)
We got quite a bit of snow last night (I'd say at least 7 inches but probably more), so we took the kids sledding today. Derk packed down the snow right in front of our house, and it made a perfect little hill for them. They had a blast! Here are some pictures!
Go, Asher, go!
Kyrie's turn!
My beautiful boy at the bottom of the hill.
Even Cambria gave it a try!We had a pretty nice week leading up to Christmas. I went up and stayed with my mom for a few days so I could finish up some shopping without Derk trying to sneak and find his present. :) I took Asher and Cambria with me (Kyrie still had school), and we just had a nice few days hanging out with my mom and some of my siblings. Derk and Kyrie came up on Friday evening, and then we stayed with his parents. We hung out, watched movies, played games, and had a nice time with them. So here are some (okay, quite a few!) pictures from our week.
My 3 beauties in front of our tree.
Asher and Nana (my mom) laughing while making frosting for cookies
Cambria dancing with Nana
Asher frosting cookies
Kyrie frosting cookies
Cambria frosting cookies
Cambria enjoying her cookie
Asher opening presents
Cambria opening presents
Kyrie and Asher looking so cute in their matching Nike warm-up suits from Grandma and Grandpa (don't mind her insane head of hair... :) )This is hilarious! Hopefully I can get around to scanning the book so you can actually see the pages, but I'll just type it all out verbatim and translate afterward. She loves to sound words out for herself as you'll soon see. I will be saving this forever!
Front page: "Once ther was a castle"
Next page: "In the castle was a beautiful prinsus"
Next page: "Iskrem and chez and crakrs. Vechdublz. Brokley. Rech. Frize. Chez."
Next page: "Oun day a hasum pris arivd. Thay got mared. The end."
Translation--
Front page: "Once there was a castle"
Next page: "In the castle was a beautiful princess"
Next page: "Ice cream and cheese and crackers. Vegetables. Broccoli. Ranch. Fries. Cheese."
Next page: "One day a handsome prince arrived. They got married. The end."
Don't you love the random page about food? :) I love this girl!
Derk got an email on Friday from his professor, giving him the contact info for a lady from the Nampa school district who is looking for a school psychologist. Derk called her first thing today, and she called him back a few hours ago. It looks VERY promising!! He was home when she called, and it was really surreal listening to him talking to a potential future employer. I mean, this isn't just a college job. This is his career, our LIFE. He'll fill out the 13 PAGE application and get it mailed in this week, and hopefully he'll be going down to Boise for an interview shortly after the new year! He doesn't have his Masters for another semester, so he'll have to work full time and then do independent online study after work, making the next 6 months tricky. We are SO thrilled, though. We wanted to end up in Boise anyway, and this job literally fell into our laps. What a huge blessing! And we'll be able to start looking for a home right away, which is even more exciting! I've already spent lots of time looking at real estate because I'm too excited to wait, and I've found some houses that I'm already in love with. It's finally happening! I'll more than likely end up having to stay behind with the kids for at least a month while he gets settled into his job and starts the hunt for a house, which I'm NOT excited about in the slightest, but to finally be able to own a home before the summer is making me more excited than I can even describe!!
There are definitely inherent differences between boys and girls. We came in from being outside yesterday, and I took Asher's boots off and set them by the door so they would dry. A while later, I found him laying on the floor where his boots were, and he was slurping the melted snow off the floor! Even though I keep my house clean, I was very disgusted and made him get up and stop that right away. He wasn't too happy. :) My girls would never think to do something like that. They'd ask me for a drink instead of lapping it up from the floor like a dog. Oy.
Who knew that my picture frames would be the most entertaining thing to play with? I have 2 large shelves on my entertainment center, and I have baskets on each that hold some toys for the kids. The shelves above those are decorated with pictures and candles and such. Does Cambria even take the baskets out to play with toys that have blinking lights, rattle, talk, sing, help her brain develop? Oh, no. She wants my picture frames. She carries them around everywhere. I find them all over the house. Mostly she takes the picture I have of my darling nephew. I think it's her favorite. But as I type, she is once again carrying a picture around.
On the same note, Asher has a serious picture frame compulsion. For some reason, he has to rip off the stand in the back that makes the picture frame stand up. He thinks they don't belong or something, and he cannot rest or relax until he has successfully torn it off. Once he does it, he smiles, gives this barely audible sigh of relief, and tosses the frame aside. He can't focus on anything else until he has completed his mission. I have one frame left on my entertainment center that he hasn't realized isn't destroyed yet.
I really do. It is so much fun buying things for people that I just know they're going to love. Then I have to keep the secret for weeks and weeks (we're get-the-shopping-done-early-people), and it just about kills me! I have got several presents that I cannot WAIT to see people open! Mainly the gift I got for my sister, Abigail, and the present I'm making for my best friend ever (you know who you are). I know they're just going to love it, and having to wait 3 more weeks is torture.
