nielsons*love*family: 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010

red velvet

The girls got baking "goodies" galore for Christmas--oh how they love to create.
Gum Paste, Fondant, mini cookie cutters,
fondant rollers. we decided we needed a
"baking day."

So, yesterday we had Red Velvet Day. I made
some homebaked Red Velvet cupcakes and a big
batch of cream cheese frosting ...they made some gum paste cut outs and we went crazy!
It was super fun and they turned out pretty darn cute for a first attempt by a 7 and
11 year old! We boxed up some of the goodies and took them to some neighbors and
a birthday girl!

(and my pictures are completey backwards--but you get the idea!)

Next time, who knows what we will create.
I love it as much as they do...something
with snowflakes? To celebrate all our snow!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

gifted & gift

Josh (gifted) working on his Christmas "gift" for Whitney.

merry & bright, the eve in pictures

new sewing machine & sewing lessons

"cold hard cash"

and a machete...don't even ask

yup, got her ipod touch

bompie got lots of cooking stuff

FYI-the glasses are "fake" on Josh. NYC Chinatown, he thought they would be "fun" to wear. He has gotten his $2 worth

Cinnamon rolls for Santa

and some really GREAT BOKEH-look it up!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

it's my party and i'll cry if i want to, cry if i want to....

ahhhh...the sounds of birthday wishes filling my ears.

...mingled with the sounds of my husband (literally) weeping and moaning on my kitchen floor.

it just doesn't make for a really great combination of sounds.

so today was my birthday. i had BIG PLANS! the only thing i wanted was "time." time with my family. not really a huge wish, just the 6 of us (teens included) gathered together for a few hours of unadulterated "family togetherness". (ok, i'll admit it, it was a lofty aspiration...but i am 39 for something like the 5th straight year and i wanted to aim high.)

the day started out great. i got to sleep in (listen people, anything past 6:30 is "IN" for me.)

kyle and the little girls made me breakfast in bed (which happened to be at the kitchen table in my case). (the big kids were busier-and better-than me at actually "sleeping in" so they missed the whole breakfast thing-their loss.)

kyle offered to clean the whole house for my birthday. (i still vacuumed the entire upstairs so i wouldn't feel too guilty).

we planned a movie time and dinner w/my in laws...things were looking good.

when all of a sudden kyle announced he had a "tummy ache" (seriously, his words: TUMMY.ACHE.)

i was a little skeptical since he was saying this with sweat running down his face all the while laying on the (clean) kitchen floor writhing back and forth and begging for death to come and take him swiftly.

this is a man who could be impaled by a street sign and would say "aw, it's just a scratch". (i jest not)

of course, i was a little nervous.

i called the neighborhood E.R. doc and gave him a run down, he immediately told me i should take kyle to the E.R. (sure, he did) where he would most likely be diagnosed with "kidney stones" (way to go Dr. Mooth--you were dead on!)

lets just say we got there in a somewhat round about way and it was NOT pretty (imagine kyle on his hands and knees crawling, a certain amount of vomit, and some more writhing and you get a pretty good picture of my day.)

the highlights of my BIRTHDAY are as follows:

*the cute little 60 something year old hispanic janitor at the hospital who assured me that most certainly my marriage to my husband had remained strong for 20 years was because i was a good cook. (he is SO right!) he was cleaning the room while kyle was getting scanned and prodded, he kept asking me what my sign was (Sagittarius), and i *think* he may have even winked at me once (or maybe he got some cleaning fluid in his eyes...) i prefer to think of it as a wink. listen a (birtday) girl can always wish. i have a "thing" for 60 year old hospital workers. (wink wink)

*that BOTH ER docs who saw us (ok, they saw kyle) were probabaly 20 yrs my JUNIOR. seriously, they looked like high school kids. High school kids with medical degrees, but high school kids none the less.

*that some good person invented Lortab and Morphine, seriosly--God Bless those folks!

*that my inlaws gathered my little girls when my teens carried on with life (friends) after making sure their dad was not at deaths door.

*that my father in law drove to get me my very own Grilled Chicken Cafe Rio Birthday Salad--that was worth 5 hours in the ER right there.

*that my mother in law gave me an awesome (super great!) new camera lens for my birthday. it's suppossed to be really REALLY good for "close ups." How do you all feel about a picture of the stone once it has passed?? (cuz that sucker is still in there working its way OUT....)

i thought not...well, i will practice close ups on the kids then--your loss!!!

I can only conclude by saying that i am pretty sure after watching kyle today i would rather birth a 20 pound baby on my (clean) kitchen floor with NO epidural than ever (ever! ever! ever!) have a kidney stone.

seriously!

that, and i get a "do-over birhtday" sometime in the next few weeks.

Dinner and a movie anyone?