Leaping for Joy on Leap Day

29 reasons why I love my husband:
1.  We have an ongoing joke about who is funnier, but I'll at least give him that he is funny.  He makes me laugh and smile.
2.  He has an amazingly strong work ethic.  We work beautifully together.
3.  He is a wonderful father.  There's a lot of estrogen going on in our house; he is a trooper to handle it all so well.
4.  He is romantic.  I love all of his innuendos.  He makes me feel wanted and loved.
5.  He brings me flowers just because (and most likely because he knows I love that he brings me flowers).
6.  I appreciate his knowledge of the scriptures and gospel topics.
7.  His mind is full of random facts.  He shares them.  (Don't watch airplane-related movies with him though--he'll ruin them every time.)
8.  He loves to travel.  When we travel as a family, he researches the area finding cool activities and adventures for us to experience.
9.  He rubs my feet.
10. He washes dishes on Sunday.
11. He loves electronics, and I love that he encourages me to be tech savvy as well.  He strongly encouraged/made me give up my Franklin planner for the lovely Ipad he gave me for Christmas.
12. When I am not so tech savvy, he is my go-to-guy for technical support.
13. He works extremely hard at his job and to be the best he can be.
14. He is a great kisser.
15. I love his hands.  They are masculine and strong, yet they know how to quickly pull girl hair back in to a pony tail.  (Speaking of hair, he has some of the best guy hair ever!)
16. He serves others.  Christopher has a very giving heart.
17. This man is not only talented at carrying on a conversation but also in drawing people into a conversation.
18. I love that he is tall (and dark and handsome).
19. He is conscientious about maintaining our vehicles to keep us all safe and likes to keep them spotlessly clean.
20. He is an engaging teacher.
21. He is quick to forgive.  I have learned much from him.  And when I am not so quick to forgive, he loves me still.
22. I am the first one he calls when he has exciting news to share (and when the weight of the world is on his shoulders and he just needs a listening ear).
23. He holds my hand.
24. Financially, he and I are on the same page  We are both willing to sacrifice here and now for peace of mind later.
25. I love that I am a better "me" with him than I could possibly be without him.
26. He married me forever.
27. He takes his daughters on dates.
28. He puts up with my weird obsession with finding the "perfect" handbag.  Now that I have a DSLR camera, I might just have to start all over again.
29.  Out of all the people in this world, I want to be with him the most.  He is my best friend, and I would choose him again and again and again.

Only Kristen....

I say that, because only Kristen could come up with some of these things that make us laugh.  In our house, jeans are not often worn out.  My older two girls especially, are growing and outgrowing pants all the time.  Chris ordered some new Guess jeans the other day to add a little more stylish look to his casual, business, after-hours attire.  Kristen, in all of her six-year old wisdom, asked of her father, "Are you growing or is your butt just getting bigger?" !!!!!!!!  Crazy kid.

How to Embarrass Your Daughter

On Friday evening, Amy, Kristen and I were in Dick's Sporting Goods looking for Christopher and Misha.  My phone rang and it was Christopher, who had left the store, and was looking for us back at Aeropostale where the two girls and I had originally started.  I rounded up Kristen easily enough playing on the little putting green in the back corner of the store, but when I turned around to find Amy, she had disappeared.  I don't enjoy walking through a store calling for my children, but I kept calling for Amy and looking for her.  No luck.  No Amy.  Chris was now waiting for us in the entrance and I sent Kristen to stand with him and to not get herself lost.  Misha came in to the store and suddenly I was missing two children.  Seriously, was there some kind of vortex that was sucking my children in?  As a last resort, I went to the front desk and asked the employee working there if there was PA capabilities in the store.  I looked over at Chris, smiled, and he seemed to know exactly what I was going to do.

"Would Amy and Misha please meet their party at the front check out counters."  What do you know, all of a sudden two girls appear out of nowhere.  None too happy, I might add.  "Why did you do that?  We were just right over there!"  Well, I had looked over there and over here and everywhere.  Chris and I shared a self-satisfied smile and high five as we walked out the door.

Skull Candy

I know, the name sounds weird, but when you know that it is a company that makes and sells headphones, it makes a little more sense.  Anyway, Misha received a pair of Skull Candy headphones for Christmas.  It was not a surprise that a few weeks later, they were left on the living room floor.  What was a surprise is that my foot found them there and without realizing it, I busted the headphones by yanking out one of the wires as I stepped.  She could get sound out of one ear still, but really, what ten-year old wants that? I felt somewhat responsible, but we also told Misha that leaving them on the floor was a bad choice and that she was responsible for replacing the headphones.

