give and take

you would think that by now i've learned that writing blog posts while feeling loopy due to lack of slumber doesn't usually deliver pleasing results. when i return to re-read the words i came up with at a later time, i'm usually baffled but i shall make an attempt. last night i tried my darndest to sleep at the respectable hour of 11:00. i tossed and turned for quite a time. sweet husband's alarm was set for 3am yup, three o'clock am, you read that right...as he had big plans to venture to mexico to play in the ocean against my will. the trek to mex scares me a tad and i don't love hanging out at home worried that he will be savagely ripped apart and eaten by a school of hammerhead sharks or a mexican for that matter. not being able to call his cell doesn't help the situation. I couldn't sleep after he left. worried for his life and for my own once i started hearing odd early morning noises around my house that had me shaking in my slippers. i nearly woke up Emmy to bring her in bed with me, and then i realized that a two year old probably wouldn't be able to save me from a vicious attack of an intruder, so i let her sleep. i finally dozed off around 6am. Emmerson decided to wake up at 6:30 for the day today. you can imagine the disorientation of my brains at this very moment. I felt that to make up for my tired worrisome heart, there was really only one thing aside from a safe return from the husband that would be able to make me feel at ease. shopping. that was the deal. gregory john goes surfing in mexico, i can indulge in some retail therapy. I bet poor husband didn't see it coming that his fairly cheap - once you have the gear, nearly free hobby would get so expensive one day. regardless, today, i give thanks for living 4 minutes from the mall...and for the credit cards sweet husband pulled out of his wallet and left on the computer desk to avoid getting stolen in mexico. happy saturday!

in with the new.

we are slowly but surely getting all settled into the place we now call home and we love it. we have the majority of the rooms unpacked with the exception of our room and the baby nursery, which still needs some attention. also two of the bathrooms need some paint on the walls before i can show pictures but until then we have some before and afters of the nearly complete areas...

living room before.

and after.

we don't have a before picture for our eating area,but aside from the paint on the walls and obviously our furniture added there were no changes.

kitchen before. clearly the oven needed some love...

and after.

Emmerson's room before.

and after.

i will be sure to show more as we fully complete the other rooms.

as for 2012, so far it's been quite lovely living closer to sweet husband's family and we have certainly been saving money on gas if nothing else. I feel like i can finally focus on this little human that will soon enter our lives. my current hobby is planning out his nursery. i'm getting rather excited to meet the little bundle.

Happy new year

It's our final night in our sweet little coastal 2 bedroom apartment. We have been here for 3 1/2 years and it's been good to us. I'm mostly excited to move forward with our lives as our little family grows to 4 in just a few short months but as Emmy pointed excitedly to the hot air balloon floating above us outside this evening as we walked to our car and was proud to announce "Emmy's house!" when we pulled into the parking lot upon returning home it dawned on me that this is the only place she knows as home, and the only place we've ever called home together as a family. I got sad for a second...and then I thought of my pretty new kitchen and got excited again. Moving day tomorrow!!! Hooray! I will share pictures once everything is put together. What a great way to end our wonderful year, and start a new one. Cheers to 2011 and a happy hello to 2012! Happy new year.

it's here!

HAPPY merry HOLLY JOLLY everything!!! I am beyond joyful and i don't know how to contain my excitement. our little place is tidy for santa as tidy as it can possibly be in the middle of this packing madness, we watched a christmas movie this morning and have been listening to christmas music non stop. emmy helped me bake brownies with candy cane frosting topped with chocolate shavings, our presents are ALMOST all wrapped and under the tree, our festive outfits are out and ready to be worn to our christmas eve celebration at the Moore residence, and we have christmas spirit like never before. oh christmas, you will forever remain the most wonderful time of the year! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! Love Greg, Nikki & Emmy

