Picture for Nana!

Here is our family picture with our stockings per Nana's wishes. Nana made both Tanner's and Clark's, while mine was made by my Grandma Carter 26 years ago.

A Very MERRY Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas morning at the Birdhouse. We had a great time opening presents, and Clark just had a blast opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa Nielson as well as my parents and us. His favorite gift was definitely the race car track from Santa. Tanner and I were surprised at the end of present opening by a gift labeled to us from Mom, Dad, Tricia, Dan, Melanie, and Spencer. Tricia and Mel had told me a gift would be waiting for us at my parents house that was their 'thank you' for all the babysitting I have done for them. My parents had Tanner and I for Christmas this year, so they all decided to get us one big gift together. It was a Wii!!! We couldn't believe it, but we were so excited! I don't normally like big surprises on Christmas because it usually means I am getting something like a Michael Jackson poster, but this was a GREAT surprise. Thank you family!

A Very MERRY Christmas Eve

This year we spent Christmas Eve at The Birdhouse. It was kind of nice because it was just us and my parents and Bonna. We are normally busy little bees getting dinner ready all day, but since it was just us we didn't feel hampered by any kind of schedule. I made the rolls and Bonna helped me with the apple pie too. My mom made the rest, and it was YUMMY! We had fun afterwards playing games and having our little Christmas Eve spiritual thought as well.

We also thought it was a good time to announce that we have FINALLY decided on a name for the next little guy...which will be Andrew Douglas Nielson. My dad was a little happy about that. ;-)

Clark got his Christmas PJs to wear...all that was left was for Santa to come! look at those abs of steel!

Gingerbread House

For Family Home Evening tonight, we decided to make a gingerbread house. Clark loved doing it and was actually very creative in his placement of candy around the house. Daddy had to stop mommy from trying to 'fix' everything so that it looked symmetrical. Clark's system was basically eat two, place one on the house. At least the makers of gingerbread houses know that so there was plenty to go around.

Swing Those Hips

Some of you may or may not know this about my husband, but in high school, he was on "The Dance Team". I was pretty shocked when I first found out, but have since seen some actual footage and decided that his masculinity is not in jeopardy. For better or for worse, we usually play 'our kind' of music around Clark...he definitely has some favorites and he definitely likes to swing his hips and even tries to make his own music every once in a while. I don't think he will have any problem making "The Dance Team" in high school do you?

2 AND 30

This is my cute boy at 2 years old. We went for his checkup and he is actually now ON the charts. He is still in the 90s for weight, but has dropped to the high 70s for his height. His belly is getting flatter and Tanner and I are a little bit sad that the baby is disappearing, but we think the little boy that is emerging is pretty darn cute.

This is me at 30 weeks pregnant. Only 10 weeks to go! This is probably one of the last pictures I am willing to post of me pregnant. This is about the time when people stop telling me how cute I look pregnant, and start saying things like "You look SO ready to have that baby"...which is fine, I get it, but just don't expect me to do things (i.e. post pictures of me acne ridden and swollen) that will actually elicit that kind of response. I can honestly say I love being pregnant...for about 10 weeks of it.

Those 10 weeks have now passed.

Connecticut In Review

Melanie and I got to spend the last day together before Clark and I flew out Tuesday night. We went to the mall to shop and the kids had fun playing on the toys in the food court.
Melanie and I talked about her trip and I told her all the good, bad, and ugly stuff from our end. There were a few things I learned from this experience that I expected and some that were unexpected:

Expected

1) Boys are fun...nuff said.

2) TV is a lifesaver...or at least a sanity saver.

3) I enjoy warmer climates.

4) I love helping out my sisters in their time of need, but I also love going home at the end of it too.

Unexpected

1) I will not have a dog in my house until my children are at least in middle school and can take care of it themselves. They are lovely animals, but they are like children, and children are enough for me for now.

2) I keep other people's houses much cleaner than my own, even when I know they won't be coming home for days. What's up with that? I am sure my husband is wondering the same thing. New goal for the new year!

3) It takes an hour to get three kids dressed in snow clothes to go out and play for 30 minutes. Worth it? Yes. Tiring? Yes.

4) You can be in earnest prayer and swear at the same time, but only in an emergency.

