Joe's List of Thanksgiving

1.  I am thankful for Linda. I love all those linda-isms... they make me laugh.  I don't think there ever was a truer friend than she.   I am thankful that we were able to meet, that Providence stepped in and made my life oh so much better because of her.
2.  I am thankful for Zachary, my firstborn.   His feet are bigger than mine now.  Soon he will pass me in height, the years just move all too quickly.  Only five years until he leaves on his mission.  I too love to see him sign me I love you when I take him to school.
3.  I am thankful for Kaija, my little girl growing up so fast.  She has so many talents, and so many good aspirations.  I love to make her laugh uncontrollably, it is amusing, you'll have to try it.
4.  I am thankful for my little Bella, who loves for Dad to take her up to bed every night.  Those puppy dog eyes, and sad face make me melt.  I love her clever way of making ordinary stuff into little rooms for all those pollys and littlest pet shop critters.
5.  I am thankful for Eli, who wants to be called Eli Joe, because his Dad is Joe.  Who wants me to sit by him at every meal, and likes every thing I like- including gjetost (norwegian goat cheese).  Try it, you might like it too.
6.  I am thankful for little Spencer, who totally proves to me that we come with more knowledge and understanding of life than we know.  He is a great gift given to us, and I thank my God for his precious little soul.
7. I am thankful for goodly parents who love the Gospel, and love me.  They have given all so that I might have all.  What better examples of Christ can there be than parents who sacrifice their lives for us?  I hope that one day, my children will rise up and call me blessed.
8.   I am thankful for the God of my soul, that he knows who I am, and has shown great patience on my behalf.  I am thankful that he sent his Son to earth and gave us a gift that allows us to be like him.  I am thankful for the Savior.

11.22

Well this morning when I dropped off Zach and Kaija for school, I started forming another list of things I am thankful for:

• a 14 year old boy who still gives the "I love you" sign when we drop him off
• a wonderful weekend with Grandma- all to ourselves! It doesn't happen very often but we sure love it when we get to spend time with our parents/grandparents 
• for a balmy 66 degrees this morning- a perfect day for a walk
• the anticipation of getting out Christmas decorations... I think I will start today!
• our amazing church family- I love that no matter where we have lived or visited, there are always wonderful people who have become our dear friends 
• being able to enjoy the bird migrations- I love hearing them and watching them fly in formation, I think it is just fascinating

Gearing up for Thanksgiving

So for Eli's homework we had to create a story together as a family and decorate Tom Turkey so he was incognito- we had way too much fun with this one! 

Obviously for our family there just had to be an organ involved; I particularly love Eli's special attention to the eyes!

11.15

Today I am thankful for:

• payday- I just love when it comes on time and without worry
• my awesome family- we are so fortunate to have excellent families and people who we feel are just like family!
• personal revelation- there is just nothing better than getting those quiet assurances and needed direction in your life
• cinnamon rolls- obviously someone has begun to bake again.... this could actually be a problem!
• beautiful music- I love having Joseph play the piano all the time (and the kids too, with their perspective instruments)
• good conversations with our kids

11.6

Today I am thankful for:

• Joe teaching the kids Norwegian again
• a nice warm fireplace that made our house toasty last night
• elderly couples walking hand in hand eating lollipops (that is just how I want to be!)
• yummy cheesy biscuits
• a baby who giggles in his sleep and while he is awake
• better yet, is a baby who has been sleeping through the night

November= Thanksgiving

I want to have that feeling of Thanksgiving all month!
Today I am thankful for:

• a very nice checker at Wal-mart who unloaded my cart onto the check stand while I held sad Spencer, not only that but bagged my groceries very conscientiously
• children being motivated to be on time to school
• a wonderful husband who laid the baby back in his crib when I was too tired to do it and then brought him to me again a couple of hours later
• down comforters to snuggle in as the temperature drops
• gorgeous awe inspiring autumn leaves
• walking with a friend on a beautiful day, to go and vote

Halloweening

We had a perfectly lovely time this year with just enough Halloweening, I hauled Spencer into Bella's and Eli's class parties on Friday, then by the time we got everyone home we opted out of the downtown businesses trick or treat (though we have enjoyed it in the past).
We went on Saturday night to the ward party at the church with lots of yummy soup and bread and happy people in costumes and trunk or treating, my idea of a perfect Halloween party!

Zachary as the jailbird who stole The Scream!! His own creation!

