Let it snow!

It is well into December and we have yet to have snow. Back in October I was grateful for the warmth and as November came and went I gloried in the weather. Chris commented, disgruntled by the weather, that it felt like California. My response was an enthusiastic, "I know! Isn't this great?!" We had one day of snow, the morning after Thanksgiving, where a nice soft layer of white covered the ground. The timing was perfect. It marked the last day of my mom's visit and there was just enough snow for her to go out and make a makeshift snowman with the girls before we had to head to the airport to send her back to the sunshine state. By the time we returned from the airport the snow was gone and the snowman was no more than a ball of snow covered in leaves with a limp scarf and wet hat resting upon it. But now Christmas is quickly approaching. Last year I anticipated a white Christmas and instead ended up with nearly 70 degrees! It may just be that I love Bing Crosby but I find myself longing for a white Christmas this year. Yesterday as I drove passed a ski resort cranking out the man-made snow I found myself uttering words that I never thought would cross my lips.... "when will it ever snow?"

A Stroke of Luck

Last month students at our middle school were to recruit adults to donate blood. As an added incentive for each adult they recruited the students name was entered into a drawing. The grand prize: two tickets to a Cavs game and a chance to meet Shaq and LeBron. Chris went and donated a pint but for some reason I didn't. Apparently that is all it took because Aubrey was the lucky student winner!!!! She was the school's most popular girl that day.

Today she came home little more upset by her latest win. A poetry contest was held at school to honor our local veterans for Veteran's Day. Each student had to write a poem, as a school assignment, the top poet from each grade was awarded the opportunity to stand before the student body and read their poem at the Veteran's Day assembly. All the local veterans are invited to attend and receive an award, then Aubrey will stand up and recite her poem for them. She hates writing poems, hates being in front of crowds, and hates that she has to wear a dress to school to do it. I think it's kind of funny, and of course I am proud of her. She was so afraid of winning that she waited until the morning it was due to write it and then took less than ten minutes to pound it out. Her goal was to do good enough to get a passing grade but not good enough to be noticed. I guess her plan failed since once again she is the winner!

Veteran’s Day

Because they were brave
Many lives were saved.

Because they were strong
Our country lasts long.

Because they were valiant
They showed true talent.

Our Veterans are really great
They are heroes, so we celebrate

By thanking them in a special way
By honoring them this Veteran’s Day.

Circle of Life

My neighbor came over yesterday to let me know that there is a dead deer on our property. His fear is that coyotes will be lured in and then discover his chickens (they have about 50 chickens). He continued to tell me more about the situation but I stopped hearing everything after the words "dead deer". I love living in the country, most of the time, but there are moments where nature and its realities kind of get to me. Deer frolicking across our yard, enchanting. Deer dying on our land and inviting coyotes to dine, disturbing. Of course, that's just me. At our last place a dead deer on our property meant lunch for the neighbor's tiger, here I am not really sure what to do with it. Any suggestions?

One Crazy Summer

I thought I should at least touch on our summer vacation before Fall officially arrives. Rather than ramble on about what we did all summer I decided to sum it up in one rather long list. I will say that over all we had a great time!

*Packed, moved, then unpacked
*Girl's Camp - I went as the craft lady, not sure who thought I was crafty
*Bought a piano
*Began piano lessons for Aubrey and Taylor
*Horseback riding lessons for Christine
*Another trip to the ER resulting in 3 stitches for Talia (honestly I don't need a son. The ER is
now conveniently located only 2 miles from our new home which should come in handy.)
*Broken down tractor - multiple times DON'T ASK we also had to have it towed from a ditch
*Zoo trips
*Swimming
*Movie nights, parties, sleep overs
*FAMILY REUNION trip to Colorado by way of Mt. Rushmore super fun even though we
broke down twice in Nebraska on our way home -LONG story. We got to see our family! It
was a blast. Chris and our brother in-law Paul hiked to the highest peak in Rocky Mountain
National Park (they didn't quite reach the summit, enjoyed the trip, but agreed to never do
that again - at least not so unprepared and untrained).
*A visit from our CA friends the Livers!!
*Band camp
*Trips to the library
*Clay's Park Ticket won by Chris singing on the radio
*Sunburn, sunscreen, and aloe
*Play dates
* Cut off hair and Taylor had enough to donate again
*Gardening
*Sleeping in!!
*And way too much in between stuff to even list. We were really on the go this year. Busy but
fun.

