Winter bike ride

Good-night traditions

I remember when I was little, my dad would always tuck us in. When he gave us our good night kiss he would teasingly rub his whiskers on our cheeks. I think the risk, and danger of possibly getting hurt, by whisker burn added to the thrill. I also remember Eskimo kisses, rubbing noses, and butterfly kisses, when you hold someone's hand up to your eye and blink so they feel butterfly wings in their palm.
When Ariel was really little she had to have a kiss from both of us on her forehead, nose, and each cheek, and she did likewise. It was our tradition. Now when we tuck the kids in, they each get a kiss, one from both of us if they are lucky, and on a really good night they get a "scary kiss," their favorite. That is when I hold my hands in front of my nose palm to palm while still standing then fall toward the child, my hands aimed directly at their nose, until almost reaching it at which point my hands part to catch me on either side of their pillow so my head is hovering above their's at which point I give them a gentle kiss on the forehead. Thrilling.
For some reason this evening I remembered the Eskimo kisses and butterfly kisses and Adriana and Annika loved them, maybe it will be a new tradition.

Pictures, pictures, pictures

Well, I can put a check mark on my good mommy list of things to do with the kids so they have a memorable childhood next to sledding for 2009. Our friends the Hendershots, have a great hill in their backyard and invited us over on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, hence the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies I was whipping up to take to a nearby nursing home for the National Day of Service, were shared instead with some good friends. Still service, right? Ariel reveling in the thrill of the hill.
Adriana likewise. I'm not sure why they preferred going down through the brush instead of down the clear part, maybe it just added to the thrill.



All bundled up.
Hide and seek.

I would have had my picture taken in the cupboard too, if I could only fit.
The girls built a fort with chairs and blankets for Dallin and then watched his new favorite Bob the Builder with him. He is all boy. (besides the baby dolls and polly pockets and my little ponies)

Flower girl mosaic

Mini Mes

Annika and Adriana got new dresses with matching ones for their baby dolls from Grandma Svetlana for Christmas. They wore them to church today.

Pictures of the kids

As promised, I tried really hard to take some good pictures of the kids. My camera has been acting up lately (more likely that I messed up the settings and don't know how to get them to behave like they used to) and it has been harder to take indoor pictures.

Here is Ariel striking a pose in her new tights. (Why can't I dress as cute as her?) Notice the new hair cut thanks to aunt Maegan.
Dallin getting a "bear ride" from Papa.
These two were dancing together so sweetly, but this is the only shot I got that turned out half-decent.
Can't get enough of his smiles
Annika being silly with her horse. I didn't get any good ones of Adriana, that will be my goal for tomorrow!


Not much new here. Still cold. Started a new quilt with Adriana. Trying to figure out how to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr day with my kids to make it meaningful. Have you heard about the National Day of Service? I got an e-mail from Michelle Obama telling me about it. The idea is that everyone does some act of service on Monday. I think that is a pretty great idea, I am just trying to figure out how to do it with my kids in the freezing cold. Maybe we will make cookies for someone. I wanted to quote something I heard that really stuck a chord with me:
"...come together in a common purpose, united in our resolve to renew the promise of the nation and meet the challenges of our time." It was President-elect Obama talking about the inaugeration. Regardless of your political views, isn't his language just full of hope for our nation?

Thanks for answering my questions Kazzy and Lisa, I so needed to hear the advice about not criticizing. Here is another quote that I heard today "Life is not about the amount of breaths you take--it is the moments that take your breath away." I heard it in a movie that I won't mention here, and I don't know who originally said it, but it makes me want to live today to its fullest and enjoy my family relationships to their fullest.

