Quiet (ha!) for two more days...

School is out in two days. Finally the "countdown" has gotten so close that I'm paying attention to it. TWO days, Mom! Today is the LAST day of GYM, Mom! ONE more sleep then the LAST day of school, Mom!

I think I must hate change. Because I sit here, wondering what in the world we are going to do all summer! But I know equally as certainly that come August, I'll be wondering where the summer went and be sad that everyone has to go back to school! So, either I hate change, or nothing can make me happy. Pick one, I guess.

Yesterday, I was "Salon Mom". I gave haircuts to Skylar, Kaia and Jeff. I wish I had a picture of the back of Jeff's head because everyone would feel sorry for him and encourage him to get his haircut by someone who actually knows what they are doing... and even when to school to learn those skills. See, I forgot that I didn't have the clipper guard on. And I wanted to even out the back of his hair before I got out the scissors. Can you guess the rest? Maybe I'll get him to pose for a picture. But maybe not... I'm trying to downplay the damage.

Kaia's hair, however, is adorable. We did a short little sassy cut for the summer and she's working it well. Skylar just wanted a trim, so that's what she got.

In other, completely unrelated news, my blender broke yesterday. I must replace it, and soon!! Tis the season of green smoothies (so delicious, and healthy!) and... ok, Margaritas. So, the girls and I are going to go on a search. You'd think finding a blender would be easy, but I have standards, people!

I'm almost embarassed...

The kid in the picture above might learn that emotion sometime during his life. Maybe. But so far: not so much. But back to me...

I haven't updated in a long time. So, embarassed? Nah... that's a huge waste of time, I think I'll settle for something else. Like: Busy. Forgetful. Uninterested. Something along those lines. I just couldn't find my blogging mojo. But I'll try again. It's really been a quiet sort of time, although there were certainly things I *could* have written about..

Like:

My exciting and pain-relieving gall bladder removal... (Wait, should one write about such things?) (Not in great detail, I think...) (And certainly without pictures.) (Enough about my gall bladder.)

Colton's 12th Birthday...

Colton's Lenten Monologue at Church (he was fantastic!)...

Avery having 2 additional laser treatments on her PWS...

Baseball season starting...

My Mom's 60th Birthday Party...

Laura (Aunt Wo) having her first baby...

Me getting a part-time job starting in the September...

So that's about it. And I haven't loaded pictures onto this darn computer for a long time (Like two months!) So, the pictures you've been subjected to are not recent, but still...

Isn't this one worth seeing? Yeah, I thought so.

He's been waiting for this.

Anyone know what these are? These lovely-- not yet smelly-- delightfully athletic foot coverings? These represent the beginning of the ERA (perhaps it's too soon to call it an era, but in the event that it turns into one, I can look back at this and say "I called it!! I called it!!") here in our happy household.

Anyone? Anyone? Ok. I'll tell you. Those... things... are wrestling shoes. Yep. Although Jeff would probably deny it (Heck, he HAS denied it) I'm pretty close to positive he's been waiting for this moment ever since his little (!?!? See the SIZE of those shoes?) boys were born. Wrestling. Jeff's "thing". He started wrestling when he was Hunter's age. And didn't stop until he graduated from Purdue. And even now, likes to pull moves on unsuspecting children of all genders and ages.

So, the boys have started wrestling. And, my goodness, they require a Commitment (with a capital "C") out of these boys. Every Monday and Thursday from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm they practice. They also will have some meets, although we don't know a lot about them yet.

I do have to say that he didn't pressure them, although he DID make it sound like it would be really fun. And it probably IS really fun. But I'm a girl. I don't know anything about wrestling, except that the few times Jeff took me to a wrestling meet I always felt... concern. No, concern is too tame a word. Alarm is better. Alarm, as in I should call 911 because that kid is seconds away from breaking his arm/leg/spine/whatever!!

Jeff is SO going to roll his eyes at me and call me out for this entry. I say: bring it on!

Christmas Angels

Our Church is just great. One of the things that really drew me to the Church is the fantastic Children and Youth programs. They really encourage children to branch out, explore different areas, give them so many opportunities to be great and do good. Basically-the Church treats them like they are... well... God's gift. (Man, when I write things like that it feels like I am being crazy sarcastic, but it's true. I can't think of any other way to put it!)

