Nielsen Nonsense

Christmas 2011

2012-01-22T15:29:00.005-05:00

Now that we live by family here in the Midwest, we are blessed to be able to spend Holidays with them. We started off our celebrations on Christmas Eve afternoon.

This is Abbie's soon to be Uncle Ryan holding her while she sleeps. Ryan and Whitney are getting married March 9th! WAHOO!!

After eating our traditional Chinese food and reading the Christmas story together as a family (and taking family pictures) we opened the traditional Christmas presents such as family exchange gifts and pajamas.

Christmas morning I totally forgot to take pictures of the kids opening their gifts, I only took video, so I was glad I got some shots on Christmas Eve. Plus, this gift I think may have been the favorite of all. Susan knowing how obessed he is with two things - dragons and legos - she found him a lego dragon. PERFECT!! And she also got a super cool book on dragons - she knows how to get to a kids heart!!

The grandkids all in their PJ's from Grandma and Grandpa!

Our tree Christmas night after Santa came and put them all there.

The kids were all snug in their beds.

Abbie in her Christmas dress a friend bought for her. She looked so precious!!

This was Hayden's gift from Grandma - dress ups. Hayden was dressed to the nines!

We played a lot of Wii - mostly Dance Revolution 3 that Grandma and Grandpa got for the family. Here they are on Grandkid duty so the rest of us could get our dance on.

Abbie passed out.

Carter with his Christmas haul. It was very much a Star Wars themed Christmas.

Hayden got a Kitchen with lots of kitchen stuff, dress ups, a water baby and the most important thing...

KEYS!!! This girl is obsessed with her keys. Bonnie had wisely observed Hayden's obsession with a set of spare keys to our Pathfinder. I wasn't a huge fan of her playing with them, but there was no way to keep her from them. So Bonnie had a great idea of getting her, her own set of "real" keys and they are so cute and colorful!!

Some of Abbie's Christmas items.

Carter quickly went to work on his Dragon Lego. He was determined to get it done all on his own. So my 5 year old followed the instructions and built his own dragon that was made for 7 yr olds and up.

He was very proud of himself! This picture was taken just a few minutes after he finished it and almost immediately after the picture, he dropped it and pieces went everywhere. He was crushed! Poor guy!!

Below are a bunch of videos that I took over the Christmas Holiday:

I grew up where it was tradition for Santa to leave your stocking at the foot of your bed so that if you woke up in the middle of the night, you could see if Santa had come yet and what he left in your stocking.

Here's a video of the kids coming down to see if Santa came:

I know you can't see this video very well, but just for preserving memories I needed to include it. The kids were OBSESSED with dancing to "This is Halloween"! My kids still ask to watch the full length version of that song they have on youtube.

The best part of Just Dance is watching the grown guys doing it!! I'm so disappointed that I didn't get them dancing to Robin Sparkles "Let's go to the Mall" - CLASSIC!!

Santa Clause and My Parents Came to Town

2012-01-18T15:54:00.005-05:00

Here's my attempt at getting caught up on my blog. The first weekend in December my parent's came into town to meet little Abigail. While they were here we thought we ought to go to down town and do some of the Christmas activities they have down there.

Our first stop was to see Santa's helper. I didn't want Carter to get confused by all the different looking Santa Clause's out there so we told him that they were Santa's helpers.

Here's the whole bunch of us. I find Hayden's face pretty funny here since she and Abbie are making almost the exact same expression. I was just shocked that Hayden would sit on his lap at all!! We saw another Santa the following weekend and she wouldn't even get close to him.

This place where we saw Santa was called Santa's Toyshop and it had lots of fun play areas.

Then we went over to the train restaurant that Dad took us to about a year and a half ago. Train's come and deliver your food to you at your table. Hayden was at the perfect age to think this was absolutely magical.

Then at another place near by, they have an excellent display of model trains. But wouldn't it be our luck that they were already closed by the time we got there. Oh well.

While my parents were here, my Mom helped me with my sister-in-laws wedding shower plans and my Dad was Mr. Fix-it man around the house. It was awesome!!

Carter Learned How to Ride His Bike!!

2012-01-06T18:20:00.003-05:00

Today was a GREAT day! Carter learned how to ride his bike and he and I are so proud him!!

December 31st (another great weather day) he decided he was done having training wheels on his bike and worked on riding on just two wheels for a bit with Dad.

Yesterday, he practiced on a neighbor's Strider bike (the little bikes with no pedals) and then today he decided he was ready. We had more beautiful weather and so we went out and on his 2nd try I just let go and didn't tell him and he was totally fine. After that he had the confidence he needed and was cruising up and down the street.

Then when both the girls were down napping, we both got on our bikes and rode up and down together. Today was an awesome day to be Carter's Mom! Being part of this huge milestone for him is such a high for me. I love to see the accomplishment on his face and to be there to share in his excitement - so SUPER AWESOME!!

The first video below is the first day they took off his training wheels & the 2nd video is from today:

Carter's 2011 Preschool Christmas Program

2012-01-05T15:26:00.004-05:00

December 19th

This was an emotional Christmas program for me. I think a lot of it was that it was Carter's last one in preschool. How is my boy growing up so fast?!?

But also, the spirit was there so strong with all of these little spirits together singing praises to the Christ child. The program started out with one of their Pastor's saying a prayer (Carter goes to a Baptist preschool). The prayer was so sweet and so special, I got teary-eyed right away! Then the precession started with all the children in their nativity costums and they were so reverent and so beautiful. You could not help but feel the Spirit of Christ's birth.

We had angels, wise-men, shephards (that was Carter) and the adorable little animals.

This isn't the best picture, but it gives you a better idea of this church's beautiful sanctuary.

Carter in his moment of goofing off.

My Shephard Boy

What a handsome newly 5 yr old!

Here is a video of the kids' favorite song. Carter had been singing it around the house for weeks:

Of all the things that I did this past Holiday season, I think this was my favorite. It got me more in the Christmas spirit than anything else I did. Children truly are God's special gift!

Abigail at 6 weeks

2012-01-04T21:09:00.003-05:00

It's crazy to think my little newborn turned 6 weeks yesterday!!

When I went in for my 6 week appointment today, they weighed her for fun and she was 10lb 1oz. Seeing as she started at 6lb 8oz, I would say she's done pretty great to have gained about 3 1/2 lbs in 6 weeks. You can tell by her double chin.

And yes, she totally does have Dad's Chia Pet hair!!

She decided to reveal to the camera what she does for most of her day, and that is spit up - TONS of it!!

This afternoon, I heard Abbie crying in her room earlier than she should be so I went running up the stairs hoping to calm her down and then I see Hayden prancing out of Abbie's room with Abbie's stolen binky in her mouth. Then I look at Abbie and I see that Hayden tried to be nice about it by leaving her a toy instead. I always tell Carter or Hayden if they want a toy the other is playing with, to see if they will trade for a different toy. Abbie is one easy kid to trade a toy with!!

Abigail in her milk comma. What a cutie!!

Hayden's 2nd Birthday

2011-12-27T12:27:00.006-05:00

December 22, 2011

I can't believe Hayden is already 2 years old!! Though life is crazy in December, I am always so excited to celebrate the birth of my children along with the birth of our Savior! It makes it all more real to me. So the night before Hayden's birthday, we swapped out Carter's boy Birthday banner for Hayden's pink one.

She was thrilled to recieve a baby doll and another Baby Signing Time video (so was Mom and Dad since we could say the other two we had in our sleep). She also got big girl undies since she has been begging me to go on the potty. I just need to get myself geared up for it. I think Abbie is just about old enough and Hayden has gotten used to her enough that we are about to start the dreaded potty training time.

For Hayden's Birthday activity we went to a local bouncey house place and played with Carter, Aunt Whitney and the favorite, the soon to be Uncle Ryan.

That night we had Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Jay come with their gifts, Kurt and his family, and our close friends the Russells for cake and ice cream.

Hayden got an adorable outfit and some baby accessories from Grandma and Grandpa.

Here's Hayden with some of our awesome buddies!

Below is Hayden's latest journal entry about turning 2.

12-28-11
Dear Hayden,

My sweet baby girl, I can’t believe that you just turned 2!! You have gotten so big and the older you get the more beautiful you become. I keep thinking you are as beautiful as you could be but you just keep getting prettier. On Christmas morning I put you in your Christmas dress Santa gave you and your Daddy burst into tears, you literally took our breath away. What a little charmer you are!

You have such a multi-dimensional personality. At times you are a little snuggle bug. The other day you sat on your Grandpa Jays lap and watched a movie with him snuggling almost the whole time. He was in love. You also like to snuggle up and read books especially with your favorite pink and brown polk-a-dot blankie.

You can also be quite the spunky spitfire! If we tell you something you don’t want to hear, in your own language, but with all the right inflections, you will give us a royal chewing out with all the sassy body language to go with it! It’s quite difficult not to break into laughter at these times. You also take after your Momma when she was a little girl by throwing some pretty incredible fits. If you are upset or frustrated, you throw yourself down on the ground and start kicking away with your legs and crying/screaming all that you have in you. You hold your own with big brother Carter and cousin Dade in your battles. You don’t ever stand down and fight for your “right” in anything you think ought to be your “right.”

One thing you did not get from me is your love of all things girl. You love dressing up in high heels, walking around with a purse, and talking on your cell phone. In fact, that is your favorite pass time. You get your purse, your keys (you insist that they be real keys), and your cell phone (and often times a baby is in your arms as well) and you walk around the house chatting on your cell phone and saying to anyone you pass, “Bye. Night, Night.” And we must reply back to you or else a fit will for sure happen. It is so fun to hear you have your conversations on your cell phone. You can go on and on and there is usually a funny almost Valley Girl laughter that is inserted through out many of your conversations. Another girly thing you are very much into are shoes. The word “shoe” is one of your first words you ever said. You loved to try on any shoe that was hanging around. The last time we went to Target to get you a new pair of shoes, you tried on just about every pair of shoes you could no matter the size.

But you aren’t all girl. You enjoy playing with Carter’s Batman toys. In fact, you call Batman, “man.” You like to fly him around in his spaceship, or ride him in his motorcycle. You also love it when it’s wrestle time with Daddy and Carter. You are also a big fan of playing football with them, too. And you have got a pretty awesome arm on you. Dad’s pretty proud of that. And you make the most fierce growl that I’ve ever heard from boy or girl. Plus, who could resist your adorable horse laugh that you do that takes that girly edge off as well? When you get laughing it makes everyone else around you laugh because it is so contagious.

Other things that you love right now are The Lion King, Baby Signing Time videos, and playing with your kitchen or Grandma’s kitchen and holding and rocking your dolls. With your kitchen, you love to put things in cupboards, shut the door, open the door, take out the item and then put it into another cupboard. And then you do this all over again. It’s rather adorable to watch you do this over and over again. You also love to read books. You enjoy books with animals in them. I love hearing your animal sounds, they are sooo cute!! My favorite is your long, drawn out “meow.” Speaking of words, you are now putting two words together. Like when you want Dad to throw you up in the air you say, “want high.” You are quite the Daddy’s little girl. You love Daddy. You want to cuddle with him, you run yelling “Daddy” to the garage door every night when he comes home from work. You definitely have a hold on his heart.

I have to mention, too, how cute you are with your baby sister Abbie. You are excited when she wakes up and run up to her yelling, “Abbie” (it sounds so cute to hear you say her name). You get up in her face and in a high pitched voice full of enthusiasm you say, “Hi Abbie” over and over again. You are aware of all her toys and blankets (mostly because you like to play with them). You even like to help me change her diaper and wipe her bottom with wipes. One time, you were helping me wipe her bottom when she squirted pooh out right as your hand went behind her bum and you got baby pooh all over your hand. You were a good sport and I just wiped it off for you. I think that you will continue to be a good big sister and help take of the ones that are littler than you.

Hayden, I love you so much and am so grateful that you came into our family. We have a lot to learn from you. You are a sweet, sensitive girl. But at the same time, you can give us a run for our money. I will always cherish and love you. Thanks to the love of our Savior who loves you even more than I, we can know that we can be together forever. Always stay close to Him, know that it is through Him that you find real, eternal joy. I love you my little girl. Thank you for the joy that you bring into my life and into my heart.

