Five for Friday: Christmas Edition

1. I'll save the Christmas pictures for the end, but there is something that has been cracking me up all December.  What if when Jerry and I were first married, I still believed in Santa.  Ok, really imagine it.  What if like the whole month of December I was really giddy and saying things like, "I need to send Santa my letter" and "I wonder what Santa will bring me" and all kinds of things like that.  And what if on Christmas Eve I carefully laid out my stocking and made Jerry go to bed early so we'd be asleep when he came.  Oh my goodness, I'm giggling right now.  What would he do?  Would he tell me, or would he keep the secret because how would a 24 year old not know the truth and he wouldn't know what to say? So funny, so so funny!

2. Abby has discovered eyelashes and it's so funny.  I don't remember any of my other kids doing this.  She likes to poke my eyes to feel them, which I think my other kids have done, but then she'll lay her hand gently across my eye so that when I blink, they gently brush her hand.  And then she'll giggle.  So, I'll blink my eyes on her hands and her cheeks and her feet make her laugh.  The funniest thing though is when she started leaning forward so that her eyelashes touch her feet and then she'll blink and tickle her own feet.  She sat on the floor for a good 5 minutes tickling her feet and giggling.  Apparently, both Abby and I have had the giggles this month!

3. My good friend Kayce had her baby last week.  He was a big boy, 9 lbs, but when I saw him this week I was shocked how tiny he was.  It's just crazy how little they are.  He is sweet, but it wasn't too hard to hand him back to Kayce and pick up Abby and go home!

4. Christmas Cards.  We did not send out Christmas cards this year and I was a little surprised at how few we received.  Some may have still been sent to our old house, but still, it was interesting.  I wonder how long that tradition will last.  If we had sent out cards I would probably have put one of the following pictures on the card so, Merry Christmas from the Nielsens!

5. And finally some of the happenings here on Christmas day:

 We had fun making these snowmen for our neighbor gifts this year.  They weren't fancy, but I like that the kids got to help me decorate them and choose who to give them to.  We always have fun delivering these to people, it's one of my favorite traditions.

 Abby had so much fun throwing these bows from the bag all over the house.  It kept her happy for a while, so I let her do it.  After she'd taken a few out of the bag she looked at me with a guilty look waiting for me to tell her no and when I laughed and said, "It's ok."  She went crazy.  It was pretty funny!

Christmas day was a lot of fun.  Sara got this new coat, isn't she adorable? And she got a new mountain bike, with gears and she wanted to ride it all day long.

 Perfect mix of sport and fashionable, right?

 Kate has been wanting dangly earrings and loved these ballerinas.

 Kate and Sara had a lot of fun playing doll house.  Sara had asked for the Barbie Dream House, but I found this Beach Vacation house for way less money and she didn't even know the difference.  Ha ha. I loved how much fun these two had and how they didn't fight almost the whole day.  It was a Christmas miracle!  Kate had some little fairies in her stocking and Sara had some little horses, they fit into the Barbie play quite nicely.

 It was kind of a rough day for Abby.  I remember Sara at this age had a rough day too.  She did take a two hour nap late in the afternoon which was nice and then she sneaked her binky out of her bed and played ipad with Jerry while she sucked on it.  So cute!

 Kate really wanted a Lego Friends piece and Santa delivered with the Heartlake High School.  She had fun putting it together with Matt.  She also got a Rainbow Loom to make rubber band bracelets out of.  I didn't even know about these until a few weeks ago.  Apparently, I was like the last person in America to find out about them.  Kate has LOVED it.  We have already been back to the store to buy more rubberbands!

 Abby got this really fun musical suitcase.  I'm pretty sure Santa didn't realize how annoying it is.  Oh well.

 Sara had fun playing play doh.  This was Abby's gift to her.  I love sibling gifts.

 Abby has started doing this totally funny thing.  She'll pick up little objects and put them down the back of her shirt.  It's hilarious.  I'll pick her up and find new surprises down there!  She started with candy and you can see the candy cane in this picture and then she went to doggies.  She got some doggies in her stocking (you can see one in the next picture) and they fit just perfectly down her shirt.  So funny!

Here she has stolen Sara's blanket and is playing with her doggy.  She likes to try to stand them up on the tile and then clap at herself.  She's gotten pretty good at it!

