Happy Birthday, Scott!

We want to wish my brother, Scott, a happy 37th birthday today! We love our Uncle Scotty very much - and not just because he gives us really cool gifts (our dog, Mabel, and the Wii being the two stand-outs), but because he is kind and funny and loving. Scott also happens to hold the record for length-of-visit at our house - he was brave enough to stay with us for five whole days a couple of summers ago!

We love you, Scotty!

Summer Begins!

Thursday was our last day of school. I thought I'd post the first-day-of-school picture to compare with the last-day-of-school picture. It's always fun to see how they've grown.














Amber's gotten a lot taller, that's for sure. Alyssa has front teeth in the 'last day' picture. And, ever the accessory-lover, Haley has traded in her purse for crutches. She also looks extremely grouchy in the 'last day' picture, but really she is sad about leaving elementary school. They had a big slide show for the 5th graders and had all the kids crying and feeling nostalgic.

We have a little park in the center of our neighborhood and on the last day of school each year the neighborhood association throws a big bbq for all the families. The highlights of this annual event are the bounce houses and the cotton candy machine. This year there were kids lining up at the cotton candy machine before it was even producing. Danny kept going back and back. Like any good mom I photographed him eating his 1st, 2nd and 3rd cotton candies instead of reprimanding him. It's summer, okay?! The kids ran around crazy (except Haley who crutched around crazy) and had an absolute blast.

And speaking of absolute blasts...after the bbq, our Idaho Cousins arrived! They are visiting through Monday, which will be a lot of fun. We actually have quite a bit of family in Walla Walla this week. Our niece, Staci, is here with her son. Brad's parents, Barb and Brent, are here and our niece Robyn and her husband will be arriving tonight. They are all staying at the Humphreys, but the Idaho Cousins (Brad's sister, Lori, and her family) are here with us! Our kids are in heaven. And just to help you appreciate what's going on at the Nielson's this weekend we have 10 kids, 4 adults, 2 cats and an 80 pound dog stuffed into our 2100 sq ft house! PARTY! Actually, we are spending a good deal of each day at the Humphrey's house (Brad's sister) swimming in their pool (right now, for instance, they are all over there swimming while our 3 youngest are home napping and I am blogging/waiting for them to wake up). This weekend promises to be a very fun kick-off to a very fun summer!

Last week of school!

With the last day of school quickly approaching, this past week has just flown by! We've been busy every day with end-of-the-year concerts, assemblies, softball games, field trips, programs...you name it! And we're not quite out of the woods yet. Tomorrow is Haley's end-of-the-year field trip, followed Tuesday by the end-of-the-year water balloon fight with the teachers, followed Wednesday by the end-of-the-year basketball game against the teachers. The kids are having a blast, but I have to wonder why we send them to school at all in June!

The Weekend They've Been Waiting For!

For Haley's birthday this year Nana Jo and Papa Jim gave her tickets to High School Musical On Tour for the weekend it came to Portland. Well, this was the weekend and let me tell you, it was a performance chock full of cheesy tween goodness! Our kids loved it...and so did the gazillion other kids in attendance!

Nana and Papa bought six tickets - four for the oldest Nielson kids (Jacob is too little to go) and two for the lucky grown ups who got to accompany them. Brad and I were secretly hoping not to be those two lucky grown ups, but Nana and Papa were "gracious" enough to insist we take the two adult tickets to the performance while they stayed home to babysit Jacob. I must admit, we ended up being pleasantly surprised. It was a cute performance and a really fun afternoon! There was no photography allowed (I know that's a huge disappointment to all you closet High School Musical fans who were itching to see pictures) but here is one of the kids at the cool fountain across the street from Keller Auditorium.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a fun and busy weekend! Friday night my parents came to stay with the kids and Brad and I went to a really nice bed and breakfast with some friends. If any of you find yourselves in our area we highly recommend Cameo Heights Mansion It's owned and run by a couple in our ward and they do a tremendous job.