Love,
Your Momma

Carter's 5th Birthday

2011-12-19T18:02:00.008-05:00

On Saturday, the 17th, we celebrated Carter's Birthday by having a party at Chuck E. Cheeses. He wanted it to be an angry birds party.

I know this picture is blurry, but it shows Whit's excitement so well. She was enjoying herself some chucke!!

Whit and Ryan were kind enough to come along for some crowd control along with Grandma Bon and Grandpa Jay. We needed it, too. I have never seen Chuck E Cheeses so busy!! It was out of control and I was on sensory overload for hours after.

Grandma had to get in on the games, too.

Our buddy Allissa.

I loved watching Kyrsten get into this game as much or more than her son Robbie. It was so funny.

Jill and Grant looking so good together.

Blaize, Milana and Rocco were also in attendance.

That night I did some decorating around the house to make it special for Carter when he woke up.

I got this idea from a blog, that you crepe paper their door so they have to bust through when they wake up. When Carter woke up he crawled under because he thought I had put it there to keep him in his room so he wouldn't get to his presents.

Carter holding all of his gifts from his party the day before. His buddies brought him some pretty sweet gifts!

Candles in the pancakes.

Notice the before face...

and the after face.

Have any of you watched the Jimmy Kimmel videos where he asks parents to give their kids really lame gifts for Christmas and tape their reaction? So many of the kids threw these huge fits and I thought, man if my kids ever acted that spoiled I wouldn't give them any real Christmas gifts. Well, guess what happened when my own child opened up his Birthday gifts?!? He liked all of them (Hot Wheels wall track, Hot Wheels cars and another small Hot Wheels track) until we got to the last gift... it was a long sleeve t-shirt from Target. He opened it and immediately got ticked and called it DUMB and STUPID and I can't believe you got me such a lame gift. And then he escalated into tears and threw it and got really mad demanding that we take it back and get him another gift. So the picture above is Matt taking a picture of our spoiled Carter with his presents while giving a major stink eye to the present he tossed to the side. Why do I ever think things like my child has never or would never do that because that means it will ALWAYS happen!!!

Sunday night we all got together to celebrate our December birthdays at Jay and Bonnie's. Carter had a specific look in mind for his cake and I followed it to a T. I think it is safe to say that cake decorating is NOT my thing! He wanted blue frosting with a green alien and only the face filled in with green frosting.

Carter looking all handsome on his 5th birthday.

Grandma Bon and Grandpa Jay got Carter Ninja Legos and we didn't take a picture of it, but sweet Bonnie tried to make another of his crazy requests come true and tried to make him a green alien hat. It was a good try Grandma! :)

Here is a list of 20 questions that I wanted to document for him of the things he likes at 5:

1. What is your favorite color? Green

2. What is your favorite toy? Batman

3. What is your favorite fruit? apple

4. What is your favorite tv show? Phineas and Ferb

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Mac and Cheese

6. What is your favorite outfit? My Digger Shirt

7. What is your favorite game? Dragonvale (on Dad’s Ipad)

8. What is your favorite snack? Cheese stick

9. What is your favorite animal? Snake

10. What is your favorite song? Batman Song

11. What is your favorite book? Fisher Price School Book – because it has the Dinosaurs in it

12. Who is your best friend? Grant Sessions

13. What is your favorite cereal? Fruit Loops

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with my friends.

15. What is your favorite drink? Juice - apple

16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My animals

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? pancakes

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Pizza

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Rock N Roll star

Carter your Dad and I love you so much and are so grateful you have come into our family!! Happy 5th Birthday!!

Introducing Abigail Bonnie

2011-11-24T15:52:00.005-05:00

November 22, 2011

Abigail (Abbie) Bonnie was born at 5:48 pm weighing 6lbs 8oz and 19 inches long.

She is named after Abigail Adams (wife of John Adams - 2nd president of the United States) and Matt's mother Bonnie - another example of a remarkable woman.

Right after her first bath.

Here she is 2 days old.

Hayden and Carter are also in love with little Abbie. Carter takes the more soft and gentle older brother, responsible approach with the baby. I'm pretty sure Hayden thinks she just got a new baby doll to play with.

The nurses put this cute Thanksgiving bow in her hair.

My baby girl Hayden as of 3 days ago, looks like she grew up over night. She now looks so much bigger to me. She really has lost most of her baby look and is looking more and more like a little girl.

We are so excited to have our precious Abbie in our family now. She is so precious and we are feeling so thankful to have her here safe and sound this Thanksgiving Day!

Here are a couple videos of Abbie and the kids:

Let's go ahead and finish up October

2011-11-18T09:17:00.003-05:00

Carter finished up his 3rd season of soccer. And I think it may be his last one for a while. He is ready for a break. He improved this season, but we still have a ways to go.

Grandpa reading to the grandkids.

I can't remember for sure, but I think I was just shy of 35 weeks here.

The kids wanted in on the fun so they stuffed their shirts with babies or stuffed animals to take a picture, too. Hayden only wanted to run around with her pregnant belly.

And here's a quick video of my two children that I love and adore:

Carter's First Stitches

2011-11-13T23:28:00.004-05:00

We had a traumatic beginning to our day this morning. Carter was trying to climb up one of the bar stools at the counter with legos in his hand. He slipped and fell and hit his face on the edge of the stool and his teeth went right through.

I automatically assumed we were headed to Urgent Care (which is much cheaper for us than ER but still $75) when Matt said, why would I ever go pay for one of those guys to do it when i could do a way better job? Well, ok then. I of course was worried about scarring our child with the pain that we were about to inflict, but no matter what I knew it was not going to be a pleasant experience.

So Matt numbed him up with two shots, this was the worst part!! Matt put Carter's head in between his legs with his legs over Carter's arms while I laid myself over the rest of his body and kept his head still. Carter was screaming and saying the saddest things. I turned my head, I couldn't watch, and cried the whole time. Hayden was worried for her brother so she was crying too. Once Carter's lip was huge and numb, Dad sewed him up while I held the IPad in a place where he could watch something while Dad stitched. It was pretty intense, but Dad did one heck of a job. I learned through all of this that I could never be a dr or a nurse. Carter is all about showing off his stitches now and I think he thinks their pretty cool stuff. He had to go show them off to all his neighbor buddies this afternoon. Boys will be boys!

But the sweetest thing of the day was when Grandma and Grandpa were leaving this evening, Carter told them, "My Dad can fix anything." Yes honey, you keep believing that.

Our Day on Bedrest and Leaves

2011-11-07T15:37:00.005-05:00

Yesterday it felt like the whole family was on bedrest with me. We had a lazy Sunday around the house. The kids were so fun to watch in the morning. They played dogs for almost an hour. It was amazing to watch them get along, not fight, and even help out each other when they fell into "the pit of snakes."

Then around 4:00 that afternoon, Matt asked if I'd be able to handle sitting in the car because he felt we all needed to get out of the house and get a breather. I had remembered that Carter had begged about two weeks earlier to make a pile of leaves and jump in them. We don't have enough trees at our house to make leaves to do that, but we knew of a local park that had tons of HUGE trees filled wtih leaves. So we hopped in the car with the rake and headed out.

This was the most perfect place to go and play in the leaves. It literally took about 2 minutes to make a HUGE pile of leaves because there were so many! The kids were in leaf heaven.

When Matt and I got married, my Aunt Valerie told me once that even though she thought I was pretty she really hoped that we would have a child that looked just like Matt especially with his big, chocolate brown eyes. I agreed! And this picture clearly shows those beautiful, big, chocolate brown eyes.

Matt getting his rake on.

You'd think I'd look more rested after being on bedrest for two weeks, but man I just look worn out.

Carter also decided to help out and rake up the leaves.

Wow, doesn't she look so big?!

Boys and sticks go hand in hand.

Yes, that's right I am 35 1/2 weeks pregnant at this point. I know I am not very big for how far along I am, but man this black jacket really does have a slimming down affect. It's also nice have a son photographer so that Matt and I can actually be in the same picture together. He is such a great Dad and helped to make this evening so fun!

Below I have a bunch of videos of our time in the leaves. I know there's a lot, but it was such a magical and needed time for our little family that I wanted to be able to remember this evening for a long time to come.

Halloween Pics

2011-11-04T16:28:00.003-04:00

Our church does an annual chili cook-off and trunk or treat at Halloween time. It's always a big turn out and a lot of fun. Sadly, I was unable to go this year and Matt got the kids there and met up with Grandma and Grandpa. I have been on bedrest for the last week and a half. I am just over 35 weeks. Since about week 29 I have been showing signs of pre-term labor. My doctor was kind enough not to put me on bedrest that early on and just put me on some meds to slow down the contractions. But at week 34 the meds alone did not seem to be able to keep this little munchkin in, so on bedrest I went. Thanks to friends and family, our family has been getting through it though it's been tough.

The Sunday before Matt and Carter carved our pumkin. Carter loves bats and he loves vampires, so why not combine them?

Halloween Night. We got together with our awesome neighbors and took pics at one of their houses and then the kids went off trick or treating. I got to go back home and lay low. Sadly, I didn't even think of if our camera was ready for Halloween night so I barely had enough battery just to snag a couple pictures. But what a CUTE group of kids!! We are so lucky to live on the street that we live on!

What a cute ladybug and strong batman we have!!

Free Zoo Days

2011-10-23T12:15:00.007-04:00

Our local zoo is free for city residents in October and November which is good for my kids, because I am not a fan at all of our zoo so I would have a really hard time to spend a lot of money for us to go. I love the zoo I grew up with and the zoo in the city we just moved from, in fact we lived 3 minutes away if that and went often!! So it was quite a downer to move to this zoo where the exhibits are really lame and everything is spread super far apart!

This is their newest exhibit so it's pretty cool - the panda bear. He loves to play in the water and does endless dives and back dives into the water. It seems like he really enjoys to put on a show.

When we went with our cousin Dade and Grandma we did the all you can ride pass for the train, carousal and tram (again, it's so spread out that you have to ride the train and tram to be able to see the zoo with out causing yourself a heart attack, and even then...).

We got to feed the Lorikeets. Carter got very nervous and decided he did not like that bird on him.

Hayden thought they were pretty cool when I was holding and feed them.

Grandma on the train with the grandkids. It was quite the big deal to be the one to sit by Grandma.

Then we went back yesterday because on the weekends in October they do a Halloween Hoot and Howl. This year it was Pirate themed. (Sawyer, we wish you could have been there with us, it would have been much more entertaining!)

Cat in the Hat was there. Hayden did NOT want to get to close to him. As long as she was on Matt's further away leg she put up with the Cat for a minute, but you can see in her face she's not a huge fan. I am guessing, she will not be sitting on Santa's lap this year. :)

They got to ride around on John Deere tractors.

They made their way through a rope course.

We went on a hay ride. Carter wanted to be Mr. Independent and sit in his own corner by himself.

Hayden on hayride.

Then we made our way to the Haunted Valley where the kids got to walk the plank

and dig through treasure.

Unlike those pesky pirates, Hayden LOVED walking the plank.

Carter sent off a few cannon balls.

Freezer Meal Group October Recipes

2011-10-20T19:21:00.002-04:00

For those who commented that they'd like to know what we made for our freezer meals, here are the recipes that I sent out to our group. Hope you can get some good ideas from them!

