Growing My Girls

Our other sweet girl - Belle - Feb 9, 2012

2012-02-09T12:39:00.001-06:00

We get stopped all the time by people commenting on how beautiful Belle is and asking about her breed. People have actually made u-turns to come back and ask about her. She's a great ambassador for poodles and for pure breed rescue organizations.

With the move to Florida, I got a little soft and let her start hanging out on the couch with me, which then turned into Belle crashing on the couch for all her naps.

I always had to giggle when she would go prop herself up in the corner of this couch.

She slept curled up too, but those poses never made me want to grab the camera.

I have had Belle in training classes pretty much since we got her, and when we moved up to Level III at the beginning of 2012 we had to make an adjustment to our relaxed living style - no more elevated surfaces.

It only took me three times telling her OFF for her to get the new rules - she's a good dog like that.

Now her naps look like this.

Most of the time she sprawls out, but occasionally she'll curl up into the smallest little ball.

After supper she'll go into the kitchen corner and lay down until I head to bed when she normally follows me and then lays down right outside our door. Its a good spot to keep an eye on the front door and she's an excellent alert dog. When we were in St. Louis for Christmas I thought she was going to raise the roof when Vince & Baka came through the door at 4 am - she knew that wasn't right. The other night Vince got up and opened the window and she sounded the alarm again - good dog.

She hardly ever chooses to sleep on her SPOT. This is an exercise she does when people come to the door - she has to go to her SPOT and stay put, but in any position she wants.

Its quite nice to know I can take care of everything without worrying about her dashing out the door or getting all excited and scaring someone.

If she has to be there long enough, she'll eventually lay down.

The temperament I saw as a puppy is still there - she is calm and relaxed. She gets her exercise every day with a walk, run or bike ride and then an occasional game on the lanai or on the golf course (shhhh) She doesn't play an endless game of fetch - she only likes to chase something four or five times.

She has the best prance - I think this is why people stop when we're out walking.

And she can really jump when she wants to - we are starting to learn jumps in Rally and I hope she learns to like them. She's somehow always known its her job to avoid running into stuff when we're out for a run or bike ride and has yet to wrap herself around a mailbox or lamp post. Now she has to learn she can really go over things if she wants to.

It's a bad photo I know, but its hard to throw the ball and take pictures at the same time.

She likes toys ok - but would prefer pine cones, pine branches, rocks & spanish moss to just about any of them. This is us playing with a pine branch - with her golden green eyes she does get a bit of a wild look, and she looks all tough but she's so mellow for a 1 year old.

"yummm, pine branches are so tasty to chew on"

"Come on Momma - don't you want to chase me?"

"so I can be all silly?"

"this is MY pine branch" (she's really not baring her teeth, she's just got her lips pulled back from the needles)

I think we'll have to keep her - she's one sweet dog.

Tent City - January 28, 2012

2012-01-28T18:29:00.000-06:00

I finally got around to putting up the suitcases we used at Christmas at the end of January.

I did great getting unpacked this year - all the laundry was done the day after we returned, but the suitcases lingered outside the locked spare room.

So of course, when I did unlock the room, the girls hauled out some things hidden away in that room to set up a tent city in our living room.

We need to work a bit on construction techniques, but they were pretty explicit that they didn't want our help.

I call it a city because it seemed as if they moved a little bit of everything in there - books, food, toys, clothes, hair supplies, music, notebooks & crayons.

Part of me cringed each time I looked in because it made me feel like an episode of Hoarders (which I have never watched) could have been filmed under there.

Especially when they decided they were going to camp out and there was only a small corner left for them to sleep in.

But it occupied them for one whole Saturday and they begged us to let them leave it up.

No one even noticed when I finally cleaned up the city on Wednesday.

Christmas 2011 - Dec 25, 2011

2012-01-20T12:02:00.000-06:00

Since we've been married Christmas has always been a bit of a drawn out affair. Living about 1000 miles from your family adds a bit more planning to the normal rush of mid December.

When the girls were younger we would head back to Missouri for two full weeks, then we spent two years at home for Christmas Day going up for one week after Christmas and this year we split the difference - only one week, but including Christmas.

When the girls were little we would just leave their presents under the tree until we got back home after New Year's, but I knew that wasn't going to work now that they are six. So we did our gift exchange two days before we left so the girls could play while I got us packed up to go.

This year American Girl Dolls were at the top of their Christmas lists and a lot of their wishes came true.

This is the third year for these Christmas pajamas. They started at ankle length in 2009 and I think they might give them up when they reach their knees.

We used to fly, but with the addition of Belle to our family, driving is now the way to go - and with the girls and the dog being excellent travelers it makes a 1000 mile journey pretty tolerable. I confess I brag a bit about our only having to stop only twice in 15 hours. The kids make it seem so easy and its nice to have our own car and packing is easier when you know you don't have to drag it through an airport - I actually brought seven pair of shoes and I wore them all!

The very first day at Baka's house the girls found two violins. That made us all a little sad thinking of Dedo and how much he would have enjoyed seeing the girls try to play them. They played them more like cellos than violins and by the second day the noise sounded a tad more musical.

I totally blew it on Christmas Eve and hardly took any pictures at all. The first Christmas we did not get a family photo, but the girls looked adorable and spent most of the evening running around with Andrew and Izabela.

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner at Baka's house with bean soup, fish and unleavened bread to remind us of the life Jesus was born into. Feasting is done on Christmas Day to celebrate his birth.

Now that the younger grandchildren are big enough, they bring in the symbols of peace, trinity and new growth and wish the adults a Merry Christmas before we start the meal. These four certainly know how to make the most of Baka's house when they are together.

The Bange family usually gets together on Christmas Day, but not this year, so we all went to Uncle John & Aunt Lilly's who always have the Kozul Christmas dinner, I think this is only the second time I've been there on Christmas Day in the 14 years Vince and I have been together.

The girls handed down some of their old musical toys, books & CDs to their cousin Oliver who loves music. Getting it all put together for Ollie made me a bit sad, we had such fun in our music classes that we had taken and I had taught. Ollie was so excited about it all though and I hope he enjoys it as much as the girls did.

On the 26th we went to Aunt Mary & Uncle Stephens for the Bange family Christmas. The grandkids (minus the three in Iowa, and one who was napping) all got a picture with Grandpa before he handed out his gifts to them.

The girls simply adore their cousin Maggie - she's 10 and I know I need to pay attention to her fashion sense because its what my girls will want to wear next - they knew where they were going to spend the money Grandpa gave them.

My mom's siblings and families were there too so we had the traditional white elephant exchange followed by the annual boys vs. girls Trivial Pursuit game. The girls won - I don't know that we always win but I think we've won more than 50% of the years we've played - go girls!

The girls went home with Grandma & Grandpa and we went out the next day to get them. They really didn't want to leave the farm, but they wanted us there too. Grandpa tried to teach them his favorite domino game, and while chicken foot can be fun, it takes a long time to play an entire game, so they I think they only played one round.

So our week in Missouri was full of time with family. I'm really hoping that during our summer trip we'll get to spend more time with our friends. Its too bad Vince can't come with us in the summer too.

ASA Christmas Lower School Christmas Program - Dec 14, 2011

2011-12-14T10:15:00.000-06:00

Preschool thru First Grade put on a delightful Christmas program one of the last mornings before the end of school. While having it during school didn't allow Vince to attend it was nice to not have to head back to school at night for the program.

In 2nd grade we'll get to do that.

