our sweet family times

love

2012-01-18T15:29:00.001-07:00

couldn't resist to snap a pic after his bath today. such a sweet little chunky monkey!

5 months

2011-12-29T10:27:00.001-07:00

can't believe this little chub is 5 months!

greyson has finally taken a liking to his walker and exersaucer. he HATES the bumbo, which could have something to do with not being able to breathe when his fat belly is that smoooshed.

he LOVES his toes

we love you sweet greyson! even though you still are up about 8 times a night, and your mother never sleeps, you really are a joy in our family. i love love love kissing your smooshy cheeks all day, and i love your sweet smiles!

santa made a surprise visit at grandma debbie's christmas party

totally UN-impressed

handsome christmas morning boy!! (don't worry, he kept up with weekly tradition and pooped out of his church clothes within the first half hour of church)

love these kiddos

yup. he shaved his head. he figured since he's always wanted to, and i never let him (mean ole' me), and they shaved behind his ear for his surgery, he might as well shave the rest off. hmmmm....

christmas eve jammies

present time!

FINALLY...some boy toys

abs' loot

christmas was wonderful, nate's ear is healing well, and we are all doing great. now is just the loooooooooong stretch of winter waiting for spring (or more importantly summer!).

kissin' cushions

2011-12-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

kissing cushions. all. day. long.

handsomeness

abby was a rag doll in her 1st grade performance

she also recieved this award at an assembly at school...lil smartie!

one of greyson's bffs. he LOVES his grandpa nielson.

post-op. yowch.

gingerbread house/pj day at school

dance recital time! these girls did so good! emma had 4 dances, cait and abs had 3. good job ladies!

life is still so crazy i can't keep my head on straight. i am extremely behind in posting pictures, but this will have to do for now! merry christmas everybody!

hospital round 2

2011-12-08T11:15:00.001-07:00

the short story: sunday i noticed around greyson's eye looked a little purple-ish and swollen. by monday it looked worse, so monday night i ran him to the pediatrician after nate seemed a little concerned. he said it's not an eye infection, but periorbital celulitis, which is an infection of the tissue around the eye. he said it's a very dangerous infection because if it makes it around the back of the eye it can cause blindness, meningitis, and brain abscess. i went home with a scrip for oral antibiotics. i didn't feel right about it all night, and i was up with him most of the night. by morning it was much worse, so i called the pediatrician again. the nurse talked to him and they said to give it another 24 hours. motherly instinct kicked in and i felt like something really needed to be done...now. i text a picture to nate (who was at the hospital working). he showed the pic to the infectious disease doc, and the pediatric hospitalist. they both agreed he needed to be admitted, NOW, and get a ct scan and i.v. antibiotics. (did i say this story was going to be short? whoops...) anyways, it ended up not making around the back of his eye yet, but on ct scan they found a mass/cyst in his tear duct that was infected along with the tissue. they said until that all comes out the tear duct (along with the i.v. antibiotics) the infection won't go away. thank goodness i hadn't waited the 24 hours.... !!!!

happy about life...BEFORE the i.v. in his head. and that hospital gown is just so dang cute...

they couldn't get the i.v. anywhere else in his chubbalicous body, so they had to use his head

such a happy camper, all things considered

owie. so sad

and today we are back home and he looks almost normal again!

thanks to everyone for all the prayers and help with the cheeeeldren. thank goodness for good doctors, modern medicine, and the gift of the Spirit to help and guide our decisions.

five h's

2011-11-22T11:49:00.001-07:00

halloween. happiest place on earth. hospital. haircut. hand.

i have SO many pictures to upload, and SO much to catch up on. but we are still alive, and here's a little peek at the last few weeks of our lives. more to come. (and linds...there IS a picture of my hand with stitches in it at the bottom of this post. just a little fyi :o)

halloween sweethearts

surprise trip to disneyland (thanks buns!)

greyson's 3 day hospital stay (thanks bronchiolitis)

1st haircut

why do i think his pouty-face pics are so dang cute?

stabbed scissors into my hand (on accident). of COURSE nate was out-of-town!! had to have some other peeps at his clinic stitch me up.

i really really will post more pics and updates soon! when i have time...ugh.

baking soda, bears, colors

2011-10-24T19:45:00.000-07:00

i can't find any cradle cap treatments that actually work. so i google'd home remedies, and a lot of people said to mix baking soda and water, lather it on, leave it for 15 mins, then wash off. i've done it 3 days in a row and his horrible cradle cap is almost gone! don't worry, it does NOT hurt him...he was already grumpy when i took this picture :o)

our little bus stop bear...all tuckered out. the mornings are just about too cold to take him to the bus stop with the girls

one last snuggle with great grandma jo before they took off for southern utah. we love you grandma jo! and we miss you already uncle bob and aunt pauline!

matchy matchy...this was as per emma's demand. (yes..she demands things nowadays. no requests.)

took a drive/walk up hobble creek canyon. the colors are AMAZING. the trees look almost fake they are so beautiful.

getting sooo big

2011-10-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

greyson is getting sooo chubbalicious! he's not exactly getting very long...not that that should surprise anyone. he is much happier during the day, and he's starting to smile more often too. he's such a sweetheart, it makes me sad that he is growing up so fast.

sweet grandma jo and greyson. love her to pieces!

greyson and cousin aubs. she's not so sure about a photo shoot with a fattie.

greyson smiling and talking to grandma debs. so precious!

grandma jo, aunt pauline, uncle bob peekin' through, and ems and aubs

uncle bob with greyson

greyson LOVES his baths. he stays in and kicks around until the water is just too cold to handle anymore.

cheeser....love those smiles

i think this picture makes him look like a baby doll from toys'r'us or something! handsome little man.

we went to the pumpkin patch by our house a couple days ago...the girls had a blast! so nice to have it just down the street.

greyson wasn't too impressed.

carting the pumpkins back home. we are LOVING this warm fall weather!!

2 months

2011-09-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

my sweet baby boy is 2 months already! time has flown by, but i am so grateful he's getting older, more aware, less colicky, and he even gives us some gummy grins once in a while. he is our little butterball, and he is so loved! his 2 months stats are:

weight: 12 lbs 6 oz

75th%

length: 21.5"

10th%

head: (didn't get the measurement)

50th%

soooo...needless to say he's taking after his sisters. he is one short chubby little dude! (and one day in life i'll have a fancy expensive camera that takes awesome pictures. probably when the kids are all grown up and there's nothing left to take pictures of!)

life savers

2011-09-23T12:55:00.001-07:00

this

plus this

equals this:

the short story: as you probably all know, greyson hasn't been the happiest baby on the block. he has mild reflux, so he's been on prevacid and he's been sleeping in his carseat, in the bassinet, next to the bed since he was born. if he sleeps laying flat, milk just comes right back up. monday night he would not go to bed for anything. finally after midnight nate took him downstairs. i woke up to feed him about 4am, only to find him fast asleep, laying flat, IN THE BASSINET. i was shocked. i also realized after vacuuming around him several times, he sleeps so much better with white noise. so tuesday i ran and got him a sound machine with a projector. now at night we swaddle him, stick him in the bassinet with ocean waves next to him, and he falls asleep on his own between 9 and 10. no kidding. it ONLY took us 8 weeks to figure that all out. PHEW! yes, the sound machine was $20. but all you moms out there, let's be honest...it's worth $20 A NIGHT if you ask me!!

feedin' the ducks on labor day, abby kept yelling at the ducks because they would steal the bread before the huge fish could grab it.

this is about as close as emma would get

love my ems

i LOVE baby stretches. and i love his double-dimples on his chin when he stretches!

i have ONE question...

did you get tickets for the gun show?

such a good helper all day with her brother

behind

2011-09-11T20:11:00.000-07:00

i'm behind (but getting used to it!) as usual, so here's a few pictures to catch up....

greyson's blessing was last sunday...and a big thank you to all that came to share that special day with us. nate's amazingly domestic mom made (yes hand made!!) greyson a full-on tuxedo complete with cumber-bun, bow tie, tails, the works. heather made some cute white shoes to go with it. and amazingly enough, he didn't cry once during his blessing! it turned out to be a great day. aside from the fact that i realized afterwards my camera was on the lowest resolution setting. (thanks girls for playing with my camera)...

carrie took some family pics with her fancy camera...i'll post them soon....

getting dressed for the big day

handsome man!

ENOUGH with the pictures already mom!

my dad and carla

some of the kiddos

found this pic on my camera. this is abby at the top of the shower. ??? whatever.

greyson used to konk out walking the girls to the bus stop in the morning. he loved sleeping in his stroller...for a week or two.

caught red-handed. if he could figure it out more often, i think he'd be a big time thumb-sucker.

tubaroonie time

thank HEAVENS for caitlin and the big helper she is with greyson.

church clothes on...ready to go. screaming in true greyson style

1st day of preschool...did i say she was allowed to grow up? :o( love my little ems

the stansfields stopped by for a short visit (and got the cops called on them in the middle of the night...someone reported a 'homeless man sleeping in his car outside our house'. their car is a new lexus SUV!!! how funny....)

best friends, distance does nothing to make these 2 grow apart. they'll always be best friends.

lils and ems, best friends too. we just love these girls to pieces!

all the kiddos. dylan is getting so big, such a cute little boy. wish we lived closer to you guys!!

so that's the picture update. as for life nowadays? let's see, my body finally kicked it into gear and i'm doing great now. greyson has decided screaming is a way of life for him. especially from about 7 or 8-11pm. he SCREAMS and screams. and screams. he's a tad better for nate when nate is home at night, but he's quite the handful. he's better during the day, but definitely has turned out to be quite the high maintenance bebe. he's getting chubby though, and starting to smile. we all love him so much! caitlin and abby have started dance company quite a few hours a week, and they are doing great. along with preschool, emma has started dance as well. she loves it! finally no more watching the girls' classes, begging to be in a class of her own. so life is good. i'm slowly starting to get caught back up in life, but i've come to the realization that until greyson grows out of this fussy stage, i won't be near as productive as i would like to be. and that's ok. one day at a time, right?

nooo..say summer isn't over...

2011-08-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

i am in some serious denial about school starting, and summer being over. boo. however, the girls were thrilled that school started today. their teachers are great, and it's nice to have them both going all day. they find each other on the playground, and sit together at lunch. fun to have sisters! and a good thing too, abby's teacher tried to put her on the wrong bus until caitlin convinced her which bus she really was supposed to be on. phew. abby wouldn't have handled that very well.

of course caitlin had to strike a pose. surprising.

