Alyson is Six

This year we celebrated Aly's birthday with a small family party. She chose Strawberry Shortcake as her theme, and was lucky enough to have her Aunt Shanda make her a wonderful Strawberry Shortcake Cake. She had a great time having her own special dinner, she chose all her favorite things for us to eat. It was great to have cousins and grandma and grandpa there to celebrate.





Aly's Interests and loves at age six there are a few changes, but still some of the same loves from the year before.

What is your favorite color?
Red

What is your favorite book?
Coloring books

What is your favorite food?
Yogurt

What is your favorite thing to do?
Draw

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Artist

What is your favorite movie or TV show?
Strawberry Shortcake

What is your favorite scripture story?
Nephi and family on the boat

What is your favorite sport?
Swimming




We spent Saturday celebrating with Grandma and Grandpa Foote it has become a tradition to take the girls to their local pool and go swimming. The girls love swimming at their local pool because it has a diving board, and they have a great time jumping off the board and watching dad show off some of is old diving moves.

A New Year A New Start

Aly bringing in the New Year enjoying some chocolate fondue

I haven't been great at posting past blogs. I have decided that as of the New Year I will just start fresh and slowly add in past blogs to catch up for the last six months.

This will definitely be a January to remember, although to be truthful there are a lot of things about it that I would like to forget.

We brought in the New Year celebrating with cousins, eating great food, and visiting with family. The girls highlight was having a dance party with glow sticks in the dark, setting off poppers, and toasting in the New Year at 9:00pm (we didn't think they would make it to midnight and wanted to give them a chance to enjoy the festivities). The kids were all set up with a movie and once they were all snuggled down and ready to crash. We decided the adults could play some games. We were in the process of getting set up for a game when Dwyn took a fall against the fireplace, and split her eyebrow. We loaded the kids up and headed home. I stayed home with the girls and Foote headed off to the ER with Dwyn. Because she was so young the hospital decided to glue her cut together instead of stitches. So Foote welcomed in the new year in the ER.

Cousin Talia ready to Celebrate the New Year

Preston and his family posing for a quick New Years photo

Aunt Shanda leading the glow in the dark dance party. (I am not an expert enough on my camera to make the shot dark and still catch the action.)




Hopefully this start to the New Year is not a sign of things to come. The next few weeks have just become a blur of projects and craziness. We moved from our town home into a house not to far away with a little more room. While it is nice to have more room the house is an older home and moving from a new build home has made us realize that wee were spoiled in many ways. We spent about a week with the help of family painting and cleaning the house to move into. And the next week moving and cleaning the house we moved from. I have decided that I am not a mover I am going to need at least five years to recover before we can even consider moving again.(I don't know if I will be so lucky, but one can wish right?) I am grateful we made the move now. If I was any more pregnant I think that would have just added to the stress of it all. We are now moved and everyday we try to live our normal routine and wade through the mess of boxes that still need to be unpacked.

Meanwhile life goes on and about a year ago I purchased a month of unlimited dance classes for the girls it was a really good deal a whole month of classes for $20.00. I had planned to use them up in the summer, but never did. The offer was only good for a year so this month I have also had to cram in dance classes with everything else, but it has probably been a nice break for the girls to get away from the chaos of moving. The only problem has been that I really did not have any extra time to take them. Despite all the craziness we have survived January and hope that the rest of the year is not as crazy as the start.

Dwyn turns One

It does not seem to be possible that a year could already have passed. Our little Dwyn turned one on December 23rd. We celebrated with family on Christmas Day. I figured she is still young enough that we can get away with that for now. Although, I have been warned by multiple people with Christmas birthdays that I better be sure to keep Christmas and her birthday seperate in the future.

Dwyn at age one is just so cute. I love this age when your baby is still baby enough that you can just hold them and squeeze them, and big enough to squeeze back. Dwyn is such a good baby and has such "a go with the flow attitude," I think it might be a requirement for a third child. Dwyn loves to play peek-a-boo. I think my favorite place to see her play peek-a-boo is at church, she ducks down behind the bench and jumps up trying to get anyone that is sitting behind us to smile or play with her. While I have to admit it is not reverent, and I have to stop her from doing it so she does not make it impossible for anyone behind us to pay attention, it is so cute. Dwyn also is facinated by all the sounds that she can make with her mouth or with anyone elses. Often I will be holding her and talking and she will start bouncing her finger between my lips trying to get different sounds. She is just beginning to talk and sign. She says Dad and Mom the most, but she can also sign some beginning words like; eat, no, thank you, bath, all done, more, mom, dad, and a few others. Dwyn is crawling everywhere, but not quite ready to walk although she moves around furniture pretty well. Dwyn does drive me crazy with her sleep schedule at 12mos she still is not consistently sleeping through the night. One night she can sleep all through the night and the next night she can wake up every two hours crying, and it is quite the process to soothe her and get her back to bed.

