Summer 2010

Well if anyone is still checking this blog after many months without updates...here is a quick rundown of the summer (in reverse chronological order since that's how the photos come in):

AUGUST 2010

Miss Emily started first grade! She really likes her teacher and her best friend Savannah is even in her class (when we found out I think I was more excited that she was!!). This is her and her friend Brinley on the first day of school.
The week before school started my sister, Jill and her kids came for a visit and we went to Sequoia National Park for the day. We saw some amazingly beautiful scenery and the largest trees in the world. Here are the five cousins...it was close to impossible to get a good shot of all of them!

We stopped at this picnic area near a stream for lunch and the kids had a great time throwing rocks in the water. Allison would have stayed there all day. I literally had to pick her up kicking and screaming and carry her back up a steep hill to the car so we could go see the big trees.

This is one of the really big sequoia trees, one of the few really big ones you could actually walk up to and take a photo.

The General Sherman tree: the largest living thing on earth (my sister Jill and nephew Chad standing in front). It is not the tallest or biggest around, but it is the largest by volume. Very impressive sight to see.

Lukas turned ONE!! He is my sweet little boy and I love him so much! He has the brightest blue eyes and the whitest head of hair and the chubbiest thighs ever. He is so darned cute and happy, I couldn't ask for a better baby!

He liked opening his presents from all his grandmas...with some help from his sisters, of course.

The birthday cake, not so much. He liked it well enough when Emily was holding it, but then when we tried to get him to eat it he started crying. Poor baby. I guess he doesn't like chocolate (yet).

The first week of August Kevin and I were fortunate enough to take a four-day trip to Boston, courtesy of AT&T. This is us at the recognition dinner the last night - at the top of a skyscraper overlooking the harbor and the customs tower in the background.

Besides walking the Freedom Trail and seeing many historical sights, plus delicious dinners and breakfasts in our 5-star hotel every day, we got to go to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park. It was really fun and neat to see the old stadium. And of course we have to give a big thanks to my mom for staying with the kids while we were gone. Thanks Mom!!

JULY

July was mostly HOT. But we had some fun times. One of the best was the weekend trip to Mariposa where we stayed in a house on a ranch with our good friends the Diquattros and Myers. The kids had a great time "swimming" in the hot tub (filled with nice cool water out of the hose) and riding 4-wheelers. Good times, good friends!

Here's our random family portrait from my cell phone. Except for Lukas. He was already in bed.
Marine World (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom). We decided to get season passes to Marine World and went three times over the summer. The kids LOVE seeing the animals and riding the carousel. The first time we went, we were there from 12 pm to 7 pm and Allison never took a nap nor whined/got cranky the entire time. It was amazing. And she still wakes up almost every day and asks if we can go see the dolphins and killer whales and tigers and walruses and...

One time Emily decided she wanted to sit in the splash zone for the dolphin show. We warned her that she would get wet, but she went up there anyway. Well she got very wet, and she wasn't too happy about it! I don't think she'll be sitting in any splash zones any time in the near future.

My Mom got a season pass to go with us, too. It has been great every time to have someone to help with the kids and keep me company while the kids are on the rides! Love you, Mom!

JUNE

The end of June was our 8-year anniversary. We celebrated by spending the night in San Francisco. It was fun, but I decided it's not much of a place for vacation. Too many weirdos and it's a very dirty city. Definitely go if you've never been there, but this time it was kind of blah for me. Although we did have some nice alone time without the kids, and we had fun watching one of the World Cup games at this little Italian restaurant. Happy 8 years, honey!

Emily turned SIX. Here is my beautiful girl with her birthday cake - she picked out the sprinkles and helped decorate it herself. She had a fun party with her friends and got to take donut holes to school to celebrate.

The day after her birthday, Emily graduated from kindergarten. They had a cute program and sang some songs, then got a certificate from their teachers. Emily said she was really going to miss her teacher over the summer, she liked her so much.

