Crazy Kid

Misha pulled a stunt straight out of "Christmas Story" after school today. She wanted to see if her tongue would really stick to a pole. "I wanted to see if the myth was true." I want to know who told her it was a myth. Anyway, she came home and told me about her scientific research. She doesn't recommend that you try it. "First my tongue got stuck and then my lips!" Now she has a very sore tongue that might just be missing a few taste buds.

Kristen and Amy

Well, first let's start with Amy. "Mom, how old were you when you first got a cell phone?" I replied, "It was just a couple of years ago." Amy, "They didn't have them when you were a kid huh? Were they the hand crank kind?" Boooooo.

Kristen was lamenting last night as she was getting ready for bed, "Mom, I just want to be like you, but I don't have any one to boss around." There are definite perks to parenthood.

In Target today I was looking at some clearance Christmas stuff and Kristen wanted to move on to the toy section, "C'mon Mother," in her best condescending tone, "I'm not getting any younger."

A little later, still in Target, I was looking at organizational stuff. Kristen walked over to where I was standing and grabbed on to an upper shelf while stepping on to the bottom shelf. The front plastic piece detached from the shelf where she had grabbed, and she quickly hopped backward. While helping to snap it back on, she commented, "Whew, I didn't see that coming."

The day after Christmas, Kristen was all set to take one of her new dolls to church. I quickly nixed the idea and told her we didn't take toys to church. Her quick response, "Well, other kids get to take toys to church!" I calmly replied, "Well, we don't. Different families have different rules." Her angry retort, "I don't like our rules. We need to change them!"

Painting and Big Sighs of Relief

For most of my girls' vacation, I enjoyed having them around. These last few days however, they were getting on each others' nerves, and thus, my nerves. It was a happy day for all of us to have school start today. I felt as though I was in overdrive the entire vacation--no down time. Some of it was self-imposed, but really, a Mom can't go on vacation when kids are around very easily. They still eat, they still get their clothes dirty, they still fight. I felt as though I was cleaning, cooking, getting ready for Christmas, orchestrating, and more non-stop. A couple of days ago, I even took on a big painting project!

Misha's room, which used to be Kristen's room, was green and pink. Not remotely Misha's style. It has been hanging over me to paint her room for over a year now. I know the work involved in painting; I didn't want to do it. Plus, Chris was adamant that he wasn't going to help. So, I got everything set up and had to referee three girls who desperately wanted to help. Amy and Misha's help I could handle, Kristen's I could not. I let her try and she dripped paint all over the drop cloth in her first attempt. You might argue that that is what a drop cloth is for, but now we had to be careful not to step in the paint and track it out of the bedroom. Chris took pity on me and corralled Kristen in to helping him with touch-ups.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted. Chris helped, though he wasn't happy about it. I was grateful. My next big job in the front hall, I will definitely be hiring out! I am just glad to have that room finished. It is neutral and should never need to be painted again.

Before:


After:

New Year's Eve

We wanted to do something a little different this year for New Year's Eve. Instead of watching the fun and excitement on tv, we wanted to be a part of it. We surprised our girls with an overnight stay at the new Embassy Suites in downtown Denver. The girls were all impressed with the hotel, "This is the nicest hotel we've ever stayed in." It was pretty nice. Hotel points are nice.

I would say the only drawback was the cold and snow. Up until a few days prior, we had enjoyed 40 and 50 degree temps. Our first real snow of the season dumped cold and snow on us in a big way. We dressed warmly and brought extra layers to be outside watching the fireworks. After checking in and oohing and aahing over the room, we hurried over to the Denver Pavilions to watch Tron. It was passable, but the girls thought it was cool. From there, we trudged over to Chili's for dinner, although after eating a bucket of popcorn, I don't know why they were hungry. A TV van was parked next to Chili's and a cameraman and his camera were set up on the corner. My girls speculated that it would be fun to be on tv. Chris and I both downplayed it; why would he be taping already?



The vote after dinner was for swimming instead of waiting for fireworks. We all changed (Chris and I were hoping for a hot tub) and clomped downstairs. Some of us only had boots!



