2009 Christmas Card

Merry Christmas! We decided not to write a letter this year, but I hope to update this blog soon with some of the year's events.

Our biggest and most suprising news of the year is that S. Nicholson number 7 (child #5) is coming in early July.  We thought we were done, but apparently not. :)

We hope you have all had a wonderful year and that the upcoming one will be even better! God bless!

Photoshopped Easter

Instead of going to bed like I should, I decided to play with the photos I took today (actually, now it is yesterday) of the kids. I laughed out loud and made Scott laugh too when I told him I shrunk the kids. Maybe I will post that one at the end. Anyway, after some more playing, I ended up with these, which I think turned out kind of nice.







Here is the funny one.

Amazing Easter Cake

Scott always has the assignment of bringing dessert to family parties. Today he chose to go all out with a carrot cake. See the results below. I don't even like carrot cake, but I decided to try it and it was seriously awesome!



The frosting on the side is textured like a basket.



The nest is made of spun sugar, filled with Cadbury mini eggs.

Egg Dying (or nintendo, your choice)

Friday night we dyed eggs. Scott always really enjoys dying eggs and trying new things (along with some of the old things he learned from his mom). This year he read an idea (on the internet, of course) of putting a bit of vegetable oil in the cup with the dye. When the egg hits the water, spots on the shell get oil on them and those areas will not dye. The result is pretty cool.

Sam, amazingly, did not want to dye eggs, because he preferred to use the time playing Nintendo. (He finally did one egg when we told him there was only one left.)

Our friend Dallin was over, so he had fun coloring eggs with us as well. We were all so excited when he got a call from Hale Theater (during the egg dying) letting him know that he had been cast in the part of Barnaby in Hello Dolly this Summer (the musical in WALL-E). It was so awesome to share that moment with him. Dallin was literally crying, and the rest of us were jumping up and down. He immediately called his mom to let her know (she lives in Arizona. We wish Dallin wasn't spending Easter by himself today while we are with extended family. Love ya, friend!)

Anyway, here are how the eggs turned out.

The rainbow ones are my favorite. Scott's rainbow egg turned out better than mine, of course. The egg on the left was dipped in 3 different dyes containing oil, the oil wiped off really good in between each dunking. I really like the way it looks.

New Years Sledding

On New Years Eve we had a big party and even had some friends come from CA. One of our friends had custody of his twin 10-year-olds for the holidays, so they came too. They became instant friends with Sierra and Spencer. Being from CA, they had never seen snow before, so on New Years Day we went sledding at a nearby golf course.



Sam and Scott stayed home entertaining another friend with a game or two of scrabble. Sam loves all of our friends because there is a never-ending supply of people to play games with.



Here are the BFF girls.



And the boys.



Ready, set, go!




Simon and I went down a hill once together. I expected him to be scared, but he loved it. Soon, though, the cold got to him (and to the twin's dad not acclimated to the temperature) so the two of them went back to the car to warm up.

Finally, I pried the other kids off the sledding hill and we went home, but the kids still wouldn't come inside. Brrrrr.





Saying goodbye to friends that you've only known for 18 hours shouldn't be as hard as it was, but the kids are looking forward to probably seeing each other again this summer. And the next time we head to San Diego we will have friends to hang out with there.

Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas...


...and then after what seemed like a few minutes of sleep for the parents, the wrapping paper and cardboard packaging was all stuffed into a garbage bag. The fun of opening gifts never seems to last long enough, even when there are always a million new dvd's under the tree to unwrap.


Spencer's stash


Simon's haul


Simon asked for a "peanut butter sucker" and then the next thing we knew, he was asleep. He must have been really tired.


Santa brought the doll house for mom. She has always wanted one, but she decided that she is too old to play with it much, so the kids have a blast with their dolls and stuffed animals; they especially like to give them rides in the elevator.


A photo of Sam wouldn't be complete without his signature cheesy grin.


All that new stuff, and all he wants to do is play with his old gameboy and his old gameboy games. Go figure! We could have saved lots of money!


Later that evening, bright-eyed Simon and sleepy grandma are playing on his new Leapster.

A fun day was had by all!