I feel Guilty...

This is the reason I never wanted a blog. It is just one more thing on my to do list that doesn't get done. One more thing that I don't have time to finish. One more FAILURE in my life. SUCK.

Last week, in a five year olds fit of rage, Grady yelled,

"Don't you know what family home evening is for Mom!?! EATING ICE CREAM!!!".

Can you believe Jason and I thought taking pictures of headstones for find a grave dot com was a perfectly good FHE activity? I fail in too many areas of my life. Why add blogging to the list?

I can't wait until I'm 8

FINALLY! Today is the day! Happy Birthday to my Amelia Elizabeth who, so far, is spending her special day making zhu zhu pet magazines for the zhu zhu pets to read when they go potty. *
Amelia is the most thoughtful and unselfish girl ever! I am so lucky to have her be the example for her younger brother and sisters- she's practically perfect! I ♥ you Amelia!

*For the record, I am NOT the one who taught her that you should read magazines on the pot.

Summer Break

Today Grady asked,

"When will church be out for the summer like school?"

AMEN Grady.

Today I share your feelings.

Beautiful Milly Sings

Amelia joined the Wilson School choir this year, they let her in a little early because she is just plain fabulous, plus we know Miss Diana really well and Diana loves our Milly.
Some kids just mouthed the words watermelon and potato, but our Milly memorized all of the words to all of the songs.

Syd loves her big sis, she is her biggest fan!

Grandma & Papa Strong joined us for the concert, and for a ice cream sunday afterwards.

Amelia & Miss Diana

PURE JOY, Grady & Amelia eating ice cream.

Veggie burger anyone?

Since the beginning of Sydnie I remember her being a picky eater. She has always loved every single vegetable I've ever put in front of her. Yes, even brussel sprouts. The pickiness comes in the meat department. Even when she was tiny she wanted to look at the packaged meat in the grocery store. My Dad calls her 'DOC' because she is very interested in muscles, blood, & watching him gut dead animals. Her interest in blood, muscles, and guts stops at just looking. Sydnie does not eat those things... well... knowingly.

In the Hungry Lion cookbook (The Wilson Elementary cookbook that you really have to buy if you ever attended Wilson Elementary) Sydnie is quoted as saying about the food she can't stand, "Shrimp and any kind of meat. Meat has blood in it! Yucky!". She won't drink milk because it comes out of a cow. Sometimes her dinner goes untouched because she found some cheese in it.

How do you deal with your picky eater?

We lie.

So here is some information that you will need to know if you will ever be eating at our home or with us at a BBQ.

1. Hot dogs grow on trees! Just like bananas. You never see a hot dog tree here because they grow in South America... just like bananas. Uncle Dan recently asked if cheese hot dogs grow on trees too. OF COARSE! It is just a different variety of hot dog tree. They are more rare, therefor more expensive. Cheese hot dogs are Sydnies FAVORITE because the cheese grows in the hot dog and doesn't come from the cow.

2. Pork is a vegetable that grows in the ground like potatoes. Not all pork though. Ham, bacon and pork chops on the bone all come from a pig (even a pigs bum) and therefor are inedible. Pork is really only boneless ribs cooked in the crock pot so it is very flavored and tender. No sign of fat or bones are allowed at the table.

3. Chicken is our neighbor Valarie's pet, not food. They start as tiny fluff balls that are so fun to play with! Chicken is totally off the menu! However Burger king sells these little princess crowns they call nuggets that she will eat only when dipped in honey mustard sauce. I really don't know why she will eat these. I don't know what she thinks they are made out of.... Princess?

4. Patty Sandwiches. These are new and only sold at a couple of places. They are just a bun, some ketchup and a patty! You have to be very careful when ordering at the drive-thru you should turn up the radio really loud just in the back. Ask quietly for a plain hamburger with nothing but ketchup, and then order everyone else a cheeseburger so that the wrapper will look different.

So, if you are ever eating with us and we ask Sydnie if she wants the casserole with cow in it or the casserole with pretend meat in it, please just GO WITH IT! Her mental well being and general health are depending on it.

PS, this lying is absolutely worth going to hell over.

Memories of March Madness

***I would like to begin by thanking Jamie for blogging about February this morning. You made me feel a little better about finally getting around to March, that I am not alone in my constantly feeling behind. Anyone who appreciates this update can thank Jamie.***

Now, here is a little peek into a week in March...

The kids got free tickets to the Utah Flash game at UVU from school and Amelia went around begging tickets from her friends who weren't going. Before I knew it she had our night planned! We dropped off Ainsley with Grandma and headed to IN-N-OUT for burgers, fries & shakes. I would have been happy to go home at that point! I love IN-N-OUT shakes, just like the kind you make at home in the blender, but for 3 times the price and none of the mess.

