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dancing, walking, and grosstaches

finally downloaded some video off our camera tonite. its been awhile, and my kids LOVE watching "home movies" so thats how we spent our sunday night.
Greta has been going to a ballet class since September. Ironically enough its called "Studio One" and so far she seems to really like it. It is a bit secretive though, i dont really know what goes on in there most of the time, and they had parent observation night but Greta was sick, and she really wanted me to come watch. So i asked Miss shauna if i could sit in the class and watch for a few minutes last week, this is what i saw...






This week has also been a busy one for Ozzie. he's gone from scaling walls, furniture etc. at lightning speed, to crossing the hallway on his own, to crossing the kitchen, going down the whole hallway, and now he's a full out walking maniac. His first real venture away from the walls started on Tues. Nov. 24th, and now he doesn't even think twice about it, he barely falls, and is a pretty, stinkin, happy boy! Its like he totally just decided that he was gonna walk, and did it. He could have done it earlier, but he wanted to make sure he was good at it first(daddy trait).
This video is from his first day or real walking on Tues., the second video is from Last night. crazy what a difference a week can make:)







In other news, thankfully "Movember" is pretty much over. Dick and a bunch of his man-friends helped raise money for Prostate Cancer by growing some nasty "mo's." The Neilsons had a sweet party to commemorate the month long event; food was ate, awards were given, just for men was used, and all in all it was a great time! dick is already planning his stash for next year...oh and he won the "try the hardest award" or something like that. due to his ridiculous plucking of the top mustache hairs to make it look more 'greasy mexican' than ever.(no offense)

mid month stashe

yes those are all real. sorry about the bad quality

end of the month stashe...its pointy, sick.

you can lead a horse to water...

but you cant make him walk. Ozzie turned 14 months last week and he has definitely been busy this past month, FINALLY learning to crawl (sort of, actually he scoots and 1 knees it but whatever, he's mobile) taking his first REAL first steps. I say real because he's been scaling the furniture and walls and everything for quite a while now, but he is pretty wussy venturing out on his own. if i'm walking with him, as SOON as i think about letting go he sits down. what a stinker.

we lowered his crib this week, which makes me laugh actually that it was up high for so long, we lowered Gretas at 7 months. other than that he is still such a funny little guy, and so boyish. hitting everything with a hammer as hard as he can, chucking balls at my head, teasing his sister cause he knows she'll get upset(seriously, he does) and dancing lots, but only to music that has a good beat. If i put on kid stuff he screams. which leads me to my next point. SCREAMING!!! ozzie has quite the temper. he can light up about nothing and go into a crazy screaming outrage in t-minus last year. also, he picked up a brilliant trait from mommy called holding his breath when hes mad. now i know almost all kids do this to an extent,but Ozzie holds his for so long, until the point where you think you should start shaking him so he'll take in some oxygen so he wont have brain damage long. its scary. and yet, funny.

this month also brought on our dreaded trip to the allergist. we figured Ozzie was definatley sensitive to a few things so we had our doctor refer us....4 months later we had our appointment. Ozzie was already super tired when we got there cause it was right during his morning nap, then he had a weird new doctor trying to be his friend, and giving him a scratch test. so all in all he wasnt happy. neither was I. So far(cause thats all they tested for) hes allergic to egg whites, egg yolks, milk and peanuts. BOO! times a million. I know lots of kids are allergic to things these days, and yes, theres a good chance he'll grow out of some of it...But heres why i'm annoyed.
a) I LIVE for all things dairy..milk cheese yogurt icecream...did i mention cheese? and it bothers me not to share these delicious gems with my little boy
3) So much for nursing him until he was pracitaclly saying "mommy milk please" okay, just kidding. but he was a year old and that is good in my books, and isnt that supposed to help with allergies?
q) and last but not least..WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE FOR DINNER??? for real. just about everything we eat on a regular basis is riddled with milk or eggs, and i'm sorry but SOY milk is barf in my mouth. i consider myself a pretty tollerant person when it comes to food tastes, but i cant do it. in baking, fine. but in cooking..gag.

