Elliott's First Trip to the Dentist

The weather has continued to be beautiful around here, and we are trying to enjoy every minute of it. On Monday, it got up to 68 degrees! It was a little windy, but other than that it was gorgeous out. Emma had gymnastics, so while John and Emma were there, Elliott and I had a Dairy Queen date, and then we went to Falls Park to check out the lights.

It was so nice to be able to enjoy the lights by walking around and not freezing to death. Elliott ran around the entire park, climbed and jumped on all the rocks, and just generally wore himself out. He loved looking at all the lights. We also went to the top of the tower to look at everything, and he thought that was pretty special.

He especially liked the bridges and looking at all the waterfalls. It was a great little mommy and Elliott trip, and he sure seemed to enjoy it. I also love seeing all the Christmas lights in the park, and hope to get back a couple more times, hopefully with some snow the next time around to really put me in the holiday spirit.

Yesterday, I took the day off from work to have a catch up day, and to bring the kids to the dentist. This was Elliott's first trip to the dentist, and he did absolutely awesome. He was a little intimidated at first, so he watched his big sister go first (who was also a rock star). After watching, he was very ready to go. He sat in the chair, opened his mouth, and let them do the entire exam. It was awesome. I was so proud of him!

After the kids, it was my turn to go, and luckily they have a great kids section at the Dentist, and the kids were more than happy to be entertained during my part of the exam. Everyone's teeth looked good and all in all it was a great trip to the dentist!

Today, I had a surprise day of work off. Apparently, a water main broke at work, and they had to shut down the entire Prairie Center. Not good for Avera. But, it was kind of nice to have an extra day off. I made a Costco Trip, and caught up on some things around the house. Also, I just took some time to cuddle up and read a book, it was great. I guess tomorrow I am going to work at 9am, and we will find out if we can work tomorrow afternoon or not. I never expected to have this problem at work, hopefully I can get back to it soon!

Falls Park 

Thanksgiving in Minnesota 2017

Elliott's third birthday ended up being a pretty big hit, except for the 10 minutes we lost him in Lewis Drug, which was pretty panic-inducing. But, everything ended up well, and we enjoyed a quiet birthday at home opening gifts and having a Mickey Mouse Cake. Elliott had a blast, and got some pretty great new toys.

After the festivities, Emma and I headed downtown to the Parade of Lights. Emma absolutely loved it, and called it the "best parade ever" at one point. It was a pretty impressive parade, with some beautiful floats. The Hy-Vee float even threw some candy, which Emma thought was pretty amazing. The weather was great as well, it was about 40 degrees out for the parade, which was very comfortable. I brought a blanket and some hot chocolate and we had a great time.

On Saturday, we pretty much woke up, packed up, and got on the road by 8:00 am so we could make it to my parent's house for Thanksgiving Dinner. We made really good time, with only stop, and we were at my parents' by 11:00am.

We all ate too much food, and then spent the afternoon visiting, playing games, and of course, playing some sheephead. It was really nice to see the extended family and hang out with everyone. It was a very nice holiday. Everyone stayed until about 8:00pm, and by that point both kids were very tired and getting crabby. They both slept like rocks.

Today was a pretty typical Sunday. We went to church, helped decorate Emmanuel for Christmas, and then had a nice dinner at Mom and Dad's. We spent the afternoon giving Ranger rides, watching football, and visiting some more. It was another nice day, with the high around 50 and sunny outside. We have been getting spoiled by the nice weather lately for the end of November, can't complain about that.

We left at around 3:30pm and just got home about an hour ago. Jim and Barb met us here, and had some wreaths for us to hang on our garage, which turned out very nice. We also got a Traeger Grill from them, which was way too much, but they insisted. John is very excited to start playing with that.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, but I am kind of feeling like I need a holiday from the holiday. Not looking forward to work tomorrow, but I guess it's time to go back to reality.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

All ready for Christmas at the Nelsons'

Elliott digging into his gifts

Emma got a present too!

Hot Wheels

Mickey Mouse Cake 

Loving the blue frosting 

Ready for Parade of Lights 

Santa came to the parade 

Presents at Grandma Patty's house 

Elliott's Rubble Cake 

Elliott likes his cake 

Elliott and Auntie Rachel 

Hanging out with Little Elena 

Thanksgiving Day 2017/Elliott's 3rd Birthday

Just like that, one of my favorite holidays of the year is over. We had a great Thanksgiving Day yesterday. We headed out to Jim and Barb's at around 9am, and started off the day by watching the Thanksgiving Day parade with the kids, while helping prep dinner. The kids really enjoyed watching the parade and all the large character balloons.

After the parade, we ate a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner, while watching the Vikings, who beat the Lions by the way.

