This Week

We had a fun visit from Grammy and Paga. They got to meet Naomi for the first time, and Ava and Lilly basked in all the extra attention. They came at a good time, because they got to witness Ava learn to ride a two-wheeler for the first time. The girls got scooters for Christmas, and we quickly realized that Ava was good enough at balancing on her scooter that she was clearly ready to take her training wheels off. In a matter of minutes she was taking off all on her own, riding up and down our street.


This week was also butterfly week in the Nielson household. Lilly got a butterfly kit for her birthday. The caterpillars came in the mail and we watched them quadruple in size and form chrysalises. This week they started to hatch. It has been a fun little science project for the girls, but I have to admit, it's all kind of gross. I can't wait for the butterflies to mature enough to release so I don't have to have bugs in the house.


Another big moment today was Naomi's first real bath. Her "umbicord" (umbilical cord in Lilly-speak) finally came off completely, so in the sink she went. Like her sisters before her, she didn't like it at all, but she smells extra delicious again.

Growing

Naomi weighs in at 8 lbs. 5 oz. at her two week check up. That's almost a pound past her birth weight. She really is growing right before our eyes.

Christmas

Christmas was extra wonderful this year because of the addition of Naomi to the family. I look at her and the girls and realize what miracles they are to my life. I feel so lucky to be their mother.


We celebrated Christmas eve at my parents' house with my siblings' families and my grandmother. We had a nice dinner, all of the grandchildren preformed songs, and we exchanged family gifts. We hurried home to get to bed so Santa could come. Ava was especially excited about Santa and tried to stay up to hear the thump of his sleigh landing on our roof top, but she fell asleep in a matter of minutes.


Christmas morning was a huge success with the girls getting Zhu-Zhu pets and scooters. We interrupted the play to eat German pancakes with coconut syrup before hitting the toys again. In the afternoon we went back to my parents' house for pizza. It was great family time, and there is nothing like the feeling of watching your children enjoy the day.

What!?

Last week, Naomi was so tiny I had to overlap the clasps on her diaper to keep it tight enough to avoid leaks. Today I noticed that she is completely filling out her newborn-sized diapers. What in the world? She's growing right before our eyes. I think I need to take that extra box of newborn sized diapers back to Target.

And just for laughs, the following is a picture of Ava and Lilly's impression of Naomi when she makes her signature, cross-eyed look.

Here is a sample of that look. I could just eat her up.

p.s. We took Naomi to the doctor today and she certainly is growing. She weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz.

Naomi Claire

On Sunday, the 13th of December, we welcomed our sweet daughter Naomi into our family. She weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. and measured 20 inches long. I took one look at her and felt my heart explode with love for this little angel.



She is such a joy and we love her tremendously. Lilly calls her My-omi (cute!) and she keeps saying how much she loves having a baby sister. Ava says she's so cute, she can't stop looking at her. And, of course, Naomi has daddy wrapped around her tiny little finger.



She has a wonderful temperament and hardly fusses, which is saying a lot considering how rough her first week was. We came home from the hospital and she didn't poop for an entire week. Newborns usually poop several times a day, so I knew something was not right, especially when she started having bad reflux. After several doctors visits, we landed in the NICU where they tested her for all sorts of scary things and gave her medication to bring on the poop. The next day they started talking about bringing a surgeon in for a consult. Half and hour later she pooped - for 25 minutes straight! They sent us home and so far it looks like she's going to be just fine. The NICU is a scary, scary place to be and we feel so blessed to be home together as a family.

Pop

I'm about to pop. In fact, I'm set to be induced on Sunday if the baby doesn't come before then, which just might happen. The strange thing is that the closer I get to actually having the baby, the less real it feels. Why is that? And more importantly, what in the world are we going to name her?

Temple Lights

We took our annual trip to see the temple Christmas lights and eat ice cream. We got there just in time for the rain so we snapped some quick pictures and headed to Fenton's for fudge-drowned sundaes. I'm so glad we are able to experience some of our favorite holiday traditions before the baby comes.

The Last Few Weeks

I'm a little slow to post these days, but we've been doing some fun stuff. The weekend before Thanksgiving, we took the girls to the Exploratorium. Ava has been begging to go to a science museum, and I've always wanted to take them to the Exploratorium, but I was worried that they were a little young. I was so wrong. The girls loved it so much that we had to drag them out after several hours of fun, and we only scratched the surface of the exhibits.