The highlight for me, of course, was seeing my entire family in Colorado. I could spend a very lengthy blog talking about our reunion adventures. I laughed more and harder than I had in a very long time and cried as we drove away. It had been three years since we had all been together and I forgot how much I love being with my family. We played games, we made crafts with the kids, we hiked (in the rain), we talked and talked, we told stories around the campfire, and sang songs (only because I made them), we dressed as cowboys/cowgirls for line dancing, we ate, we teased each other, we canoed and paddle boated, we took a tram ride, we made multiple trips to the grocery store, we hung out and caught up with each other, we barely slept, we simply enjoyed being together. I can't wait to see everyone again in 2011 when we head to Yellowstone. I could not have asked for a better family.

I Want My Carseat

In case you missed the news we moved over the summer. Our new home is on a few acres with the house set back about an acre and a detatched garage even further back. Today I was trying to put the camp chairs and bikes, that had been left out in the yard, away in the garage so I did what we always do, I loaded them up in the van and drove them back to the garage. I turned the car off but left the keys in the ignition while I unloaded the van and put things away. I got distracted looking for a box in the garage and failed to see Talia climb back into the van. I looked up and there was the van rolling away down the slope of our driveway. I ran as fast as I could, barely able to catch up to it, only to find that I couldn't get the door open. I ran along side it as it miraculously turned and headed up a very small hill in front of our house slowing in down just enough for me to open the door and hit the brakes. I sat on the front seat trying to catch my breath, my whole body shaking. I stopped the van at the peak of the hill another second and it would have began rolling down hill again and there would not have been such a happy ending. I asked Talia to sit down on the front seat so I could drive the car out of the yard. She broke down and cried, "I want to sit in my carseat!"
Later this same day I lit some scented candles. Talia took a card that Taylor had made and lit it on fire with the flame from the candles. I think she is trying to do me in. It might be working.

A Cold In the Summer

It has been so long since I even looked at my blog that I know many of you have been asking where I disappeared to. Life got crazy for a little while (though let's just be honest, life is always crazy) not crazy in a bad way just in a really-busy-no-time-to-blog way. Then so much time had passed that I was beginning to feel pressure to make my next post a good one full of all that had transpired over the last three months but the task sounded so daunting - and time consuming - that I never got around to it. Tonight I decided, while Chris is in the other room making some hot mint tea for me in an attempt to nurse my cold, that I would instead just make a brief post to let you all know that I am here and we are all doing well. I thought about making a list for you of the soon-to-come posts but writing all of this has already consumed all the energy I can muster up for tonight so off to bed I go with my tea and my tissue and a good book - that I will fall asleep pretending to read. Why on earth do I have a cold in the middle of summer?

I have been super busy lately and haven't spent much time on my blog but I had to share a funny conversation we had in the car today.

Taylor: "Mom when I get older can I have my own phone?"
Mom: "Probably, we'll see."
Christine: "Mom when I get older can I have a horse?"
Mom: "I don't know Christine. Maybe."
Talia: "Mom when I get older can I have a bikini?"
Mom: "No Talia. I don't think so."

I think my future is sounding expensive and stressful!

I wanted to write about the crazy day that I had earlier this week but I haven't had time. Basically I woke up with a migraine and was out of medication, I was over scheduled, ended up with errands to run I hadn't planned on and didn't have time for, my car broke down, we had dinner company (the missionary sisters from church) during which I ended up in the bathroom at one point with Talia who went diarrhea in her pants and Christine who wet her pants - at the same time. Chris was unfortunately still at work while all of this was happening. I am happy to say today was much better.

My postings may be sporadic for the next couple of months but I hope to get back on track soon and I know, I know I need to update my photos. I will try and get to it when life slows down - as if that will ever happen!

All About Aubrey

I meant to be done with the postings about each of my little girls before Easter but that obviously didn't happen. I have lots of things I have wanted to share from Taylor's baptism, to Easter, to Spring break and my mom's visit but I will have to save those for another day. Today I am finally getting around to writing about Aubrey. I thought I would share with you what she did over the weekend because it is so encompassing of who she is.

