Santa presents

Ava and Harper came up Saturday to spend the night.  They brought their Christmas presents from Santa with them - Ava's puppy, she named her "Rose", and Harper's green dinosaur. 

They were so proud of the special necklaces they got from Santa that say "I love you more", Grandma Barb always said that to them, Lexi and Mom got them, too. 

Much to Daddy's dismay, Santa also brought them make-up sets, they had fun with those.  Ava loved painting her nails, and I was happy that it washed off easily.  They said Daddy's eyes would probably glow red like Harper's dinosaur's if he could see them all made up.

Papa got them mini-foosball and air-hockey tables, he got a kick out of playing with them.  Harper was cheering for Ava.

We also got them a Lego starter set, they had fun building with it but we need more people, it only came with 1 girl.  Rielee came over and spent the night with the girls, they watched Dolphin Tale 2 and like it a lot.

Today was all about Mommy's birthday.  They made cards, baked her a cake and worked hard to decorate it just right. It was so sweet,  Ava said she thought that Grandma Barb was watching them, Harper said "yes, God is always watching us, too, Ava". 

 

 

Rielee's sewing machine

Santa brought Rielee a sewing machine for Christmas.  I had given her a sewing basket, accessories and some fabric that I pre-cut for jammie pants so she came over tonight to sew them.  We first had to set up her machine, it's a Brother, which I've never worked with, so we had to study a little and adjust the bobbin case before we got it sewing correctly.  Rielee is inserting the bobbin in the picture, she was excited and wanted to do everything herself.  She's learned so much from her sewing lessons.  Her pants turned out well even though the fabric was a little thick for her to easily sew.  She was just glad to get them done without having to use her seam ripper!  She immediately put them on and stupid me, I didn't think to take a picture... 

Christmas

Charb and Kelly brought the girls up on Christmas Eve, it was fun watching them open gifts.  Ava was most excited by a new Princess puppy, she said it would be a twin sister for her old one. 

They were both excited to get new nightgowns and Frozen dresses,  there was a lots of flinging things up in the air. 

We all went down to Dan and Robin's for our annual Christmas Eve party.  It was a wonderful time, great food, a fun trivia game, the gift exchange and Santa's visit, of course.

The Gourdes,

more Gourdes, (we missed having Luke and Lexi with us),

and the Dolans all took great pictures.

Auna, Parker and James posed for me.

Harper getting her gift from Santa, neither she nor Ava wanted to sit on his lap,

but Rielee did, he asked her if she wanted a horse and she said "sure".  Parker and Auna played along and sat on his lap, too. 

Christmas morning Gabe, Des, Macee, Parker and Rielee came over for breakfast.  I had considered perhaps making cardamom french toast this year, but the kids all had a fit, biscuits and gravy is a tradition, they said, you don't mess with that, Grandma! 

Rielee was the top winner on the lotto tickets, winning a whopping $6.  We went over to their house later in the day for dessert. 

 

 

Play breakfast/watching Parker

 Harper woke up at 6:30 this morning and tried to get everyone up.  She got their table out and had it set for herself, Ava, Big Dog and Auna.  Obviously, Auna wasn't hungry because she slept right through it.  She did get up and have breakfast with us later but then went back to sleep and didn't even hear Charb and Kelly when they came and picked up the girls.

Auna, Rielee, Michael and Macee at Parker's game today vs. Centralia.  Parker's back has been helped by the chiropractor, he's playing really well and they won easily. 

Violin serenade

All the girls talked about when we picked them up from school today was making donuts and playing with blocks.  They got the blocks out as soon as we got home but we waited until after dinner to make donuts.  Papa got his violin out of storage this week and played it for them while they were eating.  They were as impressed as I was that he could still play it after all these years.

Rockets win

Auna was all smiles after her game tonight, the Rockets got their first win, beating Seton Catholic.  Auna was high scorer with 10 points and had 8 rebounds.   The boys played after, Brock was high scorer in their win with 18.  It was a fun night.

