March Madness

Evan started off the month with a big milestone. He learned to ride his little bicycle. He's the kind of kid that is a bit afraid of trying unless he knows he'll succeed. I've been trying to encourage him ever since we moved here and then one day he decides he'll do it and off he goes. We need to get him a bigger bike since his legs are spinning as fast as they can. I'm so proud of him and it just makes him seem all grown up. We went on a date to celebrate and got him some new runners since he's growing so big. He is my bestest little buddy and we have so much fun together. I just can't believe how fast he's growing up. (Please excuse the lame commentary on the video).

He got to have his first real spring break this year and we had a blast. He spent the week before sick with a high fever so we took off a bit early for our trip to Boise. What a fun filled trip it was. I was able to reconnect with some old friends which is always a treat. Lori hosted a fun family dinner and we made a couple visits to the park. On a sadder note I attended the funeral of a friend from H.S., but it was nice to see her family and a few others I would not have normally seen. I just love seeing all of my family and the boys sure do love playing with their cousins. We were having so much fun I forgot to take pictures, but here are a few of my cute family.


The boys and I hurried back so we could help Matthew celebrate his birthday. There was still one more day of no rain so we went to Washington park and did some hiking and playing at the park. The zoo was a madhouse so we went in to the city to ride the MAX and shop around. I love just hanging with the boys!


The next day we dropped the boys off at Aaron & Sarah's so we could have a day without kids. As is tradition, we went out for dinner at Benihana's which is always terribly delicious and then perused a bookstore for a bit. The next day we had hoped to do something in the great outdoors, but the constant downpour made it a little difficult. So we lounged around for a bit and then went into Portland to the Saturday market and wandered around for a bit. We got out of the rain for a bit when we stopped at a Greek restaraunt that was pretty decent. We picked up the boys and as always they weren't ready to leave. They always have way too much fun with their cousins. Thanks to Aaron & Sarah for watching the boys, it's always a special treat to spend time with my hot hubby.


Speaking of the man, we celebrated his 31st birthday the following Sunday. I let him take a nice long nap while the boys and I decorated the house and made his birthday cake. Aaron & Sarah and kids came over to help celebrate. They gave Matthew a new game so of course we had to break it out and play while our munchkins ran around like wild animals. Good times! We gave Matthew a new alarm clock, a wall hook for his guitar and a backpacking tent. We just love him so much we have to spoil him to pieces. Love ya old man!

I'm a Maniac, Maniac!

Yessss!

Amor

I've resorted to monthly posts. In my efforts to spend a little less time on the internet I don't get on to post or read other blogs but about once a month. It's been kind of nice although I do have a lot of catching up to do.

It seems that all we do around here is play. With our days off and our cabin fever we have been out and about enjoying all we can. Here are some of the highlights from the month.

Trip to the Zoo with Nielsen cousins

Weekend with Nielsen Cousins and our Silly Face Pancakes

BOWLING NIGHT

The Portland Children's Museum

oh where, oh where has my January gone?

We set our new years resolutions for the year and Evan is hoping to a lose a few of those holiday pounds. I mean look at the kid, he's a total chunk!

Before school was back in session we took an enjoyable trip to the coast for the day. It was a little bit chilly but rather beautiful none the less.

You can't really tell but Evan had gathered himself some wood and was building a fire. He loves camping and anytime we ask him what he would like to do for a fun family outing his answer is always to go camping. He's a regular Survival Man!

We conquered the sea monster! Evan was pretty sure this thing was going to jump up and eat him, but Dallin tackled the beast and showed him who was boss.

Here is pretty cool tree they call the Octopus tree. It's pretty neat!

Of course we can't forget our monthly culture night. Can you guess what it was? It might have been a bit of a stretch but we still had a blast. These two are my favorite amigos!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So it's taken me a bit of time to get everything back in order after such a wild and crazy December. I need to get something up so you all know we're still alive. I even had my mother worried. Sorry Mom! Here is a little bit of our Christmas down in Brentwood, CA. Sadly I did not snap a lot of pictures. I guess we were too busy having fun. We also have some of our New Years party. We had a nice quiet one at home. We had Cheese and Chocolate Fondue and then played some games, looked at pictures from the year, wrote down our favorite memories on balloons and ran around in them, and then rang in the new year (at 8:00) with all sorts of noise. Matthew and I spent the rest of the night relaxing and reminiscing. Hope you all have an absolutely devine 2009.

Winter Wonderland

Just thought I would post that it is still snowing. I haven't seen this much snow in many years it seems. It just keeps coming and coming. Wednesday we got some good snowman snow so we all went out and made ourselves a little snow friend. He looked pretty sad by the next morning since it had warmed up a bit and rained. Evan said it's because he went out to play with the other snowmen. If you've ever read the Snowmen book you know what he's talking about.




It's absolutely beautiful outside, not to mention freezing cold. When the roads were cleared up a bit I ran out trying to finish up our Christmas preparations. It's a good thing too because it started real heavy again Friday night and by Saturday evening we had 10 good inches of fresh snow on top of the couple of inches we had gotten on Thursday.

