I Belong...

to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Our little Nikki got baptized yesterday. What a wonderful day it turned out to be. My mom gave a great talk that I think she'll always remember. She was the only one in the ward who was getting baptized, which allowed for it to be a bit more personal. I appreciated that. She was very concerned the night before about a few things. What if the water was cold, what about the fact that she's not good at repenting. :) Could she do everything God wants her to do. It was very sweet and a fun opportunity to talk to my daughter about her decision.
She woke up to this candy bar card from Christian and Faith. Christian is counting down the days until he's 8, not because he'll be baptized but so he can have a candy bar card. He was very funny about the whole thing though. Christian kept saying throughout the day. "This really is a special day Mom" He also said oh ya Nikki can do that because it's her baptism day. LOL. But, He was right it was a very special day.
This was Nikki getting ready in her jumpsuit. She climbed into the water and said quite loudly this is really hot. Then when she got out and was changing she said, "Mom I really feel different" She was very cute about it all. Her hair was the big decision of the day :) She really wanted a pony tail, I wanted french braids, so we compromised and did french braids into a pony tail.
After she was baptized we pulled it up into a messy bun. So there's your play by play on the hair. She picked out her dress and it looked like a little wedding dress. She loved it. Kurt and I gave her a heart necklace which looked super cute too, she broke the chain before she even got baptized so handy Daddy came to the rescue with fish line he happened to have in the car. Way to go Dad! After the baptism we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Nydegger's pool and had lunch and swam. It was a wonderful time even though the weather wasn't very warm. We had a great time with the family and friends that were able to make it and missed those who weren't able to come. All in all I think Nikki felt very special and it will be a day fully documented by pictures and now here by word so that she can always remember it.

4th Fun

Can I just say I love the 4th of July. Not for the obvious reasons like we are a free nation and all of that wonderful stuff. I love it
for many other reasons. First of all I love family, and holidays are full of them. I love the sun, BBQ's, hometown parades, swimming, junkfood, and of course fireworks. Our 4th was full of all of these things and it made for another
great celebration. I have loved for the past
several years that my in-laws neighborhood has a little parade and breakfast celebration on the 4th. We love the people, the games, all of it...well this year as we are in our own new neighborhood we heard that they too have a neighborhood party. I was so excited to find out that ours was at night so we could attend both. Our neighborhood really is so wonderful, there are a few empty lots for sale nearby, if you are looking for somewhere wonderful to move. :-) They had bounce houses, a band, potluck BBQ, ice cream, fireworks...etc The kids loved it. We swam for hours in betweenboth parties at Grandma Nydeggers pool and soaked in the sun. Then we topped off the night with fireworks we even had a few illegal ones to enjoy thanks to he who shall not be named. All in all it was a great way to celebrate the wonderful place that we live.
P.S. I made Nikki and Faith's petty skirts, if you are ever looking for a project I'd love to teach anyone who's dying to learn. :-)

Nydegger Pets Update

Sometimes I feel like I'm running a pet store at my house and these picture display the 8 reasons why. We have our Gigantor dog Diesel -he's not even full grown- and he's still kenneled in the basement.Don't mind the smell when you come over, just plug your nose ; ) eewww!!! He's such a good dog, we love him. He is so mild tempered with the kids. He never really barks and he loves to play. The kids really do a good job taking care of him. They even pitch in on poop duty.
Next, we have Mama Kitty, Christina. She just became a mother yesterday. I knew it was going to happen anytime, she was getting huge and I saw her when she was romping around with the stray cat a couple of months ago. Well, yesterday morning she was meowing really strangely and I knew it was the day.We tried to find a dark quiet place for her out in the garage where she lives. I felt this great sense of empathy for the pain I sensed she was going through. She ended up making her way back to the garage door into the house where she normally sleeps . The kids and I had been checking on her often to see if anything had happened, but nothing was happening. I went out to water some plants and Christian came out to tell me that there were two little legs hanging out of kitty. Sure enough she was pushing out her first little kitten. It was such a neat thing to watch. Even though it was just kittens the miracle of birth and life was a beautiful thing to see again. She ended up having five kittens. I can't even believe it. What are we going to do with 5 kittens- Walmart here we come.
Lastly, we can't forget about Spiky our pet Tarantuala. No we don;t have two of them. We came up last night to tuck Christian in and this is what we found in his cage. I had no idea they shed their skin, and really I'm only assuming that's what I'm seeing. I have not researched the matter, but it kind of creeped us out. Our pets had quite the day yesterday.