So here's where I am became impressed with Skull Candy as a company.  I was inspired to check out the warranty on their website.  I learned two things:  1) if you break a pair of Skull Candy headphones, and it is YOUR fault, they will give you a coupon for half the value of the headphones to be purchased from their website (and then shipped to you free of charge), and 2) if a pair of Skull Candy headphones break and it is a manufacturer defect, they will give you a coupon for the full replacement value of the headphones.  Impressive, because they too will be shipped to you for free.

I packaged Misha's headphones up and shipped them off.  Since I was the one who broke Misha's original pair, I felt somewhat responsible.  Skull Candy's impressive warranty helped me to relinquish my guilt--I got her half off.  I told her what I was doing, but she didn't give it much thought until I received an email from the company saying she had a coupon for $20 off a new pair (she could have chosen any pair she wanted).  Misha was responsible for the remaining $20.  She picked out a similar pair of headphones--gold this time for a little bling on her skull.  I haven't noticed that she has left them on the floor since.

Spelling Test

Kristen has a spelling test every Thursday.  Apparently...this eye attire helps you spell better.  And that's a pair of protective goggles over a dorky pair of plastic glasses with no lenses.

A Date with Dad (and shopping)

Chris and I try to regularly take our girls on dates.  I suppose we concentrate on time with Dad a little more than me since he travels.  The girls love the opportunity to spend time with their dad and often argue over whose month it is to go.

I suppose it wasn't a true date since the rest of us tagged along, but Misha had a blast regardless.  She and Chris scheduled a time on President's Day to use a Flight Simulator coupon.  The business happened to be located in the Colorado Mills mall in Golden (so you can understand why the rest of us went too).  We arrived at Aviation Xtreme as other people were finishing up their time.  Since they wanted a hard copy of the groupon, Chris got on their computer to print it out.  With brief instructions, they each climbed in to their respective simulators and donned head phones. 

Amy, Kristen, and I left them to their flying and headed out to explore. I think Kristen had formulated a plan in her mind previous to arriving at the mall, and when she spied Build-A-Bear, she took off. She used all of her birthday money and traded me some gift cards in order to purchase Cindy along with a dress and shoes. Oh the excitement. The lady filling her bear was a little kooky, but I suppose to a six-year old, it didn't really matter. In fact, Amy and I were both standing right there and the employee kept talking to Amy as though she was in charge. Kind of bugged. Amy may be as tall as me, but she definitely doesn't look like an adult. I digress.

Once the bear was stuffed, Kristen and Amy headed over to the primping station to comb and fluff. Amy was into this as well, so I just stood back and let the two of them go.

As we were finishing up, Misha and Chris found us. Misha was all smiles. Apparently she trounced Chris. He said he was going easy on her to begin with and even when he started "trying", Misha beat him. Go Misha!

We ate lunch in the food court (late since we had breakfast at 10 am) and then walked around the mall. I have tried to be on a buying moratorium this month, so we just passed by a lot of stuff that we didn't really need.

President's Day Breakfast

Oh lucky day!  Chris had the day off too.  We took the girls out for breakfast at The Egg and I in Longmont.  We happened upon The Egg and I a month ago in Estes Park and were quite impressed with the selection and the taste and the pancakes that are the size of a serving platter.  If you happen to go and Manny is your server, you'll not find a more personable young man.  I forgot my camera, but imagine us eating pancakes, waffles, steel cut oats, fruit, and bacon.  Yep, that's exactly what it looked like.

Drama Queen

We have three drama queens living at our house.  Their performances/outbursts take on completely different forms, but Amy, Misha, and Kristen can each lay claim to the title.  Yesterday, Kristen was in full drama mode when I countered her behavior with, "You are not the Drama Queen around here."  She didn't even miss a beat as she looked up at me and queried, "Well, who is?"

Misha's Heart

There are days when the angels sing for joy at the presence of an earthly angel.  My heart joined that chorus yesterday.  Misha was at lunch.  One of her classmates did not have lunch and the money in his lunch account was all used up.  Misha quietly moved to the lunch line, purchased a school lunch using her own lunch account, and returned to the table with a lunch tray.  She set the tray down in front of this hungry young man and then returned to eating the lunch I had packed for her.  I can't even begin to express how this touched my heart.  My daughter is an angel.

Zits

While sitting at the breakfast table this morning, Kristen looked over at her dad and announced, "Dad, you have a big bite on your forehead."  Nothing gets past that girl.  Chris and I both started chuckling.  "It is not a bite, Kristen."  She didn't let it go at that and jumped down from her stool and came in for a closer look. "It looks like a bite.  What is it?"

