Cinderella, Healthcare and a Little B-Ball

Cinderella moved into our house last week. She appears every morning about 7 a.m. and leaves promptly at 8 p.m. She's very good at making us laugh with her cute little phrases, loves to snuggle next to one of us, and enjoys helping me empty the dishwasher. I caught her with my camera yesterday when she appeared after church: Her dress is becoming a little ragged, but I think she's going to be around for a while.Last Wednesday, following the Massachusetts senatorial election, I did a little dance for joy when I heard the democrats admitting defeat on the healthcare bill. Really, I did a dance around my kitchen. And I let out a huge sigh of relief. You have to know that I'm not against reform--there are a lot of problems out there, but I don't think that this healthcare bill was the panacea. And not knowing exactly what would happen to medicine was scary, to say the least. I didn't know how it would effect Chris' ability to practice medicine, not just practice medicine, but practice good medicine. I also didn't know how passage of the bill would effect our income, meaning how much the government would raise our taxes. I'm not against paying taxes, we certainly pay our fair share, but how much more do we have to pay?? Do we really need to be penalized for working hard?? We've sacrificed 10 years to be where we're at, and we certainly don't live an extravagant lifestyle, although apparently those in charge in Washington must think differently. Of course, they aren't trying to quickly pay off six-figure med school loans like we are...I could say more, but I'll save it for the next healthcare bill...

Kiersten has done a 180 in basketball over the past few weeks. She started out the season timidly running down the court and is starting to throw herself into the game. Saturday I watched as she battled with a girl who was trying to defend against her, it really was a battle as they elbowed and pushed against each other, and I was pretty proud. She even got her first foul. Don't think I'm for playing dirty or anything like that, but playing basketball takes a certain amount of aggression and perserverance, two things that Kiersten showed none of at the beginning of the year.
Here are a couple clips of Kiersten playing a few weeks ago, she's number 21.

I think we're going to put up a basketball hoop when it gets a little warmer outside:)

School was out last Tuesday, and we met friends for lunch at Costco...

and then went to Jumping Jax for the afternoon. Jumping Jax just opened up by us and it's one of our new favorite places! Lisi loved the air hockey...

and the other girls liked all of it.

Just Another Week,With a Few Firsts Mixed In

This week was just another week at our house, although we did have a few firsts...

Kiersten was in her first school spelling bee! Each 4th and 5th grade class had a spelling bee last year and the top 4 from each class competed in a school-wide spelling bee on Friday. You can tell by the picture that Kiersten was really excited to participate. I'm not sure who was more nervous, the kids spelling or the moms watching, each of us mumbling the words under our breaths and congratulating each other with sighs of relief as our children spelled correctly, or consoling each other as our children fell under the pressure. Kierst made it to the third round, yay! and then she mixed up a couple of letters. We were proud that she made it as far as she did! Abbie came down with her first case of strep throat this week. She was a real trooper going to the doctor and getting her throat swabbed--no complaining, no crying, no whining. Sorry to say that I was glad it was strep because it is so easily treatable with antibiotics--within a day she was back to her normal self. Kiersten picked it up, too, and again, love antibiotics! Amazingly enough, Lisi, did not get her first case of strep this week, even though she hangs onto Abbie every minute she can when they're together.

Thursday night Lisi had her first sleepover (friends of ours went out of town and so we watched their youngest overnight, otherwise, we don't normally let our 3-year old have one;). Lisi's room is across the hallway from ours and we spent a couple of hours laughing at their anything-we-can-do-to-stay-awake antics. Finally at 10:30 we threatened to separate them if they didn't settle down and that did the trick.

I took them to Wonderscope children's museum the next day. They loved the water...

And the face painting.

I don't think Chris had any firsts this week--which is a good thing since it was already a busy week at the hospital! He was grateful to NOT have anything new.

As for me, I played tennis for the first time in a bubble this week. If you don't know, and I didn't until this week, you can stretch a bubble over outdoor tennis courts and make them indoor courts. Apparently, quite a few clubs here use them. I'm used to playing indoor tennis, in Boise, you can play outside until the end of November, and then it's indoors until March (or if the weather cooperates, the end of Feb.). At the racquet club we belonged to all our clinics were held indoors, even in the summertime, and if a court wasn't reserved indoors, you could play on it for free, provided someone willing to pay didn't kick you off, so of course when you hit with friends you tried to find indoor courts (outdoors were first come, first served and always free). I had never experienced a bubble--until this week.