Chicken and Biscuits by Carrie
Author/Source:
Pam @ Onceamonthmom.com
Ingredients:
2 cups cooked, chopped chicken
2 cups cubed frozen hashbrowns
12 ounces frozen mixed vegetables
10.75 ounces cream of chicken soup
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 can refrigerated biscuits

Directions:
In a bowl, mix chicken, potatoes, veggies, soup, and seasonings. Place in deep 8×8 baking dish. Arrange biscuits on top of casserole. Bake covered with foil at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for another 10-15 minutes or until biscuits are cooked and golden brown.
Freezing Directions:
In a bowl, mix chicken, potatoes, veggies, soup, and seasonings. Place in deep 8×8 baking dish. Arrange biscuits on top of casserole. Cover with foil, label, and freeze. To serve: Do NOT thaw. Bake covered with foil at 375 degrees for 1 hour. Remove foil and continue baking for another 20 minutes or until biscuits are cooked and golden brown.
Servings: 6

Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs & Cascone’s Sauce
by Charity
6 lb Ground Beef 4 lb Sweet & Spicy Pork Sausage
30 Mozzarella Sticks (or 2 lb mozzarella) 6 Cups dry bread crumbs
1 ½ Cup Milk 8 eggs, lightly beaten
4 Tbs Minced Garlic (18 cloves) 1 ½ Tbs Salt
4 tsp Pepper ½ Cup Minced Onion

1. Remove string cheese from wrappers and cut into 8 equal pieces. Or cut 1 lb mozzarella into 120 cubes. Place in a large bowl and freeze until it’s time to form meatballs.
2. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
3. Using your hands, thoroughly combine beef, bread crumbs, milk, eggs, onion, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Shape into 1 inch meatballs around each piece of frozen mozzarella. Seal meatballs well to keep cheese from oozing out.
4. Place meatballs close together on lightly greased rimmed baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes.
5. Once meatballs have cooled divide evenly among 10 Gallon Zipploc Freezer bags and add a jar of Cascone’s Sauce. Seal and freeze.

To Cook One Entrée:
1. Completely thaw one entrée in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
3. Pour meatballs and sauce into an ungreased baking dish. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes, or until meatballs are heated through.
4. Cook spaghetti to desired texture and serve sauce over spaghetti.

Or place in crockpot and cook until heated thru.

Chicken and Rice Soup
by Bree
Ingredients:
· 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
· 1 medium onion, chopped
· 2 garlic cloves, minced
· 2 medium carrots, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices
· 2 celery ribs, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
· 4 fresh thyme sprigs
· 1 bay leaf
· 2 quarts chicken stock or broth
· 1 cup of water
· 1 cup long grain white rice
· 1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken breasts
· salt and black pepper
Directions:
Place a soup pot over medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, thyme and bay leaf. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned. Pour in the chicken broth and water- bring the liquid to a boil. Add in the rice and chicken; season with salt and pepper. Cook on medium-low until the rice is tender-about 30 minutes. Serve hot, or cool and freeze for up to 3 months.

Reheating Directions:
Thaw soup in the refrigerator overnight. Pour contents of freezer bag into a soup pot and heat until warm on the stove. You can also pour contents into a microwave safe bowl and warm in the microwave. Serve with a side salad and dinner rolls to make it a complete meal.

Baked Ziti
1/2 lb of hamburger
1 package of Ziti noodles (6-7 cups)
1 tsp of Italian season
1/2 cup of ricotta cheese
1/4 cup of parmesan shredded cheese
1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
2 cups of mozzarella cheese

Cook Ziti noodles and drain water. Add Italian seasons to hamburger. Brown meat and drain grease. Mix together spaghetti sauce, ricotta and parmesan cheese in a bowl. Add cooked hamburger and noodles in bowl. Stir together and pour into a 9x12 baking dish. Top with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 375 for 35-45 minutes.

Shelli

Chicken Enchiladas
by Ashley

3-4 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 can green diced chilis
1 onion
1 large can green or red enchilada sauce
Shredded cheese
Corn tortillas

Cook and shred chicken. Simmer with green chilis. Heat corn tortillas. Fill tortillas with chicken, onion and cheese. Top with green sauce and cheese. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

Freezing instructions: prepare enchiladas as above except do not put green sauce on top as enchiladas will become mushy. Freeze sauce in quart size freezer bag.

Reheating instructions: warm sauce and cover enchiladas. Place cheese on top if desired. Bake as directed above.

We like to serve this meal with Spanish rice and beans.

Cheddar Broccoli Soup
By Amber

(This recipe will make enough for 2 families.)
Yummy with breadsticks!

1 (16 oz) pkg frozen broccoli
6 carrots, sliced
4 stalks of celery, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cubes butter or margarine
1 ½ cups flour
10 cups water
10-12 chicken bouillon cubes (I used 10)
1 (16oz) container Cheez Whiz or Velveeta Cheese (I used Velveeta)

Steam vegetables until almost tender (I boiled the veggies). In a separate bowl, microwave butter or margarine until melted. Stir in flour and whisk together. Then add to boiling water and stir. Add drained vegetable to soup. Add velveeta cheese. Stir until melted. (I preferred putting cheese in first so that I could make sure and get cheese mixed in nice and smooth before I put in veggies.) If freezing cool, then put in a freezer bag. Lay flat in freezer. To reheat after freezing, thaw and then heat through on stove top or crockpot.

The Chili recipe by Amanda and Cream Cheese Chx by Paula were handed out that night. If you need those recipes please contact myself or the cook to get those recipes. Thanks to all who participated!!

Freezer Meal Group

2011-10-19T11:41:00.002-04:00

I haven't wanted to do much to get ready for this baby that's growing inside of me. I don't know if I'm in denial that I am about to have 3, or that I just don't want to interrupt the groove of life that we are in, or that I just keep thinking there really isn't that much that needs to be done so why do anything now? What I am feeling a need to do is to prepare for some of the everyday challenges of having 3 kids and a needy infant such as feeding my family. Those that know me, know that I am obsessive about dinner. I have to be prepared and I have to have it done in a timely manner at an appropriate eating time. It is just something that I feel strongly about and need to do to have peace of mind. So after hearing my sister-in-law Jen talk about a freezer meal group that she does, I thought what a great way to stock up my freezer for after the baby. And one thing I have always felt strongly about is that if you want something to get done then get in there and do it yourself: so I started a freezer meal group amongst some of my friends.

This was my first and only run thus far. It was a lot of work and I learned a lot! From the time I started pulling things out at 10am to washing the last dish at 4pm, I was on my feet and worked just about the entire time (I would stop briefly to help with my kids needs such as lunch, etc). My pregnancy body was pretty worn out! Not knowing, I chose a meal, Broccoli Cheddar Soup, that took more time than others would. But it turned out really yummy.

I made quite the mess and used just about every pot I own including one from my Mother-in-Law, but after our exchange and receiving a bunch of meals out in my freezer that will be so easy to get out, thaw, reheat and serve I really think it was SOOO worth it!! And my next meal I have planned to do 10 of will be so much easier to put together. By the way, we are doing this monthly with 10 people in our group, which means we come with 10 of the same meal and leave with 10 different meals.

My bags of soup, done and ready to go in the freezer! What an accomplishment!!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-18T14:59:00.003-04:00

A couple weeks ago we went to a local pumpkin patch. We went to this same one last year on a Saturday when it was super busy and cost $10/pp. This year I wised up and learned that on Tuesday or Wed. evenings you can go for free. Free is so much better!! And the pumpkin patch is right on Matt's route home from work on Tuesdays so we packed a "dinner" and he met us there so we could all have free fun together.

They got to feed goats, chickens, and pigs.

If you look closely their faces are COVERED in dirt!! They got down and dirty!

Hayden looks so scared, but big brother was so nice to help her get over her fear and push her down the slide. :) He may have gone down with her, can't remember.

Cowboy Carter catching him a cow.

The kids going down a huge slide:

Matt's Half Marathon

2011-10-17T17:26:00.005-04:00

October 15th, 2011

Right before the race started

This past Saturday, Matt ran a half marathon. He has a goal of running another marathon, but he knows right now it is just not the time (aka there's not time to train). But he was able to somewhat train for this half - though he really didn't do any steady training. He was really nervous because a couple weeks before the half he started having some BAD knee problems. He talked to some of his orthopedic friends and we said lots of prayers and his knee did amazingly well for his race.
Matt's Mom and Dad were sweet enough to come out and help the kids and I support Matt while he ran. Hayden was all about cuddling up to Grandpa and it was really sweet.

We were able to cheer Matt on at about mile 8 and he was looking really good:

This was right before Matt crossed the finish line. He started cramping up pretty bad and I felt for him! His face says it all. But as soon as he crossed the line, he just seemed happy and good to go. But that's Matt for ya.

August Catch-Up

2011-10-06T08:39:00.006-04:00

Carter skied again.

We had the luck of going to this awesome gym for a birthday party. It was so fun! And Hayden looked adorable eating her cupcake, well adorable to some and ridiculous to others like our buddy sitting next to her.

Hayden is obsessed with baby car seats these days. Just go ahead and help yourself there Hayden.

The most exciting thing to happen to us in August was the addition of cousin Ellway.

He is so fun to have around and is turning into quite the chunker!

The most frustrating thing to happen in August has to do with Direct TV. Matt finally has gotten the big screen he's been dreaming of and with that we called Direct TV to upgrade to HDTV. Well, they had to put on a new satellite and the tech guy drilled right through our wires. So we had to have a bunch of people come in to fix the problem and when all was said and done in order to be up to code, these ugly plates you see have to be a permanent fixture to our home. SO FRUSTRATING!!

So in order to cover them up we had to buy this clock. I like it there and it helps to balance out the enormous tv on the other side of the mantel that I wasn't too excited about. Direct TV says they are going to pay for all this so hopefully they follow through on their end. Still waiting to see the $$.

Hayden loves her some broccoli!!

She is also very much into shoes, especially her play shoes:

Hayden is so cute when she does peek-a-boo and I wanted to get it on camera. But as soon as the camera is turned on she won't do anything I want her to do.

The next two videos give you a taste of what it's like to live in our home:

Hayden doing Wheels on the Bus:

Finishing up July

2011-10-02T07:55:00.006-04:00

Yes, we are at the beginning of October and once again (if not always) I am a few months behind. So I am going to try to play catch-up here for a bit and include the pictures I've missed.

Around here, summer is pretty much all about water play. If you are outside you have to be in water or else you'll never make it. So above Carter is at some really fun fountains that blow up really high that the kids can run around in.

We spent more time out on the boat.

I am still playing with Hayden's hair and seeing what we can do with it. I go through stretches where I get really creative and then times like this week where her hair is exactly the same every day, a little bit pulled back with a bow. Thank heavens she has little curls to her hair that makes it look cute no matter what I do.

She loves to look at herself in the mirror and be told she's cute.

One day Hayden and Carter were being really cute together and Carter pulled her up on his lap and said, "Mom, take our picture." I was more than happy to oblige.

Hayden loves to watch Baby Signing Time. Here she is sitting up at the counter watching while I made dinner. This face is during the time where they talk about getting hurt and singing the song about bad days.

The whole time she was watching I just couldn't get over her cute facial expressions and how sweet she looked.

Carter once again got his hands on my camera.

Towards the end of July we went bowling for playgroup. We had a great time. For some reason every picture I took was blurry so this is the best one I could come up with.

I know I posted these on facebook, but I don't believe they ever made it to the blog. This was during Hayden's reign of terror. She earned the nick name Curious George because she got into EVERYTHING. And it wasn't out of mischief it was purely curiosity.

Anyway, I went up this particular morning to take a shower. I left a full box of cereal and crackers on the counter. When I came down, this mess is what I found. I had no idea she could climb up the bar stools.
This girl can be CRAZY!! Luckily, her disastrous behavior has slowed down, but I am just waiting for her to grow another couple inches and for her to figure out she can reach a whole new level of things.

This is Hayden's way of slip n' sliding. Usually, she does the worm all the way down. And yes she's in her t shirt. She had just woken up from her nap and I knew we weren't going to be out too much longer, but there is nothing that can come in between her and slip n' sliding - she LOVES IT!!

Now it's Carter's turn:

Our neighborhood Rock N Roll band. These cute kids live just a couple doors down.

Apple Orchard Fieldtrip

2011-09-16T16:20:00.011-04:00

September 14, 2011

Carter's preschool class went on a field trip to this adorable apple orchard. They did the same thing last year, but because I was watching my nephew I couldn't go. So this year, Carter did not want Hayden and I to go. I think he enjoyed feeling grown up and independent last year doing it all on his own. But finally the night before while he was in the bath, I asked him one last time if he'd allow us to go and he said he would. He knew Hayden would really like to feed the chickens so he supposed we could go. And I am so GRATEFUL that we did, it was just one of those perfect afternoons with my kids. We made some great memories and became closer. It was just one of those times where being a Mommy is the best thing in the world.

