Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas this year that spanned several days :)  There are lots of pictures here…sorry!

Here is Tracen sitting on Santa’s lap at the ward party.  You have no idea what kind of a miracle this is.  A few days before this at the boys Christmas program Santa walked across the stage and Tracen was crying saying he wanted to go home.  Santa had bags of goodies though and I guess the idea of treats was better than his fear of the big dude in red.

 

On Christmas Eve we had dinner at Grandma Neilson’s house.  There was lots of yummy food and fun cousins to play with.

Tyler read the Christmas story out of the scriptures (ie josh’s phone), he did a good job.

Aunt Crystal and Uncle Kurt had our names this year.  The thing I love about Crystal is that she puts lots of thought into her gifts and she gets really excited for the kids to see them.  So she wanted them to open them before the little boys were all burned out from opening presents.  So they opened theirs the night before.  They got Ty and Jesse some cool banana chairs with speakers and stuff in them.  Lincoln got the cutest dang blanket I’ve ever seen.  Tracen got a remote control tarantalla.  You should have seen him with it it was so funny!  He loved it and was terrified of it all at the same time.  He wanted to push the buttons and make it get people but if it got near him he was up on the couch freaking out.

The boys also got their new Christmas Jammies on Christmas eve…I forgot to get a picture so this one is actually Christmas day.  Tracen kept rubbing his jammies in his face and saying “I like em, day sofff”

Christmas morning we finally woke up the older boys after Tracen and Lincoln got up at 8.  Crazy I know!  We opened presents at home.  Santa brought Ty and Jesse backpacking backpacks.  We hope to get lots of good use out of those this summer!  He also brought us Rock Band 3, which they were super excited about.  Santa brought Tracen a wobble car and some clothes and he brought Lincoln a little firetruck toy and some bug toys and things.  Tracen also got a felt playmat with cars that I made him (I made one for his cousins too)  He also got a blanket, which is good because if you asked him what he wanted for Christmas all he would say is “cars and a blankie” lol  Tyler and Jesse also got some new Wii and DS games and Link got clothes and some little toys.

I got Lincoln this cute hat from Etsy

Of course what he really likes was the paper.

The boys also got a I-spy quilt top from me, because I didn’t get the quilt finished, :) I guess I can only get so much done!

After we got showered and dressed we headed to Grandpa and Grandma Neilsons for more present opening.

Josh trying on his mask and trying to be sneaky…he’ll probably be mad at me :)

Tracen’s wanted a “piddow-pet” for a long time…lucky him..

Linky getting into Tracen’s stuff lol

Crystal got Kurt a projector for Christmas, before I left her and Tyler had it projecting on the ceiling while they played mario kart laying down looking up at it :)  Apparently this happened after I left….You guys should know better than to leave evidence :)

 

I had to work Saturday and Sunday night.  I got home Monday morning and we packed up and went to Logandale.  I got like 2 hours of sleep maybe, on the way there….it was awesome.  We had Christmas with my parents and David and Jacob when we got there.

All in all I’d say the kids had a pretty dang good Christmas.  They spent the next few days in the nice warm(er) weather in Logandale playing wit David and Jacob, getting muddy and having fun.  Tracen wanted to tag along with the big boys which can be irritating to older brothers but they all did good and had fun!  We came home a little early (last night) because of all the snow predicted.  Glad we didn’t wait a few extra hours or we’d have been stuck in the middle of the freeway closure.  That’s not to say we didn’t have a little fun sliding up Black Ridge

Lincoln 7 months

Lincoln turned 7 months right before Christmas and I haven’t had a chance to blog it yet.  He’s growing up too fast!

Lincoln facts:

• He likes food…most of the time, but don’t worry if he doesn’t feel like eating at the moment he’ll let you know by throwing up everything you’ve fed him in the past like 2 hours.  It’s bad and requires lots of cleaning and bathing and that sort of thing.
• When he gets mad and cries he gets his tongue vibrating on the roof of his mouth.  It sounds pretty funny.  Grandpa and Grandma Neilson call it his motor.
• He is still army crawling/breast stroking his way through life.  He can get anywhere he wants to go way too fast like this!
• He is wearing 6-9 and some 12 month clothes.  He doesn’t have much of a bum though so he frequently leaves his pants behind when trying to get somewhere.
• He’s started being a pesky little brother.  He wants to get into whatever Tracen is playing with these days, Tracen doesn’t exactly appreciate it most of the time.
• No teeth yet.
• He still usually wakes up once at night.
• He is such a happy and smiley baby.  He seriously will smile at almost anyone.  He chatters and talks, smiles and giggles.  He’s so much fun!