christmas countdown

christmas/moving/baby chaos is making my brains crazy. trying my hardest to take one thing at a time is keeping me somewhat sane. i'm doing something festive everyday this week with Emmerson to focus on the first of the craziness to come...my beloved holiday, christmas. today we nearly finished up our christmas shopping and attempted to see santa, who was taking an EXTREMELY long break. he never did show up, but we had fun riding the train and jumping our buns off in the jumpy, so santa will have to be sat on another day. tomorrow we shall enjoy the jungle bells festivities of the zoo. wednesday we shall bake and watch christmas movies, thursday we are getting our christmas nails done, and friday we have a holiday party to attend taking us to the holly jolly weekend! due to the little one's enthusiasm with tearing open presents, i have been slacking in the wrapping department. all of which will have to wait until christmas eve day. i'm a lover of wrapping presents, so this won't be overly overwhelming for me. speaking of presents, my sweet parents have generously gifted us with an ipad2. we promised we would not open it until christmas morning and so it sits in our closet, completely unopened. this is a solid display of obedience, that i've never in my life been able to follow through with. i'm quite proud of myself to say the least and i'm overly excited to have a fun toy to play with on christmas morning! and finally, i leave you with a picture of Emmerson at Disneyland. she was going to town on her special lollipop and i felt the need to give her sticky colorful face a little scrub down. she licked the wipe that i was using on accident, and greg captured her mid-gag.

here's to a week full of all things christmas!

home sweet home.

remember how we completely ran out of space in our sweet two bedroom apartment once the little one moved in two years ago with her massive amounts of baby gear? and how we have another one joining us in april? well, that calls for a change of address. we shall pick up and return inland a bit to join greg's family and we couldn't be more excited. slash stressed. plenty more space and a nice change is refreshing, but trying to pack up our life during the holiday season is going to get hectic real quick. i'll be glad to be happily settled in within the next few weeks.

our new place is a three story townhome. it has three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, which is far too many toilets to clean if you ask me. and a two car garage. it is currently getting a slight makeover, as the last renters went a little buck-wild causing some minor repairs. the upside...i got to pick out all of the paint colors! we took some before pictures, and i will be sure to show before and afters once we are all moved in.

mickey the mouse.

Our christmastime disneyland trip 2011 was a success! we had so much fun and Emmerson was such a good girl. her excitement made disney more fun than ever...in a magical kind of way. a little less fun in the thrilling kind of way as we had to steer clear of the roller coasters this time due to the little gal's height, and the sweet dude growing in my gut. regardless, we had the best day ever!

christmastime is here!

it is finally december and the rest of the world has joined in with the christmas cheer!! family,friends, disneyland, hot cocoa, christmas movies, christmas cards in the mail, wrapping gifts, shopping, cold nights, sparkles, christmas dresses, santa at the mall, slippers, fires, christmas music, dancing, decorations, smiles, cookies, blankets, christmas pajamas, i love it all. i hope you're enjoying this holiday season as much as i am!

warm wishes, Love The Nielsens

goodbye november.

december is quickly approaching, and i've just realized that i haven't even come close to completing my christmas shopping. normally by this point i have a respectable amount done with. oh my slacker, what ever will i do? i don't even have any good ideas. i feel lost. insert deep sigh. on the up side, my sweet little family all 3 1/2 of us will be partaking of some serious happiness next week at none other than the happiest place on earth, disneyland!! I've never seen the spectacular christmas decorations, and emmy has never experienced the magic, so it's about time.

i had a couple weeks of craftiness. its all i wanted to do. i've calmed down a little. i leave you with the cute wreath that i made which now hangs on our door...

goodbye to november for another year, i truly always enjoy this goodbye the very most.

oh goodness.

last week i went to the dentist. i have avoided the dentist for 10(ish) years, and i still manage to have all of my teeth. i read somewhere that getting your teeth professionally cleaned while you're pregnant is healthy for the baby (sorry emmy, i missed that memo when i was growing you) so off i went. well, they did a real number on my pearly whites and the lady commended me for finally coming in. especially while being pregnant since it helps avoid low birth weight. timeout. i guess i should have read further into this article. allow me to remind you of this...

that's my sweet husband as a not-so-wee baby. as in 3 weeks old. as in the photographer positioned him so that his rolls were holding him up. as you can clearly see, we aren't all that concerned about low birth weight. i don't know whether to stop brushing my teeth until april, or just simply pray that this little lad takes after his sister and her perfect 7lbs15oz newborn size.