What I learned is that I HATE BUBBLES. Every sound echoed off the bubble, and I mean every sound--every ball hitting in every court echoed, every racquet hitting every ball echoed, every voice echoed, every footstep echoed and I couldn't even hear the score being called, much less hear whether a ball was called in or out. I felt like my head would explode with so many sounds bouncing around in it at once! The bubble also sloped downward over the back part of the court, which meant that the court looked distorted, it looked about 2 feet shorter than it really was. No one had warned me about "the bubble" and it took me about 6 games to get used to everything. I know, I know, that's all part of it, getting used to your surroundings, and I'm all for trying new things--someday I'd like to try to play on clay or even grass (things we never had growing up in Idaho!). Maybe I'm an indoor court snob, but I think I will try to avoid as many bubble matches as I can, except that I'm already scheduled to go back to the same courts in a couple of months. At least I'll be prepared this time, maybe I'll even wear ear plugs, ha ha!

Winter Wonderland...or the Christmas Break That Never Ended

I have to have a proud mom moment before commenting on the weather. Yesterday, Kierst made her first basket in a game. She stole the ball, took it down the court and shot. Yay! Kierst loves basketball, but is a little timid on the court. I'm not sure what her coach did, but she finally brought some agression to her game. Now I'm waiting for her first foul:)

It seems as though Old Man Winter is really leaving his mark on Kansas this year. Snow lays in piles everywhere, ice covers the streets and it has been bitterly COLD this past week (so much for wishing for the 60s). With all the snow and minus temperatures, school was cancelled Wednesday, Thursday and Friday--making it feel like Christmas break all over again! It was wonderful! We spent some lazy days, not having to run anywhere and do much of anything because all of it was cancelled. Unfortunately, the cold made it hard for the girls to enjoy the beautiful snow, but on the one day we had temperatures into the teens, they ventured outside to play in the perfect snow in the backyard--the kind that you want to make snow angels in, it's just so perfect, without any footprints.

Kierst, in her normal dramatic fashion, laid down in the snow, protesting our cruelty at forcing her to play outside--I think she's really a warm weather person, and I really don't blame her--it was cold; however, it was time to get some exercise:) I think she was waiting for us to tell her it was fine to come inside, but in true stick-to-your-guns parent fashion we waited it out and a few minutes later she was happily building a wall of snow.
With such cold weather this week, it really hit me how truly blessed I am. We have a warm house, out of the cold, with fireplaces that have been merrily blazing, we have been basking in their warmth all week. We have warm coats and warm boots and pants and if we didn't have them, well, we have the ability to go to the store and buy them (something that hit Kierst with understanding this year when she saw the bags of socks and underclothes we had purchased for a family adopted by Chris' practice for Christmas--when she understood that people needed just the basics of life that we take so much for granted, I think her eyes were open a little and she became more appreciative of what she really has). I'm grateful for a garage. When Chris was in medical school we lived in townhouses and didn't have a garage. Many winter mornings we'd chip ice off the windshield and wait for the car to heat up and it was freezing (and we had to walk uphill both ways in the snow to get to the car, but that's another story, hee hee). And I'm grateful that Chris doesn't have to drive downtown to work--I always worried about him driving up hospital hill during fellowship when I knew the roads were icy and frozen and just plain trecherous--now his drive is short and even if the roads are bad, they're usually better than the ones downtown. I'm grateful for Chris shoveling (no snowblower) our driveway, walkway, and the street around Tiffanie's car (so she could easily get out) in the freezing weather after he had worked a long, 10-hour day. I'm grateful for cozy nights surrounded by my husband and children. Really, this week I feel grateful for the little things, too, like hot chocolate and ice melt and new tires.

And I'm really really grateful that we don't live any further north, where these kind of temperatures are the norm (I'm from the sun belt of Idaho, remember, we get snow, but not that much and it's never this cold). O.K., little story here about why I'm so grateful for this: When Chris interviewed for residencies, we drove with his friend, Dan, who was also interviewing, to a place in Wisconsin--Marshfield, Wisconsin, which is located about 2 hours from any major metropolitian area, and what I mean by that is any town bigger than 20,000. We drove through winding roads lined with enormous pine trees, absolutely beautiful, and lake after lake, which, this being January, had little shacks set up for ice fishing. While Chris and Dan interviewed the following day, I checked out the town. I finished that in about 10 minutes. Now I have nothing against living in a small town--if there's some sunshine and it's warm and I can spend lots of time outside--there's always a lot to do, or at least I can always find a lot to do. Throw in a beach to boot and I'm in heaven. But in Wassau, it had to be about -10 all day long and the wind blew. Hard. I pretty much froze the whole day. Chris love love loved the program and hospital--it was a regional center and I'll admit, a really good program, in fact, he wanted to put it at the top of his list, but all I could think about was being stuck inside a house all winter long with kids. Needless to say, it didn't make it onto the top of our list, thanks to the good husband I have who knew that if I were miserable, then everyone else would be too. Now that you know the story, you know that I am very very grateful to be living where I am.

