9-1-1

So... last night I was helping the kids with homework while cooking dinner and folding laundry, pretty typical. Austin was crying at my leg, when suddenly he became distracted. He saw the phone on the couch which is usually up and out of his reach. Realizing that he had a chance, he grabbed for it and immediately started pushing buttons. I knew I should probably take it from him, but I actually gave in and let him play with it because it kept him from knocking over my neatly stacked piles of folded laundry and distracted him from crying at my leg. Over the years my kids have been known to make a phone call or two, you know, they push redial and call the last person you called or something. I usually hear if the phone starts dialing and grab it quickly so I can hang up before it actually connects. That works fine... usually.

I heard a dial tone, then dialing. It was really loud because Austin pushed the speaker button. I grabbed for the phone and saw all the numbers rolling across the screen. He'd pushed lots of buttons because they filled the entire screen. I quickly hung up while it was still dialing and before I heard any ringing (not sure if even would have because there were so many numbers). I decided to put the phone up because I noticed that the first three numbers of the pattern were 9-1-1. Phew! That was a close one I thought to myself.

Not even a minute later, I got a call from 9-1-1 saying that a call had just been placed from our phone line. What... it went through? Wow, I apologized like crazy and felt really dumb, but really, who knew you could dial 9-1-1 with a whole string of numbers after it and not even a clear ring?

I guess I should feel safe knowing the system works overly well.
Sorry Austin, no more playing with the phone for you.
Oops.

Matching

Linsey and Emma were excited that I found matching dresses for them to wear to church. I also found them matching shoes for $4.24 on clearance. Woo Hoo! They made up a song that they sang all the way to church. It went something like this...

We are matching girls,
We have matching straight hair and matching pink dresses,
And the same shoes too with flowers on the bottom.

They did a secret handshake as they were singing the words, and at the end they hit their hands together and wiggled their fingers slowly like fireworks while saying "Matching."

My girls are opposites in a lot of ways, but when I straighten Emma's hair, she suddenly looks a whole lot like her big sister.

Last night we were looking through old pictures and we came across several pictures of Hunter at Austin's age. The resemblance is amazing. I kept feeling like we were looking at pictures of Austin, only they were of Hunter. Here is one.

Hunter 2 yrs. old

I had to go dig that jacket out and put in on Austin. (below)

Here Austin is standing in almost the same position and the picture of Hunter is in the background.

As we looked through more and more old pictures, memories came flooding back from past vacations and holidays. I kept thinking about what a blessing it is to have these children in my life. They bring me so much joy and happiness. I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing.
I'm very blessed.

Derby Time!

Last night was Hunter's first pinewood derby. He and Jared spent lots of time building his car. Hunter sanded it to perfection and it looked fantastic with it's shiny red paint job. Jared admitted to me that he really didn't know much about pinewood derby cars and he had absolutely no idea if it would come in last or be really fast.

The Red Dragon!

We talked to Hunter about being a good sport and I knew he would be okay if his car didn't do amazingly well, but I really hoped that it wouldn't come in last place. Especially because it was on a night when Jared had class, so it was just me and the kids.

I admit, I was a little uncomfortable with the idea of Jared not being there with us last night. I worried that I might foul things up if the car didn't weigh enough and adjustments had to be made. I read in the rules that if a wheel falls off or something on the car breaks, you have 5 minutes to fix it or the car is disqualified. I'm not sure if my hot glue gun would work for something like that. (I just hoped we didn't have to worry about it.) Mostly, I felt sad for Hunter, not to have his dad there to support him and cheer him on.

Luckily, at the last minute Jared's dad stepped in to save the day! The kids were all thrilled and I felt much more relaxed. You see, Jared's dad had 4 boys and the pinewood derby is something he took very seriously. He's had lots of experience and is somewhat of a pro in my opinion.

I knew if that car needed any attention, Papa was the guy for the job. Ten years ago when we moved to Washington, the stand of my quilting frame that Jared built for me cracked thanks to the movers. Papa took one look at it and said he thought he could figure out a way to fix it.

He put 20 screws through the entire board and you'd better believe that 10 years later, that crack hasn't grown one centimeter. Impressive!

Papa and I talked before the racing started and he told me about the first pinewood derby he did with Jared (who was the oldest). He said he didn't really know what he was doing, but he spent hours working on the car and although it looked really nice, it came in last place. He told me that the look on Jared's face was so incredibly sad, it killed him.

So, he went home and researched, he read books about making pinewood derby cars and called all over looking for special car parts and materials. He was determined to never let that happen again.

Now I really hoped that Hunter's car did okay. I didn't want Papa to have to re-live that moment from his first pinewood derby with Jared.

Here are all the cars, lined up and ready to go.

And they were off. I was taking pictures with my phone so this is the best I got, that first red blur you see is Hunter's car! His car took first in almost every race it ran until they narrowed the racing down to the final four cars.

Overall he won 3rd place and he also got an award for the smoothest finish.

