brown. So there you have it...the new drink called Tom Sawyer!

Tyler Don Van Cott- my little gangster!

Shelby & Taylor (Taylor does not like his photo taken)

Me and Shelby

Kevin & Tammy


My hubby being his usual goofy self!

And this is all of us, having a really good New Year's Eve EVE!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas, Christmas Eve was spent with the family as usual, my mom traditionally cooks Christmas Eve dinner with the red/green jello salad but since my brother Clint and I have made fun of the jello, she won't do it again. This year I hosted the Christmas Eve dinner and TJ, Fawn and Willis and Cheyenne did not make it up but we had Addy! She was loads of fun! We gave the kids their traditional Christmas Eve jammies (my mom and dad did this for many years with us kids and I guess it just carried on).



My brother Clint and his wife Sharon and Neal and I gave my parents their gift that night that we went in together on but to make it fun we sent them on a wild scavenger hunt. (www.scavenger-hunt-fun.com has a lot of fun printable cards) We purchased them a series of 5 golf lessons for each of them from a golf instructor my dad has enjoyed down in ST George. They are so hard to buy for that hopefully they will take advantage of this and have fun!



We ended up opening all the Christmas gifts up that night so that we could get up and go to Addy's home and see what Santa brought for her and Cheyenne. What a storm we had to go through to get there, Fawn and her mom and Kirk and Mashayla were waiting for us, Willis had to go and pick up Cheyenne from Payson so he fought a storm to get there too but it was ok because we had the center of attraction with us "Addy". Christmas was not going to be started without her! She was so cute this year, knowing exactly what to do to open her gifts.




Neal and I gave Addy a Fisher Price laugh and learn pony. You bounce and spin on the pony and it plays learning games on the television. She loved it!

Fawn & Willis bought Tyler a hemit crab that lives in a shell that is painted like a football, he was in heaven...he loved it!

Family Christmas parties

On December 20th we had two family christmas parties one for the Nielson side of the family and one for the Hollingsworth side. It was really fun at the Nielson party (dads side) we had turkey for our Christmas dinner and opened gifts for all the little ones. Shelby got boots like the ones she really liked of Fawn's and Tyler got snow pants. We also actually had another kid along with us, as the whole family got to meet Shelby's boyfriend Taylor. Shelby gave him a gift, which was one of Fawns name frame things from cutecutz.blogspot.com and Shelby got an aero jacket from Taylor. Here is a picture of Shelby and Taylor


Then at the same place we had the Hollingsworth party (moms side). That family also got to meet Taylor. At this party we had Mexican for dinner and around 7 "Santa" came. All the little kids sat on Santa Clause's lap. Addy was not afraid of Santa and neither was Cheyenne they were both happy to see Santa. Tyler and Shelby also sat on his lap. And mean old Shelby had put Taylors gift in santas bag to so he had to sit on his lap.











When all that was done the adults played the exchange game.


And some how Shelby and Taylor disappeared i wonder where they went??
So we went and found them and yes i interrupted their kiss like a mean mother!!


So our party ended and we were all getting tired so we headed off home but first we took Taylor home and I was asking Taylor questions the whole ride while Shelby was cuddled up into his chest. I went to ask him a question and I turned around and found them kissing. Later he texted Shelby saying your mom probably hates me. She asked why and he said because I was kissing you. I laughed when Shelby told me this.
I asked Shelby when we got home how do you kiss him? She laughed and said non of your business. So I stole her phone to see if I could find any clues and I did in her text messages. Ha ha makes you wonder how doesn't it.
Well now that were home and away from Taylor she wonders when she can see him next so maybe we will have to suprise her with a visit on christmas.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Rodeo

As most of you know, we are big fans of Rodeo! Recently, our Shelby spent 3 weekends in St George for High School Rodeo. They call it the "Dixie 6" because it is 6 rodeos in 3 weekends. Here are some photos of Shelby and her horse doing barrel racing and pole bending.





We had a really good time visiting my mom and dad in St George and playing in the SUN, wish we had warmth now! Anyway here are more photos of Shelby and one with Shelby and her daddy helping her in the arena, and one of "Aunt Shelby" and her neice Addy. Addy did not want to get off the horsey! Maybe we will have to let Shelby barrel race with Addy right along with her! I don't think Fawn would let her though!!

SAWYER BROWN!

Neal and I and my brother in law and sister in law (Kevin & Tammy) went to Wendover Saturday and saw Sawyer Brown! They are my favorite all time band. We all drove out prior to the concert starting and went in for dinner at the Peppermill Casino. From there we ventured on to the new concert hall in Wendover, boy has Wendover grown since we were last out there! We went into the concert and had to stop for of course, Margaritas and a beer! We had really great seats (actually you probably could not have a bad seat at the concert hall). Mark Miller sang alot of the older songs that I do enjoy and some other Christmas stuff as well.


Hobie took over singing an Eagles favorite! (Eagles are my second favorite!)
After the concert, which was actually too short, we had our photo taken with all four of us by another concert attendee. We then went to gamble and party the night away! Kevin & Neal & I played Blackjack and Tammy was just the good luck charm! We were all up for awhile, me even having $100 or more just starting out with $40 but lost it. Neal and Kevin were up a little and we casino jumped from the Peppermill to the Nugget, to Montego Bay and then over to Red Garter...big mistake, Red Garter was so smoky we had to leave! We decided it was time for bed and thought we would wait until the next day to win our big money! Today we went to breakfast, played a little more Blackjack and then headed home. We had such a great time together and hope to do it again soon!

Family photos

We had family photos done on TJ's birthday November 9, 2008. Since TJ and Fawn have two families that they actually belong too, we split the phot costs with her mom and stepdad and had a fun time at Wheeler Farm. Addy was so cute and so was Cheyenne. You will see that we had one big group photo, Fawn likes to have both parents involved so we all took a photo! Cheyenne had her little brother with her too and so there are some photos of him. Addy sure loved the pigs and the goats! I just posted all the photos in the slideshow for you to view. I will post more later of Shelby at the three weekends of St George high school rodeos!

Twilight

Happy Halloween

The kids are getting a little old for Halloween but it is still all in good fun. My work staff dressed up this year and we had a chili cookoff! How fun, Neal would not dress up though or he could have been my T-bird partner!


Tyler and Shelby dressed up this year and were planning to go to a teen party but Tyler ended up at his friends house having a little Halloween get together and Shelby ended up driving around Kamas! Shelby was a prisoner, she calls her self "Paris" that is actually the nickname her cousin Kye gave her one year at Lake Powell...and Tyler was a South Summit Cheerleader...ain't he just cute!


My little Addy I guess had quite a Trick or Treat trip and was exhausted, I did not get to see her because we live so far away from her! Fawn sent my photos though...Addy is pooped she went to lots of houses and filled up her bag. TJ and Amber are off to win the costume party at the bar.