It's That Time Again!

Dance Competitions 2012 have started! The first one was in February, which was Starpower. It was a very long day. Kaiya is in 7 dances and the way that the schedule usually pans out I have to run backstage to switch Kaiya's hair after each dance. She has all different costume changes but her hair is also different for just about every dance.
2 buns
side braid
side braid with pony
poof
and just side pony
Kaiya did really well in all of her dances. Her solo was absolutely fabulous! I was so proud of her! She ended up getting 4 3/4 starts (out of 5) and placed 9th overall in her age group. She went against some really good dancers in her age division, some dancing lyrical, jazz, hip hop and tap. Hip hop usually doesn't score very well so it just shows how well she did!

Chris a fellow ADA dancer and choreographer/teacher was called on stage and did a little freestyle dance.

One of our groups that one 1st place

Jett thinks he's a Big Boy

Jett has loved our new living arrangements and the door handles. He quickly realized that he is big enough to open the doors. The good news? He only opens the front door and the bathroom upstairs. The bad news? He opens the front door and the bathroom upstairs.
We have to keep the front door locked at all times. I don't think he would ever go outside without one of us, but I am not about to take the chance.
I have found him many, MANY times playing in the toilet upstairs. We say he is like a puppy because he loves the toilet and to get into the garbage can.
The other day I found him with a makeup brush dipping it into the toilet and sucking the water from the brush. SO GROSS! Good thing the toilet had been flushed...but still I want to throw up just thinking about it.

I opened it! Now what do I do?

Mock Competition

In January we had a big snow storm. That following Saturday was ADA's Mock Competition. Usually the kids have their costumes by then and they are able to practice with their costumes for the first time. However, with the storm the costumes weren't completed in time so they had to just wear their Xtreme wear. I love Mock Competition. It's the 1st time you get to see all the dances that the kids have worked on for the previous 4-5 months. Everyone looked awesome and we were all pumped for the 1st competition the beginning of February.
The Anthem- hip hop



Sassy - Jazz



Kaiya's Solo - Hip hop

Jailhouse Rock - Tap

Rain - Lyrical

Missing pics from Mr. Postman - Jazz

Peter and Jennifer (owners) talking to the kids...preparing them for their first competition.

Camping Out in the House

And this is where we hung out about 22 hours of the day - Thursday thru Saturday morning.
Cirdan, Jett and I slept on the couch and the girls slept right here on the ground in front of the fireplace.

Snow Storm Jan. 2012

In January we had a big ol' snow storm. I thought we were going to be lucky this winter and not see any snow,but I was wrong. The first day of snow was actually pretty and it was kind of fun. The kids had a blast playing outside.
January 15th

Jett's first time playing in the snow.

The next day...January 17th

the girls making a snowman

Jett watching from inside.

The view from the front door...January 18th

The snow is getting deeper!

We convinced Cirdan to come outside and play. He helped us with a big snowman.

Ella was obsessed with getting a carrot for the nose. All we had was carrot shreds, which would make for a tiny nose. The neighbor overheard and gave us a carrot. I love our new neighbors!

Jett looks so small!

On Thursday, January 19th at around 5:00am the power went out. I woke up and realized that it was pretty dark and cold in the house. I thought it would be a few hours and go back on but that wasn't the case.

We ended up camping out in front of the fireplace for the next few days. The first day or so it was kind of fun. We were having some nice family time. After that it was just getting annoying. Life without tv or internet is rough! Ha ha. On Saturday we took Ella and Kaiya to dance and decided we weren't going home until the power was back on. Even if it was more than a day...we would get a hotel. After dance we went to the mall to do some retail therapy. A few hours into spending more money than we should we got the call from my brother saying that our power was back on!

The morning we lost power Cirdan headed downstairs to see if he could get our gas fireplace working before we got out of bed. Since we have never had a gas fireplace he didn't know how to get it on without the power. He opened up the fireplace and looked around to see if there was a backup deal or a start switch. My friend's needs batteries to work hers so he was looking for something to put batteries in. Cirdan called his dad and talked to him about troubleshooting. Still nothing. He decided to go on youtube to see if he could figure it out. He watched a video and the guy said...(in an asian accent) "so I am in my living room and I would like to turn on my nice warm fire. But my power is out...what do I do?" Then he goes through a 30 second shpeal about when the pilot light is on and there is no power you dont need electricity. He continues, "so I go to the wall and I turn on the switch. There we go...nice warm fireplace." So all that time of troubleshooting all Cirdan needed to do was flip the switch on the wall. Ha ha we sure got a good laugh out of it.

It was pretty creepy listening to the tree branches break. Hoping each one doesn't fall on our house. I was thankful that we weren't living in our old house with all those scary trees around.

I went to church on Sunday and that's when it started snowing pretty hard. I didn't leave the house until that next Friday. Talk about cabin fever!!

I take that back. On Friday night we went to my parents house. They have a generator and we went there to make some spaghetti and chili. I was so fed up with eating crackers, cereal without milk and anything else we could find in the pantry.

On Friday we went to Safeway to get some food. We stopped at Jack in the Box and it seemed like everyone else had the same idea. We waited in the drive thru line than no less than 45 minutes.

We did learn some things when the power went out...

1) Keep cash around the house. We went to get gas on Friday but the gas station was only taking cash since the debit card machine was down.

