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Christians new lightsaber.

Testing it out

happy easter

dying eggs

in themes the boys are obsessed with

easter table art

jane dies whenever she sees this picture...i have posted it as a solution to future meltdowns

fish and honeycomb :)

hope everyone had a great easter weekend.

fun fun

everybody is so nice to you when you have a baby...

people have come out of the woodwork to be helpful.

thank you, thank you.

we got this super cool gift from one of our neighbors:

she owns a company called totalclasscreative

she sells fabulous crafty, felty things

they are all adhesive-backed-easy-do-it-yourself projects

that i am happy to be on the receiving end of :)

i am impressed by people's good ideas. can you tell?

other than that...life moves on.

march was crazy.

The girl's name Elle \e(l)-le\ is a variant of Elaine (Greek), Elizabeth (Hebrew), and Helen(Greek)

the meaning of Elle is (among other things); God's promise; God is my oath;

to us-- her entrance and existence bring life to this meaning.

el--in Hebrew--is the part in Biblical names that means God--

we were particularly interested in the given names of some of history's prominent angels.

Michael

Gabriel

Raphael

the name of Israel has central significance as well

elle (or "L") reminds us of Elle's grammy, Lisa Elaine--(a variant of, and included letters)--

we want her to have the spiritual courage of her grammy--her passion for life, craving for adventure, memories and undying commitment to God and family

Patricia is her great-grandmother's name

Patricia means-- of noble birth.

we want her to have her great grandmother's perfect blend of tenderness and tenacity-- sensitivity, sacrifice and sass

both of her namesakes are bold, believing and beloved spiritual pioneers. Their lives and choices have changed the course of their family and are still causing ripples--we wish this for elle.

We fell in love with a lot of the significance of her name. We also think it is simple and elegant, some words "grammy" used to describe Jenny when she met her. It sounds cute coupled with Jane and darling on its own.

I wish everyone could feel what we felt the night elle was born. Picking her name was particularly difficult for us--the naming of a tender mercy. There is something special and everything miraculous about each baby's birth-- but particularly this one--for us.

special names for a special girl...

introducing...

ms. elle patricia

isn't she perfect?

welcome home...again :)

p.s. sometimes i wish you could see her through my eyes-- and then other times i am glad that i'm the only one...if my eyes were cameras, though, you would see even cuter pictures of this little girl.

welcome home little girl

Characters

doctor: david

hard worker: jenny

arriving too early: baby

arriving too late: paramedics

semi-helpful on the phone: 911 lady

shocked arrival before paramedics: mom

umbilical cord clamp: nike shoelace

Scene 1

at christy's house

jenny: i am having contractions

all the girls: (giddy with stopwatches) ya!

david: dang...i wanted it during school.

Scene 2

at home...on the bed

jenny: (having contractions) i wonder when we should go in...

david: should i page the midwife?

jenny: sure

midwife: how are you?

jenny: good...i think it will be tonight.

midwife: great, well why don't you get in a hot tub and relax.

Scene 3

in our bathroom, 20 minutes later

jenny: I feel nauseous

david: ok, I will call my mom to come be with the kids

kids: zzzzzzzzz

jenny: ok, good.

david: (calls mom and midwife)

jenny: ....

david: ok, lets go.

jenny: we are not going anywhere.

david: yes we are..come on.

jenny: i need to sit. i need to push.

david: jenny--do...not...push

(david dials 9-1-1)

semi-helpful 911 lady: 911, what's your emergency?

david: hi--my wife is in labor at home and we are having the baby.

911: what is your address?

jenny: david, i just caught the head.

(david then catches baby's body and pulls her out)

david: ma'am, i am holding my baby...in my arms...in my bathroom--in-credible.

