"time for a new post"

So, I have not taken any pics for several weeks and don't have much to say but I'll try to think of something.

Calvin texted Dave all by himself this morning He said "trie to com home pridy erle" (try to come home pretty early). so cute! Dave is taking Calvin camping tonight --just for fun -- so it is important that he comes home on time.

Clare FREAKS OUT if dave makes any mention of bedtime or tries to put her to bed. If he says something like, "okay, let's go downstairs and brush teeth" she will fall on the floor in hysterics and say "I want mommy to take me to bed." Now, it is nice to be loved, but this is a little over the top. I asked dave if he ever did anything to her when I wasn't home and he remembered that there was one time when she was being super unreasonable and he told her "YOU DON'T GET MOM. YOU GET DAD." and then locked her in her room. She hates to be locked in and will usually do ANYTHING to avoid getting locked in. So, I guess she is scarred for a while. (Dahlquists,do you remember when dad told shi, "you don't get mommy, you get Bob" and she was scared of him for a year?)!!! So, last night I had mutual and soccer and when I got home at 10:30 Clare was up watching Princess Diaries. Dave was eating dinner and said that he had battled 3 hours and finally given up. Wow!

Clare is taking dance class, singing class and doing a preschool swap one day a week. So, it seems to be pretty nice for her. She is a sweet little person (except when dave wants to put her to bed). She recently became night time potty trained. :)

Funny story about this which just occurred to me a day or two ago. ...... so, about a month ago dave and I have a conversation as follows:
Dave: so are we going to have any more kids?..... if we are can we have them as soon as possible? The sooner we have them, the sooner they grow up and leave
Denise: well if you like kids so much maybe we shouldn't
dave: I do love kids. a lot. I just want to have time to travel and do fun stuff together while we're still young. So, I was thinking Oct would be a good time to start having another one.
Denise: as in 6 weeks from now!!!????
Dave: sure, why not?
Denise: I want to fit into my swim suit next summer. Besides we have 3 kids in diapers. Do you really want to have 4th? I'm not sure that is reasonable at all.

So, then a few days later Clare (it now occurs to me that she must have been chatting with her namesake in heaven) told me she wanted to wear underwear to bed. I was doubtful since she never had a dry pull up, but she has been doing great.
Now, this is not an announcement that dave is getting his way, but just thought I'd share a little Gonda humor with you.


Calvin has basically adjusted to school. I love his teacher so far b/c we don't have h/w yet. He is playing soccer. Scratch that. He is on a soccer team. He doesn't really play. In his defense, it has been 100 at all 3 of the games so far and I don't blame him for wanting to sit in the shade and borrow nintendo ds from a spectator. I am enjoying coaching his team and I think I am getting better at it. By the end of the season I'll be pretty good I think.

Dave is at Children's Hospital july-dec. he likes it okay. home call is going okay too. He is shocked by the # of kids that fall out of second story windows. Several a month so be careful about that. Many of the kids fall through the screen. Tomorrow night we are going to watch one of his attending drs compete in a "so you think you can dance?" competition here in SD. It is going to be a hoot. Tickets are $100/piece and the dr. who is dancing offered to take anyone who wanted to go.

As mentioned before, the weather is hot hot hot. All of sept has been in the 90's and 100's. Right now it is 95 so I am envious of all of you who are enjoying beautiful fall weather. Sept. is really a summer month for us in SD. I'd say we don't need pants most years until after Halloween.

parenting advice

What is your favorite parenting book? I am looking for a couple of fresh ideas!

football weekend

teams dave and I are rooting for this weekend:





teams the kids are rooting for:



my kids now think it is soooooo funny to cheer opposite their dad. They LOVE Michigan. Even Alexey says, "go michigan" at random times of EVERY day! Calvin and Clare hum and sing "hail to the victors" just to get a rise out of dave.

The kids have decided to cheer for USC who will be playing Ohio State this weekend. Truth be told, USC is my VERY least favorite college football team. When USC and MICH play I always hope MICH will win. I really can't stand USC and being from So Cal now I get very tired of the millions of USC bandwagon fans. They are all over!

The BYU game last weekend, (for those that aren't BYU fans....), was AMAZING. We beat #3 ranked Oklahoma in a down-to-the-final-play victory. Dave woke up Sunday morning smiling and saying, "did you dream about BYU football too?"

We love the excitement of the fall football season!

Clare swims!

I am so proud of Clare! She learned to swim this week. After 3 summers of being a crazy girl with water wings she is now able to swim on her own. She can even jump in to the middle of the pool and make it to the side. It takes a ton of work for her and she still has a long way to go but she is awesome! We probably only have a week or two more of warm enough weather for swimming in our pool but I'm she'll become a full-fledged-pool-safe-swimmer next summer.
here are a couple more pics of wonderful clare.





and this one of the kids and tressel cracks me up.

Tressel is soooo patient with the kids ... . Here Calvin threw a hand full of sand at tressel and he patiently submits ( I think Calvin was trying to blow it off in the picture). We took Tressel to dog beach. He really loved it, as did the kids. Calvin went swimming with tressel. Tressel did pretty well at the beach. I was a little concerned about bringing him there, thinking he'd run away forever but he always came back to check on us and would also come to me as fast as he could if I called him to check on him or if he started getting to far away. I was pleasantly surprised with his recall ability. He is still a far cry from a well trained dog but we are working on him. I'd say by this point he is better trained than Calvin.

thank you, jessica!

My sis-in-law took some family pictures for us while she was here this summer. Well, actually it ended up being just the kids b/c dave wasn't home (he got hosed on his day off). So here are some of our favorites
couldn't decide which was my favorite of these 2 of Clare and Calvin.Clare has such cute (but different) faces in each of them.



Right as jess was taking this pic dan arrived home after being gone all summer! Kind of cute of all three kids watching the car pull in the driveway.
typical calvin with glasses around neck instead of on eyes but a very sweet and sincere smile.


best of all three kids overall.
seriously can't get enough of this beautiful face.
.

the joy of children

i couldn't leave that grumpy post up for too long so here we are.....

today I went to a dr. with Alexey and Clare to schedule a colonoscopy (the joy!!) and told her that I want to have another baby (someday) and she about fell to the floor thinking I am crazy to want a 3rd child. Then I told her I actually already have 3 since one of them was at school and she truly thought I was crazy and could not continue the appt until asking a lot of questions like, "do I work?, does my husband work?..." Anyway, it was interested to see how shocked she was to hear I want A LOT (in her view) of kids.

Alexey says "Da-DEE" (daddy) with super enthusiasm every time she see's him. It is irresistible and he often has to give her several hugs as he leaves or comes home because she will call him over and over again.

The kids found these in a closet and aren't they- the kids, not the jackets - just too cute?

alexey and her best friend



PS. I know I am a terrible photographer and I apologize. I think I have a terrible (4 year old) camera but dave insists it is all the fault of the photographer that I can't take a decent picture even in great light.