There may be a few people in trouble in the Neilson family.  I found this on my camera.  It happened after I left for work on Christmas night :)

Tracen

Tracen is now 2 and a half going on 10.  He has quite the attitude and can hold his own with his brothers.  He makes us laugh a lot.  The pictures tell it all!  He added all the accessories himself.

He loves these boots that Jesse handed down to him.  I love them because they are too big and he can get them on by himself!  The pants are another issue.

lunar eclipses and other random comments

This morning the boys were pretty sure they’d seen the lunar eclipse.  I told them that was probably pretty much impossible since the clouds were covering the moon.  They told me they were pretty sure there were no clouds right where the moon was….and that where the moon was it was totally black, thus the lunar eclipse….ok whatever!

Tracen has turned into quite the womanizer….in other words, he’s good at lying.   He told me today on my way to crossfit today “mom your hair is beautiful”  Ya it wasn’t even close to done.  But he made me feel good anyway.  Then when I picked up the kids at Grandmas she said he’d told her the same thing (Grandma’s hair is like 1/4” long)  She thought it was pretty funny too.

There I was minding my own business not making a peep and Jesse wanted to call his friend on the phone.  He says to me “mom can you please be quiet so I can talk on the phone?”  First I just looked at him, then I asked “Because I’m making so much noise right now?”  He smiled and said no.

Tracen: "Mom! crash that car!"
Me "what?"
Tracen "Crash that car, see that car?"
Me "you want me to crash into the car?"
Tracen "Yes!"
Remember the cautious driver from the last post.  He's gone now.  Tracen won't be getting his license when he's 16!

All in one day….I’m exhausted.

Say what?

The kids have said some funny things lately.  I thought I needed to write them down.  That way I can laugh later when they’re driving me bonkers.  Most of these are Tracen by the way, because he’s in that stage of talking but hasn’t developed a filter yet :)  I don’t know why some are bold and some are not.  Almost all of them are copied from facebook, but I want them on permanent record!

Tracen during the sacrament today “Lincoln pick my nose!”

Jesse: See ya later mom I’ll be home by 7…or 5  (that really nails it down doesn’t it?)

Tracen was watching a PBS show this morning. He says "Look mom! Nakes (snakes)! See mom, nakes, oh cute nakes!" I couldn't disagree more.

Tracen climbed into the play pen with Lincoln. Hes in there playing with his toes and saying "little piggie go wooo woo woo"

Tracen is totally scared of Santa. He came to the boys Christmas program the other day. He saw him from across the room and instantly said "I want to go home!" I was singing him Santa Claus is coming to town today and he kept saying "don't!!" Maybe that was just my singing voice though :)

Tracen-Stop mom!
Me What did I do?
Tracen-You driving crazy!
Me-I am not
Tracen-you go faster
...Me-I'm supposed to go faster
Tracen-You driving me crazy!
I have a back seat driver on my hands!

Tracen says "I need red dog medicine mom, I sick, really hard!" LOL, he's not sick he just likes red medicine

Tracen says "I big boy like Toter (Tyler) and Sesse (Jesse) I get dressed!" He's so cute lol.

Tracen made up a song and sang it out loud to Lincoln in Sacrament meeting today. It went something like this "shake your bum, shake your bummy" repeat several times.

Ty:"did you just wipe your snot on my shirt?"
Tracen: "Yep"
Ty: "eww, mom when I'm a dad will everyone wipe their snot on me?"
Me: "Yep"
Ty: "When I'm a dad I'm going to teach my kids not to wipe their snot on people!"

Definitely the mother of boys here. I got off work this morning, walked into my room. My two year old sat up in my bed, smiled at me and said "I farted!"

I found Tracen playing in the shower. He walked out with soap slathered all over his hair and said "I handsome!"

on the way to school...
Jesse-We need one of those, mom, do you know what it's called?
Me-A Gazebo
Jesse-No, mom, it's called grass
So hopefully next year we'll get our lawn put in!

