Hippies Chicks & Full Body Tracing.

The girls make me smile with their outfit choice's.  The way they dress has been a battle that I decided early on I was not going to fight.  As long as they are not completely weather inappropriate (with some exceptions) or just plain inappropriate, I have chosen to "let it go."  We have left the house with pants on backwards, shirts inside out, complete mismatches, accessories overdone, cowboy boots with fancy dresses, rain boots on sunny days, knee high socks with capris, the list could go on.  My sister thinks this is quite funny given that I am usually in a carefully chosen outfit.  Weekends do not count, as sweatpants are my outfit of choice for weekends. 

Kendall has recently been putting together some fabulous outfits.  Sid on the other hand is still in the experimental stage.  What you do not see in this outfit is that she is wearing purple capris under the skirt.  Later in the day, her headband was wrapped around her wrist and hand like a Madonna glove from the 80's.  Kendall said something to her about this outfit.  Kendall said, "Sidney do you know that you are wearing a dress with a skirt?  That is kind of weird."  Sidney's reply, "I do not care.  I like what I am wearing and that is all that counts."  Good for her - little turkey!

Kendall had this bright idea to lay on the white paper and have her Dad trace her.

Sidney also liked the idea, only she had a very hard time not laughing through the whole process.  Both of the girls are currently coloring in their body traces with outfits and faces.

This picture of Sidney was just too darn cute to pass up.  She is going through such a mischievous phase right now.

Break Dancing with the Boise Beat Boys.

Kendall participated in a four week break dancing class through an after school program.  She loved every minute of it and would come home each week telling us about her new moves.  The third week she became a member of the "z-scratch club".  She learned how to do the sprinkler, the coffee grinder, the body spin, the worm and the wave.  They also learned quite a bit of break dancing history.  It started on the streets of New York.  Cardboard would be taped to the ground to save their skin.  On the last day, they had a performance for families.  Here she is in action:

The Boise Beat Boys made an appearance and helped the kids during their performance.  Here is Kendall waiting for her cue from one of the Boise Beat Boys to go out and freestyle.

Out onto the cardboard she ran for her 15 seconds of fame.  She did her signature move "the body spin".  My personal favorite is the coffee grinder. 

And the fabulous finish...

My sister reminded me about all of the break dancing we used to do.  We even had a book on how to do the moves.  I remember a boy at my school named Eric Ross (funny the things I remember).  He would show us how to do it.  He and Bill (I cannot remember his last name) were incredible break dancers.  My coworker Wilson is a pretty good break dancer, but these Boise Beat Boys did things that I did not know the human body could do.  I wish we had taken a few pictures of that.  I think that I would probably break something if I tried to do it nowadays.

A Big Easter Celebration,

We had a huge Easter celebration at our house this year.  There were tons of relatives visiting from the Strong side of the family and the Nelson's joined us for Easter lunch and egg hunts.  The girls wore their new Easter dresses from Grandma Karen and Papa Mark.  They are very into posing lately, so there it goes.  This was as tame as we could get...



We took the girls to church.  Kendall had her art on display in the foyer.  Her class had made "light boxes" out of shoe boxes.  If you peered into the box, there were various scenes of Jesus death and resurrection.  Kendall's is the second from the right (purple).

 

Here are the D.I.L.'s (as Terrell has dubbed us).  We are the daughter's-in-law.  I am pretty fortunate to be part of such a beautiful group of women.

We had two Easter egg hunts for the kids (Rebecca's wonderful idea).  We filled tons of eggs with candy and stickers.  The girls went first.  They had a blast.

The hunts we have previously been too were not really "hunts" as much as egg "pick-ups", so it was quite fun watching the girls search for the eggs.

The boys hunt was next.  It was a good thing we separated the hunts.  The competition was fierce amongst the boys.  In contrast to the girls hunt where they were literally giving their eggs to each other.

Roy and Sherry had to get on the road pretty early, so we snagged a family photo before they left.

It was great to have them join us for Easter.  I hope that having Terrell down here brings family in town more often!  That would be a great bonus.

Partying Like Rock Stars.

The girls spent spring break up at my parents house.  They had an excellent time.  Kevin and I met my Mom in Grangeville on the Sunday before spring break and transferred the girls.  It was a party the minute they got in the car with Grandma Karen.  She had not even gotten them all the way to her house before they were making stops at Baskin Robbins for ice cream

My mom took them on a visit to see Grandma Juanita, Aunt Sharon and Aunt Nena.  It was great for them to visit with their relatives that they do not get to see too often.  Grandma Juanita showered them with love and kisses.

