Non verbal words

Just because my 16 month old is not verbal in the sense of carrying on a conversation, or telling me what he would like, he certainly has a way of getting his point across. He is a horrible eater, and I fight with him to eat anything besides breakfast (and snacks of course) so I was thrilled when he started eating rice at dinner. I always offer him food hoping one day... Well tonight he ate, and made a mess, but then started fussing, he stood up in his seat, leaned toward the pot of rice - I asked if he wanted more, and took a scoop, and just to make sure that I new what he wanted he jams his fist down onto his plate. He cracks me up!
sorry you have to ignore the snotty nose, he hasn't been feeling up to par lately.

Skyler's Party

So to start things off lets do some clarification I am not creative, in fact I am far from it, I am a class A copycat, and will give credit where credit is deserved! Also, I don't often do just for the heck of it parties for my kids, I go all out on their birthdays, but my husband for some reason loves throwing Halloween parties - he says it is the best holiday to throw a party for. Anyways I go along and totally get stuck on all of the details and trying to make his party the best that it can be. Last year Skyler was terrified of Halloween, but this year he is excited and loves all of the Scary things there are to see, so I decided that he could have a party of his own - I think I will probably let him have one in the future as well, tweaking some things of course and learning from the past.

This year he invited all of his cousins (they are only on one side of the family) and then of course Grandma and Grandpa had to come because they were going to be in Europe on Halloween and not get a chance to see the kids in costumes, and because they were there they were a ton of help! The grand kids all love them!

I am horrible at taking pictures at these kinds of events though because I am the one organizing everything.

We started off with dinner - nothing too festive, just something fast that we could all enjoy so that we would have time for the fun before bed (fresh rolls, crock pot tortellini, Jello Salad, and Strawberry poppy seed salad)

then the fun began, we made witch cupcakes found at Martha Stewart although they have popped up on blogs all over the placethe kids loved making them - Skyler really loved the hair for some reason, and made really hairy witches!

We made Caramel apples, and I would say it is the best way to go about it, we used craft caramels (about 2 cups) with 2 Tbsp of milk, melted them in the microwave and went nuts! Jordan especially likes the Smartie, Caramel combination
We then played Spider web bowling which was so fun, the kids loved it and took turns really well, but I forgot to get a picture of it.

Then we carved the pumpkins, again I only have a picture of our 3 after the fact because I was up to my elbows in Pumpkin guts, and then we decorated Sugar cookies! I did up a few extra plates to take to some neighbors, and it was quite obvious that I had a 3 year old helping, but it was his party after all right?

Halloween Sugar Cookies

Now that Halloween is getting closer I can indulge in all of the fun activities that I have been eagerly waiting to do with my kids for months now. Today we made Halloween sugar cookies so that we can decorate them for school tomorrow, and Skyler loved it!

I do believe that this is the best sugar cookie recipe ever (ok actually they are called sour cream cookies, and the recipe is not mine, it originally came from a friend Allaina)

anyways I love these because they are always soft and chewey, and are impossible to screw up. I also use wax paper to roll the dough which keeps down on the mess, and keeps the cookies lighter because there is no extra flour


Sour Cream Cookies

1 cup margarine
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
5 cups flour

cream margarine sugar, eggs and sour cream. Add dry ingredients. Mix thouroughly and chill for 1 hour. Bake at 375 for 8 min.

oh, and I love pairing it with this icing

1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

combine all ingredients, and beat until smooth.

Now I have 6 dozen cookies a very happy boy, and an activity/ snack for school tomorrow which is at my house!

Tagged

so this is new to me, I have never been tagged in anything, but Kalina tagged me with this little blog game, so here goes.
7 random weird facts about me?

01. I am the only girl out of 5 children, and I now have 2 boys of my own - a life of boys, and I am lovin it!

02. I love reading and can polish off a novel in one day, while running a dayhome (maybe a week for The Work and The Glory which I am re-reading right now)

03. Both of my children were emergency c-sections, and I will never be able to birth a child naturally.

04. I dated my husband before his mission, broke up with his on his mission, and then married him 3 months after he got home...

05. when I am alone with my children (much to their dismay) I often sing at the top of my lungs

06. If I try to watch a movie at night - I fall asleep. It doesn't matter which movie, for this reason sometimes my husband relents and lets me pick a chick flick because he knows that I will be asleep in 20 minutes.

07. I am a copy cat - there is very little that I do that has not been fostered by someone else. I have very few original ideas of my own, but love the internet for making me feel able, and talented at times as well.

ok, now to tag 7 other people. Here goes

Liam Craig

Kristy Stanford

Tanis Anderson

Amanda Thompson

Keshia Larsen

Meghann Clements

Kari-lynn Bezooyen

wow, I actually feel bad tagging people, I think I am going to turn out to be one of those horrible people who let these things die. Fun to read interesting things about others but...

