Christmas smiles!

Sorry this took longer than I would have liked to get up on here. But as you probably can figure, we have been a little busy with children. Anyway, we had an absolutely wonderful time this Christmas. Porter had so much fun with the presents, but was really only interested with one at a time. So our Christmas lasted pretty much all day. Which made it even more fun. Here is Porter Christmas morning when we all came downstairs. He was so excited when he saw that he got a Wii for Christmas he didn't know what to do with himself. He wanted to keep his cup but wanted to play with it, so you see his confusion with it all. But he played with it for a couple of hours before he wanted to really do anything else.

As you see from the video, his Wii is a slide. That is what he calls them because you say "Weee" when you go down them. But he gets a kick out of it and is already experimenting with the different ways that you can go down it, or up it for that matter. Eric also got a Wii. His was not a slide.

They are pajamas that say Wii on them.

Christmas eve was fun for me. We read Luke 2, about the birth of our Savior, and sang some Christmas carols. Then we got to open one present. (A tradition from my childhood) Pajamas. And this year I made them. They aren't perfect by any means, but they are fun for me.

Well, Adie had her first Christmas this year and it was so much fun for me. She, of course, didn't care much for what was going on, and she didn't wake up until about 9am to open her presents. But here are some cute pictures of her Christmas morning.



I have also finally caught her smiles on tape. Two of them actually. Eric got some earlier but they were on his phone and we don't have the stuff to transfer those pictures on to our computer. Anyway, the first was just a little smile. The second is her big smile that makes her look a little Chinese. Isn't she adorable!

Brace Yourself...

So I have decided that this weather thing lies. But the temperature is generally pretty accurate. So if you are wondering how cold it is it is a good reference. But the whole sunshine thing just isn't true.


Anyway, we celebrated Adelaide's 1 month birthday on Monday. We can't believe how fast time has gone. She is getting too big too fast. She holds her head up wonderfully, smiles all the time at her mama, and is gaining weight so fast the doctor is even suprised. At her last doctors appointment she was almost 10 lbs. and has grown about 2 inches. Crazy!



We also put up all of the Christmas decorations and got our Christmas tree. Porter had a fun time decorating it with us. We realized exactly how few ornaments we have so we strung some popcorn and made some ornaments out of jolly ranchers and starlights. Porter has been caught trying to eat both. You would think that we starved the boy. (although at his last dr. apt. the dr. just said "you have a big boy". He is over 30 lbs and is over 3 feet tall.) He has been walking around for the last couple days saying "ho ho ho". It is pretty funny. He also likes to wear Adelaide's bows, and dad even helps him put them on.





We have also had crazy weather the last couple of days. For those who think that Buffalo doesn't get bad weather...here is a news flash for you. We have been on winter storm advisory for the last 3-4 days. On Wednesday we got about 4 inches of snow overnight. I had to go to the doctor in the morning and people were off the road all over the place. Friday we had a storm and got somewhere around 8 inches all during daylight hours. Saturday was sunny but the warmest it got was about 15 degrees. Today (Sunday), we had another storm that has dropped somewhere around a foot or so. Luckily we have wonderful neighbors that have snowblowers and plow our driveway and walkways for us. And needless to say, we are going to have a white, frigid, Christmas. We are so looking forward to it this year with Porter. He is so excited to open presents now. It will be fun.




These pictures were just after the 8 inches dropped. The wind was also blowing, hence why there is little to no snow on our roof. So imagine like another foot on top of this. We cannot see out of most of our windows because there is snow plastered to them. We cannot get out of our back door and half the time our side door either because of all the snow. Even our porch is filling up. There is no difference between our front lawn and our front porch. Just to give you an idea of what it is like here. Other than our winter wonderland it is a lot of fun.

What have you done?

So I saw this on my cousins blog (Thanks Lauren, Brooke, and Riley) and thought it was a fun idea. So what you do is copy this and highlight all of the ones that you have done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a Praying Mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in movie
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Talked your way out of a ticket

This really makes me feel accomplished in life. But now I want to go do some of the other things on this list.