3 crazy weeks

2011-08-18T12:16:00.003-07:00

these past 3 weeks have just flown by. a quick little synopsis of 'the birth story':
we arrived at the hospital at 8:30am (after waiting since 5am for 'the call' to come in). we were extremely lucky, they only had 2 rooms left, and us and the other resident couple steve and amanda were able to get the last 2 rooms. otherwise we probably would have had to wait until the next week!
they started pitocin right away. nate broke my water after about an hour (as per my OB's ok). the monitors all said i was contracting regularly, but i felt no pain. they kept turning the pitocin up, still no pain. finally after about 2 hours or so i started having insanely painful contractions. i begged for an epidural, and the anesthesiologist was there in about 10 minutes. pretty good service :o)

he started an epidural/spinal block. i don't know why he did a combination of both, but it worked, so i was happy. our room was huge, with windows covering one whole wall. it was a beautiful view of the mountains, and nate's clinic was right across the street. my OB had 2 lectures in didactics at nate's clinic that afternoon. so he came to check my progress after his 1st lecture. that was at about 2:10. i was dilated to a 9, so he had me do a 'test push'. after that i was complete. they broke down the bed, and in a matter of minutes (and only 3 pushes) our sweet baby greyson was born. it was so peaceful, the room was rather quiet, my OB was calm and collected, and it was just perfect. they cleaned him off for a minute, then brought him to me for 'kangaroo care' (skin-to-skin). what a sweet little angel, i just couldn't believe how perfect he was.

doctor daddy

1st time the girls met their new brother

biggest baby yet!

grandma debs

grandma nielson

grandpa brian

nate's mom was there to take pictures right after he was born, and my dad was waiting in provo to see him really quick before he had to go back to work in SL. my mom brought the girls right up, so they all got to see him before he was even bathed in the nursery. nate took him to the nursery while the nurses got me ready to move to mother-baby downstairs. there was some sort of miscommunication, and my pitocin didn't get turned back on. i started to hemorrhage really bad, so they had to give me a shot in my rear and do some other things to get the bleeding under control before they'd let the baby come out of the nursery. it was scary for a little while, but soon enough everything was under control.

i'm not a big fan of staying in the hospital, so we came home the next afternoon. everything seemed to be going great for about a week, until the next sunday. i ended up getting mastitis worse than i've ever had it. high fevers, and my body hurt so bad i literally couldn't function. when nate was gone, either my mom or nate's mom would come over to hold the baby and take care of the girls. by last tuesday my bleeding was still really bad, and i still had a fever. they sent me to the hospital wednesday morning for an ultrasound, and sure enough there was retained placenta. so last wednesday i had a d&c. it went well, and we were home by that night.

(the girls sleeping on the air mattress in the playroom. of course greyson didn't want to be left out!)

(i'm trying to add pictures so you don't get bored stiff....)
we were blessed that during the 3 days that i was horribly sick, greyson slept all day and all night. he was an angel, and i'm so grateful that we had all the help that we did. my stubborn body is still working on healing. i had another appointment today for the bleeding, they're going to try a medication again for 2 days, and if that doesn't work, then it's back for an ultrasound, and possibly a repeat d&c. i am just hoping and praying that my body just heals on it's own this time.

all-in-all greyson has been just an angel. nate has been amazing to help out so much, and the girls are great helpers as well. i am dreading school starting monday (i start to cry just thinking about it) because caitlin and abby help out with the baby so much, it's going to be hard with them gone all day. but they are sooo excited about school.

last thursday-saturday was nate's residency family retreat in park city at the newpark hotel. i got the green light from my OB to go as long as i took it easy. it was exhausting, but fun and the hotel was so nice. i LOVE nate's residency, and all the residents, families, faculty, everyone is just amazing. we couldn't have had a better residency program!

this was our hot tub on our balcony at the hotel. the girls loved the bathrobes...they were in heaven

caitlin got this bandana at her friend's birthday party the other night. i found her sleeping like this. ??? weird.

olympic park in park city. you can ride the bobsled track in one of these (for the low low price of $60 each!)

hot tubbin' it. i soo wish i could've joined!

watching the skiers jump and do tricks into the water. amazing.

alpine slide-emma with daddy

mark was nice enough to take caitlin up while nate took abby

the older girls slept in the corry's room, so emma scored this bed all to herself. she thought she was pretty big stuff.

pool time fun

my sweet baby boy

i just love him to pieces. i could kiss his soft (ever-getting-chubbier) cheeks all day

tired post-call daddy, tired post-up-all-night-baby

handsomeness. i love him!!

baby greyson

2011-07-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

BABY GREYSON DANIEL

7 lbs 11 oz, 18.5 inches long

7/28/2011 2:35pm

we love our sweet blonde-hair baby boy!

guesses

2011-07-27T06:57:00.000-07:00

at the nielson campout we all made bets on the baby's weight. so nielson family: here they are...the winner will get something, um, cool. like a giftcard to a restaurant or something. (we won't mention what the prize was GOING to be...hehehe)

Josh 7lbs 14oz
Sherstin 7lbs 13oz
Kent 9lbs 2oz
Nate 8lbs 1oz (he had better be closest since he's had the cheat of the ultrasound machine this whole time!)
Me 8lbs 9oz
Andrew 8lbs
Trista 7lbs 9oz
Heather 7lbs 15oz
Zach 8lbs 5oz
Joseph 9lbs
Dad 7lbs 9oz (did you copy Trista or did she copy you? ;o) )
Mom 7lbs 12oz
Carrie 8lbs 4oz
Caitlin 7lbs
i would LOVE for this baby to be in the 7 pound range, but he's just seemed (and measured) so far ahead this whole pregnancy that i have a feeling he's gonna be huge. we'll see, hopefully i'll be wrong!

(videos from the campout)

2011-07-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

i had to post these separately, i don't know why they wouldn't post with the pictures. annoying.

this is mom nielson showing the girls how witches ride their brooms. HA! it's actually her showing them how to pretend a stick is a horse. but i like the witch story better. :o)

and these two videos are of the white trash activities in action. gotta love it bebe!

nielson family campout

2011-07-25T21:50:00.001-07:00

2.5 more days!!! if i've made it this long, i can make it until thursday, right?! i sure hope so. although i wouldn't mind if he would just come right now.

i officially survived camping for 3 days in 90 degree heat, 6 days before having a baby. i'm glad we went though, nielson family campouts are just a riot! good clean fun and laughter...it was a great time. uncomfortable as all get-out? yes. but definitely good memories. like mom nielson teaching the girls how to use the 'walkie-talkie lingo' and telling them that you're supposed to say 'ralph that'. ummmm...mom? it's supposed to be 'roger that'. we all got a good kick out of that. anyways, it's late and i'm tired. but i'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. hopefully the next time i post it will be pics of our new little boy!

this is the hanging hammock/bed that nate made out of rope, logs, and leaves. he really slept in it the 2nd night. crazy? probably. i was on the raised queen air mattress with warm blankets.

nate and zach made this sweet swing for the kiddos at the campground. they had a lot of fun on it, and we only had one casualty when emma fell off. (let's be honest, she fell about 800 times during the 3 days we were there)

they had a team challenge where they paired up to see who could make a fire with anything you could find on the mountain, and 2 matches. they had to bring a half can of water to a boil. it was fun to watch them all scramble, but i don't think anyone did it with 2 matches. they ended up having to use more after a while.

my friend gave me this cute/easy idea of homemade tie-dye shirts, so the girlies had fun designing and making their own t-shirts

josh, gramma, abs and jaydee. the girls couldn't get enough of jaydee, they're still quoting the funny things she said.

one of the fun hammocks. and yes this is one of emma's new funny smiles for the camera. awesome.

hangin out in the tent watching a movie. ROUGHING it for sure.

one of the white trash activities. the men had fun going down this cement 'slide', so to get more speed they used a laundry basket. classy, i know.

shirt making

playing at the camp playground

i'm sure i've mentioned before how obsessed caitlin is with babies. she LOVES them. she had so much fun with kaycie.

mom nielson has a lot more pics on her camera that i need to get. but for now this will have to do. so that's all folks....stay tuned for a new bundle here in a couple days!!!

doldrums of summer

2011-07-17T12:44:00.012-07:00

i remember reading about the 'doldrums' in school, and how it's basically a part of the ocean that is calm, boring, with nothing going on.

i feel like i am in the doldrums of summer! being super uncomfortable has made the last few weeks of waiting for this baby last for-ever. my feet have decided to go on a swelling spree, more so than i ever thought possible. luckily the kids are good troopers, and if we stay home and they just jump on the tramp with sprinklers all day they are satisfied. i've tried to take them to seven peaks at least once or twice a week, but that is slowing down as well. 9 more days bebe...we can do this!

the other day there was a crazy storm that came through, and then some amazing scenery after. we looked one way and saw double rainbows, and looked the other way and had an awesome sunset. i guess you don't get these in arizona :o)

we threw a surprise party for nate's dad's 60th birthday at my mom's clubhouse. it was fun to swim, watch movies in the theater, hang out, eat food, and just have fun together. i didn't get a group shot (oops), so here are a few candids...

this is out of order, but nate's mom made this DARLING quilt for the baby. i love love love it.

and she made me my own size boppy with an extra slipcover. the ones they sell are too big/tall for my torso, so leave it to pegs to make a personalized one!

and heather made me this cute nursing cover...thanks heather! love it already.

the 'men' (or boys i should say) played this game for HOURS. caitlin would dive to the bottom with a single match, then hurry and come up out of the way. then the 1st to jump in, find, and grab the matchstick won a point. lovely.

i think she should get a job as a rescue diver when she's older!

abs and brookie

the bathing beauties. this is about as bikini as we can get peggy to go. ;o)

a month ago the girls had their yearly celiac panels done. since caitlin has celiac, and it's highly genetic, the other two have to be tested every year as well. this time emma's results came back off the charts positive. i was so bummed, but they have to scope and biopsy her intestines to confirm the diagnosis. she had her scope on tuesday, and we just got the results back today. HOORAY...she has 'LATENT Celiac Disease'. so basically she has celiac, but it isn't active (yet) so it's not causing any damage. so no gluten free diet needed for her yet. which is a HUGE relief, because she is just too young to understand right now, and it was going to be hard to start her GF with a brand new baby at the same time!

emma all ready for her scope/biopsies.

after the scope. she wasn't too happy about the i.v. in her arm, and the fact that we wouldn't let her take it out.

i promised the girls before the baby comes that i would take them each on a 'date' of their choice. abby chose chuck'e'cheese and krispie kremes afterwards. she had the time of her life with her bowl of tokens and tickets all to herself. i was just getting over the flu, so i didn't exactly enjoy the likes of chuck'e'cheese this time around, but we still had fun.

she loved watching how those healthy donuts are made. healthy or not...i love them!!

and i just couldn't help sneaking this picture of cute claire in here. the cutest tinkerbell i've ever seen!!

i tried to upload a picture of me pregnant now, and 38 weeks pregnant with emma, so you can all see how much bigger i am. for some reason they won't upload...and i've tried a couple of times. guess that's my sign that i need to keep my huge-ole prego pics off the blog!