I didn't get a picture of Matt, but here is a video of him driving his new remote control car that he got.  It's awesome and he's had a ton of fun with it.  He and Jerry built a jump out of snow.  They have also gone to the church parking lot with some friends who also have some and raced around there.  He said this is the best Christmas gift he's ever gotten!  There is also a video of Sara on her new bike.  That girl is crazy!

We had a great Christmas and hope that everyone else did too!

Five for Friday

1. Kate's showcase:  This past weekend Kate had her ballet recital.  She was so excited for it!  This girl loves to be on stage.  Her studio did the ballet The Secret Garden.  Kate's class danced a butterfly dance.  She did a great job.  This girl loves ballet.  She'll come home after her class and stay in her leotard and pretend to teach dance class.  I love to joke with her about how I don't know anything about ballet and I'll say all the names of moves wrong.  She thinks it's funny.  I love watching her on stage.  She was a bit more nervous this year, but still all smiles!  They performed the show twice and the second show I stayed backstage with her.  It was fun to watch it from that angle and be with her.  I loved it.

Her cute costume.

Here she is in full makeup.  It feels weird to slather makeup on my 8 year old and I still don't put nearly as much on her as some of the other girls.  It's a little weird!  I love in this picture how you can see girls in the background putting makeup on.

For some reason the director wanted this hairstyle done on everyone.  It is a lace braided bun.  I had to watch a video to figure it out, but I think I did a pretty good job!

Here is her dress rehearsal video.  On the screen, at the beginning, she is on the right side row in the back.  They move a lot so you'll have to keep your eye on her.  She's a bit hard to see, but you'll get the idea.

The third grade had a holiday program and Kate was a gingerbread dancer.  I love her pink snow boots.  I tried to get her to wear something else, but she wasn't having it.  Whatevs!

This is a video of her playing Silent Night.  This was a big deal for her.  If she doesn't want to do something, she'll kind of act like a baby and throw a fit and say I can't, I can't.  But she decided she wanted to learn this song.  She hasn't learned any sharps and some of the notes are notes she hasn't learned yet.  It only took her about 10 days to learn it which is amazing.  She would ask to play and have me help her which is a big deal for her.  I am so proud of her learning it.  I hope this helps to make the piano more fun for her!

 2.  Abby is now 15 months!  

 We have so much fun with this little girl.  I thought I'd put up some video of her learning to walk.  She moves at her own speed for sure, but she keeps progressing.  She is so proud of herself when she realizes we are clapping and cheering for her.

 She loves to play in the bathtub when Kate or Sara are in their.  She has been very close to falling in a few times and then one night this week, she did!  She was not happy and even more mad that I ran to get my camera!  Cute!

My mom sent me this sweater when Kate was a baby.  It looked so great with Kate's eyes and just as great with Abby's.  I love it.  I think she looks like a little Peruvian sherpa.  Do they have sherpas in Peru?  I feel like we should have been just out hiking up some mountain with our yaks.  Makes me giggle.

3. Snowstorm!  We had the kind of snow day that you dream of all winter.  It snowed all. day. long.  It was awesome!  While Matt and Kate were at school and Abby was sleeping, Sara and I turned on the fire and read Christmas stories together.  It was awesome.  A great day!

 This was half way through the day.  It kept on snowing. 

And then when Matt and Kate got home, we all went out and played in the snow.  It was a lot of fun.  Sometimes, I really love winter!

4. Christmas traditions

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is going to Temple Square to see the lights.  This is Abby all bundled up.  Doesn't she look hilarious.  I think she stayed warm.  She was happy!

We've also been doing advent calendars of all sorts and reading Christmas stories and getting gifts ready for lots of friends and families.  Sara has been coloring a lot of pictures for random people.  It's really cute.  We do not however have on Elf on the Shelf.  One reason is I really don't need another thing to worry about each night, I try to stay relaxed and not overloaded and also because Sara is really worried about the naughty list.  In fact, she has more than once talked about how she might not even get gifts from Santa because she is naughty.  And she really believes it.  So, we have eliminated all comments about naughty lists, or Santa is watching, or whatever and I don't need some creepy elf watching her and making her feel like every time she gets redirected (a p.c. way of saying "in trouble") that she's truly naughty.  Poor girl.  She has some anxiety and low self esteem tendencies.  I've told her many times she's a very normal little girl and she tries so hard and no one is perfect and that the Savior is better than Santa because He just wants us to try hard to be like Him.  I hope it helps her.

