Little Mountain Vacation

Since Chris is attending Touro University which is a Jewish Private School we decided to celebrate Rash Hashanan this year. One day a few weeks before that I was sitting at work looking over Chirs's school schedule and noticed that he would have Friday the 18th off of school and he doesn't have school on Monday's. So I called him up and asked him if he wanted to get out of town Friday-Monday. Of course he said yes and I put in my request for two (much needed) days off. After they were approved we decided to finalize our plans. We called our friends who have a cabin up at Duck Creek and asked them if we could visit the cabin. They said of course and those were all the plans we needed. Aunt Lisa had been down the previous week for Katelee's Birthday and decided to come up to the cabin with us on Friday and then head home Saturday afternoon. So Friday we woke up, packed the car and headed up to Cedar. We stopped off at Wal-Mart to pick up a few things that we needed and headed up the canyon. We got there around 2 o'clock our time and hung out for a bit. Of course Chris headed straight under the house to turn the water on and get a four wheeler out. He had a tough time getting one to start, but after a few hours of labor was successful. We really didn't have any plans except what we were going to eat. This made it really nice, there were no expectations to be ruined and no time constraints. We finally ate dinner and Chris took Ethan for a ride. Of course our little Princess was into EVERYTHING! She loved opening the drawers and then closing them and then opening them. This wasn't too bad until she decided to start pulling out the Ziploc bags, then it got to be a little too much! When we headed to vacation Ethan was fighting a cold, which it seems he is always doing. When we got up there Ethan, Aunt Lisa and I jumped on the trampoline for a while. It seems like after that Ethan was never really able to catch him breath so we got to do this:

That night. Thanks heavens we brought the breathing machine with us or we might have turned our vacation into a one day trip! Ethan's heart rate was pretty fast and he was coughing and wheezing like crazy. Before bed he got a treatment and Chris gave him a blessing... and Ethan was able to sleep great! Now Katelee on the other hand decided to cry a lot and sleep in the same room as me and Chris. This was a HORRIBLE experience. She had a bit of a rash going so we gave her some Benadryl thinking maybe it itched her and that was keeping her up. Well apparently she has the same problem I do with Benadryl. Instead of making her sleepy it kept her up till around 1-2am. Yeah! So needless to say the first night Chris and I didn't really sleep that good! But we both felt pretty good the next day for having had hardly any sleep.

Katelee was able to get in on the Bedtime reading that night, and she kinda took over the book! After the kids were initially asleep and all was quite, Chris, Lisa and I had our own little fireside, without the fire. It was very nice to speak so personally and spiritually with them. It was very uplifting!



The next morning Aunt Lisa took Ethan outside to play and I got this picture of Katelee at the door.

She watched him for quite some time and would laugh randomly. She really does love her big brother!

Chris and Ethan went for another ride and came back with this picture of four deer. The deer were everywhere. One night Ethan and I went out and were able to see about 6-8 deer in just one trip and Chris and I almost hit one on one of our rides too. Ethan loved it and kept saying he saw "deers."

Just a random picture of the kids on Saturday!

The kids and Daddy went for a four wheeler ride on Saturday and they both loved it. Katelee wanted to go faster. She is our little dare devil. She wanted to go over the bumps or go faster ALL the time.

While Aunt Lisa was with us we drove around a bit and went to the Mammoth Caves. We had packed a picnic and took it with us. While we were eating in the caves it started to rain, again, so we hurried and got out of there and finished our food in the car. I feel bad because I guess we used Aunt Lisa's camera for those pictures. Oh well, just imagine a big cave and a very wet ground... After naps we followed Aunt Lisa down the canyon and had dinner with her at Wingers. I think this could be my favorite restaurant ever! It poured on us the entire ride down the Canyon and this is what we saw when we got to dinner....

This rainbow went all the way to the other side and was a double the whole way too. Too bad I couldn't get that in the picture. It was beautiful. Just another reminder that God truly does love us and want us to see how beautiful this crazy world is that we live in! After dinner we headed back up the canyon and put the kids down. They both went down very easy and let Chris and I have a very nice and peaceful night together.