Each grade did both dancing and singing numbers. Since the girls really enjoy dance its so neat that the dance program does weekly movement classes for all grades, not just the upper school.

Attendance at programs for little kids is always well attended. The school uses this fact as a fundraiser too - at their fall auction you can actually purchase four or eight front row seats for about $800!!!

The first grade girls did a ballet routine set to Silent Night. I only got to see their dance number by holding the video camera up over my head, with the screen tilted down. My arm was aching by the time it was over, but I love watching them dance. It is one activity that they really enjoy doing.

The first grade boys did a more rocking number (I didn't tape it so I don't remember the song), but they used blow up guitars as props and the girls and their best friends were happy to pose back in the classroom after the program was over.

Mother Ginger's Children - Dec 12, 2011

2011-12-12T13:04:00.001-06:00

Finding a dance studio for the girls was one of my priorities when we moved to Florida. We were so fortunate to have such a positive experience with Profusion Performing Arts in Texas and I wanted to find a similar environment for them here.

We were recommended to the Florida Dance Theatre and our first five months with them have been very rewarding for the girls. After trying both a tap and ballet class they opted for two ballet classes. Most children their age would not enjoy two ballet classes a week, but they like both their teachers and its definitely helping improve their ballet technique.

FDT is also home to a professional dance company and they, along with Academy dancers and dancers from the community (over 1000 in the past 12 years) have performed The Nutcracker at another local gem - the Polk Theatre, which was built in the 1920s. We discovered this weekend that the artistic director for FDT, Mrs. Carol Krajacic Erkes, is Croatian (her maiden name was a huge clue), and that her parents had immigrated from near Zagreb to Cleveland, OH where she was born.

Taking part in The Nutcracker seemed like a fantastic idea back in September when auditions took place. Since there wasn't a small dance company for them to belong to, The Nutcracker would give them an opportunity to perform mid year and a chance to dance with and watch the older dancers and professional dance company.

It was a lot of rehearsal time, but I think it was good for the girls. They made new friends - that's what happens when you are banished to the theater basement for four hours at a time - and they got to really see The Nutcracker. I loved seeing them all the way on the end of their seats watching the rehearsals.

They rehearsed for six weeks. Normal rehearsals were quick, but this last week has required a lot of dedication on their (& my) part. They had three 4 hour rehearsals to sit through, which gave them lots of time to watch the older dancers, and yet its a long time for any six year old to sit and not do anything else.

They also did four performances, one each Thursday through Sunday. So between rehearsals and performances with early call times they spent 26 hours this week on The Nutcracker.

Friday night was dress rehearsal and we were welcome to bring our cameras and snap as many photos as we liked - so of course that would be the night that I brought the camera bag with no camera in it. I was a parent volunteer at two of the performances though so I snapped some photos on those days.

The girls portrayed two of Mother Ginger's many, many children. Mother Ginger and the gingerbread children are part of what Clara sees as she travels through the Land of Sweets. It definitely would have been an easier dance with fewer kids, but kudos to Ms. Carol for having such a boisterous group of dancers as part of the Nutcracker Ballet. Another bonus is that the girls got to work with Mr. Freddie, and had their first positive experience working with a male teacher.

The hardest part of being one of the gingerbread children is that the dance happens more than two hours into the ballet - they are the last group of children dancers and the youngest/smallest ones because they need to fit into the gingerbread house (a huge skirt).

The girls were split on opposite sides of the stage so I did not do well with the photos I did manage to get. The only way to find the girls is to look for purple tights and a multi-colored tutu for Alena and red tights and a yellow tutu on Iva. The whole dance is just a blur, but as usual little dancers bring laughter to an audience and their dance was no exception.

I did grab a video on my phone at their first quasi-dress rehearsal at the the theater. It's loud so turn down your volume, Alena is in the first group out from under the skirt, and Iva is in the second.

So now it's only 45 weeks until we start Nutcracker rehearsals again. I think next year they'll get to be part of the Marzipan sheep. They really want to be the black sheep, but they'll have to talk Ms. Carol into creating two black sheep parts.

Florida Benefits - Nov 22, 2011

2011-11-22T14:40:00.001-06:00

When we first told the girls we were going to move to Florida they were excited because we were going to move to DisneyWorld.

Not exactly, but not too far from the truth either.

Turns out that our little abode is about 50 minutes from the magical kingdom of Disney.

At the end of our trip here last year I didn't see us coming back anytime soon and now we're practically living next door.

We made our debut appearance in 2011 for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween. The girls were way more interested in riding than anything related to the actual Halloween party.

It was good practice to know that we could go up in the evening and stay until 10:30 if we HAD to. I was pretty sleepy on the drive home.

We anticipate seeing lots of friends and family the next 12 months at the parks and are off to a great start with visits with the Barada, Marek and Estes families.

Vince's friend Mark and his family came in October. We had a great day together at Animal Kingdom and their teenagers saved Vince & I by taking the girls on Expedition Everestt again and again and again. I like the ride too, but there is no way I could ride it six times back to back. I think they fit in 10 trips that day and we did lots of other fun stuff too.

We made two trips to Epcot last week. It was my least favorite park last year because of all the walking for the kids, but it has some of the best rides and definitely the best food. There was a bit of complaining and we only got to stay for six hours each day because of dance practice in the evening, but we finally did Test Track and the girls loved it, I admit it was better for me than Soarin' and Soarin' is pretty neat.

Over the weekend we went to Hollywood Studios and with the Thanksgiving weekend crowds didn't get as much in as a weekday trip, but again some new things that the girls enjoyed - Indiana Jones Adventure show and Star Tours. I was only good for on trip thru the simulator - motion sickness for sure - but I think the girls went four times. I'll take the Tower of Terror anyday over Star Tours.

So magical memories are going to be a part of life here. Please let us know if you are headed our way!

Right Before My Eyes - November 15, 2011

2011-11-15T12:42:00.000-06:00

I remember when the girls were little and every day was new and different - at least it seems that way looking back. Right now is another time when the girls are growing up right in front of me.

We sent Alena to bed with two straight front teeth, and I went to have lunch with the girls and she looked like this.

Granted, it had been wiggling for a few weeks, but we thought it had a few more days even though she'd been trying to get Daddy to pull it for the past week.

After lunch I had the librarian have a look - she's known throughout school as a wonderful tooth puller. The school nurse was standing nearby and she said she'd pull it too.

I sent the girls off to their class and went down to the library to check on something else and when I came back down the hall Alena was sitting in the nurse's office with a piece of gauze where her tooth had been!

Most definitely the easiest tooth extraction to date - except the one she lost on a piece of Trix cereal. I think we're going to send them to the nurse or librarian from here on out.

So now Alena has joined the ranks of kids who instantly look older than they did a week ago.

We went out to dinner with friends that night and it was late when we got home so her note to the tooth fairy was extremely short. She even had me type it to save time.

Dear Willowglow,

I hope you are having fun in Tooth Fairyland.

Please give me something, just whatever, anything would be fine.

Love,

Alena

Willowglow must have thought she deserved something good for a front tooth because she got a $2 bill just like Iva did.

What's this about dipping wings? Apparently, you can determine the age of your tooth fairy by leaving a glass of water by your bed for your tooth fairy to dip his/her wings and if there is a lot of color and sparkle then your fairy is older, if there is not much color or sparkle then they are younger. Alena's fairy Willowglow has green wings and Iva's fairy Tangletwigs has orange wings. Tooth fairies are lots busier than I ever expected - especially since they make visits when no teeth have been lost.

