Nell Goes to Primary!

Ahhh, I never wrote up Nell's final monthly update for 2015. As much as I enjoyed the monthly posts, I'm not sure I'll continue that in 2016. It turned out to be a nice way to use up the random pictures I'd taken of each kid throughout the month, but I'm feeling like I might just do monthly recap posts to cover that. Who knows. I'm always feeling like this blog needs a reboot. Most likely, I just won't post anything for all of January. Because when I say reboot, I also mean break.

Nell has continued to develop her sass. She has gotten in quiet a bit of trouble lately for talking back. I'm not really sure she even understands what she is doing, but we are trying to help her understand that sass backs aren't allowed. 

She loves to pretend being angry. I was video chatting with my parents earlier this week and Nell had one of her quick bursts of anger and my mom just died laughing. That's the thing about Nell's rotten behavior -- it's usually really entertaining. Another example, at the dinner table at Grandma and Grandpa's house she let out a huge fart. I was in the other room with Coraline, but I could hear Ben reminding his parents and sisters not to encourage her. I can only imagine what their stifled laughs must have looked like. However, I know exactly what Nell's little gleam looked like. She just has this look when she knows she's doing something silly and she wants you to react to her. 

She's been such a sweet sister to both of her siblings. She loves to dote on Coraline. Maybe even a little too much. She doesn't seem to understand that Coraline's grunts are actually cues to give her space, instead she just looks at me and says "Co-aw-wine loves when I hug her mommy!"

She's been a good sport about playing outside in the snow. I can tell she doesn't really love it, but Reid always wants her to go out there with him and she tags along for as long as she can stand it. She's such a little puff ball in her snow suit, I love watching her awkwardly saunter around in it.

Eating the snow off her knee

She's out growing her naps, which obviously breaks my heart. She'll occasionally just crash on the couch or fall asleep during short afternoon car rides. This tells me she could probably still use a nap, but when she does take one she just lays in her bed singing to herself until 9pm. It's just such a toss up. The below photo doesn't even begin to capture how uncomfortable she looked on this particular day (Dec 23, after Reid's school program). She woke up from that quick snooze screaming "ow! ow! ow!"

Today was her first day in LDS primary. Nell is officially a Sunbeam! I had the pleasure of sitting behind her and just basking in the joy her little body gives me. She seems so tiny compared to my 11-year-old class. I tried to capture a few photos of the momentous occasion, but that went about as well as expected.

I love this photo! I imagine her thoughts went something like this:
"My mom says I have to smile with my eyes open ...
that's kind of scary ...
how in the world do people do this ...
how can you possibly smile with your eyes open!"

She really was only interested in having her own turn with the camera.

We sure love our Nelly Bell. She is such a light in our household. I'm very grateful for all the moments she lets me snuggle her, all her aspirations to be a ballerina princess, and the special joy she brings to her father's life.