911: is she breathing? how is mom?

baby: crying (the only of our 4 to cry at birth).

mom: (totally fine facial expression as if she delivers babies at home all the time).

david: they are both fabulous.

kids: zzzzzzz

Scene 4

enter mom--cue crying

enter police--cue semi awkwardness

enter 52 paramedics-- cue "grateful we don't have to deliver a baby" feelings

enter awesome neighbors

exit jenny and baby in ambulance

exit david following behind-- wondering what our ambulance coverage is... (just kidding, kinda)

Scene 4

at the hospital--with a new healthy baby, an amazing momma, and 3 ecstatic siblings

no signs...

jenny says I have too much anxiety about the birth of this babe.

I kinda agree.

I don't have much more to write b/c she is standing here pressuring me not to write anything else...but i have to get this out of my system.

this is how i always feel a week before the due date...its like waiting for christmas without knowing when christmas is.

jenny says this is a good analogy--except for the fact that it is not hard to open christmas presents.

*sigh*

alright...

guess...

ok--here is the incomplete official guesses for the arrival of baby.

THE CHEAT

March 4th-- 3:30 p.m.--7 lb 12 oz

CHRIS

March 5th-- 2:42 p.m.--7 lb 3 oz

JOSH

March 5th-- 11:30 pm -- 7 lb 13 oz

DAVID

March 6th -- 1:15 pm -- 6 lbs 14 oz (if i win, i am buying myself a prize!)

MOM

March 6th-- no time -- 7 lbs 6 oz

EMILY

March 7th -- 7:46 am -- 7 lbs 2 oz

EMMA

March 7th -- 3:44 pm -- 7 lbs 10 oz (born in a pool)

SUZ

March 8th -- 11:30 am -- 7 lbs 5 oz

DAD BUTLER

March 8th -- 10:09 pm -- 7 lbs 1 oz

JEFF

March 8th -- 11:00 pm -- 6 lbs 10 oz

RYAN H

March 9th -- 9:45 pm -- 7 lbs 3 oz

KASEY

March 11th -- 5 am -- 7lbs 9 oz

JOHN

March 12th -- high noon -- 7 lbs 12 oz

RYAN B

March 13 -- 3:30 pm -- 8 lbs 2 oz

get in your guesses! no post baby cheats.

noah's ark...

i was trying to help my new classes feel comfortable asking questions in class...then I remembered this true experience from my life...

again...this is a true story.

once upon a time there was a guy...and it was me...and i was in a sunday school class as a high schooler. during the lesson (which i don't remember what it was about--perhaps noah's ark) i finally decided i should ask a question that had bothered me for years...

so i raised my hand. (i was a good student)

teacher: yes, david

me: ok, i have a question that has been buggin me.

teacher: go ahead

me: ok...noah's ark--there were tow of every animal on the ark, right?

teacher: yes, thats right.

me: so where did they put all of the whales, and dolphins, and fish? was there a giant tank in the

bottom? because 2 blue whales + 2 belugas + 2 dolphins makes for a HUGE ark.

my friend rob: dave.

me: what?

rob: you are an idiot. why did they build the ark?

me: because the earth flooded.

rob: with what?

me: oh.

(pause for ponder)

me: so did they tie ropes to them to keep them close?

teacher and rob: {no response.}

I propose the following picture for future gospel art kits. it will help many, many children in need.

p.s. concerning the ropes--

i found this in class (at the u) when i was bored...don't judge me.

i have cold feet.

I have no decisions to make.

I am already married.

I literally have cold feet.

I think it runs in our family, because we all can remember my Mom rubbing her feet together while lying in bed. She probably has cold feet too.

Seriously--every night my feet are freezing and I need to move to a place of warm feet.

Maybe it is my lack of big toenails.

Who knows.

Just thought you all should know.

bye.

don't have spell check)

Sorry for all the random posts...it was all experimenting with my new fancy way of texting in posts. I am so saavy. (Is that how you spell that? Phones

Trying again

Attempt no. 3 to post pics to my blog from my phone.

I am trying to send this pic to my blog from my phone...more experimenting. This is the boys at lowes doing an activity.

