Vampire Baby

The other day Ike was sitting next to me while I was feeding Vienna. He lifted up my shield and he could see that she was latched onto me. "Baby Vienna bite you?" he asked. "No," I said. "She's just drinking." "She drink your blood?" And although I told him no, it was milk he still thinks its funny to tell me that she's drinking my blood every time I feed her. :)

And oh yeah - she's here! Vienna Rose Nelson, born May 29th, 8 lbs 8 oz and 20.5 inches long. Very uneventful birth by c-section. Definitely felt the pain that first week, but doing much better now and overall VERY glad I went with c-section this time. 


Vienna is a healthy and contented baby and seems to tolerate her very boisterous siblings pretty well so far. So glad she's here!

Gramma and Papa Arrive!

Gramma and Papa got in last night to stay with the kids when we head to the hospital tomorrow and the kids have been in heaven since the moment they arrived. This morning Gramma surprised us with some super aprons - its her tradition to make an apron for the kids at home and bake cookies while mom's having the baby. These monkey ones are perfect for my wild bunch.

As soon as Gramma gave Nora the aprons, she was ready to play with them. She wanted to be a monkey and have somebody be a monkey trainer.  She started calling out, "Who wants to be the monkey trainer?" No one was giving her much of a response, so she took the big apron and started to put it over Papa's head saying, "I'm going to put one on this old guy."

Branden said," Nora! That's kind of rude, honey." Nora was duly chastised and got a repentant look on her face. Then she came over behind Branden and whispered in his ear, "I'm sorry Dad... But he IS a grandpa."

And here is me the day before Vienna comes. Branden keeps telling me I don't look as big as I did with Nora or Ike, but I certainly don't FEEL any smaller!

More from Nora

On Sunday, after I picked Nora up from Primary, we were stopped by the song leader who said, "Nora made a very smart comment today." She proceeded to tell me how Nora knew that "choose the right" didn't mean you could only walk to the right or make right turns in your car, but that it meant to choose the "good way." The song leader finished her tale to me by saying, "And that was very smart, Nora." And Nora, without missing a beat, said, "That's because I was born in the year of the pig. People born in the year of the pig are really smart. That's why." 

Oh I am so going to miss the days when she doesn't say things like that anymore! :)

 Here's my little model in a few dresses I made for her this month. I stuck with a simple moo-moo pattern. :) That's about the extent of my sewing abilities.

Ike had to get in on the picture action, too!

Our (Less-than-successful) Rodeo Trip

We tried to take the kids to the local rodeo a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, it was right in the middle of the afternoon and super hot, with all the shaded seats taken. None of lasted in the heat very long, but Nora was particularly fast to melt down, complaining that all she wanted to do at the rodeo was become a rodeo princess or ride the mechanical bull, neither of which we were willing or able to let her do. A shaved ice cone did little to calm her down. :)

I think we ended up staying only about an hour and a half. Oh well, it was a nice thought.

Columbia State Park with the Hurrens

For our anniversary this year (May 5th) we decided to take a family day trip up to Sonora and Columbia State Park. It's this great, little old mining town that has all sorts of shops and exhibits to view. And we were delighted to have our friends, the Hurrens join us! I hadn't seen Jamie in over a year and I finally got to meet her baby.

So here's a smattering of photos from our big outing.

 We happened to be there for a fireman's parade and competition day.

 This was the firemans' hose rollilng contest for the kids.

 Panning for gold.

Conference Weekend - April 2012

We finally got a new camera! Our last one died in the past month or two. It feels good to be able to record our memories again!

For Conference weekend, my parents came down to visit and we basically did all of our Easter activities while they were here: egg dye-ing, easter egg hunt, nice Sunday dinner. It may make the actual Easter weekend a little less exciting, but we really enjoyed doing it all with Gramma and Papa.

 Nora had Gramma create this display so she could have an "egg-stravaganza" museum show of eggs, with homemade tickets and all!