Is it inappropriate for me to put a picture of my baby's "gender" on my blog?
I know that most people I know were rooting for girl...I hope you are not disappointed. We sure are not. We just need help with a name now.
Does anyone have any good ideas about how to celebrate other than going out to eat?
I took the boys to get the H1N1 Vaccine yesterday. Andrew freaked out when I accidentally said the word "shot". I had to explain that getting a little shot was much better than getting really sick. He finally calmed down and ended up getting the nasal mist so it turned out to be pretty simple. Until later that night he started throwing up, running a fever and getting a very croupy cough. Poor boy was up most of the night. I guess he will be staying home from all Halloween festivities tonight.
Miss you Grandma and Grandpa. Wish you were here to Trick-or-Treat to tonight! (Or last night in New Zealand) Happy Halloween!
Brent and I celebrated his 30th birthday on a Caribbean cruise. We had such a wonderful time. Looking back at all that has happened this summer we are so grateful that we were able to spend this time together. I think it will be a while before our next vacation without kids.
I did get some documentation of this celebration however. This is how his Aunt Katy decided to let the kids "party" while I was preparing for the family party on his birthday. It's a good thing I wasn't there. They had a blast.
Will graduated from kindergarten. He had such a fun year.
Summer sports begin.
One of the most difficult days of the summer for the boys was saying goodbye to their uncle David who is serving a mission in Kobe, Japan. Don't let the smiles fool you, they were all crying their eyes out. We miss you terribly Dave.
We spent a rainy weekend up at Redfish lake with Brent's parents and sister. Because of the rain we changed our plans from camping in tents to spending the weekend at my Grandpa's cabin. Not such a bad thing. We had a great time.
One of the wonderful changes in our lives has been having Brent's sister and her family move to Twin Falls. My boys love spending time with their cousins. This picture is of Jacob and Lucy pretending to go to school.
July
I think the highlight of our summer was spending a week at Snowbird with Brent's family.
There were so many activities to do. We all climbed the rock wall.....
Jumped and flipped like crazy on the bungee trampolines...
Enjoyed the bounce house...
Raced down the Alpine Slide...
Conquered the electronic Bull...
And ended each day like this!
This is one of the boys favorite activities in the new house. They love the big jetted tub in the master bath. I must admit it is one of my favorite things too.
The last week of July we were able to spend some time with our McMahon cousins. My sister lives in North Dakota and we only see them once or twice a year. We were so thrilled to have them visit this summer.
We spent some time at the cabin again with my family. Grandpa Crandall and Uncle Aaron taught the boys how to fish. We found a perfect place to fish and everyone in the family caught a fish, including Jacob. Guess what we had for dinner?
August
We spent a few days at Lagoon with the boys and Brent's family. I spent many hours in my yard and garden. We also enjoyed the Twin Falls County Fair. This was a very sick month for me and as a result I don't have pictures of anything. I must have been having a good day on the boys first day of school because I managed to get one of these.
Both boys were very excited about going to school. They both got the teachers that they wanted. Will feels like such a big boy now that he is in school all day. He loves having 3 recesses and eating lunch at school. He really is maturing. Andrew is making a lot of new friends. He loves learning to read. I think his favorite part of school is that he gets to be like his big brother.
September
Soon after school started, they did vision and hearing screenings at school for all of the kids. They sent a paper home saying that Andrew had failed his vision screening and needed to be seen by a opthamologist immediately. We scheduled his eye appointment and sure enough his left eye is "lazy". His right eye is 20/20 and doing all the work. They put him in glasses that day and they are supposed to help his left eye get the workout it needs to function properly. The doctor asked me if he was more clumsy than my other kids... UM YEAH! Guess I should have though of that and gotten his eyes checked a few years earlier. OOPS. He looks so darn cute. Don't you think?
We were able to attend General Conference and watch Brent's dad speak. What a wonderful weekend that was. Just before conference Brent's parents were asked to serve in the Area Presidency in New Zealand. Suddenly our time with them was cut short about 9 months. It was wonderful to spend conference weekend with them and the rest of Brent's siblings. We are so sad to have them go but we are so grateful for their examples of service and sacrifice. Our lives are being blessed tremendously because of their obedience. I am so grateful that my children have such wonderful grandparents.
We are planning to go visit them sometime in 2010. We can't wait.
What will this baby be??? Is there really any question? Why some people think our chances are 50/50 I don't know? I am putting my money on BOY! Honestly if that is the case I will be THRILLED!!! If by some crazy fluke it is a girl, I will also be THRILLED, and SCARED OUT OF MY MIND!!!
I have to preface this post by saying that I took this from a letter I just wrote my sister. I have been wanting to update my blog, but of course am too busy. So I did a little copy and paste action to save myself some time.
My life has been a bit overwhelming lately. I have been completely wrapped up in getting my house ready to sell. It has made me a bit crazy. I am not doing so hot at my responsibilities as a wife and mother. In fact I keep thinking about a conference talk by Elder Pearson http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1032-13,00.html about faith and fear and how they can not coexist and I feel like my actions are contradicting my beliefs. With all of my heart I believe that the Lord knows how to sell a house and if I rely on Him it will happen when it is supposed to. I am, on the other hand, completely consumed with making every possible effort to make my house appealing so that whoever walks into my home will want it because it is so amazingly clean and organized and decorated. After a couple of very humbling experiences, I realize that exercising the faith that I have means that I need to move forward with my life as normally as possible. I can not neglect my responsibilities as a mom and a wife just because someone may call at any moment to see the house. I have to be the best mom I can be. I have to love and appreciate and spend time with my kids and husband and trust that the right family will come along at the right time and want to buy the house because of its qualities, not because it is the cleanest, most organized house they have ever seen. So today I have been focused a little more on that. I let the boys play with all of our tiny Lego's this morning. They were spilled all over the floor, but I didn’t care. I just played with them, while doing a little bit here and there on the house. I really don’t want my boys to look back at this time of their lives as the time that mom was really mean. I don’t want this transition to even faze them. They deserve a happy/sane mom. And so I am trying to ignore the fact that there is toothpaste splatter on the bathroom mirror, and crumbs all over the kitchen floor, and my windows still need to be washed. Today I am happy because I am relaxed and loving my kids. Now if I can just figure out what to make for dinner.
