Mission Accomplished!

Because my family lives in Washington state, it is tradition to fly up there each Christmas. This year was a little difficult because I was eight-and-a-half months pregnant. So the concept of flying this late in pregnancy and the risk of going into labor in Washington had me questioning whether I would be spending my first Christmas away from my family. Well, that thought also wasn't acceptable to me.

So... against doctor's orders, and the advice of many around me, I embarked on a dangerous mission to spend an entire week in Washington. I may have been dialated to a 2 and 70% effaced, but that doesn't stop a girl who's made up her mind. (Ok, it did have me questioning my sanity and smartness, and I did have to call my mom for much reassurance, and I may have called the trip off a few times, but really- underneath it all- I had made up my mind) And the trip was SO worth it! I had the best time and loved every minute up there. I miss my family so much while I'm away so I soak in every second I can. Here are some of the awesome things we did.
We decorated a gingerbread house, and a gingerbread train. Here is the decorating crew. My two brothers took over the train, and thanks to some gummy army men, they made quite a gruesome scene. Us girls covered every square inch of our sides of the house in candy and frosting :)

We also had a Christmas baking day. Here are the main bakers in front of our tables of goodies. We made toffee, three different kinds of cookies, chocolate pretzels, and some oreo balls. We then, with the rest of the family, made up Christmas plates and took them caroling to neighbors. With our whole family we had a big group and sounded pretty good singing, I think we impressed some people.

We also went and saw Christmas lights at the zoo. Brigham had fun petting a goat.

Here is an awesome green and purple tree at the zoo lights, my two favorite colors.

We always act out the Christmas Nativity. This is a shot of the wise men. Notice Sadie wrapped in a leopard snuggie, riding Kyle-supposed to be a camel- who is also wrapped in a leopard snuggie. We come up with the best costumes :)                               

Lydia on Christmas morning next to her Lego blocks and stocking loot.

This is the only happy shot I could get of Lydia on Christmas because she was so crabby all morning. We ended up putting her back to bed and she slept for a few hours. Guess Lydia isn't into the whole waking up early Christmas morning thing.

A couple of the other fun things we did include having a Joseph Smith Birthday Party on Joseph Smith's birthday. We had a quiz about Joseph Smith, watched a movie about his life, and even ate an ice-cream-cake made for him. We also played basketball at the church. I even played and did pretty well for a very pregnant women. We played Rock Band, lots of card games, and ate our faces off. It was nice because we were also able to be there when my brother, Scott, was ordained an Elder. Thanks to my Mom who spoils us all like crazy on Christmas and to both my parents for feeding and housing us the whole week.

So, after a few contractions, and a flight-from-hell back to Utah (it was delayed an hour, very late at night with one very tired, cranky Lydia, and heat so high I thought I was going to barf) and a week of great times, I accomplished my mission of one fantastic trip and zero babies being born. So, note to desperate pregnant women, flying will not put you in labor-despite what everyone says- so don't waste your money.

It was so nice relaxing and spending time with my family. It was an amazing Christmas. Now I have a new year and a new baby to prepare for!

Diapers

 I was preparing our hospital bags the other day to get ready for when little Ammon comes in a couple weeks and I pulled a few of the newborn-size diapers out of the package. Well lets just say that I'm used to much bigger diapers because I was shocked when the diaper just suddenly ended. I sat there and stared at this teeny-tiny diaper and was amazed. Lydia actually fit into something this small? She is now in size four diapers and they are HUGE compared to the newborn ones. Usually when you pull one of her diapers out it just keeps coming and coming and coming, these little ones just stop.

Here is a newborn size next to Lydia's diaper. In person, the difference is even more apparent. I realized that I have totally forgotten how small newborns are. It's also amazing how something like a newborn diaper can be so adorable. I wanted to cart it around all day staring at it. I can't believe I'm soon going to have two kids in diapers. Diapers, diapers everywhere. We have been trying to stock up for the little guy and you can tell when you enter Lydia's room because it's full of packages of DIAPERS!!!

How Many Licks Does it Take

To Get To the Center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?

Well for Lydia . . . not that many.

