Fashion Week.

This week was Fashion Week in the Strong household.  The week started off with Kendall coming home from school with this fancy hairdo.  One of her teachers loves to style her hair.  Some of the hairdos are amazing, so I thought I would capture this one.  What I cannot figure out is how does Miss Cheyenne get Kendall to sit so still for so long? 

Then there was Sid's new do.  Sidney has Aunt Stephie's crazy hair (as we have dubbed it).  It is a little bit straight, a little bit curly, very thick and certainly has a mind of its own.  The unfortunate thing is that my hair is NOT this way, so I have very little experience with it.  One of my favorite styles for my sister (and there have been many) is when she embraces her curls.  So that is what I decided to do for Sid.  We took her to get a new haircut.  We gave her bangs.  I was not sure how that would go, but the hair lady seemed to think it would be just fine and I was dying to see more of her beautiful little face.  The we tapered the sides and cut shorter layers in the back.  Then the hair lady gave me a short lesson in "curl scrunching".  Sidney probably does not care either way at this point, but she has definitely embraced the sassy new do.  Note her "mermaid" pose. 

Then there are my nails.  I was a SERIOUS nail biter for many years.  Then I met Kevin and he had little tolerance for my bad habit.  Under his encouragement, I went the artificial nail route for several years until I broke the habit.  Now I am a die-hard french manicure girl.  However after seeing Becky and Kristin embrace the dark side, I was inspired to do the same.  I still think I am a french manicure girl, but am really enjoying the dark look for a change.  My husband keeps asking me if I am going "goth"?  Keep up with the times Kevin, goth nails have gone mainstream:)

The Silly Things We Want.

As a mom, it is really odd some of the things that I cannot wait for the girls to experience.  One of these things was playing in the snow.  REALLY playing in the snow.  While we were on vacation last week I couldn't wait to get dumped on, and I am not a winter person by any stretch of the imagination.  Finally on Thursday my wish came true.  The girls put on their snow gear and went out to play.

Uncle Jason came home and started plowing the driveways.  Yes, I did say driveways (plural).  My sister tells me it is kind of a competition amongst the men in the neighborhood.  Who can plow the most driveways first?  I can hear the grunting now.  The women definitely benefit from this caveman competition. 

My mom even got in on the action.  I think I heard her say that she was going to invest in a pair of snowpants.  Go Grandma!

Dylan brought out the four wheeler and gave Kendall her first ride around the neighborhood.  He is so good with the girls.  I do not think he had the four wheeler going faster than 5 mph while Kendall was on it.  What a good guy!

Then he got down in the snow and made snow angels with Sid. 

And the snow just kept coming down.  The kids in the neighborhood got out their sleds and pulled each other around.  They also went sledding down some of the snow banks.  Here is Dylan pulling Kendall on the sled. 

Sid did a bit of exploring on her own.  I wasn't ready to let her go off and play with the neighborhood kids.  She mostly hung out around the yard helping Papa shovel snow and taking care of Rylee.

I love to watch the girls have opportunities to really be kids.

Plane Rides, Close Encounters and Birthdays

The girls and I just returned from what has become our annual trip North.  We had the best time.  Kendall and Sidney have become great travelers.  The favorite part of their plane ride was when they got to have (gasp) a soda.  Kendall got the window seat on the way there and Sidney insisted on the window seat during the trip home. 

While up at my parents, we threw Kendall a huge birthday party.  Her cousins attended, along with Lorain's family and the neighborhood kids.  The "close encounters" in the blog title refers to Kendall's reaction to the measles vaccination.  It was absolutely crazy.  She had her 5 year vaccinations about a week before we left.  When we were in the airport getting ready to head up to my parents, I noticed her face was flush and her neck was itching.  By the time we landed, she had a full blown rash and was burning hot (though not an actual fever).  After two rounds with the triage nurse and some Internet searching, I am convinced that she is the 5% that developed a rash after vaccination.  After we were certain that she was not going to be contagious, it was on with the party!  We gave her plenty of baking soda baths and benadryl to keep her comfortable.  It was about 3-4 days before the rash went away. 

Here she is after putting up all of her decorations.  At Christmas, Kendall had spotted some sprinkles at Grandma Terrell's house that she was certain would look fabulous on her birthday cupcakes.  So in true Grandma fashion, Terrell gave Kendall the brand new bottle (can anyone say "spoiled")?  So her cupcakes were brilliantly decorated with red and green sprinkles!

Here are the girls and Hallie waiting for guests to arrive.

Hallie organized a game of pin the tail on the donkey.  That girl should be a party planner!  She lined everyone up by age.  The kids got one spin for each year of age.

Here is Sid pinning the tail on the donkey after her 3 spins.  The big winner was Kaden.  I bet he was glad that he decided to play!

Then it was time for the pinata.  Katie took a swing at the treasure box.  Westin ended up breaking it open for the second year in a row! 

The kids scrambled to fill their loot bags.  The highlight of my Dad's evening was letting Rylee (their dog) join in on the action.  He snagged a couple pieces for Rylee.  That dog is definitely spoiled.  Sidney was calling her "Aunt Rylee".  Seriously?

