Love and All That

I don't want to brag, but I just may have one of the most-creative-husbands-in-the-making. This year for Valentine's Day I opened our bedroom door in the morning to find the hallway strewn with red and pink rose petals. The petals were laid in a path down the hallway and into our living room. The petals led to a little white table with four cards (one for each phase of our relationship), a vase full of roses, a pink rose in a vase that says "My Little Princess," (which blooms with the push of a button) for Haivi, and a little red lantern for Taj. We were all super excited by the surprises that daddy left for us and it definitely made for an awesome Valentine's Day. Taj nearly shrieked and kept saying, "Bank you so much!" It was so cute. Haivi loved her blooming rose a little too much and nearly crushed it. One of the petals quit blooming after she got through with it, which sounds about right for her. We celebrated Valentine's Day as a family that night with a steak dinner. My family does the same thing every Valentine's Day and we have decided to carry on the tradition, only we opted out on the candle light part since little Miss Haivi has figured out how to crawl on top of the table.
This next piece of news I am so excited about I can hardly stand it! TAJ IS POTTY TRAINED!!!!! Mr. Taj decided almost two weeks ago that he'd trade in the pull-ups for a set of undies with Lightning McQueen on the back. We ran out of pull-ups about two weeks ago and Taj came out of his room wearing a pair of underwear, on backwards, and beaming ear to ear. He has had only ONE accident thus far. He wears underwear to school and to daycare and he is doing great! We are still working on the concept of wiping our bums after we poop. I have found more than a few skid marks in his undies! We were at Target the other day looking at clothes for Haivi and Taj suddenly announced, "Mama, I go poop!" So we rushed across the store and into the restroom to let him do his business. When we got in there, the bathroom was empty, which was good. He went into a stall and locked it and told me, "Stay wight dere mama! Don't move!" I assured him I would not move. Then the bathroom door opens and a girl comes in and pulls out her make-up and straightener and starts getting ready in the mirror. Then another lady comes in and goes into the stall right next to Taj at which time he begins grunting profusely and breathing loudly and repeatedly asking, "Mama, you need go poopoo?" All the while there is a little plink plink noise coming from his stall. Awesome. I really don't know how everyone kept a straight face. Perhaps they were just really polite people. I ask him how it's going and he tells me he's done and I see 5 yards of toilet paper being unraveled underneath the stall door. The toilet flushes, the stall door flies open to reveal Taj standing there with his drawers around his ankles, grinning, and a tampon box stuffed full of toilet paper with who knows what on it--that all depended on how well he wiped his bum. I had to explain that typically we pull our pants up BEFORE we open the door and come back out. Keep in mind those women are STILL in the bathroom. I really wasn't THAT embarrassed though--I think I was more proud of him. I am just so relieved that he has decided that it is WAY cooler to pee and poo in the toilet than in his pants.
The biggest news for Haivi is that she has learned to crawl up on the table and up the backs of the table chairs, which scares the crap out of me! I don't get that little woman--she can climb like Tarzan, but she is too scared to walk! My almost one-and-a-half-year-old still refuses to walk. I know she can do it because she walks around holding onto things and pushing that mangy kitty of hers around in her stroller. She is still as fiery as ever, maybe even more than she's ever been. She has started shrieking whenever she doesn't get her way or whenever someone encroaches on her space, toy, or person that happens to be holding her. She gives the best hugs and kisses and she has started imitating nearly everything we say. She is well on her way to talking and that has me super excited and super relieved. After having gone through what we have with Taj, it is such a relief that Haiven is hitting all the milestones that she should be. We absolutely love our Taj just way he is and we are SO proud of the progress he has made with his speech, numbers, colors, shapes, and he is even writing his name now. We are very confident that with another year of preschool that Taj will do well in Kindergarten. His social skills are coming along too and I think daycare has been such a good thing for him to learn how to socialize with his peers. There are just so many good things that are happening with Taj this year, that it's given us hope that he will be able to carry on a "normal" life (whatever normal is right?) when he grows up: going to college, going on a mission, getting married, having a job, etc. We are very hopeful and optimistic and will continue working with him to help him become all that he can.

