Stow Aways: January 2016

January is kind of a blur now that it is already another January. (oh wait, now it's February...) I am determined to catch this blog up soon and get a whole bunch of family stuff printed in books this year.

So, back to January 2016. We finished off our Utah trip with a bunch of cousin fun. Harriet and Kate went to the American Girl store together. It's their dreamland.

They went home and promptly set up shop. These girls would play dolls for months together without coming up for air.

We had a fun New Year's dinner at my mom's house. I feel bad - she doesn't get to gather the grandkids at her house very often because we are always at Melissa's house. My mom always makes things so nice when you go there. I wish my kids could spend more time there.

Then, there's always crazy Grandpa Lyle. I'm so glad he can spend as much time with the girls as he does.

Then, someone had a bright idea to take all the cousins to the bowling alley.

Can't get enough Lyla time. She looks like a character straight out of a Dr. Seuss story.

And my kids can't get enough snow time. They are so jealous of the piles in Melissa's yard.

But, at some point, you have to put your big dog on your lap and drive home. We realized that these three aren't fitting in the backseat of the truck as nicely as they used to.

This was the winter that the kids totaled 22 and 24 absences from school. None were for vacation. They were sick with something the entire school year. Harriet got every virus and infection that came around. We spent A LOT of days like this - snuggled in bed with the animals. We decided that the animals like it when people are sick because we stay home and hang out with them.

Kit Cat and Stryder are actually pretty good friends considering their size difference and that they are a dog and a cat. They will even give each other a bath.

And it snowed. Thankfully. I had been hearing it all month, that we left all the snow in Utah and I was the worst mom ever for raising them in ABQ.

Just before Christmas break, Harriet was having a fit that she couldn't see. She would hand me things to read if the print was small and then she started having a hard time even reading music to play the piano. She was getting so frustrated. She often goes through phases where she just gets frustrated and won't try to do things, so at first, I didn't realize that she actually couldn't SEE. But, when she started putting her nose in the crack of her books to read, I realized that it wasn't just a weird phase. We were so busy at the end of the semester, there was no time to get into the doctor, and then, I knew we were leaving for Utah soon, so I kept promising her I would get her to the doctor when we came back. The entire trip, she just drove me nuts - call the eye doctor! I can't see! The day we got back, I called and they were booked out for like forever. Then, they found a cancellation for an appointment that would start in just a few minutes, so I threw her in the car and we drove like crazy across town to get in. It turns out that she has 20/20 vision in both eyes - no correction needed. Except, her eyes did not focus on the same spot when the spot got to a certain size and distance from her face (exactly the size of font, music notes, etc and about as far away as you are when you read something.) So, they gave her a prescription for prism glasses. I had never heard of such a thing. But, the prism just redirects your focus in both eyes to the same spot. So cool. It was painful to wait a few days for them to be made, but once she put them on, the difference was amazing. She was so happy and everything became so easy. She could do her homework and practicing without fits. Wow. I had no idea! Plus she looks seriously adorable in glasses.

Then, Grace had an assignment to write a thank you note to someone and have them sign it that she gave it to them. She does not like to write, especially when it comes to things like notes. So, this was kind of cool that she wrote so much to her dad.

More cheer! Harriet and company made an appearance at a Volcano Vista basketball game! It was super cute - we overheard the high school cheerleaders commenting to each other about how impressed they were with these kids and their sharp moves and performance. So proud.

And, we did manage to find a Saturday when everyone was well enough to go skiing. I think it happened a couple of times. This was at Sipapu. We tried to ski there as much as possible because they allow you to ski for free when you are 40 years old (BOTH David and I were 40 for the NM ski season which is January and February!) Then, they allow 4th and 5th graders to ski for free (Harriet), and once you are in middle school, they will give you a season pass for $5 if you are on the honor roll! (Grace) So, our whole family skied there for the season for $5. Seriously can't beat that! It balanced out the hundreds of dollars we spent for one day of freezing our extremities off at Alta.

Oh wait, then someone got sick. Again. Grace somehow managed to come down with mono. This really killed us. Making up her homework was just awful. She missed 2 whole weeks of school straight, and then she only went back for a few periods a day for 2 weeks after that. Poor kid!

Harriet ended the month with a smashing school dance, 80's style! She loved dressing up in these clothes and looking funky. She and her friends were so adorable out there dancing. I love these friends, that they get her to let her hair down and make her have fun. Otherwise, she would be a total wallflower. She pulled off a pretty good Madonna look, I think.