Airplane Ride

My dad has always loved airplanes. He used to fly them, and at one time wanted to become a pilot, but after his mission, he decided on a different career that required lots of time in an airplane, but as the passenger instead of the pilot.

He also never had any boys, but that didn't stop him from passing on his love for boyish things. When my sisters and I were little, as part of our going to bed routine, the last thing we always wanted was for dad to give us an airplane ride into our beds. There was a specific order and routine that HAD to be followed in order to be able to take off, and while we would try to be very serious during the first part, we usually would start laughing and my dad would start over. I think he knew that sometimes we would laugh just so we would HAVE to start over and the fun could last just that little bit longer. I have tried to remember how it all goes so that I could either teach Tanner or do it with the kids, but have never been able to remember it quite right (do you twist the nose after you say CONTACT? or after you say CLEAR THE PROP?). When we were in Charlotte, I asked my dad if he would give Clark 'the proper' airplane ride. I of course had to film it, and it was great. My dad laughed so hard because Clark actually flapped his wings after take off, and my dad said that no one had ever done that before. While it is a small and simple tradition, it is one that I have always particularly cherished, and I just love that Papa now has boys to do it with too!!!

Clark's 3rd Birthday!

Clark's birthday was the day after Thanksgiving this year, so we actually got to two 3 days of celebrating in a row with Brianna's birthday on the 26th, Thanksgiving, and then Clark's. I had been practicing with Clark leading up to his birthday that when people ask him how old he is, he would soon be able to say 3 instead of 2. It took him a little while to get used to the idea, but I think he is good now. Tanner and I took off at one point to go pick up cupcakes for Clark since they are his favorite treats at the moment. When we got to the grocery store, I was hoping they would have cupcakes with some kind of decoration on them, but the best thing there was actually an Oreo cupcake cake, which was pretty awesome, but no decoration. We asked at the bakery if they had any Cars decoration that they could do, and they felt very bad because they had just sent their cake decorator home for the day. I mean, how many people was cakes decorated the day after Thanksgiving right? So, instead they gave us the Lightening McQueen car and the other fun fixings that the cake decorator would use and said we could just have them for free if we were fine to do the decorating ourselves. We thought it was great! We went home and I decorated the cupcake cake, and Clark loved it. Clark got a rocket ship and a bowling set from Tanner and I, a Cars puzzle, winter accessories including Lightening McQueen rain boots from Grammy and Grandpa, a John Deere tractor from Nana and Papa, and games from the Seguines. In fact, of all the awesome gifts he received, I think he liked the free Lightening McQueen car that was on the cake the best. Classic. I can't believe my little boy is 3. He still has his 'moments' and his 'days', but he is so fun, energetic, and yet so caring. My favorite thing he does right now is whenever he hears a loud noise (i.e. me banging pans around in the kitchen getting ready for dinner), Clark yells to me "MOM, ARE YOU OKAY?" I love my big boy! Happy Birthday Clark!

Turkey Day

I woke up on Thanksgiving kind of in my pre-school mode. It was Thursday after all, so I gathered all the kids up on the third floor and they each designed their own head of feathers. They were all so cute, and I made ones for Bella, Clark, and Andrew as well. Jonah insisted he use the one he made in school which was also very cute. Dinner was awesome...and Dan really is The Man in the kitchen...along with my Mom doing the rolls (even though I was sad I wasn't assigned to them this year) and Tricia with all of the fixings. Our family does a tradition where we go around the table and tell our BAG's for the year (Blessing, Accomplishment, and a Goal for the next year). Here was mine:

Blessing: Living so close to family in Florida and having really good friends here in the D.C. area.

Accomplishment: Staying relatively sane through the craziness that was Andrew's birth, Tanner's subsequent back surgery two weeks later, and moving back to Virginia 3 weeks after that.

Goal: Be more patient and do more fun things with my kids!