Our poor Dwyn being a third child has had to deal with the dangers of older siblings. Aly and Brookie are always trying to be helpful, often in their attempts to help end up hurting instead of helping. Alyson's famous words while around Dwyn are: "It was an accident." This phrase is the opening statement Aly uses when talking about why Dwyn is crying. Brooklyn loves to carry Dwyn around and hold her which considering that she is probably about half the size of Brooklyn can be a little scary. The other day I put Dwyn in the sink to bath and left the water running. I was not worried about the sink over flowing because it had an overflow drain and the water was not on very high. I went about five feet down the hall to get a washcloth. Meanwhile Brooklyn walked into the bathroom and saw the water in the sink and immedately thought she should shut it off so it would not overflow. The only problem, is that she shut off the cold before she shut off the hot. Despite my run back to the bathroom at Dwyn's screams she still had a secound degree burn on her leg. Too much help. The girls, despite their frequent accidents really do adore her and she loves being the center of attention.

Dwyn on Christmas with her new scar from her second degree burn

First Marathon

I have been running on a regular basis for a few years now, but for some reason I have never run a marathon. So this year I decided, why not? Now is as good a time as any.

I didn't do as well as I would have liked, but I ran the whole thing, and at the end thought "Yeah I could do this again." I have to admit that I prefer half marathons, because the distance is just a lot more my cup of tea. I am sure I will run more marathons in the future.

I kept hearing from all my Marathon running friends that the last 6 miles is the hardest, so I asked my brother Preston to come run with me. He was a good sport and was my running buddy through the end when I was probably going pathetically slow.

Although, I did not know it at the time, of the race I was already two months pregnant so I have decided that I am going to blame my slower time on that...well you have to start somewhere.

First Bike Ride

At the end of August, I completed my first long distance bike ride. I was at a ward dinner last year talking to our friends, the Van Wagnens. Rod Van Wagnen loves to cycle and has done a lot of different bike rides. At the time, I was really pregnant, but I told him we should train for the Copper Triangle in 2011. I have done a lot of running races and triathlons and was ready to do something a little different. In April our early Saturday morning rides began, and every Saturday morning from then until August we were out riding. I loved it. Rod is in the Air Force, so most Saturdays we spent riding around the Academy in Colorado Springs which is so pretty and just perfect for cycling.


The Copper Triangle Course

The Copper Triangle is a really popular bike ride in Colorado because over the course of the ride you climb up three different mountain passes and end up climbing a total of about 6,000 ft. It is a beautiful scenic mountain ride and can be challenging, but to my surprise in all my cycling I found that I was better at climbing hills than anything else.

When I was training I was worried about making it up Vail Pass because I rode up it many years ago with Foote for one of our first dates and I remembered that it was a HARD climb. Foote had originally planned for our date to ride down Vail pass spend some time in Vail and catch a bus back up, but after riding down it I thought it can't be that hard to go back up. Lets just say after one of the longest most exhausting afternoons of my life. I spent about 70% of the ride walking my bike up the hill and getting passed by 70 year old men telling me to get back on my bike. It was not a great cycling moment for me.

Luckily, this time I trained for Vail pass and it was no problem. I completed the whole ride in just over six hours. I kept having to remind myself that I was on a ride not a race. It is a totally different mindset than running. You are supposed to take your time enjoy your stops on the course and despite my attempts to take it slow I still ended up flying through the course. I think I was afraid if I allowed myself to rest to long I would not get back on the bike. I am definitely going to have to do this ride again.

Why do you make me work so hard?

Tonight while eating Dinner. I was having a discussion with the girls about chores. Aly is usually a pretty good little helper, as long as she is in a good mood. Brooklyn, on the other hand, can not seem to manage doing a chore without first complaining about it for at least three times as long as it would actually take to complete the task. Tonight I told the girls they needed to empty the dishwasher. I have them do it as a team, so one can be up on the counter and the other can hand up the dishes. I know, most moms would prefer to keep their kids off the counter, but mine always climb up there anyways, so they might as well do something helpful in the process.

The deal was, that they had to complete the chore before they could have dinner. Brooklyn immediately began to whine "why do you make us work so much?". My responses are usually something like "Because I am a mean mom who loves to torture her kids." or "I love to pretend like I am Miss Hannigan, and you are my orphans and have you to clean the whole house".

