Husband Survey

What is your husband's name? Israel Orval Nichols

How long have you been together? We met at the beginning of the Fall Semester of '97 at Ricks but he didn't convince me to go on a date with him until just before Christmas. Then it was a fantastic whirlwind. We were engaged in March and married in July.

Who said I love you first? I did. We were sitting on the stairs in the Snow building and I was so nervous. I've never been the first to say anything that important. But, I'm glad I did. It was quickly confirmed that he felt the same.

Who's smarter? Well he is definitely smarter in the math and physics department and I'm smarter in english and communication. It's a good fit.

Who does the housework? Definitely me. Though he will pitch in with dishes or laundry if I ask for help.

Who sleeps on the right? We sleep in separate beds. No really, we do. Because of his work schedule he sleeps in a hotel 4 nights a week and we both bask in the space of an entire bed to ourselves. We'll I get short visitors in mine, but that's beside the point. Though, on the weekends (if you are standing at the foot of the bed looking at it) I sleep on the right. We decided right after we were married and shared our first bed that this would be our arrangement and we've never changed.

Who pays the bills? Israel makes 99.5% of the money and I work all the finances.

Who drives when you are together? He does and I don't know why, because he doesn't really like to. He'd rather be flying. Hmm?

Who is more stubborn? Israel, no contest.

Who kissed who first? It was mutually done? We were up at the inter mural fields above campus and he very politely asked if it was o.k. to kiss me. I melted and was more than happy to participate. We'd been dating for like a month.

Who asked who out first? Israel asked me. I'm surprised he even tried since I generally tried to avoid him at all cost. He was so sweet though and my mom had raised me right, to give a guy a chance. He had made a homemade chocolate bar and inside was a laminated request to go with him to the Christmas formal. After all that work, what's a girl to say?

Who proposed? Israel of course. We're pretty traditional. We used to study together every night at the Austin building and he surprised me by having an A Capella group from campus come sing to us as he pushed the study table back, asked me to dance and then got down on one knee and asked me to be sealed to him for all eternity. It was so sweet that I nearly forgot that I was in a sweatshirt, no makeup and a ponytail.

Who has more siblings? I do, barely. I have 4 sisters, 3 brothers and he has (from a his, her and theirs clan) 3 brothers, 3 sisters.

Who wears the pants? Umm...Tough one. Israel says he does, but I know sometimes I have to. And other times, neither one of us want to wear pants...I mean, THE pants.

The Book Tag

"Even in her sleep she was aware of the wood slats pressing through the thin mattress like bruises on her back."

So, I tag anyone who reads this.

#1 - Find a book you're reading or close to
#2 - Turn to page 123
#3 - Find and post the 5th sentence on the page.

Just silly fun.

Fast Fingers...Not Mine

So, I tried this and realized that I'm not nearly so good as I thought I might be. Oh well. I wonder if I'd do better with real sentences instead of random common words. Who knows, could just be an excuse for my lame score. haha
58 words

Speedtest

Endless Winter

So we had a few days of warmer weather this past week. You know, mid 40s so I got excited to start prepping my lawn for spring planting. I was going to trim back/prune my "out of control" raspberry bushes this afternoon. Except this is what I woke up to and have lost all excitement! Why was I so excited about Idaho anyway? I'm sure I'll remember once we get above 50 degrees.

"United We Sing"

The Choralaires Spring Concert
Monday, May 5th at 7pm
Colonial Theatre
Idaho Falls, ID
Tickets: $$FREE!!



I am in this community choir and we will be performing a patriotic concert. It should be great fun and hey, it's free. So, anyone who will be in the area, PLEASE come support us. It'll be a great FHE activity!

New Scout Leader

Israel has been called as the New Scout Leader (11 yr olds). The boys had fun the other day making stilts and trying them out. The pictures are of Israel and his assistant leader. I think they had just as much fun as the boys.