 We gave Lydia her first sucker the other day to entertain her while we played a card game. It was the last piece of candy from her Halloween stash. She LOVED it. (Well duh Mom). Here we can join in with her and her first lollipop journey. Prepare to see some cuteness.

After her first mouthful of her Banana Tootsie Pop, (weird flavor huh?) Lydia immediately gave this face which she makes to show she is pleased.

Then . . . she kept eating her sucker with the same silly grin on her face.

And here is our final result .... an I LOVE CANDY face.

So pretty much we learn that Lydia loves candy and it makes her really happy ...and silly. She ate the sucker so fast! Seriously. We were surprised how fast she made it to the tootsie roll in the center. I was nervous about the huge mess she would make so we kept her in her high-chair. The only mess we ended up with was a dribble of sticky drool down her chin. I still would be nervous to let her run around with one, however. 

I don't know how you can look at that last picture and not break out in a silly grin yourself. :)

Birthday Boy

Well Brigham turned 26 this last Saturday. I tried to give him a relaxing day and I think he got one. He woke up and watched the movie Australia all morning and I served him left over pumpkin pie with homemade white chocolate whip cream for breakfast. Then he played the Wii and next it was time for the BYU/Utah football game. Although the outcome wasn't quite what we wanted, (you should have been at my house and witnessed Brigham standing on the couch screaming NOOO! like someone had just died when BYU's game-winning field goal was blocked. You would have been afraid. I was.) it was still an exciting game to watch. It was fun to have all of our brothers over to watch the game with us.

 I made brownie tarts for Brigham since we aren't really cake fans and even though he didn't expect presents since he's getting super expensive contacts/glasses, he got a few small presents. He got a shirt and I framed his recently earned diploma for him to hang on the wall and a plate and cup to use at work. Somehow he always gets a Spiderman something or other for holidays. This year was no exception with his Spiderman plate to eat off of. Luckily I won't have to look at it since he'll use it at work.

 The rest of the day we played cards with my brothers, Scott and Kyle, and then watched Toy Story 3. I hope Brigham had a good day off because he deserves it with all the work he's put into graduating from college and working hard to take care of our little family. Happy Birthday Brigham!

(oh, I would have a picture of him with his diploma, but since it was from the U of U, Brigham wouldn't even hardly look at it because the sting of our loss was too fresh on his mind, so we get a Spiderman plate instead)

The World is my Canvas

      A few Sundays ago, Lydia's nursery leader informed me that she was doing better coloring which floored me because the last time I had tried coloring with her, she only attempted to eat the crayons with no concept of their actual purpose-- despite me trying to show her. So, I took her home and sat down with a sheet of paper and crayons. To my surprise she does know how to successfully scribble. I was such a proud mom. My one year old can scribble!! :)
      Well now I'm afraid the situation has escalated. I have a package of blue pens that Lydia has found. I swear she took some and hid them randomly around the house because I keep finding her with one in hand. Every time I turn around I find her with another one. Well she has also learned how to "color" with pens. I try to tell her only on paper, but as you can see below, she has discovered that pens can draw on lots of things that crayons can't, like skin!!

You can see a little pen on her face in this picture, but I couldn't quite capture the full effect on film because she's so wiggly. Luckily it hasn't been too bad because I keep a close eye on her. So far only her face, hands, and clothes have suffered but I'm sure she'll discover more things to draw on. Oh goody.

 Besides pens, Lydia loves to practice feeding her baby. What a good older sister she'll be :)

Oh, and she looked so cute before church last Sunday, I had to take a picture. It really doesn't do her justice. 

HaLLoWeeN 2010

(Warning: This is a long post! Prepare yourself now)
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, probably because it's just so much fun. Also, my Mom has always been into Halloween and we laugh that she has more Halloween decorations than Christmas ones. Anyways, I have also developed a love for this fantastic holiday. We did small family activities, the classic trick-or-treating, and also our annual Halloween party so this post will be done in parts.