Sadly, there was no hot tub. There WERE a lot of noisy kids. I think we got a five-minute reprieve before the second wave of noisy, unruly children invaded the pool. As I sat watching my girls, I heard the first boom from the 9 pm fireworks display. I caught a glimpse of the sparkle against the Denver Performing Arts building.

We gave up on the pool after awhile and headed up to our room. After changing and getting the girls settled with a movie, Chris was watching tv when he got a Facebook message that our friend Cindy had seen Misha and Kristen on the Channel 9 news! The girls were pretty bummed to have missed it.

I was hoping to lay in bed at midnight and watch the fireworks. I had a perfect view of the clock tower where they shot off the first round of fireworks. Guess they had to have two locations--bummer. I actually had to get up and watch the fireworks. We didn't exactly get down on the 16th street in the middle of it all for the countdown, but the girls had fun regardless.

Girls' Party

New Year's Eve 2009 my girls started asking if they could have a party. Chris and I had hosted a party and they wanted in on the fun. I told them that I was reserving New Year's Eve for Christopher and I, but that they could have one after Christmas 2010 during their break. They didn't forget. So this year, they began asking before Christmas to make sure I would really let them have one. They loved sending out invitations via Evite.com and excitedly watched to see which of their friends were able to come. We scheduled the After Christmas Pajama Party Bash for December 28th from 6 to 10 pm. They forgot to mention that they would be serving pizza and we had some left over, but who can complain about that. They had a white elephant gift exchange with crazy gifts such as an infant diaper, goo, a Justin Bieber poster and Amy's favorite, "Cookies for Dummies." She scored that one and was pretty excited. I mean, diaper...recipe book...diaper...recipe book.

They danced to their new Wii game "Just Dance 2". When I went down, the boys were all sitting on the couches watching, but with a little encouragement they were kind of going through the motions to "Viva Las Vegas." Feedback from Moms indicated that their kids had a lot of fun. I was impressed that the party moved along well and every one got along great.

Three Words

Kristen was giving me pointers about not using too much paper. "Using too much paper is wasting. That's three words-- 'w' 'a' 'sting'."

Christmas Morning

The Kline household observes a few "traditions" on Christmas morning. We admonish our girls that they are not to peak until we bring them downstairs on Christmas morning. Chris guides them down, and I take pictures--at 7 am. Until then, they are anxiously waiting in their bedrooms. Misha was trying to peak from her bed, "All I can see is the top of the tree. AAAGGGHG!"





Kristen slept in until about 6:55 and then joined the other two in Misha's room.

I am always so excited for Christmas morning that I want to preserve the memories and fun for as long as possible. None of this 3 am-open-your-presents stuff in a mad frenzy of flying paper. Our girls are able to check out their "Santa" gift and open their stockings. And then, they need to have some kind of breakfast before we sit down together and open presents one at a time. My girls are always anxious to skip ahead and can hardly wait while Chris distributes the gifts, one at a time. But, we both want to watch reactions and enjoy our Christmas morning.







We had a grand morning together.

I started to get things put back together in the living room and prepare our Christmas dinner after lunch. We had the missionaries coming for dinner as well as a lady from church. Chris and Amy were busy with her iPod. Misha immediately started reading (she got about 15 new books for Christmas--her first choice was Calvin and Hobbes), and Kristen was playing with her new Groovy Girl dolls.

Always there's a little feeling of sadness when Christmas morning has come and gone. Blink...and it is over.

Kristen's Thoughtful Gift

A couple weeks before Christmas, I was upstairs taking a nap while Kristen entertained herself for awhile. When I woke up, she came into my room with a present that she had wrapped all by herself and tied with ribbon. She was so excited, "Mommy I made you a present and wrapped it for you." I commented that it looked wonderful and that I should take a nap more often if she was going to make me presents. She was excitedly bouncing on my bed and then jumped off to place her gift in its rightful place under the Christmas tree. She happily announced, "You're gonna love it Momma."

Fast forward to Christmas morning. We had been opening presents for awhile when Kristen remembered her gift under the tree. She went in search of her gift and then presented it to me. I pulled an end of the ribbon to release the bow and carefully unwrapped the paper. Inside was the dearest gift. She had taken a stack of pictures that we had printed off when she was the "Big Cheese" at school and created a scrapbook for me, "So you won't ever forget me Mommy." Tears filled my eyes as I read the cover of her book:

Dawe Mom

I wish joy a happy Christmas

Love
Kristen

I was overwhelmed with emotion at such a thought-filled gift from my five-year old. We hugged and when she realized I was crying, she started crying.

