Snow Day and Quotes of the Week

So, this week we had our first snow day of the year.  Apparently the prediction for another harsh winter is holding true, as this was the earliest snow day of the year that anyone could remember.  And it has been COLD (as in, temperatures in the teens, cold, with the real feel being about -2).

 It only snowed a couple of inches, but our kids made the most of it.  Aly ripstiked, while the other girls went sledding down our backyard monster hill, threw snowballs, and tried to make a snowman.    There was also many movies watched and hot chocolate drunk.  It was splendid.

Other November highlights have been going to the elementary school's Thanksgiving lunch with Kate and Lise, having Book Club at my house to discuss "The Giver," and going out to breakfast and shopping with Chris on Veteran's Day (How grateful I am that I have my own personal veteran, who was actually home and spent the day with me!)

Now for the quotes of the week.  I have a few gems that I've jotted down that I simply must share:

I overheard Aly and Lise having the following conversation:
Lise - Don't most people eat chocolate ice cream when they're depressed?
Aly - Yeah.  Mainly Ben & Jerry's.

Chris - I'm just teasing you Kylie.
Kylie - Well, I don't like it when you tease me.  Do you want me to not like you?!?

Another Chris and Kylie moment - Kylie had gotten out of the bath and was laying in front of the heater.  She was calling for me in a very whiny voice.  Chris said he got it, and when he walked into the bathroom, she wailed at him like it was the end of the world, "How do you make popcorn and what do dolphins eat?"  (Pressing questions, apparently. . . )

When people ask Kate where we moved from, she tells them, "We used to live in Niceville," but pronounces it nick-EVIL-lay (nic.evil.le)  Nice.

We went to see a marching band play and Kate loved it.
Me - Would you want to do that when you get bigger? You'd need to learn to play an instrument.
Kate - I could play the Kazoo.

While Chris has been training for his marathon, Lise has been teasing him that he is fat.

Chris - You better watch it, Lise, because someday you're going to be pregnant and I'm going to walk up to you and say, "Hey Fatso!"
Lise (not even batting an eyelash) - And I'll say to you, "Wanna do a belly bump?"

Touche

And this shows Lise's general attitude towards the world as of late:

And finally, while we were in Nashville Aly was able to go to a youth activity with her cousin.  It was a Fall Carnival type theme and they had a greased pig for one of the attractions.  Chris bet Aly she couldn't catch the pig and SHE DID!  Man, I wish I had a picture of that . . .

DON'T. STOP. RUNNING.

So, last January, while Chris was in Afghanistan, he told me that when he got home from his deployment, he wanted to run a marathon and that he'd picked one in Nashville in November.  And thus began the journey - the training, long runs, iced legs, re-hydrating, etc. etc.  Well, the moment had finally arrived.

We all headed down to Nashville to spend the weekend with cousins and run a marathon, so everybody was excited.

We didn't all want to wake up at 5:30 am to go to the race, so we came later to watch him finish (the exciting part - for a spectator, that is.)  Here is how the kids entertained themselves while we waited:

I guess doing push-ups in the middle of the road makes it more fun. . . look at Lise's great form!

And now for the Grand Finale.  I love how Aly ran the last few feet with him.  We saw a couple of other people do that and she wanted to.  I think they've talked about picking a 10K to run together soon.

Here's the family photo after it was all over.  Can you see all the salt streaks on Chris' shirt?   He ran the marathon in 3 hours and 51 minutes.  It wasn't quite as fast as he wanted to be, but it was very windy that day, and there were people finishing the 1/2 marathon when he was finishing the whole enchilada!  The verdict?  His recovery was much better than anticipated, and when we got home on Sunday night, he was already on the computer looking for other races . . .  Gotta love that runner of mine.  You're awesome, Chris.  Love you.

I'm so glad when Padre comes home!

For the 1st week of November, my Dad came for a visit.  Well, actually, technically speaking, he flew in for Halloween, which was fun.  Here are some of the things I love about having my Dad come to visit:

* He is super handy and loves to help.  Whenever he comes to visit he asks what projects he can help with around the house.  So I've learned to try and have a few things ready for him.  This time he helped us trim up a few bushes and trees, winterize the hoses, fix Analise's bike tire, fix a pair of my shoes - pretty much just knocked out our home to-do list.

* He loves my kids almost as much as I do and likes hanging around with them.  He likes going to gymnastics, dance, Young Women in Excellence, and, of course, taking them out for ice cream.

* He is willing to stay at home with the kids and let Chris and I get out for an evening to ourselves.

While he was here we went to a car museum where they had a lot of nice restored old cars.

 We've got quite the lot of Vanna's here to show off the cars for us . . .

The girls had a couple days off of school so we took advantage of that by heading to IHOP.

(And here's what actually happened while I was trying to get a nice picture taken . . . )

 Here is a picture from Aly's Young Women in Excellence where the girls displayed things to represent personal progress goals they had worked on throughout the year.

When the kids went back to school, my Dad and I went on a Daddy-Daughter date.  We had a good time.  We went to see Lincoln's birthplace and then to the Lincoln museum.  I really liked this picture of Lincoln that had a bunch of hidden pictures in it.  If you look closely you can see his mother (her skirt is his nose), an American flag (up in his hair), a log cabin (upper lip), and slit rail fence (below bottom lip).

 After this we went to lunch at the Whistle Stop Cafe for some down home country cookin' and looked at some antique and craft shops.  It was really nice to spend some time with my Dad.  I'm glad he was able to come see our new digs in Kentucky and hope we'll be able to see him again soon.  I sure love my Dad.

