We've grown!

Happy Valentine's Day

Brett door-bell ditched the girls on Valentine's Day with some fun treats: pink marshmallows, roasting sticks, and a Valentine card for each of them. "Katherine, Life is S'MORE fun with you, Valentine!" "Amanda, I love you S'MORE every day, Valentine!" "Ellie, sending you S'MORE kisses, Valentine!" "Wendy, hoping for S'MORE of your love, Valentine!" So that evening, after Brett took me to my current favorite restaurant for dinner (Los Hermanos. . . Hhhm Horchata!), Brett lit us a fire and toasted us marshmallows for s'mores. I'm glad that was before our heat wave! :) He also brought me a bouquet of roses and lilies. It's so great to be loved!

I didn't take a picture, but Katie and I dipped strawberries into chocolate for Brett. We even ventured to add white chocolate designs on them too. Happy Valentine's Day!

Chinese New Year

We made our traditional trek to Asian Star in Salt Lake for Chinese New Year. They are the only ones that I know of that perform the Lion Dance (Dragon to us Westerners). Ellie was still terrified of the dragon, but summoned enough courage to feed it one red envelope (while clinging to Dad). The older girls weren't so intimidated, and even followed the dragon around as he ate lettuce and money filled red envelopes. Katie and Amanda loved it and hopefully as they continue to study Chinese, it will bring more meaning and tradition for them.
Even weeks later, when the girls received dollar bills in a Valentine, we asked Ellie what she would do with her money. Ellie remembered feeding the dragon the dollar bills and said she was going to feed them all to the dragon, because dragons eat moneys, not little girls. :)

Nichols News 2013 Edition

Ellie is turning 3 in just a matter of days. She loves going to preschool each week and playing with her friends. She loves singing and is getting quite the repertoire of songs. She had her own tumbling class this fall and LOVED getting on her leotard like her big sisters. The hardest part was getting her to sit still to listen to directions! Ellie loves to set the table and dress herself, and is learning to hold her own with her two big sisters.

Amanda started kindergarten just after her 5^th Birthday. She is an excellent reader and loves it! She is a great helper to Mom and Dad. Amanda loves to spend her mornings playing with Ellie, going to story time, helping at preschool, and having play-dates, before spending the afternoon at school. Amanda is excelling in her gymnastics and amazes us with her progress.

Katie is in her second year (2^nd grade) of Chinese Immersion at school. This year they are focusing more on reading and writing the Chinese characters. She is doing well and her teachers rave about her. She has entered the world of Legos (they now have girl Legos!). She is also in gymnastics and taking piano lessons. Katie is a social butterfly and loves to organize play dates whenever possible. Katie is preparing for her baptism this next summer when she turns 8.

Wendy continues to work in clinics in Salt Lake and Provo. She takes turns teaching Ellie’s preschool and volunteers in Katie and Amanda’s school classes. She’s learning to juggle two sets of homework and keeping everyone up on chores. Sometimes the house gets cleaned, but at least the family gets fed every day! J

Brett continues work with his business law firm in downtown Provo. He celebrated the completion of a successful case this fall. He keeps busy with his church calling, maintaining home and yard, taking his girls to baseball, football, and basketball games, and has even read a few books this year!

We miss our Disney trips, but this year we headed north to Island Park, ID. We had a great time at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, sledding, and exploring West Yellowstone.

May you be blessed this season as we rejoice in the glorious birth and life of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Love, The Nichols Family

Happy Haunted!

 Ellie Loved the plug in pumpkin face! Every time she goes by it she laughs and says, "There's my Silly pumpkin that I made!"

We let Katie pretty much carve her own this year. Scary, I know. She broke the tip off my knife, but otherwise came out unscathed. Phew!

 Katie had a full-dog halloween. Her pumpkin is a dog paw print (not a cougar, but. . . ) and she enjoyed being led around on a leash by Cruella. Maybe she doesn't remember how that story went!

