It was a busy night

Ellie lost a tooth last night, but the tooth fairy doesn't come unless you are sleeping in your bed. That is the rule we told her when we woke up this morning to a tearful little girl who's tooth was still placed soundly in the tiny red satchel she had placed it in the night before.  It seemed like a logical explanation for why her lame parents tooth fairy failed to deposit a silver dollar coin under her pillow the night before. 

Once she realized that she had indeed slept on her make shift bed on her floor she dried her eyes and got ready for school.  Oh the shame of parenting! 

During the bed time routine this evening Jensen really wanted his two front teeth to come out.  They have been "wiggly" for weeks, and he was ready for a visit from the tooth fairy.  He is a mommy snob when it comes to teeth removal.  He wants me to take them out....with tweezers.  I convinced him to let me just pull instead of using the tweezers.  After moving one tooth to the side, I could see the new tooth coming in and thought with one big tug it could come out.  He was really nervous and didn't want any of the options I came up with for trying to get it out.  John suggested tying it to his ceiling fan and letting it fly out.  The only option in his book was allowing mommy to extract it.  Once the crowd left we came up with a brilliant plan.

I would yank the tooth out and then he would waltz into daddy asking him to take his tooth out.  He was wildly excited about tricking his dad, so he closed his eyes and said, "Ok mom, let's do it."  After his tooth popped out he walked into our bedroom and pulled his trick.  Jense definitely got the response he was looking for from his dad.  He was on cloud nine with his trickery!  Once we finished filming the ordeal we settled back down getting ready for the tooth fairy.  Jense wrote her a note explaining the whole process... my kids like to give the whole story (wonder where they get that from).

Suddenly we had the brilliant idea of getting the other tooth out and doing the same thing to daddy.  In one tug, that tooth was out and he was more excited about this than Christmas morning. Once he reached his dad again, he nonchalantly (that's how I coached him) asked his dad, "Hey, dad... wanna see my missing tooth one last time?"  Then he revealed is second missing tooth.  Daddy once again delivered a performance of shock and awe.  He was mostly in shock that his wife could pull someones teeth out back to back without blinking an eye. 

Jense was so proud of his shenanigans.  He went to bed toothless and as happy as a clam.  Let's just hope that the tooth fairy doesn't slip up two nights in a row.  He has his teeth placed in an envelope with accompanying explanation directly under his pillow under his head.  I'm pretty sure it would be over for him if the tooth fairy didn't show up on a "two toof" night. The best thing about him missing both of his front teeth is how it affects his speech.

-Off to be the fairy...before I forget.  I am curious though, how much/what does your tooth fairy leave behind for your children's teeth? We give them a silver dollar...the very same coins that John got as a kid. We will probably run out soon.

Crowd Pleaser

Sammy Jim Jammy is such a baby crowd pleaser.  How did he get this way?  hmm... maybe it is his infectious smile, the way he giggles at himself, or maybe it is how he is a willing participant of whatever activity the other natives in the house insist he participate in.  He is the sweetest baby!

I am positive that I am 100% in love with this little man.

He Sleeps great,

He Eats great,

He's got an eye for fashion... (diaper and some socks)

He's really into the toilet. I suppose this is in the not so great column.

He loves to rough house

He's got a patent on the "arm bar."

He loves to corner you, pull up and adhere his body to your legs so you have to manage lifting him up from behind.

He is fast, and gives Mia a run for her money in a foot race. I mean foot, hand and knee race.  That sounded a lot like hand food and mouth--- no thank you!

He still only says, "dada, dat, daaaa, dad dad dad" I'm pretty sure he is talking about me.  and john :-)

Bath time is his reward for being alive.  He kicks with excitement the moment the water turns on.  While in the tub he loves to dip his face in the bubbles and come up with a face covered in bubbles.  I think he is both entertained and confused when he does this.  I think it is hilarious! 


We have added to the nicknames... he is also being addressed as: "college boy" (his hair is long) "number nine" (I'll just have to show you why some time) and "Samantha" (again, picture will speak for itself).

He loves to hand out slaps.  I think he likes the sound of his hands slapping me... in the face... repeatedly. 

Right here Sam is showing his spidey moves.  The boy has done some nose dives off the bed in the past (or so John tells me) and has learned all about gravity.  He has become very adept at hanging on tight.  John likes to put him on the corner of the mattress, then proceed to bounce the bed trying to buck him off.  Must be the sweaty hands, but the boy hangs on!

