Quick 5

Everyone enjoy today, because tomorrow will be Dreaded March.  We can't avoid it.

1.  Bria's birthday party was a success.  I think.  We crammed 12 adults, 9 children and 3 babies in our tiny house.  The kids did great, but most of the adults had to stand the whole time, and I feel bad about that.  Anyway, I think Bria did okay.  At one point she just crawled away.  Down the hall.  Away from the party.  She might be a girl after my own heart.  She enjoyed the cake, though, and she enjoyed being able to get to bed on time.

2.  It was so lovely to have Gramma Kimble and Aunt Mindy here.  The girls loved them and they were a huge help to me.  The girls have both lamented quite a bit that they wish Gramma and Aunt Mindy could be our neighbors.  (Somehow Mindy got demoted from our Basement Dweller to a Neighbor.  Not sure how that happened.  They DO love her.)

3.  Bria had a couple well-baby check-ups this week, none of which she appreciated.  She is now 20 pounds, 8 ounces and is 30 1/2 inches tall.  And she has a huge head.  The nurse measured twice because the number seemed so big.  That's my girl!

4.  Our house has a new look!  We've been upgraded from Eye Sore to Tsk, That House Needs Work.  Thanks to an excellent bid, a coupon and a tax refund, we finally had the dead trees cut down from the front of our house.  I know it was our responsibility and everything, but I kind of feel like the neighborhood association might show up on our doorstep with a prize.

Before

After

It looks a little sad and nondescript now, doesn't it?  And landscaping/yard work is one of  our larger weaknesses.  ::sigh::

5.  Someone else got a new look this week:

You've never seen a girl so excited to get her glasses!  And she keeps exclaiming how tall she feels, which I can only guess means she's adjusting to how the glasses change her depth perception.  She's at school right now for the first time with them on, so I'm quite eager to hear how she debuted there.  She is the only kid in her class with glasses, and I'm praying the kids will be kind to her. 

Goodbye, February!  You were good to us this year.

Quick 5

Why am I surprised by these blustery, winter days?  I grew up here.  This is what it was like.  But I'm still surprised as I lie awake at night, unable to sleep because of the inconsistent noise.  Blech.

1.  Our heart pizza tradition lives on.  It was Bria's first taste of pizza, and she couldn't get enough.  Who needs fancy flowers and restaurant dinners when you can bake a delicious pizza in the shape of a heart at home?

2.  I think the reason I'm shocked by this wind is because we didn't have it last year, so we don't know how the wind is in this house.  Our bedroom in on the northwest corner, which takes the brunt of the wind's fury.  Also, this is our first yard that we have to clean up after windstorms.  Our fence was damaged in the weirdest way.  Our neighbor had a heavy board leaning up against the fence, and the wind made it punch through the less-than-stellar wood.  The have dogs, so we kept the girls inside until it was fixed.  We did lose a slat, but it's fixed good enough for now.  The dogs won't come through and poop in our yard or bite the girls.  That was the most important thing to me.

3.  During this second semester of school, Alaina has had a writing journal that she is supposed to write in twice a week.  She can write whatever she wants; fiction, non-fiction, whatever.  I haven't been able to convince her to write much fiction. Mostly she just writes something about that day.  This is what she wrote the other day:

The story is, I was timing her to see how many jumping jacks she could do in a minute.  In the middle of the exertion, there was one minor incident.  We of course laughed about it and she finished the task.  Then it was time for her writing journal, and she wanted to write this.  I tried to get her to write something else, telling her that her teacher was going to READ this.  She said, "Oh, it'll crack her up!"  So I left her to write what she wanted to write.  For some reason I thought having girls would exempt us from things like fart jokes, but not in this house.

4.  Bria's birthday was a lovely day, because the girls got a huge surprise: Gramma and Aunt Mindy came to visit!  We had been planning this for weeks, making the girls clean up without telling them why and whatnot.  All went according to plan, and they met us at Chick-fil-a for lunch after school.  The girls were pretty excited about getting to eat inside Chick-fil-a, because we never do that, when we walked in to find Gramma and Aunt Mindy waiting for us.  The girls looked surprised and gave them hugs, but I'm still not convinced they really knew what was going on.  About halfway through lunch I told them that they were staying with us for a few days, and Alaina was surprised all over again.  I'm not sure if she just thought they came all this way for lunch or what.  Joya quickly informed Aunt Mindy that she was going to stay in our basement forever.  It's good to have them here.

5.  Yesterday I took Alaina in for an eye exam.  She had apparently failed one at school and they recommended she be seen. Alaina did great.  And the diagnosis is actually worse than we thought.  She has perfect kid vision in one eye and such poor vision in the other that her brain has learned just to not look through that eye.  Of course she'll get glasses, but the doctor said at this point the glasses will only be able to correct her vision to maybe 20/70.  Anyway, it's a start and then in a few months we'll have to start patching to train her brain to look through the bad eye and to correct the vision.  I wasn't upset by the diagnosis at all.  Mostly fascinated, because I watched her take the tests, and it was amazing to see how great she did with one eye and then to cover up the good eye and hear her say "I don't know" to the HUGE letters they were showing her.  The doctor said we could have caught this earlier and started her on glasses earlier which might have prevented the patching, but I didn't know.  They check her eyes at the pediatricians, but nothing like this.  So my PSA for today is this: Take your little ones to a pediatric eye doctor.  They know what to look for and can catch stuff like this.  If we had taken her in any later they might not have been able to correct it.  The earlier the better.  So Joya AND Bria will be seeing the eye doctor on Tuesday.  The thing I'm the saddest about is just that the glasses are going to change Alaina's look so much.  They are cute, but it'll be a big change.  You know how much I love change.  So I'm soaking up this last week of her being glasses-free.
In other news, I'm switching to soft contacts, and I could not be more excited.  No more hard pieces of plastic in my eyes!

