Finishing Up January

To finish up the month of January...

Photo 28 of 365, taken January 16th:

I had to search my photos from the month and see which ones I could squeeze in here at the end of the month to finish with a total of at least 31 :-). This picture was taken one Wednesday night at church in the room where I teach, right before the girls ran off to their own classrooms.

Silly bucket head. How her time in my kindergarten Daisies room has already come and gone is completely beyond me.

Photo 29 of 365, taken January 19th:

Rebekah loves to climb stuff. I remember doing similar things when I was young, and how nervous it used to make my Aunt Laura {I think my parents were pretty used to it, and I don't remember them ever telling me to stop or get down}. I remember always wondering what my aunt was so worried about when I would scale walls and such. Now with my own three little monkeys even though I know it's unlikely that they will actually fall, I can better understand my aunt's concerns!

Photo 30 of 365, taken January 27th:

A club in our area hosts an invitational each winter in support of breast cancer awareness and all the proceeds from the meet are donated to causes that help women currently going through treatment and education for young women/girls about breast cancer prevention. Such an awesome idea ~ I hope our gym continues to be invited every single year!

All the gymnasts who participate are given a pink ribbon leo. I think the new leo was a huge incentive for Emma to bounce back from her pneumonia as quickly as possible. I kept telling her that she would get her leo regardless of whether she was well enough to compete or not, but she was determined to get well and not miss her chance to compete in pink!

She also wanted a photo of her hair from the day...it had already been through a lot of flips and some really icy, snowy weather so this was the best I could get. She loved the glitter.

Photo 31 of 365, taken January 27th:

The girls were happy that Emma's friend Halle and my parents could come see the meet! It was cold and icy, and the roads were terrible, but it was still a good day.

Alyssa told me this morning, "Wow, today is the last day of the first month of 2013. This year is going by quick already!" I have always thought that kids seem to process time differently than adults do ~ the minutes and hours are somehow longer for them, and what seems like a short period of time to me seems like asking the girls to wait forever. So it occurred to me that if time was moving quickly for Alyssa, then the new year must really be moving along at an incredible pace.

Yummy Eats at the Urban Ecology Center

Last weekend I went to a women's conference for church for a few hours on both Friday and Saturday. While I was gone on Saturday, Dave took the girls to the Urban Ecology Center for snacks, sledding and sled dog demonstrations. I mostly got pictures of the food, so it must have been good!

Photo 27 of 365, taken January 26th:

Emma loved seeing the sled dogs when we went to this same event last year and was so happy to re-unite with her favorite dog, Bob again this year. Bob is the darker of the two dogs in this photo and I think Emma wishes she could bring him home.

Snow Wonderful

Photo 26 of 365, taken January 25th:

The girls helped out by shoveling the sidewalk for us last Friday afternoon when they were out of school. I love how Rebekah is dumping a shovel full of snow right in the middle of the sidewalk. Good thing Alyssa was following behind! It was a very light, fluffy snow, perfect for playing in...

And making snow angels, unfortunately there wasn't quite enough of it for any snowmen.

It was still really pretty though, and actually my favorite kind of snow ~ we had the entire driveway and sidewalk cleared in about 15 minutes. Just enough to barely cover the ground.

Photo 25

Photo 25, taken January 21st:

I accidentally left this photo from the museum off the Martin Luther King Day post and when I tried to go back and add it, the picture had a mind of it's own, and no matter where I placed it in the post it would only appear at the very bottom ~ which was not where I wanted it. I guess it works out okay though, because now I can use it as one of my 365 pics :-)

Another thing my MLK day post should have included was a happy birthday wish to our little nephew. Happy Birthday, Cutie Pie Kekane!! We hope you had a wonderful birthday and send lots of love your way!

Ice Princess

Photo 24 of 365, taken January 25th:

For Rebekah's most recent "Day with Dad," Dave took her ice skating. She had been asking for a while to try ice skating and she LOVED it!! Now when we drive past the ice rink, she yells out, "Daddy took me there, that's where I do my ice skating!"

Off she goes!

