Kate is 4

The countdown to Kate's Birthday has been a long one. Every night as a family we talk about our "rose, bud, and thorn." These are the best parts of our day, the worst parts of our day, and something we are looking forward to. For several months, Kate has been "lookinguptomybirthday." It sounds like one word. We have all been "looking up" to Kate's 4th birthday (if not, Kate gets very sad that it is not your bud), and it finally came. We really had a great Spiderman day- she is just an amazing and joyful child, except when we ask her to share her toys on her birthday-but that is just not fair to ask of a child, is it?. Happy Birthday to my sweet angel. I am looking up to the 5th!

Snow Dog

Kate just loves to play with Sasha, and her favorite game is to throw a ball for Sasha in the snow-

as you can see.

A New Year

After a long hiatus from the blog, I am trying the new year out by trying to again be consistent with this blog. We have been enjoying a great holiday break. I think we all stayed on the nice list and were very blessed with wonderful gifts, the biggest of all that Nana is here, and we are able to start new family traditions with her. The girls were able to open presents on Christmas Eve-always a very special treat.

We have finally received our first big snow of the year. I have been very happy to wait, but now the girls are very excited to finally do some sledding and make snow angels. We are hoping to get Kate up for her first ride down the mountain on skis and have Ella give her some tips.

Summer Fun

This has been a great summer for us. To get it started, Nana finally got her house sold in California and made her way to Denver. It has been the absolute best to have her here. The girls have their own room, bunkbeds and all. They are making popsicles (and doing a pretty good job and eating them), making messes, playing in the sprinklers, and helping Nana in her garden dirt. We are so excited to help make Denver Nana's new home and share lots of adventures together.

FIrst Big Boo Boo

Kate and I had a big day the other day. She had a special outing with Martha at the park and slipped on the slide and did the chin split that I know too well. It is one of my least favorite spots to stitch so I really was shaking when I looked at it and knew it definitely needed stitches (or sutures for Lucy). So I was a little shakier than normal, but we both did better that I thought we would and it actually looks great. Plus, Kate is now excited that she has a scar that matches her Mama's. I think Ella has a small hint of jealousy over that. That's when you know you have true sibling rivalry.

Knock Knock

Plain old silliness

Girls Fun

Both girls have been trying new activities which has been so much fun. After a couple years of asking to go to "napstics" like Ella, Kate finally had her shot at her own gymnastics class. The first one was pretty good but the subsequent classes have had many tears about Mommy not being able to be there. Luckily, that gymnastics place has a cupcake shop next door, so the day always ended well. However, we decided to find another spot where Mommy can come in and this is resulting in many smiles for Kate. On the drive down, she asks "Mommy, can you come in with me?" approximately 37 times. Ella continues at the orginal gymnastics spot and is doing great. Once a month we get to see a little show of what she has been practicing and we are both pretty impressed with our strong little girl.

Also, we are overjoyed that Ella currently likes soccer and is doing awesome. If you weren't able to experience first-hand the thrill of our first attempt at soccer with Ella, let me recap. We tried at 4 in VIrginia in pretty much dead of summer time, and it was co-ed. Obviously a recipe for disaster with my heat challenged child, especially when I showed her her green and yellow androgenous uniform. Throw in some boys kicking dirt ("yes, they did do it on purpose") and all I have to say is yikes.

Needless to say, Ryan and I barely mentioned the word "soccer" so as not bring up the memories and in hopes that something would later motivate her to want to try again. Yay! She wanted to play and luckily Ryan has been able to coach. We have a great group of girls, or shall I say Red Tigers, none of whom have played before. It has been great to watch them improve every week. Though I missed the first game, it was apparently disastrous, crying girls, nobody wanted to even kick the ball, and Ryan had to borrow several players from the other team just to have enough players. This weekend was the turning point. They won their first game, and though we are not supposed to keep score, Ella clearly knew they won 5-2. 2 of those goals came from that little diva herself, and she did not even redo her ponytail once the whole game- yes! Those little girls had the little taste of victory, and they really looked like they liked it. It is just so much fun to see it in them. We have a couple more games left so I sure hope they keep having fun

Oh Ryan

This is my Ryan- always up for a good challenge. A couple pushups with about 100 pounds of six-year-old on top.

Disneyland

Then we were off to Disneyland. This started out rough. Kate is not the adventurous soul that Ella is. Ella went on every fast roller coaster that she could. Poor Kate- we started with the Peter Pan ride and the whole 30 minutes in line she cried saying she did not want to go and all she wanted was a lollipop- yes, it was 10 am. Well, I conceded with the lollipop- yes, it was 10 am, but what the heck it's Disneyland. However, I made that kid cry her way through the Peter Pan ride. As we got off, she was still in tears, and she was a little difficult to understand, but through the gasping tears was a "I want ....to ....do that....again." See, a little torture teaches kids that the Peter Pan ride is indeed fun. She is definitely an It's a Small World kind of kid, but that's OK. Ryan and Ella hit the super fast rides as many times as they could. I even rode SpaceMountain which was always my favorite roller coaster. Luckily, I had the row to myself so that I could brace myself, hold on widely and tightly, engage my core, and ensure no back injury. It's still as fun as I remember.

