January 30, 2005

January 30, 2005
Another busy week has come and gone. I have nothing exciting to say about the weather other than it’s very cold here and I have a hard time staying warm. However, we have been struggling with the strange phenomena of static cling! Alayna’s hair stand straight up on her head. Our skirts suck to our tights, so it looks like we are wearing pants- very embarrassing. Tyler can do tricks were candy wrappers stick to his arm, etc. The stuff is entertaining, yet a pain! We did see 4 bunny rabbits in our backyard this week. They come in every night right before the sunsets. So, we see these beautiful grey rabbits on a white blanket of snow, while we watch the beautiful pink sunset. It’s been pretty cool.
Tuesday night was the annual school skate night. So, we took our crew to Superskate! Kayla and Tyler were the only ones brave enough from our family to try. I was afraid I would humiliate and embarrass my children beyond repair, so I opted to watch. The idea of flying around in a circle with nothing on your feet but wheels was enough to make Marisa sit out, no matter how many kids came and tried to talk her into it! Tyler tried so hard. He fell down consistently every 3rd step for several times around. Then he slammed his knee and was crying. Yet, after he calmed down, he went and tried again. I was so proud of him. The person that impressed me the most was Kayla. That girl has some serious determination. She tried the entire hour we were there. She feel down so many times, but by the end, she was able to go around the whole circle without falling once. Of course, it was more like shuffle walking, but she did it!! She is definitely our most athletic child. I tired to take pictures but the batteries in my camera died.
Reflecting back on last Wednesday, I can see the humor in it, but I couldn’t at the time. First, I made pumpkin bars to take to the sisters I visit teach. As I made the frosting the tip of my spatula broke off in the frosting. Believe me, I searched for it, but with no luck. I must confess, I gave it out anyway...don’t tell! Then I was making dinner again for the 4 missionaries. Stupidly, I tried to make that mormon green jello with mandarin oranges. FYI- that doesn’t work! The jello never set, so I had sugary green soup with mandarin oranges. Then, I went to get the salad out of the outside fridge. Well, Bob had turned the temp up so my lettuce salad was frozen. I tried to microwave with poor thing, but had no success. Then my biscuits refused to rise, burned on the bottom, flattened into pancakes, and were white on top. Argh! These missionaries were so sweet and said it was a great meal. Bob asked them who the best cook was in the ward and they answered without missing a beat "your wife". Oh yeah- they aren’t dumb!
Yesterday, the kids had a cool primary activity. They called it the "Cedar Rapids Primary MTC". All the kids came and were given name tags and companions and then they did all sorts of fun missionary activities. Marisa and Kayla got to be companions. Then after lunch, Bob took them sledding down the monster hill and they had an absolute blast. Last night, Bob and I watched "Stepford Wives", I have to admit, I am looking into become one of those- that would be awesome. Then maybe the missionaries would get better meals-hehe!
Marisa was chosen to be in the gifted and talented class for their math portion this semester. They are working on the stock market. She is really enjoying the class. Tyler’s class was assigned to use items around the house to make an "ice keeper". Then each of the kids put an ice cube in their keeper and then they checked at the end of the day to see whose melted. Well, only Tyler’s and one other kids didn’t melt. He was so proud. He and daddy spent the night before making a neat contraption out of styrofoam and duct tape (dad’s favorite new tool) Kayla has had a blast hanging out with her buddy, Olivia, all week. They seem to be inseparable. I am so glad she has a good friend now- that can make all the difference in the world.
Alayna had another busy week driving me up a tree. She redecorated the kitchen in butter (including the TV), fingerpainted with her chocolate ice cream bar, took all the toilet paper off the toiler paper roll, etc. On the upside, however, she decided to potty train herself this week. She has been going in the potty almost all day and dressing herself. She has worn some crazy outfits, but any time I go to change her she says "do it myself!!". Okay...as long as you have clothes on, lady! Another deep thought came to me strongly this week though: I would rather have her making all these messes and running around like the energizer bunny, than be a sick little lifeless child who can’t run and enjoy life. I seem to have forgotten that that’s how the first few years of her life were and how grateful I am that she is well now. I guess it makes the messes not seem so bad anymore. (Except the butter, that is a doozy to clean!)
Have a Happy week!
Love-Kris

January 23, 2005

January 23, 2005
Well, another cold week has come and gone in our "frigid" city of Cedar Rapids (Tyler calls it Cedar Rabbits...). It actually got up to 28 degrees this week and it actually felt warmer. However, this weekend, we had another inch or two of snow dumped on us as to dash any hopes of Spring arriving by February! We had a family in our ward coming home from the Nauvoo temple Sunday night who hit a patch of ice on the highway and flipped their car. Amazingly, they all walked away from it. The dad lost 1 ½ fingers and the guy in the back shattered a disk in his neck, but they were very lucky.
We got the dish network this week- a big step up from what we had. We now get BYU TV and our DVR now has two tuners which can be accessed by two different TV’s. Now we are back in business!
Tyler brought home a paper from school this week. They had to make a sentence using the word "mother". His was "My mother loves chocolate". He drew this picture of me sitting at the temple with my arms reaching high up to the table for a pile of chocolate. It was hilarious!
The kids are doing fitness tests at school for P.E. this week. Kayla came in first in her class and even beat the second person by a full lap. Everyone was shocked by how fast she was. She was proud she even beat all the boys. Marisa on the other hand saw her life flash before her half way through. She thought she might actually die. She came in second to last and swore she would never run again. Only to come home and find out the school scheduled 5th grade track and field day on her birthday. She has utterly refused to attend school that day. Funny kids!
We watched the movie "Whale Rider" with our kids last night. We all thought it was great. It isn’t an action packed film, but boy did we enjoy it.
I guess we don’t have much to report this week, although we were busy. Alayna was really good for a few days and I actually thought she might be moving out of the terrible two’s. She even started potty training herself. Every time I see her she is in a new outfit with a new look- reminds me of "Alias". However, one day this week, something went very, very wrong...
she got a pair of scissors and cut her pajamas, she got in the tang, spilled it all over the floor and ate it (turning herself orange), she got into the peanut butter and fingerpainted the kitchen floor, she refused to take a nap, emptied the utility drawer, covered the kitchen floor in scotch tape, emptied all the bandaids, found my maxi pads opened them up and ripped all the sticky tabs off.... She ended up a greasy, orange, holey mess! I can only hope this week will be better!
Have a great week and please stay in touch!
Love-Kris and family