Martin Luther King Day at the Domes and Public Museum

On Martin Luther King Day, we did what I think many other families decided to do...visit the Mitchell Domes and the Public Museum. Both are free on Mondays to county residents, so they are always popular places when there's no school.

The Show Dome had a circus train theme. New to us were some little box like things that as you crank a small wheel on the front, a speaker provides information on the plants/exhibits nearby. The girls were impressed :-)

At the museum.



The butterflies liked Alyssa's headband.

And Emma's. Emma was not herself all weekend, she just seemed tired and as I look at these photos I can see that her eyes don't look right and her coloring is off. After leaving the museum she was very sleepy, couldn't practice gymnastics at all, and I knew she needed to go to the doctor. She went this morning and sweet thing has pneumonia ~ her poor, fragile lungs can't handle this cold weather we've had.


Photo 23 of 365, taken January 21st.

It was so nice to have a day off school and Dave home from work, and thankfully Emma is now recovering. Her anitbiotics and prednisone are already helping her feel better.

Fancy Fingernails

Photo 22 of 365, taken January 20:

Sparkly, silver music notes on her fingers...so cool, Alyssa must be dreaming.

Blood

Photo 20 of 365, taken January 19th:

Dave donates blood every so often and our church had a blood drive earlier today, so he signed up for an appointment. Alyssa needs to have her blood drawn as part of her annual check up and we've been putting it off because she doesn't like the idea of a blood draw very much. The night before the blood drive, a group of her friends slept over at the church and we figured since she was there anyway she should watch Dave donate blood. So she could hopefully see that it's not too bad and definitely not something she should worry too much about.

Photo 21 of 365, also taken January 19th:

Looking at the pictures Dave took as he was donating, I couldn't tell whether she was curious, scared, happy, concerned, grossed out...maybe all of the above? I'm not sure that the experience did anything to ease her concern over having her blood drawn, but at least she knows what to expect and knows Dave gave way more blood than what they are going to take from her, and he did just fine!

The Heart In Our Driveway

Photo 19 of 365, taken January 14th:

As we got home from the gym the other night, I stepped over this "heart" in our driveway. You can see the van's tire mark over the right side of the heart. Too bad I drove over a little bit of it making it not quite the perfect heart shape.

Emma's Funny Face Battle with the letter "R"

Photo 18 of 365, taken January 14th.

Emma works very hard on her speech homework, usually once or twice a week. She has always had trouble with the letter "R." Rs often turn to Ws for her. She can definitely make the correct "R" sound when she slows down and thinks about what she's saying, but who wants to slow down every thought of what letter is rolling off their tongue mid-conversation? I know Emma doesn't :-)

She tends to make a funny forced smile that reminds me a little bit of the Joker from Batman when she says her "R" correctly. I could have put the other photo I took up here to show this, but she did have a strange expression on her face, and I didn't think Emma would appreciate the photo being posted. She's working on it, and getting better, but I also think it has become such a habit for her that when she is outside the realm of working with her speech teacher, or working on her endless list of R words with me or Dave she doesn't slow down often enough for the correct R sound to get into her speech ~ and that's okay, it sounds sweet.

Friends at the Gym

I am clearly doubling up photos from a few days ago, but falling behind schedule this early in the year was bothering me and I had the cute cell phone pics so here goes my efforts to catch up:

Photo 14 of 365, taken January 12th:

These are some of Rebekah's best friends, West and Bradyn. These three amigos are pretty inseperable at the gym most days.

Photo 15 of 365, also taken January 12th:
The iPad is a pretty amazing thing and it was a great source of entertainment for these two during awards of the gymnastics meet last weekend.

Photo 16 of 365, taken January 11th:

West is very often so sweet to Rebekah. Don't tease him about though, it's a kinda touchy subject.

Photo 17 of 365, taken January 11th:

And this is the little one who keeps Alyssa busy some nights at the gym. Alyssa loves Macy, the youngest daughter of one of the owners of the gym! She has on multiple occassions held Macy up to me in all her cuteness and said, "see this is why we need another baby!" Macy is cute, but I'm sorry sweetie, I just don't think another baby is happening in our little family.