Thursday's snow was nice and wet and so I managed to build a small hut. The boys were real good helpers at first but got too cold and went in while I finished it for them. I would have liked to have made it bigger but we only had a couple inches and I had used most of the snow up in our backyard.
So the kids were out of school all week and then because of the 2 inches of ice that topped our 10 inches of snow they canceled church. It was kind of sad to miss the Sunday before Christmas but we had our own little Christmas program and I baked up a storm with my little helpers. We made fudge, English Toffee, Spice & ginger cookies and chocolate peanut butter balls. It snowed off and on all day and it took us quite a bit of time to uncover our car. I haven't seen much movement outside because most people are just sticking to the indoors where it's nice and warm. Matthew's dental office canceled all patients for Monday and so we're going to take off early and head down to California. I'm a bit sad to leave behind our White Christmas but the boys are sure excited to see their Uncle Josh.

We're having our own family Christmas before we head out in the morning so here is the tree all ready for those sweet little boys. We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

SNOW DAYS!!!

I have some very vivid memories of huddling around our old radio (8-track included) trying to find a station that was listing the school closures for that day. There would be mounds of snow outside and you could smell the wood fire heating the house. There were either shouts of joy when he announced that school was not in session disappointed groans. I LOVED snow days but despite the amount of snow we use to get it was a rare occasion.


Now, as a mother I have experienced my first snow day and Evan his. It all started Sunday morning. We knew there was a chance of snow because of this cold artic front coming from the North, but I was pretty doubtful that I would actually get to see the real white stuff and not just ice cold rain. We were slumbering in our beds when Evan started yelling for us. I always ignore the first couple of shouts hoping they don't really want me, but when I finally responded with a groggy "What" he shouted "It's SNOWING!" Sure enough, those beautiful flakes were falling. We ran out in our jammies and coats just to feel them land softly on our faces. We lasted just a few minutes before we decided to watch from the warmth of a blanket on the couch. We got ready for church and it was still coming. We could hardly contain the kids in Primary because they were so anxious to get outside. By the time church was over there was a good 3 inches. The boys and I bundled up and rolled around outside for a bit before heading back to the church for tithing settlements.


We are now on our 2nd snow day with the chance of a couple more since we're suppose to get more snow and frozen rain early tomorrow morning. We've had the neighbor over so Evan's had a playmate, and we've been keeping busy playing, cutting, pasting, baking, frosting and movie watching. I can honestly say I still LOVE snow days.

O Tannenbaum

The Christmas tree is one of absolute favorite things about Christmas. I want it up as soon as possible and if I'm home those tree lights are on. When I was little I loved to turn off all the lights except for the Christmas tree and read or book or something. No surprise, I haven't grown up too much and still love to do that. I love the whole process of picking out that perfect tree, the one that screams "The Greatest Nielsen Christmas Tree Ever." Next year we're going to get a permit and go off into the mountains, but this year we found our tree in a local tree farm and I was just excited as the boys, running around in the mud looking for my new little friend.

It was a beautiful day and afterward we warmed up in the barn with some hot chocolate and visited the donkey and lambs. We came home with some great plastic ornaments for our tree.

I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!!!!

The Polar Express

The first movie that Evan ever went to was when he was 18 months old and my dad took us all out to The Polar Express. We were kind of late getting there and so Matthew and I sat up pretty close with Evan. The kid didn't make a peep the entire time and I'm not sure he blinked either. He stayed that way until we had been in the car for about 15 minutes and then all of a sudden he just started jabbering like crazy. That was particularly strange for him since he hardly ever spoke, only sign language. We were laughing so hard because it was if he had finally processed the crazy movie and was telling us how awesome it was. He had a serious obsession with trains and would watch anything with a train, so when I heard about that the Mt. Hood Railroad did a Polar Express ride I knew we had to do it. We met up with the cousins and had a fabulous time drinking hot chocolate, singing carols and seeing Santa. I don't know that it will be a Christmas tradition but it was fun!

The kids got to wear their pajamas just like on the train so Evan picked out his glow in the dark dino shirt he just inherited from another cousin. Here they are enjoying their hot cocoa & cookie.

Dallin is a hot chocolate connoisseur and he gave this 3 stars. He takes his job very seriously!

I love how their faces were just glowing. They had been waiting so patiently to get their tickets punched. Evan was just sure that his said something very important just like the movie. He was even assigning us all parts in the movie on the drive there. I love the child like glee! Look at little Josha holding his ticket. So cute!

Hmmm, what could Dallin's possibily say except that I'm the King of the World and I totally know it.
Of course the greatest part was sitting on Santa's lap and getting a bell. What a jolly ol' elf!


Here are Noah and Arwen sitting on Santa's lap and then of course little Sparkly Larkly making sure to get her money's worth on this train ride. We love being close to our fun cousins!