Jimmanastics

I gave Sadie the choice between gymnastics and dance. She chose gymnastics. I think she forgot that lots of the stuff is really hard to do.

She has already changed her mind. I said no. 

A Proper Lickin'

Elise and Sadie recently enjoyed some leftover brownie batter. I've taught them well.

I may or may not be guilty of leaving a little extra batter in the bowl so I could scrape it out. I also may or may not be guilty of making brownies just to eat the batter (didn't eat any of the baked brownies). 

Mo' Playing, Mo' Fighting

In middle school Biggie taught me mo' money=mo' problems and now my girls are teaching me mo' playing=mo'fighting. But I do love to see them play. 

#6

On Friday the 13th Adelaide Jean Gessell came into the world to bring the number of John grandchildren up to 6. We've all been anxious about her arrival for weeks, but obviously, none as anxious as Alicia. She experienced lots of painful contractions and several false alarms for the last 4 weeks of her pregnancy. It was rough, but in the end they got an adorable, chubby, 9-pounder out of  it. From all accounts Alicia destroyed labor. Some of her feats are unheard of. 

 Sadie is very excited to have another girl cousin, although she thinks Adelaide's name is funny for some reason. She giggles every time she hears it. Sadie prayed the other night that Adelaide will grow up to be a kid. I think she just wants her to be big enough to be bossed around. Elise is oblivious. 

As usual, I am left wondering when I'll get to meet her. One of these times I will actually live by a sibling so I can dote on their newborn. 

And Daniel just happens to be travelling to Boston for work next week so he gets to meet her. So unfair. 

Welcome Adelaide! We love you!

This Happened

So, this news story is about one of my best friends, Margaret, and her husband Clark. They are some of the best people I know and I still cannot believe this happened to them. In real life. You can read more about how I feel about this family in this blog post (from 5 years ago!?!).

Margaret pointed out that the news story is sensationalized a bit (he didn't break every bone in his body- maybe more like only 15 bones :) ), but I feel like the story didn't emphasize enough the intensity of the time they were alone and the incredible rescue by the Air Force. The news station also chose to leave out all of the religious aspects, like the priesthood blessing given to Clark by their friend directly before he finally responded to Margaret, and all the praying everyone did and continues to do for them. 

I posted this to A)invite you to join in the prayers and good thoughts for them and B)document one of the craziest and most miraculous things that has ever happened to people I love. More prayers can only help. Clark is still intubated and slightly sedated. Margaret keeps hoping he'll be extubated but his lungs haven't recovered enough yet.

Sweet Home American Fork

So we bought our first house. We moved in on Saturday, August 24th. We had both my mom and Daniel's mom here to help. They didn't necessarily plan their trips to help us, but they happened to be here so we put them both to work. And they got to witness all the fun and stress of closing and moving.

On one of our last nights in our old place we were outside with the Sullivans. One of my kids must have taken this picture which captured the street sign from outside the house we lived in for nearly 3 1/2 years.

We have spent the past 2 weeks packing, cleaning, shopping for new furniture, painting, and then unpacking. We gave in and painted Sadie's room pink. And it is much pinker than it appears in these photos. 

All that working wasn't without some silliness. Glad I could capture a few pictures of my mom's visit. 

I have to resist the urge to take pictures every single time I am outside our house.

Oh, yeah, and we actually have our very own backyard. And front yard. And two side yards.

And they all need to be weeded. Badly. 

School

Sadie has looked forward to preschool for months, maybe even years. The big day finally came a short while after we got back from Texas. Sadie picks out her own clothes each day and that's fine. There have been several interesting ensembles. My only requirement for her is that she brush her teeth and hair before school. 

Sadie's only disappointment is that she doesn't get to ride a yellow school bus. 

That's Right, You're Not From Texas

At the beginning of August we drove to Texas. That is a 2 day drive each way. We drove there. Stayed for 4 days. Drove 2 days back. Sounds terrible, but it wasn't too bad. The girls were great. And having the entire Nielson family in Austin was also great. 

Pics from the drive to Texas

Ready to roll

Sadie will only eat apple bites with peel

views

overnight stay in Albuquerque

lollipop cheers

white trash gas fill-up with no pants

We picked Whitney up in Lubbock on day 2 of the drive. Upon arrival in Round Rock we immediately descended upon the toys. The girls played with these toys nonstop. They are so happy Mimi and Paco saved them all these years. The girls loved all the nonstop attention.

Most of our activities revolved around what the girls would like. One of these activities was the Quarry Splash Pad. It is the coolest splash pad ever. If we lived in Austin I would probably go once a week.

Another activity was swimming at a family friend's house. They have a perfectly shaded pool. 

please check out Whitney's face in the photo below

One afternoon Sadie performed several of her favorite youtube video songs for Coco.

Sadie basked in the attention from Courtney and Tyler's significant others, James and Kali. (Hi Kali!)

One of my favorite activities was watching Daniel go through his childhood/high school awards. And Daniel is old enough that when he played sports as a kid not everyone got a trophy for participating. Impressive.

We attempted to get some family photos on our last night, but the girls kept running away.

We gave up and let them run away

On the way back we kidnapped Mimi and then dropped Whitney back off in Lubbock. We forced Mimi to stay in Utah for 2 weeks and help with all the craziness of our lives. More on that to come.

we got desperate on the way back and I allowed Elise to eat 4 lollipops at once. (Sadie was asleep)

The trip was amazing, although we drew a good parallel between long car trips with kids and pregnancy/labor. You think it is a good idea and you look forward to it, but then when you are actually doing it you are reminded of how terrible it is and you swear you will never do it again.