I'm going to update. I am. I really am.

First though, I have to draw your attention to my other blog, Practically Perfect Parties.  practicallyperfectparties.blogspot.com.  Just so you are all aware, I don't think I'm awesome, and I don't think I look like Julie Andrews.  But I do think my dress is awesome and I know I have fun being Mary Poppins.  That is the important thing right?

So Much to say

But I'm just going to post some pictures instead. I love these kids!

How does this happen?

I look at this picture and I think Carlie looks so big, and this was taken a month and a half ago! I love watching the kids grow and learn. It's amazing how smart babies are. How can they know so much when they've been on earth for such a short time?

These are her first attempts at sitting up. She tipped over a lot at first, a few weeks into it she was sturdy as a tree! She's happy to be sitting up!

Zacky is 2!

Zack had a great birthday, but don't sing to him. He will hurt your feelings We had a little party at our house on the 21st and then bounced over to Kangaroo Zoo. I feel bad that everyone doesn't have a Kangaroo Zoo 3 minutes from their house. Our kids love it!

Where should we go, Disneyland maybe?

What's better than three kids under 4 in a van for 12 hours? Well, a lot really. But I'll tell you what's not better is trying to go through security with three kids, two strollers, and a car seat (plus other assorted crap that you have to carry on with you to keep the kids occupied). So, all things considered, driving was better than flying.
The best part was that we didn't tell the kids where we were going, and we were in St. George before either one of them even became curious. JJ told them we were going to a hotel, which seemed to completely appease Cadence. Zack continued to ask where we were going for the next five hours.
When we got to Harbor Blvd it was dark outside, but we could still see a few familiar reminders that we were near the happiest place on earth. I'm pretty sure Zack knew where we were and I could swear I heard him say Disneyland when he saw the entrance. They both said they could see Mickey Mouse, but it didn't seem to turn on any light bulbs for Cadence. So we just went to our hotel and waited until the next morning. We knew for sure she'd instantly recognize her surroundings in the daylight.
Only, she didn't. We stayed right across from the Maingate, so you could see the park as soon as you walked out of our room! Zack knew, and he was saying Disneyland (over and over). So we stood at the corner waiting for the light to cross, and Cadence still didn't notice. We crossed the street. Nothing. We walked under the "Welcome to Disneyland" sign. Finally, a few yards into the entrance she looked up at J.J. and said, "Dad, is this Disneyland?" Success!
Although we were outnumbered by our kids, we got by pretty well! Zack became more selective of when he chose to throw tantrums, substituting instead the most dismal pout I've ever seen. It's okay. I'll take a quiet sulk over a screaming, stiff-bodied, 32-pound toddler any day. He was a good boy and fun to watch. Disneyland sure does seem to bolster his Lightening McQueen fetish.
Cadence only needed half as many napkins in her shoes to reach the 40" mark. Maybe next visit she'll be napkin free! I don't know why I even bothered packing a suitcase for her. She was much happier prancing around the park in her princess dresses than in her boring old clothes.
Carlie seems to be happy with her milieu. She liked being carried around and loved seeing the characters. She got really excited with Pooh and Eyeore. It was so cute! (Don't ever let anyone tell you that your kids are too young to enjoy Disneyland. It's a bunch of hooey.)
Rain and tummyaches limited our time spent in the park to only about 6 hours each of our first three days, but it was actually a nice pace to keep.
The third night of our stay, my mom and dad showed up! It's so wonderful to have Disneyland extremists for parents! Yes, we did okay by ourselves, but having the extra help was like suddenly growing four extra arms! (Or a hot fudge sundae, or something else really really good.) Karen and Alli also joined the party for our last two days. See, it's not my fault that we have this affinity for Disnelyand. Apparantly it's a genetic thing. Maybe a genetic defect, I don't know.
Karen, as always, was very helpful with our brood, and Alli is adorable! She's hilarious too. Karen once told me that Alli plans to rule the world. She's definitely in the running for for the position.
So why did we go? Well, JJ decided to follow two of his bosses to Diversified Investment Advisors. It was a bit sudden, but he was able to take a week off before diving into the new job. By the way, he loves his new job. His manager is great and the work is great. He's a happy boy. The office is right in North Salt Lake, ironically enough, and his commute is only 7 minutes long! But enough about that, let's get to some pictures (if you don't see any pictures, it's because I haven't posted them yet. I'm working on it. This parenthetical statement will be gone tomorrow, so if you're reading it, I hope you enjoy it.)

