Nellie Jelly Belly Beth

Nellie is nearly six months old.  That fact absolutely blows my mind.  From the moment she came home from the hospital, she's been the Queen of our home.  Whatever Nellie wants, Nellie gets...especially if Aubree's around. 

 

Aubree loves having a sister.  As soon as she comes home from school every day, she makes a beeline for "BABY!"  Nellie is totally a momma's girl.  From a super young age, she'd cry whenever anyone besides me held her.  Even Mark could only get a couple minutes before she'd scream (we've now worked our way up to 15 minutes on good days).  

Aubree is the only exception to that rule.  Nell loves her big sister!

 

One Sunday they wore matching dresses to church.  Aubree exclaimed, "I've waited 10 years for this day!"

 

The first couple months of Nell's life are already fuzzy in my brain, but I know we all did lots of cute-baby snuggling.

 

I can understand why people often say "three kids is the hardest."  Even though five kids is significantly more than three, my two oldest are big enough to be legitimate helpers!   I was sad when school started back up and Aubree was gone most of the day.

 

Thane loves to touch and talk to Nellie.  He insists on calling her "Nellie Jelly Belly BETH," and turns it in to a chant.

Graham has shown no malice or jealousy towards his baby sister (instead, he's directed his jealousy and competition up - to Thane).  For months, every night when we asked him, "What was the best part of your day?" he would answer, "Nellie being born!"

We'd ask the next question, "What have you been thinking about?"

"Nellie!"

Nellie got her first hair buzz (and hopefully her last) when she was only five weeks old.  We just couldn't handle the mullet any longer!

So much better afterwards!

 

When she was six weeks old, I took her to our Stake's Relief Society overnight retreat.  She was the only baby in attendance.  Imagine 150 women (the vast majority mothers and grandmothers), and only one baby.  Yep.  Nell got TONS of attention.

 

At that point, Nellie had been sleeping reasonably well at night.  "I can sleep in the dorm with forty other ladies," I thought, "no big deal!"  

I guess that's a pretty good indicator that I wasn't thinking terribly clearly!  At 4am when Nellie woke up, I began to understand my poor choice.  "Shhhh, Shhhh," I whispered as I tried to get her back to sleep.  Thankfully, Nellie did little more than whimper and our cabin was FULL of loud snoring women.  I've never been more grateful for snoring!

 

 People love to ask, "is she a good baby?"  

That's such a hard question to answer!  Of course she's a good baby.  She's a baby, and that automatically makes her good.  However, I know what they're really asking, so my actual answer is, "she's right in the middle."

 

I've had two "hard" babies, and two "easy" babies, and Nellie falls more on the harder side, but still smack in the middle.  As long as she's with me, she's pretty happy.  She loves baths, getting attention, looking at pictures of herself, and being held.

 

She is also quite fond of being swaddled, smiling, sucking on her hands, and slobbering.  

  

 

She does not like her car seat.  I hear stories of babies who fall asleep as soon as they're in their car seat, and just love being in the car.  I'm beginning to think those stories are just myths!

She also does not particularly like to sleep.  She's ridiculously aware of what's going on around her and hates to miss anything.  To get her to go to sleep, I have to put a blanket over the top of her head so she can't see anything!

If you can't tell, we adore our little Queen!

Post Christmas

Boeing shuts down for the entire week after Christmas, which means Mark has the entire week off work. Hurrah!  We took advantage of having him home and took the kids to visit the Pacific Science Center.  This time around we tried to visit the exhibits/attractions we don't normally see.  

 

We ventured over to the "Grossology" exhibit - "the science of really gross things."  As you might imagine, the boys thought the toot station was the funniest thing ever.

 Another favorite area was the bubble blowing sheet.  

 

We also watched a fascinating IMAX movie about the history of the Canadian railroad. 

 

After the PSC, we went to visit Katie.  The Harps had risked the drive to Utah, and generously brought back all our family Christmas gifts.  The kids certainly didn't mind getting Christmas #2!

After Christmas #1, Aubree had commented, "This was a good Christmas.  I got everything I wanted, except an adult coloring book and modeling clay."

Guess what she got from her cousin Kylee?!  Yep!  Her Christmas was perfectly complete. 

It was a hard transition getting back into the groove of school and normal life after having Mark home for two weeks!

Snowcadia

On New Year's Eve we were finally able to get together with our dear friends the Frank/Allreds, at their family cabin in Suncadia.  December provided an unprecedented amount of snow in the mountains, and our kids were giddy at the idea of getting to play outside.

Not long after we arrived, they donned their snow gear and ventured out with their friends into the freezing temperatures and four feet of snow.

the required Bryce/Maggie pic

They were particularly fascinated with the icicles hanging from the eaves.  Mark agreed to their requests to try and get some down.  That might not have been the best decision, as sharp shards shattered to the ground, one grazing Bryce's cheek.  The kids were unfazed.  

Soon they ventured out into the deeper snow, sinking to their thighs in some areas and laughing all the while.