Pumpkin Carving and Caramel Apples

So we love carving pumpkins and making caramel apples and we do this pretty much every year with this year being no exception. I did caramel apples a little different this year because I wanted to be able to decorate them with heavier candies. So I read online about how to make sure the caramel doesn't slide off the apples, such as boiling the wax off the apples, (yes apples have wax on them to make them look more appealing. You should try dipping your apples in boiling water for 15 seconds and wipe off the wax. They look very different afterwards!) cooling the apples, letting the melted caramel sit for awhile, etc.  At first I thought it had worked, but we discovered the caramel still slid off the apples if they were left out of the fridge for too long and became a gooey messy pile. They still tasted delicious though!
     Carving pumpkins was fun as well. Lydia liked dipping her spoon in the pumpkin imitating us scraping the guts out. I carved three in the time it took Brigham to carve his one, but in his defense, I did very simple shapes so that Lydia could point them out and help me. Brigham took his time deciding on his angry cat face. We had a pumpkin for Brigham, me, Lydia, and even baby Ammon. It was a fun family night!

Costumes
Last year I swore I wouldn't make our costumes ever again because it was so time consuming, but I was roped into it again and I realized I probably will be every year. We usually plan our costume theme around what Lydia is each year. This time we borrowed her Tinkerbell costume from a friend at work. She LOVED it. She was so happy with how she looked.  So with Lydia as Tink, Brigham as Peter Pan and me as Wendy, we were ready for Neverland. I sewed Brigham's hat out of felt, and created the rest of his costume and mine from DI. It wasn't too bad, just a lot of time searching for the right pieces. Total spent was around $25 for all three costumes.

Yes I am a pregnant-looking Wendy.

Trick-or-Treating
Trick-or-treating for the first time with my own child was pretty exciting for me. This year was strange, however, as it was pouring rain the entire night. Every time it would let up a little and we would attempt to leave, it would start pouring again. Finally we just said, it's now or never. So, with rain pouring down, we went to six houses. Sounds small, but by time we were done, Lydia's bucket was half full! Apparently everyone on our street gives out full size candy bars!

 Lydia definitely wasn't thrilled with the rain and whined about her legs getting wet . . . that is until the first person put candy in her bucket. Then she was the happiest camper ever! She would not give up her bucket after we were done and I think she wouldn't have minded going all night long. If she could open candy she would have eaten her whole bucket that night. Luckily she just dumps it out, attempts to open a piece, and then puts it back in her bucket when she realizes she can't and moves on to the next piece.

Halloween Party!
Throwing a Halloween party each year is kind of our thing. We love to do it and it's usually a blast. This year was interesting because most of our friends have babies now. This, I learned, calls for adjustments. Also, I wasn't as impressed with my game selection this year. However, it was fun to have everyone over and dressed up! One of the games was to create a scary Halloween scene out of objects I had prepared for each team in a box. Ironically, the teams pretty much built the same scene! I loved this game because it was creepy-cool :) Here are the two scenes side by side, click on the picture for the full effect.

We also played a game where you have to suck up candy using only a straw into a cup while the other team tries to answer Halloween trivia correctly. This game was a little crazy!

 People had great costumes, such as ninja's, cowboys, Mario and Luigi, Ken and Barbie, etc.

We had scary treats, other fun games, and good times with friends. Thanks to everyone that came, it was a blast!

Recovering from being super sick previously that week, I'm impressed with how well everything went and how much we did for Halloween. It was another great year :)

Silly Girl

Lydia is now almost twenty months. She's a giant ball of fun and also challenging in ways that I didn't expect. It's a pain trying to get her to eat anything that's not sweet and she's learned how to bite, pinch, and yell no. She also is into the whole tantrum thing, which I cannot stand. However, as we are working with all of this, I also get her kisses, new words, and silly personality.  Here are a few moments of her silliness captured.

We brought home 3-D glasses from a movie and Lydia loves to have us put them on her. She'll keep them on for a good time. Here she is with her Uncle Kyle displaying her glasses.

Here is a great shot of how she generally sleeps.... with her butt straight up in the air. Believe it or not, she is sound asleep. She usually takes all her naps this way and no matter how I start her out, this is how she ends up.

