What better to do on a "snow day" than get caught up with my blogging! Speaking of "snow days..." I remember the first year we were in Oregon and everyone told us that it NEVER snows in Oregon and yet, every year, when it has snowed, everyone gets all surprised like, like they've never seen it before! It cracks me up!! We only got to go to Sacrament meeting today because there was like, 2 inches of snow on the ground! The snow is fine...it's the crazy ice storms Oregon has that scare me!



A few weeks ago, we got to go up to Mount Hood and ride the Polar Express. Joshua was in heaven!! He adores trains!!

Really, it wasn't as scary as Noah's face says it was!
Pretty much, Larkin was a squirmy little worm the WHOLE time!
Here's Noah claiming his BENCH on the train. Our train car, by the way, was ghetto! I peeked into the car behind ours and it was NICE. It looked like the one on the Polar Express movie...there was an island in the middle for the workers to make hot chocolate and it had Christmas lights and was light and cheery. We couldn't even see out our windows....they had lots of condensation on them and were scummy! It was fun, though.
Here are the kids with their cousins, showing us their punched tickets. It's hard to tell, but the conductor punched ,"Naughty," into every single one of them ;)

Yeah, so Joshua has so many nick names...most of them he has given himself...Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Factory...well he earned a new one this night from Uncle Matthew. He is now...Pedro. Pretty funny, because ever since he was born I have had people tell me that he looks Mexican...I once even had a friend tell me that he looks black. And people are always confused as to where he gets his dark eyes, hair and skin. I guess maybe they are just comparing him to his fair skinned, pale eyed siblings, but come on! He is just more Hudson than Nielsen.


Daddy always has the special touch and can tame the beasties!! The train ride was fun. It went back and forth on the track a few times while we had hot chocolate and cookies. Then we stopped at the North Pole and let a bunch of "Elves" on. While they sang songs with us, Santa made his way from one car to the next and gave all the kids a bell. Then they read us, "The Polar Express." It was really great...and next year, I'll request the un-ghetto car!!

Yippee!! Here are the family pictures one of my very best friends, Jen took of my cute little family! I am sooooo excited!!
There is this really cool old white washed looking barn that I thought would be really neat in the back ground of our pictures. It's down by Aaron's work. We tried to ask the people who own it if we could use it in our pictures, but they were never home! Hopefully they wouldn't have minded!

This one is so cute! I love how Larkin and Joshua are goofing off together. They do this ALL the time and it is great...until Josh get too rough and hurts Larkin. And I liked it because Noah is smiling :)
This is my favorite of Aaron and I...it's like an ad for Abercrombie...except we have on way too many clothes for that!!
Close-up!! I love close-ups of other people, but it 's always a little weird to see them of myself. But, I really like this picture. Isn't Aaron sooo cute??
Ahhh!! This is my absolute most favorite picture ever!! I love cute little Larkin! She is such a doll! Check out the boys' sweet kicks...they're pretty stylish!!
And here's me and my girls! I love it! The stinky boys would not smile or cooperate for their picture...the naughties!! Anyways, I love them! Thanks Jen!!

Merry Christmas!! I love this time of year. We have lots of little family traditions that we do every year that are so fun!! We started off the festivities this year by taking the kids to pick out a Christmas tree. (We actually gave it to the missionaries since we won't be here for the holidays, but the kids had lots of fun picking one out!)


Santa is at the tree farm every year. He told the kids that they all looked about a year older than last year...go figure. Noah and Joshua want Silly Putty and Arwen wants bubbles. Noah was concerned that maybe Santa didn't know what Silly Putty was, but Santa assured him that he did!!
Here are me and Larkin standing in front of the cute tree we picked out for the Elders!
Here's Noah doing one of his super cool poses!! Pretty much, he's a super hero!
Joshua was just running around like a chicken trying to keep up with the other two!Here's a picture of Arwen looking out onto a little lake with geese on it. The kids had a ton of fun feeding their hot dog buns to the geese...always money well spent around here!!

