Sports 101

Kermit and I are not huge sports fans.  We both love watching an occasional basketball or baseball game but we don't follow teams anymore like we used to.  Kind of sad. Sigh.  So this weekend we randomly turned on the TV and stopped at a college basketball game.  The girls were gathered around so I tried my best to explain the game.  The red team, the white team, the referee, the two point shots, the three point shots, the foul line shots, etc. Everyone seemed really interested and liked to watch.  One of them had me laughing my head off (to myself) when she most seriously said, "If I ever play basketball, I want to be the referee."  I love it!

Then today I explained to them what the Super Bowl was.  It was brought up because the twins have been invited to a Puppy Bowl Party.  The Puppy Bowl is a show on Animal Planet that shows puppies "playing football".  Perfect for a bunch of 2nd grade girls right?! But if they don't know what the Super Bowl is then they won't get it. So I explained that the Puppy Bowl is just a bunch of puppies pretending to play football. Puppies tackle each other and play tug of war with the ball etc. and it's cute to pretend the puppies are playing real foot ball.  Then one of my girls says, "How do the puppies make a basket?"

I love my girls!  Just had to laugh!

Summer 2013 Kick Off

This last summer we were lucky again to be able to spend it in Massachusetts.  On the first week that we got there Kermit was gone everyday to Boston for the WWOM.   (WWOM stands for World Wide Officer Meeting, aka Partner Meetings.)  You'd think this was a bad thing but it was good! Usually when the WWOM comes around Kermit is gone for the whole week overseas.  But because it was in Boston this time he was home every night which was great!

Spouses are usually invited to the spring WWOMs but I haven't been to one since Annaliese was a baby.  This year I went for a day which was kind of fun.  I went downtown and got a massage and went to hear Hillary Clinton speak. (Though I'm not a democrat, it was still cool).  I opted out of everything else mostly because I wanted to be with the kids back home (and being pregnant I would have had to go buy a weeks worth of  super nice maternity clothes...no thanks!)

Also having his WWOM in Boston got the kids and I out and about in the city right away. (P.S. His company was celebrating 50 years!  Amazing!  Kermit was honored for being there 20 years!  Double amazing!)  One day while he was busy with his meetings I took the girls and did the children's museum  and had Kermit meet up with us at the Boston Tea Party Ship for their last tour of the day.  We literally were the only people in the tour so we got the VIP treatment.  The museum had gone through some recent renovations and we were very impressed.  They did a great job bringing the history to life.

So that is how we kicked off Summer of 2013.  Not too shabby I'd say!

Twin Teeth

Addie & Avrie  - July 2012

I found this picture on my computer and just had to laugh.  This one always does. It is from July 2012.  We were in NYC for my birthday and staying in a hotel near Central Park.  We had been wandering all over that day visiting the touristy sites.  By the time we got back to our hotel everybody was zonked.  Addie was brushing her teeth in the tiny bathroom and Avrie was in the main sleeping area brushing her teeth.  All of a sudden Avrie had this look of horror come across her face.  Her tooth had just come out as she was brushing.  Just as she was about to say something about it we hear from the bathroom "Hey! My tooth just fell out!"  No kidding these two lost their teeth at exactly the same time!   This little story always makes me smile.  This picture is priceless.

3 months!

Today marks 3 months since this little girl came into our lives!  Happy 3 month birthday Althea! She is getting good at holding her head up, but she is still a bit wobbly.  She loves to kick and she kicks a lot when she gets excited.  She bats at her toys.  She can even grab them and shake them. She has found her fingers and likes to suck on them. She takes a binky if she must.  She takes a bottle only when it is super warm and not being offered by mom.  She is an awesome eater! When she wants to nurse she nuzzles her face into my chest. Funny girl!  She even sleeps through the night!  She is amazing!  I love talking with her and listening to her coo and goo.  She has been arching her back and trying to roll.  She's not a huge fan of tummy time but she is getting quite good at it.  Her sisters adore her and love playing with her.  They sing to her and make her toys dance and put on little shows for her.  If she is crying in her crib they will run up and talk to her and calm her down and play with her until I can get up to take care of her.  Althea is such a blessing to our family and Althea has been blessed with 3 incredibly loving sisters.    A happy three months it has been indeed!

Althea on her 3 month bday

Christmas 2013

The most wonderful time of the year!  Christmas 2013 was a success!  I was a bit nervous and wondered if we'd pull it off.  I had everything timed out perfectly but my plans came to a halt when Adeline and Avrie came down with the stomach flu on the Thursday before Christmas and had to miss their school party on Friday and didn't recover until Monday. Fortunately nobody else in the family got sick but I did have to just let some things go this year.  Like cards for example....our Christmas cards have become New Years cards....and I'm mailing them out tomorrow, January 13th. Oh well.   They turned out super cute though! I'm excited for them anyway.

The favorite gift this year were the nutcrackers you see in this picture.  I have to say that they really love their bath robes and their ice skates as well.  We are working on ice skating.  If you look carefully in the picture Avrie has a splint on her left wrist because she fell while ice skating.  She's fine now thankfully.  Next time we'll be sure to wear wrist guards under our gloves.

