Silver Lining on a grey cloud

Friday morning I had a mild cold and was informed by my employer that I wouldn't be able to work for the entire weekend.  This news was very discouraging for me since we need the work to keep up with our finances.  But within 2 minutes of getting that news, I got the news that my grandma who is in Utah was doing very poorly and would most likely die soon.  Split second decision:  I'm going to Utah today.  I couldn't have taken it off work, so having a cold was a huge blessing.
My grandma passed away 24 hours after I arrived in Utah.  I was able to see her, express my love and say goodbye.  Another huge tender mercy was the timing of her death.  Many of her grandchildren who lived far away and she hadn't seen in years were able to come and say goodbye because of the fact that they were already around for thanksgiving. 
My grandma was a wonderful person.  She was a model of service and love.  She taught 1st grade for over 20 years. We sat and counted the people who came to visit her the day I arrived: 44.   I loved her and will miss her. 
I'm so grateful for the chance I had to say goodbye and be with family during this time.  I know that she is in a better place with those who have died before her and I'm very grateful for that peace. 

Dancing in the street

Kiera is my child who refuses to go sing on the stand with the rest of the primary.  She is scared of everything, but for some reason dancing in front of hundreds of people who are waiting for the Disneyland Christmas Parade isn't intimidating at all.  They had quite an audience with people taking pictures and everything.

Halloween pictures

I missed out on the Saturday night Halloween activities since I was working.  But Steve took the girls to the ward truck-or-treat.  Kiera was a nice big sister and carefully taught Lydia how to do it.  Pictured above you can see what was supposed to be their Halloween costumes, but apparently the last minutes before they left for the party they decided to change outfits (a frequent occurrence in our household--we usually go through at least 4 outfits a day per girl).  Oh well.  They definitely looked like daddy dressed them at the party, but they had fun!!

Groneman Halloween Party

The Groneman Halloween Party was a hit.  Lots of fun food, games costumes.  I love Halloween.

Pumpkin Patch

This is the time of year I'm not so fond of living in southern California.  Autumn is my favorite season and we have no autumn here.  So, I very much enjoy going to a pumpkin patch to try to get that great autumn feeling.  Tons of fun!

Interesting smells

I have some pear smelling perfume that sometimes I let Kiera wear. Today she came in to find me and said "mommy- I smell like a pear!" I told her that she was not allowed to use mommy's perfume without asking.

Later she asked me "mommy can I smell like a pear?" I said yes and went to grab my perfume. she picked up our spray gel before I noticed what she was doing and drenched herself with spray-gel. Hey, at least it wasn't my perfume. Although it does make her rather sticky.

Oregon

Ok, so I realized we didn't take many pictures while we were up there. Particularly because we loaned our good camera away for a while. Too bad, it is a BEAUTIFUL place. Kiera said,"they have lots of Christmas trees here! They have lots of clouds here!" I guess we don't see many clouds where we live through the smog.

The purpose of our trip was so Steve could interview for Dental jobs. He had 2 interviews, which was exciting. It is nice to know that the end is near and the reward is coming. What a great place!

Romance for a 3 year old

Apparently, I'm a mother-in-law. Kiera informed me this week that she and Elmo got married. Elmo gave her a red plastic ring and they are married. She told me "so mom you have to be nice to my husband because I love him". Great.

Overheard today from the room where Kiera was playing: "You have to be patient. It's not your turn, I'll marry you in a minute. I have to marry all of these princesses first"

Kiera knows were married in the temple but I'm pretty sure getting for her just means you dress up and walk somewhere together (down the aisle, across the room, etc.) Anyway, she's got marriage on the mind right now so all you parents with 4 year old boys, watch out.

Dr.'s office woes

When I took Kiera and Lydia in for their well-child checks today they were both moderately sick already. They had temps of 99 and 100.

After waiting in the doctors office for 90 minutes I was going crazy. I'd pulled out every game/song and trick to entertain 2 sick girls. We were pretending the floor was a river with an alligator in it when the nurse finally came in to give the shots.

Woe is Kiera: Finger prick and 1 shot.
Woe is Lydia: Finger prick and 4 shots
Woe is Kiera: Vomiting in the garbage can while Lydia is getting her shots
Woe is me: Running back and forth between screaming Lydia and vomiting Kiera.

After it was done Kiera was very noticeably white as a ghost. We sat in the waiting room for 10 minutes trying to get some color back in her face before we walked out to the car.

Luckily I had asked for a bag just in case. Good thing too because Kiera vomited again on the car ride home (luckily she got it mostly in the bag). All the while Lydia is wailing "hurt! Owies! Leg! Hurt!"

Poor little ladies and poor me.

Lydia turns 2 and Utah trip

Although the goals of our Utah trip were not fulfilled, we had quite an enjoyable time in Utah. My girls always love to see "Jamps and Jadma" and "pway in the Pwayhouse" and "jump on the jumpoline". We missed Steve severely but it was fun to visit family.