Sunday, as was mentioned in the previous post, was Jakey's birthday. So after church we had 'The Cousins' (Shelley and Jerry and their girls) over for dinner and a little family party. Jacob wanted a blue dinosaur cake so that was interesting. He also spit all over it while blowing out his candles so we grown ups stuck to the ice cream while the kids braved the blue dino spit cake. YUM!











On Monday we packed up a picnic lunch and went to a park with the kids and the dog. It was a lot of fun. The part that had Brad and I laughing was that there were two older men there with metal detectors. Every single kid at the park thought the metal detecting was the coolest thing ever. So everywhere these two guys went they had a huge group of kids following them around. They spent about 20 minutes digging at this one particular spot and then we heard Danny yelling from the crowd of watching children, "A penny! Look,they found a penny!" So that was worth their time :)


I took a few pictures 1) because we thought it was pretty funny and 2) so we could donate them to America's Most Wanted if the men involved turned out to actually be pedophiles who had concoted an elaborate "metal-detector-at-a-playground" scheme.

When we got home from the park there was a fun surprise waiting for us. Our friends gave us their sons' old bunk bed for Danny and Jacob's room and they even delivered it to our doorstep. So the rest of Brad's Memorial Day involved setting up the bunk bed in the boys room. Jacob "helped" him while the other kids and I went to see the new Narnia movie (great movie, by the way!)

The boys were as excited as we've seen them to sleep in their bunk bed last night. It was Jakey's first night in a big-boy bed so we weren't quite sure what to expect, but they did great!

Birthday Boy!

Today is Jacob's 3rd birthday! I can't believe the baby of our family is really no longer a baby.

Following the lay-out of previous birthday posts...

THE BIG DAY...
With Jacob I was induced a week prior to my due date. Even a week early Jacob weighed in at 9 pounds 9 ounces! It was a pretty easy labor/delivery, though. Brad and I felt like old pros. The nurses were amused because the other couples in the maternity ward that day were all first-time parents and apparently the stress in their rooms was palpable. Then they would come into our room and we're watching TV, laughing, etc.

JACOB'S SONG...
(read this post if you don't know what I'm referring to)
Jacob's song is "This Train Don't Stop There Anymore", by Elton John. Since Jacob is our last, we wanted a song that expressed the wrapping up of our child bearing years!

NICKNAME...
Jakey (a nickname about as original as his given name)

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT JACOB...
Jacob is seriously the easiest, mellowest, sweetest little guy. He was a totally easy baby, contented and happy to watch all the action around him (and with four older siblings, there was always plenty of action to watch!) As a toddler he has continued to be a joy and a pleasure. His tantrums are even silent - he gets a grouchy expression on his face and folds his arms in a huff!

This is my absolute favorite baby picture of Jacob. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and this particular picture perfectly illustrates Jacob's position in the family and the way his siblings have felt about him from day one. He is adored by all of us.

Jacob loves trains, dogs and Spiderman. He loves to follow his older siblings around and play whatever they are playing. He is a pretty tough little guy - something he probably picked up during his daily wrestling matches with his older brother! Jacob's favorite activities are attending his weekly playgroup with his friends Micah and Elijah, helping his Dad with yard work and jumping on the trampoline. He is quite shy and sometimes takes a while to warm up to people, but once you've won him over he's yours forever.
Happy Birthday, Jacob! We love you!

You Gotta Try This

This website cracks me up! You can put in a picture of anybody and it will scan their face and show you a collage of your celebrity "look alikes".

Two things: 1) It totally depends on which picture you use because I put in 3 different pictures of myself and got a different list of celebrities every time! 2) You may end up with a few look alikes of the opposite gender (my sister, Lisa, evidentally looks 63% like Rudolph Valentino)

Unfortunately, I don't see a resemblance to myself in any of these ladies. And for the record, I'm way nicer than Naomi Campbell - doesn't she throw things at people? I don't do that very often.