White Christmas

It has snowed so much lately and today we awoke to a very beautiful landscape of snow.  The kids were up bright and early but we made them wait until 7am before we went downstairs for the gift frenzy.  Gillian was hilarious with her excitement over everything.  Gavin was bouncing off the walls and very excited about his new nerf gun and mountain bike.  Drew was pretty quiet and had a big huge smile on her face.  She was very concerned that Santa forgot to put any bones in George's stocking.  I think Santa was either too busy or George came down in the middle of the night and got the bones out of his stocking and ate them.  Drew believes the latter theory, but still asks every hour if that's what I think happened.  Such a sweet, thoughtful girl.  

We had brunch at the Greenhalgh's this year instead of dinner because Ruthie had to work at 2pm.  Luckily we have Darren's big white truck so we made it through the snow.  It seriously snowed all day, and huge flakes too.  I just love it.  I know that a lot of people are not loving the snow, but to me it is a welcome change from the rain.  

Gavin and his icicle sword.  As long as it's pointy he will make it into a weapon.

Bright, bright, sunshiny, snowy day.

Wow, we have had lots of snow and lots of fun in that snow.  Our neighbor Fuma (pronounced Fooma) made a cool igloo with the kids and a giant snowman, which we call a snowmonster. Gillian loves Fuma, whom she calls Mooma.  "Can I go see if Mooma is home? Oh yeah, and play with Donovan?"  She has a new buddy and feels very at home over there.  

We did end up going to the kids' school today..... and sled on the hills there.  They had a blast. 

But the biggest hit was the igloo.  They played out there for hours while I locked myself in my room and wrapped presents and worked on their secret project.

And in the igloo

It was super super cold today.  And there's supposed to be a huge storm tomorrow.  Snow and high winds with gusts up to 90mph in the foothills.  Hope we don't get a branch through the roof again.  Anyway, we've got to get our generator ready for the power to go out like it does almost every year.  Now that we have a generator we probably won't lose power.  All of the stores were jam-packed today with people gearing up for the storm.

It's amazing how the whole landscape is transformed after a snow.  It's peaceful and beautiful.... until you see all the people who don't know how to drive in the snow.  I'm getting ready to hunker down for the weekend.

Snow Days

Snow days started yesterday, which means there was no school.  All of the school districts around here cancelled school yesterday due to the huge snowstorm that was forecast to hit. However, the snow didn't start falling until 6pm so in my mind (and all other parents I know) it was a waste of a day off school.  I mean, I have lots and lots of stuff to do.  It has been snowing since last night and we do have quite a lot of coverage which means school will be cancelled tomorrow as well, and then it's winter vacation.  Which also means that Gillian won't get the plate that she painted at school and I'm going to have to hear about for the next 2 weeks.  She's even told the neighbors about it.  Maybe I should go buy a plain white plate and let her paint it to get her off my back. For now she is content to play nonstop in the snow with friends.

Yesterday started like this....

and ended like this....

and continues on into today like this....

Pretty, Pretty Princess

Since we were snowed out of church on Sunday we had plenty of time to hang out, and luckily my manly man was kind enough to indulge his little girl with a game of Pretty Pretty Princess. Notice all of the jewels he is adorned with, that means he is winning and surely the game will be played and replayed until the real little princess wins.  I think he looks pretty good in a crown and earrings and rings.  Mostly I just love that he plays with the kids.  Of course if you play one game with Gill she will try to monopolize your day with Sardines, Sorry, and any game she can think up. Darren did play catch with her for a while too.  She's like a sponge that is never fully satiated, keeps coming back for attention.  I'm pretty sure I would flunk English these days because I don't think that last sentence made sense but I'm leaving it anyway.

Gavin and Drew were plenty fine just hanging out on Sunday unsupervised and un-entertained. Actually I did play a game of Stratego with Gavin and I WON!  He immediately asked for a rematch.  What is it with my kids and winning?

The other day Gillian brought home a paper snowman that someone had made for her.  So of course she came right home and got out all of the construction paper to make a friend for her snowman.  I thought that she was quite ingenius with her little snowman friend.  

First snow and Santa

The weatherman has been promising a big snowstorm that was supposed to hit on Saturday.  Everyone waited anxiously, looking out the windows every five minutes, calling the weatherman a liar.  It's all his fault!  Then an excited frenzy started when the first flakes began to fall.  Gillian ran around the cul-de-sac with her mouth open and tongue out trying to catch flakes.  I know you can't see it in the picture but there really are flakes gently falling from the sky.  Nothing really stuck until late last night.  Then this morning we got the call at 8am that church was canceled because of the trace of snow and ice on the roads.  Funny.  But I did anticipate this last night so I stayed up until 2am working on Christmas projects (which I will reveal later since Drew is standing next to me reading this).

