Liza's winter vacation

At our house we celebrated Christmas early, on Sunday, December 23rd, since Kylie came into town Saturday and Lizzie had to fly to Las Vegas on Sunday.

Sadly for Lizzie she received a doll that I would not allow her to take with her to Las Vegas. I was afraid she would lose her on the flight and she will have lots of other amazing toys for Christmas at her dad's house.

I did, however, promise that I would let her know what Liza (the doll) was doing while she was away. So I will now open up the Blog to Liza (the doll). Take it away Liza!


Dear Lizzie,

I'm sad that we didn't get to play very long on Christmas. I'm looking forward to seeing you when you come back in January. Sunday, after the excitement of being opened and finding out that we looked like each other I was just so excited that I napped pretty much the rest of the day.

Monday though I got to play a lot. Monday I helped your step -dad Micah play the video game you got him. I don't think I'm very good though but he was a good sport to let me play.

I also drank one of your small waters. I hope you don't mind.

On Tuesday which was real Christmas for most people it snowed. I went outside with the dogs and played outside since William is still sick. It was colder than I thought and I couldn't stay outside very long.

I'm sorry the pictures are all sideways. I cant really figure out how to turn them the right way in this blog thing.

I miss you Lizzie, I hope you are having fun in Las Vegas and I will see you soon. Your family says to tell you that they love you and miss you.

Sincerely,

Liza

Family Photos

So this FALL I took some family photos but apparently never posted them as I must have forgotten I had a blog or something.

In any case here are a few of my favorites but certainly not all of them.











If you do nothing else check out this last photo of my in-laws and their grandchildren. This is absolutely the best picture of all the ones we took. Having said that please check out MY younger daughter there on the left.

Yes. It truly is the best picture.

Playing in the snow

This winter in Colorado has been mild to say the least. We've had, until recently, very little snow and weather that never got below freezing. Our Christmas was pretty brown and un-holiday like.

Luckily the end of January came and FINALLY Colorado remembered that it's Colorado and not, say, Florida and we got some snow.

Of course we had to run outside and play in it.

Needed to bring a drink with him. Does not care that that it will freeze out here.

I love that picture. The children are in mid-stride running from the evil snow blower. Which they chased and then ran away from multiple times that day.

Couldn't get out of the way fast enough.

Drive way snow angel's are the easiest ones to photograph.

Snot's going on?

While we are not a particularly religious household we do subscribe to the idea of Proverbs 22:6 "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Which is to say we broke out snow shoveling equipment and set them to it.

Taking a moment for a little snow shovel guitar.

This is how you clean off Mommy's car - pay attention!

In all we had fun playing in the long awaited snow which melted a few days later. By then we were over that whole below freezing and warming up the cars thing anyways.



It sure was fun having our snow days though. Even Micah enjoyed it.


Don't tell him I posted that.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Brian and his wife (and their new baby) have finally moved to Las Vegas which means a whole new stage of our lives here in Colorado.

No more week on, week off, no more two households, no more Sunday night switch.

I actually like it better and I believe the girls do too. Consistency in a home is a good thing. While they both miss Brian he's been good about calling them and texting Ky etc.

But the move also means school holiday visits. Colorado has a fall break for a week in October and so this was the first visit since he moved at the end of September.

Because Ky is 16 now we don't have to pay the unaccompanied minor fee, she just has to be in charge of Lizzie. That is a nice money saver but also a worry for me because those two seem to get under each others skin.

Not really having a sister I assumed that because there was such an age gap between them this wouldn't be an issue. I was mistake. Lizzie has a way of teasing Ky that Ky takes VERY personally and she retaliates in a pretty mean way to Lizzie which makes her cry. My nightmare was that happening in the airport and Ky losing Lizzie at some point.

Luckily for me Frontier Airlines was very understand of my neurosis nightmare concern and gave me a gate pass. The girls and I made it through security and lucky for me Lizzie and I didn't have to go through the body scan. (Sorry Ky!)

After we got through security Ky's Kindle stopped working and so her mood went from Eeyore to MASSIVE TEENAGED ANGER so I was glad I was there. First to call Amazon and find out what the deal was and second to make sure Lizzie was watched over because at one point Ky just got up and walked away without telling me where she went. Nice.

The girls posed for me while we waited for their flight to be called.