It worked

I am testing this mobile blogging thing

happy birthday...to me

heloha. so i had my birthday a few days ago, which i am very happy to report on.

most wives do a cute little birthday shoutout to their boys-- but jenny hasn't yet, so i am doing my own.

if jenny had done a birthday post,

jenny would've said:

"david is like the best husband ever.

he is a wonderful father.

we are so blessed to have him.

the kids love him--i simply adore him and i could not have asked for a

more wonderful and sexy man in all the whole wide world.

love you babe!"

then she probably would've left out the part about the fantastic 29 layer cake she made me...so i will take it from here jenny.

"ok lovey dovey...if you insist."

i do.

this is the cake in the middle of the process:

it had 14 cake layers, 14 chocolate ganache layers, and one outer layer made of buttercream frosting.

when we cut into it...it looked like this:

this image was borrowed, without asking from bakerella, where the recipe was borrowed with permission.

i had to go to school on my birthday...:(

but got out early :)

i had to work on my birthday :(

but the students were good :)

i came home to a house full of cute kids :)

we spent over an hour picking up 8,000,000 pixos :( :(

(we didn't take a picture of that--we are trying to erase it from our memory)

on a happier note--we went sledding on mlk day-- the weekend of my birthday.

i will now make an important announcement:

this was the first non-miserable sledding day of our married life.

sledding was so fun when I was single.

no carrying little people up a hill.

no crying after 2 seconds of being there.

no putting on the gloves for the 10,000th time.

no frozen snot to clean up.

i used to be anti-sledding...until mlk day 2010.

this picture is lame:

(but what you don't see, is christian is not crying, and jack is sledding and climbing alone...and the only complaints came when we left....what a dream--except for the snow)

and in conclusion (of my own birthday post), one of the items I scored on my birthday was an Aebleskiver pan. We used to have them at the Nielsens house growing up and i loved them. i can now report that i still do.

special thanks to kathy--our brilliantly beautiful secretary at work for the recipe.

and a special thanks again to her for this out-of-this-world delicious recipe for buttermilk vanilla syrup. wow. it is party candy.

there you go. come over and i will make you some...for free.

david--that was an amazing post!

just. like. you.

*blush*

what once was lost, but now is found...

our camera cord... (and possibly a new found desire to blog about our lives...we'll see...) along with finding the cord, i found a whole lot of pictures from the past 6 months. the majority of them looked like this:

but i also found pictures from... the boys' first day of preschool

our trip to the pumpkin patch (and this particular picture just makes me laugh, i don't know why, but i think it's because of christian...)

our trip to zions and st. george

jack wore this ghost costume the entire time we drove there - like 5 hours. every time i turned around in the car and saw him buckled in and wearing a sheet, i just had to laugh...why?

one of maybe 3 family photos from the year...

in this picture, i had accidentally left david's phone in the tent and we forgot to get it out before rolling the tent up and shoving it into the tiny tent bag. when we realized what we had done, we were just about to start hiking and david was sooooo mad. so we had to unroll the whole thing and get it out right there in the middle of the parking lot. i thought it was kind of funny...

the boys were awesome hikers!

also found a bunch of pictures from thanksgiving point - the gardens, the farm, and the dinosaur museum (about 50 of them were of the big shark - jack loves that thing!) but i thought i'd include this one of cute jane peeking out the window since she could have done this ALL DAY LONG! she thought she was so funny...

carving pumpkins...

trick or treating with adam...i think the boys wore about 10 different costumes during the week, but these are the ones they chose for trick-or-treating... (nothing new at our house though...)

jack's birthday - he insisted on a shark cake...

christmas morning...

the boys enjoying the snow and dad being home during the break. isn't the snowman cute - david made it (i think his first) and he's soooo proud of it - everyday he comments on how awesome it is. so if you drive by the house, compliment david on his snowman and he'll be so happy.

so there you have it... our lives the past 6 months...

and hopefully i'll make a better habit of this...

the faces of jane...

thank you! thank you! thank you! to the incredibly multi-talented holly of peasinourpod for the photos.