No Michelle Kwan... yet!

Yesterday I (Billy) took Sam, Emma, and Mandi ice skating. It was Emma and Mandi's first time and Sam's third or fourth. We had a blast! Emma and Mandi picked it up pretty quickly and, by the end of our two hours, were skating independently and doing a lot less falling. I am always amazed at how quickly these girls pick up new skills, it is fun to watch!

Enjoy the pics and short vids. Sorry some are sideways, I will try and fix it for my next post. -Billy




(Mandi) Not so sure about this...

Ok, let's give it a try...

Maybe I better keep trying!

Watch me get better at this...

Getting Better

And once more...




Emma gives it a try...




Check her out at the end!




The one and only Samantha!




As you can see, we had lots of fun!

Nothing... and I mean NOTHING is safe anymore!

Well folks, that's it. Lizzie has learned that not only can she climb chairs, but she can also drag them to desired locations to access things we mistakenly thought were safe from her grasp.
Here she is enjoying free access to Mom's purse.
Her response when I told her that was not for her to play with?

Ha ha ha ha phhhhhtt!

She is way to cute for my own good. So far I have found her on top of the table, on the kitchen counter, on the computer (chewing on our webcam ack) on top of our VP... you get the idea. The only places she hasn't conquered yet are the stove, the fridge and the entertainment center. I am sure her guardian angels (as with all toddlers) are quite worn out by the end of the day.

On another note:
The girls are all in girl scouts and just did their Christmas service activities last weekend.
In addition to the food and money we gave to help needy families, we also asked the girls to donate one toy in good condition. Everyone went up and spend some time mulling over their stuff. After everyone chose something to donate we sat around the table for dinner. Mandi was sniffling and sobbing. We found she felt "heartbroken" because she was giving away her favorite kitty. We explained she could pick another toy and it didn't have to be her kitty. She replied that her kitty was the most wonderful, soft, cuddly kitty and it would make someone much happier than anything else she had. I was so touched by her actions. When given the choice, she chose to give her favorite toy because she felt it would bring another child the most happiness instead of giving something she didn't care that much about. Here she is giving her kitty one last hug before taking it to her service event.

I hope I grow up to be like Mandi.

O Christmas Tree...

Decorating fun! We decide to go with a Douglas pine instead of a Frasier Fir this year. Man they smell heavenly although the branches are not quite as firm for holding the heavier ornaments.
We always get our tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving and decorate it Sunday evening so we can have maximum enjoyment through the holiday.

Sam kicks off the decorating fun.
Gotta keep 'em out of Lizzie's reach
Ah, the perfect spot!
The ornament lady (yes we love decorating the tree in our PJ's!)
Lizzie's first act of destruction

Emma's turn to top the tree

Super Sam to the rescue!

Finished tree. Yeah, it looks funny but I guess everyone who has had a toddler "gets" it.
Speaking of toddlers... I think our tree ate her... or perhaps she is eating the tree?

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely day! We probably had the smallest group we have had in our home for years which was nice. I do love the fun of having lots of friends and missionaries over but sometimes it is nice to tone it down a bit. Our house is tiny, 1500 square feet spread over 3 floors, so one can imagine the challenge of fitting 12 guests plus our 6 in a 500 sq foot space which is what we did last year. Our kitchen is a galley kitchen which fits 2 at best. To get to our basement you have to go through the kitchen so the traffic of people going in and out gets crazy. We always have great fun regardless. I admit I do look forward to the day when I can have a bigger kitchen and not have to shoo my children out so I don't step on them.
This year we had 4 guests, all of them delightful company and good sports! Our pipes in the upstairs bathroom broke so we were down to one bathroom. Our furnace also died several weeks ago so we have been thankful for warm clothing around here. Fortunately the oven combined with lots of love kept us warm through the day. We got up and got the turkey and the rolls going and then hung out and did this and that. Lizzie will decide she is tired and take naps in the oddest places. Took me some time to find her this time around, I was starting to panic heh. She is under our table in case you can't tell... too tired to finish the apple I saved her from the stuffing poor thing.
After rising for 4 hours, the rolls (boy were they good!) were ready to shape. Samantha did a fabulous job! They looked so pretty and practically melted in your mouth.
Everyone came and hung out and enjoyed good eats! Afterwards we watched movies, played games and chatted. Samantha and Emma put on a wonderful magic show for us with Mandi serving as an always hilarious MC. We liked her turkey jokes. It was a fun and relaxing day.
Some of the things people mentioned being thankful for: Friends, family, gospel, Jesus Christ, food to eat, a roof over our heads, and... (thank you Billy) dog hair. He claims without dog hair Max would be a fright to look at. I am glad he is able to think of such profound things as dog hair.....