 We loved Boo at the Zoo! Amanda met a fellow ballerina. Katie showed off her own Jack-O-Lantern smile. Ellie just likes any day that she has wings!

Where did the summer go??

Brigham City Temple Open House

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

I have been a horrible poster, barely keeping my head above water by organizing my pictures.  We've had a fun summer and I hope we can remember some highlights.

•  Started out summer with DisneyLand in June.  Super fun, but being the third time in a year, I was getting tired of it.  Thankfully, we flew so we didn't top it off with two days on the road.

•  Much more moderate in our visits to 7 Peaks.  Whereas we used to go 2-3 times a week, we probably only went a dozen times this summer.  And that's okay by me!  I only went 3-4 times without Brett.  Katie was great and a pretty good swimmer.   Amanda thinks she's as good as Katie, which terrifies me.  Ellie is clingy and I can't do or see or help anyone else!  The first time on my own, I lost Amanda (she left the pool "looking for Mom") within 5 minutes, Ellie fell of the crocodile (I caught her but she freaked out anyway) and while I'm frantically searching for Amanda and starting to panic, Katie is desperate to go to the bathroom.  I didn't dare leave the pool, but I also didn't dare send Katie to the bathroom alone.  I vowed to never do this alone again (even though I did).

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• Amanda (and by extension Ellie and Katie) took tumbling tots.  Once again, I'm amazed at how strong, flexible, agile, and balanced these girls are!  It only took Ellie watching Amanda once for her to try and do all that the big girls do.  Katie's love for tumbling was rekindled and I wish we had time/money to chase that dream more.
• Katie begged me to teach her to play "I am a Child of God" on the piano.  She's memorized the first 3 bars or so.  I want to start her in lessons, but she's got a big school year ahead, so we're trying to pace the addition of new things all at once.

  

  Thanksgiving Point Gardens

  
  

• Amanda spent the summer talking and singing constantly!  She makes up songs, she narrates her play stories.  At one point, Brett and I worried that she didn't talk at much/early as Katie.  She's making up lost time.  She still doesn't always speak terribly clearly, and tends to get emotional easily, but she's got a lot to say!  (Like calling hand sanitizer "hanitizer" and belt loops are "Belt pockets".)
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Amanda's birthday build a bunny-Rapunzel

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• Ellie has grown a passion for climbing over the summer.  She climbs up on the table and drinks everyone's drinks.  She climbs up on the counter from the bar and terrorizes whatever she can get to while I run to get her!  She has also started an independent streak.  About 3 weeks ago, she refused to be fed or helped feed.  If she's not feeding herself, she's starving and throwing a serious fit!  Meals times just got a lot messier (and they weren't that neat to begin with!)



Katie's Chinese Teacher: Tong Lao Shi




• Katie went to Chinese Immersion Summer camp.  She had a week of Chinese and learned so much!  She had a program at the end of the week and those kids had learned songs, colors, numbers, enough to present to the parents.  I'm impressed.  Where I worried it would be too much for her, I wonder now if she hadn't been in the program, she'd be bored!

  

  Rodeo!

• Katie solidified reading over the summer!  She ended school with mid-level readers, and she's now reading a chapter book and similar!  I'm so impressed.  She is really a brilliant girl and I'm so proud of her!  (in more ways than one!)

  

  Farm Country Pony Ride



Car show at the Utah County Fair




• Amanda started preschool and loves it!  She wakes up early with Katie and is so excited to put on school clothes and get her backpack. I've never seen her so compliant with getting dressed, coming for hair styles, etc.  I'm so glad my girls love school.
• Ellie is such a tag along. She does whatever Amanda does.  She wants to play trains with Katie (but still destroys a fair amount).  She wants to ride bikes with Amanda.  She wants to read with Katie.  Last night, Ellie woke up at one a.m. (very unusual) and was frantic to find Katie.  She struggled to get out of my arms and ran down to the kitchen, then family room.  Finally, I had to take her into Katie's room and show her that Katie was in bed asleep before she'd calm down.  Then she had to find Dad (again, family room, then bed).  I wondered if she was spooked somehow.  Anyway, Ellie loves Katie.  Katie loves to cart around Ellie (and Amanda tries too as well---argh!) 



