Taft's Birthday

 Taft turned 5 this year! Taft loves his birthday very much and looks forward to it every year.  The theme of his birthday this year was Robots! Taft loves robots and really wanted a robot for his birthday! Luckily, Dad pulled through and designed a fun robot with track wheels. Taft also got a robot shirt and had a robot cake! 

Here is a picture of Taft with his spotlight board! Taft likes to eat baked ziti, manicotti, and pizza. His favorite color is orange. He loves to listen to books. He enjoys playing outside and hanging on monkey bars. Taft is very strong. He can hang for 99 seconds, or longer, as long as you don't look at him or talk to him. Taft has a cute smile. He is fun to be with. He is a good brother. He likes Christmas! He also likes to be with Dad and help Dad. They share ideas and work on inventions together, usually involving robots.

Taft, Alyssa, and Joel all helped make the robot cake. Taft thinks he looks worried in this picture. I was worried, too. It was the great exercise of LETTING GO!

Taft was also lucky to have Gramma and Grandpa visiting on his birthday! We had a fun week together playing outside, going to Buc-cee's, visiting the Alamo, reading books, going for walks, seeing H-E-B's construction progress, and so much more!

The week before Taft's birthday, Taft celebrated his birthday with Vera and Archie because they also have December birthdays. We went to Sea World and also played at a park where the kids made bird feeders, played a balloon game, shot a turkey with darts, played on the playground, and we all ate pizza and cupcakes!

We are grateful Taft, for his birthday, for the enthusiasm and joy he brings to our family! We love Taft!

Thanksgiving 2020

Our Thanksgiving week was a little crazy, a lot of fun, and pretty restful.

We got to see Nana, Papa, and Maria on Wednesday night. We enjoyed some Rosa's Cafe at a little playground. The kids were pretty excited that we were there past dark and they even saw a bunny!

On Thanksgiving we went on a hike to Secret Beach. Even though it was a little chilly, we waded in the water. Kent pretty much went swimming so he his clothes were removed before they got too wet!

We hiked around after our swimming adventure. Erik thought maybe we could find an easier way to get back onto the trail from Secret beach and took us on a rather long walk through a sandy ravine until some guys with their dogs told us we had to scale the side of the ravine and get out that way. They helped Erik get the stroller out because Joel and I were about 1/4 a mile behind everyone, petting the sand! 

Our Thanksgiving dinner was grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, asparagus, broccoli, and rolls. Erik and I had a marinade-off. Taft liked Erik's marinade, more of a barbeque flavor. Alyssa liked mine, more of an herb and lemon though maybe a little too herby.

We had a thankful jar around the house the week before Thanksgiving and we read our thankfuls during dinner. Here are a few:

I'm thankful for Alyssa, for her kindness and love. - Mom

I'm thankful for the freedom of this country. - Alyssa Mary Archibald

Nice running weather - Dad

Alyssa shared her cinnamon bagel at lunch. - Taft

I could play with Joel. - Taft

Longhorns. - Dad

H Two O. - Dad

Fajitas, Taft's strong muscles, decluttering. - Mom

Thankful for my friends, including my family. - Alyssa

I'm thankful for peace through Christ & His Spirit. - Mom

I'm thankful for Taft, for his smile and enthusiasm. - Mom

I'm thankful for Joel. - Mom

I'm thankful for Kent. - Mom

I'm grateful for Dad because he's so awesome, helpful, kind, encouraging and silly. - Mom

I'm thankful for Mom & Dad & "Hyssa". - Joel

PB, brownies, and ice cream! - Mom

I'm thankful for repentance, that I can become better every day! - Mom

I'm thankful for our home, even if we only have 1 bathroom. We have so much joy here! - Mom

I'm thankful Dad does not judge me or criticize me and that he is a good example to me. - Mom

Naps and resents. I'm thankful to spend time with my kids. - Mom

I'm thankful for Taft, Joel and Kent and 3V4^ (sensored until baby is born). - Alyssa

The rest of the weekend was relaxing and more creations and fun with Dad. The 3D printer was used abundantly making Taft's "Thanks" ornaments for the garbage man. The kids also made concrete creations, which they painted with fingernail polish and acrylic paint. Alyssa and Erik went on a rain hike. Taft and Joel splashed in puddles around here. I made ginger molasses cookies. And we also just breathed for a few days. 

 

Snapshots: Taft and the Garbage Man

Taft loves the garbage truck and the garbage man. Every Tuesday and Friday morning when the truck comes, Taft runs outside and waves while shouting "Hi!" over and over again until he gets a wave back and even a few honks of the horn.

Taft decided a week or two ago that he wanted to do something for the man who drives the garbage truck. His original idea involved 3D printing an actual garbage truck he could fill with something. We worked it down to an ornament in a bag filled with candy. 

