New Years Resolutions

I love New Years. In fact I am tempted to say that I love New Years almost more than I love Christmas. Something about having the chance to start all over and accomplish those things that I always want to accomplish, yet slip away from me.

Gale always laughs at me as I start writing down my New Years Resolutions in November. This year though I have got it down. I broke my New Years Resolutions down into quarters. So that way I am not trying to accomplish them all the last few months of the year.

I would love to write them all down here, but many are to private. Family Secrets!

This year we started a new tradition. On New Years Eve we wrote down all the goals that we want to accomplish for 2009. I am putting them in a special container and sealing it up and then on New Years Eve next year we are going to open it up and see how we did!

Our family didn't get as much family time this New Years Eve as I had a church New Year's Eve youth dance to go help chaperone. We decided to make it a family affair, so we took all the kids and had a good time. I will admit I usually like to welcome in the New Year in a little bit of a more quiet and solemn, thoughtful way----but the girls all had a blast, so I did too. I must say that little Ava and Elle can sure dance up a storm....they even can pull a Beyonce'!

Twilight

My life has been invaded by the Cullen Family. The comments in our home, the music we listen to and everything else revolves around the books and the movie. My seven year old told me the other day that she is in love with Edward Cullen. "How do you know about Edward?" I ask....well, Elle replied, "Olivia has a poster of him in her bedroom and I stare at him." The wonder of having older sisters! I keep on waiting for Gale to ask me to go outside and stand there for five minutes before coming back in and kissing her!

I must admit I am a bit out of the loop. We were driving home the other day and some classical music was playing on the IPOD. Chloe and her friends were in the car, so I laughed at them and asked them when they started listening to classical music? They looked at me disgusted and said, "This is the soundtrack to Twilight, this was the song that was playing during the Prom scene." Shame on me for not knowing such information!

Grow Grass Grow

So our new home has a backyard that is not so nice. The home we moved from had a great backyard with a pond, a perfect yard and trees (but way to small for four kids). I must admit the backyard is getting better. We had the waist high weeds cut all down and a few trees removed, but we found underneath this all just a little bit of grass left and a whole ton of weeds. Now my dream is to get a design for the backyard that includes a pool, a nice deck, and a nice manicured lawn and all the stuff that goes with it----but until the 150,000 hits my bank account I am going to have to make do. So how am I making due?

I drove to a little small town that is 45 minutes from our house and bought some fescue, some rye, some fertilizer and some rakes and I went to work in the backyard today. I tried to rake the whole backyard before putting down the seed, but I soon realized that was not such a smart idea as the backyard is about 1/2 acre and filled with leaves, undergrowth, dead roots etc. So I borrowed a very powerful and very cool blower and blew away all the leaves and much undergrowth to find the dirt underneath it all. (I was having such a good time I even did 1/2 my neighbors yard). Then Ava and I spread the fescue and the rye and we started the watering process so that our seeds will sprout! It was quite the fun day. I am hoping that the backyard begins to fill in and that next year I can do the same thing and we can actually have a normal backyard lawn. That is until I get my 150,000 dollars to have someone else make it really cool.

Here are some pictures of Ava and I hard at work!

My date

Today Ava and I went on a date. How do I know you ask? Well, Ava told me 30 times on our date. I couldn't stop laughing about it. "Dad, we are on a date aren't we?" "Dad, does mommy know we are on a date?" "Dad, we should hold hands, we are on a date!" I never realized how important a "DATE" with Dad is for a four year old.
So what did we do for our date? We ran to Kinko's to make some copies and send a Fed Ex. We had to go buy some envelopes and then we went and ate at McAlisters Deli. We talked about kindergarten, coloring, kids in her class, lunch, mommy (yes, Ava wanted to make sure mommy knew we were on a date and that Dad loved Ava--we had to call mommy 4 times to tell her that). We also got dessert at McAlisters Deli. Dessert at a restaurant for the kids means true love and cements the date deal. I am officially in hero status after the chocolate molten cake with ice cream on the side. I think every Dad should take their little girl on a date and buy her chocolate molten cake and that every girl should have a Dad take her to lunch and hold her hand and look into her eyes during the whole lunch. (I didn't even answer the phone) I think Mommy is jealous.

Chloe's Rainbow

Just in case you didn't know our eldest daughter Chloe is a leprechaun. She was born on March 17th. Just a few weeks ago I took this picture after a rainstorm which caused serious discussion in our family that went something like this.
Elle: Dad, is there really a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

Dad: Yes, but you have to ask Chloe, she is a leprechaun and was brought to us by leprechauns. She knows all the ins and outs of where the gold is.

Elle: Does she have a pot of gold?

Dad: Yes, but she hides it from us.

Elle: Are you serious?

Dad: Have you seen Chloe's room? It is the perfect place to hide a pot of gold which would never be found.

Elle: Your right!!

I feel a bit bad for deceiving my child, but such dreams are so fun!

Target and Runway Models

I needed to go the grocery store and get some things so I announced to the girls I was heading to Target and did anyone want to go? Yes, Elle (7) and Ava (4) screamed back just give us 5 minutes to get ready. Well, this is how they looked when we went.



Crazy thing is this is how they always look when I go run errands with them. Me in my ball cap and shorts, the girls decked out as fashionistas!! I'm doomed.

Chili and Tums

We had a party up at school and to give you an idea of the age of the people I associate with I took this picture. Can you take a guess? and yes it was set up like this. Priceless! The chili was great...didn't partake of the tums.