Anyways, its worse for me than ozzie, and i'm totally ranting here, but obviously hes doing fine and is growing and eating like a maniac, so life goes on.

speaking of, today was the first time i've attended Relief Society in approx. 5 years. no offense, but it was brutal. Not RS itself. everything was great, the music, lesson, talking with adults for a change, the old ladies vibrato etc. i love all of that. but I was DYING in the back feeling like i needed to be somewhere doing or teaching something. its gonna take awhile to adjust i think. It didnt help that i had so many Primary kids come up to me today and give me hugs and say we miss you Sister Jahn, and make me pictures in sacrament meeting. It was so cute. I am enjoying my new calling though, its just so different being behind the scenes, planning, meetings and such. i'm sure there's lots i need to learn.

okay, that's enough.

october

phew...what a MONTH!!! i thought september was nuts until october came around. Between Joy school at our house, Ballet, Halloween, halloween parties, Primary presentation regular life, i felt like i was running a marathon.... and then poof! look! its already November and I busted out a Christmas CD today!

I had my turn teaching Joy School this past month and let me say..it was so FUN! Crazy at times, but fun. Our unit was all about the body and we played lots of games, talked about bones, used our senses and ate healthy food and exercised. The kids were great, and they all really do play well together which helps. Greta is constantly saying " look mommy i'm using my sense of tongue" (taste)when she eats food. Still working on that one, but at least i know a few things sunk in.

After all was said and done it made me very grateful to be home with my kids. I LOVE teaching, i love kids, i loved being a full time teacher, but it is SO much work and prep. and constant bombardment of the brain. I know i could not be both a mom and a teacher at the same time successfully. so i'm truly grateful to be at home, even if i feel like pulling my hair out some days:)and sorry, i have no joy school pictures, my camera was lost for awhile and then it seemed like i never had a spare second with all the kids here to snap a pic.

Halloween week was as crazy and fun as the rest of the month. Greta wanted to be a Bee this year? dont know why? she also wanted to be a lemon, couch, and a diaper...so BEE was clearly the only option. I had some leftover tulle from various Tu Tu's i've made and so i decided to make one for Greta and throw some sequins on a body suit and call it a costume. Turned out pretty cute!

We also had a party at the church and a joyschool party with other friends too this week that turned out great! the kids got to wear their costumes lots and had tons of fun and so by my books that makes it all worthwhile. I love any excuse for a party, i just wish my place was bigger so thanks Laura for the Hospitality:)

Halloween day finally came and we spent most of it chillin cause the kids were sort of getting little coughs and sniffles. Greta went trick-or treating with Elias for a bit and it was perfect, we cleaned out the whole block in like 20 min. Nobody was out, it was weird. kind of creppy...very halloweeny.

Primary Pesentation coming up this week, should be a gooder. I cant believe how big our primary has become! there were like 5 kids in primary when we moved here. now there are close to 50!!! Crazy town. And then moving on to other things like deep cleaning my house, rotating toys, trying NOT to Christmas shop, and figuring out what i'm supposed to do in my new calling?

sorry this post is very journally, and i cant cut and paste the pics, so they're all at the top. annoying! good nite.

my worst nightmare

picture this sweet face:

tumbling all
the
way
down
these:

I thought i was gonna lose it. seriously. and seeing as Ozzie cant crawl OR walk you'd think i'd be safe from this kind of accident? nope. he scaled the furniture in 2 seconds flat to come find me i guess getting the laundry and all i heard was THUD, THUD, SCREAM!!!!

I was beside myself, he was SO sad and confused. miraculously he only had 2 big bumps on his XXL head. I thought for sure he'd have broken bones, ribs, brain damage, become paralyzed, blind...you know how you start to get carried away? but sure enough, all in all he seems fine. I know he's not the first or last kid to fall down some stairs, but when it happens to you, under your watch, you feel like SUCH a tool. i felt sick to my stomache all day yesterday.

anyways, truly, truly blessed.

