Take a Bow and Jump!

Enjoy the next three video posts from Avery's Christmas program. This video is one of our favorites because at the end of the song Avery bows and then starts jumping. Can't really explain it but it just makes me laugh!

Say Good Morning (and turn around)!

Check out Avery's solo!

Bible Verses

Walkin' Ro

Guess what? Romey is trying to walk! Dan just posted this terribly cute video clip. Along with a wobbly Ro you'll also notice that Avery is desperately trying to vie for my attention. I guess you could say that we've entered the sibling rivalry zone. Enjoy!

PBJ

I'm so glad that Dan posted this PBJ video. The back story is this: Avery loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Dan came across this video on YouTube, and started playing it for Avery. It became a "family dance" where we would all jam out to the this crazy banana PBJ song. It was so cool until it so wasn't and then it kind of died. So, here's a little tribute to the PBJ song--it was fun while it lasted!

Christmas cards

Dan and I have unrealistic expectations when it comes to our family's Christmas card. We have an image in our mind's eye that we're going for but it never quite comes out like we imagine it would. I will say this: thank goodness for digital photography! Of the hundreds of pictures that we took here are some of our favorites.

Okay, this one has potential. Avery and Romey are both smiling and looking 'toward' the camera.

Romey working on walking.
Giggling.....love it!

Romey loves playing with the telephone. Don't know where she learned this, but she keeps holding the phone up to her ear.

Avery hiding under the Christmas tree.

Embracing Christmas

Avery’s preschool hosted a Christmas Celebration today. Part one included a parent-student craft time, and then a Christmas program. Dan and I were a little skeptical about the Christmas program portion of the morning. Skeptical about what the school was planning, skeptical about Avery’s level of cooperation, etcetera.

The program began with the teacher lining the students up shoulder-to-shoulder facing the parents. Seventeen students facing forty plus family members all armed with cameras, and camcorders (if I had been on the student side of the room I would have been intimidated). The teacher welcomed the parents, and then led Avery and her classmates through three Bible verses complete with actions. I couldn’t believe it—nearly twenty three-year-olds stood together and recited their verses, and performed their ‘choreography.’ I took a quick glance around the room, and, like me, all us parental types had these dumb silly grins on our faces, hearts bursting, tears flowing. After the verses the children sang a couple of songs, followed by an activity/story led by the Preschool Director.

I was (am) so proud of Avery. I was thrilled to see her stand in line, and do as she was told. And, she even threw in a couple of bows for good measure. I love this kid’s spunk. She might have a hard time learning how to use her spunk for good, but I’m confident she’ll get it.

So, although I’ve been trudging toward Christmas a bit, this morning’s activities sparked a little renewal in me. And, although the ‘stuff’ of Christmas still wears me thin, I’m so grateful for the fresh reminder of the real reason why we celebrate Christmas—the anticipation and celebration of our savior’s birth.

Avery "helping" Dan set up the tree.

Icing some Christmas cookies.

Enjoying the first substantial snow fall of the season.













I just had to post this picture--Dan and Avery having a jam session.

The Sole Survivor

“I saw that going so differently in my mind” has now been added to our list of favorite parental coping phrases. You might recall that one of our other favorites is “it could have been so much worse” after Avery gave herself a haircut.

The goal was simple: first birthday portraits for Romey. The stage was set. Romey had had a great start to her morning, and my sister agreed to come over and hang with Avery. And then, little by little, things started to un-ravel. The cumulative effect of the following resulted in no portrait and a lost shoe:

• It was snowing.

• Ave intentionally woke Romey up from her morning nap.

• During Romey's bath she slipped and banged her cheek on the side of the bathtub (resulting in a dime-sized red mark.)

• I spilled some water on Romey’s dress resulting in a last minute wardrobe change.

• My sister was late.

• The mall’s parking lot was packed.

• Somewhere between the car and the portrait studio one of Romey’s shoes disappeared (and she wasn’t wearing socks).

• I looked for the shoe; Dan looked for the shoe. We collectively determined that the shoe had vanished into thin air. Ro knew what happened to the shoe but she wasn't giving us any hints.

• We bagged the idea of trying to find the missing shoe, and decided to buy some new shoes. Gymboree was selling zebra print shoes, and polka-dotted shoes. No thanks—she’ll go barefoot.

• Our number is up, and we take a smiling and charming Ro into the portrait studio.

