back to dance

Kara finally talked us into letting her take dance lessons again. She is taking a "kid's pop" class, and thought it was really cool that there are 3 boys in her class. It was supposed to start January 12, but the first week was postponed because the teacher had a conflict, and last week was canceled for snow, so thursday was the first class.

Kiersten had to go an entire month with no accidents to be able to take a dance class. She was successful for the entire month of December (and most of November). She is so elated to be a ballerina. She is taking the "ballerina enchantment" class. There are only 4 girls in her class. She was so proud to show me all the things she learned in her first class. Her class is right before Kara's, so that part is pretty convenient.

Most of the pictures i took ended up like this. Kara would wait to do her pose right as I took the picture, and kept blocking poor Kiersten. She was pretty worried about it.

I finally got Kara to do an arms down pose.

Ben ordered Evie a plush Mickey and Pluto to complete her collection of clubhouse buddies. They arrived this week, and I cut the tape off the box so she could open it. As soon as she saw pluto, she started saying, "hot gog! hot gog!" and clapping her hands and dancing around. She was so excited, and once I got the mickey out of the package, she squealed even more happily and gave him hugs and kisses. Then she ran in my room and started begging to watch, "cubhow". (mickey mouse clubhouse).

Happy 6th birthday Karalee!

Karalee is 6 years old today! She has been so excited about her birthday. Her party was on saturday at a bouncy place in the supermall. Here are a few pictures from her party.That's Evie sliding down on her belly.I planned to make her cake wednesday night, but the power had gone out, and by friday it was still out, so Ben ordered her a cake from safeway. I was happily surprised that they were able to make it by 10 the next morning. I had a really fun idea for her cake, but this one was really cute.All the kids liked sitting up in the birthday chair.Last night Kara stayed up a little past bedtime to decorate cookies to take to school today. Her teacher always makes sure they are class helper on their birthday. She had a hard time deciding what to take for show and tell because she got so many fun gifts at her party, and also has her christmas gifts to choose from.She chose to open her gifts from us and family this morning before school. She decided last night right before going to bed, so I didn't have too much time to get everything wrapped, and the table decorated. but if it looked lame, she didn't seem to notice. I thought she should open in her jammies, so she could pick out new clothes to wear to school (as that's all she got from us, after so many toys at Christmas). But she just wanted to wear the t-shirt Ben brought back from St. Louis so she could match with Kiersten.I stuck a candle in her muffin for her to blow out after we sang happy birthday to her.All she wants for dinner is mac and cheese. She even specified, "the kind in the box. NOT the kind mommy makes in the oven!"

yucky snow storm

We had our first snow of the winter this past week. Of course, school was canceled, so the girls got an extra week off from school. My parents left on tuesday morning, and then Ben went out of town wednesday morning. He saw his flight was delayed, which was going to make him miss his connecting flight, so we ended up getting him moved up to an earlier flight, and had to rush out of the house and over to seatac for him to make it. We got to the airport fine, but on the way home, the girls and I slid down what is normally a very busy street. Luckily the snow kept traffic away, and I was free to slide across the oncoming lanes, tap the guard rail, and then slide back over to my side of the road. It was kinda scary, but we were all fine. When we got home, I just could not get into the garage. Ben had shoveled the driveway before we left, but it had continued snowing, and my car got totally stuck in the street. A neighbor tried to help shovel me out, but we eventually gave up, and I left the car parked on the street in front of my driveway. Later that night, the power went out. It wasn't too bad the first night, as it went out after the girls were in bed asleep, but it started getting pretty cold the next day. I thought I would use the grill to make dinner, but I found it frozen shut, because after the snow, we had a freezing rain, and then more snow.

The freeze rain did look kinda pretty on the trees, but it also caused Seatac airport to be closed the night Ben was supposed to come home. So he got stuck in Salt Lake for the night. Luckily, my sister in Eagle mountain was able to let him spend the night at her house. I was really glad that is where he got stuck for the night. Thanks again Shelly and Troy!

All of the trees in our yard ended up breaking:(

I put candles all over the house, and also used a little LED lantern we got from Ben's old boss a few years ago for Christmas. The girls each have their own little princess flashlights, that I found for them, but they kept going into the dark rooms without them, which resulted in a Kiersten/Evie crash in the hall. Kiersten got a bloodied lip.

The girls kept telling me to take pictures, because they liked when the camera flash lit up the room for a moment. But I didn't want it to die, so I just took a few. Since we couldn't cook anything for dinner, and every pizza place either didn't pick up, or was a busy signal, we had cheese and crackers for dinner, and some raw veggies. yum! I did lose about 4 lbs in 3 days, so I guess that's the upside. In the future I will think more about keeping food in the pantry that doesn't need to be cooked. Once it got dark, and the girls were pretty bored, they just kept asking for snacks every 10 minutes.

Kara thought this picture would be so cool.

the girls all brought their pillows and blankets to my bed, and we kept each other warm all night. When I went to bed, it was around 52°. when we woke up it was 48°!

The girls thought it was kinda funny to be all bundled up inside the house. By the end of the day, they were also in coats and scarves.