The next morning after Katelee's nap we packed another picnic and headed over to Navajo Lake. This area is very beautiful and quite nice. The weather was great that day. We were going to go on a hike by the lake too, but decided instead to just throw rocks in the lake and enjoy ourselves there instead.

Here are my lake buddies on our way to the lake.

Ethan was so excited he ran almost the entire way to the lake.

And here is my favorite picture of the kid. Katelee was so excited to be by the lake as well. She wanted a rock and she held on to it forever. She would act like she was going to throw it and then she wouldn't. The rock was finally taken away when she tried to eat it for the tenth time. Silly girl!

It was a bit windy so we decided to eat our picnic in the car again, but this time the kids got to sit in the back and eat. They really liked that.

And Daddy had to get a picture of me with the kids! So here it is!

After naps that afternoon we put both of the kids on the trampoline and to our surprise Katelee loved it. This was the first time Ethan has really liked a trampoline so for Katelee to like it so soon really made me smile. She would fall and laugh, she just didn't care!

Here she is, just enjoying holding on to the mesh. Good thing it was there, or she would have been on the ground in no time... Same for Ethan too!

A little later Ethan and I got back on the trampoline and played around. I stood Katelee by the picnic bench and that is where she stayed for the next 20 or so minutes. She would lean down and pick up a rock, throw it and then lean back down and get another one. She is really good at playing by herself! Thank heavens!

Here she is in mid-lean!

Later that night we let the kids play around with the tractors while Chris built a great fire. The first night we tried to make a fire, but the wood we used was wet, so it didn't quite turn out well. But Sunday night we got it to work very well.

Katelee pretty much just knelled by her tractor and made silly noises. Ethan was all over picking up dirt and dropping it off somewhere else.

I set up the camera to take a picture of our family by the fire and this is the best we got! Look at that fire, isn't it AMAZING!!!

That night we put the kids down and had another nice quite night to enjoy before we headed home the next day. On Monday morning we woke up and started cleaning up. We put Katelee down for her nap and then Ethan and Chris went for one last ride and I did some major cleaning! When Katelee woke up we were ready to go. We headed down the canyon and I took a few pictures of the leafs. They were starting to change colors and it was beautiful!

We had a really nice trip and enjoyed spending so much time with one another. It really makes you appreciate your family and how fun it is to hang out. With Chris is school for pretty much the next 3 1/2 years solid I'm pretty sure these little trips are all we are going to be able to do... But that is okay with me, as long as we get SOME time together, that's all we need!

Oh and we went for a family ride on the four wheeler. Everyone enjoyed that, except Katelee when we went slow.... :)

Our Little Ballerina

My mom just sent this picture to me at work! Aunt Anjali, Uncle Matt and Madilynn gave Katelee a little Tu-Tu and purse for her first Birthday! Anjali made the Tu-Tu and it's just too cute. Doesn't she look like such a girl?? Thanks guys!

Katelee's One Year Stats

Katelee had a Dr.'s appointment yesterday and here are just some stats:

Height: 29 inches 75th percentile

Weight: 18.9lbs 10-20th percentile

Head Circumference: Normal (don't know the stats on that one, sorry, just that its normal)

Direct Quote from the Dr. "Katelee is Normal, skinny!"

4 teeth, two on bottom and two very large ones on top!

Katelee's first steps were on the 13th, she did so good! But since then she is not all that interested in walking!

Katelee's First Birthday Party

Well I think I over did it this time... Katelee's Birthday party was last night and it was a blast. Of course as the parents we didn't get to enjoy it as much as the guest did, but as long as the guest and of course Katelee had fun, that's all that matters! So we decided to have Katelee's party on her actual birthday since Grandpa Nelson always works on Saturday's and has Thursday's off. We had the party start at 5:30 so we could hopefully get Katelee down to bed close to her actual bed time of 7. My sister-in-law, Lisa, and my mother-in-law came over early to get the house ready and some kitchen stuff going. Thank you very much ladies, it was very much needed and appreciated! So around 5:15 we had our first guest come.... The balloons outside our door so people could fine the party!
Katelee's first cake and cause of much unneeded stress!

Katelee's individual cake to devour if she wanted to....(luckily she didn't eat it all...)