 We only had to put together like 100 valentines for Taj and Haiven! Haivi gave scratch and sniff valentines with stickers to her class. We figured stickers were better than candy for her age group.

 We loaded up these little bad boys with the good stuff, Reeses hearts and kisses. It only took us an HOUR to put these things together. We just prayed they wouldn't fall apart before he got them to his classmates. They are cute though aren't they?!

Life is just so good for us right now and we feel so blessed to have the family and friends and neighbors that we do. We feel so blessed to live where we do and to have jobs, and to have a roof over our heads, and to have food on our table and the cupboards stocked. We really are just enjoying life so much right now and we are so thankful for the gospel and the knowledge that no matter what happens in life, that we can all be together again. There really is nothing better than having that kind of peace of mind.

What we do in the teacher Off-Season

 This is the crappy snowman we built. The snow was so powdery it wouldn't stick and it took an hour to build this little guy. The next day the carrot nose and almonds were gone. We think the racoons got to it.

 This kid loves the snow. I just had to watch him to make sure he didn't eat a frozen cat turd. There are about a million stray cats in our neighborhood thanks to the cat lady down the road and they love to use our yard as a little box-SO NOT COOL!

 We took the kids for a carriage ride at Temple Square and Taj wanted to sit by himself. He didn't make it long as he got cold and came and snuggled up to me, which was more than fine with me of course.

 We could NOT manage to get a picture of the three of us without cutting her head off and this is the best one of the bunch.

 Haiven was not enjoying the carriage ride. We kept getting blasted with an unearthly arctic wind, so cold you thought your eye lids would freeze shut.

 Haivi is learning how to eat from a spoon, finally!

 One of the icicles off our house-they definitely carry a lethal status.

 How can anyone resist giving her what she wants with hair like this and that toothy grin?!

 Haivi rocking her minty and sparkly skinny jeans that she got from Grandma for Christmas. I wish she was walking so she wouldn't come home from daycare with dirty stains on the knees of these pants from crawling. I'm just praying the Spray and Wash did it's job!

 Pajama day. My chair cushions look corroded. I can't decide whether to pay a cleaner 80 buck a chair to come in and clean them, or to re-upholster them, or to throw them out and just buy new chairs altogether. Their game was Haivi would sit on the cushion and Taj would push her across the dirty floor. Who knew something so simple could be so fun?

 Brannon also plowed nearly all the sidewalks and driveways on our block-not even kidding. That guy LOVES a new toy!

 There are wicked icicles perched precariously on everybody's awnings. I wouldn't be surprised to see in the news that someone has died of a head trauma from an icicle.

 You can bet ours is the only house in town with a lawn that has been snowblowed-leave it to Brannon aka OCD snowblower enthusiast to snowblow the GRASS!

Our neighbor's mailbox-kind of shows you how much snow we got

The above pictures are a reflection of our activities the past two or three weeks. I have decided that I will NEVER be a professional blogger as long as I have a job, kids, a husband, and a house to manage. It just ain't happening people, but if I get to the end of my life and can say I spent the BEST of my time focused on my family, my faith, and my job, then I won't feel too bad that I never made it as a professional blogger or Twitter-er or Facebooker. I think people spend too much of their time absorbed in the social network world and not enough time in reality anyway, so I would rather spend MORE of my time developing relationships that actually matter. Sorry if you're a super pro-blogger or Tweeter and this offends you. Personally, my mental health is far too sensitive to spend hours looking at the blogs of perfect moms, fashion divas, or living vicariouly through other successful people. I usually end up feeling bad about myself and the fact that I will NEVER be like those super blog moms who never utter a cross word at their children and are always smartly fashionabe and who never have a bad day and wonder what the heck they were thinking when they wanted to have kids and who always have fun activities planned for their kids and manage to cook a gourmet dinner for their family every night and serve it on a table that was hand-sanded and painted with chairs that have been re-upholstered for only 2.00 because the fabric was on sale, but practically free with the 100 coupons that were painstakingly cut and proudly tossed on the counter at the local Jo-Ann's fabric store. No, I'm not that kind of mom, but I AM the kind of mom that DOES love her kids and spends quality time with them every day doing boring things like reading books, or wiping faces and bums, and accepting slobbery kisses. We may not be the most exciting or interesting family in town, but we're happy and no super mom blog can compete with that.

