My Buddies

Today I just wanted to mention a few things that have been going on around our house. Dallin and Trista have each developed new addictions. Trista's new passion is "Doro," better known to most of us as Dora. She asks to watch "Doro" first thing in the morning and during any other lull in the day. For a couple of weeks she would even cry out "Doro" instead of "Mom" or "Dad" when she got hurt or sad. Watching Dora seems to make everything better. We have a video tape with about 8 episodes taped on it, and I must admit that I've let her watch it too much, but it's just so nice to get stuff done! I think she's getting tired of the same old episodes though. However, she did pick out a "Doro" swimming suit the other day at JC Penney.

Dallin has two new passions. He recentlyy figured out how to play games and visit websites on the computer and he's loving it! For awhile we could hardly drag him away to eat, sleep or leave the house, but the newness is wearing off and he's remembering his other hobbies. Speaking of hobbies, Dallin got a new floor puzzle in the shape of a fire truck for his birthday.

It really sparked an interest, and for the past few weeks he's spent probably at least an hour a day working on puzzles. He's always asking me, "Mom, will you get the hard puzzles out of the closet for me?" Here is a picture of Dallin working on his "hard" puzzles.

Today he even got the 100 piece Spongebob puzzle out and did it with just a little help from me. He's even gotten Trista interested in puzzles. She works on her wooden cut-out puzzles while he works on his.

Little Helper

Trista is quite the little helper. One of her favorite things to help with is unloading the dishwasher. Our usual order of operations is: first she puts the cooking utensils in the drawer while I put the silverware away. Then she puts the sippee cup lids and tupperware lids away while I unload the bottom rack. When we get to the top rack she stacks the plastic cups while I do the rest.

Oops, she dripped a little bit of water on the floor, so she grabbed the dishtowel to wipe it up!

What would I do without her?

Tulips and Two Pics

I LOVE TULIPS! Tulips are my favorite flower, and I've gotten to enjoy them a bunch lately! Last fall I planted some bulbs in front of our house along with some pansies.
I only half expected even a few of the tulips to bloom, considering I didn't follow the directions about the right type of soil and some other conditions. But to my surprise, about a month ago I saw little green leaves and stems sprouting out of the ground!

The tulips are in full bloom now, and I love it! Everytime I pull into the driveway I pause before entering the garage just to admire them.

Then on Tuesday I got an extra surprise when Jordan brought these tulips home for me. I'm in Tulip Heaven!!!

Here are a couple other pictures I took this week.

Where do you sit to work on your computer? Apparently Jordan prefers to sit on the toilet and use the countertop for his desk. He was actually watching Dallin and Trista while they took a bath. And here is one of a sleeping Spencer. He fell asleep watching TV before bedtime one night this week. He was so worn out!

Easter

St. George

My trip to St. George was fabulous! I left on Monday, the 17th and travelled all day, three different flights to get there. I arrived at 9:00 pm. Shana picked me up at the airport and the fun began! We stopped on the way home to pick up a few groceries for the week and then went on to the beautiful vacation home she and her husband own there in St. George. We talked a little but went to be pretty early so we could get a good start to the next day.

Tuesday morning we had a tennis lesson with an amazing tennis pro/instructor named Dave Smith. He was really great and I feel like I learned a lot in just three short days. The lessons were outdoors and the weather was beautiful! We had our lesson and then Shana and I played against each other a little bit. She beat me every time we played--she's definately better than I am, but it was still so much fun! We were trying to be healthy so after tennis we went home and ate a big spinache salad and then headed to the spa for a two-hour couples massage. Talk about Heaven! It was definately the best massage I've ever had! After that we came home and rested for awhile, got dressed up, and went to a really nice restaurant called the Painted Pony for dinner. It was a good thing we ate a healthy lunch, because we didn't do so well for dinner. We shared a delicious brie appetizer, and then I had a super tender steak with mushrooms, mashed potatoes, and broccolli for dinner. We topped it all off with some amazing banana bread pudding. Then we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and went home to begin watching Pride and Prejudice (the long version), which I had been reading but had not yet finished.

