Elizabeth is 7!

The oldest had a birthday this week. I think it was a good one for her. It all started off when we were invited to celebrate alongside the Nelson boys--her fellow late-January-birthday-cousins. My sister fed us very well and supplied the cake. The kids all had fun playing with their cousins.

Here are the birthday kids:
(Zack, Elizabeth, Jacob & Ethan)

Since it wasn't a friend-party year for Elizabeth, and I had been promising her I would take her ice skating after Natalie got to go, she got to invite one friend to come with us for a little birthday excursion. She invited her best friend Sofia from school. This was Elizabeth's first time ice skating. I was a little worried she might have some trouble, especially since she still hasn't really mastered the roller blades she got for Christmas two years ago. But, she did great! She was so proud of herself for getting the hang of it quickly and kept saying, "I can't believe I'm doing so well on my first time skating!" She was very determined and didn't even want to hold my hand after awhile. Sofia had been before so she did fine. I hadn't been skating since before the kids were born and I had a blast, too.!

Elizabeth & Sofia

Here they are skating together:

So cute.

Then, her birthday rolled around. Elizabeth took some pictures around the house of the decorations:

She also insisted on decorating her cake again this year. She even made the cake pretty much all by herself. Unfortunately, I tried to take a shortcut with the frosting and it didn't turn out so well. That's why the frosting looks kind of runny.

We had her birthday dinner (black bean soup and corn on the cob--bless that girl for having such an easy favorite meal!) and opened presents. She got some of the things on her list, including a snow hat and a new shirt. She's pretty easy. She also wanted her very own dresser, which is coming soon.

Here's the loot:

Nail polish

Natalie got her this little roly poly playground.

Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find any!

She also got the whole Little House on the Prairie series:

Nate liked it, too:

Speaking of Nate, here's what he did when he realized that the present he picked out wasn't for him:
Birthdays can be hard for 2-year-olds.

Giving Daddy a hug after reading his nice card:
It was a fun night and the birthday girl was all tuckered out:

I still can't believe that my Elizabeth is 7. One more year and she'll be 8! Yikes! I'm suddenly feeling all of this pressure. Am I teaching her what she needs to know before she officially becomes a "big kid" and starts facing "big kid" challenges? Some days I wonder.

Mostly I'm just glad that I have her. She is our oldest child, our guinea pig, and she is so patient with us. She loves us unconditionally even when we screw up as parents. She is so full of love and enthusiasm for life. She is also quite sensitive and so thoughtful and giving. She has already picked out a present for me for my birthday (it's not until April!) and it is in a shoebox under her bed. :)

First grade has indeed been a year of firsts so far. The first boy that asked her to be his girlfriend. The first boy (different boy) that said a really mean thing to her. Her very first citizenship award:
Then there was the friend who spilled the beans about Santa Claus. There have been the adjustments to all-day school and harder work, which we are still trying to work out.

Still, she is doing great. I am so proud of her and the choices she makes. She tries to do what's right. She still loves to learn. Even though she doesn't like her math homework from school much ("They make me write! I don't like to write."--this from the girl who is constantly writing for fun) she still loves it when we give her tough word problems. It is so fun for me to see the way she works out problems. I hope she keeps liking math. She is as much of a bookworm as ever. Right now she's into American Girl books and Magic Treehouse books. She likes science, too. I just so happened to check out a couple Bill Nye the Science Guy DVDs from the library and the kids loved them, especially Elizabeth. We've watched almost all of them. She is always begging me to do the home experiments. She also loves any and all kinds of crafts. Poor girl, stuck with a mom like me. She loves being outside and she loves her family.

And we love her.

Lately

Natalie recently got to go ice skating on a preschool field trip. She almost didn't get to go because I couldn't find a babysitter but her wonderful teacher's cute teenage daughter offered to skate with her. She had a blast! These pictures are courtesy of the talented Janelle:

Nate drew his first recognizable smiley face:

We finally took the bikes to the park so the kids could get some good practice riding them. Just as I had suspected, Elizabeth did indeed know how to ride her two-wheeler just fine.

Nate also finally figured out his tricycle:

Playing at the park.
We've had awesome weather! (But a little rain would be nice)

And lastly--sometimes you just have to dance:

(Please ignore my obnoxious voice in those videos)

Next up: Holy cow I have a 7-year-old...