New Post Coming Soon!

I don't know why my blogging has become so sporadic, but I'm thinking that's got to stop. Or start. So be prepared bloggers. . . . I'm back!

Thanksgiving Point

Nice view, adorable girls!

This is Zack and JJ playing cars on the tile. Zack was having too much fun and didn't want to get dressed. Luckily, JJ was already dressed before they started playing.

Gabbi loved carrying Carlie around for me. Carlie was quite happy with the arrangement.

Cadence and Maddi. Aren't they cute?

Jeremy played the match game for the longest time! That is one patient guy. Playing with Zack can be, well, difficult.

All ready for a soak in the hot tub

Zack and gorgeous Nikki getting ready to make some cookies
It's so nice to be related to the Kingstons. When they are bored, they like to rent out very nice vacation homes. On Valentines Day, they ended up in a sweet twin home at Thanksgiving Point. They were nice enough to let us and Deardens stay a night with them. It was huge, and nice, and fun and stuff, and I'm now addicted to checking VRBO's website!

A fairy gets her wings. . .

Carlie is a happy baby. If you I haven't told you, she's about the world's easiest baby, and she's so smiley! JJ has gotten her to laugh more than I have, and this video is just cute. It's Sunday afternoon, and the kids are all wearing their typical after church attire- Cadence's third dress-up, Zack's undershirt since his church shirt is now dirty, and JJ wearing his pj's.

Christmas Card

I actually have begun to feel some remorse for my behavior with my siblings whenever it came time for a family picture. I had it coming I guess, our Christmas card is a product of over sixty pictures and about five hours on photoshop.




This is a non-winner.

as is this.

Smiles abound

Appropriately enough, we saw some of Carlie's first smiles in Disneyland. She's a happy baby and we love seeing her smile!

Zack stopped using a binki at Disneyland, and started talking! For some reason, his vocabulary seems to have tripled since our trip!

As you can see, Disneyland was good for all of us! :)

Disneyland!

If you are around Zack for 3 minutes or more, you will know he's a HUGE Cars fan. He was so excited to see a picture of Mater!

This is the only picture we have of all three kids with a character!

I think this is my favorite Disneyland picture!

Thanksgiving Dinner: pizza, cupcakes, and yes, a bowl full of M&M's.

What can you expect when Goofy is the Chef?

We ate Thanksgiving dinner (sort of) at Goofy's Kitchen. This is our whole group, except for Michael and Sarah's family.

My pictures aren't in order, but this was late at night after watching fireworks. We walked out of one of the stores and found cute little Mickey standing there all by himself. All the kids were asleep, but I had to wake up Zack to see his favorite mouse.

The greatest snow on earth isn't in Utah.

Cadence was 16 months old when she went to Disneyland for the first time. Pluto has always been the sweetest character to her (even on the Disney Cruise) so she always gets really excited to see him. So. . .

When she tripped on the curb walking away from Pluto, it was so cute how he ran after her and gave her a hug! We love Pluto!

Goofy is tall.

So is Cadence! (with 2 1/2 inches of napkin stuffed in her shoes.)

Zacky loved baby Gracie.

We had to put Zack's pants on the top of the stroller to dry twice this day! He got wet at Brother Bear, and then we thought he was too cute to make him quit running through the water at Bugs Land.

Cars in Bugs land.



Carlie watching the fireworks. Isn't she cute?

She loved the carousel! (As much as any 6 week old baby would anyway.)