Nellie and I joined them in the great white open for a little while.

Aubree and Jaylen

Aubree and Jaylen thought the snow was quite tasty.

Eventually they circled back to the irresistible icicles.  This time they found ones that were as large as them, and easier to knock down.

Check out the size of these ice weapons!

Most of the kids came back in for hot chocolate and warm cookies.  Bryce stayed out with Mark for a very long time.  When they finally came in, both were frozen and wet.  They spent the next hour curled up next to the fire.  

The next adventure found Aubree and Thane joining their buddies in the hot tub.  They both thought the combination of snow and a hot tub was the best thing ever.

If they weren't spoiled enough at that point, Shaina and Kara (how I love them!) made everyone fancy Pina Coladas and even served the hot tubbers!

Living the life of luxury!

Thane came in as pink cheeked from warmth as Bryce had been from cold!

We didn't get to stay late (we wanted to be home before New Year's Eve drinkers hit the road), but even still it was an epic day I doubt any of us will forget.  We love spending time with the whole Allred crew.  

Pre-Christmas, Part 2

December is always packed with activities.  

*For our ward Christmas party this year, we decided to do a Christmas Pageant.  We have well over a hundred kids ages 3-11, so we had quite the cast of characters.  Personally, we contributed a shepherd and a wiseman...

And an angel and a "Super" donkey. 

Despite the program being a little too long, it was well received.  Afterwards, our Bishop asked everyone to squish together for a ward picture.  There was quite a bit of good-natured grumbling, but in the end we felt like one big family.

*One of my most treasured Christmas advent activities is our Christ-like dinner.  In summary, this is where we think of someone who is a great example to us of Christ-like love and service, and invite them over for a "thank-you" dinner.  

This is the third year of this particular tradition.  In the past, Mark and I have provided a lot of prompting and suggestions and guidance to help the kids think of a chosen recipient.  This year I was amazed at the great ideas the kids suggested of their own volition and with the solid evidence they presented for each suggestion.  In the end, we came up with four candidates and had a hard time narrowing it down to just one.

After a close vote, we chose Sister Karen Wheiler.  Sister Wheiler is Graham's nursery teacher.  She was also Thane's nursery teacher, which gives you an indication of how long she's served in that capacity.  More insightfully, she volunteered to work in nursery, and loves each of those kids with her whole heart.  

Beyond nursery, Sister Wheiler (whose children are all grown and married) is always the first to volunteer to help when a need arises.  She quietly goes about doing good and lifting feeble knees.  

It was a joy to have her and her husband in our home for dinner and graham cracker house making.  I was shocked when they told us this was the first time they'd been invited over to dinner since they moved into the ward (2 1/2 years ago).  That makes me resolve to do a better job of reaching out.

As I mentioned, we turned out Christ-like dinner into a double activity and made graham cracker houses as well.  This is probably one of my kids' top three Christmas activities; They'd spent days plotting how to get the most candy on their houses!

Mark provided a little bit of assistance to Graham, but other than that the kids were largely independent this year.  

*This isn't exactly an advent activity, but we were blessed to have our dear friends and old neighbors come by to visit one morning.  Graham and his old buddy Henry picked up right where they'd left off, though Graham did admit, "Him growed big!"

The bigger boys had a bit more trouble renewing their easy friendship, but the game of War soon saved the day.  While McKell and I caught up, Thane and Mikey battled away happily.

*We managed to squeeze in an evening of hasty sugar cookie decorating (the boys each got to decorate just a couple before heading off to bed... but don't worry, they got to eat more than their fill later on).

*Bryce had his first piano recital.  Bryce's teacher asked him to play first because she considered him the bravest of her beginning students.  

Indeed he was brave!  He is really enjoying playing the piano.

*Aubree agreed to wear a fancy Christmas dress, even though she much prefers simple, "not poofy or itchy" dresses.  

*Nellie continued to delight us.

*Our neighbors invited us over for their now-famous gift exchange game.  It takes the typical white elephant idea and adds in dice, a time limit, and constant swapping.  Tons of fun!  Thane and Bryce both came home with light sabers, and two happier boys you could not find anywhere.

*Despite what these highlights might suggest, this holiday season seemed more relaxed and less busy than usual, especially once school let out.  The big kids put together numerous puzzles and spent a lot of time playing.  

Really Lost Tooth

The night we were making salt dough nativities with friends, everything was pretty wild and crazy.  Towards to end of the evening, Thane came over to talk to me and I noticed something strange.  "Thane, did you lose a tooth?" I asked.

"What?" he responded.

I looked in his mouth. "You lost a tooth!!"

"I did?  Really?!"

Aubree lost her first tooth when she was seven.  Bryce was six.  Thane just turned 5 1/2 so the possibility of losing teeth wasn't even on our radar.  Not even Thane realized he had a loose tooth.

His first tooth is totally lost.  There was no blood, no pain, no awareness.  

I wouldn't expect any different from this kid.