I reply.  "It starts with a 'z'."

"A zebra?"  Yep, my husband has a zebra on his forehead.  Don't mention it.  He's kind of sensitive about it now.

Babysitting

Amy had her first, official babysitting job.  She was sooooooo excited.  She has been our babysitter for a while now and has been looking forward to sitting for others.  So, even though I'm not ready to give her up as my babysitter, I'm willing to share her a little bit.

A Bunch of Sickies

Ugghhghg, it all started with Misha.  She stayed home from school on Tuesday, then Wednesday and Thursday.  Kristen joined her on Thursday (though by the afternoon, Kristen and I both knew she could/should have gone to school).  Then we had a snow day on Friday.  Everybody stayed home.  I was sick by then.  I thought everyone else was doing fine until Kristen woke me up in the middle of the night with her deep-chested coughing Friday night.  Meanwhile, Chris was stuck in Arizona due to the crazy snow here.  He didn't want to be there, but neither did he want our germs.  He finally made it home on Saturday late afternoon only to pick up the slack and start disinfecting every surface in sight.  Sunday.  Chris was still healthy.  Woohoo.  Amy had succumbed and she, Kristen and I stayed home from church.  Chris left for Arizona again early, early Monday morning.  Amy stayed home with me, and I knew exactly how she was feeling.  Sadly, the older I get, the longer it takes for me to recover.  Amy was back to school today, though I have worried about her all morning knowing she probably feels like crap times two.  Homework and missed classes and assignments and tests--ahh, the life of a middle schooler.  She'll be wiped out when she gets home but she also has a math test tomorrow.  And me?  Excedrin is my friend.

Honor Choir

Back in October or November, Amy came home and announced that she wanted to audition for the Middle School Honor Choir.  It just so happened that she was sick the week of auditions and missed the ones at her school.  Her last chance for auditioning was at the middle school in Erie.  She was still sick but being the great mom that I am, I drove her over just so she could do her five-minute audition.  Since she was sick, she wasn't terribly hopeful that anything positive would come of it, but was later delighted that she had been selected for the honor choir.

The kids had been working with their Music Directors at school (and supposedly on their own as well) to learn the music.  On Thursday, February 3rd, they had the entire day away from their classes to rehearse and work on their music together at Skyline High School.  I had the great fortune of driving kids to the school in the morning and then picking them up in the afternoon again AND then returning once again for the performance in the evening with Amy and Kristen.  (Hooray for iPads that keep little girls occupied while waiting for things to start.)

Fortunately the program wasn't too long as I was worried about the snow storm that was predicted to start.  The kids did a great job.  The boys sang a few songs on their own, the girls then followed up with a few on their own, and then they combined for three songs at the end.

It's No Madonna

So, I've never baked anything before where I saw an actual image in my baked good, but I thought this was pretty cool--an almost symmetrical butterfly on the top of my cornbread.

Jump Rope

Kristen has been learning to jump rope in PE at school.  She jumped along beside me as I walked to the mailbox this afternoon and wanted to just keep on jumping.  She jumped in the backyard for awhile and came with me to check the mailbox a second time to see if the mail had come.  That's when she spied kids playing in the cul-de-sac.  I don't like her to play over there by herself, so I don't let her go as often as she'd like, but tonight, other kids were out playing.  She got lots of practice in.  I would say that she could benefit from a different jump rope.  The one she was using was plastic and became easily twisted.  The benefit for me?  I grabbed my camera.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new camera.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE the pictures I can take with my new camera.

Can you tell she got three inches cut off her hair?

Concentration.

Shoes

I don't usually make a  habit of taking pictures of the clothing and shoes my kids leave around, but every time I walked by Misha's shoes, I thought, "I need to take a picture of those."  So, I did.

Gung Hey Fat Choy!

Gung Hey Fat Choy means "Best wishes and Congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year." And "Gung Hey Fat Choy" is what Kristen said to me as she presented me this cute little red envelope filled with paper money and a certificate good for "giveing my mama a spa". Such a sweet girl!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Sunday is a perfect day for me to celebrate a birthday.  It is the one day of the week that I don't get up to exercise, and I stay in bed being lazy for a bit.  Thus, my children were able to make me breakfast in bed.  I believe Misha was the first one up yesterday morning.  She then woke up her sisters to help her.  It was a bad move to wake Kristen up--she was C.R.A.B.B.Y all day long, and she knew it!  She even lamented being crabby on my birthday.