We got to feed chickens. They were running all around us and we got to immerse ourselves in them and it was so fun to see the excitement in the kids.

Farmer Hayden.

Isn't this picture just precious!?! We were listening about bees, their community, and how they make honey. How is she growing up so fast? It brings tears to my eyes.

They had so many cool places to take pictures. I just wish I had a better camera and more skill. Hayden just kept putting herself in places that would make the most perfect picture.

Carter still looks so cute even though the picture is blurry. Who would have thought it is just as difficult to get a picture of a 4 yr old as it is a 1 1/2 yr old?

Our beautiful, green Midwest. I miss the mountains from home very much. But there are things that I do love about living in America's heartland.

The giggles.

Hayden is talking all the time now. Whether it is understandable or not, she always has something to say!!

About to start our tractor ride.

The three of us, or should I say the four of us? Oh I am so glad I am feeling better!! It has taken a while to feel totally human, still have some issues, but I am feeling so much more capable these days!

Wow, just look at her! She is so much stinkin fun! She can be sassy as all get out, but she really is a sweetheart. I look at her and think how crazy I was that I didn't think I wanted a little girl. How many wonderful things I would have missed out on! So many people told me that, how I would change and I just wasn't sure. Well, Heavenly Father knew and he gave me one of the greatest blessings I could have ever asked for!! She is so precious and tender and 100% girl and I love it! But she can growl better than most boys I know!

Thanks baby girl for choosing to come to our family and to add so much happiness to our lives!

Carter is such a fantastic big brother. Here is planting a big, fat kiss on his sister. It's so fun to see these two together.

Feeding baby goats.

This was our favorite part I think. We each got to take a turn holding a baby kitten. Hayden and Carter were so soft and gentle with them. I like cats but have never wanted to have one as a pet, despite Matt's pleadings. This got me really, really close. Then we drove away and sense came back to me. :)

I love the tenderness in Carter's face!

And for the reason we all came, to pick apples. This was one area that Carter had strict stipulations on agreeing to allow Hayden and I to come, they were: 1. let him ride the bus all by himself 2. he got to eat lunch by himself with his buddies 3. he wanted to pick the apples all by himself, I was only allowed to take pictures of him, but in no way help him choose or pick the apples!!

Hayden got to pick apples, too.

Hayden and I picking an apple.

Hayden is all about wearing a purse everywhere she goes, so it's no surprise that her apple bag turned into her purse. This is how she wears her purse, with her arm up like that.

All the kids accomplished the reason they came, now it's off to play on the playground then back on the bus to go home. What a fun, fun time!!

I will post some videos I took below.

This is the way Hayden talks to all cats, whether real, in a book or stuffed. I don't know if this cutsie voice is her being cute to them or her version of a meow, but I think it is adorable:

And a quick video of Hayden holding the kitten, so cute!!

Texas vs BYU Game

2011-09-14T17:26:00.005-04:00

For over a year now, Matt and I have been planning this trip down to Austin, TX for the BYU vs Texas game. We met up with our friends Joe and Lacy. Joe and Matt have been very close friends since Freshman yr at BYU and our families have vacationed together often since.

Wrestling the long horn.

We ate lots of YUMMY local food. My favorite being the Tex Mex. This was the first dish Matt ate and it was incredible!! It was BBQ fried and grilled pork tacos. OH YUM! Sadly, I didn't remember to take pictures of the other great food we had, but I think eating was my favorite part of the trip! :)

We went to a free botanical garden. Sadly, this was the ONLY green part of Austin. They were under a drought advisory and so no one was allowed to water and everything was DEAD and BROWN!!

I know this is not a good picture, but one thing we did that is very popular in Austin is to go to this bridge (S. Congress bridge) and watch the 1.5 million bats swirling around underneath it. We couldn't get a picture of the bats because it was too dark.

We took a tour of the capital which was a very pretty building.

What the inside of the dome looked like.

Other things we did that we didn't get pictures of was tour a museum about TX, walk S. Congress and look at all the cool, eclectic shops they had, work out, and just hang out with our buddies.

That really tall structure in the background, that's the TX stadium. IT WAS HUGE!

Bronco

We lucked out as we got up close to the stadium, we saw a big crowd of BYU fans gathering so we gathered, too. Next thing we knew, the team pulled up in their buses and we got to see them all get out. It was really fun to be there and helped add to the excitement we had building for the game.

Jake Heaps
Here we are up close.
Here we are way up high in our seats. We were against the very back wall, the highest you can get in the whole stadium. It was a little scary up there, I was scared to lean too far forward.

Our back wall, at least it acted as a back rest. :)

Texas has lots of cool traditions and were really great fans. They were very nice and cordial with us and we had a fun time watching the game surrounded by them.

We were sad to have lost, but had a great time being there. Next years plan is Notre Dame (that is if I can make Matt stick to our original plan of him taking me before the boys enticed him to do a mancation to the Notre Dame game).

And a big THANK YOU to my wonderful in-laws who took the kids for the weekend. They were so sweet to do that and I didn't need to worry about the kids for one second because I knew they were in good hands.

Another Day at the Farm

2011-09-04T08:08:00.005-04:00

In August, we decided to venture out to that awesome free farm that is somewhat near to us. Grandma, Aunt Meagan (just days from her due date), and cousin Dade all came with us. We had been going through a horrible heat wave and this day was actually mild and the perfect day to venture out.

These tractors are Carter's favorite part of the farm I think.

My favorite part is feeding the baby goats. They are so cute (and aggressive).

We also went on a hay ride behind some big, beautiful horses.

I tried the impossible to get a cute picture of all the kids at least looking at me at once, I didn't even expect smiles from all of them. Yeah right!!

Grandma with her grandkids. She had just given each of them a sucker after we ate our lunch.

Hayden loves to sit on these rocking animals. It's so cute to see her be so big.

Peek-a-boo (a new game she can play) at the playground.

Carter's First Day of Preschool 2011

2011-08-22T14:31:00.003-04:00

It's crazy for me to think that this is Carter's 3rd and last year of preschool. He is looking so big and grown up, but I remember thinking that last year at this time and now I look at those pictures from last year and think how much he's grown up since then. They just grow so fast. I love this boy so much and am so grateful that Heavenly Father deemed me worthy to be his mother. We have our struggles, but everyday we are learning from each other. He is a remarkable kid!

He was so excited to wear his new Lego Star Wars backpack and carry his new lunchbox. This is the first year he is taking a lunch to school, it's a pretty big deal!

It's so fun to have a Grandma in town that can go to days like this with you! And for those of you wondering, I am 25 weeks along.

Carter really wanted to wear his mohawk on the first day of school. His only disappointment was that it wasn't higher. He will soon learn, that with his Daddy I don't know if it will ever get much higher than this. (My Mom is nodding with approval right now as she is reading this comment. I love you, Mom!)

For the fun of it, I thought I would include last year's first day of school picture. It's amazing how much he's grown!

Iowa State Fair 2011

2011-08-18T13:07:00.008-04:00

When we used to live in Des Moines one of our favorite things was to go to the IA State Fair. I dare say it's the best state fair in the whole country. One year while living there, USA Today voted it one of the top 6 things do in the summer through out the country. While in town for the weekend we stayed with some very dear friends of our that we made up there while Matt was going to school. I worked with Tom, the Dad, at a local bank.

This was Carter's favorite thing he did at the fair. I couldn't believe how high up he went and how big he looked.

The Big Slide. Carter slid down with Michael on one side and Taylor was on the other side.

I love the look of pure joy on Carter's face.

Michael and Taylor holding Hayden on this big wooden train that the kids LOVE to climb on. It was really cool.

There was a baby pig that we got to pet that was only a few days old.

This baby calf was also a few days old. They had two big flat screens on the walls of this building showing the birth of this calf. I find it quite fascinating. It was a lot messier than what you see in movies. It was all really cool to me until the Mom started licking off all the after birth and then my stomach couldn't take it anymore. That is one impressive Momma willing to do that!!

A baby ostrich!

We saw this baby chick come out of it's shell. It was so amazing to watch, I got all teary-eyed.

Baby Goslings

These baby goslings were so funny because they would play tug a war and tag with these little fishes in the pond. We just sat around and laughed as we watched.

Our crew admiring the baby goslings.

The other part of our crew - Tom and Michael.

Baby Sheep

The famous butter cow, celebrating it's 100 year anniversary of being made.

Carter was quite impressed by these HUGE pumpkins.

Matt and I were in shock over the cost of these tractors. Some of them cost as much as a REALLY nice house!

This wagon was our big rip off of the day. We forgot a stroller and without there being straps in the wagon to keep Hayden in, it was pretty close to being a total waist of $15 rental fee for the day. But we did get close to 100 people asking us where we bought our collapsable wagon.

Here is our Fair crew except Matt (taking the pic) and Carter (too exhausted to smile in a pic)right before we took off. It just felt so good to be back in IA again. It truly is America's Heartland. It is so beautiful and peaceful. Plus, to see friends we love was so great as well.

What cute boys I have!

Carter jumping on the tramp:

Utah Vacation Summer 2011

2011-07-28T15:25:00.004-04:00

So after Martin's Cove we went down to Salt Lake City to spend a week. We had a great time going to the zoo and other places. Matt wanted to start "indoctrinating" the kids early with the awesomness that is BYU so we went down to Provo for a campus tour and then we stopped a few other places and visited one of our favorite sandwich shops for lunch.

BYU's mascot is the cougar.

I was about 16 or 17 weeks pregnant here.

One of our favorite stops out in UT is the seven rivers and Liberty Park. Carter just can't get enough of floating his little boat down the rivers. It's like little boy heaven there.

Hayden with cousin Kaylee (Brad and Stacey's).

Hayden enjoyed splashing around in the water as well.

Little cousin Lily (Chris and Kari's). She's a few months older than Hayden, but I think Hayden has her beat by about 5-10 pounds. Lily is a cute and smart little thing. She talks like crazy and knows most of her colors.

My older (not bigger) sister and I have our birthdays just one week a part. It's been a lot of years since we have been able to celebrate them together. For our Birthday celebration, Matt made us this precious cake, written on by him (he said it looked like a kindergartener did it, but I thought he did a dang good job and was super sweet to do it in the first place!). We also went to a near by park and played sock ball (very similar to dodge ball only with socks so the little kids wouldn't get hurt, super fun), bocce ball, and we just sat and talked. These are always my favorite times with my family. I love playing and talking with them. We just always have so much fun together. I really feel blessed at how well everyone jives and just loves each other. We're not perfect, sometimes our frustrations come out, but we're so good at just moving on to more fun and letting our imperfections go. I'm grateful for parents who taught not only how to work hard together, but also how to play hard together. It really is so important to do both!

A week after we left, my Dad was going to celebrate his 60th Birthday!! So everyone was kind enough to celebrate a week early so we could be a part of it. We went to the Grand America Breakfast Buffet and let me tell you, it was delicious!!! After we ate, the siblings all talked about things that we love and appreciate about my Father. There is so much to say in this area. He is such a loving, hard working, level headed (except when he is playing sports) man. He really knows how to strike the perfect balance between work, family and fun. I appreciate that so much in him and hope to find that same balance in my home!! Plus, aren't we a great group of people in that picture. I love so much everyone there. My siblings thus far have done an amazing job at finding spouses that feel just like my blood siblings. We are a truly blessed family!!

Here are two video's in my parent's backyard. Hayden loved sitting in this car:

Martin's Cove

2011-07-21T16:47:00.004-04:00

At the end of June, the kids, Matt and I went on a 10 day trip to visit my family. My family planned to all meet at Martin's Cove in WY on our way to Salt Lake City, UT. Martin's Cove is a place where Mormon Pioneer's who pulled hand carts across the country ended up facing lots of trials and hardship due to an early bitter, winter storm. While there you can feel of their enduring and faith filled spirits. It was such a great experience to hear their stories and learn from their powerful actions.

