Wow, finally finished!

Catching up with 7 months worth of posts has taken all day, but it is done. I am proud of myself for doing it before the end of the year. This year has been pretty crazy. We were so sick for the first 6 months. Ian and I had strep over and over again. His surgery seems to have cured that problem. Hooray! Adam made more than 6 trips to the emergency room because of his heart. One while we were on vacation. Four of those trips were in an ambulance. He is having another ablation procedure in January. We are hoping this time he will be fixed for good. When he's not at the hospital he is working working working. Ian is busy with school and piano and playing with his siblings, friends, and his video games. Hailey loves to draw and play Play-Doh. Brandon likes to wander around and eat all day long. He also loves his dinosaurs. Jackson is my little wild child. He's got a great big personality for such a tiny kid and he makes me laugh all the time. He also loves to wear his "Shrek shirt and green pamps" every day. I have been teaching piano lessons. I have 3 students. I finally joined the ward choir and am still the Primary Secretary. Life is super busy. What more can I say? I am trying to enjoy this stage more than hate it, but some days the hating it side wins. My children are very demanding and young and there are a lot of them. But we survive. And they all seem happy. That's what matters right? I can very easily say "goodbye and good riddance" to 2011 and we are hoping for a wonderful new year.

PS you have to click on "older posts" at the bottom to see all of the updates.

Summer Randomness

Random photos and events from the last 7 months.

Jackson went through a Minnie Mouse phase. He called it "Mickey Mouse" though. We didn't have a Mickey. He wouldn't go to bed without her. Since then he has added Barney, a Care Bear, a dinosaur, Donald Duck, and Winnie the Pooh. He has to have all of his "friends" in his bed with him at nap and bed time. Cute.

Adam's grandparents (Slama) stopped over for a surprise visit. We were happy to see them, this was the second time in one year, a record! Doesn't Adam look like his grandpa?

We spent A LOT of time at the park near the end of the summer. Especially any park with a water feature. This particular park had a small shaded sand pit besides the water area. It was a favorite summer destination.

One night we found Ian in the hall upstairs like this:

He had set up booby traps at our door and the top of the stairs. Hee hee.

We got a new gas grill on Labor Day. It is awesome. Adam is awesome at cooking on it. Yes, that is grilled corn on the cob. Yum.

My Birthday.

Jackson with his dinosaur tattoo. And blue smudge over his eye.

Jackson showing off his great fashion sense.

One day I looked in the snack cupboard and found a whole unwrapped King Size candy bar with one bite out of it.

Ian's tower.The kids on Christmas Eve.

Halloween 2011

The kids loved Halloween, the twins were so cute. Jackson would say "I got it!" after every bit of candy got put in his pumpkin. Ian was a storm trooper and Hailey was Darth Vader. Hey, that's what she wanted to be. Halloween turned Brandon into a little candy monster devil child. I had to get rid of all the candy after about 2 days. My mom came for a visit that week and we enjoyed her company.

We went to the ward Trunk or Treat and then to a few houses in the neighborhood. The twins thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

The Four Amigos. To Ian's left is Liam Clayton, Ian's best friend.

I carved Mario myself. Thank you very much.

That week I chopped about 10-12 inches off my hair. It was over due. I love my new look!

Hailey Turns #5

Hailey turned 5 on November 22nd. I really can't believe she's 5 years old!

We had birthday smoothies for breakfast.

Since her birthday was 2 days before Thanksgiving, Auntie Marianne flew in for the big day.

Dora the Explorer was the theme. I ordered this cake from Albertson's and was so happy with the results. It sure saved me a headache trying to make a Dora cake too.

The Green cousins came over for a little cake party.

Hailey got a Dora bike. She rides it around our small patio in the backyard daily.

Hailey has really blossomed recently. She has been quite a handful the last few years but is starting to become more agreeable and actually quite sweet and funny. She loves school and has a few friends in her class. The teachers call them the three amigos. She is learning to write her name and practices on every surface she can find, including the fridge. She still has many of those "special" moments, but they are getting fewer. She makes our lives interesting.

I don't have any pictures of Thanksgiving but thought I would mention that I made the turkey this year and it turned out delicious. I was very nervous about it. We had a great time with Jill's family and Marianne. On Thanksgiving morning Jill's husband, Doug, and my nephews, Chad and Tyler, surprised us with a major service project in our backyard. They chopped down all 4 of our Oleander trees and hauled away all the yard waste back there. They were amazing. They worked on it for about 5 hours and did an awesome job. We were really surprised and so so happy.