Christmas 2012

Taj got himself a set of spurs from Grandma Lori as a consolation prize for helping her move earlier this month.

Taj is so so proud of his spurs. He even wore them to daycare. I pretended not to notice he still had them on when I dropped him off because I really didn't want to be the bad guy on this one and make him take them off, so I let his teachers be the bad guys. I picked them up from the office when I picked him up later that day. This was actually well thought out because now when he wants to wear his spurs out to church or preschool I simply tell him his teachers will take them away from him and THEY are the bad guys and not ME for once!

Little Miss Haivi a few days before Christmas. She figured out how to crawl up on this chair and was quite proud of herself for such an enormous accomplishment. I was very proud of her too considering how short her legs are compared to the height of the chair. The best part about this chair is that it rocks, which also makes it dangerous. See that marble mantle in the background? I hovered anxiously around her the entire time she demanded to hang out on this tilting, head cutter-opener, chair.

This move especially made me jumpy and I was sure she would somersault off the edge of it and break her collarbone. How could I resist letting her do it though, given how cute she looks with her lopsided piggy tails?

My sister and I set the table for Christmas Eve dinner using odds and ends we could scrounge up around the house. I think it turned out quite well. It was definitely fancy-schmancy enough for the lot of us Griswald's.

Even Taj had a place set for him at his vintage 1950 something table. I don't know where my mom gets this stuff, yard sales I'm sure! I wish I had as much luck as her at yard sales up here! The highchair she has is also vintage 1950 something with a flower pattern and actually now that I think about it, it's probably a 60's design, given the flower pattern.

Taj was like a little leech and glued to my brother's leg for pretty much the entire weekend we were there. Poor Matt...he brought it on himself though because he actually seemed to enjoy having a permanent side kick. Poor Taj, you would think he's been starved for attention!

Another unsuccessful attempt to remove the said "leech" from his leg.

Haivi bug loved anyone that would pick her up, especially since she wasn't feeling good the entire time we were there.

Ignore my lopsided glasses, hair, and face. I had to get proof of Haivi's bed head. It's pretty ridiculous and it always looks like this when she wakes up in the morning and from her naps.

We had Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve since a few of us had to leave on Christmas Day. My mom made us a turkey dinner with all the fixings, even pie! It was like Thanksgiving all over again, only better because we got to open presents the next day.

Taj enjoying his feast of turkey and macaroni and cheese.

Taj opened his first present with Auntie Marci and Uncle Brian

This was his gift from Santa, a toy chainsaw that is SUPER loud and SUPER annoying, but he loves it, so I tolerate it. The blade moves on it and he spent the rest of the morning trying to cut anything he could. I think at one point he became quite frustrated because it wouldn't actually cut through anything.

I have never seen him so excited about a present before. When he opened the chainsaw, he kept putting his hands on his head and had a permagrin on his face. He told Auntie Marci to "cut da stwings off!" so he could give it a go.

This was Haivi's present from Santa. She is always playing on the piano at our house, so I thought it would be cute for her to have her own. I told Santa what she wanted since she is still working on the whole language thing.

Brannon took this picture and immediately remarks afterwards, "Haw Haw, look at your face!" Thanks love, who doesn't like having their picture taken on Christmas morning? The only reason I put this on here is because I think Haivi looks cute trying to look at the camera through my arm.

See the red polka dot present in the background? That was to Taj and Haiven from Auntie Marci and Uncle Brian. It was a sleepover party that included a movie, popcorn, cookie mix, and candy. Such a cute idea!

Haivi holding her cute little teapot from Grandpa and Grandma.

You may as well call my mom the Diet Dr. Pepper Grandma. She changes back and forth between diet drinks, but you can always count on her having something brown and bubbly in her cup. Haivi caught on real quick that the good stuff is where grandma is.

