baby i's blessing july 6th

**I am catching up on the past month but I will try to spread it out best I can. Oh, Happy Birthday to my SIL Sally and Happy Pioneer Day.

We tried to take a family photo but 2 of my children refused and even were pouting in the group photo, so we took a photo with the son who had no choice. Kim and her family and Bryan's parents already left by the time we got it together to get a photo but there are a few photos of Kim's boys wrestling after lunch. Heather and her family were there too and if you look closely, you can see her kids in the wrestling photos but it is a little difficult to really see anyone in those photos.

It was a great day and Bryan, as usual, made delicious Pulled Pork and Tri-tip. Thanks to everyone that helped with lunch, I think I can throw parties like that more often (I provided nothing but the reason to get together and I support Bryan and his lack of sleep to prepare the meat).

Beach and Fort July 2 & 3

Tuesday night Beebe and her family arrived at our house because Tyler was working in So Cal on Wednesday and Thursday.
Wednesday, Jill, Katie and Matt came and went to lunch at In-N-Out and then shopping for my shirt to match my skirt for Sunday (baby i's blessing). We had a picnic dinner at the beach with the addition of Bryan and Tyler to our group. We watched Wipeout together and then Jill, Katie and Matt left.
Thursday, Beebe and I hung out at the house. At about 4pm, we needed a way to entertain 3 little boys until Bryan got home from work (you know how you count down, "only 2 more hours"). Beebe had the great idea of making a fort. We made it about 4 times, Big A was getting frustrated because once it was set up, he wanted it to stay up (big difference between a 4yo and a 2yo). When Bryan got home, he took the 3 'older' boys outside to play in the waterball (Beebe took photos). Beebe and family stayed for dinner and then headed to Ga & Papa's house.
It was a fun couple of days. Too bad they don't live closer (why did you move again?).

cream cheese and chips

Bagels are a staple "breakfast" food at our house (we still eat our first meal between 10 and 11am). Depending on which parent prepares the bagel, determines the topping of the bagel: cream cheese or butter. The boys had cream cheese mustaches this day and I thought it was too cute, so I had to take some photos.
Lil A grabbed a handful of chips from the kitchen, went outside, set his chips on the table and propped his feet up and enjoyed the nice weather with a snack. I think he learned this from Bryan since I really only consistently eat dinner with them (hopefully the older baby i gets, that will change but what can you do with a baby that eats when everyone is eating).

smiling baby i

Baby i is a smiley baby. I LOVE it. I think he talks to me more than the other boys. He was smiley this afternoon and I decided that I should try to capture some of his cute smiles. It was a little difficult since I was the entertainment and the camera person.

The Past Few Days (July 9-11)

We had a lot going on for a week (more posts to come about those) so we needed to run errands and clean/do laundry over the past few days. I took all 3 boys to Wal-Mart and Babies-R-Us and the next day Target (my first time out with all 3 boys- yeah for me!). I have yet to make it to the grocery store but some day I will get there.
With all of our errands and cleaning, we had a little bit of fun too. Aunt Em sent Penguin Bowling for the boys. They, of course, had to play it and I, of course, had to take photos. The boys still like to "help" most of the time and I have never taken their picture mopping before, so you get to see some of those too. On most Wednesdays I am a single mom, so we made brownies after I cleaned up dinner (I don't have photos of that but I thought I would document that we did something yummy when Bryan wasn't around).

Lil A drew this apple. Notice his shorts, he likes to get dressed "all by my my self."

Memory Lane

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

* I got this from Emily, my sister in North Carolina.

**I have almost 10 postings waiting for me, so be ready for a few steady postings.

Surprisingly, this was very accurate

I got this from Emily. I was surprised at how most things are totally me. Take it and let me know if it was accurate for you too.

Karin took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Needs a peaceful environment. Wants release from s..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

June 20-22, 2008

We had a family reunion for Bryan's side in Bakersfield, with the excuse of Jon's birthday to get together. There was white water rafting on Friday, which I opted out of, having just had a baby and none of my kids were old enough to go- so it was perfect. We stayed at Kim's house and the boys swam, in the AM with the dads that stayed behind and then in the afternoon with Nannie. The adults went to dinner in two shifts- which was fabulous, but I did feel like I was missing an arm (or some other vital body part) because baby i stayed at Kim's.
Saturday was the big birthday party, complete with Bryan smoking pulled pork and tri-tip, a chocolate fountain, two bounce houses and two pinatas.
It was great to be able to spend time with all of Bryan's siblings and even Bryan's grandma, who lives in Hawaii now, was able to be there.
This is a small portion of the photos that we took that weekend.

I probably took about 100 photos of the all kids with the pinatas, so I limited the ones here to just my kids hitting and of Bryan's brother *repairing* the pinata.

baby i

I thought that I should post some photos of baby i since there have been a lack of photos taken of him and Bryan pointed out that I haven't posted any photos of him. These are not the most recent photos but I am working on it.

Father's Day

We had a pretty mellow Father's Day. Since we had a huge party the day before, we had the leftover pulled pork in sandwiches and the leftover sides from the party. We both had naps, which we desperately needed from my usual lack of sleep and Bryan's lack of sleep from starting to cook at 3:30AM for the party and going to bed pretty late on Saturday and having early church is always a good reason to have a Sunday nap. Bryan opened his presents and all the boys had their own gun.

That gun now has "DAD" written on it.

Lil A is helping Bryan open his presents.

Mexican Train. WOO-WOO!

Swimming with Friends

We went swimming with some friends and had a great time. Well, technically baby i and I didn't get in the water but we had a great time watching everyone else in the water. Big A is getting a lot braver with the water and Lil A is how Big A was last year- not wanting to get in so much. He did hold on tight to Abby though (Thanks again Abby for letting him hang on for dear life and for getting me out of the house, oh I am trying to post more now that you are stuck on the couch for the next 7 weeks). Hopefully we will have more fun times at the pool this summer.

