Thanksgiving 2009

*Erin, my font is bigger*

Our Nielson Thanksgiving tradition has become an out-of-town affair. We alternate between spending US Thanksgiving in Canada with Nana Barb and Papa Brent (whilst Brad plays in his annual high school alumni basketball tournament) and spending it in Cannon Beach, OR with the Williams side of the family. This was the Williams' year, and quite a year it was!

Scott and Erica started the holiday off right for all of us with the birth of their first child, Gus Frank Williams (born 11/21/09)! Our kids are so thrilled to have their first cousin on the Williams side and Gus did not disappoint! He is pretty much the cutest little guy ever. See for yourself...
The proud parents were nice enough to allow multiple Nielson visits to Gus over the Thanksgiving holiday. We all got lots of cuddle time!



On Thanksgiving Day we had our traditional feast at Salties, even Grandma Ruth was able to be with us this year.


After dinner we all drove out to Cannon Beach, where we had rooms waiting for us at the Hallmark Inn. We love this place because they can actually accommodate a family of 7 with a large dog (super dog-friendly hotel and beach)! Our rooms this year all had beach views - so pretty, even in the winter. We had a great time beachcombing by day and playing games and catching up with each other in the evenings. Lots of laughing :)
Here are the kids hunting around Haystack rock at low tide:


Brad did his part to bridge the BYU/UofU gap when we came across an actual Ute (in full Utah regalia) on the beach on Friday (pre game). Brad was, of course, sporting his own Cougarwear. After exchanging pleasantries, Brad asked for a picture - a symbol of peace, if you will.

All in all, a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Halloween

You gotta love Halloween! It has always been my 2nd favorite holiday (Christmas coming in at #1) - the costumes, the candy, the crisp Fall air. I love it! We've had to make some unpopular Trick-or-Treating rules of late, though. In the Nielson household, once you hit high school, you're done going door to door for candy on Halloween. Amber was NOT pleased. The tricky part about this rule is that, unfortunately, there is photographic evidence of me, Amy, Trick-Or-Treating as a Sophomore at BYU! Pathetic, I know. My roommates and I dressed as ghosts and hit the Osmond's neighborhood in Provo in hopes of free candy. Our kids have seen the pictures and I am now being called a hypocrite. Oh well. The rule stands. And Amber still chose to don a Dracula cape and be festive!

Here they are in all their Halloween splendor - the vampire, the bunny, the elephant, the doctor and the bat.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Band Competition

On Halloween Amber had an out of state band competition at the University of Idaho, in Moscow. Wa-Hi's band rode over in 3 buses, leaving at 6AM and not returning until after 8PM (LONG day!) They competed against many other high school bands, won first place and then played at half time of the UI v. LA Tech football game. She had a great time! Many thanks to Nana Jo and Papa Jim who sent us a few pictures of the above event (they travelled to Moscow to see her play!)

Shining Star

Alyssa was given her school's "Shining Star" award this month! The Shining Star Award is given to students who are nominated by their teachers for 'consistently demonstrating outstanding citizenship and modeling behavior that reflects the school's core values of Support, Trust, Acceptance, Respect, and Success' (STAR). Shining Star recipients get all kinds of perks throughout the school year, so Alyssa is pretty excited about this honor. She was given her award at a school assembly, where she was all smiles.

Preschool

Jacob had a little preschool performance for parents the other day. It was awfully cute and I was surprised that he didn't have an attack of shyness. I half expected him to boycott once he saw how many grown ups would be watching!

What We're Up To

Got some blog catchin' up to do! Fall rolls around, life gets extra busy, and the blog goes down the tubes! All is well at the Nielson house, though.

Jacob...has been feeling like a very big boy for the past month. He started preschool in early September and has been loving it. I think, because he's the youngest of five and has waved goodbye to sibling after sibling on school mornings for years, he has been extra excited to join the ranks of school-going kids in the household. His two best buddies, Micah and Elijah, are in his class, so that makes it even better. This is the preschool that all five of our kids have gone to - Betty's Preschool. Kind of fun.


