Fifth Day of Christmas

On the fifth day of Christmas I'm truly grateful for:

Five nieces and nephews.

From top: Nixon, Miles and Lorenzo

From left: Lily and Violet

My favorite thing about my life is being an aunt.  I remember people talking about how much they loved their nieces and nephews and thinking that it would be cool, but since they're not your own kids, it's really not that cool...

Cool train ride.

Cool lipstick done herself

Cool ride waiting for a real ride at Disneyland

Cool kisses.

Cool hat

Cool self-made stuffed animals

Cool bib

Cool faries

I was completely wrong.  

I'll spend hours thinking about them. Just thinking about them. If I wasn't worried about coming off as annoying and self-centered (... ok, moreso than I already do), I'd be constantly talking about how awesome my little kiddies are.  They're so awesome.  They're so awesome.  They're so awesome. They really are the sweetest, funniest, funnest, beautiful-est kids in the world.

Nixon is hilarious.

Playing pirates

He's way too smart to only be four.

Playing pirates... again

And he says things how they are.  Tonight he wanted to play this game that we made up called "Doctor" where he basically tells me a part of his body that is broken and I tickle it to make it better. I got distracted by the many other things going on in the room and a couple minutes later he called my name again and when I went over he said, "Brooke, when I ask my mom for more ice cream and she says no, then we can play doctor. OK?"  Haha.  So a couple minutes later when his mom said he couldn't have more ice cream, we played doctor.

Thumbs up.  I love this picture.

 Nixon was a baby throughout my second year at BYU.

My Boo-boos

During the winter I would bug Derek and Lindsey to be able to come over there and play with my "Boo-boos" as I liked to call him.  He was THE ray of sunshine that got me through those drowning, dreary, days of the winter.

Gorgeous little boy

I would just hold him and sing to him and soak up all the happiness I could.  That's when I discovered how truly magical it was to be an aunt.



Then came Lily.

Lily-Pad

The princess of all princesses.

Paige's wedding

Lily is the happiest little girl with the bubbliest personality and expressions.  She opens her eyes and turns her head and talks every sentence like a Welch's commercial child.

Owl?

She's the perfect mix of temperament, gorgeousness and animation.  I'm not sure she knows how old she is.  She thinks she's an adult.

Wearing my glasses

But not in a bratty way, just in a way where she can interact with people without having to act like a baby.  She's the perfect little Nelson kid who adores anything and everything Disney and could quote any movie backwards.  A couple months ago as we were watching Peter Pan (she was in full Tinkerbell attire, including wings), "You Can Fly" came on.  She stood up and put her arms in the air like an airplane and shouted sincerely and excitedly, "I can fly! I can fly!" and proceeded to fly around the room for the remainder of the song.

Tinkerbell

She's an angel.



Miles, oh Miles.

Pirate Miles

I just always want to be squeezing Miles.

Frustrated and crying... and adorable

Whenever I think of him I instantly get a visual of his posture as he walks.  He waddles side to side instead of walking upright.

His Godfather shot

In Florida

I'm not sure if it's because of that or not, but his head is always tilted and he gets bashful really easily so he'll smile and look down with those big brown eyes and giggle in that low giggle of his.  He's the sweetest, loviest baby.  He's obsessed with dogs and will spend twenty minutes patiently trying to get Dahlia to calm down long enough for him to rest his head on her and hug her.  He's just full of love and not afraid to show his affection.  He's also a big boy.  If you ever have food in your hands and he's anywhere in his sights, he'll stop what he's doing and come up to you and wait for you to give him some of whatever you have.  When Derek and Lindsey asked him what he was most grateful for this last Thanksgiving he thought for a second, smiled and then said, "Food."

Happy with ice cream

Happy with an Oreo

Happy with cake

Violet, the smiley baby.

Vi

All Violet does is smile.

With Papa

Being bashful

Sometimes, if she's really excited, she'll squeal and kick her chubby legs, but her life revolves around being happy and making others happy when they're around her. She's the perfect proportions and body type for hugging and holding.

Being a model

Happy fairy

She's gorgeous.  And she doesn't ever get angry or fussy.  

At the hospital, still happy

I love her name.  She fits it perfectly. She's happy like a flower and beautiful like a rich purple.

With her daddy

Lorenzo, the newborn.

Enzo

Enzo is a sweetheart.  His eyes are always WIDE open and he's very alert, watching things around him like he doesn't want to miss a thing.

