Thursday, January 30, 2014

New Babies

We had two amazing new little girls come into the family in the past few months!
 Lakey Kealani DeMartini
10/31/2013
7lbs. 12oz., 20 in.
I hear she is the sweetest, such a good girl and loved by her big brothers! What a cutie!


Only two weeks later another little miracle arrived!
Lily Lois Nielson
11/16/2013
8lbs. 10oz., 21 in.


Long awaited little miss is just perfect and such an adorable little beauty. I am so happy that these two little girls are here and bringing so much happiness to their families! We love you guys, congrats!

Monday, January 20, 2014

Colt is 4!

Colt is 4!! I love this kid!! He is sweet, funny, passionate, dramatic, uses his hands when he talks, serious, sincere, believes anything his sisters say, likes to bug his sisters, and loves to play with them!
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to Colt, happy birthday to you!
His favorite gift was his small prize machine! I would love it too if it didn't play terribly annoying music the whole time. I did love that entertained him for a week straight though!
Colt and Ellie got a few fingers into the cake before we got to the party!
Colt and his buddy and cousin McKay! Colt had his party at Chuck E Cheese and he was super happy to have all his friends there with him.
Livy won one of the big payouts of tickets! She was pretty happy!
I think he spent most of his tokens on this roller coaster ride! 
Get ready to blow out the cake, and….

Go! I love how happy Caroline is watching him!
Happy boy! Happy birthday Colt! We sure love you buddy!
Colt got a turn in the ticket blaster. He was a little unsure about it so Livy went with him to help out. It was hysterical because the tickets and his arms were flying everywhere and he didn't catch one, poor kid! He did have one stuck on his back when he came out!


Luckily Livy wore the crown and got a lot stuck in there and she got a few in her hands. Such a sweet sister, she is always trying he help out her siblings, love her.
Dad made it for some of the party and his little shadow was right there with him! Rachel has a special love for her dad. She always wants to hang out with him which is awesome. I love you too Rae even when you love dad more than me! Poor Rachel, she was scared to death of Chuck E Cheese and he came out for a little dance 3 times while we were there so we had a few crying breakdowns but we made it through. Mascots are her biggest fear, but we are working on it, poor girl.
I love this one!
Ellie was awesome at the party! She took care of herself and ran around the whole time just having fun.  Thank you Ellie for making my life easier at this party, such a cutie and so fun, sure love you honey.
He opened his gifts up after he got home and loved everything! 
He loves showing people "I'm this how many" he is on hand! He makes me smile. I hope you had a great birthday Colt! We all love you and are so happy you are in our family. You are the best boy we could ask for ! 

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Getting Ready For Christmas

The kids were so excited to get the Christmas season going! They couldn't wait to get the decorations out and play with everything. They were so into Shorty the elf this year and Shorty did a pretty good job remembering to move every night too! Colt was the cutest to watch as he was always explaining the Santa/elf stuff to Ellie. He was definitely the most excited with all the Christmas stuff this year. Ellie loved the lights around the neighborhood the best. She kept calling every ones lights "Halloween" since that is the only decorations she ever remembers seeing! "Look at the Halloween mom!" It was so cute. They were kind of bummed we didn't put any lights up outside this year because we were headed to New York for Christmas and gave ourselves a break on the lights. 
Colt took this, it is just to document that I was around this Christmas season since I didn't make any other pictures!
I love this picture! This is what life is normally like around here! Thanks for smiling through it Eric! What a great dad you are!


We talked Eric into getting a tree this year, he was against it because we were leaving a week before Christmas, but how could we not!! The kids are never going to love Christmas as much as they do right now. They make everything more fun at Christmas time. It feels like a whirlwind of a month but it is a great month. 

We didn't have an string with us when we got this so we rode slowly home balancing it on the roof! It looks like a mini tree here! It was small but not as small as it looks :)
Eric loves the Christmas traditions. He loves getting a real tree and spending time there with the kids picking out the perfect one. This year we stopped at a grocery store after dinner one night, chose the cheapest one we could find and it had lots of holes in it. Not his ideal situation but the kids had a blast with the holey tree! All they cared about was decorating it and that we actually got one! 
Could they be any happier!!
My calling at church is with the 8&9 year old girls. We took them Christmas caroling at the nursing home near church. They were a little shy but did a great job! The residents were so happy to have us there and hear some songs, great job girls!

We had a fun night of crazy cookie decorating with our friends! The kids were so happy and it is awesome having some older kids around to help with the younger ones, bonus for me!
Gabby and Olivia
Rachel and Jenna
Colt, Kennady, and Ellie
Colt and I catching a nap one day when we got a chance :)