Danny...had a rough start to 1st grade and for the first few weeks kept telling us that he "hated" it. The biggest problem was that his teacher was "SO MEAN!" She actually requires the kids to sit in their seats when she gives instructions - can you believe that?! The nerve of that woman! :) They can't just get up to get a drink or use the bathroom, either. They have to raise their hands and ask permission! Horrible. Thankfully, Danny has since come around and now really likes his teacher and first grade in general. His reading is coming along, he has some good friends and he comes home happy just about every day. Danny has also been busy with soccer for the past 6 weeks or so. He had a good season. Sports + Danny = TLA (that's True Love Always for those of you who can't access your 5th grade memories very easily). Basketball begins in a couple of weeks and he can't wait.

Alyssa...is really liking 3rd grade a lot. She enjoys her teacher and has a nice little group of friends. She is in a special program which requires a lot of extra homework, but has kept up on it pretty well so far. In addition to school, Lyssie has been busy with piano lessons and soccer and enjoys both. She has played for the same wonderful soccer coach the last 3 years - one of those people who keeps is all in perspective and is so supportive and encouraging of the girls on her team.

Haley...likes 7th grade (especially not being the youngest in the school - a lowly 6th grader) and is working on balancing her social life and love of athletics with her academics. She is just finishing up volleyball on her school team and has really enjoyed it. Haley is a hard worker and puts her all into the things she undertakes (minus room cleaning). She has continued with her piano lessons and is doing quite well. She is also still playing the Alto Sax in the school band.

Amber...LOVES high school (thank goodness!) She was more than a little bit nervous about starting up at Wa-Hi (Walla Walla High School) but now seems to have found her niche and is doing very well. Wa-Hi is the only public high school in town and is quite large (4A). She loves band - playing at the football games, marching in the town parade, etc. It was really nice for her to have that little network of friends from day one. She also loves seminary and is so glad to finally be going to school with so many other LDS kids. Her grades are off to a fantastic start - we are so proud of her! Wa-Hi's parent/teacher conferences were a couple of weeks back and Brad and I kept thinking, "Amber Nielson? You ARE talking about Amber NIELSON, right?" :) Lest you think we are horrible parents, we do know she's an awesome person. It's just funny when you hear attributes attached to your kids that you don't see a lot of at home - like "self starter", "motivated", etc. One teacher even told us that she nominated Amber for Student of the Month. We are really proud of Amber's hard work and happy for her that she is enjoying high school so much.


Amy...has been busy, busy, busy! It is definitely a full-time job to keep things running smoothly in this household! Each day is full and varied. I find myself employed as a chauffeur, personal assistant, hair stylist, nurse, chef, tutor, counselor, advocate, wardrobe consultant, judge... The nice thing about this middle stage of parenthood is that it's a bit easier to carve out time for myself. I have been hitting the gym regularly, which makes such a big difference in how I feel - my energy level, my confidence, even my ability to stay organized and get things done. I also continue to love to read, though I fear I have an addictive personality. I can't just casually read a book. I dive into it and everything else is drowned out until I finish.

Brad...has been busy with the usual. He had some Continuing Ed courses to take out of state and the office said they'd pay for spouses to tag along, so we enjoyed a 5-day get away while my parents came to tend kids. It was fantastic! Since then he's been back to juggling work, his calling and his family. He's a great juggler of those things :) He usually goes straight from work to someone's game (be it soccer or volleyball) and then off to meetings of one kind or another. We love him and appreciate how hard he works for us. Life is about to get a bit busier for him as basketball season is upon us and he plans to coach Danny's team and Asst. Coach Alyssa's.

That's about it from Walla Walla! The kids are anxiously looking forward to Halloween, though I have done very little in the way of costumes this year! Time to get creative, I guess!

First Day of School!

Well, here they are on their way out the door this morning:

The High Schooler:


The Middle Schooler:


The 3rd Grader:


The 1st Grader:


The almost Preschooler who didn't want to be left out of the pictures:

Happy Birthday, Danny!

Today is Danny's 7th birthday! He sorta got cheated out of a birthday party last year because poor Haley was right in the middle of her pneumonia drama when he turned 6. His birthday last year was the day before she was life-flighted to Seattle! As parents, we had bigger things than birthday parties on our minds (unfortunately for Danny!) So, this year he got to have his long-awaited, Spongebob-themed birthday party with friends (yesterday). We BBQed, jumped on the trampoline, slipped on the slip 'n' slide and, of course, enjoyed presents, cake and ice cream. Here are a few of the highlights in pictures:



HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DANNY! WE LOVE YOU!