It's been a month since Iva lost her front teeth and they have already grown in so much. She won't be missing them for long.

Their teeth make it easy to tell them apart for now, but I think they look very similar except for their hair/teeth. I'm curious to see if they have inherited the infamous Bange gap that I and so many of my cousins had.

An Adorable Demonstration - Nov 15, 2011

2011-11-15T10:42:00.000-06:00

All Saints Academy holds a Fall Festival for the Lower School as sort of a kick off for the Thanksgiving holiday. We didn't actually get to experience the Fall Festival since they had to reschedule it due to rain, but it sounds like its a small carnival atmosphere with the Upper School kids earning service hours by operating small game booth, bounce houses and providing small treats.

As part of the Fall Festival they also have small competitions in art, photography, sewing, essay and demonstrations for electricity, milkshakes and something else I can't remember. The demonstrations were something that groups of two could do so it was a perfect fit for the girls, but I was still surprised the day they came home and said they wanted to sign up for the milkshake demonstration because 1) they had never made a milkshake and 2) they tend to get shy in front of adults they don't know.

They've gotten lots of practice dancing for groups of people and so it was good for them to have to speak in front of a few people. If they had gotten to 3rd place they would have had to repeat their demonstration at the Fall Festival (the initial demo was done a few days before). I think they would have been extremely nervous once they got in front of all the other students.

They are so adorable when they giggle and there was plenty of that during their demonstration. They got 5th place out of 12 groups which I thought was good considering there were 3rd and 4th graders "competing" and I had mistakenly put their ice cream in the cafeteria refrigerator instead of the freezer.

They decided to make a mint Oreo shake. Iva's favorite ice cream is chocolate chip mint and they love Oreo added to anything. Blame Ted Drewes for introducing them to this combination.

Iva pounding the Oreos with the meat whacker was LOUD.

They had made a list of the steps they had to do and it was so cute to see them look at the list and see who was supposed to do what - they had it broken down to the smallest steps - Alena puts the lid on and Iva pushes the blender button.

They had smiles the WHOLE time.

Now if they hadn't had those different colored pony holders and Iva wasn't missing teeth - I would have sworn that was Alena holding the glass and Iva was pouring.

I was so proud of them and was happy that I got to see them do the demo, but wondered if they would have done anything differently if I hadn't been in the room. The coordinator took a video so I hope we'll get to see that one day.

Just Nine Days Ago - Oct 16, 2011

2011-10-16T22:30:00.000-05:00

Just nine days ago I took this shot of Iva.

I was headed out of town for the weekend and I knew when I got home her smile wouldn't look the same.

Not that it really looked the same anymore - her permanent teeth coming in had definitely shifted her baby teeth around.

When I got home - her smile looked like this.

Another seven days and an incident with the coffee table and now she has the cutest little lisp.

And I think we'll just miss needing to learn to sing "All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth".

Although Alena might need to learn it - she only has one wiggly one and her smile hasn't changed yet.

Vince can tell you I was more terrified of this change than any other.

I don't know why, but losing their front teeth means they are really growing up - and its right there every time they smile.

I suppose there are many incidents of lost teeth - but Iva swallowed the first front tooth.

I had thought that might happen.

The tooth fairy did a great job handling the situation though.

Iva's note....she loves to add decorative flourishes to almost everything she writes.

and Tangletwig's response

They both LOVED the part about Tangletwigs taking the tooth back to the lab.

for the next lost tooth, they both wrote letters to their tooth fairy. I think it was an attempt to verify their realness.

They were thrilled to get their notes signed, although Iva was disappointed that Tangletwigs has other kids he sees.

And if you think the tooth fairy notes look small here, you should see Vince trying to read them - fairies are small so they have to write small too.

ASA Homecoming - October 14, 2011

2011-10-14T22:00:00.000-05:00

One of the things (advantages...I think) about the girls' school is that it is a total campus - Preschool through High School.

Academically all the infrastructure and R&D that they do to support the upper campus benefits the lower school as well.

And for extra curricular activities the opportunities are amazing.

They offer 15 different sports for middle and high school - hopefully the girls will stick with dance (yes, they offer dance classes at school), but wouldn't golf or tennis or diving or lacrosse be neat too?

I guess the good thing is that they could try just about anything if dance doesn't work out, and I'm sure the opportunities for non-athletic endeavors are just as varied.

This week was Homecoming and that means football.

The dance teacher opens up the half time show to anyone that wants to participate, and for the past five weeks they have been working on the performance.

I don't know how the dance teacher did it - there were SO many girls and so many costumes for the Around the World theme.

The girls were mainly excited because they were getting to do something with new friends (also twins) Lydia & Lyla.

They look happy here, but actually they were very impatiently waiting for Lydia & Lyla to get to the game.

Every 30 seconds it was "Mom, where are Lydia & Lilah? Can you call them?"

When they got there right before the game, their mom told me she didn't know if it would be better or not to have my cell phone number. Her girls were pestering her to no end about what Iva & Alena would be wearing.

Ah, the joys of friendship.

Of course, they look adorable as firecrackers.

and they worked the pose request.

The girls had a great time dancing and of course running around with their friends after half-time.

Spirit Week meant no uniforms. Monday was part of fall break, so they started on Tuesday with Cowboys or Indians, it must be an annual thing because the costumes were much better than your Halloween variety.

Wednesday was sports team day - we don't have any team shirts so we proudly wore our Profusion Performing Arts shirts. Next year I guess we'll get Florida Dance Theatre shirts - might as well support the one sport they do participate in.

Thursday was what you will look like as a grandma/grandpa. I was not creative in this category so I made them wear their uniform. Again, some amazing costumes.

Friday was class colors and 1st grade was stripes - simple & comfy.

Tuesday was the only day I got a picture though - I thought the girls looked darn cute with their Texas belt.

Faces of Battle - Sept 8, 2011

2011-09-08T12:29:00.002-05:00

Today Alena participated in the Battle of the Books.

Alena was one of the top three in her class on the written recall exam last week. Iva was one of 11 students that missed one more question.

Iva was very excited for Alena last week, "I'm just happy that one of us gets to do it, at least one of us is on the team."

Yesterday, Iva was singing a different tune though "I don't want Alena to be in the Battle of the Books, it's not fair - she didn't have to write in her assignment book, and she doesn't have to do her math homework so she can study and she got to do special things with Mrs. D-J."

I made Alena do the math homework anyway.

Battle of the Books was like team game show that covered five books that the grades were assigned to read over the summer (we had to catch up once we got here.) The Kindergarten and First Grade classes (4) competed against each other.

The format consisted of rounds where each class was asked a specific question and then speed rounds where the team that buzzed in first got the opportunity to answer. Wrong answers were penalized.

I was sweating by the time it was over - those questions were tough and were about teeny tiny details of the books. Since the answers had to be the book titles, the questions were worded a bit awkwardly I thought.

Alena's team took second place. The kindergartners definitely gave the first graders good competition. They were quick on the buzzer and very confident, they just didn't always get the right answer. The other first grade team was just faster on the buzzer than Alena's team.

Iva and I got to enjoy the game show together.

More than anything, I enjoyed seeing all of Alena's expressions during the 15 minutes the game lasted.

...relaxed and ready to go during the buzzer check

...listening

...can't believe they didn't get the buzzer pressed fast enough

...not again

...can't believe they didn't get any buzzes during that round

...listening hard

...waiting

...relaxed

...we know this one!!!! (not a buzzer round, they were supposed to just answer, but they raised their hands every time anyway)

With Iva and her 2nd place ribbon - they had a heavy discussion about where they would display it in their room.