Halloween Hullabaloo!

So, Halloween turned out to be its normal 2 week extravaganza.  It was hilarious because for about a week Kate's prayers went something like, "and thank you that I get to have 5 or 6 Halloweens."

It all started with a witches tea put on for the girls (and their mom's!) by some friends in the ward.  Super cute and super fun!  (We didn't have any black for Kylie, so she went as Glenda, the Good With of the North)

There was an art project . . . 

a scavenger hunt . . .

and the making of a "witches brew" (aka Kool-Aide), served up with Frozen Mummy Drool (aka icecream).  The girls had a blast!

They also told a scary story about finding a dead body and passing around the body parts (avocado pits for eyes, avocado peel for skin, spaghetti for intestines, etc.)  Kate, my ever-lovin' literal/technical child, of course had to figure out what everything was and tell everybody else.  After it was all over she was like, "Hey, they said they found a body.  Where's the stomach?!?"  Gotta love Kater.

Next, there was the trunk or treat.  We had a gypsy, Morgana (King Arthur's arch enemy), a pirate and an Indian Princess.

Of course Aly couldn't miss a selfie op with her friends.  Not sure what is up with the angle though, as it conveniently cut out most of her friends . . .

Ooh, and don't forget our awesome Jack-o'-Lanterns to decorate our trunk for the year.  We carved them for Family Home Evening and they turned out great.  We've got Harry, of course, staring up at his awesome hairdo, and B.O.B, the Big Orange Ball.  (His eyes and nose spell out his name - kinda hard to tell in this picture, but it looked awesome!)  The girls came home with plenty o' loot.

 Next it was on to the class parties.  Kate's class pretty much had an all day party.  They painted pumpkins (Kate's was a vampire with a bloody head in the back - where does she get all these gory ideas?), watched a movie, read Halloween stories, and went trick-or-treating to the cauldron.

 Analise's class also had some Halloween fun.  Besides yummy food, they played Halloween Bingo, witch hat ring toss, and traced each other on butcher paper to created scary monsters.

 We finally reached Halloween night and capped it all off with trick or treating.  (Do you notice how I now have a cowgirl and a butterfly fairy instead of a pirate and an Indian princess?  My girls like to wear multiple costumes for Halloween).  It was FREEZING!  It was hailing a 1/2 hour before the girls went trick-or-treating, it was like 40 degrees outside, and with the wind chill I'm not even sure how cold it felt.  But - do you see my kids?  Notice that Kylie is outside without shoes.  I was fighting them tooth and nail and listening to a lot of whining just to get them to put on a sweatshirt and bring a pair of gloves.  This was our big "We're not in Kansas [Florida] anymore, Toto" moment.  They only made it 1/2 way around the loop on our street before they were so cold they just wanted to come home.  I was kind of glad to let them learn from this experience, because I know we've got a long winter ahead of us. So hopefully they'll listen next time I tell them it's going to be cold and to put on a coat. . . hopefully.

At any rate, we had a great Halloween month - tons of parties, games, and candy.  What could be better?

Some Things are Just Awesome

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it." - Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Our lives are definitely moving fast!  I think it's just an inherent part of raising four girls.  But despite all the running around craziness, I have managed to look around and capture a few glimpses of awesomeness . . .

* Awesome colors of Autumn!   I came to Kentucky hoping for beautiful foliage and Kentucky did not disappoint!  Above is the view across the street from Kylie's preschool.  And below are just a couple of the trees I've seen just driving around town.  It has been beautiful!

*This awesome Sasquatch statue in someone's yard on the way to my friend's house.  Chris thought it might be a Halloween decoration, but then I noticed the matching soldier statues further up the hill and the tank to go with them.  Plus, Halloween is now past and Big Foot is still there standing proud. This may be Kentucky at its best.  Love it.

* Aly's awesome soccer season.  She worked hard, played hard, gained some skills, scored a few goals, made some friends, and had a lot of fun.  Chris and I also had a lot of fun "mini dates" going to watch her play and cheer on her team.  I think Chris is the loudest parent out there!

* The Awesome Young Women's group in our ward who have embraced Aly wholeheartedly and whom she loves back just as much.

* Analise's mad gymnastics skills - especially all the progress she's made on the bar and beam.

* Lise letting her true goofiness show with her friends she's made.

* Having Kate be a "Bookworm" for her 2nd Grade Vocabulary Parade.

  *Kate doing a standing broad jump over the hot coals at a friend's obstacle birthday party.    The other kids did a running jump - not Kate.  Awesome!

* Kylie and her friend looking so proud of themselves after collecting all the hymn books in the chapel after a baptism

* Having 2 girls who are good friends (most of the time), love to dress matching, and play together at the park.  (Kate even pushed Kylie on the swings - so cute!)

* Having my husband run a 1/2 marathon as a "practice" for the marathon he's going to run 2 weeks later!  (And he rocked it - don't let that time fool you.  He said he crossed the starting line 1 minute in so he actually ran it in 1:41 - woot, woot!)

* Getting to see "To Kill A Mockingbird" with my hubby, Aly, and Lise.

* Coming downstairs to find my youngest 3 daughters playing "detective".

* Announcing to the kids that it's time to get ready to go see a movie and finding out that Kate's definition of "getting ready" is to make herself a goatee out of green tape and a toilet paper roll.

*** Some Things are Just Awesome ***