Update

Hmmmmmm, let's see... what have we been up to lately? We've been impatiently waiting FOR ALL THE SNOW TO MELT. That's been like watching paint dry - it's long, boring and seems like it will never happen. Just when it started to get warm out and we felt like there was hope for spring, we had the two WORST WEATHER DAYS of the year which brought MORE SNOW and two snow days. Unbelievable. It's March for crying out loud.

 Two feet of snow on the deck makes a great sledding hill! It doesn't even matter that there's a two-story pond at the end of the patio, you can't see it anyway!

I think this brings our snow days to EIGHT this year! This bitterly cold winter has meant that there hasn't been any outside recess IN MONTHS. These poor girls just want to play outside. This mom does not. So, we make do. Because she's the only one who wants to, we send Khloe out in full winter gear to play in the backyard by herself. I feel a little guilty about it, but she is happy as a clam!

Sasquatch sightings!

 

And while we wait for the paint to dry, we make do with creative indoor play.

 The only - and best - way to eat raspberries of course.

 We clean our bodies... and clean the floors.

 Silly sisterly love

 This girl is OBSESSED with gymnastics these days! She is in constant gymnastics motion and in one of her many gymnastics outfits from sun up to sun down, and sometimes to sleep in also. At 2.5 years old, she was the first kid in her 3-5 year old class to do a bridge all by herself!

Oh, and there was this movie that came out on Blu-ray. Maybe you've heard of it? It's called FROZEN. That was a big day around here; we put a hiatus on the movie since January so the girls were so excited to go to the store right away and buy it!  Kayla said the night before that she was too excited to sleep, and when her alarm went off that morning she had no problem jumping out of bed, getting dressed right away and leaping into our room before the sun was even up! Of course we had to reunite the friends that all saw Frozen together in the theater for a viewing party at our house THAT NIGHT. It's been viewed non-stop since then!

And what else? Oh yeah, Kayla's 120 days smarter.

These days are FINALLY showing signs of spring - early spring flowers popping up, mountains of snow have turned into small piles, no more snow pants and boots hauled to school each day, and spring jackets are hanging in the closet. No more riding bikes around snow piles in winter gear!

We're hoping that April rain showers will bring more spring May flowers!

Baby Ben

We got to meet my college roommate's, Patti, and Brad's first baby - Benjamin! They made the trek over to our house, for the first time in years, to spend the day with us. What a great little baby he is. He was content to let anyone hold him, he fell asleep on me twice and in Aaron's arms once. Kayla was in super baby mode and loved showering him with attention. Khloe just wanted to tickle him. They make great parents and we're so happy that they have a baby so healthy and happy!

Yes, that is Kayla's Halloween costume; she wore it all day.

Sunday fun

Once a month we volunteer at KidCheck to help families sign-in their children for Sunday School. It's something we look forward to doing together - the girls are our assistants and do a great job helping and greeting families!

Sometimes we get don't get cooperation...

...sometimes we do (???)

On Sunday afternoons, we often bring Kayla's friend (and Khloe's friend by default) Abby home with us to play. They have a great time entertaining each other!

Katherine's 5th birthday party

This one caught us all of guard. Katherine is five? Little Katherine Skye? But she was JUST BORN. Happy Birthday Katherine!

 Look at these little 2 year old peanuts at the kids table! They are scheming a devious plan, no doubt.

 Life long friends for sure - Kayla, Katherine and Sophia

Ice skating adventure

Kayla has been all about ice skating lately. We have a local ice arena that has open skate and friends that regularly go, so one day Daddy took Kayla with some friends (I thought for sure Aaron would permanently injure himself but everyone came home injury free). The second time I went with Kayla. In fact, this day was the WORST WEATHER DAY of the entire year (which in itself is mind blowing since we've had SO MANY horrible weather days!) and Kayla's teacher, Katie Raymo, had the crazy idea to venture out since it was a snow day. So we braved the horrible roads, blizzard, negative wind chills and surprise! we were the only ones at open skate at the rink! Even I got to throw on skates and go for a spin. In my mind I thought I was going to be better than what I actually was. The ice is more slippery than I thought. And plus, I have further to fall these days. The Raymo's on the other hand are all great skaters! It was a good way to fill another snow day!

First piano recital!

Photo for the recital slideshow

Saving the best for last

Big day here today! Our little girl's first piano recital! I was nervous, Kayla was nervous, although I knew she would do well. I was so happy for her to have this moment on stage performing two songs she's learned. She's come so far so quickly - just 8 weeks she's been playing the piano! She loves piano so much. She sits at the piano all the time. I never have to ask her to practice, and if I do have to prompt her to get started she jumps up and yells "OKAY!" and runs into the piano room. Even after piano lessons she asks, "When we get home can I practice the piano?" I wonder how long this will last?!

The youngest of all my mom's 8 piano students

She performed her two songs on her own and then we performed them as duets. I was SO proud to sit next to her on stage! I was nervous; I didn't want to mess up her BIG moment! Can I play a song with her every piano recital? I hope so!

Time moves on

How aware I've become of this just this week. Well, I'm always aware of how each day with my girls at this age is a gift and a blessing; so fleeting. This week a few specific things happened and the feelings I had kind of caught me off guard.

The first was Addie celebrating her 7th birthday. Seventh! SEVENTH! At Addie's birthday every year it reminds me that my own daughter's same birthday is not that far away and soon we'll be saying that we have a seven year old too. Time moves on. 