I have to retract anything that may have sounded negative in my last post about this little guy. He does have an independent personality, but I am going to count that as a good thing even though it is sometimes stressful to deal with.
This little guy has really amazed me in the past couple of weeks. Being the proud mom I am I just had to blog about it.
First of all we finally took Jacob's Binky away. This has always been a dreaded process with all of my boys and I just didn't want to deal with the withdrawal symptoms of a baby boy who was detached from his Binky. It was 2 weeks ago and he has not put up even the slightest fight about it. No whining, No crying, No tantrums. Nothing but cooperation on his part. In fact, he found a Binky on the floor under the stove the other day and put it in his mouth for a second, and then willingly threw it in the garbage. What 2 year old does that? (Maybe that was an easy decision on his part due to the dust bunnies and old crumbs attached to the Binky when it went in his mouth???) Whatever the case, he did it! So I am starting to think at this point that maybe I don't have it so bad with him.
And then the Second miracle. (I hesitate writing about this for fear that I may jinx myself, but I am going to have faith in my little guy and go ahead and boast.) We finally set up his "Big Boy Bed". Again, we put it off because we didn't want to deal with the fight of teaching him to stay in his bed. Well, guess who stays in his bed with no fight or fuss? It has only been 2 full days, but so far, so good. He loves his new bed. I think his favorite part is that he can get out all by himself when he wakes up. The past 2 mornings have been like Christmas for Brent and I as we wait for him to wake up. He will just run out of his room with the biggest smile on his face and say "I did it!" Oh we love it!
He really is an amazing boy and he adds so much to our family. We are all so in love with him and thankful that he is ours.
Jacob we are so proud of you. You are amazing!
Before (Dec. 2008)
After (March 15, 2009)Anyone who reads my blog probably already knows that the Nielson family has been doing a "Biggest Loser" competition since the beginning of the year in an effort to get our entire family living healthier lives. What most of you probably don't know, except for the Nielson family, is how successful the family has been not just losing weight, but making healthier life choices.
Yesterday, March 15th was the first official weigh-in. It is exciting to report that the family as a whole has lost 98.4 lbs. The thing that I am most excited about is that my husband was the official "Biggest Loser" at yesterday's weigh-in. He has lost 23.6 lbs. since January 1st. As you can see from his before and after photos, he looks amazing. He has been working so hard. I am so proud of him for being so determined and sticking with this. He looks like the guy I met 9 years ago. :)
I have been in a bit of a grouchy mood the past couple of days. When I think of the possible reasons, I can't come up with anything that justifies my behavior. Adding to my bad mood is the fact that I am in a bad mood for no reason in particular. So this morning as I had an hour alone, (thank you mom for taking my kids so I could go grocery shopping) I said a prayer and told Heavenly Father that I was sorry for being such a baby. I expressed gratitued for all of my wonderful blessings and asked that I would be blessed with some perspective so that I could understand how blessed my life really is.
After being in the grocery store for 10 minutes I ran into a friend from my ward who I had not seen in church yesterday. I stopped to ask how she was doing and make sure things were ok. Come to find out, her father in law had a massive heart attack a few days earlier and almost died. She talked to me about how she was dealing with it all and what a difficult experience this has been.
That was such an obvious answer to my prayer. It is an amazing truth that we have a Father in Heaven who loves each one of us. He cares about each of us. He hears and answers our prayers no matter how big or small they may be. I most definately gained some perspective today. Surly the Lord has bigger issues to deal with like healing the sick, comforting those who have lost a loved one, revealing truth to those who may be seeking it, etc. Any issue is more significant than my bad mood, yet he answered me today. So I thank my Heavenly Father and my friend for blessing me with perspective today. To my friend, my prayers are now with you and your family durring this difficult time.
Does this image frighten you? It does my 2 year old.
Jacob has been waking up early (like 5am) the past few days just sobbing. I bring him in to bed and try to get him back to sleep. It happened again this morning. I went in to get him and he was still laying down in his bed and seemed to be crying in his sleep. I picked him up to console him and asked him why he was crying. His answer shocked me. "A scary duck is eating my leg." He could not go back to sleep. I layed with him until about 6:30 when Brent got home from the gym. When Brent walked in the door Jacob jumped up and had to tell dad all about it. Brent misunderstood and asked "a dog ate your leg?" to which Jacob answered, "NO, a SCARY DUCK ate my leg!" Oh, that's even worse!
The funny part is that he keeps talking about it today. He has taken me to his bed 3 times to show me where the scary duck was eating his leg. I wonder if he will freak out next time he sees a real duck. I was unaware that kids that small can have nightmares. Poor Jacob. Ducks are pretty scary, especailly when they eat your legs.
Happy Birthday to our valentine baby. We love you Jacob. Thanks for bringing us so much joy the past 2 years. You are amazing.
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