great week

We have had a fun Christmas week. Dave took the week off (tues-tues) and then will also have New Year's off for the rose bowl.

Some one gave me 4 tickets to the zoo as my thank you gift for being the soccer coach for Calvin's team this fall. We used them Christmas Eve. It was a great day for the zoo since we don't have any traditions or family activities. The weather was perfect, it wasn't too crowded and then we came home for an early bedtime so Santa could come. I love the SD zoo. It is one of the most beautiful places in SD. The foilage is amazing.



We have enjoyed having Pete and Jessica in town (across town at her parents house) and now Scott and Lance here with us this week.

everyone came over Christmas morning to open presents with us. that was fun.

Calvin got Wii for Christmas and has been playing non-stop. wii has helped with patching a lot 'cuz he isn't allowed to play w/o a patch and wants to play all day. Dave keeps telling me a big HDTV will help with patching too as he has been begging to go out and buy one.

Dave gave an outstanding talk in church yesterday about goal setting. Hearing Dave give the talk was a reminder to me about what a great goal setter he is. Though he isn't one to sit down and write down point by point goals, he is very ambitious and knows that he can accomplish whatever he puts his mind to. It is very impressive. Tied to this is the fact that he is optimistic and always positive. I think that is part of the personality that enables him to be so successfull in all he does. He is awesome. Tomorrow is our 9 year anniversary.

Oh, and one funny thing about his talk. I guess he asked my brother before he started preparing his talk if he was a youth speaker or needed to prepare a longer talk like and adult!!!

Here is a favorite quote he used.

Calvin Coolidge: The credit belongs to the man in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, and who comes up short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause. The man who at best knows the triumph of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, fails while daring greatly, so that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who never knew victory or defeat

rose bowl countdown

Dave and I are going to the rose bowl on Jan 1st so I "decorated the blog" to help get us all in the mood. Can't wait!

Merry Christmas!

We didn't get to send everyone we know a Christmas card, though I wish we could have, so for those who didn't get to see it in the mail, this is what we put together this year.




What a blessing it is to look over the past year and see everything that we have experienced and learned. We are so grateful for all that we have and for our association with each of you. We will share a few highlights for each family member!

Dave
-Completed the San Diego Rock ‘n Roll marathon in the spring.
-Took our family on a wonderful trip to see Sequoia Park and Grandma and Grandpa Gonda’s 50th wedding anniversary in Reno/Tahoe.
-Enjoys working as the neurosurgery resident at the Children’s Hospital. At the first of the year he will rotate to a private hospital in town. He is in his 3rd year of a 7 year residency.
-Attended several football games!

Denise
-Turned 30 but doesn’t look a day over 20! (If you have a differing opinion please keep it to yourself!)
-Took a wonderful trip to Boston with just Dave, leaving all 3 kids home with her Dad!
- Got the family a DOG-- a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy named Tressel. He has grown to 90 lbs. now at 10 months old.
-Delighted in many visits from friends and family throughout the year.

Calvin
-100 % 6 year old boy full of mischief, humor and fun!
-Is super happy that he learned to arm-pit fart in 1st grade from his peers.
-Sang a solo in the microphone at his Children’s Chorus concert.
-Has a perfect internal clock, waking up each day at 4am.
-Has added several drawings to the walls and always has a ready alibi such as Alexey or Luke Skywalker.

Clare
-A cute 4 year old girly girl who loves pink, dresses, dancing and singing.
-Learned to swim and write her name.
-Loves to color for hours at a time.
-Enjoys reading familiar books in her darling little toddler voice.
-Can imitate Malificent’s evil laugh from Sleeping Beauty.

Alexey
-At 20 months, she can talk loud enough to be heard over the noise of the other family members!
-Tressel’s best friend and an absolute dog lover.
-Has darling curls.
-Loves to be the center of attention and make everyone laugh!
-Favorite spot is standing on the table with markers in hand.

unloading the camera

I came into the TV room a couple of days ago to find this.... the dog on the couch (bad dog!) and the girls sitting with him there. Usually if the dog is on the couch, Alexey will come tell me "dog" "no" and have me help her get him off. They ALL know the rules... no dogs on the couch!
(we are doing construction on the wall behind the couch, so don't mind the mess.)


Clare had another little mini-children's chorus concert at an old folks home. Calvin did too but he wouldn't participate. Clare is the one with the crazy eyes second one from the right.

I took Clare and her friend Jane to the nutcracker. It was great! Clare was mesmorized until about the last 10 mintues when she was bored and ready to go home. She and I are both excited for a time when she will learn to be a ballerina! She is such a little girly girl.

One of Clare's Christmas presents required some painting. I had dave take clare on a couple of errands with him yesterday so I could get it done. Dave thought it would be easier for me to keep Alexey than for him to take her. She and Calvin were given lots of paint and their own cardboard box to work on while I finished up my job.

I love Alexey! Here she is trying to pull Calvin closer to her for the picture. She is changing from baby to little kid more and more every day. She has quite a personality.

In case you're wondering .. I threw away her shirt and the rest washed right off in the shower.

conversation

Dave: Hey kids, why do you want to ride in Daddy's car?

Calvin: Mom's car sucks.

Clare: Yeah, mom's car smells like suckers.

I love funny b-day cards

Outside: I tried not to get you a funny card for your birthday!
























Inside: I know how easily people your age pee their pants!

advice to men who are shopping for gifts -- do not repeat the mistakes dave made

Two years ago dave surprised me with a present that he picked out all by himself. (usually we give gifts that we basically request or things that we really need). He thought it was so sweet of him to give me a pair of EXTRA LARGE Men's basketball shorts. Girls, you will not be as shocked as dave was Christmas day, to learn that this was not the best gift I have ever been given. #1. I do not like to think of myself as XL in size. Even though I was 8 months pregnant at the time ...... 8 months pregnant is when one really wants to think that XL will not be lasting much longer! #2. It is only one step away from being like Homer simpson and giving a bowling ball with HIS name on it to Marge.

