Cooking with Mama

Emily and I spend almost every minute of every day together. Every one who knows her knows that she has the biggest personality and is so much fun to be around. Last week we spent an afternoon making enchiladas together. Her favorite part was grating the cheese. My kids like to play "cooking mama" on the wii so this was "cooking mama-for real."

Fly, Fly Away

Last week we took the kiddos to the museum of flight in Seattle. It is actually the Boeing museum and it was so much fun. The kids climbed in the cockpit of a few airplanes, we went into a space shuttle and saw the treadmill that all astronauts are required to walk at least 2 miles on a day while in space. The kids also went on a flight simulator ride and got to tour a retired Air Force One.

Happy Hunting

Saturday we had a big Easter Egg hunt at the local elementary school. My friend puts it on and every year it gets bigger and bigger. Tyler was out doing Scouting for Food so he officially "graduated" from the hunt this year. We actually got sun this year!!! That is huge for us. Samantha wore her cute bunny costume from Halloween that kept her nice and warm.





Isn't she the happiest kid you have ever seen?

Tacoma General

Lucky us, we don't have to move! My kids came home from school today screaming in delight. They love their school and our ward so this is just what they wanted.

We have such great friends in this area so we are so happy. Marshall has accomplished such a difficult task and I am thrilled for him.

Yahoo!!!

Today we found out that Marshall matched to a residency program. How happy we are! We have to wait three more days to find out where we are headed for the next few years. Marshall has worked so hard the last four years and I am so proud of him. Okay, so he interviewed with 9 different programs and we had to rank them in the order we liked them. I am going to make my prediction here that we will be moving to Michigan. Lets see if I am right.

Congratulations Dr. Marshall Nickel!

My Beach

Many of you know that I lived on a Caribbean island, St. Eustatius, for a year and a half. I took the kids down to this bay at least a few times a week. I didn't care that I had four kids (one newborn), and no car at the beginning. I was determined to enjoy the sun and cool off in the sea. We had great memories from our time there and I just love this beautiful view. Every night for a year and a half we had the most gorgeous sunset. Enjoy some pictures from my past.



Tyler and Hannah walking to the bus (really just a 15 passenger van that they crammed about 30 kids in) Hopefully you can see the huge cows they walked by to get to the end of our driveway. Most days I drove them to school.




Tyler on the Atlantic Ocean side of the island. Too dangerous to swim in, but fun for collecting shells and wading in.



View from home





Our hot wheels. This car was so hard to drive with no power steering and being such a huge tank. It was a work out driving on the dirt roads around all of the pot holes. The main roads were paved, but our long driveway was dirt as well as the mile off road drive to the kids school.

What a way to live. I can't wait to go back and see it all again, just for a visit, though.

My favorites...

I am not very happy with the girls so far. Hopefully someone surprises me. So far these are my favorites. What about you all?

Your chariot awaits...

Emily (in yellow) invited three of her favorite girl friends with her to celebrate her 4th birthday on Saturday. We took them in their princess dresses to Burger King for breakfast. We decorated the inside of the car with streamers and balloons and the girls loved it. Of course Sara (front and center in pink) and Hannah came along. Hannah was my helper and took the girls all to the table to color an Easter activity page while I ordered the food. She loved being "in charge" for a bit. The girls loved being seen in public in their dresses and I loved that there was nothing to clean up!

Trip to Seattle

Well, I was driving in my car the other day with my soon to be 4 year old, Emily, and I mentioned the space needle. Emily asked, "What is the space needle?" I was surprised that she didn't know what it was so I made a promise to myself to take my kids up to see the sites in Seattle. We spent a few hours up there this last Saturday and had a great time. We ran around the needle, took the monorail to West Lake and then walked down to pike place. My kids danced to the music on the street and Tyler even parted with $1 for a guy who was playing his homemade drum set. After our monorail ride back to the needle we decided to go and eat some dinner at Ivars on the peir. The kids were in heaven and we all had a great time. I actually don't remember hearing any of the kids fighting the entire trip...even in the car ride up and back! That was a great start to our mid-winter break. The kids have all of this next week off and we are thinking of fun things to do. Any suggestions?

Daddy-Daughter Time

Marshall took three of our girls, and a friend, to a daddy-daughter dance that the rec department puts on every year. This is the first time my girls got to go and they LOVED every minute of it. The girls had a fashion show as they tried on the dresses that they wanted to wear. Sara learned the running man, and boy was I proud. She held out a string the next day and spun it around and said that is what dad did to her on the dance floor. What a fun tradition.

Tyler was invited to go roller skating and he didn't get back until quarter to midnight! His friend stayed the night, but they fell asleep quickly. How spoiled my kids are.

Anyone seen the sun lately?

