Happy Birthday Spencer!

April 30th, 2002, Spencer William Nelson was born. Here are a few pictures to honor our little rubber man. We love you Spencer!
Spencer was my first bald baby. Elizabeth is my second. Good thing they had nice heads. (o:

This picture does him no justice. Spencer has hyper mobility. (he's very double jointed). When he was a little baby he would hold his bottle with his feet and play with a toy with his hands or hold a toy over his head with his feet and play with it with his hands. Here is a picture of him using his leg as an easel. He's still very flexible and is actually a bit delayed in his gross motor skills, but my sister Jamie had the same condition as a child and she turned out to be an okay/normal adult. (well...normal might be a strong word~right Jamie~teehee) (that's a baby Connor I'm holding there)

I love this picture. Look at those cute little (big) Nelson cheeks!!!! And the giant Nelson pumpkin head! He was so adorable!

I just liked this picture because it showed what a happy baby he was. So super easy going.

I LOVE the hair in the picture! I have no idea who that is he's sitting by. I thought it was Joseph, but his hair seems so dark, but you never know. I'm already sounding like an old woman who can't even recognize her own children.

Anyway, Happy Birthday buddy! We are so proud of what you have become in just 7 short years and look forward to watching you grow until you are old~like a hundred. (o:

Peas, Puke, and Pretty Dresses

The other day we went to check on our garden and we found some cute little pea plants poking out of the dirt. I think Travis and I were more excited than the kids. I found a couple of cucumber sprouts...no carrots yet. Mmm, fresh peas out of the garden. Can't beat that. I'm REALLY looking forward to the cukes though. I love cukes! So do the kids, so it will be a happy day when we pick a few of those.
We are supposed to be at church at this moment. Travis has to work today, but I was prepared to take the kids by myself (like I have been the last couple of weeks). I had myself, Joseph and Connor all dressed and ready to go. Spencer got out of the shower and was getting ready to get dressed when bleehhh, he puked all over everywhere. He is now sound asleep on the floor with a bucket. I can't remember the last time he threw up. He gets so weak. Poor kid. There is no fever or anything like that so I am hoping for a speedy recovery. Travis just happened to be on Facebook when this happened and so did our Primary President, so he sent her a quick message that I wouldn't be able to teach my class. I ran over next door to our neighbors (thanks Carie) and asked her if she could teach my lesson since their son is in my class. She accepted, I handed over my prepared lesson and here we are. Joseph was disappointed that he wasn't getting to go to church, but I will teach them the lesson that he should have learned in class tomorrow for family home evening. Connor was actually happy cause then he could take his sweater off and run around in his underwear. I was a bit sad because I was so excited to dress Elizabeth in a new dress. So, I dressed her in it anyway and took pictures. One of Travis's coworkers, Brenda, got her the dress. It's a beautiful dress. I LOVE it! So, here is a picture of my baby girl in her latest dress.

That is our day in a nutshell. The meat in the crockpot is starting to smell yummy and we will just have to make the best of the day. We got a new little dvd in the mail...it's a cartoon about Nephi, who is Joseph's favorite Book of Mormon character, so I think we will watch that and maybe "Mountain of the Lord". The boys love that one. Connor likes to watch it with the ASL turned on. (the would be american sign language) (o:

Everyone have a wonderful week and I hope nobody gets the Swine Flu!

One Day More

Something kind of funny that I want to remember about Elizabeth. Every time I listen to Les Miserables, she doesn't really care, but when the song "One Day More" comes on, she always stops and listens. And if I sing the little solo part of Eponine, she likes to sing along with me. It's funny how each of my kids have a certain song that whenever I sang it, it grabbed their attention. I never could plan it either. I would just sing songs until one day I noticed they loved it. Then it became their song. Joseph's was "You are My Sunshine", Spencer's was the Butterfly song by the Wiggles, and Connor's was "So This is Love" from Disney's Cinderella movie. Elizabeths is far more complex because, if you watch the video below, you will see that I can only sing a part of the song. Too many parts for just one person, but she seems to like Eponines part anyway. (for those of you non-Les Mis likers~Eponine is the one that sings that she's going to be on her own and he never saw her there)

Anyway, here is a clip that has the song. You can forward it to about 1:15 to get to her song. Oh, and PS, Shauna and Karen...every time I listen to Les Mis (and I do mean every time), I think of you two in the corn fields, singing the songs and telling me all about the musical cause I hadn't ever seen it. I picture you with a hoe singing. (o: Good times.

Another one For Grandma Teese

Here are a couple of pictures and a video of Elizabeth. Sorry that the video is out of focus on her. She was talking to me and so I grabbed the camera without breaking eye contact with her, so I couldn't really see that it was out of focus til I was done. But, you get the idea. It was impromptu and cute. Mom, she's saying that she would like it if you and Dad would come visit her. (I know cause I speak baby) (o:
Our boys loooovvvee their sister. Here I caught Spencer telling her she was the "beautifullest baby in the world".

I just snapped this while she was on my lap. Because I'm the mom and she came from me, I can say... she is stinkin cute!

Nothing New

This week has been very low-key. I really have nothing to blog about, but I just can't go another day without writing something.

Travis has worked all week except for Thursday, so we haven't gone anywhere most of the week. We were supposed to go to his folks on Thursday to check on the garden and help pull weeds. But, Thursday night Connor said he didn't feel too well. He had a 102.8 fever. Woke up in the morning still with a fever, plus, Elizabeth had a low grade fever as well. So, we stayed home Thursday. Travis took Joseph and Spencer over to the church and let them run around in the gym while he updated records (he's assistant ward clerk, in charge of membership records). Then they went to Fred Meyer and picked up a few things for me, including Children's Ibuprofen. Connor woke up this morning feeling tons better. He never got more than a little sniffle to go with his fever. Same with Elizabeth. I'm grateful for that.