Ahh, the love of buttons.  The boy would, and does risk his life to push a shiny button.  I also (John here) have to mention that Mimi recently figured out an awesome trick for Sammy by adding a little water and a straw to a jar of baby food.  This kid can slurp down an entire jar in no time.  It is truly amazing.  We literally have to pull the straw away to let him come up for air.  I particularly love this since I am not as patient with the messy feeding process.  I once fed him a jar in 60 seconds flat.  NEXT!  Oh, and I cut up a half piece of pizza, and he polished it off.  9 months old, 6 teeth, and boom! he is gnawing through pizza crust.   I think he could chew through a boot if needed.  I hope he never needs that...

The most magical place on earth

Yes, the most magical... and the hotest!  We went to the big Disneyland back in November and it was scorching hot!  I am not being a northwest wimp... it was crazy hot!  We met my sister Raegan and her family along with my parents and Aunt Lani.  It was a fabulous little vacation.  We rented a house together, which was definitely the way to go.  Here are a few of the memories:

Ellie really enjoyed herself... aside from the occasional Disneyland melt down she was in Heaven with the rides, princesses and excitement of being with her cousins.

All of the Disney characters must get paid a lot to stand there in those costumes- I felt bad for them. Although, I have always felt bad for Eyore... poor guy!

The new movie tangled is coming out soon... Ellie was excited to see Rapunzel, and kept asking if her hair was really that long. 

Jense had a one track mind- he wanted to ride the "tube ride" over and over again.  He also liked the flying over california, but kept asking to go back to the tube ride.

Jense and Isaac were little buddies!  Isaac is pretty much the sweetest little boy on the planet.  He is so endearing and adorable... yes both!  Jense had a lot of fun playing with him.

Andrew enjoyed feeding his enormous sucker to Sammer.  I didn't know that someone could actually finish a sucker like this, but he did.  I was amazed.  Andrew finished it... not Sam.  Sam just got a few tastes. 

Nana and Papa raking a ride in dumbo.  My mom was busy taking pictures of her own. This is my parents enjoying their retirement!  They deserve it!

The only family shot we managed.  Mia was still on a ride with my mom.  I definitely didn't take as many pictures as I thought I would.  I wish I had a group shot infront of the castle... oh well... next time.

Ellie and Mia with Ariel.  The girls were so sweet with the princesses.  The look on Mia's face was priceless.  She was a little bashful, but quickly warmed up and I wish I had a video to capture the sweetness. 

More time with the princesses.  Ellie was all business with getting autographs and hugs, but Mia was just taking it all in.  I loved watching her face! 

The girls got to decorate a crown and Mia clapped along with the occasional happy scream every time she placed a sticker.  I guess I should get the stickers out more often.  She was more entertained with those stickers than any of the rides she had been on that day.

The great thing about the carosel is that you can just stay on it as long as you want.  We rode it about four times before we decided we had enough.

Jesse and green army dude were a hit! 

Auntie Rae with Sammer Jammer- Rae was so great about carrying Sam. She has a nifty little hipster holder that he quite enjoyed.  Thanks Rae! Rae and Kenjo were the bomb! They found us a house...coordinated everything, were very prepared and a huge part of why it was so great!

The kids did have time to play in the "hot pool"  when we took a break day in between Disney days and the hot pool took up a majority of the break day.

John decided to hop the fence to get a picture- not a good idea.  He was escorted out of the park.. not really. 

If you are planning on going to Disney you need parents and an Aunt Lani.  It was a fabulous vacation because we had plenty of help!  Thank you x a million for EVERYTHING!

Mia was the perfect vacationer. Sadly this is right before she got sick.  She was already coming down with the sickness that would put her in the hospital for a week as soon as we got back from our trip. So Sad.   

The Bounders and Mia and Ells.  It breaks my heart that we don't live next to these kids.  My sister Raegan has such cute kids, and we miss out on them.  I need to be better about using skype so my kids will know their cousins on my side... all of them.

Hey Kids... up here... kids.  KIDS!  no?  ok.  One out of four... not bad.  I love this door!  Sam was such a good sport the entire trip.  I did not regret bringing him even once!  I can't say that for the older two ;-)

Sam was fascinated with flight Mini Mouse.

He did get board of his stroller seat and turned right around ready to crawl out.  He turned around a few times without me noticing but fortunately never took a dive.

Parade watchers.  John loved Disney... he was sceptical at first, but you can't resist Disney.

I think he found a new toy he would appreciate. I can't decide whether these jumpy stilt things scare me or make me want to own a pair. I think they were just jumping too high for my comfort level.