My two little turkeys

Pre-Turkey Fun...Or Not

For Thanksgiving this year, we decided to head down to Charlotte, NC, to my sister Tricia's house. Even though I had just been down there visiting with "the sisters", I was excited to head back there with my family. We headed out Tuesday night after Tanner got off of work, and we encountered some holiday traffic that put us back about an hour, but all in all it was a good trip down with the boys. We woke up Wednesday and we went and played tennis together...and of course the Nielson family DOMINATED! :-) However, Clark was pretty cranky while playing with his cousins. When he woke up from his nap that afternoon, he was BURNING hot. We took his temperature and it was 103 degrees. Yikers. So since it was Thanksgiving Eve, we decided not to chance things getting worse rather than possibly taking him to the ER on Thanksgiving to join the others who would be there with burns from deep frying their turkey's to just regular severed fingers from electric knives.
So...off we went. Tanner actually got to join me with Clark for his first kid trip to Urgent Care. It was pretty amusing for me as Tanner filled out the paperwork...wrong...and had to go up and ask for another page (he filled out the paperwork for himself rather than for Clark). He also thought we were there a REALLY long time. I think the quote was "What is taking so long?" While I was thinking it wasn't so bad. I've had worse that's for sure. But frankly, I just decided that instead of making too much fun of Tanner's first Urgent Care experience, I was just glad to have him there as company, but that doesn't stop me from blogging about it afterwards!!!
Anyway, it turns out, Clark had a double ear infection. Sweet. Antiobiotics for him, and we were home in under two hours. That evening I didn't feel that great, just achy, but that didn't stop me from staying up until all hours playing games with the fam. The next day I trudged through Thanksgiving, and then Friday was pretty bad even though it was Clark's birthday and I kinda had to suck it up. My throat was killing me, and I decided after hardly sleeping for 2 nights to go back to Urgent Care first thing on Saturday. The nurse AND the doctor both literally GASPED when they looked in my throat. I got a strep test done, but it came back negative. The doctor decided it was either a false negative or I had tonsilitis or something so she put me on a Z-pack. It seemed to help me a lot the first day, but in the end, I think it was something viral that I got from Andrew because did I mention that I was at the doctor with HIM on the very Tuesday that we left for Charlotte? They didn't put him on anything, but the doctor had said his throat was pretty nasty looking. So anyway...it seems like we have had sickness after sickness after sickness this season, but I am hopeful December will be good to us since we should be immune to everything by now!!! We still had a blast at Tricia's despite it all...more on that next.

Marshmallow Night

We are enjoying our 'for real' wood fireplace, and we decided one night we needed to roast some marshmallows from the comfort of our very own living room. Clark was very excited until he saw that the outside of the marshmallows turn brown and kinda crunchy. He wasn't a huge fan, until we crammed one down his throat and then he converted! After the three of us were full of marshmallows, we were getting Clark ready for bed, and didn't notice sly little Andrew. All of the sudden, I looked over at him standing next to the couch, and his cheeks were HUGE and some white dribble was coming out of his mouth. He had found the marshmallow bag on the couch and helped himself. It will suffice to say that he IS a fan.

Tuckered Clark: Part 2

So...remember this?

Well, this is again what happens when Clark doesn't get his afternoon nap in.  

We rallied him again for dinner, but then he just pushed it out in front of him and did this instead.

Autumn in Virginia

It has been wonderful living in Virginia this year and seeing all of the beautiful seasonal changes take place.  While Florida will always have a special place in my heart, I think I prefer living where there are seasons.  It makes me feel like things are changing around me so it helps me not get stuck into a same old routine day after day after day.  I love that I get to look out my front window and see the adorable white church across the street and look out my back window and see the beautiful color changes in the forest behind our house.  I love that we are visited by a family of deer in our yard frequently, and I love that our neighbors next door own two horses that are in a fenced pasture right next to our house.  I love that I feel like I live out in the country and then can get on the metro down the street or drive in my car and be in downtown DC in 25 minutes.  It is the best of both worlds.  My friend Allison took pictures of my boys a few weeks ago when the leaves were at their peak, and I just love them.  With the weather and wind from this last week, the last of the leaves are falling off the trees and the highs are not getting above the 30s this week.  Winter feels right around the corner, if not already here.  As I was picking Clark up at our friend's house today, it started to snow...for about 30 minutes, and then it was gone.  Change is in the air.  

Happy Halloween!

