Pictures, pictures, and.....more pictures

The blog-bug has not bitten me in quite a while. I am trying to get motivated with that. I still enjoy "blog-stalking" others and see how their lives are. I should probably allow others the same.
It is freezing here (-5 degrees last night!), so the girls and I are doing our best to have fun inside.
Olivia and Evalyn are fighting less...actually they are just getting better about not drawing blood when they fight (baby steps forward). Avery is ginormous and is already wearing clothes that her sisters were walking in. Her abs are looking better than mine since she is always trying to pull her head and shoulders up when she is laying on her back. Jacob is loving teaching and passed two more Praxis exams with flying colors. I am slowly heading toward normal and have actually starting "running" every day (notice the quotation marks). I count it as "running" since I am rhythmically moving faster than a walk and gasping for air.
I am excited for Christmas. We made felt decorations this year so the girls are able to decorate and redecorate the tree to their hearts desire. More pictures later.






My grandmother gave Olivia this gingerbread kit for her first Christmas. 3 years later, we've finally opened it up and enjoyed it. All I can say is that it is Awesome and Easy and Fun to do with the young 'uns. I will be looking for more of these kits in the after Christmas sales.




Avery Jane is sleeping through the night. Seriously. I use to say that when the other girls were sleeping 5 hours at a time, but this girl sleeps 8-10 hours... straight. Now that the body has adjusted to that, I'm enjoying it too. I'm frantically knocking on wood now as I recognize I might have just jinxed it. Her eyes are still not brown, but not blue either. She has this deep belly laugh that her daddy just melts for and helps remind her mommy to just breathe and smile.




This is my big, beautiful, bossy, brown-eyed girl. She can talk herself into and out of any situation. She tells her younger sister stories at night to help them both fall asleep. She has her mother's overactive imagination and her daddy's smile. If anyone had any ideas how to keep life fun while at the same time lessening the drama, I would appreciate them.

Awww.....

Back to reality.

Evalyn loves here new sister. She wants to do all these fun things with Avery that Olivia does that with her. However, we have to constantly remind Evalyn that "even though Avery is almost as big as you, she is still a baby". I don't know how much it is sinking in.

Evalyn is my adorable little munchkin. She is talking all the time now and is still my reliable garbage disposal. When music comes on, she spins and spins and spins until she is dizzy and has no choice but to lay down. Hil ar ious.

And check out this handsome devil! Remember school pictures? Jacob get to take one every year...for the rest of his life. Ah, the ol' blue background. I love it. I keep trying to convince him to grow a beard or something because it would help age him. My junior in high school. I love him. Even when I'm going crazy, I know I love him.

Would that be in spite of my going crazy, or one of the side effects? Hmmm....

who is in charge here?

Yes. That is snow on the green grass. Crazy, eh. Thankfully it is all melted now because snow in October is not exciting for mommies of little kids. The girls did have a great time making a snow-girl with their wonderfully patient daddy. It was great to see Evalyn try to get the hang of walking in snow pants and snow boots.

Once again, I cannot figure out how to rotate the pictures. It is alot easier for you to just tilt your head...
Do you see the face of this little angel? Don't let it fool you! She loves to antagonize and attack her older sister. I have been reading blogs of friends (a*hem, Andrea) who's little girls love to play together and can *imagine this!* be left alone in a room without brawling it out against one another. Please, oh please, let me know how this was made possible. Jacob tells me that its in their genes, but it would be wonderful to find a solution. Evalyn loves her older sister, Olivia, but she also loves to pester her. It feeds her soul and seems to be very addictive on her little system... please send answers. I really need them.

My cute little rats. They had so much fun! And for those of you who are asking in incredulous voices, yes, I am allowing them to eat the snow. C'mon, we all do/did it. I already gave them the old "watch out for the yellow snow" lecture anyways.

Angle your head again...
Olivia loves to hold Avery. And sing to Avery. And burp Avery. And talk to Avery....
Hmm, I'm starting to get an idea as to why Evalyn is fighting (literally) for Olivia's attention.
Both girls do really well with baby sister. Evalyn is still very rambunctious and not as 'coordinated', so it is a little scary when she comes running to see the baby. Mommy is getting great biceps from handing Avery Jane back and forth in 10 second intervals as the girls take turns holding her.




Look at that foot! It is a cute, "awwww" picture, but also: that is a HUGE foot for one of our babies! Avery Jane (at two weeks) is in the 5th percentile for weight (7 lbs 2 oz) and the... 70th percentile for height. Correct, that is a 7 with a zero after it. Awesome! We have never had a child above the 10th in anything. Baby sister is going to be the giant of the family if she keeps this up. Quite exciting for her mommy who is struggling to reach 5'2''.