Wednesday morning started with a healthy breakfast and tennis at 9:30. We played for almost three hours, got a little sunburned, and then stopped at a fresh Mexican restaurant on the way home for a yummy Mexican salad. We watched some more of the movie and then went shopping at the outlet mall in the afternoon. We found Shana a couple of spring dresses since she didn't have one actual dress in her whole closet, and bought some cute things for the kids at Gymboree. We stopped at a sandwich cafe for dinner and treated ourselves to Cold Stone Creamery on the way home where we watched a little more Pride and Prejudice and went to bed.

Thursday morning began much like the others. Tennis from 9:00 until 12:00, and then we hit another Mexican restaurant for lunch. By this point most of our healthy aspirations were out the window, and we shared a quesadilla and a HUGE basket of nachos which we could hardly even put a dent in. Then we headed to the spa again, this time for a sports massage and facial. The sports massage was awsome, but somehow I had scheduled a body scrub instead of a facial for my second treatment. I really wasn't interested in the body scrub so they let me cancel it, and I went outside and layed on the grass in the sun for the next hour while Shana got her second treatment. It was so nice and relaxing--I think I even fell asleep for a little while. That night we ate at a really yummy local pizza place and then finished watching Pride and Prejudice, which we both loved.

sans make-up on the way home from the spa--yikes!

Friday morning we got up early and went to the 8:00 session at the temple. We had time for a quick breakfast, a short drive up the hill to the red rocks where we took some pictures, and then it was off to the airport to drop me off. It was such a wonderful, relaxing trip, and so much fun to spend time with Shana! She's one of those amazing people who just inspires you to be a better person. I can't wait for our next trip!

Catching Up!

It's been so long since my last blog I guess I have some catching up to do! February was a busy month for us. It started out quite normal, but then got crazy just in time for Valentine's Day. Jordan's Grandpa Nielsen passed away on the 10th, and Jordan was asked to give the eulogy at his funeral. So he flew out to California on the 13th (Wed.) and was able to spend the weekend through Sunday with his family there. I heard he did a wonderful job with the eulogy and actually learned a lot about his grandfather in the process. I was really happy for him that he could go and have that bonding time with his family.

Meanwhile, we had invited a few kids from church and school over for a Valentine's party on the 13th. We didn't invite a ton of kids, 7 total, so I thought it would be pretty easy and low-key and planned to do the party by myself. Luckily one of the other mom's ended up staying, 'cause boy did I underestimate the challenges of throwing a party for 11 kids age 8 and under! We played some relay and other games with balloons and decorated Valentine cookies. The kids had a blast!

A few days after Jordan got back, his parents came to visit for few days. We always love it when they come, and the kids adore spending lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa Post. However, their mother was a slacker and didn't take any pictures, so she'll have to make up for it with lots of pictures when we visit G&G in California this summer.

With February already over, Jordan and I made a plan to go to the temple on Saturday. We are in the Oklahoma City temple district, so it takes us a full 3 1/2 hours to get to the temple (not to mention about $8 in tolls) That's just one way, so we usually make a whole day of it. We left our house at 6:00am, drove straight to the temple, and finished at the temple at about 12:30pm. Then we went to eat at Macaroni Grill (one of favorite places) and stopped at a mall on the way home as well. When we got back into town we went straight to Stake Conference where we heard some great messages about marriage and family, and we finally got home at around 9:30pm. Although we did a lot of sitting, Jordan and I had a great time, and I really enjoyed spending the entire day with my husband. It's rare that we have that much time together, without interruptions from children, and that time helps me remember what a fun, intelligent, entertaining, and loveable husband I have.