Kaija and Grace and Kate at the church party

Bella and Eli after all the good fun. Did the Knight capture the fairy or put her in a trance?
Not sure!

Mr Money Bags, Himself!

Well now we can move on, but it always cracks me up that my kids are always talking about what they are going to be next year whilst they are still dressed up for this year!

Having fun

We are having way too much fun with Spencer!

Isn't he cute?

We have not been keeping up on our journaling and the time is racing past us.  Spencer is now over 7 weeks old and is growing at a rapid rate. He is a very happy baby, and we all adore him!

Joseph has been home for 3 weeks now and we have been trying to catch up from lost time; this is never possible, but we have been busy trying to organize our house, and in turn our lives!  

We have gone through every closet and drawer and dejunked the whole house. We certainly still have de-junking to do, but at least it is a good solid start!!  We have found Legos and hair accessories in every corner and have returned them to their rightful homes and have found new homes for all the other things. We have re-arranged furniture and added some furniture to help with the organizational efforts and have great hopes that we will finally get on top of everything.  The yard is a completely different story!

We found the dresser and night stand at "Those Were the Days" for a great price after looking at furniture stores and garage sales. Finally something that worked out just right- all they needed was a little black spray paint!

Took Zach's old bed and sprayed it black too! Yea for Kaija, places to put things away!!!

We have cleared out the "room of requirement", which has also been known as the guest room, and are getting ready to make some repairs and tend to the painting and preparing of the room for Joseph's organ which is now officially in Warrensburg.  He is anxious to get practicing again, so perhaps by Christmas time he will be pulling out all the stops!

One last piece of info, we finally gave up on our stove, because it gave up on us.  This being the case, we have brought in a new addition to our home, a beautiful baby Bosch (duel fuel convection)!  I think I might just start to cook again, it has been a long 2 years of glass top cooking and random failed baking experiences.  I am now in love, and the family feels pretty glad about this new relationship, especially when that means experiencing perfectly delicious cinnamon rolls! 

Even Joseph is anxious to cook with this beauty, and I am going through my ridiculous recipe files which include a large zip lock baggie full of loose recipes written on any number of random pieces of paper.  Yes friends, the time has come, I am in desperate need of organization.

Please feel free to send me any of your great ideas/tricks to help us in our organizational journey, and don't be stingy with your favorite recipes that I can add to my new organized and amazing recipe files!! 
(Well soon to be anyway!)

Bringing Home Baby

Welcoming

 Spencer Owen Karl Nielsen

September 4th 2010

9 lbs 15.1 oz

I have felt very fortunate to have had a very easy pregnancy, thank heavens because I am feeling a little older now!  It has made all the difference in the world to have the other children old enough to take care of themselves and help with the household responsibilities, so for the sake of sanity, a few years goes a long way! Not only that but they are all very helpful with the baby too!

Everything worked out just fine and even mostly according to the "plan". We had a smallish window of opportunity to get him here, since Joseph had only 4 days to be here.  (He has been and is now in Roanoke Virginia installing an organ at St. John's Episcopal Church.  We hope to have him home by the end of the month!)  Spencer was a little more stubborn about his arrival time as I spent all day Friday sitting around with the maximum amount of Pitocin allowed; hoping for it to be of short duration, and all that time he was just staying very cozy in his domicile and was not interested in budging.  

We got a little worried when Gale, the midwife, laid out our options around 5pm before her shift ended: go home and come back in a few days on your own, or later when Connie, the other midwife, came there was talk of a C-section- neither of those options were in the "plan" so we called the kids and our families and asked for them to offer up some prayers in our behalf.

God does answer prayers!

Not too long after that things finally started to progress.  We had the great blessing to have our friend Dr. Crook be the anesthesiologist for said event; he is a master of his craft and we had a great time chatting periodically through the day. Joe grew up with Shawn in So. Jordan and we have luckily ended up here in the Burg together!  Spencer held on just long enough to not be born on the 3rd, he was born at 12:26 a.m., he had hair, curly dark brown hair!! Unheard of in our little family- hopefully he will keep it! 

Life is really good, everyone has taken such good care of us and offered to help with everything.  We have learned a lot about patience and how to be happy when hard things come in our path.  I think we have done pretty well, but we certainly couldn't do it without the constant outpouring of blessings from the Lord and wonderful family and friends who buoy us up and sustain us in all circumstances!

They are all crazy

What can I say- we have more crazy pictures than real ones- they are such hams!

The Walrus Insanity

Kaija trying to look like Cary Grant in I was a Male War Bride, I think??

