Well, I just stumbled across these awesome pictures taken this last weekend. We didn't have enough room in our car for everyone while Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen were visiting, so I decided to stay home and "rest" with Larkin. Too bad I had a funeral for church to plan and didn't get much resting done!! Anyways, Aaron took everyone to Multnomah Gorge.
Arwen can be so darn cute when she wants to be...don't be too deceived though...there's a tantrum always on the brink of erupting in her that you could hear in China!!
This pretty much sums up Noah lately. He's so stinking naughty. He tells these amazing stories...too bad they always have the word "poop" in them at least five times! I'll have to write up his "Gollum pooping in the garden" story later. It kept me in stitches!
Here's good old Grandpa Willy and Noah "Willy" at one of the waterfalls. I swear this was one of the only pictures of Noah NOT sticking out his tongue! I guess his ears sticking out make up for it :)
Arwen and Old Man Willy get along so well...they always spend so much time together when we are all visiting. He wrestles and tickles her to death...which she loves! He spent hours up in Ar's room with just her reading her stories and playing.
We sure do like it when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit!!

Noah has a bad habit of sneaking out of his room multiple times at night. When asked what he is doing, he always says he has to go to the bathroom. ("There's no way a little boy can pee 3 times in 45 minutes," I told Aaron last night!!) Anyways, when we woke up this morning Noah came down with a blue mouth. He found these crazy little food coloring pellets that you can put in the bath to make fun bath water colors. (like the dirty kids don't color the water a beautiful brown by the time they are done!! That and they are in there to get clean, not come out with the faint hue of blue!) Apparently he thought they were candy and when he realized they weren't, he spit it out all over his mouth. Well, Arwen found the pellets in Noah's room today and brought them to me with a gross look on her face and a blue tongue (you think maybe my kids are candy addicts??) and told me they were not candy. I explained what they were and told her to put them in the garbage and go and wash her blue hands. I was in the middle of cooking bacon and didn't notice Josh swipe the "candies" from the trash can. He brought them into the bathroom with Arwen. Here is what I found:

"Let me see your hands Joshua. Why are they wet and blue?!"
Yup...my sweet little boy LOVES to play in the toilet! Every time I look in the kids' toilet upstairs, there is a toy floating in there! What a gross little thing!!

Today was Larkin's blessing day!! It was so nice to have Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen with us.
Here's Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen with all the kidlets.
What a little Daddies Girl...
But only Mama can get the best smiles out of Larkin!
Such proud parents. (Aaron thinks he looks like the old man in that old time picture...the one where he is holding a pitch fork. Funny!)
My favorite thing about this picture is Joshua...so laid back!! That's just exactly how he has been about getting his spot as "baby" in the family replaced by a littler baby! Noah was so excited to see Larkin in her white "princess "(dress) this morning. He said she was so beautiful!
Grandpa Willy and Daddy with the new little princess!
This is my favorite little picture of Larkin thus far. This is one of the sweet little faces that she makes all the time. Grandma Nielsen thinks she was born looking very wise...we'll have to see!

Larkin's blessing was really neat. Aaron blessed that she would be a compassionate person...especially when dealing with her own children. She was also blessed with a good sense of humor...Aaron said, "Uh oh...she's gonna need compassion and a sense of humor when dealing with her children because they are gonna be BAD!" Let's hope not too bad :) I didn't catch the rest of the blessing because a little Josha decided to be bad and I had to chase him and keep him from joining the blessing circle!

We had a snow day today...well, till about noon!! It was lots of WET fun!!

Noah is all about fashion...he insists on wearing Arwen's cowboy boots everywhere. At least they don't look girly :)
Snow angels are a must...
You know the movie, "A Christmas Story," where Ralphie's little brother has that huge red suit he has to wear outside when it's cold...and he keeps saying, "I can't move my arms..." That's pretty much Joshua! But it doesn't stop him from having fun!
I love this picture, even though you can't see his eyes. Such a Joshy look.
Check out the color of Noah's snow treat...and I'm sure it's covered in all the snot he had dripping from his nose...he's the grossest thing in the universe! I love the look of such enjoyment on Arwen's face. Happy kids are the greatest!
After this we came in and had hot chocolate. Yummy! We had grilled cheese for lunch. After Noah ate his, he asked for a "boy cheese" sandwich...you know, cause he was done with his "girl cheese!"

