Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Kayli's first haircut

The big news at our house for last week was Kayli finally got her first haircut.  I'd been putting it off, and off, (and off some more) because I have such a hard time emotionally getting the girls' hair cut.  Their hair takes so long to grow I hate to cut it. 

Well, while I was at orchestra practice on Saturday Barry took her to get her hair cut.  Sneaky little devil.  He says he didn't think I'd mind and it needed done.  I came home and Braden promptly showed me Kayli had gotten her first haircut.  The poor thing now has hair shorter than the boys!  The lady at Walmart gave her a boy haircut and so, of course, I cried and cried on Saturday knowing it will take years to regrow her hair.  She was finally starting to let me put hair things in and now it is too short.She was finally starting to let me put hair things in and now it is too short.  I've finally resigned myself to it, though, (what choice do I have?) and even though her bangs are way too short she does look better in the back and her hair looks shinier.  Why does getting girls hair cut have to be so trauamtizing for their mommy?  (Picture coming later.)

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Busy, busy...

This week has been a fun and busy week!  Wednesday night was Tyler's Pinewood Derby, Thursday was Braden's D.A.R.E graduation, Friday night was Karina's mini-cheer camp performance at the Skyline-Highland game and Saturday was an interesting date night.

Braden's graduation was at one of the jr. high school's and was really fun!  Unfortunately, Barry said he "never saw my camera" after Wednesday night so I couldn't take any pictures.  He found it yesterday hidden on his tool shelf.  Hmmm.....so, no pictures to share.  I don't remember having a cool graduation like the 6th graders here did.  Diplomas were awarded, winning essays shared and then an awesome video was presented to the kids that they had all made.  I may cave and pay the $5 for it but we'll see.  They showed clips of kids touching a real lung pumping oxygen and their faces were great!  I think the favorite, though, was the videos of the kids trying to walk with beer goggles on.  They were falling all over the place and it was a good practical lesson on why not to drink. 

The last item of the night was a surprise.  Apparently their is a band of police officers called "Police Line" and they played for the kids and were so good!  Braden must be his mother's child because he got really into it, jumping up and down with his buddies and bouncing all over.  The group ended up doing three encores the kids loved it so much.  There were a bunch of little kids Kayli's age dancing in the aisles and it was so cute to watch.  Kayli decided she was too tired to join them, though, and just hung out in my arms instead.

Friday night was Karina's mini-cheer camp performance for the girls' basketball game.  She had workshops on Tue-Thur and then they performed the next night.  She was having a great time at the game - until she fell off the band performance platform.  I kept watching for her and didn't see her get down with the other throngs of girls as I was behind her and thought she had jumped off the end to join the rest.  Apparently someone had pushed her off accidentally.  She ended up hitting her head, getting a bruise and scrap on the shoulder and banging up a knee.  She cheered up quick, though, and had fun cheerleading for the 2nd quarter and doing the half-time dance performance.

Karina's words on the night:

"I liked it when I got a blue balloon and a blue necklace.  I loved cheering in front of the people because it is so fun.  And I liked it because I got a little stamp on my hand and a cheer t-shirt."

PINEWOOD DERBY TIME!


We had our last Pinewood Derby this week with Tyler now becoming a Webelos Scout two weeks ago.  He and Barry had a fun time making the car this year.  Barry says now that he has done this for three years previous, that he thinks he's got it figured out how to make a car go faster.  He was grinding wheels with his grinder, measuring wheels and the whole nine yards.  I had a fun time teasing him while the car was being made.  Tyler did a great job picking the body style and doing his part, too, because he won 2nd place overall!  The kids had so much fun that Braden, the pack den chief, didn't have to do his little kids' activity after all and everyone, including Kayli, just watched the races.



The crew and our VERY happy Pinewood Derby racer, Tyler!
Tyler tearing up the track on his first race.

Tyler as a new Webelos Scout with his Pinewood Derby Car.
Tyler won "Best Driver" thanks to his lego creativity.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Another one bites the dust...

Well, after two weeks we have all finally gotten the stomach flu and hopefully we are done. Tyler was our last holdout. I think this is the worst stuff we've had at our house for awhile. Last fall I bought a Kirby carpet cleaner/shampooer and it turned out to be good timing. We definitely got good use out of it this week. Braden had it first and he definitely had it the easiest of the bunch and then shared with the rest of us. Does anyone else find that unfair? I am he didn't get horribly sick, though.