Have a lovely weekend friends!  I'm feeling sentimental, so I miss you all.

Happy 1st Birthday Bria!

My sweet Bria.  You're one year old today!  We would be lying if we said we weren't nervous about how the whole Three Kids thing was going to work out, but you have made it so easy for us.  You are our little clown, and we have had so much fun with you this year.  We love how you are right now and are so excited that we get a front seat to watch you grow into your own person. 

We pray that the Lord draws you to Himself at an early age.  We pray that you will hate sin, and get caught when you're guilty.  We pray that God gives you wisdom and discernment as you grow so you can reconcile the way the world is now with the grace and the love of God.  We pray that you will be an example of that grace to others.

We love you so much.  Happy happy birthday, Bria Tortilla!

Love,
Mommy, Daddy, Alaina & Joya

February 20, 2013

Quick 5

Ah, Valentine's Day.  The only day of the year I can let my love of pink run wild and free, without restraint.

1.  I've learned something new about myself this week.  Apparently I like the winter Olympics much  more than I do the summer Olympics.  I enjoy watching a majority of these events, whereas in the summer I'm really only interested in swimming and beach volleyball.  Maybe gymnastics.  But when we turn on the TV during the summer Olympics we always end up seeing something boring, like water polo.  Or rowing.  But whenever I turn on the TV now, I'm always interested in seeing whatever is on.  It figures.  I know the summer Olympics are generally more popular, but when have I ever liked or did the thing that was more popular?  I've never been one to be "in."

2.  My little Bria turns one next week, and she has brought out the baby-of-the-family-clown in full force.  She is now doing things simply because she knows it makes me laugh.  Like Downward Dog.  She'll catch my eye, crawl away and then do the Downward Dog because it makes me laugh every time.  She also loves it when her sisters join in.  I'm probably going to have to cultivate this level of influence before it gets out of hand.

3.  She also has developed what we call the Stink Face.  Sometimes she'll come over to me, put her hand on my leg to get my attention, and as soon as I look at her she'll give me the Stink Face.  Yes, I give it back.  Every time.

4. Today is Alaina's class Valentine's party.  I had so much fun helping her with her valentines.  They were sent home a white bag to decorate, so Alaina took care of that.  She wrote all the names on the valentines, and I put the tattoos in.  Yes, we are That Family that didn't give out candy, but maybe someday we'll be able to spend the extra dollars to give them the good stuff.  Alaina didn't seem to mind.  I can't wait to see what she comes home with.

5.  Tonight is my favorite Kimble Family Valentine's Day Tradition: Heart Pizza.  I've The girls have been looking forward to this for weeks.  :)

Happy Valentine's Day, all!  Hope you all embrace all the pink, heart, happy that's flying around.

Quick 5

Holy Polar Vortex, Batman!

1.  Last Sunday was the most un-fun day we've ever had with our dear friends.  That's all I want to say about that.

2.  Last Saturday was the beloved Happy Hearts event at church.  Our children's ministry does such a great job with this preschool event, that Alaina has been so sad that this was her last year to attend.  We've been trying to convince her that there are other fun events for older kids, but she just can't imagine anything being as fun as Happy Hearts.  Alaina spent most of her time in the bouncy castle, while Joya created a little routine for herself that involved going down the big slide, then hitting one of the activities to get a piece of candy.  The girls also did a craft or two, but the candy and the bouncy castle held their attention most of the time.

Bria was there too

3.  One of the crafts involved a picture that they had taken and printed out.  Both girls got one, and they were supposed to make this Valentine postcard thing.  The lovely girl helping Alaina out told her she could spell any word she wanted on the craft, using the foam sticker letters.  The example said "Love"...you know, because of Valentine's and all.  Here is the word Alaina chose:

There is so much to love about this.  Cats.  Alaina holding Joya's head captive.

4.  Lee was able to work from home a bunch this week, and Alaina had Thursday and Friday off of school due to parent teacher conferences.  So on Thursday afternoon Lee took the two older girls into the office with him, to do some things that he couldn't get done at home.  The girls loved it, although we've definitely decided that three years old is a little too young to really spend a bunch of time in an office, no matter how many toys you send with them.  Live and learn.  (What did I do while the girls were gone and Bria was napping, with three whole hours to myself?  Why, had a Falling Skies Season 2 marathon, of course.  Thanks, Amazon Prime!)

5. What do the girls do on a very cold, no school day?  Make a nest of course.  I'll let you know if they come up with a way to successfully keep Bria out of it.  (They're working on it.)

**This Quick 5 was brought to you by long underwear, double socks and chili.