Anyway, we put our tree up tonight. Cambria's actually done surprisingly well at leaving the tree alone. Asher found the most hideous ornaments ever in our box we store them all in (I have NO idea where they came from), and he insisted we put them up because they were "cool" and "look like footballs, Mama!"
Asher with the infamous hideous ornaments.
Kyrie concentrating really hard. lol.
Cambria being such a good little helper.
Ta-dah!Because when you're playing, you can really get in there and play! Asher left his dump truck alone for a few seconds, and Cambria took full advantage of it! I'm not sure why she took her pants off, though....lol. Luckily, Asher got a huge kick out of it and proceeded to push her around for quite some time. They were both laughing and having a great time.
Nobody believes me when I tell them I have crazy kids that literally DO get into everything. So I've had to start taking pictures to prove that I'm really, really not stretching the truth.
Peanut butter all over his nose, forehead, AND in his hair...
Her party was cute. Her theme was "pretty in pink". The cake didn't turn out like I hoped because I decided to try and use homemade whipped cream as the frosting. I hate cake, but the only cake I do like is strawberry shortcake. So I decided to make that, hence my reason for wanting to try using the whipped cream. Don't ever try it. It doesn't work. Doesn't hold up, and it drips really badly (as you can see in the picture).
My mom and some of my siblings came, and Derk's family was all there as well (except his brother and our sister-in-law because they live too far away....We sure missed you guys!!!). And my best friend in the whole world, April. I really, really wanted her to be there, but she couldn't make it like we hoped she'd be able to. Sooooo sad.
Cambria only got her early morning nap, so she was beyond exhausted by the time opening presents and eating cake rolled around. We thought she'd just dive into her cake like the other 2 did, but she really had very strong reservations about it. She just sat there staring at it for the longest time. When she finally did pick it up, she picked it up very delicately and took the most dainty bite I've ever seen. It was too funny. Asher had his cake downed in 2 seconds flat, but she wouldn't even finish hers.
She got some really great gifts from everyone. We're so blessed to have such wonderful family. My sister, Abby, and her family got her this really fun bath toy to help her stop screaming during bath time (and it's worked great!!), my mom got her some cute overalls and boots and another "baby" (lovey), my other sister, Katie, got her this adorable purple stuffed bunny and a darling sweatshirt, my sister-in-law, Jessica, got her a Bible book, Kyrie didn't know what to give her, so she said she wanted to give her sister her most favorite stuffed animal (how sweet is that?), and my in-laws got her this tigger that bounces and an adorable outfit. We got her this play-and-learn laptop. She always tries to play with mine or Derk's, so we figured why not get her one of her own? She had more presents than she even wanted to deal with opening.
Opening the adorable stuffed bunny from my sister.
Cute boots from my mom.
Singing happy birthday!
Not so sure about that cake...
M'mmm!
Sampling the punch (no pun intended).
Cambria Claire~ November 20th, 2006, 6:30pm, 6 pounds 8 ounces, 18 inches long
We decided to take the kids out to see Enchanted last night. Cute movie, by the way. I highly recommend you take your whole family to go see it. Anyway, I asked Derk if he really thought taking Cambria to a movie was a good idea. And by asked I mean very, very, very strongly hinted in my "question" that it was not a good idea. He said, "Oh yeah, she'll be fine! And I'll stand with her if she gets fussy." Okay, I think you're totally off your rocker, but whatever you say! He's got to learn sometime, right? lol.
So off we go to the movie. She lasted all of 4 minutes before she was starting to lose it. Luckily popcorn and her sippy cup were good enough distractions so that I made it through about the first 15 minutes of the movie. She gets irritated, and I automatically get up and go stand with her at the side of the theater. Then I realizeafter 10 minutes or so, "Hey! What on earth am I doing over here? It was HIS genius idea to bring this child, so HE'S taking her!" So I marched straight back to our seats and handed her off. Muwhahaha!
In all fairness, we did trade off several times. I finally got her to fall asleep the last 5 minutes of the movie (go figure). He was right, she did do okay. Now I certainly don't mean okay, as in take her to every movie we fancy okay, but we did make it through the movie alive. I thought that was our biggest accomplishment. Gold star to us.
But then we get home, and I realize that I'd left my Nike jacket and Cambria's sippy cup at the theater. And of course the only number they have listed in the phone book is their automated line. So I jump on their website and email the manager. He says nobody has seen either of them, but he'll check again. So I tell him the precise location in which we were sitting, but I haven't heard back yet. That's what happens when you have 3 crazy kids distracting you at the theater. I'm really going to miss that jacket.....
My good friends, April and Marcy, got me onto this site the other night, and I thought I'd give it a shot. I made up a myspace page a while ago because people had been on my case about getting one, but I think I'll like this one better.
.jpg)