Chris had early meetings on Sunday so he missed the action with breakfast.  All three girls came in to my bedroom around 7:30 am singing "Happy Birthday" with Amy carrying my breakfast tray.  They had made me oatmeal (with flax) and brought milk, orange juice, a banana, and my vitamins.  Kristen had made me a birthday crown on Saturday, and I got to wear that.  Since I am usually the camera taker, I got a big dose of my own medicine with Kristen trying to snap pictures of me with my iPad, Misha on my Canon G12, and Amy on my new Canon T3i.  I wished I had a camera to take a picture of them.  "Wait, Mom, look here."  "No, look here."  "Smile."  All coming from different directions, and in the midst of it all, I say to Kristen, "You're not putting that on Facebook are you?"  Whew, that could have been scary.

It's a good thing that Amy focused on Kristen's head instead of my face!

The girls left to get started on their breakfast of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls.  Kristen was still in a pretty cranky mood and came back up to my room devastated that she hadn't finished or started or bought a birthday present for me.  At that time, Chris came home and bounded up the stairs.  With early Sunday meetings, he misses out on Sunday birthday breakfast celebrations.  I was talking with Kristen when Chris came in and said, "I bet Dad could hook you up."  Without even having to explain what she was upset about, Chris grabbed her by the hand and led her back downstairs where the girls helped to wrap my birthday presents--in the comics.  Two more lenses for my camera and a filter!  Woohoo.  I am pretty spoiled and loved and celebrated.

When I came downstairs, Amy was busy trying to find candles for the obligatory "candles in your breakfast" birthday shot.  She asked, while rummaging through the candle numbers, "How old are you?"  I responded and she searched a little more,  "Hmm, will 28 be good?"  Yes, it would, but somehow 18 was even better.  Thus,

The morning passed by pretty smoothly.  I'm not a fan of 1:00 pm church, but we found ways to keep busy.  The girls played Twister for a bit, Kristen tried to create a zip line for her dolls from the catwalk to the kitchen table, and I practiced with my new lens.

By dinner time, Kristen was finally beginning to come out of her funk and be happy.  We had turkey tetrazini that I had put together after Christmas dinner in December.  Amy tried her hand at a pumpkin angel food cake.  It did not rise as much as a normal angel food and was quite dense, but a good try nonetheless.  With a little whipped topping and caramel topping drizzled on top, it was quite tasty.

Lucky for me, my birthday celebrations began on Friday.  Chris brought me some beautiful red tulips, and we followed that with dinner with friends.

On Saturday evening, the girls wanted to celebrate with going out to dinner and we ended up at Saltgrass--without Misha--who opted to spend time at her friend's house.

Another year and all even numbers to boot.  Somehow that makes a difference to me.

Rocky Mountain National Park

What do you get when you combine a free admission weekend to the national park and a day off from school?  A quick  trip to Estes Park and on to Rocky Mountain National Park.  That's what.  We packed up dinner, snacks, power bars, clothes, and loads of winter wear and headed up to Estes Park after church Sunday afternoon.  We were able to find a "bonus time" deal at Chris' parents' timeshare with enough beds for all (though Amy might argue that sleeping on the couch was less than favorable.  She might even say it was noisy).

We had a mish mash of dinner on Sunday night with leftover pizza and two microwave meals for Chris and I.  Add in some licorice, popcorn, cookies, apples, blueberries and pumpkin donuts and I don't believe any one went hungry.  Monday morning we ate at "Egg and I" for quite a great breakfast.  Chris' pancake was the size of a dinner plate and Misha's and Kristen's weren't much smaller.  Amy had waffles, and I had a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries, strawberries, granola and a fruit cup.  I declined the toast.  It was filling, but since we only brought power bars for hiking, we told the girls to eat up.

After breakfast we drove back to the hotel to pack up our stuff and head further up the mountain.  The snowflakes were randomly falling but picked up in intensity as we neared Bear Lake.  The road turned from completely dry to snow covered--nice to have four-wheel drive now for times like this.  The parking lot at Bear Lake, usually crowded with tourists, was only about 1/3 full.  We began to pull on our snow pants, boots, gloves, hats, sunglasses and scarfs.  With all that gear, the cold was manageable and only my face felt the chill. 

We walked toward the lake which was frozen over and ventured out on to the ice. 

Kristen was pretty nervous about walking on it, and clutched my hand until we reached the other side of the lake.  At that point, she realized she wasn't going to fall into water and promptly turned around to go back and make snow angels on the ice.

