Mamma Mia

What's more fun than watching Mamma Mia and singing the songs at the top of your lungs?

Doing it with 14 other friends... Or 8 other friends... (Same movie - different night. Lesli and Shalyn's heads got cut off but you can see their legs and know they rock!!)

Or with my all-time favorite Dancing Queens!!! Yes, they know all the songs and all the words :)(We had the pleasure of Kaiyah and Laney that night too. They taught us a few moves...)

I'm glad my mom raised me to be an ABBA girl and that I have some AWESOME ABBA friends! And thanks for David for quietly enduring and not secretly recording our singing (and dancing!) which I'm sure didn't quite sound like we thought we were sounding...

Unsupervised

In case you were wondering what a bottle of shampoo looks like poured in a bathtub...

End of the heat wave

We don't discriminate. We like the rain too. And on the sadder side of life today, Karsten had to get 5 shots and a TB test at his four-year old check up! He had no previous memory of shots so he sat down being so brave and trusting. Then the first needle went in. The look on his face will forever haunt me. Poor guy. It was so tramatic, the only cure was a McFlurry. Which of course the McDonald's nearby didn't have any so we had to go all the way across town. But it stopped the tears so it was worth it.

Ordinary History

I can't let this day go without commenting on how we are alive on one of the biggest days in modern history. This day will be talked about for generations to come, and here I am! And yet what an ordinary day. I took my kids to school, played at the park with Karsten, made dinner, and folded some laundry. Yet this day is historic! I started panicing thinking what can I do to commemorate this day! Should I make a flag cake? Should we color Obama pictures? The more I thought about it, I realized I like the "ordinariness" of today. We are doing the same things we do any other Tuesday, yet today is different. Important. Historic. It's the way change should begin, quietly.

It may have been ordinary, but I'll remember.

Two by Four

It was a rough morning. Karsten was constantly teasing the dog or jumping off the couch. He cried when I watched the inauguration because that wasn't what he wanted to watch. He whined about getting dressed. I was already pulling my hair out and it was only 9:30! We headed to park group. Even there - nothing but problems. He fell out of the swing. He wouldn't play with his friends. He wouldn't play in general. I stopped at a friends house on the way home and it just got worse. We left with him kicking and hitting me. It was so embarrassing! Good thing we were on bikes so I was able to get a lot of my steam out on the way home. But my mind is reeling with what I need to do to help him get along with kids better and control his temper and blah blah blah. I was also having a bout of self pity thinking how hard it is parenting him and how I'm worn out! We got home and I immediately put him in time out (the whole kicking mommy thing) and of course he doesn't go. A few minutes later I go up to his room to drag him back into time out to find this:

He had gone up to his room and tucked himself in and fell asleep within two minutes! What kind of mother am I that I don't realize my poor little guy is just exhausted? Why do I internalize all his actions and constantly try to figure out how to help or "fix" him? Why is it I NEED a two-by-four sometimes to know what my kids are needing...

Did I really say that?

I hate to admit this, but I complained about this weather we've been having. I felt we as northern Californians weren't getting a winter like we should. In fact, it's been so nice it's actually warmer now that it is during most of our summer months. Everywhere else has been getting so much snow and I was feeling very jealous. So in a moment of silliness, I complained. What was I thinking?! Last week alone we went bike riding, played at several parks, and even went to the beach after school one day. I've been jogging in shorts and my kids go to school without jackets. Now there are rains are in the forecast.

That's what I get for complaining...

Birthday Dog

Our dog is one year old - or really seven since she's a dog. To celebrate the occasion, Sierra and Skyla invited Aspen's best doggie friends and others who love her to the park for a party. It was so funny. No, I didn't make a doggie cake. But we did have doggie bags to thank our kanine guests for coming.

Aspen is the best dog. We are so happy she's a part of our family! I really questioned if we'd ever get a dog, but from the minute I saw her I knew she needed to part of our family! She sleeps on mine and David's bed every night. She waits on the bath mat while I take my shower. She waits at the window when we're gone. There's no better cuddler and she's a wonderful vacuum...

Can anyone say SPOILED? My aunt quilted her this blanket... What dog has her own quilted blanket? And yes, that is a heater on in front of her bed.

Harry Potter finale

My little 2nd grader has finished the final Harry Potter book. She read the whole series in three months! No wonder our cottage has turned into a "Potions Lab" and all my chopsticks are missing since they make a perfect wand...

I love that she is a reader just like her sister. The world is theirs!

New Year's Resolutions

Sierra - "I'm going to turn off more lights and waste less water."

Skyla - "I'm going to be nicer."

Karsten - "I'm going to teach Aspen to roll over."

My goal is to hang out with these guys more (I kow - I'm a stay-at-home mom, but you'd be surprised how the day fills up before I've had quality time) and David is giving up sugar. (Yikes!) It's going to be a great year!!!

School-time Blues

The tree is down, Christmas is 360 days away, and school is starting. If that's not depressing to a kid, what is?! My kids were feeling quite blue this morning. It called for an extra special after school snack. And thanks to a good friend, I had just the thing. We made french donuts, a New Orleans special. It was so yummy! And topped with hot chocolate, the grumpiness was chased away.

At least until tomorrow...

Snow

Yosemite in the winter!! Could anything be more beautiful. Last spring when I took the kids to Yosemite, we found this amazing (and inexpensive!) lodge that's on a golf course and a huge open field. It was so beautiful and fun and I thought, we need to come here in the winter with David! And so that's just what we did. And to make it even more fun, we went with two of our favorite families in the world - the Miner's and the Dullum's. I don't think we could have had any more fun. The kids played in the snow non-stop. The weather was perfect. (David will say that is easy for me to say since I wasn't the one driving in the rain on the way there and the fog on the way back, but it was perfect at the times we needed it to be...) Being there was a dream come true! It made us realize how much we really truly miss the snow!













David and the girls...



























We did lots and lots of sledding. Sometimes on sleds and sometimes like penguins. And thanks to the best present in the world from my parents, we were able to have smores in the middle of a snowy field after sledding.

I had to laugh at my snow outfit - it's the same one I've had since high school! Same snowpants, same boots. I got that green jacket the year I got married!

The Wawona has no TV's, and no phone / internet reception which was wonderful as we stayed up talking and laughing next to a fireplace. We felt so clever as our jokes were circular just like a Seinfeld episode. A perfect way to start 2009...