Then came our annual visit to get Santa pictures at Alderwood Mall.  This is our fourth year with this same Santa and it's fun to see how the kids change so much each year.  Drew was so nervous to ask Santa for what she wants that she said her stomach hurt.  My stomach hurt too when she told me that she would ask him for a new puppy to keep George company.  Yeah, thats just what I need.  Santa, in his wisdom said that both parents have to give permission for that one.  Way to pass the buck Santa.  So of course I said we would have to ask dad.  Way to pass the buck Cyn.  Pretty sure Darren will put that ball back in my court.  Ughh!  She didn't even have a backup gift idea so I told her she better write Santa quickly and we would get the letter in the mail tomorrow.  So far all she has talked about today is a new dog and she has taken a poll of what kind of dog each family member would want.  Darren says a Lab, Drew another Bichon, Gavin a Great Dane, Gillian a Wiener Dog, and me a stuffed animal dog of any breed, I'm not picky.  (Or a horse like I asked for every year of my life,  I'm really not picky!)  

                    2005

         2006

2007

              2008

Happy Birthday Davy Crockett!

Since everything seems to be sneaking up on me I figured the best way to wish my wonderful father a happy birthday is through pictures and video.  Notice Gavin's obvious irritation with his sisters for altering the original song by adding cha cha cha's.  If he had lasers coming out of his eyes those girls would be crispy fries.  

A couple of awesome things about my dad:

-He speaks several languages and is always interested in learning more.

-He volunteers to fly to Mexico often to do volunteer dental work.

-He walks to and from work and helps keep the park clean on the way.

-He knows just about every word in the English language and can figure out most mind-bender newspaper crypto-quotes.

-He lives what he believes and sets a good example.

-He rarely gets sick or misses work.

-Funny sense of humor.

-Kind, caring heart.

-He loves his wife and treats her kindly.

-He takes Bruce on walks.

-He has lots of very good lifetime friends because people like to be his friend.

-I could go on and on but basically he is a great person and I love him dearly.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Roof, lights, gingerbread and late night capers

Since Darren sprained his ankle playing church basketball (again) it fell upon me to clean off the roof with Bryan's leaf blower. It was littered with pine needles and the gutters were full.  All of this I noticed while I was putting lights up for the first time ever on our house for Christmas.  Every year I want to do it but Darren thinks it is a waste of electricity.  We'll see.... I think it looks great.  

Last week my friends Sylvia and Vicki put a huge ugly wreath on my car late at night.  So, in retaliation my good friend Bec and I went to a late movie (Australia) and then at 1:15am when it was over we went and decorated their cars.  Pictures don't do it justice but we ended up turning Vicki's minivan into Rudolph.  They were so proud of our caper that they drove their hideously decorated vehicles to church with tinsel flying and all.  I think I'm still paying for the lack of sleep I got last weekend.  

FINALLY!  After Gillian pestering me for days, every hour, every minute, we decorated the gingerbread house.  I hope it was everything she thought it would be and more because she really acted as if she would die if I made her wait any longer.  Gavin was in charge of the trees and told the girls they were not to touch them or else....   Drew of course happily stayed away from his blessed trees and Gillian chewed as many gumballs as she could.  It turned out pretty nice.

The new obsession in the house is the heated plush blanket I bought at Costco.  Gillian carries it around with her and plugs it in wherever she plants herself.  Then I found her sleeping on a beanbag that was on the coffee table with her blanket.  Funny girl.

Things to note today:  Drew is very excited that she got put on the level 3 gymnastics team.  That means 4 hours of practice a week!  

Soccer season and Love notes

Thought I'd catch up on what the 8 weeks of September and October were like for me and the girls.  Soccer, soccer, soccer.  Sounds so cliche to be a soccer mom, but truly that about sums up what my life was.  Between the 2 girls there was Gill's practice Monday, Drew's Tuesday, then both on Thursday for an hour each practice--4 hours a week of practice.  Then each had a game on Saturday.  Sometimes the games overlapped so I had to quickly drop off one girl, run the other to the other field across town, rush back to the other..... Darren was out of town a lot.  

Gillian's team was the Fireflies.  This was her first season playing soccer and she treated every game like it was the world cup.  She was like Speedy Gonzales on the field and she was so darn cute when she jumped up and down squealing when she scored a goal.  It was such a joy to watch her move her little legs so fast, she has such determination.  She has the speed and needs to just work on ball control.  She will be a fierce competitor when she can control that ball.  

Drew also played for the first time on a team this year.  She was on the Eagles team and they played on a bigger field than Gill, thus less goals were scored (a major source of bragging for Gillian).  However, on her very last game Drew scored a goal and was so happy.  We were so proud of her.  It's been a nice break to not be a soccer mom for the past several weeks but part of me misses it and they are going stir-crazy.  Luckily gymnastics starts tomorrow.  