Aunt Nena let them each pick out a hand crocheted purse.  She also gave them some awesome pictures that she had drawn. 

Sidney took Aunt Sharon for a few laps around the driveway.

They played nonstop with the neighbor kids.  They made homemade ice cream by passing the mixture in a Ziploc bag back and forth to each other and mixing it by hand.  They even had the opportunity to decorate Easter eggs for the first time ever.  I have never been brave enough to do this with them.

They hung out with their cousins Dylan and Hallie.  Big D is always so good with the girls.

My mom promised me that the pictures on the motorcycle were for posing only...hmm.  She also tells me that what happens and Grandma and Papa's stays there.  Should I be worried?

Sidney also informed me that they had "movie night every night."  I love that they get to spend this special time with their family.  The week flew by and I went back up to Grangeville to meet my Mom on the Saturday before Easter to pick them up.  They got back just in time for the Easter bunny. 

Gymnastics.

And she did it!  Sidney Nicole finished her 8 weeks of gymnastics.  The last week we were in the car and she said, "I love gymnastics.  I want to be signed up again."  I looked back at her and said in my best deadpan voice "Really?"  Her reply, "No, not really."  That is what I suspected, but she did at least finish. 

 

Here she is demonstrating some of her super human strength.   

 

Jumping on the "tramp" as her and Kendall have dubbed it.

 

A little beam work.  

 

Sidney's personal favorite, the gymnastics salute!

Kendall excelled at the beam. 

 

 

On the blue beam she had to throw the bean bag in the air and catch it while walking along the beam.  Pretty tricky.

Over the bar she goes.

 

Chin ups (looks a bit like chin rest to me).

 

 Front roll.

 Log roll.

On the Seventh Day, He Rested.

Every night when I tuck the girls in we say prayers.  Since I can remember Kendall starts her prayer like this, "Dear God, I hope you have a good nights sleep."  Last Sunday after she was done praying, I said, "You know Kendall, God probably doesn't really sleep."  She looks at me, snaps her fingers and says, "Duh Mom, he does on Sunday's."  I had to laugh.  Then I leave for a work trip the following three days.  Last night (Thursday) was my first night home since this conversation.  I tuck Kendall in and she starts her prayer, "Dear God, I hope you have a good nights sleep this Sunday."  Smart girl!

Pillowcases and Our Happy Dance.

My Grandma Juanita sent the girls these beautiful pillowcases.  She is 87 years old pretty amazing.  The girls thought they were pretty awesome and ran upstairs to put them on their pillows.  Sidney stated that she was "never" going to take them off.  Does she remember the last time she had the flu?  I am sure that she will change her mind.

 

This year we have been reading like crazy.  This is largely motivated by the Pizza Hut coupons that Kendall receives for reading books each month.  Our latest quest is to read 400 minutes for Roaring Springs passes.  We had until March 31st to finish this.  I believe that we had reached 400 minutes by mid February.  Grandma Terrell has joined in on the fun.  She takes them to the library to check out books and has a big book of fairy tales that she reads to them.  Some of their favorites are Jack and the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel and The Ugly Duckling.

Sidney posing with her library book and the "rumble roller".  What is a rumble roller?  Think foam roller on steroids.  Self inflicted pain - Ouch!

This Thursday was MY favorite day of the month...cleaning day.  After Thing 2 (Sid) came along and I decided to continue on with my career, an investment in my sanity seemed in order.  I figured if I was going to work, I did not want to spend my weekends cleaning!  We decided to have someone come in and deep clean once a month.  It is by far the BEST investment I have ever made.  Each month I look forward to coming home on that day and admiring the beauty of a clean home.  I run into the house first because it usually only takes 5 minutes for chaos and disorder to resume. 

The girls have also grown to appreciate this day, but for very different reasons.  The anticipation builds the night before as we all frantically run around picking up our belongings and clearing off surfaces.  I figure if the cleaners do not have to "pick up" after me, they will be more focused on cleaning.  Last Thursday the girls also came running into the house.  Kendall yelled, "Come on Sidney, let's go see our beds."  Both girls ran up the stairs.  The cleaners have made a habit of making the girls beds and displaying all of their stuffed animals in a fun and new way (this is quite a feat considering the large amount of stuffed critters the girls have).  I could hear the girls literally squealing as they ran to each others room.  Like I said - BEST investment ever!  If you are in the need of house cleaning I highly recommend Bruce and the gang at Maid in Idaho.  http://www.maidinidaho.com/