Parker logging, Auna & Rielee video

Parker came over just after the Seahawk game started Sunday to cut down a tree for me.  I helped him haul the limbs to the burn pile.  He tried to use the tractor to remove the limbs from the wagon and it didn't work very well, he accidentally broke a couple of the top rails on the wagon, oops.  We were worried about how Papa would take the news, but he wasn't upset at all, an easy fix, he said.  We were done in time to watch the 4th quarter of the game. 

I found some old videos of Auna and Rielee singing Christmas Carols and combined them into one.  Here's a link to it on YouTube:   http://youtu.be/_-6tWlGfMzY  

Sick day

 Ava and Harper posing with the Gingerbread girls they made for school.   Both girls had a cough this morning, Ava's was pretty bad.  We had them ready for school and drove as far as Kelso before Ava convinced us to turn around and keep them home instead.  She coughed non-stop the whole way so it was a no-brainer.  Some Tylenol made them feel a whole lot better and they had a great time playing all day.  We made cinnamon rolls and they made Christmas cards and painted some Christmas crafts for gifts. 

 We took them outside for on a walk to look for squirrels, Ava got tangled up in a blackberry vine and Papa had to carry her back to the house.  She hopped around on her good leg for a couple of hours before she finally felt better.  Poor girl was upset, she's had too many accidents recently.

This morning she showed me this drawing she did of her accidents, the top is she and Harper jumping on their trampoline, they knocked heads and she lost her tooth.  The bottom one is when she cut her face on the coffee table, that's blood flying on the floor and on her face, she said.  The "25" is Christmas, of course!  She asked for a rubber band and rolled up her drawing so she could save it. 

We love Wednesday nights.

7:45:  Ava and Harper tucked in bed.

Parker Olivia Winter Ball/letters to Santa

 Parker shared this picture of he and Olivia before they went to the Winter Ball last night.  He said they had a great time.

Rielee and I helped the twins write letters to Santa yesterday, they were very serious about it.

Gingerbread houses, Santa daddy

 We had a busy afternoon and evening.  Ava, Harper and Rielee got out of school early, as soon as they got here they started on their gingerbread houses.  It was messy and kind of chaotic, but they got one done and Rielee will finish hers at home.

 Ava took her bandaid off so we could see her scar, Becky took the stitches out for her yesterday so she didn't have to go to the doctor.  She didn't want to talk about it though. 

We went to the Carroll's bazaar where Daddy was playing Santa (Rielee couldn't go because she had play practice at church).  The girls were very good about quietly calling him "Daddy" so that other kids wouldn't hear them.  They did two crafts, decorating birdhouses and making an evergreen arrangement in a mug before we had to leave to go to Parker's game.  Parker's team beat R.A .Long.  Rielee came from practice and rode home with us to spend the night.  The girls settled in with a Mr. Bean movie and popcorn before bed.

Parker basketball, Ava's stitches, Auna basketball

 Parker, #30, played his first game Wednesday, his C squad team beat Hockinson  49-27.  Parker had 12 points when we left at halftime to get home and get the twins ready for bed.

Ava asked for a new bandaid yesterday so we got to see how her stitches looked, she's still pretty bruised.  She got the stitches removed today, Kelly said it didn't go well.

We went to watch Auna play basketball tonight in Rainier, Oregon.  Auna played hard the whole game but they lost.  League play starts next week.

Will, Rielee basketball

We got to see Will play this weekend in a tournament at L.C.C., it was as fun as ever to see him on the court.  We also took in some of Rielee's games, she got picked up by a team to play in the Turkey Trot tournament at Kelso.  Her team did pretty well and we could see lots of improvement over the weekend. 

Ava's stitches

Sitting at the Kaiser Urgent Care Clinic in Vancouver tonight, waiting to have a cut under Ava's eye looked at.

She fell and hit our coffee table late this afternoon. 

She got 3 stitches (the scratch on the other side was a previous injury)it was very traumatic for everyone.  Rielee and Harper were so scared when they saw the blood,  all three were hysterical.  Papa cleaned up Ava while I tried to calm the kids down, but they couldn't calm down. At the mention of the word "doctor", Ava and Harper were

hysterical on top of hysterical.  Harper was not going to let us take Ava to the doctor, and Ava wasn't about to go...add to that the fact that just before the accident, both Ava and Harper had stripped down to their panties and were getting ready to dress-up, so we had to somehow get clothes on them. 

