Dahlia dancing with her favorite partner

My 500th post!

Dahlia danced at the New Year's Eve reception for Billy and Lori's wedding. Dahlia enjoys doing anything involving Caroline but her smile was extra large dancing with her. 

Digging to the center of the earth in Ft Lauderdale

Monti, Dahlia, and their cousins started digging a huge hole as soon as we arrived at the Ft Lauderdale beach. The hole was quite large and it gathered a lot of attention from passers-by. Dahlia was very protective of the hole especially regarding a 3 year old boy who just kept coming over to help. The next couple hours were spent converting that large hole into a home. The weather was great and none of us ended up getting sunburned.

Games at the beach

Waiting for FedEx

Everyone headed off to Ft Lauderdale while we waited for our box of
clothes and shoes to arrive from Seattle. We had shipped them 13 days
prior but due to weather and the holidays they hadn't arrived. The
girls and Eliza used the extra time to skinny dip in the hot tub while
the boys were gone. After the hot tub they headed to the garage where
they created mock packages to put at the front door after ringing the
doorbell. We were so anxious to get the package that we fell for it.
The real package did not arrive until 6:15 PM. We still had a 4 hour
drive ahead of us.

Swimming routine practice at night

Synchronized cannonballs should be an Olympic sport. They would score
a perfect 10 !

Brownie project

Aunt Kim gave the girls cookbooks for Christmas so we decided to attempt one of the recipes. We made "Fairy Tale Brownies". As chefs we had complete success. They were devoured in under 3 hours and only with a little help from the 3 hungry girls.

Girls hanging out in The Villages

We enjoyed a day out in The Villages. We shopped, had pizza for lunch
and saw Bedtime Stories. Each girl went home with a mood necklace.
After picking out hers Monti said to me, "Mine will always be colored
grey because that means nervous and I am always nervous." I have 2
nervous children. Monti bites her nails and Dahlia has started to
twirl her hair till it knots and then she pulls it out. Her hair is
completely shorter on her left side because of this bad habit.

the wedding of frogette and froggy

Sunday morning is a great time for a wedding and the girl's were busy planning one. They had found 2 little frogs just waiting to find someone to perform the "froggy" nuptials. 

time to shovel

We had crazy Chicago weather while we were in town. We arrived to
nearly 0 degree weather and left for FL in 60 degree temperatures. My
parents were getting water in their basement due to the rapid melting
snow. Monti simply disappeared from the house and I found her outside
shoveling her heart out. She was just trying to do her part in
relieving the flooding. The water in the basement made both the girls very nervous.

Ryan

Our friend Ryan met us at the zoo. He lived with us for 2 years when we were first married so he knows all our dirty secrets. Monti and Ryan spent some time discussing guitar playing. He explained to her that he  started playing at age 11. If he lived with us now we would all be jamming together and laughing a lot more.

holiday lights

Brookfield Zoo had a holiday lights program that kept the zoo opened late into the evening. Gabe was working at the zoo but he was dressed in a costume. At the entrance of the zoo I kept noticing this bear waving our direction. We shouted out Gabe but the bear only shrugged his shoulders. It was Gabe but he was not allowed to talk while in costume. The only way you could identify the characters was by looking at their shoes. When we took this shot Monti didn't know that was her cousin behind the mask.

Broken pinky

Within the first 5 minutes of playing wallyball Joe blocked a shot and broke his pinky finger. Of course he played the remaining 5 hours and then again later that week. It took him 2 trips to urgent care for a temporary cast and a custom cast. Once in Seattle he will see a hand surgeon and possibly physical therapy. I wonder how intense pinky physical therapy can get?

Christmas morn

Christmas morning was low key but enjoyable. Dahlia and Monti each received American Girl horses. It was the one item that Dahlia said she wanted from Santa in the ER room before she was stitched up. They both have already begged me to let them ride home on the airplane with them in their laps. I convinced Monti to let me crate them up for the plane ride if I added a carrot to the box in case her horse gets hungry.

cousins and presents

A bird's eye view of the kids before they opened their presents.

photo coaching

Sometimes it is more entertaining to watch the people trying to get the good picture than the photo subjects themselves. 

Christmas Eve

Joe is doing his best to tease the kids. We all went to Chip and Kim's house for a Christmas Eve party. 

Twins

Gwendolyn decided to wear Monti's dress which happened to match Dahlia's. Dahlia was thrilled that Gwendolyn would want to match her. Gwendolyn did her best to brainwash the girls into being Chicago Sox fans. It looks like she may have swayed Dahlia.

at American Girl

Each girl received a gift certificate to get one outfit for their American Girl doll. There are probably well over 300 outfits available there so the decision took some time. They came home with a riding outfit, a beach outfit, and a ballet ensemble.

Passed out

A snow storm was predicted to roll through on Tuesday so we moved up our plans to head downtown Chicago to do some Christmas shopping at Water Tower Place. We left after dinner and all 3 girls were dead asleep within 10 minutes of leaving the house. It was good because we stayed out till about 11:00.

at the Nutcracker ballet

Once inside the theater we could relax and enjoy the show. Ten minutes into the ballet Dahlia leaned over and whispered to me "Mom why aren't they singing?" I must agree with Dahlia ballet seems to be lacking a certain something when it comes to telling a story.

Capes made by grandma

Each of the girls received a black cape to wear to the ballet in
Chicago. Each cape had it's own unique colored lining. The problem was
that the temperature in Chicago was -3 before you considered the wind.
We were all so chilled to the bone it was just simply hard to move.
Long capes are a little more difficult to maneuver in and
they can catch the wind very easily. Both Dahlia and Gwendolyn fell
between the parking garage and the Auditorium Theater. Even with the
problems I loved the image of three little girls in a row walking in
their black capes with Mama following in her black cape. It was such
a great dramatic effect.

