I just wanted to do a quick post and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope we can all remember Christ's birth and the miracles that took place. I'm so grateful for my family and friends and for this time we get to have a break and reflect on our lives and blessings! We love you all and hope this new year gives new opportunity for good changes.
Love,
The Nielsons!
Here are some pictures/highlights of 2008
Nick and I got to go to the Forgotten Carols last night and it was awesome! I seriously cried with every song that was sung and it wasn't just because I'm hormonal! I would recommend everyone see it! Nick got the tickets for me as my Christmas present and I'm so glad he did. I can't wait to get tickets for family members as presents through the years. It's especially powerful if you're having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. Nick even cried, even though he will deny it if you ask him.
Today we got to go to Fetal Fotos and found out that we are having a BOY! We are really excited and can't wait to agree on his name! Nick likes Timothy a lot (as do I), but I really love the name Elijah too. Decisions, decisions!
Nick has his final on Monday, so after that hopefully we'll have many more exciting weekends! Wish him well, he needs it!
Today was Andrew's first day of part-time preschool. When we would talk about going to school he would get a little sad (probably because I told him he couldn't be naughty to his teachers and friends) and say he didn't want to go to school. We got there at 8:30 to meet his teacher and check things out before class started and he did so well. Once he saw his own cubby and sitting mat with his name on each, he was sold! The teacher had just made a bear den because they are learning about bears this week, he was so excited! When I picked him up he got to put his papers in his backpack and wear it out to the car, how cool is that?!? After school he played on the playground with his good buddy Isaak. Madelyn even played with the big kids and went down a big twisting slide( taller than me) all by herself! She wanted so badly to stay at school with Andrew, she even pulled a chair up to the table to play with him when I dropped him off this morning, but she still has a few years to go. It was weird not having a load of kids for a couple hours, it was just Madelyn and me! I didn't even have work for the two hours I normally do on Monday-so we got to go grocery shopping, with just the two of us. You'd think with not having so many kids that I'd have my house all cleaned up from our huge long trip to Oregon, but no, it's a mess! I think it's going to take a couple weeks for me to recoup from this one. One highlight of the trip was that we got to stop in Portland on the way home and see Nick's sister, Lisa, and her fiance, Steve. It was nice to get to see my grandparents again, it's been 2 years since I saw them last and they are going through a lot. My grandpa is 94 (turns 95 nextMarch) and my grandma is 88 (89 next June). My grandpa just had his third stroke and my grandma suffers from dementia. They are still in their home, with my aunt and uncle taking turns caring for them. It was good to be in Oregon again, but sad to see my grandma and grandpa, whom I adore, suffering so much. I'm really thankful for my amazing family and that I was blessed to grow up with so many great memories with them!
We get to find out next Saturday (December 13th) what the gender of our baby is...Fetal Fotos here we come! Nick is liking the name Timothy (my dad's name) for a boy and we're still thinking Ella for a girl. Although we're not sure of middle names because there are so many good people in our families to name our children after...so we'll see.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that you're all recovering from turkey coma!