Foote on the other hand trys to take the loving approach and help them realize the benefit of respondsibilities. At dinner Foote asks Brooklyn " When you grow up an have a house do you think you will want your house to be clean or dirty?" Brookie replied "Clean." Foote - "Will you want your house vacuumed?", Brookie - "yes" Foote - "How will you know how to vacume your house if you never practice." long pause Brookie -"Well, when I was at Grandma's house, she told Ann how to vacuum in a straight line and I was listening to her, so I know how to vacuum." Foote - "Don't you think you will need to practice" Brookie - "No I was listening so, I will just remember." Leave it up to brook to justify herself out of chores.

Kindergarten: This is serious stuff

Two weeks before school started, I had already received about ten different e-mails from Aly's school. We decided to enroll Aly in one of the Charter schools within our district, but I was beginning to panic by the amounts of information I was required to review before that first day. So here it is; first, uniforms. We were provided with very specific instructions on what qualifies as khaki and what is just khaki, colored denim. Polos - what are acceptable colors, no designs of any kind. Belts need to match the shoes. The instructions go on and on. I have to admit that the uniforms are great now that school has started. There have been no arguments on why she can't wear her favorite tie dye shirt that is two sizes to big, or why she can't wear an outfit of all the same color just different shades. It makes getting her ready for school fast and easy.

Next email: specific instructions on how traffic is supposed to flow at drop off and pick up. With 400 kids at the school and no buses...lets just say things get a little crazy. I have to say I am very impressed by how well organized things are, Although I did get in trouble by the traffic Nazi the first day of school, for allowing my child out of the wrong side of the car. This is serious stuff. School clubs, PTO, the list goes on and on. I am now officially part of the "My Child is in School and Will be for a Long Long Time" club. Not to mention the kids to follow. This craziness will get to be multiplied as each child enters a new school year.

Two weeks into the school year and, Aly has homework about every night. A spelling test and a phonogram test every week. I am glad that she is in a school that is challenging her, but I do not remember Kindergarten being so hard. I remember my biggest stress about Kindergarten, was what center I would get to play at during our indoor playtime.

Another drama that is part of the daily school routine is that Aly refuses to walk into her class by herself. This is a little challenging since three days a week Aly has to be to school at 12:00 and Brooklyn has to be at school a few miles away at 12:15. We have to try to time our arrival at school at the same time as her other classmates so she will have someone to walk into class with. Otherwise I have to park the car, get out, and spend an extra ten minutes saying goodbye and coaxing her into her classroom.

School time Seriously?

I may be the only mother that wants to stand up and protest, but these summers are just way to short. I always have a list of about 100 things I would like to do with my kids over the summer, and I am usually lucky to do five. This summer we spent our time poolside, camping, and at the library.

Colorado Springs, within the last few years, has become the target of the hardcore gyms. You know the ones that are "112,000 sq ft of healthy luxury" (whatever that's supposed to mean?) I guess working out is supposed to be more enjoyable if it is at a pretty gym...by the way, not true. Since these gyms were just getting their start I was able to get some good deals that would assure us that we could at least spend the summer at a pool. Alyson, Brooklyn and Dwyn logged a lot of swimming hours this year. Brooklyn was one of the youngest to pass the swimming test. She had to swim 25 meters on her own, in deep water. She passed with flying colors. Alyson is finally tall enough to go down the slide, which made Brooklyn determined that she should be tall enough also. Despite being told by life guards on multiple occasions, that Brooklyn was to small, she took every opportunity she could to sneak down the slide....Despite my continual warnings.



This is where we lived this summer or at least an exact replica of the our pool I think this one is in Texas.

Camping - I have decided that one of my dream vacations is to just camp all summer long. As soon as the kids get out of school we would take off on a road trip across the US and see some of the sites, camping all along the way. If we like the place we stay an extra night, if not we just move on to the next campsite. If kids are dirty, who cares were camping? If I eat completely unhealthy, who cares I am camping? I haven't quite figured out how Foote is supposed to work while we are camping all across the US, but I am determined that one of these summers we are going to do it.


Brooklyn loves everything about camping.

Foote wants the girls to learn how to set up their own tent. Aly had a great time helping.

The camping face.....Who cares? We're camping.


Library - Both of the girls really got away with slacking off on their reading this summer. I usually make them read at least 20 min a day during the week, but this summer we were just to busy playing and I let them slack off. They did the bare minimum to get all their prizes with the summer reading program and loved getting out of their daily reading.


Enjoying running through the fountains after listening to a concert in the park. This is what summer is all about


Alas...It has all come to an end. Aly started Kindergarten on the 3rd of August, and Brooklyn started preschool this week. So I will now have to move the other 95 items to my to do list for next summer. Hope you all had a great summer full of fun experiences and lots of adventures.

