Annika's Dance

Annika is also involved in dance this year. She does one dance with some younger girls that is really cute. Her partner in this dance was a little nervous, so Annika urged her on more than once. It was funny to watch, but also encouraging that Annika knew her dance well enough to know what was coming next.
She likes to play in class a lot, but her teacher this year has been great and helped her a lot. She doesn't love dance though, so this will probably be her last year.
When I asked her what she wants to try next (piano, tumbling, etc.) she told me that she doesn't need to try anything, she would like to just come home from school and read or watch tv or play with her DS.
Then we talked about hiding your light under a bushel.
She still didn't get it.
So I may make an executive decision and try putting her in tumbling. She has had a bit of a motor delay since birth, and still struggles with gross motor skills a little. I am hoping tumbling might help with that. I guess we will see how much she likes it.

Here is her dance:

A Waterfall Braid

I saw this braid on Adopt A 'Do. I thought it was so cute and wanted to give it a try.
It took a few tries, but I finally figured it out.
I like the effect: long and straight, but still out of her face.


She is a busy girl though, so it didn't last through an active Saturday.

It's Great To Be 8

She's FINALLY 8. She thoughth it would take forever for her birthday to come, but she got there. The big 0-8.
For one of her gifts, she and I spent one afternoon shopping for her baptism dress and going out to lunch. She got to pick.
We went to the Olive Garden.
And got a beautiful dress.
She was a hilarious shopping companion. I tried to get her to pick a really pretty dress with lace and beading, but she would have none of it.
We got a very simple but elegant dress (and hey, it was also the least expensive!)


Here is her birthday interview:
Favorite thing to do: READ!!! of course she says.
Favorite book to read: Junie B Jones and Ramona
Favorite color: Pink
Best friend: Gracie and Olivia
What she wants to be when she grows up: A nurse
Least favorite chore: Folding the laundry
Favorite scripture story: Captain Moroni

As we all know, once you're 8, you get to be baptized. She was thrilled at the idea and we could hardly keep her contained on Saturday, since she had to wait until 4:30.
By the time we got to the church, she was so wiggly she could hardly sit still.
Grandma Terry and Grandma Williams gave talks after the spotlight by me.
She was baptized by her father.

I had my first opportunity to go back and help with one of my kids after the baptism.
(I have to insert here that we were very speedy. Annika was dried off, dressed up and spiffy in her seat before Burke got there. Ha! He doubted me.)
After the baptism, all of the cousins present sang I Am A Child of God, and then Annika was confirmed by her dad.



Here is her testimony: I know the church is true. I am glad that I have a family and that I am baptized so that I can be redeemed from my sins. I am very blessed to have a family, friends, and food.

That's it, people. Short and sweet.

She looked beautiful that day. I hope she always remembers it as a special opportunity for her father and her to participate in an ordinance to help her return to live with her Heavenly Father someday.
Thank you to all those who were able to be there, and for the best wishes of those who couldn't.

Halloween, At Last

Yes, I know I am finally getting around to posting the Halloween fun, but it is worth the wait.

Right?

Nathan, after much consternation about Kohl's not sending his much needed accessory, was a Doctor for the school Halloween party (we improvised using the scrubs I work for work when I was pregnant with him, with some tailoring, of course).
Annika borrowed a costume from her friend again because of Kohl's late shipment (not my fault, I proclaimed as I clicked purchase on October 21). Annika was very cute as an Asian princess, or as Mulan, whichever she decided was more glamorous.

Kade was a mummy. Which I sewed. With lots of cheesecloth bits flying up my nose as I did it.

Adrienne was a cute little red witch.

Once the Kohl's shipment came (the day after the school parties) Nathan was Albert Einstein and Annika was still the neighbor's Asian girl costume because I got the wrong size. In my own defense, I ordered the size it said was for kids 8-10 years old. When it came, I said 8-10 years old= size 12-14. GRRR. Oh well, maybe she can wear it in 3-4 years.

