Nelson Update

Well as usual we are still here (on a semi monthly basis) and are trying to stay caught up in the blogging world, but more importantly in the real world!

Things are going well and for those who don't want the long picture version here is the somewhat brief update:

We are are looking forward to Thanksgiving this week and are enjoying the time that Mia has off of school. Kathleen's Mom was able to come out so the girls are having a blast with Grandma.

Mia is enjoying school and we have been really happy getting to have her home for half the day still! We've been happy with the school she's going to, her teacher, and the other kids in her class. She's enjoyed getting to go on field trips every month, doing some fun Art projects with a wonderful retired teacher who comes in once a week to help out with their "Messy Wednesdays" and coming up in December her class will be putting on "The Gingerbread Girl" play (Mia is playing the part of the Gingerbread "Girl" so they had to change the name!). She comes home talking about it and singing the songs and she just can't wait for us to see it! And other than school she is still our energetic happy little girl. Lately she loves tumbling around the house, doing flips on anything she can flip over, and riding her bike any chance she gets. She is such a good big sister and great helper around the house.

Maddi has started to really enjoy preschool (it took her a little while to warm up to the whole idea and adjust to the change) but she just loves the other kids in the class and it has been a fun experience for both of us. If you would like to see what Maddi has been doing in preschool you can check out my preschool blog: www.creativeartsandsciencespreschool.blogspot.com

She has started to take her role as big sister to Ella very seriously and they've started to become really cute little buddies.

Ella is becoming an official toddler. She started attending nursery at church and loves everything about it (except the part about being left without Mom or Dad). :) She's actually taking to the change much better than we expected and sometimes can last half the time without us but it's been fun to see her cute little personality emerge as she tries to participate and interact with the other kids. At home she is our ultimate climber and seems to reach new heights as well as new experiences every day. Her latest "experience" involved the bathroom counter, and tub of Vaseline that she managed to smear over her entire head/face. After about 5 days the greasy glow of her hair finally went away. She is still our sweet little Ella though and is just loving trying to be a part of the family and keep up with the older girls.

I am staying busy with preschool and keeping up with Mia and Kindergarten. Her school is great because they require at least an hour a week of parent involvement and because of this they have tons of opportunities to be involved. She has 2 teachers in her class of 20 at all times and then every day they have at least 3 other parents during their center time. I wish I could be there all the time! but for now I am staying busy working as the room-parent and helping her teacher coordinate parties and other activities, and then what I really love is doing their "Artist of the Month" program. I share this responsibility with another Mom so every other month I get to go in and teach a 1/2 hour lesson on a famous Artist from history. So far I've done Rembrandt and Picasso and it's been such a blast. It's fun getting to know the kids in the class, get a taste of teaching again (without the full responsibility!), and Mia thinks its the greatest thing to have me come into her class (If only she could feel that way forever!!!).

Lance is really enjoying work, and just being an awesome husband, Dad, and only guy in the house! He's been busy taking us all on dates (the girls love their dates with Daddy) and trying to fit in some running and surfing when he can. And he's looking forward to a trip to see All of his family in Utah after Christmas.

Halloween

The Bee Costume....3rd Time Running....and still TOO cute! :)

Heading off the ward Trunk-Or-Treat. The Girls had a blast and b/c of Halloween being on Sunday they made this a Stake Event so there were tons of cars there and I've never seen so many elaborately decorated trunks at a Trunk-Or-Treat. I think it took us a good hour to make it all the way around the church building. Ella got pushed in the stroller, and figured out pretty quickly that if she just held her bag out to the side of the stroller and made some type of noise someone would drop candy in her bag and she was a happy girl.

Mia had all her own ideas about her butterfly costume and face painting was one of them...so we bought a kit and I copied the picture from the kit and this is what we got. It wasn't as hard as I expected and Mia was a very patient especially since we did this 2 days in a row.

Our little Snow White- Maddi LOVES Snow White

...again this was the costume Mia wore when she was 3 and it was funny because by now we have plenty of princess attire to choose from, but Maddi never once changed her mind about wanting to be Snow White and apparently neither did ANY other 3 year old at the Trunk or Treat. We almost lost her a couple of time amidst all the other "Snow Whites"

Maddi and I getting ready for our Preschool Halloween Party

Mia wanted to be a Butterfly this year for Halloween and we had a lot of fun making her butterfly wings. She did most of the work herself by tracing and cutting out the flowers and bedazzling the whole thing with lots of fancy jewels. It was fun and turned out cute but Butterfly Wings made out of poster board are definitely a ONE-TIME-USE!

Baby Boston

It's funny how you can just stare at babies for hours. Boston would make the funniest little faces

So Sweet...Jill and I decided to try out a little photo shoot while I was there.

In the middle of October I got to take a trip to Spokane to see my littlest sister and new baby, Boston. Lance had gotten bumped on a flight a few months before this and had some free flight vouchers we needed to use and HE suggested that I go up and see my sister for a weekend, and then he went ahead and requested work off, and bought me the ticket. Since having kids I've never gone away anywhere by myself without them, or I could say, I've never left Lance at home with all the kids for that long before while I went somewhere on my own. It was quite the surreal experience for me and such a fun little trip. It worked out nicely in some ways because Lance's sister and her family were driving down to see us the same weekend on their way back to Utah so I got to see them for a day before I left, and then they were ever so nice to watch the girls so I could catch my flight (thank you Leslie and Miguel!) and then Lance got to hang out with them for 2 of the days that I was gone. It was so odd to go from running 90 miles an hour right up until the moment I got in the car to drive to the airport, to all of a sudden not needing to do anything for anyone but myself. Anyway it was the perfect little vacation for me, wonderful to read as much as I wanted on the plane, SO fun to see Jilly and get to just talk and talk and talk, and little Boston is just the sweetest little baby (as I'm sure you can tell from the pictures above), and since they live in the same neighborhood we just moved from it was nice to go to church and see our old ward, and go visit our neighbors. And best of all was that Lance and girls were all alive and well when I got home! :) THANK YOU LANCE!!!

