Ella is 7!

Where does the time go? My Ella Bella is 7! We celebrated her birthday and for the first time ever both sets of grandparents were there to celebrate! She had a great weekend, with several birthday dinners and lots of gifts and love. Grandma Matlock even made a special castle cake for her. She is a very loved little girl who is growing so big and beautiful. She is so loving, constantly thinking of others and how she can help. She is very bright, both mentally and spiritually. Ella is joyful. Always! She reads like the wind and loves to gain knowledge! We are so lucky to have her with us. And as soon as Kodak releases my pictures I will post some! Right now its holding them hostage.

Our girls

I love random pictures of my girls and the things that they do. So enjoy a few!

I heard Vi in the play room whining and whimpering. When I went in there, this is what I found. In case you can't tell that's Vi upside down in the baby swing. And stuck! I laughed pretty good, ran for the camera, and THEN I rescued her!

 My girls riding ponies at the local Pumpkin Patch. Ella, as always, is thrilled, Violet, not so much.

 My favorite ... the girls reading books. Ella loves to read and Violet loves to listen. And since she's 1, Violet is almost always 1/2 naked!

Jillian's Blessing Day

Our Jillian was blessed on September 5th and all the grandparents and our friends came to celebrate! It was a beautiful day and we're so grateful for our family and friends ... and of course for Jillybean!

 Erick Peterson, Jimmy Matlock, Wayne Nielsen (holding Jillian), Cory Nielsen and Bryan Smart

Sheryl Peterson, Melissa Smart, Julie (holding Jillian), Ella, Kathy Nielsen (holding Violet), Kathy Matlock

Halloween 2010

Halloween is my favorite time of year! What other time can you dress up and get free candy! I love seeing all the kids come to our house. In Keizer we would go through maybe 1/2 a bag. Here, we went through 2 big bags in 1 hour. Had to turn off the lights early! In years past Ella has always been something pretty. This year she opted for scary. I think I did a pretty good job turning my beautiful girl into a deathly looking vampire! Violet was a rabbit, and I giggled all night as she fought to keep her huge floppy ears out of her face. Jillian was an "unimpressed-with-this-whole-thing" LadyBug. I could not get a pic of all 3 looking even remotely happy. Ella as giving me her "Vampire Face," Violet kept trying to get away and Jillybean was screaming. Gotta love it! They were all so cute! I love Halloween!

Ella the Soccer Girl

My girl is playing soccer! She started as a newbie, knowing nothing, but by mid-season she was a soccer player! She even got into the whole aggressive side of it. One day she had her "game face" on, and she made a play for the ball right in front of us. After clearing the ball out of the huddle, she full on shoved the girl she was fighting for the ball with. I gasped, but the other moms totally laughed. Afterward we had to explain that you can "nudge" but not full out shove like she did. She was just way too into though! She had the best coach (as you can tell - he joined in the "funny faces" photo below) and a great group of girls to play with. A wonderful first experience with soccer!

My Great Grandma

My Great Grandma lives a few hours away and while my parents were here for Jilian's blessing, she came to visit. Violet and Ella fell immediately in love! We are so glad she came to visit!

Baby Jillian

Jillian is here! She's almost 3 months old now (I know, I'm way slow at blogging about her!) She was born August 1st after a long labor (for me). But she's here and she is Oh So Sweet! She has dark hair like Ella and dark blue eyes like Violet ... and just like the rest of the girls she has her Daddy's lips! Her sisters love her to pieces. Violet's first word every morning is "Baby?" and then searches the room until she finds her. Ella loves to hold her and feels very proud when she gets Jillybean to stop crying. She's a great big sister! We are so lucky to have these amazing girls!

(PS ... Its been so long since I've blogged that blog spot has changed the way you post, and I'm a tired Mama so its gonna take me awhile to figure this out!)

Call the Tooth Fairy!

Ella lost her first tooth! She came up to me one day and said that her tooth could twist, and when I looked at it, it was barely hanging on. So we yanked it and she was thrilled. Absolutely could not wait to call everyone! She has since lost her 2nd one, so she has a delightful hole where her 2 bottom teeth used to be!

Violet Baby

Here are pics of the rapidly growing Violet

Ella dressed her up as a "queen" but I think she looks more like Captain Jack Sparrows long lost child!

My lovely, always happy, girls!

Violet is obsessed with shoes ... mostly on her hands. When she finds some she puts them on her hands and crawls around and claps them together. So much fun! If she's crawling, there are shoes on her hands 90% of the time! Obsessed, I tell ya!

Fun Run!

Every year Ella's school has a fundraiser where each kid asks their family/friends to pledge money towards the laps that they run. Ella came home so excited, she said we needed to buy her "running shorts" because normal ones wouldn't work. She ran 1 1/4 miles that day ... on little 6 yr old legs! She had so much fun! Each time she came through the victory arch after a lap, she was skipping with her Victory Arms. The girl is unstoppable!

OMSI Trip

We went to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) a couple weeks ago when Cory had the day off. Here are the girls (and Cory) enjoying the atmosphere.

Violet was just happy being held.

Ella playing with her paddle boat.

The girls using a crane to unload ship cargo.

