Here Jen. This is for you since you asked! I was just finishing up Aaron's hair--you know, getting rid of the hairs around the ears and stuff so I didn't have the guard on. I forgot that I didn't have the guard on and saw a few hairs on the back of head that I missed the first time around. Oops. Poor Aaron. I wanted him to keep it how it was and thought that it would be better to just leave it a few weeks until it was long enough to fix. But he had me shave the whole back of his head. Yeah. He looks interesting. He was nice about it. I guess, like he said, It's me that looks at it most, not him. What an idiot I am!!

We had a super weekend! Our friends, the Dickenson's invited us to go waterskiing on their Grandpa's boat on Lake Oswego. There are all of these really big, fancy houses right on the edges of the lake. It was so beautiful! All the kids had to wear life jackets--even poor Joshy! He did pretty good though. I just fed him and he sat in his car seat in his huge life jacket and was good! Aaron took the kids out on the raft. Arwen loved it and Noah was scared to death. Big surprise!! Then our friend Peter took Arwen out to water ski. It was so fun to watch. Arwen had a blast and kept begging to do it again. Instead, the dads and bigger kids went and swam in the lake. I got the fun task of watching Noah and making sure he didn't destroy "Grandpa's house." After that we went over to the Dickenson's house and had pizza. Then Aaron helped Peter put a new window in. The kids and I went to the basement with Pricilla and her kids and watched movies. It sure made me want a basement even more! It was a great day! We all slept well! Yesterday I gave Aaron and Noah haircuts. You'll have to ask Aaron how he likes his haircut. Maybe if I get over feeling like an idiot, I'll put the picture up of what I accidentally did to him. Noah looks a little better. He needs lots of touch-ups. Our stinking camera got broken on the ward camp out so pictures are a little hard to take right now! The view screen got smashed somehow in Aaron's pocket. Oh well. We've been wanting a new camera, so this forces us to get one! This is Josh and his buddy Tanner. Josh is about 3 weeks older I think.

The kids and I are going to eat lunch with Aaron today. They are really excited to show off their new school clothes for him. Well...at least Arwen is . Noah was just excited for the bribe for taking a good picture. They are natural models, don't you think?!

We are currently experiencing the Nielsen Family Plague right now. Well, Noah and Arwen are. Sunday, was the day of the yucky tummies. Yesterday was the day of the fever. Noah's max temperature was 105.8 degrees. When I called his nurse she didn't believe me and made me take it again. (Tell me about it lady--the first time I saw it, I thought for sure the thermometer was broken and I rechecked it!) Then a few hours later, Arwen had a fever too. She kept telling me that her brain hurt. Poor baby. Today is the day of the spots. Noah is covered head to toe in red spots. The hotter he gets, the redder they get. He was bright red in the bathtub today! Arwen has a few spots on her face. I must be a bad mom because I think I prefer them when they have the fevers and just lay on the couch and sleep. The minute Noah's drugs kicked in, he started running around and making up for all the mischief he didn't get into during the day! It will be interesting to see what we get tomorrow! (Let's just hope Josh will escape the plague--even after Arwen sneezed on him this afternoon!)

We went to our Ward Campout this weekend. We had so much fun. It was about an hour and a half away and was just gorgeous! We were right by a river and a little stream. Both were freezing, but the kids had a blast playing in the water. I swam out to a big rock in the middle of the river with Arwen on my back. The kids out on the rock had a good laugh at her "No-Like-It's" as we swam in the freezing water, then before I could even warm up she wanted to get back in. So, I think, hands down, our kids won the prize for being the dirtiest kids in the universe. By the end of the day, they were black. We'd hose them off before bed, then when they'd wake up, it would take only minutes before both of the klutz's would fall and get covered in blackness. I caught Noah eating spoonfulls of dirt. Gross!! They also win the prize for waking up the earliest! Arwen and Noah had fun with their friends Evan, Dallin,Eden, and Tanner. Noah and Evan are the same age and we caught them giving each other huge hugs. It was sweet. We had lots of yummy food and nice fires. Joshua did just great. He's a natural camper. He slept so snug in his little bear outfit!
Arwenisms: "I don't know what it is, but I know what it eats like." Translation (I think)--It's yummy.

Noahisms: "Maggots." He will stand at the fridge and scream for the MAGNETS.
He sings this little song of everything he loves. It goes like this: "Ahhh, Mommy, ahhh Daddy, ahhh Sissy, ahhh baby, ahhh Grandpa, ahhh blankey."
He runs around the house saying, "Ut Dis?" (what this) to everything. It's so fun.

In case you were wondering what a Scout Master teaches his scouts at camp...

This wasn’t actually my trick, and I agree it’s pretty gross; stuff like this keeps the kids from getting into unsupervised mischief though. The trick I shared with them at camp was creating huge fire balls with non-dairy creamer, a trick we put to good use in the BYU days. We’d load it into a potato gun (after the potato) and shoot it over a bonfire and bam! Our displays at camp were not so impressive but the boys liked it. Sadly we have no pictures of that.

