Nelson Nitwits: December 2025

Kid Quotes

1/15 - Amy dressed up like a princess and came to ask both Mom and Dad some questions. When we answered her she regally said, "when you speak to me, you must bow."

12/14 - Amy handed me her glass of water, looked at me and said, "You're kind of like a pocket".

9/14 - Hyrum announced he wants to be a baptist when he grows up. After asking more questions we found out he wants to baptize people!

6/14 - We were scrolling through the blog looking at years past and I pointed out that Hyrum was a baby when Amy was in my tummy (he was 2). Then we came to a picture taken shortly after she was born. She said, "you spit me out, huh."

3/14 - Amy calls the gas station the "pass gas station"!

11/13 - Amy was singing the Daniel Tiger (Mr. Roger's) song that goes "I'll be back when the day is new and I'll have more ideas for you" with "I'll be back when Scouts are done..."

10/13 - Amy looked at my Brigham Young University sweatshirt and said, "hey, it says Amy!"

10/13 - Hyrum was walking around funny in the morning and remarked, "You're pretty floppy when you first wake up."

9/9/13 - Hyrum said, "I feel yucky". I said "like what?" He said "like a garbage can". I meant what felt yucky!

7/31/13 - Jared told Amy to stop hitting and we don't hit people. Her response was, "But I'm good at it"!

6/13 - Amy sings "If you're happy and you know it, make a mess" after I just asked everyone to clean up!

5/13 - Amy was sad that she doesn't go to school. I asked her what she would do if she went to school and she said, "color pictures, eat snack, and play the violin".

5/13 - I ran in the middle school to check Leah out for a dentist appointment. I parked in front and left Hyrum and Amy in the locked car, telling Hyrum that if anyone bothered him to start honking the horn. I soon heard a lot of horn honking and figured he must be honking at any person he saw. I went outside to tell him to stop, and later found out that he thought I told him to honk if he got bored!

1/13 - I got a Kindle for Christmas that Amy loved to play. It didn't work, so I sent it back. She asked to play my Kindle and I explained it broke so I didn't have it anymore. That night she asked to play Daddy's I-pod. He said he was using it to read scriptures. She said, "I need to play it quick before it breaks!"

12/12 - Hyrum saw Christmas wreaths in my room waiting to be hung and asked why we had all these "Jolly Rogers". I asked him what he meant, and he said, "You know...deck the halls with Jolly Rogers, fa la la la la la la la la." No idea where he got that!

7/12 - After a difficult trip to the store, complete with Amy screaming, I talked with each child about what they had done that was a problem. Amy was listening and told me she was sorry. Then, as she listened more, she said, "Sorry store!"

1/12 - I was very tired one morning and needed to sleep in. Hyrum had come in my room and I told him he could wake me up when the clock said nine zero zero. I heard him staring at the clock and intensely whispering, "Please change, please change!"

12/11 - Hyrum was looking at things that have fallen on the side of the refrigerator and said, "Mom, Amy's sucksifier fell behind the fridge". (pacifier)

7/11 - We were playing "Disney's Scene It" and Kaitlyn was complaining that it was no fair because she hadn't seen a lot of the movies. She said, "I guess that's why they call it 'Seen It'".

4/11 - Hyrum brought me a bottle of pest spray and said, "this is for the evil bugs".

10/10 - I was driving to school and had this conversation with Hyrum:

Hyrum - "Go to sleep."

Me - "I can't go to sleep or the car would crash."

Hyrum - "Yeah and roll over. Go to sleep."

Me - "I can't or we would crash."

Hyrum - "I want to crash."

9/10 - I love childlike innocence which can lead to a better world. Today Leah asked, "What kind of human am I? Am I black, white, or oriental?" Goodbye racism!

8/10 - Hyrum says it's "Sunday" when it's time for bed. He is trying to say he doesn't want to go to bed because the sun is still out!

8/10 - Leah was very concerned that I wouldn't like the birthday gift she selected for me. I tried to reassure her that I would love whatever it was. She then said "I'm just not sure that 'genuine' and '$5' go together"!

7/10 - Hyrum vacuumed a bit and was pleased with himself. I asked him if he would like chores too (like Leah and Kaitlyn). He said, "No, chores are for girls!"

4/10 - We were reading in the scriptures about how when Christ was born, the sign in America was that when the sun went down it was still as light as day. Kaitlyn said, "That's just like at our house!" She said this because our kids go to bed at 7:30pm before the sun sets.

