She Did It, She Did It, Yay, Ella Hicimos!!

It's been a long time coming but she did it!

I didn't get any video of what it took to get her to this point. I actually threw her under the water! (or tried- she flailed pretty wildly and mostly landed on her feet) She was crying and fussing and I am pretty certain there were people who were considering turning Scott and I into the authorities. I finally told her I wouldn't force her anymore and she had to decide if she wanted to do it or not and through her tears she said, "Whatever, go ahead and do it!"  So, I dunked her! And dunked her again. And a few more times after that!

And from that, we made our way to the water slide. She desperately wanted to go down that slide alone. She did it! It wasn't pretty, but she did it. (She was a little scared because she turned a little sideways at some point on the way down.) She even went back and did it again! Woot! Woot!

I think we are getting really close to those swimming lessons I've been threatening her with for years.
I've been giving a lot of thought to whether or not she'd make a great swimmer lately. It's an odd thing to think about considering none of my children have ever been really comfortable in the water but after hearing my friend Misty talk about the success one of her older girls in swimming (and never having thought of it before- she is 12) I wondered if it might be right up Cali's alley. If she'd learn to swim of course.

All this brought us to taking a jaunt to the swimming pool over Christmas break. We don't get to the pool as often as we'd like. It's kind of a hassle getting there but once we are there we always have a great time.

Cali didn't take a friend, which was good given the whole torture thing. She really did scream that a time or two. "Why are you torturing me?!?!?!?" and "This is TORTURE!!"

Cori took her boyfriend which went surprisingly well. I think he had fun with the family.

Cassi took her best friend (or one of them) Caleigh. They are a hoot together!
(I have a picture of the two of them too but it keeps loading upside down. As soon as I get it figured out I'll add it.)

It was a good start to the new year. I'm' hoping to get out there again soon. I'll keep you up to date on the lesson thing. I have to make sure she won't accuse anyone of torture first!  :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here is our annual First Picture of the New Year!

As usual, it was quite funny trying to get the perfect picture. You will see, by the video below that we took one or two good ones and then pandemonium ensued. Big dogs make big chaos!  Wren was in Colorado this year, so for the first time in longer than I can remember, he wasn't going to be in our annual First picture! We were all missing him and the thought of him not being in our picture was a bit too much, SO, we fixed that by printing a picture of him and holding it up.

I don't really believe in making resolutions for the new year however I have thought that I should try harder to update this blog more often. So if I had to say what my New Year's Resolution is, it keeping track of our family life better via this blog.

I do take a daily picture and post it here (I am a bit behind in posting but the pictures have been taken!)
but I miss the stories I used to share. I have to find the time somewhere. Keep you fingers crossed for me, it won't be an easy resolution to keep.

Here is wishing all of you a year filled with Happiness, Joy, Peace, and Goodwill!
Happy 2013!

Ode to the 8 Year Old Birthday Girl

It's really that day. The day Cali turns 8 years old. I can hardly stand it and if I dwell on it, I'll cry.
This however brought a smile to my heart!
We all love Cali Bay...She is the blessing we didn't expect and couldn't live without!

A poem from her big sister...

Well lets just start with saying happy birthday Cal! 
I wanted to say how much I love you, and how much I love you being my pal :)

You're such a sweet girl, with a very kind heart. 
Your smile is like a key to a car, it makes everyone start!

Your laugh is irreplaceable, so high and cute! 
Just make sure you keep that up, cause what's not too cute is when you toot!

My oh my, where has time gone?!
You've become a amazing person, just keep growing along :)

I know you'll do great things, I know you'll have fun. 
You'll create something brighter than that big sun!

You'll make people happy, you'll share what you know. 
You'll do what you love. And never stop, just go, go, go!

I can't believe your already 8!
Man, oh man. I hope your birthdays great! 

Don't grow up too fast, I'll miss you too much!
You'll start wearing bras, dating boys, and such!

I hope you have a fabulous day!
Mwah! I love you more than words can say!

