Our Perfect Sunny Day

It was 70 degrees outside so Kelsey and I were outside, just the two of us, all day long. The best part about the day was that we got along ALL DAY!  I seriously don't think we disagreed once!  I don't like to call too many things perfect, but this day turned out perfect. It was the best day in a very long time. I love this little girl so very much!

 

Listen to how much Kelsey laughs in this! I love it!! She is such a fun person to be around. 

Here's something random... I just love it when Kelsey says I don't know

 

I finally let her ride in one of these stupid carts. I HATED IT!!! She climbed out like 12 times and turning corners was like maneuvering a boat around an ant farm. I promise it will never happen again!

Kelsey has been helping me cook lately and I love it! Some of my best memories are helping my mom in the kitchen and I hope that that can be the case for Kelsey too.

Thanks to Andrea and Jed Ethan and I got to go on a date to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the NCAA championship game Monday April 7th. 

Spring I love you oh so much!!!

Conference

Conference couldn't have been more divinely planned for our family if it tried. Was that sac religious? Don't know, but my point is that it was a much needed break from life.

Not a break from this picture! This picture is wonderful!!

The week leading up to conference was originally filled with normal stuff like book club, Zumba etc, but as life goes it definitely did not pan out that way.
On Sunday mom and dad were in town for Kayla's blessing and we had a  Nelson family dinner. Well apparently at that dinner someone was sick and didn't know it because through out the week one by one people started dropping like flies!
Unfortunately Kelsey was one of the first to manifest the sickness. Wednesday morning, April 2nd morning, Kelsey woke up with a panic of a cry. We went in and found that she had thrown up everywhere. We got her bathed and cleaned up, but apparently we were too quick to act because it happened 4 more times. It was so sad. What's kinda funny in all of this, is that on Tuesday night I decided to stay up late to finish a project. I got in bed at 12 and she cried the first time at 12:15. April fools to me right?!
Well it was not our best night, but we were able to sleep in and when we finally woke up Ethan couldn't get out of bed because HE was sick. The great news about the sickness was that it was only a 24 hour or less thing so it hit fast and hard, but went away just the same.

As we were assessing Ethan's symptoms, Christine called in a panic needing help with the girls while she went to Colorado to help Nathan with the house. The stress of everything was really starting to weigh on her and she just couldn't do it alone. We were able to talk and  arrange everything so that Kelsey and I were going to stay in West Jordan Wednesday-Friday.

In the mean time, JeNae was on her way down to Provo for a tour of BYU campus with her sweet kids for their spring break. We had planned this weeks in advanced and  it just happened to all fall on the same day.  With many prayers and pleadings for strength, I was able to get Kelsey and myself ready, helped Ethan slowly get out the door for school, packed for a 3 day 2 night babysitting job in South Jordan, and met JeNae for the promised tour. Like always, everything worked out wonderfully. We were able to spend a fun time with JeNae (and the snow held off for us), we were able to get packed and organized, and out the door by 1:30. Kelsey was such a trooper too. She didn't get a nap until the drive up but didn't' cry once.

Long story longer, we got to South Jordan and everything went well. The Kidds were so wonderful and easy. They just played with Kelsey all the time. Kelsey called them all Hailey and they thought it was hilarious. She loved having older siblings around all the time.

We stayed with the Kidds until Friday and in the meantime Ethan got better and Christine was able to accomplish everything in Colorado and Ethan was able to help Jed move. While we were at the Kidds' we also got to babysit the Nelson boys while Karolyn went to the doctors and it would have been fun, but Kelsey was so done. She kept fighting with Trey and poor Trey didn't know why. It was a hard week for all of us.

Friday evening we were able to go to Grandma Farnsworth's  90th birthday party and  thats when I got sick. Not only did I get sick, but I got Hailey and Whitley sick too.