I had the opportunity to plan the parties for the 2nd grade and for Kade's class in third grade. It was very stressful for me, but we got it done, and the craft and the games turned out to be lots of fun. Adrienne got to come and hang out in the second grade and the third grade parties, so she thought she was pretty awesome.


The weekend of Halloween, we headed up to the library for their annual party which is usually pretty fun, especially for the younger kids.
Nathan won the costume contest for the "Smartest" costume and was able to pick out a book.

Kade won too for the all around best costume! It validated all of the tacking of cheesecloth that took many more hours than I thought it would.

After the library party, the boys went trick or treating with their friends, and the girls got to go with their dad until a friend's mom picked them up and took them out for a little while.
They were soooo excited and felt like they were big like their brothers to be out without mom or dad.
Adrienne got separated from the group though, because the house they went to didn't give her candy fast enough and the other kids left her. She was a little upset at that, but seemed fine once she sat down to munch on her candy.

Burke and I were home alone on Halloween night.
He got to fulfill his fondest wish (next to getting his truck).
He wore a horrendous mask and scared the bigger kids who came to the door.
His chuckles and comments of "They screamed like little girls!" Were pretty funny.
Love that guy!

All Dolled Up

Annika had a dance competition last Saturday.
She looked very cute and seemed to remember her dance better than she did last year.

She looked so cute, if I do say so myself.
Definitely an improvement.

Jabberwocky... Recycled

Annika knows the Jabberwocky poem from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.

We have gotten a lot of mileage from that particular poem.

Most recently, she wanted to participate in the First Grade Talent Show.

She wanted to sing "Kids in America".

I strongly encouraged her to recite the Jabberwocky.

She did.

Dramatically.

She got more than one chuckle.

And she did a great job.

Despite being a little nervous in front of all the adults.

Here goes:

We just found out that she has been asked to perform her poem for the entire school on the 26th. She is definitely not a shrinking violet--she can't wait.

A Birthday Gift

My mom and dad came to visit Nathan for his birthday. They brought him a gift that he could open and a gift that I don't think he realized was a gift.
His Great-grandpa came with them. And he brought his harmonica.We all had a little laugh about that.
Grandpa always finds an opportunity to play for whomever he can find.My kids loved it.
Great-grandpa loved it.
Annika is still talking about when she can get her first real harmonica.
I think the real gift is being able to appreciate family.
I am so blessed to still have all four of my grandparents. (Got some good genes there).

Nathan really enjoyed the gift he opened though. I have no idea how I have not gotten a picture of it yet because I believe that it was surgically attached to his hand as soon as he got it out of the package.
It was a nerf gun. And he loves it. It has been confiscated more than once for my other children's protection.
We are currently working on getting him to focus on target practice right now.
But it is so fun to shoot it at people.
I got Adrienne the other day when she was trying to sneak up on me.
And it was really fun.
Then she took it away.
Darn.
Guess I should be a better example.

Pretty Girls

I did this on the girls' hair Sunday for church. It turned out to be so cute, but didn't hold up very well. By the time they got home, the ribbons had moved around too much. I have a new plan to try to keep it in place, but I'll have to wait for a while to try it out because the girls weren't impressed with this 'do.
Here is my littlest munchkin's hair:

How about that cheesy smile? Love those girls.

Spring (?) Break

We spent spring break up in the mountains. It wasn't so spring-y, but it was a much-needed break.