Taft drew the garbage truck and wrote "thanks" inside of it. He also drew himself on the back of the garbage truck and the garbage man is inside. He thought about it for 2-3 days before actually starting his drawing and he drew it 3 times before he got it just right. 

Tuesday morning was an exciting morning as we all waited for the garbage truck to come! He eventually did come and Taft was ready. Erik lifted him up and Taft handed the goodies to the garbage men (there are always 2)! Taft got lots of honks from the garbage man that day! Unfortunately it wasn't the normal guy, but Taft has already started printing more so he can give one to his normal friend!

 

Update: Kent

Kent is a little firecracker. He is vivacious, active and attentive to what is going on. He likes to be a part of the scene if more than one person is involved in anything. He catches on quickly to family activities, family chores, and anything that poses a potential benefit or reward. It makes him kind of messy and at times, confrontational, but he seems to enjoy all that he does!

He was more than happy to be a part of the painting afternoon this week. He had more paint on his body than on his paper. He had even dabbed his lips once with the dabber making them look very red right in the center!

Kent also has a funny assortment of his daily favorite he likes to take to bed with him. It usually involves his favorite car from the day. I don't know if they are very snuggly, but he doesn't seem to mind! He also loves having books in his bed. He lines them all up along one side, tucked in between the matress and the pack n play. When he is stalling to go to sleep, he pulls out book after book to be read to him while he stands attentively in his crib. His favorite is good night moon and he says, "ssshhhh" the whole time because of the "quiet old lady whispering hush".

Snapshots: Boys in the Bathroom

Joel is potty training. His greatest motivation to sit down and poop is to watch 2 minute Paw Patrol clips. He can watch one for sitting down and another one if he has success. All the boys take advantage of this time to catch a glimpse of Paw Patrol at least once a day!

 

Snapshots: Joel Sleeping

Joel is a true Nelsen. He likes to have his blankets spread over the top of him. Sometimes he asks me to spread them out and sometimes he does it himself.

 

Snapshots: Sibling Symbiosis

Our kids have a beautiful symbiotic relationship. They look out for each other, help each other, spend all day together, and live happily together. I hope their relationship will only grow and flourish from here and that they will always enjoy the love and comradery that they enjoy now.

Taft earned enough money to by a garbage truck - which if you have video chatted with him in the last month he has told you about. He finally got it and they all put it together. We ordered it the day after he paid his tithing on Amazon and the price had dropped $5! 

These two sat outside with me during a baptism following church on Sunday. They ran around the grass. Kent started yelling "Joe(l)! Joe(l)!" in their play. They are silly and have fun together.

Boy Bathtime with Bubbles! These 3 are crazy in the bathtub. More water is usually on the floor when they are done and it is often a very loud time as they all try to claim their space in the small tub.

The library had a take home craft the week of Halloween. It was a little cat luminary. Alyssa helped everyone make theirs. Having Alyssa home all the time is a game changer around her. I was not brave enough to take her out of school just because homeschool sounded great, so I am grateful for this excuse of the pandemic that I had to start homeschooling. She is so much happier being home and I think she and the boys get along better because she is always here. 

(Christina, you're right. Homeschooling is the celestial kingdom on earth.)

One afternoon when I pried my eyes open after a nap, this is what I found:

And a couple of other photos for good measure...

We make pizza often. This pizza had a GIANT bubble in it and it was super delish!

Kent is funny. He likes to put things on his head. On this particular day he found the panda headphones. Doesn't he look great?!

And on this day, Erik dressed him in Native American headwear and a Peruvian sweater as we were having a Pow Wow to celebrate the end of our Native American studies and Alyssa's Native American project.

 

Halloween Costumes - 2020

 

This year we had a variety of costumes!

May I present

The Dragon:

The Dinosaur

Hiccup, the dragon trainer, from How to Train a Dragon

The pioneer and the Nephite Warrior (Kirsten)

Joel wanted to be everything: a sheep, a ghost, a pumpkin, a dinosaur, a robot, a unicorn. We settled on the dragon because I had blue felt on hand. Taft was concerned no one would know who he was, but actually quite a few people did know who he was! He had Toothless with him, which helped.

Our Halloween was simple and just about perfect. We decorated sugar cookies with some friends on Friday evening, which is quintessential Halloween in my book. We had a nice Saturday. The apartment staff dropped off mini pumpkins, paint, and candy so the kids had fun painting more pumpkins. And then we went to a reverse trunk or treat at the church in the late afternoon. We ended the day with a movie. We did enough to celebrate but it was enjoyable!

Aren't they cute?