On a happier note... the stairs used to stink and look like this:

so i guess i shouldn't complain.

credit

So we took away Ozzies soother on Friday night last week. I thought it was gonna be a NIGHTMARE! Greta would not take a soother as a baby so i swore when another child came around that i'd make it happen, and Ozzie loved his soother from Day1. I only gave it to him at bedtime, naps and in the car occasionally. But none the less he was hooked, and if it was anywhere in sight he would whine and whine until he found a way to get it in his mouth.

The reason i decided to get rid of it now was because he would wake up 2 or 3 times a night just for me to find his soother and he could go back to sleep. SO ANNOYING! i couldnt take it. So on friday night, the soothie had left the building. He Cried and cried and cried for like 35 min. it was heart wrenching. his cry was saying..."what the heck? where is my soother? why wont you give it to me? i'm tired! hurry up, this is getting old! mom are you crazy? how do you expect me to sleep?" and various other sad inflections. i almost caved like 3 times..but held out thinking if i could just get him to fall asleep without it we'll be okay. So I waited, he fell asleep, and didnt wake up until morning. Fluke right? thats what i thought. the next day, layed him down for naps, he cried for maybe 20 sec. each time and then right to sleep. must be good luck. that night, not a peep, next day same thing. He TOTALLY forgot about it.

So now he sleeps amazing, i dont even hear him at all in the night and we made it past this hurdle in under 24 hours. what a blessing. I should have given him more credit. i should have learned from Greta. I NEVER thought she'd fall asleep without being rocked, she did. I NEVER thought she'd drink milk without her bottle, she did. I NEVER thought she'd be happy sleeping anywhere but her crib, she did. i need to have a little more faith i guess, and not underestimate their ability to adapt so well.

In other news, Greta pee'd on the bathroom floor. A lake. the most pee i've ever seen. We were playing doctor with her carebears in her room,
Greta: "Oh... mommy...quick Cheer bear needs to go pee"
Me: does that mean you need to go?
Greta: "Yep"
Me: okay hurry, run, quick quick quick

30 sec. later....

Greta: OH NO!!!! MOMMY!!!
Me: (noticing the lake of pee on the floor) What the heck? what happend? why did you pee on the floor?
Greta: Well, carebear had to go first, and I had to wait my turn.

seriously. kids.

Singing

Greta likes to sing and has a lot of songs in her repertoire already. It amazes me how fast kids pick things up. this is a video i forgot about from early spring, and even though her pitch is much better than this now, it is still one of my favorites of her ever. so sweet. so greta.

oh ya.....turn up your volume a bit its sort of quiet.

i couldnt resist

i started browsing through old pics trying to free up some space on my computer and i stumbled upon a few rare gems. I thought i'd dedicate this post to Greta and Elias...the best of friends....MOST of the time!

Happy Birthday lil' Ozzie!

It is surreal to me that a year has gone by so fast! My not so little baby boy is now a big 1 year old and changing by the second it seems! I think Greta seemed so much older to me at one cause she was running already, but Ozzie just seems like a little guy still.
I'll admit, I'm not much of a fan of the little baby phase. dont get me wrong, they are precious and perfect, and generally do sleep alot. but i'm actually kind of excited for Ozzie to be getting into the toddler world, even though he's already getting into more things than i thought possible for someone who isnt even walking OR crawling. But he's inventive thats for sure, and if he wants something bad enough he'll find a way to get it!
Ozzies favorite things right now are, Balls... 100%! he cant get enough. He actually says "Bah" when he's after one. He also loves making as much noise as possible by banging anything against anything else as hard as he can. (i'm assuming this is a boy thing) He loves his soy milk and flaps and bounces for joy when i give him some, and he can pound grapes like nothing else...his favortie food right now for sure! He just started this week trying to feed me things too, so cute. He holds out whatever it is to put in my mouth and then eats it himself. what a stinker.
Hmmm.. what else? Ozzie is still very sensitive and sweet. but he also has a temper like nothing else, and is Mr. Grump fest in the morning for at least a half hour. He LOVEs to be outside, and will scream and lunge out of my arms if i'm anywhere near thte patio door or front door. And he loses his mind if I go past the bathroom with him when Greta is having a bath and dont let him in there, seriously, like a nervous breakdown everytime.