After a long drive home to Provo,  my sweet husband graciously unpacked the whole car, put everything away and took care of a very perky Kelsey while I took a shower and went to bed by 8:30. Kelsey was SOOOO happy to see Ethan. When we turned onto 7th she started going, "we're home! Daddy?!" And when she saw him she yelled DADDY!! ran as fast as she could to get to him and gave him the biggest hug.

After a great nights sleep, we went to help Jed clean while Andrea was out of town running an amazing race.  Half way through cleaning, Ethan ran home so that we could start watching Locke and Liesel Apker. Needless to say, by the time conference started, I was so grateful to just sit and listen (you know, as much as you can with 3 little kids around.)

Through all the chaos, I was honestly grateful that Locke and Liesel were over. They kept Kelsey entertained the whole time and were really fantastic. The only tears we encountered were the ones from Locke after he put a Lego in his nose and realized that the only way it was going to get fixed was with tweezers! Other than that everyone slept, ate, and played beautifully!
I really didn't hear much of conference but I am so grateful for its timing! It was a crazy week ended by a beautifully calm weekend.

Locke literally played like 7 hours of Ipad, but I'm just the babysitter so anything goes right

With no Locke and Liesel, entertaining Kelsey during conference got more interesting. Thank goodness for selfies...

Only 4 more

I got a sudden burst of craftiness the other day and finally finished the Christmas stockings that have been sitting in our craft drawer. As I was sewing I told Ethan that we can only have 4 more kids because I ran out of fabric. So there you have it. Don't know when they are coming, but yes, the number or our kids have been determined by the amount of fabric I had for stockings.

 And here's what was going on while I was sewing...

 And here's a really cute picture of Ethan. I was sick of our blog only being Kelsey so its my new goal to take a picture at least once a week of me and Ethan (maybe even together!)

Daddy, Kelsey, Cami?

Kelsey has been hard for me lately, and if you don't really care why, just skip to the happy video at the very very end of this post. It really is a gem!!
Anyways, Kelsey has been hard for me lately. She is just so two that I don't know what to do. Don't get me wrong, she's still hilarious and makes everything more fun, but man I look forward to nap time (the days it happens ) and bedtime. Every one knows what I'm talking about and I don't mean to complain, its just the first time I've done this so its my turn to vent, right? She is just go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, all the time! 

This girl loves her accessories

I can't keep up. I think I do a good job with new activities but they last like 2 seconds and we have moved on. Most days I just quit and that's not good either. I have a lot of really good examples in my life of "fun" moms and I try to be more like them. I'm not saying I'm a bad mom, because I don't think I am. We love Kelsey and she knows it. We go a lot of places and she has a lot of fun. However I COULD improve on interacting WITH Kelsey. A lot of times, I just let her play by her self and she needs more attention than that. 

With that fun intro, I am able to capture some precious and hilarious moments. Kelsey is just starting to act old. She is very opinionated, but can also understand when she needs to do something as in "eat a carrot to get a chip" and she will. She is terrible at following most rules and just wants to climb and "pay" (play) all the time. 

My favorite things so far have been:

the word "agin" and "okay" and anmals (animals)
she Woohoo!s everything  Me, "Kelsey do you want milk?" Kels, "Woohoo!!!!"
                                      Me, "Kelsey do you want to take a bath" Kels, "Woohoo!!!"
pointing out every color she sees (still trying to teach her that not everything is blue :)

counting as she walks down the stairs (two, two, free, six!)

running to Ethan when she sees him in the distance at school (it also melts the hearts of everyone around)

saying Thank You and Please without being asked (still working on I love you)

asking for certain people like Ralphie, Sadie, Hannah, Holden, Trey, and Noah (Norah)
I love how she can identify most family members now and gets excited to see them

asking to go to "chuch" (church)

when I ask her where something is and she doesn't know, she just holds up her hands and says don't know

getting excited to play with "fiends"

interacting at story time and music time
her fascination with lights. She loves to turn the lights on and off
her obsession with being chased. She will steal what we have and yell gotcha and take off. she mostly runs
         circles around the couch so its always easy to get her but she loves it
when she watches Mickey she goes "OH TOOTLES!!"

wrapping up a baby in a blanket and carrying it around going "Awe..." 