• I set Romey on the floor, and she freaks. She’s afraid. I pick her up, soothe her, and put her back down. She screams louder. I look at Dan. He looks at me. We hastily grab our things and head for the nearest exit.

The moral of this predictable story is: don’t ask me for professional portraits of the Nelson girls. Instead I’ll happily send you the Kodak Gallery link, and you can order some cute candids. And, speaking of pictures, Avery’s preschool portraits came in this week. She did a great job, and I’ll be posting one here soon. Maybe the key is that someone else needs to take Ave and Ro to the portrait studio. Any takers?

Romey

Dear Romey,

Happy Birthday! Today you are one year old. Last year you were born around 5:00 a.m., and today, as if on cue, you woke at 5:00 a.m. for a feeding. This morning I held you and thought about the moment we first met. It was an unforgettable moment—a moment that your dad and I had desperately hoped for, prayed for, and dreamed of—and it was everything we wanted it to be and more. The timing of you was perfect, and we’re so glad that God allowed you to join our family.

Our first year with you has been a joyous journey. Sure, you brought all that newborn stuff to the table, but overall it’s been a fairly easy year (easy because of you; not easy because then there were two—that’s hard). For your first hour of life “on the outside” you screamed hysterically, and then that was it. From that moment on you became our easy-going, un-assuming kid. You are quick to smile, happy, sweet, a snuggly kid, and a hopeless mama’s girl. We often joke that it is easy to forget that you’re around because of your happy-go-lucky way. Simply put, you’re a joy. And you’re a gift. Your middle name, Jean, means “gracious gift from God” and there couldn’t be a better way to describe you. It’s our privilege to have you as part of our family.

Happy Birthday Romey. We love you.

Love,
Mom

PS. Enjoy some of my favorite pictures from our first few days.

Our first 'meet and greet'

Almost one

Romey's actual birthday is December 6 but since my family was in town for Thanksgiving we thought we'd celebrate a little early. Enjoy!

It's hard to believe she's almost one!

Ro: "Give me some cake!"

......and lovin' it!

Avery helping Romey open gifts.

Unfortunately Romey was pretty tired so she wasn't really feeling the whole gift thing.

And 'scene'.......

Lovin' on Ave

Regret

I regret to inform you that you won't be receiving a Christmas photo card from us this year. We still might be able to pull it off but the prospects aren't looking very good. Here's the best of the worst:

Me looking at Avery; Dan playing with Ro.

An accurate depiction of the Nelson family. That is, all of us looking at Avery.

Avery has given up, Ro's zoning out, and Dan's making a face. I give up.

Grateful

Grateful. What a word. What a mighty big word. As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday I'm spending some time reflecting on what I am grateful for. As you might guess I'm very, very grateful for Dan. There's lots to brag about as far as Dan is concerned but one of the "biggest" things as of late is his tremendous weight loss. Last January Dan decided to make a radical lifestyle change, and because of his dedication he has lost more than 100 pounds. I'm incredibly proud of him, and so grateful that he's taking his health seriously (I have much to learn). So, here's a recent side profile of him. Perhaps he'll let me show some before and after shots sometime. In the meantime, just admire.

Laugh it up

My stream of consciousness this morning from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.:

**A "he's in big trouble" laugh**
I’m laughing because today is picture day at Avery’s preschool, and the photographer can’t even possibly know what he’s gotten himself into. I feel terrible for him. He’s going to see this sweet little girl outfitted in a Hanna dress coming toward him, and he’ll think, “Oh, she’s cute, and looks cooperative and agreeable.” And then I’m imagining Avery screaming, “NO!” and knocking over his lights, camera, and other picture-taking stuff. Truthfully, he’ll have better luck catching an attitude look than a smile. I should have clipped a warning to Avery's back. Now I’m feeling guilty. Let’s hope Mr. Photographer has a gifted assistant.

**A remembering laugh**
I’m laughing because my mom was in town this weekend, and as soon as she saw the school picture form she laughed hysterically and it was by far our longest and loudest laugh of the entire weekend (the back story on this is that my mom and dad went with me to get Avery’s one-year pictures taken—it couldn’t of gone worse, and Avery absolutely positively whipped three adults not including the photographer).

**A "glad it's not me" laugh**
I’m laughing because the lady that parked next to me this morning was having a terrible time getting her 1 ½ year old in the car because he was throwing a ferocious tantrum. I’m so glad it wasn’t my turn today to deal with a bucking bronco kid—although it is only 10:00 a.m.