Aly ready for the first day of school

Brooklyn Turns 4

Brooklyn turned four at the beginning of June. Brooklyn's latest obsession is taking pictures. She is always playing with my camera, so for her birthday she received a miniature digital camera, compliments of Foote's online negotiating. We also took a family trip to the circus. Brooklyn was a little sad that she did not get to have a friend party this year, but she lost the privilege after bleaching her room (If our house survives these girls it will be a miracle). I had not been to the circus forever so it was fun to experience it with the girls. Brooklyn liked the elephants and Alyson liked the tigers.

We also celebrated with Foote's family at the pool in Castle Rock, and did cake and ice cream with my family after Sunday dinner. Brooklyn was so funny, when we went swimming in Castle Rock, she really wanted to go off the diving board. Andrew was catching her, but the lifeguard told him she had to be able to swim to the edge of the pool by herself. We told Brookie that she would not be able to go off the board anymore because she had to swim to the edge. She burst into tears, so I asked her if she wanted to go into the pool and practice swimming and come back when she could do it. That was all it took, she worked for about an hour on swimming back and forth from me to the wall and then it was back to the diving board, she was so proud of herself. Brooklyn is so determined which can be good and bad. If she wants to do it she will. On the other hand, if she doesn't want to do it she won't .

Brooklyn's birthday interview:

What is your favorite book? The treat books by Kevin Henkes this is a set of books that the girls received from their Aunt Kari and Uncle Ed, and they have read them thousands of times they are a very well loved set of books at our house.

What is your favorite thing to do?I love to drink soda with ice cream...we have been having root beer floats lately and Brooklyn loves them.

What is your favorite food? M&Ms and Watermelon

What do you want to be when you grow up?I want to plant a garden

What is your favorite movie?Tarzan and Jane

What is your favorite scripture story?The story of the resurrection

What is your favorite song? Teach me to walk in the light

Things I want to remember about Brooklyn at this age:

Brooklyn has a very determined personality if she wants to do something there is no stopping her. Brooklyn is a little nurturer. If Dwyn is crying or hungry Brooklyn does not hesitate to take charge. I thought the excitement of holding the baby would wear off after the first few months, but Brooklyn still asks to hold the baby about ten times a day. Brooklyn loves to sing and is an excellent climber. She climbs everything. I have to admit that it is like watching myself when I was little I used to climb everything.

Aly's Age 5 Interview

Sum up of Aly's favorites and interests at 5.

What is your Favorite Book?
"Hop on Pop," She loves this book because she can read it all by herself. It took about fifteen minutes for her to work her way through it the first time, but now she has it down and loves to haul it around reading it to Brooklyn or anyone that will listen. The other day we did an outing to the theater and I turned around as we walked into the theater and realized Aly had not left "Hop on Pop" in the car...seriously your bringing the book into the movie? This girl loves that she can read.

What is your Favorite Food?
Fruit! That sums it up although strawberries are her favorite. Aly has yet to meet a fruit that she does not like. I bought a pound of Strawberries yesterday and they are gone and Aly is the only one that had any, if I forget to hide the fruit it is gone in just a couple days. Did you know that tomato is a fruit? And yes she will eat them like apples.

What is your favorite thing to do?
Art

Who are your friends?
"Brad, Cassidy, Aubrey, Kaitlyn, Katie, Megan, Madison, and cousins, but Brad is my best friend." Aly loves Brad because, as she puts it "He is always nice to me." This is a boy that she goes to school and primary with, and just adores. She is always drawing pictures or making presents for Brad, and always wants him to come over to play. After their last playdate I have theory on why she gets along so well he is just so laid back that Aly can boss him around or talk nonstop to him and he just agrees with whatever she says.

What to be When you grow up?
A painter

What is your favorite movie?
The new Tinkerbell movie and Caillou

What is your favorite scripture story?
"Moroni, who prayed for a long time" (obviously we have some more teaching and clarifying to do when it comes to scripture stories.)

What is your favorite sport?
Swimming. She saw the swim team practicing when we went swimming with Grandma Foote. She wants to be on the swim team, but she has to be six and be able to do the crawl and backstroke for 25 yards. She is going to have to practice a lot this summer if she wants to join next year.

Things that I want to remember about Aly at this age:

This girl is so easy to teach. I work with her almost everyday on reading, writing and math and I'm blown away at how far she has come in a year. I also love her enthusiasm for learning. I told her I would teach her to read an analog clock when she memorized her multiples of five. That was all it took, TWO DAYs later she had them mastered. I am excited to see how she does when she starts kindergarten.

Aly loves ART. This is a gene that she did not get from me. I bought Aly and Brooklyn art kits for Christmas, and Aly has worn out both hers and Brooklyns and has put some good wear and tear on a new one she received for her birthday.

Her life is a musical she is constantly singing. If we are combing her hair she is singing about combing her hair. If I tell her to get her shoes on she is singing about her shoes. Her songs are so simple and funny.