life

well, I feel like I don't have much to blog about today and I haven't been carrying the camera around like I should.

Life has settled into a new routine with Calvin at school all day and Clare at the same school 1/2 day. I take the kids to school around 8:30 (bell rings at 8:50) and then Alexey and I have a few hours together. Almost always we go straight from school to walk the dog. One day a week we walk with a friend and the rest of the time we walk by ourselves. I listen to books on my MP3 player while I walk or just listen to Alexey talking. We have a few loops around the neighborhood where the school is that are a good length -- 2-3 miles. Saturday mornings I meet a friend at 6:30am and we do a killer 4 mile loop up and down hills. It is a great way to start the weekend. Dave is trying to steal away my Saturday mornings so he can ride his bike. I need to find a way to keep my walk in place!

on weekday mornings after walking the dog we have time for a shower and/or a couple of errands, or cleaning house. we pick up Clare at 12:15 and then have lunch. Clare has been pretty wasted with going to school every day so she needs some down time when she gets home. Alexey is in need of down time too so I usually let them watch a movie. Then we enjoy quiet and sweet girl playtime until the return of Calvin.

After school every day is a downhill slope with dinner and bedtime. I have not yet successfully worked homework into our after school time.

Thursday nights I play soccer. This is my last season for a little while. I need a break from having to go out so many nights a week and especially in the winter it is not as fun to get out at night when it is cold! Dave wants me to keep playing b/c he doesn't want me to get out of shape. (that is the politically correct way of saying he doesn't want me to get fat. And no, he doesn't say it in the politically correct way).

Wed. night is mutual night. I have been the laurel advisor for about 2 years. I love it. It is very busy...almost like a part time job sometimes! Right now we're planning a big sister, little sister party. It is where the young women bring all the primary girls to a party. This year is a princess party. Should be fun!

Other once a week things:

institute class at the church-- just started this week. Should be fabulous. Babysitting provided by the home school teenagers is $1 for the hour long class!! Awesome. I have wanted to go for the last 3 years since I moved here but I have always had a little baby that would be hard to leave in a nursery. This is my year!

Chorus at the elementary school - 8am Thursday morning. It is going to be amazing. We will have about 50 kids in the chorus. My friend Jenny is incredible. She is doing the music side for the first month while I do the behind the scenes paperwork and administrative stuff. Some days I think it is going to kill me....but I'm sure I'll get it all figured out and we will coast through next semester.

Music class for alexey- a mommy and me class for kids up to 3 years old.

Playgroup - after school one day /week. my kids LOVE this. It is the highlight of their week.

basketball class for calvin starts this week. 1 hour on Friday after school. Hopefully he participates fully and enjoys it.

Happy 5th Birthday Lance (yesterday)

We had so much fun when Lance was here for the last 3 weeks of august. We had an early birthday celebration while he was here.



He was a great buddy for Calvin. They share a lot of common interests -- legos, star wars, video games, boy mischief.
they both have a mouth full of brownie)


Clare and Lance also played well together since they are the same age! They have darling little conversations about the world and life from the perspective of a child! It is precious.

One funny Lance story: The fist day Lance was here we all went swimming and turned on our waterfall at the pool for the special occasion of having him here. He saw it come on and shouted with excitement "WHAT THE HEL*?" As far as we could tell, he didn't know it was a bad word, which made it all the more funny to the adults!

one more: First night at dinner, lance is saying prayer. "Please bless Alexey to be nice."

Speaking of prayers, a few nights ago, the kids decided that we should have more babies in the family. Having been taught before that we pray to get a baby added to the family, they decided to pause in the middle of our bedtime stories, to say a quick prayer that went something like this, "....bless mommy to have two babies in her tummy. Right now...." (one of my friends here is having twins and so it on everyones mind!) ***I AM NOT PREGNANT*** My kids just wish I was!!!!

bike makeover for Calvin

We found a bike in our garage that used to be Shianne's. It is the perfect size for Calvin but too girly - green and purple. So Dave and Calvin decided to spray paint it with boy colors. They had fun doing this project together...going to home depot to pick paint and spending a few days painting it.

ready to paint with face protection!







Here is the finished product!
The design was completely Calvin's idea. I can't believe Dave was actually willing to do it!

Now we have a dog named Tressel and a bike named Blue.


A new word Calvin learned while making this bike: ghetto.

Calvin, can you use ghetto in a sentence? "Mom, my bike is ghetto. That means cool."

And just for fun, here is a cute one of Dave and Alexey.

People tell me all the time that they look alike!

what's up

Dave works at the VA now. he is the "chief resident" there and basically the personal slave to the attending who runs the VA. He likes it there. The patient population is fun and the attending who runs the VA does more operating than anyone else so he gets a lot of fun cases to do.

The last two weeks this attending has been out of town with a family crisis/emergency so dave has not been working much. It has been nice for the kids to get to hang out with him so much -- riding bikes and swimming, etc.


Dave recently bought a road bike. (this will be his b-day, anniversary and Christmas present for this year and next year).

This year is our 10th anniversary and I told him that for the cost of his bike he could have gotten me a really nice 10 year ring. He thought for a minute and then said, "I'm so glad I made the right choice!" He is in love with the bike. I'm not a big ring wearer anyway.

His new bike has revved up the interest in bikes for the kids also. We have been doing a lot of bike riding on our street. We have never done this before because it's not safe to let the kids ride alone. Now that dave has his bike he can take the kids out and ride up and down the street with them.



Alexey says "I love ride bike"

dave says "I hate putting this bike trailer on my nice bike!" so usually the kids ride while Alexey is asleep. She goes to bed at 6 and the other kids go to bed at 7 so they can go ride for a little while before bed time.

clare pedals really fast and rides like the wind on her little trike. We are in the process of moving her onto a regular bike with training wheels since she is just about too big for this little bike now.


Since we have been spending so much time on the street and taking pictures I have noticed that we live on a beautiful street.

painted rock chorus

I am starting a chorus at the elementary school. I'm looking for some ideas for names for the chorus. I'll probably let the kids vote on the name.

Any cute ideas?