rachel's continued ramblings

skating!

before our trip to california, dave’s mom had told us that there was an outdoor skating rink in elk grove for the holidays. EXCITING! many of you will be appalled by this, but neither of my younger two children have EVER been on the ice, and shane has been MAYBE 3 times. I know! it’s really sad, considering I spent my entire adolescence in an ice rink!

the biggest problem for me, is my skates. they are… um… well, let’s just say they’re a couple of decades old. back in the day, they were really nice, top of the line, custom-made harlicks. now, 3 kids (and a lot of years of wearing birkenstocks) later, they are a LOT too small for me. and of course, I’m not going to wear rental skates. every non-skater I know thinks this is crazy, but SKATERS, you understand, right?

at any rate, for this occasion a (quite literally) SHOVED my feet into my skates and took my family skating!

shane, having been before, did great, aside from a wobbly right skate, and managed to stay on his feet the whole time. layla, took to it a little too well, for it being her first time. she LOVED it. had a smile on her face the WHOLE time. didn’t care a bit about falling down and getting her pants wet, she was back up and going in seconds. she was fast. she was trying to skate backwards and do little turns. HELP! micah… well, I neglected to think about the fact that micah absolutely HATES to get wet. he freaks out if his hands are wet, and if his clothes get wet, it’s the end of the world… yeah… skating may not be a good match for him! but, aside from world-is-ending hysteria each and every time he fell down, he plugged away, and even (I think) had a good time. they had some orange buckets and traffic cones on the ice that kids could use to push around, and he liked that a lot.

my feet were completely numb by the time we were done, and my toes and ankles hurt for hours afterwards. I miss skating so much, and I’d love to be able to go and take my kids more often.

anyone want to contribute to my “new skates fund”?

week 52 in pictures

this week is super-funky. we have christmas eve, day, etc. and then a repeat with dave’s parents, once we got to cali. lots of days with multiple events or multiple pictures of each event… ugh. such a pain to weed through! not that there’s anything wrong with having lots of pictures, it just takes some time to edit and choose and all that.

monday: christmas eve. we always take a family picture by one of the trees in the church after the christmas eve service.

tuesday: christmas morning. just before everyone came downstairs. (the pile of presents on the mantel are what won’t fit in micah’s super-skinny stocking. this happens every year. layla only had one this year that didn’t fit. and shane’s stocking is HUGE, so it’s not usually an issue.)

wednesday: dave, layla, and shane, all playing with micah’s pirate ship before heading out on our long drive to california. where’s micah? no idea.

thursday: christmas morning all over again in gramma and papa’s living room!

friday: 7 or so hours in the way back seat of the van, sandwiched between shane and layla (who bickered the WHOLE time)so we could go see the iowa dapelos, who were in SOCAL.

also friday: having pizza for dinner after we all finally arrived. notice, the 3 girls together at one end and micah and jacob together at the other end. poor matthew was a little antisocial – given that he was asleep!

saturday: papa, gramma, and 2 families’ worth of grandkids at our hotel room.

and some skinnies: 1. giving ginger treats in my infamous christmas jammies (I wear these ONLY on christmas!). 2. micah enjoying one of the complimentary cookies at our hotel.

and several big collages from christmas, etc…

christmas morning:

playing with new toys:

christmas day with grandma and grandpa:

christmas with gramma and papa:

our visit with the iowa dapelos. brief, but fun.

saturday, at the mall in socal:

{book shots will be added later}

christmas repeat with gramma and papa

the morning (late morning) after our 2:30am arrival, we had a ‘christmas morning’ repeat with dave’s parents and gramma. games, ornaments, stuffed friends, clothes, and books were opened and enjoyed.

and then there is the famous singing reindeer hat! oh joy of joys! it lights up, sings “grandma got run over by a reindeer” and the antlers move back and forth!

it’s always so much fun to get to celebrate multiple times with different people. I love dragging out the season!

christmas day with my parents

we decided not to make the christmas day trip down to portland this year, so instead, we had christmas dinner here, with my parents.

but first, we opened presents.

layla went first. there were 3 things in this box…

pink tights,

a black leotard,

and pink ballet slippers!

AND, this gift comes with ballet classes! finally! she has been waiting so long to do this and was very excited.

next was micah. super-huge, unbelievably awesome, playmobil pirate ship! this thing is seriously cool.

shane got his present from them earlier in the month (his new trumpet), but grandma felt bad that he wouldn’t have anything to open, so he also got a pair of seattle skyline socks.

then it was grandma and grandpa’s turn to open gifts from us.

since they finally moved into their new house (down the road from us), they needed new stuff to go with their bathroom, so I picked out a bathmat, and a set of towels that would look good in there.

and, to go with them, shane got them a new, coordinating shower curtain.

after dinner, we played a round of layla’s new game, ‘headbanz’, which was quite entertaining.

and then we played some ‘apples to apples’ while micah and layla watched ‘the year without a santa claus’, and played with the pirate ship.

it was a mellower christmas day, but fun, and I got to spend it with my parents, which I am very grateful for.

christmas morning

santa was here!

every year, dave does this. he goes around taking pictures of people on christmas morning, waking up and getting out of bed.

I won’t bore you with all the stocking stuff pictures.

in a strange and rare occurrence, “santa” left something for me, too! I got my project life kit and binders for next year. after going back and forth last year about whether to do clementine or cobalt, I finally chose cobalt. I don’t regret that, but I have still really loved clementine, so that’s what I get to use for 2013. at some point, I’ll have to do olive and seafoam too… I want them all! but now I’m all set!

micah’s gift to shane:

micah’s gift to layla (it’s a night light):

shane’s gift to micah:

shane’s gift to layla:

layla’s gift to shane:

layla’s gift to micah (he also got a new grinch shirt, since his old one BARELY got him through christmas):

the kids got me a new space needle ornament identical to the one that got broken when the tree tipped over.

micah made this in preschool:

the BIG gift… they are each opening 2 games for the new xbox kinect! shane is smiling because he’s already figured it out at this point.

micah was not as impressed with this gift as the others. he said something really funny, expressing his displeasure, but I forget what it was. oh well. he has, since then, warmed up to the idea plenty!