Eat Her Up!

Today, Minnie and I joined Christian to rotate the tires in my car, 

make a Costco stop, and of course, the best part, get lunch.  

Usually, when Christian needs to run errands and wants me to join him, 

he prefaces the invitation like this,

"I was thinking of grabbing lunch tomorrow. Want to come?"  

and then I say, 

"Oh my gosh, yes I do!  What errands are we going to run, too?"

I usually don't care what it is; Minnie and I are in!

And Minnie is starting to love being in the car.  

When she gets fussy, we roll all the windows down, and she likes the sound.  

My 4-Runner's rear window goes down, too, and she loves that the most.

While we were getting the tires rotated, I called Claire in Arizona

and I sent pics of Minnie and me, and she sent us photos back

of the adorable garden that Nate planted for her, and 

on her front porch eating a smoothie.

I told Claire I wanted her and Minnie to FaceTime once a day 

so Minnie will know her biggest sister.

I love watching Minnie observe the world around her.  

She is growing up every day, and I can visibly see it!  

She is starting to reach for things, and her chubby fingers

 get wrapped up in my hair, 

and she pulls on my necklaces when we nurse.

She drools a lot, too.

I got her some cute little bibs that make her look

like a little flower.

Ohhhhh my goodness, we could ALL EAT HER UP!

4 Months Old

Hello everyone! 

It’s me, and I’m alive!

 I don’t know if you’ve noticed, 

but I’m gradually returning to blogging with sporadic posts starting 

in December, from where I left off. 

I have so much to share, and I want to make sure I don’t forget anything 

because my life has been truly surreal.

Having Minnie has been so cool- especially with all my

older children around who want to be involved and are so helpful.

 I have always known that having a baby teaches some of the 

best lessons in life about love, selflessness, patience, joy, and

 especially about the Savior. 

But being a new "old" mom has put these lessons in a new light for me-

and it's been challenging, too.

 Christian and I marvel at this sixth chance 

with a new, perfect baby that we get to raise and care for.

It's mind-blowing!

Minnie is officially 4 months old now and doing the cutest things like

rolling, smiling, drooling, and producing the cutest little giggles.

We ALL love Minnie!

MinNie Dialogues

 Hey all!  

I am working on updating my blog.

I'm about three months behind if you haven't noticed.

Feeling horrible during pregnancy for months really

did me in, plus having a newborn has been a huge change.

Literally the only thing I do is nurse.

I'm not complaining, but, well...it's all I do.

But my goal is to update and catch up.

For now, an update on baby Minnie, also known as Nielson six:

she arrived safe and sound on January 21st, at 3:21 am

7 pounds 1 ounce, 19 inches, and is beautiful

 and amazing and fussy all at the same time.

Or maybe I forgot what newborns were like?

Or maybe I'm just old and tired.

Whatever it is, I can't wait to share more.

I only take 50,000 photos of her a day,

so buckle up, pretty soon this blog might sound more like

 the MinNie Dialogues.

Here At Home

This morning, Claire taught a Barre class

and Lottie and Nate joined her.

 The rest of us slept in and then met them for 

lunch at a Greek joint around the corner of the studio.  

It's so nice Claire is willing to teach at the studio for us-

a lot of our instructors are out of town for the holidays, 

so it was super nice of her to pick up extra shifts!

(I'm so sad thinking of her leaving back home to Arizona!)

I bought an Olive & June gel nail polish kit, 

and Jane announced she'd paint toes and nails to anyone interested.  

Of course I was.

I need my toes painted for when baby girl arrives!

I plopped on the couch, and we watched BYU play in the bowl game

(we lost) while Jane did my toes. 

After the game, we popped popcorn, made cookies,

 and watched a movie with the glow of the Christmas lights.

I am incredibly relieved that in a few weeks, 

I won’t be sick and pregnant anymore. 

But, I feel sad about Claire and Nate leaving for Arizona, then

 Oliver headed back to Idaho a few days after, 

and of course, the end of the holidays. 

I want to move on, but I also desperately

 want to hold on to these moments and my kids all together here at home.

PICC Time

Early this morning, Christian and I snuck out of the house, 

stepping over remnants of wrapping paper and leftover 

dishes from Christmas to go to my OB appointment.

This was a special appointment since I was going to

have my PICC line placed.  

I actually was super nervous.  

I mean, peripherally inserted central catheter - its official name, 

is a long, thin tube that will be inserted through a vein in my arm. 