5.  Running.  Yes, again.  I'm sorry!

Last Saturday I went on a run with my friend and old teammate Taryn.  It was a lot of fun and we realized we haven't run together in a long time.  I don't normally take pictures after I run and you can see why, but I was showing Taryn Instagram and telling her to join it and low and behold, there's a picture my sister posted of running with her friends.  So we posted one back to her and challenged her to a race!  #ihavefastfriends

Sadly, my last three runs have been on a treadmill at the gym due to bad, bad air and then the storm that left me with nowhere to run, but clean air.  I really hate the treadmill, but I want to keep my endurance base.  I'm crossing my fingers that the storm tomorrow will hold off until after I run.  It's not looking good.

Five for Friday

1. Elizabeth Smart.  I read her book, My Story, and I loved it.  Before I read the book, I read a lot of reviews about it.  Almost all of them were the same: Great story, great girl but poorly written book.  I actually loved the way the book was written while at the same time I can see why it got those reviews.  It's not really written as a page turner/cliff hanger type book, but I don't think that was the purpose of the book.  I mean it wasn't a fictional story written for fun or to entertain.  So I think she achieved her purpose in writing.  I loved that she got to defend her younger sister and her mom.  I love that she had the chance to tell everyone how evil and selfish Mitchell was.  I love that she was able to describe her fear and explain how that dictated every decision she made even when she was faced with the chance of escape.  I'm willing to bet that most people reading her book can't comprehend that level of fear.  I love that she shared what her mom said to her after she was found and I thought that was a fantastic thing to say.  I think Elizabeth is a true hero and I wish I could tell my girls all about her, but obviously, I can't.  I'm amazed at her resilience, her ability to move on and her ability to never let go of her belief in God.  I'm amazed that she could realize how even though her situation was horrible, it could have been worse.  She's right... she doesn't have pictures of her abuser hanging on the wall of her house because it's a family member.  She didn't get pregnant.  There was no death involved.  I worked with a girl who went through similar trauma experiences, probably even worse, and I'm amazed that Elizabeth has been able to forget him and build a good life for herself.  I think it was a lot harder than she really talked about, but I'm so glad that she could do it and truly not give him any more of her life!  I still remember exactly where I was and who told me that she'd been found.  It was pretty shocking.  The court cases of Barzee and Mitchell were on the news and every time the case was suspended because he would come into the courtroom singing and wouldn't stop, it made me angry.  I'm so glad they didn't determine him to be mentally incompetent.  It was so obvious he knew exactly what he was doing and I'm so glad she got to affirm that in her book.  I'm glad she had the chance to testify against him and stare him down and seal his sentence!  You go girl!

2. Chirstmas shopping.  I think I'm almost done!  Woo hoo!

3. A couple of months ago I got a new calling.  Relief Society teacher.  I just said to my Bishop, "Seriously?"  I've had that calling so many times and it has been a huge struggle to accept it.  I know, I know I hear what I'm saying too.  So this next Sunday is my first time teaching and it's just a struggle on every level.  I'll stop right there.

4. Arapahoe.  Every fall our first cross country meet in high school was hosted by Arapahoe High School.  It was a big deal.  I mean sure there was a lot of hype, but we all bought into it and that was what made it so great.  There was a high school from Wyoming that always came and won and then when I went to college one of my teammates was from that high school and she said they always laughed because they'd come to that meet every year and beat all the Colorado schools.  Not cool.  Anyway, I can't believe another shooting is in the news.  There is so much evil out there and people who would not typically be capable of such awfulness become consumed by evil.  It's really not cool.  There is no safe place anymore.

5. Running.  I know I talked about this last week, but I didn't run today which I normally would have been really distressed over, but I wasn't today.  It's just awful weather.  I don't mind the cold, I actually really like running in it.  But the air quality is just horrible and looking at the skies is so depressing.  I hate Utah inversions. 

