Ballarina...

Last week was parent's day at Aubrey's dance studio. It was so fun to watch Aubrey show off her skills! She says she wants to be "done" with ballet, but you wouldn't know it from how she dances around the house and from the smile on her face at dance class. So, in case she doesn't take classes again next year, here are a few photos for the memory book...

The greatest of gifts...

For the last two years, my grandmother has sent the most wonderful gift to the kids for Christmas... Hallmark books that allow someone to record their voice reading the pages. I, of course, was choked up the first time I opened one and heard my sweet grandmother's voice reading "Twas the night before Christmas...", but I didn't expect the kids to be so enamored as well. I can't tell you how many times they have listened to the stories. It is not at all unusual for me to find Henry like this...

He simply can't get enough. He has even named them. One is "GiGi" the other "Grandma." I'm not sure why he did that. Gigi is what we call my mom and Grandma is Brian's mom. We call my grandmother "Great Grandmother." I think that was too hard for him to say around the time we got the books. He usually just says "I want GiGi-grandma." We don't get to see her very often, so I just love that we can hear her anytime we want. Thank you grandmother for such a wonderful gift.

Privacy

I've been putting it off for a long time, but I've finally decided to make this blog private. I have a lot of reasons, that I won't bore you with here. Mainly, I want to protect the kids. I started this blog for us, our family and friends, and I don't need someone half way around the world keeping tabs on our life. So... by the end of the week, I will be inviting people to view the blog and you won't be able to access it without an invitation. If you think I may not have your email address, or you are interested in keeping up with us and are "a friend of a friend", please either email me or leave a comment with your email address and I'll be sure to add you to the list. Thanks for understanding!

Can you guess what's different about this photo?

Yep, NO TRAINING WHEELS!
A big day for the little girl. Expect a full report tomorrow!

Reason no. 1 to pay a professional for a haircut

1. because this little man is too cute to have his hair look like this.

Sorry sweet Henry. Mama tired.

Winter days...

As winter in Texas nears an end (we've had a glorious week in the 70's), I thought I'd post a few photos of how we have passed the cold days around here...

dress-up...

installing new windows...

"a" snow day. One is better than none...

a lot of soup...

yum...

marshmallows...

and more dress up. someone LOVES their fairy wings.

Ice Skating, or better known as Ice Crying.

Way back in January (yes, I'm still trying to catch up), our old neighbors (and friends) called to see if we wanted to join them at the ice rink. Sure, I thought, that would be great fun. Aubrey had been dying to go, and based on how well she did with skiing, I thought she'd have a great time. Henry, on the other hand, I knew would not love it. But, with Brian out of town and cabin fever setting in, I decided we would give it a try.

Henry actually seemed pretty excited when we got there, and walked OK in the skates up the the ice. One step onto the ice, and he was done. I skated while holding him until the ice police told me they would not allow me to endanger my child that way. Luckily, our friends took turns watching Henry and then skating with Aubrey.

Aubrey ended up doing great. She started off holding on to the side, but after one or two laps, she was out on the ice scooting along. Then there was crying. Lots of crying. The crying did not result from her falling or not catching on, but from her FREEZING hands and toes. I'm pretty sure I heard "Mommy, I TOLD you to bring my big gloves" more than once. I under-estimated the power of the ice. The kids had sweatshirts, mittens, and hats, but I was clearly the worst mother of the year for not bundling them up in full snow gear. Lesson learned.

All smiles with the Stoneciphers

no hands mom!

and... we're done.

Way back in November...

Some of our favorite people in the whole world came to visit from Virginia. Our dear friends Jeny and Bob made a HUGE effort to come visit us with their 3 year old daughter Avery, AND 8 month old twins, Charlie and Olivia! It was our first time meeting the twins and I could not have been more excited. They were simply irresistible. Big sis Avery was such a sweet helper and she, Aubrey and Henry had an absolute blast. Even with 4 adults and 5 kids under our roof, it didn't seem chaotic. That's when you know you are good friends! Jeny is amazing. I honestly don't know how she gets any rest. Thank you for coming to visit and please move next door soon :).