2) We really need to set up a food storage!!!! Some people had their water/sewer stop working also. This would be very scary. We need bottles of water included into our food storage.

3) We also need to know where are flashlights and extra batteries are.

Jett - 16 months

Jett's personality is getting more and more fun each day. He is now in the stage where he copies everything we do. Whenever we make a noise with our mouth, he does the same thing. It always makes me smile when I don't realize I do it and I hear a little echo. I need to get him on video.


Just like a lot of kids he loves to be outside. When we come home he does not want to come inside and will cry about it. Yesterday was nice outside so I took him and Ella out to play. We played for over an hour (and it was cold) but when I went to bring him inside he was so mad! He could have stayed out there all night.


He is getting a TON of teeth in. Around 9. All at the same time.


He loves eating muffins. They are probably his favorite thing to eat right now.


He still doesn't like very many people. It's going to be rough once the baby is born if he doesn't get out of this strangers are scary phase.


He loves to dance and hang out with his sisters. Whenever Kaiya is home he is around her. She makes up dances for Ella and he is right along side of them playing.

He loves to eat muffins but is getting picky (or maybe just doesn't feel good with his teeth) and it takes me a while to figure out what he wants/or will eat.

He has no idea what's in store for him after the baby is born but it's funny to see him look at my belly with a weird look. I am sure he wonders why my belly is getting so big.

He wants to be a big kid and walk down the stairs like the rest of us. He holds on to the banister and takes steps but it scares the heck out of me. He goes fast on his belly backwards most of the time.

He loves to wear other peoples shoes around the house. He usually wears them backwards but I guess it fits better that way.

He loves hearing dogs and saying, "dog". He also barks. He doesn't like dogs though and every time we go to my parents house he screams this loud high pitch scream when Kia comes around him.


The little guy loves taking showers or baths, he digs the water. Speaking of mimicking Heidi just came up behind me while I was writing this. She acted like she was going to chew on my ear while growling and what not. Jett saw, grinned and came over to me growling in my ear.

He likes to wrestle around, we wrestle on the couch a lot.

He loves doing his tickle thing... he mouths the words then says real quiet: tickle, tickle, tickle. It comes out in his native baby talk. Enunciating isn't his strong point :)

He loves to play with Heidi's hair and he insists on playing with it to go to sleep.

Kaiya's 1st Semester Conference

It was a very short semester for Kaiya since she was only there for a month but I still went to parent/teacher conference. It was nice to sit down with her teacher to see how she was adjusting going back to public school.
Kaiya's teacher only had good things to say about her. She was happy that Kaiya was in her class. I must say that her teacher seems really nice and wonderful. She is a fun teacher and all the kids love her. Kaiya got lucky! Oh and I don't think I ever mentioned that she is in a 4th/5th grade split.
Kaiya's report card was fabulous and she got almost all 3's. One 2 in math operations...which I kind of expected. Her old school was behind on what they were doing in this school. She got one 4 in reading, and her teacher said she never gives out 4's.
Kaiya's Dibels fluency score was 173 wcpm which was great! In 4th grade they want the kids to be at a 103 in the winter and by the end of the year be at a 125 so she is well above that.
This year has been great so far! Here is Kaiya's expository essay that the teacher gave me that was a winter writing assessment.

A Boy or a Girl?!!

Tomorrow we will find out if we are having a girl or a boy! It is surreal! My belly is starting to really stick out so this is becoming more real. So far it's going super fast! If it is a boy I will feel like I am 'cheating' on my momma's boy. If its a girl I feel sorry for Jett to have another girl around the house. Girls are always fun to dress up though and boys are just so cute!! I just want a happy, healthy baby! I am so ready to pick out a name and figure out if they will share a room with Jett or Ella. Fun times ahead!

Guesses
Cirdan - Says he can't guess. He has been holding it in since the last ultrasound and wont tell. I need to remember to have him write it down before so I know he was truly wrong/right. :)
Heidi - Girl (but I am always wrong)
Kaiya - Girl
Ella - Boy

The Man With a Few Words

Jett has really been saying a lot more words in the last couple of weeks. His favorite language is grunting. He grunts or yells at about almost everything but it's so cute.

Words he says
Banana (Nana)
Ella
Dada
Mama
Kaiya
Uh oh
Icky (ucky)
Hot (hhhhht)
Hi
Dog
Nose (no)
Diaper

Ella's Field Trip to Petco

Ella had a field trip to the pet store. Cirdan was nice and helped chaperone the outing. Actually I have so many blogs to write that I am going to have Cirdan do this one...
Ella and I were running a bit late to pre school. Heidi didn't want to take her on the field trip and I was planning on going to my office as usual. I wanted Ella to be able to go the pet store....too fun to miss out on. So long story short I ended up deciding to take Ella to the Petco. I called her preschool teacher to get the details because we were running late. The trip was to Petco right here in Covington. This was good news, Petco is only 5 minutes away. Instead of taking Ella to preschool in Auburn just to turn back and drive to Covington I just met the class there. Nice

We split in to two groups to walk around pet store

The first thing the kids did after the class arrived was to gather around in a circle.

Ellas buddy Logan with her.

Two of the ladies who worked at Petco brought out some animal one by one for the kids to enjoy. The kids were given some facts about each and then had the chance to pet them. They brought out Turles,Hamsters, Lizards, Snakes, Mice....I think that's it.

Stretching! Getting the wiggles out.