We had all of the Nielsen cousins at Grandma's house for the first time in years. Here's a cute shot we got of all of them. There's Arwen, Evan, Noah, Madelyn, Austin, Dallin, Joshua, and Jack.

Pretty much here are three, naughty, little mischief makers. The look on Evan's face pretty much sums them up! Just kidding! Arwen and Evan sure have a great time when they get together. They always just pick up from where they left off the last time.

We had a great Thanksgiving visiting family down in California. It was nice to see all the cousins and aunts and uncles! The food was really yummy too!

While the Mom's are away...the kids will play! Bethany, Heidi, and I went and did some wild and crazy shopping at the mall the day after Thanksgiving. We got some good deals and had so much fun enjoying some kid-free time. We even stopped and got pedicures! Here's Joshua with Lilly, Meghan's puppy.

Arwen had a hold of Lilly anytime she could. She loved her!

The kids spent a lot of time helping the Dad's "fix" Uncle Josh's tree house. Yes, that's Arwen with a saw and Evan with a hammer.

Don't you love the picture...check out where Arwen's fingers are. We made it home, amazingly with all of our appendages!

We had lots of fun playing outdoors in the beautiful weather. When we got back to Oregon, it was below freezing! We didn't even need coats at Grandma's house!
There were always a couple of dogs running around that the kids had a blast playing with. Here's Noah with Lilly, Meghan's new puppy. The kids loved Lilly, who was a sweet little puppy who didn't nip at them, which they appreciated!
Aunt Bethany built the kids a "house" out of leaves. It had a room for everyone. It was so cute. The little ones also had fun throwing the leaves in the air. Sweet little Noah liked to pick Grandma's pretty purple flowers. Later on, Arwen got a hold of them and "married Josh."

Uncle Josh has a really fun rope swing that the kids love! Here's Arwen at the TOP of the ladder. She was so brave. I remember trying to go off this swing when I was pregnant with Joshua and it scared me to death! Here she goes! What a silly, sweet girl!

We had another beautiful day yesterday! Aaron got all the leaves raked up and the kids had fun playing on the Trampoline.

Can we say, "Haircut?"

Along with the dry weather comes the static electricity!

I think this is Noah attempting to blow a bubble with this gum as Aaron took the picture.

Arwen has a little boy in her tap class. He has the CUTEST little sister that I have ever seen in my whole life. She is a month younger than Joshua and is just tiny! Noah really wanted to touch her hair. He just kept telling me how cute she was and that he needed to pet her. The mom seemed a little weirded out that my kid wouldn't stop petting her baby. I tried to get Noah to just play with her, but he needed to pet her. Later, I explained to Noah that we don't pet people, just animals. Well, the other day in the car, we were on the way to a baby shower. Arwen told me how excited she was to "pet" the baby. I told her we don't pet people...and from the back of the van, Noah shouted back, "We only pet animals!" Well, he understands what I tell him, even if he never minds me!

The other night Noah was being a beastie...like he sometimes is. I put him in a time-out. When he was allowed to get out, he came and cuddled beside me on the couch and told me, "Mom, when we are married, you cannot put me in time-outs anymore."

We have had the greatest weather for the last two weeks. We've had blue, sunny skies! It's been so great! Saturday, Arwen and I were out running errands and the boys stayed here and tried to rake up leaves. Aaron left Noah outside to bring Josh inside for his nap. When he came back out, he couldn't find Noah anywhere. Finally he called for him, and from a far corner of the yard, where Aaron's pile of leaves was, he heard Noah call back. Noah had completely buried himself in the leaves. Aaron said that he looked like he was about to fall asleep. He went in and got the camera and took a picture of all of Noah that he could see! What a cute little boy!