Dance Recital

Alyse has been doing dance all year and has mostly loved it. Although, when I've watched her and not been talking to Jordan, I'm not sure what it is that she's doing. She doesn't seem to follow the teacher so well and acts a little silly. In fact, often times Madelyn would join the class and follow better than her. They didn't start working on her dances for the recital until Februaryish, I think. So, I was a little worried. At home, I would ask Alyse if she would show me her dance and she'd look at me like I was crazy and say, "I don't know it." Not even one little part. And when I'd ask Jessica, her teacher, about it, she'd say, "oh, I'm not worried about this age. That's what's so cute about it...they just mess up or pick their noses or play with their outfit." I wasn't so sure about that, since I'd been paying 50 bucks a month for all this! Then the dress rehearsal was as I expected...Alyse knew next to nothing and would put her tutu over her head or around her neck or look lost in lala land. Although it was pretty cute! However, the night of the recital was different. Not that she actually knew her dance very well, but she did a great job of trying to follow the teacher and her friends on stage and we had no costume mishaps! At the end of the performance they handed out trophies to the girls and Alyse was sooo excited. Now she had a trophy of her very own, just like Annie!! Kurt, Madelyn and I were so proud of her! She looked adorable up on stage and did such a great job...

Going Solo...

So this is sooo late, but I have to keep up on this if I'm going to use it for my journal! Annie complete Kindergarten...yeah! She absolutely loved school. The last week of school consisted of a water day for the kindergarten kids only and they had a blast. I got to go for about an hour or so while my friend watched my other kiddos. It was so much fun to see Annie with all her friends. She made such good friends this past year and it's been great because a lot of them live right in our neighborhood, so she has gotten to see them this summer. A few days after she school she flew all by herself to California to visit Grandma Jacobs. She was ecstatic...and could not sit still at the airport. At least that's what Kurt told me. He took her, since I had responsibilities at church. I did not chicken out! I knew she would be great! Kurt and I both felt good about letting her go. It was a non-stop flight all the way to Oakland. At the airport she met up with a family of three kids, 2 girls, who asked Kurt if he wanted Annie to sit by them, so she did and was in heaven. She fell asleep at take off for a while and then just played games with the girls she met! My mom was there to get her at the gate when she got off and that was it! She talked to us about twice the entire week she was there by herself. The first two days she was there, John, Bev, Calvin, Luke, Michael and Kirstin were there too. Annie had a great time with Calvin, who is Alyse's age. They swam, had breakfast in the hot tub, did pottery painting (which she gave to Kurt for father's day), movies, pedicure, saw the Broadway musical Lion King and went to a Safari in Santa Rosa....there they had a marshmallow roast, slept in a "tent", went on a jeep ride with the animals, fed raw chicken to the catfish and lots of other fun stuff...my dad even went along with them!! My mom also taught her to play a few pieces on the piano...she was thrilled. I only wish I had one at home now, so she could have continued with it. I just don't see myself taking her down to the church everyday to practice! I was so glad she got to go all by herself. We missed her, but she needed some one on one time...her sisters are now asking when they can go to grandma's house by themselves.

Congratulations!!!

This is just a little post about my wonderful husband Kurt! It's been about a week since we found out that he passed the Orthodontic National Board exam!!! He took it the end of April and he worked so hard studying for it. For a minute, I thought I was back in dental school. We didn't mind though, since he's been around a ton with his residency. We handled the two weeks of no dad pretty well. And all the hard work paid off. I kept having to remind the girls not to bother dad and make him feel guilty because if he didn't pass, then it would mean more no daddy time....they did pretty well and I think got the picture. Anyway, it was a little anti-climatic opening the letter and reading it to Kurt over the phone. It is pass or fail and after he got done taking the test he was pretty sure he had passed and fortunately he was right! So, I just wanted him to know how very grateful I am to him for all his hard work outside the home and in the home. He couldn't be more patient with the girls and is always willing to lend a hand without me even asking...Kurt and I went out the day he finished his exam and then we waited to find out the results to celebrate with the whole family. We went to Chuck E. Cheese that night...it was perfect for our family! The girls were so excited (especially Annie) about Kurt passing his big test.
Some more exciting news is that we found out they are cutting his program short. The third years aren't that busy and so instead of being done next June, we will be done in February of next year....we are super super excited, just feel like we need to put plans into over drive now. I've got to get the house ready to sell and then Kurt's got to find some opportunity in CO! We love it here and will be so sad to leave, but are very much looking forward to moving closer to family!!!

All about Alyse

So, back on April 15th Alyse turned 4 years old and I've been meaning to do a little post about her...I am going to post all the stories I have written down so I can remember her little personality at this age...she's a riot and makes us laugh all the time. I get asked if her and Madelyn are twins almost once a day. At her 4 year check up she was 31 lbs and I think 31 inches...regardless she was only in the 5th percentile for both...down from the 20th. She's just a little runt! I've finally realized that her whining and crying and mood swings are just part of her personality and that it's not a stage we're going through and will hopefully grow out of it. All I can do now is help her learn how to control it and hope she's figured it out by the time we hit the teenage years :) She is such a good big sister to Madelyn, except when she lets Madelyn get the best of her(which is often, she already knows how to push her buttons). She loves to play with Annie and her friends and thinks she's so big. She loves riding her bike and loves watching TV or movies. Her favorite food is pizza and she could probably eat it everyday if I let her. She also loves cereal and it is usually without milk, except for Frosted Flakes with oaps (oats). She is my girliest girl...she loves dresses and skirts to wear, dress ups to play with, her nails done, make up on, a purse on her shoulder and her hair down. She loves pretend play, especially house where she gets to be mommy, baby or sister and I'm always grandma! She loves her polly pockets and loves to do puzzles and color. She can sit and color forever, especially when Annie's with her. Lately she thinks she's a monkey and tries to climb on and jump off everything, including people...
Various Conversations: mom (M) dad (D) Alyse (A)
A: You this will be cute or no?(talking about a shirt she's picked out to wear)
M: Yes, very cute
A: No, not cute (and puts the shirt back to pick out another one)


