Jingle Mouse Day 15

Oh, Jingle, Jingle, Jingle. Shame shame. Haha! I saw this idea on one of the many Elf on a shelf idea pages. I know it will make the kids giggle.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!!!

Today I took pictures of the kids for Christmas cards and also for school pictures. (cause I never got around to doing those) We started out with a little sun, but it very quickly turned nasty on us. Since I had started, I refused to let some dark clouds and a little rain stop us. It takes a lot of work to get these kids to cooperate, so once we were on a roll, I went until we were done. The kids were troopers and I'm very proud of them!

I have been fighting with Blogger all evening, trying to get the pictures to line up and be evenly space etc., but I'll be darned if they will go where I want them to. So...I apologize for the slightly haphazard way they are posted. Luckily the kids are all so cute that I'm sure nobody will notice. ;-)

The Nelson kids 2012!

I will have to do a side by side comparison of last years and this years picture.

Joseph- 12 years old



How did my child get so old??

So proud of the young man he is becoming.



Spencer- 10 years old



It started to rain and got rain on Spencer's glasses...he was a trooper!

Of course Spencer had to wear a tie.

Connor- 8 years old



Connor requested this hair style...I usually leave some on the forehead,
but, this is more like Daddy's



I love the tree stump in our front yard!

I told her to smile pretty, so she growled at me! haha!

Elizabeth- 3 years old

Here she said, "I show my teef."

She's learning how to pose!

 

 

I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture! She's such a ham!

 

 

One other thing...I wanted to throw these in. I sewed these little bags for my brother's family. We have their names. Each bag is filled with toys and candy and goodies. I made my kids each these little bags and they love using them to hold Lego's and Elizabeth puts her lipsticks in hers. Something different and fun.

Jingle Mouse Day 14

This morning I woke up and realized Jingle Mouse hadn't moved...so, while the first child was up going potty, I helped Jingle find a new spot. Not exactly original, but the kids actually thought it was sweet that he was holding baby Jesus. Phew! Dodged that one.

Jingle Mouse Day 13...and a Date

Aha! Caught you, Jingle Mouse! In the pantry, eating chocolate cake. I certainly don't blame you. It was yummy cake. Oh, and I'm pretty sure there are a lot of closet eaters during the holidays, so don't feel bad.

12/12/12. That's the date. The last repetitive date...ever. People are making a big deal about it on Facebook. Travis says, who cares...I still have to get up in the morning and go to work, no matter what the date. Haha. I guess he's right. But, just for posterity's sake, I took note. Besides, according to the ancient Mayan...the world is coming to an end in 9 days anyway, so I suppose it really doesn't matter. Haha!

Jingle Mouse Day 12 and Corndogs!

Jingle Mouse climbed up our built in bookshelf to hang out with 'family'. Hee hee. The kids got a kick out of finding him way up there.

The latest in our queen Elizabeth...tonight she ate a corndog! Well, 3/4 of one...but still...we are thrilled. Slowly we are gaining and it makes my heart sing. She is getting more and more back to herself.

I got a kick out of this picture style...old fashioned Polaroid...like what's in my baby books.

Whoops ~ Jingle Mouse Day 11

I almost forgot to post about Jingle Mouse! I usually post before I go to bed, but last night I totally fell asleep in the couch. I'm getting old! haha So, here he is, hanging out with Santa.

Jingle Mouse Day 10 and a Tree!

Our house smells so good! We went to Swains again this year and got our tree. It's a beautiful tree and we had lots of fun putting it up and decorating it.

Speaking of the tree...Jingle Mouse was found hanging out on the top of the tree.

In Elizabeth news...today she ate goldfish crackers! Sooooo, in the last three days, she's had whole milk, Palmer's candy, and goldfish crackers! Slowly but surely we are on the road to normalcy. Yay!!

Jingle Mouse Day 9...A Day of Christmas Miracles

Tonight was the Ward Christmas party. It was so awesome! I'm not going to go in to detail until I can get all the pictures off of the camera. It's worthy of its own post.

A preview picture. IT was FUN!