Tale of a Grasshopper

Over the summer we got into making "Green Smoothies." Which are basically smoothies with spinach added for extra vitamins. The kids love them and they are quite nutritious. One day I pulled out my half used bag of spinach and, to my surprise, found what I thought was a dead cricket in the spinach. Yuck! I didn't think too much of it except that it was really gross and threw the remains of the cricket and the spinach away. But, the next morning, I found this in an empty garbage can right next to my full one:Yes, it was actually a grasshopper. And it was alive. And after thawing out in the trash overnight, it had climbed out and into the other trash can.

I felt that this grasshopper had been through enough, so I set it free in the backyard. It perked up and walked away.

And then I called Kroger and complained that there was a live grasshopper in my spinach. The woman I talked to said she had never heard a story like this and couldn't help but laugh the entire time she was taking my account of "the incident." I was reimbursed $5.

Ian the Soccer Star

Since Ian was having a difficult time adjusting to school starting up again, I thought he might enjoy a little extra curricular activity. Enter, Black Eagles.

Don't they look professional?

Ian had a really good time, and it did help him to be a little happier after the rough start to the school year. He was best at playing defense and made a lot of new friends on his team. I am kind of glad it's over though. It was difficult keeping the younger children entertained during the games since they were all at a middle school (no playground). I think we will skip a few seasons till the twins are a little older and easier to manage.

First Day of School 2011

During the month of July, Hailey had summer school. It was a terrible experience and I think it kind of traumatized her. We had originally thought it would help her to stay in the school mindset through the summer but it basically did the opposite, because it was at a different school with different teachers. As a result, the first 2 weeks of the regular school year were somewhat of a challenge. Hailey threw many a tantrum getting on and off the bus. One day a friend of mine told me she had seen Hailey's teacher dragging Hailey off the bus and into the classroom. Oh boy. It took her a while to readjust but is now doing quite well in school and even exceeding the teachers' and my expectations. She seems to be a happy girl again and her speech has come a long way just in 4 months. Her teachers are confident that she will be able to join the "mainstream" kids in kindergarten next year.

Ian had a little bit of a rough time adjusting too. The 3rd day of school he actually tried to escape and ran half way to a friend's house near the school before he was caught by my sweet neighbor who now takes him to school for me. He has gotten used to things and seems to enjoy second grade now.

Ian Turns #7

Ian's 7th birthday was July 12th. We had cake with the cousins and took him out to Cici's all you can eat pizza. He ate about 18 pieces of pizza. No kidding.

He wanted a "4 color cake." This is what I came up with.
He enjoyed it thoroughly.

He got a new bike for his birthday.

Ian is a great kid. The first thing his teacher said to me at our parent teacher conference is "Ian's a great student." I'm a proud mama. He loves to read silly books, especially the Adventures of Captain Underpants series. He loves to play the Wii and computer. He loves to play at the park. He is very good at math and reading in school. He has recently started piano lessons and is excelling at it. And he always has funny things to say. We love him.

Ian also had a tonsillectomy in the end of July. It was a long recovery, but after having strep 5 times at the beginning of the year we felt that it was necessary. He has been a lot healthier since then. We all have.

Grandma's 90th Birthday Bash

After our trip to Idaho we made our way down to Salt Lake City, Utah for a big Nelson Family reunion and my gradmother's 90th birthday celebration. Everyone in the entire family minus one grandson-in-law made it for the occasion. I think it was around 72 people! Our family stayed in a hotel with my parents, my sister Marianne, my sister Amy and her family, my brother Ryan and his family, and my brother Devin. We had a really good time. One day we went up to a canyon to throw rocks into the creek. The water was raging.

My children, of course wanted to keep us on our toes.

We left pretty quickly. We then headed to a park with a tall slide with a very tall, steep, and somewhat dangerous ladder. Don't worry, Jackson only fell off it once.

Marianne and Brandon

All the adults went to a lovely dinner at the Lion House in downtown Salt Lake. My grandma had 3 babysitters at her house to watch all of my and Amy's kids. The house wasn't burned to the ground when we got back, so we called it a success. Here are my sisters and I, Jill, Amy, me, Marianne, and Ryan's wife Renee.

We had a big party in my grandma's yard. Everyone wore party hats (off and on).

Me and my grandma Nelson. She was just so happy to be with the whole family. I'm sure she was exhausted too. I love my grandma so much, I am so thankful we could make it to her birthday. She is an inspiration to me!

Brandon and Jackson hung out at the punch bowl.

Since Jackson got his cast off just in time for this trip, we got to go swimming at the hotel pool. Hailey only tried to drown once.

Ian learned how to swim under water.

It was a very very long trip, but so wonderful to be with family and make memories. We hope it's a few years before another one like this, but we look forward to doing it again some day. I will probably do another post from this trip with the family pictures. I don't have those on this computer....