Lydia turned 2 while we were in Utah. I paid for her ticket for the way back but I wish I wouldn't have since not even once out of our 4 flights did they ask to see her birth certificate. When I inquired they said "she looks like she isn't anywhere near 2". Her paid-for seat was left empty since she was asleep in my arms. GRRRRRR
I threw Lydia's birthday cake together in 5 minutes. We had trifle and put a portion of a cake on top with a princess toys and some frosting flowers made in 1989 and there you have it: birthday cake that pleases a princess and is yet tasty to eat.

Traditions Book

So I'm officially done doing normal scrapbooking. I'm moving to the 100% digital way of preserving memories. But I have lots of random scrapbooking supply leftovers. I figured out the perfect thing to do with it all.

I've started a "Nelson Family Traditions" Book. I printed off lots of pictures of things we do regularly (or annually) as a family and I'm slapping glue on the back of them and putting them in collage-type-fashion in a book in designated areas. I've divided the book into sections and leaving room to add to it every year. I'm using up the few stickers that I have, but I'm not doing ANYTHING elaborate. Basically it is just a collage of each tradition. It only took me like 2 hours total to make and the girls already LOVE it. Some of our traditions:

1. Easter (painting eggs, rolling eggs, egg hunts)
2. Christmas (pinatas, seeing the lights)
3. Halloween (pumpkin carving, making sugar cookies, trick-or-treating)
4. Summer (Popsicles outside, swimming)
5. Autumn leave traditions
6. winter snow traditions
7. Rite Aide ice cream tradition
8. Girls waiting outside for daddy to come home on his bike and going for bike rides
9. General Conference scones breakfast
10. Birthday traditions
11. Thanksgiving dinner
12. Independence day BBQ, fireworks, parades
13. Camping (in the back yard and for real)
14. Movie night (with popcorn and lots of bedding on the floor)

The girls love looking at the book and always want to know which tradition we are going to be doing next. I'm looking forward to the book having 18 years+ of collages or our traditions.

Opinion: LDS moms CAN'T do it all

I think we as LDS mothers of young children have a problem of trying to out-do each other. We try to pretend that our lives a beautiful and clean all of the time. We've all done it: when someone is coming over for a play day we clean our house perfectly and pretend like our houses are always in perfect order.

The truth of the matter is, there are only so many hours in a day. If you are choosing to do some things with your time it means you are making cuts elsewhere. You can't exercise for an hour, make 100% homemade food, do 30 minutes of scripture study, write in your journal, spend an hour of 1 on 1 time with each child...etc.

Yes, I can have people over for dinner and have my hair done, my make-up on, my house perfectly clean, and a delicious home-cooked meal, but just think about where I had to make cuts: most likely to my quality time with my children since that is where it doesn't show publicly as much.

This week I was talking to a friend who has a teenager, a special needs daughter, a newly adopted daughter, a toddler, and a newborn. She told me of the troubles of trying to take care of such a huge arrange of psychological needs. I have a deep respect for this friend since she is very well educated and could have done anything with her life. At this point and in this stage however, she tells me that she doesn't bother with her hair or makeup except for on Sundays. The house is a mess most of the time, but she just has higher priorities. That fact that she prioritizes her children over other things shows strongly in her family.

Does that mean that I think we should never do our hair or make-up again? No, but maybe focusing less on how we and our homes appear to others and more on our relationships with our family and children would make us better people.
There will be a time in my life when I can have a clutter-free house. But now is not that time.

Goldilocks and the 2 bears

I can't believe Lydia is 2! I still find myself calling her "baby". When Kiera was 2 I already had Lydia so I didn't consider Kiera a baby at all. But I guess we women like to cling to the idea of having a "baby".
Lydia would NOT cooperate for these pictures without holding these 2 bears. Ok-- fine with me! At least she smiled!

Sunscreen

In high school I would lay out in the sun and take a nap. I never burned and it was so relaxing in the sunshine. I also enjoyed the tan I got. People told me that I would regret it someday. They were right. I do. I now faithfully wear sunscreen everyday (on my face) and sometimes put it one more than once. I also wear big ugly hats. I guess those old people were right. I'm no longer worried about my tan....I'm worried about aging!

Lydia must be worried about aging too because she sure used a lot of it yesterday. On herself, the chair, the carpet, the wall.....

Angel Lullaby

I used to love My Turn On Earth as a little girl. I always thought I would sing the Angel Lullaby song to my kids someday. I've sang little snippets of it to them in the past and thought about looking up the lyrics, but I never did until now. I found them on some random chic from Utah's blog. So, I thought I'd do anybody else who may be looking for them a favor. I've been singing this to my girls for 3 days now and I've had it requested at least 20 times because they LOVE IT.



You came from a land where all is light
to a world half day and a world half night.
To guide you by day, you have my love,
To guard you by night, your friends above.
(Chorus)
So sleep, sleep, till the darkness ends,
guarded by your angel friends.
So sleep, sleep, till the darkness ends,
guarded by your angel friends.

There's one stands softly by your bed
and another sits close with a hand on your head.
There's one at the window watching for the dawn,
and one waits to wake you when the night is gone.