Christmas

Our dumb camera is broken so I have no pictures of Christmas this year:(. But we had a great Christmas. My parents drove up here Christmas Eve night and suprised the boys Christmas morning. The boys got lots of presents and a Wii. They are probably the only kids who got math books in their stockings and were excited about it. Katherine got lots of things for her dollies and some jewlery and nail polish in her stocking. I got a new floor downstairs:). I am so happy. We also got a cheap used couch and loveseat until we can save up for a nice couch. It's fun to have my parents here. They are staying a whole week! I'm glad my dad got a new job so that he can have time off.

Before Christmas, we had fun with Tawnya and her family. The boys love playing with her boy Spencer. She is one of my best friends.

P.S. We ordered a new camera through Todd's work, but it hasn't gotten here yet.

breakfast and savers and ESP or something

My neighbor directly behind me is Nancy, the retired single lady with a pool that Nathan is going to marry when he gets older. She is also my visiting teacher and she invited me and my family for breakfast last Thurs. morning. When we got there she had the table set with her Christmas dishes, linens, Santa centerpiece, sausage, bacon, waffles, orange juice and raspberry cheesecake hot chocolate with marshmallows! Alex leaned over to me and whispered, "she did it all fancy for us!" I told that to Nancy and she said that she wanted us to feel special. We did feel special!
What a nice thing to do for us!

*********

Nathan and Alex get $5 every Sat. for allowance. They can spend it on whatever they want, so that instead of them asking for everything, we say they can get it with their allowance. Well, they have been great savers! With Nathan's birthday money, he is now at $100! He is very excited and I am very proud of my savers boys, a skill they did not learn from me:)

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Todd's sister Tawnya and I are good friends. She moved to Iowa a few years ago, unfortunately, because her husband is going to school there. She got pregnant with her first baby a few months before we got pregnant with Katherine. When she came to visit, she said the name they picked out was Spencer Bradford (Todd's family are direct decendants of William Bradford). I told her the name we had picked out for a boy was Nicholas Bradford. We had a girl and she had a boy. In July when they came out to visit, they called Spencer "Bubba" and we were caling Katherine "bubba", too. She is visiting right now and now she is calling Spencer "Bubs" and we call Katherine "Bubs"! She is now pregnant and one month ahead of me, and we found out we are both having girls. When she got here on Friday I asked her what they are going to name the baby and she said, "Abigail and call her Abby!" That is what we had picked out, too. I guess we'll have cousins with the same name! Her middle name is Lynne but we haven't decided on a middle name yet, but it won't be Lynne. We have it narrowed down to a few but haven't decided yet. Too wierd, huh??

Nathan's birthday

Nathan was so excited for his birthday that the night before he wanted to stay up until midnight when his birthday started. I was too tired, so I set my alarm and put it by his bed. He stayed up watching the time and woke me up. "The alarm went off! It's my birthday!" I don't remember what I said, but I wish I could have stayed up with him and sang happy birthday to him.

Nathan had an ice skating birthday party and 16 people were there! I'm glad he had a good turn out for his party. All of his friends from the street and all his friends from boys club (homeschool group) came. He had a Spongebob party and he wanted Daddy to make his cake instead of getting one at the store. He did wants toys on it, though. So Todd made his cake. After his party Todd took him to Build a Bear and he got a snowflake bear with a Santa suit. For his birthday dinner he asked for chips and hamburgers. Todd and I were puzzled, but Alex said, "good choice, Nathan." So Todd and Nathan made hamburgers and we had Doritos with it. He had a good birthday and he's so happy to be 6.

Happy Birthday Nathan!!

Nathan turns 6 today (Wed. Dec. 16)! Happy Birthday!

house project day 2

Day 2:
it's 3pm: the kids and I organized the toy closet, I swept and mopped the kitchen floor, cleaned off the counters, the boys wiped the table and chairs, the boys "cleaned" their room, and now I'm taking a break because I'm feeling a bit nauseaus (I hate that word...who can spell it?) and overwhlemed at cleaning this living room.

***

We cleaned the living room until 5 and got it mostly cleaned and then we all were just too tired to clean anymore. Now I'm exhausted.

what's going on around here

For our Christmas present to eachother, Todd and I are getting the house all clean and fixing up all the broken things that have been needing to be fixed this week. Today the kids and I cleaned out the car, and now it's 4pm. Oh my goodness.

The boys got out some hangers and played with them for about 2 or 3 days. Alex said he wanted an orange hanger for Christmas. They are so creative. They made roller coasters, pretended they were swords, etc. I think we should get rid of all our toys, they don't even play with them.
All they need is their imaginations, and of course a computer to play video games.

