Nielsen Family: January 2010

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Rachel Thurston Photography

Hey, so Rachel is giving away a Seattle vacation to get her new site up and running. I think it's a very generous way to do it!!! She does BEAUTIFUL work. You guys should check her out and spread the word about her, K? http://www.rachelthurston.com

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

3 posts of Christmas for ye all

Christmas Cabin

The big present from our parents this year was a trip up to a cabin that they rented. It was a lot of fun, with lots of snowmobiling trails, and beautiful scenery. We went the Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs after Christmas. The first night we opened presents from each other, and celebrated April's birthday. We went sledding the next day. Did a lot of snowmobiling the third day, and also had a pressure cooker cook-off that night. (All the girls that didn't have one, got one for Christmas) It was SO Yum yum yummerton! I found 3 more meals that are an 8 or above on the husband's rating scale in the last week thanks largely to this cook-off. (Isaac is a picky eater, so an 8 is like a 10 for me, he never rates anything higher than an 8, unless it's crab or steak.) We had a few things that happened to us that made it probably not QUITE as fun for us, as it was for everyone else. It was still fun though, thanks Mom and Dad!

On to why it was a little stinky for us...First, Isaac was really excited to try and fly his kite up there, but there was absolutely no wind on the first day. The second day we went out to go sledding. Isaac had Sarah on a sled behind a snowmobile. Ben was driving, and I was driving another snowmobile. When they came to the downhill, they disconnected from the snowmobile, and I was driving down the hill. I stopped at the bottom, and the next thing I knew, something banged into my snowmobile. It was Isaac's back. He had turned around on the hill to shield Sarah from the snow flying up in her face, so he couldn't see where he was going either. At first, he thought he'd be OK, but then realized he had a really hard time getting up. We took him back to the cabin, and he took a nap. When he got up, he was in a lot of pain, and almost fainted. So, we took him to the ER. They took some X-rays, and even got a CT scan, but didn't find any fractures, thank goodness!! The diagnosis was badly bruised muscle in his back. The Dr. said it would be pretty sore for a while, and take 6-8 weeks to heal. It was a huge bummer, because he really wanted to try out his kite. He got doped up on 800 mg of Ibuprofen, and Lortab and was feeling better, so much that the next day he felt like going snowmobiling. Well, that wasn't such a good idea either. He took my parent's snowmobile, which they rented and was going along a seemingly smooth path but hit a huge dip. It broke off the undercarriage thingy and dented the bumper. I knew how much these renter places can gouge you, so I was expecting the worst. Initially they were saying one of the parts was $1000, and the bumper would cost $85, which they certainly could have charged us. Instead we just had to pay for the bumper, and $150 for the depreciation of the part. Thank goodness! I hate money. I didn't want to have to pay for an expensive snowmobile part on top of an ER visit. Anyway, if you ever want to rent snowmobiles in Christmas Meadows, I know a great place, with honest people! Anyway, this back injury sure has made me grateful for Isaac's and everyone's health, I'm so glad this is only temporary!!!

Thanks for the great time Mom and Dad!

Sarah was bringing Grandpa lots of stickers

We celebrated April's birthday! Did I mention how excited I am that she's going to be my sister-in-law?

Sarah's presents to Nathan. LEGO miners and a spinner gun

Grandpa's gift to all the grandkids. pull ducks made out of black walnut! Definitely a keepsake. I didn't get a picture of the quilts my Mom made for everyone also. They are so warm, nice a comfy! Thanks Mom and Dad! (Sarah's wearing the Pink Floyd shirt Isaac got her for Christmas)

To Anna from Isaac

and an Old Navy gift card YES! To Julia From Amy D

To Steve from Julia, tools and a mini RC car

To Mom and Dad from Isaac and Julia

I get so depressed after Christmas, it was so nice to have another week to celebrate it! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Christmas!

We had Christmas Eve at my parent's house this year. I couldn't sleep very well Christmas Eve. I was really excited to Sarah to open her presents, and for Isaac to open his. Sarah didn't wake up until 8, so I just kind of tried to sleep from 6 on. When I was changing Sarah's diaper in the morning, before we went upstairs I said, "Sarah, are you excited to open presents from Santa?" She got all excited and shook, with a huge grin on her face. I have no idea if she actually understood me, but as soon as I let her go, she ran upstairs and went straight for the presents under the tree and carried one to me. It was pretty dang cute! We had a great Christmas! Sarah was SPOILED! Isaac big present was a huge kite that can pull him on a snowboard. He was very excited about that. I got a circle cutter, pressure cooker, and a bunch of craft stuff. We also got a new video camera, it is a Kodak 718. It's been fun!

This is the first thing she did, grabbed a present under the tree

Opening her first present

Opening one of my presents

Ben, April, and Tony joined us. (Did I mention that April is going to be my sister-in-law? I know, not yet, but I am very excited about this!)

She LOVES that tinkerbell chair!

This ball popper was a big hit, with everyone!

Felt Mr. Potato Head Mom made for Sarah

Sarah's big final present! a pop up play hut with balls and tunnels!

This was a really cool picture my Dad mentioned to Isaac that he really really liked (It was hanging in the Men's bathroom in one of the buildings they were working in.) Anyway, they tried to look up the artist online, but couldn't find the particular picture, so he pretty much gave up on that. But, Isaac e-mailed the photographer and was directed to where he could get it. He figured it would be a perfect gift for him, so he told my Mom about it, and she got it for him. It is BEAUTIFUL! I can see why my Dad liked it so much. Huge success!

Later that day we were able to spend some time with Isaac's family, and that's always a good time. Sometimes I just forget my camera though. Blah!

Christmas Eve

We had a traditional "when I was a kid" Christmas Eve. Every year we would get together with my aunt and uncle's family and go to Godfather's pizza, and then go back to their place and play games. It was a lot of fun, and it was great to bring back the memories of those childhood Christmas Eves. We also had Sarah open her Christmas Eve pajamas when we got back to my parent's house, and she was so excited she could finally touch a present! (She had of course been told to stay away from all the presents under the tree up until this point.)

So excited!

Opening...

Ready for Santa to come! "Ho ho ho!"

The fun things Sarah says

(9/1/13) I was making dinner the other day and Charlotte says, "I like Diarrheas!" I was laughing and thinking, "What?" She meant quesadillas.

(9/16/13) Charlotte, Sarah, and were walking Keira home from Kindergarten. The three girls ran ahead but soon got tired and came back to me. Sarah said huffing and puffing, "Whoa, I lost my breath!" Charlotte comes back huffing and puffing also and said, "I lost my body!"

(9/17/13) We went to the library for pre-school story time and the teacher asked all the kids, "What do birds use to build their nests?" Sarah was the only one talking and she said, "Sticks, and branches." The Teacher said, "Yes, and what else." Sarah raises her hand again and says, "Sticks, and branches, and other raw materials."

(4/18/13) A regular saying in our family is, "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit." Well when Sarah's friend was over, Sarah went and got a fork out of the drawer for lunch. Sarah grabbed an orange fork and her friend said, "Sarah, no, get the white fork!" Then Sarah said, "You choose what you choose, and you don't throw a fuse!"

(4/18/13) Sarah was whipping her hair back and forth and she said, "That's what I do when I ROCK!"

(12/22/2012) This is how Charlotte counts, "One, two, three, four, six, seven, thirteen!

(12/14/2012) I was hugging Sarah and kissing her and I said, "You're so sweet, how did you get to be so sweet, " Sarah said, "Ummmmm, because I really like doing all the things on the earth."

(12/14/2012) Sarah, "When is lunch?" Me "In a few minutes." Sarah, "UUUHHH, a few minutes is three hours!"

(1/5/2012) When we were on a walk today, we had Floyd with us and I was explaining to Sarah why Floyd was sniffing around and it went like this: "Dogs let other dogs know where their territory is by marking it, and they mark it with their pee pee." Then Sarah said, and I use my poop!"

(12/21/2011) So Sarah got a "root deer" from our visiting teachers today. I opened it for her and as she was drinking it she said, "Mmmmmmm, it DOES taste like Rudolph."

(12/9/2011) Sarah said to me, "I'm not pretty enough." I said, "yes you are." She said again, "but I'm not pretty enough." I once again said, "yes you are, why do you say that?" Then she said, "Because I don't have any sparkles."

(12/2/2011) I once told her to say the prayer and she was pretending to be a cat that day, so she just started "meowing" her prayer. Then one time she was playing princess and it was time for her nap, but she kept getting out of bed so I said, "Sarah, if you get out of bed again, you'll go to time out, OK? say 'OK Mommy.'" Then she said, "OK Queen."

(10/17/2011) While we were eating lunch, Sarah said, "Mom, my tummy hurts." I said, "Well, maybe you need to go potty." Then she said, "Oh, I DO need to go potty." She then gets off her chair, and says as she's running to the bathroom, "The mystery has been solved!"

(9/15/2011) This morning we asked Sarah, "What instrument do you want to play?" She didn't answer so I said, " You could play the guitar, the piano, or maybe drums." Then she said, "No, I want to play the Xylophone." Oh, OK.

(8/27/2011) We have a saying in our family when we're about to say prayer at meal times. It is , "Fold your armies! and your navies!" and sometimes, "and your marine corps!" Then Sarah chimed in the other day, "and your blankies!"

(8/24/2011) So I told Sarah I was tired, and went to lay down on my bed. She followed me and put her favorite blanket on me. Then she said, "You can dream if you want." Then she sang me a song that she made up, "Dreaming is so good, dreaming is so great." Then she blew me about five kisses and kissed my forehead once, turned out the light, and shut the door.

(6/16/2011) Sarah was staring at the corner, and I said, "What are you doing Sarah?" She said, "Oh, I'm just thinking, thinking and contemplating." WHA???? ( I think her Grandpa taught her that word.)

(5/24/2011) I was picking out a shirt today and said to Sarah, "What shirt should I wear?" She said, " Oh, you need a red shirt.... because sometimes a shirt's gotta do what a shirt's gotta do!"

(5/16/2011) We were at a friend's house for FHE, and Sarah wet her pants. Isaac was in the bathroom helping her clean up. I came up and said, "Sarah that is naughty to pee in your pants, when you need to go you run up to the bathroom." Isaac said to Sarah. "Sarah, what did Mommy just say?" Sarah was sitting on the potty and playing with her toes and said, "She say.. Hello!"

(4/28/2011) Sarah had diarrhea a couple weeks ago, and as she was sitting on the potty she was kind of amazed that she just kept pooping, so she said, "I got poo poo all day long, I go poo poo all the way up to the ceiling!" and she pointed to the ceiling.

(4/28/2011) Sarah likes to make up songs, and does pretty well sometimes. One of her most common songs (but not quite so creative as some of her songs) goes a little like this..."and a one and a two and a three, all the day, all the day, all the day, all the day, all the day, all the day etc. etc."

(4/23/2011) I just wanted to record some things that Sarah says that we don't want to forget. When she is going to bed or to have a nap, she says just before we walk out, "For I wake up at morning." I'm sure that doesn't make much sense to all of you, but it's just something she says, and we love it. She also always randomly says, "I miss you sho much." and gives us a hug. It's her way of saying "I love you" She says "I love you" also but usually only after we say " I love you" to her. she says, "I miss you sho much" a lot more, and it isn't prompted when she says that.

(4/23/2011) Sarah loves to play outside and find "treasures". She gathered a bunch of these treasures and put them in her treasure box. They were mostly rocks and snail shells. She started to put a snail shell on each finger and said. "Look! Finger shells!" Get it? like Finger nails, but finger shells.

(3/9/2011) One of Sarah's new favorite phrases, "Watch... and learn."

(2/27/2011) Isaac- "Do you want to go flying?" (Lifts Sarah above his head) Sarah- "Wait, wait WAIT!!! I need my wings!" (starts to flap her arms.)

(2/25/2011) Sarah's stuffed Lambchops was hidden away inside a toy box. When I brought it out, she said, "Oh Lamb, I thought I'd never see you again!!"

(2/11/2011) Sarah had just gotten up from bed and was going potty naked because she had the footie pajamas on. She looks down and points to her nipples and says, "Baby can't eat mines!"

(2/10/2011) Sarah and Isaac were eating breakfast and Sarah turns to Isaac and says, "It's a whole wide world. Huh."

(1/25/2011) As we were painting this morning, Sarah looked over at my painting and said, "OOOOooh, that's Brilliant!"

(1/24/2011) Sarah says funny things when she is on the potty. Today she said, " I go pee pee and poo poo, all day long!" When she was going #2 the other day she was making the pushing noises and said, "For next week." Kind of random on that one, but very hilarious.

(1/24/2011)When Sarah was washing her hands after going potty this morning she was playing with the water instead of washing them, and taking a very long time. I said, "Sarah, you are driving me crazy!" Then when she woke up from her nap and went potty, she was again washing her hands, I was in the front room when I hear from the bathroom, "Mom, am I driving you crazy?"

(1/22/2011) We went to see Megamind in 3D and Sarah enjoyed it. When she first put on her glasses and saw the 3D words she said, very loud "Wow, they're coming out at us!"

(12/16/2010) She's been into saying her "days" but she gets it a little mixed up. For example she'll say things like," Will you dance with me..yesterday?" When she really means right now. She'll also just randomly say, "On Saturday" or "next week" at the end of any proposition.

(12/16/2010) It is no longer "That's Jesus Christ amen." when she sees a picture of Jesus because we corrected her a few times on that. But now she says, "That's Jesus Christ the Lord." We saw a picture of Jesus at Seagull Book and she said that over and over again loudly.

(12/11/2010) Sarah was eating breakfast (Life cereal). She really hates when she gets a hair stuck to her hand. She said, "a hair, a hair!!!" I told her to just let it go, or wipe it on her shirt because I didn't want to go get it off. Then later I hear a very quiet mumbling, "I'm fishing." I look up and her hands are over her bowl like she's fishing. She was using the hair she couldn't get off her hand to "fish" in her bowl. Gross, and hilarious.

(12/11/2010) Sarah has been learning her Christmas carols. She likes Rudolph a lot and she always says "Then one Froggy Christmas Eve." Instead of foggy. She even starts to sing that song when she's playing with her froggy stuffed animal or froggy watch.

(11/12/2010) The other day I measured Sarah's waist for a skirt I was making for her. Today she brought a long piece of material over to me, stretched it across my back and said, "Hmmm, 99!" Hopefully that isn't the correct measurement.

(11/12/10)I was showing wedding pictures to Sarah and said, "Daddy and I got married in the temple so we could be together with you forever." Sarah said, "Ohhh thank you!" " I need a hug."

(10/19/10) Isaac was playing the original Super Mario Bros. and at the end of the level Mario goes into the castle. Sarah then says, "Oh, he's going to the temple!"

(10/18/10) Sarah was playing with her play food. She had a fake brownie and said, " I made a birthday cake, I made a birthday cake for me. Birthday cake, lost in space." I'm not sure where she got that, probably a Dora episode.

(10/17/10) Yesterday morning as we were getting ready for church I said to Isaac, " The swamp cooler wouldn't turn on." Sarah said, "It needs batteries Mommy. Need batteries to fix it."

(10/12/10) We have a magnet advent calendar for Halloween and Sarah was putting up one where the magnet had fallen off the back of it. She said, "It's not working, Mom. It's not working all day!"

(10/5/10)Today we were at Sarah's Nana and Papa's house. I pointed to the wall that had a picture of President Monson on it and asked her who it was, she said, " That's Conference!" I guess she was paying attention during conference a little more than I thought!

(10/5/10) It used to be that whenever we'd point to a picture of Jesus and ask Sarah who it was, she'd say, "Jesus". A few weeks ago she started to change it to, "Jesus Christ." Well, just recently she has started to say, "That's Jesus Christ...Amen."

(10/3/10) Sarah always says, "Help! Help!" When she is done eating her food and she wants to get down from her high chair. It's funny, because it sounds like she's in a dangerous situation and she really needs help. Anyway, we were eating dinner at my parent's house and she did the typical, "Help, help." routine when she wanted down. I said to Isaac, "Sweetie, can you help her get down?" And Sarah said, "Help me, Sweetie!"

(9/1/10) Sarah and I were sitting on the front lawn and I was texting Isaac at the time. Sarah was behind me looking at stuff. I hear this distant, "A bird, see? See, a bird!" She said that a few more times but I didn't really register it, until she plops a big maggot infested bird on my lap, YUCK!!! I freaked out a little bit.

(8/31/10) I was giving Sarah a spider hug (You hug her and tickle her sides like your fingers are spiders) Then she said, "Um, fish hug?" So I gave her a hug that resembled a fish, Then she said, "Um, turtle hug?" So I tried that one. Then she said, "Um, fire sock hug?" and then, "Zipper hug?"

(8/31/10) Sarah picked up her toy stethoscope and started talking into the end of it. This is how our conversation went Sarah"Hello, Mommy, HELLLLOOOO" Me"Hello Sarah" Silence for a while. Me"What do you want?" Sarah, "Um, snack." Me "Oh, well we just had breakfast" Sarah "The end" and puts down the stethoscope.

Today (8/23/10) Sarah picked up my scriptures and started pretend reading them. I said, "Sarah, do you know what those are?" and she said, "A story?" and I said, "Yeah they're called Scriptures." and they talk about Jesus." and Sarah said, "Chocolate Jesus" I guess the part where I said "Talk about" was a little slurred and sounded like "Chocolate". I guess I'll enunciate a little more clearly in the future :).

First off, Sarah has an Uncle named Orange. Anyway, she is just learning how to say prayers and she has been getting pretty good at them. She usually starts with Heavenly Father and says she’s thankful for this day, and then names all the names she can think of. Well, the other day her prayer went like this: “Heavenly Father, this day, Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Papa, Mommy, Daddy, Ralph, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Pink Purple etc. I guess she got a little distracted when she said Uncle Orange’s name.

We were in my parents camping trailer and there was a bowl of fruit sitting next to the chair that Isaac was sitting in. Robin was sitting across from him and she had a banana in her hand, so Isaac picks up a banana from the bowl says, “Hello, Robin, I’m calling you from my banana.” Then Sarah goes over to the fruit bowl and picks up an orange, puts it to her ear and Says, “Hello.”

Sarah found a mole on her aunt Anna’s neck and said, “nipple” and Anna said, “Nope that’s definitely not my nipple.”

Whenever Sarah sees ice cream, or a picture of ice cream she calls it, “Ice cream man!”

I made Green chili for dinner the other night and Sarah was eating it and said, “Thank you Mommy, I love it! I love it Mommy!” I was feeling pretty great about that, and thought she just really liked my meal, but then the other day I gave her a dirty diaper to throw away and she said, “Thank you!, I love it mommy, I love it, thank you!”

Nielsen Family

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Rachel Thurston Photography

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

3 posts of Christmas for ye all

Christmas Cabin

Christmas!

Christmas Eve

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The fun things Sarah says

(12/9/2011) Sarah said to me, "I'm not pretty enough." I said, "yes you are." She said again, "but I'm not pretty enough." I once again said, "yes you are, why do you say that?" Then she said, "Because I don't have any sparkles."

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