On a completely different note I forgot to put post a couple of things: The day after Christmas I took the girls to see the Nutcracker at the Music Hall. With Chris working and all the Christmas craziness over, it was the perfect time to go. One of Kierst's friends was performing in it, too, which made it extra fun. After being in Clara's Dream, Abs and Kierst were really captivated by the entire show. Lisi had a harder time sitting through it, but maybe next year it will be better:)
Kierst also had a strings performance at the beginning of Dec. She did a great job!

Happy New Year

Today is officially the last day of Christmas break--the decorations are all put away (except for the lights--we're waiting for the sub-arctic temperatures to rise a little before braving that task), the girls go back to school on Tues., Chris heads back to a full week of work, and everything will pretty much get back to normal. Sigh. But in the meantime, here's a look back at the past week...
Chris had his days off between Christmas and New Year's and was on call at night and so we took full advantage of the time to play. My girls are true Daddy's girls--they'd rather spend time with him than me, which means they were in heaven.
We had to play in the snow as much as possible this week because we never know when it will melt. In Kansas the weather is so crazy that it could be 60 degrees tomorrow (ok, the weather report says 18 degrees at the most, but the next week it could be balmy). With the piles of snow around our driveway Chris made snow forts for the girls. I think the Seattle boy scout in him was coming out-- when he was in high school they made igloos in the Cascades on hiking trips. Brrr! Kierst is queen of the hill! Notice the weird white thing in our neighbor's yard behind her. Since the beginning of Dec., when it lit up our street, we've been trying to figure out what it is, but didn't have the guts to just ask the neighbor. We finally found out that it's a rocket. Ummm, is it just me or is that a little odd?
Because one snow fort wasn't enough, Chris built a second so the girls could slide between the two.

Chris filled spray bottles with colored water and the girls got to decorate their forts.

Another day we took the girls to Crown Center. First stop: Kaleidoscope. If you don't know what Kaleidoscope is, it is the best place for kids to get their creative juices flowing--just one big art center. It is run by Hallmark, which is headquartered in KC, and it is full of colorfully designed tables, creatures, and lots of paper, markers, paints, and leftover art supplies. Did I mention the puzzle maker, too? Did I also mention it's one of my kids' favorite places to go?
Lisi was grooving to the music while painting her puzzle. This picture is so typical of her facial expressions.

Abs made Chris a new year's hat.We stuck our heads through and had some good laughs at each other. After looking at all the wrinkles on my forehead in this pic, I realize I'm going to need Botox by the time I'm 40! Hee hee.Outside we saw the giant Mayor's tree and then went inside for hot chocolate and steamers (hot milk with flavoring) and called dibs on which gingerbread house out of the huge display we would want to live in. Everyone played for a while at Santa's Crayola playland. The kids wanted to eat at Fritz's but with a little convincing, they agreed to try one of our favorite restaurants on 39th Street by KU Med: Po's House of Dumplings. Delicious!

Another day the kids voted to go bowling.

Kierst got the first strike! Everyone got one--even Lisi!

After all the strenous bowling, we filled up at 5 Guys. Kierst can't even smile in this pic because her mouth is so full of food:) We've decided they definately have the best burgers in KC. And the best fries because they're made from Idaho potatoes! (Side note here...when I was at BYU and told people I was from Idaho they would always ask if I grew potatoes, haha-I could always answer well, yes, I do!haha!--my dad was an attorney, but his family owned shares in a potato farm near Burley, Idaho, that someone else ran--when the potatoes were harvested I would drive to the farm on my way home to Boise and pick up sacks of enormous potatoes--imagine the biggest bakers you've ever seen--so yes, we did grow potatoes! And you know that the best potatoes always come from Idaho!!)
New Year's Eve we went to our friends' annual party--lots of fun! However, I've come to the conclusion that we are officially OLD because at 12:05 a.m., we (along with everyone else) headed home because it was so late. Can you see Chris' goatee that he grew out this week? It had too much grey, so he shaved it off--not that he wouldn't have anyway for work next week, but like our early bedtime, it points out the fact that we are getting OLD--or that at least since Chris turned 40 this year he is getting grey and I'm still youthfully beautiful (haha! thanks to my hairdresser! and I always have to give Chris a hard time).

We finally broke down and bought 2 more remotes for our Wii. In between football games on New Year's day the girls competed against each other. I was happy to watch since I'm pretty awful at Mario Kart.

Christmas

For the past 3 years, we've spent Christmas Eve at a friend's house--a tradition we truly love. Without a lot of family around, this is the next best thing! There's always a nativity play on Christmas Eve, and every year it gets more elaborate. Love it. (Still waiting on the camels and donkey, though, hint hint:)

(BTW, thanks to friends for the pics as my cam battery died!!)

