Vienna’s Valentine

 Vienna wrote this poem for a friend for Valentine’s Day today:

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

I am white. 

She told us this at dinner and I busted up laughing. So weird and yet it makes some sort of sense. 

Dominic the donkey lighting a goose on fire

 Telestrations- Christmas song mashup. It started as Deck the Italian Christmas Donkey

An Email from Felicity's Teacher

 

August 25, 2021

 

Hello! 

 

I just wanted to say thank you for filling out the parent survey. I enjoyed reading about Felicity and also have enjoyed having her in our class. She has been getting along well with her classmates, loves to show me the artwork she has created, and participates in classroom discussions. I have enjoyed getting to know her personality as well.  

 

Thank you for being willing to support us by being our Art Docent. Once I know more, I will make sure to contact you!

 

 I look forward to this school year with Felicity and working on her goals, especially as you mentioned in reading. It's going to be a good year!

 

-Mrs. Rodriguez (1^st grade teacher)

Ike Hosts the Deacons for a Pizza Making Night

From Ike's Deacon leader:

 Pizza Night was a success!  (Below is a picture of the pizza making crew)

The Deacons had a lot of fun making AND eating homemade pizzas.  It's great to see these young men meet together and get along so well.

Thank you to all the Deacons for coming out and supporting the quorum.   

And a huge THANK YOU to the Nelson family for being great hosts tonight !!!

Brother Marsh

First international food and book club

Michelle Jenson and  I started a new book club tonight: an international food and book club! We recruited a total of 12 women to join our cause and the first meeting was great. With Michelle’s time in South Korea, we chose the book Please Look After Mom. Michelle showcased her Korea serving ware, handbook dresses, and her phenomenal cooking skills. We had beef and spicy pork bulgogi, several types of kimchi, sweet potato noodles, and a delicious dessert that was like a flat Korean churro.

I thought the book was well written if very sad and haunting. Doing a ton of background research on South Korea was actually my favorite parts as I learned so much I never knew. 

The ladies gave provided plenty of thoughtful discussion and I look forward to learning about many more countries, cultures, and their food.

Vienna Town

 On a long drive through Florida, Vienna entertained us with tales and songs of a were-whale-peanut and eyeballs with a hole in it. She shared some of the voices from Vienna Town (inside her brain.) She said, “we worked harder than monkeys in

a ha-cha-cha shop.” Oh our silly Vienna!

Felicity's Leprechaun House

From Felicity's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Zan:

Hello!  

What a fun day we had today making leprechaun homes!! Thank you SO MUCH to all of you who donated to make this happen. Our students were so excited and worked so collaboratively together! (Thank you also to whoever donated timers to our classroom!).

Felicity’s Daddy-daughter road trip to Utah

 

To make up for some missed Elf-ventures in 2020, Branden took Felicity on a 4-day road trip to see Grandma Nelson. They

were also able to visit with uncle Eric and aunt Kim, aunt Trina and aunt Wendi as well as attend the funeral of great uncle Neb. Felicity was in heaven to get Daddy all to herself for so long!

More Nora Praise

 Fri, Feb 26, 10:58 AM

Good Morning-

I send a lot of emails to parents whose kids are not doing what they are supposed to do. Today, I decided to change it up and send emails to some of the parents whose kids always do exactly what they are supposed to do. 

I want to let you know that I think Nora is a great kid. She is attentive, respectful, kind, and works really hard. She is also very willing to participate and engage in class discussions and does so very intelligently. You should be very proud of her.

Have a great weekend.

Logan Fry

Language Arts

Chilton Middle School

On Feb 26, 2021, at 10:57 PM, Amber Joy Nelson <amberjoynelson@gmail.com> wrote:

Thank you so much for your kind note Mr. Fry! It’s always wonderful as parents to hear when Nora is thriving. Thank you for your hard work and service as a teacher; Nora has shared with me some of your classroom discussion topics and I’m glad our kids have someone pointing them in the direction of common sense and reason!

Sat, Feb 27, 7:23 AM 

Thank you! I’m glad she is sharing those discussions with you!

Praise for Nora

 Dear Nelson Family, 

Nora was singled out as being a positive role model in class today by the substitute.  “Nora was a good example of taking her data and on task.”  Nora, you have demonstrated your integrity time and time again.  I appreciate you and love that you are in my Science class.  

Thank you so much, 

Mrs. Prater

Telestrations Gone Wild

In our family game of telestrations tonight, Felicity had to draw a “fried egg with face” which turned out like this:

Branden saw just her drawing and thought it was a picture of this:

We all laughed until our cheeks hurt! 

Vienna’s Baptism

 

Vienna was finally able to be baptized today. today.

And all of my side, including Logan and Abby were able to attend.

We zoom called with several of Branden’s siblings as well so they could join in.
Nora and Ike got to be witnesses as Branden baptized Vienna.

During her confirmation blessing, Branden mentioned Vienna’s compassion many times and how that could be used throughout her life to bless the lives of others. Our primary president Sister Kathleen Kubo told Vienna that she will be a leader in the church because of her special talents and spirit. I got teary-eyed at that.