Alright, so now it's March, and my much-anticipated trip to St. George is only 12 days away! I'm meeting my college friend, Shana, there and we have lots of fun stuff planned. We're going to take a few tennis classes, go to the spa, shop, eat yummy food, watch chic-flicks, sit in the hot tub, and just relax (if there's any time left for that)! Because I'm flying out of a rather small airport into another small airport I have several layovers making for about a day of travel each way, so I'm needing some suggestions on books to take along with me. What have you been reading lately? I'm also open to suggestions on movies that Shana and I should rent while we're there. The only one on my list so far is Casablanca--let me know what you recommend!

Bonus picture

Bits and Pieces

Just a little update today. Life is good but very busy. I feel completely worn out today! Alexis and Spencer have been sick this week--I hope the rest of us don't get it! The kids have been really great lately and I've found myself often thinking how grateful I am for them and for Jordan. By the way, Jordan finally got his promotion last week--HURRAY! He's a director now and still learning a ton and doing a great job in the real estate finance dept. at Wal-Mart.

Alexis started piano lessons a couple weeks ago. It's kind of been a struggle because it's not as easy for her as school has been so she actually has to work at it. She gets frustrated very quickly when she can't play a new song perfectly the first time or she doesn't understand something and then she wants to quit, at least for the moment. I hope it gets better because I really want her to learn to play and I'm not going to let her quit!

Spencer has been such a sweetheart lately, reminding me how glad I am that we made it through those tough couple of years with him. He was such a stinker sometimes--getting into everything he wasn't supposed to, drawing with black permanent marker on the white cabinets, deliberately defying me while I was looking right at him! He's not perfect, but he's soooo much better, and he's so sweet with Trista. I love to watch him play with her and help her and take care of her. He's such a good big brother! Spencer's funny quote of the week is, "Dad, can I get a credit card? I want a credit card. I reeeaaally need a credit card! I love credit cards!" (Does he even know what a credit card is?)

Dallin keeps me laughing, except when he makes me want to cry every night at dinner because it's such a struggle to get him to eat. He still hates "grown up" food and wants kids stuff (chicken nuggets, ramen noodles, hot dogs, etc.) for every meal. We have to monitor every bite of food and are always waiting for the very loud gagging sound he makes just before spitting his food back out half the time. Will this ever end? He does have a lot of redeeming qualities though. He's very righteous. He wants to say the blessing at every meal, and Jordan has been talking to the kids about praying every morning right when they get out of bed. The other morning at breakfast I asked the kids if they prayed when they woke up. Dallin burst into tears because he had forgotten. He was sobbing, totally distraught, and wouldn't believe me that he could go back to his room and pray and it would be just the same. Dallin's quote of the week is, "Well, when can I have a girl in my bed?" (In response to Trista sleeping in Alexis' bed instead of her crib one night.)

Finally we have Trista. Trista is so happy, fun, and good natured. Everywhere we go (the gym, the babysitter, the nursery at church) people are awed and amazed at how good and happy she is. I'd like to take credit and think that it's because I'm such an impeccable mother, but sadly I don't think that's the case. She's just been an impeccable baby (and toddler). She's finally starting to talk more. She says "tan to" (thank you), uh huh, Tih Ta (Trista), and our favorite "I do!" The whole family goes around asking question after question--"Who wants a drink?"

"I do!"

"Who's cute?"

"I do!"

"Who has a stinky bum?"

"I do!"

Sometimes you don't even have to ask a question. Lately she's been eating a TON (she must be having a growth spurt), so everytime I mention a meal or I'm in the kitchen getting something out of the cabinet she just pipes up--"I DO!" We love it! And we love her!

I'm still working and being Mom. I'm looking forward to my two trip this spring. In March I'm going to meet a friend in St. George for four days of "girl time." We're going to go to the spa, have some tennis lessons, go to a show, eat good food, shop, and whatever else we want to do--KID FREE! I'm actually really getting spoiled, because then in May I'm going down to see Angie in Costa Rica for about 10 days--by myself again! Speaking of all this girl time--I've been wanting to post this picture of Angie and I with some friends we got together with at Christmas. Aren't girlfriends (and sisters) the best?