County Fair




• Ellie has also lately grown a love for a certain baby doll.  The very same, Katie's first doll (that I got at a thrift store!)  The funny thing: Katie loves that doll and is usually very protective of it. She won't share it with Amanda or friends-which is often a source of contention.  But, Katie hasn't tried once to take it from Ellie or limit Ellie with it!  I can almost see the sibling love!  Amanda, on the other hand, steals the doll from Ellie all day long!
• We went as a family to the Thanksgiving Point gardens (always so lovely) and the Dinosaur Museum (such a crowded zoo!).  I took the girls to Farm Country and stood in line for almost two hours for pony rides.  Ellie was terrified of the horse, so I basically held her at arms length, over the horse, for a couple of laps around the coral.  The things I do. . . . . :)  Amanda and Katie loved it, but they were ready to melt by that point.  We all loved the mini goats, the sheep, the horses.  We took a tractor-drawn wagon ride (the horse-drawn had a crazy line).  The girls then made friends with the driver, who let them sit in the tractor seat.
• Brett spent a lot more of the summer working that we've been used to.  That was definitely a benefit of the student status--summers were either lighter or had intermittent breaks in between things.  We missed him on a few of our adventures, but we're glad he could come on some.
• Amanda had her first "friend" birthday party.  It was a princess dress-up party and it was a hit!  We had all Sleeping Beauty or Rapunzel.  They had fun making crowns, pinning the kiss on the frog prince, and dancing the "musical chairs ball".  I'm glad we had a no gift policy, and we almost at an entire cake this time.  Almost!
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• We took the girls to see an outdoor play of "Wizard of Oz" and "All Shook Up".  They loved dancing at All Shook Up, but not too impressed.  Wizard of Oz, however, was a huge hit!  They loved it and recreated it for weeks after.

  

  Car Show at the Fair

• Brett and I also went to the outdoor showing of "Fiddler on the Roof".  It was great-complete with rain and packed crowd.  I'm glad it was just the two of us and we enjoyed it.  Brett and I also went to Capitol Theater to see "Wicked" (thanks Lauretta!).  It was amazing!  I loved it and wondered how soon we can see it again (or when they'll make a movie!).  Really, so great!

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

Farm Country

In between that, we had picnics, play-dates, go-gurts, water guns, bike rides, county fair and rodeo, baseball games, walks, and duck feeding. It's been a busy summer and I was excited to have the structure of fall come, with a naturally enforced bedtime (everyone is tired by 7:30 pm now, not just Mom!)

We love Hootz the Owl!

Jedi battles.

7 Peaks

Anyway, I hope it's been fun and memorable for the girls.  We're on to becoming big now!
PS-Please forgive the horrible layout--I've had issues for the past 2 hours trying to get pictures to upload properly, and now I'm giving up!

the Beach

While in California, we spent a day at the beach.  Ellie was not a fan of sitting in the sand, or touching the cold water, but as long as she could sit on a towel and eat grapes, she was happy.  Katie and Amanda loved it and helped Dad start a sand castle.  They ended up just burying each other though.  Lots of fun!

 

 Katie fears nothing!

 Checking the hole size.  Ellie has no idea what's coming. . . .

 Katie thought it was fun to be buried in the sand; Amanda played along because her big sister did it.  Ellie just thought we were silly, and was ready to be out after about 90 seconds.  :)

 The group at the beach.  After we'd had our fill of playing, we went to that restaurant that's at the end of the pier.  It's called Ruby's.  It was a fun diner, and had awesome shakes and sundaes.  I know.  We tried them!