week in review

Carli and 2 of her friends from the neighborhood.  These 3 girls followed each other all over the place, it was really cute.

 I bought a treasure box full of princess dresses for the girls for Christmas a couple of weeks ago.  Well, they were bored and the boys were busy so I decided to let them open it up early (it was a bonus present anyway).  They had so much fun doing a fashion show for me.

 Carli insisted that wand was hers, love this pic of Carli being adament that Kaitlin would NOT have it.

 Carli says, "yea, i got the wand!"

 Carli has this fascination with sheer material, especially sheer ribbon.  Anytime she seems ribbon anywhere (at the store, home etc...) she says, "I need to tickle the ribbon."  And she likes to run it through her fingers and see how it feels.  If it's not exactly as she likes it, she doesn't want it, but....

 if it's what she wants, she throws her thumb in her mouth and she is lost in her own world.  It's so funny!

 Love their pony tails!  Carli's is finally long enough to wear it in pony tails all day and they don't fall out.

 Kaitlin's bff, Madeline's bday party.



yum!!!!

YES! They tasted as good as they looked!  They were melt in your mouth delicious!!!  Contact me for pricing and more info.  Great for your next holiday parties, birthday parties, anniversaries, etc...  Mmmm!

Make new friends but keep the old...

These girls and I have gone to breakfast every december for the last 10 years.  We've never missed a year (except last year but that's because we had our girls trip in February).  I love each of these girls and am so grateful we have stayed friends for all these years.  We don't talk to each other everyday but we always know there is a special place in our hearts for each of us.  We've seen each other through dating losers, dating our husbands, marriages, babies, and more! 

Even if we only see each other once a year, we always know that we can leave right where we left off.  Thats pretty special!

edited pics

my awesome friend over at Maganda Studios did some editing for me of our family pics..  I thought they turned out great!  (the bigger size is the final copy)

 I love this one of Brian and I (and she of course added the text).  Brian wants this for his office.

You should see all the pics we have of the kids, trying to get all 4 to smile at the same time is no easy task.  So she helped out and came up with the bottom pic.  Thanks Maganda! (http://www.magandastudios.com/)



yearly gathering

our yearly family tradition of getting together with my parents closest family friends.  I wish the camera on my phone was clearer...  we have a yummy dinner / dessert put on by mom, and then the other family gives us a musical fireside.  Then we do a nativity.  Jackson didn't want to be in it, so I had to be one of the shepards.  Kaitlin was proud to be an angel, Carli ripped her costume off the first chance she got, and Logan was happy about his role as a shepard as well.

The whole crew - 2 of the brothers sing the song while my mom accompanies.  And then one we all walk in according to the part that is being sung.  It's cute!

our newest gymnast

Kaitlin LOVES gymnastics.  Three years ago, I put her in dance with her friend and she liked it.  The next year, I put her in dance and tumbling and she begged me weekly to take her out of dance and stick with tumbling.  So this year, I decided to put in her gymnastics at The Gymnastics Training Center near our house.  And she LOVES it.  She's on her 2nd session with her friend in our neighborhood and she looks forward to it all week long. 

Last week, I decided to go in and watch her and took Carli with.  I couldn't get Carli off of the equipment (which the GTC is not fond of).  I was chasing her down the whole time.  It was a little embarassing.  So I decided to put in her into her own class.  She is below in the pink leo and black leggings.  I was curious to see how she would do, this was her first official thing of her own.  But for being 2, I thought she listened and did as instructed very well! 

This is warmups: running around the mats

 Doing an obstacle course, practicing backwards summersaults.  She opted to not do part of the obstacle course, so she just did the same half over and over. Finally the teacher caught her and made her do a summersault.

practicing being on the balance beam.  after she would walk across, she would then jump into the pit.  that's not exactly what her teacher wanted her to do but that's what SHE wanted to do!

when the kids all got home from school, i had them each ask her what she had done today and she told them all that she went to "nastics."  It took them each a few seconds to figure it out but they are all really good at interpreting 2 yr old language and caught on!  Looking forward to next week!

a story about Carli

Carli asleep on the couch is a semi-common thing. Usually on days when she has had a rough night of sleep but Saturday was not one of those days! She had been very happy, Brian and all of the kids were at their cousins house and it was just her and I. We went to Costco and had a great time. I gave her a bag out of my purse to play with, it had some lipgloss, lotion, etc... It entertained her while I shopped. A couple of nosy people told me that she was in playing in my purse, which of course I knew, because I gave it to her. I was annoyed that people weren't just minding their own business!

