A Gold Star

This is Layla's first year playing organized basketball. Here is what I have to say about Layla's early basketball experience...she has a smile on her face the entire time, she loves to stop and encourage everyone (even if they're on the opposing team) and she's a foot taller than 95% of the players. The rest of the skills...like transitioning from offense to defense, are still developing! Tonight was her first game and she won the gold star, which was for sportsmanship and encouragement.

If there was a gold star given to a fan in the stands, it would have to go to Cooper. He yelled is heart out for his sister. There came a point that Dave actually had to tell him to give his voice a break and I think the man sitting directly in front of him was thankful for that!

When we got in the truck to drive home Cooper told Layla, "You did the bery, bery, bery bested job!"

"Here's the deal..."

If you're around me much you know that I'm pretty bottom line. There's not a lot of talky-talky just to be talking. One of my common sayings is "here's the deal..." followed by the facts.

Dave and I just got back from a wonderful, adventurous trip to Costa Rica and met and spent time with some really great people. Layla isn't a fan of being away from me so I put off breaking the news of the trip to her until I had to. A few days before we left, I said, (yup, you guessed it), "Here's the deal...Daddy and I are going on a trip and Grandpa and Grandma are going to stay with you for a few days." Both Layla and Cooper took it very well and off we went zip lining through the jungle, horseback riding, white water rafting, and relaxing in hot spring spas in the mountains. Although we stayed at a great resort on the beach, we really did spend most of our time in the mountains. Here are a few shots, but I look forward to downloading the rafting pix and telling that story sometime soon.

The day we got back Cooper said to me, "I missed you when you on your trip, Mommy." Of course I said, "Oh buddy, I missed you too!" To which he looked my square in the eyes and said, "Yeah, but here's the deal. You don't need to go there again with no Layla and no me."

2012

2011 ended the way most of our years do...nobody went to school, nobody went to work, we rarely got out of our jammies before noon and we celebrated the birth of our savior by spending time with family and friends. It is such a wonderful time!

2012 is a special year in our house. Dave and I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary and I will be turning 40. To celebrate, we gave ourselves one big Christmas gift. To reveal the gift to the kids, we sent them on a treasure hunt Christmas morning. At the end of the treasure hunt were 4 tickets to Maui. We will spend our two weeks in Hawaii much the same way we spent our last two weeks of 2011...nobody will be going to school, nobody will be going to work and the only way we are getting out of jammies before noon will be to put on swimming suits and head to the beach. Mele Kalikimaka.

A Lesson in Anatomy

Before I can even begin to blog about Christmas and New Year's, I must close the book on the gelding of Buddy. Here are the kids loading Buddy up for THE appointment last week (Yes, they pick out their own clothes). When they arrived at the vet they were very excited to find an observation window into the procedure room where they could watch every snip. They were amazed. I'm sure you can imagine what the topic of conversation was around our house for the next few days. And yes, it always included the word "testicles".

A Lesson in Testosterone

Buddy, the horse, is going to get fixed. He has a little awkwardness in that area and has not yet been gelded. He's a quiet horse, on the verge of lazy, so we just haven't worried about this...until Tuesday. He saw a filly he liked in a neighboring pasture, ran through hot wire and jumped the barbed wire fence to get to her.

As we were making supper that night, with the kids in the living room, Dave told me that Buddy has an appointment with the vet to get snipped on Wednesday, which includes Buddy getting put to sleep.

A few minutes later, we sat down to dinner and Layla asked, "Why does Buddy have to be put to sleep to get his haircut?"

(This took me a few seconds to piece her thought process together)

"Oh! (getting it now), Buddy isn't going to get a haircut (snipped). He's going to the vet to have surgery and they need to put him to sleep so he doesn't feel it."

"What kind of surgery?" Layla asked.

"Welllll...you see, Layla," I continued, "boys produce a hormone called testosterone...a lot of it. It's something in their body that can make them a little crazy at times and can make them do some interesting things."

"Like jumping fences?" Layla interjected.

"Yes, exactly," I said. "So Buddy's going to have surgery to help his body stop making so much testosterone."

A minute passes.

"So, will Daddy and Cooper jump fences?"

"It's quite possible, Layla."

Layla Lately

Hearing Layla read, I mean really read, brings tears to my eyes. I don't know why...I didn't cry when she took her first step or learned to ride her bike without training wheels. But something about the independence reading brings really moves me. Her first book was "I Like Bugs". And it's true, she's always liked bugs. She recently went through a phase where she wanted to be a "bug artist"...a person who illustrates the bugs that you find in science books (I'm sure there's an official name for such an occupation).

Another thing Layla has always loved is swimming. She's never been fearful of the water and we go to the pool frequently in the summer so she's learned a lot on her own and with me. But, I decided it was finally time for swimming lessons so we started a few weeks ago. I was amazed at how, on week 3, she freestyled down the pool. As I watched her long body move through the water, I just couldn't believe how big she was.

She is starting to turn the corner a bit in the adjustment-to-kindergarten-process. I've noticed a big change the last few weeks, which is good because the emotions were exhausting me! She braved it through her first piano recital and thoroughly enjoyed her school and church concerts.

Then and Now

Their first Christmas as brother and sister and their 4th... ***sigh***




We've had a fun and busy week...3 Christmas parties and 3 performances that our kids were in. Just a few more days and the kids will be on Christmas break and Dave will be off work. Then, when all of our obligations are done, I feel like Christmas is really here!