Yikes! Time goes by too fast!

Why does life always move by too fast? Things here at the Nielsens have remained crazy. I just can't seem to get ORGANIZED with my business! Dave is home a lot because his work still doesn't have a lot of hours to offer, but things are still crazy even when he's home. So...a quick update.

This summer we came back from vacation in Montana to find out that Dave's work is out of money and put him on a furlough...which we thought was better then a complete layoff, but now that it's still on going I'm not too sure. I think we are about at the point of trying to find a new job, but you all know how that goes. So with all the time he had off we did lots of fun stuff! Of course, that is a lot of free fun stuff. School rolled around all too fast and this year I have 3 out of the 4 going...well, Nick is half day kindergarten and that stinks, but i'm getting there! Two more years and they will all be in school! Work has continued to be really busy and I finally was able to purchase a new second machine, which has been SUPER nice in getting orders done. I'm glad we have my work to fall back on a bit while Dave's work is crazy...although my work is still really just trying to get off the ground. Well...I've got to go get kids up for school so I'll leave you with some pictures from the past few months.

Ella is into EVERYTHING! Especially moms makeup.


Kids first day of school- actually I think this was Nicks first day and the kids 2nd week. Nick was SO excited and poor Ella had no idea when this picture was taken that she would soon be left home alone...which she isn't thrilled about.
And yes, we now have a driver. Austin got his learners permit and is constantly asking to be taken driving. He thinks life is pretty cool. He did just turn 16 this last week but he can't get the license until February because of the new driving laws of needing his permit first for 6 months, etc.

We have....EGGS!

As I've said before, we are officially Chicken farmers. Well...we weren't expecting any eggs until August, so when we got back from our Montana vacation we were surprised to find that they had started laying! The kids that had taken care of the chickens for us had found 2 eggs, but when we started looking further we found 10! Too bad we had to throw them all away because we didn't know how long they had been sitting. We still haven't made their nesting box and we need to soon because they are all 5 laying now and sometimes we find them in the yard along our fence. The kids adore looking for eggs and Nick thinks he needs to at least 3 or 4 times a day. Because they lay at different times Nick is lucky enough to find some almost every time he looks. It's like an easter egg hunt around here every day!
People had always told us that if you tasted farm fresh eggs you would LOVE them and never go back..unfortunately Dave and I must not have much of a discrimanatory taste because we don't see a big difference, but if anybody wants to give them a try just let us know...we have 5 every day and that is more then we can keep up with.

Ella is 3!!!

On July 10th Ella finally turned 3! I say finally because she has been "working up to" her birthday for MONTHS! If you ask her when her birthday is she can tell you the date...only problem is she has no relation to time so she thought that July 10th was forever "tomorrow". While we were up in Montana the big day finally arrived and it was great! The night before we went birthday shopping and she picked out a fun pink dress and some GREAT sparkly pink shoes that she adores...with the exception that they hurt her feet.She has been wanting a Hello Kitty cake ever since I made the dreaded mistake of making those darn Puppy cake pops for Nicks birthday. So since we were out of town I escaped the 6 hour task of creating Hello Kitty cake pops and we were able to just order a Hello Kitty cake. It turned out super cute and she loved it. She was then spoiled by all 6 of her siblings, her parents and cousins with lots of fun gifts. She was one lucky little girl to have such a fun birthday.

I just can't believe that she is already 3! Unfortunately I still think of her very much as my baby...I guess with all of the other 3 I had already had another baby by this age so I never thought of the others as babys at this age. I'm afraid poor Ella will remain my baby forever...is that a lucky thing for her or unfortunate?Ella's Quirks and Favorites

• She LOVES animals but is scared to death of them, including our Chickens.
  
• She loves all things pink and girly, especially lipstick/gloss and shoes.
• She insists on Mom doing her hair each and every day, including bows...good thing we have lots of options.
• She loves to sing and she sings loud and often.
• She loves to play pretend.
• She has to sleep cuddled RIGHT next to someone. Good thing she normally shares a room with Kira.
• She is VERY sure of herself....which unfortunately means that she is VERY bossy.
• Ella loves to be silly...we LOVE this girl!
  

Montana take 2

Big Fork Montana

Yes, I still have more to say about Montana. We spent a total of 3 1/2 days traveling too and from Montana but it was COMPLETELY worth it...although my kids did come to the conclusion that camping in a Walmart parking lot was not nearly as cool as they thought it would be.