Summer '09

Just a quick update on what we've been busy with...

MID JULY:
Took the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge and had a ball with the water slides! This truly was fun for the whole family! We had a blast!



END OF JULY:
Amy made the trek to Utah with 6 kids - talk about feeling brave and invincible! All went well and no one threw up on the way down OR back (groundbreaking!) Amber and her friend, Emma, LOVED EFY and had a ball! The rest of us LOVED visiting family and friends!



AUGUST:

Next week is our annual camping trip in Waterton National Park. It really is THIS pretty, too (Canadians, feel free to back me up on this!) In addition to the lovely surroundings, we'll also have the pleasure of seeing lots of family. Doesn't get better than that!

A Big First

Danny lost his very first tooth last Sunday! He was pretty thrilled about it, too. I don't think I can tell the story as well as he can, so I'll just be his typist. Here he is, verbatim:

"I was at church, in Primary. And...well...I was wiggling my loose tooth really hard back and forth and all of a sudden it popped out and landed on my friend's pants! And he wasn't really like grossed out or anything. He was like, "Eww" and "Cool" at the same time. There was lots of blood on it, too, and Sis. Gilbert (Primary President), she told me to go to the bathroom and clean up all the blood. And how I cleaned it up is I got this dry paper towel and I wiped it on it lots of times. Before I did that, when I was still in Primary, I touched the hole in my mouth and there was blood all over my finger. And that's how I lost my tooth!"

So, quite the exciting Sabbath Day for Danny! Happily for him, the Tooth Fairy remembered her duties and left him a dollar (she is notorious - at our house, anyway - for being flaky and forgetting to stop by).

What We're Up To

A brief update on our comings and goings:

Jacob...
...is happily playing outside with Alyssa and Danny all day, every day. Their favorite thing to do is to get their swimming suits on and turn on the sprinklers (sprinkler under the trampoline is a favorite at our house.) Jacob is probably our biggest raspberry fan as well, and since we have our best crop of raspberries ever this summer, he can often be found out back picking and eating handfuls of them.

Danny...
...started off the summer with a week at Nana Jo and Papa Jim's house, while I was at Girls' Camp with Amber and Haley. He enjoyed spending time with them and then got a little homesick near the end of the week, as he has never been away from home alone before. He loved flying home on the plane, though (with Nana accompanying him.) In other Danny news, he has an increased chore list this summer and is loving it! With Amber and Haley working so much we have given a few of their chores to younger siblings for the summer. Danny's still at that age where chores are fun, so we're milking it for all it's worth!

Alyssa...
...also inherited extra chores from Amber and Haley, but is less enthusiastic about it. She did enjoy, however, getting to spend a week-full of days playing at her friend's house with Jacob while I was at Girls' Camp. Next week she goes to Nana Jo and Papa Jim's house for her one-on-one time with them (they try to have each grandchild who is past kindergarten age come visit on their own for a few days each summer.) She is really looking forward to it and is positive they have big things planned for her (no pressure, Nana and Papa!)

Haley...
...has had a summer so far that's consisted of picking strawberries, attending Girls' Camp and now picking strawberries again. She gets home from work by 1PM each day and hurries to shower and run out into the neighborhood to play with friends. She loved Girls' Camp (her first year) and is anxiously awaiting the end of the strawberry season!

Amber...
...Amber's summer has closely mimicked Haley's. She loved Girls' Camp and is now back to picking berries in the morning and processing them in the afternoon. She has gotten the Top-Strawberry-Picker-Of The-Day award twice now. Learning to work hard and getting to experience the satisfaction that comes with a job well done has been great for her. Up next for Amber: EFY in Provo!

Brad...
...is staying oh-so-busy with his work schedule and church responsibilities. He continues to make us feel that we are his #1 priority, however, and we love him for it. He coached Alyssa's softball team again this year and assistant coached Haley's. Their seasons came to an end in June and I could almost hear the sigh of relief as his schedule went back to normal. He did a great job Mr. Momming things while I was away with Amber and Haley, and now he is up in Canada for a cousin's wedding.

