Our Family of Six: February 2023

Our moments in January 2023!

Kira decided that her unicorn Emerald's birthday was January 1. She asked if we could make her a cake to celebrate. I said, "Sure!" So Kira helped me bake a 3 layer yellow cake with chocolate frosting. After dinner, we put candles on the cake and sang happy birthday to Emerald.

Kira was so happy. I hope it's one of those things she remembers that we did together.

Nels and I played a lot of games of Azul. I still have a winning streak, Nels has yet to beat me. 😁

Noah really liked the frosting on the cake and here he is licking the last of the cake frosting from his plate.

Happy New Year headbands for our 1st graders.

I saw these two snuggling and my heart melted. 💛

Noah loves to snuggle while he gets his 10 minutes of reading done.

Anna-Lisa gave our family this 1,000 piece puzzle. It was so fun. The kids really got into it. I have more pictures of this later. We enjoyed having a puzzle to do together.

I tried to go on walks in the mornings when the weather was nice. I really enjoyed this hat that my sister Melissa made for me.

Lunch Date!

Nels and I tried Maple Street Biscuit Company.

It was so good and unique.

I had a biscuit with chicken and bacon in it and smothered with apple butter. So yummy!

Kira and Noah were Top Dojo Earners in December. So proud of them and their good behavior at school.

Snuggles and reading with Noah. Photo credit goes to Sofie. 😊

Nels got COVID early in January. It was rough. He pushed through it though, and thankfully was able to work conveniently from home. Of course, he was sick during month end, so he wasn't able to just take some sick days. That's one hard thing about this job, it's very difficult for him to take a day off because it's always so busy. Anyways, this was his set up...

I went to the temple with other YW presidency members. It was nice to go with friends.

Our church time changed from 8:30 to 12 p.m. So we decided to make some yummy breakfasts before church. Nels and Isak worked together and made a sausage egg skillet breakfast. It was yummy.

A reward for their 25 day reading aloud challenge was these M&M brownies.

Sisters reading together.

Sofie loves her panda and the blanket Grandma Nyborg made for her that folds into a pillow...or in this case a sleeping bag for her panda.

Brothers working on the puzzle with their matching shirts. 💚

The kids sorted the puzzle pieces into colors. They worked pretty well together. Then they did the border of the puzzle.

Ha! I took this picture because it reminded me of what Sofie said about my new recipe. Sofie said, "Gross, it looks like throw up." She ended up liking it...The recipe was a crockpot Swiss chicken...stuffing on top.

More snuggles and reading...

This is how Kira reads with all of her unicorns.

Noah's handwriting has improved so much. He's worked hard on it. Yay! I'm so proud of him.

Kira and her unicorn fort.

Sofie and Noah were invited to a birthday party for Boston from church. They were excited to go. They ate some delicious cake and ice cream and hot chocolate.

Here they are with the birthday girl.

I'm glad they got to go have fun.

Lunch Date!

I met Nels at Domenico's Deli downtown Murfreesboro.

I ate their french dip sandwich. Mmmmm good! I also liked how Nels and I match with our green coats. When we were dating we both had black leather jackets. I guess we're naturally drawn to matching.

It "snowed" one day. It did not stick. Kira's teacher sent me this photo of her class enjoying the snow outside. See Kira in pink...the only one in pink. :)

And Mrs. Edell, Isak's teacher, sent this photo of the kids looking out the window. Yep, it's a big deal when it snows here. We were lucky that we got a couple of inches last January. I don't think we'll be getting snow that sticks to the ground this winter.

Isak wrote down these goals for his class. I agree with his teachers comment...they are very thoughtful goals. The ones under home are especially insightful..."Take a break from siblings when needed, don't correct twin sister even when being nice, when feelings are hurt still be nice, go outside more often." Although this one kind of made my heart sad..."don't laugh a lot" I need to ask him what he meant...if anything, I thing we should laugh more. I feel like our family is more serious than fun and laughing. I liked this one, "Keep doing math for fun."