~Aaron

Arwen has been taking swim lessons the last two weeks. It's pretty much been a waste of money, but she's having a great time! She screams at all the boys in her class to stop splashing, then splashes all of them. She finally did a real bob for the first time today. Noah is a pain in my side. I spend all of Arwen's lesson keeping him out of the water and also trying to stop him from throwing junk in the pool. (Yesterday the teacher had to spend ten minutes looking for Arwen's "crystal" and today she had to get back in to get a toy out!) Arwen starts ballet lessons in a couple of weeks. Hopefully since they are at a real place (and not our club house) she'll learn something.

What a sweet boy!

"That's so Magic!!"

There's a new character on Sesame Street that Noah is in love with! Her name is Abby Caddaby. Noah has been begging for her all day!

"Hold Baby!" Noah sees his big Sissy carrying the baby (always without permission!) and tries to pick Joshy up too. He sure does love his baby!

We have had such an amazing time with my mom here visiting us. Wednesday evening, we drove Aaron down to the coast to Scout Camp. Then we continued south down 101 and stopped in Newport. We stayed at a place called Driftwood Village. We had the room with the best view. It was amazing. We got there just as the sun was setting. The next day we went to the aquarium in Newport. It was pretty fun. The kids (and Grandma Carrot!!) liked watching the sea lions the best. They put on quite a show for us. They would dive up out of the water right in front of the kids. You should have heard their screams of delight! We drove north for a while to let the kids have a nap and went to a beach called Oceanside. It was pretty fun. Some nice people let the kids play with some shovels and pails and the kids built sand castles. Then we went back to Tillamook to the cheese factory. After sampling some cheese we all got an icecream cone. Even Noah had his own. He did a pretty good job! We drove home after that. It was so much fun!! Then on Friday, we went in to Portland and did some shopping!! Thanks Mom! We had a fun time riding the light rail. We met some interesting people like usual! That night we went home and watched Nanny McFee and had chinese food. It was sure fun. We just got back from driving my mom to the airport. Arwen was sad on the way home and Noah kept doing the sign for "more" and saying Grandma. How sweet! They will sure miss her! They had a blast reading books with her and making her be all kinds of crazy wild animals!

Arwenims:
"Grandma, you're the man!" Don't ask me--I have no idea where she got it from!
My mom got a new purse while she was here. She had the one she liked and showed it to Arwen. Arwen said, "No Grandma, you don't want that one! It's full of garbage." It had the paper stuffing in it still and Arwen thought we were going to buy a purse full of trash. Besides she thought Grandma Carrot should have gotten the one that was silver with shiny sequins all over it!

We sure are having fun with Grandma Carrot visiting us! Here are the shirts and hats Grandpa got for the kids.

This week, after Arwen fell asleep, Noah and I built her a treasure map with clues so she could be a scurvey pirate and hunt for treasure. Her and Aaron found the map and clues and got to enjoy the treasure--rice crispie treats. She's been begging to do more treasure hunt for treats like crazy now!!

Saturday, we went to some friends' family reunion so Aaron could play ultimate frisbee with them. The kids and I played at the playground nearby and Joshy just slept in his stroller. After that we went to the farmer's market for some blueberries. Yummy! Aaron and Arwen camped out in the back yard in our tent. Me and Arwen took a nap in it today after church! It was sure fun. Our poor Joshy is really colicy every night. He just screams and cries. He and I go for walks, but even those don't help him too much. Poor baby!

Arwenisms:
We've been trying to get Arwen not to say, "Oh my gosh," and the like. So now she says, "Oh my donk," which is short for, "Oh my donkey!" of course!
We had chicken for dinner one night and Arwen said, "Where does chicken come from? Cows?" By the way, every meat is "chicken" for Arwen--even shrimp!

Noahisms:
Noah is awesome at saying prayers now! After he's done, he makes the sign for more and asks to say more prayers.

Yesterday, the kids and I went to this park down in Matthew and Bethany's old stomping grounds. I heard about it from a friend and wanted to go there because she said it had little water play areas. She forgot to mention that the water flowed right down into the dirt and was a horrible mess!! The kids loved it! Arwen had fun building castles.


Noal lost his shorts somehow in all of the sludge. Then he found a plastic cup and started to drink the "yuumy water." I ran over and told him "NO!!" and as I walked back to my picnic table all the other moms were looking at me in disgust. Yeah, they were pretty much jealous that my kid was the grossest one there!


Noah was an ugly fish the whole time. I couldn't get him to look at the camera once. I finally had to bribe him with a cracker. What a cute dirty little boy!

We played with chalk all afternoon yesterday. Noah had fun for a bit, but then had more fun throwing the chalk at Arwen.


This is a picture of Arwen and her friend Jake. She says Jake is sad because he misses her.


This was her first picture of Jake. I ran inside to get the camera and when I got back she had made him into a scurvey pirate! (at least that's what I think he looks like--she said he was sad and crying!)