I know it's not about winning and I'm pretty sure that Hunter would have been just fine if his car wouldn't have done as great (Papa too), but doing well is really fun! At one point Papa and I were watching Hunter from a distance, he was holding his car and dancing around excitedly waiting for his next turn. I'm glad that Papa was able to be there with us . I sent Jared a picture of Hunter holding up his little trophy. When he got my text (during class) and saw the picture he said he wanted to shout out he was so excited!

The results are in.

You may remember my post about Emma and her artistic reflections entry that won her a medal at the school assembly. That medal was worn proudly around her neck every waking moment until it broke during recess one day. (No worries, I was able to fix it.)

Both Linsey and Emma placed at the school level and were invited to attend the District awards ceremony which was today.

Here is Emma showing her Primary Visual Art entry.

It was hard to get a good picture of it behind that glass, but here are a few close ups.
Linsey and her friend played a soccer game this morning and we had to leave right from that to make it in time. The girls changed in the bathroom and still looked a little sweaty, but they didn't seem to mind.

Here is Linsey's Intermediate Visual Art entry. She used her creativity by using real leaves on the tree and ground.

I was wrestling Austin when Emma's picture came up on the big screen so my picture was too blurry to post, but I did catch a good shot of Linsey's.
We are so proud of her. She has entered every year since the first grade and this was her third time moving on to Districts. Way to go Linsey!

Emma seemed really nervous up there on the stage.

I kept trying to get a good picture, but they all looked the same.

The numbers kept dwindling until Emma was the only one left!

She won First Place!

Way to go!

I'm so proud of my girls. Jared was in class so I took a picture of the girls on my phone and sent it to him telling him how they did. He wrote back that Linsey looked more excited for Emma that she did. It's true, although Emma was thrilled, Linsey was a very proud big sister!
We stayed for cookies and juice and while we ate, I taught Hunter how to use my camera. Maybe next year he'll enter something in the photography category. He especially loved these action shots.
This actually wasn't a bad picture, but his favorite part of it is Linsey running in the background.

Once we got home, the kids decided to play in the rain.

It's been quite the day!

A ski trip and more

Hunter and Linsey went skiing for the first time last week! I wasn't sure how it would go....... they LOVED it!

Look at that perfect little snow plow.You can hardly tell, but that's Linsey.

I stayed back with Grandma and these two cute little guys. Austin and his cousin Aleck (Doug's little boy) are about 2 months apart. They played really well and it was a lot of fun to see them together.
For Christmas, Aleck got a tub of those balls that you used to see in play lands. They had a blast throwing them around, (and we had a blast watching).
Doug stayed home from the ski trip too. Unfortunately there was a wave of sickness that flowed through the Butler home for most of our holiday visit. He was a good sport and took the kids outside to play in the freezing weather anyway. What a nice Uncle.
It was fun to have my youngest brother Anthony around for the holidays. Here he and Gavin are showing off a new Christmas toy. (I've been getting reports that Gavin is a mad-man on the ski hill, wish I could have witnessed that one for myself.)
We had a great time visiting with my family, seeing my parents new house, and continuing our Christmas celebrations. It really is the greatest time of the year!

When we got home, Jared surprised me with an overnight getaway for our Anniversary. 13 years! I'm so grateful for all the wonderful memories and happy times and I look forward to many, many more.

And now, on to 2011.

Christmas

When I was a kid, Santa always built a barricade in the hallway, probably to keep us from peeking. Every year it seemed a little more elaborate. I seem to remember old tires from the garage and marbles... Often, we couldn't even open our bedroom doors.

This is what my kids woke up to Christmas morning. It wouldn't have been a big deal except that they all slept in the same room together and at 3:15 in the morning I heard someone whispering, "MOM.... MOM". I rushed out into the hallway and I could see little Emma through the handles of the laundry basket.

She asked, "Is it time to open presents yet?"
I said, "No, it's WAY too early."
Instantly, she began sobbing.
Linsey came rushing out to console her, which was nice since I was on the other side of the barricade.
I was a bit surprised to see that Linsey was also awake, but then she told me they were ALL awake because they were just so excited! I guess it's a good thing Santa made that barricade after all.

At 7:00, we finally headed downstairs.

Christmas would not have been Christmas without this dog. Austin kind of thought it was for him. Thankfully, Emma is an expert when it comes to sharing.


It was fun to have Grandma Jeanne and Papa here with us Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.
Hunter got a marble castle that required putting together lots of little pieces. He's actually really good at that kind of stuff. Jared and I worked with him here and there, but he did a lot of it all on his own.The girls and their new stuff. (The Kinect was for all the kids.)

Hunter and his gifts.

Austin had fun with his remote control train. It only had two buttons, forward and back. That's my kind of toy.

And my favorite gift of all.... a vacume for the kids to use when they clean their rooms.

Jared spoiled me with a fancy watch to use when I go running, and an iphone. Woo Hoo!

Christmas dinner with my favorite people! What a great day!