4th of july

2011-07-07T21:55:00.004-07:00

patriotic babes

we went to the annual 'elberta 4th of july festivities'. big town stuff ;o) we had fun though!!

this is caitlin in heaven. she wishes more than anything that she could have her own dog. hopefully having a baby brother to take care of in a couple weeks will kill her 'puppy craving'.

the giant slip'n'slide at grandma & grandpa nielson's

4th of july swimming in grandma debbie's pool

bbq/fireworks with friends

the 'pyros'...MEN!!

cait and madisen

it was fun to celebrate the 4th of july all weekend. it was even funnier to see how many millions of people did the newly-legal aerial fireworks this past weekend. it was fun to look around and see at least one 'personal show' going on in every neighborhood as far as the eye could see.

last 4th of july for us with only 3 kiddos, and only girls. less than 3 weeks to go...cross your fingers for less time than that! still going to pop.....i swear.....

ward campout

2011-06-30T07:41:00.002-07:00

i'm not much of a camper...super 8 is seriously roughing it for me. BUT...we gave nate a sweet tent for father's day, so when the ward campout was the next weekend, we packed up and headed out for some fun. the girls slept great, the weather wasn't too bad, and it was so fun to hang out with friends from the ward.

the girls 'quarters'

makin' some s'mores with gigantic marshmallows

no need to roast or anything. she's happy with the largest marshmallow she's ever seen.

cait and madisen...fun little playground by the campground.

our little camping model

we're supposed to do nate's family's campout towards the end of july. we'll see if my massive belly allows for it. my belly is already bigger now than it was when i delivered all of the girls. another 4 weeks you say?! i think i might just pop. really. i don't think i've ever truly experienced the extreme 'uncomforts' of pregnancy, but now i am paying my dues. gross swollen feet, huge belly, crazy emotions, the 'waddle', and people saying "you MUST be due any day". love that one. oh well, i guess when the baby is measuring huge, and it's a boy, this is what i get! i am getting super excited to meet this little one though (or should i say 'big' one). i'm sure it will be a barrel of monkeys with 4 kids, but i'm just about to my limit of sanity. i guess it's good that pregnancy isn't super wonderful and comfortable, then we wouldn't want to have the baby and have sleepless nights, etc. right? so we'll see how it goes....

more projects

2011-06-15T09:07:00.004-07:00

i'm getting close to having all the projects finished i wanted to before munchkin #4 comes. they are fun to do, but it's nice to have them almost done. here's a few of the latest:

messy hanging yarn balls:

i couldn't have done this one solo..thanks girls for getting uber messy and helping!

yeah...glue was EVERYWHERE

turned out pretty cute though i think

crib skirt: check. (no i didn't make the sheet. what are the odds there was a carter's sheet at babies'r'us that matched every color exactly? lucky.)

now i just need to finish the blanket. blankets are NOT my forte, and i keep giving up after working on it. we'll see if it gets posted in it's imperfect glory when it's finished.

nightstand from d.i.: $5

finished project: total cost with paint, etc: $12. not too shabby.

summer fun continues

2011-06-12T21:30:00.008-07:00

i LOVE summertime. i love the late mornings, late-warm-light evenings, swimming, no-stress from school, no schedules, and summer festivities. we've been busy with dance, t-ball, softball, waterparks, birthdays, parades, fairs, baby showers, visitors, the list goes on!!

this past week was springville's art city days. the girls rode their bikes in the children's parade, we went to the family night with some friends at the art museum, went to the children's art fair, got up SUPER early to go to the balloon fest-which is where they fill and launch the hot air balloons, and went to the parade with neighbors. in the middle of the week we got to spend a few days with the wilkins (translation: katie and i and the kids played for a few days while the boys went to moab to go mountain biking. surprising i know :o) it was so fun to see them again, and made me miss arizona even more.

on thursday kelly threw a baby shower for me and the 2 other girls in the neighborhood having babies in the next few weeks. we'll be having babies in this neighborhood every 2 weeks for a little while...crazy! anyways, it was decorated so stinking adorable. everything was perfect, and it was super fun. thanks kelly and company for throwing such a perfect shower!

here's a huge load of pictures from the past couple of weeks. they are all out-of-order, blogger was having issues uploading. enjoy....

bike ride up the canyon with dad

the moab boys

un-suh

this is what the boys do with the kiddos while we're at the shower

the 'campsite'. oh no worries, weather.com said to stay AWAY from the colorado river because it was above flood stage. but it's fine, they slept RIGHT next to it. men.

where's waldo? (or nate...)

so they threw me a surprise 30th bday party, but i didn't have my camera. (hence the surprise). here's a few pics from nate's phone

caitlin (aka little mommy) and aubs

hadster..she was obsessed with blowing bubbles. so cute!

caitlin turned the kitchen window into the 'pool snackbar'

swimsuit buns

liberty and abs

cute bowen

go abs

the baby shower refreshment table...you had to see everything in person. it was so amazing!

cami, cari, and i. it's gonna be fun! keep your windows closed at night folks, we're going to have a medley of newborns in our neighborhood!

girls all ready for the children's parade

the balloon fest. it was super fun.

hands down our fave. the pig balloon.

girls ready for the parade!

happy 6th

2011-06-05T21:08:00.003-07:00

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY to our sweet abby!! we had a fun-filled weekend to celebrate her big day. saturday we went to the waterpark with our friends, then grabbed some pizza and came home for cake and ice cream with family and friends. today we headed up to my dad's to celebrate abby and carla's birthdays, they are both today. can't believe my little abs is 6, happy birthday sweet happy girl! we love you!

we had to let her open her scooter yesterday morning so she could actually use it when she opened it

hopefully this will squelch the squabbles over caitlin's scooter

opening presents at grandpa brian's house

the birthday girlies

yup...all of the candles together set off the smoke alarm

i know i complain about the 'utah weather' a lot, but it is so nice to be able to share special occasions with family and friends close by. all of the grandparents celebrated her day with her, along with some friends and other family. thank you everyone for making her day special!!

school's out, ring the bell....

2011-06-03T22:10:00.003-07:00

school is finally out, now if we could just have some real summer weather around here! abby graduated from kindergarten with flying colors, ;o) and caitlin got a little card that says she's 'accepted into 3rd grade next year' phew...we were worried. haha. now on to summer schedules and hitting the waterpark!

cute little graduate

abby and her sweet teacher ms. parkins

this is how caitlin and madisen felt about the last day of school. lol

caitlin's 2nd grade class. her teacher was mrs. king, hence the crowns

dance recital #2 of the year...and the girls did fabulous

nate and i left the girls overnight with his parents and hit the country concert out in tooele last weekend. we got there at 5pm, concert started at 7pm, we finally left early at 10:15pm. it rained (POURED!) from the second we stepped out of the van, and was still pouring when we left. we had ponchos, blankets and umbrellas, and we were still drenched. the concert was GREAT though, reckless kelly started, they were pretty good. sawyer brown did a BANG-UP job for how long they've been around. and finished off with a great show from dierks bentley. good concert, would have been PERFECT without the rain.

odds'n'ends

2011-05-15T13:42:00.003-07:00

just some random pictures to throw into the mix of my catch-up posting:

sweet sisters....love it

emma loves sleeping on the top bunk with abby. the only problem is that she then thinks it's party time for the next 2 hours.

ha! so poor caitlin was feeling sick a couple of weeks ago and throwing up. i sent her to bed early with a bowl in case she couldn't make it to the bathroom. i went up to check on her 10 minutes later and this is how she was sleeping....

soo funny!

emma my little style queen. she only changes outfits and dress ups about 25 times a day. job security for momma.

emma's 1st dentist appt...she did great! she went in the other room all by herself while they were cleaning my teeth, and she didn't even complain. i was shocked! (yup...more dressups...)

ok let's be honest here. abby brings home a 'bag book' every day that she reads and then returns the next day. she is in KINDERGARTEN remember, and she's FIVE YEARS OLD mind you. this is the book she came home with last week. REALLY?!! you should have flipped through the pages. there were stories of ladies dying and their heads falling off, then their heads haunting other people, stories of people coming out of there graves to haunt people, the list goes on. and illustrations on each page. hellooooo people...not only is this not appropriate for my little 5 year old, but for ANY 5 year old! ugh. needless to say i sent this bad boy back to school (without letting her even look at it) with a note saying it's not exactly age-appropriate. doy.

yee haww! i mean HEE hawww farms...

2011-05-15T13:28:00.002-07:00

my neighbor had some passes to hee haw farms that she let us use with them a couple weeks ago. it was so much fun for the kiddos, kelly's favorite part was the exhaust-train-ride. ;o)

ya bunch 'o animals!

the 'slide'. could possibly induce labor for anyone expecting. and could herniate discs in anyone else's backs.

carson loved it though :o)

notice the difference in this picture? kelly had to keep carson from charging every animal. abby is staying as far back as physically possible.

abby may have touched one hair on this calf...maybe not.

cute girls

now those are some fun swings...what a good idea

projects

2011-05-15T12:16:00.005-07:00

i've been doing some projects lately to get ready for this baby. we're going to have to do some room switching and furniture swapping...luckily i've found some great deals at d.i., etc... on cheap stuff to refinish.

caitlin needed her own 'space' to do homework. found this bad boy at d.i. for $5, i wish i would've gotten a 'before' picture so you could appreciate this after look. the necklace holder was 75 cents at d.i. so i refinished it at the same time.

this is my 1st go at a carrier-cover-canopy-thingy. i used a pattern one of the resident's wives emailed me..and kind-of did my own spin on it. it turned out ok, it'll work for the likes of this bebe boy. now i can't wait for his little mini bum to be sitting in that carrier!

i got this dresser/changing table for $40 on ksl. it's from ikea, i think normally $179. anyways, the finish wasn't in bad shape at all, but i wanted black to match his crib and such. so i tried my hand for the 1st time at refinishing a dresser. it wasn't too bad, but i am in no way a professional spray-painter...i had a few runs, etc...

sanded

primed

painted

assembled...almost

done. not too shabby?

i modge-podged fabric on the backing that matches the fabric i'm going to use to make the crib bedding.

these are the fabrics i'm going to use...we'll see how it all turns out.