My friend Suzy invited us to go trick-or-treating in their neighborhood just up the street from us, which we decided would be great since we live on a main road.  We called our friends the Swintons and they met us there with their two cute boys.  Thatcher and Clark are friends and they are quintessential boys together.  They run around together, they push each other, they fight over toys, and when it's all over, they ask when they can play together again.  Thatcher's mom Jenna and I started a little preschool with just the two boys and we switch off teaching them every other week...and it's great.  They were so cute going around trick-or-treating together while the other little pumpkins, Andrew and Sterling, kicked it in their strollers.  The neighborhood we were in is really nice, and the yards are HUGE and a lot of the houses are up on hills, so those boys had to WORK for their candy.  Sometimes our little lightening McQueen would stall out, and I would have to go tow him up the rest of the way.  They were exhausted by the end of the night...which was perfect since he went to bed right when we got home, and then Tanner and I raided his candy.  It was a really fun night!

Mickey and Lightening waiting patiently for someone to answer the door

Running down the hills was fun!

 Two little pumpkins along for the ride

Halloween Eve!

So, we forgot to carve our pumpkins for FHE at the beginning of the week, but we hurried and got them carved the night before Halloween.  It was also our first night having a real live wood burning fire in our fireplace.  I know I felt like we were living in olden times turning off our central heat and watching Tanner head out the door to the forest in our backyard with ax in hand.  Clark just had to get in on this action.

   While Tanner and Clark created the inferno...Andrew was trying out some of his new skills he has recently acquired.  

He eventually stood up on that chair and started rocking back and forth while stabilizing himself with his hands on the wall.   Are all boys this fearless?  Or am I just particularly blessed in that area?

Eventually we got around to carving our two pumpkins.  I let Clark peruse online through some options of faces for me to copy, and he chose the happy face.  He thought it turned out pretty cute, and he decided that Daddy's mean face was pretty scary!

Truck or Trunk?

So I published the last post titled Truck-Or-Treat instead of Trunk-Or-Treat...and not only did I mess up on the title...I also messed up the spelling every time I used it in the blog for a total of three times. In my defense, it is 12:30am...so I guess it's time for bed.

Trunk-Or-Treat!

Saturday was our ward's Trunk-Or-Treat party, and we spent half the day trying to decide if we were going to venture out since it was cold and rainy ALL day. In the end, we decided to give it a go, and got the kids dressed in their costumes and headed to the church. There was a huge turnout, and Clark went kind of nutso when we first got there, but after a quick time out, he mellowed. I played with him and his friend Preston and while we were hitting a balloon back and forth to each other, Andrew was making friends with the other pumpkins.

I thought they all looked ADORABLE.

I originally wasn't sure if Andrew was going to carry on the tradition of being a pumpkin for the first Halloween because Clark was so big for his age, I didn't think the costume would fit Andrew, but it did! It actually brought back a lot of memories, and I kept calling Andrew, Clark, all night long even though they don't look that much alike to me.
Here is Clark in 2006 (11 months old):Here is Andrew in 2008 (9 months old):

Meanwhile, after about 20 minutes, Clark went from this:

To this:

Hmmm...It must be time for ice cream and candy!! First Tanner tried to take him through "Spook Ally," but Clark came out the entrance crying since the Young Men were put in charge of that activity and it didn't really cater to the Really Young Men. Tanner almost got stuck in it...so I guess it didn't really cater to the Old Young Men either ;-). There was also a raffle for activity games as prizes, and we won twice! We only took one prize, but seriously, I never win anything, so it must be Tanner's luck. I'm glad I married him! Once all the parents' eyes who have children under the age of 4 began to glaze over, they announced that we would head outside for the Trunk-Or-Treating portion of the evening. This ended up being my favorite part of the night, and not because Clark scored some good candy, but because Clark was adorable going from car to car politely saying "Trick or Treat!" and then when he would get his candy given to him in his awesome vintage Target plastic bag, he would always say "THANK YOU!" It's nice to know that some things sink in, even if tomorrow it starts to drain out again. It was a fun night...and yes, Tanner and I totally stole candy from Clark after he went to bed.