 

Before we get to Jingle, I have to write about a Christmas miracle. Today, Elizabeth ASKED for milk...all...day! She had punch for breakfast, milk the rest of the day. This is huge, since milk has been a huge no no to her and the only way we have been able to get her to drink it is by trickery...meaning in the middle of the night when she's dead to the world and drinks by reflex. Today, however, she asked for it, and received it. THEN...at the church dinner, we gave her her own plate of food. She did not eat, but had fun cutting everything into tiny pieces with her plastic knife. We really hoped she would eat...but, then a special visitor came, dressed in red. He gave her a little bag of candy. In this bag was a candy cane, a sucker, and a piece of Palmers chocolate flavored candy. As we were all standing around talking with our friends, I watched her out of the corner of my eye. She nibbled on the Palmers. She NIBBLED on the Palmers! We pretended not to see. Then she put it in the bag, and we headed out to the car. On our way home, we stopped by Safeway to get some egg nog to cheer Joseph up. (he was bummed that he was too old to go see Santa) While we waited for Travis to run in, we sat in the dark car. Elizabeth asked Joseph to open her sucker. He's smart enough to know that he should just do it without saying anything. Then she handed me the bag of candy. In this bag, was a candy cane and a tiny crumb of chocolate. "Elizabeth, where is your chocolate candy?" Pointing to the bag, "It right dare." I look..."That's just a little piece. Where is the rest?" She points to her mouth. "In hee-oh." I smiled..."Oh, you ate it. Ok." And turned nonchalantly around.

SHE FRIGGIN ATE IT! I started crying. Travis got in the car at this point, saw me, and asked if I was happy or mad. I said happy and he knew exactly why. She sucked on her sucker until we got home, (again, huge deal, because she's refused to put anything in her mouth except her sippy cup full of punch) but then threw it away, declared she wasn't hungry and asked for milk. I've never been so happy to see my child eat candy. We were just saying that even if she doesn't eat any food for a couple more days, she knows that she can eat without getting sick, and she's consuming a fair amount of whole milk now, so her weight will get back up. (her bones sticking out all over was very worrisome) It's funny how something so small could make such a huge impact on me. I've been giddy all evening since. Now we wait to see how long until food follows.

SO! In celebration, and hopefully in future repeats, Jingle Mouse is giving each child little bags of....drumroll please........Palmers chocolate flavored candy! I just happened to have some put away for use in certain stockings, but this is something that is worth dragging it out early for. Travis and I have always loved the stuff cause it tastes good, and we get a kick out of how it's not even chocolate, but chocolate flavored. Ha ha! Anyway...Jingle is hiding out on the dusty old shoe shelf in daddy's shoe with treats for the kids. Here's to hoping that treats from Santa's helper is as good as from Santa.

Jingle Mouse Day 8 and The Battle of Wills

Today Jingle Mouse is having fun playing with Joseph's model car with a Wise Man. I can't imagine him getting in to too much trouble with a Wise Man as a buddy.

In Elizabeth news...oh that girl! She refuses to eat anything and when we try to force her, she makes herself throw up...on purpose! And it's out of complete stubborness! Travis and I discussed the need to just buckle down and not give in and make her want to eat. We aren't sure exactly how we are going to do that yet, but tonight was a glimpse of things to come. She has had nothing but punch and Gatorade today. I fixed her up a cup of milk for bedtime. When she asked for punch, I told her no, she needed to drink milk because she'd had enough punch. Oh. My. Heck! For almost an hour she screamed at us. She wanted punch! But, we refused and kept offering her milk. She refused the milk. And so it went. Travis was a huge help to me and followed her around, trying to calm her down, but also trying to wear her out. Finally, after 50 minutes, she climbed on my lap, took the friggin milk, and passed out. Holy crap! I am scared for her teen years! Ha Every prayer in the house, including over the food, now includes the line...please help Elizabeth to eat. That girl is stressing us out! And it's all her stubbornness and strong will. Heaven help us...no, really...heaven? Are you there? Help...please. :-)

Near the end....

And in other news...we got our gutters cleaned and the toilet that was leaking in the laundry room has been fixed. The guy that came to fix it was a father of seven homeschooled kids. Awesome!

Jingle Mouse Day 7

Just a quickie. Jingle Mouse is coloring a picture of the Nativity today. He hopes the kids remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Tonight (it's technically Thursday, but I haven't gone to bed yet, so I'm still in Wednesday mode) I told Travis we can call the day a success. He came home to us from work in one piece, the rent is paid, and the garbage was taken to the curb. (and tho Lizbet still isn't eating food, today she consumed a little more milk than usual...which makes me happy) So...good day. Looking forward to Thursday and all it has to offer!