Tracen was in bed with me last night because I was too tired to put him to bed. We could hear Jesse talking in the other room. Tracen: "mom I tell Jesse shu-up, JESSE SHU-UP!!" The words you learn too quickly when you have older brothers....but I did laugh.

Tyler:"But mom I can't go to sleep with my eyes closed!"

Just got reprimanded by Jesse, he says "mom I don't want to offend you, but it's not very smart to leave Tracen alone on the potty, he's playing in the toilet now." Good call Jesse you're probably right.

Christmas Card and Letter

If I have your address you’re probably getting one of these anyway, but I wanted to post our Christmas card and our little newsletter.  This year instead of a newsletter I did a little “year in review.”  Hope you all like it!

2010 Neilson year in Review

January-Ty and Jesse played basketball. Tracen is obsessed with shooting rubber bands.

February-Tracen decides that it’s a good idea to play in the sugar bucket almost every day.

March-Disneyland! My parents took us to Disneyland as our Christmas present. We all had a ton of fun. The kids especially loved being there with their cousins. We also went hiking in Zion with friends.

April-Jesse said goodbye to his tonsils and took a week off school. My tire fell off my truck while I was driving it down the freeway…not fun. We had a fun Easter picnic at Whitney pockets.

May-Our exciting month for the year. We had our baby Lincoln Jax on May 22^nd! Jesse also turned 8 and Tracen turned 2. We were so excited to have our baby home with us especially after our jaunt back into the hospital for 3 days for jaundice and dehydration.

June-Jesse was baptized and Lincoln was blessed. We’re sure glad that Lincoln came a bit early so that we could have them both on the same day. The boys also took some painting classes with their cousins and Grandma.

July-We spent a lot of time at the pool. We went on our first camping trip with Lincoln, we had a lot of fun! We went to the Independence Day parades and fireworks.

August-The boys and Josh shaved their heads when their Grandma Neilson lost her hair because of chemo. The boys have also been mowing lawns this summer. They have a love/hate relationship with that. Back to school! Tyler is in 4^th grade and Jesse is in 3^rd grade this year.

September-Lots of canning and freezing of fruit and vegetables. Jesse and Tyler both earned their yellow belt in karate. The kids won lots of ribbons in the county fair. We took another camping trip.

October-Ty turned 10 (isn’t that crazy?) Ty and Jesse played football. Our cousin Millie came to visit us for a few days.

November-Lincoln can crawl, crazy because he’s only 6 months old! The boys use all their hard earned lawn mowing cash to buy a Wii and a DS. We did Thanksgiving at our house with both our parents.

December-We went and cut down our Christmas tree. The boys put on a great Christmas program at school.

We hope that you all had as wonderful of a year as we did and a great year to come. We are so grateful for the Christmas season to remind us of Christ’s birth and life.

Merry Christmas!

Love, Josh, SheriDawn, Tyler, Jesse, Tracen and Lincoln Neilson

Tracen and Crystal

Tracen is a tease and he likes to tease Crystal.  She brings him treats and stuff and is always trying to schmooze him but he’s a hard one to reach!  She tries to get him to say “you’re my favorite Auntie” and things like that.  It’s pretty funny to watch.  The other day she brought him some candy and was trying to get him to give her a kiss, to which he said “yuck!”  Then she tried to get him to say she was his favorite Auntie.  I think he finally did. 

Then when it was time for her to leave he got on his sad face and said “don’t weave me auntie!”  He kept saying it over and over (with a little prodding from his dad!)  Crystal said she had to go home and see Kurt.  So he let her go.  But he thought she was bringing him back and kept asking where Kurt was, because he just plain likes to hang out with other guys as opposed to girls.

SO last night we were at Grandmas and we were leaving.  Crystal got on her sad face and said “don’t leave me Tracen” and he just kept saying “I weaving now!” and he’d get this really stern look on his face.  He did end up giving her a hug and Grandpa and Grandma.  She gave it one last attempt with the “don’t leave me”  Tracen got on his stern face and said “I weaving now!”  Then he flashed a super sweet smile and said “Bye Kurt!” and turned around and walked out the door.  It was the funnies thing ever and we all laughed for a long time.  The boys kept mimicking him all the way home.

Don’t worry Crystal!  He really does love you!