Wide-eyed with some lady I don't know

He'll just sit there as his older brothers smother him with kisses and hugs.  He's already the apple of Nixon's eye who is constantly saying, "Isn't my little brother so cute?"

Sleeping like a baby

Yes, he is.

I know there are tons of pictures, but I don't care.
They're my favorite.  I love them.

So, on this Fifth day of Christmas, I'm truly grateful for:

Five Nieces and Nephews,

Four Middle School Friends, Four High School Friends and Four China Friends,

Three Brothers, Three Sisters and Three Siblings-in-Law,

Two Loving Parents

&

One Promised King. Savior of the World.

Fourth Day of Christmas

On the fourth day of Christmas I'm truly grateful for:

Four Middle School friends, four High School friends and four China friends.

Every chapter of my life I've had friends there who have become my second family.  Here are three sets of important people in those very important growing and learning chapters of my life:

The O4

Brynn, Amy, Brooke, Brandi and Matt Martelli pretending to be Jen.

The "O4" or "Original Four" started out as Brynn, Amy, Brandi and I.

Such a fashonista, I made a shirt for Brynn in Christmas of 8th Grade

 Brynn and I had been best friends since we could remember (my earliest memory of Brynn is when we got stuck in the sprinklers in her backyard and didn't know where to run because we were up against a fence and didn't want to run through them to the house so we sat there, being rained down on and cried as loud as we could until we were saved by Brynn's laughing mother), but we had never been able to go to the same school till that first day of 6th grade at Faith Lutheran where we met Amy and Brandi.  We were instantly four best friends.  We had sleepovers and knew each other's secrets and we were by far the coolest people we knew.  In 7th grade Jennifer transferred to our school.  Even though we were a completely exclusive club and could obviously only have four members due to our name, we allowed Jen into our group based on the fact that she was actually as cool as us.  So, the O4 became a five person club about four people.  We've been a beautiful contradiction since.
We laughed and gossiped and liked boys and then hated those boys we once liked and then liked those boys again.   We celebrated milestones together, we mourned the loss of a friend together.   We started the journey of adolescence together.We became our own little patch of sisters at that school. We were 11 when we met.  Now we're all either 23 or 24. We've known each other for over half of our lives.  It's been great.  We've all gone our separate ways and lived our own lives, but we still keep in touch.  When we were 12 and transportation-less, we'd get our parents to drop us off at Mimi's Cafe and we'd dine together like the grown-ups we thought we were.  Now that we are technically grown-ups, we've kept the tradition alive.  Once a year we get together at Mimi's and try eating our food we've ordered between the loads and loads of catching up we do.

Brynn, Brandi, Brooke, Amy and Jen

Bengals

My first day of High School I was convinced that I'd be thrown in a trash can or locked in a locker. I was terrified. I had transferred from a private school and didn't know anyone at Bonanza. My mom had set up a carpool for seminary with some other kids in my class. One of those kids was some red-head named Michael. Since we were sort of forced into saying hi when we saw each other later that day, we decided to get lunch together. Being oblivious Freshman, we took too long at lunch and ended up getting locked out of the welcome assembly. Not knowing what else to do, we sat out in the shade and tried to find common ground. Harry Potter came up rather quickly. We've been best friends ever since.

Freshman year of college

 Once Michael and I established our friendship, I reconnected with an old friend from softball named Carly.  Soon after I reconnected with another old friend, Elizabeth.  And then we added Brynn into the mix for good measure.  Four years flew by with these four friends by my side.  Other friends... and boyfriends... came in and out of focus in those years, but these four were my constants. From school dances to school plays, from Lake trips to our Senior trip be gave ourselves to see Wicked in LA, from passing notes to passing driving tests, from crisis and catastrophe to adventure and euphoria.  You only have one high school experience, and when I look back I'm thrilled to say that I made mine with those four.  Luckily, most of us have lived in either Vegas or Utah since high school so we get to see each other a lot.  Our friendships didn't end after we graduated, like so many of my other high school friendships did.  I'm very grateful for that.

