is it still winter?

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

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!