Happy Hands Club

Lately Louie has been practicing her audition for Happy Hands Club constantly. 

And a show-stopping bow

Phunny Photos

My high school physics teacher used to change all "f"'s to "ph"'s. For example, "Physics is Phun!" I think my mom does it now in her classes too. It kind of annoys me. 

Anyway, these recent photos are all phunny. 

We are Family

Just before Christmas we got everyone together for some Nielson pictures. Twenty-five degrees doesn't make for a lot of Kodak moments. It was a little rough, but we got some decent ones.

This one may be my favorite. I love the genuine smiles

Nope, this one is my favorite.

Acht, Ocho, Eight

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you, an eight month old Louie. 

It was time to eat when I was taking these, so I didn't get much cooperation.

After a bottle it was back to smiles

A few new things this month: standing, eating baby food 3 times a day, feeding herself puffs (got that pincer grasp thing down early), sleeping through the night (I love this), rocking like crazy on her hands and knees, inching forward ever-so-slightly, spitting (this has inspired Sadie to spit frequently also), and last, but not least, teeth! I am still amazed that Elise has one tooth, let alone two. I know it's normal for an 8 month baby, but Sadie got her first two teeth at 11 1/2 months. Looks like Louie is just going to hit every milestone earlier than Sadie did. How's that for inciting early sibling rivalry?

A few pictures from a day when Lou was being funny:

Standing

Marveling 

Spitting

Specimen of the Day: Whitney

I am making a blog book so I have been going through my old posts. I forgot about two "features" I used to do; first, specimen of the day where I highlight people we love, and second, old journal entries. I am bringing both of those back. On to today's specimen.

Name: Whitney Katherine Nielson

Nicknames: Whitty, basement dweller

Relation: Sister to Daniel, SIL to me, aunt to my kids, and cohabitator to all of us (for a few more day)

From September, the week after Whitney moved in

 

Relationship history: Whitney and I first met in the summer of 2003. I went to visit Daniel and his family in Austin. Daniel had to work the day after I got there so we hung out and did super cool, mature things like pushing tiny decorative grocery carts around Target while wearing hideous sunglasses. She was like 12 and I was 18. Super cool.

Profession: Expert sammy maker and fro-yo server. Two eating establishments that exist side-by-side in Orem. It's a real one-two punch of deliciousness. A few weeks ago she let me eat half of her sandwich and it was packed with banana peppers. It was mighty tasty- who knew? Unfortunately for the sandwich world, Whitney is going to finish up her last few semesters at Texas Tech and become a teacher.

Sadie modeling Whitney's Yogurtland hat

Best Friend: Katherine Heiligenstein. This is a lie. But for a long time it was true and I am sticking with it. Katherine came to Nielson family reunions (where I first met her in 2003) and even came to our wedding in Boston.

She's got Skills: Crafty McCrafterson. Whenever she babysits the girls, she and Sadie craft like rock stars. She makes the cutest little things. They have made these adorable headbands for every major holiday. Whitney also came to an Enrichment activity with me where we made scarves out of old t-shirts and a Christmas advent calendar. I did all the basic things like make straight cuts and Whitney added any artistic element, like little rosettes on the scarves.

Favorite Activity: Dancing with Sadie. This may or may not be true, but Sadie thinks it is. She taught Sadie one of Sadie's 2 signature moves, the "shake shake shake, wiggle wiggle wiggle"

 

What will Louie do without Whitney? She's been here half of Lou's little life

Scaredy Cat: Calling Whitney cautious would be an understatement. She sets up booby traps by her bed (things like upturned high heels and items that make noise if touched) in the event an unwelcome intruder is by her bed. Sadie's wood mini-bat just happened to be set by the side of Whitney's bed.

Lessons Learned: Whitney has learned some valuable things while staying with us. They include, but are not limited to, the fact that crystal light tastes bad when you add double the water, Sadie does not respect personal space, Stephen Colbert is funnier than Jon Stewart, hot chocolate is way better made with milk, and Daniel and I are really boring. We have learned what old farts we have become.

