Broken

December 12th was a day to remember and the reason there haven't been any fun holiday posts. Lydia broke her leg ice skating. So we visited the emergency room for a second time with our oldest daughter. When I called my best friend, who has two boys, she said "God didn't really spare you anything by NOT giving you boys!" No kidding. We absolutely love Lydia for all her strong will, independence, determination, intelligence, and agility. But the last 2 and a half weeks have been A LOT of sitting for her and its been hard. Hard on the rest of us as well, as we do our best to take care of an 80 lb baby (so to speak)! This week she will go in for a full cast and then the doctor says she can try using some crutches. We are ALL counting the days! As for me, I didn't realize how much I had come to count on her for help each day and I will be glad when things are back to normal. Maille has made her best attempt to step up to the plate and help out more than usual. Today she even cleaned Lydia's room! What a great sister! Brian has been trying his best to keep up with work during this already busy time of year. Christmas pics coming soon!

Try taking a picture of these three!

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Originally uploaded by bcrollo

I wanted a Christmas picture of the girls. Thats all...seems like not too much to ask right? Ok, so how on earth do you get all three looking at the camera and smiling at once??? Out of several hundred taken, these were the best we could do! Click the picture to see more. If you see a picture you like, flickr allows you to download it or order prints. This way everyone can pick thier own favorite!

Sit Gretchen, Sit!

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Originally uploaded by bcrollo

She is officially a big girl now. Solid food AND sitting up! She has been working hard and her big sisters are so proud of her. They have been cheering her on every time we set her upright..."sit Gretchen, sit!" It keeps Brian and I laughing.

First Cereal

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Originally uploaded by bcrollo

Gretchen has been fascinated by food for a while now. When the doctor said we could start solids I felt kind of sad, but I figured she would LOVE it! Boy was I wrong. The first time we offered it she kept gagging and she hated it. I waited about a week and tried again. Now she loves it. Especially if we are all sitting at the table eating together! She REALLY wants what we are eating of course. Click the picture to see more photos.

Reaching and grabbing

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Originally uploaded by bcrollo

Gretchen has started to reach for things, pick them up, and get them in her mouth!!! This is a very satisfying feat for her as she is also teething!

Making Cookies

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Originally uploaded by bcrollo

Lydia got caught licking the bowl...

Maille and Gretchen Pajama Party

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Originally uploaded by bcrollo

Girls just wanna have fun!

Home School Is...

Ice Skating!!! Ok not really, but on Wednesday mornings the Bellingham Sportplex opens up for a special "home schoolers ice skating" time. We love it. There is usually about 20-30 people is all and we get a chance to meet other home schoolers. The girls are getting better and better. Both of them are asking for ice skates for Christmas.

HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY LYDIA!!!

Soccer, Soccer, Soccer...

The girls really enjoy playing soccer, but I am really glad last weekend marked the end of fall outdoor soccer. It was cold. It was WET! It was miserable...to be a spectator at least. The girls seemed to have fun anyway. Hope you like to pictures. Its really hard for me to get good pics of Lydia now that she plays on the big field. I don't have a big enough zoom to really catch her in the action. Maille's I can still manage to get some good ones though. And now we're on to Indoor Soccer season...at least it will be dry!

Gretchen's New Coat

With the help of my mother and grandmother, I made Gretchen a fleece jacket to match the fleece pants I found for her! I think it turned out really cute!

Halloween

Our friend and photographer Gabe Rodriguez took these! Hope you enjoy them! It was a fun Halloween. Both the girls picked costumes they were very well suited for! Maille made the most adorable Dorothy and Lydia was perfect as a Griffindor student (not Hermione because she has brown hair!).

Gretchen Picture

It's a Girl!

Gretchen Sophia Rollo
Born July 12, 2007 at 12:19pm
7 pounds, 11 ounces
20 inches long

Maille Can Run!

Maille has always been a pretty easy-going girl.  She's never shown too much interest in sports.  We had to talk her into a second season of soccer despite the fact that she's actually pretty good.  Anyways, tonight we took her and Lydia to the Bellingham All-Comers Track Meet.  We went a few times last year and generally had a fun time.  This time however, Maille wowed us with her running.

She had told us before that she was the fastest runner in her class, but we had never really seen her in a race with her peers.  She started the evening by winning the 50 meter hurdles.  She also won the 100 meter dash.  Her most amazing performance was in the 800 meters (2 full laps).

