Out and About...

Grace and Hattie and I have been on our own for the last couple of days. David has been working morning til night and went almost 48 hours without even seeing the kids. I know lots of women who live like that with their kids regularly because of their husbands jobs. I am very grateful that it only happens rarely with David. We have had some fun on our own though.

On Thursday, our "mom's group" held their monthly field trip. This time, we visited "The Butterfly Place." It was a bit of a drive - definitely out of my 15 minute comfort range, but we did find it and we did leave ourselves enough room to arrive on time. If you have ever been to the Hogle Zoo butterfly tent/atrium they have in the summer, this was very similar (except much more expensive than Hogle Zoo's $1 admission charge for the tent!) Both girls, well all of us, were delighted with the vast number and variety of butterflies in the atrium. There were these huge bird sized ones that had blue on the insides of their wings, but brown camoflauge on the outside. These swooped through the atrium, buzzing past the kids heads, and scared and excited them at the same time. Eventually, they got pretty brave and started landing on us too. Grace was grateful that one didn't land on her, but Hattie and I were excited to have a landing. You had to be careful though, because if you were caught with your hand or arm out encouraging a landing, you were thrown out of the atrium. It was hard to keep yourself from doing it.

Not only were the butterflies beautiful, but so were the plants and flowers in the atrium. Butterflies feed on very pretty things and I have half a notion to put some butterfly attracting plants in my yard this year. Lots of people and places around here do that and it seems to work pretty well.

Yesterday, (a Saturday) David again worked a long day. He hadn't planned on being there that long, or I would have made other arrangements for Harriet and Grace while I did my riding lessons. However, his work just got extended one more hour and one more hour until the kids ended up spending the whole day with me at the barn. We got a foot of snow the night before, so Grace spent most of the time digging through the snow in the arena and making snow castles with her beach gear. She did get to ride Tinky too in the snow and that made the afternoon much more fun. Hattie, bless her soul, hung from her carrier on the front of me for about 4 hours. I got this very cool new carrier a couple of months ago. I absolutely love it! It saved me yesterday for sure. I gave her a couple of short breaks, but she was basically there the whole time. She took a couple of naps that way and I fed her little snacks as we went. She was amazingly good - they both were. I was very grateful for that.

Here is a photo of the barn in the snow. Rita, my friend and boss, is riding her horse Tucker in the picture...We all (David included) arrived home after 5pm exhausted, cold, and a bit disgruntled for various reasons, so we quickly freshened up and went out to dinner. Grace chose "The Quarterdeck" restaraunt - a local favorite seafood place of ours. The kids love going out to eat and making friends with others at the restaraunt. Both of our kids are crowd charmers of sorts and like to be friendly to people. For dinner, Grace ordered her favorites: a cup of clam chowder, and a piece of "pink fish" - salmon. They don't even have salmon on the kids menu, but since neither of us was ordering salmon, we asked the server if they could bring Grace a small piece that didn't cost $18. They obliged and she was thrilled. (What 4 year old would pick a seafood restaurant for dinner and order clam choweder and salmon?) She ate a little too much clam chowder and didn't have room to finish her salmon, but we did bring it home. She is way too funny!

Hang on tight, here we go!

Hattie finally has her own set of transportation... her knees! She has been trying to figure out how to crawl for at least a couple of months and has been scooting around on her bum or whatever to go from corner to corner. Last Saturday, March 3rd, she woke up (in my bed) and I put her down on the ground so she wouldn't fall off my bed while I got some clothes. She saw something on the floor and got up on her hands and knees and just crawled right to it. It was like she had always been doing it that way. It was very weird, but I knew she was close to figuring things out. I just didn't think she'd do it straight away without trying something else first thing in the morning.

Now, she's up and away and crawling all over the house. We're back to dirty hands and knees and soon to have worn out pants. We just hope she might start walking before summer so that she doesn't have to crawl on bare knees like Grace did.