Tea party

The adults and Gabe were playing Apples to Apples while the smaller
kids enjoyed a tea party at my mom's house. This was the first bit of
a smile we had seen from Dahlia since her accident at home.

Flight to Chicago

After we were down at the ER we rushed to the airport and made our
flight. Dahlia was given Tylenol with codeine on an empty stomach
which made her sick. At about the halfway point of the flight Dahlia
asked me how many times she had puked. The 11 year boy next to us
piped up and said "It has been 4 times but really only two of them
produced anything."

Back at the ER

Forty-five minutes before we had to head to the airport Dahlia came upstairs blood pouring out of her mouth. A sisterly spat took a turn for the worse and Dahlia fell into a table. We headed down to the ER for the 2nd time in a month where Dahlia received 3 stitches on the inside of her mouth and 3 stitches on the outside. Her tooth had gone all the way through to the outside below her lip. Once again Dahlia was made into a burrito using a sheet so that they could numb her mouth and stitch her up. She now knows all the tricks of the nurses and dreads everything. I was a little worried when the social worker came in to talk to us because Monti had told one of the nurses she slammed her sister into the table. The social worker swore he was just coming in to give Dahlia a Beanie Baby. Each child who visits the ER  gets a new stuffed animal but I don't think it's enough to make Dahlia want to go back. As usual they were great at the Swedish emergency room and they got us in and out quickly enough so we had a chance to make our flight. 

Sledding in our neighborhood

Our neighborhood is great for snow days. There are lots of kids and a
endless amount of places to go sledding. Of course safe sledding
places become more limited so supervision is important. Parents would
take turns staying out with the kids who wanted to keep sledding all
day long.

School cancelled

The threat of snow cancelled all the Issaquah and Seattle schools on
Wednesday but Wednesday night we received a couple inches of snow
which shut down all the school districts for the rest of the week.
Living on a hill makes for a challenge with snow but Joe was able to
make it out with the all wheel drive on his new Apple car.

Mounting mirrors in the playroom

We added mirrors to two of the walls in the kid's playroom in the basement. Joe went to four Home Depots in the Seattle are to find the 7 large mirrors we needed. The kids enjoyed helping press the mirrors to the wall until the mastic stuck. This mirror slid slightly off square when we pressed it on which created quite a challenge to deal with when we mounted the 4th mirror onto this wall.

Performance Day

Our caroling group sang at the main cottage of the memory area of the nursing home. We had an audience of about 15 people. Quite a few of them were pretty unresponsive to the singing. Monti was very comfortable and good at interacting with the residents at the nursing home. She left with a strong desire to go back and help out a couple of her favorite residents.

Season ski rental

After caroling practice, dance lessons and yoga I had to drag the
girls to Ski Mart in Bellevue to get our season long ski rentals
before they ran out of equipment. It was a good thing we went because
they were running very low on children sized skis. We start ski
lessons on Sundays when we get back from Florida. Our rentals are due
back May 1st. We have our skis, clothing and season lift passes. Now
we just need some snow.

Caroling practice

For the last 3 Wednesdays we have had caroling practice after school.
I am slowly getting a little better at not being such a pushover when
it comes to keeping the kids in line. Two young boys kept hitting each
other while singing until I sat down right next to them. The first
grade boy has seen me in the halls at school since then and he looks
at me with absolute fear. At times I find myself longing for a little
boy. Boys have a certain sweet yet mischievous side of them that I
find endearing.

Guitar making

I volunteered to make 2 fake but real size guitars to use for the
bulletin board advertising the Variety Show at IVE. I happened to get
the stomach flu during the weekend so I had lots of time to spend on
my project. They turned out pretty cute. We discovered the problem
with the guitars is that they look too real and kids want to play them
so we had to mount them from the ceiling to keep them out of reach.I
have played fake guitars and then switched to trying to play real
guitar. I have now made fake guitars so that leads me to ask ...
Will I soon tackle building a real guitar?

Playing games with Dad

Joe loves playing games but in our house it is hard to find someone to
join him. Dahlia decided to play with Dad but this game of Blokus
consisted of the yellow pieces and the green pieces having
conversations and setting up house.

Posing in their gowns

After Dahlia's trip to the emergency room the pediatrician nurse reminded me the girl's were overdue for their well-check.  Once at the doctor's office the girls did their best to make their gowns fashionable. The nurse checking us in had the same heart condition (SVT) as Dahlia does. Everyone checked out fine and no shots were required.

Variety show planning

This year I decided to help organize the annual variety show at the
school. We had our first meeting where we delegated tasks and
finalized the theme for the show. This year it will be "Camp Quah:
Final Jam" a play on the movie Disney's "Camp Rock". Practices will be
on Wednesdays in January with the show being on the last Friday of
January. I know January will be crazy for me.

Our new parlor sized guitar

I decided to buy Monti a smaller sized acoustic guitar to learn on. I
bought a used Art and Lutherie Ami guitar off Craigslist. After
getting it home and playing it I am guessing it is going to be pretty
tough for Monti to learn how to play right now but I actually like the
smaller size for myself. Ugh! Real guitar playing is a lot tougher
than that Rock Band.

Trapeze

In addition to the swings we bought a trapeze for the garage. We have
a large 6' x 10' - 8" thick landing mat to go under the trapeze. I
should have the girls ready for their Vegas act in no time. Monti has
already created a song for their act called "Swing Girls."