Why She's Awesome: The girls love her. We love her. Whitney is funny, laid back, kind, fun, helpful, and just generally easy to get along with. I was nervous about having someone stay with us for a longer time because I am pretty selfish and particular about things. Whitney has been amazing and I enjoyed having her here.

 

Taking care of my children while I sit on the couch

We will all miss you Whitney- and not just because I don't know the last time I had to bring my girls with me to run errands. 

Come back and visit us ASAP. There will always be a special place in our basement just for you.

Christmas

On Christmas Eve we had the Nielson family over for dinner and some activities. In true Doug John style I made entirely too much food. I made ham for the first time ever, which shouldn't really be worthy of mentioning, except for the fact that it took over an hour longer to cook than the directions said and it made me mad.

After dinner we made graham cracker structures. Sadie downed half a box of Dots in about 2 minutes so Daniel pretty much spent the whole time keeping her from eating all the candy. 

Here you have the Utah landscape, Buckingham Palace (with the royal wedding going on inside), a gummy bear shack (complete with outhouse), the UT tower, and Cinderella's castle (Sadie's choice). 

I didn't do a great job, but it stayed up. I got tired of gluing down the coconut snow, so it was winter in the front and summer in the back. 

We definitely did not do a good job of making Christmas day about Christ. Sadie told us it was Jesus' birthday, but once she saw the presents that's all she cared about. I definitely need to improve on that next year. Any suggestions?

On Christmas morning the girls actually slept in a bit so we didn't start opening presents until 8:30 AM. You can see they were very anxious to get down the stairs and open presents. 

When Sadie got to the bottom of the stairs she was confused and excited. She ran to her new dress-up clothes and insisted on trying them all on. I showed her that there were more presents in her stocking and she literally started shaking. 

Our house became a pigpen in a matter of minutes. Sadie wanted to take everything out of the package immediately. She rotated dress-up outfits every 5 minutes.

This is before we even started opening any wrapped presents. Sadie hadn't found out that there were more toys inside the presents under the tree. 

We opened a few presents before church, but we had to stop and get ready. Sadie told everyone she saw at church that it was Christmas. After church all the Nielsons came back over and we had a delicious brunch (at 2 PM). Then we finished opening presents. Our girls got spoiled. We really didn't need to buy them anything because they got plenty from our families. 

Sadie got a new stroller and baby (complete with a car seat) from Tyler. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to convince her that she doesn't need her old broken toy stroller or filthy baby doll. Doesn't she look like such a big girl in this outfit? 

Later on we headed up to Alpine for a big Blood (my MIL's family) get-together. I realized I hadn't taken a single picture of the girls with Courtney so we snapped this on our way out. By the end of her trip here, Sadie had finally gotten "Coco" and "Whitty" straight. 

We have spent this week playing with the new toys like crazy. Our house is a mess 100% of the time, but I think that's allowed for the week after Christmas. Sadie even occasionally lets Elise play with some of the Little People she got from Nana and Papa. 

On this day in 1993: Christmas Presents

Santa was really good to me in 1993

"Dec 28, 1993- Sorry I haven't written yet. I got  for Christmas, a black belmont jacket, a dolphins hat of the NFL, white underwear, socks, glass beads, braiding thread, a treasure chest, backpack, maroon gloves, clothes, books, pants, stationary, bows. It seems like I got tons more stuff than I got last year. Oh! I forgot to tell you an important ones. I have to go. Sorry I didn't tell you the important ones. I'll tell you next letter! Love, Carly"

"January 2nd, 1994- The important one is, Chinese Checkers. It has a wooden bottom and plastic peas. Anthony got a ping-pong table. It's already set up. Anthony got a moutain bike too! It's Sunday today and we have church at 1:00 p.m.! It's fast Sunday and I'm dying of thirst and hunger. Love, Carly or Carly John"