I survived...

So far I've survived the swine flu. We're still being careful with Luke and the kids so they aren't exposed. We were able to get Tamiflu for Nick, Andrew, and Madelyn but Luke isn't old enough to take it. I was flat out in bed for a good 3-4 days, but thankfully my mom and mother in law are absolute angels and came to our rescue. They ran the household in every way and I couldn't have done it without them. I am so lucky to have such amazing people in my life! It seems like it has taken me a good 2 weeks to recover from it though. Nick started coming down with symptoms, so we got him on the tamiflu and he was only down for part of a day-lucky guy! During all the craziness we found out my mom has had several strokes (she had a MRI because of migraines) and now they are testing her to see if she has a hole in her heart (PFO), like my sister, that is causing her the problems. The last week of my pregnancy I developed major headaches that haven't gone away, so now I have to go get tested for the same problem. We're praying that whatever is found will be easily fixed.

On to better news. Luke is growing like a weed and is such a great baby! He sleeps through all the fighting and screaming and actually prefers to sleep in the midst of everyone's noise versus sleeping in a quiet room by himself. We're thrilled to finally have a mild mannered, snuggly baby. Even though he has bad gas and stomach pains, he hardly ever cries. It's amazing! Andrew and Madelyn let us know about their EVERY discomfort as babies.

Madelyn seems to be doing better (not screaming her head off about everything) with her jealousy issues, but we still have to remind her not to punch or hurt Luke about every hour. Her most frequent phrase these days is "sorry Luke." She's talking like crazy and has actually been binky free for 5 weeks now. She's down to 1 nap a day, like Andrew, and melts our hearts with her hugs and kisses.

Andrew is doing really well and LOVES Luke. He misses pre school, so we bought him a "homework" book at Sams so he can work on some skills during the summer. We bought a trampoline from Walmart.com and he is super excited about it getting here. I think I'm more excited though =).

Nick is finishing his application for Graduate school and we're hoping that he's able to be officially accepted so he can continue taking classes this Fall and on.

Well, I hope that everyone is well and has a better month than we've had!

More pictures and happenings

Luke's BEFORE                        and            AFTER photos

I liked these shots of Andrew because they show how he really feels about having a brother, so HAPPY!!!

Nick and his parents

Andrew looking for something to watch at the hospital and Luke under the lights at home.

Andrew being my "big helper" and showing off his writing skills by writing Luke's name and drawing a picture of him. So cute!

Madelyn showing off her chocolate face and hair do from Grandma Reynolds.

We're loving life with our new baby and the kids are adjusting well, for the most part =). I can't wait to be healed enough to enjoy being outside with the kids and having fun again. 

And with this all going on Nick got straight A's in school this semester!!!! He is amazing!

We also wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone that has helped us out this last week. And especially for Jenn Tukuafu, Lianna Black, and Teresa Andrus for the amazing meals they brought after we came home from the hospital. You guys are the best!

It's a Boy!

Luke Timothy Nielson was born on 15 May 2009 at 8:30 AM via C-section.  He weighed in at 7 lbs. 10.3 oz. and 19 3/4 inches long.  He has dark blonde-reddish hair and is very mellow and snuggly.  Sonja says he looks just like his dad and has little freckles on his nose.  Andrew and Madelyn were very excited to see him.  Madelyn was the funniest...she made me pick her up to see him in his crib, at which point she said several times "ooooh!  baby!!!!".

Here are a few pictures of the new guy!  The boys outnumber the girls now :)

We're almost there

Well, we have less than 48 hours before the little guy's, big debut. I can't believe the time has come and we still don't have a name for him! Nick and I went to Park City this last weekend for a final getaway before the craziness begins and instead of settling on a name, we added to the list of names we like.
I thought it'd be fun for people to add a comment of what they think the baby will weigh and how tall he'll be. Whomever is the closest I'll send them a little treat, so let me know what you think!
Here are Andrew and Madelyn's stats if that matters or helps: 8 lbs 11oz, 21.5 inches and 7 lbs 10 oz, 20 inches. Andrew was 9 days early and Madelyn was 8 days early. This baby will be 9 days early...Good luck!

Funny coincidence...
We bought a crib from a guy on ksl.com and Nick was finally able to put it together, to find that it is broken! I had already bought a changing table from kid to kid that matched the crib, but I had saved the receipt and left on the tag, so if we needed to return it for some reason, we could. We decided to make the defective crib into a toddler bed for Madelyn and change her bed back into a crib for the new baby. Which has a changing table already attached to it. So we headed to kid to kid to return the changing table that we didn't need now, but they wouldn't take it back. Although they informed me they would buy it back at a 40% markdown. No thanks! So I listed it on ksl.com and sold it the next day, and actually made a $1.26 profit. That night Nick was putting Madelyn's new bed together and found that he needed some screws that the defective crib/toddler bed didn't come with, so he headed to Lowe's. After he got home, I jokingly asked him if he had spent my precious profit on the screws. He was downstairs and started laughing because he checked out the receipt and the screws cost $1.26 after tax. What are the odds? So I guess we came out even on everything and I don't feel so gypped any more!