For about a month Aubrey has been planning to make a video for her teacher (shhh don't tell, it's a secret). She has been interviewing fellow students for ideas and even made a questionnaire for her teacher to find out some of her favorite things in an effort to incorporate them into the script. For example she wrote out funny little scenes using "inside" jokes that her class has, rewrote scenes from Twilight (her teacher loves the book series) to include her teacher as a character - she printed out pictures of the movie characters and made them into masks and then someone played the role of Mrs. T (the teacher). She made signs for the credits and title and selected music etc. So after several weeks of putting this all together she invited members of her class over to our house Saturday for the filming. She typed up and printed out copies of the script for everyone. There were several different scenes. She had all the students wear green because that is the teacher's favorite color. They all brought their instruments to play a song for the teacher, as instructed by Aubrey. Chris and I weren't sure what the other kids were going to think about all of this, or quite honestly if anyone would come, Aubrey has a unique tendency to get really into things and to let her creativity run wild. But as it turns out everyone was really into it and I had quite a house full on Saturday! She even hired her cousin to be the cinematographer - yes, hired, she offered to pay him $1 of her own money but he eventually quit and I filled in for free while he jumped on the trampoline. I made pepperoni bread, lemonade, and chocolate chip cookies (requests of the director) for refreshments.

That is my Aubrey. Always thinking outside of the box. I try to let her develop her creative mind by indulging in her imagination. Sometime I do have to reign her in but hopefully the moments I let her run wild with her ideas, such as Saturday, will be what she remembers when she is older.

Other random tidbits about Aubrey:
*She loves to watch sports with Chris and then gives me the play-by-play later (and I try to pretend I am interested)

*She is always wanting more and more responsibility and I struggle to feel she is ready. Our latest break through, she uses the curling iron and flat iron without help.

*She excels at the flute, is teaching herself the guitar, and has a really great singing voice - if I do say so myself.

*She is a great help with Talia. Talia calls her "Buddy" and often Talia sneaks into bed with Buddy at night. It is really cute.

It's Great To Be Eight!

Today is Taylor's momentous eighth birthday! Happy Birthday Taylor!

The two words that completely sum up Taylor are DRAMA QUEEN! While I am sure that most parents with daughters can relate to this description I must say that in a house full of dramatic and dynamic little girls Taylor steals the crown, hands down, for the title of Drama Queen. I often wonder if her expressiveness is a result of "middle-child-syndrome." She is a good student, a good helper, and an all around good girl surrounded by sisters that by their nature and needs require much more of my attention thus I sometimes think her dramatic tendencies are a plea for my attention (perhaps a little like another second child I know). It isn't all just a plea for a attention (except when it is the over dramatized injuries and hurt feelings) it is just Taylor. Whether it is reacting as if she won the lottery when I show her a new shirt I bought for her that I got on sale for a dollar, or her singing a song for me as if I were Simon Cowell and her very success as an American Idol depends on my opinion of her performance, or her ooo-ing and awww-ing over my appearance when I am going out on a date with Chris, I just eat up her excitement and enthusiasm.

Taylor is a really great artist, something I am in awe of since my idea of sketching a portrait is drawing a stick figure. She doodles constantly - which was the one negative remark on her report card, apparently her teacher would like less doodling on the surrounding edges of the work Taylor turns in; reading that made me smile. She loves fashion and colors and all types of creative expression. And she is great at them - but of course I am her mom.

A few random things:
When ever Taylor gets in trouble for something she always feels so bad about whatever it is. She is always writing me the cutest little apology notes. I usually keep them. She will love them one day when she is a mom.

Instead of having me make cupcakes for her class to celebrate her birthday she asked me to bring in pepperoni bread. I thought that was interesting.

She loves having red hair and I hope that never changes.

She hates eating most vegetables.

Loves to laugh, giggle, and wrestle with her sisters.

Loves to put on "shows" for us. She entertains us and drags her sisters into the shows too. They take turns introducing each other then they dance or sing or model or act.

Taylor is getting baptized on April 5th at 10 am at our church building for anyone interested in coming, we'd love to have you there.