Okay, so I know that I live in Washington at the moment, so I shouldn't be suprised when I saw the sun for only 30 seconds today. I took Emily and Samantha on a walk and we had to run home the last couple of blocks because it started to rain. I am anxious to see the sun and "lay out". If I could be anywhere right now it would have to be a white sand beach. Digging in the sand with the kids or snorkeling in between pina coladas sounds like heaven. Oh and a nanny would have to be brought along so Marshall and I could have quiet dinners together. Maybe in about 10 years. Where would you rather be?

Merry Day After Christmas

My kids opened one present each at my house and then we loaded up the car and spent the rest of the morning at Abby and Abba's (Grandma and Grandpa). They were up at 6:40 and I wasn't too happy since Tyler went in and woke up the girls. We had them wait in their room for 20 minutes while we slowly got out of bed. They were beyond excited as they squealed in the room. I could hear Tyler telling the girls that I was putting the final touches on Christmas. I told them not to get too excited since most of the gifts were at Abby's house. They all said it was the best day of their lives. I got the three girls skates and they only take them off to sleep!





My nephew, Elias, is the one in green. The rest of the mob is mine. What a party we gad.

10 years!

Tyler has been my buddy since he was born in Alabama while Marshall was working all day and going to night school. We have spent so many years having fun together and I can hardly believe that he turned 10 yesterday. He is such a great person to be around. He is always the life of the party and kind to everyone. I am a proud mom.

Grandma gave him this mini racer and he is having the time of his life (and so am I). It goes about 10 mph and he feels like that is fast. He is feeling the freedom. Tyler asked me if it feels like that to drive a car. I said far from it! His toy is much better!

Dressed in White

The Nickel family before the baptism. Hannah was so excited to wear sponge curlers to bed the night before. Her hair is so straight and she loved to have "princess hair" for the day.



Hannah felt like she was in heaven with all of the happy, positive things around her. Her grandpa happens to be our bishop so he was able to interview her for baptism and that was sweet. He said that she knew all of the answers, which pleased me! Tyler, her big brother, gave a short talk that was wonderful. He is such a great speaker and so comfortable in front of a crowd. Her grandma, Alexis, also spoke and shared a great testimony.

I am so proud of my sweet Hannah!

Hannah Banana is Eight!

Hannah woke up today with a huge smile on her face. She is not a morning person, but when it is a special day she can't help but wake up happy. Dad was already gone to work, but left a sweet letter for her on the kitchen table. She loved her berries and cream for breakfast. I also made waffles, but only Tyler and Samantha wanted them.



After Hannah opened her presents and it was almost time to leave for school Tyler pulled her in his room for his "gift" to her. He had the radio on and did a crazy dance for her. He is turning 10 this month and even though it wasn't much, I was glad he thought about her, even if it was just planned 1 minute before!

Hannah's baptism is this Sunday and she can't wait. I will post pictures that night, hopefully.

BOOO!

Tyler woke up this morning at a quarter to seven and said that it was the longest night of his life. They were all so excited to get dressed up this morning for school. We have fun activities planned all day. This is such a fun holiday for these guys. Enjoy the festivities!

Fall Carnival

My kids are so happy and just loving this time of year. Tonight we went to the fall carnival at their school. Hannah won a huge oreo cake at the cake walk and they all attacked it when we got home. They played a ton of games and came home with a bunch of prizes. We attemted to make a mummy costume for Tyler, but he ended up throwing the TP in the garbage before getting in the car. Hannah was Hannah Montana (of course), Sara was a bride and Emily was Dorathy. Spencer came along again as Darth Vadar.

Giddy-up!

It is that special time of year that I love so much. We spent last Friday at the Puyallup Fair and loved it of course! It was 86 degrees and perfectly sunny. That doesn't happen too often so we took advantage of the great weather. The kids went to school for two hours before I picked them up and they just love it when the office calls to dismiss them. They love to be the envy of the classroom. I wish the first picture was of me, but it is my sister in law, Candice. :) I have never looked that good.

Let the fun begin!

We woke up late this morning, but they still got to school on time. We just had a little extra stress. The kids are beyond excited for their first day. The car was so quiet on the way home and it was nice and peaceful to chat with Emily. We will have a fun time together while the older kids are gone learning.

A Trip to the Falls

Marshall had the day off on Wednesday so we took advantage of the sun and headed up to Snoqualmie Falls. The kids hadn't ever been there and they loved it. The observation deck was scary for them, but the hike down was worth the view. Once we got to the observation deck below the kids all wanted to climb over the deck down to the river since we could see others doing it. I braved the steep rocks with my baby and we all made it down and back up without any injuries. We could hear some screaming while we were down there and when we reached the top we knew why. Some lady had tried to climb over the gate at the higher observation deck and had fallen to a ridge and needed to be rescued. Every firefighter and rescue worker in the city was there to help this insane person. We didn't wait around for her to be out, but she was there for quite a while. My kids were very worried about her. That just added to the excitement of the day. On the way home we stopped at a road side fruit stand and bought the best nectarines of the season!