The tube will go to the larger veins near MY HEART!

We do not expect any complications during labor, but

this will allow my healthcare team to have access to

 prevention and hydration, since I have very few visible veins

and less uncomfortable needle sticks, this

will also help lower my anxiety about the birth.

Everything went fine.

It was painful, and the procedure had to be done twice 

since the first vein pooped out for the first attempt.

Just my luck. Woof.

After Christian and I went to lunch and then home to 

a clean house full of all the people I love.

Merry Christmas 2025

Merry Christmas from Stillestead!

I think we all rolled into the living room around 9:00 to open gifts- 

again, another first for a Nielson Christmas!

Usually, we're up at the crack of dawn!

Christian made a delicious charcuterie board for breakfast, and we had

 French toast with my sourdough bread.  I basically sat myself down 

on the couch where I stayed while we opened gifts and ate breakfast.

This year, my Nies got me the BEST Christmas present!

  A PORCH GOOSE!!!!!!

I named her Adele, inspired by the beloved porch goose from New Jersey! 

Then we all had so much fun reminiscing about those days, 

and watching Adele across the street dress her goose for each holiday.

 I can't wait to do that with baby girl!

 My kids know me so well.  

Claire surprised Nate with a guitar that she had shipped earlier in the month. 

It was a really thoughtful gift. 

Lottie got a cat bed for Kitty! 

Although Kitty will still go outside once the baby is born, 

she will look so cute and cozy napping on the porch next to Adele.

Nate and Claire took a Christmas motee ride 

(no sweatshirt on AZ boy, Nate!)

Merry Christmas to all!

*NIELSON ALERT: Only one more major holiday until Baby girl!

Christmas Eve 2025

This morning, Claire and Jane taught a Barre class dressed up like 

The Haynes Sisters from White Christmas- Barre3 style!

They even had cute blue feathers in their hair!

Class was in the morning, which is the worst time of day for me, so 

sadly, I didn't even go.  

But I heard it was adorable, and of course, Nate and Ollie went 

with Christian and a few other men/husbands who braved the

mostly female class to spend time with their significant others on Christmas Eve.

Sometimes, to feel like I'm a part of everything I'm missing out on,

I look in on our studio Barre3 security camera.

I took a screenshot of a cute pic of Ollie walking around, helping out

clients, Jane at the front desk, and Claire hugging Nate.

I'm really sad to be missing out on so much.

And will be so excited to be healthy again!

Surprisingly, our favorite Barre3 instructor, Hope, who moved to 

Georgia, who was in town for the holidays,

came to class to say hi, and again, I missed out since

I was home in bed. (Where else would I be?).

I did some picking up around the house while everyone was

at the studio. The house was so magical.

Christmas is so magical!

But, I feel so weak!

Not to be dramatic, but I'm dying.

After the studio was cleaned and locked up for the next couple of days

for the holidays, everyone came home, and the girls and I

made dough for rolls and cookies for later.

Then the girls wrapped some last-minute presents.

Earlier in the week, I ordered a bunch of Enchiladas 

from our friend from Mexico, who owns a food truck.

Christian and I picked them up together and came home

to feed a house of hungry people.

We ate them with Kolfoa, which is 

a popular drink in Slovakia, where Gigs is.

Nate went to the Czech Republic for work earlier in the year and 

was so sweet to buy a bottle for Christmas Eve

and bring to us.

It was gross.

But almost everything is gross to me right now.

We opened our Christmas Eve PJs and

watched a movie upstairs, and tried to put a puzzle together.

My feet hurt.

I got baby girl a dollhouse and asked my favorite son-in-law

to put it together.

This felt so sweet and sentimental for me.

This cute dollhouse will now forever remind me of Nate

on our first Christmas Eve together.

Someday, I bet his babies will play with it, too!

I went to bed just as Jane was giving Claire a

 hair mask in the kitchen sink.

Christian rubbed my legs before bed, and for the first time in our marriage,

we went to bed on Christmas Eve before 11:00.

Like straight to bed.  No wrapping, nothing, just bed.

Thanks to the girls who helped me wrap presents earlier in the week,

 and Claire pretty much shopped and wrapped

completely for all of Lottie's gifts.

This year, I got all my adult children pretty boxes and filled them with

gift cards and little things.

It was simple and easy.

Goodnight!  

Merry Christmas!