 Miss Abba, Abracadabra, Abbacus, Abbs of Steele.

 My litte neice Abby is such a sweetie pie- and Sam wanted hugs! 

 Papa!  See... HAPPIEST place on earth!

 Again, Lani- We are never going to Disney without you! :-)  I'm sure you feel differently. Sammers got to ride a bunch of rides thanks to Lan.  He was too young to really enjoy it, but I sure enjoyed watching him!

                                     I loved Disney! I wish we could go every year!

Nutcrackers... 2 in all

Ellie invited her "friends since heaven" cousin with her to the Nutcracker this year. 

 Just like last year, they had a VIP pass to the backstage to sit in Clara's sleigh.

They also danced away with Clara on the big stage. Clara was performed by the one and only highly talented Morgan.  She was an excellent Clara.  So excellent, that I convinced her to come be Clara in our version of the Nutcracker.  She said yes, because she loves me to dance.

  Ellie made big plans to be in the production next year.  She is in love with the stage, and performing, and having an "audience."  She looks good in blue light, yes?  Luckily she did get to perform in a Nutcracker performance this year.  It was just a little more "low key."

 Our version of the Nutcracker was a performance plus a tea party.  The food was delicious.  I might have overestimated on the grapes and salad, but hit the mark with the rest of the food. 

 We decorated with a lot of these beauties... a lot of them.  The fabulous maintenance guys hung them up... then we taped some to the stage. It was a snowflake tissue pom pom extravaganza.

 Every tea party needs a craft.  We also had sparkly snowflake headbands to make as well. The glitter got WAY out of control.  Who's idea was the glitter anyway? :-)

 The star of the show (well actually she was just a candy cane) got ready for her performance. She was the star to me!

 I might have picked my very favorite costume for the class Ellie was in.  I love this costume!  The gingerbread were darling as well, but I ended up loathing the gingerbread costume because they came 3 sizes too big for the tiny little dancers that were supposed to wear them.  I didn't believe Jo Dee when she told me that something always goes wrong with costumes.  I confidently thought to myself, "I got this!" To my surprise the girls were swimming in their costumes- and we had to fix them all.   Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the costume drama.  Let's just say that the Sugar plum Fairies were a nightmare! The costumes... not the dancers.  I think if you are going to sell costumes it would be a good idea to disclose in the catalog when you are not going to include the crotch section of the costume.  Maybe it's just me... Dear costume people, if you could just please add the text, comes with everything you see here except for the fabric you are assuming is at the crotch next to the costumes that you will be shipping out to unsuspecting clients, it would be a HUGE help.

 Mia was so proud of her sister!  Maybe it will be her up on stage next year.  

The rose Ellie is holding was from Morgan, she brought her a flower and a treat. She felt so special! Morgan did an amazing job dancing with DeShawn...it was beautiful. I wish I had taken pictures of Morgan on the stage, and Ellie on the stage for that matter, but I was doing the music.  It only took  the first two shows to work out the music kinks, and the third show was flawless. :-) Ellie wanted to keep one of the giant Nutcrackers... she thought it actually cracked nuts.

 My parents walked in (after a crazy long drive) 30 seconds before the last show began.  A few hours earlier I had kind of given up hope they they would make it when my mom updated me with the news that she had counted 46 semi-trucks pulled off to the side of the road. You can always count on my parents, and you can always count on my dad to be sporting his belt buckle and his Swiss Days hat- I love it!  I was so glad they got to see Ellie dance.

The solider and the Candy Cane... they came from rivaling tap classes, and were unlikely friends, but somehow their love of dancing brought them together. Just kidding.They are buddies...

 In fact, these two girls were peas in a pod the entire day.  They danced on the stage, took over the gymnastics room, made two or three or ten crafts, and played a lot of hide and go seek.  It was a long day, but one of the best for these two.  

 Jo Dee and Lauri were my partners in crime.  You might remember them from this post.  We could eat Thai food and visit for hours, and now that the Nutcracker is over, we might just get a chance. For a second you thought I had a super long arm huh?  It's not my arm- neither is the one that looks like it really is mine. :-) That is my default "pose" arm... I need a new one- this one dates back to my years on the Drill Team. It's time to retire it.  seriously...it's gotta go. The good news is there are not pictures to haunt me later on I haven't had too many opportunities to "pose" since I was on drill team.    

All of the instructors... well not all of them, but the ones who choreographed for the Nutcracker.  I don't know if it is from all the discipline, but dancers tend to be a little Loca.. I mean Loco. Especially this group!