I Wanna Be a Cowgirl

Christine is the classic stereotypical little girl: sweet, kind, tender-hearted, quiet (relatively speaking for our house), thoughtful, cuddly, giggly, and fun. For the longest time her favorite color was orange, until she discovered horses and now her favorite color is brown - because the horse she has ridden is brown. For years she has wanted to be a super hero and a cookie maker but horses again have changed everything. Now she wants to be a horse when she grows up. NO that is not a typo. She actually wants to be a horse. I gently explained that it wasn't possible so after a discussion about why that wasn't really fair she finally decided she would settle for becoming a cowgirl instead. Her great aunt gave her a dress and a couple of shirts with horses on them. Now I struggle to get her to wear anything besides these three things. She will begin horseback riding lessons next month and talks about it constantly. We have been to see the horse she will be riding only a couple of times and yet somehow where ever we are she always knows exactly which direction "Rebbie's" house is in. She lives and breathes horses. She even gallops around the house pretending to be one (thanks to a certain cousin that taught her how). My only problem with this is that her "nay" is a little too soprano for my ears.

For those of you that know Christine I am happy to report that she has made HUGE developmental progress this school year. When she was evaluated for kindergarten a year ago they said she knew no numbers and only 6 letters (upper and lower case X, O, and C). I was shocked. I didn't know she knew X and O! After ALOT of evaluations and prayers we decided to start her in school so that she could receive some of the special services they could offer her. Now she can count to 100 by ones, twos, and fives (slowly and with a little assistance) and recognizes most of the numbers by sight too. Not only does she know her alphabet, upper and lower case letters, and all the sounds but she also knows ALL of her sight words. We are still working on some fine motor skills but overall she has come a long way. And by the way no longer needs speech therapy.

Christine has a love for all living things. She waters plants in our front yard (that don't need to be watered) along with watering some strawberry seeds that she planted several months ago which unfortunately will never grow in spite of her diligent care for them. She made a bird feeder at Girl Scouts and she checks it everyday to see if the birds are getting enough food. She was worried that the wind would make the seeds fall off the styrofoam ball feeder hanging in the tree and then the birds would be hungry. She is my spider catcher too. Yes, I have a childlike squeamishness about spiders so Christine takes care of them for me. She has no fear. I started having her kill bugs and spiders for me a while ago then one day she picked one up for me and asked me why I wanted her to kill it when it didn't do anything to us. "Wouldn't this bug be happier if it just got to play outside?" I felt so bad that I had been having her kill them and she didn't want them to die. Now she picks them up and looks at them then sets them free out in the yard (except for these nasty big stink bugs, those get flushed). In the summer time she spends hours catching and playing with fireflies. She asks me all the time if she can have a pet, any kind of pet. Pretty soon here I will need to stop borrowing other people's pets and just get her one of her own. She just adores all animals. I think one day when she realizes what we are eating at dinner time she will be heart broken and turn vegetarian.

One of my favorite things about Christine is how much she loves me! She is such a mamma's girl. She likes to hang out with me in the kitchen when I cook, help me with my chores, and brush my hair. She watches me put on my make up and always tells me so sincerely how beautiful I am (ok so why wouldn't I like that). And she always tells me she loves me more than bubble gum (which she loves as much as horses). I guess that means she loves me alot. She likes to sit next to me or on my lap or hold my hand when we go for walks. She is my little sweetheart!

My Little Rascal

I thought I would take the next few posts and write an update on each family member. I'm starting at the end and working on up. Today's post is all about Talia...

While taking a bath today Talia's Dora doll was apparently not cooperating with whatever Talia wanted it to do. I heard her mutter very softly under her breath to it, "stupid toy." I was shocked by her response, she doesn't generally use words our family has dubbed "naughty". Immediately I reprimanded her. "Tal, we don't talk like that. You need to use nice words." Grumbling, because I had heard her, she altered her statement, replacing her not-so-nice adjective. She turned back to her Dora doll and said, in a very nice voice, "please don't do that you bad word toy."

Talia has asked us to call her Darla because she plans to marry Alfalfa (she calls him Falfa or Falfie). She thinks he is handsome and likes how his hair sticks up on top of his head. Sometimes she even asks me to fix her hair like that, but I kindly refuse. She likes to act out the scenes from The Little Rascals with Christine playing the part of Alfalfa and casting herself as Darla. They open up the umbrella and sit under it on a blanket having a 'romantical' picnic together. Maybe she is just drawn to Alfalfa because he wears a bow tie.