Ella in the NASA Rocket

Posing with Samson the T-Rex

It was a good day together, and fun to have Cory with us!

It's a girl!

We are adding another girl to our family! We've seen her twice, and she's definitely a girl! The ultrasound tech told Cory that he really needs to work on his Man Cave now. Cory said that he's glad she's a girl, "I can handle girls. Pink, purple, butterflies and horses. A boy would mess up my system at this point!" So logical for ya! We are so excited and can't wait to meet her. Girl name suggestions would be helpful. We think we have a few choices, but we can't decide for sure. She is a very active baby, constantly moving and dancing. Sadly her preferred platform is my bladder, but we're dealing with it! She's due around August 5th, so just a few more months!

Random pics

Here are some random pictures to keep you involved. A couple of shots of the girls enjoying a beautiful sunny day in March. 

Violet's birthday!

Our Violet baby is 1! She was unimpressed with the decorations, and mildly impressed with opening gifts. She was also very calm about eating her cake ... but she got into it (eventually). She is so Cory's daughter! I find it hard to believe she's already 1, but that's the way all parents feel. Time flies and they grow so fast!

And big blue eyes with chocolate smeared everywhere. Pretty clean, though, right!?!

More updates

As many of you know, Cory was laid off the end of January. He was just hired last week for a short 8 week contract job with Logitech. So we're very grateful. We know it's only a short-term thing. But it's money coming in for 2 whole months! And he'll get paid while he keeps looking for a permanent job. We have an exciting month in March. Violet turns 1 (if you can believe it! I can't!), and we find out if we're having a boy or a girl. So we'll keep you posted! And hopefully I'll be better about posting pictures (especially of Violet's birthday)! Thanks to everyone for your support and prayers ... keep 'em coming!

Julie

Ella's Haircut

Ella has had semi-long hair forever. But this past week she said she wanted short hair. We discussed, at length, what she'd be giving up. But she was positive, a short hair cut is what she wanted. So off we went. The hairstylist had just cut the first 5 inches off her head, and asked "Why do you want short hair?" And Ella said "Because my friend Lauren got a hair cut and was getting a lot of attention, and I want attention too." Yep, that's why she cut her hair, for more attention at school. Too late to go back, so we finished the haircut. And she looks SUPER CUTE! I totally love it, I just have to wonder at her motives. But most importantly, she's very happy with how she looks. And she beams each time she sees herself in the mirror. That's always a good thing!

Violet's first artwork

The other day Ella comes running to me in a state of panic because Violet is drawing on her desk. I thought to myself ... "This can't be true, she's only 11 months old." So I follow Ella, and sure enough there's Violet happily drawing all over Ella's desk. Ella has only once drawn on something besides paper, and I know she wasn't this young. So I guess that means we better keep an eye on our little Picasso ... she's starting early!

The culprit (doesn't she look so innocent!)

Her artwork (I know it's light and hard to see, sorry!)

A campout inside!

One of the benefits of Cory being unemployed is that he does fun things that I just don't do. Like set up the 2 person tent in the playroom. The girls spent HOURS in there. Sometimes just rolling around and talking to each other. It was very cute to listen to!

I must apologize!

It has been forever since I've posted anything. And since this is my way to update people, it means nobody knows what's going on! I'm so sorry! It's been a crazy few months. We found out in November that we are expecting a baby. And it's taken some time to wrap our brains around that. To bring Vi into our family it was a long, involved process. And this baby is a surprise! Go figure! Baby is due around August 1st. And we are so excited, and still a bit shocked! So morning sickness isn't really conducive to blogging, I've discovered! We also just moved into a new wonderful home. We have missed a backyard terribly. So now we have space and a backyard! Ella's favorite parts are: 1. Chandeliers 2. Stairs in the house 3. A playroom. My favorite part is the space and that the move is over! I think that might be Cory's fave part too ... the move is over! So now we're settled, and the 1st trimester is almost over, so hopefully I'll keep everybody up to date better! Hope you all have a fantastic new year!

Let it Snow!

It doesn't snow very often here, so when it does we go out and enjoy it. Even if it is only 1/2 and inch!

Look at Vi's lovely squishy cheeks!

Ella's snow angel! Look at her face, she's so HAPPY!

Both my beautiful girls! Aren't they lovely?

Merry Christmas!

We had a good Christmas with just us and the girls. We had a lot of fun watching them open their gifts. Violet was the typical baby and cared more for the wrapping paper than the actual gift, but she came around. Sorry there aren't more pictures, but we were too busy unwrapping!

My Happy Girls

Our girls are nothing if not happy. So enjoy a few random pics!

Violet is NOT happy about the new coat.

She looks like she just got caught with her hand in the cookie jar!

The girls with Papa and Grandma Nielsen (sorry I'm not a better photographer!)

Halloween!

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Ella got to go trick or treating 3 times ... which is pretty cool when you're 6. Hang on, it's pretty cool when you're in your 30s too! Ella was a lovely ballerina (and got to wear make up for the first time - she looks 16), Violet was a pink Unicorn. It was past Vi's bed time, so she's pretty much checked out, but she still looks cute!