Baby Shower

So I have some really cute friends that decided to throw Adie and me a baby shower. Thanks girls! Here are some pictures from that day. Everyone was so generous and now Adie has a wonderful wardrobe and a whole bunch of cute headbands and a fun stuffed elephant that Porter wants to claim as his own. And thanks Stephanie for posting it on your blog so I could steal the pictures.

Some of her loot

Adie with all her loot

PINK!

I am so excited for all of the pink stuff. It makes me so happy to have a little girl that I can dress up with bows, dresses, and tights. Thanks again everyone!

We also got a package from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Stevenson, Aunt Vicki, and Aunt CC. Those were the cutest clothes and I was really excited about the pink foofy dress. And thanks CC for the new blankie. It is fun to have both kids with similar blankies. Porter was excited too. He couldn't stop telling me that she got a nigh-nigh (night-night).

Porter even got some toys out of it which he loved. When the ball lit up he said "wow", and was super excited about the truck. But his favorite part was the packing peanuts. He played in them for about a half hour. He kept calling them "no" (snow) and would throw them up in the air by the armfuls.

Adie's Blessing

We were blessed enough to have both mine and Eric's parents come out for Thanksgiving and for the blessing of our sweet little girl. Here are some pictures from the special day. My mom made her blessing dress out of fabric from my baptism dress. So it was pretty special to me. Also if any family has more pictures if they could send them to either me or Eric, we were a little slow at getting the camera out.

The cutest girl in the world

I cannot tell you how excited we are to have our little girl here at last. Here are some more cute pictures of her now that her head is going back to normal. Here is her with her eyes open and alert. She loves to look around in the evenings and try to figure things out.

Proud Big brother

Porter is just in love with his little sister. He showers her in kisses and hugs all day and shares all of his toys. He even offered her his milk one time when she was crying. Now he wants her to kiss his owies better (he does this by putting his owie to her mouth and making kissing noises)

Adelaide with her first teddy

She's Here, Adelaide

Here is our beautiful new baby girl, Adelaide Mae Nielsen. Born Saturday November 15, 2008 at 6:30 am. She weighed 8 lbs 10 oz and was 20.5 inches long.

Halloween

Porter didn't really know what to think about Halloween this year. He just looked at everyone funny because they looked so different. But he was more than happy to take their candy off of their hands. We had three parties to go to this year and it was so much fun. First was the ward party. Porter only wanted to play with the bean bags and tried to hord all of them.

Next we went trick or treating at the mall. It was so much fun and I didn't have to worry because I knew it was safe. But the only thing that Porter would say to people is "bye". So obviously he was not so keen on being there as I was. Maybe because I got to get out of the house and go hang out with friends and their kids.

We also carved a pumpkin and Porter wanted nothing to do with touching the inside of it. It was so funny. He really is a texture child. But when the candle was in he was more than interested in playing with it.

Then two fun things about Porter. He is learning how to dress/undress himself. He knows where all the different articles go but it is much more fun to take them off and he does it in his own way.

Then this is how much Porter likes his books. He spreads them all over the floor, reads them one by one and then puts them back. Really putting them back means giving them to me to stack wherever I am. But I thought this was so funny.

October Observations

Fall is here and we love living in a place that turns such vibrant colors. This is a bush in our backyard. It was yellow for a very short period of time and now it just looks like it is on fire. Unfortunately we had a big storm come through and blew most of the leaves off now. But we can tell that winter is just around the corner as it snowed the other day and gets really cold at night.

With October comes Halloween. The fun part is having kids this time of year. So we went out to a pumpkin farm that is somewhat close to us. It was fun for us and Porter thought he was in heaven. He wanted to climb on everything. We thought this pyramid was pretty impressive.

Porter picked out a pumpkin and even though it was kind of small he still couldn't lift it. So we also got some really little pumpkins that he could carry around.

This was fun. Porter wanted take it home and use it as a slide. These are huge! I wonder how they get them this big.

So my school does research and pay money to the participants, which usually end up being students. Well I volunteered and had a bad experience because... I lost a central incisor and the other started bending to fill up the gap. Needless to say the researchers will fix them after their experiment is complete.