As a consequence of being sick, Karina and Tyler ended up missing their first day of ice skating lessons. I was rather bummed out about that but we got to do a make-up day on Thursday. They both said they loved it and had lots of fun. Yay! After doing a quick calculation of how much it cost to rent skates for all three sessions, we decided to look into buying them. We managed to find a pair for both kids that were on clearance and are adjustable, so they can wear them next year, too! I am so happy that they both enjoyed it as we need something to replace ballet for Karina and Tyler just hasn't shown much interest in sports for a couple of years now. It was great to see him so excited and find something he likes. I'm not so sure I want to mention hockey teams, though. I think that is one of the more violent sports out there.

We really enjoyed our Christmas break but I think everyone (except Barry) was glad to get back to a normal routine. Structure is nice. The kids did miss their music lessons this week since they were sick so we got to gradually work back into everything. Next week will be full bore back into activities.

Monday, January 3, 2011

You'll NEVER see this again...

Barry's coworkers had a small contest to see who could grow the best beard during the month of November and I just have to share the photo of right before he shaved. As he said, "You will NEVER see this again!" I'll admit he might have complained, ahem, a lot about how itchy it was. He came back from Thanksgiving break and everyone else had caved and shaved so apparently he won because he held out the longest. He was so happy to shave it off. He actually looked pretty good with it, though, and I was kind of sad to see it go - momentarily. I think the girls were quite happy to have it be gone, though, as then they didn't get scratchy daddy kisses anymore. I had to laugh as they had started cringing at his scratchy kisses like I used to with my Grandpa Scott.

New Year's Resolutions - hmmmm, really?

Well, it's a whole new year and that means time for New Year's resolutions. At first I didn't plan on making any and then I thought it through and decided I would.

My biggest goal is actually a family resolution. We bought the book "The Children you Want With the Kids you Have" by Marie Ricks last week. We've been to a number of her classes at BYU-I Education Week and LOVE them. If you ever get a chance to go to one of her classes, GO! We've tried her system a number of times, it works, then we fall off the band wagon as we forget exactly how it goes. Hopefully now that we have the book and the family rules in writing it will help. So basically our goal is to get on a better family contribution/cleaning schedule with the kids.

Okay, onto me! I've still got to ask Barry what his goals are. I think his foremost one is going to be to finish his Master's Degree - and then have a textbook burning party probably.

1. Participate in NaNoWriMo, a writer's challenge I found out about from one of Barry's cousins to write 50,000 words during the month of November, aka a novel. I can about 100% guarantee you it won't be great but I will at least have done it! I've always wanted to write one so hopefully this will actually get the job done.

2. Potty train Kayli. Okay, so this might not exactly qualify but it is must for this year and one I hate to do so I think it counts. I'm hoping she'll be fairly easy about it. She already likes to come and tell me about needing changed and say "Ewww, gross!". It's really funny. You should hear it.

3. Teach Karina to ride a two-wheeler. Hmm, now that I think about it, this goal should go under Barry's list and he's the one that taught the other two. Does it count if I make a goal to have Barry do it?

4. Actually update our blog. See, I'm already doing great! My goal is to update our family blog, or have kids do it (I know Barry never will) once a week. It'll be fun to read it at the end of the year and review everyone's antics.

5. Get a full 3-months worth of food storage and household items. Seriously, I am bad at keeping track of this one. We may very well have it and I don't know it because it's not kept track of. Years ago Barry got me the Food Storage Planner program and every so often I get on and use it. (Like, maybe once a year.) I'll get on, update everything we have, get gung-ho for a little bit. Theoretically every time something is bought you are supposed to add it onto your computerized inventory or remove it every time it is used. Umm, never happens. I'll totally quit because it just seems like such a big task and so long away to finish. So, I figure 3 months ought to be a lot easier, right? I'm thinking we might be realistically close to that in some areas but this way I can actually see a big fat 100% at some point in time where the other way I never will. Plus, it's nice knowing if something happens we can survive. We definitely enjoyed having it last semester while Barry was only working part-time.

You know, I think that is plenty of resolutions for this year. Here is a big Happy New Year to everyone and may you all have joy and success in your New Year's Resolutions and I'll look forward to seeing mine all done at the end of the year.