Amy...
...has been busy with the usual, mostly. I had fun at Girls' Camp but am always so glad to get home. It's hard to farm kids out for that long and not be able to communicate with them to make sure everything is going well. I was happy to be able to be there with my girls, though - especially considering it was Haley's first year. Think I'll take a hiatus now until Alyssa turns 12 and goes for the first time :) We have raspberries and cherries coming out of our ears right now, so I've been busily freezing (and pitting) them. I love being able to hear the kids playing outside while I am working in the kitchen. So fun to have them home for the summer!

Klickers

Amber and Haley have a real job this summer...well, the first month of the summer, anyway. And, get this, it involves serious manual labor AND evidence that they both posses a work ethic! We couldn't be prouder!

Klickers is a great, family-run strawberry farm here in Walla Walla. They've been around for 90 years and for over 80 of those years they've been employing Walla Walla youth as their harvesters and processors. It's an awesome, G-rated environment where kids can learn to work hard and earn money. Yesterday was Amber and Haley's first day. They had to be there at 6:45 AM, which, in the summer, is a feat in and of itself! They will work 5 days a week, spend their day picking strawberries and come home in the early afternoon covered head to toe in red juice. They were SO tired last night that they both voluntarily went to bed at 8:30!

The funniest part of yesterday (and taking one look at their dishevelled, strawberry-stained selves was pretty darn funny) was that Amber won an award for being their top first-year strawberry picker! Don't get me wrong, Amber is a great kid and we love her to death, but she is not necessarily renowned within our household for her natural work ethic. Brad and I were a little bit surprised to find out that she is a work horse in the strawberry fields! Looks like she's been holding out on us! She even got asked to stay into the afternoon and learn how to process the berries on an assembly line (which is way more lucrative than picking.)

So, summer's off to a good start! An exhausting, hot, sticky, start, full of great life lessons!

Middle School Graduation

Last night Amber graduated from middle school. I don't know how that goes in other areas, but it is a pretty big deal around here. It's held at Cordiner Hall on Whitman College campus. The kids walk, receive diplomas and everything.

She had a great time. She looked gorgeous (see pic below) and enjoyed being with her friends and celebrating their accomplishment. She has really enjoyed middle school, which leads me to believe that she will probably be able to enjoy anything in life!

Amber also received a Super Scientist Award (for "Attitude, Aptitude and Hard Work"), presented to her with her diploma, which was a fun surprise. I have to admit I got a little teary eyed when they got to the N's and I saw her standing anxiously on the stage waiting for her name to be called. My emotions were partly the result of how quickly she is growing up and partly that I am just so proud of the person she is. Jacob, on the other hand, was teary eyed when the 5th speaker took the microphone (thankfully each speech was only about 2 minutes long!) Near the end of the ceremony he started asking us, "Is it over yet?" every 30 seconds.

We are proud of Amber and know she will do great things in high school and beyond!

Kindergarten Celebration

Here comes the barrage of last-week-of-school posts!

Today was Danny's Kindergarten Celebration, which was pretty much like a little graduation. The kids performed a few songs for all the parents/families. Then, one by one, they were given a little diploma-ish paper and took the microphone to share one thing they learned in Kindergarten this year. It was pretty cute. Loved seeing all the different personalities! The thing Danny chose to share was that he learned to be a good friend in Kindergarten this year. And it's true - he has learned that well. Things learned this year that he didn't mention include reading, writing and math (he loves math!)

Danny has had a great year in school. We cannot believe the growth and maturity we've seen. Maybe it seems so dramatic to me because he has been our "active" and occasionally high maintenance child :) But he is truly growing up - still with that Danny spunk that we love so, but definitely ready for 1st grade now.

Letting the crowd know one thing he learned this year.

Receiving his diploma.

Danny and his teacher, Mrs. Takemura, who is retiring (she SWEARS it has nothing to do with Danny!) We are so sad Jacob won't get to have her for Kindergarten - she's fantastic!

'The Warriors' - Tournament Champs!

Haley's softball team finished up their end-of-season 4-day tournament last night - victorious, as you can see by the picture above! They had games Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night and two games on Saturday. They played their tails off and won every single game, the final in a huge rain storm!

