Christmas dance recital

Grace's Christmas dance recital was last night.  She has been so excited to dance in her rainbow costume.  She looked beautiful and was so awesome!

I won't bother you with the video of the first show because I was taping with Lucas on my lap and the video will make you motion sick.  I was closer to the stage for that one.  This one is hard to tell who she is since I was at the back of the auditorium.  She is the dancer on the far left of the back row. She looks like the 2nd from the left over all because there is a little girl on the front row further left on stage than her.

I snuck up close so I could make sure to be able to see Grace for the finale and had a great shot of her until another little girl sat forward and blocked most of her.  Her class is on the very front row.  If you can't see her head, you can see her box.  It is the dark green one with the red bow toward the middle of the class.

Ok. I decided to upload the first show too because we just watched the other and Grace couldn't see herself clearly. Edit: I just watched this and had forgotten that people kept walking in front during the first bit of the dance in addition to my shaky camera. Enjoy the tantrum at the end when I finally kicked Luke off my lap... If you can't find Grace at the very first, I think she was on the front row for a minute till she figured out her right spot.

Blue Lid of Sadness

Yesterday I dropped to lid to one of my favorite set of dishes while emptying the dishwasher.  I have never seen anything shatter like this.  The glass spread to every corner of my kitchen and out the kitchen down the hall.  Lucky I was wearing shoes because one of the flying shards cut the top of my foot when it broke.  I couldn't step anywhere without stepping on glass.  I would have had to do some pretty amazing acrobatics to get out of there without a piece in the bottom of my foot.  I carried Grace to safety and banished her and Lucas to my room until I told them otherwise.  If anything positive came of the accident, it was a good motivator to get my floors cleaned early on in the week.

"Gingerbread"

Every time we have passed a gingerbread house kit at the store this year, Grace has pulled it off the shelf and asked me to buy it.  I kept promising we would do them but that I wasn't going to buy a kit.  I did once.  The stuff in it was gross.  It was all for looks and none for taste.  What fun is that if you can't enjoy eating what you've created too?  So I decided to create our own version using graham crackers and candy that would actually taste good too.  The kids and I headed over to Walmart to stock up on the candy on Friday night so we would be ready to go Sunday when Buck was actually home to join us.  He was gone Tuesday-Saturday night last week!  Busy man!
Grace decided she wanted to make a house (she wanted it 2 stories tall too).

Lucas "made" a train.  But found the decorations much more interesting.  He was just sort of the project manager while Buck built it for him.

Grace's turned out just how she wanted it and she started going to town adding the decorations...

It was not structurally sound.  There were some tears.  I tried my best to rebuild it but it was too heavy.  Then she said she wanted a train like Lucas had and I did my best to give her one.

She didn't like that it wasn't skinny like his, etc. but after much convincing (and some threatening of never again...), she was content with what she had. Lots of lessons were learned for the next time we attempt something like this. Either way, the best part was eating the candy and making something fun!

December is already here!

I noticed today that November came and went without one blog entry.  Time goes so fast!  I decided to check what I had on the camera to see what has been going on because I already can't remember...
We had a huge snow storm.  I thought our telephone line might snap under the weight of the snow.  Actually, I couldn't believe that there was so much clinging to it.

My poor little apple tree was sagging.  This picture was after I had shaken off the snow.  It has since perked up again with some sunshine to help it.

Lucas has taken to asking for me to take his picture.  It will be some random thing he's doing and he'll say, "Mom, can you take a picture of me _________."  See below for more examples.

This one he wanted a picture of himself with his Woody and Buzz "pens" (as he calls them).  They are actually Pez dispensers.

Here he wanted just Woody and Buzz alone.

We saw Santa at our church last week.  This was waiting in line.  They were excited to say the least.

Grace asked for a reindeer...I had to clarify if it was the kind that would live in our backyard and she told me no, just a small one that would fit in her hand. Whew.  I think Santa can find something along those lines.

Lucas got pretty shy once on his knee but did have it together enough to ask for a candy cane.  Santa said he could get him that right away! (notice the basket on the floor...)

Zone D

We are switching from a man to man to zone defense at our house.  May 7 is the expected date of change.  As of right now, it looks to be a girl joining the team.

A conversation with Lucas...

As I'm washing dishes tonight...
L:  "Mom, where are the cookies?"
Me:  "I decided to make brownies instead.  They're still baking.  If you want some though, you have to eat your peas from dinner."
L:  "These peas are ridiculous.  You eat them."
Then he walked out of the kitchen.

