It's a Wonderful Life

My wonderful, precious Jackson turned four years old today!  We tried to make his day special even though his birthday party is not until Saturday, and he did enjoy it!  He picked out everything he ate today starting with his pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream.  I'm glad that his soccer class happened to be today also, because he just loves that class.  His coach was very sweet and enthusiastic about his birthday.  Like I mentioned in the previous post, he does get embarrassed with this kind of attention.  As soon as he walked into the kitchen this morning I immediately started singing, "Happy Birthday."  He got really serious and said, "Mom, you don't need to sing to me more than once!" Later, we went to a really pretty park with a couple of friends.  I didn't have any bread that I wanted to part with, so Jackson and his friend, Schuyler fed the ducks tortillas.  Jackson looked so perplexed when I handed him the food, and asked me...

This past weekend, we took a little trip and I along with our not-quite-four-year-old went skiing for the very first time.  Erik's parent's ward takes a trip to Dodge Ridge every year and we decided to tag along.  Thursday afternoon, we drove to Sonora and stayed at the Days Inn, so we wouldn't have to wake up at 4:00 am on Friday.  Jackson was so excited to stay in a motel; he still talks about the hotel we stayed in during the summer in Visailia! The Days Inn was pretty much what you would expect for $65/night, but the elevator was sooo cool.  It's the oldest working elevator in all of California!  I felt like I was in Thoroughly Modern Millie and should've tap danced on the way down. Jackson looked so cute in his little skis.  However, I don't think we took the right approach in teaching him.  While I stayed in the lodge with Wyatt, Erik took him up to a fairly tall slope.  I guess Erik didn't see the smaller ones.  It took Erik an hour ...

Well, I'm making my blog private again.  I made it public in November so that it would be a 100 times easier to print it out into a book, and now I've decided that I should make it private again.  I think I have everyone's email addresses that emailed me last time I made it private (I promise not to make this a regular thing!).  If you didn't request it before, and you'd love to keep getting updated on the fascinating, interesting Nyholms (notice the sarcasm?) then email me at jenny.nyholm@gmail.com or leave it in the comments.  Hopefully, I'll get this all taken care of, and next fall when I print out 2010's book I'll just have to suck it up and do it the hard way! :)

January is more than half way over!  We've had a couple of gorgeous,  spring-like days this week and it has made me so excited for spring.  I even busted out my I-tunes Spring Playlist that I created last year, and the boys and I enjoyed dancing around to lots of songs with the word "sunshine" in them :)  I actually do like January though, because our anniversary and Jackson's birthday helps to keep things fun! On Wednesday, I made a 4 layer lemon cake.  It was delish, but after I made it I discovered that each piece has 600 calories and 37 grams of fat!   Of course, I had two pieces! :)  On Thursday, Jackson started his soccer class.  It was pretty hilarious to see a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds play soccer and take orders from a coach.  I know Jackson is going to really enjoy it.  My camera obviously, was having focusing issues, and sadly it broke.  I told Erik he has every right to say "I told you so," because I let t...

Erik and I gave talks today at church, and I feel like a kid finishing his school year with how relieved I am.  We were asked to give them a month ago, and that is just way too much time to stress over them!  All in all, I'm glad to stretch myself in that way, but still . . . I'm happy it's over.  My Mom and Dad drove down from Stockton, and it was so nice to have them watching the boys so I could sit with Erik up front :)  That was a great treat! They also brought me freshly picked lemons from their tree-- yum! For the past 2 weeks, the sun has barley shown itself.  I know I really shouldn't complain, because its not like it's icy and super cold, but it still is depressing to just have gray foggy sky after gray foggy sky.  Well, on Friday for less than one hour it came out!  As soon as I saw the sun peeking out I pretty much threw the boys into the bike trailer and booked it to the park to enjoy it.  I'm glad I did, because the ...

I guess we really defy gender expectations at our house.  Today, Jackson watched Enchanted 1 1/2 times (he was really into it), and while Erik was still at work I turned on the national championship football game :)

While I was making soup this afternoon (one of my favorites:  spicy sweet potato)  Jackson and Wyatt kept themselves plenty entertained.  It was so cute to see them enjoying the same activity.  Granted, Wyatt mostly just sat in the pots and Jackson was playing an elaborate game of "cooking things."  It was cute to see them playing together.

Yesterday, we drove up to the mountains in Sequoia National Park and played around in the snow.  Jackson was incredibly excited!    Jackson and Erik climbing up the hill.  Wyatt was pretty much in the backpack the whole time.  He actually did better than I thought he would, but he is only 14 months old. There were soo many people there.  Sledders were slamming into people all over the place.   Luckily we came home in one piece!  I'm sure we'll be back up there a couple of more times.  We're only about 30 miles away from the park and 60 miles from the high mountains which seems weird to me. On another note, Erik and I are watching 500 Days of Summer, and I just saw the cutest 80s musical number in it, I recommend the scene :)

Maybe it's because I'm still getting over my cold, or maybe it's because I haven't had an uninterrupted night of sleep in 15 months, but I'm just not in an introspective mood.  I am excited to start my new year; it feels like a fresh start.  However, the blog I had planned in my head of looking back to the last decade and writing about the things I've learned is just not going to happen.  I will however say this,  I started the last decade as a newly "graduated" (I graduated a semester early) high school student, and I have a had a great decade of being an adult.  As for new year's resolutions, I just have one and it's pretty cliche: to savour each moment.  I keep myself pretty busy, and I'm so thankful that it is with things that I love (namely taking care of Jackson and Wyatt) but I don't stop enough to take it all in.  So here's to a new year, and a new decade . . .