Carter and cousin pulling a kid sized hand cart.

Sarah Ann and Samuel Haigh are two of Matt's ancestors that were part of the Martin Handcart Company.

While there, my whole family went on a 6 mile handcart trek to get a very small feel of what these pioneers did.

Hayden was in the baby backpack almost the whole time on Matt's back. While there, we read about a mother whose children and husband were so ill they had to ride in the handcart with the rest of their stuff and the mother had to hold her new born child in her arms while pulling her FULL handcart. My heart ached as I thought about what she must have endured. I kept thinking, if only they had simple things like the baby wraps and backpacks that we have these days.

Here's our crew. We had 13 grand kids and my 80+ yr old Grandmother with us, two pregnant mothers, and one mother who had given birth a few months before. Everyone made this whole trek except for Grandma and one grandchild (though they both did a good part of it). The rest of the group hiked the whole 6 miles and I never heard one complaint from the rest of the kids. I was so impressed.

Well...no complaint unless it was Carter when we tried to get him in our family photo with us.

The Salt Water River was really high so many of my family members were disappointed that they couldn't cross with their handcarts, but they let those that wanted to cross over some river overflow.

Hayden decided she wanted a turn in the handcart towards the end.

My cute "baby" sister, Nicole, who is about to be a senior in high school.

It's tradition in my family when we go camping that we play a game of baseball. One of the many things I love about my family is how we all love to play together - all ages.

Some Summer Fun in June

2011-07-12T16:47:00.006-04:00

Our June was a fun and busy month. The first half we got started on working out a good summer schedule with preschool being out and filling some free time with some fun activities. The second half we spent time in UT. I am still trying to find a cord that I can connect my camera to my computer so that I can download all my UT pictures. In the meantime here is some of our June Summer Fun.

Hayden with her milk goatee.

It is hot here where we live in the Midwest and in the afternoons we have to play with some sort of water if we are going to be outside.

Hayden loves the sprinkler, the hose, the slip n slide. She just loves the water!

Carter as well loves the water, any kind of water!!

Our neighbor has this little barbie motorcycle that you push a button and it goes. One day we were outside, she jumped on and next thing we knew she was off.

This day was laundry day. I got all the laundry sorted then I had to run to my room for some reason. Next thing I knew the kids had thrown all the dirty laundry down the stairs and playing in it. YUCK and DISASTER.

The local library system throws a big kick off summer reading party every summer at a local park. It's free and they serve you lunch and have activities, a petting zoo, and the kids can choose one item from the ice cream truck. It was a lot of fun despite the hot temps.

Hayden was not happy about throwing her bag through the whole.

We also have a free farm to go to that's about 45 minutes away. It is full of so many fun activities and animals. Carter loved the tractor ride. I think it's so funny to see the tiny bit of Hayden chasing after her brother (a common thing around here).

For a $1 the kids could feed the baby goats a bottle.

Hayden LOVED the animals! She growled at all them, her deep throaty growl. She thinks every animals growls.

Thw farm also has a great playground.

It's a girl!! (We think.)

2011-07-11T14:21:00.005-04:00

And the balance of power in our household shifts to the Women!! Girl #2, child #3 is due to arrive on December 6th. Though this child came as a great surprise, given our past history, we are super duper excited!!

This little one was not about to cooperate for the ultra sound (let's hope this is not a foreshadowing of what's to be). She spent most of the time on her belly hiding all the things the technician needed to get pictures of and hiding her gender parts. We did get one shot though that makes us pretty confident it's a girl, but this is definitely the most unsure we've been of the sex of our child. Carter and Hayden were pretty clear.

Here is the important pictures for our family: the feet.

This video shows the baby's profile:

First Boat Trip of the Season

2011-06-15T20:57:00.006-04:00

After many tries, we finally got out on the boat for the first time this season. Since it was still early June the water wasn't bath water yet and I have been turned into somewhat of a wimp when it comes to lake water so I didn't get in. But Matt and the kids had a great time.

That is Hayden out on the "tube." She really liked it. She would smile and laugh and wave at us.

Hayden has mixed emotions on the boat. She likes it at times and screams her head off at other times. We may not be doing as much boating this season as we did the last.

Dade and Meg - Meagan is due is August and looking super cute.

This boy always loves the boat and was ready to hit the water and water sports right away.

While Dad was out wakeboarding, Hayden just stood there the whole time waving at him.

Hayden just loves music and dances whenever she hears it, even if it's from a commercial.

This is Hayden right after getting back in from the boat after being on the tube:

My Weekend with Hayden

2011-06-07T15:20:00.003-04:00

This last weekend, the boys (Matt and Carter) went up North with Matt's Mom and Dad to see his brother Cory run a half marathon. Since Hayden doesn't love the car and I'm not feeling the best, we decided that Hayden and I would stay and have a girl's weekend. It was really quite fun.

To start off, I reached up on the top shelf to get my container full of oatmeal down for my breakfast and the lid wasn't on super tight and it spilled over and went EVERYWHERE!! Hayden loved it! I think she thought I made the mess just for her. She went in there right away and started playing with it like it was a pile of sand. After a bit I tried to clean it up and it was not an easy task cause with every bit of sweeping I would do, Hayden would get in there and mess it up. Plus, the oatmeal was everywhere, in every nook and cranny. After I finished sweeping, I got the vacum out the get every last piece I could.

On Sunday, something remarkable happened! After several attempts to french braid Hayden's hair, I FINALLY succeeded!! It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted, but it was braided and that's all that mattered! I was so proud of us. And yes, we use many tactics to do her hair: in this photo it's the unplugged phone charger and water, mostly it's toothbrushes, sometimes hair brushes.

Saturday evening, I got the hose out to water our flowers. After I watered a section, I turned my back to water another part and didn't see Hayden get to the mud and try it out. I don't think she liked it because when I looked back at her she had mud all down her chin and all over her hands. I put the hose down to run over and get her to gently rinse her off with the hose, but she got to it before i did and right away starting soaking herself and drinking out of it. It was too funny, so I couldn't stop her I had to just watch and laugh.

Earlier in the day, we headed off to Costco. She was such a good girl! She really was great the whole time. I think she knew that she had me all to herself. We laughed a good deal of the weekend. She is just such a funny girl.

She also had to show off her Team Uncle Cory t-shirt she was wearing! We may not have been up there see him run his race, but we were supporting him back at home.

Finishing up May

2011-06-04T15:03:00.005-04:00

So we finished up our soccer season - let's just say it was a learning experience. The picture above was our team. They all are Carter's friends either from church or from the neighborhood.

Our awesome coach and neighbor Chad helping Carter learn how to be a "goalie" though we didn't have technical goalie that could use their hands, but we did have a kid in the back playing defense.

This was a common scene on the field. Carter is orally fixated and chomps on his shirts like crazy even during a soccer game.

Once again, Carter got a hold of the camera one morning and snapped some pics:

Last Day of Preschool

2011-05-28T15:56:00.008-04:00

On Carter's last day of preschool he had an awards ceremony and then a short program. Carter received the "Biggest Helper" award along with a certificate of a year of preschool completion.

It was very sweet to see his teacher, Ms. Noelle, present him his award. With each student she had come up she would present the award and tell about why that child received that award and what is special about that student. Carter has had his ups and downs this year in preschool having to do with his strong will and few other things. He definitely hasn't been the easiest kid in the class. But Ms. Noelle has worked so hard at making it a good experience for Carter and helping him work through things. As she talked about Carter, it was so touching to me to see her get emotional and to see the love she has for my child. I am so grateful to her for her time and care that she gave to my child. You can see her talk about Carter in the video below. And if the video is shaking, it's because I was totally crying during it. Carter has overcome so much this past year!

The first day of preschool, Carter started making this book at school. This is a picture of him on his first day of school (so funny that he is wearing the exact same shirt on the last day of school, another little girl had her exact outfit on, too). I didn't realize that he still had so much of his baby fat left in his cheeks. He looks so cute and so much younger than he does now. It's crazy because I thought he looked so grown up then. I think he looks so grown up now, and in a year I will probably look back at pictures and think about how young he looks. He's my oldest, but he will always be my baby, too.

These are his two sweet teachers: Ms. Noelle and Ms. Tracey.

At Carter's preschool he not only has his regular class, but he also has Spanish class and music class. For their short end of the year program, his class sang several songs in Spanish and then they sang several songs from their music class. I am posting a video of his class singing Carter's favorite song. At first, Carter is a little more timid, but he starts getting into it towards the end.

March Madness

2011-05-05T16:24:00.005-04:00

I know that we are well past March, but as a common thing on this blog I usually go back and recap months to get in all the things I may have missed on my other blogs. (Plus I am missing my USB cord to hook my camera to my computer so while I am waiting to find that I might as well get caught up.)

We started off the month by going to an indoor community pool with Grandma, Carter, Hayden, Dade, Aunt Meagan and of course myself though I am starting to realize you would never know I was a part of any of these activities because I am always behind the camera. I should probably change this. Someday i might forget what I looked like at this time of my life and maybe I'd want to remember, who knows?

Carter's beautiful preschool artwork. I am sure you can tell, this was a highly themed Valentine's time.

Usually Hayden is a fairly tidy eater, but this time she apparently wanted to get down and dirty.

We had BYU March Madness at our house. We were proud of our Cougs for getting as far as they did (Sweet Sixteen).

A regular activity for us is chillin at Grandma's with our buddy Dade. You can see in the corner my Gospel Doctrine manual underneath my scriptures. This was shortly after I was called to be the Gospel Doctrine teacher in our ward. I teach every week. I NEVER thought this would be a calling I'd get. It was right up there with scariest/hardest calling in the church. And at first I really felt that way. But through Heavenly Father's help, I have become more comfortable and am starting to enjoy the learning and growing that comes with that calling.

I feel truly blessed to have ended up on the street we ended up on. We are surrounded by the cutest kids that I admire. Here our little neighbor boy is taking Hayden for a ride. Man, it was hard not to see in to the future with this one and see little Hayden going off in the car with her first date.

Here's Carter the storm trooper, driving probably not so safely on a buddy's "fourwheeler."

This was at a Birthday party for a boy from preschool at Chucke Cheeses. I thought this picture was hilarious to look at each facial expression.

Hayden: Yipee, the bike trailer!! Carter: This girl is crazy!!

I made my mom's super yummy baked potato soup and thought it looked so pretty i should take a picture.

For a Family Home Evening we made some spring flowers. It was Grandma karen's Birthday and we wanted to send her some, plus take some around to some pretty special ladies around here, too.

One morning, i gave Hayden a couple blackberries, some fruit loops and a banana to eat for breakfast. I was going to run up to take a quick shower while she was strapped in. i told Carter if she started to fuss give her some more fruit loops. I came down after showering, Carter had given her the whole container of blackberries that she has smashed everywhere. You can't tell too well by the picture, but she and the chair were stained purple.

Below are some videos from March as well:

Carter has always loved his music:

The other day I was watching videos of Carter when he was little. It was so fun and crazy to remember him when he was so young: his sounds he made, his mannerisms, his pudginess. When i watched this video back of Hayden I could just imagine the future nostalgia:

Same idea behind this video and plus Carter trying to sing to his sister and hearing Hayden's laugh brings me so much happiness:

Preschool Egg Hunt

2011-04-21T16:54:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, was Carter's Preschool Egg Hunt - or should I say it was the running of the bulls. Kids were running around like crazy! But with the amount of kids there were I was quite surprised by the calmness of it. They each knew they were to get only 20 and none of them whined or complained about it. (Sometimes I wish I had teacher status with my child, if his teacher says something it's law - no whining, no questioning.)

They made these Easter Bunny baskets that are just melt my heart ADORABLE!! And holding on to the milk carton handle made them really sturdy for the kids to run around with.

You can just picture: On your marks, get set, go!!!

Carter came and conquered!

Right on! As he likes to say these days.

Carter's class.

Preschool Firestation Fieldtrip

2011-04-18T12:10:00.003-04:00

Last Wednesday, April 13th, Carter's preschool went on a fieldtrip to a Firestation just a few blocks away from his school. Hayden and I decided to come along. Here we are walking to the station. His teacher Ms. Noelle is leading the way.