Today, in honor of St. Patty's Day, I made a cute shamrock out of red hair and ribbon on top of Talia's head. When we got to the grocery store a lady stopped us to tell us how cute Talia looked. Once the lady was out of sight Talia took off her sweater and wrapped it around her head. I asked her what she was doing. She said "I don't want anyone to see my pretty hair." I told her that was fine but she had to uncover her eyes. She uncovered her eyes and followed me through the store with her hair covered.

Our most recent mishaps with Talia (since my last posting which mentioned lotion and shortening) have involved play dough, lip gloss, markers, Hershey's syrup (the old standby), toothpaste, hairspray, and - my personal favorite - adding twenty loads worth of laundry detergent to a single load of wash. Don't ask!!!!

To dispel the conception of 'Talia the Maniac' that I have unintentionally created, I should add that she is also a sweetheart. She loves to help me with whatever I am doing. She loves to play with her big sisters and she runs out to the driveway to greet Chris whenever he comes home from work. She is thoughtful, kind, super smart, and really funny, in addition to curious and naughty (though I try to spin this as creative and adventurous - perhaps for my own sake). She is very joyful, often dancing about the house singing songs from her Silly Songs CD or she'll grab the guitar to show off her "rock moves" while singing the song by Pink. She loves to dress up (life is a stage) and exhibit her own flare by wearing dance recital costumes with yellow galoshes - yes I let her dress this way even in public, because sometimes it is just too cute and one day it will no longer be ok to dress that way so why force her to grow up now? I enjoy her enthusiasm for life and her excitement for everything new. She is a reminder to me not to take everything so seriously and not to let life just pass me by but to stop and savor the joyful moments and to look for adventure because you never know where you might find it.

Bad Hair Day

Yesterday I was teaching a "how to make a hair bow class" at my house with a few women from church and their children. At first Talia was struggling with sharing her toys with the other kids but at some point she finally went upstairs and played quietly with one of the other girls. I knew I should go up and check on her but I was trying to get through the instructions. Finally I followed that nagging feeling inside upstairs and as I reached the landing the smell of vanilla lotion filled the air. Not a good sign. I rounded the corner and saw my bedroom door open. Another bad sign. And I heard nothing. I opened Talia's bedroom door and gasped. Talia had emptied half the bottle of my favorite Warm Vanilla Sugar lotion onto her friends head and had "washed" her hair with it, along with "washing" her own. I ended up having to interrupt my little class downstairs to give these two a bath. I asked Talia about it later and she said "well we were trying to put you pretty wotion on but we got too much so we wash our hair with it. Then we put wadder in our hair too." It wasn't easy to get out but it was easier than the shortening she put in her hair on Valentine's Day.

Premonition

I recently had a conversation with someone about Chris and his job. I confided in her that one of my fears is what we would do if something were to happen to Chris's arms. I didn't think he would be able to do physical therapy without the use of both of his arms. Eerily, exactly one week later Chris broke his right arm, playing basketball of course! The things he can't do with his arm include button his shirt, tie his bow tie, put on his shoes and socks, fix his hair, drive while talking on the phone, dry off his back after a shower, sign his name or write anything at all. What he can do, apparently, is physical therapy (minus some manual therapy) and still bring home a pay check. I am not complaining, and hopefully neither are his patients.

The photos are out of order. The top photo is DAY 4 and the bottom photo is DAY 1. He fractured his Radial Head and damaged the surrounding soft tissue. In addition to ibprofen his arm needed splinting and rest for about a week followed by, you guessed it, physical therapy. He is hoping to have recovered enough to play in the final tournament for his basketball league in about three weeks. In the meantime he had to sit on the sidelines and watch his team lose this week!!! I think that was more painful than the injury. The bruising is so bad, these pictures don't really capture it. Did I mention that he also sprained his ankle at the same time? It bruised almost as badly but I forgot to take photos. He did all this damage to himself in the first half of the game and still played the second half. Why am I not surprised?