I told her before the race started that she needed to not run too fast or she would get tired.  She completely ignored my advice and had a 15 foot lead after about 200 meters.  At that point, a much taller boy caught up with her.  Cambria and I were certain that she'd end up walking because of her fast start.  We were completely wrong.

The taller boy quit after 1 lap and Maille kept going.  She didn't stop to walk once.  At the very end, she was passed by one boy who just barely beat her.  She was exhausted, but very happy to get that first place ribbon (technically she's only racing the other girls her age).  We were shocked that she actually ran the whole way without stopping let alone winning the race!  We were very impressed!

She then followed that up with a 3rd place finish in the mile (10:47)! I think she was a little bit tired for that one as she ended up walking a couple times. She followed that with a win in the 200 meter dash.

I guess Maille can really run.

Joining the Ranks

So any of you who know Brian and I pretty well, are fully aware of our severe personality differences. So when it came to car shopping the last SIX MONTHS, we approached it very differently. Brian needed to make sure he had researched ALL the options before coming to a conclusion. By research I mean reading stuff on the interet, stopping people and asking them about the cars they drive and why, reading consumer reports, talking to used car repair people, scanning car lots on a regular basis, and test driving anything that seemed somewhat interesting, etc. For me it was much simpler, did it make sense for our growing family, is it a reputable car make in terms of reliability, and does it get decent gas mileage? So today we officially joined the ranks of "A MINIVAN DRIVING FAMILY!" So watch out soccer moms, here I come!

Before and After

As part of the recovery from the trees falling on the house last fall, a painter came to fix our bedroom walls and ceiling. It makes our bedroom so much more inviting to have color on the walls! Now I'm anxious to have the kitchen painted. Its the only room in the whole house left to paint since we moved in!

BEFORE




AFTER

Girl, Girl, aaaaaand

So we ALL went to the unltra-sound. As the tech is leading us all to our tiny room she asks, "So do you want to know the sex of the baby?" We all gave her a unanimous "YES!" After about 20 minutes of her showing us and measuring all the babies parts, she finally annouces "I don't see anything here that makes me think boy. I would say its about 80% likely to be a girl."

Yet another girl! So here were the reponses...

Brian "That's great!"
Maille "YES, now I get to have a little sister!"
Lydia "Ah man, not another little sister!"
Cambria "Its not fair! We already have two daddy's girls! What do I have to do to get a mommy's boy!?!?"

Of course the important part is that the baby looks to be developing normally and things seem to be progressing fine. She did decide that my actual due date is the 17th of July (not the 7th like we thought). Now all discussions are about names. We'll keep you posted....

Chaos

I'd like to give you run-down of one day in my never routine or mundane life.

7:30 up and make breakfast and lunches for the girls (mind you I was at work til 12:30 and got to bed and asleep about 1:30am the night before)
8:00 shower, get dressed, get Maille ready, say good-bye to Lydia
9:00 leave the house and drive into downtown
9:15 arrive at bank and do deposits for Kendrick's
9:30 stop at Cash-n-Carry
10:00 deliver perishable items to Kendrick's
10:15 Bed Bath and Beyond for more wine glasses for todays party
10:30 TJ Maxx for serving bowl and platers for todays party
11:00 Office Max for Kendrick's office supplies
11:15 Costco for some business and personal stuff
noon Peir 1 Imports for a specific type of picture holder to hold food tags for todays party
12:15 Drop Maille off at School (she's been with me up until now)
12:30 arrive at Kendrick's and unload my car, start setting up for the party
1:00 First employee arrives
1:30 Second employee calls me from the ER (They think she has Appendicitis!)
1:35 I cry because I just had one employee quit and one was gone in Mexico on vacation and now one was in the ER!!! I only have 7 to begin with! I call everyone I know to see if they can help, meanwhile employee #1 and I are running around like crazy trying to get ready for 65 people to arrive at 4pm!
1:45 A former employee calls me back and says she can be at Kendrick's in 20 minutes-HUGE SIGH OF RELEIF!!!!
2:00 Brian comes over from work and starts to help, but now I am on the phone trying to get a hold of anyone who can meet the girls off the bus at home since Brian won't be there. Then a current employee who is supposed to be working later that night calls and says he can be at Kendrick's in 10 minutes...I say great and we'll deal with his other shift howevere we have to LATER!!!! We continue to set-up and prep food. Employee number 2 arrives.
2:10 Eployee number 3 arrives. They all have jobs to do and I am at my computer making food tags and finalizing the invoice for the father of the bride. I get a call back from the babysitter and she is available to watch the girls. Phew!!!
3:00 Employee number 4 arrives as originally scheduled and Brian leaves to go to a meeting. Starving and about to pass-out I stop to eat something. Meanwhile the cake and flowers are delivered.
4:00 Not quite ready, but guests start to arrive so we start serving drinks.
4:10 Last of the food is ready and the bride a groom arrive
The next three hours all the guests have a great time and things are a hit. Bride, Groom, Mom, and Dad are happy. After a huge clean-up effort and re-opening Kendrick's to the public I finally leave about 8:30pm.
9:00 Only stopping to kiss the girls and go to the bathroom, I crawl into bed and PASS-OUT!!!!