Here's a "fairy ring" the kids found. There were tons of mushrooms all over the place. Gotta love Arwen's face here...!!

Friday, instead of braving the "Black Friday" crowds, we decided to head down to the coast to go to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and play at the beach. (Well...we got a late start because we had to get Josh into his Doctor to figure out why it looks like he has leprosy and why his ears were rotting from the inside out...seriously, they were so stinky!! He had a double ear infection and a sinus infection...poor kid and I had no idea. He never even got a fever. As for the leprous skin...once again...they have no idea what is causing that. I just got a bunch more prescriptions for him. Poor kid!!)

Me and Aaron got to take a few pictures together because the kids opted to be lazy and watch a movie in the van! Fine with me...it's rare that we get to be alone :)

The weather was perfect...I didn't freeze for the first time ever...It's even cold in the summer on the coast!

Here were the kids after they had drank all their hot chocolate...except Noah...he was way too busy playing in the sand to pose for ANY pictures!!

Here we are drinking our homemade hot chocolate...courtesy of Aaron. Thanks Aaron:)

Oh...there's Noah!! See, we really did bring him with us! Such a fun day. The cheese factory was fun as ever and everyone enjoyed their ice cream cones! I had a lady come up to me and tell me how delightful my children were...and trust me...they were being their usual naughty selves...Noah spilled FOUR cups of water, on purpose! That was so nice...that sure does not happen enough for me!! I need to make sure that I do that more...cause it makes all the difference in the world to a crazy mom!

Yippy!! The kids finally filled up their marble jar and earned their Christmas present up to The Great Wolf Lodge, in Washington. How did they do it, you ask?? Well...by being good and helping mom clean up around the house. It took quite a while, but they did it!!

I know, I know Arwen told me this was a naughty picture because Larkin is showing her midriff...and I agree...only I love it!! In my defense, this is the swim suit I bought for Larkin the first time we went to the Lodge and is size 3 months. She turns 1 in a couple of weeks!!

Here's Ar shooting down the water slide...she is fearless! It was really fun to let her and Noah kind of do their own thing. I didn't feel like I had to watch their every move...which was great since Larkin was always trying to get into mischief...crawling off into deeper and deeper water!!

Noah really impressed me. He's usually a little timid with things and he just jumped in the water and "swam" like a fish. He had the greatest time ever!!

Silly Josh!! He looked like he had been in a fight when we took his goggles off. He had red circles around his eyes to go with his rashy, ouchy skin.

I LOVE this picture of Larkin. After about 5 minutes of crawling around, her knees were raw and so she discovered the "Mowgli" crawl. That brings back such fond memories of sweet baby Joshua!! I also love her little bum!!

Noah talked the family into braving the hot tub outside. It was really fun.

This picture is the greatest. Larkin nearly NEVER will get comfy enough to go to sleep in our arms. We wore her out enough that she did!! I was so happy!! (Notice that I am still dripping wet...well Noah wanted to go on some of the big kid slides that are under the giant bucket that drops 1000 gallons of water down on the park every 10 minutes or so. Noah chickened out about going on the slide at the last minute and as I was trying to talk him into it, the bucket dropped RIGHT on top of us!! Noah screamed and I just laughed!!)

The lodge added a new attraction that was so fun when you had gotten your chlorine intake for the day. It's called MagiQuest. The kids had wands and got to play an interactive wizard game throughout the HUGE lodge. We had to travel up and down 5 flights of stairs over and over...great work out!! It was tons of fun!! Arwen and Noah completed their quests and the 3 adventures and got certificates.

I love this picture taken in the lodge of the kids wishing they were inside the swimming park instead of relaxing by the big cozy fire!

What a cute family...too bad Aaron is missing. I realized when I got home (and looked at the pictures, that I didn't take one single picture of Aaron...what a bad wife I am!!)

This is my most favorite picture taken the whole trip. Normally whenever Noah comes within two feet of Larkin she screams like a dragon and lunges to get away. This time, she let him wrestle with her and even liked it!!

Here we are enjoying a soak in the hot tub.

It wouldn't be a trip without a yummy ice cream cone. Here's Joshua and Arwen patiently waiting for their cones!!

And this about sums our trip up!! It was a little wild, a little crazy, and just plain fun!!

The Nielsen Family is thankful for...
...chocolate cream pies for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning...out of the garbage can!!

Will somebody feed this girl already??

I was Tagged!!





8 tv shows I watch





The Office


Fringe


Sometimes I watch Antiques Roadshow!!


Lost (except we only watch it as one big marathon when it comes out in DVD!!)


Cyberchase


Arthur


Maya and Miguel


Dragon Tales (I know...lame, but there really aren't too many shows we are into right now!)






8 Favorite Restaurants





Benihana


Good Sushi place


Can't remember the name...but the thai place with great Pho


Chevy's


McCormick and Schmick's


Fenton's...too bad its 600 miles away!!


Plearn...too far away!!


I used to crave Chick Fil-A sandwiches...too bad the closest one to me is in like Utah...but now that McDonald's has the Country Chicken sandwich that taste the SAME...I'm good!










8 Things I did yesterday





Cheered when the siding guys were done siding my house!


Went to Target


Dropped Arwen off and picked her up from school


Went to Young Women's


Cleaned my room and the downstairs


Made homemade Chicken Noodle Soup...homemade noodles even :)


Gave the kids a bath


Read General Conference Talk







8 things I look forward to





Noah being in school ;)


Larkin walking...she's just so darn little and cute...I can't wait to see her running around the house!


Joshua being potty trained...this may be in the WAY future...but it will be nice!!


Scott's Wedding


Going to Great Wolf Lodge on Monday for the kids' Christmas present from us


Jen coming to visit and take my family picture...she gets here tonight!!


Arwen learning to read...she can't wait and is doing great!


Aaron coming home from work :)






8 things I love





Aaron


Arwen


Noah


Joshua


Larkin


Thanksgiving


A great book


Larkin saying, "Uh oh!" So cute!!






8 things I can't stand





A dirty house!!


Dirty kids...though you'd never know that by looking at mine!!


Cats...sorry they make me DIE when I get around them


Changing Larkin's diaper...how bad can it be...come and try and you'll find out! She is so naughty!!


Mean people


Clutter


White carpet


Pink walls in a house (I know...it's been 6 years...I should just paint them already!!)




8 things on my wish list





Towels that are mildew free...gotta love living in WET Oregon


A new house


Kids that turn out as great people!!


To go to Hawaii next summer during Aaron's sabbatical


To visit Alaska


To go back to Israel


Lasik!!!!


A happy family!!






8 people I am tagging





Memory


Cassandra


Pricilla


Jenn H.


Amy B.


Amber


Bethany


Heidi


Dori

Happy Halloween. We had a great fun-filled week. Noah's costume party was a blast. On Halloween night, we went the Halloween party at church and handed out candy there.

Here's my cute little frog...that would not wear his frog head!

Here is Spiderman and the witch getting their loot!
And don't forget about my pretty pink octopus!
"I'll cast a spell on you..."
Too bad we didn't get a better picture of this octopus...it was my favorite costume ever!! After trick or treating at church, the kids came home and made themselves sick with candy while watching "The Nightmare Before Christmas." So much fun!

Happy 4th Birthday Noah! Noah had a costume party...that he planned himself!! It was loads of fun!!
Here is Black Spiderman blowing out his candles!! (I'm just glad he got to, as he woke up with a nasty stomach flu the morning of his birthday.)

Here are the little Halloweenies we munched on.
There were his Birthday cup cakes!
And the yummy Sneaky Snake Pinwheel. We had lots of other Halloween munchies that were pretty fun! Thanks everyone that came. Noah loved ALL his gifts!!