Good Bye January

What a weird winter it has been. January is coming in for a close and no snow! I've asked Don if he has felt led to move, maybe he was being prompted, cause I'm not, but it would be great. I'd take Arizona or San Diego. At this point I'd like to live in a State that doesn't land in the Top 5 coldest places in the U.S. A winter that behaves like winter...with snow! Instead, its brown. Blustering wind throwing trash all over my yard. Cold that hurts your face and freezes your nostril hair. Then we get this bizarre Spring weather. Sixty degree day in between record lows. Days that confuse the toddlers and have Mother's hollering at their kids to go outside, because tomorrow it will be freezing!

 Grant decided to not join a basketball team or play on the wrestling team this year. He has been spending a few nights a week at Millard West on the Dive team. This has been fun, but not the energy burning sport my very active boy needs. He comes home from school and bounces off the couch. He tells me "I can't just sit." Austin begs for the kids to go down and run very very fast with music. I make Grant go down for a bit just to get some of the pent up energy out! Poor kids can't even go outside for recess these days. 

Handle Bar Piggy Tails!

 Heidi's extracurricular activity this winter has been Dora the Explorer! She might have an addictive trait in her genes as she is obsessed! Brings me the remote in the bathroom and throws it at me. Puts her hands over her face and cries when I turn it on and it has an 'adult' themed commercial before the episode begins. She says Dora to everything. Did you sleep good? "Dora." Do you want to go bye-bye, "Dora." Let's go get dressed, "Dora." She does try and say Boots. And Swiper...well he gets no recognition. Silly fox is always trying to swipe their stuff so he must be too naughty or scary for her! She got the trio of dolls for Christmas and won't touch Swiper!

January Showcase

The end of January means Dance in our world. January Showcase happens at the studio and it means lots of hours of rehearsal for Molly and rhinestoning for Mom! It is a great break in the winter, getting to watch girls perform the art of dance. I was blown away this year by a few things:
 1. How much the girls bodies change from 3rd to 4th grade
2. How much stronger they dance from 2nd grade to 3rd grade
3. How much effort from the dance teachers at ND goes into building the character of the girls as well as the body! 

Number 3 is the reason I love Nebraska Dance. 

Her sweet bestie... Holly!

Austin has moved into kindermusic with his parents to drop him off kindermusic. Ms. Ann gets thirty minutes of music time with Austin. Thank goodness the boy is better behaved when his parents aren't around! He's gone twice now and proclaims to all of us that "I go music all by myself." I'm not really sure if the boy will care one iota about anything musical. He shouts, "I no like music," when we are in the van. I'm thinking Grant will be my guitar strumming musician while Austin is memorizing Football plays... they are so different!!!!

This is the life. Getting pushed while eating and drinking!

We didn't make this little fairy house! We found it while walking at my Favorite spot-Chalco Lake

Someone was taking selfies with my phone!

Wish They'd Stay Little

I wish my kids could stay little, under the age of four would be ideal. I got cuddles from a sleepy eyed three-year old this afternoon. He held the torn corner of his blankie and dug his head in my side. At dinner he laughed loud after each utterance of the word 'p*^p'. When he laughed Heidi would follow and do a deep loud laugh. It had the table next to us in the restaurant laughing. He slurped down his Dr Pepper so fast he started drinking Molly's. Then informed me he didn't like dinner and he would "no eat pizza." The next sentence out of his mouth, "my belly hurts." That could be due to the fact you drank your soda so fast and you refuse to eat dinner. 

The same dinner had me listening to Molly share every minute of her day at School. She says, "listen Mom, listen to how the day went... we did the pledge, then specials, then reading, then dragon club, then lunch, then recess, then math, then assessment, then technology, then...."  I heard how their school is the best in Gretna because they have eight robots and everyone else has two robots. I heard how one of the boys was not listening in technology, when they got to work the robots, and he hit one with his foot. The brain fell off! Mr. Treaty got pretty upset. He was able to get the brain back on! (Molly does take small breathes between stories, but rarely stops talking).
When she got home from School she came to whisper the update on the wedding news. Apparently Stacy and Henry were getting married today. Molly was scheduled to be a flower girl. Stacy had proposed in class yesterday. I must say they are quite the fast planners. There would be two ceremonies. One during gym, Molly didn't know how they were going to pull that off, Mr. Smith would be the pastor, and the other during recess. Molly shared that she sure wouldn't get married in front of people. She said the whole thing was called off due to the fact Stacy lost the ring. She said Stacy told her it was $112, but Molly knew Stacy was lying because it came out of one of those ball things from a machine. Young bride wore a dress to School today, and apparently Henry was in a tuxedo???!!! The whole School knew about the wedding, because Grant came up to Molly after School and told her he knew she was suppose to be the flower girl!

 Grant got elbowed in the eye at recess. It was 'on purpose,' but he didn't tell the teacher. One of the boys was on top of another boy and Grant jumped in to help! Got an elbow to the eye, which then had him declaring this boy was no longer his friend. It wasn't the pinning the other kid down that brought him to this decision! I asked if it was possible the elbow was an accident, that was a dumb question! On a positive note he got an interception during the recess football game. I asked what an interception was, we threw the ball and I caught it, but it was in the end zone so they didn't get the point. I was very confused, but I didn't dare say anything! "That's exciting," was my response!

I wish they'd stay little. When they beg for tickles. When they hug Dora pajama tops as if it is a beloved pet. When they ask for cereal every 45 minutes and erupt into tears cause you say No. When they exclaim that for lunch they want, "pop, chips, and mac and cheese," as if this is a completely reasonable request! When the poop diaper you left on the stairs disappears it may cause a hesitation to this stay little forever idea. But, I'm sure the smell will lead me to it, eventually or maybe I'm loosing my mind and I did take it out to trash!

When I wish they'd stay little I get a glimpse of a picture like this one. Then I stop and take note. They are still little. I wish they didn't have tears fall because they miss a friend or be concerned about the reading test that day. Then one of them laughs over a story of their friend who's sport bra hiked up over the "embarrassing mark" in front of the whole dance class. A dance class full of girls! Life may be creeping in on them, but they aren't grown up yet!

A New Year

A year gone and a new one ahead. I love a fresh sheet of paper. It is how I see January 1st, clean and crisp awaiting scribbles, messy notes, new ideas, memories recorded. It is placed on top of the sheet from the year before, which makes writing on the new sheet that much easier. I'm one of those people that likes the padding of paper underneath my new sheets. The more padding the better. Just like the years. The more years behind me the better I am at writing the new year ahead! 

The following pictures were taken off Don's iPhone. A phone he has had since 2011. It is my phone now, due to a terrible fall in which my iphone did not survive. I did enjoy the varied amount of pictures on my husband's phone!

The first picture of Heidi Mae!

Happy New Year to my Family. 2014 looks to be a year of stretching, growing, laughing, memory making, and getting a glimpse into how God views me, my life, and the plans He has in store.