Its no wonder I HAVE To wear make-up to hide the constant dark cricles under my eyes. All my hair is falling our, my feet and back ache constantly, and I have started to get migraine headaches! Plus now I wake-up at 3am every night and can't get back to sleep (and I have ALWAYS been the queen of sleep-anytime anywhere!).

I'd like to tell you this is a rare day, but since we opened Kendrick's 2 1/2 years ago, it is all too often the case. I am an extremely organized person and I try to hire people I can delegate responsibilities too, but to no avail. If you asked me right now if its worth it (one hell-of-a-week later) I'd tell you NO!!!! But I have no choice but to perservere. I am doing my best! So if you are someone who has felt neglected by me and my family, please know that its not personal. Our lives really are just that crazy!

The 3 Faces of Lydia

Sassy

Studious

Silly

Maille Up Close & Mad!

She's just faking it this time, but this is what she looks like when she's mad. We think they're pretty funny.

A Month To Top All Months: Part 2

Trees
On November 15th Bellingham was hit with an unforgetable wind storm...and our house was hit by two unforgetable trees! I won't say much more than we had a fun slumber party at a hotel for one night and we still have blue tarps for a roof. The joys of dealing with insurance companies and thier "preferred contractors!" I look forward to having this upcoming work on our house done and the whole thing behind us. But check out these pics...











The Furnace and The Snow
All month the furnace was acting up, but with everthing else going on, Brian and I were avoiding the issue (and the expense)! So everytime the temperature would drop in the house and we'd realize the furnace wasn't going to come on we'd head for the garage to flip the breaker switch. It worked like a charm at first, but as the month wore on we were having to do it more and more frequently. So one particulary cold Sunday morning we woke-up in a house at about 58 degrees and a furnace that refused to start-up. We decided to pack the girls up and head to town for breakfast at Diamond Jim's. We took the Subaru noticing the slight sprinkle of snow flakes coming down outside. Even though the tires were bald at least we'd have 4-wheel drive. The closer to town we got the more snow there was and pretty soon it was clear that this was going to be snow storm, not just a light dusting. Knowing the house was going to be cold we decided to find electric blankets and hit Costco for tires and a fake Christmas tree. After our shopping (except the tires because they were booked solid all day!) we headed for home. It was 3:00 and it looked dark out the colds were so low and dark. The snow had added up to close to a foot. It took us an hour to get home having to detour for downed power lines and such. We even stopped to see if we "happened" to have chains in the car and spent a good bit of time trying to put them on for the first time in our lives. We managed to get home with one still on (they were clearly too big for the tires)!

The snow stuck around for 4 days and very few people left our neighborhood. I didn't return to work until Thursday and Brian on Friday. Schools were closed all week. A lot of businesses, including ours, closed early. I wrote this in an email to my mom while in the first part of the week...

"But today we are all snowed in. The girls played outside all morning and came in for grilled cheese, tomato soup, and hot chocolate. We are working on a Gingerbread House, decorating the tree, and making Christmas gifts. We are all home in this quiet and peaceful winter wonderland! I love it and wish I never had to go back to work! Oh well, real life will resume soon I'm sure."

It did and boy was I glad. By the fourth day we were all sick of each other and sick of being at home! Funny how that works!

As far as the furnace...we did get it fixed too. Someone had to come out twice to get all its issues resloved and it cost us about $500, but we're all warm and greatful for it now!

Babies
They are fun...as an aunt, grandma, or friend! I like them! We all do! But at 30 I have an eight and five year-old and my baby days, as well as my baby stuff, are long gone! Or at least I thought. The last day of November I dreadingly took a home pregnancy test. I already new the answer, but I just couldn't believe it. I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that our family is growing from 4 to 5 in July. AND SO ENDED THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER!!!!!!!

A Month To Top All Months: Part 1

Ahhh November...how we will never forget the November of 2006!!! So memorable that two months later I (Cambria) still feel the need to record its full events. So I am sure to never forget all the details. And so when I say to myself "Remember that crazy November!" I can truly recall all of the craziness. Here it goes...

