February 2009

Towards the end of February the Tour of California, a cycling stage race, came through Clovis. For anyone wondering where Clovis is, it's on the east side of Fresno, and we live three houses down from the city lines. Anyway...it was extra exciting because it was Lance Armstrong's first race in his return to professional cycling, so we being cycling fans had to go see it. Kevin used his magical people skills and found an old friend, a police officer, who was working the event and got him a good spot in the VIP section right near the finish line. I unfortunately had an appointment then had to pick up Emily just at the time the race was coming to an end in Clovis, so I missed all the cycling part. But we drove downtown anyway and got to see all the team cars, loaded up with bikes on top, driving out and we got to walk through the finish line area and feel the excitement.

This is one of several of Kevin's shots as the cyclists came zooming across the finish line. I don't know who it is...Kevin actually got Lance Armstrong in one of his photos (we can only tell because of his special yellow and black bike), but he said they were going so fast and there was so much dust from all the chalk on the ground he couldn't really see anything but a big blur of wheels and bodies!

Here we are after the fact. They had a bunch of booths set up from sponsors and stuff, so we walked around those and looked at the $15,000 bikes and what not. Kevin wants one. I told him no. [A side note: Kevin put this photo up on Facebook and someone wondered why he is holding Allison and I'm holding Emily - you'd think he'd hold the bigger child, right? Well it's just because Kevin was carrying Allison already and Emily was walking, then she didn't want to be in the picture so I had to pick her up and hold her for the photo. That's all...I really don't carry her around-she's too heavy for me!]

Valentine's and "The latest portraits of the kids"

February 2009

Kevin works in the Bay Area now so he commutes up every week and stays a night or two with my parents while he goes to meetings and visits clients and etc. The rest of us usually stay home because I have to work and Emily has preschool, but the week of Valentine's we went up for a short visit. It was exciting because I had new portraits of the girls for my parents, and snuck in the 12-week ultrasound pictures of our baby on the way. Like "here's the latest photos of the kids for you - oh, yes, that is a new one!" That's how we told them they were getting a new grandchild. We held out pretty long this time - I guess the third time around I just felt like waiting.

My mom had an extra mylar heart balloon (see photo below from last year) like the one we finally blew up for Emily last Valentine's day...well I won't tell the whole story again but if you want to read it look through the old posts for "Saved by a pickle". Anyway so she had another one and we took it to the store to get inflated, and of course Allison had to get her own too.

Emily was so happy to have her giant balloon again. We made sure it could not escape and fly off into the sky again. It had a really heavy weight tied to it.

Allison liked her little balloon, too. Both made it safely into the car for the journey home. Driving up the Altamont pass, almost to the top - POP!! Emily's big Valentine balloon popped from the pressure. I guess it was just never meant to be with those balloons! Neither of them lasted more than four hours inflated. And after sitting in the closet all neatly folded for nearly two years. Allison's balloon, on the other hand, is still halfway inflated and kind of floating around the house.

This is the special Valentine Emily made for her Dad. It says "Hogs and Kisses". It was all her idea, and she had such a great time putting it together and decorating it. You can see the little drawing she made of her Dad right above the pig's tail. Cute.

Snow Day

February 2009

After waiting a few months for us to collect some snow "gear" and for a good snow to come in the mountains nearby, we got to take our much-anticipated snow trip. Living in Fresno we don't encounter snow, well, ever at our house, so it was kind of a big excursion to go visit for a few hours. I found some good deals on snow pants and boots on ebay for the kids and Kevin and I had our old stuff from when we lived in Utah...yes you all can laugh who live in the snow, but hey, they don't even sell snow-appropriate clothes around here! We can't just walk into Target like the rest of you and buy what we need!

So the day finally came: we had all our warm clothes together, it snowed on a Friday and was a beautiful clear day on Saturday. Perfect. We packed up some lunch and headed up the road into the Sierras fo about an hour and decided on the first snowy place we found - our friend's cabin! They weren't there, but the long driveway had about 6-8 inches of snow, just enough for a little sled track and some deeper snow in the back where Emily could make her first snow angel. This was really Emily's first time ever to play in the snow, so she was really excited.

She especially liked to eat the snow - she knew not to eat anything yellow!

I was the one with the camera the whole time, so I am not in any pictures, but I was there!

Here's Emily making her first (and only) snow angel.

Allison didn't have any boots so we tried to wrap her feet in plastic bags to keep them dry...doesn't she remind you of the kid in that movie "Christmas Story"? She wasn't quite sure what to think of the snow. She tried to touch it a few times but of course her hands were all covered in her mittens. She loved wearing those mittens, by the way.

We got a few good sled runs in. The driveway wasn't very steep so it was just the right spot for Allison to have a go at it. We previously tried a few spots that were a bit steeper, but I had to sit at the bottom and catch Emily before she went flying all the way down the mountain. We weren't able to make a snowman (probably what Emily was most looking forward to doing) because the snow was too powdery, but after about an hour we did get into a little snowball fight which ended in a mis-aimed snowball to Emily's face from dad and a bunch of tears and screaming about being cold. So we took our "lunch break" in the car and just headed back home. So we spent a total of several weeks getting ready, at least two hours driving, and about 80 minutes actually playing in the snow. But it was fun. Now we are going to have to wait until we get more snow next year to do it again!

Emily's Update

January 2009

Emily is our moody four-year-old. I think sometimes she is bipolar because she goes from being super happy lovey sweet to tantrum angry pouty in a matter of seconds. I think it's just her age, though! I choose to remember the times she says "You are the best mom ever and I love you more than anyone else in the whole world loves their mom" over "You're always mean to me and you are the worst mom ever!" Can you blame me? She begged to get her hair cut for a few months, so after I took the girls to get their photos we took her to get it chopped off. It actually turned out really cute, and it's much easier to deal with than the longer locks.
In contrast to Allison, Emily is not a big fan of bathtime. Especially having her hair washed.

This was right after she got her hair cut - showing off her orange smile (we get the best oranges from our tree in the backyard) and her new robe, which she would put on as soon as she got home from school in the afternoon and wear for the rest of the evening!

Our Little Cyclone

January 2009

Allison has earned herself the nickname "Cyclone". Everywhere she goes, she leaves a trail of debris behind her. She is a very curious, exploring one-year-old...we didn't get much of that from Emily so it is a big change!

She found her puffs in the diaper bag and figured out how to get the lid off. "What, mom? I'm hungry."

"So I like to shake my bottle and get milk all over my face - what's the big deal?"

"Ha ha! You left the wipes in the diaper bag, too!"She loves bathtime...I included this photo because you can see how she has no teeth. Now two months later, she has seven!