Well I have been doing a really lousy job at blogging this last little bit (OK, 2 months!) so I will put forth an earnest effort to be more consistent with my posts. At the very least I will post a picture (because, as you know, a picture is worth a thousand words!)
First pics are of Henry's Birthday party on Dec 16th. We had a good time. Thanks to everyone for sending cards and gifts.
Next is Christmas time. We had record breaking amounts of snow here. It kept snowing day after day. At the height of it, we had more than 24 inches! I haven't worked in a months due tothe economy and the weather, so we have been sledding and building snowmen and snow tunnels. I have been playing "cooking" with Fern and cars with Henry.
We had a "black and white" Christmas: white because of the snow on the ground and black because the power was off all of Christmas day! We still had a lot of fun.
For New Years we went to my parents house in eastern WA. The pass was icy and was not a fun drive. Once we got there we had grat time andate tons and tons of great food. I Don't know why the computer is underlining everything, but I can not turn it off!! I hate computers. We went bowling with my Fam, and that was pretty fun. I think out of 7 people Henry got 3rd place!

About the new Family Picture: This is and 8x8' mural that I have been painting for the last 6 months. I felt that my dinning room wall was too blah. I have put nearly 75 hours into it. It is painted in Interoir Latex! (well I can find it in relativly large quantities for free) This painting is based on a realization that I had during the Preisthood Session confernce last spring. I had been searching for my place in the universe; how I fit in. Then I realized that I have my own universe that I fit into just fine, and that no other meaning can/will be more meaningful. I am grateful for hte Gospel and the knowledge of the eternal nature of the family. My univese will last forever.

Any way Happy New Year to everybody!

This picture turned out so cool--just a quick snapshot at the park of my cute little boy that normally avoids the camera at all costs...

Here are a couple of pictures from the last month:Henry and daddy observing a ladybug. "He's so cute!" says Henry. He was very sad when the ladybug flew away.

Fern loves the BYU shirt my dad sent to her. She also loves to dress herself--coming up with interesting combinations is her specialty! The other day she wore two skirts--she looked like a little guatemalan lady with the thick skirts they wear up in the highlands.

Henry the scarecrow and Fern the fall fairy at Halloween. They loved going trick or treating. We went to a neighborhood that had sidewalks, lights and lots of houses close together. By the end Fern was almost falling asleep while walking and Henry got cold...and then we had to find our vehicle, but it was a great time!

more ketchup or catch-up. part 1

Well obviously alot has happened since I last wrote. We have been fairly busy, and I really haven't been in the mood to sit at the computer for the time it takes to create a new post. (about 1-1.5 hours) And Just now Lyn says that dinner is ready.... so you can kinda see why it has been a wile since a post has been made. [pause for dinner] So any how not alot of interesting stuff has happened. Lyn and the kids went blackberry picking quite often. The kids always do funny things. and everyday is an adventure with them. We purchased from our investment into REI gear, a Trail-a-bike for Henry so that He and I can go on longer rides, and so that he can begin to learn to ride a 2wheel. He is getting very brave on it and now loves going down steeps hills. Woohoo! My old friend Tony and I went camping with our boys. That was pretty fun, we found a cool camp spot. We didn't get to camp there because the road up to it was washed out. So the next day we went at it the back way and found this awesome site. Then later Riley and I went mountain biking on the old abandoned road. We got in 1 or 2 swimming trips before it got too cold. We have had really weird weather: one week it's low 60's then the next week it's upper 80's. I don't don;t know, it seems to me that the earth is falling apart. I am in kind of a weird mode. It's Friday night and I have a long week. Right now I am just tired of everything: loser clients who hide vs telling me that they have found a different Co., affluence, Politics, cars, my crappy new mattress, yaddy yada yada. Speaking of politics, I am really torn on how to vote. I mean not one candidacy seems competent enough to lead the country. I think that McCain might be a good choice, but then he has that young {insert some word that means 'cute yet ditzy, and blindly ambitious'} Sarah Palin who is about as clueless as a high school kid. I mean "I can see Russia from my house" in response to her qualifications in international policy. And with McCain's age and health there are good possibilities that she could become acting Pres. Yikes! Then theres Obama, charismatic to a fault, also clueless as to how to run a nation. Now some people I know say that we should elect McCain to prevent Obama from taking power (since he is "The Anti-Christ") But is it selling out your beliefs/principles to vote for one simply to block the other? I think that I am going to vote for an independent party as a vote of my frustration with politics in general.
ANyhoW , How's that for a peek into the mind of Caleb? I just wanted to start updating y'all on our goings on. I shall add some more detail about some of the high lites on Sunday.