The Christmas Dilemma

Normally, I have all of my Christmas shopping done well before Christmas Eve, but Chris threw a wrench in my planning. We had planned to give Amy my 3rd Generation iPod for Christmas as her Santa gift and then replace mine with a 4th Generation. The 3G was like new and with some reformatting and new "skins", Amy didn't know until I opened my new iPod, that hers had once been mine. Chris had some crazy notion that Kristen would figure out that it was a hand-me-down and that it couldn't be from Santa Claus. We weren't sure how to pull the exchange off without dashing Kristen's Christmas fantasy. That was on Christmas Eve Eve. But what do we get for Amy that was Santa worthy that didn't require a big $$$ payout at this late date?

To say that Amy wasn't disappointed when she saw her headphones from Santa on Christmas morning would be lying. However, Chris attached a note that seemed to appease her:

Dear Amy,

Your parents asked me not to go overboard on your gift this year because they have something special planned for you.

Love,
Santa



Kristen didn't care that Amy got a pair of headphones, she was just busy taking pictures with her new Kidizoom digital camera. And...when I opened my new iPod, the first words out of Kristen's mouth were, "Can I have your old one?" Yes, she would have figured it out.



Chris wrapped Amy's iPod in a huge box and kept teasing her that it was a pony. She was just a little bit thrilled when she opened the box.

Christmas Eve

Growing up, my family always had Chinese food on Christmas Eve. Chris and I started to observe this tradition when we were married...until we had children. Picky children. None of them liked Chinese food, so now we have Italian or Mexican. We tried going for Chinese food a time or two, but they just balked at the whole experience.



After a lovely dinner at Pinocchio's this year, we returned home to read from the Bible about Christ's birth. To be honest, our girls were really more excited to be able to open their one present. Typically it is pj's. I am noticing that this tradition is really most beneficial to Amy. As the oldest, she is ready for new pj's after outgrowing her old ones. Misha has hand-me-downs and Kristen has 2nd generation hand-me-downs. And Chris and I don't need more pjs or slippers or robe. I mean, how many can you have? So we find creative ways to give gifts on Christmas Eve.

Kristen

Kristen was playing a game on the computer this morning, and I hear her exclaim when she was was successful, "Ahhh, that never gets old."

Dad

Amy asked of her father the other day, "Dad, why do you have to be so gross?" Chris responded, "Because you don't have any brothers, and I have to do all the work myself!"

Christmas Service

We had a neat opportunity to give service on two separate occasions. The first was on Wednesday the 22nd and the next was on Christmas Eve morning--7:30 am to be exact. Our church had ordered food and various supplies for families in our ward and the community who were in need. On Wednesday morning, we drove to our church to help as boxes of food were unloaded from a truck from the Church's storehouse. We organized the boxes which had already been packed for each family and then made sure that the invoices matched the supplies. My two older girls were truly helpful in organizing. Once we made sure that each family had what it needed, our family was able to deliver supplies, gifts and gift cards to two separate families.



On the 24th, we participated in a similar activity but on a much larger scale. A truck from the Church's storehouse came to the Stake Center in Longmont. The men in the group helped to bring all the boxes in and then we unloaded everything on to tables. It looked like a mini grocery store when we had finished. Families were there to pick up their food and as volunteers we each worked with a family to check off the items they were receiving.



My girls worked with Brother V. from our ward in the fresh fruits and vegetables area. Kristen open or "fluffed" the grocery bags and was kept busy with that project for most of the time. Amy and Misha actually helped to weigh out the food to be given to different families. Brother V. commented on how wonderful it was to work with the girls and what hard workers they were. As we were finishing up, Misha said to me, "I had such a good time. I forgot that I was hungry."





Because we had to be at the Stake Center so early, we left the house with a few bites of food and promised the girls breakfast at McD's when we were done. I am so grateful that we were all able to feel the spirit of giving and serving. It was a grand way to remember the real reason for this Christmas season and to be grateful for our blessings.

