Christmas Memories...

I really can't believe that Christmas is over already! I haven't gotten all of my Christmas decorations up yet. Here are the pictures to document our CRAZY Christmas...

Sydnie with her graham cracker house. Grandma Strong puts these together for us every year.

Grady started eating his house before he even put frosting or candy on it.
Amelia takes decorating her house very seriously! It turned out practically perfect!

On Christmas Eve Amelia wasn't feeling very well so Jason took the kids to his parents house while I stayed home with her. After a couple of hours of just laying in bed on Christmas Eve Amelia was 'feeling better' or more like, 'feeling left out' so we decided to head to grandmas. When we got there I realized she really wasn't doing so well still and I called the doctors office. They advised us to head to the ER to have her checked out. After 'stealing' her blood and a cat scan the Dr. decided that her appendix had ruptured and she would need to have surgery. My Bro Nate and his sweet wife Airaka agreed to put our kids to bed and Amelia gave them strict orders that if they saw Santa they would tell him to come back later! The Surgeon came to the hospital from his Christmas party to check Amelia out. After an examination her told us he thought that she didn't have a ruptured appendix, but instead some big word I don't remember, that meant she had swollen lymph nodes that were causing her pain. To us it was a Christmas miracle! We were so happy that he had figured it out. The nurse told us the same thing had happened to her son, but they didn't figure it out until they had already done the surgery unnecessarily. We are so blessed! Our greatest Christmas gift was having everyone home together on Christmas morning!

We have a silly tradition of blowing up tons of balloons for Christmas morning. We couldn't disappoint the kids, so thanks to Nate and Airaka for staying at our house till after 2 AM making sure we were ready for Santa to come!

Grady's Santa stash...

It looks like Santa was a little cheap this year. I was worried that the kids would be disappointed, but the girls saw our gift to them in the family room downstairs before they came upstairs on Christmas morning. They were really excited about the wii and couldn't really focus on what Santa had brought.

Ainsley loves her new bike and tiny puppy. Sydnie was amazed that even though Ainsley didn't ask Santa for a bike, Santa new that she would love the bike.

Amelia would have been happy with just balloons and her necklace.

Grady with his Laser gun from Grandma and Grandpa.

Sydnie LOVES beads, and the pink Sparkly dress that Santa brought to her. I think Santa must have had a hard time finding a pink Sparkly dress that Syd could wear to church or school in the summer or winter. Good job Santa!

We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas too!

When the dog bites, when the bee stings!

Our talented and adventurous Amelia Joined the school choir, and a couple of weeks ago we were able to go and watch her sing her heart out for us and all of the students parents. Her favorite song was a little tune from the Sound of Music, My favorite things. We had to borrow the movie from Grandma so we could sing it over and over and over.... They did a great job! Even Dad found an extra 30 minutes to spend with the family this Christmas season!
Grandma & Grandpa Strong came to watch also. Even active Ainsley sat still staring strait ahead at the kids the entire time, I wish Church could be that short and entertaining!

The next day Grady was playing quietly in the living room, (quiet is never a good sign in our home) suddenly the quiet ended and the screaming began. Grady was screaming and holding his foot forever before he finally was able to calm down and tell us that a bee had stung him. Usually Grady is pretty honest, but I wasn't going to fall for that lie! It's the middle of December! While looking around the house for evidence of his crime I was pleading with him to tell me the truth so I would know how to help his foot feel better. The only evidence I found was crawling across the living room floor, a WASP!

Ever since watching the Bee movie I have tried to be more kind to all insects (besides spiders) so we let this guilty bug go... outside in the snow. Grady had a red splotchy swollen foot for a few days, but he is all better now. I tried to help Grady remember a few of his favorite things but Grady hates me to sing to him, good thing Dad was home!

Birthday boy.... uh... MAN!!!

This is my HUNK a HUNK of Burnin' LOVE, at the ripe old age of 33. No longer can you pass for 26 my love! Thanks for sharing 10 of your 33 years with this lucky lady. I love your guts!

Hope you enjoyed your early morning meetings, teaching Elders quorum, eating leftover turkey sandwiches and opening your red rider BB gun. I'm so glad I could be a part of making all your dreams come true!

Two things keeping me stuck in this house...

SNOW! Wayyyyyy too much of it! Yesterday I decided if the school didn't call a snow day I would declare a Nielson family snow day. This morning I got the good mom guilt in the pit of my tummy. So I bundled them all up and ventured out into the great deep and got them all to school, only 7 minutes late! Getting around all of the stuck cars and hills to our house took me a half hour to get less than a mile home. Amelia will be out of school in an hour and a half, I better make this quick so I can get out on the road and be there on time to pick her up.
I really can't believe that I am posting this most disgusting picture of my normally kissable Ainsley. She is a good sport about getting her nose wiped, she hunts me down and hands me a tissue. This morning she was hunkered down on the heater vent and refused to come and get her nose wiped. I only want to share these boogers online with all of my loved ones, we're not going out to wipe them on shopping carts !