It's Christmas Time!!!

Man, oh man did we have a busy holiday season.  I don't even remember the order of most of these things so I'll just randomly throw them all in. We did:

A youth activity at church, where the girls played games with the kids for two hours so the parents could go Christmas shopping.

Rode the carousel downtown by Santa's workshop (how I miss the Strong Museum of Play).

 

Went ice skating for the first time!

 

Saw Santa a number of times including when we went to check out the light display with our friends, the Whites.

 

Went to a Christmas Eve service with the Rileys who later joined us for our traditional Bethlehem dinner on the floor (no pictures included). 

 

 

 

 Opened stockings Christmas Eve and presents Christmas morning of course!

And since The Man had to work, I took the kids up to Tahoe as guests of the Rileys.  The Boy has been wanting to be back in snow so I sucked it up and made the drive.  We did sledding and the Boy even went snow skiing for the first time.  Unfortunately I was not supermom that day and left my camera at home.  But he did really great for his first time and I was proud of him for trying something new!

Phew.  Let's get on with normal.

Thanksgiving 2013

We celebrated Thanksgiving here with The Man's mother and father and one of his sisters (who was about 8 months pregnant) and her husband. We figured we should probably buy a dining room table for such an event, so we broke down and did it.  Here we are:

We also invited our neighbors, realtors, good friends, and all around great guys the Rileys to join us. It was a nice dinner where I did very little of the cooking or cleaning!

Bigger Girl Bed!

In order to accommodate more family members, and to allow the Girl to grow, we put away the toddler bed for good and got her a big girl bed!

Halloween 2013

This year the Girl and the Boy went as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.  I made the girl's skirt and cape and pieced together the boy's costume from Amazon.  I thought it would be cheaper to do it that way.  I was wrong.

We had two parties, a trunk-or-treat, and Halloween night to attend.  (Why can't Halloween just be one day a year like it was when I was a kid?)

Charlie's Angels

This year we were invited to a "Big Kid" Halloween party.  Since The Man had to work that night, I called a friend who was also invited and whose husband was out of town.  She grabbed her friend whose husband was gone as well (and who happened to be Asian) and we went as Charlie's Angels.

My bullet belt was awesome if I do say so myself. It was a fun night with live music, food, and piñatas of all things.  Can't wait to do it again next year!

Bangs

The Girl and I now have the same hair cut since she decided last night to cut herself some bangs.

I avoided bangs and a mullet on her by pinning her hair back in a bow and keeping it in a short bob for two years while the top grew out to match the rest of her hair. It was beautiful. I was just recently able to put it in a pony tail, braid it, etc... Then I was dumb enough to take a phone call while giving her a trim - leaving the scissors within her grasp.

Breast Cancer Walk

The Man's group sponsors a team for the Annual Breast Cancer walk in town.  This year we decided to go as a family. 

 The Girl got to ride the whole way while the Boy managed to do two out of the three miles.

Walk-a-Thon

October was busy starting with the school's only fundraiser - the Walk-a-Thon.  They hold this event during school hours and it is a blast.  Every class got 15 minutes to run as many laps as they could to earn money for the school.  Parents come to cheer them on. The boy had a great time and ran thirteen laps!  He would have done more had he not stopped at the water table 5 times.

The girl was glad to meet the school mascot.

I love the boy's new teacher.  She is an incredibly patient woman.

What a fun day!

 

My Girl, the Good Guy

Yesterday the Girl asked me if I am "stuck with the evil daddy".  I said yes.......yes I am.

The Water Sprinkler

The sprinkler was always a favorite for me as a kid. Even though I grew up with a pool, there is just something about the sprinkler.

I think Roxy enjoys it more than the kids, honestly.  Sometimes she is going so wild over it, the kids are a little afraid to join in.

 When the dog finally tired out, I asked them to give me their best Kung Fu poses.

Love it.

New House

Among all the other stuff that went on this summer, we bought a house.  Finally, I get around to blogging it.

It is just one block over from where we've been renting.  We liked the neighborhood (specifically our old neighbors) and the convenience to shopping, so we stuck around.  It also happened to be The Man's favorite house in this development.

Looks like we'll be happy here for a long while.

Preschool

The Girl started preschool!  The High School here offers a child development and education course to their students. The class basically consists of running a preschool.  We are in the afternoon session and the Girl is loving it.  The ratio of student teachers to preschoolers is nearly 1:1, so she gets LOTS of attention. 

A Little Shout Out

Katrina, why didn't we take a picture together while you were here?!  Grrrrr....that was completely negligent of me.  I am so grateful my New York friend came to visit.  And when I had to leave her here alone so I could dart off to church, true to form, she was cool with that.  Thank you for coming!

I miss all of my New York friends greatly.  Sending you love and sunshine from California.

First Day in the First Grade (clap)

 Back to school!!!! Hallelujah!

Dance Class

I have already become a soccer mom. I am now becoming a dance mom. 

 The Girl has been asking me to put her in dance class for 6 months.  I told her she had to wait until she was three and fully potty trained. 

We started today and she was done with it after 30 minutes.  She was a little afraid to be without her mama for so long, but I talked her into finishing up. She said she didn't want to go back, but I've already paid for two more lessons.  So....she's going.

Hives

This is how we found out the Boy is allergic to penicillin.  After putting him on it for a gum infection above the loose tooth we (somewhat tragically) had to pull, he developed this lovely rash on the plane home.

First Tooth

It was a long, slow, semi-traumatic experience.

Memorial

I'm not certain I want to remember this day forever by putting it in my blog.   But significant moments are a part of life even if they are sad, and I want to remember the significant moments.

I only have a brief thing to say about my father's memorial service.  It was a hard day.  It was harder than it should have been. I'm grateful for what closure it brought to me.

For My Dad

My father died today. I don't know how else to commemorate this day other than to just write it here.  He was eighty-eight. He always said he would live to be a hundred, and I believed him.  So it was a bit of a shock to hear.  It makes me all the more grateful for the one year we lived in St. Louis.  Of all the places The Man could have chosen and gained admission, we ended up in the place where my father had just moved two years earlier. Who knew he would only have one more to live after that?

He had a lot of faults, but he was a good father and I look forward to seeing him again one day.

Summer Goings On

This summer has been somewhat busy.  Here's a bit of a recap:

The Boy had soccer camp for a week and weekly practice for the rest of the summer.  At camp, he got to shoot goals with a soccer playing goat while wearing the ginormous T-shirt the camp provided.  I don't even know why they bothered to ask me his shirt size.

We all went to the zoo.

We borrowed the neighbors power wheels every time they went out of town.

The Boy and the Girl are both in swim lessons and having a blast. 

  We are spending time at the beach where the Boy learned to boogie board and is testing out his surfing skills.

And we went to the dentist.  :)