Last week Todd and I took the boys to "A Christmas Carol" at the Hale Center theater. That is my favorite one--I love it. We go about every year. This past Sat. Alex and I went on a "date" to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. Alex likes music like I do, so I thought he would like it. They only let kids 8 and up go, but I figured he's close enough. Walking from our parking lot to the building, Alex kept throwing snowballs at me:). On the way back to the car, we built a snowman. Then we went to Village Inn and got pancakes and hot chocolate. We had a really great time and he said he wanted to go again next year.

Yesterday night the family decorated stockings. I helped Katherine: I just put a blob of glue and she put a pom pom on it. I think she might have eaten one or two. We joked that she was going to get cancer. Then I put glitter glue on her finger so she could rub it on the stocking. She liked it. I'd take pictures but our camera won't work with our computer for some reason right now. Alex did the angel coming to the shepherds with Bethlehem in the background and Nathan did some abstract art.

Well, I better keep cleaning (and change Katherine's stinky diaper...again).

good parents

Todd and I stayed up late watching a bunch of episodes of the tv show "World's Strictest Parents." In the show, 2 wild teenagers go to a strict parent's house for a week. And in every single episode, the teenagers make huge improvements and it's really amazing. So, Todd and I decided to write down what we saw that was the same in all the strict families:

1. had the kids do hard work as part of the daily routine
2. the parents spent one on one personal positive time with each child
3. the parents had high expectations with clear rules and boundaries, and consequences for every broken rule
4. the parents stay calm; instead of yelling they use consequences instead. The consequences were usually a chore of hard work instead of going to their room or something
5. they find what the kid is interested in and use that to bond with them and strengthen their relationship
6. really open communication
7. lots of praise when they are doing anything right
8. lots and lots of family together time- work and play together
9. the parents in almost every show had the kids do service work
10. the parents don't let them run away; they make them face their problems (cool down period ok, though)
11. dad to boy and mom to girl relationship very important
12. the parents always expressed and showed love; without this the rules come across as domineering, but if the kids know they are loved, they see it as being cared for
13. be patient and consistent

Nie Nie's story

I can never, ever, never, never, ever, never, ever complain or be down--only grateful for everything I have-- after reading this: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/stephanie-nielson-intro-120609.html

The baby is a.....

To find out the gender of the baby, you have to answer a riddle. The first letter of the first name of the 22nd and 24th president of the US is either a "B" or a "G". Technically, it's his middle name, but you wouldn't know it. He was the only president to have two non-consecutive terms as president. He was president when Utah became a state.

the boys can ice skate now!

skating by themselves:

Katherine watching her brothers:

tricks:

a good dad:

"holy!"

We went on sesamestreet.com to let Katherine play a toddler game on the computer because she wants to play on the computer like her brothers. She made lots of stars on her game so Nathan said, "Holy!" Katherine repeated him and kept saying, "holy". It was so cute! I also thought her little hands were so cute on the keyboard:

guess who came to visit on Thanksgiving?

Mr. stomach flu.
He was rude and horrible and ugly and not allowed back! We're all feeling better today, though, and Todd is going to make a turkey dinner tomorrow for us.

Breakfast with ....?

At Thanksgiving Point they have a "breakfast with Santa" but we haven't gone because it was just way overpriced. However, they sent me an email saying that members get half off this Sat.! So Todd said we could go!

So I told the boys that we were going to go to breakfast with Santa on Sat. (waiting for cheers and shouts of joy).

Here's what they said:

(silence)
Alex: What are they serving?
me: (??) I don't know, probably like bacon and eggs and pancakes and stuff.
(more silence)
nathan: Why don't we just take the money that we would have spent on it and have Daddy make us a yummy breakfast.
me: But what about Santa??
(just silence...)

So I guess the boys would rather have breakfast with Daddy than Santa! They really love their Daddy!

ice skating

The boys have really liked ice skating lately. We went last night and here are pictures and videos. They have walker things to help them learn to skate.

the christmas tree

Cute girl!

Katherine loves her dolls. She wanted me to put a diaper on it. So cute!

Katherine's new outfit

Here's the outfit I got Katherine today-- so cute!!

I have a white shirt to go under this sweater dress:

puppy mittens:

It's a......

Dec. 1 at 4pm-- gender ultrasound!!
Merry Christmas to me!!
Two things for you to do:
1. make your guess (winners get a treat)
2. pray it's a girl (so Katherine can have a sister and they can share a room)

The Christmas tree is up!