Halloween

Halloween was the most fun this year with my kids so far.  Probably because they both basically get it and they were both excited to dress up.  Grace chose to be Belle and Lucas wanted to be Buzz Lightyear.  Despite the fact that I am a TOTAL procrastinator and didn't start Luke's costume until Wednesday morning, I pulled it off and they both had finished costumes for their class parades and parties on Thursday...except Luke didn't have his wings until Friday night...

This is before we left for school on Thursday. 

This is Luke in his parade at preschool.  He was waving and everything.

Another of him parading by.

This is Grace in her school parade.  The superman in front of her is one of her best friends, Quincy.

My pictures uploaded in a jumble and I'm too lazy to move them.  This is Luke's whole class out front getting ready to tell us their Halloween poem and sing some Halloween songs for the parents.

This is the kids last night getting ready to leave for the trunk or treat at our church.  I'm sad that this is the only shot I got of Lucas with his wings on.  He really was a complete Buzz with those.  He kept telling Grace to push his purple button on his back and he was karate chopping his arm each time she did.  It was so cute.  Then he would blast me with is laser.  I LOVE imagination!

First snow of the season

Wednesday morning was the first day of the season we woke up to enough snow to play in.  It was the first thing Grace saw and she didn't even want breakfast before she ran out there to play in it.  She spent a blissful hour playing from 8: 30 to 9:30 before I told her we had to leave to run errands.  She didn't want to come back in.  If outside is an option to play, 9.5 out of 10 times, Grace will pick it over being inside.

darling boy

My sweet Lucas is the sweetest kid.  He definitely has his 3 year old boy moments but for the most part he is so happy.  Lately, and I'm not sure what got him started on this, he will ask me for any old request and if I tell him yes he says to me in this funny little voice, "Oh, Mama soooooo beautifulllllllll."
For instance:
"Mama, can you make me some lunch?"
"Yes."
"Oh, Mama soooooo beautifulllllllll."
or
"Lucas, do you want a hair cut?"
"Oh, Mama soooooo beautifulllllllll."
or
"Will you read this book to me?"
"Sure."
"Oh, Mama soooooo beautifulllllllll."

I LOVE HIM!

never enough time

Halloween is coming up so fast and I don't have costumes done yet.  Luke's needs to be done on Monday and I have a long way to go on it..........

WWII survivor

Grace had surgery last month.  She got a 2nd cochlear implant and we are very excited for it.  After many many issues with our insurance we finally were approved to have it done...the insurance company is such a JOKE and they aren't paying for the whole thing but we are glad that she finally has 2 good ears!  These pictures are of her when we just got home from the hospital.  I forgot to take the camera to the hospital with me but that whole experience was so long and miserable that I feel okay not having any pictures to remember it by.  Buck joked after her first surgery nearly 4 years ago that she looked like a WWII victim because of the huge pressure bandage on her head.  She looked just the same this time.  She just kept looking at me like, "what have you done to me?"  I purposely didn't tell her what surgery entailed exactly because it was going to hurt no matter what so why scare her by telling her that she was going to get hurt (or feel sore or whatever)?  Then she would have just freaked out that it was happening at all. 

These were the sleeping arrangements in our room that first night after surgery.  I was worried she would wake up in the middle of the night (as she often still does, much to my annoyance that my deaf 5 year old is the worse sleeper of my 2 kids. how does that even make sense??) and fall off her bunk bed trying to climb down to come get me or something.  So we dragged her mattress in to our room, then of course had to bring in Luke's because he felt left out.  It was a big slumber party.  She did not come out of the anesthesia well at all (much like me...I always barf).  She threw up several times and so the whole night would not let that pink bin leave her side because she heaved for a long time after the barfing was over.  She kept saying, "I need my bucket."

She kept saying she wanted her bandage off when we came home from the hospital but the next day when we actually could take it off, she didn't want to let me take it off.  The dumb thing kept falling in her eyes and I was finally able to get her to let me take it off. 

This was what lay underneath and it needed to come off too but it was crusted to her head with dried blood and I couldn't get it off!  I cut off as much of the excess that wasn't stuck but had to call for reinforcements...

Thankfully my brother and his wife were coming in to town that very day and she agreed to come by and help me get it off.  She was a trauma nurse in the ER at Primary Children's for a long time and much more qualified and capable of dealing with bloody things than myself!  After the bandage was off, Grace wanted a picture of her holding her cute cousin, Baby Ben, who she just adores even though she has only actually seen him a handful of times.  He is so very cute though!