Beautiful girl with new glasses

After 3 years, it was finally time for some new specs. I didn't realize just how small her old glasses had become until we got the news ones! She was so excited about getting new glasses and was adament that they be purple. We had talked about her getting "big girl glasses" like mommy's, meaning a more traditional frame, but these were the first pair she saw, and that was that. I made her try on a few others and she immediately took them off and said they bothered her. Why mess with a good thing? She has never fought wearing these frames, so I didn't push her to change. She definitely looked different to me for the first few days, just like when she first got her last pair. I think it's because they are so much bigger on her face. Look how far we have come...

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful, but busy holiday this year. We were able to squeeze in a trip to see my family in Santa Fe and then Brian was able to ring in the New Year with his family in Minnesota. We always love our time in the mountains, but boy, that car ride just doesn't change. The kids did pretty well, but Henry is still not a fan of being confined for that long and neither one sleeps more than an hour or so.

Unfortunately, there was no snow on the ground this year. We had to drive up the mountain to play in the white stuff. Aubrey saved her pennies (literally) for a year in order to go skiing, so even though the snow was less than great, we weren't about to tell her no. Unfortunately, she got carsick on the way up to the ski area. Luckily, I had an extra shirt in the car and we managed to clean her up. She was not going to let that stop her. "I'm fine mommy, I promise... just go slow please on the turns daddy." Poor baby.

She walked right into ski school without hesitation. I was far more nervous than she was. Since only 20% of the mountain was open, Brian and I decided not to ski and just spent the day watching her and relaxing in the lodge. My parents came up with Henry for a little while, but as predicted, Henry still isn't a huge fan of the snow or cold. It was a LONG day. We dropped her off shortly after 8am and picked her up at 3:30pm. It was COLD that day and snowed almost the whole time. I never once heard her whine or complain about the cold. When we picked her up, she begged to go back the next day! I'm so glad her first experience was positive. She had a big class and I felt like she got lost in the shuffle for a while, but by the end of the day, she had some one on one instruction. I think she'll be able to ski with us next time!

Ready to hit the slopes

Is that even a hill?

The fog and snow rolled in... but she didn't seem to notice. Meanwhile, I was freezing!

Finally, she goes up the "big" hill

Here she comes...

and there she goes

Skier down

The next day was Christmas Eve and we made the annual trek to Canyon Road. Every year they close this gallery lined street to cars so you can walk, enjoy the christmas lights and farolitos, and warm up by a bonfire. This was the first time we've done this when there wasn't snow on the ground. We were all happy it was a little warmer, but we did miss the snow.

Ok, it's cold. Can we come in?

We headed back home and got the kids ready for bed and SANTA!!! The kids love reading with GiGi and Grandad.

Cookies for Santa

The kids went to bed pretty quickly, but Aubrey woke up around 2am to tell me that she couldn't hear Santa's sleigh bells over Daddy's snoring (tell me about it).

Christmas morning, the kids woke up happy and so excited to see if Santa had come for a visit. Aubrey's big Santa request this year was a pillow pet. He brought her a purple unicorn, which she has named Uni of course.

Santa brought Henry one too (a frog).

And what Christmas would be complete without a fairy dress-up box and a scooter?

On our last day, we took the kids up the mountain to go sledding. After one very short ride, this is what Henry thought of the idea... (no big shocker there).

Aubrey, on the other hand, loved every minute of it. I'm still questioning Brian's decision to sled with snow shoes on. Luckily, no one ended up with one lodged in their head.

After some hugs from mama, Henry at least warmed up to the idea of watching Aubrey and digging a snow tunnel with me, and throwing snow "base-a-balls."

Finally a big smile.
It was a great trip and a joyous Christmas!