Well, it's been a while since I've updated everyone as to the antics of my kids. So, here you go!
This is my favorite face that Arwen makes. She has done it since she was a little girl...and now I see Joshua making it sometimes! Arwen is 5 now! She gets to start school this year. How fun for her! She just moved into her brand new yellow bedroom that she shares with her new sister. She keeps her room very clean and even makes her bed every day...not because I ask, but because she wants to! She is doing tap and ballet lessons this year and LOVES it! She will be doing a ballet dance in our Primary's talent show next Friday. We are so excited! She loves to draw. Mostly, she draws cute pictures of our family. She gets pretty fancy...eyelashes, fingers, clothes. She is a huge help for me. She is always willing to help me out. We sure love our Arwen!
So, Noah pretty much needs a haircut. Mostly I only notice on Sundays when we are at church. Some old man there told him he would look like a girl soon if he didn't get a hair cut! True enough! Noah has been very difficult lately. We think mostly because he doesn't get as much cuddling and attention as he used to before Larkin arrived. He's going through a "kill everything" phase. Everything is a weapon and no one is ever on his safe list. He spends a good portion of his time in time-out. He is still my sweetest, most compassionate child when he wants to be. His "I love you's" could melt anyone's heart. He loves to hold his baby Larkin. We can't wait till he gets done with his mean phase, but we of course love our Noah! Joshua!! There is so much to say about this darling! He is always happy and SMILING!! We are extremely blessed to have all of our kids, but especially our sweet Joshua! He is definitely the peace maker here! He loves to give big, wet, loud kisses lately...mostly to Larkin. Did you know my Josha is left-handed? Neat...just like Grandpa Willy. Josh is really learning to talk these days. The BEST is when we read scriptures . We always have each kid repeat a couple of verses and the only way we can get Josh to do it is if we say each word in a high-pitched voice. He repeats what we say in his cute high voice! He loves to sing and dance...watch out when we turn the music on. He jams!! Joshua is the best eater I have. He never tells me it is gross and eats nearly everything! He LOVES shoes. But not his...just everyone else's! He is such a doll with the brightest, best SMILE ever! We love our Josha! Larkin is what we call a "ladien" (rhymes with alien...it's actually how Noah says alien!!). I can't figure out who she looks like. I see bits and pieces of the others in her, but not too much. She's going through her "teenage" baby phase right now...zits!! She just started smiling last week. That and opening her eyes for more than a few fleeting seconds. They are a deep blue. We thought they were going to be brown like Josh's but now we're not quite so sure. It will be fun to find out! She is doing a little better at sleeping in the night time...yea!! Larkin loves her bath time. She is a really good eater, though I think she is the smallest of all my babies. She hasn't chunked out like the others did at this point. I'm sure she'll get there any day now, though! We can't wait to see what Larkin's personality will be like. We love our little "Ladien!!"

This is a little song I would like to dedicate to all of my best friends out there...you know who you are!! (I had this song in my head ALL night...) Enjoy!!!



http://youtube.com/watch?v=07l70kley7U

Joshism: Joshua is such a funny little kid lately. He's not a big talker, but is trying. I say each letter of the alphabet and he tries to repeat me. So far the only two he likes to say are "B" and "D." He says them with the thickest, cutest, loudest southern accent. It is hysterical! As you know, Josh was really slow to do everything just about...rolling, crawling, walking. But, he is by far the best dancer of all my kids. He has this one move we call "twinkle toes." He prances on his toes so stinking fast, and then jumps in the air and lands straight on his bum. He does all kinds of dance moves whenever he hears any music. When I play the song, "Umbrella," he sways back and forth and says, "Ella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh," along with the song. It's so cute.

You'd never even know we have four kids now...since we've only taken a handful of photos of Larkin. I'm not a good picture taker, but here are a few that somewhat look like her :) Aaron wants to take more after the other naughties are in bed...so hopefully some of them will turn out good!
Larkin's a really good baby, aside from nighttime! She grunts and is awake all night. I'm not sure how many nights a mom can go with no sleep after having a kid before going crazy :)
I think I've actually only seen her eyes like 12 times during the daytime. They are always closed and dreaming of milk!
I can't wait for her to start smiling! She sure is a sweet little thing. I think she looks like Arwen did, only by the time Arwen was 3 weeks old, she was a fatty. Larkin is tiny...still wearing her premie outfits.
I can't wait for her to get fat so we can start dressing her in all her cute clothes!

We wanted to do something fun on New Year's Day since it's our last day with Aaron for a while. It was so freezing cold outside though! We decided to take a drive through the Gorge to look at the water falls.
Here are the two kids...trying hard to not get blown away. It was pretty windy...which made it ten times colder!
We stopped off at the Vista Point because as we drove in to the parking area, we could feel our car almost being swept away from the high winds. It was really cool! Aaron took Arwen and Noah out separately and carried them into the wind. They would have blown away if he had let them walk. Here's Ar hanging on for dear life! We lost the lens cap at this point...that crazy wind!!
Here's me being brave...that wind was amazing. It was impossible to walk where you wanted when it gusted really hard. Some guy told us the the winds were around 50 mph!
It's hard to tell Aaron is in the wind...but it's a nice view in the back ground!!

Here are a few pictures of the kids with their new Larkin.
Joshua loves Larkin to pieces. He makes cute little baby noises anytime he notices her. He tries to be very helpful and give her her pacifier when she loses it...well except when he puts it in his own mouth!
Arwen is so pleased to finally have a sister. She can't wait until we put Larkin in her room with her...I can't wait either! Currently, the little one grunts all night long and keeps us awake and very tired during the day!
Noah loves his little sister a ton! He just likes us to lay her on the ground so he can coo and smile at her.