Dancin' fool

Annabelle's elementary school holds a "sweetheart dance" every year on Valentine's weekend, so Chris took our little Kindergartner to her first dance this last Friday night! I so wish I was there with the video camera, because Chris said Annabelle ran to the dance floor, front and center, and followed the DJ the entire time. She LOVED it! Not to mention that she was pleasantly surprised to get to dance....when she thought she was going to a dance....to watch a dance! So except for a couple daddy/daughter slow dances, she pretty much danced the night away with her friends! The pictures say so much more than I could about how much fun Annabelle had....

All ready to go!

Doin' the twist...all the way down to the ground :)

Concentrating hard while learning "the macarena" with Emma!

After the bubble machine! And possibly doing the "thriller dance?!"

Trying to do the limbo...

Valentines Day

So I got crafty this Valentines Day although I can't take full credit for the idea. I fondly remember my mom making 4 little mailboxes one year out of half gallon milk cartons for us kids, so we could give each other "mail" and then my mom used them to write us little notes and give us treats now and then. We loved it! So since I didn't have the milk cartons, I went to Joann's to find something that I could make work, and they had these cute little mailboxes! So I just painted them, and found a little wooden applique of a heart and crown, for a reminder to the girls that their hearts belong to the King! I am hoping they get good use before Ella destroys them...but, hey...I had to try! I already caught Ella trying to break the door off her mailbox! She is like her daddy in that she wants to take things apart. It will also be a good reminder for me to make sure I love on my girls on a regular basis throughout the year, and not just on the hallmark holiday!! :)

The slumber party

Yes, I did. I hosted 4 giddy 6 and 7 year olds plus an extra giddy birthday girl for a slumber party at our home on Friday night, the 5th. It was a crazy day, and am amazed it worked out as well as it did. The day started with Chris is extreme pain, as he went into the doctors office to find he had strep throat/swollen tonsils and a peritonsilar abcess to boot. He was barely able to talk/drink/breathe. So I dumped the boys I watch off with their grandma, and we were off to the er, which is where Kasier sent us, but come to find out, they sent us there, only because they could not get a hold of the ENT doc who would lance the abcess in Chris' mouth so he could breathe! So thank goodness while were waiting in the er, a good friend had her husband come pick up my kiddos so that I could be with Chris during all this madness. So the er nurse poked Chris' arm too many times, and gave him an iv and some drugs/fluids. Then they finally got a hold of the ENT doc, made an appointment, and we were on our way to place # 3. About an hour later, Chris was relieved, and we were on our way home, where a slumber party was about to commence. I had all sorts of things I had planned to do for the slumber party...but obviously, the day was spent elsewhere...so went to the store, bought some cupcakes, and made do! Annabelle still had a fabulous time with her friends, eating store-bought cupcakes, watching a barbie movie, dancing to barbie movie, eating popcorn/drinking soda, playing sorry, and then waking up to a pancake/egg/OJ breakfast (at 6:30 am!). It was a good time had by all. And then I took a nap.

February 4th

Annabelle turned 6 last Thursday. I cannot believe how big my baby is! Annabelle has grown leaps and bounds in one year. To give you a glimpse into who she is becoming, here are some of her favorite things: friends, school, reading, sweets, bossing around her little sister (and whomever else will let her), asking questions,watching movies and eating pizza/burgers, yep, she is an all-american girl! This year, the lucky 6 year old got two celebrations. One with the fam on her actual birthday, and then a slumber party with 4 of her girlfriends the next night. Annabelle started her birthday with a bowl of Frosted Flakes, (her pick), a day at school with her daddy volunteering in her classroom, some donuts with her classmates, a movie with her daddy, playing her new wii game, homemade pizza with her family and her tata and kevin, and then we ended the glorious day with her choice of birthday dessert: blueberry pie.

***2010***

A New Year...another year to live for his glory. Instead of listing my silly resolutions, I recieved an e-mail of these 10 resolutions as stated by John Piper in an article... and thought they were definately post worthy, so I decided to post his for you all instead. May the new year bring you closer to him in 2010!

10 Resolutions

(Posted by John Piper, Dec 31, 2009 11:42 PM PST)

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end.

I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death when he said: "There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing."

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities.

I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.

6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic" existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the "child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder."

8. I shall follow Darwin's advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, "fulfill the moment as the moment." I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.

10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

A very snoggy Christmas

Well another Christmas has come and gone. Quick. Crazy. Fun. We had Andi, and my mom and younger brother, Ian from Santa Rosa, Ca. join us for Christmas this year, and it was nice and quaint. The girls got spoiled and we had great fun being with family for 5 straight days! Here were the highlights of our Christmas:

*Mom and Ian, arrived at our door from California on the eve of the 23rd
*Snog...aka: freezing fog, that looks like snow on the ground...a new word, coined by ella!
*Nutcracker on Christmas Eve at Keller with mom, Belle, Ella, and Andi
*Annabelle reading scripture at our church's christmas eve service
*A happy birthday Jesus cake with candles
*A plate of sugar cookies left for Santa, eaten by chris before Santa even came!
*Chris "enjoyed" an accidental cup of lactaid mixed with bourbon (meant to be eggnog)...we all enjoyed laughing at him as he tried to finish it so as to not waste the bourbon!
*Two new scooters for Annabelle and Ella from uncle Ian!
*matching christmas jammie pants for us ladies
*making sugar cookies
*Shopping the Macy's sales...
*Taking Ella to her first movie at the theaters..."Cloudy with a chance of meatballs". Her favorite part was definately the guy who had a huge macaroni noodle stuck on his head.
*All of us helping Ella put together her favorite christmas gift over and over....a puzzle with the different layers of the human body (bones, organs, skin, and clothes). She must have done it 100 times!
*Some really yummy meals made by my catering chef brother, Ian. My fave...Chicken marsala with cheesy polenta and brussel sprouts.
*A dinner out to outback Steakhouse on kids eat free Monday!
*Then some actual snow just a couple hours after my mom and brother drove away! A wonderful way to end a great week!

Nutcracker

Another trip to the Nutcracker for us Curry girls, and this time we included my mom and Ella. It was great fun. I am glad my mom got to experience Ella's first time to see the Nutcracker. She also fielded the 300 questions Ella asked during the performance. Which my mom thoroughly enjoyed and the man in front of us clearly did not enjoy :) In any case, this year was extra special, because we also made it onto the 5 oclock news as we were entering into the Keller Auditorium. Well they pretty much only showed my mom and one quick shot of me. I was bummed they didn't put the girls on, because they interviewed them on the meaning of christmas, and their response were great! Annabelle said the meaning of christmas was "giving", and Ella said the meaning of christmas was "barbies!". Here's the link so you can view our little news segment if you so wish!