January 16, 2005

January 16, 2005
A summation of Kristina’s deep thoughts for the week...
1. When the weather man says the weather for the week will be frigid, what "frigid" really means is that when you walk outside, the moisture in your nose freezes solid and when the windchill, which makes it feel like 28 below zero, hits you in the face, it causes an automatic headache! We had "frigid" temperatures this entire week...
2. Serious frustration for a two year old is when your shirt gets stuck and won’t go over your head, so you scream bloody murder and your mom rushes in worried you are seriously hurt only to find that... well, your shirt is stuck on your head.
3. True relaxation and peace come from taking a nap each afternoon and a bubble bath in the jacuzzi at night...especially for mom!
4. You know your kid is strange when they practice the "Puss in boots" kitty face to use on their parents when they get in trouble...
5. School was cancelled two more days this week due to the weather. I have come to the conclusion that I actually prefer those days so I can sleep in. Is that selfish or what?
6. Kristina’s movie reviews: We saw "The terminal" this week and really enjoyed it. We also saw an excellent movie with the kids about some pioneers called "Love Comes Softly." I recommend it. It was one of those clean, feel good movies. The kids loved it.
7. The winner of the "I can’t believe you did that" award goes to Marisa this week. (Applause) She not only forgot her violin for her concert on Friday, and made mom race in her sweats to school with her freezing inner nose to bring it to her, but she didn’t latch the case correctly after violin class so her violin flew out of the case as she ran down the hall, breaking the peg board. Then on the way home, she lost one of her expensive gloves she received for Christmas. Way to go, Marisa!
8. "Joy" is the feeling you get when you try to make "Mormon green jello" for the first time when the missionaries come over and it’s a huge success! Next week, we try frog eye salad.

January 9, 2005

January 9, 2004
I have one phrase that sums up my thoughts this week: "Whose stupid idea was it to move here???". No , I am just kidding, but I did wonder what possessed us to leave a state with such beautiful weather to move to a Winter Wonderland. On Monday, I got the kids up and ready for school. They went outside to wait for the bus. However, our driveway was so slick that they kept slipping and sliding down the driveway, no matter how hard they tried to stay nicely in their single file line. It was comical. A guy came out and told us school was cancelled that day. Sure enough, all the roads were covered in black ice. Our kids loved it though because our driveway become a sledding hill. Even the neighbors came over to sled. They had such a blast. On Tuesday, school was cancelled as well because of the solid ice.
On Wednesday and Thursday school was cancelled, but not for the ice. It was because of the foot of snow that fell! The kids were in heaven. They played outside for hours at a time. Our neighbors were so sweet. Their 14 year old came out early in the morning on his 4 wheeler with a HUGE shovel attached and shoveled off our entire driveway. I was so touched! That day I went out and spent over 1 ½ hours shoveling the sidewalks and decided that is for the birds! We HAVE to buy a snow blower before I blow out my back. It truly is beautiful to look at, I am just not so thrilled at the slipping and sliding in the freezing cold. But that’s ok.
I apologize for not emailing all of you back who have emailed me recently. Our internet shut down for almost a week for no reason. And then one night it just turned back on. It was the oddest thing! So, I will get to returning those letters right away.
Everyone here is doing great. It was funny one day because Alayna was searching the house for anything chocolate. We thought we had hidden it all, til we found she had the cocoa mix, had spilt it, and was licking it off the floor! I have to admit I have chocolate cravings like that as well!! Marisa moved up to the full size violin this week and Dad, you will be happy to know they are doing the Suzuki method.
Kayla is part of a neat program tonight called "It’s great to be 8." It’s a program at church to get all the 8 year olds excited for the year ahead and they have the kids who turned 8 be part of the program, so she and I are going to that tonight. Tyler survived this week even though he managed to erase my very comprehensive and organized grocery list for the week!
Bob and I switched babysitting nights with the Garcia’s this week. Their kids came over Friday night. We had a fun party with all the kids and watched "Agent Cody Banks 2". Then last night, Bob and I were able to take our kids to their house and go out on a date. I was so happy because it has been SO long! We tried a new restaurant called Biaggi’s (sp?) and we loved it! Then we walked around the mall and then went to McDonalds for McFlurries. I had the best time! So, we have agreed to do that more often. We also finished season 3 of "Alias". Although it wasn’t our favorite season, we loved it all the same. We LOVED seeing the start of season 4 this week and are excited for "24" starting tonight!!!
We started our 9:00am church this week. I actually think I will like it better, although I will miss sleeping in. We got a new ward mission leader who is very energetic. So, we have the missionaries coming for dinner on Thursday to head start the new program. Looks like we will be busy.
Well, that is all that we have been up to. We hope to hear from you soon. (Actually we hope its your new years resolution to stay in touch-jk!) Have a fabulous week!!!
Love, Kris and family