And overall just her communication. She just gets it you know. She just understand whats going on around her. She knows people, she knows songs, she knows words, and it just blows my mind. she just gets it. It blows my mind that these little people are just that, little PEOPLE. 

Discovering ants

Discovering puppies (don't be fooled by this video. We really are trying to teach her dog safety)

Ralphie came to visit and they thought it was the coolest thing to share a stroller. Good thing they are both little

This is how Sadie and Kelsey play. This is actually a hilarious story too. We were all eating dinner and the girls ran into Sadie's room to play. I heard them yelling and laughing and wanted to see what was so fun. I went into the room and saw them jumping in the pac and play. "How did you get in there?" I asked. I took Kelsey out and said "show me how you did that," and this is what I got :)!!! 

With her two like behavior has come plenty more tude than I am ready for. Conveniently, our garbage disposal switch is at Kelsey's level and this is her new favorite game.

We have tried everything to not have to turn it on: tape, blocking it, time out, not reacting, reacting, explaining it, etc. Nothing works. The other day she turned it on when I was using the sink and it scared me. I put her in her room for a couple of minutes so I could cool off before I handled it. Before I could go back to her room, she was yelling and I just thought she was yelling because she was mad. Then we noticed that she was yelling "help!" We went into her room and this is what we found....

 

I have no idea how she got up there, but she was good and stuck. It has now turned into "the place' because another time, Hannah came over and was looking for Kelsey as I was doing the dishes and Hannah found her up here...

Looks like the rocking chair needs to go right?!

Shara brought this to my attention, but ever notice how long toddlers can squat! I mean seriously. Kelsey sat like this for like 20 minutes and every time she fell, she'd go right back to it. (She also just woke up and wakes up like me after a nap hence the happy face)

Again with the accessories. She loves to put her "hats" around her arms now. I try not to get mad because she is ruining them all, so it helps that its super cute. 

Ethan and I are doing great too :) We are getting closer to Chicago and are just ready to go. We are getting antsy. The ward knows we are leaving, school is winding down, and we just want to go. I'm getting more and more nervous all the time and have freak outs more often, but I'm so ready to just get going. I want to pack and clean and go to the next stage of life.
In great news, we were approved for housing in the fall in Provo so we are done with housing 100%  until we graduate. We have housing in Chicago and have housing when we move back and I couldn't be happier. We will be living in the same complex but in the units with washers and dryers!!!!! Hooray!!!

Kelsey took this one. Not bad for someone who is almost as small as the camera. 

I just love both of these so much that I decided to put them both up.

AND look how red Ethan's hair looks. It blew both of our minds. Even Ethan was like, when did my hair get red?! 

And now my FAVORITE new trick, the reason for this post, the source of our laughter. For the past two days Kelsey has been calling me Cami. I knew it would come someday but didn't expect it this soon. It is hilarious. In this video I am pointing to myself when I ask her who this is. Enjoy!

The other night I went rock climbing with some MBASA friends and it was one of the funnest things I have done in a long time. I'm so glad they set this up and got me to go with them. I was terribly sore after but I'm so glad I went.

 

March Madness

 

St. Patties is traditionally a low key holiday in our home, but it is a holiday and it will be celebrated complete with wearing green and corn beef. That about sums up our St. Patties and I look forward to it every year. 

This year we got to celebrate with the Harrisons AND a mint cookie trifle. It was just a great day

Ethan thought he would make the mood more festive with an Irish jig and Kelsey LOVED it

This year St. Patties day landed on the Monday after Selection Sunday SOOOO after our festive meal, we all got out our brackets and tried to pick the 2014 NCAA Champion. I just have to say, Kelsey killed me! She picked all the right upsets and all the right wins. This girl really knows her stuff (aside from Wofford and Ohio St making it to the final four, but still)

Getting a toddler to pick teams is tricky. We would pull up the logos on the computer and she would pick. When that got boring, we would just hold up our hands and assign our hands to a team. When that got boring we would just ask her. A few days later, Kelsey FINALLY filled out a bracket.