We met Charb and Kelly in LaCenter.  The girls calmed down in the car ride there, Ava even fell asleep, which kind of scared us.  She was so happy to see her Mom and Dad.  At the clinic, when she got a shot, we could heard her screaming, I took Harper down the hall because she was upset at the sound.  Then a new round of screaming when they stitched her up, poor Ava, she was so scared.  Such a  tough night for her, and Mom and Dad, they were worn out from having to both calm her down and hold her down, and seeing their baby in pain.  Ava came out with stickers the nurse gave her, she got one for Harper, too.  Papa and I felt just terrible that it happened at our house, terrible seeing the kids all so upset, terrible listening to Ava being treated, but so grateful that she's going to be okay.

Happier times just before, playing at their new desk.

Going to school

The girls posed for a picture before they went in their classroom this morning while their teacher, Mrs. Macindoe, waits at the door.  They're so happy to go to school and usually get themselves ready pretty easily in the morning.  Harper had an issue with the shirt Mom packed for her today though, it just wasn't right. So instead she wore the shirt she didn't want to wear last week...it was left here, amazingly-it was the right one today! 

Ava's blanket

Ava's old blanket is small and threadbare, but it was all she ever wanted to sleep with, even though she had to curl up in a ball for it to cover her.  She never wanted any other blanket to touch her.  Kelly asked if I could somehow enlarge her old blanket but I thought maybe if Ava picked out her own fabric for a new blanket, maybe she would use it.  So today we went to Joann's and she quickly picked out Hello Kitty fleece and I hemmed it as soon as we got home.  She was so excited.  She tried to help me trim the edge and then sat there and watched me sew, asking over and over again if I was done yet.  She loves it, she introduced it to her old blanket so they could be friends and slept with both of them.

Emmy coaching at state/Rielee basketball

We decided to keep our reservation in Yakima Thursday and Friday and watch Emmy help coach the Kalama girls at the state tournament.  She's keeping stats on an iPad in the picture.  Unfortunately, they lost their first 2 matches and were out the first day.  Uncle watched some other local teams until he got his fill of volleyball and we came home this morning.

Rielee had two basketball games this afternoon.  She felt better this week and it showed, she was aggressive, wanted to shoot and made 5 baskets.  We took her to Target between games so she could buy the Elf on a Shelf Reindeer, she was very excited about it and named it "Snowflake".  She spent the night with us and we watched Maleficent, which was good.  She also worked on perfecting her handstand, oh, about a 100+ times,  and is trying to learn to walk on her hands. 

Papa's birthday

 It was Papa's 72nd birthday yesterday, we celebrated before the Seahawks game started with Kelly, the twins, Gabe, Des and the kids and Laury and David.  The little girls blew out Papa's candles for him, (Ava is right behind Rielee) as Parker and Olivia watched.  

They were excited to give him his gifts, each of them made him cute cards, and Rielee made him a special Veteran's Day card also.

Signs for Auna/Rielee's basketball

 The girls painted signs last night to cheer for Auna and the Rockets this morning as they played LaCenter for a trip to the State tournament. 

When Auna was serving in the 5th set, Harper was waving the signs and yelling for her.  Although the Rockets played their hearts out, they ended up losing. We were very proud of Auna, she played a great match and had 10 kills. 

 

Rielee at the free throw line

From there we hurried down to Kelso to watch Rielee's first basketball game.  With only 2 practices under their belt, they got off to a rough start and lost, Rielee played point guard. 

Rielee's Veterans Day Program

 Thursday the 4th and 5th graders at Rielee's school put on a very special Veterans Day program.  They sang, danced, recited poetry, and went through the alphabet with every letter representing a fact about patriotism, the military, and the sacrifices made by our veterans.  When they asked all the veterans to stand, Papa said it brought tears to his eyes to see how big Rielee was smiling at him. 

The kids were all so perfectly behaved, even their music teacher was choked up at the end.

This morning Butler Acres School had their 7th annual Veterans Day parade.  It was so special to see all the kids walking along, singing patriotic songs or chanting "U-S-A, U-S-A!"