Beautiful Hallie with all of her stash.

Kendall tortured everyone when it was time for cake.  Abby announced that no one could take a bite of their cake until Kendall took the first bite.  So what did Kendall do?  She SLOWLY peeled away her cupcake wrapper, then she licked the frosting off the candle, then after a very long pause she finally took a bite.  The tension was incredible!

Cousin Kami of course picked out the most amazing birthday gifts.  She definitely knows Kendall's taste.  At Christmas it was a pink glittery cosmetic case filled with cosmetics.  For her birthday, one of the gifts she got Kendall was a purple jewelry box that came with gem stones to decorate it.  I am not sure who had more fun with that Kendall or Grandma Karen?

The girls took turns reading Kendall her cards.  She had such a fabulous time.  Thank you Grandma and Papa.  You sure know how to throw a party!

The Many Faces of Sidney.

I did this once with Kendall awhile back and wanted to make sure I captured this crazy fun time with Sid as well.  Sidney was the MOST mellow baby under the sun.  God must have known what he was doing, because at that time Kendall was going through the mother of all stages and was quite a handful.  So what should naturally happen when Kendall takes a leap forward in maturity?  Sidney decides to enter the land of the emotional.  This is what I encountered last July and it has not stopped since.  Sidney is a little bit wild, a lot bit mischievous, and VERY full of life.  At times it is utterly exhausting and truly infuriating.  Other times it is a kick in the pants.  It is fun to watch her grow and become such a friendly, fun and happy little girl.  On New Year's Eve, I watched her run screaming through the Brandt's house.  Yes a bit ear piercing, but she was throwing caution to the wind and having a good time.  Last night she introduced herself to a lady sitting next to us in the restaurant and would not stop jabbering.  Again maybe a bit over the top, but she would not have dreamed of doing such a thing a year ago.  

A few things about Sid...DO NOT leave your coffee cup lying around.  She will gulp every last drop.  I have tried to squash this little habit of hers (or at least put a limit on it).  As I recall, I think I was three years old when my coffee habit began.  Yes, I used to get up before the crack of dawn with my Papa (old habits never go away) and we would drink coffee and eat biscuits.  I am quite sure it was 90% milk, but I am also quite certain that I insisted there was coffee in the cup.  Her favorite saying as of late is "Nokay Dokay".  This is how she replies every time you ask her to do something she does NOT want to do.  She is a character.  I am glad to see it, but will also be glad when my sweet, mellow Sid returns.

Happy Face

 Surprised Face

 Puzzled Face

Crying Face 

Angry Face (this actually looks more like the mischievous face I am all too familiar with).

And my favorite,  Sleepy Face

Now for a few random thoughts.  Yesterday afternoon the girls were invited to a birthday party for one of their classmates.  It was actually for a little girl that is right in the middle of Sidney and Kendall age wise.  So both of my girls have been in class with her.  When we showed up, it was predominantly a family party with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  There was one other classmate there.  During the party, I could not stop thinking about what it is like to be a mom and how much you would sacrifice to see your child happy.  You see, one thing I am pretty certain of is that this family does not prosper materially.  Yet this little girls mom made it very special!  In fact, it was one of the most special parties I have ever attended.  It was not over the top in any way, but the love was clear.  Her mom had made cake pops.  When I asked her about them, she said she has never done anything like that and had actually practiced last week.  The mom had placed very special pictures of her daughter on the table.  She had decorated in purple.  When present time came, she set her daughter's chair in the middle of the room and watched her sweet daughter open every gift.  It was clear that she had taught her daughter to:  First find out who the present is from.  Second open the gift.  Lastly find that person in the room, look at them and thank them.  As I mentioned, I do not believe this family has a lot by the world's standards, but as far as I could see they had so much more of what really matters.  She had taught her daughter the most important things of all and had made it a very special day.  It is hard to type into words, but it definitely left an impact on me. 

After the party, I just kept thinking about priorities and what it is like to be a mom.  We want to protect and shelter our kids, but we cannot.  We never want anything bad to happen to our children, but it does.  We want everyone to love them and be nice to them, but they won't.  Instead we try to teach them resilience.  We are there to wipe their tears and bandage their knees and to tell them that they are pretty regardless of what "so and so"says.  After all of these thoughts (and there were many), I was awoken at midnight when Kendall threw up all over her bed.  Kevin cleaned the bed while I laid with Kendall in our bed and comforted her every half hour as she got sick.  While she would sleep in between, I would be up washing bowls, bringing cold washcloths to cool her off and rubbing her back.  Yes I was tired today, but all I kept thinking of is how fortunate we are. 

Family Party Time

We celebrated Kendall's birthday tonight with a family party.  She will be having her big blowout in a few weeks when we visit up North.  Of all of the things that she could have chosen for her special birthday dinner, she chose Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese.  Hallie had her money on Panda, while I was hoping for Andrade's.  After dinner ,we had cake.  She would not tell me what she wished for because of course then it would not come true...

