Passed Out

This is Vanessa asleep on her bedroom floor a few weeks back. She had just come in from playing outside and was upset with me for some reason. She went into her room to cry and within a few minutes was silent. Upon entering her room, this is how I found her. I removed her bike helmet and shoes and put her into her bed. She then slept for 15 hours straight and woke with a 102 fever.

Father-Daughter Time

Bill took Katelyn skiing this past weekend and they had a wonderful time. We try to have "dates" one-on-one so that each child has special time with Mommy or Daddy. This was the first time, however, that our date was more than a day.

Katelyn started skiing last year, or I should say that she took her first lesson last winter. Even though this was her first time skiing this winter, there was an improvement from last year in her ability. Perhaps age, confidence and over-all general knowledge of the sport gave her a boost.

On their second day of skiing, she was the only student in her lesson and therefore received a private session, something normally twice as expensive. She is loving the sport and is excited about learning more, which is a good thing since we love the snow.

In case you couldn't tell, Katelyn is the one wearing all pink in the pictures. And yes her pants are a little short, but the season is almost over so she'll have to wait until next year to get a new bib.

Notice her helmet? I think it is rather cool that my children will grow up knowing no difference on the slopes - when you ski, you wear a helmet. I know there is no law requiring helmets, but why take the risk? And yes, we wear helmets too...no double standard here about safety.

Bumps!

My cousin Amy is due with her first child the same day as I am due! We should start a family poll to see which baby comes first, although given that this is her first and first babies are usually 40-41 weeks, I am guessing that I'll win. Last weekend, I helped her celebrate her baby at her shower. She glowed with the impending motherhood upon her.

Class of 2018

This Fall, Katelyn will be entering Kindergarten. She will be enrolled in a fabulous Catholic elementary school. Over a year ago when we started our elementary school search, we made a list of our priorities in a school for our children. We wanted a school that was religious-based (not necessarily Catholic, but at least Christian-based), had diversity among its students (which is so rare in our neck of the woods), offered a music program and a foreign language program (which schools offered these programs anymore?), and was a balance between academics and real-world teaching (meaning, not only academic-pushed). One of the first schools to meet all of our criteria also cost about $20K a year. Seriously. Um, nope, not willing to do that. So then we added, financially-reasonable to our list.

After an extensive search, we came across our number one choice, which, too, met every one of our priorities. And in yesterday’s mail, Katelyn received a large envelope with a cover letter stating, “We are delighted that Katelyn is ready for our Kindergarten for the 2009-2010 school year!” YIPPEE! We are very excited for her and the journey that she will be embarking upon this Fall. You always want your child to succeed and thrive in the environment that they are placed in and I feel very confident that this is the environment that she will be able to do so in, while growing into the beautiful girl she is becoming.

My Artist

I was looking through some pictures last night from the last few months and came across these...of my little artist. Doesn't she have a way with markers? Isn't she just beautiful?

Let it...

Hail! Yesterday we had a beautiful hail storm here. Since we don't get snow here, although do in the hills above our house, and we seldom get hail, this was very exciting and beautiful.