Now, she doesn't want to be held much - she just wants to get down and go explore. Her new fast and favorite thing to do is to crawl to the entertainment center and pull out all of the DVD's. She is also figuring out the DVD player buttons and drives Gracie insane when she pushes the buttons and stops the movie or restarts it. She also now crawls over to Grace's train table and pulls herself up to it and ruins all of Grace's train creations and takes her favorite engines. It's still pretty cool to see Harriet start acting like a kid and wanting to do the same things as Grace. She's well on her way to giving her sister a run for her money.
Way to go Hattie!

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Gracie turned 4 years old on Monday. (she doesn't like to have her picture posed and taken, so she's not smiling here...) We were so lucky to have my sisters Melissa and Emily and her cousing Sean still here to celebrate with us. We had a spectacular day together. Grace wanted to ride for her birthday activity, so we took her to the barn for a great time with Tinkerbell. She had to try out her new paddock boots she got for her birthday and her new grooming tools she got when we were in Salt Lake in January. A picture tells a thousand words - here she is on Tink as we brought her in from the pasture. Grace was in heaven. Here's the real smile you just can't pose.

Then, we took her to lunch at Not Your Average Joe's where they treated her to a pretty cool birthday cake for her special day at the request of Aunt Em. When Daddy came home at night, we had some of Grace's favorite things to eat - fettuccini alfredo with asparagus and snickerdoodles for dessert - and then opened the rest of her presents. She was so excited to open more things and got some pretty cool stuff. Everyone was (as always) extremely generous in their gift giving to Grace. Even I can't keep myself from getting her lots of things. She is so easy to buy for and I always find way too many things that I know she would love. Grace and I tried to send thank you e-mails to everyone. We hope we didn't miss any. Hattie gave Grace a puzzle that is a picture of "The 119" train that we saw at the Golden Spike last summer. Grace actually spotted this puzzle in an antique store window from across the street and yelled "mommy, it's the 119!!" I couldn't believe she would know that from so far away, but sure enough, she was right.

Mommy's note: I can't believe my tiny little girl is already 4 years old. In the past year, she has learned to count to 100 and beyond, add and multiply simple numbers, has learned so many new words that she sounds even more articulate than I do half the time, and has begun to read. She really can read and she reads or recognizes words wherever we go. I am always amazed when she points out something and tells me what it says. She is very smart. She can use a computer to check her e-mail, play games, and "surf" the net on her favorite websites, perform any technological function on any piece of equipment you show her, ride her trike WELL, hit a baseball VERY hard with a bat, throw any sort of ball overhand better than her mom (not saying a whole lot there), ride Tink without anyone leading her, and make phone calls by herself (mostly to her Aunt Em.) She also started going to Primary instead of the nursery at church this year. She is in a class of 9 Sunbeams! It is a great little class with 2 very good teachers and she is having a fine time in there. She goes back and forth on being willing to do things like talk on the phone with family, say prayers in front of us, and being nice to her sister. However, I have noticed that she is much more apologetic lately and sincerely says that she is sorry when she has done something wrong or when she has hurt someone. She ALWAYS points out the good things in life. I think about the U2 song, Grace, a lot. It has lyrics that go "Grace finds beauty in everything" and "Grace finds goodness in everything" and "Grace makes beauty out of ugly things." She really does do all of those things on a daily basis. Things to which I wouldn't give a second thought, she says "mommy, isn't that beautiful?" I remember when she was blessed as a baby, part of her blessing talked about how she would love life and live it to the fullest and find beauty in the things of nature and her surroundings. What a cool kid, and I'm so lucky to be her mom. (note to self to read this tomorrow when she's screaming "NO" at me for something!)

Gracie's 4th Birthday Party!