This SERIOUSLY was a logo choice! Crazy right?

 I finally made play dough and it was a huge success. She played with it for like 45 min. Its just so fun as a mom to see her be so enthralled with something.

Provo Chalk Festival

 *To the casual reader. Do your self a favor and skip this post. I promise it will be a waste of time unless you know about the Spanish fork Chalk festival. Please. Save yourself!

The Spanish Fork chalk festival is always a pretty big deal here in Provo. When I was a sophomore in college I went and it was one of the craziest things I have ever been to. 5000 students throwing colored chalk in the air making it so that you literally can not breathe, or see, or hear for like 30 seconds. And it is terrible. The chalk gets in your eyes and you just have to cry and cry for hours to get it all out. You hop in the car and your car gets ruined. You are in a giant mosh pit of students who are not drunk but acting like so and everyone is wearing white so you can't recognize the people you came with. It overall just sums up college right?! Any way, since my sophomore year, this chalk festival got bigger and bigger and bigger. One year we tried to go (yes we went back) and the traffic was so bad, that we were at a stand still 5 miles away from the sight. The line of cars was 5 miles long! I haven't been in a ton of traffic so I was just shocked. 
Now a days, the chalk festival has tickets and different throwing times to avoid such terrible traffic and mayhem.
 The other day I was on a run and saw that Provo was going to do a chalk festival. I didn't want to go, but I thought it would be fun for Kelsey to see it. Its pretty fun to see all the colors go up in the air. 
Right before we went over to see the chalk, we decided to see the details for the festival. 

I just have one question. Did Weston write this?! It reeks of Weston! 

-Better quality chalk - eye friendly and easy to wash off your clothes
-Multiple DJs spinning Top 40, Hip Hop, EDM, Mashups, etc. provided by our top local DJ's Kanani, Jerry & RM RickyMiami
-Insane state of the art sound system - that bass to make you vibrate
-Roaming Photography & Videography
-Multiple booths and eating areas - perfect for getting that number and meeting new people
-Easy parking
-Food and Drink booths
-5,000+ people expected
-Performances by the top local artists Mimi Knowles & John Allred

Age 18+
Dress: Wear White
--
General Admission $10
Admission + 3 chalk packets $15
Admission + 4 chalk packets & Sunglasses $20
We will be selling chalk for $2/bag or $10 for 7 bags that includes all colors.
 

Eye friendly chalk?! 30$ admission?! Music so good it vibrates my soul?! Seriously Weston!! Move on!

With all this hype we were excited to get over there. And we were NOT disappointed. We pulled up and saw about 100 people there! Literally 100 people!! I haven't laughed so hard in my life. The chalk was going up at random times and the soul wrenching music was just not that great. It was a moment I can not explain, but it was very precious to me and Ethan!

Toddler Hodge Podge

March is oddly low key for us and I'm trying really hard not to complain because I know the months in our very near future are going to be crazy! Since nothing is really happening, we have been trying to fill our time with ordinary every day things. Luckily the weather is allowing us to play outside because otherwise I think I would be going crazy by now. And I still can't believe how much a toddler Kelsey is. I'm mean, its just crazy!

                                                 

My most recent favorite Kelseyism, is her obsession to the word "Gotcha!"Whenever she wants us to chase her she runs up to us and yells "gotcha!" and then runs away. When we chase her and catch her, before we can say anything she yells "Gotcha!"And when she sees anyone chasing anything, she yells "Gotcha!" (She learned it from her monkey book)

I don't know if these videos are loud enough but if you listen hard you can hear her saying it. 

Video 1: She is pulling a spool of ribbon which she did for about an hour and the whole time would yell "gotcha ya!" which was hilarious because SHE was the reason the ribbon was chasing her in the first place    

Video 2: She is chasing the ducks at the duck pond and yelling "gotcha!" so they will run. Its very faint compared to the quacking so maybe just enjoy watching a toddler run.