So what really happened....Eric came in to wake me up one morning asking me to look at his teeth because they hurt. I was so confused in my morning delirium by his request in the first place wondering why he would ask me and not one of his dental school buddies. So when I first saw him I could do nothing but laugh. I guess his whole dental class made these for Halloween and everyones looked totally different. The funniest part is that I had just asked him a couple days before if he had made any because I saw someone elses and he told me "no". What a fibber. But I have to say that it was the most hilarious suprise. Eric just doesn't understand why I won't kiss him with them in...go figure.

Also the baby has finally dropped so the day is coming soon. Everyone around here gives me two weeks. We just hope that it is after Eric's big gross anatomy test that is Nov.7th.

Four, Four, Four

I get to thank Sarah for this one.


A) Four places that I go to over and over: grocery store, gas station, church, dr. office

B) Four people who e-mail me (regularly): Natalie, The dental wives, Mom, Danielle

C) Four of my favorite places to eat: IN-N-OUT, Famous Daves, Duff's, Olive Garden

D) Four places I would rather be right now: In bed, California, Europe, the Caribbean

E) Four people I think will respond: I have no idea, anyone that wants to try to get their brain to work and think of these things.

F) Four TV shows I watch: I don't watch tv so I will list the movies I watch: Ratatouille, Veggie Tales (any of them), Stewart Little, Stardust


I tag Natalie Gardner, Michelle Zwahlen, Angela Starks, Stephanie Evans and Amber Sessions

FHE activity

We had a lot of fun after listening to a talk by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. Porter even was able to join in the fun. We laughed so hard that both Eric and I were crying and I almost wet myself. I think we burned off all of the calories from dinner and dessert so we had a wonderful negative calorie night. I will update more later, but I just had to put these pictures on because they were so funny. Hope you enjoy seeing them as much as we enjoyed taking them.

Flushed Away...almost

Oh, how I wish I had a picture of this, but you will just have to enjoy the story and imagine what it looked like in your head. So get ready to turn on your vivid imagination.

Porter usually follows me around wherever I go in the house. So when I walked up the stairs today to go brush my teeth I was pretty sure that he was going to follow me. He didn't but I didn't worry about it too much. After I finished brushing my teeth I heard him crying and I went to the stairs to call him but heard the water running. I thought "oh great, he has turned on the hot water and is burning himself." So I rushed downstairs to see what was happening. I started laughing as soon as I saw him. He had climbed up onto the counter and into the sink in the bathroom because he wanted to get to his toothbrush. So he was squatting in the sink and accidentally bumped the cold water on high and had also stepped on the drain plug and closed it. So there he was, "stuck" in the sink that was spilling cold water on his lap and the sink filling up covering him up to mid calf and not knowing what to do about it. He calmed down a little when he saw I was laughing and not mad. But I wish that I had a picture of his face when I first saw him.

TMI, so we thought we'd share

Well, it feels as though we have had a very busy week. Lets recap. Porter got his first black eye this week. He was trying to climb on the counter without mom or dad watching and his hand slipped and he wacked his cheekbone on the edge of the counter. At first I didn't think much of it until I saw this huge bruise form that night on his cheekbone and now of course it has spread to his eye. It makes him look pretty tough. You can't really see it all that well in the picture, now of course you can but he won't sit still long enough to take a picture.

It was a long time in the coming but we finally had our first ultrasound this week. It was fun to see the baby. I don't know how much you can see on these pictures but one is of a foot and one is of the face see if you can tell them apart. (haha) The baby is healthy but BIG. It measured at 2 weeks bigger than my dates suggest. So they are going to be watching the size of the baby throughout the rest of the pregnancy, I'm guessing to see if they need to induce me or not. But we are pretty confident that it will be early just like Porter was. And probably as big or bigger. Crazy!





We were called as assistant nursery leaders in our ward which makes Porter think that he can get away with anything in there. It is a lot of fun. We have 8-10 kids right now and expecting 23 more in the next year. AAHHH!! But they did just come out with a new manual for nursery and it is wonderful. Our kids are great, it will just be interesting for a while when the new baby comes.


Porter learned a new dance and I wanted to show everyone. This was the funniest thing. He ran around our basement saying "na na na na" for forever it seemed. Eric and I could not stop laughing.



Also, we finally finished our dining room and all we have left to do is paint the chairs. But that is going to be done slowly but surely, so I don't have a picture of the table in there. But here is the finished product before decorating.

Before

After