Now that the month has passed, Grace saw the surgeon to check on how her head has healed and since everything was great, she got the okay to get switched on.  The videos below are her reactions to hearing for the first time with her left ear.  You can see that she isn't quite sure if she is really hearing something because it is so new to that ear. The second video is kind of long but in the first part, you can see her reaction when she hears speech for the first time. 

stuff that's happened...

 Grace had her last day of soccer last month too.  She loved it and so I think she will want to play again in the spring.  We missed the primary bike parade because of her last game.  She saw all the kids getting their balloon hats as we left for her game and she was so sad when they were gone by the time we got back. My AWESOME neighbor who did all the hats for the parade very kindly agreed to make some hats from her own supply of balloons for my kids.  They had a blast playing with them.  They even lasted until after lunch!

Also, we went to the circus while it was in town.  Sadly, this was the only picture that I have from the event.  We went to see the animals before the show.

First day of preschool

Here I am, playing catch-up again.  I did remember however to actually take a picture of Lucas on his first day of preschool (which was a month ago).  He was so excited (and still is) to go to school.  He loves his teachers.  He won't even let me walk him to the door.  I let him out of the car and that is the end of my job.  He runs to the door all by himself every time.  He is always such a happy kid and I hope he stays that way forever!!

what needs to happen at my house...

is I need to finish canning all these pears that are ripening faster than I am prepared for! My house is a mess and I feel like if I could just finish the pears I could catch up on a lot of the rest of the mess around here. I wouldn't bother but my kids LOVE pears and will probably eat through all of these before next year. Since I had the hook up from my dad, I'm taking advantage...

sneak a peek

Family pictures are done! You can see a peek of them here.

Dud of a mother...

Yesterday was Grace's first day of kindergarten. When we got in the car to go to school, she started to have second thoughts about going. She kept telling me, "Mom, I'm not 5 yet. I'm not old enough for kindergarten." and "Don't leave me, Mom. Don't leave me at kindergarten alone." I assured her that she would be fine and her friend Quincy would be there with her. She went in with her class and was a little teary when it was time for me to go. Her teacher said she had one other sort of melt down moment but recovered from it really fast and did fine the rest of the day.
So the reason I am such a dud of a mother is that I didn't even document it with a picture. Totally forgot my camera. Luke is taking a dance class that goes right up until the time that she's supposed to be at school and I had no time to get my camera between...once I realized I didn't have it. I was going to pick her up after school because I was supposed to meet with her teacher for some stuff but she forgot about a faculty meeting, etc, etc so we pushed it back. Grace decided she wanted to take the bus home so I loaded her on. The bus left late because of first day of school madness and so I thought I could be a few minutes late to meet her off the bus. I was too late and missed her coming off the bus and I also forgot my camera for that too which didn't matter since I missed it anyway.
I asked her how her first day was and she told me "Mom, I missed you and I cried a little bit at kindergarten." Other than that she seemed to have fun and could tell me they played a colors game.
Today I told her she needed to get dressed for school and she burst into tears "No, I don't want to go to school!" I had to bribe her into getting dressed! When we were in the car on the way over there today she kept telling me not to leave her alone but I told her I could only stay for a little while today but I'd see her when she got off the bus. And I was actually there on time. I was determined I would be there today since I was such a bum yesterday. I tried to get some pictures of her coming off but there were cars that kept driving in the way (which, hello, idiots, when there is a school bus, you STOP) and then she was behind our neighbor boy in the only shot a car didn't block. I got one of her on the grass once she was across the street. I asked her how her second day was and she said, "I didn't cry today, Mom." I think she is having a hard time adjusting to a new routine since school has basically been the same for 2 years now but she'll get the hang of it. Maybe she'll end up being like me...the nerdy little kid that was terrified of being late or missing school.
(for a minute I thought she had taken off her pants at school or something but she has this weird habit of pulling her leggings up to her thighs which she must have done at some point during the school day)

Everyone else but me

We're having a family picture taken this week...it's been 2 years since the last one so it's time. I've left it to the last minute as always. I've figured out what the kids and Buck are wearing but not me. Figuring out what to wear is always the hardest part of the whole process for me! The kids are easiest. Buck is sometimes a fight to agree on what he'll wear but I think he'll comply with what I've picked this year...hopefully. The hard part with Buck and I is I think to myself "Do I really want to immortalize that [fill in article of clothing here] in a family picture?" I probably over think this way too much.

at long last...