We had a fun party at our home honoring her birthday and in the midst of the celebration she said to Kayla, "Kayla, do you wish you had my life right now?" Addie, you say the funniest things. You crack us up!

Addie is family to us and like a sister to Kayla since they have spent every day together for the last 6 years. When did this happen?! Addie's big bash is still to come - a roller skating party! Ahhhhhhhhh we can't wait for that one!

The second thing to happen was that someone actually bought the baby and toddler toys I was selling. I listed a huge pile of equipment, toys, stuff for sale. And someone bought them. How dare they. Funny, I was so excited to get it all out of my house (Boy, toys for little people are so big) and make room for... for more toys. No sooner were they listed for one day when a friend offered to buy a half dozen of them and instantly I was like "No, I made a mistake. They are not for sale". I couldn't believe how nostalgic and sad I got about saying goodbye to a stroller, a Mermaid car, and a few other items. Could I be making a mistake by getting rid of these? Had I thought this through carefully enough? Was I too rash? Kayla said she does want me to hold on to them for when she gets married and has a baby (good point, honey). Just about that time something else happened. My friend brought to work his daughter's outgrown skis, ski boots, poles, helmet, and gloves. And then it hit me. Time moves on. No sooner was I getting rid of old toddler toys then new Big Girl toys were moving in. And yes, everything was okay again. And I was okay again too.

Bye bye old friends

And once again it all hit me this weekend at Lowe's. Even a big box home improvement store can trigger nostalgic memories. It doesn't seem like that long ago, at 2.5 years old, that we started Kayla at the Lowe's Build-n-Grow workshops, and now we've come full circle. This time it was Khloe's first time to swing a hammer. Kayla's a pro after earning her 12th patch and Khloe earned her first patch. Time moves on. 

A birdhouse! Just in time for spring! Way to go girls!

Next big thing to happen is Kohkee's 3rd birthday! We're excitedly counting down the days to her Strawberry Shortcake birthday party. I'm looking forward to it now, but I'm sure I"ll have some moments of sadness as the time comes and goes.

Time moves on!

Valley of the Sun

Sun. That's right. Warm, hot, bright sun. Aaron needed to travel to Phoenix for work and I was happy to tag along. Aaron's trip was originally planned for longer than what I could get time away for so he adjusted his trip so I might have the chance to go. I still was reluctant to leave the girls for four days and because we're saving money for other travels, I passed [bitterly] on the offer. After living with my decision for a few days - forging through ice, snow, negative wind chills - I quickly changed my mind. If Aaron was going to be in a place named for sun, there was no way I was going to sit back in Michigan in the cold! So we took a much-needed break to cure our winter blues and save our sanity in this bitter winter. It was HEAVEN!

 View of AZ from the airplane. So desolate and wild and dry and barren - these are the lands the federal government "gifted" to the Indians to live on

The girls did great, splitting their time between both grandparent's homes. This trip really wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for the grandparents and we couldn't have asked for things to go any better. It was still hard not to feel like "Worst Parents of the Year" taking off on a warm vacation by ourselves. To help ease our time apart, I put treat bags together for the girls, buried in each of their suitcases, one for each day that we were gone. During our trip I got a message from Kayla, "You're the best Mom! You have a treat for every day!". Win, win!

Candy necklaces, one of the treats

Making gack with Grandma A

The AZ landscape is so stunningly beautiful. I was enthralled with it - from the lush green valleys, to the arid climate with cactus and dry river beds (we didn't see a single stream or river bed with water in it), the mountains, rolling hills, red rock canyons, and Indian reservations.

Montezuma's Well is a large crater lake fed by groundwater springs in the middle of the desert and has existed for hundreds of years. It is a National Park because it is the site of ancient Indian dwellings dating back from 1100-1300. 

This is one of the remaining home structures from 1100 that has been well preserved tucked in the limestone walls of Montezuma's well. I wondered, how did the people get into their home? Seems treacherous! Because if you slipped, here's Montezuma's Well you would've fallen into! 

Aaron longed to run into wildlife, any wildlife - snakes, coyotes, road runners, antelope, tarantulas, lizards - but alas, we saw none.

 More ancient native american dwellings preserved so well in the limestone walls of Montezuma's Well. It's so crazy to think about how old these are and that we were walking in the same exact spot Indians did 1,000 years ago!

There are a lot of species of cacti! They come in so many shapes, heights, and colors. I was intrigued by the variety!

We spent one full day traveling 2 hours north from Mesa to Sedona, home of the Red Rock Canyons. You've probably seen a photo or poster of the red rocks before, they are one of the most photographed areas in the world. Now I know why, they are stunning! And they literally appear out of nowhere. We drove, drove, drove and didn't see any red mountains that extended a mile into the sky. Then, almost right before we got to Sedona, there they were! 

 Chapel of the Holy Cross built into the side of the mountain. We climbed up the hill to stop in and visit. Breathtaking views from up there!

The four-day trip felt both so long and too short at the same time. Being apart from the girls, it felt long. In the sense of having enough time to do all that we wanted, it felt way too short. It was long enough; however, for me to successfully forget what snow looked like. Win!

My first time to Arizona didn't disappoint! I can't wait to go back.

Sunset over the mountains surrounding Phoenix looking out from our hotel balcony on our last night