The food did have some odd effects on us.
This was quickly solved by dashing upstairs to eat pumpkin and apple pie.
Here is the Thanksgiving song the girls sing for us every year... to the tune of Friar Jaques

Turkey dinner, Turkey dinner.
Gather round, gather round.
Who will get the drumstick,
Yummy yummy drumstick?
Me oh my, Me oh my.

Mashed potatoes, cashew stuffing,
Pumpkin pie, cream piled high.
We were all much thinner
Until we came to dinner.
Me oh my, Me oh my.

Crayon disaster!

I suppose it is inevitable that at some point in every mother's life she is going to encounter crayon in the wash. Of course my turn had to come during thanksgiving. I try to find ways to be thankful during trials. So for this one, I am thankful for google which made it easy to find hundreds of ideas on how to get crayon out of your dryer and your clothes. (Not so thankful for the hour it took me to choose which method to try. I would not recommend Crayolas website for the dryer bit. They suggest spraying WD40 in your dryer.. hello people... notice the big words in capital letters.. FLAMMABLE?? sheesh.) I am also thankful for the reminder to be obsessively diligent about checking EVERY freakin' pocket on every freakin' pair of cargo pants. I am not yet feeling thankful to the makers of those pants that have a gazillion teeny tiny pockets in which nasty evil things like black crayons could lurk. Anyhow the receipe I went with worked!!

Here's a shot of some of the pants before treatment:
All of them looked liked this, it was a horror to open the dryer and find them like that ugh.

After:
Yahoo! Sure saved us a lot of $$. I thought I was gonna have to toss them all and buy new khakis for everyone. One pair of Billy's Khakis did still have a smudge on it so I am gonna work on getting that out today.

Here is the recipe I found online. I think it was posted at thriftyfun.com

2 max amounts (line 3) of concentrated Tide
1 cup Oxiclean
1/2 cup 20 mule team Borax
1 cup Shout liquid
1 cup white vinegar

I used a cup of Spray N Wash instead of Shout though. I went with warm water...if you can use hot, it will probably be better yet, but I didnt want to shrink these pants. Fill the washer with water, add the ingredients. Agitate this brew for a minute, then add clothes, agitate for another minute to work through, and soak for about an hour and run on a regular, long cycle with extra rinse.

Another cake...

My dear friend Meredith is having her first baby in January. We also have 2 other friends in the area expecting their first babies in January as well so we made a big to do of it and had a triple baby shower for them. I am awaiting someone to send me some pics of the shower as I forgot my camera. (Well hey, I remembered the food, the games, the prizes, the cake.... just not the camera heh.) Fortunately for me while I was gathering stuff up my husband... ( I HAVE mentioned he is my hero right?) shot a picture of the cake. It was my first attempt with this particular bear pan and I did not enjoy trying to decorate with cream cheese frosting. (One person requested carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and another wanted chocolate so a chocolate bear on a carrot quilt was my answer to getting two different flavors in.) The end result was not too bad. Shower was lots of fun.. can't wait to meet these new little people in January! Hopefully I will get my hands on a pic of the 3 mommies to be cutting the cake.

Leapin' Lizards!

People have been asking me about how Lizzie is doing. I guess a more detailed account of her comings and goings is needed. Be warned this really IS a detailed account so if you are not into Lizzie, Lizzie and more Lizzie.. skip this post.

She is now 14 months old!! I can't believe how the year has flown. I am so NOT ready for her not to be a baby anymore but at the same time it is so fun and exciting to see her learn and grow. Her vocabulary is taking off like a speeding bullet. At 10 months she was signing "fan," "milk," and shaking her head to say "no." When she turned 1 she was able to sign "dog" the right way! Not patting her leg but actually doing the d to g thing. I have never seen a baby do that, the first time I saw her sign that was walking home from dropping the girls off at school. We passed a woman walking her dogs and she pointed and signed "dog" I thought it was a fluke but decided to test it when we got home.. sure enough she saw Max and signed it again. Cool! Now she has learned she can also make a cool snapping sound doing that so she will hold her hand up to her ear and snap and wiggle her head like she is listening to a groovy song.. it's a hoot.