Grace's official birthday is not until tomorrow, but we had her party yesterday. I can't believe my little sweetie is turning 4 years old! It was the first party we've had for her where we invited little party guests of her own age. She always likes to have a theme. This year she chose to have a "horsey party." I made a barn cake with a horse on top, bought horsey plates, wrapped her gift in a horsey bag, etc, etc. We ate horsey afternoon snacks (carrots and apples.) We played horsey games - pin the tail on the pony, horse shoes, and musical chairs (ridden on stick-horse-back.) Her gift from Mommy and Daddy was her first pair of paddock boots that she can wear to ride Tinkerbell and use for horse camp this summer when she goes with her cousin Janie. She also gave out little stuffed horses and horse pens as party favors to her 3 party guests. She invited the two girls in our town, Rindy and Jacki, that she knows and plays with and then her cousin Sean of course. They had quite a good time for the most part. One of the little girls is just about as horse-crazy as Grace so I think she really liked our theme. There was a girl scuffle over sharing and playing with one of the presents. But, what's a birthday party if someone doesn't cry? It was a little dramatic, but Grace recovered from it much more quickly than I did. I'm over it now too though.
Grace's Aunt Lis promised her last year that she would come for her birthday and Grace does not forget promises that are made to her. So, Aunt Lis made good on her promise and brought Sean and Aunt Em along to spend the week-end with Grace. That was a great birthday present - to have so many fun people staying in our house. We are so thankful that they came and are still here to have a couple more days of fun.

We'll blog about Gracie's birthday again I'm sure...we have more activities planned for tomorrow!

Long time no see...

I haven't seen my cousin Abbey since I moved to the East coast. She lives in the mid-west and we haven't crossed paths in Salt Lake in 2 years. She called us up last month to report that she would be in our area on business and wondered if she could spend some time with us. Of Course!!! We are always so happy to have family and company come to stay with us. The more the merrier. Fortunately, she was able to come the same week-end as my sisters and nephew, so we spent one day and night together doing some serious hanging out and catching up. She is SO much fun and so cute. Grace had a ball with her and they played and played and played. We only wish she could have stayed the whole week-end. I had forgotten how much fun I use to have with my Mitchell cousins. We were really close, but adulthood, marriage, and kids have made it more difficult and seemingly less necessary to get together. After seeing Abbey this weekend, it made me realize that I really do miss seeing all of them and I will have to do a better job of keeping in touch with them. I also look at my kids and at their cousins, especially those of similar age, and hope that they will have close relationships and want to spend time together too. It is more difficult when you don't live in the same state as any of your family, but there are so many modern ways to communicate and travel that it shouldn't be impossible. My siblings are so important to me and I would hope that our kids would be important to each other too.

Thanks for coming Abbey. We immensely enjoyed having you at our house and welcome you back anytime. That invitation goes for any of our family and friends!!!

Bundt vs. Bunt

David promises to blog about his own birthday, but being a person of extreme linear thinking, I can't post about Grace's birthday until something is recorded about his so that it's in order. I will let David speak for himself when he chooses to, but for the record, Grace and I made him a carrot Bundt cake for his birthday (photo later when I can find it) and he reports that it cured his Bunt. And, I should also say I knew the Bunt was coming because it didn't happen at Christmas. He is never any fun the 2 weeks before Christmas and this year he was fine. So, I knew we would be in for some Bunt sooner than later.

The State of Bunt

Well this post is mostly just to let everyone that we are still alive. No strange phenomonum has obliverated us out east. It is mostly the winter doldrums. Which is really a lame excuse considering we really haven't had much of a winter, but I am already sick of it. Every since I gave up skiing I just haven't enjoyed winter as much. We got our first real snow fall on Valentine's day and the snow is still here. We had a little bit of snow Thursday, but mostly it is around because it has been cold. I can't wait for spring when the weather is nice during the day but before the bugs are out in force along with the dreaded humidity.

Not to say that it has been boring around here. We had President's Day brunch with our friend the Smith's and Swint's. I have even considered taking downhill skiing up again as Grace is getting to the point where she may enjoy that and my friend Gary has been taking his kids for the first time this year and has invited Grace and I to come along (unfortunately it has been on Sundays).

Perhaps this is the calm before the storm. We are gearing up for visits every month from March to October. It will be fun to have visitors and for us to be visitors but there is always a lot to take care of on either side of visits. Since Michelle and I are having a battle of will to see who will post about our doings nothing much gets written and plus what has there been to write?

The best way to describe me right now is a state of bunt. I normally go through a couple week period each year (generally in December) where I don't have much desire to do anything. Even lounging is a chore. This past December it didn't happen so perhaps I have it a couple of months late.

Anyway, I can feel the winds of change coming. The feeling of inevitability, and just maybe some exciting news to post to all the world.

Hattie's 9 months old!