Me and my superstars.

The first grade Battle participants.

After all that excitement they had to go take their spelling test and then tomorrow they have their first social studies quiz. This definitely isn't Kindergarten anymore!

Where in the World.... September 2, 2011

2011-09-02T12:20:00.000-05:00

have we been?

It's actually been quite the summer and we're not where we were.

No, we're not in Houston anymore, we're in Florida because of these.

They don't look like much now except big shrubs, but they produce these.

which gets turned into this - and that's why we're here.

On May 18, Vince retired from Anheuser-Busch (now A-B In Bev) after exactly 27 years and two weeks. He was hoping for a summer off where he could test the theory that playing golf everyday really could make you tired of playing golf, but instead an opportunity to work for Coca-Cola came up, and on June 6, he accepted a position with Coca-Cola Refreshments as an Operations Manager at their Main Street facility in Auburndale, FL.

The girls were a little disappointed to learn that we wouldn't be getting Diet Coke since Daddy doesn't make carbonated beverages. Instead now our fridge will be stocked with not from concentrate (NFC) and non carbonated beverages (NCB) - Simply Orange, Lemonade, Limeade, etc, and varieties of Vitamin Water, Powerade, Gold Peak teas, and Minute Maid juices. The plant also makes the smoothie drinks for McDonald's, but we won't get those at home. But we are sure to have room for our beloved Diet Coke and Fresca.

While we both have enjoyed the quality products from Anheuser-Busch during our years with them, I can honestly say that I am a bigger Coca-Cola fan, and have probably had at least one Coca-Cola product a day for the past 20 years.

Just for academic purposes, I'm going to try to remember all his positions with Anheuser-Busch so the girls will know what Daddy did. He started out in Corporate Engineering in May 1984, but moved to Corporate Brewing withing two years of being with the company. He was a liaison between the breweries and Corporate Engineering for 13 years, and brought some really neat technologies to the breweries that I got to work with while I was with A-B. In 1999, he left the corporate world in St. Louis and transferred to Houston, TX to run the Brewing Maintenance Dept. After just 21 months transferred to Williamsburg, VA to do the same and in 2003 he was promoted to Resident Engineer at Williamsburg. At the end of 2006, when the girls were 18 months old, he accepted the position of General Manager, Longhorn Glass in Houston. It was always funny to hear the girls say that their dad made beer bottles when asked what their daddy did.

The juice plant is a different world. First of all, they don't 'make' the juice - they just blend & bottle it. The nicest thing after all those years is that this is one plant that can just be shutdown and everyone can go home. It's a 24/7 operation and it wouldn't be good for it to be without power for long, but none of the wacky things that we both encountered over the years at the breweries and especially the glass plant come into play here.

Vince was a little concerned that the area might feel a little too small town after being in Houston, but its actually a very nice blend of the quaintness that we enjoyed in Williamsburg with just enough city to have the things that we need most of the time. There are two 24 hour Starbucks, so I figured that was a good sign that the town never completely went to sleep.

One of the things that surprised us was that there are hills here. Not too many, just enough to keep the landscape interesting.

There are lakes - lots of lakes. We are living in the city of Lakeland, so I guess its appropriate.

This is one of the attractions of the historic downtown area - Lake Hollingsworth. A 386 acre lake with a perfectly paved 2.8 mile running/walking path around it. It has an average depth of 3.5 ft, but the center must be deeper because there are some BIG boats that go out on it and lots of water skiers. Our real estate agent told us to assume that there is at least ONE alligator in every body of water and I saw my first one on my third trip around the lake - probably only about 4 feet long - but big enough for me to realize that Belle is never going that water.

There are also old Florida homes and large Live Oaks covered in Spanish moss around most of the lake as well as the world's largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in a single site at Florida Southern College which also overlooks Lake Hollingsworth.

Another beautiful lake downtown is Lake Mirror. It has a promenade all the way around and a beautiful set of gardens on one side. I found it interesting that there is a feed store directly across the lake from the botanical gardens, gives it quite the small town agricultural feel.

Lake Morton is also downtown, but has no path. It does have Lakeland's symbol though - the swan - along with all sorts of other water birds that of course people feed. Like us...

...its a little intimidating when the bird you're feeding is as large as you, but the swans were very polite.

We went one afternoon combined with a trip to the library which is open on Sunday (yay!!!) and has large windows overlooking the lake. The library is large, laid out very nicely and opens early and closes late.

In addition to all the loveliness of Lakeland, we are pretty close to one of the tourist capitols of the world - Orlando - there's Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, Legoland and I'm sure lots more.

We're also not far from Tampa, with Busch Gardens, and more importantly beaches with beautiful clear water.

and on a golf course in Lakeland, we found our little oasis here, our new home.

We're not moved in yet - well our stuff from Houston isn't moved in yet - and its not coming for a while. The girls and Belle are having a great time dancing and running around the empty rooms. It reminds us very much of our home in Houston, so it feels like comfortable even without all our belongings. I keep thinking I should know where everything will go when the boxes do get here, and I certainly hope so because this house has the least storage of any home we've had. Oh well, keeps us from just accumulating things we probably don't need anyway.

All our girls have done well with the move. We got here a week before school started and their teacher (they are together in one class this year) invited them in early and spent over an hour making them feel comfortable. They and Belle did wonderful on our journey to Florida which took us first to Missouri for our annual family visit and then to Florida. Buying the minivan before the trip was a great idea.

Belle turned nine months at the end of August and celebrated with a trip to the groomer. At her old place I filled out a questionnaire and always was sure to mark NO for the nail painting, but didn't think about it here so she came home with pink toes - the girls loved it of course.

and something that I find funny about Lakeland....the Busch Family has/had a large estate here. So I'll be chatting with a random person and somehow Anheuser-Busch will come up in the story of how we got here and about 50% of the people have a August Busch III story. Just a little something odd that we would never had guessed about the area.

One other thing that is quirky is the street naming system - and the quirky part is that there isn't a system - it's just a big mess. We're figuring it out of course, but heaven help the poor soul that is trying to get somewhere with only directions and no map.

And so now I hope that I can get back on track and blog about some of the fun stuff we did in the missing months.

the past few months with Belle - July 17, 2011

2011-07-17T11:11:00.002-05:00

I have been doing an awful job of keeping my blog current this year...I just keep thinking things will slow down and I will sit down and catch up, but so far it hasn't happened. The reasons why will have to wait until I can blog about them.

Babies grow up so fast, and our puppy Belle is no exception. She is a fabulous dog and I'm happy she's part of our family.

We've taken a bit of a break this summer from training, but she's still keeping the basics down even with the chaos that the summer has brought with changes in our routine.

A few recent photos (from my phone) of her.

Her sweet face....

and her LONG legs

Since my last Belle post we figured out how to use the treadmill, which took one five minute session, and now she happily walks along whenever we can't get out to get a walk in during the early morning. Still not to the point where I can put her on and leave the room, but she's done 45 minutes at a time without issue. Funny how it seems to go faster sitting or standing beside her than when I'm on the treadmill myself for 45 minutes. At least one member of the family is getting some use out of this machine.