Fern is 2

Well lots has been going on lately. Friday was Ferny's 2nd Birthday, but Mom and Dad Nelson couldn't get here till Saturday so we had her celebration then. It was pretty fun. We had lunch then we opened presents. She really loved the things that she got. She got a stuffed kitty from Lyn a really nice Suzy's Zoo book made by Grandma Tidwell. Grandma Nelson got her a cook set. As a family we got Fern a trike just like Henry's. Lately she has been trying to take his and ride it, so when she saw hers it was really fun to see.

After the celebration we decided to go to west Discovery Park which is north west of Seattle, We hiked out to he Puget sound where we spent quite a while playing and talking. Henry and Micah had a good time continuing construction on a driftwood 'fort'. The rest of us just sat on the beach and watched the afternoon go by. We could see Mt. Rainier from where we were at 90 miles away. Keep in mind that Rainier is 14,410 tall and we were at sea level. By comparison Mt. Timpanogos in Utah is about 9,000 feet tall but the view point on the valley floor is about 4,000. so net height is 5,000 feet vs. 14,410 feet! Every time I see it, It thrills me. I hope to one day summit it. We shall see. On a side note the BYU Cougars beat the UW Huskies in a very close and intense game. I'm not really into sports but I'm always happy to see my alma mater win, especially up here. After we got back from the beach we stopped and had dinner at our favorite place to eat: Chipotle. It was fantastic. We had dinner outside in the cool evening. It's times like these that I really love Seattle.
Sunday we received a surprise visit from Lyn's Bro Tad. He decide to come up for the game. It was a very pleasant visit yet all together too short. We wish that more people would come up and visit us. Although we miss everybody we love living her and can't imagine living anywhere else. Seattle is truly our home, It's where we fit in.
Oh, And I forgot that my younger Bro. Logan just had their 3 child Davis Logan Nelson on Sunday. He was 9lbs 11 oz. We are excited to have a 2nd male in he family, alhtough Grandpa cannot call Henry "his Favorite Grandson" anymore.

Wow--summer is going by so quick! We have been quite busy lately (as always). Caleb is working long days--leaving around 6am and coming back around 6pm. He enjoys what he is doing, but is quite worn out as there is always more stuff to accomplish than there is time. We hope that means there will be a reprieve in the fall/winter season!
The kids are busy playing and reading books and generally being their silly selves. Henry has his entourage of stuffed animals (penguin, little penguin, beaver, dog, prairie dog) and Fern has Coca, her baby doll (at least that is how I spell it--she named it!) and her rabbit and bear. For the most part they like to play together and when you hear giggling from both of them, you know it's time to find out what is up!

We had record-breaking heat in the Seattle area, so we decided to go to the WA beach. Little did we know that 90 degrees in Seattle translated to 60 degrees at the beach, along with rain! We did find a pocket of sunshine for an afternoon and were able to find some sweatshirts for the cold wet evening...(we were not prepared for the weather...once again, we learned that in WA you need to be prepared for ANY weather...rain, heat, wind, etc.) We saw some cool pelicans--i couldn't stop taking pictures of them!
And after the beach...the kids were kind of tired :)

On Saturday we went to the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe. Why is it that there are so many "state fair"s? Anyway, we had a fun time looking at the animals, riding a couple of rides and eating cotton candy. Henry decided that he is not quite ready for roller coasters (luckily the ride operator observed this was the case after about 3 times around the small track and also gave our tickets back). In contrast, Henry really did enjoy the motorcycle ride. He wanted to know if we could disconnect the motorcycle so that he could ride it home.
OK, the kids are waking up now, so I've got to go and get breakfast ready and get on with the day :)