Super Super Nelson Shaw Day!!!

Today is John's 33rd birthday, our 10th Wedding anniversary, and our beautiful niece out west is celebrating her 4th birthday today, Happy Birthday Amya!!!

That makes February 9th, 2011 a Super-Super-Nelson-Shaw Day!!! I don't know if I can handle so much celebration in one day! Is there such a thing as too much fun?! No way!!!

I have known John Nelson for a little over 11 years now, and he just keeps getting better. He is a wonderful husband and fabulous father. Every day when Apple alerts us to his arrival by lots of jumping and barking, the kids run and hide.


Okay, that sounds bad... they hide because they know that they can count on John to come in and play hide and seek. It is a ritual around here, no matter what kind of day he has had, he always comes in in a great mood, gives me a big hug and takes off to find three sneaky little people hiding in the smallest nooks of our little farmhouse. Bear is getting pretty good though and John has had to surrender with increasing frequency. If anyone breaks into our house, they are definitely not going to find Bear, that boy can hide!! I do not know how John does it, currently balancing work, family and now PHD on top of it all..

He's good! Maybe having co-workers like this helps a bit!!

Happy Birthdiversary Johnny boy! It has been a great 10 years with you and our babies, wow ten years! It seems like it has gone so quickly, but time flies when you're having fun!

Love, Dani

Nelsons Rockin Christmas

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Danielle's Birthday

For Danielle's birthday, yesterday, we had a pick-nick in the living room and ate 99 cent coney dogs and floats from A&W and watched kids movies that we rented from Blockbuster. It was fun. Danielle turned 29, which she says is her "last birthday."

Happy birthday!

Another Random Movie From My Phone

Random Video From My Phone

101 Dalmations of the people world

I found these great videos for the kids this fall, the Torch lighter series from the Voice of the Martyrs. They are cartoons for kids, or adults, about real life christian heroes. I like having real world examples and introduce the kids to personalities that they can strive to be like, without super powers and capes. So they know that it is a realistic goal to achieve themselves.

Anyways, my favorite so far of the Torchlighter series cartoons is the story of Gladys Aylward.

She was a Chinese missionary. She was a passionate and motivated individual that just rolled with whatever she felt God was leading her to do, and ended up caring for many orphans. I especially liked this one because it is one of the cartoons that invoved children and did not end with anyone dying.

Some of the cartoons feature people who ended up being martyrs, about 3 out of six that we have, but the kids do not really seem put off by this. Willow's favorite is the Perpetua story, because it has "two girls" in it. She calls it the movie with the two girls.

Anyway, the kids were watching 101 Dalmatians the other day and it struck me that it seemed really familiar. 101 Dalmatians is pretty much the Gladys Aylward story, but with dogs. Or vice-versa, the Gladys Aylward story is the 101 Dalmatians story of the people world!!

Halloween, Basketball, and Crap I Like

This year we motored around the neighborhood behind the Pasqualis' on a golf cart -which is a pretty luxurious way to go trick or treating.

Willow was great at screaming out the trick or treat line and didn't slow down until the last couple of houses. Bear was a Lions player and showed the littles the ropes. Little Juneau was also a football player (he loves the football shirt and helmet and will sometimes sneak into Bear's big shoulder pads and we've found him asleep in them before).


A couple days ago some guys from work and Bear and I went to an MSU game against SVSU (it was 88 to 44). Chuck and Nahim and Irfan were there.


I like looking around the house and seeing evidence of toddlers. Not necessarily the piles of cheerios (but I guess I kind of like that, too), but little devices like this. And I just noticed that there is a diaper on the counter. Nice.

Happy Birthday Charlie!!

Happy birthday Charlie! We love you!!!

An Egg!

By the way, yesterday when I was driving home, this was the sunset. I thought it looked so pretty that I took a picture of it with my phone as I was driving, which is ok to do.

But more importantly, check out this this egg that Danielle collected out of a nesting box in our new chicken coop. We're pretty sure one of our chickens laid it. It's the first egg from our chickens and we are so proud of the one that laid it, but furiously disappointed so far in the other three, who are barren.

So here is the chicken coop. Danielle got the plans online, went out and bought the materials, then we cobbled it together over the course of the summer. I'm proud of how it turned out. I cut out the plywood and did the roof, but Danielle did everything else (including digging a 1-foot trench around the whole thing and lining it with underground wire to keep bastard raccoons out. And dogs and cats, I suppose).

Happy Birthday, Carol!

Congratulations on making it this far!