The next day we celebrated Lilly's 4th birthday. I can't believe my baby is 4. She is such a blessing to our family and we just love how precocious and sweet she is.


Since we are officially in the window where I can't travel, we stayed home for Thanksgiving. We planned a nice dinner with friends, but Ava came down with the flu two days before, so we spent the day quarantined. Fortunately, my dear friends brought their portions of the dinner to us so we had quite the spread. Also, my sister Kati and her son were home alone because she was too sick with the flu to travel with the rest of her family, so we had a little company and cooking help. Everything turned out deliciously.


After Thanksgiving, we decorated the house for Christmas and went to Union Square for some ice skating and window shopping. We are officially diving into everything Christmas in an attempt to do most of our favorite holiday things before I'm home-bound with a newborn.

Wisdom

As Tyler zipped through heavy traffic in the city this weekend, he (appropriately) pronounced, "I'm the master."

Ava was quick to follow up with, "But mommy's the boss."

Turning 4

Lilly woke up this morning, exclaiming "I'm so excited to be a birthday girl!" Well, she's not technically a birthday girl until Sunday, but she had her first ever "friend" party today. Granted, half of her guests were her cousins and sister, but they are her greatest friends, so that counts.

I bought these Build-A-Bear kits at Costco and figured all we needed was cupcakes and that was it. To my surprise, assembling those little bears was almost too much for a mom, let alone a 4 year old, so I was up until the wee hours of the morning sewing them together with my machine so the kids could actually make them with a little help from their moms. The bears turned out really cute, and it was a good activity to direct the energy of 6 little ones running around.

Halloween!!!

It came so fast this year! Halloween day was particularly busy with house chores, Ava's end of the season soccer party and game, a ward Halloween party, and trick-or-treating. No wonder I'm so tired today.

Ava's favorite parts about the church party were the face painting and scary smoothies.

Aunt Tracie, cousin Aleah, and Lilly were all lady bugs.

This is the one and only trick-or-treating picture I have of the evening. The cousins were running from house to house so quickly we had trouble keeping track of everyone.

Don't be fooled by the angelic face and the cute lady bug costume.

Carving Pumpkins

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween. The girls drew the faces on their pumpkins and we helped them with the carving. Lilly's is supposed to be a self portrait!

And yes, we wear gloves when we carve our pumpkins because Lilly and I are allergic to pumpkin guts.

Halloween Parade

Coming in barely second to trick-or-treating is wearing your costume to school for a Halloween parade and party. This year, Ava has a beautiful dragonfly costume thanks to Grammy.

Ava's Teacher was the Tooth Fairy

Seattle

We spent the weekend in Seattle attending my dear grandfather's funeral. He passed away a week before on his 90th birthday. While it's been really hard to have him gone, the funeral was a really great celebration of his life. He was a quiet, humble man who worked hard and was fiercly dedicated to his family. During the funeral, each of his children and grandchildren shared memories of him, and the great grandchildren sang "I am a Child of God." He loved children and would have loved that.

After the funeral, we drove into Seattle and went up the Space Needle. Ava thought it was just about the coolest thing ever, and especially enjoyed eating in the rotating restaurant on top. She now wishes we lived in Seattle so she could go to the Space Needle "every day." She couldn't stop talking about it during sharing time at school today (I volunteered in the classroom). The next morning we went to the Pikes Street market, where the girls were entertained by watching various seafood tossed around before we had to jump on a plane to get home.

Aloha!

We spent a week in Hawaii at the beginning of the month, where we did nothing but rotate between the beach and the pool. It was perfect.

The flight over was a little crazy. It's no fun traveling this pregnant, and Lilly had just about everything happen to her. By the time we arrived in Hawaii, Lilly didn't have any shoes, pants, or underwear. But we were in paradise, and who needs shoes and pants in paradise?

Tyler and I were able to rest up and read lots of books. We also had lots of fun playing with the girls on the beach and the pool. They learned to body surf and boogie board, and went down the water-slide countless times. It amazes me how they have both become such strong swimmers over the last year.

Ava brought her frisbee, which she will throw as many times as someone (Tyler) will catch it and throw it back to her.

Lilly has it in her mind that she is a model. Who taught her to pose like this?

Or this?

Ava had all sorts of questions about volcanoes, so we drove out to the lava field.

And last, but not least, the boogie boarding. Lilly bailed right after I snapped this picture, and refused to get back on.