Five for Friday

1. Abby continues to have fun walking around.  Well, when she's in the mood to do it anyway.  She is pretty proud of herself.  Her latest trick that she works on more and more is standing all by herself.  She loves to sit on the fireplace mantel and then stand up from there.  She'll take one or two steps to my outstretched hands and think she's pretty hot stuff!  Maybe, just maybe, she'll be walking by Christmas.  More than walking, I wish she would go back to sleeping well.  She won't take naps, she's up half the night and I have no idea what to do, nothing seems to work.  I remember Kate would go through phases like this, I hope this is just a phase for Abby, too.

 Here she is already walking and talking on a cell phone!

 

2. Winter has finally hit Utah.  We enjoyed awesome upper 50 degree weather over Thanksgiving, and then bam, we got slammed with winter.  Not only did we get snow, but it has been cold, cold, cold.

 Abby looks so darn cute in this beanie, I think!

 

 

 Sara is my snow loving girl.  I knew the day that it snowed that she would ask to play in it when she got home from school, and I was right.  Awesome!  I love that girl.  So we all got dressed up and went outside.  Abby did not like that she couldn't move very well.  Typical.

 Sara had fun for a few minutes, but it wasn't good snowman making snow, so then she got bored and we went inside.  It was too cold for me to want to stay out for too long either. 

 Hot chocolate sounds much better on days like these! 

Matt and Kate wanted to play in the snow when they got home too.  I know the tree was in the way, but this is the best picture I could get while standing inside by the heater vent.  If I wanted to actually get them in the picture, I would have had to go outside.

 

3. Christmas celebrations.  There is a church nearby that puts on a live nativity.  We really wanted to go to it.  They only do it for 4 nights and we only had one night open.  The night that it snowed and got really cold.  But, we hoped that maybe with the storm, the line would be shorter and we were right.  It was a really neat experience.  They had things set up like the city of Bethlehem and then the last station was Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus in a stall.  It was very neat.  I had my moment when the innkeeper told us to move on because there was no room in that inn.  I can't even begin to imagine how Mary must have felt.  It made me so sad as we walked past him.

 

4. Queen Kate.  She got this blanket as a gift from her dance studio and has been wearing it all around the house and in bed.  She said to me, "I feel just like a king when they have their robes wrapped around them and it drags behind them.  I texted my brother this picture and said, "Some things girls are just born with."  Like mother, like daughter!

5. Running. So I got into the Canyonlands half marathon in March in Moab.  It is a race I've wanted to run for many years so I'm very excited.  And now I am in this running conundrum.  I love running.  I might even love it more now than I did back in the day because I'm really doing it for me and because I love it and it's who I am.  I really want to run well in this race.  The tricky part is that it is a US Track and Field sanctioned race and so their will be fast people there.  I've run one other half and I put my time from that half into last years results and I would have been 30th, which doesn't sound nearly as cool as 6th.  So, I'm trying to really push myself on my runs.  And thanks to Strava that is easier than I ever imagined it would be when running by myself.  I am always aiming to beat someone's segment time and have the crown next to my name.  I've so far passed of three segments that I regularly run.  I'm really having fun with it which is great.  But then, inevitably it turns into an obsession and there becomes guilt involved and that is what I don't like.  I spent so many years where running came before everything and if it didn't, I felt guilty.  And it was great then, but not what I want now.  Wednesday is a typical run day, but Tuesday the storm and cold came.  It was so cold that the streets and sidewalks weren't cleared and it was too cold for ice melt to even work so the conditions were more ripe for falling and getting injured rather than a good run.  I laid my clothes out and decided to see how I felt when my alarm went off.  Well, Abby was up half the night, I'd felt a cold coming on and was starting to not feel well, plus the aforementioned roads.  So I decided not to go which I think is a decision most people would make, right?  But then I felt guilty all day and when I put my running gear away I was mad at myself for not going.  Now this attitude is what has gotten me a lot of success in running, but I don't want it now.  I want to still be running in 20 years and I know my knees are already not what they used to be so I want to be more balanced in my running.  But it's so hard because I also still really want to be good and fast and I want to be in the top 20 in this race which I means I'm going to have to work hard.  It's a very difficult situation for me mentally and I feel like I can't win either way.  So, for now I'm just focusing on being happy when I run.  And I really am.  I really love it.  It feels so good.  I ran Thursday morning and even though it was single digit weather and I still had to dodge ice, it felt so good.  I love breathing in the cold winter air, plus I feel hard core running in the dark and cold!  Awesome!!