It snowed today, so...
we put the Christmas tree and our few Christmas decorations in the house up! It looks beautiful, but I can't find our camera so you have to come visit to see it. But it looks like this (except the bottom half is sans ornaments):

(well, maybe not exactly)

The boys helped and did a great job. The lower half has no ornaments because we have a destructo-baby in the house! I got all the Christmas tree decorations after Christmas last year for really cheap because we didn't really have any ornaments. We also bought a new tree today because we were using the tree that Todd had during his childhood and it was shedding really bad and had seen its last day. We'll put it upstairs for the boys though. The boys asked if they could have it for their children. All that's left is getting a star or an angel for the top and I ordered some candles (we won't light them) to clip on the tree--hopefully they'll be here soon.

Todd and I went on a date last night and did some Christmas shopping. It was so fun looking at girl toys and not just all boy toys! I think you kind of re-live your childhood through them.

By the way, it is possible to celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving at the same time. Christmas needs to be celebrated for at least two months!!

Being manly

The boys lately have talking about how to be manly lately. The first thing for being manly, is stuffing your mouth with food. The second thing for being manly, is fighting your brother with sticks. I overheard Alex ask Nathan what the 350th thing for being manly is, and Nathan said, "staring at something with your eyes open and not blinking." Wrestling without shirts on is another thing for being manly.

Thanksgiving and Christmas thoughts

This morning we read in Alma 27, when Ammon and his brothers ran into Alma. They were so excited to see each other, it says this:

Alma 27: 17. Now the joy of Ammon was so great even that he was full; yea, he was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the exhausting of his strength; and he fell again to the earth.
18. Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness.

We talked about being penitent and a humble seeker of happiness-- about taking the time to think about our blessings and being grateful even for the little things. If you can find joy in the little things, you will be happy. I told them a long time ago, Christmas was a lot different. Kids only got one or two presents, and they were probably homemade presents. Kids were used to this, and they were still happy and excited about Christmas and those humble presents. Now kids write long letters to Santa, and expect lots of elaborate commercial toys. Am I taking away my child's happiness by giving them too much so they can't enjoy the little things? It's hard not to want to give my kids everything they want for Christmas! I wanted to spend $250 on Alex and Nathan for Christmas, but Todd said he wanted to do $200 so we don't go overboard.

The only two presents I ever remember growing up, is the Christmas I got my flute and the Christmas Allison made me a soft purple scarf. Those are also the only two presents that I still have.

To help them be penitent and humble seekers of happiness, I can help them find joy in decorating the Christmas tree as a family, listening to Christmas music, doing fun Christmas projects together, etc. -- simple joys of Christmas.

Having Thanksgiving first, we can focus on being thankful for the little things we have and continue that into the Christmas season.

Happy Halloween!

Park City condo 2009

Todd's parents have a timeshare in Park City every Oct. and the family gets together and spends the weekend/week together. We all look forward to it every year.

Pumpkin carving:
Alex's:
Nathan's:

Katherine in the bath after eating a brownie sundae:

This year it snowed while we were there. It was very pretty:

The boys in the hot tub while it's snowing. I wish I could've gone in, too!

The pool there is heated (somewhat-- I thought it was still pretty cold) and half indoors half outdoors. Katie and Alex playing:

Alex and Nathan pretending to be asleep:

Grandpa is explaining football to Alex. Alex just went swimming that's why his face and eyes are red.

We all ate too much junk food:

Katie was so funny with these lais! She loved gathering them all and putting them on and running around with them on for a while:

The family in the pool:

This year was the first year someone was missing... Tawnya and family:(. She lives in Iowa now and is sick pregnant and didn't think she could make it on the plane with her toddler while being sick. We missed her but we'll all be there next year, with 2 additions!

Family Picture Oct 2009

Things I don't understand about pregnancy

First, I am grateful that I can be pregnant and bring children into the world. Nevertheless, I HATE being pregnant!! Here's some things I don't understand about pregnancy:

1. Why is it that when your gag reflex is in hyperdrive and you are constantly nauseaus, do they make prenantal vitamins as big as ostritch eggs?

2. Why is it that this time is a time when vitamins and nutrients are so important, does mother nature cause you to throw up everything and only be able to eat french fries for dinner because that's all that you could keep down?

3. Why is it that at this time when smells can make you throw up, is your sense of smell keener than a bloodhound? One night I was about to throw up because I could smell our headboard....

4. Why are humans the only ones who get nauseaus during pregnancy? I've never seen a dog or elephant going around throwing up when it is pregnant.

random stuff

Mom and Dad, does this picture remind you of....

this one of me?

This girl LOVES her dog!