Sidney was not messing around when it came to cake eating.  I think she was trying to put the whole piece in her mouth.

Kendall was elated to receive fuse beads.  She has already made a dolphin for her room.

 She listened intently as I read her card from Grandma Terrell.

Once we got the crazy super taped box open (which was an excellent idea from one of Grandma Terrell's coworkers, after all the box arrived on time), her first words were "That Grandma Terrell really knows what I like."

Kendall was awesome at including her sister and even gave her first shot at the Barbie doodle board.  However Sid's mischievous act of sprinkling fuse beads all over the floor quickly found her on her hands and knees picking them all up.

 Happy Birthday Kendall Marie!

All Grown Up.

I am not sure how it happened, but Little Miss Kendall is all grown up.  I knew that she was getting older, but one glimpse of these pictures showed me just how much she has grown.  She turned 5 years old today.  She is a very sweet, caring, compassionate girl.  She does not know a stranger and has a kind word for everyone.  The intense emotions of her toddler years have transformed into a larger than life personality.

She can hardly wait to start kindergarten next year and has been busy getting all of the "dish" from the school age kids at her child care.  Sound advice it is - probably!

She is such a beautiful girl who has a special place in her heart for family.  She continuously asks us to tell "her special story"! 

At the mall the other day, she was inquiring about pierced ears.  Of course I would love for her to get her ears pierced but this is a tricky time.  Too old to forget it after 30 seconds and too young to really take care of them.  She was pretty sure that she wanted to wait until she was 5.  When I reminded her that she was turning 5 the next day, she decided she wanted to wait until 10.  So if anyone knows a good place to buy clip on earrings, let me know!

Yes, she is a very special girl and growing up way too fast.  For now she thinks I am the coolest thing ever, but there will come a time when my very presence will cause her great embarrassment.  At that time, I will call loudly for her in each and every department store (yes mom you know what I am talking about - I learned from the best).

No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!

I let the girls choose the title of this post, so I am not sure how much it applies.  It has beds and it is about monkeys (the girls), so I will go with it.  Last summer we were in a furniture store and the girls saw loft beds that they thought were fantastic.  We left the store and I thought nothing more about it.  A couple of months later (about one week before we moved our furniture out of our old house), Kevin announced that he was going to make the girls new beds.  Kevin is not a "fly by the seat of his pants" kind of guy, so I figured he had put some thought into this proclamation.  I confirmed that he was serious.  He said he was planning to make them over Christmas break.  I was a bit skeptical but proceeded to put their old beds on Craigslist.  The beds sold the next day.  For the past two months, the girls have been sleeping on their mattresses on the floor.  Christmas vacation came and Kevin put his woodworking skills to work.  I must say I am very impressed.  He did not have a pattern to work from and these are the beauties that he produced. 

Kendall's Room

Of course she chose the pinkest of pinks for her paint color. 

 Now she has a desk to do all of her crafting.

 We picked up some wood letters for her name.

 She has turned her fort into a dress-up area.

Sidney's Room

After much deliberation and many changes of her mind, Sidney settled on purple for her bed.

I am not sure how much crafting will be done at her desk, but plenty of "baby" doctoring I am sure.

Sidney turned her fort into a dolly area.

Take a long look because I am certain that this is the cleanest her room will be for long time.

Kevin did an amazing job and the girls really love the beds.  I personally love the little ladders and the fact that the beds are not too high up.  Thank you Kevin!

And the winner is...

Cody was the proud winner of the annual ugly sweater contest.  After seeing the prize (some very yummy chocolate bars), I wished that I would have brought my ugly sweater. 

We made the round-robin trip to see our families this year.  We started out at Grandma Terrell's house where the rest of the family joined us.  The girls had some excellent cousin bonding time.

 At one point the girls decided to put their swimsuits on and run around the house - not sure why exactly.  Kendall snagged Cousin AshLee's boots and tried them on for size.

 

Aunt Lisa brought the girls some very awesome winter hats. 

Daddy thought it best that he try them on as well.

Grandma T. and Ashlee stole the mustaches from the Ugly Sweater contest and had a little fun.

After a yummy dinner of Ludafisk and Potato Sausage (okay, I only eat the Potato Sausage, so I can truly use the word "yummy") it was time to open the presents.  The girls were SO much fun this year.  They anticipated every minute leading up to the big event. 

 This picture of paper flying and mass chaos just about sums it up.

After a short night of sleep, it was off to Grandma Karen and Papa Mark's house for Christmas morning.  The girls received this awesome white convertible.  During the first spin (inside the house - only at Grandma's house) in which Kendall crashed her and Sid into the stairs, Sidney would not get back in the car with her sister.  She would only get in the car when Kendall was a safe distance away.

With the exception of this one present, Sidney took each of her presents one by one to the car and sat in the car to open them. 

Of course, what would be a trip to Grandma and Papa's without dress up, dance and barbies?

Dylan made us all an amazing breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon. 

We had a great Christmas and though it went to fast, we are so grateful to have made the trip to spend it with our families!