Christmas Excitement

The week leading up to Christmas Day was full of excitement for my girls. They passed the time with play dates, Wii games, and...sunshine. Yep, no white Christmas for Colorado this year. I will admit that there was a bit of the orneries, some yelling and a lot of pouting involved pre-Christmas. In fact, all of my girls lost a Christmas gift a few days prior to Christmas and had those last few days to earn them back.



Here we are at Target. Kristen was being the naughty one here. She wanted this and that and wasn't getting it. I made her sit on the end of the lane next to us. Amy and Misha were just ready to be done shopping.

Some are Just Born with It

What? Wit. I was talking to a friend last night about some of the funny things Kristen had said lately. She concluded that some people/kids are just born funny. Sometimes Kristen doesn't mean to be funny, it just happens, like when she sincerely prays that we'll all like our presents. Or when she tells me that she is glad that she speaks English otherwise she wouldn't be able to understand her family.

Other times, she says funny stuff but if just comes so quickly to her that it is somewhat hilarious. She and Chris and I were driving home from the grocery store last night. She was talking and suddenly started choking on her own spit. In the midst of her choking, she gasps, "Hair...ball."

Ohhhh

Kristen came to find me this morning as she normally does when she wakes up. Instead of climbing in my lap, she shoved her hand in front of my face and said in a bewildered tone, "Look." Oh. My. Gosh. My first thought was, "Oh please don't let that be poop." Her hands were covered in the stuff, and then I finally looked at her face and found the source of the mess. Bloody nose. She's never had a bloody nose before. In fact, none of my kids are prone to bloody noses. But if you're gonna have one, you might as well do it up right. I walked in to her bedroom, and the smell assailed me. I don't like the smell of blood. I noticed blood on her pillow, and her other pillow, on her sheets, her quilt, her comforter and as I peeled everything off her bed, the blood had soaked through to her mattress pad as well.



I hadn't planned on doing more than two loads of laundry today, but I just put my fifth load in the washing machine. Fortunately, I got to her blankets quickly enough and rinsed the blood out of them. The pillow? I'm not sure. It is down, so we'll see how it fares on the next load.

Scout Ski Day

Chris took Amy and Misha up to Copper Ski Resort yesterday for Scout Ski Day. Last year, Chris was not so thrilled to take Amy again. He decided that if he was going to take her again, she would need to have lessons from someone other than him. He shelled out mucho bucks for said lessons but she had so much more confidence after a day with her instructor.



Chris and Misha spent the day together and though she wiped out a couple of times, she's got the skiing thing down.



It snowed all day long.

When they finally joined up with Amy again later in the day, her instructor was very complimentary about how mature she was and how nice it was to have her in his class because she wasn't acting crazy like some of the kids. Nice to know that our kids behave when they aren't around us.

Chris took both girls up on the lift a couple of times before it was time to head home. Whoops that look on Amy's face means she just dropped her poles!









It was later in the day when Chris decided to head home hoping that traffic would be lessened. He was wrong. And because it had been snowing all day long, the roads were treacherous as well. Every time he called with an update, I cringed at the tone in his voice dreading the words, "We crashed." Fortunately, they made it home safely around 10 pm. Both girls were asleep within seconds of hitting the pillow.

Santa at the Library

Kristen was excited to visit with Santa at the library on Saturday. As she sat on my lap waiting her turn, I asked her, "What are you going to tell him your want for Christmas?" She started with her usual answer for the year--A Barbie Fashion Fairytale movie and doll. After she watched a few other kids talking to Santa and listening to their responses, she changed her mind. "I'm gonna tell him I want a puppy." Really. "You'd better tell him that you'd like a real puppy but since your mom won't let you have one, you'd be happy with a stuffed puppy." She laughed and decided that she couldn't really say that because everyone would laugh at her. "Well, just so you know, you aren't getting a real puppy."

Poor Minnie

You find interesting things hanging from the catwalk above at our house. Minnie joins a long line of stuffed animals to meet this fate. Fortunately she was not harmed in this incident nor does she seem to have any lasting emotional or physical damage. Whew! Another saved.