She still pulls a bit on her leash during a regular walk to get to smells, but we are working on heeling. We are also so spoiled by living at the back of a development where there are still some undeveloped areas that are not fenced off - so we'll go walking off leash and she gets to run around following scents and chasing birds to her hearts content - sometimes she evens decides to play in the mud in one of the ponds - that's usually at the right frequency (every two weeks or so) to give her a bath so she stays nice & soft. Just a few times I've gotten out so early that I didn't think we meet any distractions (people or dogs) and left her off the leash on the sidewalks along the road. She did great waiting for me when I called to WAIT and STOPing at all the crosswalks just like we practice, but I know she loses all sense of hearing when she sees another person and especially another dog.

She also walks/trots beside the bike now, which is a nice addition to our exercise options. I can't go fast because she's still growing, but its better than going for a walk because she stays more focused and doesn't try to spend so much time in the grass.

She's about 45 pounds now and her back is as tall as the baby gates. I guess she'll still grow a little bit taller, but she's getting close to her full size (I hope). The rescue told me she'll turn gray by the time she's six and already at seven months we noticed the first gray hairs on her back - now at almost eight months I'm seeing a few more. She is just so soft and her hair is so full it's like petting a blanket. She's not much of a snuggler though, except first thing in the morning and then she'll push up against you. The rest of the time I feel she's more like a cat, just content to be in the same room with you. When she wants to play, she'll bring a toy over and give it to you to throw for her - she loves to play fetch in the house, but she'll only fetch outside one or two times before she won't go retrieve.

The girls still love on her, and I'm glad she's a big dog and can handle their hearty hugs - pics from April.

Belle playing with a stuffed beaver that I had to bait with dried liver to get her to chew on. Funny how she'll go pick up one of the girl's stuffed animals, but ignore her own. But she knows she's not supposed to have them and drops them immediately when I ask. She hasn't destroyed anything yet - ok, one feathered toy fan - but feathers are rather fragile and even a slight mouthing does them in.

And our last playdate with Miko in April, his mom is a swim coach and swim season started and we didn't get to play with Miko anymore.

.

Pictures always make dog play seem so rough, but they have such a great time wrestling.

Dance is Done (for 8 days) - June 11, 2011

2011-06-12T11:54:00.000-05:00

The girls dance studio, Profusion Performing Arts, has a very full schedule. May & June are incredibly busy months at the studio with preparation for recital going into full swing and with the end of school craziness, birthday and Mother's Day, May almost seems like a busier month than December.

One of the May activities for the Perisseia Dance Company was the end of the year banquet where each set of sisters exchanged picture frames and then the instructors handed out special awards. Iva was presented with Miss Flexible, which was a highly accurate special award. Alena received Miss Coordinated which might have been a bit of a stretch, but she does work hard. This group of girls has been a wonderful influence on the girls and just amazing to watch what they'll be able to achieve if they keep working hard.

We spent ALL day at dress rehearsal, not because we had to, but because the girls were having so much fun running around and hanging out with the older girls. They were there from 11 am until 9:30 pm which was lots of fun for them, and I did enjoy getting to see all the dances in full costume.

Recital day was good. I volunteered to help the class back stage...this made it a not so fun day for me and I didn't get to see all the little kids dance. The girls were dance #15 & #18 so they had a tight turnaround - we were changing them in the hall from ballet to jazz. I did not get cute pics of their jazz outfit - once that was over they had had it with me and were ready to just run around. They performed their Company dance at each of the big girl shows. I really enjoyed watching those performances - but it was long, I think there were 27 numbers in those shows. The girls were running around with one of their friends, who happens to be one of the dance teacher's daughters, and when a different version of one of their songs came on they ran up on the side of the dance and started dancing - cute, but not so cute at the same time. At least they were having fun.

and at the end of it all the girls look very glamorous taking a bath with their stage makeup on - seeing how cute they look should make me make the effort to dab a bit on myself some days.

They got an eight day break before summer classes started. I signed them up for hip hop and jumps & turns because those are two classes that we don't have time to take during the regular school year. They lasted one day in hip hop before deciding they didn't want that and we went back to ballet. Then I got the times wrong and we came during a tap class which they loved so we added tap, and then because we were already at the studio for jumps & turns we added jazz back too - so four hours each week of dance. They are in the next level of each of these classes this summer and I can definitely see the improvement that comes with slightly more difficult training. I'm just happy they have found a form of exercise that they enjoy, since they haven't found any sort of outdoor activity that they want to do - the looks they can throw out when I even suggest riding their bikes. I think they'd rather walk over hot coals (or at least hot concrete bare foot) than ride their bikes.

A Dash to the Beach- May 29, 2011

2011-05-29T16:31:00.003-05:00

The morning after Kindergarten graduation we headed off to Alabama.

It took almost 10 hours before we arrived in Ft. Morgan, a quiet, lovely, more natural beach just west of Gulf Shores.

We were going to go to Gulf Shores since we've heard so many great things about it, but Gulf Shores is not dog friendly and it didn't make sense to leave part of the family at home.

I won't be able to give our vacation perhaps the glowing review it deserves because I am just not a beach person. Too much wind, too much noise and too much sand everywhere - but I'm pretty sure the rest of the crew enjoyed it immensely.

The first night the girls entertained themselves by turning their carseats into a rocket and blasting off to outerspace. The armrests did stuff and the radio was some sort of control system. They must have been reading books about outerspace the last week of school to think of this.

They were ready before breakfast the first day with their suits on.

The house we rented was very nice because it had PLENTY of room and it was part of a little neighborhood that had two pools, so when they were tired of the beach they could go swimming. Vince and Baka loved the balcony and sat outside most of time. It was nice to eat out there with no flies or mosquitoes bothering us.

Fun at the Beach

Fun at the Pool

We were working swimming underwater & diving and they worked out some of the early kinks, but I can see we need some lessons again this summer.

The next day at the beach we made a dragon - complete with back scales. The girls were ready to go to the pool again and so they didn't get a photo with their dragon. They took Daddy to the pool this time because "he's more talented." Baka stayed at the beach ALL day on Saturday. I liked the house being nearby so I could take naps and read.

Belle did great at the beach. We didn't bring her crate and she hardly ever had to be on her leash. I hope she keeps being a great dog - she's off to such a great start. Baka is not a dog person, but Belle tried everyday to change her mind. She also doesn't like the waves - I know she doesn't mind water, but she wouldn't go into the water when the waves were rolling. The first morning we came back from our walk & the girls were in the water and she jumped in - she looked surprised and then a wave pushed her out. I'd take her out for a 2 mile walk each morning and one day she picked up a coconut from a camp fire nibbling on it as we went along and the last morning she picked up a dead bird. Of course I didn't have any treats on me to trade, but she never tried to eat it. She carried it for a half hour and then put it down when we got home to get a drink. I think she could be taught to retrieve, and its fun to watch her bird instincts kick in.

The girls got into piggy tails somehow on this trip, and they looked so cute I was happy to put them in every morning.

When it was time to pack up they loved helping Dad put everything in the back of the truck. A minivan would have been more comfortable, but I don't think all this stuff would have fit in the back.

We took our group beach photos on the way out. The girls were upset that they were squinting in the family photos. I didn't scout my location very carefully to be out of the sun, and they wanted to make sure I had some pictures where their hands were not covering their eyes.

The roads between here and Gulf Shores made the drive easy - even at 10 hours. We had to stop in Beaumont on the way home so the girls could get a necklace they had seen on the way out of Texas. Alena was very interested in where we were going and spent a lot of time looking at the atlas. They can add three more states to the list of states they've been in - Virginia, Missouri, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama - still lots more to go, but now that we're figuring out this driving thing it'll be easier to add states to the list.

