Easter egg hunt

Saturday, we had a late Easter with the Nilson Family. Zack's sister was visiting from New Mexico to have their son, Levi, blessed. So we had a big get-together for the blessing, followed by an Easter Egg hunt around the house. As usual Grandma went nuts with the Eggs and treats, but the kids sure loved it!

Here's Grandma and Grandpa with all of their grand kids:

Joey stayed inside for the hunt.

Adventures in gardening

Welcome to the first entry in what I hope becomes a series of entries. Zack and I have become "inspired" lately or "motivated". I'm not sure what the right word is but basically we have decided to turn our bruised thumbs back to green and try our hand at a garden.

First, here is a history of Nilson gardening.....

The first 6 years of our marriage was spent in apartments and no outdoor area for a garden.
8 years ago we buy our first house and my kind father comes and helps us to plant some tomatoes and some pansies around the house. Dun dun dun duuuunn! they all fell victim to neglect and weeds....
4 years ago I try to plant some flowers in front of our current home, 2 months later they were all burned to death in the searing sun I planted them in.
2 years ago I get ambitious and tear out everything in our front garden and replant... then we have another child and the garden falls into disrepair yet again...
Our only success that year was a couple of giant sunflowers, planted... not by me but by my children.

So as you can see there is some desire here...little or no knowledge, not a lot of follow through... and a LOT of weeds.

In comes inspiration... first a friend of mine suggested the reading of a book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" A very eye opening read on the realities of commercial farms verses organic community agriculture and home gardens.
So I was on board to do something.... but oh! the work involved in having a garden! no way was I subjecting myself to that torture.
Next, Zack and I listen to a great talk at church (thanks Bro Johnson) about the church efforts to teach gardening to 3rd world countries. The importance of being self reliant hits home and Zack mentions how we should do a garden.... yeah I know we need to, but the WORK! no way!
Zack, being a bit more ambitious than I... (or maybe he was just having a slow day at work and browsing online) found out about a new method of gardening that promises... little work, not many weeds and abundant harvests... yeah sounds like a dream right?

Check it out... it's so simple...



We both have read the book and are on board to try this new method (the same method the church is using to teach in 3rd world countries)... we are giving it a test run this year. We are putting only one 4ft X 4ft box in. Zack has had to reign me in a little, for as soon as I read about the idea I wanted to redo the whole landscaping of the house to fit with the box idea!

So here begins the Nilson Gardening Chronicles...an experiment in gardening and gaining that green thumb... or green "foot" with Square Foot Gardens.

More WA pics

Here's some more pics from the vacation

Washington Vacation

For spring break this year we decided to take sort of a last minute trip. A combination of a tax return and easy time off of work for Zack and Spring break for the kids made up our minds for us. We called up our friends near Seattle and said we were coming back for a visit. One thing led to another and it was decided that we would spend a few days in Seattle and then a few days out on the WA coast near Oregon (Long Beach) with the Cameron Clan (see http://melandcompany.blogspot.com/)

We started Sunday Apr 5th with an early visit from the Easter Bunny, that clever bunny knew just what to bring us... sand buckets, sunglasses, umbrellas, and activities & treats for the car.

Zack had to work Sunday so we spent the morning listening to conference, eating candy, packing the car and waiting very impatiently for Dad to come home. The girls actually took chairs down the street and sat on the corner watching for Dad to get home so we could leave on the trip. We drove as far as Baker City Oregon and stayed a night there. The room at the Super 8 there was crammed with 3 queen beds. Exciting for the kids but not very conducive for 5 little wound up kids to sleep. I woke a couple times to Sarah laughing at Bekah's snores. They had an indoor swimming pool but silly me didn't pack the swimsuits into the overnight bag we used for the first night. They were buried deep in the van somewhere. That was the only chance on the whole trip they could have gone swimming too... (

Monday morning we got an early start and finished the drive to Seattle. We stopped at Snoqualamie falls and enjoyed the sights there. We had a nice steak dinner that night at a favorite restaurant and checked into the hotel in Seattle.