Kaija instigated Doughnut Making Day

Eli wants to be like his Daddy! Allegedly "Joe" is his middle name- not Joseph!
It took me a minute to realize that he wasn't doing it wrong- nothing to do with Loe! 

School Begins!

First Day of School

It is hard to believe that we have 2 kids in Middle School, 

Zach is in 8th grade and Kaija is in 7th.

Isabella is our 5th grader and 

Eli is truly rocking this year in Kindergarten!

He has told me everyday so far that they didn't learn anything!  

Basically he makes me laugh!

They like to threaten the kids at the Middle School with DETENTION.  

Now if they are late, or don't have their homework, 

or forget their instruments, or smell bad or had broccoli for breakfast, they get DETENTION! 

Could be an interesting year!! 

Yes, let them fear school- it is so much better that way, right????

I think they already feel motivated to succeed!!

ONE OF ZACH'S SUMMERTIME SKETCHES

(I just thought I would add this little sketch that Zachary did, he really is quite talented)!

Anyhow, let the games begin!  

And we will see if I can actually tolerate waiting in the car rider lines this year; it is not looking good for my kids, because I find myself very annoyed with lines at 3 different schools, especially Bella's!  I will threaten them with the prospect of riding the bus again- perhaps even DETENTION!

So it's been a while

I think about posting things regularly, but alas that is as far as I have gotten lately.  It has been an interesting summer, that is a lame word to use for sure, but I can't think of how to describe it.  Some days it feels like we have been busy and productive and accomplished loads of great things, and then there are those days when you wonder how it is possible that you waisted away an entire summer doing nothing!  Admittedly this has not been the summer that I have volunteered to do a lot of traveling or major yard projects, or quite honestly a lot of anything.

The kids have had a few fun moments on the home front- it is amazing how they can amuse themselves with so little!

Building with scraps of wood from QPO

Experiencing grandness on a whole new level!

Even with my belly growing at rapid rates this summer, we have managed to squeeze in some great times with family and friends.  I spent 2 glorious weekends in Lawrence, one with my family and the other with good friends! We enjoyed being back in our old stomping grounds getting together with friends and catching up on all the news, there wasn't nearly enough time.

Joe fixed an organ in Oskaloosa and we got to ride around in their golf cart!

We shipped Joe off to Roanoke Virginia for 3 weeks and Canada for nearly a week and now back to Virginia.  He comes back in another 3 weeks so we can have him here for the Labor Day Weekend whilst I am in labor with our 5th child.  There is no doubt that this little addition will be a big boy, I feel enormous!! Sept 3rd is the scheduled induction date, please cooperate baby, please, please!

Zach went on the Jamboree with the family- he will do his own post all about that later!  However, we did have an unusual time in St. Louis when we caught up with the rest of the gang to go to City Museum.

After we saw Lewis and Clark drowning in the Mississippi, and enjoyed a few hours of good hard playing at the museum we came out to find our cars broken into and various items stolen, like Anne's stereo, and most of the i-pods and gaming systems, and cameras with their photos from their 2 week journey, several sets of scriptures in their "deceiving" cases, our TV/DVD player, our swimwear and jammies and library CD's, and wouldn't you know it a 6 pack of Costco blueberry muffins!  Even criminals get hungry I guess- I am glad they left us the apple streusel muffins, cause I like them the best!  We hope they sat down and read the scriptures while they were devouring the muffins, presents a good picture doesn't it?

Opted for a cage for Zach

They finally made it to the 10 story slide and the other pipe organ

Mom and Dad glad to have some moments to themselves

Kaija, Alysha, Babs and Annie soaking it all in

The Crime Lab showed up and dusted everything

Who knew you could have so much fun!  We will have to catch up on the rest later, needless to say it has been eventful!

Oh what do we do in the Summertime?

My, my how the time flies. I think about posting things on here quite regularly, but the ebb and flow of daily life always places options in front of me, and it would seem that everything else has been winning over actually documenting what goes on!  But this is what we do in the summer time!

It is all a blur really, since the cherries are done, and the other fruit isn't quite ready yet, we have moved on to other projects like ripping out the bushes from the front of the house, this was no small feat, but we are really enjoying the results and perhaps once we get the roots dug out there won't be water issues in the basement! We have been to Powell Gardens a couple of times enjoying all the wonderful things there- right now they have big bugs on display which are just fantastic. I made Joe take one Saturday off so we could spend time together doing something besides yard work!