fun with visitors

2011-05-15T12:08:00.002-07:00

my next door neighbor from missouri and her sweet girls stopped by on their way into town to visit. it was such a breath of fresh air to visit and catch up with them. i love how our girls always just pick up where they left off a couple of years ago. thanks for stopping by ladies!!

maeva (the pics shows her fun personality), emma, caitlin, olivia, estelle, abby

these two...so much fun together.

my aunt gloria and uncle gary stopped by on their way back home a couple of weeks ago. i didn't get a picture of them, but this is the girls in their camper riding back from grandma debbie's. the girls LOVE their camper.

easter enjoyment

2011-05-12T07:23:00.002-07:00

to say i'm behind on posting would be a serious understatement. here goes my best attempt at catching up picture-style....

easter sunday beauties. (caitlin had eye infections....)

sweet innocent emma was so thrilled with every egg she found

my little abs

caitlin's loot so far...

the hairdo of the day

we went to my mom's for dinner, and she did an easter egg hunt for the girlies too

sweet cousins. all girls...for now!

egg dying fun...managed to not dye any clothing. phew.

emma just woke up from her nap...hence the grumpy face.

i LOVE the 'just woke up but excited' pics of holiday mornings.

emma couldn't figure out why she had loads of candy so early in the morning. no complaints though.

sweet little aubs

2011-05-01T21:20:00.003-07:00

went to sweet little aubrey jo's blessing today. she's a doll. (doll-sized too!) it was beautiful, she was beautiful, and she is the sweetest baby!

still to come: easter, current projects, visitors, and hee-haw farms. YES i am behind on my posting. stay tuned.

sunny st. george

2011-04-18T14:18:00.004-07:00

we took a quick trip to st. george a couple of weeks ago to meet up with some friends from medical school. (aka...to let the boys go mountain biking.) the weather was perfect the whole time. the girls went shopping every day while the boys earned sore rear-ends biking. it was a great trip and it was SO FUN to see the wilkins and spend time with them and their cute kiddos!

the manly men.

the co-shoppers

this splash park on main street was super fun for the kids. they need something like this in springville!

the girls were walking around like this chanting "girl's club" over and over. several people asked if they were all mine. ha! that'd be a LOT of estrogen!

we celebrated nate's 32nd birthday while we were there.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUNSAH!!!

had to sneak in a picture of cute bowen to prove that he really was on the trip with us. and i didn't get any pictures of katie...aaaa! sad. but she WAS there and we had a blast! thanks guys for the good times and great memories! until next time.....

it's great to be...

2011-04-14T07:58:00.006-07:00

caitlin was lucky enough to turn 8 on saturday and be baptized on the same day. what a wonderful day for her to remember! everything went wonderfully, and we are so grateful to so many friends and family who braved the awesome spring weather (not!) to come share this special day with caitlin.

caitlin was baptized by her daddy, and her little friend from primary greta was baptized the same day. the font had a hard time filling up for some reason, the water barely came up to nate's knees. good thing caitlin is on the short side!

my sweet sis and her hubby came all the way down with a 9 day old baby and post-c-section momma. you guys are the BEST...thanks for coming!!

congratulations sweet caitlin! we love you so much!

diary of a surgery

2011-04-06T19:13:00.005-07:00

this will most likely be boring (and possibly long) for anyone reading. i wanted to document the days after my surgery for my own journaling though. so if you're bored...stick around and read about my knee surgery:

day 1

pre-surgery. hungry, and LOVING the booties they gave me. skin-toned and all. sooo hot!

coming out of anesthesia: although i do not remember getting this picture taken. (good thing because if i would have been conscious i would have refused a picture). nate is rotating with the orthopaedic surgeon next month, so he let nate come in the OR.

the 1st thing i heard when i came out of anesthesia was the sound of my baby's heart beating. i heard the nurse say "135-138 beats per minute" and i just broke down into tears. i was so afraid that something would go wrong during surgery, and i had been praying and praying that the baby would be okay through it all. i was overcome with gratitude that the baby was just fine. no better sound in the world than that.

when we went home from the hospital i was nauseous and throwing up all day. surprisingly my knee didn't even hurt at all. "sweet, this is going to be so easy" i thought. neither nate nor the surgeon informed me that my knee was full of lidocaine at the time, and that when it wore off i would want to saw my leg off. i didn't take any lortab all day, i felt no pain at all. we went to bed that night, and i woke up at 4am in worse pain than i have ever felt in my life. i can't even describe it, i wished i was in labor instead. i just held my leg and sobbed uncontrollably, not even caring if i woke the kids (or the neighbors) up. nate finally convinced me to get some lortab in my system, and after about 1/2 hour it took the edge off just enough to fall back asleep for a bit. i guess it wasn't going to be as easy as i had thought.

day 2

pain. pain. and more pain. i had to lay on my back with my leg elevated, with ice on it as much as possible. the problem with that? past 16 weeks of pregnancy you're not supposed to lay on your back. so i was switching off trying to angle my back every few minutes from one side to the other, all the while trying not to move my leg a centimeter. the pain was still unbearable, i got up a total of 3 times to use the bathroom, and thought i was going to die in pain each time. even if someone sat on the other end of the couch i would start crying in pain. i had NO idea it would be that painful. the surgeons and nurses made it sound like it was going to be SO easy. easy for them to say, while you are still all drugged/numbed up at the hospital. then they send you on your way and never see the after effects.

ice pack tied to my knee...not giving me near enough cooling.

switched to a bigger bag of ice and used some tights from heather (that she got in russia) to keep it tied on. the many uses of tights from russia.

day 4

i couldn't WAIT for day 4 to roll around. i had to wait 72 hours to unwrap my massive leg, and i was anxious to see how it was healing. interesting how they say if you notice signs of infection the 1st couple days to go in to the ER. a LITTLE hard to see when you can't even unwrap it for 3 days. when i unwrapped it i couldn't believe how much stuff they had wrapped in there. i'm sure just for all the wrap supplies they charged our insurance a thousand dollars. it had an ace wrap, a roll of what looked like quilt batting, layers and layers of gauze wrapped, 3 square maxi-pad things, yellow netting-tape, and then the steri-strips. no WONDER i couldn't feel the ice when i'd ice it for 2 hours straight!

i was in HEAVEN finally unwrapping it all...

one square maxi-pad: $200

one gauze square: $150

i had to add this picture. notice the YES on my leg. you have to write a yes on the leg they are supposed to do surgery on, and the surgeon has to sign your leg prior to surgery. wouldn't want them to do the wrong leg. and it's happened before...sad!

emma was such a trooper. she'd cuddle up next to me on the couch and play, or read, or just fall asleep.

day 5

the pain was slowly getting better. days 1, 2, and 3 i really just thought i couldn't take the pain. but of course it slowly eased up. this was pretty much my life. laying on the couch with ice, and crutches at arm's reach. (thanks bishop and jen). and the table scooted close to the couch with everything i could ever need on it. one of the mornings my sweet mom even put an orange on the table for me to eat, and a washrag in a plastic bag for me to wipe my hands off with. aside from the pain and longer-than-i-wanted-recovery, i have been SO BLESSED with all the help i've received. more on that later....

emma plopped down next to me and started 'reading' the scriptures. she was holding them upside down and singing "i am a child of god" pointing to the book like she was following along. love that girl.

day 6

oh WHAT? they look exactly the same size to me. yuk.

at this point i really thought my leg would never be the same.

day 9

followed up with my surgeon...and i was super bummed to hear how long he said my recovery would be. he kept saying how bad the tear was that they had to cut out, and that recovery alone would be at least 6-8 weeks, and i wouldn't be completely back to normal with no pain for 6-12 months. he also said the part of the bone they had to grind off would cause a lot of pain (yup...felt that already) and that it was abnormal for a person my age to have that much wear on my joints already. bummer...guess i better be more careful with my knees.

while i was at the surgeon's office, half of nate's family came to my house and cleaned and scrubbed it from top to bottom for over 3 hours. i can't tell you the sense of peace i felt afterwards to have a perfectly clean house again. call me a perfectionist or whatever, but i like to have a clean house whenever possible. and i was about going INSANE with a messy house, and not being able to do anything about it. i can't thank them enough for coming to clean for so long. and thanks to jen for offering to do it the same day :o)

day 13

bye bye crutches!! YES the surgeon said i have to use crutches until i can 'walk without a limp'. easy for him to say...but impossible for me to do with stairs, being pregnant, and having 3 kids. i kicked the crutches to the curb, and started focusing on walking properly, rather than limping like a wooden leg. it was slow as all get-out, but i was determined to get my life back.

day 15

1st day of physical therapy. why don't they just call it physical torture? come on people. yes it was painful, but it has helped SO much to get my range of motion back.

yet another sweet emma moment that made me laugh. she came downstairs with her mouth closed and then bore these bad boys. i couldn't stop laughing..what a goofball.

day 18

do you see it?! it's a kneecap!! i wondered if it was really still in there. this pic was from saturday driving back from st. george. my knee/pain/swelling/range-of-motion has improved drastically the past few days. i am almost not even limping!! i still can't wait for the day that i can sit 'criss cross applesauce' on the floor while i work on projects. or even kneel on my knee (which i was told today at PT will probably be months. boo.) but i have been so blessed to heal quickly through this whole journey.

i can't even begin to list and thank everyone for all of their selfless service to us during this hard time for me. people taking the kids on so many occasions, bringing dinner, bringing us ice because ice makers can't keep up with knee surgeries, meals, desserts, breakfast foods, crutches, cleaning my house, cleaning my kitchen, bringing my garbage can up from the street, the list goes on and on forever. you know who you are, and i am grateful for each and every one of you. i have been so humbled through this experience, and i am so grateful that everything has turned out ok. here's to a more normal knee soon!!

visitors times two!

2011-04-06T18:50:00.002-07:00

maile and kids stopped by to visit for a day while they were in utah for their spring break. it was SO nice to see them, oh how i miss them. on their way back out of town maile stopped by and brought me some yummy truffles after my surgery. (my thighs thank you maile).

emma took this picture. i kinda like not having to see myself on camera! maile looks great though...

the rynearsons (minus katie) stopped by for a bit as well. katie last minute had a chance to see her sister and her sister's new baby, so she stayed up in salt lake. it was fun to see scott and the kiddos and catch up a bit. and we missed you katie! thanks for letting them come by anyways....

emma and nathan were so cute, they kind-of buddied up the whole time.

so fun to see friends again!

of course the girls dressed up and caitlin choreographed dances the whole night. they were so cute.

sweet new niece!

2011-04-06T18:46:00.002-07:00

sweet new baby aubrey jo came a little early last week. sarah was put through the ringer with several health issues, but after a c-section amongst other things, she is finally recovering at home with her sweet new little bundle.

congrats sarah and jake!

three already!!