I'm Back...I Promise

I can't believe it has been three months since I last blogged. Where does the time go people? A LOT changes in 3 months...especially when you have a 9 month old...that's 1/3 of his life! Poor Andrew. As I pick up blogging again today going forward, I am also going to try to insert some blogs from the last 3 months in an attempt to fill in the gap in time so that Andrew doesn't have any future evidence of past neglect. Childline anyone? (family joke)

Clark is two going on three next month...and IS his stereotypical age in practically every way, shape, and form. He's not so cute when he is throwing a royal fit at my friend's house or when he is talking back to me in the exact same tone as I talk to him, but as long as he still looks cute to me in his footie pj's when I put him to bed at night, I feel like I am doing okay. Someday we will laugh at all of his antics just like we laugh at how Tanner kicked his mom in the shins and peed on the wheel of a car. Sometimes it's just hard to maintain that level of perspective, but I am going to try harder. I love his car noises. I love that when we go walking in the woods, he picks out the biggest and best looking leaves and gives them to me to hold for him. I love that some of his favorite words are "Mommy, LOOK!" and "Mom, guess what?!" I love that whenever I hurt myself or when Andrew falls, he says "Are you okay?" I love that he has started saying "Thanks Mom!" without being prompted. I love that he calls anyone and EVERYONE "friend". If he doesn't know your name, you automatically get dubbed as "friend". This age is such a mixed bag, and it is really easy to only focus on the bad things that need to change rather than the good things I want to encourage to stick around. I am going to be better.

Andrew is the get along guy. He lets Clark beat up on him (to a certain point) and he even sometimes will fight back which makes me laugh. I am sure this is all just a prelude to the many fights, good nature brotherly fights as well as full on brawls, that are sure to come in the years ahead. He has one tooth and melts me with every smile he flashes my way. He started crawling and is already pulling himself up. He coos in his crib (Clark never cooed), and he comes to find me when I leave the room. He is skinny, but tall. He is such a different kid than Clark, and before I had him people would tell me how different every kid is, and it always has made me nervous thinking about how much I would have to learn and grow in order to meet each child's needs and parent each one in the individual way they need. It is still daunting to think about, but it makes life way more fun and exciting this way. As my mom and sisters keep reminding me...parenthood is not for sissies.

As Tanner and I continue to try not to be sissies, we have also spent a lot of time reading, listening, and watching the political and economic happenings of each day. It is interesting yet oftentime tiresome and depressing. I am glad the election is almost here. I don't think I could have taken one more month of it. I have also started a twice a week preschool with my friend Jenna and her little boy Thatcher. We take turns each week teaching the boys on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So far, it has been good for me and good for Clark to do this. I feel like we are both learning and it is also nice having a break on the days when he goes to Jenna's house.

I have found a forest/park that I love to take a walk in with my boys in the evenings. Families of deer watch us from afar as we walk along the path. Fall is finally here and the colors of the leaves on the trees are so vibrant, they take your breath away. Our friends Dave and Jenn came and stayed with us last week and will be moving here next month. They are the best and truest kind of friends. Speaking of the best and truest kind of friends...my sisters are amazing. I wish I could tell you everything that my sister Melanie and her husband Spencer have been doing in support of Proposition 8 in California, but I just wouldn't be able to do it justice. I am in awe of their service and dedication to this important issue. Tricia has had the uncanny ability to be able to say exactly what I have needed and wanted to hear over the past few weeks in our conversations. She's got some kind of 6th sense...ESP maybe? ;-)

There is a lot we can be depressed about, but there is more that we can be grateful and happy about. I said to my friend today after venting about politics that I needed to "go to my happy place."

So here I am.

The Airport...JUST IN TIME.

So, Tanner was slated to fly in on Wednesday night at around midnight and he was going to pick up Dan's car at the airport and drive it home since he would be getting in later in the evening than Dan was slated to on Thursday. It's complicated, but just work with me people.