We opened this present Christmas night when we got home from Monticello. We waited to open it because we knew Taj would want it out of the box and set up immediately and the thought of packing all those pieces  and traveling for nearly six hours with parts floating all over the car was less than appealing, so we waited. He did of course want it set up asap and we've spent all week playing with it. Definitely a great present grandma and grandpa. You can tell how excited he was when he opened it because Taj hates having his picture taken and hardly ever smiles for pictures. This grin is the permagrin I was talking about with the chainsaw.

Some of you have seen this I'm sure, our visit with Santa went very well I thought. Taj loved him, Haivi not so much. I think the beard was weirding her out.

We had such a great Christmas this year spending time with family in good ol' Monticello, UT. We even got to have a white Christmas! It snowed and snowed on Christmas Eve, so really the weather was absolutely perfect for the occasion. Both Taj and Haiven had to be taken to the urgent care clinic while we were there. Both of them were diagnosed with ear infections and Haivi has croup (sp?) as well. She is still not better yet and Taj isn't all the way up to par either, but I'm hoping they will be okay by Jan. 2, because I have to go back to work then! I actually took Haivi to the ENT yesterday and she has won herself a set of tubes in the ears. She's all set to go for Jan. 7th and I'm really hoping that will help her out, poor thing. Despite having sick kids, it was still super nice to be able to spend time with my siblings as we are spread out all over the place and in different states. We don't get to see each other much at all, so of course we all got a little choked up when it was time to say goodbye. I HATE saying goodbye. It is the absolute worst and no fun at all. We left on Christmas Day and I spent the rest of the day feeling melancholy. Anyone else experience acute depression the days following Christmas? I think mine lasts about a week and I'm finally able to overcome it after I bring myself to put Christmas away. 
My parents are so fun and they always have things planned out for us when we come home. We played Catch Phrase, telephone charades (sounds pretty goody goody doesn't it? don't ever underestimate the Nielson family's ability to be overly competitive, loud, and slightly rough around the edges while playing ANY game), and on Christmas Eve we played one of those present games with dice where you fight over random presents. It actually turned out to be really fun except for the part when I thought me and Brannon were going home with a Poopy Potter Putter thing. Marci and Brian gladly took that off our hands, doesn't surprise me in the least! We also watched the always wholesome movie Uncle Buck. If you haven't seen that, highly recommend it, without young children of course. That movie fits our family's sense of humor perfectly--we are quite the bunch of roughians, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm so grateful for the holidays that allow us to spend time together!

Enjoying Motherhood

I don't know why, but lately it seems we are just flying through the weeks and my babies just keep getting older. This week we decided that we can no longer consider Taj a toddler and that sadly, he is officially a big boy now. Haivi is fast on her way to approaching toddlerhood and is so close to walking I wouldn't be surprised if she took off on her own this week. I cannot believe that that she will be turning two in less than a year. Now that I teach, I am realizing just how short these years are and how sweet this time really is because  I can never get those chubby cheeks and bum bums back, those little fingers and toes, those infectious baby giggles, and that sweet sweet smell that only babies have. I still have those things with Haivi, except the baby smell, and all I have left of those with Taj are those slightly chubby cheeks and his button nose. Life is definitely moving faster than I thought it would. This post is for naming all the things I love about my kids at this age. This may be boring for some, but this blog is for me and my family and someday when I'm old I want to remember what it was like to have a one year old and a four year old.

