Lily's First Skiing Trip

We had a great time skiing yesterday! Lily really enjoyed it. She seemed a bit scared at first but willing to give it a try. Every time she fell she said, "I CAN get up!" Sometimes she even fell on purpose. We spent a good hour on the little kid slope with the little motorized walkway thing. Then we tackled "the little hill", i.e. the bunny slope (Not to be confused with "the big hill" which is the one Daddy went on on his own). She loved it! We spent the next three hours there. She saw kids doing jumps and she wanted to try too. She was constantly telling us she can do it on her own. She fell often but only cried one time after a face plant in the snow that got some snow on her forehead. She was pretty well covered and we all stayed pretty warm. After our last run, she definitely wanted to go again so we told her we will have to come back another week soon! What a fun time! Isaac did great with the babysitter for 7 hours, although he asked for "mommy" a lot and the babysitter said she ran out of ideas to keep him occupied, and he "didn't want to" take a nap for her.

Enjoy the videos!

Skiing #1
Skiing #2: Sorry about my glove thumb
Skiing #3: the one with the jump
Skiing #4
Skiing #5: Learning some control! She never ran into anyone the whole time we were there.

Ballet Time

Here are some videos of Lily in ballet class last week: Video #1
DANCE VIDEO #2
DANCE VIDEO #3: The hug
DANCE VIDEO #4: Isaac says "look at me"
DANCE VIDEO #5

Isaac got to come with and boy was he a bit of a distraction. A couple times he would just go up to Lily for a hug and she welcomed the break from dancing. Pretty sweet to see though!

A Watch-cat?

Lily said today, "Why does that sign say no cats?"

Freeze Dance

Each week in preschool, Lily gets a responsibility or job. Some days it is to pass out the cups or napkins during snack time, other days it is to be the line leader. Today was her favorite job... to pick the song for music time. She chose freeze dance (Tuesday and today!). This is how you play (according to Lily).

"First, teacher turns on the music. You dance around until the music stops. Then you freeze. When the music starts again you keep dancing. You can't crawl around on the ground or you will get stepped on. When the music stops you freeze again. You can't dance with your eyes closed or teacher will get mad at you. Even if you are twirling around with your eyes closed, don't do it. The best part of all is freezing."

I laughed thinking... these rules were made just for Lily. So I asked her, "have you ever crawled on the ground?" She said, "Yes and I got stepped on." And then I asked her if she has ever danced with her eyes closed and she said "Yes, I bonked into Kiley and we both got hurt but we are okay now." Then I said, "I don't think teacher gets mad at you she just tells you not to do it." Lily said, "Oh yeah, I forgot." Silly kid. I'm so glad I can interpret her silly stories.

A Few Days Away

A few days away... without the kids? Seemed impossible.

Tommy and I were able to take our first trip away from the kids while in California for our 6 year anniversary. We went to Vegas and I was able to see Phantom of the Opera for the first time! It was soo amazing. I have been wanting to see it since I was young. We loved the beautiful Venetian hotel we stayed at and thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in each morning until 10! We ate delicious food (Chilean Sea Bass my ultimate favorite!), saw the amazing Bodies exhibit, saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie (loved it!), and won a few dollars on the FREE credits the hotel gave us!


Tommy seriously walked passed this statue and said, "How is that money staying there without people taking it? It must be glued down or something." I was like, "Uh, back up... that is a MAN not a statue, silly." He totally didn't notice the first time we walked by. Guess he was checking out the money instead. :D

The inside of the Venetian is just like walking around outside an Italian city, well sort of. It is really pretty. We didn't do the gondola ride, maybe next time. We did some fun shopping though and Tommy found an awesome new suit.

Yep, that's right, $47.30 on a $2.50 slot bet. Tommy actually pushed the button. I just sat there. Guess I was a good luck charm.

One day we walked all the way down the strip from the Venetian to the Luxor to see the Bodies exhibit. We thought it would be one mile but felt more like 3! At least we got to see the whole strip! The next day we waited in the cold for a half hour to take a free shuttle across to the Rio, then walked across the street to the Palms to see the movie. Only then did we remember, we brought a car! We could have just driven to all these places. Oh well, it was an experience. :D

California Christmas pictures

Here are some of the fun things we did in California:
Had lots of fun playing with these cute boys. Lily and Tyler pretended to be tigers... and we were constantly helping them when one would get hurt, about every 2 minutes. Isaac liked to push Jackson over and then sit on top of him. He didn't like it so much.

We enjoyed the time we spent with our wonderful extended families.

We had a special visit from SANTA on Christmas Eve. Lily was soo excited. She ran to him and gave him a big hug. All the little boys were a little afraid of him.

Opening presents:


The kids got some cute rain gear (not to be confused with "reindeer") and Tommy got hunting wading pants.

Party at Lanie's house

Isaac enjoying his sugar drink and cupcake at Jackson's 1st birthday party

The one she wanted!

Here is a video of Lily opening the one gift she wanted from Santa!



To see other videos click here.