I don't notice or celebrate Harriet's little weekly and monthly first-year birthdays as much as I did with Grace. Mostly, it's because I'm doing so much and thinking about so much that I don't even know what day it is! Harriet is also such a fast-forward baby that I'm not even sure what it is she's supposed to be doing at what age. I do know that while we were in Utah, Harriet reached the 9 month mark. Here is what she is and isn't doing now:

She IS:
*very healthy
*very big still - 19.5 pounds and 29 inches long (60th and 90th percentile)
*eating MUCH better - just about anything off of your plate. Her favorite this week was the shredded BBQ pork out of my burrito.
*getting lots of teeth - 3 came for Christmas and one on New Year's
*sitting up extremely well
*playing a lot more
*much happier and personable
*talking a lot - dada, baba, and I swear she says doggie and said kitty once
*laughing a lot
*playing pat-a-cake and waving to people
*taking fewer naps- down to 2 today
*trying VERY hard to crawl and was much inspired by spending time with her 17 month old cousin, Sean
*standing up by holding onto your hands
*paying attention to the TV more (I know this is mostly bad, but it is good for me - especially when making dinner!) Her favorites are Elmo, Baby Mozart, and just the introduction song of Little Einsteins. She also likes the opening scene of the movie "Cars."

She is NOT:
*spitting up as much - down to once or twice a day
*taking prescription meds for her belly anymore
*crying as much during the day or when I leave her with David
*easy going - she has a very sharp little temper
*fitting into the right clothes! I am still buying baby clothes because she skips ahead in sizes and seasons from what I had for Grace. Arggghhh...
*liking baby food so much - big people food please!
*getting a lot of hair, but the hair she does have has a hint of being curly?
*crawling or walking yet, but big sister didn't do those things until 10 and 15 months, so she's got some time before being embarrassed.
*sleeping through the night anymore! she was doing 10 hours, and now only does 4... little stinker...

I also know that I LOVE her. Although a difficult one to figure out, she is a bright spot in my life. I really have connected with her and I understand her. I'm starting to forget what life was like without her and that is a good thing.

Here are some photos of Hattie with all the family she got to hang with in Utah...

January 2007

I feel badly that I didn't blog during the month of January except for my New Year's post. We were just too busy! We spent the first week digging ourselves out of the Christmas mess and the second week packing and getting ready for our trip to Utah that would last until the end of the month.

Our Utah trips aren't quite to the point where you just put in the tape and push "play", but they are developing some similar patterns and themes. Of course, we see as much of our family as we can and we visit as many friends as time allows. Our other main activities are to go for a horsey ride at our old barn, eat out at our old favorite restaurants, and do some major shopping. The local shopping where we live is ok for most things and is actually better for some things, but there is always a list of items that I just can't seem to find or get without some major effort here. So, I make a list and take an empty bag and fill it whenever visiting my familiar shopping places in Utah. It is also much more fun to shop in Utah because there, I have my sisters and mom to shop with and also lots of built-in baby-sitters. This past time, we all went together quite a bit and tag-teamed the kids as we each took turns looking for and trying things on. Here, I either have to leave my kids and go alone, or take them with me and try to shop while they whine and cry and get lost.
It sounds a bit silly for me to go on about shopping because I'm not really a "Nordstrom girl" as we use to say in high school. I am not much into fashion and purses and having the latest things. But, at some point, you do have to replace worn out jeans, buy more clothes when you change sizes, and you do have to buy gifts and let's face it, it is much too fun to buy things for little girls now that I have them! So, I do spend a lot of time shopping with my sisters.

This past month we made several trips to Cottonwood Mall. I kind of feel like I grew up at Cottonwood Mall. When we were little and lived in Wyoming and use to come to Salt Lake to visit my Grandma, she would take us to the mall. We always ate at the food court and tossed coins in the fountain. Then, after we moved to Salt Lake, only blocks from the mall, we made frequent trips with our friends in the summer as pre-teens, and then frequent trips "in-between classes", ahem, in high school. I did get caught at Cottonwood Mall when I shouldn't have been there. As luck would have it, my mom caught me every single time I broke a rule. On one particular unlucky trip, the rusty muffler and tail pipe completely broke off (but was still tethered to) my 88 Camaro in the middle of the mall parking lot - had to call mom and dad to help with that one. In later married years, I use to meet my mom and sisters at the mall early in the morning the day after Thanksgiving to kick-off the Christmas shopping season. Needless to say, the mall has been a place where my family has done lots of shopping and eating together and it brings back lots of memories.