Ethan eating his pizza, he loved all the people being there! And thank heavens for nursery he actually played quite well with them all!

The birthday girl getting her dinner fed to her by Grandpa so I could get some things in order and get the party moving!

So after Katelee finished dinner we started opening the millions of presents that Katelee received! She of course was not all that interested in them. She didn't even really like to pull the tissue paper out... Give her a few more years and I'm sure she will love it as much as her parents and brother do!

It is a Nelson tradition to also get the sibling a present so they don't feel completely left out. Aunt Lisa got Ethan some new church shoes which he wanted to wear once everyone left. The shoes are a bit big but he still refused to take them off.

Katelee got her first Cabbage Patch doll and really loves it! As you can see in this picture in the upper middle, Katelee was out of there the first chance she could escape! She went over to a toy we have had out for a while and started playing with it! Figures, right?

Then it was cake time. Katelee tried to grab the candle but Ethan was there to help blow it out. I think he was more excited about it than Katelee, she had no idea what was going on!

We gave Katelee her own cake and she kinda just lightly touched it with her fingers, so....

Daddy had to show her how to dig in! After that she was hooked!

Here is the beginning....

And when she was really getting into it!

She loved being able to feed herself and get messy!

Here is an up close picture, she was really happy although her face doesn't show it here! After the cake Daddy took her upstairs for a bath and she came down a new girl! My dad counted the amount of people that came to the party and there was a total of ................................46! Our poor little house is still trying to recuperate! The air was on all night and it was still a whopping 83 degrees! I was expecting about 30-35 and was stressing about that.... Good thing I had no idea there was really going to be 46 people! We still have some dishes to do and get some furniture rearrange, but the party was great. We had just enough food and there was a fun time had by all! Happy Birthday Katelee, you deserve it. You have made the last year so much fun and I can't imagine what it would have been like without you in it! Love you!

Happy Birthday Katelee!

(This is a long post and I go into detail just so I have it one day to share with Katelee when she decides to have a baby)

One year ago today we got up around 7 or 7:30 and got dressed. I showered and did my hair ate a granola bar and sat around home for a bit. Grandma Nelson came over to watch Ethan and Chris and I headed over to my Mom's house to pick her up. We then headed over to Valley Hospital, getting there around 9:00. We walked into the Maternity Unit and met my delivery nurse. She had me strip down and put on my all time favorite outfit ever, the sexy, fashionable hospital robe that you could fit about 4 people in. They got me all ready to go with blood work, Pitocin and a smile. This time we were smart and brought the Wii with us just in case we got too bored. Chris and I played some Wii for a while until I couldn't really drive the race cars anymore because I couldn't concentrate whenever I got a contraction. After a while they informed me that I could get an Epidural, which I quickly agreed to, only to find out that the anesthesiologist had left the hospital and wouldn't be back for about 30-45 minutes. Now for all of you women out there that have been in labor and gotten an epidural you can feel my pain of being told you can get one and then told that you will have to wait another 30-45 minutes. Any who he finally came in and we got that going. The pain went a way for a while but then out of nowhere the left side of my body began to feel all of the pain again. That was actually quite interesting only feeling the contractions on half of my body, I compare it to cutting the pain by 1/4 and only having it on one side... Very interesting. Needless to say the nurse came in and pushed the button to get more medicine in the epidural and soon I couldn't feel anything.... Not even when my leg feel off the bed while being examined. I saw my leg fall off the bed but it took a minute to realize that it was actually my leg because I couldn't feel a thing! Once I got to a complete 10 they had me wait a bit because I had no desire to push and couldn't really push because I couldn't feel anything. So after having the nurse turn off my epidural and waiting for about 3 hours I finally told Chris and my Mom that I still didn't feel like pushing but that I was SICK of being in that silly room so I was going to tell the nurse I wanted to push. The nurse came in and said "okay, lets try giving us a push!" we got all set up and waited for a contraction.... and then we started pushing. After one round of pushing the nurse told me to stop and that she would go call the Dr. I laughed thinking this lady was crazy! I pushed for 3 solid hours with Ethan and just knew it couldn't be that easy. Chris just smiled and told me that he could see the baby's head and that she was ready to come out. After hearing this I got really excited. Perhaps it could be that easy! The Dr. came pretty quick and after he was all ready to go we gave it another try. I pushed for two sets of 10 and then the Dr. told me not to push any more. And pretty soon there she was. I remember Chris not getting to cut the cord and them taking Katelee right over to the baby bed in the room. She wasn't really crying yet and pretty soon I started to get a little worried. My mom and Chris keep telling me oh she is just fine... But I was a still a bit nervous because she wasn't really making any noise and Mom wasn't taking any pictures yet. Finally after about 5 minutes the baby started crying and so did her mommy. I was so glad that she really was okay. My mom started taking pictures and it was then that the Dr. told me that she had the cord wrapped around her neck and that she swallowed a bit of the stuff coming out. She also had her arm beside her head making it a little more difficult to get that cord unwrapped. He also said that my placenta was coming off and that had caused a bit of trouble. Chris finally got to cut the cord and they weighted her. She came in at 7lbs 6oz and 19 inches long. Her official entrance to this earth was at 6:35pm. Here is Ethan and Mommy in some of the last moments of Ethan being an only child! Here is Mommy and Katelee when I finally got to hold her! Isn't she a cutie already!