2011-04-05T18:20:00.003-07:00

our little emma is THREE years old already! it seems like yesterday she was just a baby. ok, let's be honest...it DOES seem like it's been three years. not because she's been a hard child at all, just because in those 3 years we've lived in 3 different states, gone from medical school to residency, etc...

a few emma-isms of late:

emma LOVES to sing. she sings all. the. time. the other day she was crying in her room, and we were all laughing because through crying she was still singing a high school musical song.
emma is stubbornly independent. she wants to do everything by herself. if you even offer to help, she is offended.
emma is FUNNY. she has the sense of humor of an adult, and she just makes us laugh non-stop.
emma still loves company in nursery. in other words, YES she is 3 and she still won't go to nursery the whole time by herself. and no it's not because we don't let her cry it out. if we leave her, they come get us after she's been screaming so long they can't take it. oh emma, we love you.
emma's favorite things to do are be outside, dress-up, and play dolls.

we just love our little eeems, and i can't imagine life without her. i am so grateful for the past 3 years of my life that have been blessed with her in it.

emma proudly displaying her 'free birthday tokens' coupon for chuck-e-cheese on the way there.

now THAT'S how you get the most use out of tokens at chuck-e's. one token, 5 kids.

thought this was hilarious that cait and brookie had to pull their bodies to the steering wheel to be able to reach the pedal.

great form for skee ball abs. ;o)

ems' eatin some birthday goodness that carrie brought.

micah and family came with us to celebrate his 1st birthday. don't even ACT like you don't love those cheeks.

100% boy!

2011-03-14T15:50:00.003-07:00

we had our 'real' ultrasound today and it is definitely 100% boy! good job nate on calling the gender so early on. ;o) i'm thrilled, and yet a little anxious for a boy.we had the ultrasound with a perinatologist so they could check everything and make sure the baby is healthy. everything checked out perfectly, so my knee surgery is scheduled for this wednesday morning. (after an MRI last week, they found a lot more damage than we ever expected, so surgery is a must to fix it.) it is bittersweet...it will be nice to get it done and get recovering the next month or so before the baby comes. but i am stinking scared of the pain, surgery, etc!!! wish me luck...prayers accepted!

for the nielson ladies...

2011-03-09T13:41:00.001-07:00

lull

2011-02-24T21:06:00.005-07:00

it is the end of february in utah which means? (drumroll please)......not much new! life is just kinda rollin along right now. not much new or exciting, just plugging along and doin' the usual.

valentine's morning

caitlin had her 2nd grade program tonight and she did fantastic!

her teacher scooted into the isle right in front of her about 2 songs into it, so i wasn't able to get any good pics or videos after that. but she did so good! unfortunately nate was on-call. :o( but my mom came with me and gave us hot fudge sundaes after, so caitlin was happy about that!

um...emma? get off caitlin's lap. don't you know this is a professional performance?!

update on my knee: so my meniscus is torn, and a few days after my last appointment i took a small spill down the stairs and landed the worst way possible on my bad leg. needless to say it worsened the pain and swelling immensely. i had my follow-up appointment yesterday, and despite being pregnant she drained my knee and gave me a steroid injection to help the pain and swelling for right now. i really have been using my leg as a wooden leg the past few weeks, i haven't been able to bend it or use it other than that. the doc is now researching into options of arthroscopic surgery and trying to find a surgeon that will perform the surgery on a pregnant woman such as myself. risk of clots goes way up having surgery while pregnant, but she feels the tear is bad enough it needs to be done asap. the second trimester seems to be the safest trimester, so she wants to get it done soon. and let's be honest...there's no way i could have knee surgery right after having a newborn, and nate being gone all the time. it just wouldn't work! so i'm kind-of in limbo waiting to see what's going to happen. but as for now, the steroid has already lessened the swelling and pain, which is A-MAZING for now. so there ya have it...i'll keep everyone updated as we figure things out.

i've finally weaned emma off insisting that i lay by her until she falls asleep, be it during naps or at night. (i means she IS only almost 3....) this DOES mean however, that she tends to play and sing and sneak around the house before she falls asleep. this day (pictured) i found her in her bed later with her 2 babies by her, wrapped in blankets, and she gave each of them a toy to sleep with. what a darling emma is! she makes us laugh all. day. long.

let's see....the baby still looks like a boy. :o) and YES i've found a couple cute clearance outfits for baby boys...so i'm starting to get excited. we have our REAL ultrasound in a couple weeks, so hopefully then we'll know for sure for sure for sure. i'm feeling so much better pregnancy-wise though, so that's been awesome.

i think that's it for now. you can tell how down-and-out i've been with my knee lately, and how little we've done in the past few weeks, because i went to the 'february picture file' and so far there are 7 pictures total from the whole month. we have missionaries getting home, baptisms of friends and family, people coming to visit, and all of our birthdays coming up soon, so we'll be busier than we can handle pretty soon!

that's all for now folks. hang on to your seats...spring is coming soon. right? please???

you be the judge

2011-02-10T13:19:00.003-07:00

nate did another ultrasound on sunday, and the above shot is the best 'gender' view we were able to get. it looks like a little more equipment than our girls have....but we'll see for sure. (if it IS a boy...nate is THRILLED with all caps.)

this baby NEVER stops moving. or doing somersaults. OR sucking it's thumb. we just missed in this bottom pic getting a shot with thumb in mouth. so crazy!

family vacation!!

2011-02-08T21:15:00.002-07:00

well we did it! we made it to disneyland, then to blissful arizona, then back. the trip went without a hitch (if you don't consider my knee a hitch ;o). we were surrounded by good friends the whole time, and we had a blast. an absolute blast. it's amazing how much more important family vacation is when nate isn't around very much. we met up with the stansfields at disneyland, and the girls had the time of their lives!

caitlin immediately became attached to dylan. she is going to be SUCH a good helper when we have this baby!

i love how these girls just took up where we left off in arizona. still best friends...they had a blast.

we came across pocahontas with no line to meet her. she spent so much time with these girls...5 little princesses. i love how lily was helping emma be included in the conversation.

had to document that sweet dylan was in fact at disneyland.

my little minnie. she's growing up!

the girls and dad...this was the longest line of the entire trip. 25 minutes for the autopia cars that you inhale more exhaust than you will in your whole lifetime.

emma was so thrilled that she was finally big enough for gadget's go coaster!

she's still a lover of small world. not hard to please these girls at disneyland.

nate took the shooting rides extremely seriously. i think he broke the world record. or something.

emma and i went on this when the others were on the big rides. probably 10 times. she loved it. i think she single-handedly defeated zurg.

even cinderella gets all worn out.

cuuute friends.

another favorite of the girls. heimlich's chew chew train is QUITE the thrill ride. take some dramamine before this bad boy. ;o)

the other carousel was closed (boo...one of emma's faves). so this one had to do. still adorable. well...at least the girls are.

now THIS is a fashion statement. for sure.

jumpin jellyfish. yet another fave, and yes another extreme thrill ride.

it got up to about 60 degrees, but nate and cait went on grizzly river run SEVERAL times. they had to go to the hotel to change they were so drenched.

awwwwww.

this was probably emma's TOP favorite ride. but seriously, she just loved them all.

nice ride, right? yes, this is real. my knee flared up monday, and by tuesday i could hardly walk. gary comp'd us a wheelchair, and this was my mode of transportation. finally saw a sports med doc yesterday, and she said it looks like i tore my meniscus. oh boy.

newport beach! i could sit on the beach and listen to the waves for the rest of my life. i absolutely love it.

it was pretty chilly, so i thought if i told the girls to roll their pants up, they'd stay clean and dry. yeah. right.

lovers on the beach

in arizona caitlin got to play at her best friend katie's house all day. oh how she misses her! they had so much fun...and katie has gotten so tall!

we stopped by meg's house as well, how abby misses this girl!

of course we had to go to our old park by our house. i sat in the sun and reminisced of the good ole days. haulin' the kids and brody to the park and letting them play almost every day. those were the days!

we also went to the traditional superstition mall, got snacks, and let the kids play outside by the waterfall area. they were so happy to be OUTSIDE playing on green grass!

and this is me. soaking in every last drop of sun outside, and willing that day to never end. it was bliss. (yes, those are palm trees in the background. i miss them!)

we stopped by katie's parent's house to visit her and see her kids. we met bowen and he is a doll! a very chunky doll ;o) it was so nice to see people we haven't seen in soooo long!

we also stopped by justin and maile's, and they fed us all a scrumptious GF dinner and dessert. thanks guys for the good food and company..and sorry i forgot to bust out my camera!!

on our way out of town we stopped by my grandma's in surprise, and yet again i forgot to get my camera out. she fed us a great lunch and we had a good time visiting.

a HUGE thank you to danny and lindsay for letting us stay at your house and being such wonderful hosts!! we miss you so much already.

abby is a girl of her mother's heart. once we left and started the long drive to utah, we looked in the back of the van and abby was sobbing. we couldn't figure out what happened, and she finally told us she never wanted to leave arizona. :o( we love that place!! if we missed visiting anyone...we'll catch ya next time! can't wait for our next visit out there...it puts a smile on my face.

nine

2011-02-07T21:03:00.010-07:00

from this....

to this....

....the past 9 years of my life have been all i could have ever dreamed of and more. the day i married the man of my dreams began a wonderful journey of companionship. a journey of love, laughter, trials, faith, dreams, hope, and support. and now we are a family of 5, soon to be 6. i never imagined how my life would be 9 years later, but i wouldn't change a thing. i love my sweet amazing hubby more than words could ever describe. happy anniversary 'buns'...you 100% complete me. without you i am nothing, and i am so grateful for the life you have given us together. i wish we could spend this day together...maybe i'll sneak up to the hospital and we can have a romantic dinner in the hospital cafeteria. ;o)

here's to many more wonderful years of togetherness to come!

a new favorite song for our anniversay:

SMILE (i LOVE this song...you really do make me smile!)

You´re better then the best
I´m lucky just to linger in your light
Cooler then the flip side of my pillow that´s right
Completely unaware
Nothing can compare to where you send me
Lets me know that it´s ok
Yeah it´s ok
And the moments when my good times start to fade

You make me smile like the sun
Fall outta bed
Sing like a bird
Dizzy in my head
Spin like a record
Crazy on a Sunday night

You make me dance like a fool
Forget how to breathe
Shine like gold
Buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild
Oh, you make me smile

Even when you´re gone
Somehow you come along
Just like a flower poking through the sidewalk crack and just like that
You steal away the rain and just like that

You make me smile like the sun
Fall outta bed
Sing like a bird
Dizzy in my head
Spin like a record
Crazy on a Sunday night

You make me dance like a fool
Forget how to breathe
Shine like gold
buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild
Oh, you make me smile

Don´t know how I lived without you
'Cuz every time that I get around you
I see the best of me inside your eyes
You make me smile
You make me dance like a fool
Forget how to breathe
Shine like gold
Buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild

You make me smile like the sun
Fall outta bed
Sing like bird
Dizzy in my head
Spin like a record
Crazy on a Sunday night

You make me dance like a fool
Forget how to breathe
Shine like gold
Buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild
Oh, you make me smile
Oh, you make me smile
Oh, you make me smile

is it still winter?

