Ethan's 3 months...

 

Holy smokes. Is it just me or has time flown by? Ethan is 3 months old now. Starting to smile more and cry less. Yes I know in my last post I said he didn't cry. I did it to myself I guess, but ya he was sure whiney. He's starting to chunk up which I love. I'm staying about the same. I gave away my maternity clothes and then had to ask for them back because none of my clothes fit. Some days I'm gung ho about losing weight and some days I just want to eat a freaking cupcake. I need to give myself more time and credit. I was retarded and signed up for weight watchers when he was a week old. I realized I need more time than that for sure. I cancelled it when he was 8 weeks. I am going to wait until he's sleeping through the night before I try anything too crazy. People ask how it is with 4...I don't think it's 4 that's the hard number, I think I forgot just how demanding a baby is. I am breastfeeding every 3 hours for like 30-40 min. It wears you out. And then there's people that say if you have 3 kids you can have 100. I'm going to call BS on that one. Every pregnancy and kid has been harder than the last because you have more kids to take care of! So I don't believe that to be true. I do love being a mother and I am so thankful to have these awesome kids. I am also thankful to be done! :) I mailed out announcements so we are not doing Christmas cards this year. Hope everyone is doing well and has a Merry Christmas! Seriously, isn't he cute though?!

He's Here!

Ethan Scott Nicolaysen. Born 09/10/2014. He was 5 weeks early but weighed 7 lbs! We are so happy he is here and that I am not pregnant anymore! Whoop Whoop! He is so cute and such a joy. Eats, sleeps and poops. I think he's cried once or twice, which makes me happy. ;) I'm actually recovering very well. Stephen took a week off to help. We had a ton of meals brought in by family and friends. I have a teenager that I've hired to clean for me once a week (best investment ever!) So I don't have to stress out about the house being a disaster. Health wise I feel great. Ethan was in the NICU for 2 days but got to come home with me. Then we had a jaundice mess but that's over and we are back to hanging out in our pajamas all day. We sure do love him. Katelyn always wants to hold him. Preston is interested when he sees him. Holden gets super excited when he's awake and cranky when he won't wake up with him yelling, "Baby wake up". He doesn't seem to have jealousy issues although he did start whining when he asked for something today and saw that I was about to nurse. Lol. Stephen helped deliver him and was excited to go back to work, he's almost as tired as I am. Almost. We feel like our family is complete and are so happy to be blessed with the opportunity to raise these kids. They are all so sweet and funny when they aren't driving us nuts. I absolutely love having a baby around, that's the part I am going to have a hard time with. I love this phase. Anyways, just wanted to share the good news.

Baby #4 And Their Ain't No More....

We're doing it...having another baby. Most of you probably already know this news since I'm 33 weeks along, but for some of you it might be new information. We are having another boy. We are thinking the name will be Ethan Scott. Scott was my brother Josh's middle name, he past away 15 years ago.  I was a bit bummed for like a day or two that it wasn't another girl. I quickly got over it, I'm excited now. My boys are so sweet and cuddly. This will be our last child, and I feel very good about it. With Holden I thought we were done but I had some remorse about  the thought of not having another child. It's gone, phew. I am super excited to have another infant and go through the whole birthing experience but I don't feel the need to do it again. I'm due October 13th, but hopefully will be 2 weeks early like I was with Katelyn and Holden.

We have an annual zoo pass and a pass to the aquarium, that we have been taking advantage of. This summer I have been just hanging out with the kids. I got off facebook in April and have just been living my life. Normally I want a friend to come with me every time I take my kids out, but I have been more than ok with just going by myself. We've done the $1 summer movies, kids bowl free, swimming at our neighborhood pool, and going to parks. It's been a full, busy summer and I am glad it's coming to an end. It has been very hard in the last couple of weeks to be pregnant with all the kids at home.  I have insisted that I get a nap every afternoon, so I lay with Holden in my bed and have Katelyn and Preston watch a Disney show downstairs. I give them plenty of snacks and set the alarm so they won't answer the door. Love my alarm btw. We have had house and car break ins in our neighborhood a lot this summer. And get this, bums sleeping in people's back yards. I would freak out.

Katelyn will be starting 3rd grade this year and is also starting to take piano lessons.  She donated 9 inches of her hair to make wigs for kids with cancer. She loves to sing and is pretty good at it too. She is still sassy but also has a very sweet and tender side that appears every so often. We love to have her in our family. Stephen built her a doll house for her birthday that is absolutely beautiful and was way more work than we thought it would be. Hopefully it will last for years. She turns 8 on August 25th and will be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in September.

Preston will be starting kindergarten this year and he is so excited. He is my rules kid and likes to know what is going on in advance at all times so we have had several discussions on how many days until school starts, what its going to be like, where the bathrooms are, etc. He has afternoon kindergarten and this year the bus will pick him up from our home! Mom is excited about that!  He was doing gymnastics, all the kids were last year, but I decided to give myself a year off with the new baby coming.

Holden, my oh my. He's huge still. No one can believe that he's only 2 1/2. He's starting to talk and doesn't stop. Every minute, "Where are we going Mom? What are you doing Mom? Mom, Mom, Mom." He is a momma's boy. He still wants to be carried everywhere even though he is almost 40 pounds, and he's so cute that I have a hard time telling him no. He seriously makes the whole family laugh. He is in a big boy bed, but still has a binki and is freaked out by the idea of wearing underwear. He thinks it's hilarious to slap my belly and doesn't think there's a baby in my belly, there is one in his.

