Disaster Family pictures

The title says it all. These family pictures were a disaster. Somehow Shayna salvaged some of them. Honey won first prize in her portrayal of sheer lunacy. 

Tree Huntin

The only thing better than having a real Christmas Tree is being able to cut it down. Trace and I set off up the mountain on a 4 wheeler, thinking that we'd be back in an hour. By the time an hour had passed we had been hiking on foot for a while; our 4 wheeler was useless in the slushy snow we encountered up at Carl's camp. Trace was a trooper. He kept up with a combination of riding on a sled I was pulling, holding my hand, and crawling through the deep snow. By the time we reached a viable option, Trace was wet and cold, and I was pretty spent. We had fun resting our legs while sawing at the trunk with a dull saw. The trek back to the 4 wheeler was something like out a pioneer journal. I tied Trace to my back with my sweatshirt and pulled the tree down the hill over the snow by its trunk. That night was a memorable one. The smell of pine filled our house and after years of improvising (1 ft tall fake, paper cut out, and even not having one) we finally got a real Christmas Tree.

Iron chef/Thanksgiving

Another chapter in the epic battle was written, when team black approached team white the night before Thanksgiving. If Barbara was not the head matriarch of the Nelson home, this one tradition could be as violently heated as the Hatfield-McCoy feud. New "health food" skills surfaced... but only until cheese and deep frying became a necessity in this race against the clock. In the end, both teams gave their best... for some it was enough. For others... it was not. Congratulations Shayna. Better luck next year Chris (or better luck next decade, with my track record).

The next day, Shayna and I were still married. A success after competing on opposite sides of the oven the night before. This Thanksgiving was, however, quite a let down. We were in the midst of a complete family diet shift, Shayna had just given birth the week before (which meant we didn't go to Great Grandma Nelson's), and the house was a mess. Without dwelling on the past, Thanksgiving was a day better left not repeated. Thankfully Christmas was the complete opposite experience.

Tucker Kase

Each of our children's births have been unique and sacred. Tucker was born at home as the sun was rising, it was a very peaceful experience. Shayna went into labor at 10pm, then she woke me at 2am to help, Dee (our midwife) arrived around 3am, and Tucker was born at 7:06am. Shayna was awesome! Despite knowing the kind of pain she was headed for, she bravely went from one stage of labor to the next until Tucker was finally delivered. He was 8 pounds and 20.5in long. Unfortunately it wasn't as easy of a birth as Honey's. I was blessed to be able to catch Tucker with Dee right next to me. We were so blessed to have a midwife that was present for the birth, but also that did not take over the experience. She adapted to the atmosphere and experience we wanted. When we were finally holding him, and Shayna was able to rest, the spirit could be felt so strongly. Since Shayna was almost certain that this was going to be a girl, we spent a few days figuring out a name for him. We are so thankful and relieved to have our 3rd child here safely. We had told Trace that when it started to snow that the baby would be born. We had some early snow this year, and each time Trace saw it start to snow he would get excited and tell people that the baby was coming. I guess we set him up for failure with that one. Both kids have loved holding Tucker and playing with him; they are good little helpers. 

Happy Halloween

Each year Halloween is a question mark for our family. There's a lot about it that we don't enjoy, and it makes us wonder why it's a holiday. This year we were quite festive. Shayna had the kids (and herself) all decked out in costumes she creatively put together that day. I threw on a cape my mom made for me when I was hopefully no older than 5. Carmel apples, then trick or treating- we were on such a role we probably would have eventually made our way to one of those creepy haunted houses that we can't stand... except that after the first house (Doreena and Glen's house, where we surveyed the salt shaker collection) both kids fell asleep in the car. Shayna made it to one more house (the Andersons- we just hoped that we knew that she was just stopping in to say hi, and that she wasn't just trying to get free candy), and then we headed home. Wow. That is a 200% increase from last year. I talked Shayna into watching the nightmare before christmas... we did make it through the first song... and then Shayna turned to me and expressed her hatred for claymation, gross things, and weird musicals... that about sums up the whole movie so we turned it off and went to bed. Next year maybe we'll sip some cider or attempt to watch a Little House on the Prairie halloween special from the '70s... you know... something really wild.

Nelson Family pics 2014