It was mascot night at the Flash game so we had more entertainment than usual. The mascots were dancing, jumping, flirting, riding motorcycles, and dunking basketballs. Here is Bumble playing baseball.
I think Amelia enjoyed the night, Sydnie however has a very fake smile on her face. The only time she was truly entertained was during the halftime dance routines. She wanted to watch the Flash dancers and then go home, "This is so boring Mom"!!!

Jason and Grady were in a trance the entire time. Grady can watch ANY sport for hours and never tire of it. Jason says he was like that when he was little, If he hadn't grown out of it we would have never married.... I think I'm a bit like Sydnie.

♣♣♣♣♣♣♣

Saint Patricks day is our holiday. Jason served his mission in Ireland so we claim to be Irish. I feel obligated to bake treats for the entire neighborhood and boil a pot of corned beef and cabbage every year. Lucky for me I couldn't find any corned beef this year. We just ate regular food colored green instead.

But- I couldn't get out of the treat tradition. Every year we make shamrock sugar cookies, I am SO SICK of sugar cookies!!! Why does everyone always want sugar cookies??? So we found a new idea on familyfun.com for rainbow cupcakes and we added the pots of gold on top. The cupcakes were so pretty (but since my surgery I hate frosting, it tastes like garlic salt to me) and so messy. I think next year we will try sugar cookies again.

STAY TUNED! I am promising (in writing) that I will do an Easter update this week. I know that you don't believe me. Two posts in one week? NO WAY!

My greasy baby and other notable events

Last night after tub time I guess we lost track of number four for a few too many minutes. She likes lotion, I mean, she likes TO EAT lotion. I still haven't checked the jar to see if it isn't good to eat. Ainslers was ok, so I am guessing it's fine to have a few tablespoons each day. My real problem is that cetaphil cream is expensive! I might as well let her eat spoonfuls of caviar daily, but I guess that would make her smell fishy.

Jason tried to rub an entire cup of cetaphil cream into Ainsley's tiny bird legs, huge malnourished Ethiopian belly, his arms, Amelia's cracked and bleeding dry hands and a few globs of it got into the carpet too. Ainsley loved it and posed for a whole bunch of really cute nudey baby pictures that I am not going to share. Oh, and YES her nostrils were packed with the cream too, yummy boogies to pick later!

*************

It's been a while since I posted. Having my guts cut out took a lot more out of me than I expected, it also cost a lot more than I had planned. Jason has been working extra hard to pay the extra bills. I've been working extra hard as a single mom while Jason works all of his days off away. I can officially say that I am caught up now! There are only 3 loads of dirty laundry downstairs, all of the clean stuff is folded and put away, and all of the beds in the house have been made everyday for at least a week. That all might not be so impressive, but listen to this (SARA) I have been cooking too! My kids even said my cinnamon rolls were better than Rhodes!

I've been able to catch up with a few friends the past month....

We had a sisters lunch with the gals from my mission. President & Sister Kohlert showed up and and surprised us. They are all amazing girls! We really need to do that more often, but with ALL of the girls!

A few friends and my sis Sara and I had a girls weekend in Saint George. We went to the parade of homes and skipped on down to Mesquite to play bingo with the senior citizens for the night. A couple grannies taught us how to play and told us about the free drinks (hot cocoa & diet coke) and helped us keep up with the old folks. It was highly entertaining, and cheaper than going to a movie. I will definitely do it again next time I'm in sin city... or at the senior citizens center.

My Ranch family who now lives in Hawaii came to the mainland to drop off one of their sons at the MTC. They joined us at our house for dinner and lots of memories and updates. We didn't have near enough time to catch up on the past way too many years. Maybe it is my turn to visit them? Hawaii here I come! Thanks for the love Todds!

There will be more catching up to do in the next couple of weeks! Em is coming up from Vegas for her Bday, and My Danielson is getting married! I really have the bestest friends! Even though sometimes we go years without seeing each other, SAD.

One more exciting event. Jason's mom retired! We thought about getting her gift cards that said stuff like, FREE SLEEPOVER WITH THE GRANDKIDS! and FREE NIGHT OF BABYSITTING YOUR GRANDKIDS! Instead we decided on surprising her with dinner with the family (minus the grandkids), flowers, and a couple of books to keep her busy with family history. Next week Amelia is putting her to work as a second grade field trip helper, good luck Pam!

I know there are lots of fun family activities that I missed. It's late, this post is long, and there will be no catching up for me, sorry you missed it.

Thanks Ainsley for motivating me to break out my camera, and inspiring me to blog again!

