Hand-made Tag

you can thank my Sis in law Natalie for this....

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2. What I create will be just for you.

3. It'll be done this year. {it might be a little while}

4. You have no clue what it's going to be. I don't even have a clue what
it's going to be.

5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a homemade gift! It may not be great, but it will be fun!!* * *Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!**

Well it's been a few weeks since I last updated. Probably because I've been too preoccupied to get on and update.

Bekah got baptized on Saturday the 31st. It went really well. She was the only one in our ward getting baptized so we had to take care of the whole program. We asked her who she wanted to speak and it was Grandma and Mom. So Grandma Nilson and I had the honors. Bekah had a great day, she was very excited to wear a dress handed down in the Nilson family to be baptized in and a new dress afterward.

By the way, I have a very funny story about her right after she got baptized, but I don't dare put it in writing, so if you want to know you'll have to ask me sometime. ( sorry about the teaser)

(Mom has the camera out, we need a picture too!!)

In January, we also took some time and went out to get some professional pictures taken, I'll post those in a slide show for your viewing enjoyment.

I thought they turned out nice. We had to get pictures in before I started the next adventure in my life... braces! Yeah, you heard me right. Thursday I went in and got braces on. I am hoping this will help with my bite and jaw problems, and hoping to even out my teeth a little. So far, all I can think is, "What have I done to myself?!" This is going to be a long 16-21 mo months

Bekah turns 8

Happy birthday to Bekah today!
We celebrated her birthday with her friends on Friday. She invited some friends over and played games and had cake. She had a great time. Today we celebrated with grandparents over dinner.


Here's a look at Bekah through the years

Blessing Day

16 mo

2 yrs

Bekah and her blanket that she was VERY attached to.She would rub the corners of it with her thumb or rub it on her cheek. After it wore out we had to make a new one similar to it, she called the second one her "quack" blanket ( it had ducks on it)

3 yrs

4yr birthday



5th birthday


Bekah first lost tooth

1st day of kindergarten

6th birthday

7th birthday

2nd grade:

I can't believe that she is 8 already, she'll be getting baptized on Jan 31st.

Christmas fun

So instead of being negative and making a list of things that drive me nuts about the holidays, I'm making an effort to be positive... here we go

Now for the top 10 things Mom likes about the Christmas Hoidays:


10- mmm, yummy Sticky buns!

9- staying in my sweats all morning long because I want to and not because I got too busy to remember to get dressed.

8- finally being done with making wash cloths and other craft items for Christmas

7- Motivating kids with "no presents for you unless you get the chores done"

6- almost a whole 2 weeks of not having to take the kids ANYWHERE unless we want to or are going to a party

5- new toys=no bored kids (for at least a day anyway)

4- a "no guilt" eating binge for a week... I'll hate myself later for it :)

3- knowing I wont have to listen to another Christmas song until next year!!

2-spending time playing games and doing puzzles with the kids

1- taking the time to remember Jesus' birth and giving to others



Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Piano recitals, parties and more, Oh My!

It has been a busy couple of weeks around here, as I'm sure it is for most everyone at this time of year. Last Friday night we had the ward party and then Saturday, Emma's Christmas recital. This last week, Bekah's class had a Christmas open house and Emma did a presentation of her favorite tradition that I needed to help with. Saturday night was a family party ( the first of TOO many) the girls all got to see Santa and get a present from him. Leah just loved Santa and was way excited to climb in his lap and hug him. She called him "My Santa".

As for me, I must say that my stress levels have been a little off the charts lately. The kids are outnumbering me by many and I'm having a hard time keeping up. All of the kids are so inquisitive and have questions, need help with projects, or homework, or they need to be places. I often hear the complaint "Mom! I don't have any clean pants!" at 8:15 in the morning, before school. Someday I hope to be caught up with the laundry. I also often wake in the night with a numb arm only to discover that Leah has climbed into bed with me and fallen back to sleep on my arm, or that I got up to feed Joey and didn't get him back to bed and my neck will hurt from the weird position that I was sleeping in trying to feed him. Someday I hope to get caught up on sleep.

Bekah started meeting with a tutor the last couple of weeks too. She is doing awesome, but it requires me to go to Layon twice a week and sit with kids in the car for 30 min while she has her lesson. It has been quite interesting. There isn't enough time to drop her off head home and then turn around to head back to pick her up, and I don't really feel comfortable leaving Emma in charge yet with me being gone that long. Luckily there is a park near her house for the kids to play. Poor Joey though, spends a lot of time in a carseat.

I just have to keep reminding myself that someday I will miss all of this excitement. Already Joey is growing so much. Thanks Natalie for saying it so clearly in one of her last blog posts .. "YES I do have my hands full- but my hands are full of darling little angels that make me smile and bring a special joy to my life that I never would have had if my hands were "empty." "

Anyway here's some pictures for the viewing enjoyment:

Bekah's class open house.



Joey in his Sunday Christmas outfit (Sorry I didn't get picture of the girls in their dresses yet)

Fun with Santa:

Sarah wouldn't get too close.... sigh

Emma's recital--I only got to see one of the songs, Leah was misbehaving. She was trying to grab the camera while I was filming her play too... which is why the video is so jumpy. I had to leave and take her home.

Video will be coming soon ( I need to format it to make it smaller)

Merry Christmas everyone.

Playdough Party!

No, we don't have fun at all while the older girls are at school....

Cute as a .... Pancake?

So it has become quite the thing lately to be holding Joey and be surrounded by little girls cooing over him. I can't seem to keep them away from him. Of course it's because he has become aware of them and will crack a grin quite easily at them and even giggle.

The other day as all this was happening, Sarah said "Oh Joey! You're so cute! Like a Pancake!"

I think she was getting confused with pie..you know "cutie-pie". But I thought pancake was funny so we went with it.

Here's our little pancake!

Anyway, so sorry we havent updated much lately. We've just been stuck in the routine of school and there really hasn't been anything extra exciting happening. The kids are doing well in school. Emma is excelling in her class and I'm looking for extra things to challenge her with to keep her entertained, she even has started to learn to crochet, she's been watching me make washrags for Christmas gifts so I gave her some yarn and taught her a little and she sat right to work making a wash cloth herself:

Not bad for her first go at it. I dutifully used it in the kitchen the next day :)

Bekah has been making great strides in school as well. she has been so far behind in reading it is taking some catching up. I believe she is catching on though. I just hope the class doesn't move on too fast without her. We're working on it every day.

Sarah is quickly learning lots as well, she knows all her letters now and can recognize a few "sight words" now, such as "I see a cat". Her biggest struggle is playing a little too loudly during class time.

Leah has been my little shadow now, she will follow me everywhere and wants to do everything with me. The only thing she won't do is pee in the potty! So we're putting that on hold for a few more weeks. She's also discovered that it's really funny to put her finger in Joey's mouth. She's gagged him a few times. I just can't get her to leave him alone.... she is quite the boss. She loves music class, and in fact gave me quite the fat lip last week in class while we were singing "bounce a long" she smacked the back of her head into my face on accident, Ouch!

As for Zack and I we are just doing the usual, I've got all my christmas shopping done, (minus a couple things that have to wait for next months budget) and Zack is working hard paying for it all. The house is a mess, there's marker on the toilet, socks in the toy box, toys in the pantry, and food in the dressers, but we're having fun.

Have a good Thanksgiving week everyone, We are thankful for so much and lucky to have all that we have. It's great to have this time of year to reflect on those blessings. There are many that have lost and are struggling right now and our hearts and thoughts are with them.