Michael's farewell

Hanging out on the Strip

I probably said something really funny right before this was taken

Sadies Senior year

I promise we're not as dramatic as we look

Captain Planet

Moving to China was the boldest/most exciting/most rewarding/best thing I've ever done.  For some reason halfway through my Freshman year of college I felt like I needed to go teach English in a foreign country.  It was a specific and kind of random prompting that I didn't understand (I know why now it was because it was going to be the perfect thing for me).  Through a series of fortunate events, six months later I put on the bravest face I could as I hugged my mom goodbye at the airport, wondering what I had gotten myself into. Thankfully, I had gotten my bestie Elizabeth, from high school, to come along with me.  I'm not sure if it's because we're both hilarious or if we were both scared out of our wits, but as soon as we met up at our gate, we were at ease.  We were more than at ease.  We were completely in our own world where all we cared about was making ourselves laugh and having a good time.  Within our first week in China, we had made enemies with everyone in our group.  We were the loud, obnoxious girls who sang on the top of their lungs and laughed at things that didn't make sense to other people.  After our first week of bliss in our beloved Zhonggua (China), we decided that we'd better try and make friends with some of the other forty people we had to live with for the next four months.  After one huge and miserably failed attempt at making friends in the lunchroom one day where we ended up eating alone at the largest table in there while everyone else crowded six and eight people into four-people tables just to avoid us, we were down-trodden.  We decided to lay low for a while and try not to be so into how awesome we were and meet people on an individual level.  We went that night into our head teacher's room and tried playing cards with a couple of the people that were in there.  That's where we met Kiera.  After we tricked Kiera into thinking we weren't as bad as we had seemed at first, she helped us trick Amanda and Krystal into being our friends, too.  We made other friends more easily after that, but the five of us girls, later named "Captain Planet" became inseparable and on some occasions were even slandered as "exclusive".  There's no way to even come close to listing everything we shared or explain everything we experienced there, but I want it known that those four months of my life were the four best months of my life, and those four girls will always be the only people who will be able to understand and relate to me when I talk about the time we spent there. We were in a foreign place with foreign and exciting experiences and all we had to share them with were each other.  From sneaking out so that we could practice our OK Go treadmill dance (without the treadmills), to Gilmore Girls, to the overwhelming Guilin vacation, to our Rock Band and I Hate Kiera Clubs, to Crazy Town and the Noodle Shack, to our Hallway competition, to our outfits that we got together, to so much more.  Women shi hao pengyou. Wo ai ni.  We're the best of friends.  I love you.

After singing for karaoke for that crowd of people in Guilin

Swimming in the mud caves

We have one of us posing, but this suits us better

So, on this Fourth day of Christmas, I'm truly grateful for:

Four Middle School Friends, Four High School Friends and Four China Friends,

Three Brothers, Three Sisters and Three Siblings-in-Law,

 

Two Loving Parents

&

One Promised King. Savior of the World.

Third Day of Christmas

On the third day of Christmas I'm truly grateful for:

Three brothers, three sisters and three siblings-in-law.

Three Handsome Brothers: Joel, Rex and Derek

Three beautiful sisters: Paige, Nina and Hayley

1st Sib-in-law: Valerie with Joel

2nd Sib-in-law: Lindsey with Derek

3rd Sib-in-law: Nick with Paige

Where to begin?    

Growing up, my parents always told us kids that we could have friends but that our best friends were our siblings.  And luckily enough, we all are.

 

I get a kick out of and want to keep up with every one of my brothers and sisters.

I can't think of any people I'd rather be stuck with for forever.  I've had the best childhood and no-longer-a-childhood because I've grown up with and made my memories with my family.  

No one can make me crack up as much as my family.  No one can make me as happy as my family.  They've pulled me out of dark situations and been the highlights of my happiest days.

Here they are in particular order (oldest to youngest):

Joel- My oldest brother.  I've always felt like he'd do anything for me.  One time when I was 13, I was stranded on the strip.  Joel's band was performing that night and I wouldn't have called him but our parents were out of town and I was pretty scared.  Joel dropped everything to race to my rescue. He told me to stay where I was and not to worry. What should have been a thirty minute drive took Joel fifteen minutes. He ran every light to get to me as quickly as possible. When I hopped into his white Jeep, I apologized for making him leave his party.  He brushed the apology aside and told me that didn't matter and that he was just glad that I was ok. That's just one of many times where Joel has shown me that he'll always be there for me in the very second that I need him.  Joel has also been someone I've looked up to because he works hard all the time. He doesn't have an ounce of lazy in him.  And when he stumbles, he picks himself back up and becomes better than he was before.  He makes things completely right again.  He's incredibly humble.