Easter Celebrations

Saturday AM- Israel took Maggie to Skyline High School for the annual Easter Egg Hunt (I had a headache and Emma was teething) Apparently, it was pretty intense. The hunt was in the enclosure of the tennis courts and NO PARENTS allowed (parents were cheating for their kids and making a mess). After the whistle blew Israel said the hunt was over in about 15 seconds. Maggie had fantastic fun, though. So, I guess the chaos was worth it.

Saturday Afternoon- We dyed eggs of course! Maggie has so much fun making her eggs, guess what color??,....GREEN! Emma got in on the fun, too. She insisted on dipping the eggs herself, unfortunately she kept dipping her entire hand with the egg. Her hand was a nice shade of blue for most of the day.

Saturday Evening- Ward Party! The kids got to dye eggs, have a bunny hop race, race eggs, run around and be crazy while the adults had an egg hunt in the RS room and lesson on the origins of easter traditions. Fun.

Sunday- Who doesn't start their day with a good old hunt for your basket from the big bunny? Ours were found on the chest by the window (Emma can only hunt so far, ya know). The girls were so sweet in their dresses, until Emma removed her own poopy diaper and we resorted to plan B with 10min until church started. Good times, good times. But after church we spent the evening at Amanda's house in Lewiston and it was nice to visit with the Caleys and play games with the Matas. It was also really nice to come home and go straight to bed. whew.

Ballet Class

I know that when I posted that Maggie is in ballet many wanted to keep seeing pictures so I took the camera to dance class on Friday. They are not great pictures, but when you're chasing Emma too you do what you can.

The top left pic is the class playing "Butterfly Catcher" is ballet for duck, duck goose.

The top right is of Maggie making a pizza. That's how they get them to stretch.

The bottom pictures are the free dance portion of class. They get to hold pretty flowers and dance like beautiful ballerinas. It's really fun to watch.

For those of you in the area, she will be in the "Wizard of Oz" here in Idaho Falls the first weekend of June. Anyone who would like to come is welcome. It's a HUGE production so when I have more information about tickets I'll let you know.

Museum of Ancient Life aka Dinosaur Museum

I've been feeling awfully claustrophobic as of late and wanted to get out of town. We came up with Thanksgiving Point, because our niece, Corina, (Israel's side) and her family live really close in Lehi, Ut. It had been years since we've seen them. It was really nice. Her oldest is about 6 months older than Maggie and her 2nd is not a full year older than Emma, so the kids got along very well. So, fun.


Maggie, Conner and Caleb had a blast building dinosaurs, climbing on dinosaurs, digging for dinosaurs and definitely playing in the sand with dinosaurs. I, personally, had my fill of dinosaurs by days end, but that's just me.



I need to invest in one of those lease backpacks, too. I know Amanda has one and Corina had one for Caleb. Caleb did great with it. Poor Emma was strapped in the stroller most of the time because she just too quick for me to chase with hundreds of kids around. She did get to spend a limited amount of time in the sand dig. She wasn't sure about the grates.

We did visit Cabela's, of course, but I failed to take any pictures. Israel was in heaven in the Gun Library, for sure.

I was nice to get out and now it's nice to be home!

Too Modest or Summer too Far Away??

So, I'm giving Emma her bath and Maggie wants to join in but doesn't want me to see her "bodies". I reminded her that it's a bath and it's o.k. to be naked in the bathtub. She doesn't agree and leaves the room. Minutes later she comes dressed in her (too small) swimsuit and ready to join us. I figured I might as well make a memory and put Emma in her (also, too small) swimsuit and have been letting them play like they are at the pool. They are having a fantastic time drinking bath water, (ICK) and splashing around. I miss the warmth of West Texas.

So, I'm listening to Maggie chattering and I hear her say, "Mommy, you're a genius!". And I reply enthusiastically, "Thanks, honey!" She quickly responds with, "No, THIS Mommy"
**She's holding a rubber duck...Fantastic.

Take the Quiz here!

