Funny Conversation

Clara had drawn a dog- with a human body- and was complaining about how it looked like a girl when it was supposed to be a boy. I pointed out that the dog/human's waist went in and how girls go in at the waist whereas boys just go straight down.  This led to discussing other aspect of womanly figures. Then we had the following conversation.

L: Do you know there's such a thing as hangy down boobies?

Me: What do you mean "hangy down boobies?"

C: She means like hangy down earrings, but boobs.

L: Like long boobies.

Me: Oh really?

C: Like old lady boobs.

Me: What made you think of long, hangy down boobs?

L: I saw people in the locker room (in the summer) with long boobs.

Me: Well good news, y'all probably won't have long boobs, because you'll probably have small boobs like me.

Everybody went back to whatever they were doing and the conversation was over.

Snow Days 2020

Leona's words during a prayer pretty well capture all the girls' feelings, "We're thankful that we got what we wanted and it snowed." We ended up having two full snow days and then two more delayed starts to school so they only had one full day of school all week due to snow.  While it didn't snow as much as it did last year it was still enough to have a good time with.  

The girls discovered that if they pulled on a branch the snow from up in the tree would fall on them and they could "make it snow." There wasn't enough snow to turn the bus hill into the fantastic sledding hill that it was last year, so they tried to slide down the sides of the bike trail, which didn't work very well either. They had a good time trying though. There was plenty of snow for snowballs, which was the main attraction.

Leona the Two-Wheel Bike Rider

Ignore the screenshot format, it came from a video.  At the end of Christmas break Leona told Collin to take the training wheels off of her bike, so he did.  After a little bit of coaching and seat holding she was off and away.  With only a little bit more practice she'll be able to keep up on family bike rides now that she doesn't have those training wheels holding her back.

New Year's Eve 2019

We celebrated New Year's Eve with a party.  We had a lot of fun playing games and eating snacks.  At "kidnight" we had a ton of poppers and horns and reminded the neighbors why they're glad that we don't stay up until actual midnight.

BFFs

You know that you're truly BFFs when you show up to church wearing the same thing with zero advance planning.

Special mention to BFCF (Best Friend Cousin Forever) Ollie who sent Leona this sweet letter in the mail.

Christmas 2019

Timothy didn't understand unwrapping presents at first, but once he got it he thought it was really fun for 10 seconds. Then the girls had to keep bringing his attention back and then we gave up and opened it for him. Everybody got matching llama Christmas jammies, which was super cute.  Collin says I imagined it but I think that Timothy was really pleased to be matching all of the big kids.

It was a really relaxing day, full of talking to family on the phone, eating candy, hanging out, and  enjoying each other's company. Nobody woke up at our house until 8am, which was surprising. Uncle Sammy started calling at 6:30 am because he wanted us to open the nerf guns and 400 nerf bullets that he had sent. He couldn't believe that we had all slept until 8 and that we didn't get around to opening the present until after 10. We had to take a breakfast break after stockings. 

Everybody seemed to like the presents that they got so that was fun.  Leona was pretty thrilled with her bride and groom Barbie and Ken. She's been playing wedding with the barbies all the time anyway so at least now she has the clothes for the outfit. Even with that her favorite present might be the purple unicorn sleeping bag that her sisters and brother bought her. Everybody's main present is the trip to Disneyland that we will be taking in February.

The gift wrapped in the sheet is the sleeping bag.

First things first, strip the barbies, then hide the naked one when your mom says that she doesn't want to take a photo of a naked Ken doll.

Gingerbread Houses Part 2

At the end of gingerbread houses Leona's house was almost entirely bare. She had spent the whole time shoving candy into her face instead of decorating her house.

Grandpa Roueche Comes to Town

Grandpa Roueche came to town for about 30 hours, Collin needed to be ordained a High Priest. We crammed a lot into that short amount of time. Of course there was the obligatory donut run. We also took him to Carkeek Park and went on a short hike as well as playing on the park. While it was a short visit we were glad that we got to play with him.

Leona's Dance Class Finale

Leona had her last ballet and tap class with Miss Osiris in mid December.  It was really fun to watch her leap and dance so gracefully.  She was really into the dance class and especially loved having Hannah, her best buddy from church, and Olivia, a new buddy from school, in her class with her. Leona will miss getting to dance with Miss Osiris.

PS- The woman in the photo was smiling because she thought I was taking her picture. She was smiling at Timothy who was being a maniac while I attempted to take a few pictures of Leona in class.

Leona said it was too cold to take her pants off so she did her last class in her "jeans". I can't say I blame her.  It was super cold in the room, even with all of the dancing bodies.

Christmas Ornaments 2019

This year's ornaments were created as follows:

Timothy's shoe & Space Needle: mom, Man on a walk at sunset: dad, Christmas Tree: Clara, Piano keyboard: Eliza, Baby Jesus: Leona

Gingerbread Houses and Nativities

The kindergartners and their families were invited to the school to make gingerbread houses.  It was a lot of fun, even if the faces don't show it. :) I kept catching Leona staring at her crush from across the room.  I asked what she was looking at and she revealed that she was in fact gathering intell on her crush. She had been noticing that he had a younger sister and listening for what her name was. She also built a nice gingerbread house, when her attention wasn't otherwise diverted.

At the ward Christmas party, the kids did a great job of continuing the tradition of putting on a Nativity play.  This year Eliza was the angel who announced the Savior's birth to the shepherds, Clara was one of the angels in the host of angels, and Leona was a sheep. They all did a great job. Timothy was not invited to participate this year and they used a baby doll instead.

We went again this year to the Bellevue nativity display and the kids dressed up. Joseph was a little bit rough with the Baby Jesus and had to be restrained by a shepherd, before settling down and doing a good job in his role.

Thanksgiving 2019

I saw this at Trader Joe's around Thanksgiving and thought it was fun. I wonder if the person who selected the quote had any idea who David O. McKay was.  A rather thorough google search didn't turn up that quote on gratitude so it makes me think that someone must have included it on purpose.

Leona singled Ollie out to be on the tree. :) Best buddy cousins.

This was this year's Thankful Tree. For Thanksgiving this year we had a random assortment of people. We wanted to have a big crowd and we got one.  We did a good portion of the cooking but some friends with a bigger house hosted. Afterwards we did our first ever family puzzle. It was titled "Muchos Autos" and was a collage of photos of cars, mostly Herbies. I wasn't sure how this would go over or if anyone would be interested but everybody was really into it.  Leona turned out to be quite the puzzle shark. Clara showed her characteristic silent determination while Eliza enjoyed being with the group and working on a common goal. We managed to finish the 500 piece puzzle in one sitting.

The next day we put up the Christmas tree and decorations, which is always a good time.  The girls were excited to see the Nativity and their Christmas elves after 11 1/2 months of separation. We also did the now traditional Puget Sound Polar Bear Plunge.  We couldn't talk anyone into coming with us so it was just our family.  If it hadn't been for Clara's determination to do it we would've scrapped the whole thing.  Leona, Timothy, and I weren't even on the fence about doing it. It was so bitterly cold that day with outside temperatures hovering between 38 and 40 degrees and water temperatures between 40 and 50 degrees. Clara said that she for sure wanted to do it and Eliza said that if Clara was going to do it then she was, because she didn't want to get shown up by her little sister. Collin was up for doing it if it was a communal thing, so they all ended up taking the plunge while the sane half of the family looked on.