Now, I write about the mall as it completes is final closings. When we were there last month, we visited several stores "on their last day open" and passed many more that had already been closed for months. I have been told that it will be closed for good in April and probably torn down before we go back to Utah. It's weird (not being a shopping addict) that I'm a little sad about losing the mall in my old neighborhood, but I am. Oh well, the mall is not the only place to shop - we have lots of other favorites!

To sum up our vacation, we spent lots of time hanging out! (We also spent lots of time dodging viruses and spraying lysol on door knobs, phones, and toys - finally got sick for the last 4 days of our 17 days there.) The only downside of the trip besides all of our sick relatives was our canceled road trip to southern Utah to see my grandparents there. We had banked on going, but too many people were too sick on too many days to go. The best part of our trip is that Harriet got some really good time in with her grandparents and aunts. She really got to know them and bonded with them. Grace also got lots of individual attention from everyone and always comes away with her "bucket full." It's a deep bucket to fill when we get home and she has to share me with Harriet and all of the daily chores.
We'll have to come again soon before Harriet forgets everyone. Hopefully, May will be our next trip.

Here are some random January pictures. Since, we didn't go anywhere but people's living rooms, the barn, and the mall, so they're not terribly exciting, but I guess, neither are we. I actually love not doing much of anything - doing something is over-rated and doing nothing is highly under-rated.

That Darn Dog!

Anybody want me?

Well I just got home from the emergency care vet. I really wanted to use the line I have a shovel and a shotgun and plenty of space to bury you. But alas, Grace wouldn't let dispose of Velvet after we came home to find out she had eaten 2.5 lbs of chocolate (almost a lethal dose). So off I went to the vet. They wanted to keep her over night, but I was about to fork over the dough for my new mountain bike so instead she gets one angry owner to keep an eye on her for the next 48 hours to make sure she doesn't have any ill effects.

Moral of the story, no more chocolate in the house. We'll see if I can convince Michelle and Grace of that one! Or alternatively, no more dogs.

Signed,

One unhappy dog owner. Talk to me tomorrow I'll probably be in a better mood.

Global Warming?

The last two days have been unbelievable around here. I see how cold it is in Utah and how much snow they have in Colorado and I can only shake my head about the weather around here. Yesterday it was 63 degrees and today it was 69. January 6, and I am out and about in a t-shirt and doing yard work. Definately not your typical New England winter day. If this is from global warming, count me as a fan.

With Michelle teaching today, the kids, dogs and I spent the afternoon outside enjoying ourselves. We cleaned up after the dogs (not fun, but hey somebody has to do it), played football, did some yard work, and went on a 3 mile walk. Grace and Harriet loved the bike trailer/stroller. I think this was the first time that I didn't have to listen to Harriet cry even once while Michelle was gone. She loved the walk and so did the dogs. They got themselves wet in the river, did some snooping (and perhaps some eating) of goose/duck nests, and ran at least an extra mile with all of the doubling back.


About the only thing I didn't get to do today was go on a bike ride. I just am getting older, fatter, and more out of shape every day. I generally have cold weather as an excuse but not this last week.

Merry Christmas 2006!

Sorry it took so long for us to write about Christmas. Our post-Christmas week was just about as busy as our pre-Christmas week. Then, to make matters worse, it has taken 3 days and many more attempts to get the pictures loaded onto blogger (I know - I should have just done them on the flickr button...)

Harriet had her first Christmas this year! She wasn't old enough to understand it, but she was old enough to have some fun. It is always great for a parent to have a baby at Christmas time because you really think about what Mary and Joseph must have gone through to get Jesus here and all they did after he was born to raise him. I wondered "did baby Jesus have reflux?" Then, listening to the words of a carol I had forgotten "no crying He made", I guess he wasn't too fussy of a baby.