Reunions and Goodbyes

Melanie came home Monday night, and I was pretty sure that EVERYONE was excited...everyone except Elliot that is. Elliot had been the chill man all week long, but when she walked in that door, he was clearly not happy with her. For a two year old, he sure knew how to give the cold shoulder. I thought it was funny, but understandably for the mom, it was not. She spent the rest of the night trying to make it up to him, and by the end of the night, he decided to forgive her. If only we could all forgive each other that fast!

I was very happy for Melanie's return for a number of reasons, but mostly to be off of dog duty. Clark was also starting to get to be quite a handful, and the boys had nicknamed him Swiper from Dora since he was always stealing toys from Elliot. I think he was ready to have HIS mom all to himself again. Clark also had to go through pacie detox while we were there because I had only brought one with me, and Toby stole it one night and chewed it into two pieces. I rescued it so I could talk to Clark about it and give the pacie an official send off. I explained while holding a piece of it in each hand that the pacie was "broken" and that we needed to throw it in the trash and say goodbye. Clark was very solemn and I took him over to the trash and I threw one piece away and waited for him to throw the other hard plastic part away when he turned and said "NO!". I let him go back and sit down and he solemnly held and looked at his nonfunctioning pacie for another 5 minutes before he finally got up on his own and walked toward the door where the trash was and said "Mama, door!" I opened the door, and he threw the pacie into the trash and said "Bye Bye Pacie". It was such a cute moment, and I was just hoping he would be okay when he went to go to bed that night. When I put him in bed, he looked at me and said "Pacie!" I said "No, remember it broke, and you threw it in the trash and said Bye bye". He got a big smile across his face, giggled, and went to bed. What a shocker! We had to go through this routine at nap and bedtime for the next couple of days, but he never really cried about it again. So the pacie is gone and guess who I have to thank for it? Toby the dog!

Church and Truisms

I was secretly hoping for a huge storm to hit Connecticut on Saturday night so that I would be spared from going to church, but it was not to be. It actually ended up being quite a pleasant experience. I made sure that Clark and Elliot sat on either side of me with their own toys and their own snacks. I even kind of kept up a barrier (using one of the coats) so they couldn't really see what the other one was doing and get mad that the other had a toy that surely belonged to them. Truman was a very good boy as well, and I didn't have to leave sacrament meeting once!

Throughout the week, Tru had been having a difficult time and was missing his mom and dad quite a lot. After the first couple of days of this, I decided to take a different approach than "Tru, I'm sorry you miss your mom and dad, and they will come home, but it is going to be a long time". I can't believe that didn't work! ;-) Instead, I finally asked him if he thought it would be good to pray to Heavenly Father to help him not to cry. He thought that was a great idea, and every night, he would pray that he wouldn't cry. And he didn't the rest of the time I was there. He is such a faithful little boy! The other thing I loved about Truman is that after dinner every night, he would say "This is the yummiest dinner I have ever had!" I felt quite chuffed about this until after Melanie came home and we were eating pizza at the mall food court and Truman said "This is the yummiest dinner I have ever had!"

Snow Day!

Since it snowed most of Friday, we woke up on Saturday to a blanket of snow outside. The kids eyes were really starting to glaze over from all the tv watching, so I got them all in their snow gear and we went outside and played in the snow. They were all so cute, and Clark had an especially good time since he had never played in the snow before (that he would remember anyway). Even now after being home a few weeks, he will look out the window and say "It's snowing!"...yeah right, keep dreaming son, you live in Florida.

I even got a cute picture of Tru and Elliot that Mel used for her Christmas card. By the end of the day, the snow had melted because I think it got up to a balmy 40 degrees in the afternoon, but we had fun while it lasted!