Snapshots: Halloween Traditions - Pumpkin Carving

Each year we carve one pumpkin. In Texas it is so hot and humid that you have to wait until it is almost Halloween to carve your pumpkin or else it will dilapidated and moldy after only a couple of days. Today was pumpkin carving day. Taft cut off the top, we all pulled some guts out, Alyssa and Taft designed the face and Alyssa drew it on and carved the face by herself! The kids were very happy to finally be carving the pumpkin and they were very proud of their good work. It is such a simple thing to carve a pumpkin, but it builds memories and relationships that will last a long time.

We also roasted the pumpkin seeds (washed, rinsed, patted dry, oiled and baked at 250 F for 1 hour and 350 for 5 minutes - much less black than last year). 

Here are some pictures from our pumpkin painting earlier this month:

And may I always remember that the youngest is hardly ever too young to not be involved, so I should just spend the extra few dollars and get him his own pumpkin instead of having him paint the carving pumpkin because it was a little large!

 

Our Beach Vacation

 We finally took our Beach vacation to Corpus Christi. October is a lovely time to go. The water is warm but it is not unbearably hot and it is not very crowded! But before we went to the beach, we enjoyed a hot October day at Sea World with Nana and Papa.

Sea World was fun! The kids really like the Sea Lion show. Joel surprised us all by requesting to go on the little roller coaster and Kent hated the merry go round. Alyssa and Taft went with Erik on Journey to Atlantis and I took Kent and Joel to see penguins at Joel's request, which we enjoyed very much. There were some trick or treating booths in the kids' land which Taft wanted to show to Erik and then he saw the Count, who he thought to be quite interesting, though Taft doesn't know who he is from Adam. 

Our drive to Corpus Christi was pretty uneventful, though I was concerned Joel had heat exhaustion/car sickness and was going to get sick. But he didn't. We also learned of another use for the beloved mask: the pizza transporter!

After driving in past dark we stopped at the beach to make sure it was there. It was very dark, but you could see the stars and the white crests of the waves in the distance. Everyone was so happy to finally be at the beach!

We are breakfast on the beach both days which was lovely. Erik says that was his favorite part. It is fun to soak in as much beach time as possible. The hotel had their full buffet to go! It was delicious and everyone was very happy! 

The chocolate milks had a joke on them: what do you call a sleeping cow? A bulldozer!

On the first day we returned to the hotel, got into our swimming suits and spent about 5 hours at the beach. I felt joy watching the kids play in their simple ways. There is something so magnificent about the ebb and flow of the water that captivates all of us. 

Joel stayed close to shore playing with tractors, shovels and buckets. We attempted a sandcastle which never got very far, but was still fun!

Taft and Alyssa were anxious to see how far our they could go into the water. 

Alyssa dug herself a body sized pit that she could lay in and dry off. She also found black sand, which she thought was cool because we learned in a book that red glass can be made from black sand. Alyssa enjoyed riding the waves with a life jacket in and spent much of the afternoon doing that.

Taft wanted to snorkel. He did a little bit. He spent most of the day with Alyssa and enjoyed digging and playing in the water.

Kent loved being around everyone. He liked playing with tractors. He also enjoyed filling up buckets with water and then taking them to the shore, dumping them and returning for more. He would do the same with shovels full of sand. 

Joel was a trooper. He did not get stroller naps like Kent and Taft. Towards the end of the afternoon he was laying in his stomach, resting his head in the arm of his floaties while he played with his tractor in the most shallow part. He loved being in the water so much he just couldn't leave even when he was tired!

The second day we went to breakfast in our swim suits and spent another hour on the beach after breakfast before returning to the hotel to shower and finish our fun vacation with the Texas Sea Life Center.

The Texas Sea Life Center is a small rescue operation. They have some sea turtles and tortoises and birds and a few snakes. It is fun to see the animals up close!

It is not easy being at the beach. It's kind of messy and there is the sun issue. It's a little bit exhausting trying to keep track of everyone. But it is beautiful to watch the kids love and play in the majestic wonder of the ocean. 

After being home for a day and a half we made a quick jaunt up to Dallas for Maggie's baby blessing and to watch the Fort Worth air show! We got to see the Thunderbirds and some other really loud planes. Greg, my cousin, joined us as well.

We are finally home now and mostly recovered from a fun but also exhausting week! We'll be here for the next few weeks trying to decide what our future holds if you need to find us!

*A little early morning journal moment capture from the 2nd day in the hotel:

This morning it is still early and everyone is still sleeping except for Joel who is talking to himself. He is singing his version of "1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive." He says over and over " 1,2,8 why did you let him go? Because he bit my finger so." He has the cutest little voice. He sing songs all sorts of things. He has contentedly been doing this for 30 minutes.