Our fussy baby Harriet did like looking at lights, playing with bells, and ripping wrapping paper. She really liked playing with her new toys too on Christmas day. I think she had gotten a little bored with the ones she had and was excited to have something that caught her attention again. She was lucky to receive the "coveted" Tickle-Me-Elmo Extreme from Mo Debbie and Grandpa Lyle. I hadn't even heard about the toy when it was going like hot-cakes in toy stores and being sold for fortunes on e-bay, but her grandma hooked her up and she's now the coolest 8 month old in town (we're pretty sure she was the only kid in our tiny town to get one!) Her favorite present was probably the gift from her sister Grace - a set of stacking cups from the grocery store. She loves holding them, hitting them together, and chewing on the edges. Grace was very proud to have given her sister a gift that was enjoyed so much.


Gracie probably had her best Christmas yet. She was the most fun for us this year. She was utterly, entirely, and hopelessly spoiled from every direction. She's just at the right age to be totally entranced by the magic of Santa and the wonder of each holiday tradition and can't get enough of the decorations, lights, and counting down to the big day.
She also was a little light of Christmas spirit in our house. Even amidst her constant reminding of what she had asked Santa to bring, she was equally interested in the Nativities, having a birthday party for baby Jesus, and understanding of others who might not be getting as much for Christmas. She helped me with a sub-for-Santa sponsored by our town. We went to the library and chose tags for two little girls who Santa needed help with. She was way into helping Santa get to the little girls who wouldn't otherwise receive something. She helped me shop for, wrap, and deliver the toys back to Santa's box. I am actually pretty amazed at how much she understood and cared for the spiritual side of Christmas in comparison to the other things. She also helped her daddy shop for me and was very excited to tell me where they got each thing as I opened it.

Santa was good to David and me as well. I got a new riding helmet (my first new one in at least 13 years) now that I'm back to riding weekly. David got a manly cordless drill and can't wait to find something that is loose that might need a big screw drilled into it. He looked all over on Christmas day for something to try it out on, but didn't find anything cool enough. We also got lots of new things to cook with. David is being VERY careful with his new pots and pans from his parents and I have received strict instructions on their use and care. I sure hope he is the first one to scratch one of them and not me!

We were invited on Christmas Eve to spend the evening with our friends, the Bahe's. (This is Harriet and me with my friend Shawn Bahe.) They are an extremely musical family and live in the "servant's quarters" of a house circa 1800's. It was a very charming place to have a Christmas party. It looked just like a Victorian Christmas card. They sang (and we mouthed) lots of carols, played some songs on these cool hand-made chimes, listenened to some great stories, and watched the kids act out the Nativity. Grace was the shepherd. She was bummed to lose the role of Mary to another girl there, but then was equally happy to be in charge of the sheep.


Christmas Day was spent entirely at our house. We didn't go a single place, but just played and watched movies all day. It was GREAT! Then, David cooked a big fancy turkey dinner for us that night.
We have to make a small note about Shadow and Velvet too. They have been very good dogs all year, especially with the addition of another baby to the pack. They have been kicked out of every room that was "theirs," kicked off of every piece of furniture that they might have been allowed to sleep on, and have had their walks taken away from them as David has been too busy helping me with the kids at night to do it (he had tried diligently to re-start the walks this week, but they have gone 8 months without their nightly hour of adventure.) So, as a family, we got the dogs new fluffy nice beds with their names embroidered on them. They are so very grateful for the gifts. They have hardly been found anywhere else in the house since Christmas morning. We are just glad we could give them a little bit of joy too...they are really good girls and are so patient with the kids - they deserved a little reward for sure.


Merry Christmas to every creature, one and all!

Visitors from the West and Birthday Celebrations!

This post is a little out of order. I realized that I never "blogged" about my mom and sister coming to visit last week-end. It is always VERY nice to have people come and visit us, and this was no exception.
The first night they were here, we went to Concord's town Christmas festival to see their tree lighting. It's such a historic town - arguably one of the most historic in our country. We had a tour of the Colonial Inn (est. 1716 - still running as a hotel and restaurant) and Grace had her face painted in the "Thoreau Room."