Catching Up

I have been a very negligent blogger, but we have had a hectic last month. Brad warned me that this was the hardest part-keeping up. So I am going to try to fill in on some of the fun stuff over the last month. The rest of our California trip was full of adventure. We had great fun at Legoland with Gramps. Kate drove a car all by herself- which is how she likes doing pretty much everything these days.

More Cali Fun

Here are a few more pictures and a cute video of Kate getting to know the water. Within 20 minutes, she was thigh-deep and jumping over waves, just like her big sister.

California Vacation

Yeah. Finally, a week off and a week of sun (mostly). We have enjoyed fun at Nana's house this week. Our first day here was just perfect weather and we had a great day at the beach at Little Corona. Neither girl complained about itchy sand, sand in the butt, or really anything- plain old incredible. We are off to a good trip.

More B-Day Pics

Happy Birthday Kate

Saturday was Kate's birthday and man was she ready. We have been on a countdown for sometime now. Finally, the day came. I looked at Kate when she woke up and said "Kate, it's your birthday!" "Now, it's here? Where is it?" She went to look for her bouncy house. So I think birthday just means bouncy house to Kate. That's fine because in our family it is true. We proceeded to have a great day. Lots of bouncing with friends and family. We had lots of smiles, very few tears, and lots of cake. Kate had way too much sugar but oh well. You only turn 3 once. She definitely did reach a few more things that day- those arms grew.

The best story so far about her being 3 follows: Every morning I drop Kate off at Martha's house. Our routine is that I sit on the couch with her for a few minutes. We tell Martha a couple of stories about things that happened in the last day or so, we watch Diego, and then we give hugs and kisses and I go. Well, Martha informed us a few weeks ago that when Kate turned 3, I could not linger around anymore. She told Kate that Mommy will just have to drop her off like the other kids, so we have been working towards this.

With daylight savings, Monday morning was a little rough getting the kids up to get ready. We were really running behind schedule, so I dropped Ella off at school, rather than walking her in. Then, we were off to Martha's. Kate said "Mommy, I'm fwee (3), so you need to drop me off at Martha's." I replied, "OK Kate. I will walk you in and give a hug and kiss." She answers, "You don't need to walk me in. I can do it by myself." "But I need to give Martha her check," I said. "No, Mama, I can do it myself." So we pulled up to Martha's. I put Martha's check in Kate's pocket, handed her her baby and her blanket. I gave her a high and kiss and told her to have a nice day and she said the same. "Bye, Mama." "Do you need me to open the door, Kate?" I asked. "No, Mama. I can do it," she answered. Off she went, and she did it, though the blanket was stuck in the door for a few seconds. I called Martha to make sure she made it in OK. She was just laughing, telling me she just stomped in, took off her jacket, hung it up, gave Martha her check, and got to business playing. Yikes kid.

Oh the Irony

While getting ready for bathtime, Kate taking her clothes off (all by herself mind you), Ella informed me "When you stick your middle finger up, it means the F word.......I don't know what the F means, though." Luckily, I am not shocked at anything that comes out of her mouth these days, so I simply responded, "It means I hate you." She quickly responded, "SHHHHH...Mommy don't say that word. Kate might hear you." You are right Ella, I will watch what I say. Too funny.

Sister Love

I just love the love between these two girls. This morning, Ella and I dropped off Kate and Martha's, and we were just about to leave to get Ella to school. I noticed I forgot to drop off Kate's blanket, so I asked Ella to run back in to Martha's and give Kate her blanket. As I waited, I saw Ella run back to the car with a big smile on her face. "I love being Kate's sister. It's the best." Is that not the best?

Boom Boom Pow

Our first several months in Denver were dominated by stress involving getting the girls to bed. Yikes! Now, both girls are doing well, staying in their beds, reading books to put themselves to sleep. Last night, reinforcing good behavior, Ryan promised Kate some jelly beams if she would stay in bed. She held up to her end of the bargain, so I did as well. Although Ella was still asleep, Kate's biggest concern was keeping her jelly beans away from Ella. She let me know how she would keep them safe. The Black Eyed Peas are quite influential on this family. Sorry for the duplicate picture. I am still learning.

Spring Must Be Coming

We have had a pretty chilly winter, and I am definitely ready for some warm weather. We have not been able to do much outside for the last few months. Yesterday was a really nice day, so we did have some time to play. Last time Kate got on her Dora bike, she pushed on the ground, and her feet could barely reach the petals. Wow! She can ride like a champ. She does need to work a little bit on her steering, though. I can't wait for sunny days with long bike rides!