Another blue bird day

I know, enough about the skiing already. 
Kip played hooky on Friday and we headed up to the mountain again.  It was the first time Kip and I had ever been skiing alone.  And it was So.Much.Fun.  We had the mountain to ourselves and Kip is so much more adventurous on skis these days so we headed out to the back country, topped out at 61 MPH on the groomers (yes, we bought an app...total dorks) and we snuck down the mountain multiple times to spy on Maddie.  What made me most happy that day was Kip wanted to spy on Mads even more than I did. 

So not only did Kip and I have the mountain to ourselves, Maddie had two instructors for most of the day to herself.  She has "graduated" from the yellow group and now moves onto green which means she goes up the big lifts and goes down real runs.  We were talking on the way down from the mountain about how awesome she's doing and how much fun it will be when Allie joins us.  Maddie asked if she had to ski with us or if she and Allie could go off alone.  Kip and I were dying...and I was a little sad that she's already ready to ditch me at 4.  I thought I had a few more years at least!

That's Kip on the left side of the picture

Skiing

It's kind of been like the 12 days of Christmas around here.  Gifts have been given, found, you name it.  Nonna is going on a very cool Asia trip in January and so decided to give Maddie and Allie their gifts early.  She bought Maddie ski lessons and is taking Allie on her own adventures while we're up at the mountain.  Kip and I have been trying to teach Maddie to snow plow FOREVER.  Kids Club did it in a few hours.  Kip and I watched a bit of the lesson and were both so giddy and happy.  Kip had tears in his eyes.  There is just something about little kids with their wobbly legs and giant helmet heads that tugs at your heart. 

The mountain was gorgeous on Sunday and Kip and I were beyond thrilled to go and actually ski together.  Thank you SO much Mom.  Your gift to the girls is really an awesome gift to us.

Scoping out the chair lift in preparation for the first ride

She learned how to put on her own skis!

That's what she said

Maddie LOVES to get school lunches so we've decided that once per month she gets to buy a lunch.  Today, after our Santa pictures she got her school lunch.

After I picked her up from school and we were talking about her day for awhile I asked her what she had for lunch.

Maddie:  I had chocolate milk, french fries, oranges and cauliflower.

Me: That's an interesting lunch...

And then we drive for about 5 minutes

Maddie: Oh! And I had a burger.

Me:  A burger??

Maddie:  Yeah, it was a brown tofu burger.

Siblings Santa Pics

2007

2009

2010

2011

PJ Santa Pictures



2007







2008



2009

2010

2011

Santa 2011

The bets:
Carson? Cry
Allie? Cry
Hadley? Smile
Maddie? Wildcard

Allie insisted that she was going to smile this year for Santa.  Here she is practicing her most natural smile with Zaide.

Here she is a few seconds after seeing Santa from about 30' away.

Big girl cousins. 

Cousin shot:

So B-Z grew a 20 pound attachment to her hip after Allie saw Santa and I wish I would have taken a video of her trying to get Allie to sit with the other kiddos.  She was not having it.  And I'm pretty sure all of Bellevue knew she was not having it.  If you look to the right of Allie you'll see one of Santa's helpers forcing her to stay in the picture.  Remarkably Allie and Carson both stopped crying.  And Maddie surpised us all with a smile.

And 100% shocked me when she stayed in the sleigh to have a few words with Santa.

Crazy Zaide who takes these nut jobs every year to have their picture taken.  I love looking at the progression of santa pics on the mantle.  Those will come soon.  Thank you Zaide for this special treat!

And then per their aunt's advice, I had Maddie and Allie's picture taken today too.  Fortunately Maddie has a very sweet cousin who let her borrow some very cute clothes.

Are you totally dying laughing at Allie's fake smile? HI-LAR-EEEE-USSS

The Advent Calendar

Eating something other than bread or cheese can be tough on our little Allie.  She's not quite the "pal" when it comes to meal planning.  But it makes it that much worse for her when there is, or isn't, a door to open after she eats her dinner.

Especially when Maddie is chomping on her yummy treat (astronaut ice cream) (and Maddie is obviously loving the fact that Allie is crying and not enjoying her treat)

That's when we get the full on gagging on my food theatrics.  A sweet potato french fry.  I am one mean mama.

Barca

Siri got a new puppy.  I'd say it's pretty safe to say we're all smitten.

(Barca= like Barcelona, where they went on their honeymoon)

Tis the Season

 After last year's major snow storm, and my terrible snow driving, I now own two sets of tires.  One specifically for the snow.  With the La Nina winter headed our way I decided to get those babies put on.  We keep the tires under the house and I was really hoping Kip would get them out for me but alas he did not.  So I crawled under there, panicked every two seconds that some insect was going to touch me, loaded them into the car asking my 4 year old daughter to hold three tires up in the car so I could get the last one in and slam the trunk, lamented at their ugliness, stopped at a car dealership on the way to see if I could somehow trade my car in for a newer, nicer, outback for the same price, was shocked to learn I couldn't (kidding), continued on to Discount Tire and had the tires put on.  It was a busy day so we had to wait a bit.  When we first went to sit down at the two last chairs in the store a lady saw us approaching, groaned and got up and left.  Yay! That made me feel extra awesome.  Oh well, we had enough seats for all of us after that warm welcome.  So then the girls and I were playing and they start talking about Santa.  I wasn't adding two and two together at first but then as they persisted and persisted louder I finally got it.  Thank god our name was called right after that.

So Thankful

I always want to let everyone in my life know how appreciative of all they do for us. But if you know me, you know I'm a total flat liner.  I can't hug, I can't squeal with joy, but I want you to know my insides are bursting with happiness.  There are SO many people we have to be thankful for I could write multiple posts daily thanking them...I should probably do it anyways.  Regardless,  to everyone in our lives that help with every little detail, allowing us a life far greater than the what we could do on our own.  Thank you.  From the bottom of our heart.  Truly, I don't know what we'd do without our village.

And a fun little text from last night's adventures in babysitting:

Dora Fan

Just Because

Apple Cup

Whoops, I forgot one other element to our weekend.  Kip went to the Apple Cup.  I had girls night out with my mom and sisters.  My girls spent the evening with our friend's two boys.  Maddie is B-O-Y C-R-A-Z-Y.  The sitter sent this message to Kip.  Apparently Maddie spent the entire evening chasing Dante to cuddle with him.

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Trains

Kip and I have been really excited to head up to Crystal to ski this year, so for a few months we've been planning on going up the day after Thanksgiving.  Our Turkey day was pretty mellow.  Kip went and got punched in the head and lip (hello turkey bowl), the girls and I went to the gym, and then we went to Chris' and Sophia's house for "Asian thanksgiving." The food was delicious, the company was interesting.  I can see now that my camera was commandeered at some point.  Our day was over by 3:00 PM.

Black Friday...

Friday morning we got up early and headed to the mountain.  I stood in line to get tickets for over thirty minutes.  Allie was done with skiing at that point.  She literally skied about five feet, threw a fit, and I carried her to the lodge.  Maddie on the other hand had a blast.  She did not want to quit.

On Saturday we went to visit the tree farm.  For the past three years we've heard "next year!" on whether or not the farm train will be running.  So, here's to hoping that the train is working next year.  Regardless Maddie got to switch the track, run around on the track and pick out our tree.

My mom is convinced that the only thing I did was point to the tree I wanted and then left.  Here's your proof mother:

And then finally, to cap the weekend off we went to go and play with trains at Nonna's house.  Uncle Chris and Maddie could probably sit there all day and watch the trains go round and round.