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.