Here is our sweet little lady after her bath! She is just so cute to me in this picture! So peaceful and almost smiling as if she is so happy to finally have her body and be here on earth!

Katelee was a good baby. She picked up to nursing pretty fast and a lot less painful than Ethan. She slept good until they made me start waking her up to feed her because she wasn't gaining weight fast enough. We later found out that she was a lazy eater and just didn't want to work so much to get food. For a month solid I had to nurse her every two hours and the sessions would last about 1 hour. So I would nurse for an hour then have an hour off to do things like get dressed, clean up a bit, take care of Ethan and then it was back to feeding Katelee again. Eventually we were able to get her to eat more my giving her a bottle and that made life a bit easier. She finally started gaining weight, but nowhere near to what Ethan weighted! From a young age Katelee showed us who was in charge and that she had an opinion on EVERYTHING! She went from sleeping good to getting up 7-10 times a night. Going back to work was a bit tougher with Katelee because I was so sleep deprived that it was hard to get up for work let alone actually work! Around 7 months of age we finally made Katelee cry it out and we refused to feed her before 2am. Eventually she got the clue and started sleeping though the night. She still doesn't do well with her bottles. Sometimes she will eat them well and sometimes she will refuse to take them all together! She is very picky at who can give her a bottle, usually allowing only Me, Chris and my Mom to do so. However when it comes to solid food she will take it from anyone! And the girl can pack it down. Half the time we have to just stop feeding her because she will just keep eating and eating! Katelee has 4 teeth, the last two coming in within days of each other. She is still our small girl, we take her to the Dr. on Monday so we will see how much she weights then. I doubt she will be over 20lbs. Katelee is a very sweet girl and will randomly give us hugs and snuggles! But don't cross her or you will get the wrath of her fist clinching and yelling fits! There have been times when she has been so mad that she started turning blue and shaking. I actually got really scared when I saw the blue set in but then a VERY loud scream soon followed and I realized she was just venting her frustrations! Ethan loves his little sister especially when she laughs at him. They can really get each other going and I have a great feeling about their relationship, most of the time. Sometimes I have little glimpse into the future where Katelee and Ethan are throwing things and yelling at each other, but most of the time it seems that they really will grow up to love each other no matter how much they throw or yell! I am so glad to be the mother of my children and so glad that a year ago today Katelee decided to join our family. We definitely wouldn't be complete without her! I cannot wait to see what the next year brings because the past year has been so great it can only keep getting better and better!

Here is our little lady.... Look at those long legs, beautiful smile and cute pose!

