Celebarting 8 Years

of Marriage TODAY!
I'm the luckiest girl--
I couldn't create a more perfect husband!!

my mom took the big boys home with her yesterday. micah surprised me by taking the day off!! we went to our favorite breakfast spot and then did some bargain shopping in peace!!
we're off to dinner at the Chart house and then downtown to the First Night celebration!!

anniversaries of old:
1 year: living in hawaii but visiting utah to meet our new nephew staten maughan. spent the day in park city, toured the olympic snow park, went back to SLC and watched Legacy and ate dinner at The Roof in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building--the tab was picked up by a perfect stranger!
2 years: flew back to hawaii from CA with a 1 month old baby and went to bed
3 years: living in San Diego. Kip came down and stayed with Jaden while we went to San Juan Capistrano for the night. We ate dinner at the 5 Crowns in Laguna Nigel and stayed in a quaint little hotel on the beach. We also met up with Brian and Amy that night, who had flown in from Virginia to look for housing back on the West coast. We met little Windsyr for the first time at 4 mo. old.

4 years: a surprise scavenger hunt through town organized by my awesome husband. the first clue directed me to a flower shop where I picked up a bouquet of roses and my next clue. other stops included See's Candy and Victoria's Secret among others and it all ended at the Red Lion where he was waiting for me in the Honeymoon Suite with a candlelit lunch from my fav. restaurant.

5 years: thought I was going into labor with Beckam. sat home and waited.

6 years: flew to San Diego on an all-expense paid trip to the Lozano Smith Christmas party while mimi stayed with the boys in Davis. Stayed at a fancy hotel and also squeezed in a temple trip!

7 years: I surprised Micah by taking him to Sycamore Mineral Springs in Avila Beach. They're private natural hot springs beneath a canopy of Sycamore trees. We enjoyed a delightful dinner on the pier and concluded the evening at Jenny's house for her annual
Casino night.

translator needed

buy american? and miss out on the best part of these toys?
taken directly from the packaging:
remote control "Flying Saucer"
"wonderful, speedking, wonderful speedking, variable attitude"
"Warning: different type of batteries or new and old batteries which are not mixed. Please take out the batteries from the toy when don't be playing for a long time. Before charge batteries again, please let the batteries are fully consumed. Replacing batteries by adults."
Made in China

"EXCITING GAME ELECTRIC-CAR"
(this is a track with battery powered trucks)
"EXTREME CHALLENGER
ALL NEW EDITION! FLASHING ENTER!
POWERFUL TRACK
install-self
game mode freely design
two or more join playing
exciting and funny game
Go Go Go! Get Ready for the great Challenges..
Run quickly when on the long bridge with loosing planks!!
Escape ! We have woken up the baby dino.
The Big Dino has discovered us (referring to a snake and alligator)
CAUTIONS! Guardians should read!
Thank you for choosing our producti to use it correctly and safely, please first read through the directions on the package. keep the package well after reading."
Made in China

and on and on and on....
read your packages, they can be very entertaining!

Merry Merry Christmas

the children were nestled all snug in their bed...

we may never see beckam any other way

our first christmas with just our little family

unwrapping intermission for a yummy breakfast

the kids had a blast--can you see jaden (aka optimus prime) in this picture?
jaden spent most of the day outside bug hunting with his bug vacuum and habitat santa brought and riding his ramp (on his skateboard and scooter with his dad on his new wave board) also from santa--we can't figure out how he got them on his sleigh
as you can see, beckam spent the day in his uniform, playing with his shake and go race track and using his cucumber hand soap from santa

and the sweet baby

Thank You to our Family

for the
Wonderful Christmas

It's already been a Merry Christmas

here are some things that have helped make this season so meaningful for us:

• the package we sent to south africa
• the baby and maternity clothes boxed up and waiting to be delivered
• the 8 dozen peanut butter kiss cookies we made and delivered. jaden insisted we knock and run and had so much fun doing it. except the time he knocked beckam down on the porch of one house in an effort to help him getaway faster, sending him into hysterics--they got caught that time.
• making 30 of these mice with my grandma for her to give away

• she let me keep some, too. we tried to leave some for the garbage man and mail lady along with some cookies but I guess the likeness was so good the crows devoured them before they were picked up. beckam hand delivered a plate to the recycle man and the mail lady ended up with see's candy.
• giving these heavenly little goodies to our neighbors: jingle bell rock (dark aloha rocky road w/ macadamia nuts) and peppermint bark. they're made by a chocolatier in the ward we were in last summer. I've enjoyed a few myself.
• reading our 24 days of Christmas most nights with sweet stories, scriptures and hymns
• sending Harry and David's 12 days of Christmas to a special family who's been SO kind and generous to us
• letting Jaden pick out food items that were donated to the Salvation Army through his school to feed the homeless
  
• buying Christmas cards created by children from St. Jude Children's Hospital at Target

The card was 2.50 and nearly half was donated to St. Jude for research. The greatest part was that on the back was a picture and a bio of the child who's artwork was featured. My kids loved reading about them and were so glad we could donate a little to help them.