Lisi played an angel. Unfortunately, when it was time to make her big entrance, she had a meltdown and we couldn't convince her to participate. The funny thing was that the other angel had the same problem! So the angels were crying instead of proclaiming the birth of the Savior...

All except Abs.

I think I made her halo look a little more like an afro than a halo...The whole crew gathered at the stable. Every year it seems that a live baby lies in the manger--the sweetest thing. Kierst thinks it's time for us to have another baby so ours can be the one in the nativity next year. Ha ha!The wise men, or maybe we should call them the wise women. Kierst was thrilled to put her own costume together.

By the time we headed home for the rest of our Christmas Eve, the side doors on our van were frozen shut! I can't remember that ever happening in the whole time we've lived here. Brrr! We actually got one door part way open and then couldn't shut it all the way--which meant that it beeped annoyingly the whole way home. Thank goodness we live close!

It seems there are a few schools of thought when it comes to Christmas presents. Some like to leave the tree sparse and wait for Christmas morning, others like to put everything out in advance. I'm in the latter group. I love putting out all the presents before Christmas Eve--(all except from Santa, of course, although at our house Santa only gives each person one present). The week before Christmas the girls are constantly trying to figure out what could possibly be in each package and I enjoy trying to make it as hard as possible to do just that. Last year I'd wrapped part of their presents in enormous boxes (about 4 feet high by 4 feet wide) because anticipation counts for a lot! The kids had been really good not touching presents, but by Christmas Eve the temptation was just too great!

Christmas Eve is never complete without Jack Horner pie. In my family we always opened one present on Christmas Eve and in Chris' they always did, too, except that the presents were hidden in a basket first and pulled out all together, thus the name for the tradition. The basket never has anything big, all the gifts cost less than $10 and it's always fun to see what I can find for that amount-usually I find the best things during black Friday sales!
The girls were up bright and early at 6. Abs got what she wanted--a unicorn webkinz.
Kierst has wanted an ipod for a long time. We warned her that if she got one that she wouldn't get much else. (I have to insert here that Abs was with me when I bought Kierst's present and said she wanted one, too. When I asked if she were willing to just get an ipod and nothing else, she decided that it wasn't such an attractive gift after all.) The entire week before Christmas Kierst watched to see how many presents were under the tree for her. She kept saying how there were only a couple of presents--did that mean she was getting an ipod? Well, did anything look like an ipod? No, there's only a square package that could be it, but it doesn't look anything like what an ipod would (see what I mean about trying to keep them guessing?) When she opened the mysterious square package on Christmas--she couldn't stop smiling! Her ipod!

Her second favorite gift--a scentsy for her bedroom (thanks to my friend for making that happen!)My sister looks thrilled to be up so early on Christmas morning:)

Lisi got a camera--the perfect gift for a picture-crazy preschooler. She took so many photos that wore out the batteries before noon on Christmas day!
Chris never lets me spoil him--but this year I did it anyway (like the Target commercial says-"let Santa do Santa's job" hee hee). I'm a person who shows my love by giving, so I had fun watching him open what he's wanted--a kindle!
The girls saved their money and bought each other presents. Abs gave Lisi a recorder, which she

played nonstop when she wasn't taking pics. Most toys become white noise to me after a while because our house really isn't the calmest place on the planet (that could be an understatement) but I'm not sure how long it will be until this toy somehow gets lost...

Chris made our traditional Christmas breakfast--appelskivers!
We had a very very white Christmas, with large snow drifts everywhere. I don't know if you can really tell, but the snow is as high as our front porch.

After breakfast Chris headed to work, but as he opened the garage door, he was met with this view...the snow had blown against our garage door and was as high as his car! We have great neighbors. The minute they saw Chris trying to dig through all of that snow, they all came with their shovels and snow blowers. They managed to get him out of the driveway, but the snow was too deep to get down the street! Again, thank goodness for great neighbors! One of them loaned Chris his truck to get to work.I don't think our minivan would have made it, the streets were so bad. Maybe it's finally time to get that SUV...Chris and I tried to take some good pics together...not sure if I like these or not... Since Chris had to work and didn't get home until late in the day, we kept Christmas dinner to just our family. We always have a traditional dinner of turkey with all the trimmings. I can't figure out why Chris never asks me to make my favorite thing, though--my grandmother's lime jello/pineapple/avacado molded salad:) It's a Nielson tradition, but since I'm the only one who likes it, it never seems to make it on the menu.

Abs loves eating the drumstick.
Lisi wanted in on the photo action with her mashed potatoes.

As I've said before, I love Christmas. I only wish it didn't go by so quickly. The tree will soon come down, the decorations put away, and kids will go back to school, but for right now, I'm still enjoying Christmas.