When Nana put Katherine to sleep at church:
The kids spent about an hour today doing this:

*Nathan is always trying to find ways to get money. Today he told me he would give me "lego training" for 25 cents. He really never wants to spend his allowance-- but his only weakness is Build-A-Bear.

Boardwalk

Nathan, Alex and I just finished a Monopoly game that we've been playing the last few days, and I lost. I was even trying my best, and I lost. Funny thing is that Nathan won, by only buying Boardwalk and Parkplace (nothing else) and put hotels on them both. Alex and I both landed on Boardwalk (me first), and even if we mortgaged everything we couldn't get the $2000. Alex was pretty close to winning.
Funny boys! I don't think a career in business is in my future...

Nana

Nana just came, and we've been thoroughly spoiled! She arrived with a 7 foot tent she made for the kids which was a big hit with all 3 kids. She gave me a break from being a mom-- she played with the kids (Monopoly, Indians, etc.), changed all the poopy diapers, took the baby during church and magically put her to sleep, cleaned my house, did my laundry, made the kids peach crepes every morning, let me take naps, took us out to eat, pulled the weed jungle in the front yard, etc. etc. etc.! Katie instantly loved Nana and always wanted Nana to hold her, which she never does with anyone.
Thanks, Nana! You helped me out more than you'll ever know!!!! We love you!!!

Good news and Bad news

Bad news:
Looking for clothes for me at the mall.

Good news:
I got a really cute church outfit! I LOVE the skirt and got a cute black top for it:

Good news:
My mom came to visit! She made a huge 7 ft. tent for the kids which they love!

Bad news:
She has to leave on Wed.

Good news:
My nausea is getting better!

Bad news:
It's still here, though.

Good news:
I'm still pregnant at least.

Good news for me:

Todd and the boys (and now my mom) are taking care of everything for me. The boys are such good helpers and Todd cleaned the nasty bathrooms for me.

Good news:
Todd made homemade cinnamon rolls tonight and tomorrow he's making homemade lasagna.

Good news:
I have the cutest kids in the whole world!

1st picture of baby #4

(The round thing is a ball for him/her to play with if he/she gets bored)
Here's baby's first picture! Today I am 8 weeks and 2 days. He said my due date is May 19, which means I can get induced on May 12. Katherine was born on my sister Allison's boy's birthday, and she has another boy who has a birthday may 13- so we could have 2 babies with the same birthdays!

too much food network challenge

The boys are building lego buildings and saying "I need at least 31 indgredients!" And they are hurrying around because there's a time limit. Then when they are done, Nathan says in an announcer voice, "Alex Carlson, move your masterpiece." Then he took his tall lego masterpiece and slowly took it upstairs to the school table. Then he said, "Nathan Carlson, move your masterpiece." They both made it.

learning to count

On Fridays the boys go to PE at the public school. I drop them off and then pick them up, and they each have their own time. When I was driving Nathan home, he said the teacher was talking to him before the class came. She asked what his favorite subject was. He answered math. She asked him if he started learning how to count yet. He said that right now he's at 27,000.

Yesterday Nathan told me, "If I get $70 a month, I'd have $840 in a year." He told me he did 70 times 10, and then added 140.

wrinkly feet

Nathan put his feet with shoes on in the water. In the car on the way home, he took off his shoes and his feet were wrinkly "like a 95 year old". The boys were guessing why water wrinkles your feet. Nathan said it was because the water presses against you and makes wrinkles. Alex said it was because water goes in your sweat holes and makes tiny bumps. What do you think?

P.S. It's come....the horrible horrible pregnancy flu. The baby is the size of a poppy seed, so how can something so small take over my whole body and make me feel so horrible and so tired?

Katherine's new trick

the motorcycle gang

The boys are in my bed pretending to ride motorcycles. The pillows are their helmets.

tons of pics and videos

Here is Katie in her words-can't-express-this-kind-of-cuteness Halloween dress and pigtails:

We went to Discovery Gateway in Salt Lake. All the kids had tons of fun- even and especially Katie.

Nathan's math: (all in his head)

140 divided by 5= 28 (I couldn't do that one in my head, I had to use a calculator. He did it fast in his head!)

8 times 8 = 64 (or 8 squared)

6 times 6 is 36 (or 6 squared)

52 times 2 is 104

104 times 2 is 208

28+36 is 64

cute girl with pigtails

the name

Today I was so bored that my eyeballs were falling out and my muscles were oozing onto the floor. Todd went to watch a football game at a friend's house and I was missing him. This was my first (of many) emotional day of pregnancy. It makes me wonder why we decided to get pregnant. I'll remember in May...