Balloons from the party that they let us take home. Of course, Sofie eventually popped the gold confetti balloon and made something with those tiny gold circles.

Noah built this gear tractor.

Nels jumped in and ~~helped~~ took over with the puzzle...

Cream Chip Beef for a Sunday breakfast. It's a recipe from Nels's dad growing up.

Snuggles with my Sofie.

Kira was sick one Sunday. I had an early meeting. So Nels brought all of the kids in the van and then I took Kira home in the car. Poor thing.

We had a nice time together while everyone was at church. I journaled and she drew in her reverse art book.

I took a pic of the family that did go to church because they look so cute.

And we finished the puzzle! We all helped a little. I think Isak and Nels did the most.

The kids had Jan 16th off from school, for Martin Luther King, Jr day.

I read a book called Snowflake Bentley to the kids and then we made snowflakes.

I remembered in 2019 - four years ago that I had done this activity with Isak and Kira. I had enjoyed it so much I wanted to do it again.

Kira had a terrible cough. I finally took her to the doctor. She got an antibiotic and instructions to stay home from school for one day while her body gets used to the medicine. She was well enough to enjoy her day off of school and the weather was nice! So we went on a walk together.

Cool pink shoes, Kira!

She also did an art lesson and drew the fox.

And she spent the rest of her day cleaning her room for fun and organizing her desk that she loves so much.

I just love Kira and how she's growing up!

Here's Noah enjoying a story about an old lady who swallowed a frog.

Sofie was upset. I tried to take a picture of her crying, but she covered her face and then she laughed. But she looks so cute with all her panda stuff!

Big news! Noah lost his first tooth!!! He was so happy. Jan 19 before school, he told me his tooth was hurting. It's been wiggly for a while. I wiggled it and I told him, "I think it's ready to come out." He nodded his head and we went to the bathroom. He calmly sat on top of the lid of the toilet and I pulled his first tooth out! He was SO happy and excited. I was so proud of him for handling it well. Before he went to school, I put his tooth in an orange cup. I said here's your tooth- nobody put it down the disposal!! Then later I cleaned the kitchen - yep - I put his tooth down the disposal!! When he came home from school, he asked to see his tooth. That's when I realized what I had did! Thankfully, he handled that well too and we laughed at my mistake. The tooth fairy Astrid came that night and left him $2. He was thrilled! So that's Noah's first tooth experience. 😀

Sofie likes to snuggle and read too...

Loaded pork nachos for dinner. This is before the cheese melted.

I made these yummy peanut butter Hershey kiss cookies for our little party. We had planned a Christmas party with our friends, but I got sick and had to cancel. So we finally had it in January.

We played this game...Unwrapping the gift with oven mitts on. The person ahead of you rolls the dice and once they get doubles they get to unwrap the gift until the next person rolls doubles. I wrapped the box 15 times. So lots of fun watching the kids unwrap.

We also played a candy bar exchange game. Everyone brought a wrapped candy bar/candy and we took turns opening or "stealing" it from someone else.

Here's the group with their candy.

Then we ate the cookies and hot chocolate with chocolate spoons.

We also played a Christmas version of Family Feud. It was a fun night.

Sofie was sad and crying right before drop off. I tried to take a picture of her crying but she smiled instead.

She tried to frown...Taking pictures helped cheer her up. She's such a cutie.

One night, I made chicken pot pie and salad.

I gave all of our kids these mystery mosaic coloring books. The page is filled with little boxes with a number in them. The number tells you which color to use. The kids love them and have been coloring like crazy, even my Noah boy.

Here they are coloring together. Just makes my heart happy.

They like to color at night while we do our scripture study.

Nels reads the scriptures from this 5 minute scripture reader...It gives some historical background, a set of scriptures and some questions to discuss afterwards. It's been good so far.