Chocolate Houses

Yesterday we went up to my mom's church to decorate chocolate houses. My Uncle Brent and Aunt GayAnn spend hours of their time and money making these chocolate houses from molds. Last year was our first year doing it and my kids were really excited to do it again this year.

Austin had been up all night puking about every half hour for 8 hours straight so he was a little tired. Even though he was very mellow he still had a great time. (For all of my family that reads this and is appalled that I brought him; let me just say in my defense it had been 8 hours since he had thrown up and with his puking history it's hard to know if it's from a bug or just because he's Austin.)Zack was obviously being his goofy self. I love the first picture where he has his tongue stuck out in concentration.In this picture he had started eating his chocolate house and we told him that we couldn't and to just eat the candy there. This was his reaction to that, goofy boy!
Every picture that I have of him smiling he's looking at my mom's camera instead of our's, thanks mom.Gavin had a blast! I thought I would need to help him a lot, but he did it all by himself. He apparently decided that he needed to test all of the frosting and candy to make sure it was good enough to make it on to his house. :)
Thank you Brent and GayAnn for a fun new tradition!

Park City

In the middle of November we went up to Park City with my family for 5 days. It was a nice break from real life. We are so grateful to my parents for always inviting us to go up there.

We got up there Friday night and went to dinner with my parents at a place that's name is not worth remembering. Then we went back to the hotel and went swimming. We finished the night off with kids in bed and then we played Dominoes with my parents.

Saturday morning we swam for at least 2 hours and Gavin finally warmed up to the water and released his death grip. I'm so happy he's finally more comfortable in the water (except for the fact that it's terrifying as well!). Then Aaron and I left the kids with my parents and Steve and Mandy (they got there right before we left) and went to the Utah game. It was snowing and freezing cold, but we had come prepared in all of our snow clothes and I was glad! Plus the Utes won so it made it worth any discomfort. :) The kids had fun doing some more swimming while we were gone.

On Sunday we went to church and then Matt and Michelle came. We were going to go tubing on Monday, but since Matt had to leave that night we decided to go Sunday afternoon. It was a bit windy and cold, but otherwise it was perfect and we had so much fun! I know that was a lot of pictures, but I chose that many out of over 400 pictures so I think I did pretty good!

We went swimming again that night and then Gavin decided during dinner that he was done for the day. This little darling decided a few months ago that he was done with naps so now instead he's grumpy during the day and every few days he can't make it through dinner, but isn't he cute!After some bedtime stories with Grandpa the kids went to bed and the adults played some more games. Saturday and Sunday we played the game Bohnanza, it was a lot of fun!

Monday was spent shopping at the outlets and then more swimming. Then unfortunately Steve and Mandy and their kids went home that night.I know this isn't a great picture, but it was very dark in the room. I love how they always have to be touching each other.

On Tuesday we obviously swam some more and then went home that afternoon. We finally decided to take our camera out with us on Tuesday though and got some pictures. Austin was funny and kept jumping in the pool as straight as an arrow. He also was showing us his flipping skills; him and Zack are way more daring than I ever was!Zack flipping and getting some good air.
Gavin showing his jumping skills.

First day of school

Austin and Zack's first day of preschool this year was September 6th. They are going to a preschool a couple of miles from our house that some of our neighbor's went to last year and highly recommended. They go 3 days a week for 2 1/2 hours and they were so excited to start!
I had them write their names so I could see their handwriting and then asked them a few questions. I had to do a side picture because I love how they look with those huge backpacks.
Austin:Favorite color: red
Favorite food: pizza
Favorite movie: Toy Story 2 & 3
Favorite book: Cat in the Hat
Favorite show: Dinosaur Train
Favorite ice cream: chocolate
Favorite toy: cars
What do you want to be when you grow up: dragon
Favorite subject: centers
Thing you do best: play soccer
If you could go anywhere: ?
Best memory: playing at Grandma's
One wish: ?
Favorite song: I Am a Child of God

Zack: He has become quite the ham in front of the camera some days and apparently this was one of those days, funny boy! Zack really can't write his name that much better than Austin, he just asked for more help than Austin did.Favorite color: orange
Favorite food: turkey
Favorite movie: Toy Story
Favorite book: Cat in the Hat
Favorite show: Arthur
Favorite ice cream: vanilla
Favorite toy: Buzz Lightyear
What do you want to be when you grow up: police man
Favorite subject: centers
Thing you do best: take care of my little brother
If you could go anywhere: my friend's
Best memory: play with toys outside
One wish: buddy toy
Favorite song: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

Gavin of course had to have his picture taken as well and he had to wear his backpack.

Life Goals

Here are my life goals so far:

Date Aaron Nelson- check
Become a nurse- check
Marry Aaron Nelson- check!
Have twins- check (what was I thinking? :) )
Have 4 kids by the time I'm 30- check! 4th baby due 5 days before my 30th birthday!

Out of the mouth of Zack

At least every other sentence out of Zack's mouth ends in "right?". It's really funny to have a conversation with him because then you realize how much he says it.

Aaron was asking Zack yesterday why he had an accident. Zack said, "I was playing and the pee just came out of my penis." He said it very matter of fact. He makes it hard to argue with him and being the good parents that we are we both had to turn away because we started laughing.

Gavin's first broken bone

On August 4th we had just finished saying family prayers and Aaron's phone fell off Zack's bed so Gavin went to get off the bed to get it and lost his balance while he was doing it. He stuck out his arm to catch himself and I knew instantly something was really wrong because he was crying so hard and was almost inconsolable. It took me probably at least an hour of holding him before he fell asleep and he only slept for maybe an hour before he was up crying again. It ended up being a really long night! We fashioned a sling out of an ace bandage to try and support his arm and he slept in our bed so every few minutes I could console him because every time he twitched he would start crying.