Another fun incident.. I started teaching her to sign "1" when people asked "how old are you?" One day just after her birthday we were at Costco talking to a lady giving out food sample. She was adoring my cute Lizzie and after a bit of small talk asked me "How old is she?" Lizzie immediately stuck her little index finger out to show "1" and grinned like nobodys business... The lady was totally floored! She stared at Lizzie for a minute and looked at me and said.. "That's one smart cookie you have there!" I was a proud mommy tee hee. She loves to read and handle books. She has never ripped a page in a book, I guess seeing her sisters with their noses in books all the time has given her an idea that there is something special about them. But give her a newspaper and she has no qualms about ripping it apart. She is developing a nice repertoire of words... her favorite is "Daddy." She LOOVVEEESS her Daddy and I know she misses him as he is gone so much. When he is home getting her away from him is like getting gum out of the carpet.. nigh impossible! She signs eat, more, finished, ball, shoes, bye bye, mommy, baby, please, diaper, grapes, cracker, milk, pumpkin, apple, banana etc. She has a generic sign for Sam, Emma and Mandi. She can do happy, surprised and tough faces.. we are working on sad face now - she bursts out laughing every time we demonstrate though, so she isn't very sad looking.

Lizzie took her sweet time to get walking... 13 months old. I have no complaints as the other girls walked between 8 to 10 months which got a bit crazy. However now that she is going there is NO stopping her. She loves to be chased and she loves to make mommy run across all the neighbors lawns to and from dropping the girls at school. Who needs sidewalks? She mastered going up and down the stairs around 11 months and loves her freedom getting around the house. It is very hard for me to watch her on the stairs at times though. She loves to climb and like Emma I have found her on the table, on the computer desk etc. I have not found her on top of the entertainment center yet thank heavens. She is a miniature Houdini. Anything I put her in, she can get out of - high chair, swing, stroller, playpen, you name it. A great deal of her time eating she is standing up despite the constant admontions from her mother to sit down please!
She even got out of her car seat once and scared the the pants right off me as we were driving. I think possibly that time was a fluke or I didn't get one of the buckles in all the way as the incident as not been repeated (knock on wood.) Lizzie will not tolerate anything in her hair or on her head. Bows, hats, headbands, clips... you name it, she will have it out before you can spell mississippi. I did get one shot of her with her hair in a pony tail before she got it out... This is the only documented proof that I DO try to do her hair (I really do! sob...)

Lizzie loves music.
She loves to play with balls of all shapes and sizes

She loves her big cuddly bear that Aunt Barb gave her.


She loves to eat (spaghetti is a favorite) and loves to laugh.

She also loves Max! He is such a good dog with her, she really pulls on his fur and torments the poor guy but he takes it in stride.
He even lets her share his bed when she is tired! Notice who takes up most of the space.. story of her life.
Lizzie is such a delight to have in our family. She keeps us laughing and keeps us on our toes and we are so blessed to have her! It took a lot of time and a bit of heartbreak before we were able to get her here and I am so glad we didn't give up!

Halloween.... a few weeks late

Boy, I am behind on posting! Sometimes life gets in the way of the very important business of blogging (snort.) Technically I am still allowed to post about Halloween as I have only gotten half my Halloween decorations taken down tee hee.

Pumpkin carving is always great fun. I learned a new trick this year that I am kicking myself for not figuring out years ago. Our family LOVES pumpkin seeds.. we have tried them every way you can think of. After several years of experimenting, we have come to the conclusion we are purists, we like our seeds not rinsed (the little bits of pumpkin actually add a great flavor) and baked with just salt (maybe a bit of garlic for one batch.) Anyhow, in the past we scooped all the guts out, got everything carved, enjoyed the finished product and then time for bed. Once I got everyone to bed I was up for an hour or two more separating the seeds from the pulp. This year I decided to scoop the guts earlier in the day and started separating the seeds out before even removing the guts. Oh my gosh.. SO MUCH easier, SO MUCH faster! Why didn't someone tell me this a long time ago? Anyhow if you are like the old me... its time for a change. Reclaim a few hours in your life! Get the seeds out of the pumpkin before ya scoop!