Thankful

so sometimes there are those days where nothing seems to be going right. The day starts off with your son getting grease stains all over the front of his shirt - when there are family photos planned for later that day. Feeling like you are the last to be informed about anything because your husband is a man- isn't it supposed to be that way?? It is not his fault that he is a boy right??? with 3 sisters, we do seem to be the last to find out about everything, and today it was getting to me. My parents are on a cruise on the other side of the world Yay them - except they have asked me to watch their home where 3 of my brothers are living, and help them to follow the rules laid out. A big confrontation occurred where I am called all kinds of nasty names that I chose not to repeat, oh and I was told that I am hated and dead to them. If that isn't a warm fuzzy then I don't know what is. Walking to my home from my parents place I cried, I cried really hard. I love my brothers - all of them. Faults and all. I am not perfect, and my shortcomings are in my face every day. I came home to my family, my sweet husband, and my 2 little boys, and I feel THANKFUL! I don't feel sorry for myself, or frustrated or upset with anyone. I feel grateful. My boys knowing that it was cold outside, and a small portion of the confrontation from when they dropped me off had turned my bathroom into something similar to thisI had candles all around the room, soft music and a hot bath filled just for me. I am so thankful for perspective, for my children and for my wonderful husband. Life is good!

You don't know what you got till it's gone...

ok, so I have been babysitting kids part time for several months, and then a couple of weeks ago I started 2 kids full time. Jordan is still in school (finishing up his Masters this year) and we do need the money, or we could live in a cardboard box and save the mortgage payment... tempting sometimes. Anyways I feel like I am locked up! I no longer have the freedom to take my kids to the mall to see Clifford if I hear last minute that he is visiting, or to go to the Zoo on a whim because it is a beautiful day. I can't even go to playgroup with the other ladies in the ward because I have 4 children under 4 that I deal with every day. Really as far as children go, they are some of the easiest children to take care of, but I miss my freedom...

ok, so apparently I don't Blog during the summer, I am too busy having fun, and then I need a push to start again once the busy fall hits. Life is goof for us, we spent a week in Montana at Ashley Lake this summer with Jordan's family, and loved it. Skyler gets soo excited about Grandpa's big Yellow Boat. I have decided that I do love wake surfing. I never really caught the bug of Skiing, and wakeboarding before having my kids (although I have tried many time, just never really got it) and now I have no nerve, but I love the low intensity wake surfing. Skyler loved the tube, like really loved it, I would get really scared that he was going to fall off, and he would tell me that the bumps were his favorite part. He really enjoyed going with my sister in law and her cousing who he affactionately called "Cole" - not so bad, her name is Nicole, and he loves her! Jordan was showing everyone up, including his brother in laws who would try repeatedly to do a trick, and Jordan would get it his first time, and make it look easy. He has this insane natural ability which is pretty impressive for how lazy he is - Love you hunny! Ethan pretty much chilled in the boat, fel l asleep a few times, and screamed non stop when he was done in the boat, but we weren't.

We also spent a week on Shuswap Lake on a house boat - fun? Our second day out my brother was in a Jet ski accident, and has been in and out of the hospital for the last 2 months for treatment of his leg. It was tres gross, and super frusterating, at one point they thought he would lose his leg, at another though they would have to break the ankle to reset the leg. Ultimately he ended with a hairline fracture, immense soft tissure dammage, a skin graft, and lots of pretty stitches to leave a scar. On a happier note, Skyler loved being on the boat, riding the Jetski, playing with the rocks, and sleeping with Grandpa, it was his dream vacation. Ethan chose to go on a sleep strike for a week, I am sure most of you can not even immagine how little sleep I got that week! Skyler did love setting firworks off in broad daylight with Jordan though.

We attempted to go camping on the Labour Day long weekend, one night - I know, we are soo brave. The kids actually slept really well in the tent, and the worst part by far was setting up camp. I was dissapointed with the campground that we stayed at, I found it on line, and it claimed to have a beach - it was really a muddy cliff, and I couldn't even let the kids sit and play, I had planned on spending a 1/2 day at the beach. We went to the Royal Tyrell Museum, and both kids loved it. Ethan just loved being able to walk around, and kept trying to crawl into the exhibits. I do plan on doing some camping next year as well, hopefully we will start a little earlier in the year.

Jordan and I also took a little treip to California for 4 days kidless. Jordan served his mission in Carlsbad, and wanted to go back, it was our 4th wedding anniversary, and we decided to just go for it. I loved it, and I think he had a pretty good time, unfortunately I forgot to bring the camera - seriously, I forgot the camera. I did take one picture of Jordan with a baby monkey in the background with his cell phone. We had some beach days, went to the San Diego temple, met some members, and converts from his mission, spent some time at Dana Pointe Harbour, and at the Oceanside Pier - I loved this, spectacular! This trip was just perfect too, I was really able to enjoy myself, and not miss the kids too much but I was ready to see them, and be a mom when I got home. Yay for vacations, and yay for reunions with my handsome young men!

I am doing home preschool with some friends so that Skyler can get out and learn some fun things with his peers. So far, he loves it, and I am realy happy with how it is working out.

I am babysitting 2 kids full time at home, and 2 others part time - hopefully this is the last year that I need to worry so much about income. Jordan is wokring on his Thesus this year, so hopefully school is done in April - then we just have to find out where work will take us.

Yes, I do love my blog, and I am back hopefully to better record the happenings in the Nielson Family.