Now they are 1st Graders! - May 25, 2011

2011-05-24T13:28:00.001-05:00

Even though I was ready for school to be out for about six weeks, now that the girls have graduated from Kindergarten it just seems impossible that this year is over.

Wasn't it just a few posts ago I was sending them off for their first day of school?

Part of me feels like they have changed more this year than ever before, but I know that's not possible. They have grown so much though - and definitely have turned into girls - I'm not even for sure that little applies to them anymore. They seemed years older in their caps and gowns.

Graduation was the first time I wished SMMCS had a stage. They had the classes sit up in the front in their itty bitty lunch chairs and it made them all look SO small again. Iva was all the way on the left in the back row and Alena was all the way on the right in the back row - so they were really hard to see.

It had already been a long day for the girls by the time graduation commenced. School, then dance practice then a quick treat at Fruitti Tutti, and then into graduation clothes.

The ceremony itself didn't take long. They all seemed a little nervous as they went up to get their diploma. The teachers did a great job of trying to crouch down so parents could get a quick snapshot.

After the diplomas, the classes did a three little songs. This one was my favorite - 1st Grade, 1st Grade set to the tune of New York, New York.

After the performance came the kids favorite part - a slideshow from the teachers with scenes from the year. Alena has already watched it two dozen times in the 5 days since graduation.

Even though it was like herding cats to wrangle the girls for a few photos after it was all over I'm glad I did. I probably remember my Kindergarten teacher as well as any other teacher I've ever had, and these two teachers were special indeed.

We were so happy to have Vince's mom with us for this special day.

But the girls were so sad to be leaving their classmates - especially these two guys who won't be coming back to SMMCS next year. Matt & Caden are so sweet and I think they all loved to chase each other around the playground, so we girls went to Chick-fil-A to have dinner with the boys and let them play a little bit longer.

Even though Kindergarten was lots of fun, the girls are not looking forward to 1st Grade nearly as much. Mostly because after 1st Grade comes 2nd Grade and in 2nd Grade there are "no more centers", and they are fun loving kids.

and so we don't forget their classmates or how much they've changed in one year....

A Hip Hop Bash at Six - May 14, 2011

2011-05-14T13:50:00.000-05:00

This year I decided we'd finally have theme birthday party.

I love their dance studio and thought that this may be the last year we get to have a co-ed party, and I was naive enough to think that if I hosted it somewhere like this I'd finally get a chance to chat with the other mommies.

Hip Hop still wasn't cool enough for most of the boys though - they would have much preferred running around outside - so they made do running around the studio.

We did a few things different this year. The girls helped with food prep. We baked chocolate chip cookies for 3 hours (instead of cake) and then they helped make four different kinds of tortilla rollups - PB, honey & sunflower seeds, turkey & cheese, BLTs and something very close to a St. Louis P'sghetti's sub sandwich - YUM. They love getting to help doing something that is just a little more complicated than they can really handle.

Somehow this is the ONLY photo I got of them with their cookies.

I did manage to get a photo of them with each of their guests though - so at least this year we'll remember who came.

Their oldest friends - Sarah & Olivia. We met them our 2nd week in Texas at church. They've moved farther away so we don't see them as much anymore so it was great they could come to the party - bearing Squinkees as gifts.

Actually all our twin friends were able to make it. I only sent out 9 invites and we had 17 kids there - adds up quick when almost everybody is a multiple.

The boys had finally gotten into the spirit of the party by gift time. Matthew & Andrew, along with Noah, Isabella & Sofia gave the girls two LaLaLoopsey dolls.

Cecilia & Albertito added some clothing to the LaLaLoopsey doll collection.

Gabby & Izzy gave them these decorate it yourself messenger bags that they have been begging for at the store. This will be a summer project for me as it involves an iron.

Dance friend Halle gave them some more fun crafty things to do this summer and some LaLaLoopsey doll pencil toppers (LaLaLoopsey is very cute & very popular right now).

Iva's big sister Marissa from dance was able to come and gave them the cutest outfits.

Our neighborhood friends Maggie & Ellis gave them new Barbie dolls.

And their best friend from school, Hannah, surprised them with a LaLaLoopsey doll each!

As for gifts from mom & dad - we gave them some foot undeez (dance footie things) and Jennifer Lopez, Rhianna & Brittney Spears CDs. Never imagined I'd be getting them such popular music at this age, but I love to see them dance.

They were SO tired - May 6, 2011

2011-05-07T13:53:00.002-05:00

Even though the girls totally stick with the whole "I'm in Kindergarten so I don't have to a take a nap anymore" routine, it doesn't take much for them to fall asleep in the car.

This was on a Friday afternoon on the way home from school - and school is only five miles away. It takes a bit of time through all the lights and stop signs - obviously just long enough to fall asleep.

The domino effect from Iva onto Alena's leg and Alena onto the 3rd carseat (for our friend Lauren we brought home three days a week) was too cute not to take a few pictures before waking them up because it was too hot even in the garage to let them sleep.

Belle gets Bigger - April 8, 2011

2011-04-08T20:25:00.000-05:00

Belle is bigger....much, much bigger.

I wish I had taken a good picture of how tall she was when we got her - but she's put on 12 pounds in the last 5 weeks, so she's a growing girl for sure.

Belle last week....

Belle shortly after we got her in a snapshot by a doggy daycamp leader - like Mom's Day Out - only for dogs instead of kids.

Hey - she's 2.5 in dog years, she's gotta get socialized.

Dog camp once a week allows me have a day to get lots of errands run without worrying about her at home, and has been super beneficial for her - she's definitely not shy around other dogs anymore.

She's still fairly calm for a puppy. I have to bait her chew toys for her to even take them - she has a beaver that opens to put a squeaker in (and came with 4 spare ones) and I actually have to put dry liver in it for her to chew on it. She could care less about the squeaker.

She liked this rock for about a week - that was pretty cute.

The girls wish she could just be a movable fuzzy pillow. They like smothering her with hugs and calling her silly names like Curly.

They took it to heart when I said we needed to teach Belle to drink lots of different ways - she will now accept water even from a spoon.

Poodles were originally used for retrieving water fowl - and Belle seems to have some bird dog instinct - she'll stop and watch most birds as they fly overhead. Not having any experience with poodles before, she reminds me most of a Labrador when we are out on our walks, and we're often asked if she's a Labradoodle - but I'm pretty sure she's 100% poodle.

She's doing great with her obedience training, but we can see the streak of independence she has. Our list of cues has grown from Watch Me, Sit & Down to include - Let's Go, Go Potty, Load Up, Leave It, Drop It, Come, Park It and Stay. We're also working on Place, Bed, Get It, Bring It, Relax, Inside, Outside, This Way, Find Alena, Iva, Mommy. I've been walking her off leash out behind our house where there is limited traffic/people and its so much fun for both of us, but she's getting lazier about coming when called unless I hide - then she's in a rush to find me. So it seems that even when it looks like she's not paying attention, she is paying attention - its just that independent streak showing up.

Yesterday Belle met up with Miko, a Doberman that is 3 days older than her. Miko belongs to the girls' swim instructor and is a bit shy. Well, Belle wouldn't let him get away without playing and talked to him until he got in the game.

Iva was home sick, she didn't get as much out of the playdate as the dogs did, but she did help get them a drink.