Cadence and her cute girl cousins posing with Cruella. Of course, Cadence isn't posing.

This is JJ purchasing Snow White in one of the stores. She was just too cute so we had to buy her!

Cadence pranced around like a princess the rest of the night in her new dress. She and Savannah had so much fun! Cadence is especially kind to Zack when she's in princess attire.



Yah, she had fun.




Savannah was cute with Zack. She liked helping him up the stairs.

This is in Brother Bear. I think the kids would have been happy to stay here all day!


Every time we go to California Adventure and wait for a parade to start, Cadence runs around these trees and thinks it great!

Maddi is a good baby-sitter. Carlie's cute hat was made by Lyndzi, and I'm so sad to say that it was lost in Disneyland! :(

Carlie is tiny compared to Monsters!

Zack can't sit through the movie, but he sure loves Wall e

No jokes about Cadence's future profession please.



Zack LOVED the Pixar Play Parade!

We had so much fun spending eight days at the happiest place on earth! We love being able to take the kids to Disneyland! This was Cadence's 4th time, Zack's 3rd, and Carlie's 1st. Everyone says we are brave for taking a newborn, but she was no sweat! It's the ones who are big enough to run around like ding-dongs that keep us busy. :) We can't wait to go again!

We love Uncle Micah!

Micah was able to come home from Kosovo for a few days over Thanksgiving. He wanted to spend most of his time with Shalice and Bailey (of course!) but he was gracious enough to have dinner with all the Nielsen's one night. It was fun to see him, and my kids are some of his biggest fans! He will be home for good in April, and we're so excited!


I thought this picture was cute. John spent the whole night trying to figure out what the little kids were saying. Can't you see the effort on his face?

My kids at a restaurant usually goes something like this.

Lynda brought a cake with a tank on the top. Micah was nice enough to give it to Zack!

Such a cute family!

Micah's adoring neices and nephews.

He's buff. Zack is not light.

Aww! This is Carlie meeting her uncle for the first time.

Happy Halloween!

We had fun taking the kids around the neighborhood for a little bit before the rain came!  They are both a tiny bit shy so while they had the best intentions of saying "Trick or Treat", when the door was opened, they both froze up a little bit.  They were good about saying thank you though!

We put shoe polish on Zack's head to make his hair black.  Here's a tip- if you are going to need black hair spray on Halloween, don't wait until the day of.  We went to five different stores and they were all out!  Shoe polish does wash out in the bathtub, in case you do procrastinate.

Pumpkin Patch

Cadence's first field trip was to the Pumpkin Patch in Kaysville. It was a nice warm day and they had so much fun! Her teacher, Miss Amy wasn't able to go though because she broke her foot the night before!

Cadence was the last one in her class to pick a pumpkin. She just couldn't seem to find the right one.

Zack was happy with any pumpkin he could raise off the ground.


Cadence thought these guys were so funny and insisted on having a picture by them.

She had fun running through the hay maze with her friend, but she left Zacky in the dust most of the time.

Our Trick-or-Treaters

I realize they are my kids, but you should click on them and look at them big. They are so cute!

































































Carlie's dress is from Kmart! It said it was for a child age 4-6. Yah right. It's big on Carlie, we tied it in the back, but I can't imagine any mother putting their 4-6 year old in this dress. It was a last minute pick and I thought it was going to be kind of dumb, but it turned out really cute!
Zack's costume is a non-skillfully home made garb with Mickey Mouse ears from Disneyland. He's Wizard Mickey, since he may possibly be Mickey Mouse's biggest fan ever.
Cadence's dress is from Disneyshopping.com. She got it at Easter time and wore it when we went on our Disney Cruise. If they had it in my size, I would be Aurora for Halloween too! (not really.) Last year she was Cinderella and she became pretty tight with her. If you ask her if she's Aurora, she'll tell you she's Cinderella pretending to be Aurora.

I took the pictures on our kitchen table. :)