Blast from the Past

So, I came across some old pictures of Joe and his brothers recently and it confirmed what people have been telling me for 2 years now: Nate looks a lot like his Dad.

What do you think?

(Joe's #4, by the way--I'm guessing you can spot him)

I think they have the same smiles. Especially when you see pictures like this:

Joe isn't even in this one but I just thought it was adorable:

Cute, right?

Christmas and Beyond

Now for the standard Christmas catch-up (accompanied by an also standard paltry amount of pictures, because that's our style)...

We made our Christmas sugar cookies like we do. This boy managed to get himself completely covered in flour and cookie dough:
We got to spend an afternoon with Jessica, one of my best-est friends, and her husband Sean and cute baby Sienna:
The big day came. We celebrated Christmas Eve with a nice dinner and some wassail. We let the kids open their new pajamas, then read the Christmas story, watched the Joy to the World movie I love, sang carols together and got them to bed. Joe and I worked hard at putting a big surprise together. We may or may not have gotten quite angry at each other in the process but hey--it was Christmas and all was forgiven quickly.

The morning came and kids checked out their surprises:

We gave the kids a clue to their surprise. Here's the video:



It was quite cold that morning and the kids thought it was great that there was frost.

I finally got to put Nate in his suit. I figured Christmas day was a good occasion. I got this adorable 3-piece suit as a hand-me-down from a friend in Sacramento and have been wanting to dress him in it. But, I needed a tie that would match (at least kind of) and some shoelaces for one of the shoes that match the suit (we got them at DI or someplace and one was missing). I never managed to find shoelaces but luckily the shoe stayed on alright through Sacrament meeting. I searched high and low for little boy ties on Dec. 23rd, even venturing to the mall with 3 kids, and finally found something. That is how bad I wanted him to wear this suit.

When Sunday morning came he refused to wear the vest but still managed to look so cute:

I'm mad I didn't get any pictures after his shoes were on and his hair was combed.

He was so happy to match Daddy:

After church, we hurried to get ready to head to my parents' for a delicious prime rib Christmas dinner. We stayed (half) the night there and then set off bright and early to head for Utah.

We had another fun, whirlwind trip first to Logan (with a day in the Salt Lake area) and then to Twin Falls, ID, and then home. We were sad we didn't get to see everyone we'd hoped to see but I guess we never do. I was still wonderful spending time with family--Joe's family and also my brother and his family.

The few pictures I got were of Nate and his cousin Jace. They were so funny together. We tried to get them to hug but they just scooted closer together.

Jace kind of leaned, like so:

The only other time the camera appeared was in the middle of Nevada on the way home when we took a break from the car:

Joe and the girls loved exploring. Nate was happy just throwing dirt and rocks.
We made it home in one piece and have been attempting to get back into the routine of life, including some new goals we've set.

The kids have loved the trampoline. I got these pictures one afternoon:

This one is funny with the girls fighting over jumping time and Nate in the foreground worriedly sucking his thumb:

They still love each other:

We own a net but haven't been able to find a time in daylight hours to put it up yet. It will happen soon. Nate has already fallen off!

Happy 2012!

Santa

We had our annual visit from Santa at my Mom and Dad's house again. Elizabeth had to give her very first oral presentation the last day of school about a family tradition and this was the one she picked. I think the presentation went well, from what I heard. She showed pictures of herself with Santa throughout the years starting off with the one shown here when I was pregnant with her.

Anyway, we had another fun night. Here are most of the grandkids, waiting for their turn:

Here's my mom and dad (and Santa) with 11 of their 16 grandchildren:

Elizabeth managed to get up for her turn pretty quickly, despite the fact that she learned the truth this year from another girl in her class. It was fun to see her still excited to sit on his lap.

She asked Santa for a scooter

Natalie asked Santa for a gumball machine

She usually asks for things she didn't get for her birthday--the gumball machine couldn't be avoided, I guess. :)

Nate wasn't too thrilled about Santa at first but he did get close with Joe holding him...

...sucking his thumb of course

But then when prodded to say what he wanted, he busts out with "I want candy!" and made everyone laugh:

Later on, he warmed right up and didn't mind chatting with Santa for a little while:

Daddy and boy

Poor Joe needs some new glasses that aren't crooked. It drives him crazy when he sees these pictures.

The family:

Not a single one with my eyes completely open. I am terrible.