I took him to the doctor the next morning and they did x-rays, but they weren't sure it was broken so they wanted us to see an orthopedic surgeon in case it was in his growth plate. The orthopedic surgeon didn't want to see us until Monday to let some of the swelling go down so at his pediatrician's office they put a splint on him and a sling.

On Monday when we went to the orthopedic surgeon he didn't want to do more x-rays because he was pretty sure it was broke so he put a cast on him and thank heavens gave him a prescription for Lortab because the poor little boy had been in so much pain since Thursday. He was so brave and tough!He had the cast on for 3 weeks and we went back on Monday to have it removed. I was so glad to have it off, that thing stunk! They did more x-rays where the doctor saw new bone growth so now we know for sure that is was broken. He broke the front, back and across the humerus so it was called a supracondylar fracture. He called it a monkey bar fracture and said that Gavin was a little young for that kind of break, but the way kids put their arms back to catch themselves is exactly how Gavin put his arm out so it totally made sense.

His arm has been really sore since they took the cast off and I have to do range of motion exercises with him. We go back in 2 weeks and if his range of motion isn't good then he will have to go see a physical therapist, but I'm hoping that doesn't happen. It's so hard to see your baby in pain, but I can't believe how tough and brave he's been! I love that boy!

Dinosaur Park

Earlier this month we went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. To say my kids loved it would be an understatement! They are obsessed with dinosaurs right now so it was right up there alley. We went up and saw the dinosaur robots that are on the upper floor of the museum first. Zack and Austin have never been afraid of them and they absolutely loved them this year; it was by far their favorite part. Gavin on the other hand was terrified of them!He was cracking me up because he kept putting his hand over his mouth and would say, "dinosaur rex scaren me." And if you would walk closer to them he would start crying saying, "scare me, scare me."I know this picture is a bit blurry, but I love their expressions. I bet we spent at least 40 min. sitting there watching those dinosaurs.

They loved walking around looking at all of the dinosaurs. We had a nice picnic there and then finished off our fun playing at the playground.
One of there favorite things was the Pteranodon slide.He looks like we forced him to take his picture, but don't let his look fool you. He wanted to ride the dinosaur and he loves having his picture taken.Everyone had to ride the dinosaurs. Don't you love Gavin's cheese face?
Austin
Zack

I never planned on dressing them alike once they were 2 or 3, but I didn't count on the fact that they would want to wear the same clothes all of the time.
He just wanted to spend his time throwing rocks and whatever else he could find through the fence.And we of course had to finish our fun off with going to see the dinosaur robots again.

Gavin aka Picasso

After the great days I had with my kids on Monday and Tuesday I was on an emotional high. (Monday- Dinosaur Park with Mandy, Neal, Henry, Abby; Tuesday- This is the Place State Park, Soccer) Apparently Wednesday was the day for it to come crashing down.

We were just getting ready to go to Costco and the library so I took Gavin's jammies off and then went downstairs to put a load of laundry in. When I came upstairs I found poop smeared on Gavin's carpet so I went looking for him. I found him in Zack and Austin's room and carried him in to his changing table where I found him with poop all over his arms, hands, chest, legs and feet. Then I looked over and saw a huge piece of poop on his rocking chair and smeared all over the arms and back of it and the ottoman. Needless to say I wasn't very happy! It took me about an hour and a half to steam clean the chair and the carpet in his room, the hall, and Austin and Zack's room.

While I was cleaning that he went and did something to the computer. So I fixed the computer and went in my room for about 3 min to start folding some laundry when he wondered in my room holding a marker. I took it from him and went to go put it away when I saw marker all over the walls in the hall, the walls in the stairway, the walls and door in the entryway, all over both of the wood floors in the entryway, and on every single stair in our house.These pictures don't do it justice. Look at the bottom step especially in the last picture.

Not only is it red marker, but it's permanent marker. I tried quite a few things to get it off the carpet and walls and nothing works. On the walls it just takes the paint off and the stairs it just slightly lightens it.

We had a carpet cleaning company come yesterday that specializes in red removal and the good news is that they only charged us $70 to do the stairs, hall, and our front room; the bad news is that they couldn't get the marker out. It is lighter, but you can still see it. :(

I don't remember signing up for these kind of days as a mom! I guess you have to have the good to appreciate the bad, right? You'll be happy to know he survived the day and I still after all of that love him to pieces!

Soccer!

Tuesday was Austin and Zack's first soccer game. I love that they play on Tuesday instead of Saturday. They have been so excited!
Austin, Zack
I was a little worried they would not go after the ball because they aren't very aggressive especially when there are a lot of kids around so I kept telling them they needed to steal the ball from the white team. Aaron kept telling them to be nice. Luckily they listened to both of us and did a great job!
They both lost a shoe at one point during the game.
Zack going after the ball. This kid on the other team was good, it was obvious that he has already played a year.
Zack
Austin
Zack is number 11, Austin number 12
I don't know what they are doing, but this picture is funny to me.
I love this face Austin is making. It's the face he makes whenever he is trying to run really fast.
Austin going after the ball. He did a great job taking the ball down the field. The only problem was that he was usually taking it the wrong way. We obviously need to work with him on teaching him about his goal and the other team's goal.
I had to include this picture for Aaron. Austin was picking a wedgie the whole game. It was making Aaron crazy!