Ann's House

We went up north for Baby G's blessing and Ann was fabulous enough to have all of us at her house. It was a fast trip (like usual) but worth it. Big A told me last weekend we were "going to Aunt Tim's house and then to Ann's house." I like that my kids have such a great time with their cousins, it makes spending time with family enjoyable. Here are just a couple photos that were taken that weekend (I don't think I took any photos the whole weekend but these were on my camera).

Lil A's 3rd Birthday

Lil A turned 3! And, of course, we had to celebrate for weeks. It started with opening presents the weekend before his birthday because we went up north and stopped at Kim's on our way (I don't have any photos of that but the ball gun and the fruit snacks taped to the top of the present he got there were a HUGE hit). Then we had a birthday celebration on his actual birthday with just our little family and then a big family party on Saturday. It was fun to have cousins at the family party- usually it is just aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

PARTY

Aunt Jill was in charge of the photo taking during cake & ice cream and I am so glad she got this sequence of photos. Notice he has an adult on each side and is NOT stopped. I sat across the table from him and was encouraging Jill to take photos of it.

POTTY!!!

Lil A has decided (with a little help from his parents) that it is time to use the potty! We have had a couple accidents but with so many visitors, it is hard to leave the fun in time to use the potty. But he is willing and is doing a pretty good job at reminding me that it is time for him to go to the potty. He can sit on the potty forever, which I don't mind because he is actually on the potty (until I want to go somewhere). We went to Disneyland on Monday to get his toy (and to see some out-of-state friends) and after picking up every toy at his level in the Buzz Lightyear store, he decided he wanted candy (he is Bryan's child).

He told me "I not pying (crying), I'm happy."

Eating suckers to celebrate actually sitting on the potty. Big A has decided that he gets candy whenever Lil A gets candy for sitting on the potty too.

Newport Beach

We were invited to spend a few days at Newport Beach with our friends. Her parents have a house there and it was great to have a meeting place, a bathroom (and if I had more time and energy a place to sleep- packing for 3 kids and work clothes for Bryan during the week was out of the question with all of our fast weekend trips this summer).
Tuesday, we made it down there with just enough time to play at the park at the pier and to eat dinner at Ruby's at the end of the pier. A few husbands were able to be there too, which helped with all the kids at dinner.
Wednesday, Abby picked us up and we spent a couple hours in the sand and then a little while at the house. Big A, Lil A and N were sliding down the sand and having a great time getting sand everywhere (notice N covered in sand in the photo).
All the kids played really well together and loved running around the house- from the outside courtyard to the inside (Beebe would have LOVED it). Abby and I were planning on leaving earlier but the kids were playing so well that we didn't even notice the time. We took the ferry and decided we are chickens but the boys seemed to like it, Big A called it the "car boat."
It was a great couple of days. Thanks Charise.

Seminary Graduation Weekend

We went to Matt's seminary graduation (instead of high school graduation) and Grandma Nielson & Papa Cy came to celebrate too.
Big A started out sleeping on the futon and Lil A was sleeping on the sleeping bag. I went in to check on them and I found Big A's blanket and pillow still on the futon but he was cuddled up with Lil A- they are so cute.
Lil A played with this diaper box the previous weekend (so I stuck it in the garage to save for him) and played with again but this time Big A actually was the pusher.
The boys have really enjoyed opening presents for Baby i and Lil A got to open his present from Grandma Nielson and Papa Cy (we really celebrate birthdays for weeks).
Baby i was talking and looking at Grandma Nielson but that kept her from looking at the camera.

Memorial Weekend

Friday we went to my parents' house so that early Saturday morning Bryan could leave for his all day trip around Southern California-he started by going up to Lake Arrowhead to Palmdale, Tehachapi , Bakersfield, Orange County, Lake Arrowhead then it was too foggy for him to come back to my parents' house but we got furniture out of his long day and the living room looks great. My Dad took the older boys to his office for a "pay job," they cleaned out a ton of puzzles. My Dad was great with the older boys all day and I got 2 naps on Saturday. Saturday night (while Bryan was sleeping uninterrupted in Lake Arrowhead), I had 3 boys awake at 2AM and Big A woke up 2 more times after that and I have a cold. So Sunday morning, Mom made a wonderful breakfast and then I went back to bed. We went up the mountain to have dinner with Bryan's parents. Monday, was a game day at Cal State and Mom , Lil i and I went to Lowe's to dream. Bryan smoked a tri-tip - it was delicious, as usual. All of dinner was great, Bryan's parents brought a yummy fruit salad and baked beans, Mom made rolls (YUM) and a green salad. Before dinner the boys were given another job of vacuuming up dirt and leaves in the backyard but started pulling leaves off plants, so they were given the restriction of only brown things. Overall it was a great weekend, I just wish I didn't have a cold but I got more rest being there than I would if I had stayed home- thanks again everyone for helping me.


Bryan and Dad boxing on the Wii and Lil A "flying" in the box.

My Mosaic

1. Karin　花梨, 2. Summer Sociables 1, 3. Cajon de Farellones - Los Andes, 4. Mallorca 2007 -- Waiting for summer (Part 2), 5. Jeffrey Donovan as Detective David Creegan, 6. i love you water. i miss you diet coke., 7. The Beach, 8. Katie's Frozen Custard, 9. Undecided Skies, 10. Latest Family Portrait, 11. ms. independent, 12. Beauty

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name

Thanks Heather, this was entertaining. It gave me something to do while waiting for Lil A to decide he wants to use the potty. He is actually wearing underwear!!!