Stephen and I just celebrated our 10 year anniversary! We went to Ruth's Chris for dinner and went to the Anniversary Inn for a night. He is seriously my best friend. He makes me laugh so much and I love at the end of the day we talk to each other about the good and bad things that happened. He is the unconditional love and support system that I never had. I love him very much. Oh and he's hot.
Well that about covers it. Hope all is well with friends and family that we don't see very much. I updated pictures on the side of our family. No belly shots, no one wants to see that. Lol.

Melaleuca

I recently signed up with Melaleuca and have loved every minute of it. I have earned $1,000 just by referring my close friends and a Kindle Fire. I have also converted my home to products that are safe for me and my family. I feel so good knowing that I am educated on what I am using and how it will impact my home. I have been working hard on a blog so if you're curious about the company, check out my blog. If you're super cool, you can follow it too! And if anyone would like an overview, I would be more than happy to tell you about this great company and how it can improve your life as well.

www.mela-moms.blogspot.com

Happenings...

 

I don't have any great stories about Easter Sunday but we did get some cute pics of the kids so I figured that should be an update.

 

Stephen:  Has been working hard visiting every restaurant and working overnight there to replace their store registers. He's been leaving on Sunday's and coming home on Thursday's for the last 6 weeks. He is exhausted, and so am I. It ends this week so we are all excited to get back to normal life. He is the secretary of the Elder's Quorum in our ward. He is the best dad and loves to play with the kids. He also takes me out once a week for a much needed date. I love him so much. He is so handsome to me. Oh the other day Katelyn annoyingly asked when we were going to stop dating each other. I hope not for a long time! :)

 

Kendra:  Got released from being the Secretary of the Primary because I thought I didn't have a testimony and felt like a fraud for being in some what of a leadership position. Literally a week later, got my answer that I've been looking for. Oh well. :) I have been working out 3+ days a week at the YMCA and trying to get my bum in shape. I like how I feel when I work out and I have been liking how I look also. I have figured out that there is no magic pill to make you skinny. You just have to work hard and eat healthy. It also has been taking longer than I'd like, but I am not going to starve myself, and I think I have a healthy rate of loss so the weight will stay off. We also have decided that we kinda have a grip on three kids and maybe our family isn't quite complete. We are thinking we want one more child. THIS IS NOT AN ANNOUNCEMENT! :) I have been having lunch dates with friends and driving the kids too and fro. Also I spend a lot of time cleaning my house, but I enjoy it and I like my house clean, so to me it's worth it. I was recently in the Ten Virgins play for our ward and we practiced so hard and did a great job as a group that they have asked us to do it for the Stake. So that is coming up in April. Also, my birthday is in 2 weeks. I don't know what it is about my birthday, but I freaking love it. I love that I get to spend money on whatever I want and just have fun.

 

Katelyn:  Is 6 1/2 now and such a fire cracker. Some times she is the sweetest thing and sometimes she just blows up. She is doing really well in school and enjoys being there. She is really good at reading and math. The other Sunday she gave a talk on resurrection and she talked about my brother Josh dying and how he will be resurrected. When she read it to me I started crying. I told her I was crying 1. Because I felt the spirit 2. Because I miss Josh 3. Because she is READING! Big words too! I am so proud of her, she is blossoming into such a lovely young lady. She takes Ballet once a week and soon will start Soccer on Saturdays and swim lessons on Tuesday's and Thursdays. We have a pool in our neighborhood and last summer the kids swam all over the place and this winter they lost their confidence. So we are trying to rebuild it before the summer hits.

 

Preston:  Is 4 1/2 now and such a little joy. He is so handsome. He got new glasses about 6 months ago. We took the rest of the family in and last minute decided to have him checked out. Turns out he wasn't seeing out of one eye. He had a lazy eye but no one knew it because his eye wasn't crossing. He also has a stigmatism and I was told that he will have to wear glasses the rest of his life. Good thing he's so freaking cute in them. He is in preschool and learning a lot. The first half of the year I had him in one that was basically like a day care where they played for an hour and then watched shows and ate snacks. In just 2 months, he has learned letters, numbers, and is beginning to write his name. He loves to go to "fun club" at the YMCA and will start soccer and swim lessons when Katelyn does.

 

Holden:  Sweet, sweet Holden. Oh this boy brings me so much joy. He is literally the happiest kid I have ever seen. He is so chill most of the time. He doesn't have a nap schedule because he just goes with the flow of what I am doing for the day. Has slept 12 hours since he was about 4 months old. He is a tank, literally. He weights 30 pounds. He is in the 90% for weight and 70% for height. His feet are as big as Katelyn's when she was 2 1/2. He is 15 months now and just took his first independent steps on Saturday. He walks along furniture and with you, crawls like crazy, and goes up and down the stairs all by himself. He'll get it in time, I'm not too worried about him.

 

 

So that's what's been going on. Life is good and busy. I got off of facebook for a while because I felt like it was creating a false sense of friendship. You think you are closer to people than you actually are because you get the details of their lives. It's been interesting to see who I've hung out with since I've gotten off. Life is good. I was telling an old friend that even if I could have imagined the best scenario for how my life was going to turn out, it is better than that. I am one lucky girl.

Pictures in Palmyra

Happy Anniversary

So we've been married 8 years today. We got married civilly and then a year later in the temple. Stephen asked me one year which one we should celebrate, I told him our actual wedding date. It may not be valid to some, but that was the day I vowed to God that I would love Stephen forever. We've been through 2 homes, 5 cars, 3 kids, awesome vacations, and several wards. We've gained friends and lost some..We've had lots of laughs and lots of times were he's held me while I cried. I can honestly say he is my best friend. I thank God every day that he chose ME to be his wife and the mother of his children. I am honored to be both and often feel unworthy of his love. We celebrated last week by going to the Melting Pot and Anniversary Inn (Sleeping Beauty's Castle-Rhear). I love you Stephen!!