The girls celebrated Dr. Suess day at school, and were very excited to come home and tell Evie all about it.

Kara had an idea to make a count down calendar to count the days til we all see daddy and move to St. Louis. So I let them color strips of plain white paper to make a paper chain advent calendar.

Kiersten's strips all had so much detail. She only did about half as many as Kara did.

Here they are with the finished paper chain. I was going to print out a picture of Ben's face for the top, but got feeling lazy, and just wrote the words, "moving day". sorry Ben. Luckily Evie was aslep while they did this, so it went well.

When Evie woke from her nap, she was pretty excited about the calendar.

Since my mom is here, we decided to go to church today. The girls all got to pick out their lovely dresses. Evie is big enough for nursery now. i don't know how it went because I just introduced her to the teacher, and then plopped her in a chair andhustled out of the room. I figured it'd go like when she goes to the dayccare at the gym. She cries til she can't see me anymore, or gets distracted by a toy or another kid. She sure was happy to see me when I came in to pick her up.

Kiersten thought daddy would like to see a silly picture. so here it is.

12/17/11

Friday was Kara and Kiersten's last day of school until January 9th. They had a Christmas open house at the end of the school day for their parents and siblings. I still can't believe I forgot the camera, but I did, and got no pictures. Some of the other parents had cameras, so I can probably see if someone will email me a few. They got to perform their dances again from the recital. So we got to see Kara dance with her partner this time. Kiersten was so cute strong arming her little partner, and telling him what to do. They also sang some Christmas songs for us, and then gave us gifts they bought for us on their field trip on wednesday. Then they had their gift exchange. They each had to bring 12 gifts earlier in the week, and the teacher wrapped them all up, and put them in giant gift bags. So each kid got a big bag full of little gifts to open. She also had gifts for the siblings. Evie was thrilled to get her own little bag with a few books, a ball, a stuffed owl, and a sucker. As soon as we got home, they all got into their goodies, and spent most of the evening coloring, and doing projects.

I really appreciated their teacher for having something for Evie. It truly made her day. I tried to get her picture playing with books, but of course she insisted on standing up in her picture spot.

They got mostly the same things, but a few things were different, so they made a good effort to share all the things that were different. Their teacher sent home a packet full of worksheets and projects for them to do over the break. Kara is almost completely finished with hers. I'm not too worried about them getting bored, though. I have several projects planned to do with them, and Ben came home from playing basketball and football this morning with another bag full of little projects he found at the store.

I did get this picture of Ben reading with Evie. This was before she noticed the camera.

These are the girls' pictures with santa. You may notice a difference between the two santas! I took Kara and Evie a few weeks ago, and Kiersten the following week. Kara and Evie were with me when I took Kiersten, and Kara definitely knew it was a different guy. She had been so sure the real santa was there when I took her and Evie, and as soon as she saw this guy, she whispered to me, "mom, it looks like Kiersten doesn't get to see the real santa. She should have come with us last week." I told her not to say anything to Kiersten about it. When Kiersten was on his lap, he kept trying to talk to Kara too, and asking her questions, but she really wanted nothing to do with him. It was hard not to laugh, and he was definitely confused by her. He gave her a candy cane as we were leaving, and she handed it straight to Evie.

school: week one

The girls had a great first week of school. Kara got 100% on her spelling test, and won an award for star speller. Kiersten was so proud to bring home a certificate saying she completed her first week of preschool. It had a pencil taped to it, which she calls her "prize pencil". she hasn't let me sharpen it for her yet, and it is still proudly taped to the certificate on the fridge. Since they have been mostly in new clothes all week, they've been wanting their picture taken every morning before school. Here's Kara, excited for her day as class helper. She took her my little pony hot air balloon for show and tell.

They both loved these shirts, because you can't see in the picture, but the buttons are sparkly and shiny.


On friday, I said we didn't have time for a picture, and Kiersten got upset, and asked, "how will I know if Aunt Nancy likes my boots?"


On saturday, we wanted to make sure Kara ate a good breakfast, so she'd have energy for her soccer game. So I did pancakes, eggs, and bacon. I decided it would be fun to jazz it up a little, which is something I've been trying to do a little on the weekends lately. For Kiersten's plate, I tried my best to make it look like a sun. I saw something similar to this online, but had to make my own adjustments, of course. Kiersten thought it was hilarious.

