Arwen got her wish. It's a GIRL! She's due December 28th.

Aaron took a morning off of work this week so that we could go and take advantage of the special deal Oak's Amusement Park has for kids 6 and under. They get to ride all the kiddie rides they want and then they finish it off by doing story time while the kids enjoy a snack and milk. Joshua had a good time watching the other two kids from the stroller and his back pack. We didn't hear a peep out of him!!

We got to the park a little early and the kids had a blast dancing on the stage to all the kids songs! Here's danger girl enjoying a ride on the carousel.
Noah really liked his giraffe ride!
We made the mistake of taking Noah on the roller coaster way too soon! He was scared of everything after that.
Arwen LOVED the roller coaster, of course! Look at her go, there in the front seat.
We talked Noah into riding the motorcycles with Arwen, but it was just too much for him. He crawled in the stroller after this, covered his head with his blankie and fell asleep. It was a really fun day!

I had really hoped Joshua would be walking by the time we went camping next month...but there's not a chance in the universe, I'm afraid. Anyways, here's a view of things to come, I'm sure. It only took Joshua 3 minutes to get this dirty. What a gross boy!

On our last day at the beach, we went down to Florence to do a few things there.
Here are Arwen and Joshua squeezing in a few more minutes of TV before we packed up.
We went to one of the largest sea caves to see tons of sea lions. We had to go down a 200 foot elevator to get there. It was pretty cool...Noah thought they were scary and we didn't last very long.
Here's a pretty light house pretty close to the sea lion cave. We also enjoyed lots of yummy food and lots of time spent in the car. It was a really fun trip! Thanks so much for coming to visit Grandma Carrot!!

We went down near Florence and stayed at a gross motel for the weekend with my mom. We had lots of fun on the beach though.

Arwen and Grandma Carrot spent lots of time building cool sand castles. Here comes to Josh to destroy it!!
Joshua had a great time playing with and eating the sand.

Noah's favorite part was playing down in the waves. He liked when the water rushed in and would make the sand bury his feet. Joshua army "scooted" around the whole beach.Here is a part of his "snail trail" on the sand. It was funny to look from far away and see how far Joshua scooted around the beach.
Aaron and I enjoyed a beautiful sunset...the kids were way too busy watching the "Sponge Bob" movie to join us!!

My mom came and visited a few days with us this last week. We had SO MUCH fun! There was never a dull moment!!

Here is Noah playing with his new sunglasses...one of the many new treasures Grandma Carrot brought for him to play with. The kids got so many treasures!! They were in heaven!
This is Joshua on the zoo train. He was so tired that he just sat there looking up at Aaron until I stole him away and put him to sleep on my lap!

Here's Grandma Carrot and the kids enjoying the train ride at the zoo. The whole trip we kept hearing about how Grandma was nice and we were bad.

Here's a cute sister giving her cute brother kisses!!

We spent a fun-filled Saturday morning at the zoo. It was freezing when we got there, but the sun finally poked out by the time we left!
Here's Arwen posing with the big fishes of the northwest! Noah would scream every time this big guy would swim past him.
Noah was SCARED TO DEATH of this snake. He took one look at it and ran away and said he didn't want to hold it and that it would bite him. But after a few minutes of watching kids pet him, he got brave and decided to touch it. Yea Noah!!
You'd think we didn't ever take Joshua on our outings...he was in the back pack on Aaron's back having a great old time sleeping!! We'll get some pictures of him on here soon!

I had a great birthday! Me and Aaron went into Portland and tried "The Melting Pot." It was so fun! We did the whole big meal. We started with the cheese course, followed by a yummy salad, then the main course, and of course the dessert! We had lobster with our main course and that was great! That's my favorite!! The dessert was the best part though! We had some crazy cookies and cream concoction that was SO yummy! Overall, we'd go back for dessert!! I came home to a special treat too. My babysitter and the kids baked me a HOMEMADE cake. It was in the shape of a heart! It was so neat!! The birthday candles were lit and everything. I tell you, I have the greatest babysitter ever! Thanks to everyone who called! I felt so loved that day. I'm just bummed that I missed most of them!

We had a great 4th of July! We blew up the kids' swimming pool in the morning so that it would have all day to get warm for them. Then we went to our favorite farm to get blueberries. We decided to pick our own this time. It was pretty fun!
Arwen did an awesome job of picking berries. She had fun and kept reminding Aaron and I not to pick the green ones! She's getting so independent. It didn't bother her one bit to pick berries far from us, or to go back to the house and ask for one more bucket.
We got lots of yummy berries. Noah kept making me take berries from my bucket and put them in his so he could eat them!
This pretty much sums up Noah and picking the berries. Just one berry, and pouting at that!!
After naps, we all got our suits on and went for a swim in the new pool. The water was so warm!! All the kids had a blast. Too bad we didn't get any pictures of Joshua! He loved it.
Noah's lips were the color of his eyes and swim suit by the time we were done. It's nearly impossible to keep that kid warm!! After dinner, we drove up to Vancouver to watch the fireworks. We decided to not walk to the Fort and try and find a place closer to the water front to watch them. We found a pretty good spot. I liked it better only because there weren't a million smokers around! Families were setting off their own fire works before the big show. Some of these people must have spent a fortune! It was really amazing. Poor Noah was scared to death...he's just our little 'fraidy cat! The kids made friends with a group of kids their age. They had fun coloring with chalk and blowing bubbles. Arwen shared her glow in the dark bracelets with them. She sure is a giving child. Overall, it was a wonderful day!!

I'm not quite sure who we have told and who we haven't told, but...we are expecting our next naughty Nielsen kid this December! We are very excited. Little Arwen is praying for a girl, so she can have a sister, but we'd be happy with either!!

My friend Memory scanned these for us! Thanks Memory!!

Ahhh! We have done a ton of fun things lately...but I never have the camera with me!! We have gone and played in the water fountains and gone to the free kid movies at the theater and gone to parks. Aaron took Noah to a Father Son activity last week. Poor Noah got thrown from a big wheel into a fence and got a smashed up, bloody nose. Then, when they were sitting around the camp fire, a spark bounced out of the fire and singed through Noah's hair and burned his scalp. He still has a scab! We have gone to the Farmer's Market every weekend and spent way too much money on berries and yummy food! It's been a fun summer so far. Yesterday, we were able to go to the ocean. It was a beautiful day...not too hot and not too cold.
Joshua enjoyed playing in the sand for the first time. He loved watching the ocean. He loves the water!!
He also loved eating as much sand as we'd let him! What a silly little boy.
It wouldn't be a trip to the coast without having an ice cream cone for lunch and sampling lots of cheese!
We brought our kites and flew them. We have a really cool dragon kite, but for some reason, we have no pictures of it!
You'll have to view this one big to truly appreciate it. I found an old rotting star fish in the sand. The kids were pretty scared of it at first...afraid it would bite them. Amazingly enough, I convinced the scardest boy in the universe that it wouldn't hurt him and he picked it up. He ran miles around that beach trying to scare Arwen with it. It was so funny! She screamed and ran for her life and Noah ran at her with a devilish look on his face like he was trying to hurt her!
Joshua enjoyed helping me fly the kite while watching the other two kiddies.