Back to School

Yesterday was the official first day of school. Paige was very excited to start 2nd grade. Her teacher this year is Mrs. Gifford. She got the teacher she wanted and she has a lot of friends in her class. I walked her to school yesterday and she could hardly wait to get there. She had a fun day and is excited for the year.

Aiden and Brock can't stand to be inside the gate. If I leave them in the gate they both instantly crawl to the gate and Aiden gets on his knees and usually gets his fingers caught in the holes and Brock stands up to the gate. If they both get to the gate and get shaking it, they tip it over. I am getting really tired of rescuing them from the gate. Brock also loves to stand up behind the high chair. It makes him feel like such a big boy. Collin is finally crawling/scooting a little. He still rolls more, but at least he is trying.

Scentsy

I'm sure most of you out there have heard of Scentsy or have some sort of Scetnsy product in your home. I am now selling Scentsy. If you are interested in ordering products or would like to host a party or an open house, please let me know. The rewards for hosting a party are awesome. They have just come out with their new fall/winter catalog and have about 40 new scents and alot of fun new items. Please call me or email me or leave me a comment on my blog if you have questions or are interested.

Another Exciting Week

Why does it seem that every week has to be so packed full of the unexpected. I like those weeks where everything you do is the same day in and day out.

Tuesday we took the boys in for immunizations. Each boy had 5 shots, totaling 15 shots. It sure made for a whiny afternoon and evening.

On Wednesday morning, around 2:30 a.m. Matt left on a 4 day float trip to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. He was so excited to go and could hardly contain his excitement. Me on the other hand was not to fond of the idea. It made me a little nervous for him to go and float in all of those rapids. But obviously Matt go what he wanted and went on the float trip. He had a fun time. He keeps saying that it was the best trip in Idaho he has every done, but I really think he means it was one of the best trips he has ever done in his lifetime.

So while Matt was off floating the Salmon, I was at home facing the daily battles of the Nielson household. Wednesday, the first day Matt was gone, turned out to be the worst of them all. Brock was really wheezy and started acting like he did last time he ended up in the hospital. Finally after his nap, around 3:00 p.m. he definatley wasn't improving. So I called and took him in to the doctor. When we got there he was very whiny and restless. When they hooked him up to test his oxygen level, his was at 65. Not good. So off to the ER we went. When we got there they got him started with oxygen right away. Then they did several breathing treatments and then after 3 tries, the finally got an IV started. The poor kid. They decided that he was having an asthma attack. I also had noticed that Collin was starting to wheeze as well, so they gave me meds for all boys to try and stop anything that was starting, and around 8 p.m. we were released. I had taken the other 4 kids to my mom's, so I actually ran home and got all of our stuff and we stayed the night at my mom's. Who knew what would happen and I figured I could use a few extra hands.

He is doing so much better and I still give him probably one breathing treatment a day. He justs seems to wheeze alot. I guess that's what happens when you are born with preemie lungs. Hopefully we won't have to make a lot of trips to the ER.

Well only 2 more days until school starts for Paige and 3 more days until Matt starts school. It is sad to think that summer is almost over.

Catch Up

Last week flew by. I need to catch up on all of the activities. Paige has been asking me all summer if she could get her ears pierced. I kept telling her to ask her dad. Matt said he didn't care, so we decided to let her get them pierced. She said it didn't hurt that bad and she is super excited to have them pierced. She is ready to chane her earrings already, but she still has 5 more weeks to wait.

Paige had swimming lessons every day last week. My mom also had my sisters kids all week, so Sierra (my niece) took swimming lessons with her. We started out the week and she was very dependant on the teacher, but by the end of the week, she was swimming on her own. She still needs a lot of practice, but she is definately improving.

I took the kids to the Nature Park last week. We went to feed the ducks, but it didn't go to well. By the time I got the boys into the wagon and gave the girls a piece of bread for the ducks, a mad duck came toward us and was opening his wings and craning his neck up and making an awful noise. I don't know what we did to attract the duck, but he came right over and grabbed onto Kayla's side. She screamed and dropped her bread and ran towards me. I have never seen her so terrified in her whole life. The poor thing. After that both the girls were tramatized and wanted nothing to do with the ducks. So we loaded the boys up and went over to the toys to play instead.

Paige took Brock down the slide. He thought that was really fun.

Aiden was being extremely funny this night. I loved this picture of him.

Kayla had a really fun birthday. She got some fun presents and the afternoon of her big day we headed down to Utah. That night we went to my nephew Josh's birthday party at Backyard Adventures in Draper. They had a big bounce house and lots of toys to play on. They had so much fun.

Kayla got alot of Pet Shops, Little Ponies and Polly Pockets (the 3 p's) for her birthday. She was in heaven.

Saturday we headed down to Nephi to Matt's mom's Winn Family Reunion. It was a cooler day, but that made it quite nice to be outside all day. The boys were quite the attraction and they did good for being stuck in stroller all day. The girls were able to go on a 4-wheeler ride with their cousins and my sister-in-law Marci. We had a fun time visiting and seeing everyone.

Most of the older grandkids with my sister-in-law Marci.