2011-01-18T08:15:00.005-07:00

New Year's Eve we went to a friend's house and had a little par-tay with games, and a super fun wii-dance game and such. There was only one casualty, and that was when Nate got a little too into his dance moves, and gave our friend's 2-year-old a bloody nose. Yikes! We went home about 10pm, and the girls insisted I wake them up at midnight to bang pots and pans and have sparkling apple cider. So wake them up I did, only Caitlin refused to wake up. OF COURSE in the morning she was ticked at me...and didn't remember that I in fact DID try to wake her up. Ah well, you can't win them all. It was a super fun night all-in-all. Can't believe it's 2011 already!

The kids had a strange sleep night the other night. I went in to check on them before bed, and I found Caitlin in this skee-wampus position. I guess the wall needed a pillow more than she did.
Then I went into Abs and Ems room, and at first I was startled thinking Emma wasn't in her bed. Upon further investigation, I found her just all snuggled up by Abs. Crazy kids.

This is the story of Emma's cooped-up-inside-all-winter life lately. It consists of dress-ups, and sitting at my computer watching Disneyland Rides on the internet. And yes she can navigate the computer...scary! I think my 2-year-old knows more about Disneyland than most adults do. :oD

Not much else new around here. Just trying to survive this nasty cold winter weather. A little (ok a LOT) too cold, gray, and cooped-up for the likes of me. Hopefully we'll be able to visit AZ this winter and get a little respite from the cold.

Oh yeahhhhhh....and one last thing: I'm sure most of you have heard, but....

We have #4 in the oven!!!

I have been gradually feeling better as the days go on. It's amazing how you hit that 'magical' 11 week mark, and things just start working themselves out. I was just miserable every day with a combination of nausea, fatigue, severe gas pain, acid reflux, and headaches. Hopefully soon I'll be feeling completely back to normal! We're excited for a new little one at the beginning of August. Will we finally get a boy?! We'll see......

all things winter

2011-01-07T08:06:00.008-07:00

not much to say...just wanted to upload our pics from the last few weeks.

nate's parents stopped by on Christmas Day, love them!

all the granddaughters got cute 'poofy skirts' for Christmas from grandma and grandpa nielson

typical emma reaction when you tell her to smile for the camera. large tantrum ensues.

the divas

my lil' abs getting an award. (don't mind the socks. her teacher took them on a 'nature walk' a day it snowed SEVERAL inches. their shoes got wet, so she had them wear socks around school the rest of the day. yes, wet halls, wet socks. ???)

Scholar of the Month award

Cait and Abs dance recital. they both did AWESOME!

caitlin and her friend kamree ready to perform

good job ladies!

the day we got 16" of snow!

all ready to go get whitewashed!

grandma debbie came to play in the snow too (and build a SNOWGIRL!)

cait and awesome momma with no makeup on. yeeee hawww!

our snowgirl

all the granddaughters at my mom's for Christmas Eve (granddaughter #6 is in sarah's bell-eh)

nate was on-call Christmas Eve, so we went to the hospital to open Christmas Eve jammies with him.

nate recorded a reading of "The Night Before Christmas" in this cute Hallmark book that records you reading each page. so he 'read' the girls that book before bed.

Christmas time!!

the ONLY thing emma wanted from Santa was a giant marshmallow lollipop. and giant marshmallow lollipop she got!

nate's reaction when he saw his secret present: a tool chest he's been wanting forEVER.

the LARGEST art set i've EVER seen. thanks dad and carla!

all in all christmas was good, the dance recital was good, everything just went great this holiday season. it was so nice to live close to family for all of the festivities!

gotta catch up!

2010-12-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

aaaaa!!! how do i EVER get so far behind on my blog posts?! here's my best attempt at a quick catch up...in random order.

just cute..this girl loves monkeys.

caitlin was awarded the Scholar of the Month award in November. such a smart cookie!!

the girls went to the ward Christmas party with the Bishop's family because they wanted to sing in the program, and we had a residency Christmas party the same night. thanks guys for taking 3 extra kids that night!!

brooke and abs with st. nic

best friends

abs and ems wanted to push their beds together to make a giant bed so they could all have a sleepover in the same room.

abby received her Letter Master award the other day in her class. her teacher is so cute.

i flew out this past weekend for a short 2-day trip to my aunt gloria's house for my grandpa murphy's memorial. it was so nice to be there with family, and my mom and sister were able to be there as well. the memorial was PERFECT. i didn't get as many pics as i wanted, i'll get some from my mom and post them soon. these will have to suffice for now....

mom making some gourmet lasagne

my cute preggo sister sarah and i. she and jake were the masterminds behind the darling gingerbread men.

the military came to play taps and such for my grandpa. it was so sweet...a PERFECT addition to his memorial.

my mom and her siblings paying tribute to the wonderful man my grandpa was.

ok, so this was ADORABLE. my cousin's sweet little baby ryan was SOOO tired, but he just would not fall asleep. they handed him over to bob, and the SECOND he hit bob's shoulder, he was fast asleep.

abby wrote this message for me on her white board the other day and left it downstairs for me to find. how stinkin' cute is that? brownie points, for sure.

christmas time!

emma and the crazy faces she pulls. what a goofball.

my aunt sent my girls an aquadoodle after they fell in love with the one at her house. such a great idea...why have i never seen these before?

when we were in california in october, nate spent a lot of time in gary's shop making a coat rack for by our garage door. it turned out AMAZING...i love it!

the girls and our cute neighbor hayden havin' a sleepover.

first snow to play in....and the girls loved it (surprisingly enough)

thanksgiving at my mom's house with my side of the fam. cute cousins! no boys...and we're pretty sure sare is having a girl too. GIRL POWER!

nielson family thanksgiving. look at these good daddy's taking care of the babies.

boys on cleanup crew.

my girls fight over who gets to hold brinlee every time we're around them.

so i took the girls to feed the ducks/fish at a pond the last day of good weather this fall. we took a bunch of bread, rolls, and buns, and the ducks, seagulls, and fish were LOVING it. until some lady pulled into the parking lot on the other end, and unloaded BOXES and BOXES of bagels and donuts and bread into the pond. she must work for a HUGE bakery, and she must've been getting rid of the stale food. i was irritated at 1st because my girls were having so much fun feeding the ducks, until they realized there was better food somewhere else. but then we started noticing the FUNNIEST thing! the fish would eat the bagels, but they would be pushing them across the pond while eating them. it was so funny to watch a bunch of bagels moving around the pond seemingly by themselves. (video is on the bottom...if it shows up)

last one :oD

2010-11-30T19:22:00.001-07:00

THIS is how it should be!

2010-11-30T19:14:00.002-07:00

Surf's Up! No more freezing weather and snow! THIS is what I wish I was doing this winter....

A Little Holiday Rock....

2010-11-30T18:59:00.000-07:00

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In Loving Memory

2010-11-29T22:03:00.006-07:00

My dear sweet Grandpa Murphy passed away earlier this afternoon. I could never imagine a life without him in it as my Grandpa. He was the BEST Grandpa any person could ever ask for. He was funny, fun, witty, and loved us unconditionally. So tonight I want to remember some of the wonderful things about my Grandpa Murphy.

Grampa Murphy and Gramma Jo

As you can see in most of these pictures, Grampa was VERY proud of his grandkids, and his great-grandkids. He rarely left the house without a t-shirt on that had pictures of the great-grandkids on it. Anywhere he would go, people would comment on his shirts, and he would (very proudly) tell them who each one was, and brag about how cute they are.

As you can also see, Grampa didn't leave the house without his WWII veteran's hat worn proudly on his head. He was a patriot, and LOVED to tell about how he drove Bing Crosby and Bob Hope around in a jeep during the war as they would provide entertainment for the troops.

Of course you don't get Grampa Murphy without Gramma Jo. She was his EVERYTHING. Two peas in a pod. They were made for each other, and she waited on him hand and foot every minute of the day when he couldn't do things for himself. She was a lifesaver to him. They are so lucky to have each other. May you be blessed with comfort Gramma Jo...you'll see your sweet other half again in heaven. We love you Gramma.

All growing up Grampa Murphy and Gramma Jo would come get us in their van, and drive us to their house to sleepover for the weekend. It was a party time for us. We would have our own jammies in drawers under their waterbed. He had an ENTIRE candy/treat room. And I'm serious. What kid doesn't LIVE for candy, ya know? He would let us pick little bags of candy, or soda. We would each 'claim' what recliner we wanted to sleep on. Then he would help us feed Mugsy and Muffin and Penny (his yorkies) their 'Pupperonis' from on top of our ears. :o) The dogs even knew which ear was for them. What fun memories we'll always cherish of our weekends at Grampa's house.

Grandpa was FUNNY. He was a jokester. Always teasing, joking, having fun, making everyone laugh. This is him with his best friend Jack Kluge who passed a few years back.

Boy how he loved his great granddaugthers. I've never seen a great grandpa as proud as he was.

Although we may not share the same religion, I know that Grampa is in Heaven watching down on us. I know Gramma Jo will, as will the rest of us, be with him again someday. I owe so many wonderful memories, and so much of my childhood to him. I love you so much Grampa. I'm so glad we were able to come out and visit a few weeks ago and spend time together. You will ALWAYS be in our hearts.

california!