Then we paid for our stuff and went out to the car. I started loading all of the stuff into my car and I saw this loaf of bread that I didn't buy, and a tool set, and a block of cheese. What? So I unloaded everything that was mine and went back into the store. Carli was standing in the back of the shopping cart, one leg over the side but I know her, and she isn't going to just jump out so I let her do that while I waited in line to return the stuff that wasn't mine. A man tapped me on the shoulder and said, "everyone in line is worried that your daughter is going to fall out of the cart." That's the THIRD person that talked to me about what I was letting her do. Can people not keep their opinions to themselves? I was getting so annoyed. When I finished getting rid of the stuff, I turned around to leave and a woman in line stopped me and said, "you need to be more careful, my granddaughter did the same thing as your daughter was doing and fell out and got a concussion." I very shortly said, "she's fine." So FOUR people had nothing better to do than bother me with their comments.

We drove over to Kohls and had such a fun time talking and interacting. Carli was sitting in the cart and was so happy. She decided to stand up in the cart, so I was stopping to have her sit down and buckle her in and I bumped into a display and Carli went flying head first out of the cart and landed on her head! That blasted woman at Costco cursed me!

So I picked her up and she cried for a second and I put her back in the cart. Within about a minute, she was asleep. Super weird. She doesn't fall asleep like that. I called my neighbor that is a retired nurse, Carol, and asked her what she thought. She came over and woke Carli up and looked in her eyes. She said her pupils were fine, but Carli immediately fell back asleep. She said she wasn't convinced that she was ok. So she told me to let her sleep for a bit and if she threw up to take her to the ER. Carli slept all afternoon.

We decided to go to dinner with family so I was loading Carli into the van to leave and she fell asleep again. Oh boy! I knew there was a problem. And then sure enough, she threw up. So I headed to the ER and when we got there, she actually she seemed ok. Her personality was coming back so I didn't take her in, but instead drove around for a while. I called Carol again and asked her what to do, and just then, she threw up again. So we went back to the ER and went in. They didn't waste any time getting us into a room where 3 doctors / nurses came in and started testing Carli, quizzing me about her behavior etc...

She did have a concussion but she was coming out of it. They gave her a popsicle and wanted to see her response. They said that if she had thrown up again, they would have taken her in for a CT scan. They did say that if she was older, she wouldn't have been able to go to school or played any sports for a bit but since she was only 2, we would just need to watch her.

It was pretty scarey, I've never seen someone deal with a concussion before. Though I do remember one time when I was younger, I fell and hit my head and I immediately went to sleep and then threw up after. I'm sure I had one as well.

I'm glad she's ok. But I do feel that woman at Costco cursed me with her opinions!!!!

Carli coming out of her concussion:

 this is what Brian and the kids were doing...  well, Brian was helping cut up trees that fell at his brother's house during a wind storm (the kids were playing inside with their cousins).   His brother had 10 trees fall down and the skylight in their roof blow out!  It was unbelievable the damage they had!  This tree took down their fence too!

 You used to not be able to see the mountains as clearly from their backyard because there were so many trees!

family pictures

We got family pictures taken on Saturday by Summer Derrick Photography (http://www.summerderrickphoto.com/)  She was super patient with the kids and we had a great time!  These are a few of the best ones... (man it's hard to get 4 kids to smile at the same time!)

trouble

You know you are in trouble when you ask your 2 yr old if the bathroom is a mess (she had been playing in the water in the sink) and she says YES!  Ugh! I'm scared to go look!!!!

thanksgiving times three

We had 2 Thanksgivings this year and then a bonus night with cousins from out of town (and some in town)

 We always spend Thanksgiving day with my family

 and the day after Thanksgiving with Brian's family.  We hosted the big feast at our house on Friday.

 We had a highly anticipated dinner at my parents house on Saturday with Carli's bff that was back in town for a visit.  It took Carli a minute to warm up (she had fallen asleep in the car) but once she was awake, these 2 were inseperable!  Just like the old days.  I guess Els has a baby doll that she has named "Baby Carli." 

I asked Carli the other day, "Where did Elsie go?"  And she said, "she moved away!  She needs to come back!"  We completely agree!

 the kids decorated cookies

 men, busy at work... or play... or whatever they do!

 and we played some fun games!

Sad to say goodbye... we hope we get to see Elsie and parents again soon!