Here's the crew with Fire Chief Walker.

The huge pliers are the jaws of life. It was quite funny because as soon as Chief Walker opened this comparment a little boy yelled out, Those are the Jaws of Life!! I was quite impressed that a little boy would know so much. He must have been really into rescue vehicles. Also, I was impressed by the size of those bad boys.

Carter coming out of the Ambulance they toured. What a sweet boy he can be. This particular day he was so lovey dovey. He kept giving kisses to me and Hayden and even a few to his shocked classmates.

And here is his whole class. What cuties.

He kept wanting me to take pictures of him so here he is in front of a replica of the Liberty Bell.

Carter's First Soccer Game

2011-04-11T19:28:00.004-04:00

Saturday April 9th was Carter's first soccer game!! I have dreamed of the day to finally be the spectator for my own child's sporting events. And the day has come... Carter is involved in a great league that gives the children plenty of organized training on Wed nights. Then Saturday a parent volunteer is the coach for the games.

Our neighbor and friend, Chad, is the coach for our team. Chad cracks us up. He is a true athlete and takes sports very seriously. He is perfect for our little team that is made up of mostly our neighborhood buddies. In the afternoon when we are all out front playing it is not uncommon for Chad to be out there trying to talk strategy to our 4 year old players.

Carter got a warning from the Ref at his very first game - he was side tackling too much! Wow, he is so much like his Mother sometimes it's scary!!

Hayden's favorite part were the oranges at half time!

Matt had a Birthday Shout Hooray!!

2011-04-11T16:15:00.003-04:00

Matt turned 32 yesterday!! We are getting "older" together, though I think overall we are still feeling like Spring Chickens. It's hard to believe that I have spent the last 9 Birthdays with him!
For Matt's Birthday on Saturday Matt's folks took us and Matt's brother and wife to lunch at our new favorite BBQ joint Oklahoma Joes. It's in a gas station of all places, but that's just how it is here where we live. If it's not in a dive it's no good. The crazy thing is, it took my Dad who travels here on business once a year to introduce us locals to it. We were set on Arthur Bryants before (which is still delish), but have found that we think Okie Joes is superior. After lunch we wanted to go shoot some guns at a local range, but by the time we made it they were closing in 20 minutes so we decided to just go relieve the babysitter instead. That evening, we went over to Jay and Bonnie's and roasted some yummy marshmallows and ate some delectable smores!! YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY!!
Yesterday (Sunday), we had our good friends from the ward over, Matt's family, and our new friend Matt who just moved into town and is a friend of a friend. We had my Mom's famous Teriyaki Chicken, rice, fruit and a veggie tray - all very delicious. But Matt's very favorite thing is now that we live by his Mother he gets her ice cream cake roll once again!! Last year, he had to buy his own Birthday cake roll from Baskin Robbins while I sat in the car with screaming kids - poor guy. This year was much better! The day seemed so nice - it was perfect just for him. The weather was nice, we were surrounded by friends and family and we had awesome food!! The biggest thing I regret is that I didn't get a picture of all of us there!! I'm pretty mad at myself for that. But I did get a picture of Matt and Carter and I'll throw in a video of Hayden playing outback yesterday just to document what she looked like when Daddy turned 32! You are a fantastic husband, spouse, friend, son, brother, doctor, and Young Mens leader. You wear so many hats and some how seem to balance it all. Thanks for all your love and support!! Hugs & Kisses!!!

There's a New Guy in Town

2011-03-26T14:46:00.004-04:00

Angel Moroni was put on top of the temple a couple days ago. It's pretty exciting to think the temple is that far along!! Carter was SOOO excited to see it. It's been really neat to live so close that we have been able to watch every step of the temple construction.

If you look close enough you can see rainbow right behind Angel Moroni, we thought that was pretty cool.

Driving in I meant to take a picture and accidentally took a video instead, but thought some of you might enjoy seeing some of the surrounding area. Nothing else really been built around it, but the church owns all the land and plan to make it a nice neighborhood.

Happy Sweet Sixteen Day!!

2011-03-24T15:20:00.002-04:00

GO COUGARS!!!!!

Pinewood Derby

2011-03-23T19:33:00.004-04:00

At our church for a ward (our congregation is split into sections based on geography that makes up wards) activity we had a Pinewood Derby instead of it being traditionally for the cub scouts. Anyone who wanted to could participate. We had young and old, male and female all make cars and it was a lot of fun!!

Carter above is explaining how he wants a Batmobile car while Dad wanted a Jimmer mobile. Guess who won? Below is a video of the "too cool" boys talking about their car they are going to make.

In the middle stages.

The end product on the big night.

They did a great job.

Carter was pretty excited to have his car there and to race it.

But I think what he loved most of all was being with all the big boys. They would count before each one, "One, Two, Three GO!!" and Carter was REALLY into it. He would get his I'm too cool, serious look and count down every time. The boy with the visor on standing behind Carter is a boy that Carter worships. His name is Jaime and Carter is VERY aware of all of Jaime's favorite things and all his friends, etc. He tells us all the time, Jaime likes this or Jaime likes that. I asked him the other day if he knew who this other big kid was and Carter answered, "Oh yes, he is friends with Jaime."

The Batmobile going down the track. And Yes, I think ours might have been the slowest one down the track. Oops. Well, the boys made it look really good and they learned some new stuff for next time.

Lovin those Locks

2011-03-06T14:11:00.005-05:00

Now that Hayden is getting bigger (14 months) her hair is getting longer. I have started to get the itch to be more creative with it. Those that know me, know that it goes against my instinctive nature to be "girly" so it's not a natural thing for me to try and do Hayden's hair. I am doing the best I can and hope to keep learning fun and different things.

A few weeks ago, I learned how to do a new hair do and last Sunday we practiced again to get it right. Her little curls were being co-operative as well and looked so cute.

Today (Sunday) it was time for bath time. Hayden isn't a huge fan of the bath. She usually stands and clings on to the side of the tub as if her life depended on it. Today, after swimming in an indoor pool during the week I got her to sit in a very shallow tub. Since this is the first time she has sat in the tub in probably a couple months I thought I better try and get a couple bath pictures.

After bath, it's time to get dressed and do hair. I was inspired by her curls last week and wanted to try to bring out her natural curls more. Usually, her hair will only stay curly for just a little bit out of the bath so I got some product recommended by Aunt Meagan and "amped" her curls up quite a bit.

I think she liked them as well. :)

Fun Day, Park Day

2011-02-24T11:57:00.006-05:00

Since yesterday afternoon was so beautiful we decided to venture out to our neighborhood's playground. This is the first time we have been to the playground since the weather has started to turn. Thus, it was Hayden's first chance she's had to explore a playground. Last season she was still being held in my arms or confined to a stroller. She had a great time!

She loved climbing up and down the stairs. She's not the most adventurous child so she kept to where she was comfortable.

At our Pittsburgh neighborhood playground we always found these tiny balls so when Carter found this little green one (his favorite color) he was ecstatic and very obsessed with keeping it safe.

My beautiful blue-eyed girl!!

Quite the focused face.

My little goof ball. I can see so much growth in him as of late. He is really coming into himself.

I know to the average person it will look like I put a bunch of the same, exact pictures on this post. But to me, I love to see each little unique and different facial expression that shows the many sides of this little girl that I am lucky enough to have in my life.

Go Aggies!

2011-02-23T18:24:00.003-05:00

I know that title may seem so Odd and somewhat wrong for me to write seeing as our household is die hard BYU, but we have a new boy in town that is even getting us to start swinging towels around and yelling, "Go Aggies!"

Everyone around here is totally smitten by our cutie putootie cousin that is now practically a neighbor. He has Carter turned into an Aggie fan. He broke the news to Dad the other night and Dad took it very well, I mean really who could blame him after hanging out with our little friend so much!

My Sleeping Beauties

2011-02-03T17:18:00.005-05:00

Here are some of the things that have made my beauties so sleepy:

Lots of snow storms that have been closing school. So we are either sleepy because
we get dressed up and play out in the cold for about 5 minutes before we bail (it takes longer to get dressed properly than the time he actual plays in his snow outfit). Or we are sleepy from the
boredom that sets in from being stuck in the house once again!! I tell you what I am getting fed up with all these wimpy school closings!!
Carter was a doll on our first big snow storm and helped me to shovel our 3 car garage driveway. This driveway is a heck of a lot more work than shoveling my one car driveway in PGH!!

Can you tell we are getting some major cabin fever and desperately playing with anything we can get our hands on?!? In this particular picture above, I was upstairs long enough to sort and put away all the laundry I had folded that day. I came downstairs to see: Hayden eating glue stick, Carter got his hands on some scissors and cutting everything he could get his hands on, and all the markers had their lids off and were strewn everywhere (and Hayden must have been eating the markers too because she had a very colorful mouth mixed in with the glue stick). And as I look at this picture, I can't believe that i am actually posting this picture for the world to see the whirlwind that was my house at this moment. But Marie, this one is for you: just keeping it real!

Hayden is really into feeding her babies now days. And after getting all woozy from the glue stick she can't keep all the facial parts differentiated, thus she is feeding her baby through her eyeball. But hey, most stoned mothers don't even bother to feed their babies.

Her latest word: "Ba ba" - "Bottle."

Another way we've been working ourselves to the point of exhaustion is by playing "Playground" every single day, multiple times a day. I tell you that Dance Party really helps ya work it out. (Playground is a Cranium game and I highly recommend it.)

Then there's our crazy and wild Family Home Evenings:

We've also been shakin our Money Makers. Hayden has started dancing to music and she knows how to get her hips a goin (and she doesn't even need to be high on her glue stick to do it):

And here, Hayden is so tired that she can fall asleep not only mid-meal, but also mid-laugh!

And with that I say, Buenos Noches I'm going to bed!

The Grove

2011-01-28T15:15:00.005-05:00

There's an indoor play area around where we live where we go sometimes to get out of the house. It is part of an outdoor mall. So I do a little shopping and bribing - if you are good you get to play afterwards. And then the kids go play. It's good for both of them because everything is "small" and soft so Hayden can do a little climbing and Carter is still small enough that he can have fun, too. Plus, there's usually a bunch of kids there around his age that he can pal around with.

Gotta love the Jeggings!! (Jeans/Leggings combined)

Carter loves to make sure that everyone knows that Hayden is his little sister when we go to play.

Carter looks huge compared to the frog and then the Frog looks huge next to Hayden. Our own version of the Princess and the Frog.

Carter's Moves

2011-01-28T15:04:00.002-05:00

I was taking video of Hayden earlier this month and Carter wanted some video loving as well. So he decided it was a perfect time to show off some of his "moves." I get a kick out of his facial expressions in these:

Carter's Photography Skills on a Beautiful Day

2011-01-16T10:33:00.007-05:00

December 30th, 2010

This was a gorgeous, beautiful day! The high temp was 68 degrees!! So you better believe we took advantage of these crazy, rare temperatures! The kids and I played out back and while Hayden napped Carter and I played out front.

Yes, Hayden has bare tootsies and for those of you that gasped at this I will just point out a few things: 1. It was 68 degrees (not nearly warm enough for my Grandma Ione to be satisfied I know). 2. She can't move around well with socks and shoes on. 3. She pulls off her socks and shoes in less than a minute of them being on.

At this point, I needed to go inside to change Hayden's diaper. During that time, Carter grabbed my camera (for the first time) turned it on and started taking pictures. I was so intrigued by the angles and perspectives of his pictures:

I thought it was impressive that he was able to get our whole house in the picture.

This is me coming out of the house, shocked that Carter had my camera and what the heck was he doing with it!

But then I thought, you know that is probably fun for a kid to take pictures so I let him keep going, after all they're just digital so I could erase when he was done and no harm done. Little did I realize that most of them were really good.

Is this really how he sees me?!?

The sea of suburbia as my friend Marie likes to put it.

Such cool perspective, right?

And with Carter behind the camera, I am actually in front of it. A rare thing.