After too much sitting around and too much food, we went outside and enjoyed the wonderful day. It was sunny, calm, and about 60 degrees. It was crazy nice outside, and we tried to enjoy it as much as we could. The kids loved their rides on all the toys out on the farm.

We also helped put up the Christmas Tree and decorate it. The kids loved helping, and it really put me in the Christmas spirit, can't wait to start listening to Christmas Music.

We stayed until around 7:30 and then we headed back to town. Emma wanted to spend the night badly, so she spent the night out on the farm last night, and the plan is for her to stay out there until Grandma and Grandpa come to town to help celebrate Elliott's birthday.

When we got back to town last night, Elliott was still wide awake, so we decided to do some Black Friday shopping at Walmart. It actually wasn't too bad, it was kinda busy, but we missed the major crowd, and Elliott was really good and stayed in the cart. We found too much stuff, but it was pretty fun and we found some good deals. After that, we finally went home and put our tired almost-three-year-old to bed.

Today is Elliott's birthday!! I cannot believe that we have a 3 year old now. Not sure where that time went. Elliott is at a pretty fun age, even if he does push our buttons and drive us crazy sometimes.

Elliott has been potty trained for close to 3 months already, and it was super easy. He pretty much caught on right away, and we really didn't even have to use pull ups. He wears underwear all the time, stays dry all night long, and can even go to the bathroom alone and pull his pants back up by himself. It's pretty awesome. Every once in a while he waits too long and sprinkles in his undies a little, but otherwise he is good.

He is also in his own big boy bed, which is a blessing and a curse. Once he falls asleep, he sleeps really well, doesn't fall out of bed, and does really well. But, he always has to fight bedtime, and get out of bed at least 3 or 4 times before he finally stays in bed to fall asleep. It gets a little exhausting at times.

He is also in full 3 year old mode in that he doesn't always like to listen and he is testing boundaries. He talks back to us, and still throws some pretty impressive tantrums when he doesn't get his way.

It's not all bad though. He is a very sweet little boy when he wants to be. He loves to cuddle together with blankets when reading books or watching some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He gives me the sweetest little eyes and then says "Mommy, you want to play with me?" and it's about impossible to say no. And we get a lot of "I love you too, Mommy!". Melts my heart.

Elliott is very talkative. He loves to tell stories, ask many questions, and loves to sing songs. His vocabulary is very good for a 3 year old, and he is a talking machine. He also repeats himself quite a bit, which drives Emma crazy. He is liking daycare, and doing very well there.

Today, we are planning a pretty low-key day for Elliott. We are planning on spending most of the day at home, so I can catch up on cleaning and laundry, and then this evening we are having supper with Grandma and Grandpa, and having a Mickey Mouse birthday cake and opening presents. Then, tonight we are going to go to the Parade of Lights downtown. I think the kids will really enjoy the parade!

Tomorrow, we are basically waking up and then heading to Minnesota to have Thanksgiving with my side of the family. It should be another fun Thanksgiving celebration.

Happy Birthday Elliott!!! We love you!

Making Pizzas

Veterans Day Program at school 

Emma being silly 

Branch Elliott 

Poppy Emma 

Elliott's first movie in the theatre, "The Star"

Thanksgiving Day!

The First Snow.

We had our first snow of the year a couple days ago, and Elliott was obsessed with it. He talked about the snow on the roofs of the houses all the way home, and then he had to touch it and play with it in the rocks when we got home. It was pretty cute. Emma was excited about it as well, but she's containing most of her excitement until there is enough snow for sledding and snowmen.

This past weekend, we took the kids to a Stampede Game for pink in the rink night. It was pretty fun. The kids were wiggly, and difficult but they had fun and it was a good game.

We spent Sunday catching up at home, and we ended up raking up 13 bags of leaves, so that was a nice job to have done. i also made some homemade vegetable beef soup, which really hit the spot on such a chilly day.

This past week has been pretty normal, but busy. Monday night, I took both kids to Emma's gymnastics class so John could go visit his dad in the hospital after his back surgery. Otherwise this week has been filled with work and hyperactive children, but it's been going good.

Today, I got a surprise day of work off, so I am catching up on things at home, and just enjoying some adult time. It's great. Tonight we have conferences at school to hear about how Emma is doing at school, so that will be fun (hopefully!).

Tomorrow, we have our Fall Festival at church which includes a chili cook off, raffle baskets, and games for the kids. It should be a fun night!!

They got to pie Mr. Jensen at school 

A beautiful sunset to end the day 

Discount Halloween Costumes 

Switch!

Pink in the Rink Night 

Enjoying Christmas stuff already!!

First snow of the year 

Injury Day at school