It's getting so hot here already, if we don't get out early in the morning it's pretty miserable for us both later in the day. We started off with three walks a day when we first got her, now we're down to 1 and sometimes a 2nd one in the evening. Maybe she'll be the first one in our family to reliably use the treadmill - that will be some training fun!

At Long Last - April 4, 2011

2011-04-04T19:28:00.000-05:00

there's another story....

no, there have been lots of stories, just not so much time to write about them.

This long "at last" story is about Iva finally losing her second bottom tooth - 3 months after it probably should have come out.

The adult tooth is all the way out - and now we are just hoping that it floats forward, nice and cozy next to her first one.

Iva is just not a wiggler - at least not of her teeth.

When she's supposed to sit still - now that's another matter.

Vince kept after her to let him wiggle it.

And each time she would say "yes, but not right now."

I had somewhere to go Sunday afternoon and so I told her how exciting it would be if I came back home and she had lost her tooth.

I wasn't gone an hour when I got the call that she had done it! I was so happy for her, and yet bummed that I had missed the excitement.

A final push forward with her top teeth and Vince was finally able to grab it.

The girls made darling notes for Tangletwigs, well Alena left hers under her pillow for her own tooth fairy,Willowglow, but Tangletwigs read it anyway.

You'll remember that Willowglow didn't leave Alena's second tooth back in December.

Alena believes it's because she lost her tooth right at bedtime, and there wasn't enough time for her write a note, and so she asked Daddy to do it, and he fell asleep without getting it done.

The girls just giggle over the notes their tooth fairies leave.

This time Tangletwigs had a message for Alena too!

Nextstar Dance Competition - March 12, 2011

2011-03-12T20:35:00.016-06:00

The girls competed in their 2nd dance competition for the year and this time their team took home a trophy!

They received a high gold placing, 1st place trophy in their category and best of all the Most Fun to Watch Judges Award. It really is a cute routine, and their outfits look great on stage - and of course, the team does a great job for a group of 5/6 year olds.

One more competition, then a couple months of practice for recital and the dance year will be over. They have really enjoyed dance this year and love to dance now at home - that makes me happy.

Our New Baby - Belle - March 10, 2011

2011-03-11T11:36:00.000-06:00

We did it - we got a D.O.G.

It all happened a little faster than I guess I imagined it would - otherwise I'm sure I wouldn't have actually taken the girls to the Poodle Rescue just to have a look around.

The girls, naturally, have been asking occasionally about a dog for over a year.

Our first delay strategy was that we couldn't get a dog until after we had gone to Disney World.

Then we couldn't get a dog until after Christmas.

I've been watching the poodle & schnauzer rescue sites and finally just decided that I wouldn't really know if we wanted to adopt a dog from there unless we actually went and looked.

So...for a surprise after Iva's Occupational Therapy appointment three weeks ago I took the girls out for a look.

As we're getting out of the truck, Iva assures me that we're just here to look and that maybe we'd get a dog when she was six or seven.

Well, let me just tell you that lasted exactly 30 seconds after we saw the puppies.

I thought we would get a "mature" dog, but at the poodle rescue the dogs aren't fostered so they really don't know their temperaments and didn't feel comfortable letting us in with the older dogs, and it was just our luck that they had just gotten a litter of 11 week old standard poodle puppies in that day.

We started first by looking at a male - but then I saw how big his paws were - and quickly switched over to the females.

The girls called their daddy and pleaded for a puppy. We managed to hold them off until later and we went home to talk about it.

Puppies...who really can say no to a puppy?

Turns out - I couldn't.

So that night I didn't get much sleep - read the first few chapters of one of Cesear Milan's books (I ♥ ebooks) and went back the next morning by myself with a much more critical eye of choosing a puppy for temperament not looks.

So that's how we ended up with Belle - although who could even resist this fuzzy face (in a a very fuzzy cell phone photo).

She didn't bark and she didn't jump all over the fence when I walked up - but she was interested in what was going on. I spent about an hour with her and decided that she would be the perfect addition to our family and filled out the adoption form.

Then I didn't sleep for the next 5 nights.

It's a good thing God gives us nine months to get ready to bring a baby home - I crammed a lot of worry into those 5 days.

She was a doll on the the trip home - like she'd been riding around in trucks forever.

And she seemed to feel comfortable soon after we brought her home.

These first two weeks have been a reminder of the realities of having a baby.

But Belle really is a good puppy - if she's around a calm person you would never guess she's a puppy.

It took a few days for all my little girls to get used to each other.

But they are going to be great companions I think.

They have to work out a few quirks - like not wanting to wipe their fingers every time they treat her when working on a command. And remembering to smother her with affection when she's doing things we want her to do - like laying calmly in the car or sitting quietly in her playpen. Most of the time Belle is so quiet you really can forget she's here...she is like a baby though, those early evening hours when its rush, rush to get everything done she sure would like a little attention.

One of her many good qualities is that she doesn't seem to be a chewer...not yet anyway.

Most people would see this as a good thing - but for me it means I can't find anything that she'll entertain herself with - any toy you see in any photo was just an attempt to find something - all ignored.

She is fond of bully sticks - but those are for outside chewing only...stinky!

One afternoon I brought a few things out from the garage.

Belle loved the hula hoop & Frisbee for about for about 1 minute each.

But it was a cute two minutes.

She seems to be a bit more attached to this red plastic cup Alena brought out later.

I've actually gotten her to chase it a few times for a few days...but even it seems to be losing its luster.

She doesn't like her crate much, but is content in her playpen. I crate her when I leave the house and I always feel bad luring her in there with a KONG filled with food and then shutting the door - I know that's not how its supposed to work.

Her worst fault is that she has a bit of separation anxiety. She'll fall asleep in an instant if I sit at the table next to her play pen, but she'll pop up on the fence and whine if I go on the other side of the counter to work in the kitchen.

We go for a few walks a day, and she's getting progressively more confident on the leash. The first day she was still SO puppy and just followed along so sweetly. By day three her nose kicked into gear and now she's following it about 50% of the time instead of paying attention to what I'm doing, but I'm sure we'll get that straightened out soon.

I've been trying to get her out & about and used to people. Since we have nice weather she's been out in front of the dance studio for about 6 hours already. Its a great way for her to get used to seeing lots of people and being cool about the whole thing - she definitely is more jumpy with kids than with adult females.

We've been working on sit and is pretty solid on command with no treats, she knows she has to sit before I'll pet her and it was so funny (& a proud mommy moment) to watch her sit down automatically when a mom would walk by her going into the dance studio - she did it three times in a row. Sadly they all missed the nuance of her being so good so she didn't get any petting as a reward. She also let a three year old make all kinds of crazy faces and sounds about 6" away from her face off & on over a period of 10 minutes and didn't go crazy - hopefully all good signs about her overall sweet temperament.

She was starting to get really good at down as well, but then I stopped working with her as much because she had an upset tummy for 5 days and we were trying to figure that out, but it seems like she's doing much better now and so we're really going to start working on her doggy manners.

And since we're having company for Spring Break I thought she should get a new shorter hair do for the occasion.

She made herself cozy on Alena's lap (who stayed home sick) on the way to the groomers.

Iva was VERY concerned that she wouldn't be fluffy anymore, but she looks more poodle than ever now. We're going to miss her soft puppy hair once she turns one.

She's definitely grown since we brought her home. No one assumes she's a puppy since she's almost 20 pounds already , but she's still pretty skinny - and mostly legs. I'm sure the next nine months will be full of adventures with Belle as we make her part of our family.