The humidity is officially here, zapping away all energy reserves.  I have to play chicken with the rain storms to get my lawn mowed and we like to always have 15 projects going on at the same time, inside and out, so that not a single one gets completed.  The wildlife here, most notably the deer and groundhogs, make Joseph very edgy since they do rotten things like eat all the goodness that we have worked so hard to plant. They leave it alone for a little while, then suddenly sneak up in the wee hours of the morning and strike with no thought of their actions.  Joe keeps a vigilant watch, but all these rain storms wash away all the critter deterrent that we have applied- sometimes I wonder if it is really worth all the extra money and time and frustration!
Well even with all that other stuff, I do admittedly really love certain parts of the summer, like watching the fireflies in our backyard- it is something to behold.  God is good, because he blesses us with these delights even in the face of hideous things like chiggers and humidity.  I am just very thankful for central air conditioning, especially this year; I wasn't brave at all to use the attic fan with the windows open as I usually do, nope not me, not this time.  It got hot and I turned on the good old AC, I am happy with my decision!

So what have we been up to??  Well, Joe is running around like a mad man trying to complete all his projects at work, and home and church- he really could use a vacation, too bad he can't have one!  I have been keeping busy with some different jobs all stemming from my association with Joseph's employment.  It has been interesting, but I really like the flexibility of being able to choose my own hours and do be able to do some of the work at home. Among other things, I have been wiring action boards for the organ that is being installed in Roanoke Virginia and have allegedly surprised some folks with my amazing skills! What can I say?
This week, we have taken Kaija, Izzi and Eli in to help out at the shop- they have actually been very helpful and have put their creative minds to work, and more importantly, a smile on their dad's face!
Zach has been up in St. Joe for scout camp this week and we are missing him, it is far too quiet without him here! Not sure what we will do when Joe is in Virginia and Zach is tromping about the country with Gram and Papa and some cousins for the National Boy Scout Jamboree. Yikes, we will just think about one day at a time right now- don't want to get ahead of myself too quickly!

Pictures for Zach's Post

To those who wanted pictures of the cherries here they are; we are so glad to have them all picked and pitted and frozen!  -Zach 

Next is Blueberries unless the Raspberries or Blackberries beat them to it!

Zach's First Ever Post

I am so glad that school is finally out! No homework for two months straight, and I can now relax, sort of. I can't believe that I will be in eighth grade next August - piles of even harder homework to finish by, "Next class all you evil pupils! Mwahh hahahahah!" I can't wait for all the madness to begin again. Why do we have to have ten thousand fruit trees in our yard? I have no clue! Yesterday we got yet another tree, this one a Paw paw tree. I think last week we got some berries and maybe another peach tree!  We have to finish picking all of the cherries this week, which is not one of my favorite chores, especially pitting the cherries. The sticky, over-sweet smell of the cherry juice is about enough to make me leave the room in a dash. To all those who like pie cherries, please, keep on liking them, but I am firmly avoiding the cherries this summer. I wish that some scientist out there could invent a bubble filled with cool air that could enclose you while doing yard work so that it wasn't so hot and exhausting outside. Recently this summer, I have figured out that the hot sunlight has left me tired after a few minutes outside, and that my naps have became even longer than usual.

We just got in from picking another seven bowls of cherries, along with weeding the entire garden. Thankfully we started picking cherries at ten o' clock, which was right after a thunderstorm, so it was 60 degrees and the cherries were sprinkling cold water on us when we picked them. After an hour and a half, we finished the cherries and went on to weeding the crabgrass that was in the garden, which took at least thirty minutes, and there is still more to obliterate! I took a shower when we got in, and it felt good to cool off for a few minutes. Thank goodness that we are inside the rest of the day!
                                                                                                                                   -Zach

HOT

It is hot outside. Thank goodness for air conditioning.

Loosing Friends

Well a week ago there was great sadness at our house because a cat destroyed the nesting place of our little robin family and killed all of the little ones- just for sport it would seem. It happened early in the morning when both of the parents were out gathering food for the babies.  We opened the blinds just after it had happened and watched the parents struggling to grasp what had just taken place.  They stood there on the corner of the porch not knowing what to do.  It was heart breaking to watch as the daddy gave his worm to the mommy and they both stood there forlorn.  Our children were devastated and shed many tears, and the skies wept in their behalf that day.