January 11th ~ Pictures 11 through 13

January 11th, aside from being our niece's birthday, was also a very full day! I took lots of pictures that day, and since I am at least a little behind pace in my attempt to have 365 pictures from 2013, I thought I would double up, or even use several {my next post will draw a couple pics from Jan. 11th as well} photos from the same day...

Picture 11 of 365, taken January 11th.

Rebekah's class made paper bag puppets, she was so excited to show me the one she made of herself. They were supposed to be making animals.

Picture 12 of 365, also taken January 11th.
She did eventually get around to making an animal ~ a frog. I made a pig while I visited her classroom, they were super easy, cute and colorful.

Picture 13 of 365, taken January 11th.

These shirts and other items with the "Get a Grip" slogan have just recently shown up at our gym's pro shop, although I think I have seen them at meets and in magazines for about a year now, but Alyssa is sure the company got the idea from the leo design that she drew and submitted back in July 2011. She knew it was going take off :-)

A Day for Gymnastics

As I mentioned in my previous post, yesterday was Emma's first level 7 meet. The day turned out to pretty much revolve around gymnastics fun. You can click the collage for a few action shots of Emma from the day. Emma's group competed in the morning, then we went out to lunch with my parents...

After lunch, Emma's friend and teammate, Anastasia came over to our house so the girls could make motivational t-shirts. This is something they have been asking me to do for weeks at practice.

For dinner, the girls wanted gymnast and star shaped pasta, which we can thank our pasta fundraiser for the super fun shapes! We later returned to the meet for the evening session to watch their friend, Hallie compete.

Emma and her two friends from gymnastics, Anastasia and Khalizstall, refer to themselves as Hopis {pronounced Hope- E plural}. I'm not sure if this is an actual gymnastics thing, or something they just made up. They send each other encouraging notes and sign all of them L9H, which stands for Level 9 Hopi. Another thing I am not sure about is their pre-occupation with Level 9, as there are 10 levels and the gymnasts who appear on tv are the highest level a gymnast can reach, called Elite. But for now, the girls have their focus set on achieving level 9. The above is a picture of what I mistakenly called their "code" but then they pointed out to me near the bottom of the page that they had used a stronger word than code: it's their law.

Any gymnast who wants to get better should stand next to these girls. Their "laws" as listed above are not only pretty good goals for gymnastics, but for life as well.

Emma's First Level 7 Meet

Photo 10 of 365, taken January 12th.

Emma had her first level 7 gymnastics meet yesterday. She's still got a lot that she wants to "fix" and work on, but she did everything I asked of her, didn't fall on anything and qualified for State. Can't ask much more than that for a first meet!

Winter Band Concert

Photo 9 of 365, taken January 11th.

Thursday was Alyssa's Winter Band Concert for school. All the kids did a really good job. If you can't see Alyssa in this photo of her band group, don't worry. Dave and I couldn't find her anywhere on stage for the entire performance. Usually it's just me who gets consumed by crazy worry about the girls when something unexpected is occurring, but even Dave was certain she was not there with her classmates, and he sent me out in the hall to see if for some reason she had opted out of the concert. Apparently, she was in the back row behind some tall kids the entire time.

A New Night Light

Photo 8 of 365, taken January 9th.

Rebekah earned these glow sticks at church for saying her memory verse and as she carried them out to the car I told her not to crack them and make them glow until a night when she could stay up late and enjoy their "glowy-ness". By the time we got home, 5 out of the 6 glow sticks were glowing. We are still working on following directions and I am beginning to think this is a life-long process. But she enjoyed them during our stories that night, and somewhat miraculously, they glowed {more dimly, of course} for two more nights.

Today is our niece's birthday...Happy Birthday, Sweet Ki'inani!! We LOVE You!

Anniversary Lunch

Photo 7 of 365, taken January 7th.

Dave and I went out for a belated anniversary lunch the day after our anniversary. We tried a new mexican restaurant and it was awesome. They have a rather small menu so there's not a whole lot to choose from, but every single item sounded amazing. I wanted to try it all! Sorry this photo is kind of gross, I forgot to take a pic as the food arrived and it wasn't until after I put this collage together that looking at our 3/4 eaten food seemed so unpleasant.

