The Day She Turned 11(uh-yeah, that was back in April!!!).

Okay, so it had to happen. As if turning 10 wasn't painful enough for her mother, Victoria went ahead and turned 11. We took our annual "last night of..." picture.


But were stumped when it came to the "first day of..." picture. How do you show 11 on your fingers? I guess you don't. Sniff.


This time, little bro was included in the B in B (breakfast in bed), although Victoria chose the menu.

Her traditional first gift was a new outfit to wear to school and to her birthday "dinner-party." If you ask me, she still looks 4. Okay, fine. She doesn't. She's growing up!!!! Sniff, sniff...

I love the friends who came to dinner with us. Eanna (far left) has been coming to Victoria's Birthday Celebrations since the limo and ice skating 8th B-Dday Gala. Miss Ashley has been a guest since Victoria's Divalicious Girl Mania 7th Birthday Party. Mara and Jessi have been joining us since Victoria turned 6 at the El Capitan Ice Princess Skating Party. And little Ally (Ally-0op) has come to all this parties since Victoria's 3 Ringed Circus, 5th Birthday Extravaganza. I feel so blessed that she has such great friends...

...who are as weird as we are!!! Love when the "tweens" do "the face!"

I also love that the mama's (Mama Shelley, Mama Laker, Mama JLo) and their peeps are all weird, too!

Thanks for celebrating with us guys, this year and every year. We love you! And Happy Happy 11th anniversary to me, I mean Birthday to my beautiful daughter!

The Snow, 2010

The Karr Kids and I made it to Big Bear twice this winter.


The first trip was just a turn-around for a day of "vacant lot" sledding with the Hahn Family. Jonathon and Victoria are NUTS!



Justice was his characteristically crazy self, so I was cautious enough for the both of us. Luckily, he enjoyed himself even when on fairly flat, very slow-moving snow.

Our second trip was the annual ski "vacation". This time, though, both kids tried snowboarding. It was Justice's first attempt, Victoria's second. She was successful, he was not. However, he did great at skiing. My baby boy actually road up the ski lift. And got down. Imagine that, he's already better than I.

He seemed to pick up on it fairly quickly, and really enjoyed skiing down the bunny slopes.

His laziness showed its head now and then...especially any time he fell down. He epitomized the saying, "I've fallen, and I can't get up."

As expected, despite his love of skiing, Justice was happiest tossing a bit of snow in my face or "camping out" at the lodge for a snack.

Avianna and Victoria make this trip every year and have been skiing since they were four. We were glad that Jonathon joined this trip. It's so strange when I think about how they have grown up. I am thinking skiing is a thing of the past and snowboarding is here to stay. Good thing my baby boy is still little and will hang out on the bunny slopes with me!

The Time when Victoria's Teacher Inadvertently Made Me Feel Guilty and So...I Blogged!

Okay, so he didn't do anything but mention that he'd looked at my blog. But when he did, I realized it had been 6 months since my last post. And so, it is time to blog again!

The Fifth Grade Talent Show:

Victoria has been taking voice lessons for quite awhile now. Although she loves to sing, she has always been a bit uncomfortable performing alone. She worked really hard with her voice coach, Ms. Jackie (whom we adore!) on the song Ever Ever After from the movie Enchanted. Despite all of her hard work, Victoria, who is typically VERY HEALTHY, came down with a terrible cold/cough/bronchitis-y thing the week before the show. She gave her voice a rest, took hot tea to school in a thermos each day, was allowed to drink that tea in class by her always understanding teacher, and did her best to heal. By the night of the show, she sounded a lot better. We were nervous, though, about how she'd do with those difficult, high notes. Nevertheless, the show went on.

It was by no means her best performance, but I was so proud of how hard she'd worked to get there, how responsible she'd been as she tried to make herself well, and how brave she was to go through with it. That's my girl!!!

And by the way, my fellow bloggin' peeps, I have not foresaken you! Whenever I've been a blog-writing slacker, I feel guilty reading yours. Now that I have a new post, I can't wait to catch up on all of yours.

The Things Kids Say

This week both of my kids have had me belly-laughing with the things they say.

Victoria found out about the monthly gift she will soon be given. When I told her it was a blessing she shouted, "I do NOT think it is a blessing! It is a GROSS, INAPPROPRIATE consequence!" She didn't even get mad at me for laughing ten-minutes straight.

Justice also had me cracking up when he began analyzing the phonemes in his name. First he demanded that I put another "s" in his name because "c" doesn't make the /s/ sound. Then he
yelled, "Momma, you spelled it wrong. It's opposed to be J-u-s-t-i-s!" Love that kid.

I always say we need to write a book with all the cute/funny/profound things kids say. I guess this blog is kind of my book.

The Taekwondo Class from ...

So Justice took a trial Taekwondo class. I am really looking for things to keep him busy, while allowing him to work on following directions and staying on task. This class, much like the soccer teams of our past, was humiliating for me. First of all, all 20 of the other kids were silently watching their "Master" and performing forward kicks. Not Justice, everytime the Master asked them to kick he yelled out, "Teacher, are we doing Karate now?" The Master ignored him everytime yet, Justice continuted to yell out the Karate question with every kick. Need I remind you, it was NOT a Karate class, it was Taekwondo!



Then he became fixated on the uniform. Because it was a trial class, he did not have one. After the first 5 minutes, he decided he really wanted one. With every activity he would yell across the gallery at me, "Momma, I want a white shirt." I would remind him he would get one the next time, and he would go back to what he was doing. Then the activity would change and he would call out to me again. Humiliating I tell you!



While I was able to brave through two seasons of soccer, we have not returned to the Taekwondo Class from...

The Uncle/Niece Dance, 09

Victoria's school dance was earlier this year. Unfortunately, that meant Grandpa couldn't make it. :-( Luckily, her favorite uncle, Uncle Jon, was happy to attend. They had a great time and won a dance contest!

The Ice Skating Adventure

A few days ago we went ice skating at an outdoor rink near Riverside's Mission Inn. It was Justice's first time skating and he had so much fun!!!

My friend Julie went with her husband and daughter, Rubie, who is close to Justice's age. They really have fun together!

This is the conversation I had with Justice on the way home...

Momma: Rubie said she's going to marry you.

Justice: Yes

Momma: Is she your girlfriend?

Justice: Yes

Momma: But I thought Mara was your girlfriend.
Justice: Yes

Momma: You are a two-timer!

Justice: What's that?
Momma: A boy with two girlfriends.

Justice: (Big Smile) Yes!

Thanks for a great time, friends! And thanks for the pictures, JNo!