I destroyed the eggs trying to make Kiersten's sun rays, so I couldn't do the same for Kara. So I got the idea to try to make hers look like a bird. It's standing on a branch. Ben couldn't tell what it was supposed to be, but Kara knew right away. I wish I'd taken pics of some of the other things I've done lately, such as a pb&j sandwich looking like a watermelon slice, and a grilled cheese to look like an ice cream cone.
Evie loves playing with Kara's old backpack so she can be just like her sisters.
On saturday, it was Evie's daddy daughter day. She was so excited to get to go with him. He took her to the rhododendron gardens and took her to buy candy and a balloon. He had more fun than he thought he would.

We didn't take pics of Kara's soccer game on saturday, but she did much better. Her energy was way higher, and she scored her teams only goal. She was a lot more willing to get in the cluster and take the ball away. It was raining the whole time, so Kiersten and Evie were a little whiny, but they still had fun too. Kara got knocked down a few times. The first time, she started crying, but after that, she made a point to be tough and stay out on the field. After the game her coach told Ben that he thinks she has a natural skill for soccer, and encouraged us to keep her in it.

While Ben and Evie were gone on saturday, Kara made a family apple tree. I thought it was pretty cute. That's me to the left, the pink paper is a drawn picture of Kiersten, Ben is floating in the middle, the monkey sticker is supposed to be Evie, and the tiny picture in the apple on the trunk is Kara. I thought it was a cute thing to do.
Kara's 2 best buddies at school are Alex and Devin, both boys who have been in school with her the last 2 years. Her teacher told me that Devin keeps writing I love Kara on his work, and I thought that was so cute. Then Kara came home from school with a mobile she made. when I turned it over, it said "I love Devin" on the back in 2 places. I laughed about it, but Ben didn't think it was very funny. He confronted her about it. At first she said she didn't know who wrote it, but eventually admitted it was her. He warned her not to love boys or say she loves them, and she got really upset about it. I tried to step in, but she could tell he really meant it. Later she came to me crying that daddy wont let her be friends with Devin and Alex anymore. I explained that's not true. He is glad for her to have friends, as long as she doesn't think they are "boyfriends". He told her she can say or write that she likes them, but he doesn't like her saying she loves any boy but daddy, or her grandpas. I think he needs to deal with the subject more gently in the future, so she doesn't feel like she's getting in trouble about it. Later, she showed him a picture she made, on which she had written, "I sort of like Alex and Devin".
The other thing he didn't like is this picture Alex made for her. It's a picture of her saying, "hi alex" and him saying "hi Kara". He is giving her a flower, and at the bottom, it says, "they kist". Again, I thought it was kind of cute, but Ben wasn't happy about it. Poor Kara...

first day of school

The much anticipated first day of school is finally here! The girls were so excited last night to help me pack their lunches and set out their clothes for the morning. Karalee even insisted on setting her alarm clock to wake her up. Kiersten will be doing the preschool program and Kara will be one of 5 kids in the kindergarten program. I am relieved there are other kindergarteners in the class. In Kara's first year of preschool, there was only 1 kindergartener, and she seemed to be doing more babysitting than learning. So I'm glad that Kara will have a group of peers her own age to learn with. Kiersten is really excited to show her teacher that she can write her name.

They are also excited about their new shoes and backpacks. I guess I didn't get that great of a picture. Kiersten's is my little pony.

Kara has a Mario Kart backpack, featuring princess Peach. She also has a lunch box to match, which she is pretty excited about.

arriving at school

Kiersten has been dreaming of the day that she would be staying at school with Kara, instead of spending the day with boring, old mommy. She immediately started introducing herself to her new friends, and even told Mrs. Wright that she isn't going to have any accidents today. I hope that's true! Her shirt had a detatchable necklace and chains, which she broke off on the way to school. She was really upset about it, and crying. I think I can fix it though. I wasn't to worried about it, because I got that shirt for $4.00.

Kara immediately went into "big sister" mode. Being overprotective, bossy, and extra sweet to Kiersten all at once. I've warned her several times not to boss Kiersten around at school, but I knew she would. I also know her teacher wont let her get away with it too much. She's had siblings in her school at the same time before.

