My Three-Year-Old!

I cannot believe that my Nelson boy is 3-year-old already! He is growing up so quickly, yet, I have to admit, I love having him older. He really is my little best friend! Nelson does everything with me and is always there for me. I love you Nelson!

Here are my three favorite things about you:

#1 - You are a great big brother! Parents have to worry about how older children will treat/feel about the new child. You loved Clive from the very beginning! I love to hear your nightly prayers when you start out by saying, "Heavenly Father. Thankful for Mom and Daddy and Clive." I'm so glad your family is the most important thing to you! You play with Clive all the time. You climb on top of him and act like you are eating him and he laughs and laughs and laughs! My heart melts! You don't like it when he "eats" or messes up your toys, but you have always liked to have things done the way you were taught to do them. You are such an oldest child in the way you "mother" and "boss" others around. But, we love you and can't help but giggle when we see you being so bossy. We know you mean well and are just trying to copy what you see your mom do all day!

#2 - I love how passionate you are about the things you like. Over a year ago, you were introduced to Cars. You loved (and still do) everything Cars! You have played with your cars for hour upon hour. Right now you really like trains and Toy Story (Woody and Buzz). This picture was taken when you went on a real train ride! You loved it!

#3 - I love the pure joy and love you show through your face! You get this from your Dad. Those eyes show everything. There is no hiding any emotion. When you are sad those eyes seem like the saddest thing ever, but my favorite is when you are truly 100% happy! Your eyes have a little sparkle to them and your smile consumes your face. I L-O-V-E it!

On the morning of your birthday, I wrote this on my Facebook page:

"Three years ago today, my Nelson was born! At that moment, my life became more meaningful. My love became more pure. My joy became fuller! I can't even begin to describe how much I love my little boy. So glad he is mine for ETERNITY and beyond!"And, that is exactly how I feel! My life has completely changed since this little man entered my life, and I thank Heavenly Father every day that he did!

October Madness!

October was an exceptionally good and busy month for us! We had lots of fun going to pumpkin patches with friends, enjoying the fall weather, and, of course, dressing up as many times as we could! Here are some highlights:

We all wore our pirates attire to the ward party since we missed out on the "Talk Like a Pirate" party this year at my sister's in-law's. I always like pulling out our pirate costumes!

One cute pirate skeleton sitting up so big!

Dr. Nelson about to "Operate" on our boardgame we made for the kids to get their toys and candy out of on Halloween night.

McCutie, McDroolie, and my very own McDreamy!

Clive loved his very first "punkin" (as Nelson would say)!

Enjoying the awesome weather on our swingset (thanks, Amy!)

I felt like I needed to add a picture of Clive eating rice cereal. He eats all types of food now, but I wouldn't be a good Mom if I didn't show him eating rice cereal.

We got season passes to Cornbelly's this year and enjoy going multiple times. Here Nelson is on his favorite - the cow train - with his good friend, Kate. We also went to Hee Haw's farm with his preschool and had a fun but cold time there!

Glad I caught up on October now that we are a week into November! This coming week is Nelson's 3rd birthday! And, we got family pics taken yesterday, so look for good posts to come!

Deals of the Week

Yesterday, when I walked up to playgroup, I was asked what the deals of the week were. There really are some awesome deals this week at Smith's, so I wanted to put together a rockin' scenario for you that uses ONLY internet coupons!

Mega Event: Buy 10 get $5.00 off

Buy:

5 blocks/tubs of Philadelphia cream cheese

2 Chips Ahoy! On the go cups

2 Coffeemate creamer (I use them in hot chocolate & Orange Julius!)

1 Kellogg's fruit snacks

Use:

$5.00/5 Kraft cheese

$1.00/2 Chips Ahoy! cookies

$1.50/1 Coffeemate creamer (print twice)

$1.00/1 Kellogg's fruit snacks

With the instant $5.00 off of 10 items at the store and these coupons, you should only pay $ .02 plus tax! Yes, I just said two cents plus tax! Some people ask if I use all the items I get for cheap. Yes! The cream cheese freezes well, and I will be using plenty of it for the Holidays (love the cheeseballs & cheesecake)! The cookies and fruit snacks are perfect bribes for my almost 3-year-old. And, the creamer will definitely be used in the coming months of coldness. So, go grab these FREE items and thank me later! And, yes, there were plenty of these items left at Smith's yesterday.

Catch Up, If I Can!

My little family is growing up way too fast! I don't know why the seconds of the day keep clicking away faster and faster. It's been almost a month since Disneyland and September 2010 is only in our past now. I cannot believe it! Here is a recap of what we did after vacation.

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MY BOYS

Nelson started preschool! It's only two days a week and in our neighborhood with five other kids that were born within two months of him. He enjoys it, though, and looks so cute with his backpack on!

Clive is starting to enjoy Nelson more and more. He watches him, laughs at him, and doesn't really mind being smothered anymore - most of the time. I know that they will be best friends one day!

Clive is almost 5-months-old! He is rolling and playing and eating cereal! The last two nights he has finally officially slept through the night. He was stuck on waking up at 4:30 for three months, but we might be past that stage! Yay!

We stayed at Grandma & Grandpa Burrows' house a couple of weekends ago while Grandma was helping other cousins out East. We enjoyed some Grandpa time with just our little family.

Don't I have beautiful boys?! Clive is such a happy little boy and loves to smile! And, Nelson really does love his little brother. I'm pretty lucky he took to the big brother thing easily.

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WEEKEND WITH COUSINS

Richard's sister and her family moved here from Maryland! We are so excited to have them close by! A couple of weekends ago Margaret and Jonathan went to Maryland to drive back their second car. We got to hang out with their cute kids for a couple of days! Nelson, of course, was in heaven having kids around all the time to play with! We had lots of fun! Here are pictures from Trafalga and Farm Country.

Maggie & Nelson flying in the airplane!

Cute Maggie on the carousel.

Richard went with Maggie and Evan on the mini roller coaster.

I was brave and took the two two-year-olds on the bumper boats! We finished early because they didn't like getting sprayed by Maggie & Even in the other boat.

This may be my favorite picture of Maggie & Evan on the Frog Hopper! I am too scared to go on this ride - I hate heights and the feeling of falling!

Cousins in "jail" at Farm Country.

Beautiful Lucie looking out the window of the dance hall.

Maggie & Evan dancing! Poor Maggie had to wear my flip flops that day because she left her sandal at Aunt Jenn's house the night before.

Feeding the goats. One of our favorite things to do at Farm Country!

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PRESCHOOL FIELDTRIP - FARM COUNTRY

We are lucky to live really close to Farm Country, so as you can see, we spend a lot of time there. This month at preschool Nelson learned about farm animals, so it made sense for the kids to go to Farm Country for their fieldtrip. Here are some of the cute pictures I took of Nelson and his friends.

The first stop when we get to Farm Country is ALWAYS the pony ride.

The kids learned about bunnies recently, so it was fun to see them in real life!

I told you that feeding the goats is one of our favorite things to do there. Here the kids are feeding the chickens.

I couldn't decide which group shot I liked better. It's hard to get them all (or any) to look at the camera, but you definitely see some personalities!