Little Miss Haivi:
*She LOVES any kind of stuffed animal, but her favorites are her Minnie baby and her mangy, white stuffed kitty.
*She loves giving kisses to her animals and to her babies. She also loves giving kisses to her momma and her daddy and her big brother Taj. She makes the "mmmmwha" noise when she gives kisses and it always melts my heart.
*She loves her some soul food like her momma and you will regularly hear her exclaiming "mmmm" whenever she's eating. This girl loves food just like her momma AND sweets like her daddy.
*She follows her brother everywhere still and I can just tell that she is itching to run after him. I guarantee these two will be trouble sooner than later. She idolizes him and thinks everything he does is funny except when he takes her beloved kitty from her that is.
*This girl is THE feistiest little thing ever. We still joke that she has A LOT of her Auntie Macee in her. She screeches and squawks at everything and anyone that gets in her way. She is very sassy! We like to call her "squeakers" and "Haivi Hoo."
*She LOVES to dance. I will often look in the back seat to see Haivi's little legs bouncing in time to the song on the radio. She has all kinds of sweet dance moves that include swaying back and forth, flapping her hands, and doing a little shimmy. This girl will definitely be taking some dance classes when she gets older.
*She is super independent and has been since she was about five months old. She likes to try to do everything by herself.
*She is such a sweet little snuggly bug, but she only likes to snuggle for maybe one whole minute tops.
*As of right now she is the queen of tantrums, which has me scared because she's not even two yet. Her tantrums include ALL of the following: slapping, pulling of hair, screeching, kicking, arching of the back, gnashing of teeth, snot, spit, and swaying her upper body back and forth really fast. She really has a flare for the dramatic.
*She is right on cue with her speech, which has us thrilled. She tries to mimic everything we say and can manage a handful of words. She is very curious and wants to know what everything is. She points and we dictate the word and sound, if the object has a sound that is.
*Point is we love having little Haivi Hoo in our house. She has all of us whipped!

T-Man:
*We still call Taj, Taji, but another popular nickname for him is T-Man.
*Taj is doing so well in school right now. His latest accomplishments: counting to 11, writing his name, naming shapes and colors, and trying out all sorts of new words every single day. He feels very proud of himself when he can point to things and name them. I make sure I am his BIGGEST fan every time. He is progressing so quickly that I think we may be able to get him up to speed before Kindergarten. He still has one more year of preschool before he starts Kindergarten, so that will be three years total of preschool for him, which has and will make all the difference.
*Taj is still into riding anything with wheels on it, playing with cars/trains/trucks/, playing with (or teasing) his sister, helping mama cook dinner, getting the mail out of the mailbox, reading books, playing pretend with the holiday decorations, and playing the iPad.
*Taj also started singing in the last few weeks. Every night before bed I lay by Taj and I sing any and every song request he throws at me: Fahmuh Song (Farmer Song: Old MacDonald had a farm), Jesus song (Jesus wants me for a sunbeam), Star song (twinkle, twinkle little star), Santa song (santa clause is coming to town), Wudolph song (Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer), Wainbow song (I like to look for rainbows primary song), row, row, row your boat song, and several others I cannot even remember right now. We always say prayers first and then I sing at least five songs for him. He will also try to sing with the radio and he can pretty much sing every word of every song in that old-school Christmas movie Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Ask me what one of my favorite things to do is and I will tell you that nothing makes me happier than listening to my little boy sing. I have waited a long time for him to do this.
*Taj's other thing right now is that he loves giving hugs pretty much all the time. I can count on at least five hugs and smooches on the lips before I leave for work in the morning. I will definitely enjoy this phase for as long as it lasts!
*Something else about this boy is that he LOVES his family so much. He is always excited to see me when I pick him up after work and he always runs to the door when his daddy gets home. Don't even get me started on his papas and gwammas! I think he likes them more than us!
*Basically Taj is one sweet little man and you can tell that he has a very tender spirit. He is so very protective of Haiven and his family. He is very watchful over all of us to make sure that we don't get hurt. I've been scolded for clipping my toe nails before.  In his words, "Stop! Don't hut da toes!" We love this little man and what he's becoming so much!

 My sweet baby girl helping me get the Christmas decor out

 She is so proud of herself for this making such a huge mess, can you tell?

 Justin Bieber in the front

 Mullet in the back

 I cut it all off a couple of days after I took this pic. I LOVED his long hair, but it was in his eyes all the time and the back of it looked ridiculous with that mullet, so off it went!

 Taj helping me make the pizza dough

 This is why mommy  needs an apron for Christmas

Taj's picture of course of the mixer he finds fascinating.

You can probably tell that we are pretty darn lucky parents to be able to have Taj and Haivi in our house. Their daddy and I have both agreed they are the best thing that has ever happened to us and that life would be nothing without our babies. We are so thankful for our little family!