Lukas started crawling...he started off with the army crawl for quite a while then finally got up on all fours. He is still crawling (and very fast, might I add) and we are now hoping he will walk anyday now and get his hands and knees and feet up off the dirty ground! And I think this is one of the last photos of his cute little baby gums before the teeth finally poked through (at almost nine months!). He is just sooo cute and sweet.

Monterey

We took a trip to Monterey the last week of April so we could use our Aquarium passes one last time before they expired. It was neat to see the new flamingo and sea turtle exhibit - I don't think I've ever seen live sea turtles before. They were so cool! After the aquarium we went through the 17-mile drive. It was a gorgeous day and the ocean was so beautiful and blue! The Lone Cypress...

2010 - Have you missed us?

Lukas is now 8 months old! Wow how time flies. He still is completely toothless, moves around on the floor by stretching his arms out and wiggling his body, and giggles at his sisters. Also his white hair is really starting to fill in! He is such a fun little guy.

Emily - Easter 2010. I let her wear my pearls...she felt like a pretty pretty princess! Can't you tell by the uneasy smile on her face? I had to get her to stop climbing all over the rocks long enough to snap a photo!

Allison, what can I say? I think the mischief shines through on her face! She gets into everything, but you can't help but love the little tyke. I think she dropped those chocolate eggs about 20 times and carefully put them back into her egg each time. She knows what she wants!

Don't you love the headband? We use them to hold her hair back when she's eating, and sometimes she just ends up wearing it all day like that.

Other news since Christmas...we had a great trip to Las Vegas at the end of the year for a Nelson family reunion. It was so fun to have the entire family there together. We celebrated my mom's and Allison's birthdays and got to hang out with all the cousins. The kids had a wonderful time.

I resigned from my job at the Zoo in February and have since been busy keeping up with the kids and balancing some freelance marketing jobs on the side. Now that I don't have to work 15-20 hours a week, I don't know how I ever did it while juggling everything else! I suppose there was a lot less cooking and cleaning going on. Although there's still not that much. At least my house still never seems to be clean, despite my efforts!

Allison Turns Two

Our sweet little Allison turned two on the 27th. We have inadvertently been calling her our "two-year-old" for the past several months, so it's nice that it's finally official. We got to celebrate her birthday with the entire Nelson family, which was a lot of fun. We were also celebrating my mom's 60th birthday (Dec. 24th) so it was even more special!
Some highlights of two-year-old Allison:
She is talking all the time, copying big sister Emily and everything anyone else says. Some favorites are "ablankiebinky" when she's tired, "dat's mine dat's mine dat's mine", "YES, mommy, YES!", "I wuv you Wukas", "Iwatcha show", "just call me mischief!", "happy birfday, gwamma" and myriad other words and phrases.

A favorite pastime is getting into anything she possibly can...a big change from Emily's two-year-old days. She likes to dump things on the floor, practice drawing all over herself and putting on mommy's mascara, and opening anything with hinges.

Her favorite place to go is the park, or to playgroup with our friends. She loves to run, dance, and sing into her plastic microphone and do anything else that makes noise. She also likes to eat cat food, poke her belly button, play in the bathtub and drink her favorite apple juice.

She is just too cute right now with her chubby cheeks, cheesy smile and wispy hair that falls constantly in her face. Allison, we wuv you!

Merry Christmas 2009

Sunday before Christmas the we got the kids all dressed up for church...Lukas looked so cute in his little pants and vest, and Emily and Allison were adorable in their fancy dresses.

We had a fun Christmas this year. The kids got lots of toys and clothes, and we enjoyed a delicious homemade lasagne dinner with the missionaries. Marianne was here, too. Lukas got this cute "first Christmas" hat from my mom - look at those gorgeous blue eyes! Emily got her art set that she wanted...she has been drawing, painting and coloring all week!

Allison got a little princess bike. She sat on it all day. And her feet actually reach the pedals!