Tuesday we met Melanie and her kids at the aquarium in Seattle, we got some greasy burgers, fries and chocolate shakes at Dick's (Yum!) after that we went to Coulon beach park and let the kids play a bit. We washed up a the Cameron's and then went to Ben and Cathy Lim's house for a dinner get-together. They made "lympia" ( I know I spelled that wrong) for us and followed it up with a chocolate fountain which was a big hit with the kids... and me too hee hee. It was a great chance to see some friends we used to get together with all the time there.

Wednesday we spent most of the day at the Zoo and then we wandered a giant mall we used to go to all the time when we lived there. We took the kids to the Cameron's house again and then just Zack and I went out to dinner at a nice seafood restaurant in Seattle on the docks. It was fantastic.

Thursday, we loaded up and drove to Ocean park WA to the house we rented there. We stopped at the Cape Disappointment lighthouse on the way in. It's very pretty but we couldn't climb up into it because it is too old. The house was perfect for our two families and we had a fantastic time there. the house was just yards away from the beach. It was very secluded and had a fire pit that we enjoyed. Here's a slide show of all the pictures from there... I'll probably update it later with a few more from Melanie's camera too.

Friday started out looking stormy but turned clear and beautiful. The kids flew kites, played in the sand, looked for shells and eventually were jumping in the waves (brrrr!). We had a BBQ that night and roasted hot dogs for the kids, followed by smores.

Saturday, we got up and had a big breakfast followed by an Easter egg hunt outside the house. We went to the other light house on Long beach (North Head Light house) and we were able to take the older kids up to the top in that one. It was built in the 1890's. The guide there said as soon as it started to crack they would have to lock it up like the other light house.

It was a bit more stormy this day so we spent most of the time inside paying games, watching Monty Python and eating .... Melanie was a bit braver and took the kids out to the beach to play in the rain and wind at the beach.

Easter Sunday, for us, was spent in the car coming home... the whole time wishing we could have stayed. Emma said the trip could be complete finally after Sarah was sick in the car and we had to stop to clean that up. (the "token" throw up event) Anyone who has heard about the car trips with us has probably also heard about the many many throw-ups, ick!

We had a fantastic time and can't wait to do it again sometime.

Leah is 3!

For the last couple of weeks before Leah's birthday we would ask her how old she was going to be and her answer was a always a detailed (as detailed as a 3 yr old can get ) description of a flower cake with candles and "fi-ire!" that you blow. In fact anytime I would start cooking in the kitchen she thought I was going to make her flower cake and get all excited.

When the moment came and she finally got her flower cake... she really wasn't all that excited about it anymore. I guess the anticipation of it coming was more exciting than the actual thing.

For her birthday we took her to Build-a-bear and she picked out a bunny that was named "Pinky" by her older sisters. Leah was too distracted buying accessories for her bunny to come up with a name. We went to dinner at Applebees afterward. Then Sunday we celebrated with cake and ice cream at G&G Colton's house.

I just can't believe she is 3 already and so independent. She's fully potty trained now (only had 1 poop accident early on, I've never been so lucky) she even got mad when we tried to put her in a diaper for bedtime and insisted she wear underwear to bed. She also insisted she did NOT wet the bed (even though I found her wet jammies)
Her favorite things to do include playing with her sisters and going outside to play with her friends there. She also loves movies and will get mad if we turn on Nick or regular TV... it has to be a movie. I think she just likes running the DVD player, the other day I came in and the movie "The Thin Red Line" (a gory War movie that Zack likes) was starting. I guess I need to put some of the movies up out of the way.

Anyway, happy birthday Leah! We love ya!

Baby Food

So we have begun a "battle" of baby food. This little guy does NOT want to eat it. He delights in keeping his mouth closed, or spitting it out the second it hits his tongue. We discovered a little while ago that he LOVES Cheerios, He will practically try and eat your hand if he sees that you are holding a Cheerio. So I figued it out! I put a cheerio on the tip of the spoon with his baby food on it...and of course, he opened right up for it and didn't even try to spit it out.

Crazy baby...I can't help but love him :)

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!**