One of the beautiful mornings we had recently, I decided to run up to the Y and let Kelsey "hike" around a bit. I haven't been up to the Y in many years and forgot how beautiful it really is. (I also forgot how steep all the hills are and had a very VERY hard time catching my breath after we reached the top!)

On Friday March 7th we went to spend the weekend at the Layton's cabin. This is the 6th year in a row that we have done this now and what started out as a bunch of single kids crashing a snowmobile has turned into a very fun family tradition. Slowly but surely everyone has gotten married and has had kids so the dynamics have changed drastically but it is still a very fun weekend full of good food, lots of games, and great friends.

As fun as it was, Kelsey had one of her worst nights EVER. At 1:30 in the morning she woke up asking for breakfast. Not just crying because "I'm tired and I want mom or my blankie", but talking and asking for toast. I tried bringing her into bed with us and she just started jumping and running around. She did this until 5:30!!!  

 

She did take a small nap and fell asleep with her bum in the air

Kelsey loves to "Dance" in the car AKA listen to music. As soon as we get her in her car seat, she asks to dance, which means turn on the music. I have done a few experiments and half way through a trip I will turn off the radio and she will start yelling "Dance?! DANCE!" Super awesome.  

These videos have actually nothing to do with the music but they are pretty hilarious to this mom. 

Still loves to read and I never get tired of it

On Sunday we were playing Yahtzee with Hannah and we started yelling Yahtzee a lot. Well obviously Kelsey picked up on this right way and realized that it was hilarious.She now yells YAHTZEE any time she is proud of herself. It kind of has replaced YAY! Luckily I was able to catch a couple of her proud moments where Yahtzee was used correctly!

 

I got this easel at GOTHE and I finally got some butcher paper for it and it is a huge hit around these parts (Yes. Kelsey wrote her own name. She's brilliant)

 

Kelsey LOVES Ethan. I mean really really loves Ethan. One time I heard them laughing in Kelsey's room and so I walked in to see what was going on. As soon as I walked in, Kelsey ran up to me, pushed my legs and yelled "out!" She really likes Ethan. 

I have tried like 80 times to get her to ride on my back and she refuses. Don't worry I don't get offended but it would be nice if she liked to play with me too sometimes. 

The other day, Kelsey and I decided to go to the bounce house.  I was talking to a mother of twins who were also crazy, and we were talk about how wonderful it is to have a toddler who loves to climb. Then we looked at each other and laughed and she was like " Only at places like this I guess!" It was a cute mommy connection for me.

Climbing up the slide

These videos are REALLY REALLY loud because of all the fans, but they are still fun for us to watch

 

 

Kelsey has started to understand friend. She doesn't know that friends are people we know, but knows that friends are people her size. Right now anyone is a friend. Her BEST friend is Sadie and Sadie  is everything to Kels. We play with Sadie every day and it is the best part of our days.

 The duck pond now has a boardwalk and a railing!! Its AWESOME!!

 Okay so there was this puddle at the duck pond and I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden all the moms were looking for someone, all the singles we concerned, and I couldn't find Kelsey. Well apparently she fell in this nasty mud puddle and although sad because she was cold, she was totally fine. I started laughing and all the singles looked at me like I was the worst person in the world. Maybe I am but it was very funny. Luckily Jamie thinks like me and started snapping pictures so I was able to capture the moment a little bit. It's killing me that I don't know what happened!

 We were able to make a quick wardrobe change and once we did the tears stopped instantly and she started chasing ducks again with Sadie. She was fine.

 "HELLOOOOOOOOOO!"

 Their favorite game is to run up the stairs leading to the Maeser but they hate coming back down. I didn't want to chase them all the way up, so I showed them if they hold hands they could come down the stairs together. Worked like a charm!

 We have been able to have visits from Aunt Hannah and it pretty much rocks. Kels loves her Aunt Hannah!

 

We finally took advantage of the half off yogurt after a BYU win.