Lizzie had a case of the fidgets in a big way and told me "I think I'm gonna SQUIRM" after I asked her to try and control her body. But she did LOOK as though she was fighting it.

Finally their row was called so I walked them up to the ticket agent. Lizzie hugged me huge and I hugged her back. Ky of course is a seasoned pro of leaving mom on an airplane so I'm not even sure she said goodbye to me. I got this photo of them before I just started crying like an idiot in the airport.



They did make it safely and no one called security on me as I stumbled/cried my way back through the airport so I guess it was a good day overall.

Now I'm just counting down the days until they get back.

And eating ice cream for dinner. Because I can.

First tooth lost

Poor Lizzie has been waiting so long, first for a loose tooth and then to actually lose the darn thing. At 6 and a half she's already the oldest kid we know to not have lost one and the wiggly thing was just teasing her.

Imagine then my surprise when I came home tonight to this:

Unfortunately she doesn't actually HAVE the tooth. She says the bell rang for the end of school, she reached in her mouth to wiggle the tooth and it was gone.

Most likely she ate it at lunch but we'll never really know since she never noticed.

She wrote a letter to the tooth fairy explaining what happened and where the tooth most likely was.

I have it on good authority the tooth fairy at our house is VERY understanding about that sort of thing.

Sock Hop

Lizzie attended her first school dance tonight. It was a sock hop put on by the Student Council. Since I am a lazy bad busy mother I mentally pretended as though I didn't know about it until last night at 9pm when I realized she had no costume.

Being a mother of economy I convinced her to wear the dress you see above. It has now served us very well three times. Once for Alice in Wonderland ballet, once for Christmas and now for the Sock Hop. And at the rate Lizzie grows it will probably serve us another 2 years before I get sick of it or she outgrows it.

Lizzie's date for the evening was Evan, her life long friend of around 4 years now who she is going to marry someday. So comfortable with the idea are they that both his mother and I have a rule when they play together at each house they must leave the door open. Firm rule of "no kissing" also applies and I personally have threatened to move schools and homes if I catch them at it.

So far they believe me and are content to play other games.

The dance itself was cute and I watched while Evan presented her with a glow in the dark bracelet (an elementary school students idea of corsage) and twirled her around the dance floor multiple times.

I love that she loved the Sock Hop.

Next year though, I'm hoping the Student Council goes with "Masquerade". That way I can get a little more use of her Halloween costume.

Wait, it's JANUARY already?

Gosh I meant to post this a million years ago. Or at least a month ago.

After Cookiepalooza I took Paloma with me and she, Lizzie and I went to the ballet. Well actually it was a performance Lizzie's dance school put on. Lizzie wasn't able to participate.

ANYWAYS, we got all dolled up and went to a ballet of "Alice in Wonderland".

I was nervous that the girls would get bored because it's a ballet and not say, a play or musical. I was not giving these two 6 year old's enough credit. They sat the entire time completely caught up in the performance.

Thank goodness it was something they had seen before (for the most part). There was a part with a duchess and a cook and a baby that gets exchanged for a pig. It's part of the original Alice in Wonderland but not the Disney version. The girls didn't care they loved the entire thing.

The BEST part was as we were leaving though. We saw Alice and Lizzie asked me if we could get a picture with her. That's one of the awesome parts of seeing the world through a 6 year olds eyes.

To Lizzie and Paloma it didn't matter that Alice is 16 and wears braces. That she's probably an annoying teenager at home. Didn't matter to them. In that moment in space and time that was THE Alice and she was a star and Lizzie and Paloma were lucky enough to get a picture with her.


Paloma spied the Red Queen (Queen of Hearts) in the crowd and her request was that we get a picture with her. Lucky for us both Alice and the Red Queen were very happy to take pictures with their fans. I'm sure it's good for their egos that little 6 year olds think they are the best thing that ever happened to the ballet.


Paloma was a lot more excited than she let on in this picture.

Finally we got a picture with the March Hare. She was not as receptive to photos and plainly ignored me standing there with my iPhone at the ready AND Lizzie tapping her arm. Just as we were getting ready to go her father pointed to me and said something along the lines of "I think they want something".

I was over it but I still took the picture.

Her ears are black so you really have to look for them against that background.

Overall we had a great time. Both girls were well behaved the entire performance and I believe they had a good time. Lizzie is semi-excited about her own recital this summer for ballet and tap now.

