No more pie for breakfast

We are finally back home from a week in Gridley, California with Jon's family. It was such a great week, one of those weeks that makes you a little sad to be home.

Jon has one brother and three sisters and all of them made it home this year. There are now 6 grandchildren with one on the way. Five girls and one boy. Luckily for Hawkins (the one boy) the one on the way is a boy so he'll have a little company.

Scarlet absolutely LOVED being around kids all day long. She just got a kick out of it. The closest cousin to her is Skylar who is almost 2 years old. Scarlet would just follow her around all day. Unfortunately Scarlet enjoyed this game much more than Skyler did, "Go-let, that's mine!" is what I heard all day long. I totally understand now why people move back to their families after they have kids. It is oh so much fun.

We had amazing food all week. After thanksgiving I think I had pie for every meal. I seem to be going through withdrawals today after finally putting something halfway decent in my system.

The Nielsens are outdoors people so whenever I'm up there we usually spend a few days doing anything from hiking to volleyball, whatever we are in the mood for. This week was tennis week. I'm sure you all will be shocked to hear, I am not an athlete. I'm quite embarrassingly terrible most of the time. The worst is being my size and going for a fun, casual game of basketball where everyone assumes 'hey, that girl has got to be good.' That is most definitely not the case. The only sport I can even come close to holding my own is volleyball. But I've finally decided I need to add another to my repertoire. I chose tennis. I'm really not any good, but I'm definitely improving. And I really enjoy it! It's kinda nice to have a sport that you don't really need to collect a lot of people to do.

Overall, Thanksgiving was a fabulous time. Now it's time to pull out the Christmas decor! I am so mad at myself, we didn't take a single picture all week. But here are some pictures from our first Nielsen family Christmas photo shoot. I won't post the one that will become our Christmas card but here are some we took of Scarlet.

I got nada...

I have absolutely nothing to blog about so I'll stick with the crowd and reveal the 5 things you didn't know about me. Hope I can think of five...

1. I always save the best bite for last. For sandwiches, that means working my way to the middle, crust first. Whatever I consider the best bite of whatever I'm eating, that is the last bite I enjoy. I love ending my meals on a very positive note. The big problem comes when someone comes and takes my last bite. Little do they know the preparation that went into creating that final food morsel. Entire meals have been ruined by a poorly timed bite steal...

2. I am a pure slob at heart. Were it not for my love of my husband and child and my concern for my social reputation, my house would probably be uninhabitable. I have learned over the years that I just have to get over it and learn how to clean. But it really has been VERY hard for me. I'm not even one of those people who finally cleans everything then thinks, 'wow that is much better.' To be honest, I almost always preferred a little bit of clutter.

3. Excluding some blond highlights at the age of 13 (from angie) and a few months of bright red hair in college, I have always kept my natural hair color. The weird part is, I get asked about once a month if I've dyed my hair, even by Jon sometimes. Especially after I had Scarlet. I would tell people I hadn't dyed it and they would look at me like I was lying to them. I like to think I'm like a magic-free Tonks (wow what a dorky harry potter reference...)

4. I HATE hand jewelry. I'm really not big on bracelets but its rings that drive me the most crazy. I tried to make myself a ring wearer several times over the years but it has never stuck. I just don't like them! So when my husband gave me my simple and elegant gold band wedding ring that he made, I realized all over again he really was the one for me. It's the only ring I have ever been able to wear for more than a week.

5. I am a closet speed demon. My mom reads my blog so I shouldn't even include this one because I can just see the lectures building in her mind. But hey, I'm an adult right? I had my fair share of speeding tickets in high school but it wasn't until college that I really hit my full potential. My little Malibu could get up to 108 and I actually made the drive from Provo to Boise without ever letting the needle go below 95. Luckily, I have realized the true stupidity of this little thrill of mine and I have turned in my... ok there wasn't really anything to turn in. But I have slowed down significantly.

We're headed to Gridley for the entire Thanksgiving week. So everyone have a happy Thanksgiving!

What goes in must come out

My lovely little child is quickly moving up the baby food chain and is now a regular finger food eater. As demonstrated in the earlier video, she is quite proficient with corn. She is also a big fan of carrots, beets, soy beans, and basically everything else I put in front of her. And though I am super proud of her new found hand to mouth coordination and those few minutes I can do the dishes while she snacks, I am sure getting sick of seeing it all come out whole on the other end.

Seriously, can she really be getting anything out of the corn if I am graced by the presence of every kernel later that evening? And, though this mental picture may be too disturbing for those weak stomachs out there (it almost did Jon in), a little warning for moms. Beets + baby digestive system = worm poo diaper. Grossest looking thing I have ever seen. I do usually like to illustrate my points with pictures, but I'll save you the horror. (No I didn't take a picture of it. I'm a pretty crazy first mom, but I'm not that crazy.)

On the plus side, it is nice to have a child that is truly willing to eat anything. Jon and I went over to Sam and Kyle's the other day and brought over some Thai food. It's a place we have gone before but for some reason this time their curry was really spicy. Scarlet is always wanting to sample whatever we are eating so Jon gave her a small bite of the curry (against my advising). Sure enough, she wanted more so he gave her a large bite of curry. Instantly her entire face turned bright red and her eyes got really big. I was just waiting for her to explode into tears. Instead, she opened her mouth for more. Crazy kid...

Tonight, You Can Call Me Scar

Halloween is such a blast. And it is oh so much more fun when you have kids! Of course in years to come when they can do more than sit there and look adorable, I'm sure the joy will just increase. But we really had a great time last night.

Per Jon's decisions, Scarlet spent her first Halloween as a goth. Of course it would have been more original HAD MYCA NOT BEATEN US TO IT! Oh well, unoriginal but still pretty funny. Our ward was split between thinking it was hilarious... and thinking we were evil.

Jon and I weren't going to dress up at all but about 20 minutes before we had to go as we are getting Scarlet ready, Jon decides we're gonna dress up with her. So our get ups are pretty pathetic, but I got a kick outta them. Jon is actually wearing my jeans pegged at the bottom. I think they were a little big on him too... there's something that makes you wanna run to the gym.

We went to our ward trunk or treat which was held across the street from our apartment. By far the biggest Trunk or Treat I have ever been to! We lined the entire street on both sides! Of course only 1 of every 2 kids was from our ward. We had a big neighborhood turnout.

Scarlet had such a great time. She was fascinated by all the kids in costume and, as is not so shocking, she is a candy lover just like her mom. Somehow during the night she got a hold of a snickers bar, wrapper still on of course. She chewed on the outside of that for quite a while. Then somebody gave her a tootsie pop, again wrapper on. She was sucking on it, perfectly content for the longest time until I realized what had happened. She sucked the top part of the wrapper completely off and was down to the good stuff underneath. What a happy kid she was.

And when we finally got home, we immediately threw Scarlet in the bath.

Her head is still a little pink this morning...