I just can't imagine how it's comfortable, but she seems to prefer being up on her knees, butt in the air, and arms folded beneath her. She's so silly, I've tried to straighten her out once she's asleep but she usually navigates back to the same position.

Inspired

So I just read a blog by my sister-in-law, Caitlin, who is going to be improving her cooking skills by cooking all the recipes from a cookbook she picked out. I think the idea is so awesome and I would love to do something like that. My other sister-in-law is very crafty and she's always working on cute projects that make my attempts at decorating look like an equivalent to a five-year-old's paper covered in stickers. They are both so cute and wifey and I'm just . . . . . . bossy. They both have inspired me to want improve or become good at something too!

The problem is, I don't know what to do. I need a project to work on! I've always wanted to become good at sewing but I don't even know where to start, and I know that sewing can become pretty pricey. Trying to save up for a baby on the way and losing my half of our income puts me on a pretty strict budget. Can you take on sewing without breaking the bank? Christmas is coming up so it would be neat if I could make homemade presents for everyone.

Or should I take on creative writing? digital scrapbooking? candy making? canning? an herb garden? Sigh, who knows. I thought about just trying to be a better mom but I need to take on something that helps release my sudden creative drive that hits me in the fall time.

I'm going to come up with something, so . . . suggestions?  Whether it's on how to sew on a budget or a new project to take on, I'm welcome to new ideas!

18 months!

I can't believe my baby is already one and a half! Everyone tells me how she looks like a little girl now and she really does! Here are some things I want to remember about her at this age . . 

She's learning how to talk and knows how to fold her arms, say amen, book, more, dad, hot, ball, banana....etc.  One of my personal favorites is when she blesses you when you sneeze. 

She can also point to every body part on cue. 

Besides Baby Einstein videos, she has no interest in TV but is completely obsessed with books.

Lydia knows how to buzz like a bee and bark like a dog.

She is a little devil at church so hopefully nursery will be a nice relief for momma now.

She is very shy and becomes more shy by the day!

Already, Lydia loves shoes, clothes, jewelry, and getting her hair done.

She makes an "aaaah" sound when you take off her shoes.

This is Lydia's cheese face she pulls when you ask her to smile. Haha, her famous nose scrunch.

Snack time is her favorite, and Lydia is known for being a good eater (as long as it's sweet). Strawberries and  banana's are her favorite.

Lydia is the sweetest, most adorable girl in the whole world!

Yellowstone

Brigham, Lydia, and I just took our first family vacation (besides to visit family) to Yellowstone. We had a great time! We met my family and stayed in a fun house in Island Park just outside of Yellowstone. We covered Yellowstone in two days and then we spent a day doing fun things in Island Park. It was so fun and just what I needed to get away for awhile. Here are a few highlights from the trip.

Here's the outside of the house we stayed in.

This is everyone eating ice cream after a hike. You used to be able to hike to the bottom of the falls we were at but they closed it off halfway down and I was so angry! It was a hard hike for nothing!

My brother, Scott, prepared Brigham's side of the bed with the baby mobile. Haha, it was pretty funny.

Some of the awesome scenery.

This buffalo (technically bison) was RIGHT next to us on the road. It was just casually walking down the side of the highway. Brigham rolled down the window to take a picture of it and I was ok with that, however, I warned him, DO NOT TALK TO IT. So, what did he do? The second we were next to it (and we were so close he could reach out and touch it if he wanted) he said, "Hey buddy!!" The buffalo turned its head, looked at Brigham and flicked its ears back. So... I drove off as fast as I could in a panic it was going to charge our car. Brigham was furious that I ruined his optimum picture shot and I was mad he talked to the buffalo. Sigh. It was AWESOME!!

Lydia with her feet up, enjoying the ride outside of Old Faithful.

Our family picture in front of Castle Geyser. It's a surprisingly good shot for our family.

Brigham and Lydia on the Coffeepot trails hike (thanks Sam and Caitlin for the idea for the hike, it was beautiful).