The first challenge was getting into the cabin. This picture was taken with Nathan standing at the entrance to the driveway.
We decided to take our chances and try parking on the road. "The Man" left us a nasty note, but by then the neighbors took pity on us in our poor minivan and let us park in their plowed driveway.
Then we had to get all the stuff in our work-horse van into the cabin. It wasn't pretty, and involved some yelling and wet boys, but we finally got settled in and warmed up with some hot chocolate.
After that, the fun began. We played games, watched movies, and went tubing. We tubed and tubed and tubed.
The best part was there was a really long hill where we could drop off the kids and one adult and then meet them at the bottom. We loaded everyone and all the tubes up and drove around to the top to let them go down again. It was so much fun.
One morning we availed ourselves of the local Easter-egg hunt. It was a massive undertaking. There must have been a thousand kids in the events center. For us, it ended up being a moderate success.
Adrienne had a bit of a struggle to pick things up with her cast on, but I let her tough it out. There were many parents who got in there with the 4-5 year olds and grabbed candy, though.
It was a little ironic because the grumpy man who kept telling me to leave my 4 year old daughter there alone felt pretty dumb when I was the only parent who was actually waiting on the sidelines and letting my daughter get her own candy.
Annika seemed destined to "find" all the stupid scraps of paper the organizers spread out as advertisements for the sponsors. She mostly ended up with a bag full of papers. Nathan's bag mysteriously developed a hole in it, so as he was furiouly filling it, other (rotten) kids were coming behind him picking up the stuff he was dropping. The kids had fun though (except for a disappointed Nathan) so that is all that matters, right?

After the big hunt, we went to the city park to play fox and geese, a family tradition on my side. I was appalled that we had never taken the time to play it before. I got to teach the kids and Burke to play. It was hilarious. When Adrienne got tired of running around, she said that she wanted to play fox and squirrels and she was going to be the squirrel hiding in its burrow. She walked away and sat in the snow to rest. After the fun in the park we let the kids play on the playground for a while. We had it all to ourselves, since it was freezing. The kids didn't seem to mind, though.


We finished the afternoon with a stop at the famous local burger joint. I got a turkey sandwich (sigh) but treated myself to a nonfat yogurt shake with Oreos that I'm sure kept it nonfat(YUM).

That night it snowed. A lot.The kids decided to take advantage of the new snow and tubed down the driveway while Burke and I loaded up the van.
We were a little worried we would have to move in until Memorial Day, but our faithful minivan got us out and we headed home to check out the Easter baskets the Easter bunny had left us.
It was an amazing weekend and we had so much fun. Thanks for letting us use the cabin Grandma and Grandpa!

Hot Tubbin'

Aunt Kellie's family came up to visit us. Well, they came to ski, so we went to visit them at their hotel. It was nice to see everyone and let the cousins visit with each other.
We decided to take advantage of the opportunity to go sit out in the hot tub.
I got in with the kids because Burke couldn't find his swimsuit. (How convenient).

We started with a bag tied around Adrienne's cast, but lost the bag later when we noticed it was actually holding the water in.
Adrienne decided that Aunt Kellie and cousins Hannah and Becca were the greatest. We almost had to leave her there to live with them forever.
In the end, we convinced her that coming with us would be okay.
It was a great evening, thanks guys!

Hey! Let's Go Bowling

We went bowling a couple of weeks ago. I figured out that bowling is not my strength. I think I should have had them put up the guards for my turn too.
Maybe I should have used Adrienne's technique:
It seemed to work for her. The boys also had a pretty good showing, except for one incident where Kade threw (and I mean threw) a gutter ball. The guards were up. And it went in the gutter. I didn't know you could do that. And darn it, I didn't get a picture.
Nathan was pretty good once he tried a smaller ball.
Annika was mostly there for the food. She would throw the ball and then run back to the table to eat her pizza without even checking to see how many pins she knocked down. There's a girl with the right priorities.
Of course, Burke ended up being the bowler of the day.

I think Adrienne had the most fun when she discovered the hand dryer.
We had a good time, and more importantly, everyone could gloat that they all beat mom!

Beauty Sleep

A diva in training?

I Love It

I came up with some festive valentine hairdos this week in time for the Valentine parties at school. They looked so cute on the girls.

This was Annika's. This one lasted for two days.


I forgot to get a picture that includes her face. And the hair is supposed to look like hearts if you can't tell.
This was Adrienne's Valentine's Day 'do:



She also had a cute heart hairdo in for her field trip:



I didn't think to take pictures of it until someone commented on it while we were there, so they are all blurry because she was too busy to sit still for me.

Happy Valentine's Day to my sweet little girls.