The girls found a few places for sliding down the hillside as we made our way around the lake.  It was snowing quite a lot, and though Chris and I had expected many complaints, we didn't hear a single one.  We were all about making memories, and this day was perfect for it. 

After completing our trip around, Chris returned to the car to drive down to the Alberta Falls parking lot, and the girls and I started the one-mile hike to the trail head.  We didn't want to have to climb back up to Bear Lake after hiking to the falls.  We met up with Chris in no time and were on our way.  Kristen was beginning to lose a little steam, but she still managed to beat her sisters and pass a bunch of boys.  It helped that I grabbed on to the back of her jacket and propelled her along.

Alberta Falls were definitely different in the winter.  Chris and I had snowshoed to them a couple of years ago, but this was a first for the girls.  Usually you can hear the falls as you get closer, but they were completely frozen over.  In fact, after lunch we spent most of our time playing in the snow and jumping off rocks whilst standing mid-stream.

Lunch was interesting.  We had a little bread, leftover licorice and power bars.  Once we sat down, a small chipmunk came out of the trees and raced toward us.  It had no fear, and raced around our legs until it climbed up on to Chris.  He may or may not have fed it bread.  The chipmunk was promptly named "Jaws" and kept us all entertained.

Crazy girl! You don't win snowball fights with your dad.

If you happen to hike to Alberta Falls in the next day or so, and if someone hasn't ruined it, you will see the Kline family snow fort sitting in the middle of the falls.  I don't think we have ever played in the snow together like that, and it was great.  Throughout the day, the girls had so much fun they kept asking if we could make this an annual tradition.

Chris had to be back home to leave for the airport at three pm, so we left the falls after completing our snow fort.  Except for having to following insanely slow people down the mountain, our drive home was uneventful.

Budding Photographer

After posing for a few pictures, Kristen wanted to take some of me.  She did a pretty good job.  Once she started, she thought she was so cool and just kept on shooting.

Candy Land

Kristen set up her Candyland game for me to play with her. The first thing I did as I sat down was to shuffle the cards. I know that girl well enough to know that the very first card, and probably the third card too, were rigged in her favor. The game was over pretty quickly as I selected the card she had set for herself. She was a perfect target for a little camera practice.

Painting

So thrilled to finally have our front entry and upstairs hallway painted.  Chris and I had these grand intentions about eight years ago to paint.  We accomplished a lot, but after working on the living room with it two story walls, we weren't too anxious to continue painting the front hall.  On Friday, I had the same guys who painted Amy's room and the powder bath before Christmas come back and finish for me.  Honestly, I dislike painting so much that I couldn't imagine having it as my job.

Before:

After:

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Kristen in church today, "Dad, you have wrinkles on your fingernails and lots of hair in your ears!"

Teachers

Love Misha's school teacher. On Misha's last assignment she wrote, "Someday you will be famous and I will say, 'I knew that sweet young girl!!' Go for it." I am grateful for teachers who inspire.

New Year's Eve

So, I think this is a tradition that we won't continue.  For the past two years, we have spent New Year's Eve in downtown Denver.  We were once again at the "E" hotel and this year we stipulated "no swimming".  Last year the girls chose to swim rather than watch the fireworks.  We started our evening together with a movie at the Cherry Creek Mall AMC, "We Bought a Zoo".  Kristen was quite adamant before hand that she didn't want to see this stupid movie.  Seriously, sometimes we wonder why we even try to plan fun things for our kids.  Bad attitude!  And that wasn't the only one for the night.  After leaving the movie, Kristen was hoping to visit the zoo someday.  We stopped for dinner at Cafe Rio and for a Mexican food-lover, I am just going to say, I don't like their food.  It has a weird taste.

We headed to the hotel next through the crazy downtown traffic.  My kids were amazed by all the people, and all the girls wearing too short dresses, and all the people smoking.  Seriously, smoke was everywhere.  After checking in, we headed over to the 16th street mall.  Misha was not happy now.  She does not like loud noises and was not looking forward to the fireworks.  Her attitude just went downhill from there.  We sugared the girls up at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and then made our way toward the firework staging area.  It was up on a roof, so clearly visibly to many people.  In fact, we would have had a perfect view in our hotel room.

After the fireworks were over, we made our way back to the hotel room.  Misha took her bad mood to bed and the rest of us watched tv and played games until the midnight hour.  Kristen almost made it.  She was in one of the beds with me playing a word game on my iPad, when she just laid down, rolled over, and fell asleep.  At midnight, Chris, Amy, and I watched those fireworks again out our window.  Perfect view.  We drifted off to sleep to the sounds of people screaming and shouting and making lots of raucous noise in the hall way.