After the baptism, the whole family came back and had lunch here. It was 103 degrees outside so the kids stayed inside most of the time, making it pretty loud and chaotic. Of course, being able to visit with our family is always a treat though!

I’m so proud of Vienna and her decision to be baptized! She is turning into a thoughtful, compassionate young lady.

Pretend Social Distancing

Vienna was playing Optometrist the other day and drew this sign for her front desk:

It’s a “stay 6 feet apart from others” sign. The kids are really taking all this social distancing to heart. Vienna requested that I help her make coronavirus masks for her American dolls a week ago and today she and Felicity made masks out of felt and string for their barbies. I hope this ends soon, before they just think everyone wearing masks is normal.

The Barefeet Rescue

Today I brought Vienna and Felicity with me to Walmart. When we got there, Felicity realized that she had forgotten to bring any shoes. I was annoyed and said, “we’ll, we’re not going home. You’ll have to ride in the basket.” She immediately started to cry out of embarrassment and frustration. I got a cart, put her in the back and she started to cry louder. I told she should stop crying because it would bring more attention to her and then more people would notice her barefeet. That did not entice her to calm down. We got in the store and she was still fussing. Vienna tried to tell her it was alright, that she could cover her feet with my purse, etc. Then sweet, empathetic Vienna realized on her own that Felicity was really crying because she had to sit in the basket. Vienna said, “do you want me to sit in the basket with you?” Felicity nodded and immediately stopped crying. Vienna climbed in and was a good sport the whole time, saying that riding in the basket was better because you didn’t have to walk. I know Vienna really doesn’t like to ride on the basket; it really embarrasses her since she is already 8 years old. Yet, in order to help her sister, she gave up her pride and joined Felicity. What am impressive display of love. She is teaching me all the time what it means to Christlike!

FHE gets real

Tonight for FHE I taught a lesson on repentance. I used an object lesson from the Friend. I poured salt on a plate, representing our souls. Then a sprinkled on some pepper, representing our sins.

After rubbing the back of a plastic spoon on a paper towel, I hovered it over the plate and The peppered jumped up to cling to the spoon, leaving just the salt behind. That represented Jesus and his ability to forgive and wash away sins. Then the kids all wanted a turn to pour the pepper and use the spoon. I let Vienna shake out some pepper, but Felicity was very upset that she didn’t get to do the pepper part. I told her it to grab the pepper because the lid was loose. In an effort to show us all what sin looks like, she disobeyed and yanked the pepper container away from her sister. She ran off with it to the kitchen where the loose lid did fly off and Felicity accidentally dumped out the entire container of pepper. That resulted in wailing sobs and angry yells from her siblings. We then ended our lesson in a bit of a foul mood with a reminder that we should obey our parents. Felicity gave us a very real life demonstration of the need for repentance!

Felicity on Losing Toys

Felicity and Vienna couldn’t find their tablets earlier one Saturday morning. As I was passing by them,  I heard Felicity tell Vienna, “Sometimes Heavenly Father hides our toys while we’re sleeping.” 
Vienna asked skeptically, “who told you that?”
Felicity said confidently,”No one. I just believe that.”

Swearing and My Grandparents

Grammy dropped something in the kitchen and said “dang it!” But not dang it. Uncle Scott was there and said his mouth dropped open. "Oh sorry,
" Grammy said.

Uncle Layne remembers Grammy getting really upset about having to clean out the kids’ fish bowl for the umpteenth time. She told the boys it smelled like horse s-. Again mouths dropped open. 

Grammy grew up on a farm and heard her father use all sorts of “barnyard” language. She said that just they way they talked!


Once Grammy was driving Scott and Brent and their friend home from a ski trip and they were listening to a James Taylor cassette tape. Uncle Scott says the next day Grandpa pulled them into his office and said, “do you know what the worst swear word is our language?” Scott and Brent didn’t want to answer any that. Grandpa said, “ its m- f-.” The boys were shocked that he actually said those words. He told them Grammy had heard those words in their music and he had cut the tape and spliced out the offending phrase. “But that’s not our tape! It’s our friend’s!” Grandpa replied,”too bad. It shouldn’t have been in there anyway.”

Vienna's tough Soccer Day

An email from Vienna's coach after a tough soccer game for her.

Vienna played great today. I know she’s used to scoring a lot of goals, but she played against the opponent’s tougher group today and probably prevented them from scoring 5-6 more goals. I don’t think we tie today if not for her defense against those pretty tough/big girls. She played great!

Ben

Vienna in the California Caves

We recently toured the California Caverns with all its beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. The guide told us about one part of the cavern that used to be popular for weddings. Traditionally the bride and groom would smash a bottle of wine or champagne on one of the rock formations. Later in the caves Vienna told me about her ponderings: "I don’t want to get married in this caves for two reasons: 1) I wouldn’t be together forever with my family in heaven 2) it’s dark and scary down here and 3) it’s a waste of wine!"

Vienna's 6th Birthday Slideshow