Talia Turns Three

I can't believe my little baby is three! She kept changing her mind about what she wanted her cake to be a flower, a butterfly, a princess, whatever randomly popped into her head. The morning of her birthday, in addition to announcing that she was the "birthday boss" she decided to wear her favorite dress and wanted the cake to match. I made some marshmallow fondant and cut out polka dots, easy enough - but on the day of her party she wanted a butterfly. I may never post the pictures of that, the concept is cute (cut a round cake into a peace sign and flip the top pieces out so the curved sides are touching, fan out the bottom two pieces, and use a cupcake for the head) but I let her pick the colors and they didn't look so pretty. It has been a couple of weeks since her birthday and she still thinks she's the "birthday boss". We may have left terrible two's behind but we are now just beginning the terrifying three's. Pray for us!

Horsin' Around

For Christmas my girls asked for:

Aubrey - something, anything from Abercombrie
Taylor- a pogo stick (the same thing she has asked for for about four years)
Christine - a horse and bubble gum
Talia- whatever toy she saw, she was excited about everything

The older girls got what they asked for. Christine and Talia got a kitchen set. I asked them all what their favorite gift was.

Christine's answer: My horse.
Mom: You know you didn't get a horse, right?
Christine: I know. But it would have been my favorite gift if I had gotten one.

I told a lady at church about this, because I thought it was pretty funny, and she invited me to bring Christine over to meet her horses. She even said we could pretend one was for Christine. I didn't go that far but we did go and spend a day with the horses. I thought Christine would be scared, she is super shy normally and we don't have any animals at home. But I was wrong. She was in heaven. We were introduced to their pony Rebbie and Christine brushed his hair, rode it like a champ, and even fed him. I agreed to let her take riding lessons when the weather warms a bit*. She asks me every day when we can go again.

*As a side note, Saturday when I went to the store it was 9 degrees outside. For all of you thinking "wow that's cold" this is 40 degrees warmer than the temperature Friday when Chris left for work. It was -31 degrees (with the wind chill and -15 without it). Until today I never thought a single digit temperature would sound......warm.

Christmas

I thought I would spare you a long-winded commentary of our holiday break and just post a few pictures. I have no idea what happened to the pictures of the girls opening gifts Christmas morning so here are some other random holiday phots. Enjoy!


The girls with Santa at the church. I told them we were going to a Christmas party but I think Talia thought it was Halloween still. This is the day we came home from the hospital by the way....


The girls pose by the Christmas tree.....















Making a snow fort with Dad....






The girls freeze to death as I try to take a cute picture in the town square. It was about 12 degrees....

Making a ginger-bread house in honor of my mom's tradition...

Talia gets her face painted with Christmas lights....

The only picture of me from Chirstmas day. I have no idea what I am doing but I am pretty sure I am telling one of the kids to put the camera down.

Drawing a Blank

I am temporarily without a background. I deleted my Christmas background and then discovered that www.thecutestblogontheblock.com is under construction and thus my blog is a little empty. I will remedy this problem as soon as possible.

Psyched About Psych

Ok I admit it: I am secretly obsessed with the show Psych (which airs Fridays at 10pm EST on USA network). So maybe it isn't such a secret to anyone that knows me. Never in my life have I been obsessed with any show, until now. I have the mug, I smile when I see pineapples, and every morning the alarm on my phone wakes me with the Spanish version of the theme song (couldn't find it in English - long story). It is a summer series so it begins in July, runs for a few weeks then takes a break through the holidays and picks up again in January. I am sitting impatiently waiting for it to start......only a half an hour to go!!!!!! (Which reminds me, for some reason the time is off on my posts and I don't know why. My computer has the right time on it. Anyone know why my blog doesn't?)

If you have never seen Psych you should check it out. Watch it at least twice so you kind of get what is going on. Yes he is a fake psychic and no this is not a reality show. It is super funny!

Someone Needs Laxatives

Talia rushed off to the bathroom a few times within a small window of time this morning so I asked her, the third time she was on the toilet, if her tummy felt ok. "No, mommy. Can I sit on your lap?" Was her reply. I told her not until she got off the toilet. On her next trip the the bathroom just a few minutes later she yelled out for me. "Mommy! Help! My bum is not working!" Aubrey and Taylor and I started laughing. Christine thought maybe Talia needed new batteries. I gave her some fiber instead.