The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Winter has long been one of my favorite seasons. Not because of the inversion, bitter cold temperatures, or the end to football, but rather because it means that snow blankets ground. I know that snow is cold and this somewhat contradicts the bitter temperatures that I don't like, but snow is one of God's great gifts to us.

This year, I'm enjoying the snow (what little has fallen thus far) to the fullest. We enrolled Cass and Lily in the StartNow program at Park City and it has been so fun watching their love for skiing grow. At least I'm hoping they are loving it. Maybe it's just that they like pleasing their dad and getting some special time with me. Or maybe it's all the cool snow gear that we bought them. Whatever it is, though, I'll take it.

After 2 of the 5 lessons that we signed them up for, they are getting good at the "Duck Walk", snowplow (or Pizza as they call it), turning, stopping, and making pretzels (skiing parallel on the flats). Last week I took them up to Alta to practice what they have learned so that they wouldn't digress too much during Christmas break. On the way up to the resort, the girls asked if we could listen to some music to psych ourselves up. Their request: The Nutcracker Suite. Who knew that classical music that is typically heard only at Christmas time would be just what we needed to be amped up to ski? Not me, that's for sure. But I guess that is life with little ballerinas. The ski day went well, but we returned home completely famished. I guess talking about pizza and pretzels for a couple of hours will do that to you.

I'm really proud of their development and I love spending time with them while doing something that I really love. Now, if only it would snow........

Success In Parenting

Throughout my growing up years, I've always been on the lookout for good role models. Two of my role models for successful parenting come from the comics section of the newspaper. As a teenager, I saw the genius behind the father in Calvin and Hobbes and now as an adult I find the wisdom in the grandfather in Pickles.

Both of these characters have a unique way of explaining how things work in the world or how they have come to be. Oftentimes they were faced with the questions that they did not know the correct answer to or that they didn't want to take the time of going into a detail explanation on a subject when they thought the child wasn't really paying attention; so they made up something that sounded plausible.

In my efforts to teach my children, I have tried to use this technique in order to help my children develop their reasoning skills. Tonight my efforts paid off.On the car ride home, I had a conversation with my daughters about the music that we were listening to. It was a playlist movie and musical scores and I was impressed that Cass and Lily could pick out the tunes and name the movie, play, show, etc. If they did not know the show belonging to the song, they were very good about asking for the details so that they will know the answer in the future. When the song Peter Gunn played, they asked what it was from. I told them about the TV show and that this song was also the theme song to a video game I played as a kid, Spy Hunter. Then Cass asked,

"Dad, was this in the days before color was invented?"

Success!!!! I think I reached the footstool of my comic strip role models. As I chuckeled to myself about this, Cass became a little discouraged and I knew it was time for the real explanation of technological progress over the past several decades to take place. Now I know why there are only a few window boxes of text in the comics. Calvin's father and the grandpa in Pickles have lucked out in not having to explain life in its entirety. But, at least I know that my kids are listening to me even when my answers to their questions are absurd.

A year in Review

Or at least some highlights

If you remember, we left off with my dismal 9th anniversary. Mike did end up taking me out for a night away from the kids about a month later. It was great. I just don't want you to think he didn't keep his promise. We did everything we were hoping to do and it was great.

And the year continued...

Cass started 1st grade and a new school. She is now in a Spanish Dual Immersion program. Basically she spends half the day learning in English and the other half in Spanish. She'll do this through 6th grade. She picked it up so quickly that by December we were having full conversations in Spanish. She is also teaching her younger sisters. By October Maggie could sing the Eensy Weensy spider in Spanish and English.

Lily started Preschool on her birthday. She was the social butterfly we expected her to be.

Lily continued her quest to put a stop to all trips, family or other wise. The morning we were supposed to leave for a long weekend away, she put a small rock in her ear. This resulted in our first trip to the Emergency Room, followed by surgery that night to remove the rock. We still took our trip, but it was a day shorter.

If you'll remember I'm tired of buying toys. This year for Christmas we gave our kids a Disney Cruise to the Caribbean. We left in January and went with my sister's family and my parents. I highly recommend it. We are currently planning another one.

In May we went to Walt Disney World with Mike's family. I never said we were'nt spoiled. It was a fantastic trip, which Lily did not try to ruin with illness.

In June, Mike's brother got married.

The morning after we got home from Disney World, I was called to be in the Young Women's presidency. Which necessitated participation in Girls Camp.

Cass was baptized in July.

Last week Mike and I celebrated 10 years of marriage by taking a trip to Maui. We tricked Lily somehow. She got the massive ear infection a week before we left.

This was the view from our hotel room window.

It's been a fantastic year. And I promise to blog a little more often.