Avery Jane Nilsen

So, I'm just chillin here at the hospital. I have the wonderful sausage fingers and toes and am not able to sit up on my own...but life is seriously good. We have wifi, cable, a beautiful new baby girl, and as many popsicles as I can eat!
Just adding a few more details as Ava-Jane is asleep and Jacob is out getting some grub.
I was able to be awake for this C-Section and that was AWESOME! For those of you who don't know, Olivia should have gone to cesarean and had to be in the nicu for a week; Evalyn was an emergency cesarean after 9 hours... They put me under for Evalyn's and I still remember feeling betrayed when I came out of the drugs and the doctors told me that she had been with her daddy for over an hour. So this was pretty cool to be able to be a part of the show and talk and watch it all going on.
Of course, the scissors the surgeons were using got dull pretty quick on my abs of steel.
Jacob was able to record the surgery- he set up the camera and then just stayed by my head until Avery was out. I loved being awake and being able to hold her immediately. She was a little blue smurf who had a great cry. She has already found her thumb, nurses like a champ, and makes these cute squeaky sounds that remind me of a dog's chew toy.
I did forget about all the pain that comes with a c-section. Wow. Chocolate does make it better and my father-in-law already snuck me in a couple of Twix. Now it is time for some more meds and they put me out pretty quick. Thank you all for the calls, prayers, and messages of support. Hopefull we will be back in Carey by Friday. And then, the adventures will really begin.

Number 3 Nilsen was born this morning via c-section at 7:55. She was 6 lbs 9 ozs. and 19 1/2 inches long. Mom and baby are both doing well. Enjoy the first pics.

So...things have changed...

Hello All! Big announcement: we have moved! Yes, we are suffering whiplash from how fast it all happened, but we are doing well.
Jacob got a call on a Wednesday offering him a position teaching Spanish and ENL at the school in Carey, Idaho (my hometown). On Friday he interviewed and later that evening found out he got the job. On Saturday he received the phone call letting him know that he needed to be there on Tuesday....3 days later. So, that left one very pregnant and good-spirited (stop laughing!) wife with two crazy girls to pack up and move. Long story short: it happened.
We are now living in Carey, Idaho (still getting phone calls from people asking us where we went) and counting down the days until baby girls number three joins us (we are down to 5 days folks!).
Jacob is loving teaching and striving to build up relationships with the students. I am loving having him home at 4:15ish every day. It is great to have a yard full of trees and our own space with great neighbors. It is awesome to be so close to family. It is sad not to be so close to other friends and family. And this big-belly thing is definitely getting old.
I know our camera is around here somewhere....but not exactly sure where... So, no pictures. However, we are still alive and have not fallen off the planet. We hope all are doing well and will take more time later to check out how everyone is.

Summer Days

My sister is visiting for a few weeks and I have been in heaven- my own personal slave that my girls absolutely follow everywhere and adore... what am I going to do when she has to leave?!?
The weather has been beautiful and we are all a couple of shades darker from so much time outside. The beach is fantastic and the water is warming up. I'm just posting a bunch of pictures of my beautiful family. Enjoy!

Yep, another one.

It is official. We are having another beautiful baby GIRL! Mommy wanted another girl because we have all girl clothes and Daddy wanted another girl because he loves his little girls:)
We are about 27 weeks along now and life is good. I am taking a splendid little pill that is normally given to patients going through chemotherapy to prevent me from dropping down to that fun 98 lb point that I did with Evalyn.
Olivia was a little disappointed at first (she was hoping for a baby boy) but is now excited to be a "double-big-sister". She has cast her vote and is determined that we should name the new sister, "Tinkerbell". Evalyn is oblivious to anything besides she needs to be soft with mommy's belly. But judging by the way she handles her baby doll, this is really going to be interesting. Good thing babies are so durable!
We were able to get some cute/creepy ultrasound pictures and everything looks really healthy and well (of course this is just going off what the tech was saying because I couldn't tell one end from the other). However, we all know how illiterate I am when it comes to all things technical, so there will be no pictures yet and you will all have to trust that I am telling the truth:)

Summer is here...hopefully...

The blog-bug has not bitten me for a while. However, at the friendly insistence of relatives that we "get some more pictures up", we are posting new pictures of random good times.

Despite the insane and fun thunderstorms and hail storms the past week has brought, we are really convinced summer is here. The garden is finally in, and the girls have exchanged sweat pants for shorts (I, on the other hand, am perfectly content to wear my sweats all year long).

My brother and his wife, Jonathan and Lisa, along with their twin boys and Lisa's sister with her husband and two children (don't worry about that sentence making sense, just keep reading) all spent the weekend with us. We were a little disapointed that the weather did not cooperate, but it was still great to get together. Olivia loved her new friend, Riley (4 yrs old), and they both are bossy and that worked out great, surprisingly. After going through two bottles of nail polish, 1/2 a bottle of room spray, a tube of baby lotion, and all the dresses in the closet...there was a rule the door had to always be open.