On saturday, Kara had her first soccer game. Here are the Tigers waiting patiently on the bench and cheering their teammates on the field. Kara is to the right.

It took her a few minutes to be willing to go after the ball. She seemed to be worried about being rude to the other team, by taking it away. Ben and the coach both had to tell her it was okay.

She did better in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of play. by the last quarter, she was hot, tired, and upset, and didn't want to go back on the field. She just wanted to sit in the shade eating snacks. Ben has lots of ideas what he wants to work on with her. We also decided that next week, she needs to have a bigger breakfast than just a bowl of cereal to keep her energy level up better. I think all of the kids will do better next week, now they've played an actual game instead of just practicing and doing drills.

back to preschool

Today is Karalee's first day back at preschool. She has been so excited to see her teacher and friends, and to wear her new school clothes. She was up by 6 this morning wanting to start the day. Of course I was following her around with a camera this morning. She was eating breakfast, and I kept trying to take her picture. I told her to say cheese, but she just kept eating. After, she said, "mom, it's rude to say cheese with cereal in your mouth." I guess she was right about that. After breakfast, she was all about the pictures. She kept coming up with weird pictures she wanted me to take of her. I said we had to hurry and go to school, and she said, "oh... school...right. School rocks!" super cute girl. another funny thing she said while I was doing her hair was, "mom, another word for warm is cozy. you make me feel cozy mommy." then she said, "and barf is another word for puke. that guy from daddy's spaceballs movie is called barf."
this is one of her picture ideas. she wanted to make a heart with her hands.

and then, of course, Kiersten had to try to do the same thing.

ready for school. She was so excited all morning, and couldn't wait to get going. she said she is most excited to show her friends her new clothes, backpack, lunch box and shoes, and also to tell her teacher that she learned to read this summer. She is doing great with her reading.

showing off her cool new stuff. ben got her this backpack on the disney website, and it even has her name embroidered on the back. she told me that she loves her shirt because it's the most glamorous shirt she's ever had. you can't really see in the pictures, but it has sparkly little gems on it.

on the way to school, she kept saying, "everyone look for a building made from red building blocks." she also told me, "if you could drive fast like daddy, we would be there any second now." It's about a 25 minute drive. I was disappointed to find that my favorite route to school has tons of construction going on. so now I'll have to go up pacific highway, or go on the interstate. It's still easy to get there, but I just liked going the other way, with hardly any other cars to worry about or school zones to drive through.

she was happy to see several of her buddies from last year, and a few new friends. The classroom has been redecorated over the summer, and the kids were all ooing and aahing over all the changes. Kara jumped right in to start playing, so it was hard to get a picture of her once we were there. She immediately got complimented on her haircut as we walked in the door by her friend Peyton. I think she will have a fun school year. The parents of the new 3 year old students were all hovering around, not wanting to leave their kids, just like me last year. I only stayed long enough to pay the tuition and take kiersten to go potty. And I only cried a little on the way home. Last year, I pretty much cried the whole day. I'll miss her, but school is definitely a good thing for her. It has been nice to have her home for the summer, especially since having the baby, but it's good to come out of my newborn baby haze, and get back to regular life.

Kiersten baby update:

She is potty trained now, and only wears pullups at night. She stays dry some nights, but not often enough for me to feel good about her sleeping in panties yet. But that is definitely a goal she wants to attain. She is still working on learning her letters, and can count up to 16. She is such a sweetheart. She loves both of her sisters. When we left Kara at school this morning, she said, "I want Karalee. Karalee is my favorite." she cried a little, but was happy again by the time we got home. I was fumbling to get her out of her carseat for some reason, and she said, "mommy, you dwiving me cwazy!" I just love her personality. she doesn't take crap from anyone.

Evangeline update:

she is growing and getting chubby. I never knew diaper changes and baths could be so time consuming with all those fat rolls to clean out. We just love having a little fatty to cuddle with. She rolled over 3 times on saturday and once this morning. She is too young to be doing that! I was hoping her chubbiness would prevent her from being an early mover like the other 2, and she's already one upping them by rolling over at not even 9 weeks. I just hope she wont be walking by 7 months like Kiersten did. It's hard when they have the physical ability to walk, but not the mental capability to avoid running into everything. she is smiling more, but it's hard to get a picture of it, because she's so interested in the camera. I need to be more sneaky about it. She spent much of yesterday watching football with Ben, while I worked on some sewing projects. she was perfectly happy just to sit in his lap, or lay on the floor by him. She takes after her older sisters in her love of being naked. sometimes when she's crying, all she wants is to be stripped down to her diaper. This morning I realized we gave her the wrong name. We should have called her alarm clock, thanks to her ability to wake the entire house before 5 am with her screams. I'm used to being up with her, but the others were not too happy about it.