Ben made it home on friday morning. I had gone out early to try to dig out my car and shovel the driveway. The whole car was encased in at least an inch of solid ice. So I started chipping away at the door handles so I could get it open. I pulled a pretty large piece off the driver's door, and it pulled a chunk off of the window as well. A few minutes later, as i was trying to get the back door out, the driver's window shattered into a million little pieces, all over me, the snow, and the seat. I didn't know what to do for a minute, and then just went in to get a towel to cover it. I had the tires mostly dug out, so I decided to see if I could get it out of the snow before I brought the girls out. I ended up sliding back down the street in front of my neighbor's house, into a spot, that I couldn't go forward or backward. the tires just spun. So I tried to call ben to tell him to take a cab, but he didn't answer. so I called his boss, to see if someone could just get him, but she said they didn't have many people there. So I told her if he couldn't get a cab, he'd call in to see if anyone was able to get him. I tried calling him after his plane was supposed to have landed, but his phone was dead. So he got a ride with the guy he sat by on the plane. He got dropped off near our street, and just walked home. I was so happy to see him! the neighbor was trying to dig out our car again, so Ben went out and helped him. He was able to get it out. Then he went and got food for us, and got plexiglass put in the car window until it could be repaired the next day. Then he had to go to work, which was hard to have him leave again. but he did help me get a fire going before he left. After work that night, we stayed at a friend's house, and it was so nice to be warm! Saturday was Kara's birthday party, and afterward, we stopped by our house to get some clothes, and the power was back on! Ben and I were so happy, running around turning on lights, and making sure everything was okay. I'm super glad that storm is over, and hopefully we wont have another one for a while.

Hair bow giveaway!

visit my facebook page and enter my hair bow giveaway! 2 big prize winners will get an assortment of handmade items, and I will add more bonus prizes if I get enough participation! you can enter for yourself, or for someone else you know who would love these items! https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Pretty-little-bows/303955119640664Go visit my page for the details on entry. Be sure to click on the picture to see the rules, deadline, and enter to win this fun stuff!

Also, if you want to check out my etsy shop, use the coupon code: FRIEND to get free shipping! I am also sending a free set of mini crochet flower clips with every order placed during january. So take a look, and see if I have something you'll love!

I love snow days

Well, I may not exactly love snow days, but my kids sure do. Yesterday we had our first snow of this winter. The girls were up early and watching it fall out their windows. As soon as breakfast was over, they both got dressed and ready to go out. I thought they looked super adorable. I've been making scarves for the girls lately, and trying to decide whether to include scarves in my etsy shop.I did have some fun throwing snowballs at them. Kiersten built a little snowman on the top of these steps. She found twigs for the arms, and I had to help her dig into the snow to find little rocks for a face. She asked if I was going to take a picture, so I went inside to get the camera. When I got back out 2 seconds later, Kiersten was crying, and Kara was proudly standing over the trampled snowman carcass. I don't know why she thought that was okay. Kiersten ended up going inside after that.Evie didn't do a whole lot in the snow, but she was determined to stay outside as long as possible. This was her first time touching or being in snow. Later, Kara got to open a few early birthday gifts from my parents, and from my sisters in Utah. She got some pretty fun gifts! Thanks guys!She has really been wanting one of these bounce balls. She had fun on it all evening, going up and down the hall and around the house on it.Evie really likes it as well. She is certain that it is hers. She can't stay on by herself, so she keeps dragging it up to us, and whining, "need help".

Mom and Dad are here

My parents flew in on Wednesday night. It has been so fun having them here so far. Yesterday after Ben got off work, we took a drive up to Seattle. Here they are near the space needle. (Well, abaout as near as you can be and still get the whole thing in a picture). We also got food from some of Ben's favorite restaurants.

We realized after living here for 5 years, we had no pictures of the space needle ourselves, so we posed for a picture too. The girls were all asleep, so they didn't get a picture. But it's nice to have a few pictures of just Ben and me without the kids occasionally.

The girls absolutely LOVE having visitors. Kara really wanted to play games on wednesday night, but she had to go to bed, as it was a school night. So she was quick to break out chutes and ladders as soon as we got back from Seattle last night.

hairbows

just a note to tell everyone to check out my new etsy shop for my hairbows. Even though I have 3 darling girls, I still have been making way too many bows, so I decided to start selling a few. Friends can get free shipping this month by using the coupon code FRIEND. so check it out if you have girls, or friends and family with girls, and you can like my facebook page too.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/beckyblb?ref=si_shop

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Pretty-little-bows/303955119640664?sk=wall

New Year's Eve

This year we talked about having a new year's eve party. But Kara and Evie both started throwing up, and Ben and I were both sleep deprived, so we decided to just keep it to ourselves this year. We all watched a movie together, and then played some wii, and finished up the night with board games. Last year it went by so fast, but this year we kept looking at the clock and trying to think of more things to do. I was tempted just to tell the kids it was midnight, and go to bed, but I knew Ben would never go for that.

The girls still insisted on getting dressed up a little for the holiday. Kiersten got to have her daddy daughter date that afternoon. I know they went out for ice cream, but I can't remember what else they did.

Kara wore her favorite dress. she calls it her "always dress". because she always wears it as soon as it gets ironed and put back in her closet.

I made a few snacks this year, but not as much as usual. Kara and Kiersten kept changning into different pary hats all evening.

Evie couldn't really blow the party horns, but she did a pretty amazing job of mimicking the tone.



We made it to midnight, and the girls loved setting off a few little popper fireworks.

Happy New Year!