Catch Up

Happy New Year!! I love a new year and a fresh start. We just erased (we used dry erase markers from last year) and wrote our new resolutions for the new year. One of ours is for me to get smaller and for Carleton to get bigger so we've been measuring ourselves every week, hitting the gym, and training for our triathlon and half marathon.

So, we are a little behind in blogging so, this will be from Halloween to Christmas. It's been a whirlwind with all the flying, driving, and visiting family.

Halloween. I've always loved Halloween. My mom is an artist and would paint our faces amazingly scary. I would dress up for my high school students and would plan a special class just for Halloween (I went overboard but I and the students loved it). Now I love to make the kids' costumes. This year I spray painted and made jewelry for Annie and me. Made sandals for the boys out of brown tights and duct tape and made their wrist bands out of toilet paper rolls and clear gems.




Knott's Berry Farm. Here's Apollo with his buddy, Ethan. We had a very fun day. We enjoy swapping kiddos with them too.




Missing Donny. Apollo has dearly missed his friend Donny (they moved 20 miles away). He's glad to see him at least once a week during preschool and more when we swap. I love when Donny comes over-Apollo lights up and they have so much fun together.


They said something about being pregnant here.


Fun at Home. We laughed so hard the other day giving each other horsey rides. Some of them were two at a time (Annie in front and Apollo on back) as we would gallop through the house.

Typical Annie. She looooooooooooves books! She "reads" them now in her little gibberish. We clean up the books multiple times a day.

We met Carleton at a park the other day for lunch. On the way out, Apollo found a lime floating in the fountain. He took it home with him. For fun, we bought a bunch more at the grocery store so he could surprise dad with our homemade lime juice. He could not have been more excited. I love being a mom and doing creative little things throughout the day.



Thanksgiving. Apollo loves playing with his cousins.


We painted Indian vests and head bands to celebrate Thanksgiving.


Maddy keeps all the kids entertained (what I wouldn't give to have her here as my Mother's helper). In this pic she's having Gracy share something Maddy had her "class" make. Maddy will be a great teacher some day. Grace and Apollo were funny singing on the piano together (I have video but not a pic of it).

Perfect match. Annie loves to be read to and Maddy likes to read.


Here we are in our cool new Christmas jammies in a cool pose.



Apollo and Mom are good buddies. They had a good time with his play dough.


Retirement Celebration. I flew with the kids for Thanksgiving and Carleton joined us in NM later. My dad had a retirement dinner in the middle of December so we flew out again to celebrate. Afterward, we flew to the Copas for Christmas and joined up with Carleton there. I really enjoy flying with the kids, especially because Apollo loves planes so much.

Beautiful girls. I LOVE these pics of Ann with Grandma. Grandma has always been so good about playing with the kids. I'm going to have to frame this second pic. My grandparents have been great supports in my life. I have incredible memories of them all growing up, college years, and a weekly letter on my mission. I am very lucky to have them as great friends.


First snowman. Jordan is so good with the kids and helped them make their first snowman. It's funny how much bigger Apollo is than Annie. She goes to his chest. I love when they hug each other at our house. He really is her protector. He tells me that at kid's club (at the gym) he follows her around. Apollo is so good to Ann.



Retirement Dinner. It was very special to have Grandma/pa Skenandore come and support Dad. There were people from all over the country at the dinner. We are very proud of Dad and for all he has done to help Indian children become better readers and better educated. Cool story. Almost thirty years ago my grandma and grandpa saw three eagles above them and he Grandpa said to Grandma "I wish one of those eagles would let one of their feathers down for me." Just as he finished saying that, a feather came circling down and landed in very tall grass. They had their little dog, Mittens (shorter than the grass) go in to find the feather. He came back with that feather. Grandpa Skenandore has kept that feather all this time through every move. Unbeknownst to him, Grandma got that feather to my dad and he had someone bead it. The feather is very symbolic and special to Native Americans (it is also legal for Native Americans to have eagle feathers). When a feather is returned to its owner it is Indian culture to have a special ceremony. It was a beautiful site to see Grandpa with a beautiful rug around his shoulders (from Stan) and Dad's arm around him as they honored him. A group played the drums and sang an Indian chant. Grandma could not have been more proud with tears in her eyes. I hope to always remember the way she looked at Grandpa as he came back to his seat. The whole room was standing and honoring such a special man. Love my Grandparents!


Happy Harley Days. Happy Retirement. That night was very special. We got to hear people tell stories and speak about my dad. We got to here him speak too. A very and special night-I'm sure one that we will treasure forever.
Annie is Dad's little buddy.




Carleton took his young men climbing.

Christmas at the Copas. Cameron and Sloane's family joined us before they went on their cruise.

The kids played so well together. Ethan took care of Apollo at the fun zone. Avery was so cute with Annie and read books to her a lot. It was funny sometimes, Avery would be reading to Annie, while Annie was reading her own book in her gibberish and they were both happy and content to do so.
We didn't touch Ann's hair for this pic. She woke up this cute.

Christmas Day. Carleton had this cool idea to wrap the doors like presents so the kids could run through them to get to their presents Christmas morning. Annie got confused or something and started crying.



Annie's popular with the grandpas. A cool thing this year was Apollo reading who the presents were to and helping Grandpa Ken pass them out.



We bought Apollo a headband because he likes Annie's.