Last night we discovered that our dear friend Karl Savage (who we were so blessed to know in Lawrence) had passed away several weeks ago, from a rather sudden heart attack.  I am quite overwhelmed by the news, he has certainly left a great void that could never be filled.  For one who loved life and family, who was so full of goodness and a capacity to love and teach in a way that was a rare and wonderful thing to experience.  Today my tears fall as abundantly as the rain is falling outside, it seems again that the heavens laments our loss. Oh, may God bless our friends!

This has caused us to reflect much more deeply about how we are leading our lives and where we are placing importance, and laying in our path the somber fact that we can't take for granted the goodness that we are given each day.  So today I want to try with all my might to remember something my darling friend Julie Savage once told me, (instead of making New Year's Resolutions), the best choice we can make is to live our lives without regrets.

Surprise #5

Well for those who don't know, we are planning on a new adventure in parenting as we are currently expecting our special surprise baby #5. We will say that the arrival is sometime during the beginning of September, at first they said my birthday (Sept 2) then after the ultra-sound on Monday they said Aug 26th. I say later, because I seem to like to bake them a little longer; who is to say really, as everything has been completely different this time around.

I have been in denial for some time now, perhaps even 4 months, but we are all warming up to the idea. I thought Eli would take it the hardest, but in fact he has been the most delighted and has certainly prayed the hardest to get a little brother (everyone else was hoping for a girl). He is thrilled that he will not be the baby of the family anymore, and that he will have someone to teach all the important things to, like playing Legos and other such great things. Hopefully he will be able to deal with the inevitable noises that said small child will most certainly make- he has been known to make fairly direct comments to our friends who have babies, like: "Where is that thing you can put in their mouth that will make them be quiet?" He is obviously my child- I don't know where I get my hyper sense of hearing from, but my over zealous use of the "please be quiet" type phrases has rubbed off on him for sure!

So it sure is a good thing we got rid of everything a few years ago! Where would the fun be if we were actually prepared for such an event, right? I am still trying to brace myself for the long hot, muggy summer and the prospect of having Joe out of town for July, August and part of September. We are hoping he can at least come home to be present at the blessed event! What can we say, we have just impeccable timing!

Spring Flings

Well this spring has been quite wonderful, we have a little robin that has built her nest right on our back porch railing. We have watched her from our kitchen window as she built her nest from the ground up, she started on April 5th and took a few days to finish that process.

Eli has been completely enamored by the whole process. When she first laid her eggs around the 11th or 12th there were only 3, then as a surprise for Eli's birthday on the 14th, she laid another one. He just had to call Joe at work to tell him the news!

So along with all of the beautiful spring blossoms (and there is nothing more lovely than the smell of apple blossoms and lilacs permeating the air), and nesting robins, we have been overly occupied with pruning trees, preparing the garden areas, planting 20 new fruit trees and 35 blackberry and raspberry plants/canes. We are preparing for another shipment of berries and other lovelies to go into the yard- we decided an edible landscape was the best way to spend our money- hopefully we can figure out how to care for everything along the way!

Eli loves that he turned 5- he tries to rub it in to any of his friends that are younger than him. He has just been longing for a Darth Vader Lego set- so that was his special gift this year; as I type he is humming Vader's theme song!

He is an exceptionally funny kid, and is always trying to get me to let him do anything that involves electronics, for example every morning he says to me, "Mom, can I go on the playstation? (NO). Can I go on the Wii? (NO). Can I go on the computer? (NO). Can I watch a movie? (NO)!!!!". This is a daily conversation, even a few times a day we might go through this, then he will find my phone, duck into the other room and play something on there.

He has a love of Lego's, just like his dad, and has found that Bella is a great comrade in the Lego realm- they took some time to come into this relationship, but finally they are solid friends and play well at most anything! He likes to play checkers, ride scooters and is working hard on the bike riding. And to his father's happiness, he likes to dig in the dirt!

Joe had his final Organ Concert on Friday the 16th and we were lucky enough to have our sisters and their families come up for the event. What a great weekend, and what a relief to have all of the concerts over with for a while!!

The kids were so delighted to have some time with cousins, they had tents set up in the backyard and we had a great surprise from our friends who found a trampoline for us that their neighbors were getting rid of- oh what joy has returned for our children, they had really missed having one. Uncle Mark took the troops out on a Geocaching expedition which they enjoyed. We loved having extra help in the yard on Saturday, the guys cut down some trees and did some mowing and gathering of branches, while the gals went shopping!! There is just nothing better than having great times with family and friends- we consider ourselves so fortunate!