Painting myself into a corner

Maybe I should start all my blog post titles with idioms. Today was really cold and tomorrow is going to be even colder, which makes me not want to go anywhere, even though I really wish I could spend time in the sun (of which I am reminded every time I do my kids' hair and see the distinct line of lighter hair growing further and further away from their scalps), and conclude that it is no wonder that while I am reading other people's blogs, or viewing their facebook pictures of their fabulous vacations to tropical locations or swimming in the ocean in Hawaii, that I start dreaming of laying on a hot beach with the option of swimming in the warm water, but back to how I have painted myself into a corner. So many times when I am reading others' blogs (by others I mean my small group of followers who also happen to be very creative women and gifted writers) I start thinking, I should blog more like this or that or my blog should be more inspiring or funny or deep or lots of other adjectives, or I think about how I included the address of my blog in our Christmas cards so people that have never visited my blog before might be visiting it and they probably just want to see pictures of my cute kids, who I haven't been photographing as much lately because I can only take good pictures outside and when we can't go outside. . . well you get the picture. So I can't blog about anything. But then I was thinking about November when I blogged every day, and thinking that was a good thing and maybe I should make some lame blog posts in hopes that some good ones will pop up.
So, I was thinking about making a tag. But the cool thing about tags is that they are usually pretty light and quick, so that is why people like to do them because they are fun, but I don't want to make that kind, I want to make the kind where I ask deep questions that I really want to read answers about (not that I don't care what song you are listening to, or what is in your fridge or what the 4th picture in the 4th file of your 4th hard drive is). But people probably wouldn't do a tag like that, but maybe my people would, because they are deep-thinking people, but then what about all of those Christmas card recipients who just wonder what we are up to? Well, they haven't been leaving any comments anyway, so unless they start leaving some, I guess I'll just go ahead with my crazy-deep-tag idea.
This tag is not only for all of my consistent commentors (that has got to become a real word soon) but also any Christmas card recipients, or anyone else who wants to do it, but you'll have to leave a comment to let me know that you did it so that I can go check it out, because I really do want to know some answers to questions.

Questions #1
What is the most important thing that you want your kids to learn while they are living in your house and why?

Question #2
Based on your marriage experience, what kind of advice would you give to a person who is contemplating getting engaged?

Question #3
When you overhear kids talking to each other and "negotiating" with each other, what kinds of instances would make you interrupt them and set things straight?

I guess this last one comes from an idea that my grandma and my aunt planted into my head when Ariel was 4 and Adriana was 2 and they were fighting. We were at my aunt's house and the kids were on the trampoline while my grandma, my aunt, and I were eating lunch and having a pleasant adult conversation. When I heard them starting to fight I got up to get them to stop. My grandma and my aunt told me to sit down and let them work it out. There is some wisdom in that, but I don't want my kids to bully each other around. Sometimes when friends are over, it is interesting to notice what kind of tactics other kids use to get their way. I have heard the line of argument that they are learning to negotiate and building important social skills, but sometimes I feel like as the responsible adult, I need to set a standard of what is acceptable behavior and what it polite, and reinforce the concept that we do value politeness, otherwise won't it end up like the "Lord of the Flies" mentality? We used to have a neighbor girl that played at our house a lot who would pout when she didn't get her way and say things like "You just don't like me do you?" to manipulate a situation, or just go home if no one else wanted to play the game she wanted to play. A few times I called her on her bad behavior, and other times I thought, "Well, maybe the other kids need to learn for themselves how to deal with someone when they are acting like this."
Let me know your thoughts, I guess you could just leave a comment instead of answering my crazy-deep questions like a tag. Or you could just ask me some deep questions too, and I will have something better to blog about.

I'll try to take some pictures of my kids to post tomorrow, if that is what you were looking for.

Oh, two more observations of the day. Ariel (7) had to fill out a little survey for her second grade class about her favorite things. One of the questions was what her favorite TV show was, and we don't get many channels or watch much else besides PBS and DVDs. Her response to her dilemma was so telling of how cognizant she is of becoming a big kid, she asked, "Do they mean like, Curious George?....but I can't put that, it's for babies, do you think Clifford is just for babies?" Me, "No not at all."
On the way to school she was telling me about how her teacher doesn't like snow at all, and I said, "She should move to Florida."
"Why?"
"Because it doesn't snow in Florida."
"Never?"
"I don't think so."
Maybe we should move to Florida. I forgot to mention that the snow was really sparkley (I really think sparkley is a real word) this morning, it looked really cool, I had forgotten how magical it looks when it is sparkley, and just when I was ready to move to Florida.