2010-11-10T13:04:00.014-07:00

i promised it was coming, and here it is! i had to cheat and make collages of the pictures, since there are over 70 of them. i just couldn't leave any fun pictures out!

synopsis: nate got a few vacation days, so we decided to drive out to grass valley, california to visit my mom's side of the family. we stayed at gloria and gary's BEAUTIFUL house (or should i say the 'apple estate' ;o). the trip was packed with wonderful family, much fun, great food, and much more. the girls were able to meet and play with kimmy, lily, and ryan (my cousins' kids), and they had a blast.

we also were able to sneak awayand go to auburn, where i grew up. it was fun to see my old house, old school, and everything else i remember as a child.

i'll try to summarize each collage, we'll see how this goes:

first off, blogger won't let me move these pictures down where i want them. so here they stay. this is the house i grew up in, in Auburn. i can't believe how small it looks now, and how MASSIVE the trees have gotten! those were just new trees when we lived there. crazy.

and this is the last day of our trip at pauline and bob's. we had a yummy dinner and dessert. thanks guys for hosting! (oh...and check out the piggy back ride travis is giving ALL the girls at once. he rocks.)

we stopped in reno, nv to have dinner with my grandma jo and grandpa murphy. they are the BEST...we love you guys! (that's emma and kimmy on the bottom)

this was the entertainment favorite of the kids the whole trip. gloria found a GREAT new use of her salad spinner. you pack it with ping-pong balls, start pumping it like crazy, and pop the top. it's insane! those things SHOOT out of there, it was hilarious.

out back at the 'apple estate', we had fun in the sand box, hammock, personal driving range (down the mountain)

gary bought an old car and he took us for a ride in it. it was AWESOME...i felt like i was in a dick tracy movie or something. the girls thought it was kind-of strange..no seat belts! their favorite part was the horn of course. the bottom pics are of the kids and abby holding ryan. and then travis giving the girls a ride on the rolling turtle ottoman.

one night we had homemade bbq'd pizza night. gary invented/made his own massive smoker/bbq out back, so we all made our own pizzas and took them out to be cooked. this is nate trying his 'skills' at throwing the dough in the air. i think gloria thought he was a nutcase.

my cousin travis was pretty much the kid entertainer the whole time. he played and played and played with the kids the ENTIRE time. they love him! the bottom pics are of the room we stayed in. it was SO rough to wake up to that beautiful view and the pool out back. ;o)

we visited the empire state mine while in grass valley. it was really cool to see how things were done, and to be able to go a tiny bit down the mine shaft. the girls just had fun with each other. oh, and the bottom left picture-that's my beautiful aunt gloria. she's amazing.

the guys came up with a clever idea. they would 'golf' down the hill, and let the girls try it out too. when they ran out of balls, they would say 'EASTER TIME!' and all the girls would scramble to get as many 'easter balls' as they could find. smart men. oh...and then the pic of emma in the cute bathtub at gloria's.

so we had the downstairs at the 'apple estate' to ourselves. we could have easily fit in 2 rooms, but caitlin opted to have her OWN room. can you tell she loved the queen sized bed all to herself? the girls also loved the wading pool out back. even though it was rather chilly to swim!

one of the days we went to the elementary school's 'harvest carnival'. um..yeah. this put other elementary carnivals to shame. it was so much fun! the top pictures is 'gramma g' (gloria) taking all the girls to get tickets for everything.

i have to explain the bottom 2 pictures. so they had a cake walk (but they used chairs, weird). anyways, the kids all did it. wouldn't you know it, caitlin won. we all were so sad as she walked over to claim her cake prize that she couldn't even eat. she came prancing back with the most proud look on her face. someone had donated a platter of GLUTEN FREE COOKIES for the cake walk that day. it seriously still brings tears to my eyes..it made her week. she was so thrilled! and then she promptly shared with everyone. it was awesome.

my little cotton candy eatin' rockstars.

ok..here we have caitlin's version of a cupcake, carving pumpkins, gloria building a fort for the girls, and of course aunt denise. poor denise, she was so sick when she came. but she made the coolest cupcakes for the kids! i also feel horrible that the bottom right picture is one of the only pictures i got of amanda and pauline. LOVE YOU GIRLS though, thanks for the memories!

and to my school. this is Alta Vista where i went to elementary school. it was a little weird to come to show the girls, and find that it is all closed down, and grown over. i have so many memories there. but i guess times change, eh? and i'll have you know i WAS the student body secretary at that school. i know, i'm famous.

top left: the courthouse in auburn. SUCH an amazing building! then we have cute ryan smiling away...he LOVES his gramma jo. and on the bottom is travis swinging the girls in the hammock, and the marble track travis built.

halloween thus far

2010-10-29T07:06:00.005-07:00

first of all, i PROMISE my california-trip-post is coming. it's going to be a huge post, and i haven't had time to do it yet.

secondly (is that a word?)...for some reason my camera is taking subpar pictures, and i can't figure out why. so pardon the grainy-ness (yet another non-word) of the pictures. :o)

pumpkin carving with 'brooke and madisen' (as the girls call them collectively)

yum. (i try to stay out of the 'cleaning out the junk' with pumpkin carving)

oh the 'grainy-ness'. you get the idea.

megan, caitlin and emma at nate's clinic halloween party. it was so much fun!

emma's cute monster costume...fits her personality.

pumpkin head harvey, pumpkin head harvey. comes around when it's halloween time...

ok, if you haven't heard that song, forget it :o)

happened to catch nate behind the hanging pumpkin. this was our 'room' to hand out candy. (thanks audra and ron for pretty much doing our room for us!)

dr. kirk (a-reeeeba, a-reeeeeeeba!) helping the girls at the witches fishing pond

so the girl on the left and the boy on the right are brother and sister, and their AMAZING mom (another resident wife) MADE, yes MADE their costumes: ariel and flounder. CUUUUUTE!

to die for!! i love henry's face!

the girls had their halloween costume parade at school yesterday. it was so cute! i got roped into doing the 'hula-hoop-on-the-balloon' game after, i don't think i need to work out for a week. it was crazy!

abby and brooke aka supergirl

caitlin was a littlest petshop dog. and yes, that is her teacher.

caitlin's cute friends julia and madisen

i just love kindergarteners! i could squeeze them. so cute and innocent! (usually)

{one more}

2010-10-12T07:53:00.002-07:00

sorry the girls wanted one more :o)

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halloween is in the air...

2010-10-11T21:42:00.004-07:00

i know i KNOW...i did this same one last year. the girls have been begging me to do it though, so i had to give in. enjoy!

(doing this made me realize how much Caitlin and I look alike. crazy!)

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recipes for good times

2010-09-26T08:50:00.006-07:00

Recipe for a fun Farm Residency Activity:

1 part awesome residents/families

1 part ATVs

1 part horses

1 part BEAUTIFUL pasture

1 part awesome weather

1 part smores

Nate is JUST ABOUT in heaven while on this.

Brave girls-sooo surprised Abby actually rode!

Wouldn't be complete without the Smores!

And messy Smores faces.

She just looks like she belongs on a horse.

Such an animal lover this girl is.

Ok, let's be honest. I was more scared than Emma.

I, on the other hand, am NOT a horse lover.

Cute country girls.

Nate ended up being the designated driver of the ATVs for the kids who had dads on call.

(Not that he minded :o)

Recipe for a Rip-Roarin' Massive Slip'n'Slide:

4 parts AgBag (large portion)

1 part Grandpa willing to set it up

1 part tent stakes

1 part hose

1 part hill

1 part cousins

1 part great end-of-September weather!

Cousins. So nice to live close to family!

Ok, don't act like your childhood dream wasn't a slip'n'slide this massive.

I know it was. We could've charged admission for this...it was fun.

Go speed racer!

Fun. Really.

Emma didn't quite get the speed the other girls did. :o)

Sharing apples after the hard work of the slip'n'slide.

So did I try it you ask? Heck yes I did. Jean shorts and all. It really was fun. However, when you run, jump, and land on your rear to go down the slide, the impact jars your brain a little more when you're not a kid anymore. I think the kids thought I was nuts. :o) You only live once, right? (and NO this video is NOT of me jarring my brain on the slip'n'slide :o)

sapporo ichiban

2010-09-20T13:25:00.005-07:00

i, like my friend andrea, have no good title for this blog post. so sapporo ichiban it is. which a friend once told me means "number one noodle" in japanese. (it's their kind of Top Ramen).

we've just been doing the usual lately. trying to enjoy these last warm days before they are all but gone for all too long. we said goodbye to my mom, as she moved to california. i'm so happy for her, but so sad for the girls! (and me). we miss her! one of the last nights she was here we made a cafe rio dinner together. it was fun and i think she's hooked now :o) this picture was in the process of cooking. and yes my haircut is too short and it makes my face look fat. and yes i was wielding a large knife in the picture. she has a spatula for her weapon, you just can't see it.

this is my mom singing to the spatulas. HA! she's going to strangle me for this picture. love you mom!!

our sweet little abs. no reason for this picture, really.

and THESE are my new pull-out cupboard shelves. let's be honest folks, why on EARTH do they build DEEP kitchen cupboards with short shelves?! you can't ever get to anything in the back. so all of your food goes to waste. of course i had complained about this cupboard a couple of times, so nate turned them into pull-out shelves. and i think he did it for about $8 a shelf. worth it? every penny. I LOVE THEM! (and i love him too of course!)

oh, did you need something in the back of the bottom shelf? lemme pull it out for you...

cute kiddos...savoring every last drop of summer weather. abs, ems, and our cute neighbor hayden.

caitlin opted out of the LARGE pool in the backyard. instead she wanted to do homework. ite.

big girl pants!

2010-09-06T12:46:00.004-07:00

and she's POTTY TRAINED!!!

(these are her 'pull-up-panties' she wears at night)

i'll openly admit that i've cheated life in the potty training department. caitlin took 4 days from start to no accidents, abby took 1 day, and emma took a day-and-a-half. for real. i tried for a day to potty train emma in arizona while we were packing and watching brody, but it was just too busy. so i told her when we moved to utah, she could wear panties. but then the yard took a lot of work, and we decided once the girls started school, it was going to be time. so we started on thursday...and she learned so fast!! she must have an awesome bladder, she only has to go about every 4 hours. and she hates wearing diapers or 'pull-up-panties' at night, she insists on wearing 'regular panties' when she sleeps. unfortunately i'm not into the sheet washing every day (here's to you mom-diggity-dawwwg)...so i make her wear them. :o) GOOD JOB EMMA...we are so proud of you!!

the 'sticker chart'. candy didn't work too well as a bribe, but this worked like a dream.

first day of KINDERGARTEN!

2010-08-31T12:16:00.006-07:00

abby started kindergarten today...i say it all the time, but how on earth did she get so big so fast?! she's my little tender-heart, so i kept the tears to a minimum BEFORE i started walking away from her classroom. she has the best teacher, and she is so thrilled, so all-in-all it's a good thing. here's the little beauty in her 1st day of school garb (props to sherst for the stinkin' cute outfit!):

my dear little shorty abs, someday you will be taller than the bottom windows on the classroom :oD

she wanted to ride the bus home with caitlin...(which was nerve-racking for me!)

looks like day #1 was a success!

2nd grade: here she comes...