Val- Joel's wife. I'm so glad that Joel found someone who is not only gorgeous, but who also miraculously thinks Joel is funny even when he's making creepy faces and dancing moving only his shoulders...  I love Val for her advice and for the way she loves my nieces and my brother.  And I love that she now sings more than she talks. (One of the biggest signs of a true Nelson.)

Derek- My older brother. Derek has always been able to get me to do anything for him.  Not that he was very withholding or anything, but I just thought that he was so cool that to be involved in anything that he or Joel was doing was the highest honor.  When I was in about 6th grade, I got a knock on my door one night and Derek came in and closed the door after him.  He quietly asked me if I would help him bleach his hair, but said we'd have to do it a little later so that mom wouldn't find out because she'd freak out and say no if she knew our plans.  He told me he'd come back in a little while once the coast was clear.  That half hour or so that I waited seemed like it would never end!  I could hardly sit still, waiting for him to come get me.  ME.  He had asked me to help him bleach his hair.  That night is the coolest I've ever been or felt.  Derek has overcome some trials that I've had as well.  I've told myself that if Derek can do it, so can I.  He has a quieter exterior than some of us Nelsons, but he's as tender as the rest of us. One day we got in a fight when I was really little and I told him I hated him.  Derek got emotional and told me that no matter what I did, he would never hate me.  That's stuck with me. I've never said anything that mean to someone I care about since that day.  He's been a great example of unconditional love.

Lindsey- Derek's wife. I've never met someone as genuinely nice as Lindsey.  She's nice to everyone she meets.  She looks people right in the eye and you can tell she sincerely cares about them.  She's also such an on-top-of-it mom who tells my brother and my nephews how much she loves them.  Not only is she gorgeous, but she's a sweetheart of a person.

Paige- My closest sibling in age.  Paige has taken a lot of teasing from me and for the most part, has taken it really well.  Paige and I are the most opposite out of the seven of us kids.  People would find out that we were sisters in high school and they wouldn't believe us.  I think sometimes our differences have been subjects of tension between us, but I also think that those differences make us love each other a lot.  Paige makes me laugh harder than anyone I know.  She has a very tender heart.  She cries more than I do... which is hard to do.  She's gorgeous.  Gorgeous, gorgeous.  We've been through everything together.  Everything. My most embarrassing moments of my life were both made and filmed with her. I'm so proud of the woman that she has become.  I'd also like to take this opportunity to publicly apologize for the time that I tricked her into biting my arm by telling her that it wouldn't hurt me and that I wouldn't tell on her and then turned around and told on her.  She got sent to time out.  And it didn't hurt me, but I told mom that it did.  I'm sorry, Paige.  I hope you can forgive me.

Nick- Paige's husband.  Nick is such a great friend full of advice and support.  He came into Paige's life and showed her and me how there really are good guys with good intentions who are fun and intelligent that live in Provo.  I'm so grateful for the way that he treats and appreciates Paige.  And he has already learned how to speak our "peshul" Sis language, which is promising for future Nelson quirks that he has yet to encounter.

Hayley- My little sister. Hayley has always been someone who stands firm in her convictions. Once she's set her mind on something, she doesn't do it halfway; she commits.  Even though she's five years younger than I am, I've looked up to her many times as I've learned about her integrity all throughout middle school and high school, how she didn't care who thought what, she was going to do what she thought was the right thing to do.  Hayley has always been a fireball and I'm very glad that growing up we had Paige as the buffer between us because I got to be the bystander and sometimes supporter as she took out her rage on Paige.  Nowadays she's very laid back and will do whatever you ask her, even if it's ridiculous and selfish of you. She's a groovy dancer, too.

Rex- My little angel brother.  I was twelve when Rex was born.  My school was under construction so I had two weeks at home when the rest of my siblings were away all day so I got to help my mom with my newborn brother.  I feel like Rex is my own little baby in a lot of ways.  I know that's crazy, but it's how I feel.  Rex is truly an angel.  Once a couple years ago there was a boy who would hit Rex and take his backpack away and call him mean names.  Nina told my mom about it and when my mom told him it was ok to fight back a little and stick up for himself Rex said, "I know.  I've tried to fight back.  But I just can't.  No matter what I do I just can't bring myself to hurt someone."  Angel, I tell you.  Even though he is now twelve and passing the sacrament and in middle school, he still literally jumps into my arms and breaks a disc or two in my back every time I come home to Vegas.  I gripe and complain about it, but I hope he is always that excited to see me.

