Christmas Day Pinewood Derby Races

Christmas Day Pinewood Derby Races

This year, with the condition of the economy, the Nelson family decided to have a fun activity since there would be fewer presents under the tree than in years past.  The activity we decided on was a Pinewood Derby race.  Jarrod is a scout-leader or something in his ward, so he had access to borrow the track and they set it up in Mom & Dad's basement.  Each of the kids designed and made a car, and a few of the "big" kids did too...(Jeff, Lila and Dad)...Jarrod didn't have time to do a car for him, so he borrowed his neighbor's winning car (which didn't win in our races! haha!)  

Our girls decided on a "bug" theme.  Shelby's car is a bumble bee that says "Shelbyzzz" on the side, Shaylee's is an ant that she painted little flowers on, and Sami wanted a Love Bug, complete with flower and butterfly stickers.  

Below, from left to right, Lila's carved flower car, Shaylee's ant car (she removed the antennas to make it more aerodynamic), and Jarrod's borrowed car.

Below, I think Madison's car is first, then Shelby's bee (how cute are those wings?  She made them out of dryer sheets...all her idea!), and Preston's garbage truck.  The WM stands for Waste Management.  Jarrod hollowed out almost the entire center and filled it with lead, so it was one heavy garbage truck.  It was a big winner!

Below, Sami's love bug, Spencer's shark, and Paige's car.  Paige won 1st place for her paint job!

Sami's car ended up winning like six times or something!  The video above shows her excitement at winning.  

Jeff and Dad were the only ones that designed their cars with speed in mind.  Dad had his powered by a mouse trap, and Jeff had some sort of motor that was activated by pulling a string.  Jeff ended up being the winner as far as speed was concerned.  His car didn't even compare to the others.   But we had such a good time, and Mom and Dad had candy bars & ribbons for everyone that participated.  We had so much fun that it didn't matter who won.  Well, unless if you ask Sami...she was pretty proud!

YA HOOO!  Chris got Shaylee's choir song to upload.  This one is a medley of a few Christmas favorites.  Shaylee is in the middle, behind the blond girl.

Shelby's Family Birthday Party

There was a huge snowstorm on the night of Shelby's birthday party, so while we were waiting for the Monson's & Jarrod and Jeff to get there, we played Apples to Apples.  Jarrod and Jeff had decided to go rabbit hunting that day, but they didn't tell anyone where they were going.  They promised to be back by 5pm because the party started at 7pm.  Needless to say, we had two very worried wives, until they finally showed up at almost 8pm!

Nana did Heavy, Heavy, Hangover...and Shelby had no idea what she was doing!  From the look on Preston's face, he was just as confused.  

Does this hoody describe Shelby, or what?

Carter's shirt says it all... "Ladies Man"

The best part of the night was that we made gingerbread ice cream sandwiches instead of cake.  The only thing Shelby specifically asked for was Candy Cane Ice Cream.  Mike said it was worth the 15 mph drive from Clearfield just for the dessert.  Ya, he was right!  Yummy!

Okay, so it's been a long time...  Life has been a bit crazy for the Slaughter 5!  But we're back...  So here is a picture of Shaylee with her friends, Jessica & Sarah.  They all sang in the school choir.  I tried to upload one of their songs, but it's just not working for me.  So imagine how cute they sounded singing about Mrs. Spackman's Killer Fruit Cake!  Shaylee's solo line was "Oh, No!  Please don't send us any more!"  It was cute.  

All of the kids in the choir had to be at school at 7:15am twice a week for practices.  Shaylee didn't mind waking up early, and I (kind-of) didn't mind driving her.  It's a good thing it's still dark at 7:15 so that the other parents couldn't see my messy hair and pajamas!

Another milestone in December... the Expedition has been around for 200,000 miles!  Still running good, and I hope it keeps on running good because we owe too much $$ on it to sell it with that many miles!  

Jamie & Mike's Halloween

Here are pictures of Jamie & Mike's kids. Except for Madison...her costume was Giselle (from the movie Enchanted). Jamie made her a gorgeous white "wedding" dress like the one Giselle wore in the movie. It even had hoops in the skirt so it was huge. Madi took it off before I had a chance to take a picture. :( In the picture below, Spencer wanted to dress like one of the kids in the Live commercial that aired a while back. If I can remember correctly, all of the kids in the commercial walked around like zombies with TV's and video games attached to their bodies because they were so addicted to their "media" that they couldn't function in the real world. That's a fake TV chained to Spencer's ankle.

Paige really fits the part of Rodeo Queen. I told her I wanted to take her picture, and this is the pose that she came up with. Jamie and Mike are in for it when she gets old enough to date!


Eric won a prize for the best costume at their ward Trunk-or-Treat costume contest for his Indiana Jones. Jamie & Mike used cocoa powder to give him a little scruffy beard. But by the time I took this picture, I think Eric had licked off most of the cocoa, but then he ate a chocolate bar so the scruff was back! Somehow some of the scruff ran off his face and landed on his shirt!

Halloween Tricks & Treats

I can't believe it's November already! On Wednesday, we took the girls to our ward Trunk-or-Treat. We have been going to a Trunk-or-Treat every year for about the last 7 years, and we love it! It is so nice to go to a place where we can trust the people handing out the candy, and the girls get a ton of candy, all in less than half an hour! Here are the pictures of the girls in their costumes. Shelby couldn't decide what to wear until she saw these fake eyelashes... Whatever she wore, she HAD to have the eyelashes!

I was excited that Sami wanted to be Casper the Friendly Ghost. I don't think I've made an easier costume! Here she is hanging out with her little friends in our front yard.

Shaylee didn't know what to be, and I can't remember where I got the idea for Jelly Belly's, but it turned out super cute. I made the clear plastic "bag" and painted the Jelly Belly logo. (Thanks to Jamie for inspiring me when she made Mike a bag of spinach during the spinach/food poisoning scare two years ago.)

Here is Mom & Dad's dog, Barney. He was embarassed to be dressed like a pumpkin. Seriously, he was embarassed.

On Friday night, Sami was invited to her friend Anne's birthday party, which was held at Punkinaze, a local Corn Maze. We decided to take Shelby, Shaylee, and their friends to the corn maze too. Of course we forgot to take the camera, so we had to use my cell phone camera. (Hopefully, the pics don't look too bad!) To watch the videos below, you'll need to pause the music on the right side of the screen.

Shelby talked Chris and I into going down the slide at the corn maze. It was fun, although I have to admit, there were some definite butterflies going on in my stomach! I become a bigger wimp every year!

Above is a video of the girls going down the slide. From left to right, Shaylee, her friend Sarah, Shelby, and her friend Aubree. It's a good thing the girls had so much fun on the slide because the corn maze only took us about ten minutes. I think they designed it for preschoolers. Below is a video of the girls messing around in the corn maze.

Fall is for changing leaves, cute smiles, and football!

Conference Sunday, in between sessions, we took the girls up North Ogden Divide and took a few pics on this gigantic boulder. You can't tell from the girls' smiles, but there was some sort of stink in the air. We wondered if there is a sewage treatment plant in the bottom of the canyon.

Last weekend, we looked out the window and saw our friend Lance (#28) playing football with his friend. We thought it was funny that they were both wearing jerseys. Then we noticed that all of the little boys were wearing jersey's too. Here is a picture of Lance and Melanie's cute little stinker, Wesley.

Upon seeing a bunch of boys in jersey's, I suggested that Chris put his jersey on so that he could play too... Oh, wait...Chris doesn't have a jersey. Where's the making tape???