D:Alyse, you are so cute
A: Yeah, I know I'n so cute

We got some new PJ's out of her box of clothes
A: These are fancy with strawberries all over

About 6-7 months ago we had put the kids to bed and Alyse kept sneaking downstairs to be with us. So, I would ask her each time what she was doing out of bed
A: I just can't remember sometimes if I love you
That answer happened about 3 or 4 times, then it turned to
A: I just can't remember sometimes if I love the decorations
Then it would just be any old random thing she would look at and say that about.

When I'm drinking my Dr. Pepper, Alyse will look at it longingly and say, "I wish I had my own Dr.Pepper."

One night she was by her chair in the playroom facing it and says, "I'm not a boy-boys go potty like this and poop like this. I'm almost a boy." I have no clue where that came from.

One night this past fall she was being extremely difficult and so lost the privilege of me laying with her. She has an absolute fit when this happens, so once she calmed herself down I asked her, "Do you know why I'm not laying with you tonight?"
And she responded with, "Because you're a mean mom!"

After feeding the geese bread last fall she started talking to them, "The bready's all gone goosies-there's no more...it's all gone."

She's one of the most stubborn girls I know...she got sick in November and could either take her medicine (antibiotic) for a week or get three shots over the course of 4 days. As I explained this to her since we had tried the medicine and she refused to take it (I tried everything!!) she chose to get the shots......crazy girl!! The next time she got sick and we had the same options, she chose the medicine, but informed me that she only liked purple medicine...so being the crazy mom that I am I had the pharmacists grape flavor it and I dyed it purple with food coloring, but it worked!! And I do it all again...

My girls have been asking me when we're going to have a new baby for about 6 months now and being the mean mom I am I tell Alyse that I can't have another baby until she can be happy all the time. (I know I'm probably causing some real psychological issues with her) So, she would tell me all the time when she was happy that she was trying to be so good so we could have another baby. She would even clean up the play room as a surprise in hopes that would help the situation. Then one day, she was being extremely grumpy and so I pulled the new baby card on her. She told me, "I'm not grumpy at Holly's-why you make me grumpy?"

Once when Alyse was at Joy School (Novemberish) at my friend Holly's she told Holly she didn't like the sugar fishys (they were just regular) and that she wanted crackers instead. So, Holly gave them to her. When I found out, we had a little talk
M: Next time Alyse you get what you get for snack. We don't get to ask for something else, OK?
A: Oh mom, Holly doesn't mind.

This one is a little gross....that's my warning
2/28/2009 Alyse had drunk chocolate milk for breakfast and then she had to go #2-as she watched it come out she says to me, "I got a lot out mom because chocolate milk is brown and poop is brown." Don't ask why she came up with that association!

In Marchish she had to go potty at the park...as we were walking to the bathroom she says to me, "It's a good thing they have a potty here mom because if not, I would have to poop like a dog and then everyone would see me and that would be gross."

A few months back, maybe January or February we used some reverse psychology on Alyse to try and get her to eat pineapple at dinner. I would tell her I didn't want her to eat any because I just wanted her to stay little with me forever. So she ate about 2-3 helping of pineapple because she wanted to get bigger and each bite she took she would stand up in her chair to show us how much bigger she had gotten. We were excited that had worked so well, so the next night we tried the same tactic on her with green beans. We told her if she ate green beans she could be smarter than mom and dad, so she told us, "It's OK, I'm already bigger." What a punk! However we did get her to eat 1/4 of a green bean :) Then a month and a half later we were driving past Holly's house (down the street from us) and Alyse says, "Look mom there's Holly's house." M-"It is. How did you know that was Holly's house, did you recognize it?" A-"I ate my green bean, you remember?"

4/13/09-Holly was watching Alyse for me and she was having a rough time, so Holly was holding her and her 5 month old baby, George at the same time. Alyse was holding George's had while they sat there. So Holly asked her, "Alyse, you're so good with babies. Why do you think you are so good?"
A-"Um, I don't know, because I just love them so much."

As of April Alyse has started abbreviating words...for example:
Anne come here-Annie
Can you get me a tish-tissue
Mom-Buck me-buckle me in the car
I need a snug-snuggle
write a message on my tum-tummy
Where's my Chaps-chapstick
I need some piz-pizza
Turn on the light so I can do pod-potty
She comes up with new ones everyday and I just have to laugh...so here's a pretty good over view of Alyse's last year and the kind of character she is...we love her so much!!!
She's also a very particular girl and has to have things done exactly the right way. The picture of her lying on the ground is at the park...her shoe got dirty and she wanted to clean it off and also needed her foot cleaned off before she would put it back on. I was busy pushing other kids on the swings, so I told her to just put it back on because it was going to get dirty again...we were at the park. She just could not handle it, so laid there for close to 10 minutes crying over her shoe and foot being dirty until I got over there to clean them both off...
Also, when she's on good terms going to bed with Madelyn, she wants to match her...on one occasion I had no matching jammies, so this is what they came up with...BYU shorts with pink shirts-perfect!
Here's some pictures of her little personality: