Another Birthday Girl!

TODAY IS AMBER'S 13TH BIRTHDAY!

Following the layout of Haley's birthday post:

THE BIG DAY...
Whereas Haley is known in the family for being the easiest baby to deliver, Amber holds the distinction of having been the absolute hardest labor/delivery of our five kids! In fact, I was completely serious when I told Brad after Amber's birth that we'd be adopting any future children! That was not a fun experience. But she was worth it, of course :) We were smitten with her from the very first moment we saw her, our first little baby.

AMBER'S SONG...
(read this post if you don't know what I'm referring to)
Amber's song is "Blue Eyes", by Elton John, which is kind of funny because she actually has green eyes (and very pretty ones!) but the song remains because her eyes were big and blue for her entire first year of life. Here is the picture we think of when we hear Amber's song...

NICKNAME...
"Amoo" or "Amoo the Nielson" if you want the unabbreviated version.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT AMBER...
Amber is not your typical 13-year-old girl! She loves bugs (yes, insects!), Star Wars, Harry Potter and Pokemon! She wants to be an ER surgeon when she grows up and loves watching the Trauma-in-the-ER type shows on TV. She definitely takes after her father in that nothing grosses her out (blood, guts, etc.) Amber loves reading and probably reads more quickly than either of her parents. She is kind-hearted and has the gift of being able to judge others by what they are on the inside - definitely not something common in the world of teenage girls! Amber hates needles (and rightly so - she's had more than her share of them). She is a fierce defender of the under dog - standing up to bigger kids at school if someone weaker is being picked on. Amber loves kids, animals and is a fantastic big sister to her brothers and sisters.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMOO!

Brothers

With the exception of three mornings a week (when Danny is in preschool...and I have to answer the question, 'where is Danny' every 10 minutes for 2-1/2 hours) these two brothers are joined at the hip. They get along extremely well. Jacob plays the part of the adoring little brother and Danny is the protector and leader.

The last couple of weeks when Jacob is ready to go down for his nap he asks for Danny to tuck him in. It is pretty sweet. Danny sings him a song, puts Jakey's favorite blankets on him and gives him hugs and kisses.

Next year is all-day kindergarten for Danny and I fear I will be unable to fill his shoes where Jacob is concerned!

Easter Eggs!

Birthday Girl!

Today is Haley's 11th birthday!

In my family growing up you couldn't get through a birthday without Mom reminiscing about the day you were born. So...in that fine tradition:

THE BIG DAY...
The two stories that seem to have "stuck" the most regarding Haley's birth (at least the ones the kids like to hear retold) are that 1)She holds the distinction of being the easiest labor/delivery of our five kids - easiest by far! 2) She had unbelievably big cheeks! In fact, her cute big cheeks could even be seen in the ultrasound picture taken a week before her birth! They were the first thing people noticed about her as a baby :)

HALEY'S SONG...
Each of our kids has a song we've dubbed "their song" and each is an Elton John song. I'm not really sure how this began, but it's become a fun little tradition that the kids really get into. They all know each other's songs and get excited when they hear one. Anyway, Haley's song is "Blessed", by Elton John. Very appropriate considering we feel so very blessed to have her in our lives.

NICKNAME...
"Baby Hay" (she hates it when I write that on her lunch sack!)

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT HALEY...
She is a thinker - pondering life more than an 11-year-old normally would. She is kind and has a great sense of humor. Haley is very responsible and has a bit of her Papa Jim's desire to be on time and organized. She loves sports, musicals, loves to read (but is picky about what she'll read) and is always game to try something new. She loves elephants and collecting elephant "stuff".

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY HAY!

Time to Face Reality

Why, after almost 13 years of parenthood, do we continue to think that there is a chance we can contain the stomach flu before it spreads to each of our kids?! In almost every other life situation Brad and I are very realistic people. Yet every single time one of our kids has had the stomach flu (and I'm talking dozens of times over the years) we hurry and quarantine that child and go to great lengths (Lysol, etc.) to try and make sure the other kids do not get it. WHY DO WE DO THIS? The other kids always get it. Every few days another kid starts throwing up! We actually end up prolonging the flu's stay in our home because we refuse to let go of our dream - the dream that we can, in fact, contain the stomach flu. Next time we are going to put all the kids in the same room with the vomit-er, make them share a single drink and breathe in each others' faces! Then we can just get it over with in a couple of days!

Alyssa is loved, too!

Lyssie has had the stomach flu this weekend so she didn't want any pictures taken of her yesterday while I had the camera out. Her Aunt Lisa was worried that she had been overlooked, so I thought I'd better put up a recent picture of Alyssa and explain why she wasn't posted on the blog yesterday! Here she is on her 7th birthday (2 months ago).

Thank you, Haley!

Today Haley decided she wanted to make cookies. She looked high and low for the right recipe and finally settled on a chocolate chip cookie recipe from our new ward cook book - one we haven't tried before. She did it all by herself - just the occasional question for Mom. They turned out AWESOME. Everyone agreed that they are the best chocolate chips cookies we've tried! Way to go, Hay! She made "5 billion" cookies (which is 10-year-old for about 8 dozen) so basically we have lots of cookies! They were too many for our very large cookie jar so we had to pull out the tupperware to store them all!

Jacob Scott Nielson, aka: 'Jakey'

Whenever I get the camera out for any reason, Jacob requests his picture be taken :) Then he immediately says, "Let ME see me", which means he'd like to look in the viewing window to see the pictures of himself. So, when I took Haley's cookie pictures, of course I had to take a picture of Jakey "helping" her.
And here's a lovely picture of his almost shiner. He had a little run-in with the coffee table this morning, though he doesn't seem too upset about it in the photo.

Amber...

We can't believe our 'baby' is almost a full-fledged teenager! She is definitely beginning to look the part (thankfully not yet acting the part...very often!) Her new passion is babysitting. She is booked nearly every weekend. She loves playing with little kids...and the money's not bad, either!

Our Architect

Danny loves, loves, loves to build towers and castles and you-name-it with his blocks. He loves balancing it all and seeing how high he can get it before it falls down (or before Jacob "accidentally" knocks it down!). He wanted me to take pictures of some of his creations so his Grandparents could see them, but he wanted to make sure I mentioned that these are not his "tallest, best" castles - just a mere sampling of his work :)