However, Tanner's flight plan took him from DC up to New York and back down to Charlotte. Can you say LAME? Of course he ended up getting delayed out of DC, and arrived in NY after his other flight had already left to go to Charlotte. He had to get on the next flight which was the following morning. He ended up sleeping at the airport in his suit that we was wearing from work that day. Because of the change in flight schedules, after his flight took off the next morning, Trish and I realized that we should go and pick him up at the airport so that Dan could drive his car home that night instead. But there was no way to get a hold of him to tell him that we were picking him up. We were watching the flight all morning and of course it decides to update that he was getting in 20 minutes earlier than it was showing the entire time right when we were thinking we needed to leave. We booked it to the airport and Trish and I were hatching our last minute strategies. I think we both decided we were in some race against time movie, because we were on a mission.

We called and had his name paged, and when we arrived at the terminal, I hopped out and ran in to look for him while Tricia went to find Dan's car. While I was walking toward the baggage claim, I heard Tanner's name paged, but I stopped and asked someone if they were from the same flight and when they said yes, I knew that Tanner was already gone because he had not checked any bags. I ran out of the terminal and followed the explicit instructions that Dan had given me that I had in turn given Tanner on how to get to his car...follow the red brick path behind the fountain until you hit the dead end where the air control tower is...take a left, and the car is all of the way down until the 2nd row from the exit, and it was the first car in the row. Life was hanging in the balance I tell you. I was running so hard. Suddenly, I see the car, and someone is in it. It was Tanner! I barely caught him in time. The only thing that saved us was that he couldn't figure out how to turn on the car...because you don't actually turn on Dan's car...you push it on...with a button. Anyway, Tricia soon found us and came squealing around the corner to pick us up. It was all very Jack Bauer a la 24. We were awesome. I wish we could say that we saved a life, but in reality, we just saved ourselves from having to go back to the airport later that night to get Dan...but I would venture that in this case, it's not what you save but how you save it that is important...and Trish and I know HOW it's done people.

Reunion

On Monday, Trish and Dan came back into town and on Tuesday my parents drove up with Brianna and Courtney in tow. It was great having the adults back in the house. Of course we immediately started on a 'project'. What would a visit to Tricia's be without a project involving everyone. It turned out really cute, and no one killed each other in the process...BONUS!

We also took some trips to the community pool so we could get in some lazy river time. Here are some cute pics of everyone as I wandered around being the paparazzi.Clark and his Papa on the lazy river.

This isn't a model that I just happened to take a picture of. It's Tricia. I am related to her even though she looks latino and I look albino...at least we are both ino's!

Bonna with Andrew...it seems all little children love the Bonnanator.

Cork...aka Chez II...we have the same toes.

My mom...we have a bazillion photos like this of my mom by the beach or by the pool over the years. It's a classic. Notice her poolside reading is NOT some cheap sleazy romantic novel...getting a tan and being spiritual...could it get any better?

Andrew staying out of the sun and enjoying some zzzzz's.

Andrew says: "I like Aunt Trish, she cute AND she plays with me."

What's a vacation without a picture of Clark on a 'naughty' something...be it stump, chair, or stair? I like how he still manages to flash his classic smile while doing his time.

Papa with JB and Clark after he dragged them under the waterfall...of course Clark thought it was awesome.

Bella, doing her thing.

The Clan by the lazy river. We even got mom to go on it...I don't know if she admitted it or not...but she liked it.

NC Babysitting

So from Thursday to Monday, I watched Trish and Dan's kiddies so they could get some much desired R&R. I always have a fun time babysitting my nieces and nephews as it always gives me insight as to what joys and challenges I can expect in my own future with my children. Courtney was down at Birdhouse Princess Camp so it was just Carter, Jonah, Bella, and me and my boys. Carter did a great job the first couple of days being 'the oldest' and the big helper, but I think he missed having his older sister around. Trish was worried about Bella, but she was a champ, and she only seemed to get flustered when Clark would enter her personal space. She would get very upset at this, and of course Clark, being the classic BOY that he is, just thought it was the funniest thing EVER...so he would just do it more and more, until he would get thrown on the naughty stair.