• most of all seeing my children capture the true spirit of the season through charity
  

santa's elves

my kids are having so much fun with these videos.
they love watching their friends/cousins dancing in elf suits.
check my boys out in their dancing debut here.

but the really fun part for me has been making them of my friends who have never seen them and emailing it to them.

here is jenny and jeremy
and here is erin and mike

leave the link for your dancing elves in my comments and make my boys day!

Dear Santa

*our 1st real christmas tree*

big big dart gun!
surf board!
and a wet soot
after he wrote this, he told us how hard it was to think of anything else since he just had a birthday and got "like everything."
so we reminded him that he didn't need a long list then.
so he added:
a pes u luv!!!!!!!
a pes of luv fm my famlie
then he gave us a satisfied wink.
jaden wrote this list on his own.
can you decipher what it says?
"a piece of love"
"a piece of love from my family"

and THIS is the kind of thing that happens at our house on sunday.
poor baby doesn't know anything different

Benihana's and Marshmallow Snowmen

that's how we celebrated family home evening.

the boys really wanted to go to benihana's for dinner tonight.
so micah told them he'd make them a
benihana dinner, nilsson style.

jaden informed me that the whole point was having it cooked in front of him and he was not disappointed.
micah doned his tall paper hat and went to work.
our food was prepared in front of our eyes on the electric skillet at the dinner table!
it included steak, shrimp and vegetable/egg fried rice--it was delicious!

and the show was spectacular--featuring the erupting onion volcano, the beating fried rice heart and he caught a shrimp in his hat!!

jaden thinks micah should get a job a benihana's.
forget law.
culinary arts, here he comes.

and for a treat, marshmallow snowmen. a variation of these (but not quite as cute. we improvised by dipping a toothpick in chocolate sauce to make the eyes, nose, mouth and buttons).
thanks for all the fun ideas minna!
(she's doing 24 days of christmas with an activity-a-day.
we've also made the snowflakes out of grocery sacks--so they stick to the window easily).

we also enjoyed a game of sequence for kids and reading out of our 24 days of christmas binder, which includes fun stories, scriptures and hymns.

the best part of the evening:
the most thoughtful and grateful prayer spoken by our 6 year old boy expressing his perfect understanding of the true meaning of the season.

we have such a testimony of family home evening.

I'm it

merideth got me!
not only did she tag me on her blog but posted a comment on mine telling me she did.
and because I have this ridiculous sense of duty, here goes...

5 things i was doing 10 years ago:
1. just completing my 1st quarter at cal-poly san luis obispo
2. and quickly realizing how much harder the quarter system was compared to the jc I was at previously as my gpa dropped below a 3.0 for the 1st time in my life
3. because I was living the fun college life in the dorms (including a lot of middle of the night taco bell runs). I did study. usually at 3am when everyone else was sleeping.
4. parties. parties. parties. and the beach. (just for the record: I was always the sober driver)
5. writing to one of my best friends, a mormon boy who was serving a mission in chile
(I'm now a mormon girl. and he's my husband.)

5 things on my to-do list today:
1. take beckam to gavin's (our babysitting co-op on wed. they went to the aquarium today)
2. exercise. in peace and quiet. (asher slept the whole time--woohoo)
3. clean the bathrooms
4. make a dr. appointment for jaden to have his "staph" infection looked at
(the dr. is the father of one of jaden's friends from school. he made a house call and said it's fine. no need for antibiotics. I hope it goes away soon. it's very annoying.)
5. make butternut squash soup. again. mmm mmmmm.