Happy Birthday Amy

We had a big weekend. First the concert and then Amy's 11th birthday on the 11th. Crazy to believe that I have an eleven year-old. Yesterday, she was anxious to open presents in the morning, and Chris was the unfortunate victim of her enthusiasm. He had to get up at 8 am!

It wouldn't be a birthday breakfast at our house with out candles. Isn't she beautiful?





Amy is a great example to her sisters, she loves to bake and is a great helper when I need an extra pair of hands. Her musical talent continues to flourish as she takes piano lessons and is learning to play the flute at school. We love having her in our home.

Christmas Concert

Way back in August, Christopher and I purchased tickets to one of the Christmas concerts performed by the Colorado Symphony, Colorado Symphony Chorus, and Colorado Children's Chorale. Chris arrived home from his trip to SLC last Friday afternoon, surprising his four girls with a beautiful bouquet of red, pink and white roses.



My girls were excited as we planned to have dinner before the concert dressed in our Christmas best. We arrived at the Cheesecake Factory in downtown Denver just before six pm and after a short wait, were seated. Our lessons on etiquette were well received as three beautiful girls tried their best to remember.

After dinner, we walked a few blocks to the Boettcher Concert Hall at the Denver Performing Arts Center. It was crowded with concert goers--most dressed for the occasion. We weren't front and center, but had fairly good seats in Dress Circle one which was somewhat off to the side.







The concert began at 7:30 which was a little late for some in our party. After intermission, Kristen and Misha were beginning to be a little sleepy. I held Kristen in my arms while Misha leaned against my arm. Kristen would have been well on her way to dreamland had it not been for a special visitor--we spied him waiting on the other side of the hall and she was awake and alert awaiting his arrival. Yay for Santa!

All three girls were fast asleep by the time we arrived home.

Come home Daddy

Christopher has been traveling a lot lately. We are glad that he is home for awhile. My nails are glad that he is home. Kristen was bored one night waiting for Daddy to arrive.



And yes, the markers were washable.

Out of the Box

We received a delivery today in a lot of rather large boxes. As you can imagine my girls were excited to create and cut and color on one of the boxes. Misha, unfortunately, had homework to finish before she could join in the fun. Yet somehow we kept hearing her in the middle of all the excitement. When I told her that she needed to be working on her homework, she yelled back, "I am." Still I could hear her giving suggestions to her sisters on how to design their box. Finally Chris told her she had to come sit in his office to work on her homework. She wasn't very happy. She plopped down on a stool, hunched her shoulders, and pouted. "I was doing my homework fine in the box." I quipped, "Well, now you'll have to think outside of the box." I couldn't have planned that comment any better if I had tried.

Can you say "sun" in Spanish?

Whatever show Kristen was watching at lunch time today, it was teaching her the word for sun in Spanish. She said to me, "Did you know that was how to say sun in Spanish?" I responded that I didn't, but I did now. Her very cheeky reply, "That means you aren't smart." And then she realized that it probably wasn't the most appropriate thing to say and tried to backpedal, "Well, not much smart really, you know a little bit. You know about math, and words and blah, blah, blah." I just walked away.

Tangled

Last week, I told the girls that I would take them to see Tangled on Friday after school. Amy threw a wrinkle in our plans when she called me from school Friday morning and said she was sick. In an attempt to get her to stick it out at school because she has already had a number of sick days, I told her that if I brought her home, she wouldn't be able to go to the movie with us. That didn't inspire her to feel better, so I brought her home. But I also wasn't planning on leaving her home by herself when she wasn't feeling good.

When Kristen got home from school, she was so excited and had already told her friends that she was going to see the movie. You can imagine her dismay when she found out she was going to have to wait until Saturday when Chris would be home and able to stay with Amy if she was still sick. Kristen went to work on Amy trying to convince her that she could stay home by herself. In an attempt to sway me, Kristen said, "I will just tell Amy all about the movie or you can take a movie camera and record it so she can watch it later." (Can't believe my five-year old thought of that!)

We stayed home and watched movies Friday night. However, we all went to see Tangled on Saturday evening--Chris included. He wasn't too thrilled with the prospect but wanted to be together as a family. Happily, we all enjoyed the movie. The animation was amazing and the story line flowed well. Just so you know, we did not take a movie camera with us.