i-phone!!

For a while now I have been wanting an i-pod touch, or an i-phone for a few reasons. I could put scriptures on them, and it would be way easier to get to church since my scriptures are another bag, that I normally don't have a free hand to carry, and when they are out I have little hands ripping pages.

Random games to keep kids occupied in a pinch!

Well, Fido has a great deal on them right now, and my brother manages one of their stores. We had been going back and forth trying to figure out how to make it work, when Stephen showed up at my house with an i-phone, and a pink cover!!!

I said to Jordan that I am super lucky and have the best brothers, and his response "yup, you do"

I am having fun learning how to use it, and this may prove to be a bad thing - I have totally got OCD, and might like lists and organizing a little too much, and this makes that even easier!

Fathers Day 2010

The Relief Society Retreat this year was on the Father's Day weekend, and I had decided that I wouldn't go, so that I could be home doing things to make Sunday a special day for the Fathers in my life, then Jordan suggested that he take the boys and go on a camping trip! Skyler and Ethan looked forward to this trip for weeks, and Skyler counted down like it was Christmas. We bought a new tent for Jordan for Father's Day (we figured some kind of shelter might be nice on this little excursion)I swear, every blanket that was not currently on a bed was taken on this trip to make sleeping nice a cushy.
The boys roasted hot dogs for dinner, and then enjoyed some smores and GIANT marshmallows that our neighbor gave us.
Everyone woke up happy, but unfortunately for Jordan Ethan;s 10:30 bed time quickly caught up to him, and he became a whining, crying, tantruming mess! They made a stop off at Calaway Park on the way home and got to see Spiderman, the Hulk, Green Goblin, and a few other Marvel Comic characters, again Skyler loved this, but Ethan would much rather have taken a nap.
I made this soda bottle treats for Jordan so that there was something that we could give him on Fathers Day, unfortunately he saw them in the craft room early, and even those did not make it to Sunday. We did make him breakfast in bed, and let him sleep in, even though I was running on 2 nights of very little sleep. (in part because of the retreat ;)

During the afternoon Jordan and the boys went to My Father in Laws to wish him a happy Father's Day, and drop off a little gift.

We went to dinner at my parents and all of my brothers arranged to take my dad golfing at the Elks golf club, so we wrote on some golf balls and put them in a vase for him. It looked cute, but I have decided that cute it soo lost on men!

Happy Fathers Day to the men in my life, I have the greatest Dad, and my kids have a pretty fantastic one too.

when the weather doesn't look good

Camp in the family room, giant tent and all! For Father's Day we bought Jordan a new tent, and he got it early because this weekend he is going to take the boys on a Father Son Camp out, and they are soo excited. Jordan decided to set the tent up inside the house to make sure that he liked it. We need a bigger house for things like this, although the kids didn't seem to notice ;)

Calaway Park

we made our first trip out to Calaway Park tonight, and the boys really enjoyed themselves. Skyler LOVED it, and even went on the log ride. Ethan enjoyed himself, but is a little under the weather and lacked the enthusiasm that he normally has. Ryley was so well behaved, and I just love this little scrunchy face!

competition

so, this happened on Tuesday after Jordan's Convocation, but I thought it was funny, and want to be able to remember it. We went straight to Skyler's Soccer game after Convocation and Dinner since Jordan is the coach, and the game was only half over. Jordan was wearing dress pants, and wouldn't go run on the field, but we stayed to see the game, and one of the little girls on the team came over to Jordan and said

"I like you clothes...you look so handsome" haha, competition from a 4 year old.

Can you see him?

(you can see him best on the big screen, kind of sad hey)
Jordan's Convocation was yesterday! I am soo proud of him and his accomplishments. He has now graduated, and been recognized for 7 years of school, completed with a wife and 3 kids, and he came out of it owning our home (small as it may be) and 2 vehicles. I love this man, and know that I married the right person!
we didn't go outside for pictures, but it was beautiful, so maybe we should have. There were tons of people trying to take pictures on the back drops, and I swear we had one taken of Jordan and I, although there is none on my camera. I will have to track down one off my in-laws because I was not able to go to his bachelors convocation. Ethan had just been born 5 weeks early and was not allowed extended car travel because of his weak respiratory system, and convocation was in Edmonton.

Birthday Carnival, in Calgary.