It was such a great softball season for Haley! Coming off of knee surgery, she was really not sure what to expect of herself this year. It wasn't until just before the season started that she was even given the green light by her doctor to go ahead and play. To say the least, we all thought she might have a struggle ahead of her and she was feeling pretty nervous and insecure. She was lucky enough to play for a fantastic coach, who truly built her up, and two equally great assistant coaches (one being her Daddy). She worked hard, gave it her best and ended up being a real asset to the team. In the tournament alone she scored several runs, caught a pop fly, covered first for a crucial out and even conquered one of her greatest post-surgery softball fears by sliding home (successfully!) twice! We are really proud of Haley for having the courage to give it a go this season and for having the tenacity to stick with it until she began to see the results she wanted.







CONGRATULATIONS, HALEY!

Cute Kid Comment

Lyssie has said a couple of things in the last week that have made me laugh out loud! She has such a vocabulary for an 8-year-old. Those who know her well and have heard her in action will find these "Lyssie-isms" funny :)

The other day I forgot it was "early release" from school and that the elementary school kids were getting home an hour early (feel free to nominate me as Mother of the Year!) I pulled into our neighborhood just as the school bus was leaving and realized that Alyssa and Danny had probably been dropped off at least 5 minutes before that (the bus's first stop.) They were waiting by the front door, relieved to see me and came running to tell me all about their efforts to get inside the locked house after the bus had dropped them off. They had tried every window and door they could reach, all while our dog, Mabel, barked at them from inside, anxious to have them come in. When they ran around back to try the sliding glass door and found the stick securely in place (I'm paranoid - always have been) Mabel was barking through the glass at them. Wishing Mabel could somehow help get the stick out of the door Alyssa said, "Dang! I wish Mabel had opposable thumbs!"

Over the weekend, while we were fishing, Alyssa saw a creepy-crawly on my shirt and with alarm said, "Mom! There's a spider on you!" I'm not much for spiders and jumped up quick and yelled, "A spider?!" Then Lyssie shrugged and said, "Well, some sort of arachnid."

Jacob's Birthday!

Today is Jacob's 4th birthday! We had just barely wrapped our brains around the fact that he's no longer a baby and all of a sudden he's no longer a toddler!

Since we were all home from school/work for Memorial Day, Brad thought he'd take the boys fishing again early this morning as a fun birthday treat for Jacob. As they were getting ready to go, Jacob said that he'd rather wrestle with his Dad and brother on the trampoline than go fishing :) I thought that was cute...and it saved Brad the drive out to the kids' fishing pond!


After lunch we let Jacob open up one of his presents so he and the kids could play with it (a little sprinkler toy for the back yard). They had a lot of fun - the weather was great for it!


Jacob requested a Spiderman cake this year so while the kids were out playing I got busy with that. When I asked him what flavor of cake he wanted, he said, "Sugar flavor". One sugar-flavored Spiderman cake, coming up!


Just before dinner Brad called me into the living room and this is what I found...


Apparently, that sprinkler toy was more exhausting than it looked! He eventually came to and ate his birthday dinner (BBQ) with the family. After dinner he opened up the rest of his presents.



And then he finally got to eat his cake!


4th Birthday, so here are four (of the many!) things we love about Jacob:

- He's easy to please and mild mannered

- He's kind-hearted

- He's developing such a cute sense of humor

- He loves his family

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAKEY! WE LOVE YOU!

Dayton Days!

There's this cute little town about 40 minutes NE of us called Dayton. We try to take the kids to their annual town celebration when we can because it's always a pretty fun time. This year the weather was perfect and with no napping babies (or even kids in diapers - can you believe it?!) we stayed until early evening and had a blast! We watched the parade in the morning and the kids loaded up on candy (only running in front of moving vehicles to snatch it up once or twice!) Next we had a yummy picnic at our favorite park in Dayton. We played softball, football, the kids played on the toys and climbed trees and we all soaked up the sun.



Brad had heard of a kids' fishing pond near the park so we went there next and the kids caught NINE fish (that pond was well stocked!)


The girls were conflicted about the killing of the fish...

...the boys were not.


We came home and had a yummy fish fry for dinner! But not before crashing in the car for the 45 minute drive home (LONG day!) Poor Jacob even fell asleep mid-lollipop!