Last Sunday was the culmination of weeks of "Angel Practice" for Avery and Skylar (That sounds more impressive than it was. They practiced for an hour and a half the three Sunday's prior to this). They were dancing angels at both services for the beginning of Advent. We have a fabulous dance instructor/choreographer who is a member. She created this adorable routine where these 5 little girls (all under 8) were mischievous little dancing angels. Here's a pic of them while they were waiting for the service to begin:

Here's another picture of all the angels, as well as the choreographer. See how good they were behaving? They had to sit in the choir room for 30 minutes in costume before it was their time to dance. One could almost say they were behaving, oh, I don't know.... angelically?

In addition to these adorable little girls, there was a gorgeous, extremely talented high school dancer keeping them all together (And also doing incredible leaps, turns, and twirls--- and looking impossibly graceful while doing so). The quality of this picture isn't the best, I had to zoom in so you could see my little angels:

I can't tell you how many people have come up to be to comment on how adorable they were. I'm never sure how to respond to that kind of comment. I've ranged from "Oh, yes! Wasn't that just so cute!" To: "Monika did such a great job with the choreography! And her student dancer was incredible!" To: "They had such a great time doing it!"

It's not like I had anything to do with their adorable-ness. Well, I guess I did give them baths and comb their hair before they went to church that morning. Does that count?

Look what happened here over Thanksgiving!

It's hard to believe it's starting already. Wah. And, as I type this, it's snowing AGAIN. (Fresh off the camera) Here's a couple shots of the bus stop in our driveway this morning:

I hope we aren't in for another winter like last one, but it's not looking very good so far! At least we might have a white Christmas!

We've been SO busy lately. November was a month that had Grandma Kaye and Grandpa Bill visiting from Florida (we had a great time!); school conferences for everyone (except Kaia! They all are doing awesomely); I participated in a concert at Drake University that required a lot of rehearsal time (It went very well, and was quite fun!); and then, of course Thanksgiving! Oh yeah, and Black Friday shopping (after which every time I go I swear I'm not doing it ever again!). All of which, naturally, left me with a WHOLE LOTTA of my favorite thing piled up:

So it all made for a pretty crazy month, but it was good!

I've got a number of specific updates to do, so I'll move on to give each of them their due. Be prepared!!

Halloween

A rare picture of the entire group! Colton decided to go as a Ninja. Which is a far cry from his costume of last year, when he was a....Ninja. And the year before, when he dressed up as a adorable little.... Ninja. He's nothing if not consistent. And Hunter ("My brother's Darth Vader") finally got his turn in the evil spotlight. Avery reeeealllly wanted to be this pumpkin, but I think that once she got it on, she kinda had costume envy. Something to do with the wings on the little pink fairy. And Kaia was rockin' the cat walk. :)


We let the school-aged kids roam the neighborhood on their own, but these two little trick-or-treater's were escorted around by their father. Skylar said (after it was over) that she wanted to wear the same costume next year because "everyone said I was adorable!" Nothing like positive feedback to feed the soul, is there?

The weather was so warm (in the 60's-- which I know is a cold snap in Florida, but on Halloween in the midwest, it's WARM!) that we actually sat out on the porch to hand out treats and hear the jokes.

I had to give Mr. Ghostie his own shot! Well, mostly. He had to share the spotlight (so to speak) with Avery's and Colton's Jack-O-Lanterns.

The kids got waaaaaayyyy too much candy. We've got 4 freezer bags (gallon size!) full of the loot! Surprisingly, there were a lot of houses that gave away full-sized candy bars. We're letting them enjoy the feeling of being "candy rich" for now, but plan on culling it down to personal favorites soon... so we aren't doing the "candy for snack" thing indefinitely.

What is it they say about Pictures?

Guess what Avery learned how to do? I could wax poetic about it, but I think it would be easier to just show you:

You'd never know it by looking, though that this little six year old literally *just* had her training wheels taken off. The training wheels were crooked, make her lean to one side, and I-- personally-- had enough of it! (I don't think I wrote about the time she said she'd ride her own bike to the park last summer when we were going on a family bike ride. Suffice it to say, she didn't. Lots of crying. Lots of drama. And walking. Waaah. It's still a bad memory...for me, at least!)But look at her now! She's got it goin' on! Not five minutes of practice, and she's able to ride all by herself. Can you see the pride on her face? Go Avery, Go Avery, go, go, GO AVERY!

And, unlike her mother, she managed to ride up and down the sidewalk without running into anything. Like the mailman. Not that she could, because our mailman stays in his little mail truck and does not venture out onto the sidewalks of our neighborhood. But still. If he had been there, he would have been safe.

So, although our bike riding days are winding down for 2008, the summer of 2009 is looking to be very, very, two wheelish. If that's even a word.