Clifford's 4th Birthday Party

I can't believe my baby boy is already 4!!!! I remember the night he was born, I sat in my hospital bed gazing at him and crying-because at that moment I was thinking about him turning 18 and leaving home!!! I know it's silly. But boy, does time fly in a blink of an eye. Clifford wanted a construction themed birthday part-and that's what he got. I decorated the living/dining rooms with construction/road signs (made by me), streamers, balloons, and "caution" yellow tape. I made the pinata-shaped into a cone. And for the cake, I made it into an excavator. Clifford was so excited the night before the party as I was decorating the house. On the day of the party, just about all of his friends from church and preschool came. There was about 9 little kids running around the house. We played "pin the wheel on the dump truck" (which i made as well), got awesome goodie bags and had a blast with the pinata (it was a "pull string" one instead of hitting it). It was really cute-while the kids were sitting around eating their candy, Kristjan was ever so quietly going around the room and picking up all the candy that hadn't been picked up. The other kids were oblivious to this, and Kristjan ended up with a huge pile of candy. The cake was a hit-I even found tool candles. Opening presents was fun. Once Clifford had one open, he said "thanks" and on he moved to the next one. Clifford loved his new spider man toy from his buddy Chase; the toy car that he "built" from Isla; and of course, the two LEGO sets he received from Mama and Papa and from me and Pete. It was a great party and we all had tons of fun. Now I'm off planning Kristjan's party for next month. PHEW!!!

2008 Family Pics

Why, Why, Why

I'm sure when people read or hear about this, they'd say "why would you let your husband do this?" Well, if you knew my husband, you'd know that once he gets an idea in his head, he must follow it all the way through before realizing himself that maybe it wasn't such a good idea-even if it's to a disadvantage for me. However, this idea, he thought, was a good one. I personally hated it. He thought I'd look good in black hair. So he bought a box of hair color and colored my hair. I personally though I looked like death, but that's just my opinion. So within 5 days I ended up putting some sort of hair color/treatment on my hair 4 times!! Because I couldn't stand the black!! I had to do 2 hair color restore treatments, which turned my hair orange (which was suppose to happen) and finally to a brown color. So I am now officially a brunette for a while until I go back to blonde. My hair is so fried, though, that I'm not sure when exactly that will be-but trust me, I will be back blonde!!

My Birthday Gift from Pete

So this year Pete is way on top of my birthday gift. In fact, it's completely done!! And my birthday isn't even for another month! For my gift, Pete made me my very own "custom" hot pink back pack, which he sewed all by himself!!! Guess now I'll have to get back into hiking and backpacking. The pack is totally awesome!!!

Clifford the "Fire" Man

So I woke up this morning to Clifford saying "sorry mom". And he showed me where he had started a fire next to my side of the bed. The fire was already put out with supposedly Clifford using one of my comforters to put it out (though I haven't found the spots yet). The smoke smelt awful-i opened up all the windows in the house. I haven't cleaned up the mess yet because I want Pete to see it, but from the looks of it, there's multiple burn spots on the carpet. From what I can gather, Clifford got into Pete's camping stuff (which Pete left out, yet again). Inside were a small box of matches. Clifford used those matches to torch my magazine I had on the floor. I swear-I never know what I'm going to wake up to each morning with my kids.

The Other Nielsens

Late Sunday night/Early Monday morning, Pete picked up his brother Eric, wife Jessica and the cutest little boy (other than ours) William from Sea-Tac. They're visiting from Hawaii for xmas. The boys had fun the next morning playing with their cousin William.

Visiting Mrs. Claus

The boys went and visited Mrs. Claus and some delicious cookies with her last weekend. When Mrs. Claus asked the boys if they're excited for xmas, Clifford responded to her reciting his xmas toy wish list. It was lots of fun.

Some Xmas Fun

Last night for Family Home Evening, we put together a gingerbread house kit that Aunt Janet gave as a gift. It was tons of fun. Pete was the "architect", Sarah was the "designer", and the boys over saw everything while eating the candy that came in the kit. Luckily, they left enough to decorate the house with. For it being the first time the four of us has ever put a gingerbread house together, it turned out pretty good. We're also completely done decorating the house for xmas and have our tree up. Gifts have been bought, wrapped and shipped off to the appropriate family. And xmas cards will be completed tonight. All I need to do now is relax until it's time to bake and the start of the enjoyable chaos that comes with visiting all our family this holiday season. 'tis the season!!!

Turkey Day '08

Turkey Day this year was a blast. We went to Pete's Aunt Janet's house. More of his family (uncles/cousins) were there as well. It was great to see everyone and to spend time with them. The boys made themselves right at home with everyone. The food was yummy, of course. However, I was the highlight of the night-dropping my whole plate of food just right after I dished it up on Aunt Janet's white carpet!!! All I could do was look down at my mess with my mouth gaping wide open. Luckily, the dogs there did a wonderful job cleaning up for me. Clifford and Kristjan sat at one of the tables with daddy and Aunt Janet. The boys had tons of fun with Aunt Janet, with her making them laugh and joking around. Pete said that Clifford wasn't eating, so Clifford decided he wanted Aunt Janet to feed him, which she did a bit. And Kristjan was a flirt with Franny and Tara. He also joked around with Michael and Uncle Tom. It was all around a great thanksgiving and look forward to spending more holidays there with the family.

Meadowdale Park

Yesterday we took a mini family trip to the beach. We hiked in to the beach (about a mile long). The boys were troupers. We saw some fish trying to swim upstream while on the trail. Daddy and Clifford thought it would be funny to scare mommy and Kristjan by hiding behind a tree and jump out at us. Once we got to the beach, it was beautiful. We looked for shells, had some lunch, and hung out. It was very refreshing.