It was a really nice try though and the reason he gave the shorts was not for reason #1 or #2. I used to always borrow Dave's shorts to sleep in and so he thought I'd like my own pair just like his. He was wrong. In the months to come dave often borrowed my shorts to wear to bed or basketball since they did happen to fit him just right. Later he came in to the bathroom I was painting and (didn't help) and got paint all over them. I told him at that point I was giving them back to him and he'd get no credit for giving them to me as a gift even if his motives were somewhat pure.

This year Dave went on a trip to New Orleans. Of course he dearly missed his lovely wife at home so while walking the streets he picked up a t-shirt for me. I like t-shirts so I was excited that he got me one -- until I unpacked and found it. It was a men's large. now in this case, I knew he wasn't getting one to fit him since he is an XL, but it was still too big for me.
Here is the conversation that followed
I asked him why he got a L shirt and he said, "well, I couldn't decide between a medium or Large so I went with large just to be safe."
Denise "I am a small"
Dave said, "oh"
Denise added "dave if you are ever in doubt about a size when shopping for me in the future, err on the side of smaller.... even if it is going to be too small for me I will be pleased to know that you think of me as small instead of XL. Thank you very much."

Ladies, do you agree?

ps. no offense intended in the discussion of certian sizes. I just happen to be small and scrawny and I would gladly wear a medium or large if I had boobs :)

Children's Chorus concert

They wouldn't let us take photos during the show but here is one of the tech rehearshal on stage. clare is on the front row wearing busy pants and a pink shirt on the far left of the picture. Calvin is on stage in an oragne shirt and his blue glasses.

Calvin and Clare and Alexey (and Clare's friend Molly who wanted to be in all the pics).



Clare's group did a song about pinata and that's why they wore the hats.

We love Tressel yes we do! We love Tressel, how 'bout you?

I was considering including Tressel on our Christmas card (but in the end decided not to), so I have lots of pics of him recently!




Lex loves to sit on him. He actually doesn't mind it at all but if one of the other kids sit on him he will get up and leave.

He is big enough that he can reach the table without even stretching. lex is pretty good about sharing food w/ him.

more from making gingerbread houses

Another dave story:

Every year at the end of November our ward has a meeting where the new YM/YW theme is introduced in sacrament meeting. The YM and YW Presidents speak. This year they asked me if I could put together a musical number with the youth. No problem! I love doing things like that. I put together a fun arrangement of True to the Faith and Behold! A Royal Army using the youth and their leaders. Then in October we started practicing. It was more challenging than I expected b/c ½ of the men and most of their leaders can’t sing. I would say at least 5 of them combined could not sing a tune to save their life! Anyway, I had to hide a few smiles while rehearsing, but as music goes it is still a positive experience to learn and sing the hyms. Our performance was for sure the best run though we had and after sacrament meeting I received several compliments about the musical number.

Several days later during pillow talk dave says, “Oh, by the way, your musical number was TERRIBLE!!! It was really, really bad. I heard some people telling you a good job but they were lying. Let me tell you the truth: it was not good AT ALL.” “You might have done a good job considering the lack of musical talent you were working with but it still sounded awful.”

Thanks, Dave.

how to get the children out of the bath AND teach the baby a new word in 10 seconds flat -- parenting tips from Dave

Last night the kids wouldn't get out of the bath. Dave asked nicely, threatened and then turned to desperate measures. He threw a spider in the bath tub. Clare went into hysterics and dove out of the bath, then the spider floated by Alexey and she started crying "spider" "spider" (a new word for her) and she jumped out. Calvin hopped right out also. The crying from Clare and Alexey lasted about 5 minutes.

Dave didn't know Alexey would be scared...he felt bad about making her so sad.


this is not the spider but one I took off the internet that looks just like the one dave tossed in!

Before the kids would completely calm down they had to watch dave throw the spider in the toilet and flush it down!

It was perfect.

We had a wonderful day! The kids had so much fun. We had tech rehearsal from 4-5:30 and afterwards Clare thought the show was over! We had a dinner break and then got into costumes. The kids begged me to put on their clothes all day but of course they couldn't 'til showtime.

Calvin did all his parts just right and really loved singing his solo parts in the mic. He was darling. He did a few funny little things like spin around while waiting for the music to start and holding himself (if you don't know what this is, ask your hubby, all men/boys do it....). He did some cute things too like waved to Alexey from the stage and smiled at us often. I was super proud of him and clare too.

This morning Clare said she was sad because she only got to sing one song. I think she would have rather been in an older group and learned 5 or 6 songs. She knew all the words for Calvin's songs since we had practiced them so much at home.

pics aren't working now so i will have to add some later.

I am more nervous than the director of the show.

Tonight my kids have their children's chorus concert. Calvin and Clare are both in it. clare's little group of 3-4 year olds only do one song. It is a pinata song and very cute. She is excited. Calvin's group of K-1st graders does a little mini-show about 30 minutes long. calin loves it! However, he is nervous about the performance and says he won't do it!!! I checked him out of school today to have a nap and get ready for the show. (he usually is in bed by 6:30 and the show starts at 7). I am hoping the excitement of getting into costumes and the other kids' enthusiasm will get him on the stage. Once he's on the stage, who knows what that child will do. Yesterday during dress rehearsal while in front of the mic waiting for his turn he practiced his arm-pit fart in the mic. One of the moms said she hopes he does it during the show!! OMG, I am in for it! Stay tuned...tomorrow I'll post pics and let you know how it goes!