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.
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!