Lazy Days!!!

This is how I found Faith the last two days in a row. We have been loving the sunshine and spending a lot of time out in it working in the yard and apparently it's been wearing her right out. How come no one told me how much work a yard is?NO, I love it, I can't complain for one second!!! Finding Faith like this made me think I really need to get some smaller chairs, shorter falling distance if she rolls. Maybe I can use this to talk Kurt into those new kitchen chairs I've been wanting!!! :) I promise she does have a bed, but since she sent her binkis to heaven on a bunch of balloons for the new babies, she's vetoed the whole fall asleep in your bed routine. Ya, I was afraid for awhile there she was going to have a resentment towards Jesus for taking her binkis away. She kept saying for like two weeks "I just want Jesus to send my binkis back"...so sweet. She would say a prayer each night saying she knew she was too big for a binki...really trying to convince herself of it as she said it. It's an interesting thing watching your children hit milestones like getting rid of the binki. My emotions tend to range on so many levels over things like this. She has been seeming so old to me lately. Time for another one I keep telling Kurt, but he;s not hearing any of that! :) Well, I couldn't help but share these photos, I absolutely love moments like those!

Easter fun!

We had a great Easter weekend. It was Grandma Nydegger's 60th birthday so all of the cousins came up to celebrate. They love being with all of their cousins so it was a real treat for them.
The Easter egg hunt this year for Nikki was full of fear and anxiety after a failed attempt of finding any eggs at her dance easter egg hunt. She had written off ever doing an easter egg hunt again. Oh my cute Nikki!!! We were finally able to convince her to participate but truly I think she was more excited when it was all over, no more pressure!
Faith was a little more excited this year for the festivities and loved running around after the eggs. She probably ended up with more eggs than the older kids. :)
This is them in their cute little Easter outfits. This was the last Sunday Christian or Kurt had hair. Christian has been begging to shave it off and I finally gave in. Of course, Kurt couldn't keep hair when Christian didn't have any. :)

I love my Family and love all the fun memories we get to make together.

"Because that REALLY BAD rude"

So You know I just love the things that come out of Faith's mouth and this was one she came up with the other day. I was asking her not to do something and she told me that was rude. Why was that rude? Her answer, because that really bad rude. OK... And can you even imagine anything rude coming out of her mouth?!?! NEVER :)

I Sink My Can

Interpreted "I think I can". This is a new phrase we've been trying to teach Faith as she's been learning to ride her bike. She would get on her bike and immediately say I can't do it. So we pumped her up with positive thinking and she actually does quite well on her bike and you can often here her chanting to herself. I sink my can, I sink my can. What a lesson for me sometimes I want to just say, I can't do it. I can't run another step. I can't clean another floor etc... Life on some days seems daunting for one reason or another, but I can look at my cute little girlie on her bike and tell myself I sink my can too!!! Thanks Faith for the inspiration. :)
P.S. I'm typing this as I am supposed to be at the gym already come on Ang I think I can!

Good Bye Christmas Tree

For many of you who know Nikki well this will come as no surprise to you but I had to write this story down for myself. I get such a kick out of her. We were taking down the tree the other day. That night when we were tucking the kids into bed I told them to say good bye to the Christmas tree because when they woke up it would be gone. So Nikki asks me to lay with her to fall asleep. As we are laying there she says "Mom I'm really sad." So I ask her why. "At night I would love to look at the tree just one last time before I went upstairs to bed and it was so beautiful and I'm just so sad that we have to take it down." Saying this all while she's doing this fake sniffley sound. Oh Nikki you cute little drama Queen. So from all of the Nydegger clan here Good Bye Christmas tree, good bye!