Samantha created her own design A-Z. She did a great job! She has a nifty witch shouting BOO! and some great little trees in there for bats and owls (which were awol at the time of carving.)
Emma opted for a spooky face which turned out great.
Mandi found a design from the pumpkin lady for a horse, and we turned it into a unicorn! This one was quite a bit of work but looked awesome.
Lizzie was so overwhelmed by the excitement that she fell fast asleep snicker
Finished product. Great job girls!
On Halloween, Sam's school had school spirit day. The theme was wacky hair! I think Sam pulled off getting Halloween into the mix quite well.
With all the PC rubbish here, people aren't allowed to refer to Halloween in the schools but Emma and Mandi's school came up with a clever disguise... Book Character day! The kids all wear their costumes and of course locate a book with their character in it and they have a parade around the school to show off their "books." Mandi was a baby bat. She found a book about animal mothers and their babies that had bats in it. I have to credit her costume to my sister Heidi who made this for HER kids. Sadly the leotard has had it and this is the last day it was worn, it has now gone to clothing heaven as I could no longer keep up with the rips and tears in it. Still, that thing lasted a good long time, thanks Heidi! People really got a kick out of Mandi's costume as it was very unique.
Emma LOVES The Secret of Droon books. She opted to go as Princess Keeah ( I bet I spelled that wrong, I will have to fix that later.)
The secretaries at their school are fabulous. They really live it up over the holidays. Last year they were the 3 little pigs. This year they were the 3 blind mice. Can't wait to see what they come up with for next year!
Great big gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts....
We had a lovely dinner of cow tongue baked in roach blood, fried maggots, witch fingers mixed with troll eyeballs and of course our annual delicacy of chilled brains. Choices for drinks included ghost blood (milk), monster drool (water) or beetle juice (cider) Yum!
Mandi loooovvess chilled brains! "They make you smarter!" she says.
.....and IIIII forgot my spooooooon!

Samantha always chooses very unique characters to be for Halloween... one that either you have never heard of (like being a leaf witch last year) or that you at least would never find in any store. I have resigned myself to the fact that I am gonna need to plan on just making her costume myself every year haha. This year she chose to go as the wind. She designed the costume herself and I with my very meager "man, I wish I paid attention in home ec" skills attempted to make it. I am afraid I didn't do her design the justice it deserves but her grace and dramatic swishing of the cape more than made up for it.
At night Emma abandoned Keeah (... what is the name really? Now its bugging me, I am gonna have to go sneak in their room and grab one of her Droon books) to become a Boa Constrictor. She has been a winged night creature for the last 4 years. A bat for 3 years and then an owl last year. Reptile was a nice change. At least she is not following the crowds of Cinderallas, Belles and other princess whatnots heh. So, as you can see here, a Boa has swallowed Emma glasses and all!
Mandi, as noted has now taken up the squeek of the bat in Emma's place.
Lizzie, despite all our great plans for her as a wee lion, was once again overwhelmed by all the excitement. Note she has not yet developed a taste for witch fingers.
But her sisters did share their halloween candy. Here she is tasting candy for the first time.
Trick or treating with friends.
Til next All Hallows Eve... Happy Haunting!

Camp Mark 7

Our family made an excursion up north last weekend. We journeyed to Old Forge, New York to participate in the shutting down of Camp Mark 7. CM7 is an old hotel that has been changed over to become a camp for Deaf Kids, Koda Kids and I think they also have silent weekends. You can learn more about them here: www.campmark7.org
The drive was BEAUTIFUL! Fortunately so as it was also LONG!!!! It was supposed to take 8 hours but thanks to construction, car accidents and the like, it took us an additional 4 hours. Billy mentions that he often has his phone glued to his ear at work with the number of people calling him. I was able to witness this firsthand on Friday as we drove up. Oh my word. At any rate I drove most of the way up so he could take care of all his conference calls and the myriad of other calls constantly coming in. The kids were really great on the trip, I was very impressed. Even Lizzie hung in there quite well (with the help of her first taste of twizzlers.)
We arrived close to 11 PM. CM7 doesn't have any heating system and it was close to 35 degrees when we pulled up. I love that crisp cold air.. actually feels like fall up there as opposed to the 80 degree balmy weather we have been having down here in VA. Saturday we got up early and participated in a 5K walk/run. Lizzie rode in the backpack and walked with me (my bum was sore for 2 days, how pathetic is that?) Billy ran the 5K and took 2nd in his age group. Way to go babe! The girls ran a 1K fun run as well.
After that we hung out and played all day at CM7. The girls all made new friends and had a great time. Mandi was thrilled to have Charlton (I am not sure I spelled that right...) to hang out with.
We had a BBQ, a wine and cheese tasting event (they brought sparkling apple juice as well.) and a bonfire with s'mores. The older girls there let Mandi and Emma make jewelry with them.
It is just gorgeous there.
Samantha has had reservations about going to CM7 but after spending the weekend there and seeing all the fun to be had, she is revved and raring to go.
Sunday we helped close down CM7 and hit the road.
We stopped in Scranton, PA with the Brick family and had some pretty good italian. It was a fun and memorable trip but we don't have many pictures to prove it... our camera battery died sigh.