Some Catching Up

End of K - Beginning of 1
The last day of Kindergarten was 'wild animal' day. Each child chose an animal to dress up as and report on. My wild child chose rainbow trout. I never knew they had red stripes running along both sides of their bodies. The mural the girls are in front of was painted by all the children in Anushka's class.

Anushka and her good buddies Leia and Emily have all lost their bottom two teeth...

As soon as school was out, we headed to Big Cottonwood Canyon for some good camping with good friends...
Diggity with his buddy Ben.
Anushka is quite the climber

Leia is one of Anushka's best best buds - we all love her!
Hangin' with Cousins
With so much of our family living in Europe, we don't see all the cousins as often as we would like. It was great to have them all visit at the same time
Anushka with {almost} all her girl cousins - we missed you MINDY! ~sigh~
More climbing...

Girls Camp

Another year, another camp. This might have been the most fun yet. We had a great group of girls - I had a blast gettting to know the new ones and teasing the 'oldies' :)

Such a great group of ladies to tent with for a week (Whitt and I had the best mattress thanks to my back)
At the very least, we amused ourselves...
'The fun one' - Chilly taking a break from keeping the girls entertained...

A handful of you will truly appreciate this picture and why I find it absolutely priceless!
We upheld the tradition of introducing caffeinated beverages to the visiting infants
So wrong...
We burned our BRAs (bad rotten attitudes)

After fun hikes...
and crazy activities...

The Girls pampered themselves...

Or ate the pampering tools

I was so glad to get to go again this year. Thanks to all the real leaders who had babies just in the nick of time.

Back Injury

I've had a lot of people ask me about references they've seen on facebook to some strange back injury - so here it is:
*I'm not as flexible in my leg muscles as I should be (I know - they always tell you to stretch and I never do)
*I guess those muscles are pulling in opposite directions against some of the lower vertebrae
*In the spring I had a pretty hard collision in a soccer game. I came away with some back pain that I attributed to a pulled muscle but in reality it probably was a cracked vertebra
*At the zoo in June, I awkwardly picked up Diggity over a fence and felt something give in my back - at first the doctor thought it was a herniated disk. It was some of the worst pain I've ever experienced
*X-rays and MRI showed it was actually a fracture in said vertebra
*I am now in physical therapy, in very little pain and hopeful that it will not be a major problem in life - there is even the possibility of soccer (my mother cringes as I say this)
Lesson Learned: Stretch stretch stretch - and strengthen those core muscles!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY D-Man

This little guy has added so much to our family. He has so much personality and energy (maybe a little too much sometimes - especially on Sundays). He keeps us laughing and feeling slightly bi-polar but our family certainly wouldn't be complete without him.
Day 1:


Day 1461:

Locks of Love

About two years ago, Anushka decided she wanted to follow in her cool-2nd-cousin-Aubrey's footsteps and grow out her hair so she could donate it to a child who didn't have any. Wednesday, she decided, was THE DAY she was ready to do it...

Here's the hair still attached to her head:
The hacking begins:
Finished product. A little shorter than we anticipated but cute anyway.
In other news, we finally got a couple of swim-worthy weather days:
This face is SO Diggity:

And finally, I just love this pic - my daughter the book worm (reminds me of her cousins):

June 10, 2009

and this is not Seattle...

Graduation Girl

Last week, my friend and I were interviewing a bunch of moms of girls who are graduating high school - we were putting together a spotlight video of the girls. We asked the moms about goals the girls have accomplished and what their hopes and dreams are for their daughters' futures. It was surreal. All I could picture was my 6-year-old and how, in the blink of an eye, that will be me talking about her. A few fun things about her:

• Kindergarten has turned her into a voracious reader. It's now her favorite passtime - she loves Junie B. Jones and is now writing her own version, "Junie B. Schrader".
• She has scored more goals for her team than any other player. Sadly, she's only scored 2 goals - their team hasn't made a lot of points this season.

• She is a NIGHT OWL - no matter how we try, we cannot get her to sleep before 10 and if she's alone in her room she'll stay awake much longer.
• Still a girlie girl, she's no wimp. She has big scabs on both knees at the moment and loves riding her scooter down hills.
• Her hair is almost to her waist - she's growing it out to donate.
• She's a blast to have at home. I'm going to miss her when she's in first grade. I've said to many people, if I could send 'D' to school for seven hours a day and keep her home, I'd do it...

Mommy Parrot

So, I'm putting Diggity (age 3) to bed the other night. I often lie down next to him for a few minutes to calm him down and help him settle in. Here was our conversation:

D: Mommy, will you get me my elephant pillow?

Me: Yes - I will in a minute (I was tired and thought I'd give it to him on my way out)

D: No, I want it now.

Me: Well, you'll just have to wait a minute.

~~about a 30-second pause~~

D: I got an idea.... Here are your choices: You can go to time out, or you can get me my pillow.

Me (burying my face in the pillow): I'll take the time out.

D: No. You can get me my pillow...

Two of my favorite words he uses are: 'hello doctor', meaning helicopter, and 'got for' or 'gotted for' - meaning forgot. eg "Mommy I gotted for my backpack". It took me about a month to figure that one out.