Boy Oh Boy!

It's a BOY!!!

This little guy made sure we had no doubts about his gender when we had the ultrasound a couple weeks ago. The tech didn't have to do any maneuvering to figure it out - he was spread eagle ready to show off for the camera :) We are SO excited to be having a boy and Thomas couldn't be more thrilled. I can't wait to see how different it will be raising a boy after having the joyous experience of raising a drama queen.. I mean, girl. :)

The other day I was in Target and found myself in the baby section when I realized that shopping for a boy is going to be difficult... My brain is now hardwired to block out anything that isn't pink, ruffle-y or the slightest bit girly. I literally had to tell myself to only look at boy stuff and stop letting my eyes wander to the tutu's and bows. HELP! :)

For your viewing pleasure here is a baby bump pic at 19 weeks:

In other news....

On President's Day weekend we went to Mund's Park (just south of Flagstaff) to my sister-in-law's family's cabin. It was so much fun and the kids had a blast playing in the snow! Thanks Brittney and the Nick family for letting us hang out at the cabin :)

If you're ever in Flagstaff - YOU MUST EAT AT ROMA PIZZA. This pizza place has been our favorite ever since we went there a few summers ago for a family reunion. We've even scheduled a road trip around it so that we'd be in Flagstaff at lunch time so we could stop there to eat! It is sooooo good.

mmmm......Roma's......I'm going to dream about it tonight...and probably drool in my sleep.

(T.M.I. sorry)

We ended the trip off with a bang - literally. Emma and Porter were jumping on the bed and unfortunately while no one was watching (yes, I take the blame, I was blow drying my hair at the time) Emma fell and smashed her face into the corner of the night stand. I say 'smashed' because she hit it really hard, so hard that it cracked her pacifier, cut her lip in two places and bruised her upper gums. Needless to say, there was a lot of blood. Poor little girly. She had some sweet fat lips after that and her gums were bruised for about a week.

This is the only picture we have that documents it (notice the dried blood on her shirt). It's kind of hard to see her swollen lips because they're on the half of her face that's turned away from the camera, but you get the point.

She's a trooper and she pulled off the fat lip look really well :)

Nelson Family Update:

1. Thomas had spring break this past week and we took full advantage of his time off and did nothing :) It was quite the lazy/relaxing/unproductive week :) Yay for wasting time!

2.Our good friends are getting married in SLC this week so we are headed up to Utah on Wednesday for the celebration! I'm so excited to visit P-town - it's been too long :)

3. I am almost 21 weeks along in my pregnancy and I feel fantastic! I can't believe I'm already at the halfway point, it's gone by really fast.

4. Hunger Games comes out next week...eek! We have tickets to a special preview showing the day before it comes out woo whoo! I'm excited.

5. Umm is it just me or did Jan/Feb go by waaay too fast? I can't believe it's March already. And then it will be April and that means Emma will be turning 2! She's getting too old... :(

Young Woman

Happy Birthday PAIGE!!!

My adorable baby sister Paige turned 12 today! She is by far the sweetest, most thoughtful, most beautiful girl on the planet and I'm so lucky to have her as my sister :)

We celebrated her b-day last Saturday at Cafe Rio (excellent choice Paige :) )

I can't believe how grown up she is, literally! She is the tallest girl in our family (which it isn't that hard to be, but c'mon, she's 12!) and I can't give her my hand-me-downs anymore because they're too small! So although she's still my baby sister, she's no longer my little sister :)

*funny side note: I realized this morning while I was giving her my birthday wishes that I was 12 years old when Paige was born! Crazy how the time flies...

Happy birthday Paigerade - I love you SOO much

excuses

WELL, here is my list of excuses for not blogging in.....oh, like 2 months.....

1. holidays = crazy-ness

2. work = crazy busy stress-ness (in fact, too much stress that I decided to quit last week)

3. Church callings (one calling and one assignment - both time consuming)

4. EMMA (need I say more)

and.........

excuse #5 which is the best excuse of all,

(drum roll please)

Baby #2 is on the way!!!!! We are just ecstatic to be pregnant and feel so blessed to bring another baby into our family! I am 14 weeks along and my due date is July 18th, 2012. (not too thrilled to be 8-9 months pregnant in the dead of summer here in AZ but I'll survive........ I hope.....)

So since I've been so busy with trying to work and be a mom and be a pregnant mom, blogging had to be put on hold. BUT NO MORE. I am done working and my morning sickness/lack of energy is finally fading so I'm back. :)

Well let's just get to the punch - here are our holiday pictures (starting with Thanksgiving)

11-23-11: We headed up to St. George, Utah to spend Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family - such a fun bunch to be around. Thanksgiving morning we had our annual GAT 5K run and despite one major spill by my dad (he sustained only minor injuries) the race was a success!

matchie matchie

having fun at the park

11-26-11: Saturday was my birthday and we celebrated it bowling style.

I bowled my personal high score of 146! Just one small thing to point out: as you can see in the picture below, the player named GRAN is my dad (grandpa). It looks like he got bowled a 118...so let's see. 146 - me, 118 - dad........yup I won :)

It was a good birthday, thanks for letting me beat you dad (*wink*)

Only a few short days after getting home from Utah we purchased a new car! We sold our little Lancer (*sniff*) and bought a 2003 Toyota Highlander. We are officially a 'yota' family now with the Highlander joining our 4Runner in the garage.

love. it.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree.....

Over the christmas break we spent a weekend up in Pine at our friends' family cabin.

They had a little loft/playroom area that Emma had a blast playing in.

Acting out the Nativity - Emma was one of the angels

Visiting Santa with all the Nelson cousins

12-22-11: Christmas party at Kathleen's house (only, Kathleen wasn't there because early that morning Thomas' sister, who lives in Utah, went into labor and had her baby girl that day!) Congrats Emily!

Making a gingerbread house (well, gingerbread train but that sounds weird)

12-24-11: We spent Christmas Eve with our sister-in-law's family (since Kathleen was out of town with Emily and the new baby, the Weeds were nice enough to invite us to eat dinner with them!) The food was DE-LISH and I hope they invite us over again (*wink wink*)

12-25-11: Santa definitely did good this year. Emma LOVES her toy car that he got her.

12-27-11: We celebrated our 3rd anniversary at the Cheesecake Factory. Our waiter brought out our slice of cheesecake with 'Happy Anniversary' written in chocolate on the plate. So sweet and special. Three years goes by soooo fast! I am so grateful to be married to my best friend and sweetheart.

Bathtime with Porter :)

12-31-11: For New Years Eve we had a BBQ at Thomas' parents house with friends and grandpa blew up the bouncy house for the kids to enjoy

We ate good food and played games and lit sparklers with the kids before they went to bed.

Thomas had two weeks off of school so OF COURSE he had to go camping. It wouldn't be a proper break without at least one camp out. He went with some of his buddies in his program to Devil's Chasm (don't ask me where that is, I have no idea) to these old indian ruins - pretty sweet.

Now that the holidays are over, Thomas is back in school and things are finally settling down, Emma and I are back to spending quality time together.