Do you ever wonder why you live where you do? Yesterday I was certainly not happy with this crazy Calgary weather that we have. As we were packing up to go decorate for Ethan's Birthday Carnival the kids were asking for the air conditioner to be on because it was Hot outside. We got the the pavilion to start decorating (which is aprox. 5 min from home), and not 10 minutes later it was pouring rain, and the kids were sent home to Grandmas to keep warm.

Last week we gave out the carnival tickets as invites. I LOVE how then turned out. I had the idea in my head, and just kept telling Jordan what I wanted it to look like, and he nailed it!

Braving the weather, all of the kids who were invited showed up, We did have one replacement child. Nixon fell asleep and missed all of the fun, but his older sister was happy to enjoy the party for him, and we were happy to have Liv there.

We went kind of vintage carnival, using lots of red and white. I made a banner that said Ethan's Birthday Carnivalwhich you can read soo well thanks to the horrendous wind (which was present for 1 1/2 hours of the 2 hour party - that's right it was beautiful as it ended as well!)

Each of the games had a sign
and we asked my family to come and help man the games and such. I can't thank them enough. Having them makes a party like this feasible. Stephen took care of ring toss, and a knock down the can game. Jordan did a squirt gun game where the kids were trying to knock golf balls off of tees, My future sister-in-law Amanda, and a friend of hers Marley took care of face painting, and my mom took care of the food making authentic funnel cakes.
we had a bouncy house that we borrowed - a huge thanks there as well, the kids loved the slide, and the popcorn machine was borrowed from my in laws.

We had all kinds of carnival food including popcorn, mini donuts, soft pretzels, and of course the funnel cakes. That is where I planned to stop with the food, but of course grandparents have to get the good stuff, so there was also dinosours, and ring pops.I made some popcorn cupcakes that turned out super cute, and I was very pleased with the presentation of them. Of course they were a hit with the kids, marshmallows, and cupcakes, what kid would enjoy that?
We had an 11 year old Magician Joel Lethaby come and entertain the kids, he was fantastic! The kids all sat on the picnic table, and at one point he had all of the kids in fits of giggles as he pretended that he didn't know that his rope went stiff when he wasn't looking. Then he made balloon animals for all of the kids.each of the kids (that wanted to.) had the opportunity to help him with his tricks.
then Ethan got to blow at a sparkler since the candles wouldn't stay lit, it was pretty funny watching him blow as hard as he could until the sparkler burnt out.
It took some convincing, but we were able to get him to open gifts, he was spoiled, but very happy with all of his loot.
it was about this time that the sun decided to come out and the kids got to run around and enjoy it a bit.I think that the kids were able to have some fun despite the weather, and my baby boy is now 3!

Each of the kids were getting prizes as they played the games, and that is what they took home as a treat bag.

Happy Birthday Ethan, I love you!

Family

Family is one of the greatest blessing and joys of my life. We really have been doing a fair bit to keep busy, including a weekend trip to Edmonton, which included lots of family fun, and a trip to the water park. A last minute trip to Lethbridge to see some family. Random park trips, the long drive to the oh so cool Bass Pro shops (seriously a cool store, and I am NO fisher). All of this has happened, but I have not had my camera on hand, and I think just writing about it here is not soo fun, it NEEDS pictures, so here are some of the pictures that I do have.

Ethan is LOVING having the backyard to play in, and having some weather nice enough for him to enjoy being out.Miss Ryley is getting soo big. She is nine months old today, and just the cutest little munchkin. She can crawl now, and is working oh so hard on walking. She has on occasion walked across a room just holding onto one hand.
Ethan's birthday is on Saturday, and my baby boy will be 3 years old! Grandma and Grandpa Nielson are going to miss it because they have some work to do in Montana, so they stopped by last night with Ethan's gift. To say that he was excited would be an understatement. He got a big boy hockey net (I remember my brothers trying to get one of these when they were teenagers) a hockey stick, eye spy game and bug catcher. He has already spent hours with his hockey stuff. You will have to pardon his lack of pants, we are potty training, and in doing really well this week, here's hoping...
Skyler was lucky enough to get a stick as well so that he can play with Ethan, and he loves it, although he is a bit bossy. Right now he keeps hiding the ball that came with his stick, and 'playing with Ethan' which means he plays with Ethan's ball, and makes him run around trying to get it back, this unfortunately is not Ethan's favorite way to play.