It's On! Cali's Clothes Challenge

Recently, Cali and I decided to go through her clothes. We pulled out everything that didn't fit and gave them to Annie. Cali was so fortunate to have darling little clothes passed down from her sisters and given to her by her Great Aunts and her Grandparents. There are so many things in her closet, there are even things with tags just hanging there.

We didn't buy a lot of clothes for the start of school this year but after sorting her closet I am so glad we didn't. I decided to try and make things fun for her so I offered her a challenge.  First, we hypothesized, how long do you think you can go without wearing the same outfit twice? I thought a  month sounded about right but she thought two months. We did decide jeans could be used twice and shoes are not included. Otherwise, nothing more than one time.

We decided we would try to photograph each outfit in order to help us remember. A couple of days we forgot to do that. (I had to write it down separately.)

We will update as we go but here is what we have so far.
We are on day 10. What is your guess, how many days will we make it?

Peek-A-Boo

Isn't it fun when the babies finally figure out peek-a-boo.

It's such a fun stage.

You spend your time as a Momma feeding them, making sure they aren't thirsty.

You keep an eye out for danger...  

...only to find they are getting into trouble right under your nose.

You encourage their independence and find yourself with a brief moment alone, ahhh!

 Then all of a sudden, they are meandering around, testing their independence, checking things out.

And you're left wishing they were still playing peek-a-boo!

Pinterest-ing Saturday #2

So we aren't  like going crazy or anything, but we are managing to do some projects. Who Hoo


This week we made some rainbow bubble snakes.

It's a bit funny that it took me seeing this on pinterest to figure this out. We've made these bubble bottles many times. I've even done this at our school for a picnic. That tells you haw much crap I save.  I had plenty of bottles and mix-matched socks.

This time we added food coloring on the ends of the socks before we put them in the bubble water.

Then BLOW!

There are a couple things I should mention. It can be messy, really messy. Messy because when I used the food coloring I made a bit of a mess on my fingers with food coloring drips. Really messy because I let Cali do her own food coloring and she dripped everywhere. I would suggest if you can not handle big mess, do the food coloring for them while they tell you what colors they want. Me, I just let her do it and figured the food coloring wouldn't last forever.

                             


We added food coloring after every two to three times we made a long snake. It kept the colors more vibrant. One time the bubbles landed on our bowl that we contain all of our food coloring bottles in. It reminded me of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or something like that. Isn't it cute?

Also, use a lot of soap and only a little water. The bubbles will be thicker and make longer snakes. 

Just after we started this project, the big girls told me they were supposed to be meeting friends at the beach. Cali and I just packed up our supplies and took them with us.

We didn't have near as much luck there as it was windy. Which brings me to the last bit of advice, do this in a place that isn't too windy otherwise you end up with really short bubble snakes because they blow off too quickly. (Also, if the snakes hit your clothing and they are covered in food coloring they can stain your clothing. We managed to avoid this but it is how Cali's feet were stained.

I am loving Pinterest...How about you?

A Pintersting Saturday #1

Cali and I made a decision recently, that we were going to make a point to make at least one thing we found on Pinterest, at least once per week. We hope to do more than that but we'll keep our goals simple. (:
I plan on trying to post them on Saturday. Again, keeping it simple. Wish me luck!

This week we made Jello Oranges. This was one Cali really wanted to do. (And I wanted to see how they worked since Amber is trying to get me to make some of these with liquor.)

The one thing we didn't get done was to photograph them in a rainbow pattern.

Cali did all the mixing of the Jello while I got the job of scooping out the oranges.

She chose all the colors. I think the blue was considered the favorite by most everyone.

The afternoon we made them some good friends of Cori's and Cassi's got back to town from Japan. They surprised us. Once word spread through town that they had returned a lot of friends were clamoring to see them so we ended up with a impromptu beach party.

It was also Summer Solstice which made it even more wonderful.

Why am I telling you all of this, well because we took those Jello oranges to the beach, of course!
It was an exciting surprise for everyone and Cali was excited to share her talents.

I think we will be making these again, very soon. And then we'll get that rainbow orange picture!