Labor Day Weekend

We started our Labor Day Weekend on Saturday by taking Ethan to a water park close to my work for being a BIG Boy and going Poo Poo in the potty....Finally! I feel very bad because I forgot to take the camera with us so we don't have any pictures from that water park, but trust me when I say he had fun. The park we went to is located on Eastern and Sahara (some what ghetto for those of you not familiar with that part of Vegas) so I was a little worried that it would be dirty, but it really surprised me. All of the kids were nice and watched out for each other. One little girl even put her arm around Ethan so he could get the water dumped on him too. It was too cute. The only part that made me a little nervous was when I saw a guy come into the water area with his son and the Dad was wearing an ankle bracelet... No not a decorative one, One that lets the proper authorities know where he is at ALL times! I keep my eye on that guy the entire time! But other than that our water park experience was very enjoyable. We headed home and all took a nap. After our naps we decided to go to dinner just our small little family. So we went to the only place we had a gift card to...Olive Garden! Dinner was very enjoyable. The never ending pasta bowl is in full force and we took advantage of it to the max. Chris and I each got a whole plate to go and even took home four break sticks! After dinner we came home and just hung out as a family. Then once the kid were in bed Chris and I watched some TV together and then went to bed. Sunday we went to church and then took naps again and then had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Nelson. I love Sundays.... They are so relaxing and edifying! I love having dinner with the grandparents and spending time with them. Ethan and Katelee also enjoy it because they tend to get away with more while we are there! Monday we woke up and got some housework done. After Katelee's nap Grandma Nelson came over and then we picked Grandma Alberta up and we headed over to Utah, or really Aunt Anna and Uncle Enrique's house. The kids ate lunch and then we headed over to the water park over by Anna and Enrique's house. Luckily I did have my camera with me and so did Aunt Anna. She got some much better pictures, but mine will have to do....

Aunt Anna got in her swimsuit and took the kids around for us, because she is such a great sister and Aunt. Katelee just had a little swimmer on because I for some reason I didn't bring her suit... For some reason my memory is a little sluggish lately... Guess that is what happens when you have two kids, a full time job and a husband in PT school.... At least that is my excuse for right now. I'll have to think of a new one when Chris gets out of school.

Here are the three of them when we first got to the water park. Ethan really liked stepping on the water stream and making it stop. We tried to get him to sit on it, but he just wouldn't do it!

Katelee loved the water and really enjoyed herself!

Here is another picture of Ethan stepping on the water!

And here is Katelee with Daddy afterwards. She would just sit by the water and put her hands in it and crawl to the other ones when one would turn off.

After the water park we went back to Aunt Anna's and got the kids down for naps. I of course forgot to bring a bed for Katelee to sleep in so we had to make one for her. I have been criticized before for making my kids sleep in their portable cribs in the closet, but that doesn't even compare to where Katelee slept this time. I was walking around Anna's house trying to find somewhere to put Katelee down where she would be able to sleep and be some what restricted. We walked into Anna's bedroom and there was the perfect bed for Katelee. Just her size and even very soft. What did I find???? The dogs bed.... Of course we laid some other blankets over it so the dog hair was very covered and I did add some pillows around the edges to make them a bit higher. She loved it and took a pretty good nap in it! (Please don't think I'm a horrible mother for doing that) Ethan on the other hand did not sleep so well. I made him a bed on our old bunk beds and even gave him a stuffed animal to sleep with, but finally Chris had to lay on the floor with Ethan eventually joining him down there to sleep. We woke him up early from his nap at 4:30 so he would be able to sleep that night. We all ate dinner and then Aunt Anna and Uncle Enrique had a treat for Ethan.....A Slip 'n' Slide. Anna got this on clearance at Target for $2.50 a few years ago and was just waiting for Ethan to get old enough to use it...

Well of course someone had to show him how to use it! I think at first I was more excited than Ethan....

Oh and Uncle Enrique had to show him how to do it really fast too! (Perhaps Enrique and I were more excited to go on it!)
Ethan had fun, but didn't really get the whole sliding concept. He would run and run and then slide when he got to the end where there was a small pool! I really thought he would do good with the sliding thing because he loves to slide all over the house......
But needless to say he enjoyed himself quite a bit!

That night I was talking with Ethan about all he had done that day and I said "you had fun on the slip 'n' slide didn't you?" to which he replied, "yeah and you and Uncle Enrique too!" I just started laughing because we did! I was a little sore that night, and can still feel it today, but it was ALL worth it! I love showing Ethan that his parents can have fun with him too and that we aren't too old to enjoy having a good time! Our Labor day weekend was well spent... I love spending so much time with our little family! I am the happiest when I'm with them!