2010-08-25T20:30:00.004-07:00

first day of school pics
(round one...round two will be in a week when abby starts....)
here's our sweet little 2nd grader. all ready for the big first day at a new school in a new state. new rules, new everything. hard for mom, seems to be easy for her...so far. and yet i still got a little teary-eyed when she got on the bus for the 1st day. will i still be doing that in high school? really.
i was SO ready for us to be back on a routine. but not quite ready for her to be gone all day again.

and this picture has absolutely nothing to do with 2nd grade. meet micah. my chubbiest cutest almost 5-month-old baby nephew. who weighs 20 lbs. for real. i just L.O.V.E. this picture! it is sooo him. he could care less what you think of him, and he'll cry when you hold him just to prove it. and he's got one hand on his mom making sure she's the one holding him. cuz if she ain't...you'll hear about it! but his kissin'-cushion cheeks are just about to die for. oh micah...we love you. and you WILL love me someday too. it will happen. :o)

the latest

2010-08-23T06:29:00.008-07:00

i can't believe school starts tomorrow for Caitlin! and next week for my little Abs. how does time fly by so fast? we've been enjoying the *warm* summer days, and the cool summer nights in Utah. we've been busy with visitors, Nate's retreat, swimming, sleepovers, cousins, etc... once again it's been so fun to see our friends from all over now that we live in Utah, and everyone comes to Utah to visit! :o)

our awesome (highly missed) friends the stansfields stopped by on their way to a family reunion. it was a breath of fresh air....and it was so wonderful to hang out again. finally. we LOVE you guys. for real.

one of the sweetest reunions, ever.

bff. forever.

the other sweetest reunion. this was highly anticipated, and we counted down days since the day we moved. THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY GUYS!!

and of course, the sweetest introduction ever! this is sweet little dylan. we love you, even though we only saw you for a few hours.

didn't take long to get back into the old groove

complete. :o)

our awesome friends (or are you family? we were together enough to be family...) from kirksville were in Utah too...so we met up at Liberty Park to let the kiddos play. i love reunions...seriously. thanks jenny, brade, and ash for hangin out for a while! good luck on the new munchkin soon!

last (but not least!!!) we met up with the Perry's a few times when they were out here as well. they were friends from Kirksville, and they followed us to AZ ;o). and now i am jealous that they are there, and we are not. but it was fun to hang out like good ole' times. thanks guys for taking time with us!!

emma the helper. that IS what wheelbarrow's are for, right?

nate's residency has a family retreat every fall, and a resident reatreat every spring. this fall it was at Bryce Canyon, and it was AMAZING. we were fed wonderfully, had so many fun activities, stayed in a sweet hotel...and got to know the other resident families better. we are so happy with this program, everyone is amazing! and HOW ON EARTH have i lived in utah half my life and never been to this BEAUTIFUL place? it was so breathtaking, i love it.

the cute western couple

that lady has fingers growing out of her neck. wierd.

awwww...so adorable.

jailbirds. right where they belong.

pictures just don't do it justice. it is so amazing, i can't even explain it in words.

worn out hikers. ya like caitlin's choice of pillow?

the men packin' around the kids.

caitlin and cute megan. they became bff's on the retreat. such sweet girls.

i am so terrified of heights...even being that close to the edge was too close for me.

yeah bebe. they get those guns from their mom.

see? AMAZING!

caitlin and abby. or anna. they look so similar!

the 3rd day we hauled the kids on a 3 mile steep hike down, then back up. i think we left a little too late, and it was a little too hot for them. but they were such good troopers!

almost to the top...

champions! we all made it. and yes steve was carrying a sleeping baby with megan on his back. you men are troopers!

tuacahn + felines

2010-08-06T10:50:00.004-07:00

my most amazing talented best friend is in Cats and Tarzan at Tuacahn. now that we FINALLY live in the same state (for once in a loooong time) we had to go see her perform. she's the white cat (Victoria) in Cats...she is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!! her boyfriend troy is Macavity (and Quaxo), so it was fun to see him perform as well. the girls were a little confused why after the show we wanted them to socialize with the 'bad guy'. it took a lot of explaining to convince them (especially emma) that the bad cat is actually erica's boyfriend.

thanks mom for enduring 7 hours in the van in one day to see the show! thank you erica for the tickets and the amazing entertainment. you are talented beyond words! can't wait to see thriller....

oh yeah, and if you haven't ever been to tuacahn, i strongly suggest you make the trip! it is the most beautiful place to see any show. the natural backdrop is astounding....we love it there!

if that isn't the most darling tarzan ever...

the white cat pre-show. (and when emma still liked her)

now emma's not so sure...

erica, troy and the girls

time. sleep. never enough.

2010-07-30T21:13:00.003-07:00

i have been struggling lately trying to get my kids the proper amount of sleep. especially little emma, she just doesn't go to bed early enough, she's up several times at night, and then she's up early in the morning. tonight i had to lay by her for over an hour (combined) to finally get her to go to sleep. and now it's after 10pm, and i don't have much time for the cleaning and organizing, etc... i sent nate a frustrated text, venting about my lack of 'me' time. and then a poem came to mind....

cleaning and cooking can wait till tomorrow,
for babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow.
so quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep
i'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep.

i starting thinking about my true calling in life, and at this point in time, it is that of a mother. not cinderella, not a wonder-housecleaner. but a mother to nurture and raise these 3 sweet girls in the gospel. i tweeked the poem a little to fit my time in life....

cleaning and cooking can wait till tomorrow
for children grow up, we've learned to our sorrow
so quiet down dishes, dust go to sleep
i'm immersed in my children, and children don't keep

hopefully i can keep that simple little poem in mind in the future when i start getting impatient with spending the time i need to spend with my girls. because i am oh-so-blessed with 3 of the most amazingly beautiful and perfect girls.

emerson drive and foliage!

2010-07-26T13:07:00.002-07:00

we had a chance to hit a concert on Pioneer Day, and it was a blast! it was Emerson Drive, and we went with my Dad and Carla. they sounded awesome, and it was SO FUN to see the girls groovin' and singin' along. i'm so glad they enjoy good country music, and good concerts!

we also threw in some plants, bushes, etc... so the yard is done for now. we are still going to put a few trees in the front yard, but where and what kind are still to be determined. for now though, i think the yard looks dang cute. (and i am so sick of having dirt permanently under my fingernails! it doesn't matter how many times i shower, wash my hands, and scrub my nails...it seems that the past few days i've been looking rather dirty-handed.) as for me? i'm going to go have a popsicle.

peace. out.

the yard, the missionary, the 4th, the fun

2010-07-17T14:40:00.013-07:00

Life has been so super crazy busy lately. We finished the yard. Spent time with AZ friends. Sent Joseph off on his mission. And so many other things! Here's a quick picture catch-up:

THE 4TH

The Youngs were here for the 4th of July and we went to the Provo parade with them. It was such a breath of fresh air to see friends again! Thanks for the fun times, and the girls' night Maile!

kiddos at the parade. the provo parade is HUGE! it was fun.

4th of july babe

this was the elberta parade. the girls each ended up with a grocery sack half full of candy, all from about 5 'floats'. i use the term 'float' loosely...it was more like one tractor pulling the cub scouts, and a couple kids riding bikes. seriously. the 'parade' goes up and down the street a couple of times. i LOVE small town fun though...nothing like it. THE YARD

so the Wise Man built his house upon a rock, right? so why not do the same? apparently that's what Salisbury was thinking anyways.....

so yes, our yard is/was pretty much a rock. clay. everything that is hard and immoveable. we thought getting a yard/fence in would take a week. 5 weeks later...sheesh!

we owe a HUGE THANK YOU to so many people who worked tirelessly with us to get the yard leveled, raked, trenched, sprinklers in, raked again, sod laid, etc...

so thank you to dad, mom, and zach for breaking your backs for our yard's sake. we really could not have done it without you. thank you to josh, justin and esteeb for all of your hard work, and yodeling songs while swinging the pick at the trenches. thank you to heather for being the best pregnant water girl ever. thank you to everyone else who helped us at all with this yard...we really wouldn't have had a yard without y'alls help. and buns: thank you for working every minute of the day/night that you were off work to get the yard done. seriously folks...one night i got home late from a movie with a friend, and as soon as i got home (10:30pm) he went out with a headlamp until after midnight working on sprinklers. you're da man buns...for real. love ya.

i love this pic of josh on the neighbor's tractor. you rock josheenia.

breakin' backs....
go parker-boy! he did about half the yard himself.

pourin' the patio. if only it were 12" wider. (lol!)

someone forgot to tell nate you're not supposed to be IN the cement...

oh boy. more back breaking.

the girls enjoyed playing on the rock/dirt piles around the neighborhood while we were working.

all raked, sprinkler-ed, and ready for sod. phewf...that took FOREVER.

looks like a cake-walk, eh? i got to the point that if i saw another rock i thought i would vomit. i now hate rocks.

here comes the sod....

sod-layin' party. thanks dad, zach, buns and heather. (by the way...i really did work my rear-end off too in the yard. i'm just always the camera-woman so you never see me workin' :o)

aaaaaaaaaaaahhhh....done!

the green. the grass. the HUGE smile on my face.

sod: check. curbing: check. sprinklers: check.

and now the fence: check!

i could look at this picture all day. now we just need to throw a few trees, bushes, and flowers in.

THE MISSIONARY
this is my little bro Joseph. we've pretty much been best friends since he was born. he's such a good kid, he's a blast to hang out with, and the girls adore him. (i'm talking about MY girls...but all girls adore him regardless ;o)

of course cait had to try it

my dad and dennis (aka 'bulldorado') providing some live entertainment at one of the last family get-togethers before Joseph left on his mish

he's also the reason my nose is crooked...in case you've ever noticed. i was laying on the floor next to the couch and he was bouning on his knees on the couch, and he bounced off and his knee went straight onto my nose. (this was probably 15 years ago b.t.w...and ironically enough, that is the exact couch that caused me the crooked nose.)

breakfast before the m.t.c.

one last try at the 'claw' machine...he's pro at these things.

had to swing by the clinic so he could say goodbye to the on-call doc

his last few minutes before the M.T.C. were spent doing this: (smart man...)

New Jersey:

please be good to him! you have no idea how lucky you are to have him for 2 years.

we love you poots...we miss you!!

THE FUN

someone traced this chalk figure of Emma at my dad's house...i thought it was sooo funny how it looked just like her with buns in her hair and all

sare gave the girls MUCH NEEDED trims..

emma lasted about 2.5 seconds before she was done

so there ye have it. busy, but fun things going on. :o)

what the huh?

2010-07-08T11:55:00.002-07:00

So Emma gets a sticker on her hand at the end of nursery every Sunday. This was her sticker from last week. What the double?! A toothless little girl with a black eye? I don't get it....
(I got a good laugh out of it though!)

happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T08:14:00.002-07:00