Tagged! Natalie's ABC's

Cass tagged me and it looked like fun. ;)

A - ADVOCATE FOR: Adoption, Kids, Family love

B - BEST FEATURE: My eyes

C - COULD DO WITHOUT: Winter cold/snow

D - DREAMS & DESIRES: To own and run a Bed and Breakfast with Jed when we're retired.

E - ESSENTIAL ITEMS: Family time, Friends, Dairy products, body pillow.

F - FAVORITE PAST TIME: Reading, Creating art, playing video games

G - GOOD AT: Showy talents. Not good at essential stuff.

H - HAVE NEVER TRIED: Skiing.

I - IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS: I'd divide it up and use some, save some, give some away.

J - JUNKIE FOR: Time with Jed.

K - KINDRED SPIRIT: Linda Dobbins

L - LITTLE KNOWN FACT: What don't people know about me? I'm not mysterious at all.

M - MEMORABLE MOMENT: Standing in the Celestial Room with Jed, family members old and new and friends old and new the night before my wedding. It was like dying painlessly and going to Heaven.

N - NEVER AGAIN WILL I: Make the mistakes I made in High School and College. There are too many new mistakes to try.

O - OCCASIONAL INDULGENCE: My indulgences are never occasional, but habitual.

P - PROFESSION: Maid, nanny, hairdresser, teacher, choir director, entertainer, chef, life guard, chauffeur, coach, spiritual advisor, fashion consultant, art beta, writer, photographer, artist, blogger, and Paladin. Which is another way of saying Mommy.

Q - QUOTE: A candle loses nothing of its light by lighting another candle.

R - REASON TO SMILE: I have every important thing I ever wanted.

S - SORRY ABOUT: Being unreliable.

T - TAG SOME FRIENDS: Far, Tory, Allie

U - UNINTERESTED IN: Wrestling. Car racing. Politics, until recently.

V - VERY SCARED OF: Fire, Live electricity, hot stuff

W - WORST HABIT: Leaving my contacts in for days.

X - X MARKS MY IDEAL VACATION SPOT: Hawaii with Jed

Y - YUMMIEST DESSERT: Cheesecake. Tres Leches Cheesecake.

Z - ZODIAC SIGN: Aquarius

Fantastic Family Weekend!

We just came back from Idaho! It was so awesome to see everyone; siblings, in-laws, nieces, nephews and parents. In the picture to the left is (l-r) Eric and Michelle Alberdi, Nan and Jed Kelsey, Mom and Dad Kelsey, Natalie Kelsey, Beau and Season Kelsey, and Cassondra and Jake Kelsey and their girls. :D We didn't get a photo with Autumn and Cory Rodriguez and Jen Kelsey and James Sommers, unfortunately, but hopefully next time we'll get one. (Autumn was a very cute pregnant gal! Looking forward to photos in November, Autumn!) Here's a picture of all the little cousins: This is Aidan Kelsey, Stockton Alberdi, Michael Kelsey, Loren Kelsey, Abby Kelsey, Brielle Kelsey, Allena Kelsey, and Brooklyn Kelsey. They all had tons of fun, especially the girls. They played non-stop, mostly dress-up, and we had a big party for Abigail's birthday. Season's parents loaned us their pony for all the kids (and Cassondra!) to ride.

We did some majorly fun stuff while we were out there, too. Some of our activities included shooting (yes, Darth Mommy with an assault rifle is a VERY scary thing.) , flying, canoeing,
and going to the dedication of the new Twin Falls Idaho Temple.

That was a simply amazing experience. The choir was heavenly and it was so comforting being in the temple with so many family members. We even got to see President Monson! He looked so healthy and happy. As he was leaving, we saw him speaking in Samoan to a Samoan family outside the temple. I was able to snap a few pictures of him but nothing without other people in the shot. It is so amazing to have a living prophet on the earth in these confusing and troubling times. He really gives wonderful direction and peace to the Church and us individually.

Here are some more fun family photos:

Abby and Grandma Kay with baby Faith. Faith gets called Faith by her father and Ella by her mother, which leaves the rest of us confused but gives the baby a ton of nicknames to choose from. I decided to call her Baby Faith Ellabellabeans. It made her laugh.

Here's Season, Michelle, Cassondra, me, and Natalie. Natalie better get married soon so we don't keep having the same name. ;) Right now we keep it straight by me being Nan and her being Nat.
Three men and a grumpy lady. Here's the handsome Kelsey Brothers, Jed Jake and Beau. And of course Brielle, who was upset to be leaving (who can blame her?! We were all sad to leave.) Lets be honest, though. I did get the best looking brother. And the one with the most hair.


