A Huntin' For A Tree We Go.

A little disappointing that there wasn't any snow this year.  No need for the sleds, or the winter gear.  However, there really wasn't need for hot chocolate either, which we still had of course.  It is amazing though too how much longer your willing to search for that "perfect" tree.  Also, your more likely to actually find one that is pretty decent when it's not covered in snow making it a little harder to see the bare spots. No matter, we also enjoy spending a day heading up to the hills and getting our tree.  A fun memory I hope my kids will always have.

What October brought

October seems to be the beginning of business for me.  It begins with Addy's birthday.  Then quickly we progress into Dylans birthday.  Followed with Halloween and then it seems we roll our way into the holidays.   Love my kiddos, love that even though making their birthday cakes can sometimes be a very involved process they get something fun that they want. 

She did turn 11

Emma had some friends over for her birthday, she decided that it would be a lot of fun to have the girls decorate their own cakes.  SO, I made the large cupcake cakes and the girls got to pick the fillings for the cakes and decorate however they liked.  I think they had a lot of fun and I am so glad Emma picked a simple birthday cake for me to make for her!  I can't believe that my oldest is 11 and getting so much closer to the teen years...yikes!

Summer Sport

Emma decided to try her hand at softball, she loved it, and for a first year, first timer proved she was a very capable player, I wouldn't be surprised if she plays again next summer.  The younger two kiddos played on the same tball team.  Addy was a lot more in to it then I every could have guessed she would be.  She showed her true competitive side.  Dylan became a master of the home run trot. 

I think some time has passed.

I do think that some time has passed.  I think my last post in May was a pretty long time ago really.  I still have kids, we still have a busy schedule, I still take photos of it all and I still desperatly want to keep up with this litle ole' blog of mine, even if only a handful of people take a moment to look at it.  SOMEDAY, I will print it all of into a little coffe table book too!  So back in May the kids finished school.  I was room mom for Brennon's class so we had a day of no desks in the room which meant lots of room to play games, mostly minute to win it games with prizes and food and ice cream.  The end of school also means field day!  So with 3 kids having field day, 2 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon, Dylan and I spent most of our day at school and of course since our awesome OPT hands out popsicles to the kids in the AM and PM, Dylan got 2.  Shhh, don't tell his brother and sisters.

These Days

So Just a few highlights that are going on around the Nelson home

Did you know that there is a proper way to grow an apple tree from an apple seed?

Apparently, according to what I read you take your seed, let it dry a couple of days.  Then place it in a ziplock bag with a wet paper towel and shove it in the back of your fridge and let it sit for a few days to sprout.  Unless of course you are Brennon.  Then you would finish your apple, keep your seeds in your mouth, walk out to the garage fill a pot wth some soil and spit your seeds inside.  That's it give it a few weeks and there ya go...A small, yet quickly growing apple tree.

Emma is in her second year of girl scouts and she had a cake decorating class that she took.  I think she did a fantabulous job!!  She is now a little addicted and requesting some decorating books for her birthday.  I think we have an idea of something for her to do this summer!

Fooled Ya!

So I've never been one to indulge my children when it comes to the April Fool's pranks.  BUT, since Jim's birthday fell on Monday we decided to celebrate on Sunday to avoid the chaotic Monday night activities.  Well, my children love to give gifts to the birthday person.  They started by making a list of things they could give dad, most of them included some toy or treasure that they had in their room.  Instead, we decided to prank him.  Jim was working most the day so we had lots of time hatch our small plan.  Which was really just putting together some gag gifts for dad.



Emma presented her dad a cute little poem and just when he was feeling sentimental, he opens up a roll of toilet paper.



Now, he is a little on to us.  Yet, Addy was trying to not laugh as he finds some wood chips.



Brennon being a boy thought it would be most hilarious to give dad a pair of his underwear, I had to talk him into a clean pair at least!

All the kids thought it was great to have girly pink purple gift sacks and Dylan was thrilled to try and shove his gift of dog biscuits into his dad's mouth.

Of course, I got all of them when I said that I made an extra special treat for dad's 35th birthday.  Took a second for them to realize that mom had a gag of her own!  Of course it also took a good couple of minutes before they would actually eat the brownie cat poop.  Jim never did try it and Dylan took a bite but  decided it was to much to think about!

It's a real cake and no, your 35 candles on the cake won't burn the house down, don't freak out, but it will take awhile to get them all lit and yes there will be some wax on the cake.  Oh and don't worry, we did get him a real gift, a nice Rockies travel mug and a day at the game coming up next weekend!

A Gap for my Girl

 

The spacer in Emma's mouth, or modern day torture treatment?

 

Day 1 of this torture treatment. 





31 times we have had to "crank" her mouth.  In the middle of her spacer there is a little tiny hole.  In that we have to insert a key.  Which in reality is a piece of wire that fits nice and snug, we then use that wire to rotate the hole backwards and another hole appears so we can repeat this process.  We have had to do it in the morning and at night.  What are we doing?  Well we are breaking the bone in the roof of her mouth, so that her jaw will be bigger so her teeth will have room to fit.  In a few weeks she will get braces, the spacer will stay in and act as a cast so that the bone can continue to grow and strengthen.  Why? well she was in danger of loosing her permanent teeth as 3 of her molars are growing in sideways and would start to absorb the roots of her other teeth.  She also has teeth coming in in all sorts of different directions.   Basically her mouth is just to small for her teeth.  She has a couple of baby teeth he wants her to get rid of otherwise I think next time we go in he might have to pull them since she just is really out of room.  She has a bit of a mess in there and in about 3 1/2 years she should end up with a beautiful straight row of teeth to compliment her already beautiful smile!



Brennons Birthday

 We had a second child and we named him Brennon.  This is him and his 8th Birthday.  We had a simple day, one friend, a nice lunch at the Texas Roadhouse then home for some cake and ice cream and presents.  Of course at the Texas Roadhouse we did a Texas yeehaw for the birthday boy which this photo does not show just how red his face did get!  This boy of mine is 8 years old.   8 years old.  One more time because it hasn't sunken in yet.  8 years old.  I love him, I love the way his brain works.  I love finding the strange quirky things he does.  Like light bulbs and wire in my freezer!?  Well, that's my boy.  My 8 year old boy!

To calm those fears

Dylan had an eye appointment.  Well technically him and Emma both at the same time, which turned into a 3 hour appointment.  Yeah.  Anyway, were getting ready in the morning to go.  I explain where we are going.  The conversation went something like this:

Me:  "Dylan it's an eye appointment, the Dr. just wants to look at your eyes and see how they are doing"
Dylan:  " Is he going to take my eyeball out?"
Me:  "No"
Dylan:  "But what if we get there and he wants to take my eyeball out?"
Me:  "Well, I will tell him NO! then I would take you away so he couldn't get it"
Dylan:  "But what if he has bad guy guards at the door to try and stop you?"
Me:  "Good thing you have a strong mom, I would fight the bad guy guards, knock them to the ground and     we would escape"
Dylan:  "okay, we can go then"

Snowshoes recommended.

Yes, they were.  We go into the mountains and cut down our tree with some friends of ours.  As always, we check out the website and see what the wheather conditions look like.  Snowshoes were recommended. We went without them.  We laughed with each step that sunk us deeper and deeper in the snow.  So needless to say we didn't walk to far into the tree cutting area.  We walked out with our worst tree ever.  In the end Jim had to use zip ties to hold the base together.  Thankfully though, he used colorful neon zip ties.  Because that makes it all better?!  The tree was dead by Christmas Day.  It was still a good couple weeks with Gma and Papa here to go do so many fun things!