So, today Travis closes and leaves at 2:30. I'll be spending the evening polishing my lesson for tomorrow (I teach the 11 year olds in church), and putting away the giant mountain of laundry that I just washed. Pretty excited, eh? (o: Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Lots to Report

So, here are a ton of pictures of the last week. I don't have time to go into too much detail, but I did do a little captioning.

Here is when they were all working hard to plant a little garden in Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's back yard. After we got about half way done, Spencer and Connor kind of flamed out and just wanted to play.
It's been many years since there was a garden there, so we had to dig up the grass and then fertilize the dirt. It was a hard job. Joseph got hot so he took off his shirt.

Elizabeth just watched with Grandma Deone.

The final product. Spencer made the little signs that marked what is where.

Since I refused to allow my photo to be taken all bent over (hello~huge butt) gardening, here is a nice little photo of me in my fancy $5 glasses from Wal-Mart. (It was right before the gardening)

Joseph holding Elizabeth while I prepared all the egg dyes.

Joseph and Spencer writing on their eggs.

Connor's finished coloring. Next he will use a marker to draw on his eggs (and his face).

We watched. (Mom, do I look tired?)

I love the casual way Travis is coloring the eggs. Notice his hand in his pocket?

My little beauty!

Joseph got a Monster Jam game for the computer...that didn't work! It said for Vista, which is what we have, but it still doesn't work. He was bummed. We're working on finding something to make it up to him.

Spencer got a notebook and pens.

Connor got a bug catching kit. Like his orange punch mustache and permanent marker beard?

Elizabeth's first Easter basket. A chocolate bunny and more headbands!

Elizabeth in her Easter dress. I didn't take a picture of the boys cause they just wore their white shirts and ties like when she was blessed (and most every other Sunday), plus, we were running around like crazy trying to get to church.

She likes her new dress.

Our First Nature Walk of 2009

Before I begin, I must show off this first picture. It is Elizabeth being very proud of loving her dad. Isn't she just super cute?

Okay, now, on to today. We went on our first nature walk of the year. We hit the Soos Creek Trail~which is our favorite. Since it's a few miles long and there are parking places all along it, we parked at a place we have never parked before to shake things up a bit. (o: I gave Joseph an old camera that Travis had and Spencer got our most recent old camera. The two of them took pictures of interesting things and now are working on printing them and making a book about what they found interesting about it. Joseph took pictures of pretty much normal things. Spencer was much more abstract. It actually got kind of hot and the kids were mad at me for dressing them in long sleeves. Hello! It was SNOWING here 5 days ago! Anyway, here are a few pictures~mostly the ones I took and if all goes well, there will even be a short video at the bottom.
Here are signs that spring really is here!!!

Here are the boys just starting out. They have their camera's and are ready to go.

This was when we were done. Connor wanted to hold Joseph's hand because there was a large amount of bees in the area and he needed his big brother to protect him. Isn't that sweet?

Elizabeth enjoyed the ride!

Look at those cheeks!
Remember the skunk cabbage of posts long ago? Well, we found some! It's pretty small. We kept getting whiffs of it, but couldn't find any. This is what Joseph took pictures of. Wish you could smell it too.

Here is an old stump that we all thought was interesting. All kinds of little critters call this thing home.

And here is a sample of Spencer's photo shoot. His own shadow. He liked how his shadow mixed with the shadow of the tree. Pretty cool!

Here is a little video clip of the boys. Look at how pink Connor's cheeks are. That kid gets hot so easy! That's why he runs around in his underwear all the time.

Conference

I can NOT wait until Thursday! I just can't. Why? Well, because that's the day that they will have the online text from General Conference ready for us to read. What I really want is the Conference edition of the Ensign, but since I have to wait 4 weeks for that, I just can't wait for Thursday when I can print them out. Dieter Uchtdorf just spoke. It was a beautiful talk. The spirit is just oozing from my computer. He talked about Discipleship. He said not to be a spectator in it. I can't wait to read his whole talk again. So many things he said were things I needed to hear. Our new apostle, Elder Neil Andersen, just described President Monson as "his warmth is as the sunshine at mid day". Funny how one can fully agree with a statement like that without having ever met President Monson. Oh how I love General Conference. I wish it was quarterly instead of just twice a year. Here I am in my pj's, listening to prophets, feeling the spirit, being grateful for my membership in this great church. (http://lds.org/) I wish Travis was home instead of at work. I love sitting and watching Conference with him.

Okay, this is kind of incoherent, I'm sure, but I'm trying to listen and type, plus I have a baby on my lap. (o: But I just had to express how I was feeling at the moment. More later...

Healthy As Can Be

Elizabeth went to the doctor yesterday. Dr. Christopher said she was just a beautiful, gorgeous, healthy little baby! (duh!) She smiled at him and smiled and talked to the nurse. Then she got a whole bunch of shots and there was no more smiling. She screamed and screamed and let all of the mean adults in the room know that she was highly offended and hurt.

Her stats were- weight 10lbs 14oz (that's 50th%), height-23"(75th%), and head-15 3/4(that's 75th% and confirmation that she also has a big old Peterson Pumpkin Head like her brothers, father, and Grandma) (o:

The only thing that he wrote down was a documentation of her birthmark on her forehead because I asked him about it. Travis has one that covers his entire elbow, Connor has one that covers his ankle, so we asked if this one was going to get all big like her dads and brothers. He didn't know, so took measurements and said we would watch it. Travis just keeps saying he wishes she would hurry up and grow some hair so she can look like a girl. Bangs should easily cover the mark. (o:

We go back in 2 months for her 4 month checkup.