Pictures, like promised

Well we finished the baby's quilt and Madelyn's dress, so here are the pictures I promised. Andrew quillow isn't done quite yet but hopefully we can finish it up this week. It is starting to look really cute and Andrew is super excited about it!
(Don't you love how Andrew is putting his arm over the baby bump?)

The dress cost a whole $3.90 to make!!! How many binkies can YOU see?
Talk about binkie overkill! (There are THREE!!!)


Here are some pictures of the family at Rachel's wedding


Reynolds Family Lafranceschina/Reynolds Family

My family with the kids in order of age. We were so happy that my brother, Jason, was able to come to the reception! The Reynolds Family

All the sisters in the family (including in laws)

Summer Break...

I can't wait! Nick has his last class of the semester on Tuesday and then a final project due by next Monday and hopefully that's it for this semester! If he did well on his last midterm for one of his classes then he won't have to take the final, so we are crossing our fingers that he did really well. We'll probably find out this Tuesday.
In 7 days I will be considered full term (37 weeks) and I'm scheduled for a c-section on the 15th of May, only 19 days to go! I can't believe how time has gone by.
Andrew is so excited to see his little brother. We have been tying a quilt for the baby and Andrew got to do about 3 ties. He was very excited to help. Nick even got to put a couple in too, just to say he helped. We're going to finish it up on Tuesday and I can't wait, it looks so cute! I'll put up some photos when we're done. We were able to get a crib and mattress for $40 and now we just need a changing table and I think we're set furniture wise! My mom was kind enough to wash, fold, and sort all the 0-3 months clothes I have, now I just need a place to put them and we're good to go.
We've been considering putting Andrew and Madelyn in their own rooms but I don't know if they can handle it. We've had Madelyn in our room to help her train in her big girl bed and because we needed the space for all the people staying in our house the last while. Andrew has had nightmares almost every night that Madelyn hasn't been in the room with him. It's kind of sad, but I think they just love being together. I think we'll put them together and see how things go. I'm just a little scared of both of them being in a room together and having free reign (mostly scared of Madelyn having free reign).
My parents are considering buying/building in Herriman now and so they might live with us for a couple years. So needless to say this summer we'll be working like crazy to finish the basement once and for all. I can't wait, it's been so close to being finished for a long time!
Well, I guess that's all the news for now. We'll hopefully have some more exciting news soon!

Pictures at the zoo on April 11th.
Andrew trying to see the animals and Madelyn and Aurora (Jacopo's little sister).

Easter 2009. Madelyn insisted on wearing this clog while trying to find eggs. Andrew and Madelyn both got toys and notes from the Easter Bunny, so exciting!
They love to snuggle. Andrew always asks us to take a picture because he knows they are just too cute!

The Chaos is Over For Now...

Well it's done and we all survived (despite being called a "whore" and "special" by my lovely older sister). My little sister was married on Saturday and everything went pretty well. On Friday I took my kids and Jacopo's (my new brother-in-law) brother and sister to the zoo. They don't speak much (any really) English, but animal names are pretty similar in Italian, and we had fun. I thought I'd go into labor pushing Madelyn and Andrew in the stroller up the hills by myself, but everything was ok. Nick took work off Friday so he could stay home and study because Saturday and Sunday were pretty much shot for study time. Him and I made a slide show for Rachel and Jacopo and burned CDs with all of their pictures for their family and mine. I have to give props to Nick for finishing the technical components for me, instead of studying. He saved my life! It was great to be in the temple Friday night and Saturday morning with our families. We have really grown to love Jacopo's family and especially the cooking. We'll all be sad when they go home Tuesday. My best friend Kelli flew in from Alaska on Friday and surprised everyone with her arrival. It was SO great to have her here! She helped my brother, Stephen watch the kids Friday night and Saturday and got all the kids ready and to the temple. I really don't know how we would have done it without her. She even cleaned the house Friday night after my sister's kids and mine destroyed it. I was so sad when she had to leave on Sunday, especially because she lives so far away, I know it will be awhile before we see her again.
Now that everything has settled down I can focus on getting our house put back together. We've had so many people in and out for the last couple of weeks, it'll be nice to be able to focus on getting ready for this baby to arrive. Nick said the next 3 weeks he'll be pretty much out of commission here at home with final projects and such needing to be finished. So needless to say we're looking forward to this summer break BIG TIME!
I was able to take Andrew and Madelyn to my parents and Nick's parents for Easter and they had a great time. Andrew and Madelyn got little baskets from the Easter bunny this morning and notes from him too! We have some pretty cute pictures that I'll put up in a couple days, once I get them off the camera. Here are some pictures of my sister's bridals that I loved. Enjoy!
(P.S. Sorry this post is so scatter brained, we've been busy, obviously!)

(My mom and Rachel)