**A "how did I get here?" laugh**
I’m laughing because the pre-school parking lot looks more like a Honda lot. I’m laughing because I’ve never seen so many minivans in my life. Minivans cause me to wonder, “how did I get here?” And, gratefully, although I’m “here” and “here” can be mind-blowingly difficult, I really do love it, and know (hope) that I’ll look back upon these years longingly.

**A "you've got to be crazy" laugh**
Finally, I’m laughing because someone complimented me on my mothering. I laughed at me, and I laughed at her, and I think I said something along the lines of, “Seriously? Ha! If you think I’m doing something right it is because I don’t take myself too seriously; I cut myself a lot of slack; I lower my expectations; and I just try my best. Give yourself some grace.” Good advice—I should take it.

Hope you're laughing. And, if not, I hope it's your turn to laugh tomorrow.

Jesus

“I need Jesus!” yelled Avery, and then louder, “I NEED JESUS NOW!” I thought, okay, this is going to be interesting. I was about to tell her that Jesus lives in her heart, and He is with her every day when I realized what she was asking for: the Fisher Price nativity Jesus. She was holding a lone wiseman that never got packed up with the other Christmas decorations last year, and she was yelling and crying that she needed Jesus. It was astonishing to me that she remembered that the wiseman was a part of something; not just some random figurine. Plus, she hadn’t played with the nativity in a year so I was feeling impressed. Impressed enough to pull out the minivan (yep, you read right—more on this in a minute), approach the six-high stack of Rubbermaid containers, pull them down one-by-one, dig through the Christmas decorations to produce Jesus and all his mates and other nativity paraphernalia to a delighted preschooler. She said, “Thank you Mommy for finding Jesus!” No problem.

I’ve got to tell you that this little nativity set was sort of an impulsive purchase. I really went back and forth on whether or not it was necessary. It was a little pricey but I decided to go for it, and I’m so glad I did. Not only did it keep Avery’s hands off of my breakable nativity, but it also became a real tangible way to talk about the Christmas story. And, it has given me tons of memorable material—like yesterday, and the day after Romey was born (as Avery told the nurse that Romey was the baby Jesus, and said so with such awe and conviction; it was priceless). Now that I think of it my nurse’s name was Mary. Crazy.

And Dan’s needing a little Jesus these days too as he’s finally given up the fight and surrendered to my constant needling, begging, and downright practicality—he agreed to a minivan. Dan hates the idea of a van. He hates what it represents, he hates the idea of being seen in it—the whole package. Me, I’m too practical to care what people think so I’m ecstatic to have the extra space, and love seeing my little queens perched on their thrones. Soon I’ll have a picture of Dan in the driver’s seat with a big smile on his face. I suggested taking our family Christmas picture in front of the van but Dan said he’d put his hand over his face. So, I made him a deal. Quit griping about the van, be pleasant about it, smile when you talk about it and we’ll get a Nintendo Wii. The deal is under consideration. Hopefully he’ll go for it.

Here’s to embracing life as minivan mama, and Dan lying down in the backseat wondering who’s seen him! :o) The plates should read: DAN VAN.

Have a great day!

Avery helping my mom rake the leaves. My mom was using a "blower" (I think that it is what is called) and it was hysterical to see Avery's reaction to all the leaves coming at her. Avery loves to help--she quickly grabbed a rake and started raking. At home, she is always asking for her turn with the broom. She doesn't know it yet but I'm going to get her a kid-size broom for Christmas.

Little brown-eyed beauty watching the leaf show. She'll be a year old on December 6.
I had to "share" a craft with you. Avery is constantly bringing the coolest crafts home from school. Avery's teacher says that craft time is Avery's favorite activity of the morning. Anyway, this is a piece of pumpkin pie, and I was so puzzled as to what the white cotton was supposed to represent. Alas, I got it: cool whip, and the teacher even sprinkled it with cinnamon. Cute.

Monkey Madness

Happy sugar coma! Avery had a blast trick-o-treating. My favorite moments were Avery going up to doors and yelling "Hello? Is anybody here?" or "Thanks!" as she was halfway down the driveway, ringing doorbells twenty times, and begging to go to the "scary house." A ton of fun, and a ton of pictures to share--too many cute ones to choose from so scroll quickly!

Avery yelling, "Let's........

.......Go!"