What I really wish I could feature in my photo from our lunch is Dave getting a re-fill on his water. Anyone who has ever eaten with him, or sat near him for any length of time knows how much ice water he drinks. He was getting impatient waiting for his water glass to be re-filled so he walked up to the bar where the server had left a pitcher. He shook the near empty pitcher over his glass and a huge mountain of ice dumped into his glass. With possible regret for not having waited for our waitress to return with the water, it now looked like he was trying to make a giant snow cone. The ice overflowed so much that he had to walk out the front door of the restaurant with a handful of ice and throw it in the snow. When he wants water, he wants water...

It was a wonderful anniversary lunch, and I tease Dave only becuase he's a good sport about it, and really, he knows that spilling something on himself {or in this case, the bar he was never invited to serve himself from} is all in a day's work for him, just like taking unappealing pictures of our food and trying to pass it off as a blog post is pretty commonplace for me. After all this time of being married, we are nothing if not understanding about each other's faults :-)

A Good Day for Bottom Braces

Back in August, Alyssa had her top braces put on. The orthodontist looked at her teeth and decided that she needed to wait at least a few months until she would be ready for her bottom braces. Alyssa would ask at every monthly appointment since then if next month could be the month that she would get her bottom row, and finally, tonight was the night she has waited six months for.

Photo 6 of 365, taken January 7th.

Alyssa was so happy with the addition! She chose navy blue and silver rubber bands for the braces and already has big plans for February's colors!! She asks the orthodontist approximately 2317 questions each time we visit {which feels pretty frequent, one of the things I never knew before braces was the maintenance that is involved. They should really warn you about this ahead of time}. At first I think he was intrigued at her interest and curiosity, now I am beginning to think he might be slightly irritated. She is a very inquisitive kid and is not about to let anyone stick their hands in her mouth without knowing exactly what their plans are. He's just gonna have to deal with that.

The one nice thing about our frequent visits to the orthodontist is that his office is just blocks away from Grebes Bakery. We stopped in after her appointment for some yummy cookies and doughnuts. I never got a picture of Emma with her cookie from the day, so I included a photo of the cookies that Rebekah picked out for Emma at a bake sale a few days later.

Cleaning Up After Christmas

Photo 5 of 365, taken January 5th.

We spent all day today cleaning up Christmas decorations. I always have so much anxiety doing this, no matter how careful we are, stuff tends to get broken and I just feel so much stress looking at my living room full of half-full bins of breakables and other things that hold special memories.

We managed to escape the task without breaking a single thing {for possibly the first time ever} but still had a casualty...the angel above is the first tree topper that Dave and I ever bought, the first year we had a Christmas tree of our own. She hasn't worked for probably at least three years and we have since bought a new topper. We hung onto the angel because the girls loved her so much. When she worked, her dress would light up and switch colors from gold, to pink, purple, blue etc. Anyway, we seem to accumulate new items every year that need to get packed up, and this year, the broken angel didn't make it back to her year long home in the rubbermaid bin.

At the end of a long day of trying to be a better organizer and cleaner upper than I really am, I can gladly say that I don't have to do this again...until next year!

Happy 35th Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAVE!!

Photo 4 of 365, taken January 4th. This is my 2013 attempt at baking Dave a nice custard pie for his birthday.

Dave's favorite dessert is custard pie, or chess pie, depending upon your geographic location. I don't know of any bakeries in our area that make good custard pie, so every January 4th, I give it my best effort. I am not much of a pie person myself, and I am terrible at making a good pie crust, but I am getting so much better at the custard part, if I must say so myself. Dave ate it without complaint :-)

In honor of his birthday, I thought I would post some pics of him and the girls showing off the handsome beard he grew this past November and December for Movember.



Emma sporting a smudgy moustache of her own.

And cleanly shaven ~ Now, here's a guy who loves to have his picture taken! He might get a little mad at me for posting this one, but I hope not too mad...I thought his mom and grandmother would like to see the photo :-)