Poster children for the NRA. Yes, all three of them (Austen, Jed and Nat) are aiming for the same clay pigeon. I have to say, I was impressed with everyone's aim. No one but the pigeons were blown to bits. Aidan's aim could use some work. He also needs more muscles before he can hold the rifle on his own.



This is some weird version of the Idaho Tailless Squirrel. At least, Jed said it was a squirrel. I think it's an alien. Where's the rifles when you need them?!
Goofy girls Abigail, Allena, and Brielle. What lovely little princesses! :D And so well behaved.

After we left our family (reluctantly) and arrived safely in Massachusetts (also reluctantly) I went through with my plan to get my hair cut to donate to Locks of Love. Following the good example of my beautiful daughter and sister-in-law Cassondra, I got 12 inches cut yesterday. And for fun, put in some blonde streaks as well. What do you think?



Hope you enjoyed our photo blog from our trip! If you think that was a lot of pictures....let me just tell you, I nearly filled a 4 gig memory card. ;) Betcha just can't wait til the Christmas one, huh?

Late Happy Anniversary. :)

8 great years!

Back from Camp!

I can't believe camp is already over! This year was, as my girls would say, "Intense!" We had rain nearly every day, culminating in a spectacular storm on Thursday that spawned a tornado only ten miles away from us. I was a little extraneous as the camp Waterfront Director as we only had good enough weather for water activities early in the morning and on Friday. Luckily for us, Friday was glorious and sunny and 85F. Our intrepid Polar Bear Swimmers got up every morning at 6am to swim and kayak and enjoy the soft misty morning. Polar Bear Swim is my favorite because we don't really get that many girls, and we can see the loons and herons without scaring them off. We finish with hot chocolate, which this year was pink because my best friend brought me back some Princess Aurora hot chocolate from Disney World.



If you look carefully in the photo, you can see the babies and one parent of the loon family we watched out on the lake. Loons are fascinating and can dive for long periods of time. Often the babies would disappear underwater, and come up again yards and yards away. It was quite amazing. Their call is beautiful and haunting, and gave a lovely soundtrack to the glorious sunsets Tuesday and Friday nights. The lake has quite a lovely ecosystem, and many unfamiliar plants and bugs. I really like water lilies and the lotus flowers that floated on the lake were particularly lovely.

I want to share with you my greatest accomplishment this week (maybe of the whole year!) It will astonish anyone who knows me well....I started and maintained a campfire! I actually lit 8 or ten regular size matches and got a little fire started. It didn't go very well at first because all our kindling was wet and very difficult to light. I did get help from some of the priesthood brethren that were there and they got it going well, then I was able to maintain it. It was a small fire and it took a lot of care to keep it going in the rain, but I was pretty excited that I was able to take care of it without having a panic attack. ;)

My second proud accomplishment was today at our church Linger Longer. We had a chili cookoff in honor of Pioneer Day, with a blind judging panel (meaning, they didn't know whose chili was whose). I had worried mine wouldn't be that great since I didn't get it into the crockpot until 1am. I guess the addition of a pound of cheese pleased the judges, because I got first place! :D I was pretty excited. All the chili was great and we had some wonderful cornbread and desserts.

In all it's been a wonderful July. It looks like my mom and Jed survived the kids and each other relatively unscathed. We had Jed's company picnic yesterday and a mostly restful day today. We gave Mom her first Webkinz (a little black bear) as a thank you for her willingness to have the kids all week and we get to keep her for one more week, until August 5th. Then it's a little rest and recovery and we're on to Idaho! :D We're beside ourselves with excitement to see the cousins and our siblings and in-laws. Love you all and hope your summer is going as well!

Hello, all!

Better late than never.

Of course, for a family that's so into computers, it must come as a surprise that we haven't tried our hand at blogging. After all blogging seems to be de rigueur, especially for people that have settled so far from the rest of their family. So here we are, bringing you news and photos from the "other" coast .


A little recap; Jed and I married in 2000 and had Abby in 2001, Mike in 2002, and Aidan in 2003. Since Autumn of 2003 we've been in New England; land of winter, maple syrup and Red Sox Nation. Jed works in the Aerospace industry as an engineer, I get to be at home with the kids doing art and hair.


Some big stuff is going on with us this year! Here are some recent pictures.

Abby lost 14" of beautiful blonde hair when she donated to Locks of Love. More recently, she's lost 5 teeth!

Michael has been playing basketball and soccer. Finally he's off the computer and doing something active!

Mommy got one of her art pieces published in a beautiful art book this year! She's also growing out her hair to follow her daughter's good example.

Aidan was finally potty trained! *faint* This led to good things like his first camping trip and being registered for kindergarten in the fall.