Another great thing my kiddos were able to try for the first time was water skiing and tubing. They loved it! We all had so much fun and the lake and river were just gorgeous. One of the evenings that we were out on the water and it started raining and we were privileged enough to see a double rainbow. I just thought it was amazing that we were out playing on the water at 9pm and it wasn't even close to dark yet! Ya got to love those late Montana nights where it doesn't get dark until 10:30pm.

Austin, Aisha and Ella on the water tube

Austin doing GREAT on the wakeboard...it was SUPER cold this day!
See...look at his purple cheeks!

Kira on her first try waterskiing. I need to get the rest of my pictures of the other kids waterskiing from Bridget.

I REALLY wish I could figure out how to download my video here of my kids water skiing, wake boarding and tubing, but I can't make it work...so if anybody wants to see it just come over and I'm sure my kids will entertain you with our video we made. I'll make do with pictures...here's just a few. Like I said...Montana was FANTASTIC!

Dad and Nick by an overturned tree's roots at Glacier Park

Austin and Ella at Glacier National Forest (or park?)...absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

Dave and his BIG catch.

Ella taking a hike the easy way.

Montana 4th of July Parade

Another FAVORITE thing we did while in Montana was participate in the Big Fork, Montana parade. Henry Wilkes (our host) provided the float, tons of helium balloons that we blew up and lots of candy to throw out. My kids haven't had that much fun in a LONG time. Kind of funny how much the big kids said they DIDN'T want to do the parade and how much fun they ended up having. All of the kids, both big and small adored throwing out candy to all these kids yelling for them. The balloons were a hit, even if they took FOREVER to blow up and were handed out in mere minutes. After all the candy and balloons were handed out my kiddos had a ball just waving and pretending like they were something "official" in the parade, rather then just a family float. Yeah for the Wilkes...their family float won 2nd place in the family division and 1st in the patriotic division!

Montana

Here is sit in Montana updating my blog. It's not that I'm bored here...just that it is 10pm and STILL not dark outside! It really doesn't get dark here until 10:30pm at night! Let me tell you...it's totally throwing off our sleep schedules. We are having a ball. We are staying in a town called Big Fork and it is a little lake community right on the lake of Flat Head. Tons of pine trees and beautiful homes. We are staying with Dave's brothers in laws...while spending time with Daves brother and his family. They have a little river/canal that runs right to the back of the house and goes out to the lake. We have really taken advantage of what Montana has to offer so far!

July 4th my kiddos got to be IN the parade- not just watch it but really be in it. Our float ended up getting first place for the family float. VERY fun. We blew up hundreds of helium balloons and the big kids passed them out as the little kids threw out candy. That night we watched lots of fireworks...cleaning up the mess the next day wasn't nearly as fun as watching them but the kids loved them. Even Kira who watched them from the front seat of the truck as she hates the noise...even with ear plugs in.

The highlight so far has to be watching my little kids water ski...yes, they water skiied! Like I said, we are taking advantage of all that there is to offer here in Montana. We went out on James boat (daves brother) and I thought that my kiddos wouldn't really try it. The lake is really cold and my kids have never even WATCHED water skiing before. So Bridget (my sis in law) explained to the kids what to do. One other little girl that is here with us tried it out and got up but crashed pretty quickly. Then it was Kira's turn. She ended up getting up the first time and she NEVER crashed! She did SO good! Hayden was next and he got right up as well. I was shocked! He crashed after a little bit, but I was still really surprised. THEN Nick wanted to try..which was a real shocker to me...but he even got right up! Again, he didn't do as well as Kira but he did great! Got right up and went a bit before crashing. I have video but i've now spent two hours trying to upload it with no luck. So if anybody has any solutions to getting these videos online that would be great as I'm one proud mama that would love to share!

Girls Camp 2009

Wow...this June has been absolutely busy, busy, busy! I'm hoping that July will slow down a bit!

I spent the week of June 22-26th at Heber Valley Girls camp with the Spanish Fork Stake. I'm the Cambridge ward Camp director and I LOVE and adore the calling! It is so much fun working with the Young Women...minus the every wednesday night activity. Heber Valley girls camp is an amazing place and we had some fantastic speakers. If you ever get a chance to listen to in person, or on CD check out Diane Hoelscher. She has several of her talks on cd and she is an absolutely amazing and inspiring speaker. She talked to the girls about member missionary work. And besides being an inspirational speaker she is super funny and entertaining. Anyway..again...no pictures YET but girls camp was definately a hit this year!