Yes, New Glasses!

Finally, the day Kaia has been waiting for....new glasses! She looks so grown up in these new ones (no more puppy prints). She told the lady helping fit them that she could see so clearly now. It must be wonderful to not look out lenses that are all scratched up. Let's hope being almost nine, she is not quite so rough with them.

Doesn't she look goofy happy? You can't really tell but they are blue with an irridescent sheen to it. Here's a look from the side where you can see the lacy type holes in the frames:

Hoping the excitement to wear new glasses again lasts for awhile....

Is Black Slimming???

No, I'm not talking about my black sweater, but I've always heard that black makes you look thinner. Note the new insulin pump I'm sporting on my hip:)  Don't you think it slims me down??? Seriously, the warranty on my old pump was up, so I was due for an upgrade. After weeks of investigating what's new on the market, I decided to stay with the same ole' thing, only switching from pink to black. I found the pink scratched off way too easily, and I don't think the black will show if it does.

As for why I didn't go with the latest and greatest pumps, there are a couple reasons. First, I love the remote that is directly connected to my glucose monitor, as I use it all the time. Second, there is a new pump out there called Tandem that I seriously considered, but it's more like an iphone, which means I would have to charge it regularly as opposed to using batteries. It seems I always forget to pack a cord or two when I travel, so that would not be a good match for me.  Maybe when the next warranty is up in four years, I'll be ready to venture more out of my comfort zone.  Hope this doesn't mean I'm getting old!

Finally....

I have been meaning to follow up on Jaelyn's birthday post, but we have barely been home as of late. Josh had wrestling Thursday night, Friday night, and all day Saturday, then of course, this morning it was early service, followed sadly by the Seahawk playoff game. I have mustered just enough energy to get some photos up before I go to bed and crash. 

Kids had fun creating their own pizzas. Good job making the crust Dad!

And fun playing Wipeout on the X-Box...

And fun eating cake....

 

 

 

 

 

This summer I bought a couple more of the lotus candles from China that the girls love so much. Funny story; a few of us walked into a bakery looking to buy the candles, but we couldn't find any on display, and no one in the store understood English, nor were they correctly interpreting my mime! Josh got the bright idea to draw a picture of a lotus flower with flames (note he did not get his artistic skills from me) and the female workers giggled, ran to the supply room in back, and brought out a box full of the candles. I think between all of us there, we bought them out. I think they thought we were crazy, but they are such a hit here and so cheap. I think we maybe paid $1.50 or so for one.

Big kids had fun too:)

Josh took third place at yesterday's tournament. There were some tough wrestlers there, and Josh did a great job. I did get him to smile in another photo, but it was blurry, so back to the tough look this post. This coming Thursday night will be another really tough match for him, as well as senior night. Hoping to be able to post a win, and maybe a few tearful photos.

Jaelyn starts up with basketball this week, so that means we will be balancing three sports for the next month or so when wrestling wraps up. This Saturday Kaia has her first gymnastics competition, so I am hoping to have video to post.

Whew, think that's it for now!

Technical Difficulties....

Several family members were poised to watch last night's championship round, which Josh was participating in, at the Everett Classic wrestling tournament. However, due to technical difficulties the matches weren't streamed on the internet.  Have no fear, I had my handy-dandy ipad, so you can have a front row seat for the final round. Spoiler alert...don't scroll further down the page until after viewing the video, or you will already know the outcome.

Wrestlers are not known to smile on the podium, but I asked Josh to do it for me. Thanks Josh!

Grins on our faces right after the second round win:)

Forgot This...

Remember when I mentioned the Chinese Happy Birthday song on Jaelyn's birthday? Well I forgot that I had some of it on video, and it's too funny to not post. Didn't get the Mandarin part on video, but note how loud the music was. Being the fruit lover that she is, Jaelyn went straight for the grapes. See for yourself what happened after that.

Bring on 2013!

2013 is in with a bang, not because it's a New Year, but because it is Jaelyn's birthday! Hard to believe our sweet girl is now nine. We spent a relaxing day at home, and since the weather was beautiful, she got to ride her new bike.  From the smile on her face, I think she likes it!

As usual, Jaelyn chose to go out to our local Chinese buffet for her dinner. We have celebrated there many times before, but this was the first time where they played the Happy Birthday song over their speaker system, in both Chinese and English, and brought out dessert with a candle. Following dinner we played a family game of Life, then ate the Cake Pops we made earlier in the day with the Cake Pop Maker the girls got for Christmas.  Wish me luck, as her friend slumber party is later today:)

One Last Post....

Still three hours left for me to post one more time in 2012 to make up for the past two weeks....

We had a whirlwind Christmas vacation, as we traveled over 1,200 miles in less than a week, as we had to make it back for a wedding on the 29th.  As always, it was nice to be with family for the holidays, and we were able to pull off a white Christmas for the girls!

We first celebrated Christmas with Kellen and his girlfriend before we left. Kellen was able to be with us in Oregon the weekend before Christmas, but he had to return home to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas.

The rock is what Josh wrapped to foil their gift guess. It really was a date night. Note the nerf gun on the couch that Elizabeth got Kellen and Josh.

In Portland we celebrated an evening with extended family, then more family time with a brunch the following morning. There were a total of five generations at the celebrations.

Bradyn, the newest addition with his personalized Christmas Tree name placer since he slept through dinner:)

 

 

 

One of her favorite gifts, stylish headphones.

Jaelyn made us this ceramic cupcake at school....yum:)

Christmas morn we were on the road early, as we knew there would be snow along the way. Our typical five hour journey took eight hours. The girls couldn't wait to play in the snow, and in fact, Josh and two cousins joined them until well after sundown Christmas night. The next day we celebrated yet another Christmas with Mike's family.

Cousins!

This favorite gift was from Mame....Jaelyn wanted a tumbling outfit too, even though she is not in gymnastics. They put on many shows for us. Kaia always played the coach. It was very sweet.

A large percentage of the less than 48 hours we were here were spent playing in the snow!

We capped off the trip by celebrating Kaia's eighth "Gotcha Day" with our family, by going out to Chinese dinner with good friends in Salem on our trip home. We have been friends with the Whitehursts for nearly 25 years now, since our early days in the Navy. Hard to believe how time flies.

Whew, lots of distractions, but I finished the post with 1.5 hours to spare!  Happy New Year! Tomorrow, Jaelyn's birthday.