Lately he is yammering so much more, and even though i dont Think hes really said him first "word" yet, he does say Ma ma ma ma when i'm around, and Bah" for ball and dadadada. But its no secret that he loves Greta the most of us all. He lights up when shes around, and Greta is a really good sister, so i dont blame him.

We had a fun day today, playing with new toys, time at the zoo, and dessert of course! I think Ozzie sort of figured something cool was happening for him when we turned out the lights to sing happy birthday and there was FIRE in front of his face. he smiled.

Here's some highlights

Checking out his new Hammering Toy

At the Zoo

All dressed and excited for his Party!

Going for a stroll

I made these Burger cupcakes and Fry cookies because Ozzie LOVES fries, and will scream for one until he gets it every time. thanks for the idea Bakerella! they were sort of annoying to make, but turned out super cute in the little boxes, Love!

He loved his cupcake and that i let him have at er' the whole time!
Post Birthday wind down!

love you Ozzie! Happy First Birthday!

best of friends

i'm sure it may change over time, but these 2 can NOT get enough of each other these days! i'm constantly finding them playing together, laughing, hiding under blankets, making the same strange faces at me, and i'm loving every minute of it! Greta said, Mommy, i love you and Daddy so much, but Ozzie is my brother and I love him more, like Toopy and binoo. ( her favorite show)

look at those goofy smiles! i just want to bite their cheeks of and eat them! love you!

peep show

We stumbled upon the original Care Bears full length movie the other day for $6.99...needless to say it was a must have purchase. So when we got home, Greta wanted to watch it, and she loved every second of it just as much as I did as a child :) Anyways, afterward she was running around the house yelling "Care Bear...... STARE!!!!" and lifting her shirt up to expose her tummy like the care bears do. I thought she was being funny and cute and she continued this for quite a while. Later, we asked her to go potty and get ready for her bath, then a few min passed by and she came out with (little did we know) ONLY her shirt on stretched down to about her knees...then we heard....
Care Bear......... STARE!!!!!!! and as she did so she strategically lifted her shirt up JUST enough to expose her lady bits.
She was laughing hysterically...and so were we!

should I be worried?

30 pics

So i loved looking at this on Noelle Bakers blog and thought it would be fun to picture hunt, plus my house is clean and i cant nap with the kids cause the neighbor is using his scroll saw right outside my window. boo. so here we go.

A pic of you in your room:

hallway beside my room? close enough. halloween 07.

A pic of you with someone you don't like:

okay, the hot chic in the middle, i wish that was me, and the greasy, back up dancer gave me the heeb jeebs.

A pic of you in the daylight:
A pic of you on your birthday or a Holiday:

Hawaii 08 the best Holiday ever!

seeing as it just past...Happy 28th!

The youngest pic of you in digital form:

i'm pretty sure i was packing my things to run away in this pic, and someone foiled my plan

A pic of you with a new Hair cut/color:

A pic of you in a time of your life that you wish wasn't over:

dancing every day...pure bliss

A pic of you in a time of your life that you're thankful is over:

not that it wasn't fun being single and living with 90 roomates...so fun, but i'm glad to be married!

A pic of you with someone you love:

A Pic of how you'd like to be seen spending every day:

just chillin with these guys

A pic of you when everything changed:

First baby...turns your world upside down

A pic of you that makes your heart hurt:

grade 7 perm...enough said.

A pic of you that makes your heart smile:

one of our engagement pics...love it

A pic of you on the best day of your life:

Dec 19/03... no contest.

A pic of you in formal attire:

Dental banquet /06

A pic you couldn't leave out:

i couldn't leave out these two little monkeys :)

so i didn't make it quite to 30 pics...too long..aww well enjoy!