The Tip of the Iceberg

I took this picture when Adriana and Annika were taking a bath and wanted to stay in the tub and play for a while. They were both laying down like this with just their faces showing, like two icebergs. As I took the picture I started thinking about how from just their faces you might not be able to tell which of my children they were or even if they were girls or boys, and it got me thinking about the tip of the iceberg and how much we just don't know about people when we first meet them. We don't know what talents they have or what their interests are.
As I have been recovering from the holidays and getting back into a daily routine this week I have had ups and downs. Moments of inspiration and motivation like reading with my kids or getting projects done or cooking and moments when I really didn't know what to do with myself (put a movie on for the kids and take a nap?). It didn't help that my plans kept being thwarted by the weather. On Monday my mission for the day was to make 2 doctors' appointments that I had been putting off for a while, once I had that accomplished I felt pretty productive and motivated to get other stuff done too, like making dinner and practicing the piano. On Tuesday afternoon kindergarten was canceled and the Ariel's school got out 2 hours early due to the possibility of bad weather which never materialized, I og t out the play dough for them (a rare treat), and took Dallin upstairs to keep him from eating it. Then Wednesday morning school was first delayed by two hours and then canceled altogether, so it was hard to get shopping done, with bad weather and four kids in toe although I did manage to get some groceries and bought a work-out video, to help with my not yet articulated New Year's resolutions. So, Thursday when the big kids were back in school, having already done my morning workout, I was feeling a little wanderlust and decided to drive 15 miles to a shopping center that I had not been to yet (thank goodness for our GPS), and got some great post-holiday deals on some clothing items that the kids needed. By Friday I had all the shopping taken care of and tried to remember what I did with my time in the afternoons when the big kids were at school and the little ones playing peacefully or napping. Then I remembered that the library had called earlier to let me know that I book I had requested was in, I was suddenly so excited to get out and do something and have something interesting to read. It is for the book circle that I am planning on attending at the library later this month in an effort to get to know people here and overcome my culture shock. Saturday Nikolay and I went to his company's end-of year party. It was nice to get dressed up and meet people that he works with, but the whole thing seemed drawn out, cocktails starting at 6pm and dinner at 8 where there were long periods of time between each course, desert not being served until 9:45. We spent a lot of time standing around and sitting silently or making awkward small talk with Nikolay's co-workers. We were some of the only ones who didn't get more relaxed and talkative as the night progressed, as we were not drinking, there has got to be an alternative to get shy/reserved lds people like ourselves to come out of our shells a little bit. Any suggestions?
I was genuinely uplifted and inspired by the women at church today who put so much time and effort into their lessons and care so much about the children. Who says you can't be spiritually fed in Primary? Sometimes the basic lessons that we teach the children can really have a deeper meaning when you reflect on the influence that these principles have had on your life.

Well, that was a week in the life of Heather, and as I reflect on it, I am reminded of President Uchtdorf's talk during the General Relief Society meeting where he talked about creativity. It seems that the best times of my week were when I was trying to be creative and use my time wisely to accomplish a higher purpose, or the little buzz I got thinking about and planning my sharing time lessons for next month. I love how he linked being happy with being creative and compassionate. That is something I've got to remember in those down moments that tend to haunt me.

Kids say funny things

Tonight during scripture study, Nikolay asked the girls if they knew what kind of tree Heavenly Father planted in the Garden of Eden. Adriana guessed, "A Christmas tree?" After he explained that it was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Ariel said, "I know what evil is, badder than bad."

Later Annika said, "May I please have some G-U-M?" When I asked her what G-U-M spells, she said, "Um, maybe Eeyore?" I still don't know if she knows what G-U-M spells, and just didn't understand me asking about it. Its a mystery, but she didn't say anything when I didn't give her any gum.

Dallin is starting to say a lot of new words and can repeat a lot of words. In the car we were singing Beyonce's song "If I were a Boy" and Dallin would really sing out the word "boy " it was so cute. Now Ariel comes up to him and sings, "If I were a...." and he sings back "Boy!"

This is a picture of the kids with Grandma Svetlana the night before she left. It was nice to have her and the kids will really miss her. She and Nikolay drove to Manhattan to attend the temple on the day after Christmas, and then she watched the kids so Nikolay and I could go the following Tuesday. It was the first time that I had been to that temple and it was a really great experience. On the Monday before that we went to the Philadelphia Zoo for the first time and Grandma Svetlana bought us a zoo pass, which was so nice, so now we can go all year and also go to the smaller zoo that is closer to us too. The one other highlight of our Christmas break was going ice-skating with some friends on Friday. It was a lot of fun and Ariel got the hang of it pretty quick (she's been rollerblading quite a bit before), after falling a few times Adriana caught on too. I was relieved that I am not so old that I couldn't do it, although it has probably been 15 years since the last time I did skate. I can brag that I didn't fall down once and I got enough courage to go kinda fast and even backward. I am so ready for everyone to get back into the normal routine of school and work, although all the time spent together was really fun and quite relaxing. The kids played so well together the whole time (almost 3 weeks) and it was great to spend lots of extended time with Nikolay.