5 snacks i enjoy:
1. fruit smoothies
(non-fat vanilla yogurt, frozen berries, one banana, frozen tj's pineapple (they're so sweet), a little milk, some protein powder. delish)
2. hummus and pita chips
3. tj's peanut butter pretzels
3. tj's raspberry and chocolate trail mix
4. micah makes awesome milk shakes. cookies and cream ice cream with peanut butter, marshmallow, banana and hot fudge. yummy.
5. lately I love ecco (or perro. like postum.) with biscotti

5 things i would do if i was a billionaire:
1. always pick up the tab when eating out with friends or family
2. donate regularly to good causes
3. pay for strangers meals and perform other random acts of kindness like that. a lot.
(a stranger once secretly bought our dinner at the roof in the joseph smith building. it was our 1 year anniversary dinner and it meant a lot.)
4. buy a house
5. help any family members who needed it (and it would actually help). education. car payments. shopping sprees.

(funny. does this list look familiar sister bear?)

5 of my bad habits:
1. yelling at my kids. hey--that's how I was raised. and it works.
2. I'm a little compulsive about completing my to-do lists. I've mentioned this before. I blame my mother.
3. I think I talk rudely to my husband and kids sometimes, too. I only notice when I hear myself in a 6 or almost 3 year old.
4. micah says, "if you get upset, you don't let things go very easily." he put that very nicely didn't he? luckily, we've been married long enough, that I don't get upset very often. at least with him.
5. I LOVE to go out for lunch. and if I can find good justification, I go. sometimes I invite micah.

5 places i have lived:
1. monterey
2. davis
3. bakersfield
4. san diego
5. hawaii

5 jobs i have had:
1. cpa assistant
2. sales associate at hands gallery
3. manager's assistant at PacBell Yellow Pages
4. academic advisor, BYU-Hawaii, School of Education
(my DREAM job! I LOVED it!)
5. MOM, hardest but most rewarding job EVER!

5 things people don't know about me:
is there anything you don't know about me? here are some interesting things that you probably already know...

1. I'm known in my family as lolly. so much so that

• my mother had to tell me on the first day of kindergarten that my name was cheryl so when they said, "cheryl" I was supposed to answer. (mom is this really true?)

• when I was getting married, my mother asked if I was going to put "lolly" on the invitations. she was afraid that our family wouldn't know who "cheryl" was.

2. in my early childhood, we often had what I realize now may be considered an unusual living situation. my mom was single with four kids. but she was still best friends with her first husband--my "curt daddy"--and the father to the first three kids so sometimes he and Ray (that's why they're no longer married) lived with us. or sometimes auntie and her partner, which sometimes included children, usually lots of dogs and sometimes cats (until the dogs killed them). it made for lots of fun times and great memories.
3. I'm a litte bit of an okie at heart. my grandma is full-fledged and I spent lots of summers with her in oklahoma. so I do enjoy donuts with a coke for breakfast on occasion.
4. in highschool I played on an awesome softball team, was science club treasurer and sr. class pres. (and I married the homecoming king)
5. I have two false teeth. ever noticed? right up front. on either side of my two front teeth. and I had braces for 6 years!

here's the story for anyone interested:

the teeth on either side of my two front teeth didn't develop normally so they pulled them.
then on one side, the "eye" tooth wouldn't come down so they had to attach a chain to it--in my gums--and the other end to the wire on my braces to pull it down.
then they had to move my eye teeth into the right place to make room for my fake teeth.
it was such a long and torturous process.
can you imagine what a disaster this would have been from jr. high through high school?!
I had fake teeth attached to my wire so I didn't look so funny but wow was it an ordeal.
oh and before I got braces, I had a retainer for 2 years with teeth on it that often broke off so I carried super glue with me at all times. and once, in 6th grade I accidentally left for school without my retainer and realized it while I was on the bus. I jumped out of my seat and demanded that the bus driver let me off--I told her I'd forgotten that I had an appointment.
okay and here is the most embarassing story: for a while in high school I had a gap between my front tooth and my eye tooth because they couldn't fit a fake tooth in or something. I was dating this boy who was a big time soccer player and one day when he showed up for practice, his whole team had colored their tooth that I was missing BLACK to make fun of me!! mean, huh?! a really good friend of mine was on the team, too and told me because he was really mad about it. he was the only one who didn't do it!

okay that is the end.
that was actually fun. I just never wanted to take the time to do it.

now I have to tag five people AND leave a comment on their blog telling them that they've been tagged.

so alyson (unless you're having a baby, then you're off the hook), sandee, phoebe, amy d. and tara, you're it!

Asher Is Blessed

(mostly for grandma kippy's viewing pleasure)I think it's so hard to capture a little baby's
true look in pictures so here's a few

I think this one looks the most like the real Asher

the fam
(partially)

asher's #1 fan, Ms. Morgan

sweet little raia

some of the boys