Ridiculous Reality TV!

If you have been wondering why I have not been posting lately, I am blaming it on Reality TV (or at least my addiction to Reality TV).  Tonight I am at the library typing on the computer thinking about all of the blog posts I want to catch up on.  Here is how the story goes.  Our computer has another virus.  Kevin is working with our antivirus company to get everything squared away.  This is the second time in the last few years that we have been infected.  The first time, I am not sure what went down.  This time I know what happened.  It is a result of my Reality TV addiction and my failure to think on my feet (or my tired web surfing state of mind).

Here comes the confession - I am addicted to the Bachelor (and the Kardashians, and Kendra, and...).  UGH!  So the other night I was furious with Bachelor Ben.  Could he really be fooled by this crazy girl named Courtney?  Say it isn't so!  After the show I decided to check out the spoiler alerts.  As I was learning that he does indeed pick Courtney in the end (or at least that is what the spoiler site tells me), a pop up came up.  It was a pop up that I KNEW was bad.  Instead of immediately pressing Alt-F4, I started clicking away.  Those suckers really got me.  It all unraveled before I could take it back.  So here I sit typing at the library swearing off any future visits to spoiler sites.  Note I have not yet sworn off reality TV.  One thing is for certain, Bachelor Ben is certainly kicking himself in the pants as he watches the season play out!

Give the girl a wand!

The girls refer to weekends as "stay at home days".  Tonight Kendall was telling me that she wished Fridays and Saturdays were school days and all of the rest were stay at home days.  I thought that sounded like a splendid idea, the concept of a two day work week.  I told her that she should make it happen.  Her reply, "Give me a real magic wand and I will do it."

Last weekend was gorgeous in Boise.  The girls spent a lot of time playing outside.  Sidney took her tricycle for a ride around the block.  After one spin on that thing, "I" was ready for her to ride a bike.  In typical Sidney fashion, she has resisted up until this point.  I was surprised when I pulled the bike out last weekend and she just hopped on it and went with only minor instruction.  After that we took many more spins around the block.  The whole time she was screaming at the top of her lungs, "Kendall you better hurry up or I am going to get you!".  It probably felt great to be yelling after a few months of using her inside voice:)

Kevin is in New Orleans on a business trip.  Really?  Why don't I get business trips like that?  Tonight for his business trip he is at the New Orleans Arena watching the Portland Trailblazers play the New Orleans Hornets.  Rough life!

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!