Carter riding his Hummer, pretty much for the first time, in the front yard:

We hadn't really charged the battery, and not thinking of that I told Carter to drive it with me to the mailbox that is down the street. It died once we got to the mailbox and I had to push it all the way back home with several of the neighbors giving me a hard time along the way. All their kids have Power Wheels and had all been there before and was glad it was me and not them.

Carter's Art Work

2011-01-10T15:35:00.003-05:00

I love to see the art work that comes home from Carter's preschool. He is naturally not an art project kind of guy so it's fun to see his preschool try to bring that out of him. BUT there is always that issue of deciding what to keep and what to throw away. I have come up with a great system that works for me that I am very happy with. I hate the guilt of throwing away his precious work, but I also know that we can't hang on to everything because then I would turn into one of those Hoarders you see on TV. So I hang up his stuff on the wall for the month/season that we are in, enjoy it, then take a picture of it to be able to go back and look at his cute stuff and then lovingly dispose of it.

This is his Christmas month. A lot of his items were ornaments that went on the tree.

November
and October.

Never too Late for November

2010-12-29T13:51:00.006-05:00

This is my catch up post for November:

This is the way that Matt watches his BYU Football. I get such a kick out of it. Let me explain exactly what is going on in this picture. Matt is watching the game on TV while keeping track of all the stats online and listening to the live KSL Radio feed off of his I-Phone (one ear bud in his ear). Can we just say: OBSESSED!!

This was a rare morning, where Matt didn't have to go to work or round or do anything else. We could all just get in bed and cuddle and laugh and have a good time.

I already did a post about going home back in November to see my brother Tim go on his mission. But I missed putting a couple pictures in there. This one of my mom above is so classic Grandma Karen. My mother has an intense love of books and reading. Now that the kids are mostly all grown and out of the house she has been able to follow this passion and has become a certified tutor and finds great fulfillment from helping struggling children develop a love of reading as well.

Below is my niece Kaylee all dressed up after her school's Thanksgiving Feast. Isn't she adorable!?!

This picture is being annoyingly stubborn and won't go to where it belongs, so for the sake at keeping my frustration level low, I am leaving it here. But it should be up by the picture of Matt and the kids in bed.

Matt and his Buddy Carter. These two are such cute buds. I LOVE IT!!

Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Jay gave a Hayden a walker for her Birthday. But because Hayden was getting antsy to walk and was pushing anything around that she could, Grandma gave it to Hayden around Thanksgiving. We got a couple cute videos of her learning how to use her walker:

Up to Date in December

2010-12-29T13:04:00.004-05:00

As you can tell, I am desperately trying to get caught up on our family blog, so here are the last videos and pictures from December.

At the beginning of the month we had our Iowa Family (not related by blood, but related for all the reasons that count) come to visit us. It's so nice that we have returned to the Midwest so that we can see some of our long lost friends again.

We went to a local old train station that has a yearly tradition of exhibiting a huge train display at Christmas time. I sadly, didn't take many pictures and not nearly enough pictures of our IA family, but what I have will have to do. Above, Taylor (I can't believe she is 13!!) is holding Hayden. She and twin brother Michael were so great to help out with the kids all weekend long. Whether Michael wanted it or not he had a side kick every second by the name of Carter. Taylor even changed a diaper for us!!

Kim holding Hayden.

Some of the train display.

Hayden just content to be a long for the ride as usual.

Later in the month, Matt and Carter built a fort in the basement.
It even came with a secret handshake (oops, I guess it's not so secret anymore):

Hayden was just playing with the other toys and wishing that brother would let her into the fort. Alas, no girls allowed. (Mom got to go in once.)

Our snow amounts here have been pitiful so far (I'm not complaining). Only once, was it somewhat worthy of getting snow clothes on to taste some delicious snow. But it was much too cold for Mom, Dad, or Hayden to attempt to go out in it. So Carter was out for maybe 5 minutes and then he too decided it was too cold.

The video below is of Hayden at the beginning of her stair climbing days when she was trying to climb stairs every second that she could. Now, her thing is trying to sneak into bathrooms to play with the toilet. There is something about that white, sparkling (I try) throne. Really, it just grosses me out, so the rule at this house is the bathroom door is to be closed AT ALL TIMES!

Merry Christmas 2010

2010-12-27T21:50:00.006-05:00

Christmas Eve

Let me just start by saying this Christmas was one of my top 5. I don't know what it was that made it so nice, but it was just fun and relaxed and I was surrounded by wonderful people. I also had some nice conversations with my family on the phone and my missionary brother.

First off, let's discuss Hayden's hair. She has some of THE BEST bedhead known to man or woman. The sweet thing about her hair below is that she hasn't even gone to bed yet. Every Christmas Eve night we open a few presents including PJs so she is opening her new PJ present.

Everyone showing off their FOOTY PJs, though Matt's are not new to him or this blog. His PJs come out from the dark where they belong here and there. Whitters PJs are complete with butt flap as you can see down below. But I LOVE all these cutie putooties in this picture above.

HAWT!!!

And those pants would be Matt's new "pjs." And no I have no idea what he is doing and what's going through his mind, but he posed, I snapped and the rest is history.

Santa, though it was touch and go for a while, did indeed come to our house this year. Jay, Bon and Whit came to our house Christmas morning to open gifts so we have their presents under our tree too, except for those that Santa brought to their house.

This Hummer was the big gift Santa brought this year. It is still a puzzle on how he fit it in his bag and through the chimney.

"I love Christmas!" Carter decided to sleep in till 9am on Christmas morning so I snapped a few pictures of Hayden while we were waiting on sleepy head to open gifts.

When he woke up, we got a video of him coming down the stairs for the first time:

Now that is one cute present!!

Carter loved opening presents this year. Every year he understands more and more. This year he asked Santa for Legos and when he opened his Legos, he said, "He knew, Santa knew I wanted Legos...because I put them on my list." He was so excited as you can see in the video below. But my very favorite thing that was said this year, was towards the beginning when he saw all the presents left and his stocking loaded with stuff he sighed with relief, "I was almost a bad boy this year."

Dad and Carter playing with his Legos.

Our precious gifts that Carter made us at preschool.

Matt was feeling extra saucy this year I guess.

Merry Christmas Matty.

Merry Christmas Carter!

Merry Christmas Hayden!

Merry Christmas Me!
After present time, then brunch at our house and nap time, we headed over to Nielsen Srs for games, Wii, dinner and fun.

Hayden doing what Hayden loves most:

Whit got a foot massager from her man and Hayden enjoyed getting a little bottom massage. Her face is hilarious in this video:

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and I hope you have a fantastic New Year!

Carter's 2010 Christmas Preschool Program

2010-12-27T13:47:00.002-05:00

December 20, 2010

Carter had an adorable Christmas Preschool Program this year. Each class was dressed up as one of the participant's of the Nativity Scene. Carter's class was dressed up as the animals. They sang lots of cute songs complete with actions.

We weren't allowed to take any pictures or video (unless in the balcony) so as to not disturb the kids. So afterwards, they all posed for us. It was so cute to see them sing their songs. Carter was definitely the craziest kid. He sang the songs and did the movements, but with his own crazy twist on everything. I was not surprised because that is just the way he is. I got several comments from the parents afterwards at how much groove my son has. He is a lover of music. To be honest I was just relieved to see that he was wearing his costume. But this was a very rewarding day as a parent. I was teary eyed the whole time, watching my beautiful boy performing and looking so cute. I was so proud of him and grateful for all his teachers and the hard work they have put in with these kids.

The whole group.

So I know that they said no video, but I cheated. Their last song was so adorable and I could sneak a video on my camera without people knowing so I did:

Hayden was a good audience member and loved seeing all the kids moving and singing.

The little cradle I thought looked so precious up there all by itself before the program started.

This is the sanctuary of the church where Carter goes to school. It is a pretty building and one of the old buildings in Liberty. Just a block or so away from Liberty Jail.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

2010-12-24T13:27:00.002-05:00

We at the Nielsen house can't wait for Santa to come!! Though some of us have been more naughty than nice this year (Carter) :) Santa is still coming. It was so fun to see how Hayden reacted to Santa. She wasn't scared, just inquisitive. She couldn't quite figure out who this guy was.

Happy First Birthday Hayden!

2010-12-23T11:37:00.011-05:00

12-22-10

Our Baby Girl Hayden turned one and it was so nice to have a fun, calm, Hayden-centered celebration with Matt's folks and sister. They came over in the evening and we had my Mom's clam chowder and then after presents and playing we had cupcakes for dessert.

Hayden listening in to Grandma Karen singing her Happy Birthday. We miss the family that is not around on days like this, but how blessed that we can still communicate through phone and email and blogs.

Right before we started the Birthday festivities Hayden had a huge blowout so we decided to start the rest of the evening in the Birthday suit since she was going to end up that way for her cupcake anyways. It's kind of fun to document how big she truly is at her big age of One! In this picture she is saying, "who me?"

The video below is of her "opening" her presents and checking things out:

The video below is us singing Happy Birthday to Hayden:

At first Hayden just wanted to lick the frosting.

Then she started to get more daring.

Then she started ripping it apart and throwing pieces on the ground. She was so fun to watch we just kept laughing and laughing.

Then at the end, after all that new exploration, she was on a sugar crash and exhausted.

The rest of the evening we just hung out and played.

And got a group picture. It was so nice to have it so low key so that I could really focus on Hayden and see her experience every last bit of her Birthday events. We're so happy she is in our family and love her lots and lots!!

One Year Ago from Today...

2010-12-22T16:43:00.005-05:00

Hayden came into our world

And made us a Family of Four!

(This was Christmas last year, I was able to leave Christmas Eve, but she had to stay in the NICU for a couple more days. Luckily, nothing was serious.)

We had our scary moments through her first year in the PICU,

but she endured them well.

I thought that I would post Hayden's journal entry for today on our blog to share with you what this little Miracle Baby means to me:

Dear Hayden Girl,

I write you this letter on your First Birthday with a full heart. My love for you is so strong and has been so present from the day you were born. I know without a doubt that you, exactly you, were the one who was supposed to come into our family and especially into my arms at the time that you came. Your tender, sweet personality was needed to soothe my heart and soul. To bring me such exquisite amount of joy and happiness that I never knew was possible from the first seconds after your quite amazing and unexpected delivery (you were three weeks early and came so fast that I didn’t have time to get medicine to dull the pain). But that is how your life continues to be. If I am ever sad or struggling with something all I need to do is turn to you and you bring warmth and peace to me as I squeeze you tight in my arms. You are also a symbol of strength and endurance. The start of your life was in the NICU and then twice afterwards you fought for your life as you spent weeks all together in the PICU. I was so scared of loosing you, but though you had such enormous amounts of pain in your eyes you were so strong and brave on the exterior. All the doctors and nurses loved being around you because of your resilience and happy demeanor. I know you were just an infant on the outside, but your soul on the inside knew you had so much more to live for.

Now at One you are turning into a fun loving, spunky little girl. You have a flirtatious, teasing, toothy grin that cracks me up and sends everyone into laughter. You love to be wherever your brother is and to play with his toys. He dotes on you, most of the time, and sweetly refers to you as “Honey.” Though you are a very tender soul and do not like your feelings to be hurt, you are still a tough cookie and enjoy a good challenge. Right now your favorite challenge is going up and down the stairs and you like to practice often. You also enjoy the challenge of trying to sneak into the bathroom before Mom catches you and closes the door. I don’t know what it is about the Bathroom, but that is the room you always gravitate to, you just want to climb that toilet. Maybe you will be an easy kid to potty train – here’s to hoping!

Right now you are crawling and can walk around as you hold on to things. You also enjoy walking behind the walker Grandma Bonnie gave to you for your Birthday. Like I said you enjoy climbing up things like the stairs. We have started working on baby sign language with you and you can sign “more,” “eat” and we are working on “all done.” You love to growl at things like dinosaurs, dogs, lions/tigers in books, etc. For such a little girl, you do have one ferocious growl. You love to eat food. Your favorite food is ice cream. We always have to be cautious of when we get the ice cream out because once we start feeding you ice cream we are in it for the long haul. You get quite a food grunt going on if we slow down and don’t get the next bite in at the precise second you are ready for it.