Date with Daddy

I love this picture of Maddi going on her date with Daddy. She was so proud and felt so grownup getting to go all by herself and she had to bring her purse with her. :) Lance has been trying to take the girls on "Dates" at least once a month ...and they don't do anything that grand...I think this "date" he and Maddi went to Costco and got a hot dog at the end....but they just love any chance to go somewhere just them and Dad. So cute!

Cute little Buddies

Me and the Boot

I think I posted in September about my failed attempt at running a half-marathon because of an ankle injury. I found out a few weeks later after x-rays and a trip to the podiatrist that I had a stress fracture on the outside of my ankle. By the time I actually found this out it was already starting to feel somewhat better but they still had me wear this awesome boot for 2 weeks to just finish off the healing process. It was actually really comfortable and I just kept thinking how nice it would have been to have had it when I was spending a month limping around! All is well now though and I have been able to start running again...so hopefully no more injuries!

Ella 20 months old

When I think about Ella (at 20 months) now it's hard to believe that we ever wondered when she'd start walking. She is now into climbing on everything. Lately her big accomplishments have been climbing into the bathroom sinks, on top of the kitchen table and learning to push chairs, or boxes to other locations to reach even higher heights! We just love her cheesy, chubby cheeked, dimpled grin and her kisses, and hugs. She is still our sweet sweet girl and still does a lot of observing but never fails to make her presence known in our family when she wants to.

She started going to Nursery in October and surprisingly has had less issues being left than we anticipated. It helps that Mommy works in the nursery and she gets to see me half-way through the day but she is having lots of fun getting to sing songs, pop bubbles, and say prayers. She loves to wave to random people and doesn't cry anymore when I leave her with a babysitter. She loves to run (especially away from Mommy) and thinks the most exciting time of day is when Daddy comes home and she gets to stand at the door waving frantically while he gets out of the car.

When Ella saw me taking a picture of Maddi and her tower she just had to have her picture taken too. She was in a photo-taking mood so we just continued the shoot outside.

Maddi has been very into building with legos and blocks lately and especially loves to build tall towers. She told me that this one was the Temple and in the first pictures you can see that she made stairs for it. Finding a space to build tall (very unstable) towers is pretty difficult when you throw an 18 month old (who really loves to take things apart) into the mix. So this particular day we found a way to barricade Maddi on top of the coffee table where she could build in peace.

Mia Tortilla

Uncle Kelly always calls Mia "Mia Tortilla" so I thought it only fitting that I post these pictures of her living up to her name. I love the awesome pre-made but uncooked tortillas we can get from Costco here and Mia loves getting to cook them when we have tacos.

GoodBye Blankie

I actually took these pictures on the first rainy day (sometime in October) we had in California since we had moved here in May. Since we don't have dramatic seasonal changes a rainy day that's cool and cloudy is a fun change and this particular day it was so nice to curl up with Maddi during quiet time and read books until she fell asleep. She looked almost like a baby in some of these pictures here that it's hard to believe she's already 3 1/2 especially when you consider that she's still so attached to her beloved blankie and to sucking her finger.

However as I post this....I think blankie may be gone forever. We don't take blankie out of the house very often anymore but this week I wasn't paying attention as we left to pick Mia up from school and Maddi had drug it along with her and even carried it out to the gates where we wait outside for the Kindergartners to come out. When got back home that day blankie was nowhere to be found. I called the school to ask them if a blanket that looks like it belongs in the trash was found lying on the ground anywhere but so far no luck.
So now I'm especially glad that I captured the final torn and tattered days of Maddi's blankie. :)

We're Still Here

I'm trying to get caught up here but rather than post everything all at once I am honoring the request of my friend Tiff to post them as I complete them so that people have chance to catch up. So Here's to you Tiff since you may be one of the few that actually checks this blog! haha:)

More Posts to Come!

Conference Weekend

Like most kids her age Mia loves any chance to help in the kitchen on Sat. of Conference Weekend she helped me make some deviled eggs.

We started taking pictures of ourselves while cooking and after I got a chance to look at these I was cracking up at the faces Mia was making. She told me she was trying to make weird faces and I would say she definitely accomplished that! :)

I think this one wins the award for "Weirdest Face".

"Maddi the Bride" in her land of Babies. She was so funny this weekend and stayed in her own little world all day on Sunday taking care of all 5 of her babies. I think our more hectic pace of taking Mia to and from School, and doing preschool 2 days a week hasn't allowed her the time she's been used to having to just PLAY and so she soaked it up when we didn't have to go anywhere on Sunday.

Mia taking pictures of us all

Whenever we bring out the camera Ella wants to make sure she gets in the picture.

More Mia Photography

Our exciting thing we tried out on Sunday was Donut making. I had attended a cooking class where someone demonstrated Donuts and it was fun to try it out. And they turned out pretty tasty too.

I absolutely LOVE conference weekend. It's right up there with Christmas for me. I love the excuse to slow things down for a couple of days, hear the words of the prophet, get a huge boost of spiritual enrichment and inspiration, and just be at home. Its been really fun to see the girls get excited about Conference weekend as we've tried to make it an exciting time in our home. This Conference Lance drove up to San Fransisco to attend the funeral of a high school friend so the girls and I were on our own for Saturday and had a blast cooking, going grocery shopping between sessions of conference, and curling up on the couch. And Sunday we were all excited to have Daddy back!