Semi-excited. Some days she still isn't sure about the whole thing. But the idea of wearing a costume certainly helps.

Cookiepalooza 2010

I have fond memories of my mother breaking out her cookie cutters every Christmas and rolling out sugar cookie dough for me to press those shapes into. We would bake them and then decorate them with cream cheese frosting, some of which she tinted with food coloring. We would sprinkle and frost and eat ridiculously sweet cookies for Christmas.



I've tried to do that most years with my girls although I have failed once or twice, especially with the divorce and having to split time. You'd be surprised how fast December flies when I only have the kids for half of the time.

This year for December craft day we decided to do cookies. I brought my mothers cookie cutters and a rolling pin, my sister-in-law brought decorations and my mother-in-law provided the house, the oven, the cookie dough, more cookie cutters, baking sheets, rolling pin and the frosting.

Oh also hats and aprons. At least for the little girls.



Myles, my nephew, and Kylie chose to sit this one out. Myles was working on a school project and Kylie, is, well, 15.

Something about 6 year old girls and the magic of Christmas though....it makes my patience go extra long and extra wide.




My mother-in-law happened to have an adjustable table that was the perfect size for little girls with more flour than sense as my Grandma Mary used to say and cookie cutters. As you can see from the pictures it was very serious work.

I occasionally took breaks to play with my little boy who learned how to turn around and climb down the stairs at Grandma's house.


All of my children have been my play "pillows" at one time or another. This is Will being my pillow while I pretended to snore. He was actually really placid about it considering he doesn't really know what a pillow is.

Overall Cookiepalooza 2010 was a raging success and we went home with far more cookies than I can possibly consume this holiday season (although I'm willing to give it my best shot).

The girls had a pretty awesome time that night too although that is another post for another day.

Someone asked me why the cookies. Because between you and me it isn't always my favorite activity, bending over and scooping flour and dough and sprinkles everywhere for several hours. So why?

I hope that in 20 years both Lizzie and Paloma look back and tell their husbands, their friends, their families about the holiday memories of making cookies with their cousin at Grandma's house. I hope that it will be a tradition for them, the cookies, just like it was for me. I hope that my mothers cookie cutters get passed down to my daughters and to their children and that Julie's legacy of making holiday cookies extends to her great grandchildren and beyond.

That hope, that sincere wish for future generations, makes flour and dough and sprinkles just not seem so bad.

Plus, there is no downside to cookies.

What little brothers are good for

According to Lizzie they are good for all sorts of things like being the "prince" when she is the princess:

Or sharing their Gerber baby snacks.

But Saturday revealed something else little brothers are good for:

Apparently they also make a really good footrest.

Lizzie in Fairplay

Lizzie is, without a doubt, my most excitable child (unless you mention money to Kylie, then she's got her sister beat). She is just enthusiastic over EVERYTHING.

When we drove to the mountains I told her it was so we could take pictures. She only wanted to play. Well take pictures and play.

When we left after less than 2 hours she was devastated. She really would have been content to be in the woods the entire trip. With my following her around and taking pictures.

Lizzie's pictures beg to be left in color. Where William has a black and white that turned out lovely and Kylie's photos, once changed to black and white are both fascinating and, I don't know, magical (although her color pictures are lovely as well), none of Lizzie's photo's beg to be black and white. We tried, don't get me wrong, we tried to change them. But they begged to be put back.

I think it's because black and white photo's generally make me think of calm and stillness. And nothing about Lizzie really says "calm and still". Instead she says "happy and bright" and so her photo's are left in their amazing color straight out of the camera. (Except for one. I'll tell you about that in a second)

Her preferred pastime. Running through the trees.

Don't tell anyone but this is the side of the outhouse/shed.

I did this first with Kylie, against the shed/outhouse and Lizzie was immediately under foot wanting to do it too. She even posed like Ky had.

This is the picture I slightly amped up in the processing. Truthfully we didn't amp up much of it though, it was pretty vivid as it was.

Micah's mom and step dad (dad) have this tree with everyone's names written on it. (Except curiously I didn't see mine, Micah's OR Will's) I had each girl stand by her name and took pictures. The first batch of Lizzy were ADORABLE but were almost black for reasons I don't understand. So we did a second round but she was over it by then and wanted to go play. So this is the only one that turned out without a weird face or slouch or blink. I think it's good anyway.