So, I decided to go to the store with the kids and get stuff to make rice crispies with Halloween M & M's. Junk food is always good when you're bored and/or emotional.


I also saw a pretty fall arrangment I got. They also had a gardenia with a flower in bloom and I took a good long whif and it made me instantly happy.
I then got on Craigslist and KSL and looked at antique dressers for Katie's room and that was fun, too. Then I played tickle chase with Katie and her little giggles were so adorable!

Todd and I picked out the names:
Abigail (Abbie) Mary
or
Nicholas Maxwell
or Nicholas Bradford

My parents hate the name Abigail, so I decided to let you know early so that you can get used to it:).

I'll find out the gender either right before Christmas or right after. Let's start making a list of guesses for the gender. Those who are right, get a little present from us. Those who are wrong get to buy us dinner (just kidding).

Just overheard

The boys are playing and I just heard them talking about when they get married. "I'm going to marry Avery," Nathan said, "but I don't know what she'll look like when she grows up." Alex responded, "Maybe even prettier, that's what I'm guessing."

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We asked the boys if the baby will be a boy or a girl, and Nathan said, "let me look." So he looked in my bellybutton and said, "I see a little leg.....and a little footsie....and a little right finger (and he held up his finger).....that's all."

news

I took a pregnancy test last night.










It was negative.









I took another pregnancy test this morning.











It was positive.

read-a-thon, the many names of Bubs, more of Nathan's math

Read-a-thon
Today we decided to do a "read-a-thon". We got unhealthy snacks and the boys decided to do it on Sat. (today) so we could do it with Daddy. It went as well as you might think with a 5, 7 and 1 year old who was grumpy. The kids thought it was a junk-food-a-thon. We did do some reading though. We'll finish tonight because every night before they go to bed they just can't get enough of reading- they want me to read just another book before they have to go to sleep! We all stayed in our jammies, because that's part of a read-a-thon, too.

The many names of Bubs
We realized that Katie is not going to ever know what her real name is. When someone asks us what her name is, I say Katherine and Todd says Katie. At home, we call her Baby, Baby girl, cute baby, bubba, bubs, bubbers, bubber, babe, babes, bubba girl, katie cutie, katie bug, katie bub, bubster, bubberooni. I guess it's only fitting for the family, though, Alex thinks his name is Richard Alex Zander Carlson, and Nathan thinks his name is John Nathan Carlson. It's only one of the many things our children will go to counseling for because of us!

More of Nathan's Math
Allison said I should write down the specific math problems Nathan does. He does many all day. Yesterday Nathan said, "7 take away 9 is negative 2." Then Alex asked, "What's 100 take away 1,000?" He said "Negative 900." I asked him where he learned negatives (who teaches a 5 year old negatives?) and he said he heard me say it a couple times. I remembered when he was first adding and subtracting he would occasionally say the bigger number minus the smaller number and I would say it was negative whatever. I guess he caught on to the pattern.
Yesterday he also told me 8 squared is 64. Great Grandpa Carlson taught him squares and square roots. He literally thinks about numbers all day long. On the way home from our drive to Arkansas, he was counting for 3-4 hours straight. He continued counting from where he left off, a little more each day when he is trying to go to sleep or bored or in the car, etc. Right now he's at 22,000 and says he wants to get to 30,000. He's a little OCD about numbers. His favorite kind of math is figuring out seconds, minutes and hours; big huge numbers; and money math, but any kind of math he loves. If we give him a hard problem and he thinks about it for a while and we try and help him by giving him a hint, he yells, "Let me do it! Let me do it!" He never wants any help. And on his math workbook, he can't have any markings except the answer, and if he has to do some marking, he erases it. We learned carrying in math and he won't write the carried number on top of the next column. He says he wants everyone to think he does it all in his head. He won't do any counting on his fingers, either. Today he said sometime we should do a math-a-thon where we do math all day.

Fall

According to Kristie, Alex, Nathan and Katie, Sept. 1 means you can start celebrating fall and Halloween!
The boys made cute paper chain Halloween countdowns. (no pic)
Here are the fall leaves we put on our schoolroom tree (up high away from Baby Katie)



Sept. 1 we got donuts and apple cider and watched Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow cartoon. We got our donuts but we had to wait for Todd to come home. Nathan told me, "My mind has been on those donuts since we got them! So if there is a brain stuck't on to one of them, it's mine."

One of Nathan's recent math genius: "90 minutes is five thousand four hundred seconds." I asked how he figured that out and he said, "One hour is 3,600 seconds and half an hour is 1,800 seconds, so I just added them together."