As much as I moan and weep, this town is actually pretty nice in the summer. We are within walking distance from a very fun and warm beach and we have a spare bedroom and a backyard. That said, if anyone is looking for a cheap and relaxed family getaway come-on-down. One rule is that you have to call first because the spare bedroom is also where I stash all the clean clothes that come out of the dryer... and pretty soon it makes more sense to just rummage through the pile than actually take time to fold and put away... get the picture? Seriously. Call first. And call.

Evalyn was trying to use her green marker the same way she saw mommy use an eye liner pencil. She actually did pretty good, considering.



Trying out the new pool. Yes, Olivia is pretty much naked. We have established that now the underwear has to stay on at all times while outside. I would like to thank whatever brother of mine taught her to pee outside though... she has pulled that a few times. You know who you are.



Check out those muscles on daddy!

This is just adorable. Jacob is starting early to try and convert them from soccer to baseball.

No need for words. I just love, 'em.

Olivia is 3!!!

Happy Birthday to Olivia Chaya Nilsen. She is 3 today. Initially, since her daddy would be gone, we were just going to pretend her birthday is next week. However, a relative unintentionally brought the whole birthday thing up to her... so we had a little celebration. It was fun and she loved it. I am lousy (seriously lousy) at surprises, so Olivia helped me with all the planning and executing of this momentous event. Yes, we are celebrating again next week when daddy is here.

This is the wonderful "ladybug" creation. We used everything from gum and rolo's, to chives for the decoration. The inside was a beautiful, brilliant blue. Delicious!

Evalyn getting in on the cake eating with Aunti Lilly. She handled the fork very well.



Grandma O. had a great time with Olivia. They both were divvying up the cake before the candles were even blown.



Her birthday tutu that mommy and Aunti Lilly made.



This was great! Have you ever heard of "spaghetti dogs"? So much fun. I got the idea from a great blog called plumpudding (check out a link here on our site) and they are hilarious. Evalyn and Olivia went to town stuffing the spaghetti through the hot dogs. My family thinks we're crazy but they were such good sports about Olivia's birthday dinner.

My mom made Olivia this beautiful blue dress and this cute little church bag. My mom and dad stuffed the church bag with books, chapstick, snacks, doodlepads, colored pencils, and other quiet activities just for church. It was a great reminder to me about how special home-created gifts are. Olivia loved the gifts. They were made with love, took thought and time, and just reminded me that you don't have to rush to the store and try to find the best and brightest toy to make a great gift. I just need to get creative...

Happy Mother's Day

We are in Idaho for two weeks while Jacob is working in California. The whole single-parent thing wears off really, really fast. The hardest is when Olivia curls up in my lap and just says quietly, "I really miss my daddy." However, we are onto the final week. My family has been great in putting up with us and the chaos we bring. The past few days have been really beautiful. We came home from church today and discovered that my Grandmother's lawn was flooded (the head-gate was left open). The fam made the most of it and brought the ducks and the girls over to play. It was followed up with a barbecue and falling asleep on the lawn. Life is good.


My mother and Grandmother enjoying the barbecue in honor of them!

I love the dirty bottom here. She sat in the water to be able to play with the ducks better.

Olivia had a fantastic time in the water. Personally, I thought it was freezing, but she loved it!

Yes. We are alive.

Bwah..haa..ha...
We are alive. Actually, it is just barely because chaos attacked me from all sides:
1. My cell phone decided to stop working. This is one of my life-lines to the outside world.
2. Our computer died. This is one of my other life-lines.
3. Both (yes, we can only get 2) of the radio stations could not be picked up on the radio.
4. It started to snow all over the beautiful green grass and forced us to seek shelter inside...forever.

So, you may all be thoroughly impressed that there are still 4 residents of the Nilsen Household.

Today, (joy of joys!) our new computer arrived and I am so very ridiculously grateful to my brilliant father who got it all set up and and takes so good care of us. Even though I should be sleeping right now, I am posting some random fun pictures and loving the feel of my fingers on the keyboard. Enjoy! I will be back tomorrow during my daughters' naptime so that I can neglect all the cleaning and cooking in order to be able to get up to date on my friends and family.



ok... not posting any random pictures because I cannot figure out what is wrong with my camera. Who is to complain- I have a computer and two radio stations. I know humanity is still out there....

Evalyn Scout is 1!

Evalyn Scout is 1 year old. Now, this was a little bit confusing for her because she wasn't aware of proper birthday etiquette and traditions. However, I will translate her thoughts in alignment with each picture so that we all can see what is going on in her head.

Not really sure what it means, but I love "birthdays"!

I never get to lick icing off the beaters, I hope it is my birthday tomorrow too.

Bwaaah!! Where is my beater full of icing?! I hate birthdays!

Oh. Bless my heart, I do believe that this is edible. And, it has icing on it!

"Happy Birthday" to me...