Conner's 5th Birthday

I always worry that Conner will feel riped off because his birthday is 4 days after Christmas. I don't know why it bothers me every year because Conner is one of those kids that is happy about almost everything. He has such a positive outlook on life. Conner and I have always had a special relationship from the day he was born I felt a connection to him. His 1st year of life he was a calm, relaxed baby. Well the other 4 years I wouldn't describe as that. I probably have million Conner stories I could tell or that either Grama's could tell. I am usually getting stopped at church because someone wants to tell me something funny Conner said during primary. Conner is quick to give and receive love. He even tells me that he will still love me "bigger than the world" even after he gets married. Conner is full throttle in every way. I love him "bigger than the world."
We were still at Grama and Grandpa Nielson's so we celebrated Conners birthday there. I was glad he had aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins there so make his birthday more special. He got a leapster and games for his birthday and had a snowman cake, which he loved.
On our way home for Washington (a week later), we were asking Conner if he was excited to get back to school. His face lit up and said "yes, kindergarten will be so much fun." I was confused at what he meant since he is still in preschool, and I said "yea, kindergarten will be fun after summer won't it." He then look confused and said "no, I get to go to kindergarten now because I am 5." I broke the bad news to him and he was not happy. He was quiet in the back of the pick-up for quite some time.

Christmas in Washington

This year we spent Christmas at Brad's parents. We left the 23rd and traveled all day. The kids did really good and the roads we decent except we had lots of fog. We arrived that night as well as all of brads siblings and there families. Christmas eve and Christmas day was full of playing and baking and enjoying each others company. It was fun to see all the grand kids there together. There are 13 grand kids so far all under the age of 7 (Ryker being the oldest). So there was plenty of crying and learning how to share, especially for Brynlee. It's hard when your brothers usually give in to you all the time!!!! I swear she went through a stinker stage while we were there, she tested Brad and I the whole time. Brynlee and Caylee especially had a love/hate relationship. Brynlee is obsessed with shoes and found Caylee's particularly cute, Bryn would put them on, Caylee would want them back which would make bryn want them even more so she would do it quickly with a smirk and run from Caylee smiling that she was wearing the shoes. Caylee would run after her crying. I swear this happened 4-5 times a day. Sorry Caylee we hope you will forgive her. But other times that would be hugging and playing together. Anyways back to Christmas. The kids loved doing the nativity and singing songs. Christmas morning was crazy but so much fun. Lots of cute girl toys and really cool boy toys. The kids were very entertained for a long time. The boys each got a remote control truck, which they loved racing and making jumps for in the garage. Ryker got a rip stick and mastered that over Christmas too. Grandma and Grandpa had lots for the kids to do. The kids really enjoyed the bouncy houses set up in the shop. It was a nice escape to burn off lots of there energy.
Sunday was Blakes farewell. He did a fantastic job on his talk. After church lots of Brads cousins were all visiting with there families, so they had a big Nielson family lunch in the shop. Lots and lots of people were there. Ryker couldn't get over that he was related to all those people. It was really nice to see everyone that we hadn't seen in a long time.
Everyone left Monday morning except us and Greg and Brookes family. We celebrated Conner's birthday and new years eve there too.

Fun Christmas FHE

This last Monday our family as well as some friends went to a live Nativity here in Rexburg. We watched families act out the story of Christ's birth with singing and live animals. I think the program maybe lasted ten minutes. It was perfect. The kids really enjoyed it. I think we will try do it every year. It is a good reminder not only for my children but for me the reason of Christmas. Brynlee loved the cows and went up to pet the sheep afterwards. This family puts on the nativity for free every year and also provides hot cocoa and doughnuts for everyone who comes. I am glad my friend Tara invited our family to come along. I am grateful this Christmas for all of our wonderful family and friends and most importantly for our Savior, Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas!

New York- Days 4,5 and 6

Day 4
We woke up early and headed to a missionary training meeting with Richard and Jill. It was a good experience for me to see missionaries in action. I think I will prepare my boys in other areas that I haven't thought of before. We had lunch with the missionaries(had the best New York bagels YUM!), got flu shots and left. Richard and Jill then took us up North to see OCC (orange County choppers). We have watched Paul Sr., Paul Jr. and Mikey on American Chopper for years. The shop was big and the motorcycles were really intricate. We also saw them filming a episode of the show. This was something Brad really enjoyed. He bought a beanie. After seeing the shop we went to eat at Cheesecake factory. A lot of driving that day but also very fun. The trees were still changing and upstate New York reminds me a lot of Washington with all the trees. It was very pretty.





Day 5
Road the train into Grand Central Station that morning and met up with Joel and Michelle at the Metropolitan Museum.



The museum is enormous, everyone told us you could spend days in there and they were right. We found the famous portraits by Van Gogh and Picasso. Brad and I got bored of the paintings pretty quickly. I guess we are not as refined as I thought. Once we found the statues and artifacts things became a whole lot more fun. We all laughed at the "Modern art," what a joke.




Brad trying his hardest to act interested.



By 12pm we left and walked through Central Park, also enormous. My camera died by this point, Michelle took pictures for me, but I haven't gotten them yet. We were amazed how many movies are filmed in New York, especially in the park. the park was very well maintained. Lots of dogs and dog walkers and babies in there strollers with there nannies all over the park.


After that we said Good-bye to Joel and Michelle and did a session at the Temple (right in the middle of the city). After the Temple I was starving so we found a pizza shop and ate some of the yummiest and biggest pizza ever!

We then catched a subway to China town. Thankfully there was a woman on the Subway willing to help navigate us through all the stops and subway changes to get there. I think we may have been lost without her. By the time we got to China town it was getting a little dark. I bought a few "Gucci" purses, wallet, hats and sunglasses. It was fun but we were more than ready to leave after an hour. We safely made it back to time square and ate dinner.


We did some more shopping and sight seeing before heading to Broadway to see Wicked. Brad thought he was "taking one for the team" by going but ended up really liking it. The show was amazing. We rode the train back to Richard and Jills and were home after midnight. It was a long but very memorable day.

Day 6
Richard and Jill took most of the day off (as much as they could), drove us again into the city, took us to lunch and then went to the American Museum of Natural History (Night of the Museum ). Lots of cool stuff to see. We kept thinking how much the kids would of really liked this one. Lots of dinosaur bones. We had to get a picture with the statue that says "Hey Dum Dum me want Gum Gum!"




I weigh less than Brynlee!




After the museum which took most of the day they took us to a nice Steakhouse called Mortons for Dinner. They steak was wonderful. We had such a fun time visiting with them throughout the trip and I loved spending time with just Brad. I grew to love him even more. We really do have so much fun together. I think we will do this more often.
Day 7
Flew all day, and got home around 6pm to our three beautiful kids. We missed them so much and hoped they would forgive us for leaving them for a week ( I think the presents we got them did the trick). We got lots and lots of hugs and kisses. they really did do great while we were gone. The reason being my two wonderful, selfless sisters who as soon as they found out we were thinking about going to New York, volunteered to take they kids. Also a big thanks to my mom who flew to Idaho to stay with the kids the last half of our trip. I am glad they had that time to spend with you!!