I was really worried about taking all of the children to church on Sunday. Keep in mind it would be me with 5 kids (6, 4, 2, 2, 6mo.). Fun or what?!!! I would have skipped out on it, but I think the desire for me to be aunt of the year influenced me to do otherwise. We got there a little late, and they opened the overflow right when we walked in. We sat in the chairs in the cultural hall, and it turned out we were the ONLY ones. Tricia's very nice friend took Carter and Jonah, so I JUST had Clark, Bella, and Andrew (2,2,6 mo). It was a challenge...correction...Clark was a challenge. He ended up doing walking laps around the chairs, and followed the lines on the basketball court. Everything was going okay, and I even ran into some old friends of mine and Tanner's who also happened to be visiting the ward that day. We were busy chatting it up in the hallway (read: ditching out on the 3rd hour of church), when the nursery leader brought Clark to me and said he was pushing other children. Great...thaaaanks. So now I am holding Andrew while chasing Clark around hallway, while trying to hold a conversation with our friends. Church let out and it was kind of pandemonium getting all of the kids together, and luckily, ANOTHER one of Tricia's friends came to my rescue and helped me get the kids all into the car. She even saved Clark from running out into the middle of the road. All in all, it was a success, but it wasn't without some major struggles. Can I still get the Aunt of the year award?

Frosty Incident

Me and the boys headed out to North Carolina to watch my sister Tricia's kids for a few days while the parents got some R&R. When I am on these long drives, I really like to call my friends who I haven't talked to in a while and it really helps to pass the time quickly. We had stopped off at the Wendy's drive-thru to grab some grub and headed straight back out onto the freeway. Clark LOVES Frosties, but he loves their new Frosty shakes even more because they come with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Who wants just a REGULAR heart attack when you can get one with whipped cream and a cherry on top? Not me and certainly not Clark. So as I am pulling onto the freeway, my friend Jenn calls me. She is living out in Utah right now and just had their first baby and it's a boy...AND they are moving out to the DC area in December. So we had A LOT to talk about. Usually when I get on the phone, Clark takes it as his cue to become the stereotypical 2 1/2 year old who will do, say, or yell anything to get my attention. But this time, I had the Frosty to keep him quiet and occupied while I gabbed on and on with Jenn. We talked for at least 30 mins, and I didn't even think about Clark the entire time I was on the phone because he was SO quiet. As soon as I hung up the phone, Clark for the first time immediately pipes up with:

"Mommy, oh no! All wet!"

I look at him in my rear view mirror and I see FROSTY......EVERYWHERE. It was immediately clear to me that he was having a good 'ol time while I was on the phone blowing Frosty out of the end of the straw all over the back seat. And not just the back seat, but he managed to get Andrew, the seat belts, the windows (his and mine), and the back right corner of my shirt. It was the first time he had ever done something like this, but it was also the first time I was a genius mom and let him have a FROSTY uninterrupted for 30 minutes too. I was in no mood to pull over and clean up Frosty so I told him that it was a huge no-no and that he was going to have to sit in Frosty until we got to Tricia's house (that showed him who's the boss!). About 20 minutes later, he fell asleep and I just had to take a picture (while driving mind you) when I saw this:Oh wait, and here's a window shot so you can get the FULL effect:
Even knowing that I would end up spending a good amount of time cleaning this up, I couldn't help but laugh...he even looked kinda cute...

sticky, but cute.

Tickle Me

Clark loves to take turns tickling everyone in the family. He will often come up and tell Tanner and I to "go to sleep" a.k.a close our eyes so that he can pretend to sneak up and tickle us. We have a good time indulging him, and then when he is done with us, he shouts out "CLARKIE'S TURN!" so he'll "go to sleep" so that we can sneak up on him and tickle him too. I love that Clark gets so much entertainment and joy out of simple things, and I also get a real kick out of his pretend play that he seems to be doing more and more.

Clark tickling Andrew:Cute pic of my boys hangin' out together:

Footprints in the...Hot Chocolate?

I was cleaning my bedroom, when I realized I hadn't heard Clark for a little while. I walked into the kitchen to find that not only has he figured out that if he drags a chair into the kitchen he can reach a lot more stuff, but also, if you get a hold of the hot chocolate packets that were left on the counter and you dump them all over the floor, you can make really cool footprints! He was really quite pleased with himself...and I had to give him bonus points for creativity, but I also gave him the end of the vacuum hose to clean it all up.