As for Gavin, it's a workout to get him to get his homework done.  He does have to keep an exercise log for PE though which has resulted in an increase of bike rides and scootering.

As far as love notes, these are a few from Drew that she left in everyones beds last night.  It was an assignment from her teacher to do something nice for someone in your family but don't let them know who did it.  So she left us all notes, not signed with her name.  It was so awesome, EXCEPT.... Gillian demanded to know who left it.  When Drew said it was maybe a secret admirer this did not bring any satisfaction to Gill.  She needed to know who it was from right now or she wouldn't be able to sleep, and lets face it, I need her to sleep.  So she was all freaked out that there is a secret admirer/ predator lurking around our house, perhaps hiding in her closet waiting to get her when the lights go out.  Agh!  Then I go to Drew's room and she has tears, real tears flowing down her cheeks because her good deed was going awry and she was afraid her teacher would be mad.  Such a sensitive, sweet, thoughtful little soul.  Then back to Gill's room where she's clutching her stuffed bear waiting for a predator/monster/admirer. Finally she said "I think it's Drew, it looks like her writing".  I said nothing, maybe I gave a slight nod.  Just GO TO SLEEP!  She ended up in our bed and at 3am I transfered her to her sweet sisters bed.  

Decorations

The children are all about decorating the house for the holidays.  We worked tirelessly on glitter snowflakes.  Gillian's friend Jianna is here almost every day after school and today they made quite a few snowflakes.  Gavin was busy running an errand on his bike.  He and Joel rode down to Staples for some new school supplies.  So grown up.  But Drew joined in on the snowflake madness.  So much fun!  So much cleanup!  So worth it.

All day I had to listen to Gillian beg to put the ornaments on the tree.  I somehow held her off till dad got home and we had dinner and baths.  Wow, it wasn't easy.  She is a persistent little creature.  We need a bigger tree in order to fit all of our ornaments.  I keep trying to evenly disperse them but then they mysteriously end up in groupings of about 7 on one tiny branch.  The kids love all of their personal ornaments given to them from grandmas.  One of my favorites is one from Grandma Greenhalgh of a little red-headed boy with angel wings.  Gav is very proud of that one.  

Gillian's newest Santa game that she has created.  You have to put all of the presents in Santa's bag while blindfolded.  Brilliant.

I love having all the decorations up and smelling the wonderful aroma of our overly decorated tree.  Such a great time of year!

Runner Drew

Since I started this blog after cross-country season I figured I'd better update a few things of importance that happened this year.  It's a good thing that I do keep a daily journal because I promptly forget things as soon as I do them.  But I have written proof!  I swear that I have swiss cheese brain.  

So anyway, Drew decided to join her 3rd grade cross-country team this year and really enjoyed running.  I think that she really surprised herself that she was good at it.  The first race she came in 11th out of about 60 girls.  Next race was 6th place out of about 85 girls!  The best was the last regional race where she came in 10th out of 105 3rd grade girls.  She was of course disappointed that she didn't get a ribbon, but she was the first Woodin elementary girl to cross the line.  She's always too hard on herself (wonder where she gets that from).  All in all she did an awesome job and I think she will continue.  

At the last event, The Great Pumpkin race, it was open to all grades and Gillian ran also.  She came in 6th out of about 80 first graders.  She was so upset because the girls who placed 1st-5th got a pumpkin trophy.  This was her sad face afterward.  It didn't matter that I told her 36 times that she came in 6th!  So amazing!

Drew came in 8th or so.  Too many girls running to be absolutely sure.  No matter, I was immensely proud of both of my sweet runner girls!

Now just looking forward to spring for Gavin's lacrosse season.  It's so much work to just keep him doing his homework.  Junior high is hard!

I haven't even posted anything about the girl's soccer season.  More to come on that....

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving started out just right.  Darren went to play flag football and I stayed in my pj's.  I did run down to the field just in time to see him intercept the ball from the other team.   Seems like he's good at everything.  Ok, he is good at everything. 

 

We were in charge of bringing potatoes to the Greenhalgh feast and my awesome husband did all the cooking and cleaning.  What a lucky girl am I!

This is what I did...

Awesome!

Gillian made a Thanksgiving pin-the-feathers-on-the-turkey game.  Tomorrow she said she will make a put-the-presents-in-santa's-bag game.  She's very into the Holiday season.  I love it.

So then it was off to the Greenhalgh feast that could have fed a small country.  I always end up eating way too much even though I promise myself I won't.  Couldn't resist snapping a picture of Gill when she fell asleep with the flowers on the way to grandma's.

Auntie Joelle only has a couple of inches on Gavin.  Holy cow he's getting big!  Although she isn't that tall, but still.  

All in all a great day.  I have so so so much to be thankful for!