The rumor is TRUE!

This little plot of farm country that is four blocks West and five blocks South of my humble home, will within the next couple of years hold a TEMPLE of God.

I had heard the rumor and it had to be true! WE. NEED. A. TEMPLE. HERE!!! When I heard where this rumored temple would be my hopes were dashed. I knew there was no way that they would put a temple there, in this humble neighborhood! Today they officially announced that this rumor is true! It might just be worth it to stick around this scary neighborhood for a couple of years. I can't wait to look out my living room window and see Moroni glowing in the sky!

SLEDDING!

One late afternoon a couple of weeks ago we decided to take advantage of the last hour of daylight by going sledding. I didn't realize it at the time, but I think this was the first time our kids have ever been sledding any place other than the front lawn or driveway. Don't feel too bad, there are plenty of neighborhood kids who come to our house to go sledding in our yard. Our driveway is a nightmare to get up in the winter, but a blast to fly down on a sled (I wouldn't recommend going down on your butt, I've done it many times accidentally).

Ainsley and I sat in the warm van eating Lorna Doone cookies. She had as much fun watching as the others did sledding.

Grady didn't even have time to look at the camera, only time to smile (a little bit) as he walked by.
Amelia is by far my most adventurous kid! I don't think this idea turned out so well, but I can always count on Amelia to try!

I love this picture of the kids jumping and running up the hill while Jason is just dragging himself up. Jason was having fun, but the kids were ecstatic!

Here was an attempt at fitting all four on together, poor Amelia wasn't really on all the way and her pants were filled with snow at the end brrrrr!

One thing I missed last year...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRADY!

When your birthday is two days after Christmas you always get the short end of the deal. This year Grady's birthday fell on a Sunday so we partied it up at Chucky Cheese on Saturday night. We stopped by Target on the way home to buy the traditional yearly birthday gift, another baseball bat. Grady also picked a 'soft throw in the house' baseball and a baseball T. Everything and everyone in our house is at risk of being nailed in the head with a 'soft' baseball.
Mom and Dad picked a cap gun for him. Grady wasn't too sure about it, he didn't even want to pick it up. It's heavy, made of metal and I think he thought he'd shoot someone if he touched it wrong. (I'm sure I've made him terrified) After Dad help him shoot it and it smoked he just wanted to watch dad shoot it for a while. I think he needs to strengthen his trigger finger and nerves!

I love my little man!

Yesterday when I couldn't get the van up the driveway, and there was no way I could shovel, my sweet Grady came to the rescue! He spent a long time freezing outside and did a dang good job shoveling the snow into a huge pile. Thanks for always taking care of me Grader!

I know you hate me to kiss you buddy but, MMMMMMWWWAAAAAA!!!

I love you Grady Jay!

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 !

Halloween '09

This is the story of 3 sparkly ballerinas and 1 strong, RED power Ranger with church shoes and no mask, and their Halloween season 2009. For FHE we painted pumpkins in our PJs! We should have done it before bath time, but mom & dad got a little excited after 'fall back', we were hoping to get the kids in bed an hour earlier than normal.




Ainsley and I shared a pumpkin, she painted a little on the pumpkin and a lot on herself.

Sydnie insisted she be there for her Kindergarten Halloween program, even though she had been up all night with an ear infection. Sydnie memorized and recited her part perfectly, "T is for trick or treating, U is for ugly masks", all while in great pain and on lots of medicine.

Ballerina Syd in the Doctors office.

Halloween day was mostly spent at the church setting up for the ward Halloween party that Jason is in charge of. We set up lots of tables, hundreds of chairs, stretched miles of spider webs over the tables (which were later choked on by kids who got their cookies or forks stuck in them), cut out pumpkins and shapes to glue on the pumpkins to make paper jack o lanterns, baked a hundred cookies and stirred up a huge pot of yummy cheesy potato soup! In the spare moments here and there I was trying to prepare my YW lesson on drug abuse... yeah, really inspiring. I have to say that the kids were real troopers helping all day, but by the time we were ready to party they were done, D. O. N. E.

Ballerina Ainsley

Strong, RED power Ranger Grady with church shoes and no mask

Sparkly Ballerina Sydnie, when she asks if you saw the picture of her on Halloween please tell her, "YES, you did have lots of beautiful sparkles on your hair and face and clothes!" And, "NO, your mom didn't use the rest of the sparkles on Amelia."

Ballerina Amelia, who started the sparkly ballerina craze at our house this year.

Here are the thrilled little spooks right before trick or treating, 3 sparkly ballerinas and one strong RED power ranger with church shoes and no mask.

I do not LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!