The next couple of days, we had a great time just hanging out and doing lots of Christmas shopping in the tiny towns around here. Santa toured our town and Grace got to tell him face-to-face what she wants for Christmas (after not sitting on his lap at the festival.) He told her to keep her room clean. Her room is always clean - I asked "did he say anything about your playroom?"

Grace stuck like glue to her Aunt Em. They are soul mates of sorts. They are so similar. Sometimes I slip and call Grace "Emily" because she reminds me of my little sister when we were all very young. Sometimes I feel like I've just added 2 more sisters to my family rather than 2 daughters/nieces. We do make a tight bunch though and it is so fun to be together, but so hard to be apart too. Grace has had an especially hard time this week without "Em" and can't wait until we can go see everyone again in a few weeks...

We also did some early birthday celebrating. I turned 31 today - no particularly important number to celebrate, but any time you pass the milestone of adding a year to your life, it is significant (and I can't believe I'm "freakin' 31".) My mom and Emily did tend the kids while David and I went out to dinner by ourselves (only for the 3rd time since Hattie was born), so that was really nice. Then, we also had a family party the next night.

Tonight for my real birthday, David and Grace (and Hattie) made things really special. After opening all my gifts for me, Grace chose to have a candle-light salmon dinner (what 3 year old chooses salmon and salad over cheese ravioli?!) and helped her daddy get it ready. They also made me a birthday cake - I think the first David has ever made. He tried very hard to make frosting, but I stepped in to help when I saw the lumpy chocolate soup he was whisking around in the bowl trying to convince himself it would eventually spread with a knife. But as we said - it was the best cake ever because it had the most important ingredient - LOVE. Sounds cheesy? Wait until you eat a piece of cake made by your darling little blonde girl and your husband who has taken her birthday shopping for you and has helped her make a salmon dinner for you (also made raspberry waffles this morning.) You'll be able to write a hallmark card about it too.

A Star is Born

Grace had her big stage debut Friday night. She and her friends from dance class performed a tap dance number to the song "Frosty the Snowman" at the local junior high school auditorium. She is in a class that does both ballet and tap, but since they have only been dancing for 4 months, they chose one medium for the first recital. She will do a ballet and a tap number at the big spring recital.

I have to say I am not a good stage mom. I get way too frazzled about things and there is so much to do and worry about and remember to bring. We wish that Aunt Em would have been able to come and be our make up artist! I haven't applied (or owned) blue eyeshadow since 1988, nor black eyeliner for that matter, but we did get it put on and even had the best rosy cheeks because I found this really cool lipstick wand thingy at the drugstore.

After much preparation, practice, and primping, Grace proudly went onstage first to do a dress rehearsal and then to do the real thing. Her dance partner got scared and decided to sit down on the stage for the first half of the song. They were supposed to clap hands together, but Grace was a trooper and just pretended that her partner was participating. She was a great actress and just went with the flow. She was also very serious in trying to remember her steps. Her dance teacher (also the studio owner) was in front of the stage helping them along and Grace was sternly focused on her to make sure she was doing the right things. No fake smile for her... she was too busy concentrating, but the smile after she was done was completely genuine and she was so proud of herself. We are so proud of her too. I really couldn't believe that she was so fearless about the stage and so intense about her dance steps. Also, for a kid who won't have her hair done to save her life, she was surprisingly excited about having her hair and makeup done (and her make up refreshed many times) for the performance.

As tradition stands, it is proper to give a dancer some flowers after they perform. Many kids were getting them at the recital, but we had left ours in the car so that we could give them to her later. She was SOOO excited to receive 3 little pink roses as a tribute to her performance. She wants to keep them forever, so they are now drying in her bedroom.
I am just so excited to have a little girl who I can do these kinds of things with and who is so beautiful and smart and talented and kind. (Sorry folks - I have to brag here...) She is so amazing and teaches me so many things about how you should be and how you should look at life. Gracie - you are my star.

A Year in Review

With 2006 coming to a close I thought that I would make a little video montage of the happenings of 2006. It has been a good year to us and we will soon have our top 10 items of the year as well. This was going to be a small project, but in process it morphed into something a little larger than intended. For now enjoy the 15+ minutes of pictures and good tunes. If you were lucky enough to be in the video congrats. Otherwise, I guess you need to spend more time with us!