You said your first word a few months ago and it was “Mom.” You love your Mom!! “Mom” is a word that you use for just about anything that you want or that you are excited about. You love to snuggle up to me and I LOVE to snuggle up to you! When you wake up, you snuggle into my chest and just sit there for a couple minutes. This is such a precious time. If something scares you, you like to snuggle into whoever is holding you at that point as well. Also, whenever you get shy, you snuggle in and bury your face in my chest.

Hayden, you are also a very beautiful girl! I love to watch your blue eyes that you got from me sparkle and dance. Those eyes can light up a room. Your hair is so wild and crazy the only way it can be tamed now-a-days is by being pulled back into one or two pony tails which is always completed by a big bow of some sort. Who would have thought that I would be so much into accessorizing my little girl? You are so much fun to doll up and Daddy loves to show you off! He loves his little girl with all his heart.

Thanks Hayden Yvonne for coming into our lives and being our little “Angel” and “Honey”!

I love you with all my heart,
Mom

Carter's Four Yr Old Favorite Things

2010-12-22T12:45:00.002-05:00

Carter at Four Years Old
12-18-10

Today my baby is turning four years old (I wrote this on Carter's Birthday) and I wanted to document what he says some of his favorite things are:

Favorite Color: Green

Favorite Food: Cheesy Scrambled Eggs

Favorite Shape: Circle

Favorite Candy: Chocolate – Kit Kat, M&Ms

Favorite Story: Mud Pie Annie & Go Away Big Green Monster

Favorite Show: Spiderman & Batman (though I think he’s watched only one Batman in his life) & Avengers (Ironman, Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Thor, etc)

Favorite Super Hero: Batman

Favorite Person: Mommy

Favorite thing to do: Play

Favorite Place: Chick Fil’ A

Favorite thing to play: With his Fire truck (though yesterday was the first time he’s played with his fire truck in months.

Favorite thing to Drink: Dog Soda (Mug root beer because it has a dog on it)

Favorite Song: Truck song “Trucks, Tractors and Forklifts, too” (from his truck story book my mom gave him)

As a four yr old Carter is quite the kid. We have our ups and downs. He is such a strong-willed fireball. Every day we go through our challenges, but overall we know he is a good, sweet child. He loves to be a big brother and is constantly helping out Hayden. He loves to share his food with her and make sure she doesn’t get to close to the stairs.

He also is a smart kid. He knows his whole alphabet and the sound each letter makes and is starting to sound out words and writes his own name. He loves to go to preschool to play. His favorite thing in this world is to play with buddies. Right now he is really into superheroes and watching superhero shows. It’s fun because a lot of the old school superhero shows are back on TV.

Carter and I love to snuggle up together and watch them. Silly enough, I think I enjoy them almost as much as he does (especially the snuggling up with my boy part).

Happy 4th Birthday Carter Buddy!!

2010-12-18T13:45:00.009-05:00

For Carter's Birthday we did a Superhero Training Camp Birthday Party.

Carter wanted representation from just about every superhero. Here you see Batman.
Ironman is on top of the cupcakes and the cupcake paper liners are Spiderman. Also, the Carter wanted the frosting to be green because it's his favorite color.

Bonnie and I made these Superman capes. Here our little superhero's in training are practicing their target practice by squirting joker with water.

This was a big hit amongst all the trainees.

Then they strengthened their muscles by lifting this 100lb barbell.

They also decorated their superhero belts that will give them special powers.

Here's all of our superheros.

Look at their BIG muscles.

Watch out, you might get zapped by their superhero power.

Thanks buddies for all the super cool presents!

And here's to our super food.

And what would be a Superhero Birthday Party without Super Awesome cupcakes and ...

Super Awesome Cotton Candy ice cream (all chosen by the Birthday Boy).

These are the presents Grandpa Jay, Grandma Bonnie, and Aunt Whit gave Carter.

Mom and Dad's gifts.

And Grandpa Craig, Grandma Karen and Aunt Nic gave Carter these great books along with a Birthday check. We love the books Grandma picks out, she always finds the COOLEST books.

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-17T15:19:00.004-05:00

I hope that all of our Buddies and Family had a good Thanksgiving. Ours was pretty laid back and nice.

The guys did a great job in helping this year, and the women folk really appreciated it. Carter was scoping the scene to get a good idea of what will be expected of him in the future.

Our delicious table. We had LOTS of leftovers, but over the Holiday weekend we were able to finish up just about all of it.

Carter had this table all to himself. Not that he needed to be exiled, but he chose it (and our table in right in front of his). He can't wait till Cousin Dade can come hang with him at the cousin table.

And here's the rest of us (Matt's taking the picture).

Once we were done with the meal and cleaned up, we played games and...

watched a lot of football.

Hayden Beautiful

2010-12-14T18:20:00.004-05:00

Back in November Hayden wore this adorable dress for the first time, so after church we did a little photo shoot. Hayden has such a sweet, endearing personality. She gives such cute smiles.

I like so many other people, think that the eyes are a window to someone's soul. I love that Hayden's eyes dance when she smiles. When she was so sick in the hospital her enormous amount of pain would scream through her eyes. What a blessing it is that I get the opportunity to still look into those beautiful blue eyes and see pure happiness.

She LOVES to climb up to these bars (climbing the stairs is her favorite form of entertainment) and peek through them with someone on the other side and laugh and laugh. There is a video of this at the end of the post.
Woo woo Hayden.

The best time to see Hayden's blue eyes are when the light is shining directly into them.

The 2010 Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

2010-12-11T13:01:00.004-05:00

Last night Matt and I hosted an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party in Matt's parent's basement. We had a great turn out of 30 people (and their basement could have easily held more, it's crazy). We had lots of food, white elephants (which I can't believe I didn't take pictures of) and most importantly some majorly UGLY sweaters!! Way to step up to the plate everyone!

The female winner of the night is the lady on the right. She bought her Christmas tree sweater on Ebay. It was just a plain sweater with a Christmas tree on it and then Jen went to work. She added all the tinsel, presents, holly and berries all with a hot glue gun. It was a 3D masterpiece! For her job well done on her Cheesy sweater she received a cheesy romance novel.

The male winner is the guy on the left. He decked the halls from head to toe. He had a festive hat and scarf on along with some cozy green sweat pants. But what really took the cake was his Grandma Sweater and his amazing Grandma Blouse. Even the buttons were bright in their festive colors. To add to his Christmas wardrobe, he recieved a Santa tie as his prize.

Matt wore a sweatshirt with a bedazzled teddy bear. It really brought out the blush in his cheeks.

Andy here draped himself in lights and poked them through his sweater. He walked around hooked into an outlet. He did complain of feeling a little toasty through the night though.

Sadly, several of the pictures through out the night are blurred for some strange reason, perhaps it was the sugar shakes we were all receiving from the amounts of junk food we consumed. I completed my outfit with a big red bow in my hair.

And Matt's lovely parents showing off their stuff.

Since I didn't take pictures I thought I would just mention a few of my favorite white elephant gifts of the evening:

1. Matt and I found a 2 1/2 ft tall plastic reindeer from around the 70s that glows when you plug it in. (For my siblings, think Grandma Ione's plastic Santa.)

2. An evil looking Clown baby monitor called "The Little Listener."

3. Matt got a box of chocolates where each candy had a bite taken out of it. The sick thing is by the end of the night those chocolates were pretty much finished off by our party guests.

4. I received a North Beach Diet book that taught you how to go from ripped to adding hip and belly fat instantly with tips such as "how to lower your metabolism."

5. Someone made a bag from tidy widys.

6. Canned meats made from animal intestines.

7. Sardines

I Needed This Today

2010-12-08T18:36:00.001-05:00

Thanks Becky for putting this on your blog. It's BEAUTIFUL!

See Ya on the Flip Side Elder Herzog

2010-12-08T17:47:00.006-05:00

Missionaries go into the Missionary Training Center down in Provo, UT on Wednesdays. Tuesday night, Tim was set apart as a missionary by an Extraordinary Priesthood Blessing. The spirit was so strong and amazing. Afterward, he is officially Elder Herzog and will be a Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for the next two years.

There was lots of hugs and tears knowing that we wouldn't see him in person for the next two years. But overall the feeling was joy, happiness and excitement that he was choosing this honorable path.

Carter and Tim have always had a special relationship.

Yes, that is a soccer ball in Timmy's hands. Anyone who knows him, knows that he wouldn't survive without his soccer ball.

Adios Elder Herzog!!

Now fast forward a couple weeks from those previous pictures. Tim just arrived in GA yesterday. His Mission President, President King, and his wife had all the new missionaries over for dinner and interviews and they took this picture to send to all the families. Elder Herzog is top left. And the fun begins!!

Hollywood Connection

2010-12-07T08:55:00.004-05:00

It is tradition in my family that the Monday night before a missionary leaves to the Missionary Training Center that we all go to a fun place to play together. This time we went to Hollywood Connection.

These bumper cars were a BIG hit. They were the best bumper cars that I have ever been on. Carter looked so stinkin cute on these big cars, they practically swallowed him up, but he did everything in his might to control that thing and he did a good job.

My family filled up every spot on this bus.

Cute Grandpa helping the granddaughters learn how to putt.

Carter likes to do it with his own style. There is no trying to help that kid.

Syd had quite the mad skills on the mini golf course.

Kyle getting set up.

Kyle's twin Ashlyn.

LITTLE Lilly Bean. She is such a cute, tiny thing. She is about 3 months older than Hayden.

And the whirly balloons....

Merry-Go-Round....

And more whirly balloon. Hayden loved the rides.

The cool kids balloon: Big Timmay, Lexi (Chris's), Tim's girlfriend Stefanie, and Aubrey (stac's).

Daring Mom's balloon with all the little tykes.

And my balloon, as you can see I was trying to hold in my cookies.

My beautiful niece Emmie.

Elder Timmy's Farewell

2010-11-29T16:45:00.003-05:00

My brother Big Timmay just left on his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to the North Atlanta, Georgia mission. He will serve there for 2 years. He will not be paid for his service, in fact missionaries pay to go on their missions. It was a call that came from God and Tim is willing and excited to accept. This day has been a long time in coming and I am so proud of him for making this tough yet rewarding decision. He had many challenges to overcome to be ready to serve and I am inspired by him for doing what he needed to do to make himself available to serve. He is a strong young man and I know he will serve our Father in Heaven and His children in Georgia well.

Typically the Sunday before missionaries leave they have what is called a "Farewell." They speak in church and then have a big gathering afterwards with all their family and friends. And let me tell you did Tim have a BIG gathering at my parent's house. I have never seen that many people at my parent's before. One could barley move there were bodies crammed from wall to wall. We weren't even close to being in fire code I am certain. The above picture has all the nieces and nephews in it that Tim will not see while he is gone. We can only write letters or emails. There is no talking on the phone (except Mothers Day and Christmas) and no in person visits. He will miss births (my sister in law is in due in a couple months and I am sure there will be more), no weddings in our family future that he will miss (Nicole, don't even think about it!!!), but any other big family event they miss out on. Matt and I got married while his brother was gone on his mission. It was kind of weird having a brother I had never met before. Overall, the whole family is so blessed for having a missionary out and I am excited for those blessings and the missionary letters that are jam packed with the Spirit.

By the end of the day we all felt like Stacey's Kyle.

On this trip out to Utah, Hayden had a hay day with Sadie and Sadie, though large, is a gentle giant.

Pre School Thanksgiving Feast

2010-11-24T14:44:00.003-05:00

November 22, 2010

Carter had his preschool's Thanksgiving Feast on Monday. I was so excited to go and see Carter all dressed up and get some great pictures of him. As you can see neither of those things happened. Of course, Carter was the ONLY kid of ALL the classes that would not dress up. No matter the occasion, Carter will be Carter. :)

But we did get two cute songs from Carter's class and several other songs from the other classes. Below is one of Carter's songs. You can't really hear it, but you get the idea:

These were the cute table decorations that were on the table when we got there. I have always been impressed with the many cute art projects they do.