Look Who's 5!!

Now that Christmas is passed I feel like I have some time to blog.

Erik turned 5 this month!

We had B-day cake pancakes to celebrate for breakfast, yum, oh and they have to be Mickey Mouse shape, those are the best :)

 Erik opened a present from Grandpa Nielsen after breakfast, Jillian thought he would look better with a floaty around his neck.

 He got a Lego watch!!!! 

 Erik and Daddy building the Lego watch.

 Erik loves Legos and time, so this is the best of both worlds. We now ALWAYS know the time.

 We had a party that night with the family. Spiderman, I mean Hendrick, gave him a Spiderman sword

 Grandma JuLee gave him more GeoTrax!! Now we have enough track to surround the Christmas tree and also build what ever track Erik can imagine.

 We got him a helicopter book with a helicopter toy that moves around a track in the book, very fun.

 It took Erik awhile to decide, but he finally chose to have a pirate ship cake. So this was my attempt.

 I had a couple problems with assembly and it didn't turn out like I had imagined, but Erik liked it and my family thought it was cool, and that's really all that matters.

Happy Birthday Erik! Hard to believe you're 5 already. We've had so much fun with you the time has just flown by.

It's Autumn Time!

We took a fun trip to see family in UT a few weeks ago and we got to go to Grandma JuLee's school carnival. The kids loved it, we all had fun!

Jillian and Erik waiting for the reptile show to begin.

Fishing for prizes and candy

Oh this is history...our kid's first twinkie! Thank you cake walk for providing this memorable experience

Glow sticks in the dark car makes for happy kids. I think I need to remember that on our next road trip

We saw Aunt Laurie and Uncle John in their play, they did great! Erik loved that John shared him costume with him, so cute!

And now the reason we came to visit, baby blessing of lil Jonathon! He's adorable!!

Such a sweet baby, so glad we came down to see him before he tripled in size, he's already so big, only 6 weeks old and he doesn't even look like a newborn anymore :(

Oh Erik's first boy cousin on the Nielsen side. They already look like friends.

Poor Jillian was sooo overtired from all the events of the day she found her Uncle Nick and soon fell asleep. Great snuggle time

We came home to a yard full of leaves so we all went out to rake them up.

And jump and play in the piles.

Where's Erik?

There he is!!

Daddy, do you want to eat a leaf?

We've got great lil helpers, it was so fun to work together as a family on this project. Almost makes me wish there were more leaves to rake....naaah

I love to see our kiddo's loving on each other! Family is great!

What a weekend!

We had a wonderful Labor Day weekend, packed with fun stuff. On Sat we went to the Discovery Center

 Even Jillian loved all the experiments we could do. Erik spent lots of time controlling robotic cars, not pictured-cuz we have too many pictures to post.

 Using the great invention of a pulley to life his own weight, well Daddy helped a little, but he was soon told that Erik could do it on his own.

Which of these 4 is the REAL Jillian? I'm not sure she knows either.

She spent a lot of time in front of these mirrors. She kissed the other girl in the mirror...

 ...and then she went looking for the other baby, she's gotta be behind the mirror right?

 Go Daddy Go! Make those lights GLOW!!

Ok our kids totally LOVED this kid-size grocery store.

 Check out all that Mac N Cheese, he said he needs a lot of that. And look at Jill taking cans off the shelf.

 Also she's making sure that carrot is fresh. Well sorry to disapoint sister, but that's a fake carrot, don't eat it!

 She's adorable, I love it! I loved watching Erik 'ring' up his groceries too, he's so cute!

 After that we went to the Boise Balloon Classic Night Glow! Check out Mickey!

 Jillian just loved running away from us and having us come catch her.

 Thanks to my brother I have this lovely photo, love the growing baby tummy(not) Oh well.

 To keep the kids entertained until dusk Grandpa brought M&M's. Jillian loves them.

 Grandpa with Jack and Jill. Yup nursery rhyme cousins.

 Check out the Glow!!!

 On Labor Day we went to Lucky peak with our wonderful neighbors and friends.

 The lake was cold but the kids didn't mind, Erik was happy to float and Jillian didn't hesitate to play in the water.

 This was kind of a surprise to me because we went to Bear Lake in June and she was NOT a fan of the water, kept crying when she was in it. But this time there were NO tears and LOTS of smiles!

 Jumping in!

 Even Jillian wanted to jump in, she's so brave.

 I love this plastic dragon in the sand. I think the kids like it too.

 She looks so interested, but once I brought her up to the dragon's face, she wanted NOTHING to do with it :)

 Watch out! Jillian's got 3 squirt guns! Prepare to get wet!!

 We had a great weekend. It was so nice to get out and enjoy the outdoors with our family, I love long weekends!