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!!!