Starquest Dance Competition - February 20, 2010

2011-02-24T10:32:00.000-06:00

The girls had their first real dance competition this past Sunday where they performed Shake Your Tail Feather by the Cheetah Girls.

The real deal caused quite the transformation compared to the first public performance their company did last fall.

Dad was NOT happy about the fake ponytail, makeup & lashes - but I guess that all comes with stage performance.

Secretly, I think the girls really liked all the 'extras', but I'm glad we can explain how all that stuff should be saved for performance.

I missed the whole thing because I was off in Austin running my second half marathon.

We didn't beat our time from back in December - turns out hills, heat & humidity are harder to run in than the cold & wind. But it was a great run and I'm pretty sure we'll go back next year to see if we can do better. I dare anyone to say though that the last 2.5 miles of the half marathon didn't kick their bottom - those hills were the worst of the entire route.

Anyway...back to the dancers.

Kendall's dad was photographer extraordinaire and got pictures of everything.

This is the girls fully made up and one each of them partially done.

Alena is in the fake cheesy smile stage right now.

I think maybe I ought to trim those lashes just a bit for the next competition - they seem really long.

When I was washing off all the glitter Sunday night I couldn't figure out how they got the glitter on their lids - chapstick apparently is the key to eye glitter application - go figure.

One of the many things I love about the girls' studio is that they pray before performances as a group.

Such a great reminder to ask for God's grace and guidance throughout life.

Their teachers said they had fun - which is the most important thing. They were competing against older girls so they didn't win this one, but now that they've got one show under their belts they can start to really clean up their routine and hopefully they'll bring home a trophy in one of their next two competitions.

Just three weeks until their next competition - I'm looking forward to seeing them give it their all again.

Someday - February 12, 2011

2011-02-12T12:44:00.000-06:00

This photo is from last fall one day when Iva took an unexpected nap on the couch.

She's snuggled up with her very special blanket - Greens.

I had registered for these blankets and received them at my first baby shower.

I already can't remember when the girls started to become attached to them, but I know I used them for nap time once we moved them into their cribs - so somewhere around 4 months.

Sometime around 3 years (I think that's when it was - I should have written this down) Iva started rubbing one specific corner.

This meant that she knew which Green was hers, and it was a specific corner that had to be rubbed.

Every night she would take one blanket and run her fingers along the edge feeling each corner until she found the corner that was the one.

Alena tried to have a corner too - to be just like sissy - but she didn't need to rub something to fall asleep.

Slowly, over the course of the next two years the corner slowly developed a little hole from all the rubbing, which we told her it meant her blanket was loved - just like in the story of the Velveteen Rabbit.

I know it probably won't be too long now before she decides she's too old for her blanket.

I know mine was in small pieces by the time I was in Kindergarten - I remembering having a little shred of it once on the school bus.

I want her to remember how special Greens was, and how she didn't go to sleep for years without her beloved blanket.

The Ups & Downs of Iva - February 4, 2011

2011-02-04T17:21:00.001-06:00

No doubt about it - the past six weeks have been pretty rough on Iva.

This past week her next rough patch started on the weekend.

We were at JUMP Dance Convention on Saturday where the girls and the rest of their company dance team were supposed to attending a three hour dance class and learn routines in Jazz, Ballet, Tap & Hip Hop.

I think it was only 20 minutes into the first discipline when Iva started complaining about coughing while she was dancing.

I said her throat didn't have anything to do with her feet and she should keep dancing.

A few minutes later she was back again and this time I felt her forehead and she was hot, so I left her with another mom and ran down the street to get some ibuprofen.

Even after a dose of ibuprofen she wasn't feeling up to it - and we had to sit outside the room during tap because it was just TOO loud in there.

Alena wasn't able to pay much attention either as she was too concerned about sissy.

Of course, once the three hours were up, Alena, Iva and their friend Halle - who had also struggled a bit to stay focused (it was quite the circle of concern) - suddenly all felt peppy and started chasing each other around the room.

That's when I decided it must have been a bit of sensory overload.

They were part of a group of 150 five to seven year olds being taught incredibly difficult dance moves by ONE teacher - it was pretty insane.

The most insane part?

This group of young dancers was scheduled to kick off the competition phase of the convention by doing the Jazz, Ballet & Hip Hop numbers that they had just learned.

Iva said she wanted to do it - and I told her, well at least you can smile, figuring she hadn't learned much anyway and she would probably be hidden by some taller seven year old.

Wait - the insane part is coming...

When the dancers all came out on stage - Halle pushed her way right to the front and Iva & Alena came right up with her - and they actually did a pretty decent job with the routines.

So our lesson was - they aren't so fond of practice but boy do they love to perform!

There wasn't supposed to be any video or photography, but I'm working on getting some :).

Sunday morning was Vince's first half-marathon.

So it was an early start to our day - we were downtown waiting for Daddy to run past us by 7:15.

It was a completely different experience than my half-marathon back in December.

At least at 7:15 it wasn't raining.

But by the time we saw Vince, hustled back to the truck, and made it around to mile 8 it was raining - not hard, but enough that I put the girls in their ponchos and we walked down the block just in time to see Vince run past.

We had hoped to catch him again at mile 10, but we missed him somehow.

I had really hoped to make it down to the finish line - but the girls were tired of watching runners and were much more interested in their movie, plus I got a little turned around trying to even get back downtown with the road closures so we missed him crossing the finish line.

There is a video if anyone does want to see it - Vince is in a red shirt and comes into view on the upper right at 2:40.23 and crosses the line at 2:40.32. He started in the second wave though, so his official time was 2:28.57.

The people pouring through the half marathon finish is amazing - there were 9472 starters for the half and 9351 finishers. That lone person crossing the finish line on the right during the video- that was the 16th finisher of the FULL marathon. Amazing that someone ran 26.2 miles in the same time Vince ran 13.1 and that there were 15 people that did it even faster!

All through Sunday Iva continued to have fever, headache and coughing so I knew she wasn't going to school on Monday.

I decided I had to tell Alena before the next morning because she would surely revolt and not want to go.

Got that 100% right.

There were tears Sunday night and again Monday morning, but we got Alena and Smokey bear back to school, and Iva and I hung out on the couch all day.

We repeated that series of events on Tuesday as well - but included a trip to the doctor where Iva was officially diagnosed with influenza - where she had a repeat of the crying and kicking after the first nostril swab.

Can't say I blamed her - they shove that thing WAY up there.

I would say the germs would have been at the tip of her nose - I must throw away a hundred tissues a day - they are everywhere in our house!

We did manage to take Alena to dance practice both Monday & Tuesday and had Iva watch - hopefully she absorbed some of the routine and didn't get anyone else sick.

Wednesday she was still not well enough to go to school, but we went to Mass anyway because it was Iva's turn to receive a Citizenship award.

She still looks a little under the weather in these photos.

And it had to be one of the coldest days ever in Texas - a frigid 25 degrees.

Thursday she was looking much better but I decided I'd let her stay home one more day - but we got out and went to the gym and ran a few errands before picking up Alena from school.

I was all ready for everyone to be back at school on Friday.

But alas, the weather forecast called for ice and snow and so we knew by noon on Thursday that there would be no school on Friday.

And alas, this morning there was only ice - no snow. So we are stuck at home where I am finally blogging and the girls are dancing, coloring and playing school - all fine choices for when its too dangerous to go anywhere.

It feels like Sunday to me for some reason.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to get up and run 10 miles.

It will feel like Saturday then - a cold, icy Saturday.