A New Twist on the Veggie Sandwich

So today I made egg salad sandwiches for lunch and Maggie was NOT interested, so I told her she may make herself a PB&J if she preferred. And she did.

As you can see she had the PB, she had the J, but something was missing. She insisted on having her vegetables on the INSIDE of her sandwich not on the side like normal people.

But, hey, she ate it and it's hard to complain when your kid is asking to put veggies in her food.

A Visit to Nana & PoPo Pop's House

We had a fun visit this Sunday with some of our favorite people! Nana & PoPo Pop aka Mardean and Dennis Pope. Maggie gave them their precious nicknames this past fall when we were waiting to close on our house.

Maggie and Emma had a great time chatting with them and of course had to give Max, their dog, a good work-out in the process.

It's always a delight to catch up with the Popes.

The Flu Stinks!

OH how the flu stinks. Sunday night I started to get a sore throat and by Monday morning I had the full blown flu! I have the yucky chest congestion, fever, chills. The works. Thank goodness for Ibuprofen. Maggie has been so cute, "Mommy I want to give you a hug to make you feel better". I feel bad that for the past 2 days the kids have just gotten the bare minimums of care. Hopefully, tomorrow will improve!! I sure hope everyone else can skip the flu this year.

My Silly Girls

Emma is a big fan of her new bracelets. She like to take them off and put them back on multiple times.






















Also, Maggie insists she's going to be a rock star like Hannah Montana. Silly goof.

Spreading the News

Hey there. Anyone who checks out my page, will you check out my new blog too? Just click on the link for Sageview Relief Society and come back and tell me what you think. I'd love some feedback on how to make it the most informative and interesting. Of course, pictures will be coming. We have our enrichment meeting tonight. I was also going to take pictures at playgroup, etc to show everyone what's happening. I thought it would be fun to do, at least for me.

Clumsy Bo- Bumsy

I swear I have the clumsiest, most accident prone children out there. Yesterday afternoon, Maggie and Emma were playing in the living room when I left briefly to start the computer in the back. Seriously, moments after I left them, Maggie starts screaming bloody murder and running down the hall. I look at her and she has blood gushing down her face and it's all over her hands. Israel was in total shock and of very little help in the calming her down department, so I sent him for washcloths.

She had this huge gash down the center of her forehead (pretty deep for foreheads). It's not super long, but deep. Poor kid, it's right above her eyes and in the middle so there's little hope of it not scarring or not being noticeable.

Anyway, we opted to put a butterfly stitch on it instead of paying hundreds of dollars for an ER visit. It seems to be healing.

So, this is the explanation I got from her about what had happened. Apparently, she was running to hide behind the chair in the living room from Emma and ended up running/falling into the corner of the wall head- first. OW OW OW. I pray that never happens to me. I'd probably cry a lot longer than she did.

NOW, Emma also has another head wound from rolling down the last few stairs onto the tile and then this a.m. she fell into the rocking chair in the exact spot and drew blood.

Geez... these kids. Y'all are going to think I'm making this stuff up. I'll spare you the pictures. They're not so pretty. Here's to hoping for accident free tomorrow.

Bathtime X 2

Emma LOVES her bath! Thurs night after giving Emma a bath, Maggie was taking hers. Well, apparently Israel & I inadvertently left the bathroom door open and Emma went in for a bit of a visit. And here comes bath #2, clothes and all. She did NOT LOVE this one as much as bath #1.

This Week's Playgroup Adventure

Playgroup met at my house this week. We had a great turn out. We had 5 moms and 8 kids. Yeah!

Though Emma had a bit of a tumble and well...you can see the results. Poor kid.

Small Spaces Intrigue Them?!

These girls are so silly. Emma decided she needed to crawl into the kitchen cupboard. Not the lower shelf mind you, the top one.










Then, of course, Maggie just couldn't sit aside and watch Emma have all the fun. I still can't believe she was able to squeeze in.