7/09 - In Primary a leader was asking the children what they could do to build strong families. Kaitlyn whispered to me, "That's easy...exercise."
4/09 - I was trying to teach Kaitlyn to sit reverently in Sacrament meeting today and out of the corner of my eye saw one of her friends behind us sitting quietly. I finally resorted to saying, "Kaitlyn, you are old enough to know how to sit still reverently. Look how nicely Sophie is sitting". She looked and then said, "She's got a parachute on her head". I looked and realized I had lost.
1/09 - While we had family visiting, Kaitlyn revealed a family "secret". We were eating hot dogs, and she started making hers hop around and the kids started calling it a "hop dog". Kaitlyn then remarked that if Jaycee started hopping we could call her "hop dog" instead of "stupid dog"!
10/08 - I was asking Leah to finish her chores and she was throwing a panic fit stating that it would take SOOO long (she really doesn't have that many chores). I told her to just start working on them and it wouldn't take long to which she replied, (in a very theatrical voice while flopping her body across an armchair), "I can't tell if I'll get them done...I can't tell the future!"
9/17/08 - Kaitlyn asked me today what cars are made of. I told her metal and plastic. She said, "So you could take them a part?" I told her I supposed so and she quickly exclaimed, "that's awesome!" I'm not sure I want to know what's cooking in her mind.
7/29/08 - Leah is frequently called "fireworks brain" at our house because she has a billion ideas constantly at work on any topic imaginable. Last night Leah was trying to change the way we were giving the Family Home Evening lesson with one of her ideas, and we were trying to get her to stop and let us finish the lesson. Whie working with her, Katilyn suddenly exclaimed, "Turn it off, Fireworks!" We all got a huge laugh out of that, including Leah.
5/21/08 - Kaitlyn told us with certainty at dinner tonight that "Heavenly Father made us, but Jesus made plastic. Mommy said". I have no idea what she's talking about but just thought people should know this fact.

Thursday, April 30, 2026

December 2025

December is always super busy, but this year was particularly busy.

We started off the month with our ward Christmas brunch. We performed two musical numbers as a family: a trumpet duet with the piano that Hyrum composed (and Genevieve could not play well since he wrote a crazy hard piano part), and we performed one of the new Christmas hymns with Amy soloing, Hyrum playing the piano, Jared and Genevieve harmonizing, and Amy playing a violin descant. The Young Women also put on a touching shadow musical number.

https://youtu.be/C_uWf0WfUBY

https://youtu.be/k2vIcFYneKs

https://youtu.be/QRbDV1nJDmM

https://youtu.be/k2vIcFYneKs

https://youtu.be/QRbDV1nJDmM

After the ward Christmas brunch, Jared and Hyrum climbed on the roof to hang Christmas lights. Genevieve has decided this will be a first and only time of doing this since it was fairly scary with Hyrum being held by a rope on the steep slope of the roof.

Amy made a cat house for her engineering class.

Amy had an orchestra concert.

https://youtu.be/tqIzmF5upBA

https://youtu.be/_oZLcP3aoyY

https://youtu.be/4faAI9pqoAI

https://youtu.be/WLBLZ6E8O0Y

Hyrum had a jazz band concert and had several solos.

Jazz band concert

He also had a band concert.

https://youtu.be/EpP5mBnhCA8

https://youtu.be/lnoY88Y9WEc

https://youtu.be/GdyDajfw2uM

https://youtu.be/1gXm2fBokLk

The youth had an activity to find the leaders (who were in disguise at the mall). Genevieve participated. She didn't have the best disguise this year and was found pretty quickly.

The next day, Genevieve flew to Utah for her niece's wedding (Hannah). She accompanied her niece Lydia in a wedding song for the reception for the first dance between the bride and groom. Genevieve got the music the day before her flight to Utah and had zero time to practice. So, she took the music to the airport with her and pretended to play on an imaginary piano to get in some practicing. A fellow passenger asked what she was doing, and when she explained she was playing for a wedding reception the next day and had never played the music, the passenger said, "You're stressing me out!"

Lydia mostly played by ear and used the following as her sheet music:

The following video was the rehearsal the day of. It was awesome that it came together!

https://youtu.be/k6Iq2EVtCiA

Leah, Kaitlyn and their roommate Anna also played string numbers for the reception.

https://youtu.be/k5PPe9-JFSc

https://youtu.be/sBn0fY31u6I

https://youtu.be/kGzTLKSH21Y

https://youtu.be/0AfV74nJe0o

https://youtu.be/lVaZpsn0NZY

While in Utah, Genevieve got to go with Leah and Lisa's family to the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square Christmas concert. That was a special treat!

Genevieve loved spending time with family for this quick whirlwind trip!

While Genevieve was in Utah, Amy performed with the Stake Choir Christmas concert. The mayor's wife was sweet to send her video of Amy playing. She did a beautiful job!

https://youtu.be/paDA7sDBzt8

Hyrum also took videos of the concert for the numbers in which Amy played.

https://youtu.be/93di7RAl_g0

https://youtu.be/tNNR_8bUH58

https://youtu.be/GroBc3O6luc

Amy had a violin Christmas recital.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Jzmoa_PPK9k?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/saNi3JSBUgE?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/x4KdULk2ZBY?feature=share

Leah and Kaitlyn came home for Christmas break. They waited at the airport for Jared to also fly in from a Texas business trip. They must have been bored waiting for him, because they greeted him upon arrival with the following sign:

If you can't see their sign, it says, "Welcome home from prison dad (we're your daughters).

Jared and Genevieve celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary by going to a dinner and then a candlelight Christmas concert featuring a string quartet. They were allowed to record the final number.

https://youtu.be/Bduozl79lME

When they got home they discovered that Leah, Kaitlyn, Hyrum and Amy had created a video re-enacting their love story. It was pretty funny and fairly accurate!

https://youtu.be/6MJ5IGpPAOg

We made Christmas candy trains.

Jared and Hyrum painted the garage.

Jared played Tomten on Christmas Eve for a family from Sweden.

We enjoyed opening Christmas pajamas on New Year's Eve before heading to bed.

The day after Christmas we headed to Pennsylvania and loved spending time with family there! We explored Pittsburgh. We also got together with a missionary serving in Pennsylvania from our stake. We loved all the time with family and as always had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's celebration!