The Nelson Narrative

I feel like I'm the last one in blogland to post about Thanksgiving but we've been out of town and I don't like blogging from my phone and don't have a laptop. So, first of all, we actually got to watch some of the Macy's parade Thanksgiving morning.  Normally we have to leave around the time it starts or soon after to get where we're going, but this year at the in-laws it was just us, Paul's parents and sister so we decided to just go later instead of going early enough for breakfast and spending the whole day like we normally do.   I was still kind of busy getting everything ready to go so I didn't see a ton of the parade, but a lot more than I normally get to. Paul and I had decided that instead of getting up super early for Black Friday, we would try "Gray Thursday" instead, so as soon as X Factor was over at 9:00, we headed to Target.  We took one look at the line (and by the time we got there they'd already been open for a half ho...

Visit Santa   Cut Down a Tree   Put up Decorations   Bake Cookies   Drive Around Looking at Christmas Lights   Go to Snowflake Lane   Christmas Crafts   Drink an Eggnog Latte   Drink a Peppermint Mocha   Watch Christmas Vacation     Go See the Gingerbread House Exhibit   Ride the Holiday Carousel   Take a Family Photo   Get Advent Calendars   Go Sledding      And the one thing I wish we could do but it's not in the budget:  Take the girls to see the Nutcracker :(  Maybe next year.

It poured down rain today so I decided to take the girls to the mall.  Always a good time.  But they got to play and I got to buy a Christmas gift so it was a win-win.  I also had a Google Offers deal for Starbucks so we all got cake pops and I got a peppermint mocha. We almost always go to the library on Tuesdays and we were going to go after, but it got too late.  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day of packing, baking and running last minute errands.  Whoo-hoo.

We did some fun stuff this week.  On Tuesday we went to a show at the library called "Pumpkins, Turkeys and Snow, Oh My!".  There was juggling, songs and a turkey puppet.  It was really cute.  I actually hosted a meet-up there for my mom's group, and it was the last thing I'll ever host as I am not going to renew my membership next year, since the girls start kindergarten in the fall making us unavailable for most of the events and we're limited to Tuesdays/Thursdays until then (except summer). Thursday we had a playdate with a friend down the street that we met through said mom's group.  This is the girls' latest friend they've made.  We first met them two years ago at the mom's group annual Halloween party at their house but didn't see them again until this September, when we attended another event at their house, then another a few weeks later and then this year's Halloween party.  Since then we've had a playdate here and then the ...

Five years ago today was my baby shower (actually, I had two, but this was the "main" one).  I didn't have a blog yet, so I'm blogging about it now in honor of the 5th anniversary. I think I was about 23 weeks or so (we needed to have it early in case I ended up on bed rest or something).  Our current house was being built and we had just sold our condo, so we were temporarily staying with Paul's best friend while we waited for our house to be finished.  His neighborhood has a clubhouse that residents can use for events, so that is where we had my shower.  My oldest and dearest friend (we've known each other since kindergarten) hosted it and did a great job with the decorations and food but unfortunately I don't have many pictures.     Kayley's name is spelled differently on the cake because at the time we were going to spell it "KALEY", but changed our minds later because we were worried people would think it was pronounced ...

The girls didn't have school today and I failed to plan anything fun to do (wanted to avoid the school holiday crowds at the mall play area and places like Kidz Bounce).  But for the last several months there have been many days where I have all kinds of great intentions to do x, y and z with the girls at home (crafts, games, practice writing their letters, etc.) but never quite get around to it because I end up just doing household chores and what-not while they play. So today I decided to make a list, and I was going to try and actually do all but one or two things on the list, and we did!  Here was my list: Play a game Do a puzzle Go to Fred Meyer (not because it's fun, but we needed groceries) Dance Practice writing their names and other letters Play with a toy that hasn't been played with in a long time The only one we didn't do was the last one.  In addition, one of their friends came over and played with them for an hour and a half or so.  To top it...

The girls ran in their very first race this morning, our neighborhood's annual Turkey Trot.  There is a 5K and a kid's 1K, which is what they did, of course.  Me and Daddy ran with them.  It was really cold but sunny and they did fantastic!  Kayley ran the entire thing and Olivia walked just a tiny portion in the middle and picked up running again to the end.  They were really proud, and we were so proud of them. We got medals! Before the race After the race, there was a pancake breakfast and then they had a bunch of prize drawings (vendor booths will a wheel to spin and you get whatever prize you land on).  They also had bouncy houses and we played on the playground (it was held at an elementary school).  It was super fun!

It's 4 months away, but I've been thinking about what to do for the girls' 5th birthday pretty much ever since their last birthday.  So far, all we've ever done for their birthdays is have the family over.  That's usually around 25 people including us which is about all our house can handle.  For the first few birthdays, they were obviously too young to really know what was going on and to care whether they had any friends over, so it worked out great.  When they turned 3 and 4, though, we wanted to invite some friends but still had the space issue and didn't want to spend a fortune renting a place that would accomodate both the family and some of their friends (and their parents and siblings), so we compromised by just inviting their closest friend and her parents, who are good friends of ours, and last year we extended that to include another couple that are good friends of ours but don't have children.  We've considered the option of having two separ...

Here's a cute video of the girls going through their haul after trick-or-treating.  Sorry it's so dark.