Ben and Becky update:

We're still working on getting into a new routine that includes Evie. Ben is still working hard, but tries to be home early when he can. The girls are always counting the days til the weekend, so they can spend time with him. Ben is thrilled that football season has started again, and is patiently waiting to buy the next video game he wants. I really thought he'd have bought it by now, but he has held off so far. I almost bought it for him yesterday, but then thought he might just not want it yet. We took all the toys out of the upstairs playroom, so it can be converted back into a nursery. Ben put Evie's crib together, and now i just need to finish putting the rest of it together. I am fitting in projects where I can. yesterday I made myself some skirts with elastic waist bands. I know it's a fashion no no, but I am between pant sizes right now, and frustrated with not fitting in any of my "big" clothes, or any of my "small" clothes. So I give up on pants for now. We bought a new eliptical, so I will wait and see how I like that before thinking about rejoining the gym. I know it takes me some time to lose weight after a baby, so I have to stop wishing I were one of "those" women. You know, the ones who drop all the weight immediately without even trying? They exist, and knowing some of them personally makes it harder not to be part of the club. But I am dropping my ding dong a day habit, and taking a glass of water to bed instead of chocolate milk. baby steps... Oh, I also got some new healthy cookbooks. But I've already been trying to cook healthy meals since Kara had her digestive problems, so the meals aren't all that different than what I'm already doing. it has given me a few new ideas and options I hadn't thought of on my own.

12/16/09

Kara got to decorate a little tree for our upstairs family room and one for her bedroom. We unplugged her night light, and for the rest of the month, she gets to have a Christmas tree for a night light. On thursday, Ben had an office Christmas party at a bowling alley. The girls had lots of fun. Kiersten loved the bowling part, but hated the waiting for everyone else to bowl part. She had pigtails for the second time ever.

Ben had to help her throw the ball.

Kara did pretty well, but she did have a few extremely slow moving rolls.

Here she is coloring between turns. Kara is so well behaved compared to Kiersten.

On friday, Kara had a Christmas open house at school. The kids sang Christmas carols and then had a gift exchange. Kara is the one sitting to the right of the white pole.

Here is her teacher handing out her gifts to the children. they all got books and activity pages to do over Christmas break.

All of the kids were to bring in 12 little gifts, and then they were all individually wrapped and put into one big bag for them to open. She got lots of fun little things.

Saturday, Ben took the girls to buy Christmas gifts for each other and then took them out to lunch, while I stayed home doing housework. They had a fun day together. then on Sunday, Ben woke me up to tell me his sister, Nancy was in labor and at the hospital. We got a few updates from Victor throughout the day, and then we had to start getting ready for a dinner party. We finally got the news that little Tommy was born an hour or two before our guests arrived. We are so excited to have a new little nephew, and can't wait to meet him. The few pictures we've seen so far are super cute! We had a few friends over with their kids for dinner, and it was a fun evening. Kara and Kiersten loved having other kids around to play with. 5 little boys to be exact. It was a nice evening, and after everyone left, Ben played Fire Emblem. I like to watch him play that game, but it puts me to sleep every time. Ben didn't get a lot of sleep, due to his throat hurting, and when I woke up at 2:30 AM, he was still awake. He finally got to sleep a few hours later, but ended up calling in sick to work the next day. There had been a snow storm the night before, but it was mostly gone in the morning, so we went up to sam's club for some shopping. I got my flu shots finally, and boy, was my arm sore by the end of the day. Yesterday was basically just a stay home and clean day for the girls and me. Today, I'm hoping to get the rest of the laundry folded and finish wrapping Christmas gifts. We are so excited to go to utah for Christmas this year. I just hope there wont be too much trouble with our flights. This is the notorious time of year for flights being canceled and delayed. But it is worth the trouble to get to see everyone.