Nina- My spunky littlest sister. Oh Nina AKA Tina AKA TNT AKA Teen.  Nina is an 18 years old stuck in a 10 year-old's body.  She is so advanced in so many ways for her age.  She understands comedy and relationships and people much more than most kids freshly out of high school do.  She has the best laugh.  And she's fiercely loyal.  She and Rex can't stand to be away from each other.  When he goes on camp-outs or she goes to visit our cousin up in Utah, they miss each other like crazy.  When Rex had that bully a couple years ago and Rex told my mom he couldn't hurt anyone, Nina piped up, "Don't worry, Mom.  I hit that kid back. I picked up a stick and hit him and said, 'You don't hurt my brother like that!'"  Oh man, she's hilarious. And every year for Christmas or my birthday, she has picked out not only one gift, but multiple gifts for me, things she saw that reminded her of me.  She's precious.

Whew.  My fingers are cramping a little.  But there you have them: my wonderful, funny, loyal, protective, angelic, beautiful, handsome, brave, strong, wonderful siblings.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I'm the luckiest sister in the world.


So, on this Third day of Christmas, I'm truly grateful for:

Three Brothers, Three Sisters and Three Siblings-in-Law,

 

Two Loving Parents

&

One Promised King.  Savior of the World.

Second Day of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas I'm truly grateful for:

 Two loving parents.  Patient and supportive.  Wise and strong.

Two parents who love me enough to let me be me with my weird quirks and interests, no matter how off the wall they I can get.  Two parents who know me well enough to know when to let me do my own thing and when to step in and give me parental advice.  Parents who work as a team, always.  Parents who have shown me that they love each other as well as each of their children and grandchildren.  Parents who have shown me that they love God and follow Him as exactly as they know how.

My dad has always called me his princess.  So many of my memories as a child involve my dad thanking me for choosing to come down to their family.  Then he'd ask me how much he loved me.  I'd start with my hands not very far apart from each other.  He'd shake his head until I made the gap bigger and bigger.  Finally my hands would be as far apart as I could stretch out my arms.  That's when he'd nod his head and give me a hug before I could bring my arms in again.

 I don't know anyone that I relate more to than my dad.  We have very similar trials and weaknesses.  We have similar interests.  We have similar strengths and personality traits.  My dad is a wealth of knowledge and patience.  He silently works to help those around him; to serve both where he is asked and also where he hasn't been asked.  He's a great example to me.

Every year on my birthday, my mom has told me the story of when I was born. I know the story by heart.  Long, awesome story short: I tricked my mom with false labor so that she was sent home from the hospital without a baby.  As soon as she got home, I decided to start coming again.  By the time she and my dad got back to the hospital, I was almost there.  Stuck in an elevator with a scared and screaming Chinese man, she almost gave up and had me right there.  She was barely able to hold on long enough to welcome me into a clean and private hospital room.  She says that's when she knew I'd have the personality I have.  She knew that I'd be full of pranks and funny stories. 

 

My mom is the ultimate details and gush-worthy confidant. She's always taken the time to sit and talk with me for however long it takes to get every detail and emotion and moral out of a story that we can.  My mom is a woman with a talent for stories.  She can take any regular-old event that happens every day to everyone and turn it into an enthralling and captivating story.  It's beautiful the way she looks at life. Once in a conversation with my grandma my mom said, "For me, the glass is always half full; and it's always a pretty glass."  I think that paints the picture of my mom perfectly.  She's gorgeous and talented and always there to tell anything and everything to.

Probably the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me is when I was living in China as a head teacher.  It was a very stressful and emotional (both good and bad) time for me with all of my new experiences and responsibilities I had there. I loved all of the Chinese people, but I was also feeling very alone. Knowing how much China meant to me and how much I needed them, my parents got visas and booked flights and hotels and came out to be with me for a week and a half.  Being able to have them there for support and also to be able to share with them something I thought that I'd never be able to fully express or explain to them, meant the world to me.  There had been days previous where I'd been so happy in China that the only thing I could think was "I wish my family could be here to see/taste/experience this."  And my parents made that wish come true for me.  Some of my favorite China memories are from when my parents were there with me.

Meeting Lloyd, the infamous and sweet Noodle Man

Teaching my terrified and screaming mother how to use a squatter. Haha.

Taking my parents through the town on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride-like motorcycle taxis.

The three of us visiting my "hometown"'s Buddha 

So, on this Second day of Christmas, I'm truly grateful for:

Two Loving Parents

&

One Promised King.  Savior of the World.