Aiden, Kayla and Collin crashed on the way home from the reunion. They were so tired.

Now the countdown is on until school starts. Paige is ready to go back today. She can hardly wait. We have all of her new school clothes and we go register her this week. I can hardly believe she will be in 2nd grade.

She's 4!!

Today is Kayla's 4th Birthday. I can't believe she is that old. She is such a funny, lovable little girl. Although there are times when I have to question where she came from or what she is doing, I wouldn't change any of it. We love you Kayla and hope you have a fun day.

Weigh In

I took the boys for an appointment on Wednesday. I was really anxious to get their official weights and heights. I figured Aiden was around 24 pounds, but I was off just a little. He weighed in at 22 lbs. even and he is 28 1/4" long. Brock weighed 19 lbs. 6 oz. and is 28" long. Collin weighed 21 lbs. 2 oz. and is 28" long. They are all very close in weight and height. They are getting so funny to watch. They are always stealing toys from each other and they are getting vocal when something gets stolen. They will either grunt or do kind of a mad cry. Aiden and Brock are constantly waiting at the gate wanting to get out and do the stairs. They are so fun to watch play together.

Aiden, Brock and Collin

The girls got home late last night. I am so glad to have them home. I missed them. So did the boys. This morning when they saw the girls they all smiled and Aiden was really cute. He crawled right over to Paige and wanted her to pick him up. My house is definately not as quiet, but it is really good to have them home.

Aiden and Brock wanting out of their cage.

They finally get to escape as Collin sits and watches from the background.

Busy, Busy Week

The past week and a half have been super busy and super crazy. Two Saturdays ago was the 24th of July parade in St. Anthony. My Grandma Hill was one of the Grand Marshalls, so all of the Hill clan attended to see her in the parade. Afterwards we went over to her house for lunch and it will be the last year that we do it at her house, so there were alot of memories involved. It was a great time and the kids had a lot of fun.

It was so hot watching the parade that we used umbrellas for a little shade.

Grandma Hill waving to us as Grand Marshall.

Last Monday night for FHE the girls requested that we go to the carosel and the spray park. It was so much fun. Night is the time to go. There are hardly any kids, the temperature isn't as scorching hot and you can actually find a bench to sit on. Paige loved the red slide and kept going down it. Kayla loved the red and yellow slide. They had the best time. We even let the boys put their feet in the jets. Aiden and Collin liked it, but Brock hated it. That really suprised me, because Brock absolutely loves his baths.

Aiden loving the jet.

Collin got a little wet.

Tuesday was the girls last day of gymnastics. I signed both of them up through the City Rec Program this summer and they both had the best time. They had so much fun that I think we are going to keep them both in gymnastics. After I got home, I was bombarded with Aiden throwing up. Paige had had the 24 hour bug the week before and I thought we slid by without anyone else getting it. Boy was I wrong. Aiden started Tuesday afternoon. I woke up in the middle of the night with Collin throwing up. You guessed it, Wednesday morning Brock was throwing up. Three babies with the flu is a little more fun than I can handle. We survived though and it really was over for each of them within about 24 hours.

Paige doing a hand stand and then on the balance beam.

Kayla on the balance beam.

Thursday we had been planning on going to Yellowstone for the day. I didn't know if we would still be able to go, but we chanced it, hoping no one would get sick along the way. We had such a fun time. We started at the Grizzly Discovery Center and saw the bears and wolves. That was fun. Then we headed into the park. We saw a bald eagle, elk, deer, geese, buffalo and a pelican. Paige was really into looking for the animals. She made sure we got pictures of everything. We even got to see Old Faithful. It was a full day and we were all tired. On our way home through Island Park, we finally say a moose. It was the only animal we had missed in the park, so we were excited.

Paige, Collin, Brock, Kayla and Aiden at the Grizzly Discovery Center.
Kayla and Paige getting a picture with a sleeping wolf.

The boys after eating a bottle. They thought standing up in the back of the car was pretty neat.

The boys waiting for Old Faithful to go off.

Friday after lunch me and the girls rode down to Utah with my mom. I dropped the girls off at Grandma and Grandpa Nielson's house for a week and then I headed into Salt Lake with my mom and sister for a fun little weekend getaway. I was in dire need of a little break and Matt said he would take care of the boys. It was so nice. We did a lot of shopping and got a pedicure. It was so relaxing. We have decided to make it an annual thing. Matt got along great with the boys and everyone survived. I kept calling him to make sure everything was alright and finally he told me to quit calling him. So I didn't call him again. I figured if he needed something he would call. Thanks Matt for taking care of the boys so I could have some much needed R & R.

My house is extremely quiet. It is going to be a very quiet week. The boys seem a little lost without their sisters around. They continue to keep me very busy. Aiden and Brock are both crawling now, so they are constantly stealing toys from each other and getting into everything. Brock loves to pull himself up to everything. Collin just sits and watches. He is starting to think about crawling, but he hasn't got it figured out yet.

Brock pulls himself up to this toy constantly. He can't get enough.

Sorry for such a long post, but I had to document all the things that have been going on.