The Car
Brian and the girls are left stranded by the Subaru on a dark, cold, rainy Thursday night at the Market 3 miles from our house. I am at work on a typical busy night, so busy that its nearly impossible to leave. Fortunately I have one neighbor's phone number programed into my cell phone and they are home...so $350 and two days later we have our second car back and running!

Rain
Its Saturday night, or should I say early Sunday morning. I return home from working my 8 hour shift without so much as a 5 minute break to relieve my feet, back, and stomach. Its 1:30am and I can't believe how tired I feel. After-all I do this every Saturday night and have been for as long as I can remember! I crawl into bed and am out like a light. One hour later in a delirious state my 5 year-old comes to my bed-side and states "It's raining in my room!" I can hear the rain coming down hard on the skylights so thinking she is just hearing it outside her window I take her to put her back to bed. Upon entering her bedroom I realize that neither one of us is deliriously hallucinating. There is water pouring into her room. At this point I yell for Brian and we are frantically grabbing towels and buckets the soak up all the water. She goes to sleep in you big sister's room for the rest of the night. $360 and two weeks later a roofer finds parts of the flashing two floors above is damaged around the hood vent of the stove. We file our fist home-owners claim to find out that the whole thing cost less than our $1000 deductible per incident, so we have another big bill to pay.

The Oven
Thursday afternoon one hour before I have to leave for work, I mix up the batch of cupcake batter for the girls end of soccer season treats. Being a working mom means I am often too busy to volunteer for such things and most of the other moms involved seem to have a lot of time on their hands so I let them take care of it (Maille's soccer coach, also coaches her older daughter's team, plays adult league herself, and is PTA president for the the girl's elementary school...Oh to have so much TIME!). Before I started mixing I had turned my oven on knowing that in its 15 year old state it would take a full 15 minutes to warm-up (I really miss my gas stove/oven from my old house!). I scoop the batter into the muffin tins and turn around to put them into to the oven...no heat comes out as I open the door. Upon closer investigation I realize the heating element has disengrated into about 25 peices and powder in some places. So I turn the oven off and run out my front door praying a neighbor is home and not already cooking dinner in thier oven. Catastrophy diverted, the neighbor baked my cupcakes in exchange for a couple for thier dessert and the soccer teams had their treats on game day! We were also able to replace the heating element for about $35, but it was a long week without use of the oven...you don't realize what you've got til its gone!

Birthdays
November has one week of Birthdays in our family...Shannon's is the 1st, Lydia's in the 6th, and Chris and Jamie's is the 7th! This year Lydia talked us into her first sleep-over party...yep we agreed to letting her invite 4 seven and eight year-old girls over for a sleep-over. It was fun...Really! It went very smooth and everyone got along and we had no real drama to speak of. We might consider it again in the future. Maille is readily waiting her turn. We keep telling her she has to wait til her eighth birthday too!

Standby for Part II, that's when it gets really good!

To Buy or Not To Buy

So last summer we lost our digital camera. It wasn't a paticularly nice camera, but it took pictures (about the time your subjects had turned away and given up on it-damn delay!). The last time we knew we had it was Disneyland in May. We kept talking about a new camera and digging in all the places we could think of around the house. We just knew that as soon as we purchased a new one the old one would show-up. In the meantime we were back to our old 35mm camera which is a much nicer camera and takes wonderful pictures, but $8 later you get a roll of developed pictures to find that 4 of the 24 are worth a darn! I didn't like throwing all that money away. So as Christmas approached we had given-up hope that the old camera would appear, even if we bought a new one, and did our research on which camera would be our Christmas present to each other. We settled on the Canon Rebel XTi. Much more like our old 35mm this a supreme camera for a novice. If this camera takes a bad picture it is purely operator error.

New Year's Eve rolls around and we are hanging out with some long-time friends we hardly ever see. We've been enjoying and learning a lot about our new camera for a solid two weeks now. Its been a long evening with 4 cranky, over-tired children in the house. At 11:45 we start getting ready to head outside to blow our party horns and light some left-over fire works from the 4th of July. Brian goes to the garage and finds the bag of fireworks and tucked inside is THE CAMERA!!! No kidding....we just knew it would show-up as soon as we bought a new one.

Now, however, we are hooked on the new much nicer camera...so I guess we'll just have two! Stay tuned as we learn how to use it, hopefully we'll have some fun pictures to share.

Christmas Picture