This n' That

~Today was a snow day!! yipee!! If they would have had school, I would have had to go and help with the treat sale.  Yay! Got out of that one! ...Just being honest...don't be mad!

~There is a 4 foot snow drift on my front step. :)

~It's either feast or famine in Joslyn's clothing department, since she just had a birthday and Christmas, we are feasting.

She loves her purple sparkly pants!

~Joslyn got a Tinkerbell movie for Christmas and she has watched it like 25 times, you'd think it was the only girly movie we owned or something... :)

~ My goal for the new year is to be a better visiting teacher. My new calling is, visiting teaching coordinator. There will be no x's on my beat, only check marks!

~The sound of this makes me want to get up and waltz around the room!

 

 

Sunday nights are now the best for TV, Revenge then Downton Abbey, ahhh!

 

~ hudson--Hudson just typed his own name.

 

~ Speaking of Hudson, when I picked him up from preschool he hopped in the car and said, "Mom, you know The White House? It has a bowling alley in it and a swimming pool with a DIVING BOARD! And a movie theater, and you don't even have to leave, you can just go to the movies." me-"WOW, cool should we live in The White House?" Hudson- "YEAH!... well you have to be the President."

It was like dejavu because I had that exact same conversation with Brody about 4 years ago!

My kids must be really impressed that a house would have those things in it.

 

~Ever heard of Project Life? I am itching to get this. I've been eyeballing that kit for a month. I'm a scrapbooker at heart, I used to scrapbook every photo, that is until we got a digital camera. :( I did a bit of digital scrapbooking, it was fun. But this, this is it! So easy too! I will keep you updated, just need to take the plunge.

 



Happy Birthday Joslyn!!

Joslyn turned 3 on January 4th!!

Her birthday cake this year, The Ombre Rosette Cake:

 

I love the way it turned out, and it was SO easy!

Here she is wearing her "beautiful dress" she put it on herself. :)

 

Make a wish sweet girl.

 

Even the inside has some ombre action.

 

 

Cinderella doll :)

 

"Puzzles!" She loves doing puzzles!

 

 

Cinderella dress ups = one happy girl!

 

I told you that we don't quit partying until the 4th :)

 

Joslyn went from a baby girl to a little girl in a year, she changed SO much!!

~She loves to help... we always let her put away the silverware when we empty the dishwasher, if you do it without her it makes for 1 sad girl! She loves to help me cook, if she hears the mixer start, she comes runnin' and grabs a stool so she can be in on all the action.

~She loves to play with her babies and her kitchen and she loves to bring you pretend ice cream cones!

~She is still not a huge breakfast eater which is totally opposite from her brother, she is happy with milk...and maybe a little yogurt an hour later.

~No naps for this girl just 12 + hours of sleep.

~If she sees Hudson playing my kindle she asks if she can play, if I say no she'll say, "Why Hudson?" funny!

 

We are so glad to have our little Joslyn she definitely brings and element of sweetness into our home!

 

Happy Birthday Hudson!!!

Hudson turned 5 on January 2nd!!

To celebrate we had everyone over for meatball sandwiches and glass block jello . Most people stop partying on the 1st... not us, no way, we keep on going until the 4th-at least!!

He wanted a Spiderman cake, I made this same cake for Braiden when he turned 4 so I guess it took me 7 years to forget how nightmarish it is to make... It wasn't really that bad, it was way worse the first time.

I baked the cake the day before and Hudson kept asking me, "When are you going to paint the cake mom?  Mom when are you going to paint the cake?"  So when I finally got it "painted" I called him up to see it, he thought it was so cool! Mission accomplished and worth every piped star!

1. When he wakes up he is hungry and needs food right away.  Usually the first words out of his mouth are, "mom, what's for breakfast?"
2. He loves Superheroes; Spiderman, Batman, Power Rangers, Lego Ninjago and "bike guys"
 and you can often find him in costume of any one of these. Sometimes you may find him riding around the neighborhood on his balance bike wearing a batman cape or his motorcycle helmet and gloves, it is quite comical!
3. He loves to play any electronic device, the computer, my kindle, dad's phone, Braiden's ipod, it doesn't matter.
4. He loves going to preschool and "when I learn all my letters I can go to kindergarten." Now that he's 5 he's all of the sudden all grown up.
5. He loves the color RED! He wears it, his favorite shirt is a red one with a bike guy on it, or a red one with Spiderman on it, or just a red one! He colors with it, don't even try to give him a red/violet crayon or you will get an earful!


I wondered what we were thinking having a baby in January's bitter cold! When we brought him home from the hospital I think it was like 8 degrees. 
I thought the world was going to end when we got home from the hospital and discovered that Brody had an ear infection.  So we called the Dr and rushed him in (they squoze us in at the end of the day because they knew we just had a new baby.) The Dr. joked that we were the first and last patients for the day; first to discharge Hudson from the hospital, and last to care for Brody's ear infection.
The transition from 2 -3 kids was a tough one!! We sold our house in Omaha, Nate graduated from dental school, we moved half way across the country found a decent rental and started a new job all before he was 5 months old! But, we are so happy to have this smiley brown eyed boy in our family!

WSWS

I haven't done a WSWS (what she wore Sunday) post in a long time! Joslyn got this dress for Christmas and she calls it her "beautiful dress." She put it on after she opened it and twirled and danced around and said, "see my beautiful dress?" Such a girly girl. Every time we opened her closet door she would say, "there's my beautiful dress!" So yesterday morning when I told her she could wear her "beautiful dress" today she was SO excited.

So here it is, the beautiful dress...

 

She is getting so big I can't stand it!

 

 

 

 

 

So I think I set a record for the most posts in one month, make sure you scroll down and see all of them.  I just had to get everything posted that happened in Dec 2012 while it was still Dec 2012! Happy New Year everyone!!! ♥♥♥

Scott's Birthday

 

Really quick,  I thought I would just show you an example of just how DUMB our dog is.  We bought her a dog bed to lay on in the winter (NEVER waisting my money again!) To her it is not a bed, it is a toy.  She has managed to rip a hole in it and her favorite pastime is to get more of the stuffing out...

 

 

So after she is done ripping the stuffing out of it, dragging and flipping it around, she finally lays on it...

 

Like a normal dog.  This is only after at least an hour and she is completely bored. UGH!

 

 

Scott's birthday (Dec 27th)

 

 I was SO excited to give him this cute owl I could hardly stand it! He loves owls!

Scott is such a goof ball, in this picture he opened a Doug Andrus semi truck (replica) or "Doug-ie Trucks" as we call them. Scott has always had a thing for semi trucks, but when Casey married Kristy that all changed.  Doug Andrus Distributing is Kristy's dad's trucking company and are Scott's #1 favorite trucks. Scott always has his eyes pealed for a "Doug-ie Truck" and if you ever venture out on the roads away from home he will always ask you if you saw any "Doug-ie Trucks"

 One happy camper...

What about you? Have you seen a "Doug-ie truck"?

Sledding





A little bit of the white stuff + cousins in town + Christmas break = an excuse to have fun!

 

LOVE the hat Regan...

Joslyn loved the sled, whenever you stopped she would say "Keep Pullin'! Keep Pullin!"

Braiden and Hudson

Braiden and Ethan

Regan and Joslyn

Brody, holding on for dear life.

 This was a rare sweet moment that I caught on camera, Hudson put his arm around Joslyn and said,  "did you have fun on the sled Joslyn?" Melt my heart...and thaw my fingers. :)

Christmas Day

 

Our children were very kind to us and didn't get out of bed until almost 8:00! Here are a few pictures...

 

Hudson loves Lego Ninjago

Brody had Joslyn's name and he got her a Rapunzel Barbie, I think he was more excited for her to open it than she was to get it (not that she didn't absolutely love it) He was just SO excited for her to see what he had picked for her. That's what Christmas is all about and I love that!

Joslyn got Braiden a bow and arrow set...

Brody is SO sweet and could hardly wait to give me this little gift he made for me (and Nate)...

I took a picture of his little card so I can pull it out and show him say 7,8,9 years from now, then again a little later on say, after his mission. :)

"Dear Mom and Dad I love you so much I hope I can live with (you) when I grow up."

If that is not awesome I don't know what is.

We had Christmas dinner at my mom's then went up to Albion and had a little party (Cara always has the best games!) and the cousins exchanged gifts there.  I was a looser and didn't take any pictures. oops!

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

 

 

Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa Mickelsen's

The tradition: a spread of hor d'oeuvres, opening the Christmas Jammies from Grandma (and Grandpa) stories from grandma, reading of Luke 2 from Grandpa, a few games, lighting a fire with the yule log...(forgot to do that this year!!! Bummer!) Then it's off to bed, or for us, to home then to bed!

 

 

Ready, Set, GO!

I almost couldn't wait for this, Joslyn needed warm jammies BAD!

Here they are (Casey's family is in I.F.)

1.2.3 Silly...

It was fun, I get warm fuzzies just writing this post...ahhhh!


Meanwhile back at the ranch...

Hudson is ready for Santa...

Joslyn is ready for Santa...

Brody is ready for Santa...

Braiden is ready for Santa...

Christmas cuties...

Now there's only like 2 presents under the tree so get to bed because Santa's got a lot of work to do! HA!

Catmull Christmas Party

We look forward to the Catmull Christmas Party every year around Christmastime. There's always great food and an enormous amount of goodies and sweets. Nate's cousin went to culinary school and she is uber talented, it's always fun to see what she comes up with! The white elephant gift exchange is always unforgettable and the kids get a nice visit from Santa...

 

 

Joslyn is still afraid  :(

But she loved the ice cream set he brought her.

Here's Brody...

Santa brought him an alarm clock, just what he wanted! (no, really) :)

 

Braiden's turn:

 A Nerf fire vision football!

Hudson was very last, I think he was getting worried.

You can't believe how excited he was to get this Spiderman that shoots webs! He was tearing into that present like there was no tomorrow!