I think one of my favorite memories this year will be when our family went Christmas Caroling. We visited our neighbors and some older single women from our ward.  Kermit played the guitar and we sang "Good King Wenceslas" and "Away in a Manger."  Both were very cool arrangements and the girls sounded so good!  Hearing their voices never got old and almost made me cry every time!  I loved it! I definitely want to do that again next year. 

Over the break we visited a few museums and watched movies but many days were spent home in our pajamas enjoying whatever each person felt like. Some of our traditions didn't happen this year but we have the good excuse of having a new baby.  I think the thing I really want to concentrate on and set as a personal goal for 2014 is to have the shopping done by October 1st. Fall is such a busy time for our family with birthdays and holidays so I would love to unwind and focus more on service to others in December rather than worrying about if I'm ready with gifts for my own family.  I better get started! =)

Oh,and I have to mention that the girls were in HEAVEN when we got hit with a massive winter storm that dumped tons of snow and left us with crazy low temperatures.  Like  40 below!  It was heaven because school was cancelled for two days and then a third day because the pipes froze at school.  It was the vacation that kept on giving!  Thank you Chicago for the three extra days of Christmas vacation!

"Baby"

For Christmas one of the gifts that Annaliese gave to me was a booklet with writings from all her classmates.  Her class had gone on a writers workshop field trip.  Here is Annaliese's entry.  I think hers was the best. It is so interesting to me to get her perspective on the day she came to the hospital to meet her new sister.  And I have to say the details she remembers are right on. 

BABY by Annaliese

Annaliese, Avrie, Adeline...another baby was coming to our family.  Those names were hard to come up with.  One day, about a week ago, Dad, my sisters and I went to the hospital.  When I entered the hospital room where my mom was, the first thing I saw was an ivory curtain with leaf patterns on it.  Then I saw her. Just a burrito with a diaper, a onesie and a hat.  Her eyes were closed, but she had a peculiar nose.  I hugged my mom.  I stared a the TV screen with boring, soothing nature videos.  Music played quietly to soothe the patient.  "Look at the city!" said one of my 7-year-old twin sisters.  I stared at the lights illuminating the skyscrapers, the cars, the people.  A hazy purple sky spread over Chicago.  "I want to live in a skyscraper!"  I cried.  My baby sister winked at me as I held her.  Her nickname is Winkie.  Now she is home.  She is one-and-a-half weeks old.  Althea is truly the best.

A Weekend in December

This little girl had her 2 month check up.  She's perfect and healthy!  What a blessing!  She is in the 95th percentile for height (24.5 inches) and 75 percentile for weight (12 lbs).  She's growing so fast.   All her 0-3 month and some of her 3-6 month clothing went next door to our neighbor who has a baby just a few weeks younger and much smaller.   She started smiling and cooing a few weeks ago and we are loving it!  She has started to prefer keeping her head turned to the left so we are constantly trying to get her to turn right so that she doesn't end up in a helmet like Annaliese did.  She also got shots at this appointment.  She did not like that at all.   Last time she was pretty mellow.  Not so this time.  I finally got her settled down afterwards and she slept for 3 hours but when she woke up....wow! Never have I heard her scream like she did that day.  Thank goodness for Tylenol! I felt so bad.  She was miserable.  Tylenol took the edge off and before long we had our sweet happy baby back.

This weekend we got some awesome snow.  "Sledding Hill" at Oz was full of neighborhood kids- ours included.  Althea and I stayed in the car and watched.  The girls are getting pretty good. I even saw some surf board type sledding from them.  Good times!  Afterwards we went to Avrie's favorite restaurant...Noodles and Co.  Here they are still in their snow clothes waiting for our food. 

And...What would we do if we didn't go see the Joffrey Nutcracker?  Three years in a row now we've taken the girls so that means it is definitely a tradition.  It never seems to get old and we all love it.  Also for the third year in a row we drove through the drive thru at Protillo's for dinner.  Then like every year we had to speed through town to try to get there before we were late.  And for the third year in a row we sat in our seats just as the lights dimmed and the show began.  We've got it down!  Maybe next year I'll get us an early dinner reservation somewhere nice and mix things up a bit! 

We decided the best dances are the Arabian Dancers and the Russian Dancers. Also the girls loved the little ginger bread boy.  We have a couple of different storybooks of the Nutcracker that we read every year.  The girls don't know this but I'm pretty sure that Santa will have 4 giant Nutcrackers for them this year on Christmas morning. I hope they'll love them.  

 On a side note....This year Adeline announced that she would like to take ballet lessons.  She just doesn't want to perform ever and she doesn't want anyone to be in her class.  Hmmm.  Will work on that but I am glad that she is interested in lessons because I think she could be good at it.  Actually I bet all three could be awesome.  Dance lessons are a good thing I think.

And finally, Kermit has been working on a new song/video for Christmas.  Good King Wenceslas.  My girls have the sweetest voices.  It melts me when I hear them sing.

Busy weekend I'd say.  More crazy but fun days ahead as we count down to Christmas.