It was Brigham's first time ever to Yellowstone and I think he had a good time. I was grateful we made it through with no car troubles, no screaming children, and no sickness. We really had so much fun. Especially on the boat float down the river in Island park where the water was so shallow my mom got out of the boat and ended up dragging everyone until it was deep enough to float again. Yes, we all sat there laughing- we are bad children. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of that. My mom really spoiled everyone this trip just like she usually does on every family trip. I hope I can plan vacations as well as she does some day. My dad kept proudly saying it was the first "Nelson family reunion" and that was a fun thought as well. What a good time we had :)

It's a Boy!

We recently went to have our ultrasound to check up on our new little one. We also decided to find out what we were having this time, after keeping our first one a surprise. I LOVED keeping our first baby a surprise. It made it so much fun. However, I was so sure we were having a boy this time there was really no point in not finding out. Immediately when the technician put her magic wand on my stomach and we saw the profile of our baby I wanted to say, "He's SO cute!" But I stopped myself because she hadn't confirmed it was a boy yet. But then after, "Oh yeah, this is a boy," "clearly a boy," and, "this is DEFINATELY a boy," I knew I was good to go. It's weird how strongly I knew this time.

He really was quite adorable and I loved every second. I always lay there with a silly grin on my face throughout the entire ultrasound. The ultrasound technician pointed out he's using my bladder as a nice little pillow, even though I didn't really need her to tell me that.  Also, I was supposed to be a little over 20 weeks, however, the baby measured a week behind, as did my stomach so my due date is now moved to 1/15/2010 which is a week later.

All in all, everything looked good, a four chamber heart with a great heartbeat, two healthy sides of the brain, etc. Here are some of the ultrasound pictures....

A cute profile picture of the face

Another face profile with the arm stretched above the head

One of the arms

And a little foot :) So cute

And I would put the picture proving he's a little man but I just don't feel like exposing this little guy online. You can ask for the hard copy of the picture if you don't believe me.

Now I've got to figure out how to raise a little boy because I have no idea. Any advice is welcome!

Preparation

So with a new baby coming, obviously there are some things that need to be done to get ready. Brigham and I have a lot to do to welcome our second child. Apparently, Lydia has also decided she needs to prepare herself. After receiving some pregnancy magazines from my doctor's office, Lydia found them and has grown strangely attached. You can find Lydia carrying these magazines around the house or sitting down and reading them, surrounded by others. She doesn't just turn the pages and look at pictures, she sits and stares at each individual page and studies.

I had to take a picture of her doing it one day because it's just so strange and funny. If you click on this picture and look at her face up close, you can see the concentration. I have other magazines that she completely ignores and throws out of the way to get to the pregnancy ones. Sometimes Lydia will even carry them to me, put one on my lap and point to objects on the page and talk to me in her baby babble. She talks knowingly like she's coaching me on what to do and what to expect.  Maybe it's because she so recently went through it herself. I don't know. All I know is that it's pretty entertaining and that I wish I could see inside that cute little head sometimes. I think she's going to do well as an older sister with all this preparation :)

Pioneer Day 2010

I had a marvelous Pioneer Day this year. With Brigham's family we went to the Red Butte Gardens. It was fun to walk through with family. I became the navigator after finding that those leading with the maps, didn't know how to read maps. So, I snatched one and took charge. I'm good at taking charge. It was a nice walk, as long as it was shaded. It was sort of a bad decision to walk outside around noon, in the middle of July in Utah. But hey, we survived, and enjoyed ourselves. Here's a picture of the fragance garden.

Lydia really enjoyed herself and didn't get sunburned one bit. I tell you what, it's hard to put sun screen on a one-year old that doesn't want to wear sunscreen. When I told my mom of the trouble I had getting it on Lydia she said, "Why don't you buy the spray on sun-screen?" Brilliant idea! Why are moms so smart?

We were taking a shade break.

We also went to Murray Park and had a picnic, waded in the creek, played, and talked. It was nice to relax. Lydia had a blast! She ran around like crazy. This is with her little skirt flipped up on accident. She looked so silly running around that way :) She was too busy having fun to care.

We also went to Moochies for sandwiches, then to Tim and Ashley's for games and root-beer floats. I was exhausted but made it through the entire day! It may have taken me three days to recover but it was worth it :)

Thanks for the fun times everyone!