I have a list taped to the hutch of my desk of things that I want to acquire for my house. It is dated April 2008 although some of the things on the list I wanted before that but it was April of 2008 before I decided to make a list of them all. ANYWAY, one of the things on there is a piano. For years I heard things like "oh, I wish I knew, we just gave ours away" or "my sister just tried to find someone to give hers to", etc. I scoured KSL.com from time to time (meaning not very faithfully) to see if there was anything on there I was interested in. Finally, it was my time. Actually, it was Buck that made the find. Long story short, I now am the proud owner of this beautiful piano and have been brushing up on my rusty, rusty, limited piano skills.
I also acquired some old hanging plant things (my MIL's new house has had some of the best finds that were left behind!) that have got to be straight out of the 70's or so. I LOVE them. My house is old and still has hanging plant hooks in the ceiling in some rooms but unfortunately, the only one I can use right now is this one in the office. The cats would shred any of the other locations. This plant is my oldest plant. It was a wedding gift 8 1/2 years ago. It spent the first 6 months with my mom because I was terrified I would kill it (I once killed a cactus) but when we moved to Montana, I took it with me and it's been with me ever since. I kind of think that it deserves the credit for getting my green thumb started. I detested yard work of every sort when I was growing up but now I LOVE it.

Soccer!

Grace has been so excited to play soccer this fall. I mentioned before that she got her soccer gear from Grandma for her birthday and since she had cleats, shin guards and a ball to tote around with her, I decided to make her this little bag to carry it all. Some days she wears it around, just to wear it around. She loves having her soccer stuff with her. (All her cute little soccer shorts were a b-day gift from Aunt Katie and Uncle Fish.)
These are pictures of her first game. She's the one in the blue shorts and socks with pigtails. I have to say, for never really having watched a real soccer game before, she did pretty good. I'm not sure that she kicked to ball once during the game but she hung in there with the rest of the kids...always sort of on the outside of the action.
Her little friend Quincy is on her team and thank goodness because without him she might not be brave enough to participate! Her go to defense when she feels out of place is to grab his hand. She does it at church too when she gets nervous about stuff. They are such cute friends!


I hope to awaken my competitive spirit in her one day. I know its there. I see glimpses of it sometimes. She's a fast runner and picks up on stuff quickly so hopefully one day she'll be playin' like her momma. I particularly wanted her to be #3 because that was my old number for a while. 17 was my soccer number though but that wasn't an option so 3 it was.
So I had to dig out my yearbook for this picture. I'm pretty sure it is the only picture I have of myself playing soccer, unless my mom has some hidden archive of pictures I don't know about... Either way, if it's the only picture, it's one worth having. I feel like I should point out that I am the one in the white jersey. You know, the one knocking the others to the ground...

If there is anyone in this house that our cats "belong" to, it is Grace. They are her kitties. Each morning, if Grace and Luke don't wake up early enough, Charlie (the cat pictured here) will starting yowling outside their bedroom door. A lot of nights, he and Bella both try to sleep up on her bed with her. She calls them her babies and as much as she torments them, she loves them too. And they love her.

Yellowstone in video

Most all of these will speak for themselves...

Yellowstone in pictures

Last week we went to Yellowstone. Buck and I haven't been since we went there on our way to moving up to Billings, MT 8 years ago. Yellowstone requires a lot of driving to see the park so every morning we drove around and every afternoon we played in the river by our campground. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and luckily we stayed in the campground where the bears weren't mauling people to death!
I noticed this sign right after Grace through a big old rock in this pool. (Right after I told her not to throw it, of course). I was sure we were going to be fined $5000.

Luke "fixing the trail" at Old Faithful
Trying to get everyone looking at the camera for a picture.
Luke laying one on me while we waited for Old Faithful to erupt.
First afternoon at the river.
Warming up and having a snack before heading back out to play in the water.
Firehole Canyon falls.



Waiting for breakfast in the cool morning air.

Hot cocoa mustaches.
Luke looks like a vampire thanks to his thumb sucking...his teeth are funny because of it.
Going the natural way...This was only day 3. So gross. It took me shaving twice to get my legs smooth again when we got home.
Mammoth Hot Springs.
Our first bear sighting! I did not have enough zoom on my camera to see him any better than this. It's a black bear.
The bear is behind Grace here but he is just a tiny black dot.
A little bison family. The baby is right in the middle of the picture, kind of orange colored, by the water.
Some elk.

This big guy was walking right down the middle of the road until a ranger came and pushed him to the side.
Yellowstone Lake in the background.
The Upper Falls.
The Lower Falls.
The path down to the lower falls.
We found Prince Naveen swimming in the river.
Grace caught and released him several times.
Luke just lounged on the sand of the hill.
When we stopped for lunch in Pocatello on our way home, the restaurant was on this street.