Play Date and Pumping the Breaks

Melanie has very nice friends. Not only did one of her friends pick up AND drop off Tru on the days he had school, but we were also invited by Mel's friend Kayla to come over to play and have lunch. It was a VERY nice break for me, although I ended up spending a lot of the time rotating between Clark and Elliot who decided they each needed to poop 3 times while we were there. There was a forecast for snow in the late afternoon and Melanie and I had even discussed about how I should leave and get home as soon as I could if it started to snow because it made me very nervous to drive in the snow in a car that was not mine and with two children who are not mine. It started to snow while I was there, but it didn't look like a lot. All of the sudden I stood up, and saw that the snow was sticking to the ground and I started to panic slightly. We rounded up the kids and loaded them into the car. It took me an hour to get home because everyone was being so careful on the roads...which is a nice change...at least CT people know how to drive in the snow. I was .2 miles away from the house, when I came down the last small little hill and I put on the brakes...wait the car is still moving...there is a car up ahead that is stopped to turn right....lean on the brakes harder....still sliding toward car in front...cue the coronary. Luckily, the kids were all asleep in the car so they didn't hear the quiet expletive the squeaked out as I was panicking. All of the sudden I had the thought to pump the brakes (what a novel idea!), but it is actually a scary thing to do when you are sliding toward another car because if you take your foot off the brake you slide faster toward your doom. But I did it anyway, and it worked, and I stopped! Phew...that was a close one. So then, I just had to worry about how I was going to pry my fingers off the steering wheel once we got home.

Zoned Out

This was how we passed a lot of time during the week. The favorites were Dora The Explorer and Little Bear. Thankfully, Melanie had recorded 25 hours of these shows to watch...and I think we watched them all....at least twice.

It was SO COLD outside, and just the thought of getting all the kids dressed warmly and loading them in the car made me tired...remember, I am 7 months pregnant. Meanwhile, I was doing more discipling of Toby the dog than the kids. He likes to chew stuff up...i.e. my slippers, Clark's pacie, and any other toy he could discreetly destroy. We developed a love/hate relationship. I couldn't stand having to constantly monitor his activities during the day, but I enjoyed his company at night once the kids had all gone to sleep and he would lay next to me on the couch.

Advent Bribery

So, one of the ways Mel and I figured we could keep the kids happy while not overtly bribing them was by putting special treats or activities in the advent calendar every day. I woke up on Tuesday and was in the mood for some donuts, and since Melanie was so kind to point out exactly where the Dunkin Donuts was by her house, that was the advent treat for the day. First, we took Tru to his swimming lesson...I guess only in Connecticut is it normal to have swimming lessons when it's 20 degrees outside, but at least it was indoors! The kids were great while we waited for Tru, so on the way home, we stopped off and got our donuts. As you can see, they could barely contain themselves to take a picture before diving in.

Babysitting in CT

I offered to come up to Connecticut to babysit Mel and Spencer's kids (and their dog) while they flew out to San Diego to find themselves a new place to live. We flew in this morning and Spencer and Melanie flew out later on . I really wanted to make a good impression on Truby and remind him how much he loves me! So, we made a big gingerbread house together tonight, but it backfired on me. At one point I could tell he was getting sad. I asked him what was wrong and he said "I miss my mommy". I realized that he is used to doing fun stuff like this with his mom, and there was no way I was going to be able to substitute for that. But, we made the best of it and still had fun. Truby and I did the finishing touches while Clark and Elliot graciously offered to lick the frosting off the beaters.

Clark and Elliot sized each other up pretty quickly, and I realized I was going to be doing a lot of refereeing between these two this week. I loved Toby the dog...on the first day.

O Christmas Tree

After celebrating Clark's birthday, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and I helped my mom decorate their Christmas tree. I started to get really sad thinking about how I was going to leave to go to Connecticut on Monday morning and we wouldn't have our own tree up and decorated. I didn't want to leave without having my house decorated, because I certainly didn't want to come home on December 11 to a house had no Christmas feel to it. I asked Tanner if we could pick up a tree on our way home Saturday night. We didn't leave until late, and I think we got to Wal-Mart at 10pm to pick out our tree. We actually found a good one, and I was even more excited to decorate it because my mom loaned us her straw ornaments. We spent Sunday afternoon decorating, and I was so happy I got to enjoy the tree if just for one day before I left!!!

Clark's Birthday: Part 3 of 3

Now for the final installment of Clark's Birthday! We spent the weekend up at the birdhouse with Nana, Papa, and Bonna. Tanner, my Dad, and I spent a good hour or so putting together Clark's BIG birthday gift....

He was pretty excited, until he realized that his feet don't reach the pedals all the way, and while Papa's goes all by itself, his requires physical labor. While he waits for his legs to grow longer, he is content to sit on it and pretend to ride it around, and he loves to park it in front of the tv while watching Elmo.

It sure is fun being TWO!